Covert History: January 2008

It's always sad when really hot women die young.

Looking at my site visitors the other day I noticed one that came from a site with which I was unfamilar called New Combat, inspired by the publication Combat that Albert Camus put out during the German occupation of his country. The site contains an interesting article E. Howard Hunt re JFK which is most interesting and contains a number of links to further pages. I am adding New Combat to my links.

So, first Chelsey is photographed with her father in front of the flag with the pentagrams on it, and now here she is wearing, supposedly, an upside-down crucifix. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the satan-worshipping tree.

Seriously, has anyone yet offered an explanation as to how the stars on that flag were upside-down?

BBC: The US military is planning to deploy robots armed with machine-guns to wage war against insurgents in Iraq.

Wired News: Pentagon Explores 'Human Fear' Chemicals

The Guardian: US Military Testing 'Pain Ray'

Daily Kos: 'Voice of God' weapon being used in Iraq

People are dying, sure, but what of it so long as Pentagon whiz-kids are having fun?

Did the LAPD Send Lee Harvey Oswald to Russia?

In the book, Chief: My Life in the L.A.P.D., Daryl Gates writes that the Los Angeles Police Department had a special intelligence unit that ran a program which sent American spies to Russia, totally clandestine and under deep cover. This was during the during the same period when Lee Harvey Oswald made his strange trip to the Soviet Union. A natural question arises; was the accused assassin part of the program?

Two interesting facts emerge when studying Daryl Gates. The first one is how interested he was in Lee Harvey Oswald and the JFK assassination. Just a few hours before Oswald was murdered by Ruby, Gates was on the phone talking to the Dallas Police Department. The second one is that he was in charge of Robert Kennedy's security at the Ambassador Hotel the night of RFK's assassination. Actually, there was no security. Gates kept the police away claiming somebody told him Bobby didn't want the LAPD there. The Los Angeles Police would burn most of the photos related to the assassination before Sirhan's trial began. Then Gates kept the case secret for twenty-five years. When he was forced to release the files, he had destroyed most of the evidence

Juan Cole says:

Hiring Paul Wolfowitz to advise the State Department on arms control is like hiring Lindsay Lohan as a driving instructor.

Pyramid Power: a nice photo of Nicolas Sarkozy and girlfriend Carla Bruni

We'll miss you Elizabeth.

The American Conservative: FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets. The most detailed account yet about Sibel's allegations about Marc Grossman.

After 9/11, Grossman reportedly intervened with the FBI to halt the interrogation of four Turkish and Pakistani operatives. According to Edmonds, Grossman was called by a Turkish contact who told him that the men had to be released before they told what they knew. Grossman said that he would take care of it and, per Edmonds, the men were released and allowed to leave the country.

Edmonds states that FBI phone taps from late 2001 reveal that Grossman tipped off his Turkish contact regarding the CIA weapons proliferation cover unit Brewster Jennings, which was being used by Valerie Plame, and that the Turk then informed the Pakistani intelligence service representative in Washington. It is to be assumed that the information was then passed on to the A.Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network.

Jeri,we'll miss you.

Surge to Nowhere

By offering arms and bribes to Sunni insurgents -- an initiative that has been far more important to the temporary reduction in the level of violence than the influx of additional American troops -- U.S. forces have affirmed the fundamental irrelevance of the political apparatus bunkered inside the Green Zone.

Rather than fostering political reconciliation, accommodating Sunni tribal leaders ratifies the ethnic cleansing that resulted from the civil war touched off by the February 2006 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a Shiite shrine. That conflict has shredded the fragile connective tissue linking the various elements of Iraqi society; the deals being cut with insurgent factions serve only to ratify that dismal outcome. First Sgt. Richard Meiers of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division got it exactly right: "We're paying them not to blow us up. It looks good right now, but what happens when the money stops?"

In only one respect has the surge achieved undeniable success: It has ensured that U.S. troops won't be coming home anytime soon. This was one of the main points of the exercise in the first place.

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

A nice photo of Hillary and Huma.

Sibel Edmonds in The Times again

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.

Watch the excellent 52-minute documentary on Sibel Edmonds: Kill the Messenger

Hillary and Occult Symbol on the Flag?

