NOTE: SEE THE SEPTEMBER ARCHIVE FOR MORE ON THE COMAIR CRASH, NUMEROUS TIES TO 9/11, THE BLUEGRASS CONSPIRACY AND MUCH MORE.
THE AIG-9/11 CONNECTION
Summary: Rebecca Adams, a SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER for Intergraph Corp., died on Comair Flight 5191. (She was the subject of an earlier installment on the Lexington crash detailing some of the company's CIA connections - see the September archive.)
Update: Her company had just been taken over by two equity investment firms,Texas Pacific Group and Hellman & Friedman. The purpose of the takeover has been stated specifically - to acquire "mapping software" patents for homeland security purposes.
A key managing director at Hellman & Friedman is Frank G. Zarb - INTERIM CHAIRMAN OF AIG, AND AN OFFICIAL OF THE NIXON, FORD, REAGAN, BUSH and CLINTON administrations.
As senior project manager, Ms. Adams would have been involved in any homeland security work done by Intergraph, which derives 21 percent of its income from government grants.
AIG, in league with Warren Buffett, were key participants in the 9/11 covert operation. The Comair crash, which has already been shown to have a number of connections to Buffett, appears to have been a step in nailing down 9/11 objectives - in the case of Intergraph Corp. and Ms. Adams, the targetting of geo-spatial mapping technology, a recurring theme in the September 2001 covert operation in New York and the District of Columbia.
- AC
Rebecca Smith, Intergraph Corp.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/
kentucky/news/local/15440617.htm
Sep. 05, 2006
A mother and a friend worth emulating
By Beth Musgrave
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
... Rebecca Adams, 47, of Harrodsburg was one of 49 people who died Aug. 27 when Comair Flight 5191 crashed on takeoff from Blue Grass Regional Airport. At St. Raphael's Church in Lexington today, Adams' friends, family and colleagues packed the quaint stone church to celebrate the life of the senior project manager for INTERGRAPH Corp....
http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/
1824-Intergraph-Employee-Killed-on-
Comair-Flight-5191.html
Intergraph Employee Killed on Comair Flight 5191
The Huntsville Times reported this morning that Rebecca Adams of Intergraph's SECURITY, GOVERNMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE DIVISION, was killed in the crash of Comair Flight 5191 that originated from Lexington, Kentucky on the morning of August 27th. Ms. Adams was a project manager on her way to support the startup of a computer aided dispatching system for the police department in Elk Grove California. Ms. Adams was 47 years old and the mother of three adult children. I wish to extend my condolences to the relatives of Ms. Adam's and the Intergraph family.
------------
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco
/stories/2006/08/28/daily37.html?t=printable
Hellman & Friedman, Texas Pacific lead deal to buy Intergraph
San Francisco Business Times - August 31, 2006 Intergraph Corp. said Thursday that it will be acquired by an investor group led by Hellman &
Friedman and Texas Pacific Group for about $1.3 billion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asoxCe9xTTRo&refer=home
Aug 31, 2006 | Bloomberg
Texas Pacific Group and Hellman & Friedman LLC AGREED TO BUY INTERGRAPH CORP. FOR $1.3 BILLION BECAUSE OF INCREASING DEMAND FOR MAPPING SOFTWARE FOR HOMELAND SECURITY, and oil and gas exploration.
http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec/article/
articleDetail.jsp?id=369045&ref=25
Deal, valued at $1.3 billion, aims to bring company increased flexibility to serve customers, DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY.
Sep 1, 2006
Cadalyst
Intergraph yesterday announced that it will be acquired by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman and Texas Pacific Group. ...
Intergraph develops and sells software for plant and ship design, as well as GIS applications. The company is in the midst of transitioning its user base to its next-generation SmartPlant product. Half of the company's revenue in 2005 came from outside the United States, and 21% came from sales to the U.S. government.
In recent years, the company has also capitalized on its intellectual property assets, in particular its CLIPPER patents. Intergraph has recorded settlements with most major PC manufacturers, including Intel, AMD, HP, Dell, IBM and Sony. These patents protected microprocessor technology developed by Fairchild Semiconductor and acquired by Intergraph in 1987.
Intergraph exited the hardware business in 2000 to focus on software and services.
Total revenue for 2005 was $576.8 million, a 4.7% increase from 2004. Net income for the year was $114.4 million. That includes $89.4 million in after-tax revenue from Intergraph's intellectual property division....
-----------------------
Hellman & Friedman
Managing Directors
http://www.hf.com/team/Team.aspx?membercode=fZarb
Frank G. Zarb
Mr. Zarb is a Managing Director of Hellman & Friedman. His primary area of focus is the financial services industry. Mr. Zarb is currently Interim Chairman of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP and Non-Executive Chairman of the Promontory Financial Group.
Prior to joining the Firm in 2002, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASD, Inc. and The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. Previously, Mr. Zarb was Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of insurance brokerage firm Alexander & Alexander Services, Inc., Vice Chairman and Group Chief Executive of The Travelers, Inc. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Smith Barney. Before joining Smith Barney, he served as a Senior Partner at Lazard Frfieres & Co. and a General Partner at Goodbody and Co. Mr. Zarb has also served in various capacities in the NIXON, FORD, mREAGAN, BUSH and CLINTON administrations.
Mr. Zarb graduated from Hofstra University where he also received his MBA and an honorary Doctor of Law degree.
Brian M. Powers
Mr. Powers is Chief Executive Officer of Hellman & Friedman. He serves as Chairman of the Firm's Investment and Compensation Committees, as well as overseeing the Firm's day-to-day activities. He is a Director of AXEL SPRINGER AG [FOUNDED WITH CIA FUNDS] and ProSiebenSat....
Jeffrey A. Goldstein
Mr. Goldstein serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Vassar College, Trustee of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Director of the International Center for Research on Women, and is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mark Fariborz
Mr. Fariborz is a Director at Hellman & Friedman in the New York office.
Prior to joining the Firm in 2006, Mr. Fariborz was employed by The CARLYLE GROUP ...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Exactly How "Adversarial" were AIG and Eliot Spitzer?
AIG Political Contributions by Subsidiaries Questioned in N.Y.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/
news/east/2006/09/21/72628.htm
September 21, 2006
Major corporations based in New York such as American International Group Inc. have legally contributed many times more than the corporate limit to political candidates who regulate their businesses, state and good-government officials said.
In the case of AIG, the insurance giant is limited to giving $5,000 (euro3,951) to a candidate. But the parent company used 33 subsidiaries in recent years to give $335,000 (euro264,738) to three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki; $50,000 (euro39,513) to Attorney General ELIOT SPITZER, the Democratic front-runner for governor; and $25,000 (euro19,757) to Democratic Comptroller Alan Hevesi, according to The New York Times.
"That happens all the time,'' said Rachel Leon of New York-Common Cause, which for years has lobbied to reform this and other campaign finance practices.
"It's just one of the many loopholes that make our campaign finance laws meaningless,'' she said. "We might as well not have any limits because in the real world, they don't apply.''
"As far as I can see, it's within the parameters of our law,'' said Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, of the AIG contributions. "We are not looking at anything.''
The corporate limits were created in the mid-1970s and set at $5,000 (euro3,951) to restrict the influence of companies on candidates, he said.
AIG spokesman Joe Norton told the Times that the donations by subsidiaries, many of them in sequentially ordered checks drawn from a common account, are charged back to the subsidiaries. He said AIG usually recommends the candidates to receive donations.
The contributions in 2003 to Spitzer, the two-term attorney general, were made before Spitzer investigated AIG and its then CEO, Maurice "Hank'' Greenberg. AIG, one of the world's largest insurance companies, announced in February that it would pay $1.64 billion (euro1.3 billion) to resolve allegations that it used deceptive accounting practices to mislead investors and regulatory agencies.
The settlement did not cover Greenberg, who resigned in March 2005 and is fighting Spitzer in court.
Another major concern of Common Cause is companies that are organized as limited liability corporations. The LLCs aren't subject to the $5,000 (euro3,951) corporate limit, but instead are treated as individuals and may contribute as much as $50,100 (euro39,592) to a candidate.
"Both loopholes are just another example of how New York campaign finance law is almost completely useless,'' said Common Cause's Liam Arbetman.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Warren Buffett's Father was a Birch Society Nazi
Early Birch Society funding came from wealthy German supporters of the Hitler regime, and the "pro-American" propganada that flowed from the notorious Nazi front - identical to the right-wing jingoism that fronts for fascism at the Fox News Network these days - was nauseating. The fawning greeds who admire Warren Buffett and receive their opinions from the Wall Street Journal editorial page (and Fox News) don't know or care that Buffett is a Nazi himself, if you look beyond the PR and propaganda. But who wants to do THAT? Deliberate self-deception is SO comforting ... - AC
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Investor
-Profile:-Warren-Buffets-Early-Years&id
=228431
Investor Profile: Warren Buffet's Early Years By Mika Hamilton
Warren Buffett was the only son of the HOWARD BUFFETT and Lelia Stahl. Leila worked as both a clerk and secretary and after her marriage has a homemaker and mother. Howard worked as an investment broker and spent four terms in Congress as a U.S. representative. He was elected to “Congress in 1942 with a pledge to keep FDR from "fasten[ing] the chains of political servitude around America's neck."
