text:
My piece from the Foundation for Economic Education's Freeman, January 2004
"The more information government gathers on people, the more power it will have over them. The more power it has to monitor their peaceful activities, the more intimidated Americans will become."
Federal Surveillance: The Threat to Americans' Security
More Information Equals More Power
JANUARY 2004 by JAMES BOVARD
Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 the Bush administration has launched many new surveillance programs in the name of homeland security. When critics raised questions about the potential abuses of the new powers, some administration supporters insisted that Bush's new surveillance policies were benign because there was no evidence the programs were being abused.
But the key to understanding new government intrusions is that horror stories do not surface in the first 72 hours after a new power is granted. The machinery of government takes time to deploy and expand. It takes time for the impact of precedents to expand, for the agents all along the line to get the message that they are not entitled to go much further than before. We must look to history to see what is likely to happen once the government is unleashed.
In May 2002, after revelations that the FBI missed many warning signs before 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that he was effectively abolishing restrictions on FBI surveillance of Americans' everyday life. Those restrictions were first imposed in 1976 after pervasive FBI abuses were revealed. At that time, Attorney General Edward Levi announced guidelines to curtail FBI agents' intrusions into the lives of Americans who were not criminal suspects.
At his May 30 announcement Ashcroft declared that, after 9/11, "we in the leadership of the FBI and the Department of Justice began a concerted effort to free the field agents—the brave men and women on the front lines—from the bureaucratic, organizational, and operational restrictions and structures that hindered them from doing their jobs effectively."1 He complained that in the past FBI agents were required "to blind themselves to information that everyone else [was] free to see."
However, as the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington non-profit organization, noted, "The FBI was never prohibited in the past from going to mosques, political rallies and other public places, to observe and record what was said, but in the past it had to be guided by the criminal nexus—in deciding what mosques to go to and what political meetings to record, it had to have some reason to believe that terrorism might be discussed."2 A New York Times editorial warned that the new guidelines "could mean that F.B.I. agents will show up at the doors of people who order politically unpopular books on Amazon.com or make phone calls to organizations critical of the government."3
Ashcroft's announcement concluded with the mandatory invocation of freedom consecrating each Bush power grab: "These guidelines will also be a resource to inform the American public and demonstrate that we seek to protect life and liberty from terrorism and other criminal violence with a scrupulous respect for civil rights and personal freedoms. The campaign against terrorism is a campaign to affirm the values of freedom and human dignity. . . . Called to the service of our nation, we are called to the defense of liberty for all men and women." When Bush was asked about the new FBI guidelines at a photo opportunity that same day, he declared, "the initiative that the attorney general will be outlining today will guarantee our Constitution."4
Ashcroft talked as if the old guidelines on FBI surveillance were simply the result of a long-ago outbreak of temporary insanity among liberals. Ashcroft declared: "In its 94-year history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been . . . the tireless protector of civil rights and civil liberties for all Americans."5
The 1976 guidelines were put in place in response to a report by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations that detailed many FBI abuses over the preceding decades. For 15 years, from 1956 to 1971, the FBI ran COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Programs) to actively subvert groups and people that the FBI considered threats to national security or to the established political and social order. Over 2,300 separate operations were carried out to incite street warfare between violent groups, to wreck marriages, to get people fired, to smear innocent people by portraying them as government informants, to sic the IRS on people, and to cripple or destroy left-wing, black, communist, or other organizations.6 The FBI let no corner of American life escape its vigilance; it even worked to expose and discredit "communists who are secretly operating in legitimate organizations and employments, such as the Young Men's Christian Association and Boy Scouts."7
Burglary Exposes Scandal
Throughout the COINTELPRO period, presidents, congressmen, and other high-ranking federal officials assured Americans that the federal government was obeying the law and upholding the Constitution. It took a burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, to break the biggest scandal in the history of federal law enforcement. After hundreds of pages of confidential records were commandeered, the "Citizen's Commission to Investigate the FBI" began passing out the incriminating documents to the media.8 The shocking material sparked congressional and news investigations that eventually (temporarily) shattered the FBI's legendary ability to control its own image.
The 1976 Senate report noted that COINTELPRO's origins "are rooted in the Bureau's jurisdiction to investigate hostile foreign intelligence activities on American soil" and that the FBI used the "techniques of wartime." William Sullivan, former assistant to the FBI director, declared, "No holds were barred. . . . We have used [these techniques] against Soviet agents. . . . [The same methods were] brought home against any organization against which we were targeted. We did not differentiate."9
The FBI sought to subvert many black civil-rights organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Deacons for Defense and Justice, and Congress of Racial Equality. FBI headquarters ordered field offices to, as the Senate report noted, "exploit conflicts within and between groups; to use news media contacts to disrupt, ridicule, or discredit groups; to preclude 'violence-prone' or 'rabble rouser' leaders of these groups from spreading their philosophy publicly; and to gather information on the 'unsavory backgrounds'—immorality, subversive activity, and criminal activity—of group members." FBI agents were also ordered to develop specific tactics to "prevent these groups from recruiting young people."10
Almost any black organization could be targeted for wiretaps. One black leader was monitored largely because he had "recommended the possession of firearms by members for their self-protection."11 At that time, some southern police departments and sheriffs were notorious for attacking blacks who stood up for their civil rights.12
The FBI office in San Diego instigated violence between the local Black Panthers and a rival black organization, US (United Slaves Inc.).13 Agents sent forged letters making accusations and threats to the groups purportedly from their rivals, along with crude cartoons and drawings meant to enrage the recipients. Three Black Panthers and one member of the rival group were killed during the time the FBI was fanning the flames. A few days after shootings in which two Panthers were wounded and one was killed, and in which the U.S. headquarters was bombed, the FBI office reported to headquarters: "Efforts are being made to determine how this situation can be capitalized upon for the benefit of the Counterintelligence Program."
The FBI office bragged shortly thereafter: "Shootings, beatings, and a high degree of unrest continues to prevail in the ghetto area of southeast San Diego. Although no specific counterintelligence action can be credited with contributing to this overall situation, it is felt that a substantial amount of the unrest is directly attributable to this program."14
The FBI set up a Ghetto Informant Program that continued after COINTELPRO and that had 7,402 informants, including proprietors of candy stores and barbershops, as of September 1972. The informants served as "listening posts" "to identify extremists passing through or locating in the ghetto area, to identify purveyors of extremist literature," and to keep an eye on "Afro-American type bookstores" (including obtaining the names of the bookstores' "clientele"). The informants' reports were stockpiled in the FBI's Racial Intelligence Unit.15
King Targeted
For most of the last five years of his life Martin Luther King was "the target of an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to 'neutralize' him as an effective civil rights leader," the Senate report noted. King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington in August 1963 was described by the FBI's Domestic Intelligence Division as evidence that King had become "the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country." King's home and office were wiretapped and, on 16 occasions, the FBI placed wiretaps in King's motel rooms, seeking information on the "private activities of King and his advisers" to use to "completely discredit" them.
The FBI sent a copy of one tape recording directly to King along with a note "which Dr. King and his advisers interpreted as a threat to release the tape recording unless Dr. King committed suicide," the Senate report noted. The FBI offered to play tapes from the hotel rooms for "friendly" reporters. It also sought to block the publication of articles that praised King. An FBI agent intervened with Francis Cardinal Spellman to seek to block a meeting between King and the pope.16
FBI informants also "set up a Klan organization intended to attract membership away from the United Klans of America. The Bureau paid the informants' personal expenses in setting up the new organization, which had, at its height, 250 members." During the six years Gary Rowe spent as an FBI informant with the Klan, he, along with other Klansmen, had "beaten people severely, had boarded buses and kicked people off; had went [sic] in restaurants and beaten them with blackjacks, chains, pistols." Rowe testified how he and other Klansmen used "baseball bats, clubs, chains, and pistols" to attack Freedom Riders.17
The FBI continually expanded its racial-surveillance investigations, eventually targeting white people who were "known to sponsor demonstrations against integration and against the busing of Negro students to white schools." The FBI also created a national "Rabble Rouser" Index, a "major intelligence program . . . to identify 'demagogues.'"18
From 1967 to 1972 the FBI paid Howard Berry Godfrey to be an informant with a right-wing paramilitary group in the San Diego area known as the Secret Army. The Senate committee discovered that Godfrey or the Secret Army was involved in "firebombing, smashing windows . . . propelling lug nuts through windows with sling shots, and breaking and entering." Godfrey took a Secret Army colleague with him to conduct surveillance of the home of a left-wing San Diego State University professor; the colleague fired several shots into the home, badly wounding a woman inside. The Senate report noted "even this shooting incident did not immediately terminate Godfrey as an [FBI] informant." Godfrey subsequently sold explosive material to a subordinate in the Secret Army who bombed the Guild Theater in San Diego in 1972.19
One FBI informant infiltrated an antiwar group and helped it break into the Camden, New Jersey, Draft Board in 1970. The informant later testified: "Everything they learned about breaking into a building or climbing a wall or cutting glass or destroying lockers, I taught them. I taught them how to cut the glass, how to drill holes in the glass so you cannot hear it and stuff like that, and the FBI supplied me with the equipment needed. The stuff I did not have, the [FBI] got off their own agents."20 That sting led to a press conference in which J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John Mitchell proudly announced the indictment of 20 people on an array of charges. After learning of the FBI's role in the crime, a jury refused to convict any of the defendants.
Some COINTELPRO operations targeted the spouses of political activists, sending them letters asserting that their mates were unfaithful. "Anonymous letters were sent to, among others, a Klansman's wife, informing her that her husband had 'taken the flesh of another unto himself,' the other person being a woman named Ruby, with her 'lust filled eyes and smart aleck figure'; and to a 'Black Nationalist's' wife saying that her husband 'been maken it here' with other women in his organization 'and that he gives us this jive bout their better in bed then you.'"21
One FBI field office bragged that one such letter to a black activist's wife produced the "tangible result" and "certainly contributed very strongly" to the marriage's demise. The FBI targeted the women's liberation movement, resulting in "intensive reporting on the identities and opinions of women who attended" women's lib meetings. One FBI informant reported to headquarters of a meeting in New York: "Each woman at this meeting stated why she had come to the meeting and how she felt oppressed, sexually or otherwise. . . . They are mostly against marriage, children, and other states of oppression caused by men." Women's lib informants were instructed to "go to meetings, write up reports . . . to try to identify the background of every person there . . . [and] who they were sleeping with." The Senate report noted that "the intensive FBI investigation of the Women's Liberation Movement was predicated on the theory that the activities of women in that Movement might lead to demonstrations and violence."22
The Senate report also described the "snitch jacket" technique—neutralizing a target by labeling him a "snitch" or informant so that he would no longer be trusted—which was used in all COINTELPRO operations. The methods ranged from having an authentic informant start a rumor about the target member, to anonymous letters or phone calls, to faked informants' reports. . . . The "snitch jacket" is a particularly nasty technique even when used in peaceful groups. It gains an added dimension of danger when it is used—as, indeed, it was—in groups known to have murdered informers.23
Shotgun Approach
The FBI took a shotgun approach toward protesters partly because of its "belief that dissident speech and association should be prevented because they were incipient steps toward the possible ultimate commission of an act which might be criminal." Some FBI agents may have viewed dissident speech or protests as a "gateway drug" to blowing up the Washington Monument. The Senate report noted:
The clearest examples of actions directly aimed at the exercise of constitutional rights are those targeting speakers, teachers, writers or publications, and meetings or peaceful demonstrations. Approximately 18 percent of all approved COINTELPRO proposals fell into these categories. The cases include attempts (sometimes successful) to get university and high school teachers fired; to prevent targets from speaking on campus; to stop chapters of target groups from being formed; to prevent the distribution of books, newspapers, or periodicals; to disrupt news conferences; to disrupt peaceful demonstrations, including the SCLC's Washington Spring Project and Poor People's Campaign, and most of the large antiwar marches; and to deny facilities for meetings or conferences.24
An FBI memo warned that "the anarchist activities of a few can paralyze institutions of learning, [conscription] induction centers, cripple traffic, and tie the arms of law enforcement officials, all to the detriment of our society." The FBI declared: "The New Left has on many occasions viciously and scurrilously attacked the Director [J. Edgar Hoover] and the Bureau in an attempt to hamper our investigation of it and to drive us off the college campuses."
The FBI ordered field offices in 1968 to gather information illustrating the "scurrilous and depraved nature of many of the characters, activities, habits, and living conditions representative of New Left adherents."25 The headquarters directive informed FBI agents across the land: "Every avenue of possible embarrassment must be vigorously and enthusiastically explored. It cannot be expected that information of this type will be easily obtained, and an imaginative approach by your personnel is imperative to its success." One FBI internal newsletter encouraged FBI agents to conduct more interviews with antiwar activists "for plenty of reasons, chief of which are it will enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles and will further serve to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox."26
A major goal of the COINTELPRO against the New Left operations was to "counter the widespread charges of police brutality that invariably arise following student-police encounters."27 The FBI was especially incensed at criticisms that Chicago policemen used excessive force when they attacked demonstrators during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The FBI thus launched an illegal program to smear people the FBI believed had made false assertions of police misconduct. As COINTELPRO continued, the FBI targeted more and more groups and used increasingly vicious tactics. The Senate report noted:
The White Hate COINTELPRO [that focused primarily on the Klan] used comparatively few techniques which carried a risk of serious physical, emotional, or economic damage to the targets, while the Black Nationalist COINTELPRO used such techniques extensively. The New Left COINTELPRO, on the other hand, had the highest proportion of proposals aimed at preventing the exercise of free speech. Like the progression in targeting, the use of dangerous, degrading, or blatantly unconstitutional techniques also appears to have become less restrained with each subsequent program.
The FBI continually discovered new enemies. Nixon aide Tom Charles Huston testified of the program's tendency "to move from the kid with a bomb to the kid with a picket sign, and from the kid with the picket sign to the kid with the bumper sticker of the opposing candidate. And you just keep going down the line.28
Other federal agencies also trampled citizens' privacy, rights, and lives during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The IRS used COINTELPRO leads to launch audits against thousands of suspected political enemies of the Nixon administration. The U.S. Army set up its own surveillance program, creating files on 100,000 Americans and targeting domestic organizations such as the Young Americans for Freedom, the John Birch Society, and the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'rith.29
The Senate report on COINTELPRO concluded: "The American people need to be assured that never again will an agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order. Only a combination of legislative prohibition and Departmental control can guarantee that COINTELPRO will not happen again."30
The Ford administration derailed legislative reforms in 1976 by promising an administrative fix. Now, 26 years later, Attorney General Ashcroft has thrown the restraints out the window, pretending there was never a valid reason to rein in the FBI.
The more information government gathers on people, the more power it will have over them. The more power it has to monitor their peaceful activities, the more intimidated Americans will become. Regardless of the Bush administration's intentions in its war on terrorism, the new federal powers threaten the rights and personal security of American citizens.
- Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft," Justice Department Office of Public Affairs, May 30, 2002.
- Jerry Berman and James X. Dempsey, "CDT's Guide to the FBI Guidelines: Impact on Civil Liberties and Security—The Need for Congressional Oversight," Center for Democracy and Technology, June 26, 2002.
- Editorial, "An Erosion of Civil Liberties," New York Times, May 31, 2002.
