Why Didn't Former PA AG and Now Governor Tom Corbett Stop Jerry Sandusky?

Since January of 1997, our family has lived in the college town of Norman, OK, with a well known football program at The University of Oklahoma.  That is where the similarity with Penn State ends.  The members of the media here in Oklahoma investigate every little rumor and are not adverse to reporting without all the facts on the OU football program or any of the other programs at OU.  I would rather they be tenacious then what we are seeing after the fact about the cover-up by the Pennsylvania media of the people in charge at Penn State including Penn State President and the Athletic Department who covered up for Sandusky since 1998 and the cover-up for then Attorney General and now Governor Corbett since at least 2008.  

Penn State's football program became more important than young boy's safety from a predator along with an out of control Attorney General who had plotted his way to the Governor's office.  Once Governor, he threw Paterno under the bus like he had nothing to do with it as Attorney General.  He was more concerned about putting political enemies behind bars then he was protecting young boys as the details have come out.

Started this research when I watched an ESPN video today about the aftermath where they mentioned Gov Corbett who then as Attorney General had done nothing with the allegations against Sandusky but took campaign contributions knowing about the allegations from the Second Mile Charity of Sandusky and a lot of Penn State donors.  What I discovered has left me speechless.  I am still shocked at what I read today about this scandal and would have to wonder how Corbett can still be Governor.

Now Gov Corbett friends are asking the same questions that those of us not involved with Penn State are asking.  Why didn't the Attorney General Corbett have his office investigate all of this aggressively.  Was it because he wanted those campaign donations and support to run for Governor?  Sure looks like he put his political career over the safety of young boys who were left alone with Sandusky.

Why Didn't Tom Corbett Stop Jerry Sandusky? 

Will Gov. Tom Corbett's role in the Sandusky investigation continue to haunt him when he seeks re-election?

• July 18, 2012

Columnist and investigative reporter Chris Freind, a longtime supporter of Gov. Tom Corbett, has penned an open letter (letter below) to the state leader asking tough questions about the Jerry Sandusky child rape scandal. 

Freind says Corbett refuses to answer disturbing questions about his role as attorney general in investigating Sandusky. 

Freind contends that Corbett could have stopped Sandusky, but didn't. 

Pennsylvania has re-elected every governor for a second term since 1971.

IMHO Governor Corbett should not be reelected but needs to take the honorable route and resign but after reading the details, the chance of that happening is zero, zip, nada.  When he stood at the podium and talked about the voter ID bill he had just signed was going to elect Romney it left me speechless as I watched it this week.  But then while looking for that video, I discovered that Gov Corbett has contracted with a Romney fundraiser for the ID bill.  Chris Freind who is a reporter made these comments which every last journalist should be living by today:

Bottom line: this isn’t personal, and it’s not partisan. It’s only about one thing: the truth

Those two sentences should be followed by every last reporter and network.  Fox News has proven that they have little regard for truth in this election cycle as Roger Ailes promotes Mitt Romney including taking the President totally out of context which led to Limbaugh and the Romney camp running with that.  Truth has taken a huge hit at Fox News this time.

This letter from Chris Friend blew my mind:

Freind: An open letter to Gov. Corbett on Sandusky affair
Published: Monday, July 16, 2012
By CHRIS FREIND,
Special to the Times 

An open letter to Pennsylvania’s governor, who refuses to answer disturbing questions about his role investigating the Penn State sex scandal: 

Bursting with righteous indignation, his cheeks flushed with rage, the governor banged the podium in disgust while berating a journalist - in fact, chastising the entire media - for the audacity to ask questions on the issue. 

We’re not talking about New Jersey’s Chris Christie, who gets away with such outbursts because of his stellar track record and pure gravitas. 

No, this tantrum came from Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett after being queried about his incredibly long investigation of child predator Jerry Sandusky. 

And it backfired in spectacular fashion. Why? 

Because Tom Corbett is no Chris Christie.

Since questions on this matter remain unanswered, it seems only fitting, on behalf of the media and public, to pen an open letter to Mr. Corbett. 

For the record, no media commentator in Pennsylvania supported Corbett’s ideas more than Freindly Fire during the 2010 campaign, from increased Marcellus Shale drilling to school choice to liquor privatization. In fact, FF even backed Corbett’s decision to subpoena Twitter during the Bonusgate corruption probe - a highly unpopular position. Bottom line: this isn’t personal, and it’s not partisan. It’s only about one thing: the truth.

Dear Gov. Corbett:

Since there are a number of questions which you have failed to answer concerning your investigation of Jerry Sandusky, on behalf of the media and the public, I respectfully ask for clarification in the following areas: 

1) Based on a decade’s worth of evidence of Sandusky’s predatory activities, why did it take the Attorney General’s Office three years to arrest him? I fully understand that it takes time to conduct an investigation, but as numerous prosecutors have stated, you could have arrested him quickly and continued building the case. 

Tragically, it is probable that Sandusky continued to molest victims during your epic investigation, as predators do not stop preying unless forced to do so. Had he been arrested early, (standard procedure in many cases with a lot less evidence), Sandusky would have had to post bail, had restrictions placed upon him, and, most important, been under an ultra-intense media and community spotlight - every minute of every day until his trial. 

