BREAKTHROUGH: Behind the scenes

Published on Jun 12, 2013

BREAKTHROUGH hits shelves June 18. Order your copy today: http://breakthroughthemedia.com/ This behind the scenes reel dives into the archives of James O'Keefe's investigative footage; the details of which are divulged in detail in his new book, Breakthrough: Our Guerilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy.

In this hard-hitting look at the way media and government conspire to protect the status quo, controversial ambush journalist James O'Keefe shows the reader what happens when a young citizen journalist challenges some of America's most powerful and protected organizations.

James O'Keefe has been on the front lines of journalism since his student days at Rutgers. In Breakthrough, he takes the reader through his efforts to expose the duplicity of Planned Parenthood, ACORN, Medicaid, NPR, the New Jersey Educational Association, labor unions and politicians. He shows how major media slandered him at almost every turn, how state officials harassed him, and how federal officials arrested him and his colleagues on contrived charges in New Orleans.

NJO: Video and blurb from James O'Keefe's YouTube channel VeritasVisuals.

A rundown of all the bits that get a caption:

00:06. "ACORN Investigation"
00:09. "New ACORN"
00:11. "Paul Robeson at Rutgers"
00:11. "HUD Investigation"
00:12. "NH Voter Fraud Investigation"
00:13. "California ACORN Investigation"
00:13. "Unreleased"
00:14. "Bailout Prize Patrol Investigation"
00:16. "California Assemblyman Investigation"
00:18. "Planned Parenthood Investigation"
00:19. "Love thy Prisoner Campaign"
00:20. "NH Voter Fraud Investigation"
00:21. "Bailout Prize Patrol Investigation"
00:26. "Lucky Charms Investigation"
00:27. "NH Voter Fraud Investigation"
00:28. "UCLA gives 'Orgy Man' Condoms"
00:30. "Earth Supply and Renewal"
00:34. "OFA Investigation"
00:36. "NPR investigation Broll" (sic)
00:37. "Landrieu Dance"
00:40. "NPR Investigation"
00:42. "Classified" - Something to do with the New Jersey Network, which was a public television and radio network (affiliated with PBS and NPR) that shut down on June 30, 2011.
00:44. "Maxine Waters Investigation"
00:45. "Social Security Investigation"
00:46. "Posing as Romney Donor at OFA"
00:48. "Muslim Education Action Center"
00:49. "CNN"
00:52. "Unreleased" - Something to do with the Right To Work movement. Evan Coyne Maloney seems to be involved.
00:53. "HUD investigation"
00:59. "Sotomayor Investigation"
01:02. "Medicaid Investigation"
01:05. "Posing as Banker at Occupy Wall Street"
01:06. "Rutgers Dean of Education"
01:08. "New Jersey Teachers Gone Wild"
01:10. "Rutgers Professor brings Cop Killer to Campus"
01:11. "Landrieu Dance"
01:13. "American Flag at Rutgers"
01:15. "Vermont Voter Fraud Investigation"
01:17. "Planned Parenthood Investigation"
01:18. "NPR Investigation"
01:18. "Planned Parenthood Investigation"
01:21. "James and Ben get married"

Love Thy Prisoner Campaign: Adopt a Jihad Detainee

Uploaded on Jun 22, 2009

Progressives in Boston sign petitions to be pen pals with Guantanamo Bay detainees and put them into their loving homes.

NJO: Title, video and blurb from James O'Keefe's YouTube account VeritasVisuals. It takes place at Boston Pride 2009. The guy with the screwy-up face is Ben Wetmore, the tall guy with the grey cap is of course James O'Keefe, and I believe the guy with the sailor hat and sunglasses is named Anthony Pombal.

Minions / fellow culture warriors involved:

Ben Wetmore
Anthony Pombal

Ben Wetmore posted the video to his blog (mirrored here) on the same day it was uploaded. The comments from the blog post provide insight into the thinking behind the project, so here they are:

Comments:

Convservative Christian said...

Just because someone was picked up and put in Guantanamo, does not mean they are terrorists. As Christ instructs, we are to love even our enemy. As Americans, we ought to especially care for the wrongfully imprisoned, those who have never been given a trial, those who have never been charged, those against whom no evidence has been brought. What do you propose? That we keep them locked up forever and never tried?

September 16, 2009 at 7:35 AM

. said...

