Chertoff Buried Early Evidence of Bush Torture Campaign in Afghanistan

[seemslikeadream]

Public Policy: Chertoff Buried Early Evidence of Bush Torture Campaign in Afghanistan

By Dave Lindorff, ILCA Associate Member

The nominee for new Homeland Security secretary, back in 2002, worked hard to keep the public from hearing courtroom testimony that would have revealed the Bush government’s new campaign of torture, allowing it to spread from Afghanistan to Guantanamo to Iraq.
From an article of mine in the current, Feb. 14 issue of The Nation magazine (www.thenation.org).


Back on Friday, June 12, 2002, the Defense Department had a big problem: Its new policy on torture of captives in the "war on terror" was about to be exposed. John Walker Lindh, the young Californian captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and touted by John Ashcroft as an "American Taliban," was scheduled to take the stand the following Monday in an evidence suppression hearing regarding a confession he had signed. There he would tell, under oath, about how he signed the document only after being tortured for days by US soldiers. Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis had already said he was likely to allow Lindh, at trial, to put on the stand military officers and even Guantánamo detainees who were witnesses to or participants in his alleged abuse. >br>

...

Accordingly, Michael Chertoff, who as head of the Justice Department's criminal division was overseeing all the department's terrorism prosecutions, had his prosecution team offer a deal. All the serious charges against Lindh--terrorism, attempted murder, conspiracy to kill Americans, etc.--would be dropped and he could plead guilty just to the technical charges of "providing assistance" to an "enemy of the U.S." and of "carrying a weapon." Lindh, whose attorneys dreaded his facing trial in one of the most conservative court districts in the country on the first anniversary of 9/11, had to accept a stiff twenty-year sentence, but that was half what he faced if convicted on those two minor charges alone.


But Chertoff went further, according to one of Lindh's attorneys, George Harris. Chertoff (now an appeals court judge in New Jersey) demanded--reportedly at Defense Department insistence, according to what defense attorneys were told--that Lindh sign a statement swearing he had "not been intentionally mistreated" by his US captors and waiving any future right to claim mistreatment or torture. Further, Chertoff attached a "special administrative measure," essentially a gag order, barring Lindh from talking about his experience for the duration of his sentence.


At the time, few paid attention to this peculiar silencing of Lindh. In retrospect, though, it seems clear that the man coasting toward confirmation as Secretary of Homeland Security effectively prevented early exposure of the Bush/Rumsfeld/Gonzales policy of torture, which we now know began in Afghanistan and later "migrated" to Guantanamo and eventually to Iraq. So anxious was Chertoff to avoid exposure in court of Lindh's torture--which included keeping the seriously wounded and untreated Lindh, who was malnourished and dehydrated, blindfolded and duct-taped to a stretcher for days in an unheated and unlit shipping container, and repeatedly threatening him with death--that defense lawyers say he made the deal a limited-time offer. "It was good only if we accepted it before the suppression hearing," says Harris. "They said if the hearing occurred, all deals were off." He adds, "Chertoff himself was clearly the person at Justice to whom the line prosecutors were reporting. He was directing the whole plea agreement process, and there was at least one phone call involving him."

more
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1636&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[w4rma]

1. Gonzales and Chertoff are two peas in a pod. (nt)

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. They are doing their Nazi forefathers

proud.

[Al-CIAda]

39. kick

[0007]

3. Would like to see the torture of John Walker Lindh exposed as

much as I'd like to have America know about other atrocities in Afghanistan. Such as this video tells us!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3267.htm

The film provides eyewitness testimony that U.S. troops were complicit in the massacre of thousands of Taliban prisoners during the Afghan War.

It tells the story of thousands of prisoners who surrendered to the US military’s Afghan allies after the siege of Kunduz. According to eyewitnesses, some three thousand of the prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for transport to Sheberghan prison. Eyewitnesses say when the prisoners began shouting for air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open wounds.

Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave.

The film has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been broadcast on national television in Britain, Germany, Italy and Australia. It has been screened by the European parliament. It has outraged human rights groups and international human rights lawyers. They are calling for investigation into whether U.S. Special Forces are guilty of war crimes.

But most Americans have never heard of the film. That’s because not one corporate media outlet in the U.S. will touch it. It has never before been broadcast in this country.

