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Octafish
Octafish's Journal
Octafish's Journal
January 13, 2015
Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton
That would make Rupert Murdoch very, very, very, very happy.
Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton
January 12, 2015
Word.
How DU felt about Jeb Bush in 2004
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1647117Word.
January 12, 2015
The 1983 movie "WarGames" led to an anti-hacking law with felony penalties aimed at deterring intrusions into NORAD. Over time, it became broad and vague enough to ensnare the late Aaron Swartz.
by Declan McCullagh
Cnet, March 13, 2013
Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide while facing the possibility of a felony criminal conviction, was prosecuted under a law that was never intended to cover what he was accused of doing.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 dealt only with bank and defense-related intrusions. But over the years, thanks to constant pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, the scope of the law slowly crept outward.
So by the time Swartz was arrested in 2011, the tough federal statute meant to protect our national defense secrets covered everything from Bradley Manning's offenses to violating a Web site's terms of use, a breathtaking expansion that has led to a House of Representatives hearing today and other calls for reform .
In the hands of aggressive federal prosecutors, that wide-ranging law has become the proverbial hammer where a scalpel will do. It has been used against a New Jersey man who will be sentenced Monday for accesssing a portion of AT&T's Web site that was not password protected, and against a Missouri woman accused of lying on her MySpace profile .
"In 20 years, we've seen the law become broader and the penalties become more Draconian," says Hanni Fakhoury, a former federal public defender who's now an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "And as a result, we have this situation."
It was the mighty CFAA that brought down Swartz. The district attorney for Massachusetts' Middlesex County, which includes MIT's Cambridge campus, reportedly had no plans to throw the book at him. The curators of the academic database he accessed, JSTOR, have said for years that they had "no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter."
But once his case was in federal hands, Swartz became, in the words of prosecutor Carmen Ortiz, no different than a violent criminal. "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar," Ortiz said at the time.
What Ortiz didn't say is that the CFAA's punishments, drafted during a post-WarGames computer hacking scare and designed to deter intrusions into NORAD, threatened Swartz with stiffer penalties than if he had been convicted of assault with an actual crowbar. An additional indictment Ortiz's office filed last year sought up to 50 years of prison, which, realistically, meant something like 7 years because Swartz had no criminal record. Justice Department statistics (PDF) show that the median length of incarceration for sexual assault and aggravated assault is 5 years.
CONTINUED...
http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u-s-anti-hacking-law-went-astray/
USA PATRIOT Act meets Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
From 'WarGames' to Aaron Swartz: How U.S. anti-hacking law went astrayThe 1983 movie "WarGames" led to an anti-hacking law with felony penalties aimed at deterring intrusions into NORAD. Over time, it became broad and vague enough to ensnare the late Aaron Swartz.
by Declan McCullagh
Cnet, March 13, 2013
Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide while facing the possibility of a felony criminal conviction, was prosecuted under a law that was never intended to cover what he was accused of doing.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 dealt only with bank and defense-related intrusions. But over the years, thanks to constant pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, the scope of the law slowly crept outward.
So by the time Swartz was arrested in 2011, the tough federal statute meant to protect our national defense secrets covered everything from Bradley Manning's offenses to violating a Web site's terms of use, a breathtaking expansion that has led to a House of Representatives hearing today and other calls for reform .
In the hands of aggressive federal prosecutors, that wide-ranging law has become the proverbial hammer where a scalpel will do. It has been used against a New Jersey man who will be sentenced Monday for accesssing a portion of AT&T's Web site that was not password protected, and against a Missouri woman accused of lying on her MySpace profile .
"In 20 years, we've seen the law become broader and the penalties become more Draconian," says Hanni Fakhoury, a former federal public defender who's now an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "And as a result, we have this situation."
It was the mighty CFAA that brought down Swartz. The district attorney for Massachusetts' Middlesex County, which includes MIT's Cambridge campus, reportedly had no plans to throw the book at him. The curators of the academic database he accessed, JSTOR, have said for years that they had "no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter."
