Wayne Madsen Report on the story on the fate of the SS Poet set to ballad

WMR story on the fate of the SS Poet set to ballad

WMR's series of articles and book on the ill-fated last voyage of the SS Poet in 1980 has been set to song in a ballad written and performed by Massachusetts song and screenplay writer Timothy Sawyer. WMR's editor recently attended the 37th anniversary of the disappearance of the SS Poet at Old Swede's Gloria Dei Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and met family members of some of the 34 lost crewmen who served on board the doomed merchant ship.

The foreign intrigue of the Donald Trump presidential campaign was not the first to engage in disloyal behavior. In 1980, the Reagan-Bush campaign negotiated an "arms-for-no hostages" agreement with the Ayatollah Khomeni's government that saw Iran refuse to release the U.S. embassy hostages to Jimmy Carter, thus sealing his election defeat in November 1980. The hostages were released at the very moment Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981. The Reagan pre-election deal with Iran in 1980 would haunt him throughout his presidency with the Iranians successfully receiving U.S. weapons in return for U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian militias in Lebanon. The diversion of money from Iran to the Nicaraguan contras resulted in a scandal that almost resulted in Reagan's impeachment.

 

And now, "The Skeleton Crew," with a hat-tip to Timothy Sawyer and his wife:

Bipartisan members of Congress sponsor bills for declassification of 9/11 report segment - Bush family behind opposition to 28-pages declassification.

SPECIAL REPORT. Bipartisan members of Congress sponsor bills for declassification of 9/11 report segment - Bush family behind opposition to 28-pages declassification.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, today urged support for a bill to declassify 28-pages from the joint congressional report on the failures of intelligence that led to the 9/11 attack. Joining Paul were members of the House of Representatives who previously introduced a companion bill urging that the 28-pahes be declassified by President Obama. Paul was flanked at a June 2 press conference in the Congressional Visitors Center by the House members who support the declassification of the pages believed to point to senior members of the Saudi government having provided financial and other support to the 9/11 hijackers. The House members joining Paul were Representatives Walter Jones (R-NC), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Paul and Jones both voiced their misgivings about the lack of interest of their colleagues of both parties in advancing the legislation. Paul's bill, the Transparency for the Families of 9/11 Victims Act, has two Democratic co-sponsors, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). However, the bi-partisan leadership of both parties has been virtually silent on supporting the bill. Former Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), the final author of the 9/11 Intelligence report as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was also present at the press conference. Graham displayed a more voluminous copy of a Treasury Department report on Saudi financing of the 9/11 attack. Graham, leafing through the report from the press conference podium showed the press that it was entirely blacked out. Graham called on that report to also be declassified.


Rand Paul with 9/11 family members behind him


Former Senator Bob Graham [right]. To Graham's right, in order, Reps. Stephen Lynch, Thomas Massie, and Walter Jones (head bowed). At the far left is a former New York City fireman, a 9/11 first responder.

Paul said he would also introduce the declassification bill as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act next week. When asked why he would not simply read the 28-pages into the Congressional Record, which is the prerogative of all members of Congress, he replied that he was trying the standard method first before considering the use of senatorial automatic declassification privilege with regard to the Congressional Record.

A number of family members of the 9/11 victims joined the members of Congress behind the podium and they appealed to President Obama to order the declassification of the 28-pages as quickly as possible.


One page from the 28-pages

WMR spoke to a few congressional sources on background on the congressional leadership opposition to the declassification bill. We learned that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has been under pressure from the family of George W. Bush, oil industry lobbyists, and the Saudi government to prevent the declassification.

WMR asked Senator Paul about his comment that declassification was even supported by the Saudi government. Considering that the present-Saudi King Salman was the Governor of Riyadh Province prior to and after 9/11 and that he reportedly facilitated the travel for and cash payments to Al Qaeda members, including some of the hijackers, to Pakistan and Afghanistan through Riyadh, WMR asked Paul whether Salman was also supporting declassification. Paul replied that he saw an account of a Saudi official having supported declassification and that he would have to try to locate the actual quote and the individual. After the press conference concluded, one of the members of Congress present who has read the 28-pages thanked this reporter for the question posed to Paul, saying it was a "good question."

There's more nepotism in 2016 POTUS race than you may know

There's more nepotism in 2016 POTUS race than you may know
by Wayne Madsen
While a number of Democrats and Republicans grumble aloud about the 2016 presidential race turning out to be a replay of 1992's "Clinton versus Bush" campaign, which saw 2016 Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, defeat GOP frontrunner Jeb Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, for re-election, there is nepotism within the Republican primary race. The prospect of another Bush v. Clinton election prompted former Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, himself a contender for the Democratic nod, to remark: "The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families."

But nepotism does not only affect the presidential race but also, possibly, the vice presidential stakes. As previously reported by WMR and recently re-investigated by additional sources in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, on-and-off again GOP frontrunner, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, is a cousin of Jeb Bush.

Wisconsin insiders believe that the candidacies of Bush and Walker are designed to give the GOP faithful the false impression that there is a real contest within the Republican Party for the presidential nomination, when, in fact, Walker would settle for the vice presidential spot on a Bush ticket after giving Jeb Bush a spirited fight for the nomination. Such an outcome could ensure future control of the presidency and vice presidency, at least for one term, by members of the same extended family.
 