Thanks to a poster at godlikeproductions I present to you this odd photo taken directly from Hillary Clinton's official website. Scroll down slightly and watch the slideshow of photos to see it for yourself. At first glance everything looks normal enough but notice the stars on the flag. On a normal flag the stars have one point up. This flag has two points up--a pentagram, a well-known occult symbol. What's up Hillary?

normal flag

pentagram as occult symbol

Again, for purposes of comparison, note the close-up of the stars on a normal flag.

"There's just no doubt in my mind — under any set of rules — waterboarding is torture."

--Tom Ridge, first secretary of the Homeland Security Department

Of course it's torture. That's the whole point of waterboarding as opposed to, say, speaking to them in a disapproving manner. Torture is an ineffective way to get at the truth but it is an effective way to get prisoners to talk. In fact, they will say whatever their questioners want them to, which is part of the problem.

Jesus 'Tomb' Controversy Reopened

A leading New Testament expert from Princeton Theological Seminary, Prof. James Charlesworth, was intrigued enough to organize a conference in Jerusalem this week, bringing together over 50 archeologists, statisticians and experts in DNA, ceramics and ancient languages, to give evidence as to whether or not the crypt of Christ had been found.

Where can I get one of them plastic fetuses?

Photos of the Day

Former Military Itelligence Officer calls McCain a "Traitor"

"It was treasonous. McCain for what he did, while he was in captivity, was a traitor because he gave information to the enemy, classified military information which caused the death of many of his fellow aviators."

--Colonel Earl Hopper in a video interview here.

The site containing this interview is run by some of the same people who "swift-boated" John Kerry. There is a page accusing McCain of being a "Manchurian candidate." Colonel Hopper is a POW/MIA activist who thinks that McCain betrayed POWs that may have been left behind in Vietnam. He does not seem to have any first-hand basis for his charges against McCain.

Across the globe, researchers searching for signs of life in space were abuzz this week with word that a mystery signal has been picked up by a giant radio-telescope in Puerto Rico.

Huckabee: Amend Constitution to be in 'God's standards'

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

Jesse Ventura and the CIA

Update: CIA confirms Ventura meeting occurred

Turns out there actually was a Ventura meeting with the CIA in 1999. CIA Spokesman George Little confirmed the event today in a written statement, but he offered few details.
Little said that "on occasion CIA officers meet with senior state government officials, as they did in this case, to discuss issues of mutual interest."
Little shed less light on another revelation in Ventura's book. The former Independence Party governor says he was "stunned to learn that there is a CIA operative inside every state government." Ventura says the Minnesota operative was a deputy commissioner, who was working with a dual identity.
In response to a question about Ventura's claim, Little wrote, "I wouldn't think of CIA officers as being in state governments. They're federal employees."

Former wrestler and Governor Jesse Ventura has a book out, written with well-known JFK assassination researcher Dick Russell. You can get an advance look at it here, although you have to sign up first.

Shortly after he took office in 1999, he was escorted to a state Capitol conference room where 23 CIA agents were waiting. He writes that they grilled him about how he campaigned and won the election. "In short, how had the independent wrestler candidate pulled this off?"

He said he learned "there is a CIA operative inside every state government. ... In Minnesota, this person was at a deputy commissioner level, fairly high up."

"In our country, there is a certain ruling class that won't give up the power," he writes. "I know I had to be destroyed because of what I represented and how I got elected. There was a ripple of fright that what happened in Minnesota could be a trend."

President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late."

Sorry or the light blogging of late. I have been down with a virus and also dealing with car trouble. The car is fixed and I am gradually recovering from the bug.

So it appears that Bush has had his "Gulf of Tonkin" incident which may yet provide the excuse for war, even as the evidence is shown to be flimsy. It looked for a time that the time for war with Iran had passed, given the NIE on Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions, but Bush seems determined to have his war.

First Lady Laura's Bloody Fight With Boozing Bush

Hillary Clinton Warns of Alien Threat

According to the New York Post, she said, "Remember that movie Independence Day, where invaders were coming from outer space and the whole world was united against the invasion? Well, why can't we be united on behalf of our planet?"