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The Terrorist Motel
The I-40 connection between Zacarias Moussaoui and Mohamed Atta
by Jim Crogan
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE NONDESCRIPT ROADSIDE motel outside Oklahoma City was just a fleeting encounter during the twisted cross-country odyssey of the terrorists who would carry out the September 11 attacks. Mohamed Atta, alleged leader of the plot, and two companions wanted to rent a room, but couldn't get the deal they wanted, so they left.
It was an incident of no particular importance, except for one thing. The owner of the motel remembers Atta being in the company of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker," who was arrested prior to September 11 and now faces conspiracy charges in connection with the terror assaults.
If this recollection is correct, the entire incident, and its absence from the public record, raises new questions about the FBI investigation of Moussaoui and even the 1995 destruction of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Already the FBI has endured a withering political and media critique for failing to aggressively investigate Moussaoui and his contacts during his four weeks in custody prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some FBI officials have responded by characterizing Moussaoui as only a minor player. But the report from the motel owner, if proven, could change that. And it also could force the FBI to reopen its investigation of Middle Eastern connections to the 1995 Oklahoma City blast, because convicted bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols reportedly stayed at the same motel, interacting with a group of Iraqis during the weeks before the bombing.
AT PRESS TIME, THE ERRATIC MOUSSAOUI, WHO IS representing himself, was attempting to plead guilty and bring his trial to a close. The 34-year-old French citizen of Moroccan descent had previously filed some 94 hand-scrawled, rambling motions attacking the government's case and its right to prosecute him.
But that circus obscures a conundrum of a different sort. The government's case, as outlined in its new six-count conspiracy indictment, is largely circumstantial, lacking any definitive link between Moussaoui and the 19 hijackers identified by federal authorities. All of which makes the apparent shelving of the Moussaoui-Atta sighting all the stranger. In fact, even though multiple sources contend that the FBI interviewed the motel owner, there's no indication that prosecutors were told. It's possible that the FBI found the motel owner's identifications wrong or his story unreliable. But it's still odd that, in interviews with the Weekly, Justice Department prosecutors seemed to know nothing about the motel encounter, especially because agents reportedly told the motel owner they would pass the information on to Moussaoui's defense team.
The motel co-owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident occurred around August 1, 2001, just six weeks before 9/11.
"They came in around 10 or 11 a.m. and started talking to my desk clerk," he said. Even though he was working about 10 feet away from the trio, the owner didn't really pay any attention at first. "They were asking my clerk, who no longer works here, about a weekly rate for our rooms." (The former clerk could not be reached for comment.)
The motel, explained the owner, sets aside some rooms with small kitchenettes to rent on a weekly basis. "But they were all taken." He said the clerk explained the situation, but the visitors were persistent. "Finally, my clerk asked me to talk to them."
The motel owner said that Moussaoui and a man who appeared to be Marwan al-Shehhi -- who helped crash a jetliner into the south tower of the World Trade Center -- were friendly and said a few things, but Atta was clearly the leader. "He did most of the talking and seemed very serious," said the owner, adding, "I was standing face to face, about two feet away from Atta, and talked to the three of them for about 10 minutes. Atta asked if he could rent one of the other rooms at a weekly rate, and I told him no.
"I asked him what they were doing here in the area. And Atta told me they were going to flight school. I thought he meant [Federal Aviation Administration] training in Oklahoma City. But Atta told me no, they were taking flight training in Norman.
"I said I didn't understand why they wanted to rent one of my rooms, since we were about 28 miles from Norman and there are a lot of reasonably priced motels a lot closer. But he said they had heard good things about my place
and wanted to stay there. I told them I was sorry, but we couldn't accommodate them. Atta finally said okay. Then they all thanked me for my time and left."
After the attacks, said the motel owner, he recognized his visitors in photos from television reports. "I was really stunned," he said. Then he decided to call the FBI hot line. The motel owner said he didn't hear right back from the FBI. In the interim, he also spoke to a former law-enforcement officer who was investigating reported sightings of Mujahid Abdulquaadir Menepta at the same motel during the mid-1990s. Menepta, reportedly a friend of Moussaoui's, was arrested 30 years ago in Colorado for aggravated robbery and served more than three years in prison.
After September 11, Menepta publicly defended Moussaoui, calling him a "scapegoat." The FBI arrested him as a material witness and subsequently charged Menepta with a federal gun violation. He pleaded guilty and in April 2002 was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. He was never charged with any terrorism-related crime. But during the preliminary hearing on the gun charge, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Jeffrey Whitney testified that a confidential source placed Menepta at a meeting of a radical Islamic group in St. Louis where he allegedly threatened to shoot any police officer who entered the mosque. Menepta's attorney challenged the credibility of this report in court.
A former desk clerk at the motel -- a different clerk from the one who purportedly dealt with Atta and Moussaoui -- told the Weekly that he remembered Menepta because in 1994 and 1995 -- prior to the Oklahoma City attack -- Menepta frequently visited the motel office. There, he bought coffee and talked for hours to this clerk.
The clerk and his wife, who both formerly worked at the motel, said they picked Menepta's picture out of a photo lineup prepared by a law-enforcement officer who had interviewed the motel owner.
This officer, who also spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity, said that after the motel owner told him about the Moussaoui sighting, he contacted a member of Oklahoma's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI.
The FBI finally acted on the tip. The motel owner said that on December 19, 2001, he went to FBI offices in
Oklahoma City for a formal interview, where he was debriefed by an FBI agent and by Oklahoma City Police Sergeant Jerry Flowers. "We talked for several hours, and I told them everything I knew." The motel owner said he would have taken a polygraph exam but was not asked to do so. The Weekly's law-enforcement source corroborates the December 19
The motel owner never heard from prosecutors in Moussaoui's case but got one more call from the FBI several weeks later. "The agent told me they had passed on a copy of my statement to Moussaoui's defense team, and I might be getting a call from them. But I was under no obligation to talk to them. However, I don't know if that was the truth. Since then, I have never heard from anyone connected to Moussaoui's case."
ONE REASON FOR THE FBI'S APPARent lack of interest might be this motel's alleged connection to Timothy McVeigh and a group of Iraqis who worked in Oklahoma City. According to the motel owner and other witnesses and investigators interviewed by the Weekly, McVeigh and several of these Iraqis were motel guests in the months preceding the 1995 bombing. Witnesses also claimed they saw several of the Iraqis moving barrels of material around on the bed of a truck. The motel owner said the material smelled of diesel fuel and he had to clean up a spill. Diesel fuel was a key component of the truck bomb that blew up the Federal Building.
The motel owner said he and his staff reported this information to the FBI in 1995. "We did have an ATF agent come out and collect the originals of the room registrations for that period, but we never heard back from them. And I never could get the registrations returned." He added that his previous experience with the FBI made him reluctant to contact them about Moussaoui. "But I decided it was my duty to tell them what had happened. So I did."
Former Oklahoma City TV reporter Jayna Davis also interviewed motel staff and former guests. In the process, she collected signed affidavits about their contacts with McVeigh and the Iraqis. She tried twice to give the Bureau this information, but the FBI refused to accept her materials. (The Weekly first reported on her investigation in an article published in September 2001.)
The Weekly's law-enforcement source said he has reviewed Davis' material and considers it credible. "Last December I personally took the documents to the Joint Terrorism Task Force," he said. "I told them they should do their own investigation." The response was not encouraging. He said he was later informed that the Bureau brought in an analyst, "but I was told it would probably go nowhere. They were afraid the whole Oklahoma City bombing can of worms would be opened up and the FBI would have to explain why they didn't investigate this material before."
The Weekly contacted numerous local and federal investigators and agencies, including the Oklahoma task force, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and the Justice Department. All declined to comment. Prosecutors on the Moussaoui case also declined official comment, but their reactions suggested they knew nothing of the motel encounter.
After being told about the motel owner's interview and allegations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Spencer responded with a one-word question about the sighting: "When?" Spencer then declined further comment. Another Moussaoui prosecutor, David Novak, also declined comment. But Novak wanted to know the name of the motel owner.
Other substantial connections already tie the Sooner state to Moussaoui and, separately, several 9/11 hijackers.
According to the Moussaoui indictment, on September 29, 2000, Moussaoui made
e-mail contact with Airman Flight School in Norman. Then, on February 23, 2001, he flew from London to Chicago and then to Oklahoma City. What he did in the next few days is unknown or at least not accounted for in the indictment. But on February 26, Moussaoui opened a bank account in Norman, depositing $32,000. From February 26 to May 29, he attended flight school in Norman. Then he suddenly quit the school. Between July 29 and August 4, Moussaoui made calls from public pay phones in Norman to Germany. On August 1 and 3, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh wired Moussaoui a total of about $14,000 from two train stops in Germany to somewhere in Oklahoma. This wire transfer does imply a connection to terrorist plotters because al-Shibh, an alleged al Qaeda member, wired money to other hijackers. On August 3, Moussaoui purchased two knives in Oklahoma City. And on August 10 or 11, an acquaintance drove Moussaoui from Oklahoma to Minnesota for enrollment in a new flight school. Authorities arrested Moussaoui in Minnesota on August 17 on an immigration violation. As has been widely reported, Moussaoui attracted attention because he said he was interested in flying a plane but not learning how to take off or land. He was in federal custody when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
As for the terrorists who took part in 9/11, Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi visited the Airman Flight School in Norman in July 2000, according to the Moussaoui indictment. (The motel owner identifies al-Shehhi as the third person with Atta and Moussaoui when they allegedly inquired about a room.) And on April 1, 2001, Nawaf al-Hazmi, who helped hijack American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, was stopped for speeding in Oklahoma and given two tickets. The Oklahoma state trooper found no outstanding warrants and turned al-Hazmi loose. The media has since reported that the CIA had been tracking al-Hazmi, but never told the immigration service or the FBI that he was a suspected terrorist during his 21-month U.S. stay. Authorities have never publicly accounted for Atta and al-Shehhi's whereabouts during the time of the alleged motel encounter.
The Moussaoui indictment lays out a tantalizing possible association between Atta and Moussaoui, but never puts the two in the same place at the same time. The link could exist, however, along a dusty Oklahoma roadside, off Interstate 40, at a small motel that is indistinguishable from hundreds of others, except for its possible connection to terrorists.
An Oklahoma Mystery
New hints of links between Timothy McVeigh and Middle Eastern terrorists
by Jim Crogan
Representative Bill McCollum
Republican Representative Porter Goss
EITHER CONVICTED OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBERS Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were part of a conspiracy, possibly involving Middle Eastern and Filipino connections, or they were not. Seven years later, the authorities have still not fully examined this question.
But taking on this issue would seem to fit the mission of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which are jointly investigating intelligence failures by the FBI and CIA before 9/11. Chaired by two Floridians -- Republican Representative Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham -- the Committees' began their closed-door work by focusing on two areas: U.S. investigations of terrorism since the CIA established a counterterrorism unit in 1986 and Osama bin Laden's role in sponsoring international terrorism since the mid-1990s.
Back in 1995, several Congressional Committees did search for international ties to the Oklahoma City attack, but came up empty, explained former Representative Bill McCollum in an interview. Still, the reports issued by the House Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, which McCollum chaired until 1995, were quite prescient.
"The task force was on the mark when it came to their warnings about the emerging threat of Middle Eastern terrorism," McCollum said. "I can tell you that we were very concerned about the possibility of a Middle East connection to Oklahoma City. But we never found any evidence there was one."
Yossef Bodansky
McCollum, however, said he never heard of the reporting done by TV journalist Jayna Davis, which connected McVeigh and Nichols with Middle Eastern figures in Oklahoma City and the Philippines. Nor did he know of Davis' ongoing communications with Yossef Bodansky, executive director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. "Seffy [Bodansky] never told me anything about that," he said. "This is all news to me."
After the bombing, Bodansky marshaled his intelligence sources and began an investigation. He found some of the same Middle Eastern connections uncovered by reporter Davis. "The stories you are telling fit very closely with the stories I have," he told Davis, in a taped conversation on April 24, 1996.
In the tape, Davis asks if the names are tied to the bombing. And Bodansky responds, "I didn't get them because I am trying to run a private, one-man census of the Oklahoma City area."
The government also turned up experts who believed they found possible evidence of a Middle Eastern signature on the bombing. In 1997, Stephen Jones, lead attorney for McVeigh, filed a motion claiming the defense team had acquired a one-page summary of a government report by two unnamed Israeli experts who examined the Murrah Building. "Their conclusion was the Oklahoma City bombing bore the indisputable earmark of Middle Eastern terrorists," said Jones in an interview.
The men were eventually identified as Dorom Bergerbest-Eliom, chief of security for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Yakov (or Yaskov) Yerushalmi, a civil engineer and Israeli government consultant. Attorney Jones filed a court motion complaining to federal Judge Richard Matsch that the government had wrongly denied the document to McVeigh's defense team.
"We never did get the full report," Jones continued. "Judge Matsch reminded the prosecutors they had a legal obligation to turn over any exculpatory material to the defense. However, the judge left it to the Justice Department to decide what was exculpatory."
DAVIS, THE FORMER TV REPORTER FOR KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, began investigating the bombing the day after the attack. In seven years, she's accumulated 26 affidavits and more than 100 hours of taped interviews. In particular, she zeroed in on a group of Iraqis who worked for Samir Khalil, a Palestinian-born businessman and owner of a property-management company in Oklahoma City. Davis also did pieces on John Doe No. 2, the mysterious figure identified in initial police bulletins as having been seen fleeing the federal building after the bombing. The FBI later announced that John Doe No. 2 never existed.
One of the Iraqis, Hussain Alhussaini, later came forward and identified himself as the person being fingered in Davis' television reports as John Doe No. 2. He sued the reporter for defamation. A federal judge dismissed the suit; Alhussaini has appealed. (See: Heartland Conspiracy, published in the L.A. Weekly, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2001.)
The TV reporter, who has since quit the station, also interviewed Lana Padilla, Nichols' first wife. She told Davis that McVeigh had given her ex-husband thousands of dollars and paid for his first trip to the Philippines. Nichols, who is now awaiting trial in Oklahoma City on state murder charges, traveled extensively to the islands and eventually married a Filipino woman. Padilla has now been subpoenaed as a prosecution witness in Nichols' state case.
Davis also turned up material that appeared to connect Nichols to Ramzi Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad. Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is now serving a life sentence in federal prison. He also had hatched unrealized plans to blow up 12 airliners and to assassinate Pope John Paul II.
Murad, a confederate of Yousef, is also in federal custody. He told Philippine police about a plot to hijack an airliner and crash it into CIA headquarters. Murad also claimed in 1996 that a large number of Middle Eastern men were being trained at U.S. flight schools in connection with these plots. This information was passed on to the FBI. What the agency did with it is unknown.
Court documents, related to this alleged Filipino connection, were attached to a motion filed by McVeigh's defense team in 1996. One is an FBI memo detailing a conversation between Murad and a U.S. prison guard after the Oklahoma City bombing. Murad told his jailer that the Filipino Liberation Army was responsible for that attack. The memo also cites a note Murad gave his guard, reiterating this claim.
Another exhibit from the defense motion is an affidavit filed by Edwin Angeles, a founder of Abu Sayyaf, a Filipino terrorist group. Angeles, who was assassinated by former comrades, wrote in 1996 that he was at a 1991 meeting in Davao City, attended by Yousef, Murad and Nichols, at which, they discussed "bombing activities, providing firearms and ammo" to terrorists and "training in bomb making and handling" of explosives. Nichols, he claimed, was introduced to him as "the farmer."
In February 1995 -- months before the Oklahoma City blast -- the House Task Force on Terrorism issued a warning that Middle Eastern Islamists, under the leadership of Iran, were preparing a series of terrorist attacks against the U.S. An update, issued in March 1995 -- just a month before the bombing -- stated the target list had shifted from Washington, D.C., to government installations and buildings in America's heartland. The task force distributed these alerts to federal intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. In 1996, terrorism-task-force director Bodansky gave a copy of the original warning and update to Davis. Reportedly Bodansky, recently passed on Davis' affidavits and taped interviews to the U.S. House Government Reform Committee, about which he refuses to comment. "I work for the government, and I can't talk about Oklahoma City," he said.
IN THE NINE MONTHS SINCE THE Weekly first published details of Davis' story, new information has emerged that raises more questions about the FBI's investigation into the bombing:
On April 19, 1995 -- immediately after the bombing -- the FBI sent an urgent request to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency requesting 10 Arabic linguists to help in its Oklahoma City bombing investigation. Linguists, serving on a 30-day loan, would not be permitted to monitor electronic surveillance.
After McVeigh's arrest, the FBI was contacted by the Defense Department to see if they still needed the linguists. According to an April 22, 1995 memo from the Department of the Army, an FBI agent said the linguists were being used to "monitor wiretaps of radical fundamentalist Islamists to protect the President from possible attack" during his upcoming appearance at an Oklahoma City memorial service.
On August 2, 1995, Federal Protective Services special agent Thomas Williams sent a memo to his branch chief, John Crowe, detailing his communication with terrorism task-force director Yossef Bodansky. In it, he states Bodansky told him that a lot of names that came up in NBC reports (by TV journalist Jayna Davis) overlapped with the names of suspects Bodansky had compiled.
In a taped conversation between Bodansky and Davis on May 18, 1996, Bodansky tells the reporter that by mid-April, intelligence information suggested that government buildings had been specifically targeted. He said the intelligence had been accumulated over 18 months. He also said he had gotten another warning from Israeli intelligence, a week before the bombing, that an attack would be launched in America's heartland.
Also on May 18, Bodansky faxed two notes to Davis in which he provides more details about the task force's intelligence analysis. Bodansky writes that after the bombing, it was determined that Oklahoma City had been "on the list of potential targets." The second note states that "The initial forensic investigation of the explosion in Oklahoma suggested strong similarities to bombing techniques used by Iran-sponsored Islamist terrorists, including the car bomb that destroyed [a] building in Buenos Aires on 18 July 1994."
An undated intelligence report by Bodansky discusses alleged terrorist training inside the U.S. that included some "Lilly Whites," people whose background would not tie them to terrorism. Bodansky states the training was ordered by Iran and conducted by Hamas operatives. His intelligence sources told him that the training occurred at a camp near Chicago. The first camp was allegedly held in 1990 and included about 25 trainees, who used code names. One group, he states, was reportedly given instructions on building car bombs from available materials. The second training occurred in 1993. It was specifically for Lilly Whites. They also used code names and were given state-of-the-art car-bomb training. Bodansky's sources also report that at least two of the 1993 participants came from Oklahoma City.
During a legal dispute with her former employer Bodansky wrote Davis a letter of support stating, "Having studied the material provided by Ms. Davis very closely, I consider it most sensitive, reliable and important evidence for the Task Force investigation." Bodansky also wrote, "Having carefully studied these tapes, as well as other work of Ms. Davis, I'm convinced that the witnesses she had interviewed provide credible testimony."
During a civil suit for defamation against Davis and KFOR-TV, Hussain Alhussaini, a former Iraqi soldier, submitted psychiatric reports from 1997, in which he states that he worked for a while at Boston's Logan Airport (where two of the planes were hijacked on September 11). Alhussaini first told his psychiatrist that he quit his airport job because "If anything happens there, I will be a suspect." Then he later contradicts himself, saying that he wants to look for another job "because he feels unsafe in the environment he works in, in the airport, given the recent events involving his being previously suspected of involvement in the Oklahoma bombing." In a 1998 deposition, Alhussaini states he is still working at the airport and has fears of losing his job. Alhussaini's specific job was never identified. Alhussaini still appears to be living in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which oversees Logan's operations, declined comment on Alhussaini's current work status or his airport duties.
News: Dodge City by Jim Crogan
THE MAINSTREAM PRESS FINALLY HAS STARTED paying attention to a story the L.A. Weekly broke 10 months ago about warnings that Middle Eastern terrorists were plotting an attack against the U.S. around the same time as the Oklahoma City bombing.
... Crogan News Dodge City Unanswered questions about the Oklahoma bombing THE MAINSTREAM PRESS...
Published July 4th, 2002 http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/33/news-crogan.php
News: The Terror Watch by Jim Crogan
... Crogan News The Terror Watch A chronology of events leading up to 9/11 FOR THE FIRST TIME...
Published May 23rd, 2002 http://www.laweekly.com/search.php?searchfor=Jim+Crogan+&go.x=19&go.y=11
News: McVeigh et al. by Jim Crogan
... Crogan News McVeigh et al. Congressional hearing to examine possible Middle East link to...
Published April 4th, 2002 http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/20/news-crogan.php
New World Disorder
The Oil War
UNOCALs once-grand plan for Afghan pipelines
by Jim Crogan
Illustration by Spain
A victory by the U.S.-led coalition and its Northern Alliance supporters would not only boost Americas power and influence in this strategic Caspian region, but it would reopen the door to a potential energy windfall for the West.
Afghanistans oil, gas and coal reserves are waiting to be exploited. And neighboring Turkmenistan, the former Soviet Republic, is loaded with resources, waiting to go to market. But landlocked by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on the north and east, Afghanistan and Iran on the south, and bordered by the Caspian Sea to its west, Turkmenistan has struggled to find a viable supply route.
A 1995 proposal by UNOCAL, the Southern California oil giant, shows what might be in store and gives a hint of influence the oil-friendly Bush administration could have in charting the future of the strategic region. UNOCAL proposed building twin oil and gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, south through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to a shipping terminal on the Arabian Sea, with a possible pipeline extension into India. To date, the roadblocks have been twofold: Afghanistans ongoing civil war and the lack of international recognition for the Taliban government. UNOCAL says it has pulled out of the project.
see more... http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/02/new-crogan.php
9-11: New World Disorder
Heartland Conspiracy
Unanswered questions about Timothy McVeighs and Terry Nichols possible links to the Middle East
by Jim Crogan
It is obvious material for conspiracy buffs: Did Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols really act alone, or was some larger terrorist outfit behind the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building?
In Oklahoma City, an investigative reporter began asking the question long before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Jayna Davis, in a series that aired on KFOR-TV in 1995, examined the possible existence of John Doe No. 2, a man witnesses saw with McVeigh outside the federal building moments before the bomb went off, killing 168 people. Her reports also raised questions about the purpose of several trips Nichols made to the Philippines, into areas in which terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden were known to hide out. Davis herself no longer freely talks about her work. She has been sued by a subject of her reports and advised by her attorneys not to grant interviews. Earlier this year, however, she appeared on Fox Network's The O'Reilly Factor and spoke at length about her investigation: "And what we discovered, an intelligence source at one of the highest levels in the federal government later confirmed, was a Middle Eastern terrorist cell living and operating in the heart of Oklahoma City . . . We have (22) sworn witness affidavits that tie seven to eight Arab men to various stages of the bombing plot . . . It really is a foreign conspiracy masterminded and funded by Osama bin Laden, according to my intelligence sources."
McVeigh went to his grave denying any foreign involvement in the bombing. His accomplice, Terry Nichols, swore they acted alone, and no proof of a wider plot ever surfaced.
The arrests of McVeigh and Nichols came quickly and closed the case for many. Less than two hours after the bombing, a state trooper stopped McVeigh's 1977 Mercury Marquis 80 miles from Oklahoma City because it was missing a license plate. Two days later, Nichols, who was at his Kansas farm on the day of the bombing, surrendered to police.
Minutes after the bombing, however, police radios carried a description of a brown Chevrolet pickup with "two Middle Eastern men" inside seen speeding away from the federal complex. A short time later and without explanation, police withdrew the all-points bulletin. The mystery over the truck became the starting point for Davis' investigation.
Davis found people in Oklahoma City who said they remembered seeing McVeigh meet with several men they describe as Middle Eastern in the months before the bombing. She also uncovered confidential warnings that a congressional task force issued about a possible Islamic-fundamentalist terror attack on "America's heartland" one month before the Oklahoma bombing.
Davis, in her early reports, makes it clear she is not certain of a connection between McVeigh and any terrorist group. And certainly witnesses were primed to view anyone who looked suspicious as "Middle Eastern" in the hours right after the bombing. What Davis wants, she said, is a full federal inquiry into the matter. One big-name lawyer trying to get such an investigation rolling is David Schippers, former chief counsel to the House of Representatives managers who conducted Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. "I've been practicing law for 40 years, and I know what bullshit is," said Schippers. "Jayna gave me a stack of affidavits, signed by credible witnesses, connecting McVeigh to Middle Easterners living in Oklahoma City. She also gave me a ton of supporting documents. I've reviewed this material, and I'm convinced there are solid leads here that need to be investigated."
Schippers said he is trying to get the material to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. "I made some calls, but no one would give me the time of day," he said. "I tried like hell to get to Ashcroft, but I just couldn't break through." He said he has not given up, but would not disclose his plans to get a full airing for Davis' findings.
The reports, which aired on KFOR in the months after the Oklahoma City bombing, are based on witness statements, court records, government documents and unnamed sources. A federal court order dismissing a lawsuit filed against Davis mentioned several of her findings, which include:
A brown Chevrolet truck similar to one seen leaving the federal building had been parked a few weeks earlier -- twice, in fact -- at Samara Properties, according to two employees at the Oklahoma City property-management company owned by Dr. Samir Khalil. In 1991, Khalil pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and spent eight months in federal prison. According to court documents, Khalil denied FBI allegations that linked him to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Six months before the bombing, Khalil had hired a group of Iraqis for painting and construction work. On the day of the bombing, a former co-worker told Davis they reacted to the news with unrestrained joy. "They even praised Saddam Hussein, vowing to die in his service," a source stated in an affidavit. On April 27, police found a Chevrolet pickup abandoned at an apartment complex in Oklahoma City, stripped of its license plate, inspection tag and other identifying numbers. It had been painted yellow, though it was clear its original color was brown. One resident told Dallas FBI Agent Jim Ellis that the driver was "clean-shaven, with an olive complexion, dark wavy hair, and broad shoulders," in his late 20s or early 30s, and of Middle Eastern descent. The resident also identified him as a Samara employee from KFOR's pictures.
An FBI sketch of John Doe No. 2 resembled a Samara employee who described himself as a political refugee who had served in the Iraqi army. The TV station did not name him and digitized his photos to hide his identity. Later, Hussain Al-Hussaini came forward and said he was the man identified by several witnesses as possibly being John Doe No. 2, and sued the station and Davis for defamation and libel, saying he could be easily recognized from their coverage. (Al-Hussaini withdrew the state case, and a federal judge dismissed a second case; Al-Hussaini has appealed.)
In an affidavit, a waitress said McVeigh and someone resembling Al-Hussaini came into her bar on April 15. The waitress said the man she had identified from a KFOR photo lineup "asked me if I was married. He spoke with an accent . . . a Middle Eastern accent." She also said the FBI had interviewed her, and showed her photos and sketches of possible suspects. The photos were presumably taken from surveillance cameras near the Murrah Building. The FBI took possession of videos recorded by those cameras on April 19, and has refused to release them.
In an affidavit, Mike Moroz, a worker at Johnny's Tire Service, a few blocks from the Murrah Building, said that at about 8:30 a.m. on April 19, the day of the bombing, McVeigh pulled up in his Ryder truck and asked for directions. He insisted there was another man sitting in the truck cab. Moroz told Davis he had picked McVeigh out of a live FBI lineup. He also said Al-Hussaini, as shown in one of KFOR's surveillance photos, could have been the man he saw.
A patron at the Social Security office at the Murrah Building, who was wounded in the blast, told Davis she was standing 12 feet away when the Ryder truck pulled up. She said she saw McVeigh and a "foreign-looking man with an olive complexion and thick black curly hair poking out of a ball cap" get out of the truck. She also gave this information to the FBI, even describing the insignia on the cap of the person with McVeigh. She identified him as possibly being Al-Hussaini from KFOR's photos.
Employees and guests at a motel near downtown Oklahoma City reported seeing McVeigh with several Middle Eastern men in the months before the bombing. One of those men was identified from KFOR's surveillance photos of Samara Properties as possibly being Al-Hussaini. The others were identified as fellow employees of Al-Hussaini. McVeigh reportedly stayed at the motel, under the name of Bob Kling, an alias he had used before, according to the FBI. The witnesses said they had often seen several of the men moving large barrels around in the back of an old white truck that frequently broke down on the lot. The barrels smelled of diesel, they said, an ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the federal building. According to an FBI report, an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent confiscated the motel's registration records and logs.
In a hidden-camera interview, Terry Nichols' ex-wife told of his trips to the Philippines. "Tim bought Terry the first ticket for the Philippines" in 1989, she said. Nichols, who eventually married a woman from Cebu City, traveled, often without his new wife, back and forth to the Philippines, considered by some a hotbed for terrorist activity. His last visit came in November 1994. Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 Trade Center bombing and a plot to blow up U.S. airliners, operated out of Mindanao and Manila; Yousef received funding from Osama bin Laden; and, according to a motion filed by McVeigh's defense team, an American fitting Nichols' description met with Yousef in 1992 or 1993 in the Philippines.
Yossef Bodansky, the executive director of the U.S. House Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, told Davis that terrorist organizations linked to Iran and Syria had been talking about a U.S. terror campaign since late 1994. The task force issued the first of several confidential warnings to federal agencies on February 27, 1995. It said that "Striking inside the U.S. is presently a high priority of Tehran" and went on to warn of attacks on "airports, airlines, telephone systems etc." An update, issued on March 3, 1995, said there was a "greater likelihood that the terrorists would strike at the heart of the U.S." Israeli intelligence sources warned one month before the Oklahoma City bombing that an impending terrorist attack would use "lily whites," which, Bodansky explained, are "people without any distinct background, record of any kind . . . who will never be suspected members of a terrorist group."
It is not clear how or whether all of this adds up. Davis has struggled to get the results of her investigation to the public. Twice, she has been sued for libel and defamation, in state and federal courts, by Al-Hussaini, who stepped forward on June 15, 1995, and said that he was living in fear since KFOR and Davis fingered him. He said he was at work when the bombing occurred and denied knowing McVeigh. The federal judge who dismissed his lawsuit said Al-Hussaini's claim that he was at work at the time of the bombing was false.
Nineteen months after Al-Hussaini sued in state court, he dropped his lawsuit. Davis said the legal pressure led KFOR to halt airing new material from her bombing investigation. In 1996, Palmer Communications sold the station to the New York Times Co., which was not interested in pursuing the story, Davis said. On March 3, 1997, she resigned.
In September 1997, Davis was subpoenaed by the Oklahoma County grand jury, which was looking into the possibility of conspirators in the bombing. Davis gave the jury all of her witness statements. The next day, Al-Hussaini refiled his libel suit in federal court, and two months later, it was dismissed. U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard said that Davis' reports are either true or statements of opinion. Al-Hussaini appealed, and a hearing was held this month, but no ruling has been made.
For years, the FBI has refused to comment on Davis' report. This week, the response was no different when the agency was contacted by the L.A. Weekly. Davis has tried twice, with the permission of her sources, to deliver the 22 witness affidavits to the FBI office in Oklahoma City. In 1997, agents said her lawyers needed to first contact federal prosecutors. Her attorney, Tim McCoy, said federal prosecutors rejected the offer, saying they would have to release the documents to McVeigh's and Nichols' defense teams if they accepted them. In 1999, Davis and another attorney who represented her, Dan Nelson, met with Agent Dan Vogel and got him to accept the documents. He, in turn, gave them to the FBI task force investigating the bombing. "However, I was told we gave the affidavits back to her because there was some question of ownership -- whether she or KFOR had legal rights to the material," said Vogel, who has since retired. Asked whether he thought it was odd that the FBI would reject potential leads, Vogel would only say, "That was a decision made by people above me."
Davis can't figure out why the FBI refuses to examine her material. "They had hundreds of agents on this case," Davis told Bill O'Reilly. "Why wouldn't they want to take information from a reporter who had sworn witness statements implicating . . . others in the Oklahoma City bombing?"
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Cookery schools in London offering Thai courses
Jenius Social Cookery School
Region: London Type: Baking, Barbecues, Brazilian, Breadmaking, Butchery, Cheese, Children, Corporate, Dinner party, Fish and seafood, French, Indian, Italian, Knife skills, Mediterranean, Mexican, Pastry cakes and puddings, Spanish, Tapas, Thai, Vegetarian Cost: Affordable £
"Making connections through food" is the Jenius Social motto and it is inscribed on the glass door of their bright, modern venue in … More
Food at 52
Region: London Type: Basic cookery skills, Dinner party, Fish and seafood, Indian, Italian, Moroccan, Spanish, Tapas, Thai, Vietnamese Cost: Mid-range ££
Basic Ingredients: Food at 52's new premises are just down the road from their original school in Clerkenwell. The new school is equally cool, with an … More
Miele cooking courses
Region: Central England, London, South-East England Type: Breadmaking, British, Chocolate, Christmas, Cupcakes, Dinner party, Fish and seafood, French, Indian, Italian, Pastry cakes and puddings, Tapas, Thai Cost: Affordable £
The Miele Creative Living concept showcases its range of kitchen products via cookery courses, demonstrations and appliance schools, in Abingdon, London and Sutton Coldfield. Not … More
School of Wok
Region: London Type: Asian, Chinese, Corporate, Fish and seafood, Hen parties, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese Cost: Affordable £
The brainwave of chefs and Oriental and Asian cookery experts Neville Leaning and Jeremy Pang, this new, pared down cookery school in the … More
Blackheath Cooks
Region: London Type: Butchery, Children, Chocolate, Dinner party, Fish and seafood, French, Full range, Indian, Italian, Knife skills, Mediterranean, Men, Moroccan, Pastry cakes and puddings, Students, Thai, Vegetarian Cost: Affordable £
The lovely website for this new cookery school and cook shop in South-East London promises a smart up-to-date culinary experience. Joy Neal set up … More
Divertimenti Cookery School
Region: London Type: Aga, Barbecues, Breadmaking, British, Butchery, Canapes, Celebrity chef, Children, Chinese, Christmas, Corporate, Dinner party, Eco-friendly, Fish and seafood, Full range, Greek, Health and nutrition, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Knife skills, Macaroons, marmalades and chutney, Mediterranean, Moroccan, Pastry cakes and puddings, Spanish, Thai, Vegetarian Cost: Affordable £
Basic ingredients: Based in South Kensington, the original kitchenware shop, Divertimenti, offers several classes and demonstrations a day run by some of the best in the … More
Cookery School at Little Portland Street
Region: London Type: Advanced chef skills, Baking, Breadmaking, British, Celebrity chef, Chocolate, Corporate, Cupcakes, Dinner party, Diploma, Eco-friendly, Fish and seafood, French, Full range, Game, Gluten-free, Greek, Health and nutrition, Hen parties, Indian, Italian, Knife skills, Middle Eastern, Organic, Pastry cakes and puddings, Picnic, Pie making, Preserves and pickles, Spanish, Thai, Vegetarian Cost: Mid-range ££
Rosalind Rathouse is the professional chef and self-confessed food obsessive who runs, with great success, the Cookery School. Situated two minutes from Oxford … More
Hampstead Cuisine School
Region: London Type: Dinner party, French, Full range, Italian, Lebanese, Mediterranean, Men, Moroccan, Thai Cost: Premium £££
Please note this cookery school is now closed and its website directs to London Cuisine school in south-east London A quirky, well established … More
Authentic Ethnic Cookery School
Region: London Type: Corporate, Indian, Lebanese, Mexican, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese Cost: Mid-range ££
Canadian born Tertia Goodwin runs London's first cookery school focused on international cuisines. A drab main road doorway leads to a spacious all-white ultra-cool … More
Venturi's Table
Region: London Type: British, Chocolate, Corporate, French, Hen parties, Indian, Italian, Thai Cost: Premium £££
Opened in 2005 but taken over by new owners in 2015, the mission of London's first corporate cookery centre is to provide fun … More

subset: commoncrawl


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We, the Jurassic Parq writers, have come under some scrutiny this week. Please read this comment from fan Doc Nein from www.jurassicparkiv.org
"Here I shall summon the words of Ian Malcolm.
"You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could do this, you didn't stop to think if you should."
That said, you've got a number of embarrassing errors on your website that prove you simply shouldn't be doing this.
We'll begin with that interview about "Casting the role of Morgan Freeman." Funny, I don't think he's in Jurassic Park. Perhaps you're thinking of Samuel L. Jackson?
Next is your reference to the "raptor poison contact lenses" Really? Have you guys even seen the movie? I'll take that as a No, since you also reference "that white haired science man" who is not a scientist at all, but a really zany billionaire. And his name is John Hammond. I knew that when I was eight.
Raptors don't spit venom, dilophosauruses do.
When I heard that there'd be a Jurassic Park musical, I thought it would be a joke; when I read about Jurassic Parq's synopsis (really, the Q is necessary?) I REALLY thought it was a joke.
The dinosaurs didn't switch sexes and have a resulting gender crisis. They bred and devoured things, so that life could continue in its inevitably vicious cycle; that's the point of the movie, that life will find a way, by whatever means necessary. Don't turn the one franchise I hold sacred into a vehicle for some annoying political agenda. Hell, I'm gay, but I don't expect my dinosaurs to be.
My dinosaurs eat people. They don't sing."
Wow. We are shocked, saddened, and impassioned by this comment. We'd like to thank DocNein for reminding us why we are telling this story: TO BRING THE TRUTH TO LIGHT. We will not shy away from our Destiny, and on opening night this Friday at 7pm, the Truth of Jurassic ParQ will be revealed.


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Well it's only been 5 days since Black Wood was released into the wild, and I'm delighted that it's already broken into the kindle top 50…
…and it's a Number 1 Bestseller in both Scottish Crime and Vigilante Justice, and #2 in Psychological Thrillers – next to my release day twin, Louise Voss 🙂
Thank you all for buying it – and thank you to those who've already read it and either sent me lovely messages or left me an Amazon review (currently rated as 4.8 with 11 reviews). I am still terrified every time someone tells me they've started reading it, but am delighted that the reaction so far has been very positive!
Also – for anyone who ordered the paperback – it appears that Amazon are fulfilling their pre-orders right now, and some people have already received the book! It's not officially released until 19th March, with my launch on Wed 18th at Waterstones Chiswick (and the following week, Thurs 26th, in Waterstones West End, Edinburgh) – I can't wait!
Now, I've got news about TWO giveaways… Firstly, if you'd like to win a signed copy of Black Wood, you can enter HERE (closes on Wed 4th March)… and Secondly, if you'd like to win a copy of Black Wood plus 40, yes *40* other fantastic crime thrillers, then you need to click HERE (closes 31st March – and if you get your friends to enter, you get an extra entry for yourself). I'll say it once more… WIN Black Wood plus 40 other thrillers – in paperback – delivered straight to you!


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Why Lower Divisions Levels Are a Good Fit
Fact: less than 1% of high school athletes move on to play at the Division I level in college.
So, what does that mean for you? It means, keep your options open! Don't count out the lower level programs because those are where your best chances are to be recruited. Especially if you're looking for scholarship money, you need to be realistic and reach out to programs that are good athletic fits for you. Just think, the more programs you reach out to, the more offers you'll receive and the more scholarship money could be offered to you.
Fact: 450 colleges and universities compete at the DIII level, making it the largest of the three NCAA Division levels. (DI 350 and DII 290)
Fact: Some high level DIII schools are more competitive than lower level DI programs.
Now, this is only true for baseball and the smaller sports such as swimming. These athletes especially should not be limiting their options to only DI because there are a limited number of college programs in the U.S. who offer their sport. DII, DIII and NAIA schools are great options for finding an athletic and academic fit, as well as receiving offers and scholarship money to play at the collegiate level.
For example, in swimming, top DIII schools often have better and faster swimming programs than some DI and DII college swim teams. DIII can also give out substantial academic scholarships, so don't count anyone out of the race just yet!
In sports like ice hockey, many opportunities for college athletics are at the club level. Club hockey is also a good alternative for players who are looking for that perfect academic and athletic fit.
Fact: Many NAIA programs are highly competitive with NCAA teams and are academically excellent. They can be less-restrictive and generally less expensive than NCAA colleges as well.
Fact: Most student-athletes go "Pro" in something other than athletics.
Smaller colleges and universities often prove to be right fit for athletes academically and athletically. Remember, most athletes will "go pro" in something other than athletics, so getting a good education will set you up for the next forty years of your life. Smaller schools often demand a higher level of academic excellence from their athletes and provide more educational assistance and emphasis in order to ensure the future success of their athletes.
If academics are holding you back from pursuing your dreams of playing college athletics, remember that you still have some options. Try attending a Junior College or a Prep school in order to improve your academic standings. These colleges also provide an opportunity to improve your athletic skills as well, so use this opportunity to focus hard and get better athletically and academically before transferring to a NCAA or NAIA school.
Do you need more help in the recruiting process?
Call 866-577-6272 or get started at http://bit.ly/GetRecruitedNow
Learn more at http://www.ncsasports.org/


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Washington D.C., May 2, 2012 / 12:01 am (CNA).- A federal report on national family growth found that many young adults in the U.S. are postponing marriage and instead choosing "to cohabit with a partner," despite the fact that doing so increases the likelihood of a later divorce.
"People are marrying for the first time at older ages, and many adults cohabit with a partner before ever marrying," said a March 2012 National Health Statistics report.
Using data based on the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth, the report analyzed current trends in marriage.
It discovered that in recent years, "women and men married for the first time at older ages than in previous years."
From 2006 to 2010, the median age for a first marriage was 25.8 for women and 28.3 for men, the report found.
In 1995, women had a 59 percent chance of being married by age 25. In 2006-2010, that probability had dropped to 44 percent.
While the delay in marriage may be partly due to a struggling economy, the report found that premarital cohabitation – or living together in a sexual relationship without being married – has also contributed to the phenomenon.
The percentage of currently cohabiting women rose from 3 percent in 1982 to 11 percent in 2006-2010, said the report.
It found that many couples are now entering into cohabiting relationships at about the same point as couples entered into marriages in the past.
"Among women, 68% of unions formed in 1997–2001 began as a cohabitation rather than as a marriage," it added.
This is true despite the fact that studies show cohabitation to be a significant risk factor for divorce.
"It has been well documented that women and men who cohabit with their future spouse before first marriage are more likely to divorce than those who do not cohabit," the report explained.
It pointed to statistics showing that women who cohabit with their first husband – regardless of whether they were already engaged when they moved in together – have a lower chance of having their marriage last 20 years than women who did not cohabit first.
In general, first marriages in 2006-2010 had a slightly more than 50 percent chance of surviving for 20 years, the report said.
"These levels are virtually identical to estimates based on vital statistics from the early 1970s," it observed.
The National Center for Health Statistics also found that couples are increasingly likely to have children while they are cohabiting instead of waiting until they are married.
While the average age at first birth has not changed since 2002, first births to cohabiting women increased by 83 percent from 2002 to 2006-2010, it said.
Acknowledging that marriage has "changed dramatically" in recent decades, the report expressed hope that its findings will lead to studies that "yield new insights into marriage and cohabitation and their effect on adults and children in the United States."
Catholic News Agency


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Bespoke Catering Services at Peaches & Cream!
On Valentines day, Tuesday 14 February, we are hosting a Valentine's Dinner at Peaches & Cream at Pontac Manor Hotel! You can look forward to a romantic three course meal, sparkling wine, and a lovely evening in our garden.
We have limited tables available so please book in advance. Price: R250.00 per person
Take a look at our menu below:
To book phone: 021 8720445
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Did you know yesterday was national ice cream day? Let's keep the party going all month long. Here are the recipes I'm dying to try:
Berry yogurt popsicles– your breakfast parfait, frozen. Gorgeous.
