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A seemingly inexplicable willingness by supervisors to tolerate abuse seems to pervade institutions that house residents with developmental disabilities, a New York Times investigation shows.
Jonathan Carey did not die for lack of money.
New York State and the federal government provided $1.4 million annually per person to care for Jonathan and the other residents of the Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center, a warren of low-rise concrete and brick buildings near Albany.
Yet on a February afternoon in 2007, Jonathan, a skinny, autistic 13-year-old, was asphyxiated, slowly crushed to death in the back seat of a van by a state employee who had worked nearly 200 hours without a day off over 15 days. The employee, a ninth-grade dropout with a criminal conviction for selling marijuana, had been on duty during at least one previous episode of alleged abuse involving Jonathan.
"I could be a good king or a bad king," he told the dying boy beneath him, according to court documents.
In the front seat of the van, the driver, another state worker at O. D. Heck, watched through the rear-view mirror but said little. He had been fired from four different private providers of services to the developmentally disabled before the state hired him to care for the same vulnerable population.
O. D. Heck is one of nine large institutions in New York that house the developmentally disabled, those with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome and other conditions.
These institutions spend two and a half times as much money, per resident, as the thousands of smaller group homes that care for far more of the 135,000 developmentally disabled New Yorkers receiving services.
But the institutions are hardly a model: Those who run them have tolerated physical and psychological abuse, knowingly hired unqualified workers, ignored complaints by whistle-blowers and failed to credibly investigate cases of abuse and neglect, according to a review by The New York Times of thousands of state records and court documents, along with interviews of current and former employees.
Since 2005, seven of the institutions have failed inspections by the State Health Department, which oversees the safety and living conditions of the residents. One was shut down altogether this year.
While Jonathan Carey was at O. D. Heck, Health Department inspectors accused its management of routinely failing to investigate fractures and lacerations suffered by residents.
Similar problems can be found across the state. The Broome Developmental Center in Binghamton has been cited for repeatedly failing to protect residents from staff members. One employee there was merely reassigned after encouraging adolescent residents to fight one another.
Patterns of abuse appear embedded in the culture of the Sunmount Developmental Center in the Adirondacks. Last year, one supervisor was accused of four different episodes of physical and psychological abuse of residents within a span of two and a half months; another employee bragged on Facebook about "beating retards."
The most damning accounts about the operations come from employees — thwarted whistle-blowers from around the state — and the beleaguered family members of residents.
Dozens of people with direct experience in the system echoed a central complaint about the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities: that the agency fails to take complaints seriously or curtail abuse of its residents.
"I've never seen any outfit run the way this place is," said Jim Lynch, a direct-care worker in Brooklyn. "You report stuff, and then you get retaliated against. They want everything kept quiet. People that are outspoken attract the heat. I don't know who to talk to when I see a problem. Nothing ever gets done."
Paul Borer, a dietitian who works for the agency in the Hudson Valley, said he saw another employee punch a resident twice in the face in 2008, but little ever came of the many complaints he made about the episode, to his supervisors, to the commissioner of the agency at the time, Diana Jones Ritter, and to the office of Gov. David A. Paterson.
"You can see a person get hit, then you can go through three years of writing back and forth and nothing happens, so why even report it?" Mr. Borer said.
Mary Maioriello, who worked at O. D. Heck, reported seeing several cases of abuse, including the repeated beating of a resident with a stick that staff members called "the magic wand."
Upset that her concerns were not sent to law enforcement, she confronted two of the agency's top officials and secretly recorded the encounter, in which they sought to play down what she saw. After state officials learned of the existence of the tape, which Ms. Maioriello gave to The Times, the two officials were reassigned.
"The people at this place, the only way I can describe it is as a cult," Ms. Maioriello said of O. D. Heck. "It should be shut down."
Earlier this year, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo forced the resignation of the commissioner of the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities after learning of the Times investigation, and said his administration would undertake a broad review of the state's care of the developmentally disabled.
Indications are, however, that the agency is still struggling. Its new commissioner, Courtney Burke, is a well-regarded policy analyst but lacks management experience. She has taken over an agency with 23,000 employees; previously, she managed no more than seven. Mr. Cuomo has asked two veteran commissioners to review the agency's practices, and Ms. Burke has taken some decisive steps, firing two top officials, and trying to establish more independent investigations.
Still, the pattern of secrecy at the agency has been hard to break; even after Ms. Burke's ascension, it has battled in court to prevent the disclosure of patient records to Albany Law School, even though the school has a contract to monitor care of the disabled.
The institutions have survived a 40-year deinstitutionalization effort in part because officials have argued that they need a place to house the most frail or physically unruly residents. But there is also big money at stake. New York has been adept at securing large amounts of cash from Washington, earmarked for the institutions.
The federal and state governments now allocate more than $1.8 million annually for each of the roughly 1,300 residents remaining in the nine institutions, a number that has steadily risen from $1.4 million in 2007, when Jonathan Carey died.
That adds up to more than $2.5 billion a year, with about 60 percent coming from Washington.
But the money does not actually all go to the care of the residents in the institutions.
The state agency recently conceded that only about $600 million is being spent on the residents' care — a still-generous allocation of nearly $430,000 per person — while the rest is redirected throughout the agency for use at group homes and care in other areas. The state's redistribution of the Medicaid money earmarked for the institutions is currently the subject of a federal audit. The Cuomo administration has said it is moving to further de-emphasize institutional care and will close some of the nine facilities.
Jonathan's Story
Jonathan Carey arrived at O. D. Heck on Oct. 7, 2005.
Two months later, unbeknown to Jonathan's parents, Michael and Lisa Carey, the federal government barred the facility from accepting new residents financed by Medicaid for a year because of its chronic problems.
One inspection by the State Health Department found at least 18 serious injuries of residents in a five-month period, in a facility holding only 57 people. Eight of the injuries, including five fractures, were of unknown origin.
The Health Department concluded that investigating the high number of injuries was not a priority for O. D. Heck's management.
"There was no evidence that the facility examined the nature of all reportable injuries systemically in an effort to prevent such injuries in the future," inspectors wrote. O. D. Heck managers were supposed to complete initial investigations within five days of a serious injury, but often left the inquiries open for weeks or months, the department found.
Some workers were hardly fit for duty. One had a history of showing up intoxicated, according to depositions in a civil case brought by the Carey family against the state, but he was kept on the job until he was once so drunk at work that he was sent to a hospital. He was later made a groundskeeper.
Direct-care workers were often high school dropouts, some with criminal convictions. One lower-level supervisor had a petty larceny conviction. Edwin Tirado, the employee eventually convicted of manslaughter in Jonathan's death, had been convicted of selling marijuana and, as a youthful offender, for firing a shotgun in his attic.
Nadeem Mall, a trainee at O. D. Heck who pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in Jonathan's death, was fired from four different private providers of services to the developmentally disabled, lasting less than a year at each of them, before he was hired by the state.
One employer had accused Mr. Mall of sleeping and watching television on the job. Another found him sleeping while a resident's thumb was bleeding profusely. He was let go from a third job after being accused of calling 1-900 sex lines using a company cellphone, and from a fourth job after he inexplicably had a hairdresser cut off all the hair of a disabled woman in his care. Mr. Mall's lawyer declined to comment.
With that background, he was hired by the state, listing his sister and his wife as references on his application. A state official recently said in a deposition that the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities knew Mr. Mall had lied on his application form, claiming his driver's license had never been suspended when it actually had been shortly before his hiring.
"O. D. Heck failed at every single possible level," said Ilann Maazel, Mr. Carey's lawyer. "It was a disaster waiting to happen."
There was little tangible oversight of employees and no restraint on overtime, which employees coveted to supplement the low salaries, which started at less than $30,000 a year. Mr. Tirado was once allowed to work 84 straight days, and the former head of O. D. Heck acknowledged in a deposition that too much overtime had contributed to Jonathan's death.
All of this was hidden from the families of O. D. Heck's residents.
"If we had any clue that O. D. Heck was in this shape, do you think that we would have ever put Jonathan in there?" Jonathan's father said.
Mr. Carey is a tall man with piercing blue eyes, who ran a used-car dealership before his son's death. During a recent interview, Mr. Carey was surrounded by pictures of a grinning Jonathan, a contrast to his father's crushing sadness.
Before Jonathan died, Michael, an evangelical Christian, would make regular missionary trips to Africa. He has largely given up his dealership, and now devotes his life mostly to advocacy for the developmentally disabled.
For the Careys, the journey to O. D. Heck was a last resort. Jonathan was born in 1993, the older of their two sons. When he was 19 months old, the Careys were told that he was mentally retarded, and when he was older that he was autistic — functionally a 2-year-old, his vocabulary limited to "daddy" and the phrase "Where you goin'?"
