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Main
Date: 03 Jan 2009 09:43:30
From: Irish Mike
Subject: Why John McCain really lost the election
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There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing. When
Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and out-spent
McCain by about five to one.
The liberal main stream media and the Hollywood liberal celebrities fell in
love with Obama and handled him with kid gloves through out his campaign.
John McCain assisted Obama by refusing to capitalize on the Jeremiah Wright
fiasco.
People were tired of President Bush and tired of the Iraq war. The fact
that Bush was a lousy communicator only made things worse.
However, the turning point of the election was the mid-September financial
crash. Immediately preceding that event, McCain/Palin were leading in the
polls in nearly all the swing states and still had momentum from the RNC.
When the financial collapse first hit, I thought it was McCain's ticket to
the white house for these reasons:
First, McCain had warned against F-MAE and F-MAC's increasing involvement in
the whole subprime mortgage mess. And it was Bill Clinton who required that
these organizations have up to 50% of their multi-billion dollar portfolios
made up of these high risk subprime loans.
Second, the Democrats had been in charge of all the congressional banking
and finance committees for the past two years. Between 8/07 and 8/08, under
Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's "leadership" F-MAE and F-MAC lost 90% of its
stock value.
Third, at the time McCain was warning congress about the danger of subprime
loans at F-MAE and F-MAC, Obama was an arm twister for ACORN and playing the
race card on any Illinois bank that refused to make high risk loans to
unqualified minority borrowers. And, Obama helped ACORN file a law suit
against a finance company, which resulted in banks lowering their lending
standards for high risk subprime mortgages all across the country. Not to
mention that Obama's campaign advisor (Raines) had personally made $90
million plus while running F-MAE and F-MAC straight in to the ground.
Fourth, Obama had jumped on the bandwagon to provide the $700 billion + bail
out and this was in addition to his plans to raise taxes and his repeated
promises to greatly increases spending to fund new welfare, entitlement and
give away programs.
So to me, it seemed a perfect opportunity for McCain. I thought McCain
would really hammer Obama and the Democrats with these facts and vote
against the $700 billion+ bailout. I thought McCain would come out with a
clear financial plan of tax cuts for middle class tax payers, businesses,
corporations and at least a two year suspension of the capital gains tax.
That he would explain that, painful as it might be, we had to let the market
correct itself and that we could not tax and spend our way out of a
recession. Equally important , that McCain would pledge to investigate and
fully prosecute those responsible - including Wall Street crooks and the
Washington politicians.
But I was wrong. Sadly, McCain let Obama and the Democrats slide, stopped
his campaign, went back to Washington and meekly voted yes for the bail out.
It was the strategic blunder that cost him the election .
One final note for all you Obama fans. Think about this. As unpopular as
Bush was. As unpopular as the Iraq war was. After out-spending McCain five
to one. After all of McCain's campaign blunders. After having the main
stream liberal media in the tank for him through out his whole campaign.
After the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. After all
that, Obama still only won by 7 million votes and 55+ million of us voted
against him.
Irish Mike
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 17:05:20
From: pixelfreak
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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On 2009-01-03 06:43:30 -0800, "Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net > said:
> There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
>
> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing.
> When Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and
> out-spent McCain by about five to one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCHOGG9jqo
--
thepixelfreak
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 19:12:50
From: OrangeSFO
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 19, 6:14=A0pm, "Irish Reich" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
>
> Your boy has been proven
> to be a liar
Notice how Mike has to call the black man "boy"...
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 19:20:54
From: RazzO
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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Yes, yes I did.
On Jan 19 2009 7:12 PM, OrangeSFO wrote:
> On Jan 19, 6:14 pm, "Irish Adolph" <mjos...@ameritech.net> wrote:
> >
>
> > Your boy has been proven
> > to be a liar
>
>
>
> Notice how Mike has to call the black man "boy"...
RazzO
"Fucking poker, brings out the mental illness
in everyone!" - Porsche_Dan
______________________________________________________________________
looking for a better newsgroup-reader? - www.recgroups.com
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 21:14:24
From: Irish Mike
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"pixelfreak" <not@dot.com > wrote in message
news:2009011917052075249%not@dotcom...
> On 2009-01-03 06:43:30 -0800, "Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net> said:
>
>> There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
>>
>> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing. When
>> Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and out-spent
>> McCain by about five to one.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCHOGG9jqo
>
> --
>
> thepixelfreak
Truth is a bitch, ain't it bucko. But cheer up. Your boy has been proven
to be a liar and shown that his word doesn't mean jack shit. But, at least
he hasn't told us any stories about ducking sniper fire - yet.
Irish Mike
Proud to be one of the 55,000,000+ Americans who did not vote for your
Messiah.
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 18:48:56
From: pixelfreak
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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On 2009-01-19 18:14:24 -0800, "Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net > said:
>>> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing.
>>> When Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and
>>> out-spent McCain by about five to one.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDCHOGG9jqo
>>
>> --
>>
>> thepixelfreak
>
> Truth is a bitch, ain't it bucko. But cheer up. Your boy has been
> proven to be a liar and shown that his word doesn't mean jack shit.
> But, at least he hasn't told us any stories about ducking sniper fire -
> yet.
Don't look at me for comfort poor baby. I don't know where your
pacifier is. Go ask your mommy.
--
thepixelfreak
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 19:18:27
From: RazzO
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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Irish Reich, I think Senator McCain spent enough money. That's all we
needed was 5 times more of the 98% negative adds. He had no plan. He
didn't even get it. And neither do you.
What a great moment for us all.
WE ARE ONE now, you dumb MF. Can't you feel the love? No, because you are
racist and have the bandwidth of a mouse. Your brain still works like a
1400 baud modem.
> On 2009-01-19 18:14:24 -0800, "Irish Reich" <mjostar@ameritech.net> said:
>
> >>> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing.
> >>> When Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and
> >>> out-spent McCain by about five to one.
RazzO
"Fucking poker, brings out the mental illness
in everyone!" - Porsche_Dan
----
RecGroups : the community-oriented newsreader : www.recgroups.com
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 14:19:43
From: OrangeSFO
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Mike is going to spend Tuesday with this fingers in his ears, stamping
his feet and shouting "LA LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU BARACK!"
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Date: 04 Jan 2009 11:44:31
From: Stephen Jacobs
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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"Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net > wrote in message
news:LUK7l.7983$pr6.2429@flpi149.ffdc.sbc.com...
> There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
> ..........
You miss the biggest one (and I'm not going to argue with you about the
stuff you pick out)
John McCain never had any chance at all. He was a sacrificial lamb, a
candidate given a pat on the back and a lot of distance from the insiders.
He was nominated because NO republican had much of a chance. It wasn't just
that Bush was personally unpopular, Bush had also carried out the
neoconservative platform, and gotten unpopular results. And the Republican
party is perceived as being dominated by neoconservatives. (A couple items
to distinguish neoconservatives from conservatives: conservatives want to
reduce both taxation and spending while neoconservatives want to reduce
taxes and increase government debt. Conservatives favor minimal foreign
entanglements while neoconservatives want the US to direct the world as its
only superpower).
While the Iraq war looked and still looks like it was started mostly for
personal reasons ("He wanted to kill my daddy!"), it was in keeping with
neoconservative principles. And it was and is unpopular. It is likely that
victory would be a bigger blow to US power than defeat (Great idea to
replace a mostly-secular tyranny with local ambitions and little popular
support with a far-from-secular authoritarian state with regional ambitions
and moderate popular support...allied with Iran and hostile to Saudi
Arabia--not the worst humanitarian outcome, but as an American, I'd feel
safer with 20 years of chaos).
There was a definite sense among most people in the US that times had been
good in the late 1990-s and had gotten hard around 2001 (with Bush in
office. You can say that it was a Clinton bubble that burst, but 1) that
doesn't affect the perception and 2) it was also substantially a Greenspan
bubble, and he's more neocon than not). People in power were proudly
proclaiming recovery, but it didn't feel like a recovery to about the lower
2/3 of the economic scale.
War and the economy favoring the other side... it would have taken a miracle
for a Republican to win, and McCain isn't a miracle worker.
The convention gave McCain a nice bounce, but these things always happen and
always fade. The Democratic Party candidate selection process was a whole
lot better theater than the GOP one (partly because they knew the nominee
had a nearly-guaranteed win), which is worth a percent or two in the
election.
Sarah Palin was a brilliant move, but a failure in the end. Better to shake
things up than to lose meekly. But in the end she only played to the
already-decided.
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Date: 20 Jan 2009 15:53:26
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
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He walked with his head held high today after getting out of his
bullet-proof limo!
There were no snipers!!
I did not vote for him but I have to say he was the best politician
available!!
His speach was almost believable!
Big bidniz and small bidnez have been a part of organized crime
forever!!
The spoils of war goes to the victor, thus our poor boys over in Iraq
will simply be reasigned to Pakistan$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Hated to hear poor Ted, the last of the Kennedy era, was carted off
the stage
wonder who will be hand picked to take his place??
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Date: 20 Jan 2009 16:29:14
From: Pepe Papon
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:53:26 -0800 (PST), joeturn
<joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote:
>Hated to hear poor Ted, the last of the Kennedy era, was carted off
>the stage
>wonder who will be hand picked to take his place??
The Governor of Illinois.
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 14:07:24
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
The Black Messiah will end up crusified if he goes against big
buisiness as did JFK and brother Robert! The Chosen One can only veto
but he dare not go against The Brown & "Root of all Evil$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Go down Moses down in Egypt land tell old phaoroah to let my people
go!
Spell check Mr Book Worn TIA<I;-)
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 20:03:31
From: Irish Mike
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"joeturn" <joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:7a628b5d-8ae3-497c-a209-1ec1112442ae@f40g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
> The Black Messiah will end up crusified if he goes against big
> buisiness as did JFK and brother Robert! The Chosen One can only veto
> but he dare not go against The Brown & "Root of all Evil$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
> $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>
> Go down Moses down in Egypt land tell old phaoroah to let my people
> go!
>
> Spell check Mr Book Worn TIA<I;-)
Are you fucking serious? The Messiah controls the White House, Senate,
Congress and he just put his hand picked liberal tax cheat in charge of the
Treasury. He thinks the way out of a recession is to raise taxes on
corporations, small businesses, capital gains and give money to the 40% of
people who pay zero income tax. American business hasn't got a snow ball's
chance in hell.
Irish Mike
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Date: 19 Jan 2009 21:50:09
From: Pepe Papon
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:03:31 -0500, "Irish Mike"
<mjostar@ameritech.net > wrote:
> and he just put his hand picked liberal tax cheat in charge of the
>Treasury.
Extra points for the use of "hand-picked", as if to imply that Obama's
way of picking his Cabinet is somehow different from presidents who
came before.
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Date: 07 Jan 2009 01:15:10
From: Pepe Papon
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:44:31 -0500, "Stephen Jacobs"
<jacosa@comcast.net > wrote:
>While the Iraq war looked and still looks like it was started mostly for
>personal reasons ("He wanted to kill my daddy!"),
Hardly. The war has always been first and foremost about oil.
>Sarah Palin was a brilliant move, but a failure in the end. Better to shake
>things up than to lose meekly. But in the end she only played to the
>already-decided.
It got a lot of people excited, but it also proved that McCain's
"Putting Country First" slogan was just empty propaganda. Palin was
clueless on key issues, and having her a heartbeat from the Presidency
would have put the nation at risk.
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Date: 06 Jan 2009 07:16:20
From: Bob T.
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 6, 7:09=A0am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
> "Bob T." <b...@synapse-cs.com> wrote in message
>
> news:004fed22-c3ab-4524-97d9-63f540dcea99@p2g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
> On Jan 6, 6:14 am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net> wrote:
>
> > "joeturn" <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:0520afa8-b842-423e-a136-12e7861e9fda@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com..=
.
>
> > > Page Three
>
> > Sorry bucko, every one fell asleep half way through page one.
>
> Mike, were you frightened by a compound word at an early age?
>
> - Bob T.
>
>
>
> > Irish Mike
>
> No Bob, I've just found that left wing liberal propaganda is usually bull
> shit at the beginning and bull shit at the end, with nothing much else in
> between.
Mike, it's time for you to learn English. "Bullshit" is also a
compound word, like "everyone" and "halfway". "Left-wing" is a
hyphenated word.=A0
> But not to worry Bucko. =A0Just 14 days until The Messiah and his
> mob take over the White House, Congress and Senate. =A0Then all the bad n=
ews
> will go away and all them scary terrorist guys will be our pals and you a=
nd
> Patti can go to gay pro-abortion rallies every weekend. =A0And the 55,000=
,000+
> of us who didn't vote for your Messiah will finally get our turn at bat -
> since you've been at the plate swinging every day for eight straight year=
s. :)
Oh my God, do you mean that you haven't really begun to complain about
Obama? Are you going to give up poker and devote yourself full time
(not a compound word) to whining? Sometimes I worry about you, bucko.
- Bob T.
>
> Irish Mike
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Date: 06 Jan 2009 06:38:27
From: Bob T.
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 6, 6:14=A0am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
> "joeturn" <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:0520afa8-b842-423e-a136-12e7861e9fda@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Page Three
>
> Sorry bucko, every one fell asleep half way through page one.
Mike, were you frightened by a compound word at an early age?
- Bob T.
>
> Irish Mike
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Date: 06 Jan 2009 10:09:52
From: Irish Mike
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"Bob T." <bob@synapse-cs.com > wrote in message
news:004fed22-c3ab-4524-97d9-63f540dcea99@p2g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
On Jan 6, 6:14 am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
> "joeturn" <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:0520afa8-b842-423e-a136-12e7861e9fda@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Page Three
>
> Sorry bucko, every one fell asleep half way through page one.
Mike, were you frightened by a compound word at an early age?
- Bob T.
>
> Irish Mike
No Bob, I've just found that left wing liberal propaganda is usually bull
shit at the beginning and bull shit at the end, with nothing much else in
between. But not to worry Bucko. Just 14 days until The Messiah and his
mob take over the White House, Congress and Senate. Then all the bad news
will go away and all them scary terrorist guys will be our pals and you and
Patti can go to gay pro-abortion rallies every weekend. And the 55,000,000+
of us who didn't vote for your Messiah will finally get our turn at bat -
since you've been at the plate swinging every day for eight straight years.
:)
Irish Mike
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Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:43:58
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Page 4 of four
Shall I copy of the links here also??
Tales from the Grassy Knoll: From 1911 to 9/11
Richard Armitage Links (more links to Armitage sources)
William J Casey and Iran/contra
My Dream and the Color of Suffering by Michael C Ruppert
'War is Horrible. But...': Speech by US Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, January 21
Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Armitage: background notes
The Bush 100: Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage's Colorful Past
The Dangers of Richard Armitage
The Background is Oil
The Dick Cheney Deep Data Dump
It's a Lie by Michael C Ruppert
Secret Agent Man: Iran-contra operative Richard Armitage is now Colin
Powell's No.2
Kosovo Liberation Army and Albanian Sponsors Have Well Documented
Roots in The Heroin Trade
The Golden Triangle Texts
CIA
Behind the Bushes: The New Generation
The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire
Bank of New York Laundromat
911 Timeline by Michael C Ruppert
Main Index >> Back to I=91N=92I Index >> Previous Article >> Next Article
All content on this site is copyright =A9 1987-2003 William Bowles
unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. You have the right to
reproduce content if it is not-for-profit, non-commercial or =91fair
use=92. For commercial reproduction, please contact the copyright
owner.
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Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:39:57
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Page Three
(2) interrogate civilians picked up at random by
military units carrying out sweeps through villages; (3) "neutralize"
targeted members of the NLF . . . The original Phoenix concept was
quickly diluted, for two main reasons: (1) pressure from the top to
fill numerical quotas of person to be neutralized; (2) difficulties
at
the bottom of identifying NLF civilian infrastructure, who were often
indistinguishable from the general population, and the near
impossibility of proving anyone membership in the NLF. The result was
vastly to increase the numbers of innocent persons rounded up and
imprisoned, indiscriminately murdered, and brutally tortured in an
effort to show results . . . Between 1968 and 1972 hundreds of
thousands of Vietnamese civilians were rounded up and turned over to
the Vietnamese police for questioning. Such interrogation has usually
been marked by brutal torture.
