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"THE ENRON BLACK MAGIC, PART FOUR"
by Sherman H. Skolnick 1/28/02

THE SWINDLERS and THEIR VICTIMS
Those who grow up in a big city and are political commentators, sort of know things by second nature. If they are outspoken, they may even describe their lifelong home-town, right to the point, with a few words.

Some years ago, for a period of time, I opened my Chicago-based recorded phone commentary message [(773) 731-1100], with "This is Sherman Skolnick, from the mafia-CIA capital of the world".

After a while, because of numerous examples, I and my associates came to understand the names of the large law firms and accounting houses that are part of the espionage/criminal cartel. One such has been Arthur Andersen & Company.

In Chicago, in years past, two Federal District Judges, by the greatest non-coincidence and mysterious forces, had slipped onto their dockets most all of the cases in the nation involving the American CIA. [Assignment of cases, as we have pointed out, is one of the main steps of the BIG FIX.]

One such judge was George Leighton. As shown by records uncovered by us in the National Archives, Leighton had been in 1963 the secret CIA attorney for Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA created patsy and falsely blamed "lone assassin" of President John F. Kennedy. Judge Leighton, without jurisdiction over me, once tried to falsely jail me as an assassination researcher. But that is a story for another day.

Another one of CIA's Judges in Chicago was U.S. District Judge Hubert L. Will. In the 1950s, he had been CIA's Chief of Counter-Intelligence in Europe, stationed in Berlin. It was thus natural that in 1970 my suit against the National Archives and Record Service was assigned to him. For the only time in U.S. history, somehow eleven secret documents had been purloined from the Archives. Falling into my possession, attached to my suit, they showed that the U.S. Secret Service had covered up a plot to assassinate President Kennedy in Chicago on the way to his appearance at a football game, two and a half weeks before being actually murdered in Dallas. Part of the cover-up was to falsely jail the first black Secret Service agent, Abraham Bolden, assigned to guarding the President at his residence. A person as a double for "Lee Harvey Oswald", was waiting along the proposed parade route to murder the President.

In Court, I confronted Judge Will, holding in my hand as an Exhibit, a copy of the book, published in Europe but banned from distribution in the U.S., "Who's Who in CIA". [I and my associates were about the only ones in the U.S. who somehow had copies. We gave them away at college speeches in return for small donations. Alas, no more copies are left.]

"I'm not with them anymore", the Judge poo-pooed my demand that he step aside. "Come on now, Judge," I reasoned with him, "The CIA is a mail-box, once you are in, you are there even if later you claim to be on the bench". He denied my request to recuse himself. Naturally, the CIA and the U.S. Secret Service, involved in the suit, won. I was put out of Court without further legal formality. "THE ENRON BLACK MAGIC", Part Four continued, by Sherman H. Skolnick 1/28/02

Not a coincidence, later in the 1970s, Judge Will had the case involving the embezzlement of Rockefeller's unit, First National Bank of Chicago. [To confuse matters since then, they have changed their name to Bank One.] Millions and millions of dollars disappeared from the bank's branch in Athens, Greece. Sources told us it was a "permitted" rip-off by the American CIA to secretly finance the Greek mafia to do dirty tricks against political dissidents.

The bank's auditors and consultants were Arthur Andersen & Co., with a long previous history of being reportedly instrumental with the Mafia/CIA activities in Chicago. [For background, study the details, believed by savvy sorts to be accurate, in the book written by family members of CIA gangster/assassination arranger "Momo" Giancana---how the CIA uses mobsters like "Momo", then later murders them by way of throwing them away, "Double Cross The Explosive Inside Story of the Mobsters Who Controlled America, Vol. 1," by Sam Giancana and Chuck Giancana (contributor), Mass Market Paperback, Warner Books, Inc., 1993. It deals with the great dangers of trusting the Kennedy Family and the American CIA.

A kingpin in Arthur Andersen's law firm was R. Sargent Shriver who was married into the family of "Founding Father" Joseph P. Kennedy and his assassinated sons, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. About 1975, Shriver was the speaker at Rockefeller Chapel, on the campus of Rockefeller's University of Chicago. Shriver's speech was about "International Relations". After the speech, we interviewed Shriver as the attorney for Arthur Andersen & Co., on tape, in the doorway of the Chapel.

We grilled Shriver about how his client, Arthur Andersen & Co., is beating back a subpoena in the First National Bank embezzlement case, by switching their structure to overseas, to a Swiss form of business.

Shriver went into a discussion of how his client, Arthur Andersen & Co., had the right to move their business structure to Switzerland, beyond the jurisdiction of Judge Will and a subpoena, and reform themselves in a European-style operation called Societe Generale [which is neither a partnership, limited or otherwise, as U.S. practices require of lawyers and accountants, nor a corporation, limited or otherwise.] He did not adequately explain why it was done just as they had to respond to a court subpoena. He denied it was simply to evade the subpoena, although done apparently just at that point in the litigation.

Although I was known by Judge Will as a judge-buster and long-time critic of his patron, the American CIA, the Judge occasionally would have brief talks with me outside of court. In front of the courthouse, I asked, "Judge, why did you permit Arthur Andersen and their attorneys to block pertinent data from subpoena in the First National Bank embezzlement case?"

Matter-of-a-factly, he quickly responded, "National security. It had to be done." I insisted, "But Judge, millions and millions of dollars disappeared from the Athens branch. Arthur Andersen and their attorneys are covering it up". [Obvious and left unsaid by me, was that Judge Will was likewise covering it up in his Court.] I did not want to ask the Judge about his CIA cronies. I figured he would walk away from me and not talk to me at all if I asked that. The Judge repeated, "National security. Part of eight such events.It was necessary." WOW! Eight such embezzlements covered up.

Another Mafia/CIA example is First National Bank of Cicero. This worldwide money laundry for the criminal/espionage cabal, has been the headquarters in the Chicago mafia enclave of Cicero, known locally as Al Capone Land. The Bishop from the local Catholic Church there was Paul Marcinkus. Even after he left Cicero to become head of the Vatican Bank, he nevertheless continued to be the dominant force calling the shots as to the bank in Cicero. [To confuse matters, the bank has changed their name several times. Such as, they became the flagship of Pinnacle Banc Group, the alter ego and successor to supposedly defunct and infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International, BCCI, and then various other names, such as Old Kent Bank.]

The Vatican under international law is a separate sovereignty. So, in November, 1991, when Marcinkus fled Italy to return to Chicago, he did so under the protection of his Vatican passport and position. The Italian authorities contend they want him extradited, to question him and presumably to prosecute him, for being the key player, along with reportedly the Archbishop of Barcelona, Spain, and others, in worldwide trafficking in stolen and smuggled gold, selling to state-sponsored terrorists osmium nuclear bomb triggers, high quality counterfeit currencies, and various types of financial dirty tricks. All done and supervised by Marcinkus as Vatican Bank Chief jointly with the traditional and other mafia, and the American CIA. A retired CIA bribery paymaster, Roger D'Onoffrio, with dual U.S. and Italian citizenship, living near Naples, was part of the Marcinkus gang. Various stories on this, early in December, 1995, were carried, date-line Rome, by wire services, Reuters, Associated Press, and United Press International.

