Sorry, don't know about the veracity of this whole post, but check out the initial portion on "Armitage".
HISTORY NET http://www.thehistorynet.com/today/today.htm
> ROTTEN HISTORY http://www.rotten.com/today/
>
> ARMITAGE SNEAKS IN
>
> SEVENTEEN PARAGRAPHS into a story on Bush's retention of CIA director
George
> Tenet, the NY Times quietly drops a bombshell, "Meanwhile, Gen. Colin L.
> Powell, Mr. Bush's choice to be secretary of state, has selected Richard
> Armitage, his close friend and a former Pentagon official, to be the
deputy
> secretary, two Republicans close to the Bush transition team said. Mr.
> Armitage was initially a front-runner for deputy at the Defense
Department,
> and resisted entreaties to work for General Powell, fearing it might
> interfere with their friendship. But the general has prevailed upon Mr.
> Armitage to join him at the State Department, associates said."
>
> Meanwhile, indeed. Nothing - not even Ashcroft - raises so many warning
> flags about the intentions of the Bush administration than does the
> resurrection of this veteran of some of the sleaziest and most corrupt
> periods of American foreign policy, including the CIA-drug trade love fest
> in SE Asia and the Iran-Contra scandal. If we had a press and a Democratic
> Party worthy of their names, the Armitage appointment would be major news.
> Here, for starters, are some reasons why:
>
> OLIVER NORTH, "UNDER FIRE:" [William] Casey handed [Robert] McFarlane a
> sheet of paper on which he had outlined plans for a new CIA anti-terrorism
> unit . . . [it] officially sanctioned a secret entity with a mandate to
> coordinate our government's response to international terrorism -
> preemptively if possible, retroactively if necessary. I became its first
> chairman . . . My associates on the Task Force included Noel Koch (and
later
> Richard Armitage) from Defense, Dewey Clarridge and Charlie Allen from the
> CIA, Buck Revell and Wayne Gilbert from the FBI, Bob Oakley from State,
and
> Art Moreau (and later General Jack Moellering) from the Joint Chiefs of
Staff"
>
> INDEPENDENT COUNSEL'S REPORT ON IRAN CONTRA: Director Casey's unswerving
> support of President Reagan's contra policies and of the Iran arms sales
> encouraged some CIA officials to go beyond legal restrictions in both
> operations. Casey was instrumental in pairing North with [Richard] Secord
as
> a contra-support team when the Boland Amendment in October 1984 forced the
> CIA to refrain from direct or indirect aid. He also supported the
> North-Secord combination in the Iran arms sales, despite deep reservations
> about Secord within the CIA hierarchy. Casey's position on the contras
> prompted the chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, Alan D.
Fiers,
> Jr., to "dovetail" CIA activities with those of North's contra-resupply
> network, in violation of Boland restrictions. Casey's support for the NSC
to
> direct the Iran arms sales and to use arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and
> Secord in the operation, forced the CIA's Directorate of Operations to
work
> with people it distrusted . . . Contrary to their testimony to the
> presidentially appointed Tower Commission and the Select Iran/contra
> Committees of Congress, Independent Counsel determined that Secretary
> Weinberger and his closest aides were consistently informed of proposed
and
> actual arms shipments to Iran during 1985 and 1986 . . . The notes
> demonstrated that Weinberger's early testimony that he had only vague and
> generalized information about Iran arms sales in 1985 was false, and that
he
> in fact had detailed information on the proposed arms sales and the actual
> deliveries. The notes also revealed that Gen. Colin Powell, Weinberger's
> senior military aide, and Richard L. Armitage, assistant secretary of
> defense for international security affairs, also had detailed knowledge of
> the 1985 shipments from Israeli stocks. Armitage and Powell had testified
> that they did not learn of the November 1985 HAWK missile shipment until
> 1986 . . . There was little evidence that Powell's early testimony
regarding
> the 1985 shipments and Weinberger's notes was willfully false. Powell
> cooperated with the various Iran/contra investigations and, when his
> recollection was refreshed by Weinberger's notes, he readily conceded
their
> accuracy. Independent Counsel declined to prosecute Armitage because the
> OIC's limited resources were focused on the case against Weinberger and
> because the evidence against Armitage, while substantial, did not reach
the
> threshold of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
>
> US STIPULATION IN OLIVER NORTH TRIAL: Stipulation 61 - In late March 1985,
> North advised McFarlane that the initial deliveries of US arms from DoD to
> Honduras had gone well. The Honduran government had expressed its
gratitude
> through those who were supporting the Resistance. North proposed that
> McFarlane ask Secretary of Defense Weinberger to convey President Reagan's
> and McFarlane's thanks to DoD personnel who had effected the expedited
> procurement for the Honduran government, including Assistant Secretary of
> Defense Richard Armitage and General Gast . . . Stipulation 92 - In late
> March 1986, Elliott Abrams offered Honduran President Azcona immediate
> additional security assistance. LtCol North prepared a memorandum from
> Admiral Poindexter to President Reagan (with copies to Vice President Bush
> and Chief of Staff Regan) describing the results of Abrams' discussions
with
> Azcona . . . The Honduran army and navy specifically requested a
> sophisticated ground-to-air missile on the ground that the US had already
> furnished such weapons to the Resistance. The total cost for the items
> ultimately agreed upon was approximately 20 million. Among [sic] of the
> additional assistance to Honduras (in addition to President Reagan, Vice
> President Bush, Regan, and Admiral Poindexter) were LtGen Gast (Director
of
> DSAA), Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage, and Deputy
Assistant
> Secretary of Defense Nestor Sanchez.
>
> BO GRITZ: [Gritz, a colorful figure upon whom the character of Rambo was
> partly based, is the most decorated Green Beret commander of the Vietnam
> era] What I want to tell you very quickly is something that I feel is more
> heinous than the Bataan death march . . . What I'm talking about is
> something we found out in Burma - May 1987. We found it out from a man
named
> Khun Sa. He is the recognized overlord of heroin in the world . . . On
video
> tape he said to us something that was most astounding: that US government
> officials have been and are now his biggest customers, and have been for
the
> last twenty years. I wouldn't believe him . . . We ran the war in Laos and
> Cambodia through drugs. The money that would not be appropriated by a
> liberal congress, was appropriated. And you know who we used for
> distribution? Santos Trafficante, old friend of the CIA and mobster out of
> Cuba and Florida . . . Fifty-eight-thousand Americans were killed.
> Seventy-thousand became drug casualties. In the sixties and seventies you
> saw an infusion of drugs into America like never was before.
>
> PROJECT PHOENIX: Several figures -- including Theodore Shackley, Thomas
> Clines and Richard Armitage - later associated with the Iran Contra
scandal
> were involved in Project Phoenix, which was financed in part with opium
> money. It has been alleged that the close relationship with SE Asian drug
> dealers continued after the US withdrawal from Vietnam, with Iran used as
a
> conduit for drugs and money. It has also been reported that, as a sequel
to
> Project Phoenix, an off-the-books assassination program was established in
> Iran.
>
> RALPH MCGEHEE: [Ralph McGehee is a former CIA officer who has exposed
> agency wrongdoing]The Phoenix or Phuong Hoang Operation was originally
> designed to "neutralize," that is assassinate or imprison, members of the
> civilian infrastructure of the [Vietnamese] National Liberation Front.
> Phoenix offices were set up from Saigon down to the district level. Their
> functions were to: (1) collate intelligence about the "Vietcong
> Infrastructure"; (2) interrogate civilians picked up at random by military
> units carrying out sweeps through villages; (3) "neutralize" targeted
> members of the NLF . . . The original Phoenix concept was quickly diluted,
> for two main reasons: (1) pressure from the top to fill numerical quotas
of
> person to be neutralized; (2) difficulties at the bottom of identifying
NLF
> civilian infrastructure, who were often indistinguishable from the general
> population, and the near impossibility of proving anyone membership in the
> NLF. The result was vastly to increase the numbers of innocent persons
> rounded up and imprisoned, indiscriminately murdered, and brutally
tortured
> in an effort to show results . . . Between 1968 and 1972 hundreds of
> thousands of Vietnamese civilians were rounded up and turned over to the
> Vietnamese police for questioning. Such interrogation has usually been
> marked by brutal torture.
>
> AFTER THE WAR: At the end of 1975, Armitage became as a special consultant
> to the Department of Defense, working out of Bangkok and dealing with
> unrepatriated prisoners and the missing in action. Armitage also started a
> mysterious business called the Far East Trading Company. Meanwhile, from
> 1976 to 1979 in Iran, Richard Secord was supervising the sale of US
military
> aircraft and weapons to Middle Eastern nations. During this same period,
> there are reports that Shackley, Clines, Secord, and Armitage set up
several
> curious corporations and subsidiaries around the world including Lake
> Resources, Stanford Technology Trading Group, Companie de Services
> Fiduciaria, CSF Investments and Udall Research Corporation.
