[December 11, 2003] TAMPA - As embarrassing as it is for federal court officials, the erroneous shredding of thousands of files is not expected to be hugely disruptive to the justice system, several defense lawyers said Wednesday.
The shredding, which took place between 1998 and 2002, came to light this week when it was disclosed that original search warrants and affidavits in the Sami Al-Arian prosecution were destroyed.

U.S. Magistrate Thomas B. McCoun III has informed lawyers he intends to try to reconstruct the files relating to 1995 searches of Al-Arian's home and offices. Lawyers are researching the legal issues.

The legal community was abuzz Wednesday with talk about the unprecedented destruction of every magistrate file from mid-1996 and earlier. The files were wiped out by employees in the Tampa court clerk's office in a misguided effort to make room for new files, according to Sheryl Loesch, clerk of the court for the Middle District of Florida, which includes the Tampa courthouse.

"I can't imagine that files that have some relevancy to pending investigations would be shredded,'' said defense lawyer Barry Cohen. The shredding "seems to be to be an act of irresponsibility.''...........

"I think it will be just a few cases that will be affected, but they could be affected in a very significant way,'' said defense lawyer John Fitzgibbons, a former federal prosecutor. "I don't view dozens and dozens of cases being affected at this stage.''......

But one lawyer is worried about the harm this does to the local historic record, particularly since some of the files that were shredded were sealed by the court and had never been available for public viewing.

"No sealed records should ever be destroyed,'' said Rochelle A. Reback, who noted that there were public corruption investigations during the time in question. "Destruction of the record of facts or allegations or the results of investigations would be a monumental loss to the historical record.''

The files that were destroyed in the Al-Arian case were unsealed in 1996 after The Tampa Tribune requested they be made public.

Loesch said employees in the Tampa clerk's office shredded the files under the direction of local managers who misinterpreted official court policy governing the destruction of records. .........

Loesch said she doesn't know of any other case where this has happened. "I think we're paving the way,'' she said ruefully.

"Sheik Rahman...visited Al-Arian's home and spoke at his mosque, the affidavit says. But it offers no details on when the alleged visit occurred or why. ICP [Islamic Committee for Palestine] records show the sheik also spoke at one of the group's annual conferences."

"Western officials say [Sudanese diplomat Elfatih] Hassanein, who studied medicine in Yugoslavia and set up the Third World Relief Agency in 1987, apparently turned it into the chief broker of black-market weapons deals by Bosnia's Muslim-led government and the agent of money and influence in Bosnia for Islamic movements and governments around the world......
Investigators say the agency also had ties to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a radical Egyptian cleric who was convicted of planning several terrorist bombings in New York and is linked to the group that carried out the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. Intelligence agencies say they have tapes of telephone calls by Rahman to the agency's office, during which he discussed its commitment to sell the sheik's videotapes and sermons in mosques around Europe."

[December 12, 2003] The following material is an edited transcript of Taiwan-related portions of the press briefing given to White House reporters by White House Spokesman Scott McClellan after Tuesday's meeting between United States President George W. Bush and People's Republic of China Premier Wen Jiabao

Many of the reporters, mainly from European as well as U.S. media, sharply questioned McCellan on the apparent hypocrisy in Washington's alleged shift in position on Taiwan and reluctance to support the island country's democratic progress in the face of threats from the PRC.

Question: Why is the President opposing the exercise of the democratic self-determination by the people of Taiwan when he says that that's a cornerstone of his policy worldwide?

McClellan: Well, our policy remains the same. And the President, in the meeting, made it very clear that we support the one China policy and the Taiwan Relations Act, which is part of the three joint communiques, and that we do not support Taiwan independence...The President made it very clear that the United States opposes any unilateral attempt to change Taiwan's status, or to change the status quo. The President also made it clear that that applies to both Beijing's possible use of force and Taiwan itself, including referenda and constitutional reform that would change the status quo.

Question: The President does not support Taiwan independence under any circumstances?

McClellan: We have made it very clear that we do not support Taiwan independence. We support the one China policy, which is part of the three joint communiques. The President believes it's important to continue urging both sides to refrain from actions or statements that increase tensions or make dialogue more difficult to achieve.........

Question: The Taiwanese make the point that the referendum they have proposed is not about independence, the word doesn't appear in it; it's about the Chinese missile build-up on the coast facing Taiwan, a missile build-up that I think it's U.S. policy also to oppose... Why is the President opposed to a referendum ... on a question of missile build-up?

McClellan: The President talked about some of this in the Oval Office. ... It is our view that the recent statements and proposals coming out of Taiwan that you bring up would imply a desire to change the status quo, and we oppose any unilateral attempt to change the status quo.......