The Careys, who live near Albany, raised Jonathan until he was 9, but became worried that they could not teach their son basic living skills, like toilet training. They enrolled him at the Anderson Center for Autism, a privately run school in the Hudson Valley overseen by the state.
At first, the school seemed a good fit, until Jonathan, who was always thin, began losing weight. During one visit, an employee told the Careys to take home a duffel bag they had never used. They discovered a logbook inside the bag detailing startling changes to Jonathan's treatment plan. Among other things, the school was withholding food from Jonathan to punish him for taking off his shirt at inappropriate times.
"They literally planned to withhold my son's meals," Mr. Carey said. "And when that was not working, then they began to seclude him in his bedroom for an extended period of time. He missed eight full days of school."
Soon afterward, the Careys removed their son from Anderson, and cared for him at home for the next year. But now there were tantrums for no apparent reason. A doctor later told the Careys their son was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
He became harder to contain. He was tall enough to jump their fence, had no sense of keeping himself safe and became increasingly hard to handle. About a year after he came home, Jonathan had what his father called "a full emotional meltdown," and the Careys took him to a local hospital, where he was essentially knocked out with a drug cocktail and tied to his hospital bed.
Death in a Van
Running out of options, the Careys were directed to O. D. Heck, and they hoped that an institution run by the state would be more promising than the Anderson school.
But on Oct. 29, 2005, just a couple of weeks after Jonathan was enrolled, the Careys arrived to find their son's nose so swollen that they took him to the hospital. None of the staff members claimed to know what had happened, and they speculated that it had occurred during a dental procedure. Another time, Jonathan was taken to the hospital with a black eye and a broken nose. That time, the staff suggested that Jonathan might have fallen out of bed.
On a third occasion, Jonathan was taken to the hospital with severe bruising on both sides of his face.
"They basically told us that Jonathan had fallen out of a rocking chair and hit his head on a table, and I said, 'Absolutely not,' " Lisa Carey said.
In a recent deposition, a lower-level supervisor at O. D. Heck, Tedra Hamilton, recalled the third episode, saying Jonathan "had bruises everywhere."
"It looked bad to me," she added. "It scared me."
Edwin Tirado had been one of two employees on duty right before the bruises were discovered; Mr. Tirado invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and declined to speak during a recent deposition when asked about prior abuse cases involving Jonathan.
The situation came to a head on Feb. 15, 2007. Mr. Tirado and Mr. Mall took Jonathan and another resident on an outing. Mr. Tirado had worked 197 hours over a 15-day period and was so exhausted that he let Mr. Mall drive, fearing he would fall asleep.
Mr. Mall first drove to his bank, leaving Mr. Tirado in the van with Jonathan and the other resident. While they were waiting, Jonathan got up from his seat. Mr. Tirado went to the back of the van and began to restrain Jonathan, trying to subdue him. Mr. Mall and the other resident, identified in court documents by his initials, E. C., later said that Mr. Tirado sat on Jonathan, who was face down, his legs flailing.
When Mr. Mall returned to the van several minutes later, Mr. Tirado declined an offer for help.
Mr. Tirado restrained Jonathan for about 15 minutes, continuing as the group drove to a gas station. Mr. Mall said he heard Mr. Tirado tell the boy, "I could be a good king or a bad king." Mr. Tirado denied making the remark, but another employee had heard him make a similar comment before, according to court documents.
E. C., watching with apparent concern from the front of the van, told Mr. Tirado, "Get off of him," and "Let him breathe," according to Mr. Mall.
When they got to the gas station, Mr. Mall went inside to buy some drinks, including a Snapple iced tea for Mr. Tirado. Mr. Mall has testified that when he returned to the van, Mr. Tirado told him that Jonathan had stopped breathing and the two panicked.
Mr. Tirado has changed his story over time. In a re-enactment videotaped by the police soon after the death, he said that at the gas station, he realized Jonathan had stopped breathing.
"I just froze," he said, adding that he was afraid of "losing my job and going to jail." Mr. Tirado has since recanted, saying he had believed that Jonathan had gone to sleep.
Regardless, the two men drove around for more than an hour with a suddenly silent boy in the back without checking on him or calling 911. They went to a video game store, where Mr. Tirado bought a special bag for his PlayStation, then to Mr. Tirado's house, where they smoked and chatted with a neighbor, and eventually back to O. D. Heck.
An autopsy found the cause of death to be compressive asphyxia — basically, so much pressure was put on Jonathan's chest that he could not get enough oxygen into his lungs.
Mr. Carey and his wife were together when they got the call.
"I just lost it," Mr. Carey said. "My wife was yelling and screaming 'What happened? What happened?' I just couldn't even, I don't even think I could communicate well. And she finally said, 'Which one?' She realized something had happened to one of the boys. And I said 'Jonathan.' And we literally both fell under the weight of the grief, collapsed to the sidewalk, just uncontrollably weeping. It's hard to explain the pain and the trauma that one experiences getting that kind of news. You're in a cloud. It's like you don't even know what's going on around you."
'Here's to Beating Retards'
Employment standards are low at the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. Not only were people with criminal convictions hired, but since 2006, some 125 workers who were fired from jobs there were rehired — a practice that agency officials said they would move to halt after The Times questioned them about it.
A recent case at the Monroe Developmental Center in Rochester, which failed a December inspection by the Health Department, highlighted the lax practices. Inspectors found that an allegation of physical abuse was substantiated against an employee who yelled at a resident, lunged toward him and "pushed him into the wall."
Inspectors discovered that the same employee had previously been fired in 2007, after being involved in a case of misconduct and for threatening a supervisor. The employee also had been convicted of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, not related to her job. In her personnel file, there were "do not rehire" recommendations from "numerous supervisors and administrators at the facility when she was terminated in 2007," inspectors found. And yet she was hired again.
Ms. Burke, the agency's commissioner, said in a statement that despite the past practice, she "will do everything in my power to not allow the rehiring of employees who have been previously terminated."
The Sunmount Developmental Center in the Adirondacks, a repository for residents deemed more challenging, also failed an inspection last year. The supervisor accused of four episodes of abuse of residents continued to have contact with them even as the investigations took place, inspectors found.
Inspectors also found that a resident had claimed that a caretaker had called him a "retard" and threatened to have another resident "beat him up." When the resident was indeed assaulted by the second resident, inspectors found that Sunmount officials did not investigate whether the employee had instigated the fight. In another episode, an employee dumped ketchup, salt and pepper on the head of a resident during dinner. The agency's response was to transfer the employee to another unit.
Around the same time, one Sunmount resident, Eddie Adkins, was set upon by several staff members after he grew upset that he was not allowed to go to the bathroom, according to an internal report provided to The Times by Mr. Adkins's family, who were able to get the report because of a disclosure law passed in the wake of Jonathan Carey's death.
A deaf resident told state investigators that he saw four state employees punching Mr. Adkins while he was sitting on a couch — "I did not like that," he told investigators, adding that he was so disturbed that he turned his hearing aid off during the melee.
Mr. Adkins's case underscores the difficulty of this work: While many residents are defenseless — children like Jonathan Carey, or those with cerebral palsy or other debilitating diseases — Mr. Adkins stands 6 feet 5, and his weight has topped 300 pounds. He is autistic and bipolar, and has a history of biting himself and his caregivers and has been jailed for doing so.
But his caretakers can also be violent. The internal report found that Mr. Adkins's "left eye was swollen and there was bruising under the left eye."
"There was a large vertical abrasion to Mr. Adkins's outer left eye," the report continued, "and a small abrasion on the left side, inner corner of Mr. Adkins's nose near his eye. There was a small linear abrasion on the outer corner of Mr. Adkins's right eye."
An agency spokeswoman said she could not comment on specific cases, citing confidentiality rights of residents.
After the attack, five staff members were placed on administrative leave. One of them wrote in a Facebook posting: "im on administration vacation as well," adding, "cheers brother here's to beating retards."
Trouble Endures
State officials have said they took a number of steps to clean up O. D. Heck after Jonathan's death.
Those included increasing the number of clinical staff members and direct-care workers and putting more emphasis on teaching residents skills that will help them move to small group homes, the agency said.
But Mary Maioriello, an employee at O. D. Heck until she resigned this year, said a culture of abuse continued. Ms. Maioriello was hired as a trainee last year, and witnessed several disturbing episodes. In one case, two employees played a game they called "Fetch," throwing French fries on the floor and laughing as one resident dived to get them, while another jumped out of his recliner and a third ate them off the floor.
Ms. Maioriello was a 24-year-old trainee at the time. She was horrified, but also intimidated.
"When I first started working there, I was told, 'Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut and you'll do just fine here,' " she recalled in an interview. "It was kind of like a code that you just didn't turn anything in. A word that they used a lot was a 'snitch.' That's what it felt like to me, like I was in some kind of gang or cult."
