Us presidential election 2004

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]

Plot thickens after checking records

August 27, 2004

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB

In the midst of the controversy between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Kerry campaign representatives about Kerry's service in Vietnam, new questions have arisen.

The Kerry campaign has repeatedly stated that the official naval records prove the truth of Kerry's assertions about his service.

But the official records on Kerry's Web site only add to the confusion. The DD214 form, an official Defense Department document summarizing Kerry's military career posted on johnkerry.com, includes a "Silver Star with combat V."

But according to a U.S. Navy spokesman, "Kerry's record is incorrect. The Navy has never issued a 'combat V' to anyone for a Silver Star."

Naval regulations do not allow for the use of a "combat V" for the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration the Navy awards. None of the other services has ever granted a Silver Star "combat V," either.

Fake claims not uncommon

B.G. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran himself, received the highest award the Army gives to a civilian, the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, for his book Stolen Valor. Burkett pored through thousands of military service records, uncovering phony claims of awards and fake claims of military service. "I've run across several claims for Silver Stars with combat V's, but they were all in fake records," he said.

Burkett recently filed a complaint that led last month to the sentencing of Navy Capt. Roger D. Edwards to 115 days in the brig for falsification of his records.

Kerry's Web site also lists two different citations for the Silver Star. One was issued by the commander in chief of the Pacific Command (CINCPAC), Adm. John Hyland. The other, issued by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman during the Reagan administration, contained some revisions and additional language. "By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (j.g.) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself... ."

One award, three citations

But a third citation exists that appears to be the earliest. And it is not on the Kerry campaign Web site. It was issued by Vice Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, commander of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam. This citation lacks the language in the Hyland citation or that added by the Lehman version, but includes another 170 words in a detailed description of Kerry's attack on a Viet Cong ambush, his killing of an enemy soldier carrying a loaded rocket launcher, as well as military equipment captured and a body count of dead enemy.

Maj. Anthony Milavic, a retired Marine Vietnam veteran, calls the issuance of three citations for the same medal "bizarre." Milavic hosts Milinet, an Internet forum popular with the military community that is intended "to provide a forum in military/political affairs."

Normally in the case of a lost citation, Milavec points out, the awardee simply asked for a copy to be sent to him from his service personnel records office where it remains on file. "I have never heard of multi-citations from three different people for the same medal award," he said. Nor has Burkett: "It is even stranger to have three different descriptions of the awardee's conduct in the citations for the same award."

So far, there are also two varying citations for Kerry's Bronze Star, one by Zumwalt and the other by Lehman as secretary of the Navy, both posted on johnkerry.com.

Kerry's Web site also carries a DD215 form revising his DD214, issued March 12, 2001, which adds four bronze campaign stars to his Vietnam service medal. The campaign stars are issued for participation in any of the 17 Department of Defense named campaigns that extended from 1962 to the cease-fire in 1973.

However, according to the Navy spokesman, Kerry should only have two campaign stars: one for "Counteroffensive, Phase VI," and one for "Tet69, Counteroffensive."

94 pages of records unreleased?

Reporting by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs points out that although the Kerry campaign insists that it has released Kerry's full military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full file."

What could that more than 100 pages contain? Questions have been raised about President Bush's drill attendance in the reserves, but Bush received his honorable discharge on schedule. Kerry, who should have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972 -- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years? This raises serious questions about Kerry's performance while in the reserves that are far more potentially damaging than those raised against Bush.

Experts point out that even the official military records get screwed up. Milavic is trying to get mistakes in his own DD214 file corrected. In his opinion, "these entries are not prima facie evidence of lying or unethical behavior on the part of Kerry or anyone else with screwed-up DD214s."

Burkett, who has spent years working with the FBI, Department of Justice and all of the military services uncovering fraudulent files in the official records, is less charitable: "The multiple citations and variations in the official record are reason for suspicion in itself, even disregarding the current swift boat veterans' controversy."

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]As you stated...what I do know is he ain't Bush, and that's good enough for me. It's time to swing this country back toward the middle...

That's what I do not understand. How do you believe he will swing the country back towards to the middle?

[Pathy 0]

Quote[/b] ]General Barron: A challenge for you

Make an argument why George Bush should be elected, without mentioning Kerry, without mentioning the Swifties and with mention of something that he has done while in office.

If you cannot do this, then instead you should admit that you are just a puppet of the Republican party, and that you are blindly following whomever they put against Kerry. If you truly think for yourself, and are informed, then by all means, I'm also waiting.

