He will return

Mr. Cannon is taking a couple of much needed days off. He has a looming deadline.

~Joseph Cannon's "Ladyfriend"

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)

NORAD

Just now, AP published an important news story regarding our air defense systems:

In the 50th anniversary of the tradition, soldiers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said by about 10 a.m. EST, Santa had been spotted near Fiji, Japan, travelling about 100 times faster than the 300-km/h Bullet Train.

By 11 a.m., NORAD said Santa was in the Himalayas.

Last year, the tracking Web site at http://www.noradsanta.org received 912 million hits from 181 countries, and the Santa Tracking Operations Center answered nearly 55,000 phone calls on Christmas Eve.

The obvious question: If they can track Santa, then why did the peregrinations of Atta and the lads come as such a surprise?

Also, do you think Bush wants to re-allow Santa to carry box-cutters aboard his sleigh?

Semi-seriously: If you were a terrorist, wouldn't you choose Christmas Eve to engage in frivolity? NORAD would seem to be awfully busy tonight...

(By the way, their Santa page really is kind of trippy...)

One of the paragraphs below is a fib. Can you guess which one?

"Can you believe Terence Malick has a new film out already? I'm worried. If he starts churning them out like sausages, the quality may suffer."

I overheard that sentiment at an actual Hollywood Christmas party. Okay, the "Hollywood" label is actually something of a stretch -- basically, the party was put on by an ad agency which does a fair amount of work for the industry. Despite my official status as an impoverished freelancer, I managed to wrangle an invite and taste how the other half lives.

The first toast of the evening went to Barbara Boxer for her preliminary efforts in the movement (still in its gestative phase) to have George W. Bush impeached. At this party, she was more popular than Santa Claus.

Our wonderful meal was topped by Aborted Fetus Chocolate Torte, after which we were given adorable little packets of "H" to sprinkle on our kids' breakfast cereal in the morning. The head of the agency's Department of Planning described the new technology which will be used to hide the subliminal message "Jesus died because he was weak" in several upcoming movie trailers. After a chorus of "The Internationale," we participated in a lovely ceremony in which the "guests of honor" included two goats, a cat, a German Sheperd, and a 15-year-old virgin from Alabama. Quoting Aleister Crowley, our Master of Ceremonies explained: "The blood is the life: So it says in Corinthians. And who am I to argue with Saint Paul?"

I sure am glad to live in a blue state.

Vote fraud: Good news is strange news

I can't get used to the idea. Things are actually starting to go our way on the vote fraud issue. This must be a trick...

North Carolina: Diebold is pulling out again, before the deal could be consummated. (Sounds almost sexy, eh?) Let us hope that we can all echo the immortal words of Bullwinkle: "This time for sure!" The company simply does not want to give up its code for scrutiny. By anyone. They'll go under before that happens...

The bad news: NC may go with ES&S.

The word is getting out: None of 'em are trustworthy. This excellent story in Wired explains why a switch to ES&S won't make all the problems go away. An excerpt:

David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and chair of California's Voting Systems Technical Assessment and Advisory Board, said that programming software on a removable memory card raises grave concerns.

"The instant anyone with security sensibility hears this, red flags and clanging alarms happen," Jefferson said. "Because this software that is inserted from the memory module is not part of the code base that goes through the qualification process, so it's code that escapes federal scrutiny."

Barack Obama gets it. I knew there was a reason I liked this guy. He just introduced a bill called The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2005.

John Kerry gets it. Actually, about a year ago he got it -- but good. But now he's talking about it. The Republicans and the Democratic ostriches (the ones who refuse to acknowledge that vote fraud is real) used to make frequent reference to Kerry's acquiescence. Well, he ain't acquiescent anymore, thank god.

Bev Harris and the tapes. Remember this story -- the incriminating poll tapes she supposedly pulled out of the garbage in Volusia County, Florida? Shortly after the election, we heard a week of hoopla about this evidence. And then...nada. She refused to answer even politely worded inquiries about the matter. That's when I became a Harris skeptic.

Well...here they are. The tapes. In .pdf format. Make of them what you will. I can no longer figure out what's going on with this woman, but I would love to hear the opinions of my readers.

Diebold in California. Turns out the company's wares may not be sailing into a ballot booth near you. Once again, it's a matter of "show us your source code...or else take a hike." I don't know if these new "more rigorous" tests are rigged, or if Diebold really is in trouble. But I suspect the latter...

And now the bad news. (You knew there had to be some bad news, right?) Hans von Spakovsky, a Republican activist who helped rig up the Florida voter purge that doomed Gore, has been nominated by Bush to the Federal Elections Commission.

Fox. Henhouse. You know the metaphor.

The egg thing

I'm told this is the day when you can (allegedly) balance an egg on end. Alas, I have no eggs in the house. Please carry out the experiment and report back to me.

"LET ME FINISH!" Yep, he said it again...

The bulge is back. The photo evidence is pretty damned conclusive. He even used his infamous phrase "Let me finish!" when no-one had even attempted to interrupt his discussion of the spying scandal...

"We will, under current law, if we have to. We will monitor those calls. And that's why there is a FISA law. We will apply for the right to do so. And there's a difference -- let me finish -- there is a difference between detecting so we can prevent, and monitoring. And it's important to know the distinction between the two."

Go here and here.

This guy's not hearing-impaired -- he's learning-impaired. And I long for the day when he IS finished mis-governing this nation.

The John Conyers monument

Nope. Not big enough.

That's not big enough either.

Getting closer...

There. That's just about the right size. Of course, we'll need two.

Good thing SOMEONE in D.C. still has a pair!

The Maoists are coming! AIEEE!!

A couple of posts down, I talked about the case of the Dartmouth student who received federal attention because he requested a copy of Chairman Mao's little red book via interlibrary loan. A reader told me that the report had yet to be substantiated. Well, now it has been. As I suspected might be the case, the poor guy was taking a class in totalitarianism, and had been directed by his professor to seek out primary sources.

What the hell was on the minds of those Homeland Security types? Do they really think that anyone in this country who takes Mao's ravings seriously could pose an actual threat?

The only American Maoists I ever met were assholes allied to the Revolutionary Communist Party, which was a cult of personality run by a ludicrous figure named Bob Avakian. I ran into a couple of those guys back in my college days -- more years ago than I will here divulge. Everyone on campus thought they were hilarious. Believe me, if those clueless turkeys are the enemy, we haven't got a thing to worry about.

I know that right-wing nutjobs constantly try to connect the jihadist movement with communism. That's because right-wing nutjobs are incapable of learning the basic facts of history. One of those facts is this: The Salafist movement (Al Qaeda is an outgrowth of Salafism) is closely allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, which had stood against Nasserism, which was the last major Arab political movement to display any sympathy for any variety of socialism. There was a strong socialist movement in Iran in the 1970s, but it was wiped out by Khomeini.

(Incidentally, there are some aficionados of parapolitics who argue that the CIA, having noted the Shah's instability, helped to establish Khomeini as an alternative, beause a religious leader was considered preferable to anyone on the left. I don't know if that allegation is true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were.)

Forgive my discursiveness. The point is, we now know that the Pentagon is spying on anti-War protestors. That means you and me. We know that "Uncle" can now track your movements if you carry a cel phone. No warrant necessary.

Meanwhile, our prez is good friends with Saudi royalty, while Saudi citizens (and those who merely claim to be such) are pouring into this nation, legally and illegally. The administration refuses to beef up security at our ports, and the Bushfolk want to allow sharp implements back on airplanes.

Obviously, this administration does not consider jihadists to be the enemy. After all, a new terror incident would rescue W's poll numbers.

No, the real enemy is anyone who opposes King George.

Who kidnapped the Christian Peacekeepers? (Updated)

Four members of a non-missionary Christian peace group -- opponents of Mr. Bush's war -- were kidnapped more than three weeks ago in Iraq by a group no-one had heard of before called the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The brigade has called the Peacemakers "spies," even though the group is known for its aid work -- and for helping Seymour Hersh uncover the Abu Ghraib scandal. The group has also denounced George Bush's most recent speech.

Muslims around the world, including many with strong anti-U.S. feelings, have called for the release of these prisoners, who have provided a consistent anti-war voice.

Privately, a few have wondered: Who are the kidnappers? Why would they target a group which has taken great risks to antagonize the Bush forces?

Are we dealing with what British General Frank Kitson once called a "pseudo-gang"?

No-one doubts, these days, that the CIA and other American agencies are perfectly willing to perform kidnappings of both Americans and non-Americans. But is there precedent for the presence of a kidnap-crazed "pseudo-gang" in Iraq?

