The Commonwealth Research Institute in Johnstown, PA.Part 11 in this blog's "Ghosts in the Wind" series involved the apparent "suicide" of Charles D. Riechers (or worse), the Pentagon's number two procurement officer. Come to learn that the officer was technically employed by a nonprofit "charity" that is in fact a highly lucrative intelligence front. The company's website lists Ernest T. Kendall, Ph.D., president of the Commonwealth Research Group, with a PO box in Brookline, Massachusetts 02446. The Post story reports that the institute's nonprofit papers are on file in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
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"Suicide" in a Hothouse of Scandal ...
Excerpt: "The good, the bad and the ugly americans"
October 24, 2007
By Walter Ellis
www.belfasttelegraph
... Even Al Capone would be shocked by today's boondoggles. The Administration is driven by greed; government agencies and big business are rife with profiteering; the armed forces are a rabble; the police are respected mainly by those who regard them as a shield against the poor, the hopeless and the depraved.
Do I exaggerate? Consider the following:
In Sunday's New York Times, the columnist Frank Rich (who stands head and shoulders above most of his British counterparts), wrote about the occupation of Iraq not as the strategic and every day disaster we all know it to be, but as a sink of corruption that threatens to destroy the United States.
He starts off with the story of Charles D Riechers, the number two procurement officer for the US Air Force, who was brought in to clean up the mess left behind by his predecessor, Darleen Druyun, jailed for corruption in 2004. Sadly, it didn't take long for Riechers to get his own snout in the trough, and when he was exposed he killed himself, turning on his car engine in the garage of his Virginia home. ...
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/article3091210.ece
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Precedents: Military "Suicides" ... or Murders?
"Why do people who know about corrupt mercenaries in Iraq keep 'committing suicide?'"
Corrente
October 22, 2007
http://uruknet.info/?p=m37461&s1=h1
That’s the question Frank Rich doesn’t ask today. Should he have? Rich gives two examples (and it would be interesting to know if there were more). Both are connected to Price’s Blackwater mercenaries.
Col. Ted Westhusing, an Army scholar of military ethics who was an innocent witness to corruption, not a participant, when he died at age 44 of a gunshot wound to the head while working for Gen. David Petraeus training Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in 2005. He was at the time the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.
Colonel Westhusing’s death was ruled a suicide, though some believe he was murdered by contractors fearing a whistle-blower, according to T. Christian Miller, the Los Angeles Times reporter who documents the case in his book "Blood Money." Either way, the angry four-page letter the officer left behind for General Petraeus and his other commander, Gen. Joseph Fil, is as much an epitaph for America’s engagement in Iraq as a suicide note.
"I cannot support a msn that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars," Colonel Westhusing wrote, abbreviating the word mission. "I am sullied."
[Corrente covered the Westhusing story here, here, and here.]
Rich might have mentioned the interesting fact that a mercenary discovered Westhusing’s body, and tampered with the evidence. (From the Corrente archives, the LA Times link having moved.) And oddly, or not, mercenary corruption is the link that connects the latest "suicide." Rich again:
Charles D. Riechers’s suicide occurred just two weeks after his appearance in a front-page exposé in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Air Force had asked a defense contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, to give him a job with no known duties while he waited for official clearance for his new Pentagon assignment. Mr. Riechers, a decorated Air Force officer earlier in his career, told The Post: "I really didn’t do anything for C.R.I. I got a paycheck from them." The question, of course, was whether the contractor might expect favors in return once he arrived at the Pentagon last January.
Hmmm… I wonder who dropped a dime, and why?
As it happens, he was only about three degrees of separation from Blackwater. His Pentagon job, managing a $30 billion Air Force procurement budget, had been previously held by an officer named Darleen Druyun, who in 2004 was sentenced to nine months in prison for securing jobs for herself, her daughter and her son-in-law at Boeing while favoring the company with billions of dollars of contracts. Ms. Druyun’s Pentagon post remained vacant until Mr. Riechers was appointed. He was brought in to clean up the corruption.
Yet the full story of the corruption during Ms. Druyun’s tenure is even now still unknown. The Bush-appointed Pentagon inspector general delivered a report to Congress full of holes in 2005. Specifically, black holes: dozens of the report’s passages were redacted, as were the names of many White House officials in the report’s e-mail evidence on the Boeing machinations.
The inspector general who vouched for their ignorance, Joseph Schmitz, was already heading for the exit when he delivered his redacted report. His new job would be as the chief operating officer of the Prince Group, Blackwater’s parent company.
Looks like a pay-off, to me.
