Antonio Iglesias Pons

As regular readers will know I did a great deal of research a few years back on a fringe subject known as The Gemstone File. I have put some of the information I came across on two sites that the interested reader can find under Research Projects at right.

Among other subjects The Gemstone File contain information about the JFK assassination, information which the author of the Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File, one Stephanie Caruana, said came from a personal contact of Bruce Roberts, author of the Gemstone File. This contact she said was a CIA-connected Cuban by the name of Antonio Iglesias, whose sister married Roberts' brother. I have been able to verify the existence of this individual, if not his connection to Bruce Roberts. His full name is Antonio Iglesias Pons. A CIA document that I obtained from the National Archives describes him as a "former employee" of the Central Intelligence Agency.

I recently came across an article on the internet that mentions him. I will quote it in full.

The night that terrorism planted death in Holguin's coastal town of Boca de Sama

By Alexis Rojas

The night was hot, light breeze and calm sea. People sleeping. It seemed that the night was going to be as common as so many others in this quite corner of Holguin's coast, but it was not like that.

That night of October 12, 1971 came carrying death with her. The sequels of that criminal action are yet fresh in many people, in the mulilated foot of Nancy Pavon, in the bullet still lodged in the body of Jesus Igarza, in Angela's scars, and in the eight indelible marks left in the legs of El Chino Escalante.

And in the tombs already cold, but never forgotten, where are kept the loved bodies of Lidio Rivaflecha Galan, in Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago de Cuba city, and of Ramon Siams Portelles, in Banes graveyard.

Both Rivaflecha and Siams lost their lives that sad night.

But the call for justice is still present in the voice of Josefa Portelles, mother to Ramon, who was only 24 then and left behind a six-month-old girl who could no longer be kissed by her father.

But also in Lidio's wife, Juana Vargas: "… just horrible, I thought I'd also die of so much suffering, however, I had to push very hard to raise four children that never more had their father around…"

And in the never silenced voices of Boca de Sama dwellers that have assumed Fidel's words when the Crime of Barbados: "When an energetic and forcefull people cry, injustice trembles."

THAT NIGHT

For sergeant Carlos Escalante Gomez (El Chino), the sea is life itself.

The big sea is joined to the story of his life and the source of his living as well. He believes he cannot breathe without the sea scent.

In that time, 35 years ago, Carlos Escalante commanded the small Guard Coast garrison, in Boca de Sama, at the entrance of the homonymous bay, near Guardalavaca beach.

In his house closed to the sea, we talked of that day when terrorism seized this part of Cuba.

It was a dark night. A pirate boat approached the coast; a smaller vessel left the mother boat and came closer to the coast. The terrorist command was on board a speedboat.

Escalante was returning to the town accompanied by Lidio Rivaflecha Galan, lieutenant from Cuba's Ministry of Interior (MININT) and the officer from the State Security there, some hours ago he had met some collaborators from nearby Guayacanes village, and was informed on the presence of some strange elements around.

It was not ten yet. Before leaving, Escalante ordered Julio Ricardo -professor from the local Militia School- to lead the checkpoint. At about eight o'clock, Julio was informed that a funny noise was coming by the bay entrance.

Then Ricardo decided to send Rafael Tejeda Toledo with four other men with a RPD 44 machine gun, to head towards the fire position in the windward end of the bay, near a lighthouse.

Militiamen Ramon Siams Portelles and Esteban Batista were on duty in Boca de Sama small dock. When Escalante and Rivaflecha arrived they met these men right in their post, just then militiaman Romilio Zaldivar arrived and reported he had heard noises in the town's old store and seen lanterns flashing.

Still unaware of the threat ahead, Escalante and Lidio went on walking.

Siams and Batista were posted on sentry duty there. But already next to the town's store, Siams joined them and asked them to be involved; therefore, Escalante gave him back his weapon and took Lidio's revolver.

They went on walking meanwhile the 16 very poor houses from the coastal town were sleeping. The small power generator was not working at that late hour. Complete darkness.

Then silence was broken… The Cuban coast guard men approached the place. "Halt!," they cried, just then the artful firing began.

A machine gun blast hurt Escalante in both legs, as long as two mercenaries shoot at Lidio and Siams, killing them to death. The night was filled with pain and blood.

The mercenaries fled because they didn't want to jeopardize their lives, but before reembarking they left behind a box full of incendiary bombs (May be they wanted to burn the town) and even a boat anchor.

Among the mercenaries engaged in the terrorist attack were the noted Miami mafiosi Antonio Iglesias Pons, CIA agent and head of the command and Santiago Alvarez Fernandez-Magrina who has admitted, without even blushing, he is a closed friend to also noted murderer Luis Posada Carriles.

From a mother boat there came the machine-gun attack over the town of fishermen and peseants. Their houses became the target of cruelty. Cuban coast guard men fired back. The pirates aided by darkness fled North, where some eight miles away the mother boat was waiting for them...