[porkrind]

13. Wow! Thanks for the link. I've never heard this,

and I'm pretty well informed (I spend ~1 hour/day reading news). It is amazing that there are so many scandals and outrages going on at once, that one person can't even stay on top of it all. :( I'll read up on it.

[twaddler01]

16. the site is down

The Bushies must of already gotten on to us...

:argh:

[0007]

21. Naw, its still working!

[twaddler01]

18. here's another link

This one has an article about it too. All it takes is a search for "US torture of John Walker Lindh"

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/lind-j25_prn.shtml

[EFerrari]

26. Actually, it WAS aired on a cable channel because that's

were I saw it. It was the History Channel or something -- I didn't get the significance at the time. And they must have an audience of three.

I'm sure whoever bought the rights to air it knew NOTIHNG about the content. And may still not.

[0007]

29. I doubt if you viewed this on the History Channel. If you have

a dish you may have seen it on Link TV. Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now"

[Atman]

4. That settles it...he's a shoe-in

He's sounds made to order for the Bush regime. And he probably was.

[Kagemusha]

5. And the only person left in his way is... Holy Joe Lieberman.

Be afraid.

Be very afraid...

[struggle4progress]

6. Nominee aided CIA on tactics

Cabinet choice gave advice on coercion

WASHINGTON Michael Chertoff, who has been picked by President George W. Bush to be the homeland security secretary, advised the CIA on the legality of coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal antitorture statute, current and former administration officials said. <snip>

Chertoff's previously undisclosed involvement in evaluating how far interrogators could go took place from 2002 to 2003 when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. The advice came in the form of responses to agency inquiries asking whether CIA employees risked being charged with crimes if particular interrogation techniques were used on specific detainees. <snip>

One current and two former senior officials with firsthand knowledge of the interaction between the CIA and the Justice Department said that while the criminal division did not explicitly approve any requests by the agency, it did discuss what conditions could protect agency personnel from prosecution. <snip>

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/30/news/Chertoff.html

[seemslikeadream]

7. Serious Questions for Michael Chertoff; Bernie Kerik’s Not Looking So Bad

I have been trying to get this story out there for two years and it is finally spreading on the internet and several mainstream sources are currently investigating my claims. I have also been trying to contact Senators and Congressmen since the confirmation hearings are this week and time is of the essence.

...


Dick Stoltz who supervised Operation Diamondback had this to say:

“In the summer of 1999, a group of illegal weapons dealers were meeting at a warehouse in Florida, their conversations recorded by federal investigators. One of the men, from Pakistan, was seeking technology for nuclear weapons. Who did he say he was working for?
Dick Stoltz: “Dr. Abdul Khan.”
Chris Hansen: “A.Q. Khan.”
Dick Stoltz: “A.Q. Khan.”
Former federal undercover agent Dick Stoltz was posing as a black market arms dealer.
Hansen: “Did you realize what you had at the time?”
Stoltz: “No. We didn't.”
But now he does -- because A.Q. Khan is considered, by some, to be the most dangerous man in the world. Why? Because Dr. Khan has peddled nuclear weapons technology to some of the countries the United States considers most dangerous, and some accepted his offers.”

...

“Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff is the Dick Cheney of the Justice Department. Brainy, intense and well connected, the former federal prosecutor can usually be found at Attorney General John Ashcroft's elbow as the department's top counterterrorism tactician. And last week Chertoff vanished to an undisclosed location.

With no deputies along and no publicity, Chertoff was on a stealthy swing through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. His mission: sell Western European governments on a new Bush Administration plan to post U.S. Justice Department prosecutors overseas in unprecedented numbers. "The sinews that hold a terrorist network together are money, communications and transportation," Chertoff told TIME before his trip. To help sever those sinews, Chertoff wants to have American prosecutors stationed in key capitals, where they can work behind the scenes with their counterparts to overcome the legal and cultural obstacles to shipping evidence to the U.S. for use in court.” (9)
more
http://www.opednews.com/duncan_013005_chertoff_questions.htm

[Xipe Totec]

8. Just read the President's SOTU from Jan 28, 2003

Referring to the Afghanistan operation and Al Qaeda:

"All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies. (Applause.)"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html


It made my skin crawl when I heard him say this, because I knew he was referring obliquely to murder and torture.

[glitch]

9. And then he smirked. Malloy calls him the giggling murderer for good

reason.

