State Dept. Worker Found Dead Outside Agency

[seafan]

This is from Fox... yeah, I know, but very troubling.


---------
WASHINGTON — A State Department (search) employee was found dead outside the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday around 5 p.m., Fox News has confirmed.

State Department sources told The Washington Post that John Kokal (search) worked in a unit that dealt with intelligence and research. Sources said he handled classified documents regularly....

......

the man, a white male, was wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks, but was not wearing shoes....


....not yet known whether the employee jumped or fell. Firemen told Fox News that the D.C. police were handling the investigation and that the death could possibly be a homicide and that the body would not be immediately removed.
----------

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102563,00.html

[La_Serpiente]

1. Oh my gawwdd

What the hell is going on here!!!???!!!

I am not saying anything yet but the words "intelligence" and "state dept." really got to me.

[asjr]

3. state

Same immediate reaction here. Too many deaths lately have been very suspicious.

[NontoxicAvenger]

2. What did he know

and when did he know it?

[htuttle]

4. No shoes?

Did they check for cigarette burns or bruises on the bottom of his feet?

[0007]

5. Probably has something to do with Linda Tripp!

Maybe all that money Linda got pissed someone off. LOL! (tongue in cheek)

[camero]

6. Someone who knew somebody?

Possibly the CIA agent that got outed?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. Good news catch, seafan. Wow! Let's see where this goes. n/t

[htuttle]

8. A quick google on his name...

Doesn't find any direct references to a John Kokal at State or in intelligence.

I did find a Pamela Kokal who worked as a Public Affairs Specialist at the State Department in the Office of Public Diplomacy (sounds like a branch of MiniTruth).

The 'OPD'is a full-on propaganda/psyops unit, ie., 'public diplomacy'.

Are they related to each other? Not sure.

http://foia.state.gov/MMS/OrgDirectory/OrgDir.asp?ID=52
(last entry on the page)

[UpInArms]

14. a different search

turns up a guy named "Kevin John Kokal" - an alumni of Purdue in Aeronautics and Astronautics -

have no clue at all if this is related to the man from State

[Unknown Known]

9. This is very troubling and wasn't reported until this morning

I heard this on CNN this am, but couldn't find a thing on the net. Why is this story being suppressed?

[Lefty48197]

10. I think I saw Pickles driving about the time of the tragedy

Just a coincidence?

[RandomKoolzip]

11. Kick.

This needs to be investigated...but, like the Plame leak, probably won't.

[teryang]

12. No doubt a disclosure was averted

Perhaps related to the portrayal of state as forthcoming in response to the Keane commision.

Or he could have been trying to freelance (with the press).

[Dover]

16. Yes, have to wonder if all this is related to the 9/11 probe

They have been using every opportunity and evasive tactic to avoid disclosure:

Frist Freezes Senate Probe of Prewar Iraq Data

By Walter Pincus and Dana Priest

Washington Post

Saturday, November 8, 2003; Page A18

Angry about a leaked Democratic memo, the Republican leadership of the Senate yesterday took the unusual step of canceling all business of the committee investigating prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called on the author of the memo -- which laid out a possible Democratic strategy to extend the investigation to include the White House and executive branch -- to "identify himself or herself . . . disavow this partisan attack in its entirety" and deliver "a personal apology" to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Only if those steps are taken, Frist said, "will it be possible for the committee to resume its work in an effective and bipartisan manner -- a manner deserving of the confidence of other members of the Senate and the executive branch."

Roberts followed Frist on the floor and said that unless the Democratic members "properly" address the issue, "I am afraid that it will be impossible to return to 'business as usual' in the committee."

A committee meeting scheduled for yesterday was canceled, and none has been scheduled for next week, according to a senior committee staff member.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), the committee's ranking Democrat, said he was "really disappointed" with the Republican action. "Whose advantage is it to derail asking the tough questions on prewar intelligence and the use and misuse of it?" he asked.

The GOP move follows a month of extraordinary maneuvering by Democrats and Republicans to take political advantage of the committee's look at how the intelligence community collected and analyzed intelligence on Iraq over the past decade.

....more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14010-2003Nov7.html

[seafan]

13. They're really keeping the lid on this story..

Google news shows absolutely nothing except the Fox source, nearly 24 hours after the man's body was found.

I can't stop trying to imagine what it will take to oust these criminals. Once and FOR ALL. Hard to doubt for a millisecond that this is a homicide.

God forgive America. :scared:

[KoKo]

15. Yesterday and only Faux is reporting it? A warning from Faux?

Why would Faux be the only source for this? Is it made up as a warning?
:tinfoilhat: Odd that there's no news about this in over a day any where else.

Reminds me of the NYT's reporter who suddenly jumped out of a window and there wasn't any follow up. He had been working in Texas on Environmental stories when Shrub was Governor, but had been hired by NYTs and was working in the NYT's building. Went to an upper floor and jumped out. People said he wasn't depressed and had been fine at lunch that day.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. This is odd. The man doesn't exist in cyberspace except in the

Faux piece. Someone needs to check w/the DC police to see what the status is on the death.

[Dover]

18. Someone said CNN reported it this morning. I agree, that NYT

reporter's death was very fishy. And even more surprising was the fact that even the NYTimes didn't pursue it.

I had never heard/read that the reporter was in Tx. doing environmental stories prior to his "suicide". Do you have a link by any chance?

I read somewhere that throwing someone out the window is the easiest homicide to cover up and has been used repeatedly by those who work for clandestine organizations.

[DUreader]

27. My Memory say he was working on the Cheney Energy Task Force

I have a memory like a steel seive.

[MinnFats]

49. the FOX story quotes a Washington Post story...

...which had it first. hope they will follow up.
odd, but it's probably best to have investigation of this death in the hands of D.C. police, or as far away from state/defense/intel agencies as possible...

