Neo-Nazis Charged over Obama 'Assassination Plot'

Daniel Cowart was one of two men who allegedly planned to shoot Barack Obama

By Hannah Strange
Times (UK)
October 28, 2008

Two white supremacist skinheads have been charged over a bizarre plot to kill 88 African Americans including presidential candidate Barack Obama on a state-to-state killing spree.

Described by the authorities as neo-Nazis, Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman allegedly planned a deadly rampage through southern states, beheading 14 of their victims in a brutal homage to skinhead culture before ultimately gunning down the man who hopes to become America’s first black president.

The pair planned to drive as fast as they could at the Democratic nominee while wearing white tuxedos and top hats, blasting shotguns at him from the windows, court documents showed.

Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee, and Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Arkansas, were charged with making threats against a presidential candidate, illegal possession of a sawn-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a gun dealer. Appearing in a Memphis court yesterday, the pair were refused bail and remanded in custody until a further hearing on Thursday.

The plot – the second against the Illinois senator to be uncovered - did not appear to be very advanced or sophisticated, court documents showed.

“We’re unsure of their ability or if they have the wherewithal to carry out any of their threats,” a source close to the investigation said.

The pair allegedly met on the internet one month ago, said an affidavit filed by Brian Weaks, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

After finding common ground in their shared “white power” and “skinhead” philosophy, they “began discussing a “killing spree”” the papers said.

“They further stated that their final act of violence would be to attempt to kill/assassinate presidential candidate Barack Obama,” Mr Weaks said. The young men said they expected to die in the attack, he added.

Cowart and Schlesselman had stolen guns from family members and planned to travel from state to state robbing and killing 88 people, 14 of whom would be decapitated. An unnamed high school with predominantly African-American students was to be the first target, agents said.

The two men had planned their first robbery for last Wednesday but left without breaking in and instead went shopping for ski masks, food and rope to use in later attempts. They were arrested later that day in Crockett County, western Tennessee. On the exterior of Cowart’s car were racially motivated words and symbols, including, on its hood, a swastika and the numbers “14” and “88”

Both numbers are symbolic in skinhead culture. The number 88 stands for “Heil Hitler” as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, special agent in charge James Cavanaugh said. 14 is a reference to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

Agents seized a rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested and said the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

The pair, who detailed the plot in interviews following their arrest, also told investigators that on the day of the aborted robbery they had shot at a glass window at Beech Grove Church of Christ, a congregation of about 60 black members in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Nelson Bond, the church secretary and treasurer, said no one was at the church when the shot was fired. Members found the bullet had shattered the glass in the church’s front door when they arrived for evening Bible study.

“We have been on this site for about 120 years, and we have never had a problem like this before,” said Mr Bond, 53 and a church member for 45 years.

Mr Cavanaugh said authorities took the assassination threats very seriously. “They seemed determined to do it,” he said. “Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South.”

Mr Obama’s campaign had no immediate comment on the alleged plot. The 47-year-old Democrat would become the first black president in US history if he defeats Republican John McCain in the November 4 election, some four decades since the end of segregation in the south.

Concerns about Mr Obama’s safety led the secret service to provide round-the-clock protection from early in his campaign. During the Democratic convention in Denver, three men were arrested in connection with a possible assassination plot and are currently awaiting trial on drugs and weapons charges, suggesting that the scheme was not particularly developed.

In Bells today, residents were shocked by the arrest of Cowart, who neighbours said seemed like a normal boy.

“If we had any skinheads in this county I wasn’t aware of it. We hardly know what they are,” said Sam Lewis, who lives across the street from Cowart's mother. Cowart, he said, grew up in the comfortable, well-maintained neighborhood and was not known as a troublemaker.

“His mother is a real sweet, nice girl, and this comes asa shock and a surprise,” Mr Lewis said.

No one answered the door at Cowart’s mother’s house, and no lights were on inside. Jasper Taylor, the City Attorney, said that Cowart had most recently been living with his grandparents in a southern, rural part of the county.

But In Helena-West Helena, on the Mississippi River in east Arkansas’ Delta, Schlesselman was described as a “troubled child" by a woman who works with his adoptive father, Mark Schlesselman.

Marty Riddell said she tried to offer Paul Schlesselman a pet lizard she couldn’t care for, but was warned by his family that “he would hurt it.

“They might have done that man a favour picking that kid up,” Ms Riddell said. “He was a troubled child already.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5029959.ece

Guatemala: Portillo Extradited

" ... Portillo became president for the Guatemalan Republican Front, the movement of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. ... In the 2007 elections, Ríos Montt, 82, won a seat for a four-year term in Congress, giving himself immunity and derailing a mounting case against him for genocide committed during his government. ... "




Former president faces corruption charges at home.
10/16/2008

Former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) was extradited from Mexico to his native Guatemala on Oct. 7 to face embezzlement charges.

Portillo complained upon his arrival that he was denied due process and that his case was turned into “nonsense.” He told a Guatemalan judge that he should not be tried for embezzlement because presidents “never make payments” and that is one of the requirements to be charged with the crime.

The Attorney General´s Office sought Portillo´s extradition in 2005 for allegedly illegally transferring US$16 million to the now defunct Presidential Guard. A year later, a Mexican judge ordered his extradition. The process took two years because of several injunctions sought by Portillo. Mexico´s Supreme Court knocked down Portillo's final attempt and again ordered his extradition to Guatemala.

Embezzlement in Guatemala carries a prison sentence of three to 10 years.

Judge Julio Xitumul freed Portillo on $130,000 bail after he declared the former president not to be a flight risk.

Portillo became president for the Guatemalan Republican Front, the movement of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-83), who unsuccessfully ran for president several times.

In the 2007 elections, Ríos Montt, 82, won a seat for a four-year term in Congress, giving himself immunity and derailing a mounting case against him for genocide committed during his government.

Portillo is the second former president in Latin America to be extradited in just over a year to face charges in his home country. On Sept. 22, 2007, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was extradited from Chile and is currently on trial for murder and corruption charges. — Latinamerica Press.

http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5731

Mind Control: A COURSE IN MIRACLES - A CIA MANIPULATION DEVICE?

www.hometown.aol.com

from Tal Levesque's Research Services
June 11, 2007

‘Creating a mythos’ to control people. Program of psychological warfare (PSYOP) or ‘Mind War’. ...

A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM or "the Course"), [originally published in 1975] is a book considered by its students to be their "spiritual path".

According to Dr. Helen Schucman and the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP), Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford "scribed" the book by means of a process coming from a divine source through a form of channeling which Schucman referred to as "inner dictation". Schucman described the divine source of her channeling as none other than the person of Jesus Christ.

Well.... Dr. William Thetford, headed the CIA's "Mind Control" MK-ULTRA SubProject 130: Personality Theory, while at Columbia University between 1971-1978.

Dr. Thetford’s Professional Bio, also available on the A Course in Miracles web site, makes reference to his involvement in a Personality Theory Research Project while Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University, but the information does not specifically cite this as a CIA MK- ULTRA SubProject.

ce399.typepad.com...

There is a connection between Unity Church, "A Course In Miracles", MK-ULTRA Artichoke Subproject 130 ; Scientology ; the UFO Myth and the Stanford Research Institute.

"A Course in Miracles" was a CIA manipulation device.

It was an experiment orchestrated by the CIA/US government.

Many were DAMAGED by it.

It was implemented Bill Thetford (an agent of the CIA) at Columbia University.

Search for info on Thetford and MKUltra (the government's well-documented mind-control program) to find more.

The agenda, according to those interested in this sphere of investigation, is to inflitrate and dilute the American left with New Age ideas and inward-focussed, anti-rational religious movements.
•••••••
The Making of 'A Course in Miracles'

Excerpt from : www.beliefnet.com...

William Thetford, also a Columbia professor, was a mysterious character, and "probably the most sinister person I ever met," the priest recalled. Only after he retired from teaching did Thetford's Columbia colleagues (who knew him best as a rare-books expert) discover that all during the years they worked with him, the man had been employed as an agent of the CIA--one who was, among other things, present at the first fission experiment conducted by physicists assigned to the Manhattan Project. Thetford also was "the most religious atheist I have ever known," Groeschel recalled, and conceived a great enthusiasm for A Course in Miracles, personally arranging for its publication. Schucman was embarrassed, Groeschel remembered, and confided to the priest her fear that the book would create a cult, which of course it did.

Groeschel initially read the Course as "religious poetry," but grew steadily more negative in his assessment of it as the years passed and sales of the three volumes passed into the millions of copies. From his point of view, A Course in Miracles served to undermine authentic Christianity more effectively than just about any other work he could recall, and while he was inclined to reject the position of St. John of the Cross that "these things are diabolical unless proven otherwise," doubts had crept in over the years. Most troubling to him by far was the "black hole of rage and depression that Schucman fell into during the last two years of her life," the priest explained. She had become frightening to be with, Groeschel recalled, spewing psychotic hatred not only for A Course in Miracles but "for all things spiritual." When he sat at Schucman's bedside as she lay dying, "she cursed, in the coarsest barroom language you could imagine, `that book, that goddamn book.' She said it was the worst thing that ever happened to her. I mean, she raised the hair on the back of my neck. It was truly terrible to witness."

(END OF QUOTE)

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread286946/pg1
•••••••
William Thetford

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

William N. Thetford, Ph.D. (April 23, 1923–July 4, 1988) was trained as a psychologist, and remained professionally active in this field throughout his life. Thetford worked in a collaborative venture with Dr. Helen Schucman in writing A Course In Miracles (ACIM), and also with its initial edits. [1] He died in 1988, aged 65, in Tiburon, California, after having made his involvement with the ACIM material and its study the most central focus of his life.

Early childhood

Thetford was born on April 23, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois to John R. and Mabel K. Thetford as the youngest of three children. At the time of his birth and early childhood, his parents were both regular members of the Christian Science Church. At the age of seven, the untimely death of his older sister caused his parents to disavow their affiliation with the Church of Christian Science. Afterwards, for the next few years, Thetford sampled various other Protestant denominations.

At the age of nine he contracted a severe case of scarlet fever, which led to rheumatic fever and a debilitating heart condition. These resulting health problems forced him to spend the next three years at home recuperating. During his forced recuperation period he took advantage of the many free hours, using the time to satisfy his voracious appetite for reading. Despite his absence from the classroom, he entered high school at the age of twelve.
[edit]University education

Following graduation from high school, he was awarded a four-year scholarship to DePauw University in Indiana where he graduated with majors in psychology and pre-medicine in 1944. During the course of his university studies, Thetford eventually settled on the idea of specializing in psychology, and in 1949 he received his Ph.D. in this field from the University of Chicago.

While he was a student during the early 1940s he served for a time as an administrative assistant for the Manhattan Project, the World War II atom bomb development project.[citation needed] The Metallurgical Laboratory where the first atomic reactor was assembled was located under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago during those years. In his graduate studies he was fortunate to be one of the first students of the renowned psychologist, Carl Rogers.

Career and hiring of Dr. Helen Schucman

For the next five years after his graduation in 1949, Thetford worked as a research psychologist in both Chicago, and later in Washington, DC. According to Dr Colin Ross, from 1951 to 1953 Thetford worked on Project BLUEBIRD, an early CIA mind control program [2]. He spent 1954 and 1955 as the director of clinical psychology at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. From 1955 to 1957 he was an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University's CIA-funded[3] Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology[4].

In 1958 he accepted an assistant professorship, which later developed into a full professorship, at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During a portion of this same period he also served as the director of clinical psychology at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. It was here that he would stay for the next 20 years, and it was here that he first met and hired Dr. Helen Schucman, hiring her as a research psychologist and assistant.

Thetford's "Invitation" for ACIM

The working relationship between Thetford and Schucman was apparently often somewhat strained, yet throughout these difficulties they would always maintain a certain level of professional courtesy and respect for one another. The story is often retold that it was into this environment of inter-relational strain between Thetford and Schucman that the ACIM material was in a sense first “invited” into this world. This “invitation” came in the form of an exclamation by Thetford one day, in the midst of one of their periodic difficulties, in which Thetford exclaimed, “There must be another way!” This exclamation was followed by a certain speech he made to Schucman describing how he believed that it was time for them to try to refocus their energies on constructive and helpful agendas, rather than being forever hyper critical and hyper competitive with one another. Expecting a typically condescending response from Schucman, the studied silence that followed his speech was then followed by a most surprising concurrence from Schucman, fully supporting his new proposal. This speech was given in June of 1965.[5][6]

The next four months were filled with a number of unusually vivid dream sequences and even some unusual waking experiences for Schucman.

Amongst her vivid dream sequences, she began to become familiar with a certain internal character who spoke to her as Jesus in her dreams. Little did she know that the voice of this dream character would soon come to dominate the rest of her life. Many of her unusual experiences during these four months are recorded in the biographical work, ‘Absence from Felicity’, by Kenneth Wapnick.[7] Schucman appears to have confided her experiences with Thetford, who acted as a sort of a calming, encouraging and stabilizing influence for Schucman during this period.

The years of ACIM transcription

Finally in October of that year, the transcriptions of what is now known as ACIM first began. According to both Thetford and Schucman, due to Schucman’s intensely divided feelings about the work of the transcription, Schucman would at times require a great deal of reassurance from Thetford in order to complete the process that eventually resulted in the first typewritten copy of ACIM, (which later became known as the Urtext).

According to Thetford, Schucman was sitting at home on the night of October 21st, 1965, when she heard an internal "voice" say to her, "This is a course in miracles. Please take notes." When she first heard this internal voice, she thought she recognized it as the same voice of the dream-sequence character that in her recent dream sequences had represented the person of Jesus to her. Schucman then wrote down about a page of notes before she realized that this request was going to be of much greater significance, and would require a far greater commitment in time than it had ever asked of her before. In a panic, she phoned Thetford to ask for his advice. Thetford encouraged Schucman to do what the voice asked, and to take the notes. He offered to meet with her the next morning before work, to review her notes, to discuss them further with her, and then to determine what she should do with this "Voice".[8]

On the following morning, after Thetford's review of the notes, he was so impressed with what she read to him that he encouraged Schucman to continue with the note taking. Schucman was initially taken aback by Thetford's reaction, but then apparently after giving herself enough time to recover from her initial jitters to honestly review the notes herself, she agreed. Soon they recognized that the notes, which eventually became ACIM (referred to as The Course by ACIM students), was their answer, the "other way" that they had agreed to find together four months earlier.

Classifying this transcription process as one of Schucman’s unusual waking experiences is an understatement at best. During the process Schucman claimed to have the mental equivalent of a tape recorder in her thoughts, which she described as being able to turn on and off at will, at her convenience, so that she might be able to transcribe into shorthand notes, what she was internally hearing. This voice identified itself as none other than the historical Jesus.

During the beginning of this process, one of Thetford’s gentle complaints was, “In the beginning I spent most of my time while typing these notes with one hand on the typewriter and the other on Helen’s shoulder”. After some months of experiencing an initial struggle in this process, eventually they both began to experience less subconscious resistance to the process, and the initial transcription began to move along more smoothly.

From 1965 through 1972 Thetford directly assisted Schucman with the transcription of the first three sections of the work, which was in fact the great bulk of the material. Then in 1972, somewhat to both of their reliefs (yet on some levels to their dismay) it appeared that the writing was complete, which for the most part it was.

In 1972 Thetford and Schucman were first introduced to Dr. Kenneth Wapnick whom they later invited to assist them with the voluminous amount of editing that was required to render the rough draft of the ACIM manuscript into a publishable format. Wapnick readily accepted this invitation, and was eventually instrumental in assisting them in accomplishing this task. Thetford, Wapnick and Schucman, the three principle transcriber-editors of ACIM were to remain friends for the rest of their lives, throughout the arduous process of seeing this manuscript through to first successful publication, and beyond to witness the initial spreading of its teachings.

After the completion of the bulk of the initial scribing/ transcribing process, for brief periods during 1973, 1975, and 1977 the short transcriptions of Psychotherapy,[9] of Clarification of Terms, and of the Song of Prayer,[9] which are the remainder of the standard material of ACIM, were transcribed in similar fashion.

From 1971 to 1978 Thetford, along with David Saunders, headed the CIA mind control Project MKULTRA Subproject 130: Personality Theory. [10] [11]

Move to California

In 1978 Thetford resigned from his positions at both Columbia University and at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. In 1980 he packed up his household, and at the apparent invitation of Judith Skutch Whitson, moved to Tiburon California, where Whitson was by now employed full time in the publication and distribution of ACIM.

Now at age 57, in Tiburon Thetford transitioned into a sort of semi-retirement, no longer accepting any demanding positions of heavy responsibility in either his professional life, or in his involvement with the ever growing readership of ACIM. In California Thetford took on two part time professional positions; one as a psychology consultant at Travis Air Force Base and the other as one of the directors of the ACIM related Center for Attitudinal Healing in Tiburon, as offered to him by his friend and fellow student of ACIM, Dr. Gerald Jampolsky.

Here in California, Thetford spent the final eight years of his life, regularly attending meetings of fellow ACIM students where ACIM principles would be discussed, but only rarely engaging in these discussions in any kind of an authoritative manner. Instead, during this final period of his life, he appears to have been primarily concerned with his own personal study of the ACIM material, and with enriching his own grasp of its message. Still, some of his interchanges with his associates during this period are somewhat illuminating.

Anecdotal accounts of Thetford's California life

During one such interchange with his friend Judith Skutch Whitson[12], Whitson describes calling Thetford during a moment of extremely high tension in her relationship with Jampolsky. In the phone conversation Whitson went on at length, describing what she perceived to be Jampolski’s many faults. Thetford listened intently until Whitson finally ran out of breath. He then quietly said, "Judy, the Course (ACIM) can be summed up in the question, 'Are you willing to see your brother sinless?' "
"No!" Whitson screamed.

"Well, dear," Thetford replied, "when you are, you will feel much better." And then he hung up!

On July 4th, 1988, at age 65 Thetford died of a massive heart attack. In this instance another illuminating account, related to this, is told by Whitson. According to Whitson, just prior to Thetford’s heart attack, she and Thetford had been having an interesting conversation. Thetford explained to Whitson that he was feeling particularly good on this July 4th, because for some reason he felt especially ‘independent and liberated’ on this day. He then went out for a ‘short’ walk, but never returned.

Notes

• The Scribing of A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
• Ross, Colin (2000). Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personalities by Psychiatrists. Manitou Communications.
• Marks, John (1991). The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN-10: 0393307948; ISBN-13: 978-0393307948.Available online [1]
• Price, David H. (June 2007). "Buying a piece of anthropology - Part 1: Human Ecology and unwitting anthropological research for the CIA". . Anthropology Today, Vol 23 No 3, June 2007 Available online [2].
• Wapnick, Kenneth (1991). Absence from Felicity, pp. 93 ff
• Foundation for Inner Peace, The Scribing of A Course in Miracles
• pp. 97-131
• ibid., p. 199
• a b (1996) Supplements to A Course in Miracles: 1. Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice 2. The Song of Prayer. Viking Adult. ISBN 0-670-86994-5.
• RA: MKULTRA de-classified documents
• Dr. Willian N, Thetford Vita
• Jessuph, Joe Miracle_Studies

References

Wapnick, Kenneth (1999). Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Schucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles, 2nd Ed., New York:

Foundation for A Course in Miracles. ISBN 0-933291-08-6.

Miller, D. Patrick (Aug 1997). Complete Story of the Course. Fearless Books. ISBN 0-9656809-0-8.

Skutch, Robert (1996). Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Mill Valley: Foundation for Inner Peace. ISBN 1-883360-02-1.

Colombian Army is Accused of Killing Poor Civilians and Labeling them Insurgents

" ...human rights groups were examining a steady increase in the reports of civilian killings since 2002, when commanders intensified a counterinsurgency financed in no small part by more than $500 million a year in U.S. aid. But more than 100 claims of civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces have emerged in recent weeks alone ..."

By Simon Romero
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/29/america/colombia.php
October 29, 2008

SOACHA, Colombia: Julian Oviedo, a 19-year-old construction worker in this gritty patchwork of slums, told his mother on March 2 that he was going to talk to a man about a job offer. A day later, Oviedo was shot and killed by army troops about 560 kilometers to the north. He was classified as a subversive and registered as a combat kill.

Colombia's government, the Bush administration's top ally in Latin America, has been buffeted by the disappearance of Oviedo and dozens of other young, impoverished men and women whose cases have come to light. Some were vagrants, some were street vendors or manual laborers. But their fates were often the same: They were catalogued as insurgents or criminal gang members and killed by the armed forces.

Prosecutors and human rights researchers are investigating hundreds of such deaths and disappearances, contending that the Colombian security forces are murdering civilians and making it look as if they were killed in combat, often by planting weapons on or near their bodies or dressing the corpses in guerrilla fatigues.

With soldiers under intense pressure in recent years to register combat kills to earn promotions and benefits like time off and extra pay, reports of civilian killings are climbing, prosecutors and researchers said, pointing to a grisly facet of this country's long internal war against leftist insurgencies.

The deaths have called into question the depth of Colombia's recent strides against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and have begun to haunt the military hierarchy.

On Wednesday, President Álvaro Uribe's government announced that it had fired 25 officers and soldiers - including three generals and four colonels - in connection with the deaths of Oviedo and 10 other young men from Soacha, whose bodies were discovered in unmarked graves in a distant combat zone. The purge came after an initial shakeup last Friday, when the army command relieved three colonels.

At a news conference Wednesday, Uribe said that an internal military investigation appeared to have uncovered "crimes that in some regions had the goal of killing innocents, to make it seem as if criminals were being confronted."

The wave of killings has heightened focus on the U.S. Embassy here, which is responsible for vetting Colombian military units for human rights abuses before they can receive aid. A study of civilian killings by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Amnesty International, two rights groups, found that 47 percent of the cases reported in 2007 involved Colombian units financed by the United States.

"If the responsibility of the army is to protect us from harm, how could they have killed my son this way?" Blanca Monroy, 49, Oviedo's mother, asked in an interview in her cinderblock home here. "The official explanation is absurd, if he was here just a day earlier living a normal life," she said. "The irony of it all is that my son dreamed of being a soldier" for the government.

Even before the most recent disappearances and killings, prosecutors and human rights groups were examining a steady increase in the reports of civilian killings since 2002, when commanders intensified a counterinsurgency financed in no small part by more than $500 million a year in U.S. aid.

But more than 100 claims of civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces have emerged in recent weeks alone, from nine different parts of Colombia. Cases have included the killing of a homeless man, a young man who suffered epileptic seizures and a veteran who had left the army after his left arm was amputated.

In some cases, victims' families spoke of middlemen who recruited poor men and women with vague promises of jobs elsewhere, only to deliver them hours or days later to war zones where they were killed by soldiers.

"We are witnessing a method of social cleansing in which rogue military units operate beyond the law," said Monica Sánchez, a lawyer at the Judicial Freedom Corporation, a human rights group in Medellín. The group says it has documented more than 60 cases of "false positives" - a subset of the civilian killings in which individuals were killed and then presented as guerrillas in the province of Antioquia.

Researchers also have obtained thorough descriptions of some killings in the small number of cases - less than 50 - that have resulted in convictions this decade.

One April morning in 2004, for instance, soldiers approached the home of Juan de Jesús Rendón, a 33-year-old peasant farmer in Antioquia, and shot him in front of his son, Juan Estéban, who was 10 at the time. The soldiers placed a two-way radio and a gun near Rendón's body, court records show, and told his son that his siblings would suffer the same fate unless he said his father had fired at the soldiers.

"I still fear this can happen again," Vilma Garcia, 35, Rendón's wife, said in an interview in Medellín, where she and her children fled after her husband was killed. The five soldiers involved were recently convicted on charges of homicide and torture, in connection with the threats to her son. "The soldiers think we are poor and worthless," she said, "so nobody will care how we are killed."

The civilian killings have opened the United States to increased criticism because it is required to make sure Colombian military units have not engaged in human rights violations before supplying them with aid.

"If we are receiving aid and vetting from a government in Washington that validates torture, then what kind of results can one expect?" asked Liliana Uribe, a human rights lawyer in Medellín who represents victims' families.

A senior official at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá said the reports of civilian killings, both in past years and in recent months, were a matter of concern. "If the facts in some cases do show that parts of the armed forces were taking part in murder, then there should be mechanisms to prevent this from happening and mechanisms to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The official said the units involved in the most recent killings - the 11 men from Soacha - had not received aid because they had been deemed not credible to receive it.

But the official did not confirm or deny the contention that almost half of the reports of civilian killings in 2007 involved units that had received U.S. aid, explaining that a case-by-case review of the episodes had not been carried out by two American contractors hired by the State Department to help vet Colombian military units for human rights abuses.

Reports of civilian killings rose to 287 for the 12-month period from mid-2006 to mid-2007. That is an increase over the 267 reported in same period from 2005 to 2006 and the 218 reported from 2004 to 2005, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, a human rights group in Bogotá.

Altogether, the attorney general's office in Bogotá said it was investigating the killings of 1,015 civilians by security forces in 558 episodes unrelated to combat. Prosecutors said the number of new cases under investigation climbed to 245 in 2007 from 122 a year earlier.

The increase in reports of civilian killings spurred the Defense Ministry to issue a directive last year explicitly prioritizing the capture of rebels above combat kills.

In an interview, General Freddy Padilla, the commander of Colombia's armed forces, said the policy shift, while largely intended to prevent human rights abuses, also had strategic objectives.

"A terrorist captured alive is a treasure, while a dead terrorist is just one-day news," Padilla said, citing the example of Nelly Ávila, a FARC commander who surrendered this year and began collaborating with her captors. "A terrorist converted into an informant is useful as long as he or she lives."

Until the latest wave of killings, it appeared that the new policy was starting to work. The Center for Research and Popular Education, a Jesuit-led group in Bogotá that maintains a database on human rights violations, documented 87 reports of false positives in the second half of 2007, a 34 percent drop from the first six months of that year.

But the cases in Soacha and elsewhere suggest that the problem may be more systemic than once thought.

Some human rights researchers contend that the killings are tolerated by some senior officers in the army who chafe at greater scrutiny at a time when security forces have made significant gains against guerrillas, including the killing or capture of several top FARC commanders this year.

Jenny Carolina González contributed reporting from Bogotá.

Attempted Glorification of Nazis is a Crime says Russia

societyandreligion.com
October 26, 2008

Russia has condemned the attempts to glorify Nazis and their sidekicks and urged the United Nations to cut short the efforts to re-write the history of the Second World War. This came in a statement during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly Committee on Special Political Issues by Russia’s representative Ruslan Bakhtin.

