Posted on 10/06/2004 2:42:28 AM PDT by kattracks
"My family is more important to me than my party," declared Senator Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat, as he spoke from the podium of the Republican National Convention on September 1. "There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." [1]
Many Democrats howled in outrage at Miller's "betrayal" - former President Jimmy Carter in particular. In an angry personal letter to the Georgia
senator, Carter accused Miller of "unprecedented disloyalty" and declared, "You have betrayed our trust. [I]t's quite possible that your rabid speech damaged our party..." [2]
But nothing Miller said could possibly have damaged the Democratic Party more than its own leaders had done in making the war in Iraq a partisan issue and embracing the anti-war cause. In his anger, Carter had mistaken the symptom for the disease. Long before Zell Miller's démarche, Ronald Reagan -- a Roosevelt Democrat who re-registered as a Republican in 1962 -- followed a similar course, explaining, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me."[3]
The leftward drift of the Democratic Party accelerated through the Vietnam years, spurred by the anti-war candidacies of Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. When the congressional Democrats pulled the plug on aid to our allies in southeast Asia in the 1970s, a contingent of anti-Communist "Scoop" Jackson Democrats crossed the aisle in protest and became Republicans - an act for which they were labeled "neo-conservatives." Rank-and-file Democrats staged a silent but even more devastating walk-out after four years of Jimmy Carter's "blame America" Administration, casting their ballots by the millions for the Gipper.
The Democrats' current presidential aspirant John Kerry has ambitiously modeled his political career after John F. Kennedy’s. Yet their politics bear little resemblance. If Kennedy were alive today, Democrats would condemn his sweeping capital gains tax cuts as a sop to the rich. His militant anti-Communism would evoke charges of right-wing "paranoia." And the vow he made in his inaugural address to confront tyranny anywhere in the world would win him the label of "neo-conservative" imperialist among today’s Democrats. Instead of calling on Americans to "support any friend" and "oppose any foe" -- as Kennedy did in his famous address - many Democrats are busy sabotaging our war effort in Iraq, with speeches as strident as any that emanated from the New Left during the Vietnam era.
The devolution of the Democrats from the Cold War party of Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy to the progressive party of Edward Kennedy and John F. Kerry has long been in progress, and is not quite complete. But the Democrats' final transformation into a party of the left in the European mode may not be far off. Barely noticed by political observers, an activist juggernaut has seized control of the party’s national electoral apparatus, organized, financed and directed by the left.
This party within the party has no official name, but some journalists and commentators have begun referring to it as the Shadow Party, a term that we will use as well. It denotes a network of non-profit groups presently raising hundreds of millions of dollars for deployment on the campaign battlefield. This money pays for advertising, get-out-the-vote-drives, opposition research, dirty tricks and virtually every aspect of a modern electoral campaign. But it does so through independent groups with no formal connection to the Democratic Party.
Follow the Money
The Shadow Party emerged from the dense thicket of campaign finance reforms engineered by Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold. Thanks to the soft-money ban enacted by the McCain-Feingold Act of March 27, 2002, the Democratic Party entered the current election cycle hard pressed to raise enough money legally to undertake a winning campaign. This created an imperative that found its inevitable loophole (as critics of McCain-Feingold always warned it would). Consequently, the driving force in the political war against George Bush is now a group of billionaires and millionaires operating through the veiled structures of the Shadow Party.
Under McCain-Feingold, political parties and candidates can only accept “hard money” contributions – that is, contributions given to a specific political party for a specific political campaign. Such contributions must be reported to the Federal Election Commission, and are limited to a $2,000 maximum per donor for each candidate, or $5,000 per donor if they are paid to a federally registered political action committee (PAC). Historically, Republicans have enjoyed a 3-1 advantage over Democrats in raising hard-money contributions from individual donors. Democrats have relied much more heavily on soft-money contributions from large institutions such as unions.
Soft money refers to political contributions, which for one reason or another have been exempted from the limits imposed by the FEC. Before McCain-Feingold outlawed such contributions, soft money donors could give as much money to political parties as they wished. Their contributions often numbered in the millions of dollars. McCain-Feingold deprived the Democrats of their soft money, but the Shadow Party has provided an alternate channel for collecting unlimited contributions. For example, government unions used to lavish multi-million-dollar contributions on the Democratic Party – money which the unions drew from their members, through mandatory dues. The unions still collect their membership dues, but, under McCain-Feingold, they may no longer pass that money along to the Democratic Party, at least not directly. The solution? They give it to the Shadow Party instead.
The Shadow Party uses various expedients to evade McCain-Feingold’s limits. First, it works through independent non-profit groups that ostensibly have no connection to the Democratic Party, either structurally or through informal coordination. The Shadow Party contains many types of non-profit groups, but most of its big fundraisers are “527 committees” – named after Section 527 of the IRS code – sometimes called “stealth PACS” because, unlike ordinary PACS (political action committees), they are not required to register with the Federal Election Commission nor to divulge their finances to the FEC (except in special circumstances).
Another expedient used by the Shadow Party is to claim that it is not engaged in electioneering at all. Most Shadow Party groups say they are soliciting funds not to defeat a particular candidate, but to promote “issues” and non-partisan get-out-the-vote drives. Of course their issue promotions have, in most cases, turned out to be savage attacks on the opposing candidates and their get-out-the-vote drives have used sophisticated demographic marketing techniques to target exclusively Democratic constituencies. All of this casts doubt on the Shadow Party’s claim to be aloof from the electoral struggle and therefore exempt from FEC regulation. However, a pliant Federal Elections Commission has conveniently declined to rule on the Shadow Party’s legality until after the election, when it will no longer matter.
Needless to say, McCain-Feingold also bars the Republican Party from raising soft money. However, Republicans never had a problem raising individual contributions for their candidates and never made a habit of raiding union treasuries for “soft money.” Thus Republicans have felt less urgency than Democrats to seek alternative fundraising methods, and they have proved slower in pursuing the 527 escape route from McCain-Feingold. Republicans have built no network of independent, non-profit groups comparable in numbers or scale to the Democrat Shadow Party.
No one knows who first coined the term “shadow party.” The term has become popular among journalists, but likely originated among the freelance fundraisers themselves. In the November 5, 2002 Washington Post, writer Thomas B. Edsall wrote of “shadow organizations” springing up on both sides of the political fence to circumvent McCain-Feingold’s soft money ban.[4] Lorraine Woellert of Business Week
appears to have been the first journalist to apply the term “shadow party” specifically to the Democrat network of 527 groups, in a September 15, 2003 article titled, “The Evolution of Campaign Finance?”[5] Other journalists followed her example.
The Soros Factor
According to conventional wisdom the Shadow Party began taking form shortly after March 27, 2002 – the date President Bush signed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, popularly known as McCain-Feingold. However, the Shadow Party’s earliest origins predate the Reform Act by many years. The principal mover behind the Shadow Party is Wall Street billionaire and leftwinger George Soros. A New York
hedge fund manager, global investment banker and currency trader, Soros has a personal net worth in the $7 billion range. Under his aegis, the Shadow Party has created a new power base for the left, independent of the mainstream party apparatus – a leverage point from which to tilt the party in an ever-more-radical direction.
