The Career of John C McAdams; His Politics & His JFK "research"

[Guest Tom Scully]

Consider McAdams's core beliefs and how he and his alternate universe buddies twisted the essence and the meaning of candidate Obama's answer to the question Will Bunch asked him in April, 2008. Consider that Will Bunch, just last week, wrote that even the reasonable answer Obama gave him back then, the answer McAdams and other winger crazies twisted into a provocation that didn't even exist in Obama's response, turned out to be a lie.:

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-i-might-put-bush-administration.html

Obama: I Might Put Bush Administration People on Trial for Torture

Via Republicratocracy, an interesting promise that Barack Obama has made in response to a question from a hard leftist.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html

Obama would ask his AG to “immediately review” potential of crimes in Bush White House

Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.

...It’s nice to say that we want a candidate who will “bring us together.”

But the problem is that Bush haters don’t want to be “brought together.” They want revenge. And Obama, in this case, has chosen to pander to them -- or at least hold out hope that they will have their revenge.

Labels: Barak Obama, Bush Derangement Syndrome, Torture, Water boarding

posted by John McAdams at 5:23 PM

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/At_least_not_quite_as_many_people_died_when_Obama_lied.html

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

The day that Barack Obama lied to me -by Will Bunch

...And this time, it's personal. Presidents lie all the time, unfortunately, but in this case candidate Barack Obama lied to my face in April 2008, when he came to 400 North Broad Street here in Philadelphia and I had a chance to ask him directly how he would handle allegations of torture and related crimes by the Bush administration.

Here's part of how he responded:

What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.

But tonight, thanks to some on-the-ball reporting from David Corn at Mother Jones, we learn that it's even worse than that, that the Obama administration actively protected Bush's minions from any accountability, anywhere in the world:

Consider that the entire theme of McAdams, his position on and distribution of JFK assassination misinformation and his apology for and position of blockage of investigation of George W Bush all can be condensed to one purpose...shielding the Bushes from accountability and any official investigation, from Dallas in 1963 to the current Obama administration.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html

Monday, April 14, 2008

Obama would ask his AG to "immediately review" potential of crimes in Bush White House

Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.

Excerpt from Obama's answer:

I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General ... are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important -- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-may-prosecute-members-of-bush.html

Friday, June 13, 2008

Obama: May Prosecute Members of Bush Administration for “War Crimes”

We blogged about this back in April, but it has come up again.

From Patrick McIlheran, how the candidate of getting beyond divisiveness and achieving national unity would treat members of the Bush Administration.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/31952524.html

Who would the Messiah prosecute?

By Patrick McIlheran

June 9, 2008 |(13) Comments

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker on the little-noticed comment from Obama to a Philadelphia Daily News blog in April that he'd look at putting Bush administration officials on trial for alleged war crimes.

From the blog of Will Bunch: ....

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html

..And then Bunch goes on to quote Obama directly: ...

...Let’s see: a party loses an election. Members of that party are put on trial by the new regime, and punished for this or that supposed “crime.”

What kind of government is that? Not a democracy.

This quote box was inserted by Tom Scully in McAdams's blog post to highlight the extremism in his "What kind of government is this?" question.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8172243/WikiLeaks-British-government-promised-to-protect-US-interests-at-Chilcot-inquiry.html

Wednesday 08 December 2010

WikiLeaks: British government promised to 'protect US interests' at Chilcot inquiry

The Government gave secret assurances that it would “protect US interests” at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, diplomatic cables show....

But then, given the friends that Obama has, why wouldn’t we expect this from him?

Labels: Barak Obama, George Bush, War Crimes

posted by John McAdams at 1:46 PM

17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it."

So, you're saying that if a high official knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, you wouldn't want him or her to be investigated by the next administration?

...Blogger John McAdams said...

This is actually one of those parody blogs, right?

The hate Bush crowd is terribly easy to parody.

They don't understand that their responses simply reinforce all I've been saying for years about Bush Derangement Syndrome.

11:18 AM

....E.G., per DiEugenio, all of these people were (or are) liars: Mary Bledsoe, William Whaley, Wes Frazier, Linnie Randle, Roy Truly, Harry Olsen, Marrion Baker, Will Fritz, Henry Wade, Ruth Paine, John McAdams, Dave Perry, Dale Myers, the entire Warren Commission, most of the HSCA and its staff, most of the FBI, the Clark Panel, Marina Oswald, and hundreds more.

David, on the slimmest of chances that you don't know what really is going on here, and Jim, who this should make plenty of sense, to...

John McAdams, from the results of my research, seems to exhibit all of the signs of a right wing, political extremist, and he has like minded friends at the religiously oriented "university" where he has been entrenched now for many years. McAdams and his colleague at Marquette are serious, about "mugging" history. Norman Podheretz is the father-in-law of convicted perjurer, Elliott Abrams. When you consider how intertwined the "work" of Podheretz, Abrams, McAdams, and Jeffers is, it is difficult to believe that they are all engaged coincidentally in disinformation campaigns designed to distort and keep hidden the sheer volume of blood on the hands of Reagan, and Bush, father and son?

Just as important is their commitment to and justification of a modern day version of the christian crusades.

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2005/11/barbra-streisand-vs-norman-podhoretz.html

Friday, November 11, 2005

Barbra Streisand vs. Norman Podhoretz: Unequal Match

....It might seem unfair to pick on a woman easily dismissed as a Hollywood airhead, but her rhetoric is all to typical of the loony left in the Democratic Party, which unfortunately looks very much like the mainstream of the party.

An intellectually serious discussion http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/who-is-lying-about-iraq--9995 comes from Norman Podhoretz, editor of Commentary:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

[. . .]

. . . it is as close to certainty as we can get that Bush believed in the truth of what he was saying about WMD in Iraq.

How indeed could it have been otherwise? George Tenet, his own CIA director, assured him that the case was “a slam dunk.” This phrase would later become notorious, but in using it, Tenet had the backing of all fifteen agencies involved in gathering intelligence for the United States. In the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of 2002, where their collective views were summarized, one of the conclusions offered with “high confidence” was that

Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding its chemical, biological, nuclear, and missile programs contrary to UN resolutions.

The intelligence agencies of Britain, Germany, Russia, China, Israel, and—yes—France all agreed with this judgment.

Podhorentz also masterfully dissects the statements of the left’s favorite (but now discredited) critic of the Bush Administration, Joseph C. Wilson.

In the protected little world of New York Times reading, NPR listening, Volvo driving and latte sipping liberals and leftists, the “Bush lied” rhetoric plays just fine. But it won’t play among people who care about history.

posted by John McAdams at 5:23 PM

http://beta.alternet.org/books/147932/looking_back_at_norman_podhoretz,_a_key_influence_on_today%27s_neoconservative_right

Truthdig / By Norman Birnbaum

Looking Back at Norman Podhoretz, a Key

Influence on Today's Neoconservative Right

Looking at two new books, by Thomas L. Jeffers and Benjamin Balint, on the longtime editor of Commentary and the magazine he shaped.

August 23, 2010 |

This article first appeared on TruthDig.

"Norman Podhoretz: A Biography," a new book on the editor of Commentary from 1960 to 1995, by an extremely admiring author, Marquette University professor of English Thomas Jeffers, depicts him as both prophet and martyr. His prophetic status resides in his unequivocal defense of the values expressed in the traditionalism of the conservative minority of American Jewry and its indissoluble attachment to Israel. The U.S., and its Americanized Jewish majority, cannot be counted upon. Eternal vigilance is required if its truly Jewish citizens (and those gentiles insightful and noble enough to rally to their cause) are to keep both Jewry and the U.S. from falling to inner demons. These include, variously, vacuous sentimentalism, multiculturalism, tolerance of homosexuality, pacifism, compulsive egalitarianism, feminism and militant secularism.

Podhoretz is deemed a prophet for having waged this battle, some youthful wavering apart. He is, however, a martyr since he has been constantly damned for it by those who lack his belief in the redemptive qualities of the U.S. Above all, a Jewish majority addicted to "liberalism" persists in a spiritually shallow and morally self-defeating attachment to an American version of Western European social democracy....

...The author of this contemporary morality tale is obviously in agreement with his subject on every conflict-laden issue mentioned in the text. (On homosexuality, Jeffers and Podhoretz make Justice Antonin Scalia sound rather nuanced.) Ordinarily, a minimum of critical distance is useful to biographers, but Jeffers' depiction of Podhoretz's life and works is unwaveringly loyal. The volume may be understood as a family chronicle, written by a distant acquaintance anxious to be numbered among its friends.

Podhoretz once used the term "family" to describe the New York intellectuals of the '50s and '60s, a group he joined as a very young man. Much of the readability of his first memoir (he has been repeating and occasionally adding to it ever since), "Making It" (1968), is in the description of the group. They were the editors and major contributors to Commentary and Partisan Review. Jeffers himself is fascinated by the sheer aggressiveness of the group, collectively and individually, takes it as evidence of the group's moral authenticity and excuses its excesses as spiritual collateral damage. He praises Podhoretz for his capacity to give as good as he gets....

...The Podhoretz of the text is, however, not merely an unusually articulate participant in public argument. He is Superman rather than Everyman, emerging triumphant from the inner and outer travails that have reduced the rest of us to exhaustion if not bewilderment. Professor Jeffers makes it clear that whatever else Podhoretz may have acquired on his long journey from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, he has inexorably shed his doubts....

Do David Von Pein, et al, seriously believe John C McAdams is only spreading drivel like this, some of the time?

