Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:07 PM Feb 2012

Know your BFEE: John Roberts earned his Sgt. Pepper stripes as an Iran-Contra cover-up artiste.



The smarmy “Justice” John Roberts wasn’t around for the 5-4 decision that installed pretzeldent Junior George W Bush 43 into the Oval Office. The vote-suppressor supreme “Justice” William Rehnquist was at the top of that legal heap back in 2001.

But, if it wasn’t for young John Roberts workin’ his legal magic ‘n’ all back in 1986, it’s quite possible there never would have been a President Poppy George Herbert Walker Bush 41 in the first place.

The reason: John Roberts helped keep Pruneface Ronald Reagan from being impeached and the secret government arms-for-hostages Boland Amendment runaround ringleader Poppy Bush out of prison during Iran-Contra.



JR lawyered iran contra

The Smoking Gun: John Roberts "Lawyered" the Iran-Contra Scandal

Bob Fertik
Democrats.com
August 25, 2005

EXCERPT...

One file withheld, regarding the Iran-contra affair, was a draft memo from Roberts to his bosses with the heading "re: establishment of NHAO" -- referring to the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office.

The office was one of the ways the Reagan administration got around what were known as the Boland amendments, which prohibited U.S. intelligence agencies from spending money to overthrow the Sandinistas. The office was a way the administration could get funds to the contras for nonmilitary purposes, but once there the money was used for all sorts of things.

In other words, John Roberts "lawyered" the Iran-Contra Scandal - one of the worst scandals in American history.

Now we know why Karl Rove is scrubbing Roberts' files!!!

CONTINUED…

http://www.democrats.com/roberts-iran-contra



Why does that matter? Well, Iran-Contra was treason of the highest order. Not only did the Executive circumvent Congress in carrying out its various warmongering treasons in the name of fighting godless communism, they were trading arms with the terrorists who had killed 240 United States Marines, 18 Navy and 3 Army personnel at the Beirut airport in 1983.



Firewall: Inside the Iran-Contra Cover-up

By Robert Parry
1995

EXCERPT…

Those combined interests likely will lead to very few favorable reviews of a new book by a man who put himself in the way of that cover-up -- Iran-contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh. In a remarkable new book, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-up, Walsh details his six-year battle to break through the "firewall" that White House officials built around President Reagan and Vice President Bush after the Iran-contra scandal exploded in November 1986.

For Walsh, a lifelong Republican who shared the foreign policy views of the Reagan administration, the Iran-contra experience was a life-changing one, as his investigation penetrated one wall of lies only to be confronted with another and another -- and not just lies from Oliver North and his cohorts but lies from nearly every senior administration official who spoke with investigators.

According to Firewall, the cover-up conspiracy took formal shape at a meeting of Reagan and his top advisers in the Situation Room at the White House on Nov. 24, 1986. The meeting's principal point of concern was how to handle the troublesome fact that Reagan had approved illegal arms sales to Iran in fall 1985, before any covert-action finding had been signed. The act was a clear felony -- a violation of the Arms Export Control Act -- and possibly an impeachable offense.

SNIP…

&quot White House chief of staff Don) Regan, who had heard McFarlane inform the president and who had heard the president admit to Shultz that he knew of the shipment of Hawk (anti-aircraft) missiles, said nothing. Shultz and (Defense Secretary Caspar) Weinberger, who had protested the shipment before it took place, said nothing. (Vice President George) Bush, who had been told of the shipment in advance by McFarlane, said nothing. Casey, who (had) requested that the president sign the retroactive finding to authorize the CIA-facilitated delivery, said nothing. (NSC adviser John) Poindexter, who had torn up the finding, said nothing. Meese asked whether anyone knew anything else that hadn't been revealed. No one spoke."

CONTINUED…

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story34.html



These are no mere gangsters. They are mass murderers dealing with mass murderers to advance their aims. And John Roberts let them get away with their corruptions and treasons.



Roberts & the 'Apex of Presidential Power'

By Nat Parry
September 6, 2005

EXCERPT...

In the 1980s, Roberts also provided legal advice to the Reagan administration on how to pick its way around the legal obstacles erected by Congress to limit military and other assistance to the Nicaraguan contra rebels who were fighting to overthrow Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

SNIP…

Conflict of Interest

Regarding the Hamdan case, Roberts also saw no impropriety in his simultaneous interviewing with senior administration officials for a life-time job on the Supreme Court and his judging of a case in which Bush was a defendant.

On April 1, Roberts was interviewed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who had formulated many of the arguments for the “apex of presidential power,” including Bush’s right to override anti-torture laws.

Other interviews with Roberts were conducted by Vice President Dick Cheney; White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; White House legal counsel Harriet Miers; Bush’s chief political strategist Karl Rove; and Cheney’s chief of staff Lewis Libby.

CONTINUED…

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/090605.html



Oh yeah. "No Poppy" means no one to appoint Associate Just-Us Tony the Fixer Scalia to the court in 1986. And everybody knows, Fangu Tony was da brains behind the 5-4 fiasco...uh ah uh, assisted by the lawyerly John Roberts, of course.



