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People feel snubbed; places do, too. Clinton visited 49 states before he got to Nebraska. The Cornhusker spin came out this way: "I don't think Nebraskans view the lack of a visit so much as a snub as just a fact of circumstance," Phil Weitle, the deputy press secretary to Gov. Mike Johanns, said at the time. "We haven't had any disasters or anything to attract attention." Canada is perennially snubbed. Bush wounded it when he failed to mention the country in a speech that listed key U.S. military allies after 9.11.01: "Were we snubbed?" the Toronto Star newspaper asked.
No, no, no, Bush assured the neighbor nation, and indeed, unlike insults, a good snub carries easy deniability. "I didn't necessarily think it was important to praise a brother," Bush said. Or easy non-deniability: "I think it's terrific for Harlem," then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani said after he was accused of snubbing Clinton by not attending a welcome party at his post-presidential office in Harlem. "I think it's great for the president. I had other things to do."

Some snubs are private, some thinly veiled and others so politically necessary that the snubber is compelled to emphasize that the snub has taken place. "There was no handshake," Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart said after a brief encounter between Clinton & Fidel Castro at a United Nations luncheon. But like hockey fights & NASCAR wrecks, most snubs are observed with a kind of thrilling outrage. "The art of the snub is to be able to do it in a stealth fashion and still get your point across," says Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a self-proclaimed "PhD in Snubocracy."
Wittmann was unimpressed with Bush's snub of McCain, mainly because it was too easy & too blatant. On the other hand, he and other snub-watchers cite Clinton's 1996 snub of Newt Gingrich on Air Force One as a genre classic. Whether Clinton meant to snub the then-House speaker, Gingrich proved an ideal snubee by complaining that the president would not speak to him about the budget during a 25-hour trip to and from Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. Even mentioning the slight seemed petty and called attention to it at the same time.

RFK serially snubbed rival Lyndon Johnson when his brother was president, and LBJ snubbed back when he became president. "You cannot be snubbed by a lesser," says Payne. "If you claim you were snubbed by a person lower in the pecking order, you're considered nutty." Bush & McCain are "snubbing co-dependents," he says. By snubbing each other, they buff key parts of their desired political identities. When Bush snubs McCain, he proves to his right-wing allies that he won't kowtow to the party nuisance. And as a regular recipient of presidential snubs, McCain reasserts his maverick credentials.
Al Gore attempted a political transformation by his macro-snub of Clinton during the 2000 campaign, barely mentioning the man whose administration he had been serving in for 8 years. UFO believers accused Cheney of an intergalactic snub when he campaigned in Roswell, N.M., and did not visit that city's UFO Museum & Research Center. Snubs can prove particularly memorable if they backfire. The Bush administration learned this when Sen. Jim Jeffords R-VT bolted the Republican Party after he was not invited to a White House event that honored a constituent. All right, so maybe it wasn't that simple: Jeffords cited multiple factors and the Bushies claimed no disrespect.

"When you use the word 'snub,' you trivialize how complex political issues and relationships are," says former congressman Mickey Edwards R-OK. Edwards says he was never snubbed in his career, although he allows that he might have been too dumb to notice. And there was one time, he recalls, when he shared a podium with then-President Ford during a campaign event in Oklahoma City. Ford said he was thrilled to be there with his good friend "Mikey Edwards," the ex-congressman remembers. "It would have been much better if he'd snubbed me."

The Prune Book 100 Toughest Management & PolicyMaking Jobs in Washington
by John H. Trattner 1988, Ctr for Excellence in Govt. Madison Books, Lanham MD 623p $35 cloth. Skips political pinnacle of cabinet secretaries & agency heads but incl undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, directors & administrators who analyze & implement.
Plum & prune guides to legislative branch (38,000) & judicial branch (28,000) not available. Try the personnel office.

Lobbyists seek exemptions as SEC vote nears Corporate lawyers are suggesting adjustments to the proposed reforms ordered under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.   ¹ ² ³ ¶ ß   1.14.03   Kevin Drawbaugh Reuters Wash.D.C.   Corporate lawyers are seeking broad exemptions to several post-Enron Corp. market reforms proposed by regulators, ahead of key SEC votes set for Wednesday. Attorneys for major companies want certain types of shares exempted from a rule meant to bar insider stock sales during so-called pension fund blackout periods, when employees cannot sell their shares. Also, the attorneys want news releases exempted from rules designed to fight misleading corporate profit reports. The SEC is scheduled to vote on these and numerous other rules that Congress ordered the commission to write under the sweeping Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed last summer amid financial scandals at former energy trader Enron, telecom giant WorldCom Inc. and other firms. Corporate lawyers are seeking to tweak the rules to make them less burdensome for the companies, executives, accountants and others they would affect. Warning of an attempted rollback of Sarbanes-Oxley, Consumers Union spokesman David Butler said, "After months of near silence, special interests are now gearing up to weaken the corporate accountability law." Butler's group publishes Consumer Reports magazine. Under orders from Congress, the SEC on Oct. 30 proposed barring executives from selling co. stock when employees are unable to do so because of pension plan blackout periods. The rule stemmed from allegations that top executives at some scandal-ridden firms unloaded thousands of their shares during blackout periods when employees could not sell. Arguing that Congress did not intend to bar all insider stock sales during blackouts, an American Bar Assn. committee has asked the SEC to exempt insider transactions involving gift stock; stock held in so-called 10b5-1 plans used by well-to-do executives; stock involved in mergers, deaths and divorces; and stock obtained through some option & rights plans. In another measure, the SEC has proposed rules to crack down on pro forma profit reports. The rules were meant to stem reporting of profits that depart from nationally recognized Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. Under the rule, companies could not report pro forma results to the SEC or in other announcements, such as news releases, without saying how they differ from GAAP results. Lawyers for major corporations have proposed numerous adjustments to the proposed rules, incl exempting news releases from them in some circumstances. "We have serious doubts about whether the commission has the authority to regulate the content of press releases, which we believe is not good policy in any event," said NY State Bar Assn. securities regulation committee chair Gerald Blackman in a letter to the SEC. The commission also is expected to vote on proposed rules forcing companies to disclose more about internal controls & codes of ethics, and whether their boards' audit committee incl any financial experts among the directors. Finally, a rule requiring brokerage stock analysts to certify their research reports is expected to come up for a vote.

A smooth operator unveiled C. Gregory Earls has friends in high places; his ties to one may be his undoing. 12.9.02   R.Merle & R.Drezen Wash.Post pE1 C. Gregory Earls is a world-class networker. He built his career culling money from a wide circle of Washington area friends and acquaintances, getting them into investments and deals, from B-grade movies to corporate takeovers. Earls operates in the milieu of high-class charity events and Georgetown parties, cultivating an exclusive club of contacts of those in high repute. He has led a business life played out largely below the radar of securities regulators & the media. That is, until Earls made a play for a co. called U.S. Technologies Inc. and persuaded Wm H. Webster to join its board of directors. U.S. Technologies' troubles could be the undoing of Earls's business fortune. It tarnished the reputation of one of Washington's most well-regarded public servants and led to the resignation of Securities & Exchange Commission chair Harvey L. Pitt. ¹ The 57-year-old Washington businessman & his struggling co. have been the focus of intense media scrutiny because of the controversy surrounding former FBI dir. Webster's tenure on the Internet incubator's audit committee. Webster resigned as chair of a new national accounting oversight board after Pitt failed to disclose to SEC commissioners that Webster had been entangled in U.S. Technologies' auditing & accounting problems, an omission that would help spur Pitt's departure from the agency. Earls has been left as chief executive & chair of a money-losing co., operated out of sparse Connecticut Ave offices adorned with plaques commending his service with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington and St. John's Community Services. He may no longer be able to do the one thing that has always kept his business afloat: raise money from well-heeled individuals. He also faces investigations spawned by the Webster flap and a string of unpaid court judgments and pending lawsuits from angry investors in a wide variety of other deals. A review of Earls's business practices shows that his current predicament is not new. His past is filled with instances of delayed payments to partners, occasional bounced checks, and harsh rulings by judges & arbitrators who said the self-styled merchant banker used his investors' money to pay off his own debts. Earls denies any wrongdoing but declined to address directly many of the specific charges raised in court by his critics. "My conscience is absolutely clear," he said in one of several recent interviews at his office. Earls is a slight man with graying, light-brown hair and dresses in smart business attire & monogrammed shirts. His manner is suffused with Southern courtesy, his speech tinged with a West Virginia lilt. "I have certainly made plenty of mistakes, but I have never put my interest before my partners," he said. According to court records & interviews, Earls's modus operandi was to solicit friends, politicians he raised money for, his children's teachers, wealthy individuals he met at local charity events, even parishioners, to join his business ventures. Many said they were impressed by his charm & philanthropic activities, and assured by the business connections he touted. "I liked him. He seemed to be a very successful business guy," said former congressman John Bryant, who eventually sued Earls for fraud.

Earls is, after all, a well-known figure in Washington social circles, frequenting galas for the Washington Ballet & the Choral Arts Society and once living in a $3.5 million home in NW Washington.
He gained some notoriety when he lived at the Four Seasons Hotel for a year, after separating from his wife, and hosted Christmas parties there for the Boys & Girls Club. In 2000 he was co-chair of a reelection fundraising event for District Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

He was a deacon at Christ Church in Georgetown when he persuaded newcomer David Forward, a local businessman, to invest in a venture more than 10 years ago. Forward said Earls told him he already had enough money from investors, but, as a personal favor, he was offering the new guy at church a piece of the deal. After Earls stopped returning his calls, Forward said he had to threaten to expose Earls to the church's congregation before he agreed to repay his $100,000, which took 5 years.
Another $100,000 investor, Donald S. Beyer, the former VA lt governor, said he would run into Earls "all the time at different functions and parties; everybody seemed to know him. I had good feelings about him," he said. But when Beyer tried to collect on what he thought was a $75,000 profit, Earls stopped returning calls. After hiring a lawyer, Beyer eventually collected $112,000.
"There was a dead silence for a year," Beyer recalled. "He never explained it. I was left with no other conclusion but that I never want to do business with him again, and would never recommend him, and would actively warn people away."

Enter the internet
After 2 decades running investment partnerships and some movie deals, many of them financially successful, Earls turned his attention in the late 1990s to the Internet. He gained control of U.S. Technologies in 1999, and in 2000 the co. merged with E2Enet Inc., an Internet incubator founded & controlled by Jonathan J. Ledecky, a well- known Washington entrepreneur. Until then, U.S. Technologies had been solely in the business of hiring prisoners to make furniture & computer circuit boards.
Earls said it was Ledecky's idea to merge E2Enet into U.S. Technologies. Ledecky's spokesman said support for the idea was mutual, and it was considered a good deal for shareholders of both companies. Ledecky was neither a board member nor a director of U.S. Technologies after the merger.

Earls also began to focus on building an all-star board of directors that would elevate U.S. Technologies' profile and assure potential investors about its viability. He wooed prominent executives & former politicians, again tapping his vast well of social connections. Earls recalls offering former secretary of state & White House chief of staffAlexander M. Haig Jr 400,000 stock options to join the board. Earls even listed Haig as a director of the co. in an SEC filing, a filing he would have to revise. Haig eventually declined to serve when Earls cut the option offer back to 250,000 shares, Earls said. A spokesman for Haig simply said that he declined to serve on the co.'s board, without specifying a reason.

A prominent local technology executive, who requested anonymity, said Earls tried unsuccessfully to woo him by offering him stock options worth $2 million. Earlier, Earls had impressed the same executive, when the executive was trying to join a local country club, by holding a dinner at the club for him. Earls said he did not recall offering anyone $2 million in stock options. The executive didn't join the U.S. Technologies board.
Webster & 2 other well-known Washingtonians, former finance chair for the Democratic National Committee Beth Dozoretz and former senator George Mitchell, who was already a member of E2Enet's board, did join the new board. Their positions came with 250,000 stock options, which jumped in value after U.S. Technologies announced it would merge with E2Enet.

U.S. Technologies stock, after languishing at less than 30¢ for months, climbed to an all-time high of $5.75. On paper, Earls & his all-star board of directors had made millions. But there were early signs of trouble. As part of the deal, the new co. was to assume a $2 million financing agreement Ledecky had made with Blue Rock Avenue, one of E2Enet's start-ups.
When U.S. Technologies defaulted on it, Blue Rock Avenue sued Ledecky, who had personally guaranteed the money, according to Ledecky's atty. "Ledecky was forced to take legal action to compel U.S. Technologies to satisfy its obligation under the merger agreement," said atty Matthew Schwartz.

The merged co. got walloped again, however, in the bursting of the technology bubble. Of its 34 associated companies, only 9 had generated any revenue as of the end of 2000, according to SEC filings. And its weak financial controls were criticized by its outside auditor, BDO Seidman LLP.
Documents provided by BDO say the firm was fired after it warned U.S. Technologies' audit committee, chaired by Webster, of internal accounting weaknesses. Earls said BDO's firing in mid-2001 was unrelated to its warning. He said U.S. Technologies just couldn't afford the $660,000 audit bill. And he did establish more internal controls, he said.

While his Internet dreams were evaporating, Earls was having other problems. During the same period, Earls was receiving what would become nearly $4.5 million from Peter Ackerman, Washington investor who was a protégé of junk bond king Michael R. Milken, to buy U.S. Technologies stock, according to a lawsuit Ackerman filed. Earls declined to discuss the issue, citing pending litigation, except to say, "There is no misuse of money."