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2008/04/obama-i-might-put-bush-administration.html

Obama: I Might Put Bush Administration People on Trial for Torture

Via Republicratocracy, an interesting promise that Barack Obama has made in response to a question from a hard leftist.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Barack_on_torture.html

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-may-prosecute-members-of-bush.html

Friday, June 13, 2008

Obama: May Prosecute Members of Bush Administration for “War Crimes”

We blogged about this back in April, but it has come up again.

...Let’s see: a party loses an election. Members of that party are put on trial by the new regime, and punished for this or that supposed “crime.”

What kind of government is that? Not a democracy...

Edited December 8, 2010 by Tom Scully

[Dean Hagerman]

"If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."

John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence

I think U.S. murder statistics, for an incredibly long time, have demonstrated that the death penalty has absolutely no deterrent effect.

The mind of "Professor" McAdams is simply saying he has no problem murdering other human beings. A bit similar to the minds of the people he has no problem murdering. The big difference between him and them is that many of the murders in the U.S. that are committed are perpetrated by uneducated young men from minority groups. The vast majority of the people on Death Row are black and Hispanic males.

I suppose he thinks heavy penalties for drug dealing and possession also acts as a deterrent?

The system, ideology and culture that fuels the amount of murders experienced in the United States is never discussed by him. In his world you simply have to deal with the effects, not the causes.

If taking a life is fundamentally wrong, then it is fundamentally wrong no matter who is taking it. But I'm sure he manages to weave his weird thinking into a Christian value framework?

An odd, odd man, to say the least. I struggle to get to grips with the fact that he actually "educates" young minds.

He would no doubt think that my own views would be tantamount to me condoning the terrible crimes that the Death Penalty is metered out for?

His warped logic permeates his entire belief system and not simply his views on the assassination of JFK.

So John Wyane Gacy should have not been executed?

Ted Bundy should have been allowed to live?

Have you ever heard about Richard Speck? The courts made a huge mistake in Whitherspoon vs Illinois and let Speck live instead of being put to death.

So he lived in prison snorting coke, smoking weed, drinking liquor every day and making fun of all the girls that he killed

Speck Video

How anybody in the world can say that they are against the death penalty after watching this video is beyond me.

I just wish California would get on the ball like Texas and start executing a death row inmate every week or so.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Dean Hagerman

[Guest Tom Scully]

Dean, where is there consistency in your belief system? You reject the actions and the decisions of the official conduct of the JFK assassination yet you believe enthusiastically in authority fairly and truthfully determining accurately who should live and who should be killed by the state? I am astounded; you appear to seek the satisfaction anticipated in revenge, above all reason. Texas and NY State are very close in population. Compare the murder rates in those two states, vs. the record of per capita executions and then post that there is a deterrent effect coming from the shocking frequency of executions in Texas, vs. none in New York. If there is no demonstrable deterrent, and innocents are being sentenced to die, and that is indisputable,

what is reasonable to suspect you seek, if it isn't the lust for revenge?

Exonerated death row inmate recounts 17-year ordeal for Harper ...

Nov 11, 2010 ... Former death row inmate Randy Steidl tells Harper College students on Wednesday ... George Ryan) imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. ...

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20101111/news/711129873/

....In the six years since he walked out the doors of Danville Correctional Center with $26 in his pocket and well wishes from the prison staff, 59-year-old Steidl has committed himself to making sure no one else suffers the same injustice.

“You cannot release an innocent man from his grave,” Steidl told 200 students at Harper College Wednesday....

http://pewforum.org/Death-Penalty/Governor-George-Ryan-An-Address-on-the-Death-Penalty.aspx

Governor George Ryan: An Address on the Death Penalty

EVENT TRANSCRIPT June 3, 2002

...We are taught what's right and what's wrong, whether Christian, Muslim or Jew. We are also taught about eternal life and celebration hereafter.

One of the most fundamental of those religious beliefs is to protect the innocent. As God told Moses in the book of Exodus, it is up to us to show justice and mercy: "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." We weren't doing a very good job of protecting the innocent in Illinois, until two years ago when I declared what is, in effect, a moratorium on executions. Up until then I had resisted calls to issue such an order. I had always supported the death penalty. I always thought only the guilty were punished and sent to death row for committing the most unspeakable crimes.

I'm from Kankakee, Illinois. We always prided ourselves on trying to keep our small town feel. Kankakee was not immune to crime, but there was always a sense of community outrage. We always wanted to see the bad guy behind bars. Catch, them convict them, throw away the key. That was the sentiment I heard growing up in Kankakee, working in my father's pharmacy. Why wouldn't I?

You've heard me recall how I voted in the General Assembly to put the death penalty back on the books in Illinois. I believed the ultimate punishment played a role in our society for crimes so horrendous that death was the only penalty that fit the crime. In 1976, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was constitutional, I voted as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, to put the death penalty back on the books. During the floor debate on the capital punishment bill, an opponent of the death penalty said to those of us supporting the bill, "How many of you would like to throw the switch." That was a sobering thought. I would never want to be the executioner, to "throw the switch." I'd never want to be responsible for that.

But as a legislator, I was far removed from making that kind of life or death decision. By reinstating the death penalty, my colleagues and I in the General Assembly were tough on crime. It was up to prosecutors, judges and juries to determine who was guilty of a capital offense. I never questioned the system.

But in looking back, it is clear that I only dealt with the issue in the abstract. In those days, my opinion was just that, my opinion. I had no say on how the capital punishment system would be administered and applied. I'm a pharmacist, not a judge or a lawyer. I had no idea that more than twenty-five years later, I would have the good fortune to be elected Governor. And then, I would, in effect, be the one to throw the switch. In most of the thirty-seven states that have the death penalty, the Governor makes the final decision about whether to grant a stay of execution. That is an awesome responsibility, the most difficult faced by a governor. Should they live, should they die? Imagine having that decision on your shoulders. I must admit, I didn't realize the enormity of it until I was faced with it. It has been a long, sometimes strange trip for me on the death penalty. I went from being the lawmaker from Kankakee who voted to reinstate the death penalty, to the governor who declared the country's only moratorium.

We reinstated the death penalty in 1977 in Illinois and since that time we have executed twelve death row inmates. But, thirteen times, innocent men were convicted of capital crimes by judges and juries based on evidence they thought was beyond a reasonable doubt. On thirteen occasions, innocent men were condemned to die. And on thirteen times, innocent men were exonerated after rotting for years on death row. For that to happen even once is unjust. For that to happen thirteen times is shameful and beyond belief.

The first nine exonerations took place over several years, going back to 1987. In my first eleven months in office, four men were freed from Death Row after being cleared by the courts. That included Anthony Porter, a man with an IQ of less than sixty who spent over fifteen years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit--sixteen years on Death Row, all the time knowing he was innocent, while the state was trying to kill him and the real killer was free. That must be like hell on earth. And if not for the students at Northwestern University--journalism students!-- who found the real killer, Mr. Porter would be dead. Killed by the state! He had ordered his last meal and been fitted for his burial suit.

When the thirteenth inmate was exonerated, I did the only thing I could do, the only thing any governor could do--I halted executions. That was the easy part, the hard part was to find out what had gone so terribly wrong. The hard part was to try to answer how our system of justice became so fraught with error, especially when it came to imposing the ultimate, irreversible penalty.

So I appointed some of the smartest, most dedicated citizens I could find to a commission to study what had gone so terribly awry. It was chaired by former Federal Judge Frank McGarr and co-chaired by former Senator Paul Simon and former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Thomas Sullivan. They led a panel which included former prosecutors, some defense lawyers, and non-lawyers. Harvard graduate and famed author Scott Turow served on the panel, he's better known here for writing One L, his account of his first year at Harvard Law School, which hundreds of thousands of law students have read for solace. The backgrounds of my commission members were different but they shared one thing in common: a passion and commitment for justice. I thank them for their service.

They put together a tremendous document. The report itself is 207 pages and there are hundreds more pages containing technical analysis, including a study on race and sentencing. I have said before that the more I learn about the justice system, the more troubled I become. As I read this report, I am both impressed that these dedicated and brilliant citizens developed eighty-five recommendations to improve the caliber of justice in our state system.

I have taken that entire report and everything that requires legislation has now been introduced to the Illinois General Assembly. My bill proposes barring the execution of the mentally retarded; mandating that natural life is given as a sentencing option to juries; reducing death penalty eligibility factors from twenty to five; and barring the death penalty when a conviction is based solely on a jailhouse "snitch." It is imperative that we move forward on all of the commission's recommendations to fix our broken justice system. I hope the General Assembly will take the summer to hold hearings and meetings with all of the key parties - the prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and the wrongfully convicted.

But I am also deeply concerned. My commission's report seems to confirm my worst fears about our capital punishment system, that it was fraught with error at every painful step of the process. The report reviews, at some level, every capital case that we have ever had in Illinois, but it took a closer look at the 13 inmates freed from Death Row and exonerated. Most did not have solid evidence.

A perfect example is the case of a remarkable man, Gary Gauger. Gary was from McHenry County. He was convicted and sentenced to die for brutally killing his parents. There was no physical evidence and prosecutors presented no motive. The primary evidence against Mr. Gauger were statements he allegedly made to police; my commission reported that those statements were never put in writing. Mr. Gauger denied the statements. But prosecutors won the conviction anyway and sent him to death row. Case closed. Until a few years later when federal authorities investigating a Wisconsin motorcycle gang -a totally unrelated case--caught gang members on tape confessing to the brutal crime. Gary Gauger sat on death row for nearly three years. Not only was he grieving the brutal murder of his parents. He had to grieve for himself as well, for being accused of taking his parents life. His freedom and his dignity stripped from him, he was caught in a nightmare that is too painful to imagine. He never gave up hope though. And he was innocent.

