{"article":{"id":5173,"heading":"Colin Powell's Right Hand man--Dick Armitage","author":"Vindicator","created":"2001-01-20 06:49:23","modified":"2005-08-15 00:31:07","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:31:07","article":"

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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> recipient, but keep them coming anyway.)

>

> <\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"> 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\r\n> Armitage, his close friend and a former Pentagon official, to be the deputy secretary, two Republicans close to the Bush transition team said.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/01\/colin_powe.txt","filesize":"25.3 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/01\/5173.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}