But once his case was in federal hands, Swartz became, in the words of prosecutor Carmen Ortiz, no different than a violent criminal. "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar," Ortiz said at the time.
What Ortiz didn't say is that the CFAA's punishments, drafted during a post-WarGames computer hacking scare and designed to deter intrusions into NORAD, threatened Swartz with stiffer penalties than if he had been convicted of assault with an actual crowbar. An additional indictment Ortiz's office filed last year sought up to 50 years of prison, which, realistically, meant something like 7 years because Swartz had no criminal record. Justice Department statistics (PDF) show that the median length of incarceration for sexual assault and aggravated assault is 5 years.
CONTINUED...
http://www.cnet.com/news/from-wargames-to-aaron-swartz-how-u-s-anti-hacking-law-went-astray/
January 11, 2015
Note how he was proud to travel to Ireland with a leader of American labor.
Thanks to the great DUer, MinM!
John F. Kennedy in New Ross and Wexford, Ireland: June 27, 1963
Note how he was proud to travel to Ireland with a leader of American labor.
Thanks to the great DUer, MinM!
January 10, 2015
''At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win!''
Gen. Thomas S. Power, USAF.
Did the U.S. Military Plan a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Did_the_US_Military_Plan_a_Nuclear_First_Strike_for_1963
January 10, 2015
NEO – CIA Torture Report Ties Cheney/Bout to 9/11 Nukes
by Gordon Duff
Veterans Today, January 8, 2015
Information received this week from the highest levels of US counter-terrorism sources have confirmed that the reputed “Queen of Al Qaeda,” Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a CIA torture victim now serving 87 years in an American “super-max” prison, was a CIA agent when captured and was imprisoned to prevent releasing information that could eventually lead to the arrest and conviction of then Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney and his henchmen were silencing critics, eliminating “loose ends” tied to Able Danger and 9/11 and completing the process of dismantling the last vestiges of representative government in the US and Western Europe. The story today ties the Valerie Plame scandal, a CIA agent exposed as retaliation at Cheney’s orders.
Our coup was when we learned that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, termed a veritable “female bin Laden” was not only CIA but an asset for Valerie Plame in an investigation originally aimed at Saddam but that had turned around and was pointing directly at the White House.
The Plame investigation aided by Siddiqui’s proof no “yellowcake/Al Qaeda” plot had ever existed went much further than initially intended. Cheney was revealed to be the “handler” for now imprisoned Victor Bout, revealed by the FBI in a 2007 Bangkok briefing to be greatly responsible for supplying the nuclear weapons nukes used on the WTC and, according to FBI sources, a cruise missile as well that the FBI asserts was used on the Pentagon on 9/11.
Thus, when Libby/Liebowitz was convicted, it was openly accepted that he was protecting Cheney from the fallout of simply “running his mouth.” In truth, as we will establish, even Cheney’s proven role in pushing America into an illegal war is only the tip of the iceberg.
CONTINUED...
Posted by Gordon Duff on January 8, 2015
Wow. "Libby/Liebowitz." That sounds anti-Semitic to me. Isn't it hypocritical to approve of this source, as you do in reply 192 above, zappaman?
Don't worry. I won't ask why you never post anything about the crimes of the national security state.
Never. That's why I post on the BFEE and the crimes of the national security state.
For example (seeing how you approve of the source as ''Good Info'' in 192):
NEO – CIA Torture Report Ties Cheney/Bout to 9/11 Nukes
by Gordon Duff
Veterans Today, January 8, 2015
Information received this week from the highest levels of US counter-terrorism sources have confirmed that the reputed “Queen of Al Qaeda,” Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a CIA torture victim now serving 87 years in an American “super-max” prison, was a CIA agent when captured and was imprisoned to prevent releasing information that could eventually lead to the arrest and conviction of then Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney and his henchmen were silencing critics, eliminating “loose ends” tied to Able Danger and 9/11 and completing the process of dismantling the last vestiges of representative government in the US and Western Europe. The story today ties the Valerie Plame scandal, a CIA agent exposed as retaliation at Cheney’s orders.
