Do you know the story behind the Kennedy Assassination, behind Watergate, behind George W. Bushâs quick ascension to the most powerful office in the world? I thought I did. It was pretty simple, really. Oswald killed Kennedy, Nixon was an ogre, and W triumphed through a combination of ruthless political tactics, the weakness of his opponent, timing, and dumb luck. Thatâs what I thoughtâI and many others. Then I began to wonder about George W. What, really, underlay his improbable rise and the administration it spawned? When I considered the astonishing array of controversies and the deceit running throughout the enterprise, my instincts told me there was more to the story. Beginning in 2004, and for the next five years, I hit the road, interviewing hundreds of people (most of whom had never been interviewed before) and obtaining and examining thousands of documents. The story led me to places â psychologically as well as physically â that I never expected to go. I had to reassess many of my most basic assumptions, not just about George W. Bush and his family; but even more about the nature of power in America and the way it has played out in our recent history. That includes some of the most persistently baffling events. The result is my first book, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. For more information on this book and the research behind it, please visit www. familyofsecrets. com. The following is an excerpt, read it first on Huffington Post:The Skeleton in W. ‘s Closet: An excerpt from Family of Secrets by Russ BakerEven before George W. Bush attained his first public office, his handlers were aware of a skeleton rattling noisily in his closet. It was one that undercut the legend of principle and duty — the story of a man’s man and patriot. It would have to be disposed of. At a televised debate in 1994 between incumbent Texas governor Ann Richards and challenger George W. , Austin television reporter Jim Moore asked Bush to explain how he had gotten so quickly and easily into National Guard pilot training as an alternative to serving in Vietnam. Candidate Bush simply asserted that favoritism had played no role and that he had honorably served. End of discussion. There were no follow-up questions. But the moment the debate was over, Bush’s communications director, Karen Hughes, came at the journalist. “Karen just makes a beeline for me and gets in my face and tries to separate me from the crowd,” Moore said. “Then she starts a rant. ‘What kind of question is that? Why did you ask that question? Who do you think you are? That’s just not relevant to being governor of Texas. He’s not trying to run the federal government. He’s going to run the state of Texas. What does his service in the National Guard have to do with anything? He doesn’t have an army to run here in Texas. Why would you ask such a question, Jim?’” (Some years later, when Bush actually was running an army, each time a reporter asked the same question, he or she was told that it had been “asked and answered” long ago. ) In response to Hughes, Moore said, “It’s about character, Karen. It’s about his generation and mine coming of age, and how we dealt with what we all viewed as a bad war. “As the reporter was turning to go file his story, Bush’s chief strategist, Karl Rove, came at him next. “‘What was that question, Moore?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know what it was, Karl. ‘ I said it’s a fair question. And he said, ‘It wasn’t fair. It doesn’t have anything to do with anything. ‘ And his rant was less energized than Karen’s, but it was the same thing — trying to say, ‘You’re stupid. You’re a yokel local and you’re stupid and you don’t know what you’re doing. ‘”Bush’s handlers thought they could get reporters off a story by intimidating them. Often they turned out to be right. It sometimes seems that the entire story of George W. Bush’s life has been rewritten by hired hands. As each exaggeration, distortion, or factual error is uncovered, Bush has ducked and bobbed; only rarely has he been forced to concede anything. Just one of hundreds of such examples: During his unsuccessful Midland congressional bid in 1978, W. ‘s campaign literature described his war time service as “Air Force” — a claim also made for him in Poppy’s autobiography. Presumably both men knew the difference between the National Guard and the Air Force. Nevertheless, that claim remained in W. ‘s official biography until the 2000 presidential campaign, at which point the correction was quietly made. On no subject were Bush and his team more intransigent than on the particulars of his military ser vice. One cosmetic concern was that the favoritism shown young Bush in his National Guard assignment did not fit the legend Karl Rove was developing for him. This was the tough, no bullshit, “mano a mano” kind of guy, the cocky kid who challenged his famous father to a fight, the self-made oilman in flight jacket and cowboy boots, the straight-talking “ranch hand” with the John Wayne swagger (“in Texas, we call that walking”). Even the name of his campaign plane (Accountability One) was crafted to the image. He could not be seen as someone who used family connections to get a cushy home-front assignment while thousands of his peers went off to die in Vietnam. After Bush’s election as governor in 1994, his political team worked to inoculate their man against further inquiries into his Guard service. Dan Bartlett, an eager staff aide then in his twenties, and with no military service of his own, was named as liaison between the governor and the National Guard. And Bush replaced Texas’s adjutant general Sam Turk, the administrative head of the Guard, who had been appointed by Governor Richards, with General Daniel James. Cleaning up the Texas Guard rec ords became a lot easier once W. was the titular commander in chief of the state’s National Guard units. The effort got under way just months after Bush’s inauguration. On May 16, 1995, Joe Allbaugh, by then Bush’s chief of staff, met with Guard officials and asked to see Bush’s personnel records. Three days later, they were sent over to the governor’s office from the office of the outgoing adjutant general. “I am enclosing copies of the Texas Air National Guard personnel records for Mr. Daniel O. Shelley and Governor George W. Bush,” wrote Turk. It is not clear why Shelley’s records were also requested, except that he was about to be named Bush’s legislative director. In any case, asking for two records