JOURNAL ARCHIVE: 9/19/2006 6:44 PM
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/50786a.htm
The President's News Conference
May 7, 1986
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Terrorism
Q. Mr. President, you came to Tokyo saying that you didn't want a grandiose statement on terrorism, you wanted action. Now you have your statement, but your fellow summit leaders say that nothing really has changed. What actions do you expect, if any?
The President. Well, I find it difficult to believe that the people that I've been meeting with, the heads of state, would have indicated anything otherwise; because what we have agreed upon is that terrorism is a threat to all of us. It is an attack upon the world. The determination of terrorists who murder and maim innocent people in pursuit of some political goal, and that the way to deal with it is not individually or unilaterally but to deal with it together. And this was the sense of the agreement that we arrived at, that we are going to act together with regard to opposing terrorism, to isolate those States that provide support for terrorism, to isolate them and make them pariahs on the world scene, and even, if possible, to isolate them from their own people.
Q. If I may follow up, sir. There were no sanctions or joint actions specified. Could you tell us what action you do expect?
The President. We discussed at great length specific actions and all. But the statement was one to simply say that we together will decide upon what is appropriate, depending on the acts, what is the most effective thing to do in the instance of further terror incidents. And we didn't think that it was, perhaps, useful to put all of that into a public statement, telling the terrorists exactly what it was we intended to do.
The bombing of the Cole and the later events would not have even happened if my covert military activities in the 1980s had not been revealed.
9/19/2006 6:49 PM
Now this is very interesting. Is she asking about getting Qhaddafi or about getting me out of captivity? If she knows about me being a captive, she is asking if he took action because he was grieving that I was captured and then he clarifies that Qhaddafi was the target.
Q. Well, is the United States so bereft that it has to drop tons of bombs on a country to get one man?
The President. Again, you touch upon something where military action is deemed necessary. I'm not going to discuss that, because I think it would be counterproductive to do so. But we weren't out, in the sense of getting one man -- that we were dropping those tons of bombs hoping to blow him up. I don't think any of us would have shed tears if that had happened. But we were out to damage and destroy those facilities that were making it possible for that particular State under his guidance to back and support terrorism.
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9/19/2006 7:08 PM
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/41586c.htm
Remarks at a White House Meeting With Members of the American Business Conference
April 15, 1986
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Before discussing the topic at hand, let me talk to you briefly about the events that took place last night. Yesterday, as you know, pilots of the air and naval forces of the United States spoke to the outlaw Libyan regime in the only language that Colonel Qadhafi seems to understand. They performed courageously. Two of our airmen are missing. But let us be clear: Yesterday the United States won but a single engagement in the long battle against terrorism. We will not end that struggle until the free and decent people of this planet unite to eradicate the scourge of terror from the modern world.
Terrorism is the preferred weapon of weak and evil men. And as Edmund Burke reminded us: In order for evil to succeed, it's only necessary that good men do nothing. Yesterday we demonstrated once again that doing nothing is not America's policy; it's not America's way. America's policy has been and remains to use only force as a last result -- or resort, I should say. We would prefer not to have to repeat the events of last night. What is required is for Libya to end its pursuit of terror for political goals. The choice is theirs.
Yet let us not underestimate the reach of Qadhafi's terror. He's tried to subvert half a dozen countries on his own continent of Africa and has had Libyan students and dissidents murdered in faraway capitals. And I would remind the House voting this week that this archterrorist has sent $400 million and an arsenal of weapons and advisers into Nicaragua to bring his war home to the United States. He has bragged that he is helping the Nicaraguans because they fight America on its own ground. We do not underestimate the brutality of this evil man, but Colonel Qadhafi ought not to underestimate either the capacity or legitimate anger of a free people.
9/19/2006 7:16 PM
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/42286f.htm
Remarks at the Heritage Foundation Anniversary Dinner
April 22, 1986
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…So, let's remember this, too: The vast majority of the people in Nicaragua want nothing to do with communism or the militarism it engenders. The day is coming when the democratic promises of the revolution of 1979 will be fulfilled and Nicaragua will be free.
The only point I'm making here is this: We've been talking about the idea of freedom, about expanding its frontiers, since the beginning of this administration. So no one should be surprised that our policies and programs have followed suit. Freedom is on the march; we pledge solidarity to those who seek to make it their own.
In much the same way, no nation -- friend or foe, ally or adversary -- should be surprised by the events of last week and the United States Government's determination to protect American lives and the world from terrorism. I could recite here a long list of speeches and statements by myself and Cabinet officers outlining the terrorist danger, presenting the evidence of collaboration among certain terrorist States and making clear to those States that we would not tolerate what amounts to acts of war against the American people. Only last summer, in an address to the American Bar Association, I outlined the terrorist network, citing evidence the United States Government had accumulated as well as private scholars in the field such as Dr. Avigdor Haselkorn. I carefully outlined the interconnection among those terrorist States and issued the most solemn warnings to their leaders.
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9/19/2006 7:40 PM
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/22686b.htm
Address to the Nation on National Security
February 26, 1986
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During my 1980 campaign, I called Federal waste and fraud a national scandal. We knew we could never rebuild America's strength without first controlling the exploding cost of defense programs, and we're doing it. When we took office in 1981, costs had been escalating at an annual rate of 14 percent. Then we began our reforms. And in the last 2 years, cost increases have fallen to less than 1 percent. We've made huge savings. Each F - 18 fighter costs nearly $4 million less today than in 1981. One of our air-to-air missiles costs barely half as much.
Getting control of the defense bureaucracy is no small task. Each year the Defense Department signs hundreds of thousands of contracts. So, yes, a horror story will sometimes turn up despite our best efforts. That's why we appointed the first Inspector General in the history of the Defense Department. And virtually every case of fraud or abuse has been uncovered by our Defense Department, our Inspector General. Secretary Weinberger should be praised, not pilloried, for cleaning the skeletons out of the closet. As for those few who have cheated taxpayers or have swindled our Armed Forces with faulty equipment, they are thieves stealing from the arsenal of democracy, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
9/19/2006 7:42 PM
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=40487
September 20th, 1983
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Let me just interject something here, because the last time I gave a speech in Columbia during the 1980 campaign I said one of the most important ways to control Federal spending is to control waste, fraud, and abuse. Perhaps you've seen those headlines and the TV news about the Pentagon paying $100 for a 4-cent diode or $900 for a plastic cap. Now, what is missing or buried in all of those stories is the most important fact of all: It was Cap Weinberger's people—Defense Department auditors and inspectors—who ordered the audits in the first place and who conducted the investigations that revealed those figures. Those are our figures. We're the ones who formed a special unit to prosecute Department of Defense fraud eases. And in just an 18-month period, the Department has obtained 650 convictions, and this doesn't count the number of settlements that have been made not going to court. So despite all the headlines, we are keeping that promise to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse.
9/19/2006 7:46 PM
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/42386a.htm
Remarks to the International Forum of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States
April 23, 1986
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The democratic nations decided long ago they would stand shoulder to shoulder in such fights. Nowhere is this more imperative than in the battle against terrorism. These vicious, cowardly acts will, if we let them, erect a wall of fear around nations and neighborhoods. It will dampen the joy of travel, the flow of trade, the exchange of ideas. In short, terrorism undeterred will deflect the winds of freedom.
And let no one mistake this for a conflict between the Western democracies and the Arab world. Those who condone making war by cowardly attacks on unarmed third parties, including women and children, are but a tiny minority. Arab nations themselves have been forced to endure savage terrorist attacks from this minority. We hope and pray the Arab world will join with us to eliminate this scourge on civilization. I might add that Colonel Qadhafi's expectation of unquestioned support from the Islamic world strikes me as hypocritical. Nowhere is the slaughter of Moslem people greater than in Afghanistan, and yet Colonel Qadhafi allies himself with those perpetrating this crime on Islam and all of mankind.
Decent people can no longer tolerate cowardly terrorist attacks. Government-sponsored terrorism, in particular, cannot continue without gravely threatening the social fabric of all free societies. Unilateral response is not enough; it must be dealt with forcefully and collectively. And this, undoubtedly, will be a topic of discussion in Tokyo.
9/19/2006 8:04 PM
http://www.ig.navy.mil/Complaints%20%20(Procurement%20Fraud).htm
What is procurement fraud?
Procurement fraud includes, but is not limited to, cost/labor mischarging, defective pricing, defective parts, price fixing and bid rigging, and product substitution.
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9/20/2006 10:09 PM
I wonder where I really was when this speech was given. Was I floating around in a life raft off the coast of the Falklands with the other survivors of the Sheffield? The ending of this speech reminds me of something I wrote on a box of crayons or rather a box that held crayons and pencils and the sort when I was in first grade or a little later. The box had the Pledge of Allegiance printed on the inside of the lid, the box was similar to a cigar box, and at the end, after the question mark, I wrote “Yes.”
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/50482b.htm
Remarks at the Republican Congressional ``Salute to President Ronald Reagan Dinner''
May 4, 1982
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I am here under false pretenses. I must have missed out someplace in reading all the materials that have been coming across the desk, because I thought that we were coming here to honor the Members of the House and the Senate and salute them. So, I don't care what you say this dinner is; I'm going to salute the people I came here to salute.
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You know, when our friend, Pearl [Bailey] was singing the National Anthem tonight -- I don't know or have heard all the national anthems of the world, but I do know this: The only anthem of those I do know that ends with a question is ours, and may it be ever thus. Does that banner still wave ``o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?'' Yes, it does, and we're going to see that it continues to wave over that kind of a country.
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I have been thinking again a few times recently about something Mark Mogge told me at Microsoft. In my memory, Mogge and I served together as Fire Controlmen aboard the Wainwright during Operation Praying Mantis in 1988. I was talking with him about that on the phone one day. I remember he said he still had the letter from the commendation the ship received from Admiral Crowe and that it was somewhere there in work in a desk drawer. I was confused because I was talking about a personal letter of commendation from the Wainwright Commanding Officer and I thought every one in Missile Plot had received one as did I. I have also been thinking about what he said about the battle in Mogadishu, which is often referred to as “Black Hawk Down.” As I was talking about the Praying Mantis, he told me, almost in a competitive tone is the only way I can describe it which confused me, about how there was a guy there in the office that had been a part of that Mogadishu battle. After I just wrote that name ‘Mogadishu,” the similarity to ‘Mogge’ just dawned on me and I wonder about it.
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That’s it. That’s why I worked for that company. That is how these new revelations pop into my head. They usually start off with ‘that’s it.’ As I was watching the shuttle landing and listening to the commentary, it struck me: ISA-ISS. That is the name of a company I worked for in 1992, I guess was the year. I went to work for Ketterman’s Inc. of Dallas in 1990, but that company was bought out by ISA of Alexandria, VA, sometime in 1992. The CEO was a former Navy officer. My division was called ISS. The full name was something similar to Integrated Systems Analyst – Integrated Systems Services. BUT ISS is also International Space Station. I started thinking too that ISA is International Space Agency. I quit ISS to work for UFP. Their name was Universal Financial Products, but I also noticed that the initials are the same as United Federation of Planets from Star Trek.
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9/21/2006 8:39 PM
It seems important that my work history, earnings document, whatever it’s called, doesn’t list Ketterman’s Inc of Dallas. Instead, it has ISA-ISS listed for the times when I worked for Ketterman’s. I assume that is standard procedure because ISA-ISS bought out Ketterman’s who then ceased to exist. It seems like it is an important clue but I don’t know exactly what it means.
I also find it curious that the street address for ISA-ISS in Alexandria, VA, is listed as 2001 Beauregard Street Suite 600. The ‘2001’ makes me think of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
The detail is reinforced by the fact that universal Financial Products, or U.F.P., is listed as 620 Enterprise Drive. Not sure if Oakbrook, IL, means anything.
The next regular employer is listed as Eagle Business Systems which was in Columbia, SC.
