SINNING, "HOOKERGATE", AND THE CANAL STREET CONNECTION (GOLD-TIPPED RPG)

Washington D.C. them out of office--Reading today's Washington Post piece on the release of Deborah Jeane Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates phone records is like a perusing a funeral lament. Note this tear-soaked passage:

In a world where phone numbers change constantly, where it is as easy to dial a wrong number as a right one, the public posting of the alleged D.C. madam's phone records has created a new commotion in a case that always aspired to be the next Washington sex scandal. It has raised the specter of wives searching frantically through records for their husbands' numbers, of grudge-bearers buckling down to unearth dirt on their enemies, of political groups aiming arrows at their opponents. (Washington Post, 07.11.2007)

It reads like the voiceover for a bad Michael Bay movie trailer. "Specter"? Arlen? If someone has done wrong and betrayed the public trust, subsequently gets exposed...I'm not seeing the bad here, sorry.

Being one of the 50 individuals that was sent the records, receiving them on Monday, I can tell you the sense of relief that this information has been democratized--it's staggering, just peruse them yourselves, and make several calls. Better yet, start Googling them. Again, the logistics are absolutely staggering here, we're talking thousands of calls (with major repetitions, primarily from Palfrey and her associates). Are there "grudge bearers" out here in America? You bet. We've all tolerated far-too-much from this political and economic system and the political generation that has marginalized the American worker.

For at least three decades things have gone awry in this nation, and this is one little part that's going to fix things in our ailing democracy. It's time for genuine accountability, and it's time for our government to start serving the people again--not merely the wealthy and their holdings. Their servants are being run out. It's really time for a new day in America. This is a very belated shot across their bow, a kind of an asymmetrical warfare that privileged hypocrites of the Big Lie never wagered on. Everyone is biased, there is no objectivity, that's an excuse and an apology for power, or of careerism.

As Ms. Palfrey told me herself in a conversation, "Nobody has a monopoly on the truth." I agreed heartily then, and do now. With the release of these primary documents, we're going to have a much clearer picture of this political era than we ever imagined. Couple this with the probes in Congress, an unprecedented era of whistle-blowing, and you have a critical-mass for the criminals who occupy public office. It's about trust. This echoes the 1960s-70s when there was whistle-blowing and sundry revelations of a similar nature, though elements of Palfrey's predicament could reach into areas previously unknown in American political scandals. For that, one has to look at the Profumo affair in Cold War England during the 1960s, not Watergate.

Speaking again of people who apologize for power for a living: The Washington Post--headed by one Bob Woodward--is making it clear that they don't like this development. One could rest assured that they've quashed other stories like this one, either by buying the incriminating evidence, or simply ignoring the true import of the stories (as ABC's Executive Producers futilely attempted in early-May). We know for certain now that federal prosecutors simply messed with the wrong woman.

If anyone doubts that the "DC Madam" is going to fight for her survival to-the-hilt, those illusions have finally been shattered by the felling of Randall L. Tobias and GOP Sen. David Vitter, with more-to-come. It appears that Larry Flynt gets to keep his reward (for now)! There is a corroboration-of-sorts:

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt is claiming credit for Louisiana Sen. David Vitter's admission to being linked to the Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the "D.C. Madam." Vitter, who was once considered a rising star for his public opposition of immigration reform, is now facing some tough questions into his clandestine travels and activities. According to Flynt following Hustler staff calling Vitter's office Monday, saying they had knowledge his telephone number appearing on a list from Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service, he went public."Vitter ran to The Associated Press in an attempt to get ahead of the story," Flynt's office said. Jeanette Maier, who is often called the Canal Street Madam, revealed on Tuesday that Sen. David Vitter started visiting her establishment in the mid-1990s. (AHN media, 07.11.2007)

Nobody in the media seems to understand the underlying significance in this connection--or they aren't telling. Jeanette (eerie parallel, no?) Maier was also part of an investigation by the federal government that went wrong. Solution? Lie and say it was just to bust her, justifying the warrants and the funds expended:

With great care, the agents documented the secret life of a high-end brothel. Through more than 5,000 phone calls, they kept listening to the madams, the hookers and the johns, even though the conversations never turned up mentions of mob bosses or hard-core drug dealing -- both cited in the FBI's initial wiretap application 13 months ago. (Washington Post, 06.03.2002)

There is an extremely strong possibility that this is what started it all regarding "Hookergate." Another important factor in the Canal Street case--the surveillance was going on while the 9/11 hijackers were plotting the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Feel safer now?

Washington Post today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071001881.html

"Hustler Publisher Claiming Credit For Vitter Going Public About Paying For Sex," 07.11.2007: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007877986

The Canal Street Madam connection: http://taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=383

"New Orleans Brothel Made a Federal Case-FBI Wiretap Finds Elite Clientele, No Mob Ties," 06.03.2002: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49210-2002Jun2?language=printer

Ed.-Many thanks go to Jody "the High-tech Madam" Williams for her assistance in connecting-the-dots for this article.

[12.31.12 addendum: I retract the thanks to Ms. What's-her-name.]

"HOOKERGATE," RANDALL L. TOBIAS, & PAUL WOLFOWITZ: THE AMERICAN PROFUMO SCANDAL?

Washington D.C.--In e-mails and in our interview, Ms. Palfrey compared her situation as being very much like the "Profumo" scandal, and that it might involve a government official divulging information to a sex worker who was an operative for a foreign intelligence agency (though many operatives frequently work all sides).

It's an incredible assertion, and Palfrey has yet to provide evidence of it. However, this writer tends in that direction as well. The evidence could very well be in her phone records, and she's currently waiting for a decision on the gag ruling by Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler.

She's been correct about the majority of her public assertions so far: just ask Randall L. Tobias. Then, there's Harlan K. Ullman, military strategist and think tank advisor, professor, author, and-then-some. He's refused to talk at all, despite the defendant's attempts to subpoena him. An examination of the Profumo affair is instructive here:

What brought Profumo down even more than his deceit of the [House of] Commons, was the startling revelation that Keeler had also slept with Eugene Ivanov, the naval attache at the Soviet embassy. It was that detail which captured world attention, notably in the United States, where the FBI compiled a detailed report called Operation Bowtie [Ed.-the FOIA link to the files is now dead]. In Britain, Profumo's downfall naturally caused a huge sensation, inflated by the establishment's crude and cruel attempts to find scapegoats for its own embarrassment. As usual, official wrath was turned on those least able to defend themselves. Stephen Ward was prosecuted for living on immoral earnings. On the last day of his trial, he killed himself with an overdose of sleeping tablets. Keeler was also tried and imprisoned on related charges. (Guardian, 04.10.2001)

Tory War Minister John Dennis Profumo slept with Keeler, who slept with a Soviet spy. He might have said things to Keeler that he shouldn't have, and she may have conveyed it (accidentally?) to the Soviet Eugene Ivanov. Do we have a similar scenario here?

Were federal investigators looking for something else entirely when they searched Deborah Jeane Palfrey's Vallejo home? What were 12 SWAT-equipped ("assault-riles and masks," says one source) Howard county police doing at Brandy Britton's (former employee of Palfrey's) home when she was first arrested?

She says the authorities have unfairly singled her out, made up lies, mistreated, stalked and harassed her since Jan. 17, when a team of Howard County officers burst into her quiet suburban home and ransacked the place, breaking her belongings, upsetting her pets and arresting Britton on prostitution charges. “It sounds paranoid, but they did really serious criminal stuff,” Britton says. “They’ve broken into my house 10 or 15 times. They’ve tapped my phones. They put a tail on me and follow me everywhere.” (examiner.com, 10.26.2006)

That sounds like overkill for a woman who was anonymously accused of soliciting sex.What were they looking for? Was it an e-mail or document(s) relating to a scenario much like that between War Minister Profumo and Christine Keeler? Who is the Christine Keeler in this case? Who is/are the Profumo(s)? This leads us to...

Paul Wolfowitz's recent scandal could very well be connected to all of this: was his "girlfriend" really his beau? What is the entire background of Shaha Ali Riza? Could she be a deep cover agent for a Middle Eastern nation? There appears to be some smoke here, and it behooves us to ask the question of whether Wolfowitz compromised himself by uttering national security secrets in the presence of Ali Riza, and maybe others--could this be the real heart of this whole scandal?

Is there a connection between Wolfowitz and Tobias in all of this? Is there a connection between them and their "concerns" over the international sex trade and human trafficking? Gulf state nations like Saudi Arabia are notorious violators of such international agreements, importing sex-slaves from the region, including Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Africa. Read on.

Amazingly, the world press and everyone but the American public knew that Wolfowitz's girlfriend already worked at the World Bank before his appointment, and were reporting it widely:

There is Republican pressure to reform the World Bank so that it becomes more of a facilitator for private-sector involvement and less of a direct intervener. Mr Wolfowitz’s girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza, works at the World Bank. Ms Riza, who was born in Tunis and grew up in Saudi Arabia, is an ardent proponent of spreading democratic rights throughout the Arabic world. Her low-key presence in Mr Wolfowitz’s life surprises critics, who assert that he masterminds a Zionist conspiracy from the Pentagon. (The Times, 03.17.2005)

Again, this was even before Wolfowitz was appointed World Bank President. Someone might want to ask Ms. Ali Riza if she's ever worked for the Saudi General Intelligence Directorate under Prince Turki al-Faisal (once Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland). How did Shaha Ali Riza--a British subject at the time--obtain security clearances for the State Department and the Pentagon? Is she a triple-agent? No answers appear to be forthcoming here.

Of course, much of this is connected to late-April of this year, when the Wolfowitz/World Bank scandal broke. Paul Wolfowitz had--and still has--many detractors, but there was an odd "defender": former U.S. Attorney and international law and diplomacy prof at John Hopkins, Ruth Wedgwood.