Surely, it would be irresponsible not to speculate. Riechers’s no-show job with C.R.I. is no reason to commit suicide; that sort of thing is absolutely routine in Washington. At the most, the very most, it’s reason to "spend more time with the family." Heck, Ted Cunningham fed grapes to a hooker in a hot tub, and he’s still walking around; and Diaper Davey Vitter (R-Canal Street Brothel) is still in the Senate.
The narrative I’d construct is this: Riechers was honest according to his lights, discovered something culpable in the "redacted" portions of the reports, something so gnarly that even a hardened old Beltway hand like him couldn’t let it slide—and he talked to a trusted friend about his moral dilemma. The trusted friend then betrayed Riechers to… Oh, let’s call them Company B, and Company B planted the story in Pravda on the Potomac, waited for a decent interval, and then arranged for Riechers' "suicide."
If this were an Agatha Christie novel, I’d look for motive (billions), means (Erik Price has an exhibit of guns used to assassinate Presidents in his corporate headquarters), and opportunity (to be determined). And I’d point the finger straight at Blackwater.
After all, Blackwater didn’t stop at murder in Iraq to "protect" their "principals." What would stop them from doing the same thing here? What’s,. say, $50,000 (and a life or two) when billions are at stake?
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PRAVDA: "CHARLES RIECHERS WAS MURDERED"
Missing Nukes: Treason of the Highest Order
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
04 November, 2007
Missing Nukes on August 29-30, 2007
According to a wide range of reports, several nuclear bombs were “lost” for 36 hours after taking off August 29/30, 2007 on a “cross-country journey” across the U.S., from U.S.A.F Base Minot in North Dakota to U.S.A.F. Base Barksdale in Louisiana. [1] Reportedly, in total there were six W80-1 nuclear warheads armed on AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles (ACMs) that were “lost.” [2] The story was first reported by the Military Times, after military servicemen leaked the story.It is also worth noting that on August 27, 2007, just days before the "lost" nukes incident, three B-52 Bombers were performing special missions under the direct authorization of General Moseley, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force. [3] The exercise was reported as being an aerial information and image gathering mission. The base at Minot is also home of the 91st Space Wings, a unit under the command of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC).
According to official reports, the U.S. Air Force pilots did not know that they were carrying weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Once in Louisiana, they also left the nuclear weapons unsecured on the runway for several hours. [4]
U.S. Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans, and Requirements, Major-General Richard Y. Newton III commented on the incident, saying there was an “unprecedented” series of procedural errors, which revealed “an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards” [5]
These statements are misleading. The lax security was not the result of procedural negligence within the U.S. Air Force, but rather the consequence of a deliberate tampering of these procedures.
If a soldier, marine, airman, or sailor were even to be issued a rifle and rifle magazine — weaponry of a far lesser significance, danger, and cost — there is a strict signing and accountability process that involves a chain of command and paperwork. This is part of the set of military checks and balances used by all the services within the U.S. Armed Forces. ...
... Pravda reports that 'Russian Intelligence Analysts are reporting today that American War Leaders have "suicided" one of their Top US Air Force Officials Charles D. Riechers as the rift growing between the U.S. War Leaders and their Top Military Officers over a nuclear attack on Iran appears to be nearing open warfare.'
According to the Pravda report, the incident was linked to an operation to smuggle nuclear weapons away from the U.S. military in connection to launching a war against Iran.
The Commonwealth Research Institute (CRI), a registered non-profit organization is a subsidiary of Concurrent Technologies, which is registered with the IRS as a tax-exempt charity, which is run by Daniel Richard DeVos. Devos is also an associate of John P. Murtha, who was investigated by the F.B.I. for his Saudi links.
Certainly the ties of the Commonwealth Research Institute (CRI), a non-profit organization working for the Pentagon, are questionable and the organization could be a front for internal operations that bypass most military personnel. The case appears to be part of an internal operation that was being kept a secret from most of the U.S. military, but what for?
Russell E. Dougherty
More than a month before the death of Riechers, General Russell Elliot Dougherty, a retired flag officer, was also reported to have died on September 7, 2007 at his home in Falcon Landing military retirement community in Potomac Falls located in Arlington, Virginia. [28] He once was one of the most senior individuals responsible for the nuclear arsenal of the U.S. military and also the former commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC) and director of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff, which identified nuclear targets worldwide amongst its responsibilities. At Minot next to his obituary was a military information notice on suicide, telling servicepersons what the signs of suicide are. [29]
Russell Dougherty in the course of his military career in the U.S. Air Force had dealt with the issues pertaining to Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), full spectrum dominance, how to defeat the enemy and avoid a nuclear war, other uses for nuclear weaponry, Nuclear Primacy for the U.S., and tackling the effects of the wind and weather — due to their unpredictable natures — on the use of nuclear weapons.
