posted February 19, 2005 12:48 PM              

btw jwhop does the u.s. sell that kind of stuff to countries on the state departments list of states that sponsor terrorism?????!!!!

posted February 19, 2005 01:31 PM              

Author: Kenneth R. Timmerman
Publication: Not Specified
Document Dated: November 1, 1996
Date Posted: August 12, 1997

Candidate Bill Clinton vowed to get to the bottom of the Iraqgate scandal. By Kenneth R. Timmerman Author of The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq (Hooughton Miffin) and publisher of Iran Brief, a monthly newsletter.
The American Spectator November 1996

Whatever Happened to IRAQGATE

As the 1992 presidential race reached its final days, Bill Clinton promised that, if elected, he would appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate allegations by congressional Democrats that the U.S. government had secretly been aiding the Iraqi weapons buildup-and perhaps even its nuclear weapons effort-and then engaging in a cover-up to hide its handiwork. Repeatedly challenging President Bush for the Republican "tilt" toward Iraq in the 1980's, Clinton vowed that no political considerations would cloud the investigation. The Clinton team took the issue so seriously that vice-presidential candidate Al Gore, in a landmark speech, called the Iraq scandal "worse than Watergate."

The story had all the ingredients for a political potboiler: official letters from the director of CIA and the attorney general to the House Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez(D-TX), warning him to drop the investigation of an obscure bank in Atlanta, Georgia, because of unspecified "national security" implications; highly publicized allegations by Gonzalez of a White House cover-up a corporate whistle blower who claimed her life had been threatened; and tales of Iraqi agents cozying up to CIA operatives, and buying up U.S. companies to establish the covert arms pipeline to Saddam.

The focus of Gonzalez's investigation was a massive $5.5 billion bank fraud that the Justice Department pinned on Christopher Drogoul, the lowly Atlanta branch manager of Italy's state-owned Banca Nazionale del Lavom (BNL). Benefitting from U.S. government export credit guarantees, the Atlantic bank lent the money to companies all over world that were supplying Saddam Hussein with weapons manufacturing gear and other goods. In his defense, Drogoul-backed by Gonzalez-claimed he was merely the instrument of a secret U.S. policy to aid Saddam Hussein. Rejecting that notion, the Justice Department indicted Drogoul on 347 counts of fraud and related charges in 1991.

As the presidential campaign heated up, Gonzalez bombarded the White House, the State Department, and the intelligence agencies with subpoenas, obtaining reams of sensitive diplomatic cables and internal memos documenting the U.S."tilt" toward Iraq. It was these documents (as well as Brent Scowcroft's secret trip to China only weeks after the tianananmen massacre in June 1988) that prompted Bill Clinton to charge , during the final days of the campaign, that President Bush had been "coddling dictators."

Nearly four years and several grand juries later, however, the Clinton administration has swept its "Iraqgate" investigation under the rug. The Final Report, issued by attorney general Janet Reno on January 17, 995, and written by Reno deputy John Hogan, amounts to little more than a whitewash of the entire affair. In every case it examined, the report concluded there had been no violation of law. And in a classified addendum, subsequently rendered public, the intelligence community and the executive branch were exonerated of having "illegally armed Iraq," despite extensive evidence of intelligence community involvement unearthed by the Gonzalez investigation and the U.S. Customs Service.

Jack Blum, a Washington attorney who served as an Iran-contra investigator for the Democrats, and who has been representing a key witness in one of the cases that Hogan reviewed, calls the addendum "the most incredible document I've seen in all my years doing intelligence and foreign policy issues in this town." In his introduction to the classified addendum, Hogan complimented the CIA for its cooperation, yet seemed to back pedal almost immediately. "The CIA's ability to retrieve information is limited," he wrote. "In the course of our work, we learned of "sensitive compartments" of information not normally retrievable and of specialized offices that previously were unknown to the CIA personnel who were assisting us. "Translated, says Blum, that meant that Hogan "stepped into a hornets nest, and still can't say whether the CIA was involved in the buildup of Saddam Hussein's war machine, or not."

One could easily attribute the reluctance to pursue the investigation vigorously as simply another case of Bill Clinton failing to keep his word. And, too, virtually all the sources consulted for this story agreed that the desire to conceal a long and uneasy relationship between the U.S. intelligence community and Saddam Hussein-a goal that transcends presidential politics-probably lies at the bottom of the Justice department's lack of investigatory zeal. Yet with such an explosive political weapon at their fingertips, why did Janet Reno and the Clinton administration back down?

A former employee of one of the firms exonerated by the Justice Department report now tells The American Spectator that the inquiry may have been papered over for an unsuspected reason. "It wasn't just a Republican scandal, " says Marianne Gasior, a lawyer who worker for Kennametal Inc., a machine-tool-manufacturer located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. "Hillary Rodham Clinton was directly linked to the network that was involved in a clandestine CIA arms export ring."

Sound incredible? Certainly, the White House thinks so. When we suggested that it sounded a bit odd for an Arkansas governor's wife to be invited in 1990 to join the board of a company that had ties to an alleged arms export network, spokesman Neel Lattimore retorted: "Everything The American Spectator says about Mrs. Clinton is a bit odd, but I'll see if I can get an answer for you." He never did.

Marianne Gasior maintains that the Lafarge Corporation, the U.S. Subsidiary of a French multinational chemicals concern, provided key services for the covert arms export network that supplied Saddam Hussein. To prevent exposure of that secret supply line, and collateral damage to Hillary Clinton-who joined Lafarge board in 1990, just as the arms pipeline was being shut down-Gasior alleges that the justice department was told to bury the investigation. John Hogan hotly denies this. But investigators from other U.S. government agencies who worked on the case say they were "waved off" whenever they got too close to exposing the direct involvement of the intelligence community in the arms export scheme.

