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RedditAt a time when we're entering a recession (it's official says Goldman Sachs), and many Americans are having a hard time paying their bills, is it that surprising that the FBI is a deadbeat when it comes to paying its phone bills on time?
According to the Washington Post's Dan Eggen, audit results released today found that "telephone companies have repeatedly cut off FBI wiretaps of alleged terrorists and criminal suspects because of failures to pay telecommunication bills, including one invoice for $66,000 at one unidentified field office....The report by the Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn Fine also identified one case in which an order obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was halted because of 'untimely payment.'"
According to Fine, "late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence."
The IG's report also detailed the FBI's chronic failure to account for hundreds of guns and laptop computers--likely to have had sensitive intelligence or personal data.
This surreal story was brought to my attention Thursday afternoon, soon after it was posted on the Washington Post's website, by a gleeful Carl Bernstein--a reporter who knows a little something about FBI wiretapping and incompetence in another Republican Administration.
It's also a sign of how profit trumps all for these telecom companies--the same ones that the Bush Administration and too many Dems are too eager to give immunity to.
If there's any justice, common sense or legal accountability left in our system, this revelation will halt any attempt to upend the 1978 foreign wiretap law that would grant telecom firms immunity from lawsuits for assisting the FBI and other government agencies conduct secret surveillance.
Instead, let's demand that telecoms be sent a big citizen's bill --with interest-- so we can get some good money for real watchdog groups (in congress and outside) who will monitor the FBI and the companies to ensure they stop bilking citizens of real security and money!
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Don't kid yourself, Katrina! You think ALL bills will be paid on time under a Dem administration? Don't you know the Director of the FBI (appointed position) don't handle phone bill payments? The next pay-grade handles them!
Tell you what, if and when the Dems take over the WH, let's make sure to add Bill Payment to the FBI Director's Scope of Responsibilities....while you're at it, add unstopping the toilets in the FBI HQ....LOL
Posted by Happy at 01/10/2008 @ 10:35pm
how about funding citizens and cong comms to ensure some accountability--not just bill paying but to halt transgressions of all forms by telecoms, the fBi, the CIA...that's a transpartisan issue..for citizens, indpts, gopsters, demsters..all ..kvh
Posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel at 01/10/2008 @ 10:39pm
Posted by HAPPY 01/10/2008 @ 10:35pm |
Odd, HAPPY...you'd figure a REAL conservative would be upset about a law enforcement agency not paying its bills?!?!?
Oh wait forgot...you're not. You're the guy who writes off hundreds of billions with a "so what?"
Posted by Mask at 01/10/2008 @ 10:40pm
Posted by KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL 01/10/2008 @ 10:39pm
Sorry, Ms vH....HAPP's one of those "new" conservatives who doesn't care how much money is lost, mis-handled, or wasted...as long as we're not "retreatin' on the War on Terror" or letting them wasteful, spendthrift, and unaccountable Democrats take power!
Posted by Mask at 01/10/2008 @ 10:42pm
Getting on my `back' to score brownie points there, MASK? That's cool....you need it from her more than I.....Hehehehe!
Government waste is forever, totally a non-partisan phenomenon! Government mishandling of data/information is forever, totally a non-partisan phenomenon!
Hell, let you in on a little secret.....I'm just ever so, so, just so tiny little bit LESS careful with public STUFF!
Posted by Happy at 01/10/2008 @ 11:03pm
There can be little doubt that rolling back the creeping security state that the Bush administration is attempting to coddle into existence belongs right at the pinnacle of the next administration's priority list.
This is the monster that, if left to its own devices, will in short order have us all wrapped up in a tight little cocoon of severely squelched liberties. It doesn't get much more "unAmerican" than that.
The toothless "LOL" refrains of the slack-jawed hapless crowd serve as the modern day version of the Deliverance soundtrack if we allow ourselves to go down quietly.
So "Happy", if you're looking forward to squealing like a pig in your future incarceration, be my guest.
As for the rest of us, I suggest that this is one battle we'd best not neglect.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 01/10/2008 @ 11:45pm
There are a lot of opinions out there on `Recession' and Goldman is mentioned below, but this article's Goldman spokesperson said it's "on the horizon" but we'll end the year w/positive growth.
Recession pain likely to linger
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
January 10 2008: 3:10 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) --
....Goldman Sachs analyst Jan Hatzius says a recession and a more serious downturn in the housing market are on the horizon.
The risk of recession has become a major focus of economists and Wall Street this week, after Friday's weak jobs report saw unemployment jump to 5 percent and retailers reported the weakest holiday sales in years.
.......But a growing number of top economists believe recession is already here, or is at the very least likely.....
....Most economists, even those who now see an recession in place, are looking for some level of growth in 2008......Even Goldman's forecast for the year is GDP growth of 0.8 percent in 2008.
Posted by Happy at 01/10/2008 @ 11:47pm
KvH: ...failures to pay telecommunication bills, including one invoice for $66,000 at one unidentified field office....
Learned something new! Thanks!
I didn't know our security agencies HAVE TO PAY for wiretaps and such. I just kinda assumed that when the FBI comes knocking, the telecomm cos. are obligated to comply at no cost.
Doesn't it mean that to cast an overly wide net to catch the bad guys, would cost the FBI a bundle.....seems to me the law-abiding has even less reason to be concerned about mass snooping. Heck, all of us give Google our entire `connected' life, for FREE!
Posted by Happy at 01/11/2008 @ 12:06am
Posted by HAPPY 01/10/2008 @ 11:47pm | ignore this person
Fantasy nonsense, or nonsense fantasy ... if I wasn't such a nice person I would say that you deserve to be in the market when it gets to the point that the prayer books of your denial, can't lie about it anymore.
Nonetheless it's really desperate ...
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 12:08am
This is particularly relevant to this thread, I think:
Do new Ohio recount prosecutions indicate unraveling of 2004 election theft cover-up?
Full text [bradblog.com]
"Three criminal prosecutions in Ohio's biggest county have opened with strong indications that the cover-up of the theft of the 2004 presidential election is starting to unravel. Prosecutors say these cases involve "rigging" the recount in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), where tens of thousands of votes were shifted from John Kerry to George W. Bush, or else never counted. Meanwhile, corroborating evidence continues to surface throughout Ohio illuminating the GOP's theft of the presidency. According to the AP, County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter opened the Cuyahoga trial by charging that "the evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless." Baxter said the three election workers "did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount."
Link [freepress.org]
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 12:14am
Thursday, Jan. 10 2008
New York Times Stock Hits Multi-Year Low
New York -- The New York Times Company's (NYT: 16.15, +0.52, +3.32%) stock on Wednesday hit ......a low of $15.12 yesterday, a price the stock has not seen since 1988......
The Times, like other newspaper companies, has been battered by a shift of its customers moving to the Internet, combined with concerns that a recession will kill even more advertising dollars.
Even Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs (GS: 196.91, +5.16, +2.69%) said in a report Wednesday that the newspaper industry will see a 7.9% decline in revenue, far more than the bank's original prediction of 2.6%.
Clay Waters, who runs the Web site TimesWatch.org, said the decline of the Times' fortunes is not an economic fall, but a political one.
"They seem to be looking for a dark cloud in every silver lining," Waters told Fox Business, referring to recent stories in the Times about the War in Iraq and the economy.....
---------------------------------------------------------
Not just the NYT, all of MSM has this fixation on painting things as worse than they are and slow to recognize, if at all, better trends--Yes, Iraq is a good example! Serves them right when big, bad corps cut back advertising unnecessarily, prematurely or too deeply and retail consumers drop their subscriptions!
NYT at a 20-year low! You can't make this stuff up! Grey Lady Down!
Posted by Happy at 01/11/2008 @ 12:29am
Clay Waters, who runs the Web site TimesWatch.org, said the decline of the Times' fortunes is not an economic fall, but a political one.
"They seem to be looking for a dark cloud in every silver lining," Waters told Fox Business, referring to recent stories in the Times about the War in Iraq and the economy.....
~Posted by Happy
Yep, there's an objective source for the critical analysis of the fortunes of the NY Times.
As much as many of us realize that the Times is but one brick among many in the wall of our mainstream media, it still plays an important role in the news gathering activities of our nation that are not, of course, entirely malign by any stretch of the imagination.
