General Wesley Clark for President?

The Progressive Review, an admittedly liberal, but excellent e-mail report (we read it every day at NewsMax) warns of Wesley Clark, who is reported to be thinking about running for president.

In examining the background of this man who would be president the Review learned that Clark is a longtime friend of Clinton - a fact that helped his rise to the top. He has also been employed by the Stephens Group, part of the Stephens family empire that helped to launch Clinton's career and keep him in the 1992 primaries despite cash problems.

According to the Review Clark commanded Fort Hood during the time it provided illegal troops and weapons used in the Waco massacre.

On August 3, 1999, the Guardian wrote "No sooner are we told by Britain's top generals that the Russians played a crucial role in ending the west's war against Yugoslavia than we learn that if NATO's supreme commander, the American General Wesley Clark, had had his way, British paratroopers would have stormed Pristina airport threatening to unleash the most frightening crisis with Moscow since the end of the cold war. "I'm not going to start the third world war for you," General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of the internationalK-For peacekeeping force, is reported to have told Gen. Clark when he refused to accept an order to send assault troops to prevent Russian troops from taking over the airfield of Kosovo's provincial capital. . . Mary Robinson, the UN human rights commissioner, said NATO's bombing campaign had lost its "moral purpose".

And on November 12, 1999, at the beginning of the Kosovo conflict, Counterpunch delved into the military career of General Clark and discovered that his meteoric rise through the ranks was the result of "the successful manipulation of appearances: faking the results of combat exercises, greasing to superiors and other practices common to the general officer corps. We correctly predicted that the unspinnable realities of a real war would cause him to become unhinged. Given that Clark attempted to bomb the CNN bureau in Belgrade and ordered the British General Michael Jackson to engage Russian troops in combat at the end of the war, we feel events amply vindicated our forecast. "With the end of hostilities it has become clear even to Clark that most people, apart from some fanatical members of the war party in the White House and State Department, consider the general, as one Pentagon official puts it, "a horse's ass." Defense Secretary William Cohen is known to loathe him, and has seen to it that the Hammer of the Serbs will be relieved of the NATO command two months early."

Wrote columnist Robert Novak- "Members of Congress who, during their spring recess, met in Brussels with Gen. Wesley Clark, the NATO supreme commander, were startled by his bellicosity. According to the lawmakers, Clark suggested the best way to handle Russia's supply of oil to Yugoslavia would be aerial bombardment of the pipeline that runs through Hungary. He also proposed bombing Russian warships that enter the battle zone.

On April 20, 1999, columnist and much-decorated Col. David Hackworth - wrote that Clark "Known by those who've served with him as the "Ultimate Perfumed Prince," [is] far more comfortable in a drawing room discussing political theories than hunkering down in the trenches where bullets fly and soldiers die."

Counterpunch described Clark as "The poster child for everything that is wrong with the GO (general officer) corps," exclaims one colonel, who has had occasion to observe Clark in action, citing, among other examples, his command of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood from 1992 to 1994."

I suppose that those BFVs and M88 could pass for a tank.

Wesley Clark's TANKS.

there's also this from http://www.getwaco.com/Waco/WacoP/pages/fsfilm/flstory.html

Then, on the morning of April 19, 1993, we watch as tanks mounted with boom structures rip holes in the compound walls and insert the tear gas. Still the Davidians do not come out, and the FBI reports gunfire coming at them from within the compound. The gassing and demolition of the building continues until late morning.

Fire suddenly breaks out. We see the flames spread quickly in the wind. The compound is soon engulfed. Within minutes, 52 adults and 25 children, including two trauma-born infants, perish in the flames. The fire, the FBI claims, was started by the Davidians.

But questions surrounding the death of the Davidians and the official FBI account of the siege persist – questions such as:

Why was there a premature destruction of the crime scene – a destruction that resulted in critical evidence not being recovered?

Why were shots heard and empty shell casings recovered from an FBI sniper position – when the FBI claims they did not fire their weapons during the siege? And stationed at that position: a sniper notorious for his actions at Ruby Ridge.

Who killed Jimmy Riddle, a Davidian, whose body was found outside the compound walls? He was shot through the head and his body mutilated by a tank. But where are the evidentiary portions of his body? Who killed Jimmy Riddle? Was there more to his death than previously thought?

The questions continue.

Dr. Edward Allard, an infrared expert, analyzed the Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) videotape made by an FBI airplane circling overhead during the siege. The FLIR videotape shows a tank at the back of the compound. The vehicle discharges two men who, according to Dr. Allard, fire into the compound with automatic weapons. Over 60 shots are fired.

Maurice Cox, a former intelligence analyst, testifies in a report that the flashes seen on the Waco FLIR tape could not be solar reflections. Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, narrator and former FBI Crime Lab analyst, concurs.

If the FBI was not shooting, then who was? Was the Delta Force, an elite counter-terrorist military unit in action at Waco – in violation of federal law prohibiting the use of military forces against US citizens?

And who started the fire? Why were pyrotechnic devices capable of starting the fire found in the rubble of the compound if the FBI claims it never used them? Why were pyrotechnic devices found at all three points of origin of the fire?

Why were the bodies of 15 Davidians found shot to death near the only undamaged exit from the compound? Were the flashes on the FLIR tape during the fire actually gunfire aimed at that exit? And how could the bodies accidentally be left to decompose before forensic testing could take place?

Why does the evidence seem to indicate that the hole in the top of the church vault – the "bunker" – was made by the detonation of a high-explosive demolition charge? Why were only the bodies of women and children found in that bunker, and did they die as a result of that explosion?

And finally, why does the evidence show the chain of command during the operation at Waco leading to the office of Vincent Foster and to the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton? Was Vince Foster's suicide related to the deaths at Waco? Why did some of Foster's files on Waco end up missing after his death, and who appears to have seen them last?

The answers are shocking, the evidence disturbing, and the overall conclusions difficult to face. But this is the story that couldn't be ignored; the story of newly uncovered evidence, of missing or destroyed evidence; of shocking testimony and outright deception. It's a story of human fallibility and the abuse of power; a story of outsiders and insiders, and the tragic consequences of violence met with violence.

"Waco: A New Revelation" is a film America needs to see.

...here's more...

Waco Siege Investigator Found Dead In His Home

Carlos Ghigliotti, who had been retained by a U.S. House committee to help investigate the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., was found dead in Laurel under unexplained circumstances yesterday.

"We're investigating it as a homicide," said Laurel police spokesman Jim Collins. Ghigliotti, 42, was found about 1:30 p.m. in the 600 block of Washington Boulevard. His body was badly decomposed, said police. There were no signs of a break-in or a struggle at the home, where Ghigliotti ran his business, Infrared Technologies Corp., police said. An expert in thermal imaging and videotape, Ghigliotti told the House Government Reform Committee in October that his analysis of tapes at Waco indicated that an FBI agent fired shots at the compound on April 19, the final day of the siege--a view disputed by the FBI.

Michael Caddell, lead lawyer in a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the Waco siege, said last night that he recently had discussed the findings with Ghigliotti and intended to retain him--not only because his work was impressive but also because Caddell's first expert had suffered a stoke recently. Caddell said that two weeks ago he wrote to Waco Special Counsel John C. Danforth, urging that he interview Ghigliotti immediately....

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