Antonio Iglesias also figured in a year 2000 assassination attempt on Castro in Panama.

Antonio Iglesias Pons, known as "Tony". Age: 65. Height: 169 centimeters. Normal build. White skin, light-colored eyes, gray hair with pronounced balding. Cuban, resident in the United States. Has U.S. citizenship.

Ongoing links with Luis Posada Carriles. He has been used as a messenger to deliver the money to be used in the organization of the assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro. He participated in the acquisition of weapons.

Civil War in Iraq

Residents trapped in the capital's most fiercely contested districts braced Sunday for a new wave of bloodshed when a 24-hour curfew ends Monday. Reached by telephone, they all offered the same grim assessment: civil war has begun.

Nir Rosen: Anatomy of a Civil War

Iraq 'worse than Vietnam'

Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato

Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops.

Western ministers have been stunned. "Kasuri is basically asking Nato to surrender and to negotiate with the Taliban," said one Western official who met the minister recently.

From Crime of the Century by Michael L. Kurtz:

The press conference lasted only a few minutes during which Oswald repeated his earlier denial of an involvement in the assassination. When the conference was over, a policeman led Oswald into an elevator. A magazine photographer rode with them and talked with Oswald, who vehemently denied shooting Kennedy and asserted he was a "patsy," taking the blame for others. Just before he entered his cell, Oswald told the photographer that the truth about the assassination "conspiracy" would be revealed at his trial.

Kurtz's source was his own interview with the photographer Gerald R. Herald.

Does anyone doubt that Oswald was killed to prevent just this from happening? Columnist Jack Anderson wrote in his book Peace, War, and Politics (p. 117):

Rosselli indicated that the mob set up Oswald to take the rap. Then once the blame was placed on him, he had to be eliminated.

And (same page):

Washington cop Joe Shimon told me it was Trafficante who called on the mob's chits with Ruby and ordered him to kill Oswald.

Joe Shimon was well-connected with both the Mob and the CIA.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

The view in Washington is that Al-Maliki’s usefulness has ended, and a political coup is now underway to oust him and reorganize his regime along lines more amenable to a revival of America’s old bias toward Sunni Arabs.

Brzezinski on Iran:

Brzezinski also questioned the Bush administration's policy on Iran, calling it ``self-defeating.'' Asked whether the U.S. should have to accept the reality of the Iranians obtaining nuclear weapons, he said, ``I'm not entirely convinced they are really seeking them.''

The Iranian leadership is ``seeking a comprehensive nuclear program'' that would put the country in a position to produce nuclear weapons, Brzezinski said.

``Japan can produce nuclear weapons very quickly, but they haven't done it, and I think that's where Iran wants to end up,'' he said.

Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, thinks that we should get out of Iraq.

Except when the survival of the nation is at stake, all military missions must be judged according to a cost-benefit calculation. Iraq has never come close to being a war for America's survival. It was an elective war -- a war of choice, and a bad choice at that. How much are Americans willing to pay in blood, treasure and toil to try to prevail in Iraq?

PARIS FLAMMONDE's monumental three-volume 1500 page work "The Assassination of America" is now available pre-publication for $125. His earlier work "The Kennedy Conspiracy," a pre-trial account of the Garrison investigation is one of the best early works.

Special Pre-Publication Offer:

How you can get "The Assassination of America" before its publication.

Paris Flammonde is offering a special pre-publication price on the 3-Volume set, comprised of over 1500 pages with more than 400 photographs, a collection to which some of the best known JFK Assassination researchers and scientists have contributed.

"The Assassination of America 3 Volume Set" will retail for over $400.00 but. through this exclusive pre-publication offer, readers may purchase the 3 volumes for $125.00 plus shipping. Qualified JFK Assassination researchers, historians and organizations may apply for a special "Scholar's Pricing" of $100.00 per set by contacting:

Paris Flammonde"Tarot" RR 6, Box 6199Stroudsburg, PA 18360-8537

Email: wildplum@epix.net

I look forward to reading and reviewing this work at the earliest opportunity. Thanks to Professor Hex for calling this to my attention.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Originally posted at The X Spot. Written to conspiracy researcher Mae Brussell.

December 24, 1976

Remember always--

The charges against my late son are false.

Sincerely

Marguerite Oswald

November 22, 1963

It is difficult to believe that there was a time in our nation's history when liberals were regularly accused of treason. Today they stop at character assassination.

Ok, Global Orgasm Day (Dec 22) is fast approaching and I don't have a date. You: must be female and live within driving distance of San Jose, California. We can meet before December 22 if you like. Age: 27 to 40. Older if really hot, younger if really slutty. It's about time I get something from this blog.

Sixties radical Tom Hayden has a most interesting article over at The Huffington Post, based he says on "credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman."

According to credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman, a secret story of America's diplomatic exit strategy from Iraq is rapidly unfolding. The key events include:First, James Baker told one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister, would be released from detention by the end of this year, in hope that he will negotiate with the US on behalf of the Baath Party leadership.

The discussion recently took place in Amman, according to the Iraqi paper al-Quds al-Arabi. Second, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice personally appealed to the Gulf Cooperation Council in October to serve as intermediaries between the US and armed Sunni resistance groups [not including al Qaeda], communicating a US willingness to negotiate with them at any time or place. Speaking in early October, Rice joked that if then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "heard me now, he would wage a war on me fiercer and hotter than he waged on Iraq," according to an Arab diplomat privy to the closed session.

There is a lot more. Negotiating for the best terms for our withdrawal from Iraq is probably a good thing, although we are certainly not negotiating from a position of strength. Hayden also says:

Bush security adviser Stephen Hadley carried a six-point message for Iraqi officials on his recent trip to Baghdad:

* include Iraqi resistance and opposition leaders in any initiative towards national reconciliation;

* general amnesty for the armed resistance fighters;

* dissolve the Iraqi commission charged with banning the Baath Party;

* start the disbanding of militias and death squads;

* cancel any federalism proposal to divide Iraq into three regions, and combine central authority for the central government with greater self-rule for local governors;

* distribute oil revenues in a fair manner to all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose regions lack the resource.

Robert Scheer interviews the inimitable Gore Vidal:

There are a few crazies who want to cheer the flag and this yappy little terrier as though he were a real president. Well, he’s not a real president. He’s a thing, a chimera who was put together by the Supreme Court, first time around, and reelected by, uh, Diebold, Sequoia and some other interested parties.

As the Bush administration considers sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq (a really dumb idea that will not work) Piglipstick draws our attention to this excerpt from this book.

Meanwhile the Iraqi people don't want us there.

74% of Shiites and 91% of Sunnis in Iraq want us to leave within a year. The number of Shiites making this call in Baghdad, where the U.S. may send more troops to bring order, is even higher (80%) In contrast, earlier this year, 57% of this same group backed an "open-ended" U.S. stay.

By a wide margin, both groups believe U.S. forces are provoking more violence than they're preventing -- and that day-to-day security would improve if we left. Support for attacks on U.S. forces now commands majority support among both Shiites and Sunnis.

Did the CIA Kill Bobby Kennedy?

Update: I watched the clip last night. It runs about 12 minutes and is very good. The photos are fairly clear and several people who knew the CIA agents in question identify them. Persuasive if not conclusive.

Update: Watch the BBC program here. (I haven't seen it yet.)

Shane O'Sullivan put together a documentary that will be aired tonight on the BBC that argues that three senior CIA figures were involved in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. His case seems to be based on photographic comparisons of the three men with people photographed in the crowd near the time of the assassination. This sort of comparison has often been done in the JFK assassination, and I must say I am a bit skeptical. With enough blurry crowd shots it seems to me that you can find a possible match for just about anyone.

One of the figures that the film maker feels was involved was David Morales.

Morales was a legendary figure in CIA covert operations. According to close associate Tom Clines, if you saw Morales walking down the street in a Latin American capital, you knew a coup was about to happen. When the subject of the Kennedys came up in a late-night session with friends in 1973, Morales launched into a tirade that finished: "I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard." From this line grew my odyssey into the spook world of the 60s and the secrets behind the death of Bobby Kennedy.

Emphasis added.

Update: Shane O'Sullivan's website: www.rfkmustdie.com/

Update: Lisa Pease's opinion: I do believe the CIA killed Robert Kennedy. I don't believe those are the guys who did it though.

US Government Documents Show 160 Saudis Flew from the US Between September 11 and September 15, 2001

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released US Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) agency documents obtained under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) detailing the departure of 160 subjects of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, “including but not limited to members of the House of Saud and/or members of the Bin Laden family,” between September 11, 2001 and September 15, 2001. The documents are available on the Judicial Watch Internet site by clicking here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy struggling for life after being poisoned with thallium, had earlier accused Putin of being a pedophile.

Alexander Litvinenko wrote a sensational and unsubstantiated article earlier this year accusing Putin of having had sex with underage boys.

The bizarre story appeared on a website linked to the president’s foes in the breakaway region of Chechnya.

A cached copy of his story in Enlish can be found here.

After graduating from the Andropov Institute, which prepares officers for the KGB intelligence service, Putin was not accepted into the foreign intelligence. Instead, he was sent to a junior position in KGB Leningrad Directorate. This was a very unusual twist for a career of an Andropov Institute's graduate with fluent German. Why did that happen with Putin?

Because, shortly before his graduation, his bosses learned that Putin was a pedophile. So say some people who knew Putin as a student at the Institute.The Institute officials feared to report this to their own superiors, which would cause an unpleasant investigation. They decided it was easier just to avoid sending Putin abroad under some pretext. Such a solution is not unusual for the secret services.