Question: I don't understand why the U.S. is committed to defending Taiwan militarily if it's attacked if it doesn't think that Taiwan can be a separate country. There's no consistency here.

McClellan: No, I think there is. And we've talked about this issue previously, in terms of the one China policy and in terms of the Taiwan Relations Act. This applies to both sides. This applies to Beijing, this applies to Taiwan in terms of any unilateral attempt to change the status quo. And there are a lot of reasons for that.

"[China:] Refers to the Spratly Islands as the Nansha islands, and claims all of the islands and most of the South China Sea for historical reasons. These claims are not marked by coordinates or otherwise clearly defined......
In the 19th and early 20th century, China asserted claims to the Spratly and Paracel islands. During World War II, the islands were claimed by the Japanese. In 1947, China produced a map with 9 undefined dotted lines, and claimed all of the islands within those lines. A 1992 Chinese law restated its claims in the region.
China has occupied some of those islands. In 1976, China enforced its claim upon the Paracel Islands by seizing them from Vietnam. China refers to the Paracel Islands as the Xisha Islands, and includes them as part of its Hainan Island province."

[Atta's former paramour, stripper Amanda] Keller told us she had been so intimidated into silence by the FBI that she spoke barely a dozen words. “The newspaper quote you read was accurate,” she said. “‘I can’t really say anything. I’m afraid I’ll get in trouble.’" . . .

"And so I called the FBI agent that had been calling me—right while this reporter guy was standing there—and told him this reporter won’t leave me alone. The agent said let me talk to him, so I handed him the phone. And I don’t know what was said, but after that he left me alone.”

Why had she remained silent? "Because of the intimidation by the FBI,” she replied . . .

Some got in trouble just for having lived next-door, like Stephanie Frederickson, a pleasant 50-year old housewife . . . "They just stopped by once a week to make sure I hadn’t been talking to anyone," Frederickson shrugged. "Who was I going to tell? Everybody around here already knew.

The Sandpiper Apartments manager, Charlie Grapentine, is a grizzled Korean vet in his early 60’s [said] "he reached in and peeled off a few hundreds from a thick roll of cash he had stuffed inside the fanny pack."

Grapentine turns grim on the subject of the FBI's treatment. "They called me a liar, and told me to keep my mouth shut," stated the ex-marine. . . .

Longboat Key fire captain Carroll Mooneyhan was waiting in the lobby of the hotel President Bush was staying at the night before the attack, for Bush to come out for his morning run when he saw something he shouldn’t have. Something pretty big, actually…

After talking with local reporters he clammed up. When we finally reached him by phone, Mooneyhan, who witnessed the launch of an attempt to assassinate the President, told us: “I was visited by the CIA and the Secret Service after 9/11. I have a career to think about. I have to be careful what I say.”

And that was the last we heard from him.

In [the Ohio Sec. of State's] audit they declared the infrared interface used in systems such as the iVotronic to be secure as it is proprietary and "will not connect to a normal Windows, Linux or Mac machine". However, it is in fact very easy to reverse-engineer infrared communication. A device as simple as a "Palm Pilot" handheld computer can receive and transmit most custom infrared signals, and so the use of an infrared interface does NOT preclude hacking and unauthorized access through this method. In particular, if the data transmitted through the infrared port is not encrypted and properly keyed, it should be very simple to reverse-engineer the communications protocols between the PEB and the iVotronic. Given the Compuware report's comments on the lack of encryption and security in other elements of the system (such as writing to the memory card), it would seem that the iVotronic may be relying on a false sense of security in the use of an Infrared interface.

When our son Dylan was born at the University of Michigan Hospital, the blood sample was taken without parental consent and over my explicit objections. Two techs who worked for the state drew the blood sample, placed five drops on the top of a carefully marked card, and left without speaking to anyone else. Several doctors came in ahead of the techs, began giving us discharge instructions at the time the sample was taken, and they stood in my way as I tried to approach Dylan. They couldn't understand how I would mind that a blood sample was being gathered by the state, merely saying that "it's required by law" and that "it doesn't hurt (too much)". . . .

His mother and I sent . . . a letter. . .

I later received a notarized form indicating that the blood sample had been destroyed and witnessed.

George W. Bush's father was meeting with Osama bin Laden's brother, Shafig bin Laden, in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Washington, on the morning of 9/11. They were on Carlyle Group business just a few miles from where hijackers supposedly acting on behalf of Osama bin Laden would fly a plane into the Pentagon. . . .

The Bush senior/bin Laden meeting was reported on by CBC. See http://www.propagandamatrix.com/021103fifthestate.html

This was also reported by the London Observer. See the last paragraph at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,738196,00.html

"On 11 September, while Al-Qaeda's planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Carlyle Group hosted a conference at a Washington hotel. Among the guests of honour was a valued investor: Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama."