Alex Constantine's 9/11 TruthMove

American Sponsorship of Global Terrorism

2009-12-23T08:16:00.001-08:00

By Alex Constantine
From Psychic Dictatorship in the USA II (2008 e-book - see sidebar here)

Part I: An American Pinay Circle
Part II: Richard Perle's Narco-Terrorist Business Partner
Part III: Al Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf & the CIA’S Terror Incubator in the Philippines
Part IV: Adnan Khashoggi, Alexander Voloshin & the 1999 Moscow Bombings

“... The sky burns,
A copper roof over the shriveled corn.
Children and camels gasp in the noonday heat.
Enemies sweat in their steel, cry out at night,
And wake up trembling, wet with fright.
We squat and stare
Across the nervous barbs,
tied by our common dreads...”
– Aubrey Hodes, “Hating”

I An American Pinay Circle

Adnan Khashoggi’s mercenary army of global corporate criminals lives in Mafia mansions, basks in the political limelight, enjoys privileges of royalty in tyrannical desert dystopias, sips vodka in the shadow of gleaming Moscow spires. They are kings, Pentagon officials, priests, S&L thieves, assassins, prostitutes, nazis, Big Oil executives, metals merchants, New Age cultists, drug barons, boiler-room con artists, mobsters, dictators by the horde. And terrorists, of course.

Khashoggi is a Turkoman, the son of a doctor who tended to Abdul al-Aziz Ibn Saud. The Khashoggi brothers were classmates of the future King Hussein and several sons of the bin Ladens.1 His career as an international “connector” began in the 1950s, while still an undergraduate at Chico State College. His purchase of fifty Kenworth trucks for resale to Saudi Arabia’s bin Laden Group demonstrated his business savvy, and provided him the capital to launch his career as world-class death merchant.

Edwin Pauley

In the early 1960s, he could be found languishing in the sun or plotting world domination at Edwin Pauley’s Coconut Island estate in Hawaii. Pauley, then Democratic Party chairman, operated an oil company called Zapata with the son of Prescott Bush, the Nazi collaborator.2

Houston attorney Linda Minor sidelines as an investigator into banking and political malfeasance. She discovered that Pauley was a slimy operator years before his alliance with Bush.

“He was a spy within the White House,” Minor says, “acting as a funnel for campaign funds to FDR, while at the same time gathering and transmitting information about oil policy and captured Nazi and Japanese assets back to his California business associates.”

Pauley's political significance stems from his participation in Gulf of Mexico oil explorations in the 1950's when, with an oil concession from Mexico, he threw in with Howard Hughes and George H.W. Bush.

“Pauley taught Bush how to launder money through corporate subsidiaries to be used for payoffs and the financing of political campaigns,” Minor notes. “Both Pauley and Bush used this system to finance Richard Nixon's presidential campaigns.”

The laundering scheme unraveled after the 1972 election, when a check drawn at a Mexican bank – the subsidiary of a Houston corporation controlled by associates of Bush the elder - surfaced in the Miami bank account of a Watergate plumber.3

Saudi shiekhs and domestic oil barons struck up alliances. Shiekh Kamal Adham and a circle of cohorts founded Arabian Shield Development Co. in Texas. (since re-named the Arabian American Development Company).

Sheikh Mohammad Salem Bin Mahfouz at National Commercial Bank was an Arabian Shield investor.4 “During the 1980's,” reports Martin J. Rivers of the Center for Research on Globalization, “Sheikh Mahfouz's syndicate performed major CIA-inspired banking operations for such former CIA assets as Osama bin Laden ... Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega and other drug dealing generals. George W. Bush, for his part, had important business relationships ... with a total of nine prominent individuals central to Mahfouz's financial empire.”5

The early 1970s also brought Saudis recruited by the CIA to train at American military bases, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan.6

After September 11, 2001, Bandar drew the attention of the press when it was discovered that two of the terrorists involved were found to have received financing from the Prince's wife. Bandar trained at Ellington AFB near Houston.7

In the early 1970s, the prince fell in with James A. Baker's social circle, struck up an alliance with Joanne Herring, who was instrumental in luring Texas Democrat Charlie Wilson to support Gul Hekmatyar of the Muslim Brotherhood chaptger in Afghanstan by the late '70s.

The Big Oil-CIA-Saudi alliance was consummated with the establishment of the Safari Club of elite cut-throats, founded with covert Agency support on Sept. 1, 1976. George Herbert Walker Bush was then director of the Agency,. Nelson Rockefeller was vice president under Ford.

The Safari Club was a CIA cut-out: This clutch of intelligence agents, politicians and businessmen from three countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran) was founded with the express purpose of engaging in covert operations in Africa and the Middle East without leaving a CIA footprint.

Chicago Tribune book reviewer Padam Ahlawa neatly summarized the tensions that gave rise to the Safari Club: “The origins of world terrorism go back to the cold war era. Moscow’s monumental blunder in invading Afghanistan in 1979 set off a sequence of intrigue-laden events in Afghanistan.... High-profile military operations were out. Carter wanted a covert CIA operation like the one it had carried out in Laos, with no US personnel directly involved. The Agency, it was decided, would co-opt specialized American military personnel with the support of the Pakistan military to train an army of Muslim zealots.”

Anwar Sadat entered into an agreement to assist in the training and equipping of recruits for the coming Anti-Communist jihad. “Russian weapons were flown to Afghanistan. Encouraging fundamentalism to grow in Egypt had its fallout when these Mujahadins turned hostile to Sadat for signing the peace treaty with Israel. It led to Sadat’s assassination and terrorist acts of killing 58 tourists. Zia ul Haq of Pakistan made the best of this opportunity, created the ISI to train Pakistanis and Afghans. By doing this, Pakistan’s economic and social instability increased and terrorist acts in Sindh grew.”8

The Safari Club’s cover was blown when the Ayatollah Khomeini allowed an Egyptian reporter to peek into the archives of the exiled Shah of Iran – a Club member.9 The CIA/Safari Club left footprints in the destabilization campaign at Mengistu in Ethiopia, the unrest in Costa Rica, and there were treadmarks all over Iran-Contra, not to mention the funding of UNITA in Angola and the Afghan “freedom fighters,’ including bin-Laden.10

The CIA funded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1977, and trained Mujahadin to support Hekmatyar of the Brotherhood in Afghanistan. The Koran-happy Muslim Brothers have served the CIA operationally for some 40 years, an arrangement rubber-stamped by Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner and Kermit Roosevelt.

Airline hijacker Mohammed Atta was ID’d as a Muslim Brother in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times shortly after the jet attacks on the World Trade Center. So were Khalid Shaik Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef, reportedly guided to a sacrificial pyre in the sky by Aman Zawahiri, Al Qeada’s second-in-command – also a co-conspirator, while operating under the aegis of the CIA, in the murder of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and the 1993 WTC bomb plot.

NOTES

1) Roland Jacquard, In the Name of Osama Bin Laden, Duke University Press, 2002, http://print.google.com/print/doc?isbn=0822329913

2) Bruce Campbell Adamson, letter to Congressman Sam Farr, September 15, 2001, http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg96515.htm

33) Linda Minor, “Follow the Yellow Brick Road: From Harvard to Enron,” http://www.newsmakingnews.com/lm4,30,02,harvardtoenronpt4.htm

4) LB, e-mail exchange with author, October 2, 2004.

5) Martin J. Rivers, “A Wolf in Sheikh’s Clothing: Bush Business Deals with Nine Partners of bin Laden’s Banker,” geocities.com, March 15, 2004, www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAR403A.html

6) Anonymous, “Bandar bin Sultan, a CIA Agent,” House of Saud web site, http://www.geocities.com/saudhouse_p/irancont.htm

7) LB.

8) Padam Ahlawat, “Journalists’ account of terrorism,” Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2002 – review of Unholy Wars. Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, by John K. Cooley, Penguin.

9) Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, review of Unholy Wars, Journal of Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations, Minaret of Freedom Institute, http://www.minaret.org/cooley.htm.

10) Dr Samir Rihan, “Arms or democracy, but not both,” http://www.globalcomplexity.org/Arms%20or%20Democracy.htm

11) Debbie Schlussel, “Bush's Favorite Terrorist Buddy,” WorldNetDaily, October 1, 2001.

II RICHARD PERLE'S "NARCO-TERRORIST" BUSINESS PARTNER

The House hearings on Iran-contra culminated in 1987 with a report that deftly mentioned Richard Secord's plan to construct an enterprise of his own in the bulk manufacture of "opium alkaloids."1 Opium? This curious detail floated by without comment and eventually drowned in a flood of perjury and hot air.

The committee didn't bother to follow up on that one. Better late than never to ask: "Opium alkaloids ... as in the base compound for the production of heroin?" It's doubtful we'll ever know the answer. And the explanation could be innocent, to be completely fair - Secord may have invented a cure for peptic ulcers or sexual impotence ... but heroin would appear the likeliest explanation ... given the cost of global conquest these days ...

Even Adnan Khashoggi has financed wars with drug profits, the gist of a report written in 1991 at the Pentagon – declassified in July 2004 by the National Security Archives in Washington – of 104 "more important Colombian narco-terrorists contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations in both the U.S. and Colombia."

Pablo Escobar is on the list. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is also on it.

Uribe with natco-terrorist crony

Uribe, according to the document, is a "Colombian politician and senator dedicated to collaboration with the Medellin cartel at high government levels." He was "linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the U.S. His father was murdered in Colombia for his connection with the narcotic traffickers." He has "worked for the Medellin cartel," according to the DoD report, and "is a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar Gaviria.... He has participated in Escobar's political campaign to win the position of assistant parliamentarian to Jorge [Ortega]..."

Adam Isaacson, a scholar at the Center for International Policy (CIP) in Washington, cast doubt on the Pentagon's intelligence. After all, the CIP scholar explained, Adnan Khashoggi's name was on it, so the list must be in error...

But the National Security Archives responded that the document as "accurate and easily verifiable. It is evident that a significant amount of time and energy went into compiling this report."

Remember, the word used by the Pentagon to describe the traffickers listed in the report, including Khashoggi, was "narco-terrorist." So Richard Perle, assistant secretary of defense under Bush, a business partner of Khashoggi's at TriReme Corp., was in business with a narco-terrorist, according to the Pentagon's own records.

President Uribe also denied the allegations regarding himself – not so easy to explain away, however, was the 1984 seizure of his father's helicopter by Colombian police on narcotics charges, or his brother's telephone number, stored in the memory bank of a cell phone belonging to Escobar.2

Ignoring the Pentagon's own intelligence on the narco-presidenté, President Bush paid Uribe a call in August 2003. Anti-war activist-reporter Jim Lobe reported: "The administration of President George W. Bush on Monday rallied behind Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in the face of allegations contained in a 13-year-old Pentagon intelligence report that he was a close personal friend' of drug lord Pablo Escobar and had worked for his Medellin drug cartel."

"We completely disavow these allegations about President Uribe," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. "We have no credible information that substantiates or corroborates these allegations that appeared in an unevaluated 1991 report, linking President Uribe to the narcotics business or trafficking."

Isaacson said, "It's something the left has been trying to pin on him for awhile, and this gives them new ammunition." However, he acknowledged, "in the big picture, almost everybody in Colombia's ruling class was mixed up in drugs until [former U.S. President] Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs in the mid-1980s."3 Narcotics have fuelled the flames of revolution and regime change, political assassinations and bomb plots, the "war on drugs" notwithstanding.

Another drug runner in this underground empire was Henry Asher, founder of DataBase, the ChoicePoint appendage. In a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Asher admitted to smuggling drugs in 1982. Police developed "corroborating information" that "during 1981 and 1982, Asher piloted five to seven plane loads of cocaine from Colombia to the United States." Asher admitted that he had shown "a lack of judgment," according to the report. The remorseful millionaire cooperated with the FBI and agreed to be a federal "informant." He was freed and went on to set up a "total awareness" surveillance operation, but we'll come to that, too ...4

Another drug pilot on contra supply missions was Frank Moss who, according to the Kerry Report, "has been under investigation as an alleged drug trafficker since 1979. Moss has been investigated, although never indicted, for narcotics offenses by ten different law enforcement agencies. In addition to flying contra supply missions through SETCO, Moss formed his own company in 1985, Hondu Carib, which also flew supplies to the Contras, including weapons and ammunition purchased from R.M. Equipment, an arms company controlled by Ronald Martin and James McCoy.

The FDN's arrangement with Moss and Hondu Carib was pursuant to a commercial agreement between the FDN's chief supply officer, Mario Calero, and Moss, under which Calero was to receive an ownership interest in Moss' company. The Subcommittee received documentation that one Moss plane, a DC-4, N90201, was used to move Contra goods from the United States to Honduras. On the basis of information alleging that the plane was being used for drug smuggling, the Customs Service obtained a court order to place a concealed transponder on the plane.

"A second DC-4 controlled by Moss was chased off the west coast of Florida by the Customs Service while it was dumping what appeared to be a load of drugs, according to law enforcement personnel. When the plane landed at Port Charlotte no drugs were found on board, but the plane's registration was not in order and its last known owners were drug traffickers. Law enforcement personnel also found an address book aboard the plane, containing among other references the telephone numbers of some Contra officials and the Virginia telephone number of Robert Owen, Oliver North's courier. A law enforcement inspection of the plane revealed the presence of significant marijuana residue. DEA seized the aircraft on March 16, 1987."5

Cable network opinion-shapers Ann Coulter and David Corn may insist that the CIA only "looked the other way" when its assets have been caught moving narcotics to finance assassinations, foreign coups, etc., but Khashoggi, Armitage and Asher weren't the only drug runners in the "family."

William Casey, CIA director under Reagan, created several large off-the-shelf' networks to finance illicit covert operations. The first, dependent on opium profits, supported the Afghan Mujhaddin, with the CIA running funds through Pakistan's ISI and BCCI. The second channel, to support the Nicaraguan contra war, ran through BCCI, too. This channel also began with drug proceeds and ended in hot pockets of the Cold War. The same organizational chart – of CIA proxy armies funded by drug proceeds – was evident in KLA operations in Bosnia, complete with raping, pillaging, bomb-tossing al Qaeda radicals.6

As a result, these networks, according to Peter Dale Scott, "have all aligned the US on the same side as powerful local drug traffickers. Partly this has been from realpolitik - in recognition of the local power realities represented by the drug traffic. Partly it has been from the need to escape domestic political restraints: the traffickers have supplied additional financial resources needed because of US budgetary limitations, and they have also provided assets not bound (as the U.S. is) by the rules of war."

The impact of all this trafficking in drugs, of course, is devastating. "These facts," Scott writes, "have led to enduring intelligence networks involving both oil and drugs, or more specifically both petrodollars and narcodollars. These networks, particularly in the Middle East, have become so important that they affect, not just the conduct of US foreign policy, but the health and behavior of the US government, US banks and corporations, and indeed the whole of US society."7

NOTES

1) Jefferson Morley, "Iran-Contra's Unasked Questions, or the Case of the $400,000 Hamburger," Los Angeles Times, November 29, 1987.

2) Jim Lobe, "Bush Rallies Behind Colombian President, Despite Drug
Allegations," Inter-Press Service, August 3, 2004.

3) Ibid.

4) Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, Jun 2003.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=hank+asher+and+cocaine+and+biography

5) "Selections from the Senate Committee Report on Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy," chaired by Senator John F. Kerry.

6) See: Peter Dale Scott, Drugs, Oil, and War; John Cooley, Unholy Wars.

7) Peter Dale Scott, "Afghanistan, Colombia, Vietnam: The Deep Politics of Drugs and Oil,"
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/qov.html
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
III

AL QAEDA, ABU SAYYAF &
THE CIA’S TERROR INCUBATOR
IN THE PHILIPPINES

It’s generally agreed that the same arm of Al Qaeda responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing returned on September 11, 2001 to finish the job. Therefore, it’s a reasonable assumption that the first attempt to level the towers, and the subsequent paths of blind cleric Rahman’s fellow conspirators, should provide some answers to questions left in the wake of 9/11 concerning its history and sponsorship.

Newspaper histories of al-Qaeda trace its roots to Saudi Arabia. Founder Osama Bin Laden pushed early funding through the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), as arranged in meetings between al Qaeda’s inner-circle and the charity’s directors. (The Saudi government funded terrorist attacks on Israel in secrecy throughout most of the 1990’s via similar charities in Virginia and Florida.1) Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s lieutenant, was employed by the IIRO in Albania. The Philippine branch office was run by Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama’s brother-in-law (1986-94), who made a lateral hand-off of cash to the Abu Sayyaf, an al Qaeda offshoot.2

The DoD, CIA and other opaque branches of government (and the Mafia), drawn by the lure of Japanese and German gold, maintained a particularly busy presence in the Philippines as the Marcos kleptocracy declined and fell. Khashoggi’s Iran-contra ally, Oliver North, oversaw “back door” shipments of the recovered gold, much of it to Arab governments, some of it to Middle Eastern terrorists trading on the black market. North met with Osama Bin Laden’s money men often to negotiate exchange of the gold.3

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), like Al Qaeda, owed its existence to the intelligence establishment. The ASG was co-founded by Edwin Angeles, an undercover agent for the Defense Intelligence Group at the Department of National Defense, Republic of the Philippines. His Muslim handle was “Ibrahim Yakub” and as the organization’s operations officer and chief recruiter, he was largely responsible for the spread – and criminalization – of the Abu Sayyaf.

Filipino television news reporter Arlyn de la Cruz, in her history of the ASG, writes that Angeles/Yokub "holds the key to the deep intricacies of how some government agencies manipulated the rawness of the Abu Sayyaf during its early years." This observation still applies, and can be said of al Qaeda, the CIA-bred Taliban mutation, as well.

It was Angeles “who actually introduced the idea of kidnapping as part of the fund-raising activities of the Abu Sayyaf," de la Cruz reports – this would be the abduction of a wealthy woman in Davao. "Edwin planned the abduction and even initiated the plan himself." The victim was held not far from the Brigade Headquarters of the Philippine Marines in Tabuk. She was released after her family paid the million-pesos ransom to Abu Sayyaf.

The next to be kidnapped was Luis "Ton-Ton" Biel, a five year-old child, and his grandfather ... then Claretian priest Bernardo Blanco. Soon, the media were requesting interviews, and “Yokub” stepped before the cameras to act the role of lethal but well-spoken religious lunatic. Angeles was a "good speaker, a good actor. He spoke like a Leftist leader espousing Fundamentalist principles.”

An accidental blast at the Evergreen Hotel in Davao in May 2004 was a clear statement that the “Al Qaeda” offshoot still functions as an intelligence front, a proxy army of the National Security Council that exists to justify intervention in the Philippines.

The explosion, publicized in the States as the work of the dread Abu Sayyaf, was set off by a store of dynamite traced to Michael Meiring, an African-born, naturalized, proverbially Ugly American citizen. Meiring claimed that Abu Sayyaf’s mad dogs had lobbed a grenade into his hotel room, an alibi proven to be fabricated upon examination of the scene by local police. Meiring was so badly injured that both of his legs had to be amputated at the knees.

The dynamite, the Manila Times reported, also tore off his “mantle of obscurity,” exposing the accident-prone American “and his numerous American and Filipino partners, to the public limelight.” From the rubble at the Evergreen Hotel emerged the story of “a complex man, whose trail leads back to South Africa and boxes supposedly containing US Federal Reserve notes and bonds obtained from the Abu Sayyaf.” The Times reported that employees of the hotel “claimed that while they were cleaning Meiring's room before the explosion, he warned them not to touch two metal boxes, which he said contained important documents. Police investigators said they recovered blasting caps and ammonium nitrate from the room, where Meiring had stayed since Dec. 14 2001.”

Meiring refused to talk to Philippine police. Bloodied and burned by the explosion, he was whisked out of the country on a chartered plane, according Col. Lino Calingasan, a local immigration official, by agents of the FBI and NSC. “American David Hawthorn, a close friend of Meiring, claimed the blast victim had confessed passing to Mandela’s government the proceeds of a box of old US federal notes.” That box was one in a set of twelve, containing an estimated $500-million in counterfeit American notes.

Hawthorn had been shown a letter from the South African government and a US Treasury permit to support his claims. Hawthorn also saw a ‘packing list’ that had “a cover sheet printed with the words ‘US ARMY,’ some numbers and a group of upper case letters. "Meiring, he said, claimed the list represented the serial numbers of the missing notes, dating back to 1937.

Similar ‘boxes’ were recovered by United States Secret Service and the Philippine Central Bank late last year. Other counterfeit bonds and currency were also recovered from a hotel in Davao a few months ago. It has been reported that these were to be ... shipped to Las Vegas, Nevada.”4

Philippine police discovered that Meiring, the NSC amputee, had run with neo-nazis and Islamic radicals alike, including the ASG and other radical fronts. His key contact in Nevada was financier James Rowe, an executive producer for Wild Rose Productions, an independent documentary production company in New Green Valley, near Vegas. Rowe, in turn, ran with white supremacists and tax rebels, also neo-nazis, in the United States and Germany. Another of Meiring’s contacts back home was Chuck Ager, an ultracon mining engineer in Colorado. Another was Nina North (possibly an alias), a CIA operative who took over “back door” financial transactions in black market gold formerly conducted by the ubiquitous Oliver North. Another was Filipino-American Bob Gould, a tax protester from Hayward, California in league with Fred Obado, leader of the Kodar Kiram terrorist cell, son of Sultan Jumalul Kiram.

Meiring operated a shell company called PAROUSIA, a term used by right-wing Christian evangelicals, a reference to the second coming of Christ.

But Meiers wasn’t the only home-grown terrorist running loose in the Philippines: “Three Vietnamese terrorists arrested last year for plotting to blow up the Vietnamese Embassy here were assets of the US intelligence community,” the Times reported.5

KAHANE

Robert J. Freidman, a journalist for the Village Voice, wrote one of the most signally important articles of the last decade, “The CIA and the Sheikh.”6 The feature was an inventory of critical leads, eroded over time, sadly, opportunities lost.

If the killers allied with Rabbi Meir Kahane, the vitriolic leader of the Jewish Defense League, had been captured and sentenced, Freidman contends, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing – and by extension, 9/11 – would never have occurred.

On November 5, 1990, Freidman wrote, El Sayyid Nosair, a "pudgy, bearded 34-year-old Egyptian American and a core member of the El Salaam Mosque," casually strolled up to the podium of a conference room in the Manhattan's Halloran House, after Kahane wrapped up a one-hour speech. "Moments later, Kahane was shot once in the throat at point-blank range with a .357 magnum, and Nosair bolted outside. During a running gun battle down Lexington Avenue, Nosair was wounded by an off-duty postal inspector and finally captured by New York City police.”

An FBI informant told Freidman that Nosair frequented the El Salaam Mosque in Jersey City. Nosair was close to Sheikh Abdel Rahman. “I told them that, four days before, I saw with my own eyes the Sheikh meeting with Nosair at a Lebanese restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It was 7 p.m. There was Nosair, the Sheikh, a person escorting the Sheikh, and another person I don't know. They were deep in conversation."

After the arrest of Kahane’s assailant, police found evidence that the murder “was just the first in a planned spree. Scrawled on a bank calendar in Nosair's home was a ‘hit list’ that included the names of a U.S. representative, two federal judges, and a former assistant U.S. Attorney.”

The secretive cell of extremists from the Mosque often met with Nosair to discuss means of destroying symbols of the Israeli-loving Babylon they despised, "the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty.”

The World Trade Center.

“Many are wondering why there wasn't a comprehensive, wide-ranging investigation of Meir Kahane's murder,” Friedman reported. “What investigators would have found if they had done their job thoroughly is that Sheikh Abdel Rahman and El Sayyid Nosair were at the heart of a far-flung terrorist conspiracy.”7

NOTES

1) John Loftus, “What Congress does not know about Enron and 9/11,” May 31, 2002, http://www.john-loftus.com/enron3.asp#congress

2) Dore Gold, “The Suicide Bombing Attacks in Saudi Arabia: A Preliminary Assessment,” Jerusalem Issue Brief, Institute for Contemporary Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 28, May 13, 2003, HYPERLINK http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-28.htm http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-28.htm

3) See Thompson and Kanigher. Also, Edith Regalado, “CIA whisks away Brit-Am blast victim; now in US,” Philippine Star, July 9, 2002.

4) Anon., “Edwin Angeles: The spy who came in from the cold,” INQ7.net, HYPERLINK http://www.inq7.net/specials/inside_abusayyaf/2001/features/spy_turns_bandit.htm http://www.inq7.net/specials/inside_abusayyaf/2001/features/spy_turns_bandit.htm

5) See, http://www.voxfux.com/archives/00000105.htm for a summary of the Manila Times series written by Dorian Zumel-Sicat and Jeannette Andrade, May 29, 2002 through May 31, 2002. Also see, Manila Times’ reports to June 19, 2002.

6) Robert J. Freidman, “The CIA and the Sheikh,” Village Voice, March 30, 1993.

7) Ibid.

IV

ADNAN KHASHOGGI, ALEXANDER VOLOSHIN & THE 1999 MOSCOW APARTMENT BOMBINGS

Two years before the towers in Manhattan crumbled under the weight of global political corruption, a spate of bombings in Russia left relatives and victims, as CNN reported on September 10, 1999, "searching for answers."

At least 90 bodies, including seven children, were dragged from the wreckage of a bombed-out apartment building in Moscow in early September 1999. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in a televised speech, suspected Muslim terrorists; if so, he said, "we are facing a cunning, impudent, insidious and bloodthirsty opponent."1

CNN reported: "Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared a day of mourning on Monday for the victims of Russia's last three explosions and bombings – the Moscow blast, the bombing of a shopping center near the Kremlin and the September fourth car bomb that demolished another apartment building in Buinaksk, in the southern Russian region of Dagestan…"

By the third week of September, the death toll rose to over 200. Chechyen forces were behind the bombings, proclaimed Yeltsin, a belief shared by Yuri Luzkhov, the mayor of Moscow. Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo oversaw the investigation and announced that the Russian military "will consider itself within its rights to use all resources at its disposal to rebuff the aggression."2

And none of this added up. The harried Russian proles were quick to accept the government's explanation that Chechyens were responsible for the blasts in Moscow and the satellites. But as Asia Times editorialized, "it is highly unlikely." And no one stood to benefit by the outbreak of bombing but … well … Yeltsin …

In a statement of denial, Chechyen leader Shamil Basayev stated, "We had nothing to do with the explosion in Moscow. We never kill civilians. This is not our style."

THE MURDER COMMITTEE

So who was behind the bombing rampage?

Provisions anticipating the Patriot Act were proposed. The Duma considered declaring a state of emergency. Until the bombings, the public had steadfastly opposed such measures, but even Yegor Stroyev, speaker of the Federation Council, the upper hall of parliament, had to admit that he'd firmly opposed emergency measures in the past, but after the second Moscow explosion there was an obvious "need to consolidate the legal base for combating the rampage of terrorism and crime."3

Still, there were the inevitable skeptics and conspiracy theorists. Viktor Ilyukhin, a Communist leader, dismissed the bombings as provocateur actions: "Political hysteria is being fanned artificially, including by way of explosions to cancel parliamentary and presidential elections through a state of emergency."4

Day by day, the true, sordid details emerged in Versiya, Novaya Gazeta and UK's Independent to erode Yeltsin's credibility. It emerged that there was more to the bomb plot than the government had revealed, that its true origins lay not in the insurrection but in a meeting of conspirators held at the flat of Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Khashoggi …

"It is clear that apartment explosions in Moscow would not have happened if somebody in the Russian political elite did not want them," Novaya Gazeta opined on January 24, 2000. "One by one, pieces of puzzle were put together. But there were a few details that were lacking. They began to clear in January … and at the same time, some of the participants started to tell their version of events. In the Versiya newspaper, there was an article about the meeting of [Alexander] Voloshin with [Shamil] Basayev in France." Basayev was the radical Muslim leader who planned the violence in Dagestan. "This did not happen in Paris, as some of the newspapers reported later, but on the villa of Adnan Khashoggi, Arabic millionaire, on the Mediterranean."

French intelligence agents monitored the meeting and details surfaced in the public print. Khashoggi denied that he had attended the meeting in his own home, but his denial is irrelevant given the Turkoman's redundant role in acts of terrorism worldwide. The meeting's main participants – Anton Surikov, "formerly" of Army special forces, and Aleksandr Voloshin, Yeltsin's Chief of Staff – offered no comment. When reporters asked Surikov, he claimed that he hadn't travelled abroad in years, and certainly not to France. This did not quite square with the public record, however, Just a few months before, he was in Washington, D.C. to meet with Yuri Maslukov, Russia's deputy prime minister, and Michel Camdessus, managing director of the IMF. Surikov had also flown to France on a couple of occasions, once in December 1994 and again in the summer of 1999. Surikov was lying. He had departed on June 23 aboard an Aeroflot bound for Paris, in fact, and returned from Nice on July 21, nearly a month later.5

A book on the Russian spy agency, Spetzsnaz GRU, written by former intelligence agents, reports that when the well-paid rebels entered Russia from Chechnya, the military was "commanded not to enter into battle with them and not to hinder the movement of the rebels."6

The 1999 bombing campaign punctuated an uneasy period of calm. From August 1996 through August 1999, Chechnya had been relatively peaceful. "Hostilities resumed following a bold incursion from Chechnya into neighboring Dagestan by an 'international' force of Wahhabis," John Dunlop at the Hoover Institute reports, "whose titular leaders were the legendary field commander Shamil Basaev and the shadowy Arab commander Khattab. In September of 1999, there occurred the notorious terror bombings of large apartment complexes in Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk which served to infuriate the Russian populace in a way similar to the American public's reaction to the events of 11 September in this country. On 23 September, Moscow once again commenced the bombing of Chechnya, and the second Russo-Chechen war of the past decade was on."7

Alexander Voloshin, who attended the meeting at Khashoggi's villa, is a singular political figure in Russia, outspoken in his support of the United States, in temperament comparable to an American Cold Warrior. On October 23, 2003, the Guardian reported that Vladimir Putin's chief of staff was at the center of "a furious row" between Moscow and Kiev "after he reportedly suggested Russia might bomb Ukraine if it did not back down in a diplomatic tiff over a small island between the two former Soviet states. Alexander Voloshin, the head of the president's administration, made the remarks while he was briefing Ukrainian journalists at the Kremlin…. The row is over 100 metres of sand…."8

In the end, however, Voloshin was forced out of government – not for his ties to the meeting at Khashoggi's villa, or to terrorists, but to Big Oil:

Putin’s powerful chief of staff resigns
Pakistan Daily Times
November 1, 2004

Voloshin’s resignation over arrest
of top oil tycoon widens political scandal

MOSCOW: Moscow press reported Wednesday that Kremlin’s powerful chief of staff had resigned in protest of the arrest of a top oil tycoon in a widening political scandal on the eve of Russian parliamentary elections.
The Vedomosti business daily said that President Vladimir Putin had accepted Alexander Voloshin’s resignation on Monday night after meeting for several hours with top Kremlin officials….
Newspaper reports said that Voloshin had handed in his resignation on Saturday only hours after Russia’s richest man, Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was hauled in by secret service men at gunpoint in a Siberian airport and flown to Moscow for questioning.
Voloshin, 47, is seen as one of the last figures in the Kremlin to have hung on from the era of Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin and a leader of an administration clan known as “the Family” that battled the hawkish “siloviki” camp of former secret service agents that recently emerged in Putin’s court. He was seen as a strong backer of big business and an instrumental Kremlin aide who managed to skillfully mediate between the various administration factions and parliament lawmakers on key economic reform issues.
His potential resignation had been rumored in Moscow for months as the Family – which supported big businesses including Yukos – was being squeezed out by the “siloviki” clan.
… Western investors said that Voloshin’s resignation – if officially confirmed – would mark an escalation of political instability on the eve of December 7 parliamentary elections.
“Assuming Voloshin’s departure is confirmed today, this will only underline the seriousness of the political crisis resulting from Putin’s decision to deal with the political problem of Khodorkovsky using KGB methods,” the United Financial Group wrote in a research note. The investment house noted that Voloshin “seems to have made himself indispensable to Putin as a discreet but effective administrator with a good grasp of the reform policy agenda and adept at arbitrating between competing interests.” Besides heading Putin’s administration, Voloshin for the past four years has also served as chairman of the board of the United Energy System electricity monopoly that has been struggling to undertake reforms for the past four years.
But the United Financial Group predicted that Putin would probably try to seek a balance within his administration and was unlikely to give the post to any of the top members of the secret service Kremlin factions.
Voloshin became deputy head of Yeltsin’s administration in 1998 and became chief of staff the following year. He was attributed with drafting economic portions of Yeltsin’s speeches. Putin kept Voloshin on his post when he took the presidency following Yeltsin’s abrupt resignation on December 31, 1999….9

NOTES

1) Jill Dougherty, "At least 90 dead in Moscow apartment blast," CNN report, September 10, 1999.
HYPERLINK http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/ http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/

2) STRATFOR.COM, "Who gains from the Moscow apartment bombings?" Asia Times, September 14, 1999.
HYPERLINK http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/AI15Ag01.html http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/AI15Ag01.html

3) Ibid.