>
> ARMITAGE AND POWELL: Powell and Armitage apparently met first in 1981, and
> later, when Powell served as chairman of the joint chiefs, "they started
to
> call each other daily to share information and bounce ideas off each
other,"
> according to a 1993 profile in USA Weekend. "They have become sounding
> boards for just about anything the other guy wants to discuss. Often they
> talk, if only briefly, two or three times a day." Newsweek reported that
> Armitage "may be Powell's closest friend."
>
> ARMITAGE AND ROSS PEROT: Perot and Armitage met in 1986, when Armitage was
> working on the POW-MIA issue. Perot, bothered by problems with the POW
> program as well as reports of Armitage's involvement with drug
traffickers,
> urged Armitage to resign. Armitage told the St. Louis Post Dispatch, "I
> found out he was putting his mouth on me, and I asked him to come to my
> office." Armitage told Perot that federally investigators had cleared him.
> Perot went to see President Bush who said it was a matter for the FBI.
Perot
> then met with FBI Director William Webster and subordinates, pointing out,
> among other things, that Armitage had given a character reference for a
> Vietnamese woman convicted of conducting a major illegal gambling
operation
> in Arlington, Virginia. Bush nominated Armitage to be Secretary of the
Army
> in 1989 but Armitage withdrew before the confirmation hearing following
> reports that Perot and veteran organizes were gearing up to oppose him.
> Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reported in 1986 that the President's
> Commission on Organized Crime had questioned Armitage about his
relationship
> with the Vietnamese refugee. Powell sided with Armitage on the issue.
>
> [The pro-CIA Time Magazine rises to Armitage's defense]
>
> GEORGE J. CHURCH, TIME MAGAZINE, 1987: Among the targets of Perot's
current
> probe are some whose names have surfaced in connection with Iranscam. He
has
> been looking into the alleged links between ex-CIA agents Thomas Clines
and
> Theodore Shackley, retired Generals Richard Secord and John Singlaub,
> Iranian born Businessman Albert Hakim and other former and present
> Government officials going back to the early 1960's. "I think we'll
conclude
> that Admiral Poindexter and Colonel North were bit players," he told the
> Washington Post, "and the major characters were people who were in the
> weapons business for years, some of whom had CIA connections." A far more
> curious target is Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage, a man
> widely respected for his integrity and effectiveness. After his
appointment
> in 1981, Armitage began working in Southeast Asia to track down reports of
> MIAs in Viet-Nam; Perot suspected him of not doing enough. Last October,
> Perot met with Armitage at the Pentagon and bluntly demanded that he
resign.
> Perot's stated reason was that Armitage had written, on Pentagon
stationery,
> a glowing character reference for a Vietnamese woman refugee, Nguyet Thi
> O'Rourke, who had been convicted of running a gambling operation in
> Virginia. Armitage later conceded that using Pentagon stationery had been
> "dumb", but not illegal or improper. At the meeting, Armitage vigorously
> denied any implication that he had anything to do with an illicit arms or
> drug network . . . Lately, Perot and his investigators have been
> interviewing people who have also been questioned by the Christic
Institute,
> a Washington public interest law firm. Christic last year filed a suit in
> Miami against Clines, Shackley, Secord, Singlaub, Hakim and 24 others;
> Armitage is mentioned several times but is not a defendant. The suit
charges
> that some of the defendants became involved in drug smuggling from
Southeast
> Asia in the early 1960's and later in a series of shady weapons deals
around
> the world, using the profits to finance covert anti-Communist activities.
> But the lawsuit's allegations, many of which are inaccurate or based on
> false assumptions, are a shaky foundation on which to base an
investigation.
> Armitage calls the suit "malicious" and has a four-page list of factual
> refutations. For example, an affidavit filed by the Christic Institute's
> attorney claims that Armitage was in Bangkok setting up a company that
> allegedly served as a front for the movement of opium money during a
period
> in the late 1970's; part of that time he was actually living in Washington
> and working as administrative assistant to Senator Robert Dole.
>
> ARMITAGE AND BURMA: UNOCAL is the leading American investor in Myanmar, a
> target of widespread sanctions and boycotts for its repressive regime. In
> 1997 Richard Armitage reportedly went to Burma on a trip sponsored by the
> Burma/Myanmar Forum, a Washington group with major funding from UNOCAL.
