Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Arapahoe Buys Xoil

Trouble at the India Pakistan Border a
s Bush-CIA-Carlyle connected oil company
starts explorations in Rajasthan

Arapaho Announces Signing of Letter of Intent to Acquire XOil

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Dec. 23, 2005) -

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Arapaho Capital Corp. ("Arapaho") (TSX VENTURE:AHO) announced today that it has entered into a letter of intent dated December 23, 2005 with Gynia Holdings Ltd., a private company incorporated in British Virgin Islands ("Gynia"), pursuant to which Arapaho will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of INXOil (Cyprus) Ltd., a private company being incorporated in Cyprus ("XOil") by way of a share exchange with the shareholders of XOil that will result in the shareholders of XOil receiving shares of Arapaho (the "Acquisition"). Pursuant to the terms of the letter of intent, Arapaho has agreed to issue approximately 42.4 million common shares of Arapaho for all of the common shares of XOil, which will represent approximately 68.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Arapaho post Acquisition, but prior to the financing described below.

XOil is being established to acquire, from Focus Energy Ltd., a private company incorporated in India and beneficially owned by Gynia ("Gynia"), a 50% participation interest in a production sharing contract with the Government of India dated September 23, 2005 relating to an oil and gas exploration property located in India and identified as Block RJ-ONN-2003/2 ("block"), covering an area of approximately 3,260,550 acres, located in North West Rajasthan state. Virtually no exploration, apart from 127 km of 2D seismic and a low resolution gravity survey, has been undertaken in the block so far.

Pursuant to the terms of the letter of intent, it will be a condition of closing that Arapaho or a subsidiary enter into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of XOil II Holdings Ltd., a private company being incorporated in Mauritius ("XOil2") in exchange for approximately 33.9 million common shares of Arapaho which, when exercised, will result in Gynia and its affiliates holding approximately 80% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Arapaho. XOil2 is being established to acquire from Birkbeck Investments Ltd., a private company incorporated in Mauritius and beneficially owned by Gynia, a 40% participation interest in the said block from Birkbeck.

The block is located adjacent to and north of Block RJ-ON-90/1, in which Cairn Energy, PLC, a UK oil explorer, has drilled 84 wells. Cairn has announced a discovery named as "Mangla", located approximately 50 km from the southern boundary of Block RJ-ONN-2003/2. As per independent technical consultant estimates, Mangla has in place 2P reserves of 1,067 mmbbls of oil as of March 2005. Cairn has had an average exploration success ratio of 32.4% in Block RJ-ON-90/1 with wells in the northern part having encountered reservoirs with excellent oil flow rates.

No production has yet been established in Block RJ-ONN-2003/2 so far and no reserves are claimed as of this date.

Chapman Petroleum Engineering Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta has been retained by Arapaho to provide an independent oil and gas report on Block RJ-ONN-2003/2. A more detailed press release containing a summary of the Chapman report and an audited opening balance sheet of XOil will be forthcoming shortly.

It is anticipated that the following directors and management of XOil, who have extensive technical, operational and commercial experience in India, will serve as directors of Arapaho upon completion of the Acquisition. Mr. Anil Aggarwal is also the controlling shareholder of Gynia:

Mr. Anil Aggarwal, New Delhi, India. Mr. Aggarwal has owned and managed a diverse range of businesses during the past 22 years, including businesses engaged in business process outsourcing, footwear marketing, hospitality and commodities trading.

Mr. Ajay Kalsi, New Delhi, India. Mr. Kalsi has managed several businesses engaged in a diverse range of industries including oil and gas exploration and footwear manufacturing. He is the key individual responsible for negotiating and acquiring the production sharing contract for the block on behalf of Gynia's affiliates. Mr. Kalsi holds a M. Phil in Business Economics from Cambridge University and a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the University of London.

The board will be suitably expanded to incorporate independent directors and other directors in line with the requirements of Arapaho.

Pursuant to an engagement letter dated December 23, 2005, Jones, Gable & Company Limited has agreed to act as agent on a "best efforts" basis in connection with a proposed financing (the "Pre-Acquisition Financing") of subscription receipts of Arapaho at a minimum price of Cdn. $2.00 per subscription receipt (the "Issue Price") to raise gross proceeds of not less than Cdn. $25 million. Each subscription receipt will entitle the holder to receive one unit (a "Unit") of Arapaho without payment of any additional consideration, subject to adjustment in certain events. The gross proceeds of the offering less the agent's estimated out-of-pocket expenses will be held in escrow and will be released to Arapaho upon satisfaction of certain escrow release conditions and the subscription receipts will be automatically exercised upon the satisfaction of the escrow release conditions. If the escrow release conditions are not satisfied prior to March 31, 2006, the escrowed proceeds will be used by Arapaho, together with other funds on hand, to repurchase the subscription receipts. Each Unit will consist of one common share of Arapaho and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole common share purchase warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share of Arapaho for a period of two years at an exercise price of Cdn. $3.00; provided that if the common shares of Arapaho close at Cdn. $4.00 or higher for 20 consecutive days at any time after four months following the Closing Date (the "Forced Acceleration Event"), the expiry date of the common share purchase warrants will occur 30 days after the dissemination of a press release announcing the accelerated expiry date (the "Force Acceleration Expiry Date"). In connection therewith, Jones, Gable will receive a cash commission of 5% of the aggregate gross proceeds raised and that number of broker warrants that is equal to 5% of the number of subscription receipts sold exercisable at the Issue Price into Units until the earlier of one year after the Closing Date and the Forced Acceleration Expiry Date if the Forced Acceleration Event occurs. The net proceeds of the Pre-Acquisition Financing will be used for exploration of the block and for general corporate purposes.

Jones, Gable has also agreed, if required and subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence, to act as sponsor in connection with TSX Venture Exchange listing matters. An agreement to sponsor should not be construed as any assurance with respect to the merits of the Acquisition or the likelihood of completion.

The Acquisition is subject to several conditions that must be satisfied or waived by the parties before the Acquisition can be completed. In addition to the usual conditions, the Acquisition is conditional upon the completion of the Pre-Acquisition Financing substantially on the basis described above, XOil, XOil2 and Arapaho not having any material liabilities (contingent or otherwise) other than XOil and XOil2's commitments under its agreement with the Government of India with respect to the block, receipt of the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and any other required regulatory approvals and the approval of the shareholders of Arapaho and of XOil.

Upon completion of the Acquisition and the Acquisition Financing, Arapaho will have issued and outstanding approximately 61,483,333 common shares distributed as follows:




Number of Common Shares Holders
----------------------- -------------------------------------------


6,600,000 the current shareholders of Arapaho


42,383,333 the former shareholders of XOil


12,500,000 common shares issued in the Pre-Acquisition
Financing





Arapaho will continue to have approximately 6,250,000 common shares issuable upon the exercise of common share purchase warrants issued in the Pre-Acquisition Financing. In addition, options will be issued to officers and directors of Arapaho to acquire common shares of Arapaho. An additional 33,906,667 common shares of Arapaho would be issued on completion of the purchase of all of the issued and outstanding shares of XOil2.

Completion of the Acquisition is subject to a number of conditions, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance and disinterested shareholder approval. The Acquisition cannot close until required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular to be prepared in connection with the Acquisition, any information released or received with respect to the Acquisition may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Arapaho should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Acquisition and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

The shares of Arapaho have been halted from trading and will remain halted until the TSX Venture Exchange has had an opportunity to review additional documentation.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Arapaho Capital Corp.
Brian E. Bayley
(604) 689-1428
(604) 681-4692 (FAX)

or

Focus Energy Ltd.
Vikas Agarwal
General Manager
91 98112 91643 or 91 11515 00515

Friday, December 16, 2005

Christmas Predictions for Bush

Is the Hammer tapping on George?

Just after Bush:
1. Vice President of the United States - Dick Cheney, not looking too strong nowadays,
2. Speaker of the House - Denny Hastert (out if he gets indicted; and if Delay skates he moves here). Hence the (p)resident makes a statement on the 15th of December 2005 that Tom DeLay is innocent of any wrongdoing in the redistricting of Texas and the laundering of campaign fund contributions. Thanks for clearing that up George, was he actually taking orders from you? Lemme see now, you pardon Tom if he can't get out on his own and then after you throw Cheney to the lions with the help of Henry Gonzales, Tom takes Dick's number two post and then if you get indicted George then Tom returns the favor by pardoning you! Will Tom save you from the guillotine? Should he? Talk about a gamble...

Next year's future:
madman at the helm ! Hell bent strongman Bush steers mankind toward the Rapture!

It is not a light wieght year, but certainly most interesting times. An in-depth understanding of evil awaits us as George W. Bush and Tony Blair take the world’s citizens on a tour of the hell they blithely create to sell small arms and nuclear armaments through their Carlyle Group. We find that The President is more determined than ever to stay the course fueling resistance to empire by means of low intensity and all-out war which is the front end of the family business for the last 300 years.
C ontent in the illusive world of religious idealism feigning innocence, and thumping a Bible Bush lectures that “People will suffer and die... Armageddon approaches... none of us will be alive after the Rapture... sinners will fall to the Devil and I’ll be in heaven with my Lord. I’m a facilitator of the Judgement Day. Nuke them all and let God sort them out.”

Very interesting to note the character and circumstance of the opening winter solstice angle of Pluto 2 Hades starting the year with a deepening depression from the (P)resident on down. A desperate White House resident, Bush swings madly from arrogance to insipid morbidity. This year marks the 299th anniversary of the British Isles. In 1707, England and Scotland merged together to become Great Britain in The Act Of Union. That year was marked by the last conjunction of Pluto and Hades. The cycle is a rather long one with the next ocurring on 30 July 2471. So having missed the last but having a ringside seat for this opposition, I am looking to the English Empire having its defining moment and that we shall witness a truly remarkable event as the English speaking world gets to experience real deep divisive destructive dissolution in the crisis of ideals where there are no compromises. The dangerous, destructive, and despicable actions of the British and US governments under the direction of the arms dealing ‘3 Musketeers’ Bush, Bush, and Blair to whip -up an evil immoral war to grease the coffers of the trans-global arms manufacturing which the three actively and aggressively represent; well, who’d a thunk? The last time that Pluto and Hades had an opposition was in 1247 the year of the death of Robin Hood and also the year Jerusalem (under the rule of the 5th Crusade) fell to the Khorezmians from the modern Uzbekistan area. Interesting that this was the date that the Christians were chased out of Jerusalem.


Winter
12/21/2005 Pluto Hades
An evil change. Increasing poverty. Growing sorrow. Decadence. Unreliable. Failure to act. Dishonesty. On the decline. The situation or condition worsens.


12/25/2005 Mars Cupido
Establishing married life. Active in a community. Artistic activities. Marriage intentions. Working artist. Work partnership.

1/8/2006 Zeus S/R
Leadership. Direction. Irresistible force. Compulsive behavior. Nearness, the immediate present. Directed energy, targets and goals, ambition, creation, projection. Aim. The king of the gods and husband of Hera. Fire, reproduction, creation, fiery, creative.

1/15/2006 Mars Jupiter
Joy of work. Fortunate acts or accomplishments. Lucky Deed. Joyous happenings. Betrothal. Fortunate deed. Creating something. Production. Propagation. Pregnancy. Generation. Children. Fruits and births.

1/20/2006 Mars Hades Pluto
Worthless plans, which cannot be brought about, and are out of date. Sinking into a serving condition. Failure caused by heavy duties. Slackening of service caused by overwork. Corrupt and degenerate and devilish plans and manipulations.

1/22/2006 Apollon S/R
Experience. Success. Glory. Peace. Trade. Commerce. Science. Expansion. Far and wide. Expansiveness, width, many, spreading out, multiplication, specialization. Apollo is the Greek and Roman god of sunlight, prophecy, music and poetry. "lots of", progressive, abundance.

1/31/2006 Jupiter Poseidon
Wisdom. Intelligence. Reason. Right. Understanding. Common sense. Instinct. Insight. Intelligence. Conscience. Mental happiness. Justice.

2/1-3/2006 Mars Admetos Poseidon
Courses of instruction with only a few participants, part of it, active or passive. Activity connected with education or training. Culture or education in a special field. Mental submission. Mental suppression. Suppression of spiritual liberty.

2/4-5/2006 Mars Kronos Admetos
Receiving an unusual order. Decrease of work and duties to carry out a special commission. Leading activity in a small circle or special work. Acting independently under limited circumstances and physical space. Restricted independence. The state says "cease and desist". Heavy pressure applied by the state. Tyranny.

3/4-7/2006 Jupiter Hades
Clouded happiness. Lack of money or money losses. Poverty. Baseness. Dirty financial transactions. Bargaining. Saddened, disturbed or hidden happiness. Lucky with raw materials, old materials, junk, or black market.

3/13-14/2006 Mars Cupido
Establishing married life. Active in a community. Artistic activities. Marriage intentions. Working artist. Work partnership.

3/16/2006 Pluto Hades Kronos
The incompetent chief or boss. Failure of leadership. Incompetent government. Growing dissatisfaction with the government. A bad relationship with the chief or with the government. Meanness and treachery usher in evil changes. Immense wicked deeds are developed. The growing gigantic evil. Large failure.


--Michael Jordan copyright 12-16-2005

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Scenarios In The Stars

Bush sacrifices Cheney to Fitzgerald and asks for the indictment from Gonzales while Rumsfeld Resigns/Retires to Taos, NM/St.Michael's, MD. Cheney gets a pardon from Bush and retires to GUESS! Where? St. Michael's, MD!!!! Meanwhile who's VP? Tom "the Hammer" DeLay as the Speaker of the House beats the rap in Texas and returns as the next in line for the Presidency as the Vice President while Joe Lieberman becomes the new Secretary of Defense in a cross party lines switch just as the William Cohen move in the Clinton Administration and what a deal because you get two Israeli Arms dealing demons either way!! Condoleeza becomes the continuity and being the most easily controlled she Brays On!

Monday, October 31, 2005

guest

Prosecutor Should Dig Deeper
By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
The Baltimore Sun

Sunday 30 October 2005

Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name has reaffirmed the basic American principle that even the highest government officials are subject to the rule of law. His charges represent the start of a revitalization of the institutions designed to maintain government under law. But that revitalization still has a long way to go.

As a prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald rightly brought charges where the law was clearest and the evidence most compelling. But the alleged crimes he is investigating are in essence the apparent cover-up operation for another possible set of crimes against national and international law. Why would I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby commit perjury and lie to FBI agents, as he is accused of doing?

The letters from Acting Attorney General James B. Comey appointing Mr. Fitzgerald delegated to him "all the authority of the attorney general" to investigate and prosecute "violations of any federal criminal laws related to the underlying alleged unauthorized disclosure."

We would argue that Mr. Comey's charge, based on the evidence Mr. Fitzgerald has uncovered, authorizes the special prosecutor to investigate the following:

Did top Bush administration officials deceive Congress? Several federal statutes make it a crime to lie to Congress. As Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York recently put it, "If, as mounting evidence is tending to show, administration officials deliberately deceived Congress and the American people, this would constitute a criminal conspiracy against the entire country."

Did top administration officials violate the U.S. Anti-Torture Act? The law makes torture and conspiracy to commit torture a crime. The former commander at Abu Ghraib prison, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, has stated that abusive techniques were "delivered with full authority and knowledge of the secretary of defense and probably [Vice President Dick] Cheney."

Did top administration officials violate the War Crimes Act? Passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, the law makes it a federal crime for any U.S. national to commit a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

In a 2002 memo, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who was then White House counsel, urged that the United States "opt out" of the Geneva Conventions for the Afghan war on the grounds that opting out "substantially reduces the likelihood of prosecution under the War Crimes Act."

What was he worrying about? Did the special prosecutor find evidence that top Bush administration officials ordered or condoned the string of Geneva Conventions violations that run from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay and from the leveling of Fallujah to attacks on medical facilities?