4) Dougherty.

5) Boris Kagarlitsky, 'We Donít Talk To Terrorists. But We Help Them?' Novaya Gazeta, (translation by Olga Kryazheva, research intern, Center for Defense Information, Washington DC), January 24, 2000. HYPERLINK http://geocities.com/chechenistan/conspiracy.html http://geocities.com/chechenistan/conspiracy.html

6) John B. Dunlop, 'The Second Russo-Chechen War Two Years On," Presentation at U.S. and World Affairs Seminar, Hoover Institute, October 17, 2001. HYPERLINK http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:nGpCwJsA3z0J:www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1233969/posts+Voloshin+and+khashoggi&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:nGpCwJsA3z0J:www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1233969/posts+Voloshin+and+khashoggi&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

7) Ibid.

8) Nick Paton Walsh, "Russian official condemned for joke about bombing Ukraine," Guardian, October 23, 2003.
HYPERLINK http://www.rusnet.nl/news/2003/10/23/currentaffairs04.shtml http://www.rusnet.nl/news/2003/10/23/currentaffairs04.shtml

9) HYPERLINK http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-10-2003_pg4_1 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-10-2003_pg4_1

Protesters Aim to Shame DLA Piper Over Ties to Dictator/Accused 9/11 Inside Trader "Buzzy" Krongard and the Piper Board, Blackwater

2009-11-02T12:25:00.000-08:00

Bush Administration Ethiopian Policy Background: "Bush's Somalia Strategy Enables an Ethiopian Despot"

By Daniel Newhauser | The Blog of Legal Times
New York Lawyer | November 2, 2009

WASHINGTON - A pickup truck driving around Washington today displayed a large billboard in its bed accusing DLA Piper of lobbying for an Ethiopian dictator.

The American Lawyer reported last year on the firm's 2008 efforts on behalf of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his government to keep Congress from imposing sanctions on the country for human rights violations. In April, the firm released a statement to Above the Law saying that it was no longer representing Zenawi’s government in those matters, but is still helping them with pro bono work relating to a school in Addis Ababa.

Apparently, there are still hard feelings - though we're not sure who has them.

Photo by Daniel Newhauser

http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/news/09/11/110209d.html?hbxlogin=1
-----------
Also see: "The CIA & the Brothers Krongard"

11 May 2005

Outside Notables Series Presents ... A.B."Buzzy" Krongard, US Director of DLA Piper's Global Board of Directors

"A View of Intelligence"

A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard is an outside U.S. director to our Global Board of Directors which has been organized to oversee and coordinate the worldwide operations of the firm. Mr. Krongard is the former Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Executive Director is the third ranking position within the CIA and functions essentially as the Chief Operating Officer of the Agency.

Mr. Krongard was the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of investment banking firm Alex. Brown, Incorporated. He currently is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of PHH Corporation, a leading outsource provider of mortgage and vehicle fleet management services.

Mr. Krongard received an A.B. degree with honors from Princeton University and a Juris Doctor degree with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law. He served three years of active duty as an infantry officer with the United States Marine Corps.

“The handshake is vicelike, the stare hard. He owns a Walther PPK pistol--the 1960s James Bond's handgun of choice--and practices martial arts. He smokes pre-Castro Cuban cigars and once, while scuba diving with some macho buddies, he says he punched a great white shark in the jaw, just to show that he could. A. B. (Buzzy) Krongard, the former executive director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is by all appearances a throwback to an earlier age, when spymasters were often Ivy Leaguers with a sense of élan and a streak of boldness--sometimes too much of it.”

http://www.dlapiper.com/us/events/Detail.aspx?event=129
--------
The Kronkgards and BLACKWATER (XE)

State Dept. IG Recuses Himself from Probes Over Blackwater Ties

The State Department’s top oversight official has recused himself from all matters relating the private military firm Blackwater after admitting his brother served on the company’s advisory board. Inspector General Howard Krongard announced the move Wednesday just hours after initially denying that his brother, Alvin ‘Buzzy’ Krongard, is a Blackwater board member. The State Department has already come under criticism for its lax oversight of Blackwater since the September 16th killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards. Howard Krongard has previously been accused of thwarting probes of contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan to avoid embarrassing the White House. Krongard is said to have refused to send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to probe three billion dollars in contracts.

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Yot-lAFjohoJ:www.democracynow.org/2007/11/15/headlines+krongard+and+ethiopia&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The Media 9/11 Debunking Machine is now a Smoking Gun

2009-10-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

Gordon Duff
Salem-News.com
Sep-24-2009

(CINCINNATTI, Ohio) - When 9/11 Commission Chief Counsel, John Farmer, released his book, The Ground Truth, debunking his own 9/11 commission report and was supported by Chairman Thomas Kean and commission member Senator Bob Kerrey with no dissent, the cover story of 9/11 died.

This leaves us with these inescapable facts:

* We no longer have an official answer to questions about 9/11.

* Perjured testimony and falsified information given to the original commission is a criminal act and demands a Grand Jury investigation and Special Prosecutor.

* Hundreds of respected leaders of the military, law enforcement, intelligence and scientific communities question the credibility of an investigation now proven beyond a doubt a conspiracy in itself.

* The institutions of government, including all 3 branches, Executive, Judicial and Legislative have combined in an unexplainable way in their failure to respond to circumstances that legally require action.

* The press has continued a pattern of distortion of facts, suppression of news and has engaged in a systematic campaign of deception.

Years have passed and soon 10,000 Americans will have died. Taking into account the epidemic of veterans suicides, we may have already passed that figure now. The cascade of events, financial collapse, government spying, oil price fixing, massive military corruption and a dozen more issues as serious have been able to move beyond our ability of everyday citizens to influence.

In fact, the most corrupt and debased groups involved in the 9/11 coverup are being actively recruited by the press as a patriotic resistance.

The tone for the coverup is being set by Australian media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who controls much of the press in the US and United Kingdom. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Murdoch's role in covering up 9/11. His networks created the "9/12ers" who are continuing the coverup and Murdoch employees like Fox funnyman, Glenn Beck, are still a major part of the effort to protect those in government who lied to the commission and may have aided the conspirators.

Murdoch's media has held to "party line" on 9/11 and the Iraq/Afghanistan war since day one, suppressing facts any time they threatened an agenda of broad regional war or supported limiting government power to operate above the law.

Conspiracy theorists, largely proven correct thus far, refer to Murdoch's position as leader of the Israeli ultra-right wing Zionist movement as a rationale for his continued involvement in the cover up. No proof of Israeli involvement in the planning and execution of 9/11 has been offered except for Murdoch's relentless disinformation campaign.

Geopolitical theorists accuse Murdoch of orchestrating a plan for Israel to draw America into a wide set of conflicts in the Middle East, tying down forces for many years, while Israel extends broad economic influence into Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The massive oil and gas reserves of the area, formerly the Jewish Kazhak empire, represent one of the greatest economic prizes in the world.

Only Iran threatens Israel's goals in this area.

Over 40 years ago, the US and Israel engaged in a false flag operation against an American warship called the USS Liberty. The plan was for Israel to attack and sink an American ship, kill the crew and the US would blame Egypt, invade and oust Soviets from the Middle East and control the worlds oil supply.

A Russian spy ship observed and filmed the attack. The Israeli pilots went public. American naval officers reported White House involvement in the plot and it failed.

We only know that 9/11 was not what we were told it was and that it is being covered up by propagandists tied to Israeli extremists. Can we make assumptions from this? I say no but we can and should ask questions.

However, anyone asking a question or advocating an investigation is subjected to vicious personal attacks not limited to attempts to influence violence. The 400% increase in threats against the current president can easily be traced to their source in the media industry.

Was the Bush administration trying to repeat the Middle Eastern takeover tried by Lyndon Johnson long ago? Exposure of their plans to invade Iraq, made long before 9/11 need to be added into the equation.

9/11 could be a massive American intelligence failure with NORAD and the DOD melting down for lack of leadership. The lies told afterward could have been the result of embarrassment at total incompetence.

Nothing points to solid proof that 9/11 was staged by the US, with or without Israel. A long string of odd coincidences and a few violations of the laws of physics don't prove a massive conspiracy, not in themselves. They only raise a need for impartial investigation.

One thing can't be explained. Why are lies, known lies, still being broadcast daily, lies orchestrated from one source, meant to suppress an honest accounting of what may have been a series of mistakes?

Why go so far to cover up mistakes if they were only mistakes? With no 9/11 Commission standing behind the report that was meant to clear the Bush administration of responsibility, why is the Murdoch propaganda machine, the Wall Street Journal, Fox, Hannity, Beck and gang so busy burying something that doesn't exist?

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september242009/outfoxing_911_gd_9-24-09.php

Bibliography: CIA/Media War Against 9/11 and CIA Assassination "Conspiracy Theorists"

2009-10-03T11:24:00.001-07:00

Some of the most vociferous critics of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" move on to engage in ridiculous conspiracy theories themselves. Fox News, for instance, has promoted Birthers and finds the Executive Office involved in a slew of lucicrous "socialist-Nazi" plots - employing rhetorical tools of McCarthyism and Holocaust denial. Ridicule is their most effective tactic. Others include reductio ad absurdum, lumping legitimate research with conspiratorial garbage (Birther claims, for instance) planted on the web by the far-right and intelligence assets, also unbridled disinformation. - AC

* Ramon Gilsanz, Contributor to the NIST 9/11 Study, Changed His Story/Vanishing Reports

* National Geographic Special Marginalizing 9/11 Truthers Brought to You by Rupert Murdoch and the CIA

* Kathy Shaidle, UnTruther & Unabashed Racist

* The Media War Against “Conspiracy Theorists”: The World According to CIA Mockingbird Richard Miniter

* WHY IS THE 911 "FRINGE" MOVEMENT SO MAINSTREAM?

* "THE PATH TO 9/11" (PART 8): Southeastern Asset Management (SAM), Longleaf Partners and Perception Management TV

* The BBC, Amazing Pederast James Randi and CIA Mind Control

* Fascist Conspirator Arnaud de Borchgrave Blames Ft. Hood Murders on 9/11 Truthers

* Invisible History, Afghanistan's Untold Story, is no Conspiracy Theory

* Vincent Carroll's Lazy-Man's Guide to 9/11

* New Book Groups 9/11 Truth Movement with Holocaust Deniers, Creationists and Medical Quacks

* Letter to the NYT - 9/11 and the “War on Terrorism”: Facts and Myths

* CIA Infiltration of Pacifica - Larry Bensky's Hang-Ups

* Who Owns NEW SCIENTIST?

* Dr. Patrick Leman, New Scientist's Debunker of Conspiracy Theories, and the NAZI History of the Nuffield Foundation, which Funds Dr. Leman

* Who Killed Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake? Also: TCI/Heritage Communications' Jim Cownie, News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch & the "Paranoia" of Theresa Duncan

* Film Targets JFK Conspiracy Theories & the Boston Globe's Reviewer Alex Beam Reviles 9/11 Truthers, too (Update: BOSTON GLOBE'S ALEX BEAM - SON OF A NAZI/CIA COLLABORATOR - DEFLECTS ATTENTION FROM HIS OWN FAMILY BY WRITING ABOUT QUISLING FRANCES GOULD)

* David Corn: Controlled Liberal, Status-Quo-9/11-Card-Marking-Limited-Hang-Out Water Carrier for the CIA

* Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi Terrorizes 9/11 Truthers Also: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi is Mentally Ill and will Only be Hunter S. Thompson in his most Far-Fetched Dreams

* Chomsky Manufactures Consent on Official 9/11 Cover Stories

* Fascism is Inherently Conspiratorial - Response to Dallas Observer

* Peter Roff - a Sun Myung Moon Cultist - Attacks "Fringe" 9/11 Truth Movement in US News & World Report

* Establishment Media Debunkers of Conspiracy Research - Who are They? (Part One): RM Scaife Concubine Emerson Vermaat

* Establishment Media Debunkers of Conspiracy Research - Who are They? (Part Two): Lev Grossman, the Time Reporter who Hated V for Vendetta

* Commission Atty. John Farmer Claims 9/11 was the Result of "Massive Bureaucratic Failures"

* Homeland Security Links 9/11 Truthers to Taliban (2007)

* The Media 9/11 Debunking Machine is now a Smoking Gun

* Two Fake Books on the Kennedy Assassination, Ultimate Sacrifice & Legacy of Secrecy, Shift the Onus from the CIA to the Mafia

* Max Holland's Fake Book on JFK Murder Lauded by the Propaganda Press

* Obama Staffer wants ‘Cognitive Infiltration’ of 9/11 Conspiracy Groups

Thousands of 9/11 Workers can now Sue over Illnesses

2009-10-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

By MICHAEL AMON
Newsday.com/September 29, 2009

Thousands of sickened 9/11 recovery workers whose legal claims have been barred because of missed deadlines can now join a massive group suing New York City under a law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson, officials said.

The law immediately allows more than 3,000 Ground Zero workers to revive lawsuits that were thrown out by a federal judge in July on the technical ground that they were not filed within 90 days of the workers' conditions being diagnosed. ...

STORY AT NEWSDAY.COM

FBI Payout for Egyptian over 9/11

2009-09-28T17:12:00.001-07:00

BBC
25 September 2009

An Egyptian man has received a $250,000 payout from the FBI because of the way he was treated following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Abdallah Higazy, 38, sued the bureau, saying he had been unjustly criminally charged and imprisoned for 34 days. He had been accused of lying to investigators about an aviation radio found in his hotel room in New York. Mr Higazy said he told conflicting stories about the radio because he had been intimidated by an FBI agent. He asserted that the agent shouted at him, lied to him and threatened to endanger his family.

A judge approved the settlement payment in July 2009.

Mr Higazy was studying at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn on a US government-funded scholarship and staying at the Millennium Hilton Hotel near the Twin Towers. He was detained in December 2001 when he returned to reclaim his belongings from the hotel which he had left when the hotel was evacuated during the attacks.

'Traumatic memory'

Mr Higazy had acknowledged in court that he had served in the Egyptian Air Corps and had expertise in communications. The aviation radio found at the hotel could be used to communicate with planes and monitor pilot conversations. He was freed in January 2002 after another hotel guest, a pilot, told hotel officials the radio belonged to him.

Mr Higazy's lawsuit against the FBI agent that questioned him was initially thrown out by a lower court judge but was reinstated in 2007 by the Court of Appeals in Manhattan. When he was released he married an American and returned to Egypt, where he lives in Cairo and works at a school, according to his lawyer Jonathan Abady.

"He was entirely innocent and was coerced to the point where he confessed to participation in the crime of the century. Had the pilot not returned to retrieve the radio, he [Higazy] might still be in prison," Mr Abady said.

He said that Mr Higazy was pleased to put the ordeal behind him but that the ordeal was a "traumatic memory that will never leave him completely".

An admission of liability or fault was not part of the FBI agreement.

US government lawyers on the case have declined to comment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8274909.stm

9/11 Families to March on City Hall as City Seeks to Stop Fresh Probe of Attacks From Going on November Ballot

2009-09-27T20:29:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Sunday, September 27 at 2 p.m., The New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN), a group comprising 9/11 family members, first responders and survivors, will march from Battery Park to City Hall in protest of the City's attempt to block the referendum for a fresh probe of the 9/11 attacks from going on the November ballot.

The effort to establish a local commission to pick up where the 9/11 Commission left off comes just as the 9/11 Commission's Chief Counsel John Farmer released a book entitled "The Ground Truth" in which he claims "at some level of government, at some point in time. . . there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened."

Eighty-thousand New Yorkers have signed the petition as it has won the endorsement of 2002 TIME magazine person of the year, and former FBI agent, Coleen Rowley, as well as outspoken 9/11 victims' family members including Bill Doyle, who lost his son Joey, and Lorie Van Auken, who lost her husband Kenneth. Van Auken is one of the esteemed 'Jersey Girls' who successfully lobbied the federal government to set up the 9/11 Commission only to have 70% of her group's questions to the Commission go unanswered.

Speakers for the Battery Park rally include 9/11 family members Bob McIlvaine and Manny Badillo, New York University's Professor of Media Studies, Mark Crispin Miller, and actor Daniel Sunjata of the Emmy-winning Fox Television series "Rescue Me" which depicts post-9/11 life in a FDNY firehouse. After a half-hour speakers' program, 9/11 family members and first responders will lead thousands of supporters in a march past Ground Zero, The City Clerk's Office and The State Supreme Court, all the way to the steps of City Hall.

This week NYC CAN submitted a memorandum of law in response to the City's challenge of the petition's legality. The Court-appointed referee is scheduled to submit his report and recommendations to the Court on Monday, September 28. The Court will decide whether or not to adopt the referee's recommendations and then issue a decision, after which appeals will likely follow immediately. "The arguments are strong on both sides, so the judges will have some thinking and analyzing to do," said Dennis McMahon, the Petitioners' attorney. "No other case pending in the New York courts has a higher priority on the calendars than this one, so we should have a definitive answer by next week."

If the Court decides in NYC CAN's favor and 15,000 of the 28,000 additional signatures submitted on September 4 are deemed valid by the City Clerk, the referendum will go on this November's ballot. If the referendum passes, it would lead to the creation of a local, independent commission with subpoena power that would be tasked with comprehensively reinvestigating the attacks. For more info: http://www.nyccan.org.

SOURCE NYC CAN

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/911-families-to-march-on-city-hall-as-city-seeks-to-stop-fresh-probe-of-attacks-from-going-on-november-ballot-61092957.html

FBI-Stung Terrorist Targeted Dallas Office Tower where CIA Agent/County Republican Party Chairman Works, CIA Cocaine and 9/11 Ties

2009-09-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

Edited by Alex Constantine

PART ONE: VERY COINCIDENTAL
PART TWO: VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL

1.) Very Coincidental - The CIA's Jonathan Neerman (left) works for Dallas' Hunton & Williams, a criminal enclave of a law firm embroiled in a number of Republican scandals including Enron's collapse and the CIA torture debacle. As it happens, Neerman is on the outs among local GOP leaders for trying to revive the Party by recruiting (duping, IMhO, "reaching out to") minorities, like himself (he's a Hispanic Jew) - even homosexuals - and easing up on traditional hard-nosed Republican social positions. Old Guard Republicans vow to fight Neerman to the bitter end ... then an accused Middle Eastern terrorist pulls up to the building where Neerman practices law, loaded, unbeknownst to him, with dummy explosives, gratis the FBI. I've provided a number of leads to track. Anyone making headway on this case is urged to send me research for posting (mainly because I'm anxious to know more about this case). - AC (Revised)

By John Council | Texas Lawyer
September 25, 2009

A whole lot of Dallas lawyers are going to work today in a building that’s making national news.

Fountain Place, 1445 Ross Ave., in downtown Dallas was reportedly the scene of an attempted terrorist attack foiled by undercover FBI agents on Thursday. According to The Dallas Morning News, a man was arrested after he parked a vehicle -- packed with fake explosives supplied by the FBI as part of a sting operation -- in the underground parking garage of the building.

The building is home to the Dallas offices of two large firms, Hunton & Williams, which employs about 120 lawyers, and Bracewell & Guiliani, which employees about 50 lawyers.

“It is certainly a wake-up call,” says Sandy Brown, managing partner of the Dallas office of Bracewell. “We’re going to have a briefing this afternoon with the building. And after that the FBI is coming over here to meet with one or two representatives of each tenant. And then we’ll have an officewide meeting, all hands on deck kind of thing, after that.”

The incident brought back many memories for Jonathan Neerman, an associate with Hunton & Williams who was working as a CIA agent and counterterrorist analyst on Sept. 11. Like many lawyers who work in the building, Neerman didn’t learn about the incident until after work hours.

[See: JONATHAN NEERMAN - REPUBLICAN PARTY COUNTY CHAIRMAN. BACKGROUND NOTE - HUNTON & WILLIAMS is a criminal enterprise: "From The Enron scandal to the the oil for food debacle, Hunton and Williams in recent years has found itself on the other side of the law too many times. Whether its working for African dictators and warlords, running confidence games and ponzi schemes out of its lush offices, Hunton and Williams is on a downward spiral, and anyone entertaining the thought of hiring these people should definitely consider it twice. Security and Exchange Violations, multiple lawsuits (even from its own employees) top staffers disbarred, or found out to have no legal degrees at all, is just par for the course now at Hunton and Williams. It seems unbelievable that other discredited law firms, embroiled in illegality (Jenkens & Gilchrist [Jonathan Neerman's former employer] Closing After Admitting Role in Tax Fraud - Dallas firm to pay IRS $76 million in fines and fees) are eagerly hired by Hunton and Williams. This even goes for some of the lawyers in the Alberto Gonzales scandal, such as discredited attorney Kyle Samson." - http://huntonandwilliamssued.com/]

“I immediately had flashbacks to 9/11 and 9/12. The questions we were trained to ask were the same ones I have been thinking about for the last 12 hours," Neerman says. “Is he working alone or with a group? Did he select the target or did the FBI select the target? Was he doing it on behalf of an organization or an organization internationally? What were his methods?"

Neerman hopes he is allowed to participate in meetings with the FBI has about the incident with building tenants. “They need to make everybody comfortable -- what it was and what it’s not. Here’s what you don’t want: [Y]ou don’t want people to think that this [alleged] terrorist planted a real bomb that didn’t detonate properly. The tenants need to know that.”

Original headline: Terrorist Targeted Office Tower That Two BigLaw Firms Call Home

http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/news/09/09/092509l.html?hbxlogin=1

YOUNG REPUBLICAN

Neerman is "a committed conservative Republican, and President of the Dallas County Young Republicans."

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:LSCT-2w8NKwJ:www.gcrw.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/febpdf1.pdf+JONATHAN+NEERMAN+AND+THE+CIA&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

HOUSTON'S BOBBY EBERLE, ANOTHER YOUNG REPUBLICAN OFFICER, CLAIMED TO HAVE WITNESSED FLIGHT 77 SLAMMING INTO THE PENTAGON ON 9/11/01: " .... Bobby has been recognized as a leader in conservative politics, including being profiled in USA Today (as one of five new "powerbrokers" of Internet politics) and Insight Magazine (for using the web to spread the GOP story). Bobby has appeared on MSNBC's Scarborough Country and has been a guest on numerous radio programs including Bloomberg Radio, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and Fox Radio. Bobby has served in conservative, Republican leadership roles at the county, state, and national level. He was a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention for Texas and covered the 2004 Republican National Convention as a member of the Internet media. He served as the state chairman for the Texas Young Republican Federation, and as the Vice Chairman at Large for the Young Republican National Federation. ... "
http://www.gopusa.com/company/bobby.shtml

"Eberle said he saw AA 77 crash into Pentagon on 9/11 ... 'Eberle said his interest was further heightened when, during a trip to Washington, he witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.' ... "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1606095#1606177

Q: Did Eberle wave at Alfred Regnery as they watched the carnage at the Pentagon?

FAST-FORWARD TO FASCISM PROMOTION BY BOBBY EBERLE ON OBAMA, TERRORISM: " ... Eberle, posting on a Republican Party site called The Loft, said Obama 'and his team have no limits on what they will do or say in order to inject socialist views into the minds of Americans. They also have absolutely no respect or appreciation for the American way and the sacrifices Americans have made in order to stay free and to promote the American way of life across the globe. Just take the latest effort being pitched at BarackObama.com. Rather than remembering the Americans who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Obama's political team wants you to make phone calls on 9/11 to fight back against 'Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists,' ... "

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111078

JONATHAN NEERMAN AND THE CIA

" ... Jonathan served our country as an intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He received numerous commendations for his service on the Balkans Task Force. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Jonathan worked in the Counterterrorism Center, where he provided daily briefings to senior policymakers on global terrorist threats. ... "

http://www.jonathanneerman.com/bio/

" ... [Jonathan Neeman] was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C., and upon graduating from A&M served as a CIA imagery analyst. He later interned for the general counsel of the CIA while attending George Washington University Law School. After graduating from law school in 2002, he moved to Dallas and joined Jenkens & Gilchrist, which would fold in 2007 after the firm unraveled as a result of a tax shelter scandal originating in its Chicago offices. Many of Jenkens' local attorneys, including Neerman, joined the Dallas office of Hunton & Williams.

Neerman became involved in local politics, working at the grassroots level by making yard signs for Gary Griffith's successful Dallas City Council campaign in 2003, block walking for Republican Pete Sessions' congressional campaign and assisting in fund-raising efforts for Bush's second presidential bid in 2004.

His efforts paid off when he became president of the Dallas County Young Republicans in 2006.... "

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2

STAUNCH GIULIANI SUPPORTER ...

NEERMAN, JONATHAN D. MR.
DALLAS, TX
75238 HUNTON & WILLIAMS L.L.P./ATTORNEY

$2,300 06/29/2007 P RUDY GIULIANI
PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE INC - Republican

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/jonathan-neerman.asp?cycle=08
***
POWERFUL: THE HUNT FAMILY'S CANDIDATE FOR VICE CHAIR OF THE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY STEPS ASIDE FOR THE CIA'S NEERMAN

" ... Neerman met with several local Republican leaders and quickly earned their endorsements. His only opponent was Alan Tompkins, vice president and general counsel for three entities owned by the family of Lamar Hunt. Tompkins, however, removed his name from consideration, and Neerman was named vice chair of the party in January, officially taking the helm in May. ... "

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2

NEERMAN WANTS TO RESUSCITATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BY RECRUITING GAYS AND MINORITIES

"...Neerman says most attendees agreed the party must reach out to minorities, gays and lesbians, but only a small faction seemed willing to speak about changing the party's conservative social agenda in order to incorporate more diverse points of view. 'You've got a conundrum because you've got to broaden the party, but there are going to be segments who don't want to do the things necessary to achieve that type of outreach,' he says. ... "

http://sessionswatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/article-on-dallas-county-gop.html

FAR-RIGHT BACKLASH: "THE OLD GUARD IS NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT"

The Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams

" ... The question is not whether change will come [to the Republican Party], but when – and how traumatically. The old guard is not going down without a fight. In a recent Dallas Observer, Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams lays into Mr. Neerman for reaching out to gays, pro-choicers and "environmental wackos."

'Yeah, I am talking to them, and that's OK,' Mr. Neerman tells me. 'If we quit talking, we lose those people who are fiscal conservatives, pro-Second Amendment and pro-environment.' ... "

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-dreher_04edi.State.Edition1.25b83af.html

TERROR ALERT

"FBI Arrests Man Trying To Place Bomb Near Fountain Place Skyscraper"
Sep 25 2009

fountain_place_terror_plot

Dallas Police have arrested Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian citizen after he allegedly placed a device described as an inactive car bomb near a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. Breaking reports say Smadi was charged with “attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.”

Apparently according to news reports, Smadi had been under FBI surveillance for some time after expressing “his desire to commit violent jihad” numerous times.

FBI says agents arrested Smadi after he placed what he thought was a bomb at the base of Fountain Place, a 60-story skyscraper located in downtown Dallas.

James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi, who was under continuous surveillance by the FBI, was arrested today near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas, after he placed an inert/inactive car bomb at the location. Smadi, a Jordanian citizen in the U.S. illegally, lived and worked in Italy, Texas. He has repeatedly espoused his desire to commit violent Jihad and has been the focus of an undercover FBI investigation. ...

Sources: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/09/24/fbi-arrests-man-trying-to-bomb-fountain-place-skyscraper-downtown-dallas-texas/

SMADI: TERRORIST OR "COOL" DUDE?

" ... The government says the man, who was in the U.S. illegally, spewed jihadist rhetoric and talked of killing Americans during more than six months of communications with three undercover FBI agents. The agents first encountered Smadi through an extremist Web site.

But friends in Italy, Texas, about 50 miles south of Dallas, say "Sam" as he was known, never gave any indication that he was a devout Muslim, much less that he had bloodshed on his mind. They described a carefree teen who drank and smoked with friends, entertained ladies and enjoyed dancing to techno music.

'We all thought he was cool,' said Tabatha Rogers, a neighbor who sometimes let Smadi baby-sit her children, ages 2 years and 3 months.

'Come to find out he wants to blow us up because we believe in God,' she said. ... "

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-terrormain_26met.ART.State.Edition2.4c1a5b5.html

2.) VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL

THE DEED TO FOUNTAIN PLACE

" ... A series of owners including Wall Street firms and even an Australian investor over the years have held title to the eye-catching high-rise. Since 2004 the building has been owned by an investment fund set up by J.P. Morgan and Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/092609dnbusfountainplace.1b507034d.html

CRESCENT REAL ESTATE'S CEO IS RICHARD RAINWATER, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST FOR THE BASS FAMILY AND "SOLDIER OF FORTUNE"

" ... As the money man behind private military contractor Sovereign Deed, which is now in the process of building a base of operations in Pellston, Mich., it looks like Rainwater is preparing to profit again by moving from Fortune to Soldier of Fortune. ... "

http://www.lycos.com/info/richard-rainwater--fort-worth.html

SOVEREIGN DEED: "NEFARIOUS ... ANOTHER BLACKWATER"

The Michigan Land Use Institute has posted a story about a nefarious organization called Sovereign Deed, whose purpose seems to be to provide private sector emergency protection to the rich, seeing as FEMA is only for poor chumps with no connections to power, and nobody expects it to work any more. It’s another Blackwater type scenario – fear-based entrepreneur with checkered past sees opportunity to make money for self and fellow patriots at the expense of taxpayers.'
http://downstreamer.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/sovereign-deed/

SOVEREIGN DEED, RAINWATER'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR, IS ANOTHER CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE

Sovereign Deed Founder Acknowledges Lying about Military Record
By Staff Report 3/7/08 10:00 AM

"Barrett Moore, founder of a private disaster response firm seeking tax breaks to establish operations in northern Michigan, has acknowledged for the first time that he lied about his military service and was once convicted of criminal fraud in Australia. ... "

http://michiganmessenger.com/tag/sovereign-deed

" ... What Moore's Pentagon patrons and political allies in Michigan have not known is the true story of Moore's military service. According to U.S. Army record keepers, Moore never completed his Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in college and was discharged from an inactive branch of the Reserves in 1994 without ever having gone through basic training. Contrary to the claims on Sovereign Deed's Web site, Moore never served as an Army intelligence officer, or in any other branch of the country's armed forces. ... "

http://www.michiganliberal.com/diary/11195/

RAINWATER'S DYSTOPIC VISIONS: SOVEREIGN DEED, TERRORISM AND CLASS WARFARE

From: "Hypocrisy and Ambition: What the Barrett Moore Story Says About America"
By Ed Brayton

Richard Rainwater

... The more we dug into the story the more we began to wonder which was more astonishing: the fact that Moore, as founding chief executive officer of the private military contractor, Triple Canopy, has lied so brazenly about his own military service and business success? Or the fact that neither our government nor his financial backers and business associates along the way had done the research that would have uncovered those lies? Why wasn’t he caught before, either by the State Department doing due diligence in investigating those to whom they award contracts or by the state of Michigan as it sought to bless his business with tax breaks? These failures speak volumes about the lack of accountability in a political system that distributes vast amounts of our tax dollars every year.

As to why this ignominious track record would have escaped the attention of Richard Rainwater, the Texas billionaire and chief investor in Sovereign Deed, we suspect that has to do primarily with a shared vision of America’s dystopic future and a desire to profit from it. As I wrote in a previous article, Rainwater is practically obsessed with the notion of a breakdown in American society, a coming chaos that he believes will be made inevitable by a drop in oil production and resulting price shocks that will destabilize the world economy and lead to widespread unrest in the United States. The result, Rainwater is convinced, will be riots and wars between the haves and the have-nots, and he has been thinking for the past several years about how to profit from that inevitable future.

Rainwater found a kindred spirit in Moore, a man who keeps survival rations and emergency equipment in his office and whose business plan for Sovereign Deed is built around capitalizing on the coming chaos. When discussing what Sovereign Deed plans to do in front of town hall meetings in the Pellston area, retired Brig. Gen. Richard Mills explained that the company would charge a staggering fee — $50,000 up front plus $15,000 per year — for their protection services in any number of situations. In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Mills spoke mostly about natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but Rainwater and Moore’s vision of America’s dystopic future suggests that the real contingencies they are planning for also include riots and other forms of social upheaval.

Sovereign Deed, in those circumstances, would function as a private army — a militia, if you will — for the wealthy, protecting their property and their lives while ignoring the plight of those who can’t afford to pay their exorbitant fees. It is difficult to imagine anything more repugnant to the American ideal of equality in the eyes of the government. ...

http://michiganmessenger.com/728/hypocrisy-and-ambition-what-the-barrett-moore-story-says-about-america

RICHARD RAINWATER IS GW BUSH'S BUSINESS PARTNER AND OVERSEES HIS BLIND TRUST

" ... GOTHAM PARTNERS [a key investor in Laurel Touby's MediaBistro.com] owns Crescent Investments, which oversees GW Bush's blind trust. Richard Rainwater is at Crescent/Gotham, and is close to Bush: " ... Rainwater founded Columbia Healthcare, which merged with HCA and became the country's biggest for-profit hospital company (Scott was later forced out as CEO amid a federal fraud investigation). Even [his partner] George W. Bush kept an office, when he and Rainwater were putting together the Texas Rangers stadium deal. ... " (SOURCE: money.cnn.com)

http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

RAINWATER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BUSH'S WEALTH: "What George does to make a Bush buck is called 'Crony Capitalism' by commentatorJim Hightower. Case in point: Dubya's financial relationship with RICHARD RAINWATER during his tenure as Texas governor. ... It's well known that Rainwater has been a major financial backer of Bush's political career, but it's a little-known fact that he's also largely responsible for Bush's personal wealth. He's put Bush into various profitable deals, from oil and gas to real estate, but the big one was the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. Rainwater and Bush sold the baseball team to another Texas high roller and Bush campaign contributer, billionaire Tom Hicks. But their relationship didn't stop there. When Bush became Guv in '95, he put all but his Texas Rangers stock into a blind trust managed by--surprise--Rainwater. Hightower implies the financial relationship wasn't a one-way street: 'Bush is nothing if not loyal to Rainwater, who has done very nicely while his pal has been governor. Among the favors Rainwater has enjoyed: *State buildings sold to Rainwater's real estate company at bargain basement rates; *State college and public school funds invested in Rainwater's company; *A Bush-sponsored tax cut that failed, but would have cut millions in annual taxes for Rainwater; and *A stadium-financing bill backed by Bush that gave a $10 million bonus payment to a Rainwater company.' Politex, May 1999"

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushmillions.html

RICHARD RAINWATER AND CIA COCAINE

" ... Saudis, Richard Rainwater, George W Bush, Tom DeLay and 5.6 Ton cocaine bust in Mexico, SkyWay ... " The downed plane loaded with coca was owned by "LIT Industrial Texas Limited Partnership, a venture of Texas real estate giant Trammel Crow, the flagship corporation in the far-flung empire of billionaire speculator Richard Rainwater... ranked among the 100 wealthiest Americans, Rainwater backed George W. Bush in four separate business ventures, including the Texas Rangers ... "

http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/2296

JONATHAN NEERMAN'S EMPLOYER, HUNTON & WILLIAMS, ALSO EMPLOYED DISGRACED DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CHUCK ROBB, WHO ATTENDED PARTIES "WITH OPEN COCAINE USE" AND FRATERNIZED WITH COKE DEALERS

" ... Dec. 5, 1990: 'Interviews with people familiar with Robb's activities at the beach indicated that [Robb] allegedly was joined on perhaps two dozen occasions by people who were heavy drug users and served federal prison sentences on cocaine and drug-related charges ... The sleaze was given even more air time when Robb's Republican opponent, Iran-Contra figure Lt. Col. Ollie North, aired ads asking, 'Why can't Chuck Robb tell the truth? About the cocaine parties' ... 'Newspapers report Chuck Robb at numerous parties with open cocaine use' ... "

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/17/robb/print.html

ROBB'S COKE LIES: " ... There were rumors that during the time he was governor, Robb was present at parties where cocaine was used. He strongly denied this when the issue was raised during his 1988 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Robb so vehemently denied the cocaine allegation that he claimed to not even know what cocaine looked like. ... "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Robb

Alleged 9/11 Perpetrator Studying Vietnam War Atrocity Film

2009-09-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The man accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks has received a copy of a 30-year-old Hollywood film on the My Lai massacre.

War court prosecutor Robert Swann said Monday he had arranged for alleged al Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheik Mohammed to get a copy of Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley, a 1975 docudrama about an American Army officer held responsible for the murder of Vietnamese civilians by a squad of U.S. soldiers in a village called My Lai.

It was directed by Stanley Kramer, an independent movie producer better known as director of the 1967 drama, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and the 1963 comedy, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

"The camp provided them," Swann announced at a war crimes court hearing before Army Col. Stephen Henley, which tackled what resources Mohammed and his fellow four accused have gotten to prepare for trial while in the custody of Task Force Platinum at Camp 7 here.

Henley on Monday delayed the case for two months.

The accused were also given a law dictionary and English-Arabic dictionary, Swann said, as well as copies of two National Geographic documentaries: Inside The Vatican and Inside Mecca.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1245115.html

9/11 Commission Memo: 'Executive Branch Minders' Intimidation of Witnesses'

2009-09-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13279605/911-Commission-Memo-Executive-Branch-Minders-Intimidation-of-Witnesses

New Jersey: Meiswinkle Believes 9/11 Has Bearing on Governor's Race

2009-09-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

" ... the [9/11] commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by government officials that they considered referring obstruction of justice charges to the Justice Department. .. "

By Herald.com Staff
www.capemaycountyherald.com
09/16/2009

EAST WINDSOR — The 9/11 Commission completed its work and released a report in August 2004. The report concluded that the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented and issued lengthy recommendations for institutional change. The commission and its conclusions have come under extensive criticism, even from its own commissioners, according to a release by David Meiswinkle, independent candidate for governor.

He believes issues concerning the 9/11 investigation have a direct bearing on the campaign for New Jersey governor.

Meiswinkle, who is an attorney and a retired 23-year police officer, has accused the Bush administration of actively trying to cover up the events leading to the 9/11 disaster. “This is the greatest failure to defend our country from attack in our nation’s history.

There were many warnings but they were not heeded. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield had every reason to cover up their failures. The original 9/11 commissioners believed that the CIA, Pentagon, FAA, and NORAD representatives were deliberately deceiving them. They even wanted to refer criminal prosecution to the justice department.”

In August 2006, Kean and Hamilton published a book titled “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.” In it, they stated that the 9/11 Commission was "set up to fail," and that the commission was so frustrated with repeated misstatements by government officials that they considered referring obstruction of justice charges to the Justice Department.

Meiswinkle stated “Chris Christie is basing his campaign as a corruption fighter. But recent revelations about Christie’s political ties to Karl Rove and the White House raises suspicion as to why he was chosen to be U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

“The collusion extends to the selection of Christopher Christie as the top Justice Department official for the state,” Meiswinkle asserted. “Bush nominated Christie for the position only three months after 9/11. Yet, Christie never bothered to use the powers of his federal office to investigate the greatest crime in history. He betrayed New Jerseyans who died in that holocaust.

“Christie got his nomination solely because he was the biggest New Jersey fund raiser for Bush — he had no criminal law expertise. Christie’s previous experience was as a lobbyist, County Freeholder, and an attorney. Clearly, Christie was put in place as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey as a political favor and to squash any federal investigation of 9/11.”

If elected, Meiswinkle would empower a new 9/11 commission headed by the New Jersey Attorney General and would call upon President Obama to compel the Justice Department to investigate charges presented by the original 9/11 commission.

For information on the candidate visit: http://www.meiswinkle4governor.com/

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/54647-meiswinkle+believes+911+has+bearing+governor039s+race

Media War against "Conspiracy Theorists": Kathy Shaidle, UnTruther & Unabashed Racist

2009-09-05T23:15:00.001-07:00

Media War on "Conspiracy Theorists": Kathy Shaidle, UnTruther & Unabashed Racist

Edited by Alex Constantine

Today, Kathy Shaidle at Examiner.com let loose with some antipathy ...

Van Jones a '9/11 Truther' since January 2002

Gateway Pundit has now uncovered proof that, despite his protestations to the contrary, Van Jones [Obama's "Green Czar"] has been a "9/11 Truther" as far back as January 2002.

Jones served on the "organizing committee" for a group formed in January 2002 ...

I've been saying this for years: if you sincerely believe that agents of the United States government in general, and the President in particular, actually supervised the death of 3000 of your fellow citizens, then it is your duty and moral obligation to either renounce your citizenship and flee the country, or engage in armed revolt.

Failure to do either reveals you, as a "9/11 Truther," to be nothing more than a gutless poseur and a moral exhibitionist, easily thrilled by the dubious frisson of risk-free coffeehouse radicalism. You are beneath contempt. ...

Full Commentary: http://www.examiner.com/x-722-Conservative-Politics-Examiner~y2009m9d5-Van-Jones-a-911-Truther-since-January-2002

SO WHO IS KATHY SHAIDLE? ...

I'm WND's new 'Talk Radio' columnist!
By KATHY SHADLE

Last week, World Net Daily publisher Joseph Farah stumbled on my latest "Right Wing Radio Week in Review" column at my "Conservative Talk Radio" Squidoo page. he emailed to ask if I'd consider doing the column under the WND banner. I think you can guess my answer!

Here's the official announcement from WND:

Did you hear what happened on Hannity's radio show this week? Wonder what all the buzz is about on Beck? Now, WND enables you to keep up with the world of talk radio – without having to sit through all the commercials, news and weather – by "tuning in" to the newest feature on WND's Diversions page, "Talk Radio Watch."

Each Friday, the feisty blogger from FiveFeetofFury.com, Kathy Shaidle, recaps the week's biggest stories – both on the air and behind the scenes – from all across the radio dial...

And here's my first Talk Radio Watch column, with the latest news about the Michael Savage ban, the Glenn Beck boycott, Mark Steyn's guest hosting stint for Rush, Hugh Hewitt's most embarrassing liberal caller in a long time, and much more.

Hope you'll check it out every Friday!

http://www.examiner.com/x-722-Conservative-Politics-Examiner~y2009m9d5-Van-Jones-a-911-Truther-since-January-2002
****
Far-Right Propaganda

Shaidle says that she became a conservative after 9/11. She is VERY Catholic.

Ms. Shaidle's writing career is somewhat checkered, and she has her conservative biases. Wilipedia: "In 2008, Shaidle (with four others) was sued for libel by Richard Warman, a former investigator for the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The case is unresolved."

She is opposed in general to human rights issues. "In 2008 Shaidle and journalist Pete Vere wrote and published The Tyranny of Nice, a critique of the Canadian human rights tribunals. ... "

She also writes for FrontPage.com, David Horowitz's way-right campus crusade/propaganda mill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Shaidle
****
ABOVE ALL, KATHY SHAIDLE IS AN OUTSPOKEN RACIST

Controversial right-wing blogger invited to speak at London event
March 11, 2009

Some members of the city's Jewish community have brought in speakers critical of anti-hate laws

By RANDY RICHMOND

She has called Muslims "pathetic, whiny losers" who practise "a sick, sick religion." She has accused Asians of spreading disease in Toronto, disparaged natives and blacks, and suggested the poor "are no more real than Bigfoot."

Now, controversial right-wing blogger Kathy Shaidle may be coming to London to speak about human rights.

The invitation to Shaidle by some members of the city's Jewish community has alarmed anti-racism activists and provided fresh ammunition to the country's heavyweight politicos over freedom of speech.

"She is a purveyor of some of the most offensive racial stereotypes I have ever read," Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said yesterday. ...

FULL STORY: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/03/11/8704556-sun.html

Postscript: Obama's "Green Jobs" Guru Jones Resigns after Uproar
Sep 6, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House environmental policy adviser who specialized in "green jobs" resigned on Sunday after an uproar over his previous affiliation with a September 11 conspiracy group.

Van Jones, special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, apologized on Thursday after videotape surfaced of him using a crude epithet to describe Republicans and amid revelations he had signed a petition suggesting U.S. government involvement in the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The apology did little to quell Republican criticism, however, and President Barack Obama's chief spokesman gave only tepid support to the adviser on Friday.

Jones said he was resigning to avoid being a distraction in the administration's effort to pass healthcare reform and climate change legislation.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones said in a resignation letter that was released to the media.

"I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future," he wrote.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5850B020090906

Media War on "Conspiracy Theorists": National Geographic Special Marginalizing 9/11 Truthers Brought to You by Rupert Murdoch and the CIA

2009-09-02T14:27:00.001-07:00

Edited by Alex Constantine

Contents of this post:

1) Reviewers who applaud National Geographic's "sledge-hammer" debunking of 9/11 "conspiracy theorists"
2) The National Geographic Channel is controlled by Rupert Murdoch
3) National Geographic, "Voice of the CIA"
4) The CIA's Rupert Murdoch (& Ted Shackley)
5) Claremont Institute - A Dismissive Review: "National Geographic's recent special on 9/11 reflected the CIA's spin on the world"

1) Reviewers who applaud National Geographic's "sledge-hammer" debunking of 9/11 "conspiracy theorists"

From: "National Geographic 9/11 special- the final nail in the coffin for 9/11 Troof"

"Pretty much every claim made by Truthers was debunked so thoroughly and easily, I almost felt bad for the anti-American bastards! ... "
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message871872/pg1

From: "National Geographic Dismantles Truther Mythology - Wth A Sledgehammer"
By Pilgrim
September 1, 2009

" .... I’m not going to review the whole program, but I will say this - they [producers of the National Geographic's special on 9/11 conspiracy theories] made the Truthers look like what they are - tinfoil hat wearing, babbling conspiracy minded fools who can’t accept the fact that this country has murderous enemies and George Bush didn’t kill all those people on 9/11. ... "
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/national_geographic_dismantles_truther_mythology_-_wth_a_sledgehammer/

TV review|Truthers couldn't be further from the truth
Miami Herald

" ... 9/11: Science and Conspiracy is frontal assault on the truthers, a magnificent coupling of forensic science and investigative journalism. Using high-tech experiments, computer modeling, archival video and interviews with experts and witnesses, the documentary blows up, one by one, the underpinnings of their fanciful arguments. ... "
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/story/1207110.html

National Geographic TV Debunks 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

" ... This should be required viewing for all Truthers. National Geographic Channel will be airing a program on Monday evening that will debunk the conspiracies. Aptly named '9/11: Science and Conspiracy,' the special aims to address truther wackos like Rosie O'Donnell."
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/08/31/national-geographic-tv-debunks-911-conspiracy-theories/

****
2) National Geographic Channel is Controlled by Rupert Murdoch

VIEWER BEWARE:
National Geographic Channel and 9/11 Propaganda
By Christopher Bollyn
24 March 2006

http://www.erichufschmid.net/Bollyn_NationalGeographic.html

who are Jonathan Towers and National Geographic Channel?

Jonathan Towers grew up in a suburb of New York and is a 1982 graduate of Yale University. Fleshing Out Skull & Bones (2003) by Kris Millegan lists Mr. Towers as a 1982 initiate of Yale's super-secret elitist fraternity known as The Order of Skull & Bones.

President George W. Bush belongs to this secret and powerful fraternity, as does his father and grandfather. Sen. John F. Kerry is also a member.

The National Geographic Channel, which carries the program, is primarily controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which might lead one to ask which nation is meant by "national."

Murdoch, the Australian-born owner of FOX News, owns nearly 67 percent of the National Geographic Channel in the United States and 50 percent of National Geographic Channel International (NGCI).

Asked about the propagandistic nature of the "Inside 9/11" film, Dan Saunders, director of marketing for NGCI told AFP: "We have a licensing agreement to broadcast under the brand of National Geographic. Editorially we have to respect the traditions and values of the National Geographic Society."

Asked if he was concerned that Muslims and Arab viewers would be incensed by the content of the 9/11 series, Saunders said, "We have a non-political view of the world." That is, however, clearly not the case with "Inside 9/11," which seeks to place the entire blame for the events of 9/11 on Islamic terrorists.

Murdoch, it should be noted, is known for his support of Israeli right-wing politicians of the Likud Party, especially Binyamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Murdoch openly advocates a pro-war position which has been echoed by the editorial managers of the nearly 200 newspapers and many television networks he controls.

Murdoch is also known for having produced a 2000 program called "The Lone Gunman," in which a passenger jet was remotely hijacked and flown at the World Trade Center with the intention of crashing it into the building. The uncanny similarities between the Murdoch film and the subsequent events of 9/11 is a subject American Free Press has investigated, but one which has been completely ignored by the controlled press.

The media tycoon is a known acquaintance of both Larry Silverstein and Frank Lowy, the well-insured lease holders of the World Trade Center property.
****
3) National Geographic, "Voice of the CIA"

The National Geographic appears to have become the mouthpiece of the CIA. Just before 9 11, the National Geographic was preparing maps and an article on Afghanistan.

If you want to know which countries the Pentagon is about to invade, look at the National Geographic. The latest edition of the magazine, dated November 2004, has an article on the "Geography of Terror." The article, written by Walter Laqueur who recently retired from the Kissinger Chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, seems full of obvious disinformation.

The article refers to a number of countries:

Ireland – the article fails to mention US financing of terror groups, and the allegation that most of the worst incidents were the work of the UK security services.

Europe – the article fails to mention the CIA links to the terror which hit Italy in the 1980s. Remember the bombs in railway stations that ‘were the work of fascist groups with CIA connections’.

Indonesia – the article fails to mention (1) the CIA terror used to topple President Sukarno and then President Suharto (2) the US training of the generals who have been associated with terror in East Timor, the Spice Islands and elsewhere (3) the links between the US trained Indonesian military and ‘Moslem’ terror groups such as Laskar Jihad (4) the alleged involvement of the Indonesian military in the Bali bomb.

Palestine – the article does not make it clear that (1) the Palestinians were driven from their land by Jewish terrorist groups (2) the Israelis initially aided Hamas in order to weaken Arafat (3) the USA supports Israel in its occupation of Palestinian land and defiance of UN resolutions and in its possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq – the article fails to mention the body of evidence that Saddam was a CIA agent and was put into power by the USA.

Al Qaeda – the article promotes the myth of al Qaeda. It fails to mention (1) the bin Laden links to the Bush family (2) bin Laden’s Jewish mother (3) bin Laden’s death in December 2001 (4) the controlled explosions that brought down the Twin Towers on 9 11 (5) the training of the alleged hijackers at US military bases.

http://drewhempel.gnn.tv/blogs/13595/National_Geographic_is_CIA_Stooge
****
4) The CIA's Rupert Murdoch (& Ted Shackley)

As I have tried to impress upon one and all with bumper-sticker clarity: RUPERT MURDOCH IS A CIA PROPAGANDIST. This is mentioned NOWHERE and should be acknowledged EVERYWHERE. Conformist, CIA-programmed, status quo thinking doesn't begin to notice reality. An individual capable of independent thought begins by looking for telltale signs, say blood-thirsty CIA jackal Ted Shackley, who "had a good relationship with Murdoch when he was CIA station chief in Australia between 1972-75. This was around the time that Murdoch's fortunes changed."
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=5818&name=Theodore-Shackley

Murdoch's partner, Peter Abeles, a Mafia kingpin, started up Australia's Nugan Hand Bank, the CIA's money laundering front.

And you consider: Perhaps the hideous Rupert Murdoch is not merely an independent "conservative" propagandist whose view of the world is parallel to General Pinochet's, but one deliberately installed to program public opinion. Could that be?

How did he really get to where he is today? No penetrating answers come from the status quo, ever.

Does anyone care that this "conservative" charlatan without a conscience is ushering in open fascist rule on a red carpet of lies?

Murdoch is a former CIA heroin importer, the kind of man Americans adore. Today, he's the beloved programmer of Good Germans everywhere. Time to demand an independent investigation of state propagandists from Langley, because America may not survive them. - AC

By Sterling Seagrave
Aug 22 2007

"Bill Casey was one of the key men in the acquisition of media after WW2. It was one of his proteges (a young German immigrant to the US) who was sent back to Germany after the war to take over Bertelsmann and build it up. Rupert Murdoch was very tight with Shackley, which is how he got launched on his global acquisitions and has now taken over the WSJ. Murdoch was running a failed national newspaper in Australia while Shackley was station chief in Oz. Then suddenly he becomes a US citizen literally overnight and goes on an endless buying spree. Shackley's pockets were infinitely deep. At the time, Murdoch was facing the likely closure of his newspaper THE AUSTRALIAN. His ticket out was Shackley. This also explains why Murdoch was allowed to break all the rules in acquisition of media in America."

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=10799&st=0&p=115393&#entry115393

CIA Fascist Ted Shackley

... When Shackley was recalled in February, 1972, he was put in charge of the CIA's Western Hemisphere Division. One of his major tasks was to undermine Philip Agee, an ex-CIA officer who was writing a book on the CIA. The book was eventually published as Inside the Company, but did not include the information that would have permanently damaged the reputation of the CIA.

Shackley also played an important role in the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. As his biographer, David Corn points out: "Salvador Allende died during the coup. When the smoke cleared, General Augusto Pinochet, the head of a military junta, was in dictatorial control... Elections were suspended. The press was censored. Allende supporters and opponents of the junta were jailed. Torture centers were established. Executions replaced soccer matches in Santiago's stadiums. Bodies floated down the Mapocho river. Due in part to the hard work of Shackley and dozens of other Agency bureaucrats and operatives, Chile was free of the socialists."

By 1975 he was promoted to Deputy Director of Operations, where he served under George H. W. Bush. He therefore became second-in-command of all CIA covert activity.

Shackley was a close friend of Edwin Wilson, an ex-CIA agent, who became an arms dealer. Wilson was jailed for shipping plastic explosive and detonators to Libya. Stansfield Turner, the head of the CIA, believed Shackley was closely involved in this affair and he was forced to resign. CIA chief, Richard Helms, reportedly said: Ted is what we call in the spook business a quadruple threat - Drugs, Arms, Money and Murder."

After leaving the CIA Shackley formed his own company, Research Associates International, which specialized in providing intelligence to business. He took part in the October Surprise which resulted in the American hostages in Iran being held until Ronald Reagan had defeated Jimmy Carter at the 1980 elections. Soon after Reagan was elected the hostages were released.

During the Ronald Reagan administration, Shackley and some of his former CIA friends, Thomas Clines and Richard Secord, became involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Clines was sent to prison but Shackley managed to escape prosecution. ....

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Theodore_Shackley
****
5) Claremont Institute - A Dismissive Review: "National Geographic's recent special on 9/11 reflected the CIA's spin on the world"

" ... The National Geographic program not only left out key information, but reaffirmed the impression — entirely misleading — that terrorism has nothing to do with states. The CIA's continues to press this point onto the American people. We can only wish that the agency worked as craftily with America's enemies. ... "

National Geographic Spins 9/11
By Angelo M. Codevilla
September 12, 2005

National Geographic's recent special on 9/11 reflected the CIA's spin on the world. It was filled with conjecture based on bad sources, and a few outright falsehoods. As is the case with so many CIA products, it avoided the distinction between what we know and what the U.S. government wants to believe. In doing so, it gave the impression that we know things that we do not.

Here are a few illustrations.

The program claims that in the 1980s, Peshawar was swarming with CIA agents. In fact, there were exactly zero in direct contact with the Mujahideen there (or anywhere else). The Islamabad CIA station had one-and-a-half full-time staff working on Afghanistan, and did so exclusively through Pakistan's security service, the ISI. This was agency policy. The first introductions between CIA officers and the Mujahideen were not even made until October 1984.

The program quoted the CIA line that Osama bin Laden escaped to Pakistan. Not only is there no evidence for this, but there is no evidence of bin Laden's continued existence after November 2001. This, after the world's most thorough manhunt. The several bin Laden tapes have never been credible, and no reputable person claims to have seen him.

National Geographic gave the impression that bin Laden was the focal point, the deus ex machina, of anti--U.S. terrorism. This is the CIA's view, rooted in an eagerness to exonerate Third Word governments from responsibility for terrorism. The CIA would have us believe that private entities like al-Qaeda manipulate vast state intelligence services—not the other way around. Not surprisingly, the CIA draws evidence for this view from the intelligence services of states like Syria, Egypt, and yes, until 2003, Iraq. These state agencies dish up intelligence from terrorists outfits because they have infiltrated every one. They manipulate the groups against other state rivals and against us. And yet the CIA still assumes the information is disinterested.

The CIA's principal fault in its intelligence collection has always been that its "case officers," who are not actually agents, play at intelligence. Case officers have neither the policies, the skills, nor the courage to undertake real undercover work. And so they take what they are told and call it good.

Experience demonstrates that the CIA often thinks it has the upper hand while being taken for a ride by foreign services—hostiles and "friendlies" alike. When we have actually come upon intelligence windfalls, like Germany's Stasi files, we have discovered that nearly all the CIA's agents were actually were working for the other side. Most recently, the CIA's vaunted ROCKSTARS operation in Iraq—on the basis of which part of the April 2003 attack was planned—turns out to have been managed by Saddam.

The role of states in terrorism—Iraq, Syria, Iran, the PLO—is at the heart of disputes over U.S. foreign policy. Yet the CIA has bent over backwards to deny their role. The program reflects this. It first states that Ramzi Youssef arrived in the U.S. "with a perfectly forged Iraqi passport." The photocopy we have, however, shows no evidence of forgery, meaning that the guy came from Baghdad (and returned there) as someone known and accepted by the Iraqi authorities. Why believe—the CIA's and the program's unspoken assumption—that he's neither Ramzi Youssef nor Iraqi?

According to the CIA (accepted by National Geographic) his real name and unforged identity are supposedly reflected in the Kuwaiti document he presented to New York's Pakistani consulate while obtaining the passport he used to leave the U.S. after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And it is only on the basis of that presumed identity (one Abdul Karim), that he can be believed to be—as CIA believes and the program stated—Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's nephew. The trouble is that Karim's document says that he's is 5' 8" tall, whereas Ramzi Youssef, sitting in the federal pen in Colorado, is 6' tall.

The program mentions that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's interrogation "provided details" of the 9/11 plot. Embellishment is more accurate. He shed light on nothing. He talked a lot about bin Laden's alleged day--to-day involvement, but everything we independently know points to him as the plot's director. In fact, Mohammed, along with Youssef/Karim, were involved in the conspiracy before either met bin Laden. The money for both came from another of Mohammed's "nephews." Why did they do it? The program suggests Islamic motives. But neither Mohammed's nor Youssef lived Islamic lives. Because bin Laden told them? But they were doing it before.

There is no doubt that a number of Islamic radicals were recruited for the plot. It is not clear by whom, with what understanding, or with what documentation. But one thing is beyond doubt, and it wasn't mentioned in the program: According to surveillance cameras, the faces of nine or so of the hijackers who boarded the planes of September 11 did not correspond to the names on their visas. In fact, one Saudi identified as a hijacker called a TV station to say that he was alive, had nothing to do with the plot, and had reported his passport stolen in Denver two years before.

The National Geographic program not only left out key information, but reaffirmed the impression—entirely misleading—that terrorism has nothing to do with states. The CIA's continues to press this point onto the American people. We can only wish that the agency worked as craftily with America's enemies.

Film Critic Criticizes Quentin Tarantino over his remark on 9/11

2009-08-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

By Leonard Clark
Examiner
August 28, 2009

Quentin TarantinoA theater critic named Johann Hari, who is a columnist for the London Indepent has critized movie director Quentin Tarantino for making this statement about 9/11 not long after it happened: "It didn't affect me because there's, like, a Hong Kong action movie... called Purple Storm and they work in a whole big thing in the plot that they blow up a skyscraper." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-terrible-moral-emptin_b_270809.html

Mr. Hari, in response to this statement say: It's a case-study in atrophy of moral senses: to brag you weren't moved by the murder of two and half thousand actual people, because you'd already seen it simulated in a movie. Only somebody who has never seen violence -- who sees the world as made of celluloid -- can respond like this.

This reporter has to ask: Are we now going to the movie because of the plot or are many of us only going to the movie because of the blood and guts that Mr. Tarantino portrays to large effect in his movies?

http://www.examiner.com/x-18383-Maricopa-County-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m8d28-Film-Critic-Criticizes-Quentin-Tarantino-over-his-remark-on-911

Hagel Headed for Obama's Intelligence Board (Also, PIAB's John Hamre, 9/11, Markle Foundation, CSIS, ChoicePoint, Zelikow, Judith Miller, etc.)

2009-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

By Al Kamen
August 14, 2009

Former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel (R), a senior administration official-in-waiting either later this term or in President Obama's second term (if there is one), is taking another step into Obama's national security team. We're hearing Hagel is in line to co-chair the important President's Intelligence Advisory Board (formerly known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board).

Hagel, who is a longtime pal of Vice President Biden and who toured Iraq and Afghanistan with Obama during the campaign, already has been named to replace former House speaker Newt Gingrich on the Defense Policy Board, run by former deputy secretary of Defense John Hamre [see Hamre profile below - AC]. ...

The board, which usually acts in secrecy, is given access to key intelligence information and is charged with giving the president an objective analysis of the quality of that information. Prior chairmen have been folks such as former Bush I national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, former New Hampshire senator Warren Rudman, former House speaker Tom Foley, Gen. Maxwell Taylor and former Johnson administration secretary of defense Clark Clifford.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081303773.html

JOHN HAMRE PROFILE

Hamre is the ChoicePoint connection to ITT - the communications and Chilean coup-plot people - where he has been a director since '00. This was the same year he became chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Before joining CSIS, Hamre was U.S. deputy secretary of defense, 1997-2000 ... under William Cohen, one of the Senate Republicans who signed Lee Hamilton's martinized Iran-contra report - and under-secretary of defense/comptroller from 1993 to 1997. Before joining the DoD, Dr. Hamre was on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1984-1993, with responsibilities for oversight of weapons R&D and assorted defense budget issues. From 1978 to 1984, he was deputy assistant director for national security and international affairs at the Congressional Budget Office. Dr. Hamre is a director of MITRE Corp. and Integrated Nano Technologies LPC. He's a Rockefeller Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, and received a Ph.D. in 1978 from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.3

Dr. Hamre is also board chairman of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation.

The list of Markle grant recipients and partners includes CNN, Infonautics, Crossover Technologies, M.I.T., RAND Corporation, Carnegie-Mellon University and The Brookings Institute.

Some members of the "philanthropic" Markle foundation under Dr. Hamre:

Philip Zelikow: executive director of the 911 Commission.

Judith A. Miller: The New York Times reporter whose articles on Saddam Hussein's WMD program proved to be fictional.

Stewart A. Baker: Chief counsel, NSA.

William P. Crowell: CEO of Cylink, Inc. in Santa Clara, California. Crowell came to Cylink from the NSA, where he had a series of senior positions, including deputy director of operations and deputy director.

Eric Benhamou: vice chairman, Israel21c, a non-profit organization that seeks, according to its website, to "promote the 21st century Israel that exists beyond the conflict."

Paul Schott Stevens: Under President Reagan, special assistant for national security affairs, executive secretary and legal adviser of the NSC.

Robert M. Bryant: former assistant director of the FBI, CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In November 1999, after 31 years of service, he retired as deputy director of the FBI, where he presided over the Bureau's strategic plan, and served as the agency's chief operations officer. While at the FBI, he directed a number of high-profile investigations, including the Aldrich Ames spy case, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Montana Freeman
standoff.

John O. Marsh: Former Secretary of the Army and Virginia Congressman. A member of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. Recently, the Panel released its second annual report entitled "Toward a National Strategy for Combating Terrorism."

Morton Halperin: Director of the Washington office of the Open Society Institute. Halperin is a director of policy planning staff at the Department of State. He was special assistant to President Clinton and a senior director at the NSC, 1994-1996. Other positions include director of the Center for National Security Studies, and director of the ACLU's Washington
D.C. office.

Wesley Clark: War profiteer and former "liberal" presidential candidate.

Gilman Louie: President and CEO of In-Q-Tel, a CIA front, delivers new technologies to the intelligence community.

Michael Okerlund Leavitt: Republican governor of Utah, first elected in 1992. Leavitt resigned his office in November 2003, and was sworn in as the administrator of the EPA under Bush the next day. He was confirmed to this office on October 28, 2003. Leavitt also serves on the Homeland Security
Advisory Council.

Ashton Carter: Ford Foundation Professor of Science and International Affairs, International Security Program.

The Godson of Mafioso Frank Costello is an FBI "Counter-Terrorist" and "TV News Reporter"

2009-08-19T22:06:00.001-07:00

By Alex Constantine

Caveat: No mention of the Mafia in the following puff piece from National Journal - ABC reporter/FBI counter-terrorist John Miller (left) is the son of John Miller, Sr. - "a gossip columnist in New York whose colorful friends included singer Bobby Darin and mafia boss Frank Costello."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Miller_(journalist)

A finer point on it: "The two [Miller, Sr. and the mobster] were so close, Costello served as godfather to John Jr."
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1187729

Bearing in mind the fascinating Mafia link, see: "Reporter" John Miller's Foreknowledge-- More Media/Government Collusion in the Events of 9/11" - "There are many remarkable things we can learn about John Miller! Soon after this 9/11 'reporting,' he was promoted to co-anchor of 20/20 at ABC-TV. And within a year, he wrote a book that 9/11 happened because of 'intelligence agencies' failures. ..."
http://covertoperations.blogspot.com/2007/05/john-millers-foreknowledge-more.html

The multi-faceted godson of Frank Costello surfaces in some interesting places:

Former TV Newsman To Lead U.S. Intel Tech
nationaljournal.com
August 18, 2009

John Miller, a broadcast journalist who parlayed his expertise on terrorism into a career with local law enforcement and later the FBI, plans to leave the bureau to help lead reform efforts for the intelligence community. According to sources familiar with Miller's plans, he would move to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he'd head up a team devoted to "analytic transformation." It was established in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to improve the ability of analysts to share information across bureaucratic boundaries and to encourage them to use new technologies, such as social networking. Since 2005, Miller has been the FBI's assistant director for public affairs, the bureau's top spokesman. Miller did not respond to e-mails or messages left with his office seeking comment. A spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence said the office had "no personnel announcements to make at this time."

