by Scarlet Carson – January 30, 2008
Well, well, well. The British
History channel ran a program about how the anthrax attacks that occurred shortly after 9/11 could only have come from the U.S. biowarfare community. This program has never been seen on American television. And needless to say, no one has ever been arrested for the anthrax attacks.
Weapons grade anthrax (ultra pure and processed so that it would disperse very easily in the atmosphere) was sent in envelopes to several people, mostly Democrats, and included Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle, from South Dakota. This attack occurred on Oct. 15, 2001.
The so-called "Patriot" Act was then quickly introduced. It passed. NO ONE READ IT. On Oct. 25, 2001, ten days later, the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America – Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism – nice acronym, you just know some schmuck spent hours, if not days coming up with that one) passed in the Senate 98 to 1. Russ Feingold, the Democratic Senator from Wisconsin was the only Senator to vote against this monstrosity.
It later turned out that the so-called "Patriot" Act had been planned long before September 11. See:
www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.21B.jvb.usapa.911.htm
Now here's a thought: the U.S. Senate had been split evenly, 50 Democrats to 50 Republicans in 2001, up till June 6, 2001 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont who was a Republican, pulled a switcheroo, and became an Independent, and announced he would be caucusing with the Democrats. That meant that Tom Daschle was now Senate Majority Leader. Three months later came 9/11. Less than five months later came the Oct. 15, 2001 anthrax letter attacks. Of 28 people who tested positive for anthrax, after the attacks, 20 of them came from Tom Daschle's office alone! Now, if Tom Daschle had died from this anthrax attack (a distinct possibility given the extreme lethality of the anthrax sent) then the control of the Senate would have shifted once more to the Republicans. It gets rather complicated, but from 2000 to 2002, control of the Senate switched back and forth between the Democrats and the
Republicans.
From the U.S. Senate website:
"Note: From January 3 to January 20, 2001, with the Senate divided evenly between the two parties, the Democrats held the majority due to the deciding vote of outgoing Democratic Vice President Al Gore. Senator Thomas A. Daschle served as majority leader at that time. Beginning on January 20, 2001, Republican Vice President Richard Cheney held the deciding vote, giving the majority to the Republicans. Senator Trent Lott resumed his position as majority leader on that date. On May 24, 2001, Senator James Jeffords of Vermont announced his switch from Republican to Independent status, effective June 6, 2001. Jeffords announced that he would caucus with the Democrats, giving the Democrats a one-seat advantage, changing control of the Senate from the Republicans back to the Democrats. Senator Thomas A. Daschle again became majority leader on June 6, 2001. Senator Paul D. Wellstone (D-MN) died on October 25, 2002, and Independent Dean Barkley was appointed to fill the vacancy. The November 5, 2002 election brought to office elected Senator James Talent (R-MO), replacing appointed Senator Jean Carnahan (D-MO), shifting balance once again to the Republicans – but no reorganization was completed at that time since the Senate was out of session."
In the event of a Senator leaving his office for any reason, the governor of his state appoints a Senator to fill in for the interim. The governor of South Dakota in 2001 was William Janklow, who had been governor for something like 16 years, and was a Republican. Republican governors almost always appoint Republican Senators as replacements, no matter whether the original Senator was a Democrat. Thus, if Senate Majority Leader Daschle had been killed in the anthrax attacks, the control of the Senate would have switched back once again to the Republicans. So in this scenario, not only would the control of Congress pass once more to the Republicans, including the all-important subpoena power, but the former Majority Leader would be dead. It's called a two-fer. Side note: just two short years later, William Janklow, now the sole U.S. Representative from South Dakota, would be charged with second-degree manslaughter, when his car, which was speeding, slammed into a guy on a Harley-Davidson, and killed him, in rural South Dakota.
Now, going back in time just slightly, to late 2000, there were more curious events relating to control of the U.S. Senate in the 107th Congress.
In Missouri, popular governor Mel Carnahan, because of term limits, could not run again for governor. So he decided to run for U.S. Senate, against John Ashcroft. Just one problem. On Oct. 16, 2000, he died in a plane crash. A plane crash that some called suspicious.
From:
www.thegreenpapers.com/News/20001017-0.html
"Political Implications of Governor Carnahan's passing
A Carnahan victory against Incumbent Republican Senator John Ashcroft was key to the Democrats' plans for regaining control of the United States Senate. Under Missouri law, even though he is dead, Carnahan remains on the ballot. That is, the Democratic Party cannot change the ballot. We are now 3 weeks away from the election and the filing deadline has passed."
