Hosanna Church Update - Feb. 20, 2006

Several locals have sent me the following information.

First, the trials keep getting pushed back. Now, it appears they won't begin taking place until 2007. They ask -- why so long? And I can't answer, except to suggest that the prosecutors want these crimes to stay out of the public consciousness as long as possible.

Secondly, more than one source has told me that some of the alleged perpetrators -- those out of jail on bail -- have had contact with the witnesses and the alleged victims. If this is true -- and I have no reason to doubt my sources -- this is a travesty. If true, it is evidence of criminal negligence on the part of the local authorities.

There are also many questions about the church property owned by Robbin Lamonica, which is allegedly worth millions. Much of the apparent corruption in the prosecution may be tied into the the extremely valuable real estate. I have no hard evidence, but more than one source has pointed out that the property dealings have been very hush-hush. This is something the local media should be all over, but they're apparently operating in the same fearful environment as many of the families who wish to speak out -- but can't. Fear is a powerful motivator to keep one's mouth shut.

One source is clearly at his or her wits' end:

I BEG YOU FOR THE CHILDREN AND THE ADULTS WHO HAVE BEEN MOLESTED TO CALL MEDIA ATTENTION OUTSIDE OF LOUISIANA TO REGAIN INTEREST AND RAISE QUESTIONS THAT COUNTLESS PEOPLE HERE ARE SO AFRAID. PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!

The victims deserve to be rescued from inept, potentially corrupt prosecution. As a writer, all I can do is keep outside attention focused on the coverup and to help my sources speak without intimidation and fear.

If anyone in the legal community has any ideas, I know of many concerned citizens who would love to have your help. That also goes for any mainstream reporters looking for a story that needs a much wider audience.

Hunting is the new golf

From the WaPo article:

As they flew toward South Carolina for a campaign event in 2002, Lindsey O. Graham had a quiet moment to talk with Vice President Cheney aboard Air Force Two. As Graham recalls the encounter, he quizzed the vice president about the stresses of his high office.

"How do you keep your sanity in this job?" Graham asked.

Simple, Cheney answered. "Hunting."

And:

Since becoming vice president in January 2001, Cheney has continued to mix work and pleasure in these trips, at least in his choice of companions. Besides Graham and Chambliss, Cheney has gone hunting with a variety of other politicians, including Republican Sens. John Thune (S.D.), Trent Lott (Miss.) and Jim DeMint (S.C.), South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), former treasury secretary Nicholas F. Brady and former senators Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) and Zell Miller (D-Ga.).

Although associates say Cheney does not use hunting trips as an explicit fundraising vehicle, he has brought along prominent business figures, including Ohio billionaire Leslie H. Wexner, whose retail empire includes such chains as Limited Stores, Express, Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret. Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the Texas ranch where the shooting accident occurred, is a registered lobbyist. And of course, Cheney's most famous hunting partner before Harry Whittington was Justice Antonin Scalia, a fact that sparked controversy because the Supreme Court was ruling in a case involving Cheney and Scalia declined to recuse himself.

The trips are, of course, heavily underwritten by your tax dollars:

While Cheney pays any hunting fees or lodging expenses if charged, taxpayers invariably pick up much of the cost of Cheney's hunting hobby. As with his predecessors, the government pays for Secret Service agents, military aides and the rest of the entourage that travels with vice presidents wherever they go, as well as the expense of Air Force Two. But it is not clear how much that costs. The budget lists $1 million for the vice president's annual travel, including his official duties, but the figure is rounded to the nearest million, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

But the actual killing of animals -- for sport, as very few actually serve as food -- isn't the focus.

"You get quite a thrill," said former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), a Cheney friend and hunting partner. "Sometimes you don't even shoot. It's just amazing. There's a lot to it. It's not romantic for me, but it's very satisfying. Not the killing. Sometimes I don't get a thing. Just the joshing, the talking, the outrageous babble you have out there."

Yeah. Killing shit is just an afterthought. The blood is just -- incidental.

Sex Rituals of Abu Ghraib

I touched a nerve when I published Sex, Drugs, Mind Control and Gitmo in July of 2005. More than anything else I've written in recent years, it was circulated and republished widely. In that article, I suggested that the goings-on at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo were not just examples of bored, unsupervised soldiers gone wild, but were part of a cleverly orchestrated, historically documented program of sexual/ritualistic mind control.

Time has only added more evidence that I was correct.

From Salon's exclusive:

"A review of all the computer media submitted to this office revealed a total of 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse, 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees, 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts, 20 images of a soldier with a Swastika drawn between his eyes, 37 images of Military Working dogs being used in abuse of detainees and 125 images of questionable acts."

And:

The DVD also includes photographs of guards threatening Iraqi prisoners with dogs, homemade videotapes depicting hooded prisoners being forced to masturbate, and a video showing a mentally disturbed prisoner smashing his head against a door. Oddly, the material also includes numerous photographs of slaughtered animals and mundane images of soldiers traveling around Iraq.

Salon claims that this batch "may represent all of the photographic and video evidence that pertains to that investigation."

I suspect a limited hangout.

We have yet to see the photos and videotapes of children being raped and tortured. And we probably never will. That might be a little too much for a war-weary public to handle. And if you think the rioting over anti-Muslim cartoons was a big deal...