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
"After four tours with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, Armitage joined the
U.S. Defense Attach=E9's Office in Saigon in 1973, just in time to play
a key role in "preparing" the botched evacuation of friendly South
Vietnamese. Tens of thousands of loyal partners who had worked with
the Americans were abandoned to advancing North Vietnamese Army and
Viet Cong forces.
Never one to admit failure or duplicity, Armitage covered his own
posterior by accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of wrongly
predicting that a deal for an orderly pullout could be arrived at
with
the advancing communists and then failing to provide enough notice
that Saigon was about to fall.
Fresh from the debacle in Southeast Asia, Armitage went to work as a
consultant for the Defense Intelligence Agency, where the quality of
his work, to say the least, did not improve."
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=3D673
Following the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, Armitage joined the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was posted to Tehran where he
excelled at not predicting the overthrow of the Shah (the man he had
been assigned to keep on the throne) and even went as far as accusing
the Ayotollah Khomeini of being a friend of the Soviets.
"Armitage became=85a special consultant to the Department of Defense,
working out of Bangkok and dealing with unrepatriated prisoners and
the missing in action. Armitage also started a mysterious business
called the Far East Trading Company. Meanwhile, from 1976 to 1979 in
Iran, Richard Secord was supervising the sale of US military aircraft
and weapons to Middle Eastern nations. During this same period, there
are reports that Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Armitage set up
several
curious corporations and subsidiaries around the world including Lake
Resources, Stanford Technology Trading Group, Compa[g]nie de Services
Fiduciaria, CSF Investments and Udall Research Corporation."
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
In fact all the companies referred to above, were and those that
still
exist, are so-called proprietaries of the CIA, a fact that further
reinforces the belief that during this period Armitage was in the
employ of the CIA, and although we can only speculate as to his role
during this period, it is generally believed that the front companies
were used for CIA covert actions in Southeast Asia and later in
Afghanistan and it's been suggested that the idea of using heroin as
a
weapon in the 'war against communism' in both Indo-China and
Afghanistan was Armitage's idea.
"His critics had alleged in the past that he was the author of the
idea of using heroin to weaken the fighting capability of the
communists in Indo-China and then in Afghanistan though the late Le
Comte de Marenches, the head of the French External Intelligence
Agency under Presidents George Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing, had
claimed that it was he who had given this idea to the Americans with
specific reference to Afghanistan."
http://www.saag.org/papers5/paper473.html
1978 saw him (officially) rejoining government when he joined the
staff of Senator Robert Dole and then as an advisor to Reagan
election
campaign who rewarded his services in 1981 by appointing him Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and
then in 1983 he became Assistant Secretary of Defense for
International Security Affairs until 1989. His speciality was special
forces operations and 'counter-terrorism'. Under George Bush Snr he
was made 'Special Emissary' to King Hussein of Jordan during the 1991
Gulf War.
But it's Armitage's role in the 'Secret Team' that was at the heart
of
the Iran-contra scandal during this period that kept him out of
government until Bush the smaller grabbed the throne of state when
Armitage was rewarded for his loyalty by being appointed as deputy
secretary of state under his old friend Colin Powell.
"Armitage=85under investigation for his role in the Reagan
administration's Iran-Contra scandal. Though he testified that he
didn't know about the administration's secret sale of arms to Iran
until November 1986, when they became public knowledge, independent
counsel Lawrence Walsh's report laid out extensive evidence that he
knew about them a year earlier.
In fact, Armitage apparently opposed the arms sales as early as
December 1985, on the grounds that Iranians were "sleazebags." Secord
later testified that he met with Armitage then in an effort to change
his mind. Armitage claimed not to remember meeting with Secord,
though
Armitage's own meeting logs show that he did. Armitage kept a
December
6, 1985 document describing the legal ramifications of the Iran arms
sales, entitled "Possibility for Leaks," locked in his Pentagon safe
until June 1987, when it was belatedly turned over to Walsh and the
congressional Iran-Contra committee.
Armitage also attended a Pentagon meeting in August 1986 in which
Oliver North outlined the covert activities in support of the Contras
that he had been supervising through the National Security Council.
Armitage denied remembering anything about this meeting as well. In
his final report, Walsh said he declined to prosecute Armitage for
his
numerous dubious statements on these issues because he could not
prove
they were knowingly false."
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/07/naureckas2507.html
"The Bush cabinet is a virtual who's who of oil, defense and
pharmaceutical bigwigs.1 The Bush family is itself closely tied
financially to the bin Ladens.2 , 3 Both families are involved in the
Carlyle Group.4 Bush Sr. sits on the board of Carlyle, a 12 billion
Equity company with oil holdings and defense contracts.5 Dick Cheney
was the former CEO of Halliburton Oil. Colin Powell is a major
stockholder in several defense contractors. National Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice sat on the board of Chevron. Andrew Card, the Chief
of
Staff is from General Motors. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense,
was CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals. Dick Armitage, the Deputy
Secretary
of Defense, has ties to the Russian mafia and is a board member of
Carlyle. Robert Jordan, the Saudi ambassador, was a member of Baker
Botts, a legal firm specializing in oil and defense (the Baker in
Baker Botts is James Baker). Tony Principi, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, comes from Lockheed Martin. Gordan England, Secretary of the
Navy, is tied to General Dynamics. James Roche, Secretary of the Air
Force, is from Northrop Grumman. Gen. Thomas White, retired,
Secretary
of the Army, is from Enron Energy. Donald Evans, the Commerce
Secretary, owns Colorado Oil Company. National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice sat on the board of Exxon. And Mr. Carlucci, the
Chief of Carlyle, sits on the Middle East Policy Council. 6
""Several western oil companies [some represented by Richard
Armitage]
including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes
riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil deposits. Western
investors were also gawking [at] Albania's extensive reserves of
chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum""
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/regional/KLA1.html
So we've come full circle, from the earliest days of the Bush
family's
involvement with Nazi Germany via Brown Brothers Harriman Bank and
Standard Oil/IG Farben and later, Saudi Arabia (Aramco), through to
the Vietnam War and the Golden Triangle where the trade in drugs
started, and then to Iran and Iran-contra and the South American drug
connection, and then onto Afghanistan and finally Iraq where Dresser
Industries (Brown Brothers), Brown & Root, all come together under
the
aegis of the Bush emperium with Halliburton as the final link.
Throughout it all, key individuals have played important roles in
linking together oil, guns and drugs as part of a web of business and
political connections designed to further the interests of big
capital. The question is, how much longer can this web of deceit be
kept hidden from the public? How much longer can the mass media
ignore
the crimes of a dynasty that extends back through three-quarters of a
century?
Notes
1 The Oil behind Bush and Son's Campaigns by Ranjit Devraj, Inter
Press Services, 5 October 2001.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/DEV110A.html
2 George W. Bush's Dubious Friends , Intelligence Newsletter, 2 March
2000.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/INL110A.html
3 BUSHLADEN by Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 8 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/bushladen.htm
4 Judicial Watch: Bush/bin Laden Connection "has now turned into a
scandal!", Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 6 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/jw.htm
5 The Carlyle Group , Alfred Mendes, Spectrezine.
http://www.spectrezine.org/global/carlyle.htm
6 You've got to be Up Front , Mike McCormick, transcription of an
interview with Stan Goff; October 24, 2001. http://narconews.com/goffmccorm=
ick1.html
,
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3D3795
Some further References
Tales from the Grassy Knoll: From 1911 to 9/11
Richard Armitage Links (more links to Armitage sources)
William J Casey and Iran/contra
My Dream and the Color of Suffering by Michael C Ruppert
'War is Horrible. But...': Speech by US Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, January 21
Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Armitage: background notes
The Bush 100: Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage's Colorful Past
The Dangers of Richard Armitage
The Background is Oil
The Dick Cheney Deep Data Dump
It's a Lie by Michael C Ruppert
Secret Agent Man: Iran-contra operative Richard Armitage is now Colin
Powell's No.2
Kosovo Liberation Army and Albanian Sponsors Have Well Documented
Roots in The Heroin Trade
The Golden Triangle Texts
CIA
Behind the Bushes: The New Generation
The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire
Bank of New York Laundromat
911 Timeline by Michael C Ruppert
Main Index >> Back to I=91N=92I Index >> Previous Article >> Next Article
All content on this site is copyright =A9 1987-2003 William Bowles
unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. You have the right to
reproduce content if it is not-for-profit, non-commercial or =91fair
use=92. For commercial reproduction, please contact the copyright
owner.
|
| | |
Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:37:36
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Page Three
|
| | | |
Date: 06 Jan 2009 09:14:07
From: Irish Mike
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"joeturn" <joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:0520afa8-b842-423e-a136-12e7861e9fda@h20g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> Page Three
Sorry bucko, every one fell asleep half way through page one.
Irish Mike
|
| | |
Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:30:04
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Page Two
completely unchallenged.
The same names crop up with tedious regularity and raise the issue
that far from being the odd =91bad apple=92 or lose cannon, the
individuals who now constitute the core of the Bush cabal, have been
breaking the law, both domestic and international, in order to
further
the interests of US capitalism. But what we see now, is way beyond
the
=91normal=92 practices of furthering US foreign policy. What it formerly
chose to hide, it is now brazenly advocates, indeed it forms the core
of its policy as outlined in the PNAC and other strategic documents.
But it=92s the corporations that these individuals have or had an
interest in such as Halliburton, Unocal, Boeing, Chevron, Enron
before
its demise, and a host of other defence, electronics and
pharmaceuticals corporations, that have been the principal
beneficiaries of the policies of the Bush regime and of previous US
administrations, especially Halliburton and the subsidiary, Brown and
Root, have both been connected to the drug trade:
"A closer look at available research, including an August 2, 2000
report by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) at www.public-i.org,
suggests that drug money has played a role in the successes achieved
by Halliburton under Cheney's tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000. This
is
especially true for Halliburton's most famous subsidiary, heavy
construction and oil giant, Brown and Root. A deeper look into
history
reveals that Brown and Root's past as well as the past of Dick Cheney
himself, connect to the international drug trade on more than one
occasion and in more than one way.
This June the lead Washington, D.C. attorney for a major Russian oil
company connected in law enforcement reports to heroin smuggling and
also a beneficiary of US backed loans to pay for Brown and Root
contracts in Russia, held a $2.2 million fund raiser to fill the
already bulging coffers of presidential candidate George W. Bush.
This
is not the first time that Brown and Root has been connected to drugs
and the fact is that this "poster child" of American industry may
also
be a key player in Wall Street's efforts to maintain domination of
the
half trillion dollar a year global drug trade and its profits. And
Dick Cheney, who has also come closer to drugs than most suspect, and
who is also Halliburton's largest individual shareholder ($45.5
million), has a vested interest in seeing to it that Brown and Root's
successes continue."
Moreover, it=92s the connection between war, oil, drugs and US
corporations that is the key to the Bush imperium, for without war,
or
preparing for one where would corporations like Halliburton be? Ever
since 9/11 the profits of Halliburton have literally shot through the
roof. Indeed, ever since 1990, with no country or entity to curb the
ambitions of US imperialism, profits from wars of one kind or another
have seen the rise of the warfare state that makes the profits made
out of the Vietnam War pale into insignificance. And without the 'war
on drugs', the US would not be in the position to use its economic
and
military clout to subvert the governments and economies of so many
countries around the world. The line between the 'war on drugs' and
the 'war on terror' has effectively dissolved. Linking the two wars
is
oil, the 'drug of choice' for US capitalism.
"[E]verywhere there is oil there is Brown and Root. But increasingly,
everywhere there is war or insurrection there is Brown and Root also.
From Bosnia and Kosovo, to Chechnya, to Rwanda, to Burma, to
Pakistan,
to Laos, to Vietnam, to Indonesia, to Iran to Libya to Mexico to
Colombia, Brown and Root's traditional operations have expanded from
heavy construction to include the provision of logistical support for
the U.S. military. Now, instead of U.S. Army quartermasters, the
world
is likely to see Brown and Root warehouses storing and managing
everything from uniforms to rations to vehicles.
"As described by the Associated Press, during "Iran-Contra"
Congressman Dick Cheney of the House Intelligence Committee was a
rabid supporter of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. This was in spite of
the fact that North had lied to Cheney in a private 1986 White House
briefing. Oliver North's own diaries and subsequent investigations by
the CIA Inspector General have irrevocably tied him directly to
cocaine smuggling during the 1980s and the opening of bank accounts
for one firm moving four tons of cocaine a month. This, however, did
not stop Cheney from actively supporting North's 1994 unsuccessful
run
for the U.S. Senate from Virginia just a year before he took over the
reins at Brown and Root's parent company, Dallas based Halliburton
Inc. in 1995.
=85
"As the Bush Secretary of Defense during Desert Shield/Desert Storm
(1990-91), Cheney also directed special operations involving Kurdish
rebels in northern Iran. The Kurds' primary source of income for more
than fifty years has been heroin smuggling from Afghanistan and
Pakistan through Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Having had some personal
experience with Brown and Root I noted carefully when the Los
Angeles
Times observed that on March 22, 1991 that a group of gunmen burst
into the Ankara, Turkey offices of the joint venture, Vinnell, Brown
and Root and assassinated retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant
John
Gandy.
"In March of 1991, tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees, long-time
assets of the CIA, were being massacred by Saddam Hussein in the wake
of the Gulf War. Saddam, seeking to destroy any hopes of a successful
Kurdish revolt, found it easy to kill thousands of the unwanted Kurds
who had fled to the Turkish border seeking sanctuary. There, Turkish
security forces, trained in part by the Vinnell, Brown and Root
partnership, turned thousands of Kurds back into certain death.
Today,
the Vinnell Corporation (a TRW Company) is, along with the firms MPRI
and DynCorp (FTW June, 00) one of the three pre-eminent private
mercenary corporations in the world. It is also the dominant entity
for the training of security forces throughout the Middle East. Not
surprisingly the Turkish border regions in question were the primary
transhipment points for heroin, grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan and
destined for the markets of Europe."
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html
These extracts are from an article written in 2000, three years
before
the US invaded Iraq and before Bush the smaller stole the election.
It=92s clear from the connections between all the players including
Colin Powell, whose links to Iran-Contra and who is a close pal of
Armitage, and the guns for drugs scandal, Halliburton, Brown and
Root,
Dyncorp, Vinnell Corporation go all the way back to old man Prescott
Bush and his links to financing the German Nazi Party via Brown
Brothers Harriman Bank that owned Dresser Industries that is now
owned
by Halliburton. Dresser built oil platforms in key drug routes around
the world including the Gulf of Mexico. What better offloading
location could one have than an oil platform.
And clearly, the illegal nature of the activities of the Armitages of
this world, mixing with drug smugglers, assassins, money launderers,
covert arms dealers and the like, means that their actions are
already
thoroughly compromised. And this is critically important to my
analysis because it exposes the so-called morality that the
imperialists like to espouse as fundamental to their policies of
supposedly supporting human rights, democracy and the like as a
complete fraud.
So who is Richard Armitage and why is Armitage and his peers =97 with
involvements stretching back to the Vietnam War era and even before =97
suddenly back in =91favour=92? What is it that they bring to the Bush
administration that makes them so important to have onboard?
Power, drugs, guns, money and the connections that come with it are
at
the top of the list and as I hope to show, they go to the very heart
of the totally corrupt regime that now runs America. Most important
of
all, it exposes the ruthless nature of the capitalist system, a
system
that takes ends justifying the means to the ultimate conclusion, that
in order to preserve the system anything goes including the use of
drugs as an integral part of projecting US economic and political
power.
Armitage is, I suppose, typical of the kind of person who does the
dirty work of imperialism, whether it=92s for money, prestige or
personal satisfaction. (For a complete listing of Armitage=92s
financial
investments see http://www.public-i.org/cgi-bin/WhosWhoSearch.asp?Display=
=3DDetails&Per...)