>
> QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERS: Before Richard Armitage holds another public
> office, we need the answers to a few questions such as:
>
> - What exactly was his role in the disastrous, deadly, and deeply corrupt
> CIA arrangements with the SE drug trade?
>
> - What is in Lawrence Walsh's files concerning Armitage's involvement in
> Iran Contra?
>
> - What is in Ross Perot's files concerning Armitage and what is Armitage's
> response?
>
> - Do the files of the Kerry committee that investigated Iran Contra shed
any
> light on Armitage's role?
>
> - What was the nature of the various business enterprises with which
> Armitage has been affiliated?
>
> RICHARD ARMITAGE SOURCES LIST
> http://www.pir.org/cgi-bin/nbonlin1.cgi?Na=Armitage+Richard
>
> DEPLETED URANIUM
>
> GUARDIAN, LONDON: Depleted uranium shells fired by Britain in the Gulf war
> and the US in Kosovo contained traces of plutonium and other highly
> radioactive particles, the Ministry of Defense and the US department of
> energy admitted. The fact that DU rounds used by British and US forces
> contain far more radioactive isotopes than uranium, which are more likely
to
> cause cancer, is bound to fuel the controversy over Gulf war syndrome. But
> the additional risk to British and US servicemen was minimal because the
> amounts of contaminants were so small, a MoD spokeswoman in London said,
> echoing a NATO statement issued in Brussels.
> The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna was not so sure that the
> dangers of uranium containing even traces of plutonium were small, saying
> there was no data on what happened to contaminated depleted uranium when
> released into the atmosphere. David Kyd, spokesman for the agency, said:
> "The science simply can't provide the answers in terms of the long-term
> consequences. It is definitely worth investigating further, not only in
the
> Balkans but also in Iraq."
>
> GUARDIAN
>
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-4
> 23861,00.html
>
> THE MEDIACRACY
>
> ONE REASON PEOPLE LOSE their freedoms is because their press treats such
> losses as normal. For example, read how the Washington Post's Inaugural
> guide's treats the possibility of mass false arrests by the police and
then
> try to imagine how the paper might have covered the Nazi roundup of Jews:
>
> "How do I get to or avoid all the protests?
>
> "Protest organizers say they do not intend to act violently or illegally,
> but they say they cannot control everyone. Police might arrest everyone in
> the vicinity of a disruption, so stay clear if you do not want to be
arrested."
>
> THE NATION
>
> TODD WILKINSON, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: As he begins another year
running
> cows near the Big Hole River valley, Montana rancher Bill Garrison is
facing
> a potentially costly expense he hadn't counted on: Stringing miles of
> additional barbed-wire fence on his property. Mr. Garrison and hundreds of
> ranchers believe their cowboy way of life is under siege, following a
recent
> state Supreme Court ruling that struck down the once-sacred "Open Range
> Doctrine." They're still lobbying for legislation that will dampen the
> effects. But the ruling, largely a response to motorists' safety concerns,
> could mean the end of free-ranging cows in the West . . . With residential
> subdivisions pushing deeper into former agricultural pastures, ex-urban
> owners of "ranchettes" don't want cows tromping through their gardens,
> leaving cow pies on their sod lawns, and scaring their kids. The biggest
> complaint, however, relates to the safety concerns of cows along roads.
The
> Montana high-court ruling, rendered in mid-December, sprang from a lawsuit
> brought by a motorist injured when her vehicle crashed into a bull on a
> public highway.
>
> http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/01/17/fp4s1-csm.shtml
>
> THE BUSH LEAGUE
>
> PAUL SPERRY, WORLD NET DAILY: A review of financial assets held over the
> past six years by Elaine L. Chao and her husband, Kentucky Sen. Mitch
> McConnell, reveals that the Labor secretary-designate serves as director
of
> an insurance company that jointly owns a Lippo Group subsidiary with the
> Chinese government.
> Indonesia-based Lippo is controlled by the Riady family and is at the
center
> of the Chinagate fund-raising scandal. Lippo chief executive James T.
Riady
> has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of defrauding the US
> government. Prosecutors say he funneled foreign donations to the campaigns
> of Bill Clinton and other politicians. Lippo's man in the US, John Huang,
> was convicted of campaign fraud in 1999. Senate financial-disclosure
records
> show that, over the past four years, Chao has held a seat on the board of
> Protective Life Corp., which owns 50 percent of CRC Protective Life
> Insurance. Lippo co-owns the rest of the Hong Kong-based unit with China
> Resources Holdings Co., an intelligence-gathering front company for
China's
> People's Liberation Army.