After Marcinkus returned to the Chicago-area, we interviewed, on tape, the Italian Consul-General in Chicago. We asked whether he was taking any action to return Marcinkus to Italy to face the charges. The Italian diplomat said that, so far, he was not asked to do so. Marcinkus thereafter left Chicago to reside in Sun City, Arizona.

Shortly after Marcinkus' return to Chicago, an important official of the Chicago U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Wallace Lieberman, was found murdered, gangland-style. His body was found several blocks away from the First National Bank of Cicero, just before Christmas, 1991.

On-location at the murder site, behind an auto repair shop, and again at the nearby bank, we did a one-hour television documentary for our public access Cable TV Show in Chicago. No other media outlets took much interest in this political assassination.

Top officials of Arthur Andersen, including a managing partner, supervised the accounting and consulting for the First National Bank of Cicero, reportedly at the behest of Bishop Marcinkus. Andersen and their lawyers [now called Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson] for decades have specialized in handling reputed secret book-cooking and clandestine investments for the Catholic hierarchy, in various places in the U.S. and overseas.

At the time Marcinkus fled Italy for Chicago, Wallace Lieberman was scheduled to testify before a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago. His testimony together with that of others, was expected to be reportedly the basis for federal criminal indictment of top officials of Arthur Andersen, their attorneys, several bribe-taking Bankruptcy judges and their lawyer-cronies as bribe-arrangers. Also facing possible indictment were officials of the First National Bank of Cicero jointly with those of Household International, Household Bank, and Household Finance.

In December, 1991, a few days before the murder of key witness Wallace Lieberman, I discussed (I thought in confidence) with a Chicago FBI official in the office of an assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago. I related what our investigation, as a public interest group, had uncovered about Lieberman, the court-authorized bankruptcy auctioneer; the Bankruptcy court bribery; the crooked role of Arthur Andersen and their attorneys; and Household and the bank in Cicero and Paul Marcinkus; and secret Vatican funds in the Continental Bank of Chicago, a major owner of which and corrupt collaborator was Chief Judge Walter Cummings of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit, Chicago. Banker-Judge Cummings was a "man of trust" for the Church, sworn to keep their transactions secret.

Up to that point having long-time corrupt immunity from federal criminal prosecution had been Lieberman and his auction business partner, Robert Belavia, a well-known, allowed-to-run-wild gangster. [After Lieberman was murdered, suddenly the highly corrupt top IRS brass in Chicago woke up and decided it was necessary to silence Belavia by belatedly putting him in jail, with the aid of the Injustice Department, on long-known tax cheating.]

Lieberman was murdered right before Christmas, and the Chicago Tribune printed the watered-down story on the holiday, when most people had other things on their mind. (Chicago Tribune, Wallace Lieberman, Belavia story, December 25, 1991.)

Do the Chicago FBI and the federal prosecutors protect key witnesses, or jointly and corruptly with the Mob, the CIA, and crooked bankers and accountants, arrange to snuff them out? Later, I found out the Assistant prosecutor I spoke to went on special assignment in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing case, as a cover up and whitewash of high-level government prior knowledge, April 19, 1995.

Earlier, I had been aware that FBI corruption arranged for an apparent known mobster---now get this---to be on a Federal Grand Jury for a period of time, supposedly investigating mob activities! And he leaked secret Grand Jury data for the benefit of the criminals. [The case of reputed gangster Robert Girardi, as a grand juror, in highly censored stories, Chicago Tribune, January 19 and 21, 1994.]

Reportedly closely linked to the underworld, overlapping the American CIA, Arthur Andersen has been the auditor and consultants for Household International, parent of Household Bank [reputed mortgage swindlers] and Household Finance [apparent loan-sharks]. A short history.

For about a decade, the American CIA operated the Nugan Hand Bank as an adjunct and proprietary, laundering political assassination and covert operations funding. Former Director of Central Intelligence, the spyshop umbrella position, was William Colby, who was General Counsel of Nugan Hand Bank. The bank operated worldwide units headed by retired U.S. Generals, black operations chieftains, and official U.S. government pirates.

The bank became defunct and most of its records destroyed, after a co-founder of the bank was found murdered in 1980. On his body was the business card of William Colby. Lots of details in the book "The Crimes of Patriots A True Story of Dope, Dirty Money, and the CIA" by Jonathan Kwitny, hardback, W.W. Norton, 1987.

The successor to Nugan Hand Bank has been Household International, with units at one time in Australia, then California, London, and elsewhere. Later, their world headquarters became Prospect Heights, a Chicago suburb conveniently we claim, to a suburban airport where dope comes in from the Orient with complete immunity. [We did a television show on location about this.]

William Colby was also the unlisted General Counsel of Household International, likewise a CIA adjunct and proprietary. As a supposedly "private" firm for CIA, Household is immune from disclosures by requests under the Freedom of Information Act. In retirement from CIA, Colby tended to be outspoken. He formed an espionage electronic board game, as a partnership business, with the retired head of the Soviet Secret Police, the KGB. Colby knew entirely too much first hand about Household. Colby was murdered in 1996, made to look like a supposed boating accident. His widow, a top international banking executive, knew to be silent thereafter. Colby's closest friends, interviewed by us, insist from apparent direct knowledge that he was murdered.

As the secret general counsel of Household, Colby was well aware that units of Household in Arkansas reportedly laundered hundreds of millions of dollars of CIA dope trafficking loot from several southern states, including the Rockefeller bastion of Arkansas. [For Arkansas/Rockefeller details, see our website series, "Wal-Mart and the Red Chinese Secret Police".]

Although starting out as a reputed "loan-sharking" operation and later apparent crooked handling of mortgages, Household's clandestine cash flood was later disguised as soybean and currency trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and the Chicago Stock Exchange(formerly the scandal-ridden Midwest Stock Exchange where there had been, according to little known court records, massive misapplication of funds ostensibly overlooked by the corrupt top IRS officials in Chicago.]

A whole series of little-known court cases shows, and not disputed, that Household and First National Bank of Cicero, with the connivance of Arthur Andersen brass, made 50 million dollars disappear of federal agency money. The funds were to be safeguarded, that is escrowed, by Household, to make good the long-pending claims of bank-fraud by a Chicago-area contractor.

A close family friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton, namely lawyer John E. Gierum of Park Ridge (the Chicago suburb where Hillary is from) supervised the clandestine and illegal transfer of the funds to Little Rock. From there, it was sent out of the country, to a known dope money center in the Caribbean.

Congressman Dan Burton (R., Indiana) began commenting on this mysterious 50 million dollars and how Clinton, as Governor, sent it to a known dope money center. Congressional Record, May 29, 1996, pages H5627-5628. Although Burton said he has the documents and will soon put more details into the Congressional Record, someone evidently threatened him and this was his only public statement on the 50 million dollars.

It was "laundered" in the Caribbean (a combination of Barbados and the Grand Cayman Islands), with the corrupt aid of Daddy Bush; Congressman Henry Hyde (R., Ill.), who is also head of CIA's "black budget", sometimes embezzled funds for political assassinations and other bloody tricks; and Ollie North [all three implicated with Bill Clinton in the CIA/dope caper through the Mena, Arkansas airport].