[errorbells]

10. re: It made my skin crawl

absolutely felt the same.

always wondered if they made the connection...
(all of the senate)...if I could.

They must open their eyes, or go to their
graves having been accomplices to murder.

[ihelpu2see]

11. didn't Mr. Chertoff lie to a Senate Judiciary meeting and a female

lawyer co-worker blew the whistle on him and now she is being destroyed by our "compassionate" government for telling the truth... yes her name is J. Radack and an expert is below.



We speak with former Justice Department attorney, Jesselyn Radack, who charges that department officials under Michael Chertoff improperly questioned John Waker Lindh and that her memos raising ethical concerns about his interrogation were purged and not turned over to a criminal court

http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1005311.htm

[seemslikeadream]

12. The Trials of Jesselyn Radack

The Trials of Jesselyn Radack
Douglas McCollam
The American Lawyer
07-14-2003


Sitting in her well-appointed living room in a leafy northwest Washington, D.C., neighborhood, Jesselyn Radack seems an unlikely candidate for martyrdom in the war on terror. For three years the Yale Law School graduate and self-described soccer mom made her living telling other government lawyers how to stay out of trouble.

The 32-year-old former U.S. Department of Justice ethics adviser says she thought she'd be a career government lawyer. But that was before she decided to object to the government's tactics in the John Walker Lindh case last year.

Since then she's lost two jobs -- pushed out of her Justice post and then fired from the firm that had taken her in -- and now finds herself unemployed and in limbo. Her personal challenges are daunting: under criminal investigation, ailing from multiple sclerosis, and expecting a third child in January. But far from singing the victim's song, Radack appears composed and stalwart, telling her story with short, chopping hand strokes and near-encyclopedic recall.

And her story grows more ominous as new details emerge about how far the government will go in pursuit of one of its own.


http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1056139907383



Whistleblower Charges Justice Dept. with Misconduct in Chertoff's Prosecution of John Walker Lindh

Thursday, January 13th, 2005


We speak with former Justice Department attorney, Jesselyn Radack, who charges that department officials under Michael Chertoff improperly questioned John Waker Lindh and that her memos raising ethical concerns about his interrogation were purged and not turned over to a criminal court.

Michael Chertoff, President Bush's Homeland Security Chief nominee, was praised by Senate Democrats and state lawyers this week as being a tough but fair prosecutor who would serve well as Tom Ridge's replacement.
But as his record comes under fresh scrutiny, questions are being raised about his handling of the case of John Walker Lindh - the so-called American Taliban. As head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, the 2002 prosecution of Lindh was one of Chertoff"s biggest triumphs.

But the case resurfaced the following year in Senate confirmation hearings after Chertoff was nominated to be a federal appellate judge. At that time, Senate Democrats questioned Chertoff extensively about concerns that the FBI might have improperly questioned Lindh in Afghanistan even though his family had hired a lawyer for him.
http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/1005311.htm

[Just Me]

17. Oh, God,...that poor woman!!!

These are the kind of stories that really make my blood pressure explode. :mad:

[bobthedrummer]

25. Sweet.

[Al-CIAda]

14. Bush's New Homeland Security Nominee Protect Terror-Linked Doctor from Pro

Did Bush's New Homeland Security Nominee Protect Terror-Linked Doctor from Prosecution?
 Bernard Kerik, Michael Chertoff... Who's Next?  Tony Soprano?
Daniel Hopsicker
January 12, 2005 - Venice, FL

Michael Chertoff, appointed by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from criminal prosecution a former client suspected by law enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars directly to Osama Bin Laden while in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9.11 investigation.

Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.

-El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

-His brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to buy weapons from an American undercover agent for Islamic militant groups.

-Before being arrested in a terrorist deal involving oil and heroin for guns and training, arms smuggler Diaa Mohsen was paid at least $5,000 by one of Dr. el Amir's companies, NBC’s Dateline reported.

And his HMO was suspected by law enforcement of being used to funnel money directly to Osama bin laden.  


Wire Transfers to "Unknown Parties"

Chertoff’s client "caused more than $5.7 million to be paid by wire transfers to unknown parties," said the lawsuit filed shortly before the state took over his failing HMO. News accounts about el-Amir’s legal difficulties contain unanswered questions about undue political influence and its effect on national security.
For example, how did el-Amir, who only the month before had been granted a state license to operate an HMO, finagle a lucrative contract from the state of New Jersey in 1995?