Quote[/b] ]That isn't answering the question, Balschoiw. You'd make a good politician. You are just proving that you have no effing idea what Kerry has done.

Sorry Pathy, but you're kinda obligated to answer the General's challenge instead of just firing it back at him.

I'm not a US citizen, my only interest is in Bush not getting re-elected for my own safety. Therefore, i dont really give a shit about kerry, as long as its not Bush....Sorry M21man, but im not obliged at all....but you know where i come from, so you should have known all that, silly

And general barron, thats some feeble opinions you have there, Bush has hardly made the world safer......sounds like the white house line your spewing out....sure you can think for yourself?

[walker 0]

Hi m21man

Can you give the source of your article please? The only reference I can find to it is an article on Calpundit that has been pulled for some reason.

Kind Regards Walker

[kerosene 0]

I reckon the U.S position on Palestine and Israel is going to be permanently or for a very long time shifted to the right, I'd be suprised of the democrats dont just quietly allow things to continue in the direction there going now, rather than moving back to the pre-Bush position.

Can the missilie defence shield actually be stopped at this point? won't contracts have been signed and stuff? Although hopefully he'll put the brakes on the mini-nukes and "weaponisation of space"

But I guess Kerry would be less provocative towards Iran, N.Korea, hopefully if he adds all these new troops, trying a bit harder to stabalize Afghanistan might be on the agenda.

If you dont buy into neo-conservative economics and policies then he definatley ought to be better than Bush. i.e tax cuts before a war, apparent hatred for the environment,etc

[walker 0]

Hi kerosene

With the finding of an Israeli Agent in the Pentagon I think we are in for another cooling of US Israeli relations. The question has to be asked are we looking at a whole raft of Jonathan J. Pollard style traitors? Was this a Mosad Cell?

Quote[/b] ]...The case raises another concern among investigators: Did Israel also use the analyst to try to influence U.S. policy on the war in Iraq?

With ties to top Pentagon officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the analyst was assigned to a unit within the Defense Department tasked with helping develop the Pentagon's Iraq policy.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been made aware of the case. The government notified AIPAC today that it wants information about the two employees and their contacts with a person at the Pentagon

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml

The most interesting part of this is that it this is what Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski said about The Office of Special Plans.

Read these three installments of a very informative article in American Conservative Magazine that started in the December 1, 2003 issue In Rumsfeld’s Shop http://www.amconmag.com/12_1_03/feature.html

Part 2 Conscientious Objector

A senior Air Force officer watches civilians craft the war plan. December 15, 2003 issue

http://www.amconmag.com/12_15_03/article3.html

Part 3

Open Door Policy January 19, 2004 issueOn the third instalment of the article it says:

Quote[/b] ]In early winter, an incident occurred that was seared into my memory. A coworker and I were suddenly directed to go down to the Mall entrance to pick up some Israeli generals. Post-9/11 rules required one escort for every three visitors, and there were six or seven of them waiting. The Navy lieutenant commander and I hustled down. Before we could apologize for the delay, the leader of the pack surged ahead, his colleagues in close formation, leaving us to double-time behind the group as they sped to Undersecretary Feith’s office on the fourth floor. Two thoughts crossed our minds: are we following close enough to get credit for escorting them, and do they really know where they are going? We did get credit, and they did know. Once in Feith’s waiting room, the leader continued at speed to Feith’s closed door. An alert secretary saw this coming and had leapt from her desk to block the door. “Mr. Feith has a visitor. It will only be a few more minutes.†The leader craned his neck to look around the secretary’s head as he demanded, “Who is in there with him?â€

This minor crisis of curiosity past, I noticed the security sign-in roster. Our habit, up until a few weeks before this incident, was not to sign in senior visitors like ambassadors. But about once a year, the security inspectors send out a warning letter that they were coming to inspect records. As a result, sign-in rosters were laid out, visible and used. I knew this because in the previous two weeks I watched this explanation being awkwardly presented to several North African ambassadors as they signed in for the first time and wondered why and why now. Given all this and seeing the sign-in roster, I asked the secretary, “Do you want these guys to sign in?†She raised her hands, both palms toward me, and waved frantically as she shook her head. “No, no, no, it is not necessary, not at all.†Her body language told me I had committed a faux pas for even asking the question. My fellow escort and I chatted on the way back to our office about how the generals knew where they were going (most foreign visitors to the five-sided asylum don’t) and how the generals didn’t have to sign in. I felt a bit dirtied by the whole thing and couldn’t stop comparing that experience to the grace and gentility of the Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian ambassadors with whom I worked.

