Our Fearless Leader

CIA Independent Investigation of JFK Murder

"Richard Helms, who at the time was Deputy Director of Plans for the CIA"—this is in early 1964 I might add, the context—“found Johnson distracted well in 1964 by his worry that Kennedy had been assassinated by conspiracy. As Helms recalled, the Agency was"—and here Beschloss is quoting Richard Helms—“"very helpful to Johnson on this" and met the new president's request for an independent CIA study. Motion pictures of the Dallas motorcade and autopsy photographs were sent to the agency."—The Crisis Years, by Michael Beschloss

This is from a new blog Misc History which I just discovered because they linked to some of my stuff.I will add them to my links later.

Joy Tomme in Ratbang Diary has posted on Leola McConnell's allegations about George W. Bush, which have been featured on this blog before. McConnell, a former dominatrix who is running for Governor of Nevada has this to say:

“This Monday, George W. Bush will address the nation, calling for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. If he does not admit that he's a gay American (or perhaps bisexual), this speech will be as false as all his other public statements.

“Too bad I won't be doing the rebuttal. In 1984 I watched George W. Bush enthusiastically and expertly perform a homosexual act on another man, one Victor Ashe.

“Ashe is the current U.S. ambassador to Poland; and he too should come out, like former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevy, and admit to being a gay American.

McConnell's full June 4 Press Release is here.

Late Show - Clinton's reply to Ann Coulter

Google "santorum" and the top hit is this.

Paul Rigby posted the following on John Simkin's JFK Forum:

The Washington Daily News, Wednesday, October 2, 1963, p.3

'SPOOKS' MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR AMBASSADOR LODGE

'Arrogant' CIA Disobeys Orders in Viet Nam SAIGON, Oct.2 - The story of the Central Intelligence Agency's role in South Viet Nam is a dismal chronicle of bureaucratic arrogance, obstinate disregard of orders, and unrestrained thirst for power.

Twice the CIA flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, according to a high United States source here.

In one of these instances the CIA frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought with him from Washington because the agency disagreed with it.

This led to a dramatic confrontation between Mr. Lodge and John Richardson, chief of the huge CIA apparatus here. Mr. Lodge failed to move Mr. Richardson, and the dispute was bucked back to Washington. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and CIA Chief John A. McCone were unable to resolve the conflict, and the matter is now reported to be awaiting settlement by President Kennedy.

It is one of the developments expected to be covered in Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's report to Mr. Kennedy.

Others Critical, Too

Other American agencies here are incredibly bitter about the CIA.

"If the United States ever experiences a 'Seven Days in May' it will come from the CIA, and not from the Pentagon," one U.S. official commented caustically.

("Seven Days in May" is a fictional account of an attempted military coup to take over the U.S. Government.)

CIA "spooks" (a universal term for secret agents here) have penetrated every branch of the American community in Saigon, until non-spook Americans here almost seem to be suffering a CIA psychosis.

An American field officer with a distinguished combat career speaks angrily about "that man at headquarters in Saigon wearing a colonel's uniform." He means the man is a CIA agent, and he can't understand what he is doing at U.S. military headquarters here, unless it is spying on other Americans.

Another American officer, talking about the CIA, acidly commented: "You'd think they'd have learned something from Cuba but apparently they didn't."

Few Know CIA Strength

Few people other than Mr. Richardson and his close aides know the actual CIA strength here, but a widely used figure is 600. Many are clandestine agents known only to a few of their fellow spooks.

Even Mr. Richardson is a man about whom it is difficult to learn much in Saigon. He is said to be a former OSS officer, and to have served with distinction in the CIA in the Philippines.

A surprising number of the spooks are known to be involved in their ghostly trade and some make no secret of it.

"There are a number of spooks in the U.S. Information Service, in the U.S. Operations mission, in every aspect of American official and commercial life here, " one official - presumably a non-spook - said.

"They represent a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone," he added.

Coupled with the ubiquitous secret police of Ngo Dinh Nhu, a surfeit of spooks has given Saigon an oppressive police state atmosphere.

The Nhu-Richardson relationship is a subject of lively speculation. The CIA continues to pay the special forces which conducted brutal raids on Buddhist temples last Aug. 21, although in fairness it should be pointed out that the CIA is paying these goons for the war against communist guerillas, not Buddhist bonzes (priests).