Only Soros knows when he first conceived the idea of forming this network. However, clear hints of his intentions began to appear as early as the 2000 election. By that time, Soros had already baffled friend and foe alike with his increasingly strident attacks on capitalism – the very system which had elevated him from a penniless Hungarian refugee to one of the world’s wealthiest men. In his 1998 book The Crisis of Global Capitalism, Soros predicted an imminent collapse of the global financial system. Financiers like himself were largely to blame, he wrote, for they had allowed greed to overwhelm their humanity. “The (global capitalist) system is deeply flawed,” wrote Soros. “As long as capitalism remains triumphant, the pursuit of money overrides all other social considerations.” [6]
Soros offered no coherent solution to the problem. He simply continued his long-established pattern of pouring money into a hodge-podge of fashionable leftwing causes, such as promoting mass immigration into the United States; financing anti-gun lawsuits and lobbyists; demanding voting rights for felons; seeking the abolition of capital punishment; exacerbating Palestinian unrest; promoting abortion; feminism; population control; gay liberation; euthanasia; radical theories of education; marijuana legalization and global government.
In 2000, Soros stepped up his attack on the status quo – dramatically raising his profile in U.S. electoral politics in the process – by sponsoring the so-called “Shadow Conventions.” Organized by author, columnist, social climber and political gadfly Arianna Huffington, the Shadow Conventions were counter-cultural events that gave a spotlight to critics of the electoral mainstream, most from the far left. In an effort to lure news crews away from the national party conventions, Huffington held her “Shadow Conventions” at the same time and in the same cities as the Republican and Democratic conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles respectively.
The largest single donor to the Shadow Conventions was George Soros, who put up about one third of the cost, according to Time magazine.[7]
Media commentators at the time played the Shadow Conventions for laughs. Yet these events conveyed a serious message; a comprehensive radical agenda which Soros evidently endorsed.
Third Force
The Shadow Conventions promoted the view that neither Democrats nor Republicans served the interests of the American people. Like the New Left of the 1960s and today’s Green Party, both of which dismiss the major parties as instruments of the “corporate ruling class,” Huffington declared that US politics needed a third force to break the deadlock. Among the issues highlighted at the Shadow Conventions were racism, special interest lobbies, marijuana legalization and the allegedly growing concentration of wealth – a radical hobgoblin since Karl Marx first raised its specter 150 years ago. Most speakers and delegates at the Shadow Convention hewed to a hard-left line, their views resonating with the “Free Mumia” chants that erupted periodically from the crowd and with Jesse Jackson’s incendiary charges that Republicans were racists. Huffington herself was a sometime conservative whose cult-like worship of Newt Gingrich had formerly evoked titters of amusement from media gossips. At the Shadow Conventions, she told reporters: “I have become radicalized.”
Not all the speakers were hucksters in the Jackson mold, however. Senator John McCain whose campaign finance crusade had put him at odds with both parties was one of the few mainstream politicians to accept Huffington’s invitation to speak. He made an impassioned plea for campaign finance reform, a crusade which – perhaps not coincidentally – George Soros had been a major force in pushing since 1995.
The Shadow Conventions were symbolic affairs. They represented no party and nominated no candidates for office. However, many of Soros’ activities during the 2000 campaign went beyond symbolism. It was during the 2000 election cycle that Soros first began experimenting with raising money through 527 committees. He assembled a team of wealthy Democrat donors to help him push two of his favorite issues – gun control and marijuana legalization. Soros collected contributions greatly exceeding the $5,000 limit allowed to federal PACs, but he evaded those limits by using 527 committees.
One of Soros’ committees was an anti-gun group called The Campaign for a Progressive Future, which sought to neutralize the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) by targeting political candidates whom the NRA endorsed. Mainstream Democrats had backed off the gun control issue when candidate Al Gore learned that 40 percent of union households owned guns. However, Soros was no mainstream Democrat. He personally seeded The Campaign for a Progressive Future with $500,000.[8]
During the 2000 election, Soros’ Campaign for a Progressive Future funded political ads and direct mail campaigns in support of state initiatives favoring background checks at gun shows. Soros and his associates also funneled money into pro-marijuana initiatives, which appeared on the ballot in various states that year.[9]
Donors to Soros’ stealth PACs during the 2000 election cycle included insurance mogul Peter B. Lewis and InfoSeek founder Steven Kirsch, both of whom would turn up later as major contributors to Soros’ Shadow Party during the 2004 campaign.
The Southampton Meeting
To the extent that the Shadow Party can be said to have an official launch date, July 17, 2003 probably fits the bill.[10] On that day, a team of political strategists, wealthy donors, leftwing labor leaders and other Democrat activists gathered at Soros’ Southampton beach house on Long Island. Aside from Soros, the most noteworthy attendee was Morton H. Halperin. Soros had hired Halperin in February 2002, to head the Washington
office of his tax-exempt Open Society Institute – part of Soros’ global network of Open Society institutes and foundations located in more than 50 countries around the world. Given Halperin’s history, the appointment revealed much about Soros’ political goals.
Halperin has a long and controversial track record in the world of Washington intrigue, dating back to the Johnson Administration. Journalists sympathetic to Halperin’s leftwing sentiments give him high marks for blowing the whistle on the Vietnam War, but his activism helped undermine America’s war effort and contributed to the Communist victory.
The Johnson Defense Department placed Halperin in charge of compiling a secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, based on classified documents. This secret history later emerged into public view as the so-called “Pentagon Papers.” Halperin and his deputy Leslie Gelb assigned much of the writing to leftwing opponents of the war, such as Daniel Ellsberg who, despite his background as a former Marine and a military analyst for the Rand Corporation, was already evolving into a New Left radical. In his memoir, Secrets, Ellsberg admits to concluding, as early as 1967, that, “we were not fighting on the wrong side; we were the wrong side” in the Vietnam War.
[11] Evidently Ellsberg had come to view Ho Chi Minh’s Communist regime as the wave of the future.
With Halperin’s tacit encouragement – and perhaps active collusion – Ellsberg stole the secret history and released it to The New York Times, which published the documents as “The Pentagon Papers” in June 1971.[12] This was a violation of the Espionage Act, which forbids the removal of classified documents from government buildings. Not surprisingly, “The Pentagon Papers” echoed Halperin’s long-standing position that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, and ridiculed Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for stubbornly refusing to heed those of their advisors who shared this opinion. It marked a turning point in America’s failed effort to keep Indo-China from falling to the Communists. The government dropped its case against Ellsberg as Nixon’s power collapsed during the Watergate intrigues.
Halperin went on to become the director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1984 to 1992 and head of its "National Security Archives." From this position, he waged open war against U.S. intelligence services, through the courts and the press, seeking to strip the government of virtually any power to investigate, monitor or obstruct subversive elements and their activities.[13] It did not take long for Halperin to go the next logical step and argue for abolishing America’s intelligence services altogether. “Using secret intelligence agencies to defend a constitutional republic is akin to the ancient medical practice of employing leeches to take blood from feverish patients. The intent is therapeutic, but in the long run the cure is more deadly than the disease,” Halperin wrote in his 1976 book, The Lawless State: The Crimes of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies.[14]
In a March 21, 1987 article in The Nation, Halperin expanded on this theme and, like Ellsberg, took the position that America was the real villain in the Cold War. He wrote, “Secrecy does not serve national security. Covert operations are incompatible with constitutional government and should be abolished.”[15] This was a call for unilateral disarming of our intelligence services to match the universal disarmament of our military which has long been a staple of the radical agenda.
