Octafish
Octafish's JournalYeah. Ever since Dulles hired the NAZIs and contracted the Mafia, there's been a problem.
When Jim Garrison pointed out its relevancy to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B Johnson said he agreed that there was a conspiracy and CIA had something to do with it (note last paragraph):
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=57085&relPageId=112
I would think this, too, would be on the front page and leading the newscasts every day until the surviving traitors, warmongers and banksters who've benefited were imprisoned. However, we are told to "Move on" and it's business as usual, meaning the rich get richer, our rights continue to vanish, and democracy falls victim to wars without end.
GOP Surveillance Judiciary -- Can We the People Disband FISA Court? (Scott Horton)
The G.O.P.’s Surveillance Judiciary
Is it possible to simply disband the partisan FISA court?
By Scott Horton
Harper's, July 29, 2013
In Friday’s New York Times, Charlie Savage takes a closer look at the judges hand-picked by John Roberts for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.
Ten of the court’s 11 judges — all assigned by Chief Justice Roberts — were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents; six once worked for the federal government. Since the chief justice began making assignments in 2005, 86 percent of his choices have been Republican appointees, and 50 percent have been former executive branch officials.
Not surprisingly, the Times review shows that Roberts has fashioned a court in his own image: movement conservative, Republican, largely consisting of persons who previously worked in the government. In sum, Roberts has picked a court that can be relied upon to quickly approve any government request for surveillance, through whatever instruments and according to whatever rules the government wishes.
The two chief justices who preceded Roberts, William H. Rehnquist and Warren E. Burger, were also conservative Republicans, and like Roberts they also ensured that a majority of the FISA court’s judges were conservative Republicans. However, neither of his predecessors was nearly so obsessive about it as Roberts — two-thirds of their selections were Republicans, while for Roberts, all but one have been Republican.
SNIP...
The special judicial body put in place by FISA to check government surveillance activities has been transformed by John Roberts into a cheerleader for such programs. This judicial adulteration leaves NSA critics in Congress with little alternative but to push for laws establishing further limits on NSA activities — though even if they manage to pass such a law, they must be wary of the demonstrated ability of the Justice Department, the NSA, and the FISA court to find secret “understandings” of statutes that justify unforeseen forms of overreach.
CONTINUED...
http://harpers.org/blog/2013/07/the-gops-surveillance-judiciary/
Legal Schnauzer -- journalist friend of Gov. Don Siegelman -- STILL IN JAIL!
Unbelievable, Roger Shuler -- the journalist who helped keep Don Siegelman in the public eye when Corporate McPravda wouldn't -- is still in jail on trumped up charges.
Let Roger Shuler Go Before Christmas -- The Only Journalist Held Indefinitely In The US
By Jill Simpson and Jim March
OpEdNews Op Eds 12/23/2013 at 07:59:56
The Committee to Protect Journalists who are defending journalists worldwide recently announced their 2013 list of reporters imprisoned illegally around the world. As to be expected Turkey, Iran and China were at the top of the list but shamefully this time the USofA made the list as well due to the jailing of an Internet blogger named Roger Shuler in the state of Alabama.
Roger has been a key documenter of corruption in the United States since he took on the Don Siegelman story in 2007 and he has never let up. Roger has recently vowed from his jail cell that he will not retract the statements he has made about Rob Riley, son of recent former Governor Bob Riley. So what we are left with in America is a journalist indefinitely incarcerated by a specially appointed retired judge not duly elected to decide this case who was appointed by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore known famously as the "10 Commandments" judge who was removed from the bench due to his mixture of church and state but re-elected by popular vote.
SNIP...
What concerns me about Roger Shuler's case is how they are indefinitely holding him. Clearly, if they want to punish Roger they should give him a sentence but instead it appears that in America these days we can now hold people for any amount of time if they do not do as the court wishes. So Roger sits in a jail cell in Shelby County Alabama with no knowledge of when he is to get out. Journalists all over the world are beginning to pick up his story as it appears this is the first time we have seen a journalist in the United States be treated like a Guantanamo Bay alleged terrorist. It is very Kafka-esque because we have a specially appointed non-elected judge, a secret hearing and sealed records. This is a nightmare for Roger Shuler's wife Carol and I'm sure any assistance anyone can give her would be welcome during this holiday season while her husband is indefinitely incarcerated in these United States because he refuses to take down a story he swears is true.
If we as citizens allow this to stand then we cannot complain about getting subverted media in the US. It is my request that everyone who reads this asks 100 friends to write and call Chief Justice Roy Moore at 334-229-0700 (address listed below) and ask him to show the Christian mercy he professes all over Alabama towards the only imprisoned journalist in the US, Roger Shuler.
As for Rob Riley, his attempt to suppress Roger's stories whether true or not has made him worldwide infamous for being the first to succeed at jailing an opposition journalist in the United States. It is frightening to think about Riley running for congress given this situation and Riley's questionable actions on the rights of journalists.
CONTINUED...
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Let-Roger-Shuler-Go-Before-by-JillSimpson-JimMar-Journalists-Detained_Journalists-Embedded_Journalists-Journalism_Roger-Shuler-131223-26.html
Anybody remember Don Siegelman?
Anybody remember Justice?
Smedley Butler noticed that too.
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." -- Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC (ret.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6150066
Notice how SidDithers never criticizes the Bush family, longtime business partners of Brown Brothers Harriman and their attorneys, Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles of Sullivan & Cromwell.
Naughty? Nice?
The foreman decides what brand gets burned on which hide; and he's just working for the owner.
What's it to ya?
If you don't like the thread, move on. There's nothing in it outside SOP.
Just because you want to shut down discusion of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy doesn't mean other people aren't interested in learning.
For those not clear on the concept: Assassination has no place in Democracy.
According to the testimony of CIA officials, the first U.S. resort to assassination of a foreign leader was initiated in 1960, when Richard Bissell, in the belief he had the explicit backing of Allen Dulles, and at least the implicit approval of President Eisenhower, undertook to bring about the murder of Patrice Lumumba, prime minister of the newly independent Congo.
…Bissell was frustrated by the refusal, on moral grounds, of one trusted agent to participate in the killing. Believing that “murder corrupts,” Michael Mulroney, a senior officer, said, no to Bissell. He argued that if Lumumba had to be eliminated, the Congolese government or military should do it, which appears to be what happened (after CIA urging). To the Senate committee, Mulroney explained that on reflection he concluded, “We have too much of the ‘good German’ in us, in that we do something because the boss says it is okay.” His colleagues were “not essentially evil people. But you can do an awful lot of wrong in this.”
-- Harris Wofford, former United States Senator (D-Pennsylvania), “Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties” (pp. 390-391)
PS: Assassination is an act of war. I don't recall declaring war on Congo or Cuba or anyplace else it's been done in our name.
PPS. No shame in hitting Box Cars, anytime.
You compare discussing the assassination of President Kennedy to beating a dead horse?
Out of 38,000 or something posts I've made over the past 12 years, just a few dozen are OPs on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. If they bother you so much, put me on "Ignore."
For those interested, here are the OPs -- excluding the current one -- I have started on the sad anniversary and on the Duquesne Conference over the last few weeks:
Octafish to attend JFK assassination conference. Do you think JFK still matters?
JFK Conference: Amazing Day of Information and Connecting with Good People
After JFK Conference, when I got home, I felt like RFK.
JFK Conference: Bill Kelly introduced new evidence - adding Air Force One tape recordings
JFK Conference: Rex Bradford detailed the historic importance of the Church Committee
JFK Conference: Lisa Pease Discussed the Real Harm of Corrupt Soft Power
JFK Conference: James DiEugenio made clear how Foreign Policy changed after November 22, 1963
JFK Conference: Mark Lane Addressed the Secret Government’s Role in the Assassination
JFK Conference: David Talbot named Allen Dulles as 'the Chairman of the Board of the Assassination'
JFK Conference: Dan Hardway Detailed how CIA Obstructed HSCA Investigation
Noah's Ark - Nov. 22, 1963
Seven Days in May -- tonight on TCM
Machine Gun Mouth
You disgust me, Archae. Thankfully they are of interest to many DUers, Democrats and those who want to see Justice for JFK. I post on DU because I don't want the BFEE warmongers of the "Money trumps peace" crowd to continue writing the nation's history, as they've tried to do over the past 50 years.