Over the course of his career, Miller has alternated between covering terrorism as a reporter and joining ranks to fight it as a law enforcement official. In the early 1990s, he was one of a few reporters closely following the then nascent Al Qaeda network and its ties to the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. Miller became friends with agents in the FBI's New York field office, particularly John O'Neill, whose career in the bureau was the subject of a PBS Frontline documentary titled "The Man Who Knew," a reference to O'Neill's dogged pursuit of Al Qaeda and its shadowy leader, Osama bin Laden. In 1998, Miller became one of the few western journalists to interview bin Laden in person when he and a cameraman sat down with the terrorist leader in Afghanistan.

In New York, Miller earned a reputation as one of the most plugged-in reporters covering the FBI. In a 2003 review of a book that Miller co-wrote about the 9/11 attacks, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell remarked on his reporting prowess in the wake of the first World Trade Center attack: "At the bombing site, he was continuously trailed by a knot of reporters -- I was one of them -- who had concluded that the best way to learn what was going on was to try to overhear his conversations." In 1994, Miller left media to become spokesman for the New York City Police Department. As he recalled in an interview with People magazine, "I thought, 'What if you spent your days not just talking about it? What if you were doing it?'"

After a brief stint with the NYPD, Miller returned to the news business. He was a correspondent for ABC News, where he continued to cover Al Qaeda and scored the interview with bin Laden. In 2002, he became co-anchor of ABC's news magazine program 20/20 with Barbara Walters. But the following year, Miller left journalism again, this time for a position with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he led the Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, as well as the Major Crimes Division, which managed the department's bomb squad and hazardous materials unit.

In his new intelligence post, Miller would replace a veteran analyst and technologist named Mike Wertheimer, who spent the majority of his career at the National Security Agency. Wertheimer, who was the subject of a profile in National Journal, has overseen efforts to bring the intelligence community into the 21st Century. During his tenure, the intelligence community began using a social network system called A-Space, modeled after My Space and Facebook, which allows analysts from different agencies to share information. Wertheimer has also overseen the launch of Intellipedia, a resource modeled on Wikipedia, which allows users to write, and indefinitely re-write, articles in a collective fashion.

Despite Miller's law enforcement credentials, it's not immediately clear what technological expertise he would bring to the new job. Wertheimer, whom he would replace, spent 21 years as a cryptologist at the National Security Agency and rose to become the agency's most senior technical leader. Although his work leading analytic transformation has been focused partly on abstract issues such as workplace culture, many of his programs are technical in nature. The position is also not as high-profile as Miller's current role, which has allowed him to become one of the public faces of the FBI. -- Shane Harris

http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/former-anchor-to-lead-us-intel.php

9/11 survivors call for renewed probe as 8th anniversary approaches

2009-08-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2009/08/911_survivors_call_for_renewed.html

Posted by Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist August 09, 2009

The eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a month away and some survivors of those lost believe it's a good time to renew an investigation into the events of that disastrous day. New York City disagrees.

"We know we never have learned the truth, it's as simple as that,'' says Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick, one of the most ardent supporters of the creation of the 9/11 commission in 2002. It was headed by former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean.

"Members and staff of the 9/11 commission have said many of the questions raised by the attacks have never been answered.''

Van Auken was a founding member of Sept. 11 Advocates, originally a group of four New Jersey widows whose husbands were killed that day. The group, informally called "the Jersey girls," successfully lobbied for the creation of the commission.

The four women formed the core of a "steering committee" that was loosely attached to the panel, and then became lobbyists for enactment of the commission's recommendations and critics of many of its findings after the panel's report was published almost exactly five years ago.

Van Auken is now affiliated with an organization called NYC-CAN -- New York City Coalition for Accountability Now -- that has spent the last few months collecting signatures on a petition designed to require New York's city council to place the creation of an investigating commission on the November ballot.

The city clerk's office has rejected the petition, challenging thousands of the signatures and, more importantly, the legality of the referendum itself. The dispute already is in court.

NYC-CAN is still pushing for signatures, relying on a provision of the law that allows voters to bypass city council action to place a referendum directly on the ballot.

Visitors to the area around the old World Trade Center site -- now all but inaccessible because of construction -- are likely to encounter supporters of the ballot initiative seeking signatures. Only New York City voters, however, are eligible to sign the petition.

That would exclude Van Auken herself, although, under the terms of the petition, she would be one of the commissioners who would supervise the investigation. The effort has been endorsed by the other "Jersey girls" -- Mindy Kleinberg, also of East Brunswick, and Patty Casazza and Kristen Breitweiser, both of whom have moved out of state.

"We are looking for some way to renew interest in the idea of an investigation,'' says Van Auken.

Another leader of the NYC-CAN effort is Robert McIlvaine, who became a fixture at public hearings of the 9/11 commission, always noticeable in the audience because he wore an orange baseball cap. It was his son Robert's Princeton cap -- the young man had graduated from Princeton in 1997, moved to New York and gotten a job with Merrill Lynch. He was attending a conference at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's a murder -- my son was murdered -- and there never has been a murder investigation and a finding of what happened,'' says McIlvaine, who was laid off from his teaching job at a mental hospital four months after his son's death. He is retired and spends much of his time pushing for a renewed probe into 9/11.

"It's very simple -- I'm a father who lost his son," says McIlvaine, who lives in Oreland, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. He is a member of the executive council of NYC-CAN. "Why wouldn't any father want to know how and why his son died?''

Previous efforts to promote a New York-based investigation into 9/11 have failed. McIlvaine was a leader of a petition drive in 2004 to get former New York attorney general Elliot Spitzer to impanel a special grand jury to look into the day's events.

Efforts like those of NYC-CAN face the danger of becoming overwhelmed by the more radical elements of the so-called "truther" movement, some of whose members already have reached their own conclusions about 9/11 -- including a contention that the destruction of the Twin Towers was not caused by the airplane crashes but rather internal demolition.

The NYC-CAN website -- nyccan.org -- insists any investigation it supervises will not begin with conclusions:

"The investigation will commence from a starting point of zero assumption or bias about the events of September 11. The investigation will be fact-driven and will use only the most rigorous legal standards for establishing the truth about those tragic events.''

Even if the petition succeeds in getting the issue on the ballot, and even if the referendum is adopted, the independent investigation will face daunting problems -- including how to pay for its operations. The 9/11 commission spent $12 million on its investigation; NYC-CAN hopes to raise $50 million privately.

"We do face a lot of problems,'' says Van Auken. "But we really don't have much of a choice.''

Eight Years Later, Push to put a New 9/11 Probe on the Ballot

2009-07-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

" ... Seizing upon the comments by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, co-chairpersons of the original 9/11 Commission, that their investigation was 'set up to fail,' NYC CAN argues that the original 9/11 Commission was a flawed investigation marred by reticent government agencies and inconsistent testimony. ... "

By Will Glovinsky
The Villager
Volume 79, Number 8 | July 29 - August 4, 2009

Supporters of a ballot initiative that would create a second, independent 9/11 investigative commission are awaiting the City Clerk’s certification of 52,000 signatures submitted on June 24 by the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, or NYC CAN. The decision could bring the measure to the City Council for a vote and, if approved, the referendum would appear on this November’s ballot.

“This could be one of the most important ballot referendums ever put to city voters because of what happened, the nature of the event, the scale of it — and because so many questions were unanswered,” said Kyle Hence, a spokesperson for NYC CAN.

Before the initiative reaches voters, however, it still faces a series of hurdles, the certification decision being only the first. The City Clerk must certify that at least 30,000 signatures belong to registered New York City voters, although NYC CAN’s leaders are confidant that they can supply enough additional signatures if necessary. Another 15,000 signatures may also be needed to override a veto by City Council.

Seizing upon the comments by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, co-chairpersons of the original 9/11 Commission, that their investigation was “set up to fail,” NYC CAN argues that the original 9/11 Commission was a flawed investigation marred by reticent government agencies and inconsistent testimony. The group proposes a new subpoena-powered commission of mostly private citizens (the list in the petition does include former Senators Lincoln Chafee and Mike Gravel), which proponents say would pursue the remaining questions aggressively and independently.

The new commission would try to find answers for all of the questions initially posed by the Family Steering Committee, the group of victims’ family members that lobbied for the creation of the original 9/11 Commission. However, Ted Walters, executive director of NYC CAN, said that the terrorists’ funding and the military’s failure to intercept the hijacked jetliners were especially high priorities for a new investigation.

“We’re talking about a serious failure to comply with protocols,” he said, referring to the failure of military interceptors.

The new commission would also investigate the illnesses that have afflicted survivors, first responders and local residents and workers in the eight years since the attacks. On its Web site, NYC CAN says that first responders have been unable to draw benefits from the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company, which was set up by the government to underwrite medical costs for injured parties.

The Coalition for Accountability Now reflects an effort to unify and legitimize a broad spectrum of interests that have questioned the government’s ability to investigate itself. Working with an issue that has fostered a bevy of conspiracy theorists, NYC CAN takes pains to clarify on its Web site that its commission would be impartial and start with zero assumptions.

Walters did say that the new commission would follow a more aggressive investigative strategy than the first commission, which issued subpoenas for Pentagon and White House documents only after it encountered stiff resistance from government officials.

“The first step, on Day One, would be to draw up a list of everybody they want to interview, and issue the subpoenas at the beginning,” Walters said. He added that, in addition to mandating testimony from tight-lipped government officials, subpoenas would also provide a legal green light for people who want to share information but cannot without an explicit order to do so.

William Pepper, legal counsel for NYC CAN and a slated commissioner if the referendum is approved, said that despite the municipal mandate of the commission, its subpoena power would, in effect, range far beyond the city line.

“Subpoenas are honored by other districts,” said Pepper. “If a witness refuses to appear, the subpoena could be converted to another court. There may well be challenges, but I think legally they can be overcome.”

Walters explained that if the commission were to meet the same kind of resistance that the original investigation encountered, attention could be directed at the persons or agencies that were not forthcoming.

“There will be a dichotomy of those who want to testify and those who don’t,” he said.

Regarding the work of the original 9/11 Commission, Walters said that one of his major concerns was its refusal to hold any entity accountable for failing to fulfill its duty.

“There were structural failures,” he said, referring to the tangled bureaucracy that slowed the military’s immediate response to the attack, “but there were also individual failures.”

Although Walters insisted that the new commission would not be a witch hunt, he said he would be surprised if it did not ultimately hold anyone responsible. He noted that the petition’s language charges the commission to “seek indictments” where prudent, meaning the commission could work in tandem with prosecutors’ offices.

“Ultimately, what our justice system does with the findings of the commission is beyond our control,” Walters said. “Changes will be made through political pressure rather than legal obligation.”

The “set up to fail” comment by Kean and Hamilton is from their 2006 book, “Without Precedent,” which details the internal workings of the 9/11 Commission and criticizes the Federal Aviation Administration, the military command and House Republicans for obstructing the commission’s investigation.

Another 9/11 Commission member, Bob Kerrey, former Nebraska senator and current president of The New School, has also spoken out about the commission’s work, specifically the difficulty of discerning the truth from information obtained through terrorism suspects who were subjected to “enhanced interrogation.” Kerrey, who could not be reached for this article, was quoted in a March Newsweek essay saying that it might take “a permanent 9/11 commission” to answer remaining questions.

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_326/8yearlater.html

GOP Disses 9/11 Responders

2009-07-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

NY Daily News
July 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — First responders from 9/11 can accept if Republicans don’t vote for a bill to help ailing Ground Zero workers, but they say rudeness is another matter. Several victims of the terror attacks who have become advocates on behalf of other ill responders say they were treated poorly when they called some Capitol Hill Republicans in hopes of getting them to back a measure coming up for a committee vote Wednesday.

"One office said, ‘Why do you people keep calling us? Leave us alone,’" said Charlie Giles, 41, from Barnegat, N.J. "‘You people?’ That is a disgrace from a congressman’s office."

Giles, a Republican, said his rounds of calls — and GOP opposition to a bill to reopen the Sept. 11 Victims’ Compensation Fund — left him so angry he’s ready to denounce his party when he and other responders take a bus to the Capitol Wednesday.

"I’ll bring my Republican card, and show it to them," he said. "If I have to tear it into a million pieces in front of them, I will."

Giles, who was an EMT on Sept. 11, 2001, singled out the offices of Reps. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) and Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.), as did other angry responders. They said their reactions from other members of the GOP was better. Spokespeople for both congressmen said they were not aware of any problems with callers, and insisted they provide unfailingly polite and helpful service. In one instance, a spokesperson for Forbes thought an intern may have annoyed someone by offering to take their name and see if an appointment could be arranged.

“If someone felt they were mistreated, we apologize,” said Rooney spokesman Jeff Ostermayer. “Our office treats everyone who calls with courtesy and respect.”

Daily News calls to their offices were answered politely, but a worker in Rooney’s office said she couldn’t answer a question about the bill, and transferred the call to a Democratic committee office without saying that’s what she was doing.

"They were just cold," said Glen Klein, 50, a retired city detective, "like you’re interrupting their lunch or something like that." Klein, of Centereach, L.I., spent nine months working at Ground Zero and is collecting Social Security disability.

James O’Connell, 50, an ex-Army man who recently survived a suicide attempt he blames on his 9/11 suffering, said he couldn’t understand the reception he got.

“They were at the very least, conduct unprofessional,” he said. “I don’t get politicians. I thought 9/11 was something that affected all Americans. I thought it was nonpartisan. I’m just baffled by the conduct of all these people,” he said, adding that it wasn’t just about his treatment on the phone that bothers him. “There was such great unity in the country after 9/11 and I don’t understand why in 2009 people are dying and nobody cares,” he said.

- Michael McAuliff

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/07/gop-disses-911-responders.html#ixzz0MgqAfAEm

Top Mafia Figure, Tony Gambino, Implicates Vatican And Bush in Prior Knowledge And Complicity in 9/11 Mass Murder

2009-07-27T04:40:00.001-07:00

The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino, 63, just released from prison also sets the record straight about the JFK and Hoffa assassinations.

By Greg Szymanski
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/26-Sept-2007.html
Sept. 26, 2007

Tony Gambino of the infamous Gambino New York crime family said besides
Mob Bosses, the outfits that benefit most from organized crime are the
corrupt Vatican and U.S. government.

The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino made a guest appearance Tuesday on
Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal on Liberty Radio
at www.libertyradiolive.com The entire interview can be heard at
www.arcticbeacon.com as well as Liberty Radio.

The high-level former mobster talked openly for an hour, indicting top
Vatican and U.S. government officials with complicity in high crimes,
treason and assassinations as they worked together "like a tight-knit
happy family" with the Gambino and other Mafia families.

With America's fascination of the Mafia, Gambino's statements should
shake the halls of St. Peter's Basilica, as well as Capitol Hill, since
he talked about his first hand knowledge of George Bush, the Pope and
other high level Jesuits complicity and knowledge of 9/11.

"When you grow up in "The Family" like I did, you learn right off the bat
that protection comes from everywhere, including the CIA, FBI and
blessings from the Vatican who are at the top of the ladder when it comes
to benefiting from Mafia street crime," said Gambino, who became a "Made
Man" at the age of five, a Mafia term used for their top street captains.

"The Vatican officials, federal judges, top politicians all used to get
regular pay-offs from the Gambino Family and, in fact, the Vatican and
U.S. government make more money off the illegal drug trade then we did.

"That is why I am talking after just getting out of jail after 20 years.
I am talking because people need to know the U.S. government and the
Vatican are more dangerous and corrupt then the Mafia ever was.

"For example, I know for a fact the Cardinal in Palermo runs the Sicilian
mob and former Cardinal Spellman of New York was considered the Vatican's
American Godfather since he pulled the strings and had his hands deep
into organized crime.

"I know for a fact Bush, the Pope and other top Vatican and U.S.
government leaders had prior knowledge and help organize 9/11. They did
it for many obvious reason, one being instigating the war in Iraq. But
they also did it to get their hands on all the gold that was hidden below
in the Twin Towers.

"My grandfather's construction company built the Twin Towers and after it
was completed, I know they went in and put in big underground vaults to
house an enormous amount of gold which is now in Bush's and Vatican hands
in order to fund the war."

Besides implicating the Vatican and Bush in 9/11, Gambino set the record
straight about the JFK assassination, saying he was in Dallas when
Kennedy was shot and the fatal bullet came from a shooter located in an
underground storm drain.

"I was there when he was shot and I know for a fact Rosselli was in the
storm drain doing the shooting and Frank Sturgiss was also part of the
hit team," said Gambino. "The same group of guys we have talked about in
the Vatican and U.S. government gave the orders and asked the Mafia
families for help in taking down Kennedy."

Growing up on the streets of New York in one of the top crime families,
Gambino recalls getting his first lesson of Mafia life at the age of 13.

"My grandfather was Lucky Luciano so I had it made," said Gambino, now 63
and living on the East Coast with a probation stipulation that he can't
associate or talk with any organized crime figures. "Lucky had all the
politicians and even the Vatican heads in his pocket. He was making $55
to $100 million a week and when Vegas opened the money really started to
roll in.

"He got Frank Sinatra and many others like Marylin Monroe, Tony Bennett,
Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis started in Hollywood. He then
would take a percentage of their earnings and this went on for their
entire careers.

"Remember, the horse's head being cut-off in Godfather I and then put in
the Hollywood producer's bed? That really happened and it had to do with
forcing a Hollywood producer to star Sinatra in one of his movies."

Gambino also had inside information about how union boss Jimmy Hoffa was
really killed, saying his time ran out when a huge Mafia debt wasn;t
repaid.

"Hoffa was working behind the scenes with crack head and truck hi-jacker,
John Gotti," recalls Gambino. "That's all Gotti was good at and when they
brought in a $5 million drug truckload, Hoffa got deeper in debt to the
other Mafia bosses.

"He never gave his courtesy calls to the bosses for repayment and finally
his time ran out so he was killed. They picked him up, put him in a body
bag alive and then dumped his body in one of the concrete abutments at
the George Washington Bridge while the concrete was being poured. All
they did was pay the concrete man $150,000 and the whole thing has been
covered up. But that is where Hoffa's body is today and I know that for a
fact."

Although Gambino knows he's crossing a sensitive line for going public
about the inner-workings of the Mafia and its complicity with the Vatican
and U.S. government, he added that it's important for Americans to
finally understand how things "really work on the streets" and how
Church, State and big business are working together to destroy America.

And if there remains any doubters that the Vatican and Jesuit Order have
had its dirty hands in organized crime in order to destroy the moral and
financial fabric of the U.S., Gambino's confessions should lay that to
rest.

"If you don't believe the hard facts and the hundreds of researchers who
have implicated the Vatican to the demise of America, then believe
Gambino because he learned it first hand from being on the streets and
working with the top crime bosses. He has nothing to gain from lying
since he has already served his time and wants to set the record straight
once and for all regarding who are the real controllers of the New World
Order," said one patriot close studying and alerting America of Vatican
and Jesuit intrigue.

International Calls for a 9/11 Investigation

2009-07-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

September 11 Investigation
July 24, 2009
http://www.daily.pk/7367/september-11-investigation/

Europarlementarian Guilietto Chiesa invited his colleagues and the press to attend the screening and debate of the Italian-produced documentary named ‘ZERO, an investigation into the events of 9/11’. Object of the screening was to create political awareness of the faulty official investigation into the events by the 9/11 Commission.

Besides Mr Chiesa, the panel consisted of Japanese parlementarian Fujita, Dr David Ray Griffin, film distributor Tim Sparke & the director and producers of the film.

After his opening statements, Mr Chiesa welcomed his guest speakers, including the producers, director and distributor of the documentary. Mr Chiesa pointed out that he was unable to find any distributor in his native country of Italy and was happy to find a company in the UK, led by Mr Tim Sparke, to handle worldwide distribution of this important film.

‘It is important to realize,’ he emphasized ‘that the movie was made thanks to contribution and donations of hundreds of citizens who feel a new investigation is more than warranted.’ No less than 450 people worked on this documentary on a voluntary basis. They never received any kind of payment. Their reward is the movie itself, which they feel is an instrument to create awareness and a means to provoke a political debate in Europe

Since the movie projector didn’t work, Mr Chiesa invited the public to ask questions until the technical problems were solved and we could start watching the movie

Question: ‘Why did you make this film?’

Chiesa: ‘It is obvious that we are now cast in an infinite war, based on lies. And as long as there is no new and independent investigation, we will never have security. There are too many lies for the official narrative to be true. Our film is an instrument to request the re-opening of the 9/11 investigation.’

Question: ‘How do you propose to reopen the investigation?’

Chiesa: ‘The film is the primary instrument to get the debate going. It is a collection of discoveries, by many respected researches from around the globe (the film features, among others, Gore Vidal, Sibel Edmonds, Dario Fo, David Ray Griffin, Dr Steven Jones, Dr Kevin Ryan, Webster Tarpley, Barbara Honegger, FAA-controllers, USAF pilots, military commanders, physicists ~ ed. note). But they are still questions. The movie doesn’t provide the answers. It only lays bare the questions that remain, that were left unanswered by the official investigation and need to be answered by the US government.’

Question: ‘Mr Fujita, how did you become involved?’

Fujita: ‘I work for several Japanese NGO’s and one of those people showed me some videos and books. At first I couldn’t believe it. So I saw Loose Change and read Dr Griffin’s books. And last year a good friend of mine who has a very high position at the German national bank told me about the put options that were placed on American Airlines and United Airlines. I believed him.

And reading Dr Griffin’s book, looking at his reputation, I have every reason to believe him. That’s when I realised that every truth finding effort has to be continued. So I gave a presentation in the Japanese parliament (which is extensively covered on YouTube ~ ed. note). But I feel the truthers find their information mostly by internet. The truth should not only go by internet. It should now go political! Networking is very important. We must all work together.’

Question: ‘But what can we, regular citizens who go about their daily lives, trying to make a living for them and their families, what can we do?’

Griffin: ‘As in any movement, the 9/11 Truth Movement is a minority movement. We must continue to use our networks to make this minority into a majority. We have the upper hand to find the truth, for we have the conscience of the people. And I know that’s not an easy feat. I have now written six books on the subject, which is getting good reviews ~ go check it on Amazon. I had a good reputation as an author before as well and now I’ve just written my sixth book on the subject. But I have yet to get a review in any mainstream publication.’

Question: ‘Do you, in your new book, take the same stance, saying that 9/11 was an inside job?’

Griffin: ‘My new book is called 9/11 Contradictions. In this book I do not take any position, actually. Reporters have hidden in the past saying either the books were too technical and they’re not engineers, so they couldn’t comment on the book. In other cases they felt the official story was the only story they could report about, for the risk of being labeled a conspiracy theorist or even worse, getting fired. But with my new book, reporters will not be able to hide behind these excuses. These are only contradictions that they can verify and ask questions about.’

Question: ‘What kind of contradictions?’

Griffin: ‘Well, one very important one is the alleged Barbara Olsen phone call. Ted Olsen at the time claimed he had been called by his wife twice on 9/11, thus establishing the fact that American Airlines 77 was in fact hijacked by men with Middle Eastern looks. First he claimed it was a cell phone call. Later he changed his story to seatback phone.

But when a German journalist got Boeing to confirm that on this type of flight there were no seatback phones, Olsen changed his story back to call phone. Now, you might think ‘oh, so he got it right the first time’, but… At the Moussaoui trial an FBI-report showed that there was never any connection between Barbara Olsen and her husband.

No cell phone calls were ever made from that flight (Dr Griffin gave three more examples, contradiction with regards to the whereabouts of General Meyers, the highest ranking military officer on 9/11, the timeline of Dick Cheney’s activities and the question about why the Pentagon was not evacuated when the Doomsday plane, shown on CNN, was actually in the air over Washington ~ ed. note)

Question: ‘Many people, even today, are still baffled about WTC-7. When can we expect NIST to publish its final report on this collapse?’

Griffin: ‘NIST has delayed the publication time after time. In 2004 they said it would be released in 2005, in 2005 they said it would be released in 2006 and so on. Now we are expecting the report in August 2008, but I feel we may yet get another delay.

At this point, people start joking about the fact that the US-government has probably sabotaged the screening of the documentary, since the projector cannot be fixed. We change rooms a few minutes later and the screening of the film begins.

The documentary is probably the most important film made so far on 9/11 as it is very accessible; it is obviously created for ‘9/11 newbies’. If you want to get a crash course into the 9/11 event and the failures of the commission’s investigation, this is the movie you need to see. Some of the highlights for me were the interviews with an FAA-air controller who explained how the hijacking procedures were changed on 1st June 2001, slowing down response, only to be changed back on 12th September 2001.

And the very important discovery that the CCTV-images that were released by the FBI of Atta and his companion boarding Flight AA11 in Boston were actually taken by a CCTV at the airport in Portland, where they took a plane to arrive in Boston! It has also a lot of footage that I had never seen before, including videos taken at the Pentagon shortly after the attack. A must see and clearly a labour of love. Impressive.

After the film, after the several minute long applause finally died away, Chiesa re-opened the debate.

Question: ‘Why do we put op with this? Surely the United States are not all that powerful?’

Chiesa: ‘But they are. The fact that this group of about 300 people has only 6 Europarlementarians and 2 journalists among them shows that the US is controlling everything. They are all powerful. No politician in the European Parliament can ignore the power ~ or wrath! ~ of the US.’

(True to form, the Belgian media didn’t publish or broadcast any of this debate on this or the following day, even thought this debate took place inside the European Parliament ~ ed. note)

Tim Sparke: ‘But it’s up to you now, the general public. You have to help the politicians to by telling people about this film and talking to your local cinema’s and TV-stations. Get the word out. Only then can we create the momentum to get the debate to the political level.’

Question (from myself) : ‘In the aftermath of 9/11 and in the period leading up to the war in the Middle East, the Bush administration; President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney; have repeatedly lied to the American people and, by extension, to the world. The crimes they have committed are much worse than those in the Watergate scandal. So why are the American people not in an uproar? Why are these people still in power and not in jail? Is it a lack of political will?

Griffin: ‘Many people simply are misinformed and kept misinformed by the government and the mainstream media. As for political will, we live in a plutocracy, not a democracy.’

Chiesa: ‘For many people 9/11 is simply too controversial. There is a very strong psychological opposition to 9/11 truth. For most people, considering a conspiracy theory…’ ‘…other than the official theory, which is ~ obviously ~ also a conspiracy theory.’

Chiesa: ‘Yes, indeed ~ so considering another conspiracy theory about 9/11 is taboo. We must overcome this taboo and we must overcome this total lack of information. We must break this wall of silence. We must break free from the web and fight the mainstream media.

This film is an instrument to do that. We need voices of different levels of society. We need not convince them that we are right. We need to convince them there is a problem that must be investigated… re-investigated. But you have to show them what happened. You cannot convince people by telling them about 9/11. They need to see it ~ hence the film.

At this moment, there is one person in the room who gives criticism on the film, claiming that he feels there are incorrect theories in the documentary. He feels the wing damage in the Pentagon is clearly visible and that Steven Jones’ claims about the thermite/thermate are not proven. He also claims that a response by jet fighters during the attack was in fact ordered.

He gave no explanation as to where he got his information. He said he was a Muslim and at the European Parliament as an independent, ready to defend himself against the reaction of the public who had started ‘boo’ing. One person’s behaviour was unbecoming in my opinion when she shouted ‘Who paid you?’ While I do not agree with the person’s assertions, I do respect his opinion.

The director of the movie went on to explain that in the movie they were not able to show everything in detail (the movie would become too long) and that ~ again ~ it was an instrument to provoke action on the part of the viewer. A few more ~ and rather interesting questions and remarks ~ came from the audience and were addressed by the panel.

By now it was getting very late (partly because of the delay of the movie screening) and Mr Chiesa wanted to wrap up the event by making a closing statement.

Chiesa: ‘A new American commission is inconceivable. But a European commission is inconceivable too. We have no jurisdiction. The US-government would never allow it. It would have to be an international group of ‘Wise Men & Women’ such as previous heads of state, engineers, artists, scholars, first responders, survivors, witnesses and so forth. We realize we still have a long road ahead. But we can create change!’

Griffin: ‘I’ve always said that the truth will come out of friendly countries. If Iran or Korea were to tell us 9/11 was an inside job, we would not believe it. They’re just saying that, because they’re our enemies. But if Japan, Europe or even an individual European country would say ‘We have examined the evidence… The war on terror is a hoax!’, then the American press would no longer be able to ignore it. They would have to publish it and then the US-government would be forced to respond.’

Humor Section: "Tom Kean wants to Develop Generation of Leaders who Trust Each Other"

2009-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

This one - about the author of the UnitedHealth stock swindle cover-up ... oh, and the fictional paperback published by the ersatz 9/11 Commission - cracks me up. Tom Kean has a refreshing sense of humor and is indulging in a good laugh at our expense. Now, let's frog-march him to jail and show him that we do have a sense of humor, too - because he's a joke.

Amusing, this one ... what a kidder ... lock 'im up ...

- AC

Why a 9/11 "Plotter" Deserves a Re-Trial

2009-07-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

By Bruce Crumley
Time Magazine
Jul. 19, 2009

Zacarias Moussaoui is set to spend the rest of his life in total seclusion in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison for a range of charges relating to conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.

It isn't easy to have sympathy for Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in connection with the September 11 terror attacks. During his trial, Moussaoui pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and prayed that al-Qaeda succeeds in its violent jihad against the U.S; he also mocked the families of 9/11 victims and dared the court to inflict the harshest punishment for the crimes which, after veering erratically between denial and advocacy, he finally took responsibility for. In May 2006, a jury decided against the death penalty but sent Moussaoui, now 41, to life imprisonment and near total isolation in Colorado's ADX Supermax prison.

Now Moussaoui says he regrets pleading guilty. But, he has a problem: U.S. law does not allow those who have taken that route to appeal their cases. His only shot at winning a lighter sentence is the July 14 decision by a federal appeals court in Virginia to re-hear arguments that the government had failed to turn over key evidence to Moussaoui and his lawyer that might have helped in his defense. As politically untenable as it may seem, President Barack Obama should support Moussaoui's efforts to win another trial.

Why? Because justice and sympathy are different issues. Moussaoui's courtroom antics and declarations were outrageous but the prosecution of his trial was a farce nonetheless. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema repeatedly criticized certain aspects of the prosecutors' efforts to win a guilty verdict as both underhanded and illegal. At one point in the trial, Brinkema rebuked prosecutors for illegally coaching a witness from a federal agency. She called that tampering "an egregious" and a "significant error by the government affecting the... integrity of the criminal justice system of the United States."

On one occasion Brinkema backed Moussaoui's call to cite testimony from Guantanamo prisoners and 9/11 masterminds Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh for his defense. Prosecutors resisted that demand, claiming the information was classified. (Moussaoui would win the right to use parts of statements by the 9/11 puppet masters, who described the Frenchman as too erratic and unreliable to be let in on the plot.)

However, Moussaoui continued to make himself the ever-ready scapegoat in the pursuit of 9/11 justice that seemed to provide no other perpetrators to prosecute. He was, indeed, a dream come true for the prosecution. First, he fired his defense team, zigged and zagged between pleading innocent and guilty, and ranted in ways that had some observers questioning his sanity. And the circumstantial evidence against him didn't make Moussaoui look any better: he was arrested in August, 2001 while attending a Minnesota flight school. When investigators took a closer look at him after 9/11, they discovered jihadist literature and plane flying information on his computer. Further inquiry led to the discovery that Binalshibh had wired him $14,000 from Germany; a check with French officials showed that he'd long been under watch as a suspected jihadist who'd made the de rigeur trip to al-Qaeda's Afghan haven.

But Moussaoui had been in jail nearly a month when the attack occurred, meaning he couldn't have been directly responsible for it. Moussaoui was also a lousy student who flunked out of several flight schools. And, most importantly, the statements by Sheikh Mohammed and Binalshibh confirmed what anyone watching his trial already knew: Moussaoui was too big a loud-mouth and hot-head to let anywhere near a plot like 9/11. In the end, Moussaoui's conviction relied almost entirely on his own guilty plea and inconsistent admissions to having wanted to carry out terror attacks in the U.S.

His mother Aicha el-Wafi, told TIME that Moussaoui informed her that he pleaded guilty in the fatalistic belief the process had to be rigged, that no American court would ever give a sworn enemy a fair chance. American values include respecting the rights of even those who attack them. That's been a key consideration in Obama's moves to roll back many Bush administration policies in the war on terror. During a recent speech in Cairo, the U.S. President explained his decision to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison as part of a wider push to reverse extra-legal Bush administration security measures that stomped on long-standing principles of American civil liberty. Seeking to defend fundamental American ideas from attack in that way, Obama noted, "led us to act contrary to our ideals."

Thanks to the Virginia appeals court ruling, Obama has an opportunity to demonstrate his commitment to those ideals, as unpalatable as Moussaoui may be. The Frenchman should be re-tried for what he actually did, rather than what he says.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1911560,00.html

Who was Involved in 9/11? Italian Documentary Reveals Shocking Facts

2009-07-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

www.russiatoday.com
September, 2008, 15:38

On the anniversary of 9/11, an Italian-produced documentary called ZERO, investigating the tragedy, is opening in Russia. The authors believe that the U.S. official version of events surrounding the attacks can't be true. U.S. networks have rejected the film.

