Chickenhawkn. A person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it; particularly when that enthusiasm is undimmed by personal experience with war; most emphatically when that lack of experience came in spite of ample opportunity in that person’s youth.
Brought to power through the inauguration of the Bush administration, a group of individuals who pursued neo-conservative ideology managed to institute their policy directives during the window of opportunity created after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The central goal of this neo-conservative faction was, and remains, to sustain the U.S. as the unchallenged superpower in the world, capable of launching military strikes against any states or groups that threaten this status.
Following the September 11 attacks, neo-conservative rhetoric was attractive to the American people, in addition to the leaders of the Bush administration, since the faction labeled the U.S. as a symbol of "freedom" and "democracy." According to neo-conservatives, these Wilsonian axioms awarded the United States the right and obligation to foster the conditions that would lead to a democratic renewal in the Middle East. More importantly, these figures portrayed their posturing as a strategy that would preserve U.S. power in the world while, at the same time, greatly weaken the threat posed by Islamic revolutionaries. Indeed, the argument was that the protection of the United States was directly tied to the level of democracy in the world, and, primarily, in the Middle East.
In the words of President Bush's National Security Council appointee, Elliott Abrams, who is also a prominent neo-conservative, "Since America's emergence as a world power roughly a century ago, we have made many errors, but we have been the greatest force for good among the nations of the Earth. A diminution of American power or influence bodes ill for our country, our friends, and our principles."
Leaders of the neo-conservative faction easily won favor within the Bush administration against more entrenched figures in the State Department, Defense Department and Central Intelligence Agency. Critics of the neo-conservatives in the aforementioned departments considered the faction's policies naïve and idealistic, too focused on vague Wilsonian rhetoric without paying enough attention to realpolitik. Critics worried that the faction's security strategy of preemptive military warfare and regime change threatened to embroil the United States in an assortment of violent conflicts, endangering U.S. interests.
- Intervention in Iraq Reveals Flawed Strategy
In the aftermath of the first major execution of neo-conservative strategy, that of the preemptive war in Iraq, it has become perfectly clear that the central goals of the neo-conservative faction are deeply flawed. Not only has the outcome of the Iraq intervention resulted in the exact opposite of the faction's predicted scenarios, but it has done so in almost every way.
For example, the faction assured that there would be weak internal resistance to a U.S.-led occupation. Instead, the opposition to the U.S.-led occupation has been strong, consisting of an assortment of local- and foreign-based insurgents. The suggested quick transition to democracy has not been completed, and it still remains to be seen whether the January elections will change this.
The movement argued that the money for Iraq's reconstruction and occupation would not be a significant burden to the U.S. taxpayer and that Iraqis would be able to fund their own reconstruction. In March of 2003, neo-conservative Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told Congress, "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. ... We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." In fact, the opposite has occurred and the intervention in Iraq is sucking up a huge burden of taxpayer funds, contributing to the U.S.' $413 billion budget deficit.
The autocracies of the Middle East do not see Iraq as a beacon of democracy that will threaten their rule, an argument pushed by neo-conservatives; in fact, the region has remained as autocratic as ever. While it can be argued that the example of preemptive war in Iraq caused Libya to disarm and open up to the West, the opposite is true for Iran and North Korea, which appear to have accelerated their courses towards a nuclear weapons capability.
Then, as it turns out, Iraq's programs of weapons of mass destruction were grossly exaggerated to the point of absurdity. And Saddam's alleged allegiance with al-Qaeda -- a notion that was strategically illogical and irrational from the start -- turned out to be non-existent.
Now, due to pursuing these idealistic policies, the U.S. is embroiled in a difficult conflict in Iraq, only marginally successful in its intervention in Afghanistan, and is witnessing a rise in Islamist activity around the world -- couple this with a mounting a U.S. budget deficit, and the United States is in a precarious geopolitical position.
- Waning Neo-Conservative Influence
The negative results of neo-conservative policy explain why their influence in Washington has waned, and the further perpetuation of the faction's policies seems unlikely. Indeed, up until the dismal situation in Iraq became evident, neo-conservatives such as Wolfowitz and Pentagon adviser Richard Perle were seen as leading and outspoken members and influencers of the Bush administration. Now, they have been effectively silenced. While before the war the more realist-oriented Secretary of State Colin Powell was increasingly perceived to be a lame duck leader, he has regained the reins of power and has retaken his position as an important spokesman for Bush administration policy.
- Conclusion
There is talk within Washington circles that many of the neo-conservatives may lose their posts in a second Bush administration. Upon such a development, the United States would be without a National Security Strategy since the one of 2002, which highlighted preemptive warfare and basic neo-conservative policy, would be discredited. The administration's foreign policy would be confused and would gravitate away from potential conflict. This development would help to accelerate a global trend toward multipolarity, with each major power consolidating its interests within its region of influence.
For example, in a multipolar world, China would attempt to increase its power in Asia, upping its rhetoric on Taiwan, gaining more influence in the South China Sea, and supporting pro-Beijing regimes in countries like Myanmar. Geopolitical concerns would push Japan and South Korea toward remilitarization. India could make a move on Pakistan. Russian encroachment on the Caucasus and Central Asia would result. Iran would continue its pursuit of regional power and nuclear weapons -- with Russian assistance -- and North Korea could be expected to sustain its belligerency in the face of the United States and its allies.
Nevertheless, there is still the possibility that neo-conservative leaders may reassert themselves in a second Bush administration. While they have remained quiet due to the political fallout from the Iraq intervention, they are still active and could be relied upon in the coming years to develop strategies that aim to prevent a further loss of U.S. power and keep the globe from falling into the multipolar orbit.
7500 people crowded into the Hispanic Cultural Center to catch Bill Clinton in Albuquerque today. Bill Richardson, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, Sen. Bingaman, Richard Romero, President Joe Shirley of the Navajo Nation, Governor Stuwart Paisano of the Pueblo of Sandia, and Gov. Alvino Lucero of the Pueblo of Sandia were on hand as well. Linda Ronstadt opened with a traditional Mexican ballad as well as "Desperado."
Clinton told the crowd that if not for the war and people's fear this election would be a rout. He asked the crowd to find 2 undecided voters and explain John Kerry's plan for a stronger national security-- including increasing our troops by 40,000, improving our diplomacy in order to involve other nations, and making greater use of our special forces. He noted unprecedented endorsements of a Democratic president by top military officials.
In mentioning incidents of Republican efforts to reduce voter turnout, he spoke of a "Clinton Law of politics": "If one candidate wants you to vote," Clinton said, "and one candidate wants you not to vote. You better vote for the candidate who wants you to vote!"
After the speech Clinton walked into the adoring crowd--shaking hands, posing for snapshots with kids, and generally reminding people of the good years with a Democrat at the helm.
Report Reveals Shocking White House Failure to Protect Troops
Report Reveals Shocking White House Failure to Protect Troops
In response to new reports contradicting Dick Cheney’s assertion that Iraq has been a “remarkable success,” Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards challenged Dick Cheney to explain why U.S. troops in Iraq are still don’t have the equipment they need to protect themselves in combat:
“Dick Cheney does nothing but read scripted attacks on John Kerry in a desperate attempt to cling to power. What has he done to protect our troops beyond his empty rhetoric and hollow promises? Tonight, we heard yet again that our troops are still not getting what they need to protect themselves. As a former Secretary of Defense, he should have the courage to answer our fighting forces in Iraq who have been failed by his incompetence. Knowing that our troops are forced to defend themselves with plywood and sandbags, does Dick Cheney still believe that we’ve done ‘exactly the right thing’ in Iraq?
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Final Weekend Endorsements Send Powerful Message to Voters: Elect John Kerry
10/31/2004 4:19:00 PM
Contact: Allison Dobson of Kerry-Edwards 2004, 202-464-2800
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by Kerry-Edwards 2004:
-- Overwhelming Support for Kerry-Edwards Plan for a New Direction to Keep America Safe & Fight for the Middle Class
-- Hispanic Publications from California to New York Back Kerry
-- Papers from FL, OH, MN, WI, MI, CO, ME, WA, WV join more than 200 editorial boards nationwide supporting Kerry for President
-- 47 have switched from Bush in 2000 to Kerry in 2004
Echoing the powerful message of more than 200 editorial boards across the country, 24 leading newspapers this weekend urged voters to elect John Kerry for president.
Two hundred twenty-nine publicationsincluding 200 daily paperswith a combined circulation of more than 22 million readers have now backed John Kerry.
Newspapers announcing their endorsements of Kerry this weekend were one Florida newspaper, one Ohio paper, one Minnesota paper, one Wisconsin paper, one Michigan paper, one Colorado paper, one Maine paper, two Washington papers, one West Virginia paper, and several additional papers from other states: Fort Pierce Tribune (FL), Athens News (OH), St. Cloud Times (MN), Sheboygan Press (WI), Ironwood Daily Globe (MI), Greeley Tribune (CO), Journal Tribune (ME), Grand Coulee Star (WA), Port Townsend Leader (WA), Jersey Journal (NJ), Bridgewater Courier News (NJ), Lafayette Journal and Courier (IN), Albany Times Union (NY), Corning Leader (NY), Ithaca Journal (NY), Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus (VT), News Journal (DE), Baltimore Sun (MD), Vallejo Times Herald (CA), Anderson Independent Mail (SC), Sun News (SC), Montgomery Advertiser (AL), Nome Nugget (AK) and Anchorage Daily News (AK).
Forty-seven newspapers with a circulation of more than 3.6 million readers have endorsed Kerry after having backed Bush in 2000. Only six papers that supported Al Gore in 2000 have endorsed Bush this election.
Significantly, the Bangor Daily News' backing of John Kerry was its first endorsement of a Democrat for president since the 19th century. The Orlando Sentinel had not done so in 40 years.
Kerry has also received a number of endorsements from Hispanic publications, including Gente de Minnesota (MN), Lazos Hispanos (MN), Al Dia (PA), El Mundo (NV), Imagen (NM), La Opinion (CA), El Dia (IL), La Raza (IL), El Diario La Prensa (NY) and Siglo 21 (MA).
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Selected Excerpts from This Weekend's Endorsements
"This is the state of the nation where Mr. Bush now seeks re- election: Its citizens are more polarized than at any other time in modern memory. Civil liberties are exposed to graver danger than they've been in more than half a century. Mr. Bush has allowed this, and perhaps even caused it." (Albany Times Union, 10/31/04)
"This election is fundamentally a referendum on the overall performance of George Bush. And on that ground there is little to support and much to oppose. The man who ran for president as "a uniter, not a divider" has governed exactly opposite and left the country weaker than he found it -- overstretched and disrespected abroad and polarized and antagonized at home." (Anchorage Daily News, 10/31/04)
"We heartily endorse Sen. John Kerry for president. In almost every way, he'd be better at such a crucial job at such a critical time. Mr. Kerry, we're confident, would govern from reasonably close to the political center, as Mr. Clinton did. Mr. Kerry's long career in public life, dating back to his days as a Navy officer and then an anti-war activist, reveals a pragmatic but principled man." (Albany Times Union, 10/31/04)
"After 20 years in the Senate, John Kerry is seasoned at statecraft. He has specialized in the biggest foreign affairs problems facing the country." (Anchorage Daily News, 10/31/04)
"Sen. John Kerry, for his part, brings more than just a new face; he brings credibility, intelligence and a precious opportunity to repair some of the woeful misjudgments of the past four years. As we said in our primary endorsement of Mr. Kerry, he brings to the presidency two decades of distinguished and principled leadership in the Senate, an admirable familiarity with foreign policy and domestic issues, and a thoughtful, determined approach to governance. . . Under Mr. Kerry, national security could be achieved without compromising the rights of all Americans." (Baltimore Sun, 10/31/04)
"Despite unfair campaign ads to the contrary, Kerry is a war hero who showed his bravery in Vietnam. When he returned from the war, Kerry questioned the American role there, which history shows was a courageous and correct position to take. . . Along with winning the war on terror, the next president will need to unite Americans. Kerry's intelligence and thoughtfulness make him more suited to this important challenge." (Greeley Tribune, 10/31/04)
"The election of John Kerry as president is essential for restoring the moral standing of the United States and for bringing judgment and experience to the White House Kerry has the experience in foreign policy needed to make the United States a partner again in the quest for peace in the Middle East, an essential step in fighting terrorism. He has the understanding of diplomacy and international norms needed to establish standards that will prevent the administration from dragging the honor of the United States through the gutters of Abu Ghraib." (Montpelier Times Argus (VT), 10/30/04)
"U.S. president: John Kerry over George Bush. The incumbent has simply lost the trust a president needs to be an effective leader. (St. Cloud Times, 10/30/04)
POWELL CONTRADICTS BUSH ON HOW THINGS ARE GOING IN IRAQ
Powell Said We Are Losing in Iraq. “…the insurgents, by most accounts, are winning. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former general who stays in touch with the Joint Chiefs, has acknowledged this privately to friends in recent weeks, NEWSWEEK has learned. The insurgents have effectively created a reign of terror throughout the country, killing thousands, driving Iraqi elites and technocrats into exile and scaring foreigners out.” [Newsweek, 11/8/04]
October 30, 2004 - "My fellow Americans, after the many long months and miles of this campaign, in three days this election will be in your hands. You will face a choice. I believe it’s time to give this country we love a fresh start. And this morning, I would like to give you as plainly as I can the summary of my case on how – together – we can change America."