The fact that the nuclear warheads were attached to the nuclear cruise missiles could mean that someone wanted to take the weapons in one step or to use them right away.
Timely Appointments at U.S.A.F. Base Minot
Several of the commanding officers at Minot were freshly appointed in June, 2007. This may have been part of standard procedures, but the timing should not be ignored.
Colonel Robert D. Critchlow was transferred, just before the incident, from the Pentagon to Minot and appointed commanding officer for the 91st Operations Group, a missileer unit and the operational backbone of the 91st Space Wing. In Washington, D.C. he was involved in research for the Congressional Research Services and later posted into Air Force Nuclear Response and Homeland Defence.
Col. FreemanColonel Myron L. Freeman was transferred from Japan to Minot in June, 2007. Colonel Freeman was appointed as the commander of the 91st Security Forces Group, which is responsible for securing Minot’s nuclear arsenal.
Colonel Gregory S. Tims was also appointed as deputy commander or vice-commander of the 91st Space Wing in June, 2007. However, Colonel Tims was transfered to Minot from California almost a year before.
One of the most senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) or non-commissioned members (NCMs), Chief Master Sergeant Mark R. Clark, was also transferred to U.S.A.F. Base Minot from Nebraska in July, 2007.
Colonel Roosevelt Allen was also transferred to Minot from Washington, D.C. to become commander of the 5th Medical Group.
Colonel Bruce Emig, the now-former commander of the 5th Bomb Wing, was also transferred to Minot from U.S.A.F. Base Ellsworth in South Dakota in June, 2007. Colonel Emig was also the base commander of Minot.
Colonel Cynthia M. Lundell, the now-former group commander for the 5th Maintenance Group, the unit responsible for loading and unloading weaponry onto the B-52H Stratofortresses was also freshly transferred from a NATO post in Western Europe in June, 2007. Were these appointments temporary? Were any of these appointments related to the six “lost” nuclear missiles?
Prior to the Missing Nukes Incident, Minot Airmen Meet with the President and the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff
On June 15, 2007, George W. Bush Jr. met senior officers from U.S.A.F. Base Minot at U.S.A.F. Base McConnell in Wichita, Kansas during a visit to Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems facility. Amongst them was Major Daniel Giacomazza of the 5th Operational Support Squadron.
Senator Patrick Roberts of Kansas was also present. “While he chaired the Senate Intelligence Committe from 2002 to 2007, [Senator] Roberts stonewalled attempts to investigate everything from the manipulation of intelligence in the rush to war in Iraq, President Bush’s warrantless wiretaps, and even allegations of the use of torture by the CIA,” according to Associated Press (AP) reports. [30] The same report also indicates that the U.S. President was in Wichita for a political fundraiser, and stopped at a new Boys and Girls Club of America to defray the costs of getting to Wichita via Air Force One for Senator Roberts’ campaign.
Military sources have reported that a B-52H Stratofortress was flown to Wichita so that Boeing’s engineers could take a look in order to make adjustments to the war planes for a new military program. [31] Nothing has been reported about any private meetings between President Bush Jr. or any of his presidential staff and the personnel from Minot. However, reports have been made of meetings between military families and the U.S. President in his office on Air Force One.
General Moseley, the Air Force Chief of Staff, had previously visited Minot on March 14-15, 2007, a month before Minot airmen went to Wichita. [32] If a secret mission was being prepared, these events could have played a role in the recruiting phases for an important internal special operation. Following their recruitment, Minot servicemen could have symbolically met General Moseley or White House officials to understand that the mission was being sanctioned by the highest ranks and offices in the United States.
Orders had to Come from the Top: Treason of the Highest Order
Orders had to come from higher up.
The operation would not have been possible without the involvement of more than one individual in the highest ranks of the U.S. Air Force command structure and the Pentagon.
The only way to bypass these separate chains of command is “to be above them” (from higher up), as well as have the possibility of directly overseeing their implementation.
These orders would then have been communicated to lower levels in the US Air Force command chain in different locations, to allow for a so-called “oversight” to proceed. The alternative to this is “an alternative chain of command,” although this also needs someone in the highest ranks of office to organize and oversee.
