Contents:
1) The Secret Origin of Sarah Palin
2) "Allen Teen Sex Inquiry Re-Opened," Anchorage Daily News
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1) The Secret Origin of Sarah Palin
www.bluebloggin.com/: ...Bill Allen and the VECO employees contributed heavily to politicians and in return expected support for the oil industry. In 2000, Allen co-chaired the Alaska finance committee during the Bush-Cheney campaign.
When Palin decided to run for lieutenant governor in 2001, she paid Bill Allen a visit at his home. According to a VECO emplyee the two drank wine and spoke about her future. After Palin’s visit with Allen, VECO contributed $5,000 to Palin’s campaign for lieutenant governor. The contributions came at $500 a pop over a two-day period in late December from Allen, his executives and a couple of their spouses, representing 10 percent of all money Palin raised in her 2002 campaign.
Palin and Ted Stevens excellent adventure …
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state’s political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
Palin’s name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.
People in igloos shouldn’t throw fireballs.
http://www.bluebloggin.com/2008/10/05/palins-campaign-contributions-from-convicted-criminal-bill-allen/
****
2) Allen teen sex inquiry reopened
Police look into claim ex-Veco boss had sex with underage girl.
By RICHARD MAUER
rmauer@adn.com
Published: February 3rd, 2008 06:01 AM
Last Modified: February 3rd, 2008 06:10 AM
Anchorage police have reopened an investigation into allegations that Bill Allen, the government's key witness in the ongoing corruption inquiry and once a leading political force in Alaska, had sex with an underage girl in the mid-1990s.
The investigation originally began in 2004 as an offshoot of the scandalous Josef Boehm sex and drug ring, according to Detective Kevin Vandegriff, who worked with federal investigators on the Boehm case.
But when federal prosecutors asked Anchorage police to suspend the investigation shortly after it began, the department complied, he said.
The Allen investigation was dormant until December, when it was reopened, said Capt. Gardner Cobb, the city's chief of detectives. The evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Allen, now 70, was contradictory and never strong, both Cobb and Vandegriff said.
But Vandegriff decided to go back into the case, interviewing witnesses and reviewing the record, "to make sure there's nothing else out there that we're missing," Cobb said in an interview in December. Vandegriff is still following leads and the investigation remains open, APD spokesman Paul Honeman said Friday.
The specific allegation was sexual abuse of a minor, Cobb said, a crime for which there is no statute of limitations.
A MIGHTY FALL
Allen pleaded guilty in May to bribing Alaska lawmakers. Once the chairman and an owner of the oil field services company Veco, he was forced to sell the company and now faces a lengthy prison term. That's a stunning fall for a power broker who handed oil-policy decrees to a stable of bribed legislators and who regularly socialized with senators and other national political figures who came to Alaska as guests of Sen. Ted Stevens.
At the time the Boehm investigation was developing, from 2003 to 2004, Allen was still a major player in Alaska politics, as he had been for decades, and was a reliable source of campaign money for state candidates, members of Alaska's congressional delegation and other national politicians. In 2000 he was Alaska co-chairman of President Bush's election campaign.
In an interview in October, Vandegriff wouldn't name Allen's alleged victim or victims. He said Allen was not a direct subject of the Boehm investigation. But he said there was one person involved in both the Boehm case and the investigation of Allen: Bambi Tyree, one of Boehm's co-defendants.
Vince Blomfield, Tyree's boyfriend starting around 1999 when he was 36 and she was 18, said in an interview with a private investigator working for Boehm that Tyree claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Allen when she was 14 or 15. Allen would have been in his late 50s at the time. The interview with Blomfield was cited in a court filing by Boehm's attorneys, who were trying to portray Tyree as having a history of preying on older men with money.
Allen's attorney, Robert Bundy, said Allen denied having an improper relationship with Tyree, now 27.
CASE RE-EVALUATED
Cobb wouldn't say what prompted the department to reopen the case. But the action follows inquiries by the Daily News, a surge in activity in civil lawsuits by Boehm's underage victims, and a reference to the Allen-Tyree allegation in a closed hearing in at least one of the recent federal corruption trials, where Allen was the government's chief witness. The existence of the investigation was first reported last week by the weekly Anchorage Press.
Tyree's father, Mark, who died in 2005, also figures in the ongoing federal corruption investigation in Alaska. He installed the furnace and plumbing in the Veco-supervised renovations to Sen. Ted Stevens' home in 2000, according to Robert Williams, the former Veco employee who hired Tyree.
Mark Tyree's name is mentioned in at least one federal grand jury subpoena concerning Veco and Ted Stevens.
COCAINE AND GIRLS
Boehm, now 64, was the wealthy owner of Alaska Industrial Hardware and other businesses, but his deep addiction to crack cocaine and his unrelenting attraction to girls and young women got him an 11-year federal prison sentence in 2005. He is currently at the minimum security Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution near Dallas.
Tyree was also a crack addict. As one of Boehm's original co-defendants, she pleaded guilty to finding the teenage girls for the ring in return for a seemingly limitless supply of cocaine sold to Boehm by her friends and others. Recognizing her cooperation with authorities and her abuse as a young teen by Boehm and other men, Judge John Sedwick sentenced her to three years.
She was released Sept. 6, 2006, and is living and working in Anchorage. Through her attorney, federal public defender Sue Ellen Tatter, Tyree declined to comment.
In the October interview, Vandegriff said he heard no suggestions that Allen was a visitor to Boehm's Oceanview home or the many "parties" Boehm held at hotels around town.
OLDER MEN
Though Tyree's extensive juvenile record remains sealed, her background has surfaced in several court cases, including a separate federal drug prosecution in 1996. The record shows a long pattern of involvement with older men. Bambi had just turned 15 when she, her older sister Tia, then 18, and 42-year-old Billy Ray Lang were arrested at the airport after a flight from California. The Tyree sisters had a combined 11 pounds of cocaine strapped into girdles they had bought before the trip in a Spenard extra-large shop.
Bambi was ordered to McLaughlin Youth Center. But Tia was held in jail and the girls' parents, Mark and Cris Tyree, testified about the family in an effort to get her released on bail. Bambi, a frequent runaway since age 11 and a Wasilla middle-school dropout, had moved in with Lang in the fall of 1995 when she was 14, Cris Tyree said. Cris Tyree described Lang as Tia's pimp and said that he ran an Anchorage call-girl service named "Cover Girls."
"I was told he was using my daughters," Cris Tyree testified.
Boehm pleaded guilty to cocaine and sexual exploitation charges. The government sought to portray his crimes as particularly egregious, deserving the maximum sentence. The defense tried to show him as a doddering, addled old man exploited for his money by a string of addicts and dealers, with Bambi Tyree first among them. It was a pattern Tyree had established for herself, they asserted, referring to Bill Allen. Vince Blomfield said it was the case in his relationship with her as well.
"She suffers from a heavy crack addiction, and her actions were geared toward obtaining funds to feed that habit," the defense said in a memorandum filed under seal and obtained by the Daily News. "Tyree often obtained the required funds by exploiting rich men."
'B.A.' CITED IN TRANSCRIPTS
Citing their private investigator's interviews with Blomfield and another friend of Tyree's, Marty Myre, the memorandum said that in addition to Boehm, "she developed a relationship with another rich and powerful businessman in Alaska, B.A."
"Bambi claimed that B.A. bought her a vehicle and that on one occasion he gave her $5,000," the defense document said.
While the court documents don't further identify "B.A.," in footnotes, the memorandum referenced pages in the transcripts of a Sept. 23, 2004, interview with Blomfield and a Nov. 10, 2004, interview with Myre. Copies of the transcripts obtained by the Daily News show the initials "B.A." referred to Bill Allen on those pages.
Blomfield, who now works at a Fairbanks strip club, turned down a request for an interview. Myre, a guide and contractor, also wouldn't talk.
LOVE AND MONEY
In the transcript of the Sept. 23, 2004, interview, Blomfield said he met Tyree at a convenience store phone booth around 1999 when she was 18. He pegged her for a party girl and asked her if she wanted a ride. She did, and the relationship developed quickly before coming to a halt when his money ran out, he said.
Tyree told Blomfield she was just ending a relationship with Allen, Blomfield said.
"He figured out, I think, to get as far away from -- you know, because to my knowledge, Bill Allen did not use drugs. He drank and partied with her," Blomfield told the private investigator.
Blomfield said Tyree told him she had a sexual relationship with Allen when she was 14 or 15.
That age range would've extended from the time she ran away to Bill Ray Lang's place in East Anchorage to after her release from McLaughlin on the cocaine trafficking charge.
"His name (Allen) came up constantly," Blomfield said. "She would leave me and go get money from him," Blomfield said. "Her father literally told me under his own words that he had met Bill and that Bill had told him that he was dating his daughter." Blomfield said he was present when Bambi called Allen in Washington, D.C.
"I spent Christmas with Bambi's family, and there were presents under the tree for the entire family from Bill Allen. He had bought her sister a car. He had given her father a number of contracts."
Blomfield said he thought Allen got the car for Bambi Tyree when she was 16. The family always referred to the vehicle "as the car that Bill bought," Blomfield said.
Public records confirm that Bambi Tyree got a new 1999 black Volkswagen Beetle on Nov. 30, 1998, but she wasn't 16 -- she was approaching her 18th birthday and just getting out of another stay at McLaughlin. Nothing in the record indicates who made the down payment. Her parents were listed as co-owners.
Three pickups owned by members of the Tyree family are connected to Allen or Veco.
A 1994 Ford originally owned by Veco Equipment was transferred to Mark Tyree in 2002, according to public records. The truck is now registered to Tyree's brother, James. The records don't show how the truck was financed.
State records show that a 1998 Ford pickup was similarly transferred to Bambi's brother Anthony from Veco Equipment Inc. on Sept. 13, 2006, again with no reference to a price.
Bill Allen's name appears as the note holder on the registration for a 2003 Ford truck registered by Anthony, according to state vehicle records.
Anthony Tyree couldn't be located for comment. A neighbor of the family home in Wasilla said she believed Anthony is attending school out of state.
BLOMFIELD CLAIM DISPUTED
In a handwritten note to the Daily News last year, Cris Tyree said Blomfield never came to her house at Christmas. She described him as "an unreliable source" with drug problems himself and a criminal record. She wouldn't answer questions.
Court records show Blomfield had several forgery and escape convictions, mostly misdemeanors and all related to his drug addiction. In 2001, his mother urged a judge to give him a maximum jail sentence to keep him away from narcotics. (Ironically, some of the money that financed his cocaine use during the time he was dating Tyree would have come from the FBI: His share of money paid by the agency to the real estate company owned by Blomfield's family, which built the FBI's downtown headquarters, according to information in one of his court cases.)
ALLEN BEFRIENDED FAMILY
Robert Bundy, Allen's attorney, said Allen had an above-board friendship with the entire Tyree family.
"Bill says he never had any kind of illicit relationship with her, ever," Bundy said. "(Mark) Tyree was a plumber who did good work, did a lot of work on Bill's stuff. He got to know him over the years."
Bundy said Allen doesn't remember how he met Mark Tyree, but it was "before he ever heard of Bambi."
"He and Mark became pretty good pals because they kind of had similar backgrounds, they both dropped out of high school, and got a trade," Bundy said. Allen never had a sexual relationship with Tyree at any age, Bundy said.
Mark Tyree died of cancer at his Wasilla home on April 1, 2005. Allen was with Tyree at his deathbed, Bundy said, and promised to take care of the family.
CASE WAS SHAKY
Detective Vandegriff of the Anchorage Police Department declined to say whether Blomfield was one of his original sources when he opened the case against Allen in February 2004.
"It came up as part of the Boehm investigation," he said. "It just came out as part of the interviews."
The initial case against Allen "wasn't very solid," he added. "We had some contradictory information, but I was just kind of getting started."
Then federal prosecutors told him to "cease and desist," he said.
The joint city-federal prosecution was run by two assistant U.S. attorneys, Frank Russo and James Goeke. Tyree testified that both prosecutors participated in the 15 to 20 hours of debriefings she underwent with the FBI and detectives as part of her plea deal.
Goeke, now with the prosecution team pursuing the corruption cases, didn't return several calls for comment.
Russo acknowledged "there were allegations along the lines of his (Allen's) involvement with Bambi Tyree," but said he asked Vandegriff to suspend the Allen investigation for purely practical reasons: The Boehm case was complex, with dozens of witnesses, and Boehm himself had a high-powered, three-attorney defense team that fought at every opportunity. Nearly 1,000 documents were filed, and that was in a case that never went to trial.
"We said, 'Hey, why don't we put this aside until later. We have enough to focus on,' " Russo said. That was his only concern, he said.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI have not yet provided a historical account of how the corruption investigation began and how it evolved with Veco and Allen at its center. Court filings by federal prosecutors since made public show it was well under way in the fall of 2005 with court-ordered wiretaps and later, video surveillance of Allen and a Veco vice president. That would have been 18 months after Vandegriff opened his case.
Russo added, "There were no charges ever brought against Allen for anything related to what Boehm was doing. In terms of the sexual assault of a minor, that's something that APD has on their files; they're free to do whatever they want with that."
Vandegriff said Russo's request was fine with him.
"I had plenty on my plate to do with the Boehm investigation, and when I was told to stop that one, no problem," the detective said in the October interview.
While mentions of the relationship between Tyree and Allen have appeared in court, most have been heard in closed proceedings or referenced in sealed filings. That was the case in the Boehm prosecution, and also in the recent federal bribery prosecutions.
Judge Sedwick, the federal district judge who presided over the Boehm cases, is also the judge in the corruption cases.
