The Slaughterhouse Informer

A Compendiium of Various Official Lies, Business Scandals, Small Murders, Frauds, and Other Gross Defects of Our Current Political, Business and Religious Moral Lepers.

Presenting a new magazine that contains material that is not found elsewhere and is very difficult to post on the Internet. The ‘Voice of the White House’ will appear in each issue containing material not found on TBR News for very obvious reasons.This publication will appear once a week, on Wednesday, every week, will be ten pages in length and is available by subscription only. The price is $5.00 a month and can be paid via PayPal or by check, sent to ‘Morris Productions, 3105 E. New Yort St. Ste A2-190, Aurora, Il 60504.’ If you don’t like it, and Bush supporters can read the Drudge Report for free, you can cancel at any time.

Civil insurrection in America and government countermeasures: The official papers

By Bradley Moscrip

An in-depth study of official American plans to construct FEMA detention centers in America and specific recent U.S. Army domestic counterinsurgency plans. Here is a sampling of the ebook contents:

Gun Control by Confiscation

As the American general population is known to be the most heavily armed in the world, immediately upon the declaration of Martial Law and the execution by the military of counterinsurgency programs, it has been determined that the BATF, will begin the process of rounding up all rifles, pistols and so-called assault weaponry from the civil population. Lists of gun collectors obtained from firearms dealers, gun magazine subscription lists and other sources will be the basis for these mass confiscations. Gun owners will be supplied documentation by the BATF showing which pieces have been confiscated so that in the future, they will be told, they can recover their weapons when the state of emergency has passed. In actuality, weapons that do not have a high value or are not suitable for arming loyalist police forces, will be destroyed by order

This study is available from tbrnews at $5.00 by PayPal  

The Voice of the White House

                Washington, D.C., February 12, 2009: “I have just read through a long ms from an investigative journalist of considerable experience and veracity, concerning the alleged “wreck of the SS New York” and a large collection of very rare American coins she might have been carrying. He alleges that while such a ship may have sunk, there wss no such reported storm as the one that allegedly sank her and that initial investigation of portions of an unidentified wreck were not conclusive to her origin. He said the story had been based on a minor discovery and subsequently used as the basis for proving the origins of a flood of rare American gold coins, unfortunately for the collecting world,  now being minted in China.. The convenient legend was based on the finding of the SS Central America, off the Atlantic coast, a ship that did carry a large consignment of very rare gold coins.  In addition to the flood of stories, all from coin dealers,of what he says with some humor is a “rare coin discovery”  that will grow and grow, like Mel Fischer’s “Spanish” coin discoveries the  sold huge numbers of modern casts to gullible customers. The author of this manuscript says further that a Chinese government mint has been “cranking out” tens of thousands of counterfeit older American coins for the unsuspecting American coin collectors. He says that these coins are: Morgan silver dollars of every year and mint, gold U.S. Indian head $2.50, $5.00 and $10 denominations and, of course, the coins purported to have been fished up from the Gulf of Mexico. His contention is that  by doing this  the Chinese government is knowingly  counterfeiting American coinage. In addition to the “rare early gold coins,” the Chinese are also counterfeiting the popular Morgan silver dollars to include every year of manufacture and every mint. The way a collector can determine the originality of a suspected piece is to weigh it. In order to increase their profits, the Chinese are striking these counterfeits out of silver and gold that are well below the carats of the original. For example, a gold coin would be struck of 10 carat gold and then plated with 23 carat gold to have the proper tone. The weight, however, is less than the originals. The same condition is to be found in the fake Morgan coins which are of a lesser purity and so, like the gold, weigh less. According to the manuscript, the number of these coins, rare discoveries or common silver dollars, is in the hundreds of thousands and given the publicity puff pieces fed to an unsuspecting media, a wonderful source of welcome dollars to China and numerous middlemen. And where, by the way, did Bernie Madoff hide his billions? I think the legions of those he swindled would like to know and further, would like our government to get it back for them”

Here are a spread of publications, starting with an initial discussion of the wreck of the New York by a government archeologist.

Jack B. Irion, Ph.D.

Minerals Management Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

 (Irion and Ball 2001),

The  Discovery of the New York

The Loss of the New York September 7, 1846

            The  New York left Galveston at 4:00 p.m. on the afternoon of September 5^th with 30 passengers and a crew of 23 under the command of Capt. John D. Phillips (The Daily Picayune, September 10,1846). Included among the passengers was Daniel J. Toler, formerly Postmaster General of the Republic of Texas The ship had scarcely made 50 miles when she ran straight into the path of a hurricane.

Unable to make any headway against the wind and heavy seas, Capt. Phillips ordered the New York to come to anchor to try to weather the storm. At 2 a.m. on the 7th, disaster struck when the wind, which had been blowing a gale from the northeast, hauled around to the southwest and hove her in the trough of he sea. The heavy seas carried away the caboose and sprang the planks, causing her to take on water. The crew struggled desperately, but unsuccessfully, to bring her head around into the wind. By 4 a.m., her smokestack was carried away and the heavy squall lifted off the stricken vessel's promenade deck, stove in her starboard guard and wheelhouse, and extinguished the boiler fires. As the wheelhouse was carried away, the bell of the ship gave one final toll, which, to the ship's clerk, "was the most solemn sound that ever fell upon my ear, I thought it the death knell to many, perhaps to all"

                (New Orleans Gazette, September 10, 1846)

                With the hull badly sprung and the upper works completely destroyed, the New York sank in 10 fathoms of water. Thirty-six people clung throughout the day to the remains of the promenade deck and other wreckage until another passing steamer, the Galveston, rescued them. Seventeen of her passengers and crew, including five children, drowned.

                 (The Daily Picayune, September 10, 1846).

                The1846 article in the New Orleans Daily Picayune inspired a south Louisiana oilfield worker and amateur diver to launch a five-year search for the wreck of the New York in Federal waters 50 miles offshore. Working with nothing more sophisticated than a fish-finder and a Loran, he had one huge advantage that professional archaeologists often lack – extensive family ties to the one group that has located more historic wrecks in the Gulf of Mexico than any other, commercial shrimpers. By systematically exploring the locations of net hangs recorded by shrimpers in their logbooks, a team finally located the wreck of the New York in 1990 in about 50 feet of water. With hopes of locating a lost safe full of gold and silver, a Louisiana salvage company was contracted to remove the

sand from the hull. Fortunately, the wreck's discoverer had an appreciation of the historical importance of the wreck and resisted the recommendation of his salvage contractor to clamshell the site

                Excavation of the ship proved difficult because of the unconsolidated silt and sand bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Ultimately, a large area of the hull was exposed, but almost no artifacts were recovered, no doubt due to the violence of the wreck event. What few items were recovered, however, helped to secure the date of the wreck: a mortising machine patented in 1836, an 1827 King George IV gold sovereign, and two 1843 U.S. half dollars.

