Monzer Al-Kassar & Iran Contra/Kassar OK'd Terror Arms, Feds Charge

Also see: "U.S. Senate Investigation Into the Bank for Credit and Commerce International"

"Mr. Kassar would get a 'pass' by the US on his narcotics trafficking in the region ..."

Excerpt: "Monzer al-Kassar and Transnational Terrorism"
ajacksonian.blogspot.com
10 JUNE 2007

... A lovely snippet on the ability of Mr. Kassar to influence folks that should be arresting him is described with this:

The primary example here is Al Kassar who, for example, closed a deal with the French government. While being sentenced to eight years in Paris, he negotiated without any problem with the French authorities and several opportunities to arrest Al Kassar were ignored.

So much for this 'rule of law' concept! Yes he could, indeed, influence people and he could help the French... if they would just ship some arms to Iran. Such a good deal! How could the CIA pass that up? Well, from what we see in the Iran/Contra business, it didn't.

Thus comes in Ollie North, Richard Secord and a lively crew of folks looking to purloin some weapons, get some cash, free some hostages and get arms to the Contras all in a few easy steps. They would set up a business they called the 'Enterprise' and it would work with an international arms dealer who had a direct line to Iran: Mr. Monzer al-Kassar. Mr. Kassar had moved offices to Poland so as to avail himself of Soviet bloc arms, which were a bit cheaper and easier to sell than Western ones. So the 'Enterprise' would look to get a ship to do the go between work, owned by a Portugese company: Defex.

So now a bit from Chapter 8 of the Walsh Report on Iran/Contra:

Phases V-VII of the Contra Arms Sales (March-June 1986)

Between February 27 and May 23, 1986, the Enterprise paid Defex Portugal about $860,000 for contra weapons. Weapons were delivered to Central America in March, April and May in three shipments. CSF books show profit distributions between April and June, numbered Phases V through VII, totaling $550,471. In addition, there was an unnumbered distribution of $37,277 on June 20, 1986, resulting from the Phase VII shipment.

The Undelivered Shipment and Distribution (July-September 1986)

In July 1986, the Enterprise paid Defex (Portugal) $2.6 million and $500,000 to another dealer, Monzer Al Kassar, for contra weapons. In late July, a shipment of arms left Portugal for Central America aboard the recently acquired Enterprise freighter, the Erria.8 According to Thomas Parlow, the Erria's Danish shipping agent, the freighter was carrying arms picked up in Poland and Portugal.9

8 Clines, Hakim and William Haskell, an associate of North, traveled to Copenhagen in April 1986 to purchase for approximately $320,000 the Erria, which the Enterprise had leased a year earlier for a weapons shipment to the contras. The ship was purchased by the Enterprise in the name of Dolmy Business Inc., a Panamanian shell company. Thomas Parlow became the Erria's Danish shipping agent. According to Parlow, Hakim would telephone Parlow to direct movement of the ship, and Parlow would communicate those directions to the ship's captain. (Parlow, FBI 302, 3/5/87, pp. 2-3.)

9 Ibid., p. 3.

As the Erria was nearing Bermuda, Parlow, acting on instructions from Hakim, ordered it to slow its speed and await further instructions. Clines then directed the ship to work its way slowly back to Portugal.10 When it arrived in Portugal it could not obtain permission to enter the port. In this mid- to late-August 1986 period, Secord ordered Clines to try to sell the cargo or dump it at sea, according to Parlow. The vessel headed for Spain, where it remained anchored for two weeks.

10 The ship apparently was ordered back to Europe because it was to be used in an impending U.S.-Israeli venture involving Iran.

As the Erria made its circuitous journey, the CIA through a series of commercial entities arranged to buy the weapons aboard. According to CIA officials, they did not learn the identity of either the owner of the ship or its cargo until January 1987, when a newspaper article named the Secord-Hakim Enterprise as the owner of the ship and the weapons.

The CIA paid $2.1 million for the arms shipment, including shipping and handling costs.11 According to the private arms dealer who bought the arms for the CIA, he paid $1.6 million for the weapons. Of that, the Enterprise received $1.2 million, and the remainder went to Parlow or Defex, who worked together to re-sell the weapons.

And a bit further on we get a look at some of the cash amounts involved:

The Iran/Contra Diversion

Because of the commingling of Enterprise funds, it was not possible to determine precisely how much money was diverted from the Iran arms sales proceeds to the contras. After direct U.S. sales of arms to Iran began in February 1986, the amount of proceeds diverted to the contras that could have been proved at trial was $3.6 million. It probably was at least $1.1 million more.51

51 The $3.6 million diversion estimate does not include expenditures OIC could not provide evidence for at trial but were, in fact, contra-related, including: the purchase of a $200,000 Jetstar by the Enterprise for contra-related travel; a $500,000 weapons purchase from Monzer Al Kassar, who was not available to testify; and about $535,000 that was used to purchase, operate and insure the Danish freighter, the Erria, which was not used exclusively for contra operations.

Independent Counsel arrived at the diversion figure of $3.6 million by calculating the Enterprise's total contra-related expenses following the first direct U.S. shipment of arms to Iran in February 1986, less the amount of funds in Enterprise accounts specifically deposited on behalf of the contras. The Enterprise's contra-related expenses after February were conservatively estimated at $6.7 million. The amount deposited for the contras was $3.1 million. Thus, the amount that was clearly diverted from the arms sales was $3.6 million.

North, in his testimony, attributed to Nir and Ghorbanifar the idea for a diversion of arms sales funds to the contras. In the Poindexter trial, although uncertain, he fixed the date in December 1985 or January or February of 1986.52 As early as November 14, 1985, North's notebooks show that he discussed with Nir a plan to obtain the release of the hostages by payments to certain Middle Eastern factions. The questions they discussed included: "How to pay for; how to raise $,'' and a possible solution was to set up a "joint'' Israeli-U.S. "covert op.'' According to the Israelis, North apparently told Israeli defense officials in a meeting in New York on December 6, 1985, that he intended to divert funds from the arms sales to the contras.

And, of course, Mr. Kassar was unavailable for testimony! Even more amazing is that he went from working for someone else to being his own operation just as this was going on. In exchange for doing this, Mr. Tijhuis cites a report that Mr. Kassar would get a 'pass' by the US on his narcotics trafficking in the region, thus allowing him to continue getting benefit for the deal above and beyond arms payments. ...

http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/2007/06/monzer-al-kassar-and-transnational.html
••••••
That wouldn't be all. Far from it, Mr. Kassar would *also* be getting in good with BCCI and its ability to launder and transfer funds for illicit deals on a global basis. ...

Kassar OK'd Terror Arms, Feds Charge
BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
November 5, 2008

A Syrian arms dealer agreed to funnel high-powered weapons to a terror group so it could slaughter American agents fighting the Colombian drug trade, prosecutors charged Wednesday.

Monzer Al-Kassar, 62, and accused accomplice Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 59, went on trial yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court for conspiring to supply Colombian guerrillas with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, surface-to-air missiles and thousands of machine guns.

Kassar "without hesitation agreed to supply them with everything they asked for and more," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan McGuire told jurors.

Prosecutors say they'll show jurors videotapes of overseas sitdowns between the defendants and "cooperators" working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Kassar lawyer Ike Sorkin says his client is a legitimate businessman.
"There's nothing illegal about being an international arms merchant," Sorkin said.

Godoy lawyer Roger Stavis asked his client to stand and face the jury.
"He's not a killer and he's not a terrorist," Stavis said, his hand on Godoy's shoulder.

Stavis said the men intended to double-cross the cooperators by turning them in to Spanish police because they believed they were terrorists.
"It was a game of cat and mouse, but it was a game of cat and mouse by both sides," Stavis said.

In 1995, Kassar was acquitted of charges that he conspired to supply assault rifles to Palestinian militants who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

tzambito@nydailynews.com

Okla.: Birch Society (a Nazi Front) Boasts of Members Charles Key & other Legislators/JBS & the Reactionary Right (Alex Jones, too)

" ... Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, and state Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, [are] members of the society. ... "

John Birch Society Sees New Interest
By DENVER NICKS World Staff Writer
11/21/2008

An icon of the 1960s culture wars, the John Birch Society might have become a distant memory for people who believe that it has long faded into nonexistence, relegated to the dust bin of history.

Observers of the recent for Tulsa County Commission election know that it has not.

At an informational session Thursday, attended by about 20 people, members of the John Birch Society in Oklahoma gathered to spread their gospel of anti-totalitarianism and organize to resist the looming "New World Order."

"The local newspaper absolutely tore me to shreds," said Sally Bell, a member of the group and recent County Commission candidate.

Bell was criticized by the Tulsa World in an editorial that called the society a "lunatic right wing group."

"I went through a whole lot of stuff to get our message out," said Bell, who says she has become a de facto spokeswoman for the group.

Don Crosson, a section leader for the society, said, "If we'd had a full operation section or two in Tulsa, we'd have won her that campaign."

Crosson also identified state Sen. Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso, and state Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City, as members of the society. .,..

The society supports a traditionally conservative and isolationist agenda. It cautions that there is a plan to dissolve the borders between the U.S., Canada and Mexico; opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on constitutional grounds; and calls for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations.

Crosson spoke of what the group perceives as the mounting threat of one-world government and the prospect of a Chinese invasion using a coming pan-American superhighway.

Although prominent in public life at one time, the organization fell out of favor with mainstream conservatives in the 1960s and '70s who reacted to accusations by the society that the American political establishment was controlled by a centuries-old international conspiracy, the group's Web site states. ...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081121_11_A16_Anicon320630
•••••••
JBS

JBS and the Council for National Policy together are tied to reactionary politics, Reinhard Gehlen (Nazi SS), the "commie international" Council on Foreign Relations, tax cuts plus govt subsidies for the rich, Charter Schools, all the "Christian Right" which is mostly Dominionist/Reconstructionist/Calvinist totalitarianism like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Focus on the Family, Dr. Dobson, Mises Institute, Moral Majority, Operation Rescue AND Planned Parenthood, the Reagan Revoution and Bush, Paul Weyrich, Ralph Reed, Jack Kemp, Irving Kristol, Milton Friedman, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife (Whitewater, the Arkansas Project), William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (Moonies), New Age, Scientology, Gospel Outreach Verbo Ministries a.k.a. the "Jesus Movement" (a church created by a CIA psych warfare expert used to undermine Christianity in Latin Am), Heritage Foundation, W.R. Grace, Hudson Institute, Cato Institute and other anti-tax orgs, Ollie North, MK-ULTRA, Operation CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD, global death squad operations in Latin America, Asia, and the US, using fetuses for Bio-Med testing, and various other right wing scams which claim Patriotism.

The Santa Fe Document, which was a sequel to The Rockefeller Report, was originally titled Inter-American Relations, Shield of the New Order and Sword of the U.S. Ascent to World Power. This document set forth plans to create religious sects on a worldwide scale, whose mission was to corrupt the collective conscience of Christians to willingly accept the Rockefeller agenda. A portion of a book, La Mafia Sects (The Sect Mafia) by Burn Fouchereau, describes the planned use of Evangelical organizations, such as Rios Montt's Church of the Word, as fronts for the CIA to "take charge of the initiative of ideological struggle" in Latin America through religious phenomena, i.e., psychological warfare operations for inculcating Anglo-Saxon ideology.

It's a network of Nazis, Intelligence, Propaganda, and death squad activities.

Remember also that Alex Jones has long said that his father was a Birchite and that he has "a soft spot" for their reactionary ideology. ...

http://www.takeoverworld.info/nazi-history.html

Use of Antipsychotics in Children is Criticized

By Gardiner Harris
www.iht.com
November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON: Powerful antipsychotic medicines are being used far too cavalierly in children, and U.S. drug regulators must do more to warn doctors of their substantial risks, a panel of U.S. government drug experts said Tuesday.