Cousins Scott Walker [left] and Jeb Bush [right] prepare to hoodwink GOP primary voters by pretending to run against one another for the nomination. Get ready for a Bush-Walker ticket ensuring the same extended family will control the White House for the next sixteen years

On May 4, 2012, WMR reported: "A cousin of Wisconsin's unpopular Republican Governor Scott Walker, who is running in a rare recall election, has informed WMR that Walker is a member of the Bush-Walker family of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George Walker Bush.

Governor Walker's cousin does not support his cousin's gubernatorial bid in Wisconsin."

Our report added that Walker's cousin reported that Scott Walker, like George Herbert Walker and George Walker Bush, is allegedly a descendant of George Herbert Walker, a wealthy banker originally from St. Louis. Walker eventually became the President of the W. A. Harriman & Co. in New York. Walker's daughter Dorothy married Prescott Bush. Dorothy and Prescott were the parents of George H. W. Bush.

Our original report stated, "George Walker owned a number of railroads, including the Missouri Pacific Railroad, that employed Scott Walker's relatives throughout the West, including Colorado.

In 2010, Scott Walker jokingly referred to George W. Bush as his 'cousin' because of their close political views. However, Scott Walker, who was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado,  is a descendant of the same Walker-Bush clan that sired both Presidents Bush."

Scott Walker's ancestor is said to have been George Herbert ("Bert") Walker, the St. Louis-born railroad and banking magnate. The promontory at the Bush family Kennebunkport, Maine estate, Walker Point, got its name from its original owner, Bert Walker, Jeb Bush's great grandfather.

Bert Walker's daughter Dorothy married the son of Ohio steel executive Samuel Prescott Bush, future Connecticut Republican senator and father of George H. W. Bush, Prescott Bush. The Ohio-based Samuel Bush made a small fortune selling steel from his Buckeye Steel Castings Company to Remington Arms, owned by John D. Rockefeller's first cousin, Percy Rockefeller. The Buckeye steel was used to make the barrels for the rifles used in World War I.

Before and after World War II, Prescott, who worked for Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, provided financial services for a number of German war industry firms, including Hamburg-American Line, Union Banking Corporation, Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, Silesian-American Company, I.G. Farben, and Thyssen Industries.

Scott Walker's father, Llewellyn Walker, was a Baptist minister who moved from Colorado Springs to Iowa when Scott was 3-years old. The family ultimately moved to Wisconsin. Wikipedia, which excels at only providing partial biographies, conveniently states that two of Llewellyn Walker's grandparents were from Wales but makes no mention of his family ties to Bert Walker.


The railroad ties that bind: The Bush family-Scott Walker links via the Missouri Pacific Railroad, owned by Bert Walker and which employed Scott Walker's grandparents in Colorado.

There is also a family link between right-wing politician financiers Charles and David Koch and the Bushes. Dorothy ("Doro") Bush Koch, the sister of Jeb Bush, is married to Robert ("Bobby") Koch of the industrialist Koch family of Kansas. Although Bobby Koch worked for Democratic congressmen Tony Coelho and Richard Gephardt, he is now the head of the non-partisan Wine Institute, the lobbyists for the corporate wine industry.

Charles and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries, have given millions of dollars to Republican candidates, including Scott Walker and George W. and Jeb Bush. The founder of Koch Industries, Texas oil man Fred Koch, reportedly joined Prescott Bush in providing commercial assistance to Nazi Germany before and during World War II. Koch is said to have sold oil to Germany via Prussia's port of Königsberg, where a relative of his, Erich Koch, was Adolf Hitler's appointed local Prussian governor.

Fred Koch was also one of the founders of the Wisconsin-based far-right John Birch Society.


Scott Walker's parents: Back row, left to right: Pat and Llewellyn Walker with Scott Walker and younger brother David. Llew Walker is a direct descendant of the Walker railroad family that provided the Bush clan with its initial wealth

Jeb Bush's CIA "NOC" work in Venezuela

Jeb Bush's CIA "NOC" work in Venezuela

by Wayne Madsen
Former Florida Governor and 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush may have thought he could pass himself off as "Hispanic" when he ticked off that ethnic option on his 2009 voter registration form but he was not able to easily pass himself off as a "banker" in Venezuela in the late 1970s.

One of the last things then-Central Intelligence Agency director George H. W. Bush did for his son Jeb, whose actual name is John Ellis Bush from which the "Jeb" is derived as an acronym, is to have him hired by the international division of the Texas Commerce Bank as a CIA "non-official cover" officer or "NOC." Texas Commerce Bank was an optimal cover for CIA activities. The bank was founded by the family of James Baker. All the elder Bush had to do was to call his close friend Baker to have his son hired by the bank's international division, the usual branch where CIA NOCs were placed within banks and investment firms. Other banks used by the CIA for NOC embeds included Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Manufacturers Hanover.

Texas Commerce Bank, bought by Chemical Bank in 1987 and which is now part of J.P Morgan Chase, had the right pedigree to enable it to work closely with the CIA. In 1977, its board members included Lady Bird Johnson and the recently-defeated President Gerald Ford. In the 1980s, Kenneth Lay, who founded the CIA-connected Enron, became a board member of Texas Commerce Bank. Howard Hughes's CIA-linked Summa Corporation used Texas Commerce Bank to purchase a number of properties on the Las Vegas strip.

In 1977, a short time after his father left the CIA as director, Jeb, fluent in Spanish as a result of his time as an exchange student in Guadalajara, was sent, along with his Mexican wife Columba, to Caracas, Venezuela to work as a "branch manager" and "vice president" at the young age of 24. But Jeb was no ordinary "branch manager." He was, officially, Texas Commerce Bank's top point man in the Venezuelan capital and, unofficially, the CIA's main financial liaison to the Venezuelan oil industry and the Colombian narcotics cartels. Jeb would regularly report to his CIA "official cover" counterpart attached to the U.S. embassy in Caracas as a State Department "diplomat."