In short, children would finally have been safe. And contrary to your assessment, this would have created a much more favorable environment for additional witnesses to come forward, knowing their bigger-than-life demon could hurt them no more. Arresting Sandusky quickly would have in no way jeopardized the strength of the case. 

One of two things seems to be true, as there is no third option. Either A) you were an incompetent attorney general, which virtually no one believes, or B) the investigation was deliberately understaffed and drawn out because you did not wish to be the gubernatorial candidate who took down fabled Penn State - with its massive and intensely loyal alumni network - and the beloved Joe Paterno. Since doing so would have presented difficult campaign challenges, many are asking if politics was placed above children’s safety. Which leads to the next question. 

2) Why was the investigation so understaffed? Yes, you just now claimed - after eight months - that media reports are wrong that only one investigator was assigned the case for the first 15 months. The real number, as you now state, was a whopping two. We know you were busy with Bonusgate, but political corruption never threatens anyone’s physical well-being, particularly defenseless children. 

And the two investigators assigned were narcotics agents. While Sandusky’s heinous crimes were many, drug offenses were not among them. 

Yes, they were former police officers. But wouldn’t the reasonable course have been to assign agents with experience in child molestation cases? Did their inexperience lengthen the investigation more than normal … say, past your election in November 2010? 

Additional resources were available. Upon becoming governor, you placed state police on the case. You could have made that same request to Gov. Ed Rendell, and, given the stakes, there is virtually no possibility he would have refused. And since you are a former United States attorney, you undoubtedly realized that federal assistance was also available. 

3) Do you believe ethical and moral lines were crossed when, after investigating Penn State as Attorney General, you then participated as a member of the Board of Trustees upon becoming governor? 

In other words, knowing full well that the investigation was still in full swing, conducted by your handpicked attorney general successor, you nonetheless chose to sit on the very board you had been - and still were - investigating! 

Did you ever consider recusing yourself from board activities until the investigation was concluded? Since governors rarely attend board meetings, this would have in no way raised suspicions. 

4) As governor, why did you personally approve a $3 million taxpayer-funded grant to Sandusky’s Second Mile charity, given your knowledge that Sandusky was under investigation for multiple child rapes? 

Your statement that blocking the grant would have tipped people off to the investigation is utterly disingenuous, particularly since the media reported on the investigation in March, and you did not approve the funds until July 2011. 

Vetoing the charitable grant would have simply been viewed as another financial cutback in a budget full of slashed programs. 

So one has to ask if the $640,000 in campaign donations from board members of the Second Mile, along with their businesses and families, had anything to do with your actions? 

If not, fine. But how did such a massively significant point slip your mind - until the media brought it up? And was that question also out of line? 

Since these are matters of grave concern, I and many others look forward to your immediate response. 

The media talks about Penn State’s Big Four casualties: Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley. But perhaps they are missing the biggest: Tom Corbett. 

He has always claimed to hold himself to a higher standard, and has roundly criticized Paterno and others for not doing more to stop Sandusky. But when it came down to it, when Corbett had the power to put a speedy end to Sandusky, he didn’t. 

If mistakes were made, fine. People can accept that. But to stonewall reasonable questions on such an important matter, and then stalk off , is something that should not, and will not, be tolerated. 

Tom Corbett has a choice, perhaps the biggest of his career. He can either answer now - or in 2014. 

Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television/radio commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

There should be a huge outcry out of the people of Pennsylvania for Governor Corbett to resign.  Is this the type of Republican that the Tea Party has chosen to be elected?  Beginning to look like it more and more that ethics and integrity do not count in the Republican Party of today -- it is the hatred of all Democrats that is the most important.  This statement says it all:

The media talks about Penn State’s Big Four casualties: Joe Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley. But perhaps they are missing the biggest: Tom Corbett. 

Today ESPN reporters talked about Governor Corbett and his cover-up while Attorney General.  The last paragraph of the Corbett story is far from over as more and more people learn the truth.  The following is an essay on the whole situation that ended with the author hearing about the death of Joe Paterno so this predates the Freeh investigation but is damning to Corbett, the media, and the Attorney General's office who spent their time working for Corbett's campaign while he was doing a witch hunt against Democrats in the legislature.  The current Governor when you read the facts was an out of control Attorney General who put his own election for Governor as the primary guiding factor in the AG's office.  This is mind boggling and I have only excerpted as it is a very long article.  What we have learned about Paterno and others since this article after the Freeh Report leaves you asking the question if there are any honest people in the leadership of PA State Government.   Bill Keisling IV, posted this on January 22, 2012:

'JoePa' takes the fall

A slow Tom Corbett throws Joe Paterno
under the bus

'It's going to kill him'

'Joe Paterno was Pennsylvania's Coach, and we owed him,
in his final days, our debt of gratitude,
not a death of instant scandal and ruin'

"What counts in sports is not the victory, but the magnificence of the struggle," Penn State Coach Joe Paterno for years was fond of saying. It's a variation of the phrase, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." 

This ethos of fair play, honesty, doing the right thing, abiding by the same rules as everyone else, hard work, proper preparation, and decency in all our endeavors is lost on Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. 

Insiders at the state attorney general's office speak of moral bankruptcy, blatant hypocrisy and raw politics in the AG's office under Corbett. 

Tom Corbett misused the office of attorney general to win the Pennsylvania governor's office at any and all cost, by any means necessary, those around him say. Part of the great cost paid, we now see in the Jerry Sandusky case, included the safety, dignity and well-being of children.

Required homework for understanding the Sandusky case: 'Don't do it here' 'Get used to having your mind boggled' Winning friends and influencing voters 'Tied together' Political prosecutions race forward while pedophile case stalls 'Arrest by news conference' 'Tom didn't want to do it' Candidate Corbett orders background investigation of 356 potential 'Bonusgate' jurors Poor ethics create more problems in the AG's office Bonus for 'Bonusgate' prosecutor? A laughable punch line: 'I'm referring this matter to Attorney General Tom Corbett' Not the good shepherd 'The whole office was political' 'Kissing the ring' The writing on the wall Whither Ray? Corbett avoids assigning Sandusky case to AG's Child Predator Unit: 'Could have done a quick grand jury in two months' time' A moveable scandal: Gov-elect Corbett removed as obstacle, AG office nabs Sandusky in several months' time JoePa takes the fall for TomCo What this is called

As governor, Corbett then attempted to distract public attention away from his own mounting failures, political machinations and dishonesties by making a fall guy of Joe Paterno. 

Tom Corbett's lack of sense of decency or character, his fundamental dishonesty, and basic incompetence were magnified by the political nature of the elected attorney general's office. This gives cause to pose plenty of troubling questions about the stalled legal case against Jerry Sandusky. 

Look at the wreckage in Corbett's wake. The reputations of Coach Joe Paterno, Penn State, and its football program, are all in tatters and ruin. Like a scandalized widow, Penn State would contemplate changing its name. Penn State's once-proud football team, for decades among the finest in the nation, suffered a fall from grace, deep disgrace, and was in jeopardy of disbandment. 

The moral authority and integrity of the governor's office and its predecessor -- once occupied by great, sincere and hard-working men like Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Curtin, and Gifford Pinchot -- has also taken a devastating hit.
Pennsylvania and some of its most hallowed institutions would be discredited and become the butt of national jokes and disbelief. All that has been much discussed. 

Not so clearly seen and spoken about is that Corbett, on his political run to the governor's office, would leave in tatters the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and potentially the careers and reputations of the many good and dedicated people who work there. 

But that's only part of the unseen story.

'Don't do it here' 

Jerry Sandusky's kid glove treatment at the hands of diverse Pennsylvania institutions, from 1998 until late 2010, reveals a classic pattern of looking the other way. From at least 2009 onward, AG Tom Corbett would be the lead player in this culture of cover-up, shielding and confidentiality. 

In March 2009, a former Corbett underling, Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira, referred several Sandusky pedophile complaints to AG Corbett. Madeira was a former deputy AG, and a drug prosecutor, under Corbett. He'd been elected Centre County DA following the strange disappearance of Ray Gricar in 2005. Passing the case along to AG Corbett, Madeira cited a personal conflict of interest with a relative. 

DA Madeira himself hadn't done much with these Sandusky complaints while they were in his office. The complaints, after all, had been referred to Madeira the previous year, in 2008. Neither would AG Corbett do much with them.
After the Sandusky scandal became public, speculation arose as to possible motivations behind Corbett's reluctance to take action. His concern that he'd be perceived as having impeded or obstructed the investigation. His fear of offending major contributors. Fear of backlash from alumni and friends of Penn State. 

While certainly there are issues of politics, largesse (Marcellus Shale, for example) and patronage deserving keen public scrutiny to help explain Corbett's misconduct, we must consider an obvious harsh reality: 

Sandusky's protection by Corbett, and others, mirrors a pattern that is all too familiar to those who've investigated or studied other long-running pedophile crimes, I've been told repeatedly by experts. 

Sandusky's treatment by superiors at PSU and the law enforcement community in Pennsylvania is little different from that received by Catholic priests in this and other countries. This familiar pattern of non-investigation -- amounting to shielding and protection -- would later scandalize the Roman Catholic Church. 

Pedophile priests for years would simply be told to go to a different town and parish. 

"Just don't do it here," became the bottom line. Like it or not, culturally and socially, for decades, this is how pedophile cases curiously have been handled by church and state authority figures alike, here and abroad. 

This happened with Jerry Sandusky. Complaints from victims and their families would be given lip service by school officials, charity overseers, and law enforcement -- including Attorney General Tom Corbett. Any complaints filed, and any supposed investigations, would be allowed to languish in the dark for years. And Sandusky would remain free to carry on.
Jerry Sandusky would simply be told, again and again: Don't do it here. Don't do it in the shower room. Don't do it at Penn State.  

(snip)  

Much like those questionable disciples, AG Corbett would keep the children from the supposed safe harbor and long arms of the law.

There would be an investigation of Sandusky in name only, and opportunities to prosecute Sandusky for pedophilia would be avoided time and again. 

It would come down to matters of priorities and political expediencies, Corbett's associates say. 

Corbett, for his part, has doubtfully explained his failure to prosecute Sandusky. It was the fault of a "slow grand jury," Corbett explains. Very slow indeed. 

He would say he wanted to make sure there was enough evidence before bringing a case. But he did little to collect more evidence, and stymied the investigation. Corbett in fact did next to nothing from early 2009 onward, when the Centre County DA Michael Madeira referred the case to him. It was Tom who was slow. 

