Who Killed Phillip Merril?

[johnny nemo]

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/06/who_killed_phil.php">www.sploid.com/news/2006/...d_phil.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Washington GOP insider Philip Merrill's body was dragged from Chesapeake Bay on Monday, 11 miles from where his sailboat was found last week, an anchor tied around his ankles and his head disfigured from a shotgun blast.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>It now appears the multimillionaire publisher who held top Bush Family appointments at NATO and the Pentagon mysteriously "committed suicide" in exactly the same fashion as CIA-Watergate operative and JFK-assassination figure John Paisley</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.<br><br>Paisley "committed suicide" in 1978 on a solo sailing trip, also on the Chesapeake Bay. Like Merrill, Paisley's corpse was found with weights tied around his ankles and a gunshot wound to the head. His abandoned sailboat was loaded with top secret CIA files on various clandestine operations, despite Paisley's official retirement four years earlier.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Former CIA chief William Colby suffered a similar fate in 1996, when he allegedly took a nighttime canoe trip, leaving his house unlocked, computer turned on, and a half-made dinner in the kitchen. Colby's canoe was found floating upside down near his house.<br><br>Despite a major search effort by multiple agencies, his body didn't turn up for more than a week. And when it was found, it was a few feet away from where the canoe had been discovered. Colby was fired from the CIA by Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld back in 1975 and replaced with George H.W. Bush</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.<br><br>Merrill vanished on June 10; his 41-foot sailboat was found by jet-skiers that Saturday evening.<br><br>On Tuesday, the family claimed in a statement that the 72-year-old Merrill was distraught over a heart condition -- so he bought a shotgun, took his beloved boat out on a sunny Saturday, tied the anchor around his feet, took his wallet out and left it inside the boat, shot himself in the face with a shotgun, and managed to neatly fall out of the craft and float for 11 miles and 11 days, upstream, with the anchor of a 41-foot-long sailing vessel tied to his ankles and dozens of search-and-rescue teams scouring the bay for his body.<br><br>The usual anonymous official told the Washington Post, "Obviously, he took his own life."<br><br>At least one of Merrill's colleagues was brave enough to call shenanigans.<br><br>"It is the most improbable thing I could conceive of," said Chuck Conconi, the editor-at-large of Merrill's magazine Washingtonian. Conconi worked side by side with Merrill for 15 years.<br><br>"From everything I could determine, he loved his life."<br><br>The Maryland Medical Examiner's office was also somewhat cautious on Tuesday, saying it was "waiting for further police examination" and "looking at the circumstances," according to the Baltimore Sun.<br><br>"Merrill was assistant secretary general to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the early 1990s and president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States from 2002 until last year," the Washington Post reported today.<br><br>"Throughout his working life, he took time away from his business interests to pursue diplomatic and intelligence assignments for the government. He served six administrations, mostly in the State and Defense departments."<br> <p></p><i></i>

[AlicetheCurious]

Conspiracy Planet has some interesting things to say on this subject:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=3636">www.conspiracyplanet.com/...entid=3636</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[PeterofLoneTree]

While reading "The Not So Strange Case of Philip Merrill" by Joe Quinn at Signs-of-the-Times <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/editorials/signs20060622_TheNotSoStrangeCaseofPhilipMerrill.php">signs-of-the-times.org/si...errill.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>I remembered a conspiracy theory axiom: that if it looks sloppy, it's sloppy on purpose--the message being: "Of course he didn't kill himself and unless you keep your mouth shut, you'll be 'suicided' also". <br><br>I recommend Quinn's article for it details some of the shenanigans of the Import-Export Bank and the Iraqi Coalitional Provisional Authority, as well as an outfit called Trade Bank of Iraq.<br><br>Here's a damned interesting quote: <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"Vice President Dick Cheney's wife Lynne worked at Merrill's Washingtonian magazine for several years and it was the Vice President, who Merrill counted among his personal friends, who swore him in as chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States in 2002. A post that he held until 2005."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br>We're talking billions here and as Everett Dirksen once said, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking real money". <p></p><i></i>

[Gouda]

Perhaps I should sue Mr. Quinn for plagiarizing my own speculations! He wrote on 22/06: <br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I am, however, open to having it explained to me how Mr Merrill could have shot himself in the head while on the boat, as the blood seems to suggest he did, and then flung himself over the side with an anchor attached to his feet. Perhaps he shot himself in the head and then attached the anchor to his feet? Or perhaps he attached the anchor to his feet, jumped into the water and then shot himself in the head?<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> On 21/06, I'd written this in a (cross-post) on this subject: <br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>This Washington Post article reports that a "source close to the investigation" says that Merrill was found with a shotgun wound to the head and a small anchor tied around one or both ankles. I am just trying to imagine which comes first: shoot head, then tie on anchor, and jump; or tie on anchor, jump into water, then shoot...??? I suppose it could be done: tie on anchor, dangle it over the edge of the boat, stand up, pull the trigger while leaning overboard...still, not easy for an old guy whose was fatigued due to post-heart surgery, medications, and a "dimmed spirit". Why not just sail out and get "Fredo'd" right there on the boat? No need for anchors, unless it is to purposely feed speculation or muddy evidence.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=4846.topic">p216.ezboard.com/frigorou...4846.topic</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Actually, I am kidding. Don't care if he lifts stuff from EZ Board - not that he did. This anchor/shotgun speculation should be obvious to anyone with a brain reading that professionally incurious and/or coyly provocative Wash Post article. And see how I lift from Jeff's penchant for pithy adverbial one-two punch phrases. Furthermore, open-source for all! <p></p><i></i>