Anthrax suspect dies in apparent suicide

[justdrew]

well, neither of those people are much like a mad mail poisoner either

- nuge pic -

closer, but Ted would hate a cowardly mail poisoner, he might stalk you with his bow and arrow, but not try to send you poison in the mail.

[barracuda]

Wall Street Journal opinion column - Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit

By RICHARD SPERTZEL
August 5, 2008; Page A17

Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.

But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.

[Nordic]

Wow, when the Wall Street Journal starts refuting Bush's FBI, you know this thing is probably gonna blow up.

I sure hope it does, anyway.

This story is driving me nuts. I mean, even here we all argue about 9/11, but to me this particular story is just such a brazen cover-up, with such an obvious patsy. When I first read the story days ago I was just shocked, it was like a really badly written chapter from a really badly written thriller.

And they expect us to fucking SWALLOW THIS CRAP?

It just really pisses me the hell off.

Fuck, I remember being scared to open MY OWN DAMN MAIL because of this false-flag bullshit and now they think they can get away with suiciding some patsy and we're supposed to just FORGET ABOUT IT?

[stickdog99]

"They just mumble and bumble around," he said. "It's like a TV show."

During the writers' strike.

Greenwald's last three posts on this topic are required reading:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

[seemslikeadream]

http://tinyurl.com/5rceo8

Bruce Ivins: A Dead Scientist and The Great Anthrax Vaccine Monopoly
Posted by leveymg on Tue Aug-05-08 03:39 PM

How BioPort (with Ivin's help) Grabbed a a Billion Dollar Monopoly on Anthrax Vaccine

There's an important backstory in the death of Bruce Ivins, the biotoxins scientist who is now blaimed for the anthrax attacks that followed 9/11.

Can’t go into all the details here, but Ivins was involved in anthrax vaccine development for three companies, Bioport/Emergent, Coley, and VaxGen. There seems to have been a recent struggle between two of them, BioPort/Emergent and VexGen, for a lion's share of $5.6 billion in federal biodefense contracts. The third company, Coley, licensed its vaccine additive to the losing company, VaxGen, in March 2007.

Vaxgen lost its federal contract in 2007, and in May 2008 was bought out by Emergent.

That leaves BioPort/Emergent the sole approved provider of anthrax vaccine. There are some vexing historical details about BioPort that I won’t go into here that you should be aware of. If you're not, see, http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICL ... ofits.html ; http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2002/31 .

Ivins worked on the BioPort vaccine after it manifested serious, widespread side-effects in the first Iraq War. That older vaccine was first developed in the 1950s, and was used on coalition troops in 1991 and is blaimed for Gulf War Syndrome. That vaccine is reportedly based on the Ames strain. Its production was suspended in the 1990s, but resumed in 2002-03, most recently 6 million doses were produced in 2006.

Ivins also had a role in upgrading a “vaccine additive” for a second company, Coley Pharmaceutical Group. Ivins was listed as one of two inventors of a biodefense-related product made by Coley that has won federal sponsorship. According to their still-pending application for a U.S. patent, the inventors hoped the additive would bolster certain vaccines’ capacity to prevent infections “from bioterrorism agents.”

From December 2002 to December 2003, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency committed $12 million for additional testing of the experimental additive. That research money was designated for Coley Pharmaceutical Group, which was developing the additive. The company was acquired last fall by Pfizer Corp.

A newer vaccine was developed with Ivin’s help by VaxGen. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded VaxGen an $877 million contract in 2004 to produce 75 million doses of its second-generation anthrax vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile. But HHS canceled the contract in December 2006, after problems with the vaccine’s stability caused the company to miss a deadline for starting a clinical trial.

VaxGen’s contract was the first awarded under Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion program to procure medical defenses against the effects of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons.

In March 2008, after the company’ stock crashed and burned, VaxGen sold its anthrax vaccine process to Emergent for a bargain price of $12 million. A year earlier, Emergent bought out Coley’s additive, VaxImmune vaccine adjuvant compound, making Emergent the sole potential competitor for BioPort, that still produces the only available anthrax vaccine.