Evidently, Soros wishes Halperin to continue his war on America’s intelligence services. According to an Open Society Institute press release, one of Halperin’s principal assignments on the Soros team is to battle “post-September 11 policies that threaten the civil liberties of Americans.” [16]
The Plan
No one has published a full list of the attendees at Soros’ July 17 meeting in Southampton, at which Soros laid out his plan to defeat President Bush.[17] However, a partial list is available in accounts that appeared in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. These include an impressive array of former Clinton
administration officials, among them Halperin. Prior to working for Soros, Halperin had served eight years under Clinton, first as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and finally as Director of Policy Planning for the Clinton State Department.
The guests at Soros’ beach house also included Clinton’s former chief of staff John Podesta; Jeremy Rosner, former special advisor to Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeline Albright; Robert Boorstin, a former advisor to Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin; and Steven Rosenthal, a leftwing union leader who served the Clinton White House as an advisor on union affairs to Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, and Ellen Malcolm, founder and president of the pro-abortion lobby Emily’s List, also attended the meeting, as did such prominent Democrat donors as auto insurance mogul Peter B. Lewis; founder and CEO of RealNetworks Rob Glaser; Taco Bell heir Rob McKay; and Benson & Hedges tobacco heirs Lewis and Dorothy Cullman.
Months earlier, Soros had hired two political analysts to probe Bush’s defenses. They were Tom Novick, a lobbyist for the Western States Center – a group of radical environmentalists in Oregon – and Democrat media strategist Mark Steitz, president of TSD Communications in Washington DC, whose clients have included the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaigns of 1992 and 1996. Jeanne Cummings of The Wall Street Journal reports that both Novick and Steitz were present at the Southampton meeting, to brief the team in person.
Working independently, the two analysts had reached similar conclusions. Both agreed that Bush could be beaten. Voter turnout was the key. The analysts proposed massive get-out-the-vote drives among likely Democrat voters in seventeen “swing” or “battleground” states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington.
“By morning,” reports Cummings, “the outlines of a new organization began to emerge, and Mr. Soros pledged $10 million to get it started.” The name of that organization was America Coming Together (ACT) – a grassroots activist group designed to coordinate the Shadow Party’s get-out-the-vote drive. ACT would dispatch thousands of activists – some paid, some volunteers – to knock on doors and work phone banks, combining the manpower of leftwing unions, environmentalists, abortion-rights activists and minority race warriors from civil rights organizations.
ACT was not exactly new. A group of Democrat activists had been trying for months to get it off the ground. But, until George Soros stepped in, ACT had languished for lack of donors. Laura Blumenfeld of The Washington Post describes the scene at the July 17 meeting at Soros’ beach house: “Standing on the back deck, the evening sun angling into their eyes, Soros took aside Steve Rosenthal, CEO of the liberal activist group America Coming Together (ACT), and Ellen Malcolm, its president. … Soros told them he would give ACT $10 million. …Before coffee the next morning, his friend Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corp., had pledged $10 million to ACT. Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks, promised $2 million. Rob McKay, president of the McKay Family Foundation, gave $1 million and benefactors Lewis and Dorothy Cullman committed $500,000. Soros also promised up to $3 million to Podesta's new think tank, the Center for American Progress,” which would function as the policy brains of the new network.[18]
The Shadow Party had been born. Three weeks later, on August 8, The New York Times announced the official roll-out of America Coming Together (ACT), describing it as a political action committee led by Ellen Malcolm and Steven Rosenthal.
Soros next summoned California software developer Wes Boyd to meet him in New York on September 17. Boyd was best known among computer users for his “Flying Toasters” screen saver. The political world knew him as founder of the radical Web site MoveOn.org, the Internet force behind Howard Dean’s anti-war presidential campaign. Boyd had launched the Web site during the Clinton
impeachment trial in 1998, offering a petition to censure the President and “move on” to more important matters. Hundreds of thousands of readers responded, and Boyd quickly began milking his growing membership for political contributions. His Web site raised millions for Democrat candidates in three national elections – two mid-terms and one presidential race. When they met in New York, Soros offered Boyd a deal. He and his associate Peter Lewis would donate $1 to MoveOn.org for every $2 Boyd could raise from his members, up to $5 million total from Soros and Lewis combined. Boyd accepted.[19]
By November 2003, the Shadow Party was ready to go public. As Cummings notes in the Wall Street Journal, Soros calculated that the best way to launch his network would be to issue a public statement, calling attention to the record-breaking contributions he had pledged to the Shadow Party. Such an announcement would “stimulate other giving” from Democrat donors still sitting on the fence, Soros thought.[20]
He chose The Washington Post to carry his message. Soros sat down with reporter Laura Blumenfeld and issued his now-famous call for regime change in the USA. “America under Bush is a danger to the world,” Soros declared in that November 11, 2003
interview. Toppling Bush, he said, “is the central focus of my life… a matter of life and death. And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.” Would Soros spend his entire $7-billion fortune to defeat Bush, Blumenfeld asked? “If someone guaranteed it,” Soros replied.
To be continued.
David Horowitz is the author of Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left.
Richard Poe’s latest book is Hillary’s Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists (WND Books 2004).
Bookmarked
Exactly right, it is the European left attempting to take over here and impose upon us the same failure that they have produced on the European continent in the West.
!
Hmmm.
AUGUST late or SEPTEMBER? 2003 : (SANDY BERGER REVIEWS COPY OF POST-MILLENNIUM REPORT IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES- IT WOULD DISAPPEAR) --- "AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos [Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation," John Solomon, AP via Yahoo, July 20, 2004
SEPTEMBER 2 - 8, 2003 : (ALAMOUDI TRAVELS TO SYRIA) - "Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash," by J. Michael Waller, Insight, 10-13-2003
SEPTEMBER 8, 2003 : (FORMER PRES. CARTER IS IN BEIJING, CHINA, MEETS CHINESE "PRESIDENT" HU JINTAO)
SEPTEMBER 8 - 13, 2003 : (ALAMOUDI TRAVELS TO YEMEN) - "Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash," by J. Michael Waller, Insight, 10-13-2003
SEPTEMBER 10, 2003 : (FL : ARMY CAPT. YEE IS DETAINED, FOUND IN POSSESSION OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS) A Muslim chaplain who was counseling al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base is ... detained ...after being found in possession of classified documents. Capt. Yee, of Chinese descent, was taken into custody by FBI agents as he deplaned from a military charter flight out of Guantanamo. Sources say agents confiscated "several" documents he was carrying. - "Military confirms Muslim chaplain had secret papers ," Washington Times , by Steve Miller, September 21, 2003 SEPTEMBER 11, 2003 : (NY "PROGRESSIVES'" CONFERENCE INCLUDES RAY MCGOVERN, WILLIAM RIVERS PITT, OTHERS) On September 11, 2003, a conference was held in New York. "World's Leading Progressives Gather to Rethink 9/11" was the title of the press release, dubbed the "Largest Forum Ever on 9/11 Questions and Alternatives to Corporate Rule, Repression and War".
What are "9/11 Questions"? Well, such phrases as "What Did Bush Know?", "Who Really Piloted the Planes?" and so on.
