Hey Alex, Where can I find the entire story about Professor Wadman? Thanks. Victoria.
Franklin Cover-up, by John DeCamp. For the life of Wadman after Omaha, particularly his stint as chief of police in Wilmington, NC, see Psychic Dictatorship in the USA, by Alois Constantitch.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Say Bye-Bye, NAMBLA
http://rikijo.blogspot.com(Thanks to T. Gray for the link)
alt.hackers.malicious: The War Against NAMBLA: Saving children daily by dismantling NAMBLA one member at a time
alt.hackers.malicious is an elite group of Network-Security, Intelligence and Information Security professionals. If that's what people consider (hackers) to be, then so be it. We have combined forces with the private civillian investigative community to destroy those who seek to harm our children.
Our mission is to destroy NAMBLA's so-called "Secret establishment" by exposing it on every level, while eliminating their supporting alliances along the way. Help us destroy these predators, and expose every last NAMBLA member and scumbag in their organization. Everyone can participate in some capacity. Join us..learn some new skills, meet some very intelligent people, and help us destroy an entire network of murderers and monsters along the way.
The Synchronicity Foundation is a Sex/Mind Control Cult - SF "Spirituality" is a Ruse
By Alex Constantine
Also see: "Synchronicity Members Are Victims in Mumbai"
The "Foundation" is about sex and programmed beliefs, mind control, and the sporting of spirituality upon the "Master's" sleeve is what it usually amounts to - hoaxterism. Synchronity has more in common with the hyper-sexual Children of God sect than your friendly, neighborhood Ananda Ashram.
Gay sex is at the core of it. May as well be the Catholic Church:
"MC [SF guru Master Charles] does have sex with male disciples, in the form of 'spiritual initiations' ... "
http://www.factnet.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=8762
"Synchronicity" was a word coined by Carl G. Jung - a proto-Nazi occultist generously funded and publicly promoted by Edith Rockefeller. After the war, Jung was a CIA asset who sat on the notorious Robertson Committee, and claimed that Nazi/British-designed "UFOs" - brought to the American continent by Laurance Rockefeller - were "hallucinations".
Mind controlled disciple: "If Master Charles says that he sees a Blessed Mother manifestation, I believe him. ... Master Charles would never conjure up a faux apparation, just to hustle for donations, because, philosophically, such an act would utterly violate his principles. ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/26/LETTER-mastercharles-yay.rtf.aspx
Mind control: " ... Charles has also learned a few yogic tricks which he employs to make sure you do as he wants and if you don't, he uses certain aspects (including the low grade aspects of Chid.and Nity, etc.) he has developed to haunt, frighten or coerce you until you do. ... "
Mind control: "Master" Charles Cannon is a huckster who "described the latest appearance of the 'Blessed Mother Apparition'-- an incorporeal mater who speaks only with him-- to a crowd of about 60 at his organization's Nelson County compound one recent weekend. Regardless of whether Master Charles is creating a forum to spread authentic spiritual beliefs or just desperately seeking donations, there's one thing for sure: the new-agey guru is getting some attention. ... Synchronicity, Master Charles and the Blessed Mother were the subject of a recent piece on Guruphiliac, a blog dedicated to 'revealing self-aggrandizement and superstition" in the guru/yogi world. In late June, Jody Radzik, who operates the blog, described the alleged apparition sightings as a "bald-faced attempt at flimflamming the spiritually ignorant.' ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
The media promote the SF, as you'd expect of a mind control front (the media are in the business of mind control, too, and coordinate with intelligence cults effectively):
" ... 'Tens and dozens of people are showing up where they didn't before,' Scherr says. 'Now it's becoming a place of pilgrimage.' The Blessed Mother statue has been seen on CBS19 and even made the front page of the Daily Progress lifestyles section. ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
Ego-syntonic (flattering) beliefs go down easily (standard in CIA cult teachings, also derationalization and apoliticization) and create elitism: "It's just like we've been taught all our lives in the Bible: we are made in God's image."
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
Same: " ... all beings have the capacity to love through their own Divinity ... "
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9334
More mind control: " ... Recognition of Charles as the Source of Love etc. the reaction, (catharsis), subsides and so one goes on. ... "
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9334
I'm trying to determine if the CIA is the covert sponsor of the "Foundation." This is my suspicion - food for thought, grounds for further research ...
Also see: "Synchronicity Members Are Victims in Mumbai"
The "Foundation" is about sex and programmed beliefs, mind control, and the sporting of spirituality upon the "Master's" sleeve is what it usually amounts to - hoaxterism. Synchronity has more in common with the hyper-sexual Children of God sect than your friendly, neighborhood Ananda Ashram. Gay sex is at the core of it. May as well be the Catholic Church:
"MC [SF guru Master Charles] does have sex with male disciples, in the form of 'spiritual initiations' ... "
http://www.factnet.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=8762
"Synchronicity" was a word coined by Carl G. Jung - a proto-Nazi occultist generously funded and publicly promoted by Edith Rockefeller. After the war, Jung was a CIA asset who sat on the notorious Robertson Committee, and claimed that Nazi/British-designed "UFOs" - brought to the American continent by Laurance Rockefeller - were "hallucinations".
Mind controlled disciple: "If Master Charles says that he sees a Blessed Mother manifestation, I believe him. ... Master Charles would never conjure up a faux apparation, just to hustle for donations, because, philosophically, such an act would utterly violate his principles. ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/26/LETTER-mastercharles-yay.rtf.aspx
Mind control: " ... Charles has also learned a few yogic tricks which he employs to make sure you do as he wants and if you don't, he uses certain aspects (including the low grade aspects of Chid.and Nity, etc.) he has developed to haunt, frighten or coerce you until you do. ... "
Mind control: "Master" Charles Cannon is a huckster who "described the latest appearance of the 'Blessed Mother Apparition'-- an incorporeal mater who speaks only with him-- to a crowd of about 60 at his organization's Nelson County compound one recent weekend. Regardless of whether Master Charles is creating a forum to spread authentic spiritual beliefs or just desperately seeking donations, there's one thing for sure: the new-agey guru is getting some attention. ... Synchronicity, Master Charles and the Blessed Mother were the subject of a recent piece on Guruphiliac, a blog dedicated to 'revealing self-aggrandizement and superstition" in the guru/yogi world. In late June, Jody Radzik, who operates the blog, described the alleged apparition sightings as a "bald-faced attempt at flimflamming the spiritually ignorant.' ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
The media promote the SF, as you'd expect of a mind control front (the media are in the business of mind control, too, and coordinate with intelligence cults effectively):
" ... 'Tens and dozens of people are showing up where they didn't before,' Scherr says. 'Now it's becoming a place of pilgrimage.' The Blessed Mother statue has been seen on CBS19 and even made the front page of the Daily Progress lifestyles section. ... "
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
Ego-syntonic (flattering) beliefs go down easily (standard in CIA cult teachings, also derationalization and apoliticization) and create elitism: "It's just like we've been taught all our lives in the Bible: we are made in God's image."
http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2007/07/19/NEWS-synchronicity-D.rtf.aspx
Same: " ... all beings have the capacity to love through their own Divinity ... "
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9334
More mind control: " ... Recognition of Charles as the Source of Love etc. the reaction, (catharsis), subsides and so one goes on. ... "
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9334
I'm trying to determine if the CIA is the covert sponsor of the "Foundation." This is my suspicion - food for thought, grounds for further research ...
Saturday, November 29, 2008
John Brennan Scapegoats "Liberals" for Withdrawing from Possible CIA Appointment & Lies about his Record on Torture
Please note that Nazi Collaborator Obama has allowed John Brennan to misrepresent his criminal record, has said nothing to counter the flagrant lies of Tenet's former right-hand man. Brennan's denial feeds the Murdoch-led perception that "liberal groups" who oppose his appointment as DCI are capricious ignoramuses given to arbitrary finger-pointing ...
CIA Nazi puke John Brennan
Also see: "John Brennan Drops from Consideration as DCI: Links to Bush, Tenet, Pinochet, Kresa, Logicon-TASC, 9/11, Southern Asset Mgt. (National Review, too)," and "Obama's Odious Entourage"
" ... As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an ‘independent’ analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. ... On December 5, 2005, Brennan appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer in which he said of rendition, "I think it's an absolutely vital tool.' ... "
Did Brennan Withdraw His Name from Consideration for CIA Post Before Obama Could Withdraw it For Him?
By ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
November 26, 2008 8:36 AM
John Brennan, a former CIA official and adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, withdrew his name from consideration from "a position within the Intelligence Community" in the Obama administration Tuesday.
Sources say Brennan was under consideration for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he’d worked for 25 years, though it doesn't seem that the process was particularly far along.
Brennan had been a top aide to former CIA Director George Tenet during what critics of the Bush administration refer to as that agency’s descent into darkness post 9/11, and he had spoken in favor of various controversial counterterrorism strategies, including enhanced interrogation techniques and rendition – sending terror suspects to allies where torture is legal. He had become a lightning rod for criticism among commentators such as human rights attorney Scott Horton, and bloggers like Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald.
"This is a decision and an action that he made," a source on the Obama Transition Team tells ABC News.
The criticism from liberal groups and blogs was growing "and he felt it was becoming insurmountable."
In a letter released to the media, apparently by Brennan or someone operating on Brennan’s behalf, the former CIA official wrote, "It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush Administration such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, too include waterboarding. The fact that I was not involved in the decision making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored. Indeed, my criticism of these policies within government circles why I was twice considered for more senior-level positions in the current Administration only to be rebuffed by the White House."
Brennan wrote that the challenges for the U.S. are "too daunting" and the role of the CIA "too critical for there to be any distraction from the vital work that lays ahead."
Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition team, said on Tuesday: "The president-elect accepts his decision to withdraw from consideration for a position in the intelligence community but he is grateful for John’s continuing assistance as a valuable member of our transition team."
Critics included human rights attorney Scott Horton, who wrote this week that nominating Brennan "would draw heavy fire from some of Obama’s most loyal supporters. Indeed, there might well be enough concentrated firepower there to defeat the nomination in the Senate."
Horton wrote that Brennan’s "critical shortcoming" is "his completely ambiguous and inconsistent views about the CIA’s use of torture and torture by proxy as techniques. As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an ‘independent’ analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. … If Obama wants to convince the world of his commitment to end this national nightmare, then he must appoint a Director of Central Intelligence who can believed when he says ‘we do not torture.’ Both of the last two directors made this statement and lied through their teeth."
In addition, this week, a group of psychoanalysts wrote to President-elect Obama saying that as people who have "long opposed the abuses of detainees under the Bush administration" they were heartened by Obama’s declaration on 60 Minutes that "America doesn’t torture, and I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture."
That said, added the shrinks, "We are concerned, however, by reports that you may appoint John Brennan as Director of the CIA. Mr. Brennan served as a high official in George Tenet’s CIA and supported Tenet’s policies, including ‘enhanced interrogations’ as well as ‘rendition’" to torturing countries. According to his own statements, Mr. Brennan was a supporter of the ‘dark side’ policies, wishing only to have some legal justification supplied in order to protect CIA operatives."
"In order to restore American credibility and the rule of law," the docs said, "our country needs a clear and decisive repudiation of the ‘dark side’ at this crucial turning point in our history. We need officials to clearly and without ambivalence assert the rule of law. Mr. Brennan is not an appropriate choice to lead us in this direction. The country cannot afford to have him as director of our most important intelligence agencies. As psychologists and other concerned Americans, we ask you to reject Mr. Brennan as Director of the CIA. His appointment would dishearten and alienate those who opposed torture under the Bush administration."
Critics cited Brennan interviews to make their points. There was, for instance, a March 8, 2006 Frontline interview in which Brennan, trying to explain Tenet’s views, said, "I think George [Tenet] had two concerns. One is to make sure that there was that legal justification, as well as protection for CIA officers who are going to be engaged in some of these things, so that they would not be then prosecuted or held liable for actions that were being directed by the administration. So we want to make sure the findings and other things were done probably with the appropriate Department of Justice review."
In November, 2007, Brennan told CBS News' Harry Smith that "the CIA has acknowledged that it has detained about 100 terrorists since 9/11, and about a third of them have been subjected to what the CIA refers to as enhanced interrogation tactics, and only a small proportion of those have in fact been subjected to the most serious types of enhanced procedures. ... There have been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives. And let's not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents."
On December 5, 2005, Brennan appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer in which he said of rendition, "I think it's an absolutely vital tool. I have been intimately familiar now over the past decade with the cases of rendition that the U.S. Government has been involved in. And I can say without a doubt that it has been very successful as far as producing intelligence that has saved lives."
Brennan, it should be noted, continues to work on the Obama Transition Team and though he removed his name from consideration for an Intelligence job, there’s nothing to say he won’t land a spot in the Obama administration.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/did-brennan-wit.html
CIA Nazi puke John BrennanAlso see: "John Brennan Drops from Consideration as DCI: Links to Bush, Tenet, Pinochet, Kresa, Logicon-TASC, 9/11, Southern Asset Mgt. (National Review, too)," and "Obama's Odious Entourage"
" ... As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an ‘independent’ analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. ... On December 5, 2005, Brennan appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer in which he said of rendition, "I think it's an absolutely vital tool.' ... "
Did Brennan Withdraw His Name from Consideration for CIA Post Before Obama Could Withdraw it For Him?
By ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
November 26, 2008 8:36 AM
John Brennan, a former CIA official and adviser to President-elect Barack Obama, withdrew his name from consideration from "a position within the Intelligence Community" in the Obama administration Tuesday.
Sources say Brennan was under consideration for director of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he’d worked for 25 years, though it doesn't seem that the process was particularly far along.
Brennan had been a top aide to former CIA Director George Tenet during what critics of the Bush administration refer to as that agency’s descent into darkness post 9/11, and he had spoken in favor of various controversial counterterrorism strategies, including enhanced interrogation techniques and rendition – sending terror suspects to allies where torture is legal. He had become a lightning rod for criticism among commentators such as human rights attorney Scott Horton, and bloggers like Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald.
"This is a decision and an action that he made," a source on the Obama Transition Team tells ABC News.