He marked himself an oddball by returning a pay raise to the Treasury and by subjecting each piece of legislation to a simple test: "Will this add to, or subtract from, human liberty?". Howard Buffett was an extremely conservative man. While in Washington he was part of an elite organization, the JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, which fought against communism and liberal rebels.
Presently, the John Birch Society is associated with the extreme right of American Politics. Warren was very close to his father often following him to work. And his father made good use of his presence, employing Warren to write prices and quotes on the board in his investment firm. His close bond with his father was further encourage but a tense relationship with his mother. Leila was prone to immense anger and violent outbursts.
---------
The Wisdom of Howard Buffett
Nazis hate the UN, of course. Why? Look at any TV image of a UN conference and the answer is obvious - race mixing.
"Colored people" and other "subhumans" hold a majority at the UN.
Howard Buffett, Warren's daddy, on the proposed creation of a UN Military Force ("subumans" with guns!!):
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/
1995/vo11no26/vo11no26_leader.htm
"A number of speakers here have mentioned with quite some piousness the birthday of the lonely Nazarene, but I do not think many of them have mentioned ... that it was probably the first international police force of all times that crucified the lonely Nazarene. It was the Roman legions that were in this land foreign to their own that crucified the lonely Nazarene whom we revere as the founder of Christianity. That leads me to the further observation that if great international police forces are set up we might again see the spectacle 2,000 years later of an international police force crucifying Christianity that the lonely Nazarene died for years ago." - Howard Buffett
--
How Warren Buffett Made His Fortune
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/A-E/Buffett-Warren-E-1930.html
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
Buffett created Berkshire Hathaway in 1969, after shutting down his 13-year-long partnership with a select group of sevenrecruited investors (from among his family and friends). This group, formed in 1956, put in a total of $105,000, of which only $100 was Buffett's. By 1962 the group's capital had grown to more than $7 million, more than $1 million of which belonged to Buffett. He charged a fee of only 25 percent of profits above 6 percent, and he would forgo his fee if his performance did not exceed the return on government bonds, which yielded the same 6 percent.
Buffett alone had authority to make investments for the partnership, and he would answer no questions regarding them. New investments were allowed only once or twice annually, and he broadened his investor base as his profits grew, bringing in 90 more limited partners from throughout the nation at $100,000 each. (Laurence Tisch of Loews and CBS put in $300,000.) Buffett incorporated the group as Buffett Partnerships Limited and opened an office in Kiewit Plaza. This location would endure as the headquarters for what was to become Berkshire Hathaway, the most successful investment company in history. Within 10 years Buffett had assets of $44 million, of which nearly $7 million was his. In 1969 he determined that further suitable investments were unavailable and began to liquidate the partnership. By then the assets had grown to $104 million; Buffett's share came to more than $25 million. He had always said that someday he would be wealthy, but for Buffett this was only the beginning.
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Investor
-Profile:-Warren-Buffets-Early-Years&id
=228431
Investor Profile: Warren Buffet's Early Years By Mika Hamilton
Warren Buffett was the only son of the HOWARD BUFFETT and Lelia Stahl. Leila worked as both a clerk and secretary and after her marriage has a homemaker and mother. Howard worked as an investment broker and spent four terms in Congress as a U.S. representative. He was elected to “Congress in 1942 with a pledge to keep FDR from "fasten[ing] the chains of political servitude around America's neck."
He marked himself an oddball by returning a pay raise to the Treasury and by subjecting each piece of legislation to a simple test: "Will this add to, or subtract from, human liberty?". Howard Buffett was an extremely conservative man. While in Washington he was part of an elite organization, the JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, which fought against communism and liberal rebels.
Presently, the John Birch Society is associated with the extreme right of American Politics. Warren was very close to his father often following him to work. And his father made good use of his presence, employing Warren to write prices and quotes on the board in his investment firm. His close bond with his father was further encourage but a tense relationship with his mother. Leila was prone to immense anger and violent outbursts.
---------
The Wisdom of Howard Buffett
Nazis hate the UN, of course. Why? Look at any TV image of a UN conference and the answer is obvious - race mixing.
"Colored people" and other "subhumans" hold a majority at the UN.
Howard Buffett, Warren's daddy, on the proposed creation of a UN Military Force ("subumans" with guns!!):
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/
1995/vo11no26/vo11no26_leader.htm
"A number of speakers here have mentioned with quite some piousness the birthday of the lonely Nazarene, but I do not think many of them have mentioned ... that it was probably the first international police force of all times that crucified the lonely Nazarene. It was the Roman legions that were in this land foreign to their own that crucified the lonely Nazarene whom we revere as the founder of Christianity. That leads me to the further observation that if great international police forces are set up we might again see the spectacle 2,000 years later of an international police force crucifying Christianity that the lonely Nazarene died for years ago." - Howard Buffett
--
How Warren Buffett Made His Fortune
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/A-E/Buffett-Warren-E-1930.html
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
Buffett created Berkshire Hathaway in 1969, after shutting down his 13-year-long partnership with a select group of sevenrecruited investors (from among his family and friends). This group, formed in 1956, put in a total of $105,000, of which only $100 was Buffett's. By 1962 the group's capital had grown to more than $7 million, more than $1 million of which belonged to Buffett. He charged a fee of only 25 percent of profits above 6 percent, and he would forgo his fee if his performance did not exceed the return on government bonds, which yielded the same 6 percent.
Buffett alone had authority to make investments for the partnership, and he would answer no questions regarding them. New investments were allowed only once or twice annually, and he broadened his investor base as his profits grew, bringing in 90 more limited partners from throughout the nation at $100,000 each. (Laurence Tisch of Loews and CBS put in $300,000.) Buffett incorporated the group as Buffett Partnerships Limited and opened an office in Kiewit Plaza. This location would endure as the headquarters for what was to become Berkshire Hathaway, the most successful investment company in history. Within 10 years Buffett had assets of $44 million, of which nearly $7 million was his. In 1969 he determined that further suitable investments were unavailable and began to liquidate the partnership. By then the assets had grown to $104 million; Buffett's share came to more than $25 million. He had always said that someday he would be wealthy, but for Buffett this was only the beginning.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Bluegrass Nazis: Tetra Tech, CIA, Reinhard Gehlen Network, etc.
Irony of ironies ... look who's running TERROR DRILLS in Blue Grass country:
http://www.tetratech.com/service/
security/emergency_preparedness.asp
TETRA TECH developed implemented, and moderated a large-scale mock terrorism exercise in Louisville, Kentucky called Operation River City. The exercise lasted for 60 continuous hours and consisted of multiple chemical, biological, radiological, hostage, and explosive scenarios meant to simulate a nationally significant incident.
The Tetra Tech Board
http://www.tetratech.com/company
/execbios/smith.aspAlbert
Albert E. Smith
Chairman of the Board
Director since 2005
Mr. Smith has been a member of our Board since May 2005 and was elected Chairman on March 6, 2006. Mr. Smith is a former member of the Secretary of Defense's DEFENSE SCIENCE BOARD, serving from 2002 to 2005. He
was an Executive Vice President of LOCKHEED MARTIN and President of its Integrated Systems & Solutions business until 2004. From 1999 to 2003 Mr. Smith was Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin's Space Systems Company. Prior to that, Mr. Smith was President of Government Systems at Harris Corporation. He has also worked for the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, where he received the Intelligence Medal of Merit.
Hugh M. Grant
Director since 2003
Mr. Grant joined our Board in January 2003. He has been a business consultant since 1996. Prior to 1996, Mr. Grant spent approximately 38 years with Ernst & Young LLP ...
Richard H. Truly
Director since 2003
Admiral Truly joined our Board in April 2003. He is the former Executive Vice President of Midwest Research Institute (MRI). Prior to joining MRI in
1997, Admiral Truly was Vice President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, from 1992 to 1997. From 1989 to 1992, he served as NASA's eighth Administrator
under President George H. Bush, and prior to that, had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy and NASA, retiring from the Navy as Vice Admiral.
Admiral Truly was an astronaut with NASA and piloted the Columbia, commanded the Challenger and, in 1986, led the investigation of the Challenger accident. Admiral Truly was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal, has served on the Defense Policy Board and Army Science Board, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Li-San Hwang
Chairman Emeritus
Dr. Hwang retired from Tetra Tech on March 6, 2006 and serves as Chairman Emeritus for life in an advisory role. Dr. Hwang, joined our predecessor in 1967 and led our acquisition of the Water Management Group of Tetra Tech, Inc., an operating unit of Honeywell Inc....
