While writing the previous blogpost this morning (below) about the
Obama regime's newly-declared policy of
murdering/torturing/imprisoning-without-trial journalists it doesn't
like, I was trying to remember the name of the journalist who was
murdered by having his wrists slit in a bathtub.
So I
did an Internet search (using duckduckgo.com, which claims not to record
your searches, unlike Google) for "journalist slit wrists suicide,"
since the murder was falsely called suicide by "the authorities." Got
his name- Danny Casolaro- right on the first page. Then I went to
Wikipedia to refresh my memory some more, and- Damn!- Karmic
coincidence. He was murdered on
this date in 1991. Only a 1-in-365 chance of
that.
So
I guess that means it's my task to commemorate the man and remind
people he lived, what he did, and why he was murdered by the regime of
Bush the Elder 24 years ago today.
Danny was a genuine investigative journalist. That is, he actually investigated things that those in power wanted to keep hidden, and he was a journalist in that he thought journalism meant reporting truthfully to the public about matters that properly concerned them. Danny was
sufficiently intrepid- or reckless and stupid, his murderers would say-
to investigate the so-called "October Surprise." This was the secret
deal Reagan's gang made with the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini (
aka Evil
Demon in U.S. propaganda) of Iran back in 1980 to not free the U.S.
embassy "hostages" until James Earl "Jimmy" Carter was no longer
president. He was also investigating a number of other secret U.S. Deep
State scandals, some of which were CIA criminal operations. (These were
Iran-Contra terrorist-financing scheme under Reagan featuring the
fascist Colonel Oliver North, an American version of Otto Skorzeny; the
BCCI CIA terrorist bank; and the Inslaw theft scandal.)
George
H.W. Bush is the prime suspect in the murder conspiracy. He was
president at the time, he was Reagan's Vice President for the entirety
of Reagan's term (January 1981-January 1989), and he was vice
presidential candidate in 1988 when the secret treasonous deal with Iran
was arranged. (There's a sinister pattern in U.S. history. The
Republicans always accuse the Democrats of treason, the Democrats
defensively move to the right to try and prove it ain't so, and the
Republicans commit treason, which the Democrats remain silent about.
Just as the Republicans undercut the efforts of the Carter regime to
free the "hostages," in 1968 Nixon sabotaged the Paris peace talks to
end the Vietnam War by secretly instructing the "South" Vietnamese
fascist regime to boycott those talks. LBJ knew this through FBI
surveillance of the "South" Vietnamese embassy, and warrantless wiretaps
of Nixon and others, which he was afraid would be revealed. So Nixon
got away with it.)
Bush the Elder was Director of the
CIA in 1976. He formed close bonds with fascist cutthroats in that
agency, some of whom tried to get him elected president in 1980. (That
didn't pan out, but he did get to be Reagan's vice president instead.)
During his tenure as CIA boss, the CIA helped smuggle the terrorist
bombmaker Michael Vernon Townley into the U.S. from Chile. Townley made
and planted the bomb that was used to murder Orlando Letelier and Ronni
Moffitt in Washington, D.C. that same year. A week after the murder, the
CIA planted an
attributed item in Newsweek, on their "Periscope"
page, saying the CIA has determined that the Pinochet regime secret
police, DINA, didn't do it. How the CIA could "know" that in just a week
wasn't explained. Of course, that was a big fat evil lie, as was
subsequently proven. So Bush was a conspirator in an act of
international terrorism, a double homicide, and aiding and abetting
after the fact. Bush has been tight with the CIA ever since.
The
Bush family's ties to terrorism, fascist cutthroats, and criminals are
numerous and of long standing, and are no secret except in the U.S.
establishment media, which prefers to portray the Bushes in glowing
terms. (So much for the "liberal" media.) But if you go to, say, foreign
media, or "alternative" media, there is voluminous documentation, as
well as in books. See for example "
The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals," the Guardian, (UK), December 1, 2002.
A classic fake-out dirty trick was run to discredit the "October Surprise" story. A fake story
was generated about Bush himself flying in an SR-71 Blackbird
supersonic spyplane to a secret meeting in Spain to cut the deal with
the Iranians. This absurd tale was then easily refuted, thus
"disproving" the October Surprise "rumor."
A
similar style operation was later run on Dan Rather, on behalf of Bush
the Younger, regarding that spoiled creep's being AWOL from the cushy
slot in the Texas Air National Guard that was arranged by Daddy Bush to
keep Bush the Younger out of harm's way during the Vietnam War, yet
allowing him to pose as a "veteran" who had "served his country." The
real documents were removed from the archives, and forgeries were
slipped to Rather's team at CBS, who fell for the bait. When the
forgeries were duly exposed, CBS threw Rather overboard. (For some odd
reason, American reactionaries have always despised Dan Rather. As
Rather is no more "liberal" than the other corporate media talking
heads, I never got what their beef was. But highly irrational people are
often hard to figure out, especially since their "explanations" for
things are equal parts falsehoods and incoherencies.)
These
types of covert, nasty operations are one of the hallmarks of both the
CIA and the GOP. Both are fascistic, vicious, ruthless, and devious.
Both also have a history of murdering people who threaten to expose
their crimes. (Scores were murdered just to eliminate witnesses after
the assassination of JFK.)
Danny Casolaro had to work as a freelancer. Typically, U.S. media had no
use for a genuine journalist who was interested in pursuing critical
stories that would shine a light on the criminal nature of the U.S.
power structure and expose some of its leading personages as the thugs
they are. The U.S. media likes to misappropriate the slogan "speaking
truth to power," as if they are brave Davids and not oppressive
Goliaths. But those who really
do try to speak truth to power are
subject to severe retaliation. It could be a broken arm, dislocated
shoulder, and torn ligaments, as happened to Medea Benjamin for daring
to confront Emperor Obama during one of his speechifyings, it could be
imprisonment, or it could be death, as happened to Casolaro.
Casolaro
was only 44 when he died. The beneficiaries of his silencing, Reagan
and Bush the Elder, got to live to ripe old ages. (Bush of course is
still haunting the earth and arranging who knows what evil schemes with
his Saudi partners.) If the U.S. had had a genuine
news industry at that time, his murder would have raised an uproar, demands for a
real investigation, and followups on the leads he was pursuing.
Wikipedia has some information and links that are useful, although it inexplicably avers that "
no evidence of murder was ever found."
I beg to differ. His DEAD BODY is rather strong evidence of murder, as
well as the totality of the circumstances around his death. Give no
credence to that irritating falsehood.
It shouldn't
fall to me alone to remind people of this crime, its coverup, and what
it reveals about the gangster nature of the U.S. system of power.
Really, people who consider themselves progressive or left-wing or
opponents of the system of U.S. power, should not let such martyrs- and
such crimes- be forgotten. Others have far more resources and support
than I do. I think it's irresponsible and even feckless to unwittingly
(or wittingly in some cases!) aid and abet a gangster government and
ruling class in making sure its crimes stay forgotten.
Danny Casolaro, 1947-1991.
