9/11 uncovered

[donsu]

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112004Schwarz/112004schwarz.html

Special Report

A Conservative Christian Republican says listen to whistleblower Sibel D. Edmonds

By Karl W. B. Schwarz


-snip-

So listen up, America. Here is what Sibel uncovered–she found "drug trafficking, money laundering, foreign names and American names directly involved in the financing of the 9-11 attacks on WTC (World Trade Center) and the Pentagon." It was not the Saudis, folks. Americans were involved and Bush does not want you to know that. That exposes the Bush Mythology as the lie that it is.

Some of the names on our list are also on the list that Sibel Edmonds knows and found inside the FBI. We came at the problem through telecom fraud, international securities fraud and kept finding trails that led to the Caspian Basin, Pakistan, and former BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce) scam artists. Some of you might remember BCCI and that many called it Bank of Crooks and Criminals International and did so for good cause.

There was something else "odd" about what Sibel Edmonds found. The facts did not surface out of counter-terrorism (Richard Clarke's group); they surfaced out of ongoing investigations by the FBI, some of which date back to 1998.

-snip-

Here is the letter that Sibel D. Edmonds and 24 other former federal employees signed and are prepared to tell all to a grand jury. I have over 200 former federal employees, with some overlap on the signatories below, also willing to tell all to a grand jury.

Date: September 13, 2004

To The Congress of The United States:

-snip-

(this text is after the end of the letter)

Please sign the Justicefor9-11.org petition if you, too, demand the truth and justice regarding September 11, 2001. There is much truth to be found and we have a national capital that is full of people that have an aversion to the truth. It is time that we as American Citizens get to the bottom of what they fear so much and why they fear the truth.

It is time for all Americans to wake up.

[seemslikeadream]

1. NY Att'y Gen Accept Unprecedent Complaint Demanding Criminal Inq 911Crimes

NY Attorney General's Office Accepts Unprecedented Citizens' Complaint Demanding Criminal Inquiry into 9/11 Crimes
To: National Desk

Contact: David Kubiak, 207-967-2390, [e-mail] or Kyle F. Hence, 401-935-7715, [e-mail]

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On behalf of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Chief Investigator William Casey today accepted a Complaint and Petition from a group of New York City citizens including 9/11 family members, survivors and a Ground Zero triage physician. The Complaint demands that the AG open a criminal inquiry and/or grand jury investigation into the many still unsolved crimes of September 11, 2001 over which he has jurisdiction.

The complainants first held a press conference to explain the reasoning and desperation behind their unique Citizens' Complaint and Petition, which calls for criminal and civil probes into previously suppressed or ignored areas of inquiry identified by the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, 9/11 CitizensWatch and many independent researchers.

The lead complainants currently include Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son Robert in the World Trade Center collapse; Patricia Perry, who lost her son John, a New York City Police officer; William Rodriguez, a WTC maintenance worker and rescue effort hero; Jenna Orkin, Chairwoman of the World Trade Center Environmental Organization; Dr. Faiz Khan, Ground Zero triage physician; and ambulance first responder,. Megan Bartlett, founder of Ground Zero for Peace (who was recently hospitalized with malignant reactions to toxic WTC dust and unable to attend).

In brief statements prior to signing the 20-page Citizens' Complaint, the complainants voiced their hope that the public would strongly support their call to Attorney General Spitzer and also urge him to finally investigate the victim families' questions that the 9/11 Commission would not touch. Explaining the timing of the action, organizers cited the very recent Zogby 9/11 Poll ( http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=855 ) which showed that nearly half of New Yorkers believe officials in this government "consciously" allowed the 9/11 attacks to succeed, and that 66 percent wanted a new and deeper investigation. They further noted steadily accumulating evidence that belies the "official narrative" such as this week's breaking story on the "black box" recorders recovered from the WTC site, the existence of which the FBI and Kean Commission had both insistently denied. See http://tinyurl.com/4drr3

more
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=39128


-----


9/11 Citizens' Commission -- Sept. 9th NYC


Distribution via the Unanswered Questions Wire
http://www.unansweredquestions.org / .