Her location puts her very close geographically to the death of Brandy Britton, as well as what could be a sprawling web-of-corruption in Baltimore involving prostitution, police corruption at the highest-levels, political warfare, and much more. Where does Wedgwood fit into all of this? On April 17th, 2007, she did something peculiar: she wrote a defense of World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz for the L.A. Times called "The Wolfowitz non-story."

The authors of this acrid affair have nakedly forgotten the standards of fairness and due process owed Riza, who is a member of the bank staff association and entitled to its fiduciary protections. And the scandal-mongers have recklessly ignored a written record of bank documents that serves not to condemn but to exculpate Wolfowitz. (L.A. Times, 04.17.2007)

Oddly, a number of the facts she trots-out in the opinion piece tends towards the thesis that Ali Riza has an intelligence background. As we all know now, she was wrong about Wolfowitz on several counts, and hid her credentials as a staunch-supporter and beneficiary of the Bush administration (they appointed her as an Assistant U.S. Attorney) and Wolfowitz. Wedgwood's article is a smokescreen, and her credibility is in-question.

A reply was in-the-offing, and it came to the L.A. Times on April 30th from "Islamic Law expert and photojournalist" Sarah Whalen after angry readers pointed-out Wedgwood's connections to the Bush administration and the embattled World Bank President:

Ordinarily, expert opinions by former assistant U.S. attorneys like Wedgwood count for something. But Wedgwood, sputtered one angered reader, is biased. "For the Times to publish her column without disclosing her close ties to the Bush administration is inexcusable," scolded reader Gerald Shea. ...Wedgwood should address the real legal question facing Wolfowitz and Shaha: How did Shaha, a Libyan national with British citizenship, get her Pentagon and U.S. State Department security clearances? Sidney Blumenthal first raised this issue in his recent Guardian article, "Wolfowitz Sinking Into Endless Scandal." Shaha needed security clearances for her Wolfowitz-engineered "leave of absence" from the World Bank to her consulting job at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and later to her State Department job. But she apparently didn't have them. "Who intervened?" Blumenthal asks. (L.A. Times, 04.30.2007)

That's right, who allowed Shaha Ali Riza those security clearances? When we know their name(s), they're going to be leaving office. Perhaps they already have--in-part--in the person of Paul D. Wolfowitz...and possibly Randall L. Tobias. It's important to put your middle-initial in there to at least look and sound prominent. Merely sleeping with a woman does not explain Tobias's immediate departure from the State Department. What generates and motivates these kinds of scandals and the usage of "honey traps"? Usually, overarching national and strategic-aims...

Saudi Arabia has been concerned about the status of the several break-away Republics in Central Asia which are primarily Muslim. They also provide pipeline routes and sources of oil and natural gas. The aims of all of this--employing someone like Shaha Ali Riza in deep cover--would be to ascertain what the State Department's and the Pentagon's planning on these regions would entail.

Whether he knew it or not, Paul Wolfowitz might have allowed a spy for MI6/MI1c/SIS/the Saudi Intelligence Directorate/etc. to have extraordinary access and clearance within these institutions. This could be some of that context:

At the same time, members of the ruling dynasty, including the directors of several big oil companies and high-ranking officers of the General Intelligence Service, were pursuing clearly practical aims. They viewed Central Asia as part of a larger region, stretching from Pakistan in the South, to the Russian Caucasus in the North. Besides the diffusion of their influence over the local Muslims, and the competition with Turkey and Iran, the Saudis were interested in participating in a greater number of regional projects for the mining and transporting of energy resources. Not having the possibility of neutralizing the competition with the Eurasian states in the oil and gas markets, Riyadh relied on getting a share of the income from their future profits. It was with this purpose in mind that Delta Oil Company developed its activity in Afghanistan; Gulf Star company and Dallah al-Baraka Group did the same in Kazakhstan; and the Caucasian Investment Bank was established for developing work in the Caucasus (with the help of the commercial structures belonging to the Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi). Pakistani partners were actively helping the Saudis to attain their goals. (axisglobe.com, 11.30.2005)

Is this a segment of "hookergate's" genesis? Sources are telling me that it could be. Was Shaha Ali Riza a sex worker? Did she have connections to these channels? On December 11th, 2006, then-ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal left his post "after 15 months." ('Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington." Washington Post, 12.12.2006) Is there a connection? More later.

The Guardian on the Profumo affair (2001):
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicspast/story/0,9061,471383,00.html

The Washington Post on the suicide of Brandy Britton (and a curious admission on their part),
01.30.2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012900654.html

The Times on Shaha Ali Riza, March 17, 2005: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article429379.ece

"Complete 911 Timeline":
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline

The L.A. Times' "Wedgwood piece," 04.17.2007: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-wedgwood17apr17,1,4026819.story

and the reply: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-whalen30apr30,0,364571.story?coll=la-opinion-center

"UNDER THE SIGN OF ANDIJAN-Saudi Intelligence Versus the Pentagon: http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=506