Many will recall the example of Nick Berg, whose grisly behading video seemed unconvincing to many. I took the evidence of murder at face value, but I still wonder why Berg wore an orange jumpsuit similar to the those seen in the Abu Ghraib photos, and why the surrounding details (the floor, the walls, the chair) matched interior shots of that prison. In my eyes, the murder of Nick Berg remains mysterious. (Many details of his life were also puzzling, but we must go into those enigmas at another time.)

On July 13, 2004 -- when few people paid attention to this blog -- I published a piece on another Iraq kidnapping, where the indications of fakery were stronger. Even mainstream periodicals voiced suspicion. This post may have some bearing on the current episode. I'll repeat it here (beneath the asterisks).

* * *

I actually started to write it. A note of apology.

I may still publish it. After all, I've long castigated the rightists for their psychological inability to apologize for anything; if they step on your foot, they blame you for putting your foot there. That's why no right-wingers ever admitted that they were wrong about Whitewater or the Clinton hit squad or the Vince Foster "murder" or any of the other wacky conspiracy stories they peddled.

Then came the l'affaire Berg, a wacky conspiracy story that, rightly or wrongly, captured the attention of yours truly. I never wedded myself to the popular "fake beheading" thesis. But who can deny the Fleming-esque fascination of this outlandish idea?

More intriguing still, to me at least, are the manifold oddities -- and even (dare I say it?) hints of espionage -- in the career of Nick Berg.

Alas, the "spooky" aspect of the case did not interest others quite so much as it did me. Those who fixated on the Berg mystery were primarily drawn to the possibility of video fakery. And there is some evidence to support their view -- for example, this analysis of the voice of "Zarqawi," as heard on the Berg tape, notes some very unexpected details.

Like many others, I was stunned to see Berg wearing an Abu Ghraib-style orange jump suit. For many, that was the detail that permeated this business with an unmistakable odor of fish.

And then...and then...

Others were kidnapped: Paul Johnson. Kim Sun-il. Marine Cpl. Wassif Hassoun. All three men were displayed wearing American-style orange prison jumpsuits, as though Middle Eastern terrorists had found a discount store that carried such uniforms in bulk.

This turn of events placed the Berg "buffs" in an uncomfortable position. Even the hard-core conspiracy theorists tend to admit that the Johnson murder was precisely what it seemed to be. If a "real" beheading offers details similar to those found in the Berg video, then we can fairly presume that the Berg atrocity was genuine as well.

And then...and then...

Corporal Hassoun turned up alive.

The news reports are sketchy and contradictory to the point of infuriation. At one point, we were told that Hassoun went AWOL to be with a girlfriend in Lebanon. No, other reports countered: The girlfriend was Iraqi. Friends in Iraq, according to some news accounts, conspired to shuttle Hassoun off to his native land of Lebanon. No, said other news accounts: Those "friends" were actually terrorists who kidnapped him for real. Now that he has spent some days in American hands, Hassoun's de-briefers aren't telling the press much. Initial accounts indicate that they take his kidnapping at face value. Yet the majority of news articles continue to treat the whole affair as a hoax.

I've just begun to list the oddities surrounding this episode. The ultimate oddity is this: There was a videotape of Hassoun in captivity -- wearing the now-ubiquitous orange jumpsuit.

Don't underestimate the ramifications. If this kidnapping was indeed a hoax, then it was a very elaborate prank involving a number of perpetrators. They were able to replicate the essentials of the Berg video, and they were able to send the video to the internet without being traced.

Which means, at the very least, that we may well possess at least one verifiable instance of a staged video documenting a terrorist "kidnapping." And the existence of one staged video means we cannot discount the possibility of others.

More than that: If the Hassoun kidnapping was a fake designed to help the Marine shuffle off to Lebanon, then we must presume that Hassoun had no serious objection to the idea of his family being informed of his murder. The man cared so much about beating the AWOL rap that he let his mother, rather and siblings believe that decapitation had occurred. Or so some news stories would have us think.

More than that. Various news accounts imply that Hassoun intended to start a new life, probably under a new identity. Would he really take such a drastic step just to impress a girl?

The "fake kidnapping" reports place us -- egads! -- directly in the middle of conspiracy-land. The only question concerns the conspiracy's size. We are permitted to consider the notion that Hassoun and his buddies worked up an elaborate scheme of this sort on their own, ad hoc. But if we don't want reasonable, sober-minded folk to snarl or guffaw at us, we must never, ever, ponder the possibility that the American military or espionage apparat might have engineered such a deception. To allow such a notion to percolate in our noggins would constitute Thoughtcrime Most Foul.

Far be it from me to wallow in Thoughtcriminality. But...well, you remember that apology I was going to offer for my interest in the Berg controversy? I may yet offer my mea culpas.

But not today.

* * *

Update: End of self-quotation; this is my December, 2005 self writing again. I'm going to include in the body of this post some information that first appeared in the comments section.

First, a reader notes that this CBS News photo does not depict Hassoun in the infamous orange jumpsuit. I recall that the jumpsuit was mentioned in some reports published at the time.

Wikipedia tells the follow-up story as well as anyone:

A preliminary result of the United States Navy into the activities of Wassef Ali Hassoun concluded that he deserted the United States Marine Corps on June 21, 2004. The investigation is ongoing [1]. In mid-July, he publicly denied desertion

On December 9, 2004, The Pentagon announced that Hassoun would be charged with desertion, larceny and wrongful disposition of military property in connection with his service-issued 9 mm handgun that disappeared with him and never turned up. If convicted, he could receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay, and from five to ten years incarceration on each specification.

In a further twist, on January 4, 2005 he was again labelled a deserter after failing to return to his base in North Carolina from authorised leave. He is reportedly in Canada or Lebanon.

Finally, this January 7, 2005 story in the Deseret News includes confirmation that Hassoun was engaged in an undefined intelligence operation:

Questions of Hassoun's involvement in intelligence were raised last month when Marine officials disclosed that Hassoun, whose main duty was to drive trucks, was called to help in undercover intelligence operations in Iraq. However, Wims said the fact that Hassoun was not charged with divulging classified information may indicate that Hassoun's role in that operation was minimal. If Hassoun was a threat to military security, he would have been treated differently, Wims said.

The writer of this article did not consider the possibility that the kidnapping was the "undercover intelligence operation."

If...if we credit the theory that Hassoun participated in a fake kidnapping arranged by American operatives, we can only guess at the purpose. Those who surmise along these lines will presume that the operation was blown, and that Houssan was allowed to disappear.

Library spying

The Dark Wraith carries a chilling report of a Dartmouth student who ended up talking to Homeland Security agents simply because he sought out a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. Obviously, loan requests are subjected to keyword searches. The thought will infuriate anyone who relies on libraries to obtain political books.

S'funny -- when I was young, when Mao was alive, the free availability of his book was usually cited as the classic example proving America's unfettered intellectual freedom. (The other example was Mein Kampf.) Most Americans felt proud to boast that any citizen could read any political text without fear of governmental intrusion.

Back then, only sexual materials were censored.

Now, sexual writings of all sorts have become so widely available that few writers can profit from them; why should the public pay for what it can get for free? Yet if you show any interest (even a historical interest) in certain proscribed political works, you will end up on a "watch" list.

Suppose you ask to see a work produced by Mao, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Alfred Rosenberg, whomever. Suppose you make the request out of pure curiosity -- you simply want to see what all the fuss was once about. Will you be able to travel by air? Will you have to explain your reading habits to all future employers?

How, exactly, did "Mao" enter that keyword list? Most of us were under the impression that the feds had targeted Islamic jihadists, who would abhor Mao's atheism. When was the last time American Maoists (I presume there are a few still around) committed a violent act? Hell, when was the last time any group on the far left was capable of sufficient cohesion to choose a date for a potluck dinner?

Perhaps the FBI should investigate the Bush administration, which has allowed China to steal so many American jobs. Or perhaps the feds should investigate Wal-Mart, where so many Chinese-made goods are on display. Last time I looked, China still considered itself a Communist country, and still revered (or at least paid lip-service to) the words of Mao.

"Democracy" in Iraq may lead to war with Iran

Rightists seem to consider Iraq's most recent election the most satisfactory exercise of democracy since the age of Pericles, and I'm not sure we shouldn't encourage this hallucination. That perception aids the argument that we should declare victory and withdraw, the least horrible our options. Of course, civil war in Iraq will break out a few minutes after we break away, but at least we would no longer be melting and torturing those we intended to liberate.

For a good view of what really went down in these elections, start with this Guardian article on the likelihood of rigged voting in Iraq:

Suspected polling violations on voting day last week far exceeded the number in Iraq's first election in January, local and international monitors said yesterday.

On the deadline for filing complaints, the number of alleged violations which could swing results in the 275-seat parliament was "well into double figures", an accredited international election observer, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

More:

A source close to Mr Allawi's campaign said that in one Baghdad polling station "around 600 men, some with walkie-talkies and purple ink on their fingers showing they had already voted, forced their way in. When the manager tried to stop them asking for ballot papers, they threatened to put him in a car boot and drive him away ... He let them in."

He declined to be identified, citing the fact that an Allawi candidate and five campaign workers were murdered before the poll. All complaints have to be signed by a witness, which created risks, he said.

Fraud or no, Islamist Shi'ite forces (Allawi is a secular Shi'ite) will gain, and Bush may be unhappy with the results:

Some preliminary election results are in and there is certainly a surprise for the Bush administration. There is no surprise for anyone who actually reads or listens to the Iraqi people. Results from some of the more peaceful regions were released today and the news is bad for the American favorite Iyad Allawi. Iyad Allawi was the secular former Prime Minister who supported a cross-sectarian list of candidates. The US had backed Iyad Allawi in the previous election in order to avoid a religious civil war, but it doesn’t look like that’s what the Iraqi people want.

The people actually want their religious fundamentalism and true Democracy is what the Bush administration claims to want. If the people are actually allowed to have their way Iraq will likely because a second Islamic fundamentalist state allied with Iran, and sworn enemy to the Western Satan that the United States represents.

The allegations of vote fraud strike me as a foretaste of a looming civil war. Sunni participation in the election does not mean that the insurgency has ended, and one can only imagine how Sunnis will chafe under a regime friendly to Tehran. Shi'ites, conversely, will snarl mightily if they lose any of the power they have already gained.

Of course, Bush may prefer to resolve the issue by attempting to install a U.S.-friendly regime in Tehran. If he makes such a try, the world will enter hell.

Great news on the vote fraud front!

Some of you may know that I was among those disappointed, or at least baffled, by the behavior of Bev Harris in the aftermath of the Nov. 2004 election. But I am always willing to hear the other side of the story.

(Okay, that's not always true. There are a few "other sides" to various stories -- "controlled demolition" theories of 9/11, "Mob did it" theories of the JFK assassination, outrageous claims involving Roswell or MKULTRA or Rennes-le-chateau -- that have, over the years, lost their charm. Of course you have a right to speak of these "other sides," but please understand that I have a right not to listen to you and not to give you a forum on what is, after all, my own damn blog.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Bev Harris. John Dean, definitely a friend to this blog, has mounted a spirited defense of this woman and all that she has done to prove that computers can hack into our vote. And in light of the latest news from Florida, I encourage everyone to hear Dean out.

Start here and then go here. He will have more to say soon, I am sure.

On other fronts...

Sign up! Yes, I know you hear about plenty of petitions for good causes, but this one's really important. Congressman Rush Holt is trying to drum up grass roots support for H.R. 550, the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005. This legislation is a broom poised to clean house. Please get behind it.

A few months ago, I would have thought that this bill stood no chance. But now...

The New York Times published an Op-Ed questioning Diebold. This column is a victory of sorts, although I, for one, feel that skepticism should have been voiced much earlier. Still, let us be grateful for these three paragraphs:

Diebold's voting machines have a troubled history. The company was accused of installing improperly certified software, which is illegal, in a 2002 governor's race in Georgia. Across the country, it reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the California attorney general last year of a lawsuit alleging that it made false claims about the security of its machines. Last week, the top elections officer in Leon County, Fla., which includes Tallahassee, concluded after a test that Diebold machines can be hacked to change vote totals.

Diebold has always insisted that its electronic voting machines are so reliable that there is no need for paper records of votes that can be independently verified. Fortunately, the American people feel otherwise. Nearly half the states - including large ones like California, New York, Illinois and Ohio - now require so-called paper trails.

Paper trails are important, but they are no substitute for voting machine manufacturers of unquestioned integrity. As Diebold enters the post-O'Dell era, it should work to make itself worthy of the important role it now plays in American democracy.

All very well and good. But always keep in mind that a year ago -- back when the NYT had yet to call Judy Miller on her crap, back when the paper censored the news about spying on Americans without warrants -- they refused to offer any coverage of John Conyers' heroic work, and they dismissed as blog-driven rumor-mongering all allegations of vote fraud.

Both Matthew Purdy, the head of The Times’s investigative unit, and Rick Berke, the paper’s Washington editor, assure me that reporters will continue to look into the ssue. I’m confident that if they find something, they’ll publish it. A good investigative reporter (much less a whole staff of them) turning away from a story like this one ­ if true ­ would be like a flower turning away from the sun. Careers are made by stories that detail massive election fraud.

This, from a November 21 letter written by the interestingly-named Arthur Bovino, of the NYT's Office of the Public Editor.

Of course, Conyers uncovered massive indications of vote-rigging, and conclusive proof that Kenny the Kapo acted illegally. Yet the Times' response to the evidence was so complacent as to be...well, bovine.

This, from a paper that treated Achmed Chalabi as a really trustworthy source.

North Carolina: What's going on? Mike Wilburt, chairman of the Warren County Republican Party in that state, has grown disenchanted with Diebold:

Several newspaper articles, editorials and published commentaries have raised questions about the process in which Diebold's certification was obtained. Further questions have been raised relative to State Board of Elections Commission Chairman Larry Leake's relationship with a Diebold lobbyist. And, as you know, the State Board of Elections is being sued for alleged statutory violations in their certification of Diebold as a provider of electronic voting machines.

The Warren County Republican Party respectfully asks that no taxpayer money be appropriated for the purchase of electronic voting machines from Diebold, or any other provider, until such time as all questions regarding the certification process and the relationship between Chairman Leake and Diebold's representatives have been satisfactorily answered.

Again, this is all very well and good. But.

As we know, Republicans are the Borg. Nearly all party functionaries are incapable of independent ideas; their actions are controlled by Borg Central. So what we are seeing here cannot be a case of Mr. Wilburt defying his party on the Diebold question.

I'm starting to theorize that the RNC Borg-herders have made the decsion: Diebold is history. We never liked that company. We were never at war with Eastasia. We were always at war with Westasia. Please re-write your history books accordingly.

Which leaves us with...what? Clean elections?

Nope. It leaves us with ES&S, Sequoia, and Triad.

The Republicans have pulled off some tricky propaganda stunts in the past, but none trickier than the one they must now attempt. Originally, they tried to convince the public that computerized voting could not be hacked. We have seen through that lie. Now they must attempt to convince us that the problem begins and ends with Diebold, and that all the other compu-vote venders are as pure as the milk that dribbled from the BVM's left teat.

We can't let that hallucination take hold. We must force the public to understand that Diebold is not just one bad apple; the whole damn barrel is filled with poison.

Fact: The money power behind ES&S is the Ahmanson family, which is also the money power behind the Dominionst movement. Howard Ahmanson has a lot of control over the machines Americans use on election day. And he does not believe in democracy. He prefers theocracy.

Here's another fact: Many paid attention (and properly so!) to Brad Friedman's stories about the whistleblower he calls Dieb-Throat. But did you know -- or have you forgotten -- that ES&S has its very own whistleblower? And she's not anonymous, either. Her name is Wendy Orange, and I wrote about her a year ago. She quit the company for moral reasons:

In her letter of resignation, Orange said she found the corporate philosophy at ES&S to embody unethical and disreputable practices. She said she had "personally witnessed open discussions of potentially illegal procedures."

More:

Her husband, Doug Orange, used to work for ES&S as Johnson County's project manager. He was fired after refusing a superior's order to zero the counters on voting machines at the courthouse instead of the polls. “I felt those procedures were illegal,” said Orange.

And what about Sequoia?

Well, there's a nice amount of evidence that they've bribed election supervisors to install their machines. (See here.) If there is one thing the Wilkes/Cunningham scandal has taught us, it's that the bribER is just as filthy as the bribEE. So how can any state tolerate a company like Sequoia in light of its obscene history?

Phil Foster and Pasquale Ricci of Sequoia were indicted for paying a large bribe to the Louisiana Commissioner of Elections.

The owner of this same company once tried to bribe a sitting Supreme Court justice.

Sequoia has even been linked to one member of the Gambino crime family.

You can find lots more here. This company has a history of bribery going back decades.

Let's repeat what the NYT stated: "Paper trails are important, but they are no substitute for voting machine manufacturers of unquestioned integrity." Why direct those words only at Wally O'Dell and minions?

Such selective targeting is suspicious.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells it like it is: He gave some precious airtime to Harvey Wasserman, who offered damning evidence of vote fraud in 2004.

Of course, RFK Jr. knows that there was once a time when elections were fixed in a far less elegant fashion....