9/11 Citizens' Commission -- Sept. 9th NYC

9/11 CitizensWatch
http://www.911citizenswatch.org

MEDIA ADVISORY
9/11 Citizens' Commission + Pre-Event Morning Press Conference

What: 9/11 Citizens' Commission: "The Omission Hearings"; co-chaired by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and former Bush Sr. official Catherine Austin Fitts, who are set to hear testimony from Ashcroft-gagged whistleblower Sibel Edmonds recently featured on 60 Minutes, Paul Thompson, author of The Terror Timeline (Harper-Collins), Michael Ruppert (author, Crossing the Rubicon, whose newsletter is read by 35 members/staffs in Congress) and 9/11 victim family members.

PRESS CONFERENCE to precede event.

Commission hearings to be followed by world premiere of 9/11 documentary by Barrie Zwicker at 8PM & 9:30PM Thursday evening.

Where: The Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theater; 2537 Broadway at 95th St.

When: Thursday, September 9, 1-7 pm <+ evening showings of documentary>

PRESS CONFERENCE TO BEGIN AT 11:30AM

Why: A new Zogby poll ( http://www.zogby.com/news ) shows that 49.3% of New York City residents believe some government leaders "consciously failed" on 9/11.

Two/thirds (66%) call for a re-opening of the investigation. Given the pivotal historical significance of 9/11, the investigation must proceed to full disclosure and examination of as yet unfollowed lines of inquiry. Common citizens, scholars, and whistleblowers must take, and are taking, this into their own hands.

Contact: Kyle Hence, 212-243-7787; [e-mail]

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0409/S00066.htm

-------

WTC Rescue Hero Sues Bush and Others under RICO Statute

By: Philip J. Berg, Margaret Atheling Rowe
Published: Oct 23, 2004

On September 11, 2001, William Rodriguez, a maintenance worker at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, single-handedly rescued fifteen people. The only employee with the master key to the North Tower staircases, he led firefighters up the stairs, unlocking doors as he went, aiding in the evacuation of hundreds of additional people who, but for his efforts, might have perished. Although his job description did not include saving lives, Rodriguez re-entered the building three times after the first plane struck, and was the last person to exit the North Tower alive. He survived the collapse of the North Tower by diving beneath a fire truck to avoid the avalanche of concrete and steel. After onsite treatment for his injuries, Rodriguez plunged right back into rescue efforts at the site. At dawn the next morning, Rodriguez returned to Ground Zero from his home in Jersey City, to continue to aid in rescue efforts.

Later, Rodriguez became an unofficial spokesman for survivors, among other things helping to secure an amnesty for undocumented aliens, many of them Latinos, and in the creation of the World Trade Center Memorial Fund. Although he lost his job of 19 years and his means of livelihood — even falling into homelessness for a time — Rodriguez has continued in the three years since 9-11 to continue his work in honor of the heroes and the victims of that awful day, as president of the Hispanic Victims Group, Director of the 9/11 United Services Group, and member of the Family Advisory Council of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Now, this native of Puerto Rico and remarkable American hero is taking his 9-11 activism to an even higher level. He has commenced, as Plaintiff, a federal court lawsuit against George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld and others alleging that they and others were complicit in the 9-11 attacks, and either planned the attacks, or had foreknowledge of the attacks and permitted them to succeed, in order to exploit a “New Pearl Harbor” to launch wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. (The phrase “New Pearl Harbor” comes from a declaration of principles by the neo-conservative “Project for the New American Century,” in which it is proposed as an event needed to steel American public opinion to support the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and U.S. military domination of the Middle East.)

