- Looking at today's news, this writer was struck by the
reappearance of names of people who have been involved in cover-ups in
the recent past. Like Yogi Berra's aphorism, its "deja vu all over
again."
Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is with some snippets from this
writer's articles over the past two years.
One of the most intriguing is the background of FBI agent Bradley Garrett.
He was involved in a murder case the authorities considered a "run
of the mill" robbery/murder. The people involved in that case would
lead one to think it was a high national security case.
From this author's article, "CHANDRA, JOYCE AND MARY - R.I.P."
of September 16, 2001:
"The murder of Mary Caitrin Mahoney and trial of her alleged killer,
while probably not tied to the OKC bombing nevertheless involves an almost
unbelievable cast of characters at a time large amounts of illegal campaign
finance money were being raised and serious breaches of national security
occurred.
Mahoney had landed an internship working in the office of the Secretary
of Commerce, Norman Mineta (the Current Transportation Secretary) for Doris
Matsui. Matsui is the wife of California Democrat Representative Robert
Matsui. However, she had political connections of her own having served
as a trustee of the California Economic Advisory Council with Public Official
Executive Board members, Gray Davis, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
Matsui worked closely with John Huang, with the title of deputy assistant
to President Clinton. Together they raised over $3 million in campaign
funds from Asia and Asian-Americans. $1.2 million had to be returned because
it came from corporations and non-citizens.
It was in this time frame that John Huang worked first in the Commerce
Department and then transferred to the Democratic National Committee (DNC)
but kept his high security clearance. Huang had been attending CIA briefings
and then immediately went across the street to the Washington office of
Jackson Stephens, the Arkansas broker who was a financial angel of Bill
Clinton and placed phone calls to his Chinese handler in the Lippo Group
in Indonesia.
Stephens was a partner with James Riady of the Lippo Group in the Worthen
bank in Little Rock. The bank was alleged to have been involved in laundering
CIA drug money. The bank (and Stephens) were involved (along with the Rose
Law firm and partners Hillary Clinton, Web Hubbell and Vince Foster) in
the takeover of First American in Washington D.C. by BCCI. Robert Bartlett,
the then Editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal said he first
starting keeping his eye on the Rose Law firm when he heard of its involvement
with BCCI.
And there sat intern Mary Mahoney in the midst of all that activity. The
Clinton's had another reason to keep an eye on her. Mary was an open lesbian
and aggressive supporter of gay rights. She had become something of a "den
mother" for younger interns who claimed to have suffered sexual harassment
at the hands of the president (not including Monica) She had been threatening
to do something about it.
Mary also held a part time job as assistant cashier at the local Starbucks
coffee shop. In July of 1997, she and two other employees were gunned down
around closing time by what police claimed was a robbery although no money
was taken. Mahoney was shot five times. One of the shots was to the back
of her head gangland execution style.
In March of the following year, FBI agent Bradley Garrett arrested Carl
Derek Cooper for the three murders. After 54 hours of questioning by Garrett
and another agent, Cooper signed a confession that he immediately repudiated
as soon as he got to court. Garrett is currently in charge of the Chandra
Levy "missing persons" case and was the lead agent on the Vince
Foster death determined to be a "suicide."
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- Judge Joyce Hens Green set a trial date for April 10,
1999. This is the point at which the cast of characters becomes bizarre
starting with Judge Green who was first appointed as a federal judge by
President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
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- In the last year of President Reagan's second term, Green
was appointed to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to serve
a non-renewable seven-year term. That court deals exclusively with national
security and with international terrorism, and involves approving applications
for electronic surveillance. Judges on that court require the highest security
clearance available. In 1990, then President George Herbert Walker Bush
appointed Green presiding judge of that court and she handled all emergency
matters during the remaining five years of her term.
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- Judge Green also presided over the BCCI trial that had
resulted from indictments obtained by New York Assistant District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau. Morgenthau's investigation was stopped when the FBI
stepped in under the direction of Robert Meuller (currently the new FBI
Director) and no further investigation ensued. Judge Green approved plea
bargains that resulted in BCCI forfeiting its assets in the United States.
Two defendants had been indicted, Roger Altman and Clark Clifford an influential
power broker in the Democrat party. The two men had accepted the two top
spots in First American after the BCCI takeover but claimed they had no
idea BCCI was involved in the nearly nine years they functioned in those
capacities. Altman was acquitted and Clifford never stood trial because
of ill health.
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- Back to the Cooper trial. Before the trial even started,
a controversy arose when Janet Reno announced she was going to seek the
death penalty for Cooper. D.C. officials were furious claiming Reno was
overstepping her bounds. The district had never asked for the death penalty
in any murder case.
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- Reno held a hearing on the matter. At that hearing, defense
attorney William Martin (not connected with the Cooper case) urged Reno
to ask for the death penalty. Yes, that's the same Billy Martin who represented
Monica Lewinski's mother, Marcia Lewis, and currently represents Chandra
Levy's parents.
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- To complete the cast, Judge Green then appointed attorney
Francis D. Carter to represent Cooper. Carter is the Frank Carter to whom
Vernon Jordan took Monica Lewinski. Carter prepared the false affidavit
for Monica's signature, which put her at risk for perjury when she later
testified in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Monica escaped prosecution
when she was granted immunity by independent counsel Ken Starr.
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- With Carter as his defense counsel, Cooper was convicted
despite a weak circumstantial evidence case. There were, of course, no
eyewitnesses and Cooper's fingerprints were not found at the murder scene.
During his 54 hours of interrogation, Cooper had consistently denied the
crime and volunteered several times to take a lie detector test. Most of
the testimony against him was by FBI agent Garrett based on Garrett's representation
of what Cooper had said during the interrogation. The questioning was not
recorded or videotaped although another agent took notes.
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- One wonders at the array of a high-powered Washington
judge with ties to the intelligence community and an attorney who barely
escaped being disbarred (in another high profile case) in a case claimed
to be a routine robbery murder case by a career criminal."
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- Garrett's name has surfaced again as one of the two questioners
of Lee Malvo, the alleged teenage sniper. When Malvo was transferred from
Maryland to Virginia, he underwent seven hours of interrogation by Garrett
and Fairfax County detective June Boyle. Boyle had told Malvo he would
get to see the attorney he had requested but first they wanted to ask a
few questions about his background as "part of the booking process."
Then followed the seven-hour interrogation.
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- Garrett has filed "summaries" of Malvo's answers
(which were taped) purporting to confess to some of the shootings. However,
it appears Malvo was responding to "hypotheticals " posed as
to what the snipers may have done.
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- Much of Garrett's summary has been leaked to the press.
Officials have been quoted as saying no harm has been done since the "confessions"
will probably be suppressed by the court and "at least the public
will know."
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- Two more names recently in the news were involved in
the investigation of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.
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- From Bojinka " The Dog That Didn't Bark" of
June 18, 2002:
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- "Surely FBI terrorism expert John O'Neill would
have known the details of Bojinka having investigated the 1993 WTC bombing
and the plot to blow up 11 airliners. O'Neill's departure from the FBI
was started when he tangled with the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen over the
investigation of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole. She banned him from Yemen.
O'Neill's reputation was further stained when his briefcase containing
classified documents went missing for several hours when he was called
away to the telephone during a conference in Tampa, Florida. As a result
of that unexplained incident, he was told he would not get a position in
the National Security Agency (NSA) that he believed he had earned.
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- O'Neill became the Director of Public Safety at the WTC
after he resigned and died mysteriously during the 9/11 attack. He had
phoned his girlfriend after the first tower was hit to inform her
he was safe."
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- When O'Neill was bounced from the Cole investigation,
the search for the culprits effectively ended. The report of the navy admiral
who headed the DOD investigation of the bombing concentrated on recommendations
for improvements in security. It did not assess any blame. O'Neill later
said he was removed because he was getting too close to foreign dignitaries.
He had already had a run in with FBI Director Freeh over the free ride
Saudi Arabia was getting in investigation of the bombings of the U.S. embassies.
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- The U.S. Ambassador to Yemen who squelched the Cole investigation
is Barbara Bodine. She was just recently appointed by President Bush as
a key player in Iraq's transitional government. She will effectively be
the "Mayor of Baghdad" said one former high-ranking Senate official.
She is to administer one of the three sectors in which Iraq will be divided.
Hers is the central sector that includes Baghdad.
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- A Pentagon official who asked not to be identified, according
to Washington reporter Jerry Sepe, said "Miss Bodine dismissed warnings
of terrorist attacks in Yemen against U.S. ships and allowed the Cole to
enter port at a reduced security level because she felt the value of showing
a U.S. presence in Yemen outweighed the risks."
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- Sege also reports, "FBI executives and agents familiar
with the Cole probe said Miss Bodine, as ambassador in Yemen, prevented
the bureau from advancing its investigation into the bombing at a time
when agents were beginning to focus on the Saudi millionaire Osama bin
Laden."
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- The admiral, that didn't want to know who bombed the
Cole, and was at odds with O'Neill in the investigation, is Harold W. Gehman,
Jr. He currently heads the investigation into the Columbia shuttle disaster.
He is repeating his Cole "mandate" by only looking at improving
methods and procedures and not trying to assess any blame.
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- We have previously reported on the makeup of the Commission
appointed to investigate the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the earlier cover-ups
in which many of that body have been involved.
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- It doesn't seem to make any difference whether a Republican
or Democrat administration is in office, many of the same "old reliables"
are called back into service to "investigate" high profile incidents
when the public doesn't "need to know" all of the facts.
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- (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.)
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- Permission is granted to reproduce this article in its
entirety.
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- The author is a freelance writer based in Romulus, Michigan.
He is a former newspaper editor and investigative reporter, a retired customs
administrator and accountant, and a student of history and the U.S. Constitution.
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- If you would like to receive Medium Rare articles directly,
please contact the author at <mailto:jimrarey@comcast.net>jimrarey@comcast.net.
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