JFK Conference: Dan Hardway Detailed how CIA Obstructed HSCA Investigation
As a Democrat, a DUer and as a citizen of the United States, I was proud to attend "Passing the Torch: An International Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" at Duquesne University in October.
One of the important speakers there I was privileged to hear is attorney Dan L. Hardway, whose program was entitled "A View from the Trenches: The HSCA and the CIA." Mr. Hardway once served as a staff investigator and researcher for the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
A body formed by the House of Representatives in 1976, the HSCA was founded to investigate the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In brief, the HSCA was to follow up on information that the Church Committee in the Senate and the Pike Committee in the House -- and other Congressional investigations after Watergate -- uncovered, including the startling revelations that the CIA and the Mafia conspired to murder foreign leaders, starting in 1960 with Patrice Lumumba in Congo and later that year to include Fidel Castro in Cuba. Mr. Hardway's work included interviewing people and researching documents related to the Central Intelligence Agency, including their connections to Lee Harvey Oswald.
The record shows, Mr. Hardway said, that within 24 hours of the assassination of President Kennedy, an anti-Castro organization in Miami, the Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE, an acronym based on the Spanish phrase for Directorate of Revolutionary Students) began to issue information to the United States press that linked Lee Harvey Oswald to Fidel Castro. The information included an episode in New Orleans where Oswald was handing out pro-Castro literature to passers-by in his "role" as chapter head of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. During the leafleting, DRE members confronted Oswald, pushing him around and calling him a communist dupe. The police were called and arrested Oswald, who was not belligerent and had not initiated the confrontation.
This episode in New Orleans was even more important to Hardway and the HSCA than he knew in 1977 when he first began to investigate it. The reason: George Joannides, the intelligence officer the CIA assigned to serve as liaison to the HSCA in the late 1970s, also was in charge of paying almost $450,000 a month (in today's dollars) to the DRE in 1963. This vital information was not made known to the HSCA, nor to the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in the 1990s.
Below are Mr. Hardway's words, including a partial transcription of his presentation at Duquesne, and some observations on why his testimony is vitally important for our future as a democracy.
…If (the “Oswald, the Pro-Castro Commie” story) was that coordinated, that quick, and as detailed, it would be reasonable to infer that it had been laid on in advance. I set out to identify the sources of these stories that came out immediately after the assassination with detailed information on Oswald and his pro-Castro activities. I started asking for the CIA files on all those sources. I got a lot of them before we lost access, but I did not get them all. That was one of the things I was really pressing on, when I got shut down.
In the same period, I also found a reference to a CIA debriefing of Johnny Roselli, after Drew Pearson published his piece about Castro turning the assassins sent to kill him around and sending them back to kill Kennedy. I asked for the records about the debriefing that was part of what I was looking into with Bill Harvey. That's how I came across that. I very clearly remember some of the details about this. The debriefing happened at a CIA safe house over a period of two weeks in 1967. Sheffield Edwards was one of the debriefers. He was brought out of retirement, I think in order to do that, I think I remember that he was brought out of retirement.
And that was when the CIA changed the procedures on us. They brought George Joannides out of retirement to be the new liaison for me and Ed (Edwin L. Lopez), primarily. He closed our office at Langley. The agency set up a safe room for us to use as committee offices. I no longer had direct contact with any CIA employees to request files. All further requests for documents and files had to be in writing and approved through official channels. Files (we requested) were not produced for weeks after being requested. My whole inquiry into areas outside and inside the scope of my portfolio ground to a halt. We soon thereafter lost unexpurgated access and perk…
Long and short on the Rosselli debriefing: I was told eventually -- I was given expurgated access to it. As a matter of fact, it was the first expurgated document I was handed. It happened out at the old meeting room that I had at the CIA. It was one of the few times that I am sure I met George Joannides. Ed remembers meeting him a lot. I don't remember meeting that many times, but I know I met him that time because when I walked in, it was just me, him, and Scott Breckenridge.