More than 389,000 children and teenagers were treated last year with Risperdal, one of five popular medicines known as atypical antipsychotics. Of those patients, 240,000 were 12 or younger, according to data presented to the committee. In many cases, the drug was prescribed to treat attention deficit disorders.

But Risperdal is not approved for attention deficit problems, and its risks — which include substantial weight gain, metabolic disorders and muscular tics that can be permanent — are too profound to justify its use in treating such disorders, panel members said.

"This committee is frustrated," said Leon Dure, a pediatric neurologist from the University of Alabama School of Medicine who was on the panel. "And we need to find a way to accommodate this concern of ours."

The meeting on Tuesday was scheduled to be a routine review of the pediatric safety of Risperdal and Zyprexa, popular antipsychotic medicines made, respectively, by Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly & Company. Food and Drug Administration officials proposed that the committee endorse the agency's routine monitoring of the safety of the medicines in children and support its previous efforts to highlight the drugs' risk.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/20/healthscience/19fda.php

USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on GE and Pharmaceutical Crops

From: GE_News
Subject: USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules
To: congress4us@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 1:35 PM

This alert is from the True Food Network.

Greetings!

In the waning months of the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has joined the ranks of federal agencies rushing through new regulations that weaken protections for human health and the environment. USDA has released a proposed rule that would significantly weaken oversight of all genetically engineered crops, and which continue to allow companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals.

The USDA began this process over four years ago by promising stricter oversight. Unfortunately, improvements considered early on have been dismissed, and the proposed rule now has the same gaping holes as the policy it is replacing, and creates a few new ones, as well. For instance:

USDA has created a huge loophole allowing biotech companies to assess their own crops to determine whether USDA should regulate them. And the criteria are open-ended, very subjective, and will certainly reduce USDA's oversight of GE crops.

The proposed rules could also allow companies to grow untested GE crops with no oversight whatsoever: "Over time, the range of GE organisms subject to oversight is expected to decrease...," a move which USDA itself admits will make contamination of conventional/organic crops with untested GE material more likely.

To add insult to injury, USDA has proposed to write into law its "Low Level Presence" policy, which excuses it from taking any action to remove untested GE crops from conventional or organic food, feed and seed. This contamination often occurs through cross-pollination or seed dispersal, and has cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and lowered profits.

USDA rejected options that would have banned outdoor cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing GE (food) crops, the only way to ensure that untested drugs don't end up in our food, despite strong support from citizens and the food industry.

USDA has refused to propose any controls on pesticide-promoting GE crops, despite increasing pesticide use and an epidemic of resistant weeds that have been fostered by these crops.

Finally, USDA snuck in a last-minute "correction" that bars state or local regulation of GE crops more protective than its own weak rule. CFS strongly opposes such preemptive language that would bar local or state authorities from putting meaningful regulations or restrictions on GE crops in place that best suit their communities. This last-minute change should be cause to extend the public comment period.

The USDA is treading dangerous new ground here. The structure of the new proposal opens loopholes that can be exploited by biotech companies and expose consumers to more untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods.

After denying requests for an extension to the short comment period given for the proposed rules, USDA's comment period closes on Monday.

The ACORN Mess: A scandal Grows

www.pittsburghlive.com
November 16, 2008

They're dispensing big dollops of hand sanitizer at ACORN these days. But it's doubtful that any anti-bacterial agent can kill the infection that's raging through the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

... ACORN had a giant internal scandal: Founder Wade Rathke kept from the group's board the fact that his brother, Dale, had embezzled more than $1 million from ACORN a decade ago.

Once revealed, ACORN named an interim management committee to investigate. But when accountants refused to open the books, several board members on that committee sued. Now, CNN reports that two board members -- Karen Inman and Marcel Reid -- have been fired.

ACORN says the pair was speaking untruths and had no authority to go to court. Ms. Inman bluntly says "the sheriff's coming."

The ACORN mess is so serious that a prominent benefactor has balked at supporting the group. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which has given ACORN more than $7 million in the last decade, froze contributions in June, CNN reports. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week severed all ties because of the growing scandals.

Alleged fraud. Hidden embezzlement. Firing those impaneled to investigate. It's time for the feds to step up their probe of ACORN.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/archive/s_598499.html

C.I.A. Withheld Data in Peru Plane Crash Inquiry

By MARK MAZZETTI
NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/world/americas/21inquire.html?ref=americas
November 21, 2008

WASHINGTON — An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that the agency withheld crucial information from federal investigators who spent years trying to determine whether C.I.A. officers committed crimes related to the accidental downing of a missionary plane in Peru in 2001.

The August 2008 report by John L. Helgerson, the C.I.A.’s inspector general, could lead the Justice Department to reopen its investigation into the shooting, examining in particular whether senior C.I.A. officers obstructed justice or lied to Congress by burying details about the episode and the C.I.A.’s broader counternarcotics program.

A C.I.A. surveillance aircraft mistakenly identified the plane as a drug-smuggling aircraft, and a Peruvian military jet shot it down, killing an American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter. The Justice Department closed its investigation into the matter in 2005, declining to prosecute agency officers for any actions related to the episode.

But Mr. Helgerson’s report, parts of which were made public on Thursday, said that the Justice Department investigators and Congress were never allowed access to internal C.I.A. reviews that portrayed the downing as one mistake among many in the agency’s counternarcotics program in Peru. The report said the agency routinely authorized interceptions of suspected drug planes “without adequate safeguards to protect against the loss of innocent life.”

The counternarcotics program was begun under President Clinton in 1994. The report said it had operated for years outside legal boundaries set by the White House.

In releasing unclassified parts of the report on Thursday, Representative Peter J. Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was asking the Justice Department to consider whether the C.I.A.’s actions after the incident amounted to obstruction of justice. “This is about as ugly as it gets,” said Mr. Hoekstra, who added that the Justice Department had closed its investigation based on a review of “incomplete information.”

The missionary family that was aboard the aircraft when it was shot down came from Mr. Hoekstra’s district in Michigan.

Paul Gimigliano, an agency spokesman, said that Mr. Helgerson’s report had been delivered to the Justice Department, and that Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, had yet to decide what internal actions to take.

“C.I.A. takes very seriously questions of responsibility and accountability,” Mr. Gimigliano said. “The only accountability process worthy of this agency is one conducted with care, candor and common sense. That’s the single goal here.” A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

The fatal episode occurred in April 2001 over the remote Amazon forest of Peru. The C.I.A. had been operating in the region as part of a joint counternarcotics mission with the Peruvian Air Force, which had the authority to intercept or shoot down planes that did not comply with orders to land. Government reports after the shooting attributed the accident in part to language barriers that prevented the pilot from understanding the orders.

The plane was carrying two missionaries, Veronica Bowers and her husband, James Bowers, their two children, and a pilot. Ms. Bowers’ husband and the couple’s son survived the crash, along with the pilot. Any decision to re-examine the matter could be an early test for the Justice Department under an Obama administration. If the Justice Department determines there was wrongdoing, it may have no choice about whether to pursue a prosecution. At the same time, a lengthy investigation into C.I.A. wrongdoing could immediately chill the relationship between the White House and the spy agency at a time when the C.I.A. is central to the American campaign against terrorism.

According to Mr. Helgerson’s report, C.I.A. officials “within hours” of the downing explained the accident as a one-time mistake in an otherwise sound counternarcotics program.

“In fact, this was not the case,” the report said. It said that the C.I.A. repeatedly misled the White House and Congress between 1995 and 2001 about the Peru operation.

The inspector general’s report said that after the downing of the missionaries’ plane, the C.I.A. had conducted internal reviews “that documented sustained and significant violations of required intercept procedures.” But it said that the agency had denied Congress, the Department of Justice and the National Security Council access to these findings.

