heavy hearts, heavy water

* via damien, here is joe conason in salon describing Neil Bush at a lecture to 200 govt officials in Dubai, four months after 911 trying to flog his 'Ignite' educational software:

He illustrated this point by streaming a video clip of his son, Pierce, appearing on a television show to discuss his own learning difficulties.

"My father was the 41st president and my brother is 43rd; I think that if Pierce finishes high school, he'll be the 50th president of the United States," quipped Neil Bush. And should he fail to graduate, perhaps he will become a global businessman, just like dear old Dad. Young Pierce -- bearing the name of his mother's family and descended indirectly from Franklin Pierce, one of the worst presidents ever -- must only hope that an indulgent relative will still be in the White House."

let's hope we don't get a Bush as 44...

* separately damien also points to waynemadsen: "he does have an ok summary (Mar 3) of some of the Chertoff issues." - damien is an expert in these things, so i'll take damien's word that madsen is somewhere close. I will quote this bit, cos madsen is mostly quoting someone else (and because we get some plame and sibel-related issues:

"The weapons smugglers targeted by Diamondback also included those who were smuggling nuclear components to the A Q Khan network. It was this network that was a prime focus of Valerie Plame Wilson and her Brewster Jennings and Associates covert CIA operatives. On January 14, 2005, Dateline's Chris Hansen interviewed ATF agent Dick Stoltz, the supervisor of Diamondback:

“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.”

“Undercover federal agent Dick Stoltz says there's evidence Khan's operatives were at work here in the U.S., like a man who asked if Stoltz could supply heavy water, an ingredient used to make plutonium for nuclear bombs. Stoltz: “He said that Dr. Khan was handling the negotiations behind the scene, as far as -- the heavy water.”

Chertoff, in a major conflict-of-interest, abused his authority to cover up the involvement of his client in the Diamondback probe."

I wrote about the possible Sibel / Diamondback link here, and just FYI, Duncan Hunter was on CNN discussing heavy water, nuclear triggers and Dubai just this week.