Porter brings war

The CIA Director visited Turkey to prep them for the upcoming war against Iran. (See this version of the story for some appropriate illustrations.) Someone should explain a couple of things to the Turks: 1. A war on Iran will inevitably go nuclear, and 2. Airborne radioactive fallout might make Turkey a less attractive vacation spot.

Oh: And it seems as though we need not choose between Iran or Syria. Long as we're throwing the Big'uns around, why not do both?

Obviously, justifying this war will require the most impressive Reichstag fire ever staged. That triggering event might take many different forms -- but as long-time readers know, I'm betting that this web-page will need to be redesigned.

Wilkes: A word of explanation

One hazard of this avocation is that bloggers become typecast. Right now, I find myself cast as the guy researching the Wilkes/Cunningham mysteries. Not a bad position to be in: Those mysteries deserve attention, and I am happy to shine my small spotlight upon them.

Some of you have asked anxiously: "So when is the next installment?" I had hoped to publish something this week, but shall have to put it off.

You see, the most original area of research open to me concerns Horizon Sports Technology, a firm which sued the many Wilkes companies in the first part of 2005. The San Diego court docket system does not reveal what the suit concerned -- merely that such a case existed.

Now, this matter is of broader public interest for a couple of reasons:

1. The FBI used Horizon Sports Technologies to investigate shady firms dealing in composite materials useful to the defense department. Basically, HST provided FBI agents with cover.

2. Group W Advisors -- the Wilkes lobbying firm -- represented a firm called Optimum Composite Design, a name which immediately struck my ears as redolent of the tale of HST-and-the-FBI.

3. Reader John Dean looked into the matter further and found that Horizon Sports and Optimum Composite Design have the same address.

4. Optimum Composite has a pseudo-website which is registered to PerfectWave, one of Wilkes' more notorious subfirms. (I still doubt that PerfectWave actually does anything, although the SDUT claims that this firm has made use of an acoustical technology developed by Scripps.)

Confused? Are the gears of your mind making a rattling sound?

Let me "bottom line" the ramifications. Here's one possible scenario:

Maybe the FBI has been targeting Wilkes for a year -- or longer.

What if the feds smelled something fishy about the ADCS operations long before the San Diego papers published their first exposure of Duke Cunningham? What if the FBI used Horizon Sports Technology to get the goods on Wilkes -- a probe which extended to Cunningham, to MZM, and to God-knows-where else?

Yes, I read that Josh Marshall column in which he lays out how reporter Marcus Stern first discovered Duke's shennanigans. But what if that isn't the full story? What if Stern called a friend at the FBI (reporters have been known to do that sort of thing)? And what if said friend told him: "Hey, you don't know the half of it. If you promise to leave the Bureau out of what you write, I'll tell you a story about Cunningham that'll make your hair curl..."

Such a dialogue would explain how some very obscure and difficult-to-obtain information found its way into print.

Can I prove this scenario? No. Am I persuaded of this scenario? Hardly. Are there alternative explanations regarding the Horizon Sports connection? Of course.

That's why I've been trying to reach someone who can fill me in.

I have a name. I know who to talk to. But I learned today that I won't be able to speak to this person until next week.

Those of you who have been asking me "Where's the new story on Wilkes, the one you've been promising?" -- well, now you know where things stand.

In the meantime... I've incurred the antipathy of some because I praised Cunningham's war service, even while denouncing his horrible latter-day decisions.

Let me first stipulate that we should not disrespect the military virtues. Although more than half a century has passed since the last "good" war -- by which I mean a war against a foe who truly sought global domination -- we may see such a conflict again. We may even see it within this generation. Bush has weakened our nation economically, and weak nations invite aggression. One day we will once again ask brave young men to defend this country, not to wage an overseas war of theft and aggression.

Now as in the Vietnam era, our anger should be directed at the men who engineered a foolish war, not at those who fight it.

That said...

It turns out that, contrary to the History Channel version of the event, Cunningham may not have battled North Vietnamese Air Ace "Colonel Tombs" on May 10, 1972. In fact, "Colonel Tombs" is almost certainly fictional.

That said, Cunningham (in his History Channel interview) never directly stated that his opponent was "Tombs" -- merely that he believed he had fought Tombs. And whatever happened on May 10, 1972, I'm sure it was frightening as hell.

On a speculative note...

I'm putting together a piece on further development in the Wilkes/Cunningham scandal. Right now, I want to float an idea...an idea some will consider outrageous. All I ask is that you mull it over.

It is well-known that Thomas Kontogiannis, the third Cunningham briber, has deep but (as yet) ill-defined ties to Saudi interests.

He also has a history of arranging for fraudulent visas. From a NY Post article quoted by Laura Rozen:

...Business dealings between District 29 in Rosedale [Queens] and Kontogiannis date back to 1989, when the local board leased offices at 1 Cross Island Plaza, built in 1985 by Kontogiannis and owned by his wife.

[Celestine] Miller, appointed in 1992, ran the district with an iron fist, but treated herself with kindness - leasing a Cadillac with district funds, sources said.

About the time of Miller's appointment, Kontogiannis ran afoul of the law. He and an official at the U.S. Embassy in Athens were arrested by the FBI for taking bribes to provide phony U.S. visas.

Both pleaded guilty, and Kontogiannis was sentenced to five years' probation.

He told The Post recently he was only trying to help a Greek national visit his dying mother... Sources said his motive was pure greed. ...

If helping a countryman was his motive, then we need think no further about the visa case. But...

If money was his motive, and if his Saudi ties run as deep as many suspect, then those who share my occasional weakness for irresponsible speculation will find one question irresistible:

Did Kontogiannis have anything to do (perhaps inadvertantly) with the visas obtained by the 9/11 hijackers?

Interestingly, that same building at 1 Cross Island Plaza is also home to offices of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services. It is not beyond reason to suggest the possibility that Kontogiannis, while working his visa scam, had the aid of someone at these offices. Kontogiannis does like to bribe people, after all.

As long as we are engaging in thoroughly irresponsible speculation (but at least having the decency to label it as such), let's note a few other points:

1. The Abramoff and Cunningham scandals have merged.

2. Abramoff was hired to do PR for a Saudi billionaire named Saleh Abdullah Kamel, chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks -- whose good buddy is, or at least was, Osama Bin Laden. According to several published reports, a Kamel company paid the rent for the hijackers who lodged in San Diego.

3. The Atta gang was connected to a jihadist cell in New Jersey, connected in turn (by none other than NBC news) to Magdy el-Amir, a former client of Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff. (Much more here.)

Seems to me that the New Jersey cell would have a vested interest in obtaining visas. Now, I am not entirely familiar with the geography in that part of the world, but I do know that there is an immigration office in Newark, closer to the cell in question.

Still...1 Cross Island Plaza is not that far away from New Jersey; we're talking a distance of about 15-20 miles. And if someone in that building had both a penchant for helping Saudis and access to a bribable person in the Immigration office...and perhaps even hidden ties to the world of Jack Abramoff...

Well. I'm sure that by now you must understand the way my suspicions are running.

I will be back soon. At that time, outrageous speculation will, I hope, have given way something rather more reasonable.

Until then, you may want to note that the Cunningham case is not the only occasion in which the name "Kontogiannis" and the word "bribery" have been mentioned in the same sentence. Look here for the 2002 case.

PS. Not only have the Abramoff and Wilkes scandals merged, they also have linked up to the Delay case. I believe I may have been the first blogger to suggest that ADCS money was among the funds laundered by Texans for a Republican Majority. I'd do a Homer Simpson-esque victory dance, but that always makes the dog bark. So I'll simply note that sometimes we "irresponsible speculators" do hit a bullseye...

DIEBOLD, DIE NOW -- Part two

Scroll down for my first piece on the original class action lawsuit filed by Scott + Scott against the notorious Republican-friendly vote-theft enabler Diebold. Now we learn that another law firm is also going after our least-favorite voting machine company.

A complaint has been filed by a California firm called Stull, Stull & Brody. The main suit is described by the firm here:

The complaint alleges that defendants violated provisions of the United States securities laws causing artificial inflation of the Company’s stock price. According to the complaint, during the Class Period, the Company lacked a credible state of internal controls and corporate compliance and remained unable to assure the quality and working order of its voting machine products. It is further alleged that the Company’s false and misleading statements served to conceal the dimensions and scope of internal problems at the Company, impacting product quality, strategic planning, forecasting and guidance and culminating in false representations of astonishingly low and incredibly inaccurate restructuring charges for the 2005 fiscal year, which grossly understated the true costs and problems defendants faced to restructure the Company. The complaint also alleges over $2.7 million of insider trading proceeds obtained by individual defendants during the Class Period.