After that was MP Computer Systems in Rock Hill, SC. I read that Delta team sometimes refer to themselves as “Rocks.” I remember posting on the Wainwright site a while back to a guy name Rachwitz. We called him “Rock” on the ship and he was a fire-control radar technician Fire Controlman.
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9/22/2006 5:02 PM
I wonder if this is true:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
…
Reagan was left-handed, although he was usually shown writing with his right hand. When throwing out the ceremonial first ball before baseball games, he threw with his right arm, like he did in the baseball film The Winning Team.
9/22/2006 5:11 PM
After I awoke from a nap this afternoon, I felt compelled to write about a dream I had just before I woke up but then did not write about it. I started feeling that need to write about it again but may have forgotten some details by now. I have started thinking that the dreams I have just before waking up mean something in their own right.
In the dream, I was wearing a Navy uniform. I didn’t have anywhere to go though and seemed to be just walking around what I guess was a Navy installation. I decided to go into a building to ask if another Commander was still there even though I knew he wasn’t there. I spoke to a Navy enlisted person who appeared to be an Airman judging by his three green stripes although I couldn’t make out his rating symbol. He asked me a question but I didn’t hear his question and I asked him to repeat it by saying “Sir?” to him with an inquisitive tone. He asked me how I could not know that the other Commander was already deployed and I said something about how I just did not know. I left and walked down and out on some kind of spiral staircase, although that part isn’t that clear and I find myself wondering about that part. There was another spiral staircase ahead of me, there seemed to be dual staircases on either side of the front door to that building, and a Lt. j.g. came down the other side. I want to say he was someone I should know but I can’t picture him as someone I knew. I want to say it was him that spoke something to me at that point but I also want to say the voice came from behind me. He said, or someone else said, something about me being “a little off.” I wondered if he meant that I was wrong about some of these details. Then I wondered if he meant I was a little crazy, but I think I started thinking that last one after I woke up. I think after he or someone said that, it made me start thinking about the uniform I was wearing. I found myself thinking after I awoke that it seemed to be a Marine Corps officers dress uniform. I seemed to be wearing the dark blue Marine uniform with white pants. But I am confused about one detail as it seemed I looked to my left shoulder and saw Navy shoulder boards with Captain stripes. Or was it just an epaulet, I am not sure, but there was a pair of sunglasses clipped under it. I was walking down the sidewalk and there were two people ahead of me. One may have been that Lt. j.g. Another was a female officer, Navy I guess. Somewhere along there I realized I had forgotten to wear the appropriate cover for that uniform and realized that I was still wearing a ball cap, although I had actually taken it off as I went outside. I realized I couldn’t return anyone’s salute. Then I started thinking that the ball cap had USS Wainwright printed on it but I don’t remember actually looking at it and I may remember that detail in the sense that someone was reading details to me, they were telling me what the name was on the cap. I also remember that it had a frayed bill just like the Nike cap I have now. I remember I was walking very slowly. It was hard to walk and I was limping. I have thought several times before that if I do start wearing the uniform again, I should use a cane until I get my leg back in better shape. Then I was in a parking garage and I had to cross a street into a parking lot, I guess to find my car. I am still not sure about the uniform and I remember it seemed to be a single-breasted coat-type of uniform but the Navy uniform is double-breasted. But the Marine uniform doesn’t have shoulder boards as far as I know. That is what I thought the j.g. was telling me, that I only had a few minor details wrong, such as I had transferred over to the Marines at some point. I have written about that in the past too, but I am not sure what it means.
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9/22/2006 5:59 PM
That junior officer may have just been telling me that my uniform needed adjustment as I remember straightening out the front of it and lining up the buttons after that.
9/22/2006 10:31 PM
I was thinking later that the junior officer, who I thought was obviously Navy, was wearing the same uniform as I. Maybe it was an old USN uniform, maybe a style that was worn in the USN over one hundred years ago.
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9/23/2006 12:53 PM
Another detail I remember about Diane Broch is that she went to high school in a place called Rolling Meadows, which sounds like a good place for a cemetery. I’m not sure what that university she went to could represent though. But she did go to work afterwards for the IRS, which reminds me of that expression that nothing is certain in life except for death and taxes.
