Bush-Cheney Madministration Is One HUGE Obstruction of Justice!

[Octafish]

Which explains why the Bush Organized Crime Family wants you, in Ari Fleischer’s immoral words, to “Watch what you say. Watch what you do.”

With all the BFEE's various nefarious and treasonous actions, it becomes near impossible to “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” And yet try I must.

DESTROYED – George Herbert Walker Bush’s SEC filings regarding ZAPATA Offshore:

http://www.newsmakingnews.com/lindaminor/lm3,19,02harvardtoenron,pt1.htm

DESTROYED – George W Bush’s Military Records:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/politics/campaign/09records.html

LOST – Junior’s HARKEN Inside Trading report:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0207/S00104.htm

SECRET - ENRON Energy Policy:

http://www.ems.org/energy_policy/cheney_energy_task_force.html

SILENCED - FBI whistleblowers told to shut-up regarding terror funding:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_whistleblower3.htm

SILENCED – Media Coverage of PTECH terror funding story:

http://www.spitfirelist.com/f462.html

SILENCED - FBI whistleblowers ignored regarding 9-11 warnings:

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_whistleblower1.htm

SILENCED - Sibel Edmonds reports FBI covered up 9-11 pre-knowledge:

http://www.breakfornews.com/Sibel-Edmonds.htm

DESTROYED: FAA 9-11 “Day-of-Event” Investigative Interview Voice Recordings

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/national/06CND-TAPE.html?ex=1089518400&en=e5dc84ac6a966d6a&ei=5070&hp

ORDERED - Bushco orders Pakistan to come up with OBL or Al Qaeda big-wig to divert attention from Democratic Convention:

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904

Of cursed, there are more. Please chip in before my blood pressure explodes my Cyclopean big baby brown.

“Thanks in advance!”

And DU!… Let’s SINK THE BFEE!

They are DEFENSELESS against our best weapon.

The TRUTH.

[BattyDem]

1. You should email this to Randi Rhodes

I think she'll like it :-)

[e-mail]

[Octafish]

4. Thanks, BattyDem! Could I ask a small favor?

Could you send it, please? I'm at my work station and it would be, um, difficult email for me to explain to the biggus cheezus.

If not, no problem. I'll be back in the friendly confines of Octafish World Headquarters this nochy.



BTW: Did you hear about...

IGNORED - The Bush family and the S&L Scandal:

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/bush_family_and_the_s.htm

[Joanne98]

2. It's a Bush family crime wave.

Anything to protect the biggest spoiled brat on the planet.

[Octafish]

5. It's a crime wave that started 22 November 1963

Dated 22 November 1963, the first talks about George Herbert Walker Bush ratting on some college Republican by the name of PARROTT as a possible assassin of President Kennedy:



Dated 29 November 1963 and initialed by J Edgar Hoover, the second describes "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" which goes a loooong way to explaining things today. Of course, the anti-Castro community was reported to "regret" the assassination of President Kennedy.



These are not monsters. These are gangsters cut from the same cloth as the NAZIs. They fear being discovered and exposed. And that's why they hate Liberals - people who love the Truth.

http://www.internetpirate.com/bush.htm

[Killarney]

8. WOW

I had never seen those before!

Any info on this Parrott guy and what he did to piss GHWB off so much? Weird.

[Octafish]

13. I've looked for Parrott. Probably sleeping with the fishes.

Just like many who cross paths with these turds.

Like you, I had one of those moments when the scales fell from eyes first time I saw these memos. Gee. One would believe an honest press would investigate. After all, it's the only business mentioned by name in the United States Constitution (First Amendment). Sigh...

Hey, here's some more about Poppy's whereabouts in the early 1960s. Remember George De Mohrenschildt? He was Oswald's "friend" and apparent "handler." Turns out De Mohrenschildt's address book had Oswald's info AND Poppy's. Now how does that go uninvestigated?



http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/george-de-mohrenschildt/

BTW: Poor Mr. De Mohrenschildt decided to commit suicide the same day the investigator from the House Select Committee on Assassinations came to interview him.

[seemslikeadream]

9. The Bush Dynasty and the Cuban Criminals

Jeb Bush was then the chairman of the Dade county Republican party and Padreda its finance chairman. Padreda had earlier been indicted on a $500,000 (£320,000) embezzlement charge along with a fellow exile, Hernandez Cartaya, but the charges were dropped, reportedly after the CIA stated that Cartaya had worked for them.

Padreda later pleaded guilty to defrauding the housing and urban development department of millions of dollars during the 1980s.

The president's younger brother was also on the payroll in the 80s of the prominent Cuban exile Miguel Recarey, who had earlier assisted the CIA in attempts to assassinate President Castro.

Recarey, who ran International Medical Centers (IMC), employed Jeb Bush as a real estate consultant and paid him a $75,000 fee for finding the company a new location, although the move never took place, which raised questions at the time. Jeb Bush did, however, lobby the Reagan/Bush administration vigorously and successfully on behalf of Recarey and IMC. "I want to be very wealthy," Jeb Bush told the Miami News when questioned during that period.

In 1985, Jeb Bush acted as a conduit on behalf of supporters of the Nicaraguan contras with his father, then the vice-president, and helped arrange for IMC to provide free medical treatment for the contras.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1202-05.htm



En compañia del señor Jeb Bush y su esposa Columba Bush

[seemslikeadream]

11. commissioners voted 3-2 to end negotiations with Xentury, despite

an appeal last month from Gov. Jeb Bush's office in support the developer.


Osceola County, Fla., Commissioners to Stop Talks with Development Firm
Willoughby Mariano
The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.

Dec. 10--KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Osceola County commissioners voted Monday night to kill talks on a $100 million convention center with an Orlando firm because of its possible ties to Osama bin Laden.

For two months, Xentury City Development had tried to fend off allegations that its Saudi-owned parent company has links to a bank that the United States alleges helps finance terrorism.

SNIP...

Yet Xentury's plans unraveled after researchers from the Local 362 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union submitted a report to the county suggesting Xentury's parent company, Xenel International, may have links to banks that finance terrorists. A researcher for the union discovered a potential connection between Xentury's parent company, Saudi Arabia-based Xenel International, and an overseas bank the U. S. Department of State thinks was used to finance Al-Qaeda.

The CEO of Xenel is Abdullah Alireza. Alireza sits on the nine-member board of supervisors of an Islamic bank called Dar Al-Maal Al-Islami Trust. A subsidiary, Faisal Bank Sudan is among the co-founders of a third bank, Al Shamal Islamic Bank, according to published reports. State Department records showed Al Shamal Islamic Bank has been used to finance global terror.

CONTINUED...

http://www.enr.com/news/otherSources/2002/12/10/krtbn/0...

[Octafish]

14. Lots of weird BFEE stuff in Florida.

Thanks for the info, seemslikeadream! Didn't know any of that. Now if our free press decides to look into it, they might want to check out Poppy 'n' Jebthro's ties to Mr. Bosch, a terrorist.

On George Bush's pardon of anti-Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/oct1999/corr-o26.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

17. Israel Jared and the Emperor's Clothes website

EXCERPT...

Some conclusions and relationships

* Jeb Bush worked for Texas Commerce Bank as the assistant to the founder and head of the South America division.
* Texas Commerce Bank linked was linked to Saudi and drug money.
* Texas Capital Bank is linked to SOCO International PLC and its offshore North Korea oil leases through John C. Snyder and Snyder Oil.
* The "Forbidden Truth" links current terrorism to Saudi Banks and BCCI.
* Peter Dale Scott and other have Texas Commerce Bank linked to BCCI.
* Texas Capital Bank is linked to Texas Commerce Bank through John C. Snyder and Jody M. Grant.

Texas Capital Bank looks like a reinvention of Texas Commerce Bank. Same miraculous Enron like story of success, same "oil men/Bush supporter" links, maybe the same domestic and international Oil Exploration clients. When Texas Commerce Bank started popping up in mid 90s drug money investigations, it got sold off to Chase Manhattan. A year later (1998) Texas Capital Bank appears in full Texas glory. Probably just in time to help finance GW campaign. Peter Dale Scott has got a great website on BCCI Saudi terrorist Financing Links and a new book coming out in 2003:"Drugs, Oil, and War". Wayne Madsen covers Saudi - Bin Laden ties here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD202B.html . Professor Michael Chossudovsky (who has a new book out: WAR AND GLOBALISATION THE TRUTH BEHIND SEPTEMBER 11) also links Bush new chosen investigator to the Saudis and BCCI:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Chossudovs...

Source:

http://www.rmfdevelopment.com/political/SOCO_SICO_NCB_B...

[Octafish]

24. BCCI funded Pakistani (North Korea and Iran) H-Bomb

A Blind Eye to the Islamic Bomb

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/trans.php3?dte=2004-06-23&title=A+Blind+Eye+to+the+Islamic+Bomb

Muchisimas gracias, seemslikeadream!

http://www.alba-valb.org/index.html

[seemslikeadream]

25. The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from theCIA on June 3rd and 4th

Mithras61
I was under the impression that executive privilege only extends...
for 6 weeks after the advisor is no longer a sitting advisor. That means Tenet would be free to testify, under compulsion if necessary, after about the end of August. If my math is correct, that would put it right before the Repukelican Mational Convention. I wonder, do you suppose that has any impact on the timing of the resignation?



COUP D'ETAT:
The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the
CIA on June 3rd and 4th
Bush, Cheney Indictments in Plame Case Looming

Under Executive Privilege, a principle intended to protect the constitutional separation of powers, officials in the Executive Branch cannot give testimony in a legal case against a sitting President. The Bush administration has invoked or threatened to invoke the privilege several times. Dick did it over the secret records of his energy task force and George Bush tried to use it to prevent Condoleezza Rice from testifying before the "Independent" Commission investigating September 11th.

Former officials of the Executive Branch are, however, free to testify if they are no longer holding a government office when subpoenaed or when the charges are brought.

http://www.fromthewilderness.c ...




more from link


The special prosecutor has been focusing on Bush, Cheney, presidential counselor Karl Rove, Cheney's chief of staff Lewis I. ("Scooter") Libby, Cheney assistants David Wurmser and John Hannah, and National Security Council officials Elliott Abrams and Stephen Hadley.

Recently, CIA Director George Tenet and Plame's ultimate boss, Deputy Director of Operations James Pavitt, suddenly resigned within hours of one another. Intelligence sources have said the two have been cooperating with Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame/Brewster-Jennings leak and the damage to U.S. clandestine operations which globally track the flow of WMDs.

Sensitive CIA operations that were compromised by the leak included companies, government officials, and individuals associated with the nuclear smuggling network of Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In addition, the identities of U.S. national and foreign agents working within the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, North Korea's nuclear laboratory in Yongbyon, Pakistan's Kahuta uranium enrichment plant, banks and export companies in Dubai, Islamabad, Moscow, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, and Kiev, and Kuala Lumpur, and government agencies in Libya, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Iran were severely compromised. The CIA has reportedly given Fitzgerald highly classified details on the damage done to the CIA's WMD tracking network.

According to Department of Justice insiders, the length of Fitzgerald's 70 minute interview of Bush was significant. Only one other prosecutor's interview of a sitting president lasted as long, that of Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's questioning of the late Ronald Reagan. However, in that case, Walsh concluded after the interview that Reagan actually did not know what had transpired in his administration with respect to the scandal. Today’s officials may not be so fortunate.

[seemslikeadream]

26. If this planet blows to pieces this year, thank Khan Labs' and Bush

You may never have heard of Khan Laboratories, but if this planet blows to pieces this year, it will be thanks to Khan Labs' creating nuclear warheads for Pakistan's military. Because investigators had been tracking the funding for this so-called "Islamic Bomb" back to Saudi Arabia, under Bush security restrictions, the inquiry was stymied. (The restrictions were lifted, the agent told me without a hint of dark humor, on September 11.)

Noam Chomsky, who read the story on page one of the Times of India, has wondered, "Why wasn't it all over US papers?

.. A top-level CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of strictest anonymity said that, after Bush took office, "There was a major policy shift" at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to "back off" from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the Bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation.

I probed our CIA contact for specifics of investigations that were hampered by orders to back off of the Saudis. He told us that Khan Laboratories investigation had been effectively put on hold.
http://www.gregpalast.com/deta ...


Why no trial for the world's biggest criminal?


Pardon for scientist who sold atom bomb secrets
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore and Robin Gedye

Pakistan is likely to pardon without trial the father of the country's atomic bomb even though he has confessed to selling nuclear technology to rogue states, a senior government official told the Telegraph yesterday.

Another promised international indignation in the event of pardon. "He is the world's biggest criminal, involved for 27 years in selling nuclear technology. If you let him off with a slap on the wrist, then what kind of message are you sending to others?" he said.

Mr. Khan has let it be known that he is prepared to blow the whistle on the army's involvement. A cabinet minister revealed that Mr. Khan's daughter, a British citizen, had traveled to London with papers that could incriminate generals and other Pakistani leaders, including the former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new ...

varun
Pakistani nuclear sicentist offers public apology...
...and gets a slap on the wrist..
http://story.news.yahoo.com/ne ...

Pakistani Nuclear Scientist Takes the Rap for Leaks
57 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Mike Collett-White
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Top Pakistani scientist and national hero Abdul Qadeer Khan made a dramatic personal apology Wednesday for leaking atomic secrets, the latest twist in a proliferation scandal stretching from Libya to North Korea (news - web sites).
In a somber address on state television, Khan, revered at home as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, absolved the government and fellow scientists of any blame in an apparent bid by all concerned to draw a line under the damaging affair.
Commentators said his confession smacked of a cover-up, possibly part of a wider agreement to spare the powerful military unwanted scrutiny in any trial and allow President Pervez Musharraf to avoid pressure from Islamists and nationalists...


seemslikeadream
Nuclear betrayal apology
But his claim to have arranged it all himself has been met with widespread skepticism.

Western diplomats said the middlemen operated in Germany, Netherlands, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates.

As a direct result of the Pakistani revelations, it was revealed yesterday a Malaysian company controlled by the son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was being investigated for possibly supplying machine parts for Libya's nuclear weapons programs.
Malaysian special branch police began the investigation after the CIA in the US and Britain's M16 informed them in November that boxes of machine parts bearing SCOPE's name were found in five containers seized in a ship off Italy in October.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com ....

Pakistan pardons rogue nuke scientist
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has pardoned a scientist who confessed to leaking nuclear weapons secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea and says the country will not allow international supervision of its nuclear programme.
Musharraf also said Pakistan would not hand over any documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency, submit to an independent inquiry or allow the United Nations to supervise Pakistan's nuclear programme.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsP ... §ion=news

ElBaradei says A.Q.Khan just tip of nuclear iceberg
"Dr.Khan was not working alone," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters, adding he had help from people in many countries.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenew ...



bos1
Because of how deep it goes
in terms of international megabillion dollar syndicates of arms and drug running operations running the US gov't. As the Sibel Edmonds and David Schipper stories are just the latest indications. That is why no trials for these guys, unless there is a factional battle or change of window dressing.

Background: David Schippers, US House Judiciary Committee Head Prosecutor (head prosecutor of Clinton's impeachment) had FBI sources telling him of warning of a terrorist attack in Manhattan 6 weeks before Sept.11 and no one wanted to hear it -- congressmen, Ashcroft.

interview http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_I...

Sibel Edmonds was approached by another FBI translator and offered huge amounts of money to cover up intelligence reports with certain names in it, intelligence reports dealing with money laundering, drug trafficking, a support network for terrorism, people in high places in politics. When she reported it to her superiors she was offered bribes to forget about it, eventually fired, and the SLAPPED WITH A GAG ORDER by Ashcroft.