Voice of Russia reports that Moscow has repeatedly voiced criticism at the policy pursued by the authorities of Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine where those who collaborated with the Nazis are seen as national heroes today. This is all the more inadmissible in the light of two memorable dates that the world community will officially mark next year, namely 70 years since the Second World War broke out and 65 years since the opening of the Second Front by the Allies.

In this context pro-Nazi sentiment can be seen as a challenge to and desecration of the memory of those who gave their lives to liberate the world of the Nazi plague. President Victor Yushchenko has conferred posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine on Roman Shukhevich, one of the chieftains of Ukraine’s Rebels’ Army, which fought along with the Third Reich, and has signed a decree on celebrating the day of the Rebels’ Army formation. Latvia annually holds processions by the former members of the Latvian Waffen SS Legion, involved in mass-scale execution of Jews. Today Kiev and Riga chose to us up the fact in what proves a crime against history, says political analyst Yevgeny Satanovsky and elaborates.

It is no secret, Yevgeny Satanovsky says, that the extermination of both the Jews and hundreds of thousands of Gypsies and Poles in Ukraine and Lithuania with diabolical cruelty has been all-forgotten. Today’s Poland, part of the new Europe which deliberately shocks the world community lays any kind of claims to Russia, while carefully avoiding any official mention of the Nazi victims, — the Poles killed in Ukraine. The hands of such people as Bandera or Roman Shukhevich are deep in the blood of tens of thousands of people.

Meanwhile the officials in Ukraine and the Baltic countries do not see the honouring of the former SS legionnaires as the revision of history. Kiev and Riga point out that they only pay what tribute they owe to the people who fought for their countries’ independence. They don’t bother to think that if Nazi Germany had won the war, Ukraine or Latvia could have simply forgotten about their much-sought independence. In accordance with Germany’s Plan OST, the territories of the two countries were to have been Germanized, while Ukrainians and Latvians were to have been moved to concentration camps.

Source: Voice of Russia

http://societyandreligion.com/attempted-glorification-of-nazis-is-a-crime-says-russia/801/

McCain Must do More to Distance Himself from Extremists

BY MATT DALEK
NY DAILY NEWS
October 14th 2008

During the raucous 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, Barry Goldwater's conservative defenders rained boos on moderate New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and cheered wildly when Goldwater declared that, "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Back then, the far-right John Birch Society plagued the conservative movement, and reporters and ordinary Americans alike questioned whether conservative leaders were pragmatic, racially tolerant and forward-looking.

Leaders from William F. Buckley to Ronald Reagan struggled to bring the movement into the American mainstream. The task wasn't easy.

First in the pages of National Review, and later on the stump while campaigning for governor of California, Buckley and Reagan led others in denouncing and distancing themselves from Birch Society President Robert Welch, who argued that Dwight Eisenhower was "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy" and believed that Communists were on the verge of toppling the United States government. They also drummed out of their ranks the likes of racist leader Gerald L. K. Smith and race-baiters in the Ku Klux Klan.

Conspiracy theorists and hate-mongers found themselves with few if any allies in the mainstream of conservatism - an essential first step to leading the right-wing out of the political wilderness and into the most dominant political force of the past four decades.

As we speak, this is all at risk. Nearly a half-century after Goldwater's 1964 implosion, the McCain campaign has launched an increasingly shrill attack on Barack Obama. Sarah Palin has been especially adept at whipping crowds into fits of anger at Obama.

As numerous media reports have revealed, the mood at the rallies has descended into a kind of chaos and ugliness otherwise uncommon at events for major political figures. While some of these stories might have taken on a life of their own, it seems fair to say that the conservative movement has increasingly flirted with political extremism in the past two weeks.

According to the reports, McCain-Palin supporters hurled racist epithets at an African-American soundman, jeered and sneered at reporters, and screamed "treason" and "kill him" (perhaps about Obama, perhaps about Ayers) in response to Palin's assertions that Obama has been "palling around with terrorists" like former Weather Underground radical Bill Ayers.

Just last week, two different speakers (one was in his police uniform) warmed up crowds for Palin by asking, how would you feel if "Barack Hussein Obama" was actually elected president? A video taken by an Obama supporter outside another rally in Ohio shows somebody flashing an "Obama-Osama" sign and several rally-goers denouncing Obama as a "terrorist."

If we could have expected any Republican to look unkindly on these kinds of smears, it's John McCain.

Earlier this year, McCain actually denounced the use of Obama's middle name. And lest we forget, in 2000 he gave a major speech denouncing then-rival George W. Bush's alliances with people he deemed "agents of intolerance."

Yes, it's true - McCain made a first stab at tamping down the 2008 rage at a Minnesota rally on Friday. But it's a far cry from a concerted effort.

The anger and misinformation are still swirling, and the destructive rumors, innuendo and smears continue to flourish on the Internet and in some corners of the conservative media. Time magazine reports that the Virginia GOP chair Jeffrey Frederick told Virginia McCain volunteers that Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon."

Why won't McCain and Palin go further to distance themselves from such smears?

To be sure, conservatism has long struggled with the issue of how to handle extremists in its ranks, and the McCain-Palin ticket isn't the only one to slime opponents as somehow alien, foreign-sounding and unpatriotic.

Reagan defended the concept of "states' rights" at a 1980 rally in Mississippi in a town where three civil rights workers had been murdered. President George H. W. Bush's campaign attacked Michael Dukakis by, among other things, touring an American flag factory. Bill Clinton got tagged as a '60s radical and worse. Some of President George W. Bush's supporters complained that Sen. John Kerry lied about his war record and sounded French.

But the anti-Obama rhetoric has a different cast. Infused with the incendiary issues of race, religion, terrorism and conspiratorial thinking, it is reminiscent of the kind of far-right hyperventilating that movement leaders such as Buckley once sought to quell in order to make conservatives more viable politically.

If conservatism's elder statesmen - or perhaps its rising stars - don't see the danger and turn the ship back toward the mainstream, the damage to the movement could be profound.

To their credit, several smart conservative commentators are beginning to recognize that they have a problem within their own ranks. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum argued in The National Review online: "Those who press this Ayers line of attack are whipping Republicans and conservatives into a fury that is going to be very hard to calm after November. Is it really wise to send conservatives into opposition in a mood of disdain and fury for a man who may well be the next president of the United States, incidentally the first African-American President?"

The struggle for the future of conservatism and the Republican Party has begun. It pits the ghosts of Reagan and Buckley against the more extremist language and political attacks of conservatism's newest standard-bearer, Sarah Palin.

If Palin triumphs, the conservative movement could again find itself heading back into the wilderness of American politics.

Dallek, a former speechwriter for Richard Gephardt, teaches at the University of California Washington Program and writes a monthly column on history and politics for Politico.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/10/14/2008-10-14_mccain_must_do_more_to_distance_himself_.html

Pinochet's Free-Market Fascism Mixed Economic Reform with Brutal Repression

BOOK OF THE DAY: Maurice Earls reviews The Dictator's Shadow: A Political Memoir, By Heraldo Muñoz, Basic Books, pp345, €22.05

www.irishtimes.com
October 24, 2008

AUGUSTO PINOCHET broke many eggs when making his often-admired Chilean omelette. Thousands were tortured to death. People were thrown from planes and women horribly violated. For the most part those who look kindly on the regime do not overtly approve its excesses, except in relation to economic matters where Pinochet is said to have "done things right". The underlying idea is that economic success in Chile was born of necessary pain.

Heraldo Muñoz, now Chilean ambassador to the UN, was a supporter of Salvadore Allende, and participated in the anti-Pinochet movement from the time of the coup. Questions surrounding economic development are a significant theme in his account of the dictatorship and its aftermath. He distances himself from the no-pain, no-gain viewpoint, arguing that Chile's prosperity did not require Pinochet's excesses.

Muñoz has moved a considerable distance from Allende's economics of state ownership. He notes, approvingly, that a pro-enterprise culture developed during the Pinochet years. He is proud of Chile's open economy successes and of its privatisation programme in areas such as social welfare.

Given the current world market crisis, and the emerging recognition of the state's protective role, Chilean pensioners may soon regret that they surrendered their prospects of comfort to market forces. Heraldo Muñoz, like many another, may moderate his views in the light of current ominous events in the unregulated market.

The US, of course, waged a silent war against the Allende government and more or less ordered the coup. Nixon and Kissinger didn't want anywhere turning red on their watch: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people," argued Kissinger. Nixon put up $10 million to get the work done, demanding the "best men we have" to do the job.

Fear of communism, however, was not the main reason for the persistent strain of admiration the junta evoked.

Margaret Thatcher, whose government lifted its arms embargo on Pinochet's regime and who served tea to the dictator in London, was delighted by Pinochet, not because of his anti-communism, but because he turned the Chilean economy over to the "Chicago Boys", Chilean disciples of Milton Friedman.

These economists turned up a few days after the coup with a fully worked out plan for the Chilean economy to be run without regulation on pure market principles.

Pinochet decided to go with it; he was not going to be an old-fashioned statist fascist but the world's first free-market fascist. Naturally he had his fans.

Friedman, while not endorsing human rights violations, praised Pinochet as one who "has supported a fully free-market economy as a matter of principle". The Wall Street Journal heaped praise on Pinochet and Jonah Goldberg declared in the Los Angeles Times: "Iraq needs a Pinochet".

The problem is that a close look at the figures suggests that Pinochet's economic miracle may not have been much of a miracle at all. Muñoz, who sees real growth coming only in the democratic era, would agree. The praise Pinochet received then may derive from nothing more than being ideologically correct in the eyes of recent economic orthodoxy. Muñoz is surely right that radical economic change can occur without the type of inhumanity Pinochet orchestrated. It happened here in the late 1950s. Bitterness is one sure legacy of inhumanity, and at the time of his death in 2006 Pinochet was facing 300 charges. It will take many more years for the scars of the dictatorship to heal. Perhaps the lesson is that the more eggs you break the less likely you are to get a successful omelette.

Maurice Earls is joint editor of the Dublin Review of Books www.drb.ie

© 2008 The Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/1024/1224715115961.html

Alleged Plot to Kill Obama Stuns Suspects' Towns

This undated photo obtained from a MySpace webpage shows Daniel Cowart, 20 of Bells, Tenn. holding a weapon. Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday Oct. 27, 2008. In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. (AP Photo)

By WOODY BAIRD

BELLS, Tenn. (AP) — In a rural Tennessee county where you can't buy alcohol or even find a Wal-Mart, residents of tiny Bells stopped each other to ask if anyone knew the pale-skinned young local accused of plotting to kill dozens of black people, including Barack Obama.

It was a jolt to find out on Monday that a 20-year-old who grew up among them was one of two white supremacists accused of plotting a national killing spree that would ultimately target Obama, the Democratic candidate for president.

The town surrounded by fertile cotton fields is safe and certainly not known for breeding neo-Nazis, they agreed.

"If we had any skinheads in this county I wasn't aware of it. We hardly know what they are," said Sam Lewis, who lives across the street from the mother of suspect Daniel Cowart. Cowart, he said, grew up in the comfortable, well-maintained neighborhood and wasn't known as a troublemaker.

"His mother is a real sweet, nice girl, and this comes as a shock and a surprise," Lewis said.

Cowart is charged along with Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., with planning a killing spree to shoot and decapitate black people and top it all off by attacking Obama. The charges were made public Monday, and the Obama campaign has not commented about the allegations.

Despite making sure the plot was stopped, authorities did not believe Cowart and Schlesselman had the means to carry out their threat to assassinate Obama, said a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Cowart and Schlesselman are charged by federal authorities with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer and threatening a candidate for president. They were being held without bond.

Authorities describe the two as neo-Nazi skinheads, and an affidavit from a federal agent says they devised a plot to kill 88 people — beheading 14 of them.

The numbers 14 and 88 are symbols in skinhead culture, authorities said, referring to a 14-word phrase attributed to an imprisoned white supremacist: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children" and to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H. Two "8"s or "H"s stand for "Heil Hitler."

The two were taken into custody the night of Oct. 22, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives Agent Brian Weeks. Authorities pulled them over because they had shot out the window of a church and used sidewalk chalk to draw racially motivated words, the numbers 14 and 88 and a swastika on Cowart's car, he said.

The killing spree was initially to target a predominantly black school, which was not identified in court documents. It was to end, authorities said, with the two suspects — dressed in white tuxedos and top hats — blasting guns from the windows of a speeding vehicle aimed at Obama.

The reported threat of attacking a school filled with black students worried Police Chief Fred Fielder. Helena-West Helena, with a population of 12,200, is 66 percent black. "Predominantly black school, take your pick," he said.

The young men said they expected to die in the attack, the affidavit said.

In Helena-West Helena, on the Mississippi River in east Arkansas' Delta, Schlesselman was described as a "troubled child" by a woman who works with his adoptive father, Mark Schlesselman.

The father works as a parts manager at Riddell Flying Service, said Marty Riddell, a co-owner of the company located in one of the nation's poorest regions, trailing even parts of Appalachia in its standard of living.

Riddell said she tried to offer Paul Schlesselman a pet lizard she couldn't care for, but was warned by his family that "he would hurt it."

"They might have done that man a favor picking that kid up," Riddell said. "He was a troubled child already."

Schlesselman's father did not return a phone call to the flying service.

A former high school classmate of Cowart's in Bells said he was quiet but friendly. But it took Lacy Doss a minute to recognize the young man in the news photo brandishing a large rifle.

"I was shocked to think I was sitting in class with this guy and now he's being charged with some crazy stuff," said Doss, 18. "He was a nice person, to me anyway. He was quiet. He really didn't talk much."

Joe Byrd, a lawyer representing Cowart, said he was reviewing the charges against his client "as well as the facts and circumstances of his arrest" and was not yet prepared to comment.

No one answered the door at Cowart's mother's house, and no lights were on inside.

Matt Hawkins, 21, the clerk at a filling station-convenience store in the center of the town of 2,300 residents about 70 miles northeast of Memphis, said customers asked each other about Cowart, looking for people who might know him.

"One friend of mine said he knew who he is, but that's about it," Hawkins said. "We're a small town. Nothing much goes on around here, no shootings or nothing."

City Attorney Jasper Taylor said Cowart most recently lived with his grandparents in a southern, rural part of the county. He moved away, possibly to Arkansas or Texas, then returned over the summer, Taylor said.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville, Tenn., field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, said authorities took the threats seriously.

"Even if they were just to try it, it would be a trail of tears around the South," Cavanaugh said.

Associated Press writers Erik Schelzig in Nashville, Tenn., Jon Gambrell in Little Rock, Ark., and Eileen Sullivan and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington contributed to this report.

Skinhead Plot to Kill Obama Uncovered, Feds Say

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, AP

WASHINGTON (Oct. 27) - Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

In all, the two men whom officials described as neo-Nazi skinheads planned to kill 88 people — 14 by beheading, according to documents unsealed in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

Federal officials said Monday they had disrupted a plot by two neo-Nazi skinheads to assassinate Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The two suspects also planned to shoot or decapitate 88 black people in a murder spree that was to start in Tennessee, authorities said.

The spree, which initially targeted an unidentified predominantly African-American school, was to end with the two men driving toward Obama, "shooting at him from the windows," the documents show.

"Both individuals stated they would dress in all-white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint states. "Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt."

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

Sheriffs' deputies in Crockett County, Tenn., arrested the two suspects — Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of Helena-West Helena, Ark. — Oct. 22 on unspecified charges. "Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities," said Crockett County Sheriff Troy Klyce.

The two were charged by federal authorities Monday with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.

Cowart and Schlesselman were being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

http://news.aol.com/article/feds-bust-skinhead-plot-to-kill-obama/227448?icid=100214839x1212281996x1200777832

McCain and Pinochet: Palling Around with Dictators

By JOHN DINGES
www.counterpunch.org

John McCain, who has harshly criticized the idea of sitting down with dictators without pre-conditions, appears to have done just that. In 1985, McCain traveled to Chile for a friendly meeting with Chile's military ruler, General Augusto Pinochet, one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights credited with killing more than 3,000 civilians and jailing tens of thousands of others.

The private meeting between McCain and dictator Pinochet has gone previously un-reported anywhere.

According to a declassified U.S. Embassy cable, McCain described the meeting with Pinochet "as friendly and at times warm, but noted that Pinochet does seem obsessed with the threat of communism." McCain, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, made no public or private statements critical of the dictatorship, nor did he meet with members of the democratic opposition in Chile, as far as could be determined from a thorough check of U.S. and Chilean newspaper records and interviews with top opposition leaders.

At the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the U.S. and former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power.

At the time of McCain's meeting with Pinochet, Chile's democratic opposition was desperately seeking support from democratic leaders around the world in an attempt to pressure Pinochet to allow a return to democracy and force a peaceful end to the dictatorship, already in its 12th year. Other U.S. congressional leaders who visited Chile made public statements against the dictatorship and in support of a return to democracy, at times becoming the target of violent pro-Pinochet demonstrations.

Senator Edward Kennedy arrived only 12 days after McCain in a highly public show of support for democracy. Demonstrators pelted his entourage with eggs and blocked the road from the airport, so that the Senator had to be transported by helicopter to the city, where he met with Catholic church and human rights leaders and large groups of opposition activists.

Mark Schneider, a foreign policy aide and former State Department human rights official who organized Kennedy's trip, said he had no idea McCain had been there only days before. "It would be very surprising and disappointing if Senator McCain went to Chile to meet with a dictator and did not forcefully demand a return to democracy and then to publicly call for a return to democracy," Schneider said.

McCain's visit with Pinochet took place at a moment when the Chilean strongman held virtually unrestricted dictatorial power and those involved in public, democratic opposition were exposed to great risk.

McCain's presence in Chile was apparently kept as quiet as possible. He and his wife Cindy arrived December 27 and traveled immediately to the scenic Puyehue area of southern Chile to spend several days as the guest of a prominent Pinochet backer, Marco Cariola, who later was elected senator for the conservative UDI party.

The trip was arranged by Chile's ambassador to the United States, Hernan Felipe Errazuriz. According to a contemporary government document obtained from Chile, Errazuriz arranged for a special government liaison to help McCain while in Chile for the "strictly private" visit, and described him as "one of the conservative congressmen who is closest to our embassy."

Errazuriz also arranged the invitation for the McCains to stay at the farm of his wealthy friend, Marco Cariola, according to Cariola, who did not know McCain previously. The McCains spent the three and a half days fishing for salmon and trout and riding horses. The area is one of Chile's most beautiful tourist attractions, with dozens of crystal clear lakes and rivers surrounded by luxurious estates such as the Cariola farm where the McCains were staying.

On December 30, McCain traveled back to Santiago for a 5 pm meeting with dictator Pinochet, followed by a meeting with Admiral Jose Toribio Merino, a member of the country's ruling military junta.

McCain's meeting with Pinochet in 1985 are described in a U.S. embassy cable, based on McCain's debriefing with embassy officials:

"Most of his 30-minute meeting with the president, at which foreign minister [Jaime] Del Valle and a ministry staff member were present, was spent in discussing the dangers of communism, a subject about which the president seems obsessed. The President described Chile's recent history in the fight against communism and displayed considerable pride in the fact that the communist menace had been defeated in Chile. The President stressed that Chile had stood alone in this battle, and complained that United States Foreign Policy had left them stranded. The congressman added that talking to Pinochet was somewhat similar to talking with the head of the John Birch Society."

Other than to describe the warmth of the encounter, the cable does not contain any account of what McCain said to Pinochet. There is no indication that the subject of human rights or return to democracy was raised with Pinochet. At this time in history, Pinochet was overtly ostracized by most world democratic leaders because of his refusal to move toward a restoration of democratic, civilian rule.

A second declassified U.S. diplomatic cable refers to a letter from then-U.S. Ambassador Harry Barnes giving further detail of McCain's meeting with Pinochet.

From his meeting with junta member Merino, however, McCain passed on an tidbit of political intelligence that the embassy found useful. "The most interesting part of the conversation, according to the congressman, was Merino's statement that he and other members of the Junta had recently told Pinochet that he should not expect any support from the junta if he should decide to be a candidate for president in 1989."

In fact, three years later Pinochet was defeated in a plebiscite in which he was the only candidate, and free elections a year later restored democratic government. A healthy list of U.S. congressmen traveled to Chile in support of the transition to democracy, including Republican Senator Richard Lugar. McCain, by then a first term senator, did not return to Chile.

In addition to the Chilean document and the U.S. cable cited above, at least four other declassified documents refer to McCain's meeting with Pinochet and his interest in Chile.

McCain campaign press office said no one was available to comment on the story.

Former ambassador Errazuriz, reached by phone, said repeatedly "it is not true" that McCain met with Pinochet, that he would have known about it if it had, and that the state Department cable was possibly a fabrication.

On September 11, 1973, Army General Pinochet led a bloody coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Salvador Allende. The four-man military junta that seized power bombed the presidential palace, padlocked the congress, outlawed all political activity and actively persecuted its opponents. Pinochet remained in power until 1990 and in 2006 he was charged with 36 counts of kidnapping, 23 counts of torture and one count of murder. He was spared a trial for health reasons and died at age 91 in December 2006.

John Dinges is the author of Assassination on Embassy Row (with Saul Landau) and The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents.

http://www.counterpunch.org/dinges10272008.html

Rove Appointee Called Off FBI Investigation into Obama Murder Plot

March 26, 2007: U.S. Attorney Troy Eid (left), who is accused of having called the FBI off of an alleged Obama assassination plot, seated next to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during a discussion of Project Safe Childhood, sponsored by the Dept. of Justice in Denver.

posted by JJThinking 09/07/2008 01:04:56 AM EST

"KUSA - 9Wants to Know has learned three men in Denver planned to assassinate U.S. Senator Barack Obama during the Democratic National Convention in Denver by sneaking into one of his events and shooting him with a gun hidden inside of a camera, according to federal court records. Nathan Johnson's girlfriend, whom 9NEWS is not naming because she's a juvenile, said it would have to be a suicide mission."

... The FBI released a statement the next day claiming that there was no evidence of an imminent threat against Obama.

But according to [one] news story ... the FBI did want to pursue charges, but the investigation was called off by Attorney General Troy Eid, an appointee of Karl Rove.

There are several recent blogs on this info, but only one story on Google's news page:

KUSA - 9Wants to Know has learned three men in Denver discussed assassinating U.S. Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic National Convention in Denver by sneaking into one of his events and shooting him with a gun hidden inside of a camera.

Nathan Johnson's girlfriend, whom 9NEWS is not naming because she's a juvenile, said "it would have to be a suicide mission," according to federal court records. The plot is similar to that in the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard" starring actors Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. In the movie, Costner stops an assassination attempt against Houston by spotting a weapon hidden inside a gutted-out TV camera.

Johnson, Shawn Adolf and Tharin Gartrell all thought that Obama had a suite in the third floor of the Hyatt hotel, where they were staying. In fact, Obama was staying in another Denver hotel.

The men were doing methamphetamine inside the hotel with two women on Aug. 23 discussing the plot to kill Obama, according to federal records.

Adolf said, "It would not matter if he killed Senator Obama because police would simply add a murder charge to his pending charges," according to the records.

There were seven outstanding warrants for Adolf's arrest.

The underage woman told law enforcement that Adolf also talked about using "a high-powered rifle 22-250 from a high vantage point" to shoot Obama during his acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High.

One of the other women in the room, Kay Neb, told police she believes Adolf is affiliated with the Sons of Silence white supremacist group. Neb also told police that Adolf, Johnson and Gartrell are all racists because they made racially disparaging comments about Obama.

The Sons of Silence is a motorcycle group with chapters across the country.

"We don't know these people, we are not associated with them in any way and we don't want people like this in our group," said a spokesman for Sons of Silence.

The group also says it has no ties to white supremacists.

When police searched the hotel rooms and cars the men were using, they confiscated meth, needles, laptops, cell phones, a black mask, books indicating check fraud and forgery, bags of new clothes, tactical pants and bar coupons.

Based on the evidence, FBI special agent Robert Sawyer first believed there was probable cause to believe the men were conspiring to kill Obama.

However, U.S. Attorney Troy Eid last week said that further investigation revealed insufficient evidence to indicate a "true threat," plot or conspiracy against the senator.

The men were charged with various weapons and/or drug charges.

Aurora Police found two rifles, ammunition, bulletproof vests, walkie-talkies, wigs and fake identifications in the pickup truck that Gartrell was driving when they pulled him over Aug. 24. One of the weapons was stolen from Kansas.

Police also found a Wizzinator inside the pickup truck, which is a device made of a prosthetic penis and synthetic urine to cheat on drug tests.

(Copyright KUSA*TV, All Right Reserved)
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=98992&catid=222

Eid is denying any lax work on his part, but I think the whole situation still sounds suspicious. Why would you NOT press charges against people who make a threat on a public official? Who is he to determine (above the inquiries of the FBI) that such a threat would definitely not be pulled off?

Here's one of several blogs about the story:

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2008/09/fbi-wanted-obama-plotters-charged-but.html
•••
http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/9/7/1456/09961/Diary/Rove-appointee-called-off-FBI-investigation-into-Obama-plot

NEO-NAZIS MURDER SCHOOLGIRL IN IRKUTSK

From: BIGOTRY MONITOR
A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe

NEO-NAZIS killed a 16-year-old girl in Irkutsk, Russia because they thought she was a member of an anti-fascist group, according to an October 17 report by the Jewish.ru web site. Three neo-Nazis beat Olga Rukosyla to death after noticing that she had red laces in her shoes--a sign of membership in an anti-fascist group. Sources assert that she wore the laces as a fashion statement rather than as a sign of a political affiliation.

http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/102408BM.shtml

Report from Tennessee's Annual White Christian Heritage Festival

tarobb.blogspot.com
October 20, 2008

Four kids from our White Pride Home School co-op in Harrison, Arkansas

The 22nd annual White Christian Heritage Festival was another great success with friend coming from many different states. We had many visitors at the festival. Local towns people along with tourists stooped by our many booths, bought a hot dog or a piece of pie from the refreshment stand or just sat a listened to Heritage Connection sing songs from their CD's.

Folks getting ready for the Walk for White Pride

Aryan Warrior continues to be the most requested.

We had a great Walk for White Pride after which I spoke to the assembled crowd. In the evening a few of our friend met for a small gathering at a local conference room and further enjoyed fellowship. Rachel Pendergraft gave an inspiring message based on the concept of Mud and Guts which examined the dedication of the American Revolutionary War soldier and how God brought the victory when all else seemed hopeless. Heritage Connection a few more songs and then I spoke on a subject titled Due Season and how all things are planned and fulfilled in due season included the eventual victory of our people. ...

STORY CONTINUES

Fort Worth: Alleged Aryan Brotherhood Member Arrested in Killing

BY DEANNA BOYD
dboyd@star-telegram.com

Guy Evan Graves, 35, left, and Johnny Preston Reed, 37, are wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old Weatherford man.

FORT WORTH -- Police have located a truck sought in connection with the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old Weatherford man this week by a man believed to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood.

The truck, a 1995 Chevrolet extended cab, was found abandoned on West Lake Drive in Weatherford, according to a statement from the Weatherford Police Department.

A 37-year-old man alleged to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and wanted in connection with the fatal shooting was arrested early this morning in Kaufman County, officials said.

Johnny Preston Reed was arrested about 1 a.m. by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office, Weatherford police said in news release issued this morning.

Authorities are still searching for 35-year-old Guy Evan Graves, also a suspected member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Police had said they believed Graves might have been driving the pickup found today in Weatherford.

The men are accused of murder in connection with the death of Jeremy Ryan Sisk, 24. Officers responding to a shooting in the 200 block of West Bridge Street about 11:34 a.m. Tuesday found Sisk dead with a single gunshot wound to the face.

Anyone with information about Graves' whereabouts is asked to call Weatherford police at 817-598-4300.

http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/993123.html

Opiate for the Mrs.: Cindy McCain's Prescription Drug Addiction

"You're U.S. Senator John McCain, and you've got a big problem. Your wife, Cindy, was addicted to prescription painkillers. She stole pills from a medical-aid charity she heads and she used the names of unsuspecting employees to get prescriptions. The public is about to find out about it ... "

Huge New Biodefense Lab Is Dedicated at Fort Detrick

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post
October 23, 2008; B01

The Department of Homeland Security dedicated a massive biodefense laboratory in Frederick yesterday, moving toward the facility's opening despite questions raised about the risks of deadly pathogens to be studied there.

When the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick is fully operational in March, about 150 scientists in the lab will be tasked with protecting the country from a bioterrorist attack through prevention or containment. Another goal is to allow investigators to fingerprint biological agents such as viruses and bacteria, quickly tracing their source and catching the offender.

But critics cite the case of Bruce E. Ivins, a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, also at Fort Detrick, as evidence that such installations might help bioterrorists get access to lethal agents. FBI investigators think Ivins, who committed suicide in July, was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Construction began in June 2006 on the $143 million, 160,000-square-foot facility inside the fort, the Army's sprawling medical research post in Frederick. The ship-shaped building will be divided between the lab's major divisions: a forensic testing center, which aims to identify the culprits in biological attacks; and the Biothreat Characterization Center, which seeks to predict what such attacks will look like and guide the development of countermeasures.

Scientists affiliated with the lab have been working in leased space at Fort Detrick, but officials who spoke at the dedication yesterday said they were anxious to move into the new center.

"This is a great day. Many of us have been waiting for this day for a long time," said Jamie Johnson, director of the Office of National Laboratories of the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security. "I feel very passionately about this facility, and I feel even more passionately about its mission. This is state-of-the-art, cutting-edge bio-forensics."

Barry Kissin, a Frederick lawyer who has strongly opposed the lab's construction, said he fears the facility would be used to create biological weapons even though the government said its mission is defensive.

"It's not only a huge threat to local public health and safety, it is in the forefront of the instigation of a brand-new arms race in the realm of bioweapons," he said. "Here we are, expanding by about 20 times the size of the program that we're now being told generated the only bioattack in our history."

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.), who has a PhD in human physiology, said the closure of the U.S. bioweapons program in 1969 had perhaps placed the country a step behind other nations that continued to operate secret programs.

"As a scientist, I knew how important it was to be at the cutting edge," Bartlett said. "I don't have complete confidence that our intelligence community will be able to tell us what's going on at the cutting edge." The scientists at the new Detrick lab, he said, are "going to have to divine what's happening." But he said he has "great confidence that this organization will indeed be able to protect us."

Democrat Jennifer Dougherty, a former Frederick mayor who faces Bartlett in the 6th District race, said relations between the city and Fort Detrick have gradually improved.

"I think it's essential that we make sure there's a level of transparency and a level of trust between residents, the city and the post," Dougherty said.

The directors of the campus were eager to demonstrate the facility's security, leading guests and reporters through a tour of the lab. Construction required everyone to wear hard hats and protective glasses.

The facility was clean and bright, with large windows allowing most scientists in sealed labs a view of the outdoors. About 40,000 square feet will be taken up by Biosafety Level 3 labs, which handle agents such as anthrax. In addition, 10,000 will be dedicated to the Level 4 labs, which handle agents such as the Ebola virus.

Next to the windows, digital monitors displayed air pressure, ensuring that air would flow from the outside into the lab. The air is constantly filtered, and three large pressure cookers sterilize contaminated waste. To get into the Level 4 labs, workers must pass through a chemical shower that cleanses their suits.

The thick, reinforced concrete walls were painted white. The rooms were empty of the testing equipment, animals and biological supplies that the scientists will use for their work. Exposed wires and pipes were in evidence, and sheeting was taped to parts of the floor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/22/AR2008102203082_pf.html

Catholics Seek Support For Probe Of Fort Benning School

ANDREW NELSON, Staff Writer
www.georgiabulletin.org
October 2, 2008

ATLANTA—Ten years after a Catholic archbishop in Guatemala was beaten to death for his work on human rights, four Atlanta priests, two sisters, and seven local members of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi are calling on Congress to deepen its investigation of the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation which one of his killers attended.

The activists believe the Department of Defense-funded military school based at Fort Benning in Columbus, formerly known as the School of the Americas, is linked to human right violators in Latin America who target the poor and clergy who speak up for them.

They want Congress to enact a law that would suspend the military school until a commission reports on what tactics former students were taught that violated international law or United States law and hold accountable those who drafted and approved those teaching manuals.

Eileen Perkins of Marietta, a longtime peace activist, said the school should cause concern for taxpayers and Catholics alike.

The school is teaching Latin American military leaders the wrong things with American tax dollars, like torture, said Perkins, who gathered the signatures.

Declassified government documents released in the mid-1990s revealed the manuals from 1982 to 1991 showed how torture, blackmail and other coercive measures could be used against insurgents.

Catholics need to press for a change at the school because the issues of peace and the dignity of people are a cornerstone of the church, Perkins said.

“That’s kind of who we are as Catholics,” said Perkins, 65, who brings Communion to the homebound from her church, St. Joseph in Marietta.

Father John Adamski, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Atlanta, said the military school is working with a “new PR image,” but problems remain. The School of the Americas was legally closed in 2001 and reopened as WHISEC.

He signed the letter because it is a sign of how people can be involved in peacemaking.

“Any effort toward trying to work for peace and lifting up the practice of peace is an important thing,” he said.

Catholics should be “agents of God’s kingdom” and working for peace is a way to do that, he said.

Every November, thousands of people, many of them students from Catholic colleges, arrive in Columbus to protest the school. Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois started the protest along with the watchdog School of the Americas (SOA) Watch in 1990.

Catholic leaders in Central America who speak out on behalf of the poor have been assassinated, including six Jesuit priests killed in El Salvador in their rectory’s garden in November 1989 and Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador shot and killed in 1980 as he celebrated Mass. His cause is being studied for sainthood. Three American missionary nuns and a Maryknoll laywoman were also murdered there in 1980.

Some military officials linked to the killings attended the military school. And opponents of the school believe it should be shut down. Defenders of the program have said the school does not teach abuse and the curriculum includes a focus on human rights as part of every class.

In April 1998, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi, coordinator of the Human Rights Office of the archbishop of Guatemala, was killed two days after his organization issued a major report documenting that the Guatemalan army was responsible for about 90 percent of the violent massacres and other human rights violations that occurred during its 36-year civil war. Four men were convicted for the murder, including two military officers—retired Col. Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, who had studied at the SOA, and his son, Capt. Byron Lima Oliva—and a priest. However, Catholic Church leaders in Guatemala continue to press for a wider inquiry into who ordered the bishop’s murder.

Supporters are calling on Georgia congressmen to endorse legislation to suspend the school’s operation called the “Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2007.”

Some 124 members of Congress support the bill, which is House Resolution 1707. The bill is sponsored by U.S. Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts. Only two representatives from Georgia, U.S. Reps. John Lewis (5th District) and Hank Johnson (4th District), both Democrats, have backed the legislation. The proposal was sent to the House Committee on Armed Services for review in March 2007.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the bill would establish an eight-person joint congressional task force to assess the school’s training to evaluate how well Latin American military personnel follow democratic principles and respect human rights. It also establishes a commission to look into the U.S. Army School of the Americas and its successor institution.

The school would be suspended while the two committees examined the school.

“We call on all Catholics in Georgia who are upholders of human rights to ask their congresspersons to co-sponsor this bill (HR 1707) so that a formal determination can be made as to whether training at the school contributes to the violation of human rights in Latin America,” states the letter.

The letter quotes “The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

It states: “Mutual forgiveness must not eliminate the need for justice and still less does it block the path that leads to truth. On the contrary, justice and truth represent the concrete requisites for reconciliation.”

The Atlanta priests signing the letter are Father Adamski; Msgr. Henry Gracz, pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; Father Steve Yander, chaplain at Saint Joseph’s Hospital; and Father T.J. Meehan, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Atlanta. The sisters who signed the letter are Sister Margaret McAnoy, chaplain at Saint Joseph’s Hospital and member of the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation, and Sister Sally White, of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, who serves in pastoral care at Saint Joseph’s Hospital. A priest from the Diocese of Savannah, Father Bob Cushing, also signed the letter.

Other signers were Stuart Cashin, a member of Pax Christi, Immaculate Conception Shrine, Atlanta; Lil Corrigan, Pax Christi, Transfiguration Church, Marietta; Cathy Crosby, Pax Christi, Atlanta; Debbie Freel, Pax Christi, Transfiguration; Joe Goode, Pax Christi, St. Jude Church, Atlanta; Elizabeth M. Griffis, parish administrator, St. Joseph Church, Marietta; Juliana Illara, Georgia for Democracy, Marietta; Larry and Eileen Karrer Perkins, Pax Christi, St. Joseph; Judy Kugler, Pax Christi, Transfiguration; and Thomas W. Reichert, pastoral minister, St. Joseph Church.

http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/2008/10/02/ftbenning/

The Guyana Project: Nazi Graveyard Discovered Deep in the Amazonian Rainforests

" ... Schulz Kampfhenkel, an officer in the S.S. and leader of the expedition which claimed Greiner’s life, returned from the jungles and submitted to his boss Heinrich Himmler details of the ’Guayana Project.’ ... "

Final resting place: The nine-foot high wooden cross decorated with swastikas It carries the inscription: 'Joseph Greiner died here on 2.1.1936'

By Alan Hall
Daily Mail
23rd October 2008

A graveyard of former Nazis bent on creating a 'foreign Fatherland' in the Amazonian rainforests from which to spread Hitler's maniacal beliefs has been discovered in Brazil.

The relics betray a madcap plan back in the 1930s to create a master race thousands of miles from Germany. The graveyard and other ruins that fanatical Nazis left behind are chronicled in a new book. Entitled The Guayana-Projekt: A German Adventure on the Amazon it says die-hard Nazis believed they were destined to settle the world like pioneers of the wild west in America.

It has long been known that Nazis wandered post-war into the remote regions of South America, befriended by fascist governments and military dictatorships. But the harshness of the Amazonian jungle was a strange choice of destination.

Historical Nazi 'footprints' are found in grave markers with swastikas, photos found in archives back home and the remains of dwellings. On an island on a tributary of the River Jary in Brazil author Jens Gluessing found a nine-foot high wooden cross decorated with swastikas that testified to one of the explorers who never made it back to Berlin. It carries the inscription: 'Joseph Greiner died here on 2.1.1936, a death from fever in the service of German Research Work.'

Locals call the site 'The Nazi graveyard' but it was originally destined to be part of a string of Nazi settlements across the Amazon which Hitler missionaries would use as jumping-off points to spread the gospel of totalitarianism.

In archives of the Brazilian State Department and the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Gluessing found details of Greiner’s jungle mission. Greiner arrived in 1935, bankrolled by the Nazi government and died of yellow fever or Malaria. He was one of three sent out by S.S race specialists as the vanguard of what they perceived would be a wave of settlers.

Lost world: The relics were discovered on an island on a tributary of the River Jary in Brazil

Greiner and his compatriots had dozens of helpers with them exploring the region bordering French Guyana with a view to populating it for the Reich. They also had their sights on the neighbouring British and Dutch colonies.
They sent back to Berlin details of how a German soldiers should live in Brazil, even though their cover story was that they were collecting specimens of fauna and wildlife. Schulz Kampfhenkel, an officer in the S.S. and leader of the expedition which claimed Greiner’s life, returned from the jungles and submitted to his boss Heinrich Himmler details of the ’Guayana Project.’

A newspaper report of the German expedition in the Amazon

'The two largest scantly populated, but rich in resources, areas on earth are in Siberia and South America,' he wrote to Himmler. 'They alone offer spacious immigration and settlement possibilities for the Nordic peoples.' As Siberia semed likely to fall at that time to China, he recommended colonising Amazonia for 'people without living space.' He added in typically Nazi fashion: 'For the more advanced white race it offers outstanding possibilities for exploitation.'

As befitting an S.S. man who bought wholly into concepts of Nazi race purity he said the people who lived there 'cannot be measured in civilised terms as we known them in Germany.'

With one million German settlers in Brazil already, he argued the seed-corn was already there for the expansion of the Third Reich and that they could secure a 'bridgehead' against American influence in the region.

A film was produced showing the Greiner's work in the jungle in the 1930s
The author found evidence, however, that Himmler had 'scant interest' in his grandiose settlement plans. A Nazi film was made of his travels – but no mention made of the Guayana Project: it remained classified by S.S. intelligence.

'Given time, the plan may be submitted again,' Himmler wrote to his jungle emissary. But his experiences were put to use by the Nazi war machine: he became Nazi Germany’s leading expert in aerial photo-reconnaissance interpretation.

After the war the Americans arrested him and he was placed in a POW camp in Salzburg, Austria. Released, he died in 1989, still dreaming of a German colony amid the rain forests.

Find this story at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080071/Nazi-graveyard-discovered-deep-Amazonian-rainforests.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080071/Nazi-graveyard-discovered-deep-Amazonian-rainforests.html#

Presidents of Latin America Sleeping on CIA Microphones

Nil Nikandrov
http://en.fondsk.ru

While browsing the Web, I learned that President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala had asked the FBI to launch the espionage investigation after 7 unauthorized listening devices and 2 spy cameras had been found in the presidential office and residence.

Similar devices were also found in a hall where the Council of Ministers is used to hold its sessions, and in the offices and home of the country's first lady Sandra Torres. Guatemala`s Vice President Rafael Espada was either unhappy to know he had been eavesdropped- the microphones were hidden in the lamps and in his calculating machine. The information received through bugs and cameras was transmitted to an undefined check point (or points) with the help of special transponders installed in window frames.

The purpose and scale of this operation prove that the participation of qualified professionals (who had agents among the presidential aids) is undeniable. Alvaro Colom was quoted as saying that “We, members of the government, were betrayed by our closest aides”. Though the investigation yet has not begun, the President said drug mafia was behind this eavesdropping campaign. The version received extensive coverage in the local media, and other versions even did not appear.

Nobody dared to remembers that the US CIA had been traditionally involved in such cases. Guatemala knows from its own bitter experience what it is like to deal with the CIA. President of Guatemala Jacobo Arbenz, who ruled the country in 1951-1954, was toppled as a result of a CIA conspiracy. This story has already become a classical example of US successful activity aimed against ''unfriendly'' regimes. Today we can learn practically everything about that large-scale operation after its participations wrote memoirs and the US intelligence services disclosed the archives. The story with the toppled Arbenz left Guatemala without promising reforms and caused long bloody repressions organized by the CIA.

Many years have passed since then, but today the US fears to see the revival of the ideas put forward by Arbenz in the 1950s. The US plans would have been disrupted if an independent politician appeared in Guatemala, able to carry out radical structural reforms like the ones which are now in full swing in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Bolivia. In the last presidential elections in Guatemala, the Bush administration banked on a retired General Otto Perez Molina,who used to actively cooperate with the US special services while promoting counter-guerrilla ideas in Guatemala. Perez is a graduate of the School of the Americas and of the Inter-American Defense College. Between 1998 and 2000 he represented Guatemala on the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington. In other words, for US Molina was the right candidate for presidency in Guatemala but he failed to win.

Alvaro Colom, the winner, makes the US officials nervous. He use to sympathize with the leftist insurgents, worked as an aide at the Secretariat of Peace, supported radical reforms and was known to approve Hugo Chavez`s policies in Venezuela.

The US Embassy officials know that despite his apparent indecisiveness, Colom may suddenly launch any populist-like campaigns. Isn't this enough for the CIA to begin eavesdropping? It is remarkable that Colom himself felt he had been watched and something wrong was with his circles: there were some information leaks, and the issues discussed during confidential talks were reported to alien people. The pieces of information were even covered in the media in order to disrupt the implementation of Colom`s plans.

The President asked Carlos Quintanilla, Director of the Secretary for Security and Administrative Affairs (SAAS, Spanish acronym) to find out how the secret information was leaked but the efforts were in vain. Colom trusted Quintanilla, who had worked as his closest ally for about 10 years, and financed not only his political campaigns but also his family's entertainment in Europe. Quintanilla studied at the military academy but decided not to dedicate himself to the army. He graduated from the George Washington University, where he specialized in national security. Then he often met the US experts and was a frequent guest at the US Embassy in Guatemala City. In other words, Quintanilla was trying to influence Colom`s opinion. The question is whether he had his own interests there? In Guatemala Quintanilla is considered a rich person: he runs several horse- and cattle-breeding companies and is the head of the “Servicious de proteccion particular” security company, which has up to 700 patrol cars of the Mobile Military Police (Policia Militar Ambulante).Quintanilla also runs some other lucrative businesses. So his relationship with Colom, who twice ran for presidency and was not successful, points to some arrangements he had with the US Embassy officials.

After the Colom`s victory, Quintanilla became an influential person in the government. Many leaders of the national law-enforcement and security agencies were appointed by the President after his consultations with Quintanilla, who discussed the candidates at the US Embassy.

The eavesdropping scandal broke soon after the arrival of the US ambassador Stephen McFarland to Guatemala. And that was he who took the major blow. McFarland received such a high post for the first time in his 30-year diplomatic career. Before he used to work in a US consulate in the city of Maracaibo (Venezuela), and worked in the US embassies in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Salvador. As a representative of the US State Department, McFarland observed the political processes in Nicaragua and in Cuba. He served as Chargé d’Affaires in Paraguay and recently in Venezuela, where the Bolivarian propagandists said McFarland “was not the one he pretended to be”. McFarland's biography is also full of military episodes. He studied at the US Air Forces College and the Marine courses. In 2007 he visited Iraq as the head of the US military-civilian team on Iraq reconstruction, which operated under cover of the Marine Unit number 2. McFarland had a solemn farewell dinner at the State Department before leaving for Guatemala. John Negroponte, first Deputy Secretary of State, who until recently has used to be an omnipotent chief of the US national intelligence, also took part in the ceremony.

McFarland publicly commented on the espionage scandal: “This is a complete failure of the Secretary for Security and Administrative Affairs (SAAS). And if asked, we are ready to do our best to name the guilty”. Now the FBI agents are working in Guatemala. The situation makes us think that a mafia case may be viewed as the only possible since the President insists on it. Such kind of an “arrangement” suits both the sides. If a CIA trace becomes evident, a shadow of the rebuking Jacobo Arbenz will return from the distanced 1950s, and the reaction of the Guatemala people will affect the US interests there and on the whole Latin American continent.

In the meantime the President's “security chief” Quintanilla and his right-hand man Gustavo Solano are in hiding. Some people say they managed to move to Mexico, others say they were killed. Rumors are not the best source of information to rely on, you know...

Other presidents of Latin America and members of their families are also under close watch. Microphones and spy cams are hunting for secret and also damaging information. The process is usually said to be effective even if the goal is not achieved. The CIA practice shows that the mixture of lie and truth have a necessary information effect. That is how they used a mythical laptop, which belonged to the dead Commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) Raul Reyes. The laptop was allegedly found by the US and Columbian forces in the destroyed FARC camp in Ecuador. The computer's files contained the ''evidence'' of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian Presidents` relations with the guerrillas. It turned out that Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa “supplied arms to the FARC and thus supported terrorism on the continent”. The laptop allegedly saved some illustrated reports about the meetings between the guerrilla leaders. The fake of the highest quality made by a group of experienced specialists.

Over the past 2 years the presidents of Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela have felt what it was like to be under close watch. The espionage scandal in Guatemala was much spoken about in all presidential residences of Latin America. The security services are busy inspecting all the corners for microphones and cameras. That's really a difficult job to do since only the Princess from Hans Christian Andersen's story could felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.

http://www.tiwy.com/news.phtml?id=130

Hitler planned 'Big Brother' style television to broadcast Nazi propaganda

"The laying of a broadband cable between Berlin and Nuremberg was begun ... Prototype programmes included the filming of executions of supposed traitors to the Nazis and an early reality TV show, depicting the wholesome Aryan life of a young German couple for the rest of the population to model themselves on. ... "

STORY from UK's Daily Mail

Austrian Politico Admits Affair With Right-Wing Haider

The truth comes out! Twenty-seven year old Austrian politician Stefan Petzner admitted this week to having a long-term affair with his recently deceased boss, Jörg Haider (seen in the foreground).

Though it's long been rumored, the murmurs of Haider's homo ways were revived last week after photographers spotted him at a gay bar just minutes before he was involved in a fatal car crash.

Taking Haider's spot as leader of the ultra-right Alliance for the Future of Austria this week, Petzner told a radio host that he and Haider began their relationship a few years ago, but promises that Haider's wife knew about their goings on - and didn't give a hoot:

[Petzner] effectively outed himself as the deceased’s gay lover while being interviewed on an Austrian radio breakfast show.

“I had to go to him. I had to go to him,” Mr Petzner said in his highly emotional interview as he recalled how he rushed to the hospital where the dead body of 52-year-old Haider was lying after his fatal crash in early October.

Admitting that he felt a “magnetic attraction” for Haider, whom he met five years ago while working as a cosmetics reporter, Mr Petzner insisted: “We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship. Jörg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life.”

He insisted that Mr Haider’s widow, Claudia did not object to his relationship: “She loved him as a woman. He loved her as a man. I loved him in a completely different and personal way. She understood that,” Mr Petzner said.

Other sources claim, however, that Mrs. Haider hated that the men spent so much time together.

Meanwhile, Alliance leaders have canceled Petzner's planned interviews in hopes that the scandal will blow over, a prospect that's looking less and less likely.

Oct 22, 2008

Thesis on Nazi Occultism Pulled by University

" ... The thesis, published six months ago and titled Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path, a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis, was submitted as part of a Masters degree by philosophy and religious studies student Roel Van Leeuwen. ... "




Thesis on Neo-Nazism pulled by university
By NICOLA BRENNAN
Waikato Times
06 October 2008

Waikato University has abruptly pulled a student's thesis from its library after complaints from the subject of the research - a right-wing extremist.

The thesis, exploring satanic and neo-Nazi themes, had already been marked and published, earning its author top marks.

It is a highly unusual move to remove a student's work after publication.

The thesis, published six months ago and titled Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path, a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis, was submitted as part of a Masters degree by philosophy and religious studies student Roel Van Leeuwen.

Mr Bolton is a well-known figure both in New Zealand and Australia in the far-right movement, and is a former National Front secretary.

The university's student newspaper, Nexus, reported today the thesis was available to read at the university's library and on-line publishing repository, as recently as two weeks ago.

Nexus reported neither Mr Van Leeuwen nor the thesis co-supervisor, Professor Dov Bing, were notified prior to its sudden removal.

The newspaper said it established that no legal threat had been received against either Mr Van Leeuwen or the University of Waikato. Rather, the thesis was the subject of a mere complaint from Kerry Bolton.

Professor Bing told Nexus the thesis was a first-class piece of work, and was externally moderated by other universities before being published.

The thesis was assessed by two senior academics from other New Zealand universities, Professor Bing said.

They both deemed it to be a first-class piece of research.

Mr Van Leeuwen told Nexus he was surprised that he had not been told that the thesis was being pulled.

Mr Bolton's website shows numerous letters he has sent to the University's Vice Chancellor, Roy Crawford, complaining about the thesis.

Mr Bolton said the thesis "amounts to a poorly contrived smear-document against a private individual, namely myself".

He said the thesis was "ineptly researched" and reading it made him feel literally and physically sick.

He pointed to what he said were numerous flaws in the thesis.

Mr Van Leeuwen said he stood by his work. The thesis had received full-class honours and it was accurate.

Mr Bolton has featured on the self-described Holocaust revisionist Adelaide Institute's website, whose founder and director Fredrick Toben was arrested on October 1 at Heathrow Airport for holocaust denial.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4717961a6402.html

White Supremacists Court U.S. Middle Class

Related: "YAF: Far-right ‘hate group’ members sought, won election in Michigan races"

www.upi.com
Oct. 21, 2008

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Scholars and human rights activists warn that white supremacists groups are again trying to make inroads into the U.S. middle class.

USA Today said Tuesday that neo-Nazis and other race-baiting organizations are beefing up their Internet prowess and taking advantage of the dip in the U.S. economy to pad their membership roles.

At the same time, such groups are also trying to spruce up their images in order to appeal to a wider audience.

"Many white supremacist groups are going more mainstream," said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist who studies hate crime. "The groups realize if they want to be attractive to middle-class types, they need to look middle-class."

One high-profile strategy, the newspaper said, is to link illegal immigrants to gangs and crime in predominantly white, working-class communities. The presidential campaign of Barack Obama has also been a point of contention.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/21/White_supremacists_court_US_middle_class/UPI-90311224619380/

Guns, Dirty Money and French Elite on Trial

Also see: "Rebellion and Repression in Angola’s Diamond Mines"

PARIS October 3, 2008, 02:54 pm ET · (AP) The 468-page French indictment makes seamy reading: secret arms deals feeding bloodshed in an oil-rich African country. Envelopes of cash changing hands in a Paris mansion. A cast of defendants ranging from a debt-ridden tycoon to a Chinese opera singer.

Piece by piece, judicial investigators have spent seven years assembling a searing accusation that penetrates the shadows of a dirty global trade.

Kalashnikov rifles and Soviet-made land mines poured by the planeful into Angola as it fought a civil war. In exchange, Angolan oil flowed to multinational companies. And a pair of savvy negotiators allegedly reaped millions of undeclared dollars in profits.

Their stacks of cash were then doled out to French and Angolan officials given secret code names, in exchange for political and commercial favors, according to the version laid out by French authorities.

On Monday, the case goes to trial in a Paris court.

