Fieth resigns from Pentagon today

[ElsewheresDaughter]

just heard it on Pentagon press conference with Rumsfeld on MSNBC

a reporter asked if it was true or if Rumsfeld even knew aboout it and Rumsfeld seemed not to know but did then say that Fieth hmmmm may have said something about it a before the elections.

i will post link as soon as it is available

ok here's DoD press release

http://www.dod.gov/releases/2005/nr20050126-2013.html

informed Secretary Rumsfeld, Mr. Feith made his decision for personal and family reasons.



Managing an organization of approximately 1,500 persons, Mr. Feith also represents the Department in interagency policy making on national security affairs.



Under Mr. Feith's leadership, the Defense Department's policy organization has developed a number of key initiatives relative to the Department's future, including:



defense policy advice in the global war on terror;
development of a new U.S. global defense posture;
global peace operations;
policy guidance to the 21st century defense strategy;
Defense Department aspects of the Moscow Treaty on strategic offensive nuclear weapons and the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review; and
Defense Department work on the enlargement and reform of NATO.
Commenting on Mr. Feith’s planned departure, Secretary Rumsfeld said, “Doug Feith has contributed to the security of the country. He is creative, well organized, and energetic, and he has earned the respect of civilian and military leaders across the government. Regrettably, he has decided to depart, and he will be missed.”

[quaoar]

1. Here's the DoD release

http://www.dod.mil/releases/2005/nr20050126-2013.html

[seemslikeadream]

2. Yes!!!

soon to come the indictments?

Going to spend time with the family BEFORE HE HEADS OFF TO PRISON!

[rodeodance]

10. so why did Rummy act like he was unaware??

[seemslikeadream]

11. COME ON DOWN STEPHEN CAMBONE

More on ....Steven Cambone
by RationalMan
Tue May 11th, 2004 at 06:34:36 PST

Before taking over as the undersecretary of defense for intelligence in early 2003, Stephen Cambone, considered one of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's key aides, served on a number of influential government and nongovernmental defense review studies. He served on both the National Institute for Public Policy's Rationale and Requirements for U.S. Nuclear Forces and Arms Control study team as well as the Project for the New American Century's 2001 "Rebuilding America's Defense" report team. Both studies seem to have served as blueprints for the defense policies initiated by the administration of George W. Bush. Cambone also served on two Rumsfeld-chaired studies commissioned by Congress dealing with space weapons and the missile threat to the United States.
When Cambone was tapped to be the first ever undersecretary of defense for intelligence, some observers saw it as a Rumsfeld power grab. According to veteran defense analyst John Prados (Tompaine.com, April 14, 2003), Rumsfeld's appointment of Cambone "will allow the Defense Department to consolidate its intelligence programs in a way that could undermine CIA head George Tenet's role."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/11/93436/3503

[Just Me]

20. Maybe Feith is seeking to get in on the economic kill on America.

:shrug:

These guys don't leave without a plan!!!

I'd like to believe that this is a repeat of Nixon's glass house,...but,...this cabal learned their lessons and are applying every move like a carefully calculated game of chess.

In other words, this could be a signal of great danger to the people of our country (an economic fallout and world war) as well as a sign that the roll of dominoes for the neoCONimperialists is now beginning.

I would never underestimate the skill of these tyrants.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

40. Most of the power players in this regime are card carrying members

of Nixon's glass house.

[seemslikeadream]

41. Stephen what's up with those secret spies? Mr. Idema in Afghanistan?

Remember him?


Secret Pentagon spies confirmed


Senior officials in the US Defense Department have confirmed reports that the Pentagon ran a secret unit to help gather human intelligence.

The Washington Post first revealed on Sunday that the Strategic Support Branch (SSB) was set up on the orders of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Pentagon was re-interpreting US law and trying to bypass the CIA, it said.

snip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4202837.stm


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1180844

[seemslikeadream]

47. Green Beret J. K. Idema

Green Beret J. K. Idema -- Just who the hell is this guy



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=14241&page=

Kabul bounty hunters search for bin Laden
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=14463&page=

Threads on Idema
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=18255&page=

[sunnystarr]

103. Guess they had to add "Branch" to avoid being seen as the new SS (nt)

[daleo]

77. Cambone was a big torture booster, if I recall correctly. n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. perhaps he wasn't aware that the press release had been released

prior to this conference but he was surprised that the reporter asked about it. :shrug:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. thanks!

[Demeter]

3. YEAAAAAA! Break out the Champagne!

1 down, 50-million to go!

[librechik]

4. AP has it--

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-pentagon-resignation,0,4844466.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

good riddance

[rocktivity]

6. First Powell, now this--is something about to hit the fan?

:headbang:
rocknation

[H2O Man]

17. he's in a very different

class than Powell. He had, of course, hoped for a promotion within the administration. Do not be surprised if he pops up in another place, closer to Cheney, by the anticipated date to have air strikes in Iran.

[burythehatchet]

7. oh please let there be indictments

I love this great comment fom rumsfailed - "He is creative, well organized, and energetic"

Wow. So much satire, so little time

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Wow, one of the big fish

Is the neocons dream about to fall apart soon?

Then the rapture will come and they will all try to hide in their elaborate party bunkers and ride out the disasters and then finally have all of the world's resources to themselves.

All I can say is guess what assholes? You're going to die too. You will die of your own poisons, trapped inside your hidey holes.

[leveymg]

23. Yes, But Who's The Bigger Fish That Swallowed Feith?

I'd watch out for a really huge wake behind that one.

This is part of a second term consolidation of power, and any prosecution now is merely an attempt to legitimize the rest of the Administration. What do they have planned after Iraq winds down?

Save the champagne, for now.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. According to Sy Hersh bombing Iran

is on the agenda for this summer but Feith was one of the main architects of this whole deal. I'm surprised Bush didn't try to put him in charge instead of Rummie. Guys like Feith don't usually leave, they get to head a department instead.

[Cooley Hurd]

42. Wasn't he Chalabi's main benefactor in the neocon cabal?

Is Ahmed next?:shrug:

[TexasLawyer]

48. I think Richard "Trireme" Perle was the closest to Chalabi

There's another guy I'd love to see go down in flames.

[DoYouEverWonder]

50. Weren't they supposed to arrest Chalabi today?

They announced it Friday. I'm sure he had plenty of time to stuff his pockets with more money and head to Iran.

[calimary]

43. Maybe they've just decided to move him "out of range."

If indeed the Iran bombing starts during the summer, he'd need some distancing for plausible deniability. Or he'd need a good "cover" position from which he could still "run things."

Remember, a lot of this restructuring within the Defense Department, freezing the CIA out, setting up all this new shit (Strategic Support Branch) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29414-2005Jan22?language=printer - is designed to circumvent a lot of laws and conventions and regulations that cover activities within the CIA or some other known or established entity. The laws don't say anything about these new hybrid-type groups and cabals and secret clubs. It's to get around the laws and buy them time to do their dirty work before SOMEBODY in Congress or in the media wakes up and starts making a stink about it (and attracting attention, and provoking public ire, and new laws that throw a bucket of cold water on all this stuff). By that point, though, they're probably gambling that everything they went after will have been a done deal (too little too late, and there's nothing you can do about it! Neener-neener-neener!) and they'll already have cashed the checks and stolen the silverware and pocketed the nice jewelry and moved out of town with no forwarding address, and transfered all the stolen money to the Grand Caymans.

And, of course, that is assuming that we even GET to the point where that undetermined SOMEBODY in Congress or in the media wakes up and starts making a stink about it. Which I certainly wouldn't bet any money on.

Let the looting begin.

It's just a fuckin' HEARTBREAK.

I doubt Feith is going to be far away. He'll want to stay in the game. Too much power to just give up.

And something else to keep in mind... They're not going to want to see him walk away, anyway.

He knows too much.

[yorkiemommie1]

51. yeah he's only moving around

they're not about to let this mastermind of evil go.

[pinto]

9. Feith: the "go to" guy for the neo con agenda. I think Rummy's on the line

(just a gut call)

[ally_sc]

12. more rats jumping ship again...eom

[ally_sc]

13. more rats jumping ship again...eom

[TexasLawyer]

15. Maybe there's something to fraud allegations against Feith

http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1117

Pentagon Ousts Official Under FBI Investigation

LA Times -December 11, 2004

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — A senior Defense official placed under investigation by the FBI on allegations that he tried to steer Iraqi reconstruction contracts toward friends has been removed from office, Pentagon officials confirmed Friday. John A. "Jack" Shaw, the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for international technology security, was ordered to leave after refusing to sign a letter of resignation, the officials said. His last day was Friday... "He was asked to discontinue his service," a senior Pentagon official said.

Shaw, whose activities were detailed in the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, was one of a few high-ranking U.S. officials who drew the scrutiny of investigators looking into how billions in taxpayer dollars were being spent in Iraq to rebuild that country. Shaw allegedly tried to steer two contracts, one involving telecommunications and a second involving dredging at an Iraqi port, to companies linked to longtime friends or clients of longtime friends. After the allegations against him surfaced last spring, Shaw responded with a report of his own, charging that one of the U.S. officials accusing him had taken bribes in a conspiracy to place Iraq's cellular phone network under the control of a former Saddam Hussein ally.

<snip>

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Shaw expanded on the accusations made in his previous report, charging that Defense Undersecretary Douglas J. Feith, his former law partner L. Marc Zell and Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress party, were also involved in the conspiracy.

He also charged that Lawrence DiRita, the Pentagon's top spokesman, was organizing a "smear campaign" against him, according to an e-mail obtained by The Times. He threatened DiRita that, if forced to step down, he would unleash "Iran Contra II," a reference to the scandal that roiled the Reagan administration.

<snip>

[seemslikeadream]

18. DoD Statement on Jack Shaw and the Iraq Telecommunications Contract

DoD Statement on Jack Shaw and the Iraq Telecommunications Contract


For several months there have been allegations in the press that activities of John A. Shaw, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for International Technology Security, were under investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (DoD IG). The allegations were examined by DoD IG criminal investigators in Baghdad and a criminal investigation was never opened.



Furthermore, attempts to discredit Shaw and his report on Iraqi telecommunications contracting matters were brought to the attention of the DoD IG and were accordingly referred to the FBI.



Shaw carried out his duties in the investigation of Iraqi telecommunications matters pursuant to the authorities spelled out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the DoD IG and the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Shaw provided a copy of his report to the DOD IG and, at the request of the Coalition Provisional Authority, to the Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission.



Shaw is not now, nor has he ever been, under investigation by the DoD IG. Any questions concerning FBI activities should be addressed to the FBI.
http://www.dod.mil/releases/2004/nr20040810-1103.html

[seemslikeadream]

19. Winds of Change:Troubled Waters Ahead For the Neo Cons

Winds of Change:Troubled Waters Ahead For the Neo Cons


by
Wayne Madsen

The neo-con attack on Shaw was predictable considering their previous attacks on Ambassador Joe Wilson, his wife Valerie Plame, former U.S. Central Command chief General Anthony Zinni, former counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, CIA counter-terrorism agent Michael Scheuer (the "anonymous" author of Imperial Hubris who has recently been gagged by the Bush administration), fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds (who likely discovered a penetration by Israeli and other intelligence assets using the false flag of the Turkish American Council and who also has been gagged by the Bush administration), and all those who took on the global domination cabal. But Shaw showed incredible moxie. When he decided to investigate Pentagon Inspector General Reports that firms tied to Perle and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz were benefiting from windfall profit contracts in Iraq, Shaw decided to go to Iraq himself to find out what was going on. When Shaw was denied entry into Iraq by U.S. military officers (yes, a top level official of the Defense Department was denied access to Iraq by U.S. military personnel!), he decided to sneak into the country disguised as a Halliburton contractor. Using the cover of Cheney's old company to get the goods on Cheney's friends' illegal activities was yet another masterful stroke of genius by Shaw. But it also earned him the wrath of the neo-cons. They soon leaked a story to the Los Angeles Times claiming that Shaw actually snuck into Iraq to ensure that Qualcomm (on whose board sat a friend of Shaw's) was awarded a lucrative cell network contract.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Shaw, who worked for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, represented the Old Guard Republican entity that in August 2003 set up shop in the Pentagon right under the noses of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith to investigate the neo-con cabal and their illegal contract deals. The entity, known as the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate, was soon shut down as a result of neo-con pressure. Not to be deterred, Shaw continued his investigation of the neo-cons. Although the neo-cons told the Los Angeles Times that the FBI was investigating Shaw, the reverse was the case: the FBI was investigating the neo-cons, particularly Perle and Wolfowitz, for fraudulent activities involving Iraqi contracts. And in worse news for the neo-cons: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was giving the Inspector General's and Shaw's investigations a "wink and a nod" of approval.

The financial stakes for the Pentagon are high - the Iraqi CPA's Inspector General recently revealed that over $1 billion of Iraqi money was missing from the audit books on Iraqi contracts. For Shaw and the FBI, it was a matter of what they suspected for many years - that Perle, Wolfowitz, and their comrades were running entities that ensured favorable treatment for Israeli activities - whether they were business opportunities in a U.S.-occupied Arab country or protecting Israeli spies operating within the U.S. defense and intelligence establishments.

Shaw certainly must have recalled how, during the Reagan administration, an Israeli spy named Jonathan Pollard was able to steal massive amounts of sensitive U.S. intelligence over a long period of time and hand it over to his Israeli control officer, a dangerous and deadly agent provocateur named Rafael "Rafi" Eitan. That had disastrous effects on U.S. intelligence operations throughout the world because some of the documents were handed by the Israelis to the Soviets in return for letting more Soviet Jews emigrate to Israel.

more
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081104_winds_change.shtml

[TexasLawyer]

24. Wow

I hadn't heard any of this inside story. When was the Madsen article published? (link is broken).

[seemslikeadream]

28. I fixed it try again TexasLawyer

:hi:

[TexasLawyer]

36. I need a wall-chart for this one...

A paragraph from the Madsen article. Thanks for fixing the link.



"The recent arrest warrants issued by the Iraqi government for Ahmed and Salem Chalabi (Ahmed's for counterfeiting Iraqi dinars and Salem's for murdering an Iraqi Finance Ministry official) indicates that Shaw's instincts about the fraud engaged in by them and their neo-con friends in the Pentagon were right on the money. Let us ponder that news again: the lead prosecutor against Saddam Hussein murders an official of the Iraqi Finance Ministry - an individual that just may have known something about what happened to $1 billion in missing Iraqi revenues. The accused is a partner of an Israeli-U.S. lawyer who is a close colleague of leading neo-cons in the Pentagon (some of whom are also dual U.S.-Israeli citizens) and the nephew of a man who was supported bureaucratically by a former CIA Director (James Woolsey), financially by hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and politically by a think tank (AEI) that includes the wife of the Vice President of the United States. Uncle Ahmed was also a personal guest of George W. and Laura Bush in the VIP box at the 2004 State of the Union address. The President and First Lady welcomed a person who now is now an accused criminal to America's State of the Union address, a person whose nephew is now an accused murderer! John Le Carre could not have come up with a better international thriller scenario."

[seemslikeadream]

52. Hon. John A. Shaw Under Secretary for International Technology Security

Tracking weapons


NUSACC welcomes Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce & Industry
Monday, March 1st, 2004, U.S.-Arab Tradeline
Rebecca Givner-Forbes
TEXT On February 6, the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) welcomed to Washington H.E. Abdullah Al-Taweel, Kuwait’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, with a luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel. More than fifty representatives from the government, press, business, and trade associations turned out for this high-level event.
Minister Al-Taweel arrived in the US on February 5 with his delegation, composed of government and private sector leaders, to sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the US Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Zoellick. NUSACC’s luncheon kicked off the delegation’s five-day visit.
NUSACC’s President, David Hamod, opened the event by welcoming Minister Al-Taweel and introducing Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, H.E. Salem Al-Sabah. The Ambassador characterized the strong US-Kuwaiti alliance as “Partners in Peace,” describing Kuwait as a gateway into Iraq. He concluded by stating that Kuwait was working to recapture its leading trade and commerce status in the region and that Kuwait’s “prime partner in that effort will be the United States.”
The second guest speaker was Hon. John A. Shaw, Deputy Under Secretary for International Technology Security at the Department of Defense, who shared valuable information on the contracting process for Iraq reconstruction projects. He also described Kuwait’s vital role in providing inroads to Iraq and the opportunities available to Kuwaiti businesses to supply reconstruction materials.
Mr. Shaw highlighted efforts that are underway by the Public Affairs Committee of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to improve the contracting process. In addition, he announced the establishment of an Inspector General’s office to improve the way reconstruction resources are distributed. The Inspector General’s office will have a significant presence, and will “alter the way a lot of things are being done on the ground,” Mr. Shaw contended.
The Iraqi office will be modeled on the one that was established in Kuwait to manage funds that the US provided for reconstruction there. In that case, a full $75 million was allotted for the Inspector General’s office to oversee $18.5 billion in reconstruction funds.
Speaking about future contract opportunities, Deputy Under Secretary Shaw noted that a lot of resources would be directed at further developing the infrastructure at Um Qasr and expanding the port’s capacity. He also reached out to the Kuwaiti delegation, emphasizing that opportunities would be available not only for American companies but for regional players as well.
more
http://www.arabdatanet.com/news/DocResults.asp?DocId=59...


Tracking weapons
The Pentagon has started an effort with the difficult task of tracking conventional arms transfers around the world and working to fix weak weapons-export controls.

The program is led by John Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, who also is a Pentagon inspector general for international armament and trade through a memorandum of understanding with the Pentagon inspector general.

"We handle international technology-transfer issues, as well as the investigative side of things," said Edward Timperlake, the Pentagon's director of technology assessment, who works with Mr. Shaw.

The focus of the effort is not on weapons of mass destruction. Rather, the group is looking at conventional arms and dual-use items with commercial as well as military applications. The program began after Operation Iraqi Freedom, which uncovered huge stockpiles of foreign weapons in Iraq. The weapons came from a variety of suppliers, including Russia, France and China.
more
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/ring022704.html

Kuwait Economic Mission Urges Closer U.S. Ties
A high-level delegation from Kuwait came to Washington last week showcasing business opportunities in the nation, particularly regarding reconstruction projects in Iraq. Keeping up the profile of wireless broadband as key in the communications component of such projects, I participated on behalf of WCA in a luncheon Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, hosted by the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce and its new President David Hamod. Featured speakers included Kuwait Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Al-Taweel and the Hon. John A. Shaw, who is Deputy Under Secretary for International Technology Security at the U.S. Department of Defense. A key figure in the reconstruction effort, he described the Coalition Provision Authority website http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net as the best first stop for any would-be contractor. I spoke with the featured speakers at the luncheon, a fairly intimate function introduced by Kuwait's Ambassador to the U.S. and with about 55 attendees - members of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry, relevant U.S. government and Kuwait government agencies, plus Reuters and the Washington Times. These are the kinds of ties that WCA fosters for members through the year, and will be especially prominent during WCA 2004 this June in Washington, DC. For those with more immediate interests in Kuwait opportunities, visit the site of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce & Industry (www.kcci.org.kw ), illustrating a major theme from the Friday luncheon, "Kuwait: A launching pad for the region."
http://www.wcai.com/hs_news2004.htm


New agency for Iraq contracts
by correspondents in London, news.com.au
October 14th, 2003



THE United States will create a new agency, under the aegis of the Pentagon, to oversee the distribution of contracts to rebuild Iraq, a US defence official told a conference today.

The new agency, as yet unnamed, will be introduced at the beginning of next month under the direction of retired admiral David Nash, said Deputy Under-Secretary of Defence for International Technology Security John Shaw.
It will be charged with coordinating sub-contracting work in Iraq, notably by US groups Bechtel and Halliburton, the main contractors in Iraq's reconstruction, Shaw told the Doing Business in Iraq conference.

Shaw admitted there were "divergences" between the US Agency for International Development (USAID) - responsible for the rebuilding of Iraq under the supervision of the State Department - and the Department of Defence over the distribution of sub-contracts.

The US administration was represented by several officials at the conference, which also heard calls for Western firms to set aside their doubts and help to rebuild war-torn Iraq.

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=1383


Nomination of John A. Shaw To Be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce
September 12, 1991
The President today announced his intention to nominate John A. Shaw, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement. He would succeed Quincy Mellon Krosby.

Since 1988 Dr. Shaw has served as Associate Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce. Prior to this Dr. Shaw served as senior advisor to the Administrator of the Agency for International Development, 1988; and as vice president for Washington Operations for the Hudson Institute, 1987 - 1988.

Dr. Shaw graduated from Williams College, (B.A., 1962) and Cambridge University (M.A., 1967: and Ph.D., 1976). He was born July 1, 1939, in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Shaw is married, has two children, and resides in Washington, DC

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1991/91091208.html

[seemslikeadream]

57. The reason the DoD had to release that statement on John Shaw

"someone" was feeding false stories to the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers about him, to discredit him.

Los Angeles Times
July 07, 2004
T. Christian Miller

Washington -- A senior Defense Department official conducted unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts and used their results to push for lucrative contracts for friends and their business clients, according to current and former Pentagon officials and documents.
John "Jack" Shaw, deputy undersecretary for international technology security, represented himself as an agent of the Pentagon's inspector general in conducting the investigations this year, sources said.

In one case, Shaw disguised himself as an employee of Halliburton Co. and gained access to a port in southern Iraq after he was denied entry by the U.S. military, the sources said.

In that investigation, Shaw found problems with operations at the port of Umm al Qasr, Pentagon sources said. In another, he criticized a competition sponsored by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to award cell phone licenses in Iraq.

In both cases, Shaw urged government officials to fix the alleged problems by directing multimillion-dollar contracts to companies linked to his friends, without competitive bidding, according to the Pentagon sources and documents. In the case of the port, the clients of a lobbyist friend won a no- bid contract for dredging.


http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/unitedstates/democracy/2253.html

[grasswire]

30. Let It Be.....Let It Be So.

He threatened DiRita that, if forced to step down, he would unleash "Iran Contra II," a reference to the scandal that roiled the Reagan administration.

[notadmblnd]

56. We were just talking about this the other day

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1172755

[dqueue]

33. Let us not forget...

the FBI two-year investigation of AIPAC and Larry Franklin, who worked under Feith...

Collection of info

Last summer a flurry of press reports disclosed the FBI's investigation of a man named Larry Franklin who works in the Defense Department under neo-conservative policy chief Douglas Feith. The supposed reason for the investigation was espionage for Israel. The neo-con buddies of Mr. Feith and Israel sounded off about the anti-Semitism that was obviously driving the witchhunt, and the reports soon faded from the press.

[TexasLawyer]

37. Right!

We have a smorgasbord of possible scandals (or possibly different elements of the same BIG, BIG scandal).

[Al-CIAda]

68. The Larry Franklin spy probe

Cloak and Swagger
The Larry Franklin spy probe reveals an escalating fight over control of Iran policy.

By Laura Rozen and Jason Vest
Issue Date: 11.02.04
--
At the time the CBS report aired in late August -- incidentally, on the Friday evening before the opening of the Republican national convention -- custody of the Franklin investigation was being transferred from the head of the FBI counterintelligence unit, David Szady, to U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty, a Bush appointee, in Alexandria, Virginia, as the case moved to the grand-jury phase.

And then, in mid-September, news of the Franklin investigation went dark.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=8764

---

Disinfopedia-
Larry Franklin
From Disinfopedia


Lawrence (Larry) Franklin is an analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency who works in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. He reports directly to Feith's deputy, William Luti and specializes in Iranian policy issues. <1>

Allegations of Espionage

On August 29th 2004, it was reported that Franklin is under investigation for allegedly spying for the state of Israel <4> (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040828_1405.html) <5> (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1093674510956) <6> (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040828-020807-9421r.htm). According to an article in Haaretz, Franklin is not Jewish himself <7> (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/470390.html).

Franklin allegedley offered highly classified draft documents regarding the United States policy towards Iran to two members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The two AIPAC Iran analysts, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, have retained a well known criminal defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, for counsel.<8> (http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getmailfiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/09/02&ID=Ar01300)

Attorney General John Ashcroft assigned highly partisan Republican U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty to the espionage case. Charges of espionage were expected to be downgraded to charges of mishandling classified information.

Franklin's security clearance was revoked in June 2004.


Secret Meetings with Iran-Contra Arms Dealers

Beginning in 2001, Franklin and Harold Rhode (Feith's top specialist on the Middle East) held secret meetings in Rome with Iran-Contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar. These meetings were arranged by longtime Republican operative Michael Ledeen.

The Washington Monthly (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshallrozen.html) claimed the intent of these meetings was clear: "regime change" in Iran:

"The DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself."

"According to U.S. government sources, both the State Department and the CIA eventually brought the matter to the attention of the White House -- specifically, to Condoleezza Rice's chief deputy on the National Security Council, Stephen J. Hadley...Hadley sent word to the officials in Feith's office and to Ledeen to cease all such activities.

An anonymous senior administration official quoted by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service (http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=94701) said that the immediate objective of the Pentagon hawks appeared to be to "antagonise Iran so that they get frustrated and then by their reactions harden U.S. policy against them."
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Larry_Franklin
---
FBI Probes Pentagon Spy Case
(CBS) CBS News has learned that the FBI has a full-fledged espionage investigation under way and is about to -- in FBI terminology -- "roll up" someone agents believe has been spying not for an enemy, but for Israel from within the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.

60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has "solid" evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran.

At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml

----

Analysis: More Being Learned About Larry Franklin, Suspected Spy For Israel
Morning Edition: September 3, 2004

Chalabi Linked to Pentagon Leak Probe
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now in this country, we're learning more about a suspected spy for Israel at the Pentagon. Since word leaked out about him, we've learned the man's name, Larry Franklin, and a bit more about his work as a mid-level analyst on the Pentagon's Iran desk. Now there are growing indications that the FBI probe is actually much wider than just Franklin and that it's been going on for at least two years. NPR's Mary Louis Kelly is following all this and has an update on the investigation.

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/transcripts/2004/sep/040903.kelly.html

[seemslikeadream]

75. TREASON?

FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=802725&mesg_id=802725

Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802249

Ashcroft Nixes Arrests in Israeli Spy Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=796806

Secrets: Classified Info: Springing a Leak
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x803017

FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=802725

Spy Case Renews Debate Over Pro-Israel Lobby's Ties to Pentagon Cons
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=804314

Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=783161

Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong VoiceAIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation
of Pe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=803035

Defense, Cheney Iran Specialists Questioned in (Israeli Spy) Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801031

Leak Inquiry Includes Iran Experts in Administration (WaPo)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=801678

White House Learned of Spy Probe in 2001
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=800454

LAT: Israel Has Long Spied on US,Say Officials(but CIA, Mossad "intimate")
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798631

Wider FBI Probe Of Pentagon Leaks Includes Chalabi - WaPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798333

Serving Two Flags The Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=799167

Israeli political advisor may have received U.S. secrets
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795817

Pentagon leaks connected to battle over Iran policy (this is big!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=797846

Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=796889

Alleged Pentagon Leak to Iraqi Is Under Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=798060

Spy probe scans neo-cons' Israel ties (long article from Asia Times)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794029

AIPAC hires lawyers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794332

IAEA: No proof of secret Iran plan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=793930

WP: Spy Probe Expands/Linked to NSC Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795385

Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=795432

U.S. Spy Probe Focuses on Two Lobbyists -Guardian
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=794973

[RobertSeattle]

16. Link

http://www.dod.gov/releases/2005/nr20050126-2013.html

Gee what a loss. Feith makes Dan Quayle look like a Rhodes Scholar.

Wonder if he'll get a Medal of Feithdom for service above and beyond the call of Mendacity?

[EFerrari]

22. This is HUGE! The house of cards is coming down on

MendacityCentral.

Consigliare Cambone, Count Wolfula, Rumskull. Watch.

[Eurobabe]

49. don't forget the Kennebunkport Corleone

I love that, kudos to whomever came up with that saying....

[HysteryDiagnosis]

62. It doesn't take much juggling to change Feith to thief... now does it? eom

[sunnystarr]

105. That really is uncanny! (nt)

[msanthrope]

21. Rats off the ship...n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

25. Wasn't Fieth Mr OSP?

Well, that rats are, indeed, abanding ship, but this particular rat is getting away with a lot of secrets that we should know about.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

29. yes Dougie Fieth boy was the "Office of Special Plans" that fabricated

all the false intel for bush*s War and the invasion that has killed 100 thousand plus. This Fieth and Wolfowitz and Perle and Rummy are all CRIMINALS! along with Condi, Gonzales(mp), Cheney and bush*

[dqueue]

34. But they NEVER ADMITTED THAT!

They washed it all away, blamed it on Tenet and the CIA! I believe this may have more to do with the AIPAC investigation than anything. I imagine the OSP continues... oh, they're now Rummy's SS, right?

AGH! And so many thousands of people do time for selling weed!

[DoYouEverWonder]

31. Yep, and the Pentagon was very embarassed to have to admit

last week that they are still running their little personal spy shop out of the Pentagon. Of course that was after they initially denied it.

[Oversea Visitor]

44. Even rats knows

to fear the Boxer virus, must be having lots of effects. I think Chimp
is scare but then look at Condi salvation as a sign that he has immunity to this deadly Boxer virus.

Damn the Boxer virus fail on Condi, but hey they all kiss and make up on AG. Oops did more get infected. I heard Luger press conference on Cspan. Did I hear him correctly? Its like we cant blame Condi who is just following adminstration orders.

How powerful is Luger. Something is happening.....

Of course some rethug are attacking Boxer. But seriously they giving her all the opportunities to put on records all kind of stuff. So if one look at Luger statements at the press conference and all this point raise by Boxer, are they going to play monkey.

[Joanne98]

27. Goodbye Doug.............Don't come back.

[Disturbed]

38. Isn't this the same jerk-off that

Gen. T. Franks, while still in uniform in Iraq, in a public statement say that Feith is the fucking stupidest guy on the planet? "fucking stupid" was definetely said by Franks.

[Joanne98]

46. That's him.........

[seemslikeadream]

32. Trouble on Oily Waters (DoD/Feith link to EG coup)

Trouble on Oily Waters (DoD/Feith link to EG coup)


Trouble on Oily Waters
A bear market for freelance soldiers in Africa?

By Mark Hosenball and Tom Masland
Newsweek International


Oct. 4 issue - The International Peace Operations Association has a lot more clout at the Pentagon than the name might suggest. Calling itself an "association of military-service provider companies," it's the closest thing in Washington to a lobbying group for soldiers of fortune. At the outfit's annual dinner last November, the guest speaker was Theresa Whelan, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for African affairs, from the policy directorate headed by Douglas Feith, the controversial under secretary of Defense. Whelan's topic: the U.S. government's increasing use of private military contractors, especially in Africa.

That evening and its aftermath are raising awkward new questions about a botched coup attempt this year in sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer. It's hard to blame anyone for wanting to see the last of Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. He seized power in Equatorial Guinea 25 years ago by overthrowing his own uncle, the nation's first president, and today his regime ranks as one of the most corrupt and brutal in the world. Obiang has survived numerous efforts to dislodge him over the years, but the latest try, allegedly involving 90 mercenaries and a $14 million bankroll, was one for the books.

...

The Pentagon insists it had no advance knowledge of any plot against Obiang. Nevertheless, the audience at Whelan's speech included a British security consultant named Gregory Wales—now one of six defendants in a lawsuit filed by Obiang's attorneys in London against the alleged plotters. Wales gave Whelan his card after the speech, and later called to request a face-to-face chat. The meeting came in mid- to late February, according to a Defense official, who says, "Mr. Wales mentioned in passing, as part of a larger unrelated discussion of African issues, that there might be some trouble brewing in Equatorial Guinea. Specifically, he had heard from some business associates of his that wealthy citizens of the country were planning to flee in case of a crisis." The official adds that Wales's mention of Equatorial Guinea was "such a general remark about one troubled country in a troubled region, there was no reason to follow up on it, and Ms. Whelan did not."

....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6100308/site/newsweek



Theresa Whelan
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs
Remarks to IPOA Dinner
19 November 2003
Washington, D.C.

What Doug asked me to speak on tonight was our experiences from a DoD perspective in using contractors in Africa in supporting US government objectives.
<snip>
In Africa, as I mentioned, we’re using contractors in a variety of ways, in both logistics and training support.
First, I’m going to focus on the logistics support. Let me start with a couple of examples. Contractors provided support in Somalia in 1992 despite a challenging lack of infrastructure. It was one of the early places that Brown and Root really sunk its teeth into the logistics support business for the US military.
Since the 1990’s, contractors have been used extensively in peace support operations in Africa to provide logistical support to African soldiers. Since those early days of supporting ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African States monitoring group in Liberia, an operation which launched the idea of sub-regional peacekeeping in Africa, contractors have deployed to support U.S. Government operations in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and again, this past summer in Liberia.
The use of contractors, in Africa, is an example of necessity driving policy. The 1990’s saw not only an up-tick in crises in Africa in the Post-Cold War environment, but also an up-tick in crises around the world. This led to our pressing for more regional based PKO operations in order to cover the wide range of crises that had to be addressed. However, those regional forces had some inherent operational weaknesses ---they couldn’t do it entirely on their own --- they needed to get Western support.
We wanted to support those operations, however, we also realized that our forces were tied down elsewhere around the globe and they might not be available for the long-term deployments we were envisioning in some places in Africa, as well as in other areas of the world.
http://www.defenselink.mil/policy/isa/africa/IPOA.htm

And speaking of those hired soldiers:

The case has caught the public's attention in both South Africa and Britain because of the involvement of some upper-crust Britons, including the alleged coup leader, Simon Mann, the heir to a brewery fortune, and his longtime friend and neighbor, Mark Thatcher, the son Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister. Mann was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role; Thatcher is still under investigation as an alleged financier of the plot.
<snip>
But there were no jobs, at least none suitable for former soldiers with little other job experience. The cash from the severance payments soon ran out. Most of the men started drifting away from Pomfret to take security jobs in far-off cities, returning home for only a few weeks a year.
"We're trapped here," said Lucas Kandjima, 51, a friend of Eduardo Tchimuishi's and a former 32 Battalion soldier who was home in Pomfret for a visit. "Now it's harder. The men have to go away farther and stay away longer. . . . Everybody's spread out and looking for work, and nobody has money."
Some became mercenaries. Mann, the former British Special Forces officer who allegedly organized the Equatorial Guinea coup, reportedly employed 32 Battalion veterans for an earlier venture called Executive Outcomes. The mercenary group fought in Angola, Sierra Leone and other African countries with unstable governments and valuable resources such as gold and oil.
Former members of 32 Battalion were also implicated in an attempted coup last year in Sao Tome and Principe, a tiny country off the west coast of Africa.
"The moment you're looking for ex-soldiers, Pomfret is one of the places you go," said Piet Nortje, a former 32 Battalion sergeant major who has written a history of the unit. "They're much better trained, more experienced."
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48639-2004Sep24.html

[seemslikeadream]

35. Request for halt to Santander takeover

LEADING US-based human rights group has written to Britain's financial regulator urging it to halt Santander's £8bn acquisition of Abbey National until it fully investigates its part in the alleged "violation" of US money laundering laws.
Inner City Press and its Fair Finance Watch, based in New York, has drawn the Financial Services Authority's attention to the US Senate's recent report on Riggs Bank's alleged money laundering for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.

Earlier this year, Senate investigators said Riggs Bank helped Pinochet hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in the UK.
Pages 55 and 56 of the report state that Riggs asked two banks – HSBC and Santander – for the identities of the beneficial owners of accounts belonging to Apexside and another company.
Following the request, Santander's New York office responded that the account had been opened by its parent bank in Madrid, but that it could not disclose the account's beneficial owners because of Spanish statutes which prevent disclosure of bank information, even in cases of suspected money laundering.

.....

A LEADING US-based human rights group has written to Britain's financial regulator urging it to halt Santander's £8bn acquisition of Abbey National until it fully investigates its part in the alleged "violation" of US money laundering laws.
Inner City Press and its Fair Finance Watch, based in New York, has drawn the Financial Services Authority's attention to the US Senate's recent report on Riggs Bank's alleged money laundering for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and the dictator of Equatorial Guinea.

Earlier this year, Senate investigators said Riggs Bank helped Pinochet hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in the UK.
Pages 55 and 56 of the report state that Riggs asked two banks – HSBC and Santander – for the identities of the beneficial owners of accounts belonging to Apexside and another company.
Following the request, Santander's New York office responded that the account had been opened by its parent bank in Madrid, but that it could not disclose the account's beneficial owners because of Spanish statutes which prevent disclosure of bank information, even in cases of suspected money laundering.
Santander was even prevented from disclosing the information to its US subsidiary under the terms of the law.

The Senate report added: "This bar on disclosure across international lines, even within the same financial institution, presents a significant obstacle to US anti-money laundering efforts."
A spokesman for Santander last night said that it was bound by the laws which govern it. He denied the Riggs report was critical of Santander, noting the criticism was against the bar on disclosure across international lines. Nonetheless, in its letter to the FSA, Fair Finance Watch said: "This proposed acquisition (of Abbey) should not be permitted, at least not until the troubling issues raised herein are fully addressed, responded to, and acted on."

more
http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/24582.html

[seemslikeadream]

39. Coup pilot: SA govt stood back

Coup pilot: SA govt stood back


Marléne Burger

...

However, he says, a telephone call “at the highest government level” some time in January or late February forced the National Intelligence Agency to set in motion a chain of events that resulted in the jailing of 69 soldiers of fortune in Zimbabwe and another group, led by Du Toit, be given “inhumanely long” prison sentences in Equatorial Guinea.

...

Steyl (39) was in charge of ferrying exiled opposition leader Severo Moto from the Canary Islands to the Equatorial Guinean capital of Malabo within 30 minutes of a successful coup led by Mann, a notorious British soldier of fortune.

This week, Steyl told Britain’s Channel 4 that Mark Thatcher, who left South Africa last week within hours of being fined R3-million for his role in the plan, “knew a lot more” about the coup plan than he has admitted. “His role had to be kept hidden, because we knew that as the former British prime minister’s son, if it became known, the media would have a field day,” said Steyl, who was directly involved in Thatcher’s funding, selection and testing of a helicopter for use as a combined gunship and air ambulance.

Mann also offered assurances that the plan had the backing of then Spanish prime minister Jose-Maria Aznar, who had offered Moto a home in exile and was keen to gain a foothold in the burgeoning offshore oil industry in the former Spanish colony that is Africa’s third-largest producer of crude.
...

“We were questioned by Spanish intelligence agents for about 20 minutes, but after Moto spoke with them, they told us we were free to go, despite the fact that I had entered the Canaries without a passport or visa, and normally, would have been arrested as an illegal immigrant.”

more
http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?area=mg_flat&articleid=195912
U.S. Link In Thatcher Coup Plot?


U.S. Link In Thatcher Coup Plot?

The prospect of Sir Mark Thatcher being allowed to return to the U.S. to rejoin his wife and children in Dallas became more uncertain last night, as new evidence emerged that his role in an African coup attempt may have been more central than has been admitted, and involved questionable activities in the U.S. A senior former state department official in Washington, Joseph Sala, has disclosed he was hired by the plotters to gain U.S. support for the coup. Sala tells a BBC3 TV program airing tonight (Monday) that he was offered $40,000 (£21,351) to promote the plotters' cause there.

Records for Sir Mark's mobile phone show that he was among those placing calls to a London businessman accused of masterminding the Washington plot. Eli Calil, a millionaire middleman in African oil deals and a friend of the Labour politician Peter Mandelson, was allegedly at the center of a group of London businessmen and mercenaries trying to promote their own candidate to take over the tiny but oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea.



Its ruler, President Teodoro Obiang, was believed to be dying of cancer, and valuable oil concessions were hoped to be up for grabs. Much of the country's mushrooming oil industry is controlled by U.S. companies. Sir Mark is in limbo, staying at his mother's house in London while he attempts to renew his visa to gain entry to the U.S. The U.S. authorities are deciding whether to grant him admission, despite his having a criminal conviction.

...

The new evidence, however, appears to place him at the center of events. Phone records which the Guardian newspaper has seen show him placing two international calls from his home in South Africa to the mobile phone of Eli Calil, then based in his London mansion in Chelsea. The calls were made within half an hour on February 2 last year, when planning for the coup was at its height. A fortnight earlier, Sir Mark had invested $275,000 during meetings in South Africa. Other alleged plotters had travelled to Spain to brief their candidate for president, the exiled African politician Severo Moto. In a third key leg of the alleged plan, a British businessman, Greg Wales, went to the U.S. and hired a lobbyist who had influence in Washington
more
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2799

[Roland99]

106. wow...he was dipping in his hand in many pots, eh?

[seemslikeadream]

107. Ex-Riggs Manager Won't Testify About Accounts

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I53707-2004Jul15

Senate Panel Probes Money From Equatorial Guinea
By Terence O'Hara and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 16, 2004; Page A01

A former Riggs Bank manager yesterday invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions from a Senate panel investigating his handling of hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions for a West African dictator, including why he lugged a 60-pound suitcase stuffed with $3 million in plastic-wrapped cash to Riggs's Dupont Circle branch.

The Senate probe is the latest in a series of investigations into Riggs's once-prestigious embassy banking division, now tarnished by reports that it helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions and that it appears to have allowed its biggest customer, Equatorial Guinea, and that country's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, to siphon oil revenue into his personal accounts. Despite the fact Obiang and his wife made cash deposits of nearly $13 million over a three-year period into their Riggs accounts, the bank never filed a single suspicious activity report to federal regulators as required by law.

The Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations called four current and former Riggs executives to testify yesterday, after releasing the results of its year-long probe into the bank. Simon P. Kareri, who managed Riggs's West African business until he was fired in January, was the only executive to assert his right not to testify against himself.

As details unfolded about the relationship of Riggs and Obiang -- whose government has been under scrutiny by international watchdog organizations for corruption and human rights abuses, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking minority member whose staff conducted the investigation, leaned over and removed his glasses as he pointedly asked Riggs President Lawrence I. Hebert how he could live with himself.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53345-2004Jul15.html

[lovuian]

45. Is this the guy running the two man company in California

for tele comunications for Iraq and then lost Millions of dollars

Is he just a common thief???

[CoffeeCat]

53. I don't get why a principal PNACer would leave now...

...the PNACer agenda is about to come to life--if Bush's "Operation Forced Freedom" agenda is implemented as planned.

The PNACers should be tap dancing in their jack boots.

Just a few years ago, they were merely shopping around their vision of global and military domination. Now, they have a partner-in-crime sitting in the Oval Office--choking on pretzels and implementing their warped world vision.

Why would Feith bail now?

[notadmblnd]

54. I wonder how long it will be before he meets with an accident

will he be found floating in the ocean falling off a yacht?
plane crash?
Suicide?
sudden illness?

[lanlady]

55. guys, please read the damn announcement!

Feith is leaving THIS SUMMER it says. In other words, it's being presented as a typical "honorable" departure of a high-level DoD official. It's an important distinction. Don't get too carried away, Feith is not about to be arrested.

[Cooley Hurd]

59. Sy Hersh said last nite on the Daily Show that we'll attack Iran...

...by summer. He's staying long enough to see his Iran plan hit the sand.

[PurityOfEssence]

58. How about Richard Luti? Aw, come on...

Wolfowitz'll probably be there forever, though.

[GetTheRightVote]

60. I hope Feith is the first of many to go down on that side of the spectrum

:kick:

[mahina]

71. Yep! Yep! Yep!

someone on another thread posted a great poem called Bush's Perp Walk, it is a rap that is too long to post, but I'll tell you what, I won't be happy till I see them all in cuffs.
Grrrrr

[Tinoire]

61. Whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttt??! n/t

[Carl Brennan]

63. Does this mean the end of our "Feith"

based foreign policy that has caused so many troubles? :evilgrin:

[Carl Brennan]

64. Feith inflated Iraqi threat (Sen Carl Levin)

Levin's report
http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2004/10... <http://www.levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2004/102104inquiryreport.pdf>

from Laura Rosen's blog:

Congressional oversight makes a valiant comeback. Sen. Carl Levin, a ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases a report on the role of the office of the Pentagon's number three official Douglas Feith in alleged extracurricular intelligence analysis and advocacy. Here's the IHT/NYT's Douglas Jehl's take. And here are some highlights from Levin's report:

...B. INFLUENCING THE IC’S REPORT ON “IRAQI SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM”

In addition to developing their own alternative intelligence analysis, Under Secretary Feith’s office was also attempting to convince the IC to incorporate into a major finished report some of the raw intelligence reports the Feith office believed had been undervalued or ignored by the IC, and to change how the intelligence was characterized . . .

Feith’s staff also pressed dubious information, including criticizing the draft IC report for omitting reference to the “key issue of Atta.” . . .

Documents provided to the SASC indicate that Feith’s staff requested, both verbally and in written form, at least 32 changes to the draft, including inserting raw intelligence reports that had previously been omitted, deleting others, and altering the characterization of certain issues and raw reporting . . .

C. PRESENTING AN “ALTERNATIVE” VIEW DIRECTLY TO POLICYMAKERS
Feith’s staff went beyond interacting with the IC in an attempt to change an IC-issued product. They were also taking their view of the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship directly to senior officials in the Executive branch . . .

Under Secretary Feith’s second charge . . . was that the IC undervalued the importance that both Iraq and al Qaeda would place on concealing a relationship, and therefore that the absence of evidence of such a relationship did not necessarily mean that such a relationship did not exist. Taken to its logical extreme, this argument implies that absence of evidence may in fact be evidence itself - that the fact that no evidence can be found is an indication that evidence exists but is being hidden. But, in fact, the IC’s reluctance to assert an Iraq-al Qaeda relationship was based on the information it possessed, not on hypotheticals, and the IC acknowledged lack of evidence as a factor limiting the strength of their conclusions. . . The reasonableness of the IC’s approach has subsequently been endorsed by the SSCI the 9/11 Commission . . .


Score one or two for the battered and beleaguered but still fighting Reality-Based Community.

<http://www.warandpiece.com> /

She's also listed documents at the link which Congress has requested from Feith, but which have not been produced.

[NEOBuckeye]

65. Good Fucking Riddance!

Not that he's really going anywhere, of course. The NeoCons as a group are like a foul odor that keeps coming back.

[KoKo]

66. He's not gone until this Summer...hmmm. Lot's more time for

him to make mischief. Unless he gets a great offer from Carlyle Group and leaves earlier.

[UTUSN]

67. Kick for WtF-FEITH n/t

[Arkana]

69. "Personal and family reasons?"

That's Repuke-code for "He pissed off the wrong guy."

[KissMeKate]

70. coward neocon leaving a sinking ship

you break it, you bought it, buddy! history will remember you as an architect of this war no matter how far and fast you run from the consequences of your lies.

[Jack Rabbit]

72. I have a retirement home in mind for him . . .

The Palace of Peace
The Hague
Home of the International Criminal Court

[Rose Siding]

73. Knight Ridder's piece on this is good

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's third-ranking policy-maker has decided to leave his post this summer, the Pentagon said Wednesday, announcing the first resignation of a senior civilian architect of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith cited personal and family reasons for his decision, said a brief Department of Defense announcement.

The announcement came on the deadliest day for U.S. troops since the Iraq war began 22 months ago, with 37 American troops killed, and four days before elections for an interim Iraqi assembly.

An official working under Feith has been under investigation for allegedly passing classified information to Israel, and the Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into Feith's role in developing the faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs and ties to terrorism that the Bush administration used to build its case for invading Iraq....

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10742127.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[NYC]

74. Just stepping into the shadows.

[DulceDecorum]

76. DARN. Just when the Riggs/Coup story enveloped Feith

he goes and falls on a sword.

No matter,
he will be singing the high notes soon enough.

Equatorial Guinea's 500,000 inhabitants lived on $1 a day (and some of them got tortured by stinging ants by Obiang's brother) while the despotic Obiang and his family made out like bandits, and Allbritton propped up the revived neocon establishment in D.C. (including Doug Feith) with some of the lucre.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000240.php

Now it turns out that Allbritton, whose control of Riggs Bank finally collapsed this summer (2004) after those revelations, has contributed large sums of money to a private school of which Doug Feith is a director and former president.
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/000248.php

Doug Feith has an assistant, Theresa Whelan, who gave a speech to "The International Peace Operations Association" which is a basically bunch of mercenaries who suck up to the Pentagon and receive contracts to torture people for fun and profit. Gregory Wales, one of the mercenary-lobbyists contacted Theresa and obtained cooperation for the coup. A former US Air National Guard plane left Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and stopped off in the Bahamas to pick up a ruthless cut-throat. Then it picked up a bunch of mercenaries in South Africa but was busted when it landed in Zimbabwe to pick up arms for the coup.
Now, heads are rolling, Gregory Wales is in deep trouble, and Feith must be feeling the heat as well.
Bye Doug, see you at the Hague.

[Warpy]

78. US undersecretary Douglas Feith to resign

(oh, please, let it be true)

Douglas Feith, the controversial undersecretary for policy responsible for postwar planning in Iraq, announced on Wednesday that he would leave his position this summer.

Commenting on Mr Feith’s planned resignation, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, said on Wednesday, “Regretfully, he has decided to depart and he will be missed...I hope he will stay until an appropriate replacement is found.”

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/879673b0-6ff0-11d9-850d-00000e2511c8.html

[tx_dem41]

79. Woohoo...hope its true. n/t

[Turbineguy]

80. Maybe he

could add his suicide to the bargain.

[asthmaticeog]

81. Can't wait for his book.

Isn't that the only reason people leave that administration? To spill the beans, a la Clarke, O'Neill, etc?

[mistertrickster]

85. Those are the good ones. The real douchebags become lobbyists

or corporate shills. They go right for the money, a la DICK Cheney.

[oasis]

95. He'll be working behind the scenes like his buddy, Richard Perle.

[muriel_volestrangler]

82. dupe

of http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1186412

but with 'Feith' spelled as 'Fieth' in the original, it's not so surprising you didn't find it!

[mistertrickster]

83. He'll stay on until "an appropriate replacement" can be found. Hmmm . . .

Where can they find a radical right-winger who can F*CK EVERYTHING UP as much as he did?

You're right, Rummy, a screw-up that bad is not gonna be easy to find.

An idiot who did nothing wouldn't have been as bad as he was . . .

[theresistance]

84. Good riddance if true

But simply leaving on their own will is too easy...

[cal04]

86. Just mentioned it on Air America

supposed to be this summer

[autorank]

87. And here's what Gen. Franks says about D. Feith...LMAO,ROFL

"Gen. Tommy Franks in Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, in which Franks calls Feith "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

[leesa]

98. Well, Franks ain't none too bright himself!

I hope to see all these traitors on trial and I sincerely hope they all pay the ultimate penalty for treason.

[autorank]

99. Right, but if he's that dumb to Franks, you can just imagine how totally

stupid the guy is. Franks, of course, went to war knowing full well that there was no occupation strategy and no exit strategy. He leaves a great deal to be desired. Col. Hackworth (www.hackworth.com) has been kicking Franks around for a while. Cheers.

[barb162]

101. maybe the publisher can add that line to the back flap, I'm

sure that would add tons of readers, teehee

[kohodog]

88. Let's see, Haliburton? United Technologies? Carlyle Group?

Or just a lobbyist for the military industrial complex?

I could retire on .00001 of his next year's income.



Bastard

[Huckebein the Raven]

96. Or some other arm of the BFEE

[oldtime dfl_er]

89. is he the Israeli spy?

From Seymour Hersh in the 1/24/2005 New Yorker: "...There has also been close, and largely unacknowledged, coöperation with Israel. The government consultant with ties to the Pentagon said that the Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran."

Is Feith the Israeli spy at the DoD that was briefly mentioned last summer? Anybody remember that?


www.cafepress.com/showtheworld

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

90. Good...now, only Hell awaits this PIECE OF SHIT excuse for a human being.

Feith, undoubtedly, will receive a nice well-paying job in the private sector with some military contractor...now there's justice for ya'.

JB

[paineinthearse]

91. It's true...see this press release

http://www.dod.gov/releases/2005/nr20050126-2013.html

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

On the Web:
http://www.dod.gov/releases/2005/nr20050126-2013.html
Media contact: [phone] Public contact:
http://www.dod.mil/faq/comment.html
or [phone]

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

No. 078-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 26, 2005

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

DoD Announces Departure of Undersecretary Douglas Feith

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith announced today that he would leave his position this summer. As he has informed Secretary Rumsfeld, Mr. Feith made his decision for personal and family reasons.

Managing an organization of approximately 1,500 persons, Mr. Feith also represents the Department in interagency policy making on national security affairs.

Under Mr. Feith's leadership, the Defense Department's policy organization has developed a number of key initiatives relative to the Department's future, including:

defense policy advice in the global war on terror;
development of a new U.S. global defense posture;
global peace operations;
policy guidance to the 21st century defense strategy;
Defense Department aspects of the Moscow Treaty on strategic offensive nuclear weapons and the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review; and
Defense Department work on the enlargement and reform of NATO.

Commenting on Mr. Feith’s planned departure, Secretary Rumsfeld said, “Doug Feith has contributed to the security of the country. He is creative, well organized, and energetic, and he has earned the respect of civilian and military leaders across the government. Regrettably, he has decided to depart, and he will be missed.”

[paineinthearse]

92. DoD Biography

http://www.dod.gov/bios/feith_bio.html


DOUGLAS J. FEITH
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Douglas J. Feith is the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. His responsibilities include the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, Department of Defense relations with foreign countries and the Department’s role in U.S. Government interagency policy making.

Before President George W. Bush appointed him in July 2001, Mr. Feith was for fifteen years the managing attorney of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Feith & Zell, P.C.

From March 1984 until September 1986, Mr. Feith served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy.

Before becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary, Mr. Feith served as Special Counsel to Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle.

Mr. Feith transferred to the Pentagon from the National Security Council at the White House, where he worked in 1981-82 as a Middle East specialist.

Mr. Feith's writings on international law and on foreign and defense policy have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The New Republic and elsewhere. He has contributed chapters to a number of books, including James W. Muller, ed., Churchill as Peacemaker; Douglas J. Feith, et al., Israel’s Legitimacy in Law and History; and Uri Ra’anan, et al., eds., Hydra of Carnage: International Linkages of Terrorism.

Mr. Feith holds a J.D. (magna cum laude) from the Georgetown University Law Center and an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard College.

[Hardrada]

93. Who does that leave now?

Of the Defence & State Department neocons? I know Perle resigned (sort of ) and Woolsey did. Did Bolton quit or is he still pursuing the PNAC line in office. None of this excuses these guys from war crimes trials and eventual (I hope) incarceration in a subterranean dungeon.

[paineinthearse]

94. See earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1186412&mesg_id=1186412

[cliss]

97. Mr. Feith has had enough.

These guys are misguided, but let no one accuse them of being idiots. They know when they're sitting on a sinking ship.

The facts are in. Iraq is a disaster. Douglas Feith knows the accusing pointing fingers will soon be turned towards him. He knows the jig's up.

So like the maggot he is, he'll leave the mess for others to clean up. He'll wash his hands of it.

[Larkspur]

100. I think it may have more to do with the FBI investigation of Feith and

AIPAC giving classified government information to Israel. Apparently, the investigation is hitting closer to home than we are led to believe.

[Roland99]

104. Bet he was starting to feel some heat...the curtain was being pulled aside

Please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please let there be indictments for war crimes!!

[leveymg]

102. Ten Reasons for Feith's Ouster: #1 - Failure of Iraq Policy; #2 ...

- Someone high (but not too high at DOD) needs to take the fall for the above;
#3 - No WMDs found in Iraq -- bad intel provided by Chalabi, Gorbanifar, Likud proved extremely embarrassing;
#4 - Feith is being thrown to the dogs for DOD takeover of CIA turf;
#5 - Feith is being thrown to the dogs for OSP takeover of DIA turf;
#6 - Feith is being thrown to the dogs for OSP obstruction of FBI investigation of AIPAC spy ring;
#7 - OSP-AIPAC scandal indictments imminent, a bloody mess expected (Feith has already cut his deal in exchange for not being indicted);
#8 - Plame affair indictments not imminent, appeasement of unhappy CIA officers needed (see #4 above);
#9 - Jack Shaw's allegations of massive corruption among US contractors in Iraq tied to Feith and his friends (a public fallback position to cloud the above);
#10 - Need to clear the wounded off the decks before Bush starts bombing Iran.

Anyone want to add to the above list, or suggest a different ranking?