General Wesley Clark released the following statement today on Dick Cheney's remarks about John Kerry:
“Vice President Cheney should be ashamed of himself for his last ditch efforts to mislead Americans about John Kerry. George Bush and Dick Cheney turned their back on our troops by attempting to cut their combat pay while our troops faced enemy fire on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. They turned their back on our troops when they sent them into combat without the body and vehicle armor they needed, and then opposed reimbursing families who were forced to buy their loved ones this needed body armor. They turned their back on our troops by cutting funding for VA hospitals and by reducing the availability of health insurance.
George Bush has the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover, having lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs. As healthcare costs and gas prices continue to soar, the Kerry campaign takes to the airwaves to highlight why America deserves a new direction.
National Dietary Guidelines Rewritten to Favor Industry
National Dietary Guidelines Rewritten to Favor Industry
The federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, appointed last year by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, has rewritten national dietary guidelines for the American public in a manner that is "so vague as to be meaningless," a group of national nutrition experts is charging. [1]
According to OMB Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog organization, one reason for the watering down of federal recommendations for the consumption of carbohydrates, sugars and fats appears to be that the committee is stacked with members who have strong ties to the food, drug and dietary supplement industries. [2]
The committee includes members with ties to the American Council on Science and Health (an industry-supported group that repeatedly downplays food-related concerns, including those about trans fats); the International Food Information Council; Campbell Soup Company; Procter & Gamble; American Egg Board; the Peanut Institute; the American Cocoa Research Institute; the Sugar Association: the Kellogg Company; Warner-Lambert; National Dairy Council; National Dairy Board; Kraft; and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. [3]
However, the actual data in the committee report supporting the new, albeit vague, recommendations is solid, said Margo Wootan, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Now they just need to put it into language people can follow when they go to the grocery store or to a restaurant," she told BushGreenwatch.
At issue are such vaguely worded guidelines as, "Choose fats wisely for good health," and "Choose carbohydrates wisely for good health." These would replace previous statements that gave more specific advice, such as "Choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat," and "Choose beverages and foods to moderate your intake of sugars."
The letter, signed by 25 nutrition experts from universities across the country, points out that most Americans "are not nutritionists" and need clearer direction on what constitutes a healthy diet. The nutritionists propose language that clearly lays out what people should and should not eat, such as "eat less cheese, beef, pork, whole and 2% milk, egg yolks, pastries and other foods that are high in saturated fat, trans fat or cholesterol."
"People do not eat nutrients, they eat food," the letter states. "Providing advice about which foods to eat more of or less of is easier to understand and more effective than focusing on nutrients."
The letter also suggests that a guideline be included telling people to "drink fewer soft drinks and limit cake, cookies, frozen desserts, and other foods rich in refined sugars." [4]
OMB Watch reports that Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) has been concerned about industry influence over federal dietary guidelines. Fitzgerald introduced a bill last year that would have given the responsibility of issuing guidelines to the Institute of Medicine. "Putting the USDA in charge of dietary advice is in some respects like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse," he told Congress Daily. [5]
###
SOURCES: [1] Letter to Kathryn McMurry, HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, from 25 nutrition experts, Sep. 21, 2004. [2] "Industry Influence Weakens USDA Dietary Guidelines," OMB Watch, The OMB Watcher, Vol. 5, Oct. 4, 2004. [3] OMBwatch, op. cit. [4] Letter, op. cit. [5] OMBwatch, op. cit.
Packers Win -- Kerry’s in! Defeat of Redskins Historically Forecasts Bush Loss on Election Day
Wisconsin supporters of John Kerry and John Edwards had an extra reason to cheer the Packers victory over the Redskins today: over the past 17 presidential elections, the outcome of the Redskins’ final home game has determined the outcome of the election. According to history, if the Redskins win, the incumbent president remains in office. If they lose, the challenger wins.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled with the Packers win today,” Kerry said. “This streak started with Herbert Hoover, and will continue this week when George Bush, the only president since Hoover to lose jobs, loses his. When the Redskins get beat before the election, the incumbent loses. The Packers have done their part, this Tuesday, we’ll do ours.”
Important historical note: The historical precedent began in 1932 when the now-Washington Redskins were known as the Boston Braves. The Sunday before the election, the Braves did not win and Herbert Hoover, the last American president (before George Bush), to lose jobs over the course of his administration was defeated by FDR.
