RESEARCH: Homeland Security funds used to fund George Bush's dirty tricks?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

Carlton Sherwood claims he is funded by fellow vets, but it is of note that he was tapped by Tom Ridge to create First Responder, a homeland security program. The site was not up as of 2003....we need DU'ers to dig and see if Sherwood received homeland security funds, how much it cost to make his movie, how much the movie has made....He did NOT deliver the site at first glance (I am not totally clear as to whether he received funds, how much, etc. except that we KNOW a contract was awarded)


Here is an article from Media Matters:

Sherwood is president of Red, White and Blue Productions, which produced Stolen Honor; he is also executive vice president of the wvc3 group, a firm focusing on homeland security and counterterrorism. In 1980, while working for the Gannett News Service, Sherwood won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting on "financial contributions to the Pauline Fathers, a Catholic religious order based in Pennsylvania" (Associated Press, 4/14/80). There is also a media award named in his honor.

As Catchegory documented, Pennsylvania Insider editor Al Neri noted in the June 2003 Insider that Sherwood is "a former Ridge confidant and administration official" who was "tapped to create and manage a new Fed website -- www.firstresponder.gov -- a key Bush Administration public outreach program directed to the more than 8 million police, fire, EMS and emergency management personnel nationwide." (Firstresponder.gov is not yet operational. According to the American Public Works Association, it was supposed to be live by March 2004, but it has apparently been delayed.) In February 2002, Ridge heaped praise on Sherwood at a National Press Club luncheon.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200409100003

[blm]

1. Lordy, lordy and a Moonie apologist to boot. Nominate for front page.

Nominated.

[George_S]

7. There is a strong...

... connection between The Heritage Foundation and Moon.

[Octafish]

10. Moon nut job all right.

A Summary Critique: Inquisition

The Unification Church has always portrayed Sun Myung Moon, its founder and current leader, as a man who has suffered greatly because of his reli-gious beliefs. Inquisition pursues this same course. In fact, the major theme of this mammoth book (705 pages) is what the author perceives as the inexcusable perse-cution of Sun Myung Moon.
 
Carlton Sherwood, Pulitzer-prize win-ning reporter, treats Moon and his followers with the highest respect and admiration while he describes Moon’s critics as ambi-tious, self-serving, and ruthless. He even devotes an entire chapter to Moon’s early biography in Korea, chronicling his grievous travails at the hands of both Com-munists and Christians. According to Sher-wood, although Moon has not been physi-cally tortured in the United States, he was unjustly prosecuted by the U.S. courts, unduly vilified by the American press, and unfairly scorned by the general public. The reason: racial and religious bigotry.
 
This indictment is leveled at a vast array of American institutions and people — from the Justice Department to the print media, from manipulative politicians to inflamed parents. No detractor of Moon is spared Sherwood’s censure. Although Moon was tried, convict-ed, and served time in prison for conspiracy Sherwood sees the real conspiracy as the American quest to “nail” Moon.
 
The bloodied body of a holy saint hang-ing in a North Korean torture chamber and forgiving his tormentors is an image not far different from the picture Sherwood paints of Moon’s ordeal in this country. The writer makes obvious allusions that parallel Moon’s experiences in Korea and the Unit-ed States. For example, just as Moon had carried his injured friend, Jung Hua Pak, on his back for several grueling days despite terrible climate conditions in their flight from the North Korean army, Moon also supported his discouraged friend and co--defendent, Takeru Kamiyama, during their tax trial and imprisonment. Another exam-ple: just as Moon shared his meager food rations with other starving Korean cell-mates, Moon also quietly performed the duties of other prisoners who were too sick to work in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
 
Interestingly, this image of Sun Myung Moon is also not far different from the bibli-cal description of the suffering Messiah — or specifically of Jesus Christ. Moon is no ordinary victim in the web of political intrigue. In Sherwood’s eyes he is a martyr who refuses to flee from the clutches of ruthless people — a compelling portrait of Moon that his followers have long tried, but miserably failed, to foster within our society.
 
CONTINUED...

http://www.equip.org/free/DM182.htm

[starroute]

15. Roger Fontaine is a related person of interest

Fontaine was the original publisher of Sherwood's book on Moon.
http://www.iapprovethismessiah.com/2004/08/mr-sherwood-reverend-has-some.html

In June,1991, Inquisition, a new, purportedly independent investigation of Moon's 1982 tax fraud prosecution, was released by a Washington publisher, Regnery-Gateway. Its author, Carlton Sherwood, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who once worked for the Washington Times.

Inquisition has a curious history. It was printed once before, by an obscure publishing house called Andromeda. The phone number listed for Andromeda in a leading publishing directory is the home phone of former Reagan National Security Council official Roger Fontaine — an ex-reporter at the Washington Times. When we called, Fontaine's wife Judy answered and said she knew nothing about Andromeda. Then she told us that the company was bankrupt and that Inquisition was published by Regnery-Gateway.


I'm still trying to get a line on Fontaine. His connections with Reagan and with Moon's Washington Times are only the most respectable of his credentials. His ties to Moon go very deep, and he also seems to have a long history of involvement in extreme right-wing organizations, many of them connected with the most repressive Latin American regimes during the Iran-Contra period. Fontaine was a close associate of General John Singlaub, who in the late 70's became head of the World Anti-Communist League:

The World Anti-Communist League (WACL) was founded in 1966 as the public relations arm for the governments of Taiwan and South Korea to continue Hitler's policy of forming a unified front against communism. According to Inside the League, "It has since become something far more important: an instrument for the practice of unconventional warfare -- assassinations, death squads, sabotage -- throughout the world."

http://watch.pair.com/jbs-cnp.html

See also:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/wacl.php
http://www.refuseandresist.org/big_brother/030796circle.html


I smell something very big here -- a nexus between Moon, Iran-Contra, and old-line fascism. I don't know what it all means, but I'm going to be studying the above links very carefully.

[lawladyprof]

27. Was Fontaine

Involved with the CBS memos or do I have him confused with someone else?

And speaking of CBS, didn't they decline to run a Niger memo story because it would be too close to the election?

[starroute]

31. Roger Stone was the one suspected in the CBS memo case

They're all branches of the same tree -- Roger Stone's pal Terry Dolan was another one with extensive Moon collections -- but they're not the same person.