Corbett adds that he was focusing his attentions instead on a long-running public corruption case known in Pennsylvania as "Bonusgate." That, observers say, is somewhat closer to the truth. 

But it's not really the whole truth. The whole story is far more complex and troubling.

The whole story is, in fact, mind-boggling.  

(snip)   

The inability of victimized Pennsylvanians to get help, or to simply be heard with their complaints, is at the heart of the overall problem. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania no longer has a government, or a press, that is much, if it all, interested in all of its citizens. Rather, privileged insiders (like Jerry Sandusky) have become all-important, and take precedence. It has become the Privilegedwealth of Pennsylvania.

How did we get here? 

A lot of this, to paraphrase Terry Gross, simply is not as it should be. To understand the decades-running Sandusky story you have to be prepared to go from one mind-boggling event to another. 

The bottom line is that Tom Corbett's personal misuse of the state AG's office to run for governor all but destroyed the morale and integrity of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Previous to 1980 the AG was an appointed position. Elective politics have proven to be poison for the AG's office. 

Most ironically, the staff of the AG's office has been left as helpless as the victims. No one working in the state AG's office seems to know where to turn for help, or how to explain to the public the deep problems. 

"It's all politics," with a sigh, is how I've heard described what's going on. 

(snip) 

 Did AG office employees know they were helping Tom Corbett get elected governor? "Hell yeah," I'm told. 

"It was all political, and everyone knew it," is also how I've heard these and other practices described. 

"Everyone in the AG's office knew they were working to get Corbett elected governor with 'Bonusgate,' and with everything else they were told to do." 

It was the truth that everyone knew, but no one could speak.

The sad twist of irony is that, in late 2011, the Harrisburg Patriot-News decried the two years the Sandusky case had languished in the AG's office. 

The complaint I've heard is that it was the Patriot's own self-serving chest-thumping about the "Bonusgate" donnybrook that ate up an overwhelming chunk of the finite resources of the state AG's office, and the limited time of the grand jurors.

The political AG's office had become media driven. 

This is where the media drove it. 

(snip) 

As we see here, a politically elected attorney general let loose to plague society can easily misuse his public trust to control a political and social hot potato. That's what happened to the AG's Sandusky pedophile non-investigation for a year and a half, from 2009 to late 2010. It was put on ice. The slow boat to China. Given File 13, as cops say. 

Tom Corbett simply did not want to prosecute the Sandusky pedophile case.
"Tom didn't want to do it," I'm told. 

"What do you mean, 'He didn't want to do it?'" I ask again.
"He didn't want to do it." 

I have to keep asking the same question, and getting the same reply, before it begins to sink in.
By assigning only a single trooper, yet not instructing or even allowing his prosecutor to push the case, AG Tom Corbett did the bare minimum he could do to cover his ass and to say that he was doing something about the Sandusky pedophile complaint(s).

In actuality Tom Corbett was doing nothing, except, intentionally or not, protecting and shielding Jerry Sandusky, and Sandusky's well-connected associates and institutions.
This would be exactly the same excuse offered by Pope Benedict in Rome to explain why pedophile complaints had languished for decades in his old Vatican office, without a good shepherd, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, before his election as pope. "Stavamo lavorando su di esso." That's Italian for, "We were working on it." 

The cardinal's inactions hurt the papacy. 

Just as Attorney General Corbett's inactions now injure the governor's office. 

The green-domed Harrisburg state capitol building, I should mention, is modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. 

Candidate Corbett orders background
investigations of 356 potential 'Bonusgate' jurors

Over time it became all-too apparent to those working in the AG's office that Tom Corbett's "Bonusgate" investigation itself was political in nature. "Bonusgate" was used by AG Corbett as his main strategy and pillar in his political run for the governor's office. 

It was stunning hypocrisy. AG Corbett was running for governor by prosecuting public employees for mixing elective politics with state work. Corbett was now openly doing the same thing: mixing elective politics with state work. The attorney general was prosecuting others, and jailing them, for doing what he was now doing, and making his staff do. 

No one seemed able to speak out about it. At least, no one could be heard. 

"The whole AG's office knew we were helping Tom Corbett to get elected governor," is one complaint I've heard. "Our focus from 2008 on was that. Everybody was working on 'Bonusgate.'" And, "The whole office was political." 

The AG's office, now running its boss for governor, simply had no time, or resources, for the Sandusky pedophile case -- even if there was the will to pursue the allegations, which there was not.

(snip) 

JoePa takes the fall for TomCo

For Gov. Tom Corbett, meanwhile, there remained one more important task following the nationwide public relations fiasco of Jerry Sandusky's long-overdue arrest. Corbett had to protect his own carcass, and cover his own ass for the nuclear blast he now feared was about to blow. 

It wouldn't do to have the public focus on Corbett's own refusal to investigate or prosecute Jerry Sandusky for a year and half. Corbett sought to change the conversation. He looked around for a likely scapegoat(s) to take the fall for him. What's one more victim, or two?
Corbett incredibly settled on a beloved 85-year-old to take the fall. The Gipper was down, why not kick him down some more? Gov. Corbett landed on the brilliant idea of throwing Joe Paterno under the bus. As Nixon observed, when the wolves are gaining, it's time to toss a baby from the sled. 