After thus being disguised as soybean and currency trading on the Chicago markets, the funds returned to the U.S. and were used as follows

[1] 47 million dollars was used to cover up a 47 million dollar misapplication by Bill and Hillary Clinton of funds from Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan of Little Rock, the thrift owned by Jim McDougal and his estranged wife Susan. In jail, Jim was murdered to silence him as a witness against Bill and Hillary who would have been subject to federal criminal prosecution and jailing for bank embezzlement.

[2] The remaining difference of the mysterious 50 million dollar theft, was three million dollars. That was used by Clinton 1992 Presidential Campaign reputed blackmailer and bagman, Rahm Emanuel. Reference to the three million dollars is in a highly censored magazine cover story about Rahm Emanuel and how he raises money for Clinton by strong-arm methods. Chicago Tribune Magazine, November 23, 1997. The three million dollars, according to the Tribune item, effectively jump-started Clinton's campaign, in November 1991, so he get ahead of others.

An expert on reportedly disguising funds through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Rahm Emanuel, off and on for six years, was Clinton White House Senior Advisor. Rahm bragged on a Chicago TV Show that his desk was the closest to the door to the Oval Office. Rahm was also apparently the Acting Chief, for North America, of Israel Intelligence, The Mossad [The Institute]. Rahm has dual citizenship.

The foregoing has been excerpted from various undisputed and detailed state and federal court records.

>From his acts, it appears Rahm Emanuel was a form of double-agent. Openly, he was a Clinton loyalist. But he apparently was also the spy handler of sex/spy operative Monica Lewinsky. The purpose being to blackmail and manipulate Clinton. Visit our website series on "Chandra Levy" for details.

Former Enron vice-chairman, J. Clifford Baxter, was apparently "suicided" to protect the White House and Daddy Bush and his Family. This was similar to the way Clinton White House Deputy Counsel, Vincent W. Foster, Jr., was likewise "suicided" early in the Clinton Administration to prevent testimony from being available that most likely would have sent President Clinton and his wife to federal prison.

Baxter's reputed "smoking gun" documents are apparently circulating in the alternative media underground. They show the numerous Enron secret partnerships relating to the following

===the laundering of part of 40 million dollars of dope trafficking funds of the Medellin Colombia dope cartel, a co-founder of which was Carlos Lehder, a business partner of the Bush Family, according to hands-tied law enforcement personnel. With the connivance of Daddy Bush, as the former head of the American Secret Political Police, Lehder's fellow co-founder, Pablo Escobar, was assassinated to protect the Bush Family from federal criminal prosecutions.

===Baxter knew about how James Baker 3rd, cabinet member in the Daddy Bush White House Administration, together with Marc Racicot [pronounced ROSS-coe] reportedly used part of the 40 million dollars of dope funds to bribe and influence southern Florida DEMOCRATS to block the vote recount. The result although Al Gore, Jr., won the popular vote nationwide by six hundred thousand votes, he lost by way of the Electoral College trick in Florida and was not inaugurated. [Visit our year 2000 Election website series, comparing the situation to the infamous 1876 Election.]

===Federal Reserve Commissar Alan Redspan [that is what we call the Dictator] siphoned off hundreds of millions of secret Enron partnership funds, multiplied through fractional reserves and derivatives hocus-pucus, to temporarily support the Dow Jones 30 Industrials. Thus for the moment saving Bush from having to deal with a financial meltdown which he most likely could not effectively deal with. Old-timers say Bush was in danger of being "Hoover-ized", referring to President Herbert Hoover, 1930-31, falsely stating "prosperity is just around the corner". The September 11 events effectively prevented for the moment Bush having to deal with a gold stampede which would tend to discredit the Federal Reserve's hot-air paper money masquerading as the "U.S. Dollar". [See part two of this Enron website series.]

===documents tending to show direct links to the Enron secret partnership funds, offshore, with George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. This might cause the downfall of the American Government as we know it. [For background, visit our website series, "The Overthrow of the American Republic".]

Baxter offered to co-operate with one or more Congressional committees. His testimony, from direct personal knowledge, with his documents, would tend to destroy George W. Bush and Richard Cheney as having concealed their direct links to the massive Enron swindles. Baxter also apparently was ready to break ranks with the other Enron officials and directors, who together are defendants with Baxter in various class action pending court cases. Further, Baxter's direct knowledge and documents would tend to expose beyond salvage, Arthur Andersen as a corrupt auditing and consulting operation, that cannot be relied on to supposedly examine the books of publicly-traded firms and consult with them about their operations.

Aiding the class action plaintiffs in their claims, Baxter would have broken up the otherwise united front and defense of the Enron defendants.

Notice that Baxter was "suicided" in Sugarland, Texas, same location as the oil pipeline consortium had for negotiating with the top Taliban officials on behalf of Osama bin Laden. [Visit our website item, "The Pipeline Plots".]

There is a half-a-loaf explanation for the demise of J. Clifford Baxter.Was Baxter done in by the American Secret Political Police like inflicted on World War Two German General Edwin Rommel by the Gestapo (for plotting against Hitler)?

"You are endangering our leader. Here is a gun. Go shoot yourself. If not, we are here to shoot you. Either way, we guarantee the safety of your family."

Arthur Andersen, with the apparent connivance of Enron and Marc Rich International, has caused various Archdiocese units of the Catholic Church to be swindled out of large sums of money "invested" in Enron stock and secret Enron partnerships. Among others, this includes Chicago and Milwaukee. Remember, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago is also the Treasurer for the whole Church in the Western Hemisphere, North and South America and Central America. The funds, including that of the Vatican, through Chicago were traditionally deposited in the Continental Bank of Chicago, with major bank-owner, Chief Judge of the federal appeals court Walter Cummings, Jr., a "man of trust" for the Church. The bank was taken over by Bank of America, owned principally by the Jesuits, the French Rothschilds, and more and more, by the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. Continental Bank and then Bank of America, has been the major secret dirty money transaction point for Marc Rich International jointly with Enron and the secret partnerships. Also, in part, through the Chicago markets.

For decades, traditionally, Arthur Andersen and the Shriver lawfirm, specialized in handling Catholic Church book-keeping, so-called secret "investments", and how to operate apparently in a clandestine manner, supposedly for the good of the laity.

Some consider what Arthur Andersen & Co. has apparently done to the Church, damaging them financially, is an unforgiveable violation of Church doctrine and provisions. One of those who knew a great deal about the secret partnerships, and the documents outlining the same, was Baxter who had been CEO of Enron North America, and since June 2000, chief strategy officer of Enron Corp.

Are others of the Big Five Accounting firms likewise apparent vast operations, on occasion cooking the books of various companies?


Go to 5068
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0928-01.htm
October 4, 2004 issue of Time Magazine
The Bush Administration Takes Heat for a CIA Plan to Influence Iraq's Elections
by Timothy J. Burger; Douglas Waller

President Bush and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi insisted last week that Iraq would go ahead with elections scheduled for January, despite continuing violence. But U.S. officials tell TIME that the Bush team ran into trouble with another plan involving those elections — a secret "finding" written several months ago proposing a covert CIA operation to aid candidates favored by Washington. A source says the idea was to help such candidates — whose opponents might be receiving covert backing from other countries, like Iran — but not necessarily to go so far as to rig the elections. But lawmakers from both parties raised questions about the idea when it was sent to Capitol Hill. In particular, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi "came unglued" when she learned about what a source described as a plan for "the CIA to put an operation in place to affect the outcome of the elections." Pelosi had strong words with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a phone call about the issue.

