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Television Review
Cheerfulness Amid Calamity
The New York Times
October 17, 2012
“Ethel” is a loving, touching and sometimes mischievous tribute to Ethel Kennedy, 84, by her youngest daughter, Rory Kennedy, a filmmaker. It is presented as a “private look inside a highly public life” — and it should have been kept private.
Instead, “Ethel” is a documentary being shown on HBO on Thursday night that is tone-deaf and maddeningly incomplete. Watching it is a little like reading a classified report redacted by Dick Cheney — so much material is blacked out that it’s almost impossible to follow.
Rory Kennedy, who was born six months after her father’s 1968 assassination, surely meant well by putting the spotlight on the member of her family who was gutsy and fun-loving and didn’t drive paparazzi into a frenzy. If John F. Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, brought European refinement and reserve to the clan, Robert F. Kennedy’s Ethel was the less glamorous workhorse — and broodmare — who reinforced their Irish Catholic roots.
The film offers lots of charming clips of home movies that show Mrs. Kennedy as a spirited, athletic child and an extroverted tomboy in love with her college friend’s brother Bobby. There are many glimpses of her as her husband’s most indefatigable helpmate: trim, smiling, tanned in sleeveless Lilly Pulitzer-style shifts, always at his side during campaigns, Congressional hearings and civil rights marches, often with several children in tow. The images of her as a young widow, pregnant and veiled in black at his funeral, are etched in history.
But most of all the film is a painful reminder that Camelot ended with her husband’s death. It’s not just that the family’s mystique was washed away by too many scandals, exposés and unflattering biographies. The Kennedys were once artful curators of their myth; Rory Kennedy’s film suggests that the succeeding generations are spookily oblivious to their own public image.
Many of Mrs. Kennedy’s children participated in the film, telling stories about their mother to the camera with wry, oh-that-Mummy affection: So many cabinet secretaries were pushed into the pool at her parties at Hickory Hill, the family’s house in Virginia, that Uncle Jack (President Kennedy) intervened and told his prank-loving sister-in-law to stop. Besides children and guests, Mrs. Kennedy gave packs of dogs, horses, goats and, for a while, even a seal free rein in that storied, chaotic household.
Kerry Kennedy, the former wife of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, recalls with a knowing grin how her mother was a famously fast driver and scofflaw, and the film shows newspaper headlines about her speeding violations when her husband was attorney general in the early 1960s. “Mummy has a long history of dealing with cops,” she says with a smile.
That interview was filmed in 2011, before Kerry Kennedy was arrested after swerving into a tractor-trailer in Westchester County, N.Y., and driving off. She later explained that she had mistakenly taken a prescription sleep aid before getting behind the wheel.
That incident could not have been foreseen when the film was made, any more than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is shown jovially describing his parents’ happy marriage, could have known that his estranged wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, would hang herself in the barn of her Bedford, N.Y., estate in May.
But the family has a long record of ruined marriages, premature deaths and horrifying car wrecks. So much of what is told as charming family lore — tales of foolhardy escapades and physical recklessness — in hindsight seems anything but harmless.
Rory and her siblings describe their mother’s childhood in the Skakel clan, a large, wealthy Irish Catholic family very much like the Kennedys — athletic, competitive, rambunctious, but without the iron discipline or intellectual rigor imposed by Joe and Rose Kennedy, Ethel’s father- and mother-in-law. There are old home movies of Skakel family dinners disrupted by firecrackers, and shots of brawny boys roughhousing. Mrs. Kennedy, interviewed in Hyannis Port, Mass., by Rory, recalls fondly how her daredevil brothers would travel from Greenwich, Conn., to New York City, not in the train but on top of it.
“Mummy is a Skakel,” Chris Kennedy says cheerfully. “And as a Skakel she inherited a healthy disregard for authority in all its forms.”
Unfortunately, many viewers will best know the name Skakel in connection with Michael C. Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy who was convicted in 2002 of the 1975 murder of a 15-year-old neighbor, Martha Moxley, in Greenwich.
Early in the film some of the children gaily introduce themselves and their birth order, and one, Max, ninth, teasingly pretends he can’t remember how many siblings he has. But that’s an unsettling joke to viewers who are aware that 2 of Mrs. Kennedy’s 11 children are dead. David died of a drug overdose in 1984; Michael was killed while playing football on skis in 1997. Their deaths are not mentioned until the end of the film, sadly but quickly.
There is obviously a talent for compartmentalizing in this family, which may explain how the children of Robert Kennedy can talk blithely of periods that are imprinted in the public memory as times of calamity and also disgrace. The film makes no effort to reconcile the Kennedys’ mind-set with that of the American public, possibly because it is impossible to explain to outsiders.
Mrs. Kennedy, certainly, expresses no interest in reflecting on her family’s travails. She is bravely tight-lipped when asked about her husband’s death, and scornful when Rory presses her to share her feelings about some of the social causes he introduced her to.
“All this introspection,” she says gruffly, only half-kidding. “I hate it.”
There is no introspection in “Ethel,” and evidently even less self-awareness on the part of the director. But this family’s triumphs, tragedies and self-inflicted disasters are too well known to skirt. It would have been a kinder gift to Mrs. Kennedy to respect her instincts and, for once, reserve this attempt at spinning history for family and close friends.
Ethel
HBO, Thursday night at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time.
Produced by Moxie Firecracker Films. Directed and narrated by Rory Kennedy; written by Mark Bailey; Ms. Kennedy and Jack Youngelson, producers; Veronica Brady, associate producer; Azin Samari, editor; Buddy Squires, cinematographer; Miriam Cutler, original score. For HBO: Sheila Nevins, executive producer; Nancy Abraham, senior producer.
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Rebekah Brooks's News International severance deal worth 'about £7m'
Payoff package for the former News International executive is far in excess of the £1.7m speculated on after her departure
By Dan Sabbagh and Patrick Wintour
Monday 15 October 2012
Rebekah Brooks received a payoff worth about £7m after resigning as chief executive of News International at the height of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking crisis in July 2011.
The exact figure has never been disclosed by the Murdoch company – whose parent News Corporation holds its annual meeting on Tuesday – but one source said they believed it was between £6m and £8m.
An intimate of Rupert Murdoch, Brooks started out as a secretary at the News of the World in 1989, becoming editor of the News of the World and the Sun in succession.
She retained Murdoch's confidence as the phone hacking crisis intensified. After the News Corp patriarch flew into London in July last year, he took Brooks out for dinner, declaring that she was his "top priority" when questioned in the street by journalists.
The payoff package, far in excess of the £1.7m that was speculated about after her departure, comprised cash payments for loss of service, pension enhancement, money for legal costs, a car and an office.
News International declined to comment on the sum involved, but company insiders stressed there were "clawback" arrangements, which mean Brooks would have to pay some of the money back in certain circumstances.
It is understood that payback would be enforceable if Brooks was to be found guilty of a criminal offence relating to her employment. She is currently facing charges relating to interception of communications and obstruction of justice.
News Corp has not had to make any disclosure in public accounts, because its British companies have not reported their results to Companies House yet. News International companies have a financial year that ends on 30 June, so any filing covering the period of the Brooks payoff would not be due until next year.
The revelations about the size of Brooks's payoff are likely to be raised at the company's annual shareholder meeting at News Corp's Fox studios lot in Los Angeles. Some investors, such as the British group Hermes, are expected to vote against Rupert Murdoch remaining as chairman in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, but the media tycoon controls 40% of the votes so he is unlikely to lose. The Independent newspaper reported on Tuesday that private emails between David Cameron and Brooks were withheld from the Leveson inquiry into press standards.
A government lawyer advised the prime minister that the emails involved were not "relevant". They were said to reveal the close friendship between Cameron and Brooks and were described by sources as containing "embarrassing" exchanges.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "All the material the inquiry asked for was given to them."