---------------------
TETRA TECH'S CIA/REINHARD GEHLEN CONNECTION
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/
jhcritchfield.htm
23 April 2003
Ex-CIA Official James Critchfield Dies
James H. Critchfield, 86, a decorated World War II Army officer who played a key role in the Central Intelligence Agency's controversial postwar alliance
with former German officials to spy on the Soviet Union, died April 22, 2003, at a hospice in Williamsburg. He had pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Critchfield, who retired in 1974, was the chief of the CIA's Near East and South Asia division in the 1960s and a national intelligence officer for energy as the oil shortage crisis began in the early 1970s. Later, as president of TETRA TECH International, he focused on Middle East energy resources, especially those in Oman, and did consulting work.
It was his part in the early days of Cold War intelligence that most recently catapulted him to attention.
Only in the late 1990s did the CIA begin to disclose, through an act of Congress, its collaboration with former Nazi spies in what was known as the Gehlen Organization. The network was named for Reinhard Gehlen, a German general who oversaw Adolf Hitler's anti-Soviet intelligence and became the first head of West Germany's secret service.
For many, Gehlen's work came to symbolize the moral compromises of the United States. Mr. Critchfield, often credited with recommending the CIA's union with Gehlen, defended the work, which supplied the West with an infusion of fresh intelligence material about the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries at the start of the Cold War. During the Berlin Airlift and other vital moments, such intelligence was hard to obtain, he said.
He added that many of the top Germans, including Gehlen, were far from Nazi ideologues and that many sympathized with those who tried to kill Hitler.
"I've lived with this for 50 years," Mr. Critchfield told The Washington Post in 2001. "Almost everything negative that has been written about Gehlen, in which he has been described as an ardent ex-Nazi, one of Hitler's war criminals -- this is all far from the fact."
As the size of the Gehlen group grew to several thousand, many in the organization were reputed to be Soviet spies, former Nazis and other unsavory types used as informants and for other purposes.
"There's no doubt that the CIA got carried away with recruiting some pretty bad people," Mr. Critchfield told a reporter....
-------------------
Some Pretty Bad People
MXs Near Canada
http://www.peacemagazine.org/
archive/v04n5p31.htm
... Last August, the USAF held hearings about the MX rail garrison proposal, mediated by Colonel Mike McShane, a U.S. military tribunal judge.
The meeting began with a talk by a Pentagon expert, Lt. Col. Walsh. He discussed the history of MX policy, and the controversial Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), a document detailing the potential
impact of rail garrison on the local economy.
The report originated from an earlier set of hearings and from studies conducted by a private research company hired by the U.S. military, Tetra-tech. Tetra-Tech was once a Honeywell subsidiary. Speakers from the audience were given a three-minute limit. Comments were addressed to a panel, made up of: two airforce officers; a TETRA TECH representative; a
pentagon expert, Lt. Col. Walsh; and a Pentagon scientist.
http://www.tetratech.com/service/
security/emergency_preparedness.asp
TETRA TECH developed implemented, and moderated a large-scale mock terrorism exercise in Louisville, Kentucky called Operation River City. The exercise lasted for 60 continuous hours and consisted of multiple chemical, biological, radiological, hostage, and explosive scenarios meant to simulate a nationally significant incident.
The Tetra Tech Board
http://www.tetratech.com/company
/execbios/smith.aspAlbert
Albert E. Smith
Chairman of the Board
Director since 2005
Mr. Smith has been a member of our Board since May 2005 and was elected Chairman on March 6, 2006. Mr. Smith is a former member of the Secretary of Defense's DEFENSE SCIENCE BOARD, serving from 2002 to 2005. He
was an Executive Vice President of LOCKHEED MARTIN and President of its Integrated Systems & Solutions business until 2004. From 1999 to 2003 Mr. Smith was Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin's Space Systems Company. Prior to that, Mr. Smith was President of Government Systems at Harris Corporation. He has also worked for the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, where he received the Intelligence Medal of Merit.
Hugh M. Grant
Director since 2003
Mr. Grant joined our Board in January 2003. He has been a business consultant since 1996. Prior to 1996, Mr. Grant spent approximately 38 years with Ernst & Young LLP ...
Richard H. Truly
Director since 2003
Admiral Truly joined our Board in April 2003. He is the former Executive Vice President of Midwest Research Institute (MRI). Prior to joining MRI in
1997, Admiral Truly was Vice President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, from 1992 to 1997. From 1989 to 1992, he served as NASA's eighth Administrator
under President George H. Bush, and prior to that, had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy and NASA, retiring from the Navy as Vice Admiral.
Admiral Truly was an astronaut with NASA and piloted the Columbia, commanded the Challenger and, in 1986, led the investigation of the Challenger accident. Admiral Truly was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal, has served on the Defense Policy Board and Army Science Board, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Li-San Hwang
Chairman Emeritus
Dr. Hwang retired from Tetra Tech on March 6, 2006 and serves as Chairman Emeritus for life in an advisory role. Dr. Hwang, joined our predecessor in 1967 and led our acquisition of the Water Management Group of Tetra Tech, Inc., an operating unit of Honeywell Inc....
---------------------
TETRA TECH'S CIA/REINHARD GEHLEN CONNECTION
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/
jhcritchfield.htm
23 April 2003
Ex-CIA Official James Critchfield Dies
James H. Critchfield, 86, a decorated World War II Army officer who played a key role in the Central Intelligence Agency's controversial postwar alliance
with former German officials to spy on the Soviet Union, died April 22, 2003, at a hospice in Williamsburg. He had pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Critchfield, who retired in 1974, was the chief of the CIA's Near East and South Asia division in the 1960s and a national intelligence officer for energy as the oil shortage crisis began in the early 1970s. Later, as president of TETRA TECH International, he focused on Middle East energy resources, especially those in Oman, and did consulting work.
It was his part in the early days of Cold War intelligence that most recently catapulted him to attention.
Only in the late 1990s did the CIA begin to disclose, through an act of Congress, its collaboration with former Nazi spies in what was known as the Gehlen Organization. The network was named for Reinhard Gehlen, a German general who oversaw Adolf Hitler's anti-Soviet intelligence and became the first head of West Germany's secret service.
For many, Gehlen's work came to symbolize the moral compromises of the United States. Mr. Critchfield, often credited with recommending the CIA's union with Gehlen, defended the work, which supplied the West with an infusion of fresh intelligence material about the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries at the start of the Cold War. During the Berlin Airlift and other vital moments, such intelligence was hard to obtain, he said.
He added that many of the top Germans, including Gehlen, were far from Nazi ideologues and that many sympathized with those who tried to kill Hitler.
"I've lived with this for 50 years," Mr. Critchfield told The Washington Post in 2001. "Almost everything negative that has been written about Gehlen, in which he has been described as an ardent ex-Nazi, one of Hitler's war criminals -- this is all far from the fact."
As the size of the Gehlen group grew to several thousand, many in the organization were reputed to be Soviet spies, former Nazis and other unsavory types used as informants and for other purposes.
"There's no doubt that the CIA got carried away with recruiting some pretty bad people," Mr. Critchfield told a reporter....
-------------------
Some Pretty Bad People
MXs Near Canada
http://www.peacemagazine.org/
archive/v04n5p31.htm
... Last August, the USAF held hearings about the MX rail garrison proposal, mediated by Colonel Mike McShane, a U.S. military tribunal judge.
The meeting began with a talk by a Pentagon expert, Lt. Col. Walsh. He discussed the history of MX policy, and the controversial Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), a document detailing the potential
impact of rail garrison on the local economy.
The report originated from an earlier set of hearings and from studies conducted by a private research company hired by the U.S. military, Tetra-tech. Tetra-Tech was once a Honeywell subsidiary. Speakers from the audience were given a three-minute limit. Comments were addressed to a panel, made up of: two airforce officers; a TETRA TECH representative; a
pentagon expert, Lt. Col. Walsh; and a Pentagon scientist.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Who is Anne Armstrong?
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/
2006/2/20/45756/6926
What Was Dick Really Hiding?
by emptywheel
Adapted from The Next Hurrah
We've all been talking a lot about what Dick was trying to hide last weekend at the Armstrong Ranch. I don't think any of the current reasons can fully explain his secrecy. To figure out the real reasons for his secrecy, it pays to review the history of Anne and Katharine Armstrong. The former has been present, as a trusted insider, for every major Republican scandal of the last half-century. And the latter seems to hang around high-level meetings where Republicans plot war.
emptywheel's diary ::
The Other Possible Explanations for Dick's Silence
By now, I think all reasonable people agree there are a number of curious discrepancies in the Deadeye Dick shooting story. ... But the alcohol can't be the sum of the story. If it were, Katharine Armstrong and Dick would not have made such herculean efforts to avoid mentioning Pamela Willeford, who after all really did see the accident since she was standing right there next to Dick (that is, if we can believe the stories they've been telling).
Now, I don't buy the rumors that Dick was hiding an affair with Willeford. I mean, if I were a cuckold, I don't think I'd be visiting the guy whom my wife's lover just shot. Not unless this is a real 1970s swinger crowd, Texas style. (Though I am reminded of the rumors about John Bolton at Plato's retreat, so I suppose it is possible.) I think Dick was trying to hide the presence of Willeford for other reasons.
The other reason folks have mentioned for the secrecy about the shooting is that Katharine Armstrong, a registered lobbyist for Baker Botts, wanted to hide her close meetings with Cheney. I think there's more promise here--to which I'll return shortly. But before I look at that, I want to consider the way the manager of a nearby ranch characterized the lunch discussion on Sunday.
The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."
This conversation, remember, occurred shortly after Katharine Armstrong finally revealed news of the shooting to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, but before the Caller-Times had published the story. This is the period when Dick is supposed to have been "in meltdown" (indeed, Durham says that Cheney canceled Sunday's quail hunt, so he must have been in meltdown). But in spite of all this, in spite of the fact that this crowd is still deeply in crisis mode, they're talking about world affairs.
Anne Armstrong, Grande Dame of Republican Scandal
Given that background, consider Anne Armstrong's amazing biography. In addition to some really amazing career moves (the first woman Ambassador to the UK, the board of Halliburton), her career has remarkably tracked the outlines of the big Republican scandals of the last half-century.
Anne Armstrong Event/Associated Republican Scandals
1971-1973
RNC Co-Chair
Watergate
1973-1974
Cabinet-level Counselor to Nixon and Ford
Watergate
1976-1977
Ambassador to the UK
1980
Reagan-Bush Campaign Co-Chair
October Surprise
1977-2000
Board Member, Halliburton, Cheney commissions KBR to study privatization of military contracts (1991); Cheney named CEO Halliburton (1995)
1981-1990
Chair, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Iran-Contra
1981
Armstrongs fund Karl Rove + Company
1997
Texas A&M Regent
George HW Bush Library opens at TAMU, 1997
Now, let me be clear. Aside from Armstrong's activities while Chair of PFIAB under Reagan, there is little evidence to connect her directly to these scandals. (Though if you want to put pull up a selection of all the best conspiracy theories--replete with the Knights of Malta, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations--do no more than Google Anne Armstrong and William Casey.) By showing these chronologies side by side, I'm trying to show that Armstrong has been there, at the least as a trusted insider, through Watergate, the October Surprise, and Iran-Contra, and in positions (RNC co-chair, campaign co-chair for the election-related scandals; Chair of PFIAB for the intelligence one) relevant to the scandal. Aside from Rummy and Dick--whom Amstrong apparently met during the Ford Administration--and the Bush family taken as a whole, there are few people whose careers have tracked the big Republican scandals as closely as Anne Armstrong.
I mentioned that PFIAB was the exception, the period when Anne Armstrong can be shown to have been more closely involved in Republican scandal. Armstrong apparently helped draft Executive Order 12333, which provided new guidelines for intelligence work--including limited domestic surveillance and covert operations. Armstrong was involved in some of the wackier anti-Soviet conspiracy theories, including the allegation that the Russians attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul. And it is alleged that when Reagan dismissed half the PFIAB (but not Armstrong) in 1985, he was trying to cover up Iran-Contra.
Armstrong has also had a hand in furthering the careers of both Rove and Cheney--Rove in 1981 when he was starting his direct mail company, and Cheney when he was named CEO of Halliburton. Consider that fact ... Anne Armstrong is one person who can claim significant pull on both the strongest poles within the Bush Administration.
So as we consider what Dick might be hiding about shooting Whittington, consider Anne Armstrong's long-term role in the Republican party.
Katharine Armstrong, Grande-Dame-in-Training
By all appearances Katharine seems to be adopting her mother's mantle as big Republican insider, and incidentally, as the most vocal representative of the Armstrong family. She, like her mother, has benefited from Republican patronage, including the Bush II appointment to the Texas Game and Wildlife Commission. And, like her mother, she is closely involved with the defense contractors that make Republican administrations rich.
But before we talk about her lobbying, I'd like to look at some of the high-level meetings Katharine has attended. Katharine Armstrong has been invited to sleep-overs at the White House. She attended the White House dinner for Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (and apparently sat next to the Prince). This was a public function, though, with everyone from Lynn Swann to Yo-Yo-Ma--they even let Mary Cheney's partner attend! So it's not surprising that the former daughter of the Ambassador to the UK and a close Texas friend would get an invite.
But Katharine's visits with Bush get more interesting when you look at her visits to Crawford. She was invited when Blair visited Bush at the Crawford Ranch in April 2002.
Bush and First Lady Laura Bush hosted Blair and his wife Cherie Saturday night for a dinner of pecan-smoked beef tenderloin and pineapple upside-down cake at the Prairie Chapel Ranch.
Also present were senior aides to both leaders, as well as Jenna Bush, one of the two Bush daughters, and Kathryn, the Blair's infant daughter, and Gale Booth, Mrs. Blair's mother.
Also invited was Katharine Armstrong Idsal, head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
This was the meeting, recall, when Bush and Blair decided to go to war against Iraq.
Downing Street has consistently refused to disclose the date on which Mr Blair promised George Bush that Britain would join the US in an invasion of Iraq. But evidence obtained by the IoS suggests that it was as early as April 2002, when the Prime Minister met President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
A ruling by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, seen by the IoS, says the Government sought advice about the legality of a possible invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2002 as the result of "statements made in a particular press release".
[snip]
The date of the release was 9 April 2002, the day after Mr Blair completed his two-day summit with Mr Bush in Texas. The implication is that immediately after the Downing Street official spokesman had denied that the meeting was a "council of war", the Government was investigating the legality of such a war.
So it appears (unless the "was invited" label suggests she didn't show) that Katharine Armstrong happened to be present the weekend Bush and Blair decided to go to war.
Then, last August, while Cindy Sheehan was camping outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Katharine Armstrong was visiting the ranch again.
"I'm going to have lunch with Secretary of State Rice, talk a little business; Mrs. Bush, talk a little business; we've got a friend from South Texas here, named Katharine Armstrong; Now, this report appeared on Monday August 22, but Katharine's presence (the article is confusing, because it describes both Katharine Armstrong and Lance Armstrong, by last name, going on bike rides with Bush) is related to be the "Saturday before last" which would make it August 13, 2005. That's curious timing because of three events that happened earlier that week. First, on Monday August 8, Cindy Sheehan was told that she and her supporters might be arrested starting that Thursday, August 11.
Folks speculated at the time that the rumored arrests might be planned in response to two other events that would occur that week, a Thursday meeting with Condi and Rummy (and, according to the picture released by the White House, but not news reports, Dick) and a Friday fundraiser. As the NYT reported that week:
It is not clear how the White House will handle Ms. Sheehan. Mr. Bush usually comes and goes from the ranch by helicopter, but he might have to drive by her on Friday, when he is scheduled to attend a Republican fund-raiser at a ranch just down the road from where Ms. Sheehan is camped out. She will no doubt get another wave of publicity on Thursday, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice join Mr. Bush at the ranch to discuss the war.
Here's how Stephen Hadley described the content of the principals' meeting:
The principals then met and Secretary Rice updated the principals and the President on the status of the Iran nuclear issue and recent developments in IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna. She also talked about next steps with respect to the six-party talks dealing with the North Korea nuclear issue, and also talked about preparations for a Gaza disengagement, which will begin next week.[my emphasis]
Now as it turns out, no one was arrested that Thursday, and the Bush motorcade drove right by Sheehan on Friday, so the speculations as to why they might be arrested were never more than that--speculations. Moreover, it is not clear when Katharine Amstrong arrived or whether she met with Condi and Rummy or attended the fundraiser (which was closed to the press). It seems likely that she attended the fundraiser, since it was basically a big get-together for the Pioneers:
About 230 people were attending the fundraiser at Stan and Kathy Hickey's Broken Spoke Ranch, a 478-acre spread next to Bush's ranch.
All have contributed at least $25,000 to the RNC, and many are "rangers," an honorary campaign title bestowed on those who raised $200,000 or more for Bush, or quot;pioneers," those who have raised $100,000 or more.
And it seems likely, too, that she at least met Condi, who was clearly still around and "doing business" when Armstrong was there on Saturday.
Call me crazy, but it seems like Katharine is the "Where's Waldo" of Republican warmongering, showing up in Crawford every time these Republicans want to talk about going to war against some country in the Middle East.
Katharine Armstrong, Lobbyist and Waldo of Warmongering
Which is, I think, important context to consider the question of lobbying. Sidney Blumenthal provides a good introduction to Katharine's lobbying career.
Katharine Armstrong took up lobbying after her recent divorce. Her contracts include Parsons, a construction firm that has done work in Iraq, among others. Her business partner, Karen Johnson, a close friend of Rove's, does extensive business with the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and defense contractors. But Armstrong's protestations to news media that she does not lobby Cheney should probably be taken at face value given her background.
If Parsons Corporation can thank Armstrong and her partner for their success in Iraq, they have a lot to be thankful for. After Halliburton, they were one of the biggest contractors in Iraq, winning up to $3 billion of contracts to build new security facilities, rebuild public buildings, rebuild the infrastructure, build facilities for the US military, and work on oil fields in the area surrounding Kirkuk. Their work has been almost as plagued by quality problems as Halliburton, including several hospital reconstruction projects that left the jobs half done.
At the maternity hospital across town, Dr. Yassin could hardly disguise her mounting frustration. She said the contractor, the Parsons Corporation, had repaired the hospital's reverse osmosis water purification equipment, but that little else had been accomplished in the five months since the renovation began.
Only one of the hospital's four elevators is working, and that is the one Parsons left in operation while the others were supposedly being repaired, she said, adding that no one is working on the elevators now. Major Smith said Parsons had completed the work but that it was so shoddy the Army would not certify the elevators for use. He said the company had since agreed to bring in elevator specialists to redo the job.
Parsons was also supposed to fix the hospital's incinerators, but it completed the work without hooking up gas lines to fuel them, Dr. Yassin said.
So we know that Katharine has helped Parsons defraud the American taxpayer and the Iraqi people. But we don't know Katharine's primary contracting client. Or rather, we don't know which client of Baker Botts she lobbied for.
Armstrong was paid $160,000 in 2004 by the powerful legal firm Baker Botts to lobby the White House, according to records she filed with the U.S. Senate as required by lobbying disclosure rules. The records indicate she was paid the money after she "communicated with the White House on behalf of Baker Botts clients."
In a phone interview, she told NBC News that in return for the money in one case, she set up a meeting at the White House for a Baker Botts client, although she said she felt she could not release the client's name.
"A meeting for doing something with one of their clients," she said, describing the event. "I'm not at liberty to say which." She says she cannot remember which White House official the meeting was with. She also said that during the inauguration proceedings, she got Karl Rove to speak at a Baker Botts function. "I got them Karl Rove," she said.
Records indicate that early in 2005 she ended her dealings with Baker Botts.
A $160,000 meeting? Not as much as the $9 million Abramoff commanded to set up a White House meeting. But a pricey meeting nevertheless. And given Katherine's demonstrably faulty eyewitness skills, I suppose it's not a surprise that she can't remember whom she was lobbying.
Baker Botts clients include many energy companies, some white collar criminals, and some SEC violators. Two "companies" it had notable dealings with in 2004 include the Saudi royal family (defending them against a suit holding them responsible for 9/11) and Halliburton. In fact, Halliburton hired Baker Botts lawyer James Doty, the guy who got Bush off his Harken energy insider trading problems, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Halliburton's bribery in Nigeria.
We have no way of knowing whether Katharine was lobbying on these clients' behalf, or someone else (though frankly, I suspect neither Halliburton nor the Saudis would need Katharine's services at the White House, since they could just call Bandar Bush or Cheney). But it's worth noting that Baker Botts was named the Global Oil and Gas Law Firm of 2005.
The point being that, if Katharine is "lobbying" for someone, she's doing a lot more than simply setting up meetings. She's got personal ties to Parsons and Halliburton, two of the five big DOD contractors with inside bids for Iraq business (and any other business that arises out of little Republican adventures). And she has a history of popping up at meetings that seem to be cabal sessions to plot the next oil war. And, apparently, an aspiration to replace her mom as the Grande Dame of Republican Scandal.
What about Ms. Brown Negley?
One more detail we ought to consider when asking what Dick is trying to hide--the least discussed house guest, Nancy Brown Negley. Described in the NYT piece as a philanthropist "whose family once controlled Brown & Root," she is described elsewhere as the heiress to the Brown & Root interest. Brown & Root, of course, has become Halliburton, the big beneficiary of the Iraq war, as well as a great deal of other defense contracting. By all appearances, Nagley's primary occupation is to give money away (and to good, artsy causes, too!). But she, too, has ties to one of the construction/DOD contractors making a killing off of this war.
Negley herself played host to a Bush Administration hunting party, this time with both Georges Bush and James Baker III, on New Year's Day, 2004.
Q How was the hunt?
THE PRESIDENT: It was good fun. You know, when you hunt quail, you get a lot of exercise. As you know, I like exercise. And so my Dad and I, and Ms. Negley, whose ranch we were on, walked a lot of territory, watched the dogs work, and knocked down some birds.
Q How many?
THE PRESIDENT: I think I shot five. The limit in Texas, I believe, is 15. I'm not that good a shot, but it was a lot of fun.
And it was Ms. Negley's ranch manager--hers is the El Tule ranch--who is probably in a bit of trouble right now for blabbing about the world affairs conversation at last Sunday's lunch. I'm not sure what Willeford was doing there (though she has also done sleep-overs at the White House), but she seems to have been the guest of a bunch of people benefitting from George Bush's "long war."
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/
2/20/45756/6926
What Was Dick Really Hiding?
by emptywheel
Mon Feb 20, 2006 at 01:57:55 AM PDT
Adapted from The Next Hurrah
Which is all a way of suggesting that we're thinking too small. I'm not suggesting that every time the Bushes or Cheney get together with these old Texas DOD contractor families, they start a war. Perhaps they just like to maintain their privacy in case they find the need to start a war and profit off it handsomely. But there's much more of a history with these folks--particularly between the Armstrongs and Republican crooks--than you can fit in a little bottle of beer.
----------------------
Anne Legendre Armstrong
Dec. 27, 1927 Born, New Orleans, LA
1949 Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College
1966‑68 Vice Chairman, Texas Republican Party
1968‑73 Republican National Committeewoman from Texas
1968‑74 Trustee, Kennedy County (Texas) School Board
1971‑73 Co‑Chairman, Republican National Committee
1972 Secretary and keynote speaker, Republican National Convention
1973‑74 Counsellor to the President; founder, Office for Women's Programs; Chairman, Federal Property Council; Chairman, Domestic Council Committee on Bicentennial and the Federal Agency Bicentennial Task Force; member, Council on Wage and Price Stability
1975‑76 Member, Advisory Council to the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration; member, Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year
1976‑1977 U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (United Kingdom)
1977‑1983 Member, board of directors of several major corporations, institutes and universities
1980 Co‑Chairman, Reagan‑Bush campaign
1981 Chairman, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Anne Armstrong was named Counsellor to the President with Cabinet rank by Richard Nixon in 1973, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She remained as Counsellor when Ford took office, providing assistance in established areas of responsibility as well as assuming new roles in the Ford White House. She resigned in December, 1974 because of family health problems which entailed a return to Texas, but she continued to serve in several posts during the following year. In 1976, Ford appointed her Ambassador to Great Britain and considered her a possible vice‑presidential running mate.
Counsellor Armstrong established the first White House Office of Women's Programs in 1973 to provide a liaison between President Nixon and women and women's groups. It sought to recruit women appointees to high level government positions and to assist in gaining greater employment opportunity for women in the federal sector through regulation and legislation. Assisted by Patricia Lindh and Director Karen Keesling, Armstrong continued to address these concerns in the Ford administration. After her resignation, she joined Lindh and Keesling as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations' International Women's Conference in Mexico City.
As Chairman of the Federal Property Council in 1973‑1974, she urged President Ford to continue its threatened existence with White House appropriated funds. The Council was responsible for review and reform of current policy toward federal real property and resolution of conflicting land use claims. She oversaw these functions and administered the Legacy of the Parks program which disposed of surplus federal land. On her departure, she advised Ford of alternate ways to provide these services within the federal government.
President Ford appointed Armstrong to the eight‑member Council on Wage and Price Stability which he created soon after he became President to identify and expose the causes of inflation. In his administration, she also chaired two Cabinet‑level committees on the Bicentennial which addressed federal agency participation in the observance. She continued to work in these areas after her resignation as Counsellor.
http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/LIBRARY/guides/Finding%20Aids/Armstrong,%20Anne%20-%20Files.htm
2006/2/20/45756/6926
What Was Dick Really Hiding?
by emptywheel
Adapted from The Next Hurrah
We've all been talking a lot about what Dick was trying to hide last weekend at the Armstrong Ranch. I don't think any of the current reasons can fully explain his secrecy. To figure out the real reasons for his secrecy, it pays to review the history of Anne and Katharine Armstrong. The former has been present, as a trusted insider, for every major Republican scandal of the last half-century. And the latter seems to hang around high-level meetings where Republicans plot war.
emptywheel's diary ::
The Other Possible Explanations for Dick's Silence
By now, I think all reasonable people agree there are a number of curious discrepancies in the Deadeye Dick shooting story. ... But the alcohol can't be the sum of the story. If it were, Katharine Armstrong and Dick would not have made such herculean efforts to avoid mentioning Pamela Willeford, who after all really did see the accident since she was standing right there next to Dick (that is, if we can believe the stories they've been telling).