Our coup was when we learned that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, termed a veritable “female bin Laden” was not only CIA but an asset for Valerie Plame in an investigation originally aimed at Saddam but that had turned around and was pointing directly at the White House.
The Plame investigation aided by Siddiqui’s proof no “yellowcake/Al Qaeda” plot had ever existed went much further than initially intended. Cheney was revealed to be the “handler” for now imprisoned Victor Bout, revealed by the FBI in a 2007 Bangkok briefing to be greatly responsible for supplying the nuclear weapons nukes used on the WTC and, according to FBI sources, a cruise missile as well that the FBI asserts was used on the Pentagon on 9/11.
Thus, when Libby/Liebowitz was convicted, it was openly accepted that he was protecting Cheney from the fallout of simply “running his mouth.” In truth, as we will establish, even Cheney’s proven role in pushing America into an illegal war is only the tip of the iceberg.
CONTINUED...
Posted by Gordon Duff on January 8, 2015
Wow. "Libby/Liebowitz." That sounds anti-Semitic to me. Isn't it hypocritical to approve of this source, as you do in reply 192 above, zappaman?
Don't worry. I won't ask why you never post anything about the crimes of the national security state.
January 10, 2015
Drone Killings and Torture: Peace Activists to be “Rehabilitated” in Jail
Institute for Public Accuracy
Press Release, December 15, 2014
Students gather at the site of a suspected U.S. drone strike on an Islamic seminary in Hangu districtMarcy Wheeler writes in “From Bush to Obama, Eyes Wide Shut: The same memo Bush used to wall himself off from the details of CIA torture is keeping Obama’s drone war alive” that: “On the second day of Barack Obama’s presidency, he prohibited most forms of physical torture. On the third, a CIA drone strike he authorized killed up to 11 civilians.”
Also, see: “U.S. drone strikes kill 28 unknown people for every intended target, new Reprieve report reveals.”
KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org, @voiceinwild
Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly was just sentenced to three months in prison for protesting against drone killings. Recently in Afghanistan, Kelly is currently in Chicago. She will be in New York City around Christmas and in Washington, D.C. just after New Years. She has been told to “self-report” by the court on Jan. 23.
She recently wrote the piece “Drones and Discrimination: Kick the Habit,” which states: “On December 10, International Human Rights Day, federal Magistrate Matt Whitworth sentenced me to three months in prison for having crossed the line at a military base that wages drone warfare. The punishment for our attempt to speak on behalf of trapped and desperate people, abroad, will be an opportunity to speak with people trapped by prisons and impoverishment here in the U.S.
“Our trial was based on a trespass charge incurred on June 1, 2014. Georgia Walker and I were immediately arrested when we stepped onto Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force where pilots fly weaponized drones over Afghanistan and other countries. We carried a loaf of bread and a letter for Brig Gen. Glen D. Van Herck. In court, we testified that we hadn’t acted with criminal intent but had, rather, exercised our First Amendment right (and responsibility) to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance.
“A group of Afghan friends had entrusted me with a simple message, their grievance, which they couldn’t personally deliver: please stop killing us.
“I knew that people I’ve lived with, striving to end wars even as their communities were bombed by drone aircraft, would understand the symbolism of asking to break bread with the base commander. Judge Whitworth said he understood that we oppose war, but he could recommend over 100 better ways to make our point that wouldn’t be breaking the law.
“The prosecution recommended the maximum six month sentence. ‘Ms. Kelly needs to be rehabilitated,’ said an earnest young military lawyer. The judge paged through a four page summary of past convictions and agreed that I hadn’t yet learned not to break the law.”