- Remarks By President George W. Bush during Photo Opportunity at Cabinet Meeting," Federal News Service, May 30, 2002.
- Remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft," Justice Department Office of Public Affairs, May 30, 2002.
- Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans," Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, April 14, 1976.
- Ibid.
- Mark Wagenveld, "25 Years Ago, before Watergate, a Burglary Changed History," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 10, 1996.
- "COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs against American Citizens," Final Report of the Senate Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, April 23, 1976.
- Both quotes taken from ibid.
- Ibid.
- Robert J. Cottrol and Raymond T. Diamond, "The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration," Georgetown Law Journal, December 1991, p. 309.
- "The FBI's Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party," Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities United States Senate, Book III, April 23, 1976.
- Ibid.
- All quotes taken from "The Use of Informants in FBI Domestic Intelligence Investigations"—Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans—Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate, April 23, 1976.
- All quotes from "Intelligence Activities and the Rights Of Americans: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Case Study," Book III of the "Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities United States Senate," April 23, 1976.
- All quotes taken from "The Use of Informants."
- All quotes taken from ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- "Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans."
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Wagenveld.
- Ibid.
- "Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans."
- Ibid.


text:
Day Annabelle Was Bitten By a Doodlebug
Julie Wenzlick
Children's Rhyming Picture Book
When pre-schooler
Annabelle awakens one morning, she has a strange urge to start
She calls for paper
and pen and begins doodling continuously, unable to stop—even for
meals! Her concerned parents take her to the doctor, who discovers a
doodlebug bite on her neck.
He assures them her
doodling urges will end when the bite fades away. Annabelle gets so
good at doodling she opens a shop to sell her work and even travels
the world to share her art.
Then one day the
bite fades and so do her uncontrollable urges.
Day Maisie and Annabelle Got the Giggles
Julie Wenzlick
Children's Rhyming Picture Book
sisters Annabelle and Maisie meet the gigglepuss outside on the
trampoline, they suddenly can't stop giggling. Their dad has a hard
time believing they met a gigglepuss, calling it "mythical
nonsense." But as time passes and they giggle harder and harder,
there's no choice but to take them to the doctor, who provides an
unpleasant but effective remedy. Wonder who else in the family will
encounter that rascally gigglepuss?
Day Maisie Picked a Daisy
Julie Wenzlick
Children's Rhyming Picture Book
big sister Annabelle decides to go against Mom's rules and take
little sister Maisie Grace for a ride in her pink Barbie Corvette,
she has no idea of the adventure that lies ahead! Join these
wandering sisters as they explore Miss Millie's garden and fail to
obey the sign: Do NOT pick the Daisies! What will happen when
Maisie unknowingly plucks one daisy from the garden?
Wenzlick is a retired English teacher who loves to rhyme. She began
writing poems and stories in second grade, and she loves to share her
books with elementary students in hopes of inspiring them to write
their own stories. Three of her books were inspired by her
granddaughters Annabelle and Maisie. She often gets the question from
her young audiences, "Did this REALLY happen?" Her book
"The Day Annabelle was Bitten by a Doodlebug" was chosen as
Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest Children's Book category for
2017. Julie, who also writes songs to go with her books, produced her
original full-length musical comedy "Singles File," in the
early 90s at three venues. You can find out more about her at
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Memorial Day quotes
1) The first is from DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, after the battle of Prestonpans:
I found them at length some distance up the hill behind the church. Jamie was sitting on a rock, the form of Alexander Kincaid cradled in his arms, curly head resting on his shoulder, the long, hairy legs trailing limp to one side. Both were still as the rock on which they sat. Still as death, though only one was dead.
I touched the white, slack hand, to be sure, and rested my hand on the thick brown hair, feeling still so incongruously alive. A man should not die a virgin, but this one did.
"He's gone, Jamie," I whispered.
(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 36, "Prestonpans". Copyright ©1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
2) The next quote is also from DRAGONFLY, from the scene in the beginning where Roger and Brianna visit the battlefield at Culloden:
"Heather," Roger said. "It's more common in the summer, when the heather is blooming--then you'll see heaps like that in front of every clan stone. Purple, and here and there a branch of the white heather--the white is for luck, and for kingship; it was Charlie's emblem, that and the white rose."
"Who leaves them?" Brianna squatted on her heels next to the path, touching the twigs with a gentle finger.
"Visitors." Roger squatted next to her. He traced the faded letters on the stone--FRASER. "People descended from the families of the men who were killed here. Or just those who like to remember them."
(From DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 4, "Culloden". Copyright ©1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
3) Here is a bit from the battle of Moores Creek Bridge, in ABOSAA, a reminder that men do terrible things in battle. I can't even imagine what Jamie felt like, killing a man he once considered his friend.
Major Donald MacDonald floundered, rising halfway in the water. His wig was gone and his head showed bare and wounded, blood running from his scalp down over his face. His teeth were bared, clenched in agony or ferocity, there was no telling which. Another shot struck him and he fell with a splash--but rose again, slow, slow, and then pitched forward into water too deep to stand, but rose yet again, splashing frantically, spraying blood from his shattered mouth in the effort to breathe.4) And this is from Lord John's visit in "Haunted Soldier" with the parents of a lieutenant killed at the battle of Crefeld. Regardless of the circumstances, there's no easy way to deliver news like that:
Let it be you, then, lad, said the dispassionate voice. He raised his rifle and shot MacDonald cleanly through the throat. He fell backward and sank at once.
(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 113, "The Ghosts of Culloden". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
"I saw your son for the first time only moments before his death," he said, as gently as he could. "There was no time for talk. But I can assure you, sir, that he died instantly--and he died bravely, as a soldier of the king. You--and your wife, of course--may be justly proud of him."
(From LORD JOHN AND THE HAND OF DEVILS by Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Haunted Soldier, Part I, "Inquisition". Copyright© 2007 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)
5) And finally, here's a quote from THE FIERY CROSS that reminds us that Memorial Day is not just about honoring the fallen, but also honoring all those who have served in our armed forces:
"Many of us died in battle," he said, his voice scarcely audible above the rustle of the fire. "Many died of burning. Many of us starved. Many died at sea, many died of wounds and illness." He paused. "Many died of sorrow."Wishing all of you in the US a happy Memorial Day!
His eyes looked beyond the firelit circle for a moment, and I thought perhaps he was searching for the face of Abel MacLennan. He lifted his cup then, and held it high in salute for a moment.
"Slàinte!" murmured a dozen voices, rising like the wind. "Slàinte!" he echoed them--then tipped the cup, so that a little of the brandy fell into the flames, where it hissed and burned blue for an instant's time.
He lowered the cup, and paused for a moment, head bent. He lifted his head then, and raised the cup toward Archie Hayes, who stood across the fire from him, round face unreadable, fire sparking from his silver gorget and his father's brooch.
"While we mourn the loss of those who died, we must also pay tribute to you who fought and suffered with equal valor--and survived."
(From THE FIERY CROSS by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 15, "The Flames of Declaration". Copyright© 2001 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)


text:
Privacy Policy
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How to Install cPanel and WHM in CentOS 7
cPanel is a well known, most reliable and intuitive commercial control panel for web hosting services. It is rich in feature and can be used via a powerful graphical user interface to manage all shared, reseller and business hosting services and more.
It comes with a cPanel and Web Host Manager(WHM), which makes web hosting easier for web admins:
- WHM provides root and reseller level access interface, where users can manage settings related to server administration and account management.
- While cPanel offers user level access interface to manage a web hosting account on the server.
Features of cPanel/WHM
- Intuitive and powerful GUI to control your server with WHM.
- Now supports EV Certificates.
- Supports API Authentication Tokens.