Hand Over Millions

Nevertheless, on the first of every month, the CIA dutifully hands over a quarter million American dollars to pay these special forces.

Whatever else it buys, it doesn't buy any solid information on what the special forces are up to. The Aug. 21 raids caught top U.S. officials here and in Washington flat-footed.

Nhu ordered the special forces to crush the Buddhist priests, but the CIA wasn't let in on the secret. (Some CIA button men now say they warned their superiors what was coming up, but in any event the warning of harsh repression was never passed to top officials here or in Washington.)

Consequently, Washington reacted unsurely to the crisis. Top officials here and at home were outraged at the news the CIA was paying the temple raiders, but the CIA continued the payments.

It may not be a direct subsidy for a religious war against the country's Buddhist majority, but it comes close to that.

And for every State Department aide here who will tell you, "Dammit, the CIA is supposed to gather information, not make policy, but policy-making is what they're doing here," there are military officers who scream over the way the spooks dabble in military operations.

A Typical Example

For example, highly trained trail watchers are an important part of the effort to end Viet Cong infiltration from across the Laos and Cambodia borders. But if the trailer watchers spot incoming Viet Congs, they report it to the CIA in Saigon, and in the fullness of time, the spooks may tell the military.

One very high American official here, a man who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy, likened the CIA's growth to a malignancy, and added he was not sure even the White House could control it any longer.

Unquestionably Mr. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor both got an earful from people who are beginning to fear the CIA is becoming a Third Force co-equal with President Diem's regime and the U.S. Government - and answerable to neither.

There is naturally the highest interest here as to whether Mr. McNamara will persuade Mr. Kennedy something ought to be done about it.

Joseph Cannon nails it:

Democracy? Our president loves democracy the way Godzilla loved Tokyo.

Long-time JFK assassination researcher William Kelly has posted this interesting article on John Simkin's JFK Forum, originally published in a local weekly Egg Harbor Township Current newspaper:

EGG HARBOR TWP ELK OF THE YEAR WAS OSWALD’S BUNKMATE

By William Kelly

Richard Bullock, the 2003 Elk of the Year of the Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey Lodge has a unique claim to fame – he was once a Marine Corps bunkmate of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.

And Bullock has some questions about Oswald’s identity, as he doesn’t believe the guy he saw Jack Ruby kill on TV in Dallas is the same person he knew as “Ozzie” in Marine Air Control Squadron One in Japan.

Born in 1938 on November 10th, the same day the U.S. Marine Corps was founded at Ton Tavern in Philadelphia, Bullock, like Oswald, tried to enlist before he was 17 but was turned away, only to officially sign up on November 28, 1955. As he later learned, Bullock followed Oswald around to the same duty stations, only a few months behind him – Kessler AFB in Biloxi, Miss., then Jacksonville, Florida for aviation training, El Toro in California before Atsugi, Japan, where he served from November, 1956 until February, 1958.

For a number of months his time at Atsugi overlapped with that of Lee Harvey Oswald, who Bullock said, “I knew him as L. Oswald, or ‘Ozzie,’ and he knew me from the name on my shirt: R. Bullock, but he called me ‘Dickie.’ We didn’t know each other’s real names, just what was on the uniform.”

Atsugi is not your normal military post. As a former Kamikaze pilot training center with deep underground bunkers, all of the major intelligence agencies maintained stations there from the end of World War II. Atsugi airbase was also the home of the U2 spy plane, which Bullock monitored on radar.

“I was a radar operator – MOS#6741, which is radar operator, but from what I recall Ozzie was a radio electronics operator. He was not in the radar section as much as he was in the radio communications end of our system.”

Asked if Oswald had access to information on the U2, which he could have passed on to the Soviets once he defected, Bullock said, “I can’t answer that. I didn’t know a thing about it other than watching what they did when it landed. And I didn’t know what his job with the U2 was other than visually watching it when it landed. People would run out on the runway and catch the wings, because it had no wheels, just a wheel at the center and they had to hold it from tipping. But that’s all we ever seen. If he knew more about it than I did, well I don’t know that. Like I say, he was at a different end of things than I was.”

They did share the same Atsugi bunkhouse though. “That was Marine Air Control Squadron One – MACS1 we called it, 75 men in our unit. I was there for 30 months, an extended tour…Oswald operated out of a tent that supplied all the power – the Communications Coordinates Operations Center, and I don’t know what else he did. I worked out of radar operations. I did plotting, communications with the aircraft, we did different jobs, rotating shifts every hour.”

Atsugi , Bullock explained, is the name of the base that’s flanked by two towns – Sagomeoska on the Navy side and Yoma (spelled phonetically) on the Marine Corps side. Bullock doesn’t recall the Queen Bee nightclub that Oswald is said to have frequented or the incidents where Oswald was reprimanded.

“I do know that when we went on liberty, he went his way and we went our way. He was a loner,” said Bullock, “but to be honest with you I don’t know where he went. The rumor had it that he had‘national’ women, and a ‘national’ to me in those days meant a Japanese women.”

Besides serving together at Atsugi, Bullock and Oswald were both involved in a major operation in the Philippines, where they landed in LSTs at Subic Bay.

As a person, Bullock recalls that Oswald, “was always smiling, always happy,” but he didn’t recognize Oswald when he watched him being killed by Jack Ruby in the Dallas Police department on national television on November 24, 1963.

“He was NOT the guy I saw in the picture on TV shot by Jack Ruby,” Bullock says emphatically. Looking at a color mug shot of Lee Harvey Oswald taken shortly after he was taken into custody by the police, Bullock said, “It looks nothing like him. That’s not the man I knew.”

Bullock described the “Ozzie” he knew in the marines as being two or three inches taller, 40 pounds heavier, and a young man who wore thick glasses.

Since Bullock didn’t know him as Lee Harvey Oswald, or recognize him on television, he didn’t put two-and-two together until he was contacted by Readers Digest editor Henry Hurt, who tracked him down through military records. Hurt wanted to know if Bullock had any photos of Oswald. “Sure I had photos,” Bullock said, “pictures of me and Ozzie sitting around in our skivvies on a Sunday afternoon, throwing a football around, and stuff like that. But it was all lost in a divorce when I moved.” Nor has Bullock been questioned by the FBI or any government investigators.

While Bullock didn’t recognize any of the names of the marines who also knew Oswald at Atsugi, he said, “I’ve looked in the various veterans magazines for reunions of any MAC squads, but I haven’t seen any. The guys I was close to having already passed away, and I never had a reunion with any of them.”

Not aware of the books written about individuals impersonating Oswald, such as Professor Richard Popkin’s “The Second Oswald,” or the idea that there were actually two Lee Harvey Oswalds, a theory advanced in John Armstrong’s new book “Harvey & Lee,” Bullock expressed surprise. “You mean I’m not fantasizing?!”

Armstrong’s book, “Harvey & Lee – How the CIA Framed Oswald,” mentions Dick Bullock in a footnote to the profusely documented text that claims that two men – Harvey and Lee, were reared and trained from an early age and their identities merged over a period of years leading up to the assassination, much like Leon Trotski’s assassin Raymond Mercader was fashioned by the KGB.

Dick Bullock doesn’t know what it all means. The way he looks at it, when you live with a guy, work beside him for weeks and months at a time, you get to know him, and the guy Jack Ruby killed in Dallas wasn’t the “Ozzie” he knew in the marines.

[For more info on “Harvey & Lee” see: http://armstrong.jfkresearch.com ]

Musclemouth turns us onto this seven-minute sci-fi story "Meat."

Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran pooling efforts

DUSHANBE, July 26 (Itar-Tass) - Regional security as well as social and economic development dominated the agenda of a trilateral summit that the Presidents of Tajkistan, Afghanistan and Iran had here Wednesday.

"The three nations that speak the same language are joining forces for the solution of social, economic and cultural problems," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said as he addressed a news conference upon the end of their talks.

"We must have uniformity in everything -- in the economy, culture and the arts," he said. "It's important to lift all the barriers still dividing us."

Stephen Birminham has a good piece on Congressman Curt Weldon's Iraq WMD story: Cloud-Cuckoo-Land, A Republican Stronghold

These weapons were produced in the 1980s (00:14) and are of the type used during the Iran-Iraq war (01:52)

Projectiles are badly corroded in most cases and can no longer be discharged as designed (01:27)

They were found in a variety of locations (00:22): some had been improperly dismantled and/or destroyed (01:27), others were found abandoned on the battlefield and other unmarked munitions had been misplaced in conventional storage bunkers (03:22)

They could not be reconditioned (01:27)

An unspecified number are completely empty (00:47)

It is extraordinarily difficult, but not impossible, to drain the agent (03:54)

These aren't viable weapons of mass destruction. Three years later and still no hidden stockpiles. Only remnants, many years old, improperly destroyed, misplaced, unexploded and abandoned.

