Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Author who uncovered John Kerry surveillance files reports some stolen
AP ^ | March 26th, 2004 | Ron Harris

Posted on 03/26/2004 7:52:53 PM PST by Sabertooth

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:46:10 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

The man who uncovered evidence the FBI tailed presidential candidate John Kerry for months in 1971 said some of those files were stolen this week.

Author Gerald Nicosia reported to police Friday that three of the 14 boxes of once-secret FBI files he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act were taken from his Corte Madera home.


(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1971; conspiracy; fbifiles; foia; kerry; kerryfbiburglary; nicosia; theft; vvaw
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-119 next last
To: dpwiener
But in this case I think Nicosia is much more likely than Kerry to be guilty of a cover-up.

Could this be why no top dog conservative medium has run with this? Does it all seem to lead nowhere with no real documentation? I really thought this story had legs at first.

81 posted on 03/26/2004 11:31:06 PM PST by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: archy
Could you explain this in more detail....what happened here?
82 posted on 03/26/2004 11:45:17 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" -- Abraham Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
Is Nicosia the sort of guy who would make it easy to have the tapes stolen?
83 posted on 03/27/2004 12:05:09 AM PST by WaterDragon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
Bump
84 posted on 03/27/2004 12:20:04 AM PST by AnimalLover
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Yaelle
>> what if Nicosia was "told" to report a break in? That he was pressured to have certain files go "missing"?

That sounds reasonable. Another possibility is that he was threatened and decided to back off but didn't know how else to do it. Maybe it's the Kerry people he wants to deceive. In which case he's decided not to use the material.

85 posted on 03/27/2004 12:31:04 AM PST by Graymatter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
Geeeeeeeee. that sure is strange. I seem to remember that Bubba had his passport files stolen right after he was nominated. Is this some sort of demonrat pattern? Nayh that couldn't be.
86 posted on 03/27/2004 1:05:33 AM PST by fella
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
That tourist guy probably has them.
87 posted on 03/27/2004 1:47:52 AM PST by WhiteyAppleseed (2 million defensive gun uses a year. Tell that to the Gun Fairy who'd rather leave you toothless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ann Archy
Agree with your surmise....a turncoat in the making. Possibly as a result of certain threats.
88 posted on 03/27/2004 2:40:07 AM PST by OldFriend (Always understand, even if you remain among the few)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
When he received them, he should have scanned them into a computer so that he would have had an electronic copy.

Stupid not to do this w/ something so explosive.

89 posted on 03/27/2004 3:39:21 AM PST by sauropod (Life is too short to drink cheap beer!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
This reminds me of the guy who wrote the book on gun ownership during the founding of our country. When it came time to fact check his doc's were missing or destroyed too. Did they attend the same "school of record keeping for the dishonest" ?
90 posted on 03/27/2004 4:08:18 AM PST by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Arkinsaw
7) Give your cat to a friend.
91 posted on 03/27/2004 4:09:25 AM PST by VRWC_minion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Arkinsaw
Exactly. What fool would not see fit to lock up the docs so this could not happen? Underwhelming.
92 posted on 03/27/2004 4:32:09 AM PST by sarasota
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
"The three files folders about John Kerry were taken," Nicosia said. "Those revelations are lost now, at least to me."

Guess no one ever heard of Xerox machines...Or Adobe Acrobat...or scanners...or microfiche files...

93 posted on 03/27/2004 5:12:43 AM PST by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
Could you explain this in more detail....what happened here?

Back during the first Bush administration, circa 1987, a southern Illinois farmer applied for a Farmer's Home Administration loan to pick up a piece of property adjoining his that had come up for sale as an estate clearance. He got turned down for the FmHA loan by his local administrator, but another fella made an application for the same piece of property and his loan got approved...and the farmer had a new neighbor. Not too surprisingly, he started checking out the guy who had beat him out of the deal, and found out that he'd not only previously made several similar purchases of farms in locations all over the county, but that on some of them he was either in a partnership with the fella who had denied his application, had cosigned with him, or was the owner of machinery used to work the properties involved.

