Was Senator Paul Wellstone Assassinated?

Wellstone!

Snowshoe Films (2009)

Film Review

 

This documentary assesses the physical evidence suggesting the plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone in October 2002 was actually an assassination. Wellstone, elected by Minnesota’s Democratic Farm Labor Party, was a true populist like Bernie Sanders. In addition to being the only candidate running for re-election who opposed the US invasion of Iraq, he was also raising questions about the official version of 9-11.

With his death – only 10 days before election day – his seat passed to his Republican opponent – granting Republicans regained control of both houses of Congress.

Among the anomalies explored in this film are

• the strange electrical fire (which the National Air Safety Board neglects to mention in their report) that melted copper components in the instrument panel.
• the loss of strobe and other warning lights (which the NASB report also neglects to mention), pointing to electrical failure preceding the crash.
• the mysterious disappearance of the cockpit voice recorder (black box)
• the discrepancy between witness statements and the NASB report about the altitude of the plane when it stalled out (according to eyewitnesses it was 75-90 feet, while the report indicates 1,000 feet).
• the failure of the pilots to call in a warning of the crash to air traffic controllers.
• the failure of the NASB (or FBI investigators) to mention links between one of the pilots, Michael Grass, and the “20^th 9-11 hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui’s computer, the one FBI investigator Colleen Rawley failed to get a warrant for, had Michael Guess’s aviation instruction software on it.
• the failure of the NASB to hold a public hearing on the crash, which is routine in high profile cases.
• the conclusion reached by the NASB that Wellstone’s plane crashed due to “pilot error” without presenting a shred of evidence to support this conclusion.

Independent forensic experts who reviewed both the evidence and the NASB report concluded that Wellstone’s plane crashed because the pilots were incapacitated in some way. There were a number of odd electronic anomalies reported in the vicinity of the crash that Minnesota assassination researcher Jim Fetzer believes are compatible with a directed electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or microwave weapon similar to those the Pentagon was experimenting with in Iraq.

At exactly 10.18 (two seconds before the aircraft stalled) a Duluth lobbyist traveling to the same funeral as Wellstone and his family heard a loud wailing/humming sound on his cellphone. At the exact same time a number of residents south of the airport reported garage doors mysteriously opening. In addition, a local meterologist reported a large hole in the ice clouds immediately above the crash area. This, too, would have been consistent with a directed EMP weapon.

Empire Building US-Style

Apologies of an Economic Hitman

Directed by Stelios Kouloglou (2008)

Film Review

This is a very intriguing Greek documentary about John Perkins, author of the 2004 book Confessions of an Economic Hitman. In the film, Perkins summarizes his recruitment by the NSA to work as an “economic hitman.” Despite his close affiliation to US intelligence, he was technically under the employ of a private engineering company called Charles T Main Inc. It was his role to approach third world presidents with bribes to accept World Bank loans for massive infrastructure projects – which were usually built by major US companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton.

This was done with the deliberate intention of saddling the third world countries with debt they couldn’t repay. Their only option would be to seek refinancing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which usually demanded they slash public services and open up their resources to further exploitation by Wall Street interests .

As Perkins describes it, this was the strategy of choice (as opposed to direct military intervention) for expanding US empire between 1945-2000. Any third world leader who refused to play ball was openly threatened with assassination. The first step in dealing with a recalcitrant leader was to send in the “jackals,” CIA officers and contractors who would try to instigate a military coup. If this failed, US intelligence would send in an assassination team. If this also failed, they would fall back on military invasion and occupation (always a last resort).

The film zeroes in on the assassination (via plane crash) of Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera and Panamanian president Omar Torrijos in 1981. It also provides interesting background to the US invasion of Iraq, following Saddam Hussein’s rejection of a massive Bechtel oil pipeline project.

I was previously unaware of the CIA effort to instigate a military coup against Saddam in 1996. The CIA discarded the option of assassinating him because he had too many doubles. Even his own bodyguards never knew if they were guarding the real Saddam.