After all, hadn't Joe Paterno failed to follow up by calling the university police or DA Gricar? It wasn't nearly as bad as deliberately sandbagging the Sandusky case for a year and half, and actively shielding and protecting Jerry Sandusky, as AG Corbett had done.

But Corbett knows from first-hand experience that today's corporate media is servile, for the most part isn't all that smart or morally scrupulous, and doesn't look into things all that deeply or for very long. And more and more these days they simply write what they're handed. Corbett himself learned this on his long slog for the governor's chair, and all through the recent years of growing corruption in Pennsylvania. That business with the 6,500 kids sold down the river in Wilkes-Barre had blown over. Maybe the serial rape of innumerable kids at Penn State will blow over too. 

Corbett's job as attorney general had been to prosecute. To uphold the law. To protect the public. He didn't do so well in that job. Now, as governor, the job was altogether different.
A competent governor, and a good man, would have, and should have, asked the public not to rush to judgment against Joe Paterno. A competent leader, and a good man, would have asked the public to wait for all the facts to come in. A competent governor, and a good man, would have reminded the public of the great and exemplary services performed for Pennsylvania, and Penn State, by Joe Paterno in over 60 years on the job. A competent governor, and a good man, would have pointed out that that Joe Paterno was Our Coach.

Joe Paterno was Pennsylvania's Coach, and we owed him, in his final days, our debt of gratitude, not a death of instant scandal and ruin. 

"It's going to kill Joe," suddenly was on everyone's lips. "It's going to kill him." Tom Corbett, as usual, had his own not-so-sorry ass to worry about. It would be the pathetic act of a desperate, morally bankrupt man. 

On November 9, 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett indulged the Penn State board of trustees, by telephone, to throw Joe Paterno under the bus. At the moment of the vote to fire Paterno, Corbett said over the speakerphone, "Remember that little boy in the shower."

From the 31 trustees in the room there was no response. No question. No objection. Just silence. Despite the illustrious backgrounds of most of them, they all marched in lockstep, following Corbett's lead. 

Corbett wasn't there to look them, or Paterno, in the eye. He wasn't there to explain why he had done nothing to help that little boy. He wasn't there to explain why he himself had prevented any investigation for a year and a half. He wasn't there to explain the double standard. Why should the coach be punished, but not the attorney general/governor? As I say, in Tom Corbett's Pennsylvania, some are more privileged than others. 

That night Corbett got his scapegoat, and the students rioted in State College. A weary nation turned its eyes to the fleeting images of the saddened cries, groans and crashes of the decline and fall of Pennsylvania. 

A simmering story in the sports columns in moments ignited into an all-consuming firestorm, a national disgrace, and a world-class scandal. 

Excerpt:  Read More at Yardbird.com

Then I found this letter to the editor that goes after Corbett for his not prosecuting Sandusky in 2008 (my bold in the letter):

Editor: 

Most likely there was no one more relieved when the memorial services for Joe Paterno ended than Gov. Tom Corbett and the rest of the Penn State Board of Trustees. They are banking on the fact that people will forget what they did by throwing Paterno to the curb in the manner that they did. They could not be more wrong. Where was the due process? Corbett's poor excuses for not arresting Jerry Sandusky in 2008 - slow grand jury, the need for more evidence, working on other cases - could lead one to conclude that had Paterno involved the state police in 2002, it might not have led to an arrest anyway. 

After all, it took the attorney general's investigator an entire year to find the police report filed in 1998. It also took him an entire year to find out that Sandusky wrote a book. Where was the sense of urgency to get a child predator off the streets? What happened to the sense of urgency to report in a timely manner? Who is at fault if Sandusky abused more children from 2008-2011? So why was Paterno excoriated for not doing enough when Corbett's office dragged its feet several years later? There is more to this scandal than the people are being told, but thanks to people such as Phil Knight, Anthony Lubrano and Bill Keisling, who found the courage to say publicly what needed to be said, the public is learning more. I will remember forever, especially when election time comes around. 

Domenic Parenti, Lower Heidelberg Township

If the judicial system is going to prosecute the former Penn State Administrators former President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Timothy M. Curley who along with Paterno were covering-up for Sandusky according to the Freeh Report, then the current Governor needs to be right there as he also covered up for Sandusky as well.  Shame on the Republican Party of Pennsylvania for continuing to support this Governor and not question why he covered up his inaction in this sordid event when he was Attorney General.

CEI: Obama and the Chevy Volt

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has the facts once again with this article about the Chevy Volt: OBAMA & THE CHEVY VOLT - MARLO LEWIS Globalwarming.org: Did GM and Feds Collude to Hide Green Car Battery Fires?  At a hearing Wednesday morning (1/25/12), GOP members of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs opined that General Motors (GM) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) colluded to withhold information from the public about battery fires in the Chevy Volt, the plug-in hybrid car lavishly subsidized by the Obama administration as part of its bailout of the auto industry, the Washington Post reports.  NHTSA began to investigate the green car’s safety risk in June after a test car caught fire, but waited until November to inform the public. Subcommittee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called the delay “deeply troubling,” particularly because the Government owns 26.5% of GM shares and an expanding market for electric vehicles is critical to the administration’s plan to raise fuel economy standards to 54.5 mpg.   View the full commentary on Globalwarming.org If you are thinking of buying a Chevy Volt, you might want to think twice and do some research.  It figures a so called 'green car' like the Chevy Volt would have a battery catch fire setting the test car on fire and polluting the air.  Why did they wait so long to warn the public about a Government Motors car?  The NHTSA didn't hesitate on Toyota but then again the Obama Administration didn't own a part of Toyota.

Joe Paterno Fired as Coach of Penn State; Students Riot

Spent a lot of last evening watching ESPN after the Penn State Board of Trustees fired their legendary coach Joe Paterno and the President of Penn State Spanier.  The students were rioting and throwing beer bottles at the police and rocks at the media.  The riot police finally took control and most of the crowds of thousands dispersed after some of them turned over a media van, destroyed a car, tore down light poles, and street signs.  A lot of the students were drunk a you probably figured out.

There was one brave student who said what the Board of Trustees did was the correct thing to do and that Paterno should have done so much more in this ever widening child sexual abuse by a long time coach at Penn State,  Jerry Sandusky, who had been retired for awhile as the defensive coordinator but was still allowed on campus.  Paterno was fired for not following up after being told of an attack on a child witnessed by a graduate assistant years ago when nothing happened after he told the Athletic Director who is now under indictment as well.

The scandal just widened today and new allegations make you ill:  Penn State Scandal: Jerry Sandusky Rumored To Have 'Pimped' Boys To Donors: REPORT   If this is true, it is sicker then before.

What bothered me the most was the rage that was taken out on the media with having rocks thrown at them.  It was a small minority of students out of thousands but they attacked the media.  This blame the media about reporting the truth on this tawdry affair is disgusting but if you listen to talk radio that is all they have been doing is blaming the media for Herman Cain.

What happened to taking personal responsibility and doing the right thing when no one is watching.  I am tired of perverts from young children to sexual harassment of men and women to bullying.  It is time that morals return to this Nation and that the media stop contributing to the cover up.  Tell it like it is and let us decide.

The next time a pundit, a website, or a blog blames the media instead of the person whose lack of morals caused the problem, let them know you will not tolerate this continual 'blame the media' because it helps lead to what we witnessed last night by students blaming the media and throwing rocks at them as they blamed them for Paterno's ouster.

This sentence by Cliff Kincaid gives us hope that the truth about the Russian Agents will eventually come out in spite of what we consider a cover-up by the Obama Administration.

"Fortunately, some people are paying critical attention to what has transpired."

The first question of ours is why were they not charged with espionage by the Obama Administration? The FBI follows them for ten years, in June 2010 they arrest them but don't charge them with espionage, and in July the Obama Administration swaps these ten Russian spies for four political prisoners held by the Russians? That makes zero sense.

In all the Security Briefings we had quarterly while working for the Air Force, the one that has stayed with me the longest was the video of the American city which was constructed in Russia for their spies to learn about American life so when they came here, they would blend in and no would notice them. Can remember when the Russian Mission at the UN wanted some of their people who were visiting from Moscow to come to Wright-Patterson AFB to tour the AF Museum. Their request was turned down at that time because it was considered off-limits to the Russians because of spying. Today the Obama Administration would probably open up the Museum after hours so the Russians could visit.

Will never forget when Bush 41 exchanged visits with the Russians at some of our Air Force facilities including Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Secretary of Defense Cheney stating he would NEVER trust the Russians. We agree with Cheney's comments today as much as we did in the early 90's. Never could figure out Bush 41's bending over backwards to the Russians but that was nothing compared to the Clinton's. Then we had Bush 43 looking into the eyes of Putin, former KGB, and thinking he could see in his heart. Wanted to throw up. All of this cannot compare to what we are seeing out of Obama and his people.

The Talbott case is consistently ignored by the major media because he is respected and trusted by his colleagues in the press. He is also trusted by Senator Richard Lugar, who served as Obama’s mentor when Obama was in the U.S. Senate and traveled to Russia, only to be detained and have his passport examined by Russian authorities. Obama joked about the detention, saying he wasn’t in the Gulag.

Talbott being the go to person with the Russians shouldn't come as a shock to anyone following his career. He should have been the first thought when they said someone from the Clinton Administration was involved with the Russians.

But what blew us away is the comment we highlighted about Obama and his passport. Why would the Russians detain Senator Obama and have his passport examined by Russian authorities? What do the Russians know that we don't? What are the Russians holding over Obama? Did Obama, as alleged in some places, attend college in a foreign country as part of a Columbia University exchange program as a foreign student at Columbia? So many questions and so few answers as Obama continues to keep all of his records off limits and our lapdog Obama media goes right along.

Please visit Accuracy in Media (AIM) to read this entire article. There are a handful of writers today who have the background and expertise to write an article that analyzes the Russian Spy swap and Cliff Kincaid is one of them.

July 9, 2010

The Russian Agents, Obama, and the Cover-up
By Cliff Kincaid
July 16, 2010

Fortunately, some people are paying critical attention to what has transpired.
Our media do not seem to be interested in the curious matter of why the Russian agents accused of trying to acquire sensitive nuclear information from the U.S. Government were so quickly released. Why were they were sent back to Moscow less than two weeks after they were arrested?

It is certainly the case that a continuing spy scandal threatened to undermine U.S.-Russia business “opportunities” and “cooperation.” It is also true that there is evidence that the Russian agents targeted the Obama Administration and former Clinton Administration officials.