The post given to Riechers was politically motivated, given his track record in the U.S. Air Force. Riechers had been in a position of responsibility in the U.S. Air Force special operational support activities; something he had in common with Russell Dougherty, the former SAC commander. He would have been one of the best suited individuals for making arrangements in the case of an alternative command structure for a secretive nuclear operation. Moreover, he already had a record of corrupt behaviour through his involvement with the Commonwealth Research Institute. The possible involvement of U.S. Air Force weathermen and special operatives raises many questions as to what exactly was the objective of making the nuclear weapons disappear. [33]
The Investigation
The U.S. Air Force has publicly stated that it has made a “mistake,” which is very unusual and almost unprecedented for a military organization that tries to continually assure the American public of their safety.The fact that seventy or more military personnel have been punished in the case of the “lost” nuclear weapons does not mean, however, that the senior commanding officers responsible for having carried out the special operation will be identified and punished.
Quite the opposite. The investigation could indeed result in a camouflage of the chain of command, where lower-ranking military personnel are accused and court-martialed, with a view to ultimately protecting those in high office who have committed an act of treason.
The series of deaths mentioned above, may have no ties whatsoever with the the August flight in question from Minot to Barksdale, but the issues of command, monitoring, and authorization cannot be overlooked or ignored. The American people have before them a case of treason that involves the highest offices of government and most probably the offices of the President and the Vice-President.
Once again, the “C2” process involves the Office of the President and Commander-in-Chief. It is an established line of command, without which nuclear weapons could not have been deployed or armed as they were in U.S.A.F. Base Minot. It is this command element that establishes the basis of authorization through which “absolute control of nuclear weapons” is maintained “at all times.”
With time it is possible that military servicemen and servicewomen may come forward with more information.
However, in the meantime, there has been a streamlining of military personnel at U.S.A.F. Minot. Base personnel have become dispersed and reassigned to other locations.
If they on the grounds of loyalty to their country, the United States of America, come forward and reveal what has taken place, they are to be saluted with full honour by all ranks. As George Orwell said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act,” and indeed these are deceitful times.
The fact that U.S. Air Force officers came forward and reported this incident is contrary to U.S. military procedures, regulations, and laws. The U.S. military will never release any information that will risk or damage its reputation. Any information in regards to nuclear weapons can not be released without prior consultations with and authorization by the White House.
The nuclear weapons were armed and moved deliberately. Orders had to have come from the highest echelons of the U.S. government.
The question is what exactly were they meant for? Were they part of a war agenda or something else?
Bush Threatens Iran with Nuclear Weapons
What adds intrigue to an understanding of the missing nukes, are the international events and war games taking place just after the “lost” nuclear weapons incident, not to mention the President’s ongoing threats to attack Iran with nuclear weapons and Vice President Cheney's repeated warnings that a second large scale terrorist attack on America is under preparation, with the support of Iran.
In the U.S., under the Vigilant Shield 2008 war games (initiated in September, 2007) and the TOPOFF anti-terrorism exercises, some form of nuclear terrorist attack on American soil had been envisaged. The roles of Russia and China had also been contemplated. The latter would be “a likely scenario” had the U.S. attacked Iran and as a result Russia and China had decided to intervene. [34] Under Vigilant Shield 2007, held in 2006, the possibility of a nuclear war with Iran’s allies, Russia and China, had been contemplated in the war games scenario.
The Kremlin has responded by holding its own war games.[35]
An unveiled threat to trigger World War Three has been the response of George W. Bush Jr. to Russia’s statements warning that a U.S. sponsored war with Iran, could result in an escalating World War III scenario.
The six nuclear warheads were not meant for use in theatre operations against Iran. This is obvious because if they were then they would have been deployed via the proper procedural routes without the need to hide anything. Besides, there are already theatre-level nuclear weapons ready and armed in Europe and the Middle East for any possible Middle Eastern mission. There was something more to the incident.
It is also worth noting that the Israelis launched an attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facility that both Tel Aviv and the White House claim was constructed with the assistance of North Korea. This event has been used, through official statements and media disinformation, to draw a Syria-Iran-North Korea nuclear proliferation axis. [36]
In regards to the case of the missing nuclear weapons, weathermen and military personnel with an expertise in space and missile components were involved. The incident took place during a time when the U.S. missile shield projects in Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia, directed against Russia and China, were raising international tensions and alarms. On October 23, 2007, President Bush Jr. stated: “The need for missile defence in Europe is real and I believe it’s urgent.” [37]
Nuclear warfare, the militarization of space, and “the missile shield” are interrelated military processes. The overtones of Nuclear Primacy are hanging in the air. One of the goals of the U.S. military has been to effectively shield itself from a potential Russian or potential Russian and Chinese nuclear response to a nuclear “First Strike” from the U.S. military. [38] The militarization of space is also deeply linked to this military project. Like their advanced knowledge about the U.S. missile shield project, Russian and Chinese officials have got wind of these ambitions and are fully aware of what the U.S. intends to do.Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is an independent writer based in Ottawa specializing in Middle Eastern affair. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
NOTES
[1] Sarah Baxter, US hits panic button as air force ‘loses’ nuclear missiles, The Times (U.K.), October 21, 2007.