My commission says several cases involved prosecutors relying on the testimony of a witness with something to gain, like a jailhouse informant or an accomplice. Verneal Jimerson and Dennis Williams were two of the so-called Ford Heights Four, a south suburb in Cook County. The primary testimony against them came from a seventeen-year-old girl, with an IQ of less than sixty who police said was an accomplice in the murder of a couple. Seventeen years later, Jimerson, Williams and two others serving lesser sentences were released after new DNA tests revealed that none of them were linked to the crime. Later that year, two other men confessed to the crime and were prison. Seventeen years! Seventeen years! Can you imagine serving even one day on Death Row for a crime you did not commit?

We had one inmate, Steven Smith, convicted and sentenced to die based solely on the testimony of one drug-addicted witness. The case of Anthony Porter that I mentioned earlier also highlights the unreliability of some eyewitness testimony. Two eyewitnesses said they saw Porter kill a couple in a South Side Chicago park. Sixteen years later, journalism students working with a private investigator found those witnesses who recanted their testimony; then the students tracked down the real killer.

At least one case involved a false confession. Ronald Jones confessed to police to a rape and murder. He later said that confession was coerced and years later, DNA cleared him.

There are ten more death row cases still on appeal, known as the Burge 10, for the police detective commander who handled their investigations, all of which involve allegations of police abuse and excessive force. We still don't know how those cases will end up, but they raise serious questions.

The commission Co-Chair Thomas Sullivan very eloquently discussed the report's findings. He said, "In medical terms, our report calls for triage, an attempt to stanch the extraordinary rate of errors, reversals and mistaken convictions in capital cases." And he was right. If you look at the reversal rate in capital cases in Illinois, it exceeds fifty percent. In fact, the chance of executing the wrong person in Illinois was like the flip of a coin. That's not justice.

When we released the report, Thomas Sullivan noted that in the Ford Heights 4 case, the police were given the names of the four actual killers and rapists within a few days after the event, but failed to follow up. Meanwhile the four defendants served over seventy years in jail. Sullivan said, and I agree wholeheartedly, "A system that is so fragile, that a journalism student has to do the police work, is obviously badly flawed." Where in the Illinois criminal code does it say that journalism students are part of the system to ensure that only the guilty are convicted and executed!

Perhaps in the most scathing indictment of our system, Sullivan noted the following: "The police, who conducted the investigations in these cases, remain on the force. The prosecutors who overstepped the bounds of fairness, and the defense lawyers, who gave incompetent defense, remain in practice. The judges, who permitted or caused the errors, remain on the bench."

Now when I was a pharmacist, I know I couldn't have stayed in business, if I only got it right fifty percent of the time. There is virtually no other profession where that level of mistake would be tolerated. Yet that is the situation that we have with the police, prosecutors, defense lawyers and the courts in capital cases in Illinois.

And these capital cases are just a small percentage of all of the criminal cases handled by the courts. What is happening in the rest of the system? If we have this level of error in cases where the ultimate penalty is at stake, what is happening with lesser crimes? I am concerned about that too, for the sake of the innocent. Tom Sullivan said the message from the commission and of this report is clear: "repair or repeal, fix the capital punishment system or abolish it. There is no other principled course."

By the way, as I mentioned earlier, Thomas Sullivan is the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He was a tough prosecutor, now in private practice. Some of the critics not happy with this report have criticized the commission as being stacked with death penalty opponents. I would point out that nine of the fourteen members are current or former prosecutors. When I appointed them, those opposed to capital punishment accused me of stacking the commission with death penalty supporters! This commission is made up of some of the most conscientious, dedicated people ever to enter public service. I am proud of the work they've done.

Before the report was officially released, it was being criticized. I cannot understand that. Why would you prefer the status quo? My commission concluded our twenty factors were too many and ought to be reduced to five. Some critics pointed out that it is an election year and therefore a bad time to suggest reducing the number of eligibility factors for the death penalty. I am well aware that it's an election year, but matters of life and death and justice and fairness are more important than getting elected. Political leaders have an obligation to study this report before they jump to conclusions.

Current and former prosecutors have found fault with the report. Some have predicted that Illinois would become the new murder-for-hire capital of the world because participating in a murder-for-hire plot would no longer make one eligible for the death penalty. That's ridiculous. This factor was eliminated in large part because these sentences rarely, if ever, withstand appeal. Other prosecutors and police officers have said the recommendations are a slap in the face to police. I don't understand that either.

Throughout this, I have always pointed out that there is enough blame to go around for everyone. The commission highlights the need for better-trained defense attorneys and judges. It even suggests the state has not pulled its weight and provided enough money for things like DNA labs and a database, things that will help protect the innocent and convict only the guilty. No one is spared from accountability because we are all accountable. Our system is riddled with errors and omissions from top to bottom.

That is why I believe it is so vitally important that hearings are held this summer. We must have an honest debate about our system and whether or not it can be repaired I don't know of any crime victim, police officer, prosecutor or politician who wants to see an innocent person executed. It is easy to be for the death penalty in the abstract. But until you sit where I sit, you don't know just how difficult that decision can be.

Is revenge a reason enough for capital punishment? And can it blind the eyes of those pursuing justice? In the wake of September 11th, many say the American people support the death penalty now more than ever. This country is now at war, and the terrorists who attacked this country, who used passenger jets as missiles killing thousands of innocent men, women and children, were deranged. They were on a suicide mission and the crime they committed was already a capital offense. It was no deterrent. If Osama Bin Laden or his evil co-conspirators are caught, there is not a question they would face the death penalty, and perhaps that is the appropriate penalty.

But my concern is the system in Illinois, fraught with error and convicting and condemning the innocent along with the guilty. When I made my decision to declare a moratorium, I never consulted the opinion polls. Only since my decision do I notice them. A recent Gallup poll was interesting: Only 53% of those polled believe that the death penalty is applied fairly, while 40% say it is applied unfairly. Among non-whites, 54% believe that the death penalty is applied unfairly. When given the sentencing alternative of life without the possibility of parole, 52% of Americans support the death penalty and 43% favor life imprisonment. 82 percent of respondents oppose the death penalty for the mentally retarded, 73% oppose the death penalty for those who are mentally ill, and 69% of Americans oppose capital punishment for juvenile offenders. While that same poll still showed strong support for capital punishment - 72 percent - it is clear the American people are as concerned with fairness now as they have ever been.

At the beginning of my term, after Anthony Porter was freed, I sat in judgment for an inmate convicted of a brutal murder of a young woman. He was also involved in torturing and killing other women. After the Porter case I agonized: I personally reviewed the case files of the convicted murderer Andrew Korkoraleis. I had veteran lawyers review them as well. I talked to victims and investigators. I left no stone unturned. In the end I was convinced Korkoraleis committed a monstrous, unspeakable crime, and he was executed.

Then the Chicago Tribune did a chilling report on the fact that the whole system was flawed. Their findings were echoed in my commission's report. Half of the nearly three hundred capital cases in Illinois had been reversed for a new trial or re-sentencing. Over half! Thirty-three of the death row inmates were represented at trial by an attorney who had later been disbarred or at some point suspended from practicing law. Of the more than one hundred-sixty death row inmates, thirty-five were African-American defendants who had been convicted or condemned to die by all-white juries. More than two-thirds of the inmates on death row are African-American. Forty-six inmates were convicted on the basis of testimony from jailhouse informants.

After Porter and Korkoraleis, I was already starting to question what I believed about capital punishment. The Tribune series left me reeling. And then two more inmates were exonerated. I had to act. After seeing, again and again, how close we came to the ultimate nightmare, I did the only thing I could do. Thirteen times we almost strapped innocent men to a gurney, wheeled them to the state's death chamber and injected fatal doses of poison in their veins. I knew I had to act....

McAdams, looks like to me, is answering the question,"Is the Death Penalty retributive, or deterrent?"

We discussed this alot in my Ethics class in college. I don't see him doing anything "bad"--this is just his opinion.

You have brought up some good points for discussion about it. You might want to start a thread about this in the Philosophy section.

Kathy, is it now debatable that we are "a nation of laws" supported by a criminal justice system adhering to

Blackstone's formulation:

"better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"

...based on a principle, much older, still:

Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

McAdams fronts as a political science professor at the university level, if you do not agree we are incapable as a society of both adhering to the principle of protecting the innocent, above all else, and at the same time, carry out executions of those deemed to be guilty of crimes sufficient to merit such a death sentence, under the law, would you at least agree that McAdams demonstrates, on the whole, and on the merits, an insufficiency great enough to rise to a level where a reasonable person might conclude it is bad for his students for him to be "teaching" them political science curriculum?

http://mu-warrior.blogspot.com/2005/11/barbra-streisand-vs-norman-podhoretz.html

Friday, November 11, 2005

Barbra Streisand vs. Norman Podhoretz: Unequal Match

...Podhorentz also masterfully dissects the statements of the left’s favorite (but now discredited) critic of the Bush Administration, Joseph C. Wilson.