'I feel like a failure'
Though he would not comment on his current business troubles, Earls did elaborate on his career & his rise as a dealmaker. In interviews, he was candid about his personal & business trials, even discussing his failed marriage as he recounted his history.
"I am not happy with the turn of events right now, and I feel like a failure," he said. "But I think I developed a good track record." Earls said that of the 22 deals he solicited investors for, at least 14 were profitable and only 5 lost money. Considering that it was mostly venture funding, one of the riskiest forms of investing, that's a good track record, he said.

Earls grew up in Bluefield, WV in the Appalachian mountains, and graduated from the Univ. of Virginia in 1967. "I was always interested the capital markets and business in general," Earls said. "I ordered a subscription to the Wall St Journal in the 7th grade."
He said he tried to join the Air Force but didn't pass the physical. So he began his business career in NY with Wall St stock brokerage Hornblower, Weeks, Hemphill & Noyes, staying for 6 years before deciding to go out on his own.

His first ventures in the 1970s were producing lowbrow movies, many of them belonging to the "blaxploitation" genre popularized by "Shaft." The films, including his first, "Black Gestapo," made "hundreds of thousands" of dollars for investors who used the deals as tax shelters, Earls said. Higher-profile films came later, incl "The Pilot," a money loser that gained some acclaim, and "Flight of the Eagle," which was nominated for an Academy Award.
During the same period, Earls founded Nova Corp., an attempt to profit from OPEC oil embargo. Drivers faced an hour wait at the pump, and alternative energy sources were gaining popularity, so, Earls said, he bought coal mines. At the same time, high fuel prices made summer trips to Florida unpopular, and Earls took advantage of plummeting real estate prices to buy property there. He says he made millions from his Nova ventures.

His business took another turn in the 1990s. In 1992, he said, he put up $50,000 for a contract to buy a co. that distributed hospital & medical training material via satellite. Dallas-based Westcott Communications Inc., which also wanted the firm, paid Earls $1 million in stock for the contract.
Through Westcott, Earls met Texas congressman John Bryant, who was seeking investors for an independent minor-league baseball league he was forming. Earls said he lost $4 million on the league. His connection to Westcott landed Earls on the board of directors of Jayhawk Acceptance Corp., a co. Westcott founded in 1994 to buy auto loans made to poor people or to those with no credit history.

After early financial success as a public co., Jayhawk faltered. In 1997, its auditor discovered that Jayhawk was using a faulty lending formula, and a third of its customers couldn't be expected to repay loans, Earls recalled. Jayhawk filed for bankruptcy. Earls sold more than $2 million in Jayhawk shares in the months leading up to the bankruptcy, according to Thomson First Call, but he says he lost millions more when the share price fell. He would later point to Jayhawk's failure as the beginning of his personal financial troubles.

Around the same time, Earls started soliciting investors for cash to buy shares in publicly traded companies. Among the deals was one in which he solicited investors for his idea to buy 9.9% stake in Greyhound Lines Inc. of Dallas, putting them in position to launch a "friendly takeover," according to court records. Greyhound had acres of undervalued real estate and with better management could be turned around, potential investors were told.
Bryant, who by then had left Congress, became a $100,000 investor. In early 1998, a Canadian co. bought Greyhound for $6.25 a share; Earls had paid about $2.65 a share. "We made a lot of money, I thought," Bryant said.

But soon Bryant & other investors had reason to worry: The payout from the deal was slow in coming, and for some investors, it never came. Harold Warren, a Dallas police officer, said he invested $135,000 in the venture. Earls sent him a check for $35,000 as a partial payment, according to a lawsuit filed by Warren, Bryant and several others. The check bounced.
In another lawsuit over the Greyhound deal, PA doctor Richard Carella complained that after being told that his $194,000 investment was worth $331,199, Earls repeatedly promised but failed to wire the money to his pension fund. Those cases were settled out of court.

At the same time, investors in another deal were having doubts about Earls. Earls had established an investment vehicle called Pinheal Acquisition Co. to accumulate shares of Franklin Bancorporation Inc., which operated Franklin National Bank branches in the District. In July 1998, BB&T Corp. acquired Franklin for $170 million in stock, or $24.08 a share. Again, Earls's investors, who were told shares had been purchased at between $2 and $8, were expecting a large payout, a lawsuit alleged.
But again Earls failed to deliver, according to court & arbitration rulings. One investor was Edward Eagles, a history and macroeconomics teacher who had taught three of Earls's children at St. Albans School, a prestigious prep academy, and had invested $550,000 in the bank deal and four other of Earls's ventures.

An arbitration panel found Earls violated his fiduciary responsibility to Eagles by commingling the bank stock in a larger pool of financial ventures Earls controlled. It found, too, that Earls used money from Pinheal stock sales to pay some of his own debts. After examining Earls's business history, a Delaware state judge wrote in Aug. 2002, "There is a pattern that may rise to the level of criminal conduct, in a series of cases that involved [Earls] inducing investors to invest their moneys and then proceeding to divert those moneys to himself."

Earls would not discuss his current personal financial situation. . At the time of his divorce in mid-1999, he reported assets of $6.7 million, more than half of which were in his home on Indian Lane. But he also reported $8.7 million in liabilities, leaving him with a negative net worth of more than $2 million. These days, Earls said he spends his time trying to raise money for U.S. Technologies. The co. is in limbo. Of its remaining 80 employees, 60 are prisoners. It hasn't made a quarterly filing required by the SEC in months. Its latest one, for the quarter ended 3.30.02, said the co. had only $52,000 on hand.
"We've got a going concern, but we are still cash-poor," Earls said. "It's been very difficult to raise money even before all the bad publicity. Now it's impossible."

Shadow govt activated for U.S. ¹ 3.1.02   Ron Fournier AP Wash.D.C.   A "shadow govt" consisting of 75 or more sr officials has been living & working secretly outside Washington since 9.11.01 in case the nation's capital is crippled by terrorist attack. "This is serious business," President Bush said of plans to ensure the continuity of govt. Such an operation was conceived as a Cold War precaution against nuclear attack during Eisenhower administration but never used until now. It went into effect in the first hours after the terror attacks and has evolved over time, said senior govt officials who provided details of the plan. Without confirming details of the govt-in-waiting, Bush told reporters in Iowa: "We take the continuity of govt issue seriously because our nation was under attack. And I still take the threats we receive from al-Qaida killers & terrorists very seriously." "I have an obligation as the president & my administration has an obligation to the American people to put measures in place that should somebody be successful in attacking Washington there is an ongoing govt," Bush said. "That is one reason why the vice president was going to undisclosed locations. This is serious business. And we take it seriously." The shadow govt plan was activated out of heightened fears that the al-Qaida terrorist network might obtain a portable nuclear weapon, sources said. U.S. intelligence has no specific knowledge the network has such a weapon, but the risk was great enough to warrant the activation of a plan, said a senior govt official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Under the classified "Continuity of Operations Plan," which was first reported by The Washington Post in Friday editions, high-ranking officials representing their departments have begun rotating in & out of the assignment at one of two fortified locations along the East Coast. The Post said the first rotations were made in late Oct. or early Nov., a fact confirmed by the senior govt official. A second govt official who has visited one of the secure sites in a mountainside outside Washington said it is equipped with generators, telephones, TV sets, private offices, command centers and computers. It is a large office space deep beneath the ground, sectioned off by agencies. In an unsettling reminder of the stakes involved, the official recalled seeing food rations at the site. Several White House officials have taken their turn in the rotation, spending three or four days & nights at the site. Friends, family & colleagues stay in contact through a toll-free number & personal extensions. Officials who are activated for the duty live & work underground 24 hours a day, away from their families. The shadow govt has sent home most of the first wave of deployed personnel, replacing them most commonly at 90-day intervals, the Post reported. A govt official who spoke to AP said the groups usually number 70 to 150 people, depending on the level of threat detected by U.S. intelligence. He said President Bush does not foresee ever needing to turn over govt functions to the secret operation, but believed it was prudent to implement the long-standing plan in light of the gathering war on terrorism and persistent threats of future attacks. The team, drawn from every Cabinet dept & some independent agencies, would seek to prevent the collapse of essential govt functions in the event of a disabling blow to Washington, the official said. The underground govt would try to contain disruptions of the nation's food & water supplies, transportation links, energy and telecommunications networks, public health & civil order, the Post reported. Later, it would begin to reconstitute the govt. The govt-in-waiting is an extension of a policy that has kept Vice President Dick Cheney in secure, undisclosed locations away from Washington. Cheney has moved in & out of public view as threat levels have fluctuated, at times to the same location that the senior govt officials have been hidden, a govt source said Friday. As next in line to power behind Bush, he would need help running the govt in a worst-case scenario. The plan gelled in Dec. when Bush issued a little-noticed executive order that spelled out the line of succession at several key federal agencies in case a Cabinet secretary is killed or incapacitated. In great detail, the document lists in order of power the top half dozen or so officials who would take over if an agency's hierarchy was dismantled. The shadow govt is drawn from that deep pool of officials who are now formally part of the line of succession, sources said. In addition, at least one Cabinet secretary is kept out of Washington at all times to help maintain the continuity of govt, one govt source said. For nearly two weeks at the end of December, for example, AttyGen John Ashcroft was secretly spirited to his farm in Missouri and kept under high security. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD said Congress has its own contingency plans. "Precautions have been taken and arrangements have been made to move the work of Congress to another location," he said. The Pentagon, too, rotates top military officials to secure locations. "We move people around," spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. Civilians deployed for the operation are not allowed to take their families and may not tell anyone where they are going or why. Inside U.S. counterinsurgency A soldier speaks Nov-Dec.99   Stan Goff   iF magazine ¹   I'm not being cynical. I'm just awake now. It took a couple of decades. Growing up, l lived in a neighborhood where everyone worked in the same McDonnell-Douglas plant, where F-4 Phantoms were built to provide close air support for troops in Vietnam. My dad & mom both riveted, working on the center fuselage assembly. I just understood that it was my duty to fight the godless collectivist menace of communism. So, I joined the Army 7 months after I squeaked through high school. In 1970, I volunteered for the airborne infantry and for Vietnam. Now I am the Viet Cong. In 1980, I went to Panama. I was in Guatemala in 1983 for the last coup. In 1985, I was in El Salvador; 1991, Peru; 1992, Colombia. Over & over, the fact that we as a nation seemed to take sides with the rich against the poor started to penetrate, first my preconceptions then my rationalizations and finally my consciousness. People don't generally hear from retired Special Forces soldiers. But people need to hear the facts from someone who can't be called an effete liberal who never "served" his country. A liberal will tell you the system isn't working properly. I will tell you that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. After reflection on my 2 decades plus of service, I am convinced that I only served the richest 1% of my country. Though phrased differently, this argument is not new. In 1935 [ sic ], 2 time Medal of Honor winner, retired Gen. Smedley Butler accused major New York investment banks of using U.S. Marines as "racketeers" & "gangsters" to exploit financially the peasants of Nicaragua. …   more re war

phantoms of the   T.Coelho S.Solarz J.Garner D.Cheney D.Rumsfeld shills more culprits Jack Abramoff "In a democracy, everyone is free to join the argument, or so it is said in civic mythology. In modern democracy that has evolved, that claim is nearly meaningless. During the last generation, a "new politics" has enveloped govt that guarantess exclusion of most Americans from the debate, the expensive politics of facts & information. A major industry has grown up in Washington around what might be called "democracy for hire", business firms & outposts of sponsored scholars devoting to concoting facts & opinions & expert analysis, then aiming them at the govt. That is the principle function of all those enterprises along Washingtons main boulevards like K street, the public relations agencies, the direct-mail companies, & opinion polling firms. All these work in concert with the infastructure of think tanks, tax-exept foundations & other centers that churn out reams of policy ideas for political debate. Most are financed by corporate interests & wealthy benefactors. The work of lobbyist and lawyers involves delivering the material to the appropriate legislators & administrators. Only those who have accumulated lots of money are free to play in this version of democracy. Only those with a strong, immediate financial stake in the political outcomes can afford to invest this kind of money in manipulating the governing decisions. Most Americans have neither the personal ability nor the wherewithal to compete on this field. Citizens have been incapacitated. Modern methodologies of persuasion have created a new hierarchy of influence over govt decisions, a new way in which organized money dominates the action while the unorganized voices are inhibited from speaking. A lonely congressman, trying to represent the larger public interest finds himself arrayed against an army of authorities-working for the other side." Wm Greider Who Will Tell the People The betrayal of American democracy Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) 992 "The cost of being presented as a "responsible & serious candidate" by the media is usually to show fundamental agreement with the existing distribution of wealth & power." Michael Lerner, The Politics of Meaning 1997 p99 The American public, having accepted limits on govt's ability to change society, must now also accept equally exacting limits on society's ability to change govt. ¹ Jonathan Rauch "Govt's End" National Journal 1/7/00 By means of unofficial private corp., named News Election Service (NES), Establishment press has actual physical control of counting & dissemination of the vote, and it refuses to let the public know how it is done." Mae Brussell; suppressed book VoteScam by Jim & Ken Collier Critics argue antitrust agencies impose an effective "merger tax" where leverage obtained in the review process is used to force concessions with little or no relationship to the merger. Defenders counter that agencies must employ analytic foresight in innovation markets where merger effects may not be seen for several years. In the end, any system that can be gamed will be gamed. If competitors believe merger investigations are piñatas yielding goodies if whacked with sufficient force, the merger review process will be one more way the politically connected feed at the federal trough. Mit Spears column, Upside Magazine 9.00 What mythological confusion is this? Since when has Mars been god of commerce & Mercury god of war ? Viennese ed. Karl Kraus auth. & publ. "Die Fackel" (The Torch) 1899-1936 corporate welfare Public Campaign Ouch.org national debt D.C.'s Political Rpt Smedley Butler on interventionism 1933   speech excerpt USMC Maj.Gen. Smedley Butler War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6% over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100%. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only 2 things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super- Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent 33 years 4 months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lt to Major-General. During that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall St and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, esp. Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti & Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall St. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in 3 districts. I operated on 3 continents. The Wikipedia American Liberty League David Pietrusza good summary with links BBC Radio Brasscheck TV Jules Archer History Channel Charles Higham   ibid Anthony C. Sutton Sutton re FDR & Wall St Glenn Yeadon Jim Marrs Jas & Suzanne Pool Wm Torbitt Joseph P. Farrell Henry Stevens Hitler's flying saucers Joe Conason A.B. Magil re Wm Dudley Pelley Kevin Phillips Uki Goni R.Breitman, N.Goda, T.Naftali & R.Wolfe Christopher Simpson Per Gen. Butler, the goal of plotters including J.P. Morgan & the primary DuPont heir was 500,000 veterans seizing White House in same manner as Mussolini & Hitler and insisting FDR accept a Secretary of General Affairs in exchange for remaining in office. Per historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr, "Most people agreed with Mayor La Guardia of New York in dismissing it as a 'cocktail putsch'" The 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, required the CIA, US Army, and FBI to declassify documents in their files dealing with Nazi war crimes and criminals during and after WWII.