[joanski01]

19. I found this on the

Washington Post website:


Page 2 of 2 < Back
Metro



(snip)

THE DISTRICT

Employee Dies in Fall From State Dept.

A 58-year-old State Department employee was found dead yesterday after apparently jumping from the top of the department's headquarters building in Foggy Bottom, D.C. police said.

Police said John Kokal of Arlington was found shortly after 5 p.m. near 23rd and D streets on a sunken terrace that is about eight stories below the top of the building.

State Department sources said Kokal worked in a unit that dealt with intelligence and research and handled classified documents regularly but was not involved in intelligence analysis. Police said the official cause and manner of death is to be determined by the D.C. medical examiner.

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

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

20. 58 is not the most common age for suicide. There was a reporter

in Afghanistan during the Iraqi invasion that "jumped" from the roof of his hotel.

Jumping to your death from a building sucks as a suicide method when there are so many overdose and gun options that are far less painful and sure.

[joanski01]

21. The question that occurred

to me overnight, is how did the man get on the roof of the State Department. I'm sure a lone man just cannot go up there, open a door, and walk out on the roof. Security has got to be better than that. And if he jumped, what are the chances that he would have landed in that window well?

[hlthe2b]

64. Well, I have to think it beats immolation .....

Now that would be one you wouldn't want to survive....

[BuckeFushe]

97. Today's kick

n/t

[Snazzy]

22. Why no shoes?

Don't they have heavy security at the State Dept? Of course they do. How could you possibly jump off the roof? I bet you can't even get on the roof without all kinds of alarms going off. Isn't there a secret service like SAM crew up there?

Note the second story/blurb from WaPo doesn't name the Office of Intel and Research (INR) like Fox did. That's the group that provided some of the "dissent" in the National Intel Estimate (NIE) about Niger yellowcake. See that recent Hersh, New Yorker Stovepipe article.

Also in the news heavy on Thursday was more about the back channel to Iraq. Who was this guy? Did he have a window that opens on the top floor? And nobody noticed at 5pm?

This is creepy.

[suegeo]

30. A search of the state dept.'s web site

I searched the state department's web site for this dead dude's name.

He is listed in the telephone directory as being a part of two alphabet soup groups:

1) INR = Intelligence and Research

2) NESA = Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.

NESA is some nebulous group set up in 2000.

Anyway, in searching the site, I found out this poop.

The head of Near East Matters is the infamous Christina Rocca, the same chick-a-dee who was pissing off the Taliban just before 9.11.2001, if I recall. (Wasn't she mentioned in that french book "The forbidden truth."???

To the state dept., the Near East includes countries like Afghanistan, pakistan india nepal and bhutan.

Rocca's background includes working for the nutty rightwing senator Sam Brownback (Fascist-Kansas). SHE ALSO WORKED FOR THE CIA.

The South Asia matters are headed by a different dude within state dept. Look it up on the web site if you care too.

As you said, this is a creepy story.

------------------------
ON EDIT: Here is a link to the web site of NESA

http://www.ndu.edu/nesa/

Black humor, sick really: The web site currently says they have no openings at NESA. Wonder if Kokal's job will be posted on Monday?

[Minstrel Boy]

35. Thanks for the info

Good find.

But of course, there's nothing suspicious at all here. People die every day....

:eyes:

[Minstrel Boy]

36. More on Rocca

Bush appointee, naturally. A career officer of the CIA from 1982 to 1997, when she resigned to become foreign policy adviser for Senator Sam Brownback (Republican-Kansas).

From the "South Asia Analysis Group":

It is believed that she was closely involved in the operations of the CIA against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Mrs.Rocca belonged to the clandestine operations Directorate of the CIA, which sends officers abroad under different cover jobs. In the early 1990s, she monitored the implementation of a plan for the buy-back by the CIA from the Afghan Mujahideen groups and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan the unused Stinger missiles supplied by the CIA, free of cost during the 1980s, for use against the Soviet troops.

http://www.saag.org/papers3/paper230.html

[suegeo]

67. Rocca met with Taliban on Aug 2, 2001

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Central_Asia_watch/Afghanistan_CAsia_Oil.html

Nevertheless, the Bush Administration held a series of negotiations with the Taliban early in 2001, despite the developing rift with them over the pipeline scheme. Laila Helms, who was hired as the public relations agent for the Taliban government, brought Rahmatullah Hashimi, an advisor to Mullah Omar, to Washington as recently as March 2001. (Helms is the niece of Richard Helms, former chief of the CIA and former ambassador to Iran.)

One of the meetings was held on August 2, just one month before September 11, when Christina Rocca, in charge of Asian Affairs at the State Department, met Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salem Zaef in Islamabad. Rocca has had extensive connections with Afghanistan including supervising the delivery of Stinger missiles to the mujahideen in the 1980s. She had been in charge of contacts with Islamist fundamentalist guerrilla groups for the CIA.

"At one moment during one of the negotiations, U.S. representatives told the Taliban, 'either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs,"' said Jean-Charles Brisard, co-author of Bin Laden, the Forbidden Truth.

[nolabels]

83. She seems to spend a lot of time in the area, was she born in the USA

or is she from that area? She does seem to get around anywho

http://in.news.yahoo.com/030228/139/21n7o.html
Friday February 28, 7:06 PM

Rocca in Pak to seek support for anti-Iraq resolution

Islamabad, Feb 28 (ANI): American Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, has had talks with senior Pakistani leaders, possibly to seek backing for a US-sponsored resolution laying groundwork for war on Iraq.

She met Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Thursday. Her agenda includes seeking support of Pakistan, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, for a new US-UK resolution seeking use of force to disarm Iraq.

The adoption of a new resolution in the Security Council requires a minimum of nine votes in favour and no veto from its five permanent members, the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China. However, no voting is expected for about two weeks.
(snip)

[DUreader]

37. Maybe he found Osama, down in Crawford

Thanks Suegeo, I like yer humor

[Snazzy]

43. DU gumshoe activities

Good sleuthing there suegeo!