Her story also involves how corruption, infiltration and incompetence in the FBI that led to the 9/11 attacks.

Sibel Edmonds interview http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=2917 :
Another article http://villagevoice.com/issues/0421/mondo1.php

[Octafish]

27. The BFEE hates the Truth

From seemslikeadream's post above:

Sibel Edmonds was approached by another FBI translator and offered huge amounts of money to cover up intelligence reports with certain names in it, intelligence reports dealing with money laundering, drug trafficking, a support network for terrorism, people in high places in politics. When she reported it to her superiors she was offered bribes to forget about it, eventually fired, and the SLAPPED WITH A GAG ORDER by Ashcroft.

[seemslikeadream]

30. Philip Hanssen, Waco Texas, Russia, Nuclear, Aldrich Ames?

Green Beret J. K. Idema -- Just who the hell is this guy


At the heart of their investigation is a former American special forces soldier, Jona than Keith "Jack" Idema, who is alleged to have run the private jail and was being questioned on Thursday night.
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118432


FBI Agent Philip Hanssen Was Involved in the Idema Case.
FBI Agent, and Soviet Spy Philip Hanssen was involved in the Idema case. The American Green Beret claimed the CIA and FBI were compromised by the KGB. In 1993, the former Special Forces NCO, Idema, refused to give up the names of his agents in the Soviet Union, claiming the FBI and CIA were compromised, and his agents would be killed. Idema specifically named the Soviet Spies' FBI positions.

Green Beret J. K. Idema
in El Salvador 1984

Idema had pinpointed Soviet agents in the FBI and CIA in early 1994 conversations with former CNN Vice-president Ted Kavanau. Subsequently Aldrich Ames was arrested, and two years later, Earl Edwin Pitts. Idema has steadfastly insisted that there were other Soviet agents in the FBI, and specifically named them as formerly assigned to the New York Counter-intelligence Office - Team I-8. Now Philip Hanssen has been arrested. Yet the FBI and Clinton administration consistently prevented Idema from testifying in front of Congress- WHY? what were they hiding?

Hanssen had access to Idema's case information, and worked in New York Counter-intelligence. During the height of the Idema incident, Hanssen worked out of the Washington Field Office 1994), which directly dealt with Idema's information, he then went to the NSD in December 1994 (where he had continued access to Idema's case and his information.

PBN News is working to FOIA the documents linking Hanssen to Idema and the FBI's botched investigation of the nuclear smuggling incidents. Other news agencies are encouraged to pursue FOIA requests for documents linking Hanssen to the 1993-1996 Russian nuclear smuggling investigations
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:36_oZcH_I3cJ:www.nev ...

Any Lesser Man - A Keith Idema documentary about Soviet nuclear smuggling, KGB Double agents in the FBI and CIA, and how one US Army Green Beret went to prison for trying to expose it.
http://newswire.fathermag.com/dir/Society/Issues/War,_W ...


January 1, 2001 Update!
After dozens of radio interviews about the documentary in progress, Idema & Scurka temporarily put interviews on hold in order to devote their time to working with famed author Robin Moore on the Idema book, tentatively titled "NEVER GIVE UP".

Last fall Idema broke the story on the April 1993 secret meeting Janet Reno had, during which US Army Delta Force personnel warned Reno about taking action at Waco, saying they feared an ill-prepared FBI assault would take innocent lives. Read World Net Daily's Mail Archives. These incredible revelations, along with secret documents, proved that Reno and Freeh lied to the American people during their congressional testimony. Idema also spoke out about the real story behind Yosef Bodansky's White House press release claiming Osama bin Laden has suitcase nuclear weapons, to use against America for terrorist attacks. See Smuggling and Black Markets.

Additionally, Idema and Scurka were engaged in a special project for the last year resulted in uncovering massive amounts of exculpatory evidence in a national murder case. That project also delayed completion of Scurka's documentary until late 2001. Idema and Scurka, along with a special team of Green Berets, were successful in uncovering additional former Soviet/communist spies in the American government, and the resulting story on a Green Beret Colonel, wrongfully accused of murder, can be seen at www.pbnews.tv

Last year Barry Farber, a national talk radio host, dedicated a special two hour program to the Idema story.

In a rare in-studio interview, authors Robin Moore and Jim Morris, who were in New York to pitch their own new books, joined Farber to talk about the Idema story. Also on the show were Ted Kavanau, the man who started CNN’s news bureau, and there to talk about the movie, was Producer Gary Scurka.
Update 12/2001
America's War on Terror, again, has put Scurka's documentary on hold. Scurka was wounded by al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Northern Afghanistan in November 2001, and Idema is currently engaged in supporting America's War on Terror in an undisclosed role.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:36_oZcH_I3cJ:www.nev ...


Keith Idema says it was by making collect pay telephone calls to the Barry Farber talk radio show that he was able to tell the world he had uncovered evidence that Russians had smuggled nuclear material and weapons out of their country.

Idema also used the Barry Farber show to say he was being imprisoned on phony wire fraud charges because he refused to give the FBI and CIA the names of the secret sources who had fingered the Russians for him. Idema says he refused to divulge his sources because he was told spies had penetrated both the FBI and CIA and so feared for his contacts' lives. Today's WorldNetDaily Waco exclusive is just the latest example of the intersection of talk radio and the Internet -- of New Media in action, the theme of WorldNetDaily's first-ever conference to be held Sept. 17-19 in Los Angeles.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?...


'Freelance' US fighter identified

Idema may have been acting beyond the control of US troops
Three foreigners arrested in Kabul this week were on a freelance counter-terrorism mission, the Afghan government says.
They include at least one US national, Jonathan K Idema, a purported former US special services soldier who says he helped fight the Taleban in 2001.

The men were detained for illegally holding Afghans in a private prison.

The Interior Minister, Ali Ahmad Jalali, said their activities had no legal standing.

US officials say Mr Idema had tried to pass himself off as an American government or military official.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3876601.stm


'Keith Idema'

Stupid Victims or a Dire Threat?
Barry Farber
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002

Through the Lithuanian KGB, now free to be anti-Russian as well as anti-Soviet, Idema learned that virtual Niagaras of Soviet weapons-grade nuclear material were being sold out of Russia into the hands of the international terrorist underground.

Idema returned to America and was the star of a Pentagon briefing in 1992. Afterward, two gentlemen came up to him, congratulated him on his intelligence coup, introduced themselves as representatives of the FBI and CIA, and said they were ready to take a list of his sources from him to continue his excellent work.

"Nothing doing," said Sgt. Idema. "I had to promise my Lithuanian sources I would reveal nothing to the FBI or the CIA. They say you're full of moles and full of holes and I should disclose my information only to the Defense Department or a representative of the president of the United States."

The two agents were displeased. They had Idema indicted and convicted on charges of something called wire fraud, giving false business references, or something like that.

Idema still says he's innocent, but the interesting thing is that, even if guilty, the sentence should have been six months. They kept shuffling Keith from one federal prison to another for over six years, giving the impression he was going to stay in until he played ball with the FBI and the CIA.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/2/27/2357 ...


July 08, 2004 -- 04:10 PM EDT // link // print)
Weird, weird, weird ... Late reports out of Afghanistan say that an American named Jonathan Idema was arrested with others for conducting a "self-appointed counterterrorism mission

that included abusing eight inmates in a private jail by hanging them by their feet."

Jonathan Idema is apparently the same guy as 'Keith Idema' who was a short-term commando celeb in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002 appearing on various TV networks. He also turns up in various jails or suing Steven Spielberg et al. for stealing ideas for a movie script he and others allegedly wrote.

The US military has gone to great lengths to disassociate itself from Idema since he was apparently putting himself forward as some sort of US special forces operator or contractor. A statement from the US military said "the public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him."

Indeed, "security sources" tell the BBC that the "US military circulated warning notices about Mr Idema some time ago, describing him as armed and dangerous and accusing him
more
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com


Heart Of Darkness

"When I looked at these tapes, I said, ‘ My God, this is the same kind of stuff that we did in 1980.'"
Keith Idema, a former member of the U.S. special forces

60 Minutes II obtained these tapes from Keith Idema, a former member of the U.S. special forces. He is a Green Beret. He says he went to Afghanistan as a civilian military adviser to the Northern Alliance and was with them as they pushed towards Kabul.

“When they came across the Shomali Plain to this compound,” Idema says, “they found a lot of documents. They had gotten the tapes right away but they were scared to bring the tapes forward. And they were scared to tell anybody they had them.”

Although Northern Alliance soldiers had described the trining tapes to him, Idema says he was surprised when he finally took a look.

“When I looked at these tapes, I said, ‘My God, this is the same kind of stuff that we did in 1980,” he says referring to the United States’ elite military units. “So are their skills as good as ours? As good as the U.S. special operations community? The answer is no. Clearly, man for man, we’d wipe them out. But they’re not coming against us; they’re coming against regular civilians and that’s clear in their training. They don’t use military tactics. Their training is not as sophisticated as ours, but it’s not designed to be.”

more
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/16/60II/main3245 ...

Spielberg Spies on White House?
Has America's most beloved filmmaker committed espionage against the United States? Green Berets Keith Idema and Jim Morris, along with Investigative Producer Gary Scurka and his wife Kathy Wolff, a network news anchor, have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Spielberg and a half dozen others, including a former White House Official. The Complaint alleges that Spielberg and others, engaged in a conspiratorial enterprise for the purpose of stealing Idema’s story to produce The Peacemaker film using materials Plaintiffs had submitted to Amblin, Spielberg’s production company.

Spielberg is charged with receiving classified nuclear smuggling information and documents illegally removed from the White House by former NSC staffer Jessica Stern. Several defendants are accused of criminal violations of Federal laws. Fantastic as it sounds, there appears to be proof that DreamWorks derived the information for George Clooney's THE PEACEMAKER by accessing NSC Nuclear Smuggling Group information and materials.
more
http://www.pbnnews.tv/stealberg.htm


'Blast from the past' - ICS (Idema Combat Systems) Vest

Shown here more for 'historical purposes', this is an ICS vest that Keith Idema (U.S. Army SF, ret.) made at Bragg in the early-mid 80's (according to J.S, who kindly included this vest along with the Paraclete RACK above). When I hear the name 'Idema', I somehow associate it with controversy (unjustly imprisoned) or paintball. If I remember correctly, Idema also made paintball vests for a time. Although the design and construction is dated by today's standards, it has interesting features that weren't seen on vests at that time. The front of the vest consists of two large velrco patches for modular pouches. The main body of the vest is made of large-weave mesh fabric, which is quite soft. On the right shoulder is a suede pad to provide a non-slip surface for a rifle butt. Below that is what looks like a shotshell/utility pouch. The left chest has a pouch which will hold two handgun mags, with a small compass/FFD pouch above that on the left shoulder. On the left hip is a radio pouch with a wire retaining tab on the left shoulder above the compass pouch. There's a utility pouch on the right hip as well. Inside the vest are two velcro-closed map pockets. The vest is not adjustable for height, but is adjusted for girth by four elastic tabs that interface with horizontal velcro strips on the lower back. The upper back of the vest has a expanding backpack with velcro closure.
The modular panels come in a few different configurations: triple M4 mag panel, 5 MP5 mag panel, shotshell panel (holds 24 shells), and a utility panel with two large pockets for which I'm unclear of the use. The mag pouches all have elastic retention and velcro lids. All in all, it was a pretty innovative vest for its time. I'd have been thrilled to have one in the early 80's, as I remember how excited I was to get my first vest - an Eagle TAC vest sometime in the late 80's.



http://www.militarymorons.com/equipment/equipment.2.htm ...

Al-Qaida tapes detail killing skills
Teams shown learning how to shoot, kidnap
Boston Globe
Last Updated: Jan. 14, 2002

Unlike other al-Qaida training videos that have been found, which show members receiving basic military training like running through obstacle courses, these tapes focus on the group's plans on using hostage-taking tactics and assassination as part of their activities.

The tapes were recently discovered in the possession of Northern Alliance forces by J. Keith Idema, a former U.S. Army Special Forces non-commissioned officer and counterterrorism specialist who now advises the Afghan military. Idema, who is called Jack in Afghanistan, said he decided to make the tapes public to underscore the threat al-Qaida still poses. "These videos put a face on al-Qaida," he said recently. "I think every American should see these tapes."

The Globe, along with other select news organizations, including CBS and the BBC, was allowed to see the tapes. The tapes are expected to be aired by CBS on Wednesday.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/attack/jan02/12503.asp

By: oda324
Date/Time: 5/26/2004 5:07:05 PM
Message:
Anyone who has questions regarding Keith Idema and his active
army service in the 1970's may email me at oda324<-at->yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Lloyd V Evans, ll
Date/Time: 5/25/2004 5:05:30 PM
Message:
I just sent this to Post Cmdr Fred:
Hi Fred, I feel that I've been down this road before, but is membership open to the members of this associaiton that have received, from the MND/ROC on Taiwan, the Honor Medal for 823 Bombardment (1958) and/ot the US-ROC Mutual Defense Comemortive Badge (1955-1979)? Most meet VFW (AFEM) acceptance and many not (as they have no AFEM)but all have one or both of the aforementioned honoraria.

If so, is theiran application you can email me; what are dues and how does one get them to you?
Get back to me (A review of www.taiwanvets.com ) will evidence who we are. We number 5,000 to date.
LLOYD Evans (25MAY04)
823 Badge of Honor Assoc.USA
--------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mel Painter
Date/Time: 5/24/2004 6:39:16 AM
Message:
There is always JD & Coke for any member that passes through Basra, Iraq. Just call me at cell 780-100-7907 or 202-216-6295 x206 (Washington DC phone that rings in Basra, Iraq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mac Thompson
Date/Time: 5/22/2004 8:54:21 PMMessage:
The SKY BBS is up and running again, now that the A-hole who sort of hijacked it has been banned. Take a look at: http://www.gilhooleyssaloon.com / and click on SKY BBS
Mac
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim Luke
Date/Time: 5/19/2004 9:50:13 AM
Message:
If you’ll Google this guy you’ll find all manner of info on him from congressional hearings to designing LBE. Lotsa stuff on the Fringe Right “news sites”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Sam Stapleton
Date/Time: 5/18/2004 4:18:17 AM
Message:
To: Jim McClain
Sorry for the intrusion on your list. I'm a humanitarian ops working in Afghanistan and am also trying to find out who this Keith Idema is, but so far not succeeding. I came across your post online. Journalists are asking me who this is - saying he is in Afghanistan (or was) trying to find him. Some folks I know at Bagram told me to stay away from the guy. I don't know. . . .
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/9/2004 1:44:02 PM
Message:
As posted before, my/our intent is not to create any animosity or conflict, but to discover where the supposed 'stories' are coming from and to protect our families reputations. If anyone can offer any insight, it'd be appreciated. PS Went to SunNFun, didn't see any Ravens around the O-1 park, but a few were for sale. We've got 4 O-2s and an L-19 where I am. Give a call if you're in town. Banzai Sends
---------------------------------------------------------------------By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/6/2004 5:16:16 PM
Message:
Anyone in-country or at home know of a Keith Idema, supposed counter-terr expert, trainer, and SF grad? He is targeting vets and humanitarian orgs who seem to be questioning his bonafides. He has a support group that gives him intel on real world ops as well as news contacts for photo ops. I, and several other Desert One vets, were identified as being 'wannabes' on one of his friends internet sites with the result that we have received hate mail/calls/email. Our only desire is to ask this person where he gets his facts. We were told he was on the "MC130 that blew up due to a CIA time bomb, and not the helo impact", but we did not see him on our plane as we were there nor do we remember the 'bomb' being on the cargo manifest. Our inquiries so far have resulted in an attorney threatening to sue us for questioning his authenticity. Any ideas or info would be appreciated as we are just poor church mice retired Air Commandos on disability. Thanks. Jim "Banzai" McClain..we go home
By: oda324
Date/Time: 5/26/2004 5:07:05 PM
Message:
nyone who has questions regarding Keith Idema and his active
army service in the 1970's may email me at oda324<-at->yahoo.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Lloyd V Evans, ll
Date/Time: 5/25/2004 5:05:30 PM
Message:
I just sent this to Post Cmdr Fred:
Hi Fred, I feel that I've been down this road before, but is membership open to the members of this associaiton that have received, from the MND/ROC on Taiwan, the Honor Medal for 823 Bombardment (1958) and/ot the US-ROC Mutual Defense Comemortive Badge (1955-1979)? Most meet VFW (AFEM) acceptance and many not (as they have no AFEM)but all have one or both of the aforementioned honoraria.

