Purging the Neo-Cons Will Kerry Make a Stand?

[seemslikeadream]

Kerry has been a Senator in Washington for 18 years. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that investigated the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, Kerry discovered what makes the Bush family tick: international underhanded deals, drug smuggling, illegal arms trafficking, support for dictators like Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein, secret offshore banks accounts and CIA carve-out companies, and political assassinations. Yes, Kerry found out where all the "skull and bones" were buried (pun intended). Both Kerry and Bush evaded questions posed by Meet the Press's Tim Russert about Yale's super secret Skull and Bones fraternity, where both were initiated as members along with Bush;s father and pro-Nazi grandfather, Prescott. This bi-partisan circle of elite Elies is exactly the reason why Mr. Kerry may not be the best person to replace Bush. He would not be worse. But would he be better? ....

While chairing the BCCI subcommittee, and before he married Teresa Heinz, Kerry would often sit at the bar at Capitol Hill's Tex-Mex Red River Grill offering anyone who would listen to stories (even a second and third time) about what his investigation had discovered about the illegal activities of the Reagan-Bush administrations: the arms-for-drugs operations in Central America that involved Noriega; the later convicted Reagan officials John Poindexter, Richard Secord, Elliott Abrams, and Oliver North; Iranian con-man and neo-con hero Manucher Ghorbanifar; Saudi tycoon Adnan Khashoggi, who Perle recently attempted to lure into his Trireme Partners Middle East investment scheme; Gaith Pharoan, who was involved with Saudi billionaire banker Khalid Bin Mahfouz in business deals with George W. Bush's Harken Energy and Bin Laden family investments in Texas; how Hill & Knowlton, the firm that concocted the phony story about Iraqi troops tossing babies from incubators during their invasion of Kuwait, was shilling for BCCI and providing regulators with false information about the bank's business relationships; BCCI's bankrolling of convicted arms dealer Sarkis Sarkenalian's illegal weapons smuggling to Iraq in the 1980's; hawalah transfers that allowed Afghan mujaheddin to evade international financial surveillance mechanisms (including the pumping of millions of dollars of Saudi and Omani money into Usama bin Laden's coffers in Afghanistan and Pakistan); and the 1980 "October Surprise" involving negotiations between Reagan campaign chief William Casey to delay the release of US hostages until after the U.S. election, thus sinking the prospects of President Carter.

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen02192004.html

Great article new info. I have not made up my mind who I want to be the nominee. I would like discussion of this to help me. Thanks

[Larkspur]

1. When Kerry makes a stand, it's usually on quicksand

Kerry is a Janus politician and always tries to do what is convenient for his political ambitions, not what is right for this country.

[stoystown]

2. Good luck with that.

Kerry should not try to paint the Neo Cons with such a broad brush - - it sounds too much like a witch hunt.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. No.

[RichM]

4. This article definitely gets at a lot of what bothers me about Kerry.

He KNOWS all about the neocons, & the filthy secret dealings of the Bush family. He just keeps very quiet about it. This gives one the impression that he's simply not any sort of determined opponent of these dark forces. The fact that he knows so much about them makes his silence that much worse.

In the last paragraph, Madsen poses exactly the right question. My feeling from the start has been that Kerry will NOT make a stand to purge the neo-cons. He's not their enemy. He may not love them, but he calculates that he can't afford to antagonize them.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. I give Madsen probably MORE credibility than anyone who writes

for Counterpunch. Madsen is a scholar who was used by James Bamford for the book Body of Secrets for his scholarly work on nazi code talkers.

That said, he raises a few issues in the article that are very much matters of guilt by association. Theresa Heinz Kerry cannot be held accountable for her father's investments and associations and as Madsen states very clearly De Beers did change their act.

One thing that should be OBVIOUS is that Kerry GOT the info and PUBLICLY divulged it...as Madsen states..in a bar to anyone who would listen. For that, we can also make some judgements. One is that he should be careful how much he drinks...the other is that he DID NOT keep it secret but divulged it..not exactly the behavior of someone covering another's ass.

One MORE important point to make is that while I COMPLETELY agree with Madsen that even Democratic neo-cons need to be purged...how far do you think Kerry would get if he committed to this publicly on the campaign trail?

The Gary Mark story was discredited post haste and most of the public let the issue that our own government agencies might be trading drugs for arms and using this illegal money to finance covert measures stand discredited. What did Kerry do? He passed a banking law, much of which was set aside via executive order by Bush when he took office to monitor offshore money laundering. He did so AFTER the story was discredited...not the sign of a man giving up.

I am simply trying to state that I don't believe Kerry has indeed been tainted by his past investigations but has learned to tread carefully due to the ability that other sources have to discredit him the way they discredited the Mark story.

Madsen too HAS to recognize this.

If one can take SO MUCH as an article of faith with other candidates, I don't think it is the biggest leap to take Kerry's activities to STEM the global power of these people as an article of faith.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. So Kerry's crime is that he was willing to tell people about corruption

while hanging out a bar?

Crucify him!

[BL_Zebub]

6. It gets old hearing about what Kerry knows about the Bush Criminals

This information is all out there, if you look for it. None of it is exactly secret anymore, though the corporate media won't touch it. Point here is that a Senator with a reasonable amount of politcal clout in DC should have done more to get the ball rolling. Even if he couldn't get trials and convictions out of it, at least add enough credibility to the story that any Bush or any associate of the Bush syndicate would never dare run for office again. Kerry could have done at least this much, but did not. And you have to ask why that is. And the simplest explanation is that he took an oath to Skull & Bones which overrides any other loyalties, including that to the US constitution.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. If you recall the history

He was damn near alienated by his OWN party for the fact that his investigations on BCCI implemented Clark Clifford. He got calls from Jimmy Carter and Jackie Onassis on the matter. Clifford, it was later determined was NOT involved, but it made Kerry persona non grata with some in his own party.

He DID however enact legislation to monitor money laundering in OFFSHORE banks...AFTER he was banged back by his own party.

If people can draw the conslusion that he did nothing...I am free to use what legislation HE DID get passed to draw quite the OPPOSITE conclusion.

For all the people saying Kerry did NOTHING, I might add that you would not have articles by Madsen and Perry citing this corruption with documentation were it NOT for John Kerry's own investigative work.

Read their past stuff.

In fact, when PArry stated that his work revealed there were mass graves in El Mozote as a result of the conflict between the Contras and the Sandanistas, Kerry was instrumental during the CLinton administration in getting our own governement to acknowledge this.

John Q PUBLIC forgot the injustice. John Kerry didn't.

[Octafish]

7. Even if Kerry's a bonesman, he's OUR bonesman.

If the guy was a turd of the BFEE, we'd know by now. Thus, I'd rather have John Kerry, with ALL his CIA-bonesman connections with us than against us.

Why? Because the vast majority of CIA officers are good guys. The leadership? That's another question. I've had a problem with them since 22 November 1963. So has John Kerry.

Here's a bit of a blast from the not-too-distant past, the drug-running tentacle of the BFEE Octopus:


OLLIE NORTH AND DRUGS

By Dennis Bernstein and Howard Levine
From The Texas Observer

EXCERPT...

According to Castillo, the entire program was run out of
Ilopango's Hangars 4 and 5. "Hangar 4 was owned and operated by
the CIA and the other hangar was run by Felix Rodriguez, or 'Max
Gomez,' of the Contra operation . Basically
they were running cocaine from South America to the U.S. via
Salvador. That was how the Contras were able to get financial
help. By going to sleep with the enemy down there. North's people
and the CIA were at the two hangars overseeing the operations at
all times," Castillo said.

SNIP...

Cele Castillo joined the DEA in 1979, after a tour with the First
Cavalry in Vietnam, where he earned a bronze star, and a six-year
stint as a police officer in Edinburg. His first DEA assignment
was in New York, working undercover investigating organized
crime. After that, because of his Vietnam experience, he was
transferred to Lima, Peru, where he conducted air strikes against
jungle cocaine labs and clandestine airstrips. In 1985, he was
transferred to Guatemala, where he oversaw DEA operations in
Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. Castillo posed as a member of
one of the drug cartels, he said, and almost immediately became
aware of the drug smuggling operations at Ilopango's hangars 4
and 5. "We took several surveillance pictures...and they were
running narcotics and weapons out of Ilopango, with the knowledge
of the U.S. embassy."

Though Castillo had been reporting his findings all along, to no
avail, a December 1988 report prepared by the Congressional
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations
(the Kerry Committee) confirmed Castillo's allegations and
concluded: "There was substantial evidence of drug smuggling
through the war zones on the part of the individual Contras,
Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked with the Contras, and the
Contra supporters throughout the region."

The committee, chaired by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, also
found that on March 16, 1987, a plane owned by known drug
smugglers was seized by U.S. customs officers after dumping what
appeared to be a load of drugs off the Florida coast: "Law
enforcement personnel also found an address book aboard the
plane, containing among other references the telephone numbers of
some Contra officials and the Virginia telephone number of Robert
Owen, Oliver North's courier," the committee reported. And on
July 28, 1988, DEA agents testifying before Kerry's committee
said it was North's idea in 1985 to give the Contras $1.5 million
in drug money being used by DEA informant Barry Seal in a sting
operation aimed at the drug cartels.

CONTINUED...

http://www.csun.edu/CommunicationStudies/ben/news/cia/961120.castillo.html

A little else on the subject:

How was cocaine used to fund Regan's Contras?

The Justice Department was slow to respond regarding links between drug traffickers and the Contras. In the spring of 1986, even after the State Department was acknowledging there were problems with drug trafficking in association with Contra activities on the Southern Front, the Justice Department was adamantly denying that there was any substance to the narcotics allegations. At the time, the FBI had significant information regarding the involvement of narcotics traffickers in Contra operations and Neutrality Act violations.

On May 6, 1986, a bipartisan group of Committee staff met with representatives of the Justice Department, FBI, DEA, CIA and State Department to discuss the allegations that Senator Kerry had received information of Neutrality Act violations, gun running and drug trafficking in association with Contra organizations based on the Southern Front in Costa Rica.

As a witness in a drug trial, Carrasco testified that in 1984 and 1985, he piloted planes loaded with weapons for contras operating in Costa Rica. The weapons were offloaded, and then drugs stored in military bags were put on the planes which flew to the United States. "I participated in two which involved weapons and cocaine at the same time," he told the court.

The drugs were flown back to Florida. The only location in Florida that I can verify where flights of drugs terminated is Lakeland, FL.

CONTINUED...

http://www.brittsandusky.com/ollie.htm


And not to let history forget Mr. John "Disappears Americans" Hull:

'John Wayne in Costa Rica' Cheats U.S. and Investors

by Peter Shinkle and Dennis Bernstein
November 18, 1987 - San Francisco Bay Guardian

A Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee heard testimony Oct. 30 on alleged financial misdeeds by contra backer John Hull. Hull, a U.S.-born rancher in northern Costa Rica, received monthly stipends from the CIA and contra leader Adolfo Calero for his support of the contras. His farm includes airstrips used to resupply the contras.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), who chairs the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, focused his attention on a loan Hull received in 1984 from the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC). OPIC lends money to U.S. citizens for investment in projects in developing countries. The agency apparently loaned Hull $375,000 to build a wood mill in northern Costa Rica. Hull has only paid $62,000 in interest payments on the defaulted loan, and foreclosure proceedings began last month, an OPIC official told the lawmakers.

The central question, Kerry maintained, was "whether the loan was made on its merits, in furtherance of the development of the Costa Rican economy, or whether it was at the behest of another agency or other individuals in furtherance of Mr. Hull's activities." OPIC general counsel Eric Garfinkel told the subcommittee that agency officials "certainly weren't aware" of the airstrips on Hull's farm when they made the loan.

Kerry faulted OPIC for failing to visit the project site before granting the loan, and for using a property appraiser suggested by Hull's attorney. One OPIC loan officer said the agency had been defrauded by Hull, who falsely asserted that valid mortgages were in place to cover the loan.

CONTINUED...

http://www.flashpoints.net/GovernmentsRole.html

[Armstead]

10. Problem is it's all blasts from the past

In the immortal word of somebody "What have you done for me lately?"

Lately all I've seen is vague fashionable generalities, votes for IWR against his better judgement, continued support of free trade scam, etc. etc. etc.

(Oh Jeeze, I just remembered that's a Jackson song. Oh well...)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. You wouldn't know half of what you know of our govt's activities

with the Contras were it not for Kerry. Read my other posts in the matter.

I know it won't make a difference to you since you've made it clear he's an insider not to be trusted, but at least another perspective can be useful at times.

[SOS]

8. One thing is certain...

If Kerry wins the White House, Rumsfeld, Perle, Condi, Colin, Wolfowitz, Libby, etc will all be kicked out. That's a good start!

[Crunchy Frog]

9. That's one reason why I hope

he picks Wes Clark as his VP. I think he would go after them like a heat seeking missile, if he had the opportunity.

[Capt_Nemo]

14. You are missing the real issue here

The problem is not that Kerry won't purge the PNACers. He will do it.

The problem is that the minute Wolfowitz is stepping out you will
have Brzezinski getting in.

So you'll get rid of a bunch of imperialists hellbent in re-colonizing
the Middle East only to get a bunch of imperialists obsessed with
containing Russia and China in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
It's back to the Clinton brand of imperialism.
Make of that what you will...

The one that will NOT purge the Neo-Cons is Edwards. He thinks
their military adventures are "the right thing to do"... :eyes:

[oasis]

15. The counterpunch article hints at guilt by remote association.The"intern"

story is revived and enlarged to encompass even more unsavory players. But if that were not enough, Teresa Heinz gets her turn under the Madsen microscope. What next, a story about Kerry's Afghan gardener calling in frequent take out orders to the local deli which is really a front for the Mossad?

"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense". Since the Madsen piece has so many dots to connect to make it seem like "truth", my "sense" is, that it is "fiction".