How
the Press & the CIA
Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 31,
2004
Farrah Hassen
The
Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria
Dave Lindorff
US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free!
George Capaccio
Tsunami Hits Iraq
Mike Whitney
Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity
Peter Phillips
The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy
Christopher
Deliso
War
and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective
December 30,
2004
Lila Rajiva
Unnatural
Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing
Robert Fisk
The
Ghosts of Vietnam
Roger Burbach
Argentina
v. the IMF
Stan Cox
9/11 and 12/26: How to React
Walter Brasch
Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford
Christopher Brauchli
Empire of the Misers
Alexandra Spieldoch
NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and
Women
Paul Kincaid Jameison
Grief, Relief and the Stingy West
Dan Bacher
The Water Kings of California
Paul Craig
Roberts
Unbecoming
Conduct
December 29,
2004
Dave Lindorff
Us,
Stingy?: It's All Relative
M. Shahid Alam
America
and Islam: Seeking Parallels
Ronald D. Hoffman
Tsunamis
and Nuclear Power Plants
Sam Bahour
/ Todd May
Elections
Without Democracy
Fred Gardner
Ricky Does 60 Minutes
Ali Khan
Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend?
John Hansen
Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks
Sam Lewin
How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux
Richard Oxman
As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy
Mickey Z.
A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context
Website of the Day
Banking While Muslim
December 28,
2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go
Joshua Frank
Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
Jessica Leight
The
Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye
Dave Lindorff
A
Shameful Response to Disaster
John Walsh
Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs
Dave Zirin
The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a
Lot of Good Christians
Ron Jacobs
Iran
2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement
December 27,
2004
M. Junaid Alam
"Civilization
v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Michael Donnelly
Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution"
Greg Moses
Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper
Toni Solo
Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open
Brian Kwoba
Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections
Genna Goodman-Campbell
Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again
Mike Whitney
Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media
Ari Shavit
"Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos
Elon
Richard Oxman
Reflections on a Handful of Activists
Saul Landau
James
Cason's Cuban Delusions
December 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Yup,
It's Moral Outrage Time
Diane Christian
The Christmas Christ
Dr. Susan Block
Faith-Based Sex
Gary Leupp
Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft
Ron Jacobs
Music in Wartime
Elaine Cassel
Articles I Didn't Write
Jim Minick
Beyond Organic
Poets Basement
Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert
and Collins
December 24,
2004
Diane Christian
Winning:
Rummy and John Milton
Chad Nagle
Ukraine's
Real Underdog
Saul Landau
My Friend Richard Barnet
Greg Moses
Ramsey Muniz Speaks
Joe DeRaymond
The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within
Borzou Daragahi
Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation
Mike Whitney
Rummy's Quagmire of Lies
Francis A. Boyle
O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation
William Loren
Katz
Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
December 20,
2004
Gary Leupp
Japan
in Iraq
Robert Fisk
An
Army Without Compassion
Uri Avnery
The Mountain and the Mouse
Francisco Letelier
My Case Against Pinochet
Patrick Cockburn
The Polls of Fear
Bill Conroy
Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood"
Yoshie Furuhashi
Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
David Swanson
Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor
Chad Nagle
Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?
December 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
They Hated Gary Webb
Saul Landau
Gen.
Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC
Patrick Cockburn
Losing
Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation
Douglas Valentine
Wolves
and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance
Ray McGovern
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance
Fred Gardner
DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
Jean-Guy Allard
Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been
Tortured in US Prisons?
Ron Jacobs
Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police
Raymond G.
Helmick, S.J.
The Law and Peace in the Middle East
Sean Sellers
Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos
Lee Sustar
Christmas
on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions"
Richard Thieme
Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked
Him"
Sam Bahour
WANTED:
Middle East Negotiator
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
Dave Lindorff
A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing
Stan Cox
What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi
Chris Frasier
Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs
Poets' Basement
Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford
December
17, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend Edition
January 15 / 16, 2005
The Origins of a Master of the World
Unspooking
Frank Carlucci
By
SUZAN MAZUR
I remember getting stuck more than once
in winter blizzards at Bear Creek the northeast Pennsylvania
boyhood home of Carlyle Group's Frank Carlucci. Route 115 cuts
through the woods there before winding down the mountain to where
I grew up in the 1960s -- Wyoming Valley.
