Free Republic

As muawiyah says above,
"And how can we forget that Bob Woodward did that deathbed interview with CIA Director Casey ~ and may have been preparing for such an event with Mark Felt?!?!?!?"

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Of course that refers to Woodward's supposed chat up
with the dying Casey, never minding Casey was unable
to speak and guards were posted outside Casey's hospital room.
I believe that took place about as much as Felt was
"Deep Throat," which is to say not very much.

"Brandeis professor with Iraqi nom de plume"

Try re-doing the link.

Hey, Jed, where'd you find this...

The Clinton administration gave the security contract for the Oklahoma City Murrah building (at the time of its bombing) to the small firm Teg Security (its only federal contract), which was apparently a subsidiary of Akal Security, headquartered in China and owned by Sikh Indians. http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=28601

"where have all the good old kooks gone?"
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Out, no doubt, to try some of your baked goods.
Your pumpkin custard's are the best.

Overlay needed because the Bali bombing
targetted Aussies, who have been against
an Iraq war.

Didn't you used to use
the screen "evershill"?
Luv your pies, btw.

"When all those agencies are merged, most existing separate high level administrative position will no longer be needed."
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That drivel {and more} is as amusing and delusional
as once a communist state becomes 'fixed,' the
government will simply "wither away" {doncha know--lol}.

"Bill never even imagined what George has wrought."
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Too true, but that's the beauty of it.
A Dem could never have pulled it off.

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, November 14, 2002

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to read "You are a Suspect" by William Safire in today's New York Times. Mr. Safire, who has been one of the media's most consistent defenders of personal privacy, details the Defense Department's plan to establish a system of "Total Information Awareness." According to Mr. Safire, once this system is implemented, no American will be able to use the internet to fill a prescription, subscribe to a magazine, buy a book, send or receive e-mail, or visit a web site free from the prying eyes of government bureaucrats. Furthermore, individual internet transactions will be recorded in "a virtual centralized grand database." Implementation of this project would shred the Fourth Amendment's requirement that the government establish probable cause and obtain a search warrant before snooping into the private affairs of its citizens. I hope my colleagues read Mr. Safire's article and support efforts to prevent the implementation of this program, including repealing any legislation weakening privacy protections that Congress may inadvertently have passed in the rush to complete legislative business this year.

New York Times, Nov. 14, 2002
"YOU ARE A SUSPECT"
(By William Safire)

Excerpt:
Washington--If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend--all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."

To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you--passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance--and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario.
[cont'd]
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr111502.htm

From CNN/TIME,
*Bush Approval Rating Down: George Bush's approval rating of 65% is the lowest it has been since before last Sept. 11 (the "high" was 89% Oct. 12; it was 55% July 17-18, 2001 before jumping to 78% Sept. 13).

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FreeRepublic Poll:
Question ...
How do you rate President Bush's overall job performance?

Excellent
2,073 votes - 37%

Good
1,583 votes - 28%

Fair
1,000 votes - 17%

Poor
803 votes - 14%

No Comment
99 votes - 1%

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Interesting. If you add "Good" & "Excellent"
from the FR poll, you come out with the
identical rating as the CNN/TIME poll.
Anyone care to venture an explanation?

Besides water, the other utilities might
well be at risk; also the 'net.

"Perhaps a round of MindErasers ... like they've been drinking in DC all these years."
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Heh, heh, doesn't work on me.
I take mine with a ginkgo shooter.
Wazzup in Nawlins?

RSVP by Christmas.

Guess it's my turn to buy.
What's everyone having?

Sensenbrenner says no one cares except some
libertarians & a few lawmakers.
Is he just putting on a show or is that the
reporter's spin, or both?

A Petition for the...

"Immediate and Total Repeal of the USA/Patriot ACT"

To: U.S. Congress

We, the undersigned, hereby declare that anti-terrorism legislation passed by our US Congress since the tragic and murderous September 11, 2001 attacks on our nation, seriously damage and infringe upon the constitutional protections that are enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

We declare that it is not patriotic, but rather Un-American to destroy the very freedoms which cause Americans to love their country.

We declare that open government is critical to democracy and that by imposing new levels of secrecy our government appears less trustworthy and lessens the people’s ability to make informed decisions about government.

We declare that lessening the strength of the judicial and legislative branches of our government, while simultaneously giving completely unlimited powers to the executive branch does damage to our American principle of separation of powers.