And year, CBS is running scared at this point. I really wish I knew what sort of leverage the right wing has over anyone who seems prepared to challenge them.

[George_S]

30. Oh, wow

Trying to digest all of this. In the meantime...

http://www.namebase.org/nbhome.html

might be helpful. Evidently, what we are finding is not new news. It's just that the neocons were never so bold before and they were not in the popular consciousness.

[George_S]

32. namebase.org example

FONTAINE ROGER W

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb01?_FONTAINE_ROGER_W

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

33. Sherwood isn't in there, but thanks for your help

I am wondering if anyone has the accurate amount of money that went to Sherwood's company for the website...Also if you have a chance check out the hits on the Alta Vista search I did on this.

Appreciate the help.

[starroute]

38. Brief history of the World Anti-Communist League

I've been researching the World Anti-Communist League all day -- a lot of important connections go back to it and its long-term relationship with the Unification Church. Here are the high points of what I've found:

The World Anti-Communist League was founded in Taiwan in 1966 as a means of opposing Mainland China. The founders included agents of the governments of Taiwan and Korea, Japanese gangsters and war criminals, and followers of Sun Myung Moon. The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (an umbrella group for former Nazi collaborators) was also closely associated with the WACL.

In the 1970's, the WACL opened chapters throughout the world, attracting former Nazi supporters in Europe and local fascists in Latin America, such as Sandoval Alarcon, who had been involved in the CIA coup in Guatemala in 1954 and had initiated the first death squads there in the 1960's. These fascist connections caused the first US chapter to disband in 1973 and forced even the Unification Church to dissociate itself (at least officially) in 1975. From 1978 to 1980, WACL was headed by an outright white supremacist, Roger Pearson, who brought in even more European fascists and anti-semites.

Pearson was finally kicked out in 1980 and the WACL set about upgrading its image. This was largely the doing of Major General John K. Singlaub, who started up a new US chapter in 1980 with financing from Joseph Coors. Singlaub had been with the OSS during World War II, then with the CIA, and was head of the unit that ran Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. (As recently as 1998, he was still suing people who dared to call him a war criminal.)

Singlaub and his associates had extremely close ties with the Unification Church and were also connected with the Reagan administration, with right-wing politicans like Jesse Helms, and with various Latin American dictatorships. In 1984, WACL's ties to the Latin American fascists and death squads were revealed, and they did a little purely cosmetic housecleaning. Roger Fontaine's connections with WACL go back to this period.

Singlaub became chairman of WACL in 1984. At about the same time, Congress shut off government funding to the Contras, and the White House tapped Singlaub to serve as a private fundraiser instead. Singlaub reported directly to Oliver North on this, and it seems likely that his supposed fundraising was really a means of laundering Iran-Contra money. Singlaub was indicted for this in 1986 and 1988.

The World Anti-Communist League seems to have fallen into obscurity since the 1980's, but Singlaub is still around, promoting claims that China was behind 9/11 and warning of inevitable war with North Korea. And WACL alumni like Roger Fontaine are still at hand, ready to do Moon's dirty work.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

45. Hey Starroute...have you found anything that demonstrates

how much money Sherwood's company got from HLS...that's what I haven't seen...great info though...I am sure we can bookmark this for later reference when Elliot Spitzer becomes atty general, it will come in handy :D

Thanks! :hi:

[starroute]

46. There's very little online about that Homeland Security website

And I get the impression it was announced early and probably never went very far.

I found one thing that says of Sherwood, "He also is a security consultant who has worked for the Reagan Administration as well as for Tom Ridge while he was director of homeland security (pre-DHS)." (http://cincinnati.blogspot.com/2004_03_07_cincinnati_archive.html)

Since the Office of Homeland Security was created in October 2001 and the Department of Homeland Security in November 2002, that only gives about a year during which Sherwood could have been part of the operation.

I also found something from October 2001 that quotes Sherwood on what a great guy Tom Ridge is. (http://www.bavf.org/shaft/011008.htm) And I found a transcript of a Ridge speach from February 2002 in which he mentions Sherwood as a friend who is present. (http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0208/epf511.htm)

And that's all -- so it isn't even clear that Sherwood was around for the entire year. He may just have been on the payroll for a few months and never gotten anything off the ground.

[Cheswick2.0]

2. still taking this in

but I wanted to kick it to the top

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. Here's an Alta Vista search of the co that Sherwood is the VP of

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=wrx&q=wvc3+group&kgs=1&kls=0

I have to leave but if you have some time on your hands....maybe....

[progressivebydesign]

23. Their website is currently "UNDER CONSTRUCTION"!

Pretty weird for a heavy duty company like that! GOSH.. you think they're quickly making sure nothing there implicates Sherwood???

On a page from their site, that was accessible through another link, I found this:

<<First Responders - Assisted ODP with the implementation of a website for first responders to access information, training and to exchange best practices concerning matters surrounding weapons of mass destruction (WMD). wvc3 worked with ODP to develop a pilot website that could attract and retain the First Responder community and lead them to the WMD training authored by various training partners. The information, resources and training not only focused on tradition WMD areas (CBRNE) but on potential local impacts including environmental, social and economic.>>

So.. someone tell me WHY Plexus Scientific got 1.9 MILLION additional dollars to do the Firstresponder.gov website, while these guys are the ones that did it? Why was the money funneled through Plexus? Why did it take OVER 1.9 MILLION dollars to make a website??? Where did the money REALLY go?

[quaker bill]

3. I do not know about Sherwood, but

Florida's "Incident Management Teams" recently won very high praise from Ridge for rapid response to this summer's hurricane problems. This is a very similar sounding interagency coordination effort for emergency response. I have staff on these teams and in after action discussions I have heard from folks well connected to the Jeb Bush Administration that "Ridge was impressed and is looking to take this nationwide".

Since no one named Sherwood is involved, I suspect that he hasn't made too much progress. Check out this link.

http://www.floridadisaster.org/


I suspect that if firstresponder.gov ever becomes a site, it will be very similar.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. I'm just wondering where the funds went since no result is apparent

[George_S]

6. Excellent catch!

Another link:

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Carlton_Sherwood

This is well worth digging deeper.