Bear Creek was aptly named.
In the 1940s when Carlucci lived there, it was still a vast forest
of pine and hemlock set off by a 100-acre lake. Settlement first
began following George Washington's call in 1778 for troops to
cut a swathe through to Wilkes-Barre and even the score with
Indians and Tories who'd attacked local residents. It developed
into a lumber and ice company town in the 1800s and later into
a mountain getaway for the Wyoming Valley elite. A place where
a kid could watch the evolution of ferns undisturbed. Peer through
streams and dote on mossy pebbles. Get their dog drunk, etc.
Bear Creek is still a wonderland despite commercial winter sports,
suburban development and the remaking of lumber baron Al Lewis's
19th century Tudor mansion into a hotel adjacent to Bear Creek
dam.
Carlucci revelled in the outdoors
at Bear Creek. But he felt otherwise unchallenged living in the
region and promptly left upon graduation -- cum laude,
class of '48 from Wyoming Seminary prep school in Kingston:
"Where the Susquehana's waters/Kiss her golden sands,/'Mid
the hills of fair Wyoming,/Alma Mater stands."
Ironically, it would be Carlucci's official appointment to northeast
Pennsylvania as "flood czar" in 1972 24 years
later not his exotic Foreign Service postings in between
in the 1960s, that would first bring him national prominence.
Serving as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget
in Washington, D.C., Carlucci was handpicked by President Nixon
and tasked with undoing the destruction wrought by Hurricane
Agnes. Agnes had soaked Wyoming Valley with 14 trillion gallons
of water, breaking the banks of the Susquehana River. The storm
sent flood waters 40 feet deep and two miles wide coursing through
the quaint little towns there. Four people died, 64,000 homes
and 3,000 small businesses were damaged.
Carlucci brought in the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild dikes
and install dams in the upper tiers of the river. Prior to this,
local residents lived in fear of the floodwaters of the mighty
Susquehana, much like the Valley's previous inhabitants
the Shawnee, Nanticoke and Iroquois. OMB Deputy Director Carlucci
funneled $2.1 billion dollars to northeast Pennsylvania to rebuild
the infrastructure.
In the process, he also helped to save Wyoming Seminary. It was
the first time federal money a $3.4 million grant
would be used to "bail out" a church-related (Methodist)
private school, which some, including former Seminary French
and civics professor Herb Quick, said was "perhaps even
unconstitutional". Quick said the principal contractor for
the reconstruction was Grosik & Sons, but that Sordoni Construction
was also involved in the cleanup at Seminary as well as at King's
College (a Catholic school) across the river in Wilkes-Barre.
Quick's impressions of Carlucci are otherwise positive, "One
genuinely expects not a great deal from politicians . . . but
there was a certain calm, knowledge, control. When on television
he [Carlucci] seemed to be seriously concerned about his responsibilities.
Competent, lacking in arrogance."
Theodore Abbot, a former Seminary
professor of Carlucci's commented to Wilkes Barre's Sunday
Independent newspaper at the time of the flood that "Frank
Carlucci never came into my classes unprepared", and he
described Carlucci "walk[ing] around the devastated areas
with his wife and young child in his arms."
The late Daniel J. Flood (Dem
NE PA), who chaired the House appropriations committee
for Labor, Health, Education and Welfare from 1967 - 1979, also
helped to channel flood relief dollars. Congressman Flood was
a former Shakespearean actor who wore a waxed whiplash mustache
and was known inside the Beltway as "Dapper Dan".
In Wyoming Valley, Flood was a hero and had an elementary school
named after him. But he would leave office in disgrace after
31 years, pleading guilty in 1980 to "conspiracy to violate
federal campaign laws". He was given a year's probation.
Flood's former aide, Stephen Elko, quoted in Time magazine,
March 1978, described him as "Congress's most successful
'muscler,' an official who used his considerable influence to
direct federal contracts to people and companies that said 'thank
you' in cash."
Carlucci remained "above
reproach" during those same years moving seamlessly
from appointment to appointment. He was a Foreign Service officer
from 1956 - 1969, Assistant Director and then Director of the
Office of Economic Opportunity (69-71), Associate Director and
then Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget (71-72),
Undersecretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
(72-74), Ambassador to Portugal (75-78) and Deputy Director of
the CIA (79-81).
Prior to this, he studied at Princeton. He was a Woodrow Wilson
fellow. At Princeton, Carlucci roomed and wrestled with the current
Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Also in the class of '52
was future Secretary of State and Carlyle crony, James Baker.
But friends say the Foreign
Service was Carlucci's "first love". Following Princeton,
two years in the Navy on the West Coast and studies at Harvard
Business School, Carlucci took up FSO posts in South Africa,
Congo, Zanzibar and Brazil.
He has been accused of having
a role in the 1960s plot to assassinate the democratically elected
leader of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, while serving at the US
embassy in Congo. But Carlucci has denied any involvement.
According to a 1973 Wyoming Seminary press release, however,
he was attacked in an unrelated encounter with fists and sticks
by an angry Congolese mob and stabbed in the back after a car
in which he was riding with an army colonel hit and killed a
Congolese bicyclist. He was subsequently tagged as an "undesirable"
and "ejected" from the Congo, although the State Department
would later present him with a "Superior Service Award"
for his courage there.
So when Raoul Peck's film Lumumba was released, Carlucci
had his lawyers pressure the distributor to remove him from the
HBOpresentation. Carlucci said the scene was a "cheap shot"
and he commented to reporters at the film's premiere, "I
was never as fat as that guy."
More recently, a source who
was in Congo/Zaire and knew the diplomatic and foreign business
community, said that they believe the system is to blame for
the murder of Lumumba not simply a man or a handful of men. But
they've also said some of the secrets of what happened may rest
with Belgian-born diamond dealer Maurice Tempelsman, companion
of the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
According to New York-based
author Lucy Komisar, the Belgian government has now apologized
to the Lumumba family for its role in the killing of Patrice
Lumumba. And Janine Farrell Roberts, author of Blood Stained
Diamonds has noted that the (Frank) Church Committee reports
as well as declassified State Department documents reveal Belgium,
the US and Mobutu Sese Seko all plotted to bring Lumumba down.
Janine Roberts explains that Tempelsman was a middleman for De
Beers and often helped to shape US foreign policy. She writes:
"When Lumumba, Congo's
first elected leader, spoke of using the Congo's resources to
benefit the Congo, DeBeers feared it would lose access to the
one third of the world's diamond supply in the Congo as
would also Tempelsman. Shortly after this, the CIA facilitated
Lumumba's assassination. . . . Immediately after Lumumba's death,
the Acting Prime Minister of the Congo, Adoula, announced support
for a very major Tempelsman diamond deal, telegramming this to
President Kennedy."
Roberts also cites historian
Richard Mahoney regarding the Adoula regime receiving funds from
Tempelsman, refering to a State Department memo: "Congo
Diamond Deal: stated 'The State Department has concluded that
it is in the political interest of the US to implement this proposal.'
(2 August 1961)."
Roberts adds that immediately after Mobutu came to power, "Tempelsman
became an even bigger player in the Congo recruiting his
own staff from those CIA staffers that Mobutu most favored that
put him in power. [This concurs with my source, who says Tempelsman's
offices in Africa were CIA fronts.] Mobutu also at this time
gave Tempelsman, as a 'Christman Gift', rich mineral resources."
And Roberts says Tempelsman then facilitated "the return
of the Oppenheimers to the Congo. . ."
Moreover, Roberts tells of
a plot against Ghana's President Nkrumah in which "the State
Department wrote a furious letter to Maurice Tempelsman saying
that his office, by using an unguarded phone line, had betrayed
the identity of the plotters against Nkrumah and the identity
of the CIA Head of Station. The plotters seemingly were communicating
to the White House via Tempelsman's office (memorandum for the
President from WW Rostow, 24 September 1961)."