"You can presume ... that the judge knows all about it," Russo said, referring to the Allen allegations.
ONE CASE LED TO ANOTHER
The issue arose at a closed-door hearing during former Rep. Pete Kott's corruption trial in September just as Allen was taking the stand. Government prosecutors, required to disclose information about their witness, volunteered that Allen wasn't coerced to plead guilty by evidence concerning his relationship with Tyree, according to Kott's lawyer Jim Wendt. Had that happened, Wendt said, it might have been relevant to his case.
Still, Allen's decision to cooperate with the government, made in a single August day in 2006, seemed extraordinarily swift, Wendt said. "I did not understand why Bill Allen would have flipped so fast, and I still don't understand. I don't know if it has anything to do with this young woman or for other reasons," Wendt said.
Asked whether Allen's relationship with Tyree was one of the issues that arose during closed hearings in the next bribery case, that of Rep. Victor Kohring, defense attorney John Henry Browne said, "That's something that we were not allowed to go into," but also said he couldn't "confirm or deny that that was one of them because that would be violating the order of the judge."
In December, secrecy issues in the Boehm case flared anew, this time involving more than a half-dozen plaintiffs -- mostly formerly juvenile victims -- seeking to recover damages from Boehm and his codefendants in the criminal case.
With lawyers poised to depose Vandegriff's APD partner in the Boehm investigation, Detective Steven Boltz, the U.S. Attorney's office intervened to make sure his testimony remained under seal. Assistant U.S. attorney Daniel Cooper said at an emergency hearing in federal court Dec. 18, just before Boltz' deposition, that he was trying to ensure that the identities of juvenile witnesses were protected and grand jury proceedings remained secret. He didn't mention Allen or Tyree.
The civil cases against Boehm were tentatively settled two weeks ago. The terms are secret.
http://www.adn.com/news/government/veco/story/303216.html
(Thanks to VictorSRMoore for the lead)
"Advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." - PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses, p. 60
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Newsmax Columnist: Military Coup "to Resolve the 'Obama Problem' " is not "Unrealistic"
by Terry Krepel
September 29, 2009
From John L. Perry's September 29 Newsmax column:
No, not Dick Cheney - flabby NewsMax coup plotter John Perry
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.
America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.
[...]
Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.
Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."
In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909290042
Thanks to Ralph Hernandez for the lead.
****
Is the author of this fascist diatribe an Aryan Nations huckster? Not at all - he's a typical, "mainstream," run-of-the-propaganda-mill media professional appointed the executive branch by two DEMOCRATIC presidents, president of the National Association of Broadcasters. As such, he is a measure of how close we are to open fascist rule:
John L. Perry Biography
John L. Perry, an award-winning newspaper editor and writer, who served on White House staffs of two presidents, contributes a regular column to NewsMax.com.
Newspapers under his direction were consistent winners of awards for journalistic excellence. The Associated Press Managing Editors Association named him one of the 12best newsroom managers among the AP's member newspapers.
Perry has received numerous awards for column and editorial writing and for public-service and spot-news reporting.
He has worked as an editor or reporter for several daily newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, the Buffalo Evening News and the Clearwater Sun.
With a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, he was one of the first American journalists allowed into the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin.
Perry also has had a distinguished career in public policy. He served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson. In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Perry served as press aide to Gov. LeRoy Collins of Florida and executive assistant to the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
A specialist in corporate communications, strategic planning and crisis management, he was public-affairs counselor to several international and national businesses.
Perry was also assistant to the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, a member of the top-management team and director of public relations for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tenn., and an academic fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif.
http://www.newsmax.com/john_perry/bio/by Terry Krepel
September 29, 2009
September 29, 2009
From John L. Perry's September 29 Newsmax column:
No, not Dick Cheney - flabby NewsMax coup plotter John Perry
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.
America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.
[...]
Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?
Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.
Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.
Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."
In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909290042
Thanks to Ralph Hernandez for the lead.
****
Is the author of this fascist diatribe an Aryan Nations huckster? Not at all - he's a typical, "mainstream," run-of-the-propaganda-mill media professional appointed the executive branch by two DEMOCRATIC presidents, president of the National Association of Broadcasters. As such, he is a measure of how close we are to open fascist rule:
John L. Perry Biography
John L. Perry, an award-winning newspaper editor and writer, who served on White House staffs of two presidents, contributes a regular column to NewsMax.com.
Newspapers under his direction were consistent winners of awards for journalistic excellence. The Associated Press Managing Editors Association named him one of the 12best newsroom managers among the AP's member newspapers.
Perry has received numerous awards for column and editorial writing and for public-service and spot-news reporting.
He has worked as an editor or reporter for several daily newspapers, including the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, the Buffalo Evening News and the Clearwater Sun.
With a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, he was one of the first American journalists allowed into the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin.
Perry also has had a distinguished career in public policy. He served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson. In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Perry served as press aide to Gov. LeRoy Collins of Florida and executive assistant to the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
A specialist in corporate communications, strategic planning and crisis management, he was public-affairs counselor to several international and national businesses.
Perry was also assistant to the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, a member of the top-management team and director of public relations for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tenn., and an academic fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif.
http://www.newsmax.com/john_perry/bio/by Terry Krepel
September 29, 2009
Is There an Army Cover-Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?
Also see: "U.S. Army Private LaVena Lynn Johnson's Murder Cover Up" and "Military Hides Cause of Women Soldiers' Deaths"
By Ann Wright
http://www.refusingtokill.net/rape/ArmyCoverUp.htm
28 April 2008
The Department of Defense statistics are alarming - one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. The warnings to women should begin above the doors of the military recruiting stations, as that is where assaults on women in the military begin - before they are even recruited.
But, now, even more alarming, are deaths of women soldiers in Iraq and in the United States following rape. The military has characterized each death of women who were first sexually assaulted as deaths from "noncombat related injuries," and then added "suicide." Yet, the families of the women whom the military has declared to have committed suicide strongly dispute the findings and are calling for further investigations into the deaths of their daughters. Specific US Army units and certain US military bases in Iraq have an inordinate number of women soldiers who have died of "noncombat related injuries," with several identified as "suicides."
Ninety-four US military women have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Twelve US civilian women have been killed in OIF. Thirteen US military women have been killed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Twelve US Civilian women have been killed in Afghanistan.
Of the 94 US military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military says 36 died from noncombat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by "natural causes" and self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or suicide. The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain, which were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. Five deaths have been labeled as suicides, but 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances.
Eight women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of "noncombat related injuries" on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "noncombat related injuries" on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides."
Nineteen-year-old US Army Pvt. Lavena Johnson was found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq, in July, 2005, and her death characterized by the US Army to be suicide from a self-inflicted M-16 shot. On April 9, 2008, Dr. John Johnson and his wife Linda, parents of Private Johnson, flew from their home in St. Louis for meetings with US Congress members and their staffs. They were in Washington to ask that Congressional hearings be conducted on the Army's investigation into the death of their daughter, an investigation that classified her death as a suicide despite extensive evidence suggesting she was murdered.
From the day their daughter's body was returned to them, the parents had grave suspicions about the Army's investigation into Lavena's death and the characterization of her death as suicide. In charge of a communications facility, Lavena was able to call home daily. In those calls, she gave no indication of emotional problems or being upset. In a letter to her parents, Lavena's commanding officer Capt. David Woods wrote, "Lavena was clearly happy and seemed in very good health both physically and emotionally."
In viewing his daughter's body at the funeral home, Dr. Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot wound. As a US Army veteran and a 25-year US Army civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be so small. The hole in Lavena's head appeared to be more the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round. He questioned why the exit hole was on the left side of her head, when she was right handed. But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto Lavena's hands, hiding burns on one of her hands, is what deepened Dr. Johnson's concerns that the Army's investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.
Over the next two and one-half years, Dr. and Mrs. Johnson and their family and friends relentlessly, through the Freedom of Information Act and Congressional offices requested the Department of the Army for documents concerning Lavena's death. With each response of the Army to the request for information, another piece of information/evidence about Lavena's death emerged.
The military criminal investigator's initial drawing of the death scene revealed Lavena's M16 was found perfectly parallel to her body. The investigator's sketch showed her body was found inside a burning tent, under a wooden bench, with an aerosol can nearby. A witness stated he heard a gunshot and, when he went to investigate, found a tent on fire, and when he looked into the tent, saw a body. The Army official investigation did not mention a fire or that her body had been burned.
After two years of requesting documents, one set of papers provided by the Army included a photocopy copy of a CD. Wondering why the photocopy copy was in the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. With help from his local Congressional representative, the US Army finally complied. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned, apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor's tent to inside the tent. Apparently, she had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire.
Investigator records reveal members of her unit said Lavena told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked with her to the Post Exchange where she bought a soda and then, in her Army workout clothes, went on by herself to meet friends and get exercise. The unit member said she was in good spirits with no indication of personal emotional problems.
The Army investigators initially assumed Private Johnson's death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, shortly into the investigation, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators must stop the investigation into a homicide and to classify her death a suicide.
As a result, no further investigation took place into a possible homicide, despite strong evidence available to the investigators.
Another family that does not believe their daughter committed suicide in Iraq is the family of Army Pfc. Tina Priest, 20, of Smithville, Texas, who was raped by a fellow soldier in February, 2006, on a military base known as Camp Taji. Priest was a part of the 5th Support Battalion, lst Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The Army said Tina was found dead in her room on March 1, 2006, of a self-inflicted M-16 shot, a "suicide", 11 days after the rape. Private Priest's mother, Joy Priest, disputes the Army's findings. Mrs. Priest said she talked several times with her daughter after the rape, and while very upset about the rape, she was not suicidal. Priest continues to challenge the Army's 800 pages of investigative documents with a simple question: How could her petite, five-foot-tall daughter, with a short arm length, have held the M-16 at the angle that would have resulted in the gunshot? The Army attempted several explanations, but each was debunked by Mrs. Priest and by the 800 pages of materials provided by the Army itself. The Army now says Tina used her toe to pull the trigger of the weapon that killed her. The Army never investigated Tina's death as a homicide, but only as a suicide.
Rape charges against the soldier whose sperm was found on her sleeping bag were dropped a few weeks after her death. He was convicted of failure to obey an order and sentenced to forfeiture of $714 for two months, 30 days restriction to the base and 45 days of extra duty.
On the same Camp Taji, ten days later after Tina Priest was found dead, on May 11, 2006, a female US Army Pfc. (name known to author, but not identified for the article), 19, was found dead. She died three days after she suffered what the Army called "a self-inflicted gunshot". The Army claimed she, too, had committed suicide. In her room, where her body was found, investigators discovered her diary open to a page on which she had written about being raped during training, after unknowingly drinking a date-rape drug. The person identified in the diary as the rapist was charged by the Army with rape after her death. Many who knew her did not believe she shot herself, but there is no evidence of a homicide investigation by the Army.
The September 4, 2006, the death at Camp Taji of Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney, 20, of the 44th Corps Support Battalion, Ft. Lewis, Washington, was investigated. Rather than having been run over by a military vehicle as she crossed a road from a guard tower to the latrine, as initially claimed by the Army, she fell, or was pushed from, and run over by a vehicle driven by a drunk sergeant from her unit, who had first sexually assaulted her. The sergeant pleaded guilty to drinking in a war zone, drunken driving and consensual sodomy with an underage, incapacitated junior soldier to whom he had supplied alcohol. A military judge ruled McKinney's death was an accident and the sergeant was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment, demotion to private, but he would not be discharged from the Army.
Other suspicious "noncombat related injury" deaths on Camp Taji include Fort Hood's 1st Armored Cavalry Division Pfc. Melissa J. Hobart (who died June 6, 2004), 1st Armored Cavalry Sgt. Jeannette Dunn (who died November 26, 2006), 89th Military Police Brigade Specialist Kamisha J. Block (who died August, 2007), 4th Infantry Division Specialist Marisol Heredia (who died September 7, 2007) and 4th Infantry Division Specialist Keisha M. Morgan (who died February, 22, 2008). None of the deaths have been classified as suicides, but the circumstances of their deaths should be investigated further because of serious questions concerning their deaths.
The US Army has classified the deaths of four other women as suicides. In the space of three months in 2006, three members of the US Army, who had been part of a logistics group in Kuwait, committed suicide. Two of them were women. In August 2006, Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez was arrested at a restaurant in Kuwait and accused of shaking down a laundry contractor for a $3,400 bribe. He was allowed to return to his quarters, and found dead on September 4, 2006, with an empty bottle of prescription sleeping pills and an open container of what appeared to be antifreeze.
Maj. Gloria D. Davis, 47, assigned to the Defense Security Assistance Agency, which handles the sales of military equipment to other countries, reportedly committed suicide in Baghdad on December 12, 2006, the day after she allegedly admitted to an Army investigator that she had accepted at least $225,000 in bribes from Lee Dynamics, a US Army contractor, who reportedly bribed officers for work in Iraq. Major Davis had a daughter, son and granddaughter. She had worked as a police officer, was a volunteer at women's shelters and helped get disadvantaged African-American students into ROTC programs.
New York Army National Guard Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, was assigned to a desk job at a procurement office in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, that purchased millions of dollars in supplies. She received excellent performance ratings, her supervisor citing that her work eliminated misuse of funds by 36 percent. On October 1, 2006, Lannaman was questioned by a senior officer about the death of Lt. Col. Gutierrez, and reportedly told by that officer that she would be leaving the military in disgrace. Later in the day, she was found in a jeep, dead of a gunshot wound. While her family said she had attempted suicide four different times in her life, the Army has not ruled on the cause of Lannaman's death.