In the protected little world of New York Times reading, NPR listening, Volvo driving and latte sipping liberals and leftists, the “Bush lied” rhetoric plays just fine. But it won’t play among people who care about history.

posted by John McAdams at 5:23 PM

Edited December 8, 2010 by Tom Scully

[Guest Tom Scully]

No one executed in New York state since the 1960's. Murders per 100,000 in 2009:

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm New York 4.0

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/txcrime.htm Texas 5.4

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cacrime.htm California 5.3

[Greg Burnham]

There is another major consideration, besides the two primary ones. Namely, even if the morality of a State Imposed Death Penalty is not considered, and even if the "lack of deterrent" statistics are not considered, we still need to consider this:

Islamic "terrorists" are more than willing to PLAN on death in their SUICIDE BOMB mission! They welcome death as long as it serves their purpose. Plus, many Islamic terrorists are convinced that dying for their cause is one--of only a few--SURE methods to secure their entry into heaven.

Using the death penalty as a deterrent for members of such a culture is counter-intuitive.

[William Kelly]

The death penality in Texas didn't keep LBJ from murdering anybody.

BK

[Guest Robert Morrow]

"If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murders, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call."

John McAdams - Marquette University/Department of Political Science, on deterrence

I think U.S. murder statistics, for an incredibly long time, have demonstrated that the death penalty has absolutely no deterrent effect.

The mind of "Professor" McAdams is simply saying he has no problem murdering other human beings. A bit similar to the minds of the people he has no problem murdering. The big difference between him and them is that many of the murders in the U.S. that are committed are perpetrated by uneducated young men from minority groups. The vast majority of the people on Death Row are black and Hispanic males.

I suppose he thinks heavy penalties for drug dealing and possession also acts as a deterrent?

The system, ideology and culture that fuels the amount of murders experienced in the United States is never discussed by him. In his world you simply have to deal with the effects, not the causes.

If taking a life is fundamentally wrong, then it is fundamentally wrong no matter who is taking it. But I'm sure he manages to weave his weird thinking into a Christian value framework?

An odd, odd man, to say the least. I struggle to get to grips with the fact that he actually "educates" young minds.

He would no doubt think that my own views would be tantamount to me condoning the terrible crimes that the Death Penalty is metered out for?

His warped logic permeates his entire belief system and not simply his views on the assassination of JFK.

I wonder how MANY capital crimes George Herbert Walker Bush has committed? I wonder why John McAdams is not calling for the death penalty for him ... or Jeb Bush relating to 1980's drug dealing murders such as the Feb., 1986 death of Barry Seal, which some researchers think the Bushes and Oliver North murdered.

Most of the things in this link are, unfortunately, very true. Especially GHW Bush's ties to the Franklin pedophile ring of the 1980's:

http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_world_class_criminal.html

Edited December 9, 2010 by Robert Morrow

[Guest Robert Morrow]

The death penality in Texas didn't keep LBJ from murdering anybody.

BK

Lyndon Johnson murdered MANY people... including John Kennedy.

Lyndon Johnson was a STONE COLD KILLER:

Johnson had murdered a LOT of people by the time he made a dirty deal with the CIA to murder John Kennedy.

LBJ was running “Murder, Inc.” down in Texas:

Malcolm Wallace was his hit man and killer

http://home.earthlink.net/~sixthfloor/estes.htm

LETTER #2 - FROM DOUGLAS CADDY (lawyer for Billie Sol Estes)

August 9, 1984

Mr. Stephen S. Trott

Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division

U.S. Department of Justice

Washington, D. C. 20530

RE: Mr. Billie Sol Estes

Dear Mr. Trott:

My client, Mr. Estes, has authorized me to make this reply to your letter of May 29, 1984. Mr. Estes was a member of a four-member group, headed by Lyndon Johnson, which committed criminal acts in Texas in the 1960's. The other two, besides Mr. Estes and LBJ, were Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace. Mr. Estes is willing to disclose his knowledge concerning the following criminal offenses:

I. Murders

1. The killing of Henry Marshall

2. The killing of George Krutilek

3. The killing of Ike Rogers and his secretary

4. The killing of Harold Orr

5. The killing of Coleman Wade

6. The killing of Josefa Johnson

7. The killing of John Kinser

8. The killing of President J. F. Kennedy.

Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders. In the cases of murders nos. 1-7, Mr. Estes' knowledge of the precise details concerning the way the murders were executed stems from conversations he had shortly after each event with Cliff Carter and Mac Wallace.

In addition, a short time after Mr. Estes was released from prison in 1971, he met with Cliff Carter and they reminisced about what had occurred in the past, including the murders. During their conversation, Carter orally compiled a list of 17 murders which had been committed, some of which Mr. Estes was unfamiliar. A living witness was present at that meeting and should be willing to testify about it. He is Kyle Brown, recently of Houston and now living in Brady, Texas.

Mr. Estes, states that Mac Wallace, whom he describes as a "stone killer" with a communist background, recruited Jack Ruby, who in turn recruited Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Estes says that Cliff Carter told him that Mac Wallace fired a shot from the grassy knoll in Dallas, which hit JFK from the front during the assassination.

[The letter continues …]

Sincerely yours,

Douglas Caddy

[Dean Hagerman]

I respect your right to want to murder people.

No I want my beloved state of California to put the 700+ killers to death, they can start with the 10 killers on death row from my city/county, most of them have been there since the 1980s. Only one man Darrel Rich (a real serial killer by definition, not Roberts crazy definition) from my city has been put to death at San Quentin. Only one!

I dont want to murder anybody, thats the warden of San Quentin's job.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Dean Hagerman

[Greg Burnham]

Dean,

I'm pretty sure that you aren't a fan of John McAdams. I think this thread's focus was intended to be specific to "the deluded philosophy of John McAdams", as opposed to it being specific to "the application of the death penalty" to presumed guilty parties, in general. Perhaps we should all just settle for throwing McAdams' pontifications under the bus (where they belong) and discuss the philosophy of State Imposed Death penalty laws in a new thread? Just a suggestion...

[Dean Hagerman]

I do not like John McAdams one bit

If someone starts a thread on the death penalty I will post in it, but I started a thread a couple weeks ago that got thrown way off topic right away and I didnt care at all, in fact I love when threads take a turn into other subjects, thats what forums are all about.

[Guest Tom Scully]

To go through the process of joining a forum such as this one, and then to come on here to post to the rest of us that the opposition to CTs and the compelling results of their research, swirling in a sea of demonstrable and encompassing government distortions faithfully maintained by a compliant "news gathering" media tweaked by the infiltrated agenda of business interests and the intelligence agencies that serve them, is NOT well organized and driven by a partisan, political agenda speaks volumes about the enduring commitment to distract and to misinform.

A man, a longtime politician of the more extreme right, major party who was an secret, FBI informant while serving as one of seven Warren Commissioners, dutifully carrying out his "duty" to report that commission's confidential deliberations immediately back to the FBI, a man who purposefully edited the description of the location of JFK's back wound in the Commission's final report to add support to the weak SBT finding vital to take

investigation of conspiracy in the assassination, off the table, was rewarded with appointment as the nations's only unelected president, before, or since!

John Simkin, noted and respected educator and webmaster was unsuccessful in even keeping wikipedia.org articles of his biography and of his well known and frequently referenced websites from being disqualified and deleted because his politics and his research were not slanted sufficiently to the right of center to protect them from the cabal in the following example.:

In contrast, the handling on wikipedia.org of John C. McAdams is typical of the VIP treatment predictably afforded to a right wing extremist vigorously supporting and distributing the worn thin disinformation of the DC establishment, media, intel agencies and the two right of center major political parties. McAdam's wikipedia biography article was created by a wikipedia administrator with oversized influence and authority at that dominant reference website, an administrator who openly claims his major editorial accomplishment is keeping the wikipedia article on LHO as strictly to the narrow descriptions of that accused man as "four government investigations concluded by 1964 had determined." or words to that meaning.

Last week, after another wikipedia editor who had marked the wikipedia article on McAdams last February for possible deletion on the grounds of a lack of notability of the subject, again marked the McAdams article for deletion in keeping with wikipedia protocol since nothing new had been added to the article in the interim to support notability, not only did McAdams's wikipedia administrator sponsor and keeper of the rigid, LHO lone note editorial lock down, act within hours to object to and to remove the {{prod-nn}} from said McAdams article, this administrator even added a plug for McAdams's yet to be released book to the article!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gamaliel

User:Gamaliel

I am an administrator here so feel free to contact me if you need assistance with anything....

...What I'm proudest of and spent more time working on than anything else are my contributions to Lee Harvey Oswald. The Oswald entry is even mentioned in a newspaper article(broken link) on wikipedia. If you want to witness insanity firsthand, try monitoring these articles for conspiracy nonsense.

Useful links:

.... Wikipedia:Neutral point of view

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Prod-nn

{{Prod-nn}} (for tagging non-notable articles for proposed deletion)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._McAdams

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_C._McAdams&action=history

(cur | prev) 18:46, 1 December 2010 Gamaliel (talk | contribs) (1,771 bytes) (object to prod, add upcoming book)

(cur | prev) 11:52, 1 December 2010 Abductive (talk | contribs) (1,628 bytes) (Prod-nn)

17:13, 26 January 2010 Gamaliel (talk | contribs) (1,545 bytes) (←Created page with ''''John C. McAdams''' is an associate professor of political science at Marquette University. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1981. McAdams tea...')

McAdams's compatriot in academia propagandizing of young minds, Ken Rahn, complete with his observations that he could find no opposition to the findings in the WC report coming from the right, his negativity towards Meagher because of her political orientation, contradicting his observation which seems to disqualify the political right as even being a curious and thus a credible political POV, and his labeling of establishment defender, disinformation agent Todd Gitlin as "on the left".

