Bob Woodward Collaborated With the Bush Team to Lie to America :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch
Bob Woodward Collaborated With the Bush Team to Lie to America
Sam Hamod and Maria Newman
Nov. 16, 2005
In a disappointing development, Bob Woodward, who had been seen as an honest, crusading journalist, now tells that he has been playing it cozy with the Bush team for a couple of years--that he had talked with a senior Bush administration official who "outed" Mrs. Wilson/Valerie Plame, to him a few years back but that he'd not even told his senior editor at the Washington Post, Mr. Downie, nor anyone else until he was subpoened in the "leak case" recently.Thus, it shows that not only was Judith Miller of the NY Times involved in the lies, but also Bob Woodward--this pretty much destroys any faith anyone could have in the American major press. It has been up to us in the alternative media to tell the truth about the Bush administration, now it is apparent that we have few allies in the major media, save Helen Thomas.There is little of the "4th estate" left--they are all part of the same right wing group, like Fox and its ilk. What's ironic about all this is that Bob Woodward has been hiding this information for years on all kinds of talk shows, in the major media outlets for which he writes and Judith Miller is trying to portray herself as a heroine of the media, standing up for freedom of speech and confidentiality while she herself lied to the American public on behalf of her friends in the Bush administration (especially her friend, "Scooter" Libby).So now, Bob, what I suggest you do is to resign from the Washington Post, that you spend some time in jail, and that you give up trying to act like an innocent who had a "lapse."Come now Bob, you were lying to Downie and you knew it, and you've been lying to the American public as well. It's time for you to go into selling used cars.Dr.Sam Hamod, editor, www.todaysalternativenews.com
By MARIA NEWMANPublished: November 16, 2005Bob Woodward, assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, today apologized to his newspaper's executive editor for waiting two years to tell him that a senior Bush administration official had told him about the C.I.A. operative Valerie Wilson.Timeline of the LeakA trip by Joseph C. Wilson IV to Niger nearly four years ago was the beginning of a series of events now being investigated by a special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald.Key Articles and DocumentsText: Bob Woodward's Public Statement (November 16, 2005)Journalists Said to Figure in Strategy in Leak Case (November 16, 2005) The Post reported in today's edition that Mr. Woodward testified under oath on Monday about his conversation in mid-June 2003 with a senior administration official about Ms. Wilson and her position at the agency, nearly a month before her identity was disclosed. The disclosure makes Mr. Woodward, who broke the news of the Watergate break-in that helped bring down President Nixon and has written several insider books about Washington, the first known reporter to learn about Ms. Wilson from a top administration official.Today's Post article also said that Mr. Woodward waited until last month to tell his supervisors about those conversations, even though the investigation into the matter had been consuming official Washington for months.Mr. Woodward's disclosure adds a new element to - and potentially complicates - a case whose investigative phase appeared to be winding down late last month when a special prosecutor announced the indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Libby was indicted on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prosecutors said he misled a grand jury and investigators about his conversations with journalists about Ms. Wilson, who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.Mr. Woodward's testimony also adds a new source for Mr. Fitzgerald to consider, and appears to rearrange the known chronology of discussions between reporters and high-level administration officials.The Post and Mr. Woodward did not identify the senior administration official, citing an agreement under which the official freed Mr. Woodward to testify, but not to discuss their conversations publicly.In his apology, which appeared in an article on the Post's online edition this afternoon, Mr. Woodward said he told Leonard Downie Jr., the executive editor, that he held back the information because he was worried about being subpoenaed by the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald."I apologized because I should have told him about this much sooner," Mr. Woodward said in an interview with Howard Kurtz, a Post media writer. "I explained in detail that I was trying to protect my sources. That's Job No. 1 in a case like this. . . ."I hunkered down. I'm in the habit of keeping secrets. I didn't want anything out there that was going to get me subpoenaed."Mr. Downie, in an interview with Mr. Kurtz, said that Mr. Woodward had "made a mistake."Despite his concerns about his confidential sources, Mr. Downie said, Mr. Woodward "still should have come forward, which he now admits. We should have had that conversation . . . I'm concerned that people will get a misimpression about Bob's value to the newspaper and our readers because of this one instance in which he should have told us sooner."On Oct. 27, the night before the indictments were announced, Mr. Woodward, in an appearance on "Larry King Live," said of the leak case: "There is deep mystery here. It only grows with time and people are speculating and there are -- there is so little that people really know.He also told Larry King that Mr. Downie had called to tell him he had heard rumors that Mr. Woodward would be reporting a big development in the investigation."I hear you have a bombshell; would you let me in on it," Mr. Woodward said his supervisor said."And I said I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't," Mr. Woodward said he told him.In the indictment of Mr. Libby, prosecutors cite a June 23, 2003, conversation Mr. Libby had with Judith Miller of The New York Times, in which Mr. Libby told her that the wife of Joseph Wilson might work at the C.I.A. Mr. Fitzgerald, at the Oct. 28 news conference in which he discussed the indictment, said that "Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson."But Mr. Woodward said his conversation with the senior administration official came in mid-June - the exact date was not specified - apparently before Mr. Libby's conversation with Ms. Miller.Ms. Wilson is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who became an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's use of intelligence on Iraq's weapons capability after he was sent to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had sought to buy uranium there.In a statement in today's Post that accompanied the news article, Mr. Woodward said he testified to the special prosecutor about confidential interviews he had with three current or former administration officials "that relate to the investigation of the public disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame."He said that the first interview was in mid-June, with an official he would not name, who "told me Wilson's wife worked for the C.I.A. on weapons of mass destruction as a WMD analyst."
:: Article nr. 17930 sent on 17-nov-2005 16:20 ECT
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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Bob Woodward: Libby Not My CIA Leak Source
Bob Woodward: Libby Not My CIA Leak Source
Blogger Thoughts: Looks like a huge part of the media is trying to spin in favor of Libby.
Blogger Thoughts: Looks like a huge part of the media is trying to spin in favor of Libby.
Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts - Yahoo! News
Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts - Yahoo! News
Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts
By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writers 57 minutes ago
Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino while the lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.
Many intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign records, IRS records and congressional correspondence found.
Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff, and the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming — even though they continued to accept donations from casino-operating tribes.
Many lived far from Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for his Keep Our Majority political action committee from the lobbyist's firm and tribal clients.
Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians' request for a new casino. Hastert's three top House deputies also signed the letter.
Approving the Jena application or others like it would "run counter to congressional intent," Hastert's June 10, 2003, letter warned Norton.
It was exactly what Abramoff's tribal clients wanted. The tribes, including the Louisiana Coushattas and Mississippi Choctaw, were trying to block the Jena's gambling hall for fear it would undercut business at their own casinos.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002, also signed by Sen. John Ensign (news, bio, voting record), R-Nev. The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second Abramoff tribe sent another $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.
In the midst of the congressional letter-writing campaign, the Bush administration rejected the Jena's casino on technical grounds. The tribe persisted, eventually winning Interior approval but the casino now is tied up in a court dispute.
Congressional ethics rules require lawmakers to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in performing their official duties and accepting political money.
That requirement was made famous a decade ago during the Keating Five scandal when five lawmakers were criticized for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Charles Keating while receiving money from the failed savings and loan operator.
The Abramoff donations dwarf those made by Keating. At least 33 lawmakers wrote letters to Norton and got more than $830,000 in Abramoff-related donations as the lobbying unfolded between 2001 and 2004, AP found.
"This is one of the largest examples we've had to date where congressional action was predicated on money being given for the action," said Kent Cooper, who reviewed lawmakers' campaign reports for two decades as the Federal Election Commission's chief of public disclosure.
Cooper, who now runs the Political Money Line Web site that tracks fundraising, said "the speed in which this money was turned around" after the letters makes the Abramoff matter more serious than previous controversies that tarnished Congress.
Lawmakers contacted by AP said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff's fundraising, and instead reflected their long-held concerns about tribal gaming expansion.
"There is absolutely no connection between the letter and the fundraising," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. "The only connection was Senator Reid has consistently opposed any effort to undermine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."
Hastert ultimately collected more than $100,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients between 2001 and 2004. His office said he never discussed the matter with Abramoff, but long opposed expanding Indian gambling off reservations and was asked to send the letter by Rep. Jim McCrery (news, bio, voting record), R-La.
McCrery sent his own letter as well, and collected more than $36,000 in Abramoff-connected donations.
"We've always opposed these things, in our backyard, in our state, someplace else," said Michael Stokke, Hastert's deputy chief of staff.
Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor, said lawmakers' denials of a connection rang hollow.
"Special interests do get more and they do get what they pay for despite the constant denial that lawmakers can't be bought," said Sloan, who now runs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that monitors public officials' conduct.
Abramoff's spokesman, Andrew Blum, declined comment. The lobbyist has been indicted on fraud charges by a federal grand jury in Florida stemming from his role in the 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Abramoff's fundraising influenced members of Congress or the Bush administration, and whether anyone tried to conceal their dealings with Abramoff. For instance:
_Hastert failed for two years to disclose his use of Abramoff's restaurant the week before his letter or to reimburse for it as legally required. Hastert blames a paperwork oversight and recently corrected it.
_Sen. David Vitter, R-La., received $6,000 from Abramoff tribes from 1999 to 2001 and refunded it the day before he sent one of his letters to Norton in February 2002. He also used Abramoff's restaurant for a September 2003 fund-raiser but failed to reimburse for it until this year.
_The Coushattas wrote two checks to Rep. Tom DeLay's groups in 2001 and 2002, shortly before the GOP leader wrote Norton. But the tribe was asked by Abramoff to take back the checks and route the money to other GOP groups. In all, DeLay, R-Texas, received at least $57,000 in Abramoff and tribal donations between 2001 and 2004.
The intervention by congressional Republicans and Democrats was all but ignored in recent hearings on Capitol Hill led by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz, that examined Abramoff's lobbying inside Interior.
In one letter obtained by AP, 27 lawmakers told Norton she should reject the Jena casino because gambling was a societal blight. But within weeks, several of the authors had accepted donations from Abramoff's casino-operating tribes. All but eight eventually got Abramoff-related donations or used his restaurant for political events.
Rep. Pete Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, received four donations totaling $5,500 from casino-operating tribes represented by Abramoff a month and a day after he signed the Feb. 27, 2002, group letter.
"If they want to give a contribution to support Republican candidates, more power to them. That doesn't mean we have to support what they are doing," said Guy Harrison, a Sessions spokesman.
Rep. John Doolittle (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., received $1,000 from Abramoff several weeks before he signed the group letter, then got $16,000 from two of Abramoff's casino-operating tribal clients about two months later. By year's end, Doolittle also had used Abramoff's restaurant to cater a campaign event and received another $15,000 from tribes.
Some lawmakers intervened more than once.
House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, signed three letters to Norton. He took $1,000 from Abramoff and $2,000 from the lobbyist's firm around the time he sent a May 2003 letter.
Blunt long has opposed the expansion of tribal gaming and his letters are "consistent with his long-held position and are in no way related to political contributions," spokeswoman Burson Taylor said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whose committee is investigating Abramoff, sent a letter on March 1, 2002, opposing the Jena casino. The letter said a company that operates casinos in Grassley's home state was concerned. Grassley got $1,000 from Abramoff's firm the following month and a total of $62,200 in related donation by 2004.
Others who intervened:
_Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the former Senate GOP leader, wrote Norton on March 1, 2002, to "seriously urge" she reject the Jena casino. Lott received $10,000 in donations from Abramoff tribes just before the letter and $55,000 soon after. Lott's office said he sent the letter because his state's Choctaw tribe and a casino company were concerned about losing business.
_Then-Sen. John Breaux (news, bio, voting record), D-La., wrote Norton on March 1, 2002. Five days later the Coushattas sent $1,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his library fund, tribal records show.
_Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., wrote Norton on June 14, 2001, one of the first such letters. Cochran's political committee got $6,000 from Abramoff tribes in the weeks before the letter, and another $71,000 in the three years after.
_Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who was engaged in a tight re-election race in 2002, sent her letter March 6, 2002. That same day, the Coushattas sent $2,000 to her campaign and she received $5,000 more by the end of that month. By year's end, the total had grown to at least $24,000.
Lawmakers Acted on Heels of Abramoff Gifts
By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writers 57 minutes ago
Nearly three dozen members of Congress, including leaders from both parties, pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino while the lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.
Many intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, an Associated Press review of campaign records, IRS records and congressional correspondence found.
Lawmakers said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff, and the timing of donations was a coincidence. They said they wrote letters because they opposed the expansion of tribal gaming — even though they continued to accept donations from casino-operating tribes.
Many lived far from Louisiana and had no constituent interest in the casino dispute.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, held a fundraiser at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant in Washington on June 3, 2003, that collected at least $21,500 for his Keep Our Majority political action committee from the lobbyist's firm and tribal clients.
Seven days later, Hastert wrote Norton urging her to reject the Jena tribe of Choctaw Indians' request for a new casino. Hastert's three top House deputies also signed the letter.
Approving the Jena application or others like it would "run counter to congressional intent," Hastert's June 10, 2003, letter warned Norton.
It was exactly what Abramoff's tribal clients wanted. The tribes, including the Louisiana Coushattas and Mississippi Choctaw, were trying to block the Jena's gambling hall for fear it would undercut business at their own casinos.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid sent a letter to Norton on March 5, 2002, also signed by Sen. John Ensign (news, bio, voting record), R-Nev. The next day, the Coushattas issued a $5,000 check to Reid's tax-exempt political group, the Searchlight Leadership Fund. A second Abramoff tribe sent another $5,000 to Reid's group. Reid ultimately received more than $66,000 in Abramoff-related donations between 2001 and 2004.
In the midst of the congressional letter-writing campaign, the Bush administration rejected the Jena's casino on technical grounds. The tribe persisted, eventually winning Interior approval but the casino now is tied up in a court dispute.
Congressional ethics rules require lawmakers to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in performing their official duties and accepting political money.
That requirement was made famous a decade ago during the Keating Five scandal when five lawmakers were criticized for intervening with federal regulators on behalf of Charles Keating while receiving money from the failed savings and loan operator.
The Abramoff donations dwarf those made by Keating. At least 33 lawmakers wrote letters to Norton and got more than $830,000 in Abramoff-related donations as the lobbying unfolded between 2001 and 2004, AP found.
"This is one of the largest examples we've had to date where congressional action was predicated on money being given for the action," said Kent Cooper, who reviewed lawmakers' campaign reports for two decades as the Federal Election Commission's chief of public disclosure.
Cooper, who now runs the Political Money Line Web site that tracks fundraising, said "the speed in which this money was turned around" after the letters makes the Abramoff matter more serious than previous controversies that tarnished Congress.
Lawmakers contacted by AP said their intervention had nothing to do with Abramoff's fundraising, and instead reflected their long-held concerns about tribal gaming expansion.
"There is absolutely no connection between the letter and the fundraising," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. "The only connection was Senator Reid has consistently opposed any effort to undermine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."
Hastert ultimately collected more than $100,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients between 2001 and 2004. His office said he never discussed the matter with Abramoff, but long opposed expanding Indian gambling off reservations and was asked to send the letter by Rep. Jim McCrery (news, bio, voting record), R-La.
McCrery sent his own letter as well, and collected more than $36,000 in Abramoff-connected donations.
"We've always opposed these things, in our backyard, in our state, someplace else," said Michael Stokke, Hastert's deputy chief of staff.
Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor, said lawmakers' denials of a connection rang hollow.
"Special interests do get more and they do get what they pay for despite the constant denial that lawmakers can't be bought," said Sloan, who now runs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that monitors public officials' conduct.
Abramoff's spokesman, Andrew Blum, declined comment. The lobbyist has been indicted on fraud charges by a federal grand jury in Florida stemming from his role in the 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Abramoff's fundraising influenced members of Congress or the Bush administration, and whether anyone tried to conceal their dealings with Abramoff. For instance:
_Hastert failed for two years to disclose his use of Abramoff's restaurant the week before his letter or to reimburse for it as legally required. Hastert blames a paperwork oversight and recently corrected it.
_Sen. David Vitter, R-La., received $6,000 from Abramoff tribes from 1999 to 2001 and refunded it the day before he sent one of his letters to Norton in February 2002. He also used Abramoff's restaurant for a September 2003 fund-raiser but failed to reimburse for it until this year.
_The Coushattas wrote two checks to Rep. Tom DeLay's groups in 2001 and 2002, shortly before the GOP leader wrote Norton. But the tribe was asked by Abramoff to take back the checks and route the money to other GOP groups. In all, DeLay, R-Texas, received at least $57,000 in Abramoff and tribal donations between 2001 and 2004.
The intervention by congressional Republicans and Democrats was all but ignored in recent hearings on Capitol Hill led by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz, that examined Abramoff's lobbying inside Interior.
In one letter obtained by AP, 27 lawmakers told Norton she should reject the Jena casino because gambling was a societal blight. But within weeks, several of the authors had accepted donations from Abramoff's casino-operating tribes. All but eight eventually got Abramoff-related donations or used his restaurant for political events.
Rep. Pete Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, received four donations totaling $5,500 from casino-operating tribes represented by Abramoff a month and a day after he signed the Feb. 27, 2002, group letter.
"If they want to give a contribution to support Republican candidates, more power to them. That doesn't mean we have to support what they are doing," said Guy Harrison, a Sessions spokesman.
Rep. John Doolittle (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., received $1,000 from Abramoff several weeks before he signed the group letter, then got $16,000 from two of Abramoff's casino-operating tribal clients about two months later. By year's end, Doolittle also had used Abramoff's restaurant to cater a campaign event and received another $15,000 from tribes.
Some lawmakers intervened more than once.
House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, signed three letters to Norton. He took $1,000 from Abramoff and $2,000 from the lobbyist's firm around the time he sent a May 2003 letter.
Blunt long has opposed the expansion of tribal gaming and his letters are "consistent with his long-held position and are in no way related to political contributions," spokeswoman Burson Taylor said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, whose committee is investigating Abramoff, sent a letter on March 1, 2002, opposing the Jena casino. The letter said a company that operates casinos in Grassley's home state was concerned. Grassley got $1,000 from Abramoff's firm the following month and a total of $62,200 in related donation by 2004.
Others who intervened:
_Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., the former Senate GOP leader, wrote Norton on March 1, 2002, to "seriously urge" she reject the Jena casino. Lott received $10,000 in donations from Abramoff tribes just before the letter and $55,000 soon after. Lott's office said he sent the letter because his state's Choctaw tribe and a casino company were concerned about losing business.
_Then-Sen. John Breaux (news, bio, voting record), D-La., wrote Norton on March 1, 2002. Five days later the Coushattas sent $1,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his library fund, tribal records show.
_Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., wrote Norton on June 14, 2001, one of the first such letters. Cochran's political committee got $6,000 from Abramoff tribes in the weeks before the letter, and another $71,000 in the three years after.
_Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who was engaged in a tight re-election race in 2002, sent her letter March 6, 2002. That same day, the Coushattas sent $2,000 to her campaign and she received $5,000 more by the end of that month. By year's end, the total had grown to at least $24,000.
Group Seeks Further Inquiry in Frist's Stock Sales - New York Times
Group Seeks Further Inquiry in Frist's Stock Sales - New York Times
November 17, 2005
Group Seeks Further Inquiry in Frist's Stock Sales
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - A consumer advocacy group called Wednesday for the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand its inquiry into the stock trades of Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, saying it had uncovered "questionable transactions lucrative to Frist family members."
The commission is already investigating the senator's decision to sell all of his stock in HCA Inc., the healthcare giant founded by his father and brother, shortly before the price hit a peak and then plummeted. Mr. Frist, whose records, along with company's, have been subpoenaed, has repeatedly said that he has done nothing wrong.
Now the advocacy group, Public Citizen, says financial disclosure documents filed by Mr. Frist reveal several additional "exceedingly well-timed transactions" made by trusts that manage investments for his three sons. All involve healthcare companies that at one point had ties to the Frist family.
"We're not sure what this means," said Frank Clemente, director of Congress Watch, Public Citizen's government watchdog arm. But, he added, "It has the smell of the HCA stock trading, and we just thought it was important to bring this to light."
Public Citizen called for an additional investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Spokesmen for the ethics panel, the S.E.C. and Senator Frist declined comment.
Mr. Frist has placed his financial holdings, and those of his wife and sons, in a series of trusts that, under Senate rules, are managed by an outside agent who has only limited communications with the senator. The trusts are meant to help elected officials avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance of them, and the senator, a Republican from Tennessee who had been widely expected to make a bid for the White House in 2008, has said his only purpose in selling the HCA stock was to eliminate any appearance of conflict.
He had long insisted that the main trust was a "blind trust" and that he had no control over it, but since the disclosure of this sale of HCA stock, Mr. Frist has acknowledged that the trust, as established, enabled him to direct its manager to sell off assets.
Public Citizen looked at stock transactions beyond HCA. It found that in September 2003, trusts in the name of the Mr. Frist's sons bought $300,000 to $750,000 worth of stock in American Retirement Corporation, a Brentwood, Tenn., company that offers services to the elderly, including assisted living and nursing home care. One of the founders of the company, established in 1978, was the senator's father, although the Frists no longer appear to have an interest in it.
Public Citizen found that in June 2005, at the same time the senator disposed of his HCA stock, the sons' trusts "reaped multimillion-dollar gains" by disposing of the American Retirement Corporation stock. The value had by then increased 367 percent, the group said, to anywhere from $1.4 million to $3.5 million.
November 17, 2005
Group Seeks Further Inquiry in Frist's Stock Sales
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 - A consumer advocacy group called Wednesday for the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand its inquiry into the stock trades of Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader, saying it had uncovered "questionable transactions lucrative to Frist family members."
The commission is already investigating the senator's decision to sell all of his stock in HCA Inc., the healthcare giant founded by his father and brother, shortly before the price hit a peak and then plummeted. Mr. Frist, whose records, along with company's, have been subpoenaed, has repeatedly said that he has done nothing wrong.
Now the advocacy group, Public Citizen, says financial disclosure documents filed by Mr. Frist reveal several additional "exceedingly well-timed transactions" made by trusts that manage investments for his three sons. All involve healthcare companies that at one point had ties to the Frist family.
"We're not sure what this means," said Frank Clemente, director of Congress Watch, Public Citizen's government watchdog arm. But, he added, "It has the smell of the HCA stock trading, and we just thought it was important to bring this to light."
Public Citizen called for an additional investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Spokesmen for the ethics panel, the S.E.C. and Senator Frist declined comment.
Mr. Frist has placed his financial holdings, and those of his wife and sons, in a series of trusts that, under Senate rules, are managed by an outside agent who has only limited communications with the senator. The trusts are meant to help elected officials avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance of them, and the senator, a Republican from Tennessee who had been widely expected to make a bid for the White House in 2008, has said his only purpose in selling the HCA stock was to eliminate any appearance of conflict.
He had long insisted that the main trust was a "blind trust" and that he had no control over it, but since the disclosure of this sale of HCA stock, Mr. Frist has acknowledged that the trust, as established, enabled him to direct its manager to sell off assets.
Public Citizen looked at stock transactions beyond HCA. It found that in September 2003, trusts in the name of the Mr. Frist's sons bought $300,000 to $750,000 worth of stock in American Retirement Corporation, a Brentwood, Tenn., company that offers services to the elderly, including assisted living and nursing home care. One of the founders of the company, established in 1978, was the senator's father, although the Frists no longer appear to have an interest in it.
Public Citizen found that in June 2005, at the same time the senator disposed of his HCA stock, the sons' trusts "reaped multimillion-dollar gains" by disposing of the American Retirement Corporation stock. The value had by then increased 367 percent, the group said, to anywhere from $1.4 million to $3.5 million.
Woodward and the Plame affair�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
Woodward and the Plame affair�-�Editorials/Op-Ed�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
Blogger Thoughts: Insanity seems rather common in this neighborhood.
Blogger Thoughts: Insanity seems rather common in this neighborhood.
Documents Show Nixon Deception on Cambodia - Yahoo! News
Documents Show Nixon Deception on Cambodia - Yahoo! News
Blogger Thoughts: Money Quote: "Publicly, we say one thing," he told aides. "Actually, we do another."
Sounds like Cheney has been a student of history.
Blogger Thoughts: Money Quote: "Publicly, we say one thing," he told aides. "Actually, we do another."
Sounds like Cheney has been a student of history.
Why has Steven Jones stopped talking to the Media?
Emailed to this blogger by author: Lisa Guliani
====================================================
From: Lisa Guliani
Date: 11/16/05 18:52:51
To: Steven Jones
Hello Professor Jones,
I'm emailing to let you know that we discussed the cancellation of your interview on our show today. We were very respectful of you, and I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to it. Here is the link to access the program: http://www.wingtv.net
Professor, I don't know what exactly happened to you behind the scenes, but I have to tell you, right now you are the brightest light the 9-11 Truth movement has. You have created great hopes in the hearts of many people with your excellent, honest research. It takes a man of rare courage to go public with that kind of data. I know the implications are enormous and well, chilling, to say the least. I hope that the shabby treatment you received from the mainstream media cowards does not deter you from utlizing other information venues in the future. To strictly limit yourself only to peer-reviewed academic forums is in essence, to limit the exposure of your research. There are positives to utilizing all available venues, Sir. Granted, one must prepare themselves for the typical "assault" of mainstream news people during an interview of this nature. I'm sure you understand that your report poses considerable risks to the people who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks. They will not content themselves to sit idly by while their lies are methodically deconstructed. Naturally, they will come out swinging and engage in damage control. We have come to expect this, as these murderers have much to lose if the truth ever rips the lid off their carefully constructed illusion. Slowly but surely, the truth is getting out there. They cannot stop it and they know it. So, we must be mentally prepared and toughened up to deal with the opposition, so to speak. And because we could have predicted how the MSNBC interview would turn out, we also wanted to offer you more time to discuss your hypothesis in an honest information forum on our program, and then you suddenly changed your mind. You can see, I'm not giving up on you, Professor Jones. I have to believe that you are a man of conscience and integrity. I believe that you would not have taken such a courageous step with your research if you didn't believe 100% that this information deserves to be out in the light of day. I don't know what changed your mind, but MY conscience and the gravity of the situation compels me to try to reach that part of you that made the decision to go public with your report in the first place. We need you, Professor.
And we will stand with you and back you up. You have no idea how many Americans and people around the world already see 9-11 for what it was, instead of the dog & pony, smoke & mirrors stage-show the government and mainstream media have peddled it to be. The deception is ongoing, massive and widescale in scope. Right now, you are an unimpeachable source, you are a credentialed voice of stature and you are greatly needed to help expose this lie. As I'm sure you're well aware, the lies of 9-11 led to the bogus war on terror, to the Patriot Act, and also carried us all forward on this road which may ultimately lead to the impending unionization of America. This is what they intend to do to our country, Professor. They will destroy what's left of America if good people fail to stand up and speak out. The solid majority hasn't a clue how deep the hole goes. This will be disastrous for us as a people and will spell the end of America as we now know it. I'm not ready to surrender to that end result. Are you?The lies of 9-11 must be exposed and we need you to help us do that.Please, consider what I'm saying here. I understand there must be pressure upon you. There is pressure upon and opposition to anyone who tries to tell the truth about 9-11. We have faced alot of resistance in the last 4 years as we've forged ahead with this. It's not easy, I know. It's not easy for any of us, believe me. I just want you to know that I am holding out great hope and belief in you to do the right thing regarding this matter. Exposing the truth and lies of 9-11 is something I've committed my life to doing. I have lost family and many friends over this and it has changed my life in many ways. Still, I wouldn't do it any differently if I had the chance to begin again. Why? Because the cause of truth is monumental. This is an historic time we live in. A very dangerous, uncertain time. The stakes are quite high in this game being played with our lives and destinies. However, the stakes are even higher and the fallout will be worse - incomprehensible - if we sit by and do nothing and let the lies continue. There is no telling how many innocent people will lose their lives when the next "terror attack" strikes, Professor. There is no time to waste being afraid or hesitant or inert, and we must not allow fear to dictate our actions regarding this heinous crime. These perps committed mass murder and lied to the world about it. Thus far, they've gotten away with it because very few people have seriously challenged their story. Conscience must guide us along the path. The way I see it, the singlemost important reason to be trying to expose this information to the world is to show God we are trying our damndest to tell the truth. And you well know, Professor, this truth must be told, come what may. I genuinely hope you will not give up or take yourself out of the "game". It's a game to those who pulled off 9-11, but it is no game to me and to all the people who know the official bill of goods is bogus. Please, Professor. Think about my words. This is all-important.We are faced with so many obstacles to getting this information OUT where it needs to be. I feel like every time we take two steps forward, we end up smacking our heads up against a brick wall. It must get out into the mainstream arena. People can handle the truth, Professor. We proved that when we went to Ground Zero this past 9-11. We proved it when we took our 14-foot banner to Washington, D.C. and stood in front of the White House - twice. I want to keep you updated as time progresses and please realize my intent here is not to harass you in any way. I just feel like I need to try to reach you. I am saddened to imagine that you may let this matter drop by the wayside. Please don't ever let that happen.As I said, we need you in this fight for truth, now more than ever before. Please stand with us. Morgan Reynolds was on our show recently and his words haunt me.Perhaps they will speak to you as well. He said, "Truth should be sung, though the heavens fall."
And so it must and will.I hope to hear from you, Sir. Whether you realize it or not, all our lives are in the balance. Silence will protect no one. Please consider my words and consult your conscience on this one.
We need you.
In Freedom,
Lisa Guliani
WING TV
http://www.wingtv.net"
"God bless the truth and those who search for it!"~ Paul Isaac ~
====================================================
From: Lisa Guliani
Date: 11/16/05 18:52:51
To: Steven Jones
Hello Professor Jones,
I'm emailing to let you know that we discussed the cancellation of your interview on our show today. We were very respectful of you, and I hope you will take a few minutes to listen to it. Here is the link to access the program: http://www.wingtv.net
Professor, I don't know what exactly happened to you behind the scenes, but I have to tell you, right now you are the brightest light the 9-11 Truth movement has. You have created great hopes in the hearts of many people with your excellent, honest research. It takes a man of rare courage to go public with that kind of data. I know the implications are enormous and well, chilling, to say the least. I hope that the shabby treatment you received from the mainstream media cowards does not deter you from utlizing other information venues in the future. To strictly limit yourself only to peer-reviewed academic forums is in essence, to limit the exposure of your research. There are positives to utilizing all available venues, Sir. Granted, one must prepare themselves for the typical "assault" of mainstream news people during an interview of this nature. I'm sure you understand that your report poses considerable risks to the people who perpetrated the 9-11 attacks. They will not content themselves to sit idly by while their lies are methodically deconstructed. Naturally, they will come out swinging and engage in damage control. We have come to expect this, as these murderers have much to lose if the truth ever rips the lid off their carefully constructed illusion. Slowly but surely, the truth is getting out there. They cannot stop it and they know it. So, we must be mentally prepared and toughened up to deal with the opposition, so to speak. And because we could have predicted how the MSNBC interview would turn out, we also wanted to offer you more time to discuss your hypothesis in an honest information forum on our program, and then you suddenly changed your mind. You can see, I'm not giving up on you, Professor Jones. I have to believe that you are a man of conscience and integrity. I believe that you would not have taken such a courageous step with your research if you didn't believe 100% that this information deserves to be out in the light of day. I don't know what changed your mind, but MY conscience and the gravity of the situation compels me to try to reach that part of you that made the decision to go public with your report in the first place. We need you, Professor.
And we will stand with you and back you up. You have no idea how many Americans and people around the world already see 9-11 for what it was, instead of the dog & pony, smoke & mirrors stage-show the government and mainstream media have peddled it to be. The deception is ongoing, massive and widescale in scope. Right now, you are an unimpeachable source, you are a credentialed voice of stature and you are greatly needed to help expose this lie. As I'm sure you're well aware, the lies of 9-11 led to the bogus war on terror, to the Patriot Act, and also carried us all forward on this road which may ultimately lead to the impending unionization of America. This is what they intend to do to our country, Professor. They will destroy what's left of America if good people fail to stand up and speak out. The solid majority hasn't a clue how deep the hole goes. This will be disastrous for us as a people and will spell the end of America as we now know it. I'm not ready to surrender to that end result. Are you?The lies of 9-11 must be exposed and we need you to help us do that.Please, consider what I'm saying here. I understand there must be pressure upon you. There is pressure upon and opposition to anyone who tries to tell the truth about 9-11. We have faced alot of resistance in the last 4 years as we've forged ahead with this. It's not easy, I know. It's not easy for any of us, believe me. I just want you to know that I am holding out great hope and belief in you to do the right thing regarding this matter. Exposing the truth and lies of 9-11 is something I've committed my life to doing. I have lost family and many friends over this and it has changed my life in many ways. Still, I wouldn't do it any differently if I had the chance to begin again. Why? Because the cause of truth is monumental. This is an historic time we live in. A very dangerous, uncertain time. The stakes are quite high in this game being played with our lives and destinies. However, the stakes are even higher and the fallout will be worse - incomprehensible - if we sit by and do nothing and let the lies continue. There is no telling how many innocent people will lose their lives when the next "terror attack" strikes, Professor. There is no time to waste being afraid or hesitant or inert, and we must not allow fear to dictate our actions regarding this heinous crime. These perps committed mass murder and lied to the world about it. Thus far, they've gotten away with it because very few people have seriously challenged their story. Conscience must guide us along the path. The way I see it, the singlemost important reason to be trying to expose this information to the world is to show God we are trying our damndest to tell the truth. And you well know, Professor, this truth must be told, come what may. I genuinely hope you will not give up or take yourself out of the "game". It's a game to those who pulled off 9-11, but it is no game to me and to all the people who know the official bill of goods is bogus. Please, Professor. Think about my words. This is all-important.We are faced with so many obstacles to getting this information OUT where it needs to be. I feel like every time we take two steps forward, we end up smacking our heads up against a brick wall. It must get out into the mainstream arena. People can handle the truth, Professor. We proved that when we went to Ground Zero this past 9-11. We proved it when we took our 14-foot banner to Washington, D.C. and stood in front of the White House - twice. I want to keep you updated as time progresses and please realize my intent here is not to harass you in any way. I just feel like I need to try to reach you. I am saddened to imagine that you may let this matter drop by the wayside. Please don't ever let that happen.As I said, we need you in this fight for truth, now more than ever before. Please stand with us. Morgan Reynolds was on our show recently and his words haunt me.Perhaps they will speak to you as well. He said, "Truth should be sung, though the heavens fall."