It is understood that there was an agreement between No 10 and the Leveson inquiry that Cameron would provide all emails and texts relevant to the News International bid for broadcaster BSkyB, as Cameron set out in his witness statement to the inquiry. Government sources said this was accepted by the Leveson inquiry and some texts or emails handed to the inquiry by Cameron, deemed to be on the margin of this definition, were not published by Leveson.
No 10 is not challenging the newspaper's claim that Cameron had sought legal advice on the nature of the exchanges to be given to Leveson.
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Phone hacking: Charlotte Church calls on Murdoch to apologise for tweets
News Corp chairman angers phone-hacking campaigners by labelling them 'scumbag celebrities' on Twitter
Monday 15 October 2012 08.07 EDT
Rupert Murdoch angered the Hacked Off lobby group which is campaigning for press reforms. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Charlotte Church has called on Rupert Murdoch to apologise and withdraw his comments after he called phone-hacking campaigners "scumbag celebrities" in a Twitter attack on the singer and others who are lobbying David Cameron to implement press reforms.
Church, whose family got a £600,000 payout from Murdoch for phone hacking earlier this year, went on Twitter on Monday to join the growing number of people who have rounded on the News Corporation chairman and chief executive for his remarks.
"It would be decent to withdraw & apologise for calling me, @CharlotteChurch and @jacquihames *scumbags*," Church said in a tweet.
She was responding to Murdoch's outburst on Saturday when he lashed out against the prime minister for meeting a group of phone-hacking campaigners, including Church and the former policewoman Jacqui Hames who is suing News International over alleged hacking by the News of the World.
He tweeted: "Told UK's Cameron receiving scumbag celebrities pushing for even more privacy laws. Trust the toffs! Transparency under attack. Bad."
Church and Hames are part of the Hacked Off lobby group which is campaigning for press reforms.
The group last week met with Cameron to discuss reports he was preparing to allow newspapers one more chance at self-regulation.
Murdoch's remarks on Twitter have angered many including Evan Harris, one of the founders of Hacked Off who said: "The mask has slipped. This is no longer the humblest day of my life Murdoch is it?"
Last year Murdoch went before a parliamentary select committee to apologise for the News of the World's hacking of the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler, calling his appearance as "the humblest day of my life". He also paid £3m to the Dowler family and charities of their choice in compensation.
Murdoch's remarks come days after the high court heard News International was facing more than 170 claims for damages for alleged phone hacking by the News of the World, including cases brought by Cherie Blair, Neil Kinnock, Sarah Ferguson and Joanne Lees, whose boyfriend was killed in the Australian outback.
On Twitter, Murdoch tried to back peddle for his "scumbag" remark telling Hames, he wasn't referring to her or Church, tweeting "not referring to these ladies" but then went on to make a direct attack on Hugh Grant, who is also part of Hacked Off and is also suing News International for alleged hacking.
When one Twitter user responded to Murdoch: "Scumbags? And your journalists and executives are what?", the media baron replied: "They don't get arrested for indecency on major LA highways! Or abandon love child's."
He then on Sunday linked the issue with the Jimmy Savile scandal.
"Likes of Saville further protected if we don't fight Cameron, dodgy celebrities in UK," he tweeted. "Could not happen in US."
Church hit back on Monday tweeting: "@rupertmurdoch What do you mean by 'dodgy'? My understanding of the word is 'lacking legitimacy', a term that befits NI before me or J.Hames".
Hames then tweeted: "When you're in a hole Rupert....Celebrities not scumbags, just 'dodgy,' Murdoch tweets".
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Murdoch fights on as rebels plot to oust him
News Corp shareholders call for the roles of chairman and chief executive to be separated
By Guy Adams
The Independent
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Rupert Murdoch faces yet another day of reckoning this week, as some of his most vigorous critics gather in Los Angeles for what promises to be a highly fractious annual meeting of his media conglomerate.
The 81-year-old tycoon is preparing to take the stage of the Zanuck Theater in Hollywood to chair Tuesday's event. It will be only the second time he's publicly faced News Corporation shareholders since the phone-hacking affair catapulted his British tabloids to the centre of a global scandal.
In the audience will be a collection of dissident shareholders and corporate activists. They intend to take advantage of a rare opportunity to hold Mr Murdoch to account for his handling of the affair, which has closed the profitable News of the World, seen his takeover bid for BSkyB abandoned, and left him facing a bill estimated at around £550m to compensate victims.
Top of the rebel agenda is a resolution to remove Mr Murdoch as chairman, which he holds in conjunction with the post of chief executive. The motion calls for him to be replaced by an individual better equipped to deal with the "lax ethical culture and lack of effective board oversight" that has been laid bare by the "still emerging scandals".
The effort to oust Mr Murdoch is believed to be supported by at least 18 major investors, including the UK's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF). Its chairman, Ian Greenwood, said there is "nothing personal" about the motion. "Rupert Murdoch has created a lot of value for a lot of years and one can understand his feeling for the company. But he and his family have to realise that when a company is owned more than 50 per cent by other people, it changes the family's relationship to it."
However, as the Murdochs controversially hold 40 per cent of the voting shares – though only 12 per cent of the total – the motion is unlikely to pass, as Murdoch allies have enough to quash any dissenting motion.
However, Julie Tanner of Christian Brothers Investment Services, who co-authored the motion, says she hopes it will send a "clear message" that will embarrass Mr Murdoch into reforming the company. She points out that the reappointment of James Murdoch as deputy chief operating officer was opposed by almost 35 per cent of voters at last year's annual meeting. He was later forced to resign as chairman of the UK newspaper arm, News International.
Mr Murdoch Snr appears to be in a combative mood. He recently wrote on Twitter: "Busy preparing for next week's AGM. Signs pretty peaceful, but any shareholders with complaints should take profits and sell!"
The comment, in a year in which News Corp shares have risen from $17 to $24.50, has riled critics. "It shows an utter disregard for the co-owners of his company," Mrs Tanner said. "How can the chairman of a publicly owned company say something like that?"
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I am not endorsing this video but I do find the choice of words that the teacher had the children recite to be rather strange in light of what took place that day:
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Bain predicts the evil forces of the occult with implement their ultimate strategy for control of mankind not on December 21 but on December 25, 2012, which he terms “Black Christmas.” On that date a nuclear bomb will be exploded in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. On the same date the Pope will be assassinated in Rome and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem will be blown up.
How can anyone with half a brain believe such nonsense? Are there people out there who really swallow this tripe?
Besides being absurd it is wrong on the facts. For example:
- There is no mention of a Bill Crowley in the very through 9/11 Timeline, the only William Crowley was a former NSA director not directly linked to 9/11 let alone the Shanksville crash. A few FBI agents were mentioned regarding that crash none with names remotely resembling Bill Crowley.
- Atta did almost all his flight training in Venice, FL, he also trained briefly in about 5 other cities one of which was Sarasota. He was also tied to about a dozen other cities in the US. There was nothing remotely satanic about the story “My Pet Goat”
If TrineDay wants to be taken seriously they should fact check books before publication.
This is what Bain writes in his book in addition to what has already been quoted:
“Roughly ten miles south of Sarasota is Venice, Florida, and the Venice Municipal Airport, home to Huffman Aviation, where Mohamed Atta and another purported 9/11 conspirator allegedly took flight training. Subsequently, both individuals trained for a brief time at Jones Aviation in…Sarasota.”
Bain devotes an entire chapter to “The Pet Goat.” I can only quote a small portion here as to why he attaches significance to the book Bush was reading to the children: “Since 1855, the name Baphomet has been associated with a ‘Sabbatic Goat’ image drawn by Eliphas Levi. Levi called his image ‘The Goat of Mendes,’ presumably following Herodotus’ account that the god of Mendes – the Greek name for Djedet, Egypt – was depicted with a goat’s face and legs. The Baphomet of Levi was to become an important figure within the cosmology of Thelema, the mystical system established by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century.”