Conservative Christian, I think this is where Christianity descends into insanity. I agree to love thy neighbor, and even love thy enemy, but the largest misnomer possible is that you have to 'turn your cheek' to every act of aggression. If that were true, then let a molester violate a child, let a murderer kill your family. Christians can kill with a clear conscience when the cause is just. You can care about someone and understand that there's no room in this world for them. The Christian crusades are the best example of this, and the world would be a better place if Mohammadism had been wiped off the map. The answer short of that is certainly not to let them into your home, and write loving letters to them. The answer is to have a damn spine, a backbone, kill the enemy, hope for the best, and convert those who are able to be converted. Walking into your murderer's sword on some misguided interpretation of Christian pacifism is not noble, it's suicidal. Charles Martel was a great Christian conquerer.

September 29, 2009 at 4:49 PM

Conervative Christian said...

By your response, you still seem to assume that just by being in Guantanamo, you are guilty, even without a trial. Some of these prisoners were just kids when picked up, some of them are Chinese dissidents picked up in the border region between Afghanistan and China, Although China considers them terrorists, that does not mean we, as Americans ought to. Also by your response you seem to assume that everyone killed in the Crusades deserved to die, even the Orthodox Christians mercilessly slaughtered by the Crusaders? Perhaps you should be a bit more thoughtful about who you wipe off the map and not assume that just because your sword has found its way into their gut, they must be guilty. At least you ought to do a little research into who all is being held at Guantanamo before you decide there is no room in the world for them.

October 25, 2009 at 7:46 PM

Ben said...

alright, well let's turn it around, are all the people in Guantanamo innocent? Would you house one who is guilty and released on a technicality? "Christianity" too often gets defined solely by weakness, by this mindlessness which says "help everyone always" and forgets that there are some people who have to be fought, otherwise you turn into a pacifist, a lamb for the slaughter. I don't think that everyone the government locks up is guilty, but I think that those who blindly advocate for shutting down Guantanamo are motivated by self-righteousness and false notions of Christianity rather than reason, forgetting to be as wise as snakes. In fact, I can't condemn you enough without resorting to name-calling. I think your point and your perspective is ridiculous and wrong and self-destructive. You are the intellectual self-immolation of society. And what of Charles Martel? What of the greatest of Christians who saved millions and future billions of souls by having the strength to act in lieu of your philosophical malaise? If only the Viennese had opened their gates to the barbarians and preached love and Christian happiness, surely Suleiman would have laughed and put aside their differences and all would be forgiven.

November 4, 2009 at 1:10 AM

From the files of Ben Wetmore: "My new group: LTPC"

The "Love Thy Prisoner Campaign" made its debut at the Gay Pride Parade in Boston over the weekend.

People were asked to adopt a detainee, provide a home if they get released, help them with their 'religious needs' and be a friend, a pen pal.

James and I were told that we were "the most truly progressive people here..." and this was at the Boston Gay Pride rally, so, I think that puts us in strong running for the most progressive people in the world.

Fact sheet - Signup sheet

Hopefully you can see where this is going...

Labels: activism, homosexuals, leftists, video

posted by . @ 8:43 AM

NJO: Originally posted at Ben Wetmore's blog (mirrored here), with the following comments:

2 Comments:

At June 15, 2009 5:30 PM ,  Sif said...

You guys are hilarious!

I really wish ppl hadn't taken you seriously... and approved...

At June 16, 2009 11:51 AM ,  Marty said...

Sign me up

Cop Killer Comes To Rutgers

Reported by Matthew Klimek and James O'Keefe

On August 27, 1964, two Lodi, NJ, police officers, Peter Voto and Gary Tedesco, entered a night club to investigate a disturbance. Inside, a man name Thomas Trantino and an accomplice assaulted the officers, disarmed them, and then commanded them to strip to their underwear. Trantino and his sidekick then taunted and pistol-whipped the officers before finally shooting them execution-style. One of the officers’ brothers found the two slain policemen at the scene. Originally condemned to death, his sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972. Since 2002, this cop-killer has been walking the streets on parole. Within 18 months, Trantino was under arrest again for charges that he assaulted and restrained his girlfriend. He was acquitted. A conviction would have put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Following his release, Trantino had some difficulty securing work but he has now found a job, one that brought him to Rutgers-Camden on January 22. The Friends Transitional Support Services, a Quaker organization that reaches out to ex-inmates, was looking for a program director. They chose Trantino. Now, the FTSS and Prof. Drew Humphries, director of the criminal justice program at Camden, have cosponsored a panel to discuss “How to Survive on Parole and Probation.”