Rice spokesman Sean McCormack says, "I cannot in any way comment on classified matters, the existence or nonexistence of findings." But, McCormack says, "there have been and continue to be concerns about efforts by outsiders to influence the outcome of the Iraqi elections, including money flowing from Iran. This raises concerns about whether there will be a level playing field for the election. This situation has posed difficult dilemmas about what action, if any, the U.S. should take in response. In the final analysis, we have adopted a policy that we will not try to influence the outcome of the upcoming Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office." A senior U.S. official hinted that, under pressure from the Hill, the Administration scaled back its original plans. "This was a tough call. We went back and forth on it in the U.S. government. We consulted the Hill on this question ... Our embassy in Baghdad will run a number of overt programs to support the democratic electoral process," as the U.S. does elsewhere in the world.


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http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/10017/
None Dare Call Them Neo-cons
by Ahmed Amr
(Saturday 25 September 2004)

"The catastrophic success of the neo-cons in escalating America’s unprofitable conflicts in the Middle East to a war of civilizations should create serious questions in serious minds about the national origin of their neo-conservative ideology."

Where have all the neo-cons gone? They’re not visible anymore. It appears they have successfully maneuvered to avoid further detection by launching a preemptive attack against those still tracking their distinctive footprints on America’s disastrous foreign policy. In a frontal assault on their detractors, they have now taken to smearing their adversaries as anti-Semites while regrouping as a new political force under a new banner. They now insist on being called ‘conservative ideologues’ and ‘Republican hawks’. None dare call them neo-cons.

To the casual observer, it might appear that the neo-cons have been chastened by recent encounters with the FBI, their abysmal failures in Iraq and their not so secret role in corrupting intelligence to market the war. Yet, every time someone writes their obituary, they show up at the funeral as pallbearers. The day after you bury their neo-con skeletons, they are resurrected as rosy cheeked ‘Republican ideologues’.

Of course, the most vulnerable among the neo-cons have gone into hibernation. Richard Perle is now embroiled in the Hollinger embezzlement scandal along with Conrad Black, the publisher of the Jerusalem Post. Perle apparently made off with a sizzling five million dollars – a pittance compared to the fortune siphoned off by Lord Black. At the Pentagon, Paul Wolfowitz is no longer making waves. These days, he rarely ventures out in public to threaten the Arabs, bully the Turks, warn the Russians or smear the French.

Douglas Feith is too busy warding off charges that he had a role in spying for Tel Aviv and in outing Valerie Plame. In his defense, Abe Foxman and the Jewish lobby have flexed their muscle to kill any further probing of AIPAC/neo-con/Israeli spy operations.

To those who still doubt the political supremacy of the fourth estate, the neo-con faithful at New York Times and The Washington Post have once again demonstrated that they can provide immunity even to those Likudniks implicated in acts of treason. So what have we here? Conservative Republican spies infiltrating the Pentagon and passing on state secrets to Israel. It sounds unlikely. So, who needs an investigation?

You would think that after the exposure of Judith Miller as an accomplice in propagating neo-con WMD fantasies, Sulzberger would behave himself and start reporting the biggest spy scandal since Jonathan Pollard. Contrast his indifference to the AIPAC/neo-con Pentagon spy cabal to the way The New York Times persecuted the innocent Wen Ho Lee who lost his job, was confined under threat of execution and denied bail. It seems that even when it comes to treason, ethnicity matters.

The neo-cons are strange even by the standards of the Israeli lobby. Their tiny cabal is more a cult than a political movement. Even their detractors admire their fanatical patriotism to their country – Israel. Ideologically, they align themselves with the Netenyahu wing of the Likud party. That might not mean a whole lot to most Americans. But it roughly translates into the modern day equivalent of the virulently racist segregationists that plagued the south just a generation ago.

Because of their primary allegiance to Israel, the neo-cons feel no remorse about the outcome in Iraq. For them, America’s quagmire and Iraq’s misery are a fabulous success story. They got most of what they wanted and their Likudnik brethren in Tel Aviv are ecstatic about the results. While many ordinary Americans are concerned about the increasing toll in blood and treasure – these Likudnik fanatics are celebrating. They have every reason to gloat, break out the champagne and hang up a ‘mission accomplished’ sign.

After 9/11, the Israel Firsters were alarmed by the emergence of an unprecedented international coalition that rallied around the United States. It gave them no comfort when Le Monde ran front-page headlines proclaiming that "We Are All Americans". Their fear was that their Likudnik agenda would be diluted by a comprehensive universal approach to dealing with the root causes of terrorism.

Sharon was quick to react to the emergence of this international alliance, which threatened to encroach on his expansionist fantasies. He warned that Israel would not cave in to international pressures to grant the Palestinian people their rights to an independent state. His neo-con moles in the Bush administration immediately rallied and dismantled the international coalition in favor of a more manageable 'coalition of the willing' made up of Bush, Blair and Sharon.

By far, the biggest feather in the neo-con’s hat came from their incredible success in isolating the United States from her traditional European allies and the many other nations that rallied to America’s cause after the catastrophe of 9/11. As a result, American and British soldiers are now standing shoulder to shoulder in Iraq with a forty-man contingent from Tonga and a few dozen Mongolian warriors.

By focusing on Iraq, the neo-cons gave Sharon plenty of elbowroom to continue battering the Palestinians. The Israeli government took full advantage of the world's distraction to confiscate more native land, routinely kill Palestinian civilians, assault foreign journalists, murder American and British peace activists, demolish thousands of homes and build a Palitentiary wall to segregate the Arab natives into open-air internment camps. All under the banner of bringing freedom and democracy to the 'Greater Middle East'.

Getting the opportunity to stoke the flames of anti-Arab racism and anti-Islamic bigotry was also considered a distinct advantage by the neo-cons. It created a favorable global environment for the continued repression and humiliation of the Palestinian people.

These neo-con operatives had few problems with the increased prospect of anti-American terrorism. Part of their Likudnik marketing program was to smear the Palestinian resistance as nothing more than a branch of Al Qaeda. On another front, they worked to bring about the demise of the United Nations, which was dismissed as a 'debating society'. For the neocons, this had the salutary effect of annulling UN resolutions calling for a Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

The neo-cons even managed to squeeze in hundreds of millions of dollars of supplemental aid to Israel to compensate for Sharon's 'losses' from the Iraq war. If the neo-cons ever believed that Iraq had chemical weapons, they are now satisfied that Israel retains its Middle Eastern monopoly on WMDs – including an arsenal of hundreds of nuclear bombs.

Of course, Wolfowitz and his gang didn't get all the items on their wish list. Almost immediately after the fall of Baghdad, they started agitating for an assault on Syria and Iran. That wasn't going to happen – at least not immediately. Still, all in all, it is not a bad score card for the tiny Likudnik cabal that operates under the neo-con neon sign. In their estimate, when America loses a mile and Israel gains an inch, it makes for an excellent journey.