But I think the phone book is about the NESA that is the internal acronym for the State's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. William J. Burns Assistant Sec for that.

Rocca is Asst. Sec. South Asian Affairs (at least on the Wayback page I'm looking at, post election theft, so not that far "way back").

The NESA website is no doubt heavily spooky and related, but DoD.

Current Google has a number of recent articles about Burns (as Asst. Sec NESA) casting an evil eye on Syria ("sanctions"), and announcing a trip with Armitage to Egypt and Saudi.

More you dig what little there is to dig here, you see that Kokal (John J., who does turn up in the phone book in Arlington)--whoever he was, and whatever he did--was in someway involved with the most contentious areas today at State and in intel.

Both stories go out of their way to say "not an analyst." What's with that, and what was he doing with classified info?

Edit, this fell off: Out-there factoid: according to Amnesty, shoes are a symbol of the disappeared in Turkey. Now, I don't want to get hung up on the shoes, but it is weird.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

69. "not an analyst" smells mighty fishy to me...

What's the point of reporting what someone doesn't do for a living?

[htuttle]

70. It's a bad habit that guilty people have...

...of answering questions that haven't been asked yet.

Ask any cop -- they'll tell you the same thing.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

76. Reminds me of Gary Condit,

when the Chandra Levy story broke, and his first statement was one denying romantic involvement with her.

[Guaranteed]

77. Why not call that

Arlington number? Talk to his wife or whatever, ask her what he does.

[Snazzy]

88. Good move for a journalist

Hopefully, we keep this kicked, somebody will work this.

Calling: I wouldn't go there yet personally--not being a reporter--and I wouldn't go there as some sort of DU activism (and keep in mind there's a dead spook's family to consider too)--but it is remarkable that there are now only three media sources on somebody who "handles" classified info about Iraq, ME, Afghanistan at the least, as the story so far goes (or is supposed to go), jumping off the roof of the State Department. (And probably connected to Cheney, major neocon asshole Bolton, and maybe a some fallout in State's intel bureau).

How the hell is that not news? Maybe I missed it. Do people jump off the roof of the State Department which such frequency that the American public is bored with such stories?

Clearly, somebody told DC press to muzzel. Somebody with swooping powers of STFU. Hopefully a qualifier--keep quiet until.... Until we get the guy with shoes? Until somebody investigates. Something. I have little respect for the media in Washington, but this is a little bit heavy to sweep under the rug completely. We here know about it, for one thing. So must everybody who works at State, and so on.

Meantime, still think about the shoes! Shoes, unlike most things connected to a dead guy, carry finger prints.

[Unknown Known]

53. Cheney's daughter works in NESA

under Shulsky and Luti

C) Elizabeth Cheney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs

(1) Daughter of the Vice President Dick Cheney.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/wot/iraq/office_of_special_plans.html

[truthisfreedom]

23. hey, i've always heard, when jumping off the foggy bottom, take off your

shoes.

umm... why is this story so strange and so unreported?

[SideshowScott]

24. Geeze how many people are gonna die before the press takes notice??

Oh thats right the press is scared..cant say i blame them

[Dr Fate]

47. They notice, they are just "not allowed" to write about it...

...I mean please, the average DUer knew all the arguments against going to Iraq BEFORE the war, but most of the media refused to tell that side of it- they knew of the evidence for our argument, but they represssed it in favor of Bush...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

25. kick

:kick:
Too odd to "go gently into that goodnight."

We need to ask questions of Washington reporters on this. No tin hats yet, but this still stinks IMHO

[suegeo]

26. Isn't this a CIA "tactic"

I thought I read somewhere that tossing people out of windows was a common killing technique used by the freaky freak boys in the CIA.

I think some reporter investigating Enron "fell" out of a window a year or two ago. (New York Times?)

Also, some dude named Olson was whacked by the CIA this way. Cheney and VonRumsfeld were involved in covering this up. Was the guy named Frank Olson??

[DUreader]

28. I don't recall the names, but one high up insider revealed this technique

It was one of the guys big into the Acid testing and did an expose on

it when he was getting close to death

[Minstrel Boy]

29. Frank Olsen

Here's a statement from the Olsen family:

1. The death of Frank Olson on November 28, 1953 was a murder, not a suicide.

2. This is not an LSD drug-experiment story, as it was represented in 1975. This is a biological warfare story. Frank Olson did not die because he was an experimental guinea pig who experienced a “bad trip.” He died because of concern that he would divulge information concerning a highly classified CIA interrogation program called “ARTICHOKE” in the early 1950’s, and concerning the use of biological weapons by the United States in the Korean War.

3. The truth concerning the death of Frank Olson was concealed from the Olson family as well as from the public in 1953. In 1975 a cover story regarding Frank Olson’s death was disseminated. At the same time a renewed coverup of the truth concerning this story was being carried out at the highest levels of government, including the White House. The new coverup involved the participation of persons serving in the current Administration.

http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Statements/FamilyStatement2002.html

[tom_paine]

32. Yep, this reeks of Bushevik tactics

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

2. Accidents

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

Gettin' pretty dangerous to serve the Empire. One never knows when one might see something they aren't supposed to...

[nolabels]

52. Wow, good link, thanks

Found this little article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,774950,00.html
Did he jump or was he pushed?

Jon Ronson
Saturday August 17, 2002
The Guardian

(snip)
Sometimes I think how awful it would be to be an actual victim of CIA abuse and have to struggle to be heard above the cacophony of fantasists. Eric Olson is that person. When he was nine, in 1953, he was woken in the night to be told, by two men he barely recognised, that his father had "jumped or fallen" from a hotel window in New York and that his death was a work-related accident. He's spent 50 years trying to find out what really happened. In 1975, the CIA told Olson they had spiked his father's drink with LSD to see how government scientists would respond to being unwittingly drugged. They said he had a bad trip and jumped a week later. Olson didn't believe this story, either, and had his father's body exhumed. A new autopsy pointed to murder. Then his father's friends began to speak out. They said Frank Olson was murdered because he was going to blow the whistle on the US army's use of anthrax in the Korean war. Declassified memos point to some kind of cover-up in the Ford White House. Now Olson feels ready to rebury his father
(snip)

[Guaranteed]

79. Wouldn't that make sense with the story turning up on the propaganda

network?

Why would Fox report it if it was bad for the Bushes?

Maybe this was a BAD guy who got offed.

[UpInArms]

31. I did a Copernic search and here is what came up

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14194-2003Nov7?language=printer


A 58-year-old State Department employee was found dead yesterday after apparently jumping from the top of the department's headquarters building in Foggy Bottom, D.C. police said.


http://www.news8.net/news/stories/1103/109563.html

http://www.americanintelligence.us/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=892

[Wickerman]

33. Kick

has anyone tried the WayBack machine? I don't know that engine, but I've seen other DUers post info from it that seems to have "disappeared" in current Googles... My search didn't net (er, no pun intended) anything, but maybe someone else has better keywords...

[myrna minx]

58. Is it the memory hole?

http://www.thememoryhole.org/

[DUreader]

34. Maybe Wilson and Plame know who this guy is

They would tell us

[Minstrel Boy]

38. 37 posts, and not a single appeal to ridicule

from a coincidence theorist.

I was expecting to have read by now that "the grounds of Froggy Bottom are covered with strawberries."

[Wickerman]

39. Debunkers take Sundays off?

:shrug:

[glitch]

40. debunker wannabes do

I was listening to the air conditioner hum, it went Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Look away down Galwood Avenue, look away.

Sorry, your sig set me off.

[DUreader]

41. This happened yesterday too , in a BBV thread, no derision

The subject was the VA repub. losing votes and no ridicule, hmmm...

[9215]

57. Sometimes people just die

why does it always have to be a conspiracy? Maybe the guy just couldn't handle his job and jumped.

Did you ever think of that? :evilgrin:

Hey this is fun, I doesn't have to think er nothin'. :bounce:

Jeez, what are we going to do without our crop of coincidence theorists?

[Guaranteed]

80. Well the guy fell off a building.

AND he didn't have any shoes.

[suegeo]

42. Buzzflash linked this story

Good ole buzzflash had a link to the guy who "jumped" from his office.

They also had an archive post in today's links (11/9/03)

Buzz's headline:
From the Archives: A State Department report disputes Bush's claim that ousting Hussein will spur reforms in the Mideast 11/9

Link to March 03 story in commondreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0314-06.htm


snip

Published on Friday, March 14, 2003 by the Los Angeles Times
Democracy Domino Theory 'Not Credible'
A State Department report disputes Bush's claim that ousting Hussein will spur reforms in the Mideast, intelligence officials say

by Greg Miller

WASHINGTON -- A classified State Department report expresses doubt that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East, a claim President Bush has made in trying to build support for a war, according to intelligence officials familiar with the document.


and
snip
Published on Friday, March 14, 2003 by the Los Angeles Times
Democracy Domino Theory 'Not Credible'
A State Department report disputes Bush's claim that ousting Hussein will spur reforms in the Mideast, intelligence officials say

by Greg Miller

WASHINGTON -- A classified State Department report expresses doubt that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East, a claim President Bush has made in trying to build support for a war, according to intelligence officials familiar with the document.

The report exposes significant divisions within the Bush administration over the so-called democratic domino theory, one of the arguments that underpins the case for invading Iraq.

The report, which has been distributed to a small group of top government officials but not publicly disclosed, says that daunting economic and social problems are likely to undermine basic stability in the region for years, let alone prospects for democratic reform.

Even if some version of democracy took root -- an event the report casts as unlikely -- anti-American sentiment is so pervasive that elections in the short term could lead to the rise of Islamic-controlled governments hostile to the United States.

"Liberal democracy would be difficult to achieve," says one passage of the report, according to an intelligence official who agreed to read portions of it to The Times.

"Electoral democracy, were it to emerge, could well be subject to exploitation by anti-American elements."

The thrust of the document, the source said, "is that this idea that you're going to transform the Middle East and fundamentally alter its trajectory is not credible."

Even the document's title appears to dismiss the administration argument. The report is labeled "Iraq, the Middle East and Change: No Dominoes."

The report was produced by the </b>State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research,</b> the in-house analytical arm.

State Department officials declined to comment on the report.

[Snazzy]

44. Yep, and the Hersh piece

(New Yorker orig)

http://truthout.org/docs_03/102203E.shtml

...

A few months after George Bush took office, Greg Thielmann, an expert on disarmament with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or INR, was assigned to be the daily intelligence liaison to John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, who is a prominent conservative. Thielmann understood that his posting had been mandated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought that every important State Department bureau should be assigned a daily intelligence officer. “Bolton was the guy with whom I had to do business,” Thielmann said. “We were going to provide him with all the information he was entitled to see. That’s what being a professional intelligence officer is all about.”

But, Thielmann told me, “Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear.” Thielmann soon found himself shut out of Bolton’s early-morning staff meetings. “I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ‘The Under-Secretary doesn’t need you to attend this meeting anymore.’” When Thielmann protested that he was there to provide intelligence input, the aide said, “The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family.”

