Thursday, August 20, 2009

UK to release Lockerbie Bomber. What the Hell is the matter with the UK?



Scotland defies Obama and prepares to send dying Lockerbie bomber home to Libya on Gaddafi's private jet

By NIALL FIRTH Daily Mail
Last updated at 12:27 PM on 20th August 2009

Decision to be announced in Edinburgh at 1pm

  • Libyan airline 'collecting a special passenger' from Glasgow
  • Obama calls on Megrahi to be made to 'serve out his term'
  • Megrahi's wife says bomber is 'very happy' to come home
  • Blair accused of 'blood money' deal over bomber's release
  • Lawyer says release means Britain 'will grow' in eyes of Arabs
The Scottish Government is to defy the wrath of the U.S administration and the anger of victims' families as it prepares to release the Lockerbie bomber this afternoon.

An announcement about the fate of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi will be made in Edinburgh by the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill at 1pm.

It is widely expected that terminally-ill Megrahi, the only person to be convicted of the December 1988 bombing, will be freed on compassionate grounds.

The 57-year-old, who is dying of prostate cancer, could be flying home to Libya on Gaddafi's own private jet by this evening.

The decision to free the terrorist will spark outrage in America and Britain where the families of those killed have been campaigning for him to remain behind bars.

And his probable release comes despite a desperate last-ditch appeal by Barack Obama yesterday to ensure that the Lockerbie bomber dies in a Scottish prison.



Megrahi's wife Aisha has said her husband still 'didn't know' when he would be freed from Glasgow's Greenock prison, but was 'very happy' at the prospect of returning to his homeland.

The convicted bomber also called his mother in Libya and told her he hoped to be with her by Ramadan.

There has been widespread fury among victims' families over Megrahi's release and the SNP can expect a huge transatlantic outcry if, as is likely, he is granted mercy today.

Yesterday, the U.S. government continued to put last-minute pressure on the Scottish Executive, with a spokesman for Mr Obama insisting Megrahi should 'serve out his term' in Scotland.

But in a thinly-veiled attack on U.S. attempts to influence the decision, First Minister Alex Salmond has insisted 'international power politics' will be ignored.

The transatlantic row comes amid further controversy over the role of former PM Tony Blair in Megrahi's release.

Mr Blair has been accused of agreeing a 'blood money' deal involving the Lockerbie bomber with Colonel Gaddafi just hours before BP unveiled a £500million oil contract.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also issued a personal plea to keep the bomber behind bars.

The former New York Senator said she knew many of the American families who lost relatives in the atrocity and that to release Megrahi would be 'absolutely wrong'.

It is understood that Megrahi will be flown back to Libya on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's private jet if he is released following Mr MacAskill's announcement today.

Today his lawyer Saad Djebbar said that Britain would benefit from Megrahi's release.

'The SNP government has done the UK a great favour because Britain and Scotland will grow in the eyes of the Arab street,' he said.




A 'luxury aircraft' was scheduled to collect the bomber from Glasgow airport yesterday, but the flight was cancelled during protracted negotiations over Megrahi's fate, according to the Times.

Tripoli-based Afriqiyah Airways, which runs Colonel Gaddafi's personal Airbus A340, contacted Glasgow airport yesterday to report that it would be collecting 'a special passenger'.

Megrahi's wife Aisha has said her husband still 'didn't know' when he would be freed from Glasgow's Greenock prison, but was 'very happy' at the prospect of returning to his homeland.

The convicted bomber also called his mother in Libya and told her he hoped to be with her by Ramadan.
Hajja Fatma, 95, told the Tripoli Post in Libya: 'I do not close the house's door at all. I am expecting him to enter at any moment.

'Eleven years I did not spend the holy month of Ramadan with him, I am waiting for that day when he comes back.'

She maintained that her son was innocent of killing 270 people in the Lockerbie bomb, saying 'he would not slaughter a chicken'.

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is expected to announce Megrahi's release today while his wife Aisha, left, has said the bomber still does not know what his fate will be

Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence agent, who may have only weeks to live, dropped his second appeal against conviction on Tuesday - removing a legal obstacle to sending him home.

He is serving life with a minimum term of 27 years after being convicted of the attack on Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people.

Most of the dead were Americans heading home for Christmas.

Mrs Clinton yesterday said Megrahi's release would be 'inappropriate, and very much against the wishes of the family members of the victims who suffered such grievous losses'.