Ms. Maioriello told her mother what she had seen; her mother told a friend who knew someone at the agency. When Ms. Maioriello was brought in for questioning, she went further, telling her supervisors about several other episodes she had witnessed.
The most serious involved a blue wooden stick stashed in a cabinet drawer in a common room. One supervisor, Ms. Maioriello wrote, called the stick the "magic wand," and it was used to repeatedly beat a resident whom Ms. Maioriello described as nonverbal and weighing less than 90 pounds.
Ms. Maioriello told management that she had seen three employees, including the supervisor, hitting a resident with the stick at different times. The same resident was confined by employees to a gym mat, and if he stepped off it, he was hit with the stick, snapped with a towel or had his hands stepped on. Employees also appeared to enjoy taunting residents; two workers told one resident they were going to knock over his ceramic frog collection — they called the game "Kick the Frog."
For Ms. Maioriello, it was a painful experience. She said she had chosen to work with the disabled because her 3-year-old son has developmental problems. She aspires to being a nurse and has been a vigorous advocate for her son. But at O. D. Heck, she felt stuck between her need for a job and her determination to speak up about the behavior.
"I just thought, oh my God, what is wrong with these people?" Ms. Maioriello said of the other employees, adding: "I spoke to my mother, I spoke to some friends, I was telling them, you know, these terrible things. Should I quit? I'm a single mother, I need a paycheck. I don't know what to do. I'm scared of retaliation. And then once I finally turned it in, I feel like it fell on deaf ears."
A second state employee who worked at O. D. Heck corroborated much of Ms. Maioriello's account, but asked not to be identified for fear of being fired.
"There's abuse going on all the time," the employee said. "They don't report anything. They hide everything and cover for each other."
This employee also saw the resident who was restricted to a gym mat. "I saw them shove socks in his mouth, they shake keys in front of him, they treated him like an animal," the employee said.
Little resulted from Ms. Maioriello's reports to management. Her co-workers at first blamed someone else for reporting them to management, and the word "snitch" was spray-painted on the worker's car. Ms. Maioriello went on leave and resigned in March, threatening to go to the news media before she left.
The Official Response
It was then that Kate Bishop, who supervises O. D. Heck and group homes in a nine-county region stretching from Albany into the Adirondacks, met with Ms. Maioriello.
In an emotional hourlong encounter that she secretly recorded, Ms. Maioriello challenged Ms. Bishop and Andrew Morgese, the agency's head of internal affairs, who was also present, reminding them that she had reported that a resident was being regularly beaten with a stick. She asked why the matter had not been reported to law enforcement. "Were the police notified?" Ms. Maioriello asked, according to the tape, which was provided to The Times. "Because it was an assault. That is the law, that the police are to be notified when an individual is assaulted. Were they notified?"
"Well," Ms. Bishop said, "in the original report that you made, it didn't appear to rise to the level of ..."
"Hitting someone with a stick?" Ms. Maioriello asked.
"In the initial manner described ..." Ms. Bishop responded.
"Really?" Ms. Maioriello said. "So what's the severity that you have to make an assault?"
Later in the conversation, Ms. Maioriello again asked Ms. Bishop, "Is it an assault to hit him with a stick?"
Ms. Bishop replied, "Not seeing it, I couldn't answer that question."
She put the same question to Mr. Morgese.
"Shift after shift after shift, he was hit with this stick by several employees," she said. "Is that an assault?"
Mr. Morgese replied, "I don't think I can answer that question."
At one point during the exchange, Mr. Morgese suggested that it was the responsibility of Ms. Maioriello, a trainee, to report the cases to law enforcement, even though management had been made aware of them.
"I'm not trying to turn this around," he said, "but if you're indicating that you believe you witnessed the assault of an individual who was being repeatedly hit with a stick, any one of our employees has not only an opportunity to report, they have a duty to report, they have a duty to intervene on behalf of that individual. If they can't intervene safely on behalf of that individual, if he's being assaulted, they have a duty to notify law enforcement."
Shortly after the meeting, Ms. Maioriello reported the matter to the Niskayuna Police Department. While an officer who met with her said he was not sure how to respond to such episodes inside a state facility, she has since been contacted by the department seeking more information.
The Times asked the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities why Ms. Bishop and Mr. Morgese could not say what an assault was and why Ms. Maioriello's supervisors had not forwarded her allegations to law enforcement.
The state disputed the framing of the question.
"Your characterization of these exchanges is not consistent with our understanding of the facts regarding those conversations," an agency spokeswoman said, adding, "Without question, it is the agency policy that if a staff person hit an individual with a stick, law enforcement should be notified."
The state was subsequently informed by The Times that a tape existed of the encounter, and shortly thereafter both Ms. Bishop and Mr. Morgese were removed from their positions. Ms. Bishop was reassigned to the central office, and Mr. Morgese was demoted and sent to a regional office.
Mr. Morgese, through the agency, declined to comment. In a brief statement, Ms. Bishop said she was inspired to get into the field by a developmentally disabled sister.
"I believe that I provided the highest-quality leadership," she said, "always guided by respect and dignity for the people we are honored to serve."


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Carol Cratty and Mark Morgenstein
A former CIA officer who pleaded guilty to identifying a covert intelligence officer was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison.
John Kiriakou and prosecutors agreed on the term as part of the plea agreement he struck in October.
Kiriakou, 48, declined to make a statement at the Alexandria, Virginia, federal court prior to sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema.
"Alright, perhaps you've already said too much," Brinkema said.
She rejected defense attempts to characterize Kiriakou as a whistle-blower.
The judge was bound by the plea agreement, but said she would have handed down a tougher sentence had Kiriakou been convicted at trial.
"This case is not a case about a whistle-blower. It's about a person who betrayed a very solemn trust," Brinkema said.Ex-CIA officer in the news before
Defense attorney Robert Trout said during the sentencing hearing that Kiriakou did not intend to harm anyone or his country.
Trout described Kiriakou as "really thoughtless and really naïve" in not realizing that he would lose control of the information once he divulged it.
"He was concerned about certain practices that were employed in the fight against terrorism," said Trout, referring to enhanced interrogation techniques such as water-boarding.
Kiriakou had initially defended those practices, but Trout said his views "had evolved."
The lawyer said his client spoke to reporters in an effort to keep the spotlight on the topic.
Federal prosecutor Mark Schneider had a different view.
"The defendant acted out of a sense of ego and narrow-minded self-interest to raise his media profile," Schneider told the court.
Kiriakou pleaded guilty in October only to intentionally identifying an undercover CIA officer.
He also admitted to other allegations, including illegally telling reporters the name of a different CIA employee involved in a 2002 operation to capture alleged al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, and lying to a review board about a book he was writing. But those charges were dropped as part of his plea deal.
The charges arose out of communications Kiriakou had with two journalists between 2007 and 2009.
Schneider said Kiriakou also discussed the identities of other CIA employees, despite signing multiple non-disclosure agreements which he was bound to honor even after he left the CIA.
Kiriakou served as a CIA intelligence officer from 1990 to 2004.
Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said Kiriakou had endangered the life of a covert officer and "exposed our nation's vital secrets."
Kiriakou emerged from court on Friday, saying he was "positive, confident and optimistic."
He did not take questions from reporters but thanked supporters, including those who have signed a letter to the White House asking that his sentence be commuted.
The judge is allowing Kiriakou to surrender to authorities at a later date to serve his sentence.
Charges against Kiriakou followed an investigation that began when lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, issued a court filing with classified information not provided by the government.
A probe found that defense lawyers got the information from a journalist, who got it from Kiriakou, the Justice Department said.
Mankind is saying so what, God does not lie *Genesis 1:24 and it was so. *Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof, if not, where, and who is he? *John 13:19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. *Genesis 1:22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever; *Revelation 22:2 and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. *Exodus 15:26 for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
*John 7:25 Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? *Jeremiah 5:12 They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: *Jeremiah 34:17 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearken unto me, in proclaiming liberty, and every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; *Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (*Lamentations 4:12*)
God is righteous *Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of the revilings. *Luke 11:45-46 Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers!.. *Isaiah 43:28 Therefore I have profane the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. *Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. *John 7:49 But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. *Hebrews 8:10 I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
I was tortured for almost 3 years by the FBI and their friends only
because 85 years old man, Roland Sibens(chicago) convinced them that I
am a terrorist. I was tortured for working on my prosthetic legs in
the basement. I done absolutely nothing illegal or wrong. They thought
that in theory it is possible to hide bomb in them. They saw an
opportunity to get famous, so they were trying to torture me till I
sign their insane story. They tortured me using more than 100
different torturing methods and trust to me waterboarding is not how
they torture nowadays. I dont know where to find justice.