- Now offers AutoSSL supporting Proxy Subdomains.
- Enables you to view SSL Status in cPanel.
- Supports operations such as Backups, Migrations and restorations in a very easy and smooth manner.
- Supports excellent DNS and mail server management for main server and as well as client account.
- Supports management (start/stop/enable/disable) of services on server.
- Enables you to configure SSL/TLS for all server services and client domains.
- Easy integration with Phpmyadmin manage your MySQL databases from web browser.
- Supports rebranding.
- Allows integration with WHMCS to automate billing management and so much more.
- A clean fresh minimal installation of CentOS 7 server.
- Minimum of 1 GB RAM (but 2 GB recommended).
- At least 20GB of free disk space (but 40 GB recommended).
- A valid cPanel license.
- Standard hostname (FQDN or Fully Qualified Domain Name)
- Perl
Before we proceed to the installation section, you must note these to important points:
- Once you have installed cPanel/WHM, it can't be removed from your system. You will have to reinstall your the operating system to remove it.
- cPanel is commercial software and requires a licence to work, however, there is a 15 day trial (which is automatically activated once you install cPanel), you can install your software using the trial then purchase the software later.
1. Ensure that your server has a standard hostname (FQDN or Fully Qualified Domain Name), otherwise set it as follows (in this example, cpanel is the hostname and tecmint.lan is the domain name):
# hostnamectl set-hostname cpanel.tecmint.lan
2. cPanel is written in Perl, ensure that you have Perl installed on your server, other wise run the command below to install it on your system.
# yum install perl
3. You do not have to run any commands to install it, there is an auto installer script built for you. All you have to do is download the cPanel installer script with the cURL command, if you don't have the cURL command installed, first install it like so.
# yum install curl
4. Then download the latest installer script to home directory.
# curl -o latest -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest
5. Now, run the auto installer script. Note that if you have logged in the server using SSH, we strongly recommend running cPanel auto installer script in screen mode, because it takes 40-60 mins to complete the installation depending on your server resources and Internet connection speeds.
# sh latest
Sample Output
Verifying archive integrity... All good. Uncompressing cPanel & WHM Installer.....
____ _
___| _ \ __ _ _ __ ___| |
/ __| |_) / _` | '_ \ / _ \ |
| (__| __/ (_| | | | | __/ |
\___|_| \__,_|_| |_|\___|_|
Installer Version v00061 r019cb5809ce1f2644bbf195d18f15f513a4f5263
Beginning main installation.
2017-03-04 04:52:33 720 ( INFO): cPanel & WHM installation started at: Sat Mar 4 04:52:33 2017!
2017-03-04 04:52:33 721 ( INFO): This installation will require 20-50 minutes, depending on your hardware.
2017-03-04 04:52:33 722 ( INFO): Now is the time to go get another cup of coffee/jolt.
2017-03-04 04:52:33 723 ( INFO): The install will log to the /var/log/cpanel-install.log file.
2017-03-04 04:52:33 725 ( INFO): Beginning Installation v3...
2017-03-04 04:52:33 428 ( INFO): CentOS 6 (Linux) detected!
2017-03-04 04:52:33 444 ( INFO): Checking RAM now...
2017-03-04 04:52:33 233 ( WARN): To take full advantage of all of cPanel & WHM's features,
2017-03-04 04:52:33 233 ( WARN): such as multiple SSL certificates on a single IPv4 Address
2017-03-04 04:52:33 233 ( WARN): and significantly improved performance and startup times,
2017-03-04 04:52:33 233 ( WARN): we highly recommend that you use CentOS version 7.
2017-03-04 04:52:33 233 ( WARN): Installation will begin in 5 seconds. ....
At this point, sit back and relax, perhaps, you can grab yourself a cup of coffee as you wait for the cPanel installer script to complete the installation.
Take note that cPanel will massively modify your operating system, and this is how the auto installer script works:
- It examines various packages to ensure that there will be no conflicts and it finds any package conflict, it updates and uninstalls previous packages with yum cPanel on a Fresh OS.
- It also downloads language and base files for installation.
- Installs various Perl modules through CPAN and other required packages with yum.
- It downloads and compiles PHP and Apache with various associated modules.
When the installation completes, you'll view the output below. You may be asked to reboot the server after installation.
6. After that you need to complete the installation wizard from its web based interface and you can access WHM with the following URL:
Now login with user "root" and your password. There are some more clicks remaining to complete the cPanel installation.
7. Next, read the End User License Agreement and accept the terms by clicking on "I Agree?/Go Step 2" button to proceed.
8. Then you'll move to the Setup Networking section, provide your working email address and contact SMS address in the column of "Server Contact Email Address" and "Server contact SMS address" respectively.
This will enable cPanel to send all important alerts, notification to this EMail-id (Recommended). You can fill the rest details as well, as required.
9. Next, move to the Hostname section, enter a valid FQDN hostname and Resolver entries for your server in the Networking section as shown in the screenshot below.
You can use Google resolvers in this section if you don't have your ISP's resolvers.
10. Afterwards, proceed to select the Main Network/Ethernet Device, an IP available on that device will be considered as the main IP address of your server. And click on "Save & Go to Step 5" button.
11. Now set your servers static IP address. If you have more than one IP attached with your NIC card and you want to set up a specific IP for your Server's main IP, you can do that from here, to do so please choose the IP from the drop down and click on "Go to Setup 4".
Next, add the "A Entries" for Nameservers & Hostname your server will use. Add Nameservers for your want to use in the empty fields: ns1/ns2.example.com.
In addition, add an entry for your hostname and nameserver by selecting the check box, as shown in the screenshot below. Then click on "Save & Go to Step 5" button.
12. Now, configure different services like FTP, Mail and Cphulk in the Step 5, of this web based wizard.
In FTP configuration, there are two FTP applications, select the one you want to use, but Pure-FTPD is recommended. Choose the disabled option if you want to disable the local FTP server.
In the same wizard, you can select your Mail server to be used for all your mailing activities in future. You can add MTAs like Exim with your cPanel in future. You can either choose Dovecot which is also recommended or you can choose to disable mail server by choosing disabled option.
13. Move on to set Cphulk brute force protection which detects and blocks false password attacks activities and block their IP for your server. You can enable/disable and configure it as shown in the screenshot below.
14. Lastly in Step 6, you can enable quotas which helps you to track down the disk space usages. Select "Use file system quotas" and click on "Finish setup wizard" to complete the Installation process.
Note: If you don't use file system quotas then you will not be able to monitor the amount of disk space used by any user or website.
Now you can see some new features of cPanel in its Feature Showcase. In recommended features you will see cPanelID, which enables a user to login to cPanel with his/her cPanelID. This feature enables a user to login to multiple cPanels with single user id. You can enable this feature by choosing the enable option, otherwise disable it by choosing No, thank you.
Once you are done with Installation, WHM's home page will Appear as shown in the screenshot below. You can see that Home page of WHM is displaying all Control panel option and sidebar with search facility which enables you to search options by just typing their names.
Important: Sometimes, cPanel installer script is not able to update the licence because of firewall or resolvers entries and you'll see trial warning in the page. You can do it manually with following command.
# /usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt
Remember at the beginning we mentioned that, Cpanel is for user level access and WHM is for root level access, you need to create an account with option available in WHM. In this example, we created a test account with the username "tecmint" to show you the view of cPanel for users.
Below are useful lists of cPanel backend and config files you may want to know about before starting to work with Cpanel and WHM.
CPanel Backend Files
- Cpanel directory : /usr/local/cpanel
- Third Party tools : /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/
- Cpanel addons directory : /usr/local/cpanel/addons/
- Base files like Phpmyadmin, skins : /usr/local/cpanel/base/
- cPanel binaries : /usr/local/cpanel/bin/
- CGI files : /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/
- Cpanel access & error log files : /usr/local/cpanel/logs/
- Whm related files : /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/
Important cPanel Configuration Files
- Apache configuration file: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
- Exim mail server conf file:/etc/exim.conf
- Named conf file : /etc/named.conf
- ProFTP and Pureftpd conf file :/etc/proftpd.conf and /etc/pure-ftpd.conf
- Cpanel user file: /var/cpanel/users/username
- Cpanel configuration file (Tweak settings) : /var/cpanel/cpanel.config
- Networking configuration file: /etc/sysconfig/network
- Addons, parked and subdomain information: /etc/userdomains
- Cpanel update config file: /etc/cpupdate.conf
- Clamav conf file: /etc/clamav.conf
- Mysql configuration file: /etc/my.cnf
- PHP ini conf file : /usr/local/lib/php.ini
For more informatin visit: cPanel Homepage
That's all! In this article, we described how to install cPanel and WHM on RHEL/CentOS 7 and covered initial configurations to manage cPanel and WHM. Do not forget to share any valuable thoughts in the feedback form below.


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Our friendly and professional domestic plumbers can fix everything from a leaking sink and a broken tap to a complex central heating and hot water system. We can also supply and fit new sinks, baths, toilets and bidets, or install gas and electric boilers and hot water cylinders. Call us now for a same-day fix or installation!
Does your business need a maintenance company you can rely on? As our loyal commercial customers can tell you, whether its fixing a small leak from your hairdressers basin or the installation of your hotels new central heating system, we can guarantee a specialised, courteous and reasonably priced service.
A blockage in your sink, bath or toilet can cause flooding inside your property. We carry out work on domestic and commercial drains. We can help with any blockages in your drains. With years of local experience and knowledge from our engineers we can fix any problem fast.
The plumbing experts at Hempstead Plumbers are happy to address any issues that you may be experiencing with your washing machine or dishwasher, big or small. Specializing in local repair in the Hempstead, Brompton, ME7 area, Hempstead Plumbers is the authority in servicing washing machines and dishwashers, two appliances that are prone to needing repair.
Hempstead Plumbers doesn't just take care of large issues, but encourages customers to remember that smaller problems are also calls for repair, as a minor glitch can turn into a larger-scale repair job over time if not addressed. Hempstead Plumbers is available in the ME7 area to provide the best possible maintenance and emergency repair services. All repairs are affordably priced, done on-site and backed by a six-month quality guarantee, so you and your family can rest well knowing your appliance needs are well tended to.
Hempstead Plumbers employs only the most skilled and qualified appliance engineers, so you can feel certain that your appliance issues are being handled by an experienced professional. Focusing solely on the Hempstead, Brompton, ME7 area enables Hempstead Plumbers 's engineers to provide swift, reliable repairs that are unmatched by other companies in the region. With a large fleet of professionals, Hempstead Plumbers still maintains a local commitment to excellent service and customer satisfaction in all areas. Each engineer has extensive knowledge of the ME7 postcode and surrounding areas that enables them to provide the highest level of service that is tailored to the area. They are also equipped to work on most brands and models of washing machines and dishwashers.
Don't waste time with fixed price repairs when your washing machine is giving you trouble, as those companies will often take advantage of issues that are easily repaired to generate profit. For minor blockages and other problems that are easily corrected, Hempstead Plumbers will offer you a fair price. The average cost of a repair job is only 85.00 +VAT, and that's including parts. For young washing machines, serious mechanical issues should not arise, so more often that not, the problem can be corrected with a simple solution from a qualified local plumbing expert.
Dishwashers are less likely to have problems than washing machines, due in part to the fact that they do not shake and tremor as intensely as washing machines when operating. This gives them a longer lifespan, but they may still need to be serviced every so often to maintain proper functioning. Hempstead Plumbers is committed to offering the best prices and highest standards of quality in the ME7 area. Trust all of your dishwasher repair needs to Hempstead Plumbers and experience the difference that reliable, local service can make on your appliances.
Ring Hempstead Plumbers today for the most affordable and reliable local washing machine and dishwasher repair in the ME7 area!
While it might tend to rainfall often in London, creating dirt here and now there, that hardly ever halts us from getting out and enjoying the summer months period activities that are pro-lifers in the London area of Hempstead, Brompton, ME7. Whether its manoeuvring out to an artwork or music celebration, children spending period playing at the recreation area, savoring a raucous soccer match or video game of label, or also simply having buddies over for a weekend cookout, possibilities are your cleaning machine and dishwasher are heading progressively throughout.
Hempstead Plumbers has learned that when your devices are getting used in complete drive its important to ascertain whether or not they are operating properly. A frequently planned maintenance check can assure you that there are no problems with your cleaning machine or dishwasher that may result in a want for a bigger fix work or also replacing. In the event that a fix requirements to end up being performed to maintain the device in great functioning purchase, you will receive our six-month warranty of provider to present that you can depend on a correct work getting performed the initial period around.
Unlike various other, dishonest companies who are looking to make as very much profit as feasible, Hempstead Plumbers wants you to know that we care about your satisfaction and dont want to see you spend any even more than is required it maintain your appliances or any various other domestic plumbing related matter. This is normally why we charge structured on the fix that is normally required rather than charging a level price that may considerably go beyond the expense of the fix that requirements to end up being performed. While various other businesses may charge a level price that means a great deal of revenue for a little work like delivering a block, Hempstead Plumbers prefers to charge what is normally reputable.
We deal with function in simply about every produce and super model tiffany Livingston of cleaning devices and dish washers. Our qualified plumbers can arrive out at your comfort and appear them over to ensure everything is normally functioning at best condition. While cleaning devices should possess a regular maintenance check about every six a few months, dish washers, which are studier, can move also additional in-between check ups. Nevertheless, if you perform find any loss from either device or experience they are not really working up to par, you can generally band our consumer treatment series 24/7 to speak with a completely educated personnel member who can determine if you want help instantly or at your following, first comfort.
By choosing to have Hempstead Plumbers act as your go-to professional, you will be getting the best personal treatment from a locally owned firm that is in shape to produce fixes, restorations, and installation like any of the bigger, more universal businesses positioned in Town, with the added advantage of personal attention and sincere concern towards keeping you cash.
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Home Security Equipment – Identify Your Needs First
Having a security system for premises is something everyone thinks about but the challenge lies in selecting the best suited security option available so that you get the right level of protection. Although there are different types of home security systems available in the market today, choosing the right one can be overwhelming at times.
Basically security systems are of two types – Monitored systems and Un-monitored systems. Monitored systems include 24/7 surveillance by the company itself which provided the security system. You get higher level of security and professional help with monitored systems. At the second phase of security systems are un-monitored security systems. Unmonitored systems do not have a monthly fee since you are doing the monitoring yourself. In case on unmonitored systems you rely on your neighbours for calling help in case the alarm is triggered, when you are out. Most popular types of home security equipment that you can add to your home or office include:
MOTION DETECTORS: Motion detectors are primarily meant to detect and prevent unauthorized access to your property. Generally these are placed at doors or windows and when breached, they set off the alarm. When buying a motion detector make sure it has the option to adjust the sensitivity level so that the possibilities of getting a false alarm are minimized.
SMOKE AND HEAT DETECTORS: As the name suggests these types of equipment are used as a protection against Heat and Fire. Most modern houses are already equipped with these right when they are built, for those which are not, it can be a must have addition.
EXTERNAL VIDEO CAMERAS: External video cameras are probably the first type of DIY home security option to come about in the home security market. Security cameras can be wired or wireless. Installation is generally very easy for these type of cameras and it only requires mounting the device outside the premises in the desired location. This kind of security system is most commonly found in homes, stores, shopping malls, companies and industries where continuous monitoring is required. Most security cameras come with the option of being hooked up with a video recording device for continuous recording.