:lol:THE JFK ASSASSINATION DEBATE BETWEEN KEN RAHN AND CHRIS DOLMAR,,,YOU WILL ENJOY THIS I DO BELIEVE ...b

http://www.assassinationresearch.com/v3n2/v3n2dolmar.pdf

below ken with his favourite book....

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/the_critics/Meagher/Meagherbio.html

....In summary, Sylvia Meagher was a leftist and untrained in the art of investigating, a person who didn’t consider evidence that ran counter to her position, who transferred a passion for flying saucers to a passion for the JFK assassination, whose leftism leaned her toward an answer very early, and who found that answer nurtured by the influence of Mark Lane.

http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/history/wc_period/reactions_to_warren_report/Reactions_to_WCR.html

...I have also divided these early reactions into "Support from the center," "Critics on the left," and "Critics on the right." (So far, however, I have found no articles from critics on the right.)

... Split in the Left

Overview of the split

Commentary on the split

Jim DiEugenio on the Left and The Nation

Schotz on The Nation

Various items from The Nation

Todd Gitlin on the Left

Sharrett reviews Art Simon

Art Simon

http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/history/wc_period/reactions_to_warren_report/Reactions_of_left/Gitlin_on_reactions.html

Todd Gitlin’s account of how the JFK assassination affected the New Left

The Sixties, pages 311 ff. ...

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/07/wikileaks/index.html

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010 08:08 ET

Anti-WikiLeaks lies and propaganda - from TNR, Lauer, Feinstein and more

By Glenn Greenwald

(1) In The New Republic today, http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/79678/data-isnt-everything-wikileaks-julian-assange-daniel-ellsberg Todd Gitlin writes an entire anti-WikiLeaks column that is based on an absolute factual falsehood. Anyone listening to most media accounts would believe that WikiLeaks has indiscriminately published all 250,000 of the diplomatic cables it possesses, and Gitlin -- in the course of denouncing Julian Assange -- bolsters this falsehood: "Wikileaks’s huge data dump, including the names of agents and recent diplomatic cables, is indiscriminate" and Assange is "fighting for a world of total transparency."

The reality is the exact opposite -- literally -- of what Gitlin told TNR readers...

UPDATE III: Several hours ago, Gitlin emailed me to say: "I'm thinking about your points, and will reply more discriminately, as it were . . . ." He then complained that I accused of him of "lying" -- as opposed to making false statements unintentionally -- which I didn't do. The full email exchange is here. http://utdocuments.blogspot.com/2010/12/email-with-todd-gitlin-ccd-franklin.html He must still be "thinking," because, hours later, there's still no correction to his false statements. Just take your time, New Republic, and allow knowingly false claims to sit there without any correction: no need to hurry yourselves.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/08/wikileaks/index.html

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010 13:09 ET

..Speaking of The New Republic, it's now been more than 24 hours since Todd Gitlin vowed to "think about" the factual inaccuracies in his article which I brought to his attention and TNR's Editor-in-Chief Franklin Foer's attention, and they have still done nothing to correct them....

UPDATE III: ...But the whole poll is grounded in an absolute falsehood: the Pew release refers to "the WikiLeaks website's release of a huge trove of classified document"; describes "the release of thousands of secret State Department communications"; and praises the public for "make[ing] a distinction between WikiLeaks itself and the press' handling of the document release"

But all of that is totally false (added: though this commenter http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2010/12/08/wikileaks/permalink/7fbffe680aedfe7ac3448b0b178a7eff.html persuasively argues that it's Pew's press release, not their poll, affected by the false claims). It's all based on the absolute falsehood -- spread by people like Jamie Rubin, Todd Gitlin and so many others -- that WikiLeaks indiscriminately dumped all 250,000 cables onto the Internet, in contrast to the media outlets which have only selectively released them. It just gets repeated enough times by enough people and then becomes "fact" -- as much as Saddam's WMDs and so many other things.

The crux of the WikiLeaks debate...

Edited December 9, 2010 by Tom Scully

[Guest Robert Morrow]

Who cares what Wikipedia has to say? It is not worth dealing with because basically it is another John McAdams disinformation site. The campaign to remove John Simkin's page is just more proof of the petty evil that Wikipedia is.

Instead of playing the Wiki game, just ignore it or tell the folks it is an internet disinformation site not worth citing except for articles on Mayan pottery.

John Simkin is one of the great heros of research into the Coup of 1963, also known as the JFK assassination. What he has done with the Education Forum and Spartacus is absolutely fabulous. I hope it is used by college and high school students all over the world as a fine reference.

John Simkin: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKsimkin.htm

John Simkin was born on 25th June, 1945. He worked in a factory and ran a small business before studying for his first degree at the Open University (1971-1976). He also completed a Master of Philosophy degree at the University of Sussex (1977-82).

Simkin began teaching history in 1978. The following year he became a founder member of the Tressell Publishing cooperative and was involved in designing some of the first computer programs for use in the history classroom. This included Attack on the Somme, Wagons West, Wall Street and the Russian Revolution.

In 1987 Simkin established Spartacus Educational. He is the author of several books including Ghandi (1987), The Vietnam War (1988), Race Relations in the United States (1988), Slavery: An Illustrated History of Black Resistance (1988), Hitler (1988), Stalin (1987), The Roman Empire (1991), Making of the United Kingdom (1992), Expansion, Trade and Industry (1992), The Medieval Village (1996) and The Norman Invasion (1996).

In September, 1997 he established the Spartacus Educational website. After leaving the classroom he has produced online materials for the Electronic Telegraph, the European Virtual School, the Historical Association and the Guardian's educational website, Learn.

Simkin has been interested in the assassination of John F. Kennedy for over 25 years. In 2004 he created the Assassination of JFK website. This is an attempt to provide materials for students to carry out a detailed investigation into the killing.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Robert Morrow

[Guest Tom Scully]

To John McAdams's li'l corner of the universe, is coming a new sheriff, a Jesuit with a recent and a very generous benefactor, Louis Denaples.

Consider the long history of folks endowed with the public's trust who didn't know, didn't care, weren't who they claimed they were, or all three. What's it gonna be, McAdams? Are you going to welcome Marquette's new president with open arms, and just look the other way, like you have such a long history of doing, or....?

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=nws:1%2Csbd%3A1%2Ccdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1961%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F1961&q=Baughman+crime&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=Baughman+crime&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=46a3aa67685d478a

Retiring Secret Service Chief To Go Sightseeing

- Hartford Courant - Jul 27, 1961

Denies There's a Mafia Baughman said he is convinced there is no such thing as a national crime syndicate or a Mafia (black hand society) in this country. ..

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbo=p&tbs=bks%3A1&q=he+and+clyde+accepted+schine%27s+gulfstream&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Official and confidential: the secret life of J. Edgar Hoover‎ - Page 190

Anthony Summers - Biography & Autobiography - 1993 - 528 pages

....He and Clyde accepted Schine's hospitality at the Gulfstream, an exclusive set

of beach apartments in Miami Beach, and at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles...

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=son+of+henry+crown+renee+schine&cf=all

MISS RENEE SCHINE BECOMES A BRIDE; Married to Lester Crown of ...

- New York Times - Dec 29, 1950

The marriage of Miss Renee Helene Schine, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Myer Schine of New York and Gloversville, N.Y., to Lester Crown, son of Col. Henry Crown...

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/12/lester_crown_and_israel

Did top Obama donor carry Israeli message to WH? - War Room...

‎

Salon - Aug 12, 2010

In short a top Israeli general traveled to Chicago to ask a top Obama contributor and supporter of Israel billionaire Lester Crown to pressure the White .

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=bks:1&q=%22led+to+very+high+places.%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=%22led+to+very+high+places.%22&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=8cd471aff8f4444f

Diaries, 1949-1959: Volume 1

Drew Pearson, Tyler Abell - 1974 - 592 pages - Snippet view

Tom Clark told me afterward that it led to very high places. J. Edgar Hoover intimated the same thing. He said the people Ragen pointed to had now reformed. I learned later that it pointed to the Hilton hotel chain, Henry Crown, ...

http://docs.newsbank.com/g/GooglePM/BG/lib00065,0EADEAEFD5862E0D.html

THE ORDEAL OF LESTER CROWN -

New York Times - Dec 7, 1986

"Meanwhile, seven officers and employees of Material Service were padding their expense accounts -''at the direction of Crown,'' according to the Government report - and reimbursing their boss. The project was cut short when Material Service was subpoenaed by a Federal grand jury investigating corruption in the industry.

The family turned to Albert E. Jenner Jr., a lawyer and longtime friend who is on the board of General Dynamics. ''Whenever the kids got into trouble,'' Jenner says, ''they never bothered the old man. They talked to me, and I got them out of trouble.'' In return for his cooperation with the grand jury, Lester Crown was granted immunity from prosecution.

In May 1974, Crown was elected to the board of directors of General Dynamics, and two months later the Defense Department approved his application for a top-secret clearance. The results of the grand jury proceedings did not become public until December. Neither the members of the board nor the Pentagon had been told of the bribery case..."

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=nws:1%2Car%3A1&q=webb+%22henry+crown%22+goldwater+&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=webb+%22henry+crown%22+goldwater+&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=46a3aa67685d478a

Arizona Probe Links Del Webb, Mobsters .

‎

Modesto Bee - Mar 20, 1977

Barry Goldwater's brother Robert and later Webb himself, helped finance the Flamingo with ... after a flood, it was sold to financier Henry Crown and Webb....

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special25/articles/0510goldwater.html

FBI had files on Goldwater

Carol Sowers

The Arizona Republic

May. 10, 2000 12:00 PM

...In the March 4, 1959, memo, the FBI connected Goldwater to Phoenix racketeer Willie Bioff, who died in a car bombing in 1955, and at the same time thanked Goldwater for supporting the agency on the Senate floor five years earlier.

