Can you link to the book by Kerry please?
Also, does anyone have a link to the 1980s Kerry report on CIA-Drugs?
Kerry has collected some great stuff on BCCI, and in other investigations, the BFEE (October Surprise, CIA/Contra-Drugs). I used to greatly admire him for at least collecting this stuff, but I lean to the idea that it's all in the service of his own power.
See this:
The BCCI Affair
A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations
United States Senate
by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown
December 1992
102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/I'm not happy with the way he low-keys these issues, and has been doing so for many years. His CIA-Drugs report brought out all kinds of damaging material, to which he appended an introduction that (laughably) exonerated the government of the crimes described in detail within the report itself.
Yes, you can interpret his behavior as judicious - as waiting for the right moment to really crack it.
Or you can interpret it as playing the game. He's got the goods on BFEE (like Clinton did, thanks to Mena/Barry Seal) and he uses it to protect himself. By NOT using it, even though he obviously has it in hand, he signals to the BFEE that they can trust him to take power and not expose them.*
Clinton was in there for eight years and didn't expose them, though the BFEE had it all hanging out - and he stayed quiet even when the right wing attacked him for stuff that was actually Bush/North's responsibility (i.e., Mena). Clinton had the power to expose BFEE either subtly (declassifying material) - or from the pulpit, if forced - and he did neither. This allowed BFEE to execute their return to power.
Bush II is a direct consequence of the failure to expose Bush I.
With Kerry, I get a powerful sense of deja vu, that in this regard, it will be just like Clinton. Once again, the BFEE will be taught that crime pays, and that they always get a second and third and fourth life...
I am disturbed that Kerry, who by virtue of his several investigations is in the best position to expose the BFEE, spends most of his campaign energies attacking Dean.
This is too important for campaign considerations! Kerry could do a great service by playing the attack dog, even if it further dooms his campaign, which is almost certainly going nowhere. That in turn would force Dean & the rest to address these issues, too.
So why doesn't he just do it?
I also expect Kerry collected some good dope on the BFEE by marrying the Heinz fortune.
See also:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=660039* This, by the way, fits perfectly with the popular image of Skull & Bones as a mutual blackmail society. They got the goods on each other, and so they know they can trust each other not to spill too much.