Now, isn't that special? Since Carnahan died 3 weeks from the election, and the filing deadline had passed, the Democrats were forced to run a dead guy for Senator from Missouri against John Ashcroft.
Which looked very bad for the Dems and very good for the Repubs. But incredibly the Dems won. That's right, John Ashcroft became the first person in history to lose a Senate election to a dead guy. Which freed up his schedule so that eventually we all got the supreme bliss of having him as Attorney-General of the United States of America. I mean hearing him sing "Let the Eagle Soar," was worth it alone!
But Mel Carnahan was not the only Democrat to die in a plane crash around this general period of time. In 2002 Paul Wellsltone also perished.
From:
www.alternet.org/story/14399/
"Paul Wellstone was the only progressive in the U.S. Senate. Mother Jones magazine once described him as, "The first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. senate." He was also the last. Since defeating incumbent Republican Rudy Boschowitz 12 years ago in a grassroots upset, Wellstone emerged as the strongest, most persistent, most articulate and most vocal Senate opponent of the Bush administration.
In a senate that is one heartbeat away from Republican control, Wellstone was more than just another Democrat. He was often the lone voice standing firm against the status-quo policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans. As such, he earned the special ire of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, who made Wellstone's defeat that party's number one priority this year.
Various White House figures made numerous recent campaign stops in Minnesota to stump for the ailing campaign of Wellstone's Republican opponent, Norm Coleman. Despite being outspent and outgunned, however, polls show that Wellstone's popularity surged after he voted to oppose the Senate resolution authorizing George Bush to wage war in Iraq. He was pulling ahead of Coleman and moving toward a victory that would both be an embarrassment to the Bush administration and to Democratic Quislings such as Hillary Clinton who voted to support "the president."
Then he died."
He died, by the way, on the exact one year anniversary of the passage of the so-called "Patriot" Act. A nice touch, that.
His death, and the timing of it, was more than suspicious. He had just recently been nakedly threatened with "severe ramifications' by none other that Darth Cheney himself. Yes, indeed, the Dark Lord was not happy.
From:
www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?p=55075&sid=4954d6855134dc02619da3c0157829ce
"Shortly before he died in a mysterious airplane crash 11 days prior to the 2002 elections, Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone met with Vice President Dick Cheney, probably the Bush administration's most evil public face.
Cheney was rounding up Senate support for the October 2002 vote on giving the administration carte blanche to invade Iraq, with or without blessing from the United Nations. Cheney strong-armed opposing politicians like the most vindictive of mafioso leaders, and opponents usually gave in.
But not Wellstone. Whatever you thought of his progressive brand of politics, he wasn't a wimp. And that's what made him more than dangerous in the eyes of people like Cheney.
At a meeting full of war veterans in Willmar, Minn., days before his death, Wellstone told attendees that Cheney told him, "If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you. There will be severe ramifications for you and the state of Minnesota."
Wellstone cast his vote for his conscience and against the Iraq measure, the lone Democrat involved in a tough 2002 election campaign to do so. And a few weeks later on Oct. 25, as he appeared to be winning his re-election bid, Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, his daughter, Marcia Markuson, three campaign staffers, and two pilots died in a plane crash in Minnesota.
Talk about "severe ramifications."
So once again, in the space of just two years, the Democrats were in the position of having a Senate candidate die just days before the election. In this instance, although there were only 11 days till the election, they were able to persuade former Vice-President Walter Mondale to run in his place, and polls that were taken just days before the election looked good. Real good, fact – they showed Mondale winning by 6%, 51% to 45%. But then for some reason, on election day Mondale lost to Norm Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mondale lost by less than 50,000 votes out of well over 2,000,000 cast.
From:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Minnesota,_2002
"At the time of his death, Wellstone was slightly ahead in the polls. After Walter Mondale was chosen as the DFL candidate, in a poll taken a few days before the election Mondale was leading 51% to 45%. Early on election day Mondale was leading in votes but by nightfall Norm Coleman pulled ahead. The senator-elect won narrowly 47% to 50%."
Not that it's necessarily germane to this discussion, but the reader may enjoy learning that St. Paul has a special place in U.S. history, because in the 1930's, when John Dillinger and all the other outlaws were tearing the country up, The St. Paul police and political establishment openly stated and boasted, even, that they had made a deal with the crooks to keep hands off, so long as the crooks didn't mess with St. Paul. So basically, St. Paul gave the bad guys sanctuary, in exchange for being left alone. You know, just like certain New Yorkers pay protection money to the mob in exchange for being left alone. Now that's a great example to set for your constituents.
Last updated 31/01/2008
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