[2] The Nuclear Reactions Data Centres also estimated that the W80-1 stockpile included a total of 1,400 warheads remain in stockpile associated with the 900 ALCMs that are in storage with their warheads removed.
[3] Baxter, US hits panic button, Op. cit.
[4] John Andrew Prime, Barksdale bombers expand B-52 capabilities, The Sheveport Times, August 27, 2007.
[5] Baxter, US hits panic button, Op. cit.; Major-General Newton is also responsible for formulating policy supporting air, space, nuclear, counter-proliferation, homeland, weather, and cyber operations. Because of his role as one of the Air Forces’ key flag officers in regards to nuclear issues and counter-proliferation he has been involved in war planning in regards to Iran, Israeli preparations for attacks on Syria, and the 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.
[6] Robert Stormer, Nuke transportation story has explosive implications, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Octobers 8, 2007.
[7] Ibid.; To help ensure adequate shipboard security, TLAM-N is protected by an intrusion detection alarm system that indicates an intrusion, both visually and audibly, at a continuously manned station capable of dispatching a security team.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Michael Hoffman, B-52 mistakenly flies with nukes aboard, Military Times, September 10, 2007; Associated Press sources also made the same report. Military Times simply changed their article and AP withdrew its report on the basis of a factual error.
[12] Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defence (DoD), Year 2000 Status of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Nuclear Weapon Information Tracking Systems, Report No. 99-235 (August 19, 1999).
[13] Michael Hoffman, Commander disciplined for nuclear mistake, Militarty Times, September 7, 2007.
[14] Minot Airman dies while on leave, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs, September 12, 2007.
[15] Body of missing Air Force captain found, Associated Press, September 10, 2007.
[16] Kimberly Wilson, Portland police seek Air Force weatherman missing on trip, The Oregonian, September 5, 2007.
[17] U.S. Air Force operatives that are tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in war environments, as well as handling astronauts returning from space. They are the only members of the U.S. military that are specially trained and equipped to conduct personnel recovery operations in hostile or denied areas as a primary mission.
[18] Victims in Saturday motorcycle accident identified, The Sheveport Times, September 16, 2007; Notice of Active Duty Death, The Bombardier, September 21, 2007, p.1.
[19] John Andrew Prime, Caddo deputies work double fatality accident, The Sheveport Times, September 15, 2007.
[20] Minot Airman dies in motorcycle accident, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs, July 18, 2007.
[21] Minot Airman identified, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs, July 5, 2007.
[22] Authorities identify Minot airman killed in crash, Associated Press, July 5, 2007.
[23] Baxter, US hits panic button, Op. cit.
[24] Air Force official found dead, The Tribune-Democrat, October 16, 2007; Ginger Thompson and Eric Schmitt, Top Air Force Official Dies in Apparent Suicide, The New York Times, October 16, 2007.
[25] Robert O’Harrow Jr., Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract: Experts Question Official’s Deal With Nonprofit, The Washington Post, October 1, 2007, p.A01.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Top US Air Force official ‘suicided’ [sic] as Iran war nears, Pravda, October 16, 2007.
[28] Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, Obituaries: Russell E. Dougherty, The Washington Post, October 13, 2007, p.B06.
[29] General Dougherty, former SAC commander, dies, The Bombardier, September 21, 2007, p.9.
[30] Deb Reichmann, Bush Raises Money for Kansas Senator, Associated Press, June 15, 2007.
[31] Warbirds meet commander and chief, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs, June 22, 2007.
[32] Staff Sergeant Trevor Tiernan, CSAF visits Minot, Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs, March 16, 2007.
[33] Infra. n.38.
[34] Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Vigilant Shield 2008: Terrorism, Air Defences, and the Domestic Deployment of the US Military, Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), October 6, 2007; Michel Chossoduvsky, Dangerous Crossroads: US Sponsored War Games, Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), October 6, 2007; The March to War: NATO Preparing for War with Serbia? Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), October 19, 2007.
[35] Michel Chossudovsky, New Cold War: Simultaneously, Russia and America Conduct Major War Games, Centre for Research on Globalization, October 16, 2007.
[36] Both the U.S. and Israeli governments cite the arrival of a North Korean ship with alleged nuclear-related cargo as proof, but one needs only point out one fact to dislodge this claim. The U.S. government has setup an internationally illegal program involved in policing the seas and maritime traffic, the International Proliferation Initiative (IPI). Under the IPI the U.S. has been illegally stopping North Korean vessels and inspecting them, especially when they have suspected suspicious materials. Hereto, North Korea has not been given any carte blanches from vessel inspections. The U.S. Navy and NATO vessels have a virtual cordon of the waterways around the Middle East from the Indian Ocean to the Read Sea and Mediterranean Sea. If the North Korean vessel had nuclear materials it would never have reached Syria.