The CIA=92s involvement in drug running that started during the Vietnam
War with Project Phoenix is perhaps the key to the current situation
as the connections made during that period set the scene for later US
involvement with the sale of drugs as means to further US foreign
policy, whether as a source of finance for the illegal purchase and
sale of weapons or as a means of destabilising countries and
communities, or winning friends and influencing people. Colombia,
Peru, Mexico, Afghanistan, Albania, Russia are just some of the
countries whose economies and cultures have been taken over through
the US policy of the =91war on drugs=92.
"Project Phoenix=85was financed in part with opium money. It has been
alleged that the close relationship with SE Asian drug dealers
continued after the US withdrawal from Vietnam, with Iran used as a
conduit for drugs and money. It has also been reported that, as a
sequel to Project Phoenix, an off-the-books assassination program was
established in Iran.
"The Phoenix or Phuong Hoang Operation was originally designed to
"neutralize," that is assassinate or imprison, members of the
civilian
infrastructure of the [Vietnamese] National Liberation Front. Phoenix
offices were set up from Saigon down to the district level. Their
functions were to: (1) collate intelligence about the "Vietcong
Infrastructure"; (2) interrogate civilians picked up at random by
military units carrying out sweeps through villages; (3) "neutralize"
targeted members of the NLF . . . The original Phoenix concept was
quickly diluted, for two main reasons: (1) pressure from the top to
fill numerical quotas of person to be neutralized; (2) difficulties
at
the bottom of identifying NLF civilian infrastructure, who were often
indistinguishable from the general population, and the near
impossibility of proving anyone membership in the NLF. The result was
vastly to increase the numbers of innocent persons rounded up and
imprisoned, indiscriminately murdered, and brutally tortured in an
effort to show results . . . Between 1968 and 1972 hundreds of
thousands of Vietnamese civilians were rounded up and turned over to
the Vietnamese police for questioning. Such interrogation has usually
been marked by brutal torture.
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
"After four tours with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, Armitage joined the
U.S. Defense Attach=E9's Office in Saigon in 1973, just in time to play
a key role in "preparing" the botched evacuation of friendly South
Vietnamese. Tens of thousands of loyal partners who had worked with
the Americans were abandoned to advancing North Vietnamese Army and
Viet Cong forces.
Never one to admit failure or duplicity, Armitage covered his own
posterior by accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of wrongly
predicting that a deal for an orderly pullout could be arrived at
with
the advancing communists and then failing to provide enough notice
that Saigon was about to fall.
Fresh from the debacle in Southeast Asia, Armitage went to work as a
consultant for the Defense Intelligence Agency, where the quality of
his work, to say the least, did not improve."
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=3D673
Following the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, Armitage joined the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was posted to Tehran where he
excelled at not predicting the overthrow of the Shah (the man he had
been assigned to keep on the throne) and even went as far as accusing
the Ayotollah Khomeini of being a friend of the Soviets.
"Armitage became=85a special consultant to the Department of Defense,
working out of Bangkok and dealing with unrepatriated prisoners and
the missing in action. Armitage also started a mysterious business
called the Far East Trading Company. Meanwhile, from 1976 to 1979 in
Iran, Richard Secord was supervising the sale of US military aircraft
and weapons to Middle Eastern nations. During this same period, there
are reports that Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Armitage set up
several
curious corporations and subsidiaries around the world including Lake
Resources, Stanford Technology Trading Group, Compa[g]nie de Services
Fiduciaria, CSF Investments and Udall Research Corporation."
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
In fact all the companies referred to above, were and those that
still
exist, are so-called proprietaries of the CIA, a fact that further
reinforces the belief that during this period Armitage was in the
employ of the CIA, and although we can only speculate as to his role
during this period, it is generally believed that the front companies
were used for CIA covert actions in Southeast Asia and later in
Afghanistan and it's been suggested that the idea of using heroin as
a
weapon in the 'war against communism' in both Indo-China and
Afghanistan was Armitage's idea.
"His critics had alleged in the past that he was the author of the
idea of using heroin to weaken the fighting capability of the
communists in Indo-China and then in Afghanistan though the late Le
Comte de Marenches, the head of the French External Intelligence
Agency under Presidents George Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing, had
claimed that it was he who had given this idea to the Americans with
specific reference to Afghanistan."
http://www.saag.org/papers5/paper473.html
1978 saw him (officially) rejoining government when he joined the
staff of Senator Robert Dole and then as an advisor to Reagan
election
campaign who rewarded his services in 1981 by appointing him Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and
then in 1983 he became Assistant Secretary of Defense for
International Security Affairs until 1989. His speciality was special
forces operations and 'counter-terrorism'. Under George Bush Snr he
was made 'Special Emissary' to King Hussein of Jordan during the 1991
Gulf War.
But it's Armitage's role in the 'Secret Team' that was at the heart
of
the Iran-contra scandal during this period that kept him out of
government until Bush the smaller grabbed the throne of state when
Armitage was rewarded for his loyalty by being appointed as deputy
secretary of state under his old friend Colin Powell.
"Armitage=85under investigation for his role in the Reagan
administration's Iran-Contra scandal. Though he testified that he
didn't know about the administration's secret sale of arms to Iran
until November 1986, when they became public knowledge, independent
counsel Lawrence Walsh's report laid out extensive evidence that he
knew about them a year earlier.
In fact, Armitage apparently opposed the arms sales as early as
December 1985, on the grounds that Iranians were "sleazebags." Secord
later testified that he met with Armitage then in an effort to change
his mind. Armitage claimed not to remember meeting with Secord,
though
Armitage's own meeting logs show that he did. Armitage kept a
December
6, 1985 document describing the legal ramifications of the Iran arms
sales, entitled "Possibility for Leaks," locked in his Pentagon safe
until June 1987, when it was belatedly turned over to Walsh and the
congressional Iran-Contra committee.
Armitage also attended a Pentagon meeting in August 1986 in which
Oliver North outlined the covert activities in support of the Contras
that he had been supervising through the National Security Council.
Armitage denied remembering anything about this meeting as well. In
his final report, Walsh said he declined to prosecute Armitage for
his
numerous dubious statements on these issues because he could not
prove
they were knowingly false."
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/07/naureckas2507.html
"The Bush cabinet is a virtual who's who of oil, defense and
pharmaceutical bigwigs.1 The Bush family is itself closely tied
financially to the bin Ladens.2 , 3 Both families are involved in the
Carlyle Group.4 Bush Sr. sits on the board of Carlyle, a 12 billion
Equity company with oil holdings and defense contracts.5 Dick Cheney
was the former CEO of Halliburton Oil. Colin Powell is a major
stockholder in several defense contractors. National Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice sat on the board of Chevron. Andrew Card, the Chief
of
Staff is from General Motors. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense,
was CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals. Dick Armitage, the Deputy
Secretary
of Defense, has ties to the Russian mafia and is a board member of
Carlyle. Robert Jordan, the Saudi ambassador, was a member of Baker
Botts, a legal firm specializing in oil and defense (the Baker in
Baker Botts is James Baker). Tony Principi, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, comes from Lockheed Martin. Gordan England, Secretary of the
Navy, is tied to General Dynamics. James Roche, Secretary of the Air
Force, is from Northrop Grumman. Gen. Thomas White, retired,
Secretary
of the Army, is from Enron Energy. Donald Evans, the Commerce
Secretary, owns Colorado Oil Company. National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice sat on the board of Exxon. And Mr. Carlucci, the
Chief of Carlyle, sits on the Middle East Policy Council. 6
""Several western oil companies [some represented by Richard
Armitage]
including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes
riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil deposits. Western
investors were also gawking [at] Albania's extensive reserves of
chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum""
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/regional/KLA1.html
So we've come full circle, from the earliest days of the Bush
family's
involvement with Nazi Germany via Brown Brothers Harriman Bank and
Standard Oil/IG Farben and later, Saudi Arabia (Aramco), through to
the Vietnam War and the Golden Triangle where the trade in drugs
started, and then to Iran and Iran-contra and the South American drug
connection, and then onto Afghanistan and finally Iraq where Dresser
Industries (Brown Brothers), Brown & Root, all come together under
the
aegis of the Bush emperium with Halliburton as the final link.
Throughout it all, key individuals have played important roles in
linking together oil, guns and drugs as part of a web of business and
political connections designed to further the interests of big
capital. The question is, how much longer can this web of deceit be
kept hidden from the public? How much longer can the mass media
ignore
the crimes of a dynasty that extends back through three-quarters of a
century?
Notes
1 The Oil behind Bush and Son's Campaigns by Ranjit Devraj, Inter
Press Services, 5 October 2001.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/DEV110A.html
2 George W. Bush's Dubious Friends , Intelligence Newsletter, 2 March
2000.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/INL110A.html
3 BUSHLADEN by Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 8 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/bushladen.htm
4 Judicial Watch: Bush/bin Laden Connection "has now turned into a
scandal!", Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 6 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/jw.htm
5 The Carlyle Group , Alfred Mendes, Spectrezine.
http://www.spectrezine.org/global/carlyle.htm
6 You've got to be Up Front , Mike McCormick, transcription of an
interview with Stan Goff; October 24, 2001. http://narconews.com/goffmccorm=
ick1.html
,
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3D3795
Some further References
Tales from the Grassy Knoll: From 1911 to 9/11
Richard Armitage Links (more links to Armitage sources)
William J Casey and Iran/contra
My Dream and the Color of Suffering by Michael C Ruppert
'War is Horrible. But...': Speech by US Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, January 21
Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Armitage: background notes
The Bush 100: Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage's Colorful Past
The Dangers of Richard Armitage
The Background is Oil
The Dick Cheney Deep Data Dump
It's a Lie by Michael C Ruppert
Secret Agent Man: Iran-contra operative Richard Armitage is now Colin
Powell's No.2
Kosovo Liberation Army and Albanian Sponsors Have Well Documented
Roots in The Heroin Trade
The Golden Triangle Texts
CIA
Behind the Bushes: The New Generation
The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire
Bank of New York Laundromat
911 Timeline by Michael C Ruppert
Main Index >> Back to I=91N=92I Index >> Previous Article >> Next Article
All content on this site is copyright =A9 1987-2003 William Bowles
unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. You have the right to
reproduce content if it is not-for-profit, non-commercial or =91fair
use=92. For commercial reproduction, please contact the copyright
owner.
|
| | |
Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:10:59
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
I see noone read the link but managed to get in a free ONLINE ad Soo
In order for me to get the last word in I will take up some band width
and post the whole article Its really good on on the eyes that do not
have blinders on it helps people to realize Organized Crime is a part
of US politics and has been since before 1911 and beyond 9/11
From Adolf Hitler to George Bush Jnr, US capitalism's unbroken link
Pre-amble:
When I started putting this essay together, it started out as
investigation of Richard Armitage as a typical example of the kind of
people employed to run the United States on behalf of their
imperialist masters. Then I came across a piece written in 2000 by
Michael Ruppert of Beyond the Wilderness, that broadened my inquiries
as the article links Kellog Brown and Root, a subsidiary of
Halliburton to the worldwide distribution of drugs via the global
network that Halliburton owns or operates on behalf of the US
government and various corporations including major oil companies. A
network that evolved over time initially through the CIA's connection
to the drug trade in the Golden Triangle but which has its roots in
Nazi Germany over thirty years earlier and its connection to US big
business. And in the post-war period, Brown Brothers Harriman were
also involved in laundering Nazi money through a Dutch-based bank.
And then synchronicity kicked in, as in the middle of writing this
piece, I get emailed an article in the New Hampshire Gazette that
expands on the piece I included in the =91Bush Family Saga=92 on Prescott
Bush, Avril Harriman and Brown Brothers Harriman Bank and its
connections to the Nazi Party that it now emerges continued until
1951. What the new information reveals is that the financial
connections between US and German capitalism extended even further
than had been known until the new documents were released.
A central player in the US/Nazi big business connection was Standard
Oil of New Jersey, the Rockefellar-owned corporation that during the
1930s merged with IG. Farben, one of the major backers of Hitler's
National Socialist Party and supplier of the infamous gas Cyklon B
used in the extermination camps. Standard Oil (now Exxon) also owned
the oil concessions in Saudi Arabia (later to be renamed Aramco).
Other major players involved in the Nazi business connection include
General Motors, Ford and ITT.
The Bush regime is part of an unbroken link that extends back to the
founding of Hitler=92s National Socialist Party through the funding it
received from Brown Brothers Harriman Banking, Prescott Bush's bank
and the subsequent link between this bank and Kellog Brown and Root,
now a subsidiary of Halliburton and its connections to Bush through
the Rumsfeld/Cheney connection and their connection to Halliburton.
Brown Brothers Harriman Bank owned Dresser Industries, one of the
world=92s largest oil drilling companies that in 1998, under urging from
Dick Cheney was purchased by Halliburton in an $8.1 billion dollar
deal. The link is complete. And yes, it is the same Brown in Brown and
Root as the Brown Brothers Harriman Bank.
The point is, a clique of key big business interests extending back
over several generations runs the US. And that if anyone doubted that,
putting it down to wild ideas of a conspiracy, you have to be blind
not see it now. That Bush=92s wealth descends directly from backing the
Nazi Party is incontrovertible and that the Bush family=92s involvement
in the trade in drugs and weapons as an intrinsic part of the 'war on
communism', later to become the 'war on terror' that extends back
thirty years is also incontrovertible.
But why has the current Bush administration hired so many key
individuals from the Reagan/Bush years including Richard Armitage,
Colonel =91Ollie=92 North, Michael Ledeen, Otto Reich and others? What was
so special about a bunch of guys at the centre of the Iran-contra
scandal, money laundering operations, drug smuggling and other dirty
dealings going back forty years? Enter Ruppert=92s article.
Ruppert=92s piece illustrates the central role that Brown and Root/
Halliburton have played as a global conduit for drugs and the central
role that Halliburton/Brown and Root play in Bush=92s imperial grab for
power. In this context, Armitage suddenly looks like small fry, but
consider this; the people who have carried out the imperial policies
of subsequent US administrations that extend back to Roosevelt in the
1930s, are people like Armitage, without whom, executing the
imperium=92s plans could well be severely compromised. Why? A close-knit
group of people, all with intimate ties to US intelligence services
including the DEA, the CIA and the DIA as well as connections to the
banking, oil and defense industries, are also people who are
intimately connected to the global trade in drugs, weapons and
laundered money. Links that extended to the Vatican Bank, (Banco
Lavorno Nationale), BCCI and Nugan Hand. Key players in Iran-contra
were also officers or had connections to these banks. Some were
involved in laundering money for the CIA. The notorious S&L banking
crashes of the 1980s also involved Bush family members.
Deputy under-secretary of state Richard Armitage, the man who "enjoys
killing"
"[Richard] Armitage, a former Navy SEAL, who reportedly enjoyed combat
missions and killing during covert operations in Laos during the
Vietnam War, has never been far from the Bush family's side.
Throughout his career, both in and out of government, he has been
perpetually connected to CIA drug smuggling operations. Secretary of
State Colin Powell, in a 1995 Washington Post story, called Armitage,
"my white son." In 1990, then President Bush dispatched Armitage to
Russia to aid in its "transition" to capitalism. Armitage's Russian
work for Bush has been frequently connected to the explosion of drug
trafficking under the Russian Mafias, which became virtual rulers of
the nation afterwards. In the early 1990s Armitage had extensive
involvement in Albania at the same time that the Albanian ally, Kosovo
Liberation Army was coming to power and consolidating its grip,
according to The Christian Science Monitor, on 70% of the heroin
entering western Europe."
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/oct152001.html
Strictly speaking, when dealing with politics, the personalities of
the people involved are supposedly less important than the context,
the power relations, money, class and so forth. But when it comes to
the cabal of individuals grouped around the Bush presidency, many of
whom have a history of involvement with assassinations, terrorism,
drugs, money laundering and other illegal activities, the motivations,
the psychology of the individuals involved has a direct bearing on the
nature of the activities. Such is the case with people like Richard
Armitage although there are others such as Otto Reich, Michael Ledeen
and Colonel =91Ollie=92 North. In fact, the list is so big, and stretches
back through the administrations of several successive US presidents,
that the relationship between the policies and the individuals has to
be viewed as inseparable. One could justifiably argue that breaking
the law in order to further US policies is now inseparable part of
=91doing business=92.