Now, I don't buy the rumors that Dick was hiding an affair with Willeford. I mean, if I were a cuckold, I don't think I'd be visiting the guy whom my wife's lover just shot. Not unless this is a real 1970s swinger crowd, Texas style. (Though I am reminded of the rumors about John Bolton at Plato's retreat, so I suppose it is possible.) I think Dick was trying to hide the presence of Willeford for other reasons.
The other reason folks have mentioned for the secrecy about the shooting is that Katharine Armstrong, a registered lobbyist for Baker Botts, wanted to hide her close meetings with Cheney. I think there's more promise here--to which I'll return shortly. But before I look at that, I want to consider the way the manager of a nearby ranch characterized the lunch discussion on Sunday.
The manager of a ranch in neighboring Brooks County attended a quail lunch at the Armstrong Ranch headquarters midday Sunday with Cheney. Lavoyger Durham, manager of El Tule Ranch, said the luncheon talk was of "North Korea, India, China, Taiwan."
This conversation, remember, occurred shortly after Katharine Armstrong finally revealed news of the shooting to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, but before the Caller-Times had published the story. This is the period when Dick is supposed to have been "in meltdown" (indeed, Durham says that Cheney canceled Sunday's quail hunt, so he must have been in meltdown). But in spite of all this, in spite of the fact that this crowd is still deeply in crisis mode, they're talking about world affairs.
Anne Armstrong, Grande Dame of Republican Scandal
Given that background, consider Anne Armstrong's amazing biography. In addition to some really amazing career moves (the first woman Ambassador to the UK, the board of Halliburton), her career has remarkably tracked the outlines of the big Republican scandals of the last half-century.
Anne Armstrong Event/Associated Republican Scandals
1971-1973
RNC Co-Chair
Watergate
1973-1974
Cabinet-level Counselor to Nixon and Ford
Watergate
1976-1977
Ambassador to the UK
1980
Reagan-Bush Campaign Co-Chair
October Surprise
1977-2000
Board Member, Halliburton, Cheney commissions KBR to study privatization of military contracts (1991); Cheney named CEO Halliburton (1995)
1981-1990
Chair, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Iran-Contra
1981
Armstrongs fund Karl Rove + Company
1997
Texas A&M Regent
George HW Bush Library opens at TAMU, 1997
Now, let me be clear. Aside from Armstrong's activities while Chair of PFIAB under Reagan, there is little evidence to connect her directly to these scandals. (Though if you want to put pull up a selection of all the best conspiracy theories--replete with the Knights of Malta, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations--do no more than Google Anne Armstrong and William Casey.) By showing these chronologies side by side, I'm trying to show that Armstrong has been there, at the least as a trusted insider, through Watergate, the October Surprise, and Iran-Contra, and in positions (RNC co-chair, campaign co-chair for the election-related scandals; Chair of PFIAB for the intelligence one) relevant to the scandal. Aside from Rummy and Dick--whom Amstrong apparently met during the Ford Administration--and the Bush family taken as a whole, there are few people whose careers have tracked the big Republican scandals as closely as Anne Armstrong.
I mentioned that PFIAB was the exception, the period when Anne Armstrong can be shown to have been more closely involved in Republican scandal. Armstrong apparently helped draft Executive Order 12333, which provided new guidelines for intelligence work--including limited domestic surveillance and covert operations. Armstrong was involved in some of the wackier anti-Soviet conspiracy theories, including the allegation that the Russians attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul. And it is alleged that when Reagan dismissed half the PFIAB (but not Armstrong) in 1985, he was trying to cover up Iran-Contra.
Armstrong has also had a hand in furthering the careers of both Rove and Cheney--Rove in 1981 when he was starting his direct mail company, and Cheney when he was named CEO of Halliburton. Consider that fact ... Anne Armstrong is one person who can claim significant pull on both the strongest poles within the Bush Administration.
So as we consider what Dick might be hiding about shooting Whittington, consider Anne Armstrong's long-term role in the Republican party.
Katharine Armstrong, Grande-Dame-in-Training
By all appearances Katharine seems to be adopting her mother's mantle as big Republican insider, and incidentally, as the most vocal representative of the Armstrong family. She, like her mother, has benefited from Republican patronage, including the Bush II appointment to the Texas Game and Wildlife Commission. And, like her mother, she is closely involved with the defense contractors that make Republican administrations rich.
But before we talk about her lobbying, I'd like to look at some of the high-level meetings Katharine has attended. Katharine Armstrong has been invited to sleep-overs at the White House. She attended the White House dinner for Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (and apparently sat next to the Prince). This was a public function, though, with everyone from Lynn Swann to Yo-Yo-Ma--they even let Mary Cheney's partner attend! So it's not surprising that the former daughter of the Ambassador to the UK and a close Texas friend would get an invite.
But Katharine's visits with Bush get more interesting when you look at her visits to Crawford. She was invited when Blair visited Bush at the Crawford Ranch in April 2002.
Bush and First Lady Laura Bush hosted Blair and his wife Cherie Saturday night for a dinner of pecan-smoked beef tenderloin and pineapple upside-down cake at the Prairie Chapel Ranch.
Also present were senior aides to both leaders, as well as Jenna Bush, one of the two Bush daughters, and Kathryn, the Blair's infant daughter, and Gale Booth, Mrs. Blair's mother.
Also invited was Katharine Armstrong Idsal, head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.
This was the meeting, recall, when Bush and Blair decided to go to war against Iraq.
Downing Street has consistently refused to disclose the date on which Mr Blair promised George Bush that Britain would join the US in an invasion of Iraq. But evidence obtained by the IoS suggests that it was as early as April 2002, when the Prime Minister met President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
A ruling by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, seen by the IoS, says the Government sought advice about the legality of a possible invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2002 as the result of "statements made in a particular press release".
[snip]
The date of the release was 9 April 2002, the day after Mr Blair completed his two-day summit with Mr Bush in Texas. The implication is that immediately after the Downing Street official spokesman had denied that the meeting was a "council of war", the Government was investigating the legality of such a war.
So it appears (unless the "was invited" label suggests she didn't show) that Katharine Armstrong happened to be present the weekend Bush and Blair decided to go to war.
Then, last August, while Cindy Sheehan was camping outside Bush's ranch in Crawford, Katharine Armstrong was visiting the ranch again.
"I'm going to have lunch with Secretary of State Rice, talk a little business; Mrs. Bush, talk a little business; we've got a friend from South Texas here, named Katharine Armstrong; Now, this report appeared on Monday August 22, but Katharine's presence (the article is confusing, because it describes both Katharine Armstrong and Lance Armstrong, by last name, going on bike rides with Bush) is related to be the "Saturday before last" which would make it August 13, 2005. That's curious timing because of three events that happened earlier that week. First, on Monday August 8, Cindy Sheehan was told that she and her supporters might be arrested starting that Thursday, August 11.
Folks speculated at the time that the rumored arrests might be planned in response to two other events that would occur that week, a Thursday meeting with Condi and Rummy (and, according to the picture released by the White House, but not news reports, Dick) and a Friday fundraiser. As the NYT reported that week:
It is not clear how the White House will handle Ms. Sheehan. Mr. Bush usually comes and goes from the ranch by helicopter, but he might have to drive by her on Friday, when he is scheduled to attend a Republican fund-raiser at a ranch just down the road from where Ms. Sheehan is camped out. She will no doubt get another wave of publicity on Thursday, when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice join Mr. Bush at the ranch to discuss the war.
Here's how Stephen Hadley described the content of the principals' meeting:
The principals then met and Secretary Rice updated the principals and the President on the status of the Iran nuclear issue and recent developments in IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna. She also talked about next steps with respect to the six-party talks dealing with the North Korea nuclear issue, and also talked about preparations for a Gaza disengagement, which will begin next week.[my emphasis]
Now as it turns out, no one was arrested that Thursday, and the Bush motorcade drove right by Sheehan on Friday, so the speculations as to why they might be arrested were never more than that--speculations. Moreover, it is not clear when Katharine Amstrong arrived or whether she met with Condi and Rummy or attended the fundraiser (which was closed to the press). It seems likely that she attended the fundraiser, since it was basically a big get-together for the Pioneers:
About 230 people were attending the fundraiser at Stan and Kathy Hickey's Broken Spoke Ranch, a 478-acre spread next to Bush's ranch.
All have contributed at least $25,000 to the RNC, and many are "rangers," an honorary campaign title bestowed on those who raised $200,000 or more for Bush, or quot;pioneers," those who have raised $100,000 or more.
And it seems likely, too, that she at least met Condi, who was clearly still around and "doing business" when Armstrong was there on Saturday.
Call me crazy, but it seems like Katharine is the "Where's Waldo" of Republican warmongering, showing up in Crawford every time these Republicans want to talk about going to war against some country in the Middle East.
Katharine Armstrong, Lobbyist and Waldo of Warmongering
Which is, I think, important context to consider the question of lobbying. Sidney Blumenthal provides a good introduction to Katharine's lobbying career.