The events of September 11 2001 sent shockwaves around the world as hijacked aircraft crashed into the World Trade Centre, bringing the landmark buildings down, the Pentagon, and into a Pennsylvania field in the wake of a failed attempt by passengers to regain control.

The Empty space at Ground Zero in Manhattan stands as a memorial to the collapse of the towers, which killed nearly 3000 occupants and rescuers.

The makers of the documentary claim that the report of the official U.S. commission into the tragedy of September 11, 2001 is false.

One of the films authors, Giulietto Chiesa, who's also an Italian member of the European Parliament, says some of the facts concerning the tragedy remain very suspicious and that a lot of questions are still unanswered.

“The people who organised 9/11 are people who knew the geopolitical and energy situation in the world very well. They knew exactly how the attack will change the future of the world,” Chiesa said.

The film claims the reason for the collapse of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York was not the planes crashing into them but a controlled detonation of explosives planted inside the buildings. Referring to witness corroborations, they pose the question of how two of the worlds largest buildings collapsed on their own footprint, and without significantly affecting nearby buildings.

Chiesa says he was shocked by the absence of U.S. air defense on the day of the attack, which allowed the hijacked planes reach the World Trade Centre.

He also finds it strange that, just three days after 9/11, U.S. officials were able to name all 19 terrorist involved. The film presents evidence that CIA specialists not only new about the planned terrorist attack but assisted them in gaining U.S. visas.

The documentary also raises questions about whether the aircraft involved in the Pentagon attack was a Boeing-757. Adding to these questions is the absence of any footage from the many cameras installed around the U.S. Defense HQ, any wreckage from the aircraft, or passenger bodies.

The documentary also raises doubts, not only about Osama Bin Laden’s involvement in the attack, but also the existence of the Al-Quaeda terrorist organisation.

9/11 victims remembered in Moscow

A requiem service has been held in Moscow to remember those who died in the 9/11 terror attacks in New York seven years ago.

The requiem service was lead at St. Catherine's Church by U.S. born archimandrite Zahkey (Richard Wood). The ceremony was held both in Russian and English.

The U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle attended the service along with his international counterparts and Russian officials.

Beyrle said it was a day for people to mourn not only the victims of the 9/11 attacks, but for innocent people who have died in any terrorist attack.

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-09-11/Who_was_involved_in_911_Documentary_reveals_shocking_facts.html?gclid=COCPiO-n4JsCFRMUagodpV-v_A

2009-07-17T12:25:00.001-07:00

GOP TIES TO THREE 911 HIJACKERS

By Alex Constantine

Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen was in the thick of it, all right. On Sept. 10, 2001, three of the 911 hijackers stayed in same hotel as the Saudi "Minister for the Holy Places," England's Telegraph reported three years after the event: "A senior Saudi Arabian official stayed at the same hotel as three September 11 hijackers the night before the suicide attacks. American investigators are trying to make sense of the disclosure that Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, who returned to Saudi Arabia shortly after the attacks, stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia."

David Nevin, his nephew's American attorney, denied "any sinister aspects to the older man's travels.... Mr Hussayen became president of the affairs of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the two most sacred sites in Islam, five months after the attacks. Sources said he was already a prominent figure in the world of Saudi-funded charities." Hussayen was questioned by the FBI after the air commando operations that levelled the World Trade Center ... and he "feigned a seizure," quaking and choking and "prompting the agents to take him to a hospital, where the attending physicians found nothing wrong with him..."1

The agents suggested that the Saudi "epileptic" should be detained and questioned, but "as soon as flights resumed on Sept 19, Mr Hussayen and his wife flew home." Oops. The FBI later learned that while touring in the States, Sheikh Hussayen "visited or contacted several Saudi-sponsored charities now accused of links to terrorist groups."

Prosecutors later maintained that Hussayen had financed the Islamic Assembly of North America, accused of distributing "the teachings of two Saudi clerics who advocate violence against the United States."

Sami Omar Hussayen, nephew of Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman Hussayen

His nephew, Sami Omar Hussayen, a computer student, is in federal detention in Idaho on charges of visa fraud, accused of failing to disclose his role as an internet webmaster for IANA." Federal court filings alleged that the son "administered an internet site for IANA that expressly advocated suicide attacks and using airliners as weapons. IANA received about £2 million from abroad since 1995, court papers allege, including £60,000 from Saleh al-Hussayen."

Kim Lindquist, an assistant federal attorney assigned to the investigation of Hussayen in Boise, Idaho, said: "We're investigating the IANA. We have the money flowing to the IANA through the nephew from the uncle. We have the uncle visiting the United States just prior to September 11, and upon his return to the East Coast he's in the same hotel as the hijackers. According to FBI agents he feigns a seizure. It is something that we cannot ignore."

Lindquist wanted to "take the extra step" of connecting Saudi rulers to the events of September 11, because the Sheik's journeys and contacts are seen as a road map' of how Saudi money has poured into the United States in support of Wahhabism, the puritanical and intolerant form of Islam backed by the Saudi royal family."2

A couple of weeks after this belated story on Hussayen appeared, the wire services reported that recently unsealed court documents exposed "a secretive group of Muslim charities and businesses in Northern Virginia [that] funneled millions of dollars to foreign terrorists - and the network was set up with donations from a wealthy (unnamed) Saudi family." An affidavit from Homeland Security's David Kane charged that the Safa Group in Herndon had pipelined "more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas and that leaders of the organization have committed and conspired to . . . provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.' The probe of the Herndon groups is the largest federal investigation of terrorism financing in the world." There was no innocent explanation "for the use of layers and layers of transactions between Safa Group companies and charities other than to throw law enforcement authorities off the trail," Kane said.

Now, the express purpose of the Safa Group, "set up primarily with donations from a wealthy Saudi family, was to fund terrorism and hide millions of dollars." Kane insisted that the dizzying nature of "the myriad financial transactions and the fact that much of the money was sent to tax havens with bank secrecy laws make it impossible to trace the final destination of much of the money."3

But, once again, the trail going the other way, back to the source of terrorist funding, led to the District of Columbia. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

• "GOP heavyweight Grover Norquist, a former board member of the foundation," was a Safa apologist. Norquist "said the group is not political; rather it is focused on educational issues..."

• "The men have given more than $84,000 since 1990 to a variety of federal candidates and political groups, including $5,500 to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican, and $4,000 to former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a political watchdog group."

• "The main leaders of the Safa Group of companies include ... Taha Alalwani, a naturalized American citizen who runs an Islamic graduate school where nine of the 12 Muslim chaplains in the U.S. military have been trained."

• "Khaled Saffuri, chairman of the Washington-based Islamic Free Market Institute Foundation, was at the April 4 luncheon with the former treasury secretary.... Saffuri, who has met with many top-level administration officials in recent years, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and FBI Director Robert Mueller, is also listed in Federal Election Committee reports as the treasurer of National Muslims for a Greater America, a defunct political action committee that received $5,200 from people connected to the Safa Group investigation..."

• " ... the affidavit ties the Safa Group to Abdurahman M. Alamoudi, a politically connected Muslim activist, who was welcomed at the White House by former President Bill Clinton and President Bush for his work on behalf of Muslim causes. Alamoudi recently pleaded not guilty to an 18-count federal indictment alleging that he laundered money and violated immigration and customs laws by accepting $340,000 from the Libyan government, which the government considers a state sponsor of terrorism. The $84,000 in contributions came from several of the alleged principals of the Safa Group and Alamoudi..."4

On March 25, 2002, the Guardian provided details of more "embarrassing" domestic political connections, offering this insight into the "epileptic" Saleh Ibn Abdul Rahman al-Hussayen, the Safra Trust and 911:

FBI raids pro-Republicans
Guardian
Duncan Campbell
March 25, 2002

The target of an anti-terrorist raid in the United States last week provided funds for an Islamic group with close ties to the Republican party and the White House. The Safa trust, a Saudi-backed charity, has provided funds for a political group called the Islamic Institute, which was set up to mobilise support for the Republican party. It shares an office in Washington with the Republican activist Grover Norquist.

The institute, founded in 1999 to win influence in the Republican party, has helped to arrange meetings between senior Bush officials and Islamic leaders, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Its s chairman, Khaled Saffuri, and Mr Norquist cooperated to arrange the meetings.

The trust gave $20,000 (£14,000) to the institute, which also received $20,000 from a board member of the Success Foundation, according to the report. The institute has also received money from abroad, including$200,000 from Qatar and $55,000 from Kuwait. The institute says that none of the money came with strings attached.

Mr Norquist, who is a member of the institute's board, said that it existed "to promote democracy and free markets. Any effort to imply guilt by association is incompetent McCarthyism".

ALL OF THIS devolves back to mysterious Sheik al-Hussayen, the "epileptic" holy man and his room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia on December 10, 2001 ... and those three hijackers down the hall. Some would find this certain evidence of Saudi sponsorship of the 911 air assaults, and have (National Review and David Horowitz).

But not so fast ...

Grover Norquist

A little history of these particular Middle Eastern connections is enlightening. The Wall Street Journal reported: "Mr. Norquist started the nonprofit Islamic Free Market Institute. In collaboration with Mr. [Karl] Rove, now Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, he and other institute leaders courted Muslim voters for the Bush 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Norquist even credits gains among Muslims with putting Mr. Bush in a position to win the critical Florida contest . . . To run the nonprofit's day-to-day operations, Mr. Norquist turned to Khalid Saffuri, a Palestinian-American raised in Kuwait who had been an official of the American Muslim Council, a political group in Washington. The institute's founding chairman was a Palestinian American, Talat Othman, who had served with Mr. Bush on the board of Harken Energy Corp. and later visited the president in the White House, according to records obtained by the National Security News Service."5

Talit Othman, we find in the same WSJ report, has been "a longtime associate and supporter of President Bush's family [who] gave a benediction at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in August 2000 . . . But he also serves [with Barzinji] on the board of Amana Mutual funds Trust, an investment firm founded by M. Yacub Mirza, the Northern Virginia businessman who set up most of the entities targeted by the Treasury and whose tax records were sought in the raid. Two nonprofits affiliated with Mr. Mirza and named in the search warrant, the SAAR Foundation Inc. [another title for Safa] and the Heritage Education Trust Inc., held large blocks of shares in Amana's mutual funds in 1997, according to SEC records.

The SEC documents and other records detailing connections between Mr. Othman and the Islamic Institute [on the board of which Mr. Othman serves] and the raided groups were compiled by the National Security News Service, a Washington based nonprofit research group. Mr. Othman also is on the board of Mr. Saffuri's [and Norquist's] Islamic Institute, the GOP-leaning group that received $20,000.00 from the Safa Trust, one of the raid's targets. The president of the Safa Trust, Jamal Barzinji, is a former business associate of Switzerland based investor Youssef Nada [See Khashoggi, part XV], whose assets were frozen last fall after the Treasury designated him a person suspected of giving aid to terrorists."

A few words on these financial connections: Yousef Nada, Richard Lebeviere informs, was a Nazi collaborator during WW II: "... known to the Egyptian [intelligence] services, who have evidence of his membership in the armed branch of the fraternity of the Muslim Brothers in the 1940's. At that time, according to the same sources, he was working for the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and took part in a plot against King Farouk ..."6

Talit Othman also had a history, as reported by the Chicago Tribune on August 10, 2003: "In 1990, media reports implied that Othman was a front man for [Abdullah Taha] Bakhsh, who had acquired a 17.6 percent stake in Harken Energy Corp. in the 1980s. Serving alongside Othman as a Harken corporate officer: then-presidential son George W. Bush."7

This, then, is the "shadowy network" behind the 911 hijackers and the "mysterious" Sheik at the Marriott Hotel in Herndon, VA. From one end of the terror pipeline to the other.

Speaking of where the hijackers spent the night on September 10, 2001, five others deserve mention: "One of the most bizarre ironies of all this is that five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA ..." - BBC News, June 8, 2002.

As for the dangling connections to BCCI mentioned in the cites above ...

In December 1992, Senator John Kerry published a report - it's a virtual primal scream if you read between the lines - in the form of an interim statement on BCCI submitted to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and in it Kerry complained bitterly that the CIA had refused to cooperate with his investigation. Former CIA officials, including Richard Helms, and foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil, dragged their feet. Principal foreign agents, "such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in U.S. foreign policy, ranging from the Camp David peace talks to the arming of Iran as part of the Iran/Contra affair."

Agency officials claimed that they had no information on file regarding contact with the above, "raising questions about ... its candor with the Subcommittee. The CIA's professions of total ignorance about their respective roles in BCCI are out of character with the Agency's early knowledge of many critical aspects of the bank's operations, structure, personnel, and history."

Some of the information given to Kerry's subcommittee early on, he said, "was untrue." Subsequent information turned over by the CIA "was incomplete." And the Agency "resisted providing a full' account about its knowledge of BCCI until almost a year after the initial requests for the information.... The relationships among former CIA personnel and BCCI front men and nominees, including [Khashoggi partner] Kamal Adham, Abdul Khalil, and Mohammed Irvani, require further investigation..."

NOTES

1) See Telegraph, October 3, 2003.
http://www.unknownnews.net/031003911.html

2) Ibid.

3) "Terror Probe Points to Va. Muslims," October 17, 2003.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8593

4) Eunice Moscoso and Rebecca Carr, "Targets of terror financing probe had political clout," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 2, 2003.

5) Tom Hamburger and Glenn R. Simpson, "In Difficult Times, Muslims Count On Unlikely Advocate" Wall Street Journal, undated.
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f415.html

6) Richard Labeviere, Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam, Algora, 2000, pp. 140-141.

7) Brian Grow, "Muslim financier pushes peace effort," Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2003, p. 1.

9/11 Suspects Boycott Hearing at Guantánamo

2009-07-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

" .... A court security officer three times hit a censor's button to prevent victims and media from hearing portions of the presentation by Lachelier, bin al Shibh's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel. The $12 million courtroom was designed for such episodes. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproof booth and hear the participants' words on a 40-second delay, giving the government censor time to broadcast static when he believes someone might be divulging classified information. The same censor has hit the button in earlier hearings, specifically when Mohammed made reference to his torture, presumably by waterboarding, and when bin al Shibh discussed his U.S. military diagnosed mental illness. ... "

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html

By CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
07.16.09

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- All five alleged co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks boycotted a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, frustrating prosecutors and denying kin of victims a chance to see the men in the flesh.

Prosecutor Robert Swann, a retired Army colonel, argued that no hearing should go forward without the presence of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four alleged co-conspirators. Three of the men are acting as their own attorneys.

The hearing was meant to hash out what information would be made available to military defense lawyers for two of the accused -- Ramzi bin al Shibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi -- as part of an ongoing sanity board to determine their competency to stand trial.

Both men have asked to serve as their own attorneys. Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, assigned to defend bin al Shibh, says the Yemeni, who has been accused of helping the 9/11 hijackers find flight schools in America, has been prescribed psychotropic medications given to patients who are schizophrenic or bipolar.

It was not known why Hawsawi may not be competent. His attorney, Army Maj. Jon Jackson, has filed sealed motions in his client's case.

Defense lawyers said the accused men were notified on the eve of the hearing that they would be prohibited from speaking in court.

Nine relatives of Americans killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon watched the proceedings from a special victims' section inside a glass-enclosed and soundproofed booth at the back of the court.

One observer, Judy Reiss of Bucks County, Pa., had a photo of her 23-year-old son pinned to her blouse for the hearing. Joshua Reiss, a bond trader at Cantor-Fitzgerald in New York City, perished in the attack while working on the 105th floor of the Trade Center's North Tower.

With none of the accused present, Judge Stephen Henley heard arguments on whether to fund experts to test bin al Shibh's mental competency.

"Whether or not it is reflective of his delusional disorder," said Lachelier, "the government can't hide the fact that they used sleep deprivation."

A court security officer three times hit a censor's button to prevent victims and media from hearing portions of the presentation by Lachelier, bin al Shibh's Pentagon-appointed defense counsel.

The $12 million courtroom was designed for such episodes. Media and other observers are sequestered in a soundproof booth and hear the participants' words on a 40-second delay, giving the government censor time to broadcast static when he believes someone might be divulging classified information.

The same censor has hit the button in earlier hearings, specifically when Mohammed made reference to his torture, presumably by waterboarding, and when bin al Shibh discussed his U.S. military diagnosed mental illness.

Thursday, Judge Henley, an Army colonel, told Lachelier she was forbidden to speak in open court about the Yemeni's treatment in CIA custody, before President George W. Bush ordered him and the other accused moved from secret sites to Guantánamo for trial.

Lachelier has sought to hire experts in sleep and psychiatric neuroimaging as part of an analysis of whether bin al Shibh's psychological disorder interferes with either his ability to function as his own attorney or makes him incompetent for trial.

Military escorts said another observer on the base this week was Janet Roy of Pompano Beach, whose firefighter brother William F. Burke Jr., 46, died at the World Trade Center.

The terror suspects could face military execution if they are convicted of conspiracy in the mass murder of 2,973 people on Sept. 11. They allegely plotted, financed and helped the 19 hijackers reach U.S. soil -- and they have collectively submitted a written admission to the court that says they welcome martyrdom.

The Pentagon has cast the hearing as an incremental administrative move while the Obama administration examines each of the proposed Guantánamo war crimes cases. A Justice Department-led task force is still deciding which cases should go before military tribunals and which to civilian juries.

Meantime, the prisoners are segregated as high-value detainees from the rest of the 220 or so war on terror captives at Guantánamo, confined to a secret prison called Camp 7 so they cannot describe the details of their CIA interrogations to fellow detainees.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1144151.html

9/11 Families, First Responders and Survivors Gather at City Hall to Endorse 2009 Ballot Referendum to Establish New Official 9/11 Investigation in NY

2009-07-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

July 15, 2009*

*New York* - Outside City Hall today relatives of 9/11 victims, first responders and survivors of the September 11th attacks gathered to endorse a November ballot initiative to establish a new 9/11 investigation under the auspices of the city government of New York. Support on the street is high, the group says, and polls indicate a majority of New Yorkers wants a new investigation.

On June 24, the group leading the ballot initiative, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) filed a petition containing 52,000 signatures with the office of the City Clerk. The official filing initiated a 60-day period specified in Section 37 of the New York Municipal Home Rule Law in which the City Council is asked to review the petition and approve its placement on the upcoming November ballot.

Since this milestone filing, the group has gathered an additional 15,000 signatures and received several endorsements from prominent leaders. Renowned whistleblower and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, who TIME magazine selected as one of three "Persons of the Year" in 2002, endorsed a new investigation yesterday, as reported by RAWSTORY . Bill Doyle, who lost his son Joseph, has been an outspoken leader of an active community of relatives of the 9/11 victims and he too released a statement endorsing a new inquiry in New York. Joining Doyle in support as signatory to an NYC CAN online petition is Christine O'Neil, wife of ex-FBI Agent John O'Neil, who was killed on the job at the World Trade Center and Lorie Van Auken, a widow from New Jersey and former member of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee.

Manny Badillo, who lost his uncle Thomas, and who serves NYC CAN as Director of Outreach, said in an opening statement "Thomas Keane and Lee Hamilton, the Chairmen of the 9/11 Commission, after issuing their report, both admitted that the Commission was unsuccessful. In their own words, the Commission was 'Set Up To Fail'." Sen Cleland called it a national scandal.

Badillo was joined by 9/11 victim family members Donna Marsh O'Connor and Bob McIlvaine, and survivor Janette MacKinlay, all members of the NYCCAN Executive Council who also made impassioned statements of support. Eileen Coles, an US Air Force Desert Storm veteran and former intelligence officer, stated, "Our only way forward to restore our national honor is to answer the questions and demand accountability. This will not happen without a truly impartial and scientific examination of the evidence."

NYC CAN is non-partisan organization comprised of 9/11 Families, First Responders, Survivors and proud, concerned citizens committed to bringing about an independent, impartial investigation into the events of September 11. For more info: http://www.nyccan.org

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Coalition-calling-for-a-ne-by-Press-Release-090716-898.html

9/11 Commission Reconvenes as Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group

2009-07-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton Lead Center's Newest Project

WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Building on the highly acclaimed work of the 9/11 Commission, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) today announced the launch of a new project called the National Security Preparedness Group (NSPG) to further examine the changing threats to the United States. Under the leadership of 9/11 Commission Chair, Thomas H. Kean, and Vice Chair, Lee H. Hamilton, the NSPG will focus its efforts on national intelligence, terrorism, and security issues, continuing the work of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission) and its successor, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project.

The NSPG is composed of a distinguished bipartisan group of experts including former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator E. Spencer Abraham; Peter Bergen; Dr. Stephen Flynn; Dr. John Gannon; Dr. Bruce Hoffman; former Congressman Dave McCurdy; former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge; Frances Townsend; former U.S. Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh; former Congressman Jim Turner; and Lawrence Wright.

"We look forward to furthering the achievements of the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations through our work with the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Governor Kean. "We believe it is critical that we continue to assess security threats to the United States. The success of the 9/11 Commission was largely a result of our commitment to bipartisanship, and we will continue to foster that spirit throughout this process."

Yesterday's meeting was the first gathering of the group at the BPC. Admiral Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, spoke to the group about threats to the United States and the state of intelligence reform.

"The creation of a Director of National Intelligence was the signature recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, and we are very pleased that Admiral Blair came to meet with the National Security Preparedness Group," said Congressman Hamilton. "Our bipartisan group of members believes strongly that we must continue to improve information sharing and unity of effort within the intelligence community. Through our work, we hope to make America safer and more secure."

"Governor Kean and Congressman Hamilton bring unmatched depth and knowledge to the Bipartisan Policy Center," said Jason Grumet, founder and president of the BPC. "Their efforts complement our ongoing projects across energy, transportation, and health care, as well as our national security and cyber simulation initiatives. We are honored to partner with such a distinguished group."

Michael Allen, formerly of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, is the Executive Director of the NSPG (National Security Preparedness Group).

Former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell established the BPC in 2007. The BPC's goal is to develop and promote bipartisan solutions to the nation's most pressing public policy challenges. Currently, the BPC conducts projects in the areas of national security, health care, transportation, energy and climate change, and science policy.

National Security Preparedness Group Members:

The Honorable Thomas H. Kean, Co-Chairman
Former Governor of New Jersey, THK Consulting

The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, Co-Chairman
Former Congressman from Indiana, President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

The Honorable E. Spencer Abraham
Former U.S. Secretary of Energy and U.S. Senator from Michigan, The Abraham Group

Mr. Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst and Author, Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation

Dr. Stephen Flynn
Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

Dr. John Gannon
BAE Systems, former CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and U.S. House Homeland Security Staff Director

Dr. Bruce Hoffman
Georgetown University terrorism specialist and former Vice President for External Affairs at RAND Corporation

The Honorable Dave McCurdy
Former Congressman from Oklahoma and Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Former U.S. Attorney General, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation

The Honorable Tom Ridge
Former Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Senior Advisor at Deloitte Global LLP, Ridge Global

The Honorable Frances Townsend
Former Homeland Security Advisor and former Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism under President George W. Bush

The Honorable Richard L. Thornburgh
Former U.S. Attorney General, Of Counsel at K&L Gates

The Honorable Jim Turner
Former Congressman from Texas and Ranking Member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Arnold and Porter, LLP

Mr. Lawrence Wright
New Yorker Columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

About the Bipartisan Policy Center: In 2007, former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell formed the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) to develop and promote solutions that can attract the public support and political momentum to achieve real progress. The BPC acts as an incubator for policy efforts that engage top political figures, advocates, academics, and business leaders in the art of principled compromise. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/.

SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center

The Tom Kean UnitedHealth Stock Backdating Cover-Up

2009-07-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

1) Thomas Kean is a director at UnitedHealth Group Inc.

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/invest/2001/ar2001_leaders_p58.pdf#search=%22thomas%20kean%20and%20unitedhealth%22

Thomas H. Kean
President
Drew University
Compensation and Human
Resources Committee
-----------------------
2) Thomas kean covers up the company stock option backdating scandal:

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/8/11/195638/195

Backdating stock options: The plot thickens
by PsiFighter37 Fri Aug 11th, 2006 at 07:56:38 PM EST

... The board of UnitedHealth Group Inc. met on May 1 to deal with questions about unusually well-timed stock-option grants to top executives such as Chief Executive William McGuire. The gathering heard a briefing from a lawyer who was running UnitedHealth's internal probe of how the options were dated.

One director whose recollections would be important to the investigation was THOMAS H. KEAN, a former New Jersey governor who had served on the compensation committee that approved options grants.

The same day as the board meeting, some UnitedHealth directors and executives were supporting a campaign by Mr. Kean's son for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey. Some of them attended a fund-raiser for Tom Kean Jr. that day, in UnitedHealth's home state of Minnesota. It isn't clear whether Dr. McGuire and his wife attended, but each donated $2,000 to the cause. So did Richard T. Burke, who sits on a special board committee that is overseeing the options investigation. All told, UnitedHealth-affiliated donors have contributed $25,000 to the campaign.

[...]

When the donations to the Kean Senate campaign were described to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, he said they struck him as "ill-advised and strange" and something that could be seen as an attempt to influence a witness because of the senior Mr. Kean's role on the compensation committee. A spokeswoman for the Kean campaign said the fund raising came at a "UnitedHealth breakfast" hosted by Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, and there was absolutely no effort to curry favor with the elder Mr. Kean. The former New Jersey governor didn't return calls seeking comment.

Glenn Beck’s Outrageous Lie: Racist Von Brunn is “Hero of 9/11 Truthers”

2009-06-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

There should be absolutely no doubt Glenn Beck is a government disinfo operative tasked with taking down the 9/11 truth and patriot movements. In fact, Fox News — as a primary fount of Operation Mockingbird — is tasked with attacking not only the 9/11 truth movement but the pro-liberty and Constitution movements as well.

“Our country is now vulnerable,” the operative Beck declares. “Those people who would like to destroy us — our enemies like Al Qaeda. They’d like to destroy us, and they will work with anyone. There are also people like white supremacists or 9/11 truthers that would also like to destroy the country. They’ll work with anybody they can.”

In other words, the 9/11 truth movement, according to Beck, will work with al-Qaeda. If you read between the lines, Beck is calling for the government to dish out the same kind of violent response to the truth movement the CIA-created al-Qaeda received in Afghanistan or at Camp Gitmo. Beck is calling for murder and torture of people who disagree with the government.

Fox News did a smash up job subverting the tea parties and reducing the movement to a carnival sideshow while CNN and especially MSNBC went into overtime to portray the “tea baggers” as irrelevant and absurd.

On October 22, 2007, Beck — then a host on Prime Time News — viciously attacked the 9/11 truth movement, describing the whole movement as “insane” and branding 9/11 activists as “dangerous anarchists.”

“These truthers are exactly the kind of people who want to rock this nation’s foundation, tear us apart and plant the seeds of dissatisfaction in all of us” said Beck. He later said the 9/11 truth movement is “the kind of group a Timothy McVeigh would come from,” insinuating the movement is intent on violence.

In November of 2007, Beck the operative teamed up with the scurrilous ex-Marxist and neocon David Horowitz to denounce Ron Paul’s supporters as terrorists. “Beck opened up his show segment by inferring that the U.S. military should be used to silence domestic dissent against the war, claiming that those he would later identify as Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left and link with terrorists, were a ‘physical threat,’” wrote Paul Joseph Watson for Prison Planet.

“When you enlist in the U.S. military, you have to take an oath that says you’re gonna support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies - foreign and domestic - we talk a lot on this program about the foreign threats - maybe we should spend some time tonight on the domestic one….the physical threat may be developing domestically as well,” said Beck. ...

http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/37373

9/11 Truth Comes Home; Pols Back New Investigation

2009-06-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

By Frank Morales
thevillager.com

It’s spring 2009 in New York City and an unannounced U.S. government plane streaks across town. Recollecting the horrors of 9/11, the incident scares the heebie-jeebies out of the citizenry. Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, while attending an April 18 “Tour of the Battenkill” annual bicycle race in Cambridge, N.Y., responds to a question regarding efforts here to establish a new 9/11 investigation. Lending his qualified support to such an inquiry, he says that he’s positively disposed toward a new investigation into the events of 9/11, though his support for such a probe would depend on the form it would take. “I think it’s not a bad idea,” he said. “You know, you’ve got to do it in a good way, but, yes, I’d be for it.”

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, for her part, recently joined her colleague and also recommended a fresh look at the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Commenting on May 27 to a young reporter who had suffered the loss of a loved one during 9/11, she responded to the question of a new investigation by suggesting that “another review, or a fuller hearing” is warranted, especially given the number of questions put forward by victims’ families that remain unanswered. “I think those questions should be answered,” Gillibrand stated. She went on to affirm that, “It’s important that every family member have every question answered.”

Schumer and Gillibrand are not the first to call for a new (real) investigation of into the crimes 9/11. The list is long and it’s growing. A small sampling of some of the more notable adherents to this call include former President Jimmy Carter, who when asked if he’d support family members who want a new investigation into 9/11, stated, “Yeah, I don’t have anything to do with it, but I certainly would. It would be nice.” Former Senator Mike Gravel, who brought the Pentagon Papers to the U.S. Congress long ago, supports the idea as well. As does his friend Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers.

Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee wants to see a new investigation, as does former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. Ventura and other members of Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth (including Curt Weldon and Cynthia McKinney) are “calling for a new, independent investigation of 9/11 that takes account of evidence that has been documented by independent researchers but thus far ignored by governments and the mainstream media.”

On the international front, former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, U.K. Member of Parliament Michael Meacher, Japanese Diet member Fujita Yukihisa and former German Defense Secretary Andreas von Buelow have all expressed support for a new inquiry into the Sept. 2001 attacks. So has British M.P. George Galloway, who put it this way: “The failure of the Bush administration to properly investigate, maybe for self-serving reasons, because it would have shown them to be monumentally incompetent, or something more sinister than that, is another argument that is beginning to be established.

“We don’t know everything,” Galloway said, and because “there are lots of questions,” there is “definitely the need for more investigation.”

The noted author Gore Vidal, prior to the last elections, stated, “I think one advantage of having a Democratic House of Representatives after the coming election will be that we can have a new commission investigate 9/11 and the events leading up to our attacks on two innocent countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s about time that we begun to clean up our own house before we find that an international tribunal has summoned our leaders to The Hague in chains to put them on trial.”

Why, even Lee Hamilton, ostensible co-chairperson of the federal 9/11 Commission, the body tasked with getting to the truth of what happened — which many now feel was set up only to concoct and rationalize the official story in the first place — even he admitted that their own commission was “set up to fail.”

Finally, let’s not forget, as Ralph Nader has reminded us, that the Bush “government didn’t even want to have an inquiry” at all. And let’s not forget that the inquiry the 9/11 Commission did eventually carry out — with ground rules set up by its executive director, Philip Zelikow, a Condi Rice confidant — insured, according to Nader, that “they weren’t going to name names, or hold anybody responsible.” “So right from the get,” said Nader, the government-sponsored investigation of 9/11 “was flawed” and, consequently, “there needs to be another one, and the best place to have it is New York City.”

Well, apparently there are many who live and work here in New York City who think the same thing. In fact, 45,000 of them and counting! An organization called NYC CAN, or the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (nyccan.org), composed of family members, first-responders and survivors, has gathered some 45,000 signatures toward a ballot initiative for this coming November 2009. The initiative would allow the voters of New York City to sanction a new investigation of 9/11, an investigation with teeth, with subpoena power and with a scope of inquiry that promises to leave no stone unturned.

In a sense, although NYC CAN takes no position regarding the facts of the case, calling only for a new inquiry, it appears to represent the global “9/11 Truth Movement” come home. Having spread its critical spirit and zeal for an honest rendering of this most heinous crime, its truth has comes marching home, home to New York City, to the scene of the crime, come home in the form of a movement for a new investigation. Given the energy and support behind its efforts, NYC CAN just may succeed in putting the matter of an authentic investigation of 9/11 on this November’s ballot, and in the process, open up the mother of all cans of worms.

Morales is a member of 9/11 Truth

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_319/talkingpoint.html

300,000 New Yorkers Could Be Headed For 9/11-Related Health Crisis

2009-06-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.webnewswire.com/node/455988
June 1, 2009

Though we are approaching the eighth anniversary of 9/11, many New Yorkers are still dealing with the events of that day in the form of health problems. Now, it’s believed, as many as 300,000 are living with diseases that could worsen in the years to come. ...

Story at Web Newswire

Obama Appoints 9/11 Commissioner to Post of Envoy to India

2009-06-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

"Liberal," future-focused Obama just can't live without appointments tied to (CIA Nazi recruiter) Kissinger, (Iran contra's) Scowcroft and (corporate sleaze broker) Albright. 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer hails from the Center for National Policy, an oily foreign policy "think-tank" that boasts Madeleine Albright, of course, who preceded him as CNP president. - AC

9/11 panel member is US India man
May 29, 2009

New Delhi: US President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated Timothy R Roemer, a veteran Democratic Congressman and a member of the 9/11 Commission, to be his envoy in India and help advance Washington’s ties “at this critical time for our nation and the world”.

“We must address the tension between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. For generations, this issue has fuelled extremism and served as a central source of friction between two nuclear states. Resolving this dispute would allow them to focus more on sustainable development and less on armed conflict.” This is what Roemer wrote in a US daily, The Philadelphia Inquirer, on October 23 last year in an article, Keys to securing Pakistan.

Roemer, 52, is currently president of the Center for National Policy (CNP), a Washington-based think tank.

He is a distinguished scholar at the Mercatus Centre at George Mason University. He was a partner at Johnston and Associates, a public and legislative affairs consultancy, before he became president of the CNP. Roemer is not just known for his interventions in national security issues ...
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/9-11-panel-member-is-US-India-man/467611.

ROEMER BIO

After the attacks of September 11th, Roemer used his position on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to support the work of a Joint Congressional Inquiry into the nature of the attacks. Roemer also was the key sponsor of legislation to establish the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as "The 9/11 Commission." Roemer now serves on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, a bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2007 as an outgrowth of the reforms put forth by the 9/11 Commission to examine how the United States can best address this threat to our national security. In addition, he serves on the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Presidential Task Force on Combating the Ideology of Radical Extremism, and the National Parks Second Century Commission.

Since leaving Congress in 2003, Roemer has continued to work on developing ways to strengthen national security as President of the Center for National Policy. e has promoted new ideas on national security issues on NBC Nightly News, CNN, FOX, NPR and in the pages of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report and others. As a Distinguished Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Roemer works with Members of Congress and staff to improve public policy outcomes by teaching on the legislative branch and policy analysis. ...
http://www.cnponline.org/ht/d/sp/i/1321/pid/1321

Ben-Veniste says Bush let 9/11 Happen

2009-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Bush criticized by former 9/11 commission member
2009-05-26

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former member of the 9/11 Commission criticizes former President George W. Bush in a new book for not responding to pre-attack intelligence on Osama bin Laden's intentions.

In "The Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate to 9/11," Richard Ben-Veniste writes that CIA analysts told Bush that bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States, "yet the president had done absolutely nothing to follow up."

A Democrat and a longtime Washington attorney, Ben-Veniste provides an inside account of the commission's three-hour interview with Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on April 29, 2004.

Bush told the panel that the Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence summary — known as a presidential daily brief — was the only one he ever received on the domestic threat, Ben-Veniste writes. ...

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?a=jf0bzNfcajg&title=Bush_criticized_by_former_9_11_commission_member

Letter: Open New 9/11 Probe to End Cheney Chatter

2009-05-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com
Kennebec Journal
05/29/2009

Have you noticed that Dick Cheney's mug is still everywhere?

He appeared on the tube right after President Barack Obama's excellent speech against torture to once again invoke the 9/11 bogeyman and recite the same litany of dirty lies we've been told for the last eight years, with the brazen nerve of a man totally devoid of conscience, and utterly arrogant in his presumptions of impunity.

Cheney was in the bunker on 9/11, ordering the fighters to stand down as the airliners came in to hit their targets. (Go ask Norman Mineta. He was there. His testimony is a matter of record.) And now he's telling us Obama is making us less safe?

Want Cheney to finally go away?

Re-investigate 9/11. Open it up like the can of worms it is!

Bia Winter

Mount Vernon

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/letters/6386952.html

9/11 Commission official says public story “almost entirely untrue”

2009-05-22T05:17:00.001-07:00

By Hunter Gorinson
www.examiner.com
May 21, 2009

Since the turn of the millennium, John Farmer’s resumé has boasted many impressive accomplishments: New Jersey Attorney General, Acting Governor of that same state for 90 minutes on January 8, 2002 and, perhaps most importantly, Senior Counsel to the Bush-appointed - and dramatically underfunded - 9/11 Commission (also known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States).

Now, with a freshly inked contract from Houghton Mifflin Books in hand, Farmer is set [to] contradict the findings of the so-called “truth commission” that he once helped administrate with his new book, The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America's Defense on 9/11. Though the 256-page hardcover won’t be released until January 2010, its description is enough to make even the most stoic of conspiracy theorists take to internet message boards faster than you can say Loose Change. Here’s the official solicitation, care of Houghton Mifflin:

... John Farmer is proud of his and his colleagues’ work. Yet he came away from the experience convinced that there was a further story to be told, one he was uniquely qualified to write.

Now that story can be told. Tape recordings, transcripts, and contemporaneous records that had been classified have since been declassified, and the inspector general’s investigations of government conduct have been completed. Drawing on his knowledge of those sources, as well as his years as an attorney in public and private practice, Farmer reconstructs the truth of what happened on that fateful day and the disastrous circumstances that allowed it: the institutionalized disconnect between what those on the ground knew and what those in power did. He reveals — terrifyingly and illuminatingly — the key moments in the years, months, weeks, and days that preceded the attacks, then descends almost in real time through the attacks themselves, revealing them as they have never before been seen.

Ultimately Farmer builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version not only is almost entirely untrue but serves to create a false impression of order and security. The ground truth that Farmer captures tells a very different story — a story that is doomed to be repeated unless the systemic failures he reveals are confronted and remedied. ...

http://www.examiner.com/x-1551-Fringe-Culture-Examiner~y2009m5d21-911-Commission-official-says-public-story-almost-entirely-untrue

Tortured 9/11 Suspect may Never be Prosecuted: Pentagon Official

2009-02-08T13:27:00.001-08:00

Jan 14, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States may never be able to prosecute an alleged plotter of the September 11, 2001 attacks because he was tortured, a top Pentagon official said in an interview.

Susan Crawford, who is charged with deciding whether to bring Guantanamo detainees to trial, told The Washington Post that US interrogators had tortured Saudi terror suspect Mohammed al-Qahtani.

"We tortured Qahtani," she said, thus becoming the first senior Bush administration official to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

"His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution said Crawford, who is the convening authority of military commissions, a system established by the administration of President George W. Bush to try unlawful enemy combatants.

Crawford said US military interrogators repeatedly subjected Qahtani, 30, to sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."

"The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent," she said.

"This was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture.

Qahtani, alleged to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, was denied entry to the United States one month before the attacks but was captured in Afghanistan and flown to Guantanamo in January 2002.

"There is credible evidence the FBI has had that Qahtani was calling (lead 9/11 hijacker) Mohammed Atta when he arrived in Miami," security analyst Sarah Mendelson told AFP, adding that he could still be brought to trial under such evidence.

"I think it is important to understand that evidence gathered completely separately from harsh interrogation, torture, is the base for bringing a trial against Qahtani," added Mendelson, who directs the human rights and national security project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Qahtani was interrogated over 50 days from November 2002 to January 2003, although he was held in isolation until April 2003, according to the Post.

A Pentagon spokesman said the interrogation techniques used on Qahtani were authorized by former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and subsequent reviews found them to be lawful.

"However, the department did adopt a new and more restrictive policy, as well as improved oversight procedures for interrogations and detention operations," said Bryan Whitman.

"While some of the aggressive questioning techniques used on Qahtani were permissible at the time, they are no longer allowed in accordance with the updated army field manual."

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino reiterated the Bush administration's position that "it has never been the policy of this president or this administration to torture."

The timing of the comments by Crawford, just days before president-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in on January 20, also raised some questions. Obama has vowed to close the controversial detention facility.

"Is she making an argument now because she's worried about a future prosecution of US officials? The timing of the article is hot. The timing of the admission is hot," Mendelson said.

Crawford, a retired judge who previously served as Pentagon inspector general, dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani in May 2008.

She said she was unaware of whether the other five alleged 9/11 co-conspirators detained at Guantanamo were tortured. "I assume torture," she acknowledged.

Outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney has acknowledged that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other Guantanamo detainees were subjected to waterboarding, or simulated drowning. But Cheney said he did not believe the interrogation techniques amounted to torture.

Despite Crawford having allowed capital murder charges to go forward against the five detainees, the torture allegations cast doubt over whether the United States will ever prosecute the alleged plotters.

Of the 250 inmates still held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, only about 20 have been charged, including the five men accused of helping organize the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbmP3o8XOJzzejOL73973dlF_tzQ

Lying Torture Advocate John Brennan is Obama's Choice for "Counter-Terrorism" Adviser/9-11 Connects

2009-01-27T15:13:00.000-08:00

By Alex Constantine

To our federal parapolitical intelligence agencies, "Counter-Terrorism" means terrorism.

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.

- AC

Brennan is not a mere government employee. Now, to the press that blamed "lying liberal bloggers" and ran with Brennan's phony disavowal that he advocated torture under Bush - he has been promoted to media "Personality":

Personality Spotlight: John Brennan

"WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said Friday his foreign policy and intelligence adviser, CIA veteran John O. Brennan, will be his counter-terrorism adviser. Brennan was as interim director of the National Counter-terrorism Center immediately after its creation, and since 2005 has served as CEO of The Analysis Corp. .... Since 2007, Brennan has served as chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. ... "

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/01/09/Personality_Spotlight_John_Brennan/UPI-43941231543983/

AFFILIATED COMPUTER SERVICES (ACS - CLOSELY LINKED TO CIA, RESPONSIBLE FOR TORTURE AT GUANTANAMO BAY, AND A HOST OF POLITICAL/TERRORISM SCANDALS) LIKES BRENNAN)

John Brennan Appointed Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security
BY JD KATHURIA
JANUARY 12TH, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama has announced that John Brennan will serve as White House homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism.   A 25-year veteran of the CIA, Brennan transitioned in recent years to the private sector, where he has worked as president of The Analysis Corporation (TAC). His pick as head homeland security adviser and national security adviser for counterterrorism comes as welcome news to many in the national security and counterterrorism community. Here’s a roundup of what several industry leaders are telling ExecutiveBiz:

Joe Doherty, EVP/Group President, ACS Government Solutions: “Brennan’s private-sector and longtime CIA experience make him uniquely qualified to counsel the president. In addition, his view from the outside, combined with the structure of the appointment … will give Mr. Obama a well-rounded understanding of the realities and role that private contractors play in counterterrorism efforts.” ...

http://blog.executivebiz.com/john-brennan-appointed-deputy-national-security-adviser-for-homeland-security/1146
•••
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:

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
•••••••
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"

The FABRICATED al-Qaeda Presence in Palestine

2008-12-21T14:28:00.001-08:00

Edited by Alex Constantine

Palestinians arrest al-Qaeda 'poseurs'
December 8 2002

Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said yesterday.

The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.

"The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as al-Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories," said the official, on condition of anonymity.

He said the alleged collaborators sought to "discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide reasons to carry out a new (military) aggression in the Gaza Strip."

The official did not say how many suspects had been arrested, nor where or when they were nabbed.

Earlier, international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath announced he would hold a press conference here on the alleged presence of al-Qaeda operatives in the Gaza Strip.

Sharon's announcement marked the first time Israel officially claimed that al-Qaeda, held responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was operating in the Palestinian territories.

It was considered a surprise because the Gaza Strip is virtually sealed off by Israeli troops.

The hardline Israeli leader also charged other members of the terror group were cooperating with Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hizbollah.

The Palestinians slammed the allegation as "totally absurd" and accused Sharon of trying to piggyback on the US-led "war against terrorism" to strengthen his military operations against militants in the territories.

Both the Lebanese government and Hizbollah made similar statements.

A US citizen of Syrian descent was arrested last month at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on suspicion of transferring funds to terrorist organisations in general, and those connected to al-Qaeda in particular.

Three Israelis and 10 Kenyans were killed in a suicide attack on a hotel near the Kenyan port of Mombasa last Thursday, shortly after missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight taking off from there with 261 passengers.

The attacks were purportedly claimed by al-Qaeda on an Islamic website.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships swept into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday, sparking a gun battle and killing 10 people, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.

Army officials said the troops had met fierce resistance in the three-hour pre-dawn incursion, which it said was intended to root out militants responsible for attacks on troops in Gaza in a more than two-year Palestinian uprising for independence.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/palestinians_arrest_al_qaeda_poseurs.htm
•••••••
Report: Mossad behind destroying London Israeli embassy in 1994
www.arabicnews.com
11/27/1998

The British daily "The Independent" on Thursday unveiled important information on spying attempts made by the Israeli Mossad and operations targeting the destruction of Israeli embassies abroad.

In an article published on Thursday and quoted by the BBC, the paper added that the person who is accused of being behind the bombing of the Israeli embassy in London in 1994, Rida Maghribi, was an agent recruited by the Mossad and was assigned by Israeli foreign intelligence for that purpose.

The paper added that behind such an act, Israel was seeking to distort the image of the Palestinians in Britain and the western countries. However, this new Mossad scandal unveiled by the British paper is added to several similar scandals dogging the Mossad in Switzerland, Cyprus and Germany involving spying against the interests of these countries and on Lebanese and Palestinian resistance forces.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/981127/1998112708.html
••••••
Who Peddles the al Qaeda Fabrication in American Journals? - CIA Disinformation on Campus

Al Qaeda Strikes Back
Bruce Riedel

"Summary: By rushing into Iraq instead of finishing off the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Washington has unwittingly helped its enemies: al Qaeda has more bases, more partners, and more followers today than it did on the eve of 9/11. Now the group is working to set up networks in the Middle East and Africa -- and may even try to lure the United States into a war with Iran. Washington must focus on attacking al Qaeda's leaders and ideas and altering the local conditions in which they thrive. ... "

The author: "Bruce Riedel is a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He retired last year after 29 years with the Central Intelligence Agency. ... "

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86304/bruce-riedel/al-qaeda-strikes-back.html

The CIA/Brookings Institution itself contradicts Riedel's finding: "Al-Qa`ida’s senior leadership, based in the tribal areas of Pakistan-Afghanistan, has no franchise or coordinated group in Lebanon." Further: "The current Salafi-jihadi threat is caused by a network of capable terrorist cells scattered across the country, mostly in northern Lebanon. The most dangerous terrorist axis is the one that links, by land and sea, regions in the north—such as Tripoli, al-Koura and Akkar—to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ayn al-Hilwa in Sidon."

See: "Al-Qa`ida’s Presence and Influence in Lebanon"
•••••••
Meanwhile, in the real world ...

Hizbullah is Lebanon`s bulwark against Al-Qaeda

"We do not have any relations with that group"

By Clancy Chassay
The Daily Star
December 24, 2005

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=21003

Since the events of September 11, 2001, there have been numerous attempts to link Hizbullah to Al-Qaeda - some more plausible than others. Investigation, however, reveals considerable animosity between the two groups, and two leading academics on the subject suggest Hizbullah may be Lebanon`s best protection against an Al-Qaeda presence in the country.

On October 28, the Kuwaiti newspaper As-Siyassa reported Hizbullah was training Arab fighters for Al-Qaeda in Iran. In August the same paper ran a story with the headline: `Most of [Al-Qaeda`s commander in Iraq Abu Musab] Zarqawi`s men are Palestinians trained by Hizbullah.`

Then last week, the Shiite weekly Ash-Shiira claimed Al-Qaeda had set up a major base of operations in Lebanon and that alleged Hizbullah associate Imad Moughniye was now representing Al-Qaeda in talks with potentially sympathetic Palestinian groups in the country.

Hizbullah`s director of media relations Mohammad Afif Naboulsi firmly denies the alleged links to the militant jihadi network, `We do not have any relation with that group, not in the present nor in the past. They are working toward tearing the Islamic Nation apart, dividing Muslims into numerous sects and mutilating the face of Islam in the world.`

Amal Ghorayeb of the Lebanese American University believes any operational cooperation between the two groups is out of the question. `Hizbullah would in no way share Al-Qaeda`s goals. The Americans have to understand Al-Qaeda is a threat to American security, Hizbullah is simply a threat to American interests,` says Ghorayeb.

An expert and writer on Hizbullah, Ghorayeb says: `Al-Qaeda would never work with Hizbullah; their greatest enemies are the Shiites. There is a very strong cultural and religious animosity on the side of Al-Qaeda.`

Last week a Shiite cleric in Lebanon received a death threat from an Al-Qaeda-type Salafi jihadist group confirming this hostility.

And on July 27, Al-Mustaqbal reported that a group calling itself the `Al-Qaeda Organization in the Levant, Umar Brigade - Lebanon Province` had announced plans to assassinate senior members of Hizbullah along with the country`s most senior Shiite clerics and politicians.

The statement accuses senior Hizbullah officials of `treason with the US, British and Israeli enemies of Islam against the victorious resistance and its great leaders ... our master Imam Osama bin Laden and the mujahid Sheikh Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.`

Afif dismisses the statement as `fabricated locally` but says: `These groups have issued threats before and they find it very easy to kill so we must take them seriously.`

According to Dr. Redwan Sayyed, considered Lebanon`s foremost expert on Al-Qaeda and a professor of Islamic history at the Lebanese university, Salafi Jihadi ideologues, described as the intellectual voices of Al-Qaeda, view Hizbullah with deep disdain and are threatened by the Shiite group`s popularity on the Sunni Arab street.

Contributors to pro Al-Qaeda Web sites such as Global Islamic Media regularly refer to Hizbullah as Hizb al-Shaytan or `party of the devil` and in 2004, a leading scholar of jihadists in Saudi Arabia Abed al-Munim Mustafa Halimah published an article `the Lebanese Hizbullah rejectionist school` condemning Hizbullah for being nationalist, serving local interests and for their relationship with apostate Shiite Iran and the secular Assad regime in Syria.

Halimah, known as Abu Basir, accuses Hizbullah`s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of exploiting the January 2004 prisoner exchange with Israel solely for his organization`s goal of exporting `Shiite Islam` to the Muslim world.

Sayyed says Hizbullah regards Al-Qaeda with similar contempt and has been preventing the network from gaining a foothold in the country.

`Al-Qaeda could not maintain a base in Lebanon because Hizbullah is against Al-Qaeda and has always worked to hinder Syria`s accommodation of Al-Qaeda in Lebanon. One of the reasons Al-Qaeda has not been allowed by Syria to operate in Lebanon under the Sunnis is because of Hizbullah objection.`

Sayyed believes `Hizbullah is not only a big military power, it is also a very big intelligence power and is using its intelligence network to keep Al- Qaeda out of Lebanon.`

Ghorayeb agrees with this assessment, saying Hizbullah has been using its extensive intelligence network to counter Al-Qaeda growth in the country. `Nasrallah, drawing from Hizbullah intelligence, warned Al-Qaeda was trying to infiltrate Lebanon.`

Sayyed says: `Hizbullah has a policy of taking action against Lebanese Sunni individuals who even claim to have links with Al-Qaeda, either by warning the individuals or telling the Syrians that if they didn`t stop them `then we will.``

Hizbullah says they would act to prevent an Al-Qaeda attack but, apparently cautious of being drawn into an intra-Muslim sectarian conflict, the group says the organization needs to be defeated on an intellectual level.

Afif claims the party has been approached by mediators from the CIA `who asked us to collaborate by supplying them with information about Islamic groups.`

He adds: `We will not be taken into a sectarian war between Muslims, but we believe it is the responsibility of the Islamic theologians, the Sunnis, as well as social figures and media to play a role in raising awareness about the dangers of these ideas.`

Ghorayeb says Hizbullah is playing a delicate balancing game between Lebanon`s Sunni and Shiite communities.

`There are many instances of this Sunni-Shiite tension in Lebanon now, Hizbullah is really trying to safeguard the relations between the two groups. Now, I can tell you, the tension is a lot more palpable than it was,` says Ghorayeb.

http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=10796
•••••••
Al Qaeda in Gaza?
conflictblotter.com/
October 1, 2007

In the past year I’ve had dozens of conversations with colleagues, experts, politicians, analysts, etc, about whether or not Al Qaeda is present in Gaza, especially foreign, non-Palestinian jihadis. As such, this news caught my eye today.

Hamas has extradited a wanted Al-Qaida militant to Egypt in exchange for Cairo’s agreement to allow dozens of stranded Hamas and Islamic Jihad members to return to the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency Maan reported on Monday.

The not always reliable Debka file claims the Al Qaeda militant turned over to Egypt was Muhammed Fayad Ibrahim from Nebi Saweil near Cairo. They reported he was Al Qaeda-Egypt’s senior liaison officer with Osama bin Laden and that he gained asylum in the Gaza Strip in July.

If true, it’s interesting that an Al Qaeda militant would have turned to Gaza for refuge and was able to smuggle himself into the territory without a problem. The fact that Gaza is so cut off from the outside world has always been one of the arguments against Al Qaeda establishing itself there.

So if it’s all true as reported, the big question is what he’s been up to since July. Has Hamas had him in custody? Who’s he been staying with? And what would it really matter even if there was an active Al Qaeda cell in Gaza?

It’s not surprising that Hamas didn’t stomach an Al Qaeda operative’s presence for long. Even if Hamas did feel the need to justify itself after Zawahiri criticized the movement for the Mecca accord, Hamas’ relationship with Egypt is too important. That being said, Egypt didn’t get their jihadi for cheap. Hamas got an estimatd 85 militants let back into Gaza. And symbolically speaking, this deal with Egypt represents perhaps the first time it has cracked the international siege since June.

http://conflictblotter.com/2007/10/01/al-qaeda-in-gaza/

'Popular Mechanics' Link to the CIA's In-Q-Tel

2008-11-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

From Peter Wakefield Sault
2-11-5

I have just read Mr Jim Hoffman's response at

http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/pm/index.html

to the recent article in 'Popular Mechanics' at

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/defense/1227842.html?page=1&c=y

that tries to debunk the truth about 9/11 by the use of the 'straw man' tactic. Although everything in his response is quite correct and exposes the straw man for what it is, I feel Mr Hoffman was dealing with this particular issue at the wrong level. Approached from a different angle the article tells us who really was behind 9/11 and who is still desperately trying to cover it up. This is how it works:-

'Popular Mechanics' is published by the Hearst Corporation, proprietor (chairman of the board) George R. Hearst, grandson of William Randolph Hearst, sometime would-be builder of large aeroplanes.
http://www.business-magazines.com/prd1350.php
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/hearst.asp http://www.hearstcorp.com/biographies/corp_bio_hearst.html

The president and CEO of Hearst Corporation is one Victor F. Ganzi, since June 1st, 2002. Mr Ganzi is also an officer/director of the Hearst Foundation.
http://www.hearstcorp.com/biographies/media/GANZI_2003_2_BW.jpg http://www.hearstcorp.com/biographies/corp_bio_ganzi.html
http://www.oaklandwib.org/Images/ImageUploads/F82200432537.pdf

A close look at the titles of the books on the shelf behind Mr Ganzi in the photo (GANZI_2003_2_BW.jpg) reveals that some part of Mr Ganzi's early career was spent working for the owners of the Atlantic City Boardwalk and associated hotels and casinos; sometime friends of a certain Mr Frank Sinatra, as I recall.

Victor F. Ganzi is on the board of directors of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), alongside Columba Bush, wife of Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, brother of George W. Bush, President of the USA and son of George H.W. Bush, former DG of the CIA.
http://www.nationalfamilies.org/prevention/casa.html

Victor F. Ganzi is a member of B.E.N.S. - "Business Executives for National Security"
http://www.bens.org/what_threats_intel.html#intel - wherein we learn that "When it came time to evaluate In-Q-Tel, the CIA's innovative technology development enterprise, Congress turned to BENS"

In October 2002, B.E.N.S. received a "CIA Agency Seal Medallion" for its work on the In-Q-Tel program.
http://www.bens.org/highlights_InQTelMedal.html

In-Q-Tel? It is described as "A new partnership between the CIA and the 'private sector' [my apostrophes].", making it a classic front for traditional fascism and other American-style old-fashioned family values. http://www.in-q-tel.org/

... So, we should all be most grateful to 'Popular Mechanics' and its new editor James Meigs for indirectly telling us who the real perpetrators of 9/11 were by its rather long-winded "blind 'em with science" attempt to suppress the truth of behalf of those perpetrators.

Warren Buffett's Takeover of Constellation Energy, Mayo Shattuck, the CIA and 9/11 Inside Trades

2008-11-24T15:44:00.001-08:00

EU approves MidAmerican deal to buy Constellation
Baltimore Business Journal
November 24, 2008

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. has been given European Union antitrust approval to purchase the largest U.S power marketing company. MidAmerican is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B).

The deal is worth about $4.7 billion. MidAmerican will get Baltimore-based Constellation's Baltimore Gas and Electric unit along with three nuclear plants and other power stations in 10 states. Iowa-based MidAmerican needed EU approval to move forward because it operates utilities in the UK.

The proposed union between Constellation and MidAmerican could take nearly a year to close and would need the approval of federal and state regulators and company shareholders.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2008/11/24/daily1.html

Constellation Energy & Mayo A. Shattuck III:

CEO: Mayo A. Shattuck III
Employees: 9,645
Address: 750 E. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21202
U.S.
Phone: 410-783-2800
Website: www.constellation.com

CIA & 9/11 Inside Trades with Mayo

The strange case of Mayo Shattuck III, head of the A.B. Brown unit of Deutsche bank

1999. Bankers Trust merged with Deutsche Bank and Shattuck became Chairman of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. While there Mayo Shattuck was also CEO of the Americas for the bank's Private Client and Asset Management Group and had numerous responsibilities at the bank, including Global Head of Investment Banking and Global Head of Private Banking.

Head of the bank resigned under suspicious circumstances:

September 15, 2001. The New York Times reported that Mayo Shattuck III had resigned on September 12, 'effective immediately', from a 3-year $30 million contract as head of the Alex (A.B) Brown unit of Deutsche Bank.

http://www.itszone.co.uk/Mayo-Shattuck.htm

Krongard with Mayo: "By 1991 he became president and chief operating officer at Alex. Brown, second to future CIA Executive Director A. B. "Buzzy" Krongard."
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Mayo-A.-Shattuck-III

Mayo's Resignation on September 12, 2001

"The New York Times reported that Shattuck had resigned on September 12, 'effective immediately', from a 3-year $30 million contract as head of the Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown.[1] Shattuck found a new job quickly: by October 26, he would be appointed President and CEO of Constellation Energy Group, and was elected Chairman of the Board in July 2002."
www.nationmaster.com

Other affiliations

In 1997, Mayo Shattuck was made trustee of the Seagram Company, Ltd.

Shattuck has several other notable past and current affiliations, including directorships at Gap, Inc and Capital One,[2] positions on several lobbying and policy advocacy organizations (including the Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute and the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations), board memerships at several educational institutions (Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Maryland), and at The Walters Art Museum.

He was also a candidate to take over as NFL commissioner after Paul Tagliabue's retirement, but Roger Goodell won the job.
www.nationmaster.com

Deutsche Bank is also one of the four banks most used by the bin Laden family.

http://complete911timeline.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767...

Who Killed Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake?

2008-11-24T10:27:00.001-08:00

Bottom line, simple answer: Warren Buffett's CIA/GOP friends murdered Duncan and Blake. Disgraced former Omaha police chief/accused Mormon pedophile Robert Wadman, who recently put my publisher through a nuisance suit in Ogden, Utah, is Buffett's CIA-pervert lieutenant - Wadman hoped to silence me with his - alas - dismissed "lawsuit," have my books recalled, and - not incidentally - my investigation of Duncan-Blake taken off the Internet.

MediaBistro.com, a CIA/GOP front, was the core of a smear campaign waged against the "paranoid conspiracy theorists" post mortem to discredit Theresa's research on Buffett's CIA/GOP pedophile network buds, and send a "message" to "conspiracy" researchers aware of the "Sage of Omaha's" role in 9/11.

The mapping of intelligence connections to the Duncan/Blake murders and MediaBistro.com-led cover-up are here. It behooves anyone concerned about fascism in America to have an understanding of this central, operationally covert cog in the machine.

Also see: "Warren Buffett's Genocidal Investments,"
"Some of the Buffett Family's Political, CIA and Nazi Connections," "Buffett's Wrigley Deal puts Spotlight on Secretive Mars Family," and "The Path to 9/11 (Part 17): Buffett-CIA-Coke Links to a Fugitive Uzbek Princess, ZeroMax, GlobalOptions, Mohammed Atta & 9/11"

- AC

The CIA & the Brothers Krongard

2008-11-17T10:29:00.001-08:00

Alvin Buzzy Krongard - ABC News: "In a dramatic turn of events on Capitol Hill today, the State Department inspector general recused himself from all Blackwater-related issues after admitting to Congress that his brother served on the private security contractor’s advisory board. After initially rejecting allegations that his brother, Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, was a Blackwater board member, Howard Krongard later told lawmakers that his brother was in fact on the board. ... "
http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/brother-of-state-dept-official-linked-to-blackwater/

The CIA's Buzzy Krongard and Deutsche-Alex. Brown - " ... A.B. Buzzy Krongard of In-Q-Tel, formerly 'Number Three' at the CIA. Mayo Shattuck, who resigned from AB about the time the WTC fell, dogged by reports of 9/11 inside trades. These were just two of the CIA officers haunting the corridors of Deutsche-Alex. Brown. ... "
http://alexconstantine.blogspot.com/2006/11/lexington-comair-crash-part-16-gps.html
*******
Blackwater's Brothers
by JEREMY SCAHILL
The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071203/scahill
November 15, 2007

Every day, new revelations emerge in the mounting scandal rocking the Bush Administration and the mercenary company Blackwater Worldwide. Much of the attention focuses on the now infamous shooting spree in Baghdad's Nisour Square on September 16, in which seventeen Iraqi civilians were killed and twenty-four wounded. FBI investigators are now alleging that fourteen were victims of unjustified and unprovoked shooting--some were shot while they were fleeing. Investigators also say they found nothing to substantiate Blackwater's claims of being fired on by Iraqis. This comes a month after a US Army investigation determined there was "no enemy activity involved" and labeled the shootings a "criminal event." But while Blackwater gets hammered in the press, the behind-the-scenes actions of the company's paymaster, the State Department, grow more scandalous by the minute.

Blackwater Busted?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Six Guards may be charged in Iraq massacre, but critics fear the company's 'reckless behavior' will continue.

Almost from the moment the Nisour Square shootings happened, the State Department has taken actions that give the impression of trying to cover up the incident. The department's initial report on the shooting was drafted by a Blackwater contractor on official US government stationery. The FBI was not dispatched to investigate the case until two weeks after the shootings, meaning that the initial investigation was in the hands of a non-law enforcement agency, the State Department, that just happens to be Blackwater's employer. In late October it emerged that the department had actually granted some Blackwater operatives "limited use immunity" in return for their statements on the shooting. Some Blackwater agents have reportedly refused to answer FBI questions, citing their State Department-granted "immunity." This means that their statements, and information gleaned from them, cannot be used to bring criminal charges against them. The State Department also offered to facilitate the payment of what amounted to hush money to victims of the shooting, which it has done on numerous occasions for Blackwater and other companies when they kill Iraqis.

Now this story has taken yet another dramatic twist. On Wednesday the State Department Inspector General, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill, where he found himself being grilled by Representative Henry Waxman's Oversight and Government Affairs Committee. Krongard is the top State Department official charged with investigating allegations of waste, fraud and abuse. In addition to all of the questionable actions by the State Department in the Blackwater investigation, Krongard has faced charges that he impeded a Justice Department investigation into Blackwater over allegations the company was illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq. But the bombshell at the hearing was the revelation that Krongard's brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, recently accepted a position as a paid consultant for Blackwater, where he serves on the company's advisory board. Until his resignation in 2004, Buzzy was the number-three man at the Central Intelligence Agency (more on that later).

Waxman's committee broke the news of Buzzy's Blackwater position as part of what can only be described as a masterful ambush of the Inspector General.

When Waxman revealed the conflict of interest with the brothers Krongard and Blackwater, alleging that Cookie Krongard had "concealed" his brother's relationship with Blackwater, the Inspector General told Waxman:

"I can tell you very frankly, I am not aware of any financial interest or position [my brother] has with respect to Blackwater. It couldn't possibly have affected anything I've done, because I don't believe it. And when these ugly rumors started recently, I specifically asked him. I do not believe it is true that he is a member of the advisory board, as you stated, and that is something I think I need to say."

This statement would quickly thrust Cookie Krongard, who was testifying under oath, in front of a firing line that would ultimately produce his recusal from the Blackwater investigation. Moments after Cookie Krongard denied that his brother had any involvement with Blackwater, the committee produced a letter from Blackwater CEO Erik Prince to Buzzy Krongard, dated July 26, inviting him to join the board and offering him a $3,500 honorarium per meeting attended plus all expenses paid. "Your experience and insight would be ideal to help our team determine where we are and where we are going," Prince wrote.

Cookie Krongard said his brother "has been involved in a lot of activities involving security. So it's no surprise that someone like Erik Prince would invite him to continue to support 'security, peace, and freedom.'" But Cookie Krongard insisted his brother had not accepted the position, saying, "I dispute that." Representative Elijah Cummings then produced a September 5 e-mail from Prince to Buzzy saying, "Welcome and thank you for accepting the invitation to be a member of the board." Cummings told Cookie, "Prince invited your brother to be at a board meeting to discuss strategic planning. And this meeting is taking place right now, in Williamsburg, Virginia, this week as we speak. Staff contacted the hotel to speak to your brother and the hotel confirmed that he was scheduled to be there."