South East Asia, oil, guns and drugs; Nicaragua guns and drugs; Iran,
oil and guns; Israel, guns and oil; Iraq, guns and oil; Saudi Arabia,
guns and oil; Albania, drugs and oil; Russia oil and drugs, Central
and South America, guns, drugs and oil. In all of these situations the
name Richard Armitage crops up time and again over more than thirty
years of loyal service to US capitalism.
Outrageous? The global trade in cocaine and heroin is estimated at
around $500 BILLION and no doubt this is an under-estimate. The US is
the major market for drugs just as it is for oil and in turn it is the
world=92s number one seller of weapons. Is it any wonder that the three
commodities go hand in hand and that the US should be at centre of the
global trade in these three valuable commodities.
"Noting the indiscreet arrogance of Wall Street in engaging in
criminal behavior, I wrote in May's issue, after Citigroup's brazen
acquisition of Mexico's drug money-laundering bank, Banamex, "It
doesn't matter anymore whether the American public chooses to notice.
The fait accompli is that drug money and criminal money are now out of
the closet as the most important determinants of economic success for
the US financial system. The careless arrogance of these moves only
reveals the utter confidence in Washington, on Wall Street and in the
banking system that no voices from the wilderness can stop it."
Michael Ruppert
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/oct152001.html
What started out as an intrinsic component of the =91war on Communism=92
has its logical conclusion in the =91war on terror' and oil, guns and
drugs are the threads that tie the current Bush administration to over
three decades of international piracy and terrorism that forms the
backdrop for the current policies of the Bush regime.
That the US uses the tactics that it accuses its enemies of using
should come as no surprise, especially when we consider that the
supposed enemies of the US are more often than not its creatures, some
of whom have returned to haunt it and especially the cocaine barons.
It should also come as no surprise that the corporate media in both
the US and the UK have a vested interest in covering up this shameful
past, for to do otherwise would expose the cosy relationship that
exists between the media and corporate capitalism. Exposing it now
would also expose the hypocrisy of the 4th estate and its complicity
in deceiving us all. And even as I write, the BBC quotes Armitage as
he calls for intensifying the =91war on terrorism=92 as though he were
=91just a diplomat=92, completely ignoring the man=92s past record and the
total airbrushing of history in the classic Stalin mode that goes
completely unchallenged.
The same names crop up with tedious regularity and raise the issue
that far from being the odd =91bad apple=92 or lose cannon, the
individuals who now constitute the core of the Bush cabal, have been
breaking the law, both domestic and international, in order to further
the interests of US capitalism. But what we see now, is way beyond the
=91normal=92 practices of furthering US foreign policy. What it formerly
chose to hide, it is now brazenly advocates, indeed it forms the core
of its policy as outlined in the PNAC and other strategic documents.
But it=92s the corporations that these individuals have or had an
interest in such as Halliburton, Unocal, Boeing, Chevron, Enron before
its demise, and a host of other defence, electronics and
pharmaceuticals corporations, that have been the principal
beneficiaries of the policies of the Bush regime and of previous US
administrations, especially Halliburton and the subsidiary, Brown and
Root, have both been connected to the drug trade:
"A closer look at available research, including an August 2, 2000
report by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) at www.public-i.org,
suggests that drug money has played a role in the successes achieved
by Halliburton under Cheney's tenure as CEO from 1995 to 2000. This is
especially true for Halliburton's most famous subsidiary, heavy
construction and oil giant, Brown and Root. A deeper look into history
reveals that Brown and Root's past as well as the past of Dick Cheney
himself, connect to the international drug trade on more than one
occasion and in more than one way.
This June the lead Washington, D.C. attorney for a major Russian oil
company connected in law enforcement reports to heroin smuggling and
also a beneficiary of US backed loans to pay for Brown and Root
contracts in Russia, held a $2.2 million fund raiser to fill the
already bulging coffers of presidential candidate George W. Bush. This
is not the first time that Brown and Root has been connected to drugs
and the fact is that this "poster child" of American industry may also
be a key player in Wall Street's efforts to maintain domination of the
half trillion dollar a year global drug trade and its profits. And
Dick Cheney, who has also come closer to drugs than most suspect, and
who is also Halliburton's largest individual shareholder ($45.5
million), has a vested interest in seeing to it that Brown and Root's
successes continue."
Moreover, it=92s the connection between war, oil, drugs and US
corporations that is the key to the Bush imperium, for without war, or
preparing for one where would corporations like Halliburton be? Ever
since 9/11 the profits of Halliburton have literally shot through the
roof. Indeed, ever since 1990, with no country or entity to curb the
ambitions of US imperialism, profits from wars of one kind or another
have seen the rise of the warfare state that makes the profits made
out of the Vietnam War pale into insignificance. And without the 'war
on drugs', the US would not be in the position to use its economic and
military clout to subvert the governments and economies of so many
countries around the world. The line between the 'war on drugs' and
the 'war on terror' has effectively dissolved. Linking the two wars is
oil, the 'drug of choice' for US capitalism.
"[E]verywhere there is oil there is Brown and Root. But increasingly,
everywhere there is war or insurrection there is Brown and Root also.
From Bosnia and Kosovo, to Chechnya, to Rwanda, to Burma, to Pakistan,
to Laos, to Vietnam, to Indonesia, to Iran to Libya to Mexico to
Colombia, Brown and Root's traditional operations have expanded from
heavy construction to include the provision of logistical support for
the U.S. military. Now, instead of U.S. Army quartermasters, the world
is likely to see Brown and Root warehouses storing and managing
everything from uniforms to rations to vehicles.
"As described by the Associated Press, during "Iran-Contra"
Congressman Dick Cheney of the House Intelligence Committee was a
rabid supporter of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. This was in spite of
the fact that North had lied to Cheney in a private 1986 White House
briefing. Oliver North's own diaries and subsequent investigations by
the CIA Inspector General have irrevocably tied him directly to
cocaine smuggling during the 1980s and the opening of bank accounts
for one firm moving four tons of cocaine a month. This, however, did
not stop Cheney from actively supporting North's 1994 unsuccessful run
for the U.S. Senate from Virginia just a year before he took over the
reins at Brown and Root's parent company, Dallas based Halliburton
Inc. in 1995.
=85
"As the Bush Secretary of Defense during Desert Shield/Desert Storm
(1990-91), Cheney also directed special operations involving Kurdish
rebels in northern Iran. The Kurds' primary source of income for more
than fifty years has been heroin smuggling from Afghanistan and
Pakistan through Iran, Iraq and Turkey. Having had some personal
experience with Brown and Root I noted carefully when the Los Angeles
Times observed that on March 22, 1991 that a group of gunmen burst
into the Ankara, Turkey offices of the joint venture, Vinnell, Brown
and Root and assassinated retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant John
Gandy.
"In March of 1991, tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees, long-time
assets of the CIA, were being massacred by Saddam Hussein in the wake
of the Gulf War. Saddam, seeking to destroy any hopes of a successful
Kurdish revolt, found it easy to kill thousands of the unwanted Kurds
who had fled to the Turkish border seeking sanctuary. There, Turkish
security forces, trained in part by the Vinnell, Brown and Root
partnership, turned thousands of Kurds back into certain death. Today,
the Vinnell Corporation (a TRW Company) is, along with the firms MPRI
and DynCorp (FTW June, 00) one of the three pre-eminent private
mercenary corporations in the world. It is also the dominant entity
for the training of security forces throughout the Middle East. Not
surprisingly the Turkish border regions in question were the primary
transhipment points for heroin, grown in Afghanistan and Pakistan and
destined for the markets of Europe."
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/bush-cheney-drugs.html
These extracts are from an article written in 2000, three years before
the US invaded Iraq and before Bush the smaller stole the election.
It=92s clear from the connections between all the players including
Colin Powell, whose links to Iran-Contra and who is a close pal of
Armitage, and the guns for drugs scandal, Halliburton, Brown and Root,
Dyncorp, Vinnell Corporation go all the way back to old man Prescott
Bush and his links to financing the German Nazi Party via Brown
Brothers Harriman Bank that owned Dresser Industries that is now owned
by Halliburton. Dresser built oil platforms in key drug routes around
the world including the Gulf of Mexico. What better offloading
location could one have than an oil platform.
And clearly, the illegal nature of the activities of the Armitages of
this world, mixing with drug smugglers, assassins, money launderers,
covert arms dealers and the like, means that their actions are already
thoroughly compromised. And this is critically important to my
analysis because it exposes the so-called morality that the
imperialists like to espouse as fundamental to their policies of
supposedly supporting human rights, democracy and the like as a
complete fraud.
So who is Richard Armitage and why is Armitage and his peers =97 with
involvements stretching back to the Vietnam War era and even before =97
suddenly back in =91favour=92? What is it that they bring to the Bush
administration that makes them so important to have onboard?
Power, drugs, guns, money and the connections that come with it are at
the top of the list and as I hope to show, they go to the very heart
of the totally corrupt regime that now runs America. Most important of
all, it exposes the ruthless nature of the capitalist system, a system
that takes ends justifying the means to the ultimate conclusion, that
in order to preserve the system anything goes including the use of
drugs as an integral part of projecting US economic and political
power.
Armitage is, I suppose, typical of the kind of person who does the
dirty work of imperialism, whether it=92s for money, prestige or
personal satisfaction. (For a complete listing of Armitage=92s financial
investments see http://www.public-i.org/cgi-bin/WhosWhoSearch.asp?Display=
=3DDetails&Person_ID=3D1007)
The CIA=92s involvement in drug running that started during the Vietnam
War with Project Phoenix is perhaps the key to the current situation
as the connections made during that period set the scene for later US
involvement with the sale of drugs as means to further US foreign
policy, whether as a source of finance for the illegal purchase and
sale of weapons or as a means of destabilising countries and
communities, or winning friends and influencing people. Colombia,
Peru, Mexico, Afghanistan, Albania, Russia are just some of the
countries whose economies and cultures have been taken over through
the US policy of the =91war on drugs=92.
"Project Phoenix=85was financed in part with opium money. It has been
alleged that the close relationship with SE Asian drug dealers
continued after the US withdrawal from Vietnam, with Iran used as a
conduit for drugs and money. It has also been reported that, as a
sequel to Project Phoenix, an off-the-books assassination program was
established in Iran.
"The Phoenix or Phuong Hoang Operation was originally designed to
"neutralize," that is assassinate or imprison, members of the civilian
infrastructure of the [Vietnamese] National Liberation Front. Phoenix
offices were set up from Saigon down to the district level. Their
functions were to: (1) collate intelligence about the "Vietcong
Infrastructure"; (2) interrogate civilians picked up at random by
military units carrying out sweeps through villages; (3) "neutralize"
targeted members of the NLF . . . The original Phoenix concept was
quickly diluted, for two main reasons: (1) pressure from the top to
fill numerical quotas of person to be neutralized; (2) difficulties at
the bottom of identifying NLF civilian infrastructure, who were often
indistinguishable from the general population, and the near
impossibility of proving anyone membership in the NLF. The result was
vastly to increase the numbers of innocent persons rounded up and
imprisoned, indiscriminately murdered, and brutally tortured in an
effort to show results . . . Between 1968 and 1972 hundreds of
thousands of Vietnamese civilians were rounded up and turned over to
the Vietnamese police for questioning. Such interrogation has usually
been marked by brutal torture.
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
"After four tours with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, Armitage joined the
U.S. Defense Attach=E9's Office in Saigon in 1973, just in time to play
a key role in "preparing" the botched evacuation of friendly South
Vietnamese. Tens of thousands of loyal partners who had worked with
the Americans were abandoned to advancing North Vietnamese Army and
Viet Cong forces.
Never one to admit failure or duplicity, Armitage covered his own
posterior by accusing the Central Intelligence Agency of wrongly
predicting that a deal for an orderly pullout could be arrived at with
the advancing communists and then failing to provide enough notice
that Saigon was about to fall.
Fresh from the debacle in Southeast Asia, Armitage went to work as a
consultant for the Defense Intelligence Agency, where the quality of
his work, to say the least, did not improve."
http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=3D673
Following the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, Armitage joined the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was posted to Tehran where he
excelled at not predicting the overthrow of the Shah (the man he had
been assigned to keep on the throne) and even went as far as accusing
the Ayotollah Khomeini of being a friend of the Soviets.
"Armitage became=85a special consultant to the Department of Defense,
working out of Bangkok and dealing with unrepatriated prisoners and
the missing in action. Armitage also started a mysterious business
called the Far East Trading Company. Meanwhile, from 1976 to 1979 in
Iran, Richard Secord was supervising the sale of US military aircraft
and weapons to Middle Eastern nations. During this same period, there
are reports that Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Armitage set up several
curious corporations and subsidiaries around the world including Lake
Resources, Stanford Technology Trading Group, Compa[g]nie de Services
Fiduciaria, CSF Investments and Udall Research Corporation."
http://www.vicpeace.org/stories/03/1070.html
In fact all the companies referred to above, were and those that still
exist, are so-called proprietaries of the CIA, a fact that further
reinforces the belief that during this period Armitage was in the
employ of the CIA, and although we can only speculate as to his role
during this period, it is generally believed that the front companies
were used for CIA covert actions in Southeast Asia and later in
Afghanistan and it's been suggested that the idea of using heroin as a
weapon in the 'war against communism' in both Indo-China and
Afghanistan was Armitage's idea.
"His critics had alleged in the past that he was the author of the
idea of using heroin to weaken the fighting capability of the
communists in Indo-China and then in Afghanistan though the late Le
Comte de Marenches, the head of the French External Intelligence
Agency under Presidents George Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing, had
claimed that it was he who had given this idea to the Americans with
specific reference to Afghanistan."
http://www.saag.org/papers5/paper473.html
1978 saw him (officially) rejoining government when he joined the
staff of Senator Robert Dole and then as an advisor to Reagan election
campaign who rewarded his services in 1981 by appointing him Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and
then in 1983 he became Assistant Secretary of Defense for
International Security Affairs until 1989. His speciality was special
forces operations and 'counter-terrorism'. Under George Bush Snr he
was made 'Special Emissary' to King Hussein of Jordan during the 1991
Gulf War.
But it's Armitage's role in the 'Secret Team' that was at the heart of
the Iran-contra scandal during this period that kept him out of
government until Bush the smaller grabbed the throne of state when
Armitage was rewarded for his loyalty by being appointed as deputy
secretary of state under his old friend Colin Powell.
"Armitage=85under investigation for his role in the Reagan
administration's Iran-Contra scandal. Though he testified that he
didn't know about the administration's secret sale of arms to Iran
until November 1986, when they became public knowledge, independent
counsel Lawrence Walsh's report laid out extensive evidence that he
knew about them a year earlier.
In fact, Armitage apparently opposed the arms sales as early as
December 1985, on the grounds that Iranians were "sleazebags." Secord
later testified that he met with Armitage then in an effort to change
his mind. Armitage claimed not to remember meeting with Secord, though
Armitage's own meeting logs show that he did. Armitage kept a December
6, 1985 document describing the legal ramifications of the Iran arms
sales, entitled "Possibility for Leaks," locked in his Pentagon safe
until June 1987, when it was belatedly turned over to Walsh and the
congressional Iran-Contra committee.
Armitage also attended a Pentagon meeting in August 1986 in which
Oliver North outlined the covert activities in support of the Contras
that he had been supervising through the National Security Council.
Armitage denied remembering anything about this meeting as well. In
his final report, Walsh said he declined to prosecute Armitage for his
numerous dubious statements on these issues because he could not prove
they were knowingly false."
