posted October 14, 2004 01:11 AM              

in 1988 ken lay was a close personal freind and campaign supporter already to hw bush
then in 92 lay chaired hw's reelection campaign just so he could sabatoge it from the inside with huge amounts of money and get clinton elected.....(maybe as advisor, ken lay TOLD hw bush to say the "read my lips" line)
luckily before he ditched the sap, he worked with him to get the ball rolling on deregulation so he could really start raking in the doh for his true master,clinton
lay hired Secretary of State James Baker and Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher from the hwbush admin to help keep his undercover status

shortly after, he began phase 2 of his diabolical plan, getting dubya into office so he could screw him over good....
maybe by instructing lay to give bush so much money in the 94 governors election through lay,clinton helped dubya oust his own BIG supporter, ann richards
then working to destroy him for years , lay ironically fooled wbush so well that he earned the nickname "kennyboy"
of course he had to give 8 x more to dole than clinton in the 96 election so no one would know where his true loyalty lies
he also gave hundreds of thousands $$$ to each of the republican conventions(and thats not including the lavish enron sponsored functions where the amounts are undisclosed), while donating nothing to the democratic conventions(again, to keep secret his position as a mole for clinton)

soon after the 98 governor election where he was again the primary backer of dubya, lay kicked into over drive and outspent john mccain to get dubya the presidential nomination, then flew him around campaigning for the 2000 election.....

but something went wrong!!! he accidentally got wbush elected over gore so he grudgingly served on the transition team for dubya into the whitehouse......probly just so he could manage to plant several employees and executives from enron into bushs administration just to embarrass bush later.....

i wonder if he really called the whitehouse to ask for a 26 BILLION$$$ bailout...lol
he and clinton mustve been cracking up laughing on the other end of the line

ken lay must have even fooled his own employees into believing he supported dubya.....

ENRON TAPES

"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader.

"Ok."

"Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that?
************
Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.

"It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker.

That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.

"When this election comes Bush will *edit* whack this *edit*, man. He won't play this price-cap *edit*."

Crude, but true.

"We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse and that's why I oppose price caps," said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001.

BOTH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND ENRON TRIED TO PREVENT THE RELEASE OF THESE TAPES
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml

**************
In one tape, an employee says, "You gotta think the economy is going to *edit* get crushed, man. This is like a recession waiting to *edit* happen."

The tapes show Enron tried to bring California to its knees.

Elsewhere on the tapes, another employee says, "This is where California breaks."

"Yeah, it sure does man," says another.

And they proposed to do that by exporting energy out of the state so the company could drive up prices even more.

"What we need to do is to help in the cause of, ah, downfall of California," an employee is heard saying on the tapes. "You guys need to pull your megawatts out of California on a daily basis."

"They're on the ropes today," says another employee. "I exported like a *edit* 400 megs."

"Wow,'' says another employee, "*edit* 'em, right!"

Traders can be heard manipulating the market, using now-infamous schemes with names like death star, ricochet and fat boy. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/08/eveningnews/main621856.shtml

Employee 1: "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?

Employee 2: "Yeah, Grandma Millie man.

Employee 1: "Yeah, now she wants her *edit* money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her *edit* for *edit* $250 a megawatt hour."

*****************

posted October 17, 2004 08:10 PM              

Wednesday, January 30, 2002

While the White House insists that details of its talks with Enron officials remain secret, a memo outlining those discussions reveals the extent to which the Houston energy giant lobbied to influence government policy.
The memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, was handed by former Enron Chairman Ken Lay to Vice President Dick Cheney last April when the two met to discuss the administration's response to California's energy crisis.
The White House acknowledged last night that aspects of the memo resembled elements of Cheney's energy plan, but it refused to say whether the document was included in notes that Cheney now refuses to divulge to congressional investigators.
The General Accounting Office is threatening to sue the administration if it doesn't disclose details of its talks with Enron officials.

The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps or returning to archaic methods of determining the cost-base of wholesale power," the memo says.
It adds that even temporary price restrictions "will be detrimental to power markets and will discourage private investment."
The memo blames California officials for having made only "limited progress" in tackling the state's power woes. It says that if the administration were to follow all of Enron's recommendations, the measures "would mitigate this crisis."
An Enron spokesman confirmed that the memo had been given by Lay to Cheney during their one-on-one talks.

Still, as far as price caps go, the administration was quick to fall into lockstep with Enron's opposition to any federal regulatory moves. "We think that's a mistake," Cheney said just weeks after his meeting with Lay.
Nevertheless, federal regulators finally imposed price limits in June based on the cost of the least-efficient, and thus most expensive, generating plant. Democrats in Washington had threatened to act on their own if the regulators did not come up with a remedy for California's troubles.
Cheney also echoed Enron's position on the culpability of California's leaders in exacerbating the state's energy problems.
"When the problem became obvious last year, over a year ago, they didn't respond," he said in May.
Noting that California had experienced rolling blackouts and the bankruptcy of its biggest utility, he also said, "I don't think that's a sterling record of leadership, I would guess, on their part."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/30/MN46204.DTL

Associated Press
Calif. Sues Enron for Alleged Manipulation
06.17.2004, 03:49 PM

California's attorney general said Thursday he is suing Enron and several subsidiaries for allegedly manipulating the market during the state's 2000-01 energy crisis and costing Californians hundreds of millions of dollars.

Three former Enron traders have been charged with fraud involving price manipulation in California. Two of them have pleaded guilty and a third is awaiting trial.

The lawsuit, the first filed against Enron by the state's top law enforcement officer, contends that between 1998 and 2001, Enron engaged in a variety of fraudulent schemes to artificially boost electricity prices and the company's profits.

Among other things, Enron was accused of deliberately causing congestion along power transmission lines, then reaping extra revenue for taking action to relieve the congestion.

"While the state reeled from the combined impact of sky-high power prices, supply shortages and rolling blackouts, the Enron defendants enjoyed massive, unprecedented profits and extracted millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from utilities and their customers through a variety of fraudulent schemes," according to the complaint.

A message left with an Enron spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

posted October 17, 2004 10:53 PM            

That's a high hurdle for you to jump Petron because all that is on the public record and there is no way you can spin any of those facts.

Oh, and one more thing Petron. Hundreds and probably thousands of individuals and companies lobby the White House, the President, Cabinet members, members of Congress and mid to high level managers in government.....each and every month. What do you make of that Petron? Must be a conspiracy in there somewhere, don't you think?

Ummm, don't look now Petron but it's John Heinz Kerry who accepted more Pac and lobbyist money than any other Senator. Spin that!

posted October 17, 2004 11:26 PM              

but otherwise, some1 had to cough up BILLION$$$ lol , if bush had tried to cover that up at that point he wouldnt be in the whitehouse right now....

posted October 18, 2004 01:35 PM            

Of course in your conspiracy laced mind there must be some conspiracy associated with those facts too.

posted October 26, 2004 11:27 PM              

"There is not one passage in the Bible suggesting anyone stand by and watch others being killed, beaten, tortured, maimed, raped"-jwhop

**************************

The Ghosts of 1991

By Peter W. Galbraith

Saturday, April 12, 2003; Page A19

Just 12 years ago, the Shiite Muslims who constitute a majority in Iraq and in the city of Baghdad were betrayed by the United States -- an act that may have cost them as many as 100,000 lives. That recent history -- of which the Shiites are understandably a good deal less forgetful than we -- explains why the Shiites in the south initially greeted invading American and British forces with a good deal more reserve than expected. And as the continuing turmoil in southern towns and cities makes clear, building a democratic state in Iraq over the long term will depend to a large degree on how strong and lasting a trust we can build among these people.

The spontaneous Shiite uprising of 1991 consumed the southern part of Iraq right up to the approaches to Baghdad. Rebels came to U.S. troops, who were then deployed in the Euphrates Valley, begging for U.S. intervention. The Shiite political parties sent emissaries to the few Americans who would see them. To this day, I am haunted by the desperation in the appeals made to me by one group, as they realized time was running out for their countrymen.

Many of the problems we face now and in the future with Shiites likely have to do with the way the first Bush administration responded to those appeals. On Feb. 15, 1991, President George H.W. Bush called on the Iraqi military and people to overthrow Saddam Hussein. On March 3, an Iraqi tank commander returning from Kuwait fired a shell through one of the portraits of Hussein in Basra's main square, igniting the southern uprising. A week later, Kurdish rebels ended Hussein's control over much of the north.

The administration knew little about those in the Iraqi opposition because, as a matter of policy, it refused to talk to them. Policymakers tended to see Iraq's main ethnic groups in caricature: The Shiites were feared as pro-Iranian and the Kurds as anti-Turkish. Indeed, the U.S. administration seemed to prefer the continuation of the Baath regime (albeit without Hussein) to the success of the rebellion. As one National Security Council official told me at the time: "Our policy is to get rid of Saddam, not his regime."