“Why was this doctor allowed to start a health plan?” asked the October 25, 1999 issue of the medical trade journal Medical Economics.

“How could this medical entrepreneur, who had no experience running a managed-care or health insurance company, receive a license for an HMO that now provides care to 44,000 of New Jersey's most vulnerable citizens?" asked The Bergen Record. “Moreover, how could the state pay such a novice $ 6 million a month in taxpayers money to take on such a responsibility?”

Why did Michael Chertoff even take the case? 

Skimming for Osama in New Jersey

Answers were slow in coming, until it was revealed that at the same time el-Amir was pitching state business he had begun making generous contributions to the governing Republican party, donating nearly $ 18,000 to various GOP candidates in 1996. 

And a foreign intelligence report made available to the Chairman of the House International Committee alleged that an HMO owned by Dr. el Amir in New Jersey was “funded by Ben Laden,” and that in turn Dr. el Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund “terrorist activities.”’…

 Stuff like that doesn’t happen, does it?  In New Jersey?

-AMAZING-
LINK-
http://www.madcowprod.com/01122004.html

[seemslikeadream]

15. Chertoff headed the anthrax investigation

Thanks Al-CIAda for that. I posted it in GD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3031371


Chertoff headed the anthrax investigation


The legislation allows intelligence officials to share information with prosecutors for the first time. The immediate effect will be that a bundle of intelligence files from the CIA and other agencies on terrorism suspects will be shipped to a Justice Department terrorism task force headed by Attorney General Michael Chertoff.

Files on prior attacks and radical groups gathered before the Sept. 11 attacks are of particular interest for what they may reveal about possible new attacks, Justice Department officials said.

While new intelligence information will be available, investigators are still waiting for tests that will show whether the anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was treated with chemical additives.

That would indicate the anthrax probably is produced in a sophisticated state-sponsored lab. Officials have cited early indications that the anthrax attacks might be the work of a domestic terrorist.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the anthrax sent to Daschle was altered to make it more easily inhaled.


http://www.courttv.com/assault_on_america/1026_terrorlaws_ap.html

[Just Me]

19. Awwwwwww, shit! He headed the failed anthrax thingy, too!!!!

This guy gives me the creeps. He must be on the take, big time.

:scared:

[seemslikeadream]

20. Just Me have seen this Operation Diamond Back?

Randy Glass and Operation Diamond Back


There's a video of an interview with Glass here:
http://innworldreport.net/video/2004-07-02/glass.html

Glass was an FBI informant working deep cover sting operations to net illegal arms deals. In the summer of 1999 he met, while wearing a wire, two men with ties to Pakistan's ISI, one of whom pointed to the World Trade Center and said "those towers are coming down." One of the dealers he met was Elamir's brother.

In July 2001, Glass took warning of imminent attacks to public officials, including Senator Bob Graham. His fax to Graham read "I've told you repeatedly about my terrorist case...the threats of blowing up the World Trade Center…Airplanes being used."

Glass believes, given his experience and what he saw from agents, that the FBI thwarted investigations which could have revealed 9/11. He also believes that Pakistan provided state sponsorship for the attacks.



A couple of excerpts from Paul Thompson's timeline:

July 14, 1999: US government informant Randy Glass records a conversation at a dinner attended by him, illegal arms dealers Diaa Mohsen and Mohammed Malik (see June 12, 2001), a former Egyptian judge named Shireen Shawky, and ISI agent Rajaa Gulum Abbas, held at a restaurant within view of the WTC. FBI agents pretending to be restaurant customers sit at nearby tables. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Abbas says he wants to buy a whole shipload of weapons stolen from the US military to give to bin Laden. (Cox News, 8/2/02) Abbas points to the WTC and says, "Those towers are coming down." This ISI agent later makes two other references to an attack on the WTC. (WPBF Channel 25, 8/5/02, Cox News, 8/2/02, Palm Beach Post, 10/17/02) Abbas also says "Americans are the enemy," and, "We would have no problem with blowing up this entire restaurant because it is full of Americans." (MSNBC, 3/18/03) The meeting is secretly recorded, and parts are shown on television in 2003 (see also August 17, 1999). (MSNBC, 3/18/03)

...