The partial list of participants is telling:
Medea Benjamin, Kelly Campbell, Mike Ferner, Catherine Austin Fitts, Amy Goodman, John Judge, Rev. Peter Laarman, Wayne Madsen, Rania Masri, Cynthia McKinney, Hibaaq Osman, Ray McGovern, Greg Palast, William Rivers Pitt, Virginia Rasmussen, Michael Ratner, Michael Ruppert, Danny Schechter, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Steve Staples, Susan Witt…- "VANITY: Wilson Outed His Wife's Status.," Vanity , assembled by seamole w/unsycophant, October 2, 2003, Posted on 10/02/2003 11:49 PM PDT by seamole
SEPTEMBER 12, 2003 : (UN LIFTS SANCTIONS ON LIBYA - BUT LIBYA WOULD LATER BE CAUGHT IMPORTING MATERIALS FOR ITS WMD PROGRAM) THE 13-0-2 VOTE to lift the arms embargo and ban on flights to Libya was more symbolic than substantive because the sanctions have been indefinitely suspended for over four years.
The council imposed the sanctions in 1992 to force Libya to hand over two indicted men for trial in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. Once they were turned over in April 1999, the council suspended the sanctions indefinitely — but Libya had pressed for the embargoes to be lifted to restore its standing in the international community.
---- Source: "U.N. Lifts Sanctions Against Libya," MSNBC , 9/12/03, http://www.msnbc.com/news/965122.asp?0na=x210n430-&cp1=1
SEPTEMBER 15, 2003 : (MOVEON.ORG'S SITE MISLEADER.ORG PUBLISHES ITS FIRST ISSUE OF 'THE DAILY MISLEAD') - "Who's Lying Now?," Opinion Journal via http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1037366/posts
SEPTEMBER 15 - 16, 2003 : (ALAMOUDI TRAVELS TO SYRIA) - "Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash," by J. Michael Waller, Insight, 10-13-2003
[* my note: al-amoudi is a Democratic donor- specifically to Hillary & founder of American Muslim Veterans Affairs council or some such thing- picks chaplains for US military]
SEPTEMBER 16-18, 2003 : (ALAMOUDI TRAVELS TO EGYPT) - "Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash," by J. Michael Waller, Insight, 10-13-2003
SEPTEMBER 18, 2003 : (TALKINGPOINTSMEMO.COM INTERVIEWS WILSON; MENTION OF ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS IN THE HANDS OF JOURNALIST ANDREA MITCHELL) Wilson gives an interview to the TalkingPointsMemo.com
I found this interesting...
“...TPM: And, just to be clear, at this time (--when he traveled to Niger in 2002--), you hadn't seen these documents that turned out to be forgeries?-- Source: FreeRepublic's Shermy in "Joseph Wilson, Niger, Uranium and Bush’s Famous Sixteen Words: Evolution of a Confused Story," FreeRepublic's Shermy, April 16, 2004, Posted on 04/16/2004 1:01:46 PM PDT by ShermyWILSON: No, I hadn't. I had just been briefed on a memorandum of agreement covering the sale. Now, my understanding is that there are all sorts of other documents that have since come to light and Andrea Mitchell showed me some documents which I had not seen and frankly, I did not have my glasses, so I didn't even get a chance to read them, and I have not seen them since. The uranium participation in this consortium is done through a parastatal, which means that the Niger government owns the corporate identity that is a member of the consortium.”
SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2003 : (ALAMOUDI VISITS LIBYA) The United States [later] alleges that Alamoudi lied on his U.S. Customs declaration form about where he had traveled during his last trip abroad. According to an affidavit in support of the federal criminal complaint, the documentary evidence shows that Alamoudi visited Libya from Sept. 19-25, using an extra U.S. passport and a Yemeni passport and "concealing the fact that he had been to Libya from United Kingdom officials." Prosecutors also say Alamoudi failed to report trips to Lebanon from Aug. 29-Sept. 2, Syria from Sept. 2-8, Yemen from Sept. 8-13, Syria from Sept. 15-16 and Egypt from Sept. 16-18. - "Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash," by J. Michael Waller, Insight, 10-13-2003
SEPTEMBER 20, 2003 : (CONSULTANT STEVE EMERSON SAYS THE US HAS BEEN WATCHING YEE FOR SOME TIME) Terrorism researcher Steven Emerson, who frequently consults for government agencies, said yesterday that U.S. officials had been watching Yee for some time, and had been looking into whether he had counseled any of the prisoners in ways that discouraged them from assisting interrogators. - "Muslim Army Chaplain Is Held in Investigation : Imam Had Secret Data on Cuba Detainees ," By John Mintz and Susan Schmidt, Washington Post Staff Writers,Washington Post, Sunday, September 21, 2003; Page A16
SEPTEMBER 21, 2003 : (UK SAYS TWO FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES CONFIRM THAT IRAQ WAS TRYING TO BUY URANIUM IN NIGER) Britain's Foreign Office still maintains Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger, saying at least two foreign intelligence services confirm a sale was under discussion. The Foreign Office refuses to identify the two spy services. - "A look at the U.S.-British claims that Iraq tried to acquire uranium in Africa," AP, SEPT 21, 2003
SEPTEMBER 27, 2003 : (LEAK INVESTIGATION IS REFERRED TO THE JUSTICE DEPT) ... the White House lost no time facilitating the leak investigation. It was referred to the Justice Department on Sept. 27. So far, we have seen none of the Clinton-era, Janet Reno-style stone-walling in evidence ...Still, looking at the main players in this case and their statements, there is a sliding scale of truth, which, in the end, will prevent us from knowing what actually happened. Statements shift from moment to moment, and each has his interests to protect. Administration officials obviously do. So do members of the media, especially, columnist Robert Novak, whose article on July 14 caused the initial furor. - "White House under attack," editorial, By Helle Dale, Washington Times, Op/Ed, Oct 1, 2003
SEPTEMBER 2003 weekend before Oct 1 : (WILSON ALL OVER TV, GETS UGLIER : CLAIMS NEO-CONSERVATIVES AND RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES HAVE 'HIIJACKED' THE ADMINISTRATION) Take Mr. Wilson himself, who has been much in evidence on national television screens since this weekend. Could he have an agenda beyond demanding justice? Well, what would you think of someone who tells people around Washington — as Mr. Wilson did last week [Sept 2003] — "Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both." That sounds pretty ugly, doesn't it? It is in fact quite a bit at odds with the reasonable image that Mr. Wilson has been projecting on our television screens in recent days. - "White House under attack," editorial, By Helle Dale, Washington Times, Op/Ed, Oct 1, 2003
SEPTEMBER 2003 : (AT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH BUSH, PUTIN MAKES CRYPTIC COMMENTS ABOUT HOW OTHERS UNMENTIONED PROPOSED FIGHTING THE US IN AFGHANISTAN) May is also the time in which the questions, rumblings began about the guy, can't think of his name but quit his Wall Street job couple of weeks ago cause of his vast up front pension plan. Now there is something else going on here beside this "WHO leaked a name", up to this point, Clarke going to save us from ourselves, Davis about to get his lights turned off are diversions for something else. These people don't get this crazy unless they are trying to hide something and Putin's words over the weekend were very strange. Putin comes here a without explanation tells the world that he was talking turkey with some about opposing us in going into Afghanistan. What in the world was that all about? Whatever is going on this Wilson stuff is a diversion.- 201 posted on 09/29/2003 3:12 PM PDT by Just mythoughts *
* To: Just mythoughts : That's interesting to tie Putin's words to this and you could be right. The press must have hated it that Putin said if they hadn't joined the US in Afghanistan, there would have been a different outcome because he was approached by various countries(?), organizations(?) who wanted to fight against our soldiers there. 212 posted on 09/29/2003 3:16 PM PDT by Peach *
SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (NEWS BREAKS THAT THE AMAF&VAC'S AND AMC'S ALAMOUDI WAS ARRESTED ) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man affiliated with at least two American Muslim groups has been arrested on criminal charges, federal law enforcement officials said on Monday. They confirmed a report by Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel, that Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi has been arrested. They declined to give details of the charges against him. Muslim activists described him as one of the founders of a group called the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council and a board member of another Washington, D.C.-based group called the American Muslim Council. The officials said the arrest took place over the weekend, and that details about the case were expected to be released later on Monday.- "FBI Arrests Man Linked to American Muslim Groups," Reuters, Mon September 29, 2003 10:02 AM ET
(* My note : Note that the AMC is what Hillary Clinton had referred to as the"American Museum Council"...when it came out she had taken donations from them.)
SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (GITMO CASES : THIRD ARREST : MEHALBA ARRESTED AT LOGAN AIRPORT AFTER ARRIVING FROM EGYPT) The third arrest came Sept. 29, also at Logan airport. Customs agents found 132 compact discs, including one with hundreds of classified documents labeled "SECRET," in the luggage of Ahmad F. Mehalba, who was a civilian interpreter at the base. Mehalba, 31, was arrested as he arrived from his native Egypt. The government on Nov. 12 charged him with gathering defense information and lying to federal investigators. Mehalba says he is innocent. - "Army Officer Charged With Gitmo Security Breach," Fox News website," Saturday, November 29, 2003
SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (RAY MCGOVERN OF THE GROUP "VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONS FOR SANITY" CONFIRMS PLAME'S STATUS, ADMITS KNOWING WILSON) Mon Sep-29-03 05:49 PM Ray McGovern, who was for 27-years a senior analyst for the CIA, further confirms the status of Plame within the CIA. “I know Joseph Wilson well enough to know,” said McGovern in a telephone conversation we had today, “that his wife was in fact a deep cover operative running a network of informants on what is supposedly this administration’s first-priority issue: Weapons of mass destruction.” - "VANITY: Wilson Outed His Wife's Status.," Vanity , assembled by seamole w/unsycophant, October 2, 2003, Posted on 10/02/2003 11:49 PM PDT by seamole
SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (DEMOCRAT CRIES FOR AN INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOR IN THE NIGER FLAP/WILSON CASE INCLUDE SCHUMER) Schumer did call for an independent prosecutor today. It was just not carried - at least by Fox. Perhaps he just made the statement, as Kerry did. Fox did report that Schumer made the call for the independent prosecutor, however.
26 posted on 09/29/2003 1:59 PM PDT by Wait4Truth * Yes, and there was a thread on FR this afternoon that Kerry has asked for a special investigation. He's always a day late and a dollar short.
49 posted on 09/29/2003 2:05 PM PDT by Peach *
SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 : (WILSON ON C-SPAN INTERVIEW SAYS HE IS ASSOCIATED WITH MOVEON.ORG) Also, according to an interview he did on c-span he did yesterday morning .. he stated that he is also associated with/Working with Moveon.org A freeper mentioned it on the live thread yesterday --- 17 posted on 09/30/2003 11:58 AM PDT by Mo1
SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 : (NATIONAL REVIEW'S CLIFFORD MAY KNEW ABOUT PLAME'S CIA CONNECTION THROUGH DEMOCRAT SOURCE) Clifford May writes in National Review Online that Plame's CIA connection "wasn't news to me. I had been told that--but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of." - The Corner September 30, 2003 Scroll down for May's comments.
SEPTEMBER 2003 late : (GERMANY : FORMER IAEA DIPLOMAT FROM NORTH KOREA IS ACCUSED OF ORDERING SPECIALIZED ALUMINUM TUBING ON BEHALF OF NORTH KOREA) HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A former North Korean diplomat is accused of ordering material from a German firm that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, Germany's Der Spiegel reported in its Monday edition. The news magazine said a German businessman would go on trial in Stuttgart, southwest Germany, next month in connection with the case. The diplomat was named by Spiegel as Yun Ho Jin. It said he used to work as a Pyongyang representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. According to Der Spiegel, Yun Ho Jin ordered special aluminium tubes from the businessman which, experts say, are used to build gas ultracentrifuges in which uranium is enriched.
The equipment was impounded in April after being loaded on board a ship.
The unidentified businessman, who got to know the diplomat in the late 1980s, is accused of breaching trade export laws and "attempts to encourage production of a nuclear weapon."
Experts from the IAEA, the German foreign ministry and the German foreign intelligence service are expected to testify, the magazine added. - "North Korean diplomat implicated in nuclear plot: German press," Agence France-Presse , September 21, 2003
OCTOBER 15, 2003 : (FORMER STATE DEPT DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC, PROLIFERATION AND MILITARY ISSUES OFFICE IN THE BUREAU OF INTELLIGENCE AND RESEARCH, GREG THIELMAN, DENOUNCES COLIN POWELL FOR HIS FEBRUARY 5, 2003 UN PRESENTATION)
bookmark
Bookmark
bookmark
BTT!!!.
Does it make this appear at, or near the top?
I have come to believe that only through the grace of God, and the FANTASTIC WORK OF FREEPERS, can our country be saved from these shadowy demons.
used your info ping
"Bttt" means "bump to the top" - your post bumps the thread to the top of the forum page so more people have a chance to see the thread.
Hmmm.
2002 (RUMSFELD CREATES OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS AT THE PENTAGON) In an attempt to unearth incriminating intelligence on Saddam Hussein, Mr Rumsfeld created last year[2002] the Office of Special Plans, an intelligence unit inside the Pentagon. This became a direct rival not only of the CIA, but of the Pentagon’s own Defence Intelligence Agency. - "Public was misled, claim ex-CIA men ," Tim Reid, The Times (U.K.) , 05/31/03
2002 : (FORMER US SENATOR JAMES ABOUREZK IS PART OF A FOUR-PERSON DELEGATION THAT TRAVELED TO SYRIA & IRAQ) He was ... part of a four-person delegation that traveled to Syria and Iraq in 2002. - "Judge: Abourezk can sue Web site," AP, March 21, 2004, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/03/21/news/state/state03.txt
(* My note : Who were the other three people?)
FEBRUARY 1, 2002 : (BEGINNING DATE FOR SAVING WHITE HOUSE MESSAGES REFERRED TO IN 2003 WILSON LEAK PROBE...)