[37] Missile shield is ‘urgent’ - Bush, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), October 23, 2007.
The U.S. is well in the process of implementing the recommendations of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC); “[The United States must] develop and deploy missile defences to defend the American homeland and American allies, and to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world,” and “Control the new ‘international commons’ of space and cyberspace and pave the way for the creation of a new military service — U.S. Space Forces — with the mission of space control.”
Thomas Donnelly et al., Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources For A New Century (The Project for the New American Century: September 2000), p.v.
[38] It is here that two things should be noted in regards to physics and magnetospheric physics; Firstly, nuclear explosions from the air are different than ground-based nuclear explosions in many ways (including contamination levels), but the weather and wind direction are major unknowns or variables; Secondly, as a fundamental natural law energy never disappears, it only changes or is transferred. The energy from nuclear explosions can theoretically be transferred into the Earth’ magnetic radiation fields, called the Van Allen Belt or the Van Allen Belts, and used to energize and excite various particles, sub-atomic particles, and ions. Tentatively, if manipulated this can have harmful results on surface areas, including burning electronic and communication devices, and military applications such as disrupting satellites in space. If this were possible Russian, Chinese, Iranian, or Indian military defences, communications, and missile facilities could be effortlessly neutralized.
These radiation belts also travel in loops and notionally an energized pulse set off from an area in the U.S. could circumnavigate into an area halfway around the globe.
In fact the U.S. military has been experimenting with manipulating the radiation belts since the end of the Second World War. The U.S. Navy’s Project Argus, taking place from August to September 1958, is an example. A total of five nuclear weapons were used; three atom bombs (weapons using nuclear fission) were detonated above the Atlantic Ocean and two thermonuclear or hydrogen bombs (weapons using nuclear fusion) in the Pacific Ocean in an effort to manipulate the Van Allen Belts.
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Suicide Note Cites Worry about Air Force ScandalMon Oct 22, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The senior U.S. Air Force official found dead at his home this month left a suicide note in which he expressed remorse about having triggered a new acquisition scandal for the Air Force .... The Air Force's No. 2 acquisition official, Charles Riechers, 47, was found dead at his Virginia home in an apparent suicide, according to an Air Force memorandum. ...
Riechers had been facing scrutiny after The Washington Post reported the Air Force arranged to have him paid about $13,400 a month by a contractor, COMMONWEALTH Research Institute, for two months while he awaited final clearance as the principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition.
Riechers' ties to Commonwealth Research, registered as a NONPROFIT group in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, also sparked questions about a disputed $1.2 billion contract awarded to Boeing Co for depot maintenance of KC-135 refueling tankers.
Just days before Riechers' death, Pemco Aviation Group amended its protest to the Government Accountability Office over the contract, which fell under Riechers' purview. It raised questions about a possible conflict of interest because of purported ties among Commonwealth, its corporate parent, Concurrent Technologies Corp, and Boeing.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2246950120071022
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The Commonwealth Research Institite is a "nonprofit" think-tank that I didn't know. A search turned up the fact that Reicher was employed by CRI under a dream "no-work" contract ("Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract: Experts Question Official's Deal With Nonprofit," Washington Post, October 1, 2007): "While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an INTELLIGENCE CONTRACTOR that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews."For two months, Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about $13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, a nonprofit firm in Johnstown, Pa., according to his resume. But during that time he actually worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, on projects that had nothing to do with CRI, he said.
"Charles Riechers, an Air Force procurement official, says he had no problem with his interim contract."
Why would he have a problem with this very liberal contract? It only led to his apparent "suicide" within the next few weeks ...
"'I really didn't do anything for CRI,' said Riechers, now principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition. 'I got a paycheck from them.'"
Best of all possible employers ...
"Riechers's job highlights the Pentagon's ties with Commonwealth Research and its corporate parent, which has in recent years received hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts from the military, and more than $100 million in earmarks from lawmakers."
It emerges that Commonwealth is actually an intelligence front, not a "charity" at all, and "among the Defense Department's top 200 contractors."
"Commonwealth Research and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies, are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as tax-exempt CHARITIES, even though their primary work is for the Pentagon and other government agencies. In a recent report Concurrent, also based in Johnstown, Pa., said it was among the Defense Department's top 200 contractors, with a focus on intelligence, surveillance, force readiness and advanced materials.