DOOR AND WINDOW CONTACTS: These are a common part of most modern alarm systems. The purpose of it is to determine whether a door or window is currently left open unintentionally. The device will send a signal to the alarm system in such an event and it will set off making the house owner or the monitoring team aware of the situation.
SECURITY SIRENS: The purpose of a security Siren is to make an emergency situation known. It also scare off intruders and thieves with its sound. If you are not going to use a unmonitored security service, a security Siren is an accessory that you cannot afford to miss.
FLOOD AND WATER SENSORS: Flood and water sensors generally come as an optional feature in home security alarm systems however these are very important for houses having a basement or houses in close proximity of a lake, river or sea. These devices can detect high water level at the sump pump or when water is present in an area where it should not be.
Home security systems can be both budget friendly and expensive so a little bit of research is worth investing both time and money in. In case you are going for a monitored home security system, ask the security official for a quick security requirement assessment for your home or property. Once you know your exact requirements, you can request and compare quotes from major home security companies in your area. You can also go online and compare prices of equipment from various providers.
When availability is at disposal, the challenge only lies in choosing the right product or service. Having a security system around makes us feel safe when we are far from our home and hence everyone should be availing such a system.


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External user directories
You can connect Bitbucket Data Center and Server to external user directories. This allows you to use existing users and groups stored in an enterprise directory, and to manage those users and groups in one place.
User management functions include:
- Authentication: determining which user identity is sending a request to Bitbucket.
- Authorization: determining the access privileges for an authenticated user.
- User management: maintaining profile information in user's accounts.
- Group membership: storing and retrieving groups, and group membership.
It is important to understand that these are separate components of a user management system. You could use an external directory for any or all of the above tasks.
There are several approaches to consider when using external user directories with Bitbucket, described briefly below:
- Bitbucket provides a "read-only" connection to external directories for user management. This means that users and groups, fetched from any external directory, can only be modified or updated in the external directory itself, rather than in Bitbucket.
- Connecting Atlassian Bitbucket to your external directory is not sufficient to allow your users to log in. You must explicitly grant them access to Bitbucket in the global permission screen.
- We recommend that you use groups instead of individual accounts when granting permissions. However, be careful not to add more users to those groups that your Bitbucket license allows. If the license limit is exceeded, your developers will not be able to push commits to repositories, and Bitbucket will display a warning banner. See this FAQ.
- Bitbucket comes with an internal user directory, already built-in, that is enabled by default at installation. When you create the first administrator during the setup procedure, that administrator's username and other details are stored in the internal directory.
- See also this information about deleting users and groups in Bitbucket.
You should consider connecting to an LDAP directory server if your users and groups are stored in an enterprise directory.
There are two common ways of using an external LDAP directory with Bitbucket:
- For full user and group management, including for user authentication — see Connect to an LDAP directory for instructions.
- For delegated user authentication only, while using Bitbucket's internal directory for user and group management — see Delegate authentication to an LDAP directory for instructions.
Bitbucket is able to connect to the following LDAP directory servers:
- Microsoft Active Directory
- Apache Directory Server (ApacheDS) 1.0.x and 1.5.x
- Apple Open Directory (Read-Only)
- Fedora Directory Server (Read-Only Posix Schema)
- Novell eDirectory Server
- OpenDS
- OpenLDAP
- OpenLDAP (Read-Only Posix Schema)
- Generic Posix/RFC2307 Directory (Read-Only)
- Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE)
- Any generic LDAP directory server
Jira applications
You can delegate Bitbucket user and group management, as well as user authentication, to a Jira application. This is a good option if you already use a Jira application in your organization. Note that Bitbucket can only connect to a Jira application server running Jira 4.3 or later.
You should consider using Atlassian Crowd for more complex configurations with a large number of users.
See Connecting Bitbucket Server to Jira for user management for configuration instructions.
You can connect Bitbucket to Atlassian Crowd for user and group management, as well as for user authentication.
Crowd is an application security framework that handles authentication and authorization for your web-based applications. With Crowd you can integrate multiple web applications with multiple user directories, with support for single sign-on (SSO) and centralized identity management. See the Crowd Administration Guide.
You should consider connecting to Crowd if you want to use Crowd to manage existing users and groups in multiple directory types, or if you have users of other web-based applications.
See Connect Bitbucket to Crowd for configuration instructions.
Multiple directories
When Bitbucket is connected directly to multiple user directories, where duplicate user names and group names are used across those directories, the effective group memberships that Bitbucket uses for authorization can be determined using either of these two schemes:
- 'aggregating membership'
- 'non-aggregating membership'.
See Effective memberships with multiple directories for more information about these two schemes.
Note that:
- Aggregating membership is used by default for new installations of Bitbucket.
- Authentication, for when Bitbucket is connected to multiple directories, only depends on the mapped groups in those directories – the aggregation scheme is not involved at all.
- For inactive users, Bitbucket only checks if the user is active in the first (highest priority) directory in which they are found for the purpose of determining authentication. Whether a user is active or inactive does not affect how their memberships are determined.
- When a user is added to a group, they are only added to the first writeable directory available, in priority order.
- When a user is removed from a group, they are only removed from the group in the first directory the user appears in, when non-aggregating membership is used. With aggregating membership, they are removed from the group in all directories the user exists in.
A Bitbucket admin can change the membership scheme used by Bitbucket using the following commands:
To change to aggregating membership, substitute your own values for
in this command:curl -H 'Content-type: application/json' -X PUT -d '{"membershipAggregationEnabled":true}' -u <username>:<password> <base-url>/rest/crowd/latest/application
To change to non-aggregating membership, substitute your own values for
in this command:curl -H 'Content-type: application/json' -X PUT -d '{"membershipAggregationEnabled":false}' -u <username>:<password> <base-url>/rest/crowd/latest/application
Note that these operations are different from how you make these changes in Crowd. Note also that changing the aggregation scheme can affect the authorization permissions for your Bitbucket users, and how directory update operations are performed.


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Compilation of script tutorial series ready for download (May 25 2006)
I have completed the conversion of the script tutorials to a nicer more print friendly
layout. I have also compiled them all to one single zip for easy download. Small revamp of the Peroxide site (May 21 2006)
I'm happy to finally have taken the time to update the site. We are working on a bit
of new content as well.
Copyright Peroxide 2001 (c) |


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BATH, Maine–The U.S. Navy is ready to take ownership of the Zumwalt, its largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyer.
Sailors' uniforms and personal effects, supplies and spare parts are being moved aboard the 610-foot warship in anticipation of crew members taking on their new charge, said Capt. James Kirk, the destroyer's skipper.
The Zumbalt is the first new class of warship built at Bath Iron Works since the Arleigh Burke slid into the Kennebec River in 1989. The shipyard is expected to turn the destroyer over to the Navy this week.
"We've overcome lots of obstacles to get to this point," said electrician John Upham, of Litchfield. "I think everybody in the shipyard is proud of the work we've done."
The ship features an angular shape that makes it 50 times more difficult to detect on radar; it's powered by electricity produced by turbines similar to those in a Boeing 777; new guns are designed to pummel targets from nearly 100 miles away. Advanced automation will allow the big ship to operate with a much smaller crew than on current generation of destroyers.
The final cost of the Zumwalt is expected to be at least $4.4 billion.
The original concept for the land-attack destroyer was floated more than 15 years ago then underwent several permutations. The final design called for a destroyer with a stealthy shape and advanced gun system that can fire rocket-propelled projectiles with pinpoint accuracy.
But the growing cost forced the Navy to reduce what was originally envisioned as a 32-ship program to just three ships. The loss of economies of scale drove up the cost of the individual ships.
