`Birds of a Feather Flock Together:' 2002 Tape of Obama's Endorsement of Blagojevich

In 2002, Obama endorsed Blagojevich.

BARACK OBAMA: Right now my main focus is to make sure that we elect Rod Blagojevich as governor. We…

JEFF BERKOWITZ, HOST, "PUBLIC AFFAIRS": You're working hard for Rod?

OBAMA: You betcha.

BERKOWITZ: Hot Rod.

OBAMA: That's exactly right. You know, I think that having a Democratic governor will make a big difference.

BERKOWITZ: So you want to see a Democratic state Senate, a Democratic state House, a Democratic governor.

OBAMA: I'm a Democrat.

BERKOWITZ: Does that balance? I thought we wanted a fair and balanced approach?

OBAMA: I am a Democrat.

BERKOWITZ: Card-carrying Democrat.

OBAMA: Card-carrying Democrat. I really believe that the core Democratic philosophy is one that is, you know, really helps working people. And hopefully, you know, we'll be able to make sure that we carry out a mandate in this next election in November.

In a current interview, Bill O'Reilly interviewed Jeff Berkowitz, the interviewer from 2002.

O'REILLY: Well, joining us now from Chicago is a man who conducted that interview, Jeff Berkowitz, host of the cable program "Public Affairs".

You know what that tells me? It just tells me that President-elect Obama back then was a very loyal machine player. And you know the machine better than almost anybody, and that he was going to go along to get along. And now all of the associations have haunted him for the past year. And now Blagojevich comes back and he's right in the middle of it, right?

JEFF BERKOWITZ, HOST, "PUBLIC AFFAIRS": Well, Bill, that's a little unfair. In 2002, we didn't know he would be the kind of guy who would be trading seats, trading Senate seats for exchange for Cabinet positions and so forth, that he would be threatening to fire the folks. There are some editorial people at the Chicago Tribune if they didn't, you know, comply with his wishes or — and that is he would benefit. He would give them help with the Illinois finance authority if they would fire. So we didn't know that about Rod Blagojevich.

But on the other hand, it is interesting that he was working hard, in his words for Rod Blagojevich. It'd be interesting to know how hard. Some people said or say that he was working with David Wilhelm and Rahm Emanuel closely on almost a daily basis. So that…

O'REILLY: Well, I don't think there's any doubt about it that Barack Obama comes out of the machine that is Chicago politics. And the machine is not very good. I mean, it's a corrupt machine, has been for quite some time.

Now, the callers on "The Radio Factor" today said to me, look, we don't — nobody, very few, I shouldn't say nobody, but very few people are saying Barack Obama did anything wrong here. I think the tape exonerates him in the Senate seat brouhaha. But the questions remain how could a president of the United States go along with guys like Blagojevich? Obviously a corrupt guy. Been corrupt for years. Investigated for four years. How could you feel comfortable in a Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Blagojevich world? How could you feel comfortable in that world?

BERKOWITZ: Well, I mean, one thing about Barack, I mean, he's — today at his press conference, he talked about Paul Simon and Paul Douglas wing of the Democratic Party, or at least that history, the reformers. And then he talked about pay to play, that wing of the Democratic Party. And I guess he would put himself with Paul Simon and Paul Douglas.

But you know, if you're being objective, you have to say somewhat an accommodator. And so, he's not pay to play. He's not the kind of guy who would do something illegal. But on other — and he went along with daily. He went — he goes along with Blagojevich. So did most of the Democrats in the Democratic Party in 2006.

O'REILLY: OK, is that — in your opinion, sir, does his accommodation — I think you nailed it. It's an accommodation. And I've said this from the jump that Barack Obama made an accommodation to get power by dealing with people that he knew were dubious. That's the best word, dubious, OK. And to not get involved with them closely, but not to challenge them, not to challenge the machine, not to get away from Reverend Wright, but to just be there to use these people for what he could use them for and then go away.

Now it's a character issue. In this society, some people admire that kind of style. Other people are appalled by it. Where do you come down?

BERKOWITZ: Well, look, I'm not appalled by it, because I think Barack Obama is the best combination of a fluency with public policy and a fluency in politics. He combines that.

As you know, Bill, there are a lot of people in politics who know politics well, but can't speak worth a damn. You know, they're not well spoken at all. Barack Obama knows the issues, he is well spoken, he has a vision. That's what he's told me. That's what he's talked about from 2000.

O'REILLY: So the ends justify the means for Barack Obama?

BERKOWITZ: No. It means that if you want to get to be president of the United States, you have to be somewhat of an accommodator. But I don't think for a minute, Bill, he would have accommodated or let go if he knew what Rod Blagojevich was doing and scheming in terms of this...

O'REILLY: No, I don't either.

BERKOWITZ: So…

O'REILLY: But you know what's going to be interesting?

BERKOWITZ: ...that's the line.

O'REILLY: You know what's going to be interesting, Mr. Berkowitz? If Blagojevich is charged and indicted by a grand jury, which I believe he will be, and faces 30 years in a penitentiary in Joliet, he's going to flip. He's going to name every name.

BERKOWITZ: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: And he knows where all the bodies are buried in Chicago. Does he not?

BERKOWITZ: I'm sure he does. And if he had something on Barack Obama, I'm sure…

O'REILLY: He'll sell it.

BERKOWITZ: ...he should be concerned.

O'REILLY: He'll sell it.

BERKOWITZ: But as I sit here today, I don't know that he has and I don't think that he has anything on Barack Obama.

O'REILLY: OK. And I would come down on your side. I think Barack Obama is a very smart guy and wouldn't get involved with a slug like Blagojevich. He tried to get him elected, but he knew he was a slug from the jump.

All right. Mr. Berkowitz, thanks very much. We appreciate it. Very interesting.

Portugal To Accept Gitmo Detainees

Portugal is the only nation that has said it is willing to take in freed prisoners from Guantanamo camp. "The time has come for the European Union to step forward," stated Luise Amado, Portugal's minister of state and foreign affairs. "As a matter of principle and coherence, we should send a clear signal of our willingness to help the U.S. government in that regard, namely through the resettlement of detainees." Amado urged fellow EU member nations to accept inmates not considered security risks as a way to help close Guantanamo. Bush has asked numerous nations for years to assist the U.S. but none, other than, Portugal, has accepted the request.

Obama Repeats Himself Ad Infinitum

In his weekly radio and video address describing what he called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, Obama reiterated the same essential plan which will not spur the economy. It seems as if it is high time for economists to break the news to the American people. This plan is not going to accomplish much; it will not challenge fast-moving economies such as China and India. The plan only has five main goals which are ridiculously absent of challenging, bold, and growth-inducing:

* double renewable energy production and make public buildings more energy efficient;
* rebuild crumbling roads, bridges and schools;
* computerize the health care system
* modernize classrooms, labs and libraries;
* and provide tax breaks to American workers.

If this is the best that the brain trust can commit to, it will be a long four years. If there were any original ideas in the plan it would include investments in the creation, innovation, and research in technology and science.

Ft. Dix Five Convicted

Five Muslim immigrants were convicted of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix. The terrorist plot was in the planning stages.

Obama Signature: Claims Natural Born Citizenship

In filing to run, Obama stated that he was a natural born citizen. The Secretary of State should have vetted him but this process was not performed. If false, Obama would be committing perjury.

Jay on the Commander: Natural Born Citizen

Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise & seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.

John Jay, New York 25 July 1787

Statesman, diplomat, first Chief Justice of the U.S., President of Continental Congress, minister to Spain, secretary of foreign affairs, and author of the Federalist Papers along with Madison and Hamilton.