Attorney Berg acknowledges that Rodriguez’s action will shock and offend many Americans. But he urges critics to read the detailed complaint, posted on the internet at www.911forthetruth.com, before forming conclusions. “The ‘Official Story’ of what actually took place on 9-11 is a lie,” Berg flatly maintains. “We do not pretend to have put together a full and definitive account of how, and by whom, the attacks were carried out. But information reported in mainstream media, and viewed in the light of common sense and the laws of physics, demonstrate that the ‘Official Story,’ examined closely, is not credible. The ‘Official Story’ contains an alarming number of inconsistencies and implausibilities. The major media have reported many of the raw facts, but have studiously avoided analysis, because doing so would reveal that the government is lying to us. The 9-11 Commission, a suspect collection of government and intelligence insiders, restated without question or examination all essential elements of the ‘Official Story’ of the actual events of 9-11. It failed almost completely to refute, or even to mention, the great body of evidence that suggests the ‘Official Story’ cannot be true, and it failed completely to hold anyone accountable. From the foregoing facts, it ought to be obvious that a cover-up, or a “limited hang-out” admitting only bureaucratic mistakes for which no one is to be held accountable, has taken place and is continuing.”

more
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_14643.shtml

Update (06/15): Rodriguez "swears he saw United Airlines Flight 175 hijacker Mohand Alshehri in June 2001"

In a recent event by 9/11 Citizen's Watch, which got broadcasted on C|Span, William Rodriguez from the 9/11 Hispanic Victims Group and 9/11 United Services Group, claimed, he not only recognised suspicious movements from a floor under construction, some weeks before Sep11th, he also claimed, he saw one of the official Sep11th -"hijackers". Today Rodriguez testified for the 9/11 panel

June 8, submitted by 9/11 family members

"...I testified today for the 9/11 Commission. It was an experience to have the investigators listen and to actually concentrate on some of the problems with the building itself. I know we have been very vociferous about the construction and the problems with egress and escape.

Some of the statements I got were in the sense of why they did not speak to me before, and the need to continue interviews with survivors and first responders. When we spoke about the subpoena powers, I was told that they haven't issued any to actual survivors or first responders because they understand the emotional impact and the problems it had created for their families...


In my experience, I was able to set the record straight in a lot of statements and errors from the fire Dept. We talk about the radio problems, doors not opening up, vacant floors, debris on the stairwells and my interviews with the FBI about seeing one of the hijackers in the building 3 months before. In short, I expect to be called again..."


William Rodriguez -Hispanic Victims Group
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=385

Board of Directors
Officers

William Rodriguez

William Rodriguez, formerly an American Building Maintenance employee for twenty years, was responsible for inspection and maintenance at the World Trade Center and held the master key for the stairs. He was the last person to leave the building on September 11 and has been credited with saving many lives.

For his efforts, he received the National Hero Award from the Senate of Puerto Rico. Since September 11, Mr. Rodriguez has been very active in all aspects of the relief efforts, including the memorial, the federal fund and the charities, as well as appearing before many government officials on such topics.

Mr. Rodriguez has also helped coordinate aid within the Hispanic community, organizing the Hispanic Victims Group, which is working with 150 families. He attended Sacred Heart University and lives in Jersey City, NJ.

http://www.9-11usg.org/article.asp?id=707&page=DIRECTOR

http://www.summeroftruth.org /

[donsu]

2. thanks for the further information

nt

[seemslikeadream]

3. Here are a couple threads on Karl if anyone is interested

Demand Letter To Bush From Karl W. B. Schwarz - Details A Conspiracy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2504341

NEW Karl Schwarz thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2512031

[Octafish]

4. I'm interested.

Condescenda Rice isn't. So give her a promotion to keep her quite, but then that's what a criminal conspiracy of a government would do.

Former FBI translator says Rice lied about government knowledge of terrorist threats

What did Bush and Rice know of the September 11 plot?

By Patrick Martin
6 April 2004

EXCERPT...

Now an eyewitness has come forward to testify that specific warnings about Al Qaeda plans to use airplanes as weapons were given to senior US officials during the months preceding the September 11 attacks.

In an interview with the British daily newspaper the Independent, published April 2, a former translator for the FBI with top-security clearance said she has testified about such warnings at a closed session of the 9/11 commission.

Sibel Edmonds, a 33-year-old Turkish-American who is fluent in Turkish, Farsi (Persian) and Azerbaijani, was hired on September 13, 2001, by the FBI to translate documents and transcribe wiretapped conversations. She had access to information “circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place,” according to the Independent report.

