DEEP POLITICS FORUM - Players, organisations, and events of deep politics http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/ Biographical details of the cast of players in Deep Political events. Center stage actors, bit players, character roles, ad libbers and audience participation. Directors, producers, financiers, promoters. Theatres of operations. en Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:19:40 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg DEEP POLITICS FORUM - Players, organisations, and events of deep politics http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/ <![CDATA[The History of Wirt Dexter Walker: Russell & Company, the CIA and 9/11]]> http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4504&goto=newpost Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:49:51 GMT The History of Wirt Dexter Walker: Russell & Company, the CIA and 9/11

Submitted by Kevin Ryan on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 1:30am

World Trade Center (WTC) security company Stratesec has been a topic of considerable discussion among independent 9/11 investigators. One topic discussed has been the possible familial relationship between Stratesec’s CEO, Wirt Dexter Walker III, and its director Marvin Bush, whose brother was President of the United States on 9/11. Although Wirt and Marvin are distant relatives, these ties are inconsequential relative to each man’s family connections to old drug money, deep state operatives, and the wealthy, powerful people who have controlled such money and operatives over the last two centuries.[1]
Stratesec was a company that provided security services for several facilities that were central to the crimes of 9/11. In the years leading up to 9/11, the company had security contracts with the organization that managed Dulles Airport, where Flight 77 took off that day, and with United Airlines, which owned two of the other three hijacked planes.[2] Stratesec had also run security for Los Alamos National Laboratories, where, at the time, scientists were developing super-thermite explosives of the type that have been found in the WTC dust.[3],[4] Stratesec worked at the WTC and was developing the security system for the buildings in the period leading up to, and including, the day of 9/11. These connections are important considering the substantial evidence that insiders were involved in the 9/11 attacks.
Investigation into this company has revealed that the Chief Operating Officer, Barry McDaniel, came to Stratesec from a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group called BDM International, which specialized in “black projects.”[5] The Carlyle Group was managed by several Bush cabal insiders including James Baker and former deputy director of the CIA, Frank Carluccci. Carlyle was funded by investors that included the bin Laden family.[6] Prior to working for BDM, McDaniel had worked as a military ordnance distributor at Fort Belvoir, a facility with many links to 9/11 including the terrorist tracking program Able Danger and the terrorist trainer Ali Mohammed.[7]
McDaniel was not the only former Carlyle Group employee at Stratesec, as the company’s director of information technology was also formerly with BDM.[8] Additionally, the vice president of finance at Stratesec came there from Anadac Molybdenum Corporation, a company where the chairman, Roger Taylor, was also the president of Zapata Granby, a subsidiary of Zapata Corporation. This is the same Zapata Corporation that was founded by George H.W. Bush in the 1950s. George H.W. Bush’s son, Marvin, was a director at Stratesec from 1993 to 2000.
Probably the most interesting person associated with Stratesec was Wirt Dexter Walker III. Despite the “III”, Wirt is actually the fourth Wirt Dexter Walker in the same line. To keep the notations clear, however, in this article we will refer to the Stratesec CEO, Wirt Dexter Walker III, as “Wirt Three.” Given the remarkable connections between Wirt Three and the facilities and aircraft compromised on 9/11, a review of all the Wirts, and where they came from, is worthwhile.
Solomon Walker
Wirt Three’s great-great-great grandfather, Solomon Walker, appeared in Claremont, New Hampshire in the early 1800s. Exactly where he came from, no one knows. The first reports of Solomon were that he was a selectman in Claremont and was married to an heiress named Charity Stevens. Charity was the granddaughter of Elihu Stevens, a justice of the peace who shared in large land grants given to certain people in New Hampshire by the King of England.[9] Charity’s cousin, Paran Stevens, later became a famous hotel mogul in New York City and throughout New England.[10]
Nearly one hundred years after Solomon appeared in Claremont, people were still searching for answers as to his parentage and origination.[11] It is unclear how he came to Claremont and, even today, Solomon’s descendants have not been able to determine where their forefather originated.[12]
Much evidence suggests, however, that Solomon Walker of Claremont was the son of Solomon Walker and Sylvia Delano, of Maine. The recorded history of their youngest son, Solomon, is vague and suggests that he married twice to women much older than him. His second marriage was said to be to Sophia Delano (16 years older), whom he supposedly married a day after his 82-year old father had married her.[13] Although Charity Stevens was 15 years older than Solomon, she was not his stepmother.
For a number of other reasons, it is likely that Solomon “Delano” Walker and/or his father, also named Solomon Walker, made the short journey from Maine to Claremont. Solomon’s father’s hometown was Berwick, ME, which is one hundred miles straight east of Claremont. Berwick is very near Kennebunkport, the long-time home of the Walker side of the Bush family. Coincidentally, Dick Cheney’s great-grandfather, Samuel Fletcher Cheney, was born at about the same time, halfway between Berwick and Claremont, in Boscawen, NH.
Sylvia Delano, Solomon’s mother, was a cousin of Warren Delano, who was a partner of Russell & Company, a China trading firm whose leaders made fortunes through the opium trade. Warren Delano was also the grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Another reason to believe that Solomon Walker was the son of a Delano is that his wife’s cousin, Mathilda Stevens, married the son of Mary Delano. Mary's dad, Abisha Delano, was also a first cousin of Warren Delano. Abisha and Mary were among the many Delanos who lived in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, where Claremont is located.[14] Banker and railroad executive, Francis R. Delano (1842 to 1892), attended Kimball Union Academy in Sullivan County.
The clearest indication that Solomon Walker was a Delano is that one of his sons was treated very generously by Warren Delano and his colleagues. When their son, James Monroe Walker, was a boy, Solomon and Charity moved from Claremont to Oakland County, Michigan. James went to college at Oberlin College initially, before moving to the University of Michigan to study law. After that, James’ fortunes grew exponentially.
James Monroe Walker
Solomon Walker’s son, James Monroe Walker, was an attorney who was President and Solicitor for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (C,B&Q) Railroad, the Michigan Central Railroad, the Wilmington Coal Company, the Kansas City Stockyards, and the Union Stockyard and Transit Company.[15] James M. Walker ran these businesses for the opium traders at Russell & Company, who invested their money in these railroads and other major infrastructure in the US during the mid-1800s.[16]
Russell & Company was started in 1818 by Samuel Russell, cousin of the founder of the “secret society” called Skull & Bones at Yale University, William Huntington Russell. Samuel had gotten his start through merchant companies like Whittlesley & Alsop of Boston, MA. The Alsops were also major investors in the businesses run by James Monroe Walker, and Russell & Company partner John N. Alsop Griswold was a director of the C,B&Q as well as president of the Illinois Central railroad. Many years later, in the 1960s, Washington Post columnist Joe Alsop, a descendant of the Whittlesley & Alsop owners, convinced President Johnson to create the Warren Commission, which was a cover-up for the assassination of President Kennedy.[17]
In 1828, Russell & Company merged with another drug smuggling syndicate run by John Perkins Cushing.[18] Cushing brought in his cousins, Robert Bennet Forbes and John Murray Forbes. Robert Bennet Forbes was Senator John F. Kerry's great-grandfather. John Murray Forbes attended school at Phillips Academy in Andover, the alma mater of George H.W. Bush, and his sons Jeb and George W.
John Murray Forbes coordinated much of the US investment of the Russell & Company partners, and he was the one who hired James Monroe Walker.[19] Walker was first hired as Solicitor for the Michigan Central, and later as Solicitor and President of the C,B&Q. While running these railroads, Walker worked with Nathaniel Thayer Jr, a distant relative of George W. Bush, who was general counsel for the C,B&Q and other Russell & Company businesses that Walker was involved in. Walker worked closely with Sidney Bartlett as well, who was another legal representative for the C,B&Q.
At the same time, Bartlett and Thayer were legal representatives for the railroads owned by Edward H. Harriman, including the Union Pacific.[20] Harriman was a director of the Illinois Central, along with Russell & Co partner John N. Alsop Griswold. Harriman is well known for being the father of William Averell Harriman and Roland Harriman, two Skull & Bones members who founded the Brown Brothers Harriman, whose employees included George Herbert Walker and his son-in-law, Prescott Bush. Eugene Delano and his son, Moreau Delano, were partners in Brown Brothers Harriman as well.
The fortunes that Russell & Company invested in US railroads and other infrastructure were the spoils from The Opium Wars, among the most inhumane and socially devastating events in human history. These wars, which occurred between 1839 and 1858, were brought upon the Chinese people by the British government acting on behalf of merchants like Russell & Company, who intended to defy the Chinese government’s ban on opium trading. It was Russell & Company’s business partner, William Jardine of Jardine Matheson, who successfully persuaded the British Foreign Minister, Lord Palmerston, to wage war on China.[21]
As a result of these devastating attacks, the British merchants were able to force Turkish opium upon China, thereby making enormous fortunes paid in silver. By 1906, after several generations of this forced drug trade, opium victims in China were estimated to number 100 million.[22]
China ceded Hong Kong to the British in 1842 as part of an early defeat. Jardine Matheson was one of the opium trading companies that survived for much longer in Hong Kong, being taken over by Chinese tycoon Li Ka-shing in 1980. Li Ka-shing later invested in firms owned by Winston Partners, and has also employed Winston Partners cofounder Marvin Bush's brother, Neil Bush, as a consultant.[23]
As opium traders before, during and after the Opium Wars, Russell & Company were agents of merchant banks like Baring Brothers and N.M. Rothschild.[24],[25] Initially, the merchant banks funded the purchase of the opium, and Russell & Company sailed to make the purchase and subsequently smuggled the drugs into China, making tremendous fees for their work as operatives in the drug trade. The company’s biggest client, Baring Brothers, was agent for the US government between 1843 and 1871, and actually sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US. Baring Brothers was later agent for the British government and had a close relationship with the British monarchy from 1891 to 1995.