Finally, investors learned the truth about the adverse impact of the Company’s alleged defective and deficient inventory-related controls and systems on Diebold’s financial performance. As a result of defendants’ shocking news and disclosures of September 21, 2005, the price of Diebold shares plunged 15.5% on unusually high volume, falling from $44.37 per share on September 20, 2005, to $37.47 per share on September 21, 2005, for a one-day drop of $6.90 per share on volume of 6.1 million shares – nearly eight times the average daily trading volume.

This is similar to the suit described earlier. To tell the truth, I'm still not sure whether this counts as an entirely separate lawsuit (as a Daily Kos diarist has alleged) or whether a second firm has somehow glommed onto the originial case.

Stull, Stull & Brody is filing still another action concerning misuse of the 401(k) plan.

What's the big picture? As I say below: Diebold is vulnerable, and they aren't in any kind of a position to bribe their way out of jams. Right now, there are counties and states making the decision whether or not to use this equipment. I list contact information in the post below.

Send them email. This is one of the few times when I really do beleive that your voice can make a difference.

On another vote fraud front...

In Iraq, fake ballots are allegedly being trucked in from Iran. Either the Iranians feel there is some chance that Shi'ite factions may lose power in Iraq, or they whole incident was a set-up, perhaps designed to provide cover for the Bush administration's notorious vote-rigging efforts in that country.

DIEBOLD: DIE NOW! (updated -- with suggestions for action)

(How's that for a headline worthy of Stan Lee?)

Always happens: Every time I allow myself a day away from the bloody net, the most amazing stuff goes down. There's a ton of new material on the Wilkes/Cunningham front, which we will discuss presently. Now, however, we must discuss the fate of Diebold and democracy.

Let me confess: For months now, I have felt captious and disheartened about the possibility of returning democracy to this nation. But right now, we have a small window of opportunity.

Diebold, which just lost its ultra-Republican CEO Wally O'Dell, is the target of an important class action lawsuit files by Scott + Scott LLC in the Northern District of Ohio. Brad Friedman, as always, has the story, as does this Reuters account. Here are a couple of nifty nuggets from the suit:

Each defendant is liable for (a) making false statements, or (b) failing to disclose adverse facts known to him about Diebold.

And just to make sure no-one can argue that this isn't about potential vote fraud...

During the Class Period, defendants knew and concealed that:
(a) the Company remained unable to assure the quality and working order of their voting machine products;
(b) the Company lacked a credible state of internal controls and corporate compliance;
(c) the 2004 settlement with the State of California served to conceal from investors the dimensions and scope of internal problems at the Company, impacting product quality, strategic planning, forecasting, guidance, internal controls and corporate compliance; and
(d) the Company’s "prediction" of astonishingly low and incredibly inaccurate restructuring charges for the entire 2005 fiscal year grossly understated the true costs defendants faced to restructure the Company.

Will the action succeed? I don't know. Will discovery uncover important information? Ah. Now that could be fun...

That said, don't look for immediate change. Deibold's stock is heading back up, and some are saying the company is a good investment.

But that's not all... In Leon County, Florida, election supervisor Ion Sancho has denounced Diebold's machinery and vowed never to use the company's product again:

Finnish security expert Harri Hursti, together with Black Box Voting, demonstrated that Diebold made misrepresentations to Secretaries of State across the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the "memory card" (the credit-card-sized ballot box used by computerized voting machines.

A test election was run in Leon County on Tuesday with a total of eight ballots. Six ballots voted "no" on a ballot question as to whether Diebold voting machines can be hacked or not. Two ballots, cast by Dr. Herbert Thompson and by Harri Hursti voted "yes" indicating a belief that the Diebold machines could be hacked.

At the beginning of the test election the memory card programmed by Harri Hursti was inserted into an Optical Scan Diebold voting machine. A "zero report" was run indicating zero votes on the memory card. In fact, however, Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes.

The eight ballots were run through the optical scan machine. The standard Diebold-supplied "ender card" was run through as is normal procedure ending the election. A results tape was run from the voting machine.

Correct results should have been: Yes: 2 ; No: 6

However, just as Hursti had planned, the results tape read: Yes: 7 ; No: 1

The results were then uploaded from the optical scan voting machine into the GEMS central tabulator, a step cited by Diebold as a protection against memory card hacking. The central tabulator is the "mother ship" that pulls in all votes from voting machines. However, the GEMS central tabulator failed to notice that the voting machines had been hacked.

The results in the central tabulator read:

Yes:7 ; No:1

Florida may be coming around.

What does it all mean? It means Diebold is vulnerable. Events are turning against the company. Right now, they can no longer make problems go away simply by lining pockets. The Abramoff and Wilkes affairs have sensitized the public to allegations of blackmail. The heat is, as they say, on.

And if Diebold is vulnerable, then all compu-voting systems are vulnerable. Once the public (even the red-staters) comprehend that vote-hacking is a very real issue, then all such machines will be viewed as suspect. So right now, the best way to undermine the very concept of paper-free voting is to make sure Diebold goes down.

But what about North Carolina? In Warren County, the elections board is thisclose to buying Diebold's corrupt equipment. Can someone please pass the news from Florida to Debbie Formyduval, director of the elections board in that neck of the woods?

Here's her email: warren.boe@ncmail.net. You don't have to live in that state to send email to this public official. Send her a copy of this very post. Or send her a copy of the linked article about Florida. If she finds her mailbox filled with damning evidence (not spam: evidence), she'll have to reconsider, if she is honest.

Yes, this is a war we must fight county by county, state by state. Which means...

On to St. Louis! The elections board in St. Louis County is deciding whether to award elections contracts to Diebold, ES&S or Sequoat least demonstrate that Diebold, at the very least, should be considered radioactive, we will have accomplished something of genuine value. If you can't take on all your foes at once, take 'em on one at a time.

Again -- send 'em a copy of this post, or send 'em the linked articles. It's fun and it's easy. If you have a FAX machine, try this number: (314) 615-1998. If you prefer email (hey, who doesn't?), try this address: webmaster@stlouisco.com.

Or just give 'em a call: (314) 615-1800

The director of the elections board is a fellow named David Welch. Don't be shy about talking to these people -- they're public officials, and they damn well ought to know the facts before they make decisions.

But (I hear some of you muttering) what if these election officials are corrupt? My friends, the name "Cunningham" perfumes the air right now. We cannot say bribery is a thing of the past. But I do believe that all but the boldest practitioners of that craft would prefer not to ply their arts at this time.

On to California! Over 1300 people have responded to Debra Bowen's call for action. She wants us to tell Bruce McPhereson (the Arnie-imposed Caifornia Secretary of State) to go with the original plan of running elections without Diebold's filthy equipment.

1300 complainers is not enough. Now is the time. We need to hear from a hundred thousand people. More. This is one way to make your voice heard.

There's a time for cynicism and a time for action. As you know, I'm a big cynicism fan. But I also encourage my readers to do something.

Two great websites in Pennsylvania: Orange may not be my favorite color, but fate has decreed it to be the color of this movement. And the Orange American movement in PA is worth checking out. If you live in the state, or even if you don't, you will also want to visit VotePA.us.

Wilkes/Cunningham: Updates, a correction, and grounds for research (Including the gay connection!)

In a previous story, I identified George Plescia as a Congressman. He is actually in the California state legislature. The error was inexcusable; my deepest apologies. There is some talk, it seems, of asking Plescia to replace Cunningham.

Since this inquiry has turned into a group effort, much of what follows should be classified as "avenues for further investigation." In other words, what we're about to look at isn't "finished intelligence" but a list of suggestive matters worth digging into.

Does Mirror Labs actually exist? I recently heard from a reader who insists that she applied for a job at Mirror Labs.

Now, as some of you may recall, Mirror Labs is more important than some of the other Wilkes sub-firms, since this group received DOD monies, and they share the same office space with ADCS PAC, which funds political campaigns. This situation looked -- and looks -- to me as though money was going directly from DOD to the GOP, especially since the Mirror Labs web page hasn't been up for a good long time, and the old web page looked mighty "funky." Prove that Mirror is a (largely) fake company, and you prove that taxpayer monies segued directly into GOP hands.

This contention is not negated by the possibility that Wilkes' sub-firms may sub-contract out whatever legitimate work comes their way (just as "detective agencies" operating as intelligence fronts occasionally do genuine detective work). For example, a real and perfectly legitimate firm called Procom seems to have gotten some Pentagon business via Wilkes. Procom offered a testimonial to the fine work of Mirror Labs, whose web sites offer data storage and networking -- which is what Procom does. Apparently, Procom officials felt somewhat obligated to donate to Republican causes to keep getting this business.

So: Is Mirror Labs really real? And if so, just how real?

My informant says she applied for a gig with a firm by that name in 1991. The firm was, at that time, a software provider.

The net-traceable history of the Wilkes incarnation of Mirror Labs begins roughly a decade after that point. On their sites they advertised themselves, in vague terms, as a testing facility. They also bragged, in vague terms, about having something to do with data storage and networking. Nothing about software. The addresses differed.

So we may be talking about two separate entities. More to come.

Sports and the FBI. I haven't time to check out one lead that was passed along to me by someone who seems to prefer anonymity. So I sent the data on to other researchers. I will now make it available to you. Have at it:

A company called Horizon Sports Technologies sued Wilkes for a goodly amount of money earlier this year. I do not yet know what prompted the suit.

Oddly enough, this same firm (Horizon) also played a key role in an undercover FBI "sting" operation:

SAN DIEGO — Local sporting good executives reportedly worked as undercover FBI informants in an investigation of global price-fixing by makers of carbon fiber, a crucial material in the U.S. defense industry.

Executives at Horizon Sports Technologies said that for nearly two years they wore wires and recorded phone conversations with representatives of the carbon fiber companies, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday.

The strong, lightweight material is used in satellites, stealth aircraft and a wide range of other military equipment. It’s also used in graphite golf club shafts, bicycle frames and race cars.

Did this sting have anything to do with Wilkes? I don't know.

Worth noting: Group W Advisors lobbied on behalf of a company called Optimum Composite Design -- another firm with a tell-little website. The name may suggest a relationship to the defense-related materials which attracted the FBI's attention.

So far as I have been able to trace, all of the other companies to receive the lobbying favors of Group W Advisors were Wilkes' subsidiaries. I don't know if that can be said of Optimum Composite Design.

Update: A reader tells me that Horizon Sports and Optimum Composite may have shared the same address! This matter appears to go into odd, deep places...

Even if the aforementioned FBI sting operation and the Wilkes mystery have no linkage, I'm willing to bet that someone over at Horizon can talk up a storm about Brent Wilkes.

Incidentally, here's the official list of defendants in the case:

GROUP W ADVISORS INC
ADCS INC
ARCHER DEFENSE TECHNOLOGIES INC
GELWIX, MAX
PERFECTWAVE TECHNOLOGIES LLC
WILKES, BRENT R

Group W Advisors is the defense lobbying subsidiary. What possible interaction, I wonder, could that firm have had with Horizon Sports? One senses that a strange tale rests behind this matter...

An "in" with the Agency. Lukery at wotisitgood4 has done some expert checking on this matter. He reports that the Archer Logistics web site (which, as noted earlier, did not have the "look and feel of real") went up circa July 2004 -- yet at that time, the out-of-nowhere firm was already receiving high-level CIA contracts.

Gee. Isn't it nice to have friends?

Having tried repeatedly to speak to someone at Archer Logistics (hey, it's our tax money; why shouldn't we give 'em a call?) I feel obligated to repeat lukery's wonderful observation:

As with all the Wilkes Group websites, the Archer site doesnt offer very much information. They do claim that "Archer Logistics has also developed a unique delivery structure that can provide turnaround times of 24 hours in cases of extreme need." Unfortunately, nobody answers the telephone there - so i guess they can offer 24 hour help - but apparently the clock only starts ticking once you've been able to contact them...

Finally: Our story goes gay. Remember the squib about that possible "hot pillow" operation at the Watergate hotel? Remember the strong suggestion that pols and other interested parties might have been "entertained" at this venue?

Well, on a completely unrelated note, stalwart Young Republican hard-rightist Michael Mack, 31, who works for Group W Advisors, may also be the same Michael Mack who co-owns a dance club called Club Montage. The club describes its offerings thus: "Full of hot young gay boys, great dance music, food and a fun environment in downtown San Diego, California." Apparently, gay porn has been shot there during off-hours.

Do I have a problem with any of this? Of course not. But -- if the two Macks are indeed one and the same -- the Jesus voters who get the Young Republican newsletter may have their own views on the matter.

Are there any other individuals involved with the Wilkes operation who have taken noteworthy stances on gay issues? Perhaps. The Washington Blade says that none other than Duke Cunningham himself is...well, why don't I let the Blade tell the story?

What you won't read about in these mainstream press accounts is the other double life led by the closet case, Duke, the anti-gay conservative.

Cunningham, who is married with grown children, has admitted to romantic, loving relationships with men, both during his Vietnam military service and as a civilian. That was the remarkable story that this publication reported two years ago, when Elizabeth Birch, the former Human Rights Campaign leader, inadvertently outed Cunningham at a gay rights forum.

Birch never mentioned Cunningham’s name, but she talked about a rabidly anti-gay congressman who asked to meet privately with her in the midst of a controversy over his use in a speech on the floor of the House the term "homos" to describe gays who have served in the military.

Alone with Birch and an HRC staffer, the unnamed congressman shared that he had loved men during his life. In telling the story, Birch offered up a few too many details about the closeted congressman.

A few Google searches later, the Blade reported that it had to be Cunningham, whose career was pockmarked with bizarre gay pronouncements, including a reference to the rectal treatment he received for prostate cancer, something he told an audience "was just not natural, unless maybe you’re Barney Frank."

Diebold blues

By now I hope you've read Brad Friedman's coverge of Diebold's woes. Walden O'Dell, the CEO of every democracy-lover's least-favorite company, is resigning for the proverbial "personal reasons." This announcement follows disclosure of an imminent class-action lawsuit against Diebold over securities fraud. It is said that suit involves deceptive statements on a prospectus isued to shareholders.

The announcement of O'Dell's departure can be found here.

Interestingly, Diebold's current troubles may have some relation to a stock plummet that followed hard on the heels of Brad Friedman's publication of an interview with "Dieb-Throat." According to this insider, the company's election equipment is about as hackable as George Washington's cherry tree.

Oddly enough, the company's stock did not rise even after states which once seemed poised to de-certify Diebold machinery suddenly "saw the light" and gave the company the nod.

The facts on the ground (Updated!)

If you've not joined us since Friday morning: Scan down and you will see a mercifully brief squib on Wilkes' odd penchant for securities fraudsters, followed by an unmercifully massive piece on Wilkes and the CIA.

Laura Rozen has an important piece up on Archer Logistics, the Wilkes subsidiary which has apparently done business with the CIA. I have previously argued that Archer is probably a shell company; their website certainly does not inspire any trust. They try to look like Lockheed, but they do not offer any details about goods or services or departments or personnel or company history. And they inhabit a small second-story office in Virginia, the same office space ADCS calls home. Several times, I've called that number during business hours; no receptionist answered. (Try the experiment yourself.) Does that sound like a real firm to you?

Rozen's spadework -- in particular, her work on Joel G. Combs -- only strengthens the suspicion that Archer Logistics exists to secure contracts, not to provide goods or services.

UPDATE: The Left Coaster has been doing some remarkable work on this story. They bring in Republican congressman George E. Plescia, married to Melissa Dollaghan, mentioned on the Group W Advisors website back when it was up and going. (Damn -- that's one I should've caught myself.)

Melissa once wrote a letter to the San Diego Union Tribune in which she assailed Kerry supporters for daring to suggest that Republicans lacked morality. Amusingly, she wrote these words at the same time her company was bribing politicians in order to rob the taxpayers. "Hypocrisy" doesn't cover Melissa Dollaghan-Plescia. Perhaps we need a term like "Hyper-hypocrisy."

A commentator or two on Kos has tried to denounce interest in Wilkes/Cunnigham by casting aspersions against Daniel Hopsicker and myself. My response got lost in the cyber-ether, so I'll publish the gist of it here.

The facts on the ground are the important things. The person who says "Hey, look at this stuff!" is of no importance whatsoever.

Hopsicker (whom I admire) deserved citation because he came to similar conclusions first. But I worked independently (with the help of some wonderful readers and friends to this blog), and I tried to present the findings in such a way that anyone could double-check them. A lot of people have done so. So far -- despite the usual quibbles over details -- no-one has said "You're all wrong and here's why."

The best way to insure accuracy is to interest a number of researchers. "Many hands make light work" -- and also more credible work.

To my eyes, a tale of a do-little defense contractor who funnels money to partisan causes is a tale of taxpayer dollars morphing into Republican ad buys. If you have a differing interpretation of the situation, I am all attention.

Is this, as some have said, the biggest scandal ever? Corruption is not a sporting event and there is no need to establish a heirarchy. On the other hand, the Wilkes mystery may open eyes to the wider issue of military contractor fraud -- and that may be the scandal with the hoariest pedigree.