And so it must and will.I hope to hear from you, Sir. Whether you realize it or not, all our lives are in the balance. Silence will protect no one. Please consider my words and consult your conscience on this one.
We need you.
In Freedom,
Lisa Guliani
WING TV
http://www.wingtv.net"
"God bless the truth and those who search for it!"~ Paul Isaac ~
ProfessorBainbridge.com: OSM
ProfessorBainbridge.com: OSM
Blogger Thoughts: OSM has such a radical litmus test that it excluded Bainbridge until recently.
Blogger Thoughts: OSM has such a radical litmus test that it excluded Bainbridge until recently.
firedoglake: Big Gun Fight at the WaPo Corral
firedoglake: Big Gun Fight at the WaPo Corral
Blogger Thoughts: On Hardball, Washington Post reporter (not Woodward) and another Reporter said it was nothing.... happens in Wash. all the time.
These people are the dumbest in history... or they are playing dumb.
Blogger Thoughts: On Hardball, Washington Post reporter (not Woodward) and another Reporter said it was nothing.... happens in Wash. all the time.
These people are the dumbest in history... or they are playing dumb.
Transient Scribe: Lieberman - A rare Bird
Transient Scribe: Lieberman - A rare Bird
Blogger Thought: This guy would have been our VP IN 2000. Makes me shiver.
Blogger Thought: This guy would have been our VP IN 2000. Makes me shiver.
News Hounds: Alan Colmes Speaks Truth To Senator Lindsey Graham And Graham Calls It "A Bunch Of Garbage"
News Hounds: Alan Colmes Speaks Truth To Senator Lindsey Graham And Graham Calls It "A Bunch Of Garbage"
Alan Colmes Speaks Truth To Senator Lindsey Graham And Graham Calls It "A Bunch Of Garbage"
With his "promote President Bush by bashing Bill Clinton" strategy evidently not working so well, Sean Hannity has switched to the "Clinton did it, too" Plan B just at the same time the Republican party has adopted the technique as a means to shore up Bush's eroding support for the Iraq war. Last night's (11/15/05) guest for the "If Clinton did it, then it was good for Bush to do it, too" segment was Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Unfortunately, for Senator Graham, he was confronted by the truth from Alan Colmes and Graham could not refute it.
Hannity started off the segment by playing a clip from a new video by the Republican National Committee (nice way to sneak in GOP propaganda and call it news). As the music from "Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys" played, the audience was treated to scene after scene of prominent Democrats saying they believed Saddam Hussein had WMD's. No shot of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Hussein, though.
Sanctimonious as ever, Hannity pointed his finger at the Democrats for attacking Bush for having lied, "yet they, themselves, said the exact same things at the time." With his most sincere expression, Hannity said that the criticism of Bush "seems unprecedented in American history while our troops are in harm's way."
Hannity must have forgotten some of his own statements. As Daily Kos reports, on 4/5/99 Hannity said the following about Milosevic and the war in Kosovo, during Clinton's presidency: "I guess this is why it's so ill-conceived from the very beginning. You know, they didn't anticipate that his popularity would rise. They didn't anticipate that he would beef up his reign of terror, if you will, against the ethnic Albanians. They didn't anticipate the refugee problem, and they didn't anticipate that they would also run out of bombs. So it seems that we're talking about a very ill-conceived military action here. And now the question is, do you go in further and deeper, or do you pull back and rethink what the strategy's going to be here, because there has really been no stated goal, mission or objective."
When it was Alan Colmes' turn, he told Graham that Clinton didn't start a war against Iraq, he used "pinpoint bombing which the Kay report said actually helped reduce his weaponry."
Apparently, Graham had no answer for that. Sounding a bit frustrated, he said, "Do you believe for one moment that everybody in the world got it wrong and the only person who intentionally got it wrong was George Bush?"
Colmes said that the president gets different intelligence than the US senators and he played a clip of Senator Pat Roberts acknowledging that fact.
As the screen said "Iraq blame game," (a way for FNC to politicize and trivialize the issue) Lindsay said that "From 1998 to the present, every major political figure in this country, from President Clinton to Madeleine Albright to the Congress has believed this man was procuring weapons of mass destruction. Every major intelligence agency in the world came to the same conclusion. Generals on his staff believed they had weapons of mass destruction."
Colmes objected that they didn't believe that attacking Iraq was the right way to deal with it.
"That was not the question," Graham said.
"But that's the issue. The issue is a decision was made based on faulty intelligence, or based on cooked intelligence, and based on intelligence that he saw that was not the same as the senators who voted on it saw."
Graham said that "The President of the United States ACTED," (his emphasis) and that he acted after Saddam Hussein threw out the UN weapons inspectors.
Colmes said, "We (my emphasis) removed them. We took the weapons inspectors out, Senator."
Graham insisted, "He removed the inspectors, not us... He obviously wasn't going to share information about his dictatorship."
But USA Today backs up Colmes. It reported on 3/17/03 that the US advised the inspectors to leave. It also quoted Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying, "I should note that in recent weeks, possibly as a result of increasing pressure by the international community, Iraq has been more forthcoming in its cooperation with the IAEA." The paper also reported that he added " that inspectors still have found no evidence that Saddam Hussein has revived his nuclear program."
Nevertheless, as Hannity ended the segment, Graham said, "This is a bunch of garbage."
Comment: The fact that the GOP would defend Bush by drawing parallels between him and the until-now evil Democrats speaks volumes about either their desperation, their foolishness or both.
Alan Colmes Speaks Truth To Senator Lindsey Graham And Graham Calls It "A Bunch Of Garbage"
With his "promote President Bush by bashing Bill Clinton" strategy evidently not working so well, Sean Hannity has switched to the "Clinton did it, too" Plan B just at the same time the Republican party has adopted the technique as a means to shore up Bush's eroding support for the Iraq war. Last night's (11/15/05) guest for the "If Clinton did it, then it was good for Bush to do it, too" segment was Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Unfortunately, for Senator Graham, he was confronted by the truth from Alan Colmes and Graham could not refute it.
Hannity started off the segment by playing a clip from a new video by the Republican National Committee (nice way to sneak in GOP propaganda and call it news). As the music from "Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys" played, the audience was treated to scene after scene of prominent Democrats saying they believed Saddam Hussein had WMD's. No shot of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Hussein, though.
Sanctimonious as ever, Hannity pointed his finger at the Democrats for attacking Bush for having lied, "yet they, themselves, said the exact same things at the time." With his most sincere expression, Hannity said that the criticism of Bush "seems unprecedented in American history while our troops are in harm's way."
Hannity must have forgotten some of his own statements. As Daily Kos reports, on 4/5/99 Hannity said the following about Milosevic and the war in Kosovo, during Clinton's presidency: "I guess this is why it's so ill-conceived from the very beginning. You know, they didn't anticipate that his popularity would rise. They didn't anticipate that he would beef up his reign of terror, if you will, against the ethnic Albanians. They didn't anticipate the refugee problem, and they didn't anticipate that they would also run out of bombs. So it seems that we're talking about a very ill-conceived military action here. And now the question is, do you go in further and deeper, or do you pull back and rethink what the strategy's going to be here, because there has really been no stated goal, mission or objective."
When it was Alan Colmes' turn, he told Graham that Clinton didn't start a war against Iraq, he used "pinpoint bombing which the Kay report said actually helped reduce his weaponry."
Apparently, Graham had no answer for that. Sounding a bit frustrated, he said, "Do you believe for one moment that everybody in the world got it wrong and the only person who intentionally got it wrong was George Bush?"
Colmes said that the president gets different intelligence than the US senators and he played a clip of Senator Pat Roberts acknowledging that fact.
As the screen said "Iraq blame game," (a way for FNC to politicize and trivialize the issue) Lindsay said that "From 1998 to the present, every major political figure in this country, from President Clinton to Madeleine Albright to the Congress has believed this man was procuring weapons of mass destruction. Every major intelligence agency in the world came to the same conclusion. Generals on his staff believed they had weapons of mass destruction."
Colmes objected that they didn't believe that attacking Iraq was the right way to deal with it.
"That was not the question," Graham said.
"But that's the issue. The issue is a decision was made based on faulty intelligence, or based on cooked intelligence, and based on intelligence that he saw that was not the same as the senators who voted on it saw."
Graham said that "The President of the United States ACTED," (his emphasis) and that he acted after Saddam Hussein threw out the UN weapons inspectors.
Colmes said, "We (my emphasis) removed them. We took the weapons inspectors out, Senator."
Graham insisted, "He removed the inspectors, not us... He obviously wasn't going to share information about his dictatorship."
But USA Today backs up Colmes. It reported on 3/17/03 that the US advised the inspectors to leave. It also quoted Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying, "I should note that in recent weeks, possibly as a result of increasing pressure by the international community, Iraq has been more forthcoming in its cooperation with the IAEA." The paper also reported that he added " that inspectors still have found no evidence that Saddam Hussein has revived his nuclear program."
Nevertheless, as Hannity ended the segment, Graham said, "This is a bunch of garbage."
Comment: The fact that the GOP would defend Bush by drawing parallels between him and the until-now evil Democrats speaks volumes about either their desperation, their foolishness or both.
Keld Bach�s Press Cuttings � Blog Archive � Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
Keld Bach�s Press Cuttings � Blog Archive � Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
« Former Iraqi Detainees Allege Torture by U.S. TroopsWhy did the lights go out? »
Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) — Three Chinese were killed and one wounded Wednesday evening in bomb attacks against three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman, said a press release carried on the Website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
By Jamal Halaby and Zeina Karam
The DJ was putting on the traditional tabla drum music for the bride and groom to enter the hotel ballroom when suddenly the lights went out and the sound system went dead. Seconds later, he saw a flash and heard a loud explosion.
Soon after, the Iraqi woman who was to be the fourth suicide bomber ran out of the hotel and frantically hailed a taxi but had trouble finding her hide-out. Her dress splattered with blood and still wearing the suicide belt, she finally arrived at the safe house, one of two apartments the suicide team rented in a residential neighborhood. It took several days before her landlord said he grew suspicious and notified authorities.
In interviews with The Associated Press, top security officials and Jordanians who crossed paths with the bombers revealed new details Tuesday about how the four Iraqis launched the deadliest-ever terror blasts in this kingdom, all in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Three plush hotels in the usually staid Jordanian capital were hit at about 9 p.m. on Nov. 9, killing at least 58 people in addition to three of the bombers. The accounts given by those with whom the AP spoke suggest that at least two others involved in the attacks were in the hotels at the time of the blasts.
On Nov. 7, two days after they apparently entered Jordan and two days before the attack, an Iraqi man approached the husband of landlady Umm Mahmoud al-Fayoumi, asking to rent a basement apartment for himself, his wife and two other Iraqi men in their building in the Amman district of Tlaa’ Ali.
The Iraqis said “they were here to receive fertility treatment. I remember asking myself: If that’s the case, who were the two other men and why were they here?” said al-Fayoumi, 47.
It was one of at least two apartments that the group rented in Tlaa’ Ali, a middle-class area with a large Iraqi community.
On Nov. 9, the four Iraqis caught taxis to their targets.
The apparent leader of the cell, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, and his wife, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, headed for the Radisson SAS. In the taxi, they talked between themselves about Sunni-Shiite divisions in Iraq. Then al-Shamari told the driver not to repeat the conversation to anyone, the driver later told police, according to a senior security official involved to the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details to the press.
Wearing 22 pound-explosive-packed belts around their waists, the couple entered the Radisson, which did not have metal detectors. They lingered outside the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia, were celebrating their wedding with some 300 Jordanian and Palestinian guests.