Agents said Goldwater, who left the Senate in 1986 and died in 1998 at age 89, had once sought a presidential pardon for Bioff, but made no other reference to their relationship.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/Specter_busy_in_Northeastern_Pa__visit_03-20-2010.html

March 20

Specter busy in Northeastern Pa. visit

The Democratic U.S. senator visits Scranton ammunition plant, fundraiser at airport.

BILL O ’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com

PITTSTON TWP. – U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter had a busy day in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Friday.

He visited employees at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant and then hosted a fundraising event at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.

Specter, 80, is running for a sixth term in the Senate – his first run as a Democrat – and he is facing a strong challenge in the May 18 primary from fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.

The Democratic winner will then face off against the Republican candidate – either Pat Toomey or Peg Luksik – in November.

“I believe this is my 274th visit to Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I appreciate the support given me,” Specter said at Wings restaurant at the airport terminal....

...Tom Medico and Scott Meuser co-chaired the event and both said Specter provides the kind of leadership that benefits the state and nation.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/Felon__corrupt_judge_key_to_CV_libel_case_07-03-2009.html

July 3, 2009

Felon, corrupt judge key to CV libel case

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.com

Law & Order Reporter

ALLENTOWN – The decision of whether to grant The Citizens’ Voice newspaper a new trial in a defamation case will largely depend upon which of two men Lehigh County Judge William Platt decides to believe.

Related headlines

Servers: D’Elia, Conahan met often

Guard testifies she gave Conahan D’Elia’s envelopes

Ex-judge defends actions

Should he take the word of Robert Kulick, a wealthy businessman and convicted felon awaiting sentencing on federal firearms charges? Or should he believe Mark Ciavarella, a once respected Luzerne County judge ousted from office on corruption charges?

The two men were the key witnesses in a two-day hearing Platt held in Lehigh County Court that will determine if the $3.5 million verdict Ciavarella rendered in favor of area businessman Thomas Joseph following a non-jury trial in 2006 should be overturned.

The state Supreme Court ordered the hearing after attorneys for the Scranton Times LP, parent company of The Citizens’ Voice, uncovered evidence that former Luzerne County President Judge Michael Conahan had improperly steered the case to Ciavarella – Conahan’s co-defendant in a corruption case.

W. Thomas McGough, the newspaper’s lead attorney, built the case around the testimony of Kulick, who told of how Conahan frequently met reputed area mobster Billy D’Elia for breakfast to discuss cases. It was during one of those meetings that Conahan assured D’Elia, 62, of Hughestown, a friend of Joseph’s, that there would be a “positive outcome” for Joseph, Kulick testified.

Ciavarella, who testified Thursday, was equally adamant that there was no impropriety either in the assignment of the case to him or in the rulings he issued.

“Who, if anyone, sought to influence you in the Joseph case?” George Croner, Joseph’s attorney, asked the former judge.

“No one whatsoever,” Ciavarella replied.

“Were you ever offered money or anything of value with respect to any decision you made in the Joseph case?” Croner continued.

“Absolutely not,” Ciavarella said.

Croner and McGough took turns ripping apart the credibility of Kulick and Ciavarella, respectively.

Kulick, the husband of Michelle Mattioli, whose father owns Pocono Raceway, has had several run-ins with the law.

He was convicted of federal income tax charges in 1988 and served 10 months in prison. That case was the basis for the firearms charges filed against him in 2008. As a convicted felon, he was forbidden to possess firearms, which were found in his home.

Kulick is scheduled to be sentenced in August on the firearms charges. He acknowledged that he came forward with the information about D’Elia’s alleged comments about the Joseph case because he hopes it will win him a reduced sentence.

Ciavarella has his own credibility issues. He and Conahan pleaded guilty in February to depriving the public of their honest services and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors say the judges accepted more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for rulings that benefited the owner and developer of two juvenile detention facilities.

Speaking after the conclusion of the hearing Thursday, Croner said the newspaper had failed to show how any of the actions Conahan and Ciavarella took related to their corruption case had any bearing on Joseph’s defamation case.

He questioned the relevance of the testimony of Kulick and others who told of the meetings between Conahan and D’Elia at an area restaurant.

“The judge who tried this case came here and said no one ever talked to him about this case,” Croner said. “If we start throwing out cases because D’Elia and Conahan went to breakfast, you’ve got to throw all cases out.”

Attorney Tim Hinton, who represented The Citizens’ Voice along with McGough and several other attorneys, said Kulick’s testimony and the relationship between Conahan and D’Elia was only part of the case. The newspaper also had documents that showed Conahan took a highly unusual action when he intervened to assign the case to Ciavarella.

That evidence included the deposition of Ann Burns, an official with the county court administrator’s office. Burns gave the sworn statement last month because health concerns prevented her from testifying in person.

In her statement, which was read in open court, Burns told of how she made a notation in a computerized database indicating that Conahan and former Court Administrator William Sharkey had directed her to assign the Joseph case to Ciavarella, even though non-jury trials that month were supposed to go to former Judge Ann Lokuta.

Burns said the directive was “out of the ordinary,” and that she made the notation “because I wanted to be protected myself.”

“I think we produced evidence of judicial irregularity,” Hinton said after the hearing. “Coupled with the glaring corruption of Conahan and Ciavarella, I think the judgment in this case certainly deserves to be vacated.”

Platt took the case under advisement. He has 30 days to issue a recommendation to the state Supreme Court, which will decide if a new trial is granted or whether to dismiss the case entirely.

http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=19631004409Pa595_1895.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985

OPINION BY MR. JUSTICE EAGEN, January 21, 1963:

This is a libel action for damages to plaintiff's reputation as a result of a newspaper article published by the defendant. The action was tried and submitted to a jury for determination. When the jurors failed of agreement, they were discharged. Post trial, the lower court, in a three to two decision, granted the plaintiff's motion for judgment upon the whole record, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of April 20, 1911, P.L. 70, § 1, 12 P.S. § 684. The lower court directed that the issue be resubmitted "to a jury for the purpose of assessing damages" only. The defendant appeals from this judgment.

[ 409 Pa. 597 ]

On November 14, 1957, members of the New York State Police and an agent of the United States Treasury Department saw fit to investigate a meeting then in progress in Apalachin, New York, at the estate of one Joseph Barbara....

...Pursuant to the Governor's mandate, an investigation was made and the "Reuter Report" filed, which was publicly released to the press on or about May 1, 1958. The major portion thereof dealt with the history, activities and associations of those in attendance.

On May 20, 1958, the defendant, a daily newspaper published in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, and circulated in the surrounding area, began a series of three articles in its news columns concerning

[ 409 Pa. 598 ]

the "Apalachin Meeting" based upon the "Reuter Report." The second of these articles made specific references to the plaintiff and to three other local individuals, who attended the Apalachin meeting, and who were specifically mentioned in the "Reuter Report." It is the contents of this article that the plaintiff complains of in this action.

This news article headlined, "BARBECUE GIVES FOUR A BELLYACHE Deportation Is Apalachin Aftermath for Bufalino (Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of three articles on the much-reported Apalachin gangland meeting last Nov. 14.)"3 said in the pertinent part:

"Four Northeastern Pennsylvania residents are identified as having participated in the beef barbecue New York State Police broke up last Nov. 14 at the palatial Apalachin, N.Y., home of former Pittstonian Joe Barbara.

"Prior to the so-called hoodlum meeting, the quartet was little-known outside of upper Luzerne County.

"But, for some of them, the meeting spelled nothing but trouble.

"Russell Bufalino, for instance, was arrested and held for deportation. Following a lengthy hearing, he was ordered deported. The order is being appealed.

"A report issued this month by former New York State Investigations Commissioner Arthur L. Reuter identified the four local delegates to the meeting as:

"Russell J. Bufalino, 304 Dorrance St., Kingston, owner of the Penn Drape and Curtain Co., 161 South Main St., Pittston.

"Dominick Alaimo, 6 Cherry St., Pittston, co-owner and manager of the Jane Hogan Dress Co., Pittston.

[ 409 Pa. 599 ]

"James Anthony Osticco, 156 1/2 Elizabeth St., Pittston, transportation manager for Medico Industries, Inc., Pittston.

"Angelo Joseph Sciandra, 108 South Main St., Pittston, a garment manufacturer.

"All four, according to the Reuter report, have criminal records....

http://books.google.com/books?id=v_px8mLRXKsC&pg=PA721&dq=james+anthony+osticco&hl=en&ei=bRMHTaewL4Wdlge8xNznDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=james%20anthony%20osticco&f=false

Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime - Page 721

Bureau of Narcotics, Sam Giancana, The United States Treasury Department - 2009 - 843 pages -

'"The grand jury received credible evidence tending to show that Osticco acted on behalf of the Bufalino crime family as a favor to Louis A. DeNaples," the report says.'

http://articles.mcall.com/2008-11-20/news/4246713_1_eric-holder-nation-s-first-black-attorney-fraud-trial

Attorney general pick probed fix of DeNaples trial

Choice lauded: Eric Holder reportedly has accepted position and could be named this week.

November 20, 2008|By Matt Birkbeck Of The Morning Call

The Washington lawyer who reportedly was asked to become the nation's first black attorney general once made headlines in Pennsylvania for prosecuting the man who fixed Louis DeNaples' 1977 fraud trial.