http://www.amconmag.com/2004_01_19/article1.html

The Article names the people who the FBI are looking into. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40004-2004Aug27.html

Quote[/b] ]William J. Luti, deputy undersecretary of defense for Near East and South Asian Affairs. Luti oversaw the Pentagon's "Office of Special Plans," which conducted some early policy work for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

That office is one of two Pentagon offices that Bush administration critics have claimed were set up by Defense Department hawks to bypass the CIA and other intelligence agencies, providing information that President Bush and others used to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

The other office was run by a Luti superior, Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, and was known as the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group. Feith reports to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, who in turn reports to Rumsfeld.

Clearly the question is being asked is was the The Office of Special Plans being run by MOSAD and was Douglas J. Feith one of their agents.

If so since these were the key players in the decision to have the fantasy War on Iraq Rumsfeld and his Office of Special Plans have got a lot to answer for.

This story is going to run and run.

Kind Regards Walker

[walker 0]

Hi all

here is an excelent biography Douglas Feith I quote just part.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/feith/feith.php

Quote[/b] ]....“Feith, whose law partner is a spokesman for the settlement movement in Israel, has long been a fierce opponent of the Oslo peace process, while WINEP has acted as the think tank for the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which generally follows a Likud line. Also like Feith, several of the appointees were protéeges of Richard Perle, an AEI fellow who doubles as chairman until last April of Rumsfeld's unpaid Defense Policy Board (DPB), whose members were appointed by Feith, also had an office in the Pentagon one floor below the NESA offices.†(13)

Feith has supported lobbying efforts aimed at persuading the United States to drop out of treaties and arms control agreements. Wrote one journalist in The Nation, “Largely ignored or derided at the time, a 1995 [Center for Security Policy (CSP)] memo co-written by Douglas Feith holding that the United States should withdraw from the ABM [antiballistic missile] treaty has essentially become policy, as have other CSP reports opposing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the International Criminal Court.†(8), (14)

The Middle East Information Center describes Feith as an “ideologue with an extreme anti-Arab bias,†remarking that “during the Clinton years, Feith continued to oppose any agreement negotiated between the Israelis and Palestinians: Oslo, Hebron and Wye.†Feith “defined Oslo as, “one-sided Israeli concessions, inflated Palestinian expectations, broken Palestinian solemn understandings, Palestinian violence …and American rewards for Palestinian recalcitrance.â€(5)

Feith is also well known for his participation -- along with neoconservative big wigs Richard Perle and David Wurmser -- in a 1996 study organized by the Israel-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), which urged scrapping the then-ongoing peace process. The study, titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,†advised then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to work closely with Turkey and Jordan to contain, destabilize, and roll back" regional threats, help overthrow Hussein, and strike "Syrian military targets in Lebanon" and possibly in Syria proper. (13) (IASPS directorship and board are dominated by long-standing hawks like William Van Cleave.)

Feith’s private business dealings have also raised eyebrows in Washington. In 1999, his firm Feith & Zell formed an alliance with the Israel-based Zell, Goldberg & Co., which resulted in the creation of the Fandz International Law Group. According to Fandz’s web site, the law group “has recently established a task force dealing with issues and opportunities relating to the recently ended war with Iraq. ... and is assisting regional construction and logistics firms to collaborate with contractors from the United States and other coalition countries in implementing infrastructure and other reconstruction projects in Iraq.†Remarked Washington Post columnist Al Kamen, “Interested parties can reach [Fandz] through its Web site, at www.fandz.com. Fandz.com? Hmmm. Rings a bell. Oh, yes, that was the Web site of the Washington law firm of Feith & Zell, P.C., as in Douglas Feith [the] undersecretary of defense for policy and head of -- what else? -- reconstruction matters in Iraq. It would be impossible indeed to overestimate how perfect ZGC would be in ‘assisting American companies in their relations with the United States government in connection with Iraqi reconstruction projects.’†(9), (15)

Feith has published articles on international law and on foreign and defense policy in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and The New Republic. (1)

He is the son of Dalck Feith, a former leading member of Poland’s Likudnik Betar party.

Clearly it shows that US foreign policy was unduly influenced by this man and questions about which country he served must be asked.

Kind Regards Walker

[Akira 0]

Quote[/b] ]

Experts point out that even the official military records get screwed up. Milavic is trying to get mistakes in his own DD214 file corrected. In his opinion, "these entries are not prima facie evidence of lying or unethical behavior on the part of Kerry or anyone else with screwed-up DD214s."

I doubt he will list the source, and did it for a reason.

Why didn't you bold that area?

Quote[/b] ]Ex-speaker regrets helping Bush get into Guard

But Bush campaign dismisses statement as nothing new

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:44 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2004

AUSTIN, Texas - In a video posted on the Internet, Ben Barnes, a former Democratic speaker of the Texas House, said he is ashamed he helped President Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.

“I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was lieutenant governor of Texas, and I’m not necessarily proud of that, but I did it,†Barnes said in the 45-second video, which was recorded May 27 before a group of John Kerry supporters in Austin. Barnes, who was House speaker when Bush entered the Guard, later became lieutenant governor.

He said he became ashamed after walking through the Vietnam Memorial and looking at the names of people who died.

The video was posted June 25 on the Web site http://www.austin4kerry.org/ but didn’t get much attention until Friday, when Jim Moore, an Austin-based author of books about Bush, sent out e-mail messages calling attention to it, The New York Times reported in Saturday’s editions.

It was the first time Barnes, a Kerry supporter, has discussed his role in getting Bush into the Guard. In 1999, he said he recommended Bush for a pilot’s position at the request of a Bush family friend.

Bush has denied that family influence got him into the Guard.

“It is no surprise that a partisan Democrat is making these statements,†Bush spokeswoman Claire Buchan told the Houston Chronicle. “This was addressed five years ago, and there’s nothing new.â€

Source

Snopes

[turms 0]

Quote[/b] ]As Kerry claimed to be a war criminal, and I suppose the UCMJ has provisions for dealing with such, why did he not seek a pardon or some kind of legal closure? If he puts the US into the ICC, and Vietnam decides to send an indictment to The Hague, then what?

I think he was talking about free fire zones.

Quote[/b] ]"Free fire zone, in which we kill anything that moves – man, woman or child. This practice suspends the distinction between combatant and non-combatant and contravenes Geneva Convention Article 3.1."

As for the speculation what would happen if.... I dont know, but USA should join the ICC unless it has something to hide / be afraid of.

[turms 0]

Quote[/b] ]The point is: he said he was there. That is called a lie.

In Cambodia that is.

O´neill did backup Kerry in 1971.

Quote[/b] ]WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the men who helped put Democrat John Kerry on the defensive over his military record during the Vietnam War is answering questions about his own service during that conflict.

During an Oval Office conversation in 1971, John O'Neill tells President Nixon he was in Cambodia in a swift boat during the war -- a claim that is at odds with O'Neill's recent statements that he wasn't in the country.

"I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border," O'Neill is heard telling Nixon in a conversation that was taped by the former president's secret recording system. The tape is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.

In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, O'Neill did not dispute what he said to Nixon on June 16, 1971, but he insisted he was never actually in Cambodia.

EDIT: source here

[billybob2002 0]

More fuel to the fire....

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-lips28.html

Quote[/b] ]

Kerry citation a 'total mystery' to ex-Navy chief

August 28, 2004

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB Advertisement

Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman's signature.

"It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me," he said.

The additional language varied from the two previous citations, signed first by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and then Adm. John Hyland, which themselves differ. The new material added in the Lehman citation reads in part: "By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (jg) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself...."

Asked how the citation could have been executed over his signature without his knowledge, Lehman said: "I have no idea. I can only imagine they were signed by an autopen." The autopen is a device often used in the routine execution of executive documents in government.

Kerry senior adviser Michael Meehan could not be reached for comment on Kerry's records.

[walker 0]

Hi all

The question of how many people in administration were involved in leaking secrets to Israel continues to dog the White House.

Signs are that there were at least 3 people in the Mosad cell giving intell back to Israel so that when they went into negotiations with the White House they already new what was in the US poker hand.

Quote[/b] ]Israel denies allegations it spied on the U.S.

FBI probes if official shared secrets on Iranian policy

MSNBC staff and news service reports

Updated: 10:01 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2004

JERUSALEM - Israeli officials on Saturday denied allegations that Israel spied on the United States to get information about Iran, despite deep concerns about Tehran’s nuclear program.

U.S. law enforcement officials on Friday said the FBI was investigating whether a Pentagon analyst fed Israel secret materials about White House deliberations on Iranian policy. My use of bold walker

The officials refused to identify the suspect, but said the person is an analyst in the office of Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy. My use of bold walker

No arrests are imminent, but the investigation is nearly complete, authorities said. “It’s a big deal,†one of them told NBC News.