US Army interrogator Specialist Alyssa Renee Peterson, 27, assigned to C Company, 311th Military Intelligence Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, was an Arabic linguist, who reportedly was very concerned about the manner in which interrogations were being conducted. She died on September 15, 2003, near Tal Afar, Iraq, in what the Army described as a gunshot wound to the head, a noncombat, self-inflicted weapons discharge, or suicide. Peterson reportedly objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners and refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Members of her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Peterson objected to. The military says all records of those techniques have now been destroyed. After refusing to conduct more interrogations, Peterson was assigned to guard the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards. She was also sent to suicide-prevention training. On the night of September 15, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle. Family members challenge the Army's conclusion.
US Army Sgt. Melissa Valles, 26, assigned to Headquarters Detachment, Company B, 64th Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Carson, Colorado, died on July 9, 2003, in Balad from two noncombat gunshot wounds to her abdomen. The Army has not ruled whether her death was a suicide or a homicide. But Valles's family stated that, although small in stature at five-foot-three, she was a tough person. "She really put people in their place. She did that since she was a girl. She would put little boys who were bullies in their place." The family does not believe Valles committed suicide.
One suspicious noncombat death of a military woman occurred in Afghanistan.
On September 28, 2007, Massachusetts Army National Guard Specialist Ciara Durkin, 30, a finance specialist, was found lying near a church on the very secure Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, with a single gunshot wound to her head. She had recently told her relatives to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed in Afghanistan. When she was home three weeks prior to her death, she told her sister about something she had come across that raised some concern with her and that she had made some enemies because of it. Members of her family also questioned whether the fact that she was gay played a role in her death. They believe Ciara was killed by a fellow service member, intentionally or accidentally, and they are confident that she did not commit suicide.
In Bahrain, on January 16, 2007, US Navy Petty Officer First Class Jennifer A. Valdivia, 27, assigned to the naval security force for Naval Support Activity, Bahrain, was found dead three days after she was to report for duty on January 14. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has classified her death as a suicide. Valdivia was kennel master of the largest military kennel in the world. In 2005, she was named Sailor of the Year at the Bahrain Naval Base.
The circumstances surrounding each of these deaths warrants further investigation by the US military. Congress can compel the military to reopen cases and provide further investigation. I strongly urge Congress to demand further investigation of the deaths of these women.
•••
US Army Reserve Colonel, Retired, Ann Wright is a 29-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserves. She was also a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March 19, 2003, in opposition to the Iraq War. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."
By Ann Wright
http://www.refusingtokill.net/rape/ArmyCoverUp.htm
28 April 2008
The Department of Defense statistics are alarming - one in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. The warnings to women should begin above the doors of the military recruiting stations, as that is where assaults on women in the military begin - before they are even recruited.
But, now, even more alarming, are deaths of women soldiers in Iraq and in the United States following rape. The military has characterized each death of women who were first sexually assaulted as deaths from "noncombat related injuries," and then added "suicide." Yet, the families of the women whom the military has declared to have committed suicide strongly dispute the findings and are calling for further investigations into the deaths of their daughters. Specific US Army units and certain US military bases in Iraq have an inordinate number of women soldiers who have died of "noncombat related injuries," with several identified as "suicides."
Ninety-four US military women have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Twelve US civilian women have been killed in OIF. Thirteen US military women have been killed in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Twelve US Civilian women have been killed in Afghanistan.
Of the 94 US military women who died in Iraq or in OIF, the military says 36 died from noncombat related injuries, which included vehicle accidents, illness, death by "natural causes" and self-inflicted gunshot wounds, or suicide. The military has declared the deaths of the Navy women in Bahrain, which were killed by a third sailor, as homicides. Five deaths have been labeled as suicides, but 15 more deaths occurred under extremely suspicious circumstances.
Eight women soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, (six from the Fourth Infantry Division and two from the 1st Armored Cavalry Division) have died of "noncombat related injuries" on the same base, Camp Taji, and three were raped before their deaths. Two were raped immediately before their deaths and another raped prior to arriving in Iraq. Two military women have died of suspicious "noncombat related injuries" on Balad base, and one was raped before she died. Four deaths have been classified as "suicides."
Nineteen-year-old US Army Pvt. Lavena Johnson was found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq, in July, 2005, and her death characterized by the US Army to be suicide from a self-inflicted M-16 shot. On April 9, 2008, Dr. John Johnson and his wife Linda, parents of Private Johnson, flew from their home in St. Louis for meetings with US Congress members and their staffs. They were in Washington to ask that Congressional hearings be conducted on the Army's investigation into the death of their daughter, an investigation that classified her death as a suicide despite extensive evidence suggesting she was murdered.
From the day their daughter's body was returned to them, the parents had grave suspicions about the Army's investigation into Lavena's death and the characterization of her death as suicide. In charge of a communications facility, Lavena was able to call home daily. In those calls, she gave no indication of emotional problems or being upset. In a letter to her parents, Lavena's commanding officer Capt. David Woods wrote, "Lavena was clearly happy and seemed in very good health both physically and emotionally."
In viewing his daughter's body at the funeral home, Dr. Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot wound. As a US Army veteran and a 25-year US Army civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be so small. The hole in Lavena's head appeared to be more the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round. He questioned why the exit hole was on the left side of her head, when she was right handed. But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto Lavena's hands, hiding burns on one of her hands, is what deepened Dr. Johnson's concerns that the Army's investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.
Over the next two and one-half years, Dr. and Mrs. Johnson and their family and friends relentlessly, through the Freedom of Information Act and Congressional offices requested the Department of the Army for documents concerning Lavena's death. With each response of the Army to the request for information, another piece of information/evidence about Lavena's death emerged.
The military criminal investigator's initial drawing of the death scene revealed Lavena's M16 was found perfectly parallel to her body. The investigator's sketch showed her body was found inside a burning tent, under a wooden bench, with an aerosol can nearby. A witness stated he heard a gunshot and, when he went to investigate, found a tent on fire, and when he looked into the tent, saw a body. The Army official investigation did not mention a fire or that her body had been burned.
After two years of requesting documents, one set of papers provided by the Army included a photocopy copy of a CD. Wondering why the photocopy copy was in the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. With help from his local Congressional representative, the US Army finally complied. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned, apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor's tent to inside the tent. Apparently, she had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire.
Investigator records reveal members of her unit said Lavena told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked with her to the Post Exchange where she bought a soda and then, in her Army workout clothes, went on by herself to meet friends and get exercise. The unit member said she was in good spirits with no indication of personal emotional problems.
The Army investigators initially assumed Private Johnson's death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, shortly into the investigation, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators must stop the investigation into a homicide and to classify her death a suicide.
As a result, no further investigation took place into a possible homicide, despite strong evidence available to the investigators.
Another family that does not believe their daughter committed suicide in Iraq is the family of Army Pfc. Tina Priest, 20, of Smithville, Texas, who was raped by a fellow soldier in February, 2006, on a military base known as Camp Taji. Priest was a part of the 5th Support Battalion, lst Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The Army said Tina was found dead in her room on March 1, 2006, of a self-inflicted M-16 shot, a "suicide", 11 days after the rape. Private Priest's mother, Joy Priest, disputes the Army's findings. Mrs. Priest said she talked several times with her daughter after the rape, and while very upset about the rape, she was not suicidal. Priest continues to challenge the Army's 800 pages of investigative documents with a simple question: How could her petite, five-foot-tall daughter, with a short arm length, have held the M-16 at the angle that would have resulted in the gunshot? The Army attempted several explanations, but each was debunked by Mrs. Priest and by the 800 pages of materials provided by the Army itself. The Army now says Tina used her toe to pull the trigger of the weapon that killed her. The Army never investigated Tina's death as a homicide, but only as a suicide.
Rape charges against the soldier whose sperm was found on her sleeping bag were dropped a few weeks after her death. He was convicted of failure to obey an order and sentenced to forfeiture of $714 for two months, 30 days restriction to the base and 45 days of extra duty.
On the same Camp Taji, ten days later after Tina Priest was found dead, on May 11, 2006, a female US Army Pfc. (name known to author, but not identified for the article), 19, was found dead. She died three days after she suffered what the Army called "a self-inflicted gunshot". The Army claimed she, too, had committed suicide. In her room, where her body was found, investigators discovered her diary open to a page on which she had written about being raped during training, after unknowingly drinking a date-rape drug. The person identified in the diary as the rapist was charged by the Army with rape after her death. Many who knew her did not believe she shot herself, but there is no evidence of a homicide investigation by the Army.
The September 4, 2006, the death at Camp Taji of Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney, 20, of the 44th Corps Support Battalion, Ft. Lewis, Washington, was investigated. Rather than having been run over by a military vehicle as she crossed a road from a guard tower to the latrine, as initially claimed by the Army, she fell, or was pushed from, and run over by a vehicle driven by a drunk sergeant from her unit, who had first sexually assaulted her. The sergeant pleaded guilty to drinking in a war zone, drunken driving and consensual sodomy with an underage, incapacitated junior soldier to whom he had supplied alcohol. A military judge ruled McKinney's death was an accident and the sergeant was sentenced to 13 months imprisonment, demotion to private, but he would not be discharged from the Army.
Other suspicious "noncombat related injury" deaths on Camp Taji include Fort Hood's 1st Armored Cavalry Division Pfc. Melissa J. Hobart (who died June 6, 2004), 1st Armored Cavalry Sgt. Jeannette Dunn (who died November 26, 2006), 89th Military Police Brigade Specialist Kamisha J. Block (who died August, 2007), 4th Infantry Division Specialist Marisol Heredia (who died September 7, 2007) and 4th Infantry Division Specialist Keisha M. Morgan (who died February, 22, 2008). None of the deaths have been classified as suicides, but the circumstances of their deaths should be investigated further because of serious questions concerning their deaths.
The US Army has classified the deaths of four other women as suicides. In the space of three months in 2006, three members of the US Army, who had been part of a logistics group in Kuwait, committed suicide. Two of them were women. In August 2006, Lt. Col. Marshall Gutierrez was arrested at a restaurant in Kuwait and accused of shaking down a laundry contractor for a $3,400 bribe. He was allowed to return to his quarters, and found dead on September 4, 2006, with an empty bottle of prescription sleeping pills and an open container of what appeared to be antifreeze.
Maj. Gloria D. Davis, 47, assigned to the Defense Security Assistance Agency, which handles the sales of military equipment to other countries, reportedly committed suicide in Baghdad on December 12, 2006, the day after she allegedly admitted to an Army investigator that she had accepted at least $225,000 in bribes from Lee Dynamics, a US Army contractor, who reportedly bribed officers for work in Iraq. Major Davis had a daughter, son and granddaughter. She had worked as a police officer, was a volunteer at women's shelters and helped get disadvantaged African-American students into ROTC programs.
New York Army National Guard Sgt. Denise A. Lannaman, 46, was assigned to a desk job at a procurement office in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, that purchased millions of dollars in supplies. She received excellent performance ratings, her supervisor citing that her work eliminated misuse of funds by 36 percent. On October 1, 2006, Lannaman was questioned by a senior officer about the death of Lt. Col. Gutierrez, and reportedly told by that officer that she would be leaving the military in disgrace. Later in the day, she was found in a jeep, dead of a gunshot wound. While her family said she had attempted suicide four different times in her life, the Army has not ruled on the cause of Lannaman's death.
US Army interrogator Specialist Alyssa Renee Peterson, 27, assigned to C Company, 311th Military Intelligence Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, was an Arabic linguist, who reportedly was very concerned about the manner in which interrogations were being conducted. She died on September 15, 2003, near Tal Afar, Iraq, in what the Army described as a gunshot wound to the head, a noncombat, self-inflicted weapons discharge, or suicide. Peterson reportedly objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners and refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Members of her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Peterson objected to. The military says all records of those techniques have now been destroyed. After refusing to conduct more interrogations, Peterson was assigned to guard the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards. She was also sent to suicide-prevention training. On the night of September 15, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle. Family members challenge the Army's conclusion.
US Army Sgt. Melissa Valles, 26, assigned to Headquarters Detachment, Company B, 64th Forward Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Carson, Colorado, died on July 9, 2003, in Balad from two noncombat gunshot wounds to her abdomen. The Army has not ruled whether her death was a suicide or a homicide. But Valles's family stated that, although small in stature at five-foot-three, she was a tough person. "She really put people in their place. She did that since she was a girl. She would put little boys who were bullies in their place." The family does not believe Valles committed suicide.
One suspicious noncombat death of a military woman occurred in Afghanistan.
On September 28, 2007, Massachusetts Army National Guard Specialist Ciara Durkin, 30, a finance specialist, was found lying near a church on the very secure Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, with a single gunshot wound to her head. She had recently told her relatives to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed in Afghanistan. When she was home three weeks prior to her death, she told her sister about something she had come across that raised some concern with her and that she had made some enemies because of it. Members of her family also questioned whether the fact that she was gay played a role in her death. They believe Ciara was killed by a fellow service member, intentionally or accidentally, and they are confident that she did not commit suicide.
In Bahrain, on January 16, 2007, US Navy Petty Officer First Class Jennifer A. Valdivia, 27, assigned to the naval security force for Naval Support Activity, Bahrain, was found dead three days after she was to report for duty on January 14. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has classified her death as a suicide. Valdivia was kennel master of the largest military kennel in the world. In 2005, she was named Sailor of the Year at the Bahrain Naval Base.
The circumstances surrounding each of these deaths warrants further investigation by the US military. Congress can compel the military to reopen cases and provide further investigation. I strongly urge Congress to demand further investigation of the deaths of these women.
•••
US Army Reserve Colonel, Retired, Ann Wright is a 29-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserves. She was also a US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March 19, 2003, in opposition to the Iraq War. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience."