I think that after 9/11 things got out of control. Freedom fighters
became tyrants. In 1945, most Germans had an opportunity to learn about Nazis death
camps. I hope that one day American citizens will get chance to learn about people
like me, who were tortured with no reason for years.
Anyone who exposes torture no matter which country does it does not deserve jail. It takes courage to dob in evil practices particularly when your own team is doing them. If a few SS men had dobbed in what was happening in the extermination camps in WW2 then we would have praised their courage.
Your absolutely right. It's a double standard.
That is the dumbest thing I have read all day!
The Nazi's, whom the SS were, would have executed their own that turned on them. This bloody fool only got 30 months in jail and not death from his own government. I am sure the terrorists are glad because now they can kill the American spy.
"The judge was bound by the plea agreement, but said she would have handed down a tougher sentence had Kiriakou been convicted at trial"
judge appears to be prejudiced and would not have given fair trail , by her comments -she had condemned the guy at source
This judge is probably a leftover fr the bush administration hiring of far right republicans referred by Rove/Cheney buddies, as were the DOJ attorneys who prosecuted this guy. There are many far right wack jobs now at the USDOJ and the US Attorneys office that were hired by people who were directed by the Cheny-Rove-Wolfowitz directives–which was "hire as many young right wing neo-conservatives in federal government agencies that will direct and enforce public policy for years to come, as possible". They laid the groundwork for continued rightwing republican ideals to be doled out by these Bush regime hires .Its causing enforcement and legal problems all over the federal landscape.
Are you tired, God is rest. *Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. *Hebrews 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
The only issue that matters here, the defendant violated the non-disclosure agreements along with some oaths and other rights he signed away by accepting a job with the CIA. Legally this man is toast. The fact the Obama administration allowed this to go to conviction says a lot about their view about the interrogation issue. That's the only political angle here. The rest of you posters with fantastic allegations are living in the comfort of your colorful conspiracy theories.
Feed Satan the truth, and watch him turn on the wicked, for his payment is the Word of God. The wages of sin is death (*Isaiah 43:25*)
Come on! If you want to quote Scripture, at least use Scripture.
Hey Kleenex, get back in your box.
Obviously bottle fed as a child and agent.
People are looking at this as if President Obama prosecuted the case. I haven't been a big supporter of the president's policies but c'mon, give the guy a break. He is not the player here who prosecuted this guy. The CIA would have shielded him if they thought it was necessary and prudent. They did not.
So with that out of the way perhaps its time to look into the torture that was conducted. You do know its a crime against humanity and in a war its considered a war crime. So OBAMA stop harboring and protecting war criminals!!!
They need to go after the so-called journalists.
No offence CNN, but some of the people in your occupation are rotten and desperate for the Pulitzer Prize. The USA NEEDS to adopt the D-notice system.
"the Bush administration getting off scot-free when it comes to Valerie Plame" argument would actually make sense if it was the Bush administration who prosecuted John Kiriakou for blowing the whistle. Sadly, it is the Obama administration who has prosecuted John Kiriakou, and all for the "crime" of exposing torture and "revealing" a CIA agents identety, which was actually never made public (even to this day). I know lots of people love Obama (even I want to like him, I voted for him in '08), but it seems like a cop out to bring up the Bush administration when it is clearly the Obama administration that is out of line, at least at present. I also think it's quite hypocritical to turn a blind eye to what a present politician/political party is doing because he/she/it is better than than the politician/political party that came before it. We all remember how horrible the Bush admin was, but pointing the finger at him for an injustice that is being perpetuated by the Obama administration fails to hold the actual culprits accountable. The present administration (while better than Bush) needs to get the clear message that WE will not accept a "war on whistleblowers". (Btw, I am not a "Ron Paul Libertarian". For president, I voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2012 election. Had I lived in a swing state, I'd of swallowed my pride and (cringe) voted for Obama.)
would not let me post my whole comment because of the word "identety". I changed the spelling slightly and it allowed me to post. Anyway, you suck, CNN! Quit censoring my comments!
The whole "Bush administration getting off scot-free when it comes to Valerie Plame" argument would actually make sense if it was the Bush administration who prosecuted John Kiriakou for blowing the whistle. Sadly, it is the Obama administration who has prosecuted John Kiriakou,
and all for the "crime" of exposing torture and "revealing"
a CIA
goody, gg, g, & 'Sorry, but CNN':
the problem with ident ity is between 'iden' and 'y' which
CNN feels is a naughty word.
They have a big problem with it because
the censor/mediator department has no imagination or intelligence.
The particular syllable is common like "Const itution".
Hello, I really have to say its really hard for Myself, to mention the things freely about the situation with the Government Authority's or Staff's Member(s), for I have family's of Hers that are victims of Public Society that can be in trouble or in danger if I, talk out to loud to be heard. That's not mentioning the trouble I have Had trying to get someone to hear Me, out with out any interference. Thank You, In Sincere of Your PA Landowner Ship. 2001-2003
I am a PA landowner Ship, I am an inheritor. 2001-2003.
Why wasn't Dick Cheney brought before the court of justice for what he did to former CIA operative Valerie Plame ?
Because the higher you go up the food chain with the GOP the less the rules apply. So when you are the Vice President you can get away with a lot more than just your regular run of the mill agent. I am sure Cheney has dirt on all of them and none wanted to open that flood gate.
A lesson learned from the Libs!!!
Woody – BS! More like a lesson learned from Richard Nixon. They were crooks back then, they're still crooks today.
Wood – when reason fails bring out the insults ("Libs"), Obstruction, and no good position or argument.
Hence you acknowledge your reason is bias, alone.
OT. Where's the Like\Dislike choices on this story, CNN? (Only dislike if you register, however – always very balanced and fair)
At any rate, It seems odd how you sometimes have them and sometimes do not.
CNN – never explain, employ biased & uninformed mediators.
never explain,
employ biased & uninformed mediators.
goody, gg, g, ... the problem with ident ity is between 'iden' and 'y' which CNN feels is a naughty word.
cough*valerie plame*cough
I guess this is different 'cause it is not Cheney's office who leaked the info. ....
Treason – Life in prison.
A waste of money. Execution is the only fitting punishment for treason.
that someone who exposes torture gets sent to prison, yet the people who actually do the torturing walk free?
I agree torture is a horrible option. It lowers America as a country to the level of the enemy. However, war is nasty business. Essentially turning against your own country, rather you agree or disagree with an order is not the role of a single agent. People in these positions are trusted not only to protect our county but fellow agents. A break down of this trust is more deadly for America than the act of torture it's self. No plea deal, life in prison. Also, anyone who published information leaked by this agent should be held equally responsible. When people except one of these posts they give up some of their own freedoms. As Americans we are lucky there are people willing to do that so that we don't have to. This man violated not only the trust of his fellow agents but also the trust of the nation.
The U.S. has always tortured enemy combatants since the birth of this nation. We were just so good at hiding and denying it, telling the whole world it was wrong.
interesting question....
Only 30 months for risking another agents life not to mention the agents future!
This was definitely treason and there should have been no plea deal!
He should have been put in front of a firing squad as an example for other agents who might try something like this in the future!
Exposing torture is treason these days? Sheesh. I take it you are paid to spread misinformation on someones behalf...
is just an idiot.
Steve, turning on your country IS treason. There are dictionary's on the Internet that define this in case you failed high school. Regardless of torture being used he is guilty of treason.
You are absolutely right! No CIA agent should be divulging anything to anyone, especially journalists. The information he gave out was then put out to the public in a court case. Since we are a little more reasonable today, I would think life in prison would be appropriate.
Yep but if you are a VP you get away with it, and it even put the agent's life in danger. And we had to close down an undercover operation that took ten years to build. Oh, and did I mention the VP was a republican, that helped him to get by with it.
Right we still have Cheany to go after right
I dont get how this isnt treason
You are so right. Let's see how long it takes for this guy to get iced once he sets foot outside of prison.
Like I explained to Steve above, he turned on his country by revealing secrets. That is called treason.
Dick Cheney is untouchable, like the rest of the powerful Bush clan. They can do whatever they want and they did with no repercussions.
So the Bush admin outs Valerie Plaine and there are no consequences. No one goes to jail. But this guy does the same thing and he goes to jail. Oh that's right Republicans don't have to go to jail for breaking laws. I get it.
Sorry, I'm late. Did they find the entire bush administration guilty or just Cheney? Oh wait, just read the comments...they had a fall guy. Also kudos to bigfoots comments. Funny
Too bad Cheney doesn't meet his end in a "hunting accident" where he is on the receiving end of an AR-15. It would be too poetic.
You can tell by reading these posts that a significant number of people believe Dick Cheney outed Valerie Plame. Me included.
How come Dick Cheney can get away with it but he can't? I don't understand?
I just got here. Has anyone mentioned Dick Cheney?
Put Dick Cheney in there with him! Let them figure out who gets to be whose girlfriend for 30 months.