Even if the neo-cons were permanently exiled from the Pentagon and the State Department, they would forever boast of how so few of them did so much for the cause of Ariel Sharon, the patron saint of the Likudnik priesthood.

After the trauma of 9/11, many Americans instinctively understood that the terrorists did not attack us because of our lifestyle or who we are. They knew that the attacks had a lot to do with our foreign policy. But the neo-cons and their entrenched media allies managed to silence those who would engage in a rational discourse of what compelled nineteen crazed men with suicidal rage to kill so many innocent Americans.

The neo-cons had good reason to avoid a debate that might have resulted in exposing their role in formulating a ruinous foreign policy that only served the interest of giving their brethren in Tel Aviv more space to create a Greater Israel. In place of a realistic assessment of the political environment that causes the phenomenon of terrorism, the neo-cons and their mass media allies have sold America on the dangerous notion that the assailants were motivated by their culture and religion – not by their rage at our policies.

To date, no serious inquiry into the root cause of terrorism has taken place in the halls of power or the mass media. Just as the Likudniks in Israel managed to obscure the fact that a brutal military occupation is a manufacturing plant of Palestinian terror, their neo-con cousins have succeeded in divorcing anti-American terror from the foreign policy of the United States. Terrorism has been rendered into a bizarre philosophical outlook of a nihilistic religious cult that seeks nothing less than the elimination of freedom and liberty and the destruction of western democracy.

Any historian with half a brain knows that terrorism is nothing new. Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir were master terrorists before Bin Laden was born. Just ask the kin of the folks they blew up in the King David Hotel. Ariel Sharon was the commander of Unit 101 – tasked with leading terror squads in missions like Qibya, where his goons massacred a whole village in 1953.

The Sikhs, the IRA, the Basques, the Red Brigades, Tamil separatists, Liberian tribal factions, the Shining Path in Peru, The ANC and the Mau Mau have all resorted to terrorism. We have all been witnesses to narco-terrorism in Colombia and Mexico and state terrorism in Saddam’s Iraq and Israel. In military textbooks, terrorism and guerilla tactics are simply known as asymmetrical warfare. It is an instrument of battle employed by those with just and unjust causes in every corner of the planet.

My point is that a statistical analysis of the cultural, racial or theological causes of terrorism might yield some uncomfortable results. What if one were to compare the per-capita incidence of terrorism by Jews like Begin, Shamir and Sharon to that of Muslims like Bin Laden. If state terrorism was added to the statistical pool – which culture would appear to be more violent? If we were to take into account that Israelis have a nasty habit of electing war criminals to the highest office in the land – what if anything would that say about Jewish values? If we took a historical account of genocide against native people, Soviet gulags, Nazi concentration camps and plain old collateral damage and free fire zones – what could we conclude if anything about western culture. If we broadened our studies to the cruelties in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Bosnia, Algeria, Ceylon, Chechnya, Colombia, Cambodia, the Congo, East Timor and Darfur – what cultural lessons could we draw?

The catastrophic success of the neo-cons in escalating America’s unprofitable conflicts in the Middle East to a war of civilizations should create serious questions in serious minds about the national origin of their neo-conservative ideology. Enough people have already noticed that their agenda is not an American agenda. So, it is natural that they have taken heed of the heat and retreated to other quarters to market their wares under new ‘conservative Republican’ labels. And if Kerry wins, they will certainly posture as ‘Democratic hawks’ – returning to their land of birth as ‘Scoop Jackson Democrats’.

Whatever label they choose for marketing their policies will not change their basic mission to promote Israeli interests. A neo-con is a neo-con is a neo-con. And a Likudnik is a Likudnik is a Likudnik. And they are all one and the same.


Go to 5066
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200409/s1207245.htm
September 26, 2004
Foreign troops not the answer in Iraq: Musharraf
The war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place and sending in more foreign troops is not the answer to the tenacious and escalating violence there, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said.

"I think the visibility of any foreign troops is not at all welcome in Iraq. Nobody likes foreign troops," General Musharraf told Newsweek magazine.

"The answer lies not in bringing in more foreign troops but in raising the army in Iraq itself so it can take over security. Everything should lead to an exit strategy."

Earlier he told CNN the war in Iraq had "certainly not" made the world a safer place.

"No, it's more dangerous," he said.

"It has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings."

He said Pakistan, which has offered to train Iraqi troops, would not send its own troops to Iraq.

He also said the US-led invasion "has complicated the situation in the Islamic world. It has increased the opposition to the US in the Islamic world".

General Musharraf suggested Washington "close down fronts" in the war on terrorism.

"You have opened too many fronts (such as) the Palestinian front," he said.

"The Palestinian front is affecting the entire Muslim world. All terrorist and militant activity in the world today has been initiated because of the Palestinian problem. This is because of the sense of hopelessness, alienation and powerlessness."

The Pakistani president said he was "reasonably sure" that Osama bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda terror network, was still alive, but that he "couldn't say with confidence" that he would be captured or killed.

He said Pakistani authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were working "very closely" in the hunt for bin Laden.

But he denied there was any increased pressure from the administration of President George W Bush, who is seeking re-election, to find bin Laden before the November 2 election.

"No, not at all," he said. "There's no pressure on us whatsoever."


Go to 5065
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/9767609.htm
Sep. 27, 2004
Spy Imagery Agency Watching Inside U.S.
KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER
Associated Press

BETHESDA, Md. - In the name of homeland security, America's spy imagery agency is keeping a close eye, close to home. It's watching America. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, about 100 employees of a little-known branch of the Defense Department called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency - and some of the country's most sophisticated aerial imaging equipment - have focused on observing what's going on in the United States.

Their work brushes up against the fine line between protecting the public and performing illegal government spying on Americans.

Roughly twice a month, the agency is called upon to help with the security of events inside the United States. Even more routinely, it is asked to help prepare imagery and related information to protect against possible attacks on critical sites.

For instance, the agency has modified basic maps of the nation's capital to highlight the location of hospitals, linking them to data on the number of beds or the burn unit in each. To secure the Ronald Reagan funeral procession, the agency merged aerial photographs and 3D images, allowing security planners to virtually walk, drive or fly through the Simi Valley, Calif., route.

The agency is especially watchful of big events or targets that might attract terrorists - political conventions, for example, or nuclear power plants.

Everyone agrees that the domestic mission of the NGA has increased dramatically in the wake of Sept. 11, even though laws and carefully crafted regulations are in place to prevent government surveillance aimed at Americans.

The agency is not interested in information on U.S. citizens, stresses Americas office director Bert Beaulieu. "We couldn't care less about individuals and people and companies," he said.

But that's not good enough for secrecy expert Steven Aftergood, who oversees a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "What it all boils down to is 'Trust us. Our intentions are good,'" he said.

Adds Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington: "As a general matter, when there are systems of public surveillance, there needs to be public oversight."

Geospatial intelligence is the science of combining imagery, such as satellite pictures, to physically depict features or activities happening anywhere on the planet.

Outside the United States, it can be a powerful tool for war planners who may use imagery to measure soil wetness to determine if tanks could travel an area. It can help weapons proliferation experts look for ground disturbances that can indicate new underground bunkers.