If so, is theiran application you can email me; what are dues and how does one get them to you?
Get back to me (A review of www.taiwanvets.com ) will evidence who we are. We number 5,000 to date.
LLOYD Evans (25MAY04)
823 Badge of Honor Assoc.USA
---------------------------------------------------------------------By: Mel Painter
Date/Time: 5/24/2004 6:39:16 AM
Message:
There is always JD & Coke for any member that passes through Basra, Iraq. Just call me at cell 780-100-7907 or 202-216-6295 x206 (Washington DC phone that rings in Basra, Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Mac Thompson
Date/Time: 5/22/2004 8:54:21 PM
Message:
The SKY BBS is up and running again, now that the A-hole who sort of hijacked it has been banned. Take a look at: http://www.gilhooleyssaloon.com / and click on SKY BBS
Mac
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim Luke
Date/Time: 5/19/2004 9:50:13 AM
Message:
If you’ll Google this guy you’ll find all manner of info on him from congressional hearings to designing LBE. Lotsa stuff on the Fringe Right “news sites”.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Sam Stapleton
Date/Time: 5/18/2004 4:18:17 AM
Message:
To: Jim McClain
Sorry for the intrusion on your list. I'm a humanitarian ops working in Afghanistan and am also trying to find out who this Keith Idema is, but so far not succeeding. I came across your post online. Journalists are asking me who this is - saying he is in Afghanistan (or was) trying to find him. Some folks I know at Bagram told me to stay away from the guy. I don't know. . . .
---------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/9/2004 1:44:02 PM
Message:
As posted before, my/our intent is not to create any animosity or conflict, but to discover where the supposed 'stories' are coming from and to protect our families reputations. If anyone can offer any insight, it'd be appreciated. PS Went to SunNFun, didn't see any Ravens around the O-1 park, but a few were for sale. We've got 4 O-2s and an L-19 where I am. Give a call if you're in town. Banzai Sends
-------------------------------------------------------------------
By: Jim McClain
Date/Time: 5/6/2004 5:16:16 PM
Message:
Anyone in-country or at home know of a Keith Idema, supposed counter-terr expert, trainer, and SF grad? He is targeting vets and humanitarian orgs who seem to be questioning his bonafides. He has a support group that gives him intel on real world ops as well as news contacts for photo ops. I, and several other Desert One vets, were identified as being 'wannabes' on one of his friends internet sites with the result that we have received hate mail/calls/email. Our only desire is to ask this person where he gets his facts. We were told he was on the "MC130 that blew up due to a CIA time bomb, and not the helo impact", but we did not see him on our plane as we were there nor do we remember the 'bomb' being on the cargo manifest. Our inquiries so far have resulted in an attorney threatening to sue us for questioning his authenticity. Any ideas or info would be appreciated as we are just poor church mice retired Air Commandos on disability. Thanks. Jim "Banzai" McClain..we go home
more
http://www.chinapost1.org/guestbook.asp


J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front,

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.

"Al Qaida studied the strong points and weak points of Secret Service protection, concluding that streets and open areas are the best locations for a presidential assassination," added the former member of the U.S. Army's elite special forces. An al Qaida assassination manual includes a study of U.S. presidential protection.

"Bodyguards always watch the crowd around the principal, instead of watching him," said one passage that concluded a relaxed, open setting would be the ideal environment for an attack. Another part of the text analyzes the sequence of vehicles in presidential motorcades, noting the heavily armed reaction teams go behind the presidential limousine.
more
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84 ...

A highly decorated spokesman for both the U.S. Ranger Association and the 75th Ranger Association, flatly stated that General Shinseki's action is an insult, as well as a collective and official slap in the face, to everyone who ever volunteered for an Airborne, Ranger, or Special Forces unit and completed the arduous training. A former Ranger writing to the editors of USA Today stated that General Shinseki's dictum "steps on the graves of every Ranger who gave his life for his country." Keith Idema, in a letter to the editor of the Fayetteville Observer, astutely observed that, to carry his theory to its logical conclusion, General Shinseki should "issue every single soldier a Congressional Medal of Honor," complete with an appropriate ceremony, then, when each was "instantaneously transformed into an All-American ... hero," we could reduce the Army to 10,000 super-warriors, thereby "saving a ton of money."
http://www.rangerblackberet.com/sof.php3

A reviewer, someone who was there, December 29, 2003,
Good true tales but disappointing tangents
Moore writes a readable and often engaging true yarn of America’s best soldiers. The book usually reads like eyewitness accounts based on his on-the-ground research. Moore is supremely qualified for this and delivers an excellent story especially regarding key battles in Afghanistan like Tora Bora. However, this tale is best read with a fair degree of objectiveness. He strays into rightwing political dogma based on few facts (the Clinton administration hardly left the military hallow and the CIA’s clandestine service was in fact on a recruiting drive in the late 1990s). He unfairly berates all non-Special Forces soldiers (although not without a point). Finally, his work is greatly weakened when he includes stories that are not relevant to the story of the Green Berets he’s trying to give justice to. One case in point are the tales of Jack, who is in fact Keith Idema, and not several people as he suggests.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry ...

Team House Guestbook 2004

All should know. That Keith Edema was NEVER a SGM, or a member of Delta. Selection, which was alive and well at Dawson for those folks, would have chewed his punk a-- up and spit it out because this is a test of performance and not conning anyone, and he would have been found wanting, this pitiful Bite.
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 23:06:35 (EDT)

Mr. W. Hunter. The folks at Socnet.com (http://www.socnetcentral.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threa ... ) have it wrong. idema was not a rigger, though he did go into that business later after his enlistment. idema, did go into the gear/kit producing business. This led to him to be able to go on and obtain his felony ('s). idema did go to the 10th when it was still at Ft. Devens, I think as a 12B (now 18C), because he couldn't handle the 05B, (18E) training regimen. I think that he was soon put off of Team and relegated to a Support role there, and got on out when able.
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 20:17:57 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you mean to tell me that Edema is a real person? And all this time I had thought that he was a figment of his own imagination. BTW: The next time he says he was a Sergeant Major, you are authorized to call him a bald-faced liar.
Wannabee Hunter
Down East, NC USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 19:11:19 (EDT)
---------------------------------------------------------------------...to continue...Edema would have been "peered out" in my opinion. He is a convicted felon, Search www.google.com . Keith Idema, felon. His rap is that the USGov. planted these charges. Reality is that he was convicted of defrauding east coast business associates. I wouldn't let this guy near my dog, much less feed her...much less do business with him in any way. This sorry individual was and does remain a blight on the SF Community in my opinion. Regards, Jake
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 19:07:09 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As relates to subject Idema...I knew him when going through training group. He was an a--hole, a Buddy and Team F--ker. It's as simple as that. If I remember correctly, was kicked out of TG, but re-instated because his dad was a NY power broker who had some pull with their local Congresscritters. Too bad this guy went through TG before there was Selection because he would have surely been
Jake
USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 18:47:00 (EDT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To address the person(s)asking about J. Keith Idema, SF. To date, there is much online about his past SF exploits as well as his present SF enterprises. He is reported to have gone to Afghanistan in 2001 with a humanitarian org, then reappeared as a combatant leading freedom fighters. He has supposedly sued CNN for nonpayment of a video from there as well as Spielberg for an adaptation of the Peacemaker movie which was supposed to be based on his exploits. He is supposed to be on the ground in Iraq now working for an agency interrogating prisoners. Independently, he has several news agencies as well as LEOs trying to question him but has a legal defense that does not allow access to him. If one does try to confront him or print anything (such as this posting)even mildly about him, they will find themselves receiving legal threats, hate email, hate phone calls. I, for one, along with several other SF, Ranger, and Air Commandos, have been accused indirectly by members of Idema support groups of being wannabes or worse. I am USAF Ret, member of Air Force Assoc, Air Commando Assoc, Special Ops Assoc, DAV, Kiwanis, and presently sqdn command for a Civil Air Patrol Sq. I am mentioned in No Room For Error by Carney/Schemmer, The Guts To Try and Air Commando by Phil Chinnery. I assist disabled veterans at no expense with claims as well as documenting their experiences in photostories. I am known at SOCOM and AFSOC units to this date and my son carries on as a third generation Air Commando. I was the loadmaster on the aircraft that was destroyed at Desert One Iran on 24 April 1980, which his supporters say I was not as he was there on the same plane, as well as in country months before and also training Delta supposedly elsewhere. Truth or not, doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that before accusing someone, get the facts first. There are several fine retirees/vets who have been hurt by Idema's supporters. In any event, I do not feel I have to be defensive, outraged, or foaming at the mouth. I would hope that anyone caught in a similar situation keep their perspective, sense of humor, and mostly not feel sorry for people who feel they have to prove themselves at the expense of others. As in most situations...those who have been there are the Quiet Professionals.
jim mcclain <[e-mail] >
cape coral, fl USA - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 09:45:40 (EDT)
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:hwVa6O0yhmwJ:teamhou ...


JudiLyn
This story linked in seemslikeadream's collection was never aired before

I'm SURE I've never heard it, but first of all, it's from UPI, so I guess it matters what the date was when Rev. Moon bought UPI, doesn't it? It used to be reputable.

Al Qaida may have tried to kill Clinton
By Martin Arostegui
Published 10/18/2002 6:34 PM


The following story is a re-release of an article that United Press International originally published by on Feb. 6, 2002.


KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Al Qaida may have tried to kill former President Clinton, apparently while he was in office, and perhaps planned further attempts on world leaders, United Press International has learned.

Specific references to Clinton were found among handwritten notes and sketches of U.S. Secret Service protective methods recovered from the Shomali compound near Kabul where al Qaida members received specialized training in assassination and hostage taking.

"We have attempted to kill Clinton, but failed," documents in Arabic released exclusively to United Press International Monday state. Although the text indicates the attack was planned around some high-level conference or international summit, it does not mention an exact date. Analysts in Kabul believe the attempt was planned about two years ago.

Nor does the text reveal whether the plan was abandoned or had failed in some other way.

Security experts in Kabul believe Osama bin Laden's group may have been thinking of a second attack on the former president, this time during a golf tournament.

"The documents clearly list how presidential protective details are structured, what they do and what vulnerabilities to look for," said J. Keith Idema, an American civilian adviser to the Afghan United Front, also known as the Northern Alliance, one of the members of the Afghan Interim Administration. Idema has analyzed captured al Qaida records, including graphic terrorist training video tapes recently aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" television program.
(snip)
http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=04022002-082828-84...

Idema sounds unhinged, actually. But WHO KNEW this plotting was going on about Clinton by anyone other than our own right wing? Hmmmmmmmm.

Makes you wonder why he didn't decide he was going to try to take over the world, just like little Dubya in mock revenge, doesn't it?


The man who thinks he's George Clooney. A story of today's Kabul

Duncan Campbell and Kitty Logan in Kabul
Friday July 9, 2004
The Guardian

In the meantime, he had become something of a media security pundit, popping up on television programmes to comment on security matters.

During the war in Afghanistan in 2001, Mr Idema and a number of other former US military members linked up with the Northern Alliance rebel group, who were fighting the Taliban. He offered his services to the media and appeared on American television news programmes after having supposedly found al-Qaida training camp footage in Kabul.

When Fox News showed the footage, Mr Idema launched another civil action, seeking $2m damages for supposedly showing the footage without his permission.

He also threatened to punch Geraldo Rivera, the controversial Fox News commentator, who, Mr Idema claimed, had messed up the operations of the Northern Alliance by irresponsible reporting.

Mr Idema, who has a reputation in Kabul for volatility, is also the source of much internet gossip on sites used by ex-members of the US special forces, not all of whom would describe themselves as admirers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1257...


Defense Department Operational Update Briefing

United States Department of Defense.
News Transcript

Thursday, July 8, 2004 3:12 p.m. EDT

Q Larry, Afghanistan, the three Americans who were arrested. One of them is named Idema. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right. But he's supposed to be former Army Special Forces. Do you have any information about his background?

MR. DIRITA: Not much. I do understand that there appears to be some former military -- he has a military background, but I don't know to what extent, how long he was in the service. I don't have those details. It's -- there have been a handful of people scooped up, and he's one of them. But beyond that, I don't think we have much detail.

(To General Rodriguez) Do you have anything?

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, we do not.
Q He's not presently in the military?GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, he's not presently in the military.

Q How recent, do you know -- (inaudible) --

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: No, I don't know how recent, no.

Q -- or what type of service he had?

MR. DIRITA: We don't have a lot of detail, just other than it appears it has been confirmed that he had some military service.

GEN. RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

Ex-local man, 2 others allegedly imprisoned Afghans
By Nik Bonopartis
Poughkeepsie Journal

A former Poughkeepsie man is being held by Afghan authorities for allegedly operating as a mercenary, ''arresting'' eight Afghans and imprisoning them in a Kabul home where he allegedly had them hanging by their feet.
Jonathan Keith Idema, 48, is being held along with two other American men by Afghan security officials after they were arrested and detained Monday in the Kabul home where they allegedly kept their prisoners, said Brenda Greenberg, a State Department spokeswoman.

Idema, the former owner of a Hyde Park ammunition and gun shop who claims he is a former Green Beret, has been in Afghanistan for about three months, fighting terrorism and serving as an adviser to Afghan forces through ''extensive contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,'' said his lawyer, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J.

''He's been tracking terrorists,'' said Tiffany, who said he was retained by Idema after ''wanted'' signs with his name and photo began appearing in the Afghan capital.

Military and national records officials could not confirm Idema's purported former military service. The State Department said Idema does not currently serve with the military
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stor...

Bogus commandos held
Afghans say 4 posed as Special Forces unit


KABUL Four men claiming to be Americans and posing as Special Forces commandos were arrested by Afghan security agents in a raid on a house here, NATO and Afghan officials said. At least eight men being held prisoner in the house and four interpreters were also detained, the officials said.

A spokesman for the NATO force, Commander Chris Henderson, said that he was aware of the case, and that at least one American was among four foreigners arrested Monday. He said that the men were not connected to U.S. forces and that he had "no idea" who they were.

The U.S. Embassy said it was investigating the matter. "We have reports that there are three Americans, but we don't have confirmation," an embassy official said. The men did not have documents to prove their identity, he added.