FEBRUARY 2002 : (WILSON CAMPAIGN DONATION TO HILLARY CLINTON) Wilson donated $1,000 to Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) PAC just before leaving for Niger in February 2002- (Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org , Accessed 9/29/03; Political Money Line, www.tray.com, Accessed 9/30/03; FOX’s “Fox And Friends,” 9/30/03) via - "SAY IT AIN’T SO JOES? Joe Lieberman & Joe Wilson Make Bold Assertions That Facts Don’t Support, "RNC Research, Republican National Committee, October 5, 2003
FEBRUARY 12, 2002 : (PLAME SENDS A MEMO TO A DEPUTY CHIEF IN THE CIA'S DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS CONCERNING HER HUSBAND- JOSEPH WILSON ) "...The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said. - by Sue? in the Washington Post, July 2004 via 36 posted on 07/10/2004 3:18:38 PM PDT by Shermy
FEBRUARY 19, 2002 : (DEMOCRAT SENATOR BIDEN HOLDS CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISER AT DR. SADEGH NAMAZI-KHAH'S HOME IN LA, CA- NAMZI-KHAH IS KNOWN TO SUPPORT THE THEOCRATIC REGIME IN IRAN) Excerpt from article below: Delaware Republican Chairman Everett Moore today (March 27, 2002) criticized Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) for holding a Feb. 19 campaign fund-raiser at the California home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi-khah, a strong supporter of the Tehran regime and leading pro-Iran lobbyist. Moore called on Biden to return the estimated $24,000 raised for the senator's campaign coffers. "Dr. Namazi-khah is well-known in the Los Angeles area for his support of the ruling clerical regime in Tehran and is one of the regime's leading unofficial lobbyists in America. We thought that Sen. Biden might not know his background." http://www.insightmag.com/news/2002/04/15/DailyInsight/Biden.Taken.To.Task.For.FundRaiser-224023.shtml - Biden Taken to Task for Fund-Raiser (March 27, 2002)
FEBRUARY 2002 : (JOE WILSON GOES TO NIGER See NIGER FLAP/YELOWCAKE CASE, KERRY CAMPAIGN STAFFERS)
FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 7, 2002 : (SPIES : SUSAN LINDHAUER TRAVELS TO BAGDHAD, IRAQ) k. From on or about February 23, 2002 through on or about March 7, 2002, SUSAN LINDAUER, a/k/a “Symbol SUSAN,” traveled to Baghdad, Iraq, through Jordan, as a guest of the IIS. - "Text of indictment against American spying for Iraq," Findlaw. com, March 11, 2004
FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 7, 2002 : (SPIES : SUSAN LINDHAUER MEETS WITH SEVERAL IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS IN IRAQ AND ACCEPTS $5,000 FROM THEM) l. From on or about February 23, 2002 through March 7, 2002, SUSAN LINDAUER, a/k/a “Symbol SUSAN,” met with several IIS officers in Iraq, including at the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, and received cash payments of approximately $5,000.00. - "Text of indictment against American spying for Iraq," Findlaw. com, March 11, 2004
FEBRUARY 25, 2002 : (ANTHRAX CASES : ROSENBERG'S CLAIMS APPEAR IN WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE) ....FBI officials over the last week have flatly discounted Rosenberg's claims, which were included in a Washington Times article yesterday [February 25] reporting that a suspect had been identified. Numerous Bush administration officials, including White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, yesterday called the report erroneous and said the FBI was not close to identifying a suspect. (IMO that Washington Times piece was thereby quite a piece of daring disinformation, or misinformation.)-- "FBI Still Lacks Identifiable Suspect in Anthrax Probe; Investigators Continue to Focus on People Connected to Labs That Had Strain Found in Letters," Washington Post, February 26, 2002
2002 spring : (THE US DISCOVERS THAT SINCE mid 2001, IRAQ HAS BEEN BUYING ALUMINUM TUBES USEFUL FOR USE IN CENTRIFUGES TO ENRICH URANIUM)Early this spring, intelligence analysts in Washington monitoring the progress of Iraq's nuclear-weapons programs were stunned when they discovered plans by a known Iraqi procurement front, al-Wasel & Babel, to purchase large quantities of special aluminum tubes for uranium-enrichment centrifuges. The procurement had been spread over a 14-month period, beginning in mid-2001. The involvement of al-Wasel & Babel set off alarm bells. "This is a known front for the Iraqi intelligence services and their parallel procurement network controlled by Saddam Hussein's son Qusay," the former intelligence officer (Adnan Saeed al Haideri?) says. Al Wasel & Babel is registered with the United Nations as a legitimate partner in oil-for-food deals and reportedly has handled close to $900 million of Iraqi government contracts. Money from Iraq's blocked account with the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) is routed to al- Wasel's account (No. 104 481 4976) at the al-Riggah branch of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank in Dubai, contractual documents obtained by Insight show. Some shipments quietly were intercepted en route to Iraq, but a large number of the tubes slipped through, according to intelligence sources.
Using these special aluminum tubes, Iraq now is believed to be operating a miniature uranium-enrichment "cascade" at a clandestine location, hermetically sealed to prevent telltale emissions. - "How Saddam Got Weapons of Mass Destruction" By Kenneth R. Timmerman, Insight Magazine via WorldNetDaily.com , Tuesday, October 1, 2002
MARCH 2002 : (VENEZUELAN BERNAL IS CAUGHT SMUGGLING ARMS INTO SAUDI ARABIA FROM IRAQ) An MRV politician and close Chavez aide closely tied to the Circulos Bolivarianos, Freddy Bernal, was in Iraq last March. He got caught trying to move arms into Saudi Arabia by U.N. peacekeeping forces policing the border- "Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved," by| Martin Arostegui, Militares Democraticos, December 27, 2002
MARCH 2002 : (FL : DOCTOR SAYS HE TREATED ONE OF THE 9/11 HIJACKERS FOR WHAT HE BELIEVES WAS CUTANEOUS ANTHRAX; A DOCTOR AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CONCURS) In March a doctor in Fort Lauderdale announced that he had treated one of the terrorists for what, in retrospect, he believes was cutaneous anthrax. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University examined the case and concurred that anthrax was “the most probable and coherent interpretation of the data available.” via "This week's Biological Weapons stories for Thursday, June 6, 2002. "
MARCH 2002 : (CIA SENDS CABLE TO WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM REPORTING ON A VISIT TO NIGER BY A RETIRED DIPLOMAT) "Almost a year before President Bush alleged in his State of the Union address that Iraq tried to buy uranium ore in Africa -- seeming proof of an Iraqi effort to build a nuclear bomb -- the CIA gave the White House information that raised doubts about the claim. A cable classified 'secret' went out from the CIA to the White House Situation Room in March 2002, reporting on a visit to the African country Niger by a retired diplomat. -- USA Today as cited by Tim Russert in "Rumsfeld on NBC," Dept of Defense, 7/13/03 Transcript
MARCH 8, 2002 : (SPIES : SUSAN LINDHAUER MEETS WITH IRAQI IIS OFFICER -SPY- AND ACCEPTS PAYMENT FOR LODGING & MEAL EXPENSES) m. On or about March 8, 2002, SUSAN LINDAUER, a/k/a “Symbol SUSAN,” met in Manhattan upon her return from Iraq with an officer of the IIS and accepted payment from the IIS for lodging and meal expenses in the amount of $200.00.- "Text of indictment against American spying for Iraq," Findlaw. com, March 11, 2004
MARCH 8, 2002 9:29 PM: (VENEZUELA, FATTAH, HANJOUR, 911 HIJACKERS) At 9:29 p.m. on March 8, 2002, Hakim Mamad Ali Diab Fattah landed at Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport on board Delta Flight 397. The Venezuelan-born Arab had been the subject of international surveillance because he had taken lessons at two New Jersey flight schools attended by Hani Hanjour, who crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The FBI had arrested Fattah in the US after discovering that he also had talked about blowing up an airliner and had used forged identity documents. Information about him was requested from Venezuela's internal security service, Direccion de Inteligencia Seguridad y Prevencion (DISIP). But little was forthcoming other than psychiatric records showing that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had failed to attend therapy for more than a year. Top-level members of Venezuela's security services now are shedding some light on the mystery. General Marcos Ferreira, who recently resigned as director of the Venezuelan national guard's border control, Departamento de Extranjeria (DIEX), says that DISIP picked up Fattah directly from the plane and escorted him into a waiting car parked on the runway. - "Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved," by| Martin Arostegui, Militares Democraticos, December 27, 2002 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/813031/posts?page=21
MARCH 14, 2002 : (BARBARA HATCH ROSENBERG CLAIMS THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS OF 2001 MAY HAVE BEEN THE RESULT OF CIA RESEARCH) AN AMERICAN expert last night claimed last autumn's anthrax attacks may have been the result of CIA research which went disastrously wrong. (—ie another new Rosenberg domestic theory). At the same time, health ministers of the G7 countries and Mexico met in London and agreed to carry out an international exercise to test reactions to a biological, chemical or radio-nuclear terrorist incident. Barbara Rosenberg, the director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological Weapons Program, raised the possibility that the CIA could have ordered a "field trial" on the possible effects of delivering anthrax through the mail and the contents could have been used by whoever was responsible for the anthrax attacks.