Eric Holder, 57, spent the early part of his career with the U.S. Department of Justice heading public corruption cases, and in 1983 successfully prosecuted James Osticco for bribing the husband of a juror in the DeNaples trial.

Osticco, a high-ranking member of the Bufalino crime family, paid the husband $1,000, a set of car tires and a pocket watch to persuade his wife to vote for acquittal of DeNaples, who had been charged with fleecing the federal government for cleanup work related to 1972's Hurricane Agnes.

The trial ended in a hung jury, and before a second trial could begin in 1978, DeNaples pleaded no contest to a single fraud charge and was sentenced to probation.

[PDF] http://www.poconorecord.com/assets/pdf/PR372130.PDF

indicted - THE FOURTH DAUPI-IIN COUNTY INVESTIGATING GRAND JURY

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View

next to the table of Russeil Butalino and James David Osticco. Through, D'Elia,. DeNaples bought advertisements in the programs of the annuai dinner. ...

Several years later, it was Holder who traveled to Scranton and led the prosecution that resulted in a guilty verdict and eight-year prison sentence for Osticco. Three others, including the husband and wife, also were convicted....

Report illuminates DeNaples mysteries

BY DAVE JANOSKI

PROJECTS EDITOR

01/31/2008

HARRISBURG -- The grand jury report released Wednesday offers some new information on two mysteries in the Louis DeNaples story -- the jury-fixing in his 1977 federal fraud case and his role in Theta Land Corp., which owns thousands of acres of undeveloped land in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.

DeNaples and several other men were accused in 1977 of overcharging the federal government for relief work after the 1972 Agnes flood. Their trial ended in a mistrial when one juror held out for acquittal. DeNaples subsequently pleaded no contest in the case and paid a $10,000 fine.

But in 1983, James David Osticco, identified by prosecutors as a member of the Bufalino crime family, was convicted of paying the husband of the lone holdout juror to influence her. DeNaples was not charged in the jury-fixing case. But Wednesday's grand jury report accuses him of "employing his organized crime contacts to fix his criminal trial."

"The grand jury received credible evidence tending to show that Osticco acted on behalf of the Bufalino crime family as a favor to Louis A. DeNaples," the report says.

In the case of Theta Land Corp., the grand jury report flatly states the company is owned by a company controlled by DeNaples.

Theta, a former subsidiary of the now-defunct Pennsylvania Gas and Water Co., was sold to unknown buyers in 2000 after a series of utility mergers. Many of its 40,000 acres, once preserved to protect drinking water supplies, were sold to developers, the state of Pennsylvania and Luzerne County.

DeNaples' name was linked to Theta from the beginning because its mailing address after the sale was changed to a building owned by one of his companies. But his ownership has never been confirmed and he declined comment on Theta in a 2006 interview with Times-Shamrock Newspapers.

The grand jury report simply states he controls the company, but offers no details.

Theta President Robert McNichols Sr. appeared before the grand jury last year, but declined comment upon leaving the jury room.

djanoski@citizensvoice.com, 570-301-2178

http://web.archive.org/web/20080803142338/http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/22853154.html

Posted on Thu, Jul. 3, 2008

By Joseph Tanfani

Inquirer Staff Writer

A lawyer investigating a grand jury leak turned to Pennsylvania state legislative staffers to get the cell phone numbers of at least eight reporters already subpoenaed in the case, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow said it was a routine constituent service for his staff to help attorney Sal Cognetti find cell numbers of reporters subpoenaned in an investigation involving his client.

Cognetti represents a Catholic priest who, along with casino owner Louis A. DeNaples, is accused of lying under oath to authorities.

"A constituent asked openly for something. There is nothing backhanded, no sleight of hand, nothing deceiving about it," Mellow told the The Inquirer.

But Scott K. Baker, general counselor for The Inquirer's parent publishing firm Philadelphia Media Holdings, had a different take: "We consider these attempts to obtain our reporters' cell-phone numbers as further evidence of the DeNaples and [Rev. Joseph] Sica defense team's intent to harass members of the media."

Two of the subpoenaed journalists also said Thursday they had been called by someone falsely identifying himself as a reporter with a Pittsburgh newspaper, asking for their cell phones. When pressed for more information, they said, the man hung up the phone.

DeNaples' defense team subpoenaed 15 journalists last month as part of Dauphin County Judge Todd A. Hoover's probe into leaks that cropped up in the news during the original grand jury investigation.

Tasked with deciding whether to order up a special prosecutor to look further into the leaks, Hoover has already quashed the portions of the subpoenas that demanded reporters hand over their notes. He has yet to rule on whether the journalists must testify in court.

According to The Inquirer, lawyers linked to the case "speculated that if members of the DeNaples team were able to obtain phone records from police or prosecutors, they could search those calls for the reporters' cell-phone numbers -- thus identifying who might have leaked information."

DeNaples and Sica were charged in January with perjury. Authorities claim DeNaples lied about mob connections to help his bid for a gaming license. The reverend is accused of lying to a grand jury about his relationship with a mobster.

Both have pleaded not guilty.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/all-marino082107,0,878720.story

DeNaples link prompts Marino to withdraw from mob probe

Resort owner lists U.S. attorney as reference on gaming application.

August 21, 2007

...DeNaples, whose many companies include Keystone Sanitary Landfill Inc. in Lackawanna County, was awarded a casino license in December 2006 amid criticism over his past, including the felony. Four people, including a member of the Bufalino crime family, were convicted for their roles in bribing a juror during DeNaples' 1977 trial, which resulted in a hung jury and the plea deal.

The prosecutor at that trial, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Cognetti Jr., was DeNaples' other law enforcement reference.

Apart from the federal/state probe, DeNaples is also the focus of a Dauphin County grand jury investigating whether he lied to the state Gaming Control Board about his alleged ties to D'Elia. DeNaples has denied any ties to D'Elia or any member of organized crime. The grand jury resumes testimony next week....

...the DeNaples name at the campuses of two of his favorite beneficiaries, Scranton Preparatory School and the University of Scranton, both Jesuit institutions.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/pilarz-to-leave-university-of-scranton-for-marquette-1.985120#axzz183rpyn8L

Pilarz to leave University of Scranton for Marquette

BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL (STAFF WRITER)

Published: September 1, 2010

In the last seven years, the University of Scranton has raised its enrollment, expanded its footprint and increased its national presence.

Next summer, the man who onlookers say humbly shepherded the advancement of the university will become president of Marquette University in Milwaukee...

..The Marquette board of trustees unanimously elected the Rev. Pilarz at a special board meeting Tuesday. The Rev. Pilarz is one of eight Jesuits who serve on Marquette's board, which he has done since 2009...

...Timeline

...- February 2006: The Rev. Pilarz announces plans for a 118,000-square-foot campus center, later to be named the Patrick and Margaret DeNaples Center. - University announces plans for $100 million capital campaign.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/pilarz-to-leave-university-of-scranton-for-marquette-1.985120#ixzz183sF5m7x

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Scranton

The University of Scranton is a private, co-educational Jesuit university, located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the northeast region of the state. The school was founded in 1888 by Most Rev. William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. It was elevated to a university in 1938, taking the name the University of Scranton. The institution was operated by the Diocese, and later the Christian Brothers, from 1888 to 1942. In 1942, Bishop William Joseph Hafey invited the Society of Jesus to take charge of the university. Today, the University of Scranton is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Around 30 Jesuits are normally in residence at Scranton...

Campus Buildings and Landmarks

The University of Scranton encompasses approximately 58 acres of land as of 2010.[4]

...The Patrick and Margaret DeNaples Center is the University's Campus Center. It features several eating options, including Aramark's first Fresh Food Company in the northeast and retail-style dining with Chic-fil-a, Starbucks Coffee, and Quizno's. The Student Affairs and University Ministries offices are located off the second floor fireplace lounge, and several other offices, including Windhover (yearbook), Aquinas (newspaper), The Jane Kopas Women's Center, The University of Scranton Programming Board, Student Government, The Center for Health Education and Wellness (C.H.E.W.), Community Outreach, and Orientation, are located in the Student Forum. The university Bookstore is located on the first floor. On the fourth floor are an auditorium, ballroom, and conference rooms. The building was formally dedicated on February 29, 2008, just two months after first opening. It was named to honor local business owner and reputed organized crime associate [5] Louis DeNaples, who asked that it be named for his parents....

...Future of the University

On April 26, 2008, the University held a public launch its new fundraising campaign. The campaign includes the DeNaples Center, Condron Hall, renovations to the Estate as a new home for admissions and the development of a new science facility. The building is in the planning stages with a tentative construction start date in Spring 2009 (according to October 2007 Provost's Report). Other campaign priorities include building endowment for financial aid, scholarships and faculty development and growing support in annual giving.

On October 26, 2009, the University began construction on a new science facility, the Unified Science Center.

On May 6, 2010, The University announced plans to build a new apartment style Residence Hall with a food option as well as a new fitness facility on the first floor. This will be located across the street from the DeNaples Center on the 900 block of Mulberry Street.

On August 30, 2010 President Scott Pilarz, S.J. announced that he would leave the University at the end of the academic year to become the president of Marquette University.[8]....

http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/93/1/05_1_m.html

Likins: change Marley building name

Staff Editorial

Arizona Daily Wildcat,

August 23, 1999

...Naming buildings after philanthropists is a nice way to express gratitude for their generous gifts.

But it's an unacceptable atrocity when the structure is named for an alleged murderer and thief.

Despite strenuous objections from journalists, educators and Tucsonans, former UA President Manuel Pacheco in 1992 took $6 million from the late Kemper Marley's family foundation to complete the Agriculture building on East Fourth Street now known as the Marley building.