Roberts Gave GOP Advice in 2000 Recount

John G. Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, played a role in the chaotic, 36-day period following the disputed 2000 presidential election.

by Gary Fineout and Mary Ellen Klas
Published on Thursday, July 21, 2005 by the Miami Herald

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts provided legal advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in the weeks following the November 2000 election as part of the effort to make sure the governor's brother won the disputed presidential vote.

Roberts, at the time a private attorney in Washington, D.C., came to Tallahassee to advise the state's Republican administration as it was trying to prevent a Democratic end-run that the GOP feared might give the election to Al Gore, sources told The Herald.

SNIP...

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, seized on Roberts' participation in the 2000 recount and suggested it should be grounds for rejecting his nomination. Wexler suggested the nomination ``threw salt on the wounds of the thousands of Floridians whose voting rights were disenfranchised during the 2000 election.

''Judge Roberts worked to ensure that George Bush would become president -- regardless of what the courts might decide,'' Wexler said, relying on news accounts that suggested Roberts gave the governor advice on how the state Legislature could name Bush the winner. ``And now he is being rewarded for that partisan service by being appointed to the nation's highest court.''

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0721-07.htm



Small world. And very, very bad.



The Lost Opportunity of Iran-Contra

Special Report: A quarter century ago with the breaking of the Iran-Contra scandal, the United States had a chance to step back from its march toward Empire and to demand accountability for White House crimes. But instead a powerful cover-up prevailed, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry
ConsortiumNews
December 1, 2011

EXCERPT...

Walsh finally relented and agreed to shut down his investigation, meaning that one of the key lessons derived from Iran-Contra was that a determined cover-up of a national security scandal, backed by a powerful media apparatus and aggressive political allies, can work.

In the early 1990s when I interviewed the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s longtime Democratic chief counsel Spencer Oliver, he put Iran-Contra in exactly that historical place, as the polar opposite of Watergate when Richard Nixon’s abuses of power had real consequences, including Nixon’s forced resignation and prison terms for many of his subordinates.

“What [the Republicans] learned from Watergate,” Oliver said, “was not ‘don’t do it,’ but ‘cover it up more effectively.’ They have learned that they have to frustrate congressional oversight and press scrutiny in a way that will avoid another major scandal.”

The consequences of the failed Iran-Contra investigations have been long-lasting and profound. Not only did George H.W. Bush manage to get elected president in 1988 under the false claim that he had been “out of the loop” on the scandal, but the failure to hold him accountable in 1993 opened the door to the White House eight years later for his son, George W. Bush.

George W. Bush’s imperial presidency (and its costly “war on terror”) would have been virtually unthinkable if the full truth had been known about George H.W. Bush regarding Iran-Contra. Nor would it have been likely that the Republicans could have succeeded in elevating Ronald Reagan to his present iconic status.

CONTINUED...

http://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/01/the-lost-opportunity-of-iran-contra/



For all that, dealing with terrorists and going around the Congressional ban on dealing death on innocent people in Nicaragua, they all belong in the slammer for life.

Instead, John Roberts gets to head the nation’s highest court in the land for life.
42 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Know your BFEE: John Roberts earned his Sgt. Pepper stripes as an Iran-Contra cover-up artiste. (Original Post) Octafish Feb 2012 OP
you might also be interested in this RainDog Feb 2012 #1
Prof. Alexander delivers Truth regarding the racist and fascist natures of the War on Drugs. Octafish Feb 2012 #6
A sad time in American history. CanSocDem Feb 2012 #2
His means to occupying the Oval Office was to ensure there would be no ''October Surprise.'' Octafish Feb 2012 #7
The BFEE - the world's ultimate I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch mine club. Initech Feb 2012 #3
Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. Theirs is a line of toadies in service to warmongers going back generations. Octafish Feb 2012 #10
What I still don't get is why we can't prosecute them. Initech Feb 2012 #11
That's exactly why they keep scumbags like Roberts and Alito and Scalia in power. Octafish Feb 2012 #18
K&R....n/t unkachuck Feb 2012 #4
Oliver North luvs John Roberts Octafish Feb 2012 #21
No surprise. Almost all of W's people can be found somewhere in the the criminal ranks of the past. jwirr Feb 2012 #5
Poppy pardoned Caspar Weinberger and kept his own leg-assy outta the slammer. Octafish Feb 2012 #24
Gosh if you had asked me hootinholler Feb 2012 #8
How John Roberts Got to the Top: The Spectre of White Affirmative Action Octafish Feb 2012 #31
On a side note, Lawrence Walsh celebrated his 100th birthday last month. Guy Whitey Corngood Feb 2012 #9
Judge Walsh is a Republican of the Old School, a man of Integrity. Octafish Feb 2012 #32
Thank you Octafish for not giving up. kr nt PufPuf23 Feb 2012 #12
Judge Dread: John Roberts and Enemy Combatants Octafish Feb 2012 #33
K&R (nt) T S Justly Feb 2012 #13
John Roberts had larger 2000 Florida recount role Octafish Feb 2012 #34
k and r niyad Feb 2012 #14
The youngest Chief Justice since John Marshall in 1801. Octafish Feb 2012 #36
Thank you for your effort and dedication in pulling this together so we can see the full picture suffragette Feb 2012 #15
You are most welcome, suffragette! The guy's friends with the likes of Clarence Thomas... Octafish Feb 2012 #37
And both he and Thomas clearly view rights as something for the privileged class and corporations, suffragette Feb 2012 #39
Ho-hum SoCalDem Feb 2012 #16
Understand, completely. My own Mrs. Octafish says, ''I am so glad I don't know what you know.'' Octafish Feb 2012 #38
K & R AzDar Feb 2012 #17
''No wonder Americans think Democrats don't stand for anything!'' Octafish Feb 2012 #40
"Just because I look drunk and stoned in the photo doesn't mean I am." - Bush (R) Miqqyy Feb 2012 #19
Wasted. Octafish Feb 2012 #41
K&R raouldukelives Feb 2012 #20
John Roberts claimed he never was in the Federalist Society, yet his name was on their books. Octafish Feb 2012 #42
Bookmarked. crazylikafox Feb 2012 #22
K&R laundry_queen Feb 2012 #23
thank you octafish for keeping this alive newspeak Feb 2012 #25
Roberts is our creepiest Justice, by far. hunter Feb 2012 #26
Damn I love your threads malaise Feb 2012 #27
Great one. HughBeaumont Feb 2012 #28
A memorable moment from the movie, "Syriana": Raffi Ella Feb 2012 #29
Interesting... Quantess Feb 2012 #30
Thanks for your work on this... countryjake Feb 2012 #35