A weakened NY Times is, almost undoubtedly, not a positive symptom for our already ailing body politic.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 01/11/2008 @ 01:02am
Thanks for the links, V-man.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 01/11/2008 @ 01:07am
Posted by HAPPY 01/11/2008 @ 12:29am | ignore this person
Posted by B_KOOL_66 01/11/2008 @ 01:02am | ignore this person
Notice how Happy's pundit took the analysis into the realm of the subjective? So instead of analyzing hard data, crunching numbers as it were, what we got was therapy ... and that not from a professional in the science. "They seem to be looking for a dark cloud in every silver lining." In effect Happy wont even allow someone to limp upon the truth.
Perhaps a difference can be shown, the difference as to sources and in the level of information perused, so as to take lay analysis beyond mere punditry. To a place where the data isn't meant for the (ones being lied into staying in the market, the ...) suckers, but to fellow oligarches. Let's start the journey with former advisor to French President Francois Mitterand, Jacques Attali. Writing Jan. 3, 2008 in his column in the weekly l'Express he says;
"It is the whole world which seems to be going over the precipice. As if a collision of trains going at full speed was being prepared. As if, in a vortex emptying the bottom of a bathtub...."
He continues; "Beyond the sub-primes, many other debts are circulating and no one knows how the banks will be able to honor them: those of hedge funds, of monoline insurers, of LBO funds, and of holders of credit cards, which form a pyramid amounting to much more than the bank's own funds, which would have been closed a long time ago, had the central banks not agreed to refinance them all without restraint."
And lastly Attali says; "with an Italy going financially adrift, to such an extent that the very existence of the euro could be put into question by speculators attacking the Rome Treasury."
Simply put, no new credit ... And no new credit means that the debts cannot be rolled over, and thus defaults will soar, blowing out not only the debt markets but also the credit derivatives market. What Happy is trying to tell (primarily) himself, but also anyone who would listen. What his pundit (lmao, Clay Waters ...) at the times is desperately, ignoring, is the above datum; that the system can no longer convert debts into assets.
In other words, the ability to finance that debt depended in turn upon the ability of the banks to turn loans into securities that could be sold to speculators, moving the loans off the banks' balance sheets into what is euphemistically called the investment community. And it was that conversion which allowed America to fake having an economy.
But as of July 2007, it could no longer do so.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 02:39am
Posted by HAPPY 01/10/2008 @ 11:03pm
Uh, yeaaah, HAPP. Cuz anybody who reads my posts here at "TN" can tell you that I "normally" suck up to Katrina vanden Heuvel and give you a free pass or agree with you.
Posted by Mask at 01/11/2008 @ 08:49am
"did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount."
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 12:14am
aaah, democracy in "action".
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 09:11am
NYT at a 20-year low! You can't make this stuff up! Grey Lady Down!
Posted by HAPPY 01/11/2008 @ 12:29am
happy,
don't get happy about this.
who's gonna do the reporting we all talk about?
pundits and bloggers aren't going to uncover very much.
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 09:14am
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 02:39am
that's why we've planted turnips..................
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 09:17am
Posted by MARYBRETBRAD 01/11/2008 @ 09:16am | ignore this person
Usually the fact that you don't, as a rule, know your backside from a whole in the ground goes unremarked, by yours truly. And at other times ... your arguments are so base, they are of the type that are won, simply by being dignified.
Your answer shows, that I've forgotten more than you'll ever know about economics which based on your answer is next to nothing. Sure, you can manipulate terms, much like a child left unattended, could play with space shuttle electronics; but you both, obviously, have pretty much the same level of understanding about that which you hold in your hands. You're an idiot, and being typical does not absolve you from that finding.
I've spoke on securitization before, and thank you, as I didn't even have to name it, for you to speak as to what I was speaking of. That should have been your first clue. Again dear reader, notice how the victim glossed over the relevant facts, so as to regurgitate low level functionary, sucker, process, propaganda. Mary spoke on it (the process) without actually saying anything ... and is for all to see, totally blind to that fact. At no place in Mary's remarks is the debt, spoken of as "which form a pyramid amounting to much more than the bank's own funds" (!), serviced ...
It was the collapse of the mechanization, the death of the securitization machinery that I was referencing. It's gone, caput ... modeled in software its demise resembled visually and geometrically what a sonic boom sounds like aurally, it's not coming back. And nothing Mary can say, without delusion or lying, can or will, show otherwise.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 10:42am
You're like the hospital janitor trying to explain brain surgery.
~Mary BB
You're like the college econ major tryin' to conflate econ with brain surgery --to inflate your own ego.
;-)
Posted by b_kool_66 at 01/11/2008 @ 10:42am
Here is the report issued by the Office of the Inspector General
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0803/index.htm
My question is; why does the FBI not just go to Hu Jintao and ask for an advance?
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 10:59am
"If people like V get to pick our next President"
Posted by MARYBRETBRAD 01/11/2008 @ 09:28am | ignore this person
Idiot ... "if people like me" were picking the next president we would have already had someone running for the office of president who as a part of their campaigning, would be forcing a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures. So a lot more people would still have homes to live in come election time.
It is in fact a large and significant part of the "conservative" (for a reference image, think of the Germans being google eyed over Hitler, as the Fuhrer passes by, for an insight into their collective mind-set ...) pathology, as a rule, not to see what is in front of their eyes.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 11:01am
Katrina, you're one editor I don't get. What does poor accounting practices have to do with the FBI and secret wire taps or the agency not being able to account for some missing weapons? Has the agency committed financial fraud?
If you truly want to make things interesting, how about hiring a financial guru activist (not that it would matter to me) to go after the money?
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 11:02am
How well do the Smartest Guys run their companies?
Merrill Lynch is expected to suffer $15 billion in losses stemming from soured mortgage investments, almost double its original estimate, prompting the firm to raise additional capital from an outside investor.
...Mr. Thain, who won plaudits as head of the New York Stock Exchange, has wasted little time. After he took over last month, Merrill Lynch promptly sold a $5.6 billion stake to Temasek Holdings, which is controlled by the government of Singapore, and Davis Selected Advisers, a money management firm based in Tucson.
...In recent months, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Singapore's lesser-known government fund, invested $9.7 billion in UBS; Citigroup sold a $7.5 billion stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; and the China Investment Corporation poured $5 billion into Morgan Stanley.
So, another question; will the neo-cons show the same outrage over non-US guvts lobbying our congress when these brokerage firms come to Pennsylvania avenue with big checks in hand as they did when China did it in the open?
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:05am
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 11:01am
V, I disagree with your assesment on the forclosures bit. People have got to take some responsibility when they're getting ready to make a major investment like getting a new home or refinancing. I think what would make good policy is to require individuals and families to attended financial seminars on how the housing market works and how to get a mortagage for their perspective home, properly.
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 11:10am
What does poor accounting practices have to do with the FBI and secret wire taps or the agency not being able to account for some missing weapons? Has the agency committed financial fraud?
It's all about tracking money spent and items acquired with that money. It's called "accountability". I thought you cons were big on that?
but, I guess when you are cool with pallets of hundred dollar bills going missing in Iraq, nothing much bothers you.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:11am
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 12:14am
But PONTIFLOGIC said there were NO irregularities in Ohio, and he is always spot on with his analysis.
Buwhahaha. almost couldn't get that out without my fingers collapsing
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:14am
Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 11:10am
Is it too much to ask that both sides of a bad situation are guilty of poor judgment?
Yes, many people took out loans they should not have, either through ignorance or whatever.
But, if these loans were so ill fitting, why the hell did the "pros" go ahead and give out BILLIONS to people that could not pay it back? Now the "pros" are going begging to gubments for bailouts!!!!
also, why do the loaning entities not allow more people to refinance the loans at a more reasonable rate? Is it not better to keep a family in a home paying on it than have it go into foreclosure, where it will probably fetch less than market value at auction?
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:18am
"What does poor accounting practices have to do with the FBI and secret wire taps or the agency not being able to account for some missing weapons? Has the agency committed financial fraud?"
Posted by CRABWALK 01/11/2008 @ 11:11am | ignore this person
All roads lead to here:
Sibel Edmonds;
"Operating invisibly under the radar of media and public scrutiny, lobby groups and foreign agents have become the ‘epicenter' of our government, where former statesmen and ‘dime a dozen generals' cash in on their connections and peddle their enormous influence to the highest bidders turned clients. These groups' activities shape our nation's policies and determine the direction of the flow of its taxpayer driven wealth, while to them the interests of the majority are considered irrelevant, and the security of the nation is perceived as inconsequential."
http://nswbc.org/Op%20Ed/Part2-FNL-Nov29-06.htm
21 Photos Placed Onto a 'States Secrets Privilege Gallery' Page at the 'Gagged' Former Translator's Website, Said to Identify the High-Ranking 'Guilty People in Her Case' ...And 'Everybody Knows'...
Sibel Edmonds is now naming names. 21 of them.
Or rather, just 21 photographs. On a page. Without comment. At her JustACitizen.com website. The page is simply titled "Sibel Edmonds' State Secrets Privilege Gallery". (Screenshot at right.)
Surely there's nothing violative about that, right? Rogues gallery though it may be.
Sibel maven, Luke Ryland, has done us the favor of putting names to the faces, adding that "we can reasonably presume that they are the 21 guilty people in her case."
Here are those names, sectioned into three groups, as Edmonds has grouped the photos in her own "Gallery":
Current and former Pentagon and State Department officials...
* Richard Perle
* Douglas Feith
* Eric Edelman
* Marc Grossman
* Brent Scowcroft
* Larry Franklin
Current and former congressmen...
* Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Ex-House Speaker
* Roy Blount (R-MO)
* Dan Burton (R-IN)
* Tom Lantos (D-CA)
* ? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
* Bob Livingston (R-LA), Ex-House Speaker
* Stephen Solarz (D-NY)
The 3rd group includes people who all appear to work at think tanks - primarily WINEP, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
* Graham E. Fuller - RAND
* David Makovsky - WINEP
* Alan Makovsky - WINEP
* ? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
* ? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
* Yusuf Turani (President-in-exile, Turkistan)
* Professor Sabri Sayari (Georgetown, WINEP)
* Mehmet Eymur (Former Turkish Spy Chief MIT)
Link [bradblog.com]
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 11:20am
ooh, bad english above, sorry. But you get the point, I hope.
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:20am
From the abpve VF article:
What Washington did not do was mobilize to keep track of it. By all accounts, the New York Fed and the Treasury Department exercised strict surveillance and control over all of this money while it was on American soil. But after the money was delivered to Iraq, oversight and control evaporated. Of the $12 billion in U.S. banknotes delivered to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at least $9 billion cannot be accounted for. A portion of that money may have been spent wisely and honestly; much of it probably wasn't. Some of it was stolen. Once the money arrived in Iraq it entered a free-for-all environment where virtually anyone with fingers could take some of it. Moreover, the company that was hired to keep tabs on the outflow of money existed mainly on paper. Based in a private home in San Diego, it was a shell corporation with no certified public accountants. Its address of record is a post-office box in the Bahamas, where it is legally incorporated. That post-office box has been associated with shadowy offshore activities.
who signed the contract with this company?
CHIMPCO.
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:22am
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 11:20am |
Those were Nurse Cooks words.
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:24am
"Our stay in Iraq will be temporary," General Franks wrote, "no longer than it takes to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and to establish stability and help Iraqis form a functioning government that respects the rule of law."
how long?
not long.
Soon.
The war has been won.
But we cannot bring the troops home because then the terrorist will have won.
But we won the war.
But we cannot let the terrorists win. Because we won the war in Iraq, and Afghanistan.
But their exists a need for one more offensive, even though we have won the war.
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:32am
Posted by CRABWALK 01/11/2008 @ 11:24am | ignore this person
O, I know ... I was amplifying the point, and taking another tack.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 11:44am
Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 11:10am | ignore this person
It reminds me of the part of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" when they gave loans structured in a way they knew the countries (people) were not going to be able to pay back the loan. If you Goggle: "economic hit man" +pdf +ebook ... you'll come up with the exact part, of the book I am speaking of.
So it could be said, that there was no puzzle in that regard. One could call me cynic if I said they did it (gave loans to people they who knew would not be able to repay) to break them. To make them more malleable. But that would, as I said be "cynical" of me ... So lets just say they, the lenders, did it for (in a neck deep, desperate, looting mentality) what money they could get.
And if compassion wont do, do it to save whats left of the real economy, as the monetarist fantasy version of same is gone, forever ...
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 11:45am
Ahh, I remember when PONTI claimed we had won the war
Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling told reporters in Baghdad that in his area of control alone, 24,000 American troops, 50,000 members of the Iraq army and 80,000 Iraqi police were taking part in the offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Diyala province northeast of Baghdad has not seen the same drop in violence that other parts of the nation have witnessed in the last six months. Commanders say that is because insurgents who were pushed out of Anbar province to the west and out of Baghdad fled north into Hertling's territory, specifically into Diyala.
At the end of 2001 Al Qaida was thought to have about 3000 "members". Over 5000 "terrorists" have been captured or killed since then.
why are 150,000 armed mens going after -2000 Al Qaida?
could it be that the Iraq war has strengthened the call of Al Qaida? That Iraq has been the PHD program of terrorism allowing them to try out new and better methods of killing people? which are then transferred to Afghanistan and points across the world.
Posted by crabwalk at 01/11/2008 @ 11:48am
I think what would make good policy is to require individuals and families to attended financial seminars on how the housing market works and how to get a mortagage for their perspective home, properly.----Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 11:10am
Wouldn't that make them make even RISKIER decisions concerning mortgages and encourage them to engage in WORSE practices concerning them?
...like mandatory sex education does?
Posted by Mask at 01/11/2008 @ 12:28pm
"Instead, let's demand that telecoms be sent a big citizen's bill --with interest-- so we can get some good money for real watchdog groups (in congress and outside) who will monitor the FBI and the companies to ensure they stop bilking citizens of real security and money!"
Made it to the list.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 12:30pm
"FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds 'Names' Names"
Link [bradblog.com]
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 12:33pm
"In the article, just filed tonight, Edmonds reveals details overheard on wiretaps she translated during her time at the FBI, just after 9/11. Her disclosures to the Times reveal a maze of nuclear black market espionage involving U.S. Defense and State Department officials, that resulted in the sale and propagation of nuclear secrets to Turkish and Israeli interests. In turn, that information was then sold to Pakistan and used by A.Q. Kahn for development of nuclear weapons. The secrets were subsequently proliferated to Iran, Libya, North Korea, and potentially al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, just weeks prior to September 11th, 2001."
See link(s) above ...
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 12:50pm
If you Goggle: "economic hit man" +pdf +ebook ...
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 11:45am
hey, that's thievery.
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 12:50pm
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 12:50pm
"Despite broken promises for hearings on her case by U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), support from Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and a number of mainstream exposés several years ago detailing aspects of her story before she was willing to break her unprecedented "States Secrets Privilege" gag order, none of the American broadcast media outlets took her up on her offer."
hmmmmmmmmm......................
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 1:05pm
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 12:50pm
That, even though the Times only covered "about 20%" of the story she has to tell, according to Edmonds, with whom we spoke late last night.
Sunday's British blockbuster, detailing how nuclear secrets were then proliferated to Iran, Libya, North Korea, and potentially even al-Qaeda, was picked up on Monday and reported by international mainstream outlets such as The Times of India, Pakistan's Daily Times, Iran's PressTV, Israel's Haaretz and even the Turkish Daily News.
Here in the United States, the mainstream media coverage included:
That's right. Nobody. None of them. Zilch. Not a one.
Edmonds told The BRAD BLOG last night that her phone had been ringing of the hook since the Times story hit. From reporters around the globe, she said. As to America: "Not a single mainstream media channel, not even a newspaper."
i guess horse races and britney are more important than nuclear espionage...............
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 1:09pm
hey mask, i found one of your buddies...............
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
... Brad Friedman said on 1/8/2008 @ 3:34 pm PT...
Plunger said:
Beware the hidden agendas of those who doth protest too much.
Yes, and beware the hidden agendas of those who use the word "Zionist" too much.
On that point, without a doubt, Larisa is spot on the money. Period. If you don't understand that, it's because you don't wish to, Plunger.
COMMENT #30 [Permalink] ... plunger said on 1/8/2008 @ 4:18 pm PT...
Of course Brad, by all means, let's all eliminate the word Zionism from our vocabulary as Larissa demands. That will solve everything and lead straight to the truth.
Her attack was completely disproportionate, and exceptionally revealing.
1984 has arrived.
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 1:17pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 01/11/2008 @ 1:17pm
First...what blog is that moron on now?
Second...he should be put on somebody's porch at Halloween, set on fire, and then ring the doorbell!
The guy said we'd be at war with Iran, martial law, concentration camps, and half a dozen other "fascist dictatorship" things...NINE MONTHS AGO!
I wonder if his new hang-out is aware of what a bag of doggie doo he is?
Posted by Mask at 01/11/2008 @ 1:58pm
Posted by MASK 01/11/2008 @ 1:58pm
it's from v's link.
from a brief scan it seems they've realized (s)he is a little more worried than most folks.
freedom of speech doesn't mean people will listen.
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 2:14pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 01/11/2008 @ 12:50pm | ignore this person
My whatever do you mean? Using a search engine, providing a search engine with a query is, ipso facto, thievery? Did anything I say tell you to download ... a whole book?
I didn't think so.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 2:49pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 01/11/2008 @ 2:14pm
Like RESE, PLUNGER incorporates the two things endemic to the truly paranoid...ego and innate dishonesty. They CANNOT admit they were wrong in their predictions, even the most outrageous ones. To do so, would spoil their self-created image as a "prophet" or "speaker of The Truth"...in essence, that they weren't ABOVE us mere "sheeple".
Posted by Mask at 01/11/2008 @ 2:59pm
"i guess horse races and britney are more important than nuclear espionage..............."
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 01/11/2008 @ 1:09pm | ignore this person
No they are not, and those who feed us horse races between episodes of Britney, know that they are not. So that is not why we don't get real news. Once upon a time I was offended by lies of omission "told" by the media. Now though, I only get perturbed at the pretense.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 3:03pm
Posted by CRABWALK 01/11/2008 @ 11:11am
Crab, one has nothing to do with the other. Most bills to vendors are paid on a 30, 45 or 60 turn around time. KVH, failed state if the bill(s) were in the process of being paid or the agency is disputing the bill or if it was a duplicate bill. She and many of her people take a lot of shortcuts and they don't have all the facts before they put out this kind of info. Anything to get the left stirred up is what she about.
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 5:10pm
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 11:20am
V, this info is irrelevent. What does an over due phone bill have to do with this guy?
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 5:14pm
"And if compassion wont do, do it to save whats left of the real economy, as the monetarist fantasy version of same is gone, forever ..."
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 11:45am
I'm sorry, but I have no compassion for the folks trying to keep up with the Jones. Making bad judgements has no age limits. Mind you though, I would make it extremely difficult for lenders to proposition the elderly without an elder advocate.
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 5:19pm
Posted by V 01/11/2008 @ 2:49pm
just teasin'
Posted by frosty zoom at 01/11/2008 @ 5:20pm
Wouldn't that make them make even RISKIER decisions concerning mortgages and encourage them to engage in WORSE practices concerning them?"
...like mandatory sex education does?"
Posted by MASK 01/11/2008 @ 12:28pm
Mask, the two issues are very different.
Posted by ACook at 01/11/2008 @ 5:27pm
V, this info is irrelevent. What does an over due phone bill have to do with this guy?
Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 5:14pm | ignore this person
Zeroth they both involve wiretapping, and the FBI. First I won't debate another's unknowing, and since you do not know that this guy, is in fact not a guy ... at least in this instance that includes you. Second, since again, you are not familiar with this case I would suggest take a few moments and educate yourself so as to find out who and what it is you are potentially dismissing.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 5:56pm
Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 01/11/2008 @ 5:20pm | ignore this person
I know.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 5:58pm
Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 5:19pm | ignore this person
As I said there are over arching issues beyond, if such can be said, compassion. Or making sure people get what's coming to them. What effects them can effect you in myriad ways, coming back to bite you in the ass, would be one of your least favorite, I think, doubtless.
Posted by V at 01/11/2008 @ 6:08pm
Posted by ACOOK 01/11/2008 @ 5:10pm
sure, ACOOK, sure. I am sure it is just a question of over lapping billing periods.
Like the young Jew said to the zookeeper, pointing at the lion cage:
"The Czeks in the male".
Posted by crabwalk at 01/12/2008 @ 08:18am