The Iraqi couple drew the suspicion of a hotel clerk, who asked what they were looking for. Al-Shamari replied that they were Iraqis who had never seen a Jordanian wedding party and asked if they could have a look, the security official said, citing witnesses and video camera footage obtained from the blast site.
Once inside, they staked out different parts of the ballroom. Al-Shamari took up position on the right, where men were sitting in the gathering, which was segregated in line with conservative Islamic tradition. Al-Shamari was talking on his mobile phone constantly, witnesses told police.
Al-Rishawi found a seat on the left, near chatting women and a handful of playing children.
But when the moment arrived for al-Rishawi to trigger her explosives belt, there was a problem. She gestured to her husband that it wouldn’t explode.
The couple met up near the doorway to the ballroom, and guests told police they saw the husband angrily gesture toward the woman, telling her to leave.
As she moved toward the door, the lights went out and her husband jumped onto a dining table and detonated his belt, sending the ceiling crashing down and spraying molten ball-bearings across the room.
The disc jockey, Fadi al-Kessi, was just putting on the music when the power went out. Still, electricity was on outside the ballroom.
Seconds later, he “saw what looked like lightning and there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out,” he told AP.
It was not clear why the lights went out just before the blast, which killed at least 36 people, including the fathers of the bride and groom.
In a televised confession aired after her arrest four days later, al-Rishawi said, “My husband detonated (his bomb), I tried to explode (my belt) but it wouldn’t. … People fled running and I left running with them.”
She hailed a taxi on the street and told the driver to head to Tlaa’ Ali, but was confused about the address, the security official said. She was finally able to navigate by landmarks to the second apartment.
There, the landlord saw her rushing into the building, her dress covered in a spray of blood, the official said. In the four days until police arrested al-Rishawi in the apartment, the landlord never saw her leave.
During that time, Jordanian police launched a massive hunt for suspects. An al-Qaida in Iraq claim for the attacks said a husband and wife team were among the bombers, but police found only three male attackers’ bodies. So word went out in the press that authorities were looking for a woman. That’s when the landlord got suspicious and called police about his tenant, the official said.
Before authorities raided the apartment, al-Rishawi tried to find an escape. She got in contact with the family of her sister’s Jordanian husband, Nidal Arabiyat, another top security official said.
Members of the prominent Arabiyat family, centered in the town of Salt, 17 miles northeast of Amman , are known to have fought alongside the insurgency in Iraq. Nidal was reported killed in fighting with U.S. troops west of Baghdad in February 2004.
Al-Rishawi contacted Nidal’s father, Sheikh Mohammad Arabiyat, to help her get back to Iraq, but instead he notified authorities, the official said.
Arabiyat refused to confirm or deny the report to an AP journalist at his home in Salt. “Check this with the Intelligence Agency,” he said nervously.
Meanwhile, while al-Rishawi and her husband were in the Radisson ballroom, one of their fellow bombers - identified as 23-year-old Rawad Jassem Mohammed - was about 500 yards away at the Grand Hyatt.
Mohammed - thin, dark, with a goatee and wearing a black jacket - sat sipping orange juice with another Iraqi in a coffee shop overlooking the hotel’s lobby.
Behind them, Syrian-American filmmaker Mustapha al-Akkad kissed his daughter, Rima, welcoming her after she had just arrived in the hotel from the airport, the security official said, citing two witnesses.
Mohammed looked particularly annoyed by the sight of the well dressed, silver-haired older man kissing the young woman - a public display of affection considered sinful by conservative Muslims.
Mohammed and the other man left the coffee shop and went downstairs, apparently to a bathroom. Mohammed returned to the coffee shop alone, looking considerably bulkier, struggling to walk up the stairs.
He stood near the table he used earlier and detonated his explosives - seconds after the Radisson blast. Akkad and his daughter and at least seven hotel employees were killed in the suicide bombing.
Witnesses said neither Mohammed nor the other man had anything with them when they went down to the bathroom, suggesting the belt was hidden there, the security official said. The whereabouts of the second man was not known, and it was unclear if he was among 12 people detained on suspicion of a connection to the attacks.
Moments before the two other blasts, the third bomber - identified as 23-year-old Safaa Mohammed Ali, 23 - arrived at the Days Inn.
Ali, who sported a short beard and wore a black leather jacket, sat in a small restaurant on the ground floor, said Khaled Abou-Ghosh, the hotel’s general manager.
A waiter asked him if he was having dinner, and the man - who seemed nervous - answered in an Iraqi accent that he wanted only orange juice. The waiter asked him to move to the area of a coffee shop a few tables away.
Ali stood and moved away, opening his jacket and tugging at something, Abou-Ghosh said. The waiter called for security and Ali rushed outside the hotel. He knelt on the ground and pulled at the faulty trigger cord of his explosives, which finally detonated, blowing his body apart and killing three members of a Chinese military delegation nearby.
Moments earlier, on an upstairs floor at the Days Inn, a woman was leaving her room when a man who passed her in the corridor told her - in an Iraqi accent - to return to her room because there was about to be an explosion, the woman told police, according to the security official.
Then came the blast.
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According to the CBC World News, a security official said “lights in sections of both the Radisson and Hyatt hotels went out just before the near simultaneous blasts in - apparent - co-ordinated fashion.”
Related posts: Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? | Dressed for a party? | A suicide bomber above the ceiling? | Zarqawi Black Op Hits Amman | Al-Qaeda’s new direction | US and Jordan Forge Closer Ties in Covert War on Terrorism | How the U.S. Helped Create Zarqawi and the Terror Financing Network | Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel hours before bombings | Jordan Indicts Al-Zarqawi in Conspiracy |
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 01:52:09 and is filed under Iraq, Terrorism, Jordan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
« Former Iraqi Detainees Allege Torture by U.S. TroopsWhy did the lights go out? »
Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) — Three Chinese were killed and one wounded Wednesday evening in bomb attacks against three hotels in the Jordanian capital Amman, said a press release carried on the Website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
By Jamal Halaby and Zeina Karam
The DJ was putting on the traditional tabla drum music for the bride and groom to enter the hotel ballroom when suddenly the lights went out and the sound system went dead. Seconds later, he saw a flash and heard a loud explosion.
Soon after, the Iraqi woman who was to be the fourth suicide bomber ran out of the hotel and frantically hailed a taxi but had trouble finding her hide-out. Her dress splattered with blood and still wearing the suicide belt, she finally arrived at the safe house, one of two apartments the suicide team rented in a residential neighborhood. It took several days before her landlord said he grew suspicious and notified authorities.
In interviews with The Associated Press, top security officials and Jordanians who crossed paths with the bombers revealed new details Tuesday about how the four Iraqis launched the deadliest-ever terror blasts in this kingdom, all in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Three plush hotels in the usually staid Jordanian capital were hit at about 9 p.m. on Nov. 9, killing at least 58 people in addition to three of the bombers. The accounts given by those with whom the AP spoke suggest that at least two others involved in the attacks were in the hotels at the time of the blasts.
On Nov. 7, two days after they apparently entered Jordan and two days before the attack, an Iraqi man approached the husband of landlady Umm Mahmoud al-Fayoumi, asking to rent a basement apartment for himself, his wife and two other Iraqi men in their building in the Amman district of Tlaa’ Ali.
The Iraqis said “they were here to receive fertility treatment. I remember asking myself: If that’s the case, who were the two other men and why were they here?” said al-Fayoumi, 47.
It was one of at least two apartments that the group rented in Tlaa’ Ali, a middle-class area with a large Iraqi community.
On Nov. 9, the four Iraqis caught taxis to their targets.
The apparent leader of the cell, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, and his wife, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, headed for the Radisson SAS. In the taxi, they talked between themselves about Sunni-Shiite divisions in Iraq. Then al-Shamari told the driver not to repeat the conversation to anyone, the driver later told police, according to a senior security official involved to the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details to the press.
Wearing 22 pound-explosive-packed belts around their waists, the couple entered the Radisson, which did not have metal detectors. They lingered outside the Philadelphia Ballroom, where Ashraf Akhras and his bride, Nadia, were celebrating their wedding with some 300 Jordanian and Palestinian guests.
The Iraqi couple drew the suspicion of a hotel clerk, who asked what they were looking for. Al-Shamari replied that they were Iraqis who had never seen a Jordanian wedding party and asked if they could have a look, the security official said, citing witnesses and video camera footage obtained from the blast site.
Once inside, they staked out different parts of the ballroom. Al-Shamari took up position on the right, where men were sitting in the gathering, which was segregated in line with conservative Islamic tradition. Al-Shamari was talking on his mobile phone constantly, witnesses told police.
Al-Rishawi found a seat on the left, near chatting women and a handful of playing children.
But when the moment arrived for al-Rishawi to trigger her explosives belt, there was a problem. She gestured to her husband that it wouldn’t explode.
The couple met up near the doorway to the ballroom, and guests told police they saw the husband angrily gesture toward the woman, telling her to leave.
As she moved toward the door, the lights went out and her husband jumped onto a dining table and detonated his belt, sending the ceiling crashing down and spraying molten ball-bearings across the room.
The disc jockey, Fadi al-Kessi, was just putting on the music when the power went out. Still, electricity was on outside the ballroom.
Seconds later, he “saw what looked like lightning and there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out,” he told AP.
It was not clear why the lights went out just before the blast, which killed at least 36 people, including the fathers of the bride and groom.
In a televised confession aired after her arrest four days later, al-Rishawi said, “My husband detonated (his bomb), I tried to explode (my belt) but it wouldn’t. … People fled running and I left running with them.”
She hailed a taxi on the street and told the driver to head to Tlaa’ Ali, but was confused about the address, the security official said. She was finally able to navigate by landmarks to the second apartment.
There, the landlord saw her rushing into the building, her dress covered in a spray of blood, the official said. In the four days until police arrested al-Rishawi in the apartment, the landlord never saw her leave.
During that time, Jordanian police launched a massive hunt for suspects. An al-Qaida in Iraq claim for the attacks said a husband and wife team were among the bombers, but police found only three male attackers’ bodies. So word went out in the press that authorities were looking for a woman. That’s when the landlord got suspicious and called police about his tenant, the official said.
Before authorities raided the apartment, al-Rishawi tried to find an escape. She got in contact with the family of her sister’s Jordanian husband, Nidal Arabiyat, another top security official said.
Members of the prominent Arabiyat family, centered in the town of Salt, 17 miles northeast of Amman , are known to have fought alongside the insurgency in Iraq. Nidal was reported killed in fighting with U.S. troops west of Baghdad in February 2004.
Al-Rishawi contacted Nidal’s father, Sheikh Mohammad Arabiyat, to help her get back to Iraq, but instead he notified authorities, the official said.
Arabiyat refused to confirm or deny the report to an AP journalist at his home in Salt. “Check this with the Intelligence Agency,” he said nervously.
Meanwhile, while al-Rishawi and her husband were in the Radisson ballroom, one of their fellow bombers - identified as 23-year-old Rawad Jassem Mohammed - was about 500 yards away at the Grand Hyatt.
Mohammed - thin, dark, with a goatee and wearing a black jacket - sat sipping orange juice with another Iraqi in a coffee shop overlooking the hotel’s lobby.
Behind them, Syrian-American filmmaker Mustapha al-Akkad kissed his daughter, Rima, welcoming her after she had just arrived in the hotel from the airport, the security official said, citing two witnesses.
Mohammed looked particularly annoyed by the sight of the well dressed, silver-haired older man kissing the young woman - a public display of affection considered sinful by conservative Muslims.
Mohammed and the other man left the coffee shop and went downstairs, apparently to a bathroom. Mohammed returned to the coffee shop alone, looking considerably bulkier, struggling to walk up the stairs.