Do not acquiesce to the erosion of democracy

Democracy may pass away in Ohio, but only under protest. A few thousand people like Jonathan Meier could salvage our rights. What we really need is a new version of the Boston Tea Party...

Wilkes' history with scamsters

The piece below on Wilkes and the CIA is long and discursive. So I'll be brief about the latest: Before starting ADCS, Brent Wilkes was involved with Aimco Financial Management, a.k.a. Aimco Securities. This firm was run by one Marvin Friedman. The whole thing fell apart when Friedman figured in a lawsuit involving securities fraud. (He later went on to head up a much larger con.)

Wilkes then went to work for a company called Audre, whose owner was also caught up in stock fraud! Hell of a coincidence, eh wot? (Many thanks to "silence.")

Wilkes and the CIA: Some history

We begin in the realm of rumor: A voice on the telephone has told me that Brent Wilkes, the man who bribed Congressman Cunningham, may now be looking for property in Belize. Is that true? I cannot say -- but who would be surprised? (Apparently, I wasn't the only one to hear that voice.)

Poor Gina! She no doubt had planned such a lovely Christmas party this year...

Today's topic is the relationship between Wilkes and the CIA. Perversely, I'll begin with an historical anecdote that has nothing to do with Wilkes -- at least, not so far as I know -- but which does shed a certain light on his world and how it operates. I'll try to make the narrative as entertaining as possible.

The Legitimate Businessmen's Club. You will read the fullest account of this tale in Joseph Trento's Prelude to Terror (a book I've recommended perhaps too many times), although you can find the gist of it here and here.

Once, in a faraway land called the 1980s, Saddam Hussein and "Poppy" Bush were -- believe it or not! -- the bestest of buds. At that time, some CIA-linked Legitimate Businessmen went over to Iraq to sell military items. Technically, these businessmen were not of the CIA (in the sense of being on the official payroll), yet they maintained close connections to the Agency and to the military. As I've said many times, you can't understand modern history unless you know about these "spooky" informal networks, in which the players receive both start-up capital and connections from covert sources.

One of these Agency-linked arms merchandisers was Sarkis Soghanalian (who had befriended Trento, which is how Trento came to know about this stuff). Business proceeded smoothly; Saddam received cluster bombs, battle choppers, guns, and and even lovelier bits of merchandise.

Somewhere along the way, a mafia-like group of Republican operatives -- which included Richard Nixon and his old "pals" -- muscled onto the scene. In short and in sum, they demanded a hefty cut of Operation Arm Saddam.

This second wave of Legitimate Businessmen made a deal with Saddam to supply the Iraqi military with uniforms. I've seen varying estimates as to how much money this scheme was worth; the high figure is $450 million. The group promised high-quality uniforms manufactured by "their" plant in Tennessee. Actually, the job was off-shored to a Romanian firm known for producing clothing on the ultra-cheap. This decision insured that, instead of making big profits, the Republican mobsters could make big, big, BIG profits.

Saddam's people were not happy when they opened up the boxes and discovered wool uniforms. In a desert country, in the summer, wool is rarely the soldier's first choice.

You would think that Saddam Hussein would refuse ever again to deal with this group. In fact, they became more powerful than ever: They drove out Soghnalian and pretty much took over the weapons trade in Iraq. They did not actually produce the needed goods and services; job orders were farmed out to the low-ball bidders.

These men practiced the most perverse form of capitalism. The greatest rewards went to thugs who did not actually make anything -- who had, in fact, wedged themselves between the consumer and the producers, neither of whom wanted or needed the services of middlemen. Saddam had no choice but to go along with an operation that had acquired the blessings of Republican bigwigs.

Where did the money go? Did the loot merely line pockets -- or was it put to partisan use?

More history. (Bear with me: This part will eventually link up with Wilkes and company.) Ronald Reagan wanted to change governments in Nicaragua, but Congress wouldn't let him arm the contra rebels directly. Private fund-raising efforts took over.

General John K. Singlaub hit up the usual right-wing gazillionaires in the United States. The Sultan of Brunei -- the world's richest man -- made a heavy donation to a cause he cannot have cared about. The Saudis kicked in some $32 million. In a deal brokered by "Scooter" Libby and Oliver North, China provided the contras with tons of equipment, including surface-to-air missiles.

Then things got really weird.

The press started talking about "spooky" drug flights involving such characters as Barry Seal. The notorious Medellin cocaine cartel funded the ARDE contra faction, while the rival Cali cartel funded the FDN contras. Eden Pastora's contra group received funding from a Costa Rican/Panamanian cocaine network. Bush favored the FDN, which is why the American press at that time focused on Medellin and rarely mentioned Cali.

Reagan deregulated the Savings and Loan industry, opening the way for a horde of sharpsters who looted America to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars. As Steve Pizzo and Pete Brewton discovered, many of those "business crooks" -- Stefan Halper, Robert Corson and Herman K. Beebe being perhaps the most interesting examples -- had military and intelligence connections. We were told that no small amount of the looted money went to the contras.

Toward the end of the 1980s, the press offered some strange reports out of the Philippines: Singlaub was in that country searching for the semi-legendary caches of gold and other valuables that the Japanese had buried on the island during WWII. At the time, a few articles suggested that Singlaub was really trying to steer some of Marcos' ill-gotten loot toward the contras. Other sources say that the Japanese treasure had indeed been dug up piecemeal over the decades, and that this unimaginable bounty was used, in part, to finance the anti-Sandinista effort.

Millions from the notorious BCCI bank were diverted "to the contras." Israel contributed a steady flow of arms to the contras. The scandal over the stolen PROMIS software was, in some early reports, tied to contra arming and financing. Money siphoned from military sales to Saddam Hussein (mentioned above) had contra links.

And of course, Reagan's illegal arms sales to Iran resulted in hefty profits being diverted to the contras. That's why they called it the Iran-Contra affair.

I've summarized with an almost criminal brevity a lot of sordid history, and I've done so to emphasize one point: Every time a new scandal popped up during the 1980s and early 1990s, the same refrain appeared: "It's all about funding the contras!" Money from arms sales, cocaine, heroin, gold, S&Ls, crooked banks, gambling, software, bribery, Middle East financiers, "patriotic" donations -- it all went toward regime change in the small country of Nicaragua.

Supposedly.

Eventually, a few people started asking the obvious question: How much money did the contras need? Were they firing gold bullets down there?

In fact, fighters within the contra movement always insisted that they were seriously underfunded. Do not dismiss this assessment. The Sandinista army was hardly one of the world's most impressive fighting machines, yet the contras never seemed to make much headway against them. The FDN won only when the Nicaraguan electorate finally -- literally -- cried "uncle."

But if others grabbed much of this "contra" money -- where did it go? Were pockets lined, or was the clandestine cash used for partisan purposes?

Brent and Dusty. At least 35 years ago, Brent Wilkes' formed a close friendship with Kyle "Dusty" Foggo. They traveled the same respectable-though-not-exemplary academic path together: High School, Southwestern Community College, San Diego State University. Wilkes, some say, was a violent hot-head who brutalized anyone who looked weaker. One source told me that, even in those days, Wilkes and Foggo were obsessed with attaining power -- a goal few young people dared to express at a time when the scent of 60s pacifism still perfumed the air.

Dusty Foggo became first a cop, then a D.A.'s assistant -- and then was recruited into CIA, where he now holds the third-highest position. Some say that he was always more of a desk jockey than a James Bond, but he did do a stint in Honduras during the contra war. He handled their financing.

And now you know why I spent so much time describing all that money that went to the contras -- and perhaps elsewhere.

As for Wilkes: In college, he had studied accounting, which some might consider an odd choice for a bully with dreams of conquest. Like Foggo, he often bragged about his Agency connections. The world doth not love a wide-mouthed spook, or so I've been told -- yet braggadocio seems not to have harmed the career of these two gentlemen. Much evidence supports the contention that Wilkes became a Legitimate Businessman in one of the networks outlined above: He was not of the Agency, in the sense of drawing a regular paycheck, but he became one of those "outside" businessmen who prospered by aiding the Agency, or a faction within it.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, one of his early business ventures was very, very noteworthy:

Wilkes had moved to Washington, D.C., and opened a business named World Finance Corp. about three blocks away from the White House. One of his chief activities, sources say, was to accompany congressmen -- including then-Rep. Bill Lowery of San Diego, whom Wilkes met during his participation in the SDSU Young Republicans organization – to Central America to meet with Foggo and Contra leaders.

This passage is somewhat misleading in its implication that Wilkes created the World Finance Corporation, which actually had its origin point while Wilkes was still in school. This was no ordinary financial firm; it was once quite notorious. Before there was BCCI, there was the World Finance Corporation -- a CIA-linked money laundromat that probably had recruited Wilkes earlier than the SDUT story indicates.

Perhaps the fullest history of WFC's origins can be found in Hank Messick's 1979 expose of the drug trade, "Of Grass and Snow." The financial institution originated with an anti-Castro Cuban named Guillermo Hernandez-Cartaya, who had been a banker before the revolution. Hernandez-Cartaya joined the CIA's efforts to unseat the dictator, playing a role in the Bay of Pigs. He began the WFC in Coral Gables, Florida in 1971; in the words of Hank Messick, "one did not have to be an international banker to recognize that Hernandez-Cartaya had some very wealthy and powerful backers." According to one account, start-up capital was funneled by way of another CIA associate and Bay of Pigs veteran, Salvador Aldereguia-Ors.

Although it began with just five employees and $500,000 capitalization, the bank was somehow able, just a year later, to loan Panama $10 million. By 1976, WFC had branches in numerous cities and was doing half-a-billion dollars worth of business internationally.

If, as I suspect, Wilkes joined forces with WFC in the mid-1970s, he may have played a role in the creation of a spin-off called the Dominican Mortgage Corporation, which shared the same address as WFC's Coral Gables HQ. This group heavily invested in Vegas -- casinos, real estate development, even a detective agency.

WFC and DMC were the institutions of choice for narco-traffickers. From Messick's book:

Names and dates were given, and the amount of cocaine entering Las Vegas alone was placed at 340 pounds annually. Internal Revenue Service agents told of receiving word of a million in case being carried by courier from Las Vegas to Miami. They tailed the courier to WFC offices in Coral Gables. He entered the building with two suitcases; he came out empty-handed. In Brownsville, the shrimp fleet was reported to be bringing in narcotics in vessels owned by WFC.

The building manager at Coral Gables was a CIA explosives expert. A member of the Santos Trafficante "family" directed one of the branch banks.

In short, the bank was both mobbed up and spooked up. David Yallop and Penny Lernoux report that, around this time, WFC formed alliances with Italy's fascist P2 lodge, which had gained control of the Vatican's finances. As readers know, P2 "graduates" such as Michael Ledeen have played a key role in engineering the current war.

In 1976, the WFC's directors over-reached: They financed an anti-Castro terror group called CORU, headed by CIA "contact" man Orlando Bosch. They targeted not only Castro but any person or institution they considered overly sympathetic to him. That year, CORU conducted no less than 50 bombings in New York, Panama, Miami, Venezuela and other locations; they also appear to have had a hand in the assassination of Orlando Letelier.

In October, they bombed a Cuban passenger jet. "All of Castro's planes are warplanes," an unrepentant Bosch later explained.

Bosch was eventually arrested and held in prison, until he was pardoned by the first President Bush, who had been CIA Director when Bosch went on his terror rampage. Even though Bosch had received his funding from a CIA-affiliated bank, DCI Bush had done nothing to rein him in.

From Peter Dale Scott's Cocaine Politics:

Another CORU crime was the botched kidnapping of the Cuban consul (and the murder of his chauffeur) in Merida, Mexico, on July 23, 1976, only a month after the group's founding. WFC's drug money financed this operation, and WFC's founder, Hernandez Cartaya, may even have helped plan it.

When Bush gave way to Stansfield Turner, the Agency realized that their Cuban contingent had grown arrogant and beyond control. Local Florida cops and the FBI continued to scrutinize the WFC's interactions with drug traffickers. Embarrassing news stories started to appear. The heat, as they say, was on.

The Agency stymied the FBI's work. So did the IRS, which argued that the WFC was best left alone -- after all, they kept all those narco-dollars in the country.

WFC stayed in business -- yet, obviously, something had to be done about the Cubans who ran the place.

In 1978, Hernandez-Cartaya was arrested on a charge of using a fake passport -- a misfortune which tends to befall spooks who fall out of official favor. His partner, Salvador Aldereguia-Ors, was found in the possession of "evidence" (almost certainly bogus) linking him to Castro's intelligence services. When his cousin mysteriously died after putting up bail money, Aldereguia-Ors pulled a vanishing act. Hernandez-Cartaya eventually got out of jail and involved himself with S&L skullduggery.

To put the matter crudely: The CIA put honkies in control of the operation. Among them, it seems, were Brent Wilkes, who (as per the San Diego Union Tribune) opened the WFC office in DC, and Dusty Foggo, who funded and oversaw the anti-Castro Cubans operating in the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan conflicts.

The beast was bridled, but resentments lingered. I believe that the conflict between the CORU cadre and the Turner-ized CIA provides one origin point for the current split between the neocons and the Agency.

(An interesting side-note: WFC had formed a partnership in an Arab bank with Sheikh Naomi, ruler of the small emirate of Ajman. After the 1978 shake-up, the Sheik transfered his affections -- so to speak -- to BCCI.)

WFC still operates in a number of cities; contact information for the Augusta branch is here. Feel free to ring them up and ask if they still launder drug money or do favors for the CIA.

Their specialty now is providing loans to people with poor credit histories. They also -- oddly enough -- sell furniture.

This is noteworthy. Readers will recall that MZM -- run by Wilkes' friend and former employee Mitchell Wade, another man with a CIA background -- reportedly supplied furniture to the West Wing of the White House, an odd task for a firm devoted to intelligence and defense. (According to this story, MZM provided furniture and computers to Cheney's offices.) I have speculated, in the past, that this "furniture" was bugged.

I have no idea how WFC and Wilkes came to part ways. His next employer, according the the SDUT, was "Aimco Financial Management of La Jolla."

His chief duty was to bring in politicians, including Lowery, to talk to Aimco clients about how new laws might affect their finances.

Aimco ran into trouble after securities regulators accused its founder, Marvin I. Friedman, of taking $268,000 of a client's funds in 1991.

Aimco Financial Management of La Jolla has disappeared. It did exist at one time, and Friedman did make contributions to Lowery (presumably at Wilkes' urging). More recently, Friedman was caught out in a much larger scandal involving an entity called Global Money Management, which has been described as a Ponzi scheme in which many an investor was defrauded.

Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to determine is whether the Wilkes/Friedman AIMCO was a subsidiary of this company which owns a massive number of this country's apartments. This AIMCO has had connections (via Director Norman Brownstein) to the CIA and the Bush family.

ADCS, the company Wilkes headquartered in Poway, was founded on software designed by a German firm called VPMax. I think we should see VPMax's role in this as analogous to that of the Romanian concern which provided those wool uniforms to Saddam Hussein. As I suggested earlier, Wilkes empire is largely a collection of false fronts built on a small foundation of "real" products, usually taken from other, smaller players.

And from there, we enter the current scandal. About which, more to come soon.

Until then, consider: Wilkes' firms received millions of taxpayer dollars; Daniel Hopsicker puts the amount at $700 million, although mainstream journalists speak of a much lower figure. Regardless of the amount, sources agree that the Defense Department did not really like or need his document conversion services. And Wilkes' list of companies included obvious fakes.

So once again, the question confronts us: Where did the money go?

This time, we have a pretty clear answer -- in the form of the many political contributions (and outright bribes) made by Wilkes' many subsidiaries.

Shi'ite and Sunni

My piece on Wilkes and the CIA will appear in a couple of hours -- I've put it off so long that some of my "new" details have already peppered other people's work, alas. But right now, I want to comment on the Daily Kos diarist who presents evidence that as late as 2003, George Bush did not know that a difference exists between the Shi'ite and Sunni versions of Islam.

This isn't the first time the claim has been made. My question is -- how the hell could even a "favorite son" like Bush make it into Yale without acquiring so basic a piece of information?

Back in (say) 1969, many Americans would not have known of the distinction. But that situation changed after the oil shocks, the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis forced our media to pay attention to Islamic affairs. Younger people may not recall the coverage of those events. But trust me -- between the years 1976-1980, if you opened up any kind of a newspaper or flipped through the major news magazines, you would have encountered article after article after article which explained that the Ayatollah Khomenei was a Shi'ite, and that being a Sh'ite differed from being a Sunni.

This was no obscure factoid. 60 Minutes talked about it. Radio news reports talked about it. Preachers talked about it. Back then, everybody in America -- housewives, cab drivers, loudmouths on barstools, people who spent the better part of each day stoned out of their brains -- they all got it.

"In Christianity, you got yer Cat-licks and yer Protestants. In Islam, you got yer Sh'ites and yer Sunnis." Perfectly understandable, even to the dullest of the dullards. A popular redneck t-shirt of the time read "Khomenei is a Shi'ite-head."

How could George W. Bush not know?

Another question: Are the red staters of today just as ignorant as their leader (until recently) was? In other words, are today's stupid people even stupider than were the stupid people of twenty-five yeas ago?