The newspaper quoted Edmonds saying: “I gave details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily.”

Edmonds called the statement by Rice that there was no such information “an outrageous lie.”

SOURCE:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/tran-a06.shtml

[Octafish]

5. Duhbya! You're BUSTED!

Sibel Edmonds is not alone. Along with Ms. Edmonds, the list includes 26 diplomats, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Paul O'Neill, Karen Kwiatkowski, Ray McGovern, Anthony Zinni, Greg Theilmann, William Odom, Jessica Lynch, Christie Whitmann, Eric Schaeffer, John Dilulio and David Kay. They all are witness to the real nature of Bush and his supporters. Those interested in the Truth about 9-11 should check out their stories.

http://www.stopdubya.com/Ex-Bushies.htm

[seemslikeadream]

6. 9/11 relatives are interested in the Truth about 9-11

9/11 relatives sue bank in terror attacks - Riggs

Islander joins action accusing Washington's Riggs National Bank of aiding al-Qaida backers
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
By TERENCE J. KIVLAN

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for Sept. 11 families suing the Saudis have filed a related class-action legal action accusing a major bank here of aiding financial backers of the al-Qaida terrorist group through negligence.

The bank, Riggs National Bank, was fined $25 million in May for failing to properly monitor millions of dollars in Saudi financial transactions, including withdrawals now being investigated for possible connections to terrorism.

The suit charged that Riggs officials "impeded the battle against terrorism and substantially contributed to the terrorists being permitted to evade detection."

Riggs has been under investigation since regulators reportedly traced the "charitable contributions" to the hijackers two years ago. Since then investigators have discovered tens of millions of dollars in questionable transactions at Riggs by Saudi diplomats.

more
http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news...

[Octafish]

11. RiggsandtheBFEEarelikeTHIS

Firm Leader Faces Criminal Charges, Suit Over Outside Role

New York Lawyer
October 22, 2004

By Paul Braverman
The American Lawyer

In January 2003, Steven Pfeiffer was elected chairman of Fulbright & Jaworski. Pfeiffer, a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, became the first person outside Houston to hold the position. The firm's press release also noted his position on the board of Riggs National Corp., the parent company of Riggs Bank.

A few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from Pfeiffer's office, U.S. Senate investigators were already looking hard at Riggs because of reports that money deposited in the bank had been used by the 9/11 terrorists. The probe would soon include charges that the bank had evaded an international freeze when it sent millions to client Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator.

Last summer, the Senate issued a report on the Riggs/Pinochet connection, which noted the role Pfeiffer played in the payments. One eager reader was Baltasar Garzon, Spain's crusading magistrate-judge, who has pursued Pinochet for years. In September, Garzon issued a criminal complaint against Pfeiffer and others for money laundering. Garzon asked the U.S. Department of Justice to freeze Pfeiffer's assets until he posts a bond and answers questions about the payments. (By mid-October Justice had not responded to the request.) In addition, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., has opened a criminal inquiry into the Riggs matter, and Pfeiffer has been named in a shareholder derivative suit.

The relationship between Pinochet and the soon-to-be-defunct Riggs dates to the 1970s, when Riggs made "vast sums" by financing Pinochet's arms deals, says Peter Kornbluh, author of "The Pinochet File." The Senate report, by its subcommittee on investigations, details how Riggs' leadership "accepted millions of dollars in deposits from him with no serious inquiry into the source of his wealth ... set up offshore shell corporations ... altered the names of his personal account to disguise his ownership ... concealed the existence of the Pinochet accounts" from federal regulators.

Pfeiffer has refused to answer questions from Senate investigators, and he declined to speak to The American Lawyer, both times citing attorney-client privilege.

CONTINUED...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1098217036489



Thanks for the friendly reminder,
seemslikeadream.
Much obliged.

[Octafish]

12. The Bush-Riggs Connection

Almost forgot...

