Paul E. Ester's Flogger

Edwin Wilson was convicted in Houston in 1983 of smuggling arms to Libya at a time when the threat of Libyan terrorism was major news. Congress was mounting investigations into controversial CIA activities around the globe, and CIA administrators were actively trying to deflect criticism.

Wilson, now 75, has been in prison ever since, serving a 52-year sentence. His conviction was vacated in a decision made Monday and announced Tuesday.

Wilson claimed he shipped 20 tons of plastic explosives out of Houston Intercontinental Airport at the request of the CIA. The federal government denied this, and at the heart of the case against him was a CIA affidavit submitted by prosecutors stating Wilson had not done any work for the CIA since his retirement in February 1971.

But U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes spelled out in his order vacating Wilson’s conviction, that the CIA forwarded a memo to the U.S. attorney’s office a few days after he was convicted — but before he was sentenced — alerting them that they had since discovered at least five projects Wilson had worked on for the CIA after 1971 — including a planned trip to Iran with the CIA’s deputy director.

The CIA forwarded the memo to the U.S. attorney’s office, Hughes said, but after debating the issue for months, decided not to inform Wilson’s attorneys. Wilson appealed, but the government failed to acknowledge that the affidavit was false.

The Justice Department has until Feb. 6, 2004, to initiate a new trial against Wilson.

Hughes said he could not comment on his decision to throw out the conviction, but his written opinion communicates his perception that there was a miscarriage of justice.

“The court has identified about two dozen government lawyers who actively participated in the original non-disclosure to the defense, the false rebuttal testimony, and the refusal to correct it,” Hughes wrote. “Government regularity — due process — requires personal and institutional integrity.”

Documents provided for the court showed that Houston prosecutor Jim Powers participated in lengthy meetings at the Department of Justice, Hughes wrote, “where they discussed techniques for dodging the plain meaning of the (CIA) affidavit and its contradictions.”

The federal government continues to claim that Wilson has not proved that prosecutors knew the affidavit to be false, Hughes noted.

Dan Hedges, who was U.S. attorney in Houston at the time Wilson was being prosecuted, said Tuesday night that he had not read Hughes’ opinion, but said, “It was a complex matter. We received records from the CIA and relied on them, and I’d be curious to see what the judge had to say about that.”

U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby of the Houston-based Southern District of Texas said his office was reviewing Hughes’ 24-page opinion and had not decided whether to appeal. “Obviously the charges (against Wilson) are very significant, and we want to make sure we do the right thing,” Shelby said.

Wilson’s attorney, David Adler, said he called his client at the Pennsylvania prison where he’s been for the past decade. He spent the decade before in solitary confinement in Marion, Ill., Adler said…. Rest of Article

President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and dozens of pundits reacted with outrage last week when a U.S. diplomatic convoy traveling through Gaza was hit by a bomb attack, claiming the lives of three security guards. What few bothered to mention was that the victims — John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Linde, Jr. — weren’t U.S. soldiers or State Department staff. They were employees of Dyncorp, a Virginia-based defense contractor hired to provide security to U.S. diplomats in Israel.

State Department officials downplayed that fact after the attack, referring to the slain security men as “part of the Embassy and part of the team.” Still, the attack in Gaza highlighted a growing trend in federal contracting — Washington’s reliance on “private military companies” to perform tasks once reserved for the military. … Rest of Article

A parasitic disease being spread by sand flies in Iraq has prompted officials who oversee the military’s blood supply to implement a one-year donor deferral for military personnel serving in that country.

The reason for the deferral is a form of the disease Leishmaniasis, which causes sores or lesions on the skin, and which in its most serious form can cause death. … Rest of Article

Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.

To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers’ homecomings on all military bases.

In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. “There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops,” the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains. … Rest of Article

Last year I went to Nairobi in Kenya. I was not aware that Nairobi has a great problem with monkeys which cause a lot of nuisance. I unpacked and left my laptop on a table by the window. During the day I was in the next room when I heard a noise coming from my bedroom and when I went to investigate I saw a monkey hopping out of the bedroom window with my laptop. It then sat in the tree clutching it and watched me. When I went outside and tried to entice it down it just continued to stare at me. I then started shouting and as the monkey became frightened, it promptly threw the laptop away. The result was a cracked and bashed laptop that would not work anymore. Moral of the story – if you leave your laptop unattended in Nairobi – leave a banana on top of it as a protection offering.
Bill, UK … Rest of Article

TOLEDO, OHIO — An elite unit of U.S. soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, the Toledo Blade reported Sunday.

Soldiers of Tiger Force, a unit of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers — including women and children — hid, and shot farmers without warning, the newspaper reported.



Soldiers told the Blade they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks.

The Army’s 4 1/2-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The investigation substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, the Blade said.

William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, Mo., said he killed so many civilians in 1967 he lost count…. Rest of Article

Plans for the Queen and George W Bush to make a triumphant procession along the Mall during the president’s state visit next month have been abandoned because of fears of anti-war protests…. Rest of Article

U.S. troops may have to stay in Iraq until 2006 to fully secure the country they invaded in March, a top U.S. general said Friday. … Rest of Article

The general leading the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein has publicly declared that the Christian God is “bigger” than Allah, who is a false “idol”, and believes the war on terrorism is a fight with Satan, it emerged yesterday.


Investigative reporters from the Los Angeles Times and NBC television have dug up two years’ worth of seemingly incendiary comments from Lt Gen William “Jerry” Boykin, the newly promoted deputy undersecretary of state of defence for intelligence.


Gen Boykin has repeatedly told Christian groups and prayer meetings that President George W Bush was chosen by God to lead the global fight against Satan. … Rest of Article

“I shouldn’t be complaining,” Specialist Castillo said. “The Army can’t keep me there forever.”… Rest of Article