Only one thing, Emergent is BioPort. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_BioSolutions

And, yes, did I tell you that BioPort/Emergent’s investors included the Carlyle Group and the bin Laden family? Should we be at all surprised that they ended up with an effective monopoly on anthrax vaccine?

There’s an important backstory here for anyone who wants to flesh it out.

[chiggerbit]

Where DO they find dumb fucks like Richard Cohen"? Isn't it time for him to publicly name this "high government official"?


http://www.slate.com/id/2186766/

".....The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it....."

[chiggerbit]

Sld, will this latest piece of the puzzle fit in with those old conspiracy theories involving Hadron's Earl Brian and others?

[chiggerbit]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

Of Dart Guns and Poisons

"....The CIA also wanted to find a substitute for the cyanide L-pill, the suicide capsule used in World War II. Cyanide takes up to 15 minutes to work and causes an agonizingly painful death by asphyxiation. Said Colby: "Agents didn't want to face that kind of fate."

Working at the U.S. Army's laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., researchers came up with the shellfish toxin. After receiving the toxin orally or by pinprick, a victim first feels a tingling sensation in the fingers and lips, then dies within ten seconds of painless paralysis...."

[barracuda]

"After receiving the toxin orally or by pinprick, a victim first feels a tingling sensation in the fingers and lips, then dies within ten seconds of painless paralysis...."

You really gotta wonder how they get this type of information.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Gulf War Syndrome?!

[8bitagent]

In other patsy news, the patsy the government is pinning 9/11 on(the taxi driver) is at the end of his "war crimes" trial...the whole thing is a setup, of course

The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said he in fact may have given an incorrect definition of a war crime, but agreed it was too late to revise his instructions to a jury in its second day of deliberations. The defense said redoing the instructions would prompt a mistrial.

Faced with that prospect, prosecutors said they would not seek new instructions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26040356/

I WISH the liberal online and media world was on fire about pointing out the 9/11 coverup going on as they are about the Anthrax. I mean a taxi cab driver...how desperate is the government?

[justdrew]

http://www.gulfwarvets.com/project_badger.pdf

Why Does RCMP Refer to Flesh Eating Murderer as “Badger”?
August 4th, 2008

Is “Badger” a generic term that these cops use to refer to suspects??? Or… Hmm.

There’s a recording of the police radio transmissions here and here.

Also, I’ve come across a couple (1, 2) other decapitation cases in recent days, besides the one below.

Random madness, or something else?

Via: AP:

A police officer at the scene of a fatal stabbing on a Canadian bus reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim’s body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the Internet Saturday.

In the tape of radio transmissions, officers referred to the attacker, who also beheaded the victim, as “Badger.” They said he was armed with a knife and scissors and was “defiling the body.”

“Badger’s at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces and eating it,” an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on the tape.

The RCMP described the tapes as “operational police communications and, as such, are not meant for public consumption.” The tape was posted on YouTube among other Web sites.

see section 4 a on page 2 of the PDF. Could "People's Republic of China" be the location that is blacked out?

Li had developed a tendency to take off on bus trips occasionally. Was he going to a location to participate in what he thought were paid research drug trials? Keeping this secret to not worry his wife.

maybe..?

[timetunneler]

http://www.gulfwarvets.com/project_badger.pdf

Why Does RCMP Refer to Flesh Eating Murderer as “Badger”?
August 4th, 2008

Is “Badger” a generic term that these cops use to refer to suspects??? Or… Hmm.

There’s a recording of the police radio transmissions here and here.

Also, I’ve come across a couple (1, 2) other decapitation cases in recent days, besides the one below.

Random madness, or something else?

Via: AP:

A police officer at the scene of a fatal stabbing on a Canadian bus reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim’s body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the Internet Saturday.

In the tape of radio transmissions, officers referred to the attacker, who also beheaded the victim, as “Badger.” They said he was armed with a knife and scissors and was “defiling the body.”

“Badger’s at the back of the bus, hacking off pieces and eating it,” an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on the tape.