Of the thousands of NJ parolees, who should they chose as their public liaison but Trantino. Humphries was quoted as saying in the Star-Ledger that the panel was meant as “an open forum for discussion, no matter how controversial.” Rather it would seem she means “as controversial as possible.” Leah Morris, an employee of the Office of Public Defender, sat on the panel with Trantino and Humphries, though she was not acting in any connection with the office. The discussion was held in a university auditorium, which the two sponsors leased privately from Rutgers. No representative from the New Jersey State Parole Board was present at the event. Their delegate withdrew when the board learned that Trantino would be on the panel. Edward Bray, Parole Board spokesman, told the Philadelphia Enquirer, “It’s inappropriate for one of our officers to be sitting with a parolee... and be expected to treat him as a peer.” State law enforcement officials were outraged, and pleaded with the University to cancel, but to no avail. “He’s not someone we want to put up as an example of a good
parolee,” said Bray. Dr. Humphries would disagree. “Tommy Trantino is on the panel because he’s a role model for those who have come out of prison and are looking to turning their lives around,” she said. “Tommy is a very peaceful person. He’s done a good job. I don’t think he’ll turn into an ax murderer.”

And what if he were to turn into an ax murderer? How would that be any different than what he already is: a first degree double cop killer? If the purpose of this panel was to build a positive rapport between parolees and the community, why did the sponsors choose the perpetrator of a premeditated murder which left two families and an entire community bereft, and who is now freely walking the streets after narrowly escaping his capital sentence, as their lead man? To the Camden department of criminal justice, exactly what is their definition of the word “justice?” Still, Trantino wishes someone from the Parole Board had been present. “I’m willing to talk to those police officers,” he said. “I’m willing to go in to their training and talk to them. I used to talk to the police in prison and I have no problem with police.” No, he only executes them. “We recognize that Tommy is a controversial figure and for many people it’s rubbing salt in very tender wounds,” said Humphries. “But the difficulties of people in parole and probation is important work, so we do it.” More important, presumably, than the dignity of these two officers and the difficulties of their families following their loss. Two public servants, Voto and Tedesco, lost their lives, but their murderer not only still has both his life and his freedom, but is honored as a role mode. Of the law enforcement community, Trantino said, “It’s a club... The way they survive is, when Tommy Trantino’s name is mentioned, they snap to attention and say ‘RRRR.’”

NJO: Originally printed in the February 2005 issue of The Centurion.

The Conservative Manifesto - Part III

A spectre is haunting Rutgers — the spectre of conservatism. All of the powers of the ivory tower (Rutgers) have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: “diversity” proponents, speech-code advocates, multiculturalists, feminist radicals, and your professors.

Where is the student that has not been decried as “conservative” by the liberals in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of conservatism, against the more advanced liberal ideology at Rutgers, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

Two things result from this fact:

I. Conservatism is already acknowledged by Rutgers to be itself a power.
II. It is time that Conservatives should openly, in the face of all their professors, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of conservatism with a manifesto of the ideology itself.

To this end, I have assembled the following manifesto, to be published in THE CENTURION:

A conservative believes in natural rights. A conservative believes in natural rights; those rights endowed to human beings by their creator. They believe in a system of government ordained around truths that are self-evident. Furthermore, he does not believe “No culture’s way of life is better than another,” as anthropologist Theodosious Dobzhansky has argued. Allan Bloom claims in his book The Closing of the American Mind that America promises, “the untrammeled freedom to reason,” and
therefore the highest achievement of truth and self-actualization. Conservatives are guilty of the sin of pride. We are proud of our nation and its values. We would rather study the political philosophies of freedom, justice, and liberty by John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Hobbes which have inspired generations of prosperity. We choose not to buy into the political philosophies of conflict theory and revolution by Marx or Mao which have inspired only genocide. A conservative is not afraid to tell the multiculturalists and western intellectuals that ridding the world of genital mutilation, infanticide, religious discrimination, patriarchy, cannibalism, forced abortions and corrupt dictators is not “culturally imperialistic,” or “ethnocentric.” It is rather our civic duty to our fellow man.

A conservative believes in objective truth. A conservative professes external order. He is firmly opposed to relativism's claims that truth is relative to the eye of the beholder, or claims that it is contextually constructed. He defends his view that there exists an outside truth by pointing out that disagreement doesn’t entail interminability, that there are undeniable facts like “the world is round,” and if there was no ethical or moral truth, then there would be no distinction in virtue between Mother Theresa and Adolf Hitler. A conservative believes strongly in virtue: pursuing the good life for man for its own sake. He also beliefs in family and the traditions ordained in the family. Discipline, faith, self-confidence, personal responsibility and conviction are essential in all of man’s pursuits.

A conservative believes in limited government. “Government is not the solution to the problem, it is the problem” (Ronald Reagan). While law enforcement, basic education and maintenance of infrastructure are all necessary, the government does not have a good track record in succeeding at what it sets out to do. He knows this for two reasons. One, government is not some distinct, almighty, independent moral entity; rather it is comprised of human beings with all the innate characteristics and corrupt susceptibilities that affect those “evil” corporations and masses of ignorant citizens it attempts to govern. Second, government operated programs fail economically, because unlike profit, there is no measurable end to determine the level of achievement. The conservative prefers the alternative of privatization; private ownership of the means of production. Privatization is more successful that its government counterpart because it is vastly more efficient, self-regulating, and cost-effective. Examples of successful areas of privatization the conservative points to include health care, social security, mail delivery, prison operation, etc. While Norwegian president accused the United States government of being “stingy” with the tsunami relief effort and other charitable contributions, private United States companies had already donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the effort as well as to other charities worldwide.

Prosperity, incentive, free market, growth, human fulfillment and the pursuit of happiness are created from the bottom up, not the government down. He believes that a free-market will lead towards human prosperity and happiness. While doomsdayers and naysayers warn that overpopulation is due to prosperity, the exact opposite is true. The most industrialized places on earth have a birth rate far below what is needed to maintain their population.

Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success — only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive, and free, and only then can human beings achieve happiness. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development.

A conservative is Politically Incorrect. A conservative reveals the facts regardless of whose feelings get hurt. He acknowledges there are differences between the sexes. He knows what a statistical bell curve is, and understands that an outlier or exception cannot disprove a rule, sin qua non. He is against language reform and other futile and aesthetic attempts to soften reality by calling toilet paper “bathroom tissue,” freshmen “first-year-students,” and more recently Christmas trees “trees of giving.” A conservative does his best to act rather than talk and does his best not to get caught up in names, labels, and terminologies. Buzzwords like “inclusion,” “tolerance,” and “diversity” are racist, hypocritical, and exclusive to, as Leo Strauss said, “those who have stated clearly and forcefully there are unchangeable standards founded in the nature of man and the nature of things.”

A conservative believes in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes. That being said, he is strongly opposed to racism. He recognizes there are many human beings who lack opportunities. But current programs that institutionalize racial consciousness, like affirmative action, must be reformed on the ground that they encourage racial identity, promote suspicion of minority success, and violate civil rights by putting skin color before character. Racism is most prevalent in college admissions where skin color alone determines how one acts and thinks. In some cases, race is all that matters. “Diversity” becomes nothing but skin tone. One’s desires, intellect and even background become irrelevant. The postmodernists, whose philosophy is founded upon fragmentation, assume skin color alone can determine how one acts and thinks, therefore bringing a range of perspectives. Conservatives suggest an alternative program based solely on socioeconomic need. Such an alternative would bring diversity of economic backgroun and benefit minorities because, as the left itself confesses, a disproportionate amount are “socioeconomically disadvantaged.” A conservative is against “identity politics” and racial pride movements on the grounds that they too identify and polarize skin color. The conservative recognizes that since the 1960’s, activists have shifted their cause from civil rights to racial identity, a cause which will serve as an impediment to racial equality.

- James O'Keefe

NJO: Originally published in The Daily Targum in 2004 and later printed in Issue 3 of The Centurion in February 2005.

Casino Wall Street

For the life of me, I cannot put into words what a shameful disgrace it is that there is so much apathy in this country and on this campus towards the fraudulent, illegal activity on Wall Street. As new scandals surface about mutual funds, insider trading and the SEC, we as a society should pause and reflect on why we care more about the outcome in the Kobe Bryant case than in the trials of the greedy crooked scum whom through deceitful, unscrupulous means have destroyed companies and the lives of millions of Americans which put their trust into them.