 
Jeb as a CIA "NOC" in Caracas for Texas Commerce Bank, owned by James Baker

Jeb helped lay the groundwork for the future Reagan-Bush administration's 1980s covert war against Nicaragua and leftist guerrillas in El Salvador by establishing banking and money laundering links between the CIA and the Medellin and Cali drug cartels. Jeb's friends in the Colombian cartels, particularly Medellin cartel boss Pablo Escobar, would helped finance the Nicaraguan contras in return for CIA-supplied weapons. While in Venezuela, Jeb cleverly managed to hide the Colombian cartel's drug revenues as oil industry revenues of "front" companies. Texas Commerce Bank was the bank of choice for Latin American drug cartels. It was later discovered to have stashed $7 million in drug profits for the Gulf cartel of Mexico.

Jeb ready to continue the CIA's lock on the White House

Baker sold Texas Commerce Bank's Houston skyscraper to the head of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, in 1985. Bin Mahfouz was later identified as a key member of Saudi Arabia's support network for the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States, which is noted in the still-classified 28 pages of U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Report on 9/11 intelligence failures. Bin Mahfouz, who lived in the River Oaks section of Houston near George H. W. Bush, died suddenly in 2009 at the age of 59. Bin Mahfouz, who was also an Irish citizen, threatened with confiscatory lawsuits any publication that reported his links to 9/11 and his family ties to Osama bin Laden.

Jeb had no problems with the Venezuelan government in providing financial support for the Colombian cartels. For much of Jeb's stay in Venezuela, the extremely corrupt Carlos Andres Perez, known as "CAP," was president. His extravagant spending using Venezuela's revenue from the recently-nationalized oil industry earned his government the nickname of "Saudi Venezuela." Although CAP nationalized the oil industry and created the Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) state-owned oil firm, he also was generous to American firms bidding for work with PdVSA. One of them was Bechtel Corporation, the firm of future Reagan-Bush cabinet members George P. Shultz and Caspar Weinberger. With a number of Bechtel employees in Venezuela, Jeb was not the only CIA "NOC" present in the country. But, he was the most influential.

During CAP's second term as president from 1989 to 1993, a young army officer named Hugo Chavez attempted to overthrow the corrupt CAP in a coup. Many of Venezuela's elite who Jeb befriended during his days as Langley's main NOC in Caracas later became involved with repeated CIA attempts to overthrow Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro. Today, they and their progeny live in the Miami-Dade area, particularly in Doral, nicknamed "Doralzuela," and are among Jeb's strongest and most deep-pocketed political supporters.

In 1989, CAP crushed popular protests against his government by killing as many as 3000 protesters. The massacre is known as the "Caracazo" massacre. After leaving office the second time, Andres Perez was convicted of corruption and sentenced to 28 months in prison.

After leaving Venezuela in 1980 to help with his father's presidential and vice presidential campaigns, Jeb hooked up with Cuban-American Miami businessman Armando Codina, who had his own connections with CIA-supported anti-Castro Cuban exiles in south Florida. It was Codina who helped Jeb make millions of dollars in the real estate business and eventually help launch him on his political career that took him to the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee. Jeb, as a principal of the Codina Group, was able to arrange the sale of high-priced condos and mansions in the Miami area to his elite friends in Venezuela, with Jeb receiving handsome sales commissions.

One of Jeb's close Miami associates was Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch. Bosch was a key figure in the CIA's Operation Condor, which was an alliance of Latin American military dictatorships that targeted leftist leaders for assassination across international borders. Bosch helped carry out the October 1976 bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455, which was en route from Barbados to Jamaica. All 73 passengers and crew were killed in the attack, including children and the Cuban fencing team.

The Cubana bombing plot was discussed at a 1976 meeting in Washington between Bosch; another Cuban terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles; and Michael Townley of the CIA. Jeb's father, the CIA director, was fully aware of the plot, as well as another plot to kill former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. Letelier and Roni Moffitt, his American associate, were killed when their car exploded on Sheridan Circle in front of the Irish embassy in Washington on September 21, 1976, a few weeks before the Cubana airliner was blown out of the sky off Barbados.

Codina, Bosch, and Posada Carriles were all part of Jeb's inner circle of friends, which also included Cuban businessman Camilo Padreda, a former spy for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, and Hernandez Cartaya, both later indicted for systematically embezzling funds from the Jefferson Savings and Loan of McAllen, Texas. Padreda and Cartaya were also identified as CIA agents who helped skim funds from Jefferson and other S&Ls to fund the Nicaraguan contras. Jeb's work for the CIA in Caracas in 1977 came a few months after the CIA's worst terrorism spree in history, which also happened to coincide with George H. W. Bush's single year as CIA director.

After his father became Vice President, Jeb served as the liaison for the Nicaraguan contras and he arranged meetings between them and their supporters and the White House point man for covert assistance to the Nicaraguan rebels, one Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel by the name of Oliver North. Another one of Jeb's Cuban cronies, Miguel Recarey, owner of Miami-based International Medical Center, an HMO, was awash in ill-gotten Medicare funds. Recarey and his brother, who had close ties to the CIA, were also funded by Florida Mafia boss Santo Trafficante, Jr., a co-conspirator in several CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and a suspected co-plotter in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

A Jeb Bush presidency would maintain the CIA's lock on the White House. Barack Obama's and his family's CIA connections are a historical fact. George W. Bush ensured the CIA's control over the presidency for eight years and before him, Bill Clinton, who had his own links to the CIA's contra-cocaine network through Mena, Arkansas, has seen his Clinton Foundation benefit from a $1 million contribution from one of Jeb's old Cuban-Venezuelan friends, Gustavo Cisneros, the multi-billionaire "Berlusconi of Venezuela." Cisneros, now exiled in the Dominican Republic, was involved in the CIA's 2002 abortive coup against Chavez.