Cookie replied that he was not aware of this, adding, "By the nature of my brother's work, you should understand that we have never discussed his work or my work, so I had no reason to even think that he had any involvement with Blackwater. But when these things surfaced, I called him and I asked him directly, he has told me he does not have any involvement, he does not have any financial interest. If you're telling me he does absolutely I would recuse myself" from the Blackwater investigation.

During a recess of the hearing, Cookie later said, he called his brother, who confirmed for him that he had indeed accepted a position on the Blackwater advisory board. Cookie abruptly announced he was recusing himself from all matters relating to Blackwater. But this is unlikely to be the end of Cookie's problems stemming from this scandal. He may actually have perjured himself. After the hearing, Buzzy Krongard told reporter Spencer Ackerman of TPM Muckraker that he had informed Cookie weeks ago of his position with Blackwater. "I had told my brother I was going on the advisory board," Buzzy said. "My brother says that is not the case. I stand by what I told my brother." When Ackerman asked Buzzy if Blackwater knew who his brother was when Prince offered him the advisory board position, Buzzy said, "You think I had to tell them? That they didn't know?" He added, "If [Cookie's] got integrity it's not gonna matter one way or other.... If he doesn't have integrity it's not gonna matter."

While Buzzy's new position on Blackwater's advisory board is indeed a salacious development, it is just the tip of the iceberg. In my book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, I explore in depth the relationship between Buzzy Krongard and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. The two men go back at least to 2002, when Buzzy helped jump-start Blackwater's ultra-profitable role as a provider of soldiers-for-hire in the "war on terror."

Though Blackwater was founded in 1997, Blackwater Security Consulting--its mercenary division--was incorporated in Delaware on January 22, 2002. Within months, as the United States occupied Afghanistan and began planning the Iraq invasion, Blackwater Security was already turning a profit, pulling in hundreds of thousands a month from a valuable CIA contract.

One of the players in forging that first Blackwater Security contract was Buzzy Krongard, at the time executive director of the CIA, the agency's number-three position. Krongard, who was named to that post in March 2001, had an unusual background for a spook, having spent most of his adult life as an investment banker. He had built up Alex.Brown, the country's oldest investment banking firm, into one of the most successful, and eventually sold it to Bankers Trust, from which he resigned in 1998. There have been some insinuations that Krongard was working undercover for the CIA years before he officially joined the agency in 1998 as a special adviser to George Tenet. But he won't reveal how he met the CIA director, except to say that it was through "mutual friends." The Princeton alum, Hall of Fame lacrosse player and former Marine boasts of having once punched a great white shark in the jaw; and he keeps one of its teeth on a chain and pictures of the animal in his office. Despite his bravado, some at the agency thought of Krongard as a wanna-be, according to a 2001 Newsweek story published shortly after his ascension to the number-three spot. "A wanna-be? Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. That's as much as you're going to get," Krongard responded.

While working under Tenet at the CIA, Krongard acted internally, reorganizing divisions and pushing for projects like an intelligence venture capital firm, but he did on occasion speak publicly. In October 2001, he declared, "The war will be won in large measure by forces you do not know about, in actions you will not see and in ways you may not want to know about, but we will prevail."

Some three years later, in January 2005, Krongard made news when he became the most senior Administration figure to articulate the benefits of having not killed or captured Osama bin Laden. "You can make the argument that we're better off with him [at large]," he said. "Because if something happens to bin Laden, you might find a lot of people vying for his position and demonstrating how macho they are by unleashing a stream of terror.... He's turning into more of a charismatic leader than a terrorist mastermind." Krongard also characterized bin Laden "not as a chief executive but more like a venture capitalist," saying, "Let's say you and I want to blow up Trafalgar Square. So we go to bin Laden. And he'll say, 'Well, here's some money and some passports and if you need weapons, see this guy.'"

It's not clear exactly what the original connection was between Prince and Krongard. Some have alleged that Krongard knew Prince's father. In a brief telephone interview conducted for my book, Krongard would only say he was "familiar" with Prince and Blackwater. A former Blackwater executive, however, asserted, "I know that Erik and Krongard were good buddies."

Whatever Krongard's involvement, it was during his tenure at the CIA that Blackwater landed its first security contract, in April 2002. Krongard visited Kabul and said he realized the agency's new station there was sorely lacking security. Blackwater received a $5.4 million six-month no-bid contract to provide twenty security guards for the Kabul CIA station. Krongard said it was Blackwater's offering and not his connection to Prince that led to the company landing the contract, and that he talked to Prince about the contract but wasn't certain who called whom, that he was "not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg." He said that someone else was responsible for actually signing off on the CIA contract. "Blackwater got a contract because they were the first people that could get people on the ground," Krongard said in the interview. "We were under the gun, we did whatever it took when I came back from Kabul.... The only concern we had was getting the best security for our people. If we thought Martians could provide it, I guess we would have gone after them."

The relationship between Krongard and Prince apparently got chummier after the contract was signed. "Krongard came down and visited Blackwater, and I had to take his kids around and let them shoot on the firing range a number of times," said a former Blackwater executive in an interview for my book. "That was after the contract was signed, and he may have come down just to see the company that he had just hired." Prince apparently became consumed with the prospect of being involved with secretive operations in the "war on terror"--so much so that he personally deployed on the front lines. Prince joined Jamie Smith, a former CIA operative who originally headed up Blackwater Security Consulting, as part of the original twenty-man contingent Blackwater sent to fulfill its first CIA contract, which began in May 2002, according to Robert Young Pelton's book Licensed to Kill.

Since CIA and other intelligence and security contracts are "black" contracts, it's difficult to pin down exactly how much Blackwater began pulling in after that first Afghanistan contract, but Smith described it as a rapid period of growth for Blackwater. The company's work for the CIA and the military and Prince's political and military connections would provide Blackwater with important leverage in wooing what would become its largest confirmed client, the US State Department. "After that first contract went off, there was a lot of romancing with the State Department where they were just up the road, so we traveled up there a lot in Kabul and tried to sweet-talk them into letting us on board with them," Smith said in an interview. "Once the State Department came on and there was a contract there, that opened up some different doors. Once you get your foot in the door with a government outfit that has offices in countries all over the world, it's like--and this is probably a horrible analogy--but it's something maybe like the metastasis of a cancer. You know, once you get into the bloodstream you're going to be all over the body in just a couple of days, you know what I mean? So if you get in that pipeline, then everywhere that they've got a problem and an office, there's an opportunity."

A year later, Prince's mercenary operations would get the boost of a lifetime when Blackwater was handed a $27 million no-bid contract to serve as the elite bodyguards of the US occupation of Iraq. To date that arrangement has brought Blackwater about $1 billion in federal "security" contracts. Is it just a coincidence that one of the key players in securing Blackwater's role as the leading mercenary company of the Bush Administration has a brother whose job it was to oversee Blackwater? Or that the Inspector General stands accused of failing to do his duty and actually impeding federal investigations into the company's potentially criminal activities? Is there a connection between the Krongards and the State Department's systematic cover-up campaign for Blackwater? Unsurprisingly, Blackwater's spokesperson, Anne Tyrrell, said, "We do not see a conflict of interest." But these aren't questions for the company's PR people. These are questions that must be answered by the brothers Krongard under oath.

About Jeremy Scahill

Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!.

The Path to 9/11 (Part 17): Buffett-CIA-Coke Links to a Fugitive Uzbek Princess, ZeroMax, GlobalOptions, Mohammed Atta & 9/11

2008-11-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Edited by Alex Constantine (Revised)

Gulnara Karimov, eldest daughter of the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov

Also see: "Coca-Cola & the Nazis/British Comedian Publicizes Coke's Nazi Past," "Some of the Buffett Family's Political, CIA and Nazi Connections," and "Warren Buffett's Father was a Birch Society Nazi"

Bloomberg.com: "Warren Buffett ... was on the audit committee of Coca-Cola Co.'s board when the SEC found the soft-drink maker had misled investors about its earnings. ... "
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNCFKvAMUQ6w

Background from "Warren Buffett Buys Nebraska Furniture Mart, Scott Fetzer and an Airplane for Berkshire Hathaway," beginnersinvest.about.com: "In 1988, he started buying up Coca-Cola stock like an addict. His old neighbor, now the President of Coca-Cola, noticed someone was loading up on shares and became concerned. After researching the transactions, he noticed the trades were being placed from the Midwest. He immediately thought of Buffett, whom he called. Warren confessed to being the culprit and requested they don't speak of it until he was legally required to disclose his holdings at the 5% threshold. Within a few months, Berkshire owned 7% of the company, or $1.02 billion dollars worth of the stock. Within three years, Buffett's Coca-Cola stock would be worth more than the entire value of Berkshire when he made the investment. ... "
http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/warrenbuffett/a/aawarrenbio_5.htm
••••••
9/11: " ... Oddly enough, SunTrust Banks were the most heavily relied upon by the 9/11 hijackers and no one seems to know how they were able to use false social security numbers and still be able to set up bank accounts. ... There is a link between SunTrust and Atta/Coca Cola and Gulnara or ZeroMax at least in theory and of course, SunTrust is Coca Cola and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is the main player in both those interlinked entities. ... "

Warren Buffet link to Fugitive Uzbek Princess
(June. 11, 2007 Scoreboard contributor)
http://www.scoreboard-canada.com/babylon-buffetuzek.htm

Recent articles have noted that the self-styled 'private CIA/FBI' called GlobalOptions has as a client Gulnara Karimov, the daughter of Uzbekistan strongman Islam Karimov. She is wanted by INTERPOL for allegedly leaving New Jersey in 2001 during a custody dispute with her children's father and fleeing to Uzbekistan. INTERPOL issues what it calls 'red notices' for fugitive persons on a global scale. Apparently there is one for her. This information became public in an article published by Harper's Magazine or their online blog on alleged corruption called Washington Babylon.

It is suspected that a company in Uzbekistan known as ZeroMax is an alter ego for the fugitive "Princess of the Uzbeks" as the controlled media calls her. ZeroMax denies that she is involved with them, but allegedly few in her native land believe that. ZeroMax is based in Zug, Switzerland and has the Coca Cola franchise in Uzbekistan among other interests.

ZeroMax is being sued by the former husband of Ms. Gulnara and it is odd how she travels to Russia and Paris untouched in spite of the Interpol fugitive status. One of the defendants along with ZeroMax is Coca Cola itself. The largest shareholder in Coca Cola is Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm started by the legendary "Oracle" of Omaha, Warren Buffet.

Likewise, SunTrust Bank has a very close relationship with Coca Cola, it goes back to the beginnings of the famous company [No longer - See: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-05-15-suntrust-selling-coke_N.htm]. The relationship between Coca Cola and SunTrust has been described as incestous by a famous left wing activist and organizer. In fact, the original formula for coke sits in one of its bank vaults.

Oddly enough, SunTrust Banks were the most heavily relied upon by the 9/11 hijackers and no one seems to know how they were able to use false social security numbers and still be able to set up bank accounts. Mohammed Atta had money wired to him at his SunTrust account from the UAE.

The Israeli intelligence related website DEBKA indicates that Gulnara Karimov may have links to terrorism. This should be taken with a grain of salt at least since DEBKA may have an agenda for saying this. This article does not agree or disagree nor is able to judge the DEBKA article as to accuracy. The reader must investigate the accuracy independently - but.... There is a link between SunTrust and Atta/Coca Cola and Gulnara or ZeroMax at least in theory and of course, SunTrust is Coca Cola and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is the main player in both those interlinked entities.

Further, Coca Cola has long been associated at least in speculation and theory as linked with the CIA. The behavior of Warren Buffet on 9/11 has been the topic of speculation and conspiracy theory. This includes the coincidence of his being at the same military base in Nebraska on that day.

A very odd development is the fact that attorneys from the blue chip firm Crowell & Moring represent ROZ Trading, Ltd. based in New Jersey, USA. They are suing ZeroMax, Coca Cola Export Corporation - which obviously link up to SunTrust Bank and Warren Buffet. The suit also points at Gulnara Karimova, even though that is denied and in dispute. She is a client of GlobalOptions if connected to ZeroMax which is the local partner in Uzbekistan for Coke.

A retired partner in Crowell & Moring sits on the Board of SunTrust Banks. Karen Hastie Williams. Therefore a retired partner in Crowell & Moring sits on the board of Suntrust a company very closely linked to Coca Cola , a defendant along with Zeromax its Uzbek Partner in a lawsuit filed by other Crowell & Moring law firm lawyers.

Ms. Williams was a law clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who it turns out was a freemason and an informant for the FBI. GlobalOptions is linked to William Webster and William Sessions leaders of the FBI. Webster is the only man to ever head the CIA and the FBI. There are ALLEGED links regarding the 9/11 attacks stock trades in a 'conspiracy theory' site.

One of the suspect options trading companies with alleged links to 9/11 according to the conspiratorial article ... is located as noted on the previous link in Zug, Switzerland. This is also where ZeroMax is based and Zug is the stomping ground of Clinton-pardoned Marc Rich.

APPEARANCE OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST AS THE CONCLUSION:

Crowell Moring is against the Republic of Uzbekistan, Coca Cola and Zeromax.

Coca Cola is a partner of ZeroMax and closely linked to SunTrust Bank.
A retired partner of Crowell Moring which apparently still has a website at that office sits on the Board of SunTrust Bank.*

(The appearance of a conflict of interest does not imply misconduct - only that the firm should disclose this and move to withdraw as counsel if deemed appropriate.) *

A lot of odd players surround all of this activity, Zug Switzerland, Interpol warrants, Fugitive Princess......Warren Buffet is a major player in Coca Cola, his company's partner in Uzbekistan is ZeroMax linked to the Interpol Fugitive Princess Gulnara Karimova.

1. Terror suspicions against Gulnara by DEBKA. 2. Warren Buffet odd behaviour on 9/11. 3. SunTrust linked to Coca Cola and thus to Warren Buffet was Mohamed Atta's favorite Bank. Warren ....strike 3 - your out as they say in Baseball.
•••••••
Buffett, SunTrust, Fidelity Savings, Tom Kean, Offutt AFB and 9/11

Excerpt: "Duncan & Blake 'Suicides' Solved: The Omaha/Des Moines Allegations, MediaBistro.Com Data Mining & the CIA," by myself:

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway/SunTrust Banks and 9/11: "Officials said the hijackers appeared to have relied most heavily upon SunTrust Banks for the movement of funds through accounts opened in Florida ... "

"Anne Tatlock found out about the collision of a plane with the North Tower while en route to the U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Omaha. The 62-year-old chief executive of Fiduciary Trust Co. International was one of a small group of business leaders at a charity event hosted by Warren Buffett. Military officers boarded the bus she was on, and escorted her to an officer's lounge and a television, just in time to see the second plane hit the South Tower between the 87th and 93rd floors--right where 650 of her employees worked. Fiduciary, which today manages $44 billion of securities for pension plans, endowments and wealthy individuals..." - Forbes (10/15/01)

WHO ELSE ATTENDED BUFFETT'S CHARITY EVENT AT OFFUTT?: " ... Warren Buffett hosted this event. Rush Limbaugh said on the air that he was there also. Then there is the group of top Pentagon officials who suddenly canceled travel plans on September 10th due to security concerns. ... "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x41811

Anne Tatlock

" ... Tatlock is on the board of Merck and Howard Hughes Medical Center."
http://curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=620435#i

THE FIDUCIARY TRUST 9/11 TERROR DRILL: " ... Fiduciary Trust, located in the south tower, had scheduled an emergency drill for the day." NY Times (03/31/06) clip. ... "
http://www.free-conversant.com/realtruth/967

FIDUCIARY TRUST AND 9/11: " ... Thomas H. Kean, Coca-Cola executive - sits on the BOD of a Fortune 500 company [Franklin Resources, based in San Mateo, California] which owns the company (Fiduciary Trust) which had offices where Flight 175 hit the South tower of the WTC. ...

Also on the BOD of Franklin was the CEO of Fiduciary, Anne Tatlock, who had a famous near miss - being out of the office that day in order to attend Warren Buffett’s celebrity charity event, arriving at Offutt AFB just in time to witness the second plane hit the South tower. Of course, Offutt is where Dubya would land later in the day; the same location where Brent Scowcroft was en route to observe the nuclear wargame Global Guardian… "
http://wecanchangetheworld.wordpress.com/category/warren-buffett/

Kean has long served as director of Fiduciary Trust Co. and FRANKLIN RESOURCES.
https://www.franklintempleton.com/retail/jsp_cm/global_nav/company/officers_directors.jsp

Franklin acquired Fiduciary Trust FIVE MONTHS before the WTC collapsed and profited handsomely from the tragedy: "Only five months before the attacks, mutual fund firm Franklin bought Fiduciary - a 70-year-old asset manager catering to high-net worth clients and institutional investors - for $825 million.... Through the first two weeks after the attacks, Franklin had paid out $16.46 million in benefits payments to victims' families, according to its annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Franklin could write off $19.8 million in lease, property and equipment leases - and recover an estimated $27.2 million from insurance ... "
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:LWAe_rnS7EcJ:www.bloglines.com/blog/ewing2001/2006_9_25+ALEX+CONSTANTINE+AND+PEPSICO+AND+THOMAS+KEAN&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
••••••
GlobalOptions & the CIA

Washington Insiders Lend Helping Hand to “Princess of Uzbeks”
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003207
By Ken Silverstein

On its website, GlobalOptions, a Washington-based corporate security and investigations firm, describes itself as a “private CIA, Defense Department, Justice Department, and FBI, all rolled into one,” and says it offers

attorneys, crisis communications specialists, investigators, former senior policymakers and even commandos who can be mobilized on a moment’s notice to protect you, your employees, corporate reputation, bottom line, and share holder value.

The company does not reveal who it works for but pledges “absolute loyalty to our clients, because we believe that clients are the most important people in the world.”

According to recently filed court documents, GlobalOptions clients include Zeromax, a Swiss-based holding company widely reported to be the property of Gulnara Karimova, the powerful daughter of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov. (A well-placed source told me that she exercises control over the company through a chain of individuals, including two whom she directly employed.) Gulnara, like the rest of the Karimov clan, has grown fabulously wealthy through corruption. She’s also the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant because she fled the United States with her children after losing a child-custody battle with her ex-husband, an American citizen.

GlobalOptions was founded in 1998 by Neil Livingstone, a former Pentagon and State Department advisor who frequently appears on TV to opine about terrorism. Livingstone was once one of the voices issuing repeated public calls for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and following the American invasion, GlobalOptions began to offer consulting services to companies doing business in Iraq. Now he calls for destabilizing the Iranian regime. In addition to Livingstone, a host of big name insiders hold top positions at the firm, including former CIA director James Woolsey and former FBI and CIA director William Webster.

GlobalOptions recently went public and a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission says that its “foreign clients operate primarily in Russia and the Caribbean.” The Wall Street Journal has reported that GlobalOptions has worked for a Cyprus-based firm called Highrock Holdings, which is controlled by a shady Ukrainian businessman named Dimytro Firtash. “In 2003-2005, Mr. Firtash brokered several billion-dollar deals between Gazprom and the government of Ukraine,” the Journal said. “They netted big profits for Highrock–and criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine at the time for the deals’ lack of transparency . . . [I]n a recent lawsuit filed by GlobalOptions against Highrock claiming unpaid bills, the security firm alleged that Mr. Firtash hired GlobalOptions for an unspecified ‘special operation’ on behalf of a Ukrainian government official.”

GlobalOptions is now in the middle of another lawsuit with Livingstone, who left the firm after it went public to start a new company called Executive Action. Because Executive Action provides roughly identical services, GlobalOptions is accusing Livingstone of seeking to steal away its clients. Livingstone explained his position in a letter to clients explaining his departure, which I obtained from court records: “I did not like the bureaucratic and other constraints of a public company, nor was I comfortable with some of the disclosures that have to be made, especially concerning our discreet clients and cases.”

Among the documents from that lawsuit is an e-mail to Livingstone from Tom Ondeck, who runs a crisis management unit for GlobalOptions. A recent New York Times story detailed the role played by Ondeck–a disbarred attorney, according to the Times–in bringing a luxury golf resort to Akwa Ibom, a remote, desperately poor state in Nigeria. The letter identified four clients that Ondeck and Livingstone served jointly, and which GlobalOptions planned to keep: Akwa Ibom, Hayground Cove Asset Management, the Motley Rice law firm, and Zeromax. (I called Ondeck at GlobalOptions to ask him about the Zeromax account, but he declined to return my phone call.)

Gulnara, a would-be singer, is considered a possible successor to her father. A story in the Guardian identified $60 million in assets belonging to Gulnara, which included nightclubs, investment holdings, and a recording studio. That is believed to be a very small portion of her overall wealth, which reportedly includes stakes in energy and telecommunications ventures as well. “Uzbek media,” said the newspaper, “which are tightly state-controlled, have praised Ms. Karimova for charity works, dubbing her the Princess of Uzbeks.” It looks like GlobalOptions is Princess Gulnara’s escort to the Washington Ball.
••••••
Gulnara and Daddy's Death Squads

“ ... She [Gulnara Karimova] owns nothing directly, but everyone knows who is in control.” All this is possible thanks to “daddy” and the disappearance of competitors–the effectiveness of the SNB, the Uzbek secret services, is sadly well known. ... "

July 8, 2008

Washington Babylon
By Ken Silverstein
www.harpers.org

Northern Italy’s leading daily, La Stampa of Turin, reports on the “Unavoidable Rise of the Beautiful Gulnara,” on Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan’s autocrat-for-life Islam Karimov. When daddy rules with an iron hand, and you’re the heir apparent, the sky is truly the limit.

Her wishes are orders. Everything she wants, she gets… She graduated from Harvard and took a doctorate in political science from the University of Tashkent, she holds a karate black belt and is a poet, singer, jewelry designer, goes wild over luxury goods, haute couture, and gemstones, she directs the Center for Political Studies of Uzbekistan, and is the founding president of a charitable foundation, founding president of the Forum of Uzbek Culture and Art and Advisor-Minister Plenipotentiary in Uzbekistan’s embassy in Russia, and finally—but most significantly—she is a voracious and ruthless business woman.

Today, according to some analysts, the woman known simply as ‘the daughter’ owns half the country. In 2001, she divorced her first husband, an American of Afghan-Uzbek origin, and set out to build her own empire. Hotels, restaurants, night clubs, a television chain (TV Markaz), a radio station (Earth), a magazine (Bella Terra), a mobile phone company … nothing resists her bulimic impulses …People talk about the “Gulnarization” of Uzbekistani industry.

“She owns nothing directly, but everyone knows who is in control.” All this is possible thanks to “daddy” and the disappearance of competitors–the effectiveness of the SNB, the Uzbek secret services, is sadly well known.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003207
•••••••
Karimova's Think-Tank

" ... Karimova also supervises the Center [for] Political Studies, a think-tank on internal and external policy of Uzbekistan, regional security, economy and international development. It has close partnership ties with a number of foreign research centers. ... "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulnora_Karimova
•••••••
Karimova's Think-Tank and USAID Sponsor a Security Conference

May 26, 2008

From: "CAPS' analyst participates in an international conference in Uzbekistan":

The Foundation for Regional Policy of Uzbekistan (FRP) and the Center for Political Studies (CPS), Uzbekistan with support from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), USAID and Institute for New Democracies (IND) organized the international conference “Problems of ensuring security and sustainable development in Central Asia” in Tashkent, Uzbekistan ...

http://www.caps.af/detail.asp?Lang=e&Cat=1&ContID=4702
•••••••
Center for Political Studies – caprice of President’s daughter or a real think-tank?
Posted by Mansurhon
March 28, 2008

When Center for Political Studies was founded by Alisher Fayzullaev, one of the first diplomats who represented our country in UK in mid-90th he couldn’t imagine that his brainchild would generate Gulnara Karimova’s interest in political studies in future.

“He gathered 20-25 most active students of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy and called those who were interested to make proposals on topics and fields for academic researches. Also he conducted specialized courses on Leadership, meetings with outstanding academicians, politicians both local and foreign. It hadn’t had a big interest of any governmental structures and functionalized as an NGO.” – says one of the students participated in that meeting.

Gulnara Karimova, who wasn’t well-known enough as a public figure and her (or her father’s) PR-agents decided to start the campaign of creating new image of President’s elder daughter with appropriation of CPS.

The first wise thing Gulnara Karimova did was blocking the passageway from the first floor to the second in one of the blocks of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy with security aims in order to let her have free safe (from whom and what?) way to her new office. While the passageway for student which used to pass by this way was transferred close to the Rector’s office. It became looking like courtyard without any hint to the Rector’s presence on the reverse side of the wall.

And no one expressed indignation because of impertinent appropriation of the CPS, even Alisher Fayzullaev. He had to be silent because he knew who is the new owner of the Center.

Ambitious Director held pompous opening of the Center as if it was opened by her and the Center didn’t exist before the presentation. But after a little period of time she put her deputy instead of herself and used to visit “her” center once a week, or more rare.

Nowadays there is no conference on political issues when CPS isn’t announced as a partner-organizer: starting from Gaz&Oil-Uzbekistan Conference which is held annually and ending with negotiations on governmental level.

After becoming popular as a pop-star everybody found in Googoosha a new side of Gulnara Karimova. After she was assigned with Islam Karimov’s special decree to a new position of deputy minister on cultural affairs within Ministry of foreign affairs, everybody found her a good political leader. All these reincarnations were supposed to be understood by people of Uzbekistan as a presentation of a new potential political leader of Uzbekistan and heiress of Presidential throne of Islam Karimov. ...

So, what is CPS looking for in the future: to be recognized as a real think-tank or stay as another [un]successful experiment of President’s PR-agents?

http://uzbekistan.neweurasia.net/2008/03/28/center-for-political-studies-–-caprice-of-president’s-daughter-or-a-real-think-tank/

Man Sentenced in 9/11 Fraud Case

2008-11-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

By Debra Friedman
The Advocate
11/11/2008

A former Greenwich man who credited himself and his golden retriever Bear with recovering bodies at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001, has been sentenced to eight months in federal prison after his conviction for fraudulently obtaining thousands of dollars in government relief funds, according to court records.

Shields pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally obtaining government money from two agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and American Red Cross, according to documents on file in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

He was arrested, along with his sister, Patricia Shields, in March 2007 and initially pleaded not guilty, records show. In March 2008, Scott Shields changed his plea to guilty, according to court records.

"Mr. Shields has pleaded guilty to defrauding the American Red Cross and FEMA, in an attempt to exploit programs that were providing financial assistance to people affected by one of this country's greatest tragedies," read the sentencing opinion handed down by District Judge Robert Sweet on Oct. 14.

The sentence opinion said that Shields had a previous conviction for bank fraud 18 years ago involving a "significant sum."

After his release from prison, Shields will enter into three years of supervised release. He also was ordered pay back $49,439 to the government. His sister received an identical sentence.

According to court records, Scott and Patricia Shields applied for mortgage and rental assistance from FEMA after Sept. 11, 2001, claiming they lived in Manhattan at the time. However, government records show they were living and working in Greenwich and not eligible for FEMA assistance.

The aid only was meant for people who lived near the World Trade Center, those who had been injured by the events and businesses that were damaged.

Scott and Patricia Shields were evicted from their rental unit in Greenwich in October 2001 for nonpayment of rent, court documents show.

While they did move to lower Manhattan after their eviction, they were not eligible for the funds they received and did not use them to pay rent owned on their city apartment, according to court records.

They were evicted for nonpayment of rent at the Manhattan location, according to court records.

Scott Shields' sentencing comes after six years of making claims about his search and rescue exploits, which were detailed in a book titled "Bear: Heart of a Hero," credited to Captain Scott Shields and co-author Nancy West.

The book was pulled from shelves in 2006, according to a spokesman from the publisher, Hero Dog Publications, after the firm realized Shields was not a captain.

Shields' main claim was that he and his dog Bear aided in the rescue of victims at ground zero. Roy Gross, chief of the Department at the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whose organization maintained logs of every dog who assisted in the rescue effort, said Shields and Bear were never documented in its records.

"He was a fraud, unfortunately," Gross said.

Shields claimed in a Greenwich Time article in 2001 that he was a marine safety specialist who consulted with the New York City parks department.

Phil Abramson, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, said the department was aware of Shields' claim, but that it was not true.

"Scott Shields was never employed by the parks department and he was never connected to the parks department," Abramson said.

Shields' Manhattan-based attorney, Joel Mark Stein, said he had no comment about the case.

Shields is scheduled to being serving his term on Wednesday, according to the clerk's office for the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York.

- Staff Writer Debra Friedman can be reached at debra.friedman@scni.com or 625-4439.

"Khashoggi Suspected of Financing 9/11 [Plotline]"

2008-11-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

" ... El-Assir is suspected of arming Hezbollah and associations with al-Qaida and has been trading weapons for many years, especially in the Middle East and Africa. El-Assir has allegedly close connections with the man suspected of financing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Adnan Khashoggi, a close friend of Osama bin Laden. ... "

Poland’s shipyards, the Kuwaiti prince and the international arms dealer
www.polskieradio.pl
10/30/2008

Poland’s ministry of treasury ignored an offer from a member of Kuwait’s ruling family, Mubarak al Jaber al Sabah, to buy Polish shipyards via the mediation of an international weapon dealer.

The Kuwaiti prince attempted to invest in the shipyards a year ago. The potential investor was to be SPF Communication Team Fortis Bank, behind which was Prince Mubarak al Jaber al Sabah, the oldest son of the former emir of Kuwait. A mediator in the transaction, however, was to be an international weapon dealer Abdul Rahman el-Assir from Lebanon, who was conducting the prince’s business.

The ministry of treasury confirmed that it received the offer form Kuwait, but ignored it, even though it was positively evaluated. “Kuwait wanted to modernise its fleet by renovating old and buying new ships,” explained one of the high officials of the ministry in Rzeczpospolita today. “It would mean large commissions for the shipyards”.

Still, the Polish officials refused to negotiate with the controversial mediator el-Assir. “We do not conduct negotiations with mediators. The more so if they have very controversial connections and make suspicious deals,” a representative of the ministry explained.

El-Assir is suspected of arming Hezbollah and associations with al-Qaida and has been trading weapons for many years, especially in the Middle East and Africa. El-Assir has allegedly close connections with the man suspected of financing the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Adnan Khashoggi, a close friend of Osama bin Laden.

Poland‘s shipyards are currently in danger of bankruptcy as the EU ponders the viability of new privatisation plans submitted by the government. (jm)

http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/business/?id=94742

The War on Our Civil Liberties is no Quagmire: Sensenbrenner Says "Real ID Would Have Prevented 9/11 Terrorists From Boarding Planes"

2008-11-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
www.cnsnews.com
November 04, 2008

(CNSNews.com) – Panelists with the Stop Real ID Coalition are calling for repeal of the Real ID Act of 2005, which they said violates states’ rights and the U.S. Constitution and creates a national identification card that gives the government the ability to monitor citizens and invade their privacy.

But Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) [who defeated Independent challenger Robert Raymond on November fourth] helped write the bill with the House Judiciary Committee, said if the law had been in place before Sept. 11, 2001, the 19 terrorists could not have boarded the planes that they crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“We use driver’s licenses as identification documents, because there is no national identity card, and I would submit that we would have a greater push for a national ID card in the Congress if we didn’t have Real ID,” Sensenbrenner told CNSNews.com.

“(Real ID) just firms up the state driver’s licenses as a way to prevent a loophole in the system that 19 terrorists were able to exploit to pull off the biggest domestic tragedy in the history of our country.”

He also said the Real ID Act is based on the recommendations of the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission.

“The reason this is necessary is that the 9/11 Commission found that the 19 hijackers had valid driver’s licenses issued by five states and they all had multiple driver’s licenses,” Sensenbrenner said.

“There are two principles involved in Real ID. One is: one person, one license; and the other is: no driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants or people who are not legally present in the United States,” he said.

Panelists at the press conference were billed as “diverse” and “bipartisan” and included representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, American Center for Law and Justice, American Policy Center, Liberty Coalition, and Republican state Reps. Sam Rohrer of Pennsylvania and Charles Key of Oklahoma.

They presented a long list of reasons why they opposed the legislation, including the claim that Real ID would force states to comply with the law, which Key said inspired him to draw up his own state amendment to challenge it.

“Key’s amendment draws a line in the sand and tells the government, you must cease and desist from threatening the sovereignty of the states,” said Mark Lerner, co-founder of the Stop Real ID Coalition.

Sensenbrenner, however, said that Real ID does not force states to comply.

The Real ID is consistent with federalism, because it is voluntary,” Sensenbrenner said. “However, if the state chooses not to comply with Real ID, then their citizens have to get some type of federally accepted ID for federal purposes,” including for boarding aircraft.

The law mandates that the federal government cannot accept a state driver’s license for “any official purpose” unless it meets the minimum requirements of Real ID – those rules require, among other things, state entities that issue driver’s licenses to confirm the authenticity of documents needed to get a license.

Panelists also claimed that the Real ID law would create a central database with “biometric” information that the government and the agencies that operate it can share at will, even with the governments of other countries.

“That is absolutely false,” Sensenbrenner said. “Real ID does not create a new database. What Real ID does is it requires states to check applicants against databases that are already maintained by the other states.

“And this is the same system that has been used for almost 20 years to check out whether someone who applies for a commercial driver’s license has a valid commercial driver’s license issued by another state,” he added.

Some panelists said they opposed the Real ID Act, because it infringes on people’s privacy by requiring driver’s licenses to include personal information, such as political or religious affiliation.

But according to the law, the information required only includes an individual’s full legal name, date of birth, gender, driver’s license number, a digital photo, address of principle residence, and the individual’s signature. The law does call for “physical security features” and “common machine-readable technology” to make checking data between states possible.

“That’s the kind of information that has been on people’s driver’s licenses for as long as I can remember,” Sensenbrenner said, adding that making state driver’s licenses compatible is necessary to make the system work. “There has to be some kind of uniformity involved so that the databases match up.”

But panelists painted a picture of a much more sinister system that puts private information about U.S. citizens in the hands of corporations, or what Rohrer described as “big business entities.”

“That’s a joke,” Sensenbrenner said. “The 9/11 Commission was not in the pocket of corporations. Real ID came out of a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, purely and simply. And the 9/11 Commission said implicitly that false identification documents are as important to terrorists as explosives.”

In fact, he added, Mohammed Atta, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, could have been thwarted from carrying out his plans if the Real ID Act was in place. The law says temporary licenses should be issued to people who are only in the country temporarily, including the kind of student visa Atta carried.

“The reason he was able to use his Florida driver’s license to get on the plane is that he got a six-year driver’s license for a six-month visa,” Sensenbrenner said.

The coalition said that nearly half the states have spoken out against the Real ID Act of 2005 and some, including Oklahoma, have said they will not comply.

Although the May 2008 deadline for states to sign on has passed, the Department of Homeland Security reports that states that request an extension will have until Dec. 31, 2009 to meet federal requirements for state driver's licenses. Some states could qualify for an extension date of May 10, 2011

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=38682

Informant in Fort Dix Case Paid Nearly $240,000

2008-11-01T14:05:00.001-07:00

By GEOFF MULVIHILL/Associated Press via www.newsday.com
October 27, 2008

CAMDEN, N.J. - Being an informant for the FBI in the Fort Dix terror investigation has paid well, a witness explained to jurors Monday.

John Stermel, an investigator assigned to an FBI counterterrorism task force, spent Monday on the stand detailing the role of informant Mahmoud Omar, who wore a wire for 16 months and recorded 200 conversations in the investigation of five men accused of planning to shoot soldiers at the Army training base.

The 39-year-old Omar was expected to testify beginning Tuesday. Lawyers expect that he will be on the witness stand for several days.

Defense lawyers say it was Omar who tried to plot an attack, not their clients _ all foreign-born Muslims in their 20s who are all charged with conspiracy to kill military personnel and attempted murder. The men, who lived for years in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, were arrested in May 2007.

They have been in federal custody since their arrest.

No attack happened.

For his help, authorities will recommend that immigration officials, who once were considering deporting Omar, offer him legal resident status _ perhaps even citizenship, Stermel testified.

By year's end, Omar will have received nearly $240,000 for his help: $185,000 in direct payments plus reimbursement for $25,000 in expenses _ including $2,000 to repair his car _ and nearly $29,000 in rent.

Weekly payments of $1,500 began in August 2006, the month Omar went with one of the defendants, Mohamad Shnewer, to check out Fort Dix and other military installations in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, Stermel said.

The government also has paid the former used car salesman's $1,400-a-month rent since someone working for a defense lawyer in the case tracked him down more than a year ago, Stermel said. He needed to be relocated then for security reasons, the investigator said.

Jurors also heard about Omar's past on Monday, though some details remain sketchy. The Egyptian-born man told investigators that he sneaked into the United States through Mexico in 1995, but told a probation office that it was actually three years earlier.

He pleaded guilty in 2001 to a bank fraud charge and was under investigation in January 2005 in a similar case, Stermel said.

It was then he agreed to become a federal informant in return for not having charges brought. But apparently, he had second thoughts. Stermel said that later the same day, he was picked up at a border crossing between Detroit and Canada.

He agreed to return to the Philadelphia area and help authorities, who say his work has resulted in three criminal convictions and other active investigations.

Stermel said it was serendipity that landed Omar on the Fort Dix case in March 2006.

In January 2006, the FBI had obtained a video of a group of men firing weapons and shouting "Allah akbar," or "God is great," and was trying to decide whether they were a threat, Stermel said.

He said Omar didn't know about the video. But in March 2006, Omar told his handlers that he shopped at a small grocery store in Pennsauken, where he got to know Shnewer, who was one of the people on the video. Omar told authorities that Shnewer was "tight with the religion," or a Muslim extremist.

Anticipating defense attacks on Omar's credibility, a prosecutor asked Stermel about Omar's missteps. Among them: He tested positive for marijuana once while on probation, admitted selling a Social Security number and used to a fake address to try to get a Virginia driver's license.

Shnewer's lawyer, Rocco Cipparone, began his cross-examination of Stermel by asking if he agreed or disagreed with this statement: "If it were not for Mr. Omar's cooperation in this investigation, there would not be a case against Mr. Shnewer."

"I can't say that," replied Stermel, who remained unflappable through hours of grilling by defense lawyers. "We would have investigated it until its logical conclusion with or without an informant."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--fortdixplot1027oct27,0,6073222.story

Obit.: Keyboardist Merl Sauders was Booked on Flight 93, but Rescheduled to Watch a Football Game

2008-10-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Star keyboardist Merl Saunders dies
www.sfgate.com
Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
October 25, 2008

(10-24) 16:44 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Keyboardist Merl Saunders, the gentle lion of the San Francisco music scene best known as co-captain of guitarist Jerry Garcia's solo excursions outside the Grateful Dead, died Friday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center after fighting infections.

The 74-year-old musician suffered a debilitating stroke 6 1/2 years ago and, although he lost the ability to speak, he made numerous sentimental guest appearances at shows over those years playing with one hand.

"I never met anybody so happy who had a stroke," said Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. "In the end, the only thing that lit him up was the music. Sometimes he'd cry, but I've never seen anybody so happy in the realm of music."

The native San Franciscan attended Polytechnic High School with singer Johnny Mathis.

After serving in the Army from 1953 to 1957, he played jazz organ on the same circuit as Jimmy Smith and Brother Jack McDuff. He worked as musical director of the Billy Williams Revue and served in a similar capacity in Oscar Brown Jr.'s off-Broadway show "Big Time Buck White." He backed up Dinah Washington and jammed with Miles Davis. Mr. Saunders, who was rarely seen in public without his trademark aviator shades and black leather fisherman's cap, started playing with Garcia in 1971 at a small Fillmore Street nightclub called the Matrix, where the Grateful Dead guitarist liked to hold informal jam sessions on Dead nights off. Within months, the loose-knit band was playing to packed houses at small local clubs like the Keystone Korner in North Beach every weekend the Dead wasn't working. Members sometimes included former Creedence Clearwater rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty and former Journey rhythm guitarist George Tickner.

The Saunders-Garcia Band, as the group came to be called, backed Mr. Saunders on his 1971 solo album, "Heavy Turbulence," and recorded two albums for Berkeley's Fantasy Records.

"Merl was an ensemble guy, a groupist," said Hart, who played with Mr. Saunders in his early '80s solo group, High Noon. "He brought those sensibilities to the Garcia band. He let Jerry have his flights of fancy."

Mr. Saunders told The Chronicle in 1972 that playing with Garcia offered them both an opportunity to experiment and explore different forms of music. "We do it just for fun," he said.

With the addition of saxophonist Martin Fierro in 1974, the group transformed into the Legion of Mary and disbanded the following year. Mr. Saunders also played in Reconstruction with Garcia in 1979 and 1980. Garcia appeared on Mr. Saunders' 1990 solo album and video, "Blues From the Rainforest," a surprise hit on the New Age music charts.

After Garcia fell into a diabetic coma in 1986 and lost some of his basic motor skills, Mr. Saunders spent hours daily with the stricken guitarist running scales, working him out on jazz standards such as "My Funny Valentine."

Mr. Saunders' music appeared on such soundtracks as "Fritz the Cat" and "Steelyard Blues." He worked on the TV series "Nash Bridges" and, as musical director of the 1985 TV series "The New Twilight Zone," inveigled the Grateful Dead into a new recording of the classic theme song.

He recorded numerous albums, toured constantly and earned a welcome spot in the post-Dead jam band scene. Mr. Saunders headlined the Haight Street Music Fair for 24 consecutive years.

After his stroke, Mr. Saunders' musician son, Tony Saunders, completed his final solo album, "Still Groovin'." The album featured duets with Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples. Huey Lewis stepped up with a lead vocal after Mr. Saunders was disabled.

In his first public appearance following the stroke, Mr. Saunders attended the September 2004 CD release party at the Great American Music Hall, and played a handful of notes on the keyboard.

Mr. Saunders cheated death twice before. He was booked to return to San Francisco on United Flight 93 out of Newark, N.J., on Sept. 11, 2001, but decided to take an earlier flight so he could get home in time to watch the 49ers on Monday Night Football. In 2002, he underwent surgery for cancer, only weeks before his stroke.

He is survived by his longtime companion, Deborah Hall; his sons, Tony of Martinez and Merl Saunders Jr. of Novato; daughter Susan Mora of Oakland; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at First AME Zion Church, 2159 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/25/BAGK13NQGB.DTL

Shake-Up at Scholars for 9-11 Truth & Justice Over Draft Bill Sent to Eight House Members

2008-10-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

www.prweb.com
Press Release for October 25, 2008

On October 18, 2008, an OpEdNews article titled, "8 House Members View Draft Bill on Independent Science/Tech Probe of WTC 1, 2, 7 Collapses," was published by four members of the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice (STJ911.org). The authors of the article and draft bill are not spokespersons for Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, and therefore are individually responsible for it. Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice does not endorse the draft bill due to the inclusion of numerous unscientific claims and misrepresentations, and condemns in the strongest of terms any associations between the organization and the claims presented by the authors of this bill. As stated at the front page of their website, Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice "take[s care to present the strongest, most credible research available..."

Berkeley, CA (PRWEB) October 25, 2008 -- On October 18, 2008, an OpEdNews article titled, "8 House Members View Draft Bill on Independent Science/Tech Probe of WTC 1, 2, 7 Collapses," was published by four members of the group Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice (STJ911.org). The authors of the article and draft bill are not spokespersons for Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, and therefore are individually responsible for it.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice does not endorse the draft bill due to the inclusion of numerous unscientific claims and misrepresentations, and condemns in the strongest of terms any associations between the organization and the claims presented by the authors of this bill. As stated at the front page of their website, Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice "take[s care to present the strongest, most credible research available..."

While in agreement with the authors of this bill that a new investigation into the tragic events of September 11, 2001 is warranted, representatives of the Scholars group note that the draft bill and article lack basic scientific rigor and credibility, with statements such as, "the entire WTC [complex was destroyed by directed energy weaponry (DEW)," and the ideas that "nuclear materials, missiles or DEW weapons were used." The sister publication of the Scholars group, The Journal of 9/11 Studies www.JournalOf911Studies.com, has numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles refuting such claims.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice believes that a much better bill can be crafted using the strong analysis in articles by its members, several of which are recently published in scientific journals, including The Open Civil Engineering Journal, The Environmentalist, and the Journal of Engineering Mechanics.

Kevin Ryan, a former Underwriters Laboratories (UL) manager who was fired in 2004 for publicly questioning the NIST report, and a committee member of the Scholars' group, says the bill is harmful to the cause of exposing the truth. "Basically," he said, "asking Congress to investigate many poorly defined, and highly implausible hypotheses minimizes the chances that Congress would be willing or able to investigate the actual evidence for the demolition of three WTC buildings." In fact, the bill also omits any mention of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, which provided hundreds of questions left unanswered by the 9/11 Commission.

Scholars' member Dr. Steven E. Jones, a Professor of Physics, also notes that statements attributed to him in the bill are "errors . . . misrepresenting my published statements." Dr. Jones goes on to say, "It is unacceptable to misrepresent my views, as is done in this document by Ellis et al., and to ignore my published technical papers in established journals."

Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice is a non-partisan organization of over 500 independent researchers analyzing the September 11, 2001 attacks with a strong emphasis on the scientific method.

For information: http://www.stj911.com or
Contact: stj911 @ gmail.com
Phone: 510-769-5109

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1518304.htm

Thomas Kean & UnitedHealth Backdating

2008-10-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

1) Thomas Kean is a director at UnitedHealth Group Inc.

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/invest/2001/ar2001_leaders_p58.pdf#search=%22thomas%20kean%20and%20unitedhealth%22

Thomas H. Kean
President
Drew University
Compensation and Human
Resources Committee
•••••••
2) Thomas kean covers up the company stock option backdating scandal:

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/8/11/195638/195

Backdating stock options: The plot thickens
by PsiFighter37 Fri Aug 11th, 2006 at 07:56:38 PM EST

... The board of UnitedHealth Group Inc. met on May 1 to deal with questions about unusually well-timed stock-option grants to top executives such as Chief Executive William McGuire. The gathering heard a briefing from a lawyer who was running UnitedHealth's internal probe of how the options were dated.

One director whose recollections would be important to the investigation was THOMAS H. KEAN, a former New Jersey governor who had served on the compensation committee that approved options grants.

The same day as the board meeting, some UnitedHealth directors and executives were supporting a campaign by Mr. Kean's son for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey. Some of them attended a fund-raiser for Tom Kean Jr. that day, in UnitedHealth's home state of Minnesota. It isn't clear whether Dr. McGuire and his wife attended, but each donated $2,000 to the cause. So did Richard T. Burke, who sits on a special board committee that is overseeing the options investigation. All told, UnitedHealth-affiliated donors have contributed $25,000 to the campaign.

[...]

When the donations to the Kean Senate campaign were described to former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, he said they struck him as "ill-advised and strange" and something that could be seen as an attempt to influence a witness because of the senior Mr. Kean's role on the compensation committee. A spokeswoman for the Kean campaign said the fund raising came at a "UnitedHealth breakfast" hosted by Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, and there was absolutely no effort to curry favor with the elder Mr. Kean. The former New Jersey governor didn't return calls seeking comment.

Kerry CIA Foe's Dossier Spans Films, 9/11 Hearing

2008-10-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

By John C. Drake
Boston Globe
October 24, 2008

Republican Jeff Beatty, a former CIA agent, faults the US political response to national security challenges. (MARK WILSON/GLOBE STAFF)

Republican Jeff Beatty says he has been compared to Jack Bauer of Fox TV's "24," the antiterrorism agent who rushes headlong across the small screen to foil evil networks intent on destroying America.

Now, after a career providing antiterrorism advice to governments and Hollywood, the Army veteran and former CIA agent has embarked on the ultimate long-shot mission: toppling US Senator John F. Kerry.

Beatty is a Cape Cod resident with no experience in public office who was trounced by US Representative William D. Delahunt in a House campaign in 2006. This year, he won the state's GOP nomination for the US Senate race by default. The party favorite, Jim Ogonowski, did not collect enough signatures to get on the ballot.

So Massachusetts residents this fall find the unproven Beatty stumping around the state and airing a smattering of television spots that try to blame Kerry, who is seeking his fifth term, for the nation's economic crisis.

Beatty also launched an aggressive assault on Kerry on Monday night in a live NECN debate, accusing the senator of playing presidential politics when he voted to authorize the Iraq war in 2002. Beatty is hoping he can eat into the 32-point advantage Kerry had in a recent Rasmussen poll.

"I still think we can win this race, because we still have the opportunity to get the word out to people," Beatty said last week during a campaign swing through his hometown of Harwich.

Beatty said he decided to run for office because he grew tired of issuing warnings about vulnerabilities in the nation's security systems that went unheeded.

"I'm frustrated about seeing and understanding these national security challenges and seeing politicians who don't get it," Beatty said. "We need people in Washington who don't just throw money at a problem."

Beatty pitches himself to voters as a middle-class veteran and businessman. An easygoing, divorced man with a soft spot for dogs, the 56-year-old lives in the 1,200-square-foot Cape Cod house that his parents retired to in 1973. The ranch-style house sits just off the seventh green of a public Harwich golf course where a tree is planted in memory of his adoptive father, Sergeant Raymond Beatty, a World War II veteran who died of a heart attack on the course's sixth green.

"You'll have to dynamite me out of this house," Jeff Beatty said.

Beatty was an ROTC member at Rutgers and joined the Army after graduating with a sociology degree in 1974. He was awarded a Purple Heart after taking part in the 1983 rescue of American medical students taken hostage in Grenada, a Delta Force operation in which the Black Hawk helicopter he was riding in was shot down. In the run-up to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he served as a special adviser to the FBI's hostage rescue team. And for seven years until 1992, he conducted counterterrorism training and operations as a CIA agent based in the Middle East and Europe.

In 1992, he formed Total Security Services International, which conducted security training and provided consulting services to government agencies, operators of National Football League stadiums, and even school bus drivers.

"When I got out [of the CIA], I was a little frustrated that I didn't think we were as serious about preventing terrorism as we ought to be, so I decided that I would go form my own business and try to consult [for] people, people who we thought were likely targets," Beatty said.

The company also sold a few products, including blast-proof trash cans at a cost of about $1,600 apiece. The MBTA, which had retained Beatty as a consultant, bought about 250 of the trash cans in late 2001, a no-bid sale Kerry's campaign has lambasted as a waste of taxpayer money. Beatty defends the product as a fairly priced, essential tool for subway systems, saying trash cans are a well-established hiding place for bombs.

As a consultant, he says, he issued dire warnings about some of the country's worst terrorist attacks. As an adviser to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Beatty said, he warned organizers that the openness of Centennial Olympic Park left them vulnerable to a package-bomb attack that could injure dozens. It did happen, on July 27, 1996. And before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Beatty warned that a terrorist attack was likely, saying in a January 2000 Boston Herald op-ed: "When the terrorist improves his logistics to be as effective as the drug smuggler, more death will come across our borders."

His media savvy and antiterrorism expertise landed him on CNN the afternoon of 9/11 and increased demand among government agencies for his consulting work. In October 2001, he testified at a US Senate hearing on protecting mass transit systems from terrorist attacks, winning public praise from Senator Joe Biden, now the Democratic nominee for vice president.

Beatty said he also has been sought out by Hollywood. He was tapped to consult on "The Siege," a 1998 film starring Denzel Washington and Annette Bening about a string of terrorist attacks in New York City, getting his name in the film credits. He was also an adviser for Martin Lawrence's "Big Momma's House," a 2000 action comedy about an undercover FBI agent.

Beatty's Hollywood work, he said, led to an October 2001 meeting in California in which directors like Oliver Stone and Dick Wolf dreamed up nightmare terrorism scenarios for the government to plan for at an Army-funded research center.

Despite a military and professional career defined by national security issues, Beatty is also trying to speak to voters' economic worries by criticizing Kerry's personal wealth. A critic of the federal bailout package, he has hit the Kerry family's financial investments in insurance giant AIG, which has received its own bailout. Kerry said a firm handling his wife's finances once placed some of her assets in AIG stock but that the family no longer has a stake in the troubled insurance giant.

Beatty generally holds close to traditional Republican positions on domestic issues: He opposes abortion, supports gun rights protection, backs giving parents school choice through vouchers, and wants to reduce income taxes. He also supports Question 1 on the November ballot in Massachusetts, which would repeal the state income tax.

"I want to see everybody get a tax cut," he said, suggesting he could find significant cost savings in the federal government's Homeland Security budget to help pay for tax reductions. "We've got to do the [Barack] Obama tax cuts and do the Bush tax cuts."

But his campaign - directed by a small coterie of paid advisers and Cape Cod-area volunteers often working out of the candidate's home - is largely on its own, with the cash-strapped party offering only token support.

Beatty had $58,000 in his campaign account this week, compared with Kerry's $5.3 million, the Associated Press reported yesterday. He will get another shot at Kerry in a debate on Oct. 27, on WTKK-FM.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/10/24/kerry_foes_dossier_spans_films_911_hearing/?page=2

Kean and Hamilton Invited to Participate in “a Real 9/11 Commission/Investigation"

2008-10-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

By Paul J. Landis
http://arkansas.indymedia.org/newswire/display/22725/index.php
14 Oct 2008

A May 2006 Zogby U.S. poll found that 42% of adults polled believe the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence" that contradicts the official explanation of the attacks. 9/11 Commission chairs Kean and Hamilton were upset with their own commission.

The original press release below has been updated to be consistent with the new “A Real 9/11 Commission Will Help Free America Now! - ISBN: 097604-0825, April 2007, our new web site www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com and the just released “We the people – We the Media Tribune Gazette, www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/tg.htm

Tuckahoe, NY (PRWEB) October 19, 2006 -- As I announced updates to my April, 2005 “A Real 9/11 Commission,” “it seemed appropriate to suggest that Mr. Kean and Hamilton join the 42% of us who ‘believe the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission "concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence" that contradicts the official explanation of the attacks.’ See note 1. The April 2007 edition has significant new information and additional content covering a number of critical current issues, thus justifying the new title “A Real 9/11 Commission Will Help Free America Now!” (ISBN 0-9760408-24; US $14.75, UK, £ 9.85), now available.

In addition to the 42% above, the same May 2006 national Zogby respondents show that “More than 40 percent of Americans believe that the 9/11 Commission Report that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is a cover-up”.

Wow! And now, hold on to you hats. Based upon a review of their book “Without Precedent”, we have significant doubts being expressed by these two 9/11 commissioners. See note 2

With this perspective, a reminder that “Bush and Cheney asked then Senator Daschle to limit 9/11 Investigations”. See note 3

Join us Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton for “A Real 9/11 Investigation”.

“A Real 9/11 Commission”, see note 4, or if you like, a new, trustworthy 9/11 commission, what would it do differently?

Participants in “A Real 9/11 Commission” are invited to review evidence, before it gets filtered by Bush and Cheney or hidden behind the “New Iron Curtain Around the U.S.A., a Media Iron Curtain”, see note 5. They are invited to see documentaries of footage that was shown on live TV the morning of 9/11/2001. Then these participants are given the opportunity to “Render their Decision”, to participate and be a part of the tabulated results. See note 6.

How would or could, Don Rumsfeld prove to the American people that the 757 he says hit the Pentagon really did? If asked, participants in “A Real 9/11 Commission” would say, “he can’t!” Not only are there NO pictures showing a 60 to 80 ton 757 on the lawn of the Pentagon, we would play for Don the 9/11/2001 AM CNN Live report on “Loose Change 2nd Edition”, www.loosechange911.com, “there is no evidence that a 757 has hit anywhere near the Pentagon!”.

There is also now a You-Tube video clip from a VHS tape made on September 11, 2001. It shows CCN and Jamie Mcintyre stating that “No 757 hit the Pentagon!” see note 4

We would also remind Don that the famous collapsed Pentagon wall section, if that is where he tells us the plane is; that section collapsed twenty minutes after the explosion. Did the 757 just wait around for a hole to climb into?

So Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, have you any comments?

The New York City Twin Towers, where 3,000 people lost their lives, we were told ‘collapsed’ because of the planes that hit them. If we asked Don or Dick Cheney to prove this, what could they use? There is a NTST report that supports this claim. But does the evidence support this report?

Briefly: No. We now know that molten steel, 3,000 degrees, was found in the sub-basements of both Towers (and WTC 7) four and five weeks after their collapse. Jet fuel burns at maximum at about 1,400 degrees. We can only suggest in the space available here, that the reader look at the Special Report I at www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/areal911commission.htm and in “A Real 9/11 Commission Will Help Free America Now” on pages 42 to 47.

You will see photographs of the buildings ‘collapse’ and can compare these pictures with live TV statements by TV news reporters: “this looks as though the buildings are being demolished”. We have pictures of multi-ton steel columns projected horizontally into near-by buildings and multi-ton steel structures thrown 600 feet or two football fields away from the ‘collapse’. Is this how you would envision the ‘collapse’ of these massive structures?

There are photographs of the Towers ‘collapse’ with the sounds of the ‘demolition charges’. Would that help Don and Dick? Obviously not, “911 Eyewitness”, www.911eyewitness.com by Mr. Ricard A. Siegel.

We might ask the commissions: How is it that the collapse of these structures produced only pulverized debris and steel beams conveniently cut into sections that fit on the backs of the trucks used to haul them away. And if the Towers ‘collapsed’, where did the 2,600 pollutants come from that have thus far claimed the lives of dozens of NYC Ground Zero First Responders and have caused 70,000 illnesses?

For the assertion that Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, we will just suggest you see statements by coroners on the scene in Pennsylvania saying “there was no blood or evidence of human remains at the site”, Loose Change 2nd Edition, www.loosechange911.com.

So Don and Dick appear to have no EVIDENCE to justify the statements they made. How about Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton, perhaps they want to explain their lapse of not considering the above EVIDENCE or any EVIDENCE that the 42% of poll respondents say was ignored?

EVIDENCE shows us that “We the People” were not given accurate accounts of the events of 9/11. We were mislead by the same people who recently made us ‘Torturers’, who are using in Iraq, their own Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD), the radioactive weapon called Depleted Uranium. This WMD is killing OUR soldiers and causing their wives to give birth to deformed babies. We were mislead by the same people who have their own Non-U.S. Constitution – the “Project for the New American Century” (PNAC), see note 7. These people are not Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda. They are Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their friends who support the Non-U.S. Constitution the “Project for the New American Century”. It is PNAC that provides their motivation for the attacks of 9/11/2001.

Please, see also, the just completed “We the People – We the Media Tribune Gazette” at

www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/tg.htm,with significant 9/11 evidence and supporting information.

Note 1: Opinion split over 9/11 report by: Keith Phucas, Times Herald Staff, 05/28/2006
www.timesherald.com/site/news.cfm

Note 2: Book: “Without Precedent" - Sept. 11 Panel Doubted Officials
By HOPE YEN The Associated Press August 4, 2006
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401026.html

Note 3: Bush - and Cheney - ask Daschle to limit 9-11 investigations!!
www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/limit.htm

Note 4: “A Real 9.11 Commission”
www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/areal911commission.htm
And www.youtube.com/paullandis, the first clip, also available at
The above web site

Note 5: “A New Iron Curtain Around the U.S.A. - A Media Iron Curtain”
www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/corporate_control.htm

Note 6: “A Real 9/11Commission” Render your Decision
www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/areal911commission.htm

Note 7: The Constitution of Bush and Cheney is not the Constitution of the United States. Major articles about their Non-U.S. Constitution, the “Project for the New American Century” (PNAC) www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/pnac1.htm

Also: “We the people – We the Media," Tribune Gazette, www.wethepeoplewethemedia.com/tg.htm

Review: "Blocking 'The Path to 9/11': The Anatomy of a Smear"

2008-10-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

By BRIAN LOWRY
Variety
Oct. 10, 2008

A Citizens United Prods. presentation. Produced by David N. Bossie, John Ziegler. Executive producer, Bossie. Directed, written by John Ziegler.

In "Blocking 'The Path to 9/11'" -- the latest in a string of conservative documentaries still irritated by Michael Moore's success -- former talkradio host John Ziegler seizes on a legitimate point worthy of perhaps a newsmagazine segment, then beats at it for a laborious 93 minutes. There's obvious passion behind the message, but all Ziegler ultimately proves is that ABC didn't stand behind a controversial miniseries and that playing the victim of big, bad media grows tedious quickly, whether the aggrieved party hails from the left or the right.

To recap, ABC commissioned an expensive miniseries ostensibly based on the 9/11 Commission's findings to mark the five-year anniversary, reconstructing the failures and missteps by both the Clinton and Bush administrations that preceded the terrorist attack. Writer-producer Cyrus Nowrasteh, however, expanded his research beyond the report to indict Clinton for missed opportunities to neutralize Osama bin Laden in the 1990s.

Subjected to withering criticism, ABC made minor edits in the film, seeking to quell the controversy, and eventually aired the project without advertising. The network has not yet released it on DVD.

Anybody who watched the entire miniseries knows both administrations are depicted as having dropped the ball in the run-up to Sept. 11. But because Nowrasteh went beyond the 9/11 Commission report to paint an unflattering portrait of the Clintons, he came under fire, and his political leanings were scrutinized, including his relationship with conservative talkshow host Rush Limbaugh. (An early screening in Washington, D.C., of the miniseries' first part, devoted to the Clinton years, also fed the impression that this was a one-sided right-wing hit job.)

Ziegler's goal, ultimately, is to expose the fact that the project was prejudged and its producers were unfairly tarred in the process and thrown under the bus by ABC and parent Disney. The only real news here, however, is that such a reaction could emanate from the left, inasmuch as conservatives regularly employ such tactics by criticizing what they haven't seen in regard to movies and television (Lionsgate's "W." comes to mind).

As the doc's hero, Nowrasteh also exhibits what can at best be construed as naivete about the potential response, given the polarized political climate and how raw the wounds from Sept. 11 remain, especially when he acknowledges ad-libbing portions of a crucial scene that presents Clinton officials -- in full cover-your-ass mode -- failing to act when they have bin Laden in their sights.

The filmmakers "took sort of the highlights of a number of different episodes and incidents and coordinated them into one, which is what you do when you write a docudrama," Nowrasteh explains. Yet it's precisely such bastardizations of history that outsiders (and that would include Washington) view with rightful suspicion, not trusting a mass audience to do the requisite homework to distill fact from fiction.

To the extent the Clintons and their associates overreacted to the miniseries, Ziegler makes his point. He overreaches, however, in his eagerness to provide Nowrasteh redemption, and conveniently overlooks a long history of docudramas evoking similar responses, while padding his witness list with right-wing attack dogs like David Horowitz and Mark Levin.

Disney and ABC refused comment for the project, which is also hardly a surprise. All this might be news to Ziegler, but "Blocking the Path to 9/11" is an awfully slow road to a pretty obvious conclusion.

Anthony Marinelli. Reviewed on DVD, Sherman Oaks, Calif., Oct. 2, 2008. Running time: 93 MIN.
Narrator: John Ziegler.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938666.html?categoryid=1263&cs=1

"Authorized" Biography of Warren Buffett Traces his Road to Wealth

2008-10-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

Caveat: Warren Buffett's avuncular centrist image is a lie. Buffett has a secret life. The Berkshire Hathaway billionaire is a covert operator like his Nazi father, Bircher/Senator Howard Buffett, and I've documented this fact time and again over the years. The Great Brainwashed admire his gross wealth and media-propelled seedcorn persona, but deep down Buffett himself doesn't care all that much about money - he lives in a $100,000 house. That's in Omaha, where he is involved in a CIA-operated national pedohile ring with ties to the RNC (see The Franklin Cover-Up, by John DeCamp). Buffett's alleged co-conspirator, Robert Wadman, the disgraced former police chief of Omaha, filed a frivolous lawsuit recently against my publisher in a failed attempt to silence me. Both are linked to the "suicides" of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, "conspiracy theorists" in the process of connecting the founder of AT&T Cable to the aforementioned pedophile network when they supposedly checked out. No, truth be told, Buffett doesn't care about money - like his father, he cares about covert operations and the nurturing of fascism in America. The rich "Uncle Warren" PR is a cover story for stock manipulation and worse. The media perform the same service for Dr. Kissinger, another fascist covert operator.

As long as these slimy predators are perceived as credible "experts," body bag futures will remain a lucrative investment.

- AC

Biography traces Warren Buffett's road to wealth
BY JOHN MARK EBERHART
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
OCTOBER 19, 2008

"The Snowball" is a fast-paced, precisely drawn profile of a man who, despite his high visibility in the financial world, isn't someone we've known much about.

We do now. And unless we've been hoodwinked, Warren Buffet lives here, warts and all, on the pages of this authorized biography by Alice Schroeder.

The young Buffett was a financial prodigy but also something of a juvenile delinquent, and the book makes it clear that the man who went on to make a fortune could have wound up in jail instead.

He peddled chewing gum door to door, sold soft drinks and was a newspaper delivery boy. Mostly, though, he saved money. And saved. And saved. By 14, he was filing federal tax returns on his income.

But in junior high, when a new Sears store opened in Omaha, Buffet and some buddies became shoplifters. "We'd just steal the place blind," Buffett recalls. "We'd steal stuff for which we had no use. We'd steal golf bags and golf clubs. I stole hundreds of golf balls."

Early on Buffett displayed an almost obsessive penchant for counting things; now he counted golf balls. But he found it hard to explain to his parents why his closet was overflowing with sacks of them.

Eventually, his father lowered the boom: Quit screwing around or I will forbid you from running your paper routes. Faced with losing his income, Buffet cleaned up his act and went on to make financial history.

Moving through Columbia Business School and a brief stint as a stockbroker, he acquired a textiles company. And part of the Washington Post. And the Buffalo Evening News. And a piece of ABC. And a portion of Coca-Cola.

Schroeder gets bogged down in details and that's the book's chief drawback: As good as her writing is, a good editor could have trimmed this book to a more manageable length.

http://www.freep.com/article/20081019/FEATURES05/810190317/1030/FEATURES