This Rewriting of History is Spreading Europe's Poison
Blaming the USSR for the second world war is not only absurd – it boosts the heirs of the Nazis' wartime collaborators
Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk
9 September 2009
Through decades of British commemorations and coverage of the second world war – from Dunkirk to D-day – there has never been any doubt about who started it. However dishonestly the story of 1939 has been abused to justify new wars against quite different kinds of enemies, the responsibility for the greatest conflagration in human history has always been laid at the door of Hitler and his genocidal Nazi regime.
That is until now. Fed by the revival of the nationalist right in eastern Europe and a creeping historical revisionism that tries to equate nazism and communism, some western historians and commentators have seized on the 70th anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland this month to claim the Soviet Union was equally to blame for the outbreak of war. Stalin was "Hitler's accomplice", the Economist insisted, after Russian and Polish politicians traded accusations over the events of the late 1930s.
In his introduction to this week's Guardian history of the war, the neoconservative historian Niall Ferguson declared that Stalin was "as much an aggressor as Hitler". Last month, the ostensibly more liberal Orlando Figes went further, insisting the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact was "the licence for the Holocaust".
Given that the Soviet Union played the decisive military role in Hitler's defeat at the cost of 25 million dead, it's scarcely surprising that Russians are outraged by such accusations. When the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev last week denounced attempts to draw parallels between the role of the Nazis and the Soviet Union as a "cynical lie", he wasn't just speaking for his government, but the whole country – and a good deal of the rest of the world besides.
There's no doubt that the pact of August 1939 was a shocking act of realpolitik by the state that had led the campaign against fascism since before the Spanish civil war. You can argue about how Stalin used it to buy time, his delusions about delaying the Nazi onslaught, or whether the Soviet occupation of the mainly Ukrainian and Byelorussian parts of Poland was, as Churchill maintained at the time, "necessary for the safety of Russia against the Nazi menace".
But to claim that without the pact there would have been no war is simply absurd – and, in the words of the historian Mark Mazower, "too tainted by present day political concerns to be taken seriously". Hitler had given the order to attack and occupy Poland much earlier. As fellow historian Geoff Roberts puts it, the pact was an "instrument of defence, not aggression".
That was a good deal less true of the previous year's Munich agreement, in which British and French politicians dismembered Czechoslovakia at the Nazi dictator's pleasure. The one pact that could conceivably have prevented war, a collective security alliance with the Soviet Union, was in effect blocked by the appeaser Chamberlain and an authoritarian Polish government that refused to allow Soviet troops on Polish soil.
Poland had signed its own non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany and seized Czech territory, which puts last week's description by the Polish president Lech Kaczynski of a Soviet "stab in the back" in perspective. The case against the Anglo-French appeasers and the Polish colonels' regime over the failure to prevent war is a good deal stronger than against the Soviet Union, which perhaps helps to explain the enthusiasm for the new revisionism in both parts of the continent.
But across eastern Europe, the Baltic republics and the Ukraine, the drive to rewrite history is being used to relativise Nazi crimes and rehabilitate collaborators. At the official level, it has focused on a campaign to turn August 23 – the anniversary of the non-aggression pact – into a day of commemoration for the victims of communism and nazism.
In July that was backed by the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, following a similar vote in the European parliament and a declaration signed by Vaclav Havel and others branding "communism and nazism as a common legacy" of Europe that should be jointly commemorated because of "substantial similarities".
That east Europeans should want to remember the deportations and killings of "class enemies" by the Soviet Union during and after the war is entirely understandable. So is their pressure on Russia to account, say, for the killing of Polish officers at Katyn – even if Soviet and Russian acknowledgment of Stalin's crimes already goes far beyond, for example, any such apologies by Britain or France for the crimes of colonialism.
But the pretence that Soviet repression reached anything like the scale or depths of Nazi savagery – or that the postwar "enslavement" of eastern Europe can be equated with wartime Nazi genocide – is a mendacity that tips towards Holocaust denial. It is certainly not a mistake that could have been made by the Auschwitz survivors liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
The real meaning of the attempt to equate Nazi genocide with Soviet repression is clearest in the Baltic republics, where collaboration with SS death squads and direct participation in the mass murder of Jews was at its most extreme, and politicians are at pains to turn perpetrators into victims. Veterans of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS now parade through Riga, Vilnius's Museum of Genocide Victims barely mentions the 200,000 Lithuanian Jews murdered in the Holocaust and Estonian parliamentarians honour those who served the Third Reich as "fighters for independence".
Most repulsively of all, while rehabilitating convicted Nazi war criminals, the state prosecutor in Lithuania – a member of the EU and Nato – last year opened a war crimes investigation into four Lithuanian Jewish resistance veterans who fought with Soviet partisans: a case only abandoned for lack of evidence. As Efraim Zuroff, veteran Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, puts it: "People need to wake up to what is going on. This attempt to create a false symmetry between communism and the Nazi genocide is aimed at covering up these countries' participation in mass murder."
As the political heirs of the Nazis' collaborators in eastern Europe gain strength on the back of growing unemployment and poverty, and antisemitism and racist violence against Roma grow across the region, the current indulgence of historical falsehoods about the second world war can only spread this poison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/09/second-world-war-soviet-pact
Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk
9 September 2009
Through decades of British commemorations and coverage of the second world war – from Dunkirk to D-day – there has never been any doubt about who started it. However dishonestly the story of 1939 has been abused to justify new wars against quite different kinds of enemies, the responsibility for the greatest conflagration in human history has always been laid at the door of Hitler and his genocidal Nazi regime.
That is until now. Fed by the revival of the nationalist right in eastern Europe and a creeping historical revisionism that tries to equate nazism and communism, some western historians and commentators have seized on the 70th anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland this month to claim the Soviet Union was equally to blame for the outbreak of war. Stalin was "Hitler's accomplice", the Economist insisted, after Russian and Polish politicians traded accusations over the events of the late 1930s.
In his introduction to this week's Guardian history of the war, the neoconservative historian Niall Ferguson declared that Stalin was "as much an aggressor as Hitler". Last month, the ostensibly more liberal Orlando Figes went further, insisting the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact was "the licence for the Holocaust".
Given that the Soviet Union played the decisive military role in Hitler's defeat at the cost of 25 million dead, it's scarcely surprising that Russians are outraged by such accusations. When the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev last week denounced attempts to draw parallels between the role of the Nazis and the Soviet Union as a "cynical lie", he wasn't just speaking for his government, but the whole country – and a good deal of the rest of the world besides.
There's no doubt that the pact of August 1939 was a shocking act of realpolitik by the state that had led the campaign against fascism since before the Spanish civil war. You can argue about how Stalin used it to buy time, his delusions about delaying the Nazi onslaught, or whether the Soviet occupation of the mainly Ukrainian and Byelorussian parts of Poland was, as Churchill maintained at the time, "necessary for the safety of Russia against the Nazi menace".
But to claim that without the pact there would have been no war is simply absurd – and, in the words of the historian Mark Mazower, "too tainted by present day political concerns to be taken seriously". Hitler had given the order to attack and occupy Poland much earlier. As fellow historian Geoff Roberts puts it, the pact was an "instrument of defence, not aggression".
That was a good deal less true of the previous year's Munich agreement, in which British and French politicians dismembered Czechoslovakia at the Nazi dictator's pleasure. The one pact that could conceivably have prevented war, a collective security alliance with the Soviet Union, was in effect blocked by the appeaser Chamberlain and an authoritarian Polish government that refused to allow Soviet troops on Polish soil.
Poland had signed its own non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany and seized Czech territory, which puts last week's description by the Polish president Lech Kaczynski of a Soviet "stab in the back" in perspective. The case against the Anglo-French appeasers and the Polish colonels' regime over the failure to prevent war is a good deal stronger than against the Soviet Union, which perhaps helps to explain the enthusiasm for the new revisionism in both parts of the continent.
But across eastern Europe, the Baltic republics and the Ukraine, the drive to rewrite history is being used to relativise Nazi crimes and rehabilitate collaborators. At the official level, it has focused on a campaign to turn August 23 – the anniversary of the non-aggression pact – into a day of commemoration for the victims of communism and nazism.
In July that was backed by the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, following a similar vote in the European parliament and a declaration signed by Vaclav Havel and others branding "communism and nazism as a common legacy" of Europe that should be jointly commemorated because of "substantial similarities".
That east Europeans should want to remember the deportations and killings of "class enemies" by the Soviet Union during and after the war is entirely understandable. So is their pressure on Russia to account, say, for the killing of Polish officers at Katyn – even if Soviet and Russian acknowledgment of Stalin's crimes already goes far beyond, for example, any such apologies by Britain or France for the crimes of colonialism.
But the pretence that Soviet repression reached anything like the scale or depths of Nazi savagery – or that the postwar "enslavement" of eastern Europe can be equated with wartime Nazi genocide – is a mendacity that tips towards Holocaust denial. It is certainly not a mistake that could have been made by the Auschwitz survivors liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
The real meaning of the attempt to equate Nazi genocide with Soviet repression is clearest in the Baltic republics, where collaboration with SS death squads and direct participation in the mass murder of Jews was at its most extreme, and politicians are at pains to turn perpetrators into victims. Veterans of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS now parade through Riga, Vilnius's Museum of Genocide Victims barely mentions the 200,000 Lithuanian Jews murdered in the Holocaust and Estonian parliamentarians honour those who served the Third Reich as "fighters for independence".
Most repulsively of all, while rehabilitating convicted Nazi war criminals, the state prosecutor in Lithuania – a member of the EU and Nato – last year opened a war crimes investigation into four Lithuanian Jewish resistance veterans who fought with Soviet partisans: a case only abandoned for lack of evidence. As Efraim Zuroff, veteran Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, puts it: "People need to wake up to what is going on. This attempt to create a false symmetry between communism and the Nazi genocide is aimed at covering up these countries' participation in mass murder."
As the political heirs of the Nazis' collaborators in eastern Europe gain strength on the back of growing unemployment and poverty, and antisemitism and racist violence against Roma grow across the region, the current indulgence of historical falsehoods about the second world war can only spread this poison.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/09/second-world-war-soviet-pact
Father & Son Nazi Terrorist Team Arrested
If it was Muslim extremists, how much press would they receive (I've seen very little about this case in the public print) - and what would the bail be? ... "An Antioch man [Nazi] released on $100 bond even though police found weapons, explosives and an anti-tank rocket and launcher in the house he shares with his father ... "
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1754764,CST-NWS-antitank05.article
Father, son charged after cache of weapons, Nazi gear and drugs are found in their home near Antioch
By Ruth Fuller
Chicago Tribune
September 4, 2009
A father and son were charged with felonies Friday after a raid of their home Wednesday night netted a cache of weapons, explosives, Nazi paraphernalia, manuals and chemicals to make explosives, drugs and cash, Antioch police said.
The men, who live in unincorporated Lake County near Antioch, were being held in the police department on Thursday and are expected to appear in Bond Court on Friday morning, Cmdr. Jim Ruth said.
Burl Thomas, 56, of 25100 block of West Linden Lane was charged Thursday evening with unlawful use of a weapon, armed violence, possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to deliver and having drug gear. His son, John, 24, was charged with resisting arrest.
Police said they confiscated about 25 firearms, including two submachine guns and an assault rifle; a Marine rocket launcher with ammunition; TNT; gunpowder; chemicals for explosives and detonating devices; tear gas; brass knuckles; a battlefield illuminator used by helicopters; baseball bats, including one with spikes; knives; machetes; multiple manuals about making explosives, land mines, silencers and improvised munitions.
About 400 grams of marijuana, 1 1/2 ounces of cocaine and $1,000 were found, police said. Arrest records indicate John Thomas has convictions for aggravated assault, battery, disorderly conduct and a hate crime.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-antioch-weapons-arrests-04-sep04,0,4783270.story
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/1754764,CST-NWS-antitank05.article
Father, son charged after cache of weapons, Nazi gear and drugs are found in their home near Antioch
By Ruth Fuller
Chicago Tribune
September 4, 2009
A father and son were charged with felonies Friday after a raid of their home Wednesday night netted a cache of weapons, explosives, Nazi paraphernalia, manuals and chemicals to make explosives, drugs and cash, Antioch police said.
The men, who live in unincorporated Lake County near Antioch, were being held in the police department on Thursday and are expected to appear in Bond Court on Friday morning, Cmdr. Jim Ruth said.
Burl Thomas, 56, of 25100 block of West Linden Lane was charged Thursday evening with unlawful use of a weapon, armed violence, possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to deliver and having drug gear. His son, John, 24, was charged with resisting arrest.
Police said they confiscated about 25 firearms, including two submachine guns and an assault rifle; a Marine rocket launcher with ammunition; TNT; gunpowder; chemicals for explosives and detonating devices; tear gas; brass knuckles; a battlefield illuminator used by helicopters; baseball bats, including one with spikes; knives; machetes; multiple manuals about making explosives, land mines, silencers and improvised munitions.