They handed me the file. It was about 2-inches, 2-and-a-half-inches thick. I sat down at the desk and they stood there, grinning, which struck me as unusual, and I thought maybe they don't trust me to look at the file without them present, because usually whoever delivered the file (in the past) would leave and let me work on them. And they were standing there, grinning in anticipation. And I opened it. And not only was the document expurgated, instead of taking the document and blacking out the lines on the copy, which is what they always did, they had retyped the whole document leaving white spaces where things were left out.
I blew up. I left. And, uh. They agreed, after the committee issued a subpoena, they agreed to let Gary Cornwall see it, unexpurgated. Gary went out there one day in the middle of trying to get the final report written, with 20 things on his agenda to get done. He stayed maybe two hours. He was out of the office about two hours. I know because I was waiting for him to get back, because I wanted to find out what he'd seen. And when he came back in he said, “It doesn't have anything to do with what you're working on for the final report. Forget it.” And that was the end of it.
That was the end of it until I went before the Assassination Records Review Board, which I was subpoenaed before to testify. And after they'd asked me about all the documents they wanted to ask me about, they asked me if there was anything else that they should ask me about that they had not asked me about. I told them about the debriefing of Johnny Roselli, about Sheffield Edwards' involvement, about Harvey, leaving the (inaudible) with the Harvey files. They (ARRB) said they would search for that, because it certainly sounded interesting and relevant and something that should be disclosed. They later had the kindness to get back to me, to tell me there was no record of any such file having ever existed or having ever been requested by the House Select Committee on Assassinations...
The George Joannides case shows the lengths to which the CIA went to stonewall the HSCA investigation. That's not just what Mr. Hardway said, it's what G. Robert Blakey, the chief counsel and staff director of the HSCA said:
I am no longer confident that the Central Intelligence Agency co-operated with the committee...
SNIP...
I was not told of Joannides’ background with the DRE, a focal point of the investigation. Had I known who he was, he would have been a witness who would have been interrogated under oath by the staff or by the committee. He would never have been acceptable as a point of contact with us to retrieve documents. In fact, I have now learned, as I note above, that Joannides was the point of contact between the Agency and DRE during the period Oswald was in contact with DRE.
That the Agency would put a “material witness” in as a “filter” between the committee and its quests for documents was a flat out breach of the understanding the committee had with the Agency that it would co-operate with the investigation.
The committee’s researchers immediately complained to me that Joannides was, in fact, not facilitating but obstructing our obtaining of documents. I contacted Breckinridge and Joannides. Their side of the story wrote off the complaints to the young age and attitude of the people.
They were certainly right about one question: the committee’s researchers did not trust the Agency. Indeed, that is precisely why they were in their positions. We wanted to test the Agency’s integrity. I wrote off the complaints. I was wrong; the researchers were right. I now believe the process lacked integrity precisely because of Joannides.
SNIP...
Significantly, the Warren Commission’s conclusion that the agencies of the government co-operated with it is, in retrospect, not the truth.
CONTINUED...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/biographies/oswald/interview-g-robert-blakey/#addendum
Federal Judge John Tunheim, who headed the ARRB panel, the government body charged with finding, reviewing and releasing all pertinent JFK and MLK assassination records, said he was very surprised to learn to what extend the CIA went to obstruct HSCA Congressional investigators, the ARRB and the law:
“It really was an example of treachery,” Tunheim said in a recent interview of the CIA’s handling of the Joannides affair. “If (the CIA) fooled us on that, they may have fooled us on other things.”
SOURCE: http://www.bostonglobe.com/2013/11/25/government-still-withholding-thousands-documents-jfk-assassination/PvBM2PCgW1H11vadQ4Wp4H/story.html
What other things? If this is a democracy, We the People should know and know soon, if not immediately. The JFK assassination records still held by CIA, the Pentagon and other government agencies are mandated by law to be released by 2017 -- unless the President in 2017 determines they should not be released. I don't know about you, Dear Reader, but that fact alone makes me want to vote for the Democrat, even if it's someone I -- Octafish -- don't support in the primary. The GOP wing of CIA, the ones who entered into league with the Mafia to kill, has demonstrated they can't be trusted to do the right thing, let alone what's Constitutional.
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