General strike   another officer denounces military aggression   5.27.07   Chris Floyd   excerpted … Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of the Union Army, vanquisher of Lee, stalwart Republican, two-time U.S. president, and author of what many (such as Mark Twain and Gertrude Stein) consider the best-written military memoirs since Julius Caesar. Grant had harsh words for the first military campaign he was involved in: the U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1846. A young, reluctant West Pointer sent to the military academy against his inclination but at his father's stern insistence shortly after graduating found himself in tangled up in the schemes of the Polk Administration, which was trying to provoke a war with Mexico in a brazen grab for loot, land and power. Writing at the end of his life, bankrupt & dying of cancer, Grant retained his anger at not only at the war against Mexico, but also at the annexation of Texas that preceded it.

"For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure [the annexation], and to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."

"Texas was originally a state belonging to the republic of Mexico. … An empire in territory, it had but a very sparse population, until settled by Americans who had received authority from Mexico to colonize.
These colonists paid very little attention to the supreme govt, and introduced slavery into the state almost from the start, though the constitution of Mexico did not, nor does it now, sanction that institution.


Soon they set up an independent govt of their own [and won independence after a war with Mexico]. Before long, however, these same people who, with permission of Mexico had colonized Texas and afterwards set up slavery there then seceded as soon as they felt strong enough to do so, offered themselves and the State to the United States, and in 1845, their offer was accepted.
The occupation, separation and annexation were, from the inception of the movement to its final consummation, a conspiracy to acquire territory out of which slave states might be formed for the Amerian Union."

"We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was essential that Mexico should commence it. It was very doubtful that Congress would declare war; but if Mexico should attack our troops, the Executive could announce, "Whereas, war exists by the acts of, etc." and prosecute the contest with vigor.
Once initiated, there were but few public men who would have the courage to oppose it."

The invasion of Mexico, unlike some later imperial expeditions, was in fact a "cakewalk" for the more powerful American military whose soldiers, Grant notes,

"were principally foreigners who had enlisted in our large cities".

"The Mexican war was a political war, and the Administration conducting it desired to make party capital out of it."

But here is the strange thing: even though the invasion was entirely "successful", an unequivocal military victory & a stunning diplomatic triumph in the final treaty which added 500,000 square miles to the United States, including the bountiful land of California, Grant still thought the war was an unmitigated evil, one which literally brought down the wrath of God upon the nation in the form of the Civil War, with its 600,000 dead, its fathomless suffering, ruin and strife.

Nor was there anything all that unusual in Grant's conviction; it would have been self-evident to many people in those days that evil breeds evil, whether divine agency is involved in the transaction or not, and that it is simply immoral, inhuman, wrong, to kill people just for their land, or their oil, or their strategic position, or their color, or their culture, or their religion, or for "party capital," or in order to advance some malevolent agenda (such as) slavery, empire, "manifest destiny," "full spectrum dominance," a "new American century," etc.

But this conviction has no place at all in our mainstream political discourse today, where the only allowable, "serious" criticism of the aggression in Iraq is that it has been "unsuccessful," that the Bush Administration has been "incompetent" in carrying out this war crime, that it should have been done "better". What the highest Establishment figures in the 19th century could say freely, we can no longer even speak of today. The moral realities and complexities that our forbears could discern are opaque to us, hidden behind an impenetrable gaze of bluster, happy talk and narcissism. Our degeneration is almost complete.

Secretary of War Stimson was likewise inclined to regard French Africa as subject to temporary American rule. He had been Governor General of the Phillipines in the 1920s , when those Pacific islands still were administered by the War Dept., and he had become familiar there with the type of military govt necessary in conquered or dependent countries. When the U.S. became a belligerent in WWII, Stimson was one of the first American officials who appreciated the importance of special training for officers who were to administer conquered enemy territories, and he was influential in creating a useful training center at Charlottesville VA. Robt Murphy author Diplomat Among Warriors 1964

	Ïmperium court chatter ¹ ²   rogue's gallery     analects & edicts ¹	President Geo. W. Bush Christian or Illuminist?   Cutting Edge Ministries … GWBush took his Inaugural oath facing the obelisk. Jan. 20, 1981 Reagan startled the occult world by taking his oath of office from the West Wing of the Capitol, and not the East Wing as all his predecessors had done. He faced the obelisk , sending signal to fellow Illuminists, after 205 years of pursuing New World Order, Kingdom of the Antichrist, that the plan was entering its final phase. Every president since then, Bush, Clinton, and now GWBush, similarly took oaths of office facing the obelisk. …
	2004 Dennis Kucinich Jerry Brown Jimmy Carter Ralph Nader Bob Kerry Anne Richardson Cynthia McKinney James Jeffords Tom Daschle Honest Abe & nominatible   A Bonesman got the nod

 menage a trois Nixon & Presley hold hands as White House aide Egil "Bud" Krogh plays beard.
•   CIA code word for Bay of Pigs was Operation Zapata & 2 support vessels named Barbara & Houston. … In The Ends of Power, H.R.Haldeman states Nixon always used code words when talking about the 1963 murder of JFK; always refering to assassination as "the Bay of Pigs".   Zapata Oil sunk the first offshore well for Kuwaiti govt. ¹ ²