Obama Home Museum in Kenya: Grandma Banned From Press

The First Grandmother has been muzzled by the Kenyan government at Obama's birth home. The extended family will be required to receive permission from the government before making any public statements about their famous relative, according to the Nairobi Star. Athman Said, an under-secretary in the Ministry of Heritage, spoke on the record. Under-secretary Said, announced the Obama Cultural Home project, which will include a museum, a gallery, and a leadership center in the family's town of Kogelo. A video featuring Mama Sarah Obama, the president-elect's step-grandmother, will relate the Obamas' family history.

Christmas in Baghdad

It almost seems surreal but the picture is real: Christmas Jesus in Baghdad. A hot-air balloon was floated over Baghdad featuring a large poster of Jesus Christ and below it, an Iraqi flag. The event was sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The celebration also included a Santa Claus with a military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols.

African Americans Against Obama

Several prominent African Americans are presenting arguments against Obama including: Dr. Marimba Ani, author, educator; Dr. James Turner, educator; Dr. Donald Smith, educator; and Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report.

GLEN FORD

"When Black folks start imagining an Obama that does not exist, we are in deep trouble."

Ever since Barack Obama became a candidate for president, many of his unquestioning supporters have labeled his critics on the Left as conscious or unconscious allies of, first, Hillary Clinton and, later, John McCain. As a result, Obama was left free to gravitate as far to the Right as he felt convenient - and he took every advantage of that freedom.

What we wound up with is a president-elect whose Cabinet to-date is mostly a Clinton Cabinet - and worse.

Obama's military portfolio is in the hands of a Reagan/Bush-One/Bush-Two war criminal, Robert Gates, whose crimes go back to Iran Contra and the mining of Nicaragua's harbors.

Obama's economic mechanisms will be in the hands of the very same robber baron bankers that set the stage for catastrophic meltdown through their actions under both Bill Clinton and George Bush.

Nobody forced Obama to put together an administration that even the New York Times describes as "center-right." (I think it's much more Right than Center.)

Nobody forced Obama to break into a sprint to join Bush in bailing out the bankers.

Nobody forced Obama to browbeat the Congressional Black Caucus to reverse itself and support the bailout the second time around.

Nobody forced Obama to elevate Susan Rice - a fanatical advocate of so-called "humanitarian" military intervention - to UN Ambassador, a woman who wholeheartedly supports George Bush's war against Somalia, which created what the UN has called Africa's "worst humanitarian crisis."

We don't have to wait any longer to know what kind of president Barack Obama will be. His presidential appointments are presidential deeds - and by those deeds we know him!

Barack Obama has chosen of his own free will to put his face at the head of an administration whose most powerful portfolios - War and the Economy - are manned by the worst thieves and warmongers available.

Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton looks like a relative moderate in this Obama configuration. And that is bad news for Black people, and the entire planet.

I maintain that this outcome - this "center-right" government in-the-making - became all but inevitable early in the process, when many Black progressives failed to challenge Obama even once on any important political point, before or during the primaries, when it would have made a difference.

This blind-faith, unquestioning Obamism abdicated all leadership responsibility, allowing Obama to play to the Right to his heart's content.

Obama faced no organized Black opposition to his call for an expanded military - one hundred thousand additional soldiers and Marines - as if that would not inevitably lead to more and bigger wars and less resources for human needs.

When the effects of the subprime meltdown began to be felt in earnest, Obama refused to endorse any kind of moratorium on foreclosures or freeze on interest rates. His position was to the Right of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. But he paid no penalty, because there was no organized Black criticism.

Meanwhile, those of us who warned of Obama's constant rightward drift were damn near called traitors to the race.

The Obamites demanded that everyone withhold judgment until after the election. Of course, by then it would be too late. It has been too late for a very long time.

At any rate, Judgment Day has finally arrived. And we see Obama taking great leaps and bounds to the Right. Farther Right than I ever anticipated.

But, you know what? I'm not mad at Obama. He's just another cynical center-right politician, doing whatever he can get away with.

The people I'm mad at are the ones who let him get away with it - the people who still see their primary job as protecting him!

He's the president-elect of the United States. He's in bed with billionaire bankers and war criminals, and folks want to protect him. He doesn't need our protection. WE need protection from HIM!

But this seems to be very difficult for some many of our folks to understand because, this entire experience has been...damaging.

It's one thing to get carried away on the strength of hundred of years of pent up aspirations.

It's to be expected that wishful thinking might temporarily get the better of us.

But when Black folks start imagining an Obama that does not exist - an Obama who has made some kind of Covenant with us, the evidence of which is nowhere to be found - then we are talking about a people who are in trouble.

I've got to admit that I sometimes get totally lost in the ill-logic that makes Obama good for Black people AND good for thieving bankers AND good for war criminals - all at the same time!

But, Dr. Smith has passed on to me the latest writings of Amiri Baraka, whose thought processes are believed by some to be a kind of Rosetta Stone on all things Obama.

Baraka explains how Obama's choice of arch-Zionist and former hedge-funder Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff - the gate keeper to the White House - was a "very smart choice" and, by the way, good for Black people.

The logic goes like this: Rahm Emanuel will keep the other Zionists with bad intentions at bay, off of Obama's back.

Amiri Baraka puts Obama's political choices in a whole new light. Rahm Emanuel is not a dangerous Zionist. Oh no. He is the anti-Zionist, who wards off the really bad Zionists. Like garlic.

Now we can understand why Obama needs George Bush's war criminal, Robert Gates, as his Secretary of Defense. Gates is there to guard Obama's far-Right flank against even worse war criminals who might be out there, laying in wait.

The same thing goes for the Robert Rubin clones at Treasury and the Council of Economic Advisors. There are actually even worse Wall Street thieves lurking around, trying to create trouble for Obama and - by extension - Black folks. Obama's bankers will keep the really bad bankers off balance - or so the logic goes. And by this logic, Obama can and should surround himself with all manner of villains, to guard his far-Right flanks against an even worse class of villains.

The worst thing about Amiri Baraka's logic is that I sense some of you actually agree with it.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com

DR. DONALD SMITH

"For Mr. Obama to continue to attempt to convince black people not to think about race is a deadly mistake."

Brothers and Sisters, I want you to know that the first thing I did when I came into this church today, was to give my semi-annual check to Black Agenda Report, to Glen Ford. If you're not reading Black Agenda Report you're missing the most important political analysis about our people.

In memory of Professor Melvin Tolson: Resolved, that the election of President-Elect Obama is not good for Black people.

President-Elect Obama is a man of many talents. He is brilliant, with critical thinking skills, an amazing orator, able to inspire and bring hope to millions in the United States and abroad. And he plays ball. He was vastly superior to his opposition, and I voted for him. However, I am not convinced that his election is good for Black people. My contention is based on three major issues.

First, his personnel appointments. Second, the danger of a post-racial philosophy. And third, cultural incompatibility.

Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, has been a strong opponent of African liberation. He is closely allied to Zionist movements. Right wing Israelis with the help of the U.S. government were major suppliers of the munitions which the Afrikaner government used to murder and oppress Black south Africans.

Emanuel also played a major role in unseating congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Now, you have to keep that in mind. The presidential chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel is the eyes and ears of the president, and he can influence policy decisions.

The next critical appointment is Lawrence Summers, a person with great disdain for African people. Summers, the disgraced president of Harvard, is the new director of the economic advisory committee which, by the way, does not require confirmation by the Senate. At Harvard, Summers announced that women were not as capable as men to be scientists; that African studies is not a legitimate academic discipline; and that the work of Cornel West was not sufficiently scholarly.