On the heels then of Carlucci's African adventures and his successful
handling of the Agnes flood in Pennsylvania, he began a rapid
climb in public life culminating in the positions of Deputy Director
of the CIA, National Security Advisor, Assistant Secretary and
then Secretary of Defense before leaving to join the Carlyle
Group, first as a Managing Director and later as Chairman of
the Board the deal closer. But it is Carlucci's Pennsylvania
years that give a glimpse of the man before he slips into the
shadows.
Frank Carlucci III was born
in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1930. Anthracite coal mining fueled
the economy there. But Carlucci's first years of life were in
an environment now gripped by the Depression, where the demand
for anthracite was beginning to disappear. By 1935, 30%-40% of
the labor force was jobless.
Being tough was a necessary survival skill midst the region's
mix of immigrant families and the social upheavals that followed
their arrival. One in five residents was an immigrant in the
1930s -- Russians, Lithuanians, Poles, Italians -- and a powerful
anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Klu Klux Klan sprang up in northeastern
Pennsylvania in "challenge". The Klan operated in the
area until WWII, although crosses were still being burned in
Clark Summit as late as the 1970s.
By the end of WWII, coal mines began shutting down, giving way
to the oil era even though 19.6 billion tons of anthracite
coal remains in the ground today. And while the KKK also began
to shut down, protection rackets took their place.
Wilkes Barre's Sunday Independent newspaper reported,
June 8, 1947, that no one dared say who the $15,000-$30,000 per
week to cover the rackets (horse race parlors, prostitution,
slots, numbers and gambling dens) was going to, but that several
hundred people were believed to be involved in Wilkes Barre alone.
Perhaps to avoid the rough
crowd, Carlucci's father, Frank Carlucci II, moved the family
to Bear Creek. Friends say the other reason was that young Frank's
mother died. He was 13 years old a profoundly difficult
age for a boy to lose his mother.
Though Carlucci's father remarried, relocating the family to
Bear Creek was intended to bring them closer to his first wife's
family, the Magagnas, who also lived there. Carlucci was especially
fond of his Uncle "Wish". His childhood home at Sands
Spring Run, Bear Creek was intact up until a couple of years
ago when it got washed away in a flash flood.
Carlucci's father was a life insurance agent for Connecticut
Mutual and a graduate of Lafayette College where he belonged
to a Waspy fraternity. The family roots were Italian but the
family were not practicing Catholics; they worshiped at a nondenominational
Protestant church in Bear Creek.
Carlucci's grandfather, Frank
Carlucci I, was an immigrant from southern Italy. He was one
of the contractors who built Wyoming Valley's landmark courthouse.
He also built federal offices in Washington, D.C. in the 1920s.
So the family was not poor, and it did have some Washington connections
early on.
The year they moved to Bear Creek, 1943, Carlucci's father enrolled
him as a freshman at Wyoming Seminary. Because of unpredictable
roads in winter, Carlucci boarded at Seminary. He was a work/study
student; he waited tables and worked in the kitchen.
Seminary friends remember him as serious, conscientious, "not
a chatterbox". Clark Conlan, a friend from Bear Creek who
went on to a career in law, also serving in federal government
for a while, said "Frank was very focused, very aggressive,
mentally and physically tough" but not without humor, citing
the time he and Carlucci got Carlucci's Irish Setter "Sparta"
drunk on beer.
Carlucci excelled academically but also threw himself into athletics.
He was voted best athlete in his senior year at Seminary. Dan
Briody writes in his book The Iron Triangle that Carlucci's
father referred to him as "my tough little monkey".
Conlan says father and son had the same short wiry stature.
Living at Bear Creek gave Carlucci the opportunity to develop
his upper body strength by chopping trees. And he routinely swam
the length of Bear Creek lake.