BANKING
The Bush-Riggs Connection

The decision last week by federal regulators to fine Riggs Bank $25 million for a "willful, systemic" violation of anti-money-laundering laws is raising new questions about whether the Bush administration's ties to powerful moneyed interests is unduly influencing U.S. foreign and national security policy. Riggs Bank is headed by longtime Bush family friend Joe Allbritton, employs President Bush's uncle Jonathan as a top executive, and other executives have been financial donors to the Bush campaign. The bank is at the center of a controversy, according to the Wall Street Journal, for failing to monitor "tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals from accounts related to the Saudi Arabian and Equatorial Guinean embassy," including "suspicious incidents involving dozens of sequentially numbered cashier's checks and international drafts written by Saudi officials, including Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan." Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) "said members of the bank's board of directors should be held to account for failing to exercise their watchdog role over Riggs's operations" and said refusal to follow money laundering laws "allows terrorists to funnel their blood money through the system."

CONNECTION – JONATHAN BUSH AND RIGGS: Jonathan Bush, President Bush's uncle, was appointed CEO of Riggs Bank's investment arm in May of 2000, just months after his nephew secured the nomination for the presidency. At the time of the appointment, Jonathan Bush had already become a major financial backer of his nephew, rising to "Bush Pioneer" status by raising more than $100,000 for his nephew in 2000. The move solidified the relationship between Jonathan Bush and Riggs, which was originally initiated in 1997 when, according to American Banker newsletter, Riggs paid Bush $5.5 million for his smaller investment firm. That transaction, according to the NYT, "deepened links to the Bushes." While Riggs denies any connection between Bush and the accounts being investigated in the money laundering probe, Riggs President Timothy Lex told the Washington Times in 1997 that "there's a blurring of distinctions between banks, mutual-fund families, broker dealers and everything else across the board."

CONNECTION - ALLBRITTON-BUSH LINK: Allbritton, who said during the federal probe that he was stepping down from Riggs's board, also was close to the Bush family. As the NYT reported, he (along with Riggs client Saudi Prince Bandar) was a financial backer of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, with National Journal noting he contributed between $100,000 - $250,000 to the project. And there also appears to be a personal bond with the current President Bush: As the 2/15/01 WP noted, "When President Bush climbed out of his limousine on Inauguration Day at the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, he spotted Allbritton, waved and said, 'Hey Joe, how are you doing?'" That might have something to do with the fact that, according to the 11/7/2000 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Allbritton-owned TV station KATV in Little Rock broke 39 years of precedent and publicly endorsed Bush in the 2000 presidential election. The station, which is the biggest in the state, proceeded to air its endorsement 10 times throughout Arkansas, and refused to give equal time to Democrats "who asked for the time to present an alternative to the station's endorsement."

ACTION – LOOSENING BANKING REGS THAT COULD AFFECT RIGGS: According to Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon's "Age of Sacred Terror," upon taking office the Bush administration tried to halt efforts to tighten international banking laws – some of which may have affected Riggs. As he notes, the new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush administration opposed Clinton administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center."

ACTION - HIDING INFORMATION THAT COULD BE DAMAGING TO RIGGS: Newsweek reported that checks to "two Saudi students in the United States who provided assistance to two of the September 11 hijackers" may have come "from an account at Washington's Riggs Bank in the name of Princess Haifa Al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan." This, and other details, were reportedly part of the bipartisan House-Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the Saudi money flow after 9/11. Yet, instead of allowing the committee's final report to be published in full, "Bush administration officials, led by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, have adamantly refused to declassify the evidence" surrounding the transactions.

SOURCE...

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=99415



There's two kinds of people in the world, my Friend!

[seemslikeadream]

13. R.I.P. Riggs Bank

WaPo: Allbritton Loses Riggs Bank (front page, day 3)


Critics Say Allbritton Ruined Bank He Loved

By David Montgomery and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 17, 2004; Page A01

(Mods, story has up to three headlines, posted head is the first clicker)

Joe L. Allbritton loved Riggs Bank to death.

The strong-willed Texan bought control of the beloved and storied Washington institution in 1981 at its peak of influence and prestige. The "bank of presidents" served 21 first families over the years, financed the purchase of Alaska and became the largest bank in the region.

Yesterday, Washington awoke to learn that after more than 160 years, the Riggs name will disappear, swallowed by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Allbritton once dismissed such faceless financial conglomerates as "toothpaste banks" -- Crestar, Sovran -- and vowed never to sell out to one. But by yesterday he had no choice. His Riggs was no longer the largest or most important bank in the Washington area, and it was enveloped in a thickening cloud of scandal over failing to guard against money laundering and catering to dictators along with presidents.

Over the years, Allbritton's passionate devotion to "the Riggs" never flagged, nor did his strong personal intervention in the bank's direction or his cultivation of rarefied segments of the market -- embassies, trusts, private banking for the richest of the rich.

...

Two top bank regulators -- the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- recently began a targeted review of Joe Allbritton's activities at the bank and its holding company, Riggs National Corp., to see if he violated any laws and whether any civil fines or criminal referrals to the Department of Justice should be made, government sources familiar with the investigation said.

At issue is whether Allbritton was an active participant in the daily operations of the bank even though he has not been a director or executive of the bank for three years, the sources said. If regulators determine he was an active participant, then he could face fines or other sanctions, government sources said.

....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56372-20...

-----

Thurs&Fri. WaPo's in here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

------

Some others:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

--------

Related WaPo Sat:

Pittsburgh Bank To Buy Riggs
PNC Financial to Pay $705.2 Million For Embattled Washington Institution

By Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 17, 2004; Page A01


Riggs National Corp., reeling from multiple probes into money laundering within its once-elite embassy banking division, yesterday agreed to sell out to a Pittsburgh banking company for a bargain price.



One of Washington's oldest commercial institutions, the 168-year-old bank will become part of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which will pay a combination of cash and stock worth $705.2 million. The deal is not expected to be made final, however, for at least another six months, and PNC has reserved the right to cancel the purchase if regulators or prosecutors charge Riggs with any further wrongdoing.

PNC officials said the purchase will give them a low-priced entry into one of the most profitable and fastest-growing banking markets in the country. All of Riggs's 51 branches, about three-quarters of which are in the District, will be renamed PNC.

Joe L. Allbritton, the face of Riggs for more than 20 years after he bought it in 1981, and his son Robert, the current chief executive, will cash in stock options worth millions in the deal. Joe Allbritton steadfastly refused to sell Riggs during an era of bank consolidation when ordinary shareholders might have realized more of a premium and instead charted it on a course that produced a long, slow decline in earnings and prestige. At the same time the bank was cultivating high-risk relationships with foreign leaders including officials of the Saudi government, Chile's Augusto Pinochet and Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

There was no showy news conference with both merger partners proclaiming the deal, which valued Riggs on the low end of comparable purchases. In a written response to a list of questions, Joe Allbritton, who remains the company's biggest shareholder, expressed regret that the bank will lose its independence. But he said, "Now it is time to move along and let others manage Riggs into the future."

....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56367-20...


For all working links see this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=691609

[RBHam]

7. kick

for truth

[sattahipdeep]

8. 9/11 relatives denounced Congress yesterday

Monday, November 22, 2004

Some of it is from the Pentagon.

Some of it, quite frankly, is from the White House, despite
what the president has said. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

"These guys are going to have blood on their
hands," said Beverly Eckert, of Stamford, Conn.,
whose husband was killed when hijacked airliners
crashed into the World Trade Center. "It's
reprehensible when partisan politics interferes
with the safety of the American people."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002097458_intel22.html

[seemslikeadream]

9. sattahipdeep ripples build a current

from my friend Octafish

Robert F. Kennedy talked of the "Ripple of Hope."

"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

— Robert F. Kennedy Day of Affirmation Address, University of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966

http://www.rfkmemorial.org/RFK/affirmation2.htm


:hi: I've missed ya sattahipdeep

[sattahipdeep]

14. THE TRUTH SEEKERS

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0133093/Ss/0133093/1?path=gallery&path_key=0133093


Controlled Demolition, Inc.

9-11 evidence that the Bush government sold
as scrap and had hauled quickly away in 2001.

Aren't we all tired of phony Christians transparently
disguised as politicians, or of dark forces posing as the
faithful mouthing their eternally transparent platitudes?
Aren't we all tired of militarism for profit cloaked under a
banner of freedom and democracy? Aren't we all tired of
stolen elections enabled by a blatantly corporate-controlled
media held hostile by fear and the loss of a career?

http://www.opednews.com/arvey_111204_christian_majority.htm


:pals:

[seemslikeadream]

15. Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Deadly Asbestos, WTC Collapse & Wellstone

Jan-16-03

From
DU's stickdog

Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Deadly Asbestos, WTC Collapse & Wellstone

In the recent NC plane crash, 3 WR Grace employees were killed: Joseph Spiak, general manager of specialty vermiculite (including the highly toxic asbestos containing Zonolite), Paul Stidham, director of environmental health and safety, and Richard Lyons, global health and safety manager. From: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080400-02.htm Although Halliburton is an enormous operation with more than 100,000 employees in 120 countries, it is a relatively small player when it comes to asbestos litigation, at least when compared with W.R. Grace & Co., GAF and the Johns Manville Corp. Nevertheless, Halliburton has spent $99 million to settle or dispose of 129,650 asbestos suits, according to company records. From: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/9/12/192330/380 WR Grace Asbestos containing insulation was used at the World Trade Center (WTC). James Cintani stated that Grace Vermiculite did not contain asbestos. Unfortunately this was not true this material was 2-5 percent asbestos. 100,000 80 pound bags of this vermiculite was used in the WTC. In addition 9,150 pounds of MonoKote 3 was used at the WTC. Monokote 3 was about 20 percent asbestos. Therefore in total about 201,183 pounds of pure asbestos fiber from Grace was used in the WTC. From: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/ADD5A0C8A02AD67B86256C9C006CC522 White House budget office thwarts EPA warning on asbestos-laced insulation BY ANDREW SCHNEIDEROf the Post-Dispatch The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued. The announcement to warn the public was expected in April. It was to accompany a declaration by the EPA of a public health emergency in Libby, Mont. In that town near the Canadian border, ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families. Ore from the Libby mine was shipped across the nation and around the world, ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools across America. Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s. Almost all of the vermiculite used in the insulation came from the Libby mine, last owned by W.R. Grace & Co. Interviews and documents show that just days before the EPA was set to make the declaration, the plan was thwarted by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which had been told of the proposal months earlier. Former EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus, who worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, called the decision not to notify homeowners of the dangers posed by Zonolite insulation "the wrong thing to do." "When the government comes across this kind of information and doesn't tell people about it, I just think it's wrong, unconscionable, not to do that," he said. " What right does the government have to conceal these dangers? It just doesn't make sense." The question about what to do about Zonolite insulation was not the only asbestos-related issue in which the White House intervened. In January, in an internal EPA report on problems with the agency's much-criticized response to the terrorist attacks in New York City, a section on "lessons learned" said there was a need to release public health and emergency information without having it reviewed and delayed by the White House." The EPA's files are filled with studies documenting the toxicity of tremolite, how even minor disruptions of the material by moving boxes, sweeping the floor or doing repairs in attics can generate asbestos fibers. Most of those who have studied the needle-sharp tremolite fibers in the Libby ore consider them far more dangerous than other asbestos fibers. In October, the EPA team leading the cleanup of lower Manhattan after the attacks of Sept. 11 went to Libby to meet with Peronard and his crew. The EPA had reversed an early decision and announced that it would be cleaning asbestos from city apartments. (NOTE: THIS STUFF WAS IN THE WTC TOWERS!!!) Peronard told the visitors from New York just how dangerous tremolite is. He talked about the hands-on research in Libby of Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a pulmonologist who had worked for NASA and the Air Force on earlier projects before moving to Spokane, Wash. "Whitehouse's research on the people here gave us our first solid lead of how bad this tremolite is," Peronard said. Whitehouse has not only treated 500 people from Libby who are sick and dying from exposure to tremolite. The chest specialist also has almost 300 patients from Washington shipyards and the Hanford, Wash., nuclear facility who are suffering health effects from exposure to the more prevalent chrysotile asbestos. Comparing the two groups, Whitehouse has demonstrated that the tremolite from Libby is 10 times as carcinogenic as chrysotile and probably 100 times more likely to produce mesothelioma than chrysotile. (Please read. There's much, much more here.) From: http://www.msnbc.com/local/pisea/102011.asp?cp1=1 Murray promises to renew push for asbestos warnings By ROBERT MCCLURE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Dec. 30 - After revelations that the Bush administration squelched public health warnings about a widely used form of insulation that contains cancer-causing asbestos, Sen. Patty Murray vowed yesterday to renew her fight for a public education campaign. Murray, D-Wash., said she will demand an explanation this week for why warnings planned last spring by the Environmental Protection Agency were called off at the last minute by high-ranking Bush administration officials. Internal EPA documents show that about 15 million to 35 million of the nation's approximately 105 million households contain a brand of insulation known as Zonolite. Mined for decades in Libby, Mont., Zonolite contains a particularly lethal form of asbestos known as tremolite. "I just find it astounding that when this kind of information is available that can save people's lives, that this administration has decided to keep that secret and not let people know," Murray said. "Here's a health risk we can do something about." Murray's co-sponsor, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., died in October in a plane crash. W.R. Grace says the insulation is safe, and wrote a letter to the EPA in April insisting that no health warnings are necessary. In addition to its use in insulation, the brownish-pink vermiculite was contained in garden products, cement mixtures and many other products. One of those products was as fireproofing in ceiling tiles used widely in schools and federal office buildings. Helping manufacture those tiles as a side job while in college likely gave Brian Harvey of Marysville mesothelioma, a disease caused only by exposure to asbestos. Harvey criticized the Bush administration's decision to pull the public health warning. "I have a real problem with that," Harvey said. "That I consider unforgivable." "At the top levels of the Bush administration, they are maintaining this cloak of secrecy that I can't imagine the people who I've worked with at the EPA are very happy about," Murray said. "Hopefully, the public will start crying out for Congress and the administration to do something about this." (more)

[seemslikeadream]

16. City Health Registry Participants Complain Of 9/11-Related Breathing Probl

City Health Registry Participants Complain Of 9/11-Related Breathing Problems

UPDATED: 8:16 am EST November 23, 2004

NEW YORK -- The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said most people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry reported one or more respiratory problems that started or became worse after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The quarterly report, released Monday, also said eight percent of the 70,000 enrolled adults experienced psychological distress in the 30-day period before being interviewed for the registry.

"Whether these symptoms persist at present -- and for how long they will persist -- will require further investigation," said Health Commissioner Thomas Freiden.

The report said 47 percent of interviewees complained of new or worsened sinus or nasal irritation; 42 complained of shortness of breath; and 38 percent complained of throat irritation and wheezing
more
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3941488/detail.html



WTC registry: Most feeling effects

Other symptoms that participants complained of included persistent coughs, eye irritations, severe headaches and hearing loss. The data from the registry also suggests that direct exposure to the attacks had a psychological effect, but further analysis of the findings is needed to understand the types of mental distress among participants.

more
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/wtc/nyc-wtcregistry1124,0,5743395.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines

[RBHam]

10. Too many Democrats are collaborators through silence...

There is a lot of blood to go around for a lot of hands...

[sattahipdeep]

17. Idema_Krongard 'Duped'

Idema cursed the press as "liars"
as he arrived at the judges' offices.

Kabul vigilante appeal under way

Three Americans jailed for up to 10 years for torturing Afghans
and running a private jail in Kabul have begun their appeal.

....
Branded by the US as a bounty hunter, Idema has said his work
was approved by Afghan and US authorities.

....
The Americans' US lawyers were not present at the hearing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4031851.stm

Get this...
The Americans are serving their sentences in Kabul's Pul-e
Charkhi prison. They have a heated and carpeted cell with
satellite television.