JACK GILROY, jgilroy1 at stny.rr.com
Gilroy recently completed a two month sentence for protesting drone killings at the Hancock Air base in upstate New York. See from Syracuse.com: “Grandfather of eight/drone protester says he was not ‘corrected’ at Jamesville Correctional Facility.” Gilroy wrote the play “The Predator” about drone killing.
MARK COLVILLE, amistadcwh at yahoo.com
Colville is a member of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Conn. and is, like Gilroy, one of about 100 activists who have been charged following protests at the Hancock Air base organized by the Upstate New York Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.
He was recently on the program “Democracy Now!,” where he stated: “The United States government, through its drone program, is claiming the legal right to targeted assassinations, extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate killing and the targeting, deliberate targeting, of civilians. For example, even the military admits that one of its modes of operation in drone strikes is something that they have called ‘double tapping,’ which is that after striking a target, the drone is directed back to that same target 20 minutes or a half an hour later in order to strike again after first responders have come to help the wounded. And so, it’s on a foundation of criminality. And as we’ve experienced in the numerous public actions and arrests at Hancock Air Field, this program operates beyond the reach of courts and law. And what we’re trying to do is to get courts to [address] the criminality in which the United States government is engaged through the drone program.”
See IPA news release: “31 Protesters Arrested at Drone Base in Syracuse.”
SOURCE w/links: http://www.accuracy.org/release/drone-killings-and-torture-peace-activists-to-be-rehabilitated-in-jail/
Don't know about you, but Uncle Sam jailing US citizens who simply protest extrajudicial killing by drone bothers me.
Drone Killings and Torture: Peace Activists to be “Rehabilitated” in Jail
Drone Killings and Torture: Peace Activists to be “Rehabilitated” in Jail
Institute for Public Accuracy
Press Release, December 15, 2014
Students gather at the site of a suspected U.S. drone strike on an Islamic seminary in Hangu districtMarcy Wheeler writes in “From Bush to Obama, Eyes Wide Shut: The same memo Bush used to wall himself off from the details of CIA torture is keeping Obama’s drone war alive” that: “On the second day of Barack Obama’s presidency, he prohibited most forms of physical torture. On the third, a CIA drone strike he authorized killed up to 11 civilians.”
Also, see: “U.S. drone strikes kill 28 unknown people for every intended target, new Reprieve report reveals.”
KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org, @voiceinwild
Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly was just sentenced to three months in prison for protesting against drone killings. Recently in Afghanistan, Kelly is currently in Chicago. She will be in New York City around Christmas and in Washington, D.C. just after New Years. She has been told to “self-report” by the court on Jan. 23.
She recently wrote the piece “Drones and Discrimination: Kick the Habit,” which states: “On December 10, International Human Rights Day, federal Magistrate Matt Whitworth sentenced me to three months in prison for having crossed the line at a military base that wages drone warfare. The punishment for our attempt to speak on behalf of trapped and desperate people, abroad, will be an opportunity to speak with people trapped by prisons and impoverishment here in the U.S.
“Our trial was based on a trespass charge incurred on June 1, 2014. Georgia Walker and I were immediately arrested when we stepped onto Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force where pilots fly weaponized drones over Afghanistan and other countries. We carried a loaf of bread and a letter for Brig Gen. Glen D. Van Herck. In court, we testified that we hadn’t acted with criminal intent but had, rather, exercised our First Amendment right (and responsibility) to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance.
“A group of Afghan friends had entrusted me with a simple message, their grievance, which they couldn’t personally deliver: please stop killing us.
“I knew that people I’ve lived with, striving to end wars even as their communities were bombed by drone aircraft, would understand the symbolism of asking to break bread with the base commander. Judge Whitworth said he understood that we oppose war, but he could recommend over 100 better ways to make our point that wouldn’t be breaking the law.
“The prosecution recommended the maximum six month sentence. ‘Ms. Kelly needs to be rehabilitated,’ said an earnest young military lawyer. The judge paged through a four page summary of past convictions and agreed that I hadn’t yet learned not to break the law.”
JACK GILROY, jgilroy1 at stny.rr.com
Gilroy recently completed a two month sentence for protesting drone killings at the Hancock Air base in upstate New York. See from Syracuse.com: “Grandfather of eight/drone protester says he was not ‘corrected’ at Jamesville Correctional Facility.” Gilroy wrote the play “The Predator” about drone killing.
MARK COLVILLE, amistadcwh at yahoo.com
Colville is a member of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, Conn. and is, like Gilroy, one of about 100 activists who have been charged following protests at the Hancock Air base organized by the Upstate New York Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.
He was recently on the program “Democracy Now!,” where he stated: “The United States government, through its drone program, is claiming the legal right to targeted assassinations, extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate killing and the targeting, deliberate targeting, of civilians. For example, even the military admits that one of its modes of operation in drone strikes is something that they have called ‘double tapping,’ which is that after striking a target, the drone is directed back to that same target 20 minutes or a half an hour later in order to strike again after first responders have come to help the wounded. And so, it’s on a foundation of criminality. And as we’ve experienced in the numerous public actions and arrests at Hancock Air Field, this program operates beyond the reach of courts and law. And what we’re trying to do is to get courts to [address] the criminality in which the United States government is engaged through the drone program.”
See IPA news release: “31 Protesters Arrested at Drone Base in Syracuse.”
SOURCE w/links: http://www.accuracy.org/release/drone-killings-and-torture-peace-activists-to-be-rehabilitated-in-jail/
Don't know about you, but Uncle Sam jailing US citizens who simply protest extrajudicial killing by drone bothers me.
January 9, 2015
Missionaries and the CIA
The Washington Star for July 23, 1975, reported the following:
In the Salt Lake City Messenger for Jan. 1975, we suggested that the Mormon Church could provide a perfect cover for the CIA agents:
Since the Mullen Company [the firm which handled the Mormon Church's public relations] was used as a cover for the CIA, a question concerning the involvement of the Mormon Church with the CIA naturally arises . . .
The Mormon Church's world-wide activities and mission program could provide a perfect cover for CIA agents, but at the present time we have no evidence that this is actually the case. We do know, however, that the Church provides many men for the CIA. Writing in the New York Times for September 16, 1974, Wallace Turner states: "Many Mormon scholars work on contracts for the C.I.A." We recently asked a man who had taught at Brigham Young University if he had any reason to believe that the Mormon missionary program is used as a cover for CIA agents. He replied that he did not, but he went on to state that many missionaries are later recruited to CIA work. He felt that the missionary program provided good training for CIA agents. The missionaries are taught absolute obedience to authority and many of them learn foreign languages as well.
On Feb. 22, 1975, an employee of the CIA sent us a letter in which he stated:
CONTINUED...
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no38.htm
About a decade ago, a neighbor of mine and his family were "volunteered" by their local ultra-right wing church to become missionaries in Nigeria, stationed in Jos, smack in the middle of the Muslim-Christian power struggle, basically a civil war for control of oil revenues. He did not like hearing from me how he was being used by the corporate class who believe in their holy right to own other people's lands and lives. After a couple tours of duty, including one in which their young child contracted malaria, they came back home. Happy to report their jobs were still there, etc. Plus, their reverend got props from his bishop for the number of volunteers he could find. Gosh, this sounds like a familiar refrain to you and all good DUers, not news at all to my religious neighbors and the greedy murderers they unwittingly serve.
We know the reason for the media silence: mineral extraction rights.
Heartbreaking. Mass murder in service of mineral wealth.
A bit of history that's really news...
Missionaries and the CIA
The Washington Star for July 23, 1975, reported the following:
Almost from its inception in 1947, the CIA has used religious groups both as a source of information and as a conduit for funds. CIA spokesmen declined to discuss the CIA-church connection in any detail . . .
Sources said the CIA dealt with religious groups in Latin America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
A spokesman for the Senate select intelligence committee said the panel's staff is investigating complaints that the CIA has had improper dealings with missionaries.
Sources said the CIA dealt with religious groups in Latin America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
A spokesman for the Senate select intelligence committee said the panel's staff is investigating complaints that the CIA has had improper dealings with missionaries.
In the Salt Lake City Messenger for Jan. 1975, we suggested that the Mormon Church could provide a perfect cover for the CIA agents:
Since the Mullen Company [the firm which handled the Mormon Church's public relations] was used as a cover for the CIA, a question concerning the involvement of the Mormon Church with the CIA naturally arises . . .
The Mormon Church's world-wide activities and mission program could provide a perfect cover for CIA agents, but at the present time we have no evidence that this is actually the case. We do know, however, that the Church provides many men for the CIA. Writing in the New York Times for September 16, 1974, Wallace Turner states: "Many Mormon scholars work on contracts for the C.I.A." We recently asked a man who had taught at Brigham Young University if he had any reason to believe that the Mormon missionary program is used as a cover for CIA agents. He replied that he did not, but he went on to state that many missionaries are later recruited to CIA work. He felt that the missionary program provided good training for CIA agents. The missionaries are taught absolute obedience to authority and many of them learn foreign languages as well.
On Feb. 22, 1975, an employee of the CIA sent us a letter in which he stated:
Thank you for your current "Messenger." As usual it is very informative.
I am currently employed with the Central Intelligence Agency and can attest to the fact that the Agency has been very fruitful in hiring Mormons, especially former missionaries.
In my section they are four . . .
I'm sorry I do not have any vital information other than what I just told you. I would appreciate it if you would keep the above information in your confidence as to not using my name. I do not feel that I have given you any secret information but people can sometimes make something out of nothing.
I am currently employed with the Central Intelligence Agency and can attest to the fact that the Agency has been very fruitful in hiring Mormons, especially former missionaries.
In my section they are four . . .
I'm sorry I do not have any vital information other than what I just told you. I would appreciate it if you would keep the above information in your confidence as to not using my name. I do not feel that I have given you any secret information but people can sometimes make something out of nothing.
CONTINUED...
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no38.htm
About a decade ago, a neighbor of mine and his family were "volunteered" by their local ultra-right wing church to become missionaries in Nigeria, stationed in Jos, smack in the middle of the Muslim-Christian power struggle, basically a civil war for control of oil revenues. He did not like hearing from me how he was being used by the corporate class who believe in their holy right to own other people's lands and lives. After a couple tours of duty, including one in which their young child contracted malaria, they came back home. Happy to report their jobs were still there, etc. Plus, their reverend got props from his bishop for the number of volunteers he could find. Gosh, this sounds like a familiar refrain to you and all good DUers, not news at all to my religious neighbors and the greedy murderers they unwittingly serve.
We know the reason for the media silence: mineral extraction rights.
January 9, 2015
Rothschild and Freshfields founders’ had links to slavery, papers reveal
By Carola Hoyos
Financial Times
Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.
Far from being a matter of distant history, slavery remains a highly contentious issue in the US, where Rothschild and Freshfields are both active.
Companies alleged to have links to past slave injustices have come under pressure to make restitution.
JPMorgan, the investment bank, set up a $5m scholarship fund for black students studying in Louisiana after apologising in 2005 for the company’s historic links to slavery.
CONTINUED (with registration, etc) ...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html
Generation upon generation, knowing only service to power and property.
Kevin Phillips called them a ''multigenerational family of fibbers.''
The Barreling Bushes
Four generations of the dynasty have chased profits through cozy ties with Mideast leaders, spinning webs of conflicts of interest
by Kevin Phillips
Published on Sunday, January 11, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
EXCERPT...
During these years, Bush's four sons - George W., Jeb, Neil and Marvin - were following in the family footsteps, lining up business deals with Saudi, Kuwaiti and Bahraini moneymen and cozying up to BCCI. The Middle East was becoming a convenient family money spigot.
Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) - billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using Bin Laden-Bin Mahfouz funds.
In the late 1980s, after several failed oil ventures, the future 43rd president let the ailing oil business in which he was a major stockholder and chairman be bought out by another foreign-influenced operation, Harken Energy. The Wall Street Journal commented in 1991, "The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were. But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken - all since George W. Bush came on board - likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son."
Other hints of cronyism came in 1990 when inexperienced Harken got a major contract to drill in the Persian Gulf for the government of Bahrain. Time magazine reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, in their book "The Outlaw Bank," concluded "that Mahfouz, or other BCCI players, must have had a hand in steering the oil-drilling contract to the president's son." The web entangling the Bush presidencies was already being spun.
CONTINUED...
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kevin_phillips.htm
Of course no one's heard of the BFEE. While they wonder how Saddam got WMDs, Wall Street gets ahead.
That's not true and you know it, YoungDemCA.
Both of these guys had ancestors and cronies in the slave trade.
Baron de Rothschild and Prescott Bush, share a moment and some information, back in the day.
The people who tried to overthrow FDR in 1933 had kids.
And their offspring* and connected cronies in crime are the ones* screwing America now.
What's different today, is we don't have Smedley Butler or FDR to stop them.
* Of course, it's not just a few rich families's offspring who screw the majority today. They've hired help and built up the giant noise machine to continue their work overthrowing the progress FDR and the New Deal brought America for 80 years.
Why would the nation and world's richest people do that? Progress costs money. And they don't want to pay for it, even when they've gained more wealth than all of history put together. Instead, whey continue to work -- legally, through government and lobbyists -- to amass even more, transferring the wealth of the many to themselves.
And instead of an armed mob led by a war hero on a white horse, as planned in 1933, their weapon since Pruneface made his first payment to the Ayatollah has been "Supply Side Economics." To most Americans, that means Trickle-Down.
Rothschild and Freshfields founders’ had links to slavery, papers reveal
By Carola Hoyos
Financial Times
Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.
Far from being a matter of distant history, slavery remains a highly contentious issue in the US, where Rothschild and Freshfields are both active.
Companies alleged to have links to past slave injustices have come under pressure to make restitution.
JPMorgan, the investment bank, set up a $5m scholarship fund for black students studying in Louisiana after apologising in 2005 for the company’s historic links to slavery.
CONTINUED (with registration, etc) ...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html
Generation upon generation, knowing only service to power and property.
Kevin Phillips called them a ''multigenerational family of fibbers.''
The Barreling Bushes
Four generations of the dynasty have chased profits through cozy ties with Mideast leaders, spinning webs of conflicts of interest
by Kevin Phillips
Published on Sunday, January 11, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
EXCERPT...
During these years, Bush's four sons - George W., Jeb, Neil and Marvin - were following in the family footsteps, lining up business deals with Saudi, Kuwaiti and Bahraini moneymen and cozying up to BCCI. The Middle East was becoming a convenient family money spigot.
Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) - billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using Bin Laden-Bin Mahfouz funds.
In the late 1980s, after several failed oil ventures, the future 43rd president let the ailing oil business in which he was a major stockholder and chairman be bought out by another foreign-influenced operation, Harken Energy. The Wall Street Journal commented in 1991, "The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were. But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken - all since George W. Bush came on board - likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son."
Other hints of cronyism came in 1990 when inexperienced Harken got a major contract to drill in the Persian Gulf for the government of Bahrain. Time magazine reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, in their book "The Outlaw Bank," concluded "that Mahfouz, or other BCCI players, must have had a hand in steering the oil-drilling contract to the president's son." The web entangling the Bush presidencies was already being spun.
CONTINUED...
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kevin_phillips.htm
Of course no one's heard of the BFEE. While they wonder how Saddam got WMDs, Wall Street gets ahead.
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