Though the weapons sent to Angola weren't made in France, French arms vendors, like other major players in the world weapons market, have long been accused of similar machinations.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has pledged to clean up the way his country peddles military materiel abroad, to better compete with the United States, the No. 1 seller. The trafficking trial demonstrates how hard it will be to regulate an industry that prefers to operate out of sight.

Prosecutors allege that corruption in the Angolan arms trading case went to the pinnacle of power in France, starting with a nod from the son of then-President Francois Mitterrand, and growing into a tangle of laundered money and parallel diplomacy that left a stain on France's relations with Africa and on the country's reputation in the global arms market.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and 41 other defendants feature in the climax of what the French dub "Angolagate."

Investigators got wind of wrongdoing after an apartment break-in not far from Paris' Arc de Triomphe in 1997, according to the indictment viewed by The Associated Press.

Three years of digging later, it says, they traced the apartment's ownership back to two men who have taken center stage in this legal drama: Arkady Gaydamak and Pierre Falcone.

Soviet emigre Gaydamak, 56, is an Israeli billionaire who is eyeing the Jerusalem mayor's post and owns Israel's Beitar soccer team. He is named in international arrest warrants issued by France, but Israel historically has not extradited its citizens, so France has not sought his extradition.

Falcone, 54, is an Algerian-born French businessman with oil industry ties. He now serves as Angola's representative to UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural agency, a post that provides him limited diplomatic immunity. He faces many legal cases in France, and spent 11 months in detention during the trafficking probe.

Their names pepper the indictment. Both are accused of illegal weapons sales, influence trafficking, tax evasion, corrupt practices and misuse of company funds, and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Through their attorneys, both deny wrongdoing. Falcone's lawyers are seeking dismissal of the arms trafficking charges, and perhaps the whole case.

In July these lawyers produced a letter from Defense Minister Herve Morin saying there was no reason to prosecute the case in Paris because the weapons never crossed French territory.

Prosecutors disagree, drawing links to a French bank and French companies.

Gaydamak built up a translation service in France in the 1980s and then, as the Soviet empire imploded, used his knowledge of it to capitalize on oil wealth and huge arsenals thrown open to world markets, often at cut-rate prices.

"Our family is very proud of Arkady Gaydamak. All those who know him know that he has every reason to be proud of what he has done, what he has done for France," his wife, Irina Tsirulnikova, told the AP by telephone from her Paris apartment. She would not comment on the charges against him, nor would his office in Jerusalem.

The indictment says French and Russian intelligence services had suspected illegal activity by Falcone and Gaydamak as far back as 1996.

Angola in the early 1990s was among the world's poorest, sickest and hungriest places, ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 1979 and became a Cold War proxy conflict between the Marxist government of Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, aided by Cuban soldiers, and the UNITA rebels of U.S.- and South Africa-backed Jonas Savimbi.

Dos Santos was looking for weapons to hold back UNITA's territorial gains. But France and others shied away from selling arms to a country at war. Dos Santos had no money, but he had oil.

French investigators say Gaydamak hooked up with Falcone, and the two enlisted Jean-Christophe Mitterrand to put them in touch with the Angolan leader. Mitterrand had served as Africa adviser to his father, then the president of France.

Via a Slovak company called ZTS-OSOS that they controlled, Gaydamak and Falcone arranged for military goods to be dispatched, mostly from Russian arms depots, to Angola starting in 1993, according to the indictment.

Dos Santos' shopping list was long: more than 44,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 170,000 anti-personnel mines, 30,000 grenades, 500 grenade launchers, 420 tanks, and more.

Dos Santos regained the offensive in city-by-city battles in a country nearly twice the size of Texas. Survivors in the city of Kuito recall 1992-93 as "the time we ate our dogs," and a decade later still had no electricity or running water. Land mines rendered swaths of the fertile country uninhabitable.

Investigators say arms supplies from ZTS-OSOS continued through 2000, for a total worth $791 million.

Mitterrand, 61, says he is "totally innocent," that he was merely consulting a French business interested in Angola, using contacts built during his years as Africa adviser. "I never discussed arms with Mr. Falcone," he said on France-Info radio this week. "The case rests on nothing."

But the case is not just about weapons sales.

Other defendants include politicians of the left and right as well as Charles Pasqua, France's one-time top cop; Chinese opera singer Alexandre Jia; Jean-Noel Tassez, a tycoon with a huge Monte Carlo casino debt; and Paul-Loup Sulitzer, a novelist who specializes in tales of espionage and organized crime.

Most are accused of "receiving misused funds" from Brenco International, a company Falcone controlled. Investigators say these undeclared gifts came in the form of cash, armored cars, French Riviera real estate, trips to Las Vegas, even private medical care.

According to the indictment, Falcone told investigators the money was spent to "facilitate things, not to buy people."

The accusations span continents and bank accounts in Geneva, Moscow, Sao Paolo, the British Virgin Islands. The indictment relies heavily on ledgers kept by Falcone's personal secretary, Isabelle Delubac, with entries such as: "Robert - Luanda - Nov 97 - 300000 US."

In depositions cited in the indictment, other secretaries described greeting influential visitors to Brenco's tony Paris offices while Delubac went into the basement to fetch envelopes of cash.

When the probe began under the presidency of conservative Jacques Chirac, who had succeeded the Socialist Mitterrand, many thought the case would never get to trial. Prosecutors annulled part of the probe in 2001 for procedural reasons, but later reopened it.

Sarkozy won election last year in part by pledging to rip up traditions of the past, including those dictating French relations with Africa and the arms sector.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95351860

From The Sub-Universe of "Conservative" Jingoists in the Blogosphere: The Center for Security Policy & a Front, The Family Security Foundation

You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas - you've just crossed over into ... The Conservative Zone ...

Right-wing pundit Bob Parks of the Family Security Foundation sounds off on the scourge of liberalism that - according to the orchestrated ultra-con programming campaign - supposedly led to the "outrageous" conviction of Scooter Libby:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1048786


Only The Insane Go To Washington
Author: Bob Parks
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: June 11, 2007

According to the liberal mindset, Richard Armitage didn’t mean to ”out” Valerie Plame, so he shouldn’t have been pursued, but Scooter Libby, who experienced a memory lapse, should rot in jail. FSM Contributing Editor Bob Parks dissects this outrageous miscarriage of justice.

Only The Insane Go To Washington
By Bob Parks

During the last few months, many people have jokingly, and not so jokingly, suggested I run for President of the United States. I’ve politely blown them off. As I believe I am a sane person, I see very little upside to the atmosphere that is Washington D.C.

I was going to write extensively about the miscarriage of justice that was the Scooter Libby “trial”. But it’s really a simple case. This is how I saw things after the verdict was made public….

Liberals: Are ya happy now? ...
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1048786
•••••••
The Family Security Foundation and the Family Security Matters (a Center for Security Policy front) website:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Security_Matters

Family Security Matters is a conservative front group that claims to represent "security moms" and supports President George W. Bush.

Following an appearance on Fox News, Media Matters for America noted that "Family Security Matters (FSM) is a front group for the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a conservative Washington think tank "committed to the time-tested philosophy of promoting international peace through American strength." (The phone number listed on the FSM website is answered by the CSP.) [1]

Mission

FSM states on its website that its mission: "Our mission is to inform all Americans, men and women, about the issues surrounding national security; to address their fears about safety and security on a personal, family, community, national and international level; to highlight the connection between individual safety and a strong national defense; to increase civic participation and political responsibility; and to empower all Americans to become proactive defenders of our national security and community safety.

Staff

• Carol A. Taber, President, Founder
• Linda G. Cohen, Executive Vice President
• Nancy Kennon, Director of Operations
• Molly McCarroll, Editorial Director
• Tracy Lawler, General Manager

Board of Directors

As of June 2006, the website listed the board of directors as:

• Carol A. Taber, President, Family Security Foundation, Inc., publisher of familysecuritymatters.org; former Executive Vice President, Group Publisher, Lang Communications, Inc.

• Amanda C. Bowman, President of the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License; New York Director of Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy.

• Linda Cohen, Member of the Leadership Santa Fe program, appointed to the Santa Fe Planning Commission, serves as trustee on the New Mexico Board of the Anti-Defamation League, member of the International Women's Forum and the Santa Fe Community College Foundation Board.

• Dale W. Lang, Former Chairman of Lang Communications, Inc., senior executive at the 3M Corporation; owner and manager of national magazines, local television stations and major outdoor advertising enterprises.

• Edward A. Taber, III, Executive Vice President, Legg Mason/Institutional Asset Management; former President, Prime Reserve Fund, T. Rowe Price.

Contributing Editors

• Molly McCarroll, Editorial Director
• Alex Alexiev
• Walter Anderson
• Jed Babbin
• Colonel Jeff Bearor(Ret)
• Phyllis Chesler
• Ian M. Cuthbertson
• Katharine DeBrecht
• John Dendahl
• Brigitte Gabriel
• Christopher Holton
• Susan Konig
• Harvey Kushner
• Joan Harrold Messner
• Charles Mitchell
• Joel Mowbray
• Walid Phares
• Ben Shapiro
• W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
• Cinnamon Stillwell
• Tim Wilson
• Contributing Editors

Former staff

• Gay Bryant, Editor, Founder

Contact details

Family Security Matters
1920 L Street, N.W. 
Washington, D.C. 20036 
Web: http://www.familysecuritymatters.com/

External links

• "FOX's 'security mom' expert spouted Bush-Cheney talking points," Media Matters for America, September 29, 2004.
•••••••
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Security_Policy

Center for Security Policy was founded in 1988 and states that it operates as a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to the time-tested philosophy of promoting international peace through American strength. [1]"

According to their web site, "The Center specializes in the rapid preparation and real-time dissemination of information, analyses and policy recommendations via e-mail distribution; computerized fax; its exciting, redesigned Web site; published articles; and the electronic media. The principal audience for such materials is the U.S. security policy-making community (the executive and legislative branches, the armed forces and appropriate independent agencies), corresponding organizations in key foreign governments, the press (domestic and international), the global business and financial community and interested individuals in the public at large."

A very influential organization with the Center for Security Policy is the Center's National Security Advisory Council, whose members hold senior positions with the Bush administration.

Center for Security Policy has strong ties with the Republican Party with many members serving senior posts in the Reagan administration and George W. Bush administration. Donald Rumsfeld, currect Secretary of Defense under Bush, is a receipient of the the Center's Keeper of the Flame Award. The Center is not shy in touting its strong ties with the U.S. Government. [2][3]

• Elliott Abrams, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations
• Devon Gaffney Cross, member, Defense Policy Board
• Jack D. Crouch II, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy; nominated January 31, 2005, to be Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
• Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., former Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• Kenneth deGraffenreid, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Support
• Paula J. Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
• Douglas J. Feith, former Chairman of the Center's Board of Directors, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
• Evan Galbraith, Secretary of Defense's Representative to Europe
• Robert Joseph, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense
• Sven Kraemer, Policy Advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
• Keith Payne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Forces Policy
• Richard Perle, Chairman of the Defense Policy Board
• Roger W. Robinson, Jr., Commissioner, U.S.-China Security Review Commission
• James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force
• William Schneider, Jr., Chairman of the Defense Science Board
• Wayne Schroeder, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Resource Planning and Management
• Michelle Van Cleave, Assistant Secretary of Defense-designate for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict
• Jose Sorzano, member, Board of Visitors, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the School of the Americas)
• Arthur Waldron, Commissioner, U.S.-China Security Review Commission
• Gov. Pete Wilson, member, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
• Dov Zakheim, Under Secretary of Defense; Comptroller
• Caroline B. Glick the senior Middle East fellow and the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post

Contents

• 1 Board of Directors
• 2 Board of Regents
• 3 Staff
• 4 Personnel
• 5 Donors
• 6 Related SourceWatch Resources
• 7 External References
• 8 Contact Information

Board of Directors

• James T. de Graffenreid, President, EEI Communications
• Terry Elkes, Principal & Co-Owner, Apollo Partners, LLC
• Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President, Center for Security Policy
• Lt. Col. Marlin L. Hefti, USMC (Ret.), Vice President, Van Scoyoc Associates
• Dr. Charles M. Kupperman, Vice President, Strategic Intergration & Operations, Missile Defense Systems, The Boeing Company
• Hon. Dominic J. Monetta, President, Resource Alternatives, Inc.
• David P. Steinmann, Managing Director, American Securities, L.P.
[edit]
Board of Regents
Responsible for Center's financial development.
• Terry Elkes, Chairman Apollo Partners, NewYork
• Martin Cohen Cohen & Steers, NewYork
• Blair Fenster stock Fensterstock & Partners, New York
• Bruce Gelb Former Director, US Information Agency and U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, New York
• Eugene Grant Eugene M. Grant & Company, New York
• Lawrence Kadish New York
• David Luke III Former Chairman, Westvaco Corporation, NewYork
• Richard Mack, Chairman of the Regents Council Apollo Realestate LP, New York
• Abby Moffatt Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation, Washington, DC
• Ebby Moussazadeh Matrix Corporation, New York
• Shirley Lord Rosenthal New York
• Nina Rosenwald American Securities LP, New York
• Michael Sall Dunvegan Holding Corporation, Philadelphia
• Stephen Siegel CB Richard Ellis, New York
• Barbara Winston

Staff

• Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President.
• Michael Reilly, Chief Operating Officer
• Alex Alexiev, Vice President for Research.
• J. Michael Waller, Ph.D., Vice President for Information Operations.
• Christopher Holton, Vice President for Administration, Marketing & Development.
• David McCormack, Senior Research Associate.
• Lisa Firestone, Executive Assistant to the President.
• Robert T. McLean, Research Associate.
• Jenna Stocker, Research Associate.
• Eric Sayers, Editorial Assistant.

Personnel

• Dick Cheney, Vice President of the U.S. under George W. Bush, was an early member of Center's Board of Advisors (which is now called the National Security Advisory Council).
• "twenty-two CSP advisers -- including additional Reagan-era remnants like Elliott Abrams, Ken deGraffenreid, Paula Dobriansky, Sven Kraemer, Robert Joseph, Robert Andrews and J.D. Crouch -- have reoccupied key positions in the national security establishment, as have other true believers of more recent vintage."

..."While CSP boasts an impressive advisory list of hawkish luminaries, its star is Frank Gaffney, its founder, president and CEO."

..."Gaffney and CSP's prescriptions for national security have been fairly simple: Gut all arms control treaties, push ahead with weapons systems virtually everyone agrees should be killed, give no quarter to the Palestinians and, most important, go full steam ahead on just about every national missile defense program."

..."Looking at the center's affiliates, it's not hard to see why: Not only are makers of the Osprey (Boeing) well represented on the CSP's board of advisers but so too is Lockheed Martin (by vice president for space and strategic missiles Charles Kupperman and director of defense systems Douglas Graham). Former TRW executive Amoretta Hoeber is also a CSP adviser, as is former Congressman and Raytheon lobbyist Robert Livingston. Ball Aerospace & Technologies -- a major manufacturer of NASA and Pentagon satellites -- is represented by former Navy Secretary John Lehman, while missile-defense computer systems maker Hewlett-Packard is represented by George Keyworth, who is on its board of directors. And the Congressional Missile Defense Caucus and Osprey (or "tilt rotor") caucus are represented by Representative Curt Weldon and Senator Jon Kyl." [4]

Donors

Donations to the Center have come from a variety of conservative foundations such as: The Smith Richardson Foundation, The Sarah Scaife Foundation, The Carthage Foundation, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation. [5]

Related SourceWatch Resources

• JINSA
• National Institute for Public Policy
• National Security Advisory Council
• Neo-conservative
• Project for the New American Century
• Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000

External References

• Coming Soon: Total War On the Middle East, Jason Vest, The Nation, August 29, 2002.

Contact Information

The Center For Security Policy
Suite 210
1920 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: (202) 835-9077
Fax: (202) 835-9066

Email: info@centerforsecuritypolicy.org
Web: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/
Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Security_Policy"

Student Tracks Down Nazi War Crimes Suspect

Also see: Death squad Nazi faces justice at age of 86, Telegraph, 10-16-08

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1581518/Death-squad-Nazi-faces-justice-at-age-of-86.html

www.telegraph.co.uk

German authorities are investigating a suspected Nazi war criminal after he was tracked down by a student working on a university project.

21 Oct 2008

The 89-year-old former member of the notorious Waffen SS, whose name cannot be revealed for legal reasons, is accused of participating in the murder of 60 Jewish slave workers in 1945.

The massacre took place in Deutsch Schuetzen in Austria and the victims were buried in a mass grave which was only discovered in 1995.

The name of the man first occurred in a trial in 1946, where witnesses claimed he took part in the execution. He was however never charged and returned to his home in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia where he still lives under his real name.

Andreas Foster, 27, a student of political science in Vienna, was researching the case for an university project and acquired documents on the man from German archives. After realising that authorities never attempted to arrest the man, he managed to track him down by a simple search in the telephone directory.

"The Waffen SS man was mentioned by name in court files and other documents and his identity has been known since 1946," said Mr Foster.

He alerted his university mentor, Professor Walter Manoschek, who then travelled to Germany unannounced and visited the alleged war criminal and interviewed him on camera. In the interviews, the man claimed not to be able to remember anything about the massacre but confirmed that he was stationed on the site as a member of the SS at the time when it happened.
Prof Manoschek then compiled a file on the case, including the video tapes, and sent it to German prosecutors who have now opened an investigation.

"We will examine and evaluate the vast amount of material and interview the possible witnesses," a spokesman for the prosecutors in charge of Nazi war crimes said.

Prof Manoschek also tracked down two former members of the Hitler Youth who were convicted for their role in the massacre in 1946 and both of them confirmed they knew the man. Other witnesses Professor Manoschek spoke to claimed they saw the man shoot other Jewish prisoners as the German army was fleeing the allies in 1945 because they were unable to march due to exhaustion.

"The astonishing thing is that the man has never made any attempts to hide his identity and he was very easy to find. He appeared in a very good shape, both mentally and physically. The question authorities now have to answer is why they never initiated an investigation," said Prof Manoschek.

He and his student have so far gathered a vast amount of historic material about the case, including interviews with the alleged war criminal, court files and witnesses' accounts, and are now looking for funding to produce a documentary film about their findings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/3235666/Student-tracks-down-Nazi-war-crimes-suspect.html

Bush chooses to keep Guantánamo open, officials say

By Steven Lee Myers
International Herald Tribune
Monday, October 20, 2008

WASHINGTON: Despite his stated desire to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, President George W. Bush has decided not to do so, and never considered proposals drafted in the State Department and the Pentagon that outlined options for transferring the detainees elsewhere, according to senior administration officials. ...

STORY CONTINUES

Rebellion and Repression in Angola’s Diamond Mines

By Sokari Ekine
www.africanpath.com
October 17, 2008

The Portuguese-language media is reporting that a rebellion took place last week against a number of diamond mining companies in the Curango municipality in north-east Angola. The rebellion by mine workers was started after some unlicensed diamond miners were expelled, was brutally repressed by security forces working for the mining multinationals. The police report one person has been killed and over 120 people have been arrested. However human rights defenders are saying that there are at least five deaths and over 400 people have been detained.

One of the companies involved in the brutality is Luminas, which is owned partly by Israeli billionaire and settlement magnate, Lev Leviev. This is not the first time that security forces working for Leviev’s have been involved in violence against mine workers in Angola.

Africa: Leviev’s alliance with Angola’s central government, which won the country’s civil war, led to his gaining primary control of the country’s rough-diamond supply in 2000. A security company contracted by Leviev was accused this year by a local human-rights monitor of participating in practices of “humiliation, whipping, torture, sexual abuse, and, in some cases, assassinations.”

Leviev’s formal response to the report did not directly address the abuses but touted his charitable activities in Angola.

In another connected story, members of the French government and businessmen are presently on trial in France for supplying illegal arms to Angola during the country’s civil war which was largely financed by diamonds. The monies involved in the diamond mines controlled by Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA, were huge for example in a six year period $3.7billion as were the number of people killed, wounded, raped and displaced - putting an added meaning to Blood Diamonds.

http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=6243

Andy Martin: The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama

" ... He prepared to run as a Democrat for Congress in Connecticut, where paperwork for one of his campaign committees listed as one purpose 'to exterminate Jew power.' ... [Martin] wrote of Mr. Obama, 'it may well be that his concealment is meant to endanger Israel.' He added, 'His Muslim religion would obviously raise serious questions in many Jewish circles.' Yet in various court papers, Mr. Martin had impugned Jews. ... ”

STORY

The Far-Right and a Chilling Wake-Up Call to all of Europe

" ... In Estonia, a memorial complex for Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian Waffen SS men who fought against the Red Army has been put up with EU sponsorship. ... "


As nearly 30% of Austrian voters back the extremists ... The far-Right and a chilling wake-up call to all of Europe
By MARK ALMOND
29th September 2008

The dramatic surge in votes for the radical Right in Austria's general election has set alarm bells ringing all over Europe.

Almost one-in-three Austrians voted at the weekend for one of two far-Right parties. The first is headed by a candidate who used to attend paramilitary rallies where members dressed up in outlawed fascist uniforms; the second is led by a man who praised the wartime service of Waffen SS men.

Both parties campaigned on anti-immigration and anti-European Union platforms and their success has delivered a stunning blow to Austria's centrist political establishment.

Austria is, of course, the country of Hitler's birth and any sign of a fascist revival serves as an unnerving reminder of this fact. While Germany has largely overcome the darkest pages of its history by laying them bare and facing up to its past, Austria never underwent this catharsis. The country is still in denial and has fought to gloss over or even lie about its unsavoury role in the rise of the Third Reich.

Its people have always maintained Austria was a victim of the 1938 Hitler's Anschluss, when German troops simply marched in and annexed the country. The truth is that the Nazis were welcomed with open arms. Of course there were Austrians who opposed Hitler and despised the Nazis. But The Sound of Music's von Trapp Family, who loathed and fled from a Nazi-occupied Austria, were the exception rather than the rule.

For decades, this fetid Nazi can of worms has been kept successfully buried. But occasionally, it pops up inconveniently. There was the storm over Kurt Waldheim some 20 years ago, for example, when the Austrian President and former UN Secretary General was shown to have lied to cover up his wartime service in Hitler's army of occupation in the Balkans.

Then, in the general election of 1999, the far-Right Freedom Party, under the leadership of Jorg Haider, took a quarter of the votes and joined a conservative coalition government. Austria suffered international isolation and its pariah status was quickly underlined when Europe imposed sanctions. Support for Haider's far-Right slumped in subsequent elections, but now he is back [well, dead, actually, since the publication of this aticle] and the Austrian establishment is once again suffering convulsions.

Leading a new party, The Alliance for the Future of Austria, Haider took 11 per cent of the vote this weekend.

One of his former party colleagues, Heinz-Christian Strache - who founded his own far-Right Freedom Party - took 18 per cent.

Both these men have distinctly murky pasts. Haider's parents were Nazis and in 1991 he had to resign as governor of the Austrian state of Carinthia after praising the employment policies of the Third Reich.

In a debate in the regional parliament, a speaker had attacked Haider's plan of reducing unemployment payments for people seen as 'freeloaders', calling it forced work placement reminiscent of Nazi policies.

Haider replied, 'It would not be like the Third Reich, because the Third Reich developed a proper employment policy, which your government in Vienna has not once produced.'

A few years later, he said the Nazi SS was 'a part of the German army which should be honoured'.

Strache, meanwhile, has been tainted by photographs which show him attending militant gatherings of neo-Nazi groups.

Like Haider, Strache appeals to a sense in Vienna of being 'swamped' by migrants and demands that they be repatriated - not least because the downturn in economic conditions will mean everyone competing for a dwindling pool of jobs.

He has campaigned for a ban on all Islamic dress saying it makes women look like 'female ninjas' - a pejorative reference to Japanese martial arts experts in camouflage. He also wants to overturn laws banning the display of Nazi symbols such as the swastika.

But why have these two ogres of the Right suddenly risen to prominence? For decades Austria has been run on a cosy consensus between the two main parties, one ever so slightly centre-left and the other just a little right of centre. So long as things went well economically, then the Austrian Socialists and the People's Party routinely shared out 80 per cent plus of the votes between them. Now as times get tough, the old politics no longer work.

As inflation, the credit crunch, immigration and the unaccountable EU become issues that the big parties don't seem able to deal with adequately, the radical Right-wing leaders have attracted growing support.

And worryingly, it would be a mistake to see what has happened in Austria as just a local phenomenon. What should concern us is whether the country is setting a European trend. After all it is not just in Austria that the respectable big parties - with their liberal consensus politics - have come to resemble each other like peas in a pod.

It is not just Austria which - under the pressure of unprecedented waves of immigration - has begun to ask whether its national identity can survive.
For all the sound and fury of party conference season here, can you slip a cigarette paper between Gordon Brown's approach to the credit crunch and that of David Cameron, or Nick Clegg?

Across Europe, consensus has ruled politics since the 1980s. It made sense for a generation but now Europe is buffeted by economic storms not seen since the 1930s. Add to that the growing voter disillusionment with an EU to which the political class remains wedded, and you have a profound loss of confidence in the main political parties.

For decades the EU has justified itself as being the body through which Europeans can put the horrors of the Nazi period behind us. Yet ironically on Sunday anti-EU feeling was one of the reasons for the Right-wing surge in Austria. The implosion of the main parties' vote in Austria should be a wake-up call across Europe. Political consensus and prosperity have bred complacency and arrogance among Europe's mainstream politicians.

Throughout Europe there are signs of a resurgent Right. In Italy, the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, recently praised Benito Mussolini as an inspired architect who modernised the country.

In Estonia, a memorial complex for Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian Waffen SS men who fought against the Red Army has been put up with EU sponsorship.

Certainly, Austria has its Nazi skeletons but other countries are not immune from a resurgent Right - as this year's rise of the BNP in local elections in this country clearly showed.

• Mark Almond is a lecturer in modern history at oriel College, Oxford

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1064517/As-nearly-30-Austrian-voters-extremists--The-far-Right-chilling-wake-Europe.html

Italian politicians 'made fascist salutes' during tribute to Jews

" ... The city's Jewish community has been unnerved by the political background of the newly-elected mayor, Gianni Alemanno, who once led a neo-fascist youth party. ... "

Two Italian politicians were accused of displaying the stiff-armed fascist salute on Friday as Rome paid tribute to the more than 1,000 Jews to deported to Nazi concentration camps 65 years ago.


By Nick Squires In Rome
19 Oct 2008

The allegation came as graffiti questioning the veracity of the attempted extermination of Europe's Jews was daubed on a bridge on the outskirts of the capital.

"The Holocaust is the biggest lie in history," one slogan read, signed by a neo-Nazi group calling itself 'Militia'.