The criticism from liberal groups and blogs was growing "and he felt it was becoming insurmountable."
In a letter released to the media, apparently by Brennan or someone operating on Brennan’s behalf, the former CIA official wrote, "It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush Administration such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, too include waterboarding. The fact that I was not involved in the decision making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored. Indeed, my criticism of these policies within government circles why I was twice considered for more senior-level positions in the current Administration only to be rebuffed by the White House."
Brennan wrote that the challenges for the U.S. are "too daunting" and the role of the CIA "too critical for there to be any distraction from the vital work that lays ahead."
Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Obama transition team, said on Tuesday: "The president-elect accepts his decision to withdraw from consideration for a position in the intelligence community but he is grateful for John’s continuing assistance as a valuable member of our transition team."
Critics included human rights attorney Scott Horton, who wrote this week that nominating Brennan "would draw heavy fire from some of Obama’s most loyal supporters. Indeed, there might well be enough concentrated firepower there to defeat the nomination in the Senate."
Horton wrote that Brennan’s "critical shortcoming" is "his completely ambiguous and inconsistent views about the CIA’s use of torture and torture by proxy as techniques. As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an ‘independent’ analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. … If Obama wants to convince the world of his commitment to end this national nightmare, then he must appoint a Director of Central Intelligence who can believed when he says ‘we do not torture.’ Both of the last two directors made this statement and lied through their teeth."
In addition, this week, a group of psychoanalysts wrote to President-elect Obama saying that as people who have "long opposed the abuses of detainees under the Bush administration" they were heartened by Obama’s declaration on 60 Minutes that "America doesn’t torture, and I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture."
That said, added the shrinks, "We are concerned, however, by reports that you may appoint John Brennan as Director of the CIA. Mr. Brennan served as a high official in George Tenet’s CIA and supported Tenet’s policies, including ‘enhanced interrogations’ as well as ‘rendition’" to torturing countries. According to his own statements, Mr. Brennan was a supporter of the ‘dark side’ policies, wishing only to have some legal justification supplied in order to protect CIA operatives."
"In order to restore American credibility and the rule of law," the docs said, "our country needs a clear and decisive repudiation of the ‘dark side’ at this crucial turning point in our history. We need officials to clearly and without ambivalence assert the rule of law. Mr. Brennan is not an appropriate choice to lead us in this direction. The country cannot afford to have him as director of our most important intelligence agencies. As psychologists and other concerned Americans, we ask you to reject Mr. Brennan as Director of the CIA. His appointment would dishearten and alienate those who opposed torture under the Bush administration."
Critics cited Brennan interviews to make their points. There was, for instance, a March 8, 2006 Frontline interview in which Brennan, trying to explain Tenet’s views, said, "I think George [Tenet] had two concerns. One is to make sure that there was that legal justification, as well as protection for CIA officers who are going to be engaged in some of these things, so that they would not be then prosecuted or held liable for actions that were being directed by the administration. So we want to make sure the findings and other things were done probably with the appropriate Department of Justice review."
In November, 2007, Brennan told CBS News' Harry Smith that "the CIA has acknowledged that it has detained about 100 terrorists since 9/11, and about a third of them have been subjected to what the CIA refers to as enhanced interrogation tactics, and only a small proportion of those have in fact been subjected to the most serious types of enhanced procedures. ... There have been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives. And let's not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents."
On December 5, 2005, Brennan appeared on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer in which he said of rendition, "I think it's an absolutely vital tool. I have been intimately familiar now over the past decade with the cases of rendition that the U.S. Government has been involved in. And I can say without a doubt that it has been very successful as far as producing intelligence that has saved lives."
Brennan, it should be noted, continues to work on the Obama Transition Team and though he removed his name from consideration for an Intelligence job, there’s nothing to say he won’t land a spot in the Obama administration.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/11/did-brennan-wit.html
Friday, November 28, 2008
One for the Books
There are two of them sold at this blog - and sales have been disappointing. This means that I don't eat ... no problem for you-all. It also means that I will soon have no time to attend to my blogs. This isn't a pay site, like Wayne Madsen's ... and those planted on the Net by the CIA and "conservatives" to deceive anyone waking up to the existence of fascism. I do the real thing at no cost, and don't even weep and wail for donations like Amy Goodman or Daniel Hopsicker (neither of whom are explicitly confronting and researching fascism; both make egregious errors in reporting, evident in the links I've provided). The books are necessary to support my research financially, and believe it or not, if you-all have no interest in them, next year I'll be off the Net, writing privately for publication. And don't even start about recessions - This blog warned you about that well before the agony sent in, and if Americans had paid attention and not sat around watching fart movies and listening to belly-button pop music, we might have met the crisis and fixed it. Do I not counter media "spin?" So buy the books already, survive mentally in the fascist paradise you live in. Learn, resist, or, like the establishment left, continue to treasure victimhood. - AC
For-the-Record "Mainstream" Media Correction: US Blackmailed Iraqis for Deal
" ... Washington echelons repeatedly threatened to overthrow the Iraqi government if they continued their opposition to the security deal ... "
STORY (TY JC Proletariat for the lead)
STORY (TY JC Proletariat for the lead)
Researcher Matt Janovic Misrepresents DC Madam "Suicide" (PART TWO) - DAN MOLDEA IS A SHILL WITH CIA/FAR-RIGHT SPONSORSHIP
By Alex Constantine (Revised)
This is a follow-up to my response (part one is here) to Janovic's unshakable conviction that the DC Madam committed "suicide" (see full text of his comments below). As it happens, most of his arguments are a verbatim echo of the DC police report, released in October, that closed the case. The report was a rehash of the initial "suicide" claim, and conveyed no new evidence. Janovic was a researcher on Palfrey's defense team, he boasts - but admits that he only spoke to her briefly by telephone, adheres to the police report, apparently has no exclusive or personal or hidden insights into the case ... yet berates me for suspecting that her death was not a "suicide." Let's take a closer look at his "case-closed" argument.
One of the points raised in the report, and repeated by Janovic (see below), was a statement from author Dan Moldea that Ms. Palfrey had confided in him that she intended to take her own life, as reported by WJZ-TV news in Baltimore:
"Investigators determined Palfrey talked about suicide to Dan Moldea, a Washington writer who befriended her. ... "
http://wjz.com/local/deborah.palfrey.dc.2.853934.html
"Dan Moldea, told authorities that three times she had confided in him that she was considering suicide. 'He stated that she was simply depressed over her looming legal troubles, fearing she would lose all her assets and serve time in prison,' the report states."
http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/31/police-officially-conclude-dc-madam-hanged-herself/news/
Now, we have Dan Moldea's word for it, no one else - and it directly contradicts statements made to several others that she had no intention of commiitting suicide - that she feared she would be murdered - that it would be made to appear a "suicide" ...
Dan Moldea's appearance in the police report does nothing to quell my suspicions. In fact, it exacerbates them. I know Moldea to be a liar - at least as regards CIA activity - from personal experience: e-mail exchanges between Dan and myself, and I'm not alone in this appraisal.
This was posted by me in June of this year. Of particular interest is Moldea's relationship with Alfred Regnery.
NNDB-Mapping, a data base of personal ineractions, reports that Alfred's father, "Henry Regnery, founded Regnery Publishing, the conservative publishing house that published William F. Buckley's first book in 1951. According to longtime CIA insider E. Howard Hunt, Regnery was, at least in its early years, subsidized by the CIA.":
http://www.nndb.com/people/245/000108918/
Williams & Connally, founded by the late Edward Bennett Williams, a law firm with a multitude of CIA ties, also lurks behind Dan Moldea. Williams "had several high profile clients [including] Frank Sinatra, fugitive financier Robert Vesco, Soviet spy Igor Melekh, wealthy businessman Armand Hammer, Senator Thomas Dodd and CIA Director Richard Helms. ... Williams gained a reputation of being a mobster lawyer. ... "
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwilliamsBT.htm
New York Observer: Author Dan Moldea is a Fraud with Intelligence Connections
Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article for Hustler about a military intelligence ne'er-do-well named Neil Livingston, who was, at the time, kidnapping children for pay. It was accepted by an editor. A few weeks later, that editor was fired, and the new editor turned down my story because she felt that the magazine had published too many stories written by me, and "we don't continuously publish one writer exclusively."
I was miffed that an important story they'd already accepted was scratched with this lame excuse. Now I find that the same Neil Livingston, an intelligence official, sent Dan Moldea to Larry Flynt. If Flynt had read my story - the one rejected by his editor - he'd have known about Livingston and never hired Dan Moldea.
Serves Flynt right.
After I left, Hustler lost its editorial direction, IMhO, and it's hit or miss these days. Many of the articles published by Hustler these days are political tripe and disinformation, deliberate or not. If I hadn't been pushed around by a Hustler editor, none of this would have occurred, and Republican criminals - like Livingston - would be falling from the skies because I'd still be writing for the magazine.
I had it out with Moldea by e-mail and told him how I feel about his propaganda. Moldea's book on the Robert Kennedy assassination is criminal in its vindication of CIA suspects who were, no doubt, involved in Kennedy's murder.
Flynt hasn't a clue, and though I still respect him in general, I know he doesn't know what he's doing if there is no pictorial skank or fecal matter involved - and am content to leave him that way.
- AC
Pit Bull Journalist Dan Moldea Plays Larry Flynt's Hired Man
BY CARL SWANSON
JANUARY 24, 1999
... These days, Mr. Moldea, 48, doesn't have the luxury of too many choices. After writing some of the most definitive nonfiction books on the mob around, Mr. Moldea's career as a maverick journalist and conspiracy investigator took a turn toward the lurid in the last few years, with books like Evidence Dismissed, which he co-wrote with two detectives who investigated the O.J. Simpson trial, and A Washington Tragedy, an investigation of the death of Vince Foster, which the right-wing boutique press Regnery Publishing [CIA-fascist propaganda] put out last year. He has a good reputation as a dogged reporter, but after his lawsuit against The Times dragged out and an investigative book about Robert F. Kennedy's assassination didn't sell well, Mr. Moldea needed something to sink his teeth into.
Enter Neil Livingstone, a Washington-based security consultant and freelance counterterrorism expert for NBC News. According to a source close to the situation, when Mr. Livingstone was contacted by the Hustler scandal team this past fall to aid their nascent investigation, he put them in touch with Mr. Moldea. Whatever Mr. Moldea thought of Mr. Flynt's politics and publicity gambit, he's told friends the job pays rather well. But those friends also say that Mr. Moldea, a self-described liberal Democrat, seems to be motivated by his anger over the way he thinks the independent counsel's office has railroaded President Clinton. And, apparently, he's not going to take it anymore.
Mr. Moldea has his own reasons for not commenting on this article. On Jan. 13, he told the Washington Times that if a Republican "hasn't been shooting his mouth off, we let him go. We're not going to interfere with his life."
To the hawk-eyed lawyers at the Landmark Legal Foundation, a testy, conservative legal-advocacy group, that sounded like blackmail, and on Jan. 15 they filed their complaint with the Justice Department. That same day, Republican Party chairman Jim Nicholson demanded that the Hustler investigation itself be investigated.
On Jan. 18, the Wall Street Journal editorial page weighed in, quoting the same section of Federal code as the Republican National Committee. The Journal declared Mr. Flynt's project "not only distasteful but unlawful" and accused Mr. Moldea of having "previously worked for the President's law firm, Williams & Connolly" [a law firm with significant ties to the CIA] an accusation Mr. Moldea has denied.
Roger Simmons, a lawyer at Gordon & Simmons in Frederick, Md., who represents Mr. Moldea, told Off the Record, "That's so far from the truth, it's like saying that I fly to the moon every three days."
"We don't know anything more than what the Washington Times reported," said Journal editor Robert Bartley. "Maybe it would have been better if we had said 'collaborated.'" Williams & Connolly had no comment.
Like almost every aspect of the seemingly never-ending Clinton Administration scandals, the tale of how Mr. Moldea got involved is an invitation to walk through the hall of mirrors that impeachment-crazy Washington has lately become.
Which is to say, Mr. Moldea is not a totally disinterested party in the latest Presidential scandal. Mr. Starr apparently had a hand in the writer's $10 million libel suit against The Times for its damning review of his 1989 book, Interference, about mob influence on football. After he lost the first round, his case was taken up in 1994 by the Washington, D.C., circuit court of appeals, In 1994, a three-judge panel voted, 2 to 1, to support Mr. Moldea's appeal. Mr. Starr, who once sat on the Washington circuit court, was by then a lawyer in private practice.
But, as it happens, he represented the coalition of media organizations–from Dow Jones & Company to The New Yorker to the PEN American Center–that supported The Times ' position that reviews, as opinions, were protected speech. After the 2-to-1 vote, Mr. Starr filed an amicus brief on the newspaper's behalf, asking for the judgment to be reconsidered. On May 2, 1994, the judges officially refused to look at Mr. Starr's brief.
But a day later, in a highly unusual move, they reversed their earlier opinion, effectively putting an end to Mr. Moldea's suit. Mr. Starr later went on Court TV and debated Roger Simmons on the merits of the case.
In 1997, Mr. Moldea was approached by Alfred Regnery [CIA-linked fascist propaganda publisher] to write his Vince Foster book. This caused a certain amount of consternation in right-wing circles because Mr. Moldea was chosen over a competing proposal submitted by former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, which was being shopped around by Lucianne Goldberg. (Mr. Fuhrman had come in for some rough treatment in Mr. Moldea's 1997 O.J. Simpson book.)
In the process of reporting his Vince Foster book, Mr. Moldea approached the Office of the Independent Counsel to talk to Mr. Starr about his research into the Foster death. (The office had decided that Foster killed himself.) After talking with members of Mr. Starr's staff, Mr. Moldea came away with the impression that they made a habit of leaking grand jury information to friendly, Starr-approved reporters. He took tapes of his conversations with the independent counsel's office to Williams & Connelly. "I can tell you for a fact that his only contact with Williams & Connelly was to tell them the content of the tapes," said Mr. Simmons, "and, in a way, to protect his sources."
Allan MacDonnell, the Hustler editor who has been overseeing the investigations, said he was not aware of Mr. Moldea's past history with Mr. Starr when they invited him out to their headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in early November. They did know about his O.J. Simpson book, though. "He has a lot of energy and is very excited about the project," Mr. MacDonnell said.
As for how he became involved, Mr. Moldea has confirmed he got the gig through a private investigator in Washington. Whether that friend is Mr. Livingstone, he's not saying. Reached by Off the Record, Mr. Livingstone said, "I don't talk about business," but he confirmed that he's known Mr. Moldea for many years through a Washington writer's group to which they both belong. When asked about Mr. Livingstone's possible involvement in the Hustler investigation, Mr. MacDonnell said, "We're not commenting on that."
In any case, Mr. Livingstone is an unusual link in this latest save-the-President campaign, given that he's a former associate of Oliver North's and was a consultant to the National Security Council when the events that became the Iran-contra scandal were brewing. In 1987, he wrote a piece for National Review backing Mr. North.
All of which leaves Mr. Moldea exposed as the point man in Mr. Flynt's drive to embarrass as many politicos on Capitol Hill as he can . "Until the Times suit, I never thought of him as a maverick," said Steve Weinberg, an author and editor of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal who's known Mr. Moldea for 20 years. "I asked him–I begged him not to do it," he said of the suit, adding that "it seems like a reasonable assumption" that the suit radicalized him. "It took guts or stupidity to do it."
"He's still a solid journalist," Mr. Weinberg went on. "But he's taken a lot of risks that other writers wouldn't have taken … Look at the publisher of his latest book, Regnery. That's obviously not the publisher he would have preferred."
If, as Mr. MacDonnell has claimed, "What we're doing is more a form of vandalism," it's going to leave a blot on Mr. Moldea's record. And it's going to be an even bigger problem if the accusations don't prove true. According to Mr. MacDonnell, after Mr. Moldea checks out the tips, the Hustler team goes over them with Mr. Flynt's attorneys; if they pass muster, they're released. Mr. MacDonnell said the "Flynt Report," originally scheduled for the end of January, has been delayed by Mr. Flynt's pneumonia until February. As for the legal saber-rattling of the Landmark Legal Foundation and the Republican Party's chairman, Mr. MacDonnell said, "I think the official comment that we have on that is, that's absurd."
Mr. Moldea's lawyer, Mr. Simmons, thinks his client will be protected by the First Amendment.
"He's a meticulous journalist," he said. "I think the world of Dan. I think he's doing it with integrity."
http://www.observer.com/node/40997
•••••
FULL TEXT OF JANOVIC'S DC MADAM COMMENTARY
Yep, she stated the same to me, but this flawed contention of yours and of others has had the context stripped away: she made the comment regarding if she went to prison that she feared she would be murdered there. That's a logical fear for a woman in her line of work, but there's no evidence whatsoever that she was murdered, zero.
However, there is evidence that she was suicidal, that the courts and the prosecution was well aware of it, and that they didn't order a competency hearing. There should have been one. Some counsel were aware as well.
You make some very wild leaps of logic, but I expected that at this site anyway.
The fact is that she told me and others on the legal defense team on February 28th, 2008 that "the bastards aren't taking me alive." The import of that is obvious, and she told Dan Moldea the same. As a matter of record, just read the articles--she states over-and-over again that she's "not serving one day in prison," and that they weren't taking "any" of her assets away.
When you die or commit suicide before sentencing, you create a legal situation where your charges are dropped. She knew this somehow, it's not hard to find out, and was aware of the fact that her forfeited assets would go into abatement and that her surviving family could claim a percentage if not all of them.
Ms. Magazine isn't covering up for killers when there are none. Thanks for not letting me down, Publius ...
This is a follow-up to my response (part one is here) to Janovic's unshakable conviction that the DC Madam committed "suicide" (see full text of his comments below). As it happens, most of his arguments are a verbatim echo of the DC police report, released in October, that closed the case. The report was a rehash of the initial "suicide" claim, and conveyed no new evidence. Janovic was a researcher on Palfrey's defense team, he boasts - but admits that he only spoke to her briefly by telephone, adheres to the police report, apparently has no exclusive or personal or hidden insights into the case ... yet berates me for suspecting that her death was not a "suicide." Let's take a closer look at his "case-closed" argument.One of the points raised in the report, and repeated by Janovic (see below), was a statement from author Dan Moldea that Ms. Palfrey had confided in him that she intended to take her own life, as reported by WJZ-TV news in Baltimore:
"Investigators determined Palfrey talked about suicide to Dan Moldea, a Washington writer who befriended her. ... "
http://wjz.com/local/deborah.palfrey.dc.2.853934.html
"Dan Moldea, told authorities that three times she had confided in him that she was considering suicide. 'He stated that she was simply depressed over her looming legal troubles, fearing she would lose all her assets and serve time in prison,' the report states."
http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/31/police-officially-conclude-dc-madam-hanged-herself/news/
Now, we have Dan Moldea's word for it, no one else - and it directly contradicts statements made to several others that she had no intention of commiitting suicide - that she feared she would be murdered - that it would be made to appear a "suicide" ...
Dan Moldea's appearance in the police report does nothing to quell my suspicions. In fact, it exacerbates them. I know Moldea to be a liar - at least as regards CIA activity - from personal experience: e-mail exchanges between Dan and myself, and I'm not alone in this appraisal.
This was posted by me in June of this year. Of particular interest is Moldea's relationship with Alfred Regnery.
NNDB-Mapping, a data base of personal ineractions, reports that Alfred's father, "Henry Regnery, founded Regnery Publishing, the conservative publishing house that published William F. Buckley's first book in 1951. According to longtime CIA insider E. Howard Hunt, Regnery was, at least in its early years, subsidized by the CIA.":http://www.nndb.com/people/245/000108918/
Williams & Connally, founded by the late Edward Bennett Williams, a law firm with a multitude of CIA ties, also lurks behind Dan Moldea. Williams "had several high profile clients [including] Frank Sinatra, fugitive financier Robert Vesco, Soviet spy Igor Melekh, wealthy businessman Armand Hammer, Senator Thomas Dodd and CIA Director Richard Helms. ... Williams gained a reputation of being a mobster lawyer. ... "
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwilliamsBT.htm
New York Observer: Author Dan Moldea is a Fraud with Intelligence Connections
Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article for Hustler about a military intelligence ne'er-do-well named Neil Livingston, who was, at the time, kidnapping children for pay. It was accepted by an editor. A few weeks later, that editor was fired, and the new editor turned down my story because she felt that the magazine had published too many stories written by me, and "we don't continuously publish one writer exclusively."
I was miffed that an important story they'd already accepted was scratched with this lame excuse. Now I find that the same Neil Livingston, an intelligence official, sent Dan Moldea to Larry Flynt. If Flynt had read my story - the one rejected by his editor - he'd have known about Livingston and never hired Dan Moldea.
Serves Flynt right.
After I left, Hustler lost its editorial direction, IMhO, and it's hit or miss these days. Many of the articles published by Hustler these days are political tripe and disinformation, deliberate or not. If I hadn't been pushed around by a Hustler editor, none of this would have occurred, and Republican criminals - like Livingston - would be falling from the skies because I'd still be writing for the magazine.
I had it out with Moldea by e-mail and told him how I feel about his propaganda. Moldea's book on the Robert Kennedy assassination is criminal in its vindication of CIA suspects who were, no doubt, involved in Kennedy's murder.
Flynt hasn't a clue, and though I still respect him in general, I know he doesn't know what he's doing if there is no pictorial skank or fecal matter involved - and am content to leave him that way.
- AC
Pit Bull Journalist Dan Moldea Plays Larry Flynt's Hired Man
BY CARL SWANSON
JANUARY 24, 1999
... These days, Mr. Moldea, 48, doesn't have the luxury of too many choices. After writing some of the most definitive nonfiction books on the mob around, Mr. Moldea's career as a maverick journalist and conspiracy investigator took a turn toward the lurid in the last few years, with books like Evidence Dismissed, which he co-wrote with two detectives who investigated the O.J. Simpson trial, and A Washington Tragedy, an investigation of the death of Vince Foster, which the right-wing boutique press Regnery Publishing [CIA-fascist propaganda] put out last year. He has a good reputation as a dogged reporter, but after his lawsuit against The Times dragged out and an investigative book about Robert F. Kennedy's assassination didn't sell well, Mr. Moldea needed something to sink his teeth into.
Enter Neil Livingstone, a Washington-based security consultant and freelance counterterrorism expert for NBC News. According to a source close to the situation, when Mr. Livingstone was contacted by the Hustler scandal team this past fall to aid their nascent investigation, he put them in touch with Mr. Moldea. Whatever Mr. Moldea thought of Mr. Flynt's politics and publicity gambit, he's told friends the job pays rather well. But those friends also say that Mr. Moldea, a self-described liberal Democrat, seems to be motivated by his anger over the way he thinks the independent counsel's office has railroaded President Clinton. And, apparently, he's not going to take it anymore.
Mr. Moldea has his own reasons for not commenting on this article. On Jan. 13, he told the Washington Times that if a Republican "hasn't been shooting his mouth off, we let him go. We're not going to interfere with his life."
To the hawk-eyed lawyers at the Landmark Legal Foundation, a testy, conservative legal-advocacy group, that sounded like blackmail, and on Jan. 15 they filed their complaint with the Justice Department. That same day, Republican Party chairman Jim Nicholson demanded that the Hustler investigation itself be investigated.
On Jan. 18, the Wall Street Journal editorial page weighed in, quoting the same section of Federal code as the Republican National Committee. The Journal declared Mr. Flynt's project "not only distasteful but unlawful" and accused Mr. Moldea of having "previously worked for the President's law firm, Williams & Connolly" [a law firm with significant ties to the CIA] an accusation Mr. Moldea has denied.
Roger Simmons, a lawyer at Gordon & Simmons in Frederick, Md., who represents Mr. Moldea, told Off the Record, "That's so far from the truth, it's like saying that I fly to the moon every three days."
"We don't know anything more than what the Washington Times reported," said Journal editor Robert Bartley. "Maybe it would have been better if we had said 'collaborated.'" Williams & Connolly had no comment.
Like almost every aspect of the seemingly never-ending Clinton Administration scandals, the tale of how Mr. Moldea got involved is an invitation to walk through the hall of mirrors that impeachment-crazy Washington has lately become.
Which is to say, Mr. Moldea is not a totally disinterested party in the latest Presidential scandal. Mr. Starr apparently had a hand in the writer's $10 million libel suit against The Times for its damning review of his 1989 book, Interference, about mob influence on football. After he lost the first round, his case was taken up in 1994 by the Washington, D.C., circuit court of appeals, In 1994, a three-judge panel voted, 2 to 1, to support Mr. Moldea's appeal. Mr. Starr, who once sat on the Washington circuit court, was by then a lawyer in private practice.
But, as it happens, he represented the coalition of media organizations–from Dow Jones & Company to The New Yorker to the PEN American Center–that supported The Times ' position that reviews, as opinions, were protected speech. After the 2-to-1 vote, Mr. Starr filed an amicus brief on the newspaper's behalf, asking for the judgment to be reconsidered. On May 2, 1994, the judges officially refused to look at Mr. Starr's brief.
But a day later, in a highly unusual move, they reversed their earlier opinion, effectively putting an end to Mr. Moldea's suit. Mr. Starr later went on Court TV and debated Roger Simmons on the merits of the case.
In 1997, Mr. Moldea was approached by Alfred Regnery [CIA-linked fascist propaganda publisher] to write his Vince Foster book. This caused a certain amount of consternation in right-wing circles because Mr. Moldea was chosen over a competing proposal submitted by former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, which was being shopped around by Lucianne Goldberg. (Mr. Fuhrman had come in for some rough treatment in Mr. Moldea's 1997 O.J. Simpson book.)
In the process of reporting his Vince Foster book, Mr. Moldea approached the Office of the Independent Counsel to talk to Mr. Starr about his research into the Foster death. (The office had decided that Foster killed himself.) After talking with members of Mr. Starr's staff, Mr. Moldea came away with the impression that they made a habit of leaking grand jury information to friendly, Starr-approved reporters. He took tapes of his conversations with the independent counsel's office to Williams & Connelly. "I can tell you for a fact that his only contact with Williams & Connelly was to tell them the content of the tapes," said Mr. Simmons, "and, in a way, to protect his sources."
Allan MacDonnell, the Hustler editor who has been overseeing the investigations, said he was not aware of Mr. Moldea's past history with Mr. Starr when they invited him out to their headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in early November. They did know about his O.J. Simpson book, though. "He has a lot of energy and is very excited about the project," Mr. MacDonnell said.
As for how he became involved, Mr. Moldea has confirmed he got the gig through a private investigator in Washington. Whether that friend is Mr. Livingstone, he's not saying. Reached by Off the Record, Mr. Livingstone said, "I don't talk about business," but he confirmed that he's known Mr. Moldea for many years through a Washington writer's group to which they both belong. When asked about Mr. Livingstone's possible involvement in the Hustler investigation, Mr. MacDonnell said, "We're not commenting on that."
In any case, Mr. Livingstone is an unusual link in this latest save-the-President campaign, given that he's a former associate of Oliver North's and was a consultant to the National Security Council when the events that became the Iran-contra scandal were brewing. In 1987, he wrote a piece for National Review backing Mr. North.
All of which leaves Mr. Moldea exposed as the point man in Mr. Flynt's drive to embarrass as many politicos on Capitol Hill as he can . "Until the Times suit, I never thought of him as a maverick," said Steve Weinberg, an author and editor of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Journal who's known Mr. Moldea for 20 years. "I asked him–I begged him not to do it," he said of the suit, adding that "it seems like a reasonable assumption" that the suit radicalized him. "It took guts or stupidity to do it."
"He's still a solid journalist," Mr. Weinberg went on. "But he's taken a lot of risks that other writers wouldn't have taken … Look at the publisher of his latest book, Regnery. That's obviously not the publisher he would have preferred."