The slow-going and rising costs were little surprise after the General Accounting Office warned that the Navy was trying to incorporate too many new technologies into the ship.
"Zumwalt was a challenge to assemble because of all the new technologies, but sea trials show it is a world-class warship with unique capabilities," said Loren Thompson, senior defense analyst with the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.
Some of the ship's 143 crew members have been in Bath for more than two years to prepare for the day they take control of it. The sailors will continue training to prepare the ship to be formally commissioned into service as USS Zumwalt at a ceremony in October in Baltimore, Kirk said. From there, the ship will travel to its homeport in San Diego for further tests and trials.
Shipbuilders in Bath are busy on the second ship in the class, the Michael Monsoor, which will be christened next month. Work also is underway on the third and final ship, the Lyndon B. Johnson.
Jay Wadleigh, president of the largest union at the shipyard, said Bath Iron Works was selected for the job because the Navy knew it would be done right.
"I think the way the Zumwalt performed on the three different sea trials was better than anybody expected — us, the Navy and the company," he said.


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text:
Among those we should remember on Memorial Day is Dan Bullock, who was just 14 on the September day in 1968 when he strode into a Marine Corps recruiting station with an altered birth certificate.
At a time when the nation was stunned by the Tet offensive in Vietnam and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, this teen from Brooklyn retained a very clear goal.
"He wanted to make his mark in life," his father, Brother Bullock, later told reporters. "He wanted to be something."
The surrounding streets offered only trouble. The neighborhood schools seemed to promise little more. And the younger Bullock was so audaciously eager as he set off for boot camp that his family said nothing to the Marines of him really being four years shy of the minimum age of 18.
"He was all excited when he was in uniform, talking about getting up in rank," his stepmother, Jewel Bullock, would recall to the press. "He said, 'When I get back, I'll have my stripes.'"
Bullock was strong and fast, but he still had no more than a 14-year-old's stamina. He got his first sense of what resides at the core of the Corps when his fellow recruits at Parris Island had to carry him at the end of the long runs.
In April 1969, five months after his 15th birthday, Private First Class Dan Bullock arrived in Vietnam. He was assigned as a rifleman to Fox Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment. Nobody in the unit guessed his true age, but there was a general sense that he somehow did not belong.
"Everybody who met him either wanted to protect him or push him around," recalls Lance Cpl. Steve Piscitelli.
Piscitelli was one of those whose impulse was to protect this kid from Brooklyn who kept to himself. Piscitelli tried to draw him out.
"He wouldn't talk," Piscitelli says. "He wouldn't open up. But he was 15. He wasn't going to tell me."
Piscitelli came to feel like a kind of older brother.
"The others just sensed he wasn't supposed to be there," Piscitelli recalls. "It was, 'What are you doing here?'"
Piscitelli invited Bullock to join him in some good-natured sparring, figuring that this might establish more of a connection between them.
"He really was in great shape except for the endurance thing," Piscitelli says.
During some playful sparring on June 6, Piscitelli dislocated his thumb. He was unable to handle a rifle properly and had to stay behind guarding the tanks when the unit deployed that night to the bunkers that ringed An Hoa combat base.
After midnight, Piscitelli heard a fierce battle erupt a mile away. He listened to shouts on the radio as the gunfire raged.
"There were a lot of Marines doing what Marines do," Piscitelli says. "They don't run. Marines never panic. We don't do that. That's why we are who we are."
Piscitelli found out just how bad it had been when he counted the number of ambulatory survivors who came back with the dawn.
"Forty-five went out, only 20 returned," Piscitelli recalls.
Among the five killed was Dan Bullock. His captain, Robert Kingrey, wrote to the Bullock family back on Lee Avenue in Brooklyn, describing how the night defensive position had been attacked around 1 a.m. on June 7.
"Dan immediately realized that the attack was stronger than usual and that the ammunition supply was becoming depleted," Kingrey recounted. "He rushed to get more ammunition for his unit. He constantly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to keep the company supplied with the ammunition needed to hold off the attack. As the attack pressed on, Dan again went to get more ammunition when he was mortally wounded by a burst of enemy small arms and died instantly at approximately 1:50 a.m."
Kingrey continued: "Dan was one of the finest Marines I have ever known. He took pride in doing every job well and constantly displayed those qualities of eagerness and self-reliance that gained him the respect he well deserved. Although I realize words can do little to console you, I hope the knowledge that we share your sorrow will, in some measure, alleviate the suffering caused by your great loss."
The letter was preceded at the Bullock home by a Department of Defense telegram informing them that he had died from "multiple missile wounds to the body and small-arms fire." Reporters appeared at the apartment and the grieving family told them that Dan Bullock had been only 15. Word of his true age soon after reached Fox Company in Vietnam, explaining what the other Marines had intuitively sensed.
"He felt like a kid brother who was tagging along," Piscitelli says.
Piscitelli was wounded three times but survived and became a sculptor of note in Florida. He at first made figures of men in combat, then of ballet dancers.
"The war stuff is very hard to do," he says.
As the Vietnam War faded in the memory of everyone save those who fought in it, Piscitelli was contacted by a former Marine named Franklin McArthur, who had been one of the recruits helping Bullock on the long runs in boot camp. Piscitelli had founded a foundation to create a memorial in Bullock's memory, and Piscitelli joined him in raising funds for a 7-foot statue of the fallen teen who had wanted to make a mark and be somebody.
"Then 9/11 happened," Piscitelli says. "Everybody got distracted."
Even many Americans who had fervently opposed the war in Vietnam supported going into Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. We were on our way to accomplishing that mission when the Bush administration began diverting military resources in preparation for going after Saddam Hussein, who had nothing to do with 9/11.
Among those who joined up after 9/11 as if it were Pearl Harbor, only to be sent to Iraq rather than after bin Laden, was the son of a New York City firefighter who died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The son, who asks not to be identified for security reasons, became a member of the U.S. Army's Special Forces. When he looked inside his first green beret, he saw three words that testified to how quickly a war can be forgotten:
The words also served as an increasingly wrenching reminder of a particular war whose lessons we failed to heed first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan. We did finally manage get bin Laden, nearly a decade after we might have had we not been diverted, but now some of our finest young Americans are dying in a futile war from which we are seeking only to extricate ourselves.
At least some citizens in Brooklyn remembered the Marine who died at just 15 in Vietnam. The block where he once lived was officially renamed PFC Dan Bullock Way in 2003.
And a photoengraving of an impossibly young Bullock in dress uniform is part of the seldom-visited Vietnam Veterans Memorial tucked away at the edge of Manhattan's financial district, where greedsters nearly wrecked the nation's economy in the midst of our two most recent wars.
Across the top of the memorial to those who died demonstrating the supreme opposite of greed, is a poem by Army Maj. Michael O'Donnell. He wrote it shortly before he was killed while piloting a helicopter in an attempt to rescue a Special Forces team. It is a poem well worth reciting on our national day of remembrance.
"If you are able,save them a placeinside of you.And save one backward glancewhen you are leavingfor the places they canno longer go.Be not ashamed to sayyou loved them,though you mayor may not have always.Take what they have leftand what they have taught youwith their dyingand keep it with your own.And in that timewhen men decide and feel safeto call the war insane,take one moment to embracethose gentle heroesyou left behind."
The bigger-than-life statue of Dan Bullock has not gotten beyond a 2-foot wax prototype, though Piscitelli continues to sculpt ballet dancers. He tries to complete one a month.
"It keeps me from thinking about the war," he says.
While millions of us head for the beach or hold cookouts on Memorial Day, Piscitelli goes into seclusion, ignoring the phone and thinking of Bullock and all the others.
"That's my high holy day," he says.