The RCMP described the tapes as “operational police communications and, as such, are not meant for public consumption.” The tape was posted on YouTube among other Web sites.

see section 4 a on page 2 of the PDF. Could "People's Republic of China" be the location that is blacked out?

Li had developed a tendency to take off on bus trips occasionally. Was he going to a location to participate in what he thought were paid research drug trials? Keeping this secret to not worry his wife.

maybe..?

If it's coming out of the RCMP, FBI, CSIS, CIA at this particular crazy moment in time I would wager that the story is partly bullshit. Just the general feeling I get about some of the news I 've been seeing lately.

If this RCMP guy is really watching this crazy eating someone then why doesn't he fucking shoot the guy??? Is he waiting for him to pull out a gun and start hunting for some more dinner chops??? A shot in the leg? A shot in the arm? To take him down? How does some nut have time to sit down and hack away on someone and then start eating him for dinner??? This sounds like some sort of "staged event". There are a lot of stories in the news at this moment about provocatuering, false flagging... makes me wonder if this is a distraction. RCMP like FBI is guilty of that type of thing.

[seemslikeadream]

Frederick police launch probe into Duley's claims
Posted by LeighAnn on Wed Aug-06-08 01:47 AM

I posted this in LBN, but thought I'd share it here as well. I think it's good news:

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sectio ... ryID=78449

Local probe opens as victims meet with FBI


As the FBI meets today with victims' families and survivors of the 2001 anthrax mailings, the Frederick Police Department is beginning an investigation into claims made by a therapist who testified Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins tried to poison people as early as 2000.

It is not certain whether the meeting signals the end of a seven-year investigation following the suicide of Ivins, the bureau's prime suspect in the anthrax attacks. Ivins was one of the lead anthrax researchers in the country and worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Leaks from the investigation have accused Ivins of the mailings based on evidence that traced the anthrax back to his lab. Other leaks from unnamed government sources have accused Ivins of buying envelopes at a Frederick post office to send the anthrax spores.

The meeting will take place at the FBI's Washington headquarters, said survivor David Hose of Winchester, Va. He was poisoned while working at a diplomatic mail center in Sterling, Va., and spent 11 days in a hospital. The bacteria scarred his heart and lungs.

Hose won't attend the meeting, which comes little more than a week after Ivins died of an overdose of acetaminophen.

Friday, it was reported that Ivins would be charged for the poisonings that killed five people and injured 17 others just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The FBI and Department of Justice did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, at a Boston news conference on identity theft, declined to discuss details in the case.

The Justice Department "has a legal and moral obligation to make official statements first to the victims and their families, then the public," Mukasey said. "And that's the order in which we're going to do it."

Hose called today's meeting a "coffee klatch" and would not be traveling to Washington for the briefing. A skeptic of the investigation, Hose thinks Ivins may not have been responsible.

"This guy is dead," he said. "They can blame him real easy."

Mary Morris, the widow of victim Thomas Morris Jr., said she is waiting to see what the FBI reveals before commenting on the case.

Her husband died after being infected with anthrax while working at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington.

"I personally will wait and see what the information brings," she said. "So far there's been much to do about nothing."


Therapist's claims to be probed

In Frederick, a new investigation is being launched.

Frederick Police Department detectives plan to examine a peace order and testimony from Janet Duley, a therapist who came to know Ivins while he was treated at Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick, Lt. Shawn Martyak said Tuesday.

Duley, the counseling center's program director, ran group and individual sessions. She described Ivins as homicidal and threatening.

During a July 24 hearing, Duley, 45, testified in Frederick County District Court that "as far back as the year 2000, (Ivins) has actually attempted to murder several other people either through poisoning. He is a revenge killer."

Duley said she knew him for at least the past six months and told the court she saw him once a week.

She told Judge Milnor Roberts that Ivins planned to "go out in a blaze of glory," had bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers.

She received several threatening phone calls from Ivins in mid-July after she had him committed to Frederick Memorial Hospital and told the court she was "scared to death" of Ivins.

The investigation into Ivins' death is continuing and detectives have not received a final autopsy report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore, Martyak said.


Friend skeptical

At least one of Ivins' friends remains skeptical about the scientist's role in the anthrax mailings.