Last month the same group defaced the walls of a historic cemetery, calling the speaker of Italy's Senate, Renato Schifani, a "Jew" for having paid a visit to Auschwitz.

The two politicians, city councillors from the People of Freedom Party of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, allegedly raised their arms in a Mussolini-style salute as colleagues passed a motion of solidarity with Rome's surviving Jews.

Their actions caused uproar in the council chamber, with colleagues yelling "Shame on you".

The controversy took place in the oddly named suburb of EUR (Esposizione universale romana), a monument to fascist architecture conceived under Mussolini's rule in the 1930s.

Pietrangelo Massaro and Paolo Pollak denied the accusations, calling them "loathsome".

But opposition councillors stood by their claims. "I clearly saw the two councillors stretch out their right arms and make the fascist salute," Vincenzo Del Poggetto told La Repubblica.

His account was backed up by several colleagues. "I saw them with my own eyes raise their arms," said Augusto Culasso. "It was an extremely worrying episode." Of the 1,022 Jews who were deported from Rome to Nazi death camps in 1943, only 15 survived.

The city's Jewish community has been unnerved by the political background of the newly-elected mayor, Gianni Alemanno, who once led a neo-fascist youth party.

When he was elected in April, his supporters celebrated with straight-arm salutes, fascist chants and cries of "Duce! Duce!" – the name adopted by Mussolini.

But since assuming office Mr Alemanno has gone out of his way to portray a moderate image and embrace Rome's Jews, attending community events and meeting rabbis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/3219618/Two-Italian-politians-made-fascist-salutes-during-tribute-to-Jews.html

High Pressure to Fabricate Racak Reports

arirusila.blogactiv.eu
Posted by AriRusila on 20/10/08

Helena Ranta

Forensic dentist Helena Ranta says that officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs had tried to influence the content of her reports in 2000, when Ranta was commissioned by the European Union to investigate the events of Racak in Kosovo. Ranta put forward her allegations on Wednesday October 15th at the publication of her biography in Helsinki.

More than 40 Albanians were killed in the village of Racak in January 1999. The investigation by Ranta’s working group was very charged from the beginning. It was commonly assumed that Serb forces had perpetrated a massacre, which helped persuade NATO to launch bombings of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. According to Ranta, in the winter of 1999 William Walker, the head of the OSCE Kosovo monitoring mission, broke a pencil in two and threw the pieces at her when she was not willing to use language about the Serbs.sufficiently strong language about the Serbs. (Source HS 15/10/2008)

There is a widespread belief, that Walker’s role in Racak was to assist the KLA in fabricating a Serb massacre that could be used as an excuse for military action. The theory was that the KLA had gathered their own dead after the battle, removed their uniforms, put them in civilian clothes, and then called in the observers.

Walker’s background

Walker was U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in November 1989 when six leading Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were dragged from their beds and murdered by the Salvadoran Army. The killings were carried out by the Atlacatl Battalion, which was recruited, trained, and deployed by the U.S. military, supposedly in order to improve the Salvadoran Army’s human rights performance. The Atlacatl was responsible for the worst atrocities of the entire war.

Walker first emerged in the Iran-Contra Scandal as the right-hand man of Oliver North and Elliott Abrams in illegal arms shipments to the Contras out of Ilopango airbase in El Salvador. Before that, he was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Honduras when U.S. authorities were recruiting officers from Somoza’s deposed National Guard to establish the Contras, and forming military death squads that murdered hundreds of Honduran workers, labor organizers and students. Information about Mr. Walker’s background one may find e.g. from article “Meet Mister Massacre” by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi here.

Some remarks

Biography of Mrs. Ranta is one more example about political aspect in modern time’s information wars. Similar examples from last year are interview of former Haague Tribunal spokeswoman Florence Hartmann (see my article “Opening Bosnian X-files” 12th Aug.2008 from my BlogArchive ) - as well the book of her former boss del Ponte describing e.g. organ trafficking of Serb civils by Albanian mafia - are giving quite disgusting picture about “realpolitik” behind noble statements of international community.

With this kind of now public exposures I would like to draw quite clear conclusion which is that latest mid-90s the western powers had decided heir position against the Serbs.

First there was case of Srebrenica July 1995, which launched publicly US support to Bosnian Muslims with claims of massacre of 8000 civilians (later few thousand was found, some of them were died years before, some of those 8000 returned alive few years later etc).

Second they were silent about massive ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Krajina (more in my article “Operation Storm” 5th Aug.2008 here) .

Third there was Racak case which launched Nato bombings 1999.

The story - manipulation public by mainstream media with fabricated reports for political aims - continued later this decade in Iraq operation and partly Georgia case (stories started with Russian invasion 8th Aug.2008 when in reality Georgia made attack to civil targets 7th Aug.2008, also fabricated pictures of Reuters came soon pubic).

After all this it is hard to believe on the other hand to official reports of states/international organizations and on the other hand the neutral or investigative journalism in sc. free press. Especially alarming it is now to read reports about nuclear program of Iran - what is true and are big players again starting new unnecessary war with false evidence.

http://arirusila.blogactiv.eu/2008/10/20/high-pressure-to-fabricate-racak-reports/

VOTESCAM - LA Times: California Voters Contend they were Duped into Registering as Republicans

Click moi.

Ron Paul Addresses Birch Society Nazi Front

Also see: "The Early Days of the John Birch Society: Fascist Templars of the Corporate State" (scroll down)

BY BRIAN FARMER
09 OCTOBER 2008

Dr. Ron Paul, Texas congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, was the featured speaker Saturday evening, October 4 on the final day of the John Birch Society's 50th Anniversary Celebration. The topic of his keynote address was "Restoring the Republic: Lessons From a Presidential Campaign," in which he lectured the audience on how our republic can be restored with groups such as the John Birch Society (JBS) and his own Campaign for Liberty leading the way.

During his introduction, JBS President John McManus explained that Dr. Paul was known as "Dr. No" on Capitol Hill because he had voted against so much unconstitutional legislation over the years. When Dr. Paul took the podium, he said that his wife had reassured him that it was okay to have that nickname, as long as everyone understood that it was spelled with a "K"!

Dr. Paul made evident his affection for the JBS by stating at the outset, "I am delighted to help celebrate this birthday." And when he moved on to talk about his first successful campaign for Congress in 1976, he said, "I'm sure there are people in this room who probably helped me in that campaign, because I know that so many of you have over the years." He then described his first press conference at the Capitol Hill Club, during which an antagonist from Houston asked him, "Mr. Paul, are you a member of the John Birch Society? Have you ever been a member of the John Birch Society?"

Dr. Paul recalled his response: "No, I am not a member of the John Birch Society but many members of the John Birch Society are friends of mine and they have been very helpful in my campaign."

In reviewing his 2008 presidential campaign, Dr. Paul stated that he was reluctant to run in the primaries, despite being urged by many to do so, because he did not feel that enough preparatory work had been done. But he was surprised to see the response at the rallies, especially from the young people. He gave credit to the JBS for keeping alive the freedom fight through its programs to educate and motivate the American people. He went on to point out that the JBS had planted a lot of seeds over the years and that his presidential campaign was able to tap into the sentiment that sprouted from those efforts.

Not only were Dr. Paul's campaign rallies bigger and more positive than he had expected, but he marveled at the varied background of his supporters, who came from all parts of the political spectrum. From this, he concluded that freedom is popular and brings people together. The antithesis of freedom is big government, which causes people to divide into groups and to fight against each other for a bigger share of the pie, or to push the burden of government from one group onto another.

Throughout his speech, Dr. Paul kept referring to "the remnant," which he described as those who remember and respect the values upon which the United States was founded: self-reliance, personal responsibility, limited government, sound money, the gold standard, etc. He claimed that the important role the JBS has played was to nurture that remnant and added, "The remnant holds the truth together, both the religious truth and the political truth."

As the eldest presidential candidate, Dr. Paul was curious to find out why so many young people were joining his campaign. The most frequent responses he got ranged from the very general, "It sounded like you were the only one telling the truth" (which wasn't real reassuring!) to the more specific, "I liked it when you talked about the Constitution." Dr. Paul was encouraged by that because it meant that a new generation would keep alive the values of "the remnant" and continue the freedom fight. Young people believe that Social Security will not be there for them because they understand how the system works, which was why "End the Fed!" was the most oft-heard chant at his rallies.

Being a Fed gadfly, it was not surprising that Dr. Paul spent some time discussing the recent financial crisis and bailout. He found no satisfaction in seeing many of his forecasts coming true, but it has allowed him to get more face time on television news shows. Pundits challenged his opposition to the bailout with statements such as, "Surely you can't believe that we should do nothing." Dr. Paul's response was that the federal government should return to sound money and lower taxes, and take more care in regulating the regulators. He pointed out that we got into this mess because of too much government spending, too much debt, too much inflation, and too much regulation. Now we are being told that the solution is more of the same!

Dr. Paul recalled the hugely successful Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis and the JBS presence there, with President John McManus as one of the featured speakers. He also complimented the JBS on the big turnout at their annivesary celebration, pointedly mentioning that several extra rooms had been set up to accommodate the overflow crowd. He exhorted the audience to "continue what you have been doing," and concluded with, "I come with a positive message and congratulations to you for all you have done. Congratulations and thank you very much for having me tonight."

Click here to watch Ron Paul's keynote address at the JBS 50th anniversary.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/409

Nuremberg Trials: Big Pharma's Crimes Against Humanity

NaturalNews
http://www.naturalnews.com/024534.html
October 18, 2008

After World War Two, scores of suspected Nazi war criminals were prosecuted by the Allies in the Palace of Justice in the city of Nuremberg, the birth-place of the Nazi Party. The defendants were drawn not just from the military, but also from medical, judicial, administrative, industrial, and other sectors of the German war machine.

Among the industrial prisoners charged with crimes against humanity were 24 managers of IG Farben, an organization without whom, according to U.S. Chief Prosecutor Telford Taylor, the Second World War would not have been possible.

In 1925, IG Farben, Interessengemeinschaft Farben, (Association of Common Interests), became a powerful cartel of German chemical and pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer (the aspirin manufacturer), BASF, AGFA, and Hoechst (now known as Aventis.) By 1933, the IG Farben group had become the largest chemical and pharmaceutical corporation in the world. And even today, although it doesn't use the name IG Farben, its companies remain the most powerful transnationals on the planet in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and agro-chemicals.

The IG Farben cartel was crucial to the Nazi war effort by supplying synthetic fuel, rubber, and other chemicals. They also manufactured Zyklon-B, the nerve gas used to kill millions at the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau and elsewhere. The cartel, later known as the Devil's Chemists, used unwilling inmates of the concentration camps as slave labourers and guinea pigs to test chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. Tens of thousands died, and those who became too ill to be of any use were murdered in the gas chambers.

IG Farben worked closely with the Nazi regime and the SS and were perhaps the most important dynamic in driving the Nazi war machine, donating some 80 million Reichsmarks in return for chemical, pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries seized from occupied countries. Yet they could not have gotten to a position of such power without huge investment from John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company. Together with Rockefeller they set up a company called Standard IG Farben.

Although he knew it would be used for war purposes, Rockefeller was able to organize a shipment of 500 tons of tetraethyl lead to IG Farben in 1938 which the Luftwaffe needed for aviation fuel. Amazingly, a year later, with war about to break out, he supplied them with up to 20 million dollars of tetraethyl lead which directly enabled Hitler to start the War by attacking Poland and France.

Even as late as 1942 he supplied the Nazis with oil diverted through Switzerland and refuelled German submarines in the Channel Islands. When charged under the "Trading With The Enemy" Act, Rockefeller got away with a 'slap on the wrist' (5,000 dollar fine) when President Roosevelt abruptly halted the investigation at the behest of the War Department. (The unpatriotic Rockefeller had threatened to stop supplying the U.S. with crucial supplies of war-time oil.)

IG Farben went on to build the largest industrial complex in Europe at Auschwitz to manufacture chemicals and explosives for the German war effort. The venture was financed by Deutsche Bank to the tune of almost one billion Reichsmarks. This complex, known as IG Auschwitz, covered some 24 square kilometers including the Auschwitz concentration camp from which it drew on a huge pool of slave labour. IG Farben directors were instrumental in turning this huge complex into the largest extermination camp in human history.

On a number of occasions, when orders were given by the Allies to bomb the complex, Rockefeller used his influence through John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War (who was a former legal counselor to IG Farben), to cancel the bombing raids, much to the chagrin of some of the Allied commanders. Furthermore, not one bomb fell on IG Farben's Headquarters back in Germany, at Frankfurt. Astounding, at a time when German industrial cities were widely bombed and pulverized, including Frankfurt itself.

At the Nuremberg Trials, 24 of the IG Farben directors and other industrialists were charged with genocide, slavery, and other crimes against humanity. Many of these unscrupulous villains would later play a key role in reinstating several IG Farben companies as huge players in the pharmaceutical/chemical industry not only in Germany but also throughout Europe and the United States. And several of these former Nazis would be pivotal in devising a pan-European trade association which has now evolved into the European Union.

Dr. Fritz ter Meer, a director of IG Farben who was directly involved in developing the nerve gas, Zyklon-B, which killed millions of Jews, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released after four years through the intervention of Rockefeller and J.J. McCloy, then U.S. High Commissioner for Germany. An unrepentant Fritz ter Meer, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, returned to work in Bayer where he served as Chairman for more than 10 years, until 1961.

This same ter Meer, a convicted Nazi war criminal, went on to become one of the initiators of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1962, an organization that was nurtured by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and latterly the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Codex Alimentarius, supposedly set up to protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade, is in reality extremely hostile to the world's vitamin, supplement, and natural food industries and seems determined to destroy them. Codex is controlled by Big Pharma whose only raison d'être is to promote disease and sell more pharmaceuticals.

Karl Wurster, chairman of the IG Farben company, Degesch, which manufactured the Zyklon-B nerve gas, was charged as a war criminal but was somehow acquitted. He later served as CEO of BASF of 13 years, until 1974.

Hans Globke co-authored the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Race Laws and was responsible for writing the new laws of the Greater European Reich in Nazi-occupied countries. After the War, Globke became a minister in Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's government and served from 1949 to 1963. He was free of any parliamentary supervision and controlled the Secret Service. He was also directly involved in plotting with the oil and drug cartel on how to take over and control European markets within the newly constructed European Economic Community (EEC), fore-runner of the current European Union (EU).

Walter Hallstein was a prominent Nazi law professor who stated in 1939: One of the most important laws (in occupied European countries) is the 'Protection Law of German Blood and Honor'. This Nazi "blood and honor" lawyer was instrumental in creating the European Union's basic structure and became the first head of the European Commission, an executive body adroitly designed to rule Europe without any interference from democratic control. This absence of democracy is quite evident in Brussels especially today. In 1957, Chancellor Adenauer and Hallstein signed the first European Treaty in Rome.

[Much of the information here on IG Farben has come from Dr. Matthias Rath, a tireless campaigner for health freedom and the scourge of Big Pharma. Dr. Rath, under the Freedom of Information Act, has managed to obtain tens of thousands of IG Farben documents from the War Crimes Tribunal that had been kept secret for six decades and has posted them on his website. See (www.profit-over-life.org) , also (http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/) . These are incredible sites –- you'll spend hours there! Check out articles on Codex Alimentarius, the Pharmaceutical Industry, and Dr. Rath's series of Open Letters to the New York Times.]

The domination by the pharmaceutical industry of current medical practice and their insidious influence on government legislation is a direct legacy of IG Farben and the Nazi war criminals who ran the original cartel.

Crimes are still being committed today on such a massive scale that millions of people have died since World War Two and millions more are being poisoned daily by these monsters. It is impossible in this short article to list all the horrendous criminality of Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Biotech, and their political henchmen but the following paragraphs provide some examples of the death and mayhem they cause.

In a recent report authored by Dr. Gary Null, Dr. Carolyn Dean, et al, (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar...) some 780,000 Americans are killed by their doctors or by the medical system each year. 106,000 of these die from properly prescribed medicine in properly prescribed doses and over two million people are hospitalised because of adverse effects from taking these FDA-approved prescription drugs.

The directors of the companies who manufacture these drugs well know the harm they cause but do all they can to keep such adverse information from the public. These gangsters are driven by greed and profit; they couldn't care less about people's health or their lives. A good example is the scandal of Vioxx, a drug that was kept on the market even though it was known to cause heart attacks. Vioxx is believed to have killed between 50,000 and 70,000 people. Other dangerous drugs include Baycol, Bextra, Celebrex, and the list goes on...

Big Pharma is involved in rigging drug trials, ghostwriting the reports of "independent" researchers, bribing politicians, doctors, and scientists, and hiding reports unfavourable to their drugs. One particularly nasty example of collusion that appeared recently on NaturalNews.com was the case of Dr. Biederman of Harvard University who advocated mind-altering drugs for children while being secretly paid off 1.6 million dollars from the drug companies, (http://www.naturalnews.com/023408.html) .

And to maintain their markets, Big Pharma is very active in suppressing vitamins, minerals, and natural health foods. They also suppress any information on natural health and are energetically assisted in this by their friends in the FDA and other government bodies. They are helped by colluding politicians who push through legislation to favour big corporations and they remain unchallenged by mainstream media who have a deeper affinity for advertising revenue than for people's health.

Big Food poisons us with chemical additives, preservatives, colourings, flavourings, trans fats and other harmful ingredients. The effects of these deadly additives are well known and documented; aspartame, MSG, sodium benzoate, potassium bromate, sodium nitrite, and thousands more. It's no wonder most of us are sick, and we're getting sicker.

Governments turn a blind eye to crimes of toxicity and actively promote the dumping of fluoride and chlorine in our water, the use of mercury in vaccines and in dentistry, and to a host of other criminal acts committed in the pretext of advancing public health.

Again with government complicity, Big Biotech poisons us with Genetically Modified crops in a plot to own the patents to the very food that's nourished us for hundreds of thousands of years. GM crops pose one of the greatest threats to our health and survival on this planet. No one really knows what effects this frankenfood will have on us or future generations. GM food is currently suspected as a cause of Morgellon's Disease.

And what kind of a warped, evil mind would invent a "terminator" seed that is designed to become sterile when the plants are harvested so that the farmer is forced to buy more seeds from these already mega-rich corporations. What if these terminator seeds infiltrated the crops across the world?

The activities of Big Pharma, Big Food, and Big Biotech are well known to subscribers of NaturalNews.com and can be found by the Search facility on this website.

Now it is time to say, "Enough!"

This unmitigated evil must end. Those responsible must be stopped and made to answer for their crimes. We need to revisit Nuremberg and finish the job that was begun there some 60 years ago.

I propose compiling a record of all the people from the above-mentioned industries, mass media, politics, government regulation bodies, finance, and from wherever appropriate, and entering them in a register along with their observed crimes against humanity. This register would be presented as a prosecution document when the day of reckoning comes. These individuals are acting against the health interests of the people of this planet and must be dealt with accordingly.

When a name and a crime goes on the list, that person should be put on notice so that they can't say they were unaware of their crime or that they were just "following orders". This will also give them a chance to repudiate their crime and to join the ranks of the promoters of natural health and freedom of choice.

This book of records might become known as "The Nuremberg List" and widely publicized so that it quickly enters the public consciousness. Soon, the very mention of "The Nuremberg List" -- unlike "Schindler's List" which offered hope and salvation -- would instill fear of liability and punishment into those who persist in poisoning their fellow man. Perhaps a respected organization like Natural News might agree to compiling such a list.

Dr. Matthias Rath has already started things rolling by instigating proceedings against some of these corporate criminals. In June, 2003, Dr. Rath's Foundation lodged formal charges against those special interests behind the pharmaceutical 'business with disease' at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, the Nederlands. The ICC is the premier world court for cases of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Dr. Rath said, "We are convinced that one day soon these charges will form the basis for an international tribunal at the ICC that will shadow the scope of the Nuremberg Pharma Tribunal of 1947/48."

Among those charged are George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Dick Cheyney, Donald Rumsfeld, and other members of the Republican administration. Also cited are executives of the pharma/chemical/oil industries, mainstream media, financial institutions, and other culpable people. See more details here: (http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/The_...) .

Dr. Rath should be congratulated for his efforts and assisted in every way possible.

Let this be the beginning of the end for corporate tyranny and let good health and fair play prevail on this beautiful but defiled planet of ours.

Film Reveals Secret 1982 Assassination Attempt on Pope John Paul II

" ... The Pope was wounded in the attack, which occurred one year after he nearly died in an earlier assassination attempt in May 1981. ... The news of the attack, which was kept secret by the Vatican, came as Poland marked the 30th-anniversary of Karol Wojtyla’s—as he was then—ascendancy to the Holy See in 1978. ... "

Related Story: Pope's Would-Be Assassin Applies for Polish Citizenship

http://nwe.pl/National.php?article_id=626

The late Pope John Paul II was attacked by a crazed knife-wielding priest in a failed assassination attempt, according to revelations in a new documentary film about the late pontiff. The film, which is based on the testimony of the Cardinal of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was John Paul’s private secretary throughout his years as pontiff, reveals that the Pope was wounded in the attack, which occurred one year after he nearly died in an earlier assassination attempt in May 1981.

The news of the attack, which was kept secret by the Vatican, came as Poland marked the 30th-anniversary of Karol Wojtyla’s—as he was then—ascendancy to the Holy See in 1978.

The Pope was visiting the shrine of Fatima in Portugal in May 1982 to give thanks for surviving the attack by the Turk Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter’s Square when a Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez Krohn, described as ultra-conservative, tried to stab him. Police wrestled the attacker to the floor while John Paul was taken to another room suffering from a minor wound.

“I can now reveal that the Holy Father was wounded,” says Dziwisz in the film, which is called “Testimony” and narrated by the British actor Michael York. “When we got him back to the room there was blood,”

Neither the Pope nor the Vatican ever made any mention of the attack, although Krohn served a number of years in a Portuguese prison before authorities expelled him from the country.

“Testimony”, which mixes archive footage, interviews and re-enactments, should provide a wealth of information and insight into the life of John Paul II given that Cardinal Dziwisz was one of his closest aides for close to 40 years.

The film, which was premiered in the Vatican on October 16, also reveals that as he neared the end of his life John Paul could no longer pronounce certain words, adding that he told his aids that he thought he would die soon.

Apparently, the Pope after his last public appearance, during which he had great trouble speaking, turned to Dziwisz, and whispered, “If I can’t speak any more then it is time for me to go.” A few days later on April 2, 2005 John Paul II died aged 85.

According to Polskie Radio’s Thenews. pl, journalists and top Vaticanologists invited to a preview of the film were asked by its producers to keep the contents of the film secret until after the official release date this Thursday.

But one of the journalists leaked the shock revelations about the attempted assassination, to the annoyance of producers.

Nazi Symp Jorge Haider had his Last Drink in a Gay Bar

By ALLAN HALL
Scotsman
18 October 2008

THE funeral takes place of the Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider today amid revelations over a private life that could have destroyed his public comeback.

Not only did the Austrian extremist die with three times the legal drink-drive alcohol limit in his blood, but he had his final drinks in a gay bar.

He was dogged by allegations throughout his career that he was a closet homosexual and it has now been revealed that he spent the last part of his last night drinking in a gay club, Stadtkrämer.

Although seemingly happily married with two daughters, affluent – his salary as governor of the province of Carinthia was more than £13,000 a month – and poised once more to become a power broker after success for his party in Austria's recent general election, Mr Haider seemed to have the self-destruct gene that has laid politicians low in many countries.

His visit to the bar on his way home has rekindled the issue of his homosexuality just as supporters want to beatify him as the patron saint of Austrian nationalism. Stadtkrämer – it translates as "City Shopkeeper" – is a well known haunt for Klagenfurt's gay community and advertises itself on the internet with the slogan: "Whether old or young, lesbian or gay, the restaurant is always cool."

A bar customer offered to drive Mr Haider, 58, home because he looked the worse for wear, but was turned down.

Mr Haider went there after his appearance at a nightclub, the public prosecutor in Klagenfurt said. He arrived at a quarter past midnight on Saturday morning, left 30 minutes later and half an hour after that was dead.

The government car he was driving skidded out of control after he overtook another vehicle, hit a concrete traffic barrier and flipped over several times. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. The three-month-old luxury car was in full working order, according to a technical analysis.

Mr Haider was "outed" as a homosexual years ago by the Austrian and German press. His image as a family man was rocked several times when he turned up at rallies and events with a phalanx of young men who were more than a little camp. He called them bodyguards, although they often resembled, as one paper said, "hairdressers or fashion assistants".

Then there was his drinking. Although very fit, he was an enthusiastic imbiber of beer, wine and Austria's clear schnapps, or fruit brandy. At his 50th birthday, in 2000, on a mountain near his home, he received something like 100 bottles of alcohol from guests, all of which he proclaimed he would "gladly work through".

Mr Haider's ambivalence to these rumours was mirrored in his evasiveness when asked about his lavish country estate, valued at some £13 million, which will pass to his widow.

Over the years he gave different answers as to how it was acquired, but never the correct one: it was sold to his father at a knock-down price by its Jewish owner in order to get out of Austria alive.

"He was a man of secrets and it is a point of debate whether these secrets could have exploded at any time to do him in," said one caller to a Radio Bavaria phone-in show discussing Mr Haider's death on Thursday.

Thousands of right-wingers from across Europe are expected in Klagenfurt today for his funeral. Thousands more leftist demonstrators threaten to protest at it. All police leave in Austria has been cancelled in anticipation of clashes.

BACKGROUND

JÖRG Haider's Alliance for Austria's Future party got 10.7 per cent of the vote in Austria's general election last month, placing him in a position to act as a power broker in the country's fractured political scene.

Mr Haider, who helped move anti-immigrant politics from Europe's fringes towards the mainstream, was a polarising figure. In the 1990s, he was denounced as sympathetic to the Nazis and antisemitic; his party's inclusion in government in 2000 led to Austria's international isolation for months. He had since toned down his rhetoric and in 2005 broke away from the Freedom Party to form his new alliance, meant to reflect a turn toward relative moderation.

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Austrian-extremist-had-last-drink.4605685.jp

Everything You've ever Wanted to Know about Opeation Mockingbird

No news is good news?

Caveat: I do not necessarily endorse every single article on the media listed by APFN, but most of these reports are credible enough. - AC

New Jersey Young Republicans: Conservative Graft in Burlington County

Bickering among county's Young Republicans club
By MELISSA HAYES
Burlington County Times
www.phillyburbs.com

The former vice president of the Burlington County Young Republicans says he was removed from the post after questioning campaign contributions the club made to three candidates seeking county offices in the primary election.