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/07/naureckas2507.html
"The Bush cabinet is a virtual who's who of oil, defense and
pharmaceutical bigwigs.1 The Bush family is itself closely tied
financially to the bin Ladens.2 , 3 Both families are involved in the
Carlyle Group.4 Bush Sr. sits on the board of Carlyle, a 12 billion
Equity company with oil holdings and defense contracts.5 Dick Cheney
was the former CEO of Halliburton Oil. Colin Powell is a major
stockholder in several defense contractors. National Security Advisor
Condoleeza Rice sat on the board of Chevron. Andrew Card, the Chief of
Staff is from General Motors. Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense,
was CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals. Dick Armitage, the Deputy Secretary
of Defense, has ties to the Russian mafia and is a board member of
Carlyle. Robert Jordan, the Saudi ambassador, was a member of Baker
Botts, a legal firm specializing in oil and defense (the Baker in
Baker Botts is James Baker). Tony Principi, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, comes from Lockheed Martin. Gordan England, Secretary of the
Navy, is tied to General Dynamics. James Roche, Secretary of the Air
Force, is from Northrop Grumman. Gen. Thomas White, retired, Secretary
of the Army, is from Enron Energy. Donald Evans, the Commerce
Secretary, owns Colorado Oil Company. National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice sat on the board of Exxon. And Mr. Carlucci, the
Chief of Carlyle, sits on the Middle East Policy Council. 6
""Several western oil companies [some represented by Richard Armitage]
including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes
riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil deposits. Western
investors were also gawking [at] Albania's extensive reserves of
chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum""
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/regional/KLA1.html
So we've come full circle, from the earliest days of the Bush family's
involvement with Nazi Germany via Brown Brothers Harriman Bank and
Standard Oil/IG Farben and later, Saudi Arabia (Aramco), through to
the Vietnam War and the Golden Triangle where the trade in drugs
started, and then to Iran and Iran-contra and the South American drug
connection, and then onto Afghanistan and finally Iraq where Dresser
Industries (Brown Brothers), Brown & Root, all come together under the
aegis of the Bush emperium with Halliburton as the final link.
Throughout it all, key individuals have played important roles in
linking together oil, guns and drugs as part of a web of business and
political connections designed to further the interests of big
capital. The question is, how much longer can this web of deceit be
kept hidden from the public? How much longer can the mass media ignore
the crimes of a dynasty that extends back through three-quarters of a
century?
Notes
1 The Oil behind Bush and Son's Campaigns by Ranjit Devraj, Inter
Press Services, 5 October 2001.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/DEV110A.html
2 George W. Bush's Dubious Friends , Intelligence Newsletter, 2 March
2000.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/INL110A.html
3 BUSHLADEN by Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 8 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/bushladen.htm
4 Judicial Watch: Bush/bin Laden Connection "has now turned into a
scandal!", Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes; 6 October 2001.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/jw.htm
5 The Carlyle Group , Alfred Mendes, Spectrezine.
http://www.spectrezine.org/global/carlyle.htm
6 You've got to be Up Front , Mike McCormick, transcription of an
interview with Stan Goff; October 24, 2001. http://narconews.com/goffmccorm=
ick1.html
,
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3D3795
Some further References
Tales from the Grassy Knoll: From 1911 to 9/11
Richard Armitage Links (more links to Armitage sources)
William J Casey and Iran/contra
My Dream and the Color of Suffering by Michael C Ruppert
'War is Horrible. But...': Speech by US Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, January 21
Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Armitage: background notes
The Bush 100: Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage's Colorful Past
The Dangers of Richard Armitage
The Background is Oil
The Dick Cheney Deep Data Dump
It's a Lie by Michael C Ruppert
Secret Agent Man: Iran-contra operative Richard Armitage is now Colin
Powell's No.2
Kosovo Liberation Army and Albanian Sponsors Have Well Documented
Roots in The Heroin Trade
The Golden Triangle Texts
CIA
Behind the Bushes: The New Generation
The Bush-Cheney Drug Empire
Bank of New York Laundromat
911 Timeline by Michael C Ruppert
Main Index >> Back to I=91N=92I Index >> Previous Article >> Next Article
All content on this site is copyright =A9 1987-2003 William Bowles
unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. You have the right to
reproduce content if it is not-for-profit, non-commercial or =91fair
use=92. For commercial reproduction, please contact the copyright
owner.
|
| |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 01:12:14
From: Pepe Papon
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 09:43:30 -0500, "Irish Mike"
<mjostar@ameritech.net > wrote:
>When the financial collapse first hit, I thought it was McCain's ticket to
>the white house for these reasons:
More evidence that you have no idea what you're talking about.
|
| |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 01:07:46
From: poker widow
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
You really swallowed all that eh Mike? and not even a mention of the fact
that 2 days before the financial collapse MCCain said that" our economy
was fundamentally sound"
that really sounds like a guy with his hand on the pulse of the nation.
haha
he had no answers...
also don't forget for the last 2 years the Dems hands were tied by vetoes.
check the records.. their bills got vetoed.
On Jan 3 2009 9:43 AM, Irish Mike wrote:
> There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
>
> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing. When
> Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and out-spent
> McCain by about five to one.
>
> The liberal main stream media and the Hollywood liberal celebrities fell in
> love with Obama and handled him with kid gloves through out his campaign.
> John McCain assisted Obama by refusing to capitalize on the Jeremiah Wright
> fiasco.
>
> People were tired of President Bush and tired of the Iraq war. The fact
> that Bush was a lousy communicator only made things worse.
>
> However, the turning point of the election was the mid-September financial
> crash. Immediately preceding that event, McCain/Palin were leading in the
> polls in nearly all the swing states and still had momentum from the RNC.
> When the financial collapse first hit, I thought it was McCain's ticket to
> the white house for these reasons:
>
> First, McCain had warned against F-MAE and F-MAC's increasing involvement in
> the whole subprime mortgage mess. And it was Bill Clinton who required that
> these organizations have up to 50% of their multi-billion dollar portfolios
> made up of these high risk subprime loans.
>
> Second, the Democrats had been in charge of all the congressional banking
> and finance committees for the past two years. Between 8/07 and 8/08, under
> Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's "leadership" F-MAE and F-MAC lost 90% of its
> stock value.
>
> Third, at the time McCain was warning congress about the danger of subprime
> loans at F-MAE and F-MAC, Obama was an arm twister for ACORN and playing the
> race card on any Illinois bank that refused to make high risk loans to
> unqualified minority borrowers. And, Obama helped ACORN file a law suit
> against a finance company, which resulted in banks lowering their lending
> standards for high risk subprime mortgages all across the country. Not to
> mention that Obama's campaign advisor (Raines) had personally made $90
> million plus while running F-MAE and F-MAC straight in to the ground.
>
> Fourth, Obama had jumped on the bandwagon to provide the $700 billion + bail
> out and this was in addition to his plans to raise taxes and his repeated
> promises to greatly increases spending to fund new welfare, entitlement and
> give away programs.
>
> So to me, it seemed a perfect opportunity for McCain. I thought McCain
> would really hammer Obama and the Democrats with these facts and vote
> against the $700 billion+ bailout. I thought McCain would come out with a
> clear financial plan of tax cuts for middle class tax payers, businesses,
> corporations and at least a two year suspension of the capital gains tax.
> That he would explain that, painful as it might be, we had to let the market
> correct itself and that we could not tax and spend our way out of a
> recession. Equally important , that McCain would pledge to investigate and
> fully prosecute those responsible - including Wall Street crooks and the
> Washington politicians.
>
> But I was wrong. Sadly, McCain let Obama and the Democrats slide, stopped
> his campaign, went back to Washington and meekly voted yes for the bail out.
> It was the strategic blunder that cost him the election .
>
> One final note for all you Obama fans. Think about this. As unpopular as
> Bush was. As unpopular as the Iraq war was. After out-spending McCain five
> to one. After all of McCain's campaign blunders. After having the main
> stream liberal media in the tank for him through out his whole campaign.
> After the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. After all
> that, Obama still only won by 7 million votes and 55+ million of us voted
> against him.
>
> Irish Mike
______________________________________________________________________
looking for a better newsgroup-reader? - www.recgroups.com
|
| | |
Date: 06 Jan 2009 05:57:05
From: Bob T.
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 4, 9:14=A0am, "DaVoice" <davoice...@cox.net > wrote:
> "Bob T." <b...@synapse-cs.com> wrote
>
> >Yeah, 'cause a conservative right-wing loon would never shout out
> >talking points without checking the FACTS.
> >Rick, it's posts like this that make me pity you and want to pray for
> >you.
>
> First off, Bob. =A0I never said there weren't idiots on the right who do =
the
> same thing, but I notice that you snipped the seminal part of my post and
> the point I was making with it. =A0Poker Widow said "Bush tied Congress' =
hands
> with vetoes, he vetoed everything" (paraphrased) and I posted REAL LIVE
> STATISTICS that refuted that.
>
> There are "blowhardbots" on both sides that just take the daily talking
> points and run out to the SHEEPLE and preach it loud and proud. =A0They'r=
e
> idiots, whether they're on the right or the left, if they don't think and
> research for themselves before spreading the "message".
When you said:
"Probably because liberals and left-wing loons just get their talking
points
and run out the door spouting and shouting them out loud to anyone who
will
listen, and the American SHEEPLE just listen, and believe without
considering the source, or checking the FACTS."
You were being a blowhardbot yourself and I called you on it. I did
not say anything about your veto analysis because you were correctly
refuting a silly statement.
- Bob T.
>
> --
> Rick "ADB DaVoice" Charles
|
| | |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 07:18:09
From: Bob T.
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 4, 7:01=A0am, "DaVoice" <davoice...@cox.net > wrote:
>
> Probably because liberals and left-wing loons just get their talking poin=
ts
> and run out the door spouting and shouting them out loud to anyone who wi=
ll
> listen, and the American SHEEPLE just listen, and believe without
> considering the source, or checking the FACTS.
Yeah, 'cause a conservative right-wing loon would never shout out
talking points without checking the FACTS.
Rick, it's posts like this that make me pity you and want to pray for
you.
- Bob T.
> --
> Rick "ADB DaVoice" Charles
>
> begin 666 spacer.gif
> K1TE&.#EA`0`!`( ``````````"'Y! $`````+ `````!``$```("1 $`.P``
> `
> end
|
| | | |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 09:14:07
From: DaVoice
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"Bob T." <bob@synapse-cs.com > wrote
>Yeah, 'cause a conservative right-wing loon would never shout out
>talking points without checking the FACTS.
>Rick, it's posts like this that make me pity you and want to pray for
>you.
First off, Bob. I never said there weren't idiots on the right who do the
same thing, but I notice that you snipped the seminal part of my post and
the point I was making with it. Poker Widow said "Bush tied Congress' hands
with vetoes, he vetoed everything" (paraphrased) and I posted REAL LIVE
STATISTICS that refuted that.
There are "blowhardbots" on both sides that just take the daily talking
points and run out to the SHEEPLE and preach it loud and proud. They're
idiots, whether they're on the right or the left, if they don't think and
research for themselves before spreading the "message".
--
Rick "ADB DaVoice" Charles
|
| | |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 07:01:47
From: DaVoice
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"poker widow" <a5be621@webnntp.invalid > wrote in message
news:2sa636xbup.ln2@recgroups.com...
> You really swallowed all that eh Mike? and not even a mention of the fact
> that 2 days before the financial collapse MCCain said that" our economy
> was fundamentally sound"
> that really sounds like a guy with his hand on the pulse of the nation.
> haha
> he had no answers...
> also don't forget for the last 2 years the Dems hands were tied by vetoes.
> check the records.. their bills got vetoed.
Ok, here ARE the records:
(only using last two Congresses for comparison, because Bush didn't use the
Veto in either of the first two Congresses during his Presidency, and Carter
who only had two congresses to deal with and huge Dem majority in both
houses)
George W. Bush, Republican and his last two congresses:
109th Congress House R's 53.3% Senate R's 55% Total Vetoes 1 Regular 1
Pocket Vetoes 0 Overrides 0 success rate100%
110th Congress House R's 46.4% Senate R's 49% Total V's 11 Reg. 10 Pocket 1
Overrides 4 success rate 60.0%
William J. Clinton, Democrat and his last two congresses
105th Congress House Dems 47.4% Senate Dems 45% Total 8 Regular 8 Pocket 0
overrides 1 Success rate 87.5%
106th Congress House Dems 48.5% Senate Dems 45% Total 12 Regular 11 Pocket 1
overrides 0 Success rate 100%
Just for comparison ... How about Jimmy?
Jimmy Carter, Democrat and his two congresses:
95th Congress House Dems 67.1% Senate Dems 61% Total 19 Regular 6 Pocket
13 Overrides 0 success rates 100%
96th Congress House Dems 63.7% Senate Dems 58% Total 12 Regular 7 Pocket 5
overrides 2 success rate 71.4%
Now let's look at total Vetoes while in office
William J. Clinton Totals 37 regular 36 pocket 1 Overrides 2 success
94.4%
George W. Bush Totals 12 regular 11 pocket 1 Overrides 4 success
63.6%
SOURCE: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/vetoes.php
Damn that Bush, what an obstructionist...ROFLMFAO He "vetoed everything and
tied congresses hands" according to Poker Widow.
Why do people who don't know wtf they're talking about RESEARCH something
before spouting off about it?
Probably because liberals and left-wing loons just get their talking points
and run out the door spouting and shouting them out loud to anyone who will
listen, and the American SHEEPLE just listen, and believe without
considering the source, or checking the FACTS.
--
Rick "ADB DaVoice" Charles
begin 666 spacer.gif
K1TE&.#EA`0`!`( ``````````"'Y! $`````+ `````!``$```("1 $`.P``
`
end
|
| |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 04:03:29
From: N. Silver
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Irish Mike wrote:
> After all that, Obama still only won by 7 million votes and 55+ million of
> us voted against him.
One can never underestimate the intelligence of the masses.
|
| |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 15:15:22
From: Deadmoney Walking
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3, 9:43=A0am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
> There were many factors that contributed to John McCain's loss:
>
> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign financing. =A0Wh=
en
> Obama saw how much money he was raising, he broke his word and out-spent
> McCain by about five to one.
>
> The liberal main stream media and the Hollywood liberal celebrities fell =
in
> love with Obama and handled him with kid gloves through out his campaign.
> John McCain assisted Obama by refusing to capitalize on the Jeremiah Wrig=
ht
> fiasco.
>
> People were tired of President Bush and tired of the Iraq war. =A0The fac=
t
> that Bush was a lousy communicator only made things worse.
>
> However, the turning point of the election was the mid-September financia=
l
> crash. =A0Immediately preceding that event, McCain/Palin were leading in =
the
> polls in nearly all the swing states and still had momentum from the RNC.
> When the financial collapse first hit, I thought it was McCain's ticket t=
o
> the white house for these reasons:
>
> First, McCain had warned against F-MAE and F-MAC's increasing involvement=
in
> the whole subprime mortgage mess. =A0And it was Bill Clinton who required=
that
> these organizations have up to 50% of their multi-billion dollar portfoli=
os
> made up of these high risk subprime loans.
>
> Second, the Democrats had been in charge of all the congressional banking
> and finance committees for the past two years. =A0Between 8/07 and 8/08, =
under
> Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's "leadership" F-MAE and F-MAC lost 90% of it=
s
> stock value.
>
> Third, at the time McCain was warning congress about the danger of subpri=
me
> loans at F-MAE and F-MAC, Obama was an arm twister for ACORN and playing =
the
> race card on any Illinois bank that refused to make high risk loans to
> unqualified minority borrowers. =A0And, Obama helped ACORN file a law sui=
t
> against a finance company, which resulted in banks lowering their lending
> standards for high risk subprime mortgages all across the country. =A0Not=
to
> mention that Obama's campaign advisor (Raines) had personally made $90
> million plus while running F-MAE and F-MAC straight in to the ground.
>
> Fourth, Obama had jumped on the bandwagon to provide the $700 billion + b=
ail
> out and this was in addition to his plans to raise taxes and his repeated
> promises to greatly increases spending to fund new welfare, entitlement a=
nd
> give away programs.