Martin E. Hugh-Jones is a Louisiana State University professor and coordinator of the World Health Organization's Working Group on Anthrax Research and Control. He said he met Ivins while on sabbatical at Fort Detrick in the mid-1980s.

The men exchanged information through the years, Hugh-Jones said.

"For those of us who knew Bruce, this doesn't make sense," he said. "He didn't have the character for this sort of thing."

Hugh-Jones thinks Ivins could have been driven by the scrutiny of the FBI investigation to commit suicide.

"He was a good guy," Hugh-Jones said, "I'm just sorry for his family who now have to stagger through this situation for the next few years."

For survivors and family members of victims who have suffered the past seven years, the meeting today might put to rest Ivins' role in the attacks. It is unknown whether the case will be closed or evidence unsealed after the briefing.

Members of Congress could offer no indication Tuesday into whether they would receive the same information as family members and survivors.

U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-6th, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., have not been contacted by the FBI, according to staff members.

U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., said his office could not release information about the FBI briefings because they are part of an ongoing federal investigation.

Conyers and Cardin sit on the judiciary committees of their respective houses.


-- Nicholas C. Stern, Gina Gallucci-White, Meg Tully, Justin Palk and the Associated Press contributed to this report

[seemslikeadream]

Sld, will this latest piece of the puzzle fit in with those old conspiracy theories involving Hadron's Earl Brian and others?

The Octopus gets taken out by antrax


http://tinyurl.com/679kyf

THE NEW WHIG"-ABC/Anthrax/Iraq-An epic propaganda onslaught of distorted intel-Larisa Alexandrovna

ABC's Sources on Anthrax/Iraq...


Glenn Greenwald over at Salon has made an excellent point about Brian Ross having to come clean and reveal his "four" sources. As Greenwald noted in a blog piece late last week:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html


"Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to Islamic terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC News -- to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, and I've written about this several times and in great detail to no avail, http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... bc_anthrax / the role played by ABC News in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the anthrax attacks originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter.

<snip>

During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross,
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html
continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax-- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."


I full agree with Glenn why ABC needs to come clean. A journalist has what is called a "good faith" agreement with their anonymous source. It is basically an understanding that the journalist will protect the source at all costs, including going to jail if need be and in exchange, the source will not intentionally mislead, lie, or in any way abuse the relationship. If the journalists violates this agreement, they will likely never work as a reporter again. If a source violates this agreement, the contractual understanding is discharged. In addition, if the public trust is violated so extremely or the public is in any way affected by the source's manipulation or dishonesty, then it is not only important for the journalists to unmask their sources, it is necessary.

Domestic propaganda is illegal, so abusing the journalist-source relationship is a good way to "launder" information/propaganda. I generally call this intelligence laundering. I said this same thing about Judith Miller, who instead of doing the ethical thing as a journalist, decided to protect her sources who were using her to launder talking points.

So, if Ross won't do the ethical thing, let's try resolve this ourselves

Source Characterization

Greenwald writes that Ross responded to demands he unmask his handlers as follows:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ ... index.html


"As we reported more than six years ago our information came from current and former government scientists. The report was discointed and denied by the White House which we reported. I believe now the scientists got it wrong although they insisted they were correct long after."


I don't believe Ross' characterization of his sources is on the level. It entirely possible Ross is telling the truth, but I find it hard to believe. It is one thing to have multiple CIA sources, for example, as there are tens of thousands of people employed by the agency, and countless others formerly employed. By the same token, it is entirely reasonable to have 4 sources in DOD or DOJ. But to have four sources who are a). all experts in Anthrax, b). working in a field with only roughly 50-100 people in it, c). who all have access to a domestic terrorism investigation, d). who all made the same exact mistake, e). on something so specific, and f). and all chose Ross as the conduit is not possible.

There is, of course, the possibility that Ross is double-dipping as I like to call it. What I mean by this is when you have a small pool of people all talking to one another, you should count that as one source. As an example, consider a real life situation I have found myself in. A source and their lawyer wanted to be counted as 2 separate sources. The problem is that the latter is working for the former, representing the former, and discussing specifics with the former, so it is difficult to ascertain who actually knows what. When 2 sources are that close in the information pool, I always count them as a single source. It is possible that Ross' sources are a small group of scientists all talking among one another, with only one of them being an Anthrax expert. I simply don't know. The problem with this reasoning in the ABC case, however, is that the specific claims of Iraqi ties being made.

In addition, not only were the claims far too specific and entirely wrong, but people working on examining the Anthrax letters would be entirely cordoned off by the FBI, so no leaks could occur to compromise this investigation, a national security issue of the highest proportions. Think about the handling of the Robert Hanssen case as the perfect example of how an FBI investigation should be conducted in relation to minimizing leaks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen

If Ross actually got 4 scientists to tell him this nonsense, then he is either stupid enough to take them at their word or was willing enough to be used. Either way, his own story does not hold up. The nature of the beast suggests a political agenda.

And it is precisely the nature of the beast that identifies the beast.

Ties to Iraq

What group of 4 people, either together or individually, would have such little ethics that they would politicize a domestic terrorism attack for a political agenda or leak information necessary (if it were right) to solving a domestic terrorist attack?

All we know is that we are looking for 4 people, current and former, officials a). in a position to know, so that ABC would take their claims b). all involved with one another, because the specificity of their error could not have happened otherwise, c). and all in intelligence and defense, because that is Ross' bread and butter.

There is, of course, a handful of people that were at work already on September 11, 2001 attempting to tie those attacks to Iraq.

First a caveat. This list is my own speculation. I do not claim to be right on any of this. There is, however, one way to find out for sure. These people can all be subpoenaed by Congress to make their denials.

Then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld:


(CBS) CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.

That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.(CBS)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/ ... 0830.shtml


If anyone could have ordered a military scientist to authenticate propaganda claims, it would be this upstanding citizen of Cheney Inc.

Former CIA Director, James Woolsey:


THE Taliban regime may be the current target in America's war on terrorism but the Bush administration is already building a case against a much bigger foe - Iraq.

James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA, ambassador and Pentagon official who now describes himself as a "private citizen", is the man entrusted with investigating Iraqi involvement in the September 11 attacks and anthrax outbreaks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... g-for.html
The Iraqi National Congress, the exiled group that opposes Saddam Hussein, said it recently held meetings in London with Mr Woolsey. Administration sources have said his trip was funded and approved by Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary.

Such is the sensitivity of the Iraq issue, Mr Woolsey will make no comment about the exact nature of his brief. He told The Telegraph: "I was in London and that's it."

But he made clear that he believed there were "substantial and growing indications" that a state was behind the attacks.

The milled, "weaponised" anthrax that virtually shut down Congress and killed two postal workers has increased his suspicions. So too have reports of meetings involving Mohammad Atta, a leading hijacker, in Prague." (Telegraph).
http://tinyurl.com/5nxrzh

http://tinyurl.com/67ygws


Woolsey would qualify as the "former government" source IMHO. Note with whom he meets in London, the very same people that would go on to help "fix the facts" to get us into Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress
The Iraqi National Congress was Chalabi's group. If you recall, Chalabi was Judith Miller's main source for the bio-lab propaganda that was used by the administration as talking points of an ongoing Iraqi bioweapons program. I would think that Chalabi seeing the propganda pulled off once, employed it again.

Woolsey also happens to be exceptionaly close to Cheney and Rumsfeld. I am not sure if Wolfowitz or Feith would have had the relationship with Ross that was needed to leak this to him without him becoming supcious or his editors. But if Rumsfeld was called to testify, he could inform Congress if the others were involved.

White House Iraq Group (WHIG):


The rest of the sources likely came from this propaganda outfit working out of Dick Cheney's office. They had one job, to sell the Iraq War. More importantly, WHIG and ABC have something in common (emphasis mine):

That was the morning when the Bush White House officially rolled out its fraudulent case for the war. The four horsemen of the apocalypse - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice - were dispatched en masse to the Washington talk shows, where they eagerly pointed to a front-page New York Times article
http://tinyurl.com/5zz3we
amplifying subsequently debunked administration claims that Saddam had sought to buy aluminum tubes meant for nuclear weapons. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," said Condoleezza Rice on CNN, introducing a sales pitch concocted by a White House speechwriter.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... le.00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01587.html

What followed was an epic propaganda onslaught of distorted intelligence, fake news, credulous and erroneous reporting by bona fide journalists, presidential playacting and Congressional fecklessness. Much of it had been plotted that summer of 2002 by the then-secret White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a small task force of administration brass charged with the Iraq con job.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dy ... 0-2003Aug9

Today the spirit of WHIG lives. In the stay-the-surge propaganda offensive that crests with this week's Congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, history is repeating itself in almost every particular. Even the specter of imminent "nuclear holocaust" has been rebooted in President Bush's arsenal of rhetorical scare tactics.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases ... 828-2.html

The new WHIG is a 24/7 Pentagon information "war room" conceived in the last throes of the Rumsfeld regime and run by a former ABC News producer. White House "facts" about the surge's triumph are turning up unsubstantiated in newspapers and on TV. Instead of being bombarded with dire cherry-picked intelligence about W.M.D., this time we're being serenaded with feel-good cherry-picked statistics offering hope. Once again the fix is in. Mr. Bush's pretense that he has been waiting for the Petraeus-Crocker report before setting his policy is as bogus as his U.N. charade before the war. And once again a narrowly Democratic Senate lacks the votes to stop him.(Frank Rich)
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washi ... ation_room /
http://www.truthout.org/article/frank-r ... l-stand-up

White House "facts" about the surge's triumph are turning up unsubstantiated in newspapers and on TV. Instead of being bombarded with dire cherry-picked intelligence about W.M.D., this time we're being serenaded with feel-good cherry-picked statistics offering hope. Once again the fix is in. Mr. Bush's pretense that he has been waiting for the Petraeus-Crocker report before setting his policy is as bogus as his U.N. charade before the war. And once again a narrowly Democratic Senate lacks the votes to stop him. (Frank Rich)


Before it was in its last throes, it was still operational, if not entirely a formalized group. More importantly, we now have a direct link to ABC. Who were the members of this group?

The members of the White House Iraq Group include:

* Karl Rove
* Karen Hughes
* Mary Matalin
* Andrew Card
* James R. Wilkinson
* Nicholas E. Calio
* Condoleezza Rice
* Stephen Hadley
* I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby
* Michael Gerson
* Rendon Group
* Scott McClellan

Karl Rove was its chairman. Now of the names above, I have highlited those that likely were sources for Ross on this story. Why do I think that out of this group Karl Rove, Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, and/or Scooter Libby was likely the source for the propaganda? Because Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley, and Scooter Libby had done it before. People like Hadley and Rice would be in a position to know, making them more likely. But given that Rice's involvement in previous leaks is minimal, I tend to see her then-number 2, Hadley, as more likely. Hadley would be in a position to know because he was number 2 on the National Security Council. Libby would be in a position to know because he was Cheney's COS. Rove would be in a position to know because he was at that time still the president's brain.

The rest of PR/Media people and would not be read into such sensitive details nor would be easily believed when approaching journalists. So, in addition to Rummy, and Woolsey, the prime suspects are Libby, Hadley, and Rove. They have done it before with little regard for national security and it was their prime objective - to tie Iraq to the terrorsts attack on this nation.

Again, this is all my own speculation, based on no insider information whatsoever. But Congress can and should easily resolve this by calling these people in to testify under oath.

Thoughts?

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/08/abcs-sources-on.html

***************************************

again, printed in full with permission for one of DU's stars and one of the country's finest investigative journalists,
thanks larisa, kpete,
p.s. Larisa - this time,
you gave me too much info, you are TOO good - links to die for!!!

RAW STORY is proud to announce that its investigative news series "The Permanent Republican Majority," conducted and penned by Larisa Alexandrovna Muriel Kane and Lindsay Beyerstein, has been nominated for an online investigative journalism award by the Online News Association.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Raw_Story ... _0804.html