The practical expression of this policy came in the decisions made by the military on the ground. U.S. commanders spurned the rebels' plea for help. The United States allowed Iraq to send Republican Guard units into southern cities and to fly helicopter gunships. (This in spite of a ban on flights, articulated by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf with considerable swagger: "You fly, you die.") The consequences were devastating. Hussein's forces leveled the historical centers of the Shiite towns, bombarded sacred Shiite shrines and executed thousands on the spot. By some estimates, 100,000 people died in reprisal killings between March and September. Many of these atrocities were committed in proximity to American troops, who were under orders not to intervene.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10874-2003Apr11?language=printer

**********
March 1991
Saddam brutally suppresses rebellions in north and south of Iraq; U.S. does not intervene

During the war, President Bush repeatedly calls for Iraqis to rise up against Saddam. Within days of the cease-fire, Shia Muslims in the south of Iraq, close to the allied front lines, take up arms against Saddam. In the first heady days of the uprising, the rebels control the streets.

Saddam quickly moves loyal forces and uses armed helicopters to suppress the uprising in the south. U.S. troops can see the fighting from their positions, but are ordered not to intervene. There are estimates that tens of thousands of Shia Muslims were killed.

A few days after the Shia uprising begins, the Kurds start a rebellion in northern Iraq. While the southern uprising had been somewhat incoherent, the Kurds have political leaders who can shape the revolt. As the rebellion gathers momentum, Kurdish leaders who had been living abroad return. They hope to trigger a coup against Saddam that will result in a new Iraqi leader who will let the Kurds run their own affairs.

Saddam's forces soon attack the rebels, who are not supported by Washington, which had decided against backing an uprising that might lead to Iraq's breakup. The rebel forces are hopelessly outgunned. As Kurdish cities are shelled, there is panic among the population. The cities of Kurdistan empty and a million people head towards the mountains in an attempt to reach the safety of Turkey and Iran. Again, U.S. forces, who see the exodus, are ordered not to intervene.

With Saddam clinging to power, Bush decides on a containment strategy towards Iraq: tough U.N. inspections, economic sanctions, and no-fly zones to protect the Kurds and Shia Muslims in the north and south of the country.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/longroad/etc/cron.html

******************

there are those who would say that people who dont want bush for president must wish saddam was still in power
these people are idiots who didnt give a damn back when hwbush was supporting this ghoul.......these are the people who think hwbush was protecting "national security" by supplying and manipulating middle eastern "monarchies" ...i think he was protecting his own security

a great part of the mass graves saddam filled were when the u.s. backed him and then in the uprisings directly after the 1st gulf war when the worlds most advanced army stood within miles .....
i dont think hw bush was worried about biblical interpretations of jesus' message or any of the profound truths spoken by gandhi....

i also dont think dubya bush could have thought iraq was our biggest threat at the time we invaded, i think he's using typical "bidness" strategy, taking out the weakest, most profitable target....he should have at least said so....

posted October 26, 2004 11:57 PM            

Yeah right, Bush senior recruited Ken Lay for the CIA and then George screwed it all up blew Lay's cover and had poor Ken indicted.

Ummm Petron, kicking Saddam out of Iraq was a UN operation. Bush senior did not have UN authorization to pursue Iraqi troops into Iraq further than necessary to secure Kuwait's borders. Bush senior also did not have UN authority to prevent what happened to the Shiites.

My own personal opinion is that he should have gone after Saddam immediately when Saddam attacked the Shiites in the south of Iraq...but he didn't.

But, let's say he had. Then you and everyone who always brings this up would have been ripping his $ss for the next 10 years for acting unilaterally without UN authorization.

You can't have it both ways.

posted October 27, 2004 02:59 AM            

Saddam murdered his way to power with no help from America.

posted October 27, 2004 10:23 PM              

Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an "almost daily" basis in defiance of international conventions

The story of U.S. involvement with Saddam Hussein in the years before his 1990 attack on Kuwait -- which included large-scale intelligence sharing, supply of cluster bombs through a Chilean front company, and facilitating Iraq's acquisition of chemical and biological precursors -- is a topical example of the underside of U.S. foreign policy. It is a world in which deals can be struck with dictators, human rights violations sometimes overlooked, and accommodations made with arms proliferators

A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses against the "human wave" attacks by suicidal Iranian troops. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague

To prevent an Iraqi collapse, the Reagan administration supplied battlefield intelligence on Iranian troop buildups to the Iraqis, sometimes through third parties such as Saudi Arabia. The U.S. tilt toward Iraq was enshrined in National Security Decision Directive 139 of April 5, 1984, one of the few important Reagan era foreign policy decisions that still remains classified. According to former U.S. officials, the directive stated that the United States would do "whatever was necessary and legal" to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran.

Thus, on Nov. 1, 1983, a senior State Department official, Jonathan T. Howe, told Secretary of State George P. Shultz that intelligence reports showed that Iraqi troops were resorting to "almost daily use of CW" against the Iranians. But the Reagan administration had already committed itself to a large-scale diplomatic and political overture to Baghdad, culminating in several visits by the president's recently appointed special envoy to the Middle East, Donald H. Rumsfeld

As part of its opening to Baghdad, the Reagan administration removed Iraq from the State Department terrorism list in February 1982, despite heated objections from Congress. Without such a move, Teicher says, it would have been "impossible to take even the modest steps we were contemplating" to channel assistance to Baghdad.Some former U.S. officials say that removing Iraq from the terrorism list provided an incentive to Hussein to expel the Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal from Baghdad in 1983.

While Rumsfeld was talking to Hussein and Aziz in Baghdad, Iraqi diplomats and weapons merchants were fanning out across Western capitals for a diplomatic charm offensive-*** -arms buying spree

According to a sworn court affidavit prepared by Teicher in 1995, the United States "actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required." Teicher said in the affidavit that former CIA director William Casey used a Chilean company, Cardoen, to supply Iraq with cluster bombs that could be used to disrupt the Iranian human wave attacks.

Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein.

When United Nations weapons inspectors were allowed into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, they compiled long lists of chemicals, missile components, and computers from American suppliers, including such household names as Union Carbide and Honeywell, which were being used for military purposes.

A 1994 investigation by the Senate Banking Committee turned up dozens of biological agents shipped to Iraq during the mid-'80s under license from the Commerce Department, including various strains of anthrax, subsequently identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program. The Commerce Department also approved the export of insecticides to Iraq, despite widespread suspicions that they were being used for chemical warfare.

The fact that Iraq was using chemical weapons was hardly a secret. In February 1984, an Iraqi military spokesman effectively acknowledged their use by issuing a chilling warning to Iran. "The invaders should know that for every harmful insect, there is an insecticide capable of annihilating it . . . and Iraq possesses this annihilation insecticide."

In late 1987, the Iraqi air force began using chemical agents against Kurdish resistance forces in northern Iraq that had formed a loose alliance with Iran, according to State Department reports

The Iraqis continued to use chemical weapons against the Iranians until the end of the Iran-Iraq war. A U.S. air force intelligence officer, Rick Francona, reported finding widespread use of Iraqi nerve gas when he toured the Al Faw peninsula in southern Iraq in the summer of 1988, after its recapture by the Iraqi army. The battlefield was littered with atropine injectors used by panicky Iranian troops as an antidote against Iraqi nerve gas attacks.

Far from declining, the supply of U.S. military intelligence to Iraq actually expanded in 1988, according to a 1999 book by Francona, "Ally to Adversary: an Eyewitness Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace." Informed sources said much of the battlefield intelligence was channeled to the Iraqis by the CIA office in Baghdad.

Although U.S. export controls to Iraq were tightened up in the late 1980s, there were still many loopholes. In December 1988, Dow Chemical sold $1.5 million of pesticides to Iraq, despite U.S. government concerns that they could be used as chemical warfare agents. An Export-Import Bank official reported in a memorandum that he could find "no reason" to stop the sale, despite evidence that the pesticides were "highly toxic" to humans and would cause death "from asphyxiation."

posted October 28, 2004 12:02 AM            

The CDC supplied reference samples to many nations for medical research, including Iraq.

None of the weapons found in Iraq after the 1991 war were from the United States. The Soviet Union, Germany and France were the major supplies of aircraft, tanks, artillery, rifles, mortars and other war materials...US made weapons systems were not found in Iraq.

You seem to forget Petron, Iran had held American diplomatic hostages for more than 400 days. It seems rather natural to me that the US would give intelligence to Iraq about Iranian troop movements to assist against an enemy...an enemy who referred to the US as the Great Satan. The enemy of my enemy is my friend is a saying that's been around for a very long time.

The US in no way brought Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq but he was there and in a war with Iran...so we used him and helped him against our common enemy, Iran.

Beyond that Petron, a decision was made that Iran would not and could not be permitted to win the war against Iraq. There was no chance the US would permit Iran to control Iraq's oil fields...in addition to their own.

posted October 31, 2004 12:35 AM              

Along with Amelia Mackay, the nation of Honduras has begun to confront a truth it has long suspected - that hundreds of its citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed in the 1980s by a secret army unit trained and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The intelligence unit, known as Battalion 316, used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves.

Newly declassified documents and other sources show that the CIA and the U.S. Embassy knew of numerous crimes, including murder and torture, committed by Battalion 316, yet continued to collaborate closely with its leaders.

Among those interviewed were three former Battalion 316 torturers who acknowledged their crimes and detailed the battalion's close relationship with the CIA.

U.S. collaboration with Battalion 316 occurred at many levels.

* The CIA was instrumental in training and equipping Battalion 316. Members were flown to a secret location in the United States for training in surveillance and interrogation, and later were given CIA training at Honduran bases.

* Starting in 1981, the United States secretly provided funds for Argentine counterinsurgency experts to train anti-Communist forces in Honduras. By that time, Argentina was notorious for its own "Dirty War," which had left at least 10,000 dead or "disappeared" in the 1970s. Argentine and CIA instructors worked side by side training Battalion 316 members at a camp in Lepaterique, a town about 16 miles west of Tegucigalpa.

* Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who as chief of the Honduran armed forces personally directed Battalion 316, received strong U.S. support - even after he told a U.S. ambassador that he intended to use the Argentine method of eliminating subversives.

* By 1983, when Alvarez's oppressive methods were well known to the U.S. Embassy, the Reagan administration awarded him the Legion of Merit for "encouraging the success of democratic processes in Honduras." His friendship with Donald Winters, the CIA station chief in Honduras, was so close that when Winters adopted a child, he asked Alvarez to be the girl's godfather.

* A CIA officer based in the U.S. Embassy went frequently to a secret jail known as INDUMIL, where torture was conducted, and visited the cell of kidnap victim Ines Murillo. That jail and other Battalion 316 installations were off-limits to Honduran officials, including judges trying to find kidnap victims.

The exact number of people executed by Battalion 316 remains unknown. For years, unidentified and unclaimed bodies were found dumped in rural areas, along rivers and in citrus groves.

The Honduran government has taken several steps forward in the pursuit of the truth about the disappearances of the 1980s.

In a 1993 report, "The Facts Speak for Themselves," the government lists the name of each of the disappeared and admits that it did not protect its citizens from the abuses of the military.

"Extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions and the lack of due process ... characterized these years of intolerance," stated the report of the National Commissioner for the Protection of Human Rights in Honduras. "Perhaps more troublesome than the violations themselves was the authorities' tolerance of these crimes and the impunity with which they were committed."

It was disclosed this year that a Guatemalan army officer linked to two high-profile killings was a paid CIA agent. One of the victims was an American innkeeper in Guatemala, the other a leftist guerrilla married to a Baltimore-born lawyer.

CIA officials allegedly knew that the Guatemalan, Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, was involved in the killings, but concealed the -- information.

Created in 1947, the CIA has conducted covert operations in Latin America since its inception. In 1954, the CIA engineered a coup launched from neighboring Honduras that overthrew Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and installed a military regime.

The CIA supported the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973, then launched a covert program to enhance the reputation of Chilean strongman Gen. Augusto Pinochet. U.S. officials have admitted that the CIA paid former Panamanian military ruler Manuel Antonio Noriega more than $160,000 as an intelligence source.

In the 1980s, the CIA expanded its activities in Latin America. The agency trained and funded a clandestine paramilitary force known as the "contras" to attack the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

posted October 31, 2004 12:52 AM            

quote:

---

In the 1980s, the CIA expanded its activities in Latin America. The agency trained and funded a clandestine paramilitary force known as the "contras" to attack the Sandinista government in Nicaragua

---

posted October 31, 2004 01:46 AM              

it was contra terrorist attacks on civilians, cia mining of commercial harbors and a debilitating trade embargo that caused the ouster of ortega.......if communism just ruins its own economies then why not sit back and let them???
yes or no...is it right to covertly sponsor attacks on civilians?
and explain to me why the SAUDIS were giving millions$$ to the contras?lol

btw negroponte is now AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ lol
here are some others brought back to the administration
lol otto reich was actually censured for propaganda against the american people!!!

**************

John Negroponte, as ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85, covered up human rights abuses by the CIA-trained Battalion 316. He is Bush's choice for U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and, as Extra! went to press, was expected to clear Senate confirmation hearings.

Elliott Abrams, an assistant secretary of state under Reagan, pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding evidence from Congress (i.e., lying) over his role in the Iran-Contra affair. Bush I pardoned him; Bush II has appointed him to the National Security Council as director of its office for democracy, human rights and international operations. The post requires no Senate approval.

Otto Reich's nomination as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, the top post for Latin America, was predicted to draw the most congressional fire. Reich was head of the now-defunct Office for Public Diplomacy (OPD), which the House Committee on Foreign Affairs censured for "prohibited, covert propaganda activities" (Washington Post, 10/11/87

posted October 31, 2004 01:03 AM            

Reagan stopped Soviet expansion in Central America and Ortega's communist workers paradise collapsed under it's own weight. They threw his sorry ass out and his communist junta with him.

Reagan stopped Soviet expansion all over the world and eventually, the Soviet Union collapsed too.

That's the real reason the left despised Reagan and to this day despises his name. Up theirs

The people did not overthrow Somosa Petron, Jimmy Carter pulled the same bonehead play from the playbook he used in Iran and withdrew support for Somosa.

As a result, radical Islamic clerics seized control of Iran and started spreading their hate filled influence in the Middle East.

In Central America, Carter opened the door wide open for the Soviet Union to gain a toe hold on the American continent.

It's not possible to assess all the damage the Carter administration did around the world. The man is a certifiable idiot.

posted October 31, 2004 01:04 AM            

quote:

---

There is not one passage in the Bible suggesting anyone stand by and watch others being killed, beaten, tortured, maimed, raped

---

1) Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city. (Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)

2)So Joshua and his warriors traveled to the water near Merom and attacked suddenly. And the LORD gave them victory over their enemies. The Israelites chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward into the valley of Mizpah, until not one enemy warrior was left alive. Then Joshua crippled the horses and burned all the chariots, as the LORD had instructed. Joshua then turned back and captured Hazor and killed its king. (Hazor had at one time been the capital of the federation of all these kingdoms.) The Israelites completely destroyed every living thing in the city. Not a single person was spared. And then Joshua burned the city. Joshua slaughtered all the other kings and their people, completely destroying them, just as Moses, the servant of the LORD, had commanded. However, Joshua did not burn any of the cities built on mounds except Hazor. And the Israelites took all the captured goods and cattle of the ravaged cities for themselves, but they killed all the people. As the LORD had commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did as he was told, carefully obeying all of the LORD's instructions to Moses. (Joshua 11:7-15 NLT)

3) And the LORD said to Moses, 'You and Eleazar the priest and the family leaders of each tribe are to make a list of all the plunder taken in the battle, including the people and animals. Then divide the plunder into two parts, and give half to the men who fought the battle and half to the rest of the people. But first give the LORD his share of the captives, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats that belong to the army. Set apart one out of every five hundred as the LORD's share. Give this share of their half to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the LORD. Also take one of every fifty of the captives, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats in the half that belongs to the people of Israel. Give this share to the Levites in charge of maintaining the LORD's Tabernacle.' So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses. The plunder remaining from the spoils that the fighting men had taken totaled 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 young girls. (Numbers 31:25-35 NLT)

4) (2 Samuel 12:11-14 NAB)

Thus says the Lord: 'I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives [plural] while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan answered David: "The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die." [The child dies seven days later.]

5) They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil. (Judges 5:30 NAB)

6) (Judges 21:10-24 NLT)

So they sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. "This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin." Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

The Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. Then the men of Benjamin returned to their homes, and the four hundred women of Jabesh-gilead who were spared were given to them as wives. But there were not enough women for all of them. The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the LORD had left this gap in the tribes of Israel. So the Israelite leaders asked, "How can we find wives for the few who remain, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead? There must be heirs for the survivors so that an entire tribe of Israel will not be lost forever. But we cannot give them our own daughters in marriage because we have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this will fall under God's curse."

Then they thought of the annual festival of the LORD held in Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, "Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, 'Please be understanding. Let them have your daughters, for we didn't find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your daughters in marriage to them.'" So the men of Benjamin did as they were told. They kidnapped the women who took part in the celebration and carried them off to the land of their own inheritance. Then they rebuilt their towns and lived in them. So the assembly of Israel departed by tribes and families, and they returned to their own homes.

7) (Numbers 31:7-18 NLT)

They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

8) Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)

9) But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence. [spoken by Jesus as a parable] (Luke 19:27 NRS)

There are many such examples of murder and rape, etc. in the Bible. Perhaps the people were not always ordered to stand by and let it happen ... no, instead they were ordered directly to do so by the Lord.