Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A friend's injustice

At 2100 hours last night (17 November 2009), a patriot and dedicated American veteran died at the hands of the State. He was executed in the Virginia electric chair after a nine year struggle to prove his innocence for a double murder committed in Manassas, Virginia. Bill was pronounced dead at 2109 after a single jolt from one of only four US States who still use "old sparky" to kill its citizens.

Bill, an old and close friend of over twenty years, was an Army Counterintelligence Agent with such an extraordinary background that he rose through the ranks to become "THE" Department of Defense expert on all matters pertaining to the use or discovery of hidden electronic monitoring devices. In DoD jargon, he was the Chief of the Army Technical Security Countermeasures (TSCM) program. Over my own career I called upon him on numerous occasions to "sweep" areas such as hotel rooms, cars, etc. in which I would be interviewing highly sensitive sources from the now defunct Warsaw Pact countries. At times he was called upon to install such devices but that is far too sensitive a topic for this discussion. He was highly decorated for his merit and expertise and has met with numerous Heads of State or allied intelligence chiefs to discuss his expertise or to divulge his discoveries. He was cleared for the highest levels of information on a par with the clearance provided to the President and his immediate staff. His background investigation was spotless to a fault.

In the late nineties, he became involved with a young women of questionable traits. He was wrong and totally out of character in this affair. He admitted this to me on numerous occasions after his incarceration. I would be willing to discuss this affair on an individual basis but for now simple note it was stupid, out of character and a total shock to those who knew him best. She was divorced and had lost custody of her two children to her former husband and his new wife. This couple were well known to the Manassas police as a main source of drug trafficking in the area. Bill's "friend" wanted her children back and asked him to conduct whatever surveillance or background investigations he could to gather information that would enable her to regain custody of her children. He often spent endless hours in the early morning before dawn, observing the house of the former husband to count the number of late night visitors, (probable drug customers) and similar activity surrounding the residence. He obviously became known to the neighbors as the man in the green Toyota pickup who was often seen in the area.

On one evening someone broke into this couples home and brutally murdered them with multiple gunshot wounds and then left the area.  Neighbors heard the gunshots around 0500 hours and then noted a black man running away from the area of the house wearing a white "hoodie". 

Earlier that evening Bill had been near the house but had to leave early. He had to prepare for an early morning meeting at his office at Ft. Meade. MD (55 miles away). The police evidence has him making this journey in morning beltway traffic in less than forty five minutes. His electronic entry badge has him logged into his office at 0545 hours.

Two days later Bill was brought in for questioning based on neighbors reports about the green Toyota and confirmatory identifying data from his paramour. Following twenty hours of interrogation he was arrested for the murders based on circumstantial evidence and while awaiting what the police were certain to be more definitive data following the "CSI" results. He waived council during his interview. According to my conversations with him he did this out of a deep seated belief in the American jurisprudence system. If he were innocent. There simply was no way he could be found guilty so why would he need a lawyer. That demonstrates his true sense of patriotism. He believed in our system of government without reservations. In the end, it cost him his life.

He was tried twice. The first trial being tossed out due to jury misbehavior. He was founds guilty in his second trial and sentenced to death. His attorney on both trials was selected alphabetically from the  phone book and promptly cleaned Bill out of over $300K$ in personalwealth. After his finding if guilty, the attorney refused to handle his appeals since Bill did not have another $350K to offer him. I testified in both trials and was totally amazed at the ineptitude of his counsel and told the counsel and Bill of my trepidations. Bill settled in to his small cell on death row. After four years, The Bill Gates Foundation conducted a review of the entire trial and determined that there was far more evidence indicating innocence than there was indications of guilt and took up the battle with a multi-million dollar war chest. They determined and proved that considerable information had been withheld from the trial which would have exonerated Bill. Considerable evidence used to convict him was now lost and could not be found. Outright lies were recorded as truths as were numerous physical impossibilities. Even a casual review shows that the paramour had lied repeatedly in her statements to the police and in the trial. There was strong indications of her direct involvement in the death of her former husband and his new wife. However police careers had been made on the case not to mention the reputation of prosecution team. In the end, through manipulation, refusal to provide information and outright lies, his conviction was upheld and he died. He chose the electric chair for reasons he did not discuss with me in our previous night conversations. He died with dignity and courage.