Did top administration officials violate the War Powers Act? The law requires the president to present to Congress the basis for proposed U.S. military action. If the administration provided false information, is it guilty of violating the War Powers Act and, in effect, usurping the war powers given to Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution?

Did top administration officials violate the U.N. Charter? U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said the U.S. attack on Iraq was "illegal." The conduct of the war has involved many breaches of internationally guaranteed protections of civilians. Did the special prosecutor find evidence of deliberate violation of U.S. treaty obligations, which under Article VI of the Constitution are the law of the land?

If the special prosecutor found evidence of violation of "any criminal laws," he is obliged to investigate and prosecute. Where the abuses he finds are not covered by existing federal law, they must be addressed by Congress, either by new laws or through the impeachment process.

The Bush administration's alleged abuses of national and international law are closely linked. The Valerie Plame affair was not just a random incident, but rather an effort to silence critics attempting to halt an aggressive war whose initiation and conduct appear to have violated both national and international law. Indeed, aggressive war, illegal conduct of war and torture are nothing less than war crimes.

Investigation and, if warranted, prosecution of such crimes is crucial for the revitalization of democratic government in our country. To let such flagrant flouting of the rule of law go unpunished would be to invite government officials to subvert our Constitution again.

Repudiating war crimes committed by high U.S. officials is also an essential starting point for repairing the damage done to our country's international relationships and reputation. There is no way to take the taint off our country for the abuses symbolized by Abu Ghraib without holding those responsible for them accountable.

--------

Brendan Smith, a legal scholar, and Jeremy Brecher, a historian, are editors of In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond. Mr. Smith's e-mail address is smithb@lawnet.ucla.edu, and Mr. Brecher's e-mail address is jbrecher@igc.org.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception

Londoners Pay Heavy Price for Blair's Deception

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Do you feel safer now that George Bush's and Tony Blair's barbaric attacks on Iraq have brought barbaric attacks to London?

Coordinated attacks on London's transport system have apparently killed 38 and injured 700. It is a terrible thing but hardly surprising. Did Londoners really think that the British people would not be held accountable for electing and reelecting Tony Blair--a war criminal under the Nuremberg standard--who aided and abetted George Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq on false pretenses?

Did Londoners really believe that Muslims would have no response to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the slaughter, torture, and detention of Muslims?

Blair and Bush are on their high horses claiming the morality of "civilized nations" and denouncing the retaliation they have provoked as "barbarism."

Their hypocrisy plays poorly in the world. Far more innocent Iraqi civilians, especially women and children, have been slaughtered than British and Americans. Why do Bush and Blair believe they should be praised for slaughtering civilians and only Muslims denounced?

Why do Americans think it is heroic and honorable for our troops to massacre Iraqis with bombs, missiles, gunships, tanks, and heavy machine guns, but cowardly and barbaric when our victims fight back in the only way they can?
The US and Britain started this fight, not Iraq. We should be ashamed that Bush and Blair deceived us, tricked us into a pointless and unjust war, and that innocent people on both sides are paying with their lives and limbs for Bush's and Blair's lies. Our real anger should be directed at Bush and Blair who are responsible for the deaths and destruction.

The American and British people had better wake up, depose their immoral leaders, and put a halt to this war.

There are 1.3 billion Muslims. The Iraqi insurgency has proved that Muslims are not intimidated by a "superpower." Unless the American and British people want a 30-year or a 100-year war with domestic police states for "security" reasons and a draft that will bleed their populations dry, this war needs to be wound up quickly with due apologies and reparations.

No more bluster and heroic talk from the two war criminals. The war is breeding terrorism and cannot be won. Only an even-handed diplomacy that breeds trust and ceases to rule Muslims with puppet governments can isolate and reduce terrorist acts. Muslims are not a few scattered Indian tribes with no place to hide who can be exterminated. America has no chance of imposing its will on the Muslim world. Muslims have their own will.

As long as Bush continues to operate with Mao's belief that power comes out of the barrel of a gun, terrorism will prosper and people will die for no reason except their refusal to hold corrupt leaders accountable.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Thursday, July 07, 2005

What's Behind the London Attacks?
The bombing of the London Underground was a false-flag operation designed to keep the West mired in war. Don't believe otherwise.
By Matt Hutaff Jul 7, 2005

Only one word sprang to mind when I heard about the bombings that claimed the lives of dozens of Londoners today – convenient.

Is there anything convenient in death, or in thousands of lives destroyed from catastrophe? No – and words cannot express the sorrow I feel for the men and women changed by today's events. But governments with skeletons in their closets have a great deal to gain from a national tragedy bolstered by "terrorism."

As I sit in my office today, I hear the whispers of co-workers now utterly convinced our war on terror must continue. Despite American and British involvement in the Middle East birthing wave after wave of rebel forces, the Bush doctrine is now justified in the minds of millions. Petty grievances such as the Downing Street Minutes, the President's flagging support and Karl Rove's treasonous outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame are unimportant. A shadowy conglomeration is out to kill us.

Sound familiar? It should – the same emotional ploy was used to great effect on Americans in the wake of September 11th. Question nothing, particularly your cries for vengeance or that nagging feeling in the back of your head. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Unlike four years ago, however, I refuse to accept that the attack on London was anything less than a false-flag operation designed to enrage Western "civilization" against the Middle East. Why? Because there is no reason for "terrorist" groups to attack England. As recently as this week, the Ministry of Defense announced that plans were being drafted that would pull British armed forces from the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the British effectively admitting they're throwing in the towel, the only motivation to stay could come from an attack that compels the forces to stay and fight "global terrorism."

Think about it. The attack only benefits empires desperate to maintain a foothold in the Middle East without further eroding public opinion. Will Parliament shrug their shoulders and push their soldiers into longer tours of duty because of this? Obviously it's too early to tell, but if that happens, insurgents and rebels will have lost more than they could have ever possibly gained in destroying part of the Underground.

Brian Kilmeade of Fox News agrees, claiming the sabotage "works to ... [the] Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together." It doesn't just make "terrorism" an American problem. It makes it a worldwide problem. The Number One problem.

No longer do we need to concern ourselves with two world leaders (who have spawned more worldwide terrorism than any fanatical religious organization) going unquestioned in their lies that started a war. We can cast off our sluggish economies, lack of freedoms and pitiful descent into draconian law. Terror is on the rise.

I feel like I'm sitting in my apartment watching the World Trade Center collapse all over again.

Everything is the same, right down to the previously unheard of Islamic group (The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe? Are you kidding me?) taking credit – even though the translation falls apart under scrutiny and the Q'uran is improperly cited. Considering the only Al Qaeda cell to ever be uncovered was a front for the Mossad, you'd think the perpetrators could at least come up with a clever new booga-booga name to grab headlines. Their arrogance is startling.

As is the ever-present Israeli connection, a staple among false flag operations. Before today's attack, the Israeli Embassy in London was notified an attack was forthcoming. As a result, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remained in his hotel room rather than head towards a nearby hotel where he was to address an economic summit.

The embassy denies it had any prior knowledge, of course, but the story has changed dramatically in the process. If, as they say, Netanyahu was not warned, how did he know to stay in his room? How did he know the danger was so severe that he dare not venture out of the hotel?

Oops! The story's changed again – here Netanyahu says that British police had warned the Israelis (but not the rest of the city?) of a pending attack. Scotland Yard denies this; Israel's reply was to say Netanyahu received his warning after the first blast. How? It was initially reported as a power surge for hours. What is being hidden here? And why isn't there an investigation into these obvious discrepancies?

It's enough to make your head spin and your eyes cross with rage.

Regardless, I am making an appeal to Britons who are understandably wracked with grief at the moment – don't buy into the hatred the way we Americans did. Don't ignore the obvious evidence that this whole affair was orchestrated by your own government. Most importantly, don't let the deaths of the few, however tragic, plunge your nation into another fit of war and civic clampdowns.

Toying with your emotions is expected. Don't fall prey to ignorance. See the attack on your home for what it really is – a distraction that will keep your money, resources and troops mired in ceaseless battle for an ideology that betrays your democratic and civilized tenets.

Honor your dead with tears, not a cry for war or praise for a disgraced leader.

Friday, June 24, 2005

ITALY: CIA AGENTS INDICTED FOR IMAM ABDUCTION

ITALY: CIA AGENTS INDICTED FOR IMAM ABDUCTION


Milan, 24 June (AKI) - An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for the abduction of an Egyptian cleric in the northern city of Milan and his transfer to Cairo, where he was then tortured until he partially lost the use of his legs. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized near his home in Milan on 17 February 2003. His capture is part of a controversial practice "extraordinary rendition" stepped up after the September 11 2001 attacks. Terror suspects are picked up irrespective of national laws and sent to third countries in what rights groups denounce as 'outsourcing torture'.
Milan daily Corriere della Sera reports that among those issued with arrest warrants on Thursday was the former US diplomatic consul in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, who was replaced unexpectedly several months ago. Warrants were issued for ten men and three women, whose nationalities were not specified.

Abu Omar, had already been under surveillance by Italian police, because of suspected links with terrorist groups. Foreign intelligence sources say he had fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia, before his arrival in Italy in 1997.

Two years ago, he left the house, telling his wife he was going to the mosque nearby. But he never arrived, after being cornered in a side street and bundled into a van.

Nothing more was heard of him until April 20, 2004, when he called his wife - whose phone line was still tapped - to tell her he was still alive. Some days later, he called his friend, the Egyptian imam in Milan, Mohammed Ridha, and told him all that had happened since he disappeared.

He told Ridha he had been driven to an American airbase, questioned and beaten, and the following day flown to Egypt where was handed over to the interior ministry. If he agreed to return to Italy and work as a secret agent, his interrogators told him, he would not be harmed.

Rejecting this offer he was sent to Tora high security prison camp in Egypt where he remained for more than a year. Omar told his friend he had been so badly beaten that he could hardly move his legs and had been tortured with electric cables.

On April 19, 2004, Omar was unexpectedly released, on the condition that he told no-one what had happened. However after the phone calls to his wife and Ridha, which were reported in the Italian newspapers, he was arrested and nothing more has been heard of him.

Fundamental in the investigation was the use by the CIA operatives of Italian cellphones. A total of 17 mobile phones were identified operating in the street where Omar was seized between 12.28 and 12.33 of 17 February 2003. Some of these were found to have placed calls to the US consulate in Milan and to a number in Virginia (where the CIA headquarters are based, at Langley). One mobile phone was traced as being located in Cairo the next day, the others led investigators to the luxury hotel where the group stayed and, consequently, to the identities - or false identities - of the agents.

Serving the arrest warrants may prove near impossible and the prospect of extraditing CIA agents to Italy seems even more remote.

The episode will however put the spotlight again on the controversial 'extraordinary rendition' practice. Human rights groups have strongly criticised the sending of terror suspects to third countries where they are tortured.

In Italy opposition politicians are demanding explanations from the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of President Bush as to whether Italian authorities were aware of what was going on.

Italy Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents


Friday June 24, 2005 2:31 PM

By AIDAN LEWIS

Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) - An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for allegedly helping deport an imam to Egypt as part of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, an Italian official familiar with the investigation said Friday.

The agents are suspected in the seizure of an Egyptian-born imam identified as Abu Omar on the streets of Milan in February 2003, according to the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome declined to comment.

Prosecutors believe the agents seized Omar as part of the CIA's ``extraordinary rendition'' program, in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval, according to reports Friday in newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno.

Investigators traced the agents through check-in details at Milan hotels and their use of Italian cell phones during the operation, the reports said. All the agents are American and include three women, Il Giorno said.

The reports said another six agents were being investigated for helping prepare the operation.

They said police also received an eyewitness account from an Egyptian woman who heard Omar calling for help and saw him being bundled into a white van as he walked from his house to a mosque.

The report said Omar was taken to Aviano, a joint U.S.-Italian base north of Venice, and was flown from there to another U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, before being taken in a second jet to Cairo.

A judge also has issued a separate arrest warrant for Omar, news agencies ANSA and Apcom said. In that warrant, Judge Guido Salvini claimed the seizure of Omar represented a violation of Italian sovereignty, Apcom reported.

Earlier this month, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro told The Associated Press that the prosecution was treating the disappearance of Omar as an abduction.

Spataro declined to say who was suspected for the alleged abduction, but he said Omar's disappearance damaged an ongoing operation by Italian authorities. He said he visited the air base in February.

Omar was believed to have fought with jihadists in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and prosecutors were seeking evidence against him before his disappearance, according to a report last year in La Repubblica newspaper, which cited intelligence officials.

Italian papers have reported that Omar, 42, called his wife and friends in Milan after his release last year, recounting he had been seized by Italian and American agents and taken to a secret prison in Egypt, where he was tortured with electric shocks.

Italian officials believe he now is living in Egypt, although Italian newspaper accounts suggested he was returned to custody shortly after his release.

Friday, June 10, 2005

25 May 2005

John Stanton has been threatened by Steptoe & Johnson, CACI's law firm, for his May 9, 2005 report on CACI's secret operations for the US Defense Department:

http://cryptome.org/rummy-op.htm

http://cryptome.org/caci-threat.zip

A. writes 24 May 2005:

The following is regarding the John Stanton/CACI article dated May 9, 2005.

The address of "18th and F Street" is the ghost address for the GSA and is used when the government needs a double blind address they can list for a U.S. Government ghost contractor. The legal flacks at CACI are correct is claiming that CACI does not have an office at that location as they don't. It is a government office building used by GSA that is 2 blocks away from the White House complex, and only a few blocks away from the State Department. The "proper physical address" for this location for actually: "1800 F Street NW", and not the "18th and F Street" address which is commonly used as a placeholder for black contracts and purchases.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=4&s=8&Lon=-77.04180859&Lat=38.89740140&Alon=-77.04180859&Alat=38.89740140&w=1&opt=0&addr=1800+F+St+NW%2c+Washington%2c+DC+20006&qs=1800+F+Street+NW%7cwashington%7cdc%7c

The 2011 Crystal City address is also a ghost address as the proper one is actually "2011 S. Clark Place", which is also known as "Crystal City 2", and more recently as "220 20th Street". The use of the 2011 Crystal City address indicates that the company listing such an address was likely using it before June of 2004 when the city changed the numbering scheme for the Crystal City office center. Again when the legal mouth piece at CACI claims that the company does not have an address at "2011 Crystal City" they are technically correct as the CACI office space would actually have been 220 20th Street, or Crystal City, Bldg 2, Suite 900. This address has been historically been used by the GSA, CIA, DIA, DOD for a legion of front organizations, ghost businesses, and defense and intelligence contractors including Lockheed, Boeing, TKC Communications, TKC Management, Battele, SAIC, CACI, Titan, SGI, AMS and so on. The office space at this address are laced with SCIF space and have been historically targeted by foreign intelligence agencies for decades to the point that for decades the FBI has been crawling all over the records of Smith Realty, Vornado (who owns Smith Realty), and the Marriott/Sheraton property to see who is renting or who was trying to rent office space nearby that could be for eavesdropping purposes.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=4&s=8&Lon=-77.04932180&Lat=38.85605826&Alon=-77.04932180&Alat=38.85605826&w=1&opt=0&addr=2011+Crystal+Dr%2c+Arlington%2c+VA+22202&qs=2011+Crystal+Dr%7cArlington%7cva%7c

http://www.powerspaceandservices.com/washington.html

http://www.costar.com/Products/Advertising/PropertyAd/AdMarketPropertyList.aspx?htmlMarketSelect=WAS

http://www.iolp.gsa.gov/iolp/BuildingInfo.asp?bID=VA1345

To further confuse the matter the building is also known by the address of both "Crystal Plaza 2", and "2121 Jefferson Davis Highway", and the location is being renovated. While the building has been under renovation the fire department has had to make a number of visits due to "suspicions fires in the building" that resulted in newly occupied areas being closed back down.