Dr Rosenberg told the BBC's Newsnight: "Some very expert field person would have been given this job and it would have been left to him to decide exactly how to carry it out. "The result might have been a project gone badly awry if he decided to use it for his own purposes and target the media and the Senate for his own motives as not intended by the government project."(–Hatfill again, theory to fit his “authorizing” of study about anthrax by mail)
Dr Rosenberg claimed the culprit had knowledge both of the law and of the detective work it would need for him to be caught. She said: "This person knows a lot about forensic matters, knows exactly what he can be prosecuted for and what he can get away with and I think he had some personal matters that he might have wanted to settle, but I think in addition that he felt that bio-defence was being underemphasised for some time in the past." -- "ANTHRAX ATTACKS MAY HAVE BEEN CIA TEST GONE WRONG," The Scotsman, March 15, 2002, "Domestic Anthrax Theories and Early Media Reports," April 6, 2004, by Shermy
MARCH 27, 2002 : (DEMOCRAT SENATOR BIDEN IS CRITICIZED FOR HOLDING FUNDRAISER AT DR. SADEGH NAMAZI-KHAH'S HOME IN LA, CA) Excerpt from article below: Delaware Republican Chairman Everett Moore today (March 27, 2002) criticized Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) for holding a Feb. 19 campaign fund-raiser at the California home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi-khah, a strong supporter of the Tehran regime and leading pro-Iran lobbyist. Moore called on Biden to return the estimated $24,000 raised for the senator's campaign coffers. "Dr. Namazi-khah is well-known in the Los Angeles area for his support of the ruling clerical regime in Tehran and is one of the regime's leading unofficial lobbyists in America. We thought that Sen. Biden might not know his background." -------http://www.insightmag.com/news/2002/04/15/DailyInsight/Biden.Taken.To.Task.For.FundRaiser-224023.shtml - Biden Taken to Task for Fund-Raiser (March 27, 2002)
APRIL 2002 : (PHOTO IS TAKEN OF IRAQI MISSILE ENGINE TEST STAND SITE : IRAQ HAS BUILT A TEST STAND WHICH IS LARGER THAN THE ONE USED FOR ITS SHORT-RANGE MISSILE PROGRAMS, OR ANY IT PREVIOUSLY HAD - THE IMPLICATION BEING THAT THIS TEST STAND IS FOR LONG RANGE MISSILE ENGINE DEVELOPMENT - IRAQ WOULD TRY TO CONCEAL THE NEW STAND BEFORE FEBRUARY 2003)- Colin Powell, see "Exposed: Saddam's Prohibited Missiles and Support of al-Qaeda Terrorism," Colin Powell Feb 5, 2003 speech , via Newsmax.com, Feb. 5, 2003
APRIL 26, 2002 : (CIA INSPECTOR GENERAL BRITT SNIDER RESIGNS; MAY HAVE HIRED PEOPLE WHO LACKED PROPER SECURITY CLEARANCES) Washington: A congressional investigation of the intelligence failures surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been thrown off course by the sudden resignation of a former CIA official hired to lead the inquiry but criticized for being too cozy with his former employer. L. Britt Snider, former inspector general at the CIA, resigned under pressure Friday, less than three months into a high-stakes probe designed to determine why the nation's spy agencies failed to pick up any warning of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. ...But congressional sources confirmed that Snider was forced out amid growing concerns over his management of the investigation, ranging from the tone of his leadership to his decisions on personnel. Several sources said Snider's resignation was sparked by troubling questions that surfaced in recent weeks about whether one or more of his hires lacked proper security clearances to view classified material. ... Several GOP members, including Kyl and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate committee, expressed doubts about Snider because of his close ties to CIA Director George J. Tenet. Snider had served as a special counsel to Tenet at the CIA, and was general counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee when Tenet was its staff director in the late 1980s and early 1990s. http://216.239.35.100/search?q=cache:dOSoOu8a48AC:www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/3164021.htm+members+2002+%22Senate+intelligence%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
MAY 10, 2002 : (REPORT : SOUTH AFRICA HAS BEEN SELLING ALUMINUM TUBES TO IRAQ; SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY OFFICIAL IN JORDAN PLAYED MIDDLEMAN) "Well, Mr Mandela's country has been busy selling aluminium tubes for uranium enrichment centrifuges to Saddam. The first secretary of the South African embassy in Jordan is serving as the local sales rep to Iraqi procurement agents. Thanks to these sterling efforts, they're bringing significantly closer the day when the entire Middle East, much of Africa and even Europe will be under the Saddamite nuclear umbrella and thus safe from Bush's aggression." - Mark Steyn, Spectator, MAy 10, 2002 via "SA reportedly assisting Iraq with nuclear weapons - DA requests clarity from govt," October 8, 2002 , http://www.woza.co.za/oct02/da08.htm
MAY 20?, 2002 Thursday AM : (DASCHLE & SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE LEAKS ABOUT BRIEFINGS BUSH RECEIVED IN AUGUST 2001) During his press briefing with Capitol Hill reporters on Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle could barely contain the smile on his face as he discussed what he believed the Bush Administration knew about possible terrorist attacks prior to September 11. "I wouldn't know," Daschle said with a smile, adding quickly that he was never briefed on those issues by the White House, nor did he ever ask.
Daschle should be smiling, and White House staffers know why. The initial leaks about the intelligence briefings President Bush received last August came from Democratic staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, not the FBI or the CIA as some on Capitol Hill would have us believe. According to one knowledgeable Senate source, the Senate and House intelligence committees received some of the briefing material prepared by the CIA for the president's daily review about three weeks ago. This, as part of their ongoing review of the CIA's analysis of potential terrorism threats leading up to September 11.
"It wouldn't be the kind [of intelligence information] the committee staffers would normally see in the course of their work," says the source. "Those briefings are limited to the White House, the President, the Vice President, Condi Rice, senators and representatives don't get those briefings. I don't know if the CIA intended for that material to end up here or not. It might have been an oversight. No matter now, the cat is out of the bag." According to a senior Democratic Senate aide, the word has been out for more than six weeks that "We have to get Bush," says the source. "Daschle is absolutely desperate. Gephardt, I guess is absolutely desperate. Bush's polling numbers weren't moving down, he was bulletproof. Everyone was under orders to keep their eyes and ears open for anything we could use."
It's not clear whether Daschle was aware of the potentially explosive information prior to its being put in the hands of Washington reporters. "I'd be surprised if he did," says a senior Democratic leadership aide. "It isn't the kind of thing he's want to really see or know about beforehand. But we know someone friendly to our side did the leaking. We knew if we could get something out there, the media wouldn't try to put the leak into political perspective for the public, just the potential for a 'Briefing-gate.' And, as usual, the press did our job for us."- ''We Have to Get Bush,'' American Prowler, 5/20/02 , The Prowler
JUNE 2002 : (UK : SOURCE INDICATES IRAQ WAS TRYING TO PURCHASE URANIUM FROM AFRICA) [The British Secret Intelligence Service] had two independent sources for reporting the uranium purchase attempts, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee report: One source provided the information in June 2002 and the other just as the dossier was being finalized that September. One of the two was described as ‘documentary evidence.’ … (Walter Pincus, “U.S.-British Differences Show Iraq Intelligence Gap,” The Washington Post, 9/30/03) via - "SAY IT AIN’T SO JOES? Joe Lieberman & Joe Wilson Make Bold Assertions That Facts Don’t Support, "RNC Research, Republican National Committee, October 5, 2003
JUNE 15-18, 2002 : ( EDUCATION FOR PEACE IN IRAQ CENTER aka EPIC's 'IRAQ FORUM AND LOBBY DAYS') - "Ritter, Kelly, DuVall, Cortright and Others Confirmed for Iraq Forum," by Iraq Speakers Bureau, 06 June 2002 01:05 UTC via http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/peace/jun02/msg00002.html.
(* My note: Both former UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter and former Ambassador/Kerry campaign staffer Joe Wilson are connected to EPIC)
JUNE 18, 2002? : (ANTHRAX ISSUE : SENIOR STAFF AIDES TO DASCHLE, LEAHY AND ANOTHER UNNAMED SENATOR MEET WITH FOUR FBI AGENTS AND DR BARBARA HATCH ROSENBERG) As 2002 proceeded, there were numerous Rosenberg references, Kristof’s “Mr.Z” musings, etc. The Hatfill/Domestic theory gained wide circulation, his name well known by June. To end here, here’s an article from the Boston Globe.
On June 18, four FBI agents and a handful of senior staff aides to three US senators met in a hearing room at the Dirksen Senate Office Building and listened as a top US scientist alleged that investigators were not aggressively pursuing a possible suspect in the deadly anthrax mailings.
Even now, the questions linger: Has the FBI found the suspect? Or has there been a rush to judgment? The June briefing, given by Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, chairwoman of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological Arms Control Program, lasted for more than an hour, according to three congressional aides familiar with it. Months had gone by since someone stepped up the post-Sept. 11 fears by lacing letters with anthrax, but no arrests had been made.
Rosenberg did not mention former government biowarfare scientist Steven J. Hatfill by name (hmmm...), but she told staff members that she believed the anthrax killer was a microbiologist who used to work at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., and that his government ties were protecting him.
After she left the room, the FBI agents forcefully denied to the congressional aides - some of whom worked for two Democratic senators who had been targets of the anthrax killer, Thomas A. Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota and the majority leader, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the Judiciary Committee chairman - that they would overlook anyone suspected of causing five deaths. But the media were reporting Rosenberg's concerns as well, citing circumstantial evidence that pointed to a government employee, and were chiding the FBI for its lack of progress.
A week later, Hatfill's life became a public nightmare....'] -- "FIGHTING TERROR GLOBAL IMPACT; ANTHRAX PROBE RAISES DOUBTS ON FBI," By Wayne Washington, Boston Globe, September 23, 2002 via -- "Domestic Anthrax Theories and Early Media Reports," April 6, 2004, by Shermy
Now the dates around July 17 are very, very interesting- this timeline is going to take a while to post so I'll be back later this evening.
Put this in there somewhere:
O'Reilly Factor - Left-wing "reporters" met with John Kerry in Al Franken's apartment
03.22.04
Posted on 03/22/2004 10:13:09 PM EST by kcvl
In an effort to galvanize the message Kerry wants to deliver in the time remaining, he convened a powerful roster of journalists and columnists in the New York City apartment of Al Franken last Thursday. The gathering could not properly be called a meeting or a luncheon. It was a trial. The journalists served as prosecuting attorneys, jury and judge. The crowd I joined in Franken’s living room was comprised of:
Al Franken and his wife Franni;
Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker;
David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker;
Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine;
Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek;
Jeff Greenfield, senior correspondent and analyst for CNN;
Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times;
Eric Alterman, author and columnist for MSNBC and the Nation;
Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist/author of ‘Maus’;
Richard Cohen, columnist for the Washington Post;
Fred Kaplan, columnist for Slate;
Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate and author;
Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist for Newsweek;
Philip Gourevitch, columnist for the New Yorker;
Calvin Trillin, freelance writer and author;
Edward Jay Epstein, investigative reporter and author;
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who needs no introduction.
We sat in a circle around Kerry and grilled him for two long hours. In an age of retail politicians who avoid substance the way vampires avoid sunlight, in an age when the sitting President flounders like a gaffed fish whenever he must speak to reporters without a script, Kerry’s decision to open himself to the slings and arrows of this group was bold and impressive. He was fresh from two remarkable speeches – one lambasting the PATRIOT Act, another outlining his foreign policy ideals while eviscerating the Bush record – and had his game face on. He needed it, because Eric Alterman lit into him immediately on the all-important issue of his vote for the Iraq War Resolution. The prosecution had begun.
Aside from Soros, the most noteworthy attendee was Morton H. Halperin. Soros had hired Halperin in February 2002, to head the Washington office of his tax-exempt Open Society Institute
Halperin's about one degree removed from Joe Wilson (cf. 26 Former U.S. Officials Oppose Bush, Post 40), so that fits some things together.
I wasn't sure if it was relevant, but I figured we'd get ALL the names out there.
To: kcvlMore on that and more of the usual suspects:
Governor Howard Dean
Foreign Policy Advisers
Exclusive advisers: Benjamin Barber, Ivo Daalder, Morton Halperin, Elisa Harris, General Joseph Hoar (USMC, Ret.), Major General Randy Jayne (USAF, Ret.), Franklin Kramer, Anthony Lake, General Merrill McPeak (USAF, Ret.), Clyde Prestowitz, Susan Rice, Jeffrey Sachs, Danny Sebright, Admiral Stansfield Turner (USN, Ret.), William Woodward
Several of these folks also show up with Robert McNamara and Joseph Wilson among others at:
Secure America
[http://www.secureamerica.us/html/about_advisers.html]40 posted on 06/13/2004 10:02:00 PM PDT by Fedora
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.