If, as Mr. MacDonnell has claimed, "What we're doing is more a form of vandalism," it's going to leave a blot on Mr. Moldea's record. And it's going to be an even bigger problem if the accusations don't prove true. According to Mr. MacDonnell, after Mr. Moldea checks out the tips, the Hustler team goes over them with Mr. Flynt's attorneys; if they pass muster, they're released. Mr. MacDonnell said the "Flynt Report," originally scheduled for the end of January, has been delayed by Mr. Flynt's pneumonia until February. As for the legal saber-rattling of the Landmark Legal Foundation and the Republican Party's chairman, Mr. MacDonnell said, "I think the official comment that we have on that is, that's absurd."
Mr. Moldea's lawyer, Mr. Simmons, thinks his client will be protected by the First Amendment.
"He's a meticulous journalist," he said. "I think the world of Dan. I think he's doing it with integrity."
http://www.observer.com/node/40997
•••••
FULL TEXT OF JANOVIC'S DC MADAM COMMENTARY
Yep, she stated the same to me, but this flawed contention of yours and of others has had the context stripped away: she made the comment regarding if she went to prison that she feared she would be murdered there. That's a logical fear for a woman in her line of work, but there's no evidence whatsoever that she was murdered, zero.
However, there is evidence that she was suicidal, that the courts and the prosecution was well aware of it, and that they didn't order a competency hearing. There should have been one. Some counsel were aware as well.
You make some very wild leaps of logic, but I expected that at this site anyway.
The fact is that she told me and others on the legal defense team on February 28th, 2008 that "the bastards aren't taking me alive." The import of that is obvious, and she told Dan Moldea the same. As a matter of record, just read the articles--she states over-and-over again that she's "not serving one day in prison," and that they weren't taking "any" of her assets away.
When you die or commit suicide before sentencing, you create a legal situation where your charges are dropped. She knew this somehow, it's not hard to find out, and was aware of the fact that her forfeited assets would go into abatement and that her surviving family could claim a percentage if not all of them.
Ms. Magazine isn't covering up for killers when there are none. Thanks for not letting me down, Publius ...
Henry M. Paulson's Salary at Goldman Sachs
Currently, the Secretary of the Treasury earns $191,300 per year. His salary, and those of all Federal Government employees, are paid out of the General Fund of the Treasury.
2006 Salary
Total Compensation
$16.40 mil
5-Year Compensation Total
$46.74 mil
Henry M Paulson Jr was the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (GS) for 10 years.
Education
College: Dartmouth College AB '68
Graduate School: Harvard MBA '70
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Henry_M._Paulson's_salary_and_bonus_from_Goldman_Sachs
2006 SalaryTotal Compensation
$16.40 mil
5-Year Compensation Total
$46.74 mil
Henry M Paulson Jr was the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (GS) for 10 years.
Education
College: Dartmouth College AB '68
Graduate School: Harvard MBA '70
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Henry_M._Paulson's_salary_and_bonus_from_Goldman_Sachs
Winter Soldier: Domingo Rosas
Also see: Winter Soldier Hearings
Domingo Rosas | November 6, 2008
Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco
Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5653
(Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the book Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, by Iraq Veterans Against the War and Aaron Glantz. For more about the Winter Soldier hearings, read this FPIF commentary by Glantz, an FPIF contributor. You can also watch Rosas' testimony.)
We occupied a local train station in an area called al-Qaim near the Syrian border. We called it Tiger Base. I was put in charge of the detainee site, which consisted of a shipping container and a single building surrounded by barbed wire. I had two soldiers to back me up when I was handling the detainees. I was briefed by the sergeant I relieved that the men in the shipping container were captured combatants, and I was to deprive them of sleep. So I had them stand inside the shipping container, face to the walls, no talking. I let them have blankets because it was cold, but they were not allowed to sit or lie down. When they started falling or dozing off, they put their heads on the wall.
I was outside the shipping container and just smacked it with a pickax handle to keep them awake. The men in the building were noncombatant detainees being held for questioning. There were 93 men, altogether. Using one of them to translate, I told them that they had a clean slate with me. If they didn't give me any trouble, then the next 24 hours would pass calmly. If they did, I told them it would be a long 24 hours. I just prayed that they didn't give me any trouble because I didn't know what I would have had to do. They even told me I was a good man while I was in charge of them.
One day a body bag was dropped off to me. When the soldiers came to retrieve it the next morning, they threw it on top of some junk in the back of a truck, but rigor mortis had already set in and it wouldn't fit inside the truck. So the solder started stomping on it, I mean, really stomping it. I couldn't imagine — I was like, "How can you do that?"
I also had a former Iraqi general, Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who was taken from my custody. I was told to keep him separated from the other noncombatants and give him everything he needed: "If he asks for anything, hook him up, take care of him, and don't harass him." I was like, "Well, I don't need somebody to tell me to not harass somebody."
A soldier told me later, "Hey, he died during questioning, during his interrogation."
I thought to myself, "How tough does a question have to be to kill?" I don't know exactly what went on during his interrogation, but he was fine when I had him.
Days after he was taken from my custody, I had his 14-year-old son, who was a very bright child and spoke four languages. He was supposed to be taken to his father. I was told that would get him to talk a little more. Instead, the boy was being taken to identify his father's body. Now, I'm not sure, but if that child was pro-American or one of our friends and allies, I'm pretty sure he is not an ally of ours anymore.
Sometime later the detainee site was taken over and rebuilt by men called OGAs, which stood for Other Governmental Agency. That's a pretty vague term. They built high walls around the detainee center. I figured, "Well, yeah, they're terrorists. You don't want them seeing out. You want to contain them, deny them any information that they could use to escape."
Later on I realized it was also so we couldn't see in. One night I was told to bring a message down to the detainee site. I knocked on the door, and when they opened it, I witnessed one detainee being kicked around on the ground in the mud, rolled over again and again. The agent was just kicking him with his foot, rolling him over in the mud, pouring water on his face, the whole waterboarding thing. Another detainee was standing there with a bag over his head and was forced to carry a huge rock until he just physically couldn't do it anymore and just collapsed. That image seared itself into my mind's eye, and I can't forget it.
I won't forget it. (Rosas cried after he said this.)
As I wrap this up, I just want to say two things. The longer we live as a human race, we're supposed to be getting smarter and wiser and better. To the vets that we're trying to bring home alive, decades from now, when you've got your grandchild sitting on your knee, bouncing in front of you, just try to remember what we did here today, under the flag, IVAW.
Domingo Rosas, a former U.S. Army sergeant, served as a member of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq's Anbar province from April 2003 until April 2004. A member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), he testified about his deployment during the Winter Soldier hearings outside Washington, DC in March 2008.
Domingo Rosas | November 6, 2008
Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco
Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5653
(Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the book Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, by Iraq Veterans Against the War and Aaron Glantz. For more about the Winter Soldier hearings, read this FPIF commentary by Glantz, an FPIF contributor. You can also watch Rosas' testimony.)
We occupied a local train station in an area called al-Qaim near the Syrian border. We called it Tiger Base. I was put in charge of the detainee site, which consisted of a shipping container and a single building surrounded by barbed wire. I had two soldiers to back me up when I was handling the detainees. I was briefed by the sergeant I relieved that the men in the shipping container were captured combatants, and I was to deprive them of sleep. So I had them stand inside the shipping container, face to the walls, no talking. I let them have blankets because it was cold, but they were not allowed to sit or lie down. When they started falling or dozing off, they put their heads on the wall.
I was outside the shipping container and just smacked it with a pickax handle to keep them awake. The men in the building were noncombatant detainees being held for questioning. There were 93 men, altogether. Using one of them to translate, I told them that they had a clean slate with me. If they didn't give me any trouble, then the next 24 hours would pass calmly. If they did, I told them it would be a long 24 hours. I just prayed that they didn't give me any trouble because I didn't know what I would have had to do. They even told me I was a good man while I was in charge of them.
One day a body bag was dropped off to me. When the soldiers came to retrieve it the next morning, they threw it on top of some junk in the back of a truck, but rigor mortis had already set in and it wouldn't fit inside the truck. So the solder started stomping on it, I mean, really stomping it. I couldn't imagine — I was like, "How can you do that?"
I also had a former Iraqi general, Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who was taken from my custody. I was told to keep him separated from the other noncombatants and give him everything he needed: "If he asks for anything, hook him up, take care of him, and don't harass him." I was like, "Well, I don't need somebody to tell me to not harass somebody."
A soldier told me later, "Hey, he died during questioning, during his interrogation."
I thought to myself, "How tough does a question have to be to kill?" I don't know exactly what went on during his interrogation, but he was fine when I had him.
Days after he was taken from my custody, I had his 14-year-old son, who was a very bright child and spoke four languages. He was supposed to be taken to his father. I was told that would get him to talk a little more. Instead, the boy was being taken to identify his father's body. Now, I'm not sure, but if that child was pro-American or one of our friends and allies, I'm pretty sure he is not an ally of ours anymore.
Sometime later the detainee site was taken over and rebuilt by men called OGAs, which stood for Other Governmental Agency. That's a pretty vague term. They built high walls around the detainee center. I figured, "Well, yeah, they're terrorists. You don't want them seeing out. You want to contain them, deny them any information that they could use to escape."
Later on I realized it was also so we couldn't see in. One night I was told to bring a message down to the detainee site. I knocked on the door, and when they opened it, I witnessed one detainee being kicked around on the ground in the mud, rolled over again and again. The agent was just kicking him with his foot, rolling him over in the mud, pouring water on his face, the whole waterboarding thing. Another detainee was standing there with a bag over his head and was forced to carry a huge rock until he just physically couldn't do it anymore and just collapsed. That image seared itself into my mind's eye, and I can't forget it.
I won't forget it. (Rosas cried after he said this.)
As I wrap this up, I just want to say two things. The longer we live as a human race, we're supposed to be getting smarter and wiser and better. To the vets that we're trying to bring home alive, decades from now, when you've got your grandchild sitting on your knee, bouncing in front of you, just try to remember what we did here today, under the flag, IVAW.
Domingo Rosas, a former U.S. Army sergeant, served as a member of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq's Anbar province from April 2003 until April 2004. A member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), he testified about his deployment during the Winter Soldier hearings outside Washington, DC in March 2008.
The Gates Appointment: Obama Slaps Antiwar Voters in the Face
Thought I heard that "America is better than this" ... guess not ... - AC
By Patrick Martin
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_28895.shtml
Nov 28, 2008
The agreement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain at the Pentagon under the incoming Democratic administration—widely reported in the US media over the past 24 hours—is the starkest and most brazen rebuff given by President-elect Barack Obama to the tens of millions who voted for him based on the false promise that he would bring “change” to Washington.
George W. Bush appointed Gates to head the Pentagon in November 2006, two years ago, following the Republican debacle in the congressional elections and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. While millions voted for the Democrats in 2006 in an effort to compel an end to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration went in the opposite direction, escalating the US military intervention through the “surge” of an additional 30,000 combat troops. (The congressional Democrats dutifully went along, appropriating the funds required to pay for the surge and confirming Gates, General David W. Petraeus and other top officials).
Gates played a key role in these events—the appointment of Petraeus as chief US commander in Iraq, the bloody fighting of the spring and summer of 2007, with the highest US casualties of the war, the enormous increase in aerial bombardment, with a shattering effect on Iraqi society, and the combination of bribery and repression that split both the Sunni and Shi’ite opposition to the US occupation regime.
Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination over Senator Hillary Clinton in large measure because he appealed to the same antiwar sentiments that had propelled the Democrats to their victory in the 2006 congressional elections. His mantra throughout the primary campaign—a rebuke to Clinton and other rival Democratic candidates who had voted for war in the Senate—was that he would end the war in Iraq, “a war that should never have been authorized and never been fought.”
Now, with the retention of Gates at the Pentagon, and the widely reported offer of the State Department to Clinton—as well as the selection of a slew of pro-war figures for lesser national security positions—Obama is reassuring the military, the intelligence agencies and the ruling elite as a whole that he will be firmly committed to the defense of US imperialism, including clinging to every inch of territory and every drop of oil secured by the Bush administration’s criminal aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was widely noted in the US media that Gates is the first Pentagon chief in US history to be retained after a change of party in the White House. That Obama is sending a signal of his future policy was acknowledged both by media outlets generally supportive of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and those more critical.
The Wall Street Journal called the decision “the clearest indication to date of the incoming administration’s thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. The defense secretary has opposed a firm timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, so his appointment could mean that Mr. Obama was further moving away from his campaign promise to remove most combat troops from Iraq by mid-2010. The two men largely see eye-to-eye on Afghanistan, which will be the new administration’s main national-security priority.”
The New York Times suggested that “Mr. Gates will now have to pivot from serving the commander in chief who started the Iraq war to serving one who has promised to end it.” But the newspaper acknowledged that it was Obama rather than Gates who was shifting gears. “In deciding to ask Mr. Gates to stay, Mr. Obama put aside concerns that he would send a jarring signal after a political campaign in which he made opposition to the war his signature issue in the early days.”
There have been attempts by Obama’s apologists in liberal quarters such as The Nation to claim that Obama himself will set the policy, including a gradual pullout from Iraq, and that he has only assembled a hawkish lineup of appointees to forestall right-wing criticism of his foreign policy. This begs the question, of course, of why figures such as Gates, Clinton and retired General James Jones, tipped for national security adviser, would agree to play a role in such a charade. An even better question would be: what assurances has Obama made to Gates about the future course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to obtain his agreement to continue in office?
More than a million people have been killed in the bloodbath unleashed by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Five million have been displaced from their homes. Iraq has been destroyed as a functioning society. Afghanistan is already in ruins after 30 years of US-instigated warfare, and Pakistan is well on its way to becoming the next battlefield in the region.
In the eyes of most of the world’s population, and millions of Americans, Gates deserves a prominent place in the dock at a future war crimes tribunal, alongside Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Colin Powell, and others responsible for the greatest act of mass murder in the twenty-first century. In retaining Gates, and thereby embracing the policies of occupation and semi-colonial domination with which he is associated, Obama is dropping any antiwar pretense and emerging openly as the newest commander-in-chief of American imperialism.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pers-n28.shtml
By Patrick Martinhttp://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_28895.shtml
Nov 28, 2008
The agreement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain at the Pentagon under the incoming Democratic administration—widely reported in the US media over the past 24 hours—is the starkest and most brazen rebuff given by President-elect Barack Obama to the tens of millions who voted for him based on the false promise that he would bring “change” to Washington.