June 12, 2001: Operation Diamondback, a sting operation called uncovering an attempt to buy weapons illegally for the Taliban, bin Laden and others, ends with a number of arrests. An Egyptian named Diaa Mohsen and a Pakistani named Mohammed Malik are arrested, and accused of attempting to buy Stinger missiles, nuclear weapon components and other sophisticated military weaponry for the Pakistani ISI. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 8/23/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02) Malik appears to have had links to important Pakistani officials and Kashmiri terrorists, and Mohsen claims a connection to a man "who is very connected to the Taliban" and funded by bin Laden. (Washington Post, 8/2/02, MSNBC, 8/2/02) Some other ISI agents came to Florida on several occasions to negotiate, but they escaped being arrested. They wanted to partially pay in heroin. One mentioned that the WTC would be destroyed (see July 14, 1999 and Early August 2001). These ISI agents said some of their purchases would go to the Taliban in Afghanistan and/or terrorists associated with bin Laden. (New York Times, 6/16/01, Washington Post, 8/2/02 (B), MSNBC, 8/2/02) Both Malik and Mohsen lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Jersey Journal, 6/20/01) A number of the people held by the US after 9/11, including possible al-Qaeda members Syed Gul Mohammad Shah and Mohammed Azmath (see September 11, 2001) are from the same Jersey City neighborhood. (New York Post, 9/23/01) Mohsen pleads guilty after 9/11, "But remarkably, even though he was apparently willing to supply America's enemies with sophisticated weapons, even nuclear weapons technology, Mohsen was sentenced to just 30 months in prison." (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's case appears to have been dropped, and reporters find him working in a store in Florida less than a year after the trial ended. (MSNBC, 8/2/02) Malik's court files remain completely sealed, and in Mohsen's court case prosecutors "removed references to Pakistan from public filings because of diplomatic concerns." (Washington Post 8/8/02)

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/randyglass.html

[Al-CIAda]

23. Good work! -eom

[seemslikeadream]

41. The Good Doctor Who Wasn't So Good

I have a theory that Elamir was not arrested, because if his case did come to court, then Chertoff's role as his lawyer in the HMO case might have been exposed. Since Elamir's HMO was supposedly a front for Bin Laden and millions of dollars were allegedly skimmed from the HMO to fund terrorism, Chertoff himself might be implicated in some way since he had to have had access to the HMO's books and Elamir's finances when he defended him.

I also have a theory that this may be why Operation Diamondback remained a criminal case and not a counterterrorism case. As head of the Criminal Division in the Department of Justice, the case would have been under the control of Michael Chertoff himself. Was this the real reason why the case came to a screeching halt with only a few arrests? Was this the reason why Randy Glass was told to drop the matter by federal agents when the case started focusing on Dr. Elamir's brother Mohamed El Amir? Was this the reason why so many federal agents were frustrated because they felt the case hadn't received the attention of higher ups in federal law enforcement? Maybe it had?

more
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050114184216156

[Carl Brennan]

36. A question for Chertoff

What about the statement of former UN-weapons inspector of Iraq, Richard Spertzel, who told ABC, "...he knows only five scientists in the USA who would be in the situation to produce such a fine, highly developed spore material"?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/9-11BasicQuestions.html


Did Chertoff ever consult with him? Is what Spertzel said true?

[GetTheRightVote]

22. Why is this not surprising, not at all

:kick:

[Al-CIAda]

24. kick

[EFerrari]

27. Great work, SLAD. When his name was leaked, I went

hunting for this information.

No one can say George Bush is an idiot. He nominates the very best criminals money can buy.

[seemslikeadream]

32. Post-9/11 arrests dog Chertoff

Posted on Sun, Jan. 23, 2005

The Homeland Security nominee is criticized by some who were his allies in fighting racial profiling.

By Wendy Ruderman

Inquirer Staff Writer


The man President Bush wants as homeland security chief is now in the crosshairs of civil-rights advocates who say he eroded freedoms in pursuit of terrorists.

But, before 9/11, Michael Chertoff was a powerful ally in the battle against racial profiling in the pursuit of drug traffickers.
"I think in evaluating Mike's record, you need to look not only at his handling of the war on terrorism in 9/11, but also at the role he played in dealing with racial profiling in New Jersey - very different roles at very different times," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Mintz, who worked under Chertoff in the early 1990s.