Let's look at the elements and try to ascertain the bigger picture behind the reprehensible images.

Rape. Torture. Circles of candles. Swastikas. Sexual activity among the torturers themselves, often in front of the detainees. Creation of cognitive dissonance to fracture the minds of the victims. Mutilated animals.

This is not the picture of a program designed to elicit actionable information. It is a program to shatter minds, perhaps to rebuild them as a new generation of assassins.

And it's right out of a dark occultist's playbook.

But why? Why torture mostly innocent people and turn them into deranged killers?

Because we need a constant flow of new enemies in order to justify an eternal war and permanent occupation.

In a country in such startling disarray, these [permanent] bases, with some of the most expensive and advanced communications systems on the planet, are like vast spaceships that have landed from another solar system. Representing a staggering investment of resources, effort and geostrategic dreaming, they are the unlikeliest places for the Bush administration to hand over willingly to even the friendliest of Iraqi governments.

And:

The base is sizeable enough to have its own "neighborhoods" including "KBR-land" (in honor of the Halliburton subsidiary that has done most of the base-construction work in Iraq); "CJSOTF" ("home to a special operations unit", the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, surrounded by "especially high walls", and so secretive that even the base army public affairs chief has never been inside); and a junkyard for bombed out army Humvees. There is as well a Subway, a Pizza Hut, a Popeye's, "an ersatz Starbucks", a 24-hour Burger King, two post exchanges where TVs, iPods and the like can be purchased, four mess halls, a hospital, a strictly enforced on-base speed limit of 10mph [miles per hour], a huge airstrip, 250 aircraft (helicopters and predator drones included), air-traffic pile-ups of a sort you would see over Chicago's O'Hare airport, and "a miniature golf course, which mimics a battlefield with its baby sandbags, little Jersey barriers, strands of concertina wire and, down at the end of the course, what appears to be a tiny detainee cage".

Ricks reports that the 20,000 troops stationed at Balad live in "air-conditioned containers" which will, in the future - and yes, for those building these bases, there still is a future - be wired "to bring the troops Internet, cable television and overseas telephone access". He points out as well that, of the troops at Balad, "only several hundred have jobs that take them off base. Most Americans posted here never interact with an Iraqi."

For those who have eyes to see, the intentions of the Bush Cabal have always been crystal clear.

For more on the subject, see the Sex, Drugs, Mind Control and Torture index.

Fear the Bloggers

U.S. concludes 'Cyber Storm' mock attacks

By TED BRIDIS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The government concluded its "Cyber Storm" wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers.

Bloggers?

Participants confirmed parts of the worldwide simulation challenged government officials and industry executives to respond to deliberate misinformation campaigns and activist calls by Internet bloggers, online diarists whose "Web logs" include political rantings and musings about current events.

Cheney Violates Cardinal Rule of Hunting

And I have to add one more thing (sorry, sport hunters out there):

Killing living creatures for "sport" is ugly and brutal.

If you kill something to feed yourself, fine. If you shoot shit to get your kicks watching it die, you're a sick fuck.

White House Knew About Levees Early

Bush knew.

No, I'm not talking about 9/11. I'm talking about the breach of the levees in New Orleans. You know, when all those black people died?

Yet he still found time to play his guitar while all the poor people drowned.

There's not a dungeon cell dark and deep enough for him.

Speaking Truth to Power

I'm so happy that someone stood up at Coretta Scott King's funeral and didn't pretend she and her husband were apolitical do-gooders who didn't connect civil rights with other abuses of power and policies of injustice -- they were activists for peace and against economic policies that hurt the poor, but you wouldn't know that from the way their antiwar and progressive activism is downplayed in the mainstream mediasphere.

Reverend Lowery spoke truth to power, shaming Bush and his asshole father as the warmongering, shit-on-the-poor elitists they are.

The Reverend made my day. Let's hope the spineless Dems remember the standing ovation he received for stating unequivocal, passionate truth.

Maureen Farrell: Top 10 'Conspiracy Theories' about George W. Bush

A cogent, well-referenced analysis of the Bush Cult's establishment of fascist rule. These aren't conspiracy theories at all, as far as I'm concerned -- the real conspiracy is that these events are considered conspiracies, thanks to a cowering, profit-driven mainstream media.

Be sure to check out part two.

Welcome to Camp Halliburton

The Homeland Security contract just awared to Halliburton/KBR is getting lots of attention, and deservedly so. Reading between the lines, it's hard not to wonder if the scenarios I used to dismiss as "whacko" -- i.e. detention camps for dissidents and other "subversives" -- may have been more prescient than paranoid.

The Mother of All Downing Street Memos

If this isn't an impeachable offense...

Excerpt:

President Bush to Tony Blair: "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach"

Bush: "It was also possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was also a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated."

Blair: "A second Security Council Resolution resolution would provide an insurance policy against the unexpected and international cover, including with the Arabs."

Bush: "The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would 'twist arms' and 'even threaten'. But he had to say that if ultimately we failed, military action would follow anyway."

Blair responds that he is: "solidly with the President and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam."

Bush told Blair he: "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups."