Worse than Iran-Contra, the Sequel

[G_j]

A BIGGER, BADDER SEQUEL TO IRAN-CONTRA

Jim Lobe, AlterNet

Just like Ollie North and his cohorts, a small network of officials are pursuing a covert foreign policy agenda -- except their aims are vastly more ambitious.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16597

The specter of the Iran-Contra affair is haunting Washington. Some of the people and countries are the same, and so are the methods ? particularly the pursuit by a network of well-placed individuals of a covert, parallel foreign policy that is at odds with official policy.
Boiled down to its essentials, the Iran-Contra affair was about a small group of officials based in the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that ran an "off-the-books" operation to secretly sell arms to Iran in exchange for hostages. The picture being painted by various insider sources in the media suggests a similar but far more ambitious scheme at work.

Taken collectively, what these officials describe and what is already on the public record suggests the existence of a disciplined network of zealous, like-minded individuals. Centered in Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith's office and around Richard Perle in the Defense Policy Board in the Pentagon, this exclusive group of officials operates under the aegis of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.

This network includes high-level political appointees, such as Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who are scattered around several other key bureaucracies, notably in the State Department, the NSC staff, and most importantly, in Cheney's office.
...more..

[Octafish]

1. Cast of Characters: Stars of the BFEE

Thanks for bringing up this excellent article! It documents the large cast of treasonous thugs from Iran-Contra who continue to rear their ugly mugs and uglier "political philosophy" in the current criminalities from Selection 2000 to 9-11 and the illegal invasion of Iraq. It's not ironic or a coincidence to state that many of the luminaries of the Bush Organized Crime Family also played starring roles in the October Surprise of 1980, Watergate in the early 1970s, and Dallas in 1963. Driven by the accumulation of power and wealth, the star most prominent linking them all is that of one George Herbert Walker Bush.

[G_j]

2. as someone

who watched or listened to most of the Iran-Contra hearings, I'm STILL upset over the white-wash. If Congress had done it's job then, we might have avoided losing our democracy to the same cast of criminal creeps today.
This is a good article, IMO, Iran-Contra was never resolved, and now we are faced with even larger and more insideous crimes.

[nolabels]

4. A lot of them were connected or had ties in someway, that would........

Implicated them also. I listened to a lot of it, funny how we all walked in at the middle show and we are still finding out what's going on.

What I still haven't figured out how one crook was able to pardon another, take an 8 year respet and start it all over again. I also thinking you are correct Maybe it never left.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=133055

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=157573

[Stone_Spirits]

8. I know I'm not alone

in hoping that even after * loses in '04, these criminals are persued and convicted.

To read this article it becomes obvious that this group can truely be described as "organised crime", in this case the crimes could be called "treason"

[WEagle]

18. I remember listining to

Pacifica radio, people often said it would all lead to (*'S) Daddy.

[NoKingGeorge]

3. dubya is clueless

look behind the curtain. The frontman for this cabal is Dick Cheney.The corporate/neocons give Cheney orders. Awol doesn't even know where he is.

[G_j]

5. Cheney certainly is a link

I suspect there is more.

welcome to DU! :toast:

[newyawker99]

6. Hi NoKingGeorge!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[sistersofmercy]

7. You are right this is worse but...

they got away with it and think they'll get away with what they're doing now. Check out the Executive Order 13303 signed by George of the Bungle! Found on swissinfo a business article about Carlyle group potential purchase of ABB (swiss co)sidsidiary which is in oil business and also has judgement about asbestos. Tort reforms anyone! IBM is bidding on technology subsidiary of ABB, former IBM Ceo has joined Carlyle recently.

[G_j]

9. wow, very interesting

do you have any links?

[sistersofmercy]

10. I'll have to go find printout for swissinfo..

Been searching business journals for Halliburton and Carlyle business interests. The business journals are where the linking info is. EO 13303 google it. I'm trying to tract another co out of India.

[G_j]

11. nice research

much thanks. I'll google 13303.

[G_j]

12. EO 13303

I had heard of this but I had no idea of the details, alarming..


www.campaignforlaborrights.org/index/aug03/5-1.htm

After the War: Outrageous Bush
Executive Order on Iraq Oil Must Be Investigated

from EarthRights International

President Bush has issued an Executive Order, so far completely unreported, that purports to grant broad legal immunity to oil companies operating in Iraq. The Order is, on its face, outrageous, and should be investigated.

Executive Order 13303, issued on May 22, 2003, claims to be essential to Iraqi reconstruction efforts. A cursory reading of the Order indicates that its real purpose is to protect oil companies by giving virtual impunity for any activities undertaken relating to Iraqi oil.

This Order, with broad language that seems to sweep aside federal statutes, including the Alien Tort Claims Act, has received no public attention. It has been brought to light by a researcher with the Sustainable Energy and Environment Network (SEEN).

Under this Order, an oil company complicit in human rights violations, or one that causes environmental damage, would be immune from lawsuits. The language of the Executive Order is so broad that it might as well have been written by lawyers for Halliburton, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco.
..more..

[sistersofmercy]

20. HEY GO CHECK THIS OUT...

Go google carlyle candover client, go to page 3 near the end under caption This draft agenda is for purpose of discussion... Read list look at the end! tried to open twice second time got some sort of security alert then totally booted off net. Have dsl so that never happens. Tell me what you think!

[G_j]

21. did you mean page 3 at google?

I didn't see what you are referring to.

[sistersofmercy]

22. Yes do web search of key words, go to google pg 3

[G_j]

23. it is a 7 page presentation

about corporate spin-offs. I viewed it on html, didn't have any problems.

[sistersofmercy]

24. Don't know could open but

description had candover such and such carlyle such and such, then ended with Uday. Though that was odd. I'll try again maybe my security settings are preventing me from opening that. I tried html.

[WEagle]

13. Did anyone catch this stuff?

from article;

...consider some of the more recent press reports.


Item One: Iran-Contra alumnus and close Perle associate Michael Ledeen has renewed ties with his old acquaintance, Manichur Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms merchant who became the key link between the NSC's Oliver North, the operational head of Iran-Contra, and the so-called "moderates" in the Islamic Republic. But to what end?
<snip>

Item Two: U.S. aircraft and Special Operations Forces (SOF) intercepted and destroyed a residential compound and two small convoys that were heading from Iraq into Syria in mid-June, killing as many as 80 civilians. They then subdued and arrested five Syrian guards across the border, taking them back to Iraq, where they were held and interrogated for five days, despite strong objections from the State Department.
<snip>

Item Three: The rightwing Washington Times reported on Friday that certain "high-level circles within the administration" are hoping to persuade Chinese military officers to co-sponsor a coup to overthrow North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. While it is not clear whether concrete action has been taken, the paper noted that the Pentagon leadership disagrees strongly with the State Department's efforts to use diplomacy and the promise of a non-aggression pledge to persuade Kim to abandon his nuclear-weapons program.
snip>

seriously unsettling goings on-----

[hang a left]

17. What were Shrub Cheney Rumsfeld

doing at the Ranch last week? Who is actually next? Iran? No Korea? Will it be in October?

[Stone_Spirits]

25. I'm afraid to ask

but I was wondering that myself.

[SoCalDem]

14. Add Privatized (Secret) Soldiers to the mix :-(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=174742

[WEagle]

15. Should have known

it would be Dynacorp, accused of serious crimes in the Balkins already.

[Zuni]

16. I heard that

The Bush admin was talking to Ghorbanifir, that wily Iranian who played such a big role in the first scandal. This after the recent firing of John Pointdexter, that wanna be totalitarian.
This does not bode well for anyone who believes in the constitution.

[WEagle]

19. and of course we have Abrams

the infamous Eliot, and Negreponte. It's ridiculous.