About 400 grams of marijuana, 1 1/2 ounces of cocaine and $1,000 were found, police said. Arrest records indicate John Thomas has convictions for aggravated assault, battery, disorderly conduct and a hate crime.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-antioch-weapons-arrests-04-sep04,0,4783270.story
Monday, September 28, 2009
FBI-Stung Terrorist Targeted Dallas Office Tower where CIA Agent/County Republican Party Chairman Works, CIA Cocaine and 9/11 Ties
Edited by Alex Constantine
PART ONE: VERY COINCIDENTAL
PART TWO: VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL
1.) Very Coincidental - The CIA's Jonathan Neerman (left) works for Dallas' Hunton & Williams, a criminal enclave of a law firm embroiled in a number of Republican scandals including Enron's collapse and the CIA torture debacle. As it happens, Neerman is on the outs among local GOP leaders for trying to revive the Party by recruiting (duping, IMhO, "reaching out to") minorities, like himself (he's a Hispanic Jew) - even homosexuals - and easing up on traditional hard-nosed Republican social positions. Old Guard Republicans vow to fight Neerman to the bitter end ... then an accused Middle Eastern terrorist pulls up to the building where Neerman practices law, loaded, unbeknownst to him, with dummy explosives, gratis the FBI. I've provided a number of leads to track. Anyone making headway on this case is urged to send me research for posting (mainly because I'm anxious to know more about this case). - AC (Revised)
By John Council | Texas Lawyer
September 25, 2009
A whole lot of Dallas lawyers are going to work today in a building that’s making national news.
Fountain Place, 1445 Ross Ave., in downtown Dallas was reportedly the scene of an attempted terrorist attack foiled by undercover FBI agents on Thursday. According to The Dallas Morning News, a man was arrested after he parked a vehicle -- packed with fake explosives supplied by the FBI as part of a sting operation -- in the underground parking garage of the building.
The building is home to the Dallas offices of two large firms, Hunton & Williams, which employs about 120 lawyers, and Bracewell & Guiliani, which employees about 50 lawyers.
“It is certainly a wake-up call,” says Sandy Brown, managing partner of the Dallas office of Bracewell. “We’re going to have a briefing this afternoon with the building. And after that the FBI is coming over here to meet with one or two representatives of each tenant. And then we’ll have an officewide meeting, all hands on deck kind of thing, after that.”
The incident brought back many memories for Jonathan Neerman, an associate with Hunton & Williams who was working as a CIA agent and counterterrorist analyst on Sept. 11. Like many lawyers who work in the building, Neerman didn’t learn about the incident until after work hours.
[See: JONATHAN NEERMAN - REPUBLICAN PARTY COUNTY CHAIRMAN. BACKGROUND NOTE - HUNTON & WILLIAMS is a criminal enterprise: "From The Enron scandal to the the oil for food debacle, Hunton and Williams in recent years has found itself on the other side of the law too many times. Whether its working for African dictators and warlords, running confidence games and ponzi schemes out of its lush offices, Hunton and Williams is on a downward spiral, and anyone entertaining the thought of hiring these people should definitely consider it twice. Security and Exchange Violations, multiple lawsuits (even from its own employees) top staffers disbarred, or found out to have no legal degrees at all, is just par for the course now at Hunton and Williams. It seems unbelievable that other discredited law firms, embroiled in illegality (Jenkens & Gilchrist [Jonathan Neerman's former employer] Closing After Admitting Role in Tax Fraud - Dallas firm to pay IRS $76 million in fines and fees) are eagerly hired by Hunton and Williams. This even goes for some of the lawyers in the Alberto Gonzales scandal, such as discredited attorney Kyle Samson." - http://huntonandwilliamssued.com/]
“I immediately had flashbacks to 9/11 and 9/12. The questions we were trained to ask were the same ones I have been thinking about for the last 12 hours," Neerman says. “Is he working alone or with a group? Did he select the target or did the FBI select the target? Was he doing it on behalf of an organization or an organization internationally? What were his methods?"
Neerman hopes he is allowed to participate in meetings with the FBI has about the incident with building tenants. “They need to make everybody comfortable -- what it was and what it’s not. Here’s what you don’t want: [Y]ou don’t want people to think that this [alleged] terrorist planted a real bomb that didn’t detonate properly. The tenants need to know that.”
Original headline: Terrorist Targeted Office Tower That Two BigLaw Firms Call Home
http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/news/09/09/092509l.html?hbxlogin=1
YOUNG REPUBLICAN
Neerman is "a committed conservative Republican, and President of the Dallas County Young Republicans."
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:LSCT-2w8NKwJ:www.gcrw.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/febpdf1.pdf+JONATHAN+NEERMAN+AND+THE+CIA&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
HOUSTON'S BOBBY EBERLE, ANOTHER YOUNG REPUBLICAN OFFICER, CLAIMED TO HAVE WITNESSED FLIGHT 77 SLAMMING INTO THE PENTAGON ON 9/11/01: " .... Bobby has been recognized as a leader in conservative politics, including being profiled in USA Today (as one of five new "powerbrokers" of Internet politics) and Insight Magazine (for using the web to spread the GOP story). Bobby has appeared on MSNBC's Scarborough Country and has been a guest on numerous radio programs including Bloomberg Radio, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and Fox Radio. Bobby has served in conservative, Republican leadership roles at the county, state, and national level. He was a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention for Texas and covered the 2004 Republican National Convention as a member of the Internet media. He served as the state chairman for the Texas Young Republican Federation, and as the Vice Chairman at Large for the Young Republican National Federation. ... "
http://www.gopusa.com/company/bobby.shtml
"Eberle said he saw AA 77 crash into Pentagon on 9/11 ... 'Eberle said his interest was further heightened when, during a trip to Washington, he witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.' ... "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1606095#1606177
Q: Did Eberle wave at Alfred Regnery as they watched the carnage at the Pentagon?
FAST-FORWARD TO FASCISM PROMOTION BY BOBBY EBERLE ON OBAMA, TERRORISM: " ... Eberle, posting on a Republican Party site called The Loft, said Obama 'and his team have no limits on what they will do or say in order to inject socialist views into the minds of Americans. They also have absolutely no respect or appreciation for the American way and the sacrifices Americans have made in order to stay free and to promote the American way of life across the globe. Just take the latest effort being pitched at BarackObama.com. Rather than remembering the Americans who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Obama's political team wants you to make phone calls on 9/11 to fight back against 'Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists,' ... "
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111078
JONATHAN NEERMAN AND THE CIA
" ... Jonathan served our country as an intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He received numerous commendations for his service on the Balkans Task Force. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Jonathan worked in the Counterterrorism Center, where he provided daily briefings to senior policymakers on global terrorist threats. ... "
http://www.jonathanneerman.com/bio/
" ... [Jonathan Neeman] was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C., and upon graduating from A&M served as a CIA imagery analyst. He later interned for the general counsel of the CIA while attending George Washington University Law School. After graduating from law school in 2002, he moved to Dallas and joined Jenkens & Gilchrist, which would fold in 2007 after the firm unraveled as a result of a tax shelter scandal originating in its Chicago offices. Many of Jenkens' local attorneys, including Neerman, joined the Dallas office of Hunton & Williams.
Neerman became involved in local politics, working at the grassroots level by making yard signs for Gary Griffith's successful Dallas City Council campaign in 2003, block walking for Republican Pete Sessions' congressional campaign and assisting in fund-raising efforts for Bush's second presidential bid in 2004.
His efforts paid off when he became president of the Dallas County Young Republicans in 2006.... "
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2
STAUNCH GIULIANI SUPPORTER ...
NEERMAN, JONATHAN D. MR.
DALLAS, TX
75238 HUNTON & WILLIAMS L.L.P./ATTORNEY
$2,300 06/29/2007 P RUDY GIULIANI
PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE INC - Republican
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/jonathan-neerman.asp?cycle=08
***
POWERFUL: THE HUNT FAMILY'S CANDIDATE FOR VICE CHAIR OF THE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY STEPS ASIDE FOR THE CIA'S NEERMAN
" ... Neerman met with several local Republican leaders and quickly earned their endorsements. His only opponent was Alan Tompkins, vice president and general counsel for three entities owned by the family of Lamar Hunt. Tompkins, however, removed his name from consideration, and Neerman was named vice chair of the party in January, officially taking the helm in May. ... "
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2
NEERMAN WANTS TO RESUSCITATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BY RECRUITING GAYS AND MINORITIES
"...Neerman says most attendees agreed the party must reach out to minorities, gays and lesbians, but only a small faction seemed willing to speak about changing the party's conservative social agenda in order to incorporate more diverse points of view. 'You've got a conundrum because you've got to broaden the party, but there are going to be segments who don't want to do the things necessary to achieve that type of outreach,' he says. ... "
http://sessionswatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/article-on-dallas-county-gop.html
FAR-RIGHT BACKLASH: "THE OLD GUARD IS NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT"
The Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams
" ... The question is not whether change will come [to the Republican Party], but when – and how traumatically. The old guard is not going down without a fight. In a recent Dallas Observer, Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams lays into Mr. Neerman for reaching out to gays, pro-choicers and "environmental wackos."
'Yeah, I am talking to them, and that's OK,' Mr. Neerman tells me. 'If we quit talking, we lose those people who are fiscal conservatives, pro-Second Amendment and pro-environment.' ... "
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-dreher_04edi.State.Edition1.25b83af.html
TERROR ALERT
"FBI Arrests Man Trying To Place Bomb Near Fountain Place Skyscraper"
Sep 25 2009
fountain_place_terror_plot
Dallas Police have arrested Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian citizen after he allegedly placed a device described as an inactive car bomb near a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. Breaking reports say Smadi was charged with “attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.”
Apparently according to news reports, Smadi had been under FBI surveillance for some time after expressing “his desire to commit violent jihad” numerous times.
FBI says agents arrested Smadi after he placed what he thought was a bomb at the base of Fountain Place, a 60-story skyscraper located in downtown Dallas.
James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi, who was under continuous surveillance by the FBI, was arrested today near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas, after he placed an inert/inactive car bomb at the location. Smadi, a Jordanian citizen in the U.S. illegally, lived and worked in Italy, Texas. He has repeatedly espoused his desire to commit violent Jihad and has been the focus of an undercover FBI investigation. ...
Sources: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/09/24/fbi-arrests-man-trying-to-bomb-fountain-place-skyscraper-downtown-dallas-texas/
SMADI: TERRORIST OR "COOL" DUDE?
" ... The government says the man, who was in the U.S. illegally, spewed jihadist rhetoric and talked of killing Americans during more than six months of communications with three undercover FBI agents. The agents first encountered Smadi through an extremist Web site.
But friends in Italy, Texas, about 50 miles south of Dallas, say "Sam" as he was known, never gave any indication that he was a devout Muslim, much less that he had bloodshed on his mind. They described a carefree teen who drank and smoked with friends, entertained ladies and enjoyed dancing to techno music.
'We all thought he was cool,' said Tabatha Rogers, a neighbor who sometimes let Smadi baby-sit her children, ages 2 years and 3 months.
'Come to find out he wants to blow us up because we believe in God,' she said. ... "
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-terrormain_26met.ART.State.Edition2.4c1a5b5.html
2.) VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL
THE DEED TO FOUNTAIN PLACE
" ... A series of owners including Wall Street firms and even an Australian investor over the years have held title to the eye-catching high-rise. Since 2004 the building has been owned by an investment fund set up by J.P. Morgan and Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/092609dnbusfountainplace.1b507034d.html
CRESCENT REAL ESTATE'S CEO IS RICHARD RAINWATER, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST FOR THE BASS FAMILY AND "SOLDIER OF FORTUNE"
" ... As the money man behind private military contractor Sovereign Deed, which is now in the process of building a base of operations in Pellston, Mich., it looks like Rainwater is preparing to profit again by moving from Fortune to Soldier of Fortune. ... "
http://www.lycos.com/info/richard-rainwater--fort-worth.html
SOVEREIGN DEED: "NEFARIOUS ... ANOTHER BLACKWATER"
The Michigan Land Use Institute has posted a story about a nefarious organization called Sovereign Deed, whose purpose seems to be to provide private sector emergency protection to the rich, seeing as FEMA is only for poor chumps with no connections to power, and nobody expects it to work any more. It’s another Blackwater type scenario – fear-based entrepreneur with checkered past sees opportunity to make money for self and fellow patriots at the expense of taxpayers.'
http://downstreamer.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/sovereign-deed/
SOVEREIGN DEED, RAINWATER'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR, IS ANOTHER CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Sovereign Deed Founder Acknowledges Lying about Military Record
By Staff Report 3/7/08 10:00 AM
"Barrett Moore, founder of a private disaster response firm seeking tax breaks to establish operations in northern Michigan, has acknowledged for the first time that he lied about his military service and was once convicted of criminal fraud in Australia. ... "
http://michiganmessenger.com/tag/sovereign-deed
" ... What Moore's Pentagon patrons and political allies in Michigan have not known is the true story of Moore's military service. According to U.S. Army record keepers, Moore never completed his Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in college and was discharged from an inactive branch of the Reserves in 1994 without ever having gone through basic training. Contrary to the claims on Sovereign Deed's Web site, Moore never served as an Army intelligence officer, or in any other branch of the country's armed forces. ... "
http://www.michiganliberal.com/diary/11195/
RAINWATER'S DYSTOPIC VISIONS: SOVEREIGN DEED, TERRORISM AND CLASS WARFARE
From: "Hypocrisy and Ambition: What the Barrett Moore Story Says About America"
By Ed Brayton
Richard Rainwater
... The more we dug into the story the more we began to wonder which was more astonishing: the fact that Moore, as founding chief executive officer of the private military contractor, Triple Canopy, has lied so brazenly about his own military service and business success? Or the fact that neither our government nor his financial backers and business associates along the way had done the research that would have uncovered those lies? Why wasn’t he caught before, either by the State Department doing due diligence in investigating those to whom they award contracts or by the state of Michigan as it sought to bless his business with tax breaks? These failures speak volumes about the lack of accountability in a political system that distributes vast amounts of our tax dollars every year.