And Karl Rove....for outing Valarie.
Now, that'd be cruel and unusual punishment.
He committed treason. Bullet in the head is what he deserves – no less of a punishment will do for this serious a crime.
So when does Dick Chaney the man who got a heart recently get his 30 months for outing Valerie Plain?
yeah, he got a heart (he needed one 'cause he obviously had an empty space there) and of course he didn't get to jump the line of waiting recipients.....
Riiiight...we aren't in colonial day Europe. Not like it was right then either.
I second that motion.
It's OK for a sitting VP to do the same thing though?
What a bunch of dips!!! Who do you think protects this country, the soldiers on the ground?? Its the CIA, NSA, and covert agency's not named! They plant agents in forign countries and these people live undercover and report activities that they dig up. These people are couragious and are willing to die for there country, while all of you idiots gossip and talk about things you know nothing about!! By what you say, lets try not to let the rest of the world know how stupid some of our people really are!!!
Are You writing in American or English
I think it is Amglish. LOL
A good place to start would learning some rudimentary spelling and basic sentence composition.
You are of course, perfectly correct in your statement. That is why those replying to your post attacked you by criticizing your writing style.
He's probably not a cooperating member of the globalist agenda (CIA) so they staged a false flag charge on him & will put him close to gen pop. in prison so he gets killed.
That's how this gov't rolls.
So, the charges and convictions are totally trumped up, fabricated. Without any basis in objective reality. He never actually violated several disclosure agreements, never actually jeopardised anybody's life?
And himself never actually voluntarily pleaded guilty.
If it doesn't easily fit in said conspiracy theory, we'll torture it to force fit. Don't trouble me with facts because my mind is made up is the governing mindset of your post.
Why is it that the least intelligent people are put into such sensitive positions? I wouldn't have gone for a plea bargain were I the Justice Dept – make an example of him – ? possible treason charges.
15 minutes of fame , 30 months in the slammer (OK...FIVE months with good behavior)...then on to the lecture circuit... except the people who think he's a hero don't have the capital to pay him much...bad trade...
That is weird. Cheney and Bob Novack didn't get any prison time.
But Karl Rove did...oh wait
Seems fair. That's what Cheney got for naming Valerie Plame. Oh...wait a minute..
My question and thought, exactly. Little guys take in "in the shorts," but the Big Kahunas, or Darth Cheney in this instane get bubkas. This is not only the guy who "outed" a CIA agent but he also thought it was OK to say"F**! You" to a U.S. Senator on the floor of the Senate. Truly one of the great Americans of our day!
Laura, Very good point. Cheney was responsible for a ton of death and trillions of dollars wasted not to mention sitting down on the job and allowing Al Queda to commit 9/11, using 9/11 as an excuse to wage war and alienate the whole world.
I came to say the same thing. Is their a statute of limitations for Cheney for his crimes?
Treason has no statute of limitations.
Gen Allen will send him 30 to 40 thousand emails if he is also knows socialites!!! This is what marine theater commanders do. At that level, they call it warfitin.
Does he still get his pension? I had to work hard and honest to get mine.
I'm guessing you have no idea what sort of scrutiny is involved with becoming a CIA operative. Check it out sometime. I think it's safe to say that Kiriakou has served his country in greater ways than the vast majority of plebes posting on these boards.
10 he was an "intelligenge officer" which is not always the same as an "operative"...sometimes it means desk duty- 2) if blowing someones cover is his concept of "intelligence , that could explain some functional missteps- 3 "plebes"??????
You might ask the same question about Dick Cheney who "outed" and undercover agent.
Keep your mouth shut! If you have a security clearance KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! It's not your job to make a political statement. Do your job and move on or get out and then KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!
It is your job to expose war crimes which what he did. He did nothing wrong.
Umm you do realize every country everywhere does things they are not proud of but believe is rite for there country. If you honestly believe everything is black and white your an idiot this world is lies wrapped in lies and if your privileged to know the truth then you keep your mouth shut and enjoy what you know. Theres a reason we have spies jack-nut.
No you don't have to divulge the names of undercover agents to report war crimes! He should have quit when he saw these war crimes and reported the war crimes to competent authorities but instead he betrayed his colleagues and divulged their names to settle petty scores.
Does that comment include the same admonition to Dick Cheney and Libby? Or just the "little guys.?"
Just follow orders. It's always right if you're following orders.
Too easy a sentance. I hope he gets brutally raped in prison.
Fedgov....Are u Karl Rove in disguise? or maybe one of the other republican toadies who outed Valeria Plame ..that was a real CIA outing.
Were you of the same opinion with regards to Dick Cheney who outed Val Plame?
How many yr jail time Cheney get? And, how many years Bush get to lie to America going to war?
What difference does it make? Are you a Lawyer or Loser. I get sick of folks talking about upstanding GOP Members. Join the Tea Party and get edukated. G.W. Bush
Texas GOP, you should listen carefully what Gov. Jindal said today..the Republican Party.... "must stop being the stupid party." The Tea Party drove the GOP to that extreme, and Cheney should have served jail time for war crimes.
You should learn how to spell before you write. You only get one chance to make a first impression and poor spelling made the rest of you comment worth very little.
They killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of civilians. They don't deserve to ever get out.
Yeh! Right Remember Valery Plame. Bush and the other Republican hypocrites
perhaps he should spy his way into a salon to get his caterpillar eyebrows attended to..
he looks like the love child of clay aiken and eugene levy...
What do you know about the case are you a Lawyer or Tea Party Loser?
I don't know much about working for the CIA, but I do know you are not supposed to go around blabbing out the names of spys. What was this guy thinking?
What was he thinking? If Dick Cheney can do it, anyone can.
This is why our justice system is broken. Sure this guy was probably guilty. But still the case clearly illustrates that when people make a plea deal and prevent a trial, they're subject to one third of the time in prison (and often as little as one tenth of the time) that they would be if they went to trial and lost. As a result. Innocent people do feel forced to take plea deals. What would you do if you were facing 30 years for a crime you didn't commit but you could plead guilty and serve 30 months?
I'm not that versed with this case, but in general that is so very true. Prosecutors are, in effect, allowed to bribe witnesses for their testimony and blackmail defendants into pleas. Defense attorneys would go to prison for attempting any of that. What's more, I think it has a corrupting effect on the morals of prosecutors... you can only bribe and blackmail for so long before you lose your bearings.
Bush's fault and the YouTube video.
What a country,Cheney and his fellow criminals outed V. Plane,just because they knew he was a Liar and murderer and nothing happens,this guy is going to prison.
Absolutely correct. Dick Cheney should be sitting in prison right now.
getting brutally raped, as a teabagger above hoped for this other guy
Uh oh, a good session of "blame that administration" going on in here. I promise I can name a dozen serious flaws of at least the last 5, maybe more. Let's find practical ideas that these people can use to make better decisions. Other than that, this story appears to be a clear cut case of someone violating a damn serious oath (whatever the reasons). 30 months is less than most (federal) drug offenses. I feel almost no pity.
spot on.
Did you feel the same way when Dick Cheney did it?
I hope he will be ""positive, confident and optimistic." with all the totally reasonable inmates he'll interact with.HAHAHAHA
He'll end up playing basketball and tennis in a federal minimum security facility with a bunch of white-collar types.
So I assume Darth Cheney will alsobe reporting for his stay in the big house sometime soon?
No, Cheney will get away with doing the same thing to Valerie Plame.Wilson, thanks to all you "patriotic" conservatives who supported him. Nice.
So true!
Right on! Whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the Darth Vadar of politics.
he should of used his secret tacophone
Cheney not jailed for exposing Hillary plame.... you know something worse than BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI....
That's because Cheney was never charged with exposing Plame. Try to stay informed.
But Scootter Libby was found guilty.
But W. commuted Libby's sentence, which was incidentally 30 months.
But I guess since outing our leading covert CIA agent on Iranian nuclear technology was simply a slip of the tongue and caused no harm, there is no reason to punish anyone.
Off course,since when criminals charge one another.
They are all the same bunch of filth.
Yeah but he f did it and should of been tried for treason.
That's because he ordered Scooty Libby to take the fall. It went something like this: Cheney leaked to Rove about Valery Plame being CIA; Rove then leaked to Bob Novak who outed her in his newspaper column. Cheney told Libby to take the blame so the heat would stay away from the Administration and 'W' would pardon him anyway. W didn't totally pardon him, but did fully commute his sentence. Richard Armitrage, who, as Rove's errand boy and scapegoat, actually was the person who technically told Novak at Rove's behest. Please stay informed.
He wasn't charged because he was the veep with nearly limitless power to abuse the system.
I am informed.
Iran, Iran Iran teabagger!
so they finally prosecuted cheney????
Sad that our system of "justice" is so "unjust". You are correct – Cheney should also be prosecuted. As should Broadwell who also has violoated National Security agreements that she signed. Unfortunately those who are close the "top" always seem to get away with murder (or the like).
Are all liberals really stupid? Richard Armitrage revealed Plame's name; Cheney was not involved. Armitage was not prosecuted because Plame was not covert. Got it?
Get real!
No, Cheney did it – listen to what Wilson said on a TV interview, as well as Plame's testimony before the congressional committee. It's all on youtube. IIRC, Wilson noted that a 20-minute phone call to the press reporter was made by the govt official who had just gotten off a plane ride with Cheney, and the name was published the next day. Something like that.
And there was plenty of other evidence too. And Plame was covert, according to an official statement from the CIA (again, listen to the tapes of the congressional inquiry)
I thought treason was punishable by death.
Only applies to hard working ordinary Americans.
Who won, the black spy or the white spy?
The black one.
Find out by watching: "I Spy"
Hey, your comments about about Chenney are not the issue here. They are given this man a vacation in a prison that will have all the features of a resort. The man , if you could call him a man, ratted out on a fellow member of the CIA. That is what is important here. What if you were that agent and you were in a difficult place and some one in you organization told them that you were there. THINK ABOUT IT!
Yes, Cheney SHOULD be in prison. He outed a CIA spy. In his case it's worse. If you can't trust a VP with state secrets,mthen who CAN you trust. using intelligence people for political payback is wrong.
Cheney is and was a traitor. Just Ike Bush's granddaddy.
So you proclaim a former Vice President of the United States, former Secretary of Defense and U.S. Congressman a Traitor? Mark Hensley, you are an utter moron or possibly a poorly educated 13th or 14th grader. You confuse your own bias and emotions with facts to create your self developed yet uninformed babbling, and then take the time to boldly proclaim your nonsense to the world. The world and issues like these are not as simple as your thought processes and intellectual capabilities. Leave the big stories to the grownups that live in the real world and have critical thinking skills. No response needed...your kind of stupid doesn't matter.
Very true, he really does need to be in a federal prison for his betrayal.
If this guy really did what he's accused of, he should be punished but we should also have investigated who outed Valery Plame. If it was someone with a lot power, that shouldn't matter to the investigators.
yeah THINK ABOUT IT you know that's exactly what cheney did!!!
don't let your team mentality get in the way of the truth and the correct treatment of treason!
never speak up and jeopardize invading iraq under the bush/cheney dictatorship or you cia relatives will be outted....
So it's okay if Cheney did it to get back at someone, but not okay if this guy did it for personal gain? Yeah, we should throw the book at him. Perhaps he should've just shot someone in the face?
Yes, Cheney's actions are an issue here. He had a top security clearance. He knew Val P. was "covert." He was just getting at her husband. Still he DID expose an agent. BTW, Armitage just took a "hit" for him. If it was Armitage, he didn't get jail time either. All one cuddly family.
For those of you that are for some reason blasting Cheney need to check your facts. Straight out of Wikipedia;
The Plame Affair (also known as the CIA leak scandal, the CIA leak case, the CIA leak grand jury investigation, and Plamegate) involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert[1][2] Central Intelligence Agency officer by Richard Armitage.
Who is Armitage you ask? A registered democrat originally appointed to the state department by President Clinton.
But heck, don't let facts stand in your way when you go on your idiotic rants.
You're not really quoting Wikipedia as truth are you? Do some real research and you'll see that Karl Rove is the guy you're ultimately looking for–yes, the one and the same, now irrelevant Rove–who confirmed the classified information about Plame's status for Novak's article, not Armitage, but wait that's inconvenient now isn't it
Huh? Seriously, are you for real? Armitage admitted that he is the one that outed her. But hey, just keep chugging along with your drivel. Your liberal lemming friends will lap it up and cheer you on because it fits perfectly with their dillusional perceptions.
You rewrite history all the time, or just when it's convenient for you?
Larry – Cheney was involved and knew – that is what they don't tell you in Wiki.
Wikipedia? Wow! That's never wrong!
Do you honestly believe Cheney didn't know about and help plan the leak? Really? The problem with right-wingers is they always resort to semantics and drama associated with isolated elements of each subject. You, in your heart know Cheney was involved. You also ranted to go after Hillary because she was at the top of the State Department when the crisis in Lybia developed. Why aren't you going after Cheney? How about his "special deals" for Haliburton? You know about those. What does Wikipedia tell you about that? Be honest to yourself.
The point is and you haven't approached it, that NO ONE, NO ONE got anything for outing VP. Not Cheney, not Armitage, not anyone.
I say we get in there and dig out his heart and give it to someone that deserves it.
Its too late, as DarthCheny already got a new heart.
what do you know about Cheney other than what you have heard from liberal press that you make such a stupid comment?
I think at this point, we all know more about Cheney and his henchmen than we would ever wish to. He is a national tragedy.
It is high time we lock up Dick Cheney – or worse.
It's never going to happen for two reasons. First, presidents and vice presidents have sovereign immunity for their actions in their official capacities. Barring impeachment proceedings, which are already out of the question for obvious reasons, there's little that can be done regarding Bush and Cheney's actions in office. Second, the only way around this involves prosecution at the International Criminal Court. Since the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, it would require a Security Council referral for Bush and Cheney to fall under ICC jurisdiction. As we all know, the U.S. would definitely veto such a resolution.
Although sovereign immunity applies to the U.S. government itself, it would not be difficult to use it as a successful defense given that the alleged crimes involved Bush and Cheney's official duties.
The justice dept will go after the rank & file... but there will be no justice until Cheney does time.
But Cheney isn't in jail for the same thing? Oh, that's right. Cheney's a republican. The rules don't apply.
The double standard raises its' ugly head yet again.
He was just trying to comply with the 'transparency' thing.
I think...that if I were Valerie Plame's husband, I would – at this point – just hunt down and shoot Dick Cheney!
You're being far too kind.
Cheney deserves to be dragged into the gutter and flogged.
That way, he could be punished again, and again, and again.
Cheney saw nothing wrong with waterboarding... give him a few bites at that apple!
When will the present and past four administrations go to prison for war crimes?
Why stop at four? This is the real world and nobody is playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Every president has blood on his hands, even Carter. That doesn't excuse Dick Cheney and the neocons. They were the worst of the worst.
Well, why the hell wasnt CHEYNEY sentenced!?!?!??!?!?!
Next up, Bush, Cheney, Libby and a host of others for outing Valerie Plame.....too bad that won't happen. They all should be hanged in the city square at high noon for exposing her.
We really need to convince CNN to get a "like" button on this site..too many of us wasting keystrokes saying the same damn thing....
or.....forced to go HUNTING with Cheyney
Naw... he only shoots his lawyers in the face.
Absolutely. The Judges description of "Violating A Sacred Trust" fits completely around the necks of Bush, Cheney, Rove and Libby and they all got off with nothing but scratches. It illustrates the double standard but more important what a bunch of low lifes these people are at the core. They should be swinging from the gallows.
This guy goes to jail while Cheney walks free for the same crime.
He also shot someone in the face!
That's right! Plus this week they grilled Clinton about Benghazi, but I still haven't heard any apologies from Cheney, Rice or Bush about dropping the ball on 9/11/01.
"Alright, perhaps you've already said too much," Brinkema said.
Just goes to show, that if you are the President or the Vice President, or other high level government officials, that you are above the law! We will not get our country back until we take our country back! I just hope that we keep it this time!
Hmm Listen to what the media is "not" saying.
Oh well. I thought maybe Rove or Cheney had been brought to justice.
This guy could seriously get iced as soon as he sets foot out of prison.
Try turning the TV off once in a while and seek reality.
Maybe they could lobotomize him and place him in an assisted living facility so he could be slowly put to death with succinocholine?
Loose lips sink ships.
Thats what she said!!! Giggiddy giggiddy
That should be loose lips drips...
are we talking about Dick or Cheney?
Guess we can look forward to a similar prosecution of "Dick" Cheney.
Let's hope so, John. In fact, the whole rotten bunch on Capitol Hill need to be indicted and prosecuted. especially George W.Bush who knew all the time that Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction.
The whole WMD fallacy is getting tiresome. You're nothing but a parrot. We went into Iraq because they violated a treaty from the gulf war that said Iraq had to allow surprise U.N. weapons inspections and they jerked around U.N. teams for 10 years. I guess the truth doesn't fit into your agenda, though.
i12bphil – You forgot the continuous violations of no fly zones and launching of scud missiles into surrounding nations.
And the 5 trillion we spent on the Iraq war was totally worth it. Retards
cheney never outed anybody. richard armitage outed valerie plame,but he was a washington insider so that was okay.