Rob O'Connor accused the club of wheeling, the practice of transferring large sums of cash from one campaign account to another, in an attempt to get around limits established by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Maria Rodriguez-Gregg, the organization's president, said the club was not wheeling. She said the organization routinely receives donations and makes campaign contributions.

She said O'Connor was not voted out because of his accusations, but instead for poor attendance t club meetings. She said O'Connor also chose to support candidates who were not backed by the county GOP, which is contrary to the Young Republicans' bylaws.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine recently proposed a ban on wheeling as part of a package of ethics reforms he introduced last month. Currently, the practice of wheeling is legal.

Corzine's reforms would place limits on how much groups like the Young Republicans could contribute to state, county and municipal committees. The existing cap on donations to candidates would remain at $7,200.

O'Connor questioned donations made to incumbent Freeholders Aubrey Fenton and Stacey Jordan and to Gary Woodend, who is running for county clerk.

The slate was backed by the Burlington County Republican Committee and ran in a contested primary against Debbie Sarcone and Jon Shevelew for freeholder and Lauri Sheppard for clerk.

O'Connor said three private businesses made large contributions to the Young Republicans and that money was given to Fenton, Jordan and Woodend, who had already received contributions from the firms.

“The people who donated to us had already reached the limit with the county (candidates),” he said.

Under state law an individual or corporation cannot donate more than $2,600 to an individual candidate or more than $7,200 to a political committee, such as the Young Republicans.

According to state Election Law Enforcement Commission records, Pennoni Associates Inc. of Philadelphia donated $2,600 to Fenton on Jan. 10 and the same amount to Jordan on March 7.

On April 6, Pennoni donated $7,200 to the Burlington County Young Republicans.

Remington, Vernick & Arango Engineers Inc. of Bordentown Township donated $5,200 to the joint campaign fund of Fenton and Jordan March 12. On April 25, the company donated $7,200 to the Burlington County Young Republicans.

On March 21, Taylor, Wiseman and Taylor Engineers of Mount Laurel donated $5,200 to the joint campaign fund of Fenton and Jordan. The company donated $7,000 to the Young Republicans May 1.

All three companies hold contracts with the county Board of Freeholders or an agency it oversees. Representatives from Pennoni and Taylor, Wiseman and Taylor did not return requests for comment. A representative from Remington and Vernick was unavailable for comment.

On May 16, the Young Republicans gave $7,000 each to the campaign funds of Fenton and Jordan and $6,000 to Woodend's campaign.

“It's absolutely unethical, whether or not it's illegal,” O'Connor said of the donations. “We wouldn't have that kind of money to donate if not for those companies.”

Rodriguez-Gregg said those companies have traditionally donated to the organization and this year's contributions were no different from previous years. She said O'Connor's allegations were untrue.

“They've always been very supportive of the Young Republicans because some of them are Young Republicans and they're supportive of what the organization does,” she said, adding that her husband works for Remington and Vernick.

According to the organization's financial policy, which was adopted in 2005, any disbursement above $200 requires a majority vote of its executive board.

O'Connor said the contributions were made without consulting the board.

When he addressed it at a recent meeting, O'Connor said he was removed from office.

“It's just frustrating and it's retribution for speaking out against them,” he said.

Rodriguez-Gregg said the executive board did support the contributions and, had O'Connor been at more meetings, he would have participated in the discussion.

She said O'Connor supported the Sarcone slate, which was contrary to the organization's bylaws and had been asked to resign because he had missed several meetings.

When he refused to resign, she said she made a motion to remove him from office.

O'Connor said he felt he was allowed to support Sarcone because she is an associate member of the Young Republicans. He also contested allegations that his attendance was poor.

“I'm sure I missed a meeting or two along the line, but I most certainly wasn't excessively missing meetings,” he said.

Contact Melissa Hayes at mhayes@phillyBurbs.com.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-10122008-1604413.html

CIA Got the Nod to use Torture

The Australian
October 16, 2008

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qa'ida suspects, a report said yesterday.

The documents were prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public, The Washington Post reported.

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then CIA director George Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, the paper said.

Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing, the report said.

The memos were the first -- and, for years, the only -- tangible expressions of the administration's consent for the CIA's use of harsh measures to extract information from captured al-Qa'ida leaders, sources told the paper.

As early as the spring of 2002, several White House officials, including then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice-President Dick Cheney, were given individual briefings by Mr Tenet and his deputies, the sources said.

The repeated requests for a paper trail reflected growing worries within the CIA that the administration might later distance itself from key decisions about the handling of captured al-Qa'ida leaders, former intelligence officials told the Post.

The concerns grew after revelations of the mistreatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and further still as tensions mounted between the administration and its intelligence advisers over the conduct of the Iraq war.

Mr Tenet pressed the White House for written approval in June 2003, during a meeting with members of the National Security Council, the officials said. Days later, he got a brief memo conveying the administration's approval for the CIA's interrogation methods, the officials told the paper.

Administration officials confirmed the existence of the memos, but neither they nor former intelligence officers would describe their contents in detail because they remain classified, the paper said.

As recently as last month, the administration had never publicly acknowledged its policymakers knew about the specific techniques, such as waterboarding, that the agency used against high-ranking terrorism suspects.

The report said the CIA's anxiety was partly fuelled by the lack of explicit presidential authorisation for the interrogation program. A secret White House "memorandum of notification" signed by US President George W. Bush on September 15, 2001, gave the agency broad authority to wage war against al-Qa'ida, including killing and capturing its members. But it did not spell out how captives should be handled during interrogation.

But by the time the CIA requested written approval of its policy, in June 2003, the population of its secret prisons had grown from one to nine, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged principal architect of the 9/11 attacks. Three of the detainees had been subjected to waterboarding, which involves strapping a prisoner to a board, covering his face and pouring water over his nose and mouth to simulate drowning.

Agencies

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24501993-2703,00.html

Tulsa Candidate for County Commissioner Defends Association with John Birch Society

Bell defends association with John Birch Society

CANDIDATE - Sally Bell: The Republican candidate for the Tulsa County Commission joined the John Birch Society in 1964.

By KEVIN CANFIELD/Tulsa World
10/12/2008

She questions what the issue has to do with her capacity to serve.

Tulsa County Commission candidate Sally Bell makes no apologies for her long-standing association with the John Birch Society.

Bell, a Republican, said she and her husband, Robert Bell, joined the society in 1964 after Republican Barry Goldwater lost his bid for the presidency.

"And guess what?" Bell said. "The world hasn't ended, and I haven't caused any chaos."

The conservative John Birch Society, meanwhile, has caused its fair share of controversy.

Established in 1958 by Robert Welch Jr. to fight the threat of communism, the society believes that internationalists have been working behind the scenes for decades to undermine America's sovereignty.

Bell said the organization recently has worked to oppose the $700 billion federal bailout passed by Congress, secure America's borders and protect the nation's sovereignty.

On illegal immigration, for example, the Birch Society Web site asserts that "in short, the border remains open and the federal government is doing nothing of substance to close it because it is Bush administration policy to merge with Mexico and Canada and actually abolish both borders."

Bell said she agrees with the statement.

"I believe that George Bush is an internationalist and that he does believe in a global world, and I'm protective of our sovereignty," she said.

But Bell questioned what the issue — or her membership in the Birch Society in general — has to do with her capacity to serve as District 2 county commissioner.

"My membership in the John Birch Society will have no effect on my decisions as a county commissioner other than our shared belief in limited government, lower taxes and open government," she said.

Bell has often said she will not support any new taxes if she is victorious against her Democratic opponent, Karen Keith, in the Nov. 4 election.

Asked Friday whether she would maintain that position if the county faced a financial crisis, Bell said that, short of some life-or-death emergency, she likely would not support raising taxes.

"I just don't think raising taxes is the right answer most of the time," she said. "We're in a troubled economy, so raising taxes just doesn't seem like a solution to me."

Instead, she said, she would look to fund projects through existing revenues, such as excess Vision 2025 money.

Bell said she hopes those people questioning her association with the John Birch Society will examine Keith's association with MoveOn.org, a liberal political action group.

Keith has acknowledged that her husband, Pat Malloy, donated to the organization, but she said she has no affiliation with the group. Federal Election Commission records indicate Malloy gave $750 over the past two years.

"If we want to talk about what we've been doing for a lifetime," Keith said, "we'll talk about my lifetime of community service, beginning with 4-H as a kid and including the Brookside Business Association and the Rotary Club of Tulsa."

Bell's ties to the John Birch Society reflect a "lifetime association and commitment to an organization that doesn't believe in government," Keith said.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081012_16_A11_hShequ567741

Opus Dei Fury at Film of Saintly Girl's Death

Giles Tremlett in Madrid/Observer
October 5 2008

A tug-of-war over the tragic story of a 14-year-old Spanish girl who died of cancer has caused a confrontation between a film-maker and one of Spain's most controversial and powerful religious groups, Opus Dei.

The battle over Alexia González-Barros, a Catholic whom campaigners want the Vatican to beatify, is the result of the impending release of The Path, in which director Javier Fesser shows the protagonist's death being applauded by her Opus Dei family.

The film places the dying girl at the centre of a web of interests in which Opus Dei grooms her for a death that will turn her into both a potential saint and a tool for propaganda.

The real-life Alexia died in 1985 after four operations and a 10-month fight against cancer. Nine biographies have been written since her death. The beatification campaign started in 1989 and the petition, containing 4,600 pages in 11 volumes of documents, is now being considered by the Vatican.

Fesser has dedicated the film to Alexia's memory, but says she served only as an inspiration for the protagonist, whom he calls Camino. 'It is not, nor does it pretend to be, Alexia,' he said. 'It is pure fiction.' He has angered Alexia's family, however, by claiming that they really did applaud her death.

Opus Dei, a secular order of priests and laymen aiming to bring religion into the workplace and professions, also criticised the way it has been depicted in a film whose title comes from a book written by its founder, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. 'It is a false and manipulative picture which offers a highly distorted view of Opus Dei,' said the group's Spanish spokesman, Manuel Garrido.

Alexia's family and her beatification campaigners have led the charge against the film, claiming that she is 'unequivocally the main protagonist'. Her brother Alfredo said in a letter on the campaign's website: 'Your claim that the applause that greeted the protagonist's death really happened when Alexia died hurts because it is both unjust and terrible. She died as we tried to swallow our tears.'

Critics describe the film as a devastating critique of Opus Dei. 'A child who is full of life is used, not just by the sect's leaders, but by her own blinkered mother and a robotic sister, as a sacrificial lamb to glorify both death and the will of God,' said Carlos Boyero in El País newspaper.

Fesser said: 'Nothing that is shown in the film should disgust Opus Dei, and if something does it will not be the film's fault.'

The row comes amid a wider confrontation in Spain between an increasingly politicised Catholic leadership and those who want the church separated completely from the state. Senior bishops have helped lead right-wing opposition to several laws passed by Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, including those allowing gay marriage or reducing the importance of religious education in school. Campaigners on the left, meanwhile, are calling for an end to the many state subsidies received by the church. With reform of the abortion law now possible, the confrontation is likely to continue for some time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/religion.spain

Austrian Officials Fear Neo-Nazi 'Pilgrimage' for Haider's Funeral

ALSO SEE: "Austrian Far Right Leader Haider Dies in Car Crash"

By ALLAN HALL
13 October 2008

AUSTRIAN officials are hoping the family of far-right extremist Joerg Haider will hold a private funeral to prevent neo-Nazis turning any public burial into a pilgrimage of hate.

Vienna has announced that public buildings in the capital will be draped in black flags when the body of Mr Haider, 58, is interred. However, yesterday it was still unclear whether national government representatives would be attending any funeral or remembrance service for Mr Haider, who died in a car crash early on Saturday morning.

Mr Haider courted controversy by praising aspects of the Third Reich and was a hero of ultra-rightists across Europe. ...

FULL STORY

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Austrian-officials-fear-neoNazi-39pilgrimage39.4583990.jp

GW Bush's Debt to the Irish Republicans

Irish Republicans? We "conspiracy theorists" hear about Nazis and Zionists all the time, but Irish? Let's power up the old time machine and take another look at that 2000 election. ... vooooooooommmmm ... whuh-whuh-whuh-whuh-whuh-whuh-whuh-whuh- ... . . . . *



"Congessman Kick-Ass"

"For Election night 2000, several of the 'Irish for Bush/Cheney' leadership: Grant Lally, Jeffrey Cleary and Judith Hard, were invited to join then-Governor George Bush, at his Election Night victory rally in Austin Texas. It turned into a long, rainy night in Austin.

"Following the election, the Bush Campaign summoned the Irish American Republicans to take the lead in protecting President-Elect Bush's victory in Florida, against the Gore campaign operatives' relentless efforts to steal the election.

"The IAR Leaders Grant Lally, Justin Driscoll, Brian McCarthy, Jeffrey Cleary, Brendan Quinn, Kenneth Curley, Judy Hard, Josh Toas, Robert Farley, Rick Nelson, Bruce Tague, Duane Gibson, and Congressman John Sweeney (R-NY), and many others, all flew to Florida at the request of the Bush/Cheney Campaign, to take the lead in the Recount efforts.

"Dubbed the 'Wild Geese of Miami,' the Irish Republicans successfully fought-off the attempted theft of the Presidency. Grant Lally served as the GOP Floor Manager of the Miami Recount, battling to protect the integrity of the ballots.

"Congessman John Sweeney served as overall Bush political director for the south Florida recounts, a role for which President Bush awarded him the knickname 'Congessman Kick-Ass.'

"The Irish American Republicans played a vital role in the peaceful protest that the media dubbed the 'Brooks Brothers' Riot,' successfully demanding that the media have access to the secret 'overcount' ballot recount that the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board proposed to hold behind closed doors. IAR Chairman Brian McCarthy was particularly featured on the cover of Newsweek, defending our right to open government.

"For five long weeks, and in Florida counties ranging from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach counties in the south, to Washington county in the Florida panhandle, the Irish American Republicans fought hard, and made the critical difference.

"Working together with the Bush/Cheney campaign, the efforts of the Irish-American Republicans, and those of Lally, Driscoll, McCarthy and Cleary, in particular, ensured that the actual winners of the election, the right men for the job, were elected the President and Vice President of the United States . Recent history has shown us that our nation needs the leadership of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, for which we are grateful."

http://www.irishgop.com/achievements.php

New Jersey: Racially Charged Anti-Obama Fliers hit Roxbury

Prosecutor says fliers are legal, but he calls message 'reprehensible'
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
DAILY RECORD • SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

A group seemed to announce its arrival in Morris County with anti-illegal-immigration fliers left on Roxbury driveways a couple of weeks ago. The same group left more fliers in Roxbury this past weekend, this time with a racially charged message:

"Do you want a black president?" the group asked in the fliers.

The fliers went on to say black-ruled nations are the most unstable in the world, citing Haiti, and contained unflattering pictures of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said in a statement Tuesday that while the fliers distributed this past weekend are "reprehensible," they don't violate any laws.

They were distributed by a white nationalist group that calls itself the League of American Patriots. The man behind that group is Alex Carmichael, an attorney who recently moved from Garfield to Butler and who declined an interview request Tuesday from behind a closed door at his apartment in a two-family house on High Street.

"Afraid not," he said when asked for an interview. "I'll let you know if I will be doing interviews."

Carmichael is an active attorney, according to state officials, and recently sued the head of another white supremacist group in Bergen County on behalf of himself and the League of American Patriots. He claims in the suit that Bill White of Overthrow.com defamed him by publishing false statements about his relationship with Kevin Strom, former head of the now-disbanded National Vanguard white supremacist group. White said on Tuesday that he expects the suit to be thrown out.

Joe Kaufman, chairman of Americans Against Hate, said it's common for members of hate groups to attack one another on Internet sites devoted to the white supremacist movement, such as Stormfront.com.

"I see that on Stormfront a lot," Kaufman said. "They attack each other. That's normal for these people."

Strom, who lives in Virginia, had been convicted of possessing child pornography and was released from federal prison earlier this month. He said in an e-mail Tuesday that he has no connection to Carmichael.

"I have no knowledge whatever of Mr. Carmichael's group and so I regret I cannot be of any assistance to you," Strom said in the e-mail. He added in another e-mail that he didn't even know Carmichael, saying, "I cannot recall the name."

Heidi Beirich, a spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks such organizations, said Carmichael is known to her group.

"He's been around neo-Nazi circles for a long time," she said.

It's not clear how many members Carmichael's group has, other than himself. It posts notices on Stormfront, and on its own site claims to have had "almost 20 patriots" in attendance at a summer barbeque held in an unnamed Morris County park.

The site says group membership "is restricted to adult heterosexual men and women who are entirely of European Christian ancestry." It also says its recent organizational meeting, held earlier this month, was a success because of literature handed out at heritage festivals, concerts and residences.

This past Saturday, Glenn Majeski walked out of his Roxbury home and thought someone left a flier for a lawn mowing service. It was the flier focusing on Obama, with a phone number for the League of American Patriots and a Web address.

"It was quite shocking for this to come to Roxbury," Majeski said.

Etzion Neuer, director of the New Jersey office of the Anti-Defamation League, said his group has been watching Carmichael's organization for months. Two weeks ago, he said a Roxbury resident sent him a copy of a flier the group left on a driveway about illegal immigration. He said some white supremacist groups have latched onto the issue of illegal immigration because of its popularity.

"The ADL has been concerned about the rise of extremist organizations using the immigration issue as a recruiting tool," he said.

Lew Candura, the Morris County Democratic Party chairman, said he received a call from another Roxbury resident about the Obama fliers. He said he didn't expect them to influence anyone.

"Most people will take it for the garbage it is," Candura said. "I was appalled by it."

Bianchi said in a statement that his office had examined the Obama fliers and would continue to monitor the situation, saying he would prosecute anyone who crosses the line to commit a bias crime.

"I have evaluated this reprehensible literature and have been vigilantly monitoring this serious issue," Bianchi said in the statement. "Legally, however, this type of flier is protected speech covered pursuant to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. ... I am, however, very sympathetic to the concerns of the community at large, and especially the African-American community in particular."

Abbott Koloff can be reached at (973) 428-6636 or akoloff@gannett.com

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/COMMUNITIES06/809240371/1005/NEWS01

Sarah Palin's Sexual Affair with a White Supremacist

Also see: "Is Sarah Palin a John Birch Society Member?" and "Palin Quotes Domestic Nazi Westbrook Pegler"

Column: Palin around with traitors
By MIKE ARGENTO
Daily Record/Sunday News
10/13/2008

John McCain's campaign thinks it's entirely fair to bring up the issue of whether Barack Obama is an acquaintance of a man who performed some detestable acts when Obama was 8 years old, acts that Obama has denounced. Obama has given absolutely no indication that he agrees with the political beliefs that brought them about.

Well, then, if that's so, it's entirely fair to point out that McCain's running mate has had an ongoing sexual relationship with someone who could be considered a traitor, who was part of a movement that had ties to a white supremacist group.

Or that she has ties to a minister who performs witch hunts and was responsible for the murder of a suspected witch's pet snake.

Or that McCain himself is somehow connected to the infamous suicide of the former treasurer of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on live TV. ...

he allegations of having an ongoing sexual relationship with a would-be traitor.
Her husband, the Toddmeister, was a member of the Alaska Independence Party from 1995 to 2002. The Alaska Independence Party has pushed for Alaska to secede from the United States. Advocating secession could be considered treasonous. (And just plain stupid, considering that Alaska is the biggest federal welfare state in the country, getting back much more federal tax dollars than its residents pay, according to the Tax Foundation.)

The Alaska Independence Party has ties to a group called the League of the South, a neo-Confederate organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers a hate group with white supremacist leanings.

And Palin lives with a guy who belonged to the secessionist party.

The party proudly displays this quote from founder Joe Vogler on its Web site: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

Palin herself hasn't distanced herself from the group. In March, she sent a videotaped speech to the group's convention thanking it for its "good work." ...

Moving on to John McCain, the co-chair of his Pennsylvania campaign is a guy from suburban Philadelphia named Robert Asher, a bigwig in Republican circles.

Asher is also a convicted felon, having been found guilty of perjury, racketeering, conspiracy and bribery charges in the same case that brought down former state Treasurer Budd Dwyer in 1987. Dwyer, of course, is notorious for ending his final press conference with a .357 magnum.

McCain hasn't said anything about that, as far as I know. Nor has he said anything about the multitude of lobbyists for the industries that are currently leading the American economy down the drain who staff his campaign.

He has spoken in the past about his infamous membership in the Keating Five. If you'll recall, the Keating Five stood accused of helping savings and loan swindler Charles Keating avoid federal regulation while he defrauded investors out of more than $1 billion. Keating gave McCain and the four other senators in the group some $1.3 million in campaign contributions.

When his savings and loan collapsed, it cost taxpayers more than $2 billion.

That was a lot of money in 1989. ...

id he ever have any principles or integrity? Was it all an act? Did he, as some people have suggested, sell his soul to win this election and now the Devil is screwing him over?

Back in 2000, when McCain was the victim of the kind of sleazy politics he is practicing now, he told Jim Lehrer of PBS's NewsHour, "Uh, I, I just have to rely on the good judgment of the voters not to buy into these negative attack ads. Sooner or later, people are going to figure out if all you run is negative attack ads you don't have much of a vision for the future or you're not ready to articulate it."

Sounds about right. He can't win with his ideas, such as they are. He has to resort to sleaze.

Back in March, McCain promised that he would run "a respectful campaign."

It would be more than fair to point out that he was lying.

http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10700225

Austrian Far Right Leader Haider Dies in Car Crash

Also see: "Austria far-right leader Haider speeding before fatal crash"

"VIENNA (AFP) — Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider was driving at more than twice the speed limit after going to a nightclub when he crashed and died this weekend, court officials said Sunday.

"Haider was doing 142 kilometres (88 miles) per hour in a 70kph zone when he crashed in the early hours of Saturday, the prosecutors' office said.
Prosecutor Gottfried Kranza did not say whether Haider had tested positive for alcohol. ... "
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBinL6eeuEGBxW1WIoo0h2lmNkpw

•••••••
Austrian Far Right Leader Haider Dies in Car Crash
Reuters

VIENNA, Oct 11 - Austrian populist far-right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident on Saturday, two weeks after staging a major comeback in a national election.

Haider, 58, who led the right into a coalition government from 2000 to 2006, polarised his nation and drew condemnation across Europe and beyond with his blunt anti-foreigner statements and for seeming to flirt with Nazi sympathies.

Last month, after years of retreat into provincial politics, he co-engineered a surge of Austria’s far right to 30 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, mining discontent over feuding mainstream governing parties, inflation and immigration.

The governor of Austria’s Carinthia province suffered head and chest injuries when the government car he was driving went out of control and rolled over several times, police said. He was alone in the car. Police said they were investigating the cause of the 1:15 a.m. (2315 GMT) crash outside Klagenfurt, Carinthia’s capital.

”This is for us like the end of the world. He was also my best friend,” said Haider’s spokesman Stefan Petzner, who broke down in sobs on national television.

He said Haider had been heading to his home near Klagenfurt in the mountainous southern province for a family gathering to mark his mother’s 90th birthday.

Unusual in Austria’s staid political world, Haider was a gregarious character who struck a popular chord among many ordinary people and had friendly personal relations even with his political adversaries. He was politically active from his teenage years in the affluent Central European country, becoming a full-time politician in 1977 for the far-right Freedom Party.

He drew international headlines with outbursts that looked like apologia for Nazism and by making foreign trips to see leaders like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

Haider reproached Austria’s government by citing the ”proper labour policies” of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to Nazi concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as ”penal camps”.

His father was once a member of Hitler’s Storm Troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.

Haider led the Freedom Party with a shock 27 percent of the vote into a governing coalition with the mainstream conservative People’s Party in 2000, stirring widespread condemnation and temporary European Union sanctions against Austria.

It was an awkward alliance that unravelled, causing an early election in 2002 in which the Freedom Party lost heavily, followed by a remake of the coalition.

After internecine power struggles within Freedom, Haider formed the breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005. His new party became junior partner in the governing coalition while the Freedom Party defected into opposition.

In a national election in 2006, the Alliance -- whose reins Haider had given to a protege while he turned full-time to Carinthian affairs -- only just scraped past the 4 percent threshold to enter parliament.

Haider returned as party chief this year and, adopting a strikingly milder tone and declaring his openness to a coalition with any party, led the Alliance to 11 percent of the vote in the Sept. 28 election, behind Freedom’s 17.5 percent.

The result could reconfigure Austrian politics with the Social Democrats, which re-emerged as the largest party, likely to struggle to form a stable coalition if it ignores the right.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, said Haider was ”a politician of great talent” who both enchanted and repelled his contemporaries.

Heinz Christian Strache, who took over the Freedom Party in 2005 and had publicly feuded with his former mentor, said: ”With his passing, Austria has lost a great political figure.”

There had been signs of reconciliation between Haider and Strache this week when the two met to discuss joint strategy to strengthen the right’s claim to a role in government after their successes in the Sept. 28 election.

Haider, a passionate skier and marathon runner, was married with two grown daughters.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/675fd9ae-9767-11dd-b720-000077b07658.html

Former CIA Director Defrauds U.S.

Foggo, of Vienna, pleads guilty.

By Ken Moore, The Connection
www.connectionnewspapers.com
October 7, 2008

Former CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who served two years as a Deputy Ethics official in the agency and completed CIA ethics training eight times, pleaded guilty last week to defrauding the United States.

Foggo, 53 of Vienna, used his position with the CIA to steer millions of dollars in contracts to businesses that involved his best friend, Brent Roger Wilkes, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts, vacations and meals, including many expensive dinners in Fairfax County, according to court documents.

"Foggo caused the CIA to enter into these lucrative contracts without disclosing his interests," according to U.S. Attorneys Chuck Rosenberg, of the Eastern District of Virginia, and Karen P. Hewitt, of the Southern District of California.

Wilkes also offered Foggo a "high-level, high-paying position" in Wilke’s companies, as well as naming Foggo as one of the trustees of his estate, according to federal court documents.

Wilkes is currently serving a 12-year sentence following his conviction in the Southern District of California for bribing former U.S. Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), according to Hewitt and Rosenberg.

WILKES AND FOGGO were originally indicted together in California in February 2007, but following Wilke’s sentencing in the Cunningham bribery case in February 2008, "the government elected to proceed against Foggo alone in the Eastern District of Virginia," according to Hewitt and Rosenberg.

Foggo faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, according to Hewitt and Rosenberg.

U.S. District Court Judge James C. Cacheris is scheduled to sentence Foggo on Jan. 8, 2009 in federal court in Alexandria.

Wilkes, of California, controlled numerous businesses and maintained an office in Chantilly. Foggo misrepresented to his colleagues at the CIA "the background and experience" of Wilkes and Wilke’s associates "in order to influence the CIA to hire them as contractors or employees," according to court documents.

