Congressman Paul speaks on the floor about assassinations of Americans by their own government.
Thursday, February 25. 2010
Ron Paul on Tyranny in AmericaThursday, August 20. 2009
Report: CIA hired Blackwater contractors for secret hit squad
By Daniel Tencer
Raw Story | The specter of private contractors carrying out assassinations on behalf of the US government has been raised in a New York Times article that says the CIA hired contractors from security firm Blackwater to help carry out its recently-revealed hit squad program.
The article, which appeared at the Times Wednesday night, says that in 2004, contractors from Blackwater “helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance” in the secret program that, according to media reports, never became fully functional.
The CIA hit squad, ostensibly meant to target al Qaeda’s leadership in the years after 9/11, became public news when CIA Director Leon Panetta informed congressional intelligence committees about it in late June. Since then, stories have appeared linking Vice President Dick Cheney to the decision to keep the hit squads secret — a decision that may violate the National Security Act, which mandates congressional oversight of the CIA.
The involvement of Blackwater, however, is a new revelation. That the CIA used a private contractor for the program “was a major reason that [Panetta] became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years,” the Times reports.
The Times writes:
Blackwater’s reputation was damaged beyond repair on September 16, 2007, when guards employed by the company killed 11 people in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. That resulted in the company being forced out of Iraq, and having to rebrand itself as Xe Services LLC.
Blackwater’s reputation was further damaged by revelations earlier this month that the company’s founder, Erik Prince, has been implicated in “one or more murders” by witnesses who gave depositions in a civil suit against the company.
According to the unnamed witnesses — who are testifying on behalf of Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater — Prince allegedly ordered the killing of at least one person who was planning to testify about “ongoing criminal activity” at the company.
Raw Story | The specter of private contractors carrying out assassinations on behalf of the US government has been raised in a New York Times article that says the CIA hired contractors from security firm Blackwater to help carry out its recently-revealed hit squad program.The article, which appeared at the Times Wednesday night, says that in 2004, contractors from Blackwater “helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance” in the secret program that, according to media reports, never became fully functional.
The CIA hit squad, ostensibly meant to target al Qaeda’s leadership in the years after 9/11, became public news when CIA Director Leon Panetta informed congressional intelligence committees about it in late June. Since then, stories have appeared linking Vice President Dick Cheney to the decision to keep the hit squads secret — a decision that may violate the National Security Act, which mandates congressional oversight of the CIA.
The involvement of Blackwater, however, is a new revelation. That the CIA used a private contractor for the program “was a major reason that [Panetta] became alarmed and called an emergency meeting to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years,” the Times reports.
The Times writes:
It is unclear whether the CIA had planned to use the contractors to capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.
Officials said that the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.
Blackwater’s reputation was damaged beyond repair on September 16, 2007, when guards employed by the company killed 11 people in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. That resulted in the company being forced out of Iraq, and having to rebrand itself as Xe Services LLC.
Blackwater’s reputation was further damaged by revelations earlier this month that the company’s founder, Erik Prince, has been implicated in “one or more murders” by witnesses who gave depositions in a civil suit against the company.
According to the unnamed witnesses — who are testifying on behalf of Iraqi civilians suing Blackwater — Prince allegedly ordered the killing of at least one person who was planning to testify about “ongoing criminal activity” at the company.
Friday, July 24. 2009
Dr. Leonard Horowitz: CIA Swine Flu Assassinations, Vaccinations & DepopulationSaturday, July 11. 2009
Lawmaker: CIA may have broken law by lying to Congress
By Daniel Tencer
Raw Story | The CIA may have intentionally violated the National Security Act — the law that created the CIA — by keeping a program secret from Congress for at least six years, a House Intelligence Committee member told the press Friday.
“The systematic deception by the CIA is a possible violation of the National Security Act and, at a minimum, a blatant disregard of this committee’s oversight authority,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) wrote in a letter, obtained by AP, to House Intelligence Committee Chair Silvestre Reyes (D-TX).
On Wednesday, RAW STORY reported that CIA Director Leon Panetta admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that the agency had misled Congress for years about a secret program that had been in place since 2001.
On Friday, RAW STORY reported that the program in question may have been a secret CIA assassination squad run out of the office of then-Vice President Dick Cheney. For national security reasons, members of Congress’s intelligence committees would not confirm or deny the reports.
In an interview with AP, Rep. Schakowsky said: “It’s not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and [the Bush] administration not to tell the Congress.”
That decision “is worthy of an investigation in and of itself,” Schakowsky told Politico. “I think it’s a fundamental question whether or not it is widely understood by the intelligence committee and the administration what there is a law that they have to tell…members of Congress about programs like this.”
CIA chief Panetta, an Obama appointee, only found out about the program four months into his tenure, and convened a meeting with the House Intelligence Committee the next day — June 24 — to inform Congressional leaders of the program, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The Post also poured some water on the assassination-ring theory, citing unnamed “current and former administration officials familiar with the program” who said it was an “intelligence-collection activity run by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center … It was not a covert action, which by law would have required a presidential finding and a report to Congress.”
Both Politico and the Washington Post cite an anonymous “Bush administration official” who described the program as being “on-again, off-again” and never fully implemented. Yet Schakowsky’s description of the CIA program as a “very serious” covert initiative seems to indicate something more controversial than a data-collection initiative suffering from false starts.
As RAW STORY reported, New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh first mentioned the alleged existence of a Cheney-run CIA assassination ring during a speech in March.
“Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us,” Hersh told an audience at the University of Minnesota.
Raw Story | The CIA may have intentionally violated the National Security Act — the law that created the CIA — by keeping a program secret from Congress for at least six years, a House Intelligence Committee member told the press Friday.“The systematic deception by the CIA is a possible violation of the National Security Act and, at a minimum, a blatant disregard of this committee’s oversight authority,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) wrote in a letter, obtained by AP, to House Intelligence Committee Chair Silvestre Reyes (D-TX).
On Wednesday, RAW STORY reported that CIA Director Leon Panetta admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that the agency had misled Congress for years about a secret program that had been in place since 2001.
On Friday, RAW STORY reported that the program in question may have been a secret CIA assassination squad run out of the office of then-Vice President Dick Cheney. For national security reasons, members of Congress’s intelligence committees would not confirm or deny the reports.
In an interview with AP, Rep. Schakowsky said: “It’s not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and [the Bush] administration not to tell the Congress.”
That decision “is worthy of an investigation in and of itself,” Schakowsky told Politico. “I think it’s a fundamental question whether or not it is widely understood by the intelligence committee and the administration what there is a law that they have to tell…members of Congress about programs like this.”
CIA chief Panetta, an Obama appointee, only found out about the program four months into his tenure, and convened a meeting with the House Intelligence Committee the next day — June 24 — to inform Congressional leaders of the program, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The Post also poured some water on the assassination-ring theory, citing unnamed “current and former administration officials familiar with the program” who said it was an “intelligence-collection activity run by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center … It was not a covert action, which by law would have required a presidential finding and a report to Congress.”
Both Politico and the Washington Post cite an anonymous “Bush administration official” who described the program as being “on-again, off-again” and never fully implemented. Yet Schakowsky’s description of the CIA program as a “very serious” covert initiative seems to indicate something more controversial than a data-collection initiative suffering from false starts.
As RAW STORY reported, New Yorker investigative reporter Seymour Hersh first mentioned the alleged existence of a Cheney-run CIA assassination ring during a speech in March.
“Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us,” Hersh told an audience at the University of Minnesota.
Sunday, June 28. 2009
Iranian Leaders Blaming CIA, Protestors, for Killing Neda
By Jake Tapper
ABC News | In his Friday prayer sermon, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami called for the government to protest the "leaders of protests, who were supported by the United States and Israel, strongly and with cruelty so it will be a lesson for everyone."
Khatami also said that 26-year-old protestor Neda Agha Soltan, shot last Saturday and memorialized by protestors as a martyr for their cause, was killed by those protestors.
"The proof and evidence shows that they have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system," Khatami said. "I say hereby that these deceitful media have to know that the ordeal will be over and shame will remain for them."
On CNN, the LA Times' Top of the Ticket reports, the Iranian Ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, said, speaking through a translator, "this death of Neda is very suspicious. She was shot from behind. The location was where there was not much demonstration, there was no police presence and the gun that shot and killed her was a smuggled gun. It was not a government-issued gun. In our view, this would be the work of those who wanted to put more fuel to the flame against the government."
Ghadiri said, "My question is that how is that this Nada was shot from behind and several cameras take that. And this is done in an area where there was no important demonstration. If the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the elements of the government, and then choosing a girl would be something good for them because it would have much higher impact. Therefore, we believe and we are looking into this to find who the elements were who did this."
Asked Wolf Blitzer, incredulously, "Are you seriously accusing the CIA of killing Neda?"
Said Ghadiri, "We say that the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran. These are the bullets that the CIA and terrorist groups use. Of course they warned that there would be a bloodshed in these demonstrations and then they could attribute that to the Islamic republic. This is part of a common act of CIA in various countries...I'm not saying that the CIA had done this. There are different groups. Could be intelligence services, could be CIA, could be the terrorists."
Responded George Little of the CIA Office of Public Affairs: “Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd, and offensive.”
ABC News | In his Friday prayer sermon, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami called for the government to protest the "leaders of protests, who were supported by the United States and Israel, strongly and with cruelty so it will be a lesson for everyone."Khatami also said that 26-year-old protestor Neda Agha Soltan, shot last Saturday and memorialized by protestors as a martyr for their cause, was killed by those protestors.
"The proof and evidence shows that they have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system," Khatami said. "I say hereby that these deceitful media have to know that the ordeal will be over and shame will remain for them."
On CNN, the LA Times' Top of the Ticket reports, the Iranian Ambassador to Mexico, Mohammad Hassan Ghadiri, said, speaking through a translator, "this death of Neda is very suspicious. She was shot from behind. The location was where there was not much demonstration, there was no police presence and the gun that shot and killed her was a smuggled gun. It was not a government-issued gun. In our view, this would be the work of those who wanted to put more fuel to the flame against the government."
Ghadiri said, "My question is that how is that this Nada was shot from behind and several cameras take that. And this is done in an area where there was no important demonstration. If the CIA wants to kill some people and attribute that to the elements of the government, and then choosing a girl would be something good for them because it would have much higher impact. Therefore, we believe and we are looking into this to find who the elements were who did this."
Asked Wolf Blitzer, incredulously, "Are you seriously accusing the CIA of killing Neda?"
Said Ghadiri, "We say that the bullet that was found in her head was not a bullet that you could find in Iran. These are the bullets that the CIA and terrorist groups use. Of course they warned that there would be a bloodshed in these demonstrations and then they could attribute that to the Islamic republic. This is part of a common act of CIA in various countries...I'm not saying that the CIA had done this. There are different groups. Could be intelligence services, could be CIA, could be the terrorists."
Responded George Little of the CIA Office of Public Affairs: “Any suggestion that the CIA was responsible for the death of this young woman is wrong, absurd, and offensive.”
Tuesday, December 23. 2008
Mike Connell Was Warned Not To Fly Before Plane Crash
By Wayne Madsen
Wayne Madsen Report | WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources in Ohio that Republican Party computer networking guru Mike Connell was warned not to fly in anonymous warnings conveyed to principals in the ongoing federal civil lawsuit of King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, stemming from GOP-engineered vote fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential election, as well as a potential Ohio racketeer-influenced criminal organization (RICO) criminal proceeding against former Bush White House aide Karl Rove and Blackwell, in the conspiracy to illegally steer Ohio’s 20 electoral votes to the Bush column in 2004.
Connell’s Piper Saratoga single-engine plane crashed during the evening of December 19 in Uniontown, Ohio, as it was preparing to land at Akron-Canton airport. There were no other passengers and Connell was killed in the crash. Connell had flown to College Park, Maryland, the previous day. Connell, who lived in Akron with his wife Heather and four children, often flew to Washington for activities related to his IT businesses.
Connell’s name surfaced as a key player in Rove’s election fraud conspiracy after this year’s July 17 Columbus news conference hosted by Cliff Arnebeck, the Ohio attorney who has been representing plaintiffs in the federal civil suit against former Republican Secretay of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. On the phone at the conference was John McCain campaign adviser and computer security specialist Stephen Spoonamore who identified Connell as a key player, as well as potential trial witness, in the GOP’s conspiracy to flip Ohio votes in the 2004 election.
Spoonamore and Connell had reportedly worked together on foreign elections in programs sponsored by the International Republican Institute (ISI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Both had traveled abroad together on special election projects to ensure “fair voting” procedures.
For the first time, WMR has learned that the GOP vote flipping conspiracy was in place earlier than the November 2004 general election and was used to deny votes to Democratic candidates John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich in the March 2, 2004, Democratic primary. John Kerry won the primary with 52 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Edwards and 9 percent for Kucinich.
After Connell was identified as a potential witness in the civil case against Blackwell and a possible criminal Ohio RICO case against Rove, Blackwell, and perhaps others, the plaintiff attorneys received a tip from a high-level source in the McCain presidential campaign that Rove had issued a threat against Connell. Connell had worked for the 2008 McCain presidential campaign on the development of its web pages.
WMR has learned from our Ohio sources that five threats against Connell were conveyed to the election fraud plaintiff attorneys with the last tip being “Connell is in danger.” One of the threats reportedly made by Rove to Connell was that Connell could forget about a pardon from President George W. Bush if he did not “take the fall” in the event criminal charges were brought and that his wife Heather, who was used as a majority stockholder for one of Connell’s web design companies, GovTech Solutions, would be prosecuted for illegal lobbying. Connell’s other company is New Media Communications, Inc.
We have also learned that one additional tip was relayed to Connell’s wife and it was to the effect that Connell “was in danger and he should not fly his plane.”
Connell’s firms received contracts to place its servers behind the House of Representatives firewall courtesy of then-House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-OH), later jailed for his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying-influence peddling scandal. Connell also designed and ran the web sites for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee. WMR has learned that through effective GOP control of these web sites, the Bush White House was able to monitor all committee e-mails and documents, including planning documents for House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
We have also learned that Connell’s IT firm did classified web site development work for the CIA.
Based on the threats against Connell, the federal judge hearing the civil suit King Lincoln v. Blackwell, conveyed to Connell that the court would protect him if he came forward. On October 17, 2008, Connell’s attorneys attempted to quash an October 8, 2008, plaintiff subpoena for his court appearance. On October 31, U.S. Judge Solomon Oliver denied the motion to quash the subpoena and ordered Connell’s deposition to proceed on November 3, the day before Election Day. WMR has learned that on Friday, October 31, Connell was nervous and “beet red” during the hearing to quash the subpoena. On Monday, November 3, Connell was composed and it is believed that his top shelf law firm had been selected by Rove to represent Connell for the deposition. Rove’s intent was to ensure that there would be no deposition from Connell before the November 4 election.
WMR has also learned that Connell was prepared to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the election fraud in Ohio and other states but that the offer of testimony was not acted upon senior staffers for House Judiciary Committee Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). A source in Columbus told us that some of Conyers’ senior staffers on his committee and in is office are not to be trusted on issues related to election fraud.
In addition, Rove and the Bush White House attempted to forestall testimony by election officials in Mahoning County and Youngstown, Ohio, on election fraud in 2004 by promising to have former Rep. James Traficant (D-OH), who is currently imprisoned after being convicted of corruption, released early in return for their silence. Traficant is not scheduled for release from federal prison until Sept, 2, 2009.
Monday, December 22. 2008
General George S. Patton Was Assassinated to Silence His Criticism of Allied War Leaders Claims New Book
By Tim Shipman
London Telegraph | George S. Patton, America’s greatest combat general of the Second World War, was assassinated after the conflict with the connivance of US leaders, according to a new book.
The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives.
The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home.
But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS head General “Wild Bill” Donovan ordered a highly decorated marksman called Douglas Bazata to silence Patton, who gloried in the nickname “Old Blood and Guts”.
His book, “Target Patton”, contains interviews with Mr Bazata, who died in 1999, and extracts from his diaries, detailing how he staged the car crash by getting a troop truck to plough into Patton’s Cadillac and then shot the general with a low-velocity projectile, which broke his neck while his fellow passengers escaped without a scratch.
Mr Bazata also suggested that when Patton began to recover from his injuries, US officials turned a blind eye as agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, poisoned the general.
Mr Wilcox told The Sunday Telegraph that when he spoke to Mr Bazata: “He was struggling with himself, all these killings he had done. He confessed to me that he had caused the accident, that he was ordered to do so by Wild Bill Donovan.
“Donovan told him: ‘We’ve got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he’s out of control and we must save him from himself and from ruining everything the allies have done.’ I believe Douglas Bazata. He’s a sterling guy.”
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