"Lord, don't they help themselves, oh"

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/10/us/ex-spy-chief-is-convicted-of-lying-to-congress-on-iran-contra-affair.html?pagewanted=all

The New York Times


Ex-Spy Chief Is Convicted of Lying To Congress on Iran-Contra Affair

By NEIL A. LEWIS,

Published: December 10, 1992

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9— A Federal jury today found Clair E. George, once a top Central Intelligence Agency official, guilty on two felony counts of lying to Congress about his knowledge of the Iran-contra scandal. The jurors acquitted Mr. George of five other counts of lying to Congress and investigators about the Reagan Administration's arms sales to Iran and its weapons pipeline to Central America.

The verdict came on the 11th day of deliberations in Mr. George's second trial on the charges brought by the independent prosecutor for Iran-contra matters. The first proceeding ended in a mistrial in August when the jury reported it was hopelessly deadlocked.

The resolution of the George trial is the latest event in the six-year quest by Congress and the independent prosecutor to discover what happened and who was responsible for the scandal that consumed and tarnished the final years of Ronald Reagan's Presidency. By all accounts, Mr. George's trial and conviction added little to that knowledge.

Mr. George, 62 years old, once headed the C.I.A.'s operations directorate, which is responsible for clandestine operations around the world. While he seemed largely unaffected, even cheerful, at the trial, Mr. George was tense and his face was flushed as he entered the courtroom today. Tense, and a Flinch

As he heard the jury acquit him of the first three charges of lying to Congress he stood stiffly. When the clerk announced "guilty" on the fourth count, he flinched. He was also convicted of the fifth count and acquitted of the remaining two.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth set sentencing for Feb. 18. Mr. George faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts, but it is considered unlikely that he will be sent to jail. His lawyer, Richard A. Hibey, said he was planning an appeal and had several grounds on which to do so.

The most senior official to be charged in connection with the Reagan Administration's secret sale of arms to Iran and diversion of profits to the Nicaraguan rebels is Caspar W. Weinberger, Mr. Reagan's Defense Secretary. Mr. Weinberger is to go on trial next month on charges that he lied to investigators about Iran-contra deliberations in the President's inner circle.

The most lasting effect of today's verdict may be on the fractious and distrustful relationship between Congress and the intelligence agencies. Intelligence officials may now find testifying before Congress a far more perilous business than they have in the past.

In essence, the jurors found that Mr. George gave crafty and misleading answers in the final months of 1986 to two Congressional committees. The panels were trying to find out about the secret arms sale to Iran and the diversion of some profits to the rebels, who were known as contras.

"This marks the first time that a senior C.I.A. official was convicted of felony offenses for crimes committed while he was in his position at the C.I.A.," said Craig E. Gillen, the chief prosecutor. Mr. Gillen said the broad lesson of the trial is that "Congress expects and deserves full and truthful answers from the intelligence agencies."

The secrecy of the Reagan Administration's effort to supply arms to the contras at a time when Congress had forbidden it to do so began to unravel in October 1986 when a cargo plane resupplying the contras was shot down over Nicaragua. The lone surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, said at a news conference in Managua that he had been working for two C.I.A. officers, one of whom he identified as Max Gomez.

According to trial testimony, Max Gomez was an alias of Felix Rodriguez, a former C.I.A. employee.

One charge on which Mr. George was convicted was making a false statement to the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence on Oct. 14, 1986, when he said he had no idea about Felix Rodriguez's role in the resupply operation. Prosecutors presented testimony that he had known that Mr. Rodriguez was working with Lieut. Col. Oliver L. North, then a White House aide, to bring military supplies to the contras. The prosecutors said Mr. George had been trying to conceal the involvement of Colonel North.

Mr. George was also convicted of perjury for telling the Senate Intelligence Committee on Dec. 3, 1986 that he did not know what role either Colonel North or Richard V. Secord had played in providing funds to the contras. Mr. Secord was a retired Air Force general who has since pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress in connection with his involvement in the Iran-contra scandal. 2 Convictions Overturned

Mr. Walsh won convictions against Colonel North and John M. Poindexter, the former national security adviser, for their roles in the affair. Both cases collapsed after appellate courts ruled that the testimony each gave at Congressional hearings in 1987 under a grant of immunity from prosecution had been unfairly used against them.

Among the five counts on which Mr. George was acquitted were two governed by new Federal sentencing guidelines that mandate a prison term on conviction.

Although the verdict is a victory of sorts for Lawrence E. Walsh, the independent prosecutor in the Iran-contra case, it is a decidedly ambiguous one. While the stakes remained the same for Mr. George throughout both trials, they increased measurably for Mr. Walsh, whose work has been under sustained attack, particularly from Republicans in Congress. The Senate minority leader, Bob Dole of Kansas, among others, has said that the investigation has been a wholesale waste of time and money in pursuit a political prosecution.

Mr. Gillen said today that his side had won an important victory. But Mr. George's lawyer criticized the prosecutors for what he said was "woefully overreaching," which he suggested was demonstrated by the fact that Mr. George was convicted of only two counts after a second trial. He said the Iran-contra prosecutor had spent great sums of money and effort for "rather modest results."

The verdict is also certain to contribute to the debate about whether President Bush should pardon those involved in the Iran-contra affair before he leaves office. Mr. Bush has been urged by several friends of Mr. Weinberger to do so. Mr. Hibey said Mr. George was a great patriot whose long career earned him a pardon from Mr. Bush.

Mr. George was in the intelligence agency for 33 years, serving in dangerous posts like station chief in Athens immediately after the assassination of his predecessor. He also served in Lebanon during the civil war there.

On Monday, the jurors sent a note to the judge saying they had reached a partial verdict but were deadlocked on the others. Judge Lamberth read them a speech exhorting them to try harder to reach a unanimous verdict on all counts.

One juror, Margarita Quitania Jones, said in an interview tonight that at the time the jury sent its note it had decided to convict Mr. George on only one count.

Ms. Jones, a 39-year-old local telephone company employee, said one juror who had been holding out against a guilty finding on the second count relented on the last day.

The difficulty the jury had in reaching a verdict faintly echoed the troubles of the first trial's jury, which had been leaning toward acquittal when a mistrial was declared. Those jurors said that while Mr. George might have been misleading in his answers, his actions did not rise to the level of a crime.

The original trial and the retrial each lasted a little over a month and provided rare glimpses of the Central Intelligence Agency. Its officials were portrayed as behaving frantically after being caught in a harsh political cross-fire as the Iran-contra affair began to come apart.










http://articles.latimes.com/1989-05-05/news/mn-2265_1_north-verdict-white-house-iran-contra-scandal

Los Angeles Times


THE NORTH VERDICT : Spotlight Dims on North Glory Days

May 05, 1989 SARA FRITZ Times Staff Writer


And yet, despite all that has been disclosed about North's role in the Iran-Contra scandal, his true motives are in some ways still a mystery. Neither the testimony in his trial nor the evidence presented at congressional hearings have revealed fully why North, a trained military man who was used to following orders, allegedly exceeded his authority to mastermind one of the most unusual White House scandals in American history.










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: August 31, 2006


I have also been thinking for a while that this is all going on because Bill Gates is getting divorced by his wife. But why me? Why the hell am I mixed up in it? I am guessing it is because his wife is divorcing him because he is stalking me and has been for all these years. I’m guessing to that he doesn’t have a pre-nuptial. I hope he has a good surgeon though because when I see him, he’s going to have the need for some serious facial reconstruction.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 31 August 2006 excerpt ends]










http://articles.latimes.com/1989-05-05/news/mn-2265_1_north-verdict-white-house-iran-contra-scandal

Los Angeles Times


THE NORTH VERDICT : Spotlight Dims on North Glory Days

May 05, 1989 SARA FRITZ Times Staff Writer


'Flair for Melodrama'



http://articles.latimes.com/1989-05-05/news/mn-2265_1_north-verdict-white-house-iran-contra-scandal/2

Los Angeles Times


(Page 2 of 2)

THE NORTH VERDICT : Spotlight Dims on North Glory Days

May 05, 1989 SARA FRITZ Times Staff Writer

Among other things, those colleagues have said, North often lied to make people think he was friends with such important people as former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. He also displayed what one friend described as "a flair for melodrama."










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 9:53 PM Saturday, January 20, 2007


Congratulations. Your job is evidence of terrorism against me.

I may be experiencing something similar to what the character Denzel Washington portrayed in this movie had to endure. I can't remember a lot about this movie, but I remember that he was drugged and video taped with a prostitute. That prostitute wouldn't work with me though because who cares if Kerry Burgess paid to get laid. Why would anyone go to that much trouble to set me up? I am nobody, or at least, Kerry Burgess is nobody. And then there is the fact that while I may have amnesia and may have forgotten my real identity, I am not stupid.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 20 January 2007 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 4:18 PM Wednesday, August 31, 2005


Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:55:11 -0700 (PDT) [ PERSONAL EMAIL SENT TO SENATOR PATTY MURRAY AT HER SENATE EMAIL ADDRESS ]

Dear Senator Murray,


I was concerned for a while that it was the U.S. government behind all this, but after carefully reviewing the circumstances and the evidence I have collected, I concluded that it must not be the government. Unless someone in the government is engaged in a cover up to protect themselves from justice and the penalties for their actions.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 31 August 2005 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess

To: Kerry Burgess

Sent: Mon, February 13, 2006 6:45:51 PM

Subject: I gotta get the F out of here


Another day, another "don't call us, we'll call you" letter, this time from the V.A. I don't get it. This other guy was at the same meeting with me already has a meeting scheduled. He said he didn't even have to go to the Gulf. Amount of water from a combat ocean I have flushed: a lot. Him: None.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 13 February 2006 excerpt ends]










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 4:18 PM Wednesday, August 31, 2005


Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:55:11 -0700 (PDT) [ PERSONAL EMAIL SENT TO SENATOR PATTY MURRAY AT HER SENATE EMAIL ADDRESS ]

Dear Senator Murray,


People have for years been intercepting and disclosing my wire, oral, and electronic communication, which is all punishable as a cyber-crime. To put into perspective, try to imagine if this was happening to you and your staff as you are engaged in legislative activities. Imagine that someone, possibly another legislator or even a lobbyist, was intercepting information from your computers as you and your staff worked on new legislation. The rivals may be interested because they oppose the legislation and the lobbyist may be interested because they are working on behalf of interests that may not want to see the legislation pass. Imagine they are intercepting your work because they want to gain an advantage over you, which they could do by knowing in advance what you were planning to do.

If people want to hear what I have to say, they only have to ask. If they take it from me without my consent, consent which no one has, they are stealing from me. This is not a hard concept to understand. This is not an issue that is happening because the people involved are not sophisticated enough to understand they are doing wrong. Each one of them would object if people were invading their privacy without consent. This issue has a negative impact on every aspect of my life.

This situation is taking a serious toll on my health and I was recently in the VA hospital, as well as other hospitals, for treatment of the stress and anguish. The day I was discharged from the VA, a couple of strange things happened. One is that someone rushed into my room a few hours before I was due to check out and told me that I had to leave at that moment. The other strange occurrence was that I saw on the news later that evening that you had a press conference that morning outside the VA hospital. I suspect that the people at the VA learned you would be there and rushed me out early so that I wouldn’t be seen. I guess they didn’t want me to see you either. But why would they do that? I actually need solid support like that. I don’t need the drugs I am taking from them. All the drugs do is cloud reality. The reality is that I need the people that are abusing my rights to control the direction of my life to leave me alone. And the best medicine for me is to find support from people with the authority to make my adversaries leave me alone and give me back my life.

Of course, it has gone beyond all that now. I will never again have the kind of life I was trying to create. All I face now is years, if not a lifetime, of lingering insecurities from all this.

I have been trying to get people at Microsoft to cooperate but they show no intention of helping. The only response I got when I questioned CEO Steve Ballmer was just a standard denial from a HR spokesman. They know I don’t have the resources to challenge them so they can say anything they want to. It is common knowledge that businesses will lie to protect themselves. The rationale is that punishment, even justifiable punishment, is not in the best interest of the company due to the subsequent penalties and therefore lying is an acceptable means to avoid penalties. A good example is from a recent New York Times article about KPMG with an excerpt below. I believe it is an example that illustrates how it is common for businesses to avoid the truth until they are met with overwhelming force. Who among us can bring such force against a company like Microsoft to get them to admit the truth?