•   Jackie O.'s Russkie Mata Hari ¹ ² ³ ª   another sparkler for the Gemstone file ¹	§‡§	The Arkansas Mob   Arkancide debunked Pop Clinton http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/keyplayers.htm*_blank" title= "Wash.Post '98">cast 11.1.98   Bob Momenteller Ether Zone Online Bill Clinton's mob ties trace to his Eisenhower boyhood at uncle Raymond Clinton's store front dealership in Hot Springs, AR. Behind the facade was a thriving full fledge gambling operation, complete with slot machines. Hot Springs a resort Mecca for many mob leaders at the time, including Al Capone. Gambling in Bill Clinton's hometown flourished openly for decades because of the corruption of the local political establishment and the complicity of the state police. Uncle Raymond's operation was backed by the Marcello Mafia crime syndicate out of New Orleans. In 1974, Clinton's first bid for public office, Raymond Clinton's $10,000 dollar loan from the Dixie Mafia kept Clinton on the campaign road. … In Clinton's mother autobiography, she wrote "gangsters were cool and the rules were meant to be bent." … Presidential papers as smoking guns 4.13.02   Emily Eakin NYTimes If Robert A. Caro had not been rummaging through papers at the Johnson Library one day around 1980, he never would have stumbled upon a faded telegram containing the words: "Hope checks arrived in due form and on time." The telegram proved to be a smoking gun, Mr. Caro, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of a multivolume biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, said this week. It cleared up the mystery surrounding a crucial episode in Mr. Johnson's career, when in the space of a single month from October to November 1940, he went from being a largely invisible junior congressman to a politician besieged by calls from ranking Democrats. Following the paper trail, Mr. Caro concluded that the secret to Mr. Johnson's sudden power was his access to money in the form of campaign contributions from wealthy Texas oilmen. It's this kind of serendipitous find in the archives that presidential historians say leads to scholarly breakthroughs. And it's this kind of research, they say, that is threatened by Executive Order 13,233, November decree by Pres.GWBush that grants sitting presidents new control over presidential papers. That includes the power to keep a predecessor's records under wraps, even if the predecessor wants to make them public, as well as other potential means of restricting access. "If you want to challenge the executive order, the historian must ask for specific detailed things," Mr. Caro told the several hundred people who attended a forum on the executive order in Manhattan on Wednesday evening. "The Johnson Library has 34 million pieces of paper. Unless you've been through it, you can't possibly know what's in there." Historians Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. & Richard Reeves also appeared at the forum, which was sponsored by PEN American Ctr, Assoc. of American Publishers and Authors Guild Fdtn, to condemn President Bush's order. They were among the scholars & public advocates as well as Republican & Democratic politicians who this week stepped up the campaign to overturn the executive order. On Thursday, Rep. Steve Horn GOP-CA introduced legislation that would essentially annul the order. In a written statement, Rep. Horn asserted the President's decree "violates the letter & the spirit" of existing law on presidential records. Under the President's order, he said, "a former or incumbent president can indefinitely postpone public disclosure of records simply by withholding approval for their release." 20 Democrats & 2 Republicans, incl Rep. Dan Burton GOP- IN, hard-line conservative House Committee on Govt Reform chair, were co-sponsors of the bill. That same day, the reform committee held a hearing on the order, and 4 presidential historians testified. Bush administration officials have steadfastly defended the order, saying it is intended merely to create an orderly process for releasing presidential records. President Bush has insisted that the order enables both "historians to do their jobs" and the govt to "protect state secrets." Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Anne Womack said the administration's position had not changed. But critics say politics as much as security concerns are behind the decree. They say that it appears to extend the right to veto the release of official records to former vice presidents, a provision that could conceivably benefit Mr. Bush's father, who was vice president under Ronald Reagan. "I'm sure that George Bush hopes he can protect his father," Mr. Reeves told the audience at Wednesday's forum. Under the timetable laid out in the 1978 Presidential Records Act, all but the most sensitive of Mr. Reagan's papers should have entered the public domain by January 2001. A group of Reagan scholars even planned a conference around the material, scheduling it for this spring to give themselves time to study the documents. But the Bush admin deferred the release of 68,000 papers 3 times. The papers include confidential communications between Mr. Reagan & Mr. Bush's father as well as other close advisers. In November several scholars & organizations, incl the American Historical Assoc. and the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, filed suit in Federal Dist. Court for D.C. to have President Bush's order declared unlawful, citing the classified Reagan papers as evidence that the administration was in violation of the law. On March 8 the White House authorized the release of all but 150 pages, a decision many scholars attribute to the legal pressure exerted by groups like Public Citizen. Mr. Reeves, who is working on a biography of President Reagan, said most of remaining pages were personnel files, including evaluations of candidates for federal judgeships who might still be on the bench. Withholding such files may be justifiable out of concerns for privacy, Mr. Reeves said. Nevertheless, he called President Bush's order "a tremendous threat to the things I'm working on." Until recently, many contemporary historians have been able to take access to presidential papers more or less for granted. Beginning in 1939, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the first executive's papers belonged to the public and donated his to the federal govt, the trend has been toward greater access. The Freedom of Information Act, which gave citizens the right to request govt documents, was passed in 1966. The 1978 Presidential Records Act, inspired by Watergate and the Nixon administration's attempts to tamper with White House records, spells out further obligations regarding the first executive's papers, mandating the automatic transfer into the public domain of all but the most sensitive documents 12 years after a president leaves office. At Wednesday's forum, however, the panelists expressed skepticism that American law would ever be entirely sympathetic to the needs of scholars or citizens. Mr. Caro, who is about to publish the third book of his 4 volume Johnson biography, said even a dozen years is too long for a historian to wait for access. "In 12 years, a lot of people die," he said. Mr. Reeves hinted darkly that it's the nature of some govt records to simply disappear. "Don't underestimate the power of the U.S. president & his people to prevent papers from ever getting onto the track where things like the Freedom of Information Act are involved," he said. Scott Nelson, a lawyer for Public Citizen who has been active in the legal battle to overturn the president's decree, said the concerns over privacy have been exaggerated. "Presidential advisers are never under the assurance that the advice they give the president will remain confidential forever," Mr. Scott said. "It's much more likely to be leaked the day after or subpoenaed weeks after than uncovered in a presidential library." Hands off this book! It's got bodyguards 1.18.01   Sharon Jayson Austin American-Statesman "Like President-elect George W. Bush, the Bible he will use to take the oath of office travels with an entourage. A trio from a Masonic Lodge in New York City will accompany the King James Version to Washington for Saturday's ceremony, a trip made several times, so presidents from Geo. Washington to Geo. Bush and soon GWBush could place their hands on this 1767 edition and pledge to uphold & defend the Constitution of this country ... The King James Version is a standard Bible of Bush's faith, both as an Episcopalian in his youth and now as a United Methodist." The pardon in history's hindsight   º 12.29.06   Richard Ben-Veniste, former chief of Watergate Task Force of Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office, Wash. Post p A27 Gerald R. Ford was a decent and honorable man. Under his steady hand, the nation began the process of recovering from the terrible trauma of Watergate, the lies, distortions, coverups, misuses of federal agencies to exact political revenge, illegal wiretapping, burglaries. The list went on and on, all in the midst of the deeply divisive Vietnam War. Did Ford make the right decision in pardoning his predecessor? The answer to that question is more nuanced than either the howls of outrage that greeted the pardon 3 decades ago or the general acceptance with which it is viewed now. When Richard M. Nixon resigned and Ford became the 38th president of the United States, the Watergate Special Prosecutor's Office, of which I was a member, was preparing for the criminal trials of Nixon's top aides, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Mitchell. We had accumulated significant evidence showing Nixon's active participation in a conspiracy to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigation of the Watergate break-in and the related "White House horrors," to use Mitchell's famous description. Nixon himself had been named an "unindicted co-conspirator" by the grand jury even before the Supreme Court compelled disclosure of the "smoking gun" tape. It was our collective view that so long as Nixon held the office of president, the constitutionally sanctioned process of impeachment should trump any suggestion that a sitting president be indicted. But there was considerable disagreement within the special prosecutor's office on the proper way to discharge our responsibilities vis-a-vis private citizen Nixon. Some, including Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, were of the view that Nixon's precipitous fall from the highest office was punishment enough. An indictment conjured up the prospect of unprecedented pretrial publicity, making it unlikely that an impartial jury could be selected in the near future. On the other hand, Nixon's personal involvement in the same criminal conspiracy for which his aides were soon to be tried (and convicted) put to the test the maxim that no man is above the law. Upon taking office as president, Gerald Ford gave reason to believe that any decision regarding a pardon for his predecessor would be made carefully and deliberately. 19 days after taking the oath of office, he responded to a press inquiry about a possible Nixon pardon, saying that until any legal process was undertaken it would be "unwise and untimely for me to make any commitment," adding that "until the matter reaches me, I am not going to make any comment during the process of whatever charges are made." Yet, only 11 days later, Ford reversed course. Citing reasons of national reconciliation, the difficulty Nixon would have in obtaining a fair trial by jury, and the suffering that Nixon and his family had already endured, Ford announced that he had pardoned Richard Nixon for all crimes he committed or "may have committed" while president. The same day, Nixon issued a statement admitting only to "mistakes" and "misjudgments," saying that he "was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate." The pardon decision was met with strident criticism by much of the media. The Post equated Ford's pardon to another chapter in the coverup; the New York Times called it "profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust" and "a body blow to [Ford's] credibility." With the benefit of more than 30 years of perspective, the public's view of Ford's decision has softened considerably. While I do not believe Ford was wrong to pardon Nixon, the timing of the pardon was premature and may have cost Ford the margin of victory in the 1976 election. Had Ford kept to his original plan and allowed time for formal charges to be lodged against Nixon, spelling out the specifics of his culpability, it would have been up to Nixon to either accept the pardon or fight the charges in court. But pardoning Nixon without requiring at least an acknowledgment of responsibility for serious misconduct and for lying to the public left the door open for the spate of revisionist books and articles that followed the resignation. At bottom, the decision to pardon Nixon was a political judgment properly within the bounds of Ford's constitutional authority. The specter of a former president in the criminal dock as our country moved into its bicentennial year was profoundly disturbing. I believe Jerry Ford acted in accord with what he sincerely felt were the best interests of the country; that there was no secret quid pro quo with Nixon for a pardon in return for resignation; and that Ford, a compassionate man, was moved by the palpable suffering of a man who had lost so much. The release of a slew of additional Nixon tapes has not been kind to the diminishing ranks of Nixon loyalists, providing ever more evidence of Watergate-related mendacity. In the end, Ford may have been correct in believing the facts would sort themselves out well enough. Yet, because Ford did not condition his pardon on a formal acknowledgment of culpability by Nixon, historians will have to go to the underlying evidence to make their judgments on Nixon's responsibility for the criminal conduct and constitutional transgressions that left him with the stark choice between resignation and certain removal from office.
[ throne in league with the vandals ] Dem. Party's presidential drug money pipeline   ¹ ² 4.30.00   excerpted M.C.Ruppert FTW v.III no.2 As Managing Dir. of Wall St investment bank Dillon Read, Catherine Austin Fitts raised more than $100,000 in 1988 for Bush Presidential Campaign. Her boss at Dillon, Nicholas Brady, close Bush confidant, became Secretary of Treasury after Bush victory. Fitts, as reward, was appointed AsstSecretary at HUD. Last year, in numerous radio & print interviews, Fitts was quick to make following revealing observations: "California, Florida, Texas & New York are by far the states where most illegal drugs enter the US. California, Florida, Texas & New York are also the states responsible for laundering most of $200-250 billion dollars of drug money that pass through U.S. economy & banking system every year. "80% of all Presidential campaign contributions come from California, Florida, Texas & New York." With Bushes governing Texas and Florida, is there any wonder why Hillary Clinton & Democratic Party need so desperately to control NY ? California, one of two largest drug money prizes, remains too big and diversified for either side to control. Financial revenues generated by illegal drug trade are an indispensable part of global economic structure, status quo. Drug profits permeate Wall St and major Leveraged Buy Outs (LBOs) to finance mega mergers are virtually impossible without the use of laundered drug capital. In sum, Those with access to capital & those who have lowest cost of capital win. If you don't play with drug money you can't play at all. The system is Organized Crime. In out-of-print work "The Iran-Contra Connection," authors Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott & Jane Hunter document how the 1980 Reagan landslide victory was financed in its earliest stages with foreign donations engineered in part by John Singlaub & the World Anti-Communist League. Those donations were then funneled through PR firm of Mike Deaver into campaign coffers. Deaver's right-hand man, Craig Fuller, served as Asst to Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985 and as VP George Bush's Chief of Staff from 1985 to 1989. Craig also headed the transition team when Bush became President in 1989, channeling appts to key fund raisers & supporters. Drug money directly into the Al Gore campaign was a counterbalance to the drug money flowing into the Bush campaign. By releasing Medellin Cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder from prison, Bill Clinton was establishing a new drug trafficking cartel to run counter to drug money flows established by Geo. Bush between 1986 and 1992. Lehder after his capture received a 99 year prison sentence under Bush. His cartel co-founders Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa were either murdered or forced into hiding. FTW successfully predicted a year ago that Clinton would release former Panamanian dictator & Medellin ally Manuel Noriega from prison before he left office. Noriega was ousted by Bush in 1989 when the U.S. invaded Panama. Official announcement of Noriega's release came last month. Clinton objective: create more cost effective drug pipeline with center of its smuggling and financial operations in political centers controlled by the Democratic Party in the East & Northeast rather than in Republican strongholds of the South & Southwest. The island of Hispaniola is divided into French speaking western half, called Haiti, & Spanish speaking eastern half, called Dominican Republic. They share grinding poverty almost vying for the title of poorest nations in the hemisphere after Bolivia. They also share unpoliced common border, easily crossed & virtually non-existent for smugglers, and key strategic position between drug producing S.Am countries, especially Colombia, & NYC, largest single US importation center for illegal drugs. Clinton Administration put a lot of effort into the tiny island. In earliest days it used diplomatic & military muscle to intervene in Haitian affairs and regime of Jean Bertrand Aristide. Dreaded Tonton Macoute paramilitaries were broken up; more stable & "predictable" regime was installed. While generally known in public that Haiti had something to do with smuggling, little was revealed about island's overall importance in new smuggling patterns emerging in 1990s. Dominican Republic (DR) on eastern half of Hispaniola emerged as stronger brother in drug politics for 2 reasons: DR only a short 80mi. boat or plane ride from P.Rico. S.Am drugs smuggled successfully into Puerto Rico could travel to New York without being interfered with by U.S. Customs Being extremely well organized & comprising largest ethnic minority in NYC & throughout New England, Dominicans, black with Spanish as native tongue, possess ready-made & hard to infiltrate drug distribution networks throughout eastern US 4.12.00 Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Caribbean Field Div.Michael Vigil testified before the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice Drug Policy and Human Resources. Labeling Haiti as "Drug Trafficking Crossroads of Caribbean", he emphasized Haiti's role … Vigil mentioned, almost parenthetically, "Cocaine is also sometimes transferred overland from Haiti to the Dominican Republic for further transhipment to Puerto Rico, CONUS, Europe & Canada." For remainder of his opening remarks Vigil commented on new computerized intelligence networks & joint, multi-national, law enforcement operations targeting Haiti & other Caribbean operations. Largest of these was recently well publicized Operation Conquistador that operated in 26 countries, made thousands of arrests and seized a whopping 10,000 pounds of cocaine. The number sounds impressive until one realizes that 10,000 pounds of cocaine, according to DEA's own figures, is well less than 1% of domestic annual U.S. consumption. Nowhere, in any of the press reports FTW reviewed, was any mention of Conquistador's impact upon, or arrest of, DR drug smugglers. In confidential "Law Enforcement Sensitive" June, 1997 report entitled The Dominican Threat: A Strategic Assessment of Dominican Drug Trafficking, Product No. 97-E0209-001, National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) painted slightly different picture of the drug trade throughout the Caribbean and overall significance of Dominican Republic. NDIC Director Richard Callas indicated that FBI, not DEA, requested NDIC prepare report. Using maps, flow charts, diagrams & statistical analysis, NDIC stated clearly that DTO's controlled 12-33% (or one third) of approximately 500 metric tons of cocaine entering US every year. Emphasizing criticality of DR's proximity to Puerto Rico, NDIC report also stressed significance of the DTO's control over cocaine distribution within eastern US. … New York City, specifically, Washington Heights area of Upper West Manhattan, is distribution hub & center of command for Dominican Drug activity on U.S. mainland." DTOs have become serious competitors in Florida where drug trafficking traditionally dominated by Bush-allied Cubans. "All this recent hoopla over Operation Conquistador is just a bunch of BS," said one DoJ source. "All DEA accomplished, and the line troops had the best of intentions, was that competition was weeded out and all the remaining organizations got lessons in how to avoid getting busted in the future. The DTO's were hardly scratched. They're too sharp." This would seem to agree with the NDIC report which stated on page 16, "Dominican traffickers are extremely adept at operational security & counter surveillance. Their use of radio transceivers, alarm systems, police scanners, miniature video cameras and other high-tech equipment to detect & monitor law enforcement is common." Later, the report stressed that the Dominicans were most adept at violence and almost impossible to penetrate because of their combined Spanish language & African descent. Unique cultural identity distinctly advantageous as with Kosovo Liberation Army which controls 70% of the heroin entering Western Europe. KLA Albanian ethnicity and language taps into ethnic Albanian communities all over Europe for reliable & discreet services. It's easy to tell your own bad guys from the good guys. On a more ominous note, NDIC report observed that DTOs controlled all of the Colombian heroin distribution in their territories and indicated the only reason Colombian heroin didn't dominate U.S. market was because in 1997 Colombia couldn't grow it fast enough. NDIC reported "62% of DEA heroin seizures in 1995 had Colombian signature." As recently as 1999 the DEA reported the Colombia continued to increase its share of the heroin market. In the July & Aug.99 issues of FTW we documented NY INS Agent Joe Occhipinti and PA AG agent John "Sparky" McLaughlin. In 1980s, Occhipinti started task force to attack rampant money laundering taking place in Dominican dominated mini-markets, known as bodegas in Washington Heights section of NYC. Occhipinti's efforts started out wildly successful until he butted heads with financial institutions like Seacrest Ltd. that were later linked to the CIA and powerful political machines dependent upon Dominican "contributions." Instead of garnering praise and promotions, Occhipinti's highly successful operations led him to incur wrath of NY's Democratic Party machine and eventually a prison sentence for allegedly violating the civil rights of Dominican drug dealers. Never once was Occhipinti charged with dishonesty or excessive force yet he was sentenced to years in prison. Occhipinti was later pardoned by George Bush. John McLaughlin, Agent with Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, starting in 1995 began developing Dominican informants working with drug rings in Philadelphia. Those informants led directly into the of Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), supposedly rabid Marxist revolutionary group. What surprised McLaughlin was that every PRD leader in US was major trafficker with DEA NADDIS number. Thinking he was doing his duty, McLaughlin notified the CIA & the State Dept where his investigations had led him. He was right, but for the wrong reasons. The CIA came to Philly to meet with "Sparky" McLaughlin & his team more than once. Several CIA memoranda were produced and ultimately shown to those attending. They included a memorandum from CIA Chief of Station (CoS) in Dominican capital of Santo Domingo indicating that the PRD was the chosen & approved party of both Bill Clinton's State Dept & his CIA. ] Subsequent meetings revealed that as recently as Dec.94 AsstSec of State Alex Watson traveled to DR to meet with PRD head Jose Francisco Pena-Gomez, Sparky's number one drug dealer! In March 1996, CIA Officer Dave Lawrence, demanded McLaughlin reveal name of his informant inside the PRD. This, "Sparky" knew, was a death sentence for sure and he refused. He also refused to compromise his investigation in spite of the fact that it has led to more than five years or relentless persecution, harassment in the media, "freeway therapy" and character assassination. It has also led to a lawsuit in which McLaughlin, represented by former PA Congressman Don Bailey, is fighting back hard to restore honor & good name of a truly honest team of cops. It was while researching that case for the Aug. issue that FTW came across the NDIC report which had been submitted as an exhibit in Sparky's suit. We were able to obtain a copy before it was sealed by the court and that seems to have angered Bill Clinton's Department of Justice. McLaughlin's work resulted in the formation of a Task Force including DEA and various agencies from New York State. Even while the CIA was trying to put the brakes on the investigation, the Dominican task force following the PRD leadership continued doing its job until, as reported in the August issue of FTW : "On a night in September, 1996, if you had zoomed in on a close up, from God's eye, into Coogan's Pub in Washington Heights, you would have seen PRD leaders Simon A. Diaz, PRD Executive Commission Vice President (NADDIS #3164850 - Money Launderer) and Pablo Espinal, PRD Executive Commission & Zone President (NADDIS #1289859 File # ZL-79-0017 - Money Launderer) hold a fund raiser for Vice President Al Gore who was only too happy to attend in person. Many of those attending that night had been present back in March for Pena's fundraiser. Several of them had convictions for sales of pounds of cocaine, weapons violations and the laundering of millions of dollars in drug money. FTW did not have the resources to check Federal Election Commission records to determine how much money Gore raised but several sources have indicated that it was probably several hundred thousand dollars at least. Is it possible VP Al Gore's Secret Service detail did not know most of the people in Coogan's Pub had NADDIS numbers and many had a history of violence? Is it possible the FBI did not know? Is it possible that DEA wouldn't tell the Secret Service? For the record, it is mandatory for the Secret Service to run background checks on everyone arranging a function with the President or the Vice President or any member of their families. They search just about every database there is." As demonstrated 4.19.00 2000 when Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senatorial campaign returned $22,000 to a businesswoman linked to Cuban drug smuggler Jorge Cabrera, this single documented instance of Al Gore receiving money from drug traffickers is not enough to indict the whole system. It does not completely establish that national political campaigns can no longer be conducted without drug money. Something more is needed. Tony Coelho, Al Gore's Campaign Chairman and Charles Manatt go way back. 10/86 Atlantic Monthly story by Gregg Easterbrook described the dark days after 1980 Reagan landslide whene Republicans had all the money and the Democratic Party could seemingly raise none. Two new stars arose to resurrect the party and make it financially competitive again. "The Democratic camp stood in even worse disorder than usual, with little known Los Angeles lawyer, Charles Manatt, taking over the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the utterly anonymous Tony Coelho, 39yr old California congressman with no organizational experience, assuming leadership of the related Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which is charged with raising money for democratic congressmen. Twenty-five more seats in 1982 would have given the GOP the House, and with it, full control over federal decision making. The conventional wisdom held that the Democratic Party would not get out of the Reagan revolution alive." [ motive of desperate urgency ] But get out alive it did altho not without incurring wrath of some Democratic old guard that Coelho and Manatt resurrected party finances. But, according to Easterbrook article, "Coelho tripled the take from DCCC fund raising, from $2 million to $6 million, in his first two years."

The story continued three paragraphs later, "Another businesslike decision Coelho made early on was to invest a portion of the DCCC's rapidly increasing income. Previously, the money had immediately gone out to finance campaigns or to retire old debts; some of these venerable obligations date to the days of the Humphrey-Nixon race. Coelho set aside about $3.5 million of the first $6 million he raised to finance a media center and a direct-mail operation; at the DNC, Charles Manatt was doing much the same." Major Democratic Party figures doing business with drug traffickers & intelligence agencies is not as surprising as it might sound. Hopsicker also interviewed Iran-Contra insiders who told him that Democratic powerhouse attorney Richard Ben Veniste had, also in 1982, incorporated a company named Trinity Oil for Barry Seal as a vehicle to launder Seal's enormous cocaine cash flow. Clearly, by 1982 the Democratic Party had learned from watching the old OSS/CIA veterans who had acquired decades of drug dealing experience in Corsica, France, Vietnam, Laos, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. They had used the drug trade to finance elections, form political cadres, buy institutions and they had used that experience to elect Ronald Reagan. The Democrats were now back in the game as tons of CIA protected cocaine began to flow through Mena Arkansas and much of the money flowed through Arkansas banks, state agencies & law firms. Key was placing yourself to be in control of right strategic locations ahead of time. In the 1980s Arkansas, Louisiana and California were the places to be if you were a Democrat. 12.9.99  Charles Manatt presented his credentials to the Dominican Republic govt & became the fortieth U.S. Ambassador to the DR since 1883. Unusual features to Manatt's appt in a Presidential election year: Former party chairmen, prodigious fund raisers & power brokering attorneys are not appointed to such backward & undesirable postings. Pamela Harriman, arch fundraiser &and Presidential groomer asked Clinton for & got Paris. DR, with its rampant poverty, on the same island that is credited with helping spread AIDS to North America, with no major resorts, is a backwater. Even Maxine Waters' husband Sidney Williams, as a reward for services to the cause was given Ambassadorship to the Bahamas where he served from 1993 until 1998. Bahamas are much nicer than DR. They speak English there and have casinos & resort hotels like The Atlantis where drug lord Carlos Lehder's beautiful wife/consort, Coral Baca, even has a tower named after her and her photo adorns the publicity brochure, the same Coral Baca who delivered the federal grand jury transcripts to Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Webb at The San Jose Mercury News in 1995. That contact resulted in The Dark Alliance stories that swept across the nation in 1996 (also a Presidential election year), giving Maxine Waters a national forum to talk about Republican backed cocaine trafficking during the 1980s. According to State Dept records, the previous twelve U.S. Ambassadors to the DR, dating back to 1957, have not been political appointees receiving rewards at all. They have been career foreign service officers, assigned to the post because no "politicals" wanted it. The post remained vacant for almost 2 years from 1997 until Manatt arrived just in time for the Presidential election campaign. In ancient Rome it was customary, whenever there was a critical political or military alliance with a province, for the Emperor to send a member of his family as a Consul or emissary to signify the importance of the relationship with Rome. This also served to demonstrate that no action would be taken against provincial leaders, who could, if necessary, take the emissary hostage knowing his importance to the Empire. The presence of the dignitary also provided status for the provincial leaders as they conducted business both within and around their territories. How right is FTW's analysis here? It is right enough that in February of this year the U.S. Attorney's Office in Harrisburg tried to rake the attorney for Pennsylvania narc John McLaughlin over the coals because FTW had acquired their confidential report on Dominican drug traffickers used in this story.

background Manatt was skilled attorney & also a banker. In 1965 he founded L.A. law firm of Manatt and Phelps that eventually to became one of largest & most powerful Democratic law firms in the country. Manatt would mentor & stay close to leading California Democratic political figures like Maxine Waters, Gray Davis & Tom Bradley. Powerful behind the scenes, Manatt also became deal maker & big time money man. Surprisingly however, Charles Manatt also been linked to deals that connected to legendary drug smuggler Barry Seal & covert Contra era CIA operations. FTW Contrib.Editor Daniel Hopsicker's finished but as yet unpublished bio of CIA pilot/operative & legendary drug smuggler Barry Seal as well as co-author Oct.99 FTW story "Why Does George W Bush Fly In Drug Smuggler Barry Seal's Airplane?" discovered Beechcraft King Air 200, tail number N6308F was directly connected to CIA "front" company through series of fraudulent financial transactions. That particular airplane leased to Barry Seal by real estate mega-developer Eugene Glick. To his surprise, while going through boxes of Seal's personal records, Hopsicker also came across documentary evidence, in Seal's own handwriting, that Glick's attorney at the time (1982) was none other than Charles Manatt. FTW has called the offices of Manatt and Phelps several times and inquired if their records confirm Manatt's representation of Glick. As of press time, firm has not responded. Other Manatt bona fides according to FDIC records & his own published biography are founding & serving as Chairman of First Los Angeles Bank in 1973 that was in serious trouble in 1989 & later criticized for mismanagement by the govt and courts before being finally sold in 1995. This was at the same time that Tony Coelho's questionable association with junk bond king & L.A. resident, Michael Milken forced him to resign abruptly from Congress. Manatt's law firm, including as partner future Clinton crony Mickey Kantor, also represented BCCI insider & #2 man, Swaleh Naqvi. BCCI's well documented connections to drug money laundering & CIA suggest other possible intelligence connections for Manatt. Internal BCCI documents are said to show the bank used the Manatt firm to lobby National Security Council in 1992 in an attempt to close down the investigations of New York DA Robert Morgenthau into BCCI operations. Manatt, Phelps and Kantor, (later to become Manatt, Phelps and Phillips) also represented Mochtar Riady's Lippo Group & Worthen Bank of Arkansas, which was then owned by Jackson Stephens (Jimmy Carter's roommate at Annapolis). Both Lippo Group & now defunct Worthen Bank turn up like a carpet weave throughout Bill Clinton's history, the history of Mena Arkansas, Democratic Party fundraising and BCCI story of BCCI. Charles Manatt also sits on Board of Federal Express. A search of CIA-Base (c), research tool developed by retired CIA agent Ralph McGehee offers another clue. Charles Manatt also served as a Director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). The CIA subsidized NDI, counted among its directors, Manatt, Walter Mondale and Edmund Muskie according to records in the National Endowment for Democracy. The NDI's ostensible purpose was to help facilitate elections in such CIA areas of operation as Northern Ireland, Taiwan, South Korea, Nicaragua, Panama and Chile. Tony Coelho left Congress in 1989 under allegations regarding his financial practices in middle of his 6th term as Representative from California. As chairman of Al Gore's Presidential Campaign, he is the rainmaker. On him, and the money he can raise, ride hopes of emerging dominant faction in American politics. But recently, Tony Coelho has fallen under investigation from the State Department regarding his alleged misuse of govt funds while serving as the U.S. Commissioner General at Expo 98 in Portugal. Detailed 3.23.00 article by Bill Hogan in The National Journal, describes Coelho's expensive tastes and questionable business practices. … "Coelho invited Manatt & Wm Cable and spouses to Portugal … Manatt and Cable both invested $200,000 apiece in Coelho's soon to fail LoanNet".

Don Bailey, as former Member of Congress, wasn't going for the intimidation. Knowing that FTW had acquired the document legally, he suggested in terse & eloquent letter that DoJ, "Buzz off." In a conversation with this writer he stated the obvious, "They aren't concerned with drug traffickers getting the information. They are concerned with covering up their own actions."

Throughout their careers Tony Coelho & Charles Manatt have done one thing better than all the rest. They raised money. Now, with Coelho as Chairman of the campaign and Manatt protecting the money flow from the DR, especially just after the Clinton controlled DEA has disrupted all Caribbean competition, Democrats stand a chance to compete financially with the decades old entrenched drug money behind the Bush family. … If there are 3 "branches" of govt today, they are banks & financial institutions, govt as enforcer and the criminal syndicates. There is no rule of law, there is only the rule of money. And I am often amazed at how conservative Christians sometimes ask me to label Democrats, Socialists, Communists, Illuminati, Trilaterals, Jews, Bliderbergers, Masons, or Nazis as the source of evil in this world. I wonder why they don't read their own book. It says it quite clearly there, in the words of their own Master, "For the love of money is the root of all evil."

The events before, during and after publication of this story
• 2/14/00   Mary Catherine Frye, Assistant US Atty for Middle District of Penn. directs a letter to Don Bailey, attorney for John McGlaughlin indicating her awareness that I am in possession of the law enforcement sensitive NDIC report on the Dominicans and hinting at punitive action.
• 4.29.00   One day before publication of our story, the FTW computer is hit with 5 brand new & unidentified "back door" computer viruses that "tanked" our system for 12 hours and nearly prevented us from publishing (Norton [Symantec] Case ID # 4010679966 - Contact ID # 312578074).
• 5/15/00   Mexican web site www.narconews.com, with permission, reprints entire article in English on a site that receives 80,000 visitors a month.
• 5/22/00 & 5/29/00   Thanks to promotion from narconews publisher Al Giordano, Mexican weekly (a national glossy) La Crisis translates & reprints article in 2 parts.
• 5/15 - 6/25/00   US govt agencies leak stories to AP & major publications spinning my story without addressing it directly. One story even uses my original phrasing, "Once the drugs are in Puerto Rico it's the same as if they were in Kansas."
• 6/15/00   Tony Coelho resigns as Gore Campaign Chair citing health reasons.

Power behind the scenes   Chandra homogeny Barbara Howar Patsy Mink 527 groups CapitolBuzz Amanda Marcotte Senator for Sale Eric M Uslaner H.L. Richardson
Staffers' power is covert, crucial to foreign policy
7.98   Miles Pomper Foreign Service Journal AFSA

Is the CIA politicizing the intelligence on Iraq to help the hard-liners persuade people that war is in the national interest? Or is Tenet, a former Senate staff member with keen survival instincts, working to keep the moderates happy too? Tenet denies both charges. "It's ludicrous," he told TIME. "I work for a guy who expects our honest judgment, period. There's no cooking of the books."

Every faction in the Administration reads the evidence gathered by the CIA about Iraq's actions & capabilities in different ways, usually to justify its preferred outcome. Then the factions press for more. The agency has tried not to take sides, but the rift between it and the Administration hawks is widening as the White House "pushes the envelope" on evidence against Saddam, says a senior intelligence official. Pressure from the hard-liners to paint Saddam in the most dangerous hues "is intense," the official explains. "There is one overriding emphasis, and that is to sell the policy of regime change."

The friction is greatest on the question of whether Iraq & al-Qaeda are working together against the U.S. Some intelligence analysts accuse Bush of grasping at examples that imply an alliance while ignoring others that don't, like the fact that in the past the secular Saddam and the fundamentalist bin Laden have not been ideological soul mates. (bin Laden offered to fight against Saddam when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991.)

Complicating the fight is the fact that the spooks don't want to overlook evidence on Iraq, as they did with al-Qaeda, so they are trying to turn over every stone. For example, a top Iraqi intelligence official visited bin Laden in Sudan in the mid-1990s, an intelligence source tells Time. There is also more evidence that al-Qaeda operatives who turned up recently in Baghdad may have been plotting chemical-weapons attacks on U.S. soil. "As we peel the onion," says another senior U.S. intelligence official, "we continue to find things that indicate people should at least be troubled and pay attention to the relationship [between Saddam & bin Laden]."

The peeling, however, hasn't quelled complaints from both hawks & doves that the agency tilts its product. Agency analysts are more pessimistic than are White House hard-liners about possible chaos in Iraq after a U.S. invasion. (The administration is considering a broad military occupation of Iraq much like the U.S. Army's presence in Japan after WW2.) But State Dept intelligence officials remain unconvinced that high-strength aluminum tubes Baghdad has been trying to import are meant to be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, as the CIA claims. The tubes, they argue, could just as easily be used to manufacture conventional arms.
"It's all politics," says a senior CIA hand. "We're the meat in the sandwich. People hear what they want to hear from our reports." Agency insiders say that if Tenet tried anything heavy-handed to please one side or the other, he would have a rebellion on his hands from CIA analysts. Insists Tenet: "We draw lines in the sand about anybody ever telling us what to do. I wouldn't stand for it, and the President wouldn't stand for it."

Tenet fact-checked a footnoted version of Bush's Cincinnati speech before the President delivered it, correcting a few items and satisfying himself that it represented the agency's view. So perhaps it is not surprising that, according to a White House aide, Bush was miffed that testimony Tenet later declassified seemed to contradict part of his speech. Tenet wasted no time rectifying the situation. The next day he issued an unusual clarification that there was "no inconsistency" between the CIA's view and that of the President.

An intern's guide to Capitol Hill   D.C.'s Political Boot Camp
7.18.01   Jas. Ridgeway, S.Bisin & A-L. Anderson Mondo Washington Village Voice

It's common to see young women with older men in Washington. And revelations about such carryings-on are not uncommon. The flow of interns continually refreshes the pool of young people available for potential sexual liaisons. While Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House, he took up with a young aide, Callista Bisek, whom he has since married. Garry Bauer, the conservative Christian candidate for president, was accused of spending too much time with a young campaign aide. Bauer steadfastly denied the relationship. These days, the city is rife with rumors about what happened to Chandra. In addition to suspicions that Democratic congressman Gary Condit may know something about her fate, there are other theories circulating: She could have been murdered by a thug in her neighborhood, where there have been a number of street crimes in recent months. Or she could have been lured into a van in the Dupont Circle area, where passengers were trying to pick up women of Chandra's age the day before she disappeared. Or she stumbled onto a heroin deal and was shot. Or someone who knew her accidentally got into a brawl with her and killed her by mistake. Police reports say that Chandra was actively using her computer on the morning of May 1 to find out how to get to the Klingle mansion, an out-of-the-way building in Rock Creek Park, which suggests she may have taken a taxi to meet someone or that she could have gone there to commit suicide. Police have repeatedly said Condit is not a suspect.

The police say they will re-interview members of Condit's staff. Condit doesn't have a car and is sometimes chauffeured by a staff member. One staff member's car has been searched. Condit's well-known affection for motorcycles has reportedly led the police to look into any possible links between him and the Hells Angels. Another theory has the D.C. police balking at investigating secret sex-rings in the city for fear of somehow implicating themselves. On 11.26.97, The Washington Post reported that then police chief Larry Soulsby resigned after his best friend on the force was arrested for "fairy shaking", extorting married men leaving gay sex clubs in the southeast part of Washington. Then there is Condit's own family. The New York Daily News reported last week that one of Condit's two brothers, Burl Condit, is a Modesto cop who in 1999 was caught up along with other officers in a scandal that involved selling the department's old guns. He was never charged with any wrongdoing. Darrell Condit, the younger brother, has a jail record dating back to the 1970s and was once called a drug addict by a judge. He has been arrested on a variety of charges including theft, DUI, possession of heroin and psilocybin, and smoking marijuana while in jail. He also was charged with assaulting Modesto deputies in 1989 with a hammer handle, and on one occasion threatened political retaliation against a cop who stopped him in California

Sex scandals have laid low many powerful politicians. Senator Gary Hart's presidential ambitions ended with revelation of his relationship with Donna Rice in 1987. 2 years later Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank hit the news when it was revealed he had hired a male prostitute as an aide. He is still in office. In 1974 Wilbur Mills, a leading Democratic congressman, made headlines when a stripper named Fanny Foxe leaped from his car into the Tidal Basin when Mills was stopped for erratic driving. In 1976 Elizabeth Ray, an aide at the House administration committee, claimed she was the mistress of Democratic congressman Wayne Hays, making the legendary statement: "Supposedly I'm on the oversight committee, but I call it the out-of-sight committee." Hays admitted the relationship while denying hiring her for sex, but his political life shortly came to an end. In the midst of President Clinton's impeachment storm, House speaker-designate Bob Livingston admitted he "strayed from my marriage" and quit. Based on a dozen or so interviews, here's a brief rundown on Washington's summer boot camp for interns-how they got their jobs, whom they most admire, what they want to do with their lives, where they smooch and hang. Some are paid about $3000 for the summer, while others are paid nothing. Best make-out spot Georgetown waterfront National Cathedral at night Gravelly Point near Reagan National Airport   (planes distract would-be watchers) Best place to live George Washington Univ. dorms   (room to yourself & plenty of people to meet) American University dorms Georgetown University dorms Best places to hang out Bar Nun (13th St. and U St. NW)   Hip-hop, go-go, techno. $5 cover. No sneakers, no jeans. Politiki (3rd St. and Pennsylvania Ave. SE)   Swing, jazz, blues, folk, pop. No cover. "Funkiest Polynesian drinks." The Spot (6th St. and F St. NW)   Top 40, international hip-hop. Features parties for interns. Tryst (18th St. and Columbia Rd. NW)   jazz, pop. Tequila Grill (20th St. and K St. NW)   All kinds of music. $5 cover. Free draft beer. Tue. are intern nights. Job description Answer phones Research answers to constituents' questions Lead tours of Capitol Fetch coffee Best reasons to be an intern Looks good on résumé See famous people up close Network for the future Watch history get made Learn nuts & bolts of politics How I got my job Mom/Dad gave bucks to member's campaign Worked for member's political campaign Sent a letter & résumé Cold call

Washington interns They're not as silly & worthless as you think.   7.20.01   David Plotz Slate … The intern is attracted to the man for obvious reasons: The interns are young, they're hormonal, and they're political junkies. To them, a second-rate congressman looks like Mick Jagger. And why are the men infatuated? It's not just because the interns are young & sexy. It's because the interns still honestly believe in Washington, believe that a congressman is just as important as he thinks he is. In a jaded city, that faith is the rarest & most enticing quality of all. Best place to be House floor Career goal Lawyer-lobbyist Federal judge U.S. senator Governor Political hero My boss Michael Jordan Jimmy Carter Carol Mosley Brown Gandhi Steve Forbes Role model Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Jesus Dress for success women Separate yourself from peers who inappropriately wear tank tops and short skirts by dressing in a suit. Otherwise stick to knee-length skirts and sweater sets. Above all, women must fit into office decor, which is set by the congressperson. (Sexist pigs!) men Blazer, tie Favorite drug Alcohol Favorite drink women Cosmopolitan, Long Island Ice Tea,   Gatorade, Kir Royal men Bud, Miller Light What my Mama said when I left home "Be careful." "To use my brain not to do anything risky." "Don't get involved with an older man." "Use the wisdom [my parents] gave me so I won't do anything ridiculous like sleeping around with a congressman."

Chapt. 3   ¹
1973   Barbara Howar Laughing All the Way

He had won enough elections to enable him to place relatives and constituents on the govt payroll as doorkeepers, pages, guards and elevator operators. Though I was neither kissing kin nor loyal voter, he was willing to extend his patronage to me; …
His younger friend & colleague Oren Harris of Arkansas had just become House Committee on Interstate & Foreign Commerce, a coveted position but constitutionally stripping him of his patronage. His secretary was married to a man crippled in World War II who lost his appointment as House doorman when Harris became chairman. … After much southern haggling, it was agreed … a transaction which later earned me the description of "the kid Frank Boykin traded Oren Harris for the one-legged doorman".

… I was not only a disinterested public servant, but a lousy secretary. Naturally, I was ecstatic. The job paid far beyond my qualifications, … true at any salary. I … busied myself stalking Congress halls for the right kind of "gay young men" to spend my evenings with.
… I was fast finding that good family connections guaranteed one all the status & welcome of the town hooker at a quilting bee. I became unaffectionately known as the "Hill Debutante", which in truth had been my single qualification for the job

It became an open question between the Clerk of the Committee & myself as to which would be fired first. More than seventy and inherited from a previous GOP chairman, he was a nervous, cranky perfectionist who would have fired me outright except that he suspected I was the chairman's doxy when I was not vamping the entire Democratic membership, lewd suspicions I did not discourage.
… I was not fired, I think, because it was feared I had strong press connections. It was a power position I shored up with casual references … I … made myself indispensible by establishing an elaborate filing system, putting railroad legislation under "T" for trains, and committe expense vouchers for congressional summer junkets under "F" for freeloads. I took care of accumulated backlog correspondence by dropping it in the burn basket when it got ahead of me.

… I was bored, and boredom would ever be my path to destruction. I never tired of wild parties … I never wearied of flying on private planes to the Kentucky Derby with groups that included Aly Khan. … But tedium of clerical work dulled the excitement of my social life.
One day I woke up disposed to do the only thing I had not tried: marriage. … In fact, my wifely qualifications extended only to hiring minions to run a house …

… from that evening on, he pursued me with uncharacteristic vigor, driving me to & from the airport on my sojourns into the sophisticated world and tolerantly accepting my antics and the excuses I offered for them. He waited me out.
After weeks of avoiding him and changing plans at the last minute, I felt obliged to join him for an evening on the town, despite a dreadful hangover from the previous evening. To the accompaniment of 2 black gentlemen playing Cole Porter on twin white baby grand pianos in a fashionable Washington restaurant, I took a couple of codeine tablets, which I thought to be aspirin, and recall little of the bleary gaiety before I passed out in a plate of Chateaubriand for two.
Of this, Ed Howar showed a stoic's tolerance, which was all I thought a husband should possess anyhow.

I was then at one of my uncountable Georgetown addresses on the second floor above the quite mad couple who rented to me. … They had a cat named Betsy, who entered & left with less scrutiny than I was ever afforded, by means of a trap panel in the front door. … the landlady thought me culpable when Betsy disappeared. She told me unless I returned Betsy, I would be evicted …
I spent a drunken evening peregrinating through Georgetown collecting stray cats and stuffing them through the trap door until the howls & screeches were heard for several blocks. The hysterical landlords greeted me with 2 policemen as I made my final deposit at 4 in the morning. …

Levy case throws spotlight on DC interns   more 7.8.01   Reuters WASHINGTON   The case of Chandra Levy, an intern whose mysterious disappearance and friendship with a U.S. congressman became national news, has thrown a spotlight on the army of young people working in Washington. A 9 week search for Levy, 24, who went missing after finishing her internship at the Fed. Bureau of Prisons, has yielded few clues. She was last seen on April 30, the day she was expected to return to California for her college graduation. For most of the college- aged interns, a temporary job in Washington offers a chance to taste the fast pace of the federal capital, perhaps laying roots for a future career in govt or lobbying firms. As many as 20,000 interns can be working in Washington at one time. For a few, like Levy, and the most notorious intern of recent years Monica Lewinsky, who had an affair with President Bill Clinton while working at the White House, things may go terribly awry. Police found Levy's bags packed in her apartment, along with her credit cards and other personal items after her parents reported her missing. Attention fell on Rep. Gary Condit, who represents her California district. Washington police said on Saturday they interviewed Condit for a third time. However, Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer declined to comment on news reports that Condit admitted to police investigators that he had a sexual relationship with Levy. Gainer declined to answer questions about the nature of the relationship between Levy and Condit, 53. Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, released a statement on Friday alleging that Condit was involved in a romantic relationship with the missing intern. CNN and Newsweek, citing law enforcement sources, reported on Saturday that Condit acknowledged to police investigators that he had a sexual relationship with Levy. The former intern was one of more than 98,000 persons missing in the United States at the end of June, according to statistics maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. More than 6,000 of these were between the ages of 22 & 29. preying on young people "There are individuals out there who are going to prey upon the vulnerability of a young adult," said Kym Pasqualini, president of Nation's Missing Children's Organization and Center for Missing Adults, whose group is working with Levy's parents. Reports of missing college-aged students have increased in recent years, Pasqualini said, noting that the first thing she hears from their parents is that the young adults failed to realize just how vulnerable they were. "One thing that we've found with missing persons is it can absolutely happen to anybody," she said. "It can happen by associating with individuals that you don't know well, but it can also happen just by walking down the street." District police chief Charles Ramsey told reporters on Thursday he was "not really happy" with how little progress had been made in over two months of intense investigation into Levy's disappearance. But officials pointed out that her case was still being treated as a missing person, not a murder, case and that the Californian was among 55 adults and 86 juveniles reported missing in the capital in the last year. Most seemed unfazed by the Levy case, which has been a prime topic of conversations largely because of the suspicion that fell on Condit. Many of the interns come from protective college campuses or suburban communities. on their own "You're always aware of your surroundings," said intern Lorien Hallas from St. Louis, who has learned street smarts during three summer internships in the city. "I'm on my own a lot more" in Washington, she added. Some become lonely. "I could see it being real rough for somebody who is here and does not have many friends here," said intern Allen Thompson from Lenoir, NC. Erica Hesch, who coordinates the Everett Public Service internship program, said: "They're coming here for educational purposes. If they have a personal problem and feel comfortable talking to their supervisors they might bring it up. But I don't think that's the real focus." Jim Forbes, a spokesman for the House of Representatives Administration Committee, said no changes were made to how his office dealt with nearly 700 summer interns in the House of Representatives based on Levy's disappearance but added, "This has hit us really hard." Summer interns expressed concern about Levy, but many shrugged off the possibility that something mysterious could happen to them. "It seems so much more involved than just an intern missing out of nowhere," said intern Adrien Smith from Salt Lake City. "I'm not really scared or threatened by it." ¹ Fellow intern Marshall Smith from Dallas, Texas agreed. "It's kind of a bummer for her parents," Smith said, noting that his high opinion of the city remains unchanged. "Bad things happen all over the place," he said.

the Hunger   Senate balance teeters on 98 year old legs   4.12.01   Jeffrey Gettleman & Edith Stanley LATimes Edgefield, SC   Talking about Strom Thurmond's health around here is a little like sticking your finger in a bowl of grits: It ain't polite. True, the Washington power dynamic rests on the stooped shoulders of the increasingly shaky 98-year-old Republican senator from South Carolina. With the Senate split 50-50, if Thurmond passes away before his term ends in 2003, the Democrats will probably take over and be in a position to block presidential nominees and stymie George W. Bush's legislative agenda. But in places such as Mims' Corner Store in Edgefield, which looks just as it should with corncob pipes dangling from the wall, buckets of seeds on the floor and dusty old men sipping Bud and watching "The Price Is Right," such conversation draws some hard looks. "It ain't nice to speculate on another man's demise," explained Louise Mims, the generously cut proprietor. "And Strom ain't going anywhere anyway. Y'all just wasting your time." A call to the office of Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat, to ask what will happen if the 8 term senator dies before the next election brings a scolding reply from spokesman Morton Brilliant: "That's morbid to even ask." Some say it's Southern courtesy not to count a man out till he's gone. Others call it denial. S.Carolinians are so attached to "Ol' Strom," the oldest U.S. senator in history and the longest serving, there's been little public maneuvering to take his spot. "We're more concerned about who's going to win the World Series in 2008," said Richard Harpootlian, the state Democratic chairman. "Strom's like the ocean. He was here before all of us. We fully expect him to be standing in the Capitol rotunda in January 2003 swearing in his successor." Indeed, Thurmond has not missed a single vote this year. But the man who, as president pro tem of the Senate, is third in the line of succession to the presidency is not exactly spry. He needs an aide on each elbow to get around. In February he checked himself into a hospital for a weekend. He felt tired, he said. It's not clear how together he is. His chief of staff, Robert "Duke" Short, is essentially running the office. In the middle of a recent vote, Thurmond was seen shuffling around the Senate floor, passing out candy. His aides are trying to keep him out of the spotlight. They've turned down interview requests, shooed away reporters and let few people get close to him. "It's almost like he's a Soviet leader or something," said David Lublin, a Southern politics specialist at American University. "Some people may wonder if he's really alive anymore." To the relief of many, Thurmond has announced he will not run again in 2002. If he can't make it that far, Hodges has promised, in previous brief comments on the matter, to appoint a caretaker senator, one who won't stand for election after the interim term is over. Two possibilities mentioned are former Education Secretary Richard W. Riley and U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn. Both are loyal Democrats. A small group of Republican legislators is trying to force Hodges to pick someone from the GOP if there's a Thurmond vacancy. But few expect that effort to succeed. As for the November 2002 election, the front-runner is Republican Rep. Lindsey O. Graham, an outspoken conservative who became nationally known as a leader in the impeachment of President Clinton. The Democrats are still searching for a candidate. There's a lot of pressure. Thurmond couldn't be a much tougher act to follow. With 72 years of public service, he's the undisputed champion of retail politics. Nobody in S.Carolina, it seems, is more than one or two degrees of separation from the teetering man with the translucent skin and thin, reddish hair. With a big staff, a record-setting tenure and a relatively small state, Thurmond has managed to build a block of support as solid and immovable as Ft. Sumter by doling out an unfathomable number of jobs, internships, judgeships, favors and personalized letters of congratulations and condolences over the years. "The first thing his staff does in the morning is clip the obits," said Jack Bass, author of a recent Thurmond biography. "It's worked." These days, with the Senate split 50-50, there's intense interest in just about everything Thurmond does. When he recently stopped gaveling open the Senate (one of his responsibilities as Senate president pro tem), the Republican leadership got nervous. Ditto when he didn't show up for President Bush's address to Congress. He had never missed that event before. So it was reassuring to supporters when he polished off 30 oysters last month at a Virginia seafood house. And they were delighted when he approached Hillary Rodham Clinton at her swearing- in and hugged her. A legendary ladies' man, Ol' Strom still seems interested. Throughout his life, Thurmond has shrugged off age. He volunteered for World War II at 41 and slipped behind enemy lines on D-day to fight the Nazis at Normandy. When he came home, he married a woman half his age. On his 65th birthday, he proved his vigor to a reporter by dropping to the floor in suit and tie and squeezing off 100 push-ups. Perhaps

that's why, while neighboring 79-year-old Sen. Jesse Helms R-N.C. uses a motorized cart to get around, Thurmond refuses walker, wheelchair and cane. He won't wear a hearing aid either, although he needs one.

As part of longest personal filibuster ever, 24 hours, 18 minutes during debate on 1957 Civil Rights Act, Strom Thurmond read the election laws of all 48 states. Blah, blah, blah   Filibuster used to require passion & a strong bladder. Bring those days back.   1.22.03   J.H.Birnbaum Fortune

Even today, Thurmond's in better shape than some of his predecessors. In the 1940s, octogenarian Sen. Carter Glass D-VA wasn't seen in the Capitol the last 4 years of his term. In 1969, Karl Mundt R-SD was incapacitated by a stroke but remained a senator for 3 more years. Of course, there are a few people who quietly whisper they wish Thurmond hadn't run for reelection in 1996. "But after all Strom's done, how could I not vote for him?" asked Carolyn Holson, one of the shoppers at Mims' in Edgefield, Thurmond's birthplace. He ended up winning by 53%, his lowest margin of victory in decades. In January, Thurmond again tested the limits of loyalty. He recommended President Bush nominate his 28-year-old son, Strom Jr., as U.S. attorney. Li'l Strom, as they call him, is an asst county prosecutor with no management experience. But in a sign of Thurmond's unique position among his colleagues, the nomination is expected to sail through the Senate.

The affection for Thurmond transcends party lines, just as he has: The former ardent segregationist started his career as a Democrat, ran for president in 1948 as leader of the doomed racist Dixiecrat party and turned Republican in 1964. As the years passed he softened his segregationist views, eventually hiring blacks on his staff and supporting better education for minorities. In a region that reveres its past, Thurmond is living history. His name is bolted to more bridges, more highways and more schools in S.Carolina than anyone else's. If anything keeps him going, it will be that, said Bass, the biographer. "Every morning Strom gets up and looks in the mirror and says to himself: 'I'm making history today. I'm the oldest man in the Yew-Ess Sen-nit,' " Bass said, imitating Thurmond's drawl. "And that gives him just enough adrenaline to get to work, through the day and up the next morning to look in the mirror and do it all over again."

temple moneychangers   b2g GCon

Begun more than a quarter-century ago as just another far-out idea from decidedly outside-the-mainstream politician Rep. Ron Paul: allow detailed congressional audits of some of the most sensitive activities of the Federal Reserve. For years, his proposal was as unlikely to become law as other longtime quests of the strongly libertarian Texas Republican, such as returning the nation to the gold standard and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.
But Paul's idea to hold the Fed more accountable has gained traction throughout the financial crisis. On Friday, it moved a clear step closer to reality when the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee said he would push it forward.

The bill got exposure when Paul ran for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Then the Fed became a huge, controversial player in battling the financial crisis, invoking emergency powers to use hundreds of billions of dollars to help engineer the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. and bail out American International Group Inc.
Paul's legislation now has become a rallying point for Republicans and Democrats angry over the bailouts and the Fed's increased and mysterious role in the economy. More than two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of Paul's "audit the Fed" bill.

The Fed strongly opposes the legislation, saying it would subject its decisions to political influence that could shake market confidence.
The support of Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, gives a major boost to Paul's 26-year push to allow the Government Accountability Office to conduct detailed audits of some of the Fed's crucial activities, such as setting monetary policy and short-term lending to banks through its discount window.
Both actions are couched in various amounts of secrecy: minutes of monetary policy meetings aren't publicly released for three weeks, transcripts are shielded for five years, and banks that borrow through the discount window are never revealed to avoid the perception that they might be in trouble. Federal Reserve officials oppose the legislation, but Frank said he was committed to including it as part of a package of bills to revamp the financial regulatory system.

"We are serious about some legislation in this regard," Frank said during a hearing he held on the bill, the first since Paul originally introduced it in 1983. Democrats and Republicans expressed strong support, reflecting anti-Fed sentiment in Congress, a hurdle to President Obama's plan to increase the Fed's power as part of his financial regulation overhaul.
"Nobody in my district thinks the Fed has done such a good job of running the economy that we should continue to cloak them in secrecy to protect them from second-guessing," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).
Paul said the Fed's increased profile during the financial crisis has led to questions about its complex operations and anger over its ballooning balance sheet, which has taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars in lending related to the financial crisis.

Americans "are disgusted and they put pressure on Congress. . . . The people said that it's time you guys woke up and started the proper oversight," Paul said after the hearing.
The Obama administration wants to give the Fed authority to supervise and regulate large institutions whose failure would pose a risk to the economy. The proposal adds to worries about the limited information on Fed activities. Frank reflected that, saying he also wanted to rein in the Fed's emergency lending powers.
But he expressed concerns that information from GAO audits could disrupt financial markets, saying he would seek to mandate a delay in the release of some information.

"No one should be able to do business with the federal government in secret forever. But we do recognize that if it's instantly available, there can be a market impact that would not be a good idea," Frank said. Paul said a wait of three to six months seemed reasonable.
Scott G. Alvarez, the Fed's general counsel, said that when Congress allowed GAO audits of the Fed in 1978, it specifically exempted certain "highly sensitive areas," including monetary policy deliberations and actions, discount window operations, and transactions with foreign central banks and governments. Detailed information about those activities "would cause the markets and the public to lose confidence in the independence and judgment of the Federal Reserve," Alvarez told the committee.

He noted that a full, independent audit of the Fed's financial operations is conducted every year and that Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has taken steps to increase the amount of information the central bank releases. Alvarez said GAO audits were not like traditional accounting audits. The congressional watchdog has power to question Fed officials and to make policy judgments about the central bank's operations.
"The concern that we have is that monetary policy, to be effective . . ., has to be as free as possible from political considerations," Alvarez said.
But Paul questioned what the Fed was hiding. "Fifteen or 20 years ago, nobody really cared," he said, noting that most people knew the Fed only for its interest-rate decisions. "Now they're wondering whether it isn't the Fed that stirred things up."

	In 1823, Samuel Russell established Russell and Company for the purpose of acquiring opium in Turkey and smuggling it to China. Russell & Co. merged with the Perkins (Boston) syndicate in 1830 and became the primary American opium smuggler. 322 was first established on Yale campus in 1832 & officially incorporated only in 1856 under name Russell Trust Association. Throughout 20th century, Russell Trust Association listed NYC HQ of Brown Brothers Harriman as its address. In 1903, Yale Divinity School set up a program of schools & hospitals in China. Mao Zedong was among the staff. Within months of his inauguration of 1901, President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist while traveling through Buffalo, New York.	fun with fear   … America is secretly ruled by the Council On Foreign Relations, who together with the international bankers and the munitions makers, RULE THE WORLD. Yep, you got that right, they rule the world, and they had Lincoln, Garfield and Mckinley rubbed out. Despite this mildly lunatic view of history, … glib review of praise for Taylor Caldwell's Captains and the Kings broadcast TV production
	Thus, Teddy Roosevelt became president, and Order of Skull & Bones for the first time moved into the White House. Roosevelt surrounded himself with Bonesmen. His successor in 1908, William Howard Taft, was himself second generation member of Skull & Bones.   ¹ ² … Robert Lovett (Yale '18), Harriman's childhood friend, had been tapped into Skull & Bones by Prescott Bush's cell (Yale '17) & was a director at Brown Brothers, Harriman. "On October 22, 1945, Secretary of War Robert Patterson created the Lovett Committee, chaired by Robert A. Lovett, to advise the govt on the post-WWII organization of U.S. intelligence activities. … The new agency would 'consult' with the armed forces, but it must be sole collecting agency in field of foreign espionage & counterespionage. New agency should have an independent budget, and its appropriations should be granted by Congress without public hearings. Lovett appeared before the Secretaries of State, War, & Navy 11.14.45 … Lovett pressed for virtual resumption of wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS). … The CIA was established in 1947 according to the prescription of Robert Lovett of Jupiter Island."