Prudential, Putnam, Enron, WorldCom...the formula is: some CEO steals x. The SEC probes y too late. Redundant and sickening, the list of companies goes on and on. So do the dangerous clichés associated with these stories of fraud on Casino Wall Street, where the current fad of idolizing Gordon Gekko undermines our values, ethics and morals in the democracy that guarantees our protection from threats.

What's presently happening at the New York Stock Exchange is disturbing. Former Chairman Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark of Tyco International are standing trial for stealing 600 million dollars from the company and its stockholders. Because of the money these two men stole, Tyco was forced to cut 7,200 jobs last week.

Thousands of innocent people are confined to desperately scavenging for a job to feed their children while the criminals who took their livelihood throw multi-million dollar parties at ski resorts.
Richard Scrushy, the former HealthSouth CEO, exploited public to make an illicit profit of $267 million by inflating his company's earnings a whopping $2.7 billion. With his illicit profits he bought exotic sports cars, yachts, airplanes, and of course jewelry to give to his assumed high-maintenance spouse.

USA Today reported November 7th that in a $7 trillion mutual fund industry, an appalling 25 percent of brokers break the rules given by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Richard Grasso formerly headed the Commission, and was paid a lavish $187.5 million compensation package for apparently not doing his job properly. What's sad is that these few are just the tip of an iceberg in a cesspool of snake oil.

Why is this happening? Where is the SEC? Where are the rest of these unethical monsters and where is the justice we need? Of course, the general public doesn't seem to care. People focus more on Howard Dean's statement about "southerners in their pick-up trucks" than on their hard-earned investment money being embezzled.

The mainstream media devotes far too much time covering conversationally glamorous and socially irrelevant topics like David Blaine and Laci Peterson, while humanitarians eagerly flip past the boring business section to read the more exciting news, such as Lebron James, "The Matrix," and Rosie O'Donnell.

Activists on campus who usually jump at the chance to correct societies' injustices and prejudices are apathetic towards billions of dollars being stolen from hard working people. Whether it is economic ignorance, disinterest or ambivalence, the lack of needed concern is disconcerting.

Why care? The consequences of the actions of these greedy elitists affect everything from the cost of your education to retirement pensions. 401(k)s disintegrate. Your parents' hard earned IRAs and stock options are destroyed. Americans from all walks of life work their entire lives trying to earn something - to achieve a level of success through investment - only to have it snatched away when the books are cooked by some selfish, hot shot executive.

The common misconception is this is a capitalist phenomenon. It's anti-capitalist! It's against the law! However ridden with crooks, our economic system in itself is good, right and decent. The stock market is the cornerstone of our well-endowed economic democracy. The fact of the matter is, there are unthinkable crimes being committed and the commission responsible for reprimanding the perpetrators is not enforcing the law, spawning myriad copycats. The legislation and regulation we demand means nothing without law enforcement. Unlike other forms of crime, blame must be placed on these individuals. Fully aware of the repercussions of their actions, they are plagued with the pursuit of instant gratification and short-term gains, sacrificing everyone and everything to achieve it.

On a more fundamental level, we should consider where vermin on Wall Street learn their trade. Are colleges and universities accentuating ethics in their curriculum? The latest edition of the U.S. News & World Report's "Best Graduate Schools" will reveal that only after the Enron disaster have these issues been put in the educational spotlight. Only recently have ethics been injected into cost-benefit analysis courses. Rutgers has a unique approach, being one of only two M.B.A. programs in the country requiring a class trip to prison to converse with white-collar criminals behind bars. However, as poignant educational experiences are reserved as moral lessons for future executives (who themselves won't suffer from the crime they will chose to commit in the future), they would serve a better purpose as eye-openers to the general population whose absent outrage is fuel to the fire.

There are crimes against humanity happening in the financial district, and no one seems to give a damn. Vague rhetoric about the economy's importance overwhelms industry reform. Why are people so nonchalant? Where is the demand for justice and the pressure on the SEC?

Where are the protests on campus? Are we perceptive and compassionate enough to see the most salient, pressing issues facing our way of life?

Rutgers, it behooves you to at least acknowledge what's going on. It doesn't matter if you aren't business savvy. You must educate yourselves to the severity of the injustices if the institutions of the society you're a part of don't do it for you. Your livelihood depends on it. As generations before us have tolerated corruption, are we too going to tolerate the gambling away of innocent lives on Casino Wall Street?

James O'Keefe is a Rutgers College sophomore majoring in philosophy. His column, "Feathers of Steel," appears on alternating Fridays.

NJO: Originally published in The Daily Targum.