in that post i wrote:
"i havent got the time to look into it at the moment - but if i had to speculate, using sibel's claims as a platform, (and im drawing long, completely unsubstantiated bows here) , id be tempted to posit that USAID had been white-anted by the CIA, and that Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly was a CIA front organisation."ive now had a quick look - and maybe i wasnt far wrong.
ive been trying to look into US-AID to see if they might be one of those "quasi-legit" agencies that sibel was referring to - their website has been down for days.
heres the wikipedia page on USAID, and wouldnt ya know it - they even have a section on "USAID and the CIA"
as for Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, they are a DC based 'lobbying firm' which "was at the center of a congressional influence-peddling inquiry into fees paid to Republican consultants to win approval of federal housing subsidies." (link), and is a friend to dictators (link)
Here are some details of the partners:
* "Charlie Black is a former Republican National Committee Chairman" and longtime friend of Bush 41 (link)
* "Atwater is a former partner of the firm of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly" (link)
* "Stone (was a) senior campaign manager for President Bush; Manafort ran the Republican National Convention... Manafort comes to the firm from a background of conservative politics including the College Republicans and the Young Republicans, co-founders of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). (29) Manafort directed the 1980 presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan in the South. (31) Kelly is former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee" (link)
* roger stone, of course, is guilty of just about everything - he wet his ears at watergate, was behind the willie horton campaign, was fingered for the Rather-gate thing and was invovled in florida 2000. (link)
As an aside:
"The death of Republican media advisor R. Gregory Stevens, whose body was found in a guest room at the Los Angeles home of friend and actress Carrie Fisher, did not involve foul play, an official said Friday. "No foul play is suspected," said Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman David Campbell. Stevens, 42, had served as co-chairman of the Bush/Cheney Entertainment Task Force during the 2004 campaign. He was found dead last Saturday...
From 1992 to 1994, Greg was an Associate with Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, an international public affairs and lobbying firm. While at Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, Greg designed government relations, political and lobbying strategies for the firms' foreign and domestic clients and advised clients on national candidacies in presidential elections in Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Thailand, and the Philippines." (link)
fwiw - stevens was gay. can u imagine being gay and working for these people? i think he died of a coke overdose, from memory
and here's how Bolton got involved:
"John Bolton -- lawyer for Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly. Firm hired Melody Townsel's company to publicize privatization projects in Central Asia. [After Townsel criticized competence of her employers, Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, they hired John Bolton as legal counsel to represent them to US AID.]" (link) (incidentally, Bolton also worked diretly for USAID)
another BMSK alumn is Matthew Freedman - Freedman is the guy who got paid $100k p.a. to hang out in boltons office sometimes - and bolton wouldnt explain why he was there - or what he does - which is one of the reasons the Dems wouldnt bring his nomination to a vote in the senate. freedman refused to tell the sfrc who his clients are - but we know his previous clients include ferdinand marcos and the nigerian govt.
back in 95, Freedman left Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (after a decade) for The PBN Company - from PBN's website:
"The PBN Company is the leading international strategic communications firm specializing in Russia, Ukraine, other CIS countries and the Baltic States. We help Western clients design and implement strategies to maximize their investments in the region. And, we work with Russian, CIS and Baltic companies to expand their domestic marketshare and build their businesses into global enterprises."skeptical tin-foil folks might wonder whether that sounds like a CIA front. more serious folks might wonder why it was so important for bolton to have someone with that background in his office, and then be cagey about what was going on.
anyway, eventually Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly morphed into Davis, Manafort and Freedman (link)
(fwiw, when looking for more info on DMF, i stumbled across a site called publicintegrity.org - my browser gave me this warning:
"The server's name "www.publicintegrity.org" does not match the certificate's name "secure.publicintegrity.org". Somebody may be trying to eavesdrop on you.")
the SFRC interviewed freedman when they were screening Bolton for the UN position- here is the pdf transcript. Freedman's current biz (apart from bolton) is a group called Global Impact (this is the company whose clients he wont divulge).
from laura rozen: "So Freedman runs the private, for-profit Global Impact, while maintaining a six figured top level security clearance post for Bolton, and while his co-president Ms. Acosta also runs the not-for-profit Global Impact, which manages "the two largest federal workplace giving campaigns" -- of the National Capital Area and the Department of Defense? So now I really wonder who Freedman's clients are -- perhaps some of the groups that want to get in on the federal giving of his co-president's same-named not-for-profit arm?"
i cant find a website for Freedmans' Global Impact - but the sister organisation Global Impact is at charity.org - cute, no? from the 'about' page: "Global Impact is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the poorest people on earth. " So apparently Freedman has gone from lobbying for wrong-wing dictatorships around the planet to surreptitiously working for 'the poorest people on earth' and bolton and he cant disclose his clients. ive got a bridge to sell...
remember, sibel specifically points to careerists at State in the mid-nineties who were doing crazy shit in the CIS/Balkans in quasi-legit organisations, and she specifically points to the nexus of drugs and terrorism *and* lobbying - and she states that many big name politicians are involved. im not specifically saying that Bolton and BMSK are the people she is talking about - but they seem to fit the pattern that she is trying to describe. and remember, Ashcroft invoked 'states secrets' to shut her up - because it would hurt foreign policy - is that because groups like USAID (and probably DEA and NED) aren't what they purport to be?
sibel, email me if you can give me any info suggesting im barking up the right or wrong tree.
scott horton has promised that he'll have a transcript of that recent sibel interview up at antiwar.com soon - ill let you know. meanwhile, you can still get the interview audio here particularly listen to the last 5 minutes. she specifically uses the "fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" douglas feith as an example - although i imagine that she isnt directly fingering him cause that would presumably be contrary to the gag order. Having said that, "Feith was retained as a lobbyist by the Turkish government and, in that capacity, worked with Perle to build military ties between Turkey and Israel." (link) and of course he has been deeply involved in the military - both at the DoD and via his law practice.
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update - ive just noticed that Melody Townsel is a kossack
she writes: "John Bolton is a psychopath, plain and simple -- and my ex-boss Matthew Freedman is his Karl Rove." (link)
and
"We also know that Matthew enjoyed top security clearances while there at state and, according to office scuttlebutt, took part in very high-level meetings involving Syrian intelligence. The kicker? He was continuing to represent private clients at the time he was participating in those meetings." (link)
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update - my latest piece is here
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