The 2011 address has also been used by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for quite a while, and several law firms related to patents had offices in the building, but then so did several intelligence agencies and government contractors. After 9/11 the US PTO loaned out quite a bit of space in the building to the Pentagon for the war effort, and buses could be seen shuttling people in uniform between this building and the Pentagon as this and the other three buildings in this complex were used as emergency space after the damage to the Pentagon and a launching point for the war. Rumsfeld has made dozens, if not hundreds of visits to this specific address, and likely had a secondary office here. Rumsfeld assailant has also spent a lot of time in this building, Bucci (sp?) and was know to use his credit card in shops across the street while on his lunch break.

Both CACI and The Carlyle Group maintain a current office at 2450 Crystal City next to each other which is the next building group over, and CACI has 15 other major office spaces they rent from Vornado all with 1500 feet of this building. CACI and Titian has also used THIS SPECIFIC address for interviewing of job applicants for interrogator positions during the initial push into Afghanistan, and used both the 2011 and the 2450 address to interview intelligence analysts, and interrogators, for support of a classified Army contract. When CACI used the building to interview job applicants it referred to the location as the "Crystal Plaza Two Office Building" and in other cases called it "2011 Crystal Drive". CACI and Jack London also used the 2011 and 2450 address when they sponsored a large number of civilian contractors from Israel when they came to the U.S. for R2I resistance to interrogation training, and put the students/contractors up at the Sheraton Hotel which is within walking distance of this building.

http://www.urscorp.com/Offices/index.php?showDetail=366mnuByState=VA&Submit_x=6&Submit_y=6

The legal mouthpiece at CACI made a strong point about denying that CACI does not have an entity at the addresses mentioned in the Stanton article, yet fails to point out that they have actually used the 2011 Crystal City address for recruiting, and that they have hundreds, and perhaps thousands of employees working mere feet from here as part of their torture for profit business model. Further, the attorney gets all twisted up about Stanton mentioning that the company is/was involved in assassination, and yet he fails to refute and sidesteps the statements made in the article about illegal torture and abuse allegations at various U.S. Military Prisons that were linked back to Jack London, CACI and Titan.

Recall that it was Jack London or CACI who hired Steptoe & Johnson to "investigate CACI" during the torture debacle at Abu Ghraib, and that the law firm seemed more interested in a public relations campaign than the actual pursuit of wrongdoers. As firm of Steptoe and Johnson failed to refute or mention the torture allegations in their threat letter to Stanton dated 5/23/2005 it is safe to assume that the torture allegations against CACI are completely true, and that Steptoe and Johnson know that they are true, but that they take exception to CACI being accused of actual assaination when a more correct description should read something like "selective revocation of birth certificate". The employees of the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson has a long history of harassment and filing of frivolous lawsuits, pleadings, and motions and they are likely just trying to terrorize John Stanton into silence, which given CACI's history of torture and human right abuses should be taken seriously. Senior partners at Steptoe and Johnson also has extremely close ties to the Bush administration, to Carlyle Group, CACI, Titan, and the defense industry. Steptoe has also represented members of the Saudi Royal Family on a long list of matters, and has quietly handled a host of matters for the bin Laden family since 9/11. The specific attorney at Steptoe who wrote the threat letter to the journalist has a history of representing clients and specializing in Racketeering and Corrupt Influence cases. Perhaps the President of CACI is touchy about possibly being brought up on RICO violations?

http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/342551

http://www.paulsonandnace.com/r_articles13.html

The 2011 address is also used by GSA Advantage! who lists the address as One Crystal Park Bldg., RM 900, 2011 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202 with a phone number of (703) 872-3854, and special not should be made that they use a suite number of "Rm 900" and "Suite 920" when the "classified contract" company was listed as "Rm 911" all of which which are mere yards apart.

https://www.fai.gov/coneve/dc/exhlist.htm

http://vsc.fss.gsa.gov/training/?CFID=978685CFTOKEN=71175993&jsessionid=8030828501116978689870

http://vsc.fss.gsa.gov/support/contact.cfm

Here is a list of the 300 or so government contractors that just like URS. Titan, and CACI are within a close distance of this location, note the listing for Titan at 2611, Lockheed, Boeing, EG&G, JT3 and othersall in close proximity, many of whom share the same address, and many of whom, but not all have a close association with the events involving prison abuses and torture for profit overseas:

DUNS CAGE Legal Business Name CITY ST CNTRY
________________________________________________________________________________________

005204735 1ST68 MILLENNIUM INTEGRATION AND COMMUNICATIONS, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

006140953 1XYU7 PMH ENTERPRISES LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

007077105 1XKP1 TECHNOMICS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

008726424 2F516 COMPUTER EDUCATION SERVICES ARLINGTON VA USA

011691201 0X1H1 ARETE ASSOCIATES ARLINGTON VA USA

011971939 1B5V4 MILLENNIUM ENGINEERING AND INTEGRATION CO ARLINGTON VA USA

013628313 2P933 EG&G TECHNICAL SERVICES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

014759398 1TL21 WOLFE CONSTRUCTION INC ARLINGTON VA USA

015205052 1YYA7 U S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ARLINGTON VA USA

015260870 097A3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

015602266 1T2C5 K. L. BUEHLER CONSULTING ARLINGTON VA USA

016306032 3XWL8 CRAYTEK INC ARLINGTON VA USA

016629297 3BSF8 ALLEN SERVICE CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

016663999 1NQ78 NATIONAL NEWS CENTER ARLINGTON VA USA

017016093 1EME2 MULTICOMM, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

017191789 3EFZ2 WEBENETICS CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

018048715 1F3K6 RODDA CONSULTING ARLINGTON VA USA

018109384 1CT98 RAYTHEON COMPANY ARLINGTON VA USA

018897020 1HKR9 SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

020634320 1TX34 B2C, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

020810276 1SWY3 SILVER BULLET SOLUTIONS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

021695734 1UYE4 NSX GLOBAL LOGISTICS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

023416902 7F104 LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

024860657 1HVJ8 THINKING OBJECTS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

025041786 3UXH0 AEROBIOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

030579515 1G5Q0 ROBERT M. SIMPSON ARLINGTON VA USA

032705399 3FL70 ESPHERICAL.COM, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

032878584 1G5V0 ONLINE LEARNING NETWORK INC ARLINGTON VA USA

033759064 1W2H6 MCMORROW-GIBBONS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

035904544 1HQ34 BEVERLYG. BURKS ARLINGTON VA USA

036593457 06CT8 DECISIVE ANALYTICS CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

037753977 8R517 ROH INC ARLINGTON VA USA

037967101 1VDS2 QINETIQ INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

039394981 0NHW4 SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

039836825 3A3E3 LEVEL 5 TECHNOLOGIES, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

040531584 1XE10 JONES, TULLAR & COOPER, PC ARLINGTON VA USA

041678694 3NSK5 FRANK W ERWIN ARLINGTON VA USA

043028526 1WBJ5 THE TITAN CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

045105244 0EK21 INSIDE WASHINGTON PUBLISHERS ARLINGTON VA USA

046033408 3LKK1 CHARLES E SMITH REAL ESTATE SERVICES LP ARLINGTON VA USA

046043006 5T398 ZAVARELLAS MUSIC INC ARLINGTON VA USA

048598770 1JXK3 DORCAS N. GRACEY ARLINGTON VA USA

049208940 085U6 WASHINGTON DEMILITARIZATION COMPANY, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

053183695 0XB91 HOST MARRIOTT CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

053385464 3R302 WYLE LABORATORIES, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

057370025 0K8C2 HYATT CORPORATION DEL ARLINGTON VA USA

057422011 1VVY7 MILISENT LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

058193843 1KMC4 HMR TECH LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

062181321 1NGG3 POINT ONE, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

065302130 3L0A1 ANDREW COLSKY E ATTORNEY ARLINGTON VA USA

066784075 2F699 GIBBS & COX INC ARLINGTON VA USA

069277002 1UPM6 QUALITY PATENT PRINTING INC ARLINGTON VA USA

070107644 3QXV1 CESC CRYSTAL SQUARE FOUR LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

071248173 6V816 ANTEON CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

072647746 0WVX8 CHARLES E SMITH MANAGEMENT INC ARLINGTON VA USA

073506961 1PH96 ARES CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

074819244 8K215 RAYTHEON COMPANY ARLINGTON VA USA

077813194 0KND9 DENNISON SCHEINER SCHULTZ & WAKEMAN ARLINGTON VA USA

077818706 2Z892 SHELTERED OCCUPATIONAL CENTER OF NO ARLINGTON VA USA

081068579 1PRG1 EXECUTIVE APARTMENTS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

082364972 1MD67 ABILUS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

082948477 1MC16 MEDIASTORM, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

084915540 1PWH2 PRO-TELLIGENT , LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

086711566 3C707 NEXIUS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

088015417 3QRZ6 BRANCH BANKING AND TRUST CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

088172309 09MN3 HTBROWN CONSULTANCY ARLINGTON VA USA

090191185 1RW58 MERISTAR HOTELS & RESORT ARLINGTON VA USA

097791292 1WMG6 COUNCIL FOR LOGISTICS RESEARCH, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

098696925 0RM91 HOST MARRIOTT CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

099430634 0WUX1 THE RITZ CARLTON, PENTAGON CITY ARLINGTON VA USA

101038904 3SHB8 IMX TECHNOLOGIES ARLINGTON VA USA

101310399 9X228 BRADSON CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

101394042 1WV21 ALPHA TECHONOLOGY, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

101912772 1Y467 NATIONAL SECURITY RESEARCH INC ARLINGTON VA USA

101923365 3X287 ELS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

101923654 0WHT4 BOEING NORTH AMERICAN INC ARLINGTON VA USA

101924090 3TLF6 FIRST GATEWAY ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP ARLINGTON VA USA

103929899 4U192 PALISADES INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH SERVICES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

103929964 30GR9 ATLAS VISA SERVICE INC ARLINGTON VA USA

104589358 3BNU7 AMERICAN SOLUTIONS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

105245471 1XRW2 CHUGACH SUPPORT SERVICES ARLINGTON VA USA

105883628 1XYN5 DECISIVE ANALYTICS CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

106734452 35325 SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

107279734 1NM45 THE WHITTAKER GROUP ARLINGTON VA USA

110743072 3XNX3 SOLUTIONS MARKETING GROUP LTD ARLINGTON VA USA

111975418 3CUE3 CONNECTIONS CONSULTG ARLINGTON VA USA

112134759 1ZDP7 WORLEY, D. ROBERT ARLINGTON VA USA

112637723 8T547 PHANEUF ASSOCIATES INCORPORATED ARLINGTON VA USA

114152262 1YX28 WENDELIN, JANET ARLINGTON VA USA

114220481 3LDA5 ATN SYSTEMS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

114392160 3QBS1 FIRST CRYSTAL PARK ASSOCIATES LP ARLINGTON VA USA

114395759 1BWM1 VANGUARD RESEARCH, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

115520798 3A1U6 TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL CORP ARLINGTON VA USA

116211202 1NC30 DEFENSE PRODUCTS MARKETING INC ARLINGTON VA USA

117254388 3AZC6 NGUYEN, HA ARLINGTON VA USA

118946321 3D5P5 CHINOOK SYSTEMS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

119164049 3BMT0 ALION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

119609035 330B9 BELLMAN & COMPANY ARLINGTON VA USA

119949170 07NC9 NTEK INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

120833736 7X662 ENDMARK CORP ARLINGTON VA USA

121309004 38BL3 GARANT, JEANNE ARLINGTON VA USA

121356526 3B4J6 MARX GROUP LLC , THE ARLINGTON VA USA

121541408 3CAE9 GENERAL DYNAMICS ADVANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

122651990 3CG40 CARDINAL SYSTEMS AND ANALYSIS, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

123456787 35KC0 MISCELLANEOUS FOREIGN CONTRACTORS ARLINGTON VA USA

123673456 1VSN7 SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

124432308 3G4M0 DAVID C. ADCOCK ARLINGTON VA USA

124458493 3HTB8 AQIWO ARLINGTON VA USA

125241716 3CYR7 INNOVATECH INC ARLINGTON VA USA

125493416 1QC93 FIRST INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

126631519 1PJC3 INNOVATIVE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

126802151 3DC17 TENNESEE AEROSPACE SERVICES LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

127237613 3VXT8 GARY D KEYS ENTERPRISES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

127749906 3DM85 KOMICHAK, MICHAEL J ARLINGTON VA USA

128105256 3DVH6 DB DATA SYSTEMS LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

128252439 3DT10 PEERSAT, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

128738478 1PKX0 RL MOLINO CONSULTANTS ARLINGTON VA USA

130942993 3E8T5 NAVAL ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

131489218 311V0 INTEGRATED ACQUISITION ENVIRONMENT ARLINGTON VA USA

131604154 3FH24 ARMY, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE ARLINGTON VA USA

131630910 3LVQ0 CESC CONSTRUCTION TRS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

131944498 1R0V1 18TH STREET HOTEL ASSOCIATES, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

132041687 3FY18 ORGANIZATIONAL STRATGIES INTERNATIONAL, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

132238163 3UWB1 GENEVA ASSOCIATES ARLINGTON VA USA

132487419 3F8R2 MILTEC CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

133189089 1G4R3 CHUGACH TELECOMMUNICATIONS & COMPUTERS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

133846431 4U238 GENERAL DYNAMICS C4 SYSTEMS INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

134661656 3HSN2 OSI MARINE SERVICES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

134807577 6B120 THIOKOL CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

135252448 3G7X3 AARON CARLSON ARLINGTON VA USA

135264427 3G9U0 GABDULLIN, BIGELDIN ARLINGTON VA USA

135269244 3HEL1 ECKERSON, AMANDA ARLINGTON VA USA

136208829 3H6G5 MERRY, EDWARD WAYNE ARLINGTON VA USA

136480238 3RZK2 SALES, TOMAS J ARLINGTON VA USA

136666505 3JDV7 SPOUSES OF SERVICE PERSONNEL ARLINGTON VA USA

136721201 3JEU1 GPC SMALL BUSINESS ARLINGTON VA USA

136721250 3JDW4 GPC LARGE BUSINESS ARLINGTON VA USA

136721292 3JDV9 GPC FOREIGN BUSINESS ARLINGTON VA USA

137353186 3SQE0 GLOBAL RISK, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

137812298 1SHX5 DELTA RESOURCES, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

137942095 3FRT8 FEDERAL ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT & TRAINING SERVICE, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

138515411 1QYE8 ARMORSHIELD USA ARLINGTON VA USA

138567115 3KWD5 BARKER-BARZEL, REGINA M. ARLINGTON VA USA

139528553 3VCA5 CESC TWO SKYLINE PLACE LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

139698521 3SZV0 DYNAMICS RESEARCH CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

140027991 3LUR5 ORTEGO, CHRISTIAN ARLINGTON VA USA

140390167 3MMN9 CHANG, SHIRLEY ARLINGTON VA USA

140758843 3M6H3 TEKUNAN ,SUSY ARLINGTON VA USA

141049622 3MWG1 YONO, SUPRI ARLINGTON VA USA

141078449 3N1N2 BOUFERRACHE, INESSA ARLINGTON VA USA

141147012 3NME2 OLGA ONISHCHENKO ARLINGTON VA USA

141243472 3NAN9 BRANCH BANKING AND TRUST COMPANY OF VIRGINIA ARLINGTON VA USA

1412434720001 3NCH7 BRANCH BANKING AND TRUST COMPANY OF VIRGINIA ARLINGTON VA USA

141625173 3PLA0 MIKHAILOVA, LIUDMILA ARLINGTON VA USA

141708490 3NUL1 OSMAN A ESMER ARLINGTON VA USA

141881891 3PHC7 BECK, PETER ARLINGTON VA USA

141933882 3P3D3 M&M MINISTRY ENTERPRISES ARLINGTON VA USA

141946801 3PMJ5 GEZA FEKETEKUTY ARLINGTON VA USA

142492953 3QMG2 4U-SOLUTIONS LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