"Concurrent's top three executives each earn an average of $462,000. The company reported lobbying expenditures of $302,000 for the year ending in June 2006, more than double what it spent on lobbying four years earlier.
"Concurrent and its subsidiaries receive grants and contracts for an eclectic variety of other activities, including support of faith-based initiatives. ... Last year, Commonwealth Research got a $45 million sole-source arrangement to provide reports to the National Security Agency, CIA and other intelligence agencies.
"IRS rules allow charitable organizations to engage in a wide range of activities, including services for the federal government.
Very profitable "charitable" services ... for the military-industrial sector ...
"Commonwealth Research's president, Frank W. Cooper, said the company qualifies as a charity because it provides services both locally and to the federal government. He said it also serves as an educational institution."
What is the exact nature of these "charitable" services ... Nobody knows ...
"But Marcus Owens, former director of the exempt organizations division at the IRS, said Concurrent and Commonwealth Research appear to be 'providing the sorts of services that are commonly provided by business organizations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin and others, and not charities.'
"'There are a lot of businesses doing this kind of stuff that are paying taxes,' said Owens, a partner at Caplin & Drysdale law firm. 'It makes me wonder what the charitable purpose is here.'"
Oh, it a charity, all right - set up for the defense plant, not the indigent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR2007093001402.html
The Institute and DoD insist that they have nothing to hide, according to them. .... But Pravda reported on the rampant corruption behind Reichers' "suicide." ...
Over an innocuous charity - or one more criminalized intelligence contracting front, the home of genocidal jackals, trigger-happy mercs and black bag men - a tax-exempt nonprofit .... subsidized ... with military execs employed under "no-work" contracts ... lying through their teeth about the nature of the work done at CRI?
No doubt it's related to national security - undermining it.
There is no evidence that Commonwealth does any charitable work at all. If Reichers took his life over it, there's a scandal, all right, and a few more illicit procurements for Boeing are just the tip of the iceburg. If Reichers was murdered to protect high-ups, then CRI needs to be completely deconstructed and exposed.
•••••••••••
CRI's Parent Company, CONCURRENT TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (CTC) - Another "Non-Profit" ...
CTC'S EMINENCE GRIS - JOHN MURTHA:" ... Federal Earmarks Fill Coffers of Pa. Nonprofit - Politics – Concurrent Technologies began two decades ago doing metalworking research in Pennsylvania's struggling rust belt. In the years since, the Johnstown, Pa., company has become a federal contracting chameleon. BEHIND THE RISE OF CONCURRENT IS REP. JOHN MURTHA, who helped arrange funding to launch the organization in 1988. ... "
http://politics.propeller.com/story/2007/11/01/federal-earmarks-fill-coffers-of-pa-nonprofit
"Charity?" ...
CHARITY GOVERNANCE, CASE 59—CATEGORY II: REPRESENTATIVE JOHN MURTHA AND CONCURRENT TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
" ... Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) is a Section 501(c)(3) entity. Its 2005 Form 990 reports NO direct support from the public (charitable contributions). On the other hand, it received over $116 million in GOVERNMENT GRANTS ... "
http://bluestarchronicles.com/2006/10/03/john-murtha-and-the-abscam-scandal/
Ethical violations:
Concurrent Technologies Corporation
In 2007, Rep. Murtha inserted into the Energy and Water Appropriations bill a $1 million earmark to establish the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure - a subsidiary of Concurrent Technologies Corporation, (CTC) a non-profit technology innovation center in Rep. Murtha’s district that has received hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks in recent years. Contrary to Rep. Murtha claims, the Department of Energy has DENIED supporting the request for the earmark. CTC is a large non-profit that in 2005 received over $212 million in government grants. Since 2002, CTC’s employees and employees’ family members have donated over $115,000 to Rep. Murtha’s political committees and leadership PAC. By earmarking funds for companies represented by ... CTC in return for campaign contributions, Rep. Murtha may have accepted BRIBES or ILLEGAL GRATUITIES, committed honest services FRAUD and violated House rules prohibiting members from dispensing SPECIAL FAVORS ... "
http://www.beyonddelay.org/summaries/murtha.php
That is, Murtha is guilty of the same corrupt practices as the late Charles Reicher. Murtha is well-known for trading votes to fund pork projects like CTC:
"Trading Votes for Pork Across the House Aisle - New York Times
Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania is best known on Capitol Hill for turning pet spending projects into power."
www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/washington/02murtha.html
The bottom line of Murtha's "charitable" fund-raising: "Johnstown's good fortune has come at the expense of taxpayers everywhere else." Murtha's intimate involvement in CTC has caused a ruckus or two in Johnston, PA:
"No one could say the hamlet of Johnstown, population 27,000, couldn’t use the cash. ... Defense contractors have found that if they open an office there and hire the right lobbyist, they can get lucrative, no-bid contracts. Over the past decade, CONCURRENT Techologies Corp., a defense-research firm that employs 800 people, got hundreds of millions of dollars THANKS TO MURTHA, DESPITE POOR REVIEWS by Pentagon auditors. The National Drug Intelligence Center, with 300 workers, got $509 million, though the White House has tried for years to shut it down as wasteful and unnecessary, the paper reports.