Yet his most egregious act took place when he was the chief economist for the World Bank. Summers signed off on a memo that urged the United States to send dirty industries, that is, toxic industries, to countries where, according to Summers, people don't value clean air, where salaries are low, and life is not as valuable. And which countries do you suppose these are? - Black and brown countries.

There are other appointments that are questionable, even objectionable, such as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sat as First Lady as Rwanda was being ravaged. Who as Senator from New York has introduced no measures to cease the slaughter in Darfur and in the Congo We are not likely to see the new secretary of state reverse the establishment of AFRICOM bases in Africa.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been referred to as a kinder and gentler "shock and awe." It will be imperialism and capitalistic interests as usual as people in the First World suffer and die.

The appointments that a leader makes, communicate profoundly, where his head, if not his heart, is.

The second major issue is that of the post-racial philosophy as espoused by President-Elect Obama and so-called liberal Democrats and independents. Our African culture is the cement that has been responsible for and has held our political and economic interests together. These were the words and wisdom of Malcolm X and of Harold Cruse in his book, The Crisis of the Black Intellectual.

Any socio-political philosophy that weakens the cultural cement that has held us together threatens our very existence as a people.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made it possible for Black people to elect local and national politicians of African ancestry.

It is Black solidarity that turned many states from red to blue and that enabled Senator Obama to become President-Elect Obama.

For Mr. Obama to continue to attempt to convince black people not to think about race is a deadly mistake. It is black solidarity and the black vote that has given us the strength to affect our lives positively. As Mahalia Jackson sang, it is How We Got Over.

Cultural incompatibility. Mr. Obama, the prophet of the Joshua generation, has read our history, and learned what the white institutions have taught him. But he does not know our history. He does not feel our pain. It is not in his genes.

Worse, in order to assure oppressors in America and throughout the world that he can be trusted to protect their preferential, unearned privileges, the president-elect generally ignores or deprecates the great liberators of African people.

On the night of his election. Mr. Obama disrespected Dr. Marlin Luther King Jr. by referring to him simply as "the Atlanta preacher." Speaking at the funeral of the Queen of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks, President-Elect Obama showed no feeling. How could he not have been moved?

When he first became a senator, addressing the Washington Press Club, Mr. Obama declared that his hero was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Surely a professor of law at the University of Chicago would have been aware that Roosevelt cared nothing for black people, turned his back on the lynchings pervasive in the South, and made no provisions for black land in his land policy.

Mr. Obama delivered a harsh attack against Black men, without addressing any of the social factors which leave our brothers jobless, mis-educated, incarcerated and in poor health. There is little evidence of cultural compatibility.

These are among the key reasons why I contend the election of President-elect Barack Obama is not good for Black people.

Dr. Donald Smith can be contacted at Dohugh@aol.com

Obama 1980 Smoking a Doobie

Pictures of Obama smoking a joint were taken in 1980 by then-aspiring photographer Lisa Jack who recently dug the negatives out from her basement. She secreted them away until Time magazine obtained the pictures.

Since then, Obama has continued to smoke as he was photographed while visiting his birthplace in Kenya.

House of Obama, or, Iraqi Swindler, or Chicago Felon

Nadhmi Auchi, the British Iraqi billionaire banned from France and implicated in the U.N. oil for food scheme loaned money to convicted felon, Tony Rezko. Rezko loaned money to Obama so he could buy his mansion in Chicago. The house, of course, violates the loan limits according to Freddie Mac. The Obama Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac home mortgage is $903,000 over the legal limit.

In addition, the home is actually owned by Rezko‘s lawyer, William Miceli, and Obama formerly worked for him. The house ownership is included in a public record.

McKiernan: 30,000 Troops Needed

General David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, called for more troops to be deployed to Afghanistan in October. An additional 10,000 are likely to be support personnel. McKiernan requested the additional 20,000 troops be sent to fight the increasing violence by the resurgent Taliban forces in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

Egermakation 4ur 'merka

All of 17% of 8th graders overseen by Obama Education Secretary-designee can read at their grade level according to a poll taken by CNS News. In 2007, only 17 percent of eighth graders tested at or above grade level in reading in Chicago Public Schools – the school system administered by Arne Duncan since 2001. Obama tagged him to become secretary of education. Lord help us all.

Duncan, hailed by Obama, said he would like to take the lessons he learned in Chicago with him when he moves to Washington. Geez, I hope not, we have enough problems without him.

Obamas Against the First Amendment: Threaten Prosecution

Missouri top prosecutors announced in September that they would threaten and prosecute critics of Obama. St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch, threatened to bring libel charges against those who spoke out falsely about Obama.

The tape of the September Missouri report described the Obama truth squads.

A transcript of a report from station KMOW in St. Louis was collected by the Gateway Pundit.

Missouri's News 4 reporter John Mills appeared at the County Election Board in Maplewood, Missouri.

John Mills, reporter: Russell, good evening. Prosecutors and sheriffs from across Missouri are joining something called the "Barack Obama Truth Squad." Two high-profile prosecutors are part of the team. We met them this afternoon in the Central West this afternoon. They are Jennifer Joyce of the city (and) Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. They will be reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian, who wants to cut taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 a year. They also say they plan to respond immediately to any ads and statements that might violate Missouri ethics laws.

Jennifer Joyce: We want to keep this campaign focused on issues. We don't want people to get distracted, and Missourians don't want to be distracted, by these divisive character attacks. So we're here to respond to any character attacks, to set the record straight.

Bob McCulloch: Whether it is directly attributable to the campaign, or to one of the soft-money operations, if they're not going to tell the truth, then somebody's got to step up and say "Wait a minute, that's not true. This is the truth."

Mills: Now the Obama campaign tells News 4 that others, prosecutors and sheriffs, are also part of the team, including some from the Kansas City area, and from rural parts of Missouri. We're also told the truth squad is expected to include Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyle. Live in Maplewood John Mills, News 4.

In his report, Mills said the prosecutors "also say that they plan to respond immediately to any ads and statements that might violate violate Missouri ethics laws."

The prosecutors threatened Americans from expressing their First Amendment rights. Most reasonable viewers would have concluded that they were planning to act against "offenders" in their official capacities.

The First Amendment is in trouble.

1st Amendment Still Alive?

You have to wonder about the Senate and their early activities in regards to the Natural Born Citizen issue. The Senate, around February at least, began to introduce S.R. 511, a non-binding resolution declaring John McCain as a “natural born citizen” which I noted in this blog. In addition, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill offered that bill and it was co-sponsored by Obama and Hillary. But the intent is even more insidious. McCaskill was the lead campaign head for Obama in Missouri for the Missouri Governor. She threatened with the prosecutorial zeal to sue people who had anything negative to say about Obama. McCaskill and Chairman Patrick J. Leahy already had lawyers submit a brief-like proposal to the Senate, which included arguments for United States vs. Wong Kim Ark. The MSM has arrived late to the party. The documentation of the Senate manipulating the “natural born citizen” clause is available. Contained in those links is also the Missouri Governor’s warning of the situation and naming Sen. Claire McCaskill.

The First Amendment should still count for something.

Obama SCOTUS & Annenberg

From 1995-1999 Obama was a founding chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC); at the same time, Chief Justice Roberts was a part of the Annenberg effort to educate high school kids. Today, Roberts is not hearing challenges to Obama's Natural Born Citizen status. I wonder if some intrepid reporter could find further links between Obama, Roberts, and the Foundation.