Noted intelligence expert James Bamford has a new article in Rolling Stone warning America about Iran: The Next War . This article makes a good companion piece to his earlier article The Man Who Sold the War , which documented the campaign of lies behind the Iraq War.

Daniel Ellsberg:

“I’m very, very worried about this country right now. I have been for a while. I don’t like to talk about this, but we’re at a very critical point here. I think, unfortunately, we’re in the twilight of democracy.”

From Ratbang Diary:

When Bush vetoed the stem-cell bill, the president’s new press secretary Tony Snow said:

“The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong.”

Snow should have added, “That is, George W. Bush thinks murder is wrong if the living thing is the size of a pin-head. Larger than that and all living things are fair game.”

Imagine by Peter Gabriel - with thanks to Watergate Summer

The Crazies and World War 3

Professor Juan Cole today has a very incisive analysis of current events in Lebanon, in the context of the neo-Conservatives plans to remake the Middle East.

The administration plan will fail.

It is not for nothing that George Bush, Sr. called the neo-cons the 'crazies in the basement.'

Colin Powel is said to have described the neo-cons, led by Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, as 'fucking crazies'. Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, one of Ronald Reagan's intelligence briefers, has said of this group:

“The people running our policies in Iraq and Iran were widely known in the 80s as the ‘crazies’. You come in on Monday morning and someone would say ‘guess what the crazies did late Friday night’ and you’d know who exactly the reference was to, it was to Wolfowitz, it was to Perle.

The crazies are in charge now. They believe in power and violence and nothing else, and they are moving the world toward a global war. Not only are their plans insane, although with their own insane logic, but we can be sure that they will be incompetently executed, as they were in Iraq. They will fail and we will all pay the price.

911: The Official Story and Conspiracy Theories

Immediately after the events of 911 I realized that there were inevitably going to be conspiracy theories; that some would blame American Intelligence, some the Mossad, and that Lyndon LaRouche would blame the British. I knew that in a story as complex as this one that there would be pieces of the puzzle--anomalies--that did not quite fit, even if the official story was the truth, as I initially believed it to be. At the same time, however, I believed it to be important to keep an eye on those anomalies as they were discovered by the critics, to see if they reached a level that would justify serious doubt, or even disbelief, in the official story. I have been, however, delinquent in doing so.

The only book that I have read on 911 is Daniel Hopsicker's Welcome to Terrorland: Mohamed Atta & the 9-11 Cover-up in Florida , which I would certainly recommend. Hopsicker's research strongly suggests that Mohamed Atta was more than just an Islamic terrorist, and that Atta, and the flight schools he attended, had intelligence connections. Nonetheless, after reading that book I was reluctant to jump to the conclusion that 911 was an inside job--and I still am. Atta may have been a bit spooky but the fact is that he did fly a plane into the World Trade Center, which does suggest a willingness to die for his cause, whatever that might be.

I believe that the 911 critics deserve a careful hearing. One of the most prominent is Dr. David Ray Griffin, the author of several books that I have not read, including The New Pearl Harbor. An interview with Dr. Griffin can be found here.

Border guards seize British 'dirty bomb' lorry heading for Iran

Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb.

On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box was a soil-testing device, containing highly dangerous quantities of radioactive caesium 137 and americium-beryllium.

The soil testers had been sent to Iran by a British firm with the apparent export approval of the Department of Trade and Industry.

In August last year there was a similar incident when a Turkish truck carrying a ton of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped.

This is disturbing on so many levels. Is Iran seeking to make dirty bombs? Does someone in the British government want Iran to have dirty bombs? What should we think about the fact that possibly the only thing stopping Iran from having dirty bombs is Bulgarian Customs?

Nutty conservative hottie Atlas' drunken, rambling video rant. I'd do her too.

Evangelical nutcase John Hagee on Iran:

“One bomb into Iran’s nuclear plant could start the Holy War, and believe me, that could happen this afternoon. All of the dots connect. Jesus Christ could be here this afternoon – there is nothing to delay his coming. I want all of you to get your eyes not on the cares of the world, but on the coming of Jesus Christ. I could see you in the clouds of Heaven today, and the rest of you will be left behind.”