One of the men detained, identified as Jonathan Idema, was known to the military and had apparently been under surveillance. He was the subject of a media advisory by the U.S. military press center several days ago, which warned that he was an impostor pretending to be a member of the U.S. military.

The mine hit a pickup truck on a road in Khogyani district of Nangarhar province, 100 kilometers, or 60 miles, east of Kabul, said Faizan ul-Haq, a provincial government spokesman.

A UN spokesman said the driver was seriously hurt and had been flown to Kabul for treatment. Afghans say 4 posed as Special Forces unit
more
http://www.iht.com/articles/528562.html

At the heart of their investigation is a former American special forces soldier, Jona than Keith "Jack" Idema, who is alleged to have run the private jail and was being questioned on Thursday night.

Idema, who is said to be always heavily armed, is far from the only ex-military man to be making a living in Kabul, which has an atmosphere redolent of The Third Man, Graham Greene's thriller about postwar Vienna.

Many of the private security guards attached to embassies and commercial companies have military histories, either real or imagined. Typically, they can be seen in dark glasses and camouflage gear, sub-machine guns slung over their shoulders as they ride through the city. They are often to be seen at the Mustafa hotel, one of the few bars that sell alcohol to ex-pats, who gather for the hotel's popular roof-top barbecues.

Idema, it emerged on Thursday, has a colourful past. A volatile former Green Beret with a criminal record in the US, he describes himself as a security adviser. He also claims that he is the person on whom George Clooney's part in the Hollywood film The Peacemaker was based.

While there has been no official explanation of what sort of operation he was running, there are large rewards on offer for the capture of al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan, which has led to a boom in the private security business.

The biggest reward of all -- $25-million -- remains on offer for information leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden.
http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118432

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

In theory, the operation enabled the Bush Administration to respond immediately to time-sensitive intelligence: commandos crossed borders without visas and could interrogate terrorism suspects deemed too important for transfer to the military’s facilities at Guantánamo, Cuba. They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.


Ex-local man, 2 others allegedly imprisoned Afghans

Idema and his colleagues rented the house near Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, and told neighbors that they were operating an export company that traded Afghan rugs, the Afghan official said.

The Americans were mainly detaining men with long beards on the outskirts of Kabul who they suspected -- based on their appearance -- to be members of al Qaeda, the interior ministry official said.

The official said the story would "definitely have a negative impact on the image of Americans" among Afghans
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/07/09/afghan.... /

Idema, the former owner of a Hyde Park ammunition and gun shop who claims he is a former Green Beret, has been in Afghanistan for about three months, fighting terrorism and serving as an adviser to Afghan forces through ''extensive contacts with the (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai government,'' said his lawyer, John Tiffany of Bloomfield, N.J.

''He's been tracking terrorists,'' said Tiffany, who said he was retained by Idema after ''wanted'' signs with his name and photo began appearing in the Afghan capital.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/today/localnews/stor...


Ex-soldiers blur Afghan security
By Andrew North
BBC correspondent in Kabul


It's becoming harder to spot genuine troops like this American

...........

Often they are private contractors.

Phil Halton of Anso, an organisation that provides security advice to aid agencies, admits there may be a "perception" problem now.

He points out that it is well known that the US government uses many private contractors.

For instance, a private US security firm is guarding President Hamid Karzai.

Contractors have also been used by the CIA to interrogate detainees in Afghanistan.

That makes it harder for the US authorities to convince people that they are not involved with people like Jonathan Idema.


The Kabul house where Idema and two other Americans were held

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3881317.stm


Bogus Agents Said to Be Antiterrorist Vigilantes

By DAVID ROHDE
Published: July 9, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 8 - Four men arrested for falsely posing as American government officials and illegally detaining Afghans were conducting their own self-styled antiterrorism campaign, Afghan and American officials said Thursday.

The four men, three of them Americans, illegally held eight Afghans for 12 days in the basement of a house where they had set up a fake export company, the officials said.


"Three foreigners made up their own group and pretended they were against those who conduct terrorist operations," Ali Ahmed Jalali, Afghanistan's interior minister, said Thursday at a news conference. "They were actually outlaws."

Three of the Afghans who were detained were brothers who had past ties to the political party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a pro-Taliban commander, but officials said none of them were involved in terrorism and were, in fact, now employees of Afghanistan's new government. One works for the Afghan Supreme Court and another for the Ministry of Education, officials said.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/international/asia/09...


more here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...


Afghans arrest fake US contractors

Eight Afghans were released from the illegal group's hideout.

Thursday 08 July 2004, 12:52 Makka Time, 9:52 GMT

Three men claiming to be US nationals have been arrested in Kabul for allegedly waging their own private war in Afghanistan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DBD17E60-C85F-44...


Fake Mercenaries?


thebigidea

Coppery green, isn't it.

Edited on Fri Jul-09-04 12:18 AM by thebigidea
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

The people assigned to the program worked by the book, the former intelligence official told me. They created code words, and recruited, after careful screening, highly trained commandos and operatives from America’s élite forces—Navy seals, the Army’s Delta Force, and the C.I.A.’s paramilitary experts. They also asked some basic questions: “Do the people working the problem have to use aliases? Yes. Do we need dead drops for the mail? Yes. No traceability and no budget. And some special-access programs are never fully briefed to Congress.”

In theory, the operation enabled the Bush Administration to respond immediately to time-sensitive intelligence: commandos crossed borders without visas and could interrogate terrorism suspects deemed too important for transfer to the military’s facilities at Guantánamo, Cuba. They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.


could this be his partner?
Vice Adm. Brent Bennett maybe not the same guy?

In 1978, Welch was at a point where he wasn't sure whether or not to stay Navy, when he reported to the commander of naval air forces for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Va. With a year to go, "I was riding the fence." He worked with now retired Vice Adm. Brent Bennett when he was selected as a flag writer.

He credits his decision to stay Navy to Adm. "Gus"Kinnear, with whom he also worked. "If not for his confidence in my abilities, I would have gotten out. It was a milestone for me."
http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/trident/7_20/local_news/...

KABUL: An explosion at an illegal bomb factory in the Afghan capital wounded at least six people, a spokesman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Sunday. The blast in Kabul’s Afshah neighbourhood on Saturday hurt three children, two women and a man, Commander Chris Henderson told reporters. He said police had arrested three men. “It is believed that the explosion occurred as the three men were assembling bombs.” Police said they were holding the father of the family, who had brought the bomb-making material from neighbouring Pakistan. “It is actually fortunate that the people assembling these explosive devices met with misadventure as their intended actions could easily have killed many innocent people,” Henderson said. The incident underscored the continuing risk of violence in Kabul despite patrols by more than 6,000 foreign peacekeepers two and a half years after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for some attacks, but officials also suspect its al Qaeda allies and forces of an allied renegade warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. reuters
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-7...

[Octafish]

33. That's some deep doo-doo, dere.

Why this guy Idema sounds spooky in a kooky kind of way. The people who support or undermine his story both make it easier to see just how deep and dark the worlds of espionage and terrorism really are -- and how all too often their means, methods and opportunities overlap.

Thanks for the info, seemslikeadream! There's a ton of info there and I'll work to discover the S/N ration. First thing: That story gives me a deja vu of Lee Harvey Oswald and of Delmart Vreeland.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/092602_vreeland_gnn.html

[Octafish]

39. Cuba is near and dear to my heart. Think Bay of Pigs.

Think Cuban Missile Crisis. Think Operation NORTHWOODS.

Odd how JFK, almost alone at the top of US government power, wanted peace.

The rest of the government -- from the Congress to the Pentagon, always wanted war.

Thank Goodness for JFK. With another President, none of us would probably be here, today.

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE ASSASSINATION OF JFK

http://www.assassinationresearch.com/articles/bodyofsecrets.htm

[classof56]

3. Saw a great bumper sticker yesterday

"George W. Bush is a Moron. And you know it." This in the quite conservative town near where I live in Oregon. Gave me a bit of hope. Word's gettin' around. Let's keep spreading the word and speaking the TRUTH. Good post, Octafish. As Bush's favorite philosopher said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!"

SINK THE BFEE. My new mantra!

[Octafish]

7. SINK THE BFEE!

Hiya, classof56! That's a great bumper sticker! And a belated hearty welcome to DU! Ory-gun, eh? Ever hear of Joseph Harrington? We love him in Detroit.

Hey! Did year about how the Bush Family Evil Empire thinks nuclear proliferation is good for business?

Khan Job: Bush Spiked Probe of Pakistan’s Dr. Strangelove, BBC reported in 2001

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=312&row=0

[Wind Dancer]

6. We need to email this to Keith too.

He has been doing amazing coverage recently.

[e-mail]

[Octafish]

12. Thanks! Could I ask a favor?

Could you send it, please? I'm at my work station and it would be, um, difficult email for me to explain to the biggus cheezus.

If not, no problem. I'll be back in the friendly confines of Octafish World Headquarters this nochy.

Hey, FrustratedDemInNC, didya hear about...

Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0814-05.htm

These are gangsters in the mold of Hitler.

[Wind Dancer]

16. Not a problem, already done!

I hadn't read "Camps for Citizens" before, that is horrific, still trying to catch my breath. I am currently reading "The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German town 1930-1935 by William Sheridan Allen.

After yesterday's press conference re: election problems under a terrorist attack, we need to be ready. We are reaching a point of major destruction if things continue, it's happening, we have to stop it.

[Octafish]

19. Speaking of NAZIs...Prescott Bush sicced NIXON on US.

Prescott with his protégé Dick Nixon.

Source:http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm

While we're on the subject, you might enjoy reviewing...

Nazis in the attic

http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/randy/swas5.htm

Thanks for the info and the help, FrustratedDemInNC!

[Wind Dancer]

23. Right back at cha!

We continue to put the puzzle pieces together!

Great links and picture, btw!

[Octafish]

36. Question: Is that Sen. Robert Byrd behind Nixon and Bush?

Could the following refer to this picture? They are all wearing funny white fedoras. It's easy to see how that would be entertaining to the National Press Club...

Congressional Night Returns for NPC Owls Party

Remember when Prescott Bush, Richard Nixon and Bobby Byrd entertained us at Congressional Night? Those were the days, my friends, and they won't return; but smart new talent is in the wings for a revival of the popular NPC party on Wed., May 12, featuring Capitol Hill stars, roast beef and roasting. It all starts with a 6:30 cash bar reception, buffet and celebrity show, sponsored by the Club’s old-time Silver Owls at an old-time price of $25. You don't have to be a 25-year member to attend. To make reservations, call 662-7501.

SOURCE:

http://www.press.org/abouttheclub/record/1999record/record-4-8-99.html

[Killarney]

10. great thread. i'm bookmarking this

[Octafish]

15. Thanks, Killarney! Hey, didya hear about Poppy's Gold Mine?

The BFEE eliminates those who stand in their way to power and profit.

Barrick and Tanzania Government Muzzling Evidence on Bulyanhulu Murders

http://www.theperspective.org/bulyanhulu.html

[seemslikeadream]

18. Gold, Greed, and Terrorism -- Bush Sr. connection to Echo bay

Gold, Greed, and Terrorism



Echo Bay Mines aided the New People's Army (NPA), pictured here. The NPA was labeled a terrorist group by the State Department in 1996.

The Cost of Doing Business Tell Some Friends!

By Marilyn Berlin Snell

"If you harbored a terrorist, if you fed a terrorist, if you hid a terrorist, you're just as guilty as a terrorist."
— President George W. Bush, February 2002

Echo Bay Mines aided the New People's Army (NPA), pictured here. The NPA was labeled a terrorist group by the State Department in 1996.
WHEN KAPITAN INGGO WALKED THROUGH THE GATES at Echo Bay's mining operation in the Philippines, he bypassed the reception area and went round the building to the offices of the security personnel. He didn't ask directions. Inggo, one of the Philippines' ten most-wanted men, knew his way around.

Allan Laird, the newly appointed project manager at the Kingking gold and copper mine, was in a warehouse when he saw the unfamiliar man walk by. A Filipino employee told Laird that the man was a murderer who specialized in extortion and the kidnapping of businessmen for ransom. There was a one-million-peso bounty on his head.

Laird had a crisis on his hands: Two board members from Echo Bay Mines Limited — a Denver-headquartered, Canadian-chartered company — were at a nearby hotel preparing for a site visit. Laird had to head them off. He raced to the hotel and found the men having breakfast with his Denver-based supervisor. "I told them not to come down to the offices because we had a security situation — Kapitan Inggo was on the premises and we needed to get rid of him," Laird says. He thought it strange at the time that the directors reacted "with equanimity" to news that a notorious criminal was in Echo Bay's office complex.

Trained as an engineer and employed by Echo Bay for nine years, Laird had been assigned to the Kingking exploration project on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao only the month before. Prior to his arrival in August 1996, he had been informed that ore grades were low, projected development costs high, and disposal of cyanide-laced mine tailings problematic. But he did not know about Kingking's security issues. "I was sent in blind," he says. "Superiors knew what I was getting into and didn't tell me."

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200405/terrorism/page1...


1. Read the Documents

The Cost of Doing Business Tell Some Friends!



Read the Documents
Whistleblowers like Allan Laird, who come forward with stories of corporate wrongdoing, are often accused of not telling the truth. Fortunately for Mr. Laird — and for those who care about holding corporations accountable for their actions — he held onto the documents that substantiate his claims against Echo Bay Mines. Here are a few of the hundreds of pages he provided Sierra.

Receipts for payment to the New People’s Army
Receipt for payment to the Moro National Liberation Front
Project critique written for corporate headquarters after Kingking Mine project failed in 1997

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200405/terrorism/docum... /



Photos: Echo Bay Mines aided the New People's Army (top) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (middle), which has trained with Al Qaeda. The NPA and the MILF were labeled "terrorists" by the State Department in 1996. Bottom: Kingking mine headquarters.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200405/terrorism /


How We Got the Story:


Interviews with Author Marilyn Berlin Snell
and Whistleblower Allan Laird

Sierra Magazine: Why did Allan Laird come to the Sierra Club with his information?

Marilyn Berlin Snell: Before Allan Laird came to the Sierra Club, he went to both his Colorado Congressman, Tom Tancredo, and Homeland Security. Tancredo didn't even bother to respond. Homeland Security, after a cursory interview and no follow up (including getting the documentation that Mr. Laird had offered to provide), told him via email: "The local U.S. Attorney's Office is not interested in prosecuting this matter. Please feel free to do with it as you see fit."

more
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200405/terrorism/behin...

3. resource curse

It's no coincidence that developing countries rich in gold and diamonds have the poorest populations. According to the Worldwatch Institute, "Mineral dependence has been shown to slow and even reduce economic growth in developing countries — a phenomenon economists have dubbed 'the resource curse.'" In Africa, for example, 60 percent of all private investment goes to the mining sector, and extracting raw materials for export provides no added value. Countries like the Philippines are left with a dwindling patrimony and a legacy of environmental degradation.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200405/terrorism /


4. Support investigations into corporate ties to terrorism

http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=330

Americans have the right to know whether this was an isolated incident confined to the operations of one company, or if this is standard practice for extractive industries. There are many other U.S. multinationals involved in natural resource extraction operations in politically unstable countries around the world. We've always known that the mining industry is one of the planet's biggest polluters, but one company's greed should not jeopardize the environment abroad and our safety here at home.