George W. Bush appointed Gates to head the Pentagon in November 2006, two years ago, following the Republican debacle in the congressional elections and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. While millions voted for the Democrats in 2006 in an effort to compel an end to the war in Iraq, the Bush administration went in the opposite direction, escalating the US military intervention through the “surge” of an additional 30,000 combat troops. (The congressional Democrats dutifully went along, appropriating the funds required to pay for the surge and confirming Gates, General David W. Petraeus and other top officials).
Gates played a key role in these events—the appointment of Petraeus as chief US commander in Iraq, the bloody fighting of the spring and summer of 2007, with the highest US casualties of the war, the enormous increase in aerial bombardment, with a shattering effect on Iraqi society, and the combination of bribery and repression that split both the Sunni and Shi’ite opposition to the US occupation regime.
Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination over Senator Hillary Clinton in large measure because he appealed to the same antiwar sentiments that had propelled the Democrats to their victory in the 2006 congressional elections. His mantra throughout the primary campaign—a rebuke to Clinton and other rival Democratic candidates who had voted for war in the Senate—was that he would end the war in Iraq, “a war that should never have been authorized and never been fought.”
Now, with the retention of Gates at the Pentagon, and the widely reported offer of the State Department to Clinton—as well as the selection of a slew of pro-war figures for lesser national security positions—Obama is reassuring the military, the intelligence agencies and the ruling elite as a whole that he will be firmly committed to the defense of US imperialism, including clinging to every inch of territory and every drop of oil secured by the Bush administration’s criminal aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was widely noted in the US media that Gates is the first Pentagon chief in US history to be retained after a change of party in the White House. That Obama is sending a signal of his future policy was acknowledged both by media outlets generally supportive of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and those more critical.
The Wall Street Journal called the decision “the clearest indication to date of the incoming administration’s thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. The defense secretary has opposed a firm timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, so his appointment could mean that Mr. Obama was further moving away from his campaign promise to remove most combat troops from Iraq by mid-2010. The two men largely see eye-to-eye on Afghanistan, which will be the new administration’s main national-security priority.”
The New York Times suggested that “Mr. Gates will now have to pivot from serving the commander in chief who started the Iraq war to serving one who has promised to end it.” But the newspaper acknowledged that it was Obama rather than Gates who was shifting gears. “In deciding to ask Mr. Gates to stay, Mr. Obama put aside concerns that he would send a jarring signal after a political campaign in which he made opposition to the war his signature issue in the early days.”
There have been attempts by Obama’s apologists in liberal quarters such as The Nation to claim that Obama himself will set the policy, including a gradual pullout from Iraq, and that he has only assembled a hawkish lineup of appointees to forestall right-wing criticism of his foreign policy. This begs the question, of course, of why figures such as Gates, Clinton and retired General James Jones, tipped for national security adviser, would agree to play a role in such a charade. An even better question would be: what assurances has Obama made to Gates about the future course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to obtain his agreement to continue in office?
More than a million people have been killed in the bloodbath unleashed by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Five million have been displaced from their homes. Iraq has been destroyed as a functioning society. Afghanistan is already in ruins after 30 years of US-instigated warfare, and Pakistan is well on its way to becoming the next battlefield in the region.
In the eyes of most of the world’s population, and millions of Americans, Gates deserves a prominent place in the dock at a future war crimes tribunal, alongside Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Colin Powell, and others responsible for the greatest act of mass murder in the twenty-first century. In retaining Gates, and thereby embracing the policies of occupation and semi-colonial domination with which he is associated, Obama is dropping any antiwar pretense and emerging openly as the newest commander-in-chief of American imperialism.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/pers-n28.shtml
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Obama's Odious Entourage
Related: "John Brennan Drops from Consideration as DCI: Links to Bush, Tenet, Pinochet, Kresa, Logicon-TASC, 9/11, Southern Asset Mgt. (National Review, too)"
" ... On a positive note hinting that the domestic crimes of Bush are not entirely forgotten, John Brennan, who supported extraordinary rendition and warrantless wiretapping, withdrew from the race for CIA chief. ... Larry Summers ... will head the National Economic Council -- the president's senior economic adviser. This looks ominous. It was Summers who forced through the deregulation of financial markets in the 1990s and imposed disaster capitalism on Russia. Considering that he is a chief architect of the current financial meltdown, we should be wondering why Obama isn't preparing an arrest warrant for him, ... "
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/in1.htm
Disappointment follows disappointment with each "new" face, bemoans Eric Walberg, but there is a sort of silver lining
Yes, we mustn't expect too much. We all know it is the establishment that comes first in United States politics. Obama's presidency could easily be sabotaged by the powers that put him there.
But still. He would never have made it past the first, obscure primary without his army of selfless, grassroots activists, and his coffers were first filled by millions of small, personal donations. Surely these are the people he should honour with at least a few names. Even Clinton had his Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (at least until she was tarred and feathered by the right). Obama's one token progressive appointment was Melody Barnes of the Center For American Progress, who was chief counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and will head the toothless Domestic Policy Council.
Not one of the 23 Senators and 133 House Representatives who voted against the war in Iraq are on his transitional team or even on a short-list for an important post in his Cabinet. The only promise that might be kept is to close Guantanamo, though he could hardly do less. The entire US legal establishment seems to be pushing to end this outrage.
Keeping on uberhawk Robert Gates as secretary of war, despite the continued slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan under his capable mismanagement, his uncompromising position on missiles for Poland, and his shady past (including Iran-Contra) gives little cause for hope. Russia can probably kiss improved relations with the US good-bye. It looks like there will be neocon policy as usual. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state just confirms this.
Yes, everyone in Washington is solidly Zionist, so Rahm Emanuel's devotion to Israel hardly changes much, as James Zogby argues. But, how is it he served with the Israeli Defence Forces -- during a war -- and yet never served with the US military? As an American, if he did this for any other country but Israel, he would have been arrested and his political career over at once. Instead, he is honoured with the key role of the president's chief of staff.
On a positive note hinting that the domestic crimes of Bush are not entirely forgotten, John Brennan, who supported extraordinary rendition and warrantless wiretapping, withdrew from the race for CIA chief. Still, no criminal charges against those who authorised or conducted torture during the Bush years are foreseen.
As Bloomberg notes, almost half the people on the Transition Economic Advisory Board "have held fiduciary positions at companies that, to one degree or another, either fried their financial statements, helped send the world into an economic tailspin, or both." This includes, for example, Anne Mulcahy and Richard Parsons, both of whom were Fannie Mae directors when the company fudged accounting rules. Mulcahy and Parsons were executives of their respective companies, Xerox and Time Warner, and were charged with accounting fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Also on this team is Robert Rubin, who as Bloomberg notes, was "chairman of Citigroup's executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford, which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup-style bailout cash."
Larry Summers, who was Clinton's treasury secretary, will head the National Economic Council -- the president's senior economic adviser. This looks ominous. It was Summers who forced through the deregulation of financial markets in the 1990s and imposed disaster capitalism on Russia.
Considering that he is a chief architect of the current financial meltdown, we should be wondering why Obama isn't preparing an arrest warrant for him, instead of offering him the most powerful economic role in the world. As chief economist for the World Bank, Summers wrote a memo saying the WB should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly "under- polluted countries in Africa," since poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop cancer, making him a particularly bizarre appointment for Obama. This contradiction will be interesting to watch unfold.
Summers, Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, and Peter Orszag as budget director are all protégés of Robert Rubin, who held two of their jobs under President Bill Clinton. All three advisers are believers in what has been dubbed Rubin-omics: balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation, a combination that supposedly was responsible for the prosperity of the 1990s.
But times have changed since then. Rubin is facing questions about his role as director of Citigroup, which is the benefactor of the government's latest bailout. Obama has pledged to introduce an era of re-regulation. Instead of balancing budgets, Obama plans a two-year fiscal stimulus worth hundreds of billions of dollars to aid the jobless, states and cities. "Everyone recognises that we're looking at deficits of considerable magnitude," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "Whether it's Bob Rubin, Larry Summers or the most conservative economist, that is a widely shared recognition."
The list of establishment appointees to his transitional team devoted to "change" goes on and on, begging the question: Is this really the best he could come up with? How about Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, or James K Galbraith, for starters? Someone who represents labour such as Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO? Something to suggest that change is really what this administration is about?
Remember Obama's Bush moment, as they enthused about Bush's bailout bill. Others, such as Senator Russ Feingold, realised the bill's problems and voted against it. Feingold said that the Wall Street bailout legislation "fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn't do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess." Feingold was right. In short, Obama promised "Change we can believe in," but it's looking a lot more like "Business as usual."
So far the only black to be appointed to a senior post is former deputy attorney general Eric Holder, will be attorney general. He is best known as the Chiquita Bananas lawyer who approved of president Bill Clinton's pardon for Marc Rich, the blatantly corrupt financier whose former wife, Denise Rich, had contributed heavily to Clinton's presidential library.
Despite the extreme disappointment that many are now experiencing, there are a few straws to grasp at. Emanuel was forced to apologise publicly for his father's now legendary anti-Arab remark about mopping floors in the White House, and this incident will act as a bell-weather for anti-Arab policies. Is this, plus the appointments of Gates, Summers and Clinton possibly a wily Obama "keeping his enemies close"?
Despite the inexorable march of the empire with a black commander-in-chief at the helm, at least the Cabinet is filled with competent people, some -- like Clinton-- with considerable authority and prestige around the world. Holder seems to be genuinely against torture and hostile to the concept of the imperial presidency. Obama himself is intelligent and will not have circles spun around him as did Bush, nor will he take five- week vacations and rely on comic book memos for snap decisions to go to war.
Despite his team's credentials as Rubin-omists, they are hard at work on a huge fiscal stimulus package and further tightening of government regulations on banks and the financial sector. Conservation and the long-overdue move away from fossil fuels are high on the agenda. These bureaucrats are not fools (like Bush, Rice and many others in the current administration), and taking a leaf from president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration, will not be afraid to borrow from the liberal handbook as the need arises.
What the progressives in the US must now do is mobilise, mobilise, mobilise, and articulate a clear, cogent agenda for real change. The old adage holds true more than ever: No pain -- no gain.
It seems the only thing we can truly feel some exhilaration for at this point is the fact that Obama's father was a black Muslim and his mother an altruistic humanitarian who truly loved other cultures and devoted her life to better understanding among peoples. Let us hope for some sign that their spirit lives on in their son to help fight off the demons who surround him at present. Perhaps a good old- fashioned African exorcism is in order.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/in1.htm
" ... On a positive note hinting that the domestic crimes of Bush are not entirely forgotten, John Brennan, who supported extraordinary rendition and warrantless wiretapping, withdrew from the race for CIA chief. ... Larry Summers ... will head the National Economic Council -- the president's senior economic adviser. This looks ominous. It was Summers who forced through the deregulation of financial markets in the 1990s and imposed disaster capitalism on Russia. Considering that he is a chief architect of the current financial meltdown, we should be wondering why Obama isn't preparing an arrest warrant for him, ... "http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/in1.htm
Disappointment follows disappointment with each "new" face, bemoans Eric Walberg, but there is a sort of silver lining
Yes, we mustn't expect too much. We all know it is the establishment that comes first in United States politics. Obama's presidency could easily be sabotaged by the powers that put him there.
But still. He would never have made it past the first, obscure primary without his army of selfless, grassroots activists, and his coffers were first filled by millions of small, personal donations. Surely these are the people he should honour with at least a few names. Even Clinton had his Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala (at least until she was tarred and feathered by the right). Obama's one token progressive appointment was Melody Barnes of the Center For American Progress, who was chief counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and will head the toothless Domestic Policy Council.
Not one of the 23 Senators and 133 House Representatives who voted against the war in Iraq are on his transitional team or even on a short-list for an important post in his Cabinet. The only promise that might be kept is to close Guantanamo, though he could hardly do less. The entire US legal establishment seems to be pushing to end this outrage.
Keeping on uberhawk Robert Gates as secretary of war, despite the continued slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan under his capable mismanagement, his uncompromising position on missiles for Poland, and his shady past (including Iran-Contra) gives little cause for hope. Russia can probably kiss improved relations with the US good-bye. It looks like there will be neocon policy as usual. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state just confirms this.
Yes, everyone in Washington is solidly Zionist, so Rahm Emanuel's devotion to Israel hardly changes much, as James Zogby argues. But, how is it he served with the Israeli Defence Forces -- during a war -- and yet never served with the US military? As an American, if he did this for any other country but Israel, he would have been arrested and his political career over at once. Instead, he is honoured with the key role of the president's chief of staff.
On a positive note hinting that the domestic crimes of Bush are not entirely forgotten, John Brennan, who supported extraordinary rendition and warrantless wiretapping, withdrew from the race for CIA chief. Still, no criminal charges against those who authorised or conducted torture during the Bush years are foreseen.
As Bloomberg notes, almost half the people on the Transition Economic Advisory Board "have held fiduciary positions at companies that, to one degree or another, either fried their financial statements, helped send the world into an economic tailspin, or both." This includes, for example, Anne Mulcahy and Richard Parsons, both of whom were Fannie Mae directors when the company fudged accounting rules. Mulcahy and Parsons were executives of their respective companies, Xerox and Time Warner, and were charged with accounting fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Also on this team is Robert Rubin, who as Bloomberg notes, was "chairman of Citigroup's executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford, which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup-style bailout cash."Larry Summers, who was Clinton's treasury secretary, will head the National Economic Council -- the president's senior economic adviser. This looks ominous. It was Summers who forced through the deregulation of financial markets in the 1990s and imposed disaster capitalism on Russia.
Considering that he is a chief architect of the current financial meltdown, we should be wondering why Obama isn't preparing an arrest warrant for him, instead of offering him the most powerful economic role in the world. As chief economist for the World Bank, Summers wrote a memo saying the WB should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly "under- polluted countries in Africa," since poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop cancer, making him a particularly bizarre appointment for Obama. This contradiction will be interesting to watch unfold.
Summers, Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, and Peter Orszag as budget director are all protégés of Robert Rubin, who held two of their jobs under President Bill Clinton. All three advisers are believers in what has been dubbed Rubin-omics: balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation, a combination that supposedly was responsible for the prosperity of the 1990s.
But times have changed since then. Rubin is facing questions about his role as director of Citigroup, which is the benefactor of the government's latest bailout. Obama has pledged to introduce an era of re-regulation. Instead of balancing budgets, Obama plans a two-year fiscal stimulus worth hundreds of billions of dollars to aid the jobless, states and cities. "Everyone recognises that we're looking at deficits of considerable magnitude," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. "Whether it's Bob Rubin, Larry Summers or the most conservative economist, that is a widely shared recognition."
The list of establishment appointees to his transitional team devoted to "change" goes on and on, begging the question: Is this really the best he could come up with? How about Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, or James K Galbraith, for starters? Someone who represents labour such as Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO? Something to suggest that change is really what this administration is about?
Remember Obama's Bush moment, as they enthused about Bush's bailout bill. Others, such as Senator Russ Feingold, realised the bill's problems and voted against it. Feingold said that the Wall Street bailout legislation "fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn't do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess." Feingold was right. In short, Obama promised "Change we can believe in," but it's looking a lot more like "Business as usual."
So far the only black to be appointed to a senior post is former deputy attorney general Eric Holder, will be attorney general. He is best known as the Chiquita Bananas lawyer who approved of president Bill Clinton's pardon for Marc Rich, the blatantly corrupt financier whose former wife, Denise Rich, had contributed heavily to Clinton's presidential library.
Despite the extreme disappointment that many are now experiencing, there are a few straws to grasp at. Emanuel was forced to apologise publicly for his father's now legendary anti-Arab remark about mopping floors in the White House, and this incident will act as a bell-weather for anti-Arab policies. Is this, plus the appointments of Gates, Summers and Clinton possibly a wily Obama "keeping his enemies close"?
Despite the inexorable march of the empire with a black commander-in-chief at the helm, at least the Cabinet is filled with competent people, some -- like Clinton-- with considerable authority and prestige around the world. Holder seems to be genuinely against torture and hostile to the concept of the imperial presidency. Obama himself is intelligent and will not have circles spun around him as did Bush, nor will he take five- week vacations and rely on comic book memos for snap decisions to go to war.
Despite his team's credentials as Rubin-omists, they are hard at work on a huge fiscal stimulus package and further tightening of government regulations on banks and the financial sector. Conservation and the long-overdue move away from fossil fuels are high on the agenda. These bureaucrats are not fools (like Bush, Rice and many others in the current administration), and taking a leaf from president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration, will not be afraid to borrow from the liberal handbook as the need arises.
What the progressives in the US must now do is mobilise, mobilise, mobilise, and articulate a clear, cogent agenda for real change. The old adage holds true more than ever: No pain -- no gain.
It seems the only thing we can truly feel some exhilaration for at this point is the fact that Obama's father was a black Muslim and his mother an altruistic humanitarian who truly loved other cultures and devoted her life to better understanding among peoples. Let us hope for some sign that their spirit lives on in their son to help fight off the demons who surround him at present. Perhaps a good old- fashioned African exorcism is in order.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/924/in1.htm
Missionary's family hopes CIA probe brings justice
by Grand Rapids Press
November 21, 2008
Gloria Luttig
Even after seven years, Florida resident Gloria Luttig says the hurt remains. But Luttig, 70, is more determined than ever to find justice after the release of a damning probe into the CIA's role in the 2001 downing of a plane carrying her daughter and granddaughter on a missionary flight in Peru.
"My child was murdered. My granddaughter was murdered. I want to see somebody held accountable for this," Luttig said Thursday.
"I am a Christian, but I think somebody has to pay for this. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
Her daughter, Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, on April 20, 2001, when their plane was misidentified as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian Air Force jet.
A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby. Bowers' husband, Jim, then 37, son, Corey, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting.
A report by the Office of Inspector General concludes the CIA routinely broke safety procedures in its drug-interdiction program and then covered up evidence of its failings to Congress and the Department of Justice.
Although much of the report remains classified, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, said it found that the CIA was operating "outside the law" and lied to Congress and the Department of Justice about how the program was run.
Hoekstra called for a criminal investigation and hearings before the House Intelligence Committee.
"We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress. This is a shoot-down that should not have occurred if we had an agency that was working appropriately," he said.
The incident was part of a CIA-managed drug interdiction scheme begun in the 1990s that resulted in numerous other aircraft shot down by armed Peruvian planes. But, according to the report by the Office of Inspector General, that program routinely violated intercept procedures.
Hoekstra said about 10 planes were shot down before the Bowers' aircraft, in consistent violation of safety procedures that would have prevented the incident.
"The result was that ... suspect aircraft were shot down within two to three minutes of being sighted by the Peruvian fighter -- without being properly identified, without being given the required warnings to land, and without being given time to respond to such warnings as were being given," the report stated.
After the missionary plane was shot down, the report stated, the cover-up began.
"Within hours, CIA officers began to characterize the shoot-down as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program. In fact, this was not the case."
The report said the CIA "did not fulfill its legal obligations" in keeping Congress and the National Security Council informed of its activities.
It stated that "in seeking to avoid criminal charges" and civil liability, CIA legal officials "advised agency managers to avoid written products lest they be subject to legal scrutiny."
It said the agency stonewalled former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who requested information on who had given approval to change procedures required in the program.
It stated the investigation "found no evidence that any agency officer ever responded to her request for information."
Previous investigations failed to convince family members they were being told the entire story.
"Some of the members of the CIA have been promoted since then," Gloria Luttig said.
"I want it out in the open, and I want it out in the open now. It's just been one farce after another."
In 2005, after a three-year investigation, federal prosecutors ended a criminal inquiry with no charges into whether at least four CIA officers lied to lawmakers and agency superiors about the clandestine operation.
At the time, Hoekstra agreed with that decision.
"I didn't see anything that would have pointed to anything that could have, or should have, been prosecuted," Hoekstra said then.
The conduct under scrutiny was part of a CIA operation authorized by President Bill Clinton beginning in 1994 to help the Peruvian Air Force prevent drug flights over the country.
A U.S. and Peruvian inquiry in 2001 found that the shooting stemmed from language problems, poor communications and shortcuts in following procedures.
In 2002, Congress approved an $8 million payment to settle survivors' claims stemming from the incident.
Jim Bowers could not be reached for comment.
Texas resident Garnett Luttig Jr., 48, brother to Veronica Bowers, said the family awaits the justice they believe they deserve.
"Our family has never gotten any straight answers from anybody. It was all just pushed under the table.
"As far as I'm concerned, somebody murdered my sister. Somebody needs to pay for it."
http://www.mlive.com/chronicle/news/index.ssf/2008/11/missionarys_family_hopes_cia_p.html
November 21, 2008
Gloria LuttigEven after seven years, Florida resident Gloria Luttig says the hurt remains. But Luttig, 70, is more determined than ever to find justice after the release of a damning probe into the CIA's role in the 2001 downing of a plane carrying her daughter and granddaughter on a missionary flight in Peru.
"My child was murdered. My granddaughter was murdered. I want to see somebody held accountable for this," Luttig said Thursday.
"I am a Christian, but I think somebody has to pay for this. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
Her daughter, Veronica "Roni" Bowers, 35, of Muskegon, was holding her 7-month-old daughter, Charity, on April 20, 2001, when their plane was misidentified as a potential drug-smuggling aircraft and fired upon by a Peruvian Air Force jet.
A bullet struck Bowers in the back, killing her and the baby. Bowers' husband, Jim, then 37, son, Corey, 8, and the pilot survived the crash that followed the shooting.
A report by the Office of Inspector General concludes the CIA routinely broke safety procedures in its drug-interdiction program and then covered up evidence of its failings to Congress and the Department of Justice.
Although much of the report remains classified, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, said it found that the CIA was operating "outside the law" and lied to Congress and the Department of Justice about how the program was run.
Hoekstra called for a criminal investigation and hearings before the House Intelligence Committee.
"We cannot have a community that operates outside the law and covers up what it does and lies to Congress. This is a shoot-down that should not have occurred if we had an agency that was working appropriately," he said.
The incident was part of a CIA-managed drug interdiction scheme begun in the 1990s that resulted in numerous other aircraft shot down by armed Peruvian planes. But, according to the report by the Office of Inspector General, that program routinely violated intercept procedures.
Hoekstra said about 10 planes were shot down before the Bowers' aircraft, in consistent violation of safety procedures that would have prevented the incident.
"The result was that ... suspect aircraft were shot down within two to three minutes of being sighted by the Peruvian fighter -- without being properly identified, without being given the required warnings to land, and without being given time to respond to such warnings as were being given," the report stated.
After the missionary plane was shot down, the report stated, the cover-up began.
"Within hours, CIA officers began to characterize the shoot-down as a one-time mistake in an otherwise well-run program. In fact, this was not the case."
The report said the CIA "did not fulfill its legal obligations" in keeping Congress and the National Security Council informed of its activities.
It stated that "in seeking to avoid criminal charges" and civil liability, CIA legal officials "advised agency managers to avoid written products lest they be subject to legal scrutiny."
It said the agency stonewalled former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who requested information on who had given approval to change procedures required in the program.
It stated the investigation "found no evidence that any agency officer ever responded to her request for information."
Previous investigations failed to convince family members they were being told the entire story.
"Some of the members of the CIA have been promoted since then," Gloria Luttig said.
"I want it out in the open, and I want it out in the open now. It's just been one farce after another."
In 2005, after a three-year investigation, federal prosecutors ended a criminal inquiry with no charges into whether at least four CIA officers lied to lawmakers and agency superiors about the clandestine operation.
At the time, Hoekstra agreed with that decision.
"I didn't see anything that would have pointed to anything that could have, or should have, been prosecuted," Hoekstra said then.
The conduct under scrutiny was part of a CIA operation authorized by President Bill Clinton beginning in 1994 to help the Peruvian Air Force prevent drug flights over the country.
A U.S. and Peruvian inquiry in 2001 found that the shooting stemmed from language problems, poor communications and shortcuts in following procedures.
In 2002, Congress approved an $8 million payment to settle survivors' claims stemming from the incident.
Jim Bowers could not be reached for comment.
Texas resident Garnett Luttig Jr., 48, brother to Veronica Bowers, said the family awaits the justice they believe they deserve.
"Our family has never gotten any straight answers from anybody. It was all just pushed under the table.
"As far as I'm concerned, somebody murdered my sister. Somebody needs to pay for it."
http://www.mlive.com/chronicle/news/index.ssf/2008/11/missionarys_family_hopes_cia_p.html
Sen. Vitter Quickly Raised Legal Fees for “D.C. Madam” Case
" ... The list of contributors also included prominent Bush supporters such as shipyard owner Donald Bollinger and real estate mogul Joseph Canizaro - men who The Nation identified as being part of a "largely white elite" that had "wrested control of the debate about how to rebuild [New Orleans]" after the Katrina disaster. ... "
Feminist Daily News Wire
November 3, 2008
Louisiana's Republican Sen. David Vitter, implicated in the D.C. Madam prostitution scandal, has quickly opened and closed a legal defense fund, taking in more than $200,000 from powerful business and political figures in his home state.
In August, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) had ruled that Vitter could use $31,000 in campaign funds for legal expenses associated with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his involvement with the prostitution ring.
But the FEC prohibited the senator—a vocal proponent of the importance of heterosexual marriage—from using an additional $160,000+ in campaign funds to pay for his legal attempts to quash subpoenas issued to him in the trial of Deborah Jean Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Vitter's phone number had appeared in Palfrey's phone records, which led Vitter to admit to a "serious sin."
Many of the 27 contributors to Vitter's new legal fund—which Vitter says followed the directions of the FEC and the Senate Ethics Committee—gave the maximum $10,000 donation, reported the The News-Star in Monroe, Louisiana. One of the donors was John Georges, an Independent who unsuccessfully ran for governor in the state last year and plans to run again.
The list of contributors also included prominent Bush supporters such as shipyard owner Donald Bollinger and real estate mogul Joseph Canizaro - men who The Nation identified as being part of a "largely white elite" that had "wrested control of the debate about how to rebuild [New Orleans]" after the Katrina disaster.
Media Resources: The News-Star 10/30/08; The Nation 3/23/06; Feminist Wire 8/22/08
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11364
•••••••
Vitter raises funds for fees
By GERARD SHIELDS
Advocate Washington correspondent
Nov 9, 2008
... Vitter told the FEC he incurred legal expenses in monitoring the Palfrey trial and quashing the subpoenas issued to him.
Vitter also hired an attorney to defend himself to the Senate Ethics Committee, because of a complaint filed against him by a government watchdog group. The complaint was dismissed because Vitter was never charged with a crime and the incidents occurred more than seven years ago when he was a House member.
The legal defense fund filing showed 27 contributors, 18 of whom donated the maximum $10,000. Most of the major contributors were New Orleans-based business owners who have regularly contributed to Republican causes in the state. ...
http://www.2theadvocate.com/columnists/34180794.html
Feminist Daily News Wire
November 3, 2008
Louisiana's Republican Sen. David Vitter, implicated in the D.C. Madam prostitution scandal, has quickly opened and closed a legal defense fund, taking in more than $200,000 from powerful business and political figures in his home state.
In August, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) had ruled that Vitter could use $31,000 in campaign funds for legal expenses associated with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his involvement with the prostitution ring.
But the FEC prohibited the senator—a vocal proponent of the importance of heterosexual marriage—from using an additional $160,000+ in campaign funds to pay for his legal attempts to quash subpoenas issued to him in the trial of Deborah Jean Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Vitter's phone number had appeared in Palfrey's phone records, which led Vitter to admit to a "serious sin."
Many of the 27 contributors to Vitter's new legal fund—which Vitter says followed the directions of the FEC and the Senate Ethics Committee—gave the maximum $10,000 donation, reported the The News-Star in Monroe, Louisiana. One of the donors was John Georges, an Independent who unsuccessfully ran for governor in the state last year and plans to run again.
The list of contributors also included prominent Bush supporters such as shipyard owner Donald Bollinger and real estate mogul Joseph Canizaro - men who The Nation identified as being part of a "largely white elite" that had "wrested control of the debate about how to rebuild [New Orleans]" after the Katrina disaster.
Media Resources: The News-Star 10/30/08; The Nation 3/23/06; Feminist Wire 8/22/08
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11364
•••••••
Vitter raises funds for fees
By GERARD SHIELDS
Advocate Washington correspondent
Nov 9, 2008
... Vitter told the FEC he incurred legal expenses in monitoring the Palfrey trial and quashing the subpoenas issued to him.
Vitter also hired an attorney to defend himself to the Senate Ethics Committee, because of a complaint filed against him by a government watchdog group. The complaint was dismissed because Vitter was never charged with a crime and the incidents occurred more than seven years ago when he was a House member.
The legal defense fund filing showed 27 contributors, 18 of whom donated the maximum $10,000. Most of the major contributors were New Orleans-based business owners who have regularly contributed to Republican causes in the state. ...
http://www.2theadvocate.com/columnists/34180794.html
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Researcher Matt Janovic Misrepresents DC Madam "Suicide"
By Alex Constantine
Matt Janovic left this comment for me re the DC Madam: " ... This flawed contention of yours and of others has had the context stripped away: she made the comment regarding if she went to prison that she feared she would be murdered there. That's a logical fear for a woman in her line of work, but there's no evidence whatsoever that she was murdered, zero."
"No evidence" is a rhetorical trick often used by propagandists planted in the "mainstream" press. It's always a lie, of course ... I respect it now about as much as I respected NPR's Scott Simon when he claimed, "There's no evidence anyone by Oswald killed Kennedy" (how naive are we supposed to be?) ...
Palfrey's comment that she'd be silenced in prison explains her "suicide," Janovic is arguing, and refutes all who suspect that the said silencing occurred outside of prison. Case closed?
A token defense of my own "flawed argument":
" ... Palfrey would not have been sentenced till July and her mother said that she did not seem suicidal, so this seems like a strange time to off herself. ... " (Source: "How Would You Make a Murder Look Like a Suicide?" Wired, May 02, 2008)
Palfrey also stated flatly: "I do not plan on committing suicide."
Janovic doesn't find this a "context" for her death?
Janovic, a self-described researcher, already knows of this clear and concise statement and others that make mincemeat of the one he cites - made public specifically in the event she should be found dead and anyone should be deceived about the circumstances of her death - but he ignores it and selects another that only makes oblique reference to suicide, if at all.
She feared prison - this is proof of "suicide" and justification for condescending to me?
Palfrey's attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley,, after the body was found: "Jeane was very clear with me that if she was ever found dead of an apparent suicide, I was to make sure that all the evidence was publicly disseminated so that it could be independently evaluated."
She wanted "all of the evidence disseminated" ... as I, an independent evaluator, have been doing ... "all" evidence as opposed to Janovic's "no evidence whatsoever."
Building Manager: DC Madam's Death Not Suicide, www.wesh.com/May 2, 2008
"The building manager of a Central Florida condo said he spent time talking to Deborah Jean Palfrey on Monday as she packed to go to her mother's house and she did not seem suicidal. ... Palfrey's death was not a suicide. ... "
http://www.wesh.com/news/16142638/detail.html
Off the cuff, I think Janovic is attempting to silence me with bogus arguments - he also cites as unimpeachable proof of "suicide" that she had stated, "They'll never take me alive." I interpret this to mean that she would fight to the death - could be wrong because I'm not a post mortem mind reader (neither is Janovic) - or bravado, possibly, but certainly not concrete "proof" of "suicide." I've uttered these words myself in my lifetime, and didn't mean suicide ...
Casual conclusion: Mr. Janovic's own arguments are as flawed as the Hindenburg, and however "flawed" I may be, I'm the one respecting Ms. Palfrey's wishes by examining "all of the evidence," and Mr. Janovic is a loudmouth schnook.
I'm no legal Roy Cohn or anything, but the DC Madam was not in a suicidal state of mind, twice-observed by witnesses close to her. "No evidence whatsoever" is too categorical, I spit. Damn the eyes of the flawed! ...
END OF PART ONE
PART TWO
Matt Janovic left this comment for me re the DC Madam: " ... This flawed contention of yours and of others has had the context stripped away: she made the comment regarding if she went to prison that she feared she would be murdered there. That's a logical fear for a woman in her line of work, but there's no evidence whatsoever that she was murdered, zero."
"No evidence" is a rhetorical trick often used by propagandists planted in the "mainstream" press. It's always a lie, of course ... I respect it now about as much as I respected NPR's Scott Simon when he claimed, "There's no evidence anyone by Oswald killed Kennedy" (how naive are we supposed to be?) ...
Palfrey's comment that she'd be silenced in prison explains her "suicide," Janovic is arguing, and refutes all who suspect that the said silencing occurred outside of prison. Case closed?
A token defense of my own "flawed argument":
" ... Palfrey would not have been sentenced till July and her mother said that she did not seem suicidal, so this seems like a strange time to off herself. ... " (Source: "How Would You Make a Murder Look Like a Suicide?" Wired, May 02, 2008)
Palfrey also stated flatly: "I do not plan on committing suicide."
Janovic doesn't find this a "context" for her death?
Janovic, a self-described researcher, already knows of this clear and concise statement and others that make mincemeat of the one he cites - made public specifically in the event she should be found dead and anyone should be deceived about the circumstances of her death - but he ignores it and selects another that only makes oblique reference to suicide, if at all.
She feared prison - this is proof of "suicide" and justification for condescending to me?
Palfrey's attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley,, after the body was found: "Jeane was very clear with me that if she was ever found dead of an apparent suicide, I was to make sure that all the evidence was publicly disseminated so that it could be independently evaluated."
She wanted "all of the evidence disseminated" ... as I, an independent evaluator, have been doing ... "all" evidence as opposed to Janovic's "no evidence whatsoever."
Building Manager: DC Madam's Death Not Suicide, www.wesh.com/May 2, 2008
"The building manager of a Central Florida condo said he spent time talking to Deborah Jean Palfrey on Monday as she packed to go to her mother's house and she did not seem suicidal. ... Palfrey's death was not a suicide. ... "
http://www.wesh.com/news/16142638/detail.html
Off the cuff, I think Janovic is attempting to silence me with bogus arguments - he also cites as unimpeachable proof of "suicide" that she had stated, "They'll never take me alive." I interpret this to mean that she would fight to the death - could be wrong because I'm not a post mortem mind reader (neither is Janovic) - or bravado, possibly, but certainly not concrete "proof" of "suicide." I've uttered these words myself in my lifetime, and didn't mean suicide ...
Casual conclusion: Mr. Janovic's own arguments are as flawed as the Hindenburg, and however "flawed" I may be, I'm the one respecting Ms. Palfrey's wishes by examining "all of the evidence," and Mr. Janovic is a loudmouth schnook.
I'm no legal Roy Cohn or anything, but the DC Madam was not in a suicidal state of mind, twice-observed by witnesses close to her. "No evidence whatsoever" is too categorical, I spit. Damn the eyes of the flawed! ...
END OF PART ONE
PART TWO
John Brennan Drops from Consideration as DCI: Links to Bush, Tenet, Pinochet, Kresa, Logicon-TASC, 9/11, Southern Asset Mgt. (National Review, too)
By Alex Constantine
Call me names if you don't comprehend this, but Brennan's colleagues were instrumental in the actual 9/11 covert operation, as opposed to the "Islamo-fascist" farce passed off to the proletariat. As CIA director, he would have been ideally situated to sustain groomed public perceptions and generally advance an agenda that would endanger national security profoundly.
As it is, the CIA poses an enormous national security threat, and holocaust "ethics" will rule so long as these unconscionable "games" are played. Abolishment of the CIA and prosecution of its heinous crimes are the only solution to cockroach rule.
- Straight Talkin' AC
Bang-bang, shoot-shoot
John Brennan, chief executive officer of the Analysis Corp., [was] rumored to be a possible candidate for CIA director in the Obama administration, reports The Washington Post.
Brennan is a former top CIA official who helped establish the National Counterterrorism Center in 2004. He left the agency in 2005 to become CEO of Analysis Corp. ...
Ironically, in March, an Analysis Corp. employee working at the State Department was accused of improperly accessing Barack Obama’s passport file. In a statement at the time, Analysis Corp. said, “We deeply regret that the incident occurred and believe it is an isolated incident.” ...
He served as an advisor to the Obama campaign on national security and is the head of Obama’s intelligence transition team. ...
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/33920-1.html
•••••••
Re SFA, Inc., Brennan, George Tenet, Bush & the National Review:
... That “consultant,” is John O. Brennan, a veteran intelligence official who served as former CIA Director George Tenet’s right-hand man in both the Clinton and Bush administrations." ...
Brennan is the president and CEO of the national-security consulting firm The Analysis Corp., which is owned by an even larger spook-assistance firm called SFA Inc. — which last year was acquired by a British firm called the Global Strategies Group. ...
John Hillen
The president of Global Strategies Group (USA) LLC is John Hillen, a former high-level State Department employee who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from 2005-2007 — just prior to being tapped to lead Global Strategies’ U.S. operations.
Hillen also is a former contributor to the neo-con mouthpiece publication the National Review and served as an advisor on defense policy to George W. Bush’ 2000 presidential campaign.
Upon Hillen’s appointment to the State Department post in 2005, National Review ran the following short announcement:
John Hillen, an NR contributing editor, has been nominated by President Bush to be assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. Hillen earned a Ph.D. at Oxford in international affairs, and a Bronze Star in the Persian Gulf War for his role in leading a cavalry unit that went into Iraq ahead of the main invasion force
We regret that our formal association with him will be suspended, but are delighted that the State Department is getting the services of such a solid conservative and fine foreign-policy mind.
An interview published in the July/August 2004 issue of Duke Magazine, Hillen’s alma mater, offers the following insight into Hillen’s character:
... Hillen is "one of the leading younger defense policy intellectuals in the Republican camp," says Duke political scientist Peter Feaver. "If Bush were to win in 2004, you'd expect he would be positioned to take a post."
"It's possible, it's possible," admits Hillen, who says he has long aspired to become assistant secretary of defense. "I certainly intend to serve again in my career as a public servant."
http://www.campusactivism.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=893&start=90
•••••••
SFA, Inc. and Skadden Arps:
Attorneys at Skadden have long-standing relationships with representatives from the U.S. government, including the executive branch agencies that comprise CFIUS — a critical element to a successful outcome. Skadden attorneys also speak and write frequently on developments regarding the CFIUS review process.
Clients that Skadden has represented in the CFIUS review process during the past several years include the following, among others ...
British-owned Global Strategies Group on its acquisition of SFA, Inc., a leading U.S. defense technology provider
http://www.skadden.com/mobile/index.cfm?pageview=practiceDetail&practiceID=101
•••••••
MICHAEL DELONEY – PRESIDENT, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (INTEGRATED SECURITY) INC. [Owns SFA, Inc.]
Mike is the President of Global Strategies Group (Integrated Security) Inc. (GUSIS) headquartered in Northern Virginia, USA. ... Prior to GLOBAL, Mike’s previous industry employment was with SAIC, Unisys, Computer
Sciences Corporation (CSC) and CACI.
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Mike%20Deloney%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
•••••••
A Global Securities Group Director was Behind the launch of ManTech
RON JONES – MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC. AND PRESIDENT, TECHNOLOGY & SYSTEMS
... Prior to GLOBAL, Ron was Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development, and a member of the Board of Directors for Gray Hawk Systems, Inc. Ron helped build and transform Gray Hawk as a national security technology company, until he initiated, led, developed, and closed the strategic sale of Gray Hawk Systems to ManTech (NASDAQ: MANT), helping them to launch ManTech into the counter-terrorism community ....
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Ron%20Jones%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Richard Armitage and ManTech
... Shortly after leaving government in 2005, Richard Armitage was recruited to the board of directors of ManTech International, a $1.7 billion corporation that does extensive work for the National Security Agency and other intelligence collection agencies. He's also since advised two private equity funds with significant holdings in intelligence enterprises. Veritas Capital, where Armitage served as a senior adviser from 2005 to 2007, owns intelligence consultant McNeil Technologies Inc. and DynCorp International, an important security contractor in Iraq. For a time, Veritas also owned MZM, Inc., the CIA and defense intelligence contractor that was caught -- before the Veritas acquisition -- bribing former Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. ...
Re ManTech: Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AR), "one of House's most vocal advocates for increased funding for the DHS, is the son of the ManTech executive vice-president Eugene Renzi. ManTech was charged with developing an information-sharing system which is called the US public and private partnership (US P3), which links public-sector agencies and private sector to "significantly strengthen the flow of real-time threat information to state, local, and private sector partners, and provides a platform for communities through the classified SECRET level to state offices. ... "
http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2007/07/privatizing-leviathan-immigration-state.html
•••••••
9/11/Post-911 Propaganda
JACQUES S. GANSLER – FORMER UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS; MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC.
Jacques Gansler, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, is the first holder of the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise. As the third ranking civilian at the Pentagon from 1997 to 2001 ...
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Gansler served as the Executive Vice President and Director for TASC Incorporated [a Litton subsidiary], an applied information technology company. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Material Acquisition); Assistant Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Electronics); Vice President of LT.T.; Program Manager at the Singer Corporation; and Engineering Manager for the Raytheon Corporation. ...
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jacques%20Gansler%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Partnership: Northrop Grumman Information Technology-TASC, Inc.
Today, they do biometrics.
At the turn of the century, researcher Nico Haupt contends, NGIT-LOGICON-TASC laid the groundwork for 9/11.
On board of General Motors – a SAM holding [Southern Asset Management: financed the controversial Path to 9/11 propaganda video] you find one of the powerbrokers of military industry: Kent Kresa from Northrop Grumman [and NG-Logicon-TASC]. Kresa handled the most important aquisitions of Northrop Grumman.