The Gates Foundation has decided to continue their efforts to prove his innocence and I have been named as one of the "advisors" to assist them in this effort. In our final conversation the night before he died, he told me he had no reason to lie or to withhold any information from me.  He adamantly noted his innocence and the fact that the State was wrongly taking a human life in a manner that indicated that none of us are fully secure in our homes if overzealous police and court officials decide to "prove" our guilt for almost any crime including capital offenses.

Thanks for allowing me to vent…

Monday, November 16, 2009

Just a few items that have really begun to crawl under my skin

When did Americans become such wussies? We are actually trembling in our boots at the idea of bringing the GITMO detainees to the US for incarceration and hopefully a proper trial. To hear some people talk, these men have in some way taken on mythical powers that would enable them to overcome high security gaol facilities in the US. They would allgedly be able to mesmerize the guards and then pass invisibly throiugh walls of reinforced steel and concrete. Of course no one mentions that they are currently held in chain link fenced compounds with only a handful of guards at a location less than one mile from a regime that would probably grant them some sort of sanctuary...yet no one has escaped yet. Hmmmm, but sure as hell, if we bring them to a supermax facility they would escape immeduately and using their mystical and mythical pwers, rise up and destroy us all. By the way, breaking into a supermax is even harder than breaking out so I doubt all of those sneaky terrorists who allegedly flood into the US from Mexico would have little luck in freeing these evil wizards.

As for trying a few of them in New York..what's the big deal?  They tried the "Blind Sheik" in NY and found him guilty of attacking the twin towers once before. There were no mass riots by the Muslim world and no attempts on the lives lf any court officials or jurors. What would happen if he were found innocent due to a technicality such as being repeatedly tortured (163 water boardings), given no access to attorney, had no rights explained to him etc..Well exactly what would happen...He would be released onto the streets of Manhatten...just how long do you think he would last with them dudes???

By the way, he does have rights afforded to him by our system of jurisprudence. He is NOT a prisoner of war. To be a POW, he would have to have been an enemy soldier captured during a declared war. Congress did not declare war and ONLY Congress can declare war - Not Cheny, not Bush and most certainly not Karl Rove. What this guy did was commit mass murder in a crimianl undertaking so he MUST be tried in a criminal court. We tried Timothy McVeigh in a civilian court. We tried Noriega in a civilian court. Spies are tried in civilian courts. We have a great judiciual system and we should not be the least bit apprehensive about trotting it out in front of the world. Let the world compare our system of law to others systems such as the Sharia, miltary dictatorships etc. I think we win hands down. If justice is in fact blind, then we should have no fears whatsoever about putting each and everyone of them on trial in full public view. Let them testify and spew their propaganda as long as they wish...certainly we can only benefit from the comparson between us and them. If the previous regime has so tainted their testimony that it cannot be used in a civilized court of law, so be it. Try them on merit and if they are found innocent, turn them loose on the streets of New York or put them on a plane and send them into the conflict of Waziristan...then bomb the hell out of them. oops...

Health care - Let's pull back completely and stop paying for any type of health care not already covered by employers. Anyone not covered..oh well!!! They probably don't deserve to live anyway. At least the millions of us already covered by a US GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED OPTION (Civil Service health care, and military TRICARE, Congress etc.).. can just thumb our noses at the 85M folks who will just have to suffer quietly until or if they live to be 65 and can sign up for MEDICARE. In the meantime since I am fully covered, why do I care if insurance companies keep jumping up their rates and Docs keep making fortunes overprescribing treatments and tests. Folks who don't have insurance can just keep calling EMTs to their homes for aches and pains or visiting emergency rooms for every fever or sniffle. As for me, as long as I have mine..to hell with the rest of the populace...Like most Americans I am only out for myself anyhow, so why do I want to share any of my wealth with the less fortunate...that's Sally Struther's job not mine...and besides we know that folks on the dole only use the money for dope, plasma TVs and Mercedes cars...to hell with that...giving health care to sick people is simply unAmerican (of course it's a pretty Christian thing to do) but I drop my buck in the plate every Sunday so I am covered as far as heaven goes.