She added: 'I take this very personally because I knew a lot of the family members of those who were lost.
'I just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime.

'We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so, and hope they will not.'

Later, Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Mr Obama, added: 'It's the policy of this administration that this individual should serve out his term where he's serving it right now.'

Seven U.S. senators, including Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, have also written to Mr MacAskill urging him to keep Megrahi behind bars.

But many British families believe the Libyan was wrongly convicted while in Libya many believe that he was made a scapegoat for the bombings.

Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing, yesterday criticised Mrs Clinton's comments as the 'intervention of ignorance, a voice from the previous regime'.

Mr MacAskill is considering two applications from Megrahi's lawyers - compassionate release or a transfer to a Libyan prison.

While the decision to allow Megrahi to return home will affect relationships between the British Government and the U.S, it is likely it will suit those in Westminster who are happy for the focus to remain firmly on Edinburgh.

Some ministers have expressed concern that evidence that was to be used during Megrahi's appeal, which he withdrew on Tuesday, would have cast some doubt on his conviction.

The SNP's Christine Grahame, who has met Megrahi in prison, said: 'There are vested interests who have been deeply opposed to this appeal continuing as they know it would go a considerable way towards exposing the truth.'

The SNP has always criticised the transfer agreement between the UK and Libya, which was established by former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Critics are suspicious that Mr Blair's deal was part of an attempt to develop closer relations with the former pariah state to protect Britain's oil interests.

Susan Cohen, whose only child Theodora, 20, was killed in the bombing, said: 'Tony Blair has behaved absolutely appallingly. Some people would describe it as blood money.

'He put compassion for the oil industry ahead of any compassion for my daughter, for the families of all those people killed by a convicted mass murderer and terrorist.

'It just shows that the power of oil money counts for more than justice.'

'The Libyan government paid the U.S. relatives £803million in compensation,' she said. 'Afterwards what happens? The U.S. and UK governments pay almost exactly the same amount to allow oil exploration in Libya. There are dirty deals here.'

That option would also require the Lord Advocate to drop an ongoing appeal against the leniency of Megrahi's sentence.

Last night, the Executive said in a statement: 'Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has informed families and other interested parties that he has reached his decisions on the applications for prisoner transfer and compassionate release in relation to Mr Megrahi and will announce his decisions on Thursday, August 20, 2009.

'This fulfils the Justice Secretary's pledge to inform families on both sides of the Atlantic, in advance, of the timing of his public announcement.'

Meanwhile, a cancer specialist yesterday said Megrahi's 'aggressive' form of prostate cancer is no longer responding to treatment.

Professor Karol Sikora, who visited Megrahi in prison, said: 'We believe he has only a very short period of time to live.'

An Executive spokesman said: 'We have a strong justice system in Scotland and people can be assured the Justice Secretary's decisions have been reached on the basis of clear evidence and on no other factors.'





43 comments:

  1. What the Hell is the matter with the UK?

    What the Hell is the matter with the USA?

    What the Hell is the matter with "Western Civilization?"

    Decadence.

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  2. Magical thinking:
    If we treat the Muzzies as we would like them to treat us,
    they will.

    This error was blindingly obvious to some of us in the first week after 9-11.

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  3. Blow up his plane...

    that would be funny....

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  4. "the Justice Secretary's decisions have been reached on the basis of clear evidence and on no other factors.'"

    The "evidence" convicted the mass murderer. What else is to be said?

    Well, a great deal actually, like...1/10 year for each victim...You have got to be kidding!

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  5. oh if i wasnt clear before?

    KILL him....

    he is a mass murderer....

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  6. All this time it seemed evident, from the evidence, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was an agent of the Libyian Government.

    His actions were those of war.
    A Peace has been arrived at.

    The Libyian is going home.

    The victims families have been paid. The Libyians have renounced terrorism and have rejoined the family of civilized nations by ending their nuclear weapons program.

    The prisoner is being repatrioted, as part of the peace, nothing new there.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. That letter that Waxman sent to Aetna is puzzling. Is Aetna owned or underwritten by AIG? If so I could see some justification for asking for that information otherwise as Linear said "Pound sand up your ass" or something.

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  9. So, there's no statute of limitations on murder. Why don't we go after him?

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  10. Yep Dr

    all things clean and neat..

    except the otherside doesnt pardon or even ever release our captive citizens...

    it's a one handed violin being played...