Foreword: Allied may in fact be one of the oldest national security "front" companies operated by the U.S. government. National Archives documents show that it was established in 1942, and has frequently changed names and ballooned in size to correspond to the needs of the intelligence community. Its most recent incarnation, according to corporate records reviewed by TAS, was as Illuminati Equipment Corporation, based in Cleveland, Ohio. Dun & Bradstreet lists the company as an "unscheduled air passenger carrier."

Lafarge owns 2,600 acres on Marblehead Peninsula, along Lake Erie in Ohio, that have been the subject of intense speculation by local residents for a number of years. That property has been used on occasion by Camp Perry for special military training exercises, and it also houses a munitions plant known as the ordnance Center." (To add a touch of the bizarre, the National Rifle Association hosts an annual shooting contest there, giving rise to tales of men in camouflage battle fatigues committing unexplained acts of violence under the cover of darkness).

Gasior claims that Marblehead property was used as a transshipment point for secret CIA shipments of weapons components and manufacturing gear in Iraq during the 1980's, and possibly even after the U.S. embargo on Iraq went into effect on August 5, 1990. the equipment included tungsten-carbide armor penetrators, and specially machined parts needed to make cluster bombs and other weapons. Munitions items such as these could not have been shipped to Iraq legally without a special presidential waiver.

The Iraqis placed their orders through the Technology Development Group (TDG), a London company run by Sefa Habobi, a trusted associate of Saddam Hussein.(Although he was indicted along with Drogoul in 1991 and remains a fugitive from U.S. justice, Habobi continues to travel around the world in his current incarnation as Iraqi oil minister.) TDG farmed out the orders to Iraqi-owned front companies such as Matrix Churchill Ltd., Associated Instrument Distributors of Norcross, Georgia, and Tigris trading of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who then signed contracts with willing suppliers and turned to BNL-Atlanta to pay the bills. Many Iraqi front companies were closed down by U.S. Customs following Saddam Hussein's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, although none were formally indicted.

Equipment for the Iraqis that could not be exported through normal channels was collected at the Solon, Ohio, warehouse of Matrix Churchill Corporation from nearby manufacturers-Kennametal (Where Gasior worked), Teledyne, and Mannesman-Demag. It was then trucked up to a long-time U.S. government munitions manufacturer called ALLIED, which operated a facility on the Lafarge property on Lake Erie. Allied's Marblehead plant, referred to in U.S. government archives as the "Ordnance Center," had at one time functioned as a steel foundry making armor for U.S. tanks during World War II.

>From Marblehead the equipment was carried on cargo ships up the St. Lawrence River to Canada and eventually to Britain, Gasior alleges, where Kennametal's U.K. subsidiary relabled some of the goods as manufactured in the European Community. They were then exported to Iraq. Kennametal vigorously denies any wrongdoing, noting that the Justice Department "completed its investigation years ago... and concluded there was no evidence that Kennametal committed any export violations." (The investigation, of course, was only completed last year.) But a Lafarge quarry master confirmed that freighters frequently picked up shipments at Marblehead bound for Canada. One British Customs document obtained by TAS shows that Kennametal shipped carbide tool bits to its Canadian subsidiary, and from there on to Iraq. Documents obtained by Congressional investigators show that Kennametal exported large numbers of tungsten-carbide machine tool bits from its European subsidiaries to Iraq for the use in weapons production.

Never once, according to Gasior, did these shipments attract the attention of U.S. border controls. "It was all a CIA operation,"Gasior asserts. "It's certainly true that we never inspected exports from Marblehead," says former Customs Special Agent who worked the area in the late 1980's. The manufacturing facility at the Lafarge property on Marblehead "was on the state Department's list of licensed munitions exporters. We were warned off of our investigation because of U.S. government-i.e.-, CIA-involvement. We used to get word to Customs that the CIA had lines into Main Justice, and so we were always careful to make sure we weren't stepping on somebody's toes. "Clearly, there was something going on." Other Customs agents who still work for the government have told TAS similar stories of investigations they were forced to drop because of high-level CIA involvement in the Justice Department.

Asked whether Marblehead and Allied were CIA fronts for clandestine weapons shipments overseas, former CIA Director Robert Gates says, "I hear a distant bell tinkling." But he claims he doubts that CIA involvement alone would have deterred an investigation by the Justice Department. "In the day and age, fear of exposing an on-going intelligence operation wouldn't stop the FBI or the Justice Department from an investigation." Said one former senior CIA officer when asked about Allied, "I know nothing about CIA proprietaries-except those I was personally involved in-but I've forgotten their names." Gasior, however, believes the investigation was squashed because of Hillary Rodham Clinton's involvement with Lafarge, both as a member of the Board of Directors from 1990-1992-for which the soon -to-be-first lady earned $31,000 per year plus expenses-and possibly earlier, when sources say she did legal work for the company through the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. Evidence of her ties to Lafarge appears on the billing records from the Rose Law Firm that mysteriously "reappeared" two years after congressional investigators had subpoenaed them. They are now under scrutiny by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, sources told TAS Starr's office wouldn't confirm or deny that it was investigating the First Lady's ties to Lafarge, and the White House has repeatedly refused to answer questions about this matter.

But Gasior claims John Hogan-the Reno deputy who wrote the final Iraqgate Report-told her in August 1995 that Kennametal case had been referred to Starr, "because anything involving the First Lady or Vincent Foster has to be referred to the Office of the Independent Counsel." Hogan told TAS it would be "inappropriate for me to comment." He did note, however, that the investigator who had worked the Kennametal case for him was subsequently detailed to Starr's operation. That investigator also refused to comment, "because that would indicate it has been referred here."

Gasior claims that Senate investigator Jack Klum-who represented her when she testified on Kennametal before Hogan's task force in 1993 and 1994-phoned then-White House Counsel Abner Mikva in August 1995, and then warned Gasior not to talk to Kenneth Starr or congressional Republicans, "or else I would get hurt. "Gasior says that her car was broken into that weekend in Washington, D.C., and documents stolen, and that when she returned to her home in a small rural community after Mikva's warning she found an 18 wheel truck in her driveway discharging a stream of diesel fuel in what may have been an arson attempt. Asked about Gasior's allegations, Mikva told TAS, "I have no knowledge of any of this. I don't know any of these people. Gasior? Jack Blum? I'm not even sure I know him." But Blum says the two were in frequent contact, and acknowledges that he told Gasior to drop the case-not for reasons of safety, but to "get on with her life." Asked about Kennametal and Lafarge, Mikva quipped; "I've heard of a Madame Lafarge, but that's about it."

One thing is certain: If Kenneth Starr isn't investigating Hillary Clinton's ties to Lafarge, somebody is going to an awful lot of trouble to make sure the story of her involvement is consistent. When asked how she came to join the Lafarge board, a company spokesperson said Mrs. Clinton was recommended by Lafarge board member Edward H. Tuck, who had worked with her on a report on the state-run child-care system in France while she was president of the French-American Foundation. Tuck repeated the same story almost word for word. He added that the company "regretted" Mrs. Clinton's decision to resign from the board, because of the "valuable contributions" she had made as a director, and her "active involvement" in Lafarge. A Business Week reporter who queried the White House was told the same story, including the bit about child care.

Tuck, who is now with the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling, declined to be more specific about that "active involvement." (His firm was retained by the Rome Headquarters of BNL, shortly before Hillary Clinton joined the Lafarge board, to represent the bank before federal regulators once the scandal hit the fan in August 1989) But Jack Blum believes the allegations regarding the First Lady's involvement with Lafarge border on the absurd. "If you were Hillary Rodham Clinton," he says , "and Lafarge were actually involved in a clandestine arms export operation, would you want to protect them? On the contrary, if you became aware of such information you would have every interest in exposing them. What does she get out of covering-up?" Besides, he argues, "would anybody involved in such an operation be so stupid as to inform members of the board of directors that such things were going on?"

Blum maintains that the Clintons have had "absolutely no relationship to the intelligence community," either while in Arkansas or in Washington. As evidence he cites President Clinton's first two years in the White House: "During that entire time, Bill Clinton met with Jim Woolsey, his Director of Central Intelligence exactly once. Bill Clinton pays no attention to these things, and has done nothing to take control of the national security establishment. He didn't care. He zoomed out." For its part, Lafarge says it "has never been involved with anything related to arms. Any conclusion to the contrary is erroneous." If Clinton was paying no attention to the intelligence community, however, his Justice Department was demonstrating remarkable sensitivity to cases involving intelligence operations. As congressional investigators have repeated noted, almost every time there was strong evidence of CIA involvement, the Justice Department either dropped the prosecution or bungled the case. Asked why House Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez abandoned his BNL crusade, for example, a senior staff investigator remarked: "We won the election, and there was a consensus to declare victory and move on to other things, Besides, if we had wanted to get to the bottom of the BNL case, we would have had to take on the intelligence agencies. And none of the committee members had the stomach for that."

Another Democratic congressional aide, who investigated whether Iraq used U.S. government export credits to buy food stuffs that it subsequently traded for arms agrees. "We saw case after case where companies shipping hi-tech goods to the Iraqi military establishment were also working on behalf of U.S. intelligence agencies," the staffer says. "The CIA knew what the Iraqis were buying, and that it was helping their military machine, but turned a blind eye because it allowed them to gather intelligence."

When the odd case did come to prosecution, the intelligence community resorted to other techniques. In 1991, when the head of International Signals Corp., James Guerin, first tried using the CIA connection for defense, "former government officials" started talking to reporters in an effort to destroy Guerin's credibility. He was eventually given a 15-year jail term. Ironically, it was a similar case that finally went to trial for years later that broke open the story of the CIA's involvement in arming Iraq. The government leaned so hard on Teledyne Industries, which supplied military-grade zirconium to Chilean arms manufacturer Industrias Cardoen, that the company agreed to plead guilty to export violations and pay several million dollars in fines, to avoid a public trial that most likely would have exonerated it from any wrong-doing. But the plea did not stop a separate trial of two former Teledyne employees in Miami. On January 31, 1995, just two weeks after Teledyne's guilty plea, former Reagan Administration National Security Counsel official Howard Teicher filed an affidavit on behalf of the employees, spelling out the secret U.S. policy in great detail. Teicher stated that he was in a position to know about U.S. military assistance to Saddam because he personally helped draft a still-classified National Security Decision Directive, signed by President Reagan in 1982, that authorized the United States to "do whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran."

With the new instructions in hand, Teicher says, CIA Director William Casey "personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iraq-Iran war." While the bulk of Iraq's arsenal consisted of Soviet and French weapons, making it impractical for the U.S. to ship main weapons systems or even spare parts to Iraq, the CIA identified one key need the U.S. could fulfill: cluster bombs and anti-armor penetrators. "When I joined the NSC staff in early 1982, " Treicher says, CIA Director Casey was adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier' that would allow the Iraqis to defend against the 'human waves' of Iranian attackers. I recorded these comments in the minutes of National Security Planning Group meetings in which Casey or Deputy CIA Director Robert Gates participated."

Carlos Cardoen, head of Chile's Industrias Cardoen, alleges that he was approached by the U.S. to sell the cluster bombs to Iraq in the early 1980's, and received U.S. assistance to provide the weapons in Chile. His company was given access to U.S. blueprints of the "Rockeye" cluster bomb, made by James Guerin's International Signals Corp. Cardoen also received highly sensitive raw materials from the United States, such as military-grade zirconium from a Teledyne subsidiary. by controlling Cardoen's supplies, the CIA may have thought the U.S. could regulate the flow of weapons to Iraq, increasing it in time of need and reducing it to a trickle in slack times. That may well have been true during the Iran-Iraq war. But when Iraq emerged victorious against Iran in June 1988, Saddam Hussein decided to produce the cluster bombs locally, and turned to Cardoen to build a plant to produce them in Iraq. Much of the equipment for the plant was purchased by Matrix Churchill Ltd., House Banking Committee investigators found, financed by BNL-Atlanta. The U.S. Customs Service raided Cardoen's Florida office in 1991, and he was indicted in May 1993 along with Teledyne.