Just before the scandal broke, a $4 billion deal had been announced between Boeing and a Russian firm. During the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the U.S., Cisco Systems had announced it was going to spend $1 billion in Russia, in part to develop a Moscow version of Silicon Valley. The United States Export-Import Bank had also announced a new deal to underwrite, with U.S. taxpayer dollars, U.S. business exports to Russia.

Plus, Obama had submitted a U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement, backed by powerful business interests, to the U.S. Congress.

All of this was clearly in jeopardy if the Russian spy scandal led to additional revelations of Russian spying on the American government and businesses. So the scandal had to go away—and quickly.

The exchange was hammered out so quickly and was so advantageous to the Kremlin, however, that it should have become apparent to some journalist somewhere that there was much more to the story. But the issue was just as quickly dropped by the media, liberal and conservative alike.

(snip)

Writing on the website of World Affairs, Vladimir Kara-Murza says that Yelena Bonner, the widow of academician Andrei Sakharov and a prominent advocate of human rights in Russia, “called the swap a missed opportunity and denounced the Obama administration not only for agreeing to an unequal exchange (ten for four) but, more importantly, for not requesting the freeing of more political prisoners, of whom there are scores in today’s Russia.”

One of those released by Russia in exchange for its agents was a political prisoner, historian and researcher Igor Sutyagin.

(snip)

Has the possible penetration of the U.S. Government by foreign spies become a laughing matter for the Obama Administration? Are they fearful that a realistic review of what the Russian agents were doing would lead to the conclusion that Obama’s foreign policy plays into the hands of the Russian government and has in fact been manipulated by the Kremlin?

Documents in the scandal demonstrate, as we have reported, that the Russian intelligence service, the SVR, was interested in penetrating “think tanks” with influence over U.S. foreign policy. The SVR, the successor to the KGB, was especially interested in nuclear weapons-related information.

What we do know, based on public reports, is that one Russian agent had a job at Microsoft, another had been trying to cultivate a fundraiser for and friend of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and another had claimed contacts with a Clinton Administration official by the name of Leon Fuerth, who had been Vice President Al Gore’s top national security aide.

So we quickly found out that top Obama and Democratic Party officials had been targeted in this intelligence operation. Is this why the scandal had to go away?

(snip)

Scratching the surface of the scandal, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post wonders if all of the Russian agents have been rounded up.

He writes, “The best public indication of the extent of Moscow’s efforts comes from the late Sergei Tretyakov, the former Russian intelligence officer who under the guise of a press officer at the U.N. Mission ran espionage operations in New York City from 1995 to 2000. He served the last three of those years as a double agent for the FBI until he defected to the United States. As Tretyakov told author Pete Earley in the book ‘Comrade J,’ at one time he had more than 60 SVR officers working inside the United Nations and more than 160 contacts made up of illegals, outright spies, and other people who knowingly or unknowingly could supply information useful to Russia.”

According to Earley, Tretyakov died “unexpectedly” on June 13. The circumstances were so suspicious that an autopsy was performed under the supervision of the FBI.

(snip)

The Strobe Talbott Case

But there is something else that Pincus did not mention. It has to do with those “other people” targeted and used by Tretyakov and the Russians.

The book, Comrade J, identifies Strobe Talbott, a former high-ranking Clinton State Department official and the current president of the Brookings Institution, a major liberal think tank, as having been a trusted contact of the Russian intelligence service. Talbott has denied serving as a Russian agent, but when he was up for his State Department job in the Clinton Administration, he admitted a relationship with Soviet “journalist” and KGB agent Victor Louis.

(snip)

Pincus asked, “What will the Russians do now?” He noted that Tretyakov had said that when the Cold War was over, “the United States asked Russia to stop the KGB’s covert propaganda activities that portrayed Washington in foreign media as carrying out terrible activities, such as saying the United States was spreading HIV in Africa.”

In response, Pincus noted that Tretyakov said that the KGB closed down “Department A,” which ran the propaganda and disinformation operations, but then established another program which did the same thing. “Nothing changed,” Tretyakov said.

So the propaganda and disinformation activities continue. Indeed, that is what the Kremlin-financed global Russia Today television channel is all about. It has a major presence in the U.S.

But wait. Didn’t the Reverend Jeremiah Wright repeat the KGB disinformation that the U.S. was spreading AIDS? Indeed he did. In fact, Wright, who was Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years, actually claimed at a National Press Club appearance during the 2008 presidential campaign that the U.S. Government had manufactured the AIDS virus to kill black people.

So we have one identified channel of influence whereby Soviet propaganda and disinformation was spewing from the mouth of someone with direct influence over the President of the United States. But few in the major media were interested then—or now—as to whether or not Obama believed any of that nonsense.

Holder’s Absurd Claims

One possible reason for quickly deporting the spies, from the point of view of the Obama Administration, is that they had explosive information about Russian influence over the U.S. Government that would have been too incriminating to reveal in a public court case. “Russia considered these people very important to their intelligence-gathering activities,” Attorney General Eric Holder admitted. “They didn’t pass any classified information,” Holder insisted.

Are we supposed to take his word for it? This is one of the most political appointees that Obama has put in power. He is the official suing Arizona over its immigration policy and letting the Black Panthers off the hook for making threats at a polling station. When he was in the Clinton Justice Department, he helped orchestrate pardons for members of terrorist groups.