George W. Bush: “My Dad Was Meeting with the Brother of Osama on September 11, 2001. Does That Make Him a Terror Suspect?”

George W. Bush: “My Dad Was Meeting with the Brother of Osama on September 11, 2001. Does That Make Him a Terror Suspect?”

Under the anti terrorist legislation adopted in Western countries, a person can be arrested for visiting an “anti-American” or “Islamist” website on the internet.  In the US, habeas corpus has been scrapped, the police can arrest a citizen on mere suspicion of “terror activities” without a warrant. Moreover, under Obama, the practice of “extrajudicial killing” applies to suspected US citizens.   

In Canada, under the clauses of  Canada’s proposed C-51 “Anti-terrorism” Bill, Canadian citizens can be arrested on a mere suspicion:

 Six Muslim young adults stand in front of a mosque late at night in heated discussion in some foreign language. … They may be talking about video games, or sports, or girls, or advocating the overthrow of the Harper government. Who knows? … But the new standard for arrest and detention—reason to suspect that they may commit an act—is so low that an officer may be inclined to arrest and detain them in order to investigate further. … They could act on mere suspicion that an arrest is likely to prevent any terrorist activity. Yesterday, the Muslim men were freely exercising constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Today they are to be arrested. (Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives,  February 15, 2015) 

Anti-Terrorism Double Standards

Ironically, the anti-terrorist legislation does not apply to politicians in high office, namely to the “State sponsors of terrorism”; nor does it apply to U.S. or Canadian diplomats, intelligence officials, who are routinely in liaison with terrorist organizations in the Middle East. 

Individuals can be arrested but presidents and prime ministers are allowed to mingle and socialize with family members of the World’s most renowned terrorist and alleged architect of the 9/11 attacks:Osama bin Laden. 

Lest we forget, one day before the 9/11 attacks, the dad of the sitting President of the United States of America, George Herbert Walker Bush was meeting none other than Shafig bin Laden, the brother of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. It was a routine business meeting on September 10-11, no conflict of interest, no relationship to the 9/11 attacks which allegedly were carried out on the orders of Shafiq’s brother Osama.

Confirmed by the Washington Post, “fellow investors” of the Carlyle Group including Osama’s brother Shafig bin Laden and Dubya’s dad former President George H. W. Bush met in the plush surroundings of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on September 10-11, 2001. Their business encounter under the auspices of the Carlyle Group was unfortunately interrupted on September 11 by the 9/11 attacks.  (see image below):

It didn’t help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a brother of Osama bin Laden [Shafiq bin Laden]. Former president Bush[senior, see image below], a fellow investor, had been with him at the conference the previous day. (Greg Schneider, Pairing the Powerful With the Rich, Washington Post, March 16, 2003)

Shafiq bin Laden, Osama’s  brother and member of the Carlyle Group meets George H. W. Bush at Ritz Carlton on September 10, 2001  (Source: Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 911)

A timely business meeting on September 10-11 at the Ritz Carlton with Osama’s brother disrupted by the 9/11 attacks: pure coincidence,  totally unrelated to the 9/11 attacks.

A day later, on the evening of September 11, 2001, president George W. Bush pronounced a historic speech in which he defined the relationship between “terrorists’ and “state sponsors of terrorism”:

The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I’ve directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.

Also in attendance at the Ritz Carlton meetings were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and other unnamed members of the bin Laden family.

The Carlyle Group is  embroiled  with the defense and intelligence establishment. “It is widely regarded as an extension of the US government, or at least the National Security Agency, the CIA, and the Pentagon.”

Double standards in anti-terrorism legislation? Double standards in police and law enforcement? No questions asked. No police investigation or interrogation of Osama’s brother Shafig.

Normally, under established rules of police investigation, both Shafig bin Laden and the president’s dad George Herbert Walker Bush should have been remanded in custody for police questioning and in all likelihood, Shafig bin Laden would have been arrested as a potential suspect. But that did not happen.

The presence of members of the bin Laden family meeting up with the father of the president of the United States was hushed up and 13 members of the bin Ladens including Shafig were flown out of the US on September 19, 2001 in a plane chartered by the White House. Meanwhile, suspected Muslims are arrested on a mere suspicion, –e.g. that they have an old school friend, who’s cousin’s 86 year old grandmother is an an alleged sympathizer of the “jihad”.

Timely departure of Shafig et al: On the day following the departure of the bin Ladens, President Bush delivered an address to a joint session of the House and the Senate (September 20, 2001), in which he stated unequivocally his administration’s intent to “pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism”, with no exceptions (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan)

“We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make.

Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.)

From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime [state sponsor of terrorism].  President George W. Bush, 20 September 2001 (emphasis added)

Osama behind 9/11?

According to CIA Director George Tenet in a late morning statement on September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda under the helm of Osama bin Laden was “behind these evil acts”.