He stood near the table he used earlier and detonated his explosives - seconds after the Radisson blast. Akkad and his daughter and at least seven hotel employees were killed in the suicide bombing.
Witnesses said neither Mohammed nor the other man had anything with them when they went down to the bathroom, suggesting the belt was hidden there, the security official said. The whereabouts of the second man was not known, and it was unclear if he was among 12 people detained on suspicion of a connection to the attacks.
Moments before the two other blasts, the third bomber - identified as 23-year-old Safaa Mohammed Ali, 23 - arrived at the Days Inn.
Ali, who sported a short beard and wore a black leather jacket, sat in a small restaurant on the ground floor, said Khaled Abou-Ghosh, the hotel’s general manager.
A waiter asked him if he was having dinner, and the man - who seemed nervous - answered in an Iraqi accent that he wanted only orange juice. The waiter asked him to move to the area of a coffee shop a few tables away.
Ali stood and moved away, opening his jacket and tugging at something, Abou-Ghosh said. The waiter called for security and Ali rushed outside the hotel. He knelt on the ground and pulled at the faulty trigger cord of his explosives, which finally detonated, blowing his body apart and killing three members of a Chinese military delegation nearby.
Moments earlier, on an upstairs floor at the Days Inn, a woman was leaving her room when a man who passed her in the corridor told her - in an Iraqi accent - to return to her room because there was about to be an explosion, the woman told police, according to the security official.
Then came the blast.
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According to the CBC World News, a security official said “lights in sections of both the Radisson and Hyatt hotels went out just before the near simultaneous blasts in - apparent - co-ordinated fashion.”
Related posts: Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? | Dressed for a party? | A suicide bomber above the ceiling? | Zarqawi Black Op Hits Amman | Al-Qaeda’s new direction | US and Jordan Forge Closer Ties in Covert War on Terrorism | How the U.S. Helped Create Zarqawi and the Terror Financing Network | Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel hours before bombings | Jordan Indicts Al-Zarqawi in Conspiracy |
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 01:52:09 and is filed under Iraq, Terrorism, Jordan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Keld Bach�s Press Cuttings � Blog Archive � Why did the lights go out?
Keld Bach�s Press Cuttings � Blog Archive � Why did the lights go out?
Keld Bach’s Press Cuttings
Weblog about politics, culture and society…
« Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
Why did the lights go out?
A security official said lights in sections of both the Radisson and Hyatt hotels went out just before the near-simultaneous blasts in apparently coordinated fashion, the International Herald Tribune reported:
A man who was working as a disc jockey at the Radisson, where a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception was bombed, also recalled how the ballroom where the party was being held mysteriously went dark.
“The lights at the wedding hall went off seconds, maybe just one second, before the blast, although there was electricity outside the room in the corridor, the nearby lobby area and the reception,” said Fadi al-Kessi.
“For some reason, I looked to my right in the darkness and saw what looked liked lightning, then there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out.”
The DJ was putting on the traditional tabla drum music for the bride and groom to enter the hotel ballroom when suddenly the lights went out and the sound system went dead. Seconds later, he saw a flash and heard a loud explosion, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported:
Once inside, they [the Iraqi couple] staked out different parts of the ballroom. Al-Shamari took up position on the right, where men were sitting in the gathering, which was segregated in line with conservative Islamic tradition. Al-Shamari was talking on his mobile phone constantly, witnesses told police.
Al-Rishawi found a seat on the left, near chatting women and a handful of playing children.
But when the moment arrived for al-Rishawi to trigger her explosives belt, there was a problem. She gestured to her husband that it wouldn’t explode.
The couple met up near the doorway to the ballroom, and guests told police they saw the husband angrily gesture toward the woman, telling her to leave.
As she moved toward the door, the lights went out and her husband jumped onto a dining table and detonated his belt, sending the ceiling crashing down and spraying molten ball-bearings across the room.
[…]
The disc jockey, Fadi al-Kessi, was just putting on the music when the power went out. Still, electricity was on outside the ballroom.
Seconds later, he “saw what looked like lightning and there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out,” he told AP.
It was not clear why the lights went out just before the blast, which killed at least 36 people, including the fathers of the bride and groom.
Maybe xymphora has figured out how this ‘mystery’ can be solved:
The civilian deaths were required to lay the basis for the suicide bomb fable. In other words, most people died simply to hide the identity of the real targets, as an attack against only those people would make the identity of the killers too obvious. The bombers needed a sure-fire way to ensure that the targets were together in a room pre-planted with the bombs, and that the bombs in the other hotels were detonated at the same time as the bomb directed at the real targets.
A timer wouldn’t work, as no one could be sure when the targets would be together in the room. Cell phone triggers might not work, and a radio signal might be jammed (especially with all the spies about). So they came up with a clever low-tech solution. The bombs were pre-planted in the ceilings, and hooked up to the hotel electrical systems. As long as the power was on, the detonators were off. As soon as the power was interrupted, the detonators were triggered.
Someone at the front desk in charge of booking the rooms booked the Chinese and Palestinians into the same conference room, made sure they were all in, and then used the house phone to call the hotel electrical room. The agent in the electrical room telephoned the other hotels to tell them to set off their almost simultaneous cover explosions which disguised the real target, and flipped the circuit breaker to the room containing the Chinese and Palestinians. Boom! An added bonus is that the darkness hid the real source of the blasts, allowing for the creation of the suicide bomber explanation.
Related posts: Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? Dressed for a party? A suicide bomber above the ceiling? Zarqawi Black Op Hits Amman Al-Qaeda’s new direction US and Jordan Forge Closer Ties in Covert War on Terrorism How the U.S. Helped Create Zarqawi and the Terror Financing Network Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel hours before bombings Jordan Indicts Al-Zarqawi in Conspiracy
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 18:40:04 and is filed under Israel, Iraq, Terrorism, United States, Jordan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Keld Bach’s Press Cuttings
Weblog about politics, culture and society…
« Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge
Why did the lights go out?
A security official said lights in sections of both the Radisson and Hyatt hotels went out just before the near-simultaneous blasts in apparently coordinated fashion, the International Herald Tribune reported:
A man who was working as a disc jockey at the Radisson, where a Jordanian-Palestinian wedding reception was bombed, also recalled how the ballroom where the party was being held mysteriously went dark.
“The lights at the wedding hall went off seconds, maybe just one second, before the blast, although there was electricity outside the room in the corridor, the nearby lobby area and the reception,” said Fadi al-Kessi.
“For some reason, I looked to my right in the darkness and saw what looked liked lightning, then there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out.”
The DJ was putting on the traditional tabla drum music for the bride and groom to enter the hotel ballroom when suddenly the lights went out and the sound system went dead. Seconds later, he saw a flash and heard a loud explosion, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported:
Once inside, they [the Iraqi couple] staked out different parts of the ballroom. Al-Shamari took up position on the right, where men were sitting in the gathering, which was segregated in line with conservative Islamic tradition. Al-Shamari was talking on his mobile phone constantly, witnesses told police.
Al-Rishawi found a seat on the left, near chatting women and a handful of playing children.
But when the moment arrived for al-Rishawi to trigger her explosives belt, there was a problem. She gestured to her husband that it wouldn’t explode.
The couple met up near the doorway to the ballroom, and guests told police they saw the husband angrily gesture toward the woman, telling her to leave.
As she moved toward the door, the lights went out and her husband jumped onto a dining table and detonated his belt, sending the ceiling crashing down and spraying molten ball-bearings across the room.
[…]
The disc jockey, Fadi al-Kessi, was just putting on the music when the power went out. Still, electricity was on outside the ballroom.
Seconds later, he “saw what looked like lightning and there was a loud boom. It felt like the explosion came from the ceiling, then people started running out,” he told AP.
It was not clear why the lights went out just before the blast, which killed at least 36 people, including the fathers of the bride and groom.
Maybe xymphora has figured out how this ‘mystery’ can be solved:
The civilian deaths were required to lay the basis for the suicide bomb fable. In other words, most people died simply to hide the identity of the real targets, as an attack against only those people would make the identity of the killers too obvious. The bombers needed a sure-fire way to ensure that the targets were together in a room pre-planted with the bombs, and that the bombs in the other hotels were detonated at the same time as the bomb directed at the real targets.
A timer wouldn’t work, as no one could be sure when the targets would be together in the room. Cell phone triggers might not work, and a radio signal might be jammed (especially with all the spies about). So they came up with a clever low-tech solution. The bombs were pre-planted in the ceilings, and hooked up to the hotel electrical systems. As long as the power was on, the detonators were off. As soon as the power was interrupted, the detonators were triggered.
Someone at the front desk in charge of booking the rooms booked the Chinese and Palestinians into the same conference room, made sure they were all in, and then used the house phone to call the hotel electrical room. The agent in the electrical room telephoned the other hotels to tell them to set off their almost simultaneous cover explosions which disguised the real target, and flipped the circuit breaker to the room containing the Chinese and Palestinians. Boom! An added bonus is that the darkness hid the real source of the blasts, allowing for the creation of the suicide bomber explanation.
Related posts: Details of deadly Jordan bombings emerge Did Al-Zarqawi Really Bomb Amman? Dressed for a party? A suicide bomber above the ceiling? Zarqawi Black Op Hits Amman Al-Qaeda’s new direction US and Jordan Forge Closer Ties in Covert War on Terrorism How the U.S. Helped Create Zarqawi and the Terror Financing Network Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel hours before bombings Jordan Indicts Al-Zarqawi in Conspiracy
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 at 18:40:04 and is filed under Israel, Iraq, Terrorism, United States, Jordan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
BushFellas: New Links in Boulis Murder
BushFellas: New Links in Boulis Murder
BUSHFELLASCasino Jack & the Republican Thuggees
"I don't think we have had something of this scope, arrogance and sheer venality in our lifetimes," wrote Norman Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "It is building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections."
*World Exclusive*Nov 16,2005by Daniel Hopsicker
As three men—Anthony ‘Big Tony’ Moscatiello, Anthony ‘Little Tony’ Ferrari, and James ‘Pudgy Fiorillo— pled not guilty in court this week, the MadCowMorningNews has discovered new details in the investigation into the 4-year old slaying of SunCruz casino ship owner Gus Boulis.
A company which received over $100,000 in suspicious payments before the murder from Adam Kidan, we have learned, is owned by the family of long-time U.S. Senator from Florida Claude Pepper, now deceased, whose ties to illegal gambling there go back to the 1920’s.
It is a startling twist to the case, seeming to indicate, at a minimum, that the surface perturbation in Florida’s gambling world reflected in Boulis’ murder are the result of deeper tectonic shifts which the Evening News is reluctant to acknowledge or explain.
“Even as White House aides Karl Rove and Scooter Libby dominated the headlines,” read a typical analysis last week, “according to many observers Jack Abramoff remains the Republican Party's most dangerous problem.”
Here’s why: Kidan wrote a check for the hit.
A dunsky for the agesAdam Kidan, today living under a cloud of indictment for murder, made $250,000 in unexplained payments which have featured prominently in the case since the investigation began.
During the months before Boulis was gunned down, big money went to a mysterious Miami Beach company, and the daughter of a close associate of Gambino crime boss John Gotti.
After failing to pay for his purchase of Boulis’ SunCruz casino ship empire, Kidan added injury to insult, investigators now suspect, by using Boulis’ purloined company to pay for his own death.
Kidan sent checks totaling $145,000 to the daughter of Gambino hood Anthony Moscatiello, one of the three men charged so far in the gangland-style execution in Fort Lauderdale, and checks totaling $105,000 to ‘Moon Over Miami Beach.’ An officer in the company, James Ferrari, has been charged in the case.