Though just 5'6", Carlucci also played football. Some
of his teammates were hulky WWII vets and the Seminary Blue Knights
faced-off against the plebes at West Point. Carlucci was also
a star wrestler.
An account in the February
15, 1948 Sunday Independent highlights one of Carlucci's
moments on the mat at Columbia University. "One of the best
matches of the night was in the 145 pound class when Frank Carlucci
won over [Erwin] Naumann in an exciting match [8-0 decision]
which had the followers of both teams on their feet throughout
the encounter."
Seminary also wrestled Army,
Navy, Bucknell and Blair Academy where former Penthouse magazine
publisher Bob "Goose" Guccione was on the team. Guccione
was considered a master at not only wrestling, but shot put and
"bull throwing" according to his 1948 yearbook
however, the Independent (February 16, 1947) reports
Guccione lost in a 3-1 decision to his Seminary opponent Val
Jones. Guccione was also a Blair Academy classmate and friend
of Colombian businessman Eduardo Puyana, the late father-in-law
of former Colombian President Andres Pastrana, who was murdered
about 10 years ago in Colombia.
Carlucci shared his enthusiasm
for sports with girls. He and Barbara Clark, the daughter of
a Wyoming Valley banker, frequented Dallas's Masonic Irem Temple
Country Club when its 1,200 foot toboggan slide opened in 1946.
After a day of sledding, Clark said they'd go over to her house
for cheese sandwiches.
"We'd be so tired after a workout, that Frank would then
just go home." Clark said "Frank was easy, quiet, thinking
about things". Clark's brother Peter who occasionally joined
them sledding, later wrestled with Carlucci at Princeton. Clark's
husband, a retired lawyer, also attended Princeton with Carlucci.
Clark said she and Frank had some movie dates -- "more friendly"
than romantic. She told me by phone from Denver, Colorado where
she now lives, that Frank has turned up when asked to speak at
her foreign policy group meetings there in recent years. Perhaps
en route to Rumsfeld's ski condo.
Clark said she "went right
out and bought The Iron Triangle. It was incredible, but
it's there." The only sign Clark said there was of Briody's
portrait of Frank Carlucci was that "he was kind of preoccupied".
Carlucci told Clark that as Carlyle chair emeritus he still goes
to the office every day.
Clark served on Wyoming Seminary's Civil Court over which Carlucci
presided, despite her reputation as the "most revolutionary
female" in the class (she claims the honor was a misprint
in the records). The court was a disciplinary body designed to
"inculcate higher moral action" and "protect the
large majority from the dishonesty and thoughtlessness of a small
minority", particularly regarding theft of property.
Seminary nurtured Carlucci's interest in matters of security
and order. Former classmates say Carlucci felt "responsible"
for others. That he was a natural for the big stage in federal
government.
As national security advisor for Ronald Reagan, Carlucci's concern
for order would crystallize:
"Normally a state of martial law will be proclaimed by the
President. However, in the absence of such action by the President,
a senior military commander may impose martial law in an area
of his command where there had been a complete breakdown in the
exercise of government functions by local civilian authorities."
More recently, at a 1996 Hearing of the Commission on the Roles
and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community,
he said:
"Clearly despite the end
of the Cold War, we need clandestine intelligence. While the
former Soviet Union doesn't exist any more, and Russia and the
other former Soviet Union States are far more open societies,
many of our targets are very closed societies. Countries like
Iraq, Iran, North Korea [emphasis added]
have achieved enhanced importance from an intelligence point
of view. . . .[Carlucci would find common ground with the neocons
at Project for the New American Century the following year.]
I don't happen to favor an
intelligence czar. I suspect that most of you don't as well.
But I do agree that the DCI authorities can be strengthened.
. . . Probably the hardest question the intelligence community,
indeed the policy community (the executive branch and Congress)
faces, is how to generate more public support for our intelligence
community. . . . The solution a lot of people come up with is
openness. I frankly am not convinced. I think it's a bit of an
oxymoron to have an open intelligence organization, and I do
think, listening Senator Warner, to your questions to Admiral
Inman, that opening it up simply leads to more demands. Almost
by definition the bad stuff comes out and the good stuff has
to remain secret."