Foggo also gave Wilkes classified information to help Wilkes pursue government contracts.

Examples of gifts Wilkes gave Foggo in exchange, according to the federal superseding indictment against Foggo, include:

* Paying more than $50,000 for a vacation in Scotland for his and Foggo’s families in August 2003 and more than $30,000 for a vacation in Hawaii in December 2003.

* Paying more than $700 for a dinner with Foggo at the Serbian Crown restaurant in Great Falls in November 2004.

* Paying for $2,900 for a dinner at The Capital Grille in Tysons Corner in June 2005, as well other meals there in November 2004 ($700), March 2005 ($800) April 2005 ($1,000), and June 2005 ($600).

* Paying $2,000 for a cigar humidor.

* Paying $900 for dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Fairfax in November 2004. ...

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=320472&paper=73&cat=104

New Mexico: Two Nazis Convicted in Plot to Kill Otero County Deputy

Associated Press
Oct. 8, 2008

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two officers of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood of Texas have been convicted of conspiracy to murder a former Otero County sheriff's deputy and distribute methamphetamine.

Prosecutors alleged Robert Guyton "Krusty" Cook and Samuel Zachary Arrington were involved in arranging meetings to set up a revenge hit on former Deputy Billy Anders because he'd killed an Aryan Brotherhood leader near Cloudcroft in December 2004.

Jurors convicted the pair Tuesday but hung on charges against a third Aryan Brotherhood member, James Curtis Thompson, one of the group's five top generals.

Anders was targeted after he responded to a domestic violence call and fatally shot Earl Lee Flippen, who had been wounded and was handcuffed at the time, after Flippen killed Anders' partner in a gunfight.

Anders was sentenced in March 2006 to a year in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Flippen's death.

Prosecutors argued that brotherhood members communicated their plan to kill Anders using coded notes that reached behind prison walls. The plot was never carried out.

U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson declared a mistrial on a murder conspiracy count against Thompson after the jury could not reach a verdict.

U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt said his office intends to retry Thompson on that charge and on charges related to tampering with a witness and mailing a threatening communication.

STREAMING AUDIO: Program Looks at Crackdown on Journalists at Last Month's RNC

By Dave Astor
October 08, 2008

NEW YORK An audio piece called Journalism Under Siege at the RNC has been released.

The piece -- co-produced by the Media Minutes team of Stevie Converse and Candace Clement for Pacifica Radio's Sprouts: Radio from the Grassroot program -- looks at the arrests and detentions of journalists covering protests outside last month's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Among the many arrested were Democracy Now! host/King Features Syndicate columnist Amy Goodman and Associated Press staffers.

Promo copy for the program reads:

"American national political conventions have long been known for wacky party hats, a multitude of political buttons, showers of confetti, and long-winded speeches -- inside the convention centers.

"Outside those walls, in the streets of the host cities, both the Democratic and Republican national conventions are symbols of political unrest and police crackdowns -- and increasingly, a militarized system of silencing voices of demonstrators and journalists covering the stories that happen in those streets.

"What are the rights of journalists covering stories in public places? Who can be called journalists? And why is journalism still important?"

This program features interviews with Ben Garvin of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute, Nancy Doyle-Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media, Lambert Rochfort of Pepperspray Productions, Jason Barnett of The UpTake, and Theresa Nelson of the Minnesota ACLU.

Journalism Under Siege at the RNC can be heard here.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003872336

Classified Report: Afghanistan Worse, Can’t Stop Taliban

Tiffany Ayuda
College News
10/10/08

National Intelligence Estimate says the growing heroin trade in Afghanistan has discouraged progress

According to a classified U.S. intelligence report, it is unlikely that the Afghan government will be able to prevent the rise of the Taliban’s influence in the region, The New York Times reports. The report shows that the Afghan central government started to dissolve when government corruption emerged with President Hamid Karzai and escalating violence from militants in the borders of Pakistan.

The report is part of the nearly completed National Intelligence Estimate, which is scheduled to be completed after the general election in November and will be the most thorough assessment of the war in Afghanistan since 2001. The conclusions in the report represent the serious decision making of the Bush administration after 9/11. Moreover, the reports cite how the Afghan military has developed and lays out the discouraging impact of the growing heroin trade, which brings in about 50 percent of Afghanistan’s revenue.

For the past month, the Bush administration has tried to re-initiate and review its military policy in Afghanistan and announced that it would deploy more troops by the beginning of next year, reports The Times. The situation in Afghanistan plays a big role in the upcoming presidential election, and both candidates feel that the war in Afghanistan has been overshadowed by the war in Iraq. Furthermore, the CIA has been chronicling the events in Afghanistan and report that there is widespread government corruption and that violence is running rampant.

Henry A. Crumpton, a CIA officer who stepped down as the State Department’s top counterterrorism official, told The Times the lack of leadership in the White House and in Europe has caused the case in Afghanistan to worsen. Crumpton was in charge of the CIA teams that entered Afghanistan after 9/11 but has not seen the draft report yet.

According to The New York Times, the National Intelligence Estimate is a formal document that represents the unanimous judgment of all 16 American intelligence agencies. The Bush administration has made some crucial findings of the war in Afghanistan, but it has all remained classified. This report is the first of assessments of how the Taliban was able to regain large territory.

Presidential candidates Obama and McCain both agree that more troops need to be sent to Afghanistan. The intelligence agencies are working to create new counterterrorism strategies, but have trouble deciding whether the tribal system is effective. The intelligence agencies are also working on drafting a report to assess the situation in Pakistan, which will help make sense of the violence in Afghanistan.

http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/intelligence_report_shows_situation_in_afghanistan_has_worsened_4678/

German goes on Trial for Holocaust Denial

POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — A founder member of a left-wing terrorist group turned neo-Nazi went on trial in Germany Wednesday accused of publishing documents on the Internet denying the Holocaust.

Horst Mahler, a founding member of the Red Army Faction in 1970, is accused of regularly posting documents online between 2001 and 2004. ...

He was also convicted in the mid-1970s for RAF related activities — including several bank robberies and for helping notorious terrorist Andreas Baader, another founding member of the group, to escape from jail.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison but was released in 1980 after he made several public statements condemning terrorism and Red Army Faction methods. Mahler then joined the far-right National Democratic Party, from 2000 to 2003, and acted as its attorney. The Potsdam trial is expected to last until at least mid-November. ...

FULL STORY
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gB0aMiwAI9fDIt7tm-l2O1tNz3xQD93MB4280

McCain and the U.S. Council for World Freedom

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post
October 8, 2008

When John McCain severed his ties with a group linked to ultra-rightwing death squads in Central America may make a difference considering some of the literature associated with the U.S. Council for World Freedom.

McCain has said he resigned from the Council's board in 1984 because he was uncomfortable with the group's activities, but his name was still on the group's letterhead in 1986. He also attended the group's "Freedom Fighter of the Year" award ceremony on Oct. 3, 1985.

On July 15, 1985, the group's newsletter featured an article by Robert H. Goldsborough that appears to belittle concerns about then-President Reagan's decision to visit a cemetery with 49 graves of Waffen-SS officers.

"Those misguided souls who accused President Reagan of insensitivity for visiting the German cemetery at Bitburg are wallowing in ears of pity over the past crimes of the Nazi regime which collapsed over 40 years ago," the article begins. "They want to keep the memory of the holocaust alive so that it can never happen again. Crocodile tears! It is happening again ... and again, and again, right now, in the modern world; only the crimes of today are not being perpetrated by the Nazis but by their philosophical and demonical soul mates, the communists."

The article goes on to argue that Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua are engaged in "Holocaust now."

Goldsborough, identified on the web as a former staff investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities, is author of a book called The Network of Power which purports to reveal the "the handful of powerful unelected men who secretly rule America." In an interview conducted in 1998 that appears on the web, Goldsborough identified who he felt were the "top four world elite who he thought controlled the world" -- Edward Bronfman of Seagrams and the World Jewish Congress; then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan; and financier George Soros.

Goldsborough, now associated with a group called Americans for Immigration Control in Monterey, Va., did not return a call left on the group's answering machine.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/07/mccain_and_the_us_council_for.html

DEADLY DIVERSION: On Opium Trafficking, the CIA & the Challenger Disaster

The Challenger disaster took its sweet time gestating - several years to piece it all together, in fact. I'm completely aware that this story will be doubted initially by anyone unfamiliar with the many relevant facts (and by standard American donut heads long subjected to Big Cable's herd programming) - it's my unfortunate lot in life to report these things - and that's why I suggest chasing down my sources and reading anything relevant available on the Net. In the past, when I've posted this story, a Conserva-Troll invariably posts a link to it and opines with a dismissive yawn, "I don't believe the government blew up the Challenger. ... " In a fascist state, reality is squeezed through a lens of willful ignorance by media programmers and their enabling victims.

Mae Brussell's work on Challenger: There was thick layer of ice on the shuttle's launcher that morning - yet NASA claimed over the course of several days to be waiting for the temperature to rise. This is not an incidental detail. (The American prole brain is conditioned to explain essential facts away, but this one is comprehensible only in the wider context of intention in which it is consistent, not an unexplained contradiction.) I've posted this before, but like many stories I write, the significance of it is lost in a sea of Orwellian historical revision - not mine, the military-industrial media machine's. The Challenger blew up at roughly the same moment that a witness swore in to testify on federally-sanctioned heroin smuggling and money laundering - at that very moment NASA launch conditions were ideal for mass murder, as engineers from Thiokol testified openly, and prolonged flight that morning was impossible. The engineers stated that they knew the O-rings would give, that the Challenger would explode, and signed a group statement in advance that they would assume no responsibility for the decision to launch. That came from above. It is on record, not to be ignored but understood. They knew the cannon was loaded. This is not another "incidental" anomaly ... The reporters attending the drug testimony scurried out of the room when the shuttle exploded - the press never ran the story. How "coincidental." ...

Let us reconstruct the Challenger disaster and the drug testimony as they occurred - this set of facts explains the lingering anomalies, which, as I say, are not so incidental - given the bloodshed that ensued, not to mention widespread heroin addiction ... and a bonus - I tussle with a completely disingenuous Conserva-Troll (see below) ...

Peas,
- AC
•••••••
DEADLY DIVERSION: On Opium Trafficking, the CIA & the Challenger Disaster
By Alex Constantine

On January 28, 1986, Scott Barnes, a DEA contract agent, sat before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs to testify about American opium smuggling from Southeast Asia. The chairman of the committee was Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming. Other notable nabobs on the committee: Strom Thrumond, George Mitchell, Jeremiah Denton, Alan Cranston and John D. Rockefeller.

Barnes flew in from Los Angeles to testify about the CIA and southeast Asian opium, an underground industry he'd discovered in his search for POWs in Vietnam. He passed lie detector and sodium amytal tests to convince the press ("calls and inimidations from news people escalated ... ") and filled out a sworn affidavit before testifying.

He also spoke to Congressman Solomon, who was "adamant." As an "ex-Marine," said Solomon, "I won't believe any of this."

"As the questioning progressed during my two hour testimony, I began to feel cornered," Barnes wrote. "I heard someone behind me whisper, 'Oh, God, NO!"

Barnes was given two hours to testify on the logistics of a covert postwar underground of military and intelligence officers engaged in the drug trade. He explained that some of them had been apprehended and were held captive in Southeast Asian prison camps.

Scott Barnes: "In the midst of my testimony, Brian Bonnet entered and whispered in the ear of Murkowski who immediately announced, 'Excuse me, I must go to the White House.' Not long after his return, he was interrupted again, then announced, 'I should advise you that unofficially we have had word that THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER HAS BLOWN UP, and things do not look very good. I have nothing final on that but have just been advised that shortly after launching, there was an explosion. So if anybody wants to be excused, we will certainly understand.'"

Barnes, shaken but determined to speak, resumed his testimony ... but "by that time most of the senators and media people had left."1

Moments before, he had addressed a full Congressional committee and a wall of reporters. If not for the Challenger explosion, his account of CIA drug smuggling – and the abandonment of downed pilots overseas – might have made it into public print.

The Challenger explosion was investigated by another "blue ribbon" commission, this one headed up by Nixon ally and Secretary of State William Pierce Rogers, an attorney with a keen professional interest in both the CIA and the heroin industry.

Architect's rendering of the William P. Rogers Building, 2001 K Street, Washington, D.C.

As background, this was culled this from the Lake Erie Reporter:

"Harken [Oil Co., owned by GHW Bush] was connected to the drug trade, the manipulation of foreign currencies and the CIA’s efforts to destabilize the government of Argentina. Harken’s major owners were George Soros, the Harvard [University] Management Corporation, and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a Saudi investor."

William Rogers

Bakhsh was legally represented by Rogers & Wells, the New York law firm of William P. Rogers. Bakhsh "arranged for Union des Banques Swisses, to invest $25 million in the firm. The Swiss bank was connected to the corrupt banking conglomerate BCCI, which collapsed amid scandal in 1992. BCCI has been called the most corrupt bank in modern times, having financed terrorists, drug dealers, and various covert operations."2

Rewind to 1986, Scott Barnes and his explosive Senate testimony. Recall that when he began to wade into detail in his brief to Senator Simpson's committee, someone seated directly behind him burst out in a whisper, "Oh, God, NO!"

Someone was very anxious about the politics of heroin in Southeast Asia. Who might that be?

Barnes: "The videos of the hearing show a very restless Ann Mills Griffiths seated directly behind me."

Ms. Griffiths was the head of the National League of Families, and though she was a vocal proponent of the POW issue, her many critics maintained that she frustrated efforts to resolve the MIA question behind the scenes.

In 1993, her name surfaced in connection with Richard Childress of the Reagan-Bush National Security Council, as reported by USA Today: "A Reagan administration official secretly funneled money from a POW-MIA group seeking information on missing Americans to help anti-communist rebels in Laos, a Senate report said Wednesday. Richard Childress, a National Security Council staffer, channeled the money during the early 1980s operation... Childress received about $200,000 working with Ann Mills Griffiths, head of the POW-MIA group, the National League of Families, and John LeBoutillier, a former New York Republican congressman.

"The operation 'sounds like a dry run' for the Iran-contra affair, said Jack Blum, a former Senate investigator. ...''3

The NSC's Dick Childress was another ne'er-do-well involved in the importation of heroin from Laos.4 And the Challenger explosion occurred at the very moment testimony about heroin smuggling was heard in Senate chambers.

Could this be a factor in the concurrent timing of the Challenger disaster? Political researcher Mae Brussell provided details of the launch and posited that the Challenger explosion was premeditated:

"Memorandum detailing a 'catastrophic' disaster if the shuttle was launched in less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit was presented to NASA in July 1985, and again in August 1985 by two different scientists. Did NASA, and the Pentagon, select the time when they demanded a lunch on the coldest day in shuttle history?

"The Challenger shuttle, unlike any other launch, waited outside in rain and cold for 38 days. Television cameras focused upon the ice coating and huge icicles at the time of the launch. Ice teams were sent out to 'check.'

"It was not always cold at Cape Canaveral. The Rogers Commission limited their public inquiry into launching decisions to the evening of January 27th and the morning of the 28th of January 1986. Plans for an earlier launch on Saturday, January 25th, 1986 were postponed because of dust storms in Africa and Morocco. It is interesting that the weather, so far away, was conveyed to the launch team at the top of the their pyramid. The same decision makers couldn't see ice, or feel freezing temperature around them at Cape Canaveral.

"It was not a matter of seeing or feeling the cold.... Challenger would leave on the morning of January 28, 1986. Weather was not a factor considered, then or now.

"Robert Lund, Vice President for Engineering at Morton Thiokol, the company who made the controversial solid fuel boosters, was told to "stop making an engineering decision." ... The other hat was military. Lund changed directions and took orders. Life is cheap for the Pentagon.

"Sunday turned out to be a fine day for a launch. Was there too much media competition with the Super bowl Sunday, with Reagan's 'teacher in space' production, after two years of publicity? The hundreds of press, teachers, and students waiting at Cape Canaveral, could have seen a fine launch on Sunday, Monday afternoon or even Tuesday afternoon when it was much
warmer.

"NASA officials had been alerted by Sunday that a cold front was coming in Monday night or Tuesday for sure. Indications were that weather was always a factor in safely launching a shuttle."5

It was "the coldest day in shuttle history," and yet Challenger launched... And Barnes returned to California, an obscure DEA contract agent completely unaware that had his testimony on the CIA and drugs had the potential of wiping out the prospects of two future occupiers of the Oval office, GHW Bush and son. At the very least, the CIA would have had its feet put to the fire one more time. And should the name "Childress" have emerged, the Iran-contra investigation would likely have focused on heroin, not hostages.
••••••••
NOTES

1) Scott Barnes, BOHICA, BOHICA Corporation, Canton, Ohio, 1987, pp. 195-204.

2) "Bush Watch," http://mysite.verizon.net/resox2t6/thelakeeriereporter/
id2.html

3) Carol J. Castaneda, "Misuse of funds alleged," USA TODAY, January 14, 1993, p. 13-A.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:LbcaB_pQ3YgJ:listserv.
dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe%3FA2%3Dind9606%26L%3Dstumpers
-l%26P%3D18425+ann+mills+griffiths+and+nixon&hl=en&gl
=us&ct=clnk&cd=8

4) See, http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/POW.html

5) Mae Brussell, "NASA'S CHALLENGER, R.I.P. January 28, 1986."
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/vm,mb,challengerRIP,2,3,03.htm
•••••••
Response to "jreck" re the Challenger Disaster and CIA Opium

By Alex Constantine

In a discussion of the orchestrated Challenger disaster, I opened with the testimony of Scott Barnes, who described heroin smuggling by American GIs during and AFTER THE VIETNAM WAR, captured, held prisoner in Southeast Asia - exactly where Richard Armitage, Dick Childress and other familiar criminals linked to the Bush regimes wanted them.

A detractor, "jreck," claims to have checked my sources and "debunks" me. The point of contention is "a book by the man himself, Scott Barnes, called BOHICA. I loked the book up on Amazon ..." says "jreck." Note, he didn't actually to read it ...

"jreck" - who "did put a lot of work into tracking down each of Mr. Constantine's claims" - so diligent ... he didn't actually track down any of them but tried, and gives himself points for that - didn't glance at the book, or even search for excerpts, he "looked the book up on Amazon," and "read every review of the book I could find on the internet. It concerns the covert mission Barnes went on into southeast Asia in search of POWs. ... This book recounts how Scott Barnes testified about the mishandling of the information about two American prisoners of war he saw being held captive in Laos (essentially the government ignored him and left the POWs alone). A tragic story to be sure, but mention of heroin? nada. zip. zilch."
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-13884.html

"jreck" is arguing that there is no mention of heroin smuggling in BOHICA, by former DEA agent Scott Barnes ... or in the reviews, but he seems to be hoping we'll believe this extends to the book, as well.

If "jreck" examines the actual text, not reviews, he'll find - not exactly "zilch" - but p. xxxiv of interest; the preface has a footnote on Michael Hand, who laundered heroin proceeds for the CIA and was "suicided." On page xliii of the introduction to the book, Daniel W. Bartow, the publisher of BOHICA, writes about "DRUG SMUGGLERS FOR OUR GOVERNMENT" in Laos. (The caps are his.)

Page 12 is also of interest: it concerns the Hell's Angels, under investigation at the time for alleged "international drug trafficking," ie. heroin, and the assignment Barnes received to infiltrate the motorcycle gang. Page 14 is about a bribe that Barnes received from a man who identified himself as Calvin Brown, "a big time international drug dealer."

Page 15 of Bohica discusses "big-name mafia figures," and Santos Trafficanté being "a former close associate of Laotian Gneral Vang Pao in his drug dealings." Vang Pao, of course, was in the opium business.

Page 18 is about testimony Barnes gave concerning the heroin smuggling network that used the Angels to distribute the drug.

On page 21, Barnes writes about the "thousands of dollars the government pays to murderers and drug addicts and perjurers to be witnesses."

Skip ahead to page 95, and the last paragraph is about how the CIA launders heroin proceeds in the gem export business. Page 180, picked at random, has a long footnote about narcotic overdoses in the prisons.

But no need to belabor the point. Heroin smuggling is the heart of the book. It is the reason Americans were captured AFTER the war - not only during the war, as "jreck" mistakenly assumes, so they weren't really "POWs," another falsehood from my detractor - and held prisoner. They were prisoners of Vietnam War-and-postwar opium trafficking (POVWAPOTs).

Narcotics are also the reason why Barnes's testimony was suppressed. His life was threatened, and he was viciously harassed by the CIA and military intelligence officials (today, many of the same criminals are found in the Bush regime) who feared his congressional testimony - which happened to occur at the moment the shuttle exploded. All reporters were called off the Barnes story. It would have been the leading headline of the day, if not for the shuttle disaster.

I won't go on. Apparently, "jreck" isn't the most experienced ressearcher on the Internet ... He even insulted Mae Brussell. Those are fighting words, so I must observe that Mr. "jreck" is a piece of drek. Mae Brussell was worth a hundred "jrecks." That said ...

CIA heroin, in fact, appears repeatedly in the book, despite "jreck's" claim that I "claimed" it without substance. This is an odd way to discredit me, with a flat-out lie.

Unlike "jreck," I DID go to the library, photocopied the book, read it, took notes - but my critic boasts that he has checked my sources exhaustively and claims I'm a liar. Pathetic. He makes other points, each as lame as the one made above, and I won't degrade myself by responding. (One of his criticisms was that he couldn't find a USA Today story from 1993 that I cited in the Challenger story ... so, he claims, I must have made it up. I have the hard copy, though, so perhaps he should PAY to search the newspaper's archives, then he can rescind his silly comments ... )

Another blogger at the "Book of Thoth" site, where "jreck" posted his wonderful exposé of myself, responds:

"Phew, you sure did one serious bit of research on Constantine's article! Major kudos on the huge effort, and thanks for sharing the insights with us." What a Bozo.

And something named Sol writes, "crazy rants like Constantine's serve to confuse the public and make them ignore the whole Big Issue behind the rant. The 'Challenger connection' is utterly preposterous and is very easily dismissed."

If my article on the Challenger explosion is "easily dismissed," why did "jreck" resort to misstatements?

It's not all that complicated, actually - the shuttle was launched on a morning too cold for blast-off; NASA techs knew that it would explode; it exploded at the moment Barnes was giving his testimony to congress; the pressure to launch came from the Reagan White House. An untold number of addictions had also had ties to the same regime, which brings us back to the names Bush, Armitage, Childress, etal. These atrocities have the same political ne'er-do-wells in common.

"FBI OFFICIAL PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD MOLESTATION" - 2004 AP REPORT ON JOHN CONDITT

February 17, 2004 Posted: 6:48 PM EST (2348 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined the bureau for a two-decade career.

John H. Conditt Jr., 53, who retired in 2001, was sentenced last Friday to 12 years in prison in Tarrant County court in Fort Worth, Texas, after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before his law enforcement career, his lawyer said.

Conditt sought treatment for sex offenders after his arrest last year, said his attorney, Toby Goldsmith.

"The problem these people have is they don't really feel like it is their fault," Goldsmith said. "The treatment doesn't work unless you admit you are the one who instigated it, and he did that."

Conditt headed the internal affairs unit that investigates agent wrongdoing for the Office of Professional Responsibility at FBI headquarters in Washington from 1999 until his retirement in June 2001, the FBI said. He wrote articles in law enforcement journals on how police agencies could effectively investigate their own conduct.

FBI officials said Tuesday they had no information to suggest that Conditt had any problems during his career and he was never the subject of an investigation.

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Mitch Poe, who prosecuted the case, said he wanted a longer prison sentence and was skeptical of Conditt's claim that his molestation of children subsided during his FBI career.

"Both myself and the judge in open court, we were kind of skeptical but we don't have any evidence," Poe said.

A recently retired FBI whistleblower who brought allegations to Conditt's office that agents had not aggressively pursued evidence of sexual abuse in Indian country said Tuesday she now questions whether his personal history affected that decision.

"Before, it never made any sense," retired agent Jane Turner said of the FBI's decision to decline to further investigate her allegations. "Now I can understand. Why in the world wouldn't you want to investigate that?"

Goldsmith said he was concerned about the safety of his client in prison given that he is a former FBI agent and an admitted child molester. "He's not going to be comfortable in the penitentiary," the lawyer said.

Goldsmith said his client had admitted that he had molested at least two other girls before he became an FBI agent more than 30 years ago, but that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing while he served in the bureau.

"It seems that he never did because he had stricter control at that time," the lawyer said.

Conditt could have faced life in prison, and prosecutors requested he get 50 years. The judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison, in part citing Conditt's decision to spare the victim the trauma of a trial, Goldsmith said.

Conditt's conviction is the latest controversy to strike the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility.

Last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller transferred the head of the office to another supervisory assignment outside Washington, three months after rebuking him for his conduct toward a whistleblower.

That whistleblower, John Roberts, alleged the FBI disciplinary office had a double standard that let supervisors off easier than line agents.

Those allegations prompted investigations by Congress and the Justice Department inspector general. The latter concluded there was no systematic favoritism of senior managers over rank-and-file employees but there was a double standard in some cases involving crude sexual jokes and remarks.

FBI gets Open License to Snoop

DAN K. THOMASSON

WASHINGTON -- This is a cautionary tale.

In 1947, Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan proposed a new agency for gathering intelligence to replace the Office of Strategic Services that he had headed so successfully in helping win World War II. The legendary spymaster would have been the logical choice to lead an effort that would be at the forefront of the fight against communism throughout the Cold War.

But Donovan, a friend and ally of Franklin Roosevelt, was always held in some suspicion by Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman. He never got the job, although men who had learned their craft under Donovan would play a major role in the early development of the new Central Intelligence Agency when Congress finally approved it. To make sure that Donovan was not going to be the first choice for the CIA, the White House leaked a story to the Chicago Tribune that Wild Bill had proposed a new approach to espionage that would include spying on Americans.

The story caused a huge furor in Congress and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover lent his considerable opposition to the plan. Fearing privately that such an agency would trample on the authority of the bureau, he argued openly that its activities would threaten the constitutional rights of Americans. To save the situation, proponents agreed that the CIA would be precluded from conducting domestic operations, confining their activities to overseas intelligence operations. Hoover's agents would be granted the sole responsibility for homeland counterintelligence. Those two core provisions of the CIA's charter have guided the nation's espionage activities for better or worse ever since.

Consider this irony, however. In the current effort to keep terrorism at bay, the Justice Department has just completed new guidelines for the FBI that will permit its agents to do exactly what Hoover and others claimed would be the case with the CIA -- spy on Americans without the need to show probable cause, reaching into the private lives of citizens without any indication of suspicious activities. FBI agents now will be able with near impunity to use physical surveillance, hire informants and even disguise their identities in their effort to discover potential threats to national security.

The department defends this action by contending it is required if the FBI's new central mission of heading off terrorism before it occurs is to be successful. It is simply necessary, they say, if the bureau is to be come as the 9/11 Commission recommended "a more flexible and adept collector of information."

This action seems designed to counter the bureau's reluctance to relinquish it traditional law enforcement function of investigating a crime after it has been committed, a culture that has slowed its anti-terrorism efforts. Fine. But in the process the department has provided an agency with a well-documented record of overreaching and other abuses with carte blanche authority to increase these questionable activities. It is a civil libertarian's worst dream, ripe with the possibility of political misuse and intimidation. Anyone who thinks this is not a real danger should not be in public office because he lives in a bubble of historic ignorance. That goes for Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who approved the guidelines.

During the era of civil rights and anti-Vietnam militancy, Hoover instituted a clandestine operation dubbed "Cointelpro" that was aimed among other things at proving protesters were receiving support from the nation's foreign enemies. It became a notorious, illegal intrusion on the civil rights of Americans. This clearly smacks of the same effort and could produce the same result.

One can only wonder what those who opposed Donovan and the creation of the CIA would say now. Some vulnerability to evil intentions probably is the price we pay for our liberty. It is one thing to be vigilant and quite another to use that as an excuse for trampling on our individual freedoms.

E-mail Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at thomassondan@aol.com.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/381982_thomassononline07.html

Mississippi: Another Ugly Chapter of State History Open

James Ford Seale (center), freed by the statute of limitations on kidnapping for involvement in the murders of Charles Moore (left) and Henry Dee

BY NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT • OCTOBER 6, 2008
www.hattiesburgamerican.com

Just when Mississippi closed an old and ugly chapter of its history, the book was ripped open again by a legal technicality. Last year, more than 43 years after the crimes occurred, one man was imprisoned for his involvement in the kidnapping and ultimate murder of two local black men.

Justice was finally served, so we thought.

The 2007 arrest and conviction of James Ford Seale was the latest in a long string of old civil rights era cases reopened and seemingly brought to finality.

Certainly the kidnapping and murders of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee deserved justice.

Their final hours in May 1964 were horrifying. Their mutilated bodies were weighted down and dumped in the backwaters of the Mississippi River - just because they were black.

Last month, Seale's 2007 conviction was overturned on the grounds that the statute of limitations on kidnapping had run out.

Now federal prosecutors are seeking the full appeals court to consider the case. Success there seems unlikely.

But local officials - who in the 1960s were in collusion with the Ku Klux Klan - may ultimately be able to press charges now.

That may be the only hope to seeing justice served.

We urge federal and local prosecutors to keep this case at the top of their agendas.

No other case deserves aggressive prosecution more than one of a hate-crime, murder and a 43-year evasion of justice.

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081006/OPINION01/810060322
•••••••
James Ford Seale receives acquittal judgement
www.newspostonline.com
September 10, 2008

In a landmark decision by U-S Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, kidnapping conviction of erstwhile Ku Klux Klan member James Ford Seale has been overturned. The court said that “it agrees with arguments by James Ford Seale’s attorney that the statute of limitations in the case had expired.”

James Ford Seale was charged with the kidnapping of two African-American teenagers in Meadville, Mississippi, in 1964. He was convicted on June 14, 2007 by a federal jury. Klansman James Ford Seale was sentenced August 24, 2007, to three life terms.


However, the court decided to throw out Seale’s conviction and render a judgement of acquittal. The three judge panel said the statute of limitations had expired based on an amendment to the federal kidnapping statute in 1972. The judges said it applies to Seales’ case because the “alleged offense occurred in 1964 and the indictment was issued in 2007.”

On May 2, 1964, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hazekiah Dee, two 19-year-old black teenagers, were hitchhiking near an ice cream stand in Meadville, Mississippi when they were abducted by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The two were taken into the woods and beaten. They were then stuffed into the trunk of a Volkswagen, driven across the state line into Louisiana, strapped to an old engine block and some railroad ties and dumped alive into the Mississippi River.

http://www.newspostonline.com/world-news/james-ford-seale-receives-acquittal-judgement-200809104548

Considering the War-Crimes Trial of the Bush Administration

Who will lead Bush's defense team—Rudy Giuliani?
By Nat Hentoff
www.villagevoice.com
October 1st 2008

Over the weekend of September 13 and 14, a historic gathering in Andover, Massachusetts, took place and garnered little media attention. But at that two-day conference, serious plans were laid for a war-crimes trial of the Bush administration. Convened by Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, the scheduled participants included two people who have been cited as authorities in this column.

The first was Philippe Sands, director of the Centre of International Courts and Tribunals at London's University College and the author of Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values (Palgrave Macmillan), and the other was Jordan Paust, a University of Houston law professor and the author of Beyond the Law (Cambridge University Press). The latter, a peerless documentation of the Bush regime's lawlessness, includes this quote: "Not since the Nazi era have so many lawyers been so clearly involved in international crimes concerning the treatment and interrogation of persons detained during war." (As it happened, Paust was unable to attend due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.)

Among the 120 legal authorities and scholars at the conference, Dean Velvel notes, was "Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and U.S. Foreign Service official who holds a State Department Award for Heroism and who taught the Geneva Conventions and the Law of Land Warfare at the Special Warfare Section at Fort Bragg, North Carolina." Also present was Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 and was earlier responsible for the U.S. implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

These war-crimes probers are of a significantly higher moral and intellectual grade than the general run of cable-television and Internet pundits.

And one of the smarter things they did was to name their conference after Justice Robert H. Jackson, the lead prosecutor at Nuremberg. This was no ranting MoveOn.org event—instead, its goal is a war-crimes trial beyond anything that has ever been attempted in American judicial history, a goal that echoes the words of Jackson himself: "The common sense of mankind demands that law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men [and women] who possess themselves of great power and make deliberate and concerted use of it to set in motion evils which leave no home in the world untouched."

Obviously, the American defendants in these proposed trials wouldn't be charged with anything on the order of the Holocaust and its many millions of ghoulishly murdered victims. But Philip Gourevitch, in his book Standard Operating Procedure (Palgrave Macmillan), points out how much the Bush administration has gotten away with so far: "Nobody was ever charged with torture, or war crimes, or any violation of the Geneva Conventions. Nobody ever faced charges for keeping prisoners naked, or shackled, [or exposed to systematic torture] . . . or for arresting thousands of civilians without direct cause and holding them indefinitely, incommunicado, in concentration-camp conditions."

The conference set about planning trials to determine the guilt of key actors in the Bush administration (and their authorizing lawyers) for having committed war crimes under both American and international law, and to determine the appropriate punishments. Among the items on the conference's agenda: "Creating an umbrella Coordinating Committee with representatives from an increasing number of organizations involved in war crimes cases; [c]reating a Center to keep track of and organize . . . relevant briefs and facts on war crimes and prosecutions of war criminals; [e]stablishing a Chief Prosecutor's Office such as Nuremberg's."

Keeping in mind the high likelihood that a domestic trial would take much more time and be subject to far more pressure as the full scope of the administration's appalling war crimes was revealed, the conferees also sought to find out "[w]hich international tribunals, foreign tribunals and domestic tribunals (if any) can be used and how to begin cases and/or obtain prosecutions before them." I strongly suggest that Dean Velvel and his colleagues consult the New York–based Center for Constitutional Rights (I'll provide the contacts), which has already filed cases in European nations whose courts exercise "universal jurisdiction" over war crimes. Along with its continuing experience in these pursuits, the CCR intends to keep bringing these charges indefinitely.

Because of the CCR, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld already has reason to be very apprehensive about traveling in Europe. And arrest warrants for 25 CIA agents have been issued by an Italian court eager to question them about the "rendition" (i.e., kidnapping) of an Egyptian cleric living in Italy, who was snatched off the streets of Milan and flown to Egypt by the CIA to be tortured by that nation's secret police.

Of course, previous American officials might have qualified for prosecution as well due to the war crimes committed in Vietnam and other countries. But, as Dean Velvel notes, most of these people have escaped punishment: "President Johnson retired to his Texas ranch, and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara, was named to head the World Bank; Richard Nixon retired to San Clemente, and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, was allowed to grow richer and richer." (It would be instructive to get Mr. Kissinger on the stand and question him about his role in the rise of General Pinochet in Chile.) This is precisely the reason why these trials should be conducted in the case of the Bush administration.

Before leaving for Nuremberg, Justice Jackson—on leave from the Supreme Court—told President Harry Truman: "The groundwork of our case must be factually authentic and constitute a well-documented history of what we are convinced was a grand, concerted pattern to [commit the] barbarities which have shocked the world."

As Dean Velvel said when announcing the reason for his Robert Jackson conference: "The future will be threatened by additional examples of executive lawlessness by leaders who fear no personal consequences" for what they've done. We've already seen how the torture president has exercised his "inherent unitary-executive constitutional authority"—but according to whose Constitution exactly? Dick Cheney's?

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-01/columns/considering-the-war-crimes-trial-of-the-bush-administration/2

How to Steal a Country - Wolfgang Droege

" ... The FBI terrorism section's file on Wolfgang notes his travels to Libya, involvement in the Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of Canada, illegal weapons, drug trafficking and his use of false identities, but the most remarkable entries concern his mercenary activities. ... "

How to steal a country
By Stewart Bell/nationalpost.com
September 22, 2008

In a new book, the National Post's Stewart Bell chronicles an audacious plot to turn a tropical island into a criminal paradise.

Walter Wolfgang Droege answered a knock at his apar tment door at 2:30 in the afternoon. It was Keith Deroux. He was standing in the hallway carrying a blue Pan Am Airlines bag with a loaded revolver inside.

Keith was a relentless junkie. He'd been buying cocaine from Wolfgang for six months. The $305 he owed was carefully recorded beside his initials in the 8 1/2-by-11-inch notebook that Wolfgang used to track his clients' debts.

Even though it was mid-afternoon, Wolfgang wore nothing but a T-shirt and underwear. He had no use for clothes. All he did these days was sell drugs out of his apartment, and the job had no dress code. His clients were desperate. They didn't care if he wore pants.

The neighbours suspected he was up to no good. Visitors would come and go at all hours. His apartment on the second floor of 2 North Drive was a regular drive-thru but the Toronto police drug squad apparently knew nothing about it. Although Wolfgang was one of those cryptically referred to as "known to police," and his FBI file warned he "should be considered armed and dangerous when not in custody," it had been years since his last run-in with the law.

Except for the large quantity of cocaine in his closet and the marijuana in his freezer, Apartment 207 was otherwise ordinary-looking -- 750 square feet, with a single bedroom, a TV and an armchair by the window. The only hint of Wolfgang's troublesome past was his signed photograph of the German far-right leader Ernst Zundel. And then there were the files on the bookshelf beside the sofa that contained the membership lists of the Heritage Front, an organization Wolfgang had once headed. More Heritage Front files were stored on his computer.

Wolfgang had started dealing drugs after leaving the Sandstone Correctional Institution in Minnesota, where he'd served two years for his crimes as a mercenary. Keith was a regular customer. He'd called on his cellphone early that afternoon and said he wanted to come over to buy cocaine, but it was a lie. By the time he got to Wolfgang's apartment, his head was spinning. He'd been drinking hard liquor, gulping Tylenol 3s and snorting coke. On top of that, he was in methadone withdrawal. He was shaking like an old man.

Wolfgang let Keith in to the apartment and went to get the cocaine, but when he turned his back, Deroux reached in to his flight bag and pulled out the Rohm .22.

"Are you alone?" Keith said.

"Ya," Wolfgang responded, with the German accent he had never quite shaken.

"I don't believe you," Keith said.

He ordered Wolfgang into the bedroom and told him to open the closet door, to make sure nobody was hiding inside. Keith was inspecting the closet, satisfying himself that it was really empty, when Wolfgang bolted. Keith opened fire but he was a lousy shot and, even at 55,Wolfgang was too quick for the quivering hand of an addict.

The first bullet hit the wall by the front door.

The second was also a miss. It sailed through the open doorway and into the hall.

Wolfgang ran for the stairwell.

He turned to look back just as Keith pulled the trigger one more time. The bullet struck Wolfgang in the chest but it didn't kill him and he kept running. He was almost at the stairs when Keith got off one last shot. It hit Wolfgang square in the back of the skull. He fell face down on the carpet.

It all happened quickly. Wolfgang did not have time to think about who might have sent Keith to kill him, and there was no shortage of candidates, seeing as he had spent his entire adult life militantly taunting, provoking, offending and plotting.

The FBI terrorism section's file on Wolfgang notes his travels to Libya, involvement in the Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of Canada, illegal weapons, drug trafficking and his use of false identities, but the most remarkable entries concern his mercenary activities.

Wolfgang and a Texas soldier of fortune-type named Mike Perdue had once organized a military coup on the island of Dominica, a country probably best known today as the setting for Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean films. On Nov. 3, 1978, Dominica became the Western hemisphere's 30th nation. At the Independence Day ceremony in the capital, Roseau, Prime Minister Patrick John, the opposition leader Eugenia Charles and Princess Margaret watched as the Union Jack came down and up went the flag of Dominica, a circle of stars surrounding a Sisserou parrot. Centuries of French and British colonial rule were over but Dominica's troubles were only beginning.

Within months, Wolfgang and Perdue were working on a plan to invade the island. They called it a strike against communism, but their motives were mainly financial. They military intervention. It is also the story of two federal undercover agents from New Orleans and their confidential informant, who stumbled on to the biggest case of their lives.

It costs money to make war. You have to buy weapons and ammunition, hire mercenaries and pay their room and board and transportation expenses. Even in a country as small as Dominica, the bills pile up. Mike Perdue and Wolfgang Droege were not rich men. They were both jobless. They didn't have the money to finance a military expedition. They needed investors. They needed to find people who not only had money, but who would be willing to sink it in to a country they had probably wanted to steal the country and turn it in to a crooks' paradise. The North American far-right wing was involved, along with the Mob and financiers in Las Vegas and Mississippi. So was the island's ex-prime minister, his army chiefs and a gang of Rastafarian guerrillas. Some believe the CIA was in on it, too.

It was one of the most audacious heists ever attempted, and until now the true story behind it has never been fully told.

This is the story of that coup. It is the story of how a Texan kicked out of the U. S. Marines and a militant Canadian Nazi teamed up to topple a Third World government for profit, adventure and power. It is a story about the Cold War, greed, revolutionary politics and the morality of foreign never heard of, for a mission that was clearly not above board and that might not even succeed.

So they went to Las Vegas.

It was a logical choice. Part of the evolving plan was to turn Dominica into a gambling haven. Once he secured the island, Perdue was going to build casinos and bring in foreign tourists. The profits would be split between the government, the mercenaries and their investors.

Carlton Van Gorder was a veteran in the gaming industry. He met Droege and Perdue at the Vegas airport and dropped them at a motel for the night. The next day, Van Gorder took them to meet a few men who had money to invest. "We probably spent four or five hours with them," Van Gorder recalled in an interview. The meeting did not go well. "We decided we wouldn't have anything to do with them. They were a little on the shady side," Van Gorder says. "I mean, anyone who talks about toppling a government, they aren't the type of people you go in to business with." But a gaming executive named Tommy Thompson agreed to meet them in Memphis.

For all their similarities, Perdue and Droege were an unlikely partnership. Perdue was a hustler. The only thing that seemed to get him excited was money. Droege was dogmatic. He was deeply into white power. He cared about the money, but partly because he thought it would help advance his cause. To that extent, in Vegas, where it was all about money, Droege was just a prop. Perdue did the talking while Wolfgang, with his Klan credentials and David Duke connections, sanctified the invasion as a political act.

Perdue was trying to lure investors by promising big profits but he was also appealing to their sense of patriotism. He talked about how the Cubans had tried to bring aid to the island after a hurricane, and how the citizens of Dominica had flown American flags in a protest against the communists. Painting the island red helped Perdue sell his plot. Mercenaries often dress up their profiteering and adventurism in the language of politics, telling each other they are fighting corruption and dictatorship. Maybe it helps them sleep at night but in the end, they are soldiers of fortune, like bank robbers or car thieves, only with more ambition. They steal entire countries.

The heist that Perdue was planning was going to be very profitable -- if it all worked out. Dominica was by no means a wealthy place, but imagine the money you could make if you had the run of your own country? In exchange for staging a coup that would return the former prime minister, Patrick John, to power, Perdue and his band of mercenaries were going to own the prime minister and his island.

They could build casinos. They could cut down the trees and sell them off. They could sell drugs and guns. They could print themselves diplomatic passports and commit crimes around the world with immunity. Who was going to stop them? They would be their own sovereign, criminal nation. - Excerpted from Bayou of Pigs: The True Story of an Audacious Plot to Turn a Tropical Island into a Criminal

Paradise, published by John Wiley & Sons. For more information see stewartbell.net.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/09/22/stewart-bell-how-to-steal-a-country.aspx

Lehman Creditors want to Investigate JPMorgan Role

www.contracostatimes.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS
10/03/2008

NEW YORK — Creditors of Lehman Brothers have asked a judge to allow an investigation into whether JPMorgan Chase & Co. had a role in weakening Lehman as it headed toward bankruptcy.

The committee filed the request in court documents late Thursday.

The creditors committee believes Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. had more than $17 billion in cash and securities held at JPMorgan before its Chapter 11 filing but that JPMorgan froze the assets Sept. 12, three days before Lehman filed for court protection. Its case is the biggest in U.S. history.

"The creditor's committee believes that as a result of JPMC's actions, LBHI suffered an immediate liquidity crisis that could have been averted by any number of events, none of which transpired," lawyers for creditors wrote in court papers. "In freezing LBHI's assets, JPMC was purportedly holding all of LBHI's assets as a potential offset against any claims," lawyers said.

JPMorgan provided billions in clearing advances — short-term loans investment banks use to clear trades on a daily basis — to Lehman in the days around its Chapter 11 filing.

Lehman disclosed last week that JPMorgan is its biggest creditor holding secured claims worth an estimated $23 billion. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment on Friday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck is scheduled to consider the creditors' request on Oct. 16.


Separately, the government's pension insurance agency objected to Lehman's sale of its North American investment banking and trading operations to Barclays Capital, a deal that closed Sept. 22. Lawyers for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. argued that Lehman has not said whether it would use any of the proceeds from the sale to shore up its pension plan, which covers 25,000 former and current employees. If the plan were to be terminated today, Lehman would need to add $72.5 million to make the plan whole.

Also, a slew of vendors filed objections to Lehman's cancellation or transfer of contracts. Objectors included the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Cisco Systems Inc., Bloomberg LP, Sun Microsystems Inc. and others.

Lehman Brothers entered bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15 with assets of $639 billion and debt of $613 billion. It was forced to file Chapter 11 under pressure from the shrinking credit markets and a loss of confidence among investors that it could carry on its day-to-day business.

That marked an end to what was once the nation's fourth-largest investment bank. In addition to the Barclays buyout of key U.S. units, Lehman has sold its money management arm, Neuberger Berman, to two private equity firms and its Asian, European and Middle Eastern businesses to Japan's largest brokerage, Nomura Holdings Inc.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/business/ci_10632901?nclick_check=1

Letter to the Editor: In Defense of a Democratic Society

Max Schoening '09: In Defense of a Democratic Society
media.www.browndailyherald.com
10/3/08

Rachel Forman's '09 column this past Monday ("A senseless protest," Sept. 29) contains a calm, well reasoned and balanced argument against Students for a Democratic Society's protest of Raytheon and the CIA's presence at the career fair.

It is this very posture of rationality and objectivity that I find to be most alarming - and that most legitimizes SDS's protest tactics.

Before attacking SDS, Forman dismissively mentions that the CIA has had "some dark moments" and writes them off as "unfortunate episodes in our national history," as if they somehow represented trivial aberrations in a history of glowingly benevolent U.S. foreign policy. She goes on to argue that SDS's condemnation of the CIA and Raytheon, a military contractor that made over $4 billion in profit in 2007, is a hokey evaluation of the organizations' "karma."

The overriding tone of the column is that good-hearted, liberal Brown students always do the right thing and that SDS' criticism of the CIA and Raytheon was overblown. She starts her column by saying: "I am insulted by Students for a Democratic Society's assumption that I am not capable of making moral judgments on my own."

It is fine to oppose the message conveyed by protest. It is undemocratic to claim insult when people try to affect our opinions through public outcry.

This sense of insult, shared by other Brown students in response to the protest, reflects a moral assurance that Brown students are already doing the right thing about U.S. military expansionism and the exorbitant profits reaped from it.

The basic silence and complete lack of participation in activism surrounding the Iraq war on Brown's campus indicates that we should not be so sure of ourselves.

Let's stop scapegoating SDS and start considering our own complicity in U.S. military aggression. Let's work for our moral assurance rather than assuming we have earned it simply by bashing Sarah Palin and voting for Barack Obama.

Forman, like other Brown students I have talked to, calls SDS' physical representation of victims of CIA and U.S. military violence 'distasteful.'

Eager to express annoyance with the sticky fake blood that distracted them from schmoozing with consulting firms, many students ignored what this fake blood represented: the real blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, the blood of a U.S. soldier whose life is part of Raytheon's profit scheme, the blood of a Chilean student tortured to death by the CIA sponsored military dictatorship. This blood is on our hands as U.S. citizens.

The systematic disappearance of dead Iraqi and American bodies in public discourse and media representation is an essential mechanism employed to rationalize and normalize American military violence. Think about it. How many photographs of dead U.S. soldiers or Iraqi civilian bodies have you seen in the mainstream media?

The Department of Defense prohibits the media coverage of returning U.S. soldier's body bags, and its policy limiting embedded journalists' movements with the troops has severely distorted the portrayal of the Iraq war. Compare the images of Vietnam to the images from Iraq, combine the disparity in media coverage with the absence of a military draft and Brown students' overall indifference to the war makes more sense.

With this in mind, SDS's tactic of reasserting otherwise systematically hidden human bodies into public discourse about the CIA and military contracting companies is a crucial method for resisting the public's rationalization of organized violence against large civilian populations.

Forman's irritated response to the presence of these bodies shows how successfully U.S. violence abroad has been made normal, albeit distasteful and inconvenient, for many Brown students.

Her indignation belies a collective outrage against SDS' violation of the coveted aesthetics of rational discourse. But what is this rational discourse, and how many dead corpses, systematically repressed from our vision, loom beneath its gleaming surfaces?

I'm not arguing that Raytheon and the CIA are inherently evil organizations that should be prohibited from recruiting on campus - nor that SDS employed the most effective protest tactics.

I'm saying that it's good that there is a group on campus inciting debate about the U.S. empire and its human consequences.

Max Schoening '09 is an international relations concentrator and is not affiliated with SDS.

http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2008/10/03/Columns/Max-Schoening.09.In.Defense.Of.A.Democratic.Society-3468702.shtml

Austria: Nation that Refuses to Face Up to Nazi Past

Austrian Death's Head badges

By Alan Hall
news.scotsman.com
01 October 2008

THERE is something rotten in the psyche of Austria that allows a protest vote against mainstream political parties to morph into an endorsement of the extreme right.

Make no mistake: getting a third of a country to put their X next to the names of men who think SS soldiers were honourable, who want to deport any immigrant caught so much as shoplifting and who want to repeal a law banning Nazi imagery, takes more than mere political chicanery.

It takes a national will. The victory for the immigrant-hating, Nazi-idealising rightist parties on Sunday was a stunning example, if any more were needed, of this land's inability to deal with a monstrous past.

So it is denied, and in denial comes ignorance spawning fear, hatred and despair. Then come the scapegoats: not Jews this time, but foreigners who wear different clothes. This is the baseness that Heinz-Christian Strache and perennial bogeyman Joerg Haider appealed to to take so many votes.

Lurking behind the delicatessen shop fronts and the strudel, the Mozart festivals and the mountain scenery, is the notion among many that the Nazis were a good bunch.

Why is Austria like this? What makes an educated, technocratic land retreat to an illusory comfort zone offered by tub-thumpers whose idea of tolerance is gossamer thin and whose social policies are framed in two words: "immigrants out"?

The answer lies in its illimitable capacity for self deception – and a continued unwillingness to confront its central role in supporting Nazism during the Third Reich.

Austrians flinch and groan when they read this. "Not again!" they cry. "Always foreigners trying to teach us about our past! Always harping on about the war!"

Yet the message must continue to be rammed home because many Austrians, unlike the Germans, have never come to terms with what was their unflinching, almost universal, and certainly shameful support for the Nazis and their policies.

One great myth still haunts the country – that Austria, subsumed as it was into the Reich in March 1938, was "Nazism's first victim" rather than its arch-enabler. This dangerous untruth was greedily eaten up by the post-war generation and various attempts – through education, exhibitions and academic debates – have failed to shift it.

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Foreign-Briefing-Nation-that-refuses.4544146.jp

Italian Partisans to Protest Spike Lee's World War II Film

afp.google.com

ROME (AFP) — Italian veteran partisans offended by US director Spike Lee's World War II film "Miracle at St. Anna" planned a protest Wednesday at an advance screening in central Italy, media reports said. They plan to stage a sit-in in Viareggio, a town on the Tuscan coast near the village of Stazzema, where retreating German soldiers massacred 560 civilians in 1944, the reports said.

The film, which is set for general release in Italy on Friday, shows a member of the resistance collaborating with the Nazis and failing to warn the villagers of the Germans' advance.

A dozen of the anti-Fascist partisans who were present during the massacre and about 50 survivors contest this version, according to the Italian daily La Stampa.

"It is an erroneous version," said writer Giorgio Bocca, a veteran partisan, wrote in an editorial in Wednesday's La Repubblica, a left-leaning daily.

At a press screening on Tuesday, Lee said he was "not apologising" and that he had "not invented anything" in the film version of a book of the same name by James McBride which also highlights the role of black American soldiers in the war.

"This film is no clear picture of what happened. It is our interpretation, and I stand behind it," Lee said, suggesting to Italians that there was "a lot about your history you have yet to come to grips with."

McBride was more contrite, saying: "I am very sorry if I have offended the partisans. I have enormous respect for them. As a black American, I understand what it's like for someone to tell your history, and they are not you." He added: "Unfortunately, the history of World War II here in Italy is ours as well, and this was the best I could do," stressing: "It is, after all, a work of fiction."

Organisers of the Rome Film Festival opening on October 22 told a news conference on Wednesday that they had requested a copy of the film but were told it was promised for last month's Toronto event.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJEesKx6gdMgLVbPUOozAqIFl7Tw