This message will be sent to:
Your Representative
Your Senators
Governor Thomas Kean

Support investigations into corporate ties to terrorism

http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=330

Americans have the right to know whether this was an isolated incident confined to the operations of one company, or if this is standard practice for extractive industries. There are many other U.S. multinationals involved in natural resource extraction operations in politically unstable countries around the world. We've always known that the mining industry is one of the planet's biggest polluters, but one company's greed should not jeopardize the environment abroad and our safety here at home.

This message will be sent to:
Your Representative
Your Senators
Governor Thomas Kean

I believe Homestake is Barrick?

Commercial production commenced in 1977. In 1984, Homestake Mining Company acquired the Felmont Oil interest in the operation and, in 1985, Echo Bay Mines Inc. acquired Copper Range interest. Effective July 1, 2000, Homestake increased its interest in the Round Mountain mine from 25% to 50% when it acquired the Case Pomeroy interest. Effective December 14, 2001 Barrick Gold Corporation completed a merger with Homestake Mining Company thereby acquiring the Homestake interest in the mine.

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:roUfK0bBUasJ:www.k... ...

So Barrick does own Round Mountain mine and

The Round Mountain mine, located in Nye County, Nevada, USA, is a 50:50 joint venture between Kinross, operator, and Barrick Gold Corporation. Kinross acquired its interest in the Round Mountain mine from Echo Bay Mines as part of the Kinross-Echo Bay-TVX Gold merger effective January 31, 2003.

http://www.kinross.com/op/min/rdm.htm

well they did do something together?


April 28, 1995 - The Company announced that it had reached agreement to purchase the Macassa Mine from Barrick Gold Corporation for consideration of U.S. $42.5 million and 2.5 million warrants to purchase Kinross common shares (at an exercise price of Cdn. $10.00 per share with an expiry date of October 31, 1997).


Algorem

Kinross,TVX,Echo Bay merger 12/31/03


Sierra Magazine Story Reveals U.S. Mining Company's Support of Terrorists


To: National Desk

Contact: Brian O'Malley of the Sierra Club, 202-675-6279 or 202-744-8487 (cell)

WASHINGTON, April 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Sierra Club announced today that an expose will appear in the May/June issue of Sierra, the official magazine of the Sierra Club, revealing how a Denver-based mining company secretly paid off Al-Qaeda- linked terrorists under the auspices of "international security."

The story also shows how the Bush administration's Homeland Security and Justice Departments turned a blind eye when first informed that Denver-based Echo Bay Mining Co. paid millions of dollars to the international terrorist group Abu Sayaff and other terror groups in the Philippines in exchange for protection of its gold-mining operations.

However, shortly before the Sierra magazine investigation was reported on tonight's edition of ABC's World News Tonight, the Justice Department reversed course and announced that it would open an investigation into Echo Bay's operations. Tipped off by the Sierra story, U.S. Reps. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Mark Udall, D-Co, also issued letters calling for a congressional investigation into Echo Bay and the general practice of U.S. corporate support for international terrorism.

"Americans have the right to know whether this was an isolated incident confined to the operations of one company, or if this is standard practice for extractive industries," Mills said. "Attorney General (John) Ashcroft should return to the 9-11 Commission to explain his failure to pursue this dangerous financial relationship with Al-Qaeda and other known terrorist groups. It makes you wonder if multinational polluters are exempt from the Patriot Act just because they are Bush campaign contributors

more
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=177-04...


<...> "It empowers the mining companies to open up large, open-pit mines on ore bodies that are not worth it," said. "They can dump an unlimited amount of waste on public land and give it a higher priority than recreation, timber, grazing and clean water."

An example of a Kinross open-pit gold mine is the Fort Knox/True North mine in Alaska. The loader photo and aerial photo are from the Northern Alaska Environmental Center.




Kinross Gold (KGC) and Barrick Gold (ABX) are both located in Toronto. And according to kinross.com, Kinross and Barrick are business partners in at least one venture, the Round Mountain Mine in Nevada. As noted in the May 24, 2003 UnderReported.com story Bush Sr. involved in "biggest gold heist since the days of Butch Cassidy", Bush Sr. is on the board of Barrick Gold. As noted in that story, U.S. gold is being handed over to a Canadian company. Only in this world where paper rather than gold is money, and where where we have free trade, can the giveaway of U.S. gold be considered a mere free-trade mining operation as opposed to an act of treason.



Greg Palast Discusses the Congo War and Reveals Internal USAID Documents that Outline a Master Plan for Reorganizing the Entire Economy of Iraq
Greg Palast has been called “the greatest investigative reporter of our time” (Tribune Magazine). His book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy exposed the racketeering, swindling and backroom deals that passes for democracy in the new global economy. It became a New York Times bestseller.

Today on Democracy Now!, he talks about internal USAID documents that outline a master plan for reorganizing the entire economy of Iraq. The plans include the elimination of trade protections and the mass privatization of every industry in Iraq, including selling-off the oilfields.

Palast’s book also explores the relationship between the Bush family and a Canadian mining company, the Barrick Corporation.

Palast explains how as president, George Bush Senior changed a century old mining law that allowed Barrick to “swiftly lay claim to the largest gold find in America”. In return, the company named Bush to a senior advisory position after he lost the White House. The company also poured money into the Republican party coffers during the 1997-2000 election cycle, an exceedingly generous gesture for a company based in Canada.

So, what is Barrick? According to Palast- the initial stake came from none other than Adnan Khashoggi- the Saudi arms dealer who arranged the Iran-Contra arms for hostage deal.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/27/195...

Federal inquiry eyeing Echo Bay

Former worker says mining firm helped fund terror groups

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
April 16, 2004

Federal officials are investigating a Littleton man's claims that a now-defunct mining company based in Denver illegally aided terrorist groups in the Philippines by giving them an estimated $1.7 million in protection payments under the guise of "security."

Allan Laird, 62, a former project manager for Echo Bay Mines Limited, has spent the past year trying to persuade the Department of Homeland Security to investigate former company officials for what he says amounted to illegal funding of terrorism.


A former executive with the company, which was absorbed by a merger in 2003, categorically denied Laird's allegations Thursday and questioned why Laird didn't go public with them until after he had been laid off.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a reporter's inquiries.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado declined to comment on Laird's allegations but said the matter "remains under investigation."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/... ...

Article Published: Friday, April 16, 2004
Firm accused of terrorist aid
Former Denver company: No record of pay for mine security


In the Sierra article, Laird said he issued repeated warnings to Echo Bay executives about what he viewed as a dangerous situation. Laird said one of his supervisors, John Anthony, responded with this e-mail: "You need to be more discreet in some of your observations ... and (in) the distribution of such a report which could be incriminating under certain scenarios."

Laird said he was aghast that Echo Bay executives viewed the terrorist payments as a routine cost of doing business.

"What disturbs me the most is there was a situation where a company was providing aid to terrorist groups," Laird said. "We should not be supporting terrorism under the guise of corporate security."

Laird was project manager of the Kingking mine for 14 months in 1996 and 1997, until shortly before Echo Bay abandoned the property and recorded a $50 million loss. He estimates that during Echo Bay's involvement in the mine from 1995 through 1997, terrorist groups were paid at least $1.8 million. The Sierra article estimates the payments "in excess of $1.7 million."

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2086949,...

[Octafish]

20. NAZIs + Terrorists + Mafia + KKK + Wall Street + MI-Complex = BFEE

BCCI represents its microcosm.

The Strange Saga of BCCI

"The Bank of Crooks and Criminals International"

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/BCCI.htm

[jackstraw45]

21. This thread is too important to sink....

Email this around folks...email this around!

[Octafish]

22. Thanks, jackstraw45! The BFEE specializes in making money off of war.

Alas, I cannot claim credit. The crooks in the Bush Organized Crime Syndicate supplied the inspiration. Such as the family tradition of covering up war crimes:

The Abu Ghraib Scandal Cover-Up? Bush insists that 'a few American troops' dishonored the country. But prisoner abuse was more widespread, and some insiders believe that much remains hidden.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5092776/site/newsweek/

Then there's Gulf War 1, where Poppy ordered the massacre of thousands of fleeing Iraqi conscripts on the "Highway of Death." (WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGERY):

http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrime.htm

These gangsters learned their lessons from the NAZIs.

[Karenina]

43. These gangsters learned their lessons from the NAZIs.

Indeed. :puke: :puke: :puke:
And Americans remain in denial. :argh:

[Octafish]

44. Here's some interesting reading -- Operation NORTHWOODS

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff action plan to provoke general war by killing U.S. citizens and military personnel (if needed):

Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/

A PDF file for downloading:

http://www.public-action.com/911/northwds.pdf

For those who only believe something if it's on TV:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html

[Karenina]

45. Octafish, what FREAKS me out is

Operation Northwoods is SUCH OLD NEWS. 42 FUCKING YEARS OLD. And still folks REFUSE TO GROK what forces in positions of power are capable of.
I am so happy to be where I am, as people will at first declare I'm NUTS, but if I persist sensing a pique interest, they WILL check it out for themselves. These days I don't even bother with anyone who can't get past the B.C.C.I. primer. (Deepest gratitude to YOU for putting the info at my fingertips :loveya:) It's like trying to discuss calculus with a 6 year-old. :eyes:

[Octafish]

42. Hey! The BFEE's considering CANCELLING the 2000 Election

This should bother America more:

Election Day Worries

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5411741/site/newsweek/

[proud patriot]

28. yep

great list ...

[Octafish]

34. Thanks, proud patriot! Just reminded me of Valerie Plame.

How the Cheney ("pardon my French") I forgot to list that treason is beyond Rove or his sock puppet.

Bush Interviewed in CIA Leak Investigation

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1976076

[Wind Dancer]

29. Excellent thread!

Let's keep it going!

[Octafish]

37. Domo aragato, FrustratedDemInNC-san!

No one dares question Smirko the Terrible!



Angry Bush Walks Out on Media, Refuses to Answer Questions About Relationship With Ken Lay

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4805.shtml

[faithnotgreed]

31. just emailed this to msnbc since yet another * piece of info is "missing"

titled it "where do we go from here?"

the latest piece of bush material that has ended up missing!

how interesting....
i do so hope that there will be one item out of this administration that actually gets investigated and exposed.

- energy task force records?
- who endangered valerie plame and scuttled her wmd investigation? the real reasons why?
- why would the wh block the formation and investigation of the 9/11 commission? and why would they insist on testifying together and not under oath?
- halliburton egregious no bid contracts?
- "state secrets" argument used so that sibel edmonds testimony cannot be revealed?
- meetings or no - with george tenet in august 2001?
- sauds and bin laden family members allowed access out of u.s. quickly post 9/11 (which even prince bandar acknowledged on larry king live or hardball this past spring)?
- patriot act written prior to 9/11? - yet why would that be necessary (putting the scary factor aside for a moment) if there were no meetings held to strategize against terrorism pre 9/11?
- memos written to circumvent and dismiss the geneva convention not only in iraq but in us prisons around the world?
- wmd excuse was given because it was the one most palatable to the public?
- martial law played out in a devastatingly frightening way in savannah georgia during the g8 summit?


my hands and head hurts from writing all this! so ill have to leave it at that

are these not enough neon signs (after neon signs) along with journalists admitting this is the most secretive wh ever? and these journalists feel "intimidated" by this wh?

i realize to a certain person, i would sound "over the top". but its truly frightening how rational this is, and the evidence is there to be found if anyone would take our constitution and democracy to be of utmost importance to defend.

thank you to john dean and to the many military personnel and to richard clarke and to rep henry waxman (ca) for speaking out and to the people of ny who literally forced this administration to investigate 9/11 and to the handful of reporters who will ask questions and to the millions of those across this country who are tired of the fear and the deceptions and the greed and the lowest depths that our government has shown by disgracing and subverting our democracy.

and thank you for reading these sincere feelings. it will take all of us to make a difference, and i ask all of us to search, not only for the truth, but our own hearts to find why it is we are not standing up and stopping this nightmare from destroying our country and consitution.

jude

[seemslikeadream]

32. Jonathan Bush Chief Executive Riggs and Equatorial Guinea

Riggs and Equatorial Guinea
British businessman accused of leading role in failed coup

Exclusive Investigation: Mercenaries held over Equatorial Guinea plot identify west London consultant as mastermind
By Paul Lashmar and Adrian Gatton
16 May 2004

A management consultant from west London has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind a plot to overthrow the government of the oil-rich African state of Equatorial Guinea.

The failed coup - strikingly reminiscent of Frederick Forsyth's mercenary tale The Dogs of War - came to light in March with the dramatic arrests of 67 soldiers of fortune at Harare airport in Zimbabwe. Now a witness statement seen by The Independent on Sunday names Greg Wales, 53, an accountant and management consultant, as a key organiser behind the plot.

He vehemently denies any involvement. But the government of Equatorial Guinea has confirmed to the IoS that it now wishes to interview Mr Wales, who has homes in Chiswick and Wiltshire and a history of business in Africa.

A statement on behalf of the state and President of Equatorial Guinea said yesterday: "The appropriate authorities are anxious to interview Mr Wales in view of his apparent involvement in the attempted coup d'état." British lawyers acting for the government have asked Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch to investigate Mr Wales's role. "We believe attempting a coup against an elected government by the use of force is an act of international terrorism and should be investigated as such," one lawyer said

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?st...

Mr du Toit claims that Mr Wales arranged much of the finance for the coup.

Mr Wales denies involvement in the coup. While he says he knows most of the key figures said to be involved in the failed plot, he stressed: "I was not involved in a coup. I do not even believe that there was a coup plot. This is all a deal between Mugabe and Obiang. If the government of Equatorial Guinea is saying I was involved then it is a joke."

But Mr du Toit identifies Mr Wales as a key organiser, in a statement seen by the IoS. It was signed in the presence of a British lawyer working for the government. In the statement he says: "The first person who I spoke to about the coup was Greg. I had not met him before. I do not know how he got my telephone number but this was probably through Simon Mann. I do not know his family name."

The IoS has confirmed that Mr du Toit had Greg Wales's personal mobile number in his notebook. Mr Wales is an old Africa hand and has been involved with Mr Mann over many years; Mr du Toit claims that Mr Wales arranged much of the finance for the coup.

At the time, Mr du Toit was based in Equatorial Guinea starting up businesses, including a deep-sea fishing project and an airfreight operation in partnership with ministers. In his statement he says: "He called me and asked me to meet him on 4 January 2004 in Sandton, South Africa. He said he had a business proposition for me ... I decided to see what he proposed."

more
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?st...

The weapons supplied to Nick Du Toit's customers

The alleged mercenaries, arrested in March, are to be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for plotting the overthrow of the government there. The Harare authorities announced the extradition last week, not long after receiving legal documents from lawyers representing the arrested men outlining their defence to various minor charges laid against them in Zimbabwe.

A court case would have revealed that the parastatal Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) has been working for the past few years with a number of white South Africans in joint ventures to ship arms around the continent.

'There was no way he would have got involved in a coup'
The South African arms brokers, operating with offshore companies, registered in places like the Bahamas, were able to guarantee delivery of weapons "within 24 hours of payment being received, to anywhere in Africa," according to a source in Pretoria.

Once payment had been received, an aircraft would be dispatched from South Africa to Harare. It would load the weapons from military facilities at Harare airport and would then fly on to its final African destination, said the source
The weapons supplied to Nick Du Toit's customers could have come from three sources: The Zimbabwe National Army armouries; from weaponry captured by Zimbabwean troops in their involvement in the DRC or could be have been bought new.
more
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200... ...

Equatorial Guinea also involved in the Riggs bank scandal

but laundering money for the government (Obiang) and likely paying out the bribes from the oil companies.

LA Times story (somewhere odd) has good details: http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&n... ...

That's the Jonathan Bush linked company that there were other stories about today and recently--funneling money from Saudi's to the West Coast 9/11 terrorist cell.

I don't yet get if or how the coup money would be related. Greg Wales doesn't google very well, for one. But naturally we have a Bush linked company doing something hokey with oil rich EG, so there's got to be more to it. From some reading today, I think the International arm of Riggs is based in Miami--maybe throw in some Jeb, Cubans, drugs or other crazy Florida stuff that always makes up a nice BFEE crime conspiracy. I'm catching a strong wiff of BCCI.

Mugabe to barter mercenaries for fuel

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has struck a deal with Equatorial Guinea to extradite the 70 suspected mercenaries held in Harare to the oil-rich country in exchange for fuel worth US1.2-billion.

Official sources say Mugabe has agreed with Equatorial Guinea's President Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to hand over the mercenaries, accused of plotting a coup in the West African nation, on condition that he received a two-year supply of fuel.

The deal was first discussed at a meeting between Mugabe and Obiang in Pretoria on April 27.


Mugabe and Obiang were in South Africa to attend President Thabo Mbeki's inauguration.

"Initially, Mugabe did not want to send the suspects to Equatorial Guinea because he wanted to use them to gain cheap publicity and later to bargain for fuel," a source said. "Obiang had to send at least three teams to Zimbabwe to negotiate the extradition but Mugabe refused. It was only after Obiang accepted the fuel deal that he agreed."
more
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2004/05/16/news/africa/afr...


Zim strikes detainees-for-fuel deal

author/source:Zimbabwe Independent
published:Fri 14-May-2004
posted on this site:Sat 15-May-2004


Deal entails US$50 million worth of fuel monthly for two years
Gift Phiri/Dumisani Muleya

In an unusual diplomatic arrangement, Zimbabwe has entered a US$1,2 billion deal to extradite the 70 suspected mercenaries currently held in Harare to Equatorial Guinea in exchange for fuel. Intelligence sources say President Robert Mugabe discussed the deal with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart, Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, at their initial meeting in Pretoria with South African president Thabo Mbeki on April 27. Mugabe and Obiang were in South Africa to attend Mbeki's inauguration. The three leaders are said to have met over the mercenaries' saga after Zimbabwe had earlier refused to send the suspects for trial in the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Sources said the meeting agreed in principle that Zimbabwe would extradite the suspected mercenaries on agreed terms and conditions. Mugabe and Obiang finalised the mercenaries-for-fuel arrangement at a meeting in Bulawayo the following day. The two leaders met at State House in the second city on April 28. After the meeting Obiang told journalists that they had been discussing the issue of the suspects' extradition. High-level sources said Mugabe agreed to extradite the suspected soldiers of fortune on condition Equatorial Guinea - the third largest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola in sub-Saharan Africa -would supply Zimbabwe with fuel.
more
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=9292



Business
Bank and African Oil State Ties Probed
By Ken Silverstein, LA Times 9/4/04
Apr 11, 2004, 07:50

A federal grand jury and a Senate subcommittee are investigating the relationship between a prominent Washington bank and a tiny, oil-rich West African state.

Investigators are scrutinizing hundreds of millions of dollars in accounts held at Riggs Bank by the government of Equatorial Guinea and its ruler, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Sources familiar with the probes said investigators were trying to determine whether any deposits into Obiang's personal accounts were the fruits of corruption and whether funds from a state account were diverted to the president or his family members.

The Times first reported on Riggs' relationship with Equatorial Guinea last year, which prompted the bank to conduct an internal investigation. Riggs subsequently dismissed Simon Kareri, a senior executive overseeing the Equatorial Guinea accounts.

In February, Riggs ordered Equatorial Guinea's government to withdraw all of its assets from the bank. U.S. government and banking sources said Equatorial Guinea has had difficulty finding another U.S. bank to take its money, and most, if not all, of its deposits are still held at Riggs.

"Riggs' security procedures detected questionable activities on the part of Simon Kareri," said Mark Hendrix, a bank spokesman. "Riggs turned the matter over to U.S. criminal authorities. Riggs is cooperating with authorities and, in light of the investigations, views it as inappropriate to comment further on these matters."

Interesting but not surprising that whatever congressional inquiry is flying under the radar. The $25 million is nothing but a slap (Riggs has $6.4 billion in assets), as someone here pointed out. But the fact that Allbritton stepped down, and they are shutting down Miami and some of the other money laundering capabilities, suggests the shit has hit the fan.

Here's the guy who runs the London Riggs: Steve Pfeiffer (who googles better).

Bio: http://www.fulbright.com/site_map/FindAttorney/371.htm

I'd guess his operation would the point for paying out the British mercs. He's some sort of Africa specialist, former assistant to Sec of the Navy (and assistant CINC Europe and NATO muckty-muck) sometime around Regan. (Yale Law too).

Here's the Riggs 2002 annual report:
http://www.riggsbank.com/Discover_Riggs/annualreport200...

Lots of names worth checking out--I'm going to see what comes up with Juan Luis Toro, who ran the Miami international operation. I'll bet there's some connection to Haiti, Columbia/Venezuela and/or something more with 9/11.


Saudi-ization of African oil
Same plan, different country. Take oil rich nation, find dictator who can be educated on siphoning off oil profits for his own personal wealth (to the further impoverishment of his people) and in exchange for preferential treatment of us companies.

Were they about to double-cross Obiang? His money was initially frozen in DC--it has now left. Was he just exiting to his Maryland mansion? Dunno, but this Riggs bank connection sure seems to be the follow-the-money thread to pull on Bushco for several different plots. Enough material here for a book.

For one, I'd like to ask someone who knows WTF, say an economist (can we get Krugman?), how an "Edge Act" bank functions, and what's up in Miami with international banking in general. How does that tie in with the export/import bank in DC and Riggs? The Edge Act is something about a bank that can only lend to foreign banks--that Jonathan Bush and Riggs in general could control such an entity while also engaging in other business like investments and domestic lending apparently violates the "Edge Act" (and a bunch of other regulations) and is partly why Riggs is dumping that portion of the business. I wonder whether there have been changes under Jeb that had led to Miami expanding the definitions of what's allowable into money laundering for oil and terror. The answer is: of course he did, just need to find that.

A complicated thread to pull--18 browser windows open so far! Like I found this great Newsweek Isikoff piece from April that I missed:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093


Among the payments that have drawn scrutiny, documents show, were $19,200 in checks between December 2000 and January 2003 from the Saudi Embassy to an Islamic cleric, Gulshair Muhammad al-Shukrijumah. The Florida-based imam has been on the FBI's radar screen for some time: he once testified on behalf of convicted terrorist Clement Hampton-El.

Hampton-El was convicted in trying to blow up the WTC the first time in '93. al-Shukrijumah is apparently still missing, also served as the blink sheik's interpreter and may have had a serious role in 9/11. So, it's not just the princess sending money to the West Coast cell.

(Another browser window has the odd factoid that the former head of Riggs international lending (Paul Cushman III) died with Ron Brown in '96. Wild. Kareri succeeded him.)

Plenty to run down here, although a tangent (or the opposite side of the coin) to the original news story in this post. Haven't come across anything that links Riggs to funding of the coup. Maybe it's more like switch dictators and get to keep the Riggs money.

Pinochet

Revealed: Pinochet drug smuggling link
Special report: Pinochet on trial

Hugh O'Shaughnessy
Sunday December 10, 2000
The Observer

The Chilean army and secret police have spent almost two decades secretly flooding Europe and the US with massive shipments of cocaine. The trafficking began during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet and continues to this day, a year-long investigation for The Observer has established.

Twelve tons of the drug, with a street value of several billion pounds, left Chile in 1986 and 1987 alone. The drugs, destined for Europe, have often been flown to Spanish territory by aircraft carrying Chilean-made arms to Iraq and Iran. Distribution to Britain and other European countries has been controlled by secret police stationed in Chilean embassies in Stockholm and Madrid.

...

Pinochet, who is now fighting arrest on kidnapping and murder charges in Santiago, has not clarified how he and his wife, Lucia, bhad $1,169,308 (around £730,000) in their account in the Riggs Bank in Washington on 1 March 1997. As commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, his annual salary in March 1997 was $16,000 (£10,000).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Pinochet_on_trial/Story/0,276... ...

Pinochet's account was also mentioned in the recent WSJ article on Riggs.

Interesting that the possible new mercs, according to today's African newspaper story, are Chilean.

Bush, the Saudi billionaire and the Islamists: the story a British firm is

MUST SEE: stories on Riggs National Bank -- note links to 2 of 19 hijackers in San Diego through wire transfer from Saudi Arabia. Jonathon Bush, George W. Bush's uncle, is a top official within the bank and the Motley suit brought by the 9/11 families has issued a subpoena of the bank's records. -KFH


Articles / Current News about 9-11
Date: Apr 02, 2004 - 04:25 PM
Publication of book cancelled as libel laws blamed for stifling free speech
David Leigh -- Wednesday March 31, 2004 -- The Guardian

A book investigating links between rich Saudis and US politicians has been suppressed by the giant publishing firm Random House because, it says, of growing "libel tourism" by wealthy foreigners, and exorbitant legal "success fees".

Libel lawyers are stifling free speech, the deputy chairman of Random House, Simon Master, said yesterday.

The UK publication of House of Bush, House of Saud, by the American writer Craig Unger, has been cancelled because Secker and Warburg, a Random House subsidiary, says it can no longer afford such risks.

The book focuses in part on the activities of a Jeddah-based Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, who has been engaged in a war of words in the US, where there have been public accusations by officials linking him and others to funding received by Osama bin Laden.

more
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=176


Hijacked bank

Questions also remain regarding the web of money transfers from Princess Haifa, Prince Bandar and the daughter of late King Faisal, some of which reached Nawaf Alhazmi and fellow terrorist Khalid Almihdar.Princess Haifa's bank account--the source of the funds which ultimately supported the alleged hijackers--was with Riggs Bank where Jonathan J. Bush, the brother of former President George H. W. Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush, is CEO, President and Director of Riggs' investment management subsidiary.

snip

After Al Bayoumi fled the U.S. to England in July, 2001--two months before the attacks, Princess Haifa's Riggs Bank checks were then sent to Osama Basnan, who with his wife Majeda Dweikat, were both later to be found in the U.S. illegally as a result of poor or suspicious State Department visa supervision.

Former FBI linguist Sibel Edmonds said she found evidence of espionage in both the State Department and the FBI in pre-9/11 translations of intelligence intercepts--which also warned about planes used as weapons well before the attacks.A federal law enforcement source said Basnan was a known "al-Qaeda sympathizer" who "celebrated the heroes of September 11" at a party after the attacks and openly talked about "what a wonderful, glorious day it had been," according to Newsweek.

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terroists pay rent and living expences in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.
more
http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=pri...

Exclusive: New Questions About Saudi Money—and Bandar
Eric Draper / The White House

The White House is monitoring a joint FBI-Treasury Department probe into wire transfers overseas by Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan, pictured with the president in August 2002
By Michael Isikoff
Investigative Correspondent
NewsweekApril 12 issue - A federal investigation into the bank accounts of the Saudi Embassy in Washington has identified more than $27 million in "suspicious" transactions—including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Muslim charities, and to clerics and Saudi students who are being scrutinized for possible links to terrorist activity, according to government documents obtained by NEWSWEEK. The probe also has uncovered large wire transfers overseas by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. The transactions recently prompted the Saudi Embassy's longtime bank, the Riggs Bank of Washington, D.C., to drop the Saudis as a client after embassy officials were "unable to provide an explanation that was satisfying," says a source familiar with the discussions.

A Saudi spokesman strongly denied that any embassy funds were used to support terrorism and said Bandar chose to pull the embassy's accounts out of Riggs. The Saudis point out that an earlier FBI probe into embassy funds that were moved to alleged associates of the 9/11 hijackers has not led to any charges. The current probe, by the FBI and Treasury Department, is one of the most sensitive financial inquiries now being conducted by the government and is being closely monitored by the White House. The federal commission investigating 9/11 was also recently briefed on developments, sources say. U.S. officials stress that they have identified no evidence of any knowing Saudi aid to terrorist groups. But they express frustration at their inability to penetrate a number of large and seemingly irregular transactions. "There's a lot of money moving in a lot of directions—maybe not all that carefully," said one senior law-enforcement official. "Everyone wants to get to the bottom of it."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4661093 /


but only found this
Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son, wanted to live in a building where the arms superdealer Adnan Khashoggi once lived -

so far!

Western business has followed on the heels of the Texan oil men with gusto.
Only 15 years ago Malabo had just one hotel with no electricity, food or
running water. Two cars in the street was a traffic jam, and the phone
directory had just two pages, listing subscribers by their first name. The
airport terminal was a tin-roofed shack that received just one international
flight. Today, however, the French have built a mobile phone network, sports
utility vehicles whizz through the streets, and several international
carriers service the smart new airport terminal. Prostitutes clamour around
the gates of several new hotels. The US re-opened its embassy in October
last year, following an eight-year closure in protest at torture and other
human rights abuses. At around the same time the Dutch carrier KLM renamed
one of its planes after Mr Obiang, to mark the opening of the new airport
terminal. "It was like calling a plane Pol Pot," said one analyst. A
campaign against US involvement in Equatorial Guinea is building. The
influential US news programme 60 Minutes criticised the pact between Mr
Obiang and the oil companies last autumn. The latest State Department human
rights report, released last month, cataolgued an array of police torture,
arbitrary arrest and detention and the failure of the courts to administer
justice. In Washington, the FBI has started investigating a $700m bank
account at the Riggs Bank, of which Mr Obiang is apparently the main
signatory. One bank employee has already lost his job over the scandal.

But the greatest threat to Mr Obiang's dictatorial dominance comes from his
own family. The president has been sick, reportedly from prostate cancer,
and tensions have arisen among the ruling clan over his succession plans.
Some are worried over apparent plans to hand power to his son Teodorin - a
government minister, rap music entrepreneur and international playboy. The
30-something Teodorin parties in Rio de Janeiro, does business in Hollywood
and lives at five-star hotels in Paris, where he drives in Bentley and
Lamborghini cars. Some years ago he invested several hundred thousand
dollars to start his own rap label, TNO Entertainment, standing for Teodorin
Nguema Obiang. It apparently failed to release any records, but according to
Hollywood gossip he has had a relationship with the American rap star Eve.
Teodorin is also fond of female company from other countries - according to
one associate, he once turned up for a meeting in Paris accompanied by
several Russian women. He is a keen property investor, owning a $6m mansion
in Bel Air. But when he tried to buy a multi-million dollar apartment in New
York - in a building where the arms superdealer Adnan Khashoggi once lived -
the board of management rejected his application.
http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/mar18_2004.html


At Riggs, problems passed on with legacy
Joe L. Allbritton won control of Riggs Bank in 1981 and used it as a launching pad into Washington`s top business and political circles. He assiduously cultivated "The Riggs" cachet as the bank for foreign governments and diplomats and steadfastly refused to sell the institution even as most of his competitors sold out, The Washington Post reported. Riggs has cultivated the diplomatic community and one quarter of its $4 billion in deposits come from that source. "My pride in Riggs has been paramount in my activities," he said in an interview when he retired in February 2001. "And you know, if you have just enough money, you`ll do more for pride than you`ll do for money…. My object was to put Riggs in a position where it could be the survivor. It is that." But when he bequeathed Riggs to his son Robert after retiring, he also passed on Riggs`s long-simmering problems complying with banking secrecy laws. Most controversial has been the use of hundreds of millions of dollars in funds controlled by the Saudi embassy in Washington, as well as suspicious transactions involving officials of Equatorial Guinea.

http://www.diplomatictraffic.com/embassy_briefs.asp?ID=...