The Kerry-Edwards ticket heads into the final stretch of the campaign riding a wave of momentum. On Thursday, Kerry was joined by Bruce Springsteen and over 80,000 other supporters in Madison for the largest political rally in state history. Recent polling shows Kerry in a strong position as Election Day approaches, with the latest Zogby daily tracking poll giving Kerry an eight-point lead over Bush. One week ago, Kerry trailed in the Zogby tracking poll by three points.
Washington Redskins vs. The President
How the Washington Redskins franchise fared the game before presidential elections, and the elections’ outcomes:
2000: Tennessee 27, Redskins 21... Democrats lose White House (George W. Bush defeats Al Gore)
1996: Redskins 31, Indianapolis 16… Democrats keep it (Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole)
1992: New York Giants 24, Redskins 7… Republicans lose it (Clinton defeats George H.W. Bush)
1988: Redskins 27, New Orleans 24… Republicans keep it (Bush defeats Michael Dukakis)
1984: Redskins 27, Atlanta 14… Republicans keep it (Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale)
1980: Minnesota 39, Redskins 14… Democrats lose it (Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter)
To: President George W. Bush Vice President Dick Cheney
Re: Notice to vacate premises
Get out of John Kerry's and John Edward's houses! Please remove all personal items by Jan. 2005 and pick up all confetti strewn around shredding machines.
Polling firm Zogby International and partner Rock the Vote found Massachusetts Senator John Kerry leading President Bush 55% to 40% among 18-29 year-old likely voters in their first joint Rock the Vote Mobile political poll, conducted exclusively on mobile phones October 27 through 30, 2004. Independent Ralph Nader received 1.6%, while 4% remain undecided in the survey of 6,039 likely voters. The poll is centered on subscribers to the Rock the Vote Mobile (RTVMO) platform, a joint initiative of Rock the Vote and Motorola Inc. (for more information: http://www.rtvmo.com" title="http://www.rtvmo.com" target="_blank"http://www.rtvmo.com). The poll has margin of error of +/-1.2 percentage points
Their endorsements don't get the attention major dailies' picks do, but alternative weeklies are one of the players in this year's election effort to get out the important "youth vote." To the surprise of no one, the alts are going for Kerry.
Asked by Editor&Publisher to survey its member papers, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies provided this breakdown today:
30 for Kerry. 0 for Bush. 10 don't endorse.
Interesting tidbit: Nine of the Kerry papers backed Ralph Nader the last time around.
Also, four papers made their first presidential endorsement ever this year, and they all went for Kerry.
Watch This Special Film for the Presidential Election NOW
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This Presidential Election Special Edition of VOTERGATE was created as a free educational service to get out critical information to the public.
The New York Observer today endorsed John Kerry, in an editorial with one of the better summaries of why Americans should vote for John Kerry on November 2:
"John Kerry understands that disorder is dangerous in this world, that intelligence and rationality are the right partners to passion, resolve and principle. As he showed in his three focused and well-prepared debate performances with President Bush, he is a man of intensity and rationality, whose 30 years in public life have prepared him to restore America’s fundamental understanding of what it takes to be the "last, best hope on earth." A soldier of freedom, an American idealist, a public man with a tested private soul, he seems to understand that leadership in a democracy entails eliciting the better angels of our nature, and that greatness begins with goodness and surmounts in strength.
"John Kerry is the right choice now to lead our country."
Uncle Sam cutting job security News & Observer, NC - 8 hours ago ... operations manager with the US Army Corps of Engineers at Falls Lake in North Raleigh, says he welcomes a push for federal workers to compete for their own jobs ...
The Bush administration's reputation for tailoring scientific information to fit its political agenda was reinforced last week on the issue of global warming.
Halliburton, the big oil services conglomerate once headed by Dick Cheney, is again drawing embarrassing headlines over the contracts it was awarded in Iraq.
Japan on Sunday denounced the beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq after a day that saw the heaviest U.S. casualties for six months and the bloodiest attack on a media organization since the start of the war. Full Coverage
As a senator, John Kerry was a tenacious investigator and exposed BCCI, an international criminal bank, and its murderous clients. The experience should serve him well in dealing with the international threats we face today.
One gets an eerie sense of déjà vu watching John Kerry battle the Bush clan. He’s done it once before, against the old man, President Bush’s father, though many voters have probably forgotten. That battle involved the first Bush administration’s attempt to put the lid on an investigation that connected a worldwide criminal bank to narco-traffickers, terrorists, and to Middle East money men who helped the Bush family make piles of cash. Those links connect to people now on the U.S. post-9/11 terrorist list.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kerry fought to expose an international criminal bank, BCCI — the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. The bank was run by a Pakistani, working with Persian Gulf managers who operated through a network of secret offshore centers to hide their operations from the world’s bank examiners. They weren’t, however, hidden from the CIA, which not only knew what the bank was doing, but used the bank to funnel cash through its Islamabad and other Pakistani branches to CIA client Osama bin Laden, part of the $2 billion Washington sent to the Afghani mujahideen. The operation gave bin Laden an education in black finance. CIA director William Casey himself met with BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi. The CIA also paid its own agents through the bank and used BCCI to fund black ops all over the world.
Kerry took on not only the Bush clan and its friends, but the CIA, and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. This is not irrelevant history, but important to examine, because it reveals a lot about Kerry and how he might respond to terrorism or other global criminal enterprises. Kerry’s record shows that he took on powerful political and bureaucratic interests, was a tenacious investigator, and savvy about international crime and money flows, which is crucial in the fight against terrorism.
Against the opposition of powerful Republicans and Democrats, and in light of a lack of cooperation from a very politicized Justice Department and stonewalling by the CIA, Kerry worked with investigators and ran Senate hearings that exposed the bank’s shadowy multi-billion-dollar scams and precipitated its end.