Failures Helped

Obama stated that "the auto companies must not squander this chance to reform bad management practices." But in business there is something called throwing good money after bad and this is what the Bush-Obama gang doing. Obama went on to state that this is a "critical industry." Why it is critical he did not say. Today, it is not a critical industry to the U.S. It is a regional industry that has squandered its preeminent position in the world. The only thing America gets out of it are the things that interest Obama: "the millions of American jobs," meaning of course, voters that he will obtain as a result of additional fiscal irresponsibility as in comparable periods of economic instability.

And why is the industry unstable? A number of factors could be mentioned such as the addiction to building gas guzzling SUVs that America did not need at the time of a fuel crisis. Another problem is the lack of Detroit to grasp that they needed to be competitive with practical, fuel-efficient, foreign cars. Detroit lost many Americans who would have preferred to buy American products when they failed to be attentive to issues of quality. Rather than investing in hybrids, Detroit allowed the foreign car manufacturers to scoop up that market. The benefits paid out to American workers, because of the Unions, priced themselves out of a competitive employee market. And last but not least, Ford CEO Alan Mulally, who makes about $12 million, and the ridiculously high salaries paid to heads of companies who lead failing companies is just out of control. Detroit caused its own problems, violated free market principles, and no one, not even a Republican Bush will allow the market to rule the economy.

Berg Writ Update

Justice Kennedy denied another application for an injunction to stay the Electoral Vote Count. However, the Berg Writ of Certiorari is still pending and is now scheduled for Conference before the U.S. Supreme Court on 9 January 2009.

Clinton Financed by Foreign Interests

"Slick Willie" released a list of his financial supporters. Among the donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation are included amounts of $10 million to $25 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and real estate mogul Stephen Bing. Clinton agreed to the release the list after Obama nominated Hillary to become secretary of state.

The governments of Kuwait and Qatar are also on the list, as is Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid, who has close ties to the Saudi royal family. Saudi Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi, reputed to be one of the richest men in the world, is among the donors as well. Both Saudis contributed in the $1 million to $5 million range. A group called Friends of Saudi Arabia and the Dubai Foundation appear in the same category. What influence do these people have on the government of the U.S.?

Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal also donated between $1 million and $5 million, as did the Open Society Institute, which wealthy businessman George Soros founded. Israeli-born television owner Haim Saban, who runs the Spanish-language TV station Univision, donated between $5 million and $10 million personally or through his foundation. The two biggest donors are UNITAID, an international organization that purchases drugs for the world's poorest people, and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, both of which donated more than $25 million.

The full 2,922-page list of contributors is available. It includes only donation ranges, not specific amounts, and no information about donors beyond their names.

Affidavit Doubts Obama Birth Address

Jorge Baro, a private investigator, has released an affidavit that casts doubt on whether Obama's family lived at the address listed in the published notice of his birth in 1961. Baro's affidavit documents an interview his staff conducted with Beatrice Arakaki, who has lived at 6075 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu since before Obama was born.

"Known Unknowns"

A U.S. Government publication written by Lt. Col. (USA Ret.) Nathan Freier entitled
“Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development” warns of “strategic shocks.” The author posits domestic events which our federal government, defense, and intelligence agencies are woefully ill-equipped to deal with.

Obama: "uhh, uhh, ahh, uhh..."

We should all be listening to how Obama answers questions, or as the case may be, avoid them, to see how transparent he is. Obama was asked a question about Rahm Emanuel's contacts with Governor Blagojevich, by reporter John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune. Obama cut him off and responded by telling McComrmick not to "...waste your question," and then he stumbled through his "uhh, uhh, ahh, uhh..." misspeaking as he does when he doesn't have a scripted answer, or a teleprompter.

Lightfoot v. Bowen Update

The Lightfoot v. Bowen information is updated here:

No. 08A524
Title: Gail Lightfoot, et al., Applicants
v.
Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State

Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California
Case Nos.: (S168690)

~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 12 2008 Application (08A524) for a stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Kennedy.


~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Phone~~~
Attorneys for Petitioners:
Orly Taitz 26302 La Paz (949) 683-5411
Counsel of Record Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Party name: Gail Lightfoot, et al.

A false rumor had circulated that Lightfoot v Bowen was denied by the Supreme Court but that is not true. It is still being reviewed and more cases are coming.

Chomsky On Obama: Poor Judgment/Lack of Transparency

You know you are onto something when Noam Chomsky begins to say Obama is Bush, Part II.

Chomsky is about as far Left as one can get without biting Marx on the nose but he is criticizing Obama for his lack of transparency and his poor judgment of appointees.

80% Approval Rating for An Unemployed Man

A poll conducted by CNN concluded that Obama had an 80% approval rating which I found curious. He resigned from the Senate, he is not working as the President, thus, he is unemployed. Nonetheless, the American people rated his job performance exceptionally well. This is quite an achievement for an unemployed person.

Britain Successful in Iraq

Despite the shoe throwers, the stone throwers, the bombs, and militias, British troops will begin leaving Iraq in May 2009. Bush forged a coalition of the willing to oust dictator Saddam Hussein. If the U.S. had stayed the course in Somalia, we might have had less of an issue with pirates around the Horn of Africa, but Iraq has made remarkable progress. If a commitment to democracy continues, Iraq could have an historically positive effect in the region.

Honorable Iraqi Insults American Head of State

An "honorable Iraq," Muntadhar al-Zaidi, threw his shoes at the American head of state, and, as all weak nations, America, and Americans, are barely offended at all.

1984 Obama

The Official Gazette of Illinois published this article and photo on 12 November 2008 when the story promoted the idea that Obama was concerned about his constituents. The article said:

After congratulating President-elect Barack Obama on his Nov. 4 victory, Governor Rod Blagojevich now begins the difficult task of finding a replacement for Illinois’ Senate seat.

And the caption under the photo reads:

Governor Blagojevich confers with now President-elect Barack Obama.

The story has been scrubbed.

As reported earlier, a second KHQA story, originally published on 8 November, has also been scrubbed. That KHQA post confirmed that the 5 November meeting between Obama and Blagojevich took place.

Shock Unrest Possible: Army War College Report

A “strategic shock” describes a possible scenario by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute including the collapse of a nuclear state to massive unrest in the United States. “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” stated the report, authored by retired Lt. Col. Nathan Freir.

Dec 15 2008 Application (08A469) denied by the Court

* Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending.

Private investigator Douglas Hagmann of HomelandSecurityUS.com reported earlier he found 13 cases challenging Obama's eligibility still active or semi-active.

Without additional documentation, we are facing a constitutional crisis if our troops and citizens refuse to obey a government that does not follow previous procedures and legal precedent.

Rev. James David Manning on The Elect

Atlah Worldwide is the home of Reverend James David Manning, PhD who posts his sermons on YouTube. The Pastor has a respectable resume including having held corporate jobs as a marketing executive with Proctor & Gamble and Ford Motor Company. He gained wider circulation with typical sermons such as "Obama Got a White Mama." In this sermon Pastor Manning attacks Barack Obama and calls his whole congregation "maggots" and "despicable hypocrites without honor or integrity" because they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton and are supporting Barack Obama. Reverend Manning states "black men don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of." He describes the Black community as "all black men pimps and playas and black women playa lovers." He evokes the wrath of God and condemns his congregation to "boiling egg shells to make soup and scraping up pigeon droppings to make gravy to put on egg shells to eat."

Chicago Buddies in Happier Times

Graphic source: The Elect as Senator, left, laughs with Blagojevich during Governor's Day 17 August 2005 at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill.: Randy Squires/Associated Press

They endorsed and worked for one another in Illinois politics so there were happier times for The Elect and Blagojevich.