“Moon Over Miami Beach” is “a company whose business remains unclear,” reported the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
“Anthony Ferrari runs Moon Over Miami Beach, a company just off the Lincoln Road Mall that never seems to be open for business,” reported Miami’s Channel 10 NEWS. “And Ferrari refuses to even say what business the company does.”
Moon over Miami Beach sound as phony as some of Abramoff’s other dummy front companies. We recalled the "premiere international think tank" he set up called the American International Center, through which rivers of cash were laundered.
"Want to head an international corporation?"The American International Centre was promoted as "bringing great minds together from all over the globe" under the "high-power directorship" of David Grosh, who turned out to be a rather under-powered lifeguard.
“Want to be head of an international corporation?" Grosh told an incredulous Senate committee hearing he was asked. "I was like, ‘sure.’ It was a hard one to turn down. I asked him what I had to do, and he said 'Nothing.’
“That sounded pretty good to me."
Abramoff charged exorbitant fees for work he didn't do, and set up fake charities to shelter the ill-gotten gains. There were phony grass-roots Christian groups. Phony billing statements. And nonprofits with phony purposes.
When we took a closer look at “Moon over Miami Beach” we discovered the previously undisclosed gambling associations of the firms’ other two officers, Frank and Thomas Pepper.
News accounts identified Frank Pepper as “the 77-year old founder of one of Miami's oldest real estate companies,” and Thomas Pepper as his nephew, a friend of Ferrari and one of four men who received $10,000 in Sun Cruz casino chips. A history of gambling in South Florida
In a startling twist, we have learned that the Pepper family—one of the Miami families dating back to the boom time 1920s—has a rich history of involvement in gambling in South Florida that seems germane today in a murder investigation of a man who owned floating casinos.
For more than 30 years, reported the June 30, 1991 St. Petersburg Times, the FBI and its legendary director J. Edgar Hoover collected details about Claude Pepper in an effort to link him to corruption.
FBI files indicated that Pepper "is suspected of receiving graft through various political manipulations and maneuvers in the state of Florida, although no positive evidence has ever been offered in this request."
The FBI’s suspicion of Pepper may have owed something to the “considerable notoriety” he enjoyed because of his public objections to FBI wiretapping.
A field agent in the FBI's Washington office once wrote Hoover that he was surprised that Pepper had attacked the bureau because agents there had once recovered a diamond bracelet of Mrs. Pepper's which she lost in a Washington taxicab.
"I shall always be most grateful to you and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the exceedingly kind and efficient service which you rendered to me and to Mrs. Pepper," Pepper wrote Hoover in a thank-you note.
Was Claude Pepper a clue?
At the bottom of the note, reported the St Petersburg Times story, Hoover personally added his own sentiment: "Pepper has to serve his masters, the Florida politicians and criminals."
Besides looking at Pepper's ties to left-wing organizations, the paper reported, the FBI also questioned whether Pepper’s nephew was running a gambling operation.
In 1986, Pepper formed the not-for-profit Mildred and Claude Pepper Foundation, to “promote policies and programs which will improve health, provide economic opportunity and contribute to social justice for all Americans,” according to their literature.
A dandy ambition. But despite its lofty goals, the foundation carried on with a very modest budget, until after Pepper's death at age 89, when the financial picture turned unexpectedly rosy...
The U.S. Congress appropriated $ 10-million for the foundation from—are you ready for this?—the Department of Defense budget, “a direct and unrestricted grant to support the purposes of the foundation and to serve as a memorial to Pepper.”
"I've never heard of government money used to create a foundation like that,” said Robert Bothwell, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.
Among the creative ways the foundation has found to spend money: $10,000 to the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in El Salvador, during the height of the Contra unpleasantness.
We’re sure we could find more.
BushFellas meet The Soprano's
If the various Abramoff scandals are the brewing scandals Republicans fear most, what may be keeping Abramoff himself up late at night, we suspect, is the murder investigation now grinding forward in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
What makes this a candidate for most explosive scandal (in a Dramatic Category) since Watergate?
First, because Jack Abramoff and his friends are the players in the conservative revolution that took over Congress, the White House, and the lobbying industry...
Second, because Abramoff has been charged with fraud in connection with a gambling ship deal in Florida which ended in a gangland-style killing of the man Abramoff is alleged to have defrauded...
And third... because The Washington Post (and practically everyone else writing about it) can’t resist describing it as a “gangland-style hit straight out of “Goodfellas.”
Congressional Quarterly called the Abramoff-DeLay scandal “The Slow Decline of a GOP “Godfather.’”
How much of this isn’t in jest? Have we truly become what much of the rest of the world sees us as: Gangster America?
Round up the usual suspects
Anthony Ferrari was first identified in print as a suspect four years ago, in August of 2001. The basic facts in the Boulis murder have been known to investigators since that time.
The FBI’s interest in Claude Pepper’s family associations with illegal gambling in South Florida go back six decades. They were writing memos about it in 1937.
With a history that long, and that hidden... the discovery of assorted political murders is not exactly a “stop the presses!” moment.
Especially coming so soon after George W Bush took power, Boulis’ very visible murder would have raised concerns that it might signal a big shake-up in the gambling industry hierarchy.
Details of the “deep politics” behind an industry as important and lucrative as unregulated gambling are of keen interest to anyone who wants to understand how power works in America.
This must be why they are being doled out like flu shots in the middle of a pandemic. They are obviously considered highly-sensitive... need to know sensitive, even.
Imagine that.
Could this be an answer of sorts to one of the biggest mysteries in the case: why have police waited so long to charge people for the crime?
Investigators strongly suspected that Boulis’ cold-blooded murder was related to the dead man’s riches—and his businesses. Boulis’ most profitable business venture was SunCruz Casinos, which he had recently and reluctantly sold to a Washington DC investor group headed by Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and “fronted” by a buddy of Abramoff’s from their College Republican days, a disbarred attorney and “businessman” named Adam Kidan.
The sale price was $147 million.
Thuggee Greatest Hits
An hour before a gunman killed Gus Boulis, a local developer and two prominent Hollywood, FL. lawyers had attempted to persuade Boulis to sell his interest in a big Hollywood waterfront hotel project.
The controversy around the sale of Boulis' SunCruz casino boat empire made Boulis too hot for the public to accept as a partner on a 20-story hotel project on city-owned beachfront land, they told him.
After almost a decade of very public wheeling and dealing, Boulis had suddenly become persona non grata.
If you don’t recall, the Thuggees were a well-organized confederacy of professional assassins, an Indian cult sometimes described as the world's first mafia. They practiced large-scale robbery and murder of travelers between the 13th to the 19th centuries. Members were known as Thugs.
But one brutal murder does not a Republican Thuggee gang make. We needed more examples. They were, alas, almost too easily found...
There’s the gangland murder of Kidan’s own mother, for example. On Feb. 18, 1993, Kidan's mother, Judy Shemtov, 46, was shot in the head and killed after answering the door of their posh Richmond Hill home. The motive of that slaying was a mystery until Chris Paciello, Miami Beach's leading club impresario and sometime boyfriend of Madonna, pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and turned government informant.
Paciello testified that he was the getaway driver for a crew from the Bonanno crime family who went to the house to rob Kidan's stepfather of $200,000 they had heard he kept in a safe in the house.
When Shemtov answered the door, two young men wearing baseball caps and jeans entered the foyer of her Queens home, said her husband, Kidan’s step-father. One of the crew accidentally shot her.
“A bullet tore through Judy's left cheek. Her small body flew into the air and slammed backward into the foyer, then dropped to the floor. Blood splattered all over,” wrote the tabloid New York Daily News on April 14, 2002, under a headline reading “RISE AND FALL OF A PLAYBOY MOBSTER.”
GoodFellas in action
Calandra looked at Tommy Reynolds. "Let's make this one to go," he said, borrowing the line from his favorite movie "Goodfellas."
The two men fled. Here’s a truly horrible thought: Kidan is suspected by some of being responsible for his own mother’s death, by telling the robbery crew, who knew, where they kept the cash.
Boulis’s murder cast a pall of fear over the people who knew him, said the local paper, the Sun-Sentinel. What they meant was...people are afraid to talk.
At his company, Atlantia staffers remained silent, referring calls to a public relations agency. Even police were having difficulty getting some people to talk.
”There are a lot of people who aren't talking for reasons of personal safety," said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Mike Reed.
Here’s one you may have heard about: “Boulis was murdered in the exact same way as Don Aronow, Bush’s other partner,” he stated. Bush’s other partner?
Donald Aronow, 59, self-made millionaire; acknowledged guru of the offshore powerboat set, rich and handsome deal-doer adored by friends and family... and killed on Northeast 188th Street in broad daylight by a stranger in a dark Lincoln Town Car who calmly shot Aronow in the chest, blasting his way down to the groin.
Here’s one you may not have, from the White House Spy Scandal we are hearing so little about. Two factions are battling for control of the Philippines. Abramoff, of course, has “a dog in that hunt.”
Abramoff’s clients sent a man named Michael Aquino to the U.S. to lay low for a while. He was arrested with the Marine at the White House who had been feeding him classified material.
They had him over a barrel
Here’s an example of why he's laying low:
Edgar Bentain was a man who released a video clip during the Presidential campaign there showing then-Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada and a notorious gambler playing high-stakes baccarat at the Heritage Hotel casino.
This was not pleasing to Estrada, an ally of Imelda Marcos and Abramoff’s.
Betain disappeared without a trace. Nothing had not been seen nor heard of him since. Then someone confessed that they’d seen Bentain: in a drum.
"We were brought to a bridge near Bacolor, where we saw Bentain inside a drum. We could still see his head but the rest of his body was already buried under cement," said the man’s statement to police.
“Bentain was crying and begging for his life.”
The statement quoted Aquino as telling Bentain: "Masyado ka kasing pakialamero at iyan ang bagay sa iyo (You deserve this because you mind other people's business too much)!"
Bentain was encased alive in cement. Philippine NBI agents were said to be searching for a metal drum near the bridge.
The players and politicians so desperately distancing themselves from Abramoff would prefer that we think of him as some small-time hustler, a fringe sleaze ball who crawled out of the shadows.
He wasn't. He was a big-league hustler and a mainstream sleaze ball. And he was all theirs.
We’re pretty sure that few will miss the rat-faced weasels about to be sent to jail.
Shakespeare, as acute an observer of the human condition as has ever lived, according to some, famously wrote that “Murder will out.”
We shall see.
BUSHFELLASCasino Jack & the Republican Thuggees
"I don't think we have had something of this scope, arrogance and sheer venality in our lifetimes," wrote Norman Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "It is building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections."
*World Exclusive*Nov 16,2005by Daniel Hopsicker
As three men—Anthony ‘Big Tony’ Moscatiello, Anthony ‘Little Tony’ Ferrari, and James ‘Pudgy Fiorillo— pled not guilty in court this week, the MadCowMorningNews has discovered new details in the investigation into the 4-year old slaying of SunCruz casino ship owner Gus Boulis.
A company which received over $100,000 in suspicious payments before the murder from Adam Kidan, we have learned, is owned by the family of long-time U.S. Senator from Florida Claude Pepper, now deceased, whose ties to illegal gambling there go back to the 1920’s.
It is a startling twist to the case, seeming to indicate, at a minimum, that the surface perturbation in Florida’s gambling world reflected in Boulis’ murder are the result of deeper tectonic shifts which the Evening News is reluctant to acknowledge or explain.
“Even as White House aides Karl Rove and Scooter Libby dominated the headlines,” read a typical analysis last week, “according to many observers Jack Abramoff remains the Republican Party's most dangerous problem.”
Here’s why: Kidan wrote a check for the hit.
