Paul E. Ester's Flogger

The case of Ashcroft and the MKO shows just how murky fighting terrorism can sometimes get…. Rest of Article

Travellers’ Rest Fact And Fiction About Irish Travellers in the U.S.A.

In 1995, Teicher offered an affidavit in the Teledyne case, a legal sideshow to a larger scandal known as “Iraqgate.” According to Teicher, he and Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Iraq to make sure the Iraqi dictator received what he needed in order to win the Iran-Iraq war — or if not win at least make sure there was a draw. “CIA Director Casey personally spearheaded the effort to ensure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles,” Teicher swore in the affidavit. … Rest of Article

Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century… Rest of Article

Some fine cheesecake

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said President BushÕs plans to invade Iraq are a conscious effort to distract public attention from growing problems at home.

ÒThis administration, all of a sudden, wants to go to war with Iraq,Ó Byrd said. ÒThe [political] polls are dropping, the domestic situation has problems…. So all of a sudden we have this war talk, war fervor, the bugles of war, drums of war, clouds of war.

ÒDonÕt tell me that things suddenly went wrong. Back in August, the president had no plans…. Then all of a sudden this country is going to war,Ó Byrd told the Senate on Friday.

ÒAre politicians talking about the domestic situation, the stock market, weaknesses in the economy, jobs that are being lost, housing problems? No.Ó
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The deals were done with special purpose entities with names like Hawaii 125-0, Nikita, SO2, Backbone and Cerberus. And several of them involved other companies closely affiliated with Enron, like LJM2, which was run by Andrew S. Fastow, the company’s former chief financial officer, and assets tied to Enron Oil and Gas, EOTT Energy Partners and NewPower Holdings, which were company spin-offs.

The deals also involved some of the world’s biggest banks, including the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Barclays, FleetBoston Financial and Credit Suisse First Boston. Spokesmen for those banks were unavailable for comment late today. In the past, most of them have said their dealings with Enron were proper…. Rest of Article

In 1995, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention provided to then-Senator Donald Riegel (D-Mich.) a complete list of all biological materials — including viruses, retroviruses, bacteria, and fungi — that the CDC provided to Iraq from Oct. 1, 1984 through Oct. 13, 1993. Among the materials on the list are several types of dengue and sandfly fever virus, West Nile virus, and plague-infected mouse tissue smears. In his letter to Riegel, then-CDC Director David Satcher wrote: “Most of the materials were non-infectious diagnostic reagents for detecting evidence of infections to mosquito-borne viruses.”
Here’s the complete letter and list of biological materials: … Rest of Article

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan – US special operations troops were sent to Afghanistan to battle Al Qaeda and Taliban. But here in Bamiyan Province, they spend their days cruising the area, blowing up weapons caches, making friends, and becoming frustrated.
”Not that I’m a warmonger, but I came here to kill Al Qaeda and Taliban,” said Sergeant 1st Class ”Doc,” a medic with the US Army’s 19th Special Forces Group. ”And they won’t even let me go hunt them.”
… Rest of Article