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
1. you might also be interested in this
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:11 PM
Feb 2012
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101711001

Michelle Alexander talks about the new Jim Crow - and how the WoD was an extension of the southern strategy that Reagan truly ramped up - the irony, of course, is that the CIA helped the Contras to sell cocaine in the U.S. to fund their war.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
6. Prof. Alexander delivers Truth regarding the racist and fascist natures of the War on Drugs.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:46 PM
Feb 2012

Just-Us roberts makes certain the right kind of drug dealers go to prison. Of course, he makes certain the right kind of drug dealers stay out. The connected kind:

Judge John Roberts and Iran Contra Drug Smuggling

EXCERPT...

A little on perhaps why the msm failed to cover this story. They may have been afraid of getting killed if they did.




 

CanSocDem

(3,286 posts)
2. A sad time in American history.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:24 PM
Feb 2012


I can't remember anything as grating as RR proudly proclaiming his superior diplomatic skills in the contrived release of the American hostages in Iran....not counting, of course those being hidden in the Canadian Consulate.

"Morning in America" indeed.

.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
7. His means to occupying the Oval Office was to ensure there would be no ''October Surprise.''
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:53 PM
Feb 2012

So, they dealt with the Ayatollah's peeps directly, going back to 1980.

Nixon did something similar with South Vietnam in 1968.

PS: Thank you and every Canadian at the Embassy in Tehran. I remember yesterday like it was Ted Koppel's hair.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
10. Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. Theirs is a line of toadies in service to warmongers going back generations.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 11:07 PM
Feb 2012

They may yet sink democracy, now that they've held great financial and political power, personally, for four generations.

Seriously: When was the last time a lying crony capitalist Bush was sent to jail for lying America into war? Let alone a bankster?

Initech

(99,925 posts)
11. What I still don't get is why we can't prosecute them.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 11:13 PM
Feb 2012

And I mean the whole lot of 'em. We should be holding Nuremberg style trials for the whole BFEE and that includes their enablers like Limbaugh and Fux News.

Maybe that's why they keep scumbags like Roberts and Alito and Scalia in power.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
18. That's exactly why they keep scumbags like Roberts and Alito and Scalia in power.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:21 AM
Feb 2012

It pays the right people:



The Origins of the Overclass

By Steve Kangas

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA. This is not to say the machine is a formal CIA operation, complete with code name and signed documents. (Although such evidence may yet surface — and previously unthinkable domestic operations such as MK-ULTRA, CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD show this to be a distinct possibility.) But what we do know already indicts the CIA strongly enough. Its principle creators were Irving Kristol, Paul Weyrich, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, and more. Almost all the machine's creators had CIA backgrounds.

During the 1970s, these men would take the propaganda and operational techniques they had learned in the Cold War and apply them to the Class War. Therefore it is no surprise that the American version of the machine bears an uncanny resemblance to the foreign versions designed to fight communism. The CIA's expert and comprehensive organization of the business class would succeed beyond their wildest dreams. In 1975, the richest 1 percent owned 22 percent of America’s wealth. By 1992, they would nearly double that, to 42 percent — the highest level of inequality in the 20th century.

How did this alliance start? The CIA has always recruited the nation’s elite: millionaire businessmen, Wall Street brokers, members of the national news media, and Ivy League scholars. During World War II, General "Wild Bill" Donovan became chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. Donovan recruited so exclusively from the nation’s rich and powerful that members eventually came to joke that "OSS" stood for "Oh, so social!"

Another early elite was Allen Dulles, who served as Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961. Dulles was a senior partner at the Wall Street firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which represented the Rockefeller empire and other mammoth trusts, corporations and cartels. He was also a board member of the J. Henry Schroeder Bank, with offices in Wall Street, London, Zurich and Hamburg. His financial interests across the world would become a conflict of interest when he became head of the CIA. Like Donavan, he would recruit exclusively from society’s elite.

CONTINUED...



They don't call 'em "Capitalism's Invisible Army" for nothing. It takes money to buy people willing to sell their integrity.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
21. Oliver North luvs John Roberts
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:46 AM
Feb 2012
The Contras, Cocaine,
and Covert Operations


An August, 1996, series in the San Jose Mercury News by reporter Gary Webb linked the origins of crack cocaine in California to the contras, a guerrilla force backed by the Reagan administration that attacked Nicaragua's Sandinista government during the 1980s. Webb's series, "The Dark Alliance," has been the subject of intense media debate, and has focused attention on a foreign policy drug scandal that leaves many questions unanswered.

This electronic briefing book is compiled from declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive, including the notebooks kept by NSC aide and Iran-contra figure Oliver North, electronic mail messages written by high-ranking Reagan administration officials, memos detailing the contra war effort, and FBI and DEA reports. The documents demonstrate official knowledge of drug operations, and collaboration with and protection of known drug traffickers. Court and hearing transcripts are also included.

Special thanks to the Arca Foundation, the Ruth Mott Fund, the Samuel Rubin Foundation, and the Fund for Constitutional Government for their support.

Contents:

Documentation of Official U.S. Knowledge of Drug Trafficking and the Contras

Evidence that NSC Staff Supported Using Drug Money to Fund the Contras

U.S. Officials and Major Traffickers:

Manuel Noriega.

CONTINUED with Documents, Links...

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm

Thank you, unkachuck. The fight is far from over, although we are a hell of a lot closer to the winning than we were 10 years ago.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
24. Poppy pardoned Caspar Weinberger and kept his own leg-assy outta the slammer.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 12:06 PM
Feb 2012
Iran-Contra: Sweep It Away

Extra! March 1993
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting

Most of the major media reacted to George Bush's last-minute pardon of leading Iran-Contra figures with less than outrage. The conventional wisdom in media circles for years has been that the scandal is old news and it should just go away. Robert MacNeil of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (12/24/92) spoke for many in the media when he asked Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive:

Mr. Blanton, why does this issue remain important? Clearly, the public is bored with it. The polls all show that years ago they stopped being interested in it. Why not, as Mr. Bush describes in his pardon statement, why not bring in the healing power of the pardon and sweep it away and sweep the bitterness away?


Blanton pointed out that what polls actually show is that most voters did not believe that Bush was telling the truth about Iran-Contra, and that this was a factor in Bush's electoral defeat. MacNeil then turned to his other guest, Richard Perle, a former assistant to pardon-recipient Caspar Weinberger, and demonstrated what he considers asking tough questions of both sides: "Mr. Perle, I believe you would sympathize with the president and his desire to sweep the bitterness away with the pardon?"

Most news outlets have been so busy trying to "sweep away" the legacy of Iran-Contra that they never fully grappled with the scandal--and don't understand what really happened or who was involved. The coverage of the pardons provided proof of this: The Chicago Tribune (12/26/92), trying to provide background on the arms-for-hostages deal, wrote, "There is no evidence that Bush had any knowledge about the other part of the affair: a covert weapons pipeline set up to aid the Nicaraguan Contras after Congress prohibited direct government assistance in 1984."

In fact, Bush's involvement with the Contra operation is well documented. In 1986, then-Vice President Bush met with Felix Rodriguez, an ex-CIA operative who coordinated the illegal airlift of arms to the Contras from El Salvador; according to a memo written by his staff briefing Bush on the meeting, the two discussed "resupply of the contras." Rodriguez was in frequent contact with Bush's office; Oliver North wrote in his diary that Rodriguez was "talking too much about VP connection."

CONTINUED...

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1525

Thanks for caring about who's who and what's what, jwirr. Perhaps these gangsters fear the Truth because they know it follows them everywhere.

hootinholler

(26,449 posts)
8. Gosh if you had asked me
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 10:57 PM
Feb 2012

I would have guessed James Baker.

This puts a whole new light on the Chief JustUs' appointment.

It also sheds some light on who was actually running the country whilst W played presidentin. Actually this might make more dots than it connects.

Thanks again Der Fishie!

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
31. How John Roberts Got to the Top: The Spectre of White Affirmative Action
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 03:58 PM
Feb 2012

Some people are born to get ahead.



How John Roberts Got to the Top

The Spectre of White Affirmative Action


By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.
September 28, 2005
CounterPunch

EXCERPT...

Bush's selection of John Roberts for Chief Justice is a glaring example of white affirmative-action irrespective of Roberts' respected legal acumen elevating him above the ranks of an inadequately prepared candidate.

The bigot Bush designated Roberts to replace, the late William Rehnquist, at least spent fourteen years as a Supreme Court Justice before his elevation to Chief Justice.

Roberts has less than three years experience as a federal appeals court judge, getting that lofty position without having any prior judicial experience.

SNIP...

Roberts landed a plum clerkship with a federal appeals judge after his Harvard Law School graduation, followed immediately by a prestige elevating clerkship with US Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist ­ who never hired a black law clerk.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/09/28/the-spectre-of-white-affirmative-action/



Thanks, hootinholler. It's clear now the real Frankenstein's real father was Dr. Mengele.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
32. Judge Walsh is a Republican of the Old School, a man of Integrity.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 04:45 PM
Feb 2012
Chapter 28

George Bush

EXCERPT...

A year later Bush was President-elect, and (Office of Independent Council, OIC) was engaged in the intensive preparation for the trial of North, which began on January 31, 1989. After the completion of the trials of North and Poindexter and the pleas of guilty of retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim, OIC broadened its investigation to those supporting and supervising Poindexter and North. This investigation developed a large amount of new material with which it intended to question President Bush. His interrogation was left to the end because, as President, he obviously could not be questioned repeatedly. It was Independent Counsel's expectation that he would be available after the completion of the 1992 Presidential election campaign.

In light of his access to information, Bush would have been an important witness. In an early interview with the FBI in December 1986 and in the OIC deposition in January 1988, Bush acknowledged that he was regularly informed of events connected with the Iran arms sales, including the 1985 Israeli missile shipments.2 These statements conflicted with his more extreme public assertions that he was "out of the loop" regarding the operational details of the Iran initiative and was generally unaware of the strong opposition to the arms sales by Secretary of Defense Weinberger and Secretary of State George P. Shultz. He denied knowledge of the diversion of proceeds from the arms sales to assist the contras.3 He also denied knowledge of the secret contra-resupply operation supervised by North.4

SNIP...

In 1991 and 1992, Independent Counsel uncovered important evidence in the form of withheld documents and contemporaneous notes that raised significant questions about the earlier accounts provided by high Administration officials. The personal diary of Vice President Bush was disclosed to Independent Counsel only in December 1992, despite early and repeated requests for such documents. This late disclosure prompted a special investigation into why the diary had not been produced previously, and the substance of the diary.

Following the pardons, Bush refused to be interviewed unless the interview was limited to his non-production of his diary and personal notes. Because such a limited deposition would not serve a basic investigative purpose and because its occurrence would give the misleading impression of cooperation where there was none, Independent Counsel declined to accept these conditions. A Grand Jury subpoena was not issued because OIC did not believe there was an appropriate likelihood of a criminal prosecution. Bush's notes themselves proved not as significant as those of Weinberger and Shultz aides Charles Hill and Nicholas Platt, and the statute of limitations had passed on most of the relevant acts and statements of Bush.

CONTINUED...

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_28.htm

Happy Birthday, Mr. Walsh!

Thanks for the heads-up, Compay!

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
33. Judge Dread: John Roberts and Enemy Combatants
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 05:04 PM
Feb 2012

Here's what we're talking about:



Judge Dread

John Roberts and Enemy Combatants


by CHRIS FLOYD
CounterPunch
July 20, 2005

EXCERPT...

George W. Bush has granted himself the power to declare anyone on earth – including any American citizen – an "enemy combatant," for any reason he sees fit. He can render them up to torture, he can imprison them for life, he can even have them killed, all without charges, with no burden of proof, no standards of evidence, no legislative oversight, no appeal, no judicial process whatsoever except those that he himself deigns to construct, with whatever limitations he cares to impose. Nor can he ever be prosecuted for any order he issues, however criminal; in the new American system laid out by Bush’s legal minions, the Commander is sacrosanct, beyond the reach of any law or constitution.

This is not hyperbole. It is simply the reality of the United States today. The principle of unrestricted presidential power is now being codified into law and incorporated into the institutional structures of the state, as Deep Blade Journal reports in an excellent compendium of recent outrages against liberty.

For example, on July 15, a panel of federal appellate court judges upheld Bush’s sovereign right to dispose of "enemy combatants" any way he pleases, the Washington Post reports. In a chilling decision, the judges ruled that the Commander’s arbitrarily designated "enemies" are non-persons: neither the Geneva Conventions nor American military and domestic law apply to such garbage. Bush is now free to subject anyone he likes to the "military tribunal" system he has concocted – a brutal sham that some top retired military officials have denounced as a "kangaroo court" that will be used by tyrants around the world to "hide their oppression under U.S. precedent."

One of the kowtowing jurists on the appeals panel was none other than John G. Roberts. Four days after he affirmed Bush’s autocratic powers, Roberts was duly awarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court. Now he will be sitting in final judgment on this case – and any other challenges to Bush’s peremptory commands. This is what is known, in the tyrant trade, as "a safe pair of hands."

CONTINUED...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x141263



PS and most importantly: You are most welcome, PufPuf23! People like you make this a world worth living in and people like roberts a subject worth delving in.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
34. John Roberts had larger 2000 Florida recount role
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 06:00 PM
Feb 2012

Something for people who care about democracy to consider...



Roberts had larger 2000 recount role

Roberts had larger 2000 recount role The role of U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in the 2000 election aftermath in Florida was larger than has been reported.

Roberts helped prepare the Supreme Court case.


By MARC CAPUTO
Miami Herald
July 28, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts played a broader behind-the-scenes role for the Republican camp in the aftermath of the 2000 election than previously reported — as legal consultant, lawsuit editor and prep coach for arguments before the nation’s highest court, according to the man who drafted him for the job.

Ted Cruz, a domestic policy advisor for President Bush and who is now Texas’ solicitor general, said Roberts was one of the first names he thought of while he and another attorney drafted the Republican legal dream team of litigation ’’lions’’ and ’’800-pound gorillas,’’ which ultimately consisted of 400 attorneys in Florida.

Until now, Gov. Jeb Bush and others involved in the election dispute could recall almost nothing of Roberts’ role, except for a half-hour meeting the governor had with Roberts. Cruz said Roberts was in Tallahassee helping the Bush camp for ’’a week to 10 days,’’ and that his help was important, though Cruz said it is difficult to remember specifics five years after the sleep-depriving frenetic pace of the 2000 recount.

SNIP...

’’He’s one of the best brief writers in the country. Just like a good journalist or a novelist, he can write with clarity, concisely and can paint a picture with words,’’ said Cruz. Roberts, a constitutional-law expert in a top Washington law firm at the time, is now a federal appeals court judge in D.C. Roberts was a no-brainer for the recount effort: His win-loss record at the U.S. Supreme Court was one of the most impressive. And, like Cruz, he was a member of a tight-knit circle of former clerks for the court’s chief justice, William Rehnquist — a group jokingly referred to as ``the cabal.’’
SNIP...

Republicans such as Jeb Bush, though, say they’ve "moved on.’"

CONTINUED...

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=7228



And the word came down from above that nobody was to say, "Squat."

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
36. The youngest Chief Justice since John Marshall in 1801.
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 09:42 AM
Feb 2012

People today generally live longer than then...



On history's stage: Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

As the youngest leader of the high court in two centuries, he has the energy, the intellect, and the votes to reshape our world.


By Roger Parloff, senior editor
Fortune/CNN
January 3, 2011: 5:00 AM ET

EXCERPT...

Since 2003, Roberts has been working the other side of the lectern, first as a federal appeals court judge and then, since September 2005, as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. Just 50 when he assumed that post, Roberts became the youngest Chief Justice since John Marshall was appointed to the job by President John Adams in 1801. With good health, Roberts could surpass Marshall's record as the longest-serving Chief Justice (34 years) in March 2040. Along the way he'll have a fair shot at surpassing in stature every Chief Justice except Marshall (who wrote Marbury v. Madison, the bedrock 1803 opinion establishing that the Supreme Court is empowered to strike down acts of Congress that in its view conflict with the Constitution).

"He's going to go down as an absolutely historic figure," predicts Goldstein, who co-heads the litigation department at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and is also the publisher of SCOTUSblog.com, an authoritative court-watching site. "John Roberts is the leader of a Court with five solidly conservative votes for the first time in its modern history," he continues. "He's an incredibly telegenic, energetic, thoughtful person, a great speaker -- but in addition he has the fifth vote. So while ... the [Chief Justice William] Rehnquist Court was more conservative than the [Chief Justice Warren] Burger Court, which was more conservative than the [Chief Justice Earl] Warren Court, it's the Roberts Court in which the rubber will hit the road."

SNIP...

The Roberts Court is also widely seen as pro-business -- "Supreme Court Inc.," the New York Times Magazine called it in 2008. Since 2006, according to the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center, the Roberts Court has ruled for business interests in 68% of the cases in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce submitted friend-of-the-court briefs. During a comparable span (1981--86) drawn from the Burger Court years, the Chamber's win ratio was just 43%. Close to 80% of the Chamber's wins before the Roberts Court have been by votes of 7-2 or better.

The Court's "corporatist" rap was further cemented last January, at least in popular perception, when it decided Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, finding that the First Amendment's free-speech clause guaranteed corporations (and unions) the same unfettered right to make independent election expenditures as is enjoyed by flesh-and-blood citizens. The holding struck down federal laws going back to the 1940s, and state laws back to the 1890s.

CONTINUED...

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/03/on-historys-stage-chief-justice-john-roberts-jr/



...like corporations.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
15. Thank you for your effort and dedication in pulling this together so we can see the full picture
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 03:52 AM
Feb 2012

You're one of the best at pulling back the curtain to expose the people operating the levers of the machines.

K&R

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
37. You are most welcome, suffragette! The guy's friends with the likes of Clarence Thomas...
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 10:06 AM
Feb 2012

...That means money.



Chief Justice Ducks Judicial Ethics Scandals In Annual Report


Posted on January 4, 2012 by Andrew Kreig
Washington's Blog

EXCERPT...

So far, for example, 52 House Democrats have requested a House Judiciary Committee impeachment investigation of Republican Justice Clarence Thomas for false statements on his annual financial disclosure statements covering up a reported $1.6 million in payments and gifts, mostly to his wife, Virginia.

This is one basis for an effort by some Democrats to prevent Thomas from sitting on the Court’s upcoming review of the Obama-supported health care law. Democrats focus especially on his 2010 vote in a 5-4 ruling enabling corporation donations in federal elections that was won by the same Citizens United group that advocated for his confirmation in 1991 with massive television ads. The Citizens United ruling was central to planning by Virginia Thomas to lead a new non-profit called Liberty Central funded by conservatives to help corporations make political donations enabled by her husband’s vote with the court majority and to position herself as a key opponent of Obama’s health care law that her husband could help overturn.

SNIP...

“The Supreme Court affects the life of every American every day,” says former court clerk Edward Lazarus in his iconic study, Closed Chambers. Yet the court is an insular, self-protective body. Presiding over a vast nation, all nine attended Harvard or Yale Law School (although Justice Ruth Ginsberg transferred from Harvard to Columbia for her degree). All but Thomas are from the metro New York region. Its members socialize with one another, generally refrain from self-criticism or reform, and otherwise protect one another under a theory the Constitution makes them accountable to no one, not even their colleagues.

Roberts could help initiate better oversight procedures if he wanted. But his report proves, if nothing else, that it’s still business as usual in the judiciary — unless or until the public demands reform.

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/chief-justice-ducks-judicial-ethics-scandals-in-annual-report.html



Old Money.

Thank you very much for the kind words, my Friend. Thank you for caring about subjects the television screen and Texas school books leave out.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
39. And both he and Thomas clearly view rights as something for the privileged class and corporations,
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 11:26 AM
Feb 2012

not for the mere people.

http://www.issues2000.org/John_Roberts.htm

http://www.issues2000.org/Clarence_Thomas.htm


And don't get this English Lit major started on the shift from education meant to nurture critical thinkers to narrow and rote instruction meant to produce uncritical drones.

It is all of a piece with the above though, isn't it my friend.








SoCalDem

(103,856 posts)
16. Ho-hum
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 05:02 AM
Feb 2012

Won't fit on a bumper sticker...so the public will never "get it"..or care.

This is what is so diabolically "wonderful" about the right wingers' deviance. They create such magnificently "layered" schemes, so that even when they are found out, they are so difficult to unwind that people tire of them before they get to the bottom of the mess.

TV stations and channels devote endless hours to the rehashing of decades-old murders, and breathe life into the "re-investigations" of them, but no one ever has the time to pursue the REAL crimes ..

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
38. Understand, completely. My own Mrs. Octafish says, ''I am so glad I don't know what you know.''
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 10:22 AM
Feb 2012

So, I bought a computer to keep track of these gangsters, mass murderers, privateers, warmongers, traitors, sociopaths, psychos and sundry conspirators who run the show.

Rather than cover these individuals and their affairs, Corporate McPravda prefers to cover them up.

Gosh, there's so many of them. Here's a bit for Them to think about from Rowan Atkinson on the phenom:



Most importantly: Thank you, SoCalDem, for being in the fight. They haven't got a chance.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
40. ''No wonder Americans think Democrats don't stand for anything!''
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 09:57 PM
Feb 2012

Something to consider from Shayne at Democrats.com:

"No wonder Americans think Democrats don't stand for anything!"

08/26/05
1:08am

Democratic Senators;

WHY? !!!!!!!

Shayne Munger

From The Nation:

"The Daily Outrage"

by Ari Berman
Posted 08/17/2005 @ 10:19am

"The Accommodation Party"

"Barring an unexpected development," the Post wrote yesterday, "Democrats will not launch a major fight" to block Roberts. Having ceded the ideological battle, prominent Democrats are locked only in a tactical argument with the White House over documents covering Roberts’s stint as deputy solicitor general under Ken Starr in the first Bush Administration. Even before the Roberts hearings begin, Democrats Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu have hinted at their upcoming support.

"No wonder Americans think the Democrats don't stand for anything."

Rest of Article:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?pid=13619


Thanks for being in the fight, AzDar. For our families, wot?, since 1776.
 

Miqqyy

(12 posts)
19. "Just because I look drunk and stoned in the photo doesn't mean I am." - Bush (R)
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:25 AM
Feb 2012

"But then again, it doesn't mean that I'm not." - Bush (R)

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
41. Wasted.
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 10:04 PM
Feb 2012

A wastrel wasting his witless life away. Looks wasted, too.



Thanks to Poppy's seasoning, he's the lack of reason for the treason.

Most importantly: A most hearty welcome to DU, Miqqyy!

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
42. John Roberts claimed he never was in the Federalist Society, yet his name was on their books.
Thu Feb 9, 2012, 10:17 PM
Feb 2012

Molly Ivins provided an excellent summation:



John Roberts and the Federalist Society

Molly Ivins
July 27, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sheesh, all I knew about John Roberts was that everyone says he has lovely manners -- and already I was prepared to be against him. Knee-jerk liberal? No, congratulations to the White House, Sen. John Cornyn, Fred Thompson and everyone else involved in "managing" Roberts' confirmation process. Can't these people do anything without being devious about it?