142541015 3QFL0 CESC PLAZA LIMITED PARTNERSHIP ARLINGTON VA USA

142878904 3Q4T9 SUTRISNO, PRIMA T. A. ARLINGTON VA USA

142890206 3QRH4 SUSAN GAMBLE ARLINGTON VA USA

142907596 320U8 JURICA, VANESA ARLINGTON VA USA

142980205 3Q3V0 JOANA M FERNANDES ARLINGTON VA USA

143158926 3QVY6 AMITRA,ALIYA ARLINGTON VA USA

143269608 3Q7Q3 R & D PROJECTS MARKETING, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

143609878 3RVP1 QINETIQ TEST, EVALUATION SERVICES AND TRAINING, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

144192929 086V8 AAS ENVIRONMENTAL INC ARLINGTON VA USA

144283327 3RYL7 CESC GATEWAY TWO LIMITED PARTNERSHIP ARLINGTON VA USA

144283426 3RYU0 FIFTEENTH SKYLINE ASSOCIATE LP ARLINGTON VA USA

144940587 3TDL5 KM MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

144944886 3S4T9 KRUGLER, ALEXANDRA ARLINGTON VA USA

145011990 3S7M4 CESC ONE SKLINE TOUR, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

145237181 3T0E7 HILLTOP CONSULTANTS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

145400847 3UWP7 CESC 1730 M STREET, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

145952144 3UHP0 SABLESTREAM INTERNATIONAL, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

145982307 321D2 CAMPBELL, GABRIELE ARLINGTON VA USA

146598961 3U6Z5 GHATTAS,ANWAR ARLINGTON VA USA

146679050 30BG3 AGUSTAWESTLANDBELL, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

146840090 3VBW5 CESC ONE SKYLINE PLACE LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

146877449 3VMF3 MATHILDA E HARRIS ARLINGTON VA USA

147298769 3VPJ2 RODRIGO S VIDAL ARLINGTON VA USA

147336155 3VQG6 POSTEDIGITAL LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

147466309 38LY3 CESC FOUR SKYLINE PLACE LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

147466432 3YAV5 CESC FIVE SKYLINE PLACE LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

148090681 1D1L7 THE BIONETICS CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

148447852 3WJT0 PACS INC ARLINGTON VA USA

148960607 3W3U7 BUSINESS ANCHOR GLOBAL, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

149178043 3W6A2 THIRTEENTH SKYLINE ASSOCIATES, LP ARLINGTON VA USA

149250016 3WXP3 EJB FACILITIES SERVICES ARLINGTON VA USA

149510401 3YLP3 MUNSEY, ROBERT ARLINGTON VA USA

149819141 3XDP2 CHIA-CHI HSIUNG ARLINGTON VA USA

150358021 1P6Y4 CHUGACH SYSTEMS INTEGRATION, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

150714699 8Z787 PRESEARCH INCORPORATED ARLINGTON VA USA

152225574 3XTV7 MARSTON , SARAH ARLINGTON VA USA

152436270 32BW7 DECISION POINT PARTNERS LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

152958919 3YAQ9 CME3 A CAPE FOX CORP. ARLINGTON VA USA

153906193 3JDX5 FOREIGN UTILITIES ARLINGTON VA USA

153985544 1BV29 INFORMATION NETWORK SYSTEMS, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

154614254 3BDW8 VAIL TECHNOLOGIES LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

156990517 07QP1 VIDEO SOFTWARE ASSOCIATES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

160341207 30JQ6 MAY, INC ARLINGTON VA USA

160379199 32JM9 NATSEC CONSULTING ARLINGTON VA USA

160610908 345K5 DPW DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT ARLINGTON VA USA

162764554 31FR5 WALKER, BAILUS JR ARLINGTON VA USA

164922499 306Q6 GRIPPO, KAREN ARLINGTON VA USA

165002127 1QKV6 TIESO & ASSOCIATES INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

166654298 309A1 XTAR, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

167149942 31PW9 CESC SEVEN SKYLINE PLACE, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

167229777 31JA7 HARRIS, JACK ARLINGTON VA USA

167234264 331M9 APOLLONIA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

167253363 362W3 HMR TECH/HJ FORD SBA JV, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

167445928 35HL9 STUDENT WORKERS IN LABORATORIES ARLINGTON VA USA

167446249 35KD3 NAVY VESSEL PURCHASES IN FOREIGN PORTS ARLINGTON VA USA

167662449 31ZZ3 ALPHA-Z LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS ARLINGTON VA USA

167874762 32EP2 TATE, KIRSTEN ARLINGTON VA USA

168020845 32EU8 ELEMENTAL DATA CORP ARLINGTON VA USA

169664989 1SGU2 PARADIGM TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

169802456 1QMK9 THE ESP GROUP LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

170113216 35GS7 AGUSTAWESTLAND NORTH AMERICA INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

171077717 349S8 MD ONLINE LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

171830144 1E9A1 BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON INC ARLINGTON VA USA

173062113 35KA7 E & T CONSULTING ARLINGTON VA USA

174980164 34TK9 FOX, DORINDA ARLINGTON VA USA

175303226 35EC2 AHMAD, KHALIS A. ARLINGTON VA USA

175303432 352Z4 MANDEE, HASHEM ARLINGTON VA USA

176054898 1Q944 AMT ASSOCIATES OF VIRGINIA LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

177862880 35MN3 LAW OFFICE OF PETER G. KORYTNYK ARLINGTON VA USA

178605705 3QYL9 CESC PARK TWO LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

179964747 1XQT4 TRANS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES INC. ARLINGTON VA USA

180011314 0BBF1 BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE ARLINGTON VA USA

180547119 0BTM3 RGS ASSOCIATES INC ARLINGTON VA USA

181175597 2X691 THE TITAN CORPORATION ARLINGTON VA USA

181532313 36TF8 FRY, DONALD E ARLINGTON VA USA

183372192 3JPE6 ANDRULIS CORPORATION/DRC ARLINGTON VA USA

184450653 35ZH3 STEPHENS, SHARMAN K. ARLINGTON VA USA

185739427 39PG7 VOX OPTIMA, LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

185930125 36QM3 SMITH, TODD A. PHOTOGRAPHY LLC ARLINGTON VA USA

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8 May 2005. Thanks to John Stanton.

Rumsfeld's Mystery Contingency Operations

CACI Gets Bigger

by John Stanton

According to the Federal Procurement Data System (fpds.gov) database, the US DOD's US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has awarded just over 29,000 contracts since at least October of 2003. A review of 2,000 of those contracts shows that awards go to the usual suspects like SAIC, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Some go to unusual suspects like Colombia Tri-Star pictures and Time Warner for movie and video distribution services.

Within that batch of 2,000 contracts are approximately 50 mentions of a "classified domestic contractor" and a "classified foreign contractor" operating at 18th & F Street, NW, Washington, DC. Tallying up the numbers, it turns out that these two contractors have received approximately $100 million for contingency operations in amounts ranging from $17K to $25M (USD). The bulk of the money has been let to the classified domestic contractor (the foreign contractor is based in the United Kingdom). At least 296 actions (awards, transfer of funds) have taken place on the contract and there have been at least 17 modifications. The contract is consistently extended and will run to at least September of 2006.

According to fpds.gov, the effort operates under the guidelines established in 10 USC 101(a)(13). That section of the US Code states the following:

"(13) The term "contingency operation" means a military operation that- (A) is designated by the Secretary of Defense as an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing military force; or (B) results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the uniformed services under Section 688, 12301 (a), 12302, 12304, 12305, or 12406 of this title, chapter 15 of this title, or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress."

The Defense Systems Information Agency, National Capitol Area (DISA-NCA) has also funded the effort under the ominous heading "other justice, public order, safety act".

The fpds.gov system provides the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) number for the domestic contractor which is 790238638. Punching that into the D&B database returns this message: "contractor not disclosed, 2011 Crystal City, Suite 911, Arlington, Virginia. Plugging that information into google.com, it turns out that the former American Management Systems, Inc. (ams.com) was located in Suite 911. CGI (cgi.com), "the largest information services company in the world", bought AMS and retained the not-so interesting information services portion of AMS. CGI sold off the very interesting AMS defense and intelligence unit and its people, run by Gil Guarino, in 2004 for a hefty $1B (USD).

And the buyer? CACI International, the group that received unwelcome attention for its role in the torture scandals in Iraq that plague the company and the US government to this day. For its purchase of a piece of the "classified domestic contractor" CACI was awarded "the Hottest M&A Deal" by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in May 2004. According to investorideas.com, "The huge CACI-CG-AMS transaction involved thousands of employees and over $1 billion in cash. For CACI, it was the largest acquisition in the company's 42-year history. The transaction increased CACI's workforce by almost one quarter -- from some 7,600 employees to more than 9,400 -- brought in more than 300 new contracts, and raised revenue to $1 billion for the first time in the company's history."

Having reviewed just 50 or so entries for this contract (Dxxxxx04xxxxx), and ending up at a $100M USD value, one can only speculate on how many more of the "classified" awards are contained within the remaining 27,000 USSOCOM, DISA-NCA entries. Perhaps it runs into the hundreds of millions. And for what? Domestic operations? Interrogation and rendering? Homeland security? Intelligence gathering and assassination? It's all speculation since only Rumsfeld, Guarino and CACI's Jack London know for sure.

(If you want to learn more on the matter, go to fpds.gov and register--it's free. Use this information: Award ID=9700. IDV ID=9700. Contracting Office=H92236 and HC1047.)

--

John Stanton is a Virginia Based writer specializing in political & national security matters. He is the author of America 2004: A Power But Not Super. Reach him at cioran123 [at] yahoo.com.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

those who forget or ignore history's lessons are surely doomed to repeat them...

those who forget or ignore history's lessons are surely doomed to repeat them...


DANIEL SHEEHAN: Well, good afternoon. It's a real pleasure. After the years of fighting in the trenches against the contra supporters here in the United States, it's finally time for the American people to find out who those supporters are, what they've been doing, and what it is that's going to result in their going to federal prison. Now, everyone here has heard about the scandal, the downing of Eugene Hasenfus and the C-123 cargo plane he was piloting on Oct. 5 [1986], and later in November [Nov. 25] the startling revelations by Attorney General Edwin Meese about the secret sales of arms, spare parts for the F-14's, and the TOW missiles to Iran, and the diversion of some of the profits from those sales to the contras in Central America.

We also know that, as a result of these scandals, the legislative branch of our government has established two select committees, one in the U.S. Senate and one in the House of Representatives, to investigate the need for additional legislation and supervisory structures over the executive branch of our government. We also know that within the executive department there has been appointed a special prosecutor, Mr. Walsh, to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing of those involved in this affair.

What is less known is that there is an investigation and prosecution going on in the judicial branch of our government since May of 1986. There has been on file a federal racketeering charge in the federal court of Miami. This is the case that you may have read about Friday morning [Jan. 30, 1987], where the U.S. District Court of Miami has thrown out all of the motions of the defendants to dismiss that case. As a consequence, we are authorized to proceed with federal subpoena power to investigate the criminal racketeering activity of these people.

Now, the questions that are floating around in our nation today have been highlighted in a Senate Intelligence Committee Preliminary Report, which was released on Thursday. This report left over one dozen major questions. Some of these are: Did President Reagan know of the diversion of funds to the contras arising from the sale of arms to Iran? Did President Reagan approve of the activities of Lt. Col. Oliver North: dealing with the Iranians, and dealing with the diversion of funds from the Iranian gun sale to the contras?

Who, indeed, are these shadowy arms merchants that we are beginning to hear about: Ghorbanifar, Hakim, Khashoggi? Who are these people? What role did the government play in the transfer of these arms to the Iranians? Who is this Theodore Shackley, who Khashoggi says, is the man who first suggested the idea of trading arms for hostage in the Middle East? What role is it that this Mr. Buckley plays inthe exchange of arms, this man who was the CIA station chief in Beirut and who was one of the hostages? And more generally, when, and where in the world will this end? Now, these are a few of the questions that we know the special prosecutor is looking into and the select committees of our Congress are looking into.

What we want to do today is to share with you the charges that have been placed against these people in the judicial branch of our government, so that you can have a road map. You can't tell the players without first looking at the program. This, indeed, is the program of the upcoming criminal indictments which we'll be hearing about over the course of the next year, which in our judgement will precede the impeachment of the President of the United States.

What we want to do first is review briefly the history of our common experience that sets the context for these extraordinary hearings and investigations.

We all recall the days which seem to be in the dark distant past, in January of 1979, when there was still a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House of Representatives, and President Carter was in the White House. We remember that Tom Harkin from Iowa and a number of his colleagues succeeded in passing the Harkin Amendment, which prohibited the distribution of military hardware and military assistance to any government that was systematically engaging in the violation of the human rights of their own citizens.

Under that resolution of Congress, signed into law by President Carter in early 1979, there was a resolution cutting off all military aid to the dictatorial government of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. This was taken up in accordance with the condemnation, which had spread across our world, of that regime -- even resulting in the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops formally condemning that government. The bishops declared that the Somoza regime had no legitimacy. Indeed, they came as close as we've ever seen to expressly authorizing the rising up of the people against this government on the grounds of justification.

After the passage of these resolutions cutting off all military aid to the Somoza government, a peculiar thing happened. Somehow, the flow of arms did not stop completely. It was discovered that there was some secret source of funding and supplying of arms to that dictatorship that was not stopped after the Congress condemned it, after the president of the United States prohibited it, and, indeed, even after Stansfield Turner, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had forbidden it.

The flow of arms did not sustain that criminal government, however. In July of 1979, Anastasio Somoza was forced to flee his country and fled to the Bahamas. And very soon thereafter, we began to hear rumors of some group of former Somoza generals setting themselves up in Honduras and mounting a war against the new Sandinista government of Nicaragua, the government that was recognized across the world, indeed, even by the U.S. government, which had for so long supported the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.

However, there were other things that were capturing the attention of the American public. There were the hostages who were being held in Iran. Indeed, these hostages became the Achilles' heel of the Carter administration. The weakness, the vacillation demonstrated by that administration in the face of this type of humiliation of our country, led to the rise and the challenge of Ronald Reagan.

Many of us said to each other, "Who would have ever believed that Ronald Reagan could have been considered a serious candidate for the presidency of this country?" But because of vacillation, the lack of effectiveness demonstrated by the Carter administration in the face of that humiliation, Ronald Reagan rose to the occasion and became the Republican nominee for president and was elected.

Now, we all recall that peculiar scene I think, back during the inauguration, watching Ronald Reagan being sworn in and Carter going out. And at the same time, we saw the bulletins flashing as the hostages in Iran were being released, being shipped out, being put on planes and sent back. This was a strange relationship between the outgoing administration and the incoming of another in that terrible hostage crisis.

But when the hostages had been returned and President Reagan had been sent to the White House, we immediately began to hear from the administration about this horrible Sandinista regime down in Central America, how they were a threat to our national security. The President came on and told us how this rising communist government in Central America was only a couple days' drive from Harlingen, Texas. And each time he came on to talk about this, the distance decreased. Soon it became a day's drive. Then it was just a couple hours away.

Indeed, when questions began to arise about this government down there, we began to hear about this so-called contra force, this force of former Somoza generals, the very men who had led the torturing and the mass slaughter of their own citizens, and who are now being talked about by the president of the United States as persons who were the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.