Before Sept. 11, the NGA's domestic work often meant things like lending a hand during natural disasters by supplying pictures of wildfires and floods.

But now the agency's new Americas Office has been called on to assemble visual information on more than 130 urban areas, among scores of other assignments, including maps of the national mall, the country's high-voltage transmission lines and disaster exercises.

Sometimes, agency officials may cooperate with private groups, such as hotel security offices, to get access to video footage of lobbies and hallways. That footage can then be connected with other types of maps used to secure events - or to take action, if a hostage situation or other catastrophe happens.

The level of detail varies widely, depending on the threat and what the FBI or another agency needs.

"In most cases, it's not intrusive," said the NGA's associate general counsel, Laura Jennings. "It is information to help secure an event and to have people prepared to respond should there be an attack, or to analyze the area where a threat has been made."

According to Executive Order 12333, signed by President Reagan in 1981, members of the U.S. intelligence community can collect, retain and pass along information about U.S. companies or people only in certain cases.

Information that is publicly available or collected with the consent of the individual is fair game, as is information acquired by overhead reconnaissance not directed at specific people or companies.

The NGA says it has aggressive internal oversight and its employees go through annual training on what is and isn't allowed.

"If they deviated from their own rules, how would it be discovered?" asks secrecy expert Aftergood. "I am not satisfied that they have an answer to that question."

One oversight committee in Congress noticed after Sept. 11 that an intelligence agency was snapping pictures of the United States, said a congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. A staff member is now monitoring the issue, and the aide said so far problems have not been spotted.

But Aftergood notes that while intelligence budgets have increased dramatically in the last five years, congressional oversight budgets have not.

Even the agency concedes gray areas do emerge.

Generally, for example, intelligence resources can't be used for law enforcement purposes. So the FBI or another agency could use an NGA-produced aerial photograph to solve a domestic crime. But the NGA couldn't take actions to target a specific individual, such as highlight a suspect's home, unless the information was linked directly to a national security issue.

Agency officials call that "passive assistance" and say certain legal tests must be met.

Law enforcement officials occasionally ask if the agency has information that could provide evidence about a crime - say, for example, whether a white truck was at a location at a certain time, Beaulieu said hypothetically.

"Yes, we will do a check," he said. "But I can't remember a single case where we actually even had an image for that day."

Jennings concedes that toeing such fine lines can be difficult.

"We look, we check, and it just so happens that we haven't had a situation where there is a smoking gun," she said. "We would analyze each one, case by case."

"Everybody wants to do the right thing and provide the information that is appropriate without overstepping their authority," she later added.

The NGA says it is working to build trust - with the public and with private companies.

Before Sept. 11, for instance, chemical plants and other critical sites weren't as cooperative as they are today, out of fear that aerial photographs might be shared with federal environmental regulators. NGA officials say the Homeland Security Department has been careful to protect proprietary information.

What if NGA analysts were to see an environmental crime?

"I don't think any of my people know enough to know an environmental crime," Beaulieu said.


Go to 5064
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5115.htm
The Incredible Lying BushCo

This just in: More irrefutable proof that Dubya's is the slimiest administration in 100 years
Like you even needed more proof.
Like you even need to read about the incredible and ever-increasing list of lies and misinfo and deeply, colon-clenchingly humiliating wrongness shot forth from the mouth of the GOP machine, a truly jaw-dropping assortment of falsehoods and fabrications about war, and war, and war. Oh, and the economy. And the environment. And war.
Look. There is no doubt left. Zero. None. Even many high-ranking Republicans are deeply worried over the increasingly embittered national timbre regarding BushCo's lies, as reflected in his ever-slipping ratings and declining reelectability quotient and his smug little smirky emptiness.

Do you need to be reminded? Do you need to see it again?

Very good, then. Let us recap: No WMDs. Biggest joke on the American public in the past 50 years. Saddam doesn't have 'em, and probably never did. Over 1,400 of BushCo's own investigators and specialists and scientists -- affectionately known as the Iraq Survey Group -- canvassing postwar Iraq for six months, not to mention the teams of original U.N. investigators, and finding not a trace of anything resembling huge stockpiles of massive scary weaponry.

Which is to say, no nukes. No biotoxins. No big cannons full of scary Korans and rusty bullets and old gum. Nothing at all resembling what Condi Rice and Cheney and Rummy and Wolfowitz, et al., said were absolutely positively no question going to be found any day now because after all that's why we went to war. Except that it wasn't. And they knew it.

To paraphrase The Washington Post: Among the judgments of the above-mentioned Iraq Survey Group, as overseen by David Kay, who reports directly to CIA Director George Tenet, are these: Iraq's nuclear-weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991. Also, all those facilities with suspicious new construction (remember Colin "Emasculated" Powell's bogus satellite photos?) proved benign, and of no military use whatsoever.

This is not speculation. This is not liberal wishful thinking. These are facts. And BushCo knew them. And more.

Translation: Bush's urgent call back in March to bomb the living crap out of pissant Iraq because Saddam had irrefutably cranked up his nuke arsenal and might possibly bomb weak depressed New York at any minute and wipe out all the Starbucks and ruin Monday Night Football was not only completely bogus and impossible, it was shockingly dangerous, and unprecedented, and even borderline treasonous.

Remember how Saddam ostensibly loved al Qaeda? Remember how Uncle Dick helped drill that terrorism connection into the cultural consciousness, repeatedly, across all media for months on end just before the war, thus inducing upward of 50 percent of the disturbingly gullible U.S. population to believe that Saddam actually had a hand in 9/11? When he didn't? When there was no connection whatsoever? Remember that?

Ah, yes. It turns out that all intelligence and every piece of evidence points exactly the opposite way. As BushCo was well informed, Saddam might only make contact with al Qaeda -- his sworn enemies -- if his back was against the wall, and probably not even then.

More? Sure. How about Afghanistan? Remember that? Osama at large. Never captured. Taliban resurfacing. No aid for the country and no rebuilding (except for a shiny new oil pipeline) and complete devastation and neglect.

And even Rummy, in his private and damning memo, said as much, just last week, writing that there is absolutely no way to tell whether we are making any progress in the war on terror, and that "victory" would be "a long, hard slog," and that it was impossible to say whether we are killing known terrorists any faster than the increasingly furious and inspired madrassas, or Islamic fundamentalist schools, can manufacture them.

"This is a man that we know has had connections with al Qaeda. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al Qaeda as a forward army." -- President Bush, Oct. 14, 2002

"Yes, there is a linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq." -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Sept. 26, 2002

"There have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time." -- National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Sept. 25, 2002

Isn't that cute? Not a single one of those statements was true. And not a single one of those people is being accused of treason or malfeasance or of being a soulless anti-American warmongering drone, despite how their words were dripping with lies when they exited their mouths.

Look. Bush told Americans we were going to enter into this savage and bloody war no one really wanted because Iraq posed an immediate and imminent threat to the security of the U.S. and its citizens. He gutted the economy for it. He destroyed long-standing relationships with countless international allies for it. He made America into this rogue superpower brat, disrespected and untrustable and appalling, for it. And it was never true.

How about this? More soldiers have died since BushCo declared the war essentially over six months ago than during the war itself. And guerrilla attacks on U.S. forces have more than doubled over recent months to more than 25 per day, with fresh American causalities coming in nonstop.