Conservative weekly Human Events interviewed Hagee, as if he were actually an expert on foreign relations:

How do you know the Iran poses as grave a threat as your book details?

Nothing is known for certain until the lazer guided bunker buster bombs are released and the missiles are launched. My sources in times past have been extremely accurate and their predictions, given to me in April of 2005, have once again come true.

Will a Shiite-led Iraq partner with Iran?

I don't know!

But let's go ahead and start World War 3 because Jesus will return and put everything right!

The Coming Holy War

Several authorities have said Iran could have a nuclear bomb ready by April 2006. If Israel strikes beforehand, there doubtless will be a vast pan-Arabic Islamic army assembled to attack Israel.Once again, Jerusalem has become the target. We are standing on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon

This is from February 2006. These people believe that Iran already has nuclear weapons.

I am quite concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism. This sort of "Christian" extremism is equally troubling, given that apparently they have the ear of prominent Republicans.

U.S., Iraqi and international leaders have sounded alarms this week as new data showed tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in fear of death squads and that some 6,000 civilians may have been killed in just two months.

Is it civil war yet? The only good thing about the situation in Iraq is that it will probably preclude the Bush administration from attacking Iran, and even that is far from certain.

Conservative hottie Michelle Malkin celebrates "Jump Day" by jumping.

"The last remnants of the old Republic have been swept away." -from Star Wars

Jonathan V. Last of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard makes The Case for the Empire

"The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the Empire is good."

Basically he argues that the rebel alliance threatens Order in the galaxy. I for one am not quite ready to embrace the Dark Side.

Are experimental directed high-energy beam ("pain rays" and "death rays") weapons being tested in Iraq? Professor Hex draws our attention to this Italian documentary Star Wars in Iraq, available for viewing in Italian and English. A transcript can be seen here

Get in Their Face calls our attention to this document:

Endgame: Detention and Removal Strategy for a Secure Homeland

DRO’s success as a core element of the immigration enforcement mission will be realized when the synchronization of its resources and infrastructure result in the immediate and effective removal of each removable alien. With this strategic plan,DRO strives toward that goal while ensuring that its services will be provided consistently and professionally. The result will be enhanced homeland security through the successful accomplishment of DRO’s mission.

Over the next ten years, through execution of this plan, DRO will build the capacity to remove all removable aliens. DRO’s short-term focus until that capacity is built will be on the identification, location, apprehension, processing, and removal of the criminal element of the illegal alien population

.

Rolling Stone: The Return of the Draft

David Qualls, who joined the Arkansas National Guard for a year, is one of 40,000 troops in Iraq who have been informed that their enlistment has been extended until December 24th, 2031. "I've served five months past my one-year obligation," says Qualls, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the military with breach of contract. "It's time to let me go back to my life. It's a question of fairness, and not only for myself. This is for the thousands of other people that are involuntarily extended in Iraq. Let us go home."

2031! Good god!

"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." --George Bush


"God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." --George Bush

God help us.

Millions to fight compell’d, to fight or die
In mangled heaps on War’s red altar lie...
When legal murders swell the lists of pride;
When glory’s views the titled idiot guide.
It is the “cold advisers of yet colder kings” who have “the power to breathe / O’er all the world the infectious blast of death”.

Scholars have found a 200-year old poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and it could not be more timely.

The Drums of War

I heard Sean Hannity on the radio on my way home from work and he was salivating for war. Now, more than ever, this nation needs intelligent leadership. I sure wish we had some.


Hezbollah seeks to transfer soldiers to Iran

Israel has concrete evidence that Hezbollah plans to transfer the two Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted Wednesday to Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Thursday.

"We have concrete evidence that Hezbollah plans to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran. As a result, Israel views Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran as the main players in the axis of terror and hate that endangers not only Israel, but the entire world," AFP quoted Deputy Director General of the Foreign Ministry Gideon Meir as saying.

Michael Ledeen Wants War

After a few days of fighting, I would not be surprised to see some new kind of terrorist attack against Israel, or against an American facility in the region. An escalation to chemical weapons, for example, or even the fulfillment of the longstanding Iranian promise to launch something nuclear at Israel. They meant it when they said it, don’t you know?

The only way we are going to win this war is to bring down those regimes in Tehran and Damascus, and they are not going to fall as a result of fighting between their terrorist proxies in Gaza and Lebanon on the one hand, and Israel on the other. Only the United States can accomplish it.