rather than one likely was a form of cover — comparable to what happened in 1972 when George W. Bush failed to take his mandatory National Guard physical and was joined in this violation by his friend Jim Bath. In each instance, the special treatment accorded W. was made to seem more “routine” by the fact that at least one other person was included. That the people around the governor were concerned was evident when Dan Bartlett traveled to Denver to personally review the microfiche copy of Bush’s records on file at the Air Reserve Personnel Center. Although Bartlett had little or no knowledge of the military, he would turn out to be a good man for the job. As was true of most Bush appointees, his primary qualification was loyalty. Bartlett had gone to work for Karl Rove’s political consulting business in 1992, right out of college, and so by the 2000 presidential campaign, his entire adult life had been in service to Rove and Bush. In 1996, the new adjutant general, Daniel James, hired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, a former Guardsman and tough cattle rancher who doubled as a private management con sul tant, to lead a task force assessing the state of the organization. Even the top brass believed it had become lax and inefficient; Burkett’s mission was to create a strategic plan to bring the Guard back into fighting trim. Burkett returned several months later with a devastating report, documenting how outmoded, inefficient, unprepared, and even corrupt the service was. The report suggested sweeping reforms. What Burkett and his team discovered went way beyond unjustified promotions of politically connected officers, as bad as those were. (One officer whose promotion was judged improper nevertheless went on to head a unit that was sent to Iraq in 2004. ) They also uncovered that the Texas Guard rolls were full of “ghost soldiers,” military personnel kept on the books after they had left the unit to justify the continued flow of money allocated for their pay. Equally important, the ghost numbers made units appear to be at authorized troop levels when reviewed by state and federal authorities. Burkett and his team believed their findings were so important and so sensitive that they had to take them straight to the top. Not knowing who was responsible for the fraud, “we decided we had to go to the boss,” Burkett recalled. But James, the man governor Bush had handpicked to run the Guard, seemed far more upset about the breach of military procedure in reporting the news of corruption and malfeasance than in the news itself. According to Burkett, James responded: “Now guys, I want to know what I’m supposed to tell the chief of staff, Colonel Goodwin, when he wants to have your heads ’cause you violated the chain of command and came in here over his head. “When Burkett asked for — and received — a promise of funding from the Clinton-Gore administration to begin repairing holes in the Guard, Governor Bush angrily declined the help. According to Burkett, Bush’s chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, informed General James that henceforth his primary function was to ensure that Bill Burkett be kept as far as possible from the media. Meanwhile, according to Burkett, there was discussion of Bush’s impending presidential bid and how it would become a priority for state officials. One day in 1997, Burkett said, he was in the vicinity of General James’s office when a call came in. James took it on the speakerphone. It was Joe Allbaugh, with Bush’s Guard liaison Dan Bartlett on the line. According to Burkett, Allbaugh told James that Karen Hughes and Bartlett would be coming out to Camp Mabry, which was on the outskirts of Austin, to comb through the records in preparation for a book on Bush, and he instructed the general to have the rec ords prescreened. According to Burkett, Allbaugh said, “Just get rid of the embarrassments. “About ten days after Allbaugh’s call, Burkett claims, he came upon Guard officials going through Bush’s records and observed a trash can nearby that included between twenty and forty pages of Bush’s military documents. Burkett had a few moments to see what they contained. Another Guard officer and friend of Burkett’s, George Conn, would later corroborate much of this story, but then withdraw confirmation while steadfastly maintaining that Burkett was an honorable and truthful man. Clearly, Conn was in a difficult position, working for the military on a civilian contract, while his wife served as head of the secretarial pool for a large law firm that was a leading bundler of campaign contributions to the Bush campaigns. “I was there. I know what I saw in the trash. I know what actions I saw taking place,” Burkett told me during one of several lengthy conversations. One of the documents that has been missing from the released files, Burkett claims, is a “counseling statement” from a senior officer to Bush, explaining why he was grounded and the changes to his assignment, slot, and pay rate. Burkett told me he glimpsed Bush’s counseling statement at the top of the discard stack, but did not have time to read it through. “In a perfect world, I guess I should have just stepped up and grabbed the files and made a federal case of it all right there,” he said. “Looking back, I probably would have. It would have been simpler to have confronted the whole mess right then and there. “Copyright © 2008 Russ BakerThe above is an excerpt from the book Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America by Russ Baker (Published by Bloomsbury Press; January 2009; 978-1596915572).  This excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy. Author BioRuss Baker is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put it in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America. For more information on his book and the research behind it, please visit www. familyofsecrets. com. As an award-winning investigative reporter, Baker has a track record for making sense of complex and little understood matters. He has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the Nation, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Village Voice and Esquire. He has also served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. Baker received a 2005 Deadline Club award for his exclusive reporting on George W. Bushâs military record. He is the founder of WhoWhatWhy/the Real News Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news organization, operating at whowhatwhy. com.
MICHAEL WEBSTER: INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Oct 16, 2008 2:00 PM PDT The new travel alert only updates security information for U. S. citizens traveling and living in Mexico. It replaces the Travel Alert for Mexico dated April 14, 2008, and expires on April 14, 2009. However it does not up-grade the travel alert to higher status as many believe it should. If the conditions that prevail in Mexico today was happening anywhere else in the world the highest travel alert would have already been issued. I reported last April by asking the questions “why the U. S. Government has not issued a new travel warning or even an up-grade on its existing alert? Now the U. S has up-graded again. The question still is why not raise the alert to a warning status and protect Americans and warn them to not travel to Mexico. At least until some or all the violence stops and it is safe again to travel in Mexico. Many travelers believe if this same thing was happening in any other country there would be a warning not to travel issued. Why not Mexico?That is the question why not? Mexico is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world. And it is our neighbor to the south with a population of over 100 million people. Even the U. S. Military ban its personal from visiting Mexico because of the increasing violence there. U. S. Army posts along or near the U. S. Mexican border according to officials, say they’ve discontinued issuing passes to soldiers who want to travel across the border to Mexico. “If it’s not safe for U. S. Soldiers, than it is unsafe for other Americans. Said, John Lutes, who was born in El Paso and served in the military. The new travel alert up-date says “that while millions of U. S. Citizens safely visit Mexico each year, including thousands who cross the land border every day for study, tourism or business, increased levels of violence make it imperative that travelers understand the risks of travel to Mexico, how best to avoid dangerous situations, and whom to contact if one is a victim of crime. Common-sense precautions, such as visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas, avoiding areas where prostitution and drug dealing might occur, and exercising prudence in where one visits during the evening hours and at night, can help ensure that travel to Mexico is safe and enjoyable. “Violence along the U. S. – Mexico border is increasing Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent fight for control of narcotics trafficking routes along the U. S. – Mexico border in an apparent response to the Government of Mexico’s initiatives to crack down on narco-trafficking organizations. In order to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed over 45,000 military troops in various parts of the country. These Mexican troops are manning road blocks and check points all over the country. The U. S. tells citizens they should cooperate fully with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways. The problem with that is bandits and other criminals are also setting up road blocks and so called check points through out Mexico and are wearing full or partial police or military uniforms and are using vehicles that resemble police or military vehicles, so how is someone even a national much less an American tell which is which. That is the problem you can’t. And that is one reason Americans should avoid Mexico. The Bureau of Consular Affairs says “Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade continues along the U. S. -Mexico border. Attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists. However, foreign visitors and residents, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region. Americans in Mexico are falling victim to armed robberies and carjackings. This new type of Mexican Violence has increased in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Dozens of U. S. citizens have been kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. From Brownsville Texas to San Diego California the State Department has alerted Americans of the dangers of crossing the border. Google or click on: Why not a Warning for Mexico travel or at least an up-grade to the existing alert? In other cases Mexican cartels through their enforcers of Mexican and American gangs order smaller American gangs to kidnap and in some cases murder Americans. “U. S. citizens should be aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation, along the border” said a statement issued in Mexico City and Washington. “Violent criminal activity, including murder and kidnapping, in Mexico’s northern border region has increased. ” New cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. No one can be considered immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Criminals have been known to follow and harass U. S. citizens traveling in their vehicles including motors homes and travel trailers, particularly in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Reynosa, Juarez, Mexicali, Tijuana and most all border towns. Dozens of U. S. citizens were kidnapped and/or murdered in Tijuana in 2007. Google or click on: Americans Being Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico The new as the old alert goes on to say “Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily-armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades. Confrontations have taken place in numerous towns and cities in northern Mexico, including Tijuana in the Mexican state of Baja California, and Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua. The situation in northern Mexico remains very fluid; the location and timing of future armed engagements there cannot be predicted”. Public shootouts have occurred during daylight hours near shopping areas in many Mexican border towns. Over 5,000 people have been murdered in Mexico so far this year. That figure is more than has been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The new alert goes on to report that a number of areas along the border are experiencing rapid growth in the rates of many types of crime. More than 1,600 cars were reportedly stolen in Ciudad Juarez in the month of July 2008, and bank robberies there are up dramatically. Rates for robberies, homicides, petty thefts, and carjackings have all increased over the last year across Mexico generally, with notable spikes in Tijuana and northern Baja California. Cuidad Juarez, Tijuana, Palomas and Nogales are among the cities which have recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues. Criminals have followed and harassed U. S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Tijuana, and along Route 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo. A very dangerous situation is playing out in Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns and has become a special concern for U. S. citizens. A recent series of muggings near the U. S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez has targeted applicants for U. S. visas. Visa and other service seekers visiting the Consulate are encouraged to not carry cash and to make provisions to pay for those services with something other than cash. Mexican authorities are reporting that more than 1,000 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez this year alone. U. S. citizens should pay close attention to their surroundings while traveling in Ciudad Juarez, avoid isolated locations during late night and early morning hours, and remain alert to news reports. U. S. citizens are urged to be alert to safety and security concerns when visiting the border region. Criminals are armed with a wide array of sophisticated weapons. In some cases, assailants have worn full or partial police or military uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles. While the largest increase in violence has occurred near the U. S. border, U. S. citizens traveling elsewhere in Mexico should also exercise caution in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times. Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in some violent attacks, demonstrating the heightened risk in public places. In recent years, dozens of U. S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico and many cases remain unresolved. U. S. citizens who believe they are being targeted for kidnapping or other crimes should notify Mexican officials and the nearest American consulate or the Embassy as soon as possible. U. S. citizens should make every attempt to travel on main roads during daylight hours, particularly the toll (“cuota”) roads, which are generally more secure. U. S. citizens are encouraged to stay in well-known tourist destinations and tourist areas of the cities with more adequate security, and provide an itinerary to a friend or family member not traveling with them. U. S. citizens should avoid traveling alone, and should carry a GSM-enabled cell phone that functions internationally. Refrain from displaying expensive-looking jewelry, large amounts of money, or other valuable items. Criminals have followed and harassed U. S. citizens traveling in their vehicles, particularly in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Juarez and Tijuana. Though State Department officials updated the travel alert for Mexico, they did not upgrade it to a more serious “travel warning,” which is reserved for long-term conditions, officials said. Even though many Mexican cities on the U. S. Border and elsewhere in Mexico are under siege, the question is why not. Mexico is now one of the most dangerous countries in the world. And it is our neighbor to the south with a population nearing 100 million people. Our government admits Criminals are armed with a wide array of sophisticated weapons. In some cases, assailants have worn full or partial police or military uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles. How are American travelers expected to be able to distinguish between the real Mexican army at the road blocks and the criminals? Americans are targeted by Mexican bandits and other Mexican criminals because they are American and are believed to have money with them”. The State department says if you do become a victim of crime while your in Mexico and remember this is after the fact are urged to contact the consular section of the nearest U. S. consulate or Embassy for advice and assistance. 23 year old American from El Paso Kyle Mostello Belanger- Believed Missing in Juarez MexicoBorn in Tenn. 23 year old American from El Paso Kyle Mostello Belanger- believed missing in Juarez Mexico. Close friends and relatives believe he was a soldier for the El Paso Barrio Azteca gang. The real question here, was Kyle kidnapped taken to Juarez and murdered as some believe. According to the U. S. State Department “Travel Warnings” are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Countries such as some middle eastern where avoidance of travel is recommended will have Travel Warnings as well as Country Specific Information. No such travel warning is in place for the country of Mexico. For Related articles Google or click on: www. lagunajournal. com
The CIA was created at the behest of the bankers on Wall Street. OSS spook and Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner was recruited by Dean Acheson to work under Charles Saltzman, at the State Departments Office of Occupied Territories in 1947. The CIAs first director, Allen Dulles, was a Wall Street lawyer. The CIA is Wall Streets finely honed tool for the neoliberal agenda of the banksters. A considerable proportion of the developed worlds prosperity rests on paying the lowest possible prices for the poor countries primary products and on exporting high-cost capital and finished goods to those countries. Continuation of this kind of prosperity requires continuation of the relative gap between developed and underdeveloped countries it means keeping poor people poor, former CIA agent Philip Agee wrote. Increasingly, the impoverished masses are understanding that the prosperity of the developed countries and of the privileged minorities in their own countries is founded on their poverty. Throughout its entire history, the CIA has set up an elaborate shell game of proprietaries (front companies), money-laundering operations and off-the-books projects so complex that no outsider — and few insiders — could ever keep track of them. BCCI was neither the first nor the last of these, writes Mark Zepezauer.www.thirdworldtraveler.com Excerpt from the Campaign for Liberty Regional Conference in Atlanta, GA. As the crowd begins to cheer, Ron Paul states, We need to take out the CIA. They …
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