The alleged responsibility of Osama bin Laden in carrying out the 9/11 attacks was later confirmed by Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair in a statement to the the House of Commons on October 4, 2001.  This did not,  however,  prevent Tony Blair from socializing with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who prior to 9/11 had allegedly provided millions of dollars of financial assistance to the Al Qaeda terror network:

In testimony [accused hijacker] Moussawi said he created a database of al-Qaeda donors, including members of the royal family such as former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was Saudi ambassador to the United States for 22 years until 2005. Mint Press, February 14, 2015)

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, right receives Mideast envoy Tony Blair, the ex-prime minister of Britain after his arrival in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.  Bandar bin Sultan, was accused of direct support for al-Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks (undated). (Mint Press, February 15, 2015)

Known and documented, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Pakistan have been harboring Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists for more than twenty years.

In accordance with George W. Bush’s September 2001 address to the House and the Senate, America’s staunchest allies –which routinely provide support to terrorists– should have been categorized as “hostile regimes”. Yet in practice, these “nations that provide a safe haven to terrorism” are acting on behalf of the US. They are in permanent and close liaison with Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“You are either with us or with the terrorists”, said George W. in the wake of 9/11. In fact the US government is both “with us” and “with the terrorists”. The United States is the ultimate “state sponsor of terrorism” which has entrusted its allies (Saudi Arabia, et al) with the tasks of recruitment and training of terrorists. 

Flash Forward: NATO and The Islamic State (ISIS)

State sponsorship of terrorism prevails, with NATO playing a central role in the process of financing, training and recruitment of terrorists. According to Israeli intelligence sources,  NATO and the Turkish High Command have been involved in the recruitment of ISIS and Al Nusrah mercenaries from the outset of the Syrian insurgency in March 2011.

 “a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011.)

Similarly, Western Special Forces and Western intelligence operatives had integrated the ranks of the ISIS. British Special Forces and MI6 have been involved in training jihadist rebels in Syria. In turn, US, Canada embassy officials are in liaison with terrorist entities.

Update (March 18, 2015)

Concluding Remarks

What should be clear to Western public opinion is that “the war on terrorism” is a lie. The architects of terrorism are the Western governments and their intelligence services. The anti-terrorism legislation serves the following objectives: 

1. It conveys the illusion that Western society is threatened by Muslim terrorists and that Western governments are committed to the security of their citizens. This in itself constitutes the basis of the demonization campaign directed against Muslims;

2. It presents the “Global War on Terrorism” against an outside enemy as a legitimate undertaking, thereby providing a justification for US-NATO’s wars of aggression;

3. It protects the political and intelligence architects of terrorism. It upholds the legitimacy of the “State sponsors of terrorism” (State officials in high office) and their intelligence services involved in the covert financing, recruitment and training of terrorists on behalf of the Western military alliance;

4. “The Global War on Terrorism” is a criminal undertaking. Those who uphold the truth will be targeted. The Anti-terrorism legislation will be used against  those who question the  validity of the “Global War on Terrorism” consensus. That campaign has already commenced through the targeting of so-called “conspiracy theorists”.

These issues have been amply documented, see:

Canada, State Sponsor of Terrorism? Role of Canadian Embassy in Jordan in ISIS Recruitment?By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 15, 2015

The Ultimate War Crime: America’s “Global War on Terrorism”By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, March 08, 2015

Twenty-six Things About the Islamic State (ISIL) that Obama Does Not Want You to Know AboutBy Prof Michel Chossudovsky, January 09, 2015

CIA bought up its own WMD-related weapons in Iraq by Wayne Madsen

CIA bought up its own WMD-related weapons in Iraq
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has successfully spun a story to, among other media outlets, The New York Times, that claims that in its highly-classified Operation AVARICE it bought from the black market in Iraq weapons of mass destruction components, including nerve-agent rockets. AVARICE is said to have started in 2005 and ended in 2006. The CIA claimed the U.S. destroyed 400 Borak rockets, procured in the 1980s, that were capable of carrying chemical weapons.

However, the CIA's real interest in buying up WMD-related components was to mask its earlier role, along with that of then-President Ronald Reagan special envoy Donald Rumsfeld, in supplying Saddam Hussein with the WMDs used to commit genocide against Iraqi Kurds and Iranian troops fighting against an Iraqi border invasion. The sudden revelation about "Iraqi WMDs" is more about cleaning up George W. Bush's record with WMDs in Iraq ("Bush Lied, People Died") for his brother Jeb Bush's anticipated 2016 presidential run. What the CIA purchased from Iraqi souks and junk yards were evidence of the CIA's own role in providing Iraq with WMDs in the 1980s.

Information about AVARICE is nothing new and, in fact, the U.S. discovered poison gas canisters in Iraq long before 2005. On November 14, 2005, WMR reported: "U.S. military intelligence personnel discovered VX gas canisters at the Bilad weapons site. The Iraqi official who took U.S. military intelligence officers to Bilad even had the American bills of lading for the nerve gas shipments." Our report continued: "The Clinton and Bush 2 administrations never paid much attention to the presence of VX nerve gas in Iraq, according to a Defense Department intelligence source. This was because the nerve gas was sent by the Reagan and Bush 1 administrations and nerve gas has a 'shelf life,' whereby the U.S. maintained it could not be counted as a weapon of mass destruction under United Nations and U.S. definitions."