Curiously, Carlucci's 1948
senior class yearbook photo says he had "no particular attitude
toward girls". Barbara Clark, however, told me that Nancy
Heffernan, was "Frank's girl". She was a year older
and the daughter of Tom Heffernan, publisher of The Sunday Independent
newspaper.
Carlucci has married twice.
He met his first wife, Jean, while he was in the Navy on the
West Coast, according to Clark Conlon. They had one child --
Frank Carlucci IV, now an executive with Avaya. Carlucci's second
wife is Marcia. They have a daughter Kristen. Conlon says Carlucci
also has a younger sister, Joan, and that she left Bear Creek
after her six-year old son drowned in the lake.
Nancy Heffernan is now married to a retired Dartmouth professor
and living in Vermont. She denies that she was "Frank's
girl", but admitted in a phone conversation that they "dated"
and were usually chaperoned.
What was Carlucci like as a date? I asked Heffernan. "He
was about 5'6"", she said guardedly. But Carlucci was
not, for instance, Heffernan's date for the Seminary junior prom
when she was crowned queen, as reported in the Sunday Independent.
That would have been Granville Sowden -- several inches taller
-- who presided over the civil court on Tuesday afternoons.
Heffernan noted that the family-owned paper became "increasingly
complicated to publish" and ceased operation five or six
years ago.
I brushed by another Carlucci classmate, Jean Hughes, a petite
woman dressed in "Chanel", on my way out of Max Bartikowsky's
jewelry store in Wilkes-Barre. Bartikowsky, who still has a bit
of a shock of his famous red hair, wrestled with Carlucci at
Seminary; he described Carlucci as a natural athlete.
Hughes and Carlucci met in the 8th grade at Bear Creek. She says
she remembers boating and the drive-in movies, but usually with
a collection of friends. "Innocent" dates. She says
she still keeps in touch with Carlucci and last visited him in
the 70s at the White House when he was with HEW.
Charles Bufalino was a fellow
class officer and voted "most likely to succeed".
Clark Conlan said Charlie, now a West Pittston lawyer, "had
a cross to bear" because of associations made to his relative
-- the late Russell Bufalino, a man many believe was central
to the disappearance of Teamster's boss, Jimmy Hoffa. Jamie Bufalino,
a more recent graduate of Wyoming Seminary, is Time Out
magazine's "social" columnist in New York.
Carlucci's Pennsylvania contacts
would eventually come in handy in business dealings as Chairman
of Carlyle. He was Carlyle's point man in acquiring Harrisburg-based
Harsco's defense division, which became United Defense. United
Defense has supplied a stream of combat vehicles and support
weapons to the US war in Iraq, although Carlyle has now sold
off its shares in the defense company, partly to save itself
from mounting criticism from investors, like the Los Angeles
County Employees Retirement Association as well as the media.(Click
here: HOW BUSH GOT
BOUNCED FROM CARLYLE BOARD - Suzan Mazur, Progressive Review.)
At the time of Carlyle's acquisition,
a key member of Harsco's Executive, Management Development and
Corporate Governance committees was Andrew Sordoni III, Chairman
of Sordoni Construction, one of the companies that rebuilt Wyoming
Seminary after the flood. Andrew Sordoni is also a former Pennsylvania
Secretary of Commerce. Andrew's brother, George Sordoni, is Chairman
of the Board of Trustees of Wyoming Seminary. Carlucci also served
on the Board of Trustees for a period of time and Frank Carlucci
IV now serves on Seminary's President's Council.
It is a small world. And even
though northeastern Pennsylvania blizzards are rare these days,
tracks in the snow there still get covered up pretty quickly
. . .
Suzan Mazur's reports have appeared in the Financial Times,
Economist, Forbes, Newsday and Philadelphia Inquirer, among other
publications, and on PBS, CBC and MBC. She has been a guest on
McLaughlin, Charlie Rose and various Fox television news programs.
She can be reached at: sznmzr@aol.com
|