E M P H Y R I O

Nice Work

Tim Wiener's history of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes, is apparently a pretty scalding treatment of an agency whose work has been pernicious, or full of failure and misspent resources. 

Here's one funny anecdote, however, about their crackerjack work ruining the reputation of our own ambassador to Guatemala.  It's from a review on its Amazon page:

...CIA chief of station confronted the American ambassador, Marilyn McAfee, with intelligence, as she recalled, that "I was having an affair with my secretary, whose name was Carol Murphy."

The CIA's friends in the Guatemalan military had bugged McAfee's bedroom, Weiner reports, and "recorded her cooing endearments to Murphy. They spread the word that the ambassador was a lesbian."

The CIA's "Murphy memo" was widely distributed in Washington. There was only one problem: the ambassador was married, not gay and not sleeping with her secretary.

" 'Murphy' was the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom had recorded her petting her dog."

One wonders about the pictures in their minds as they heard whining or barking. 

An entertainment to leaven the coming years of this Depression will be learning what personal dirt was picked up, and perhaps used, by the government's warrentless wiretapping and email data-mining. It always comes out, in time.

I suspect blackmail has been used to silence administration critics or other uncooperative players who have suddenly issued retractions or otherwise withdrawn.

Possible cases: Paul "The Price of Loyalty" O'Neil, John "Mayberry Machiavellis" DiIulio, Darrell "this [recall of Gray Davis I led so I could become Governor] was never -- sob! -- about me" Issa.  Eliot Spitzer.

Who knows how many others.  There will be surprises.

Connell Pal: No Murder, Probably Weather

He flew with him many times, so wouldn't he know?

Randy Cole isn't buying it. When told of the alleged threats Cole said that in all the hours he spent flying with his friend in the close-quartered cockpit of the Piper Saratoga, he says Connell never shared any worries or suggestions of threats or intimidation. For Cole, something went wrong and for him the weather was the most likely culprit.

Of course, he's been out of the business caring for his wife, lately, who's undergoing chemotherapy.  So he may not know Connell's recent experiences.

Meantime, a local TV station is keeping the story alive:

Hartville resident Mary Lou Lankford: " I guess the plane just flew apart."

Taylor: Some in Washington have a different opinion. The website 'Velvet Revolution' believes someone sabotaged Connell's plane.

It appears he was trying to land the plane here, he hit a large flag pole and then, he struck the house.

Velvet Revolution claims to have been tipped off that Connell's life was in danger. Who was threatening Connell? According to the website, a senior advisor of President George Bush, Karl Rove.

Local TV: Suspicious Airplane Problems

Twice before the crash.

...19 Action News reporter Blake Renault reported Sunday evening that 45-year-old Republican operative and experienced pilot had been warned not to fly his plane in the days before the crash.

"Connell...was apparently told by a close friend not to fly his plane because his plane might be sabotaged," Renault said. "And twice in the last two months Connell, who is an experienced pilot, cancelled two flights because of suspicious problems with his plane."

I guess it's hard to believe someone means to kill you, if you've never faced that situation before.

'Karl Rove's IT guru' Mike Connell dies in plane crash

He was going to talk, according to this.

About secret, unarchived email accounts used to discuss the politically-motivated prosecution of Don Siegelman, and about Ohio election return manipulation.

His single-engine plane went down three miles short of the runway.

Like Mel Carnahan's and Paul Wellstone's planes went down.

"...I have reason to believe that the alternate accounts were used to communicate with US Attorneys involved in political prosecutions, like that of Don Siegelman," said RAW STORY's Investigative News Editor, Larisa Alexandrovna, on her personal blog Saturday morning.

"This is what I have been working on to prove for over a year. In fact, it was through following the Siegelman-Rove trail that I found evidence leading to Connell. That is how I became aware of him. Mike was getting ready to talk. He was frightened.

"He has flown his private plane for years without incident. I know he was going to DC last night, but I don't know why. He apparently ran out of gas, something I find hard to believe.