Many years later, when Putin became the FSB director and was preparing for presidency, he began to seek and destroy any compromising materials collected against him by the secret services over earlier years. It was not difficult, provided he himself was the FSB director. Among other things, Putin found videotapes in the FSB Internal Security Directorate, which showed him making sex with some underage boys.

ABC News asks the question: Has O.J. Gone Too Far This Time?

This time? You mean, as opposed to the time he butchered two people, one of them the mother of his children, and got away with it?

Our Fearless Leader

The Cult of Death

Swamp Church directs us to an unusual permutation of Catholicism; the veneration of La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death" by a group called the “Traditional Catholic Church Mex-USA” or the “Mexico-US Tridentine Catholic Church”. According to one news article that Swamp Church links to:

In Mexico City, in the tough Tepito neighborhood, where poverty, corruption and violence are daily realities, there is a beloved "saint" who understands and forgives the frailties of all human flesh. Her domain is a labyrinth of grimy streets lined with auto body shops and humble mom-and-pop stores. From her perch behind a glassencased altar adorned with candles, decayed flowers and shot glasses of tequila, she watches scruffy curs pick through garbage while a constant stream of pilgrims lays offerings at her feet.

To Roman Catholic Church officials, the skeletal woman in the long, flowing robes is an evil figure, a grisly embodiment of satanic purposes. But to the desperately poor and overlooked residents of Tepito she is a popfolk idol and often a last, best hope for answering unanswered prayers.

She is La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death," or as others call her, "La Santisima Muerte," "Sacred Death." Her petitioners are prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers, as well as multitudes of ordinary housewives, taxi drivers and street vendors hoping to cure a sick child or pay the rent or simply make it through another day without getting robbed or kidnapped or shot.

One site goes so far as to label this group The Death Cult of the Drug Lords

Seymour Hersh has a new article in the New Yorker revealing that the neoconservatives are still pushing for an attack on Iran, but that their efforts are being hampered by a CIA report on Iran's nuclear program.

The Administration’s planning for a military attack on Iran was made far more complicated earlier this fall by a highly classified draft assessment by the C.I.A. challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb. The C.I.A. found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency.


The C.I.A. assessment warned the White House that it would be a mistake to conclude that the failure to find a secret nuclear-weapons program in Iran merely meant that the Iranians had done a good job of hiding it.

However:

A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the C.I.A. analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it. The White House’s dismissal of the C.I.A. findings on Iran is widely known in the intelligence community. Cheney and his aides discounted the assessment, the former senior intelligence official said.

Al Gore:

Whatever happened to the concept of accountability for catastrophic failure? This administration has been by far the most incompetent, inept, and with more moral cowardice, and obsequiousness to their wealthy contributors, and obliviousness to the public interest of any administration in modern history, and probably in the entire history of the country!

Bush Cites Lessons for Iraq in Vietnam

The lesson Bush has apparently learned from Vietnam, as he meets under a statue of Ho Chi Minh for cordial discussions with Vietnamese leaders, is that we should have stayed the course.

McCain Calls for Common Sense in GOP

Like that will happen.

Julia Corker Update:

Looking at my site statistics today I see that I got visits from Yale University and the House of Representatives--both from google searches for "Julia Corker." That's Julia on the right.

Gay Swans and their Cute Babies

Homosexual Animals Out of the Closet

Homosexual behavior between human females

Voodoo Practitioner Curses Bush

A renowned black magic practitioner performed a voodoo ritual Thursday to jinx President George W. Bush and his entourage while he was on a brief visit to Indonesia.

Ki Gendeng Pamungkas slit the throat of a goat, a small snake and stabbed a black crow in the chest, stirred their blood with spice and broccoli before drank the "potion" and smeared some on his face.

Sure, putting a voodoo curse on Bush sounds like a good idea. But let's say that it works, and Bush swells up until his entrails burst out--then Dick Cheney becomes President.

In The Guardian:

US plans last big push in Iraq

President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.

Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.

OK, and what's the plan after that doesn't work? To be fair, more troops is only part of a four point plan, according to The Guardian. The other 3 points probably will not work either, but may be worth attempting. According to the story in The Guardian:

"You've got to remember, whatever the Democrats say, it's Bush still calling the shots. He believes it's a matter of political will. That's what [Henry] Kissinger told him. And he's going to stick with it," a former senior administration official said. "He [Bush] is in a state of denial about Iraq. Nobody else is any more. But he is. But he knows he's got less than a year, maybe six months, to make it work. If it fails, I expect the withdrawal process to begin next fall."

Meanwhile, the top US General in Middle East, General John Abizaid, says Troop adjustments won't solve Iraq

Julia Corker Update: more photos, no lesbian kissing

Matthew Craig, Commercial Appeal:

Republican Senate candidate Bob Corker and his daughters Julia and Emily head back to their campaign bus after attending service at the First Baptist Church in Sevierville Sunday morning

"Iraq Is Not Winnable"

So says Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and you don't get more Establishment than that.