Bain also writes that “One Bill Crowley was the field director of the Pittsburg Office of the FBI, which has jurisdiction at Shanksville.” He goes on to state that those behind the evil event were involved in “…ingeniously engineering circumstances so that the Crowley name appears in numerous media reports connected with the incident.”
One may deride what Bain has written in his 356-page book without even reading it but my educated guess based on what I read is that intelligence agencies here and abroad are giving it a close scrutiny at the present time.
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One knowledgeable person I talked to about the book's thesis said that it is normal for nations' Intelligent Services to think of ways to take advantage of key dates in order to make a strategic move that is untraceable. Are not the CIA and U.S. Military Intelligence thinking about this possibility if not offensively then certainly defensively?
There has been so much hullabaloo about December 21, 2012, that I don't think it can be counted out that some agency/entity/group/person will use the date to make their point in a dramatic fashion.
Even Warren Buffett has publicly stated that he expects a nuclear bomb to be exploded inside the U.S. at some point in the next 10 years.
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The Next 9/11 – Soon?
By Douglas Caddy
Attorney, Houston, Texas
Distinguished researcher and investigator S.K. Bain is the author of a new book that presents a radically different viewpoint on 9/11 from those already in circulation. It postulates the world changing event as being large-scale psychological warfare built upon a deadly combination of occultism, black magic symbolism and highly advanced technology. Its title is The Most Dangerous Book in the World: 9/11 as Mass Ritual (TrineDay). Peter Levenda in his Foreword writes, “S.K. Bain notices things. He sees patterns in the dates, names, places and documents that most of us either ignore or can’t see on our best days.”
Bain believes that “There were those to whom these numbers, and the ancient symbols represented by the Twin Towers, meant much, much more…those who were waiting, watching, applauding as the grim script for the day’s events unfolded brilliantly and flawlessly. These individuals were not Muslim extremists, not motivated by hatred for the ‘Great Satan,’ but paradoxically by a love for Satan himself.”
He further maintains that “Seen by some as the ‘Godfather of Modern Satanism,’ Aleister Crowley is the key to deciphering the script for the 9/11 global megaritual, because on one level, the entire day’s events are an ‘Ode to Aleister Crowley.’”
Indeed, persons by the name of Crowley keep cropping up in what occurred, ranging from Bill Crowley, the FBI agent assigned to the Shankesville area where United Airlines Flight 93 allegedly crashed in Pennsylvania, to Tim Crowley, the air traffic controller at Whitehorse International Airport in Alaska where Korean Airlines Flight 85 that morning without any legitimate reason suddenly was directed by orders from Washington relayed through the Whitehorse control tower to change its transponder code to 7500, an unequivocal hijacking distress signal. The numbers 93 and 85 possess great significance in occultism.
It was Aleister Crowley who once declared, “I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley
Bain's work is full of examples of occultism that permeate 9/11. He writes that “Of the hundreds of flight schools in the United States, Mohamaed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 terrorists and hijacker-pilot of the first plane….attended a school located in the very city where President Bush was visiting that fateful morning, where he was presiding over the Pet-Goat Ritual Reading. Bush was in his Devil’s Paradise while Atta (so we are led to believe) was busy gaining entry into the Islamic Paradise of Martyrs.
“This is neither coincidence nor synchronicity; rather, it is yet another example of the twisted humor and sophisticated logistics employed in the 9/11 MegaRitual.”
Bain draws heavily upon the 1989 book by Michael Hoffman, a former reporter for the Associated Press, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare. Bain credits Hoffman as being prescient in predicting 9/11, which occurred two years after his book’s publication. In Hoffman’s opinion, it is the subconscious mind that is being targeted in occult ritual: “In occult crimes the objective is not linear, that is to say, is not bound to the achievement of the immediate effects of the attack on the victim, but may in fact be part of a larger, symbolic ritual magnified by the power of the electronic media, for the purpose of the alchemical processing of the subconscious Group Mind of the masses...It is the subconscious that is being addressed in occult ritual, in a process CIA behavioral scientist Dr. Ewan Cameron termed, ‘psychic driving.’
“The Black Arts adepts are not simply ‘crazed’, nor are such intensely publicized ritual murders merely superstitious sacrifices to some kooky devil-god…[but are instead] a brilliantly orchestrated ritual whose ceremonial aspects were as precise and detailed as the internal workings of a clock.”
When I read Hoffman’s perceptive commentary, I was reminded of the books about the occult by a former law client, Howard Hunt, one of the CIA’s most famous agents, who ghost-wrote CIA Director Allen Dulles’ acclaimed The Craft of Intelligence. Hunt named the Maryland compound where he and his family resided, “Witches Island.” In an article “The Works and Workings of E. Howard Hunt” in The New York Times Book Review of June 24, 1973, Sol Yurick observed, “…The struggle [against Atheistic Communism] has been subterranean, which is to say both objectively and in people’s unconscious.
“All of which brings me by a ‘commodius vicus’ to the newest cult hero, E. Howard Hunt. Two of his books, The Coven and Diabolus were written under the code-name, David St. John, On the surface these books seem to be about devil worship, strange rites, exotic customs, sacrifices, ritual murders. The stories are simple, semiliterary…
“These are examples of covertly political novels; propaganda. The adventure is secondary. They are designed to influence feelings about real events by evoking the unpurged portions of the subconscious. The key to understanding comes out of the right-wing of the intelligence world. (There is a left wing, too: the counterthrust is ‘Rosemary’s Baby.’) It is a world full of coded meanings, symbols, references, allusions, levels of ambiguity, Doppelgangers (cf: The Sot-Weed Factor; the role of John Smith), or double-agents….The real horror is that people act on these perceptions. Disastrous consequences flow. The CIA ran a witch-doctor operation in the Congo, 1964. Millions were spent to drop bales of aces of spaces over Vietnam.”
Although a few of the numerous examples of the occult unearthed by Bain have been cited here, one more is merited. He writes, “Today’s Coptic calendar (also called the Alexandria calendar) is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar and is still used in Egypt, and also by the Coptic Orthodox Church. The first month of the year is named Thout, after Thoth, and thus the first day of the New Year is the 1st of Thout.
“On the Gregorian calendar, this date coincides with September 11th – so that date is not only New Year’s Day, but more importantly, it is the symbolic, or observed, date of Sirius’ heliacal rising.
“We already know Thoth as the Egyptian God of Magic and as the precursor/counterpart of the Greek God of Commerce, Hermes – with the pair having jointly played key roles thus far in the Megaritual – yet Thoth was also known as the “reckoner of times and seasons,’ a god of the measurement and regulation of events and of time itself. Thoth was credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens and everything in them, and was said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies.
“Thus, the entire 9/11 Global MegaRitual unfolded on the first day of the New Year on a calendar derived from the ancient Egyptian calendar, in a month named for Thoth, the Egyptian God of Time (the full significance of which will be made clear soon.)”
Bain’s book is really two books in one. The first book is about 9/11 as mass ritual. This review has barely touched upon the many startling revelations it contains.
The second book within his book is an addendum titled, “The Next 9/11 – A Work of Predictive Fiction.” In Bain’s opinion, 9/11 was merely a prelude to what comes next - and soon. His viewpoint is supported in general by a recent article of Professor Peter Dale Scott, a link to which is below:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32552.htm#.UGh9EiZSksg.facebook
Bain opines that “All you really need to take away is that occultists the world over have been looking toward December 2012 for centuries, if not millennia, and thus had one hell of a long time to plan the surprise party.”
Bain marshals evidence that the occultists’ pending master plan “concerns the resurrection of man all right, but the re-creation of mankind as technologically, pharmacologically, genetically-manipulated, mind-controlled slaves, awaiting the bidding of their dark masters. This is the demonic transmutation of the species through fear, terror, torment and torture, the establishment of a mechanistic Ahrimanic paradise.”