"Murtha refuses to apologize. At a breakfast fundraiser this summer in Johnstown, he said that bringing federal dollars there 'is the whole goddamn reason I went to Washington.' And this is about the most G-rated thing that the Congressman -- who 'curses like the Parris Island drill sergeant he once was' -- utters in the whole article."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/30/the_skinny/main3428993.shtml
From the CTC site: "Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) offers a broad range of services and capabilities. Areas of expertise include ... Command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), Force readiness ... "
Some Clients of Concurrent Technologies Corp.:
ALCOA
Asian Development Bank
Avista Laboratories, Inc.
Babcock & Wilcox
Boeing Autometric
Caterpillar, Inc.
Conemaugh Health System
Corning
Flight Safety Boeing Training
International
Ford Motor Company
General Electric
Goodrich Corporation
GPU Energy
Honeywell International
Ingersoll-Rand
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Lockheed Martin
National Association of Manufacturers
Northrop Grumman Information Technology
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
RMI Titanium Company
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
Somerset Trust Company
Talley Defense Systems
Trident Systems Incorporated
United Defense Limited Partnership
United Nations
United Technologies Research Center
University of Pittsburgh
UTC Fuel Cells
Some CTC Clients in Federal Government
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense Finance & Accounting Service
Defense Industrial Supply Center
Defense Logistics Agency
Department of Defense
Federal Bureau of Investigation
General Services Administration
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Office of Naval Intelligence
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Army
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. Department of Transportation
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Navy
U.S. Treasury Department
[Source: http://www.ctc.com/]
Is this a company interested in charity? The company itself is a "non-profit," but it operates for-profit affiliates, for instance:
" ... CTC Enterprise Ventures Corporation (EVC) Enterprise Ventures Corporation (EVC) is a for-profit organization that acts as the technology commercialization arm for CTC. The mission of EVC is to TRANSFER ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES TO THE INDUSTRIAL BASE and to deliver high-technology products and services to our clients. ..."
http://www.ctc.com/partnerwithctc/affiliates.cfm
Advanced tech, subsidized, yet ... from "non-profit" CTC to military industrial Robber Barons - subsidized by the tax-payer. A recent press release reveals some of the interests of CTC staff: "Johnstown, PA, June 19, 2006—Daniel R. DeVos, President & CEO of Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) today announced the appointment of Brigadier General Patricia L. Nilo, USA retired, as Principal Technical Advisor for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defense programs.
"General Nilo has more than 30 years of experience in CBRN defense including service as the acting Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Chemical/Biological Defense and as the Chief of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and Commandant of the U.S. Army Chemical School. Her responsibilities will include the continued positioning of CTC as a leading provider of CBRN technologies, products, and expertise to the U.S. Government.
"Prior to her retirement, Nilo served as acting Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Chemical/Biological Defense at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. She was responsible for managing the $7.2 billion medical and nonmedical CBRN defense program within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and for coordinating requirements with other government inter-agencies. Immediately prior to that, she served as Chief of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps and Commandant of the U.S. Army Chemical School, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri ....
["CTC Appoints Brigadier General Patricia L. Nilo, USA Retired, as Principal Technical Advisor for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Programs," press release, June 19, 2006 http://www.ctc.com/news/2006/06jun19_pr.cfm]
•••••••••••
This "Tax-Exempt Charity" Makes Spies Even More Intrusive:
DARPA/Concurrent Technology Corporation
CAC Project
Through-The-Wall Microwave Imaging
Project Director: Dr. Moeness Amin
Project duration: 07/16/2002 - present
Project Summary
• A microwave radar is under development to achieve imaging of moving and stationary targets through visually opaque obstacles such as walls.
• Low-profile, broadband, and dual polarized antennas are being designed to offer portability, achieve optimal wall penetration, and provide high signal-to-clutter ratio.
• Signal Processing methods are being developed to enhance the signal-to-
clutter ratio, improve two-dimensional imaging resolution, distinguish targets of interest from others, and obtain fast and simplified implementations of the designed algorithms.
http://www.villanova.edu/engineering/assets/documents/cac/sponsors/darpa.pdf
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