Haass: We've reached a point in Iraq where we've got to get real. And this is not going to be a near-term success for American foreign policy. The Iraq situation is not winnable in any meaningful sense of the word "winnable." So what we need to do now is look for a way to limit the losses and costs, try to advance on other fronts in the region and try to limit the fallout of Iraq. That's what you have to do sometimes when you're a global power.

Mr. Haas also has an article in Foreign Affairs which argues:

The age of U.S. dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun. It will be shaped by new actors and new forces competing for influence, and to master it, Washington will have to rely more on diplomacy than on military might.

Meanwhile conservative commentator Ben Stein says Iraq Better Off With Saddam

Stein, a former speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford and a frequent contributor to the "CBS Sunday Morning News,” went on to castigate the Bush administration for its invasion of Iraq: "I’ve never seen a foreign policy mistake quite this bad. [Bush] just made a terrible mistake.

"We were better off with Saddam Hussein running Iraq. It breaks my heart, but it’s true.”

Rudy Giuliani--finally, a straight Republican

There is no way Rudy Giuliani gets the Republican nomination--he is too liberal for that party and will lose on the issues of guns, gays and god. Also he has been photographed (and videotaped) wearing women's clothing. McCaine wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit.

“V” Meets The Secret Service

On Monday, November 6, 2006, “V” visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. “V’s” purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more “Vs” would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions.

RNC Experiments With Heterosexual Chairman From Wonkette.

This is great news for social conservatives tired of worshiping a political party completely run by the homosexuals. Martinez is as anti-gay as they get without actually being gay. He does employ all kinds of gay staffers, but that’s pretty much the only way you have staffers at all.

It occurs to me that I never ran the other Julia Corker Facebook photo, so here it is. Julia is the one in the back, dryhumping the girl in her underwear. Julia--work with me; get arrested, pose for Playboy, come out--something.

Why Impeachment is a Bad Idea

Democratic leaders say that impeachment is off the table, and I think that is a good thing. It's not that Bush is not arguably guilty of several impeachable offenses, and it's not like the Republicans don't have it coming, but impeachment would be divisive and the Senate would almost certainly fail to convict. And, of course, at the end of the day if Bush were removed from office we would be left with President Dick Cheney. So, let's just forget impeachment and work for a Democratic President in 08. OK, that's settled then.

In a move that has been puzzling intelligence agencies, al Qaeda has been withdrawing well-trained Arab fighters from the mountains and battlefields of Afghanistan. In detailed interviews with Arab diplomats, intelligence sources and Pakistani and western officials, Arab members have been leaving Afghanistan for the past six months while handing over its militant activities in Afghanistan to that country's resurgent Taliban movement.

This can't be good.

Senator Joe Biden is Running for President in 08:

Senator Joseph Biden, perhaps the biggest weenie in the Senate, is planning to run for President yet again. His candidacy is, of course, doomed from the start. Meanwhile Senator Russ Feingold, who has been on my short list of desirable candidates, is not going to run. Senator Feingold told his supporters in a letter:

Yet, while I've certainly enjoyed the repeated comments or buttons saying, "Run Russ Run", or "Russ in '08", I often felt that if a piece of Wisconsin swiss cheese had taken the same positions I've taken, it would have elicited the same standing ovations. This is because the hunger for progressive change we feel is obviously not about me but about the desire for a genuinely different Democratic Party that is ready to begin to reverse the 25 years of growing extremism we have endured.

JFK Speech on Secrecy and Freedom of the Press

Julia Corker and family

Tag words: girls kissing, lesbianism, republican gay sex

Extraordinary Rendition:

"Here, they told me, the flies don't even come. When I asked for the toilet, they told me to go in my cell. There was an incredible stench. I remained there for six and a half months, at Amn El Dawla. The cell was without air, cockroaches and rats crawled over me. When the guard entered, I had to be on my knees or he would jolt me with an electric cattle prod."

"At the beginning, the guards stripped me nude and give me shocks with their cattle prods. One grabbed my private parts and mashed them when I would not talk. They stretched me over an iron gate, kicked me, attached electric wires to me and threw cold water over me."

Eric Lomax was tortured by the Japanese.

Waterboarding was the only torture he blocked out.

"He directed the full flow of the now-gushing pipe onto my nostrils and mouth.… Water poured down my windpipe and throat and filled my lungs and stomach. The torrent was unimaginably choking. This is the sensation of drowning, on dry land, on a hot dry afternoon. Your humanity bursts from within you as you gag and choke. I tried very hard to will unconsciousness but no relief came."

The beating and the interrogation continued. "I had nothing to say: I was beyond invention. So they turned on the tap again, and again there was that nausea of rising water from inside my bodily cavity."

Eric Lomax met his torturer five decades later.