The names of the partners of Russell & Company are well known in the history of US power circles. Partner Abiel Abbot Low fathered a mayor of New York City, Seth Low, who was also president of Columbia University. The descendents of the Forbes brothers, Robert Bennet and John Murray, are US powerbrokers to this day, and include the owners of Forbes magazine as well as Senator John Forbes Kerry. The Delanos fathered many powerful people including President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
President Roosevelt’s grandfather, Warren Delano, was the head of Russell & Company from 1840 to 1842, after which time Russell Sturgis, another relative of John Perkins Cushing, became a partner. Sturgis later became the head of Baring Brothers. Warren's son, Frederic Adrian Delano, eventually took James Monroe Walker’s position as president of the C,B&Q, and was there for twenty years. Frederic was also the first vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.
It was at the time that James Monroe Walker was president of the C,B&Q, in the 1870s, that these drug dealing investors began to create a vast railroad network that controlled the transport of goods throughout the United States. Controlling the delivery of goods was the same as controlling the price of goods. Additional power over the country was gained through control of the stockyards that fed the masses, and the coal that drove the trains and heated homes. James Monroe Walker was right in the middle of this massive power grab, and served as a trusted operative for these merchant investors from the east.[26]
James Monroe Walker married Elia A. Marsh, of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Elia came from an old New England family as well, as a child of Ransoms and Fletchers and Meigs. Her cousin Betsey Ransom married Claghorn Robinson, who is a member of the Lathrop side of the Bush family. Elia’s brother, Wells Ransom Marsh, was a member of the secret society called Alpha Delta Phi.[27], [28]
James and Elia had a son named James Ransom Walker, and a daughter named Mary Louise Walker. Mary died shortly after her marriage to John Wellborn Root, a noted architect of the time. Root’s uncle was Elihu Root, attorney for prominent Skull & Bones member William Collins Whitney, and early employer of Bonesman Henry Stimson, who later became Secretary of War (twice) and Secretary of State.
The first child born to James and Elia was the original Wirt Dexter Walker, named for James’ law partner Wirt Dexter, the grandson of US Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel Dexter. Since the original Wirt Dexter Walker was not the “first”, in this article we will call him Wirt Zero.
Wirt Zero
It’s fair to say that Wirt Zero’s family was well-connected. That’s a good reason why Wirt went to Yale and was a member of the University’s second oldest secret society, Scroll & Key. Other notable Scroll & Key members have included the famous statesman Dean Acheson, who in 1969, as one of his final acts, passed along his sophisticated knowledge of Washington and his expertise on American policy to Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle.[29] Scroll & Key members also included a number of famous CIA agents and the founder of WTC impact zone tenant Marsh & McLennan, Donald R. McLennan. President Bush’s relative, Joseph Walker Wear, was Scroll & Key in 1899.
Moreover, Wirt Zero was a member of the Yale fraternity called Delta Kappa Epsilon (DeKEs), like George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Dan Quayle, New York City Governor George Pataki, and former President Gerald Ford (of the Michigan Omicron chapter). When George W. Bush was president of the DeKEs, he defended the fraternity's practice of branding its pledges with a red-hot coat hanger.[30]
Delano family connections with Yale are strong. [31] Yale graduates among the Delanos include Eugene Delano Jr., William Adams Delano (Scroll & Key 1895), and Moreau Delano (Scroll & Key 1898).
When Wirt Zero was only 21 years old, and had just graduated from Yale, his father died. Young Wirt was made the executor of the estate and he suddenly became a very rich man. Wirt Zero then attended the Union College of Law in Chicago (now Northwestern), became a lawyer in 1883, and joined his father’s partner’s law firm. He worked in Chicago and belonged to the Union League Club, and the Chicago Club. Wirt appears to have most enjoyed traveling to the area from where his mother’s family hailed, the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, and he built an estate there called Blythewood Farms.
Wirt began having trouble with his eyesight around 1887. During this time, he and his brother James Ransom Walker had the distinction of having financed the first steel-framed “skyscraper” in history, the 14-story Tacoma Building in Chicago. But by 1890, Wirt was totally blind and had to abandon much if his work. He then spent a number of years traveling to specialists in the east and in Europe. [32]
Despite being blind, Wirt married Marie Winston in December, 1894. Marie was the daughter of General Frederick Winston, an attorney and founder of the Chicago law firm Winston and Strawn. Coincidentally, this law firm is now run by 9/11 Commission member James R. Thompson, and, in a further coincidence Winston & Strawn represented Underwriters Laboratories in its recent legal battle with the author of this article. [33]
Two of Wirt Zero’s bothers-in-law were members of Yale’s Skull & Bones society. Both Dudley Winston and Frederick Seymour Winston were Bonesman. Dudley Winston became a banker and also served as secretary to his father when his father was US Minister to Persia. Frederick Seymour Winston and his father were both lawyers for the C,B&Q railroad and, along with Marie, they are listed as American descendants of the “Magna Charta Barons.”[34]
Wirt Zero died at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on April 24, 1899, at the age of 39. He was preparing for another trip to Europe when he contracted a sudden pneumonia while traveling from Chicago to New York.
Wirt Zero’s will, drawn up at the time of his marriage in 1894, became something of a national story. That’s partly because Wirt was totally blind as of 1890 and, more importantly, because his fortune was to be distributed based on Marie’s willingness to remain unmarried after his death. If she chose to marry again, the will said that the majority of Wirt’s estate, minus a small annual allowance for Marie, would go to the creation of an art foundation in Chicago. Marie did decide to remarry a few years later, after newspaper stories decried her financial loss, and the Wirt Walker Gallery was born.[35]
Wirt Zero fathered a child that was never again mentioned other than in early discussions over his controversial will and testament.[36] The child was almost certainly Wirt Dexter Walker I (Wirt One), and we must assume the mother was Marie Winston Walker.
The commonly accepted history, however, suggests that Wirt One was the son of Wirt Zero’s brother, James Ransom Walker. Apart from the never again mentioned child of Wirt Zero, there are several other reasons to believe that Wirt One was the son of Wirt Zero. First, in family documents created four years after his birth, Wirt One was not listed as one of the sons of James and Louise.[37] Secondly, the other sons of James and Louise were given the middle name “Meeker” but Wirt One was named precisely after James’ brother, Wirt Dexter Walker. Additionally, Wirt One was born eleven days before the sudden and unexpected death of Wirt Zero, and it seems unlikely that James would give his son the exact name of his living brother.
Wirt One
In any case, Wirt Dexter Walker I (Wirt One) was born on April 13, 1899, eleven days before the sudden and unexpected death of Wirt Zero. Born into in a very affluent, “high society” environment that included regular travels between Chicago and the Berkshires, he was raised by Wirt Zero’s brother, James Ransom Walker, and his wife Louise (Meeker) Walker. Wirt One was a boy tennis champion in the Berkshires and also played baseball with James and Louise’s other sons, James Meeker Walker and Arthur Meeker Walker.
Like his brothers (or cousins), Wirt One attended Williams College.[38] Graduates of Williams College have included some of the most prominent CIA employees in history, including Director of the CIA, Richard Helms (1935), who later specifically recruited Williams graduates for the agency.[39] Another famous CIA veteran from Williams was former Bush advisor and Iran-Contra conspirator Donald Gregg (1951). CIA legend Russell Jack Smith taught at Williams until the attack on Pearl Harbor, after which he joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and began a lengthy career in intelligence.
Williams College connections to the Bush family include Lucy Woodruff Walker, daughter of Williams graduate and trustee, William Perrin Walker. Lucy was the wife of Judge David Davis, who was the cousin and benefactor of David Davis Walker, George H.W. Bush’s great-grandfather. Another Williams College alumnus, and close associate of George H.W. Bush, is Carlyle Group advisor and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (from 1993 to 2001), Arthur Levitt.
Brown Brothers Harriman executive, Eugene Delano, graduated from Williams College in 1866. Delano was also a trustee of Williams College, for twenty-five years, and died two years after Wirt One entered the college.
Wirt One left Williams College to join the Army in the summer of 1918, and was located temporarily at Camp Custer. He served in “Base 14” as a private and returned in April 1919.[40] It’s not clear if he ever returned to graduate from Williams, but soon after his return he married Susan Cramer Stephenson, whose guardian was her uncle Ambrose Cramer of Lake Forest, IL.[41] Susan and Wirt lived for the first two years of their marriage in Buffalo, New York and then moved back to Chicago permanently. Susan and Wirt had one son together, Wirt Dexter Walker II, before Susan sued for divorce in 1924 on grounds of “cruelty.”
In 1929, Wirt One married again, this time to Gertrude Reich. While married to Wirt, Gertrude was sued for stealing the affections of another woman’s husband, in a well-publicized scandal. Wirt later sued Gertrude too, for divorce, based on the claim that she deserted him.[42]
Wirt married a third time, in 1937, to Mildred Walker. They were married for twelve years until Mildred sued for divorce, accusing Wirt of cruelty again, and also of nonsupport.[43] At the time, Mildred claimed that Wirt had an income of over $100,000 per year in 1949.[44]
Aside from the ladies, Wirt One’s endeavors included working for the Arcady Farms Milling company, at first as an employee of his uncle, Arthur Meeker, and eventually as president and chairman of the company. Arcady Farms Milling was a manufacturer of feedstock for turkeys and other livestock.
In 1943, Wirt One was attacked by six men after a dinner party attended by political leaders. The motive for the attack was unclear and Wirt was taken to the hospital with a broken nose, a fractured jaw, and internal injuries. No clues to the identity of the attackers were found.[45]
Like his father, Wirt One was a member of the Chicago Club which was, since its inception in 1869, a highly selective and secretive group of Chicago powerbrokers. In fact, the Chicago Tribune dubbed it the “center of power in Chicago.”[46] Wirt One appears to simply have been a lucky, rich kid amongst a membership list that at one time or another included the likes of Marshall Field, George Pullman and Abraham Lincoln. But perhaps there was more to Wirt than we know.
Immediately after his divorce from Mildred, in April 1949, Wirt One married Rosalie Cohen, “former model and secretary.”[47] Rosalie was twenty years younger than Wirt.
Wirt One died August 8, 1953, the week of the CIA’s famous coup in Iran. His obituary lists private services and no report of how he died.
Wirt Two
Wirt Dexter Walker II (Wirt Two) was born to Wirt One and his first wife, Susan Cramer Stephenson during the two years that they lived in Buffalo.
Like his father, Wirt Two went to Williams College. He graduated and then immediately joined the Army Air Corps during World War II and became a pilot.[48] Just before leaving for duty in 1942, Wirt Two married Margaret Elizabeth Ross, of North Adams, MA.[49] They eventually had three children: Wirt Dexter Walker III (Wirt Three), Wendy Margaret Walker, and William Ross Walker. Both Wendy and William, along with their brother Wirt Three, were shareholders in Stratesec.[50]
In 1954, Wirt Two was in a legal battle with three of his father’s four wives, over his father’s substantial estate.[51] His daughter Wendy later remarked on Wirt One’s exploits, suggesting that her grandfather’s work at Arcady Farms was only one of several of his “ventures.”[52]
Wirt Two became a career officer in the Army Air Corps and then the US Air Force, serving until 1962. He flew combat missions with the Eighth Air Force while stationed in England during the war, and was later stationed in Germany. After the war he was assigned to “various government agencies involved in reconnaissance intelligence.”[53] The Lockheed-made U2 reconnaissance aircraft was assigned to the Eighth Air Force, a part of Strategic Air Command, where U2 operations started in 1956 and involved flights over the Soviet Union and the Middle East.[54] In May 1960, while Wirt Two was working on reconnaissance intelligence, an American U2 was shot down by the Soviets, initiating a worldwide controversy over espionage.
Wirt Two is also listed as an ex-employee of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), an agency of the CIA that analyzed aerial spy photographs.[55] The significance of the NPIC to major intelligence activities during the twentieth century cannot be overstated. NPIC was the agency that was responsible for the intelligence that originated the Cuban missile crisis.[56] NPIC was also central to the analysis of the photographic evidence related to the Kennedy assassination, including the Zapruder film. Whether or not Wirt Two participated in these historic activities is not publicly known.
In his obituary, Wirt Two is listed as having been an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), for which it is said he worked until 1977. He died of leukemia in 1997.
Wirt Three
Wirt Three lives in McLean, Virginia, home of the CIA. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1968 and in 1971 he married Sally Gregg White, a Washington DC debutante. Sally is a descendant of architectural ironwork magnate George White, whose son “Doc” White was a World Series winning pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. “Doc” was actually a dentist but his brother, Charles Stanley White, was a famous Washington DC surgeon and grandfather to Sally. Sally’s father, Charles White Stanley Jr, was a surgeon too and, like Wirt Two, he was an officer in the Army Air Corps. [57]
Wirt was fortunate to land a position, right out of college, as a broker for an “investment” firm called Glore Forgan.[58] Originally a company called Field Glore, financed by Marshall Field III, Glore Forgan was renamed in 1937 for its new partner, James “Russ” Forgan. Russ was one of the most influential men in the history of US intelligence, having led the European division of the CIA’s predecessor organization, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In the OSS, Forgan focused on infiltrating the German intelligence apparatus with the help of William J. Casey. Casey later became SEC chairman under Nixon and the director of CIA under Reagan. Before going back to work in the “investment” business, Forgan helped to write the documents that created the CIA.
While Wirt Three worked there, William Casey was House Counsel for Glore Forgan. It was at this time that the firm was at the center of a near collapse of Wall Street. In 1970, it began to be clear that Glore Forgan had somehow sold many millions of dollars more in securities than what its customers thought they owned. As a result, the company was expected to fail and, due to a cascading effect, its failure was projected to take down dozens of other firms causing a panic and huge losses on Wall Street. [59] These projections compelled President Nixon to ask Ross Perot, through Treasury Secretary John Connally, to intervene and save Glore Forgan. Perot suffered dramatic losses in an attempt to save the company (the only business loss of his career) and Glore Forgan went bankrupt anyway. The US government created the Securities Investor Protection Corp (SIPC) in response.[60]
A few years later, Wirt Three went from being a broker at Glore Forgan to running a series of other companies that went bankrupt. Yet somehow, Wirt Three always had cash flow. That could have been due to the fact that, by 1982, Wirt Three was a director of the Kuwaiti-American Company (or Kuwam).
Stratesec started off in 1987 as Burns & Roe Securacom, founded by Nelson Rockefeller assistant, Sebastian Cassetta. The company changed its name to Securacom when it was taken over by Kuwam in 1992, at which time Wirt Three became CEO. When Wirt Three was sued by the president of an existing company with an identical name, Wirt became abusive and told the other businessman that he “would bury him financially and take everything he had “ by “filing a barrage of frivolous arguments...in multiple jurisdictions."[61] Wirt lost the case and had to change his company’s name to Stratesec, but this incident suggested that Wirt Three was not only abusive, but that he had the kind of deep pockets that allowed for frivolous lawsuits.
Kuwam also owned two companies called Commander Aircraft and Aviation General, both of which had Wirt Three as CEO, and both of which went bankrupt shortly after 9/11.
As CEO of Stratesec, Wirt Three did business with some shady characters. For example, Stratesec owed money to a company called Bankest Capital, which appeared to be a money-laundering operation or similar fraud. Wirt Three transferred seven million dollars in shares of his Stratesec stock to Bankest as a way to reduce that debt ($1.75 MM).[62] Bankest ‘s owners, brothers Eduardo and Hector Orlansky, were later convicted of conspiracy and bank fraud when $185 million went missing due to "hug overadvances."[63] Apparently $2 billion was "flowed through the Orlansky's two businesses from 1998 to 2003 to create the appearance they were healthy and growing."[64]
A company called Hanifen Imhoff was the underwriter for Wirt’s company, Commander Aircraft.[65] This gives further evidence that the companies Wirt Three was running were not only bound for bankruptcy, but were probably CIA fronts all along. Hanifen Imhoff was "nailed for Correspondent's fraud" in December 2000.[66] Hanifen Imhoff also happens to be a division of Stifel Nicolaus & Company, whose long term chairman was George W. Bush’s first cousin, Yale Skull & Bones member George Herbert Walker III.[67],[68]
In any case, Wirt Three has a tendency to show up when airplanes crash into tall buildings. The only other such occurrence since 9/11 led to Wirt Three being interviewed because the plane that crashed was related to his company, Aviation General. [69]
Conclusion
It appears that Wirt Three manages CIA front companies and that Stratesec was one of them. There are many ways to see this, including Wirt’s shady business dealings and his tendency to run companies into bankruptcy while still maintaining cash flow. Wirt is, at a minimum, a child of the CIA (and the DIA), but he also worked with William Casey for Russ Forgan’s company, making him an associate of some of the most influential deep state operatives of the last sixty years.
Wirt’s family has been connected to drug money and Yale’s secret societies for over 150 years, and these connections include many links to the Bush family. Of course, George H.W. Bush was a CIA director and other Bush family members were operatives, like Louis Walker (Skull & Bones 1936). Another institution with many links to prominent CIA veterans is William College, where two of the Wirts went to school.
Wirt Three is also a distant relative of the Bush family, through the intermarriage of Ransom and Robinson family members and through the Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke, who is an ancestor of both the Delanos and the Bush clan. Such distant relations are not of importance to most people today, although they are quite important for the Bush family as indicated by how that family chooses its relationships, including its business partners. For example, George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara are distant cousins along four different lines.
Marvin Bush is but one of several Bush family links to Stratesec, in that several of Stratesec’s directors and employees came from Bush-connected companies, and at least one of Wirt Three’s ventures was underwritten by George Herbert Walker III’s company. Add to this the fact that the COO of Stratesec , Barry McDaniel, came from a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group that conducted “black projects,” and Stratesec seems worthy of a detailed investigation.
After 9/11, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recommended that Stratesec be investigated for insider trading related to the crimes of that day. Oddly enough, the FBI and SEC never followed through with the investigation, claiming it was unnecessary because the officers of Stratesec had no “ties to terrorism or other negative information.” [70] That assessment does not appear to be valid for many reasons, including that The Carlyle Group was financed in part by Osama bin Laden’s family and that Stratesec director James Abrahamson was the business partner of Mansoor Ijaz, who claimed on several occasions to be able to contact Osama bin Laden.[71]
Maybe the investigation didn’t happen because no one wanted to embarrass the President, who was busy making tremendous political and personal profit from 9/11, and whose family was deeply connected to The Carlyle Group, and whose brother was a Stratesec director. But it’s likely that Stratesec was not investigated simply because it would have resulted in discoveries that no one in a position of power wanted to make.
Ultimately though, we know that Stratesec was a security contractor for several of the facilities that were compromised on 9/11, including the WTC buildings, Dulles airport where Flight 77 took off, and also United Airlines which owned two of the ill-fated planes. We also know that the CEO of Stratesec came from a background of deep-state connected, opium-funded wealth, and that the many Wirt Dexter Walkers were thereafter steeped in a culture of power and secrecy that has ruled the United States for many years.

[1] Peter Dale Scott, in The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (University of California Press, 2007) defines the “deep state” as the covert part of government that responds to wealthy private influences as those influences shape government policy outside of normal democratic processes.

[2] Margie Burns, Bush-Linked Company Handled Security for the WTC, Dulles and United, Prince George's Journal (Maryland), February 4, 2003, http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0204-06.htm

[3] Super-thermites are known as “nanothermites”. See W.C. Danen et al, "Los Alamos Nanoenergetic Metastable Intermolecular Composite (Super Thermite) Program," 221st ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA, April 2001.

[4] Niels H. Harrit, et al, Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe, The Open Chemical Physics Journal, Volume 2, http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/co...001/7TOCPJ.SGM

[5] Dan Briody, The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of The Carlyle Group, Wiley publishers, 2003, p35

[6] History Commons, Complete 911 Timeline, Bin Laden Family, http://www.historycommons.org/timeli...e_911_timeline

[7] Peter Dale Scott, 9/11, JFK, and War: Recurring Patterns in America’s Deep Events, Journal of 9/11 Studies, http://www.journalof911studies.com/v...911,andWar.pdf

[8] STRATESEC Incorporated Appoints Dr. Amos Lu To Head Information/Network Security Business, Business Wire, March 29, 2000, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...9/ai_60865231/

[9] Otis Frederick Reed Waite, The early history of Claremont, New Hampshire: A paper read before the New Hampshire Historical Society, September 29, 1891

[10] New York Times, Mrs. Paran Stevens Dead, April 4, 1895

[11] The Washington Herald, Genealogical Department, December 23, 1906, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...ALD+Washington

[12] DAWSON-L Archives, Rootsweb, Dawson DNA testing, October 23, 2004, http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/...-10/1098549985

[13] Dave Utzinger's Database, Entry for Solomon Walker (2nd of three), http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-...tti&id=I504940

[14] Genealogy Trails History Group, DELANO FAMILY of Sullivan County, NH, http://genealogytrails.com/newham/su...os_delano.html

[15] Josiah Seymour Currey, Chicago: its history and its builders, a century of marvelous growth, Volume 5, The S,J, Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912

[16] Ed. By Ernest R. May and John King Fairbank, America's China trade in historical perspective: the Chinese and American Performance, President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1986

[17] Mary Ferrell Foundation, LBJ Phone Calls, http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/inde...BJ_Phone_Calls

[18] William P. Litynski, An Illustrated History of The China Trade & The Opium Wars

[19] John N. Ingham, Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Greenwood Press, 1983

[20] New York Times, Funeral of Sidney Bartlett, March 9, 1889

[21] Wikipedia page for William Jardine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jardine_(1784%E2%80%931843)

[22] New York Times, China Decrees death to the Use of Opium, December 30, 1906

[23] National Corruption Index webpage for Li Ka-Shing, http://www.nationalcorruptionindex.o...?profile_id=16

[24] William C. Hunter, The 'fan kwae' at Canton before treaty days, 1825-1844, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, 1882

[25] Robert B. Forbes's autobiography, Personal Reminiscences(1882), http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@lis.../msg35515.html

[26] Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, Record book of trust mortgages and agreements; also, leases, conveyances, contracts, agreements, and articles of consolidation, A. Mudge & son, printers, 1882

[27] The Peninsular Chapter History, Peninsular Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, http://peninsular.alphadeltaphi.org/...aspx?tabid=952

[28] Wikipedia page for Alpha Delta Phi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Delta_Phi

[29] James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, Viking Penguin, 2004, p 31

[30] Yale Daily News, reproduced at DailyKos, Dec 10, 2005, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/10/233039/84

[31] Yale University. Class of 1908, History of the class of 1908, Yale College, Volume 1

[32] Chicago Daily Tribune, Wirt D. Walker’s Death, April 26, 1899

[33] Website for Winston & Strawn, page for James R. Thompson, Partner and Senior Chairman, http://www.winston.com/index.cfm?con...4&itemid=10873

[34] Charles H. Browning, The Magna Charta Barons and Their American Descendants, Genealogical Publishing Co. Baltimore, 1969

[35] Bevier-Elting Family Association, The $15,000 Misunderstanding, http://www.b-efa.org/elting/misunderstanding.htm

[36] Chicago Daily Tribune, To Found Art Gallery: Will of Wirt Dexter Walker Plans a Public Collection, June 13, 1899

[37] Wyllys Cadwell Ransom, Historical outline of the Ransom family of America, The Richmond & Backus Company, 1903

[38] Williams College, Catalogue 1917-1918, Williamstown, MA

[39] Jack Davis, Improving Intelligence Analysis at CIA: Dick Heuer's Contribution to Intelligence Analysis, Central Intelligence Agancy, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...ysis/art3.html

[40] Chicago Daily Tribune, Many Chicagoans Who Served In Base 14 Return, April 21, 1919

[41] Chicago Daily Tribune, Marriage Announcement 1, May 56, 1918

[42] Chicago Daily Tribune, Wirt D. Walker Sues to Divorce Gertrude Reich, March 19, 1935

[43] Chicago Daily Tribune, Wife Sues W.D. Walker, Miller, For Separation, February 18, 1949

[44] Chicago Daily Tribune, Asks $3,500 a Month Temporary Alimony from Milling Head, February 24, 1949

[45] Chicago Daily Tribune, Firm President Slugged By Six At Club’s Door, December 30, 1943

[46] Wikipedia page for The Chicago Club, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Club

[47] Chicago Daily Tribune, Wirt D. Walker, Head of Milling Company, Married Fourth Time, April 9, 1949

[48] Chicago Daily Tribune, 89 Illinois Men Awarded Wings As Army Pilots, July 4, 1942

[49] Chicago Daily Tribune, Lieut. Wirt D. Walker Jr. Weds Eastern Girl Today, July 4, 1942

[50] Securities and Exchange Commission, FORM S-3 filing for Stratesec Incorporated, June 12, 2000, http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/...d2THqRGPhOZT77

[51] Chicago Daily Tribune, Flyer’s Share of Fortune to Hinge on Court, May 17, 1954

[52] Wendy Walker, Re: Wirt Dexter of Chicago History Fame, GenForum presented by Genelogy.com, October 9, 2001, http://genforum.genealogy.com/dexter/messages/444.html

[53] The Washington Post, obituary for WIRT D. WALKER - Intelligence Analyst, June 15, 1997

[54] The Citizen’s Compendium, U-2 Dragon Lady, http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/U-2_Dragon_Lady

[55] NPIC Reunions Database, List of Deceased NPIC Employees, http://npicreunions.blogspot.com/

[56] Wikipedia page for Arthur C. Lundahl, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Lundahl

[57] The Washington Post, Times Herald, Dr. C.S. White Jr., 48, Surgeon, Chief of Staff, April 13, 1964

[58] The Washington Post, Times Herald, White-Walker wedding announcement, April 29, 1971

[59] Alec Benn, The Unseen Wall Street, of 1969 to 1975: And Its Significance for Today, Quorum Books, 2000

[60] Donald Morrison, Ambush on Wall Street, Texas Monthly, April 1974

[61] Securacomm Consulting Inc. v. Securacom Incorporated, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, January 20, 1999, 49 U.S.P.Q.2d 1444; 166 F.3d 182, http://altlaw.org/v1/cases/1099498

[62] SEC filing for Bankest Capital, SC 13D, March 13, 2003, http://www.secinfo.com/dV5Ff.244f.htm

[63] Reuters, Former exec to pay $165 million in fraud case, Aug 28, 2007, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2829063820070828

[64] Peter Zalewski, The Accounting: Indictments, receiver’s report on Bankest Capital present picture of a $170 million mystery, Daily Business Review, November 22, 2004, http://lbfmiami.com/pdfs/press_accou...ndictments.pdf

[65] SEC News Digest, Issue 93-47, March 12, 1993, http://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1993/dig031293.pdf

[66] Dan Jamieson, Hanifen Imhoff/Fiserv Nailed for Correspondent's Fraud, Registered Rep., Dec 1, 2000, http://registeredrep.com/mag/finance...fiserv_nailed/

[67] St. Louis Business Journal, Webster U. names business school for Bert Walker, April 22, 2010, http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlou...9/daily52.html

[68] Bloomberg Businessweek, Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated Hanifen Imhoff Division, http://investing.businessweek.com/re...rivcapId=20865

[69] UK Mail Online, Plane crashes into Milan tower, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...lan-tower.html

[70] FBI Memorandum released by 9/11 Commission, “FBI Briefing on Trading”, Prepared by: Doug Greenburg, 8/18/03, http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00269.pdf

[71] Sourcewatch webpage for Mansoor Ijaz/Sudan, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...oor_Ijaz/Sudan




» ]]> Players, organisations, and events of deep politics Ed Jewett http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4504 Big Aid Has a Very Dirty Secret http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4500&goto=newpost Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:07:19 GMT September 3 - 5, 2010 *Big Aid Has a Very Dirty Secret * *The CIA to UNICEF* By THOMAS MOUNTAIN Former National Security Advisor in the... September 3 - 5, 2010
Big Aid Has a Very Dirty Secret

The CIA to UNICEF

By THOMAS MOUNTAIN
Former National Security Advisor in the Clinton White House and failed nominee to head the CIA, Anthony “Tony” Lake is now Executive Director of the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF.
Having a background in Western intelligence is a requirement to run a Big Aid “familia”. Every head of any of the major international aid agencies comes vetted by years of loyal service up to and including being a “made man” (or woman in today's equal opportunity offender circles) like Tony Lake.
What are Tony Lake’s qualifications to run the number one children's relief works in the world? Maybe his silence during the Rwandan genocide, when as National Security Advisor to President Clinton he admitted knowing about and “regretted” not doing something when hundreds of thousands of women and children were hacked to death in central Africa. Then there were the million and a half women and children in Eritrea who had to flee for their lives in the face of the Ethiopian invasion in 2000, something Tony Lake was intimately involved in helping instigate and direct.
Tony Lake was nominated to be the Director of the CIA as a parting gift for his loyal role as consigliere in the Clinton White House, a gift taken from him when reports of corruption derailed his nomination.
War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and least of all just plain corruption, Tony Lake has done it all, even admitting to going on the payroll after leaving the White House as an agent for the Ethiopian Government, they of ethnic cleansing and genocide infamy.
Tony Lake was an officer of the Obama for President ship and resumed his role as consigliere pre-election to the president to be. He was listed as senior foreign policy advisor to Obama and was one of the last of the inner circle to be rewarded for his foresight.
From CIA to UNICEF? The charge that every person who has headed a major western aid agency has an intelligence background has been proven time and time again. It may have taken some serious digging, some dogged investigation, but the fact remains that everyone of those supposed humanitarians that has been investigated has turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
BIg Aid was created as a nefarious tool for dirty doings in the Third World by the powers that be in the west and only trusted capos from the inner circle are allowed to plan and implement their crimes. Of course some good works have to be done, or no one would allow them into their countries. Its only from the inside that they can be really effective in buying off or if that doesn't work, “neutralizing” those in power.
Whether it’s the World Health Organization suppressing news of the breakthrough in malaria mortality prevention, to the World Food Program trying to destroy food security/self sufficiency, to Tony Lake taking over UNICEF, the word to the wise is beware enemies bearing gifts. Big Aid has a very dirty secret and the whole world needs to know about it.

Thomas Mountain lives in Eritrea and can be reached at thomascmountain@yahoo.com

http://www.counterpunch.org/mountain09032010.html ]]> Players, organisations, and events of deep politics Keith Millea http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4500 Foreign aid = national security, not altruism http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4470&goto=newpost Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:33:21 GMT The provision of foreign aid has always been determined by the interests of national security and big business. The only surprize is that this... The provision of foreign aid has always been determined by the interests of national security and big business.

The only surprize is that this has now been made official and visible government policy, and the facade of altruism has been dropped.

The British Tory-LibDem government has made all government departments subject to draconian cuts in their budgets of between 25-40%. One of the very few exceptions was foreign/overseas aid.

The deep black state always feeds first.

Quote:
Protests as UK security put at heart of government's aid policy

New overseas aid budget will target projects that make 'maximum possible contribution' to British national security

Sunday 29 August 2010 20.19 BST

The government is to introduce a wholesale change to Britain's overseas aid budget by demanding that projects in the developing world must make the "maximum possible contribution" to British national security, according to a leaked Whitehall paper.

Labour, which established the Department for International Development to ensure overseas projects are funded on the basis of a country's needs, warned tonight that Britain's aid budget was being "securitised".

The coalition came under fire after a leaked DfID document showed that the new national security council, which oversees all aspects of foreign policy, is requiring that national security considerations are placed at the heart of aid projects.

The document, which offers guidance to staff of the department overseas who draw up bids for aid, says: "The national security council has said the ODA [Overseas Development Administration] budget should make the maximum possible contribution to national security consistent with ODA rules. Although the NSC will not in most cases direct DfID spend in country, we need to be able to make the case for how our work contributes to national security."

Labour said the document marked a return to the days when the old Overseas Development Administration was a division within the Foreign Office. Gareth Thomas, the shadow international development minister, said: "This document is deeply worrying, as it confirms the fears of many in the international development and humanitarian community that the government plans to securitise the aid budget, and weaken its focus in prioritising resources on the poorest people and countries.

"The revelation that part of the aid budget will now be directly controlled by the national security council suggests that other ministers will now be calling the shots on the aid budget instead of the development secretary."

David Cameron decided after the election that all aspects of foreign policy would be overseen by a national security council, to be chaired by the Foreign Office permanent secretary, Sir Peter Ricketts. The change was seen as a victory for William Hague, the foreign secretary, and a defeat for Liam Fox, the defence secretary, because the strategic defence review will be run by the national security council.

Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, is relaxed about the NSC's role. Mitchell told the Guardian in January that he wanted to "wire [DfID] in a little bit better into the Whitehall constellation".

The leaked document indicates that national security considerations are likely to be crucial in two sensitive countries that are beneficiaries of increasing amounts of British aid – Afghanistan and Pakistan. It talks of how projects in "fragile states" should focus on peace building and state building.

The document says: "We need to explain how DfID's work in fragile states contributes to national security through 'upstream' prevention that helps to stop potential threats to the UK developing (including work to improve health and education, provide water, build roads, improve governance and security)."

Labour says it agrees that aid should be spent in Afghanistan and Pakistan on improving education to help discourage support for al-Qaida and the Taliban, and that it is right to spend aid on building up structures such as the civil service and the police. But the party fears that aid money may be diverted to help build up the Afghan army.

Thomas said: "It is of course right that our development and national security efforts are complementary and co-ordinated, particularly in countries like Afghanistan, but there is a significant risk that we will see our aid budget increasingly geared to narrow security priorities, instead of meeting the wider needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people."

The aid budget is protected from the forthcoming spending cuts because the government is committed to meeting the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid by 2013. But Mitchell has scrapped a series of commitments in areas such as free healthcare, according to a document leaked to the Left Foot Forward website. In it, the department's director of policy, Nick Dyer, said Mitchell should honour 19 commitments and drop 80.

Thomas said: "It is now becoming clearer why the Tories have abandoned over 80 of our key international commitments – including the pledge to put millions more children into school – as less resources will be available, with money being diverted to security priorities."

A DfID spokesperson said: "A review of all of the UK's bilateral aid is looking at all DFID's programmes, but has yet to reach any conclusions. All DFID funding is and will continue to be governed by internationally agreed definitions of what constitutes aid."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ity-aid-policy ]]> Players, organisations, and events of deep politics Jan Klimkowski http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4470 <![CDATA[Star Wars and 9/11 - This hour of audio 'rocks'!]]> http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4443&goto=newpost Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:20:49 GMT Guns and Butter - "Vietnam, Star Wars and 9/11" with Dr. Robert Bowman.

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/63529 [Guns and Butter]

His website! http://www.thepatriots.us/pg_02_about.html [Check it out!!!]...this guy was head of Star Wars at one time...and believes not one thing about 9-11 and believes Amerka is headed toward Corporate Fascism....and more....

Dr. Robert M. Bowman is President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies, Executive Vice President of Millennium III Corporation, and retired Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church. The recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President's Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Republic Aviation Airpower Award, The Society of American Military Engineers' ROTC Award of Merit (twice), the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters, and numerous other awards, he is one of the country's foremost authorities on national security.

Until July, 1982, he was a Vice President of Space Communications Company. Before that, Dr. Bowman was Manager, Advanced Space Programs at General Dynamics, responsible for the communications spacecraft product line. Culminating a 22-year Air Force career in 1978, Col. Bowman was Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the Air Force Space Division. In that capacity, he controlled about half a billion dollars worth of space programs, including the "Star Wars" programs, the existence of which was (at that time) secret. Dr. Bowman taught at five colleges and universities, serving as Associate Professor, Department Head, and Assistant Dean. From 1971 to 1974, Dr. Bowman was responsible for Air Force and NASA contracts in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Asia. In 1969 and 1970, Col. Bowman flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is active in national and international professional societies and chaired eight major conferences. His PhD is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. Dr. Bowman has lectured at the National War College, the United Nations, Congressional Caucuses, the Academies of Science of six nations, and the House of Lords. He has appeared on McNeil-Lehrer, ABC News, the Larry King Show, Donohue, and Firing Line.

Dr. Bowman has preached at the National Cathedral and at churches of many faiths, including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox Christian Churches, Jewish synagogues, and a Muslim mosque. He has been keynote speaker for religious and clergy conferences nationwide and has spoken at theological seminaries and at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He has appeared on many Christian radio and TV talk shows, including the 700 Club, and three times had his own radio talk show.

Bob Bowman was the first presidential candidate officially recognized by the Reform Party in 1999, and for several weeks was the only one. He campaigned in 48 states. Central to his campaign were (1) electoral reform (severing the connection between big money and political power), (2) international trade reform (renouncing NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO), (3) health care reform ( a doctor-run single-payer national health system), (4) structural reform (ending the domination of society by transnational corporations and banks), (5) economic reform (allowing workers to keep more of the wealth they create), and (6) foreign relations reform (freeing the American people from the threat of nuclear terrorism by a return to a Constitutional foreign policy which refuses to go to war for the financial interests of the wealthy few). His campaign appealed to liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans alike. He is the candidate of all those who want to see a Constitutional government serving the people of the United States instead of the global big money interests.

Dr. Bob is married to Maggie Bowman, his loving wife of 54 years. They have seven children and 21 grandchildren (so far!).

Dr. Bowman discusses his US Air Force experiences in Vietnam in 1968-69; as Director of Advanced Space Programs Development in the Ford and Carter administrations; the 1982 Defense Guidance Document; his public opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) better know as Star Wars during the Ronald Reagan administration; his take on the events of September 11, 2001; and wars of aggression.

Former Head Of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect
Official version of events a conspiracy theory, says drills were cover for attacks

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones April 4 2006

The former head of the Star Wars missile defense program under Presidents Ford and Carter has gone public to say that the official version of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory and his main suspect for the architect of the attack is Vice President Dick Cheney.

Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country’s foremost experts on National Security.

Bowman worked secretly for the US government on the Star Wars project and was the first to coin the very term in a 1977 secret memo. After Bowman realized that the program was only ever intended to be used as an aggressive and not defensive tool, as part of a plan to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviets, he left the program and campaigned against it.

In an interview with The Alex Jones Show aired nationally on the GCN Radio Network, Bowman (pictured below) stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware of what was taking place and were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack.



Bowman outlined how the drills on the morning of 9/11 that simulated planes crashing into buildings on the east coast were used as a cover to dupe unwitting air defense personnel into not responding quickly enough to stop the attack.

"The exercises that went on that morning simulating the exact kind of thing that was happening so confused the people in the FAA and NORAD....that they didn't they didn't know what was real and what was part of the exercise," said Bowman

"I think the people who planned and carried out those exercises, they're the ones that should be the object of investigation."

Asked if he could name a prime suspect who was the likely architect behind the attacks, Bowman stated, "If I had to narrow it down to one person....I think my prime suspect would be Dick Cheney."

Bowman said that privately his military fighter pilot peers and colleagues did not disagree with his sentiments about the real story behind 9/11.

Bowman agreed that the US was in danger of slipping into a dictatorship and stated, "I think there's been nothing closer to fascism than what we've seen lately from this government."

Bowman slammed the Patriot Act as having, "Done more to destroy the rights of Americans than all of our enemies combined."



Bowman trashed the 9/11 Commission as a politically motivated cover-up with abounding conflicts of interest, charging, "The 9/11 Commission omitted anything that might be the least bit suspicious or embarrassing or in any way detract from the official conspiracy so it was a total whitewash."

"There needs to be a true investigation, not the kind of sham investigations we have had with the 9/11 omission and all the rest of that junk," said Bowman.

Asked if the perpetrators of 9/11 were preparing to stage another false-flag attack to reinvigorate their agenda Bowman agreed that, "I can see that and I hope they can't pull it off, I hope they are prevented from pulling it off but I know darn good and well they'd like to have another one."

A mainstay of the attack pieces against Charlie Sheen have been that he is not credible enough to speak on the topic of 9/11. These charges are ridiculed by the fact that Sheen is an expert on 9/11 who spends hours a day meticulously researching the topic, something that the attack dogs have failed to do, aiming their comments solely at Sheen's personal life and ignoring his invitation to challenge him on the facts.

In addition, from the very start we have put forth eminently credible individuals only for them to be ignored by the establishment media. Physics Professors, former White House advisors and CIA analysts, the father of Reaganomics, German Defense Ministers and Bush's former Secretary of the Treasury, have all gone public on 9/11 but have been uniformly ignored by the majority of the establishment press.

Will Robert Bowman also be blackballed as the mainstream continue to misrepresent the 9/11 truth movement as an occupation of the fringe minority?
-----------------------------------------
9/11: The truth about 9/11 is that we don't KNOW the truth about 9/11, and we should. I will sponsor (and have already lined up co-sponsors for) legislation initiating a truly independent investigation of 9/11. There is mounting evidence of possible complicity by elements of our own government.

If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding everything? Why are they hiding audiotapes of FAA and NORAD controllers? Why are they hiding videotapes of whatever hit the Pentagon? Why are they hiding the black boxes? Why did they destroy most of the forensic evidence which appears to show that three buildings at the World Trade Center were brought down by thermite demolition charges? If the thermite residue found on severed steel beams didn't bring down the towers, what did? (Never before in history did steel skyscrapers fall because of fire, and THREE of them did on the same day … one of which wasn't even hit by an airplane!) For the government's story to be accepted as factual, they will have to explain why WTC 7 came down. Why did four hijacked airliners fly around for up to an hour and 45 minutes without being intercepted? Why were normal procedures not followed? (If normal procedures HAD been followed, the aircraft would have been intercepted with 20 minutes to spare, the twin towers would still be standing, and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive.) If it was massive incompetence, why has no one been fired? … or demoted? … or court martialed? (Instead they were promoted or given the medal of freedom!) If Osama bin Laden was really suspected, why did our government violate its own “no-fly” order to hurriedly fly the bin Laden family out of the United States before they could be questioned? Why does the “Osama bin Laden” in the “confession” videotape have a nose about an inch shorter than the real Osama bin Laden? Why have half a dozen of the 19 “hijackers” turned up in other countries … alive and well? Were there really any hijackers at all, and if there were, were they patsies? Who made millions on short sales of United and American Airlines? Where is the tens of billions of dollars worth of missing gold that was stored in the World Trade Center? Why did the Secret Service not whisk the president away from the school where he and the students read about a pet goat even after it became clear that the nation was under attack?

The American people and the families of those who died on 9/11 deserve the truth, and we do not yet have it. The above are but a tiny fraction of the unanswered questions not even raised by those who “investigated” the 9/11 tragedy. The most unbelievable of all the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 is the OFFICIAL conspiracy theory told us by our government. The Kean-Hamilton-Zelikow commission report was a whitewash, a cover-up, and a bundle of deception. I have spoken to both Governor Kean and Congressman Hamilton, and they admit that they were lied to about why there was no intercept. If a new investigation discovers a wider conspiracy and identifies living people (American or foreign) as being responsible, they should be indicted for treason. And those who covered up the treason should themselves be indicted as accessories after the fact.

If, however, a new investigation finds that the government's current story is essentially correct, then it should go beyond Kean and Hamilton to assign responsibility for the failure of our air defenses to protect the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. There must be accountability. Without it, we will never know why our multi-trillion dollar defense establishment was unable even to protect its own headquarters from an unarmed aircraft. This is unacceptable. It leaves the American people with no assurance that they can be protected in the event of another attack. ]]> Players, organisations, and events of deep politics Peter Lemkin http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4443 Gaged-Again, American Style - Thanks To Un-Patriot Act http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4385&goto=newpost Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:59:58 GMT http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/11/gagged_for_6_years_nick_merrill AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with a guest here in New York who has been... http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/1...s_nick_merrill
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show with a guest here in New York who has been under an FBI gag order for the past six years. In early 2004, an FBI agent visited Nicholas Merrill and handed him a national security letter that ordered him to hand over detailed private records about some of his customers. At the time, Merrill was running an internet service provider in New York called Calyx.

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI issued more than 192,000 national security letters between 2003 and 2006 in order to obtain sensitive information without a court order. Under the law, recipients of the letters are barred from telling anyone about their encounter with the FBI.

While Nicholas Merrill was not the first American to be gagged after receiving a national security letter, an NSL, he was the first to challenge the FBI’s secret tactics. After receiving the national security letter, Merrill went to the American Civil Liberties Union, which then filed the first lawsuit challenging the national security letter statute. In the lawsuit, Merrill was simply identified as John Doe. It was only this week, after reaching a settlement with the FBI, that Merrill has been able to come public to reveal his identity. Nick Merrill joins us here in New York.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Thank you. Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. I bet it’s good to be able to speak.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: It is kind of a relief, yeah. It’s also a bit surreal, because I’m not exactly used to it yet. And almost every time I say something about it, I kind of have this knee-jerk reaction, like I’m not supposed to talk about that. And, you know, that got so ingrained into me that it’s still a bit strange.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, in a moment, we’re going to speak to a Connecticut librarian, who was joined with your case—four Connecticut librarians, because they, too, resisted an NSL.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: But why don’t you tell us your story? What day was it? When did it happen? And what happened?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: I don’t know if I’m allowed to, for some reason, say the exact day. It was in February 2004. An FBI agent visited my office. He brought me a letter. You know, he badged himself. He identified himself as an agent. He gave me this letter. I opened it. I read it in his presence.

And a few things kind of leaped out at me upon first reading the letter, one of which was that I was commanded to never tell anyone—anyone—about the letter, not that I had received it, not that there had been a request for information. It was very broad, and there was no exceptions in there. There was no instructions on how to appeal. There was nothing about contacting a lawyer. So I said to the agent at that time, "It says here I can’t tell anyone about this. Does that include my attorneys? Does that include my business partners?" And the man said something to the effect of, "I’ve just been given the job of bringing you this letter. I don’t know. I’m not a decision maker." And that was basically the end of our conversation. Then he left.

At that point, I was left with this letter, which asked for what I believe to be constitutionally protected information belonging to one of my clients.

AMY GOODMAN: You know, in the interest of full disclosure, we were one of your clients then.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yes, correct.

AMY GOODMAN: We worked with Calyx.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: We worked with you.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Did the FBI asked about us?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: I’m not allowed to really talk about the target of the investigation. That’s—you know, I’m partially released from the gag order, in that I can say I was the plaintiff in the case, it was my company, but I’m not allowed to say anything that would give anyone any kind of a hint, basically, as to which of my, you know, 200-some clients it may have been about.

AMY GOODMAN: And Democracy Now! was one of your clients. Who else were among your clients?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: You know, a lot of my clients had nothing to do with politics. They were just businesses. You know, some of them were really boring. There were household names, you know, Ikea, Snapple Iced Tea, Mitsubishi Motors, things like that. But, you know, then I also had a number of not-for-profit organizations, a number of NGOs.

AMY GOODMAN: Like?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Well, I mean, I don’t know. I’d prefer not to mention names, if it doesn’t matter. But they’re really boring. You know, I mean, believe it or not, the New York Civil Liberties Union was one of the clients I was most proud of.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, what did you do? You did, in fact, contact your lawyer, though you didn’t know if that actually was violating the NSL.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: According to the—you know, to a strict reading of the letter, it seemed to be a violation of what they were telling me. It said, "Do not tell anyone." But I basically took a leap of faith, feeling that I’m an American, I always have the right to talk to a lawyer, and I don’t believe there’s a such thing as "You can’t talk to a lawyer." So, the first thing I did, basically, was call my personal attorney, and then he and I ended up going over to the New York Civil Liberties Union at first, and then later we were connected to the American Civil Liberties Union. So, yeah, I mean, that was a leap of faith, because, you know, the letter said, "Do not tell anyone." But basically the first thing I did was tell someone.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, how did you decide to sue, to resist the NSL, not to hand over the information?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: You know, it was my gut feeling that—to do a search. You know, I’m not an attorney, but I know a bit about the Constitution. And my understanding is the government needs to prove probable cause and go to a judge in order to search. You know, one of the things that leapt out at me about this letter was that it was not signed by a judge. It was signed by someone from the FBI. You know, it seemed to me that that undercuts the whole system of checks and balances that we have, and I didn’t believe it was legal. And I had been reading about, you know, all the new powers under the PATRIOT Act, and it just seemed to me that I didn’t have much choice but to say something about it.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break, and when we come back, we’re going to be joined by one of the four Connecticut librarians who were joined with your case.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Great.

AMY GOODMAN: Because, like you, they resisted the FBI’s call and sued the US government. We’re talking to Nick Merrill, president of the internet service provider Calyx, filed the first court challenge to the FBI’s national security letters in 2004. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest, in his first national broadcast interview, is Nick Merrill. He has just gone public after being gagged for six years, having received a national security letter from the FBI, and the first to challenge it, to sue the US government.

Well, I also want to bring into this conversation someone else who was gagged by the FBI after receiving an NSL. George Christian is executive director of the Library Connection, a consortium of libraries in Connecticut. He joins us from Hartford.

George Christian, welcom to Democracy Now! I’m sure, as Nick spoke, it sounded familiar. Tell us what and when it happened to you.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: It happened to us in 2005. And actually, it was thankful that—we’re thankful that Nick made his protest. One of the problems is, when the FBI comes, part of you says, "Well, it’s the FBI. Let’s give them a hand." I had never heard the words "national security letter" before. I asked our attorney what a national security letter was. She had never heard the words before. But thankfully, one of her assistants was able to do some research and find Nick’s case and find that a judge had declared that the statute was unconstitutional, because it violated the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. And that really—

AMY GOODMAN: But George, could you step back a second? Could you step back a second and tell us—

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes?

AMY GOODMAN: —when you were handed that national security letter, where were you? Who came to your door?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: It was July of 2005, a year after Nick received his. The two FBI agents came to our office with the letter. They had called a week before and told us that they were going to serve us with a security letter. The thing that leaked to my attention about our letter was that it concerned an incident back in February, five months prior to this. It was dated in May, two months prior to July. And it was still addressed to the wrong person at our office, although they had called to ask who it should be addressed to. So I could conclude that it was not a case of a hot pursuit and that if I dug my heels in, we weren’t jeopardizing any of our fellow citizens, but—and thanks to—

AMY GOODMAN: What did you say to the FBI agents who came to your door?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: I said it was my understanding that a federal judge had ruled the statute authority they were using to be unconstitutional, and I would just like to talk with my lawyer. And the agent said, "Fine," wrote a number on the back of his business card, and gave it to me. He said, "Have your attorney call this number." And they left.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, you called—

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: It was only after I called—

AMY GOODMAN: You called a meeting of the executive committee of the Library Connection. And the Library Connection, what, is a consortium of the libraries of Connecticut, the internet system that you use?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes. We are owned by twenty-six libraries in the Hartford area—twenty-seven—one academic, twenty-six public. And our basic function is to provide IT services to these libraries. We run a common computer system for them, so that they can share data amongst themselves, do inter-library loans, share patron data.

AMY GOODMAN: So you decided to sue the government.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: I decided that I was not going to participate in the violation of the Constitution, but I did want the approval of my, at least, executive board, because I—at that time, I thought that a suit against the Attorney General of the United States might cost a lot of money, and I didn’t feel I had the moral right to put their money at risk without some indication that they wanted to do this, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Because you were gagged.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Because we were gagged. But fortunately, they were on board, as well, not only from constitutional point of view, but there is a long tradition. Twenty—forty-eight of the fifty states have explicit statutes guaranteeing the sanctity of patron records and mandating that librarians take active measures to preserve the security of these records, so that—federal law does trump state law, but they came from a long tradition of just saying no, without a court order.

AMY GOODMAN: I don’t know if most people think of librarians as the freedom fighters of our time, but here you four, the four librarians of Connecticut, took on the USA PATRIOT Act. This—just before this, at the time, Attorney General John Ashcroft, you sued—Alberto Gonzales, when he became Attorney General—had called librarians "hysterical," said this wasn’t happening to libraries. And yet, while you knew it was happening, you couldn’t say it was happening.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes. That was extremely frustrating. The PATRIOT Act was up for renewal in Congress, and we at least wanted to go to Congress and tell them what had happened and ask them to redress this in the renewal. And I’m sure the gag order was maintained explicitly to prevent us from talking to Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, your case was joined with Nick Merrill’s. You weren’t even allowed in the first courtroom, is that right? When your case was being heard?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes. Yes, when we first sued the Attorney General, I told our attorneys I’d like to be in the courtroom. After all, I’m the plaintiff. And they said no. They had talked to the judge. That would not be allowed, because then our identity could be guessed. But the judge did allow us to go to a courtroom in Hartford, sixty miles away, where we were locked in a room with a security guard and able to watch our case on a monitor. But as the plaintiffs, we were not allowed in the courtroom.

AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately, your gag order was lifted.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes, after the—

AMY GOODMAN: But what happened to your case?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Well, after the statute was renewed, it was modified significantly in the renewal, and the appellate court ruled that we had to go back to the initial court, the circuit court, and get a new ruling. But the judge there still said the statute was similar enough that she was lifting our gag order. And the FBI—or the Justice Department informed our attorneys they would no longer oppose us in court, although they did try to convince the court to just drop the whole thing. But the court said, nothing doing. They would allow the ruling to go ahead. So we had a judge declare our gag unconstitutional, and after that, we were free to talk.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Merrill, you, too, did not know who these librarians were, right?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: You knew them like you were known, as John Doe.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: So what was it like going into court? You couldn’t be identified.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: No one knew you were the person who was bringing this precedent-setting case.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Right. Like the librarians, I really wasn’t able to go to court most of the time. There was one or two occasions in which I did go, where they knew beforehand that there would be a huge crowd there. When I went to the Second Circuit, there were entire law school classes there, so there was just dozens of people, and it was standing room only. But I had been instructed that I couldn’t talk to anyone. I shouldn’t even say hello to anyone. I should just kind of keep my head down and listen, if I’d like to, but just, you know, be really quiet, because, you know, I was in danger of violating the gag.

AMY GOODMAN: George Christian, you watched the case from the Hartford courthouse, when it was taking place in Bridgeport, by closed-circuit TV, because you were considered a national security threat, you and the three other Connecticut librarians, like, what, Peter Pace, head of the Plainfield library?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: Yes, Peter Chase.

AMY GOODMAN: Peter Chase, sorry.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: But we were considered—the release of our identity would be considered a national security threat, because, they reasoned then, whoever they were interested in would realize that the FBI was closing in, although, with twenty-six libraries, I doubt they could really make that a case.

We did get to attend the appellate court, along with Nick Merrill. We didn’t know at that time whether Nick was a male or a female. We were instructed to enter the courtroom in New York independently, to enter the building independently, not to sit with each other, not to have eye contact, not to have eye contact with our attorneys. But at least we could participate in the audience and watch our case being argued.

AMY GOODMAN: Now—

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: The ironic—

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, go ahead, George.

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: The ironic thing about our case is that the FBI so poorly redacted all the documentation in the court that the press was able, looking at the court papers, to uncover Peter Chase’s identity and my identity very early, within two weeks of the initial case. So there were countless news stories that identified us and identified Library Connection. And at the appellate hearing, our attorneys had a sheaf of newspapers, clippings, in which our names are mentioned, and they said that the gag order is just ridiculous at this point. And at the same time, the defense attorney for the government got up and moved to strike this evidence, which consisted of previously published newspaper articles, from the record. It was just totally bizarre.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Merrill, can you talk about why you dealt with this for six years, why you were willing to go through this, the importance of speaking out?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: I believe it’s so important that people have the right to freedom of speech. You know, it’s also a constitutional matter. I mean, I grew up learning about our system of checks and balances, our Bill of Rights. And essentially, you know, it’s a total cliché, but, you know, all that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I felt this was something I had to do. And as an internet provider or a systems administrator or a telephone technician, you have a lot of information that paints a really vivid picture about people’s personal, private lives and communications. And I believe that comes with a great degree of responsibility, that you’re essentially a steward of people’s personal and private matters, papers. So it seemed to me it was a moral obligation I had to protect the privacy of my clients.

AMY GOODMAN: You want to start a nonprofit now that would help people deal with this?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: How many national security letters have been given out?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Have been given out in total? I don’t know if anyone knows the answer to that. What we do know comes from an internal investigation of the Department of Justice from their inspector general. And I believe that the number is like 192,500 between the years 2003 and 2006. So it’s roughly 50,000 a year.

AMY GOODMAN: And Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has demanded information on what’s happening now, what is the status of these national security letters.

NICHOLAS MERRILL: Yeah. I believe the Department of Justice is now voluntarily giving information to Congress about it, but there’s nothing that really prevents—I mean, there’s nothing that really compels them to do so.

AMY GOODMAN: You settled for how much with the government?

NICHOLAS MERRILL: It wasn’t that kind of a settlement. It was merely a mutual agreement that, you know, we would drop the current appeal, and they would let me partially out of the gag. I mean, there was no financial aspect to it.

AMY GOODMAN: And George Christian, why did you and the three other librarians—Peter Chase of the Plainfield libraries; Janet Nocek, the Portland Public Library director; and the Glastonbury Public Library director Barbara Bailey—why did you risk so much, gagged for so long, not being able to tell your colleagues what was happening? Why do you think this is so important?

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: We think that libraries are one of the cornerstones of a democratic society. People ought to be free to go to a library and get information that the librarians have provided. Librarians try to be impartial, but just provide quality information. And really, you ought to be able to go to a library and check anything you want, whether it’s political, whether it’s research into breast cancer or whatever, without the FBI looking over your shoulder or anyone in the community looking over your shoulder. And that’s a long tradition that librarians have had. It’s part of the Library Bill of Rights, first issued in the 1940s.

But more importantly, we all take the constitutional protections that we have for granted. And the truth is, these protections are only there as long as we’re willing to demand, that we, the public, are willing to demand, that they be enforced. It’s always tempting for those in power to encroach upon these civil liberties in the name of expediency. And if someone doesn’t stand up and say, "Hey, wait a minute," before you know it, your liberties will be gone. We have a history in this country of reacting to any external threat by throwing the baby out with the bathwater and clamping down on our civil liberties.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both—

GEORGE CHRISTIAN: That happens in every—

AMY GOODMAN: —for being with us, George Christian, executive director of Library Connection, consortium of the internet system of the libraries around Hartford in Connecticut, and Nick Merrill, president of the internet service provider Calyx, who filed the first court challenge to the FBI’s national security letters in 2004.

This from the Washington Post, as we move on to the primaries around the country, the Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s internet activity without a court order, if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words—"electronic communication transactional records"—to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. ]]> Players, organisations, and events of deep politics Peter Lemkin http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4385