On November 20, 2005, WMR followed up our initial report: "The CIA, according to U.S. military intelligence agents, never considered the U.S.-supplied VX nerve gas to be a WMD after Desert Storm. Their reasoning was that because of its binary nature, it had a shelf life and oxidization rendered it harmless after the outbreak of Desert Storm. In reality, the U.S. military sources said the CIA's admission that Iraq possessed harmless VX was a way for it to protect itself and its former deputy director [Frank] Carlucci while admitting to the fact that the Bush administration had, in fact, supplied the deadly agent to Saddam Hussein. The CIA's main mission in the 1990s was regime change and Saddam's alleged possession of WMDs was merely a causa sina qua non for continued hostilities, overt and covert. A British colonel who was the head of the special operations team that removed the VX weapons from Bilad said his detection kit registered a positive reading."


Rumsfeld in 1984 shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. On Washington's table was deadly VX nerve gas that Saddam used against the Kurds and Iranians. Rumsfeld says knew Saddam had WMDs because he sold them to the Iraqi leader. Now, the CIA spins for the Bush family by asserting it "bought" the WMD evidence in 2005 and 2006.

To bolster the point that canisters and other nerve and mustard gas, as well as other chemical weapons supplied to Iraq by the U.S. and other countries, had long since deteriorated by the time the CIA "bought" the components, U.S. Representative John Hammerschmidt (R-AR) said that in a classified briefing in 1980, the U.S. Army admitted that it possessed 730,000 rounds of deteriorated and obsolete chemical weapons rounds.

However, with Jeb Bush planning his White House run it now becomes necessary for the CIA to reveal that it discovered WMD components.

If the CIA wanted to release something of interest in Iraqi WMDs, it might start with 1980s contract documents signed between then-Secretary of State George P. Schultz's old firm Bechtel Corporation and Saddam Hussein that saw a number of precursor WMD production facilities built by the U.S. construction giant. Bechtel made most of its fortune building atomic plants under then-Atomic Energy Commission Chairman John McCone, the founder of Bechtel-McCone, Bechtel's predecessor company. In 1961, after President John F. Kennedy fired CIA director Allen Dulles, McCone became CIA chief and he continued to take care of Bechtel both at Langley and in post-CIA employment. A March 4, 1977 confidential Bechtel memorandum, titled "International Job Strategy," identifies Iraq's petrochemical and other infrastructures as a top priority, along with Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, and Nigeria, for Bechtel's business.

McCone died on February 14, 1991, just two weeks before George H. W. Bush, also a former CIA director, launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. The U.S. military assault attempted to destroy as much of Iraq's chemical weapons infrastructure as possible to obliterate Bechtel's, Rumsfeld's, Carlucci's, and the Bush family's role in it.

Bush Redux: As Jeb Bush prepares to run in 2016, remember his brother. Bush and Hitler, the Unappetizing Similarities by WAYNE MADSEN

Bush Redux: As Jeb Bush prepares to run in 2016, remember his brother

As Jeb Bush prepares to run for president in 2016, WMR is posting this article about his brother, Bush 43, as a reminder of nightmares past . . .

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Bush and Hitler, the Unappetizing Similarities

by WAYNE MADSEN

Adolf Hitler would be proud that an American President is emulating him in so many ways. Hitler, it will be remembered, routinely ignored his military, other world leaders, and the clergy. Bush seems to think that this policy, which ultimately failed for Hitler, will work for him.

First, we should consider what Christian leaders are saying about Bush.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America, Frank T. Griswold III, says “I’d like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States” and blasts George W. Bush for his saber rattling. Apparently, poppy Bush, an Episcopalian, believes that the head of his church is wrong and his wayward son is right.

From the Vatican, Pope John Paul II fires a shot over the bow of the Bush administration by declaring, “war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions.”

In a television ad, the chief ecumenical officer of the United Methodist Church, Bishop Melvin Talbert, says that his fellow Methodist’s rush to war “violates God’s law and the teachings of Jesus Christ.”

The Anglican House of Bishops has warned, “without compelling new evidence to confirm that Iraq was stockpiling chemical or biological weapons, war could not be morally justified.”

Bush, who, during one of the presidential debates, said his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ, has apparently decided to ignore his teachings.

Maybe Bush has decided to turn away from Jesus Christ and instead seek Providence from a tequila bottle, as his State of the Union address with numerous examples of slurred speech would seem to indicate.

Bush, a so-called compassionate conservative and born-again Christian, can only find religious support from the same group of hackneyed pseudo-Christians, hate mongers, and religious cult leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, and Sun Myung Moon. Bush opts for this band of zealots and ignores South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu who asked, “When does compassion, when does morality, when does caring come in?” His words fall on deaf ears in the Oval Office.

Content with ignoring the church, Bush has also decided to play with dynamite by ignoring some of America’s top military minds.

One of them is retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the military commander of Desert Storm. He told The Washington Post that he has yet to be fully convinced that war with Iraq is necessary. Schwarzkopf’s comments mirror those of other retired top generals, including Anthony Zinni, Wesley Clark, John Shalikashvili, Brent Scowcroft, Joseph Hoar, and Merrill McPeak. Pentagon sources report that the obviously mentally ill Donald Rumsfeld threatened to fire some members of his Joint Chiefs of Staff for not supporting the war against Iraq. These included former Marine Corps Commandant and now NATO commander General James Jones and Army Chief of Staff General Erik Shinseki. Another recipient of Rumsfeld’s wrath is the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command General Charles Holland who Rumsfeld accused of having a “case of the slows” in carrying out Bush’s war plans.

Pentagon sources report that morale among senior military commanders is at an all time low. Rumsfeld rubbed salt into open wounds when he ordered his “CINCs” (Commander-in-Chief) to drop that title, declaring that there is only one “commander-in-chief” and that is Bush. Neither did it help when Rumsfeld said military draftees never added any value to the service.