Eventually, Thielmann said, Bolton demanded that he and his staff have direct electronic access to sensitive intelligence, such as foreign-agent reports and electronic intercepts. In previous Administrations, such data had been made available to under-secretaries only after it was analyzed, usually in the specially secured offices of INR. The whole point of the intelligence system in place, according to Thielmann, was “to prevent raw intelligence from getting to people who would be misled.” Bolton, however, wanted his aides to receive and assign intelligence analyses and assessments using the raw data. In essence, the under-secretary would be running his own intelligence operation, without any guidance or support. “He surrounded himself with a hand-chosen group of loyalists, and found a way to get C.I.A. information directly,” Thielmann said.

In a subsequent interview, Bolton acknowledged that he had changed the procedures for handling intelligence, in an effort to extend the scope of the classified materials available to his office. “I found that there was lots of stuff that I wasn’t getting and that the INR analysts weren’t including,” he told me. “I didn’t want it filtered. I wanted to see everything—to be fully informed. If that puts someone’s nose out of joint, sorry about that.” Bolton told me that he wanted to reach out to the intelligence community but that Thielmann had “invited himself” to his daily staff meetings. “This was my meeting with the four assistant secretaries who report to me, in preparation for the Secretary’s 8:30 a.m. staff meeting,” Bolton said. “This was within my family of bureaus. There was no place for INR or anyone else—the Human Resources Bureau or the Office of Foreign Buildings.”

...

----

Recall that Powell later publically got his panties tweaked over Thielmann.

[Snazzy]

45. Toss in some Rice

(sorry, should be cooking....)

http://tinyurl.com/ucib

WaPo, 7/14/03:

Maybe They Just Read the Cliffs Notes

Meanwhile, reporters keep hounding the administration over President Bush's use of the bogus Iraqi uranium procurement allegation. They pestered national security adviser Condoleezza Rice last week on Air Force One.

When an intelligence agency demurs from a consensus view in an assessment, it "takes a footnote," Rice explained. The State Department's Intelligence and Research (INR) office doubted the story about Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger, she said, and that "standard INR footnote was 59 pages in the back," so she and Bush didn't know.

Besides, everyone knows INR is always trying to kill a good story with its "standard" footnotes. Those guys ought to lighten up.

[T Bone]

46. INR turns up in stories that dispute the Bush spin on intel & NO SHOES

A very interesting coincidence that INR always turns up in stories that throw doubt on the Bush/Cheney/PNAC spin on intel.

Does anyone know if the 'no shoes' on a corpse is any kind of mafia signal about a corpse ? Really I just wonder if we are missing something here. Any DUers privy to mafia language, like horse head in a bed, etc.? can't the way a corpse is found be a 'signal' to others?

Another thought I have had about the no shoes...where have his shoes finally turned up, in his office? Why would he go to the roof without his shoes unless someone interrupted him and escorted him to the roof shoeless. (people staying in the office late do take off their shoes sometimes) What if he had his shoes on the roof and whoever dangled him over the edge to get info out him just let him slip out of them after they had their info? Like who he leaked to?

:shrug:

[colorado_ufo]

93. Or maybe there was something IN the shoes -

hidden there, and they were stolen. It would be hard to steal a guy's shoes and not have him mention this. He would have to be silenced.

[Snazzy]

54. Carl W. Ford, head of INR, retired in Oct.

From today's Boston Globe:
http://tinyurl.com/udsb

(rerun of LA Times, 11/2):
http://tinyurl.com/udx2

Critics say blunt-spoken weapons expert has exaggerated
By Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, 11/10/2003

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's point man on nonproliferation has exaggerated the threat posed by Syria, Libya, and Cuba in an effort to build the case that strong action is needed to prevent them from developing weapons of mass destruction, former intelligence officials and independent specialists say.

Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton has long been one of the most controversial figures in the Bush administration -- a pugnacious neoconservative with a reputation for blunt talk and tough action. The allegations that he is inflating the evidence against regimes that are at odds with Washington have been made as the administration is defending itself against criticism that it misused intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq. "Very often, the points he makes have some truth to them, but he simply goes beyond where the facts tell intelligent people they should go," said Carl W. Ford Jr., who retired in October as head of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

In several conversations, Bolton denied trying to shape intelligence for political purposes. He said all of his statements about the weapons capabilities of various states were cleared in advance by all the major political and intelligence agencies, and he brandished interagency approval checklists to prove it.

"I have always used intelligence properly," Bolton said. "Of course, I sometimes go beyond previous statements, but in every case I do, it's been previously cleared. You bet I do -- we do it all the time."

Bolton then shot back at the intelligence community, saying that some intelligence analysts' political biases affect their judgments. "People can and should agree that policy makers should not politicize intelligence," said Bolton, who arrives at work at 6:30 each morning and devours a thick briefing book of cables and analysis that many other officials do not bother to read. "But I think we can also say that intelligence analysts should not politicize intelligence."

Bolton has provoked such controversy that several of his critics, flouting Washington convention, agreed to be quoted by name.

------------

LA Times (again Sonni Efron) has a longer article from Ford on 10/29, while exiting INR, going way soft on the Admin. Good background on INR however.

http://tinyurl.com/udxe

Intelligence Veteran Faults Iraq Arms Data
By Sonni Efron and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — The newly retired head of the State Department's intelligence arm said Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence community "badly underperformed" for years in assessing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and should accept responsibility for its failure.

The assessment by Carl W. Ford Jr., former assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research, marked the first time a senior official involved in preparing the prewar assessments on Iraq has asserted that serious intelligence errors were made.

Before the war, the intelligence community concluded that Iraq possessed biological and chemical weapons and that Saddam Hussein had restarted a nuclear weapons program. After nearly six months of occupation, no such weapons have been discovered.

The intelligence community "has to bear the major responsibility for WMD information in Iraq and other intelligence failures," Ford said in two interviews with The Times. The Vietnam veteran worked for years in U.S. military intelligence, the CIA and the Defense Department and retired Oct. 3. "We badly underperformed for a number of years," he added, "and the information we were giving the policy community was off the mark."

Ford could not pinpoint what had gone wrong, but the question, he said, must be answered.

