Tuesday, February 28, 2006


I know that every other liberal blogger ran these days ago. But just what is the upside to civil war in Iraq? So, my top 10 list of good things about civil war in Iraq...

1. Better than "uncivil" war.

2. Makes disarray in the Bush administration look good by comparison.

3. New Orleans doesn't look so bad now.

4. Better than civil war here.

5. Bush destroying two countries for the price of one.

6. Iraq coverage reveals Fox "News" for what it is. If Bush was caught having sex with a little boy they would probably do stories on the "good side" of pedophilia.

7. OK, I need four more.
Ha Ha Ha!

Monday, February 27, 2006

Whistleblower Charged With Three Felonies for Exposing Diebold's Crimes

His name is Stephen Heller, and I have added him to my list of heroes. None of the names on that list are very well known. And, so far, none of them are in the government.
Reporter Rob Johnson couldn't understand why his name showed up on the federal no-fly terrorism list last July:

It all started last July when I headed to California with my family on my two-month-old son's first trip. We arrived an hour and a half early at O'Hare. We tried to check our bags curbside, but were told to go inside. The automated kiosk didn't work either, so we went to the American Airlines counter. After several computer checks we were told one of our names were on the federal no-fly list. By the time we were cleared it was too late to catch our flight.
Robert Johnson from Villa Park says he has encountered the same issues.

"It's pretty frustrating. They tell you your name is on some government list and it's like, What?" he said. "Every time I fly, you know, you just think about all the other Robert Johnsons flying and this thing is happening to them, too. They've got to come up with a better plan."

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=3929574
But now it is becoming clearer--these two Robert Johnsons--and how many others?--have the misfortune of sharing the same name with notorious terrorist Dr. Robert Johnson. Not a very likely terrorist at first glance, Dr. Johnson is a distinguished surgeon, an honorably discharged Army Lt. Colonel, and a candidate for Congress. But--he is a critic of the Bush administration and is against the war in Iraq.

A two-time candidate for Congress wants to know why he's been placed on a federal list as a possible terror suspect.

newswatch50.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=63088BB8-7CE9-44F8-B58B-2E10D40F91F8

It is, of course, theoretically possible that Dr. Johnson was just unlucky enough to share a name with an Islamo-fascist terrorist by the name of "Robert Johnson." And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon, to quote Star Trek's Scotty.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Friday, February 24, 2006

"One can't doubt that the American
objective in Iraq has failed."

William F. Buckley

www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200602241451.asp

It is hard to believe that it was in June of 2005 that Vice President "Dead Eye" Dick Cheney announced that the insurgency was in its "last throes." That was, of course, the "light at the end of the tunnel" moment of the war in Iraq, and that is when I concluded that the cause was lost.

Jesus' General

I've added a new link in the bloggers section, http://patriotboy.blogspot.com which is titled Jesus' General, from which I took the accompanying graphics.


Oh, my God! I know I wasn't going to post any more photos of scantily clad women, but OH MY GOD! Remember when Abbie Hoffman was censored for wearing an American flag shirt on television? And now conservatives are blatantly using sex (and the flag) to sell T-shirts. I'm shocked, really.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

"Anyone can go to Baghdad. Real men go to Tehran."

Senior Bush Official, May 2003

www.counterpunch.org/shahid01172006.html
I knew it!

From Ratbang Diary:

Last night CNN’s Lou Dobbs was on the right track when he said, “President Bush's family and members of the Bush administration have long-standing business connections with the United Arab Emirates, and those connections are raising new concerns and questions tonight in some quarters about why the president is defying his very own party leadership and his party in defending the Dubai port deal.”

CNN’s Christine Romans was even more enlightening. She said, “The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.”

Romans went on to say,“Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.”

“Then there is the cabinet connection,” Romans said. “Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.“In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. ‘I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers.’”

Romans continued, “Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.

ratbangdiary.blogspot.com/2006/02/whatever-wh-says-about-uae-its-lie.html


As I said last Tuesday: "Somehow, somewhere, the Bush family is making money off this deal."

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Congresswoman Sue Myrick on the port deal

http://images.redstate.com/images/myrickuae.pdf
DP World and Carlyle Group

NYTexan posted this on the Free Republic site:

Public statement of purchase of CSX by DP:

www.dpiterminals.com/fullnews.asp?NewsID=4

Earlier purchase of CSX by Carlyle Groupe:

www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/news/l5-news2467.html

Carlyle Group has, among its officers, Frank Carlucci, James Baker and former president George Bush.
Robert Parry on the port deal

The Bush administration is letting the United Arab Emirates take control of six key U.S. ports despite its own port’s reputation as a smuggling center used by arms traffickers, drug dealers and terrorists, apparently including the assassins of Lebanon’s ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

www.consortiumnews.com/2006/022206.html
The one and only Candy Barr
Conservative John LeBoutillier on the port deal

If Vice President Dick Cheney shot himself in the foot last week when he shot poor old Harry Whittington down on the Armstrong Ranch, President Bush is in the process of machine gunning both his legs off over this Dubai Ports World deal.

www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/2/21/225541.shtml?s=lh
Dubai: Our loyal ally in the war on terror?

March 25, 2004 12 -- The Central Intelligence Agency did not target Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden once as he had the royal family of the United Arab Emirates with him in Afghanistan, the agency's director, George Tenet, told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States on Thursday.

Had the CIA targeted bin Laden, half the royal family would have been wiped out as well, he said.

http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/mar/25osama.htm
Response to readers

A few days back I asked my regular readers what they wanted to see in this blog. Here are the replies and my responses:

Anonymous said...
JFK assissination stuff. Current events. Yeah,I'm interested in reading that stuff. And yes,I do appreciate the occasional scantily-clad woman.

OK, great Anonymous, thanks. More JFK assissination and current event stuff on the way. And look for the occasional scantily-clad women.

albion said...
dirt, baby, dirt! scandals, rumors, irresponsible speculation. all that stuff that makes the blogosphere so great.

You got it albion! Bush is gay, you know. I mean really, really gay.

mikevotes said...
I go with Albion. That's what I enjoy when I come by. Doesn't have to be current, I like the posts that imply and let me go off into my own speculations.Mike

Thanks Mike. Mike authors one of the best blogs, Born at the Crest of the Empire.

Anonymous said...
Do away with non-JFK strippers and stick to the Kennedy assassination. That's your strong suit.

OK, more Kennedy assassination stuff coming soon. I realize that there are plenty of blogs that excerpt news stories and comment on them, and do it better. I try to avoid that type of post unless it fits into my focus around covert operations and the intelligence community, or unless there is something I really want to say. No more non-JFK strippers--I do like strippers--however, I will try to limit it to strippers who worked for Jack Ruby. Look for new photos of Candy Barr soon.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Bush: Arab Co. Port Deal Should Proceed

Bush Says Deal With Arab Company to Run U.S. Ports Should Proceed, Vows to Veto Efforts Otherwise

WASHINGTON Feb 21, 2006 (AP)— President Bush said Tuesday that a deal allowing an Arab company to take over six major U.S. seaports should go forward and that he would veto any congressional effort to stop it.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1645919

Bush hasn't threatend a veto since the torture bill, and we know how dear torture is to him. Somehow, somewhere, the Bush family is making money off this deal.

Clearly DP World, the state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates that wants to take over our ports, can be trusted with our national security. Look at the cute cartoon mascots from their website.
Peter Dale Scott on the Homeland Security Contracts

Paranoids on the right and the left have been talking about FEMA and the coming police state for a long time now. I remember such talk during the Nixon administration, and although our form of government was in danger during his time, democracy prevailed. So, I believe, it will be today. But when a responsible political researcher like Professor Peter Dale Scott raises the alarm, I am, well, alarmed.

It is clear that the Bush administration is thinking seriously about martial law.

globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20SC20060206&articleId=1897

Paranoids of both the right and left have been talking about the coming police state for decades--but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration’s domestic operations -- Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy.

“The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,” Graham, R-S.C., told Gonzales during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Feb. 6.
Plus, there was that curious development in January when the Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root a $385 million contract to construct detention centers somewhere in the United States, to deal with “an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs,” KBR said. [Market Watch, Jan. 26, 2006]

Later, the New York Times reported that “KBR would build the centers for the Homeland Security Department for an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space.” [Feb. 4, 2006]
A secret Pentagon “Information Operations Roadmap,” approved by Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for “full spectrum” information operations and notes that “information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa.”

www.consortiumnews.com/2006/022106a.html



Although I do believe that America is in the period of greatest danger to democratic, constitutional government since the Nixon era, I still feel that our democratic traditions are too strong to be destroyed by the Bush administration.
Prominent conservative Joseph Farah has accused former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Al Gore of treason:

What is it with this recent trend of American officials and former officials going abroad to criticize their own country and enflame the passions of our nation's enemies?

I don't suppose there is any way to rein them in. Personally, I think anyone who conducts himself in this way should be barred from re-entering the country. That's not likely to happen in this era of America-bashing.

But, at least, Americans should understand what is happening. At least Americans should hold these officials and former officials accountable for their actions. At the very least, they need to be treated for what they are when they come home – irresponsible, gutless traitors.

www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48923



The growing polarization of politics in this country is appalling and troubling. Accusing political opponents of treason,and other extreme rhetoric is not limited to the Right, but that is where most of it seems to come from of late.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Alberto J. Mora was the general counsel of the U.S. Navy and a Reagan conservative. When he was informed of interrogation practices at Guantanomo by the head of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), David Brant, he objected.

Two years before the Abu Ghraib scandal, the general counsel of the U.S. Navy wrote a memo which tried to halt the "disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects,"

I was under the opinion that the interrogation activities described would be unlawful and unworthy of the military services.” Mora told me, “I was appalled by the whole thing. It was clearly abusive, and it was clearly contrary to everything we were ever taught about American values.”

The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America—even those designated as ‘unlawful enemy combatants.’ If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It’s a transformative issue.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Memo_that_warned_about_detainee_abuse_0220.html

From his memo obtained by the New Yorker:

In a late afternoon meeting, NCIS Director David Brant informed me that the NCIS agents attached to JTF-160, the criminal investigation task force in Guantanamo, Cuba had learned that some detainees confined in Guatanamo were being subjected to physical abuse and degrading treatment. This treatment--which the NCIS agents had not participated in or witnessed--was allegedly being inflicted by personell attached to JTF-170, the intelligence task force, and was rumored to have been authorized, at least in part, at a "high level" in Washington, although NCIS has not seen the text of this authority. The NCIS agents at Guantanomo and civilian and military personell from other services were upset at this treatment and regarded such treatment as unlawful and in violation of American values. Director Brant emphasized that NCIS would not engage in abusive treatment even if ordered to and did not wish to be even indirectly associated with a facility that engaged in such practices.

www.newyorker.com/images/pdfs/moramemo.pdf

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Iran War in March?

Evil Genius Michael Ledeen is still promoting war in Iran. This recent column is interesting:

Sometime in late November or early December, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gathered his top advisers for an overall strategic review. The atmosphere was highly charged, because Khamenei’s doctors have diagnosed a serious cancer, and do not expect the Supreme Leader to live much more than a year. A succession struggle is already under way, with the apparently unsinkable Hashemi Rafsanjani in the thick of it, even though Khamenei, and his increasingly powerful son Mushtaba, is opposed to the perennial candidate-for-whatever.

Despite this disquieting news, the overall tone of the conversation was upbeat, because the Iranians believe they see many positive developments, above all, the declaration that "it has been promised that by 8 April, we will be in a position to show the entire world that 'we are members of the club.'" This presumably refers to nuclear weapons.

www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen.asp

Ledeen does not tell us how he came by this information.
It needed to be said:

The gravest indictment of the American news media is that George W. Bush has gutted the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter – yet this extraordinary story does not lead the nation’s newspapers and the evening news every day.

-Robert Parry www.consortiumnews.com/2006/021806.html
Russell Tice's Dilemma
A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans' Constitutional rights.

Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with Congress.

Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution's protection against unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees - members or their staff - because they lack high enough clearance. Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is notcleared to hear the information, he said.

Tice was testifying because he was a National Security Agency intelligence officer who was stripped of his security clearance after he reported his suspicions that a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency was a spy. The matter was dismissed by the DIA, but Tice pressed it later and was subsequently ordered to take a psychological examination, during which he was declared paranoid.

www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060214-053955-9494r

I'm feeling a little paranoid myself.
Harry Whittington and Funeralgate

Bernice Moore posted this at www.jfkresearch.com:

The Lawyer Harry Whittington, that was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney, heads the Texas Funeral Service Commission...which..

Was involved in the Bush scandal "Funeralgate" which involved the worlds largest funeral conglomerate..Waltrip Mortuaries..

One of Waltrips Companies won the contract to collect the bodies after "Katrina"..about which there is much on the web.

www.onlinejournal.org/Special_Repor...505leopold.html

The former head of the Commission, was fired, and replaced by Whittington..sued and did win a settlement..

www.austinchronicle.com/issues/disp...ols_naked5.html

www.hereinreality.com/funeralgate.htm

www.apfn.net/messageboard/10-26-03/...on.cgi.163.html

Dr.Cyril Wecht, was one of the coroners, that had been investigating the deaths....

www.cyrilwecht.com/index.php
The Prince of Darkness on Bush and the CIA

Former Undersecretary of Defense Richard Perle, a strong supporter of the war against Saddam, blasted the CIA for orchestrating a smear campaign against the Bush White House and the war in Iraq.

"The CIA has been at war with the Bush administration almost from the beginning," he said in a keynote speech at the Intelligence Summit on Saturday.

He singled out recent comments by Paul Pillar, a former top CIA Middle East analyst, alleging that the Bush White House "cherry-picked" intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.

www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/2/18/233023.shtml?s=lh

Friday, February 17, 2006

Have a good weekend everybody!

I figure I have about six or seven regular readers and I know I have disappointed you guys this week. I will try to do better. What do you guys like? JFK assassination stuff, current events, stripper photos? Let me know: I am here to please.

Monday, February 13, 2006


Clint Curtis Running for Congress!

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a "Heroes" section in my links because now more than ever America needs heroes. One of mine is Clint Curtis, who has accused Congressman Tom Feeney of asking him to create a vote-rigging software prototype program. Now Clint is running against Tom Feeney. That should be an interesting debate.

www.clintcurtis.com/

Clint Curtis for Congress!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Prez Wins One-Day Lying Trifecta

Yesterday, disclosures showed Bush lied on three separate issues:

1. The Prez says Library Tower in Los Angeles was the target for a 2002 attack. Untrue from the git-go.

2. The White House knew the New Orleans levees had been breached the night it happened even though the next day the Prez said New Orleans had “dodged a bullet”.

3. E-mail from lobbyist Jack Abramoff confirmed that he met at least twelve times with George W. Bush.

http://ratbangdiary.blogspot.com/2006/02/prez-wins-one-day-lying-trifecta.html

Friday, February 10, 2006

A scantily-clad woman
Every rightwing site in the country has posted the anti-Muslim cartoons (because they are such strong believers in freedom of speech.) So I thought I would exercise my freedom of speech. No offense.
"Suffer the little children to come unto me."

God walking his dog.



A classic

And a real classic.

"Shrink not from blasphemy, 'twill pass for wit" -- Lord Byron

Thursday, February 09, 2006

The Drums of War

The press and the Democrats have taken a war that could maybe, just maybe, have been fought by the nation's intelligence services over here and our elite military forces overseas, and turned it into a street brawl. A nuclear Iran means nuclear weapons in the hands of Islamic terrorists. That means the end of civilization.

Islam has proven itself incapable of routing the evil that has grown within it. The inescapable conclusion is that "moderate" Muslims support the goals of the terrorists to present a single world in submission to Allah. The West now faces a moral imperative that goes beyond the destruction of terrorist-aligned Islamic states, to the destruction of Islam itself.

www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48750

Not sure how we might go about destroying Islam.

Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces 'World War IV'

Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years.
"As we move toward a new Middle East," Woolsey said, "over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous."

"Our response should be, 'good!'" Woolsey said.

Singling out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We're on the side of your own people."

It will be America's backing of democratic movements throughout the Middle East that will bring about this sense of unease, he said.

www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/
I don't know about Mubarak but it makes me nervous.
The argument in favor of the National Security Agency intercepts is consistent with those that took us to war in Iraq. They are all a collection, an assemblage, a concatenation of fibs, exaggerations, misinterpretations, selected evidence, hype, false leads, vile suggestions, felonious deletions and the like, which marched us to Baghdad where we remain to this day.

Richard Cohen, Washington Post columnist

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Get Ready for the Next War

They're at it again: a Middle Eastern country is accused of having, aspiring to have, and wishing they had "weapons of mass destruction." Its leader is demonized as worse than Hitler. Its ambitions are described as virtually unlimited. And it is said to be threatening its neighbors – and the United States.

The same gang that lied us into war last time is preparing a rerun of the same nightmarish movie, only this time in a new location: Iran. Starring many of the same actors, this story line should sound eerily familiar to anyone who hasn't been under a rock somewhere. The same lies, mouthed by the same crew of warmongers, are uncritically broadcast by the "mainstream" media.

http://www.antiwar.com/
Why Do They Always go after the Peace Groups?

National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group

According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored by the NSA working with the Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/National_Security_Agency_spied_on_Baltimore_0110.html

FBI targeting US activist activities as 'domestic terrorism'

The documents released by the ACLU also include FBI observances on supposed Communist leanings of the Catholic Workers Group

"The documents released by the ACLU also include FBI observances on supposed Communist leanings of the Catholic Workers Group (CWG). In an e-mail to the counterterrorism unit, an unidentified official wrote, “the Catholic Workers advocated peace with a Christian and semi-communistic ideology.” In another document, an agent writes, “Based on the author’s interpretation of comments made by various CWG protestors, CWG also advocates a communist distribution of resources.”"

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/1723783.php

FBI, DoD, NSA: All Spying on You

According to records obtained by the ACLU under a Freedom Of Information Act request, the FBI’s targets included people involved in a “vegan community project” in Indianapolis, the Catholic Worker movement and its “semi-communistic ideology,” Code Pink, the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice, Greenpeace and attendees of the Third National Organizing Conference on Iraq, which was held at Stanford University in May 2005. According to the documents, in some cases the FBI received information about those under surveillance from informers within the targeted groups.

www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2474/

Thank God for the American Civil Liberties Union
On the Home Front

New Mexico ACLU wants apology to employee investigated on 'sedition'

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico wants the government to apologize to a nurse for seizing her computer and investigating her for "sedition" after she criticized the Bush administration.

www.freenewmexican.com/news/38858.html

Frozen Account Ruffles Nuns

ST. LEO - The nuns of the Holy Name Monastery say they have been swept into the net cast by the nation's antiterrorism laws.

The sisters say the monastery's main bank account was frozen without explanation in November, creating financial headaches and making the Benedictine nuns hopping mad. They were told the Patriot Act was the cause.

www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBTP976FJE.html

The Terrorists of Tiny Town: Homeland security keeping our country safe from kindergarteners

WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school.

www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=14089024
The Drums of War

Iranian fingerprints on cartoon-rage riots?
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48716

Poll: Iran Biggest Threat to U.S.
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/7/144522.shtml?s=ic&s=lh

Military strike against Iran may be necessary
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48227

Newt Gingrich: Iran’s President is the New Hitler
www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/25/100038.shtml?s=ic

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

What I'm reading:

Ron Brown's Body: How One Man's Death Saved the Clinton Presidency and Hillary's Future by Jack Cashill

Cashill's book is better than I thought it would be given that it is published by WND Press, associated with WorldNetDaily, one of the nuttier wingnut news sites. I am not convinced that Ron Brown was murdered--and, in fact, the author himself says that an accident cannot be ruled out although he clearly leans toward murder. There is certainly information in this book that is suspicious to say the least. Cashill quotes "Wecht's Law", named after famed pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, who has been a prominent Warren Commission critic for decades. Wecht's Law states: "The more controversial a case, the more likely evidence is to turn up missing." In the case of Ron Brown, the first set of x-rays, which appeared to show a "lead snowstorm", indicative of a bullet having been fired, disappeared and a new set of x-rays were taken. The second set of x-rays themselves then disappeared. Cashill also relates the stories of several witnesses, including a forensic photographer, Kathleen Janoski, and Lt. Colonel Steve Coswell, who describe the suspicious hole in Brown's head.

One fact struck me: clearly someone with a lot of money was interested in investigating the death of Ron Brown. One of Cashill's sources was an apparently highly-regarded researcher by the name of Stephen Dresh, a high-level ($250 an hour) "forensic economist", who requested that his clients not be named. Nor did Dresch work alone--Cashill refers to his "Russian associates working for him on the ground in Croatia."

Regardless as to whether Ron Brown was murdered or died in a tragic accident there is much interesting material in this book. As he states:

Even if the plane crash were accidental, Brown and the thirty-four others died for no higher purpose than to secure a sweetheart deal between a fascist dictator and a notoriously corrupt American company.

That company was Enron. And as Cashill states:

Enron execs would become frequent flyers on Brown trade missions. On the last one, with impressive clairvoyance, they chose to take their own planes.

Cashill is no fan of Bill Clinton. Clearly he believes that Ron Brown's activities related to the so-called Chinagate scandal, namely allegations that Bill Clinton damaged this nation's security by allowing the transfer of dual-use technology to China, in exchange for campaign contributions.

The issue is not that clear-cut. Clinton did change his campaign positions and grant waivers allowing sensititive technology to be sold to China, however, there was a debate in his administration between those who favored a more restrictive approach, and those who favored a policy of "constructive engagement" with China. Clinton was under heavy pressure from some of the wealthiest and most powerful businessmen in the country to grant the waivers:

Motorola. Loral. Hughes. MCI. RSA Security. They all wanted the same thing--an open door to China, national security be damned.

To be fair, there are those who view Clinton's effort to "liberalize" export controls as a kind of necessary reform. They include much, if not most, of the high-tech corporate leadership and at least a few academics.

A few years back, WorldNetDaily and similar sites were full of stories hyping the China threat, and the likelihood, if not inevitability of war with China. Now, of course, we have a new enemy, the war on terror, and the China threat has faded in the minds of the Right. It might be argued that the policy of "constructive engagement" was successful and that America's economic ties with that nation are so strong as to make war undesirable on either side.
The CIA Leak: Plame Was Still Covert

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11179719/site/newsweek

So now Sean Hannity and the rest of them will put that lie to rest, right? Did anyone really think that the CIA would have referred this matter for prosecution if Plame did not meet the standards of the statute? Valerie Plame was a covert operative and her status was betrayed by officials at the highest level of the Bush administration. The fact that Karl Rove still has a security clearance is a travesty.

Larry Johnson, whose background is with the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism has this to say:

This much I do know. The CIA, as matter of standard operating procedure, conducted a prelimnary damage assessment once Valerie's identity was publicly compromised. Human intelligence assets who had worked under Valerie's direction were damaged. Their lives were put at risk (I don't know if anyone died) and their ability to serve as clandestine assets reporting to the United States was destroyed. Remember, Valerie was working on projects to identify terrorists and criminals who were trying to procure weapons of mass destruction. Part of this information was the basis for the referral to the Justice Department in September 2003 to investigate this as a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

Regardless of whether Fitzgerald can prosecute an Intelligence Identities Protection case, this much is clear--people who work for President Bush knowingly compromised an intelligence officer's identity. What is truly shameful are the prominent Republicans who are raising funds for Libby's defense fund. They are endorsing an act of treason and excusing it for political expediency. That may not be a crime, but it is wrong.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/02/vindication_in_.html#more

Sunday, February 05, 2006

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- In an interview airing tonight on the PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson makes the startling claim that much of Powell's landmark speech to the United Nations laying out the Bush Administration's case for the Iraq war was false.

"I participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community, and the United Nations Security Council," says Wilkerson, who helped prepare the address.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060203/nyf073.html?.v=35


So now we can say Bush lied without contradiction, right?

Friday, February 03, 2006

Bin Laden Truce Offer: An expert opinion

Some are portraying Osama bin Laden's offer of a truce as a sign of weakness. Michael Scheuer, a former CIA counter-terrorism expert on al-Qaeda, disagrees:

Q: Is he reading us our rights?

Scheuer: In many ways that’s exactly what he’s up to, one final try to get us to change our policies or he’s going to attack us again.

Q: Can he do it?

Scheuer: Oh sure, our borders are wide open. The other thing I always point to is that the Soviet nuclear arsenal isn’t under control. Also the message is very much in the tradition of Islamic history. The prophet offered truces to infidels; Salidin offered truces to Europeans during the Crusades. It will be a message that resonates very loudly in the Islamic world, in a positive way.

Scheuer: I think there will be an attack on America within the next year. I think it was about nine months after he warned the Europeans that London occurred. I would think before the November ‘06 elections, but I’m not sure he’s interested in influencing the elections. Although he clearly prefers the Republicans to the Democrats. He’s afraid the Democrats will fool Muslims by not changing policy but having a softer rhetoric.
www.consortiumnews.com/2006/020306a.html

Thursday, February 02, 2006

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,,1700881,00.html

So, now can we say BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED without the wingnuts criticizing us?
The Spider’s Web: The Texas School Book Depository and the Dallas Conspiracy
By William Weston

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=5b46a3ee8430478ac5db45d915e5e01d&showtopic=6017

Recently, Wilmer Thomas, a friend of Jim Garrison and a philanthropist in New York who funds the Metropolitan Opera, approached Arthur Schlesinger, historian for the Kennedy administration, and asked him who was responsible for the assassination of the President. Schlesinger replied, “We were at war with the national security people.” [48] When President Kennedy declared that he would break the CIA into a thousand pieces [49], the intelligence community formed an alliance with the Mafia to bring him down.

The entire article is well worth reading.
Jeb shredding state records?

A source inside the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation told Insider magazine that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has ordered the shredding of documents and public records, a clear violation of Florida law.

The department has oversight and approval of state gaming licensees, slot machines, dog and horse tracks, and jai-alai games.

The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the governor also has brought in personnel from Texas to replace key members of his staff in Tallahassee. The Texans are overseeing the destruction of state documents, according to the source.

A source in the FBI confirmed that public records are being destroyed on orders of Jeb Bush. The source said the governor may have taken that action in response to the continuing criminal probe of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the federal investigation of the 2001 gangland murder in Miami of Gus Boulis, owner of the Sun Cruz casino boat.

www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=2&id=12347
This Bush thing must stop.
“We must all be prepared to torture.” — Charles Krauthammer, “The Truth About Torture,” The Weekly Standard, December 5, 2005

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced today that, swayed by the powerful arguments of an article in The Weekly Standard, he is prepared to torture Vice-President Cheney and political counselor Karl Rove for information that is “urgently needed” to save American lives. “I have determined that American lives can be saved by ending the ongoing stonewalling by these two suspects, who have clearly orchestrated a campaign which endangers U.S. intelligence agents’ lives. The Weekly Standard has opened my eyes to the fact that my being previously unprepared to torture is deeply immoral, given the American lives that I believe can be saved by the urgently needed information that Cheney and Rove possess.”

www.williambowles.info/guests/2006/0106/prepared_to_torture.html

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Harry Dean - Wade Rhodes posted this on the JFK Forum (see links) and Frank Agbat was good enough to transcribe it. I have a lot of documents on Harry Dean and will eventually put together a research project on him. Any information on Harry Dean is appreciated.

maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=9980&relPageId=30

In an exclusive interview granted to Between the Lines, former undercover operative for the FBI, Harry Dean, has stated that the John Birch Society and the Drive Against Communist Aggression (DACA) had a heavily armed network of citizen soldiers ready to take to the streets in late 1963 and early 1964, if President Johnson and Chief Justice Warren did not quickly find Lee Harvey Oswald (a supposed communist sympathizer) guilty of the murder of President Kennedy. The thread was delivered to Johnson and Warren, within a few days after the assassination, but intelligence sources and by agents of the power structure that eliminated the President. LBJ had the choice - nation-wide internal strife or knuckling under to the thread and thereby giving the minority force a position of recognition. Johnson opted for the second choice.Dean, an undercover operative for the FBI from 1960 to 1965, had been assigned by the FBI to infiltrate the Birch Society. During Dean's tour with the Covina Chapter of the Society he states they planned three major activities against John Kennedy: a planned assassination in Mexico City in 1962 that was called off; the assassination in Dallas, and the threat against a thorough investigation. In each case, according to Harry Dean, Congressman John Rousselot (Rep. San Marino) was involved in the planning. Rousselot was Western Director of the JBS during the first half of the '60's.During the years when Harry Dean had been acting as an active member of the Covina Birch Society, the main meeting place for all the anti-Kennedy activities was at the a residence on San Pierre Street in El Monte. The Birchers were connected with anti-Castro Cubans, often mentioned as assassination suspects, through the DACA. The DACA was an anti-Communist organization directed by members of the JBS, which had attracted certain Cubans who were in the Los Angeles area during 1962-1963, trying to enlist support in another invasions of Castro controlled Cuba. The DACA operated in Mexico as well as the U.S.. According to Dean, World War II hero Guy (Gabby) Gabaldon was the Mexican Director, while Ray Fleishman of Whittier was the U.S. Director. Another active member of DACA and the Covina JBS, who had a close relationship with Gabaldon, was Dave Robbins, who at the time ('62-63) was a high ranking employee of the Fluor Corporation. (J. Robert Fluor and John Rousselot had been known to be close political allies). In a number of different circumstances, Dean was able to determine that Gabaldon, Robbins, Flieshman, and Rousselot had been involved in planning the aborted assassination attempt of JFK in Mexico City, June 1962.Harry Dean had many occasions to observe and relate with much publicized Cuban-American Loran Eugene Hall - aka Lorenzon Pacillo - aka Skip Hall and Laurence Howard - aka Alonzo Escuirdo. Hall and Howard had a close association with former General Edwin Walker, of Texas, whenever Walker visited the Covina JBS. Dean recalls specific meetings where Walker, Rousselot, Hall, Howard, Gabaldon, and himself (Dean) laid the plans to frame LHO, who they thought was a communist, as the assassin. Per Dean, Hall and Howard left the San Pierre Street house in October 1963, with arms and medicines, and the plans to implicate Oswald. The subject of eliminating President Kennedy was never discussed as a subject of the Society's meeting, but Harry Dean claims the plans for the assassination were conceived in small-group meetings. At one time or another, Harry Dean was witness to the plans of the assassination of JFK by different combinations of John Rousselot, Loren Hall, Laurence Howard, Guy Gabaldon, Edwin Walker, Dave Robbins, Ray Flieshman, and not previously mentioned Covina JBS member Ed Peters.
Site Meter Blog Directory Anti-Bush Newsgroup Blogarama - The Blog Directory