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 31 August 2005 excerpt ends]










http://www.azlyrics.com/k/killers.html

AZ

THE KILLERS

album: "Day & Age" (2008)



http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/killers/spaceman.html


THE KILLERS


"Spaceman"


And then they took my blood type
It left a strange impression in my head.










JOURNAL ARCHIVE: posted by H.V.O.M at 4:18 PM Wednesday, August 31, 2005


Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:55:11 -0700 (PDT) [ PERSONAL EMAIL SENT TO SENATOR PATTY MURRAY AT HER SENATE EMAIL ADDRESS ]

Dear Senator Murray,


But back then, through all of it, I just knew it could not continue forever. Even people with the empathy of a sociopath would realize eventually that this is an unsettling experience. But it continues and shows no sign of stopping. So that means several things. One is that it supports my theory that my adversaries have unlimited resources. Someone like Bill Gates. He could spend a billion dollars on lawyers just because he wanted to. If he thinks he has the right to treat his employees like animals, then I believe he would indeed spend a billion dollars to fight this just because he can. During my first days of employment at Microsoft, my manager was telling me about how Bill Gates would date people in the company. I haven’t heard any rumors that he is secretly gay and I got the impression she was talking about him dating women, but then again I have heard closeted homosexuals refer to men as women, just to avoid revealing their preference. So maybe he was preying on Microsoft employees all along but no one wanted to risk losing their job by talking about it openly.

And then it seemed highly suspect when Mayor Jim West of Spokane was outed as a closet homosexual. I suspect that it is how all this followed me to Spokane last year. I have been trying to figure out how all these people could know who I am and what means of communication they are using. If I have a gay stalker, they are all secretly communicating through some channel that gays use for communication. The internet makes all this possible now for anyone anywhere to communicate easily and generally privately. I was thinking that everyone knew that everyone else knew how people knew about this, but then I began to suspect that it was all being spread around by rumors and on different websites. Where I was thinking there was a central organization controlling it all, it was actually some kind of grass roots effort or some kind of internet phenomenon. And then I was seeing signs that even George W. Bush knew who I was.

I got that impression one day when I was in Spokane. I was watching CNN or something one day and I saw Bush making some comments about something. I commented out loud to myself that he looked terrified or something like that. For a while after that, the reporters were talking about how his press conferences were not going to be televised. I suspect, strongly, that I have been secretly monitored in the places I live and they have been listening to every sound I make. For some reason, Bush has an interest in what I say to myself and when I commented about him looking scared they decided he shouldn’t be seen for awhile until he could get control of himself. They wouldn’t want to embolden the terrorists by showing that he was getting rattled by it all. So maybe it isn’t the government that has been spying on me, it is some kind of stalker that is reporting the information they collect to websites. And maybe Bush knows who I am because he is tied into those gay websites too like Jim West and that is how he knows about me. I have some other evidence to support my theory, but needless to say he isn’t going to risk being outed like West was. They will probably end up secretly murdering me before that happens.


[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 31 August 2005 excerpt ends]










http://www.army.mil/article/29315/special-forces---shooters-and-thinkers/

U.S. ARMY

WWW.ARMY.MIL

THE OFFICIAL HOMEPAGE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY


Special Forces - Shooters and thinkers

October 26, 2009


Of note: there is a misconception that elite units such as Rangers, Navy SEALs and others are collectively part of the Special Forces. They are more accurately referred to as "special operations forces." Special Forces (always capitalized), or "SF," is the proper name of the U.S. Army Special Forces










http://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/3F16.html


The Day the Violence Died

Original Airdate in N.A.: 17-Mar-96


Chester claims that Myers stole all of his characters.

The only characters Myers could ever come up with were pathetic stick figures with the words "Sarcastic Horse" and "Manic Mailman" printed on them. And they stank.


But Myers Jr. calls this a lie.

Hutz: Are you saying, _under oath_ Mr. Myers, that your father didn't steal any of the characters associated with your studio?

Myers: Well, I don't think I _am_ under oath, but... yes, my father created them all. Except for Flatulent Fox, that was based on a true story.



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 6:33 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Tuesday 24 February 2015