                In 1997, the discovery of the wreck of the New York came to the attention of archaeologists with the Minerals Management Service, the Federal agency tasked with overseeing oil and gas development in Federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf. Still smarting from their abortive attempt at treasure hunting and interested more now in preserving the history of the Gulf, the wreck's discoverers willingly led the MMS to the site for an exploratory dive. They have subsequently proven to be an invaluable resource for providing information on the location of other wrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.

                During the summers of 1997 and 1998, the scientific dive team of the MMS made a brief reconnaissance of the site of the New York  In addition to diving, the MMS conducted a magnetometer survey of the area to determine site size and limits in order to preserve the wreck from any possible disturbance from oil and gas activities. The MMS investigation was intended to confirm the identification of the vessel through analysis of its most prominent feature, a low-pressure, cross-head steam engine, and to assess the size of the wreckscatter

                The steam engine was  found to have toppled over on its starboard side. Identifiable parts of the machinery included the steam chest, thecam, the air pump, and condenser. The main piston cylinder had broken free from the condenser and was partly buried in the sand. All hull remains were buried and a paddle wheel shaft was observed by side-scan sonar some1,500 feet (454 m) to the west. The engine observed on the seafloor is compatible with the type known to have been used to power the New York  a rare, early form of steam engine based on a designs of James Watt and first used commercially in the U.S. by Robert Fulton. Based on this assessment, the wreck may be confidently identified as the New York a vessel clearly eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ed: Note the relatively straight forward reporting of the discovery of what might have been the wreck of the New York and the recovery of a few unimportant coins. This discovery  was published and subsequently we see a story someone planted with the Associated Press. This was followed by a flood of offers from various coin companies of very rare coins from this wreck.

Rare gold coins found in sunken steamship off US coast!

May 14, 2008

AP

                NEW ORLEANS – A steamship that sank off the Louisiana coast during an 1846 storm has produced a trove of rare gold coins, coin experts say.

                Last year, four Louisiana residents salvaged hundreds of gold coins and thousands of silver coins from wreckage the SS New York, submerged in about 60 feet (18 meters) of water in the Gulf of Mexico, said David Bowers, co-chairman of Stack's Rare Coins.

                "Some of these are in uncirculated or mint condition," Bowers said, and predicted the best could bring $50,000 to $100,000 (€32,310 to €64,630) apiece at auction.

                Of particular interest to coin experts are gold pieces known as quarter eagles and half eagles, which carried face values of $2.50 and $5 in the days before the United States printed paper currency.

                Those coins were struck at mints in New Orleans; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Dahlonega, Georgia. The Charlotte and Dahlonega Mints operated from 1838, when the first significant US gold deposits were found in those areas, until the start of the Civil War in 1861, said Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Denver. Neither reopened.

                "These are the first coins produced by gold from the United States," Mudd said. "The California gold rush didn't occur until about 1850."

                The United States minted tens of millions of gold coins before the federal government confiscated those held by individuals, banks and the US Treasury in 1933 and melted them into gold bars as the country abandoned the gold standard.

                "Relatively speaking, they are rare," Mudd said of the Charlotte- and Dahlonega-minted coins. "The Mints were set up to take advantage of the resources there." The Dahlonega Mint produced 1.38 million gold coins, while 1.2 million were minted in Charlotte.

                The treasure also includes $10 gold pieces, known as eagles, that were minted in Philadelphia and New Orleans, Mudd said.

                The SS New York was a 165-foot (50-meter) sidewheel steamer built in its namesake city in 1837. By 1846, it was making regular commercial runs between Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans.

                When the ship sank in the Gulf, 17 of the 53 people aboard were killed and the others were rescued.

                The wreckage, nearly covered in mud, was discovered in 1990 by four hobbyists who enjoyed looking for sunken vessels. After making several trips and bringing up a handful of coins at a time, they invested in a full-scale salvage operation in 2007.

                "What we've found is varied, a little of everything," said Craig DeRouen, who is on a leave from his job as a mechanical engineer in the oil industry. "There are different denominations from different years, silver and gold."

                DeRouen, along with fellow New Iberia residents Avery Munson and Gary and Renee Hebert, have ownership of the coins after obtaining title to the wreck from a federal court.

                Mudd said that, although the coins are worth much more today because of current gold prices around US$900 (€582) an ounce, the collector value could be more.

                "It depends upon the individual piece and its individual rarity," he said.

                John Albanese, a rare coin dealer in Far Hills, New Jersey, appraised about 200 of the gold coins. "This is the most impressive Southern-minted gold I've seen in my lifetime," he said.

                Mudd said US$100,000 (€64,630) might be possible for an exceptional coin, and that US$8,000 (€5,170) to US$16,000 (€10,340) wouldn't be unusual for a coin in high-grade condition.

                Gold resists saltwater corrosion, and mud that had collected on the coins was removed with a chemical compound that does not affect the metal, Bowers said. The silver coins are etched by the seawater, giving them a "shipwreck effect" that is popular with collectors, he said. – AP

Details of the Classic S.S. New York Steamship

                The S.S. New York was an elegant 160 foot side-wheel steamship, complete with a wooden-hull and built in its namesake city in 1837. The ship’s polished mahogany walls, white satin damask curtains, engraved silver, crystal, and fine white porcelain led one passenger to say that she felt like Cleopatra when on board the luxurious ship.

                During the majority of her career, the S.S. New York shuttled weekly between Galveston and New Orleans. The ship transported light merchandise, provisions, buffalo hides and cotton, as well as passengers back and forth. Occasionally she was chartered to transport troops to the U.S. army depot at Brazos Santiago in south Texas in support of the war against Mexico.

                In the fateful year of 1846, the S.S. New York set sail from Galveston, Texas at 4:00 pm on September 5th with 53 passengers and crew on board. Captain John D. Phillips maneuvered the rough winds and an even rougher sea the first night out. After barely making 50 miles, the ship found itself in the path of a major hurricane.

                The Captain ordered the anchor dropped to weather out the gale force winds. Unfortunately for the stalled ship, by 2:00 am on September 7th, the winds changed and swung the ship around the wrong direction.

                For two long hours the crew tried to turn the ship back into the wind, but giant waves began pelting the ship, carrying off the wheelhouse, the smokestack, and putting out the boiler fires. The ship’s bell rang out one final time before she was lost to sea, sending out the “death knoll” to all who heard it.

                Only 36 souls aboard the S.S. New York survived by holding on to ship debris for two days until they were rescued by the S.S. Galveston. The S.S. New York was lost to the sea, taking the lives of 17 people, including five children. Also lost in the shipwreck was some thirty to forty thousand dollars in U.S. gold coins, U.S. silver coins, and bank notes as reported in insurance reports and manifests.

The Re
                In 1846, news of the shipwreck was lost among stories of the Mexican-American War battles. Let’s put the shipwreck in its historical context. The Republic of Texas had only become a state a few months before the shipwreck. Texas was still America’s wild western frontier and settlers were still fighting Indians. There were few newspapers those days and the mail moved slowly by stagecoach. With the vast distances and the relatively low loss of lives, news of the shipwreck of the S.S. New York received little fanfare. Far more men were dying on the battlefields as America fought to defend Texas.

                As a result, this was a shipwreck that was apparently overlooked by salvage firms. It wasn’t until 144 years after the shipwreck that a Louisiana oil field worker and an amateur diver read a newspaper article about the sunken ship and decided to start looking for it. As unlikely as it seems, the oil field worker used his electronic fish finder equipment and research gained from shrimpers in the area, to find the exact location of the shipwreck. For many decades, maps of the area in the Gulf of Mexico labeled an area in the water that was dangerous to dragging shrimp nets as “snag.” The snag proved to be the remains of the 160 foot steamer’s paddlewheel, smokestack, and heavy boilers.

                The discovery of the S.S. New Yorker shipwreck led to excitement recently at the prospect of finally recovering some of the lost gold and silver coins minted before 1846. No doubt, the coins around the shipwreck would be worth a small fortune– sure to be highly prized by coin and shipwreck artifact collectors alike. At first, a contractor was hired to remove all of the sand from the hull of the ship, but barely any coins were found. Luckily, the oilfield worker appreciated the historical significance of the site and would not allow the contractor to demolish the wreck. Divers again examined the site in 1997 and 1998, but no one was able to find the lost silver and gold coins.

Finest
                Finally, in 2007 the remains of the S.S. New York were explored again by the original discoverers in a full-scale salvage operation. Craig DeRouen, Avery Munson, and Gary and Renee Hebert (pronounced “a-bear” in Louisiana) had wisely obtained rights to the shipwreck from a federal court, including ownership of all the rare and valuable coins that might be rescued. The operation proved to be quite a success for the treasure hunters– the coins were finally uncovered and carefully brought to the surface.

                After the recovery of coins from the S.S. New York Shipwreck, the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) was chosen to certify the authenticity and grade each coin individually. Each one will bear the official designation of “S.S. New York Shipwreck.”

                Thankfully, gold coins resist corrosion by saltwater and the rare coins from the Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans Mint were well preserved, some in high “Mint State” condition. A few of the coins have been appraised as “the most impressive Southern-minted gold known to exist.”

                Even the U.S. Silver coins will be highly collectible despite the fact that silver coins are often etched by seawater. NGC denotes such coins as having a “Shipwreck Effect” rather than assigning them a specific grade. In recent years, these shipwreck coins have become highly prized among collectors who appreciate the history, rarity, and exclusivity of owning coins with such an amazing pedigree.

Exclusive Release for Preferred Collectors

                Austin Rare Coins anticipates that none of these coins will be released to Preferred Collectors until August. In the meantime, a detailed book containing photos and a detailed history is being written. Certificates of Authenticity are being produced while the individual grading of each coin is being finalized by NGC.

                As one of the premier firms to release Shipwreck Coins to the American public, Austin Rare Coins expects the total number of coins to be quite small but the demand from collectors to be extraordinarily high. Never before in previous shipwrecks have coins been found from the Southern Mints in this condition, with dates this old. The large base of collectors in the process of completing collections of Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans Mint coins are sure to want to be first in line for this release by Austin Rare Coins

Add Your Name to the Top of the Waiting List !

                We would be happy to add your name to the top of our list of collectors who will be kept up to date and notified immediately when the S.S. New York shipwreck coins will be released. Simply fill out the form below and your request will be honored and your privacy guaranteed.

S.S. New York Steamer Rare U.S. Coins Recovered from Shipwreck!

After 161 years, the S.S. New York shipwreck has been recovered off the Gulf of Mexico. The ship was carrying an incredible treasure hoard of some of the earliest and rarest Gold Coins minted in the U.S. Southern Mints. Valued at over $1 million dollars, the U.S. Gold coins will be released to the American public.

            Amazingly, the coins on board the S.S. New York were some of the oldest Gold coins struck at the long-closed and little-known Southern Branches of the U.S. Mint. Experts report that the discovery includes some of the finest known Pre-Civil War half eagles and quarter eagles in the world. Recovered from this historic 1846 shipwreck were coins struck during America’s first gold rush starting in 1803 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and during the next gold rush in the Cherokee hills of Georgia in 1828.

            The recovered treasure also includes $10 Gold Eagles, as well as the $2.50 and $5.00 pieces issued by the Southern Mints of New Orleans, Charlotte, NC and Dahlonega, GA. These coins bear the mint marks of O, C, and D respectively and enjoy a strong base of American collectors. The latest reports are that some $10 Eagles were minted in New Orleans and others in Philadelphia. (Coins from the Mother Mint bear no mint mark.)

            Austin Rare Coins is proud to announce that we will again be among the first U.S. coin firms to release these authentic, shipwrecked coins from this extremely rare and valuable collection from the S.S. New York Shipwreck. In the past, the Austin Buying Trust was able to procure and release shipwreck coins directly to our Preferred Collectors

Editor’s note: Unfortunately for the accuracy of these sales pitches, a through check of Gulf of Mexico hurricanes indicates that there was no hurricane in September of 1846. Herewith an official listing of recorded Gulf hurricanes between 1844 and 1848:

• August 6, 1844 – Moving ashore in the extreme southern portion of Texas, a hurricane causes heavy damage, destroying most of the buildings near the coastline. On Brazos Island, the storm kills 70 people.
• April 3rd-4th, 1846:  Gulf of Mexico hurricane considered the most damaging since 1831. The storm cut a new boat channel between Cat Island and its lighthouse. It is possible this was an intense springtime low in the Gulf of Mexico, similar to the March storm of 1993, and not of tropical origin due to its time of occurrence.

·         October 17, 1848 – Another hurricane makes landfall near the mouth of the Rio Grande, which floods Brazos Island and causes above normal tides.

ED. More interesting and creative stories on this rare and valuable enhanced find can be seen at:

www.coinlink.com/News/us-coins/ngc-releases-ss-new-york-population-report/

www.coinlink.com/News/us-coins/the-ss-new-york-and-the-branch-mint-gold-market

acoins.com/ssnewyork.html –

coincollectingnews.blogspot.com/2008/06/ngc-releases-ss-new-york-shipwreck.html –

www.austincoins.com/ss_New_York_Shipwreck_Coins.htm

coins.www.collectors-society.com/news/ViewArticle.aspx?IDArticle=1048

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/95191/Rare-gold-coins-found-in-sunken-steamship-off-US-coast

The $9.7 Trillion Pledged to Fix the Financial Mess Could Have Paid off 90% of America’s Mortgages, Report Says

February 10, 2009

by Don Miller
Associate Editor
Money Morning

                As Senate Republicans and Democrats continue to bicker over the details of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner waits in the wings ready to unveil yet another bank bailout bill. 

                But almost forgotten in the headlong rush to devise measures to create jobs and save the financial system is the total cost of the government’s commitment to solving the economic crisis.

                Bloomberg News reported yesterday (Monday) that the tally of U.S. government spending could reach as much as $9.7 trillion - enough to pay off more than 90% of the nation’s home mortgages.

                Already, the U.S. Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged another $5.7 trillion if needed. That adds up to almost two-thirds of the value of the entire gross domestic product (GDP) for the U.S. economy last year.

                As astonishing as the number itself is a continuing lack of transparency in how and to whom the funds are being distributed. 

                “We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

                Notably, only the stimulus package currently on the table - along with the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and last year’s $168 billion tax rebate - have actually been voted on by lawmakers.  An additional $8 trillion is in the form of government lending programs and guarantees. 

                In fact, Bloomberg filed a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure of borrower banks and their collateral. Arguments in the suit may be heard as soon as this month.

                Meanwhile, the spending goes on. 

                The Senate is to vote this week on a stimulus package totaling at least $780 billion that President Obama says is needed to avert a deeper recession.  If it passes the Senate, it would have to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

                Treasury Secretary Geithner delayed announcing his new plan for addressing the banking crisis, details of which were reported yesterday in Money Morning.  The tab for that bailout is widely expected to total near $1 trillion. 

                But questions remain as to what effects the stimulus package and bank bailout will actually have on the economy, both near and long term.  

                The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last week that the measure is likely to create between 1.3 million and 3.9 million jobs by the end of 2010, lowering a projected unemployment rate of 8.7% by as much as 2.1 percentage points.

                But the CBO also warned the long-term effect of that much government spending over the next decade could “crowd out” private investment, lowering long-term economic growth forecasts by 0.1% to 0.3% by 2019.

                And simple mathematics calls into question assertions that another bailout will rescue banks teetering on the edge of insolvency. 

                Bank losses from the write-offs of bad loans and faulty derivatives add up to $1.5 trillion so far. Additionally, regulators are forcing banks to account for $5 trillion to $10 trillion worth of off-balance-sheet structured investment vehicles.

                Given that banking rules require banks to keep assets on hand equal to 10% of those funds, banks will need as much as $1 trillion in the next year. Adding $1.5 trillion in losses means banks will need as much as $2.5 trillion in new capital to remain solvent under current rules.

                “The banking system simply has no capital. All the money that’s been allocated so far has been like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.” Satyajit Das, a credit expert from Johannesburg, South Africa, told MSNBC.

                So is the $9.7 trillion pledged by the government going to be enough to pull the U.S. economy out of the fire? Who knows? 

                But here are a few facts:

• $9.7 trillion would be enough to send a $1,430 check to every man, woman and child alive in the world, Bloomberg reported.
• It’s 13 times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• And it’s almost enough to pay off every home mortgage loan in the United States, calculated at $10.5 trillion by the Federal Reserve.

                Although economists have been throwing around words like “trillion” like it’s nothing, $9.7 trillion is still is a lot of money. 

Finding a Way to Stem Foreclosures Proves Tricky

February 12, 2009

by Ruth Simon

Wall Street Journal

                The Obama administration provided few details about its plans to address the foreclosure crisis when laying out its economic-recovery program Tuesday, highlighting the challenges of creating a program that is fair and effective.

                The administration's efforts are being complicated by a weakening economy. Nearly five million families could lose their homes between 2009 and 2011, according to Moody's Economy.com. "The ground is shifting," said Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, an industry group. "We have a lot more job loss and a lot more pessimistic expectations on home prices."

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be meeting Wednesday to discuss possible approaches to the foreclosure crisis.

                One question facing the administration is how to win investor support for modification efforts while providing meaningful relief to borrowers. At a town-hall meeting Tuesday in Fort Myers, Fla., President Barack Obama suggested that he would propose legislation to make it easier for loan-servicing companies to ease up on troubled borrowers while taking steps that might win investors' support. Right now, he said, servicers are limited in their ability to modify mortgages that have been packaged into securities and sold to multiple investors. In addition, "the borrower is going to have to probably -- if they get some assistance -- agree to give up some equity once housing prices recover," the president said.

                Another challenge is determining who should get help. In Fort Myers, those facing foreclosure aren't just local residents hurt by job losses, but also real-estate speculators. Another worry is moral hazard, or how to help those truly in need without encouraging others to fall behind on their payments.

                Government officials are also expected to create national standards for loan modifications that would be adopted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But there is little data on what types of workouts are most cost-effective. Data released in December by federal banking regulators show that more than 40% of borrowers were at least 60 days past due eight months after their loan was modified. Critics say redefaults are so high because mortgage companies aren't doing enough to make payments more affordable.

                Forty-seven percent of loan modifications completed in November resulted in higher payments for borrowers, typically because unpaid interest and fees were added to the loan balance, according to a study by Alan M. White, a professor at Valparaiso University Law School in Indiana.

                Coming up with an effective modification is complicated by the fact that many troubled borrowers also have home-equity loans or credit-card debt, auto loans or other obligations that can make it difficult to afford even a lower mortgage payment. Other borrowers may be able to afford a modified payment, but lack the reserves to deal with unexpected bills.

                "You don't want to modify a loan that you think will eventually redefault," said Thomas Lawler, an independent housing economist. "All that will do is delay the process and increase the cost."

                With home prices tumbling, some analysts have been pushing for mortgage companies to reduce loan balances. Borrowers whose loan modifications include a principal reduction are less likely to redefault, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse, but mortgage companies have thus far been reluctant to write down loan balances.

                A focus for the government has been on how to determine the "net present value" of homes. Government officials think that if they can agree on a common metric for determining a home's value, they can expedite how the loan is modified.

                —Michael M. Phillips and Damian Paletta contributed to this article.

                Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2009, Issue No. 14
February 12, 2009

 MANAGEMENT CRISIS THREATENS "FOREIGN RELATIONS" SERIES

                A management crisis in the State Department Office of the Historian threatens the future of the official "Foreign Relations of the United States" (FRUS) series that documents the history of U.S. foreign policy, according to a newly disclosed report on the situation.

                "We find that the current working atmosphere in the HO [Historian's Office] and between the HO and the HAC [Historical Advisory Committee] poses real threats to the high scholarly quality of the FRUS series and the benefits it brings," the January 13, 2009 report to the Secretary of State said.  A copy of the report (pdf) was obtained by Secrecy News.

                The report was commissioned in December by then-Secretary Condoleezza Rice following the dramatic resignation of the chairman of the State Department Historical Advisory Committee Prof. W. Roger Louis as well as escalating complaints from fellow HAC members, staff, colleagues, and others.  (See "State Dept: Crisis in the 'Foreign Relations' Series," Secrecy News, December 11, 2008.)

                At first glance, the new report is rather anticlimactic.  It does not even mention the name of the State Department Historian, Dr. Marc J. Susser, who has been the focus of the complaints regarding mismanagement.  It also does not explore, much less resolve, any of the specific personnel disputes that have arisen in the Office.  ("It quickly became apparent that emotions ran high and that there was a great deal of contradictory testimony," the report says.  "Reconciling the contradictions seemed both unlikely... and unproductive.")

                But on closer inspection, the report makes at least two crucial points.  First, it confirms that the crisis is real.  Out of several dozen people who were interviewed and consulted, "only a single person suggested that there was no crisis, no problem beyond what is normal in an office."

                Second, regardless of who may be to blame, "we believe that effective management is the responsibility of the managers, not the managed...."  In other words, the Office leadership, including the Historian himself, has failed to manage the Office in an appropriate manner.

                The review therefore delicately recommends "serious consideration of a reorganization" of the Office of the Historian.

                The nature of such a potential reorganization was not spelled out in the new report.  Conceivably, it could imply removal of current management, or rearrangement of existing functions to place the FRUS series under new authority, or something else.  In the meantime, the search for a new General Editor of the FRUS series has been suspended pending a decision about how to proceed.  (The previous General Editor resigned abruptly last year in a sign of the growing turmoil in the Office.)

                "At this point no decisions have been made as to next steps concerning the Office of the Historian," State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood told Secrecy News on February 6.

                There are several complicating factors that will impede prompt correction of the situation.  Bad management is not a firing offense in the U.S. government.  Even if the Historian has lost the confidence of a sizable fraction of his colleagues and subordinates, that does not mean he can be summarily removed.  To the contrary, he has strong civil service protections as a member of the Senior Executive Service.  By law (5 U.S.C. 3395) he "may not be involuntarily reassigned" within 120 days after the appointment of a new agency head.  Nor can the significant expertise of now-departed staff members be quickly reconstituted.  For these reasons, and because of the myriad other issues involved in restoring the vitality of the FRUS production process, no short-term resolution of the problem is in sight.

                "The Historical Advisory Committee has long been concerned about two interrelated issues," said the new HAC chairman Prof. Robert J. McMahon last week, namely "the obvious morale problems among the staff and an alarming turnover among experienced FRUS editors. Those two issues, in our judgment, will inevitably lead to a slowdown in the production of FRUS volumes and we are concerned that the series is already years away from coming even close to the legislatively-mandated 30-year deadline."  (By statute, FRUS is supposed to present a "thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of major United States foreign policy decisions" not more than 30 years after the events described.)  The next scheduled meeting of the HAC is March 2-3.

                I should mention that I have had some limited, negative interaction with Dr. Susser, the State Department Historian.  After I wrote something critical of FRUS and the Historian's Office that he disapproved of, he removed me from the distribution list for hardcopy volumes of the series.  This action might have been justified as a cost-cutting measure, particularly since I am not a professional historian and Secrecy News is not a public library.  But the punitive aspect of the move was, I thought, unseemly.  (See "Secrecy News Purged from State Dept History Mailing List," Secrecy News, June 12, 2008.)  However, I don't consider that episode to be part of the current controversy.

                It also bears mentioning on this 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln that the venerable FRUS series dates back to the Lincoln Administration.


OPEN SOURCE CENTER VIEWS IRAQI ELECTIONS

                A recent DNI Open Source Center publication presents a guide to the Iraqi provincial elections that took place on January 31.  The report was prepared prior to the elections and does not reflect their important results, but it does provide an informative overview of the electoral process, the Iraqi provincial council structure, and the thirty-six contending coalitions, with valuable individual profiles of the numerous coalition members.

                Like most OSC analyses, it has not been approved for public release, but a copy was obtained by Secrecy News.   See "Iraq: Provincial Elections Guide 2009" (pdf), Open Source Center Report, January 21, 2009.  (For an initial assessment of the Iraqi election results by Philip Zelikow, see here.)

                In a recent meeting with the Director of CIA Information Management Services, we reiterated our view that all unclassified, non-copyrighted publications of the Open Source Center (which is managed by CIA) should be made freely available to the public.

                "I will convey the message," the Director told us.

                The Center for Democracy and Technology and Openthegovernment.org are inviting members of the public to suggest categories of government documents that they believe should be easily available online, but are not.


IRAN'S ECONOMIC CONDITIONS, AND MORE FROM CRS

                Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public -- despite the widely-noted publication and republication of other CRS reports by wikileaks.org this week -- include the following (all pdf).

                "Iran's Economic Conditions: U.S. Policy Issues," updated January 15, 2009.

                "U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians," updated January 30, 2009.

                "The Google Library Project: Is Digitization for Purposes of Online Indexing Fair Use Under Copyright Law?" February 5, 2009.

                "FEMA's Disaster Declaration Process: A Primer," January 23, 2009.

                "Nuclear Waste Disposal: Alternatives to Yucca Mountain," February 6, 2009.

Conversations with the Crow: Part 65

Editor’s note: When this series was prepared, a number of conversations were deliberately redacted because they were either very personal in nature or, more important, contained specific material which we felt might have considerable impact and present potential danger in publication. Now that all of the conversations are being readied for publication, along with illustrative specific notes, we are publishing many of the hitherto off-limits examples. Enjoy  them!

                On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA's Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer's Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley's widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley's CIA files.

                Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal , Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment. Three months before, July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md.

                After Corson's death, Trento and a well-known Washington fix-lawyer went to Corson's bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled 'Zipper.' This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley's involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever.

                The  small group of CIA officials gathered at Trento's house to search through the Crowley papers, looking for documents that must not become public. A few were found but, to their consternation, a significant number of files Crowley was known to have had in his possession had simply vanished.

                When published material concerning the CIA's actions against Kennedy became public in 2002, it was discovered to the CIA's horror, that the missing documents had been sent by an increasingly erratic Crowley to another person and these missing papers included devastating material on the CIA's activities in South East Asia to include drug running, money laundering and the maintenance of the notorious 'Regional Interrogation Centers' in Viet Nam and, worse still, the Zipper files proving the CIA’s active organization of the assassination of President John Kennedy..

                A massive, preemptive disinformation campaign was readied, using government-friendly bloggers, CIA-paid "historians" and others, in the event that anything from this file ever surfaced. The best-laid plans often go astray and in this case, one of the compliant historians, a former government librarian who fancied himself a serious writer, began to tell his friends about the CIA plan to kill Kennedy and eventually, word of this began to leak out into the outside world.

                The originals had vanished and an extensive search was conducted by the FBI and CIA operatives but without success. Crowley's survivors, his aged wife and son, were interviewed extensively by the FBI and instructed to minimize any discussion of  highly damaging CIA files that Crowley had, illegally, removed from Langley when he retired. Crowley had been a close friend of James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s notorious head of Counterintelligence. When Angleton was sacked by  DCI William Colby in December of 1974, Crowley and Angleton  conspired to  secretly remove Angleton’s most sensitive secret files our of the agency. Crowley did the same thing  right before his own retirement , secretly removing thousands of pages  of classified information that covered his entire agency career.

                Known as “The Crow” within the agency, Robert T. Crowley joined the CIA at its inception and spent his entire career in the Directorate of Plans, also know as the “Department of Dirty Tricks,”: Crowley was one of the tallest man ever to work at the CIA. Born in 1924 and raised in Chicago, Crowley grew to six and a half feet when he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in N.Y. as a cadet in 1943 in the class of 1946. He never graduated, having enlisted in the Army, serving in the Pacific during World War II. He retired from the Army Reserve in 1986 as a lieutenant colonel. According to a book he authored with his friend and colleague, William Corson, Crowley’s career included service in military intelligence and Naval Intelligence, before joining the CIA at inception in 1947. His entire career at the agency was spent within the Directorate of Plans in covert operations. Before his retirement, Bob Crowley became assistant deputy director for operations, the second-in-command in the Clandestine Directorate of Operations.

                One of Crowley’s first major assignments within the agency was to assist in the recruitment and management of prominent World War II Nazis, especially those with advanced intelligence experience. One of the CIA’s major recruitment coups was Heinrich Mueller, once head of Hitler’s Gestapo who had fled to Switzerland after the collapse of the Third Reich and worked as an anti-Communist expert for Masson of Swiss counterintelligence. Mueller was initially hired by Colonel James Critchfield of the CIA,  who was running the Gehlen Organization out of Pullach in southern Germany. Crowley eventually came to despise Critchfield but the colonel was totally unaware of this, to his later dismay.

                Crowley’s real expertise within the agency was the Soviet KGB. One of his main jobs throughout his career was acting as the agency liaison with corporations like ITT, which the CIA often used as fronts for moving large amounts of cash off their books. He was deeply involved in the efforts by the U.S. to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, which eventually got him into legal problems with regard to investigations of the U.S. government’s grand jury where he has perjured himself in an agency cover-up

After his retirement, Crowley began to search for someone who might be able to write a competent history of his career. His first choice fell on British author John Costello (author of Ten Days to Destiny, The Pacific War and other works) but, discovering that Costello was a very aggressive homosexual, he dropped him and tentatively turned to Joseph Trento who had assisted Crowley and William Corson in writing a book on the KGB. When Crowley discovered that Trento had an ambiguous and probably cooperative relationship with the CIA, he began to distrust him and continued his search for an author.

Bob Crowley first contacted Gregory Douglas  in 1993  when he found out from John Costello that Douglas was about to publish his first book on Heinrich Mueller, the former head of the Gestapo who had become a secret, long-time asset to the CIA. Crowley contacted Douglas and they began a series of long and often very informative telephone conversations that lasted for four years. . In 1996, Crowley , Crowley told Douglas  that he believed him to be the person that should ultimately tell Crowley’s story but only after Crowley’s death. Douglas, for his part, became so entranced with some of the material that Crowley began to share with him that he secretly began to record their conversations, later transcribing them word for word, planning to incorporate some, or all, of the material in later publications.

In 1998, when Crowley was slated to go into the hospital for exploratory surgery,  he had his son, Greg, ship two large foot lockers of documents to Douglas with the caveat that they were not to be opened until after Crowley’s death. These documents, totaled  an astonishing 15,000 pages of CIA classified files involving many covert operations, both foreign and domestic, during the Cold War.

After Crowley’s death and Trento’s raid on the Crowley files, huge gaps were subsequently discovered by horrified CIA officials and when Crowley’s friends mentioned Gregory Douglas, it was discovered that Crowley’s son had shipped two large boxes to Douglas. No one knew their contents but because Douglas was viewed as an uncontrollable loose cannon who had done considerable damage to the CIA’s reputation by his on-going publication of the history of Gestapo-Mueller, they bent every effort both to identify the missing files and make some effort to retrieve them before Douglas made any use of them.

                All of this furor eventually came to the attention of Dr. Peter Janney, a Massachusetts clinical psychologist and son of Wistar Janney, another career senior CIA official, colleague of not only Bob Crowley but Cord Meyer, Richard Helms, Jim Angleton and others. Janney was working on a book concerning the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer, former wife of Cord Meyer, a high-level CIA official, and later the mistress of President John F. Kennedy.  Douglas had authored a book, ‘Regicide’ which dealt with Crowley’s part in the Kennedy assassination and he obviously had access to at least some of Crowley’s papers. Janney was very well connected inside the CIA’s higher levels and when he discovered that Douglas had indeed known, and had often spoken with, Crowley and that after Crowley’s death, the FBI had descended on Crowley’s widow and son, warning them to never speak with Douglas about anything, he contacted Douglas and finally obtained from him a number of original documents, including the originals of the transcribed conversations with Robert Crowley.

                In spite of the burn bags, the top secret safes and the vigilance of the CIA to keep its own secrets, the truth has an embarrassing and often very fatal habit of emerging, albeit decades later.

                While CIA drug running , money-launderings and brutal assassinations are very often strongly rumored and suspected, it has so far not been possible to actually pin them down but it is more than possible that the publication of the transcribed and detailed Crowley-Douglas conversations will do a great deal towards accomplishing this.

                These many transcribed conversations are relatively short because Crowley was a man who tired easily but they make excellent reading. There is an interesting admixture of shocking revelations on the part of the retired CIA official and often rampant anti-social (and very entertaining) activities on the part of Douglas but readers of this new and on-going series are gently reminded to always look for the truth in the jest!

Conversation 65

Date: Saturday, November 30, 1996

Commenced: 11:30 AM CST

Concluded: 11; 45 AM CST

RTC: I was reading over your analysis of the present political and business status and I thought it was interesting. At least I thought your final conclusions were not at all outrageous. But I should caution you against sending such things to Kimmel or Bill. Kimmel would be outraged and Bill will pass this on to Langley because that’s what he does.

GD: None of that surprises me, Robert. I was just stating the obvious. At least it is obvious to me. I suppose if you read history, everything is so compressed and obvious but if you are living it, the end is not always clear. Distance is always important in making conclusions. People don’t like to do this because they want this or that kind of ending so they twist and distort the obvious to suit themselves. When I was writing such reports in the Army, I learned very quickly on not to express attitudes that were opposite of my superiors, no matter how obvious they might be.

RTC: A manifestation of early survival instinct, Gregory.

GD: Yes, why not? No one cares about inconvenient truths but they dearly love convenient lies. But the truth is still there, isn’t it?
RTC: Yes, but we never see it until it’s too late.

GD: The French Revolution was entirely predictable but only if you could stand back from it. Not a revolt of the masses but initially a perfectly reasonable desire for a burgeoning middle business class to gain parity with the great triumvirate: The Monarchy, the Nobility and the Church. Of course the latter trio did not want to share power and the ensuing struggle spilled over and the mob got it. Reasonable beginnings but terrible endings.

RTC: But could have anyone foreseen the end?
GD: Good point. A few but not the ones that mattered. A Polish writer, Bloch, very accurately foresaw the deadly trench warfare of the First World War but at the time he wrote, the great bulk of military theorists had more conventional views so no one heard him. Afterwards, of course, he became famous. At the time, not. The same with my views.

RTC: I must confess, Gregory, that I am a little conventional and predictions of social upheaval, anarchy and economic collapse are a bit alien to me.

GD: Yet you were accustomed to predict such things in other governments you wanted to either replace or destroy. Correct?

RTC: Well, we fomented more than one revolution and collapsed more than one economy but we didn’t predict these things, Gregory, we made them happen. You don’t plan to make a revolution or collapse our economy.

GD: No, I don’t. But if you see a man building a house on the beach, doesn’t it occur to him that a good storm might easily topple it? After all, Robert, the Bible says this but, of course, it’s only common sense.  No empire, and we have an empire now, ever lasted forever. Rome did not and England did not. They rise and they fall. It will be the same with us. After two major wars, we rule. Of course we contested with Russia but since we were better grounded economically, we survived. They may yet come back but it’s not for certain. I see China as our immediate rival but they have uncontrolled capitalism under the control of an aging dictatorship and I would predict that they will shoot up economically and this boom will frighten the leaders. Money creates the desire for power and an empowered mass is very dangerous. And we learned after 1929 that if our marketplace had no controls, it would indulge in peak or collapse on a regular and very destructive basis. Remove these controls would be like blowing up a dam and flooding all the countryside below it. Money for a few and disaster for the rest. Clinton has not encouraged this decontrol but God help us if the right wing ever gets into power. We have all kinds of fiscal dinosaurs waiting in the wings, mating with the lunatics of the religious right and they may yet have their day. Unfettered markets and Jesus in every home, no stores open on Sunday and the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Oh, and not to mention a stake through the heart of the evil Darwin. Nuts. The world is only 6,000 years old and the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s mythical flood. Action and reaction. If that dismal project comes to pass, there will be a reaction, believe me.

RTC: But your predictions of revolution?
GD: People get bored sometimes, Robert, get tired of taxes and dream of some kind of social paradise where everyone is equal. Who knows what monsters are waiting to be born? But the economy is based on credit and like a Ponzi scheme, credit has its limits. You can only use it so far and no further and if we go too far with our credit cards and loans, the end can be easily seen as the python said as he wrapped himself around the tree.

RTC: Well, it won’t happen during the rest of my lifetime, Gregory. Perhaps in yours.

GD: Probably. We need a Bismarck now but we won’t get him. Democracy is its own worst enemy, Robert. Greed, lack of coordination, corruption, and God alone knows what else. And our national education system is a horror. We are cranking out generations of the illiterate and ill-informed and these know-nothings will eventually get into power. Then we need all the help God can give us. Well, we always get what we pay for, don’t we? Political correctness is idiotic. We should teach our children to question, to evaluate and to analyze, not bleat in their pens like placid sheep. It’s like trying to stab someone with a pound of butter.

RTC: (Laughter) Well, a fat and comfortable public….

GD: Yes, a fat public. Well, it’s only a matter of conjecture, isn’t it? What is it the Bible says? While we are in the light, let us walk in the light for the darkness cometh. Something like that. Enough realistic pessimism for the day, Robert. I recall telling Kimmel, when I found out he taught Sunday school, that he ought to let his little charges read the Song of Solomon and he had a fit. But, I told him, it’s in the Bible so it can’t be wrong. He didn’t see it that way. One dimensional. Never ask questions because you might not like the answers. The truth will not make you free but cause spastic colon. Anyway, I like to speculate, Robert, that’s all. If a dam is leaking, is it wrong to predict a collapse?
RTC: The real estate people down below it would not approve of such sentiments.

GD: No, but they probably live on higher ground.

(Concluded at 11:45 CST)

Tenet’s Greatest Hit a Miss
February 14, 2009
by Gordon Prather

AntiWar.com

                In 1991, when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency were allowed back into Iraq – after United Nations forces ejected the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait and Saddam Hussein had agreed to comply with certain UN Security Council resolutions – they quickly discovered that Saddam had been in violation of the Iraqi IAEA Safeguards Agreement.

                Whereupon the Security Council passed Resolution 687, which among other things, ordered the destruction – under supervision of a specially constituted IAEA Action Team – of all remaining elements of Iraq’s nuclear programs, and imposed sanctions on Iraq until such time as the IAEA Action Team could report that such destruction had been accomplished and that Iraq was once again in compliance with its IAEA Safeguards Agreement.

                The IAEA Action Team made such a report, first in 1998, and updated it in succeeding years.

                In particular,

                "Iraq was at, or close to, the threshold of success in such areas as the production of HEU through the EMIS process, the production and pilot cascading of single-cylinder gas centrifuge machines, and the fabrication of the explosive package for a nuclear weapon."

                It’s worth noting that the only Iraqi actions which violated the letter of their Safeguards Agreement would have been those that involved the chemical or physical transformation of certain materials proscribed by the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

                In fact, the actual fabrication of the explosive package for a nuclear weapon, even had it occurred, would have literally been none of the IAEA’s business.

                Now, the single-cylinder gas centrifuge machine the IAEA Action Team referred to was a third-generation composite-rotor machine that German engineer Karl Schaab and associates supplied them back in 1989. There is no evidence that the Iraqis ever got even one to work – despite hands-on assistance by Schaab, himself – much less introduced uranium-hexafluoride into it.

                However, when the German authorities learned what Schaab had done, they prosecuted him for violating German export control laws. Schaab plead guilty but was able to avoid serious jail-time because, among other things, gas centrifuge technology was, and is, "dual-use."

                Fast forward to October, 2003, when a ship destined for Libya was intercepted and its apparently legal cargo of dual-use first-generation gas-centrifuge parts and components confiscated. You’re probably wondering what pirate was responsible for the apparently illegal search and seizure of a ship on the high seas.

                Well, about a year earlier, after having accused Iran, Iraq and North Korea of being an "axis of evil," and repeatedly accused them since of developing – right under the noses of IAEA inspectors – nuclear weapons, to give to "terrorists," President Bush the Younger announced his National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction .pdf.

                From it, Bush developed – in blatant disregard of existing international law – the Proliferation Security Initiative, announced shortly after his launch of a war of aggression – in blatant disregard of existing Security Council Resolutions and the UN Charter – against Iraq.

                According to Bonkers Bolton, then our principal non-proliferation weenie, the PSI was necessary because "proliferators and those facilitating the procurement of deadly capabilities are circumventing existing laws, treaties and controls against WMD proliferation."

                Translation? What A.Q Khan and his recently "outed" network had been doing may not have been against the law, international or otherwise, but Bonkers was going to put a stop to it, even if it meant our violating the law, international or otherwise.

                In the last century, Pakistan had asked – but was not allowed – to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

                Comprised of 44 nuclear-supplier states – including China, Russia, and the United States – NSG members voluntarily agree to coordinate their export controls governing transfers of civilian nuclear material and nuclear-related equipment and technology to non-nuclear-weapon states.

                But, since 1992, to be "eligible" for importing certain items from an NSG member, an importing state – irrespective of whether it is a NPT signatory or not – must have in place a comprehensive IAEA safeguards agreement covering all their nuclear activities and facilities.

                So what were the Pakistanis to do?

                Well, establish their own clandestine – but not necessarily illegal – suppliers/users group.

                When Pakistan held its first international arms bazaar in 2000, there was even available at the booth of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) a second-generation uranium-enrichment gas-centrifuge brochure, as well as an associated 10-page catalog of specialty vacuum pumps, gauges, high-voltage switches, power supplies, and other equipment.

                According to KRL representatives, all the listed items were available for sale and had been approved for export by the Pakistani government.

                So, what did CIA-Director George Tenet judge to be his greatest accomplishment?

                "Our spies penetrated the A.Q. Khan network through a series of daring operations over several years. Through this unrelenting effort, we confirmed the network was delivering such things as illicit uranium enrichment centrifuges."

                Illicit? Says who?

                No one. Nevertheless, this shipment to Libya of Khan’s first-generation junk sure looked like a job for Bonkers Bolton and his PSI pirates.

                How about Khan’s, better, second-generation stuff? The IAEA has been unable to find any indication that Iran or anyone else ever bought any of it.

                And there is no reason to suppose that Schaab – with his third-generation stuff – was ever a part of A.Q. Khan’s "network."

                Nevertheless, not long after the PSI seizure of the Khan junk shipment to Libya, A.Q. Khan was placed under house arrest and made a "confession" on Pakistani TV, in English, now a matter of historical record.

                Contrary to what you’ve heard, over and over, from the neo-crazy sycophantic media, Khan did not "confess" to supplying Iran, Libya and North Korea with anything, much less "weapons technology." In fact, A.Q. didn’t even mention Iran, Libya or North Korea in his TV "confession."

                What he said was that he had been confronted with a number of allegations, that he had concluded that "some of them" were true, and that he accepted responsibility for them.

                President Musharraf promptly pardoned A.Q Khan.

                But, perhaps for his own protection against Tenet’s "spies," he remained under ‘house arrest."

                Bush the Younger is no longer President, Musharraf is no longer Dictator, Tenet is no longer CIA-Director and a Pakistani High Court has just effectively released A.Q. Khan from house arrest.

                The United States has expressed "deep concern."

http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=14247