>
> WORLD NET DAILY http://worldnetdaily.com
>
> DAN EGGEN & DAVID A. VISE, WASHINGTON POST: In his opening testimony to
the
> Senate Judiciary Committee, attorney general nominee John D. Ashcroft
> vigorously defended his fight against a landmark voluntary desegregation
> plan in St. Louis, arguing the state had "done nothing wrong" and "had
been
> found guilty of no wrong" in the case. But court documents show that a
> federal district judge ruled that the state was a "primary constitutional
> wrongdoer" in perpetuating segregated schools in St. Louis, both by
denying
> blacks an equal education in the past and doing little to remedy the
> situation later. Appellate courts repeatedly upheld that conclusion, and
the
> US Supreme Court declined to hear three appeals initiated by Ashcroft
while
> he was the state's attorney general . . . Ashcroft said, for example, that
> "in all of the cases where the court made an order, I followed the order,
> both as attorney general and as governor." But US District Judge William
> Hungate threatened to hold Ashcroft -- who was Missouri's attorney general
> -- and the state in contempt in 1981 for "continual delay and failure to
> comply" with orders to file a desegregation plan. "The state has, as a
> matter of deliberate policy, decided to defy the authority of this court,"
> Hungate wrote in a subsequent order. In a town forum three years later
> during his run for governor, Ashcroft said he had done "everything in my
> power legally" to fight the desegregation plan, according to a wire
service
> account. "Just ask Judge Hungate, who threatened me with contempt," he
said.
>
> WASHINGTON POST
> http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2001Jan17.html
>
> JAMES RIDGEWAY, VILLAGE VOICE: So far the Judiciary Committee hearings
have
> scarcely penetrated the surface concerns raised about Ashcroft's
nomination.
> All eight Republicans on the committee have promised to vote for Ashcroft.
> The Democrats are undeclared, but if their advance statements and line of
> questioning are any guide, two of these, Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both
> of Wisconsin, are open to and maybe even leaning toward confirming
Ashcroft.
> A filibuster could dramatically change the dynamics of the Ashcroft
> nomination battle. The Republicans are promising to vote as a bloc, which
> means 51 votes in favor Ashcroft. Media reports have Ashcroft getting an
> additional 11 Democratic votes. If true that would put him easily over the
> top. But once a filibuster is begun, it takes 60 votes to shut it off (or
> provide "closure" as the process is called). In a close fight, holding
onto
> the democratic votes might prove hard for the Republicans.
>
> VILLAGE VOICE http://villagevoice.com/issues/0103/ridgeway1.shtml
>
> AMERICAN INDICATORS
>
> - Percent of lawyers in all state legislatures, 1976: 22%
> - Percent of lawyers in all state legislatures, 1995: 15%
> - Percent of lawyers in Congress, 1969: 58%
> - Percent of lawyers in Congress, 1999: 43%
> - Percent of lawyers in adult population: less than 1%
> - Percent of lawyers in New York state legislature, 1969: 61%
> - Percent of lawyers in New York state legislature, 1999: 34%
> - Percent of lawyers in California state legislature, 1969: 48%
> - Percent of lawyers in New York state legislature, 1999: 22%
> - Percent of retired persons in Maine state legislature: 41%
> - Percent of educators in Maine state legislature: 30%
> - Percent of business people in Maine state legislature: 23%
> - Percent of health and social services workers in Maine state
legislature: 17%
> - Percent of lawyers in Maine state legislature: 11%
>
> [NY Times, Casco Bay Weekly]
>
> RAMPANT SELF PROMOTION
>
> YOUR EDITOR is among 24 persons nominated for a "new media" hero award by
> Alternet, the online journal and syndication service. They say some nice
> things, to wit: "One nominator called him 'a hero of ours. We consider
him
> a national treasure.' Another said: 'Sam is almost like a latter-day,
> progressive IF Stone.' If you want, you can vote to make me not just a
> nominated hero but a full fledged one, or - if you're afraid that might go
> to my head - you can vote for some of the others, who are pretty nifty.
> http://www.alternet.org/heroes/
>
> FIELD NOTES
>
> PAUL KRASSNER: Paul Krassner, whose Realist has just published its last
> issue, is interviewed on NPR
> http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps05fm.cfm?SegID=117165
>
> INTELLIGENCE ON THE WEB http://www.fas.org/irp/intelwww.html
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
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