>
> So to me, it seemed a perfect opportunity for McCain. =A0I thought McCain
> would really hammer Obama and the Democrats with these facts and vote
> against the $700 billion+ bailout. =A0I thought McCain would come out wit=
h a
> clear financial plan of tax cuts for middle class tax payers, businesses,
> corporations and at least a two year suspension of the capital gains tax.
> That he would explain that, painful as it might be, we had to let the mar=
ket
> correct itself and that we could not tax and spend our way out of a
> recession. =A0Equally important , that McCain would pledge to investigate=
and
> fully prosecute those responsible - including Wall Street crooks and the
> Washington politicians.
>
> But I was wrong. =A0Sadly, McCain let Obama and the Democrats slide, stop=
ped
> his campaign, went back to Washington and meekly voted yes for the bail o=
ut.
> It was the strategic blunder that cost him the election .
>
> One final note for all you Obama fans. =A0Think about this. =A0As unpopul=
ar as
> Bush was. =A0As unpopular as the Iraq war was. =A0After out-spending McCa=
in five
> to one. =A0 After all of McCain's campaign blunders. =A0After having the =
main
> stream liberal media in the tank for him through out his whole campaign.
> After the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression. =A0After=
all
> that, Obama still only won by 7 million votes and 55+ million of us voted
> against him.
>
> Irish Mike
Good points, nice post. I'll always wonder what would have happened
if McCain had come out against the bail out.
|
| | |
Date: 04 Jan 2009 03:07:24
From: Beldin the Sorcerer
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"Deadmoney Walking" <tbonesays@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:53f3d1f7-802d-4c54-92fe-73e0f4eea354@d36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
On Jan 3, 9:43 am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
>
Good points, nice post. I'll always wonder what would have happened
if McCain had come out against the bail out.
***
He'd have lost by 30 points.
|
| |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 07:47:58
From: Jerry Sturdivant
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
"Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net > wrote
> There were many factors that contributed
> to John McCain's loss:
Some were major; some were minor.
> McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign
> financing. When Obama saw how much money he was raising,
> he broke his word and out-spent McCain by about five to one.
Wouldn’t you? Had Obama not changed, he’d be considered an idiot.
> The liberal main stream media …
“Liberal media” is a fallacy that’s been disproved over and over and again
needs its own discussion. You might start by watching this:
http://www.outfoxed.org
> and the Hollywood liberal celebrities fell in love with Obama
> and handled him with kid gloves through out his campaign.
And why not? Who the hell wanted to stay with a failing administration run
by an AWOL, lying idiot?
> John McCain assisted Obama by refusing to
> capitalize on the Jeremiah Wright fiasco.
Capitalized on what? His preacher was nuts. You’re blaming Obama for that?
> People were tired of President Bush and tired of the Iraq war.
BINGO!
> The fact that Bush was a lousy communicator
> only made things worse.
BINGO 2
> However, the turning point of the election
> was the mid-September financial crash.
And rightly so as the house of cards and Bush’s trillion-dollar debt came
tumbling down.
> First, McCain had warned against F-MAE and F-MAC's increasing
> involvement in the whole subprime mortgage mess.
Whoa! McCain was part and parcel of the GOP deregulation that caused this
problem. The banks and Wall Street were making millions and dumping (by
deregulation) it into AA AAA bonds as ‘good stuff.’
McCain was for deregulation all the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4egXbhSOhk
> Second, the Democrats had been in charge of all the congressional
> banking and finance committees for the past two years.
> Between 8/07 and 8/08, under Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's
> "leadership" F-MAE and F-MAC lost 90% of its stock value.
From the previous 6-years of GOP deregulation that put us in the mess.
> Third, at the time McCain was warning congress about the
> danger of subprime loans at F-MAE and F-MAC,
I’ve covered that error…
> Obama was an arm twister for ACORN …
Let me (with help) straighten you out on the ACORN thing. The Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now. Conservative lawmakers were able to
remove a provision aimed at aiding low-income housing programs from the Bush
administration’s $700 billion economic bailout bill by calling it a "slush
fund." <http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/01/conservatives-acorn >
for ACORN. Before that, conservatives blamed ACORN for "precipitating the
subprime crisis." And they alleged that the "purpose" of ACORN is to engage
in voter fraud. However, as columnist Joel McNally correctly noted, the
"underlying motive for attacking ACORN" seems to be that it is the "nation's
largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income
people." "It is an organization that engages in that dreaded community
organizing," McNally wrote. "It actually tries to give a voice to the poor
and most vulnerable among us." Indeed, after years of enacting policies
catering to the wealthy, the right-wing of millions of new low-income voters
registered by ACORN casting their ballots in favor of progressive policies.
In early October, ACORN announced that it had registered 1.3 million new
voters for the November election. Seizing on reports of apparently
fraudulent voter registrations in some states, conservatives began claiming
that the "purpose" of ACORN is to commit "voter fraud." However, all that
was found during a raid of ACORN's office here in Nevada was apparently
fraudulent voter registration forms, which do not constitute voter fraud.
"It's not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on
Election Day and tries to pass himself off as 'Tony Romo.'" And who would
try to do that?" wrote Rep. Jesse Jackson. As New York University's Brennan
Center for Justice noted, "[T]here are no reports that we have discovered of
votes actually cast in the names of [false] registrants." Under most state
laws, in fact, voter registration organizations like ACORN are required to
turn in all the forms they receive, even the suspicious ones. Furthermore,
as Brad Friedman pointed out in the Guardian, "[I]f [ACORN] can't
authenticate the registration, or it's incomplete or questionable in other
ways, they flag that form as problematic...In almost every case where you've
heard about fraud by Acorn, it's because Acorn itself notified officials
about the fraud that's been perpetrated on them by rogue canvassers."
Conservative members of Congress "sent a letter to Attorney General Michael
Mukasey requesting the Department of Justice ensure that the actions of
ACORN did not violate federal laws." But conservatives have gone down this
road before, only to find nothing. In 2004, ACORN faced three lawsuits
pertaining to alleged voter fraud, all of which were dismissed. As noted at
the time, "several politically motivated law firms brought baseless charges
of voter registration fraud against ACORN in an effort to inhibit its work
to register low-income and minority voters." But the Bush administration was
so intent on furthering these trumped-up charges of voter fraud that in 2006
attorneys from the Department of Justice -- including New Mexico's David
Iglesias -- were fired for not pursuing fraud cases "to the satisfaction of
their bosses." Revealing the shallowness of the conservative outrage though,
the New York Times reported last week that "tens of thousands of eligible
voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have
been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law."
This has garnered scant attention compared to the uproar surrounding ACORN.
“ACORN!” is simply a red herring.
> Fourth, Obama had jumped on the bandwagon
> to provide the $700 billion + bail out
Whose ‘bandwagon’ was he jumping on?
> So to me, it seemed a perfect opportunity for McCain. I
> thought McCain would really hammer Obama and the Democrats
> with these facts and vote against the $700 billion+ bailout.
McCain? A Republican? Not want to help Wall Street and the banks?
> But I was wrong.
Yep …..
Jerry ‘n Vegas
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 14:54:00
From: hanks
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3 2009 7:47 AM, Jerry Sturdivant wrote:
> "Irish Mike" <mjostar@ameritech.net> wrote
>
>
> > There were many factors that contributed
> > to John McCain's loss:
>
> Some were major; some were minor.
>
>
> > McCain and Obama both agreed to stick to public campaign
> > financing. When Obama saw how much money he was raising,
> > he broke his word and out-spent McCain by about five to one.
>
> Wouldn’t you? Had Obama not changed, he’d be considered an idiot.
>
>
> > The liberal main stream media …
>
> “Liberal media” is a fallacy that’s been disproved over and over and again
> needs its own discussion. You might start by watching this:
> http://www.outfoxed.org
>
>
> > and the Hollywood liberal celebrities fell in love with Obama
> > and handled him with kid gloves through out his campaign.
>
> And why not? Who the hell wanted to stay with a failing administration run
> by an AWOL, lying idiot?
>
>
> > John McCain assisted Obama by refusing to
> > capitalize on the Jeremiah Wright fiasco.
>
> Capitalized on what? His preacher was nuts. You’re blaming Obama for that?
>
>
> > People were tired of President Bush and tired of the Iraq war.
>
> BINGO!
>
>
> > The fact that Bush was a lousy communicator
> > only made things worse.
>
> BINGO 2
>
>
> > However, the turning point of the election
> > was the mid-September financial crash.
>
> And rightly so as the house of cards and Bush’s trillion-dollar debt came
> tumbling down.
>
>
> > First, McCain had warned against F-MAE and F-MAC's increasing
> > involvement in the whole subprime mortgage mess.
>
> Whoa! McCain was part and parcel of the GOP deregulation that caused this
> problem. The banks and Wall Street were making millions and dumping (by
> deregulation) it into AA AAA bonds as ‘good stuff.’
>
> McCain was for deregulation all the way:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4egXbhSOhk
>
>
> > Second, the Democrats had been in charge of all the congressional
> > banking and finance committees for the past two years.
> > Between 8/07 and 8/08, under Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's
> > "leadership" F-MAE and F-MAC lost 90% of its stock value.
>
> From the previous 6-years of GOP deregulation that put us in the mess.
>
>
> > Third, at the time McCain was warning congress about the
> > danger of subprime loans at F-MAE and F-MAC,
>
> I’ve covered that error…
>
>
> > Obama was an arm twister for ACORN …
>
> Let me (with help) straighten you out on the ACORN thing. The Association of
> Community Organizations for Reform Now. Conservative lawmakers were able to
> remove a provision aimed at aiding low-income housing programs from the Bush
> administration’s $700 billion economic bailout bill by calling it a "slush
> fund." <http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/01/conservatives-acorn>
> for ACORN. Before that, conservatives blamed ACORN for "precipitating the
> subprime crisis." And they alleged that the "purpose" of ACORN is to engage
> in voter fraud. However, as columnist Joel McNally correctly noted, the
> "underlying motive for attacking ACORN" seems to be that it is the "nation's
> largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income
> people." "It is an organization that engages in that dreaded community
> organizing," McNally wrote. "It actually tries to give a voice to the poor
> and most vulnerable among us." Indeed, after years of enacting policies
> catering to the wealthy, the right-wing of millions of new low-income voters
> registered by ACORN casting their ballots in favor of progressive policies.
>
> In early October, ACORN announced that it had registered 1.3 million new
> voters for the November election. Seizing on reports of apparently
> fraudulent voter registrations in some states, conservatives began claiming
> that the "purpose" of ACORN is to commit "voter fraud." However, all that
> was found during a raid of ACORN's office here in Nevada was apparently
> fraudulent voter registration forms, which do not constitute voter fraud.
> "It's not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on
> Election Day and tries to pass himself off as 'Tony Romo.'" And who would
> try to do that?" wrote Rep. Jesse Jackson. As New York University's Brennan
> Center for Justice noted, "[T]here are no reports that we have discovered of
> votes actually cast in the names of [false] registrants." Under most state
> laws, in fact, voter registration organizations like ACORN are required to
> turn in all the forms they receive, even the suspicious ones. Furthermore,
> as Brad Friedman pointed out in the Guardian, "[I]f [ACORN] can't
> authenticate the registration, or it's incomplete or questionable in other
> ways, they flag that form as problematic...In almost every case where you've
> heard about fraud by Acorn, it's because Acorn itself notified officials
> about the fraud that's been perpetrated on them by rogue canvassers."
>
> Conservative members of Congress "sent a letter to Attorney General Michael
> Mukasey requesting the Department of Justice ensure that the actions of
> ACORN did not violate federal laws." But conservatives have gone down this
> road before, only to find nothing. In 2004, ACORN faced three lawsuits
> pertaining to alleged voter fraud, all of which were dismissed. As noted at
> the time, "several politically motivated law firms brought baseless charges
> of voter registration fraud against ACORN in an effort to inhibit its work
> to register low-income and minority voters." But the Bush administration was
> so intent on furthering these trumped-up charges of voter fraud that in 2006
> attorneys from the Department of Justice -- including New Mexico's David
> Iglesias -- were fired for not pursuing fraud cases "to the satisfaction of
> their bosses." Revealing the shallowness of the conservative outrage though,
> the New York Times reported last week that "tens of thousands of eligible
> voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have
> been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law."
> This has garnered scant attention compared to the uproar surrounding ACORN.
>
> “ACORN!” is simply a red herring.
>
>
> > Fourth, Obama had jumped on the bandwagon
> > to provide the $700 billion + bail out
>
> Whose ‘bandwagon’ was he jumping on?
>
>
> > So to me, it seemed a perfect opportunity for McCain. I
> > thought McCain would really hammer Obama and the Democrats
> > with these facts and vote against the $700 billion+ bailout.
>
> McCain? A Republican? Not want to help Wall Street and the banks?
>
>
> > But I was wrong.
>
> Yep …..
>
>
> Jerry ‘n Vegas
Hi Jerry,
I really appreciate your clear well written posts. PLEASE keep up the
good work.
Thanks,
hanks
_______________________________________________________________________
* kill-files, watch-lists, favorites, and more.. www.recgroups.com
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 14:43:08
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
The Israeli mossad did not give two shits about the Kennedy brothers
decisions of delaying its nuclear bomb but B & R bennifited emensly
from the tragety!! OSWALD pulled the trigger three times but Johson
(the owner of B&R at the time) gave him the ultimatem do or die and
Ruby was their fall guy to silence him!! JFK was giving all of Johsons
no bid contracts to cheaper Union Contractors$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Clay Shaw - a CIA asset
When Garrison finally brought one man to trial, widely respected New
Orleans trade executive Clay Shaw, Garrison had narrowed his field,
suggesting, primarily, that Shaw had been one of the lower-level
players in the conspiracy. According to Garrison, Shaw was essentially
doing the bidding of highly-placed figures in what has roughly been
described as "the military-industrial complex," that combination of
financial interests and armaments manufacturers whose power and
influence in official Washington-and around the world-is a very real
force in global affairs.
Garrison suggested that Shaw and his co-conspirators had multiple
motivations stimulating their decision to move against President
Kennedy. Among other things, he asserted:
The conspirators opposed JFK's decision to begin withdrawing U.S.
forces from Indochina;
They were angry at his failure to provide military cover support for
Cuban exiles attempting to topple Fidel Castro in the botched Bay of
Pigs invasion;
They were bitter at JFK for firing longtime CIA Director Allen Dulles,
a grand old man of the Cold War against the Soviet Union; and
In addition, Garrison hinted, JFK's successor, Lyndon Johnson, may
have wanted JFK removed from office for the purpose of claiming the
crown for himself, but also because JFK and his younger brother,
Attorney General Robert Kennedy, were not only plotting to remove
Johnson from the Democratic national ticket in 1964, as well as
conducting federal criminal investigations of many of Johnson's
closest associates and financial backers-even including in the realm
of organized crime.
In the end, after a relatively brief deliberation, the jury hearing
the Shaw case acquitted Shaw. It was only later-much later-that
evidence emerged that Shaw had indeed been a CIA informant, Shaw's
protestations the contrary. Only in recent years has it been
determined, for example, that the American CIA was deliberately
sabotaging Garrison's investigation from within, not to mention
providing assistance to Shaw's defense. And although there are those
who continue to say that Shaw's acquittal "proved" that Shaw had
nothing whatsoever to do with the JFK conspiracy, the bigger picture
suggests quite the contrary.
Shaw was involved with something very murky and so were others in
Shaw's circle of friends and associates. And they were, in turn,
directly connected to the strange activities of Lee Harvey Oswald in
New Orleans, the summer just prior to the assassination of John F.
Kennedy, before Oswald's sojourn to Dallas. Dozens of writers-many
with differing points of view-have documented all of this, time and
again.
The hidden bomb shell unearthed
So although the "official" legend is that Jim Garrison believed that
the CIA and the military-industrial complex were the prime movers
behind JFK's murder, when all was said and done, however, Jim Garrison
had privately reached quite a different conclusion, one that remains
largely unknown even to many people who worked with Garrison
throughout the course of his investigation. In fact, as noted,
Garrison had decided-based on the entirety of everything that he had
learned, from a wide variety of sources-that the most likely
masterminds of the JFK assassination were operatives of Israel's
intelligence service, the Mossad.