Katharine Armstrong took up lobbying after her recent divorce. Her contracts include Parsons, a construction firm that has done work in Iraq, among others. Her business partner, Karen Johnson, a close friend of Rove's, does extensive business with the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and defense contractors. But Armstrong's protestations to news media that she does not lobby Cheney should probably be taken at face value given her background.
If Parsons Corporation can thank Armstrong and her partner for their success in Iraq, they have a lot to be thankful for. After Halliburton, they were one of the biggest contractors in Iraq, winning up to $3 billion of contracts to build new security facilities, rebuild public buildings, rebuild the infrastructure, build facilities for the US military, and work on oil fields in the area surrounding Kirkuk. Their work has been almost as plagued by quality problems as Halliburton, including several hospital reconstruction projects that left the jobs half done.
At the maternity hospital across town, Dr. Yassin could hardly disguise her mounting frustration. She said the contractor, the Parsons Corporation, had repaired the hospital's reverse osmosis water purification equipment, but that little else had been accomplished in the five months since the renovation began.
Only one of the hospital's four elevators is working, and that is the one Parsons left in operation while the others were supposedly being repaired, she said, adding that no one is working on the elevators now. Major Smith said Parsons had completed the work but that it was so shoddy the Army would not certify the elevators for use. He said the company had since agreed to bring in elevator specialists to redo the job.
Parsons was also supposed to fix the hospital's incinerators, but it completed the work without hooking up gas lines to fuel them, Dr. Yassin said.
So we know that Katharine has helped Parsons defraud the American taxpayer and the Iraqi people. But we don't know Katharine's primary contracting client. Or rather, we don't know which client of Baker Botts she lobbied for.
Armstrong was paid $160,000 in 2004 by the powerful legal firm Baker Botts to lobby the White House, according to records she filed with the U.S. Senate as required by lobbying disclosure rules. The records indicate she was paid the money after she "communicated with the White House on behalf of Baker Botts clients."
In a phone interview, she told NBC News that in return for the money in one case, she set up a meeting at the White House for a Baker Botts client, although she said she felt she could not release the client's name.
"A meeting for doing something with one of their clients," she said, describing the event. "I'm not at liberty to say which." She says she cannot remember which White House official the meeting was with. She also said that during the inauguration proceedings, she got Karl Rove to speak at a Baker Botts function. "I got them Karl Rove," she said.
Records indicate that early in 2005 she ended her dealings with Baker Botts.
A $160,000 meeting? Not as much as the $9 million Abramoff commanded to set up a White House meeting. But a pricey meeting nevertheless. And given Katherine's demonstrably faulty eyewitness skills, I suppose it's not a surprise that she can't remember whom she was lobbying.
Baker Botts clients include many energy companies, some white collar criminals, and some SEC violators. Two "companies" it had notable dealings with in 2004 include the Saudi royal family (defending them against a suit holding them responsible for 9/11) and Halliburton. In fact, Halliburton hired Baker Botts lawyer James Doty, the guy who got Bush off his Harken energy insider trading problems, to investigate the circumstances surrounding Halliburton's bribery in Nigeria.
We have no way of knowing whether Katharine was lobbying on these clients' behalf, or someone else (though frankly, I suspect neither Halliburton nor the Saudis would need Katharine's services at the White House, since they could just call Bandar Bush or Cheney). But it's worth noting that Baker Botts was named the Global Oil and Gas Law Firm of 2005.
The point being that, if Katharine is "lobbying" for someone, she's doing a lot more than simply setting up meetings. She's got personal ties to Parsons and Halliburton, two of the five big DOD contractors with inside bids for Iraq business (and any other business that arises out of little Republican adventures). And she has a history of popping up at meetings that seem to be cabal sessions to plot the next oil war. And, apparently, an aspiration to replace her mom as the Grande Dame of Republican Scandal.
What about Ms. Brown Negley?
One more detail we ought to consider when asking what Dick is trying to hide--the least discussed house guest, Nancy Brown Negley. Described in the NYT piece as a philanthropist "whose family once controlled Brown & Root," she is described elsewhere as the heiress to the Brown & Root interest. Brown & Root, of course, has become Halliburton, the big beneficiary of the Iraq war, as well as a great deal of other defense contracting. By all appearances, Nagley's primary occupation is to give money away (and to good, artsy causes, too!). But she, too, has ties to one of the construction/DOD contractors making a killing off of this war.
Negley herself played host to a Bush Administration hunting party, this time with both Georges Bush and James Baker III, on New Year's Day, 2004.
Q How was the hunt?
THE PRESIDENT: It was good fun. You know, when you hunt quail, you get a lot of exercise. As you know, I like exercise. And so my Dad and I, and Ms. Negley, whose ranch we were on, walked a lot of territory, watched the dogs work, and knocked down some birds.
Q How many?
THE PRESIDENT: I think I shot five. The limit in Texas, I believe, is 15. I'm not that good a shot, but it was a lot of fun.
And it was Ms. Negley's ranch manager--hers is the El Tule ranch--who is probably in a bit of trouble right now for blabbing about the world affairs conversation at last Sunday's lunch. I'm not sure what Willeford was doing there (though she has also done sleep-overs at the White House), but she seems to have been the guest of a bunch of people benefitting from George Bush's "long war."
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/
2/20/45756/6926
What Was Dick Really Hiding?
by emptywheel
Mon Feb 20, 2006 at 01:57:55 AM PDT
Adapted from The Next Hurrah
Which is all a way of suggesting that we're thinking too small. I'm not suggesting that every time the Bushes or Cheney get together with these old Texas DOD contractor families, they start a war. Perhaps they just like to maintain their privacy in case they find the need to start a war and profit off it handsomely. But there's much more of a history with these folks--particularly between the Armstrongs and Republican crooks--than you can fit in a little bottle of beer.
----------------------
Anne Legendre Armstrong
Dec. 27, 1927 Born, New Orleans, LA
1949 Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College
1966‑68 Vice Chairman, Texas Republican Party
1968‑73 Republican National Committeewoman from Texas
1968‑74 Trustee, Kennedy County (Texas) School Board
1971‑73 Co‑Chairman, Republican National Committee
1972 Secretary and keynote speaker, Republican National Convention
1973‑74 Counsellor to the President; founder, Office for Women's Programs; Chairman, Federal Property Council; Chairman, Domestic Council Committee on Bicentennial and the Federal Agency Bicentennial Task Force; member, Council on Wage and Price Stability
1975‑76 Member, Advisory Council to the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration; member, Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year
1976‑1977 U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (United Kingdom)
1977‑1983 Member, board of directors of several major corporations, institutes and universities
1980 Co‑Chairman, Reagan‑Bush campaign
1981 Chairman, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Anne Armstrong was named Counsellor to the President with Cabinet rank by Richard Nixon in 1973, becoming the first woman to hold that position. She remained as Counsellor when Ford took office, providing assistance in established areas of responsibility as well as assuming new roles in the Ford White House. She resigned in December, 1974 because of family health problems which entailed a return to Texas, but she continued to serve in several posts during the following year. In 1976, Ford appointed her Ambassador to Great Britain and considered her a possible vice‑presidential running mate.
Counsellor Armstrong established the first White House Office of Women's Programs in 1973 to provide a liaison between President Nixon and women and women's groups. It sought to recruit women appointees to high level government positions and to assist in gaining greater employment opportunity for women in the federal sector through regulation and legislation. Assisted by Patricia Lindh and Director Karen Keesling, Armstrong continued to address these concerns in the Ford administration. After her resignation, she joined Lindh and Keesling as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations' International Women's Conference in Mexico City.
As Chairman of the Federal Property Council in 1973‑1974, she urged President Ford to continue its threatened existence with White House appropriated funds. The Council was responsible for review and reform of current policy toward federal real property and resolution of conflicting land use claims. She oversaw these functions and administered the Legacy of the Parks program which disposed of surplus federal land. On her departure, she advised Ford of alternate ways to provide these services within the federal government.
President Ford appointed Armstrong to the eight‑member Council on Wage and Price Stability which he created soon after he became President to identify and expose the causes of inflation. In his administration, she also chaired two Cabinet‑level committees on the Bicentennial which addressed federal agency participation in the observance. She continued to work in these areas after her resignation as Counsellor.
http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/LIBRARY/guides/Finding%20Aids/Armstrong,%20Anne%20-%20Files.htm
Monday, October 02, 2006
MEXICO: Army Mobilized to Oaxaca
http://ww4report.com/node/2384
By Bill Weinberg
08/25/2006
Mexico's Defense Secretariat has dispatched troops from the 36th Infantry Battallion, based at the 44th Military Zone headquarters in Minatitlan, Veracruz, to the Oaxaca City, which has been paralyzed by civil protests for weeks. The situation has promped the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) to declare a "maximum alert," fearing that a violent eviction of their protest encampments in the city center is imminent. (APRO, Aug. 23)
On Aug. 22, the unrest in the city claimed its second confirmed death, when a group of some 15 armed men in three cars—one with the insignia of the city police department—drove up to one of several radio stations that have been occupied by protesters and sprayed the building with gunfire. One of occupiers, Lorenzo Pablo, a 52-year-old architect, was hit and died.
A short time later, masked men fired on the car of freelance photographer Luis Hernandez, who had been at the scene of the earlier shooting death (of Jose Jimenez, Aug. 12). Hernandez was unharmed. (AP, Aug. 24)
On Aug. 23, Oaxaca Attorney General Lizbeth Cana said the occupation of radio and TV stations and the blocking of roads in and around Oaxaca City were "acts of destabilization" consistent with an "urban guerrilla" strategy. The remarks prompted federal Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca to state that there was no evidence of guerilla involvement in the civil struggle in Oaxaca. (El Universal, Aug. 24)
A particularly atrocious story in the New York Times Aug. 24 was entitled "Violent Civil Unrest Tightens Hold on a Mexican City." Yet the story itself noted that the only "violence" attributed to the protesters is the burning of a few buses, while there have now been two confirmed deaths of protesters at the hands of the security forces and unaccountable pro-government gunmen, rumors of three more in the attempted police eviction of the protest encampments June 14, and (by APPO's count) 35 political killings statewide since the protests began.
The story ends with a quote from the president of the hotel owners association complaining about how the protests have devastated the tourism industry—as if this was the most grave problem facing the state. This has been only the second full story the Times has run on the Oaxaca crisis.
--
Timeline of protest and repression in Oaxaca:
May 22: Teachers from Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers go on strike demanding pay increases, improved working conditions, and increased budget for school meals, uniforms and supplies.
June 14: Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) sends over 1,000 state police into the historic town center before dawn to break up the teachers’ protest camps using tear gas and beating protesters with clubs. The teachers regroup and take back over the town center only hours later.
June 16-July 25: Tens of thousands of citizens from Oaxaca City and across the state join the teachers protest camps and massive marches, demanding the ouster of Ulises Ruiz. The protesters form the “Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca” (APPO in Spanish).
July 26: The APPO initiates a series of direct actions meant to paralyze the state government and force Ulises Ruiz’s resignation, setting up protest camps outside of all state government buildings.
August 1: Three thousand women from the APPO march through town and then take over the state television and radio station, CORTV.
August 7-22: Civilian clad state and federal police and unidentified gunmen begin to shoot at protest marches and encampments and arrest APPO leaders on the street. On August 21 the gunmen destroy the CORTV transmitter; the following morning the APPO took over 12 local commercial radio stations (later in the week they release ten stations). That night, on August 22, the gunmen kill two protesters and wound several more. Images of gunmen in police trucks driving through Oaxaca City air on national and international television (Televisa and Reuters) on August 22. The APPO organizes over 1,000 barricades throughout the city to halt further incursions of gunmen or police.
August 29-September 20: Members of the APPO travel to Mexico City for talks with the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Abascal. The Interior makes several offers to address education and social equity issues in Oaxaca, but the APPO turns down all offers, maintaining their singular demand that Ulises Ruiz resign or be removed from office. Talks stall on September 20.
September 21: The teachers union and the APPO initiate a march of over 4000 people to Mexico City where they will set up a protest camp outside of Congress. The teachers and APPO protesters will walk over 300 miles through four states before arriving in Mexico City in early October.
September 24: APPO protesters clash with gunmen after storming a hotel where Ulises Ruiz was rumored to be conducting an interview. Gunmen shoot one protester in the arm.
September 25: Fox meets with eleven governors from the Institutional Revolutionary Party to discuss the conflict in Oaxaca. President Vicente Fox’s spokesperson, Ruben Aguilar, says that Fox will solve the problem in Oaxaca before November 30, the last day of his six-year term. Ulises Ruiz attempts to open schools, demand that teachers return to classes, and threatens to fire all those who do not return and hire substitutes. His attempt fails.
September 26: The Minister of the Interior, Carlos Abascal, submits a draft proposal for the use of federal police in Oaxaca. President Fox will decide whether to authorize the use of force.
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/140115/1/
The Mark Foley Coverup Timeline
Like Tom "The Charges are False" DeLay, MARK FOLEY is a Republican banana peel. Expect more sexually-weird, hypocritical, cynical right-wing bodies to fall ... Is the GOP hiding any more "family values" pedophiles among the horde of genocidal, fence-building, wire-tapping Republican flying monkeys in Congress? - AC
--
From the Think Progress web site:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/30/foley-coverup-timeline/
On Friday, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress, after ABC News published inappropriate emails and sexually explicit instant messages that Foley sent to underage boys.
Subsequently, it’s become clear that Congressional leadership “knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues.” Here is a timeline of the coverup, based on published reports:
2001 — A Republican staff member warns pages “to watch out for Congressman Mark Foley.” A former page says that they were told “don’t get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff.” [ABC, 10/1/06]
2003 — Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) has sexually explicit IM exchanges with an underage boy who worked as a Congressional page. [ABC News, 9/29/06]
SUMMER 2005 — Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) sends inappropriate emails to another former Congressional page. [CREW]
SEPTEMBER 2005 — Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who sponsored the page, learns “of the e-mails from a reporter.” [AP, 9/29/06; CQ, 9/30/06]
FALL 2005 — “Tim Kennedy, a staff assistant in the [Speaker J. Denis Hastert’s] Office, received a telephone call from Congressman Rodney Alexander’s Chief of Staff who indicated that he had an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House page…[Mike] Stokke [Deputy Chief of Staff for Speaker Hastert] called the Clerk and asked him to come to the Speaker’s Office so that he could put him together with Congressman Alexander’s Chief of Staff.” [Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
LATE 2005 — Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Chairman of the House Page Board, “was notified by the then Clerk of the House, who manages the Page Program, that he had been told by Congressman Rodney Alexander (R-LA) about an email exchange between Congressman Foley and a former House Page.” Shimkus interviewed Foley and told him “to cease all contact with this former house page.” He did not inform Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the only Democrat on the House page Board. [Roll Call, 9/29/06]
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 — Alexander tells NRCC chairman Tom Reynolds about “the existence of e-mails between Mark Foley and a former page of Mr. Alexander’s.” Reynolds tells Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) about the emails and his conversation with Alexander. [Reynolds Statement, 9/30/06; Roll Call, 9/30/06; Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
SPRING 2006 — House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) learns of “inappropriate ‘contact’ between Foley and a 16-year-old page.” After leaning about Foley’s conduct, Boehner told Speaker of the House J. Denis Hastert who assured Boehner he would “take care of it.” Later, Boehner changed his story and told the Washington Post he didn’t remember whether he talked to Hastert. [Washington Post, 9/30/06; New York Times, 10/1/06]
MAY 10, 2006 — Reynold’s personal PAC, TOMPAC, donates $5,000 to Foley’s campaign. [New York Daily News, 9/30/06]
JULY 27, 2006 — Foley writes a $100,000 check to the NRCC, chaired by Reynolds. [New York Daily News, 9/30/06]
JULY 27, 2006 — Foley, still co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, attends a signing ceremony at the White House for the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. [White House, 9/27/06; Talkingpointsmemo, 9/30/06; Washington Post, 10/1/06]
SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 — ABC publishes emails between Foley and former page. [ABC, 9/28/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 — Foley resigns. [ABC, 9/29/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 — ABC publishes sexually explict Instant Messages between Foley and several former pages. [ABC, 9/29/06]
SEPTEMBER 29, 2006 — “Aides to the speaker [Hastert] say he was not aware until last week of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned on Friday after portions of racy e-mail exchanges between him and current and former underage congressional pages became public.” [Chicago Tribune, 9/30/06]
SEPTEMBER 30, 2006 — Hastert admits he was told about the emails by Reynolds in the spring. [Hastert Statement, 9/30/06]
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Air Force Chief: Test Weapons on Testy U.S. "Mobs"
WASHINGTON (AP), September 12, 2006 -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday...
The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.
"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if
I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."
The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.
Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices....
-------------------
AIR FORCE SECRETARY MICHAEL W. WYNNE BIOGRAPHY
http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?
bioID=7919
Mr. Wynne graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and served in the Air Force for seven years, ending his career as a captain and assistant professor of astronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He spent three years with Lockheed Martin selling the Space Systems Division to then Martin Marietta. He successfully integrated the division into the Astronautics Company and became the General Manager of the Space Launch Systems segment, combining the Titan with the Atlas Launch vehicles. For the next 23 years, Mr. Wynne held a variety of senior positions at General Dynamics, retiring in 1999 as Senior Vice President where his role was in International Development and Strategy. Throughout his career at General Dynamics, he held positions with the Aircraft (F-16s), Main Battle Tanks (M1A2), and Space Launch Vehicles (Atlas and Centaur) Divisions.
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Wynne was involved in venture capital. He nurtured small technology companies through their startup phase as a member of the NextGenFund Executive Committee, and served in executive positions of two of those companies.
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