Nagase remembered Lomax, too. "They poured water into his mouth. I saw his stomach swelling up. I almost lost my presence of mind. With the prisoner screaming and crying 'Mother! Mother!' I muttered to myself, 'Mother, do you know what is happening to your son now?' I still cannot stop shuddering every time I recall that horrible scene."

Global Orgasm Day: Countdown to Synchronized Global Orgasm

It's December 22 "at the time of your choosing." Doesn't that mess up the synchronization thing? I'm a little unclear as to how this is supposed to work but count me in. Also, currently accepting applications.

To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!

Corruption in Florida

A poster named "west" at the Rigorous Intuition forum linked to this story.

TAMPA - Ralph Mervine, executive director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, resigned Wednesday after a Tampa Tribune investigation found he is listed as the owner of a gay pornographic film production company.

Before joining the authority, Mervine worked around the world, serving as a senior project engineer for the Arabian American Oil Co. in Saudi Arabia from 1977 to 1980.

Mervine spent several years as a vice president for Brown and Root in Houston and a safety products company, Sure-Step of Tampa. In 1989, he went to work for the Florida Department of Transportation as director of operations for District 1, in Bartow.

Mervine left his job with DOT in 2001.

So, this fellow is linked to a Halliburton susidiary, Brown and Root, and the Department of Transportation, which is featured in the Clint Curtis story. The Republicans like the gay sex, don't they?

The CIA, ever mindful of the need to justify its “mission,” had conclusive evidence by the mid-1980s of the deepening crisis of infrastructure within the Soviet Union. The CIA, as its deputy director Robert Gates acknowledged under congressional questioning in 1992, had decided to keep that evidence from President Reagan and his top advisors and instead continued to grossly exaggerate Soviet military and technological capabilities in its annual “Soviet Military Power” report right up to 1990.

Thanks to Mike at Born at the Crest of the Empire

Are YOU the Anti-Christ? Find out now at this site. Based on the"agonizingly precise science of numerology." I'm not--but check out the results for "George Walker Bush."

Oh, and by the way, fuck you Karl Rove.

I knew I could count on Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs to go stark raving mad over the election results. I'd still do her though.

Looking in the rearview mirror. That's what the Republicans should be doing going forward. They squandered their historic majority and they were punished. But let's not kid ourselves. The American people have been clubbed to death like baby seals by a drive by, jihad loving media and it took its toll. Years and years of lies and propaganda had its effect.

Julia Corker Update: Julia's father wins his Senate race. That's Julia on the right. And no, on second thought, I'm not going to run that photo again.

Top Republican strategists concede House probably lost

Go Democrats! Vote! Remember, not only is the future of the Republic at stake in this election, but also I have $20 riding on the Democrats taking the House.

Meanwhile: FBI investigating GOP voter intimidation in Virginia

Raw Story today links to a Greg Palast article "HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION " but the link is dead. Greg Palast's website is also down. I'm trying not to get paranoid about this. You can read the article HERE or HERE.

GOP warns about the evil exit polls.

GOP fraudulent "robo-calls" in Nebraska are actually using the Dem candidate's voice!

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested.

GOP distributing false sample ballots in Maryland

Sec. of Virginia State Board of Elections Finds Widespread Incidents of Voter Suppression

Update: Men With Guns Harass Latino Voters

Evil GOP bastards!

from Hines Site

Senate exit polls:

Virginia: Webb (D) 52, Allen 47
Ohio: Brown (D) 57, DeWine 43
Rhode Island: Whitehouse (D) 53, Chafee 46
Pennsylvania: Casey 57 (D), Santorum 42
Missouri: McCaskill (D) 50, Talent 48
Montana: Tester (D) 53, Burns 46
Maryland: Cardin (D) 53, Steele 46
New Jersey: Menendez (D) 52, Kean 45

If trend holds, Democrats will take control of the US Senate

I'll believe it when it's official.

From Wonkette:

The list of straight male Republicans currently stands at:
Don Sherwood
John Sweeney

On Sunday, I spoke with a former senior Bush administration official who has publicly predicted the Republicans will retain a one- or two-seat majority in the House and keep control of the Senate. But his manner indicated he didn't believe it. "This is what I have to say," he told me. "This is my public position." I asked what his private view was. He rolled his eyes.

The Dems counter with:

From Juanita's via Dependable Renegade Go Democrats!

Do the Republican Think Black People are Stupid?

There are reports out of Nashville that African Americans are getting phone calls telling them if they voted for Harold Ford Jr. in the August primary, they don't need to vote for him again now.

A poster at Democratic Underground linked to this story. Step 1: vote the bastards out of office. Step 2: put them in prison. Sound like a plan?

Have they NO shame? That's a rhetorical question. I would love to have been in the room when they came up with this one. "Make the hand darker than the girl but not so dark that we can't deny it's a black man if challenged." What is the message here? Vote Republican or your wife or daughter will be raped by a black man?