We recall together, I believe, the early protestations of President Reagan, that he had nothing to do with these contras. He was in no way participating in supporting them. But he wished them well. And, when the media and the American people failed to believe that, and began to turn up evidence that the Central Intelligence Agency had, since June of 1981, been providing military equipment, arms, explosives, and training to these contras, our President, who had been on television swearing that it wasn't true, then said, "Oh, you mean those contras. Yes, by the way, we have been giving them support. But let me give you my word once again that the only reason that we're supplying them is to interdict the flow of guns and arms from the terrible communist government of Nicaragua to the rebels in El Salvador."

When the American people failed to believe that, and the American journalist community failed to believe that, President Reagan assigned the Central Intelligence Agency to do an evaluation [of alleged Nicaraguan arms being sent to El Salvador]. Indeed, a man by the name of David McMichaels from the CIA was assigned to do the investigation. And when McMichaels concluded that there was no evidence of any sort of shipments of arms going from Nicaragua to El Salvador, he was terminated. And then the President gave us his word once again. He said, "Oh yes indeed they had been doing more than just trying to interdict the arms." In fact, he said that what he was trying to do was to apply pressure to the new Sandinista government, to force them by military pressure form the contras to live up to their promises made during the revolution against Somoza -- all of those promises, which, we were supposed to recall, President Reagan supported so much during his election.

The hypocrisy of it is astonishing. So astonishing, indeed, that the American people did seem to remember that President Reagan had totally opposed the Sandinistas. And now his protestation as trying to make them live up to their promises rang hollow once again to the American public.

Nothing demonstrated the falsehood of his accusations so much as the revelation that the Central Intelligence Agency in the end of 1983 had been caught mining the harbor of Corinto in Nicaragua, and, indeed, passing out manuals recommending that the contras undertake political assassinations of the mayors, town clerks, and other functionaries within the civilian government of the Sandinistas.

That was too much for the American public, and they began to demand that all support for the contras cease. That was the point at which President Reagan began to insist that it was essential to supply the contras and to adopt them as our allies in order to "stop the establishment of a Soviet military base in Central America."

Now, we then saw the growing of a full-scale war going on in Central America. You recall the extraordinary comments of our President saying -- in the midst of the thousands of people being slaughtered, the mass of civil wars going on in Central America -- that unless our Congress gave $100 million to these contras, there was going to be a major disruption in Central America. The extraordinariness of it all seems to leave the American people numb.

Then, in March of 1984, the U.S. Congress passed the Boland Amendment, explicitly forbidding the White House and any of the executive deparment agencies involved in intelligence activities from giving any aid whatsoever to the contras -- either direct or indirect. This is where we were in March of 1984, with some 73 percent of the American people totally refusing to give any aid to the contras.

Then we began to hear of the private group that was coming to the fore, the one led by Major General John K. Singlaub, then president of the World Anti-Communist League, to undertake a major private operation in support of the contras. The we saw the President of the United States on television stating, "I am a contra." This was the situation that we face in March of 1984.

I, and the rest of us at the Christic Institute, with the rest of our fellow Americans, simply watched in amazement as the events surrounded us. But then, in March of 1984, we had a phone call that began the long road that has led us here today. We were contacted at the Christic Institute by the Catholic Bishop of Brownsville, Texas. This is the Harlingen District of Texas, which, in fact, had been the base for the first stop on the underground railroad in the sanctuary movement. The Bishop of Southern Texas in Brownsville, John Fitzpatrick, contacted us and told us that some of the people at Casa Ramiro (the sanctuary home that he had established within his diocese) had been arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The unfortunate fact was that they had been bringing two Central American refugees out of the Harlingen District in the Bishop's car. This immediately attracted the interest of the Bishop, and, indeed, of the U.S. attorney in Brownsville, who brough criminal indictments against Catholic Sister Diane Mullencamp.

Sister Mullencamp had been driving the care with the two refugees from El Salvador, a translator -- a woman by the name of Stacey Merkt -- and a young reporter from the Dallas Times Herald, Jack Bishop.

All of these people had been arrested and charged with unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. The Christic Institute ws asked by the church to come to Texas to undertake the first of the criminal defenses for the people from the sanctuary movement.

When we arrived (myself and my chief investigator on that case, a Catholic priest named Father Wally Kosabowski, who had served in Nicaragua when the Sandinistas were still struggling there), we began to prepare for the preliminary hearing in that case. Then we were contacted by a Methodist minister who came to us in a very high state of anxiety. He said to us that he had been preparing to discuss in his church the establishment of a sanctuary when he was approached by a field agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This FBI agent had told this minister that he and he parishioners should have noting to do with the Catholic Church or the sanctuary movement, stating that he was in possession of information that the Catholic Church was, under the guise of the sanctuary movement, smuggling known communist terrorists into the United States. He went on to say that in the event that our President was forced to undertake direct military action in Central America (either in El Salvador or Nicaragua) that these known communist terrorists were going to be organizing themselves into military cadres and launch military strikes against U.S. military bases, communication centers, and water resource systems.

Now, this caused some distress to the Methodist minister, and after some consultation with the Bishop's staff in the Harlingen District, he came to me. And he said, "Look, I understand that you served as general counsel for the U.S. Jesuit Headquarters Social Ministry Office in Washington. I know that I can trust you and you'll tell me if there's anything going on." I had to become a bit serious, and I said to the minister, "Listen Reverend, if that were going on, at least the Jesuits would know about it. And as their lawyer in the Social Ministry Office, I would have been informed, and I had not been."

And I was positive that it was not true. I gave him our assurances that he could return to the discussions at his church without the anxieties with which he had come to us. Well, that was kind of humorous until, approximately a week later, Father Kosabowski and I were contacted by yet a second minister, who in another church had been approached by yet a different FBI agent, and had been told exactly the same thing. Well, now that was much more serious.

Now, we had a reason to investigate, to find out just where these stories were coming from. Because if the Justice Department, against whom we were defending in this case, really believed those stories, we were obviously going to be confronted with a much higher degree of militancy than we had any justifiable right to expect. And so after the preliminary hearing, we returned to Washington, D.C.

I established contact with some investigative reporters and some former federal agents, who are now private investigators, whom I had encountered in a number of my former incarnations as an attorney for the New York Times, NBC, and as an attorney in the offices of F. Lee Bailey. I had come to know a number of these people and knew they had very good sources. I asked them to investigate for us, as a favor to us, if they would. They did.

I learned in the second week of April 1984, that President Reagan, on April 6, 1984, had signed a highly classified National Security Decision Directive, initiating a highly secret readiness exercise in the United States. But this was a readiness exercise which was to be undertaken domestically to determine what types of steps had to be taken by various federal agencies here, stateside, in the event that the President was required to undertake direct military action in Central America.

The readiness exercise was going to be code-named "Rex 84." The operation in Central America -- the direct military operation in conjunction with which this readiness exercise was to be undertaken -- was to be code-named "Operation Night Train." As we began to investigate this, we discovered that the whole readiness exercise ws going to be undertaken and supervised by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). That came as somewhat of a surprise to us since the Federal Emergency Management Agency was supposed to be involved in hurricane relief, flood relief, and civil defense. These are the geniuses who brought you the post-nuclear war scenario: how they would re-establish the phone system after an all-out nuclear attack on the United States; how they would move the entire population of Los Angeles out to, I think, one of the small towns out here in the mountains in a couple days, which is what they figured it would take them.

VOICE: The Tahachapee.

SHEEHAN: The Tahachapee. That's right. If this was the group that was supervising this readiness exercise, then that did not instill a great deal of confidence in us that that readiness exercise was a serious operation. However, our further investigations revealed to us that the Reagan administration had brought to Washington to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency a man by the name of Louis Gifrada. Louis Gifrada has been the "comandante" [commander] of the California-organized Crime Training Institute, which had specialized in anti-terrorist training for police departments. And the comandante, as he liked to be called, had been made the general of the National Guard of California under Edwin Meese, the special assistant attorney general at that time. And they had undertaken here in your state a special secret program, which was code named "Operation Cable Splicer."

This secret program was one whereby the then-Governor Ronald Reagan, his assistant attorney general, and the comandante, the general of the National Guard in California, would undertake to establish a state of martial law in your state in the event that Black nationalists joined forces with the anti-Vietnam War community and tried to replace the established authority of the State of California.

Now, I pursued the investigation, seeing that his was a strange person who was heading up this operation. We learned through a source that we developed inside FEMA that there was a plan whereby FEMA would deputize members of the Department of Defense, and then the state National Guard group. They would then organize civilian groups called "State Defense Forces." Their job, under the readiness exercise (Rex 84), was going to be -- in event of direct military action in Central America by the President -- to round up 400,000 undocumented Central American aliens and place them in 10 military detention camps throughout the United States, all within a two-week period.

Now, any similarity that this program might have to the Japanese-American roundup after Pearl Harbor is not coincidental. The fact is, everyone in our generation has continued to be appalled by that mass internment of the Japanese-Americans, and yet the administration still dares to go forward with this. This contradiction is explained only by the legal brilliance of Ed Meese. For, you see, Ed Meese has made a distinction here, saying, "Well, these 400,000 people aren't even Americans. Therefore, since they're not even supposed to be here anyhow, it'll be perfectly legal for us to incarcerate them since they will be a threat to the national security during a direct military operation."

Well, given the fact that we were working with the sanctuary movement at the time, you can imagine the degree of distress that this caused. I communicated this information to the leadership of the sanctuary movement.

Then, continuing the investigation, we discovered that there was a second part to Rex 84. This is designated, originally enough, Rex 84 Bravo. This particular part of the operation had to do with moving large amounts of military equipment from the Department of Defense to the state National Guard unit, down to these State Defense Forces. And we learned that these State Defense Forces had recently been created by means of the passage of these very little-known statutes in three states: Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. In these states, the only people who had heard about the setting up of these State Defense Forces were the men who participated in the weekend war games at "survivalist" training camps and in the "Soldier of Fortune" groups.

These were the men who were signing up to participate as members of these State Defense Forces. We discovered that there was a source that we had developed who was talking with a colonel in the National Guard, who said, "Yes, there was going to be this great readiness exercise coming up." Quantities of military equipment were coming down to the National Guard to go to these State Defense Forces, but very interestingly, when these millions of dollars of equipment were distributed during the readiness exercise, half of it would later disappear, and a neat bookkeeping trick would cover the tracks.

For example, say $25 million is the original cost to the United States of this military equipment. After the equipment is transferred to these State Defense Forces for the readiness exercise, about one-half of it is logged back into stores at the end of the exercise, but valued at its replacement cost. The replacement cost is typically twice the original cost because of the increased paperwork, handling, and manufacturing costs associated with small orders. So the books balance [with repect to dollars and cents], and yet half of the originally issued military equipment has "disappeared."

And then we discovered that it was to be smuggled to the contras in Central America.

So, by pure happenstance, we, who have been working with the churches, the synagogue groups in the Sanctuary Movement, had stumbled across a program whereby the administration was trying to smuggle embezzled military equipment to the contras, here in April and May of 1984. When we learned this, I re-established contact with a number of our investigators and journalists to ascertain if they had learned anything similar to this.

And at that point, I was contacted by a journalist, an old friend of mine, who brought the next piece of startling information to me. He told me that he had gone down to Florida over the holiday season [the Christmas holidays and the holiday season of 1983] and had discovered a contra military training base inside the United States, down in lower Florida (down below Miami). And he had gone there to interview these people in late 1983 and had come to know that there was an American group organizing itself here in the United States to provide military assistance and financial assistance to the contras.

They, indeed, were going to be holding a meeting down in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in January of 1984. And so, this young reporter, being the enterprising soul that he was, went back to his newspaper and asked if he would be allowed to go and report that meeting. He was told no, that he could not go. Well then, he recommended that some other reporter, more experienced than he, go. And they said no.

So he took a leave of absence from the paper, and on his own nickle went down to Honduras and went to the hotel and went to the lobby of the hotel, bought a newspaper, put the newspaper up in front of him and sat around the lobby and watched all these guys coming and going in their Gucci camouflaged suits and trading their patches, comparing the length of their guns. They were engaged in this rather extraordinary convocation.

He simply sat there and watched all of these people. Finally, he started talking to a man sitting next to him, and said, "Look, I'm a writer. I'm really interested in what's going on down here." And this man said, "Hey, well look, I know all these guys, why don't I show you around? Why don't I introduce you to all these people?" And he did.

He took this young fellow under his arm and brought him around and introduced him to everyone. This man was Tom Posey, the founder of the Civilian Military Assistance Group for the United States (CMA). And, lo and behold, this young journalist was ushered into the inner sanctum of the Civilian Military Assistance Group.

Indeed he sat in on Executive Committee meetings of CMA and he didn't know what in the world he was supposed to do with what he was learning, because he was learning about the National Guard in Alabama, the 20th Special Forces declaring all kinds of arms surplus and giving them to the Civilian Military Assistance Group, who were then bringing them to Florida and flying them out to Ilopango Air Force Base in El Salvador.

When I began to discuss this with him, we discovered that the particular military equipment in Louisiana was supposed to be brought to a particular warehouse and flown out to Ilopango, where it, along with this stuff from Alabama, was all going to the farm of a millionaire rancher down in Costa Rica. This rancher is a man by the name of John Hull, who had become the major ally for the contras there. Well, we were quite distressed by this and felt that we should hurry up and find ourselves a client, since we are an organization that is tax-exempt, a public-interest organization like the American Civil Liberties Union or the NAACP. We're allowed to engage in fomenting litigation.

We began that quest there in the beginning of June of 1984. At that point, I had to go down to Texas to do the sanctuary trial. We did the trial. We won the thing on appeal -- had all the charges dismissed against the sanctuary workers -- and provided what we hoped was an important base of law. At the conclusion of that trial, I returned to Washington and was contacted immediately by this young journalist, and he said, "Dan, you've got to come meet me. Something very important has happened."

I went along with my investigator, Father William J. Davis, to meet him. We had a meeting out in a public park where he wanted to meet. He said, "Look, while you were gone, Tom Posey came to Washington. He met me and brought me to a public park and introduced me to a man by the name of Rob Owens. This man, Rob Owens, began to explain to me that he was going to be the private liaison with the National Security Council, working for a man by the name of Lieut. Oliver North, and that he, Rob Owens, was going to be the man who met with the contra leaders and took their orders for weapons, made sure they got their weapons, and maintained liaison with the White House in direct defiance of the Congressional ban against White House support for contras."

This young journalist wanted to know, asking my advice as a lawyer, whether that was as illegal as it appeared. I, indeed, explained to him at some length (this is now at the end of June 1984, sitting in his living room) that what we had here was a full-scale criminal conspiracy inside the White House to violate the United States' Neutrality Act, to violate the United States' Arms Export Control Act, to violate various banking laws for the transfer of these monies -- and that, in fact, what we were looking at is the impeachment of any U.S. government official who was participating in that program.

At that point, the young journalist brought his information to his board of editors, who looked at the information and told him that he would not be allowed to write any stories on that unless he could talk to someone who was directly involved and who made their statements under oath. Now, that's not something that a journalist usually encounters. You don't usually go to a guy and say, "Hello. I've brought with me here a stenographic reporter and a notary public to sign you up under oath. Let me interview you here."

So, he was quite distressed and thought that something had to be done. Given the resources that we had at the Christic Institute, the experience that we had in doing the Karen Silkwood case, prosecuting the Klan and doing the Three Mile Island case, and others, we decided to devote our resources, time, and energy to making this happen. We decided to work and find a client.

In the beginning of July 1984, I had to fly down to get the depositions of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Party people down in Greensboro, N.C., in that police department, and in the Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Division. We went forward, prosecuted those people, won a half-million bucks, and kicked them around and won. We finished that case.

So, I was out of town some months at that point. And when I came back to town, we then began to have more meetings. We learned, that while we'd been engaged in these cases, an extraordinary event had taken place in Nicaragua. What had happened was that Eden Pastora, who was the famous Comandante Zero, the Sandinista hero who had led major military operations against the dictator Somoza, had become disenchanted with the Sandinista government.

