Archive for June 24th, 2009
Found on Infowars
Eric Lichtbau
The New York Times
Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles.
The case has put the Obama administration in the middle of a political and legal dispute, with the Justice Department siding with the Saudis in court last month in seeking to kill further legal action. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers’ copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material.
A former commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard — who ordered jets over the Capitol amid the September 11, 2001, terror attacks — was among those killed in a transit train crash in Washington this week, authorities said Tuesday.
Retired Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr. and his wife, Ann, both 62, were killed along with seven others Monday in the most deadly train crash in the history of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
“He was as fine a public servant, as dedicated to the United States of America … as anyone I have ever met,” Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters Tuesday.
On the morning of the September 11 attacks, Wherley, commander of the 113th Fighter Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, deployed pilots with orders from then-Vice President Dick Cheney to protect the White House and take out any aircraft that threatened the Capitol, according to the 9/11 Commission Report.
“They said challenge them, try to turn them away; if they don’t turn away, use whatever force is necessary to keep them from hitting buildings downtown,” Wherley told the Washington Post in a 2002 interview.
Wherley, a 40-year military veteran, served as the commanding general of the D.C. Guard from 2003 to 2008.
“I am personally grieved by this unbelievable tragedy,” said Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz who succeeded Wherley when he retired.
The Wherleys are survived by a son, David, a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army Golden Knights; a daughter, Betsy; and one grandchild, according to the National Guard.
The seven others killed in the collision were: train operator Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Virginia; Mary Doolittle, 59; Lavanda King, 23; Veronica Dubose, 26; Cameron Williams, 36; and Dennis Hawkins, 64, all of Washington; and Ana Fernandez, 40, of Hyattsville, Maryland.
Found on Cryptogon
Telegraph
A group of wealthy pensioners have been accused of kidnapping and torturing a financial adviser in Germany after he lost £2 million of their savings in the financial crisis.
The men, dubbed the “Geritol Gang” by police after an arthritis drug, face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of subjecting German-American James Amburn to the alleged four-day ordeal.
Two of his kidnappers are said to have hit him with a Zimmer frame outside his home in Speyer, western Germany, before he was bound up with duct tape, bundled into the boot of a car and driven 300 miles to the home of two of the abductors on the shores of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria.
“I was bleeding from my eyes, nose and my mouth,” he said. “But the nightmare had only just started.”
During his alleged confinement in an unheated cellar, Mr Amburn, 56, claims he was burned with cigarettes, beaten, had two of his ribs broken was hit with a chair leg and chained up “like an animal.”
The incident began on Tuesday last week as he made his way home after enjoying a drink at an outdoor café with a friend.
Mr Amburn, the boss of an investment firm called Digitalglobalnet, was allegedly attacked by two men – aged 74 and 60 – as he entered his apartment building.
Mr Amburn, who also has a home in Florida, said: “I had no reason to be afraid. But as I went into my home I was jumped from the rear and struck.
“Then they bound me with masking tape until I looked like a mummy. It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath. When they loaded me into the car I thought I was a dead man.”
After being driven through the night he allegedly arrived at the home of one of his captors and his 79-year-old wife in Chieming on the shores of what is one of Germany’s main holiday lakes.
As he was bundled into the cellar another couple, two retired doctors, aged 63 and 66, arrived to take part in the alleged four-day torture and humiliation of the captive financial adviser.
“I was led into the cellar,” recalled Mr. Amburn, “I saw a folding bed and a WC reserved for me. They immediately went on about there money. I told them what I had told them before, that due to market conditions, unfortunately it was gone.
“I was struck. Again and again they threatened to kill me. The fear of death was indescribable. I never thought I would make it out alive.
“I told them that if I sold certain securities in Switzerland they could get their money and for this I had to send a fax to a bank in that country so funds could be transferred.”
They agreed and he sent a fax, but unbeknown to them he scribbled a message on the bottom of the paper for whoever received it to call police.
“It was disguised as a policy,” he said. “I wrote ‘call. po-lice’ and they didn’t notice it but someone at the bank was bright enough to pick up on it.”
He attempted to escape when he was allowed out of the cellar on Friday for cigarette break in the garden while the kidnappers waited on their loot attempted. In the pouring rain he ran down the street pursued by his captors in the Audi A8 they had used to transport him to the house.
Several people saw him but one of the captors shouted: “He’s a burglar!” Held by people who believed him to be a crook, he was dragged back to the cellar.
He then claims to have sustained broken ribs when he was “punished” for the escape attempt.
When the Swiss bank telephoned police in Germany an armed team of commandos was scrambled and the house was stormed in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Forty armed police rescued Mr. Amburn who was naked except for his underwear. A physician had to be on hand to help his captors into police vans because of their various infirmities.
Volker Ziegler, the chief public prosecutor from nearby Traunstein, said: “They were angry because they invested money in properties in Florida and he lost it all. This was black money – they hadn’t declared it to the revenue authorities in Germany.”
The pensioners now face up to 15 years in jail each for illegal hostage taking, torture and grievous bodily harm.
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