    No the west (including Israel) releases terrorists...

    Maybe if there could be a way to have a private bounty on them that doesnt violate our laws?

    A better solution, burn fossil fuels, increase global warming and bake the shit out of the arab world....

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  11. Mr Blair has been accused of agreeing a 'blood money' deal involving the Lockerbie bomber with Colonel Gaddafi just hours before BP unveiled a £500million oil contract.

    Ethanol, biodiesel, electricity

    Any questions?

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  12. yeah, why was it Iraq was invaded?

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  13. Referencing what ash wrote, it is just not Aetna ...

    House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the panel's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, wrote letters Monday to more than 50 of the nation's largest insurers informing them that the committee "is examining executive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry." They requested detailed information on the compensation packages of the companies' highest-paid employees, as well as information on the companies' boards, conferences and events they sponsored, the profitability of the individual health-care products they sell and revenues earned through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

    The letters ask that much of the information be provided to the committee by Sept. 4, and the rest by Sept. 14. The House is scheduled to return from recess Sept. 8
    .

    Well, sure, ash.

    In two regards Mr Waxman is doing the "right" thing. He is about to open hearings on how the Private Insurance Industry operates. One could suppose that legislation will be forth coming. If the Insurance companies decline to participate, they cannot influence the outcome. Information that is vital to the National Interest (18% of GDP) should not be withheld from the policy makers. If it is withheld, then the policy may not be as effective as it could have been.

    If the Federals are going to mandate that residents buy private insurance policies, which seems to be where the ship is heading. Then how those companies are managed, becomes a concern for those in Government. Especially when the Government, at some level, is going to have to subsidize those that cannot afford the $1,000 per month.

    Beyond that, another intended consequence?

    Mandate insurance, an the definition of "family" will come under further cultural and legal attack.
    Gay marriage or a civil partnership equivilant would be all but guarenteed across the land. Mandated by the Federals within a cycle or two.

    Who's in the "family"?

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  14. interesting rat...

    ...what you can't get through the front door you sneak in the back.

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  15. Makes the public option sound good.

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  16. Insurance Company Death Panels will have to be explained and justified, in front of the Congress and the US electorate.

    Combined with hundred million dollar salaries and stock options, for the Executives

    Easy pickings, for the Waxman.

    Opened a whole can of worms, they did, with that Death Panel bullshit.

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  17. I don't think so. If the Feds WERE the insurance company, they wouldn't be "investigating" the insurance companies.

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  18. Totally unrelated:

    "A Canadian model has won a landmark case against Google Inc. (GOOG-Q456.8512.882.90%) that could strip away some of the anonymity provided by the Web, making people who post offensive blogs, videos or tweets more responsible for their defamatory statements.

    Liskula Cohen, who once graced the covers of such high-fashion magazines as Vogue and Flare, won a court order in New York that has forced Google to unmask the identity of a blogger who posted photos and derogatory comments about her. "

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/canadian-model-gets-google-tounmaskanastyblogger/article1257768/

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  19. The Feds are not going to become the Insurance company, that seems to have been opted out.

    So there will be some kind of Federal Co-op that subsidizes and creates a sub-prime health insurance market.
    On the way to this compromise, those that will squeal in protest, the loudest, are going to get the preemptive smack across the chops.

    I can see why the Obamamerica is moving towards demonizing the Insurance Industry. There are some within that insustry actively campaigning against reform.
    If there are going to be "savings" wrung out of the System, the Insurance Companies are the easiest to villanize.

    Be careful what you wish for ...

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  20. The campaign, from the reformists perspective, should always have been about "Insurance" reform, not "Health Care" reform.

    Made the arguement about money, not medicine.

    Saul Alinsky would not have made the mistake. Obamamerica realized it, but a bit behind the curve to change the pre-recess mindsets and outcomes.

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  21. Quentin Tarantino's blood-drenched fantasy of Jewish GIs who slaughter the top Nazis, "Inglourious Basterds," dazzled German critics who said Thursday it ripped up the rulebook for World War II films.
    Ahead of the film's international release this week, German reviewers were rapturous over the fictitious squad of Nazi killers who stop the Holocaust and take brutal revenge, with some calling the picture "historic" and "important.
    "

    While others write:

    Because what Quentin Tarantino turns in as part of "Inglourious Basterds" is the Larry David definition of survivor, as a team of American Jews outwit, outlast and outplay the Nazis at their own game in the apparently logical second sequel to "Kill Bill": "Kill Wilhelm."

    Fuhrer tales can come true; they can happen to Jews. And they certainly do here in a movie that begins, "Once upon a time ... ": Brad Pitt leads an all-Jews, all-the-time fantasy outfit of rogue Nazi hunters during World War II that would have done the late Simon Wiesenthal proud-- if Wiesenthal had been into bashing brains rather than using them -- as they corner Nazis amid the croissants of collaborative France and their Vichy swine.

    So, tough Jews do ... daven?

    "Yes, they do -- and they win! Finally!" exclaims Lawrence Bender.
    ...
    ... for this Jewishly involved member of the Israel Policy Forum and an AIPAC activist formerly of Cherry Hill, N.J., the cherry on top is when bad things happen to bad "Basterds."

    "Quentin said I was the first Jewish person to read the script, and he wanted to know what I thought. I said, 'Thank you as a fan, a producing partner -- and as a member of the tribe."

    Cue the Fiddler: It's like dancing the hora on the Nazis' graves.

    "A Jewish kid's dream," quips Bender.

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  22. The old "Party of Stupid" dinosaurs are still out on cable blathering about "Tax Credits," and such. They Still don't "get it."

    Saw George Allen beating that tired old drum, last night, on Fox.

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  23. CNNMoney.com - ‎1 hour ago‎
    Mortgage lenders say the flood of foreclosures has not yet crested. Highwater mark should come this fall.

    ReplyDelete
  24. “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death” What the! Obama
    1000 Rabbi Conference Call


    A call with the rabbinate
    From the Washington Jewish Week, and confirmed just now by Gibbs:

    President Barack Obama needs some outside help pushing health care reform, and he’s turning to rabbis to get it.

    In a morning conference call with about 1000 rabbis from across the nation, Obama asked for aid:

    “I am going to need your help in accomplishing necessary reform,”
    the President told the group, according to Rabbi Jack Moline,
    who tweeted his way through the phoner.

    “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death,” Obama went on to say, according to Moline’s real-time stream.

    Moline’s feed is here. (He’s a Washington rabbi close to Rahm Emanuel.) It’s unclear if Obama is doing other quiet and untweeted calls to constituency groups.

    ALSO: Moline tweeted that the call’s hold music was
    “Deutschland Uber Alles,”
    which he thought a bit of a “mistake.”

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  25. A Gentle Gentiles Query:

    What does

    "shanah tovah to all of you"
    mean?

    AS IN
    Rabbi BHObama:
    "shanah tovah to all of you"

    ReplyDelete
  26. BHO is our Hip Replacement
    for GWB.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Miracle of Maintenance
    aka Testament to Federal Incompetence

    Ancient Jet Keeps the U.S. Air War Flying

    I’m in front of a matte-gray jet, designed to deliver gas to the rest of the American air armada as it buzzes over Central Asia and the Middle East. Every day, the KC-135 tankers here haul a million pounds of fuel. Without them, the fighter jets, bombers and airborne haulers circling above Afghanistan and Iraq would drop out of the sky. That’s a pretty heavy burden for a bunch of old-timers — this plane was built in 1960.

    “And this is one of the newer ones,” says Captain Nick LaPlant, as we walk past rusting flaps and visibly loose panels. “It’s absolutely amazing it stays in the air still.”

    The cockpit is even more startling. “Time capsule: doesn’t begin to describe it. The navigator’s desk is held together by duct tape. The seats are covered with Mad Men-era light shag. There’s even a sextant still embedded in the ceiling of the cockpit — in case anyone needs to navigate by starlight.

    Yet somehow, 91 percent of these tankers are ready to fly on a given day. (For the rest of the Air Force, that number is often in the 70s.) It’s a testament to the 400-man maintenance team here, which not only tightens bolts and replaces blown tires. They are constantly making new ailerons and gears from scratch for the plane. The 135s are so old, some of the parts aren’t even made any more. So sometimes the “fabrication flight” here runs a laser-tipped claw over an old tube — scanning the specs into a computer-aided design program, from which they can burn a new piece.
    Or the flight uses a giant 32-bit robotic turret, to pound precision holes.
    Or they just do it the old-fashioned way and bend metal.

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  28. “They tell us the mother of the last 135 pilot hasn’t been born yet. We expect to be flying these planes quite a few years longer,” LaPlant says.

    I tell LaPlant he must’ve misspoken – the mother of the last pilot? That’s …

    “Unfathomable, yeah.”

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  29. doug,

    Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year, New Year) will come in September.

    L'shanah tovah = for a good year

    For the male rabbis the complete greeting would have been “L'shanah tovah tikatev v'taihatem”.

    …sorry, but he will probably get many rabbis to buy in…

    On August 10, 1938, Vladimir Jabotinsky delivered a speech to the Jews of Warsaw, saying in part:

    “For three years, I have been imploring you, Jews of Poland, the crown of world Jewry, appealing to you, warning you unceasingly that the catastrophe in near. My hair has turned white and I have grown old over these years, for my heart is bleeding that you do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spew forth its fires of destruction…listen to my words at this, the twelfth hour. For God’s sake, let everyone save himself, so long as there is time to do so, for time is running short.”

    Few heeded him. Fewer survived.

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  30. Regarding insurance companies, their executives, Waxman's intrusion, and profits...

    Insurance appears to be far from a high profit sector.

    Sector-Rank-Profit Margin,%

    Health Care Plans (Ins) 86, 3.3

    Hospitals 77, 3.6

    Drug Mfrs – Major 7, 16.5

    REIT Hlth Care Facilities 3, 24.6

    Beverages – Brewers 1, 25.9

    The devil is in the details, I'm sure, but it's hard to accept that a bunch of politicians in DC will do more in the present situation than muddle it worse than it is.

    Yes, Trish. I'm a cynic regarding administration and congressional majority motives.

    link

    ReplyDelete
  31. On August 10, 1938, Vladimir Jabotinsky delivered a speech to the Jews of Warsaw, saying in part:

    “For three years, I have been imploring you, Jews of Poland, the crown of world Jewry, appealing to you, warning you unceasingly that the catastrophe in near. My hair has turned white and I have grown old over these years, for my heart is bleeding that you do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spew forth its fires of destruction…listen to my words at this, the twelfth hour. For God’s sake, let everyone save himself, so long as there is time to do so, for time is running short.”

    Few heeded him. Fewer survived.



    Yep...

    In every generation the seed of Haman shall arise...

    But in this generation?

    We got Glocks & Mossbergs...

    To the sheep that cannot listen?

    I am over you....

    My spark (and my families) shall remain alight...

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  32. That those KC135s have not been replaced, that is credited to Maverick McCain and his attempts to clean up Govertnment, doug.

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  33. The tensions are rooted in a complex theological debate about salvation for those outside the Catholic Church. Discussion of the issue between Jews and Catholics focuses on the significance of the ancient covenant between God and the Jews.

    Pope John Paul II had spoken repeatedly of a covenant "never revoked." Many Jewish groups view the bishops' statement as stepping back from the pope's position.

    Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops, said Thursday: "Catholic-Jewish dialogue has been important to the U.S. bishops for almost 50 years. The bishops have just received the letter and currently are studying it."


    Document on Salvation

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  34. sam,

    “The tensions are rooted in a complex theological debate about salvation for those outside the Catholic Church.”

    Generally, anytime the word “complex” is used, you may be certain that “embarrassing” would have been the better choice. Therefore, read:

    “The tensions are rooted in [an embarrassing] theological debate about salvation for those outside the Catholic Church.”

    Every human being, of any faith, may have a place in the world to come, according to Judaism. It is not for man to judge.

    Others have not been and are not so generous to their fellows.

    We will have to agree to disagree and tolerate opposing points of view.

    Why it was necessary to spend the past 50 years in dialog on something so apparent would seem to have more to do with politics than theology.

    this from a good Catholic boy

    …sung in Aramaic…

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  35. Tracking international CIA-chartered flights, investigators have identified hotels in Europe where CIA personnel or contractors stayed. In some cases, through hotel phone records, they have been able to identify agency employees who jeopardized their cover by dialing numbers in the United States.

    Working from these lists, some of which include up to 45 names, researchers photographed agency workers and obtained other photos from public records, the sources said.

    The government has largely cut off the airing of details about the CIA's interrogation program during proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, although many have been revealed in government documents.


    Officers' Photos

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  36. 69. sigint:
    For your entertainment. Dr. Manning takes on the “long legged Mac Daddy” …he sees the coming revolution. Hysterical!
    White Folks Revolt!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Even though he is dying,he should not be trusted and he should still be monitored.

    ReplyDelete