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April 4, 2011 -- White House threats must be taken seriously

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20110403

In yet another indication that America's
democratic experiment is a thing of the past,
this editor has received word from a source
in a foreign intelligence agency allied with the
United States that there has been talk by some
within the Obama White House that this editor
is under threat. What particular stories have
inflamed the White House are not known but
the warning conveyed by the source, who has
connections within the White House, was stark
in its directness: "They want to kill you."

It was perfectly clear that the phrase was
not being used as a figure of speech.

That this development is being reported on
April 4 is even more ironic. On April 4, 1968,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Kr. was assassinated
in Memphis during his mission to support
striking sanitation workers in the city. Now,
we have our first African-American president
and a threat to kill a journalist who is most
definitely not one of their favorites has been
seriously discussed.

Of course, muckraking journalists have been
under threat before in America. In 1972,
columnist and investigative journalist Jack
Anderson had ended up very high on President
Richard Nixon's infamous "enemies list."
Anderson had long been a burr under the
political saddle of Nixon and the president
blamed Anderson for exposing a number of
Nixon's corrupt activities, including the
exposure in 1956 by Anderson and his boss,
Drew Pearson, of a loan from Howard Hughes
to Nixon's brother Donald.

In the years before the Watergate scandal
broke but at a time when other various scandals
in the Nixon administration began to receive
the bulldog-like attention of Anderson, who
succeeded Pearson as editor of the
"Washington Merry-Go-Round column
in 1969, there were serious discussions
among Nixon aides Charles Colson and
G. Gordon Liddy, as well as the CIA's
Dr. Edward Gunn, an expert on poisons,
about assassinating the troublesome Anderson.

Scenarios included the use of LSD or
poison but Anderson's Mormon religion
and the fact that he did not drink ruled out
the use of poisons or LSD in his drink.
Staging an automobile accident in which
Anderson would be incinerated was also
an option. Another scenario considered
was one which would have appeared to be
a random Washington, DC street mugging
in which Anderson would be stabbed or
have his throat slit. The plot to assassinate
Anderson came to an abrupt halt as Liddy,
Colson, and E. Howard Hunt, who had also
been involved in the action against Anderson,
were exposed in the May 1972 break-in at the
Watergate headquarters of the Democratic
National Committee.

Although I have attempted to pattern WMR
after Anderson's and Pearson's "Merry-Go-Round"
column, I do not have the luxury of newspaper
syndicators or a Pulitzer Prize, all of which
Anderson could rely on as firewalls between
him and those in the White House who wanted
to kill him.

I ran the information about the warning
from the foreign intelligence source by
some African-Americans in Washington
who have worked with Obama White House
officials. Their response was less than
encouraging. The bottom line is that the
White House engages in the type of
"gangster politics" for which their home
base of Chicago has become infamous.

Although I have taken precautions in
covering post-genocide Rwanda, child
trafficking in Thailand and Cambodia,
the "loss" of nuclear weapons at Minot
Air Force Base in North Dakota, the
gunning down by police of CIA asset
Tony Carnaby in Houston, the story of
"Washington Madam" Deborah Jeane
Palfrey, and BP's activities on the
Gulf Coast in the wake of the Deepwater
Horizon disaster, and President Obama's
and incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanuel's past activities in Chicago,
those measures were temporary and
lasted for as long as I was in the field.

However, I have absolutely no desire to
constantly be in fear of the type of a
White House-directed or -tolerated hit
like that discussed by Nixon aides on
Anderson who had the benefit of a degree
of support from his syndicate and the
newspapers who carried his column,
which included The Washington Post.

Preliminary plans are being made to
continue the investigative journalism
of this website from a safer vantage point
abroad and in an environment that provides
basic protection for press freedom.
Unfortunately, the United States is
no longer a safe place for independent
journalists. Today, President Obama
kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign
in a web video message. Without a
Democratic primary challenger, it can
be safely assumed that the White House
will pull out every arrow in its quiver to
suppress negative information about Obama.
The mere fact that the announcement of
Obama's re-election came on the anniversary
of the assassination of Dr. King shows that
Obama will shamelessly attach himself to
the legacy of the much-revered African-American
leader with whom he shares no cultural legacy
of historical African-Americans with their
family histories of slavery in the South and
sharecropping. Nor would King, if alive today,
approve of any of Obama's pro-war and
pro-corporate policies.

With a second Obama term a likelihood,
it only makes sense, therefore, that the
reporting on the "new America" be conducted
from a more secure location.

There is an interesting postscript to this story.
Not once, during the eight years of the Bush
administration, did I ever receive such a credible
and direct threat. In fact, after WMR's stories
about marital friction between Bush and
First Lady Laura Bush received national
media attention, there was a communication
from a close friend of Mrs. Bush that if I laid off
her marital situation, I would be given a major
scoop. Knowing that no one should ever cut
a deal with the Bush family or their friends,
I kindly declined the offer. But whereas the
Bush White House was prepared to offer a
carrot, the Obama administration appears
to favor the stick or another lethal weapon
of choice.

--
http://wikileaks.ch
http://www.larrysinclair.org
http://www.bradleymanning.org
http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/20100522.html