No matter, says the GOP. All part of the clumsy "rebuilding" process, they say. By the way, that $87 billion BushCo just begged for to keep the Iraq war machine clunking along? That's more than the fiscal debt of all the gutted U.S. states combined. Iraq is, by every account, a devastating U.S. money pit.

Might it be worth mentioning here that comprehensive new nonpartisan investigation that reveals how at least 15,000 Iraqis, including a minimum of 4,000 civilians, were slaughtered by U.S. forces in the first days of the invasion? Or that some estimates of total Iraqi civilian deaths go as high as nearly 10,000? Do those people matter? All those women and children and poor families? Nah. Screw 'em.

And you know why they don't matter, according to the GOP? Because we got rid of a pesky evil pip-squeak tyrant, that's why. One who was zero threat to the U.S., and not much of a threat to neighboring countries, and had no 9/11 connection, but who we know killed lots of his own people 20 years ago, with America's full and complicit assistance, including the biotoxins we sold to him.

And how he's gone. Yay! Mission accomplished! Except, of course, he's not. Still alive, apparently. But he's hiding somewhere! And he's probably really furious that he had to shave his mustache, too! Ha! That oughta show him! That's $300 billion and hundreds of dead U.S. soldiers well spent, baby! God bless America.

This needs to be said. This needs to be repeated, over and over again, because apparently it is still not clear and apparently Republican apologists love to trot it out as some sort of justification, some sort of hollow and childish accusation, signifying nothing.

Yes, Bill Clinton lied, too. He lied about stupid adulterous sex. And the GOP savaged him like rabid feral swine attacking a rutabaga. Had him impeached over it. Loathe him still, and his wife, too, with unprecedented level of hatred and bile and vicious litigious action never before seen in this nation.

No such fate for BushCo. Shockingly, the GOP isn't the slightest bit upset about this pro-corporate, oil-drunk administration's deadly string of lies. Shall we wonder why? Or is it just too poisonous and sad to consider for very long, lest the intellect curdle and the soul recoil?

OK, I'll spell it out: George W. Bush and his entire senior administration lied, and continue to lie, flagrantly, openly, knowingly, with full intent, about the need to drive this nation into a brutal and unwinnable and fiscally debilitating war, one that protects no one and inhibits no terrorism and defends nothing but BushCo's own petrochemical cronies and political stratagems.

This much is obvious. This much is painfully, crushingly sad. And this much we must purge like so much clotted gunk from the collective social artery one year from now. Otherwise, we should just turn in our stained and bloody Superpower badge, and resign ourselves to our fate.


Go to 5063
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?file=540570.html
Persecuted, in chains, in the United States
~~article_author~~ NYT
Monday, September 27, 2004

In jails and prisons across the United States, thousands of people are detained who have never been accused of crimes. The guards treat them like criminals, and the criminals they bunk with often abuse them. They are held for months, sometimes even years, but unlike the criminals, they do not know when their sentences will end. They receive this treatment because they are foreigners who arrived in the United States saying that they were fleeing persecution at home.

The United States did not always lock up the huddled masses. Until 1997, when security concerns began to rise, asylum seekers could live like normal people while awaiting their hearings. Today, thousands wait in detention. Some go to immigration centers that greatly resemble prisons, but more than half are sent to actual jails or prisons.

The Homeland Security Department, which took over immigration matters from the Immigration and Naturalization Service 18 months ago, says it detains only those who pose a security threat or who intend to disappear. But there are countless cases of asylum seekers who are detained even when they clearly pose no risk, have friends or relatives in America who will post bond, and are unlikely to skip out on their asylum hearings. They include Tibetan nuns, religious minorities from Africa, an Afghan woman persecuted by the Taliban for running a girls' school, Ukrainian grass-roots activists and others. These people are often the most noble in their society. They come here chasing America's promised liberty, and they end up in chains.

The rules have become harsher since Sept. 11, 2001. An asylum seeker landing at an American border post or airport speaks to an asylum officer, who determines whether the person poses a security risk or has ties to the community. Those who fail those tests are deported, and those who pass are detained. A majority of the detainees are then paroled to await hearings. But the decisions of Homeland Security vary hugely by region. The regions based in Miami, Texas and San Diego release 81 percent of their detainees; New York releases 8 percent, and New Jersey only 4 percent.

In addition, the United States seems to be using harsh detention to discourage people from fleeing to America. In the case of Haitians, this is an explicit policy. Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that all people arriving by boat - a vast majority of them Haitians - should be detained because freeing them would encourage others to come. An exception is made for the Cubans who arrive by boat. They get parole and a green card, by law.

Decisions on how to handle each immigrant should be based on individual circumstances, according to clear rules that apply to all regions equally. The United States must obviously be careful with people who come here and say they are seeking asylum. But locking up thousands of people who pose no risk and are accused of no crimes is expensive, unnecessary and a betrayal of America's commitment to the persecuted.


Go to 5062
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=566037
Politics and sleaze envelop Orlando
As the presidential campaign approaches its showdown, the Republicans in the state run by George Bush's brother are up to their tricks again. Andrew Gumbel reports from the heart of Florida
27 September 2004

In Orlando, the Florida home of Disneyworld and a vital political battleground, the campaign for the November presidential election is getting sly, nasty and very, very personal. Normally, at this stage of the proceedings, Ezzie Thomas, a well-known character on the predominantly African-American west side of town, would be out chatting to the people, registering them to vote before the 4 October deadline and helping them with absentee ballots if they do not think they will have time to make it to the polls on election day. But the 73-year-old Mr Thomas, an affable ladies' man, is staying out of public view for fear of exacerbating what is already a highly controversial - and highly political - criminal investigation of his election-related activities.

A similarly low profile is being taken by Steve Clelland, the head of the local firefighters' union. Last week, he did not even dare attend a local appearance by John Kerry, the candidate he is supporting for President, in case it added to the legal troubles facing his own organisation. The firefighters are also subject to a criminal investigation, the chief allegation - for which no evidence has been produced - being that they colluded with City Hall to set up an illegal slush fund for political campaigning.

What makes the troubles facing the two men particularly sinister is that they are declared Kerry supporters, with the power to bring in hundreds if not thousands of votes for the Democratic Party. The investigations are being conducted by the state police, known as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which reports directly to Governor Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush.

The Republicans, naturally, deny the investigations are politically motivated. But even they acknowledge that a chill has spread through Orlando's overwhelmingly Democratic black voting community after a flurry of unannounced visits by armed state police to at least 52 homes whose mostly elderly residents had signed up for an absentee ballot with Mr Thomas's help.

The Republicans have been hard put to explain what exactly the two men have done wrong. The media has aired official allegations ranging from vote fraud to campaign finance irregularities to racketeering, but no charges have been brought, despite exhaustive investigations. A grand jury examining allegations concerning the firefighters' union concluded that no laws had been broken, which has not deterred the FDLE from pursuing the case.


Go to 5061
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2354538
September 27, 2004 Auto
Audit finds large F-B-I backlog of intercepted messages
WASHINGTON An internal audit finds the F-B-I still has a huge backlog of untranslated recordings from terrorism and spy investigations.