The action followed the $25 million civil fine against the midsize Washington bank, which has a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital’s diplomatic community. The fine, which had been expected, is the largest ever imposed on a financial institution for such violations, experts said.

The FBI and regulators have investigated, for possible connections to terrorism financing, large cash transactions in Riggs accounts controlled by Saudi diplomats.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, recently asked the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to examine Saudi transactions at Riggs and FleetBoston Financial Corp.

“Riggs Bank deserves every penny of this huge fine,” Grassley said Thursday. “Banks have a patriotic duty, not to mention legal requirement, to report suspicious activity. When banks look the other way, they put our national security at risk.”

Grassley said members of the bank’s board of directors should be held to account.

The Treasury regulators had earlier accused Riggs of failing to comply with a law requiring banks to notify the government of suspicious transactions. The bank also had been classified by the comptroller’s office as a “troubled institution” for not complying fully with a July 2003 consent order under which it agreed to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls.

more
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4973033 /

FleetBoston Financial?????


http://www.archives.gov/research_room/independent_couns... ...

Foundation of the Friends of Equatorial Guinea and the United States

Kareri could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, did not return phone calls. Shapiro, a high-profile attorney based in Virginia, previously represented convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad.
Sources also confirmed that Riggs held accounts for Teodoro Biyogo Nsue, Equatorial Guinea's ambassador to the U.S. and Obiang's brother-in-law, and for Obiang's son, Teodorin Nguema Obiang.

The latter is a government minister but spends little time in the country. Housing and business records show that the son owns a $6-million home in Los Angeles as well as a music company in L.A. called TNO.

Armengol Ondo Nguema, Obiang's brother and the country's feared security chieftain, also held a personal account at Riggs. In correspondence obtained by The Times, Kareri referred to Nguema -- who is accused in U.S. State Department reports of employing torture -- as a "valued customer."
Kareri is close to Obiang and his family. Records show that he is also a board member of the U.S.-based Foundation of the Friends of Equatorial Guinea and the United States, whose aim is to promote stronger ties between the two countries. Other board members of the group include Equatorial Guinea's representative to the International Monetary Fund and the country's minister of justice.

Sources told The Times that Riggs' demand that Equatorial Guinea withdraw its funds reportedly occurred after a tense meeting in Washington among bank officials, Obiang, the FBI and several government representatives. An FBI official said the agency could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=43&n... ...


"warbusiness"

Child soldiers wait in Bule for orders to move. When this photo was taken, they were the only defense forces in a 25-mile radius. Two days later they too pulled out, and Bule was attacked.
http://www.zwnews.com/warbusiness.doc

one tiny snip:

In April 2001, an MPRI representative met with the Pentagon’s regional director for Central Africa to discuss the company’s hopes of winning the contract to train Equatorial Guinea’s forces. “They may need our help or moral support,” Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in a memo on the meeting, obtained by ICIJ under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. She quoted the MPRI representative as saying that Equatorial Guinea was “the Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea” and, in a briefing paper three months later, advanced that characterization to “a possible ‘Kuwait of Africa’ with huge oil reserves” that was “US-friendly for both investment and security reasons.” Kwiatkowski also noted in her April memo that the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with Obiang when he visited Washington early in 2001 was an assistant secretary of agriculture – that after French President Jacques Chirac had spared time to meet with him.

Despite concerns about Equatorial Guinea’s human rights record, Obiang’s currency rose dramatically after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. When he visited the United States as it marked the first anniversary of the attacks, Obiang was among 10 African leaders to meet with President George Bush for talks on the prospect of war with Iraq and peace and development on the African continent.

ended up here because of this:

If you've been reading the news the last few days you may have noticed this odd and somewhat mysterious story of a US-registered cargo plane loaded with 64 "mercernaries" and various military equipment which was impounded

Sunday night at Harare International Airport in Zimbabwe "after its owners had made a false declaration of its cargo and crew."

When asked about it on Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "We have no indication this aircraft is connected to the U.S. government."

That seemed like a rather less than unequivocal response. And behind the scenes US government officials said they didn't believe the US government had any connection with this operation. But they wanted to make sure before saying anything definitive.

Now, if you look at the press accounts, what's caught people's attention is the US registry of the plane. Specifically, it's registered to a company called Dodson Aviation, which is based in Kansas.

Now, Dodson says they sold the plane to a "reputable" firm in South Africa about a week ago. "I think they were going to use it for charter flights," company director Robert Dodson told the Associated Press.

Now here's a little more detail.

Dodson Aviation of Kansas has a South African subsidiary, Dodson International Parts SA Ltd (According to their website, "Dodson International Parts SA (Pty) Ltd is the African division of United States based companies Dodson International Parts Inc. and Dodson Aviation. The company was established in 1998 and is based at Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria.") And it was from this subsidiary's hangar at an airport just north of Pretoria that the aforementioned mercenaries boarded the plane.

Now, here's where this gets a little murky.

I wanted to find out more about Dodson International Parts SA Ltd. What I found something out about was a company that sounded very similar: a South African company called Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They're also in the airplane business.

Not exactly the same name. But remember, the South African company is the subsidiary of two American companies, Dodson Aviation and Dodson International. If these aren't the same company, or closely related companies, I'd figure they often get confused for one another.

In any case, here's what I found about Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

They come up in the December 2000 Report of the Panel of Experts to the United Nations on Sierra Leone, in the section of the report dealing with the arms trade.

Here's the section that caught my eye (italics added) ...

187. Fred Rindel a retired officer of the South African Defence Force and former Defence Attaché to the United States, has played a key role in the training of a Liberian anti-terrorist unit, consisting of Liberian soldiers and groups of foreigners, including citizens of Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger and The Gambia.
188. The panel interviewed Mr Rindel extensively. Rindel was contracted as a security consultant by President Charles Taylor in September 1998, and training started in November 1998. The contract included consultancy services and strategic advice to convert Charles Taylor's former rebel militia into a professional unit. The Anti-Terrorist Unit is used in Liberia to protect government buildings, the Executive Mansion and the international airport, and to provide VIP Security and the protection of foreign embassies. The numbers trained were approximately 1200. Because of negative media attention, Rindel cancelled his contract in Liberia in August 2000.

189. In 1998, ECOMOG identified a plane, registration number N71RD, owned by a South African company, Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts, as having carried weapons to Robertsfield in September of that year. The plane is a Gulfstream 14-seater business jet that cannot be used for arms transport, but there are other relevant connections. Fred Rindel was the owner of Dodson. The company was closed on 31 December 1998, but during the period under investigation, the plane was leased to, and operated by, Greater Holdings (Liberia) Ltd., a company with gold and diamond concessions in Liberia. The plane was used for the transport of the Greater Holdings' staff to and from Liberia.


Mr. Rindel's name came up earlier in 2000 in testimony at the UN Security Council by then-UN Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke in a discussion of Sierra Leone (italics added) ...

In regard to arms trafficking to Sierra Leone, Mr. Chairman, we remain concerned and I would like to add a few more items to the record. The principal Africa countries involved in arms trafficking to the RUF - though they deny it - include Burkina Faso, Liberia and Libya.
In 1999, planes landed in Ouagadougou, allegedly coming from the Ukraine, with several tons of small arms and ammunition. This incident, which the Ukrainians say has stopped, is one that we believe should be brought to the attention of your committee.

In regard to trafficking, arms brokers have played a vital role in keeping the RUF supplied with weapons and other military materiel. A well-known arms and diamond dealer in Sierra Leone, Zief Morganstein, in July 1999 arranged for a Continental Aviation-based charter out of Dakar to fly a shipment of small arms from Bulgaria to Sierra Leone. Last year the RUF received 68 tons of weapons from Bulgaria, which Morganstein may have helped arrange. There have been other connections between former government officials from South Africa during its Apartheid regime who now operate as private individuals, including Fred Rindel, the South African Defense Attache in Washington, who now works as a security consultant in Liberia and trains Liberian troops and RUF insurgents. There are other charges about other businessmen who are reportedly helping the Sierra Leone government coming from various countries around the world.

Now, I've scanned the news coverage of this and I haven't seen any mention of this seeming connection. So perhaps these are two utterly unrelated companies?

As of Tuesday the situation in Zimbabwe seems to be calming down, though now there are apparently fears in Equatorial Guinea that these mercenaries were somehow intended to assist a coup in that country. (No, I can't keep up either.) "Some 15 mercenaries have been arrested here," the country's Information Minister Agustin Nse Nfumu told Reuters. "It was connected with that plane in Zimbabwe. They were the advance party of that group."

Equatorial Guinea is next door to Gabon. And Joe Wilson used to be the US Ambassador there back in the day. So maybe he can make some sense of this. I can't. But I'd be very interested to talk to the investigators who put together that UN report and see if there's any connection between Dodson International Parts SA Ltd and Dodson Aviation Maintenance and Spare Parts.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

I just can not forget that Poppy's gold mining buddies Barrick

War is Golden for the Bush Administration
And the commodities connection? President Pretzel's relentless hissy-fit for war on Iraq has of course goosed the price of gold enormously--and that's set Bush Family coffers a-clinking. How so? In the waning days of his failed presidency, Bush I invoked an obscure 1872 statute to give a Canadian firm, Barrick Corporation, the right to mine $10 billion in gold from U.S. public lands. (U.S. taxpayers got a whopping $10,000 fee in return.) Bush then joined Barrick as a highly-paid "international consultant," brokering deals with various dictators of his close acquaintance. Barrick reciprocated with big bucks for Junior's presidential run. And in another quid for the old pro quo, last year Junior dutifully approved Barrick's controversial acquisition of a major rival. (Barrick is also one of the biggest polluters in America, by the way.)

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02152003.html

The money behind Barrick is from Saudi arms dealer and Bush family friend Adnan Khashoggi, who was identified as conduit in the Iran-Contra conspiracy. In 1986 he was arrested and charged with fraud but failed to be convicted. In one of his last acts as president Bush pardoned Khashoggi's alleged co-conspirators, who were key members of Bush's own cabinet. As a result, no case could be made against Khashoggi – or against Bush himself.

http://www.penfield-gill.com/presentations/bush_the_eld...

Where was flight N4610 heading?

March 10 2004 at 08:11AM

They were 64 "heavily built men", mostly white. No, they were all black. No, only 40 of them were black.

The plane left South Africa illegally from Wonderboom airport, strayed into Zimbabwe airspace and was ordered down. No, the plane left the country legally, having filed a flight plan to Harare and then on to Burundi. No, the plane was headed for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The men on board were suspected of being mercenaries hired to overthrow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. No, they were on their way to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. No, they were going to the eastern DRC to carry out security duties.

These are just some of the stories surrounding the flight of N4610, a Boeing 727-100 cargo plane that has been impounded in Harare.

And 64 - though some reports say there are 67 - of those who were aboard, whether they were white, black or a mixture, and whether they were mercenaries or honest men, are in Harare cells facing intense interrogation.

On Tuesday, a company named in connection with the flight disputed all the speculation, saying the "mercenaries" were in fact security people "going to eastern DRC".

They were stopping in Zimbabwe to pick up mining equipment, "Zimbabwe being a vastly cheaper place for such".

Charles Burrow, a senior executive of Logo Logistics which had chartered the Boeing 727 freighter, said via telephone from London that most of the people on board were South African and had military experience, but were on contract to four mining companies in the DRC. He declined to name the companies.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=84&art_id=vn200... ...

Plane Did Stop At Grantley Adams - Thursday 11, March-2004

A UNITED STATES registered plane at the centre of controversy after being detained on Monday with 64 suspected mercenaries aboard by the Zimbabwean government did stop at Grantley Adams International Airport last Saturday morning.
Informed sources told the DAILY NATION yesterday that the aircraft, a Boeing 727 (100 series), with registration number N4610, landed in Barbados shortly after midnight for refuelling before leaving around 6:30 a.m.

Sources also indicated that the aircraft, which Zimbabwean officials alleged also carried military equipment, had arrived from the Hope Air Force Base in North Carolina, United States, before its stop-over in Barbados.

Further reports stated that the plane, originally a commercial PanAm Airways aircraft up until a week ago, was being operated by the American Air Force, but international Press reports stated it had been sold to a South African company.

http://www.nationnews.com/StoryView.cfm?Record=48033&Se... ..


Corporate Mercenaries - Executive Outcomes Leads to Bush
Executive Outcomes is the most infamous mercenary company in operation today. Unlike traditional mercenary companies, it operates as the heavy partner in a web of related companies. Sandline international is such a sister company: 170 elite South African dogs of war were hired to crush the Bougainville freedom Fighters for $22m. Just another job for the likes of Sandline international? Paul Vernon investigates...

Set up in 1993 by Tony Buckingham and Simon Mannl <1>, Executive outcomes (EO) has worked in Asia, Africa and South America. Most of it's personnel are hired from South Africa.

Buckingham is the chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which is now registered in the (tax-free) Bahamas. When EO was hired by the Sierra Leone government to crush people's revolt, Heritage received much of the payment in the form of mining rights. Sir David Steel MP happens to be a director of Heritage as well as a close friend of Buckingham. Recently Sierra Leone was thrown back into chaos with another military coup.

Eeben Barlow, the present CEO of Executive Outcomes, is a veteran of the Civil Co-operation Bureau, which allegedly assassinated antiapartheid activists. Barlow is the frontman for the group he told Newsweek (2) in February: "I'm a professional soldier. It's not about politics. I have a job to do. I do it." EO is thought to have a annual turnover of more that £20 million.

The South African government, with help from officials from the United Nations, has begun to draft proposals of legislation aimed to counter what officials called "the increasing frequency with which our soldiers-of-fortune are operating overseas".(7)
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/magazine/issue4/cw4f8....

Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Bush
Executive Intelligence Review January 31, 1997, pp. 42-43
by Roger Moore and Linda de Hoyos

Exposes appearing on both sides of the Atlantic on the mercenary group Executive Outcomes, threaten to blow the lid off the British intelligence nexus already identified as responsible for the February 1986 murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, and for the current cataclysmic destabilization of Africa on behalf of circles associated with the Queen of England's Privy Council and Sir George Bush.
The exposes appeared in the French daily {Le Figaro} on Jan. 16, the {London Observer} on Jan. 17, and the February issue of the American magazine {Harper's.}
Executive Outcomes is the mercenary arm of a vast
network of British-South African corporations dealing in gold, diamonds, and oil, primarily, but not exclusively, in Africa, that come under the umbrella of Strategic Resources Corporation, headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa. Described universally as an ``advance guard of a corporate network that includes mining, oil, and construction companies,'' Executive Outcomes is active in 13 African countries, including Uganda. For its services, it demands a lien or franchise on the exportable raw resources, particularly mineral wealth, of the client country--in the same fashion as the British East India Company of the 18th and 19th centuries, which in turn functioned as the ``advance guard'' of the British monarchy.
Executive Outcomes was incorporated offshore, on the Isle of Man, in 1993, by Anthony Buckingham, a British businessman, and Simon Mann, a former British officer, the {Observer} reported, based on a leak to it from British intelligence. Buckingham is also chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas, which in turn is linked to the Canadian firm Ranger Oil. Other firms operating out of the same headquarters in Chelsea Plaza 107, London, include Branch International Ltd. and Branch Mining Ltd.
Preliminary investigation by {EIR} has further determined that Executive Outcomes lies at the heart of the British monarch's raw materials cartels and secret intelligence operations, in conjunction with Bush's rogue apparat:
Through Sir David Steel, a former leader of the Liberal Party, Executive Outcomes and, presumably, its deployment, is a subsumed operation of the Queen's Privy Council. Steel is a close friend of EO's Buckingham, and is on the board of directors of EO's sister firm, Heritage Oil and Gas, according to {Le Figaro.} In 1977, Steel was inducted into the Privy Council, making him the youngest member of Britain's highest-level policy-making body.
The links between Executive Outcomes and Ranger Oil point to operational ties with the Bronfman family of Canada, whose scion, Edgar Bronfman of Toronto Broncorp, sits on the board of directors of Ranger. Recently, the Bronfman family merged its mammoth real estate firm, Trizec, with Barrick Gold, whose senior advisory board includes Sir George Bush. Barrick Gold is deeply involved in northeastern Zaire, where it has purchased 83,000 square kilometers of land. Zairean sources report that the so-called Zairean rebel Laurent Kabila is no more than a mercenary for Barrick and Anglo American Corp., sponsored by the British Crown-backed Ugandan and Rwandan militaries. Executive Outcomes, {Le Figaro} and other sources further verify, is deeply entrenched in Uganda, the key British marcher-lord state in the region.
http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive...

Mercenaries aimed to topple oil-rich despot

The inside story of the ties that bind President Obiang and powerful American interests
By Paul Lashmar
14 March 2004

The tale of the 67 men of assorted nationalities now in a Zimbabwe jail accused of being mercenaries continued to unfurl yesterday like the plot of a lurid airport novel.

A bit too much like fiction, in fact, involving as it does a cast that includes the despotic leader of a little-known West African state, the Eton-educated son of an English cricket captain, fake passports, and a shadowy company registered in the Channel Islands that is linked to SAS old boys. All this, plus talk of CIA, MI6 and Spanish secret service activity, and a plane now impounded at Harare airport that contained equipment more suited to burglary than seizures of power.

SNIP...

But if who paid whom for what services has not yet been revealed, the intended target is not in doubt: President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of a country whose lack of renown belies its strategic significance. And for "strategic" read oil. Not for nothing is this land known in US government circles as the "Kuwait of the Gulf of Guinea". Not without reason has President Bush welcomed President Obiang, a confirmed if not convicted corrupt despot, to the White House. He may be a despot, but as presider over an oil-rich state, he is their despot.

The sight and smell of oil is everywhere palpable in the port of Malabo. From here you can see the flames shooting into the night sky from the offshore oilrigs. Every day tens of thousands of barrels are extracted from huge crude oil reserves underneath the seabed off Equatorial Guinea.It is one of the oil-rich sub-Saharan countries that now supplies 15 per cent of American oil. Experts predict that the amount of oil the US receives from the prolific fields of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola will double in the next five years. Hence the succour that American companies - and, since 9/11, the American government - have given to Obiang. Vice President Dick Cheney has said: "Along with Latin America, West Africa is expected to be one of the fastest-growing sources of oil and gas for the American market."
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=5... ...

Jonathan J. Bush uncle to President George Walker Bush

Jonathan J. Bush (Jonathan James Bush) (1931- ) is an uncle to President George Walker Bush.

A Wall Street financier, Jonathan Bush pulled together two dozen investors to raise $3 million to help launch Arbusto. Among the investors was Dorothy Bush, George W.’s grandmother. At the same time, Jonathan Bush was lining up investors for Arbusto, he also was raising money for George H.W. Bush’s presidential explorations. Many of the funders were the same. <1>

Bush is a Trustee of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation<2>


"Speaking of the Watergate, Riggs National Bank, where Saudi Princess Al-Faisal had her 'Saudi money trail' bank account, has as one of its executives Jonathan Bush, an uncle of the president. The public has not learned whether Riggs - which services 95 percent of Washington's foreign embassies - will be turning over records relating to Saudi finance.
"Meanwhile, Bush has nominated William H. Donaldson to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Donaldson, a longtime Bush family friend, was a Yale classmate of Jonathan Bush."

Source.

May 31, 2000: Riggs Bank N.A. today announced that the Board of Directors of RIMCO, a wholly owned investment management subsidiary, has elected Jonathan J. Bush President & Chief Executive Officer and a Director, replacing Philip Tasho who resigned. In addition, Henry A. Dudley, Jr. was elected Chairman.
"Mr. Bush will continue as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J. Bush & Co., an investment management company he founded in 1970, which Riggs acquired in 1997. Mr. Dudley, a 24-year veteran of Riggs, will continue to be responsible for all of Riggs Bank's investment management, trust and private banking business.

"Located in the nation's capital, Riggs Bank has 53 branches in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, as well as banking offices in Miami, London and Berlin."


July 26, 1991: "State Fines Bush's Brother in Stock Case" by Frank Phillips, Globe Staff.
"Massachusetts securities regulators have fined the stockbrokerage firm owned by President Bush's brother Jonathan $30,000 and barred it from trading with the general public for one year because the company and Bush violated state registration laws.

"As part of a consent order worked out with Secretary of State Michael J. Connolly's securities division, the New York firm of J. Bush & Co., whose only principal is Jonathan J. Bush, also agreed that it would offer to reimburse its clients in Massachusetts for stocks it had sold them since January 1988. . . .

"Connolly's securities chief, Neal Sullivan, said yesterday that Bush's problems began in February when Bush informed his agency that he had never registered as a broker-dealer in Massachusetts. But Sullivan said Bush compounded his legal problem by taking a cavalier attitude toward the violation of the Uniform Securities Act when he continued to carry out transactions even as state regulators were negotiating a consent decree with him.

"'That created great concern for us. We were dismayed,' Sullivan said. 'Anyone who has been notified that he is violating state law and continues to do so certainly exemplifies a cavalier attitude toward the registration laws.'" . . .

"Federal bank regulators are preparing to impose fines on Riggs Bank as soon as this week for not reporting millions of dollars in suspicious transactions at its embassy banking division and have notified bank officers and directors that they may be sanctioned individually, according to people familiar with the investigation. "
"Investigators are looking at the Saudi accounts for evidence of money laundering, which is the use of complex transactions to hide the origin or destination of funds related to illegal activities such as drug smuggling or terrorist acts. The Saudis ended their ties to the bank last month."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2514119

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Jonathan_J...

The checks from Princess Haifa were drawn on Riggs Bank in Washington D.C. One of the chief officers of Riggs Bank is Jonathan Bush, an uncle of President George W. Bush.

According to Margie Burns in her article titled Bush-connected firm provided security at World Trade Center, "Given that Jonathan Bush, the president's uncle, is a Riggs executive, it is difficult to understand any obstacle for US authorities pursuing the recently reported "Saudi money trail." The princess's charitable activities were processed through Riggs, but attention focused on the Saudis seems not to extend to the US bank they used."
http://www.opednews.com/duncan_bush_should_cry_uncle_an...

"Riggs Bank’s failure to alert investigators to a large number of unusual cash transactions by the Saudi Embassy and other foreign bank customers has led to a wide-ranging investigation by Treasury Department regulators....

"'Anytime, you have suspicious money movements, and it’s not reported as needed, it hurts our overall efforts,' a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said ..."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4687305 /

The president and CEO of Riggs Bank is Jonathan Bush, whose father was Prescott Bush, money-launderer to the Nazi party, and whose nephew is the court-appointed CEO of the United States of America.
So where has the money gone?


Oil Boom Enriches African Ruler.
That has been declared a "state secret" by Equatorial Guinea's ruler, Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. But the Guinean ambassador to the U.S. and other sources close to Obiang say the country's oil funds are held in an account at Riggs Bank in Washington.

Multiple sources, including another Guinean government official, have since told the Los Angeles Times about the Riggs account. Several sources familiar with the account said it was controlled exclusively by Obiang and its balance has ranged from $300 million to $500 million during the last two years. An ExxonMobil spokeswoman declined to comment on payments it makes to Equatorial Guinea, citing a confidentiality agreement with the country. Amerada Hess and Riggs did not return phone calls.

The bank has provided mortgages on one of Obiang's two luxury homes in Maryland and on an official residence for Nsue in Virginia. A Riggs banker assisted Obiang's brother -- accused in State Department reports of ordering the torture of political prisoners -- in the purchase of a home in Virginia. The banker vouched for Obiang's brother as a "valued customer" in correspondence with the seller's agent.

Concerns about Equatorial Guinea are rooted in a history of petroleum-fueled corruption in its neighboring nations. Angola ranks 161st out of 173 countries on the United Nations' Human Development Index, which ranks nations according to their citizens' quality of life, and its president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is believed to have accumulated a vast personal fortune. The London-based group Global Witness, which investigates the oil business in Africa, estimates that at least $1.4 billion of Angola's energy revenue disappeared last year.

The situation in Nigeria is equally grim. In April, the family of former strongman Gen. Sani Abacha agreed to return $1 billion that he stole between 1993 and 1998. That was only about one-quarter of the money that the current Nigerian government accuses Abacha of embezzling during his reign. African countries provide the United States with about 15% of its oil, nearly as much as Saudi Arabia. That figure could grow to 25% by 2015, according to a study by a U.S. intelligence panel. Urged on by the oil industry, the administration hopes to use African oil to reduce the United States' dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

more
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/econ/oil1.html

..According to two articles in the Progressive Populist written by Margie Burns, from 1993 to 2000, Bush served on the board of Securacom (since renamed Stratesec). The chairman of the board of Stratesec is Wirt D. Walker III, a cousin of Marvin and George W. Bush. Securacom had contracts to provide security for Dulles International Airport (the airport from which American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, originated) and the World Trade Center in New York.

Securacom's backers include a number of Kuwaitis through a company called KuwAm Corp (Kuwaiti-American Corp.). Stratesec also has Saudi investors.

Walker also serves as a managing director of KuwAm, which maintains offices within the Watergate complex along with Riggs Bank, on whose board Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, sits. Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar, used a Riggs account to funnel money to Omar al Bayoumi and Osama Basnan, two Saudi students in California associated with two of the 911 hijackers.

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/10-16-03/discussion.cg...

PRESIDENT BUSH'S UNCLE IS A CHIEF EXECUTIVE AT RIGGS BANK
According to the nonprofit Texans for Public Justice, Jonathan Bush is the President and CEO of Riggs Investment Management - a major arm of Riggs Bank. He is also the uncle of President George W. Bush. The President "credits the investors sent his way by this banker uncle as a key to his 'success' in the Texas oil industry in the early '80s." According to Public Citizen, the uncle Jonathan was a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000.
more
http://www.davidsirota.com /

Riggs fails to detect, report suspicious cash transactions
The Federal Reserve ordered Riggs International Banking Corp. to hire an outside consultant to conduct a thorough review of the bank's transactions.

BY CHRISTINA HOAG

[e-mail]

BANKING
Riggs Bank has been fined $25 million by the Treasury Department for failing to detect and report tens of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions by foreign governments, particularly Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.
On Friday, the Federal Reserve ordered Riggs' Miami operation, Riggs International Banking Corp., to hire an outside consultant to conduct a thorough review of the bank's transactions and money-laundering controls.
The McLean, Va.-based bank said last month that it planned to shutter the 24-year-old Miami subsidiary, located at 800 Brickell Ave., ``to significantly reduce its risk exposure.''
Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also ordered the bank on Thursday to adopt new anti-money-laundering controls including implementing internal audits and ensuring competent management.
In a statement, the bank said: ``Riggs is 100 percent committed to fulfilling all of our regulatory responsibilities and to doing our part to protect the financial system, and we will hasten our efforts toward these goals.''
The Treasury agency found that Riggs had violated the Bank Secrecy Act on numerous occasions


more
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/8670766.h...

"Pioneers" and "Rangers" raised almost $300 M for Chimperror.
Tha's a lot of knockin' around money. What do you suppose they expect in return? Will they survive Chimpageddon?

Pioneers Fill Campaign War Chest, Then Capitalize
By Thomas B. Edsall, Sarah Cohen and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, May 16, 2004; Page A01

First of two articles

GREENSBORO, Ga. -- Joined by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and a host of celebrities, hundreds of wealthy Republicans gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge here in the first weekend in April, not for a fundraiser but for a celebration of fundraisers. It was billed as an "appreciation weekend," and there was much to appreciate.

As Bush "Pioneers" who had raised at least $100,000 each for the president's reelection campaign, or "Rangers" who had raised $200,000 each, the men and women who shot skeet with Cheney, played golf with pros Ben Crenshaw and Fuzzy Zoeller and laughed at the jokes of comedian Dennis Miller are the heart of the most successful political money operation in the nation's history. Since 1998, Bush has raised a record $296.3 million in campaign funds, giving him an overwhelming advantage in running against Vice President Al Gore and now Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). At least a third of the total -- many sources believe more than half -- was raised by 631 people.

BIG SNIP...

"This is the most impressive, organized, focused and disciplined fundraising operation I have ever been involved in," declared Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, who has been raising money for GOP candidates since 1980. "They have done just about everything right."

For achieving their fundraising goals, Pioneers receive a relatively modest token, the right to buy a set of silver cuff links with an engraved Lone Star of Texas (Rangers can buy a more expensive belt buckle set). Their real reward is entree to the White House and the upper levels of the administration.

CONTINUED...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29142-20...

Jonathan Bush's campaign cash...in detail 1993-2004
From Connecticut:
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=CT&la... ...
From New York:
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NY&la... ...

CNN: Bank fined $25 million in terrorism probe

<SNIP>
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators fined Riggs Bank a record $25 million on Thursday for allegedly violating anti-money laundering laws in its handling of tens of millions in cash transactions in Saudi-controlled accounts under investigation for possible links to terrorism financing.

The civil fine against the midsize Washington bank with a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital's diplomatic community is the largest ever imposed on a financial institution for such violations, experts said. It had been expected.
</SNIP>

Wouldn't it be interesting to see if any of the Saudis secretly flown out of the US on 9/12-9/13 were on the list?

If I had the money, I would place a large bet on it. I imagine I would be quite rich as well...

JM

[faithnotgreed]

35. thank you. i did say there were too many to list, but i know what

i sent them was just the very tip of the iceberg. i was trying to contain it to "current" wh scandal so as not to go too all tinfoily on them

but im with you no doubt about that

guess ill need to start a series of emails....

[Octafish]

38. Great post, there FNG! You know "The House of Bandar Bush?"

Excellent post, jude. Truly well written and most profound.

You might enjoy Hermes Press. It's a site maintained by possibly like-minded individuals...

The Bush-Saudi Connection



http://www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm

[Karenina]

40. Kick!

:kick:

[Octafish]

41. Thank, Karenina! Reminded me: "George (Poppy) Bush's War"

This book detailed how Bush Senior ALSO skirted around the Constitution in his rush to war over Kuwait. Remember how cowed Congress was? They were worried that Poppy would go to war, solely on his word as Commander-in-Chief. It's not funny to see history repeat itself through the policies of his Dim Son's madministration.

George Bush's War

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805013881/p11-20/ref%3Dnosim/103-9844727-4008623

What President Dwight D. Eisenhower said on 4 April 1956:

"I have announced time and time again that I will never be guilty of any kind of action that can be interpreted as war until Congress, which has the Constitutional authority, says so... And I am not going to order any troops into anything that can be interpreted as war until Congress directs it."

What resident George W Bush said on 19 March 2003:

"Let's go."