Unless there are levels of theft and fraud that would truly mean the end of American democracy, a Democratic House seems as close to a sure thing as we ever get in American politics three days before an election. - Boston Globe columnist Robert Kuttner

Essential Reading on JFK Assassination

One of the best Kennedy assassination researchers, Larry Hancock, has a new book out Someone Would Have Talked available now at his website, and soon to be available at Amazon and other outlets. I have not seen the new edition yet, but I did read an earlier version, and feel confident in highly recommending this book.

What’s New in the Hardcover Edition:

Three years of additional research have been devoted to exploring the leads and directions developed in the first edition. This research has provided additional detail on a number of incidents. These range from the pre-assassination visit by Lee Oswald and others to Dallas resident Sylvia Odio, through new details of word in the underworld about an attack on JFK, to further confirmation on remarks by a Cuban pilot at Red Bird Airport in Dallas - immediately prior to November 22, 1963. Beyond that entirely new incidents have become known, including an international wire intercept of discussions about a conspiracy and disclosures to the ARRB about gossip heard after the fact from former CIA employees. Ten new appendices and hundreds of pages of related exhibits are provided to document this new information. In addition, the book incorporates the newest research published by a number of respected JFK researchers in 2005.

Larry has also put a number of documents supporting the book on his website.

Military Times editor accused of 'treason'

The wingnuts at WorldNetDaily have responded to the editorial in four military newspapers calling for firing Donald Rumsfeld.

Republican Election Fraud has already begun:

The Republicans appear to have a nationwide program of making fake phone calls appearing to be from local Democratic candidates in order to harass people in their homes. The result? The persona harassed by repeated calls from the supposed Dem candidate (apparently they keep calling you over and over again all night long) no longer wants to vote for the Dem candidate who is harassing them at home. Of course, the public doesn't know that it's really the Republican party pretending to be a Democrat.

Jill Sobule - I Kissed A Girl

For Julia Corker

"It’s the worst political environment for Republican candidates since Watergate,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster working in many of the top races this year.

Scott Ritter on Iran:

Some 180 miles south of Tehran lies the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. Tucked away on the side of the road, surrounded by a makeshift berm and numerous antiaircraft artillery emplacements, the facility has the outward appearance of something dark and ominous. But the secrets concerning what lies within are well-known to the world as a result of inspections carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency. What the inspectors say is crystal clear: There is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, the enrichment program is plagued with technical problems that prevent any rapid progress. There is no imminent nuclear weapons threat from Iran, which hasn't mastered the technologies and methodologies of enrichment needed to sustain a nuclear energy program, let alone a nuclear weapons effort.

How is it that we are on the brink of war with Iran when there is no clear evidence that they are seeking nuclear weapons, and are years away from such a capability in any event. Scott Ritter's opinion:

The path that the United States is currently embarked on regarding Iran is a path that will lead to war. (Indeed, there are numerous unconfirmed reports that the United States has already begun covert military operations inside Iran, including overflights by pilotless drones and recruitment and training of MEK, Kurdish and Azeri guerrillas.) Such a course of action would make even the historic blunder of the Iraq invasion pale by comparison.

Senator Tom Tancredo of Colorado on the terrorists: "They're right."

Note: in this post I am momentarily adopting the news standards of WorldNetDaily and the Republicans use of quotes by their opponents.

Ahmad Chalabi on America: "The Americans sold us out."

He adds: “America betrays its friends. It sets them up and betrays them.
I’d rather be America’s enemy."

So, John Kerry makes a clumsy gaffe, which is then deliberately and shamelessly misinterpreted by the Republicans, and he is forced to apologize and go away and hide until after the election. How much has this hurt the Democrats? Apparently, not at all, according the the latest Newsweek poll:

The new poll finds support for Republicans (and for President Bush) receding. For example, 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win enough seats to take control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday. Those results are close to early October levels, while less than a third of Americans (32 percent) want Republicans to retain control. If the elections were held today, 54 percent of likely voters say they would support the Democratic candidate in their district versus 38 percent who would vote for the Republican-a 16-point edge for the Democrats.

Now the election is not being held today--it's Tuesday. I have been saying for months that the only way that the Democrats would not take at least one house of Congress would be either some major development (on the scale of 911 or war) or massive election fraud. Not much time left for the first to happen. Of course there will be election fraud but I just don't think they can steal enough votes this time to alter the outcome. My prediction: the Democrats take the House, maybe the Senate. Actually if the Democrats do not take the House I lose twenty dollars to a Conservative--so vote!

Apparently the American people are smart enough to make the distinction between the war on terror and the war in Iraq. 32 percent now say Iraq is the most important issue in deciding their vote. Terrorism is tied with health care at 11 percent.

The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

More and more these days I am reminded of a statement that Jack Ruby made to the Warren Commission: I tell you that a whole new form of government is going to take over the country...