"Hot Date" ice cream sundae– banana ice cream, banana bread and caramel date sauce. Bananas!
Dark chocolate bombe shell– for that perfect DQ-like shell. The secret is…coconut oil!
Strawberry frozen yogurt– For when you need something a little lighter.
Best Chocolate Ice Cream– this recipe takes 5 days to make. 5 days! Kind of like those world-famous best-ever chocolate chip cookies. Delayed gratification at its sweetest.
Plum sorbet– what could be more beautiful than a smooth, plum-colored ice?
How will you indulge?
4 Comments on National Ice Cream Day
I guess you could say we've been celebrating for weeks! Sunday night is always dessert night here, but we've decided to try a different ice cream each week for the summer. First we did Maple Bacon Crunch, then Butterscotch (with 15 year old scotch…happiest kids in the neighborhood), then cinnamon. So far butterscotch is the winner. Next week we'll try a lime sorbet, unless the panel changes its mind…
Peggy-those sound amazing! Where did you find the butterscotch recipe? I want to come to your house…
The butterscotch and cinnamon both came from The Perfect Scoop cookbook, and the Maple Bacon Crunch was from Food Network Magazine. We'll chill bowls for you!


text: It's been nearly four glorious years with my Model S #2647, delivered in December 2012. But I'm waiting on my P100D to come and it's time to finally get all the juicy updates everyone else has been enjoying. The one thing I'm wondering about, however, is out-of-warranty service. My car has 60,000 miles on it, but I've never paid for any services since 50,000 miles. There have been a few little things, like a door handle going inop, that happened in that interval but my local service center fixed them no questions or dollars asked. Have other early-adopter S owners experienced this? I imagine it might be a goodwill gesture to those of us who were ready to jump in back in 2012. Maybe I've ruined this by speaking about it... but now that my S 1.0 is heading back to the mothership I've been wondering if this is common.


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Tarver-Rendon students and staff were surprised on December 5 during a morning assembly. Roadie the Roadrunner delivered a special package to Mrs. Atwood. The package contained a check for $100,000 from Farmers Insurance! A group of teachers began writing a grant proposal in January of 2018. The grant included building a barn/outdoor classroom, new garden beds, improving current garden beds all in our Discovery Park. We found out in September we were one of the 15 proposals in the running for the $100,000. On behalf of the grant writing team, we would like to thank everyone who voted for our proposal, shared the voting link, and encouraged others to vote. It's because of you that we will be able to make our Discovery Park even better! If you want to watch the grant come to life, join the Tarver-Rendon Elementary Facebook page or the Discovery Park Facebook page.
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Category Archives: 1960's
One of the Worst Toys I Have Ever Seen: Toe-kins
Every now and again you find a toy that is so stupid that you wonder why any toy company would think it would ever have selling potential to children. This is especially true when the toy has little or no … Continue reading
Posted in 1960's, 1970's, Amy, Dolls, Humor, Miniatures, Monsters, Toys, Weird 4 Comments
A Good Day at the Flea Market
Ah the flea market! Is there a better place to be early in the morning? All the treasures of popular culture seem to find their way there sooner or later. Armed with a few bucks in your wallet, a little … Continue reading
The Le Macabre Skull
It seems like ages since I have written an article for The Collector Gene, so I wanted to come back with one of my favorite pieces from my collection. I have been waiting to write about this one for a … Continue reading
Posted in 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, Advertising, Amy, English, Foreign, Halloween, Historical, Humor, Monsters, Signs, Weird 11 Comments
When Your Holidays Need a Little Less Cheer and a Little More Fear, Bring in the Krampus.
For many years very few Americans seemed to be aware of some of the stranger characters associated with Christmas in other countries around the world. Every country has their own traditions, and ours are rather tame compared to most. All … Continue reading
For the Love of Christmas Pixies!
It is now December, which means it is time to break out the decorations and make it look like Christmas threw up in our house! We at the Collector Gene all love Christmas, and want to take some time this … Continue reading
Pick of the Week: Lightolier Lytegem Mid-Century Lamp
This week's "Pick of the Week" comes straight from my local Goodwill. For the longest time I had written the local Goodwill off. Ever since they moved from their old location that they had been in for decades to a … Continue reading
Smile: Playboy Bunny
Is that face familiar? It may be if you are over 50 years old… and more likely male. Who is this cute happy guy? Why, the original Playboy Bunny, of course. This bunny, which stands nearly two feet tall, is … Continue reading
Posted in 1950's, 1960's, Advertising, Carol, Dolls, Humor, Toys, Weird 5 Comments
Smile: Lebanon Bologna from Lebanon, PA
What could this happy guy with his jaunty bow-tie be smiling about? His love of Lebanon bologna, of course! He might be a little bit biased, though. After all, he IS a giant Lebanon bologna himself holding a smaller Lebanon … Continue reading
Posted in 1960's, Advertising, Carol, Dolls, Humor, Monsters, Toys, Weird Leave a comment
Pick Of The Week: Factory-Built Aurora Monsters
Besides Carol's "Smile" photo project, we would also like to introduce "Pick of the Week"! Each week (or as we go out looking for new old stuff) we will pick our favorite find of the week! Pretty simple, right? To … Continue reading
Feature Matches: These Matches Should Be Featured in Anyone's Collection
I'm not a matchbook collector, per se, but if I were a phillumenist, I'd definitely collect Feature Matches. When it comes to little scraps of advertising ephemera, these clever and colorful matchbooks with pictures on the actual matches are matchless! … Continue reading
Posted in 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, Advertising, Americana, Carol, Ephemera, Historical, Political 6 Comments


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New national sales and key account manager joins A&G
Published: 13 February, 2013
Stuart Thomas is Acheson & Glover's (A&G) latest recruit in Great Britain. Mr Thomas joined A&G in December as the new national sales and key account manager bringing with him over 15 years of industry experience. He moves from Aggregate Industries, where we worked in senior sales positions across the business.
Mr Thomas is responsible for managing A&G's team of sales managers, including specification and business development. "It's an exciting time for A&G," he comments. "The business has progressed from a relatively unknown brand when it launched two years ago to securing two major independent merchant buying group deals with H&B and NBG on the basis of their quality, premium range and innovative ideas. A&G is growing rapidly in Great Britain based on its 'merchant only, merchant friendly' approach and its new initiatives to help merchants improve their margins on hard landscaping sales.
"What A&G offers and how the business operates is genuinely different and unique," concludes Mr Thomas, "and I look forward to supporting the team and helping A&G develop into a major hard landscaping supplier."


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Laduma along with The MBDA will help Young designers learn how to build their businesses faster and create employment opportunities for themselves and others.
The Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) and fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo and his partners are inviting design entrepreneurs to a one-day empowerment workshop on Saturday, 25 February 2017, from 9:30am until 6pm.
By sharing design business knowledge, the initiative hopes to empower and rapidly incubate South African design entrepreneurs who have limited resources to grow their businesses.
Young designers will learn to build their businesses faster and create employment opportunities for themselves and others through dialogue and exchange with one of South Africa's most successful home-grown exports.
"Laduma stunned the world with his MAXHOSA knitwear after successfully launching and establishing himself in the global fashion market despite facing a set of similar challenges that majority of our city's aspirant creatives" said Luvuyo Bangazi, MBDA spokesperson.
"Laduma's understanding of the challenges and hurdles of start-ups in design and creative industries in general makes him an excellent mentor and coach for discussing and transferring ideas, skills and knowledge with upcoming creative and design entrepreneurs in the city. The MBDA is proud to be the host of this exciting initiative which very much complements the work we are doing in the inner city, urban rejuvenation and stimulating creativity" concluded Bangazi.
Laduma's work has been showcased at fashion shows across the world. He has received numerous achievements and won the 2015 Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa prize to showcase his collections at the Palazzo Morando Show in Milan, Italy. He was awarded the 2014 WeTransfer Scholarship to study masters in Material Futures at the Central St. Martins and graduated in 2016.
Now, Laduma has made himself available to engage with 50 designers and entrepreneurs for a full day workshop that will take place across five major cities in South Africa: Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and East London. The first workshop will be held at Roof Garden Bar, 33 Chapel Street, Central in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, 25 February 2017. Entrance is free but registration is necessary.
The criteria for the workshop is as follows: The artist should have an existing brand/business or credible idea, shows passion and understanding of their specialist field and the artist must be a struggling entrepreneur or at least facing business growth challenges caused by limited access to resources.
Artists wishing to participate may send written/recorded motivation of why they should be part of
the initiative, their curriculum vitae and up to five pages of their work to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Article source: http://www.nmbbusinesschamber.co.za/blog/posts/mbda-and-laduma-partner-to-empower-entrepreneurs


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It took a while…….a long while……but, my family and I are feeling much better. Blue Eye's (a 6 year-old boy that was placed in our home for adoption that turned out to have sociopathic tendencies and reactive attachment disorder) is doing pretty well, from what little information I have gleaned from his new foster family. I must admit though, I haven't kept in touch. His therapist felt that a clean break was the only way for my family to heal, and with the issues that he has with attachment, it was best for him too.
Towards the end of having Blue Eyes in our home, every morning I would wake up feeling just as exhausted as the night before. Some would say that all mothers with five children (or even four, three or two children!) wake up that way all the time 🙂 That may be, but this type of weariness came from keeping five children safe and unhurt, not just fed, happy, and healthy. The challenges we faced before Blue Eyes left our home proved to be overwhelming.
DJ, Casey and Dave have been amazing throughout this whole ordeal, but they too faced their own challenges dealing with Blue Eyes. In the end, we were all left licking our own wounds. Through God's grace we have healed, and now we have to constantly remind ourselves that we have made it though the woods……we can take a deep breath and not have to worry constantly that life will be thrown into chaos at a moments notice. Even though I am still in the habit of waking up every morning with that initial feeling of stress, I can now lay back against my pillows and breathe a sigh of relief that today will be a 'normal' day of craziness. We never stopped praising God even in the bad times, but I am left with a deeper appreciation and thankfulness for my amazing family.
On a happier note, here are the good things that have been happening around our cozy Little Hobbit Hole:
My helpful firstborn son is now 18……where on earth did all that time go?? DJ is a man now, and we are so proud of who he is striving to be! Most of the time around our house you can find him fighting with me over who gets to hold Cocoa Bean (our youngest foster baby)……that sweet blessed angel turned DJ's heart around on children, and I might actually get grandchildren out of him now! The rest of the time you will find him with a hose and a scrub brush outside, as he got a pretty little truck for his birthday. I guess guys don't call their trucks pretty, or little for that matter, but nevertheless, he is riding around in his own set of wheels. We threw a family party for him, which we do for every family member in our extended family, and on his Saint Patrick's Day birthday, he awoke to quite a breakfast feast that would make most people green with envy…….get it green with envy?? St. Patrick's Day?? Okay, you get it 🙂
My oldest daughter is still a teenager, so she is still struggling with being sweet with a large side of sour! My mother says that all teenagers are brain-dead, and we concur wholeheartedly 🙂 All jokes aside, Casey had it the worst with Blue Eyes, as he targeted most of his vicious behaviors at her. That is a lot of stress on a 16-year-old, and she beats herself up a lot thinking what she could have done differently to help him. She has always been extremely close with Coconut (our first ever foster child who is now 4), so she is choosing to spend her healing time having sleepovers with him in her room, showering him with affection, and snuggling up to watch Frozen for the 5-hundreth time. "Hey!"….."Do you want to build a snowman??"
It is hard to believe that we have had Coconut for 2 whole years now! When he came to us he was only 2 years old, beat to a pulp, and suffered from severe post traumatic stress syndrome. He is now a vibrant and healthy little boy who has captured our hearts forever. We are heart-wrenchingly close to finding out if we can adopt him…….prayers would be so appreciated, both for the adoption and the patience to endure this wretchedly long wait!
The most difficult thing to believe is that we contemplated not taking in Coconut's little brother while his mother was pregnant with him. Afraid of the father and his aggressive tendencies, we felt it best to let another home take him in, as not to entangle Coconut's case with complications. Of course, the moment the babe was born the agency called me to see if I would change my mind. I relented, as now that Coconut's brother was actually here, it was hard to say no. HOW COULD I HAVE EVER SAID "NO"!!!!!!!
Cocoa Bean is the twinkle of my eye………he is the fattest, most precious sweetling I have ever seen. He is such an easy-going and happy baby, and caring for him has proved to be an absolute joy. I am not sure how I will ever be able to give him up, but I cannot lean on my own understanding about that now. I just simply walk within the safety of the path that God has laid for me, and keep the faith that He will carry me through it all.
Finally, we have two new additions, bringing our kid-count to six! The little boy is 4, and we have nicknamed him Mowgli, and the little girl is only 2, and we nicknamed her Kiwi. They are adorable, but they have a whole host of problems that we have never dealt with……..once again giving us a crash course on the different tragedies that children in foster care face. They have seen unspeakable things, endured unspeakable acts, and they are scared to be away from home. We are their second foster home, as the little boy has behavioral issues. In the short month that we have had them, we have watched them blossom into a new life that only God's Hand could have created. We have no idea how long we will have these two cuties, but I fully intend to make the time count……bringing their little hearts to Jesus and showing them that not all adults hurt. They are learning that Mommies and Daddies are appointed by God to love, nature and care for their precious children. With the tender and sweet smiles I have had the privilege to witness lately, I think the message is getting in loud and clear!
Dave and I are still exhausted at night, as caring for six kids that have not been here since birth is extremely challenging. Not a day goes by that we don't wince at memories of Blue Eyes when the newest foster children throw a tantrum or become out of sorts. But, we are slowly learning that ALL children act out when you wrench them from their homes, even if it is just a cardboard box, and away from families that they love…….even when those family members do not seem to deserve such affection. So, in order to nurture our own relationship, we wrangled a baby sitter, drove to the oceanfront, rented a room for the night, and had a long needed date night! Our first overnight date in 5 years! I can still smell that ocean breeze and the way our hands fit together as we walked on the beach……..heaven!
So, as Uncle Si would say……I'm back, Jack. Ready to once again share with you all the crazy life we have been called to lead, as a Servant of Christ!


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This past week, I gazed into the eyes of several wise old souls. It is a singularly gratifying and enchanting experience to connect with people that are kindred in both purpose and spirit. It seems Social Change Institute is just the sort of fertile ground to grow such connections. It's no surprise that many of the people I met at SCI are on the front lines of transforming our world. They offered diamond sharp insights into my own journey, about which I will have much time to contemplate in the coming weeks. I look forward to sharing the revelations that emerge.
It was noted repeatedly that I am about to embark on a journey, perhaps even a sacred journey. On the outside, its an intensely public experience focused on engaging people across the province in fruitful dialogue that trades in the currency of ideas. On the inside, a deeply personal quest to investigate alternative forms of energy including that which can spur one into action and shift deeply held beliefs about what is possible. An exploration of the inner landscape will fill many solitary hours spent pounding foot to pavement.
Personally, I hope it will help exorcise some of the despair I feel in the wake of Bill C-38 and the aggressive measures being taken to destroy environmental oversight and a vast number of Canada's democratic instruments. I can only hope that this is a temporary moment of greed overwhelming goodness and good sense, a moment that activates and galvanizes the people and communities that recognize it as such. I pray that this is the darkness before the dawn of a new age of consciousness; that Harper's short-sighted and regressive policies are but the death rattle of the fossil fuel driven economy. We shall see, I suppose.
Running away from a nightmare or towards a brighter future? This is a question that was asked of me at SCI and to which I keep returning…I think it's both. The reality of pipelines, tankers and other tar sands expansion projects are without question the dark prospect that ignited and to some extent fuels this campaign, but the lure of engaging in a creative and collaborative process to re-imagine a sustainable future is what really propels me forward. Considering all the damage we are causing to the planet and to our own kind, I think many of us feel completely guilt ridden, and perhaps even paralyzed by that emotion. A great deal of the language and messaging in the sustainability realm is geared at reducing footprints, doing less harm, consuming less which are of course necessary, but in some ways suggests that we need to be less of our selves. Rather than doing less bad, I think we need to consider ways of doing more good by applying our unique human capacity for imagination and creativity to the task of healing our world and society.
Dialogue is an excellent tool for tapping that creative potential and developing a collaborative process that is generative rather than degenerative. I really like Annette Simmons "Guide to Facilitate Dialogue" and she has kindly given permission for me to add it to Band Together BC's Dialogue Tool Kit. This kit, available on the Band Together BC website shortly, will also contain Tides Canada New Energy Vision for Canada and a Statement of Support for a National Energy Strategy along with suggested questions and methods of recording the ideas in the dialogue sessions that I hope many people will organize in their respective communities.
I look forward to sharing the innovative ideas that will no doubt arise from these sessions, articulated and expressed through a jambalaya of multimedia- so excited to see how they shape our future.