As to why this ignominious track record would have escaped the attention of Richard Rainwater, the Texas billionaire and chief investor in Sovereign Deed, we suspect that has to do primarily with a shared vision of America’s dystopic future and a desire to profit from it. As I wrote in a previous article, Rainwater is practically obsessed with the notion of a breakdown in American society, a coming chaos that he believes will be made inevitable by a drop in oil production and resulting price shocks that will destabilize the world economy and lead to widespread unrest in the United States. The result, Rainwater is convinced, will be riots and wars between the haves and the have-nots, and he has been thinking for the past several years about how to profit from that inevitable future.
Rainwater found a kindred spirit in Moore, a man who keeps survival rations and emergency equipment in his office and whose business plan for Sovereign Deed is built around capitalizing on the coming chaos. When discussing what Sovereign Deed plans to do in front of town hall meetings in the Pellston area, retired Brig. Gen. Richard Mills explained that the company would charge a staggering fee — $50,000 up front plus $15,000 per year — for their protection services in any number of situations. In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Mills spoke mostly about natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but Rainwater and Moore’s vision of America’s dystopic future suggests that the real contingencies they are planning for also include riots and other forms of social upheaval.
Sovereign Deed, in those circumstances, would function as a private army — a militia, if you will — for the wealthy, protecting their property and their lives while ignoring the plight of those who can’t afford to pay their exorbitant fees. It is difficult to imagine anything more repugnant to the American ideal of equality in the eyes of the government. ...
http://michiganmessenger.com/728/hypocrisy-and-ambition-what-the-barrett-moore-story-says-about-america
RICHARD RAINWATER IS GW BUSH'S BUSINESS PARTNER AND OVERSEES HIS BLIND TRUST
" ... GOTHAM PARTNERS [a key investor in Laurel Touby's MediaBistro.com] owns Crescent Investments, which oversees GW Bush's blind trust. Richard Rainwater is at Crescent/Gotham, and is close to Bush: " ... Rainwater founded Columbia Healthcare, which merged with HCA and became the country's biggest for-profit hospital company (Scott was later forced out as CEO amid a federal fraud investigation). Even [his partner] George W. Bush kept an office, when he and Rainwater were putting together the Texas Rangers stadium deal. ... " (SOURCE: money.cnn.com)
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
RAINWATER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BUSH'S WEALTH: "What George does to make a Bush buck is called 'Crony Capitalism' by commentatorJim Hightower. Case in point: Dubya's financial relationship with RICHARD RAINWATER during his tenure as Texas governor. ... It's well known that Rainwater has been a major financial backer of Bush's political career, but it's a little-known fact that he's also largely responsible for Bush's personal wealth. He's put Bush into various profitable deals, from oil and gas to real estate, but the big one was the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. Rainwater and Bush sold the baseball team to another Texas high roller and Bush campaign contributer, billionaire Tom Hicks. But their relationship didn't stop there. When Bush became Guv in '95, he put all but his Texas Rangers stock into a blind trust managed by--surprise--Rainwater. Hightower implies the financial relationship wasn't a one-way street: 'Bush is nothing if not loyal to Rainwater, who has done very nicely while his pal has been governor. Among the favors Rainwater has enjoyed: *State buildings sold to Rainwater's real estate company at bargain basement rates; *State college and public school funds invested in Rainwater's company; *A Bush-sponsored tax cut that failed, but would have cut millions in annual taxes for Rainwater; and *A stadium-financing bill backed by Bush that gave a $10 million bonus payment to a Rainwater company.' Politex, May 1999"
http://www.bushwatch.com/bushmillions.html
RICHARD RAINWATER AND CIA COCAINE
" ... Saudis, Richard Rainwater, George W Bush, Tom DeLay and 5.6 Ton cocaine bust in Mexico, SkyWay ... " The downed plane loaded with coca was owned by "LIT Industrial Texas Limited Partnership, a venture of Texas real estate giant Trammel Crow, the flagship corporation in the far-flung empire of billionaire speculator Richard Rainwater... ranked among the 100 wealthiest Americans, Rainwater backed George W. Bush in four separate business ventures, including the Texas Rangers ... "
http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/2296
JONATHAN NEERMAN'S EMPLOYER, HUNTON & WILLIAMS, ALSO EMPLOYED DISGRACED DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CHUCK ROBB, WHO ATTENDED PARTIES "WITH OPEN COCAINE USE" AND FRATERNIZED WITH COKE DEALERS
" ... Dec. 5, 1990: 'Interviews with people familiar with Robb's activities at the beach indicated that [Robb] allegedly was joined on perhaps two dozen occasions by people who were heavy drug users and served federal prison sentences on cocaine and drug-related charges ... The sleaze was given even more air time when Robb's Republican opponent, Iran-Contra figure Lt. Col. Ollie North, aired ads asking, 'Why can't Chuck Robb tell the truth? About the cocaine parties' ... 'Newspapers report Chuck Robb at numerous parties with open cocaine use' ... "
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/17/robb/print.html
ROBB'S COKE LIES: " ... There were rumors that during the time he was governor, Robb was present at parties where cocaine was used. He strongly denied this when the issue was raised during his 1988 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Robb so vehemently denied the cocaine allegation that he claimed to not even know what cocaine looked like. ... "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Robb
PART ONE: VERY COINCIDENTAL
PART TWO: VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL
1.) Very Coincidental - The CIA's Jonathan Neerman (left) works for Dallas' Hunton & Williams, a criminal enclave of a law firm embroiled in a number of Republican scandals including Enron's collapse and the CIA torture debacle. As it happens, Neerman is on the outs among local GOP leaders for trying to revive the Party by recruiting (duping, IMhO, "reaching out to") minorities, like himself (he's a Hispanic Jew) - even homosexuals - and easing up on traditional hard-nosed Republican social positions. Old Guard Republicans vow to fight Neerman to the bitter end ... then an accused Middle Eastern terrorist pulls up to the building where Neerman practices law, loaded, unbeknownst to him, with dummy explosives, gratis the FBI. I've provided a number of leads to track. Anyone making headway on this case is urged to send me research for posting (mainly because I'm anxious to know more about this case). - AC (Revised)
By John Council | Texas Lawyer
September 25, 2009
A whole lot of Dallas lawyers are going to work today in a building that’s making national news.
Fountain Place, 1445 Ross Ave., in downtown Dallas was reportedly the scene of an attempted terrorist attack foiled by undercover FBI agents on Thursday. According to The Dallas Morning News, a man was arrested after he parked a vehicle -- packed with fake explosives supplied by the FBI as part of a sting operation -- in the underground parking garage of the building.
The building is home to the Dallas offices of two large firms, Hunton & Williams, which employs about 120 lawyers, and Bracewell & Guiliani, which employees about 50 lawyers.
“It is certainly a wake-up call,” says Sandy Brown, managing partner of the Dallas office of Bracewell. “We’re going to have a briefing this afternoon with the building. And after that the FBI is coming over here to meet with one or two representatives of each tenant. And then we’ll have an officewide meeting, all hands on deck kind of thing, after that.”
The incident brought back many memories for Jonathan Neerman, an associate with Hunton & Williams who was working as a CIA agent and counterterrorist analyst on Sept. 11. Like many lawyers who work in the building, Neerman didn’t learn about the incident until after work hours.
[See: JONATHAN NEERMAN - REPUBLICAN PARTY COUNTY CHAIRMAN. BACKGROUND NOTE - HUNTON & WILLIAMS is a criminal enterprise: "From The Enron scandal to the the oil for food debacle, Hunton and Williams in recent years has found itself on the other side of the law too many times. Whether its working for African dictators and warlords, running confidence games and ponzi schemes out of its lush offices, Hunton and Williams is on a downward spiral, and anyone entertaining the thought of hiring these people should definitely consider it twice. Security and Exchange Violations, multiple lawsuits (even from its own employees) top staffers disbarred, or found out to have no legal degrees at all, is just par for the course now at Hunton and Williams. It seems unbelievable that other discredited law firms, embroiled in illegality (Jenkens & Gilchrist [Jonathan Neerman's former employer] Closing After Admitting Role in Tax Fraud - Dallas firm to pay IRS $76 million in fines and fees) are eagerly hired by Hunton and Williams. This even goes for some of the lawyers in the Alberto Gonzales scandal, such as discredited attorney Kyle Samson." - http://huntonandwilliamssued.com/]
“I immediately had flashbacks to 9/11 and 9/12. The questions we were trained to ask were the same ones I have been thinking about for the last 12 hours," Neerman says. “Is he working alone or with a group? Did he select the target or did the FBI select the target? Was he doing it on behalf of an organization or an organization internationally? What were his methods?"
Neerman hopes he is allowed to participate in meetings with the FBI has about the incident with building tenants. “They need to make everybody comfortable -- what it was and what it’s not. Here’s what you don’t want: [Y]ou don’t want people to think that this [alleged] terrorist planted a real bomb that didn’t detonate properly. The tenants need to know that.”
Original headline: Terrorist Targeted Office Tower That Two BigLaw Firms Call Home
http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/news/09/09/092509l.html?hbxlogin=1
YOUNG REPUBLICAN
Neerman is "a committed conservative Republican, and President of the Dallas County Young Republicans."
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:LSCT-2w8NKwJ:www.gcrw.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/febpdf1.pdf+JONATHAN+NEERMAN+AND+THE+CIA&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
HOUSTON'S BOBBY EBERLE, ANOTHER YOUNG REPUBLICAN OFFICER, CLAIMED TO HAVE WITNESSED FLIGHT 77 SLAMMING INTO THE PENTAGON ON 9/11/01: " .... Bobby has been recognized as a leader in conservative politics, including being profiled in USA Today (as one of five new "powerbrokers" of Internet politics) and Insight Magazine (for using the web to spread the GOP story). Bobby has appeared on MSNBC's Scarborough Country and has been a guest on numerous radio programs including Bloomberg Radio, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and Fox Radio. Bobby has served in conservative, Republican leadership roles at the county, state, and national level. He was a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention for Texas and covered the 2004 Republican National Convention as a member of the Internet media. He served as the state chairman for the Texas Young Republican Federation, and as the Vice Chairman at Large for the Young Republican National Federation. ... "
http://www.gopusa.com/company/bobby.shtml
"Eberle said he saw AA 77 crash into Pentagon on 9/11 ... 'Eberle said his interest was further heightened when, during a trip to Washington, he witnessed American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.' ... "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1606095#1606177
Q: Did Eberle wave at Alfred Regnery as they watched the carnage at the Pentagon?
FAST-FORWARD TO FASCISM PROMOTION BY BOBBY EBERLE ON OBAMA, TERRORISM: " ... Eberle, posting on a Republican Party site called The Loft, said Obama 'and his team have no limits on what they will do or say in order to inject socialist views into the minds of Americans. They also have absolutely no respect or appreciation for the American way and the sacrifices Americans have made in order to stay free and to promote the American way of life across the globe. Just take the latest effort being pitched at BarackObama.com. Rather than remembering the Americans who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Obama's political team wants you to make phone calls on 9/11 to fight back against 'Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists,' ... "
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111078
JONATHAN NEERMAN AND THE CIA
" ... Jonathan served our country as an intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He received numerous commendations for his service on the Balkans Task Force. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Jonathan worked in the Counterterrorism Center, where he provided daily briefings to senior policymakers on global terrorist threats. ... "
http://www.jonathanneerman.com/bio/
" ... [Jonathan Neeman] was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C., and upon graduating from A&M served as a CIA imagery analyst. He later interned for the general counsel of the CIA while attending George Washington University Law School. After graduating from law school in 2002, he moved to Dallas and joined Jenkens & Gilchrist, which would fold in 2007 after the firm unraveled as a result of a tax shelter scandal originating in its Chicago offices. Many of Jenkens' local attorneys, including Neerman, joined the Dallas office of Hunton & Williams.
Neerman became involved in local politics, working at the grassroots level by making yard signs for Gary Griffith's successful Dallas City Council campaign in 2003, block walking for Republican Pete Sessions' congressional campaign and assisting in fund-raising efforts for Bush's second presidential bid in 2004.
His efforts paid off when he became president of the Dallas County Young Republicans in 2006.... "
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2
STAUNCH GIULIANI SUPPORTER ...
NEERMAN, JONATHAN D. MR.
DALLAS, TX
75238 HUNTON & WILLIAMS L.L.P./ATTORNEY
$2,300 06/29/2007 P RUDY GIULIANI
PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE INC - Republican
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/jonathan-neerman.asp?cycle=08
***
POWERFUL: THE HUNT FAMILY'S CANDIDATE FOR VICE CHAIR OF THE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY STEPS ASIDE FOR THE CIA'S NEERMAN
" ... Neerman met with several local Republican leaders and quickly earned their endorsements. His only opponent was Alan Tompkins, vice president and general counsel for three entities owned by the family of Lamar Hunt. Tompkins, however, removed his name from consideration, and Neerman was named vice chair of the party in January, officially taking the helm in May. ... "
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-12-04/news/with-dallas-republicans-in-pain-one-local-leader-believes-he-has-the-cure/2
NEERMAN WANTS TO RESUSCITATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BY RECRUITING GAYS AND MINORITIES
"...Neerman says most attendees agreed the party must reach out to minorities, gays and lesbians, but only a small faction seemed willing to speak about changing the party's conservative social agenda in order to incorporate more diverse points of view. 'You've got a conundrum because you've got to broaden the party, but there are going to be segments who don't want to do the things necessary to achieve that type of outreach,' he says. ... "
http://sessionswatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/article-on-dallas-county-gop.html
FAR-RIGHT BACKLASH: "THE OLD GUARD IS NOT GOING DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT"
The Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams
" ... The question is not whether change will come [to the Republican Party], but when – and how traumatically. The old guard is not going down without a fight. In a recent Dallas Observer, Eagle Forum's Cathie Adams lays into Mr. Neerman for reaching out to gays, pro-choicers and "environmental wackos."