It will be interesting to see what his life will be like once he gets out of prison. I mean 30 months is nothing, soldiers deploy for up to 18 months in a place where they can be killed from one day to the next. I guarantee this guys gets a nice cell with all the amenities... then when he gets out, cheney will be waiting at the gate with a big fat "thanks for taking the hit" check. Mafia stuff.
Dream on, you clueless idiot. He will likely find that he is unemployable in any fashion at all. Not even at Burger <King. Why don't you realize that and climb down off your invisible high horse, and join reality. Reality is anyone with a criminal record will never be hired in the US. That's modern America.
You are sooooo wrong. Cons or Ex-Cons get work all the time. People with college educations have much better chances of returning to their chosen field. I see him going to work for a security firm somewhere. He will stay in the business. And maybe while he is in he will collect enough information from others that just makes him even more valuable.
Oh Please. Faux will have him as a contributor 5 minutes after he gets his cufflinks from the property desk.
What hit did he take for Cheney?
yes he did, Al. Yes he did
"not realizing that he would lose control of the information once he divulged it" Movie spy rule #1:
(smiles) I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you, *maniacal laughter* (solemn face) seriously though don't ask that question again...." (fade out)
Then why is Dick Cheney still walking around as a free man?
Well, if he can't be tried in court, then we should be able to .. you know.. 🙁
OJ had a good team of lawyers.
Wait...He worked for the CIA and he is described as "really thoughtless and really naïve"?
The CIA is neither a thoughtless nor a naive organization. They employ some of the smartest people in America. The problem is that the CIA, just like the military, is forced to do stupid things by our government. Sure, blaming the CIA is easy- but the real blame is on mindless government politicians. The CIA is just doing their job.
In fact Bryceson, the C.I.A. is the biggest terrorist organization that the world has yet seen. Just look at what happened in Chile in 1973, the Congo in 1960, Iran in 1953, South Vietnam in 1963, etc. Need I say more?
I think that several nazi soldiers also tried that defense, "we were just following orders." Neither the CIA, the government and especially the leak have clean hands. It is never black and white unless you are eating oreos.
" just doing their job..." hmmm- echoes from 1945
wjmccartan, all of the incidents you mentioned were ordered by the government, not the CIA. The CIA was just doing its job. It is the government that should be blamed, not the CIA.
By the defense. They will say anything, no matter how absurd.
What Carl Rove is free?
Rhetorical question I guess. He should be hanged along with Bush, Cheney, Libby and a host of others for exposing Valerie Plame. I'll provide the rope and build the gallows if that would help move the process along.
Michael, sarcasm right? Nobody in the US has the right to execute anybody unless they have the authority to do so appointed or granted by the State agency involved- and that's an ugly issue. AND unless I miss my guess, the system should have already explained that to you in school.
But, that might become a debatable point in the near future – go figure:) !
Actually Rowe is being held by R. Murdock and forced to do Fox commentary to throw everyoff. He tried to send us a message by pretending to be shocked when Mitt lost.
Probably counting his blessings the Dems aren't as vicious as Repubs.
What a sad country. The sentence is indicative of a police state.
How is it indicative of a police state? This guy gave out information that could have easily endangered other people's lives. He isn't a patriotic whistle-blower, he is a traitor.
Out of curiosity, do you feel the same about Bush, Cheney, Libby and a host of others for outing Valerie Plame?
Bryceson. I hope you had this much righteous indignation when the Bush boys outted Phlame for political gain. Whatta bunch of hypocrits!!
Well kinda– only we call it the Patriot Act to hide it from America.
This has nothing to so with the Patriot Act. (Which I do believe is far more broad than it should ever have been allowed to be) Any time you have to call something patriotic be sure to look behind the curtain.)
lock patreaus up for 30 years
He needed to use Cheney's lawyer if he really wanted to beat the rap.
yeah, where is Darth Vader aka Cheney when you need him for legal advice?
He's really Clark Kent...............ssssssssssssssh don't tell anyone. Hahahahahahahahaaha


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Butternut squash & sage risotto
October 1, 2019
- 1kg butternut squash, peeled and cut into bite-size chunks
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Olive oil
ol-iv oyl
Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…
- bunch sage, leaves picked, half roughly chopped, half left whole
Popular in both Italian and British cookery, sage has long, grey-green leaves with a slightly…
- 1½ l vegetable stock
- 50g butter
Butter is made when lactic-acid producing bacteria are added to cream and churned to make an…
- 1 onion, finely chopped
Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…
- 300g risotto rice (we used arborio)
Risotto rice
To create an authentic creamy Italian risotto, the use of specialist rice is imperative. It…
- 1 small glass white wine
- 50g parmesan or vegetarian alternative, finely grated
Parmesan is a straw-coloured hard cheese with a natural yellow rind and rich, fruity flavour. It…
- Before you make the risotto, heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Toss the squash in 1 tbsp oil together with the chopped sage. Scatter into a shallow roasting tin and roast for 30 mins until it is brown and soft.
- While the squash is roasting, prepare the risotto. Bring the stock to the boil and keep on a low simmer. In a separate pan, melt half the butter over a medium heat. Stir in the onions and sweat gently for 8-10 mins until soft but not coloured, stirring occasionally. Stir the rice into the onions until completely coated in the butter, then stir continuously until the rice is shiny and the edges of the grain start to look transparent.
- Pour in the wine and simmer until totally evaporated. Add the stock, a ladleful at a time and stirring the rice over a low heat for 25-30 mins, until the rice is cooked al dente (with a slightly firm, starchy bite in the middle). The risotto should be creamy and slightly soupy. When you draw a wooden spoon through it, there should be a wake that holds for a few moments but not longer.
- At the same time, gently fry the whole sage leaves in a little olive oil until crisp, then set aside on kitchen paper. When the squash is cooked, mash half of it to a rough purée and leave half whole. When the risotto is just done, stir though the purée, then add the cheese and butter and leave to rest for a few mins. Serve the risotto scattered with the whole chunks of squash and the crisp sage leaves. http://stokvideolar.com


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Office space in Sheffield
Choose from over 5 locations in Sheffield.
Our office space in Sheffield is well-equipped to meet your organisation's needsOur serviced offices feature high-speed Internet and business grade facilities, so you can transition into the space easily. With a staffed reception, short and long-term agreements and additional facilities available, our offices in Sheffield provide solutions for businesses of any size.
Pricing information
Office, co-working and virtual office prices shown are per person, per day.
All prices shown are the minimum price, based on a 24 month contract or lowest rates available.
Meeting room prices shown are per room per hour at minimum rate.
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Manchester City Centre
Manchester City Centre is the thriving heart of this northern commercial hub with transport links to Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle and Edinburgh.View centres
Considered the Canary Wharf of Manchester, Spinningfields is a commercial suburb that boasts gleaming office buildings and well-kept garden spaces.View centres
Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport boasts a rich history in aviation and many amenities for when you are waiting for that next flight.View centres
Benefitting from recent investment, Salford is home to the Salford Quays, a modern technology park attached to a vibrant entertainment district.View centres
About office space in Sheffield
If you are considering office space in Sheffield, our broad range of well-equipped centres provide you with an unbeatable selection, certain to meet your organisational needs. Our facilities are supported by local amenities in a variety of locations, making your working environment not only productive, but also convenient. Whether you are in search of satellite offices to rent for your expanding team, short-term offices to let for complete flexibility, or a day office for project work, Regus has a variety of modern professional workspaces across the city. Each of our serviced offices come outfitted with business grade Internet, so that your team can smoothly transition in the space with minimal hassle.
A city world-renowned for its steel industry, Sheffield has reimagined itself in recent years and emerged onto the global stage as an attractive business location. In fact, the city is frequently named as one of the most attractive cities to locate a company in Europe. Traditional industries are represented by Sheffield Forgemasters and Arthur Price & CO, while the law offices of Irwin Mitchell and professional services firm ARUP also have major offices here. Computer simulation specialist Fluent Inc has selected the region as its European headquarters and the community boasts a large youth population, thanks to its two universities. Sheffield also has superb access to both the M1 and M18 motorways, as well as a direct rail link into Greater Manchester, with less than a one hour journey time.
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Cuticle Tantei Inaba
Alternative Titles:Cuticle Detective Inaba
Genres:Action, Comedy, Mystery, Shounen, Supernatural
Private Detective Hiroshi Inaba is an artificially-created being, formed by splicing the genes of both a human and a wolf, who gains information by tasting and examining people's hair, and pretty much has a hair fetish. He can transform into a more wolf-like form, and also gain special powers and perform different attacks depending on the type or colour of hair he eats. Formerly employed by the police and partnered with an officer, he now runs his own private detective agency with the help of his sadistic, cross-dressing secretary Yuuta (often mistaken for a girl), and Kei (a *relatively* normal teenager working part-time at the office. Ogino, the officer formerly partnered with Hiroshi, also often helps out with cases. His arch-enemy is Don Valentino, an evil mastermind goat with a taste (literally) for money, and a variety of messed up but extremely devoted henchman, including gentleman samurai Laurence, who always wears a bag over his head. Most chapters are individual stories revolving around Hiroshi and his friends trying to arrest the Don, always failing miserably. [MAL]


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Where Do You Take Out of Towners in New York?
When tourists, friends, and family come to New York, where do you take them? Traditional go-tos like Katz's and Russ & Daughters? Some place new and exciting? Your favorite off the beaten path hole in the wall?
We've given you some field guides of our own, from the Lower East Side to Chinatown to Soho and Prospect Heights. We've talked about where to bring your family and where to bring yourself, and hey, we've talked about Chinatown some more because you all get a kick out of it.
So tell us, what are your favorite places to feed out of towners? Let us know in the comments.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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The Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus is a satellite campus of Illinois Institute of Technology's Mies Campus (Formerly Main Campus) in Chicago. The Rice Campus caters to working professional graduate and upper-level undergraduate students with course offerings in information technology and management, industrial technology and management, engineering, science, and information technology certificates.
To meet the growing technological needs of Chicago's west suburban business and industrial community, Illinois Institute of Technology began offering classes in a temporary space in Glen Ellyn in 1986. Following a gift from the Rice Foundation of 19 acres of prime real estate in south Wheaton, the first building on the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Campus opened in January of 1991.
The 54,000 square foot state-of-the-art building features extensive computer facilities, ForSec Forensics and Security Lab, Real-Time Communications Lab, Fabrication Lab, online classrooms and traditional classrooms.


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Want to submit an event to the Startup Durham Region calendar for syndication? Add it here. All events are moderated for approval prior to being added to the calendar.
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BACD Start Up Session
September 18, 2019 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Event Navigation
This session is for budding entrepreneurs and those considering opening their own small business and a great place for you to start exploring the fundamentals of starting a business. There must be a hundred questions running around in your head! Find answers to these questions!
This session is presented by BACD's advisors.
After attending this session, we strongly recommend that you also attend the BACD Business Fundamentals: Business Planning, Marketing & Sales, and Financials & Operations. These sessions are designed to help you get your business started and ready to maintain and grow successfully.
In this session we will go through a Start Up Checklist:
- Your Business Idea
- Business Structure
- Licenses and Permits
- Business Registration
- HST and Payroll
- Financial Record Keeping
- Business Insurance
- Capital, Grants and Funding
- Hiring Employees
Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the event, to allow time for check-in
Do I have to bring my printed ticket to the event?
No, you do not need to bring a ticket with you
What can/can't I bring to the event?
You don't need to bring anything but your questions and a notebook if needed.
Is there Parking?
Yes there is free parking, we encourage you to come early to get a spot.
For more information, call us at (905) 668-4949 or email firstname.lastname@example.com
Related Events
All events published on Startup Durham are done so as a convenience. Please contact the event organizer for confirmation on date, time, location, and registration information. Startup Durham can not be held liable for errors in event data including cancellation.


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Setting up your own financial advisory practice is not easy, and it's even tougher if one of your goals is to serve underserved communities.
Lazetta Rainey Braxton, a financial planner who founded Chicago-based firm Financial Fountains in 2008, would like to grow her business efforts to help middle income African-Americans and other minorities properly plan their finances.
But, she says, figuring out how to go about doing this in the right way is not easy.
Having an innate sense of what minorities need, where they are coming from and what their goals are, can help a great deal. Yet Braxton feels she would benefit much more and be able to perform better as a financial advisor with assistance from a diverse network of colleagues that she could liaise with on a regular basis.
That's why she is looking toward the larger industry organizations that are spearheading efforts to create a network for–and of–advisors serving minorities.
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) already has in place a diversity scholarship program, she says, which has done a great deal in attracting people from different minorities into the financial planning profession, as well as with supporting the inclusive efforts of its current membership. Braxton herself was a 2011 recipient and she currently serves on the FPA Diversity Committee.
Braxton recently joined the Association of African American Financial Advisors, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2011 and continues to make strong strides in bringing together financial advisors from across the country.
Although more and more advisors–many are minorities themselves–across the country are dedicating themselves to serving underserved communities (even if it's just because they're astute enough to see the direction that the advisory business is going in, since "today's minorities are going to be tomorrow's majority"), there is no well-known template for this, Braxton says.
While there no doubt are some successful templates out there, they are not well-shared, she says, and this is a shame for advisors like herself.
The financial advisory industry has matured enough to recognize the need to work with diverse communities, but those advisors who are doing this often must operate on their own. In many communities, there is no cohesive effort to bring these advisors together, Braxton says, although many of them would welcome a movement to unify their efforts and create a forum of reference.
"What we need is a more collaborative approach that would support the increase in minority advisors and in advisors who want to serve minorities," Braxton says. "We need to know who each other is so we can become advocates of each other's efforts. This in turn will translate into serving clients better and creating greater client confidence."
Braxton's desire to serve middle income minority communities comes from her own modest background. Unfortunately, middle income people are still not the most attractive business segment for most financial advisors, but although Braxton, like any other advisor, would want her business to be profitable, she also feels a strong need to give back to her community and to help people achieve their financial goals by giving them the advice they need.


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The Doc puts a lot of work into these battle briefings, I hope everyone heeds the sage advice…
The bears completed their successful long weekend raid around the Maginot Line and under 800 SPX via the futures and a good bashing on the European and Asian Indexes. By the time the bulls woke up this morning the bears were already behind their lines and launching raids on important big cap stocks that lasted the entire day right into the close. There was absolutely nowhere to hide and the bulls never seriously mounted an attempt to retake the important 800 trench.
The "cools" have it by a vote of 9 to 7 so I'm going to try to keep the charts clean by hiding old channels. I will still post the weekend updates with all channels shown and I will always keep up all the relevant longer term (yellow level and higher) channels. Even with the old channels hidden today's battle map is still a little complex. I've overlapped an alternate light yellow wave 3 channel that is pointing straight into the ground. The bulls better at least break the bearish momentum of at least the OH #!&% ME alternate wave 3 channel or the slaughter will be worse than the Polish Cavalry charging the German tanks early in WWII.
I also included a chart of the VIX. The bears broke out of the Trojan horse and immediately pushed up the price of puts on the open. Despite the breakout the bears weren't able to make much progress and printed a free air potential reversal candle. Perhaps a retest of the break is in order, but that will only happen if the bulls manage to organize a counter offensive and retake 800. If they don't the price of puts and fear in the market are likely to skyrocket.
Be careful, stay small, and remember to bring some troops home along the way as the bears mount what looks like the start of a major new campaign.
- DoctorMad


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Intertransport, the industry leaders in New Zealand otherwise known as Auckland Movers are the premiere moving company that have built their reputation across the country through their high quality of services achieved by training their professionals, using latest equipment and more. Recently, the company announced that they are now considered the top moving companies and specialize in residential and commercial services across New Zealand.
Serving across the country means Auckland Movers has had the honor to serve countless with moving needs of every size, shape, and form, from moving large furniture to handling fragile items and the company has been able to deliver every time. The company enjoys a high level of success through their undying commitment towards improving the quality of their services by upgrading techniques, equipment and highly trained removal professionals.
The spokesperson for Auckland Movers said: "We offer reliable moving services if you are looking to go out of the city to different locations all over New Zealand. Our Auckland moving company involves a thorough assessment of items to be moved including an accurate quote. Our system makes moving less stressful as our furniture movers in Auckland will provide you an estimate based on numbers of bedrooms that you have-one to two bedrooms, three to five bedrooms, or more than five bedrooms. You can get a Free Quote or estimate for the minimum number of charges."
The company understands that moving a home and office removals can be overwhelming and taxing, therefore, their aim is to make moving easier for their customers, which is why Auckland Movers have posted their estimate charges on the website according to the bedrooms and location of the move. The company's professional New Zealand movers carry out an on-site inspection before delivering the final quote. Auckland Movers has large fleet trucks with truck of different sizes and capacity, experienced moving professionals and necessary tools.
Auckland Movers services are backed by a guarantee ensures clients that there will be zero brokerage and their stuff will be safe in the hand of the company's highly capable movers, as they only use strong boxes and taping system to make sure the items are protected.
About Us:
Auckland Movers is a professional moving company in New Zealand, as one of the leading moving business of the region and they are considered as the true specialists in the field. Their professional help, reliability and dedication, the team reduces the stress of a move.
For more information, please visit: http://www.intertransport.co.nz/
Media Contact
Company Name: Auckland Movers
Contact Person: Fred Percival Akarana-Rewi
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 0800663300
Address:155 Blockhouse Bay Road
City: Avondale
State: Auckland
Country: New Zealand
Website: http://www.intertransport.co.nz/