More digging around the state showed the pair, Fife and Lawless, were engaged in similar operations in several other counties, with multiple holdings in at least a dozen more. Indeed, some were overdue on state taxes, but because of intervention by that county farm agent, the states were letting it accrue to be passed on to the next buyer, in effect, a no-interest loan for those involved that would have to be paid off by a third party. sSince the pair didn't appear to be playing by the book, the farmer who first noticed what was going on notified the IRS that they may also be evading federal income taxes, and let the FBI know that fraud of the FmHA may also be involved. There was an investigation, and the county agent was literally taken out of his office in handcuffs. Lo and behold, a USDA internal investigation showed that the agent had used his office to make a profit for himself, and ordered him terminated. He had his attorney file a Civil Service complaint, which was held before a St Louis area special judge, who ordered that all the records of the investigation be sealed, that the agent was to get his position and back pay back, and that all court records and transcripts of the case were to be destroyed, with an exemption from any FOIA requests to be issued stating that none of the records were available ON NATIONAL SECURITY GROUNDS. But it was done, and that was about that. The pair took a briefcase [airline chart bag] full of hundred-dollar bills and toured the state courthouses, paying off back taxes. The best estimate I heard of it was that it came to over a quarter million dollars. Bush was defeated by Clinton, and that was about that.

The farmer tried to get copies of any of the records and court orders from the case and found himself getting stonewalled. The farmer hired a Washington FOIA attorney who filed a FOIA suit against the Justice Department. Now there was a farmer, a lawyer and some newspapermen digging. It turned out that Fife and Lawless were political campaign contributors. Some of the amounts contributed matched amounts loaned by banks using FmHA-taxpayer dollar purchased farm and other properties as collateral. Others, vacant and lying fallow, were getting crop subsidies though they were also paid to set aside the land for agricultural uses. Others were also sold at a profit. In all, the investigationshowed over 50 million defrauded from the taxpayers. And some of it, perhaps as much as a third, was going into the political campaign accounts of politicians of both parties, including Republican John Ashcroft and Democratic House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt. Others, in state and federal offices were also apparantly involved.

After 8 years of Clinton/Reno, Bush II came in and appointed a new Attorney General- John Ashcroft. Neither the IRS, the FEC nor the FBI will touch this one with a 10-foot pole. The local newspapers won't touch the story because of the Democrats involved. There was a 60 minutes reporter who did a piece on some of the related FmHA fraud, but he's taken ill and isn't expected to recover.

That's a pretty barebones sketch of what's been going on there, with some of the details, like the farmer's name and that of his attorney being left out for now. But the 50 million stolen from the American people and laundered through politicians campaign fund accounts was around 50 million or more from 1988-1995. From 1995 to 2004, it's probably that much again, if not more.

I've got some internal FBI FD-302 internal forms that were not supposed to be released, and there are some other newsmen from the area who have ideas of some of what's been going on, especially in some of the smaller towns away from St Louis. And there've been some newspaper accounts.

But so long as a criminal suspected of involvement in stealing from the American people runs the Justice Department, it's a pretty good bet that there won't be much help there, unless something along the lines of the Watergate hearings takes place again. Note that the last time that happened, the result we got was Jimmy Carter; this time around it looks like it'll be John Kerry who could benefit from a replay, IF they decide to sacrifice the Democrats involved to get a re-elected bush, I can only think of one person who'd benefit and who has extensive ties into Chicago and St Louis financial circles and the political position to pull it off.

94 posted on 03/27/2004 5:34:22 AM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: DoctorMichael; Sabertooth; onyx; PhilDragoo; Happy2BMe; potlatch; yall
Thanks for the post/ping, Saber ! ...

What's that smell? </Twilight Zone Music>

Check this website out
(turn your speakers up)


95 posted on 03/27/2004 5:46:12 AM PST by MeekOneGOP (The Democrats say they believe in CHOICE. I have chosen to vote STRAIGHT TICKET GOP for years !!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
Thanks for the ping.
96 posted on 03/27/2004 5:53:23 AM PST by spycatcher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
I suppose it's possible that the news people are waiting to check out all references, and they may even wait until later in the campaign just so they can sell more papers and/or get more viewer ratings. One thing is certain: "The public's right to know" isn't very important to the major news organizations.
97 posted on 03/27/2004 6:12:27 AM PST by TommyDale
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: archy
Gee thanks for calling Ashcroft
a petty, money-grubbing crook. I
especially noted the evidence of
Ashcroft knowing all about these
deeds by Fife & Lawless, & likely
being behind the scheme himself.
And evidence he is covering it up
& getting DOJ/FBI - even career
people - to help him.

Evidence, too, that Bush vetted
him & Congress confirmed him even
while several Senators hated his
guts, all knowing he's a crook.

Impressive...
98 posted on 03/27/2004 6:29:41 AM PST by txrangerette
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
ping to #98
99 posted on 03/27/2004 6:31:41 AM PST by txrangerette
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
Well, now, doesn't this look Clintonian?

I'd ping "Hon" but it appears Hon has been banned? Anyone know the story behind that? He sure did a lot of good research on this topic.
100 posted on 03/27/2004 6:31:51 AM PST by MizSterious (First, the journalists, THEN the lawyers.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-119 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson