White House threats must be taken seriously
Mentifex
April 4, 2011 -- White House threats must be taken seriously
In yet another indication that America's democratic experiment
is a thing of the past, this editor [Wayne Madsen] has received
word from a source in a foreign intelligence agency allied with
the United States that there has been talk by some within the
Obama White House that this editor [Madsen] is under threat.
What particular stories have inflamed the White House are not
known but the warning conveyed by the source, who has
connections within the White House, was stark in its directness:
"They want to kill you."
It was perfectly clear that the phrase was not being used
as a figure of speech.
That this development is being reported on April 4
is even more ironic. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Kr. was assassinated in Memphis
during his mission to support striking sanitation
workers in the city. Now, we have our first
African-American president and a threat to kill
a journalist who is most definitely not one of their
favorites has been seriously discussed.
Of course, muckraking journalists have been
under threat before in America. In 1972, columnist
and investigative journalist Jack Anderson had
ended up very high on President Richard Nixon's
infamous "enemies list." Anderson had long been
a burr under the political saddle of Nixon and the
president blamed Anderson for exposing a number
of Nixon's corrupt activities, including the exposure
in 1956 by Anderson and his boss, Drew Pearson,
of a loan from Howard Hughes to Nixon's brother Donald.
In the years before the Watergate scandal broke
but at a time when other various scandals in the
Nixon administration began to receive the bulldog-like
attention of Anderson, who succeeded Pearson as
editor of the "Washington Merry-Go-Round column
in 1969, there were serious discussions among
Nixon aides Charles Colson and G. Gordon Liddy,
as well as the CIA's Dr. Edward Gunn, an expert on
poisons, about assassinating the troublesome Anderson.
Scenarios included the use of LSD or poison but
Anderson's Mormon religion and the fact that he
did not drink ruled out the use of poisons or LSD
in his drink. Staging an automobile accident in which
Anderson would be incinerated was also an option.
Another scenario considered was one which would
have appeared to be a random Washington, DC
street mugging in which Anderson would be
stabbed or have his throat slit. The plot to
assassinate Anderson came to an abrupt halt
as Liddy, Colson, and E. Howard Hunt, who had
also been involved in the action against Anderson,
were exposed in the May 1972 break-in at the
Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.
Although I have attempted to pattern WMR after
Anderson's and Pearson's "Merry-Go-Round" column,
I do not have the luxury of newspaper syndicators
or a Pulitzer Prize, all of which Anderson could
rely on as firewalls between him and those in the
White House who wanted to kill him.
I ran the information about the warning from the
foreign intelligence source by some African-Americans
in Washington who have worked with Obama
White House officials. Their response was less
than encouraging. The bottom line is that the
White House engages in the type of "gangster politics"
for which their home base of Chicago has become infamous.
Although I have taken precautions in covering
post-genocide Rwanda, child trafficking in Thailand
and Cambodia, the "loss" of nuclear weapons at
Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the gunning
down by police of CIA asset Tony Carnaby in Houston,
the story of "Washington Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey,
and BP's activities on the Gulf Coast in the wake of
the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and President Obama's
and incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's past
activities in Chicago, those measures were temporary
and lasted for as long as I was in the field.
However, I have absolutely no desire to constantly be
in fear of the type of a White House-directed or -tolerated
hit like that discussed by Nixon aides on Anderson who
had the benefit of a degree of support from his syndicate
and the newspapers who carried his column, which
included The Washington Post.
Preliminary plans are being made to continue the
investigative journalism of this website from a safer
vantage point abroad and in an environment that
provides basic protection for press freedom.
Unfortunately, the United States is no longer a
safe place for independent journalists. Today,
President Obama kicked off his 2012 presidential
campaign in a web video message. Without a
Democratic primary challenger, it can be safely
assumed that the White House will pull out
every arrow in its quiver to suppress negative
information about Obama. The mere fact that
the announcement of Obama's re-election
came on the anniversary of the assassination
of Dr. King shows that Obama will shamelessly
attach himself to the legacy of the much-revered
African-American leader with whom he shares
no cultural legacy of historical African-Americans
with their family histories of slavery in the South
and sharecropping. Nor would King, if alive today,
approve of any of Obama's pro-war and pro-corporate policies.
With a second Obama term a likelihood, iIt only
makes sense, therefore, that the reporting on the
"new America" be conducted from a more secure location.
There is an interesting postscript to this story.
Not once, during the eight years of the Bush
administration, did I ever receive such a credible
and direct threat. In fact, after WMR's stories
about marital friction between Bush and First
Lady Laura Bush received national media attention,
there was a communication from a close friend of
Mrs. Bush that if I laid off her marital situation,
I would be given a major scoop. Knowing that
no one should ever cut a deal with the Bush family
or their friends, I kindly declined the offer. But
whereas the Bush White House was prepared to
offer a carrot, the Obama administration appears
to favor the stick or another lethal weapon of choice.
--
http://wikileaks.ch
http://www.larrysinclair.org
http://www.bradleymanning.org
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/20100522.html