The Sandinista government, in response to the attacks and harassments by the contras, had begun to take less and less popular positions on things, had shut down some of the media, had taken steps that made it very difficult for them to provide supplies to the stores for the people. It was becoming more and more difficult for them.

And this Comandante Zero, Eden Pastora, had become disenchanted and had decided that he was going to leave Nicaragua. Indeed, he was going to go south into Costa Rica. He was going to set up a new contra group (ARDE), an independent contra group. This was not a contra group working with the generals up in Honduras, who were working with the CIA under Bill Casey. They were going to set up an independent contra force. But while we were doing the St. Croix trial and the Greensboro trial, there had been pressure applied to this group, ARDE, (down in Costa Rica) and to Eden Pastora, to force them to come under the command of the Honduran military generals. These were the selfsame old Somoza generals.

In May of 1984, Eden Pastora called a public press conference and there he was going to denounce the FDN (the major contra movement, the one in Honduras) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for attempting to co-opt and subvert his nationalistic contra group. At that press conference held in a jungle camp of Eden Pastora on May 30, Memorial Day of 1984, you can see the videotape to this day as they came up the river into the jungle camp and the numerous journalists climbed out. You can see among them a Danish journalist with a large, aluminum camera case with a baseball cap on, walking with them, chatting merrily as he went into the building where the press conference was to be held. You see this man, Per Anker Hansen, move to the front of the room on the videotape and place his camera case next to the table where Eden Pastora would hold his press conference.

When Eden Pastora comes into the room and all of the journalists begin to surge to the front of the base camp room, and then, as the press conference starts, you see a young woman, Maria, bring a cup of coffee to Comandante Zero and accidentally kick over the camera case. It falls on its side, and no one pays much attention. She gives him the coffee and the press conference commences. What you then see is this alleged Danish journalist begin to skulk out of the room, moving across the side of the room on the video tape and out the door.

Immediately thereafter, a deathly roar engulfs the building, destroying everyone in sight, killing eight people immediately, killing three international journalists, including an American journalist (Linda Frazier), blowing off the arms and legs, blinding, tearing off the limbs of the journalists assembled. Twenty-four people were massively injuried and, indeed, everyone would have been slaughtered by the bomb had it not been for the fortuitous event of it having been turned over on its side.

Because, it turns out, the bomb had been made of deadly C-4 explosives. This type of explosive is second only to nuclear devices in its explosive capacity, a type which is very difficult to obtain unless you have contact with the Central Intelligence Agency or other intelligence groups. Because it had been turned on its side, it blew the entire roof off the building and blew the entire floor out instead, laying waste to everyone as it exploded laterally.

Now, when the bulletins went out across Costa Rica that this had happened, one of the people listening at home on the radio was a young reporter by the name of Martha Honey. She was an American reporter, but she reported for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and for the London Sunday Times. Her husband, Tony Avirgan, had been at this press conference. Tony Avirgan was the ABC television cameraman who had been assigned to film the press conference. He had been devastated by the bomb. It tore out a portion of his side, had burnt one whole arm and his hand, and blown shrapnel into his face and chest. He was in critical condition and was flown out by helicopter to the hospital and later to the United States, where he underwent months of plastic surgery.

Martha Honey, being the person that she is, insisted upon going to the United States Newspaper Guild asking for a grant to look for who it was that had perpetrated this horrendous bombing, and asking to work with her fellow journalists to bring these people to justice. She began her investigation and then had an extraordinary event occur.

In early 1985, during her investigation, a young man by the name of Carlos Rojas Chinchilla, a young carpenter down in Costa Rica, was sitting at a restaurant and bar a couple of blocks from the U.S. Embassy when in came three men. One of them was left at the door, the other two left. And the man [David] who was left at the door looked around, and came over to Carlos, and sat down and told him that he wanted Carlos to help him, that he had to escape, that he was a participant in the terrorist bombing at La Penca, which had murdered the people at the press conference. He said he was part of a terrorist band of contras who were going to blow up the U.S. Embassy and who were going to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, Lewis Tambs.

He went on to say that these terrorists were based on the ranch of a millionaire American rancher by the name of John Hull; that these had been the people, indeed, who had carried out the assassination of the journalists and had planned to kill the U.S. ambassador. Such a major event, he continued, would provoke the United States, cause it to blame the bombing of their embassy on the Sandinista government and to result in a military strike against that government.

This man shared the information with Carlos, and Carlos in his utter amazement later learned that some people had been arrested (a few people from Hull's ranch) who fit the description of these people. And when he realized that what he had heard was true, he went to the only North American family he knew to have them go warn the Embassy. The daughter of that family happened to know Martha Honey, and went to Martha, and shared the information. They then went to talk to this man, David.

They began a series of interviews with David through Carlos -- in the public parks, on tape recorders, in churches, in hotel basements, all across the city -- gathering the information about this terrorist group. One day, Carlos and David were caught by John Hull's terrorists in a park and thrown in the back of a car, held at gunpoint, and brought to the ranch where they were held in a wooden shed.

David told them that they were going to be killed if they didn't get out of there. And so, the two of them, taking their lives in their hands, leaped on this guard and knocked him down and broke through a window and ran into the jungle in a fusilade of bullets, and escaped through the jungle. Eventually they made their way back to civilization, where they hitched a ride. They shared their story with the Costa Rican authorities and with the intelligence people there.

However, the [Luis Alberto] Monge government that was in power at the time, was sympathetic to the contras, and so, the journalists themselves had to continue the investigation alone. A week later they learned that David, who had run off to another place, had been recaptured by John Hull's men, had been brought to Hull's ranch, tortured to death, and buried there.

At that point, they had to take Carlos out of the country. Then, death threats began to come daily to the home telephone of Martha and Tony Avirgan, telling them that they had to stop this investigation, that they would be killed, that their children would be killed if they did not leave.

They then contacted their journalist acquaintances and asked for help from all across the nation. And they contacted us at the Christic Institute and asked us to help. That is what we do at the Christic Institute. That's why we come to people such as you to ask your help to get this information out across the country. And when we began to investigate, we began to confirm this story of this terrorist group and, of course, we had the additional information about the movement of guns and explosives and hardware from the United States down to this ranch.

At that point, Martha and Tony prepared a report which they published in Costa Rica, and John Hull sued them for libel. In Costa Rica, libel is a felony criminal charge of which you are presumed guilty unless you can prove that you are innocent. The Christic Institute went in and undertook the defense of Martha and Tony, helped them organize witnesses and bring them to the bar of justice, and brought them on to testify, and defeated John Hull.

And very, very prophetically, John Hull, in a major tantrum at the end of the trial, stormed out of the court room, turned and said, "This isn't over yet!" And little did we know how right he was. We had resolved at that point to undertake a thorough investigation and prosecution of these people. What we had learned from our investigation was that this terrorist band on John Hull's ranch had been doing yet more.

In addition to bringing in all the military equipment, and training and dispensing the terrorists in Nicaragua, they had been funding their operation by the smuggling of hundreds of tons of cocaine from Columbia. This was possible because they have virtual carte blanche to bring this military equipment from the United States down to the ranch, and to Ilopango. In fact, the U.S. government officials and the Reagan administration were turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to those shipments. They would move the planes down with the military equipment down to Ilopango in El Salvador, then to the Costa Rican ranch, load up with 600 pounds of cocaine, and fly back into the United States, coming back up the same channel that they had cleared through the radar when bringing these guns to those who are the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.

As we began to research the statutes that were available, we discovered, to our amazement, that there was this federal racketeering statute. There was, in fact, a federal criminal statute -- the same one they used to prosecute the eight mob leaders in New York. At the very bottom of this statute, it said: By the way, if you run a business and your business has been injured by the activities of such a criminal enterprise, you can sue that criminal enterprise and recover three times your actual damages.

We began to interview people and discovered that Tony Avirgan was a private businessman. In fact, he was a freelance cameraman hired by ABC to go to the La Penca press conference. The bombing had destroyed all his television equipment. His business had been injured. And, being the defenders of free enterprise that we are, we determined that we are going to vindicate the business community of America and close down this criminal enterprise.

Now, all of this was preliminary to finding out the really important information in this case. Once we had studied the appropriate federal statute, we learned that when you undertake to prosecute a particular overt act of a criminal enterprise under the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), you also sue all of the members who are participants in the more general criminal enterprise of which that is just one overt act. And so, we turned our attention to the criminal enterprise itself which, of course, was the federal criminal conspiracy to violate the U.S. Neutrality Act, to mount a criminal war against the government of Nicaragua.

When we began to investigate who was participating in that enterprise, we had another fortuitous visit. This one was from a former military intelligence agent who came to us and said, "Don't you realize who the people are that you're dealing with?" We didn't know whether to pretend to be very knowledgeable and, therefore, stupid or to say like we always do: "No, we don't know much more than the American people know about what the facts are." And he said, "I will tell you who they are and when you undertake your investigation, you will discover what they are."

"The people you want," he said, "are Theodore Shackley, Thomas Clines, Richard Secord, Albert Hakim, Rafael Chi Chi Quintero, and a man by the name of Eric Von Marbod."

"Okay," we said. And we went off to find out who these people were.

An extraordinary series of events began to unfold which resulted in the ruling that you heard about this past Friday. In this ruling the federal court in Miami said that what you have here is an ongoing criminal enterprise dating from 1960. Because what we had discovered is that the man who was directing the operations, supplying the guns and the military hardware to the contras in Central America was, indeed, a man by the name of Theodore Shackley.

Theodore Shackley had been the worldwide director of covert operations for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1976 under George Bush, when he was the director of the CIA. Theodore Shackley had been the man in 1961 who had run the major contra operation against the Cuban socialist revolutionary government starting in 1961. But the U.S. CIA had run a secret covert war against Cuba about which the American public knew virtually nothing, both before and after the Bay of Pigs. And I will now tell you what it is we all need to know.

We discovered that back in late 1959, when Fidel Castro drove the dictator Batista from Cuba, he also drove out the organized crime syndicate from Cuba, the major criminal operation that was operating under the name of Resorts International. It was Meyer Lanskey's major criminal syndicate that ran the casinos and hotels and prostitution rings in Havana. They indeed were business partners with Batista, and they were all driven from Havana in 1959. They came to Southern Florida, and there they were contacted by Richard Nixon, then vice president in the Eisenhower administration.

Indeed, Richard Nixon was the point man responsible for establishing inside the National Security Council a secret committee that was to be responsible for mounting a contra- like war against Cuba. They had determined that they did not like the politics or the economics of the Cuban government, and therefore, they were going to secretly recruit the ultra right-wing supporters of the dictator Batista, train them at a military base in Southern Florida -- in the Cays -- and set up another military training base in Guatemala.

There they would train these people to constitute a "contra" guerrilla force, and they would undertake attacks into Cuba, riding on Swiss boats. They would blow up bridges, burn crops, poison materials to be exported from Cuba -- all to destroy their economic infrastructure. This operation began in late 1959 and it was code-named "Operation 40." But not satisfied with that, the then-vice president, Richard Nixon, received communications from a man by the name of Santos Trafficante.

Santos Trafficante had been the lieutenant for Meyer Lanskey, running the Havana operations for the New York mob. He had come to Florida and learned about this secret "Operation 40," since a large portion of the people who had been recruited by the CIA to work in it had been the criminal elements working for Batista and Santos Trafficante in Havana. After learning about it, he wanted to help. Being the red-blooded patriot that he was, and, of course, as the beneficiary of a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise that he had lost when he was driven out of Havana, he wished to re-establish it. And he reached out to two men.

One was a man by the name of John Roselli. The other man was a man by the name of Sam Giancana, the don of the mafia in Chicago. THese two men were designated by Santos Trafficanted to meet with representatives of Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon selected a man with whom he had maintained an extraordinary secret contact. This man was the head of the empire of Howard Hughes, a man by the name of Robert Maheu.

Because the secrecy of their ongoing relationship was long established, he was selected to undertake this super- secret communication. This meeting took place at the Fountainbleau Hotel in early 1960. And there, Richard Nixon, through his representatives, agreed to set up a sub- organization inside Operation 40 which was a professional assassination unit. This unit was given the responsibility for carrying out the political assassination of Fidel Castro, his brother Raul Castro, Che Guevara, and five other men in the leadership of the Cuban government. This group was recruited out of the Operation 40 people, known only to Richard Nixon and a limited number of people. They were trained in a secret base down in Mexico. This particular group had in it a number of very interesting people who you are coming to hear about every day that we live.

One of the men on this secret team -- this assassination unit -- was a man by the name of Felix Gomez. You know him as Felix Rodriguez and you know him as Max Gomez, the man who was named by [Eugene] Hasenfus as the man who directed the Ilopango airlifts into Nicaragua. Another man on this secret assassination team in early 1960 was a man using the name of Ramon Medina, whose real name is Jose Posada Carriles, who was the second man running the Ilopango airlift into Nicaragua. Another man in this group was a man by the name of Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero. He was the man who supervised the construction of the secret air strip in Costa Rica that you've heard so much about of late.

Indeed, those who delivered the $2 million that was being given as a bribe to get Mr. Buckley away from the terrorists in Beirut, were Chi Chi Quintero and Tom Clines. The money was given by Mr. Ross Perot. The other people in this assassination team who you've probably heard about are a man by the name of Frank Stirgus, later caught in the Watergate Hotel in 1971, when Richard Nixon was President. With him in the Watergate Hotel was a man by the name of Eugenio Martinez, another man on the assassination team in 1960 run by Richard Nixon. Another man by the name of [Virgilio] Gonzalez was on that assassination team. He was also found in the Watergate Hotel. Two more men, Rafael Villaverde and Raul Villaverde, were on that "shooter team." Ricardo Chavez was also on that team.

One of the directors of that team was a man by the name of E. Howard Hunt. This particular group had the extraordinary authority given to them by this secret grouping inside the National Security Council, and headed by the vice president of the United States to carry out the slaughter, the murder of political leadership of the Cuban government. Now, that operation ran all the way to 1961. When President Kennedy came to office, all the indications are that he was never told about the assassination team. He was told about Operation 40, the contra operation, the contra operation against Cuba. His young industrious brother, Bob, decided that he would transmute Operation 40 into a full-scale invasion. This they tried, in April of 1961, with the disastrous Bay of Pigs resulting.

The invaders from Operation 40 were all killed or captured. By June of 1961, Bobby Kennedy had dropped back and re-established the Operation 40 program. Only they renamed it "Operation Mongoose." That particular program was put under the commanding control of a young 34-year-old CIA official by the name of Theodore Shackley. His director of training was a man by the name of Tom Clines. They ran the contra war, along with Ed Lansdale, against the Cuban government from 1961 to 1965.

And then a very strange series of events began to unfold. In 1965, the entire unit and team was transferred to Laos in Southern Asia. Theodore Shackley became chief of station under Gorden Jergenson. Shackley brought with him Tom Clines. They brought with them Rafael Chi Chi Quintero. They also brought with them Felix Rodriguez and Jose Posada Carriles -- assassins, professional assassins.

By 1966, Theodore Shackley and Tom Clines were, peculiarly enough, supplying air power to a man by the name of Vang Pao, a major opium trafficker in Laos. He was engaged in a three-way war with two other men for control of the opium trade in Laos. They actually figured out a way of dropping bombs on these drug dealers for Vang Pao. The man who ran the air operation for Vang Pao, under Tom Clines, was a young major in the Air Force by the name of Richard Secord.

By the end of 1966, both of the opponents of Vang Pao in this war for the opium market had been assassinated, and Van Pao was the undisputed controller of the opium trade in Laos. Very interestingly he then, out of the largess of his heart, decided that he would contribute an ongoing portion of the heroin income to finance the secret training of the Lao tribesmen, the Hmung down in Southern Laos. They were being trained by the same man who had been commander of the Guatemalan base for the Cuban contras. They were sent out to carry out the covert assassination of suspected Communist sympathizers throughout Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia.

By 1966, this program had been formalized into a group called the Special Operations Group, also known as the Joint Task Force on Unconventional Warfare, based in Vientiane. It was placed under the control fo the military even though it was in fact run by Theodore Shackley and Tom Clines of the CIA. The man who was chosen as the military commander for that unit (that supervised the Lao tribesmen in the assassination program) was Major General John K. Singlaub. The Deputy Air Wing Commander for the Special Operations Group became Richard Secord.

In the end of December of 1966, a young Marine, a recent graduate of the Naval Academy, joined the Special Operation Group in Vientiane, a man by the name of Oliver North. One of the commanders of the Army's Special Forces Unit in the Special Operations Group was a man by the name of Dewey Owens, the older brother Rob Owens. This group functioned to supervise the political assassinations of some 100,000 non- combatant civilians in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand -- young mayors, bookkeepers, clerks, school teachers -- attempting to eliminate the infrastructure of that society for fear it would fall into the hands of the Communists.

In 1968, Theodore Shackley became the chief of station in Laos, and a man by the name of Santos Trafficantes, from Southern Florida, flew to Southeast Asia and met in a hotel in Saigon with Vang Pao. By the end of 1968, Santos Trafficantes had become the number one importer and trafficker in China-white heroin in the United States. The China-white heroin began to flow and the commensurate profits began to flow to Vang Pao. And the size of the Hmung tribesmen training group that was committing the assassinations began burgeoning accordingly.

In 1969, Theodore Shackley was transferred to become the CIA chief of station in Vietnam, and they established the now infamous Phoenix Program that carried out the political assassination of some 60,000 non-combatant civilians in the country. He remained in that position until 1972, when Theodore Shackley and Tom Clines were brought back to the United States and put in charge of Western Hemisphere operations of the CIA.

Now, since they don't do an awful lot in Canada, and less and less in the United States, that leaves you Central and South America. Tom Clines and Theodore Shackley ran their "Track Two" operation against Salvador Allende in Chile and supervised the political capture and assassination of Allende's Chief of Staff General Schneider, and, eventually, the assassination of Allende himself. When that had been accomplished in September of 1973, Theodore Shackley was transferred to become the head of Far East Operations for the CIA.

Now at this point, we reach an extraordinary important juncture in our story, because Theodore Shackley, Tom Clines, and cohorts had come to the conclusion that the waffling American democracy was not going to continue their efforts in Vietnam. They were not going to continue their effort against the Communists. And so, they began an extraordinary program by means of which they took more and more money from Vang Pao's heroin funds, had them transferred into Vietnam, with the cover of having to carry out a more and more massive Phoenix Program. But, in fact, they brought more money in there than was necessary and began to embezzle this money from Van Pao's heroin sales and transfer the money secretly to a bank in Australia -- the Nugen-Hand Bank.

Millions of dollars were transferred between '73 and '75 in an extraordinarily sophisticated program. What they did was have Tom Clines and Richard Secord load millions of dollars into suitcases, get on an airplane, and fly to Australia and unload the money and put it in the bank account. That went on from '73 to '75. They also began to pilfer thousands of tons of U.S. military equipment from Vietnam and transfer it to a secret camp in Thailand. When the war ended in 1975, all of these people simply transferred.

Where did they transfer to? Iran. Richard Secord was made the director of Foreign Military Sales for the U.S. Pentagon in the Middle East. And where did Theodore Shackley go? Theodore Shackley was promoted from director of Far East Operations for the CIA, to the assistant deputy director for the CIA. Now he was in charge of worldwide covert operations under George Bush. It was anticipated that Theodore Shackley would be director of the CIA if, in fact, Ford had won the presidency and the Republicans remained in office.

But when Carter won, and Stansfield Turner became head of the Central Intelligence Agency, these people continued their operation of pilfering funds and sending them to the secret fund. They established an unauthorized secret, illegal assassination program in Iran, working with the Shah and with the SAVAK [the Shah of Iran's much-hated equivalent of the CIA]. The man who was the director of their operations in Iran was a man by the name of Edwin P. Wilson. His assistant was Frank Turpel.

These people carried out the assassination of many opponents of the Shah of Iran from 1976 to 1978. Now, that operation generated a peculiar resistance on the part of the Central Intelligence Agency, which had not authorized it and was not supervising it. They began to dismiss people from the CIA who were in covert operations. You recall that history, with President Carter moving the people out of "covert ops" and the CIA. They began to put pressure on Theodore Shackley to get him to stop some of his operations. But the fact is they did not stop him.

Shackley formed a private company, in which he joined as partners with Edwin Wilson, Richard Secord, and Eric Von Marbod. They formed a company originally known as the International Research and Trade Corporation, which later became EATSCO (the Egyptian American Transport and Service Company). This company, through the good offices of Eric Von Marbod, who had been the Assistant Secretary of Defense, received all of the contracts to ship all of the weapons to Egypt consequent to the Camp David accord. And they began to make hundreds of millions of dollars in that company. When it was discovered that Edwin P. Wilson was selling C-4 explosives to Qaddafi, Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Barcella, insisted upon indicting him. Larry Barcella also began to investigate Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Von Marbod. But he was told to stop, and his indictments were restricted to simply Edwin Wilson and Frank Turpel.

That was a terrible mistake, as it turns out. What happens is that while they were thinking of indicting him, a decision was made to tell Shackley to resign -- he and Tom Clines -- from the CIA. Who was it that made that decision? The Deputy Director for Operations for the CIA at the time, Frank Carlucci.

By the beginning of 1979, the U.S. people, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. President, and the head of the Central Intelligence Agency had resolved to cut off all military supplies to Somoza. Ted Shackley and Tom Clines, at the end of February and early March in 1979, sent Edwin Wilson to visit Somoza. And they established a contract wherein they would be selling military hardware to the dictator in total opposition to the U.S. policy. But after all, these men were now our private citizens. They had not been indicted. They were running this company making billions of dollars. And they had access to all of the end-user certificates to get the military equipment. They had access to all of the contractors, and they continued to sell the equipment. Even when Somoza fled in July of 1979 and went to a place called North Cay in the Bahamas, Shackley and Clines sent their people to visit him again and to re-establish the contract -- but now to sell them the military hardware in their new incarnation as the contras.

This, indeed is the secret team that continued the flow of weapons. They continued the program of political assassinations. The contras would target the people who had to be assassinated. Then they would send the information to a man who was at the time based in Army intelligence -- a man by the name of Rafael Chi Chi Quintero -- who at the same time was the man visiting the contras, taking their orders for military equipment, and making sure that they were filled. Then, Quintero would pass the information as to who should be assassinated on to Tom Clines and Theodore Shackley, who would then pass the information to a man by the name of Buckley, who was head of the Central Intelligence Agency's Anti-Terrorist Program.

This operation continued all the way up until Reagan became President. When Reagan became President in January of 1981, a series of interesting conversations began to take place in the White House, chaired by Ed Meese, then chief of staff, along with Vice President Bush, President Reagan, CIA Director Bill Casey, and the first National Security Adviser Richard Allen. By June of 1981, they had resolved they would take over the secret team, and the supplying of the military hardware, the weapons and the training.

In a June 1981 National Security Decision Directive, they decided that they would assign a man by the name of Victor M. Canastrero from the CIA to head up that operation that had been run by Chi Chi Quintero. That operation ran, as we recalled at the beginning of our discussion, throughout that strange series of falsehoods from the White House about how they didn't know contras. This went on all the way to the end of 1983 when, in fact, they were caught mining the harbors and passing out the assassination manual. Then it became clear that Congress was going to pass the Boland Amendment to prohibit their activity.

So what did they do? They sent a young man who was by now a lieutenant colonel in the National Security Council, Oliver North, to a contact the secret team to say, "Why don't you do it some more? You did it from March of '79 until '81. Why don't you sell the weapons to the contras and give them what they need?"

They did. However, they needed a cover story. After all, everyone knew the Agency had been supplying the contras for years now. If they continued to receive the same amount of aid, people might suspect the Agency. So what they decided to do was to have a cover story. They sent Oliver North to Gray and Company, a public relations firm of spooks in Washington. A vice president of this company at that time, we understand, was a man by the name of John Tower. Further, they sought out a man by the name of Rob Owen from that company. And he, Rob Owen, set up a thing called "Idea, Incorporated."

Using this "private" company, he began to provide the inspiration around our country to help these poor contras. Rob Owen was sent to get a man to head up that operation, a man by the name of General John K. Singlaub. That operation raised probably $5 million total, most of which they spent on their little Lear jets flying around the world. Singlaub had to give a cover to the massive influx of weapons to the contras, all being run by this secret team.

When the administration decided that it had to undertake this famous deal with the Iranians, they figured: who better than the secret team? After all, "in for a penny, in for a pound." So these were the people who were sent -- Secord and the other men -- to Iran to deliver the cake and the Bible and the missiles. But earlier the administration was not so distressed by the holding of all the hostages. Why was it they became terribly distressed only in 1984 when Mr. Buckley was kidnapped? When Mr. Buckley was kidnapped and tortured, then they became intensely interested in getting him out. You recall we were told he was an independent businessman in Beirut. Then we were told he was the station chief of the CIA in Beirut. What we were not told is that he had been the director of the Anti-Terrorist Program for the CIA.

What was it hat he knew that made this man so terribly dangerous in Iranian hands? And why was it that we sent the Iranians 40 tractor-trailer loads of TOW missiles after we knew he was already dead? What do you think it was that he told them that was worth all that? And why was it that the Iranians sent a man by the name of Ghorbanifar to establish contact to see if they could exchange something to get the weapons? And who did Mr. Ghorbanifar go to? Oliver North? Poindexter? Bud McFarland? No. He went to Theodore Shackley.

Ghorbanifar, in November of 1984, met with Theodore Shackley in Hamburg, and it was decided that this was so serious, something had to be paid to these people. And who are the people? Were they the moderates in the Iranian government?

What will be discovered is that they were the very people who had tortured Mr. Buckley. These were the people to whom Mr. Buckley had been delivered from Beirut. He, in fact, had been taken from Beirut to Teheran, and was tortured to death in Teheran, all recorded on video tape. What was it that he told them that made it worth paying all that hush money? The fact of the matter is, that it was what Buckley had said about this secret team that had been functioning in the bowels of our government for 25 years.

The United States has not been humiliated. We have been blackmailed. And who is it that doesn't know what we have been doing? Is it the Russians? Do you think it's the Cubans? Is it the Nicaraguans? It is you. And it is me.

It is the American people who these people fear. They are afraid because of the program of assassinations, the horrible, dark secrets that they know. They are afraid because they know the source of their funding, from the largest shipments of heroin into our country for the past 20 years to the influx of over one ton of cocaine per week coming in through a shrimp company in Miami, owned by Francisco Paco Chavez, that has been financing these black, covert operations. They're afraid we'll find them out. So the questions that are floating are not, indeed, the right questions.

Should we be asking ourselves the question: Do we think that Donald Regan should resign? Do you think maybe Mr. Meese should quit? Do you think all of these lower guys will be cleaned up by Frank Carlucci? Do you think these were a group of subordinates acting without authority within the White House? Or is this, in fact, more like Watergate where the Congressional committees will go so far as to impeach Mr. Reagan, impeach Mr. Bush, impeach Mr. Meese, prosecute Messrs. North and Secord and Hakim?

Because let me say to you: if in fact that is all that happens, we will be dealing with a small cancerous nodule on the nose of the President. Rather as a fact, what we are dealing with is a cancer deep in the chest of our body politic.

And the intelligence community will tell us, along with the Republican Party, "Please, we can't operate. The body politic is not healthy enough and strong enough. Please, maybe we don't have cancer. Hope we don't have cancer. Maybe it will go away. You cannot do this." The Democrats are suggesting that the people's confidence in our governmental structures will be too shaken if this information is made available to our public.

The fact of the matter is this: These are the people who have never had confidence in the structures of our constitutional government, have never obeyed the American people, have never had confidence in the U.S. Congress. These are the people who have been dealing in the back alleys and underworld for 25 years.

Will we listen to those people when they say, "Please our body politic isn't strong enough to survive the operation"? No, we won't. The fact is that this operation will be undertaken, our body politic is healthy enough, and our body politic will rid itself of this cancer.

And the people who will make that so are you and me. And there are millions of people across our country who will not stand for this type of hypocrisy, who will not allow our country to take these positions, by means of which, we can be so clearly blackmailed. This will be put to a stop. It will be put to a stop now. We will not be allowed to face these minor questions.

We will do this work. The Christic Institute has the federal case that has now been endorsed by the federal court system. We now have federal subpoena power. We know that this group is not, in fact, the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. They are indeed the moral equivalent of the mafia. And they will be treated as such.

[Tumultuous applause]



Question and Answer Session

QUESTION: There are two questions that occur to me right away. Some of this information must have come out in the Watergate investigation. Why wasn't it pursued at that time? Obviously, there must have been that information. The other one: You talk about a shadowy world. When did this shadowy world begin? When did the separation between the military and civilian clearly collapse, causing so many of our problems?

SHEEHAN: The first question: A number of these issues must have surface at least during the the Watergate investigation. And why were they not pursued? Well, let me give you one very special example of an issue that arose during the Watergate investigation. You will all remember that extraordinary conversation of March 21 [1973], where President Nixon was discussing the Watergate investigation with John Dean. And Nixon said to John Dean, "John, I want you to go to the CIA and have them tell the FBI to get out of this investigation." And John Dean said to him: "Well, Mr. President, what am I going to tell them?" And he said, "Tell them all the Mexican stuff will come out."

John Dean didn't know what that meant and he later asked what that meant. They asked this question of a number of people during the Watergate hearings. One of the men they asked was Mr. Halderman. And they said, "Mr. Haldeman, what was it that President Nixon was talking about when he said 'All the Mexican stuff would come out'?" And Mr. Halderman said, "Oh, they were talking about the assassination of President John Kennedy." At which point, everyone looked at each other in the room and said, "What the hell was that?" And they went on to a new subject. It's a very strange issue one that has haunted us ever since 1963.

What we face in this case is the possibility of striking up that music, of getting back to some of those issues, of delving into those people. I'll just say this in closing on that topic. Richard Spraig was appointed to be the general counsel for the Select Committee on Assassination Investigation for the House of Representatives, and he was investigating the assassination of President John Kennedy. He was doing some investigation that led him to issue a subpoena to John Roselli.

John Roselli, you will remember, is one of the two men who met with Robert Maheu back in January or so of 1961 or 1960 to set up this assassination team. In the very week that he was subpoened, John Roselli was found wrapped in chain and sunk in a barrel in Biscayne Bay. Because of the fear that they had, Mr. Spraig sent three FBI agants to protect Sam Giancana, who had been the other man in the meeting, before he issued a subpoena to him.

Mr. Spraig did issues a subpoena to him. With three FBI agents in the house on Thursday morning before the Monday that Sam Giancana was to testify before the Select Committee on Assassination, one of the FBI agents left to go get a pack of Camels, one went to the bathroom, one was out getting some fruit for the cereal, and someone entered the house and killed Sam Giancana in his breakfast and left without a trace. And Richard Spraig was immediately fired as general counsel for the Select Committee on Assassinations. G. Robert Blakey was appointed. He said, "That's enough, no more investigations," and filed a final report which you can read, which says: "There appears to be some circumstantial evidence that President Kennedy may have been assassinated by a conspiracy group. And the main suspects are certain elements of organized crime and Cubans."

What he didn't say, which is the truth, is that the suspected elements of organized crime were Santos Trafficante, and that the Cubans were the Cubans who were inside the shooter team for Operation 40!

The second question was: When did all this shadowy world begin -- this peculiar blending between the civilians and the military? I would say that it actually began in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act, the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency, the establishment of this entire covert world. In the first meeting of the National Secutiry Agency, they passed a resolution, I think, called the 54/12 Resolution. It authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to gather intelligence data, to correlate intelligence data, and to preform other functions from time to time as were designated by the National Security Agency. That is the resolution pursuant to which the CIA has taken unto itself the belief that it has the authority to carry out covert operations, such as these assassinations.

The major fear now, amidst the Central Intelligence Agency officials, is that all covert action capacity will be taken away from the Central Intelligence Agency and assigned to a Special Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations. That is the way of a shakedown in Washington. All that that will do is get rid of this strange blending of the civilian and military and put it under the control of the military.

But in the final analysis, we at the Christic Institute do not personally believe that Oliver North was a bad soldier. Oliver North was a good soldier. Oliver North took his orders. He followed his orders. The question is: Who did he take the orders from? Why would he be taking the orders from a man by the name of Theodore Shackley or Tom Clines, who are no longer in the government? Because they used to run covert operations for the entire Central Intelligence Agency. This is a strange identity that they have: when they leave, they don't really leave and they continue covert operations. We have to undertake absolutely major surgery on the public policies relating to covert operations before this scandal is over.

QUESTION: Dan, as one lawyer to another, I want to compliment you for the skill and the finesse with which you carried on that campaign against the racketeers down there. I think we have a rather immediate problem before Dan can get all of his facts in deposition form and in documentary form, preparatory to courtroom use. That is: What can we do in this Congress about monies for the contras?

We need, it seems to me, to look at this in a number of ways, and I'd like to get Dan's reaction to this. One of them is this: What's going on down there is conducted by the U.S. President through his agents, the contras. It consists of acts of war against another nation. By international law, the use of force against another nation is an act of war. By the Constitution of the United States, nobody can wage war in the name of the United States without the declaration of war by the Congress. So, isn't it an important element in the months to come that we emphasize this unconstitutional conduct by our President as the basis for denying aid to the contras?

SHEEHAN: Absolutely. The fact of the matter is that here, in February [1987], there's going to be a vote taken in the U.S. Congress. The vote has a lot of peculiar technicalities to it. It is a caveat on the resolution that was passed by the 99th Congress to authorize the expenditure of $100 million for the contras for military equipment. Only $60 million was given to them originally. There is a certification vote that has to be taken here in mid-February to determine whether or not Congress will affirmatively certify to allow the last $40 million given to the contras to be used for heavy military equipment.

Now, they did not want to allow the Congress to vote on whether they get the $40 million at all. So, some people, usually in the Democratic Party, are saying: "Let's really show them. Let's vote to let them get the $40 million only without using it for heavy equipment." There are others who argue, "Let's alter the resolution, after all, we are the government of the United States. We aren't helpless in the face of the executive branch. All we have to do is say that on the basis of newly discovered evidence, we're going to alter the vote here in February to eliminate the last $40 million and make them give back the original $60 million."

Now, at base, what we have here is a lack of resolution on the part of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party doesn't know whether it's going to have Governor Cuomo as its nominee, or Joe Biden as its nominee, or a number of other people as its nominee...Gary Hart. But the American people have to speak out, they have to be determined. In fact, the Republican Party has stood behind the funding of the contras, insisted upon the funding of the contras in a vote that went down on the last day of the 99th Congress to give money to the contras with a straight party vote. And the Democratic Party, now, wants to take advantage, to take the credit for all of this. Let them take it. But make them earn it. Insist that they cut off the remaining $40 million, have them stand up to this program and pass a resolution condemning the contras, cutting off all military equipment and stopping the war, stopping the invasion.

Now, the fact of the matter is that the Congress of the United States is capable of doing anything it wants to do. But it doesn't want to do this. And you have to insist that they do this, you and your friends, and your family, and your neighbors, all of the people you went to school with. We can't do it out of just an office at the Christic Institute with 15 people in Washington, D.C. It has to be magnified all across the country. We now have 35 national organizations that have joined with us -- church and synagogue groups, and labor groups and women's groups -- all across the country, to get this word out to their constituents to make Congress stand up and face this issue, cut off this money and once again, return our country to operating under democratic legal processes.

QUESTION: It was said that during the Karen Silkwood case, a few years ago, that your staff uncovered a private training academy in Florida that was involved in the killing of Karen Silkwood. Does this have any connection to this case?

SHEEHAN: That particular place was called the National Intelligence Academy, down in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It is where, in fact, the people were trained and equipped who were behind Karen Silkwood that night on the road. We can tell you now, there was a man by the name of Harold Barron, a man by the name of Larry O'Brian, and a man by the name of David McBride. These were the people who were trained in a group called the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, a private fraternity of law-enforcement officers who are secretly trained and equipped at the place called the National Intelligence Academy down in Fort Lauderdale.

This is the same place they trained the DINA (the secret political police from Chile), the same place where they trained the Bureau of Special Services from South Africa, the same place where they trained and equipped the SAVAK, the secret political police of the Shah of Iran. But this place has been engaged in this type of training for many years.

I will tell you this: The fact is that the equipment that was used to kill Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier on the streets of Washington, D.C., came from the National Intelligence Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., from Audio Intelligence Devices, which shares their building with them. They made the "hound dog" bumper beeper that was used to detonate the explosives in the car. When Jose Posada Carriles, back in 1973, blew up the Venezuelan airliner that killed 73 Cuban nationals, the equipment came from the National Intelligence Academy's Audio Intelligence Devices in Fort Lauderdale.

This place is a veritable ethical cesspool in or nation, and it has been funded with grants from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which have been used to purchase equipment there. It's funded by profits from GEICO, the Government Employee Insurance Company.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My God! I'm insured by them!

SHEEHAN: That's right. And the man by the name of Leo Goodwin, Jr., is the man who runs it. He is the heir to the GEICO estate, which finances that place. There are so many things that are known that have never had anything done about them. One of the extraordinary things about this case is that it has them all up in front of us now. They're now in front of us, these people, and they can be brought to justice.

QUESTION: Now, this other question is: What is the connection between this secret group and the assassination of Martin Luther King?

SHEEHAN: I know of none. I simply know of no connection at all at this point in time.

QUESTION: What is the real reason the press has been protecting Ronald Reagan?

SHEEHAN: It's an extremely interesting question, actually, that has been discussed a lot of late. How could it be possible for him to have been so much like he is and for them not to be talking about it and writing about it all the time. Now, I knew it during the very first Super Bowl, when President Reagan was President and he came on at half time, I remember, and he was interviewed by the fellow from NBC. And he said, "Mr. President, you used to be an announcer, didn't you?" And he said, "Well, yes. Yes, I was."

"In fact," he continued, "When I had my audition, I had to sit there and recall a game and see how well I did. So, what I did," he said, "I went back to a game in which I had actually played. And I was given all the names of how we made these blocks and we ran for a touchdown and made it." He said, "Of course, in real life, we didn't run for a touchdown." The NBC man and everybody went: Ha, Ha, Ha. Isn't that strange that he would have told a story like that?

And Reagan followed it up with another story, saying he recalled one time that how he learned to do this audition was that he used to broadcast baseball games. He used to get the ticker tape, and he used to broadcast as though he was right there. And all they really had was that the ball went from Number One to Number Three to Number Four (or whatever it was, however they number the players). That's all he knew about the play. And he used to go, "Well, it's a hot grounder -- there it goes to the shortstop -- it goes to the second base -- it'll be a double play -- it goes to first base. You've go a double play!"

And he said, "One time, I was doing this and the ticker tape stopped. And so, I just went right along and kept on making up things and never missed a beat." At which point, the NBC man laughed and said, "Oh, good for you, Mr. President."

And now we're living with it, you see.

One of the major problems is that so much of the media is involved in what we call "infotainment" that it's not really the news anymore. It's all the news that's fit to print. And I discovered it the other day. I was riding along with a New York Times reporter and a man from the Washington Post and I was giving them a ride through the snow in Washington, and they were sort of comparing their sources. And one of them says: "My sources are better than your sources." As it turns out, the Washington Post has the very best inside-the-White-House sources. The New York Times has the very best inside-the-intelligence-community sources.

And the intelligence community tells the New York Times what they're doing. And the New York Times, therefore, can't burn their source and tell what they know or else they'll lose their access to the story. And the Washington Post can't burn their sources in the White House. So they can't tell the story. If that tells you anything, it's something that I couldn't understand because I kept thinking: I thought you were supposed to be telling the American people. And that isn't what really happens most of the time. But there is this interesting in-crowd community at the highest levels of the media. But now they're beginning to suspect the American people insist upon knowing and want to know. Therefore, they're caught in the situation of having to tell them. And the sources! you can smell them burning all over Washington. They're going to continue to burn until this story gets out.

QUESTION: I have a question: Dan, could you explain Israel's participation in the Iran affair?

SHEEHAN: As far as we can tell, at this stage, the Israeli government was merely doing what they were asked by an ally. The highest levels of the U.S. government, once they decided that they were going to undertake this exchange of arms with Iran, contacted Israel, discussed this with them and initially utilized a covert method of moving arms to Iran. What they would do is have the Israeli government move a bunch of the American arms that had been given to Israel up to Iran with the assurance that the United States would resupply Israel with an equal number of those arms. The U.S. government did that to conceal the direct participation of the United States in the activity.

You'll recall that embarrassing November press conference in which President Reagan had specifically stated that there were no other countries involved in this. This story held up for, I think, 20 minutes. At which point he had to send a little memo out to all the media people saying: "Excuse me, there was one country. It was Israel."

And then they tried as a trial ballon that, well, Israel did it -- and we didn't -- which lasted, I think, even less time because the Foreign Minister for Israel then decided to resign so that he could talk about it.

He got up before international cameras, told them what had been done, and said that the U.S. government had specifically asked them as an ally to do this. And they had done it. So far as we can tell, that's all that really was involved, they were doing something that an ally had asked them to do. And as far as they knew, there was nothing illegal about it for them to participate.

QUESTION: There are a couple of the questions that ask for sources. Could you please cite your sources to substantiate the Buckley angle as the key explanation of the Reagan-Iran initiative exchange.

SHEEHAN: The fact of the matter is that we are in the process right now of obtaining certain tapes and direct documentary proof of these details. We have talked to people who have listened to the tapes, have taken notes on the tapes, and have assured us that we can have them. I have discussed those with them. We, in fact, have shared this information with the special prosecutor's office and are awaiting those very specific pieces of information. Obviously, it would not be appropriate to tell you who the source was for fear I'd never see that person again. But, the minute we get those things, and have given them to the special prosecutor, you can rest assured we'll make them available to the public.

QUESTION: How about contributions to the Christic Institute?

SHEEHAN: The Christic Institute is in Washington, D.C. We are a public-interest law firm that can only survive with contributions. That's the only way our investigation can go forward. They are all tax-deductible. You can send them to the Christic Institute. The address is 1324 North Capitol Street in Washington, D.C. And the zip there is 20002. Now, if you don't get a chance to write that down, just ask information in Washington, D.C. for the Christic Institute, and give us a call. And we'll give you our address and everything then, and you can send any contribution you want.

"Christic" is a phrase that comes from Tahard Shardan, who was the Jesuit paleontologist who had discovered Peking Man. He was a theologian in the church, and this phrase has to do with the bonding force that bonds everything together in harmony in the universe. We took that name as a public- policy center. A number of our Jewish directors were concerned about it. We all had a long discussion about it and said, well, that it seemed to be a really good term. I mean, at least, that's what he meant it to be. And since he had been condemned by the Catholic Church and forbidden to publish at all, we thought that was a great name for our institute.

QUESTION: There was a number of questions that rather tie in together, Dan, can we expect a military invasion before the dry season is out in Nicaragua?

SHEEHAN: There is a great deal of concern about this issue. The moderate forces in Washington, D.C., seem to be sanguine about this. They don't really believe the administration could have the audacity to undertake such an invasion. They end their observations by saying, well, that would be an act of desperate men. At which point, I asked them if they've got an hour or two when I can explain to them exactly how desperate these people must be right now, in light of what we know.

So, we believe that based on direct information that we've got, there are plenty of special forces, men being trained right now for a jump into Nicaragua. They've been given Nicaraguan maps. They've been trained on Nicaraguan terrain. They're planning, specifically, to invade Nicaragua.

The real question is whether or not they dare to go through with it. The degree of courage that they have to do this is dependent soley upon how emphatically the people in the United States demand that they refrain from it. Because there is no doubt that they do not feel bound by the majority demands of the people. So, I would say that there is very detailed information indicating that they intend to undertake the invasion sometime by the end of March [1987]. We're talking about a very serious plan here. And you have to communicate with your Congresspeople and your senators and demand that they confront the administration, call them before Congress, and insist that they renounce any plans to undertake such an invasion.

The fact is that such an invasion would be preceeded by some major provocative action. So that is where we are focusing our intelligence data, to ascertain what type of provocation they would be trying to manufacture to get everybody cranked up to authorize an attack of that sort. So do write your Congresspeople, confront them, and insist this be prohibited.

QUESTION: There's a question here. Have you a body guard? I hope so.

SHEEHAN: Well, the closest thing I have to a bodyguard is Sarah Nelson, who is here, who has a limited vested interest in this since we get to see each other so infrequently now. But seriously, people have asked this question before and the fact of the matter is that professional bodyguards are very expensive. They charge $500 per day and have all kinds of strange equipment. I have been contacted by a number of friends who are in the security business who have made it very clear that we should have a bodyguard since the court has now entered the order giving us the authority of the federal subpoena to go after these people.

I think we have to bring on a security force. But they're going to be very unhappy if I tell them they can't bring their guns. Nevertheless, we will have some sort of security force but I think we're going to have to develop a kind of higher consciousness security forces that don't use guns. But we will have some sort of security force.

QUESTION: Can talking about all this jeopardize the lawsuit?

SHEEHAN: That is an interesting question. The fact is that the attorney for Adolfo Calero, who is one of our defendants, he head of the FDN (contras), has hired the former general counsel for the Central Intelligence Agency, a man by the name of Tony Lapham. The biggest gunrunner in the Western Hemisphere, who is also a defendant in our case, a man named Ronald Joseph Martin, has hired the former U.S. attorney from Miami for his lawyer.

The fact of the matter is that they filed a motion demanding that the judge put a gag order on us to prohibit us from communicating to the public any of the information that we obtained about their defendants, even from our private investigations. At which point, the court threatened to hold us in contempt if he, the judge, heard that we had discussed anything else -- i.e., discussed the case after the court's warning with a large public group. So I hope he's listening now.

The fact is that we have pointed out to the judge that his local court rule has been declared unconstitutional in the Eleventh Circuit, where he sits. So I know he's not happy. But he has a choice. He can either try to invoke the rule against us, only to lose the battle completely, when it's declared totally unconstitutional. Or he can leave us alone. And he has chosen the latter. So we're here today to speak with you and will continue to speak.

QUESTION: Dan, on ABC Nightline, Tony Avirgan brought up the drug connection with the Iran-Contra affair. Ted Koppel said that he didn't now anything about it. Has there been any serious interest in the drug connection by the three major networks?

SHEEHAN: Yes, as a matter of fact. In March, CBS -- what is their show? -- CBS's West 57th Street will be broadcasting some extraordinary footage closing the issue once and for all about the contra drug connection. We've been trying to get them to reveal it earlier, but they don't come back on the air until March. In fact, we've given ample information to the courts, to the Justice Department, to the Congress, about the drug connection.

Senator John Kerry of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has interviewed under oath numerous witnesses. Indeed, we have put before them aircraft pilots who have directly testified under oath about traveling down to John Hull's ranch and back, bringing down guns and bringing back cocaine. There is no way that they are going to be able to conceal this information. Now, I've had some conversations with people at ABC about this. I guess, all I would suggest is that the newspeople at ABC talk to the people at ABC Nightline and get the information from Ted Koppel.



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