Mr. Hoekstra said Thursday that the inspector general’s investigation specifically named C.I.A. officials responsible for the alleged cover-up, but he declined to name those officers. The Justice Department and the C.I.A. inspector general had been investigating the roles played in the incident by the agency’s field officers in Latin America as well as senior officials at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia.

It is also possible that C.I.A. lawyers could face scrutiny if the Justice Department decides to reopen the Peru investigation. The report by Mr. Helgerson says that C.I.A. lawyers from the office of the general counsel “advised agency managers to avoid written products lest they be subject to legal scrutiny” in connection with the downing of the plane.

The intensity of Mr. Helgerson’s investigations of this and other C.I.A. programs rankled many in the C.I.A.’s clandestine branch, as those officers under suspicion saw legal bills mount.

Earlier this year, Mr. Helgerson agreed to a series of changes to inspector general investigations, including the creation of an ombudsman position to hear complaints from C.I.A. officers being scrutinized by the inspector general.

Before the Justice Department decides whether to reopen a criminal investigation, prosecutors are likely to carefully review the inspector general’s report to determine whether the allegations are credible.

If the criminal inquiry into possible obstruction of justice is reopened, the case would probably be handled by the office of the United States attorney in the District of Colombia, which conducted the initial criminal investigation.

Asked Thursday why he waited until now to release the report, Mr. Hoekstra explained that it took several weeks for the document to make its way to Capitol Hill and that this was the first week members were back in session since it arrived.

David Johnston contributed reporting.

Nazi "Pro-Life" Laws/Nov 21, 1938 Newspaper Report - "Nazis allege Germany victim of world plot"

Contemporary American "conservatives" frequently argue that abortion is tantamount to Nazi mass murder. As it actually was under the Nazi Party:

" ... The district court of Lueneburg, in the province of Hanover, has made a ruling in a case in which a Jewish woman was concerned, which will doubtless provide a precedent for similar cases. The woman was accused of procuring an abortion on herself, thus infringing Paragraph 218 of the German penal code. ... " The right has agitated for decades to revive the Nazi policy of criminalization - but abortion is a matter of personal choice, not a fascist atrocity. Mandatory childbirth law, complete with sentencing guidelines - even the death sentence during the most stringent period of Nazi rule - was the atrocity.

- AC
•••••••
The campaign to convince the citizens of the Reich that world Jewry is combining with the democracies in a vast anti-German conspiracy continued unabated during the weekend.

Nazis allege Germany victim of world plot
www.telegraph.co.uk
Nov 21, 1938

New measures against the German Jews have been taken. Comparatively unimportant in themselves, they are intended to show that the Jew is no longer considered capable of possessing honourable feelings.

The troubles in Palestine are still furnishing copious material for anti-British tirades throughout the Press.

A new order, issued by Herr Hitler personally, forbids those Jews who retired as officers from the Austrian Imperial or Republican armies to wear the uniforms fo their units. The right to wear these uniforms on ceremonial occasions was conferred on officers who retired after loyal and honourable service with the Austrian colours. The order is countersigned by Gen Keitel, chief of the German High Command.

JEWISH BIRTH LAW

The district court of Lueneburg, in the province of Hanover, has made a ruling in a case in which a Jewish woman was concerned, which will doubtless provide a precedent for similar cases. The woman was accused of procuring an abortion on herself, thus infringing Paragraph 218 of the German penal code.

The court ruled that the woman must be discharged since the father of the child was also a Jew and the paragraph in question was intended for the protection of the German Aryan race. Since the paragraph was not intended for the protection of the Jews, who were in opposition to the Aryan race, abortion could not be punished where a Jewish mother was concerned.

It is understood that the chief producer responsible for the production of plays under the auspices of the Jewish cultural organisation has been released from the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen and instructed to produce a play for Tuesday evening. This is intended to prove to the world that Jewish cultural activities can now proceed unhampered in the Reich.