text:
New epilepsy gene located in dogs
- Date:
- March 23, 2012
- Source:
- Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki)
- Summary:
- A new epilepsy gene for idiopathic epilepsy in Belgian Shepherds has been found in the canine chromosome 37. This research opens new avenues for the understanding of the genetic background of the most common canine epilepsies. The research also has an impact on the understanding of common epilepsies in humans.
- Share:
A new epilepsy gene for idiopathic epilepsy in Belgian Shepherds has been found in the canine chromosome 37. The research of Professor Hannes Lohi and his group conducted at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Research Center opens new avenues for the understanding of the genetic background of the most common canine epilepsies. The research also has an impact on the understanding of common epilepsies in humans.
The research is published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE on March 23, 2012.
Epilepsy affects about 1-5% of the human population at some stage of live, and it includes a host of syndromes the age of onset, causes and prognosis of which vary significantly. Based on their basic mechanisms epilepsy syndromes are divided into genetic (idiopathic) epilepsies, structural / metabolic (symptomatic) epilepsies and epilepsies of unknown cause. Symptomatic causes refer to discernible external or structural change, whereas with idiopathic epilepsy there is a strong genetic background. A common denominator between the different syndromes are reoccurring epileptic seizures, which are divided according to an international classification into two main groups -- focal and generalized seizures -- based on clinical symptoms and research findings. About two thirds of the seizures in adults are focal in nature and one third generalized. In children and teenagers the occurrence of generalized forms of epilepsy is greater (ca. 50%).
Identification of the epilepsy gene on process
Genetic factors are estimated to play a role in the development of epilepsy in as many as 40% of epilepsy patients. Several genes affecting the development of symptomatic epilepsies have already been identified, but the genetic background of multifactorial idiopathic epilepsies often remain unknown. Both focal and generalized idiopathic epilepsies occur in Belgian Shepherds. The research group of Professor Hannes Lohi, working in collaboration with Danish, Swedish and American researchers in an EU-funded project, has made a major breakthrough by identifying a chromosome region associated with the most common form of epilepsy in dogs. By comparing the genome of dogs with epilepsy and healthy control dogs a gene region in chromosome 37 was discovered, which if homozygous, increases the risk of epilepsy seven-fold. In addition the research findings indicate that other, still unknown, genetic risk factors may be present in the breed.
The identified region has excellent neurological candidate genes for epilepsy and ongoing follow-up research is aimed to identify the specific gene causing epilepsy. Epilepsy genes have not previously been identified in this chromosome region, so the discovery will reveal an entirely new epilepsy gene in dogs and possibly also in humans. The type of epilepsy occurring in Belgian Shepherds is extremely common in also other breeds and thus the discovery may have an impact on the understanding of the epilepsies in different dog breeds.
"There are only few genes in the identified region and I believe that the ongoing analyses will help us to discover the specific epilepsy gene," says Professor Hannes Lohi who led the research. "This would give us a better understanding of the disease mechanisms and provide us with new diagnostic tools for the disease."
The Research group of Hannes Lohi has begun an extensive gene-sequencing project in which the entire identified chromosome region will be 'read through' with a next-generation sequencing method. By identifying the specific gene mutation an individual's epilepsy risk could be assessed, although the gene mutation may also be common in dogs that never become symptomatic of epilepsy.
Epilepsy is common among Belgian Shepherds
"The identified genomic region is likely to be the strongest single risk factor for epilepsy in Belgian Shepherds, and we are studying an interesting gene variant causing an amino acid change in the protein level. However, this homozygous amino acid change is also present in one fifth of healthy Belgian Shepherds. The research continues in the breed and aims to identify the specific mutation for genetic testing in this loci and possible in other chromosomes. The need for the gene test is urgent since as much as 20% of the dogs in this breed are estimated to have epilepsy," comments the first author of the article Eija Seppälä, PhD.
The age of onset of idiopathic epilepsy in Belgian Shepherds is on average 3 years, although the range varies greatly. A seizure often begins as a focal seizure, and the owner may observe abnormal movement, usually on only one side of the dog's body. At this point the dog often seeks out the owner, drools or vomits. With most Belgian Shepherds the seizure becomes generalized and is accompanied with loss of consciousness and irregular cramping in the limbs. The dog may also urinate or defecate involuntarily.
Earlier gene discoveries of the research group
Epilepsy is the most common disorder of the nervous system in dogs and different types of genetic epilepsies occur in dozens of dog breeds. The research group has previously identified the first epilepsy gene for symptomatic epilepsy, EPM2B, in Miniature Wirehaired Dachshunds, as well as more recently a gene, LGI2, associated with transient idiopathic epilepsy in Lagotto Romagnolos. The group has also participated in the discovery of a gene for symptomatic epilepsy in Tibetan Terriers. Lohi and his research group have built a canine DNA bank in Finland, which currently holds almost 40 000 samples from more than 250 different breeds. The DNA bank has played a major role in the execution of among others the current research to be published in March, 2012.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Seppälä EH, Koskinen LLE, Gulløv CH, Jokinen P, Karlskov-Mortensen P, Bergamasco L, Baranowska Körberg I, Cizinauskas S, Oberbauer AM, Berendt M, Fredholm M, Lohi H. Identification of a novel idiopathic epilepsy locus in Belgian Shepherds. PloS ONE, 2012 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0033549
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text:
Time now for StoryCorps. Forty years ago, Monica Jordan moved in with her cousin, LaTonya, in Atlanta. That's when the cousins became more like sisters. They were raised by their moms in a house with plenty of rules. At StoryCorps, they remembered an afternoon when they were 7 and 9 and got a rare glimpse of freedom.
LATONYA WALKER: My mother was very, very strict. I was like, man, I just want to go outside and play.
MONICA JORDAN: Yeah. We couldn't do that. You know, our parents had to work. So for their peace of mind and for our safety, we could go no further than the front yard. Our friends would come over. And we would tell them that we were going to run away. And they never believed us.
WALKER: One particular morning, I wanted to go somewhere. And I asked my mom. And the answer, of course, was, no, as it was always. But I was tired of hearing no. And I was the one that decided, hey, we're going to run away. So you and I went downstairs. We packed a backpack with some Oreos, some orange slices, some little sandwiches.
JORDAN: And, like, the really old-school bologna sandwiches with the little red ring that you had to pull off the sides of them. We left, like, 8 or something that morning. And we just started walking up the road. I do remember us going in the mall. And it was just one full day of playtime.
WALKER: And then, I remember we pulled out a map. And we was like, we're going to go to my dad's house. He was the fun dad. I could eat what I want, do what I want. And so as we were walking up this little ramp...
JORDAN: There's these two men yelling, hey, hey. You all can't go on that interstate. It's dangerous.
WALKER: It turns out that one of them actually knew my father.
JORDAN: They called him and took us back home. By this time, it was nighttime. When we pulled up, our friends drove up in their bikes. And they were like, oh, my God, you all did it, as we went into the house, knowing full well that we probably wouldn't see them for an entire week.
WALKER: That's when we got the stern words.
JORDAN: My mom just actually flat out asked me - what possessed us to (laughter) run away like that?
WALKER: (Laughter).
JORDAN: Like, what were you all thinking? And I always say, I was just following you, like (laughter)...
WALKER: Oh, Lord.
JORDAN: We did something really foolish. But I will have to admit - for, like, a half a second, I felt like we were heroes. Our parents raised us to be independent. And I realized that I've never been afraid to just go out and wander the world on my own.
WALKER: I think that's probably why I'm not married, because I don't want to have to answer to anybody (laughter). So yeah, that's what that meant to me, just living my life on my own terms, that same little fearless girl I still am today.
MARTINEZ: That was LaTonya Walker and her cousin, Monica Jordan. Their StoryCorps conversation will be archived at the Library of Congress.
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