We oppose the use of secret military tribunals at which a person is afforded no independent defense counsel and could be sentenced to die and executed without the knowledge and approval of the American people.

We oppose the president’s orders to lock down presidential records, thus denying our ability to judge the actions of the executive.

We oppose the indefinite imprisonment of foreign nationals if no criminal charge has been placed against them. We further oppose the holding of any person without publicly declaring the crime they are charged with.

We oppose the “sneak and peek” provision of the PATRIOT Act, which crushes our 4th amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure by denying citizens their right to be aware that their property is to be searched and their right to protest such search if the warrant is out of order.

We oppose the collection of private business records by order of secret courts and the muzzling of those citizens who receive such orders from speaking publicly about them. This is a violation of both the 1st and 4th amendments.

We oppose the PATRIOT Act’s destruction of e-mail and Internet privacy. In addition, the sharing of such data indiscriminately among any number of government agencies and even foreign governments is patently intolerable.

For these reasons, we demand the immediate repeal of the PATRIOT Act. We call upon our elected representatives to act in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and to undo these actions which violate the core principles of America.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


[View Current Signatures (in link)]

http://www.petitiononline.com/sabene/petition.html

1. Given the present alternative of the dictatorships who not only foster the radical elements of Islam, but fund it, yes. So what if the guy was a lobbyist? The point is he's pro western and has been exposed to democracy and not a theocrat or dictator.

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Shall I name the dictators we've put in place?
Shah of Iran, Pinochet, Noriega, among others.

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"Just how long has the new government there been in power? How long does it take to grow, harvest, and process the opium? Being in a different hemisphere, aren't their seasons at a different time of year than ours?"

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The Taliban allowed NO growing of opium.

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"Weren't the Taliban funding Al Queda using drug money?"

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The CIA was funding bin Laden against the Russians.

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"2.The connection is Al Queda. Simple enough for you?"

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There has been shown no connection whatsoever.

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"We did nothing after the first WTC attack,"

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That was an FBI sting operation. The FBI informer
asked his handler, wouldn't it be advisable to
use dummy explosives? The FBI said, nah, go ahead
with it. This was reported in the LA Times, NY Times
& in wire service stories.

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"Recent reports have an Al Queda chemical weapons facility in of all places.....Iraq."

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B.S. The Iraqis don't like them; neither does Iran.
BTW, did you know several of the hijackers had as
addresses on their driver's licenses Pensacola
Naval Base?

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"4.22 to 1 odds may be great odds on a horse race, but not a war."

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You're immature. I thought I was talking with an adult.

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"Try the Moors invasion of Southern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. You'll find in both cases they were Muslims."

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See my above comment.

"And you'd prefer us to sit on our hands and do nothing ala Clinton?"

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And you'd, what, have us shape the world in our image...while, not coincidentally, put puppet governments
in place, a la Afghan--whose newly picked el presidente
was a Unocal lobbyist...Unocal being the erstwhile company lobbying for an oil/gas pipeline from the Caspian to Asia?
BTW, did you catch the post tonight about the record
Afghan opium crops? Must be our government has begun a
'war on drugs' there now, too.

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"Sitting around doing nothing got us 9-11."

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O really. Name me one connection of Iraq to 911.

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"These people already hate us and mean us great harm."

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They might not if we'd get out of their faces.

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"Don't give me the simpleton solution of abandoning Israel either, it's not going to fly."

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Abandoning Israel? They're one of the top half-dozen
military mights in the world, on top of which they're
said to have weapons technology we don't have.

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"Israel is their coveinent excuse, they hate everything to do with Western Culture."

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That's h.s. from our ministry of propaganda. What many
there hate is our imposing our culture on them.

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"Their so called religion has embarked on conquering the world on other occasions, this is simply their latest attempt."

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An example or two might make your point believable, but
I believe you have it backwards...it was called
the Crusades.

While many of you folks cheer on the beating
war drums & Bush does carte blanche threats
to the whole of the Middle East, understand
this: our Country is a sieve, not only
immigration-wise but undoubtedly numerous
countries already have sleeper agents here.
Our various infrastructures are as secure
as shooting fish in a barrel...power plants,
water supplies, the internet, you name it--
and not the least of which our citizens
directly through the use of any combination
of WMD--can any of you be naive enough to
believe NONE of those countries have any
of these and would not hesitate to use them
in response to attacks on their country?
Action will beget response, and I for one
do not have access to a well-stocked bunker.
Do you?