'Yeah, I am talking to them, and that's OK,' Mr. Neerman tells me. 'If we quit talking, we lose those people who are fiscal conservatives, pro-Second Amendment and pro-environment.' ... "
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-dreher_04edi.State.Edition1.25b83af.html
TERROR ALERT
"FBI Arrests Man Trying To Place Bomb Near Fountain Place Skyscraper"
Sep 25 2009
fountain_place_terror_plot
Dallas Police have arrested Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian citizen after he allegedly placed a device described as an inactive car bomb near a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. Breaking reports say Smadi was charged with “attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.”
Apparently according to news reports, Smadi had been under FBI surveillance for some time after expressing “his desire to commit violent jihad” numerous times.
FBI says agents arrested Smadi after he placed what he thought was a bomb at the base of Fountain Place, a 60-story skyscraper located in downtown Dallas.
James T. Jacks, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, and Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Office of the FBI, announced today that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, has been arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Smadi, who was under continuous surveillance by the FBI, was arrested today near Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower located at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas, after he placed an inert/inactive car bomb at the location. Smadi, a Jordanian citizen in the U.S. illegally, lived and worked in Italy, Texas. He has repeatedly espoused his desire to commit violent Jihad and has been the focus of an undercover FBI investigation. ...
Sources: http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/09/24/fbi-arrests-man-trying-to-bomb-fountain-place-skyscraper-downtown-dallas-texas/
SMADI: TERRORIST OR "COOL" DUDE?
" ... The government says the man, who was in the U.S. illegally, spewed jihadist rhetoric and talked of killing Americans during more than six months of communications with three undercover FBI agents. The agents first encountered Smadi through an extremist Web site.
But friends in Italy, Texas, about 50 miles south of Dallas, say "Sam" as he was known, never gave any indication that he was a devout Muslim, much less that he had bloodshed on his mind. They described a carefree teen who drank and smoked with friends, entertained ladies and enjoyed dancing to techno music.
'We all thought he was cool,' said Tabatha Rogers, a neighbor who sometimes let Smadi baby-sit her children, ages 2 years and 3 months.
'Come to find out he wants to blow us up because we believe in God,' she said. ... "
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-terrormain_26met.ART.State.Edition2.4c1a5b5.html
2.) VERY, VERY COINCIDENTAL
THE DEED TO FOUNTAIN PLACE
" ... A series of owners including Wall Street firms and even an Australian investor over the years have held title to the eye-catching high-rise. Since 2004 the building has been owned by an investment fund set up by J.P. Morgan and Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/092609dnbusfountainplace.1b507034d.html
CRESCENT REAL ESTATE'S CEO IS RICHARD RAINWATER, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST FOR THE BASS FAMILY AND "SOLDIER OF FORTUNE"
" ... As the money man behind private military contractor Sovereign Deed, which is now in the process of building a base of operations in Pellston, Mich., it looks like Rainwater is preparing to profit again by moving from Fortune to Soldier of Fortune. ... "
http://www.lycos.com/info/richard-rainwater--fort-worth.html
SOVEREIGN DEED: "NEFARIOUS ... ANOTHER BLACKWATER"
The Michigan Land Use Institute has posted a story about a nefarious organization called Sovereign Deed, whose purpose seems to be to provide private sector emergency protection to the rich, seeing as FEMA is only for poor chumps with no connections to power, and nobody expects it to work any more. It’s another Blackwater type scenario – fear-based entrepreneur with checkered past sees opportunity to make money for self and fellow patriots at the expense of taxpayers.'
http://downstreamer.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/sovereign-deed/
SOVEREIGN DEED, RAINWATER'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR, IS ANOTHER CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
Sovereign Deed Founder Acknowledges Lying about Military Record
By Staff Report 3/7/08 10:00 AM
"Barrett Moore, founder of a private disaster response firm seeking tax breaks to establish operations in northern Michigan, has acknowledged for the first time that he lied about his military service and was once convicted of criminal fraud in Australia. ... "
http://michiganmessenger.com/tag/sovereign-deed
" ... What Moore's Pentagon patrons and political allies in Michigan have not known is the true story of Moore's military service. According to U.S. Army record keepers, Moore never completed his Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in college and was discharged from an inactive branch of the Reserves in 1994 without ever having gone through basic training. Contrary to the claims on Sovereign Deed's Web site, Moore never served as an Army intelligence officer, or in any other branch of the country's armed forces. ... "
http://www.michiganliberal.com/diary/11195/
RAINWATER'S DYSTOPIC VISIONS: SOVEREIGN DEED, TERRORISM AND CLASS WARFARE
From: "Hypocrisy and Ambition: What the Barrett Moore Story Says About America"
By Ed Brayton
Richard Rainwater
... The more we dug into the story the more we began to wonder which was more astonishing: the fact that Moore, as founding chief executive officer of the private military contractor, Triple Canopy, has lied so brazenly about his own military service and business success? Or the fact that neither our government nor his financial backers and business associates along the way had done the research that would have uncovered those lies? Why wasn’t he caught before, either by the State Department doing due diligence in investigating those to whom they award contracts or by the state of Michigan as it sought to bless his business with tax breaks? These failures speak volumes about the lack of accountability in a political system that distributes vast amounts of our tax dollars every year.
As to why this ignominious track record would have escaped the attention of Richard Rainwater, the Texas billionaire and chief investor in Sovereign Deed, we suspect that has to do primarily with a shared vision of America’s dystopic future and a desire to profit from it. As I wrote in a previous article, Rainwater is practically obsessed with the notion of a breakdown in American society, a coming chaos that he believes will be made inevitable by a drop in oil production and resulting price shocks that will destabilize the world economy and lead to widespread unrest in the United States. The result, Rainwater is convinced, will be riots and wars between the haves and the have-nots, and he has been thinking for the past several years about how to profit from that inevitable future.
Rainwater found a kindred spirit in Moore, a man who keeps survival rations and emergency equipment in his office and whose business plan for Sovereign Deed is built around capitalizing on the coming chaos. When discussing what Sovereign Deed plans to do in front of town hall meetings in the Pellston area, retired Brig. Gen. Richard Mills explained that the company would charge a staggering fee — $50,000 up front plus $15,000 per year — for their protection services in any number of situations. In the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Mills spoke mostly about natural disasters and terrorist attacks, but Rainwater and Moore’s vision of America’s dystopic future suggests that the real contingencies they are planning for also include riots and other forms of social upheaval.
Sovereign Deed, in those circumstances, would function as a private army — a militia, if you will — for the wealthy, protecting their property and their lives while ignoring the plight of those who can’t afford to pay their exorbitant fees. It is difficult to imagine anything more repugnant to the American ideal of equality in the eyes of the government. ...
http://michiganmessenger.com/728/hypocrisy-and-ambition-what-the-barrett-moore-story-says-about-america
RICHARD RAINWATER IS GW BUSH'S BUSINESS PARTNER AND OVERSEES HIS BLIND TRUST
" ... GOTHAM PARTNERS [a key investor in Laurel Touby's MediaBistro.com] owns Crescent Investments, which oversees GW Bush's blind trust. Richard Rainwater is at Crescent/Gotham, and is close to Bush: " ... Rainwater founded Columbia Healthcare, which merged with HCA and became the country's biggest for-profit hospital company (Scott was later forced out as CEO amid a federal fraud investigation). Even [his partner] George W. Bush kept an office, when he and Rainwater were putting together the Texas Rangers stadium deal. ... " (SOURCE: money.cnn.com)
http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
RAINWATER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BUSH'S WEALTH: "What George does to make a Bush buck is called 'Crony Capitalism' by commentatorJim Hightower. Case in point: Dubya's financial relationship with RICHARD RAINWATER during his tenure as Texas governor. ... It's well known that Rainwater has been a major financial backer of Bush's political career, but it's a little-known fact that he's also largely responsible for Bush's personal wealth. He's put Bush into various profitable deals, from oil and gas to real estate, but the big one was the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. Rainwater and Bush sold the baseball team to another Texas high roller and Bush campaign contributer, billionaire Tom Hicks. But their relationship didn't stop there. When Bush became Guv in '95, he put all but his Texas Rangers stock into a blind trust managed by--surprise--Rainwater. Hightower implies the financial relationship wasn't a one-way street: 'Bush is nothing if not loyal to Rainwater, who has done very nicely while his pal has been governor. Among the favors Rainwater has enjoyed: *State buildings sold to Rainwater's real estate company at bargain basement rates; *State college and public school funds invested in Rainwater's company; *A Bush-sponsored tax cut that failed, but would have cut millions in annual taxes for Rainwater; and *A stadium-financing bill backed by Bush that gave a $10 million bonus payment to a Rainwater company.' Politex, May 1999"
http://www.bushwatch.com/bushmillions.html
RICHARD RAINWATER AND CIA COCAINE
" ... Saudis, Richard Rainwater, George W Bush, Tom DeLay and 5.6 Ton cocaine bust in Mexico, SkyWay ... " The downed plane loaded with coca was owned by "LIT Industrial Texas Limited Partnership, a venture of Texas real estate giant Trammel Crow, the flagship corporation in the far-flung empire of billionaire speculator Richard Rainwater... ranked among the 100 wealthiest Americans, Rainwater backed George W. Bush in four separate business ventures, including the Texas Rangers ... "
http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/2296
JONATHAN NEERMAN'S EMPLOYER, HUNTON & WILLIAMS, ALSO EMPLOYED DISGRACED DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CHUCK ROBB, WHO ATTENDED PARTIES "WITH OPEN COCAINE USE" AND FRATERNIZED WITH COKE DEALERS
" ... Dec. 5, 1990: 'Interviews with people familiar with Robb's activities at the beach indicated that [Robb] allegedly was joined on perhaps two dozen occasions by people who were heavy drug users and served federal prison sentences on cocaine and drug-related charges ... The sleaze was given even more air time when Robb's Republican opponent, Iran-Contra figure Lt. Col. Ollie North, aired ads asking, 'Why can't Chuck Robb tell the truth? About the cocaine parties' ... 'Newspapers report Chuck Robb at numerous parties with open cocaine use' ... "
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/17/robb/print.html
ROBB'S COKE LIES: " ... There were rumors that during the time he was governor, Robb was present at parties where cocaine was used. He strongly denied this when the issue was raised during his 1988 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Robb so vehemently denied the cocaine allegation that he claimed to not even know what cocaine looked like. ... "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Robb
Conservatives Fight "Homosexual Extremist Movement"
" ... Wurzelbacher was given a golden wrench and golden plunger by Reps. Price and King, the purpose of which was to throw a wrench in the works and to flush out Washington ... "
Posted by Brian Montopoli
CBS News
9-28-09
(AP)Conservatives gathered at a Hilton hotel in St. Louis over the weekend for the "How to Take Back America Conference," a Phyllis Schlafly-hosted gathering where the faithful gathered to discuss issues such as "How To Counter The Homosexual Extremist Movement," "How To Stop Socialism In Health Care" and "How To Recognize Living Under Nazis & Communists."
Among the prominent speakers who traveled to St. Louis for the conference were former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Republican Reps. Tom McClintock, Tom Price, Steve King and Michele Bachmann, and "Joe the Plumber," aka Samuel Wurzelbacher.
Schlafly opened the event by saying she believes President Obama is "taking us into socialism."
"That's what socialism is, government ownership of industries and the wealth of the country so that you can move it into the pockets of your friends," she said, according to St. Louis Public Radio. "And that's what he's doing."
Schlafly went on to suggest that Americans are "waking up" and that they don't want "our country to be run by czars," which she called "a Russian idea." She said of her organization, Eagle Forum, "fighting feminists is still our main object," arguing that feminism is "the most destructive force in the world."
David Weigel of the Washington Independent reports that Huckabee, who headlined the event, told a friendly crowd Saturday evening, in reference to the United Nations, that "it's time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip off that part of New York City and let it float into the East River, never to be seen again!"
"It's time to say enough of the American taxpayer's dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!" he added. "It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it's time to say enough!"
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin was the first speaker Saturday, following a prayer and a performance from Christian singer Rick Heil, according to Canada Free Press.
"You need to ask yourself, 'What price am I willing to pay?," Boykin told the audience. "What are you prepared to give up for America? Are you willing to pay the ultimate price?"
Boykin warned that "there is no greater threat to America than Islam" and asked patriotic Americans to get educated, get involved and pray.
Bachmann, Weigel reports, described the conference as a "farewell party" for embattled community organization ACORN. She said that if Republicans retake Congress next year they will "pass repealer bill after repealer bill" and proclaimed that "defunding the left is going to be so easy and it's going to solve so many of our problems."
Wurzelbacher was given a golden wrench and golden plunger by Reps. Price and King, the purpose of which was to throw a wrench in the works and to flush out Washington, according to the Free Press. He lamented the value placed on good speeches by politicians, quoting Benjamin Franklin's comment that "well done is better than well said."
On the conference's Web site, there is only one section available under the "listen & take action" section: "HOMOSEXUAL EXTREMIST MOVEMENT." There, Liberty University School of Law Associate Dean Matt Barber writes that "the sin of homosexuality is the bunker-buster bomb in this war against morality."
"The very firm response by defenders of Biblical truth to the homosexual lobby's relentless assault on our nation's Judeo-Christian tradition is indeed a defensive reaction, not an act of aggression," he says. "The sheer mechanics of homosexual conduct very naturally elicits revulsion in most rational folk. Therefore, most of us would prefer not to even imagine it, much less struggle to defend against its wholesale promotion. But regrettably, our hand has been forced."
Earlier this month religious conservatives held a similar event, the Values Voter Summit, in Washington. Huckabee won a straw poll among attendees on their favored candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Among the participants were Huckabee, Bachmann and beauty queen turned conservative icon Carrie Prejean.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5346428.shtml
Posted by Brian Montopoli
CBS News
9-28-09
(AP)Conservatives gathered at a Hilton hotel in St. Louis over the weekend for the "How to Take Back America Conference," a Phyllis Schlafly-hosted gathering where the faithful gathered to discuss issues such as "How To Counter The Homosexual Extremist Movement," "How To Stop Socialism In Health Care" and "How To Recognize Living Under Nazis & Communists."
Among the prominent speakers who traveled to St. Louis for the conference were former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Republican Reps. Tom McClintock, Tom Price, Steve King and Michele Bachmann, and "Joe the Plumber," aka Samuel Wurzelbacher.
Schlafly opened the event by saying she believes President Obama is "taking us into socialism."
"That's what socialism is, government ownership of industries and the wealth of the country so that you can move it into the pockets of your friends," she said, according to St. Louis Public Radio. "And that's what he's doing."
Schlafly went on to suggest that Americans are "waking up" and that they don't want "our country to be run by czars," which she called "a Russian idea." She said of her organization, Eagle Forum, "fighting feminists is still our main object," arguing that feminism is "the most destructive force in the world."
David Weigel of the Washington Independent reports that Huckabee, who headlined the event, told a friendly crowd Saturday evening, in reference to the United Nations, that "it's time to get a jackhammer and to simply chip off that part of New York City and let it float into the East River, never to be seen again!"
"It's time to say enough of the American taxpayer's dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!" he added. "It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it's time to say enough!"
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin was the first speaker Saturday, following a prayer and a performance from Christian singer Rick Heil, according to Canada Free Press.
"You need to ask yourself, 'What price am I willing to pay?," Boykin told the audience. "What are you prepared to give up for America? Are you willing to pay the ultimate price?"
Boykin warned that "there is no greater threat to America than Islam" and asked patriotic Americans to get educated, get involved and pray.
Bachmann, Weigel reports, described the conference as a "farewell party" for embattled community organization ACORN. She said that if Republicans retake Congress next year they will "pass repealer bill after repealer bill" and proclaimed that "defunding the left is going to be so easy and it's going to solve so many of our problems."
Wurzelbacher was given a golden wrench and golden plunger by Reps. Price and King, the purpose of which was to throw a wrench in the works and to flush out Washington, according to the Free Press. He lamented the value placed on good speeches by politicians, quoting Benjamin Franklin's comment that "well done is better than well said."
On the conference's Web site, there is only one section available under the "listen & take action" section: "HOMOSEXUAL EXTREMIST MOVEMENT." There, Liberty University School of Law Associate Dean Matt Barber writes that "the sin of homosexuality is the bunker-buster bomb in this war against morality."
"The very firm response by defenders of Biblical truth to the homosexual lobby's relentless assault on our nation's Judeo-Christian tradition is indeed a defensive reaction, not an act of aggression," he says. "The sheer mechanics of homosexual conduct very naturally elicits revulsion in most rational folk. Therefore, most of us would prefer not to even imagine it, much less struggle to defend against its wholesale promotion. But regrettably, our hand has been forced."
Earlier this month religious conservatives held a similar event, the Values Voter Summit, in Washington. Huckabee won a straw poll among attendees on their favored candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Among the participants were Huckabee, Bachmann and beauty queen turned conservative icon Carrie Prejean.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5346428.shtml
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Oklahoma City Bombing Security Tapes Finally Released - And They've Been Edited
FBI Releases Tapes of Bombing Aftermath
Attorney Questions 'What's Missing' From Recordings
By TIM TALLEY, AP
OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 27) - Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. ...
CONTINUED
Attorney Questions 'What's Missing' From Recordings
By TIM TALLEY, AP
OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 27) - Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. ...
CONTINUED
UK: Nazi Collaborator a Reminder that Not All Fascists are BNP or Skinhead Loons
Show of support: Oskar Opik, circled, gives the Nazi salute as a member of the puppet regime in Estonia
Lembit's Uncle Oskar: The Nazi collaborator Lib Dems didn’t mention in attack on Cameron's links with European 'wackos'
Lembit's Uncle Oskar: The Nazi collaborator Lib Dems didn’t mention in attack on Cameron's links with European 'wackos'
By Will Stewart
Daily Mail
26th September 2009
Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne pulled no punches last week as he accused David Cameron of jumping into bed with ‘wackos and weirdos’ from a Baltic political party that ‘celebrates Hitler’s SS’.
But as applause rang out for the Shadow Home Secretary’s speech at the party’s conference in Bournemouth, one high-profile colleague was keeping out of the limelight.
For fellow Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik’s great-uncle Oskar was a senior member of a Baltic puppet government during the Nazi occupation and was accused of collaboration in crimes against humanity.
In [a] picture he is shown being sworn in as the politician in charge of the court system and some jails under the country’s pro-Nazi ‘directorate’ which operated under German supervision during occupation from 1941 to 1944.
It is not clear if Mr Huhne had looked at Lembit Opik’s complicated family tree and
its Baltic roots before opening his mouth last week. His speech was meant to embarrass Mr Cameron over his decision for his party to join the European Conservative and Reformist group in the European Parliament.
The group has been criticised for having MEPs from Latvia whose members have celebrated the Nazis, condemned homosexuality and claimed the election of black US
President Barack Obama signalled ‘the end of civilisation’.
Mr Huhne said: ‘Dave’s dumped the Tories’ long-term allies to jump into bed with the wackos and the weirdos. He says he cares about human rights, but cuddles up to a Latvian party that celebrates Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS.’
As an MP, Lembit Opik, 44, has found notoriety for his string of glamorous girlfriends.
Good friends: Lembit Opik with lingerie model Katie Green
He was engaged to TV weathergirl Sian Lloyd and Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia and says he is ‘very, very good friends’ with underwear model Katie Green, 21.
It is less well known that at the end of the Second World War his family had fled Estonia – the neighbouring country to Latvia – and settled in Northern Ireland.
During Nazi occupation, Oskar Opik was deputy head of the Society of Friends of the Estonian Waffen SS-Legion.
In an oath declared when he was sworn in to his puppet post, he vowed: ‘I swear by God this sacred oath in the battle against Bolshevism, I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces, and as a brave soldier will be ready at any time to give my life for this oath.’
Official role: Oskar Opik, circled right, being sworn in as a member of the Nazi 'directorate' in 1943
A post-war Estonian investigation into crimes against humanity named Oskar Opik as one of eight officials who ‘share responsibility with the German authorities, by virtue of their office, for all criminal actions carried out in Estonia, and beyond its borders by military units or police battalions raised with their consent during the period of the German occupation’.
He and the other directors were ‘responsible by virtue of the positions they held, for having given orders which resulted in crimes against humanity’.
Oskar Opik always denied having any jurisdiction over political prisoners. But the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity stated that ‘the directorate’s autonomy, in particular, enabled them to maintain police structures that co-operated with the Germans in rounding up and killing Estonian Jews and Roma, and in seeking out and killing Estonians deemed to be opponents of the occupiers’.
Some 5,000 Jews were shot, ‘their bodies stacked on pyres and burned’ at Jagala and Klooga camps in Estonia, according to the commission’s report. In addition around 6,000 ethnic Estonians, 1,000 gypsies and 1,000 Russians perished during the occupation. Another 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war also died.
The directorate of which Oskar was a key part was also found to be responsible for exacerbating ‘the unlawful conscription of Estonians for forced labour or for military service under German command’.
Members of the Opik family in Estonia – their homeland before Lembit’s branch – have stressed there was no direct evidence against Oskar that could find him guilty in a court of law.
They also argue the commission did not amount to a judicial body.
Many Estonians and Latvians still maintain that the Germans were the lesser of two evils compared to the Soviets, despite the Nazis’ use of concentration camps to murder Jews from other East European countries.
After the war, Oskar Opik justified his Nazi collaboration by saying Estonia needed ‘a robber to save us from a robber’. He claimed his support for the Nazis was an attempt to give his country some kind of post-war independence rather than the subjugation under the Soviets which, in the event, occurred.
As the Red Army advanced on Eastern Europe in 1944, the Opik family fled. Lembit Opik’s branch made their way via displaced persons camps in Germany to Northern Ireland.
Oskar Opik at first found a haven in Spain. But at the end of his life he joined his brother Ernst, a world-famous astronomer and Lembit’s grandfather, in Ulster, where he died in 1974.
Ernst died 11 years later and the two men are buried alongside each other in Armagh.
Before his speech last week Mr Huhne had also been planning to attack Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague as a ‘skinhead who has toured the beer cellars of central Europe, and has come up with the dregs’. But he was talked out of it at the last minute.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1216333/Lembit-Opiks-Uncle-Oska-Nazi-collaborator.html
Lembit's Uncle Oskar: The Nazi collaborator Lib Dems didn’t mention in attack on Cameron's links with European 'wackos'
Lembit's Uncle Oskar: The Nazi collaborator Lib Dems didn’t mention in attack on Cameron's links with European 'wackos'
By Will Stewart
Daily Mail
26th September 2009
Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne pulled no punches last week as he accused David Cameron of jumping into bed with ‘wackos and weirdos’ from a Baltic political party that ‘celebrates Hitler’s SS’.
But as applause rang out for the Shadow Home Secretary’s speech at the party’s conference in Bournemouth, one high-profile colleague was keeping out of the limelight.
For fellow Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik’s great-uncle Oskar was a senior member of a Baltic puppet government during the Nazi occupation and was accused of collaboration in crimes against humanity.
In [a] picture he is shown being sworn in as the politician in charge of the court system and some jails under the country’s pro-Nazi ‘directorate’ which operated under German supervision during occupation from 1941 to 1944.
It is not clear if Mr Huhne had looked at Lembit Opik’s complicated family tree and
its Baltic roots before opening his mouth last week. His speech was meant to embarrass Mr Cameron over his decision for his party to join the European Conservative and Reformist group in the European Parliament.
The group has been criticised for having MEPs from Latvia whose members have celebrated the Nazis, condemned homosexuality and claimed the election of black US
President Barack Obama signalled ‘the end of civilisation’.
Mr Huhne said: ‘Dave’s dumped the Tories’ long-term allies to jump into bed with the wackos and the weirdos. He says he cares about human rights, but cuddles up to a Latvian party that celebrates Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS.’
As an MP, Lembit Opik, 44, has found notoriety for his string of glamorous girlfriends.
Good friends: Lembit Opik with lingerie model Katie Green
He was engaged to TV weathergirl Sian Lloyd and Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia and says he is ‘very, very good friends’ with underwear model Katie Green, 21.
It is less well known that at the end of the Second World War his family had fled Estonia – the neighbouring country to Latvia – and settled in Northern Ireland.
During Nazi occupation, Oskar Opik was deputy head of the Society of Friends of the Estonian Waffen SS-Legion.
In an oath declared when he was sworn in to his puppet post, he vowed: ‘I swear by God this sacred oath in the battle against Bolshevism, I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Supreme Commander of the German Armed Forces, and as a brave soldier will be ready at any time to give my life for this oath.’
Official role: Oskar Opik, circled right, being sworn in as a member of the Nazi 'directorate' in 1943
A post-war Estonian investigation into crimes against humanity named Oskar Opik as one of eight officials who ‘share responsibility with the German authorities, by virtue of their office, for all criminal actions carried out in Estonia, and beyond its borders by military units or police battalions raised with their consent during the period of the German occupation’.
He and the other directors were ‘responsible by virtue of the positions they held, for having given orders which resulted in crimes against humanity’.
Oskar Opik always denied having any jurisdiction over political prisoners. But the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity stated that ‘the directorate’s autonomy, in particular, enabled them to maintain police structures that co-operated with the Germans in rounding up and killing Estonian Jews and Roma, and in seeking out and killing Estonians deemed to be opponents of the occupiers’.
Some 5,000 Jews were shot, ‘their bodies stacked on pyres and burned’ at Jagala and Klooga camps in Estonia, according to the commission’s report. In addition around 6,000 ethnic Estonians, 1,000 gypsies and 1,000 Russians perished during the occupation. Another 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war also died.
The directorate of which Oskar was a key part was also found to be responsible for exacerbating ‘the unlawful conscription of Estonians for forced labour or for military service under German command’.
Members of the Opik family in Estonia – their homeland before Lembit’s branch – have stressed there was no direct evidence against Oskar that could find him guilty in a court of law.
They also argue the commission did not amount to a judicial body.
Many Estonians and Latvians still maintain that the Germans were the lesser of two evils compared to the Soviets, despite the Nazis’ use of concentration camps to murder Jews from other East European countries.
After the war, Oskar Opik justified his Nazi collaboration by saying Estonia needed ‘a robber to save us from a robber’. He claimed his support for the Nazis was an attempt to give his country some kind of post-war independence rather than the subjugation under the Soviets which, in the event, occurred.
As the Red Army advanced on Eastern Europe in 1944, the Opik family fled. Lembit Opik’s branch made their way via displaced persons camps in Germany to Northern Ireland.
Oskar Opik at first found a haven in Spain. But at the end of his life he joined his brother Ernst, a world-famous astronomer and Lembit’s grandfather, in Ulster, where he died in 1974.
Ernst died 11 years later and the two men are buried alongside each other in Armagh.
Before his speech last week Mr Huhne had also been planning to attack Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague as a ‘skinhead who has toured the beer cellars of central Europe, and has come up with the dregs’. But he was talked out of it at the last minute.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1216333/Lembit-Opiks-Uncle-Oska-Nazi-collaborator.html