Johnny Cash: "Hurt"

All 4 leading military papers: Donald Rumsfeld must go

That would be the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times. This is huge.

Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.

This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth:

Donald Rumsfeld must go.

These newspapers are commercial newspapers sold to military personnel, not publications of the US military. Still, I would think they are widely read within the military.This editorial is scheduled to come out Monday, one day before the election.

The War is Over! From ABC News:

Nov. 3, 2006 — An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.

ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

"Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?" one student asks a recruiter.

"No, we're bringing people back," he replies.

"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says.

Blogger Joseph Cannon outs Dennis Hastert:

A certain letter popped into my email some days ago. According to this missive, a certain very powerful Republican congressman has been known to use rent-a-lad services, just as Pastor Haggard allegedly has done.

Joseph doesn't actually name him but he drops enough hints to make it obvious.

Julia Corker Lesbian Update:

You know, it's not easy to keep coming up with excuses to keep running this picture. (The real reason, of course, is that I'm a perv.) But a conservative blog Ace of Spades had some humorous comments (who says conservatives don't have a sense of humor?)

Homophobic Messaging From The Left? It just occurred to me-- using the same reasoning the left used to brand the Playboy Bunny ad "racist," it seems to me there's a nasty attempt here to play on people's homophobia--

If you vote for Bob Corker, Julia Corker might try to date your white daughter.

I'd rather my daughter kissed a woman than a Democrat.

I don't see what the big deal is. She likes football. She likes girls.

12 SMARTCARDS GO MISSING IN TENNESSEE; CONTROL ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES

From Drudge no less.

Political insiders have expressed alarm after 12 voter smartcards have gone missing from one Shelby County, TN early vote location!

The cards are used to activate electronic voting machines.

The location at the center of the controversy is Bishop Byrne High School on E. Shelby Drive in Memphis.

The polling place started out with 25 cards. By Wednesday, 11 were missing, says an eyewitness.

The location was given 5 more smartcards on Thursday.

And another card went missing!

These cards have no other value or use except election fraud. Look for a Corker win over Ford.

I love a good Republican gay sex scandal in the morning ...

So who are you going to believe--a prominent, respectable evangelical leader or a gay prostitute meth dealer. I'm going with the prostitute. First, Pastor Haggard has already admitted the charges are partially true. There are only two parts to the charges: 1) that Haggard paid for gay sex and 2) that he paid the gay prostitute for meth. I suspect both are true. The gay prostitute says that he met Haggard after he answered his ad for prostitution. If that is not true then how did they meet?

I saw Pastor Haggard in Jesus Camp, which I went to go see with my teen-age daughter. She turned to me and said: "Is he gay?" I answered that it wouldn't surprise me. It doesn't.

(graphic from AmericaBlog)

Update: What did I tell you? Now Pastor Haggard admits that he met the gay prostitute (but only for a "massage" and that he bought meth from him (but didn't use it.)

Embattled minister Ted Haggard admitted to reporters today that he purchased methamphetamine from a male prostitute he had contacted about a massage.
Haggard said he never used the drug and threw it away.

But he couldn't remember where he threw it away, according to KUSA-9News.

Haggard also admitted that it was his voice on the prostitute's voice mails asking to purchase methamphetamine.

However, on one of the voice mail messages he was recorded as saying:

“Hi Mike, this is Art,” one call began. “Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply.”

Sure sounds like he used it--and more than once--and knew what it cost.

Breaking: Bush's Top Evangelical w/ Gay Prostitute?

Evangelical leader quits amid sex probe

When a prominent conservative political/religious figure is put in the position of having to deny paying for sex with a gay prostitute--well, his day isn't going to get much worse. Remember Buell's law: whenever a prominent public figure is accused of sexual misconduct--he did it. You will never go wrong.

Update: He was in JesusCamp:

Baghdad is under siege

Sunni insurgents have cut the roads linking the city to the rest of Iraq. The country is being partitioned as militiamen fight bloody battles for control of towns and villages north and south of the capital.

Well-armed Sunni tribes now largely surround Baghdad and are fighting Shia militias to complete the encirclement.

The Sunni insurgents seem to be following a plan to control all the approaches to Baghdad. They have long held the highway leading west to the Jordanian border and east into Diyala province. Now they seem to be systematically taking over routes leading north and south.

Kerry's Joke: OK, the meaning is clearer but it's still not funny. Kerry should not attempt humor. Let me see if I can jazz it up a little:

"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting stuck between Iraq and a hard place. Just ask President Bush--cuz he's REALLY STUPID."

What do you think?

The Pentagon is looking into how classified information indicating Iraq is moving closer to chaos wound up on the front page of Wednesday's New York Times, and is not ruling out an investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

I commend the New York Times and whoever leaked this chart. Only 20% of Americans think we are winning in Iraq--and those people are wrong.

Ex-White House spokesman: Oil prices may 'jack up' after election
Ya think?