Manipulation of the financial markets became
official government policy in March 1988,
Plunge Protection Page,
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[Plunge Protection Denies Market Intervention]

"U.S. Working Group Has Not Met To Discuss Markets"

By Arshad Mohammed
07/16/02 16:20 ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has not convened its top-level working group on the financial markets to discuss the slide in U.S. stocks and does not try to manage the market's daily moves, the White House said Tuesday.

"They have not met with particular reference to stock market activity because we don't try to manage stock markets' daily movements," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

The group, which includes representatives from the U.S. Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Board and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was created after the 1987 stock market crash to promote close cooperation among key agencies at times of market volatility.

There were rumors in European markets Tuesday that the group might have met to discuss the U.S. stocks slide.

Fleischer told Reuters there had been staff-level contacts among the group to discuss ways to improve corporate governance and protect employee pensions, something President Bush had asked them to study in January, but that the heads of the agencies making up the group had not met recently.

The group typically meets when the markets are disorderly and there are concerns they may cease to function properly, but it can also meet in calmer times to address complex issues facing the financial markets.

The group issued a statement after the Sept. 11 attacks and it was particularly active during the Asian financial crisis.

The Bush administration's decision not to convene the group, unofficially nicknamed the Plunge Protection Committee, may reflect a view that the recent declines in the stock market to its lowest levels since 1997 are not of that order.

The stock market has fallen steadily over the last week because of a crisis of confidence in corporate America after accounting scandals at companies like Enron Corp (ENRNQ.PK), which has caused investors to doubt earnings reported by many companies.

However, the market has not suffered any dramatic one-day plunges like its 508-point loss in the "Black Monday" crash on Oct. 19, 1987 or its 554.26-point nosedive on Oct. 27, 1997, sparked by the Asian financial crisis.
[O really, I'd say the Dow down over 440 was pretty serious.]

The Dow Jones industrial average, which has fallen roughly 7 percent over the last week, was down about 165 points, or nearly 1.9 percent, at 8,474 at 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

BUYERS 'RACING IN'

There was market talk in Europe Tuesday -- dismissed by many players -- that the U.S. government may have tried to orchestrate Monday's stunning recovery on Wall Street by urging institutions to buy or by buying itself.

Stocks Monday made their steepest plunge of the year and then rallied nearly 400 points for the Dow industrials to close down only 45.34 points at 8639.19.

A stock trader for a major investment bank on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said the sharp rebound from deep declines Monday was driven by institutional buying after stocks hit critical technical levels -- not by any market manipulation.
[Ah yes, the convenient unnamed source.]

When the Dow Jones industrials breached its Sept. 21 lows and touched 8,244.87 with stock futures pointing to a 7,900 level, orders from investment banks Merrill Lynch (MER.N), Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Lehman Bros (LEH.N) and others flooded in, traders said.

"We were absolutely dead quiet going into the September bottom. It was kind of eerie on the floor. This was not suspicious, only savvy," one futures trader said.
[Unnamed convenient source #2.]

Buyers knew that traders who had sold contracts "short" betting on further stock declines would have to start buying to cover their positions. Sure enough, the impact was explosive.

"It almost was like a gun that went off. When that Dow level was touched and held, buyers came racing in," he said.
[Or maybe more like buy programs kicked in. I watched on streamer; buyers weren't "racing in." The Dow was about to fall off a cliff.]

The New York Fed called key market players in recent days to gauge what the market needed to hear from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday to soothe investors, market sources said. One hedge fund adviser suggested this might have sparked the rumors of government intervention.

The New York Fed declined comment but said that as part of its role monitoring markets it speaks to participants daily on market conditions. ###
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Is the operative word here "met"?
No, they didn't 'meet'--only talked on the phone [it was their lackeys manning the computer terminals].

Note the computer-generated "buy programs" [indicated with red lines, at bottom of chart below], kicked in just as the Dow was about to fall off a cliff, Dow Pump

When the Fed/Treasury/Wall Street cabal can no longer support the market, or decide they no longer want to--coupled with mutual fund redemptions [highest in history this past month (July '02)] and foreign money pulling out--the markets are going to tank like an elevator with its cables cut.