Mystery Surrounds Death of State Dept. Official - John Kokal

[Sliverofhope]

by Wayne Madsen
(special to From The Wilderness)

November 20, 2003 (FTW), WASHINGTON -- In a case eerily reminiscent of the death of British Ministry of Defense bio-weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly, an official of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Near East and South Asian division (INR/NESA), John J. Kokal, 58, was found dead in the late afternoon of November 7. Police indicated he may have jumped from the roof of the State Department. Kokal's body was found at the bottom of a 20 foot window well, 8 floors below the roof of the State Department headquarters near the 23rd and D Street location. Kokal's death was briefly mentioned in a FOX News website story on November 8 but has been virtually overlooked by the major media.

Interestingly, the FOX report states that State Department officials confirmed Kokal's death to The Washington Post yet the Post - according to an archive search - has published nothing at all about Kokal's death.

Kokal's INR bureau was at the forefront of confronting claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Washington police have not ruled out homicide as the cause of his death. Kokal was not wearing either a jacket or shoes when his body was found. He lived in Arlington, Virginia.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/112003_kokal.html

Working with Iraq intel must be stressful work, to drive so many to suicide.

[NewJeffCT]

1. interesting

maybe he was ready to turn in somebody at the White House?

[redqueen]

2. I'll be calling my local news outlets.

Why isn't this news? It's more newsworthy to me than local football scores, or recipes for Thanksgiving.

[Sliverofhope]

3. Thanks

It certainly seems suspicious, moreso by the fact that nobody's heard of it. Perhaps now the internet can make a difference and override the corporate media's block.

[glitch]

4. the way the media majors ignore this story is most

telling. Good for Wayne Madsen to not let this man's death pass unexamined.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. Absolutely true, a conspiracy of silence.

Which of course isn't to suggest the media is "in" on it. Merely that the media knows which questions are forbidden and shouldn't be asked.

I've been looking for any follow-up to the paltry original coverage, but there's been nothing.

[RandomKoolzip]

5. I remember this on DU a few weeks ago...

I also remember kicking it so many times that it stayed in the LBN forum front page for over a week. Something really fishy about this story; sounds like he mighta been a potential whistleblower. And no shoes?!?! What kinda psycho-mafia shit are we dealing with in this administration?

[ComerPerro]

6. Maybe a guilty conscience?

perhaps?

[joanski01]

7. There was so a story

published in the Washington Post, because I copied it and put it in the earlier LBN thread about this. What the hell is going no now?

[Snazzy]

14. Still there

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14194-2003Nov7_2.html

It doesn't turn up in a search, but the search mechanism is pretty lousy, esp. if you want something older than two weeks.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. important quotes:

it would have been impossible for Kokal to have gained entry to the roof on his own. INR occupies both a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on the sixth floor that has no windows and a windowless structure on the roof that has neither windows nor access to the roof, according to the former official. The other windows at the State Department have been engineered to be shatter proof from terrorist bomb attacks and cannot be opened.

INR and other State Department officials report that a "chill" has set in at the State Department following Kokal's defenestration. A number of employees are afraid to talk about the suspicious death. It also unusual that The Northern Virginia Journal, a local Arlington newspaper, has not published an obituary notice on Kokal.

[donsu]

10. add another to the Bush Body Count

nt

[SpiralHawk]

11. Baxterized. Another one.

The Bastards.

The Great Mandala keeps on turning. Their turn will come in time. One of the few perennial truths.

[Sliverofhope]

12. kick

this may be old hat, but I'll give it one more spin through

[tom_paine]

13. From the CIA Assassination Manual...

"The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stair wells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve."

http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Documents/Assassination%20Manual.html

[Snazzy]

15. kick for the dead guy

Something very wrong here.

No obit. No press period.

If it's not news when a spook "jumps" off the roof of the State Department, our media has totally failed. End of story.

What's up with Wilson/Plame? That seems to have quieted too.

Did Kokal have pebbles in his pockets?