My first reaction to Roberts was: "Sounds like that's about as good as we can get. Quick, affirm him before they nominate Bork, Bolton or Pinochet." A conservative with good manners and no known nutball decisions or statements on his record? Hey, take him. At least he's not (whew!) a member of the Federalist Society.

No such luck. Cornyn, who I would have sworn is not this stupid, apparently signed off on having the nominee "forget" he was a member of the Federalist Society, and Roberts obliged, which is strange considering his reputation for brilliance and a spectacular memory.

Turns out the guy is listed in the society's 1997-98 "Leadership Directory" as a member of its steering committee in Washington. How many steering committees have you been on that you've forgotten about?

The reason that matters is that the Federalist Society is the ur-alpha-primo ultraconservative legal group in the whole country. Since we have only two years worth of Roberts' decisions on the bench (in itself unheard of for nominations to the Supremes), the information about how this society plans to steer the country can be very revealing of his positions.

CONTINUED...

http://freepress.org/columns/display/1/2005/1175



HST Lives, my Friend!

crazylikafox

(2,739 posts)
22. Bookmarked.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:50 AM
Feb 2012

It's even worse than I thought. I've been wondering what the real story on Roberts was, & why he was so corrupt.

laundry_queen

(8,646 posts)
23. K&R
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:57 AM
Feb 2012

You have the posts with the best content at DU. Thank you for all of your hard work. I wasn't old enough to remember much about Iran-Contra except my dad (ultra conservative here in Canada) bitching about Regan and Bush being crooked, so all of this info is fascinating to me. Thanks again.

newspeak

(4,847 posts)
25. thank you octafish for keeping this alive
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 12:26 PM
Feb 2012

anyone who followed the bcci-iran contra scandal, knew that if these felons were not brought to justice, they'd be back and the corruption against the country would be even worse. Sometimes, I can't believe how morally bankrupt, corrupted part of our government has become. For what? Power, money and corporate greed for certain people.

I remember when clinton basically told the american people we needed to look towards the future and there went the investigation. This is a "good old boys club" and the majority of the american people do not count. I actually believe that there are people who would betray the american people in a heartbeat if it would further their own agenda. And, the bcci-iran contra affair is a prime example.

Oliver North is no hero. Maybe someone can investigate what he was doing down in central america with the death squads. Wears his uniform to the hearing and everyone thinks he's some kind of hero for what? For destroying evidence, for helping put drugs on american streets, for helping the contras?

When the rule of law is not adhered to, it is the american people who suffer for it. Some of the same players involved in the scandal, played a part in little boots administration. Just more damage, more corruption. And people wonder why we are in the state we are in today.

hunter

(38,266 posts)
26. Roberts is our creepiest Justice, by far.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 12:27 PM
Feb 2012

He's got a strong "I'd be on a sex offender's list but I had the dirt on everyone," kind of vibe.

If anyone's got photos of Justices Scalia and Thomas mud wrestling with Rush Limbaugh, Haitian minors, industry lobbyists, and assorted farm animals, it'd be Roberts. He's the guy most likely to have George W. Bush's toga party and "penis in a box" photos.

That dude's probably got the goods on the Pope 'cause he was there.



When everyone else has gone home for the day, Roberts locks himself in his private office and strange noises are heard.

HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
28. Great one.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 12:56 PM
Feb 2012

You could fill a three-volume set on the crimes of the Reagan/Bewsh/Bewsh II admins. But for some reason, Americans give this troika of assholes a free pass. Bewsh II is never mentioned when it comes to discussing economic trace-back with Republicans (some of them dumbfoundingly still bring up the CRA). If it weren't for cooler heads, you'd see that wooden bastard Reagan on monuments, schools, libraries and buildings all over the country rather than just in D.C. (fitting, considering his motto was "Government IS the problem&quot .

Small wonder why the last Republican to win the presidential election that didn't have a Bewsh or a Nixon on the ticket was Herbert Hoover.

I fear America's coffin is going to get nailed shut if we were ever to get another Republican president who follows the technique of the Troika.

Raffi Ella

(4,465 posts)
29. A memorable moment from the movie, "Syriana":
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 01:13 PM
Feb 2012
DANNY
Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he’s
gonna run this up the flag pole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. (mimics prosecutor) “But, Danny, these are sovereign nations.” Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? “But, Danny, they’re codified by the U.N. charter!” Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods!

(beat) ...Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of
fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (beat)
Corruption... is how we win.


http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/REVIEWS/51130002/1023

There are no answers. And now that the corruption is absolute and is on its way to completely wiping out the middle class? Occupy Wall Street springs up.

And what does the Media say about OWS? And even some DU-ers say about them? They focus on fucking flag burning.

Seriously, it's enough to make you throw up your hands and just "get yours" and forget about the rest. Life is too god damn short.
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Know your BFEE: John Robe...