It is widely assumed, since they were not charged with espionage, that the Russians were agents of influence who were trying to affect or obtain information about U.S. foreign policy. But this doesn’t mean that they did not do significant damage. The documents in the case cite secret money drops and secret messages to “Moscow Center.”

“We did actually make contact with certain people and did obtain certain information from people who were unwitting in their interaction with these people,” Holder acknowledged. Who were these “unwitting” people? Were they dupes of Moscow? Were they in the Obama Administration? Were they in the think tanks that we know the Russians targeted?

Holder had no real answer to CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer’s question of why, after spending so many years following these agents, they were not prosecuted. Holder could only claim that the 10 were somehow not as valuable as the four we got. In terms of math alone, it just doesn’t add up.

Read more of Cliff Kincaid's analysis at AIM.org

New light shed on Kent State killings -- Shots fired at Guard, declassified files indicate

It is about time the real truth came out -- what took so long for these files to be declassified?

From Day One, the people that were there as part of the Guard and others said that the first two shots were fired not by the Guard but at the Guard. The media was in such a frenzy to blame the Guard that is how the story has been carried for years that they shot these innocent protesters without provocation. The only side the media was interested in was the side of the demonstrators. It was no secret that there were paid professional organizers behind some of these demonstrations and Kent State was no different. The only difference was that it turned deadly when shots were fired we would suspect from the paid organizers.

Having dealt with the Vietnam protesters every Saturday from Antioch College in Yellow Springs at the Main Gate of Wright-Patterson AFB in Fairborn, nothing would shock me about the real facts on the demonstrators. Most of the demonstrators were in their late 20's and early 30's and remember thinking to myself that I am a younger and yet I was working and how can they pay the rent. It was so bad that if you had a base decal on your car, you were not supposed to drive through Yellow Springs to get to Springfield from Fairborn -- they advised taking the Interstate which was longer. The last time I was back in Fairborn about five years ago, there was still a demonstrator outside the main gate with his long white hair and beard. Laughed as I drove in the gate.

Remember when Richard Nixon came to dedicate the new Air Force Museum -- was fortunate to have reserved seats because of where I worked and took my younger brother with me. We had reserved parking so we were able to drive by the demonstrators and their yelling rude obscenities at the cars going by. Remember watching these demonstrators put daises in the rifles of the young men (knew several of them) standing at attention along the entrance to the Museum.

Security was extremely tight that September day in 1971 more than a year after the Kent State shootings. The demonstrators taunted the military and did everything they could to get a rise out of them. But to the credit of those young men of the honor guard, they never blinked. They finally arrested the demonstrators and loaded them on buses and dumped them in another part of Ohio to find their way back.

At one point the demonstrators decided to shut down Wright-Patterson AFB for the day -- didn't work as we had a very low absentee rate that day on the base even though we had to drive through the protesters to get in the gates -- remember to this day the obscenities and having things thrown at cars.

Must admit there was one funny incident when some idiot doctor from the USAF Medical Center W-P took part in the demonstrations. He was about to finish his commitment within the month as the Air Force had paid for his medical school. The idiot was part of the demonstrators except he decided to start jumping on car hoods going into the Hospital Gate. He was set to finish his commitment in exchange for his medical training within the month.

Can still remember my boss, the Command Surgeon for Logistics Command getting the call from the Commander of the Medical Center about this fool of a doctor. My boss hit the ceiling and told the Commander to 'throw the book' at the doctor as he not only jumped on car hoods but demonstrated in his hospital uniform. I can still remember him saying to get back every last penny the Air Force had spent on his medical degree. The doctor was arrested, court martialed, and made to pay back every penny even though he fought it in civilian court.

Professional organizers kept stirring things up around Ohio even after Kent State trying to incite more violence. Military were told not to wear their uniforms off the base to do anything but go home. They were not to go into downtown Dayton in uniform. If you had a decal on your car, you were not to go alone downtown.

These demonstrators and the media that played them up as heroes left very bad feelings of disgust that has never gone away. The fact that professional organizers got them stirred up is one thing but the fact they could be led around has made me wonder to this day what they were thinking. It is something I will NEVER forget or forgive some of the national media for making them heroes.

In 2008, I saw that same mentality -- no questioning about Obama -- treat him like a god and honor him as he spoke. Anyone speaking against his policies were to be taunted and chastised. It is a mentality to this day I don't understand why people cannot think for themselves but be told what to do and what to think by professional organizers.

Now that the facts are out in the open are the media members who played up the demonstrators and attacked the Ohio National Guard going to say they made a mistake? I will not hold my breath, but at least members of the Guard from that time period have been vindicated that they didn't just start shooting at random.

Once again, why were these records sealed for so long?

New light shed on Kent State killings
Shots fired at Guard, declassified files indicate

James Rosen SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.

As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.

The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.

Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.

An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets — the worst in Kent's history — was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."

But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation — never before reported — between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.

"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."

The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."

This was 20 hours before the ROTC headquarters on the Kent State campus, an old wooden frame building, was, in fact, burned to the ground.

"What about the flare?" the second man asked before the leader spotted the coed listening to them and abruptly ended the conversation. Dozens of witnesses later told the FBI they saw a flare used to ignite the blaze.

Excerpt: Read more at Washington Times