Bush Losing His Base?

President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.

A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush's approval rating has fallen below 50% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 44%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last December, when 62% of total fucking morons expressed support for the president and his policies.

Baghdad is now verging on total collapse

As I hung up the phone, I wondered if I would ever see my friend Ali alive again. Ali, The Times translator for the past three years, lives in west Baghdad, an area that is now in meltdown as a bitter civil war rages between Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. It is, quite simply, out of control.

I returned to Baghdad on Monday after a break of several months, during which I too was guilty of glazing over every time I read another story of Iraqi violence. But two nights on the telephone, listening to my lost and frightened Iraqi staff facing death at any moment, persuaded me that Baghdad is now verging on total collapse.

Update: Neil Coulbeck allegedly killed himself by cutting his own throat. Does that happen very often?

Cause of banker's death still not clear

Detectives investigating the death of a NatWest banker, who was to be called as a defence witness in the trial of the NatWest Three, yesterday searched a recycling bin near his home for documents linked to the case. The body of Neil Coulbeck, 53, was found in parkland close to his home in Woodford Green, east London, on Tuesday morning.

Scotland Yard said last night that an initial post-mortem examination of his body, which may have lain undiscovered for five days, had proved inconclusive, and the results of toxicology tests were being awaited.

Curiouser and Curiouser.

Mr. Coulbeck, by the way, literally wrote the book on The Multinational Banking Industry

Enron case banker found dead

The body of Neil Coulbeck, 53, a former director of NatWest's stockbroking arm, was found in Epping Forest, Chingford, yesterday. There were reports that he had been hanging from a tree.

The Natwest Three - David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby - are accused of an £11m fraud involving collapsed US energy giant Enron, whose former boss died at his home last week.

Told of Mr Coulbeck's death today, Mr Bermingham said: 'It's absolutely terrifying. This has just gone to a completely new level.'

From Yahoo news

Bermingham — one of the "NatWest Three" — said Coulbeck was among several bank executives who had given statements to U.S. authorities in connection with their case.

He said Coulbeck had been "a thoroughly decent, honest, professional guy and a very experienced banker."

From The Guardian

A witness in the case of the NatWest Three who has been found dead in an apparent suicide had been "hounded" by the FBI, it has been claimed.

One of the NatWest Three said he "hoped to God" the death was not linked with his case - but there were claims that Mr Coulbeck had been under pressure after repeated meetings with US agents.

Crazy, evil Ann Coulter advocates a firing squad for Ken Rich of The New York Times, but only after a fair trial of course. I realize that there is no way to shut her up, but major news outlets do not give space to the Klan or the Aryan Nations--so why Coulter?

I understand that it is common to speak well of people at their memorial service, but comparing Ken Lay to James Byrd, a black man who was dragged to death behind a truck, and to Jesus Christ is a bit much.

Our Fearless Leader

Thanks to Dependable Renegade

Joseph Trento on closing the bin Laden unit:

According to a top FBI veteran of ALEC STATION, the CIA stopped the FBI from seeing NSA intercepts of Al Qaeda message traffic in the Spring of 2001. This reporter is convinced that the shuttering of ALEC STATION has far darker meaning then shifting resources in the hunt of bin Laden. I believe this administration and the CIA are trying to make certain no one gets to the real history of how CIA undermining of the FBI’s work on bin Laden contributed to the 9-11 attacks.

Murder Most Foul?

A must-read about the mysterious "suicide" of Philip Merrill, President of the Export-Import Bank from 2002 until 2005. Apparently he was found dead in the water, a shot gun blast to his face and an anchor tied around his legs. Suicide, obviously. Some suspicious folks have suggested nine billion reasons why he may have been killed.

The Hoestra letter is further proof of just how estranged is the relationship between the Bush administration and the CIA.

Dissident CIA faction 'exposed'

A HIGH-ranking Republican congressman has exposed what he sees as a dissident faction within the CIA that he says "intentionally undermined" the policies of US President George W Bush. Rumours about the existence of such a group have circulated in the US capital for a long time, but the comments by Representative Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, marks the first time they were confirmed by an official with intimate knowledge of the intelligence community.

"In fact, I have been long concerned that a strong and well-positioned group within the agency intentionally undermined the administration and its policies," Mr Hoekstra wrote in a letter to Mr Bush dated May 18, and made public today.