In accordance with their plan, “God will be diminished and Lucifer exalted in the minds of man, which is only fitting from their perspective, as the Bible is fiction, and in truth, Lucifer is God.”
Bain predicts the evil forces of the occult with implement their ultimate strategy for control of mankind not on December 21 but on December 25, 2012, which he terms “Black Christmas.” On that date a nuclear bomb will be exploded in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. On the same date the Pope will be assassinated in Rome and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem will be blown up.
Could such incredible events even occur? If 9/11 took place, then why could not these also?
It would be the end of the world as we know it, including the end of Christmas as it has been celebrated.
As to Bain’s cogent reasons and evidence for predicting this, you will have to read the book for yourself. You are encouraged to act hastily.
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Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson trial date set for September 2013
Former News International chief and No 10 spin doctor, plus 12 others, face charges linked to phone-
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 September 2012 07.40 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/26/rebekah-brooks-andy-coulson-trial-date
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been told at the Old Bailey that they are not due to face a full trial until a year from now, in a hearing in which the former News of the World editors appeared in the dock of the central criminal court.
The woman who was most recently chief executive of News International and the man who acted as David Cameron's director of communications at No 10 were given a proposed trial date of 9 September 2013 by Mr Justice Fulford, who is presiding over two batches of charges against them and 12 others.
The two former editors, and the remaining defendants, spoke only to confirm their names at the beginning of the hearing in a crowded dock in court number one. All 14 were bailed at the end of the hearing.
Brooks sat impassively on her own at the back of the dock during an hour-long hearing that gave directions for the management of the two cases involving the 14 defendants.
Coulson sat in the front row flanked by three of his co-defendants, all former colleagues at the News of the World. Former assistant editor (news) Ian Edmondson sat on his right with ex-assistant news editor James Weatherup and former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck on his left.
Court number one was packed with lawyers, mostly representing the defendants, with three rows of 18 wigged barristers present. Andrew Edis QC led for crown; next week he will do the same in the trial of Chris Huhne MP and his former wife, Vicky Price, who are accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
John Kelsey-Fry QC, who previously successfully defended Harry Redknapp, was acting for Brooks. Clare Montgomery QC, who is acting for the Swedish government in its battle to extradite Julian Assange, was representing Coulson.
Brooks was dressed in a black and cream outfit while Coulson wore a grey suit and blue tie.
Andy Coulson arrives at the Old Bailey. Photograph: EPA
Coulson, Brooks and six others have been charged with conspiring to hack phones.
Brooks is also charged with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Six others face one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, including her husband Charlie, her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter and her ex-chauffeur Paul Edwards. All have been accused of agreeing to conceal evidence from detectives investigating phone hacking in July 2011.
The phone-hacking related charges follow an investigation by officers working as part of the Metropolitan police's Operating Weeting.
Apart from Coulson and Brooks, the others facing phone-hacking-related charges are Edmondson, Weatherup, Thurlbeck, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, ex-news editor Greg Miskiw and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire.
Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight and Weatherup eight. Mulcaire is charged with allegedly hacking the voicemails of four people: Milly Dowler, Andrew Gilchrist, Delia Smith and the Rt Hon Charles Clarke.
Carter sat behind Coulson in the second row with Miskiw, while the third row was occupied by Brooks's husband Charlie, a racehorse trainer, and Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International.
Hanna, former security guard Daryl Jorsling and Lee Sandell, who worked for a company used by News International for security, also face the same charges of trying to conceal evidence from detectives in July 2012 at the height of the phone-hacking scandal.
There was initial confusion as all defendants present were invited to come into the dock in no particular order. It transpired there was insufficient room, leaving Edwards and Jorsling to step outside the dock and sit in officials' benches to the left.
After an hour of legal discussion, Fulford ordered a further hearing for 12-13 December before a possible full trial in September next year.
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Exclusive: 'News of the World computer hacker' exposed Scotland Yard mole
After working undercover for nine years, murder suspect claims Derek Haslam was compromised by private detective with links to News International
The Independent
September 25, 2012
In his first interview since his release from jail (above), Jonathan Rees lifts the lid on hacking, alleged police corruption and his work for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World.
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A POLICE “mole” who secretly infiltrated a private detective firm for Scotland Yard was exposed after he was identified by an alleged computer hacker with links to the News of the World.
Former Met police officer Derek Haslam worked undercover for nine years with Jonathan Rees, the co-founder of Southern Investigations, who was a suspect for one of London’s most notorious unsolved murders.
However, the 65-year-old’s cover as “Joe Poulton” was blown when the personal computer he used to send covert intelligence back to his police handlers was compromised by the alleged hacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The man – who is a known associate of Rees and whom we shall call Mr Anderson - has previously been accused of computer hacking for the News of the World.
In an interview with Independent Voices, Rees said: “(Someone) gave (Mr Anderson) an IP address and he identified Haslam from that.”
When asked if that was done through “legal means”, he replied: “Well, there’s ways and means, technical ways and means, I would imagine legal means…I think so, I don’t know.”
Haslam’s undercover work for the Met began in 1997 when he was asked to infiltrate Southern Investigations to gather evidence on Rees, who was a suspect for the murder of his former business partner. Daniel Morgan, 37, was found with an axe embedded in his skull in a Sydenham pub car park in 1987.
Haslam claims one of Southern Investigations’ main clients was News of the World executive Alex Marunchak whose name was “constantly mentioned” inside the firm.
While he was undercover, Haslam suspected his computer had been hacked in 2006 when it started “running slowly” at home in Norfolk.
He refused to speak to Independent Voices because he is currently suing Scotland Yard. However, we obtained a confidential briefing he passed to investigators.
He said: “I told my (handlers) something is up so they said they’d check it. I handed over my computer and they examined the hard drive and confirmed it had been hacked.”
“They found a document on it and said ‘any idea what this is’ and I said ‘that’s one of my intelligence documents’ and I said ‘who’s got it’? They said ‘it’s been taken off your computer’…and there’s a virus been put on your computer.”
At the time, Rees admits he was in possession of one of Haslam’s 11-page intelligence reports to his handlers, which includes allegations that Southern Investigations burgled MPs to obtain embarrassing information it could sell to newspapers.
When asked how he got it, Rees replied: “I received…a copy of, er, this six-week window of his reports. Now, the police…believe that was (leaked to me) by a sympathetic source within (the Met).
When asked if Mr Anderson had hacked the report, Rees replied: “Not to my knowledge. That is something he denies…he absolutely denies it. We just can’t say how that document was obtained.”
However, a document dated 2012 written by Rees’ lawyers – seen by Independent Voices – identifies Mr Anderson as the possible source.
“In late 2006 Rees received a document that appeared to be a print of a computer file, in the format of a draft report or reports to “handlers” by “Joe Poulton”,” it read. “Rees was convinced from factual references that the author must be Derek Haslam.”
In a footnote to the document, his lawyers wrote: “This seems to have been “hacked” from Haslam’s computer by Mr Anderson.”
A source close to Rees’ legal team claims to possess a taped confession from Mr Anderson, who is said to admit hacking Haslam’s computer.
When asked how the police obtained evidence on computer hacking, Rees replied: “It may have come from Mr Anderson’s computer, but there won’t be any links to me…and I would think nothing to do with Alex Marunchak, either.”
When pressed on the allegation, he replied: “Thank God Mr Anderson was out there and exposed Haslam for what he was…if he did hack Haslam, good.”
When contacted by Independent Voices, Mr Anderson said: “I cannot talk to you about any of this.”
However - when told of the allegations in Rees’ legal papers - he added: “That is something that they will have to justify and prove.”
When asked whether he had made a confession of computer hacking, he replied: “Once again, they will have to justify, support and prove that.”
Finally, when he was asked whether he legally identified Haslam “through an IP address”, Mr Anderson replied: “That is really something that…you should take up with Jonathan Rees. I am not prepared to go into this discussion unless my solicitor is present.”
In a bizarre twist, a freelance journalist who has known Rees and Mr Anderson for more than 15 years wrote openly to the Met in June 2007 and enclosed a copy of the Haslam intelligence report.
The undercover agent had mentioned Sylvia Jones in the briefing and the ex-crime reporter was complaining to Scotland Yard to say his allegations about her work were false.
When asked by Independent Voices how she obtained a copy of the potentially unlawfully obtained document, Jones said it had been posted to her anonymously shortly before she made the complaint. She did admit seeing an extract 12 months earlier but refused to say who showed it to her.
Last week, Independent Voices revealed Haslam warned his handlers that Southern Investigations were looking for “dirt” on police and politicians in a bid to “control” them.
We also disclosed how Southern Investigations put former Met commissioner Lord Stevens under surveillance in 1999.
Haslam worked undercover for nine years with Rees, trying to solve one of London’s most high-profile unsolved murders. However, when his cover was blown he claims Scotland Yard offered him the chance to go into the witness protection programme – a system he claims he saw repeatedly compromised by the agency.
Rees said this was “wholly untrue”. It is understood Haslam turned down the offer of protection, decided he would look after himself and asked for a payout. However, this is thought to have been rejected by the Met.
He is now suing Scotland Yard for failing in its duty of care to protect him. It is understood one element of his case centres on the Met’s failure to prosecute the offenders who compromised his computer.
Daniel Morgan’s brother Alastair said: “Last week, it was disclosed that Derek Haslam worked undercover at Southern Investigations for nine years, passing back widespread intelligence of criminality to the Met, who did absolutely nothing about it.
“Now, we discover that Haslam – who put his life on the line when he infiltrated this firm – was exposed by an alleged computer hacker who has worked on behalf of the News of the World. Again, the Yard did absolutely nothing.
“The whole case just gets murkier and murkier. The only avenue left is for Home Secretary Theresa May to order a judicial inquiry into my brother’s murder. The Met cannot be trusted to get to the bottom of all this.”
The fifth investigation into the Daniel Morgan murder collapsed last year and Rees was acquitted. Detectives working on the various criminal probes into News International have arrested around 80 different people so far. Rees and Marunchak, who supplemented his News of the World income by working as a Ukrainian translator for the Met for 20 years, are not among them.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are not prepared to discuss these matters
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Phone-hacking claims against News International near 300
Claimants include executors of Jade Goody's estate, Davina McCall's husband and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
Tuesday 25 September 2012 06.03 EDT
Nearly 300 damages claims against News International have been filed at the high court over alleged phone hacking. Photograph: Martin Godwin
The high court is to hear details of nearly 300 damages claims against News International for alleged News of the World phone hacking, from people including the late reality TV star Jade Goody.
At least 155 new civil lawsuits – involving 174 individuals – for invasion of privacy were lodged with the high court by the 14 September deadline set by Mr Justice Vos, the high court judge overseeing the process.
Vos will also be given an update from News International on its separate phone-hacking compensation scheme, which has accepted 137 claims, at a high court case management conference on Tuesday.
The extent of phone hacking at the now-closed News of the World is expected to be confirmed by lawyers for both the claimants and News International. The 292 new claims are in addition to 58 lawsuits settled by the publisher earlier this year.
Many of the names on the court register of claims are not well-known figures to the public and are what Lord Justice Leveson called "collateral damage" – relatives of celebrities or victims of crime, such as the parents of former nanny Louise Woodward, who was found guilty of manslaughter in the US when she was 19, and Lorna Hogan, the former girlfriend of Calum Best.
Janet Woolf, the mother of Ken Livingstone's eldest child, is one who believes she was targeted because of her connection to a famous politician. Others who have not sought the public spotlight include Matthew Robertson, husband of Davina McCall.
TV producer Kate Jackson, who made a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Goody as she was dying of cancer in 2009, is also making a claim along with two of the reality TV star's best friends, Simon Bridger and Danny Hayward. As executors of her estate, they are making the claims on her behalf.
Lauren Pope, now known as a star from reality TV show The Only Way is Essex, is suing in relation to a night out with Prince Harry in 2004.
Other civil claims not previously reported include actions taken by Yousef Bhailok, the former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
On the entertainment front, former EastEnders actor Lacey Turner is suing as is Claire Powell, Kerry Katona's former agent, and Footballers' Wives actor Laila Rouass.
Suzanne Dando, the former British Olympic gymnast and ex-girlfriend of former Sky Sports presenter Andy Gray, is also claiming damages for alleged hacking.
Joining the ranks of current and former Premier League footballers seeking damages are Noel Whelan, Chris Kiwomya and Neil Ruddock.
Among the other claimants who filed before Vos's 14 September deadline were actor Hugh Grant, the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and his wife Glenys, and former secretary of state for trade and industry Stephen Byers.
The names of claimants will be confirmed before Vos during the case management conference on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, he ordered a three- to four-day hearing in a bid to clear the way for potential trials of the second wave of phone-hacking claims against News International sometime after May next year.
This second tranche of claims has become a protracted matter – this is ninth hearing this year – with ongoing legal arguments over what News International should and could reveal to claimants.
The publisher settled 58 claims in January and February this year, including suits brought by Jude Law, Steve Coogan and Sienna Miller
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Senior detective charged with passing information to the News of the World
A senior detective has been charged over allegations that she passed information to the News of the World newspaper.
It is understood the arrests were made as part of an investigation into allegations that detectives working in Scotland Yard’s anti-corruption unit were paid thousands of pounds for information
By Martin Evans, Crime Correspondent
The Telegraph
6:50PM BST 24 Sep 2012
Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn, 53, the former head of the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit at Scotland Yard, was arrested as part of Operation Elveden, the Met investigation into inappropriate payments by journalists.
She is the first person to be charged in connection with the investigation, which was set up in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and has so far seen 50 arrests.
DCI Casburn has worked for the Met for 17-years having joined following a career in the financial sector.
She headed up two Fraud Squad teams within the City of London police before moving to the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU).
The unit uses financial intelligence to investigate the funding of terrorist organisations both at home and overseas.
The charge relates to an incident in September 2010 when DCI Casburn allegedly contacted a journalist at the now defunct Sunday tabloid and offered to provide sensitive information.
It is not clear whether she asked for or received any payment for the information.
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: “We have concluded, having carefully considered the file of evidence, that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge DCI Casburn with misconduct in public office.
“The particulars are that on 11 September 2010, April Casburn, being a public officer, and acting as such, without reasonable excuse or justification, wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in that office. This charge relates to an allegation that DCI Casburn contacted the News of the World newspaper and offered to provide information.”
DCI Casburn is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday October 1.
Operation Elveden is running alongside Operation Weeting which was launched to investigate phone hacking at the News of the World.
A total of 70 officers are working on the investigation and five police officers have so far been arrested.
The News of the World was closed down by owner Rupert Murdoch following revelations that journalists from the newspaper had hacked hundreds of people’s phones from celebrities and politicians to members of the public and victims of crime.
Particularly damaging were claims that reporters had hacked into the voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler.
A total of eight people have so far been charged in connection with phone hacking allegations including News International’s former Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron’s former director of communications Andy Coulson.
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Words of warning: Goebbels' love letters reveal tyrant in the making
Anti-Semitic poems and essays written by future Nazi propaganda chief to go on sale
By Tony Paterson
The Independent
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Adolf Hitler's infamous propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, displayed anti-Semitic, self-centred and controlling behaviour as a young man in thousands of love letters, school papers and other documents which are due to be sold at a controversial auction on Thursday.
The extensive collection spans the period from Goebbels' childhood to shortly before he joined the Nazi party in 1924. It contains correspondence with girlfriends, including more than 100 letters he exchanged with Anka Stalhern, the girl reputed to be the first love of his life.
"It sums up the formative years of the No 2 man in the Third Reich," said Bill Panagopulos, whose company, Alexander Historical Auctions, will sell the collection in Stamford, Connecticut. "It shows how this rather simple, shy and lovestruck college student became radicalised."
The thousands of pages include Goebbels' college dissertation, his report cards and dozens of poems and school essays which may provide fresh insights into the mind of one of the most fanatical Nazis. Stalhern, a law student, ended her relationship with Goebbels in 1920. In his last letter to her that year, Goebbels wrote: "If I had you here with me I would grab you and force you to love me, if only for a moment – then I would kill you."
The papers also contain details about Goebbels' relationship with Else Janke, a young sports teacher from his home town of Rheydt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, whom he met in the early 1920s. In 1922, Janke revealed to Goebbels that she was half-Jewish. "She told me her roots. Since then her charms have been destroyed for me," Goebbels wrote in his diaries.
In what is seen as early evidence of his egotistical behaviour, several of Goebbels' writings are completed with numerous personal signatures. Replying to a teacher who offered condolences after the death of Goebbels' sister, the man who would later call for "total war" writes that his loss is minor compared with the losses suffered by "Our Fatherland". "You really get a feel for what was going on in his head," said Mr Panagopulos.
Goebbels and his equally fanatical wife, Magda, killed their six children with cyanide tablets before killing themselves at Hitler's Berlin bunker, the day after the Nazi leader committed suicide.
The Goebbels collection is expected to fetch more than $200,000 and is being sold on behalf of an unnamed Swiss company which obtained the documents after they had changed hands several times.
But the impending sale has invoked criticism from a Holocaust survivors group which has accused the auction house of making profits from Nazi memorabilia. It noted that Alexander Historical Auctions had last year auctioned off the journals of the Nazi death camp doctor Josef Mengele and said the Goebbels papers could be used to lionise the Nazi leader.
Menachem Rosensaft, of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, said the collection should be made available to historians in an archive instead. "I leave it to others to determine the morality of it all," he said. However, Mr Panagopulos said that neo-Nazis were not interested in such material and that most of the documents had been made available to historians before being put up for auction. He said because his father's home town had been destroyed by the Nazis during the German occupation of Greece during World War II, his morals "should not be questioned".
'The ram': Goebbels' sexual appetite
Goebbels's legendary promiscuity earned him the nickname "The Ram". "Eros awoke" he wrote in a diary in 1912 when he was just 16. He was overcome with a desire for "mature women" – in this case it was the stepmother of one of his school friends.
By the time he was 21 he boasted about simultaneously seducing two sisters called Liesl and Agnes. In 1930 he met his future wife, the Hitler worshipper Magda Quandt.
He fathered six children with her while continuing dalliances with other women. The most famous was his affair with the Czech actress Lida Baarova. Hitler, who was furious about his propaganda chief liaising with an "inferior Slav", forced him to end the affair.
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In Kennedy Recordings, History’s Raw Materials
The New York Times
September 22, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/us/in-kennedy-secret-recordings-historys-raw-materials.html#audio
BOSTON — President John F. Kennedy opened the newspaper one day in 1963 and learned to his horror that military aides had built a hospital bedroom for his pregnant wife at an air base on Cape Cod in case she went into labor. He thought the $5,000 spent on the furniture was wasteful and would be a public-relations disaster that would prompt Congress to cut his military budget. The angry president picked up the phone.
First, he a took a press underling to task. He demanded that the furniture be sent back and that those responsible — including “that silly fellow who had his picture taken next to the bed” — be transferred to Alaska.
He then called Gen. Godfrey McHugh, his Air Force aide. “What the hell did they let the reporters in there for?” the president thundered. “You just sank the Air Force budget!”
And he was not finished venting his rage about the aide who appeared in the newspaper picture. “He’s a silly bastard!” he exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have him running around a cathouse!” Before hanging up, he characterized the entire episode with an expletive.
The story came straight from Kennedy himself.
Though even some of his closest aides did not know at the time, Kennedy recorded more than 260 hours of Oval Office conversations, telephone calls and dictation into his Dictaphone. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation has culled the highlights into a new book of annotated transcripts and two audio CDs. Some of audio portions will be available online.
The book, “Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy,” with a forward by his daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and an introduction by Ted Widmer, a presidential historian at Brown University, offers “the raw material of history,” said Thomas Putnam, the director of the Kennedy Library.
“This is the memoir that President Kennedy never got to write,” Mr. Putnam said.
In a meeting in November 1962, the president bluntly told James Webb, the NASA administrator, that putting a man on the moon was his top priority. Mr. Webb said it was more important to understand the environment of space, prompting Mr. Kennedy to say, “If we get second to the Moon, it’s nice, but it’s like being second anytime.”
Mr. Webb continued to push back, prompting the president to spell it out: “I’m not that interested in space,” he said, only in beating the Russians.
Kennedy’s obsession with the cold war extended to the athletic rivalry with the Russians over hockey. In March 1963, he called up an old friend who had played hockey in the Olympics to complain about the American men’s hockey team losing to Sweden, 17-2.
“Christ,” the president complained. “Who are we sending over there? Girls?”
Like Richard M. Nixon after him and several presidents before him, Kennedy installed hidden recording devices in the Oval Office. Almost no one knew about the practice until the existence of the Nixon tapes was revealed in 1973 during the Watergate hearings. This lifted the curtain on stealth self-bugging in the White House that began with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Kennedy’s recording system was dismantled immediately after his assassination. The family kept the tapes until 1976 and then gave them to the National Archives. The Kennedy Library later acquired them and began to make them available to historians in 1983. Their release was a slow and laborious process because the sound quality was uneven and they had to be transcribed and declassified. The last 45 hours of tapes were released only this year.
Historians have turned to the tapes for insight into major events of the Kennedy presidency like the Cuban missile crisis, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. The value of this book, Mr. Putnam said, is that “it is the first time the material has been published in one collection with annotations and a serious historian providing context for each conversation.”
The book was published by Hyperion, which released a book last year of interviews conducted with Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband’s death.
The tapes reveal that Kennedy talked several times with his predecessors about pressing issues of the day, including with Dwight D. Eisenhower about the Cuban missile crisis. But one conversation with Harry S. Truman veered in a surprisingly personal direction as they wrapped up a call in July 1963.
“Well, you sound in good shape,” Kennedy said.
“All right,” Truman replied. “The only trouble with me is that, the main difficulty I have, is keeping the wife satisfied.” Both men laughed.
“Well, that’s all right,” Kennedy said.
“Well, you know how that is,” Truman went on. “She’s very much afraid I’m going to hurt myself. Even though I’m not. She’s a tough bird.”
Mr. Widmer, the historian, said he believed that Truman was talking about erectile dysfunction. “I wanted the book to have human moments,” he said.
The book also includes the transcript and audio of a tape made during a private dinner party that the Kennedys held in their Georgetown home on Jan. 5, 1960, days after he announced he was running for president. It was recorded by James M. Cannon, a correspondent for Newsweek, and was given to the Kennedy library to be released after Mr. Cannon’s death, which occurred in 2011. Other guests included Ben Bradlee, then Newsweek’s Washington bureau chief and later the editor of The Washington Post.
Kennedy openly discussed his desire for the thrill of being in the white-hot crucible of decision-making on the world stage, which would give him a rush “like playing Yale every Saturday,” he said.
He was, by turns, reflective, vulnerable and confident. He played down the role of money in his success, saying he owed more to the family name than to his wealth. He said the chief problem with losing an election was “being cut off from this fascinating life at mid-age.” He compared it to having a leg amputated.
Unlike the Nixon taping system, which was voice-activated, Kennedy’s had to be started by pressing a button, so he was obviously aware that he was being recorded. On a grim day in 1963, Kennedy turned to his Dictaphone to record his thoughts about a coup in Vietnam. He rued into the machine that his administration was responsible for the coup, and he was going over the blunders that had led to it, when suddenly a child’s voice chirped “hello.”