...

On the day hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Chertoff was in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division.

After 9/11, Chertoff's tactics in ferreting out terrorists drew criticism from the very people who had applauded his crusade to expose racial profiling on New Jersey's highways. Some of that criticism came after Chertoff directed the arrests of 762 illegal immigrants, most of whom later turned out to have no ties to terrorism.

...

In June 2003, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released a report criticizing federal authorities, saying they had made little effort to distinguish real terrorist suspects from harmless foreigners inadvertently swept up in the dragnet. Though many were jailed for months, only one of the 762 detainees - Zacarias Moussaoui - was charged with a terrorism crime, the report found.

Civil-rights advocates argue that the war on terror has become a kind of war on immigrants, not unlike the way the war on drugs morphed into a war on black and Latino motorists. The legality of those 762 arrests is besides the point, said David Harris, a critic of racial profiling and a criminal law professor at University of Toledo in Ohio.

more
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10709286 ...



Thanks sfexpat2000

:hi:

[dbt]

28. Kick for the Morning Crew!

seems, do you ever sleep?

:hug:
dbt

[seemslikeadream]

30. How could I dream if I didn't sleep dbt?

:hug:
SLad

[Roland99]

31. Lieberman has endorsed the nomination?? He better wake the fuck up!!

[Roland99]

33. Gonzales at the helm and Chertoff backing him up...

woo hoo!!

[seemslikeadream]

34. Michael Chertoff and the sabotage of the Ptech investigation

from
Minstrel Boy

Remember Ptech? That's the Boston software firm financed by Saudi businessman Yassin Al-Qadi, who also happens to be an al Qaeda bagman, whose clients happened to include numerous sensitive US federal branches and agencies, including the FAA, the FBI, the military and the White House.

A little background, from the mainstream, even, thanks to WBZ-TV:

Joe Bergantino, a reporter for WBZ-TV's investigative team, was torn. He could risk breaking a story based on months of work investigating a software firm linked to terrorism, or heed the government's demand to hold the story for national security reasons. In mid-June, Bergantino received a tip from a woman in New York who suspected that Ptech, a computer software company in Quincy, Mass., had ties to terrorists. Ptech specialized in developing software that manages information contained in computer networks.

Bergantino's investigation revealed that Ptech's clients included many federal governmental agencies, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, NATO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even the White House.

"Ptech was doing business with every federal government in defense and had access to key government data," Bergantino said.

...

Bergantino was ready to air the story by September, but the government had different plans. Federal authorities told Bergantino not to air the story because it would jeopardize their investigation and would threaten national security. According to federal authorities, documents would be shredded and people would flee if we ran the story, Bergantino said. But Bergantino claims the government's demand to hold off on the story was merely a pretext.

In October 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order freezing the assets of individuals linked to terrorism. According to Bergantino, the list identified Saudi Arabian businessman Yassin Al-Qadi as a key financial backer of Osama Bin Laden. As it turns out, Bergantino said, Al-Qadi also is the chief financier of Ptech. The government failed to investigate Ptech in October 2001 and didn't start it's investigation until August 2002 when WBZ-TV's investigation called attention to Ptech.

Bergatino's tipster was Indira Singh, who has said she recognizes the separate command and control communications system Mike Ruppert describes Dick Cheney to have been running on September 11th as having "the exact same functionality I was looking to utilize for Ptech."

Now, how does Chertoff figure in the Ptech story? It goes back to the turf war of two years ago over Operation Greenquest, "the high-profile federal task force set up to target the financiers of Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups." The aggressive, Customs-led task force was folded into Homeland Security, sending both the FBI and its minders at the Department of Justice into a tizzy. They "demanded that the White House instead give the FBI total control over Greenquest."

Now, consider this, also from Newsweek:

The FBI-Justice move, pushed by DOJ Criminal Division chief Michael Chertoff and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, has enraged Homeland Security officials, however. They accuse the bureau of sabotaging Greenquest investigations — by failing to turn over critical information to their agents—and trying to obscure a decade-long record of lethargy in which FBI offices failed to aggressively pursue terror-finance cases.

...

One prime example of the tension is the investigation into Ptech, the Boston-area computer software firm that had millions of dollars in sensitive government contracts with the Air Force, the Energy Department and, ironically enough, the FBI. In what turned into a minor embarrassment for the bureau, the firm’s main investors included Yasin Al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi businessman whom the Bush administration had formally designated a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi has vigorously denied any connection to terrorism.

The Ptech case turned into an ugly dispute last year when company whistleblowers told Greenquest agents about their own suspicions about the firm’s owners. Sources close to the case say those same whistleblowers had first approached FBI agents, but the bureau apparently did little or nothing in response. With backing from the National Security Council, Greenquest agents then mounted a full-scale investigation that culminated in a raid on the company’s office last December. After getting wind of the Greenquest probe, the FBI stepped in and unsuccessfully tried to take control of the case.

The result, sources say, has been something of a train wreck. Privately, FBI officials say Greenquest agents botched the probe and jeopardized other more promising inquiries into Al-Qadi. Greenquest agents dismiss the charges and say the problem is that the bureau was slow to respond to legitimate allegations that an outside contractor with terrorist ties may have infiltrated government computers.

(And still, there are no charges or indictments against Al-Qadi or Ptech.)

The turf war was won on May 13, 2003, when John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge signed a "Memorandum of Agreement between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, giving the FBI "unprecedented unilateral control of all terrorist-financing investigations and operations."

Several seasoned government agents fear for the nation’s security should the FBI be tackling most terrorism cases, as their ineptitude in preventing terrorism has been established time and time again. Yet, the memorandum between Ashcroft and Ridge places the FBI in an incredibly powerful position over Homeland Security. According to the memorandum, "all appropriate DHS leads relating to money laundering and financial crimes will be checked with the FBI."

Well, no reason to fear now, now that Michael Chertoff is heading up Homeland Security. Right?

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/01/michael-chertoff-and-sabotage-of-ptech.html

[seemslikeadream]

35. ACLU Examines Chertoff’s Troubling Civil Liberties Record

ACLU Examines Chertoff’s Troubling Civil Liberties Record; Nominee Had Key Role In Controversial Post- 9/11 Policies

January 31, 2005

...

"The Bill of Rights is not a suggestion for how our government operates -- it’s the foundation," said Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Chertoff has an alarming record of pushing - an in some cases breaching - what is permissible under the Bill of Rights in the name of national security. The new head of the one of the nation’s largest collection of law enforcement agents must have an unwavering commitment to keep us both safe and free."

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Chertoff "advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the legality of coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute." The ACLU has called on Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales, if confirmed, to appoint a special counsel to investigate and prosecute any criminal acts by civilians in the torture or abuse of detainees by the U.S. Government.

"Top level officials - including Chertoff -- that were involved in developing or applying policies that paved the way for the horrific abuses are not being sanctioned, instead they’re being rewarded," Anders said. "Enlisted men and women and low-ranking military officers should not be the only persons held responsible if civilians also engaged in misconduct."

...

And, perhaps most significantly, he was the real force behind the pretextual detention of hundreds of Arab and Muslim men during the 9/11 investigation using minor immigration violations that would not normally warrant detention, and the misuse of the material witness statute to detain individuals when law enforcement could not meet criminal evidentiary requirements for lawful arrest.

...

The two-year-old Department of Homeland Security controls a veritable alphabet soup of national security agencies, many of which directly impact civil liberties policies. DHS includes the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the United States Secret Service. As head of that department, the Secretary has wide-reaching control over the civil liberties of American citizens and immigrants alike.

"Senators must closely examine Chertoff’s record to determine in what manner he will act to protect our nation," Anders added. "His past performance so far is troubling, and must be examined."
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17379&c=206

[EFerrari]

37. TG for the ACLU. And when did it become just all right

for the Cabinet to be comprised of careerists that would make the Mafia faint?

Rice rubber stamped Chevron's slaughter of Nigerian oil workers.

Abu Graib Gonzales found a way to make torture work.

Chertoff found a way to make unlawful detention palatable.

Any day now, I expect to be herded to the train station because I have a "not in my name" sign in my window.

Thank you, SLAD. This is the line, right here.

[Bake]

38. Damn! Just saw "Chertoff Buried Early" and got all excited!

Damn.

Bake

[dusty64]

40. Kick!

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

42. Double kick

:dem::kick:

[Al-CIAda]

43. Anyone watching them cover-up and confirm the terrorist?