The CIA has refused to comment on the charge.

Rep.Hoekstra's Letter to Bush

Capitol Hill Blue's Doug Thompson has some interesting comments:

What's important here is that more and more members of the intelligence community are breaking with tradition and taking their grievances to Capitol Hill because they cannot stand the constant abuse of the Constitution by the Bush Administration.

"I did not join the firm to spy on my fellow countrymen," says former CIA operative Jonathan Westlake, who left the agency in disgust.

"These people signed up to serve their country," says political scientist George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon and Reagan White Houses and has many contacts within the intelligence community. "They see the programs authorized by the President as service not to the county but to the corrupt ideals of one man. Those are often orders that people of conscience cannot follow."

Bright Eyes: When the President Talks to God

The coming North American Union--I know that people on the right like Michael Savage are starting to get worked up over this--sinister gobalist elites working to undermine American sovereignty. I think we need to take a closer look at this.

Sunday Religion Corner

Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion. ~Robert Green Ingersoll

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~Stephen Roberts

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? ~Douglas Adams

My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image to be servants of their human interests. ~George Santayana, 1863-1952

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt --Bertrand Russell

Col. Ronald D. Ray, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Reagan Administration :

"This neo-conservative takeover of the government in the last six years is the destruction of the things that Barry Goldwater would have been running for in '64 and even the things that Ronald Reagan said he supported.

The conservative movement in this country has almost been neutered as a result of this administration."

Colonel Ray also expressed a few doubts about the official story of 911, calling it "the dog that doesn't hunt."

"Half a trillion dollars a year and a bunch of guys over in a cave in Afghanistan were able to penetrate that half a trillion dollar network that's supposed to provide Americans with national security."

"I'm astounded that the conspiracy theory advanced by the administration could in fact be true and the evidence does not seem to suggest that's accurate."

From Piglipstick

But this isn't the first suspicious Enron death. Flashing back to April 2002, there was this:

(CBS) It may be the biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story: the death of Cliff Baxter, a former top Enron executive. He'd just agreed to testify to Congress in the Enron case. A congressional source tells CBS news that Baxter wasn't a target in the probe, he was to provide evidence against others. But on the morning of January 25th he was found in his car - shot dead.

The Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File purports to be the covert history of our time. Most--but not all--of it is nonsense. It is nonethless a fascinating para-political artifact. I have a great deal of information on the Gemstone File (and have posted the Gemstone File itself here. The real Gemstone File consisted of some 350 pages of the letters of Bruce Roberts. I divided it into six parts. It seems to read better and scroll faster if you select each part seperately.) For further background on the Skeleton Key I have posted the introduction to the June 1975 version of the Key, which to my knowledge has not been seen for decades. I will continue to post more material at this site as time permits.

Dangerous Criminals Arrested: Old lady and Iraq war veteran arrested for exercising their first amendment rights on the Fourth of July.


Iraq war veteran Geoffrey Millard, is lead away by U.S. Park Police police officers after being arrested for attempting to join the Independence Day parade Tuesday, July 4, 2006 in Washington. Millard had walked into the parade with a sign that read: Support the Troops, Bring Them Home Now. (AP photo/Codepink/Iraq Veterans Against the War, Julie Cunigilo)

Chloe Jon-Pau, a 71-year-old member of the group Codepink, is confronted by a U.S. Park Police police officer as she attempts to join the Independence Day parade Tuesday, July 4, 2006 in Washington. Jon-Pau and an Iraqi War veteran were arrested by police for attempting to disrupt the parade. (AP Photo/Codepink,Iraq Veterans Against the War)

Iraq considers arming insurgents

BAGHDAD — Iraq's government is studying a request from some local insurgent leaders to supply them with weapons so they can turn on the heavily armed foreign fighters who were once their allies, according to two Iraqi lawmakers.

WTF?

OK, this is kind of scary:

Robert G. Webster is one of the few bird flu experts confident enough to answer the key question: Will the avian flu switch from posing a terrible hazard to birds to becoming a real threat to humans?

There are "about even odds at this time for the virus to learn how to transmit human to human," he told ABC's "World News Tonight." Webster, the Rosemary Thomas Chair at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., is credited as the first scientist to find the link between human flu and bird flu.

"Society just can't accept the idea that 50 percent of the population could die. And I think we have to face that possibility," Webster said. "I'm sorry if I'm making people a little frightened, but I feel it's my role.

Emphasis added.

From Is America Burning?

Listen to an archival recording of Senator John F. Kennedy reading the Declaration of Independence in its entirety

Greg Palast proves once again that he is one of the few real reporters around:

BUSH TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY “FLORIDIZE” MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

STEALING IT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES

It is nothing new, of course, for the United States to feel that it has the right to manipulate or rig foreign elections--unfortunately, the Bushites believe that they have the right to do the same thing in the United States--for the greater good, of course. 2006 and 2008 should be interesting.

Arthur Silber of Once Upon a Time has a good piece this morning:


Let us state the final conclusion boldly and unmistakably, so we may appreciate its full horror: the Bush administration has already decided, and probably decided some time ago, that it will attack Iran. They want a wider war. Everything that is now going on is simply the cover for the moment when the bombing begins, intended to provide what will be accepted as "justification" for the attack by the American public and the world.

And all of it is a lie from beginning to end.

God I hope he's wrong.

A new article by Seymour Hersh on how the military feel about war with Iran

Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President’s plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran’s nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack could lead to serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States.

Professional tattoo artist et in Arcadia ego on the Rigorous Intuition Discussion Board calls our attention to this item from a conservative site.

Even worse, there are plans to change the Republican Party to make it just as Gay-friendly as the Democrats. If George Bush selling us out on illegal immigration isn’t bad enough, there’s more betrayal ahead. A recent article reports “Charles Francis, a homosexual activist and friend of President George W. Bush, regularly briefs Bush senior advisor Karl Rove on his group’s effort to end the GOP’s opposition to homosexuality, according to a National Journal report. Francis heads the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), a year-old organization that seeks to make homosexuality a ‘non-issue’ in the Republican Party. The RUC has the backing of several prominent Republicans and Bush backers — including senior White House aide Mary Matalin, who is pictured prominently on the group’s Web site attending a 2000 fund-raiser for the Coalition. Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson (Wyoming) has taken a public role as the RUC’s honorary chairman, chastising Republicans who oppose homosexual behavior.”

So, Charles Francis is a "friend" of George W. Bush. Enquiring minds want to know: just how close a friend? Regular readers of this blog will perhaps remember my "Is George Bush Gay?" links section, which I eventually took down, as part of a largely unsuccessful attempt to get this blog out of the gutter. Still, the Bush administration does seem to be fairly gay-friendly for a conservative born-again administration. Ken Mehlman is widely believed to be gay. There have been rumors about Karl Rove. But the President--born again, conservative Republican, married with two daughters--he couldn't be, could he?

The Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas apparently does not rule it out, according to this story from 1998.

The oldest son of former president George Bush, the Texas governor has social and business connections to gay friends and colleagues that date back to his days as a Yale University undergrad. Indeed, gay men are a significant part of the society in which Bush travels.

Most of those people, however, remain in the closet, even though they are widely known to be gay. While Francis has gone public about his orientation, there are still some things he won't talk about. In an interview with The Advocate, Francis declined to speak in detail about his friendship with Bush, saying he did not "feel comfortable in the spotlight."

The Hullaballoo Dancers Dance To The Batman Theme

Thanks to Superfrankenstein

Take The Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz

Compares Hitler and Coulter quotes. You guess who said what. I only missed two but it was more a matter of style than substance.

Was the New York Times set up? Buzzflash thinks so. They quote from the Wall Street Journal's editorial:

" Some argue that the Journal should have still declined to run the antiterror story. However, at no point did Treasury officials tell us not to publish the information. And while Journal editors knew the Times was about to publish the story, Treasury officials did not tell our editors they had urged the Times not to publish. What Journal editors did know is that they had senior government officials providing news they didn't mind seeing in print. If this was a 'leak,' it was entirely authorized...."

Hmmm.... Let the cat out of the bag there, it would seem. Meanwhile, the story continues to have repercussions like this:

Protest planned against 'treasonous' Times

And this:

San Francisco talk show host Melanie Morgan believes that Times editor Bill Keller should be jailed for treason for approving the publication.

The maximum penalty for treason is death.

"If he were to be tried and convicted of treason, yes, I would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber," Morgan, whose show airs on KSFO-AM, told The Chronicle on Wednesday. "It is about revealing classified secrets in the time of war. And the media has got to take responsibility.