The remarkable truth is that-although Garrison apparently didn't know
it at the time, precisely because the facts had yet to be revealed-
Garrison may have been on to something, far more than he realized. The
public record now demonstrates that in 1963 JFK was embroiled in a
bitter secret conflict with Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion over
Israel's drive to build the atomic bomb; that Ben-Gurion resigned in
disgust, saying that because of JFK's policies, Israel's "existence
[was] in danger." Then upon JFK's assassination, U.S. policy toward
Israel began an immediate 180-degree turnaround.
Israeli historian Avner Cohen's new book, Israel and the Bomb,
confirms the conflict between JFK and Israel so powerfully that,
Israel's Ha'aretz, declared Cohen's revelations would "necessitate the
rewriting of Israel's entire history." From Israel's perspective,
writes Cohen, "Kennedy's demands [on Israel] seemed diplomatically
inappropriate=85inconsistent with national sovereignty." In any case,
Cohen pointed out, "the transition from Kennedy to [Lyndon] Johnson=85
benefited the Israeli nuclear program."
Now how can you tie Roberts demise to the Israelis? Spell check here
loopy
|
| | | |
Date: 05 Jan 2009 21:02:18
From: FL Turbo
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 14:43:08 -0800 (PST), joeturn
<joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote:
>The Israeli mossad did not give two shits about the Kennedy brothers
>decisions of delaying its nuclear bomb but B & R bennifited emensly
>from the tragety!! OSWALD pulled the trigger three times but Johson
>(the owner of B&R at the time) gave him the ultimatem do or die and
>Ruby was their fall guy to silence him!! JFK was giving all of Johsons
>no bid contracts to cheaper Union Contractors$$$$$$$$$$$$$
>
HonestTaGawd, Joe.
Can't you stay focused for at least one entire paragraph?
>Clay Shaw - a CIA asset
>When Garrison finally brought one man to trial, widely respected New
>Orleans trade executive Clay Shaw, Garrison had narrowed his field,
>suggesting, primarily, that Shaw had been one of the lower-level
>players in the conspiracy. According to Garrison, Shaw was essentially
>doing the bidding of highly-placed figures in what has roughly been
>described as "the military-industrial complex," that combination of
>financial interests and armaments manufacturers whose power and
>influence in official Washington-and around the world-is a very real
>force in global affairs.
>Garrison suggested that Shaw and his co-conspirators had multiple
>motivations stimulating their decision to move against President
>Kennedy. Among other things, he asserted:
>
>The conspirators opposed JFK's decision to begin withdrawing U.S.
>forces from Indochina;
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
The JFK Assassination drew the attention of damn near every serious
journalist for Gawd knows how many years.
All dead ends, with the final question:
"Where's the Beef"?
Clara Peller is now dead without getting an answer.
No Woodward.
No Bernstein.
No Deep Throat.
No Smoking Gun.
Not that there weren't any benefits.
It gave Conspiracy Theorists everywhere a big kickstart.
My humble suggestion that Onassis had him assassinated so he could
marry Jackie is every bit as plausible as any one of them.
BTW
I looked everywhere for any independent source of news about your
favorite journalist, William Bowles.
No mention anywhere.
I finally had to resort to his home page.
A jackpot.
http://www.williambowles.info/
Alberto Terenzi: Gaza: Chronicle of a Predictable Slaughter
The Newsletter of the Free Gaza Movement, 5 January, 2008
ICH 5 January, 2008: Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells
URUK Net 4 January, 2009 Part 3: Israel – The Sociopathic State
URUK Net 4 January, 2009 Part 2: Report Direct from Gaza
Bashir Abu-Manneh: Destroying Gaza, Delaying Palestine
William Bowles: The obscenity that is the state of Israel
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a little sampler.
'Nuff Said.
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 13:29:54
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3, 3:33=A0pm, joeturn <joeturn2...@yahoo.com > wrote:
> http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0136.html
That one will make your eyes bleed but as with wikipedia edits there
are no more tales from the grassy knole!! But you do see it was there
dont you FL turbo??
|
| | | |
Date: 05 Jan 2009 20:27:10
From: FL Turbo
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 13:29:54 -0800 (PST), joeturn
<joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote:
>On Jan 3, 3:33 pm, joeturn <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0136.html
>
>That one will make your eyes bleed but as with wikipedia edits there
>are no more tales from the grassy knole!! But you do see it was there
>dont you FL turbo??
You are absolutely correct on one thing.
The article did make my eyes bleed from trying to follow the dots
dancing around as Knowles went on about trying to paint his picture.
I will also agree with Knowles that Armitage is a real sleazebag, and
his patron Colin Powell not far behind.
It finally came out in the great Plame Kerfuffle that it was one
Richard Armitage that outed Plame to Novak.
His boss, Colin Powell knew that also.
Yet, they both remained silent as the Fitzgerald investigation dragged
on and on and on.
But I digress.
Let's go to the Wayback Machine for a little discussion.
In the aftermath of WWI, Germany was a completely defeated nation.
They could not possibly pay the Reparations demanded of them by the
winning side.
Personally, I think that the hyper-inflation that occurred in Germany
was done on purpose by their financial gurus.
A poke in the eye, as it were, to the countries demanding the
Reparations.
"You want our money, Pal? Here, load up a few boxcars full of it."
But whatever.
The German economy was in complete shambles.
What did they have left?
I'll tell you what they had left.
Their factories were left intact.
Their skilled workforce was still there, albeit without jobs.
That was quite unlike the aftermath of WWII, when their infrastructure
was bombed into rubble.
Now cast your eyes to the Big Money in the USA.
The Bushes, the Harrimans, the Rockefellers, you name 'em.
The people with Big Money cut across political lines.
Then, as now, there were both Democrats and Republicans in that group.
The thing that they all had in common was they were Capitalists with
Big Money.
Capitalists looking for a place to invest their money.
What better place to invest than Post-war Germany?
Assets that could be bought for pennies on the dollar.
Just to make a long story shorter, the investments in Germany had
nothing to do with the Nazis.
They didn't even exist when the investments in German industry began.
The author's eagerness to place every dot on the Bush family is
downright laughable.
The Saudis?
The relationship of the USA and SA has been a tradition for many
decades now.
It has continued throughout Demo and Repo administrations, like, you
know, forever now.
Know where Clinton got a big chunk of his wealth?
Ayup.
The Saudis.
But enough for now.
I'll just leave you with a little teaser.
It's about Halliburton.
Have you ever heard the old computer programmers question?
"Do you want it fast, good, or cheap? Pick any two of the above."
HINT
Halliburton has been the choice of Governments in getting something
done.
--
"Holy fuck city, Turbo, you really ARE the biggest moron on this whole
entire newsgroup. I will pray for you." - Paul Popinjay, 11/7/2008
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 12:33:26
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0136.html
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 12:11:15
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=johnson+owns+brown+%26+root&ei=utf-8&fr=b1ie7
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:59:47
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&y=Search&fr=b1ie7&p=halliburton+moves+to+dubai&rs=0&fr2=rs-top
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:48:51
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
Now Cheneys ties but where did the thingy about Haliburtins move to
avoid paying US taxes??
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=UTF-8&fr=b1ie7&p=dick+cheney+%26+halliburton&SpellState=n-3955386399_q-cyKFlKn%2FdiSpJzrhcBaKkQAAAA%40%40&fr2=sp-top
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:37:58
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3, 2:31 pm, joeturn <joeturn2...@yahoo.com > wrote:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company)
Help - Help for Webmasters
<< back to results for "brown & root"
Below is a cache of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company). It's a
snapshot of the page taken as our search engine crawled the Web. We've
highlighted the words: brown root
The web site itself may have changed. You can check the current page
(without highlighting) or check for previous versions at the Internet
Archive.
Yahoo! is not affiliated with the authors of this page or responsible
for its content.
[Collapse] A Thank You from
Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
[Expand] Support Wikipedia: a non-profit project. Donate Now
>> [Expand] Support Wikipedia: a non-profit project. -- Donate Now
KBR (company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page. (July 2008)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
KBR, Inc.
Type Public
Founded 1998
Headquarters Houston, Texas
Key people Bill Utt
Jerry L. Winchester
Industry Engineering
Construction
Private military contractor
Employees 50,000
Website http://www.kbr.com/
KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) NYSE: KBR is an American
engineering and construction company, formerly a subsidiary of
Halliburton, based in Houston. After Halliburton acquired Dresser
Industries in 1998, Dresser's engineering subsidiary, The M. W.
Kellogg Co., was merged with Halliburton's construction subsidiary,
Brown & Root, to form Kellogg Brown & Root. KBR and its predecessors
have won many contracts with the U.S. military during the 2003
invasion of Iraq, as well as during World War II and the Vietnam War.
KBR is the largest non-union construction company in the United States.
[1]
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 M.W. Kellogg
1.2 Brown & Root
1.3 Halliburton years
1.4 Formation of KBR, Inc.
1.5 New headquarters facility
2 Kosovo
3 Activities in Afghanistan
4 Activities in Iraq
4.1 Employee safety
4.2 Human Trafficking Lawsuit
5 Political connections and controversy
5.1 Shell companies in Cayman Islands
6 Legacy in Houston
7 References
8 External links
[edit] History
[edit] M.W. Kellogg
In 1901, Morris Kellogg founded The M. W. Kellogg Company in New York
City. The company was incorporated in 1905 and its headquarters was
moved to Jersey City, New Jersey. Initially Kellogg's main business
was power plant construction and fabrication of power plant
components, but the development of hammer forge welding techniques
helped ready the company to move into refining as the petroleum
industry developed.
Kellogg's entry into process engineering initially focused on the
Fleming cracking process, but in the 1920s Kellogg partnered with The
Texas Company (Texaco) and Standard Oil of Indiana to purchase the
Cross thermal cracking process. Kellogg set up one of the first
petroleum laboratories in the country in 1926 to commercialize and
then license the technology. This led to Kellogg building some 130
units in the US and abroad.
In the 1930s and '40s Kellogg worked with leading refiners on various
technologies. For the war effort, these developments led to the
construction of six hydroreformer units twenty fluid catalytic
cracking units and the only complete refinery built during World War
II. Even bigger than the refining work was the gaseous diffusion plant
at Oak Ridge, Tennessee built as part of the Manhattan project. This
period also included the development of the Benedict-Webb-Rubin (BWR)
equation of state which has since become an industry mainstay and
provided the basis for Kellogg's lead in cryogenics.
The 1950s Kellogg technology expanded into steam pyrolysis, Orthoflow
fluid catalytic cracking, phenol-from-cumene and coal-to-synthetic
fuels technologies and the '60s saw the growth in helium recovery,
ethylene and the development of Kellogg's ammonia process.
In 1970 Kellogg moved from New York City to Houston, Texas and in
1975, they completed the move by relocating the research and
development lab as well. The '70s saw Kellogg become the first
American contractor to receive contracts from the People's Republic of
China. Kellogg's international work expanded with the major ammonia
complexes in China, Indonesia and Mexico as well as LNG liquefaction
plant in Algeria and 2 receiving terminals in the U.S., the world's
largest LPG plant in Kuwait and four fluid catalytic cracking units in
Mexico. The '80s saw continuation of global activity in LNG and
ethylene with millisecond furnaces starting up in the U.S.
[edit] Brown & Root
Brown & Root was founded in Texas in 1919 by two brothers, George R.
Brown and Herman Brown with money from their brother-in-law, Dan Root.
The company began its operations by building roads in Texas.
One of its first large-scale projects, according to the book Cadillac
Desert, was to build a dam on the Texas Colorado River near Austin
during the Depression years. For assistance in federal payments, the
company turned to the local Congressman, Lyndon B. Johnson. Brown &
Root was the principal source of campaign funds for Johnson's initial
run for Congress in 1937 in return for persuading the Bureau of
Reclamation to change its rules against paying for a dam on land the
federal government did not own, a decision that had to go all the way
to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, according to Robert A. Caro's
book The Path to Power. After other very profitable construction
projects for the federal government, such as building the Corpus
Christi Naval Station, Brown & Root gave massive sums of cash for
Johnson's first run for the U.S. Senate in 1941. Brown and Root
violated IRS rules over campaign contributions, largely in charging
off its donations as deductible company expenses, again according to
Robert Caro. A subsequent IRS investigation threatened to bring
criminal charges of illegal campaign donations against Brown & Root as
well as Johnson and others. It was not quashed until Roosevelt himself
told the IRS to back off and allowed Brown and Root to settle for
pennies on the dollar.
During World War II, Brown & Root built the Naval Air Station Corpus
Christi and its subsidiary Brown Shipbuilding produced a series of
warships for the U.S. Government.
In 1947, Brown & Root built one of the world's first offshore oil
platforms.
According to Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer Prize-winning book Mountains
Beyond Mountains, Brown & Root was a contractor in the P=A8=A6ligre Dam
project. The project was designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
and financed by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
[edit] Halliburton years
Following the death of Herman Brown, Halliburton Energy Services
acquired Brown & Root in December 1962. According to Dan Briody, who
wrote a book on the subject, the company became part of a consortium
of four companies that built about 85 percent of the infrastructure
needed by the Army during the Vietnam War. At the height of the anti-
war movement of the 1960s, Brown & Root was derided as "Burn & Loot"
by protesters.
The extent of their services included a vast array of logistical
operations, historically under the jurisdiction of the military. Such
operations included laundry services, meal services (Burger King,
Subway, Papa John's Pizza), entertainment (Internet and cable access),
and recreation (basketball courts and gym equipment).
From 1995-2002, Halliburton KBR was awarded at least $2.5 billion to
construct and run military bases, some in secret locations, as part of
the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP).[2]
In September 2005, under a competitive bid contract it won in July
2005 to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated
with natural disasters, KBR started assessment of the cleanup and
reconstruction of Gulf Coast Marine and Navy facilities damaged in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The facilities include: Naval Station
Pascagoula, Naval Station Gulfport, the John C. Stennis Space Center
in Mississippi, two smaller U.S. Navy facilities in New Orleans,
Louisiana and others in the Gulf Coast region. KBR has had similar
contracts for more than 15 years.
[edit] Formation of KBR, Inc.
Halliburton announced on April 5, 2007 that it had finally broken ties
with KBR, which has been its contracting, engineering and construction
unit as a part of the company for 44 years.[3] The move was prefaced
by a statement registered with the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission on April 15, 2006 stating that Halliburton planned
to sell up to 20 percent of its KBR stock on the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE). On November 16, 2006, KBR shares were offered for the
public in an Initial Public Offering with shares priced at $17. The
shares closed on the first day up more than 22 percent to $20.75 a
share.[4]
On May 7, 2008, the company announced that it would acquire
Birmingham, Alabama-based engineering and construction firm BE&K for
$550 million. BE&K plans to remain headquartered in Birmingham.[5]
[edit] New headquarters facility
In 2008 the firm announced that a new headquarters would appear at the
intersection of the Grand Parkway and Interstate 10 in unincorporated
Harris County, Texas, between Houston and Katy; this would replace the
Clinton Drive facility.[6]
[edit] Kosovo
In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Brown & Root a contract to
support U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops as
part of the SFOR operation in the Balkan region. This contract was
extended to also include KFOR operations in Kosovo starting in 1999.
Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo was constructed by the 94th Engineer
Construction Battalion together with the private Kellogg Brown & Root
(KBR) under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers. KBR is also
the prime contractor for the operation of the camp. The camp is built
mainly of wooden, semi permanent SEA (South East Asia) huts and is
surrounded by a 2.5 meter high earthen wall. To construct the base two
hills were lopped off and the valley between them was filled with the
resulting material.
[edit] Activities in Afghanistan
KBR was awarded a $100 million contract in 2002 to build a new U.S.
embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, from the State Department.
KBR has also been awarded 15 Logistics Civil Augmentation Program
(LOGCAP) task orders worth more than $216 million for work under
Operation Enduring Freedom, the military name for operations in
Afghanistan. These include establishing base camps at Kandahar and
Bagram Air Base and training foreign troops from the Republic of
Georgia.
[edit] Activities in Iraq
KBR employs more American private contractors and holds a larger
contract with the U.S. government than does any other firm in Iraq.
The company's roughly 14,000 U.S. employees in Iraq provide logistical
support to the U.S. armed forces.[7]
The United States Army hired KBR to provide housing for approximately
100,000 soldiers in Iraq in a contract worth $200 million, based on a
long-term contract signed in December 2001 under the Logistics Civil
Augmentation Program (LOGCAP). Other LOGCAP orders have included a pre-
invasion order to repair oil facilities in Iraq; $28.2 million to
build POW camps; and $40.8 million to accommodate the Iraqi Survey
Group, which was deployed after the invasion to find weapons of mass
destruction.
The Army's actions came under fire from California Congressman Henry
Waxman, who, along with Michigan Congressman John Dingell, asked the
General Accounting Office to investigate whether the U.S. Agency for
International Development and The Pentagon were circumventing
government contracting procedures and favoring companies with ties to
the Bush administration. They also accused KBR of inflating prices for
importing gasoline into Iraq.[8][9] In June 2003, the Army announced
that it would replace KBR's oil-infrastructure contract with two
public-bid contracts worth a maximum total of $1 billion, to be
awarded in October. However, the Army announced in October it would
expand the contract ceiling to $2 billion and the solicitation period
to December. As of October 16, 2003, KBR had performed nearly $1.6
billion worth of work. In the meantime, KBR has subcontracted with two
companies to work on the project: Boots & Coots, an oil field
emergency response firm that Halliburton works in partnership with
(CEO Jerry L. Winchester was a former Halliburton manager) and Wild
Well Control. Both firms are based in Texas.[10]
KBR's maintenance work in Iraq has been criticized after reports of
soldiers electrocuted from faulty wiring.[11] Specifically, KBR has
been charged by the Army for improper installation of electrical units
in bathrooms throughout US bases. CNN reported that an Army Special
Forces soldier, Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, died by electrocution in
his shower stall on January 2, 2008. Army documents showed that KBR
inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11
months before his death. KBR noted "several safety issues concerning
the improper grounding of electrical devices." But KBR's contract did
not cover "fixing potential hazards;" It covered repairing items only
after they broke down.[12]Maseth's family has sued KBR.[13]
The Pentagon's Defense Contract Management Agency recently handed down
a "Level III Corrective Action Request" to KBR This is disseminated
after a contractor is found to bein a state of "serious
noncompliance".
[edit] Employee safety
As of June 9, 2008, 81 American and Foreign KBR employees and
subcontractors have been killed, and more than 380 have been wounded
by hostile action while performing services under the company's
government contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.[14][15]
[edit] Human Trafficking Lawsuit
On August 28, 2008, defense contractor KBR, Inc. and a Jordanian
subcontractor were accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit
filed in Los Angeles.[16] The suit alleged that 12 Nepali men were
recruited by Daoud & Partners to work in hotels and restaurants in
Jordan, but the company seized their passports when they arrived in
2004 and had them sent to Iraq to work on a U.S. air base. The
employees were killed when their caravan was attacked while enroute to
the base.[17]
[edit] Political connections and controversy
Brown and Root had a well-documented relationship with U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson, which began when he used his position as a Texas
congressman to assist them in landing a lucrative dam contract. In
return they gave him the funds for his 1948 Senate race against Coke
R. Stevenson.[18] The relationship continued for years, with Johnson
awarding military construction contracts to B&R.
Following the end of the first Gulf War, the Pentagon, led by then
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, paid Halliburton subsidiary Brown &
Root Services over $8.5 million to study the use of private military
forces with American soldiers in combat zones.[2]
Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton from
1995 to 2000. He has been accused of providing work to KBR under
contingency contracts to financially benefit himself and his business
associates.
However, the Army contract which has been so controversial -- LOGCAP --
has, since its inception, been issued under competitive solicitations;
of the LOGCAP contracts, KBR won the first, DynCorp the second, KBR
the third, and the fourth one, dubbed "LOGCAP IV", was awarded to
three contractors - KBR, DynCorp, and Fluor. LOGCAP is a contingency-
based contract which is invoked at the convenience of the US Army as
needed; the Task Orders under the contract are not competitively bid
as the overall contract is.
Although DynCorp had won LOGCAP II in 1994,[19] Clinton instead chose
KBR, and thus the Balkans Support Contract was created for and awarded
to KBR in February 1999.[20] Even though the LOGCAP program is
specifically for contingency operations such as the Balkans, there was
little media coverage about KBR picking up that contract; the Balkans
work is sometimes mistakenly mentioned as being part of LOGCAP,
however.[citation needed]
Most media controversy involves the LOGCAP III contract which KBR
successfully, and competitively, bid for and won in 2001.[citation
needed] While it is by far the most profitable of their contracts, the
functions of that contract are often mixed with the RIO contract in
which KBR was given in a no-bid process. RIO, or Restore Iraqi Oil,
was awarded to KBR when the United States Department of Defense
determined that KBR was "the only contractor that could satisfy the
requirement for immediate execution of the plan".[21] As of September
2006, hearings were still being conducted into the RIO project over
possible billing, management, and procurement violations.
One common theme is to use the term LOGCAP while using the dollar
amounts from RIO, which was using LOGCAP funding for the initial
staging and startup, (see reference #4).
Jamie Leigh Jones, a 23-year-old former employee of KBR, testified at
a Congressional hearing in December that she had been gang-raped by up
to as many as seven co-workers in Iraq in 2005. [22]
Another prime topic of interest is the Defense Contract Audit Agency
(DCAA) report on billing-methods for meals. The auditors knew about,
but disregarded, the Army's requirement, whereas KBR was directed to
have varying amounts of meals prepared at certain locations regardless
of how many people actually used the service. Although KBR was paying
for the food, the DCAA did not believe they should be able to charge
the DoD for meals prepared but not served.[23]
In June 2008, Charles M. Smith, the senior civilian Defense Department
official overseeing the government's multibillion-dollar contract with
KBR during the early stages of the war in Iraq said he was forced out
of his job in 2004 for refusing to approve $1 billion in questionable
charges to KBR. Smith refused to approve the payments because Army
auditors determined that KBR lacked credible records to support more
than $1 billion in spending. Smith stated, "They had a gigantic amount
of costs they couldn't justify." He said that following his action he
was suddenly dismissed and according to media "his successors -- after
taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider
KBR's claims -- approved most of the payments he had tried to
block."[24]
[edit] Shell companies in Cayman Islands
In March 2008, the Boston Globe reported that KBR had avoided paying
hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social
Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in the
tax haven of the Cayman Islands. More than 21,000 people working for
KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as
employees of two companies, Service Employers International Inc., and
Overseas Administrative Services, which exist on the island only in
computer files in an office. KBR acknowledged that the companies were
set up "in order to allow us to reduce certain tax obligations of the
company and its employees." But KBR does claim the workers as its own
with regards to the legal immunity extended to employers working in
Iraq.[25] A new piece of legislation may halt KBR's use of the Cayman
subsidiaries[26]
[edit] Legacy in Houston
Houston's convention center was named after company founder and
namesake George R. Brown. Rice University's Brown College is also
named for members of Brown's family, who have made significant
monetary contributions to Rice and other Houston schools. A residence
hall at Southwestern University is named after Herman Brown.
[edit] References
^ [1] uoig.uoregon.edu/research/reports/2007-2008/Fall/20071005-
HAL.pdf University of Oregon Investment Group, February 22, 2008.
^ a b Yeoman, Barry (2003-06-01). "Soldiers of Good Fortune", Mother
Jones. Retrieved on 8 May 2007.
^ Clanton, Brett. "KBR is officially out on its own." Houston
Chronicle, April 5, 2007.
^ Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
^ Cooper, Lauren B. (2008-05-07). "Houston company to buy Birmingham's
BE&K", Birmingham Business Journal. Retrieved on 7 May 2008.
^ KBR plans HQ campus - Houston Business Journal:
^ "Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq" Los Angeles
Times 4 July 2007
^ http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/10/15/rtr1110073.html
^ Industry Experts Call Halliburton Gasoline Prices "Highway
Robbery" :: Committee on Oversight and Government Reform :: United
States House of Representatives
^ 2003 Press Releases
^ "Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.'s", New York Times
(2008-05-04). Retrieved on 7 May 2008.
^ Green Beret electrocuted in shower on Iraq base - CNN.com
^ http://www.standardspeaker.com/articles/2008/08/07/editorial/hz_standspea=
k.20080807.a.pg10.hz07edi_troops_s1.1861533_edi.txt
^ http://www.chron.com
^ http://www.alternet.org
^ "Nepalese man sues KBR on human trafficking charges," Associated
Press article
^ "Families of 12 Slain in Iraq File Lawsuit," New York Times, August
28, 2008. Retrieved from NYTimes.com on 2008-11-18.
^ Bryce, Robert. "The Candidate from Brown and Root. (reprint)" Texas
Observer, October 6, 2000.
^ Defenselink News "FAQ About Contracting",
^ Defenselink News "Contracts Awarded" DAAA09-99-C-0016, February 19,
[[1999.
^ USACE "USACE Information sheet on RIO"
^ New York Times
^ Halliburton response"Halliburton statement"
^ "Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir", The New York Times,
17 June 2008
^ Farah Stockman, "Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore: Shell
companies in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social
Security deductions", Boston Globe, March 6, 2008
^ http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5797584.html
[edit] External links
Company website
CalPERS urged to divest from KBR
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company)"
Categories: Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:31:06
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company)
|
| | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:28:09
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3, 12:58=A0pm, FL Turbo <noem...@notime.com > wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 08:42:06 -0800 (PST), joeturn
>
> <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >I have no political voice as I have never voted!! I learned at an
> >early age that you must be a used car salesman in order to hoodwink
> >the multitude into believing in political promises! Keep in mind that
> >WE THE PEOPLE have the best government that money can buy and if any
> >leader goes against the grain, he will get assassinated! The Kennedy's
> >are a prime example they did not like the way Haliburtin(Brown&Root)
> >ran the country!!
> >Grammarize this for me Mr Book Worn<I;-)
>
> B&R assassinated JFK?
> LMFAOSC&D
>
> You have certainly changed my opinion.
> Formerly, I thought that risky biz was the biggest dumshit on RGP.
>
> He now ranks #2
> You are #1
>
> Congratulations.
You are dim witted a search for brown&root will pull up wikipedias
explanation and its history! Being able to connect the dots from
Rosevelt to Chainey shows adequate ties to the johnson era and jfks
giving away their contracts cost them $billions and JFK his life!!
Your opinions are not worthy of posting as you have no grasp on
reality!! I'll fectch it for you but there are no pictures involved so
reading is a must! You could never find it for yourself BRB!!
I'm waiting on my Nobel Prize then congradulations will be in
order<I;-)
|
| | | |
Date: 03 Jan 2009 15:52:33
From: FL Turbo
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 11:28:09 -0800 (PST), joeturn
<joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote:
>On Jan 3, 12:58 pm, FL Turbo <noem...@notime.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 08:42:06 -0800 (PST), joeturn
>>
>> <joeturn2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >I have no political voice as I have never voted!! I learned at an
>> >early age that you must be a used car salesman in order to hoodwink
>> >the multitude into believing in political promises! Keep in mind that
>> >WE THE PEOPLE have the best government that money can buy and if any
>> >leader goes against the grain, he will get assassinated! The Kennedy's
>> >are a prime example they did not like the way Haliburtin(Brown&Root)
>> >ran the country!!
>> >Grammarize this for me Mr Book Worn<I;-)
>>
>> B&R assassinated JFK?
>> LMFAOSC&D
>>
>> You have certainly changed my opinion.
>> Formerly, I thought that risky biz was the biggest dumshit on RGP.
>>
>> He now ranks #2
>> You are #1
>>
>> Congratulations.
>
>You are dim witted a search for brown&root will pull up wikipedias
>explanation and its history! Being able to connect the dots from
>Rosevelt to Chainey shows adequate ties to the johnson era and jfks
>giving away their contracts cost them $billions and JFK his life!!
If you see dots in front of your eyes, I strongly suggest that you go
to see an eye doctor immediately.
It could possibly be an early sign of Glaucoma.
Early treatment is a must.
I should know.
My eye doctor gave me a severe lecture when she noticed I hadn't been
in to be tested for over 2 years.
> Your opinions are not worthy of posting as you have no grasp on
>reality!! I'll fectch it for you but there are no pictures involved so
>reading is a must! You could never find it for yourself BRB!!
Well, thank you for your concern.
If you have one specific site that shows that B&R had JFK
assassinated, please indicate which one.
I can't see all those dots yet.
I have my own explanation.
I think that Ari Onassis had JFK assassinated so he could marry
Jackie.
Just think.
If Nikita Khruschev was assassinated, would Ari have married Nina
Khruschev?
I don't think so.
> I'm waiting on my Nobel Prize then congradulations will be in
>order<I;-)
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Date: 03 Jan 2009 09:20:06
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
research humanism part 2
Now Clasp pay close attentention::
Throughout the ages mankind has taken such a gaint step and moved
on
soo fast, it has forgot to smell the coffee.
Humanism as we know it says
" Mankind is never content with what its got and wants more than it
can get,this drives him into loosing what he's got"! Inso being
(greedy) this great over sight of WALLSTREET has
not only got the world to laughing but the most Superior being of them
all"THE
MONKEY" is laughing themselves out of the barrel!!
Back in the day mankind formed a government that took care of the
majority of its subjects to the best it knew how! Legistlature"THE
SUPREME LAW of THE LAND had checqs & balances ,guide lines if you
please that governed the way things went along and the outcome was
for the people!
Judge Roy Bean would be on his way to Washington with his rope to
make sure this mess was cleared up! Yes there would be a mass hanging
even the ones that were not guilty of EMBEZZELMENT but by association
only was a hanging crime! They not only stood by and watched,THEY
allowed
this fiasco to go on unchecked$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
THE MONKEY WINS OUT AGAIN
hows the spell check coming loopy;)
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Date: 03 Jan 2009 08:42:06
From: joeturn
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
I have no political voice as I have never voted!! I learned at an
early age that you must be a used car salesman in order to hoodwink
the multitude into believing in political promises! Keep in mind that
WE THE PEOPLE have the best government that money can buy and if any
leader goes against the grain, he will get assassinated! The Kennedy's
are a prime example they did not like the way Haliburtin(Brown&Root)
ran the country!!
Grammarize this for me Mr Book Worn<I;-)
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Date: 03 Jan 2009 11:58:11
From: FL Turbo
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 08:42:06 -0800 (PST), joeturn
<joeturn2000@yahoo.com > wrote:
>I have no political voice as I have never voted!! I learned at an
>early age that you must be a used car salesman in order to hoodwink
>the multitude into believing in political promises! Keep in mind that
>WE THE PEOPLE have the best government that money can buy and if any
>leader goes against the grain, he will get assassinated! The Kennedy's
>are a prime example they did not like the way Haliburtin(Brown&Root)
>ran the country!!
>Grammarize this for me Mr Book Worn<I;-)
B&R assassinated JFK?
LMFAOSC&D
You have certainly changed my opinion.
Formerly, I thought that risky biz was the biggest dumshit on RGP.
He now ranks #2
You are #1
Congratulations.
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Date: 03 Jan 2009 07:15:12
From: Bob T.
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3, 6:43=A0am, "Irish Mike" <mjos...@ameritech.net > wrote:
<whining >
MIke, there's something I've been meaning to tell you: "mainstream" is
one word. I think it's important that you know, because apparently
you're going to be whining about this election every day for the next
four years, and I'm sure the "mainstream media" will feature
prominently in your rants.
Happy to help, and Happy New Year!
- Bob T.
>
> Irish Mike
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Date: 03 Jan 2009 07:16:48
From: FangBanger
Subject: Re: Why John McCain really lost the election
|
On Jan 3 2009 8:43 AM, Irish Mike wrote:
>62 MILLION PEOPLE VOTED FOR THE OTHER GUY!!
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