But once again the Justice Department never brought the case to court. In a February 8, 1995 interview with the Chilean newspaper La Segunda, Cardoen himself explained, "We had nothing and have nothing to hide from the CIA, nor the United States government, nor anyone." The U.S., he insisted, had been behind him "all the way" in his dealings with Iraq. The Justice Department also declined to prosecute Kennametal-a key supplier to the Cardoen cluster bomb plant in Iraq and Marianne Gasior's former employer-referring the matter instead to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, where it languishes to this day. (A Treasury spokesman says, rather defensively, "There has been no effort to bury this investigation.") Internal corporate documents obtained by congressional investigators and U.S. Customs reveal Kennametal's British subsidiary continued to ship tungsten-carbide parts to an Iraqi front company after the United Nations embargo on Iraq, fully aware that the equipment was to be used in an Iraqi weapons plant. "That ." says Gasior, "is a clear violation of Trading with the Enemy Act."

Of all the neglected investigations, though, it is the burying of the BNL scandal that remains the most tantalizing. The final report exonerated every company that sold high technology to Iraq during the 1980's. In some cases, the report concluded, the companies had legally obtained export licenses for sales. In others, the statute of limitations had run out. In still others, the violations were so technical that the Justice department declined to prosecute because of the high cost, or because a prosecution, even if successful, would have little if any deterrent effect." Perhaps, as John Hogan and Jack Blum conclude, U.S. export control laws were so lax that no prosecutable offenses were ever committed-or if they were committed, the slight penalties render prosecution disproportionately expensive. Or perhaps, as a former investigator for Congressman Henry Gonzalez now admits, the whole BNL scandal affair was merely a political witch hunt aimed at discrediting George Bush during the 1992 campaign. If so, the Clinton campaign seems to have been aware just how risky a gambit it was. Top campaign adviser George Stephanopoulos faxed a brief memo to staffers in Nashville-after Gore had called the BNL scandal "worse than Watergate"-telling them to lay off the Iraq charges. The memo, made available to Marianne Gasior and a reporter by a former campaign worker who accidentally received a copy, was dated October 14, 1992, and began by praising the Gore staff for making Iraqgate a "very strong campaign issue [which] has gained votes and a great deal of attention for the Democratic Party." Then it concluded: At this point in time, though, the Clinton staff in Little Rock, Arkansas believes that this situation has [addressed] itself, and no longer needs attention. In fact, it has done enough damage to the Republican party and campaign that we now can sit on the fact that we have made it clear to the Bush people that they were involved in subterfuge vis-a-vis Saddam Hussein and Iraq...Please refrain from any more talk about Iraqgate. Stephanopoulos had reason for concern: As governor of Arkansas, Clinton had been a vocal supporter of U.S. exports to Iraq. He had also opposed Operation desert Storm. Or perhaps Stephanopoulos may have been worried that Hillary's involvement with Lafarge would come out.

Whatever the reason, Clinton's campaign staff seems to have been especially sensitive to the Iraq matter-in a way strikingly analogous to his Justice Department's tip-toe fashion of pursuing the BNL scandal. Despite Jack Blum's assertions to the contrary, might Bill Clinton's ties to the intelligence community run deeper than previously imagined? Such unsuspected connections to Bill Clinton could account for at least some of Janet Reno's reluctance to pursue the BNL scandal vigorously. If the report was indeed a cover-up to protect the intelligence community, then the CIA's influence over the Justice department is more powerful than anybody outside the Clinton administration might have suspected. Nobody but William Safire of the New York Times seems to have paid attention, but just three weeks after the BNL report was released, Reno decided to pay the bank more than $400 million-U.S. taxpayer money-to compensate the losses of its Atlantic branch by Iraq. "Mr. Clinton's BNL bailout,' Safire scolded, "makes him a $400 million participant in Iraqgate." That pay-off may yet turn out to be the least of the Clinton's connections to this scandal.
http://www.gulfweb.org/doc_show.cfm?ID=527

posted February 19, 2005 03:21 PM            

quote:

---

]Are you totally deranged Petron? The person who sold those chemicals to Saddam, Van Anraat is Dutch, having absolutely no connection to the United States government.

---

quote:

---

well i thought van annrats excuse that he didnt know what the precursor chemicals would be used for rang as hollow as jwhops claim that the u.s. wouldnt know what saddam would use the materials he got from u.s. were to be used for....
i mean sheeesh ...the pentagon was feeding saddam satelite intelligence at the time....

---

The more you post Petron, the more deranged you sound. The fact remains that Van Anraat is Dutch, that he is not and has not been connected in any way to the US, that he sold dual use chemicals to Saddam.

Now having said that, let me further say that Van Anraat selling Sadam dual use chemicals has absolutely nothing what so ever to do with the US supplying Saddam satellite photos of Iranian troop movements.
It's a really nice try to connect....in some absurd way...Van Anratt to the United States but as most of your initiatives fail, this one follows the same illogical thought process.

quote:

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btw jwhop does the u.s. sell that kind of stuff to countries on the state departments list of states that sponsor terrorism?????!!!!

---

posted February 19, 2005 05:18 PM              

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What was Hillary Clinton doing on the board of directors of a cement company? Over a year ago, in August 1995, I pointed out that:

"Hillary Clinton, while one of the chief litigators of the Rose law firm and wife of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, was a director of Lafarge corporation, whose Marblehead, Ohio subsidiary Standard Lafarge is said to have been utilized in the transport network to ferret machine tools and nose cones out of Pittsburgh and into Canada for shipment to Iraq." (Part 19: Allegations Regarding Vince Foster, the NSA, and Banking Transactions Spying.)

Now the Nov. 1996 issue of The American Spectator amplifies this assertion, quoting the words of Marianne Gasior, a lawyer who worked for Kennametal Inc., a machine-tools manufacturer located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania: "Hillary Rodham Clinton was directly linked to the network that was involved in a clandestine CIA arms export ring."

"Marianne Gasior maintains that the Lafarge Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of a French multinational chemicals concern, provided key services for the covert arms export network that supplied Saddam Hussein. To prevent exposure of that secret supply line, and collateral damage to Hillary Clinton—who joined the Lafarge board in 1990, just as the pipeline was being shut down— Gasior alleges that the Justice Department was told to bury the investigation . . .
"From Marblehead the equipment was carried on cargo ships up the St. Lawrence River to Canada and eventually to Britain, Gasior alleges, where Kennametal's U.K. subsidiary relabeled some of the goods as manufctured in the European Community. They were then exported to Iraq." (Kenneth R. Timmerman, "Whatever Happened to Iraqgate," The American Spectator, November 1996).

So here we have the cozy world of Hillary Clinton, Lafarge, and Kennametal doing business with Saddam Hussein, whom Bill Clinton decided to bomb as part of his Presidential re-election campaign.

What the American Spectator article omits is mention of two key individuals with significant investments in Kennametal: Richard Mellon Scaife of Mellon Bank fame, and Jackson Stephens--the Little Rock banker who ran Little Rock's Worthen Bank with the Riady family of Indonesia (whose ex-employee John Huang recently raised a spectacular amount of campaign funds for the Clintons). Worthen Bank, of course, is well known for making a crucial, last-minute loan to the 1992 Clinton campaign.

Kennametal was previously convicted of money- laundering, and only a naif would believe they have changed their ways. In fact, a secret Caribbean bank account held by Kennametal was recently emptied of its contents. By whom? you ask. Certainly not the Fifth Column, for I have been told for a year-and-a-half by the skeptics that the Fifth Column can't do what I said it was doing. So it must have been the CIA:

"The CIA is going into cyberspace to attack a new generation of criminals with computer viruses. President Bill Clinton is expected to approve a range of covert actions designed to take the campaign to stop criminals into the most sophisticated technological realms.
"The measures will allow the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) to hack into the records of bank accounts held by known international terrorists and steal their money. They will also enable the agencies to plant bugs and viruses inside the computers used by terrorists and their sponsors.

" 'The modern terrorist and organised criminal has access to the best computers, the best money laundering and the best encryption,' said an intelligence officer. 'We must have the same.'

"America has had this capability for some years but has been barred from using it by law, which forbids such covert action without presidential approval." ("Crooks face CIA hackers," Sunday Times, October 27, 1996).

Imagine that, hacking into the bank accounts of crooks and stealing their money! What a concept! Who would have ever thought of it?
But in the case of Kennametal's secret bank account, since Gasior asserts Kennametal was itself part of the CIA arms network, it would appear that Richard Mellon Scaife and Jackson Stephens were hogging too much of the profits. (Remember boys, as they say in Arkansas: You feed a pig; you butcher a hog.) It's a good thing Bill Clinton is around to authorize the CIA and NSA to put a stop to all this.

Meanwhile, I wonder what else lies buried beneath the surface of Hillary Clinton's cement company.

posted February 19, 2005 05:24 PM            

quote:

---

well i thought van annrats excuse that he didnt know what the precursor chemicals would be used for rang as hollow as jwhops claim that the u.s. wouldnt know what saddam would use the materials he got from u.s. were to be used for....
i mean sheeesh ...the pentagon was feeding saddam satelite intelligence at the time....

---

posted February 19, 2005 06:29 PM            

We know the long range Scud missile was shipped from the Soviet Union or it's later incarnation, Russia.

Is any of that relevant...for the time frame mentioned? Was the sale of machine tools and even nose cones...silently alleged to be missile nose cones....or nose cones for Bozo the Clown, forbidden to be shipped to Iraq in the late 80's. Is there anything in the article or elsewhere that proves or even alleges nose cones and/or machine tools were shipped from America to Iraq after the Gulf War and after sanctions were imposed on Saddam by the UN?

It also occurs to me that someone who has the metal fabrication equipment could and would make their own nose cones, especially if they wanted the activity to remain undetected.

posted February 19, 2005 08:18 PM              

lets see.... van anraat is accused of selling precursors for the textile industry (i hope he is convicted)

*******

The United States provided the Government of Iraq with "dual use" licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological, and missile- system programs, including 6)

chemical warfare agent precursors;
chemical warfare agent production facility plans and technical drawings
chemical warhead filling equipment;
biological warfare related materials;
missile fabrication equipment; and,
missile-system guidance equipment. http://www.chronicillnet.org/pgws/tuite/2NDINDEX.HTM

A 1995 affidavit by former National Security Agency official Howard Teicher, obtained by the Post, claimed that the U.S. "actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required."

When Iraq used chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1987, there was anger in Congress and the White House. But a memo in 1988 from Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy stated that "The U.S.-Iraqi relationship is … important to our long-term political and economic objectives." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/31/world/main534798.shtml

"Was the sale of machine tools and even nose cones...silently alleged to be missile nose cones....or nose cones for Bozo the Clown, forbidden to be shipped to Iraq in the late 80's"--jwhop.

posted February 19, 2005 10:12 PM            

quote:

---

"Was the sale of machine tools and even nose cones...silently alleged to be missile nose cones....or nose cones for Bozo the Clown, forbidden to be shipped to Iraq in the late 80's"--jwhop.

---

It was a good question when I asked you an hour or so ago and it's still a good question Petron. So, why don't you answer it..if you're capable of doing so?

posted February 27, 2005 06:58 PM              

"What's that?" called a voice
From 'way down by his feet.
The bear and the rabbit looked down at the sound,
And they saw an old worm crawling out of the ground.

"Now boys", said the worm, "you,ve been bragging alot.
You both think you're great.But I think you are not.
You're not half as good as a fellow like me.
You hear and you smell.But how far can you SEE?
Now, I'm here to prove to you big boasting guys
That your nose and your ears aren't as good as my eyes!"

And the little old worm cocked his head to one side
And he opened his eyes and he opened them wide.
And they looked far away with a strange sort of stare
As if they were burning two holes in the air.
The eyes of that worm almost popped from his head.
He stared half an hour til his eyelids got red.
"That's enough!" growled the bear,
"Tell the rabbit and me
How far did you look and just what did you see?"

"Well boys," the worm answered, "That look that I took
Was a look that looked further than you'll ever look!
I looked 'cross the ocean ,'way out to Japan.
For I can see farther than anyone can.
There's no one on Earth who has eyesight that's finer.
I looked past Japan, Then I looked across China.
I looked across Egypt.; then took a quick glance
Across the two countries of Holland and France.
Then I looked across England and, also, Brazil.
But I didn't stop there. I looked much farther still.

"And I kept right on looking and looking until
I'd looked 'round the world and right back to this hill!
And I saw on this hill, since my eyesight's so keen,
The two biggest fools that have ever been seen!
And the fools that I saw were none other than you,
Who seem to have nothing else better to do
Than sit here and argue who's better than who!"

Then the little old worm gave his head a small jerk.
And he dived in his hole and went back to his work.

Dr. Seuss --The BIG BRAG

**********

And now for a FoxNewz in Sockz Hollywood update........

George Bush, Halle Berry Share Worst Film Honors

Sat Feb 26,10:34 PM ET Movies - Reuters
By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beating such established Hollywood hunks as Colin Farrell and Vin Diesel, President Bush won the Golden Raspberry Award on Saturday for worst actor of the year for his appearance in Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."
The president not only was named worst male actor in a leading role, he also won for being half of the year's worst screen couple when paired with either Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or "My Pet Goat," the book he was reading to schoolchildren on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Two other "Fahrenheit" stars were "honored." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was named worst supporting actor and pop star Britney Spears won for worst supporting actress for a clip in which she declares blind faith in Bush's policies while popping chewing gum.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was named the worst Razzie loser of the last 25 years for having been nominated eight times and failing to win even once.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050227/film_nm/oscars_razzies_dc_3

posted March 11, 2005 12:30 PM              

Trying to Stave off the Lorax
by Aaron Wodin-Schwartz, Collegian Columnist

February 17, 2005

The Kyoto Protocol came into force on Wednesday, a full seven years after it was initially negotiated to reverse climate change and global warming trends. Signatories must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, principally carbon dioxide, to below the levels they were at in 1990 (different regions and countries have different targets) between the years 2008 and 2012. The pact is widely acknowledged by both supporters and detractors to be vastly insufficient to truly curb rising atmospheric levels of these destructive gasses, but is nevertheless an important start.

The most fascinating and promising aspect of the Kyoto agreement is its application of neo-classical economics to a global environmental problem. Given the lack of effective political cooperation or framework for environmental governance, any global solution must be incentive-based and easily enforceable. Thus, the authors of the protocol applied market principles to the pollution reduction measures by building in a carbon credits trading system. Companies are awarded credits based upon 1990 or more recent carbon dioxide emission levels (one credit is worth one metric ton of carbon dioxide) that they trade after accounting for all of their emissions. By contrast, companies that do not have enough credits to cover their carbon dioxide production must purchase the lacking credits from selling companies. After the government assigns carbon credits, their trade is dictated by the market, with the price rising in colder, drier months when carbon emissions are higher for electricity production.

The most developed signatories of the treaty have more prestigious targets (the top 39 countries all must cut emissions by at least 5.2 percent by 2012) than developing countries and least developed countries in order to maintain the relative fairness of trade. This means that a great number of the Kyoto accession states will actually be doing very little to limit their own emissions levels. As these countries develop, however, they will be expected to meet reduction criteria in the next stage of Kyoto that begins in 2013. By that time, India and China will account for more than 20 percent of world carbon dioxide levels and must step up and hold their industry responsible for upgrading equipment and reducing greenhouse gas emission.

The agreement's greatest deficiency is the absence of the United States. While Kyoto's 140 signatories account for some 62 percent of world carbon dioxide levels, the United States alone produces 25 percent more. In fact, the US ranked 45th in the 2005 index of environmental sustainability prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities, which is based upon 75 different measures including the rate at which children die from respiratory diseases, fertility rates, water quality, overfishing, emission of heat-trapping gases and the export of sodium dioxide, a crucial component of acid rain. Ahead of the US were countries such as Japan, Botswana, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and most of Western Europe.

Since atmospheric pollution is a global problem, the efforts by Kyoto states will be of little value to them if there is a lack of a comprehensive worldwide struggle. Being far behind Europe in terms of clean technology, the United States sees little cost incentive in joining the Kyoto Protocol and forcing both costly industry reform and the purchase of foreign carbon credits. The US will instead "free ride" the agreement and thereby gain a competitive advantage over their European counterparts by maintaining lower production costs for the same product.

Of course, in the Bush White House the story is always more complicated and corrupt than simple financial calculations. It is no secret that Bush is little more than a puppet for powerful American industries, especially when it comes to issues of energy and the environment. He has headed a string of industry-friendly legislation that has made its way through Congress and actually increased the rate of carbon dioxide emissions, amongst other things. Most recently, Bush has thrown his support behind Republican lawmakers in the Senate formulating more environmentally damaging legislation.

The Clear Skies Act of 2005 proposed by Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, Republican and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, as an amendment to the woeful Clean Air Act, is a Senate-led assault on proper environmental legislation. While the bill attempts to establish an emissions trading system similar to that of Kyoto, it targets only sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury - three human health hazards that are already on the out in most places. It refuses to set caps on carbon dioxide, which continues to deny US responsibility in addressing global warming, and allows companies to announce their environmentally-friendly reforms without actually making any significant alterations. Not wishing to anger his favorite lobbyists in the coal industry, Mr. Inhofe has openly opposed any sort of carbon dioxide cap, calling global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
http://www.dailycollegian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/17/4213e9a2bdeb2

posted March 13, 2005 07:36 PM              

ARMED NUCLEAR TIPPED MISSILES DISCOVERED IN IRAQ!!!

file photo

The dollar rose to its high for the day of $1.2265 per euro after United Press International, citing a report in the Iraqi newspaper al-Sabah, said Iraqi security forces had found missiles carrying nuclear warheads northwest of Baghdad. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a3cwJ5Zf.sqo&refer=us

KHUDIR AL- DORI UNVEILS THREE HIDDEN NUCLEAR MISSILES !!!

The daily al-Sabah newspaper Wednesday had quoted sources as saying three missiles armed with nuclear warheads were discovered in a trench near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The newspaper reported the three missiles were discovered by chance when Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear warheads.
A spokesman with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office told UPI that the report concerning the alleged missiles and warheads emerged "while gathering information for Saddam Hussein's tribunal" during the interrogation of a captured former official of Saddam's regime. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040721-081009-2541r.htm

KHUDIR AL- DORI UNVEILS THREE HIDDEN NUCLEAR MISSILES
Baghdad, As-Sabah , Page 1
The official sources at the ministry of interior and the national security advisor department have refrained commenting on the news of seizing three missiles of nuclear heads in the course of arresting Khudir al- Dori the former leader at the dissolved Baath party.Notably, Iraqi political sources on anonymity affirmed that the detaining of al- Dori by the Iraqi security departments resulted in the seize of three nuclear heads missiles .The sources indicated that Khudir al- Dori occupied top party and security posts during ex-regime. Al-Dori death announced after the collapse of the regime and counterfeiting death certificate issued for him. He was arrested in the site situated between Oja and Al-Dor .The sources were quoted as saying that these nuclear missiles were found in tunnel underground at six meters length were covered carefully to mislead sensitive scientific apparatuses detecting for these weapons. http://www.alsabaah.com/20040721/english.htm

THE LEFTIST PRESS PUNDITS ARE EERILY SILENT ON THIS GRIM CONFIRMATION OF BUSH JR.S REASON FOR INVADING IRAQ

FOR SEEMINGLY RELATED INFORMATION CLICK HERE ...........DubyaMD Found in Iraq

posted March 14, 2005 07:01 PM              

********

quote:

---

I don't know where you get your news "Evil" but if you're paying for it, they owe you a refund.
Iraq doesn't have any cruise missiles and never did
The missiles they do have that can reach all the way to Israel is the Scud, which they began firing at Kuwait the first day of the war.
Why would you feel attacked? Is the truth an attack on you?
Is there nothing you're sure enough about to comment on with any degree of certainty?

jwhop

---

********

Mindful of avoiding the inflated claims of success that followed the 1991 conflict, Army officials say this time they have studied electronic tapes of missile engagements and combed the desert for remains of intercepted missiles. The evidence, they say, confirms that Patriot systems destroyed all nine Iraqi missiles that were targeted. The missiles were either Al Samoud-2s or Ababil-100s; Iraq did not fire any of the longer-range Scuds that menaced U.S. forces and Israel in the 1991 war.

One Iraqi missile did hit a seawall in Kuwait City during the war's second week. But that, officials said, was a CSSC-3 Seersucker cruise missile that skimmed across the water from the Faw Peninsula, out of sight of Patriot radars scanning for higher-flying ballistic missiles from other directions.
http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/nmd/nmdupdates/030508.html

*******
"By the way, Saddam fired another of those missiles he "doesn't have" into Kuwait today."-jwhop

(im not sure if jwhop was referring to the cruise missiles[range 95 km] he says iraq "didnt have" or the scuds he says iraq "did have"....)

******

posted March 19, 2005 02:32 AM              

"Hooray!" shouted Yertle. "I'm king of the trees!
I'm king of the birds! And I'm king of the bees!
I'm king of the butterflies! King of the air!
Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair!
I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

posted April 01, 2005 11:00 PM              

"There is evidence that this war was planned well in advance. Sometimes this raises doubts about their attitude to the (weapons) inspections," Blix told Spanish daily El Pais.

"I now believe that finding weapons of mass destruction has been relegated, I would say, to fourth place, which is why the United States and Britain are now waging war on Iraq.

Today the main aim is to change the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein," he said, according to the Spanish text of the interview.

Blix said US President George W Bush had told him in October 2002 that he backed the UN's work to verify US and British claims that Baghdad was developing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

Washington 'less convinced now'

But he said he knew at the time "there were people within the Bush administration who were sceptical and who were working on engineering regime change". By the start of March the hawks in both Washington and London were getting impatient, he added.

Blix said that he thought the US might initially have believed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction - although its "fabrication" of evidence raised doubts about even that - but that Washington was now less convinced by its own claims.

"I think the Americans started the war thinking there were some. I think they now believe less in that possibility.

But I don't know - you ask yourself a lot of questions when you see the things they did to try and demonstrate that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons, like the fake contract with Niger," he explained.

That was a reference to US allegations - later denied - that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium from the west African state of Niger.

"I'm very curious to see if they do find any (weapons)," he said.

Blix said the war, which on Wednesday entered its 21st day, was "a very high price to pay in terms of human lives and the destruction of a country" when the threat of weapons proliferation could have been contained by UN inspections.

By attacking Iraq, Washington had sent the wrong message - that if a country did not possess biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, it risked being attacked.

US sending out the wrong signal

"The United States maintains that the war on Iraq is designed to send a signal to other countries to keep away from weapons of mass destruction.

But people are getting a different message.

Take the announcement North Korea has just made. It's tantamount to saying 'if you let in the inspectors, like Iraq did, you get attacked'.

North Korea accused the United States on Sunday of using a UN Security Council discussion of its nuclear programme as a "prelude to war" and warned that it would fully mobilise and strengthen its forces.

"It's an important problem," Blix continued.

"If a country perceives that its security is guaranteed, it won't need to consider weapons of mass destruction. This security guarantee is the first line of defence against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

The 74-year-old Swede announced in March that he would step down from his post when his contract runs out in June.

Blix's reputation for independence and resisting political pressure was sorely tested as the Iraq crisis unfolded and US officials became exasperated with his measured reports on Iraqi cooperation with his inspection teams.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1345303,00.html

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

And poor Mr. Bix!
Every morning at six,
poor Mr. Bix has his Borfin to fix!

It doesnt seem fair. It just doesnt seem right,
but his Borfin just seems to go shlump every night.
It shlumps in a heap, sadly needing repair.
Bix figures its due to the local night air.

It takes him all day to un-shlump it.
And then....
the night air comes back
and it shlumps once again!

So don't you feel blue.Dont get down in the dumps.
You're lucky you don't have a Borfin that shlumps.

--Dr. Seuss--- Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?

*******

"you cant prove a negative!!...... do shlumping Borfins exist?"

posted April 01, 2005 11:57 PM            

Ummmm, it seems to me that 12 years and 16 UN Resolutions calling for Saddam to comply with the provisions of the cease-fire agreement were more than plenty.

BRIEFING OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL, 14 FEBRUARY 2003
Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix

"Such cooperation, as I have noted, requires more than the opening of doors. In the words of resolution 1441 (2002) – it requires immediate, unconditional and active efforts by Iraq to resolve existing questions of disarmament – either by presenting remaining proscribed items and programmes for elimination or by presenting convincing evidence that they have been eliminated."

"How much, if any, is left of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and related proscribed items and programmes? So far, UNMOVIC has not found any such weapons, only a small number of empty chemical munitions, which should have been declared and destroyed. Another matter – and one of great significance – is that many proscribed weapons and items are not accounted for. To take an example, a document, which Iraq provided, suggested to us that some 1,000 tonnes (umm, that's 2,000,000 pounds) of chemical agent were “unaccounted for”. One must not jump to the conclusion that they exist. However, that possibility is also not excluded. If they exist, they should be presented for destruction. If they do not exist, credible evidence to that effect should be presented.

We are fully aware that many governmental intelligence organizations are convinced and assert that proscribed weapons, items and programmes continue to exist. The US Secretary of State presented material in support of this conclusion. Governments have many sources of information that are not available to inspectors. Inspectors, for their part, must base their reports only on evidence, which they can, themselves, examine and present publicly. Without evidence, confidence cannot arise."
http://www.jsonline.com/news/blixreport021403.asp

posted April 02, 2005 11:27 AM              

"I think it's clear that in March, when the invasion took place, the evidence that had been brought forward was rapidly falling apart," Hans Blix, who oversaw the agency's investigation into whether Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

Blix described the evidence Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 as "shaky," and said he related his opinion to U.S. officials, including national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"I think they chose to ignore us," Blix said.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/21/iraq.weapons/

*******

We also have to soberly examine evidence that comes from other governments as well. They have been saying for a long time that Iraq made an effort to import active uranium, and my colleague demonstrated the other day that they came to the conclusion that it was a fake document that everybody is relying upon. So I don't think it's our job to take evidence for granted, anywhere.--hans blix

*********

quote:

---

SEC of State Powell laid out the US position on Iraq's WMD to the UN. Perhaps anyone who has doubts Iraq had WMD should read it. --jwhop

---

quote:

---

Where I put up the cartoons of those biological vans, we didn't just make them up one night--colin powell

---

posted April 02, 2005 01:33 PM            

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein had not complied with UN Resolutions demanding he comply fully with the cease-fire agreement he signed.

The intelligence services of the world's nations believed and were asserting that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction...as Blix the Blind stated in his report to the UN Security Council.

quote:

---

We are fully aware that many governmental intelligence organizations are convinced and assert that proscribed weapons, items and programmes continue to exist

---

As a consequence of those facts Petron, all those who insist Bush lied about Saddam's WMD are themselves lying or repeating the lies of others. So Petron, what is your excuse for perpetuating the lie?

You guys are really boring me. We all know you don't have the balls to take me down.

posted May 23, 2005 06:13 PM              

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

Let me begin with a very valuable lesson I've learned -- a lesson that has influenced my well-being -- and here it is: Listen to your mother. (Laughter and applause.) I had little choice. My Mom has a way of speaking her mind. When I paid attention, I benefitted. When I didn't, I paid the price. That's how it still works. (Laughter.) http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040521-4.html

"You hush up your mouth!" howled the mighty King Yertle.
"You've no right to tallk to the world's highest turtle.
I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!
There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!"
-Dr. Seuss-"Yertle the Turtle"

"And you can criticize me, but don't criticize my children and don't criticize my daughters-in-law and don't criticize my husband, or you're dead." --Barbara Bush
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=3486&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported

"You stay in you place while I sit here and rule.
I'm King of a cow! And I'm king of a mule!
I'm king of a house! And a bush! And a cat!
But that isn't all. I'll do better than that!
My throne shall be higher!" his royal voice thundered,
"So pile up more turtles! I want 'bout two hundred!"
-Dr. Seuss-"Yertle the Turtle"

"But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that.?"
-- FORMER FIRST LADY BARBARA BUSH -- ABC/Good Morning America, March 18, 2003 http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0523-04.htm

It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
for the places and people you're lucky you're not!

-Dr. Seuss-"Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?"

posted December 09, 2005 09:18 PM              

Now there are more than 1,300 American deaths. Barely a morning's work for a signature machine.

Updated: 2:52 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2004

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to personally sign condolence letters to the family members of U.S. troops killed in action rather than letting a machine affix his signature.

Republican and Democratic members of Congress criticized the embattled Pentagon chief on Sunday for not signing the letters himself all along.

“My goodness, that’s the least that we could expect of the secretary of defense, is having some personal attention paid by him,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., noting that President Bush signs such letters himself.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6734410/

*********

And poor Mr. Potter
T crosser, I dotter,
He has to cross T's
And he has to dot I's
In an I and T factory,
Out in Van Nuys...