After WWII ¹ ² ³, Prescott Bush became Connecticut senator & favorite golfing partner of President Eisenhower. Prescott claims responsibility for getting Nixon into politics and takes personal credit for bringing Dick on board as Ike's running mate in 1952. Kissinger era marked a low point in Skull & Bones' govt power. Wm. Casey, SEC & CIA chief, was Geo.Bush campaign manager & Sovereign Knight of Malta   "Geo. Bush, The Unauthorized Bio" … Congressional investigations into BCCI scandal & closely linked scandal of Banco Nazional del Lavoro (BNL). This bank made billions of dollars from loans Bush granted Iraqi govt shortly before the Gulf War. Rep. H.Gonzales D-TX said he thought the Bush Justice Dept "the most unbelievably corrupt I have ever experienced during my 32 years in Congress". … Jan Von Helsing Secret societies & their power in 20th cent." The Cultural Cold War ¹ 4.01   Frances Stonor Saunders, New Press [pg 132] "The fund raising arm of the Free Europe Committee [CIA front] was The Crusade for Freedom for which a young actor named Ronald Reagan was a leading spokesman & publicist. The Crusade for Freedom was used to launder money to support a program run by future SEC & CIA dir. Bill Casey, called the International Refugee Committee in New York [aka Intl Rescue Committee], which allegedly coordinated exfiltration of Nazis from Germany to U.S. where they were expected to assist the govt in fighting Communism...[pg 142]...The Ford Foundation gave $500,000 to Casey's Intl Rescue Committee and substantial grants to another CIA front, World Assembly of Youth … convergence between Rockefeller billions & U.S. govt exceeded even that of the Ford Foundation ." blogs org guide Above Top Secret Deacon Alexander Arctic Beacon R. Armitage AntiSheep Agent Smiley Bardgal Tom Bearden Beyond the Illusion Bilderberg John Birch Jeremy Bigwood Black Op Radio Francis Boyle Branton T.Casey Brennan Mae Brussell John Bryant Buck Act Bureau crash BuzzFlash Bruce C. Adamson F. Carlucci Carlyle Group Cephias Ministry Barry Chamish JP Chance D. Cheney J.S. Chiappalone John Coleman ConWebWatch Ctr for Public Inquiry CRG Consumertronics Counterpropaganda CTKA culture jammers Wm Daley & Clinton R.William Davis Tom Davis, publ. DCIA death squads Deep Black Lies Geo. de Mohrenschildt diy Uri Dowvenko EIR EliteWatch Emperor's new clothes Robt Eringer ibid Daniel Estulin Etherzone EZ Protocols FEMA Fifth Horseman Catherine Austin Fitts Bob Fletcher Jerry Fletcher Chris Floyd Forbidden Politics FPIF Freedom Domain Freemasonry Watch FTW Gehlen at Ft.Hunt gold treaty Johnny Gosch Franklin cover-up Geostrategy-direct http://jimgreen.tripod.com/index-10.html*_blank" title= "Fed. Judicial Ctr dir. Judge Schwarzer & Bush Sr's Rockefelller Commission for CIA Investigation">Jim Green, Inclusivism.org J. Orlin Grabbe Ted Gunderson John Hagelin D. Henwood LBO Hoffman Wire Hollywood Hostile Invader Hour of the Time Human Underground Tavistock cat'spaw Huxley Idaho Observer Information Clearing House Infowars Insight Analytical David Irving John Judge T. Kazcynski Philander Knox Konformist Lyndon LaRouche Martin Lauchenauer Larry Lawson Last American Warriors Leading Edge Research American Liberty League Liberty Think David Livingstone Lobster Mad Cow Morning News Henry Makow Al Martin David Martin MKUltra Megiddo Kris Milligan Milner Group bio NameBase NatSec pubs Geo. Noory OKC OKC² OKC³ Cathy O'Brien re C.O'Brien Project Artichoke's 8 methods Revilo P. Oliver Lee Harvey Oswald Oswald bio Overlords of Chaos Paranoia Robt. Parry Jack Parsons C. Powell Perseus Research Fdtn Phantom Chasers Pirate News Power Hour POW made AK7 Prison Planet Mario Profaca U.S. quislings Quotes of the Imperium Red Flags Weekly Red Star Research J.Rense Romans 13 Jon Ronson Rumor Mill D. Rumsfeld Runcible Salmonhorse Dan Sherman Skeptic Tank Jason Scott See Beyond the Obvious Shrub Sherman Skolnick Skolnick interview Sierra Times Joel Skousen Spinwatch UK AFP nee Spotlight SteamshovelPress Rodney Stich Sumeria Anthony Sutton Taking Aim W.G. Tarpley re 9.11.01 synthesis Gordon Thomas 'Journey into Madness' Wm Thomas Paul Thompson thrall trains True Democracy Joe Vialls VoxNYC Watch unto Prayer Nesta H. Webster <What Really Happened Whitecloud Yellow Times Zola list ¹ list ² Zbigniew Brzezinski Col. Edw.M.House prof. C.Quigley Gary Allen Anthony Sutton Edw. Bennett Williams The Wise Men The Very Best Men Steven Sora F. Tupper Saussy ibid contra IPS IPS history Secret Parts of Fortune Manhattan Passions Travels With Dr. Death Mark Fenster   "The American people don't read." attrib. CIA dir. Allen Dulles, fired by JFK after 1961 Bay of Pigs failure & Warren Commission member who took charge of investigation and final report re final 1964 Warren Commission report's gross inconsistencies disproving Commission's own conclusion Oswald acted alone   Mind Control, World Control auth Jim Keith Orwell's 1984 correct because he knew 1934 Tavistock   Jan. 99   review K. Starchyld … some Brits (Cecil Rhodes, H.G. Wells, the Round Table members, the Tavistock group, etc.) … developing eugenics as they sought biologically to program the race. Rockefeller made big contributions to such projects, including the salary to people like E. Cameron (Project Artichoke, Toronto) . … psychologists & sociologists, like John Dewey, B.F. Skinner, Kurt Lewin (founder of NTL as well) and Eric Trist of Tavistock, British brainwashing institution started in 1932 for modifying & controlling people. … Recent House speaker Newt Gingrich's involvement in Tavistock showed how much he advocated changing society by forcibly changing minds. The British Tavistock has functioned as a highly militaristic organization whose founder referred to its creating "psychological shock troops … to engineer the future direction of society". It receives contributions from such notables as the Britsh Crown, the foundations of the Rockefellers, Ford, and Carnegie, upstanding leaders who apparently want to see the world more regimented & controllable. Dr. Michael A. Percinger of Laurentian Univ. proved concept of mind-altering EM pulses emitted from radar installation in lab environment . VMADs 802.11b brain jockeys F. Tupper Saussy CAHE Omega File Barbara-Crouse-Brown Peter Leyenda Liberty to the Captives Dr. S. Monteith Brian R Desborough LEIRG TruFax re Shaul Eisenberg, et al Robt Wolf Dannion Brinkley Sean David Morton Riley's symbols Forbidden Compounds Guru's pseudoscience links In 1785, a bolt of lightning struck a courier en route to Paris from Frankfort-on-the-Main. A tract written by Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, "Original Shift in Days of Illuminations," was recovered from the dead messenger, containing the secret society's long-range plan for "The New World Order through world revolution". The Bavarian Govt outlawed the society and in 1787 published the details of The Illuminati conspiracy in "The Original Writings of the Order and Sect of the Illuminati." In Adam Weishaupt's own words: "By this plan, we shall direct all mankind in this manner. And, by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames."   [ Illuminatissimus as Shiva worship ? ] When the tomb of Childeric 1, son of Merovee, was discovered & opened in 1653, found among the items in his tomb were 300 miniature bees made of solid gold. Napoleon had these 300 golden bees sewn onto his coronation robe worn when he crowned himself Emperor of France. When he married Marie-Louise (Habsburg) of Austria, she wore a royal robe with the bees interwoven throughout.

1921 Treasury Act & Bar Assoc. UCC in lieu of Bill of Rights statutes of self dispossesion Walter Bush & Charles Keating Jas. Shelby Downard's article, "Sorcery, Sex, Assassination and the Science of Symbolism ," an underground classic, links American historical events with a wild, numerological, grand occult plan "to turn us into cybernetic mystery zombies". The assassination of JFK, this article contends, was the performance of a public occult ritual called The Killing of the King, designed as a mass-trauma, mind-control assault against our U.S. national body-politic. Project Monarch was the resumption of a mind-control project called Marionette Programming, which started in Nazi Germany. The basic component of the Monarch Program is the sophisticated manipulation of the mind, using extreme trauma to induce Multiple Personality Disorder. Jewish Hate & the Global Conspiracy 5.01   Dr. L.Horowitz ¹ The Free American   author, Emerging Viruses Aids & Ebola "Nature, Accident or Intentional?" ² also Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse   with Dr. Jos. E. Barber re prions & solfeggio ¹ "… Zionism & virtually all major religions, heavily infiltrated, if not completely controlled, by primarily British globalists. …" ²   Link between human AIDS virus, HIV, and chimpanzee immunodeficiency virus based on 3 year study of pandemic's origin published in 5.01 issue of scientific journal Medical Hypotheses, presented as preliminary findings at 1996 XI Intl Conf on AIDS in Vancouver; SRO audience in Boston at annual American Public Health Association conf. 11.00   Subject of recent BBC documentary. Risky pilot Hep.B vaccine trials involved growing hepatitis viruses in chimpanzees commonly known to be contaminated with retroviruses related to HIV. These findings scientifically explain for the first time how the chimpanzee AIDS virus (SIVcpz), closely related to HIV's gene sequence, suddenly jumped species to humans simultaneously on two far removed continents. Four lots of HB vaccine containing 200,000 human doses, believed to be contaminated with gene sequences common to HIV/SIVcpz, were prepared by passing live HB viruses, grown in chimpanzees, to polio vaccine recipients previously exposed to monkey cancer viruses already suspected of playing a role in initiating AIDS. The final preparations were injected into gay men in New York City & Blacks in Central Africa between 1974 & 1975. According to several investigators, this may best explain how & why there was sudden simultaneous outbreak of at least 4 major HIV strains on 2 far removed continents in 2 demographically distinct populations in the late1970s, corresponding to the only complete virus discoveries.   cit. Litton Bionetics, Dr. Maurice Hilleman contracts   quasi-refutation re polio vaccine Polio vaccine = AIDS theory refuted 4.26.01   David Brown Wash.Post pA9 cf Nature & Science magazines for reports cit. Hilary Koprowski of Wistar Institute, Phila; Tom Curtis, Rolling Stone 1992; Edw.Hooper, UK The River 1999 [ Depleted uranium & Gary Webb were repudiated, too ]   Who is LaRouche & what does he want? ¹ ² ³   post1989   Mark Evans N.Coast Xpress … where LaRouche money comes from. That's easy; from Rockefeller, at least $10 million dollars of orig. pkg of seed money to expand the NCLC: buy telexes, computers and printing presses (probably, circa 1971). Persistent though unsubstantiated rumor to this effect, which, oddly enough, Berlet, King & Co. never reported, was confirmed in early 1973 by high-ranking "Caucusoid" in a candid moment to a Rochester, NY Afro-American Studies professor in privacy of the professor's home. Robert Veenis, present at this meeting in 1973, told me about it in 1989. … [ problem with LaR., to whom M.Ruppert is clearly analogous in engaging in accusations of strategic economic & geopolitical conspiracy, is that LaR., likewise akin to the Wash.Times, is prone to be an eager consumer & purveyor of disinformation, rendering it much more legitimate by converting it to ink and motivated by the freshest exposé being his primary market offering. If Ruppert surrenders to any siren's song, that outcome is probable, not just possible. Escaping the sirens is the unlikely result. Byzantine means what it does for good reason; D.C. is even more the new Byzantium than it is the new Rome. ]   ibid … Mae Brussel, who inspired a generation of researchers aka "Brussel Sprouts", taught her disciples to read everything across whole political spectrum and to sift & weigh all pieces of information as separate elements of collective aggregate. She taught us to compare everything with every other thing and to work out contradictions between various voices that speak conflicting things because everything means something and nothing is without significance.

If we use our heads, we can eventually find the whole truth. Reality is the total synthesis of all the voices, past & present, and in politics (polis being the city or society at large), every political faction contains a certain amount of truth as well as varying degrees of error.
  [ in contrast to religion, which is wholly false.   Despite sympathy to general intent of exposing & preventing convergence of public policy & private profit in secret, not least by & on behalf of oligarchs & plutocrats, initial supposition of no less tyrannical myths such as Christian theology redoubles rational demands for filtering conjecture.
Moral absolutes do not require presumption of God nor does evil presuppose demonic origin. Humans are fully capable of relishing malice & worshipping greed all by themselves. Salvation via empiricism is evident in epiphany & satori induced by LSD. The soul redeemed by grace rather than deeds is the fate of beasts, not creatures with free will. ]

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