The Juedische Rundschau, the leading Jewish newspaper, which in common with all Jewish publications has been completely banned, is to be permitted to appear again for the purpose of announcing such occasions at this stage production. It will, however, not be permitted to carry any news or advertisements.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/3472854/Nazis-allege-Germany-victim-of-world-plot---Nov-21-1938.html

Mississippi: Trent Lott's Brother-in-Law Embroiled in Bribery Scandal/Update on Medgar Evers Murder Trial

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs

" ... Langston is now aiding the government in its investigation of another alleged scheme, this one involving Scruggs and Hinds County Judge Bobby DeLaughter, according to court records. ... They allegedly tried to influence DeLaughter by promising that Scruggs' brother-in-law, former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, would help the judge get appointed to the federal bench if he ruled in Scruggs' favor. ... DeLaughter is well-known for prosecuting Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, a field secretary for the NAACP. ... "

Record Reveals Bribery Investigation Continues
By HOLBROOK MOHR
Nov. 13, 2008

A wealthy attorney who helped put legendary trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs behind bars has testified before a federal grand jury in a bribery investigation, court records briefly posted on the Internet revealed.

Booneville attorney Joey Langston was representing Scruggs when Scruggs became entangled in a high-profile bribery scandal last year. But it wasn't long before the FBI raided Langston's office and pressured him to turn on his client.
Scruggs was one of the nation's most powerful attorneys before being receiving a five-year prison sentence on a conspiracy conviction. He was accused of conspiring to pay a judge $50,000 for a favorable ruling in a case involving $26.5 million in legal fees from Hurricane Katrina cases.

Scruggs had gained national prominence, and hundreds of millions of dollars, by leading the charge against tobacco companies in the 1990s that led to a multibillion-dollar settlement. His efforts were portrayed in the 1999 film "The Insider" starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

Langston is now aiding the government in its investigation of another alleged scheme, this one involving Scruggs and Hinds County Judge Bobby DeLaughter, according to court records. Langston testified before a federal grand jury Oct. 23, the records show.

Prosecutors have indicated they believe Scruggs and Langston enlisted the help of former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters. They allegedly tried to influence DeLaughter by promising that Scruggs' brother-in-law, former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, would help the judge get appointed to the federal bench if he ruled in Scruggs' favor. DeLaughter used to work for Peters.

Lott called DeLaughter and several other people about an open seat on the federal bench, but he recommended someone else for the job, Brett Boyles, the former senator's chief of staff, has said. Lott has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The revelation about a grand jury hearing came in a six-page document that was briefly - and apparently accidentally - posted on a federal court Web site. The document, since removed from the Web site and sealed, was provided to The Associated Press by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper in Tupelo.

The Tupelo daily reported on the document on its Web site Thursday.
In the document, prosecutors ask a federal judge to give Langston a reduced sentence for his help in the investigations.

"It is anticipated that his cooperation will continue through the prosecution of subsequent defendants now under investigation," the document says. "His cooperation has been exhaustive and has resulted in some risk to Mr. Langston and his family."

An individual in a van that appeared to be "packed with electronic equipment" was discovered on Langston's property Oct. 3, according to the document. It also said Langston has had a heart attack since he began working with the government.

Langston met with investigators several times, "admitting and detailing his role in Dickie Scruggs' legal team's efforts to influence Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter," according to court records.

DeLaughter has insisted he did nothing wrong, and Langston is the only one who has been charged in the case. Langston pleaded guilty to conspiracy to corruptly influence an elected official; his sentencing is pending. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of three years.

DeLaughter is well-known for prosecuting Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, a field secretary for the NAACP. The trial was made into the 1996 movie "Ghosts of Mississippi," with Alec Baldwin playing DeLaughter.

A message left Thursday with the U.S. attorney's office was not immediately returned. Tony Farese, Langston's lawyer, said Thursday that he could not comment. Messages left for DeLaughter and Peters were not immediately returned.

In the case involving Katrina legal fees, Scruggs was sentenced in June and is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Kentucky for low- and minimum-security inmates.

http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/953659.html