Pentagon sources report that some officers are digging out old message traffic that emanated from the Nixon White House in 1974 during the height of the Watergate crisis. One particular order from then Chief of Staff Al Haig stated that military commanders were to ignore any orders from Nixon unless they were authorized and co-signed by Haig. The fear then was that Nixon might have ordered a military move on the Congress during the impeachment hearings and cite national security as the reason for suspending the congressional proceedings against him.

In the end, however, Nixon understood the gravity of his constitutional responsibilities. He resigned. Bush, on the other hand, has done more to shred the Constitution than any of his predecessors.

Of course, there was once another fanatic war-possessed leader who tore up his constitution and routinely berated his generals and ignored their advice. On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg strode into a conference room in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair compound with a briefcase bomb. Although the plot to rid the world of Hitler once and for all failed, it confirmed that a number of Germany’s top generals, including its most famous, Erwin von Rommel, were strongly opposed to Hitler’s fanaticism.

War making and saber rattling is not the only similarity of Bush to Hitler. The German leader, along with Joseph Goebbels, was also a master of propaganda. The Bush administration, obviously putting its propaganda arm, the White house Office of Global Communications, into full gear, convinced nine European leaders to take out an ad, billed as an ‘article,” in several European newspapers supporting the Bush administration. Some of the usual suspects signed on to the article, including Tony Blair, who, in addition to Barney and Spot, is Bush’s favorite lap dog. But it is interesting to point out some of the other leaders who backed Bush. They include the Prime Ministers of Poland and Hungary and President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic. These countries, which joined NATO a few years ago with the provision that they buy billions of dollars of American warplanes, tanks, and other hardware, are virtual subsidiaries of America’s military-industrial complex.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is only in power because of the support he receives from a rabidly anti-immigrant party that mirrors John Ashcroft’s brand of conservatism. Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi heads a party that has maintained strong links to Italy’s neo-fascist movement whose founding father was Benito Mussolini. Likewise, the parties of Spain’s Jose Maria Aznar and Portugal’s Jose Barroso have historical links to the fascist movements of Francisco Franco and Antonio Salazar, respectively.

Bush’s borrowing liberally from Hitler’s play book was not lost on Germany’s former Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, who last September said Bush wanted a war with Iraq to divert attention from domestic problems. She added, “That’s a popular method. Even Hitler did that.”

Bush, who is content to win the support of Pentagon stooges in Eastern Europe and neo-fascists elsewhere, has chosen to ignore people like former South African President Nelson Mandela who made no secret of his disgust for Bush when he declared at a women’s forum, “One power with a president who has no foresight — who cannot think properly — is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust.”

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who did more to bring peace to the world in a couple of years than either of the Bush’s have done in two presidential terms, said last year that George W. Bush is a threat to world peace and that his plans to attack Iraq will destroy the international coalition in the war on terrorism. Former President Jimmy Carter and Nobel Peace Prize laureate warned that a pre-emptive US attack on Iraq would have catastrophic consequences.

Bush’s disparaging of the United Nations, world opinion, and international statesmen is reminiscent of an April 28, 1939 speech by Hitler before the Reichstag:

“Members of the German Reichstag: The President of the United States of America has addressed a telegram to me, with the curious contents of which you are already familiar . . . The President of the United States believes that in conference rooms as in courts it is necessary that both sides enter in good faith, assuming that substantial justice will accrue to both. German representatives will never again enter a conference that is for them a tribunal . . . Mr. Roosevelt asks that assurances be given him that the German armed forces will not attack, and above all, not invade, the territory or possessions of the following independent nations. He then names as those to which he refers: Finland, Lithuania, Latvia,’ Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain , Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, the Arabias, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iran. I have first taken the trouble to ascertain from the states mentioned, firstly, whether they feel themselves threatened, and, what is most important, secondly, whether this inquiry by the American President was addressed to us at their suggestion or at least with their consent. The reply was in all cases negative, in some instances strongly so . . . I have reunited the territories that have been German throughout a thousand years of history-and, Mr. Roosevelt, I have endeavored to attain all this without bloodshed and without bringing to my people and so to others, the misery of war . . . For my world, Mr. President, is the one to which Providence has assigned me and for which it is my duty to work. Its area is much smaller. It comprises my people alone. But I believe I can thus best serve that which is in the hearts of all of us a justice, well-being, progress and peace for the whole community of mankind.”

As Congress cheerfully applauded Bush’s State of the Union address, the Reichstag gave Hitler a thunderous reception. Although Hitler’s oratory skills were light years beyond Bush’s, the two speeches had something extremely fundamental in common – they were packed with lies.

Do the Bushes hold grudges? You bet they do.

On May 4, 2010, former First Lady Laura Bush conducted a book signing for her new book, "Spoken from the Heart," in tony McLean, Virginia.

What was more amazing, this editor received an invitation on April 30 from Bush's publisher, Scribner, to cover the event. It was a surprise, given WMR's past coverage of Laura Bush's problems with her husband's "affair" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her storming out of the White House for the Mayflower Hotel -- in addition to a communication from a friend of Laura Bush in Marblehead, Massachusetts offering a deal at the time that if WMR stopped reporting on the Bushes' marital problems and providing quotes to the Globe tabloid, another story would be offered by Mrs. Bush's friend.

So, the invitation to cover the Bush book signing was of interest.