...

[suegeo]

68. Bolton and Ford

I seem to recall that both Bolton and Ford were involved in some kind of crime that went down in Taiwan. Some serious money went missing from a defense slush fund. The magazine (in Taiwan?) that reported this got raided.

[nolabels]

82. Is this the story?

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=46
(snip)
Taiwangate: A Fallout-Free Scandal
04/10/2002 @ 4:10pm
E-mail this Post
Some scandals find traction in Washington, others fizzle. The Taiwangate affair--which involves a $100 million secret Taiwan government slush fund that financed intelligence, propaganda, and influence activities within the United States and elsewhere--seems to be in the latter category at the moment. The beneficiaries of the lack of attention include three prominent Bush appointees at the State Department who, before joining the Bush administration, received money from this account. And one of these officials, John Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, submitted pro-Taiwan testimony to Congress in the 1990s without revealing he was a paid consultant to Taiwan. His work for Taiwan, it turns out, was financed by this slush fund.

On April 2, The Nation reported that news stories out of Asia, citing leaked classified documents, showed that former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui had established an illegal covert fund when he was in office and that several million dollars from it apparently were used to pay for a pro-Taiwan lobbying campaign in Washington mounted by Cassidy and Associates, a powerful lobbying firm. The clandestine account, according to the Asian media reports, underwrote the travels of Carl Ford, Jr., a former senior CIA analyst who was a consultant to the Cassidy and Associates effort. The Pacific Forum, the Honolulu-based armed of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also received money--perhaps $100,000--from the slush fund, when James Kelly, a past National Security Council officer,
(snip)

The same guy they send over to negotiate with North Korea

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/helenthomas/1743319/detail.html
Bolton May Pan Out For N. Korea Talks
Good Might Come From Hard-Liner's Trip For Arms Talks

POSTED: 11:36 a.m. EST October 28, 2002
UPDATED: 11:50 a.m. EST October 28, 2002

WASHINGTON -- I thought sending John Bolton, the hard-line State Department diplomat, on a mission to get key nations to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear weapons program was the wrong way to go.

After all, Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, has spent his career attacking most disarmament treaties, and he has adamantly opposed any U.S. engagement with Pyongyang that would improve our relations with that communist nation.

But who knows? Some good may come out of his just-completed, week-long journey to China, Russia, Britain and France yet.

That could happen if the United States and North Korea agree to begin a dialogue to ease the new strains that developed after the North Koreans confessed they were still pursuing the nuclear weapons program they promised to give up in 1994.

When Bolton returned to Washington on Friday, aides said he seemed upbeat about his diplomatic rounds, although news reports from Moscow said Russian officials voiced skepticism at the U.S. position.
(snip)

Sounds like a BFEE job to me

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2003_11/focus_Nov.asp
Arms Control Today November 2003

Printer Friendly
Course Correction on North Korea?
Daryl G. Kimball
Wearing a somber gray suit, North Korea’s number two leader entered the White House and met with President Bill Clinton for 45 minutes. The unprecedented visit produced a joint communiqué and put efforts to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programs back on track.

The joint statement pledged that North Korea would grant U.S. and international inspectors better access to its nuclear facilities. In turn, the United States vowed to accelerate the normalization of relations and to provide a negative security pledge stating that it bears “no hostile intent” toward the military-controlled regime.

That was three years ago. Since 2000, the security situation on the Korean peninsula has deteriorated badly. President George W. Bush’s decision to delay additional talks and his infamous “axis of evil” remarks did not help. North Korean efforts to acquire uranium-enrichment capabilities and the subsequent U.S.-led decision to cut off fuel aid poisoned the relationship further. Pyongyang escalated the crisis by ejecting international inspectors and restarting its advanced plutonium-production facilities.

Bush has prudently maintained that he seeks a “peaceful” and “diplomatic” solution. This makes sense. North Korea can potentially churn out enough material to make six bombs in a year, and pre-emptive military action against the North’s nuclear sites could lead to catastrophic war. Yet, the president’s advisers have thus far failed to provide him with a practical and effective negotiating strategy. A midcourse correction is now essential
(snip)

[Snazzy]

89. That's the story

Ford took some time off during Clinton. This is probably the only visible portion of the iceburg of influence peddling and secret deals he enjoyed from Bush I. Bush II brought him back, but he just jumped ship. Bet the real story is in there.

Bolton is like Wolfowitz on steroids with a lobotomy. Everything that is wrong with this admin in one big asshole of a package. Look into this guy a bit and you get to agree with a mad dictator for once. Kim Jong Il sez he's "human scum."

Jon Stewart had a good line about him one night, to the effect: he's the guy we send whenever we want to piss someone off.

As if there were a plan.

[RandomKoolzip]

48. A very creepy KICK!

WOW! This story makes me very uncomfortable.....

This is the creepiest story I've heard in a long time and you guys are doing fantastic research, for which I must thank you! And let's keep this story on the radar screen; some people need to be creeped out to be woken out of their stupor.

PS somebody should start a BushCo "suspicious death toll" thread like the one the Freepers always toss out concerning Clinton. I'm sure BushCo's tally is far worse!

[nolabels]

51. Man! I am doing bad work here a the state dept, I think I will.........

take my shoes off, go jump off the building (when I want to jump out of buildings to commit suicide I always take my shoes off, I like to feel the wind rush thru my toes)

http://www.criminalprofiling.ch/introduction.html
(snip)
Another typical denominator among future serial killers is low self-esteem and the habit of blaming the rest of the world for their situation. They will already have a criminal record and you may see a dishonorable discharge from the military because there will likely have been problems with any type of authority. The majority also have an abusive or dysfunctional background.