Logicon (a Northrop-Grumman subsidiary) TASC, Inc. was cobbled together by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Titan, Boeing, EDS, manufacturer of e-voting machines, Neil Armstrong's Veridian, and several other tech contractors. Logicon was a partner in the Eagle Alliance, the NSA-revamping group that included ACS, CACI, TRW, ManTech, etc., led by the aforementioned Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
These, together with Raytheon and a number intelligence-related high-tech fronts, were instrumental in the 9/11 operation, Haupt maintains.
In bestowing power upon them, ChoicePoint is a critical element here, and CP is directed by Kenneth Langone, the Tricon/Yum! Brands (held by "The Path to 9/11" sponsor SAM) and former NY Stock Exchange director. (Yum! Brands began as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent, publicly-traded company that spun-off from PepsiCo, the Tom Kean ((9/11 Commission)) haunt....)
http://truthmovecom.blogspot.com/2008/05/path-to-911-part-8-southeastern-asset.html
JACK DEVINE - FOUNDING PARTNER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ARKIN GROUP LLC; MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC.
Jack Devine is a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC, which specializes in international crisis management, strategic intelligence, investigative research and business problem solving. ... He is a recognised expert in intelligence matters and has written Op-Ed articles for The Washington Post, The Financial Times and The Miami Herald. He has also made guest appearances on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, as well as the History & Discovery channels, PBS & ABC Radio. ...
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jack%20Devine%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Jack Devine and Pinochet
Jack Devine was stationed in Chile during the [Allendé] coup as part of the Agency's Chile task force. He is now a crisis management consultant in New York with the firm The Arkin Group.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x106324
MORE ON JACK DEVINE:
... Mr. Devine served as both Acting Director and Associate Director of CIA’s operations outside the United States from 1993-1995, where he had supervisory authority over thousands of CIA employees involved in sensitive missions throughout the world. From 1995 through 1998, Mr. Devine was the senior CIA representative in Great Britain at the U.S. Embassy in London. In addition, he served as Chief of the Latin American Division from 1992-1993 and was the principal manager of the CIA’s sensitive projects in Latin America.
Between 1990 and 1992, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Counternarcotics Center, which was responsible for coordinating and building close cooperation between all major U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in tracking worldwide narcotics and crime organisations. From 1985-1987, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which successfully countered Soviet aggression in the region. In 1987, he was awarded the CIA’s Meritorious Officer Award for this accomplishment.
Mr. Devine’s international experience with the U.S. government included postings to the United Kingdom, Italy, Argentina, Venezuela, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and Chile. During his more than 30 years with the CIA, Mr. Devine was involved in organising, planning and executing countless sensitive projects in virtually all areas of intelligence, including analysis, operations, technology and management. ...
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jack%20Devine%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
DEVINE IS YET ANOTHER CIA PROPAGANDIST:
To ensure national security, strengthen the CIA
Jack Devine and Stanley Arkin
Miami Herald op-ed/22 Jul 04
" ... Instead of trying to run the CIA on the cheap, as we have for 25 years, it is time to bolster its resources -- in terms of people, money and authority ... "
http://www.cicentre.com/CI_NEWS/2004_CI_News_Archive/NEWS_2004_July_18_to_24.htm
DALE DAVIS – MANAGING DIRECTOR, AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST OF GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (MIDDLE EAST) FZE
Davis is the author of The Obligation of Empire: United States' Grand Strategy for a New Century. published by the University of Kentucky Press.
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Dale%20Davis%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
•••••••
ALSO SEE: "John O. Brennan 9/11 commission statement"
Call me names if you don't comprehend this, but Brennan's colleagues were instrumental in the actual 9/11 covert operation, as opposed to the "Islamo-fascist" farce passed off to the proletariat. As CIA director, he would have been ideally situated to sustain groomed public perceptions and generally advance an agenda that would endanger national security profoundly.
As it is, the CIA poses an enormous national security threat, and holocaust "ethics" will rule so long as these unconscionable "games" are played. Abolishment of the CIA and prosecution of its heinous crimes are the only solution to cockroach rule.
- Straight Talkin' AC
Bang-bang, shoot-shoot
John Brennan, chief executive officer of the Analysis Corp., [was] rumored to be a possible candidate for CIA director in the Obama administration, reports The Washington Post.Brennan is a former top CIA official who helped establish the National Counterterrorism Center in 2004. He left the agency in 2005 to become CEO of Analysis Corp. ...
Ironically, in March, an Analysis Corp. employee working at the State Department was accused of improperly accessing Barack Obama’s passport file. In a statement at the time, Analysis Corp. said, “We deeply regret that the incident occurred and believe it is an isolated incident.” ...
He served as an advisor to the Obama campaign on national security and is the head of Obama’s intelligence transition team. ...
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/online/1_1/33920-1.html
•••••••
Re SFA, Inc., Brennan, George Tenet, Bush & the National Review:
... That “consultant,” is John O. Brennan, a veteran intelligence official who served as former CIA Director George Tenet’s right-hand man in both the Clinton and Bush administrations." ...
Brennan is the president and CEO of the national-security consulting firm The Analysis Corp., which is owned by an even larger spook-assistance firm called SFA Inc. — which last year was acquired by a British firm called the Global Strategies Group. ...
John HillenThe president of Global Strategies Group (USA) LLC is John Hillen, a former high-level State Department employee who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from 2005-2007 — just prior to being tapped to lead Global Strategies’ U.S. operations.
Hillen also is a former contributor to the neo-con mouthpiece publication the National Review and served as an advisor on defense policy to George W. Bush’ 2000 presidential campaign.
Upon Hillen’s appointment to the State Department post in 2005, National Review ran the following short announcement:
John Hillen, an NR contributing editor, has been nominated by President Bush to be assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. Hillen earned a Ph.D. at Oxford in international affairs, and a Bronze Star in the Persian Gulf War for his role in leading a cavalry unit that went into Iraq ahead of the main invasion force
We regret that our formal association with him will be suspended, but are delighted that the State Department is getting the services of such a solid conservative and fine foreign-policy mind.
An interview published in the July/August 2004 issue of Duke Magazine, Hillen’s alma mater, offers the following insight into Hillen’s character:
In March 1999, John Hillen testified before the House of Representatives' Committee on Armed Services. "It is well worth thinking now about how to handle an Iraq on the brink of developing nuclear weapons," said Hillen, then a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "A pre-emptive invasion of Iraq might then be our least-worst course of action."
... Hillen is "one of the leading younger defense policy intellectuals in the Republican camp," says Duke political scientist Peter Feaver. "If Bush were to win in 2004, you'd expect he would be positioned to take a post."
"It's possible, it's possible," admits Hillen, who says he has long aspired to become assistant secretary of defense. "I certainly intend to serve again in my career as a public servant."
http://www.campusactivism.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=893&start=90
•••••••
SFA, Inc. and Skadden Arps:
Attorneys at Skadden have long-standing relationships with representatives from the U.S. government, including the executive branch agencies that comprise CFIUS — a critical element to a successful outcome. Skadden attorneys also speak and write frequently on developments regarding the CFIUS review process.
Clients that Skadden has represented in the CFIUS review process during the past several years include the following, among others ...
British-owned Global Strategies Group on its acquisition of SFA, Inc., a leading U.S. defense technology provider
http://www.skadden.com/mobile/index.cfm?pageview=practiceDetail&practiceID=101
•••••••
MICHAEL DELONEY – PRESIDENT, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (INTEGRATED SECURITY) INC. [Owns SFA, Inc.]
Mike is the President of Global Strategies Group (Integrated Security) Inc. (GUSIS) headquartered in Northern Virginia, USA. ... Prior to GLOBAL, Mike’s previous industry employment was with SAIC, Unisys, Computer
Sciences Corporation (CSC) and CACI.
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Mike%20Deloney%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
•••••••
A Global Securities Group Director was Behind the launch of ManTech
RON JONES – MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC. AND PRESIDENT, TECHNOLOGY & SYSTEMS
... Prior to GLOBAL, Ron was Senior Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development, and a member of the Board of Directors for Gray Hawk Systems, Inc. Ron helped build and transform Gray Hawk as a national security technology company, until he initiated, led, developed, and closed the strategic sale of Gray Hawk Systems to ManTech (NASDAQ: MANT), helping them to launch ManTech into the counter-terrorism community ....
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Ron%20Jones%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Richard Armitage and ManTech
... Shortly after leaving government in 2005, Richard Armitage was recruited to the board of directors of ManTech International, a $1.7 billion corporation that does extensive work for the National Security Agency and other intelligence collection agencies. He's also since advised two private equity funds with significant holdings in intelligence enterprises. Veritas Capital, where Armitage served as a senior adviser from 2005 to 2007, owns intelligence consultant McNeil Technologies Inc. and DynCorp International, an important security contractor in Iraq. For a time, Veritas also owned MZM, Inc., the CIA and defense intelligence contractor that was caught -- before the Veritas acquisition -- bribing former Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. ...
Re ManTech: Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AR), "one of House's most vocal advocates for increased funding for the DHS, is the son of the ManTech executive vice-president Eugene Renzi. ManTech was charged with developing an information-sharing system which is called the US public and private partnership (US P3), which links public-sector agencies and private sector to "significantly strengthen the flow of real-time threat information to state, local, and private sector partners, and provides a platform for communities through the classified SECRET level to state offices. ... "http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2007/07/privatizing-leviathan-immigration-state.html
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9/11/Post-911 Propaganda
JACQUES S. GANSLER – FORMER UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR ACQUISITION, TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS; MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC.
Jacques Gansler, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, is the first holder of the Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise. As the third ranking civilian at the Pentagon from 1997 to 2001 ...
Prior to his appointment, Dr. Gansler served as the Executive Vice President and Director for TASC Incorporated [a Litton subsidiary], an applied information technology company. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Material Acquisition); Assistant Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Electronics); Vice President of LT.T.; Program Manager at the Singer Corporation; and Engineering Manager for the Raytheon Corporation. ...
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jacques%20Gansler%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Partnership: Northrop Grumman Information Technology-TASC, Inc.
Today, they do biometrics.
At the turn of the century, researcher Nico Haupt contends, NGIT-LOGICON-TASC laid the groundwork for 9/11.
On board of General Motors – a SAM holding [Southern Asset Management: financed the controversial Path to 9/11 propaganda video] you find one of the powerbrokers of military industry: Kent Kresa from Northrop Grumman [and NG-Logicon-TASC]. Kresa handled the most important aquisitions of Northrop Grumman.
Logicon (a Northrop-Grumman subsidiary) TASC, Inc. was cobbled together by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Titan, Boeing, EDS, manufacturer of e-voting machines, Neil Armstrong's Veridian, and several other tech contractors. Logicon was a partner in the Eagle Alliance, the NSA-revamping group that included ACS, CACI, TRW, ManTech, etc., led by the aforementioned Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
These, together with Raytheon and a number intelligence-related high-tech fronts, were instrumental in the 9/11 operation, Haupt maintains.
In bestowing power upon them, ChoicePoint is a critical element here, and CP is directed by Kenneth Langone, the Tricon/Yum! Brands (held by "The Path to 9/11" sponsor SAM) and former NY Stock Exchange director. (Yum! Brands began as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent, publicly-traded company that spun-off from PepsiCo, the Tom Kean ((9/11 Commission)) haunt....)
http://truthmovecom.blogspot.com/2008/05/path-to-911-part-8-southeastern-asset.html
JACK DEVINE - FOUNDING PARTNER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ARKIN GROUP LLC; MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (NORTH AMERICA) INC.
Jack Devine is a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC, which specializes in international crisis management, strategic intelligence, investigative research and business problem solving. ... He is a recognised expert in intelligence matters and has written Op-Ed articles for The Washington Post, The Financial Times and The Miami Herald. He has also made guest appearances on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, as well as the History & Discovery channels, PBS & ABC Radio. ...http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jack%20Devine%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
Jack Devine and PinochetJack Devine was stationed in Chile during the [Allendé] coup as part of the Agency's Chile task force. He is now a crisis management consultant in New York with the firm The Arkin Group.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x106324
MORE ON JACK DEVINE:
... Mr. Devine served as both Acting Director and Associate Director of CIA’s operations outside the United States from 1993-1995, where he had supervisory authority over thousands of CIA employees involved in sensitive missions throughout the world. From 1995 through 1998, Mr. Devine was the senior CIA representative in Great Britain at the U.S. Embassy in London. In addition, he served as Chief of the Latin American Division from 1992-1993 and was the principal manager of the CIA’s sensitive projects in Latin America.
Between 1990 and 1992, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Counternarcotics Center, which was responsible for coordinating and building close cooperation between all major U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in tracking worldwide narcotics and crime organisations. From 1985-1987, Mr. Devine headed the CIA’s Afghan Task Force, which successfully countered Soviet aggression in the region. In 1987, he was awarded the CIA’s Meritorious Officer Award for this accomplishment.
Mr. Devine’s international experience with the U.S. government included postings to the United Kingdom, Italy, Argentina, Venezuela, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and Chile. During his more than 30 years with the CIA, Mr. Devine was involved in organising, planning and executing countless sensitive projects in virtually all areas of intelligence, including analysis, operations, technology and management. ...
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Jack%20Devine%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
DEVINE IS YET ANOTHER CIA PROPAGANDIST:
To ensure national security, strengthen the CIA
Jack Devine and Stanley Arkin
Miami Herald op-ed/22 Jul 04
" ... Instead of trying to run the CIA on the cheap, as we have for 25 years, it is time to bolster its resources -- in terms of people, money and authority ... "
http://www.cicentre.com/CI_NEWS/2004_CI_News_Archive/NEWS_2004_July_18_to_24.htm
DALE DAVIS – MANAGING DIRECTOR, AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST OF GLOBAL STRATEGIES GROUP (MIDDLE EAST) FZE
Davis is the author of The Obligation of Empire: United States' Grand Strategy for a New Century. published by the University of Kentucky Press.
http://www.globalgroup.com/user-assets/Documents/Dale%20Davis%20-%20Website%20Biography.pdf
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ALSO SEE: "John O. Brennan 9/11 commission statement"
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