I am not saying that this was a hit nor am I resigned to this being simply an accident either. I am no expert on aviation and cannot provide an opinion on the matter. What I am saying, however, is that given the context, this event needs to be examined carefully."

Kinda sorta looks like a hit, maybe. Perhaps.  Possibly.  By whom, I don't know.  Surely not Karl Rove or his associates.  They wouldn't do that.  But somebody else perhaps.

Mike, please, please have left a letter in your safe deposit box or with your lawyer. 

Deep Throat Finally Follows the Money

It's disappeared into the infinite night, so why not him?

He never really said that, alas.  Screenwriter William Goldman came up with it for the movie.  Wouldn't we all love to have coined such a useful, immortal phrase?

UPDATE:  Hold off on the halo, St. Peter.  This guy founded COINTELPRO.  I didn't know that.  Greg Mitchell may have made him pant:

A listening device had been planted in their [Yippie co-founder Stew Albert and his wife's] bedroom. I used that bedroom at least once while I visited them -- with a girlfriend, no less.

This was all standard fare for many FBI agents at the time, when they weren't infiltrating, or even starting, lefty political groups. "There was no instruction to me," Felt later told Congress, "nor do I believe there is any instruction in the Inspector's manuals, that inspectors should be on the alert to see that constitutional values are being protected."

Maybe there ought to be an alcove with candles devoted to him at the NSA, actually.

Net Neutrality in Big Trouble

Google joins Microsoft and Yahoo in wanting pay-for-speed system.

Very bad news.

Don't waver, Barak!

UPDATE: He won't, says advisor. 

UPDATE: It's a trap!  Google denies...for pity's sake, they're just edge cacheing.  Advocate says WSJ article is misinformation designed to divide and conquer Neuts. 

Hope so.

Shoes

He's quick on his feet, I'll give him that.

I'll bet he could even dodge Dick while quail hunting.

UPDATE: Andy Borowitz is pretty swift, too.

UPDATE: Instant folk hero.

Josh Has a Hunch

Was Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme so unique?

...was he another operator who was massively over-leveraged, made a bunch of bad calls (you don't have to make many if your leverage is high enough), lost virtually everything but then was able to keep operating and taking in money and claiming high returns because he had such insanely tight control over his books? In other words, did he start legit...?

...I'm not claiming any specific knowledge of the Madoff case that's not in all news accounts. This is more of a hunch, based on what I can put together about his career.

But...a lot of the firms...were so massively leveraged, probably a good deal more than they're letting on even now, and had so much obvious crap on their books that they were claiming had real value, that Ponzi Scheme would probably be a decent description of what they were up to as well.

Top 0.01% of wealth holders, you may start your real panic.

Damn Good

They didn't ask for a hell of a lot, but they got it.

How? 

Sticking together.

The free-market fundamentalists have screwed the pooch.  They won't put it back together.  It's up to every able body now.

Yep

Ripples.

"Madoff's investors included captains of industry, corporations -- some of which are publicly traded -- that used Madoff almost as a high-yielding cash management account, endowments, universities, foundations and, importantly, many high-profile funds of funds," said Douglas Kass, who heads hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management.

Fizzing Around the Stratosphere.

Christopher Miller, chief executive of London hedge fund ratings agency Allenbridge Hedgeinfo, said: "Some very big investor names are involved in this. The scheme could only work if enough investors were subscribing for him to pay money out.

Some of the world's biggest hedge funds have been hit by this. There will be a monumental impact for the hedge fund industry, it could be larger then Enron.

"Some investors in Madoff's funds face 100% write-downs on the money they invested, they will suddenly be nursing full write-downs in December.

When people realize the magnitude of this it will be fizzing around the stratosphere.

Bernie, how must it feel?  Your life a lie.  Incredible devastation due to your ambition and deceit.

Maybe you could form a support group with George Bush.