As soon as several offenses, such as fires, stalking, or murder, are linked and attributed by the police to one and the same unknown suspect, it is crucial to look at his early crimes to determine where the suspect might live. In most cases, the offender starts out in his "comfort zone", which means close to where he lives or works, or where he feels emotionally comfortable, for example around his family or friends - that's why it's crucial to start with the early crimes of a suspect. As the self-confidence and obsession with his own "power" grows, so does his activity radius, making an arrest more difficult. Furthermore, in multiple homicides the killer is usually of the same race as his victim. In most cases, there is a triggering trauma leading to the escalation. The two most common precipitating stressors are loss of work or loss of love; but any type of hardship, particularly an economic one, can trigger the violent outburst. The stability that provided a certain pattern of life is suddenly taken away and nothing is holding him back from acting out his fantasies any longer.

Controversial scientific studies (Norris, J., Ph.D.) suggest, from a medical point of view, that serial murderers may share a significant number of common medical/psychological patterns. Those include evidence of soft and hard signs of brain damage resulting from injuries or other physical trauma, severe chemical imbalances brought about by chronic malnutrition and substance abuse, a possible genetic defect, the absence of a sense of self which is the result of often consistently negative parenting, nonparenting, or sexual abuse and an almost hair-trigger violent response to external stimuli with no regard for the physical or social consequences. P. S. Hicks, M.D., Chief Psychiatrist of the California State Prison, San Quentin, California (U.S.A.), is even convinced that organic brain pathology is vastly underdiagnosed in the prison population and plays a much larger role in criminal behavior than previously thought. Furthermore, one of the most significant common psychological behavior patterns in violent offenders seems to be a failure to perceive punishment as a deterrent to their actions and a fascination with police procedures and the officers who are pursuing them. Such factors should be taken into consideration when suspect backgrounds are researched. However, it is important to state that not every individual showing several of the above characteristics will automatically become a criminal. In combination with other factors or evidence, however, they may provide a useful clue.

"No two crimes are exactly alike" and the search for similarities

There are various ways to organize and analyze the facts taken from the available aspects of the crime scene, e.g. the nature of attacks, witness statements, the photographs, forensic evidence such as autopsy protocols and, very important, information related to the victim (victimology).

To be able to assess the behavior of any unknown suspect, it is vital to separate his "modus operandi" from his "signature". The modus operandi is what an offender has to do, in his mind, to accomplish a crime. It is learned behavior and gets modified and perfected as the criminal becomes more skilled at what he does. For example, a fire starter routinely leaves his car running in front of the building in order to escape faster. The signature, on the other hand, is something the offender has to do to fulfill himself emotionally. It is not needed to successfully accomplish the crime, but it is the reason he undertakes the particular crime in the first place. For instance, the fire starter returns to the crime scene as soon as the fire department arrives to watch or to experience sexual pleasure, which is unnecessary to accomplish the crime. The signature is what makes the crime typical and distinguishable and what shows the underlying theme of a case, which is especially useful when an apparent series of crimes needs to be solved and it is not clear whether there are various suspects involved. In the case of only one perpetrator committing a series of very similar crimes, the pattern of the above elements is usually unique enough to determine this: Decades of field experience have shown that it is almost impossible to see two different offenders fitting the same modus operandi and the particular signature while operating in the same area at the same time.
(snip)

[shamanstar]

55. there is a tally

http://www.bushbodycount.com/

[RandomKoolzip]

65. A Kick! and a thank you.

Must keep that link updated! The tally seems to grow by the day!

[DUreader]

50. monday am kick

[SoCalDem]

56. If you're gonna jump. why remove your shoes??

Things are getting weirder by the day :eyes:

[Unknown Known]

59. Cheney's daughter, Elizabeth, works in NESA

under Shulsky and Luti. If Kokal worked in this group, then, as far as I'm concerned, this was no suicide. With the heat on from the Senate Intelligence committee about pre-war intelligence, Kokal's death stinks to high heaven!

C) Elizabeth Cheney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs

(1) Daughter of the Vice President Dick Cheney.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/wot/iraq/office_of_special_plans.html

KOKAL, JOHN J INR/NESA [phone]

http://foia.state.gov/alphalisting/alpha_print.asp?letter=K

[nolabels]

71. And what does that acronym mean, a click through surprise?

Thanks you Unknown Known for more links

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0807-02.htm
Published on Thursday, August 7, 2003 by the Inter Press Service
Pentagon Office Home to Neo-Con Network
by Jim Lobe
(snip)
''They would draw up 'talking points' they would use and distribute to their friends'', said Kwiatkowski. ''But the talking points would be changed continually, not because of new intel (intelligence), but because the press was poking holes in what was in the memos''.

The offices fed information directly and indirectly to sympathetic media outlets, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned 'Weekly Standard' and FoxNews Network, as well as the editorial pages of the 'Wall Street Journal' and syndicated columnists, such as Charles Krauthammer.

In inter-agency discussions, Feith and the two offices communicated almost exclusively with like-minded allies in other agencies, rather than with their official counterparts, including even the DIA in the Pentagon, according to Kwiatkowski.

Rather than working with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, its Near Eastern Affairs bureau, or even its Iraq desk, for example, they preferred to work through Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security (and former AEI executive vice president) John Bolton; Michael Wurmser (another Perle protégé at AEI who staffed the predecessor to OSP); and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the Vice President Dick Cheney.
(snip)

[hang a left]

72. Holy shit!

I hope there are some journalists out there reading this thread.

[nolabels]

74. And what is another one of the US State Dept's policy areas

I can only guess if I dig some more Henry Kissinger's name will pop up, but it's only a guess

http://www.state.gov/g/oes/climate/

Global Climate Change
Fact sheet: U.S. Global Climate Change Policy

U.S. Global Climate Change Policy
On February 14, 2002, President Bush committed the United States to an ambitious climate change strategy that will reduce domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to the size of the American economy. The United States will achieve this goal by cutting its GHG intensity -- how much it emits per unit of economic activity -- by 18% over the next 10 years. This strategy will set America on a path to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and -- as the science justifies -- to stop, and then reverse that growth. The President's policy also continues the United States' leadership role in supporting vital climate change research, laying the groundwork for future action by investing in science, technology, and institutions. In addition, the United States' strategy emphasizes international cooperation and promotes working with other nations to develop an efficient and coordinated response to global climate change. In taking prudent environmental action at home and abroad, the United States is advancing a pro-growth, pro-development approach to addressing this important global challenge.

(snip)

Dang, the next click brought that fool up (this is no lie), oh well, heres a look

http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/a-list/2002-October/021190.html
US state: ruling class split
A FOREIGN POLICY HARMFUL TO BUSINESS Unilateralism imperils global economic
stability, says Yale's Jeffrey Garten
Business Week ; New York; Oct 14, 2002; From The Politics of Fortune: A New
Agenda for Business Leaders by Jeffrey E. Garten. Copyright 2002 by Jeffrey
E. Garten. Adapted by permission of Harvard Business School Press

Jeffrey E. Garten is dean of the Yale School of Management and an Economic
Viewpoint columnist for Business Week. He served on the staffs of
Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance and was an officer in
the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Special Forces. Garten was an
investment banker from 1979 to 1992. He was Undersecretary of Commerce for
International Trade in the first Clinton Administration.

In an upcoming book, he analyzes the economic risk of President Bush's
foreign policy.

Not long from now, American forces may be entering Baghdad. We can only hope
that the U.S. and whichever of its allies join it are successful in toppling
Saddam Hussein and making way for a less malevolent regime. Count me among
those who believe that the Iraqi dictator must be forced out and that
whatever weapons of mass destruction he possesses must be eliminated. But we
should not lose sight of the fact that whenever the war begins, however it
is conducted, and however it ends, the underlying direction of American
foreign policy has veered sharply from its course of the last decade. It is
a dangerous shift, based on a mistaken reading of the most important forces
shaping the world and the way to exert constructive influence over them.

In the Bush Administration's disdain for the hard work of cultivating allies
until the U.S. is pressed to the wall; in its radically new doctrine that
the U.S. has the right to preemptively attack others in the name of
self-defense when it alone determines there is enough of a threat; in the
way it has given short shrift to international trade, finance, development,
environmental policies, and the strengthening of international
institutions--in these and other areas, America has militarized its foreign
policy at the expense of a large number of other goals. As a result, it has
widened the gap between America's immediate security goals and its critical
longer-term requirements for international cooperation. No one should argue
that national security isn't paramount, but the more urgent issue is how
should we define and pursue it so that a broader range of our critical
interests are advanced, too.
(snip)

You notice they are saying pretty much saying the same thing but one is calling the other ones wrong because it didn't use the cloak with the dagger. Sounds like power hungry people to me.

On edit: Here is link to that thread again,I know its old but I am putting it in there because this last link was one of the reasons I started it and hate starting links, they are such a problem to keep up with.(anybody got any new ones)

Is Henry Kissinger a war criminal, fascist or just misunderstood
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=345935

[LeftHander]

60. I guess if you were kicking and struggling....

TO escape from someone you might kick your shoes off...

Or a homeless dude thought the shoes were his size...

[undergroundpanther]

61. hmm

Anyone here remember pretty recently a story about a housekeeper in the bush family dying? She was pinned and killed by a slow moving car backing out of a garage or something??

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

62. That was odd. Lots of strange coincidence... A rube Goldberg

sort of death.

[Desperadoe]

63. Kick this

Because it is important. There is more to this story, you can bet your ass on it.

[truthspeaker]

66. UK beats US again

Just goes to show MI5 is better than the CIA at murdering a weapons expert and making it look like suicide.

[truthseeker1]

73. Yes, I remember that story

and I remember figuring she knew too much. I wonder if she's on the Bush Bodycount website.....

[Guaranteed]

81. Maybe he was carrying the microfilm in the soles

:)

[RandomKoolzip]

75. Kick!

This ought to be front page news here until some reputable mainstream outlet (not Fox) picks it up...you know they troll here from time to time.

[KaraokeKarlton]

78. The DC local news is saying he jumped from the roof

Here's a link:

http://www.news8.net/news/stories/1103/109563.html

[shoopnyc123]

84. YO, WHAT IS UP WITH THIS?

We hear snipers, leakers, liars, but not this. What's up?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

85. Still the AP report. No one has anything more than this saying

they are waiting on the ME report.

[Minstrel Boy]

86. "Police say there's no evidence of foul play"

Obviously no trail of pretzel crumbs from Froggy Bottom to the White House. Clearly we can chalk this up as just another oddly timed yet tragic suicide/accident/what have you.

If George Bush were still awake I'm sure he'd say, echoing his remarks for the victims of the Chinook, er, hard landing, that Mr Kokal "died for a cause greater than himself."

[hang a left]

87. Of course there is no evidence, the State Department told the

police it was a suicide. Case closed.

[RandomKoolzip]

90. And of course we can always count on the state department to be truthful

and forthcoming in a murder investigation.....

[nolabels]

92. U.S. Department of State/IIP - Iraq Liberated

(snip)(from a copernic search)
.. QUICK SEARCH. SUBSCRIBE. US-Iraq Policy Listserv ... Op-ed column by U.S. secretary of state. 7 November — ... a single irreversible and critical truth: the Iraqi people are free. ...
(snip)
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq

Just thought I would offer a little levity

[9215]

96. or maybe

investigating it is a threat to national security, or both.

[RandomKoolzip]

91. Kick!!!!!!!!

I'll repeat an earlier Duer's question: "What did he know?"

[DUreader]

94. did everybody get a chance to see this kick?. n/t

[Snazzy]

95. A shoeless kick.

Still no media. Where's the obit, at least?