Politically sensitive

The link to Feith’s office also could prove politically sensitive for the Bush administration.

Feith is an influential aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld who works on sensitive policy issues including U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran. Feith’s office includes a cadre assigned specifically to work on Iran.

Feith, the No. 3 official in the Pentagon, also has close ties to Israel. He prepared an important policy paper for former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Netanyahu’s election in 1996, and is a former law partner of Marc Zell, an Israeli-American attorney with business interests in Iraq. My use of bold walker

He also oversaw the Pentagon’s defunct Office of Special Plans, which critics said fed policy-makers uncorroborated prewar intelligence on President Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, especially involving purported ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network. Pentagon officials have said the office was a small operation that provided fresh analysis on existing intelligence. My use of bold walker

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5844415/

Others who are were involved in furnishing the intelligence that resulted in the mess of the Iraq war are:

Quote[/b] ]“The heads of NESA and OSP were Deputy Undersecretary William Luti and Abram Shulsky, respectively. Other appointees who worked with them in both offices included Michael Rubin, a Middle East specialist previously with the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI); David Schenker, previously with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP); Michael Makovsky; an expert on neo-con icon Winston Churchill and the younger brother of David Makovsky, a senior WINEP fellow and former executive editor of pro-Likud Jerusalem Post; and Chris Lehman, the brother of the John Lehman, a prominent neo-conservative who served as secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, according to Kwiatkowski. Along with Feith, all of the political appointees have in common a close identification with the views of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/feith/feith.php

All have long term links to American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) the organisation that FBI has wire taps and photographs of 2 employees recieving Intell from the as yet unanounced person caught spying all we know is that they worked in Douglas J. Feith's office.

Israel has already been caught once spying on the USA the traitor Jonathan J. Pollard is serving Life for his crimes.

Kind Regards Walker

[ralphwiggum 6]

Quote[/b] ]what Cheney is doing is a classic dodging manuever. let the states decide, not the federal gov't.

Same thing Kerry is doing with abortion .

Quote[/b] ]He doesn´t have a problem with a president lying, while I do see that as a problem.

hmmm..Kerry said abortion regulation should be set by Federal gov't? Dick Cheney's case is dodging since TBA wants federal level definition of marriage.

lying about getting a blowjob is equally hard as doing a mediocre job?

Bush has done more things in six years (two terms) has governor of Texas than Kerry has done in twenty years in the Senate

Al gore had 8 yrs of Vice Presidency, doing heck of a lot more important stuff.

edit: anyone remember why Kerry came out with his Vietnam record? guess not. it's because Bush said it's questionable if Kerry has ability to become the commander in chief.

[walker 0]

Hi all

* * *Breaking News* * *

Latest Media reports are that the spy is a Larry Franklin http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40004-2004Aug27.html but that he was being used as a conduit for US secrets being passed on by some one higher up. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9524480.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/27/eveningnews/main639143.shtml

Who ever those people are they may be afraid Larry Franklin is about to do a deal with prosecutors. Larry Franklin has been incomunicado for the last 24 hours.

Kind Regards Walker

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]Can you give the source of your article please? The only reference I can find to it is an article on Calpundit that has been pulled for some reason.

Sure, it's from the Chicago Sun-Times (www.suntimes.com).

Quote[/b] ]New York – If the 2004 election for President were being held today, 46% of likely voters surveyed would vote for President George W. Bush, 44% would vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry, and 5% would vote for Ralph Nader. In the two-way race, 46% would vote for Bush and 46% would vote for Kerry, according to a new TIME poll.

Way to go Nader !

[walker 0]

Hi m21man

A link to the actual page would be considerate.

I used the papers search engine with your headline it says it dont exist.

I know calpundit pulled the story for some reason.

Kind Regards Walker

PS is this another one of those loony moony papers? Like the New York Sun Times

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]Hi m21man

A link to the actual page would be considerate.

I used the papers search engine with your headline it says it dont exist.

I know calpundit pulled the story for some reason.

Kind Regards Walker

WTF, it has been pulled. I used the Yahoo! News search engine and found a link..... http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-lips27.html and the page cannot be found....

[walker 0]

Hi all

It seems that  Larry Franklin may have already agreed to testify against others in the Spy Cell.

Quote[/b] ] F.B.I. Said to Reach Official Suspected of Passing Secrets

By JAMES RISEN

Published: August 29, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 - The F.B.I. is in communication with a Pentagon official suspected of passing secrets to Israel and is seeking to gain his cooperation in their espionage investigation, government officials said.

The Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, a midlevel analyst who works in the policy office of the Defense Department, has been in contact with investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said. It could not be learned whether he was talking with the bureau directly or through a lawyer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/politics/29spy.html

Quote[/b] ]Government officials say they suspect that Mr. Franklin provided classified documents to officials at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington, and that the group in turn handed the materials over to Israeli intelligence. Both the lobbying group and the Israeli government have denied any misconduct. [Page 22.]

Mr. Franklin could not be located for comment.

Government officials who have been briefed on the investigation said investigators had unspecified evidence that Mr. Franklin provided the Israelis with a sensitive report about American policy toward Iran, along with other materials. Mr. Franklin focused on Iranian issues in his work.

No arrests have been made in the case, however, and the F.B.I. apparently is seeking more information from Mr. Franklin. The investigation has been going on for more than a year, government officials said.

My Use of bold walker

Kind Regards Walker

[walker 0]

Quote[/b] ]Hi m21man

A link to the actual page would be considerate.

I used the papers search engine with your headline it says it dont exist.

I know calpundit pulled the story for some reason.

Kind Regards Walker

WTF, it has been pulled. I used the Yahoo! News search engine and found a link..... http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-lips27.html and the page cannot be found....

Hi m21man & billybob2002

Hint They usualy do that because they find out it is lies and they are being sued  Hint Hint.

Kind Regards Walker

[kerosene 0]

i'm kind of suprised Isreali intelligence cant just ask if they wanna know stuff about Iran.

I dont think this is gonna have a huge effect on U.S/Israeli relations, both partys have got hardline pro-israeli members, I wont be suprised if some one fairly high-up in the U.S gov't was aware of this.

[denoir 0]

Bush says Kerry was 'more heroic' [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

US President George W Bush has said his rival in the presidential race, John Kerry, was the "more heroic" for having put himself "in harm's way" in Vietnam.

President Bush passed his military service as a fighter pilot in Texas.

Asked by US TV network NBC if he felt Mr Kerry and he "served on the same level of heroism", Mr Bush replied, "No, I don't."

Mr Kerry has accused President Bush of backing an ad campaign that accused him of lying about his valour in Vietnam. A lawyer for the president's re-election team, Benjamin Ginsberg, resigned on Wednesday after admitting he advised the group of Vietnam veterans responsible for the ads.

President Bush has denied any links to the campaign and called for an end to unofficial negative advertising. However, he has refused to specifically criticise the ads, which allege Mr Kerry did not deserve the medals he received for bravery in the Vietnam conflict.

Senator Kerry has made his service in Vietnam a cornerstone of an election campaign dominated by concerns over national security, traditionally seen as a Republican strength.

'Move beyond the past'

In his interview with NBC, President Bush said, "I think him [John Kerry] going to Vietnam was more heroic than my flying fighter jets. He was in harm's way and I wasn't."

He defended his own stint in the Texas Air National Guard, saying, "On the other hand, I served my country. Had my unit been called up, I would have gone."

Unofficial ads produced by a liberal group, funded by Democrat supporters, have alleged President Bush used family influence to avoid serving during the Vietnam war. President Bush told the NBC network it was time to end the furore over the two candidates' Vietnam-era military records.

"I think that we ought to move beyond the past... The real question is who best to lead us forward," he said.

I'm really impressed by the Bush campaign. They really pulled off a nice one.

1. There is something dodgy about Bush's service in the national guard.

2. Kerry, a decorated soldier with experience from Vietnam, capitalizes on that, bringing his military experience to focus whenever he can.

3. Suddenly an anti-Kerry hate campaign starts, officially unconnected to the Bush-Cheney campaign, but with some very real ties. A lot of lies and slander are directed against Kerry and a sea of various minor issues are brought up.

4. Bush comes out and condemns 3) and saying that people should focus on what is ahead instead of what happened before. It's a reconciliatory move that Kerry basically can't say no to without looking bad.

Result -> Bush managed to compare him not showing up for year for his national guard service to lies made up by a hate campaign against Kerry, who actually did his duty in Vietnam.

Very nice played. And people are already so fed up with the debate that everybody will be glad to leave the subject.

[Pathy 0]

A very clever move....the only real option it left Kerry with was denying the lies, he couldnt have brung up Bush's service due to 4), and thus hes forced into fighting on the back foot.

Damn i really hope Bush doesnt win.

[bn880 5]

NEW YORK (AP) - Tens of thousands of Bush administration opponents poured into Manhattan's streets Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention, angrily denouncing the war in Iraq and demanding the United States withdraw its forces.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/29/gop.main.ap/index.html

[denoir 0]

Two interesting BBC articles:

Stage set for Republican drama [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

There does not seem to be much doubt that this coming week will produce marvellous theatre. New York during the Republican National Convention will be a paradise for the student of human life and Americana. There will be delicious clashes of culture: Republicans crowding Democratic New York; Middle America rubbernecking around the big city; Washington's power-brokers sweeping in.

Now, if you live in New York, you view yourself as living in the real capital of the United States, not to mention the world. We have heard of Washington - it is on the news - but we have a disdain for it.

It is full of earnest young men who seem to have been born aged 35, all with tidy haircuts and well-shined shoes. Humour is not their strength. They wear crisp suits and ties when it is 35C (95F) and 100% humidity, which, of course, it always is. Off-duty, as it were, some of them wear polo shirts, ironed polo shirts, no less, with the logo of a bank on them or a defence company or their law school. If they wore jeans, they would iron them too. To New Yorkers, Washington - or at least, white, powerful Washington - is a town - there's the sneer - full of lawyers and lobbyists.

It is, we accept, the nexus of power, but New York is the nexus of glitz and style, not to mention money. Washington is about wheeling and dealing. New York is about argument - argument in public.

Washington purrs - New York snarls.

I think the best vantage point to observe this pageant of diversity will be a stool at any chic bar in Chelsea, just a wander down Eighth Avenue from the convention. How will straight Washington (or straight Topeka, Kansas) - straight, I should say, as in serious, uptight, careful - cope with gay Chelsea, gay as in gay. Actually, they may get along just fine.

Politicians tend to pigeonhole people but, who knows, maybe the cultures will embrace rather than clash. It would be truly joyous if there were surprises, if people behaved out of stereotype.

It will be a tough job, though. The convention organisers are trying to minimise the leeway for straying.

Some Broadway shows, for example, are not deemed suitable for delegates. The tourist board here has taken a show called Naked Boys Singing off the list of productions offered to delegates at a discount, apparently because the Republican Party's Committee on Arrangements objected.

Much will be out of bounds for different groups next week. Where will the demonstrators go to, for example? Perhaps to Central Park, despite a ban, perhaps to the Convention Centre, but in what humour we simply do not know.

Will New York 2004 be a re-run of Chicago, 1968 when a riot changed a nation's consciousness? Democrats must be dreading the pictures, violent or not. They will not want unhelpful images and pictures of protesters in New York conjuring up for some in Middle America a vision of an intellectual (not a complement), godless, anti-American elite, far removed from the Heartland, as it is put, of "real America".

Even without violence, rallies on gay rights/abortion rights/welfare rights for poor people/civil rights may send a message not displeasing to Mr Bush and the Republican election strategists.

All told, the police have issued permits for 29 rallies, ranging from a prayer vigil of 40 people outside the convention in Madison Square Garden to 250,000 on Sunday.

Cost of safety

Clearly, security is tight. It will cost about $60m (Å32m), which equates to $15m (Å8m) per day.

The Secret Service is drafting in agents from all over the United States. There will be 37,000 officers from the New York Police Department, 10,000 of them in the immediate vicinity of the conference centre. Seven helicopters and 26 police launches will be used. There will be 181 bomb-sniffing dogs.

Now, nobody can doubt that of all the targets on the planet next week, the Republican National Convention will be at the top of any evil-doers' list. The atmosphere, though, may also help Mr Bush as he builds up to Thursday's speech.

A few days ago, I wandered around the site and you could feel the tension. Police officers move you on for no apparent reason - there now seem to be more security guards in New York than yellow cabs. It all fuels an atmosphere - and with 11 September barely a week after Mr Bush's speech, the picture of a vigilant leader in dangerous times will be clear.

Another message will come from the convention. Many of the peak-time speakers are from the moderate wing of the Republican Party - people like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, the star of the show until prime-time Thursday evening, until about 10 o'clock on the East Coast here, seven in the West, when the lights dim and Mr Bush emerges. He will walk down a long catwalk to a podium in the centre. Despite the audience of many thousands, it will seem like an intimate theatre-in-the-round with Mr Bush not remote on a stage, but in the middle among his people, and by implication among the American people.

He is a marvellous political performer, speaking the language of ordinary people, connecting with them, connecting with the television cameras. This country is now polarised between those who are solid for him and those who say "Anybody but Bush".

There are unusually few undecided voters this election. So when Mr Bush speaks in the great arena of Madison Square Garden, everything before will seem like mere diversion. Big politics will have taken over - big politics about nothing less than which direction the world takes. Now that is drama.

The states that Bush forgot [bBC]

Quote[/b] ]

In the lead up to the Republican Party Convention in New York next week, George W Bush is criss-crossing the US, drumming up support. One place you will not find him though is Georgia. This state and many others in the South are seen as already being won for the Republicans.

On a sweltering day in Cartersville, Georgia, Danny Duvall stood by the old factory where he used to work. He is a big man with a big motorbike. But his tough-guy face melted away as he described how the factory closed down last year. "There were folks been there forever, didn't know what to do when they couldn't come to work."

But Danny refuses to blame the present administration for his troubles.

"Don't matter if it's George Bush or Thomas Jefferson in charge. They're sending manufacturing work abroad, and everything's done by computer now. You ain't got computer skills, you might as well give up." Besides, Danny likes George Bush. "Down here in the South, you'll find folks will back a man who's not afraid to fight."

When Bill Clinton came out with the phrase "it's the economy stupid", it became one of the most oft-repeated election slogans of all times. The suggestion was that people will always vote for the person they trust to keep a steady and competent hand on their nation's purse strings.

And certainly, that is what John Kerry is hoping will help propel him into the White House. Forget arguments about who did what in Vietnam. The Democrats claim that George Bush is the first president since the depression to see a net loss of jobs while in office. This, they believe, is a winning point.

Three Gs

They should come to Cartersville. This week, a trade union was meeting to discuss the announcement of another massive redundancy programme at another local factory. Yet even here, there were plenty who remained unconvinced by John Kerry.

"There's one issue that's very important to me, and that's gun control," one union member tells me. "John Kerry seems to be in favour of it," says Danny. He is also worried that John Kerry would support gay marriage, even though Mr Kerry voted against it in his own state of Massachusetts.

Opinions like this exasperate Lynne Baker, a full-time trade union worker who had come along to the meeting.

"I try to tell people about the economy," she explains, "but all they care about are the 'three Gs' - Guns, God and Gays.

"I tell them if they don't have a job, they won't be able to afford a gun. But they say they'll vote for Bush, because they think he's moral."

Missed opportunities

There is nothing new about conservative religious views holding sway in America's South. But local Democrats are furious at the way the Republican Party has succeeded in appropriating them.

Cartersville's local Democrat leader, Lester Tait, admits he and his party have missed a trick. He says they should have used the language of morals when discussing economic issues - made poverty and unemployment a moral cause.

"The Bible is not a Republican document", he says.

Perhaps not, but it is the fount of all political wisdom for people like Kim Louis, a local Republican supporter. She says the issue of Christian values is now as important as terrorism.

"Terrorism is an attack on a community," she says. "But gay marriage would be an attack on our own families. If gay marriage was accepted, it would lead to the destruction of everything that's made this country what it is." It was the issue of race that first lost the Democrats support in the South. Their popularity waned when Lyndon B Johnson introduced civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

But 40 years later, with the help of "Christian values", it has reached the point where John Kerry is barely bothering to campaign in Georgia. And if George W Bush does not worry too much about the effects of the economy on Southern voters, that may not be a "stupid" thing at all.

Three G's, eh? What are the chances that 'Blacks' used to be on that list 30 years ago?

[billybob2002 0]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash44.htm

Quote[/b] ]

JUSTICE TO WEBSITE: SHOW US YOUR RECORDS

Sun Aug 29 2004 16:45:59 ET

The Justice Department is demanding records on a liberal Internet site that lists delegates to the Republican National Convention and urges protesters to give them an unwelcome reception, the NY TIMES is planning to splash on Monday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

Federal prosecutors said in a subpoena that the information was needed as part of a criminal investigation into possible voter intimidation.

But civil rights advocates argue that the Internet postings amount to political dissent, not threats or intimidation.

NYT repporter Eric Lichtblau set to detail how: "The grand jury investigation comes at a time when federal officials have mounted an aggressive effort to identify what they say could be violence by political demonstrators in New York and at other major political events."

Developing...

I do not want some asshole trying to harass me telling me Bush is evil and that crap....