[George_S]

8. More

http://www.catch.com/comments/34140_0_17_0_M

[Octafish]

9. The turd claims he won Pulitzer Prize...

... Search of Pulitzer.org shows nada.

EDIT - What follows: Perhaps the turd was part of a Gannett News Service team that won in 1980, as nothingshocksmeanymore noted above. It's different being part of a team and winning it on your own. Then again, Gannett is close to the Reich as right can be -- witness The Detroit News.

[Octafish]

11. Carlton the Moonie Nut also gives out his OWN prize...

On behalf of the "Blinded American Veterans Association"

The Carlton Sherwood Media Award

http://www.bavf.org/carlton_sherwood_award.htm

Gee. Seems about half the winners are tied to the Moonie Times.



So, the Reich-Wing uses this turd to smear Kerry?
They must be mad that Kerry worked to stop the war when he returned.
Must've cut into their war profits.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. thanks..I'll get back to this after some sleep

[starroute]

47. Sherwood may have been pretty low on that Gannett team

From a St. Bonaventura University alumni page:
http://www.sbu.edu/insidebonas/aug02/insidebonas_aug_16.html

Robert Dubill, a 1958 graduate who recently retired as executive editor of USA Today, a post he had held since 1995. ... After joining Gannett in Camden, N.J., he was moved to Gannett News Service as managing editor. He and fellow honoree John Hanchette were part of a Gannett News Service Investigative team that won the Pulitzer in 1980 for a series of articles detailing the financial shenanigans of the Pauline Fathers of Doylestown, Pa.

John Hanchette, a 1964 graduate who recently retired as national correspondent for Gannett News Service and returned to teach at his alma mater. Hanchette received the Pulitzer along with Dubill for their investigative reporting of the Pauline Fathers’ financial irregularities. Hanchette was nominated for the Pulitzer eight additional times and has won numerous other awards including the Westinghouse Award for science writing, the John Hancock Award for financial writing, two Silver Gavels from the American Bar Association for best legal writing, two Investigative Reporters and Editors awards and the Best of Gannett award.


On edit: John Hanchette won a Carlton Sherwood Media Award in 1988. (http://www.bavf.org/carlton_sherwood_award.htm) So they do at least know each other.

And a page at the Gannett site listing their award winners includes "1980 Gannett News Service, for a series by Carlton Sherwood, John Hanchette and William Schmick on a fund-raising scandal involving the Pauline Fathers, and the Vatican's role in covering it up." (http://www.gannett.com/go/awards/pulitzer.htm) No, I don't know who Schmick is or why Dubill isn't mentioned.

And there are a couple of pages of depositions from a lawsuit apparently related to this investigation that mention Carlton Sherwood:
http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/winters7.html
http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/winters10.html

I'll have a look at those and add a comment if there's anything relevant in them.

[starroute]

48. That transcript involveing Sherwood is damn strange

I haven't read it from the beginning -- just the part involving Sherwood -- so I'm a little at sea. But it's a long deposition from somebody who was trying to dig up dirt on a Cardinal Cody and was put in touch with Sherwood because of his recent expose of the Pauline Fathers. Here's a quote:

Q Had {Sherwood} not exposed some order of nun or priest or brothers in the East somewhere?
A It was for an investigation he made of the Fathers.
Q Who were committing some kind of wide scale fraud?
A I don't know the details of it.
Q But you knew that prior to that meeting?
A I did. Well, I told him what had happened essentially, that I had been working on this piece and that I had gotten this permission and that I had gone to these files, and that I had examined these files and I copied these documents, and I told him what the documents had to say.
Q We will call it for the purposes of brevity the Plot to Get Cody, okay?
A Well --
Q The Plot to Get a Liberal Pope, whatever. Let's think of something we can shorthand this.
A Let's just try to keep it truthful. So I told him all that, and I said, what happened was Greeley had this notion that he should get in there and steer the Papal election, and he called it a conspiracy; realized he didn't have a Cardinal, so he decided to -- these papers revealed that he wanted to show Cody in a public scandal. He said that he wanted an investigative reporter to come into Chicago and cause Cody's ouster in a public scandal, the worst kind of public scandal. He said that he was looking for a real tough guy, maybe some son of a bitch from out of town.
Sherwood said to me, "That is me." And I said, "Huh?" And he said, "That is me; I am Greeley's hired gun; I am Greeley's investigative reporter." And I said, "You are kidding me." And he said, "No, I thought you had this all figured out."

It gets even more bizarre, and I still don't know what sort of crime was supposed to have been committed and by whom, but I'll keep reading. This stuff is as good as a crime novel.

[starroute]

49. Found a more coherent explanation of the episode

http://www.culturewars.com/CultureWars/Archives/Fidelity_archives/bernardin.html

But I still can't say it makes a lot of sense to me. Does anyone here have a line on Catholic Church political intrigues?

Suddenly with the meeting of Sherwood and Winters, the complexion of the story changed. Now, it seemed, Sherwood was no longer involved in exposing a story of financial and possibly sexual corruption. He was part of the story himself. He was being used by a priest to bring down his archbishop. But there was more to it than that The priest was evidently in league with other members of the hierarchy, specifically Archblshops Bernardin and Jadot. During the course of their conversation, Winters told Sherwood that "Deep Purple," the person to whom Greeley dedicated The Making of the Popes 1978 was in fact Archbishop Bernardin. Greeley was evidently not alone in his plotting to bring down Cody. As a result of what he learned in his meeting with Winters at the South Bend airport, Sherwood decided to confront Bernardin. In August of 1980, he flew to Cincinnati.

In his recently published biography of Cardinal Bernardin, Eugene Kennedy does his best to place the blame for the conspiracy on Greeley’s shoulders. Describing Sherwood’s getting wind of Greeley’s machinations as a result of his meeting with Winters, Kennedy writes that "A fragile balloon of accusation, with Bernardin’s name painted on its side, had rapidly been pumped full of air heated by paranoia and sent floating down the Ohio River toward Cincinnati," an account which is neither accurate history nor accurate geography.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

50. interesting

wonder if this has anything to do with Opus Dei...the conservatives in the Catholic church that have been trying to take over it.

[starroute]

52. Sherwood was involved in yet another strange saga in January 1981

It was the case of a grain-transporting ship out of Philadelphia called the POET that vanished without trace in the North Atlantic. There were eventually hearings held as to whether it was a freak accident, inadequate maintanance on the part of the owner, or a failure in safety procedures. But at an early point, Sherwood became involved in spreading a sensationalistic "hijacking" story that seemingly did little more than cause pain to the families of those lost.

I'm getting the impression that Sherwood's real motivation is not politics but simply that he had his one big success with the Pauline Fathers expose and has kept trying to replicate it ever since. It's possible that even the Moon book started out as an intended expose before the Moon people got to him. There's also a certain pattern of wanting to tear down people who are considered respect-worthy. (It's probably significant that he altered the get-Archbishop-Cody story into a get-Father-Greeley story.)

Because of that, I'm starting to suspect Sherwood is not a pivotal figure here -- just a hungry old media whore looking for that elusive second moment of fame -- and that the real question is who put him on to the anti-Kerry project and lined up his sources and financial backing.


Across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Dennis Culnan ... continues to "run his traps"--check in with assorted contacts in his murky world of cops, robbers and reporters. He talks shop with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. One tip is followed by: "You think that's bad, you ought to hear what these fuckers are up to now." The agent says the DEA is looking into a possible plot by certain Gambino's--relatives of the late South Jersey mobster Carlo Gambino--to hijack the POET, "turn the corn over to the Iranians, give them (the Gambino's) dope and fuck the crew." ("I giggled," Culnan said. "I didn't believe him, it seemed preposterous.")

The agent quotes cables between the DEA and other agencies, including Scotland Yard, working the hijack-and-heroin investigation. He offers to get the cables and does; they "meet at some cow pasture or something weird like that. He (the agent) was spooky.") By now Culnan is not only dubious, he's suspicious. "I'm being set up for something," he thinks. He runs the cables past other sources. They check out. Culnan tips off a colleague, Carlton Sherwood, a reporter with the Gannett News Service in Washington (The Courier-Post is part of the Gannett newspaper chain.) Sherwood's sources also confirm the cables.

Culnan raps out his part of the story on a computer and shoots it electronically to Washington where Sherwood adds his part. As Sunday deadlines loom, leery Saturday night editors want to back off from the sensational story but Culnan and Sherwood are adamant. It's printed in the January 18 Sunday papers. The wire services grab this hottest of the POET exposes and it goes around the world. "Mob Hijacked POET For Drugs?" shouts the headline of Culnan's paper where it shares front page space with the Iranian hostage crisis in its 442nd day. ... But for an emotionally involved reader, that bottom line is difficult to determine in a story spiced with "exotic plot" and "masterminding the deal" while the ship is "seized by drug smugglers ... the ship's communication system was destroyed ... and with a simple name change and forged documents, the vessel was diverted to Iran," and other hyperbolics.

<snip>

Very early on Monday, January 19, Culnan already is getting calls from jittery editors who have received stern DEA denials of the story. POET families also call him. ("All I could tell them was--most of them were getting it third hand, they hadn't seen the story--so we simply told them to read the story. We stand by the story. I didn't start the investigation, the DEA starts the investigation. We ran a story saying, 'Here's what the DEA is doing as far as the ship is concerned. This is a DEA scenariof") But DEA officials retort there is "no foundation" to the story, saying that the drug agency had only gotten a tip, checked it out as.is its routine responsibility and then dropped the matter as unsubstantiated. ("We were taking a licking for a few days," Culnan said. "I got the cables here, we stand by the story. I don't care what the DEA says. It's obviously not a story we're ashamed of. It would have been a page one story, period, even if the hostages weren't being released.") The January 18 Courier-Post front page is framed and hung in the newsroom.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. Kick...can anyone find tha amount of the contract?

Would be interesting to compare the contract amount with the cost of producing the movie.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

14. Sherwood's partner has been used as an Iraq war consultant on Fox

At Fox News, military analysts Lieut. Col. Bill Cowan and Maj. Robert Bevelacqua are CEO and vice president, respectively, of wvc3 Group, a defense consulting firm that helps arms companies sell their wares to the government. It recently inked an exclusive deal with New Zealand's TGR Helicorp and will help the company hawk its military aviation equipment to the United States. The firm trades on its inside contacts with the US military, and a message on its website reads, "We use our credibility to promote your technology" (accompanied by the sound of loud gunfire).

The networks don't seem too concerned about what the analysts do on their own time. "We are employing them for their military expertise, not their political views," Elena Nachmanoff, vice president of talent development at NBC News, told The Nation. She says that NBC's military experts play an influential role behind the scenes, briefing executive producers and holding seminars for staffers that provide "texture for both on-air pieces and background." Defense contracts, she adds, are "not our interest."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20030421&s=interns

[ContinentalOp]

16. Not sure what this means but I thought I'd throw it out there...

"The Office of Justice Programs, Office of Administration, Acquisition Management Division, is processing this acquisition at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Office for Domestic Preparedness. This fixed price modification adds $1,980,500.00 in funding to an existing sole source Task Order held by Plexus Scientific Corporation. The Task Order was issued to develop a web site to be used for the training of a large, diverse, and growing audience of first responders. This funding action allow the vendor to continued development of www.FirstResponder.gov through soft launch, and then through scheduled public launch on March 1, 2004. The funding for this Task Order provides for development of the web site; support for the development of training materials to be used on the web site; and for the hosting of the web."

http://www.cbd-net.com/index.php/search/show/509035

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

17. kick

[progressivebydesign]

20. Now.. who is Plexus Scientific?

This is a LOT of money to create a website!!! AND.. I thought Sherwood's wvc was the one creating the website. Is this just a tack on money Task Order to funnel more money to SHerwood's group without mentioning his company by name?? I mean.. 1.9 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS TO MAKE A WEBSITE?????????????????

[ContinentalOp]

26. Not just 1.9 Mil to create a website but it looks like that was an add-on

to the original budget (which I couldn't find). As to what Plexus Scientific is, I noticed that several Plexus people are involved in the National Infrastructure Institute, including the project manager of the firstresponder.gov site. Here is some interesting info about these people. Lots of army connections. Are these people the "veterans" who funded Sherwood? :)

From http://www.ni2cie.org/people.html

Paul D. Lumpkin - CEO of Plexus, President of NI2.

Robert M. Walker - VP of Plexus, VP of NI2. Former Active Secretary of the Army, Undersecretary of the army, special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld.

Clifford Mauton - Executive Director of NI2, Project Manager of firstresponder.gov site (according to http://www.theplexonian.com/itsum.htm). Worked at the Pentagon, was a liason to the White House and "served in the Office of the Counsel to the President at the White House managing the Presidential nomination and appointment process for non-judicial candidates."

And, pretty much everyone else on the list appears to be former Army and various Pentagon type positions. I can't find any connections to Sherwood though.

[ContinentalOp]

28. Also...

On this page, Plexus mentions that this new division of thier company is expected to bring in $8 million in 2004. And from the 3 major projects they mention on the page, the co- project manager of the firstresponder.gov site is the only one who holds a postion at the National Infrastructure Institute alongside members of the Plexus upper management.

[Warren DeMontague]

40. Do we know how much it cost to produce the piece of Kerry Poop?

n/t

[mcg]

68. PLEXUS SCIENTIFIC CORP officers address and phone number

PLEXUS SCIENTIFIC CORP
8808 Centre Park Dr
Columbia, MD 21045-2126

Phone [phone]

Paul Lumpkin President
WM Thomas Chief Financial Officer
Bill Rainey Vice-President
Cyril St Martin Vice-President

[mcg]

69. More Plexus info ....

PLEXUS SCIENTIFIC CORP
1900 N Beauregard St
Alexandria, VA 22311-1736

Phone [phone]

Paul Lumpkin Chief Executive Officer
Adrienne Tony Marketing Staff
Kurt Olmstead Webmaster

812 W Van Buren St
Chicago, IL 60607-3500

312-432-9696

Paul Lumpkin President
Adrienne Tony Marketing Staff

508 Brandywine Pkwy
West Chester, PA 19380-4276

Steve Schory, Engineering Manager
610-436-8051

2725 Gator Rd, Ste 200
Virginia Beach, VA 23452-6856
Bill Rainey, Manager
757-431-1470

[progressivebydesign]

22. A non-competition bid for that project, BTW.

But WHY is Plexus getting 1.9 ADDITIONAL monies when it was Sherwood's company that supposedly got the contract? I'm confused.

Here's the blurb about the non-comp bid: "(2) When the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source, or, for DOD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for. "

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

34. I wonder if a nexis search would provide more info

anyone got nexis? Thanks for the info..that's a HUGE sum of dough

[progressivebydesign]

18. THIS is what I think we should focus on to STOP SINCLAIR!

I think the petitions are good. Talking to the advertisers is good. BUT.. the ONLY way to counter this piece of shit, is to SHOW the fact that this guy has been working on this film WHILE BEING PAID by the Bush Administration. It's ONE thing, if the website actually was completed.. but it's not.

THIS IS CRUCIAL INFO! Please don't let this die in the forum.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. I keep trying to get this some attention

but people want to react...I think our HLS funds funded this instead of fighting terrorism

[Bongo Prophet]

21. Kicking, while my coffee kicks in.

"So I don't worry about, and people shouldn't
worry about a draft. . . I think we're in good
shape, I really do. And, if not, we'll -- I'll address
the nation. But I don't see any need to right now."
- G. W. Bush (Source: The Whitehouse)

[myrna minx]

24. kick

:kick:

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Like I said, they're hanging Kevin Shelley out to dry for a lot less...

Of course, he's a Democrat who also made the mistake of challenging the mighty Diebold.

[Supersedeas]

53. Taxpayer funded Political Dirty Tricks--Fiscally Conservative???

[progressivebydesign]

25. This issue is ONE of many angles of attack for the Sinclair issue n/t

[Elidor]

29. Apparently another fake "Peabody Award winner"

According to the Washington Times:

Carlton Sherwood, a Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist, is executive vice-president of the WVC3 Group in Reston, Va.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20031025-111017-5392r

But a search of past Peabody Awards shows no one with that name associated with an award:

http://www.peabody.uga.edu/archives/search.asp

Most awards are given to organizations rather than individuals, but a search for Jim Karayn, for example, will show that he and the League of Women Voters received an award together in 1976. Sherwood is not associated with any Peabody award, though the Times would have you believe otherwise.

Another fraud like O'Reilly.

[yorgatron]

35. kick

:kick:

[George_S]

36. Mark Hyman

But given his numbers and Sinclair's smallish size, Hyman – a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who is now a captain in the naval reserve – is sort of like the Fox News Channel versus CNN: Fox isn't in every market like CNN, but routinely outpaces the Atlanta-based network founded by Ted Turner.

...

"He's interesting and fun to watch, somewhat refreshing in his approach to things - in the sense that not all original thoughts originate in Washington. I like that," John Bilotta, a media relations consultant with government clients, told the Sun.

Bilotta met, got to know and became friends with Hyman when the latter was a foreign correspondent for United Press International in London in the late 1980s, the Sun reported.

....

"We're not our here to be provocateurs or anything, but if we're not making a difference one way or the other, why do it?" Carl Gottlieb, who joined Sinclair in 2002 from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington-based think tank, told the Sun regarding another of Hyman's broadcasts, "a highly stylized format of fast-paced news laced with edgy takes on politics and popular culture" called News Central.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/9/1/142152.shtml

-----

End quotes.

If we can connect Sinclair to the Bush/neocon spin machine directly, we will have enough to craft a powerful letter to the editor we can use in all the locations Sinclair broadcasts. We can use the local papers as a preemptive strike.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

37. It would be great if Atrios and Kos and some of the bloggers ran with this

Shine a light on Bushco's use of HLS funds for partisan activites while ports go underfunded

[Warren DeMontague]

39. Budget for 2004

Funding Highlights for 2004
From 2002 to 2004, resources for the agencies and programs moving into DHS grew by more than 60 percent to $36.2 billion. During the same period, nearly 61,000 staff were added to protect the homeland. Highlights for 2004 include:

About $500 million to assess the nation’s critical infrastructure (e.g., nuclear power plants, water facilities, telecommunications networks, and transportation systems) and to work to ensure that vulnerabilities are addressed;

$350 million in new funding for vigorous research, development, test, and evaluation capabilities that have not existed for homeland security specific projects, such as nuclear and bioterrorism detection technologies;

$373 million for border security and trade initiatives including technology investments along the border such as radiation detection and x-ray machines for inspecting cargo containers; and

$3.5 billion for the Office of Domestic Preparedness to ensure that first responders are properly trained and equipped, of which $500 million is for assistance to firefighters, particularly for terrorist preparedness, and $500 million is for state and local law enforcement anti-terrorism activities.




http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp/

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0356.xml


Let's get this straight: Guy gets an unknown amt. of money from the Bush Admin. to put together a website that isn't up yet (and putting up a website sosts, what, twenty bucks?) meanwhile, he produces an anti-Kerry hit piece.. Which is then going to be sold as 'non-political'

As far as I'm concerned, this is HUGE. Follow the money. The SF Chronicle has been crucifying Kevin Shelley for over a month for a helluva lot less.

I've been poring over the budgets for 2003, 2004 but there is no specific info on where these homeland security grants have gone. I'm sure there are better researchers than myself out there-- I think this could be major, major, major.

[ContinentalOp]

44. Check out the discussion above about Plexus.

Here is a possible theory: Sherwood was tapped by Tom Ridge to organize the website. Maybe he had some input as a consultant but the actual contract went to a company called Plexus. The budget is in line with the typically ridiculous Pentagon overpricing which leaves a nice profit for the principal folks involved in Plexus. Most if not all of Plexus's upper management are military veterans who held former Pentagon and White House positions. So could one or more of them be the veterans who funded Sherwood's film? Was there an understanding that some of the profits from this particular contract would be kicked back into a "special project"? And was there an understanding that the launch of the website itself was of no particular importance so that it never quite got finished?

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[VeniceBeat]

42. Great Stuff, Shocks!

:hi:

Kick!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

43. Hey thanks!

[Vanje]

51. viagra

Gotta keep this thread up.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

54. pump

:evilgrin:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

55. Big kick

This is great research into an aspect of this story that will have legs well beyond the airing of the film. Can't study more right now but I will see what more I can find. :thumbsup:

[starroute]

56. Red, White and Blue Productions doesn't seem like a real company

I just did some Googling, and they have no web presence at all except for mentions of "Stolen Honor." They're described as a producer of documentaries, but there's no sign they ever produced anything else. And one article gives their address as:
Red, White and Blue Productions
C/O Quantum Communications
123 State St.
Harrisburg, PA 17104
Phone [phone]
http://mediamatters.org/items/200409130003

Quantum Communications is nothing but a public relations firm, and going by their website not a very large one. However, one of the people on their staff Charlie Gerow, was a candidate for Congress in 2000. The list of his contributors (http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/charlie_gerow.asp) includes mostly local names, but also a few out-of-staters. One that realy caught my eye was that of Lewis Lehrman -- an extremely significant name in conservative circles:

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=2655
" 'Crush the Insurgents in Iraq,' screamed a column in Sunday's Washington Post by prominent New York politician-banker Lewis Lehrman and Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, the magazine that comes closest to defining orthodoxy among neoconservatives."

http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.l.htm#lehrman
"Lewis Lehrman ...former chairman Citizens for America, a civic league of Conservatives ... was/is board member, Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute..."

http://www.lew82.com/candidate/citizens/main.html
"Citizens for America described itself as a 'nonpartisan, nonpolitical civic league dedicated to the proposition that the American way of life is the stuff of the Reagan legislative program and its triumph is the hope of every family, every citizen of America.' 'The goal of the national group, according to Lehrman, is to establish a 10- to 30-member committee in each of the country's 435 congressional districts which will be headed by a well-known local, conservative citizen, none of whom will be members of Congress,' wrote UPI's Joseph Mianowany.

<snip>

"Lew explained its structure in an interview with Human Events:

" 'We have a headquarters office on the third floor of the Heritage building, on Capitol Hill. There we have a small research staff headed by Dave Carmen, who is in charge of our Policy and Communications Group.

" 'We gather the best evidence and data we can from the research of the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Hoover, among others, as well as from the White House, the Treasury, National Security Advisor's office, the Secretary of Defense, among others, and we reproduce it in a usable form for our volunteer leaders of Citizens for America in every congressional district - 3-by-5 cards to set out the basic questions on a particular issue.' "

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Arbusto%20Energy
"Arbusto Energy (Arbusto Oil) was a petroleum and energy corporation formed in Midland, Texas in 1977 by George W. Bush. ... Investors in the company included Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman, William Henry Draper III, and James R. Bath."

[starroute]

57. Jack A. Abramoff -- another Gerow supporter

http://www.stealthpacs.org/agent.cfm?agent_id=4920
Selected Affiliations:
Bush-Cheney For President (2004)
Relationship: Attained "Pioneer" status, meaning he raised more than $100,000 for the campaign.
Most Recent Year Confirmed in this Role: 2004

http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_profile.cfm?pioneer_ID=834

"Jack Abramoff’s long GOP career includes stints chairing the College Republican National Committee, sitting on the Republican National Committee and heading Reagan lobby group Citizens for America (see David Carmen). This orthodox Jew helped build the political power of the Christian Coalition and Pioneer Ralph Reed. He ostensibly founded the International Freedom Foundation (IFF) in 1985. But South Africa’s truth commission revealed in 1995 that the apartheid regime helped launch the IFF, paying it $1.5 million a year to burnish its pariah image and to smear Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. After lending apartheid a happy face, Abramoff became a film producer. Working with IFF supporter Duncan Sellars, Abramoff produced Red Scorpion, the 1995 flick about ethnic-cleansing Aryans. Red Scorpion debuted at the time of the GOP’s takeover of Congress and Abramoff became a lobbyist at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas, hitting the jackpot pushing Indian casinos. After he and several partners bought riverboat gambling company SunCruz Casinos in 2000, two of the partners began to feud. SunCruz went bankrupt after partner Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis got run off the road and shot to death in 2001 in a rumored mob hit. Abramoff is active with several other Pioneers in the K Street Project, in which GOP lobbyists harness their clout and that of their clients to advance the GOP’s agenda."


Wow! Republican National Committee, Citizens for America (the Lehrman organization), the South African apartheid regime, film production, Indian casinos, and the K Street Project! All good things wrapped up in one! (And I only quoted about a third of what's there -- the rest is just as well worth reading.)

[starroute]

58. Some more names on Gerow's list

Frank J. Donatelli
http://www.mwcllc.com/people/individuals/donatelli_f.asp
"A long-time activist in Republican and conservative causes, Frank is Executive Vice President and Director of Federal Public Affairs for McGuireWoods Consulting. He also serves as counsel to McGuireWoods LLP. His previous appointments have included serving as an assistant to President Reagan for Political and Intergovernmental Affairs and as deputy assistant to the President for Public Liaison at the White House. He served on White House Chief of Staff James Baker's team that negotiated presidential debates in early 1984 and ran Baker's 1978 campaign for Attorney General of Texas. He also assisted Baker in the 2000 Florida recount on behalf of the Bush-Cheney team."


Ronald Robinson of Young America's Foundation
http://www.buildingequality.us/ifas/cnp/bios/robro.html
"President, Young America's Foundation; trustee, Philadelphia Society; director, Citizens United and the Citizens United Foundation; active in campaigns of John Ashbrook, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, James Buckley, and Oliver North; member, Virginia and U.S. Supreme Court Bars; advisor to the U.S. Department of Education during the Reagan Administration."

http://www.reaganranch.org/leadership/bios/ron_robinson.htm
"Ron Robinson is the president of Young America's Foundation. USA Today notes that Robinson 'has been involved in conservative campus issues for three decades.' "


Thomas A. Schatz
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Thomas_A._Schatz
He spent six years as legislative director for Congressman Hamilton Fish and two years practicing law and lobbying before he joined Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) in 1986. Since the early 1990s Thomas A. Schatz is the president of CAGW, an industry-funded organization that has campaigned on behalf of the tobacco industry and pro-Microsoft/against open source software.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

59. Starroute..thanks SO much for diggin this stuff up!

maybe we'll get some legs...I can't believe other bloggers aren't picking up this angle!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

65. More on Gerow from nomoremister.blogspot.com

Posted today:

Sinclair Broadcast Group says Stolen Honor isn't a Bush campaign ad, but it ought to be noted that filmmaker Carlton Sherwood's Red, White and Blue Productions shares a mailing address and phone number with Quantum Communications in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The "principal" of Quantum Communications (here he's called the CEO) is Charles R. Gerow -- a delegate to this year's Republican convention and a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Other items listed on Gerow's RNLA page:

Reagan/Bush Campaign Field Staff, 1980

Active involvement in numerous campaigns

Advance work in 6 Presidential campaigns

Alternate Delegate at Large, 1988

Dole for President, surrogate speaker,1996

Lawyers for Bush, 2000

He's a bit of a gadfly -- an anti-taxer who ran against GOP moderate Bill Goodling for Congress in 1996 and 1998 (he nearly pulled off an upset in '96, getting 45% of the vote; in '98 he won endorsements from Grover Norquist, Gary Bauer, and Ed Meese), and he supported Pat Toomey in the GOP primary against Arlen Specter this year. But he's no independent.

Oh, and, amusingly, Quantum Communications is providing "strategic counsel and media relations" for AccuPoll, Inc., which makes touch-screen voting machines (although Gerow may be bucking the GOP establishment in this -- AccuPoll's machines give a paper receipt).

posted by Steve M. | 3:48 PM
---------------

There are a number of hot links in the original post at www.nomoremister.blogspot.com - check 'em out.

edit: typo in the URL

[starroute]

66. "Lawyers for Bush" rings a bell

Harry MacDougall (Buckhead) of the CBS memos story was involved with a Lawyers for Bush group in Georgia:

"I attended a meeting on Tuesday to organize lawyers for Bush-Cheney in my state to monitor and if necessary litigate election issues," he said in a Buckhead posting last month.

http://www.tigerboard.com/boards/missouri-tigers.php?message=1762038

There was some speculation on the Memogate threads here that that he could have gotten the assignment to "expose" the "forgeries" through that group. (George S? Wasn't that your idea?)

It's a long shot, but I wonder if "Lawyers for Bush" might be a conduit of dirty-tricksterism.

[starroute]

60. And some info on Gerow himself

I'm really starting to become convinced that this guy is the missing link.

He was a delegate to the 2004 Republican Convention.
http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/rnc2004/delegates/pa.htm

A 1998 campaign organization of his received money from Richard Mellon Scaife.
http://garciapublicaffairs.com/htm/Scaifecont98-90.htm

And Gary Bauer was running ads against his opponent.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/19/primaries/

He's also got a BBV connection.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/8/15/203349.shtml

"Charlie Gerow of Quantum Communications told NewsMax about the features of the touch-screen system being manufactured and sold by AccuPoll Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif. – a system that advertises that it is the 'only voter-verifiable system.'

<snip>

" 'Just roll-in the voting station units, plug in the power and network cables, and start voting. Election workers are notified on the Voting Administrative Workstation if they need to add paper to any voting station’s ballot printer,' said Gerow."

[starroute]

62. More on Gerow's AccuPoll connection

If AccuPoll really does provide a backup paper ballot, they may not be as dubious as some of the electronic voting companies. But then again, this story is from 2002, and I don't know what AccuPoll is up to these days.


http://www.accupoll.com/News/NewsReleases/releases/2002-08-12.html

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- August 12, 2002 -- AccuPoll Holding Corp. (OTCBB:ACUP - News) through its wholly owned subsidiary AccuPoll, Inc., has retained Quantum Communications, Ltd. to provide strategic counsel and media relations.

AccuPoll, Inc. produces the AccuPoll voting system that combines the best features of touch screen electronic voting with a traditional paper ballot to produce a system that allows voters to verify that their intent has been accurately captured and confidence that their vote will count.

"AccuPoll needed a firm that understood the electoral process and had a successful history of working with the media. As AccuPoll launches its system, Quantum Communications is the perfect partner to help us tell our story about this exciting new technology," said Frank Wiebe, President of AccuPoll, Inc.

Charlie Gerow, a principal at Quantum Communications, commented, "I instantly realized that AccuPoll is unique and offers a simple but effective solution to the issue of clearly determining voter intent. By combining the advantages of modern technology with the reliability of traditional paper ballots, AccuPoll stands out as a distinctive and better voting system."

[starroute]

63. Some more on Gerow's 1998 supporters

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/05/cq/goodling.html

Concern over Goodling's campaign in the south-central 19th District, prime Republican territory, has grown in recent weeks. His opponent, Charles Gerow, who ran a late-starting, underfunded campaign in 1996 and won 45 percent of the vote, is running again.

This time, Gerow has picked up support from several prominent conservatives, including Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III. Gerow likely will benefit from TV issue ads sponsored by Americans for Limited Terms, which criticize Goodling as a "careerist politician" who had hundreds of overdrafts in the House bank scandal.

"Bill Goodling has faked his way as a conservative for the last session of Congress," said Gerow, a self-described Reagan Republican who chairs the state chapter of Citizens Against Government Waste. "But people who have been around this district a long time know what he really is."


http://www.atr.org/opeds/tas/tas0798.html

Gary Bauer chairs the new Campaign for Working Families PAC that began in November 1996 and already has 40,000 donors raising $2 million in 1997 and $1.5 million so far in 1998. The PAC has one million on hand and this year spent $250,000 in support of Tom Bordonaro (CA-22) and $75,000 for Roskam (IL-13) and $25,000 for radio supporting Charlie Gerow (PA-19). The PAC has endorsed 50 candidates in 1998.

[starroute]

61. Charlie Gerow named as a spokesman for Red, White, and Blue

I'm putting the Google cache link, because the direct link leads to a "please register" screen.
http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:1gXotPLXuOsJ:www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/wooten/2004/091104.html+Charlie+Gerow&hl=en

Sherwood is a decorated veteran who was wounded three times as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam. His production company, Red, White & Blue Productions, is a for-profit corporation based in Harrisburg, Pa.

As the Kerry campaign will quickly point out, Sherwood has "ties" to the Bush administration, having served in media services for former Gov. (and now Homeland Security Secretary) Tom Ridge in Pennsylvania.

He is executive vice president of WVC3, a Virginia company involved in security and counterterrorism work.

"There has been absolutely no discussion, association, communication or coordination at all with the Bush campaign," said Charlie Gerow, a spokesman for Sherwood's production company. Said Sherwood: "I am a registered independent. This is not political, it's personal."


On edit -- add this one:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-09-09/news/news_print.html

"The controversy over the anti-John Kerry ads aired by the swift boat vets has settled to a low boil, but the issues could take on new life and a new direction on September 9 with the premiere in Washington of a for-profit documentary called Stolen Honor. 'I believe this is going to be the documentary of 2004,' says Charlie Gerow, publicist for the film. 'Forget about Michael Moore.' "

[starroute]

64. Another possible line of investigation

Please excuse the fact that this first quote is from Free Republic -- the story is originated with a local PA newspaper and there are a few paragraphs that seem significant:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212098/posts

While the stories of the POWs sounded legitimate, the Kerry campaign warned that the group has a shady history.

"This group is the poor, distant cousin of the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for the campaign. "It’s comprised of people with questionable backgrounds whose sole mission in life is to smear John Kerry."

Nevins pointed out that Sherwood, who also narrates in the film, was arrested for illegally taping a conversation in 1983 and falsely accused the Vietnam veterans of mishandling the $9 million they were granted to build the Vietnam War Memorial in 1984.

Nevins also suggested Sherwood was another right-wing conspirator who hired Republican public relations firm Shirley and Bannister to help market their product.


That led me to Google "Shirley and Bannister," and I found an article with some interesting connections. The link is to a discussion board and doesn't paste correctly, so please follow this Google link and click on the one hit that comes up:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&q=%22Fire+Up+the+Slime+Machine%2C+Scotty&btnG=Search
Fire Up the Slime Machine, Scotty by Joe Conason

March 9, 2004 | As strategists in both parties gird for what all expect to be an unusually nasty presidential election, the stage has been set by the revival of a conservative crew that might be called "the usual suspects" -- including consultants Floyd Brown, Craig Shirley and David Bossie. With new Web sites and fundraising vehicles already running, these veterans of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" against the Clintons are now launching the first wave of "independent" commercial attacks on John Kerry, the Democratic nominee-to-be.

<snip>

Meanwhile, Grassfire.com, a new "grass-roots" outfit overseen by Beltway insider Shirley, has produced an ad that claims Kerry is "more liberal than Ted Kennedy." Aside from "nonpartisan educational" groups like Grassfire, his clients have included the Republican National Committee, the Republican Majority Committee, the American Spectator, the Club for Growth, the Conservative Political Action Committee, the Federalist Society, the National Rifle Association, News World Communications and the Washington Times Foundation.

<snip>

Craig Shirley, who presides over a large, Virginia-based P.R. firm with his wife, Diana Banister, played a less prominent but no less toxic role during the Clinton years. Among Shirley's notable clients were Paula Jones, the Clinton sexual harassment accuser who later modeled for Penthouse; and Gary Aldrich, the retired White House FBI agent whose fabricated tales of Clinton motel trysts and pornographic West Wing Christmas trees made his book a bestseller.

Yet as Kerry has reason to know, these operatives didn't commence their unsavory careers during the Clinton era. In 1988, they made political history with their first intervention in a national campaign, the so-called Willie Horton commercial. ... The Horton ad appeared not as part of the Bush-Quayle campaign, whose strategists shied away from such obvious racism, but under the auspices of a shadowy organization called "Americans for Bush." According to testimony filed with the Federal Election Commission, which investigated the financing and planning of the Horton ad in 1990, the ad's actual creators included Brown and Shirley. ...(FEC commissioners and investigators strongly suspected unlawful collusion between Bush-Quayle and Americans for Bush, but Republican members of the commission quickly killed the probe.)



Veterans of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" indeed. Below is a chart I made up a few weeks ago for the Buckhead/CBS memo story. Note particularly the names in the lower right-hand corner -- Gary Aldrich, American Spectator -- and see how they tie in a couple of different ways with the Swiftboat Veterans. Note also that Aldrich's book was published by Regnery Publishing, which had earlier published Sherwood's whitewash of Moon. Clearly this is the same general bunch of people, and it would be most interesting if some of they were also involved with "Stolen Honor."

[George_S]

67. starroute

You're the bestest!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

70. Agreed