I just stumbled across Franke James visual essays of environmental issues: http://www.frankejames.com/debate/?p=11818
I think they're really captivating and a creative way of making social and environmental commentary. Something to think about for telling the story of my journey perhaps…
A couple of evenings ago, Nate and I attended a sold out presentation by the ever eloquent Wade Davis. He was as oratorically brilliant as the last 2 times I had heard him speak, but this time his presentation carried a sombre message. Shell wants to drill more than 1,000 coalbed methane gas wells in the Sacred Headwaters-a vast alpine basin that is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers- which threatens communities, wildlife and wild salmon. His book, Sacred Headwaters is a testament to the beauty of BC's remote north western corner and an expression of Wade's true love for the place he calls home. The images and his words convey the wildness, the vastness, and the pristine loveliness of this place- bittersweet now that the Red Chris mine- an open pit copper mine that will result in the amputation of Todagin mountain (home to the largest population of Stone Sheep in the world) and giant toxic waste ponds- has been granted a permit to operate right in the heart of it. I was struck by the terrible irony of how its remoteness has up until now preserved it from the machinations of the industrial world but may now well seal its fate as a site for oil and mineral development as it lays far from the eyes or experience of the vast majority of British Columbians that might otherwise protect it. Those that will suffer the effects of coal bed methane drilling or copper mining are the few that live on the land and to whom their land is their life. Wade described the injustice implicit in land deals that are negotiated in far off board room by executives that have never visited the site in question and yet their decisions to plop a mine or oil well wherever they choose has consequences deeply felt by those that live there and future generations. He wasn't suggesting that all development is bad- far from it- it's just that there are some places that are so ecologically and culturally significant that they deserve to be kept intact. Why is that so hard to understand?
I marvel at the fact that those with the common sense to understand this are labeled "environmentalists." Quite frankly, I'm surprised that the label exists at all. It's like being labeled a "life-ist" or an "anti annihilationist" and then being forced to defend that position.
Wade ended on an upbeat by suggesting that we have the power to sway Shell and others in how they manage their projects. It seems now more than ever before grassroots movements have the tools to really effect change-that gives me hope.
And just when things seemed too intellectually composed, Wade slipped in a few f-bombs, some references to his drug tripping days with the Shamans and how "Mitt Romney clearly didn't get laid in college."
A little something for everyone!
Well I feel like I'm going to burst- I'm just so stoked right now!! First the Delica and now Indiegogo has Band Together BC on its homepage!
This is the message they sent me:
Hi Kim.
Congrats! BAND TOGETHER BC is now featured on Indiegogo's home page thanks to all your great efforts! Share this excitement with your funders and fans. Glad we could give a boost to your efforts.
Thanks to everyone for making this a reality!
Next step…Nominate Band Together on Change Makers BC
In a move as predictable as a victim falling prey to a villain in a slasher film, the Harper government has hacked apart the Environmental Review Process, tossing aside 50 years of environmental development and awareness as Suzuki points out:
Check out this CBC interview with David Suzuki: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/04/17/environmental-reviews.html?cmp=Ross
Not only is the federal government reducing the number of departments and agencies that can do environmental reviews from 40 to just 3, it is dramatically shortening the review time to just 24 months.
So the Northern Gateway Review Process could conclude in May, a whole year and half earlier than initially scheduled.
It comes as no surprise as Harper is simply making good on his promise to China to approve the pipelines, "radicals" and "environmentalists" be damned. Apparently wanting clean air and water, sustainable land-based livelihoods, respect for the rule of law and First Nations territories and the ability to trust in our democratic institutions makes us "radicals."
So a more precarious future awaits us. Meanwhile, Harper makes good on another promise he made: "You won't recognize Canada when I get through with it."
I'm not the kind of person that goes looking for a fight or a cause. Yes, I am a principled person and have been called "hippie" "tree-hugger" and "environmentalist," plenty, but I don't make a point of attending rallies or protests. Yesterday, however, I made my way to Vancouver to stand with thousands of other people that believe the tar sands and pipelines are the wrong choice- now and for the future. Together we stood in solidarity and cried "shame" on our leaders that are choosing greed over good. We listened as thoughtful and passionate speakers, many of them First Nations' Elders (and one quite well spoke 11 year old!), spoke of the travesty being visited upon the land, and the devastation being wrought in their communities. One Elder said he would never forget something he recalled hearing as a child; "Fish to us is like bread to the white man." What happens when oil kills the fish or when it makes the fish so carcinogenic they kill the people? Another Elder spoke of the dysfunctional disconnection some humans have (namely the proponents of the pipelines) with the land and the water, but that our movement will protect their kids along with our own. "We are doing this for our children and for Kinder Morgan's children, so that they may have a spiritual connection with the water."
It was a moving event. Indescribably potent was the shared sense of purpose in trying to prevent a colossally unjust and brutal assault on the systems that give us life and on the people that have called this place home for thousands of years.
I saw an elderly woman dressed all in black with a black veil over her head. On her cane, she had attached a sign: "I mourn for the planet." A little while later I met my friends, Jane and Hugh with their perfectly beautiful new baby Audrey. It was one of those piercing moments when the truth that has quietly awakened inside erupts and paints the whole world real. The innocent newly born generation has arrived in the wake of a killing spree and is charged with making the funeral arrangements. I am an eternal optimist (what's the point of being anything else?), but I have dark moments when I think thoughts like these. I have moments of feeling so ashamed of my species, so appalled at the greedy ones, angry at the apathetic ones, and terrified for the little ones that I sometimes think we deserve to kill ourselves off.
But I take comfort in knowing that change is constant and the future always unfolds unpredictably. I find hope in the notion of transformation. That by changing ourselves we change the world around us. We are part of a vast system, intimately tied to the wellbeing of the planet and to one another. Sometimes the immense size and complexity of the system makes it feel like it's impossible for one person to make a difference, but I think it is quite the opposite. We are all connected, therefore we necessarily all make a difference. Each and everyone of us is working in and on the system. We are all in fact incredibly powerful, it's often just in ways that are unseen and misunderstood.
That was apparent yesterday. You could hear the power in the enlightened words of the speakers. You could feel the hope billowing over the crowd, with everyone absorbing it. I know everyone will be taking that feeling with them and sharing it with the people in their lives, inspiring others to take action as well. That is how it will spread.
Ben West said; "If I were Enbridge, I would be shaking in my boots right now." I couldn't agree more.
One person's moving experience with the destructive power of the oil industry.
"We are destroying future generations for now, and forever."
Last night, I watched Luna's (http://www.lunawhistler.com/) screening of Weibo's War, a provocative documentary directed and produced by David York (released Oct. 2011, http://www.nfb.ca/film/wiebos_war_trailer/).
The film features Weibo Ludwig and his small community's battle against the oil and gas industry. Ludwig, his wife Mammie, 2 other couples and all their children form the community of Christian fundamentalists that settled in the Grande Prairie (northern Alberta) region about 3 decades ago in the hopes of getting away from a world that didn't share their beliefs. They had peace for about 5 years. Then they were informed that they only owned the top 6″ of their property and that the subsurface mineral rights belonged to oil and gas (Encana). A sour gas well was situated a stones throw from their farm and that's when the trouble began. Their animals began to die and abort their young and so did the women on the farm. Mammie had a miscarriage and then a few years later gave birth to a still born baby (of which they show graphic images). They suffer inexplicable illnesses and violent skin reactions, oh and they can light the water coming out of their kitchen faucet on fire! Their attempts to write letters to decision makers and the media were futile and their protests at the well sites fell on deaf ears. Shortly after, the pipeline bombings and vandalism began. Ludwig and his cohort never admit to the acts, but the wry comments and direct support for them makes it pretty clear that they are involved if not wholly responsible. The bombings continue for many years, but the oil and gas industry continue to set up wells around the property. The community is observed and periodically searched by the police, but no direct evidence is ever discovered nor charges laid. Throw in the shooting death of a 16 year old girl that was trespassing on the property (again with no charges left) and you have a bizarre twist that further compounds the tragic nature of this story.
Ludwig was invited by Luna to attend the screening and lead a discussion. He wrote a letter declining on account of having developed cancer and not being able to travel. He said that hoped he would live long enough to write a book, that he would nonetheless publish posthumously so that he wouldn't be thrown in jail for its contents!
So I led the discussion instead. I asked the audience what their reactions were to the film and there were some really insightful comments offered. My favourite came from a women who said she sympathized with Weibo, but felt he didn't do what was best for his family- she felt he should've moved them so that they wouldn't have suffered as they did. She thought he was trying to be a martyr and wondered if martyrdom was an acceptable way of effecting change?
It begs the question, if citizens are being harmed by corporations supported by government what are acceptable courses of action? Are there sufficient mechanisms for having one's voice be heard and for actually changing the system? Was there a different approach Weibo could've taken to influence the powerful oil and gas industry that was harming human health and the environment with impunity? Was war his only recourse?
Is war ever justified? Pacifists aside, our society as a whole generally subscribes to the notion that is some cases war is justified.
St. Augustine said there were three just causes of war:
- defending against attack
- recapturing things taken
- punishing people who have done wrong
As I have detailed in a sworn affidavit, no less than three senior managers with TidesCanada and ForestEthics (a charitable project of Tides Canada), have informed me, as the Senior Communications Manager for ForestEthics, that Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan,was informed by the Prime Minister's Office, that ForestEthics is considered an "Enemy of the Government of Canada," and an "Enemy of the people of Canada."
This language was apparently part of a threat by the Prime Minister's Office to challenge the charitable status of Tides Canada if it did not agree to stop funding ForestEthics, specifically its work opposing oilsands expansion and construction of oilsands tanker/pipeline routes in Canada.