Friday, June 22, 2007

The Gall!

The CIA is set to release a detailed report on its “family jewels” this week. When I was being taught hand-to-hand combat as a young Marine, my handlers often spoke of protecting my “family jewels” or destroying or crushing or grabbing the “family jewels” of an enemy. The family jewels, in the Marine Corps, were the testicles. The CIA, however, has just revealed that the family jewels reside in a pouch (its nomenclature in the medical field is “gall bladder”) about 8 inches above and to the right of where the Marine Corps taught me. The image above is actually a photograph of the CIA’s “family jewels.” That the CIA would make jewels of hardened, bilious gallstones is disgusting. But there you have it.
In the 600+ page report, the CIA chronicles its history of criminality in what CIA director General Michael Hayden called "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency." If that statement weren’t so sickening, it would be funny. In case you don’t know or remember, Hayden was director of the übersecret National Security Agency, and he oversaw the controversial warrantless surveillance of people in the United States.

So the report supposedly details the CIA’s illegal wiretapping, kidnapping, torture and murder prior to 1975. A very different time, indeed. Included are the details of:

1. Confinement of a Russian defector that "might be regarded as a violation of the kidnapping laws."
2. Wiretapping of two syndicated columnists, Robert Allen and Paul Scott.
3. Physical surveillance of muckraker Jack Anderson and his associates, including current Fox News anchor Britt Hume.
4. Physical surveillance of then Washington Post reporter Michael Getler.
5. Break-in at the home of a former CIA employee.
6. Break-in at the office of a former defector.
7. Warrantless entry into the apartment of a former CIA employee.
8. Mail opening from 1953 to 1973 of letters to and from the Soviet Union.
9. Mail opening from 1969 to 1972 of letters to and from China.
10. Behavior modification experiments on "unwitting" U.S. citizens.
11. Assassination plots against Castro, Lumumba, and Trujillo (on the latter, "no active part" but a "faint connection" to the killers).
12. Surveillance of dissident groups between 1967 and 1971.
13. Surveillance of a particular Latin American female and U.S. citizens in Detroit.
14. Surveillance of a CIA critic and former officer, Victor Marchetti.
15. Amassing of files on 9,900-plus Americans related to the antiwar movement.
16. Polygraph experiments with the San Mateo, California, sheriff.
17. Fake CIA identification documents that might violate state laws.
18. Testing of electronic equipment on US telephone circuits.

The good news is the CIA no longer kidnaps, wiretaps, breaks in or spies on people. Just ask Khalid al Masri and Senator Jay Rockefeller. Or former CIA director Porter Goss, for that matter. It makes me sick that these SOBs stash the smoking guns for 30+ years, and then, after the smoke clears, they have the nerve to say, “That was then, this is now.” Over and over and over again, and the people of this country believe it and act like it’s ancient history.

But don’t you believe it. Same spooks then as now, mate.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Hi Again!

There's been a lot going on since the car accident. Lots of house stuff, work stuff. And I made a new friend at work, great guy named Jose. He just started and he’s in our California office. Gotta get out there and see an A’s game with him.
Anyway, he was in town for a company retreat, and we were talking about Lou Dobbs on CNN. We talked about how restrictionist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant Dobbs is. Then Jose started telling me that he was on Paula Zahn and CNN last year telling them what a hater Dobbs is. That’s when I found out Jose created this AWESOME website! You gotta check it out. And all my peeps in California (and beyond California) need to support the website proper!
So I have been stewing on this. My novia and I have talked about it quite a bit (she initially shined me the light on Dobbs). And I am getting more and more pissed every time I read one of his jeremiads on immigration. I wrote CNN. I am pasting the email I replied to them after they blew off my complaint email. Enjoy.
PLEASE write CNN or Dobbs a letter and tell them to can this fascist or shut him up. He should go back to focusing on Seth Bernanke.
Tomorrow I will begin to tell you about my conversation with my buddy Nicolas Castille y Aragon (and related to Torquemada) regarding the similarities between the Bush Administration’s doings and the Spanish Inquisition.

----

Dear CNN
I should have supposed that nothing would happen after I wrote my letter
about Lou Dobbs' xenophobia and nativism, but even as the people report
the news about Dobbs to CNN, CNN refuses to even acknowledge the story's
existence for fear of having been scooped.
 
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), as your lauditory "anchors"
webpage announces with great fanfare, presented Mr. Dobbs with the Eugene
Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration for his ongoing
series "Broken Borders," which examines U.S. policy towards illegal
immigration.  In case you didn't know, CIS is a malignant xenophobic
nativist outgrowth of the immigrant hate organization Federation for
American Immigration Reform, or "FAIR".  Nevertheless, CIS is passing as a
non-partisan immigration law think tank.
 
And Dobbs is posing as a journalist.  Regardless of Mr. Dobbs' illustrious
career with the media, he is not a journalist.  He is, instead, the hate
monger who reports the stock market.
 
Respectfully,
C. Andrew McGuffin
Raleigh, NC

 

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-- 
C. Andrew McGuffin
Attorney at Law