John F. Kennedy Jr., then not quite 3, had toddled into the Oval Office and, most likely, into his father’s lap. The president made a seamless transition from burdened commander in chief to doting father and began a nursery word play with his son.
Kennedy: “Why do the leaves fall?”
John: “Because it’s autumn.”
After questions about winter and spring, the president asked: “When do we go to the Cape? Hyannis Port?”
John: “Because it’s summer.”
“It’s summer,” repeated the youthful father, though it was November and in less than three weeks, he would be dead.
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James Murdoch as Fox TV head would be a 'slap in the face' to shareholders
News that Rupert Murdoch's son could soon lead Fox Networks met with shock and anger from News Corp shareholders
By Dominic Rushe in New York
Friday 21 September 2012 12.39 EDT
News Corp shareholders have reacted angrily to news that James Murdoch could soon run the media giant's flagship Fox TV channel.
The son of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch was heavily criticised on Thursday by British regulators over his role in the hacking scandal. On the same day, news broke he may soon be given control of some of the media firm's most high profile assets.
One dissident shareholder called the news a "slap in the face for shareholders, not to mention victims of the hacking scandal".
Murdoch is reportedly set to take over the running of Fox Networks, News Corp's US TV business that includes its national Fox channel, home to American Idol and The Simpsons, and cable businesses including FX.
The news, first reported by the Financial Times, came the same day that British regulator Ofcom issued a report that took Murdoch to task over his role in the phone-hacking scandal.
James Murdoch was head of News Corp's UK newspaper business as the hacking scandal broke. The regulator concluded he "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive and chairman" and that his lack of action in was "difficult to comprehend and ill-judged".
But in a ruling that handed a major victory to James' father Rupert Murdoch, Ofcom ruled that BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster whose largest shareholder is News Corp, remains a fit and proper owner of broadcast licences.
News Corp declined to comment on the reports of James Murdoch's role at US operations.
Julie Tanner, director of socially responsible investing for New York-based Christian Brothers Investment Services, said: "This move proves that Rupert Murdoch is running News Corp solely for the benefit of the Murdoch family."
Last year Tanner led a shareholder revolt that ended with the majority of independent shareholders voting against the re-election of James Murdoch, his brother Lachlan and most of the News Corp board. She has lodged a similar resolution ahead of this year's meeting.
"While we are disappointed – and frankly, somewhat amazed – by this move, I also hope it sheds light on the importance of voting for our resolution to appoint an Independent Chair at the New Corp AGM. This is a clear example of the need for improved corporate governance at the company," she said.
The promotion would come as News Corp continues to face legal investigations into the phone-hacking scandal on both sides of the Atlantic. The justice department is investigating News Corp under the foreign corrupt practices act (FCPA), a statute that prosecutes US firms found guilty of bribing foreign officials.
Some 50 people have so far been arrested in the UK over the scandal, including two journalists at The Sun newspaper and a policeman arrested this week during an ongoing bribery investigation.
James Murdoch resigned as chairman of News International, the media group's UK newspaper business, in February and from BSkyB in April. He relocated to the US and has so far kept a lower profile. But his elevation would likely to trigger a new round of criticism from shareholders and pressure groups.
In August lobby group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) filed a complaint with the broadcast regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) arguing News Corp was unfit to run US broadcasting licenses.
Crew executive director Melanie Sloan said the possible elevation of James Murdoch would strengthen their case. "It seems to me that there is a lot more to come out about James Murdoch. There are plenty more questions that need answers," she said.
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If you go down to the woods today… Hitler's bunker blooms again
The Nazi leader's wartime nerve centre in a Polish forest is to become a museum
The Independent
By Tony Paterson
Thursday, 20 September 2012
The ruined bunker complex set deep in the forests of Poland's north east was once the nerve centre of Adolf Hitler's war machine. More recently, giggling tourists play paintball and pose for photographs in Nazi uniforms at the site which critics have dubbed a "grotesque Disneyland".
But now, 68 years after German troops dynamited much of Hitler's so-called "Wolf's Lair" before fleeing the advancing Soviet Red Army, Poland has announced plans to renovate the 600-acre complex and turn it into a key historical and educational centre containing outdoor exhibits and a museum.
The project has been initiated by Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage which has granted a new lease for the "Wolf's Lair" under the strict proviso that the private company running the site fulfils an educational objective and drops its present fun park image.
"At this moment, one does not feel the tragic dimension of this place," said Tomasz Chincinski, a historian working on the project. "We need to work on new ways of telling history, to make young generations want to learn it and understand it," he told The New York Times.
Hitler had the "Wolf's Lair" built as his Eastern front headquarters in what was then East Prussia, and used it to co-ordinate the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The compound was a heavily guarded complex of 200 buildings and concrete bunkers complete with its own power plant and staff of 2,000 military personnel.
Those who worked there complained of boredom, freezing winters and summers plagued by swarms of mosquitoes.
Four months before German troops blew up many of the buildings in the compound in the face of the Red Army's advance, the "Wolf's Lair" was the scene of the abortive attempt to assassinate Hitler. The German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg detonated a briefcase bomb which failed to kill the Nazi leader while he was attending a staff meeting on 20 July, 1944. Von Stauffenberg was caught and executed along with many other plotters immediately afterwards.
Poland's post war communist regime opened the site for visitors but did little more to inform them of its history than display wartime photographs of the complex. After communism's collapse, Poland's new democratic authorities leased out the complex to a private company called Wolf's Nest, which tried to exploit its tourist potential.
The company turned some of the bunkers into a restaurant and hotel and opened an indoor shooting range in the offices used by General Alfred Jodl, the Nazi army commander sentenced to death at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. The Polish historian Jan Oldakowski described the complex as a "grotesque Disneyland".
Today, although some paths have been cleared through the undergrowth, most of the "Wolf's Lair" is in disrepair. Its concrete bunkers are in ruins and covered in carpets of thick moss. "The biggest change here over the past decade has been the introduction of a cash machine," said Lukasz Joachymek, a freelance tour guide at the site.
The "Wolf's Lair" owes its new lease of life to the end of an ownership dispute which has left it firmly in the hands of the Polish Forestry Service. "It took years before the matter was settled. Before that, we could not think about investing," said Jan Zaluska, the director of Wolf's Nest, whose company has now agreed to work together with historians and meet the government's educational requirements for the site.
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Ofcom rules BSkyB 'fit and proper' but criticises conduct of James Murdoch
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has ruled that BSkyB is “fit and proper” to hold a broadcasting licence but has savaged James Murdoch for his “failure” to take action over phone hacking at News of the World.
8:08AM BST 20 Sep 2012
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph...es-Murdoch.html
• Ofcom: James Murdoch's behaviour 'ill-judged'
• Regulator says Sky passes 'fit and proper' test
• Warning that further evidence could change decision
• BSkyB shares rise 1pc in early trading
The regulator said in a statement that Mr Murdoch’s behaviour was “difficult to comprehend and ill-judged” and that he “repeatedly fell short” of his duties as chairman, raising questions about his “competence” and his attitude towards wrongdoing at the companies he was in charge of.
Mr Murdoch was chairman of News International until February 2011. He held the same position at BSkyB until April this year, when he stepped down admitting that he was a “lightening rod” for criticism of the broadcaster.
However, Ofcom’s ruling that BSkyB is “fit and proper” lifts a cloud that had long been hanging over the pay-TV broadcaster.
The regulator has sweeping powers to revoke the licence of any broadcaster whose owners or management it does not deem to be “fit and proper” to hold such power. It has rarely used the longstanding piece of legislation but it dusted it off in summer 2011 to throw into turmoil News Corp’s £8bn bid to take full control of BSkyB. News Corp eventually pulled the bid.
The regulator finally came to its conclusions today. In a statement it said that Sky passed the “fit and proper“ test, based on “the evidence currently available and having taken into account all the relevant factors”.
However, this was tempered with a stark reminder to BSkyB to keep its behaviour in check, it warned that that could change.
“Ofcom’s duty to be satisfied that a licensee is fit and proper is ongoing. Should further relevant evidence become available in the future, Ofcom would need to consider that evidence in order to fulfil its duty,” the regulator said.
It noted that various police investigations could turn up new evidence that would count against BSkyB in a “fit and proper” test.
Its judgment also included a lengthy personal attack on Mr Murdoch.
British Sky Broadcasting Group
“We consider James Murdoch’s conduct, including his failure to initiate action on his own account on a number of occasions, to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged,” it said. “James Murdoch’s conduct in relation to events at NGN [News Group Newspapers, the News Corp subsidiary which published the News of the World] repeatedly fell short of the exercise of responsibility to be expected of him as CEO and chairman.”
It acknowledged a letter in which James Murdoch said he shared responsibility for the fact that News Corp “took too long to come to grips” with the phone hacking and police bribery scandal, adding tersely: “We agree”.
“ We consider that the events set out above raise questions regarding James Murdoch’s competence in the handling of these matters, and his attitude towards the possibility of wrongdoing in the companies for which he was responsible,” it added.
Ofcom said James Murdoch's conduct in relation to events at the News Corp newspapers had repeatedly fallen short, adding there was no evidence to suggest he had deliberately engaged in wrongdoing.
BSkyB said: "Ofcom is right to conclude that Sky is a fit and proper broadcaster. As a company, we are committed to high standards of governance and we take our regulatory obligations extremely seriously. As Ofcom acknowledges, our track record of compliance in broadcasting is good."
Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum, said: "This was, on balance, expected but it definitely removes an overhang on the stock. This wasn't seen as a huge threat to the business but ... this was seen as a risk, because Ofcom and Sky don't have a great relationship."
News Corp said in a statement that it was proud of James Murdoch's "distinguished record" and it disagreed with some of Ofcom's criticisms, which are "not at all substantiated" by evidence.
"As Ofcom itself acknowledged, James deserves credit for his role as chief executive, then chairman and now non-executive director, in leading Sky to an outstanding record as a broadcaster, including its excellent compliance record," it added.
BSykB shares rose 1pc in early trading.
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News Corp shareholders in US want to sue over phone hacking scandal
Murdoch family put personal interests ahead of the company's, shareholders allege, as they ask judge to amend earlier lawsuit
B y Dominic Rushe in New York
Wednesday 19 September 2012 11.29 EDT
Shareholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are asking a US court for permission to sue the firm's board for failing to stop the phone hacking scandal.
The shareholders asked Delaware judge John Noble on Wednesday to proceed with their case against Murdoch, his sons Lachlan and James and the rest of the company's board. News Corp is attempting to have the case dismissed.
In all, 50 people have been arrested in connection with the scandal, News Corp has closed its most profitable newspaper, the News of the World newspaper, and lost a deal to take over the BSkyB satellite broadcast business.
The shareholders, including America's Amalgamated Bank and Central Laborers' Pension Funds, charge the company's executives put their own interests ahead shareholders and treated the firm as a "family candy jar".
The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2011 over News Corp's agreement to buy Shine, a TV production company owned by Elizabeth Murdoch, the News Corp chairman's daughter, for $670m. It was amended after the phone hacking scandal emerged.
"All of this harm occurred because the board chose to protect those close to Murdoch rather than investigate the misconduct when it learned about it," the shareholders said in June in their amended complaint.
"These revelations should not have taken years to uncover and stop. These revelations show a culture run amuck within News Corp and a board that provides no effective review or oversight," the shareholders charged.
Charles Elson, chair in corporate governance at the University of Delaware, said lack of board oversight was a difficult case to bring but that News Corp's dual class share structure could present the Murdochs with some challenges.
News Corp has two classes of shares, and the Murdochs' shares give them 39% of the company votes although the family owns about 15% of the equity.
"The chances of bringing these type of cases are usually pretty slim but here you have independence and conflict of interest issues vis a vis the board so there's more of a shot," said Elson.
Elson said the judges in Delaware, where News Corp and many other US firms are incorporated, were interested in the conflicts that dual class share structures present to shareholders. "In my view dual class share structures cast a shade over a board's independence," he said.
News Corp is under investigation by the US justice department under the foreign corrupt practices act which can impose heavy fines on US firms found to have bribed foreign officials.
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Don Miller interview: Why Three Kennedys Were Assassinated
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lewrockwell-show/2012/09/18/309-why-three-kennedys-were-assassinated/
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Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media
in Political Conspiracies
Posted
David Cameron pressed to come clean over secret Rebekah Brooks emails
Furore mounts over 'embarrassing' messages revealed by The Independent
By Nigel Morris
The Independent
Thursday, 18 October 2012
David Cameron is under pressure to release private emails exchanged with Rebekah Brooks that he has withheld from the Leveson Inquiry, after extraordinary scenes in the House of Commons in which he refused to explain the messages to MPs.
A visibly agitated Mr Cameron was asked during Prime Minister's Questions to tell the Commons why he had not disclosed details of secret messages between him and Ms Brooks, the former News International chief executive, or publicly revealed their existence.
In defiance of parliamentary convention, he flatly refused to tell MPs any more about the messages, which he has not supplied to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.
The Independent disclosed this week that Downing Street was sitting on a cache of emails and text messages between the Prime Minister and Ms Brooks, as well as communications with Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor. Mr Cameron held them back from the judicial inquiry after taking legal advice that they were not relevant to its remit.
In acrimonious Commons clashes, the Prime Minister lost his cool as he was challenged by a shadow minister over the disclosures - and then said he would not answer any questions from the MP.
Last night the deputy Labour leader, Harriet Harman, sought to increase the pressure on Mr Cameron by urging him to release the information.
Sources within the inquiry have confirmed to The Independent that it has received none of the Brooks-Cameron emails. Downing Street has stonewalled on the subject, not denying the existence of the messages, and repeating that the Prime Minister has co-operated fully with the inquiry.
The relationship between Mr Cameron and Ms Brooks was closely scrutinised by the inquiry, as were the Prime Minister's dealings with Mr Coulson, who became his media chief in 2007. Mr Coulson has been charged with conspiring to hack phones and perjury. Ms Brooks is awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to hack phones and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. She denies the charges and Mr Coulson denies any knowledge of phone hacking.
During a fractious session in the Commons, Chris Bryant, the shadow Home Affairs minister, asked Mr Cameron: "Why won't you publish all the texts, emails and other forms of correspondence between yourself and your office and Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and News International so we can judge whether they are relevant? Is it because they are too salacious and embarrassing for you... or is it because there is one rule for the Prime Minister and another for the rest of us?" Before he delivered his question, Mr Bryant told Mr Cameron to "stop smiling" and added: "When the truth comes out, the Prime Minister won't be smiling."
Mr Cameron retorted: "Before answering this question, I would like everyone to recall you stood up in this House and read out a whole lot of Leveson information that was under embargo and you were not meant to read out, much of which turned out, about me, to be untrue, and you have never apologised. Until you apologise, I'm not going to answer your questions."
He was referring to an occasion in April when Mr Bryant, who received Leveson evidence because as a hacking victim he was a "core participant", quoted from documents submitted to Lord Justice Leveson which had not at the time been published.
Ms Harman wrote to the Prime Minister last night urging him to release details of all electronic contacts with senior News International figures. She said: "In order for the public to have total confidence it would be preferable for you to disclose all of the emails and let the Leveson Inquiry decide which are relevant."
Asked whether Mr Cameron was within his rights to refuse to answer the questions, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "He can give the answer he likes. They choose the questions, he chooses the answers."