The Justice Department finding comes despite an influx of money and personnel earmarked for such translations after the Nine-Eleven attacks.

The audit found the F-B-I still lacks the necessary language experts to handle hundreds of thousands of hours of intercepted audio recordings. Another holdup involves technology -- especially in computer storage capacity.

The audit also found that more than one-third of al-Qaida intercepts aren't reviewed within 12 hours of collection -- as required by F-B-I Director Robert Mueller (MUHL'-ur).

The audit made 18 recommendations to the F-B-I. The agency's inspector general says many of those suggestions have already been implemented -- and that F-B-I officials say they're hiring linguists as quickly as possible.


Go to 5060
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2351779
September 27, 2004
ROCHESTER, N.Y. Israel's former prime minister says the U-S made "every conceivable mistake" after its military victory in Iraq.

Despite the criticism, Ehud Barak says it's too early to judge the U-S-led war that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Barak spoke to reporters in Rochester before addressing the Jewish Community Federation at a downtown hotel yesterday afternoon.

The 62-year-old former leader of Israel says Iraq could be headed for civil war.

Barak has done consulting since being defeated by current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He's considered Israel's most decorated soldier.

Security was tight during his visit to Rochester, which wasn't announced publicly ahead of time.


Go to 5059
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6344049
Syria, at UN, Says Israel Behind U.S. War on Iraq
Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:17 PM ET

By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria on Monday accused Israel of inciting the United States to invade Iraq to distract attention from its own actions in the region, where it retains its grip on the Palestinian territories won in a 1967 war.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara used his country's annual address to the U.N. General Assembly opening debate to deliver a fierce critique of Israeli policy, as the Jewish state accused Damascus of "directing terrorism" and threatened preemptive strikes against militants on its territory.

Shara accused Israel of refusing to comply with 40 Security Council resolutions and hundreds of General Assembly resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories as a step toward a Middle East peace. Washington had used Baghdad's noncompliance with U.N. resolutions as one of its rationales for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Instead, Shara said, Israel had built up a nuclear arsenal, expanded Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, built a "racist segregation wall," which Israel says is intended to keep out suicide bombers, transformed its army into "armed gangs bent on systematic killings and war crimes" and shunned the peace process, "despite the hand extended in peace by the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese."

Hours before Shara spoke, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim called Syria "a central junction in regional terrorism" and accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of being involved in it "as a traffic officer."

Syria had earlier accused Israel of terrorism after a Palestinian Hamas militant died in a car bombing on Sunday in Damascus.

The United Nations had been of little help in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, which was as old as the world body itself, Shara said.

Despite the adoption of over 600 resolutions on the subject, Israel "did not implement a single one of them, and continues to find protection inside and outside the United Nations," he said.

"We are convinced that success in this endeavor will remain elusive unless these resolutions are implemented and peace is restored in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the region and the world," he said.


Go to 5058
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article6968.htm
Iraq: The Massacres Continue as “Democracy-Building”.

“With all the vacillations of policy since the current incumbents [Bush’s gang] first took office in 1981, one guiding principle remains stable: the Iraqi people must not rule Iraq”. Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch
By Ghali Hassan

09/26/04 "ICH" The indiscriminate slaughter of Iraqi citizens in Fallujah, Najaf, Baghdad, Tel Afar, Kut and other Iraqi cities, the outrageous treatment of Iraqi prisoners of war and civilian detainees, and the destruction of the nation of Iraq have not registered in the Moral consciousness of the “civilised” Western world.

The US and its “coalition” alleged that its moral “messianic mission” is to promote and “build” democracy and end dictatorships around the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. The US atrocities in Latin America and other parts of the world produced corrupt and violent dictatorships. America’s invasion of Iraq is colonial occupation and anti-democracy. The Iraqi people have only seen the massacres of their fellow citizens and the destruction of their nation.

Mr. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the UN, said: “the war was illegal and contrary to the provisions of the charter of the UN”. This mean that the Iraqi people and the resistance have legitimate rights to defend their country against aggression, and they are acting within the rules of law. Iraqis prisoners of war, women and children detainees taken by the US forces should be released immediately. They are all Iraqi hostages.

In April 2004, the US massive attacks on Fallujah killed more than 1300 Iraqis, mostly innocent women and children, reported by AFP. The US continues to attack Fallujah regularly, killing many more innocent civilians. According to Reuter’s news agency, on September 02, 2004, the US killed 17 people, including 3 children, a woman and an elderly man. Reuters reported on the night of September 07, 2004, US jets and helicopters “pounded Fallujah all night and killed ‘up to 100 militants’ according to US military; though local hospital sources reported ‘only’ 6 dead and 23 wounded”.

On September 10, 2004, the New York Times reported US attacks on northern Fallujah killed at least 8 people, including four children and two women. A local doctor told the Associated Press, another ‘16 people, including 8 children were wounded. In the rubble of a demolished house, he noted ‘workers found only one survivor, a 10-month-old infant’, reported the Associated Press.


Go to 5057
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=FGYAB1ZHMWUZHQFIQMFSM54AVCBQ0JVC?xml=/news/2004/09/26/wsamir26.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/26/ixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=15938
Iraqi colonel arrested as a rebel spy
By Aqeel Hussein in Samarra
(Filed: 26/09/2004)

A colonel in the Iraqi National Guard has been arrested on charges of aiding insurgents by passing on tip-offs about planned raids on resistance safe houses.

Samir Al-daraji led a unit of Iraqi troops that carried out raids around the rebel-held city of Samarra, north west of Baghdad. American troops arrested him last week after a series of operations went wrong and troops attacked empty houses that had previously been identified as resistance command centres.

"It is true that Col Al-daraji gave information to the resistance," said Col Adnan Thabit, the head of the National Guard in the city. "In the last weeks we have carried out several searches for people who have obviously been warned in advance that they were going to be raided. The Americans say they have received information that Al-daraji disclosed our plans."

Last week an American attack on the house of Khalid Al-abbasy, the purported leader of the local resistance fighters, reduced the building to rubble but failed to kill any rebels. The compromised operation is thought to have been the last straw for American commanders.

Col Al-daraji's brother, Ahmed, acknowledged that the family had links with the resistance. "We talked about one of us joining the resistance and one of us joining the Iraqi army," he said. "People say my brother is a traitor but I believe him to be a hero for working against the occupation."

Samarra has been outside American control for three months since a daring mortar attack by rebels on the city's National Guard base. That incident forced the Americans and their local allies to withdraw to the outskirts of the city.

The city has been cordoned-off for days and the United States has launched air strikes against the rebels as preparations are made for a new ground assault by the coalition. Last week police officials said that three people had been killed in air attacks. The main bridge into the city has been shut down, forcing the local population to cross the Tigris river by boat. The Iraqi National Guard has established checkpoints on all main roads into the city.

Even if US and Iraqi government forces retake Samarra their control of the city will be limited by continuing infiltration of the security forces by insurgents. At present, any Iraqi in Samarra who wants to serve in the police force must first ask permission from the rebels.

In a separate development yesterday, US aircraft launched a fresh air attack on the rebel-held city of Falluja. Officials said they had received intelligence reports that terrorists loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who were the target of the raid, were planning new attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces.


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