While he was never formally charged, Kemper Marley was implicated in the 1976 car-bomb murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles....

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E5DD1430F932A15751C0A9669C8B63

By DOUGLAS FRANTZ

Published: February 21, 2000

When Senator John McCain of Arizona describes the people who shaped his life, he invariably dwells on the influence of his father and grandfather, both distinguished Navy admirals and larger-than-life figures. Less widely known are the roles played by two other powerful men in launching his political career.

Mr. McCain's father-in-law, a wealthy beer baron named James W. Hensley, gave Mr. McCain his first job out of the Navy and helped bankroll his crucial first race for Congress in 1982, enabling Mr. McCain, a political newcomer, to outspend and defeat better-known opponents.

Even today, Mr. McCain's position as one of the wealthiest members of Congress is derived from his wife's share of her family's Anheuser-Busch beer distributorship here and extensive real estate investments through the company, holdings worth more than $10 million.....

...The 1953 State Police report in connection with it's Arizona investigation of the Hensleys and Baldwin noted Marley "owned a wire service formerly operated in connection with bookmaking of the Al Capone gang."

http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a1_5marino.6221869jan11,0,4798885.story

Former fed, a DeNaples backer, works for him now

Ex-U.S. attorney Thomas Marino was a reference on gaming application.

By Matt Birkbeck Of The Morning Call

January 11, 2008

Thomas Marino, the former U.S. attorney who was listed as a reference on Louis DeNaples' gaming application at a time when Marino's office was investigating DeNaples, has landed a new job -- with DeNaples.

Marino, who resigned as U.S. attorney for Scranton/Harrisburg last fall, is serving as in-house corporate counsel for several DeNaples businesses, including his Keystone Sanitary Landfill near Scranton. But Marino will have ''nothing to do'' with DeNaples' Mount Airy Casino Resort, the businessman's spokesman, Kevin Feeley, said Thursday.

''The casino is only a part of [DeNaples'] holdings,'' Feeley said. ''They've known each other a long time. … [DeNaples] respects Marino's values, skill and judgment.''

» Things to do & celebrity news delivered to your mobile phone. Text ENTERTAIN to 52270! Sponsored by Cedar Crest College

The Morning Call reported in August 2007 that Marino withdrew from a federal investigation into organized crime in part because DeNaples, who is a focus of the probe, listed Marino as a reference on his gaming application. Marino recused himself from the investigation in late 2006, then resigned as the top federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania's Middle District in October 2007.

Martin Carlson, the acting U.S. attorney who took over for Marino in October, said U.S. attorneys routinely seek the approval of the Justice Department's general counsel before they accept their next job.

''The practice of outgoing U.S. attorneys is to seek and obtain ethics advice designed to ensure they fully comply with government ethics requirements,'' Carlson said.

Marino, of Williamsport, has known DeNaples for at least 15 years, Feeley said.

DeNaples, a Scranton businessman and philanthropist, is perhaps most widely known as owner of the Keystone Landfill in Lackawanna County. In 1978 he pleaded no contest to defrauding the federal government of $525,000 for cleanup work after Hurricane Agnes, a felony.

He is the subject of a Dauphin County grand jury investigation into whether he lied to the state Gaming Control Board about his alleged ties to organized crime to gain a slots license.

The Rev. Joseph Sica, a Roman Catholic priest and confidant of DeNaples, was charged last week with lying to the grand jury about his ties to the late Scranton mob boss Russell Bufalino.

Fran Chardo, Dauphin County's first assistant district attorney, declined to comment on the hiring of Marino. ''Right now he's not pertinent to our case,'' said Chardo, the grand jury prosecutor.

Marino, a former Lycoming County district attorney, was appointed U.S. attorney in 2002 after his nomination by President Bush. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., along with former Sen. Rick Santorum, supported Marino's nomination.

''I am certain that combined with his character, Tom Marino's experience and distinguished service as district attorney for Lycoming County will prove to be a great asset as U.S. attorney,'' Specter wrote.

Other former federal prosecutors also helped DeNaples win a slots license for Mount Airy. They are Peter Vaira, J. Alan Johnson and Sal Cognetti Jr. Johnson and Cognetti are defense witnesses who appeared before the DeNaples grand jury.

Bruce A. Green, a professor of legal ethics at Fordham Law School in New York, said U.S. attorneys have the right to leave government to take jobs in private practice, even if there are possible conflicts.

''You can't have a restriction that says you could never work for people who might once in the past had a run-in with your office. That's too restrictive,'' Green said. '' On the other hand, you want to make sure that government lawyers are not in a position to exploit confidential information they learned in the course of their work.''

But Green said he had a problem with the reference Marino provided for DeNaples' gaming application in 2006.

''Writing a reference for someone while a U.S. attorney and for someone under investigation strikes me as extraordinarily unusual,'' Green said. ''I never heard of somebody doing that, and I can understand people thinking it's not a prudent thing to do.''

Edited December 14, 2010 by Tom Scully

[Guest Tom Scully]

http://www.scrantonprep.net/AboutPrep/MissionStatement.htm

The mission of Scranton Preparatory School, as a Catholic and Jesuit college preparatory school, is to form a learning community of men and women distinguished by its commitment to competence, to conscience, and to compassion.

http://www.scrantonprep.net/AboutPrep/boardoftrustees.htm

SCRANTON PREPARATORY SCHOOL

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

2010 - 2011

....Mrs. Donna DeNaples DiLeo

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080131/NEWS/801310314

DeNaples' rags-to-riches story marred by 1978 guilty plea, rumors of mob ties

‎

Pocono Record - Jan 31, 2008

...DeNaples is also a philanthropist, donating large sums to Scranton Preparatory School — where he sent his seven children — the University of Scranton, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, the United Way and many other charitable and nonprofit institutions...

http://www.biddingforgood.com/auction/item/Item.action;jsessionid=lFoHSBuJPs0qSTeCW7n52A**.app4-i?browse=&id=79076877

Gift Certificate will be mailed to the winner or can be picked-up at the Development Office at Scranton Prep at 1000 Wyoming Ave. in Scranton, PA.

Donated by: Margi DeNaples Glodzik & Dominica DeNaples

Mount Airy tables test will benefit two charities

June 29, 2010

Be the first to play Mount Airy's table games, and you'll be doing it for a cause.

When Mount Airy debuts its new table games during a test night in a couple of weeks, two charities will be the beneficiaries of the proceeds. Friendship House and St. Joseph's Center will receive all gross terminal revenues from the eight-hour test, which the state uses to gauge whether the casino's systems are ready for prime time....

http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a2_1airy.6251637jan31,0,702223.story

Community shows support for DeNaples

By Bob Laylo and Tim Darragh Of the Morning Call

January 31, 2008

...A Dauphin County grand jury said DeNaples lied about his relationships with four people, including two alleged mobsters, to get his slots license.

The Catholic Diocese of Scranton, another beneficiary of DeNaples' charity giving, chose not to comment directly on the allegations.

''Mr. DeNaples has generously supported many institutions in the community and many worthwhile endeavors … including the Catholic Church, and we are very grateful for his support,'' said spokesman Bill Genello.

Other institutions DeNaples supported also took a forgiving view.

''Louis DeNaples has been a great asset to Community Medical Center and the community of Scranton,'' said John Nilsson, interim president and chief executive officer of the Community Medical Center Healthcare System. ''His service on our board has been exemplary. I think we all should let due process take its course before passing judgment.''

Likewise, the University of Scranton, which this month opened a student center bearing the names of DeNaples' parents and gave him an honorary degree in 2005, issued a statement of support.

''Louis DeNaples and his wife and children are great friends of the University of Scranton. We are grateful for their steadfast support as trustees, alumni, parents, benefactors and volunteers. As always, Louis and his family remain in our prayers.''

The university and Scranton Preparatory School have been major recipients of DeNaples' largesse. The university returned the favor in October 2007, when it awarded him its President's Medal at a black-tie event at The Pierre in New York City.

Around the same time, the Lackawanna Bar Association awarded DeNaples its Chief Justice Michael J. Eagen Award for community service.

Even as the grand jury's report was coming to a head, DeNaples continued to expand his reach. Just last week, published reports said DeNaples had joined the board of the new Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton.

Even some who've been inadvertently hurt by the arrival of the casino wanted to cut DeNaples a break.

''So what if he had mob ties?'' said Tom Cuccio, owner of Poco-Perk Cafe in Mount Pocono. ''How long ago was it? Why bring it up now?''

Cuccio said his business has dropped by $1,000 a month, but he still attributes many improvements in the borough, such as new sidewalks and improved streets, to the casino.

Back in the casino, grand juries and mob allegations mattered little to East Stroudsburg University students Andrew Sosnowsky and Anthony Astarita, who were playing slots between classes.

''As long as we are winning,'' Astarita said, ''we are happy.''

So who will do a more prominent job of impacting the reputation of Marquette University, Assoc. Prof. John C. McAdams or Marquette's new president, Rev. Scott Pilarz?

http://books.google.com/books?id=YEkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA20&dq=court+osticco+bufalino&cd=2#v=onepage&q=court%20osticco%20bufalino&f=false

LIFE‎ - Jun 1, 1959 - Page 20

Magazine - Vol. 46, No. 22 - 134 pages

ff, t PENNSYLVANIA TRIO (from left, behind car hood) Osticco, Russell Bufalino.

Angelo Sciandra, leave Manhattan federal court. ...

Edited December 14, 2010 by Tom Scully