Upon arriving at the Books-A-Million bookstore in McLean, press credentials in hand, I was informed that the press credentials were not sufficient for entry. When I produced one that was acceptable, I was then informed by Mrs. Bush's press agent that the event was for b-roll film only and still photos. Producing a camera, I said that was fine.

But then, the press agent called over an almost-motionless Secret Service agent who appeared to nix my entry. There was also a flurry of sidebar conversations with other public relations people present.

No problem, I said. How about if I just buy Mrs. Bush's book and wait in line for her to sign it? Response: No, all the books were sold by 10 am for the 11:00 book signing. No books left at "Books-A-Million." Perhaps, the store should change its name to "Books-A-Hundred."

Well, it was clear that when I responded to the invitation that myself and McClendon News Service head John Edward Hurley would cover the media event for Mrs. Bush's book, some homework was done. Hurley was a colleague of the late White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, whose penchant for shouting out embarrassing questions to presidents was legendary. Apparently, the possibility of a McClendon-like volley of questions was feared by Mrs. Bush's PR team.

Neither of us was, in the end, permitted to cover the event to which I had been invited. I wonder what those who were published by Scribner, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut, would say about Scribner's censorship tactics if they were alive today?

Today, Scribner is owned by Simon & Schuster, an arm of CBS.

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MEDIA ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 30, 2010

MRS. LAURA BUSH LAUNCHES SPOKEN FROM THE HEART BOOK TOUR IN MCLEAN, VIRGINIA ON MAY 4TH

Former First Lady Laura Bush will launch her new book titled Spoken from the Heart during a book signing event at the Books-a-Million store in McLean, Virginia on Tuesday, May 4, 2010. In this book, Laura Bush reveals her public triumphs and personal tribulations and the story of real life inside the White House.

Only around a hundred or so people showed up for Mrs. Bush's book signing in the CIA's hometown of McLean, Virginia. The CIA headquarters is named after Mrs. Bush's father-in-law, George H. W. Bush. Dick Cheney is a resident of McLean.

A Republican friend of Mrs. Bush in Massachusetts offered WMR editor a deal: since mrs. Bush found the George W. Bush-Condi Rice story so upsetting, another story would be offered up in exchange for leaving the affair story alone.

"June 3, 2006 -- WMR can report that a Mayflower Hotel staffer has confirmed that First Lady Laura Bush spent at least one night this past week at the hotel, which is four blocks north of the White House. Mrs. Bush reportedly moved out of the White House after a confrontation with President Bush over his on-going affair with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The Mayflower's official position on the story is that they can "neither confirm nor deny" the identities of their guests. Because it's penchant for security and secrecy is well known to the Secret Service, the Mayflower has become a reliable hotel for U.S. and international VIPs.

Some Washington observers believe that the recent flare up between Laura Bush and the president stems from the fact that her poll numbers are twice as favorable as her husband's (60 percent to 29 percent). Laura Bush's recent solo missions to New Orleans, Colorado, and an AIDS conference at the United Nations represent a virtual declaration of independence from the most unpopular president in U.S. history. "She's [Laura's] taking a page right out of Hillary's book," said one Washington pundit. Rice, on the other hand, has been very close and loyal to Bush since she signed on as his chief foreign policy adviser in 2000. WMR has been told of intimate encounters between Mr. Bush and Rice on trips to New York City (multiple occasions) and New Orleans following Katrina."

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The only item of interest in Mrs. Bush's book is her recounting an event during the G-8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany in 2007, at which she, President Bush, and their staffers became violently ill from what some Secret Service agents feared was poisoning. Mrs. Bush claims no other foreign delegation became ill with the flu-like symptoms and she writes that some staff members affected continue to suffer after-effects like unsteadiness and hearing loss. Mrs. Bush said the Secret Service feared that the presidential party fell victim to terrorist poisoning at the Baltic Sea resort. Mrs. Bush wrote, "The most concrete conclusion any doctors could reach was that we contracted a virus that attacks a nerve near the inner ear and is prevalent in Heiligendamm." The virus is said to be prevalent in a type of Baltic fish that may have been served to the Bushes and their party. Mrs. Bush also said that President Bush became so ill he was not able to stand up to greet French President Nicolas Sarkozy when he visited Bush in his room.

WMR reported on extraordinary precautions taken by the Secret Service with Bush's biological waste in 2006, a year before the G-8 Summit in Germany:

"July 4, 2006 -- Even Bush's crap is classified top secret. According to our Austrian sources, Austrian newspapers are currently abuzz with special security details of George W. Bush's recent trip to Vienna. Although the heavy-handed Gestapo-like security measures meted out to Viennese home owners, business proprietors, and pedestrians by US Secret Service agents and local police before and during Bush's visit received widespread Austrian media attention, it was White House 'toilet security' (TOILSEC'), which has Austrians talking the most. The White House flew in a special portable toilet to Vienna for Bush's personal use during his visit. The Bush White House is so concerned about Bush's security, the veil of secrecy extends over the president's bodily excretions. The special port-a-john captured Bush's feces and urine and flew the waste material back to the United States in the event some enterprising foreign intelligence agency conducted a sewage pipe operation designed to trap and examine Bush's waste material. One can only wonder why the White House is taking such extraordinary security measures for the presidential poop.

Even Bush's toilet paper was flown in from the U.S. Air Base at Ramstein, Germany. In addition, Bush's food was flown in from the United States and tested with special chemicals before he ate it. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was shot by a firing squad in 1989, was the last major European leader to constantly use a food tester. The last frequent state visitor to Vienna, who always relied on a food tester, was Adolf Hitler."