A dunsky for the agesAdam Kidan, today living under a cloud of indictment for murder, made $250,000 in unexplained payments which have featured prominently in the case since the investigation began.
During the months before Boulis was gunned down, big money went to a mysterious Miami Beach company, and the daughter of a close associate of Gambino crime boss John Gotti.
After failing to pay for his purchase of Boulis’ SunCruz casino ship empire, Kidan added injury to insult, investigators now suspect, by using Boulis’ purloined company to pay for his own death.
Kidan sent checks totaling $145,000 to the daughter of Gambino hood Anthony Moscatiello, one of the three men charged so far in the gangland-style execution in Fort Lauderdale, and checks totaling $105,000 to ‘Moon Over Miami Beach.’ An officer in the company, James Ferrari, has been charged in the case.
“Moon Over Miami Beach” is “a company whose business remains unclear,” reported the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
“Anthony Ferrari runs Moon Over Miami Beach, a company just off the Lincoln Road Mall that never seems to be open for business,” reported Miami’s Channel 10 NEWS. “And Ferrari refuses to even say what business the company does.”
Moon over Miami Beach sound as phony as some of Abramoff’s other dummy front companies. We recalled the "premiere international think tank" he set up called the American International Center, through which rivers of cash were laundered.
"Want to head an international corporation?"The American International Centre was promoted as "bringing great minds together from all over the globe" under the "high-power directorship" of David Grosh, who turned out to be a rather under-powered lifeguard.
“Want to be head of an international corporation?" Grosh told an incredulous Senate committee hearing he was asked. "I was like, ‘sure.’ It was a hard one to turn down. I asked him what I had to do, and he said 'Nothing.’
“That sounded pretty good to me."
Abramoff charged exorbitant fees for work he didn't do, and set up fake charities to shelter the ill-gotten gains. There were phony grass-roots Christian groups. Phony billing statements. And nonprofits with phony purposes.
When we took a closer look at “Moon over Miami Beach” we discovered the previously undisclosed gambling associations of the firms’ other two officers, Frank and Thomas Pepper.
News accounts identified Frank Pepper as “the 77-year old founder of one of Miami's oldest real estate companies,” and Thomas Pepper as his nephew, a friend of Ferrari and one of four men who received $10,000 in Sun Cruz casino chips. A history of gambling in South Florida
In a startling twist, we have learned that the Pepper family—one of the Miami families dating back to the boom time 1920s—has a rich history of involvement in gambling in South Florida that seems germane today in a murder investigation of a man who owned floating casinos.
For more than 30 years, reported the June 30, 1991 St. Petersburg Times, the FBI and its legendary director J. Edgar Hoover collected details about Claude Pepper in an effort to link him to corruption.
FBI files indicated that Pepper "is suspected of receiving graft through various political manipulations and maneuvers in the state of Florida, although no positive evidence has ever been offered in this request."
The FBI’s suspicion of Pepper may have owed something to the “considerable notoriety” he enjoyed because of his public objections to FBI wiretapping.
A field agent in the FBI's Washington office once wrote Hoover that he was surprised that Pepper had attacked the bureau because agents there had once recovered a diamond bracelet of Mrs. Pepper's which she lost in a Washington taxicab.
"I shall always be most grateful to you and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the exceedingly kind and efficient service which you rendered to me and to Mrs. Pepper," Pepper wrote Hoover in a thank-you note.
Was Claude Pepper a clue?
At the bottom of the note, reported the St Petersburg Times story, Hoover personally added his own sentiment: "Pepper has to serve his masters, the Florida politicians and criminals."
Besides looking at Pepper's ties to left-wing organizations, the paper reported, the FBI also questioned whether Pepper’s nephew was running a gambling operation.
In 1986, Pepper formed the not-for-profit Mildred and Claude Pepper Foundation, to “promote policies and programs which will improve health, provide economic opportunity and contribute to social justice for all Americans,” according to their literature.
A dandy ambition. But despite its lofty goals, the foundation carried on with a very modest budget, until after Pepper's death at age 89, when the financial picture turned unexpectedly rosy...
The U.S. Congress appropriated $ 10-million for the foundation from—are you ready for this?—the Department of Defense budget, “a direct and unrestricted grant to support the purposes of the foundation and to serve as a memorial to Pepper.”
"I've never heard of government money used to create a foundation like that,” said Robert Bothwell, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington.
Among the creative ways the foundation has found to spend money: $10,000 to the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in El Salvador, during the height of the Contra unpleasantness.
We’re sure we could find more.
BushFellas meet The Soprano's
If the various Abramoff scandals are the brewing scandals Republicans fear most, what may be keeping Abramoff himself up late at night, we suspect, is the murder investigation now grinding forward in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
What makes this a candidate for most explosive scandal (in a Dramatic Category) since Watergate?
First, because Jack Abramoff and his friends are the players in the conservative revolution that took over Congress, the White House, and the lobbying industry...
Second, because Abramoff has been charged with fraud in connection with a gambling ship deal in Florida which ended in a gangland-style killing of the man Abramoff is alleged to have defrauded...
And third... because The Washington Post (and practically everyone else writing about it) can’t resist describing it as a “gangland-style hit straight out of “Goodfellas.”
Congressional Quarterly called the Abramoff-DeLay scandal “The Slow Decline of a GOP “Godfather.’”
How much of this isn’t in jest? Have we truly become what much of the rest of the world sees us as: Gangster America?
Round up the usual suspects
Anthony Ferrari was first identified in print as a suspect four years ago, in August of 2001. The basic facts in the Boulis murder have been known to investigators since that time.
The FBI’s interest in Claude Pepper’s family associations with illegal gambling in South Florida go back six decades. They were writing memos about it in 1937.
With a history that long, and that hidden... the discovery of assorted political murders is not exactly a “stop the presses!” moment.
Especially coming so soon after George W Bush took power, Boulis’ very visible murder would have raised concerns that it might signal a big shake-up in the gambling industry hierarchy.
Details of the “deep politics” behind an industry as important and lucrative as unregulated gambling are of keen interest to anyone who wants to understand how power works in America.
This must be why they are being doled out like flu shots in the middle of a pandemic. They are obviously considered highly-sensitive... need to know sensitive, even.
Imagine that.
Could this be an answer of sorts to one of the biggest mysteries in the case: why have police waited so long to charge people for the crime?
Investigators strongly suspected that Boulis’ cold-blooded murder was related to the dead man’s riches—and his businesses. Boulis’ most profitable business venture was SunCruz Casinos, which he had recently and reluctantly sold to a Washington DC investor group headed by Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and “fronted” by a buddy of Abramoff’s from their College Republican days, a disbarred attorney and “businessman” named Adam Kidan.
The sale price was $147 million.
Thuggee Greatest Hits
An hour before a gunman killed Gus Boulis, a local developer and two prominent Hollywood, FL. lawyers had attempted to persuade Boulis to sell his interest in a big Hollywood waterfront hotel project.
The controversy around the sale of Boulis' SunCruz casino boat empire made Boulis too hot for the public to accept as a partner on a 20-story hotel project on city-owned beachfront land, they told him.
After almost a decade of very public wheeling and dealing, Boulis had suddenly become persona non grata.
If you don’t recall, the Thuggees were a well-organized confederacy of professional assassins, an Indian cult sometimes described as the world's first mafia. They practiced large-scale robbery and murder of travelers between the 13th to the 19th centuries. Members were known as Thugs.
But one brutal murder does not a Republican Thuggee gang make. We needed more examples. They were, alas, almost too easily found...
There’s the gangland murder of Kidan’s own mother, for example. On Feb. 18, 1993, Kidan's mother, Judy Shemtov, 46, was shot in the head and killed after answering the door of their posh Richmond Hill home. The motive of that slaying was a mystery until Chris Paciello, Miami Beach's leading club impresario and sometime boyfriend of Madonna, pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge and turned government informant.
Paciello testified that he was the getaway driver for a crew from the Bonanno crime family who went to the house to rob Kidan's stepfather of $200,000 they had heard he kept in a safe in the house.
When Shemtov answered the door, two young men wearing baseball caps and jeans entered the foyer of her Queens home, said her husband, Kidan’s step-father. One of the crew accidentally shot her.
“A bullet tore through Judy's left cheek. Her small body flew into the air and slammed backward into the foyer, then dropped to the floor. Blood splattered all over,” wrote the tabloid New York Daily News on April 14, 2002, under a headline reading “RISE AND FALL OF A PLAYBOY MOBSTER.”
GoodFellas in action
Calandra looked at Tommy Reynolds. "Let's make this one to go," he said, borrowing the line from his favorite movie "Goodfellas."
The two men fled. Here’s a truly horrible thought: Kidan is suspected by some of being responsible for his own mother’s death, by telling the robbery crew, who knew, where they kept the cash.
Boulis’s murder cast a pall of fear over the people who knew him, said the local paper, the Sun-Sentinel. What they meant was...people are afraid to talk.
At his company, Atlantia staffers remained silent, referring calls to a public relations agency. Even police were having difficulty getting some people to talk.
”There are a lot of people who aren't talking for reasons of personal safety," said Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Mike Reed.
Here’s one you may have heard about: “Boulis was murdered in the exact same way as Don Aronow, Bush’s other partner,” he stated. Bush’s other partner?
Donald Aronow, 59, self-made millionaire; acknowledged guru of the offshore powerboat set, rich and handsome deal-doer adored by friends and family... and killed on Northeast 188th Street in broad daylight by a stranger in a dark Lincoln Town Car who calmly shot Aronow in the chest, blasting his way down to the groin.
Here’s one you may not have, from the White House Spy Scandal we are hearing so little about. Two factions are battling for control of the Philippines. Abramoff, of course, has “a dog in that hunt.”
Abramoff’s clients sent a man named Michael Aquino to the U.S. to lay low for a while. He was arrested with the Marine at the White House who had been feeding him classified material.
They had him over a barrel
Here’s an example of why he's laying low:
Edgar Bentain was a man who released a video clip during the Presidential campaign there showing then-Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada and a notorious gambler playing high-stakes baccarat at the Heritage Hotel casino.
This was not pleasing to Estrada, an ally of Imelda Marcos and Abramoff’s.
Betain disappeared without a trace. Nothing had not been seen nor heard of him since. Then someone confessed that they’d seen Bentain: in a drum.
"We were brought to a bridge near Bacolor, where we saw Bentain inside a drum. We could still see his head but the rest of his body was already buried under cement," said the man’s statement to police.
“Bentain was crying and begging for his life.”
The statement quoted Aquino as telling Bentain: "Masyado ka kasing pakialamero at iyan ang bagay sa iyo (You deserve this because you mind other people's business too much)!"
Bentain was encased alive in cement. Philippine NBI agents were said to be searching for a metal drum near the bridge.
The players and politicians so desperately distancing themselves from Abramoff would prefer that we think of him as some small-time hustler, a fringe sleaze ball who crawled out of the shadows.
He wasn't. He was a big-league hustler and a mainstream sleaze ball. And he was all theirs.
We’re pretty sure that few will miss the rat-faced weasels about to be sent to jail.
Shakespeare, as acute an observer of the human condition as has ever lived, according to some, famously wrote that “Murder will out.”
We shall see.
Joe's Dartblog: More on Willy Pete
Joe's Dartblog: More on Willy Pete: "We cleaned house in Fallujah"
Blogger Thoughts: It's all just a big misunderstanding. We just needed to use the spic-n-span. Right
It gets worse. Update 11/16 Willy Pete sure can do that "shake and bake"
Tags: Iraq burning flesh
Blogger Thoughts: It's all just a big misunderstanding. We just needed to use the spic-n-span. Right
It gets worse. Update 11/16 Willy Pete sure can do that "shake and bake"
Tags: Iraq burning flesh
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