The Bank and the CIA
BCCI was founded in 1972 by Pakistani banker Agha Hasan Abedi and initially capitalized by Sheik Zayed of Abu Dhabi. It incorporated in the bank secrecy jurisdiction of Luxembourg but operated out of London. During two decades, it expanded to 73 countries worldwide, with nearly a million depositors with accounts totaling more than $10 billion. When the bank was finally shut down nearly 20 years later, between $9.5 and $15 billion — the analysts differ — had been lost or stolen, making this the biggest bank fraud in the world.
The bank had carved out a niche: it was the banker to the bad guys. One U.S. indictment would say that money laundering was BCCI's "corporate strategy." BCCI survived for two decades because it floated on the waves of the offshore system, with key booking operations in Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands, where bank regulators couldn’t go. Its Grand Cayman "bank-within-a-bank" was just a post office box. The bank also had friends in high places in the U.S. and, of course, the wink and nod of the CIA and the Reagan-Bush administration, which depended on its services. Over the years, BCCI was involved with:
Drug cartels. As early as 1985, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the IRS found that BCCI was involved in laundering heroin money, with numerous branches in Colombia to handle accounts for the drug cartels. It ran accounts for the traffickers’ protector, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, as well as for the drug kingpins of Asia’s Golden Crescent, including Burmese heroin warlord Khun Sa, and for drug trafficking Afghanis and Pakistanis.
Illegal arms traders. For the Afghanis, the rule was “drugs out, American and British arms in.” Clients also included Middle East terrorist Abu Nidal, who used bank financing to get weapons; the sellers of nuclear technology to Pakistan; and Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar. The bank served international organized crime involved in extortion, bribery, kidnapping and murder, and ran accounts for Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier, Liberian strongman Samuel Doe and other thieving heads of state who needed to hide their stolen cash.
The Iran/Contra scandal. BCCI had a role in the infamous scandal of the Reagan years. The CIA told Noriega to use the bank for the payoffs he got for helping National Security Council (NSC) staffer Oliver North set up shell companies and secret bank accounts in Panama to illegally move funds to the Contras in Nicaragua and arms to Iran in 1985-86. North had arranged to illegally sell 1,250 U.S. Tow missiles to Iran in exchange for a promise that Teheran would press militants in Lebanon to release American hostages. Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi middleman and fixer, used a BCCI account to move $20 million for the illegal arms and money plot. BCCI prepared phony documents for the arms sale, and checks signed by North were drawn on the Paris branch of BCCI, which “had no records” of the account when U.S. law enforcement later sought them. The profits were sent to Nicaragua’s right wing Contra rebels, violating a congressional ban on such aid.
Saddam Hussein. During the Reagan-Bush support of Iraq as an adversary to Iran, BCCI funneled millions of dollars to Baghdad's banker in the U.S., the Atlanta branch of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, (an Italian bank), so that from 1985 to 1989 it could make $4 billion in secret loans to Iraq — money for arms. BNL was a client of Kissinger Associates, and Henry Kissinger was on the bank’s international advisory board along with Brent Scowcroft, who would become Bush Sr.’s National Security Advisor.
BCCI’s global connections also helped bring private profit to the Bushes. Former Senate investigator Jack Blum told me, “This whole collection of people were wrapped up in the Bush crowd in Texas.” Prominent Saudis played a key role: Khalid Bin Mahfouz, head of National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia, and a major investor and BCCI board member; Kamal Adham, brother-in-law of the late Saudi King Faisal, former head of Saudi intelligence and a major shareholder and frontman for BCCI, and; Ghaith Rashad Pharaon, a BCCI shareholder and front man for the bank’s illegal purchase of three U.S. banks.
Then there was James Bath, a Texas businessman, who owned Houston’s Main Bank with Bin Mahfouz and Pharaon. When George W. Bush set up Arbusto Energy Inc. in 1979 and 1980, Bath provided some of the financing. As it turned out, Bush was not much of a businessman, and when Arbusto needed a bailout, political connections eventually got him a buyout by Harken Energy Corp., which paid him $600,000 in stock and a $120,000-a-year consultancy.
BCCI-connected friends were there again with money to help when Harken got into trouble. Arkansas investment banker Jackson Stephens in 1987 worked out Harken’s debts by getting $25 million financing from Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), a partner with BCCI in the Swiss Banque de Commerce et de Placements. As part of that deal, a board seat was given to Harken shareholder Sheikh Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, whose chief banker was BCCI shareholder Bin Mahfouz.
Were the Bushes putting their financial interests ahead of American security? Given the Bush links to BCCI, it’s not surprising that the Bush administration tried to smother the investigation and prosecution of the bank.
It might have succeeded, were it not for New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau — and the junior Senator from Massachussetts, John Kerry.
Kerry The Investigator
As a former prosecutor, Kerry knew a lot about the workings of financial crime. Kerry pointed out how billions of dollars looted from U.S. savings and loans in the 1980s — after Ronald Reagan deregulated the thrift industry — had been stashed in secret offshore accounts. After he became head of the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Kerry had wanted to look into cocaine trafficking by Contras fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the connection to Oliver North’s illegal offshore Contra-support operation. So, in 1986, Kerry hired Washington lawyer Jack Blum to head the investigation.
Four books were written about BCCI in the early 1990s:
"False Profits" by Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin (Houghton Mifflin: 1992).
"A Full Service Bank," by James Ring Adams and Douglas Frantz (Pocket Books, 1992).
"Dirty Money," by Mark Potts, Nicholas Kochan and Robert Whittington (National Press Books, 1992).
"The Outlaw Bank," by Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne (Random House, 1993).
As an investigator for Senator Frank Church’s subcommittee on multinational corporations, Blum had exposed the Lockheed bribes and ITT’s attempts to destabilize the government of Salvador Allende in Chile.
“The Foreign Relations Committee was looking at the relationship between drug trafficking and arms dealing and the way we run foreign policy,” says Blum. “’Did we ignore all the stuff going on to support the war in Nicaragua?’ We got into the issue of money laundering.” Blum said he “stumbled across Lee Ritch,” who told the panel, “I used to launder my money in the Cayman Islands. The U.S. wised up, and the bankers told me to shift to Panama. In Panama, I’m told the only guy to talk to is Noriega. He sends me to BCCI.”
Blum says, “We go poking around. I found a guy who had worked for BCCI. I met him in Miami. He said, ‘That’s their major line of work. They’re a bunch of criminals.’ He goes on to say that in addition to handling drug money, they were managing Noriega’s personal finances and that the bankers who did that lived in Miami.” Noriega even carried a BCCI Visa credit card.
So Blum subpoenaed that information. He said, “There is a subplot between us and the federal government and prosecutors. We find out about coming arrests for money laundering [in an ongoing Tampa drug trafficking investigation], but the feds want to make only a limited case in Tampa; they don’t want to investigate other ramifications. Their story is they had their case and didn’t want it messed up with extraneous stuff. The notion the other stuff was extraneous boggles the mind.”
Blum began poking deeper and came across the CIA standing in the shadows. He found that during the 1980s, the CIA had prepared hundreds of reports that discussed BCCI’s criminal connections — drug trafficking, money laundering — and its control of Washington's First American Bank, part of an illegal plot to get into the U.S. banking system. He also found that this was accomplished with the help of major U.S. figures, including former Treasury Secretary Bert Lance, former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, former U.S. Sen. Stuart Symington, ex-federal bank regulators, and former and current local, state and federal legislators.
The CIA provided its reports to Treasury Secretary Donald Regan but not to the prosecutors in Tampa. The Treasury and Customs departments also sat on evidence. Kerry tried to get the Bush Justice Department to expand the Tampa investigation or to turn its information over to the FBI or other agencies. It refused.
Blum told me, “We started with laundering drug money, but then pursued it much further and got in testimony a pretty good layout of the criminal nature of the bank. Having done that, we wrote a report and said the matter needs further investigation. But the Justice Department doesn’t pick up on any of the clues. I talked to them. I got a leading figure in the bank to turn evidence to the government, which didn’t want to listen. I taped him for three days with undercover agents in a hotel room in Miami; the government didn’t transcribe the tapes.”
The chief Customs undercover agent who handled the drug sting against BCCI was so disgusted, he quit. The Justice Department ordered key witnesses not to cooperate with Kerry, and it refused to produce documents subpoenaed by his subcommittee. The CIA also stonewalled or lied to the Kerry investigators.
As a junior senator, Kerry was further hampered because his subcommittee mandate was limited to looking into terrorism and drugs. But even that investigation was bothering too many important people, so Clayborne Pell, a Democratic senator, shut it down.
Then the Justice Department closed the Tampa case with a plea bargain that let BCCI off the hook. Kerry was furious. He thought the crooked bank should be shut down. He said the deal kept the bank alive and discouraged bank officials from telling the U.S. what they knew about BCCI's larger criminality, including its ownership of First American and other U.S. banks. However, the bank relied on its friends. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) defended the plea bargain on the Senate floor, and then asked the bank to lend $10 million to a friend.
Following the plea agreement, the Justice Department stopped investigating BCCI for about 18 months. It even lobbied state regulators to keep BCCI open — after being urged to do that by former Justice Department personnel working for BCCI.
Kerry tried in 1990 and 1991 to get an investigation by the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Democrat Donald Riegle. But Riegle and four of the other members of his committee had gotten money from Charles Keating, head of Lincoln Savings and Loan, who was later convicted of fraud, and they weren’t interested in drawing attention to crooked banks.
Finally, Kerry got permission to run a one-day subcommittee hearing in May 1991. Then he started holding public hearings through the banking committee, which wouldn’t staff them; he had to use his own people. “Riegle considered himself a gentlemen, because he let Kerry do that,” says Blum. “Riegle is probably the most misnamed U.S. senator.”
The bank’s friends prevented more Kerry hearings, says Blum. “They got it out of Foreign Relations,” he recalled. “We later learned that BCCI, between September 1988 and July 1991 when the bank closed, spent $26 million on lawyers and lobbyists trying to keep themselves in business. They hired people on both sides to shut [the investigations] down.”
But, Blum adds, “They didn’t stop me from going to the New York County DA’s office with Kerry’s blessing to assure a prosecution would ensue.” Blum went to see New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and told him about the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate BCCI's involvement in drug money laundering and other crimes. The Justice Department and the Federal Reserve, run by Paul Volcker, refused to aid the DA’s investigation.
However, Morgenthau got a grand jury indictment of BCCI in July 1991. It said the bank and its founders had defrauded depositors, falsified bank records to hide illegal money laundering, committed millions of dollars in larcenies and paid off public officials. It charged that BCCI had been a criminal enterprise since 1972 and had paid millions of dollars in bribes to central bankers or other financial officials in a dozen developing countries. Morgenthau named Ghaith Pharaon as a front man for BCCI who had gotten a secret loan from the bank to invest in three U.S. banks.
The New York Fed — not Washington — also took action. It coordinated an action on the fourth of July weekend 1991 to shut BCCI down. And, finally, the DA’s investigation forced Washington to act, though it kept the case as limited as possible. Soon after, Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Mueller III (now head of the FBI) oversaw the indictment by a federal grand jury of Democratic influence-peddler and former Johnson Defense Secretary Clark Clifford and his protégé Robert Altman — the top officials of First American Bank — for misleading the Federal Reserve Board about BCCI's secret control of the bank and obstructing the Fed's inquiries into BCCI.
Altman got off after convincing the jurors that he — an executive worth multi-millions of dollars in pay and stock benefits — didn’t know who the bank’s true owners were. Clifford evaded trial because of the Pinochet defense: his health.
In September, the Justice Department came up with an indictment of top BCCI officials which focused only on drug-money laundering, not on fraud against the bank’s depositors. It ignored leads, witnesses and evidence that would have revealed the bank’s large scale frauds — and exposed CIA and Reagan-Bush use of the bank.
“When I first looked at it, I thought there’s something nefarious or embarrassing — what is it? Their own incompetence? Worse? You never know the answer,” says Blum. “There was the Fed, which looked stupider than hell, the Office of the Comptroller who were stupid beyond comprehension. The then head of CIA said, yes, the CIA had used the bank. Everything you touched about that bank led to somebody ugly. Margaret Thatcher’s husband and maybe son, the prime minister of Canada, a 'who’s who of politics and the worlds of skullduggery.”
In July 1992, a New York County grand jury indicted Khalid Bin Mahfouz and an aide for defrauding BCCI and its depositors of as much as $300 million. But Bin Mahfouz was in Saudi Arabia, out of reach, and in the end Morgenthau settled for a fine. The Fed fined Bin Mahfouz $170 million. The Justice Department didn’t go after Bin Mahfouz at all.
Federal prosecutors handling the Tampa drug money laundering indictment of BCCI did not use the information they collected to focus on — or report to federal agencies — BCCI’s other crimes, including its secret, illegal ownership of First American Bank.
The Justice, Treasury and Customs departments failed to support or aid investigators and prosecutors.
Following lobbying by former Justice officials working for BCCI, the U.S. attorney in Tampa accepted a plea agreement that kept BCCI alive and discouraged bank officials from revealing other crimes.
CIA chief Casey and the agency knew, by early 1985, a lot about what BCCI was up to and didn’t inform the Justice Department or the Federal Reserve.
“After the CIA knew that BCCI was, as an institution, a fundamentally corrupt criminal enterprise, it continued to use both BCCI and First American, BCCI's secretly held U.S. subsidiary, for CIA operations.”
The Federal Reserve approved the first hidden BCCI takeover despite evidence the bank was behind it because it was swayed by influence-peddlers such as Clifford and because the CIA and Treasury failed to raise warnings about what they knew.
There’s a lot about BCCI that outsiders will never know. Once the investigations started, there were seven fires in the fireproof London warehouses where BCCI stored records. In one of them, four firemen were killed.
Experience That Counts
During this presidential campaign, Kerry has talked a lot about his service in Vietnam, but he doesn’t take credit now for exposing BCCI, perhaps because he thinks it’s too complicated for the American public to understand the scandal. Yet, more than physical courage, what the U.S. needs is guts and smarts and the resolution and courage to fight scourges that range from terrorism to international crime to corporate corruption and tax evasion.
So, what if John Kerry the investigator gets elected President? He would be not only the nation’s president but also a bold crime investigator and prosecutor who knows how to — and is willing to — overcome obstacles, whether they be international criminals or U.S. power brokers, to “follow the money” and bring about justice.
Jack Blum, who is not involved in the Kerry campaign, says: “There has never been a guy who has run for president who has, hands-on, known the kinds of substantive things he knows about the world of international crime, about banking and international bank regulation and finance, about the interconnectedness of the world finance system and how various intelligence agencies play into it. He is uniquely qualified.”
Kerry’s experience fighting the Washington establishment over BCCI also gave him a profound education in the workings of the insider Washington power and corruption that support corporate and organized crime and weaken the country’s ability to counter terrorism. He showed that he has what it takes to stand up to the big-money special interests that don’t want the system to change.
Lucy Komisar, a New York-based journalist, is writing a book on the offshore bank & corporate secrecy system and international money laundering.
Deadliest day for U.S. in 6 months Iraq: Nine Marines die in combat and a bomb kills at least seven people outside a news network By Edward Wong The New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eight Marines were killed and nine others wounded west of the capital on Saturday when a suicide car bomb rammed into their convoy, military officials said, making it the deadliest day for the U.S. forces in half a year. The Marines later reported a ninth combat death Saturday but did not say whether it was in the car bombing or another action, The Associated Press reported. Efforts to contact the Marines for clarification were unsuccessful. In Baghdad, insurgents staged their first major assault on a news media organization by detonating a car bomb outside the offices of a popular Arab news network, killing at least seven people and wounding about 19 others, police and hospital officials said. The attack on the Marines took place near Abu Ghraib, the prison 15 miles west of Baghdad used by the Americans to hold detainees, said Capt. Bradley Gordon, a Marine spokesman. The military said in a terse statement that those killed were conducting ''increased security operations.'' Marines have been battling an increasingly lethal insurgency in rebellious Anbar province, which encompasses the parched lands of western Iraq and includes the provincial capital of Ramadi and the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. The bomb that killed seven in Baghdad exploded outside the offices of Al-Arabiya, the prominent network based in the United Arab Emirates. Insurgents drove a car packed with explosives right up to the network's offices in Mansour, an affluent neighborhood west of the Tigris River that has suffered from a surge of violence. An hour after the blast, a charred car chassis lay in the road as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi policemen raced to cordon off the site. Ambulances carried off bodies drenched in blood. A group calling itself the 1920 Brigades claimed responsibility in an Internet posting, saying that the network's workers were ''Americanized spies speaking in Arabic tongue.'' Al-Arabiya has covered the war with an anti-American angle and has been sharply criticized by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A decapitated body wrapped in an American flag and found in an insurgent-controlled section of Baghdad was that of a Japanese man kidnapped by Islamic militants, a Japanese official said today, The Associated Press reported. Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said in Tokyo that the government had confirmed that the body found Saturday was that of Shosei Koda, 24, a Japanese traveler being held by the militant group of Jordanian fighter Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ''It is to our great sorrow that after putting all our efforts into securing his release he has become a victim of terrorism,'' Machimura said. ''We cannot allow this kind of action. Japan, in cooperation with the international community . . . must continue the battle against terrorism.'' The deaths of the eight Marines came as the American military was making final preparations for an all-out invasion of Fallujah, the center of the Sunni-led insurgency and a suspected
haven for Zarqawi. Warplanes struck southern Fallujah on Saturday as artillery pounded the area. There was no immediate report of casualties. In the besieged city, a council of tribal and religious leaders awaited the arrival of a delegation from the interim National Assembly, which has been charged with helping negotiate a peace settlement and averting the planned American invasion. Peace talks have been continuing in spurts over the past few weeks, although neither side has expressed any optimism. The number of U.S. troops killed Saturday was the largest in a single day since May 2, when nine troops died in attacks across the country. In early April, 12 Marines were killed in an ambush in Ramadi. Right after that ambush, the military said the Marines had been killed in an insurgent attack on a base or outpost. But in recent interviews, Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, which took charge of Ramadi in early September, said guerrillas had killed the 12 Marines in a roadway ambush while they were riding in unarmored or very lightly armored vehicles. Since then, insurgents have used car bombs with deadly effect against U.S. troops. On Sept. 6, one such bomb tore through a convoy carrying American and Iraqi troops near Fallujah, killing seven Marines and three Iraqi security officers. Four months earlier, a car bomb killed eight soldiers from the 1st Armored Division near Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. The bomb outside the Al-Arabiya office in Baghdad exploded in the midafternoon, with the blast heard for miles. The explosive-laden car had pulled up to the gate, about 9 to 13 feet from the office building itself, said Najwa Qasim, a correspondent for the network. A deep pit marked the spot where the bomb went off. Large parts of the building collapsed, and at least three staff members were killed, Qasim said. Al-Arabiya's offices are surrounded by the homes of Iraqi officials and are just blocks from the residence of Adnan Pachachi, a prominent member of the former Iraqi Governing Council. A recruiting center for the Iraqi police sits nearby, and U.S. soldiers in Humvees often patrol the leafy suburb. The Mansour District has grown increasingly dangerous in recent weeks. A car bomb exploded there last month, and two U.S. engineers and a Briton were kidnapped from their home around the same time and later beheaded by Zarqawi's group.
Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost-writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
That President Bush and his advisers had Iraq on their minds long before weapons inspectors had finished their work -- and long before alleged Iraqi ties with terrorists became a central rationale for war -- has been raised elsewhere, including in a book based on recollections of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. However, Herskowitz was in a unique position to hear Bush's unguarded and unfiltered views on Iraq, war and other matters -- well before he became president.
According to Herskowitz, who has authored more than 30 books, many of them jointly written autobiographies of famous Americans in politics, sports and media (including that of Reagan adviser Michael Deaver), Bush and his advisers were sold on the idea that it was difficult for a president to accomplish an electoral agenda without the record-high approval numbers that accompany successful if modest wars.
Herskowitz also revealed the following:
-- In 2003, Bush's father indicated to him that he disagreed with his son's invasion of Iraq.
-- Bush admitted that he failed to fulfill his Vietnam-era domestic National Guard service obligation, but claimed that he had been "excused."
-- Bush revealed that after he left his Texas National Guard unit in 1972 under murky circumstances, he never piloted a plane again. That casts doubt on the carefully-choreographed moment of Bush emerging in pilot's garb from a jet on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 to celebrate "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. The image, instantly telegraphed around the globe, and subsequent hazy White House statements about his capacity in the cockpit, created the impression that a heroic Bush had played a role in landing the craft.
-- Bush described his own business ventures as "floundering" before campaign officials insisted on recasting them in a positive light.
-- Bush said that leadership meant never admitting a mistake
As a Sportsman I have been told since I was old enough to remember about "widowmakers". These are dead trees that are leaning and ready to topple at the slightest movement, or live trees that have weak root structures and are merely being suspended by other trees.
If you walk under one of those trees at the wrong time your wife will be a widow from thereafter, hence the term.
I was just thinking about how many widows the Shrub has made. Apparently they need to add a new meaning for that term.
Beware a small species of shrub that multiplies quickly and surrounds you with roots of oil and limbs of soldiers.
"War is a come-as-you-are party. The way a unit was resourced when someone rang the bell is the way it showed up." - LT. GEN. C. V. CHRISTIANSON, Army deputy chief of staff for logistics.
As Iraq Elections Near, Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500 U.S. Soldiers By THOM SHANKER The step was the first that the military has taken to increase its combat power in Iraq in preparation for the January elections.
Proposed New Appeals Process for Dams Angers Several Groups By FELICITY BARRINGER A proposal to create a unique appeals process for hydropower companies seeking relief from regulations intended to protect fish and other wildlife is prompting criticism.
Threat to Close Emergency Airfield in Pacific Upsets Airlines By MATTHEW L. WALD The airlines say an administration plan to shut an airfield at Midway Atoll would force many two-engine planes flying between North America and Asia to make a long detour.
The Sunday Telegraph of London was the only news organization to report that Osama bin Laden had justified the Sept. 11 attacks in a recent video circulating among his supporters. Four days later, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain cited that video as evidence of Mr. bin Laden's complicity.
It was Anthony Loyd, a Times of London reporter, who discovered documents in an abandoned house in Kabul said to contain instructions on how to make a nuclear device.
And when Mullah Muhammad Omar, the spiritual leader of the Taliban, wanted to express his defiance after his troops' ragged retreat on Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corporation said that he telephoned its World Service network in London. As the BBC recorded, a Taliban aide in Kandahar held a telephone receiver up to a walkie-talkie as Mullah Omar shouted from the other end.
In a week of dramatic, rapidly changing news, British news organizations have broken a noticeable number of news accounts that are not solely a reflection of the competitive zeal of British reporters. Ever since the September attacks on the United States, the British government has shown itself to be far more forthcoming and sophisticated than the White House in giving out information. But in the case of the bin Laden videotape cited by Mr. Blair, no television news organization in Britain or the United States has been able to obtain a copy. Even Mr. Blair relied on a written transcript. British officials would not discuss intelligence sources but said that the prime minister would not rely on the information unless it was 100 percent certain. When asked about the tape, a White House official suggested that questions be directed to 10 Downing Street. Anna Perez, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said, "We have not seen it."
The reticence to release the videotape may have led to one of the more paradoxical twists in the coalition's media campaign: the footage that is said to show Mr. bin Laden at his worst, gloating over the thousands killed on Sept. 1
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