Islamic Symbol Sits On Top of Christmas Tree

"I said 'Oh, there's a menorah and a Christmas tree and where is my crescent?'" said resident Asad Jilani.

Thus, a decision by Armonk, N.Y. officials resulted in an Islamic star and crescent on top of the community's Christmas tree and a menorah.

How fair is this to Islam? Not at all since the faith has nothing to do with the religious tradition of the season nor does it relate directly to the cultural expression of the Christmas season.

All Bull Bias: Campbell Brown

In a story about transparency and The Elect, I merely posted a list of paper documentation not released by Obama but it was censored by Brown. It serves little purpose to allow some comments to be made but to censor the points that disagree with the MSM. Brown is all bull.

Note on Gladiatrix, Russell Whitfield

Its all here, the blood, the gore, the rape, racial conflict, fighting cat women, lesbians no less, in this loosely based novel of gladiatrixes of ancient Rome. The action is fast paced enough as our protagonist, Lysander, priestess of Sparta, is imprisoned and coerced to become a slave of a fighting school. She falls in love with a fellow (no pun intended) gladiatrix who meets an untimely end. As re-named Achillia for the games, Lysander develops into a formidable fighting machine and hero of the games, which inspired the depraved Balbus, owner of the school, to create even larger spectacles, appealing as high as the Roman imperial court. Throughout we are treated with dialogue fairly heavy to inform us of Roman military tactics, gladiator training, and Roman culture. The path is clear to a follow-up novel in that this work introduces us to Trajan, eventual Emperor, subjugator of the Dacians, the area in which the chief antagonist gladiatrix originates from, and in this novel returned to at the end. Read this if you enjoy historical novels of the period and you would like to learn a bit about Roman entertainment.

Gadsden Flag

The Gadsden flag was popular as an early flag of the Revolutionary War.

Larry Sinclair Original YouTube Vid

The MSM runs away from any investigation but Larry Sinclair has another medium as well. He says he knows Obama well.

Virtual Islam

A new virtual world, Muxlim Pal, allows Muslims to create a cartoon avatar based loosely on other virtual worlds such as The Sims. Aimed at Muslims in Western nations, Muxlim Pal claims not to be a religious site, said Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim.com--the parent site of Muxlim Pal.

You Saw It Here First

I told 'ya!

He Says He Didn't But I Say He Did

Graphic source: KHQA-TV

A 5 November report by KHQA-TV's Carol Sowers, Quincy, Ill., station, has been removed from their website and it has retracted a story where The Elect planned to discuss his replacement for his vacated Senate seat with Gov. Blagojevich.

The Elect now says "I had no contact with the governor."

Franklin On the Constitution

The following Benjamin Franklin quote is from the “Law of Nations.” A constitution is attacked gradually over time until “states have thus entirely changed their nature, and lost their original constitution:”

§ 30. Of the support of the constitution and obedience to the laws.

The constitution and laws of a state are the basis of the public tranquility, the firmest support of political authority, and a security for the liberty of the citizens. But this constitution is a vain phantom, and the best laws are useless, if they be not religiously observed: the nation ought then to watch very attentively, in order to render them equally respected by those who govern, and by the people destined to obey. To attack the constitution of the state and to violate its laws, is a capital crime against society; and if those guilty of it are invested with authority, they add to this crime a perfidious abuse of the power with which they are intrusted. The nation ought constantly to repress them with its utmost vigour and vigilance, as the importance of the case requires.

It is very uncommon to see the laws and constitution of a state openly and boldly opposed: it is against silent and gradual attacks that a nation ought to be particularly on its guard. Sudden revolutions strike the imaginations of men: they are detailed in history; their secret springs are developed. But we overlook the changes that insensibly happen by a long train of steps that are but slightly marked. It would be rendering nations an important service to show from history how many states have thus entirely changed their nature, and lost their original constitution. This would awaken the attention of mankind: — impressed thenceforward with this excellent maxim (no less essential in politics than in morals) principiis obsta, — they would no longer shut their eyes against innovations, which, though inconsiderable in themselves, may serve as steps to mount to higher and more pernicious enterprises.

Fun With Altering Certificate of Live Birth

Everyone, and I would suggest this would be instructive in classes all over the country, can check whether the image of The Elect's birth certificate from Obama’s web site was altered when checked with even a free hex editor. The hex editor displays information about the image and in this case reveals the image was edited with Adobe Photoshop CS3 on 6/12/2008 at 8:42am. It was altered on a Macintosh.2c Using Adobe Photoshop CS3 at 08:06:12 08:42:36 as indicated in the right side column of the free hex editor anyone can download. Hex editors can be used to check image attributes. The editor also can be used to change the attributes but in this case it seems very obvious the changed attributes match what has been altered to fake Obama’s certification of birth, not a legal document. A State seal and signature were added later to another jpg on his web site. The jpg examined had no State seal or official signature.

Natural Born Citizen

In a free country, you can always ignore the noise created by the mainstream media who are fawning at the mouth to get in line with corporate interests. On the other hand, you can always read for yourself and make up your own mind who has the better argument regarding the natural born citizen issue.

The Founders anticipated the issues, they were prescient. It is uncanny how they knew the crowd would be so dazzled, it is almost as if they could envision the subsequent media developments of television and the Internet. I choose not to get caught up with the fray and I urge any seriously interested to keep researching the subtleties of the law.

Lashkar-e-Taiba America: Coming to a City Near You, If Not There Already

Kashmir-based Islamofascist Lashkar-e-Taiba has deep ties to America. Since 2003, at least five U.S. citizens have been convicted in federal court of conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. At least nine more men, considered to be in the same larger circle, have been convicted of firearms violations and other felonies. Several other cases are still making their way through the legal process.

In April, 2000 Virginian Randall Todd Royer went to a LeT camp in Kashmir. Royer trained for a month. In August, Seifullah Chapman made a similar trip, and trained for a month as well. After 9/11 Royer and others recruited Ibrahim al-Hamdi, Yong Ki Kwon, Muhammed Aatique, and Khwaja Mahmood Hasan for training. In December 2001, two of the men, Khan and Kwon, were asked "to return to the United States, gather information, and spread propaganda." A year later, Khan was purchasing drone aircraft parts, and gave them to a LeT operative. Lashkar is a sieve for Al Qaeda. The organization discerns who should leave and who qualifies. In 2007, Mahmud Faruq Brent was convicted of providing material support to LeT, after he admitted to attending one of their training camps. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are still trying Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee for aiding LeT.

Scapegoat Blagojevich

Graphic source: James A. Finley, AP

Graphic source: AP

Graphic source: AP

Graphic source: Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

Barack Obama is flanked by Gov. Blagojevich, left, and Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, right, during an April 2007 rally.

Graphic source: AP

A federal judge in January will sentence political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who helped bankroll campaigns for The Elect and Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Rezko was convicted in June on charges of using clout with Blagojevich's administration to help launch a $7 million kickback scheme. His sentencing had been postponed indefinitely, giving rise to widespread speculation he was talking to federal prosecutors investigating alleged corruption in state government.

Rezko was a prolific fundraiser who raised money for President-elect Obama's campaigns for the state legislature and Congress, but not for Obama's presidential campaign.

Rezko is set to go to trial early next year on unrelated charges that he swindled the General Electric Capital Corp. out of $10 million in the sale of a group of pizza restaurants. He also allegedly owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling debts.

Today, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is facing federal corruption charges. FBI agents arrested Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, on charges related in part to the selection of The Elect's successor to the Senate. The charges include a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery. The 76-page affidavit allege that wiretaps recorded Blagojevich conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat in exchange for financial benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Obama admitted nothing.

"Obviously, like the rest of the people of Illinois, I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney's office today," he said. "But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time."

Obama said he had no contact with the governor or his office.

His statement that he didn't have contact with Blagojevich about the Senate seat seems to conflict with that of top adviser David Axelrod, who told Fox News Chicago on 23 November: "I know he's talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

On Tuesday, Axelrod issued a detraction saying: "I was mistaken. ... They did not then or at any time discuss the subject."

And, I take it the people of Illinois were represented by a Senator who had no interest in finding a suitable replacement. If something does not sound right it usually is not true.

"I was not aware of what was happening," Obama added.

One possible connection between The Elect and the governor had been raised earlier in the year. Federal authorities also allege the governor and Harris schemed with others--including convicted real estate developer Rezko--to obtain financial benefits for himself, his family and others, including his campaign committee, Friends of Blagojevich. Obama was an associate of Rezko in particular in obtaining his mansion in Chicago.

In addition, Obama is close to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who has been the governor's staunchest legislative ally. And at least one top aide to Obama, Michael Strautmanis, previously worked for Blagojevich. Obama has appointed Strautmanis to serve as White House chief of staff to the presidential assistant for intergovernmental relations and public liaison. The Chicago native was legislative director and counsel to Blagojevich when the governor was a member of Congress and then helped Blagojevich win the governorship in 2002. There is no indication that Strautmanis is involved in the case.

"We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it," stated U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Blagojevich is most likely guilty, guilty of being the low man on the totem pole. He is the scapegoat.

He still gets to appoint a Senatorial successor, unless one of the other proposals such as him resigning is enacted.

As background, journalist Evelyn Pringle has been doing a lot of in depth research into Obama’s many long time connections to crime and corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Here are some excerpts from her research:

“The names of Obama and Blagojevich became tied to the bid rigging scandal when reports surfaced that Companion had sought their help in carrying out the contract a year after Alsammarae left office, and around the same time he was thrown in jail in Iraq.”

“US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald does not make a habit of destroying pubic officials by listing them in indictments for no reason and the only two political candidates identified as receiving campaign money from Operation Board Games kickback schemes are Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and the US Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.”

“Instead of referring to Board Games as the “Rezko” case, before long the media will likely be calling it the “Blagojevich” case. However, because the governor did not become the presidential candidate, when the scandal is recorded in the history books it will be the “Barack Obama” case. “

“Dr Michel Malek gave Obama $10,000 a little over a month before the first meeting on June 30, 2003. He also donated $25,000 to Blagojevich three weeks later on July 25, 2003, and gave Obama another $500 in September 2003. Malek was an investor in Riverside Park. “

“Dr Fortunee Massuda donated $25,000 to Blagojevich on July 25, 2003, and gave a total of $2,000 to Obama on different dates. Massuda’s husband, Charles Hannon, is a co-schemer in the pension fund case and testified against Rezko in the trial.”

“In the media, Obama always made it sound like he rarely saw Rezko, saying they met for breakfast or lunch once or twice a year. However, the FBI mole John Thomas helped investigators “build a record of repeat visits to the old offices of Rezko and former business partner Daniel Mahru’s Rezmar Corp., at 853 N. Elston, by Blagojevich and Obama during 2004 and 2005,” according to the February 10, 2008 Sun-Times.”

“On May 20, 2005, the Times said, “Two Rezko associates gave Blagojevich $25,000 each just days after the governor named them to a state panel.”

However, the reporters either failed to notice, or failed to mention, that panel member Malek gave $10,000 to Obama on June 30, 2003.“

Read the rest of Evelyn Pringle’s articles here:

Part 1 of Pringle and Part 2.

The transcripts from the Rezko trial are available as well.

Another Case in Washington State Has Standing

A case in Washington State has standing and is moving through the Courts as well.

The Elect Back To Hawaii

Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii indicated that Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of The Elect, and adviser who is co-chair of his transition office, would accompany Obama to the islands. Lingle will meet with Jarrett. The governor also invited Obama to meet with her.

I wonder if they still need to clear up more paperwork.

The Elect visited Hawaii in October to visit his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died. Obama snubbed a funeral or service for his grandmother who raised him.

His grandmother was cremated without The Elect or his family attending.

Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz, USSC Docket No. 08A469.

Cort Wrotnowski’s emergency application for a stay and/or injunction as to the Electoral College meeting on 15 December was today referred to the full Court by the Honorable Associate Justice Anotonin Scalia. It has been distributed for Conference of Friday December 12. The official case name is WROTNOWSKI v. BYSIEWICZ, United States Supreme Court Docket No. 08A469.

The central issue is the same as the Donofrio case: whether Barack Obama is not eligible to the office of President due to the fact that he was a British citizen at the time of his birth.

Article 2, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution specifically states: "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

His father's nationality, as a British citizen, appears to make Barack Obama ineligible for the presidency as he is not a natural born Citizen.

"When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom's dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.'s children."

Cf. http://www.fastcheck.org/

Of relevance is the newly discovered ineligibility of 21st President Chester Arthur due to his having been born as a British subject. This is relevant to the case at hand in that Justice Gray--who wrote the seminal opinion in United States v. Wong Kim Arc-- was appointed by Chester Arthur.

The Justice who wrote the opinion was appointed by Chester Arthur.

1st Vietnamese-American Elected to House

The first Vietnamese-American elected to the House says he hopes his win will push more young people to become politically active. Anh "Joseph" Cao says his win shows that "really anything can happen." The Republican defeated nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson in the mostly African-American and heavily Democratic New Orleans-area district. Jefferson had been expected to win a 10th term but he has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years. Cao came to the U.S. at the age of 8 after his family fled Vietnam as it fell to communists.

"When I [was] 9 years old, I received a letter from my father while he was in the re-education camp," Cao said. "He told me to study hard, to work hard and to give back to your country and to your community. So I hope to do that in Congress."

The Elect's Record Deficit

The Elect as candidate stated:

"Barack Obama will restore fiscal discipline to Washington."

"It's time to put an end to the run-away spending and the record deficits."

The Elect as Elect now proposes public works including a likely:

budget deficit that will come in at 1 Trillion or 1.5 Trillion dollars.

Analogous to the public works of Eisenhower with the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956, which led to the construction of 42,795 miles of roads, the government concluded that the total cost came to $128.9 billion, with the federal government paying $114.3 billion and the states picking up the rest.

I do not suppose anyone noticed that we are not currently undergoing the economic growth that we enjoyed under an Eisenhower administration. The deficit will simply be passed on to a less prosperous next generation.

Graphing Energy Use

A glance at a graph can illustrate clearly how the U.S. uses mostly non-renewable sources of energy.

The Elect and His Mysterious Health Concerns

The Elect has promised not to light up in the smoke-free White House. Does this mean he will release his medical records? I would not assume a middle-aged smoker would be in good health. "There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," he stated on Meet the Press, but the substantive issue, which people have the right to know, is what his actual health involves. But, to date, no records are scheduled to be released. We are expected to accept, on faith, that all is well. The Elect added during the campaign: "But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack," he said.

"I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier," which implies that something relating to his health may be less than well.

The Elect told the magazine Men's Health in an interview for its November issue that he wished he had more time for staying fit and that he still occasionally smoked a cigarette. This is another indication that health is a concern.

Note on Weiner, Legacy of Ashes

Although no one should be shocked with the atrocious failures of the CIA, the length, depth, and outrageous incompetence of CIA is startlingly in this work nonetheless. There were few successes and consistent failings of a revolving door of directors and an inability of both Republicans and Democratic presidents to grasp the essential importance of protecting Americans from attack. Most notably with 9/11, but in case after case, CIA could not provide verifiable intelligence about American's enemies and they failed in their mission to protect America.

The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the New York Times which in itself commends itself to be read. The Weiner volume updates the gap left by the now dated works of John Ranelagh (The Agency, 1986) and Christopher Andrew (For the President’s Eyes Only, 1995) regarding CIA history.

As Weiner relates it, the title phrase “legacy of ashes” comes from a critical remark President Dwight D. Eisenhower uttered near the end of his administration when, Weiner tells us, Ike finally blew up at Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Allen Dulles and the failings of CIA generally, and more particularly at Dulles’s resistance to recommendations for intelligence reform from the president’s board of consultants.

“A great deal has been accomplished,” Dulles insisted to the president at the final gatherings of Eisenhower’s National Security Council. Everything is well in hand, he said. I have fixed the clandestine service. American intelligence has never been more agile and adept. Coordination and cooperation are better than they have ever been. The proposals of the president’s intelligence board were preposterous, he said, they were madness, they were illegal. I am responsible under the law for intelligence coordination, he reminded the president. I cannot delegate that responsibility. Without my leadership, he said, American intelligence would be a “body floating in thin air.”

At the last, Dwight Eisenhower exploded in anger and frustration. “The structure of our intelligence organization is faulty,” he told Dulles. It makes no sense, it has to be reorganized, and we should have done it long ago. Nothing had changed since Pearl Harbor. “I have suffered an eight-year defeat on this,” said the president of the United States. He said he would “leave a legacy of ashes” to his successor (p. 166).

Weiner takes license with factual data since the interaction, as presumed here, did not take place as reported.

An examination of the source documents shows that:

* Dulles made his remarks (“body floating in thin air”) at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on 12 January 1961, and he was speaking against a Defense Department proposal to separate the position of DCI from the management of CIA.

* Eisenhower’s supposed retort (“eight-year defeat…legacy of ashes”) occurred a week earlier, at the 5 January NSC meeting, and had nothing to do with CIA. Eisenhower was expressing frustration at what he considered his major failing regarding intelligence—his inability to reform and streamline military intelligence.

* Far from criticizing Dulles and CIA, Eisenhower at both meetings affirmed the Agency’s central role in the collection and correlation of strategic intelligence while criticizing the redundancy and expense of having four separate military intelligence agencies.

* The words “preposterous” and “madness” are nowhere to be found in the record of Dulles’s remarks on proposals to reform intelligence (Memoranda of Discussions at the 473rd Meeting (5 January 1961) and the 474th Meeting (12 January 1961) of the National Security Council; documents 80 and 84, in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963: Volume XXV (2001). See also document 79, a record of 3 January meeting of Eisenhower, National Security Advisor Gordon Gray, and General Andrew Goodpaster).

The central concern of Weiner is of course to compare CIA performance against other intelligence agencies. The intelligence services that are often judged to be superior to CIA—the Israeli Mossad, the Cuban DGI, the East German Stasi, and even the British SIS—are far more limited in focus and scope. However, the real problem are the abundant mistakes and difficulties that a democracy has when engaged in covert operations. The most notable point of comparison in terms of performance from superior agencies, with the exception of the SIS of course, is that CIA originates from a democratic nation. They are at a disadvantage in the dark world of covert operations. The problem is acute in that CIA from the beginning was charged with worldwide coverage in all intelligence areas, something no other service, except perhaps the Soviet KGB, was required to do. As has been pointed out many times, `it is a rough neighborhood.' But perhaps more to the point, when you read alleged success stories and self-serving memoirs, such as George Tenet's about his tenure as head of CIA, he pointedly acclaims successes of other agencies, as a way of complimenting his our actions of course. This is a roundabout way of suggesting that other intelligence agencies are more effective than CIA.

In regards to CIA origins, Weiner is forced by his own premise of CIA incompetence to assert the incredible: that Harry Truman didn’t know what was going on in his own administration regarding Cold War covert activities.

Yet publicly available documents, which Weiner seems to be unaware of or ignores, make an overwhelming case that President Truman was informed frequently of NSC and other policy discussions on covert operations and CIA’s role in them. In Michael Warner, ed., CIA Cold War Records: The CIA Under Harry Truman (CIA History Staff, 1994) is a memo from the DCI dated 23 April 1952 to the NSC about CIA activities. It includes (pages 459–60) a discussion of “cold war covert activities, including guerrilla warfare.” The document is marked “Included in the President’s Book.”

Weiner might also have read Hayden Peake, “Harry S. Truman on CIA Covert Activities,” in Studies in Intelligence 25, No. 1 (1981). Peake demonstrates that, Truman’s stated opposition to Eisenhower- and Kennedy-era covert operations notwithstanding, CIA officials of the late 1940s and early 1950s considered Truman to have been intimately involved in the development of CIA’s covert mission.

Weiner might also have examined more closely the holdings of the Truman Library, where he would have been able to see a progress report sent by DCI Souers to the president in June 1946 on “planning for psychological warfare” on the part of the Central Intelligence Group; he might also have taken note of the NSC memorandums for the president summarizing NSC discussions of 20 May and 3 June 1948 concerning psychological and political warfare, also in the Truman Library, President’s Secretary’s files.

He misses other important evidence of Truman’s knowledge of such activity, such as the Acting DCI’s 16 January 1951 report to the NSC on “Responsibilities of CIA (OPC) with Respect to Guerrilla Warfare.” Weiner does cite the 23 October 1951 NSC report on “Scope and Pace of Covert Operations,” but he misses the significance of this document’s presence in the files of Truman’s secretary—unless Weiner is implying that she was in on the aforementioned conspiracy to keep him in the dark.

During the Eisenhower administration, CIA began their mission to provide actionable intelligence about American enemies to a succession of presidents. Eisenhower handled CIA by looking the other way. CIA should act but not to let Eisenhower know what manner of nefarious activities CIA did.

Allen Dulles freely admitted to Eisenhower that CIA had no sources in the Kremlin, that its Soviet estimates relied more on speculation and “the logic of the situation” than on hard evidence, and that the Agency could not reliably warn of a sudden Soviet attack (pp. 73–75). This goes to the heart of Weiner's import; CIA failed to penetrate and discover the intentions of American's enemies.

Weiner chronicles the chaos of the early days of CIA espionage and covert action, particularly when the Office of Strategic Operations and Office of Policy Coordination were separate entities with separate stations in the field and competing programs (p. 33).

Weiner notes with some alarm that ethnic agent teams were sent into action and few--about 25%--were ever heard from again. These ethnic agents were nationalists, willing to risk their lives against the Soviets in their homeland without US help, and we were willing to take the chance that sending them might yield good intelligence or otherwise harm our adversaries. By contrast, in the more recent case of the Chinese Muslim Uighers for example, they will simply be dispatched without mission or recruitment, insofar as we know, out of Guatanomo. The same low risk-possible moderate to high return because of their actions is not apparently considered today.

Successes pale in comparison with the failures of CIA. In 1948 CIA accurately assessed the chance for war with the Soviets as nil which was a positive accomplishment but the accurate Agency predictions of genocide in Rwanda in 1994 hardly compares as something which impacts the security of Americans.

One of most notable failures and the most memorable is an episode in Guatemala in 1994, when the CIA chief of station confronted the American ambassador, Marilyn McAfee, with intelligence, as she recalled, that "I was having a lesbian affair with my secretary, whose name was Carol Murphy." The CIA's friends in the Guatemalan military had bugged McAfee's bedroom, Weiner reports, and "recorded her cooing endearments to Murphy. They spread the word that the ambassador was a lesbian." The CIA's "Murphy memo" was widely distributed in Washington. There was only one problem: the ambassador was married, not gay, and not sleeping with her secretary. " 'Murphy' was the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom had recorded her petting her dog."

Weiner portrays the development of the U-2 spy plane, mostly as a result of the fact that CIA could not develop human assets inside the USSR. However, if we had only developed “a bigger picture of life inside the Soviet Union” that revealed the Russians “were unable to produce the necessities of life” (p. 114), we would not have had to create the unprecedented capability to take pictures of Soviet military power from 70,000 feet. A better insight into Soviet life would have revealed that a formidable and genuinely threatening military machine was a chimera. Satellite imagery helped keep the Cold War cold. This is significant.

Other successes include the successful covert support of democracy in Italy in 1948. The Berlin Tunnel operation gets a note, and the story of CIA’s first major Soviet spy, Pyotr Popov, is buried in a footnote. The Agency understood the 1967 Mideast war and was attributable to the rigorous analytic work that was behind the judgment.

A key point that could be an overwhelming success is whether CIA identified the collapse of the Soviet Union. Weiner also repeats the canard that CIA missed the decline of the USSR, something that was obvious to everyone in the world but the Agency. He does not discuss several important sources that have refuted this claim: the work of Bruce Berkowitz, Douglas MacEachin, Robert Gates, and the Case Program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. CIA analysts warned of the USSR’s socio-economic troubles from the late 1970s on.

Another mistake is the common misconception is to dismiss Ronald Reagan as someone who came to the presidency knowing “little more about the CIA than what he had learned at the movies” (p. 375). This is a wrong-headed view of a president who in 1975 had served on the Rockefeller Commission investigating intelligence activities and who had drafted for his own delivery, from 1975 to 1978, radio addresses on national security matters that included cogent discussions about CIA and intelligence issues. In addition, a large number of Reagan’s letters and essays has emerged that dispel Weiner’s notion.

A recent, really critical situation to consider is the infamous “sixteen words” President Bush used in the 2003 State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein’s alleged efforts to purchase uranium in Africa. Weiner, claiming that Bush was making “CIA’s case,” omits mention of the attribution of the information to British intelligence. Moreover, George Tenet’s recent memoir makes it clear that the Agency had removed the assertion from previous speeches and simply had failed to do so for the State of the Union. CIA, in fact, did not support that statement.

There are errors of fact in Legacy of Ashes. Following is a short list:

* OSS was not “barred from seeing the most important intercepted communications” during World War II (p. 5); few in any organization could view ULTRA intercepts, but within OSS the X-2 counterintelligence branch had access.
* The distinction between the espionage and covert action missions did not emerge in the postwar period (p. 11) but years earlier was already part of the organizing principle of OSS; the Secret Intelligence branch handled what would later be called HUMINT, and various other branches were responsible for paramilitary and other covert activity.
* The 1949 CIA Act did not provide the Agency with the legal authority to conduct covert action (p. 40)—that legislation concerned DCI authorities regarding personnel, secrecy, and unvouchered funds (which certainly helped operations remain covert); the Agency construed its covert action authority from admittedly vague language in the 1947 National Security Act and from Executive Orders.
* Weiner obviously read (and quotes from) my Studies in Intelligence article on the ill-fated flight of Jack Downey and Dick Fecteau in 1952, yet he misrepresented a flight to pick up documents as a mission to “rescue” agents who had radioed for help (p. 60).
* The reference to a “CIA colonel” (p. 88) is odd; the KGB had colonels, but CIA never had military ranks—though it has employed military officers.
* Weiner also errs when he says that the current director, Michael Hayden (p. 510), is the first active-duty military officer to lead the Agency since the early 1950s—that was Admiral Stansfield Turner (1977).
* Weiner says that the 1950s-era program to encourage Soviet walk-ins outside the USSR, REDCAP, was not effective and had no significant successes by 1956 (p. 124). He forgets the two Peters, Pyotr Deriabin and Pyotr Popov, both of whom were immensely important assets.
* The idea that the “Islamic warriors” CIA supported in Afghanistan would later turn on the United States (p. xv) fails to make the basic distinction between the Afghan mujahedin, whom the Agency supported, and Arabs who went to Afghanistan in the 1980s—whom CIA did not support.
* John McCone was never a deputy secretary of defense (p. 180) and did not, as DCI, begin mass firings (p. 188).

In Weiner's view the CIA never performed up to snuff. He paints a critical portrait of an agency run by Ivy League incompetents, "old Grotonians" who lied to presidents -- an agency that, more often than not, failed to foresee major world events, violated human rights, spied on Americans, plotted assassinations of foreign leaders, and put so much of its energy and resources into bungled covert operations that it failed in its core mission of collecting and analyzing information.

The success of CIA have to be taken with a grain of salt. CIA had overthrown the legally elected government of Guatemala, a covert operation long touted as one of the intelligence agency's grand "successes." It was even called Operation Success. Guatemala was made safe for United Fruit -- talk about banana republics -- but not for democracy. A series of military dictators followed the CIA coup, with death squads and repression in which perhaps 200,000 Guatemalans perished.

The question of how CIA relates to democracy is acute. Weiner states that CIA director Richard Helms opposed Richard Nixon in regards to the Watergate cover-up. Not so. In an odd footnote, Weiner says Helms "complied with the president's order to go along with the cover-up for sixteen days at most." But the author, who quotes extensively from dozens of CIA documents, curiously makes no mention of the damning memo that Helms wrote to his deputy, Vernon Walters, on June 28, 1972, about the FBI investigation of the break-in: "We still adhere to the request that they confine themselves to the personalities already arrested or directly under suspicion and that they desist from expanding this investigation into other areas which may well, eventually, run afoul of our operations." It was a bald-faced lie, exactly what the White House was demanding that Helms tell the FBI.

Of course, the most critical point is the CIA quandry. How do we proceed without clear direction of the president and what do we do to serve a democracy in undemocratic ways. John Hamre, former deputy secretary of defense and president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington states: "It is an organization that thrives through deception. How do you manage an organization like that?" Weiner notes: "How do you run a secret intelligence service in an open democracy? How do you serve the truth by lying? How do you spread democracy by deceit?" (p. 501). We are left with the paradox that is CIA.

Ideas: Phil Mullen, China, Michael Savage

Institute of Ideas
London, U.K.
Nov 1st, 2008



Economist and business manager Phil Mullan says don't blame China. Mullan says China has been keeping the US afloat, but text book economics says rich countries are supposed to support poor countries not the other way around.

Mullan says "America is the most indebted country in the world," but "presumes to be the world's economic leader," and has an economy based on "fictitious capital values."

Phil Mullan, economist and business manager, says the credit crisis isn't simply an economic recession but a reflection of a weakened economic policy.

Mullan says what makes it worse is economic authorities have been consistently behind the curve. Mullan claims "We've lived with an economic paradigm of there is no alternative to the market.

Economist and business manager Phil Mullan says economic markets in the west have been hollowed out.

Economic growth has appeared to look good, but what is the quality of this growth? Mullan asserts economic activity in the west revolves around retail, property, and public spending, while taking advantage of manufacturers in the East.

Investment banker Michael Savage says that the crisis isn't a result of banks lending more money that they have but of other economies such as China and East Asian oil producers pumping money into Western economies.

Savage says, "I'd point the finger at the Chinese working class." "The Chinese should consume more, thats the way out of the crisis."