The Michigan Militia Corps' WEEKLY UPDATE **Internet Edition** Volume 4 Issue 17 Week of May 19, 1997 Governors, execs, bureaucrats join hands to "develop" American workers. by Penna Dexter (www.usaradio.com) Supporters say it will banish unemployment. Critics say it will banish freedom. The "it" is Workforce Development -- the newest trend in educational reform. Epitomized in "School-to-Work" programs that are in various stages of creation in many states, the blueprint for Workforce Development contains the following elements: A complex bureaucracy is set up to take responsibility for job placement and for making certain that the regional school curriculum is geared toward labor needs. A massive database is established to connect job opportunities with prospective students. Workforce development boards govern "one-stop career centers" that are the control point between the government and the individual. Central to this process are government bureaucrats who will determine future job needs, and a revamped educational system which will make certain workers are provided to fill these needs. Another word for it is "socialism," but that's where America may be headed unless more conservatives wake up and pull the emergency brake. In the past, vocational training was provided either in "shop courses" or in a vocational school, but now it is to be spread throughout the regular curriculum of all schools, and will be set by planners who will judge the future needs of businesses in the particular region of the school. Not only will this change the academic flavor of schools and cut down on course options, but it may also help usher in another controversial trend, Outcome-Based Education. States who adopt "Workforce" or School-to-Work" programs often drop the high school diploma in favor of the Certificate of Initial Mastery which is awarded on the basis of a portfolio of work the student has accumulated over the years, not on the basis of a regular report card. Students must meet performance standards ("outcomes") which emphasize attitudes over academics. Students are directed towards careers as early as age thirteen. Right now the concept is moving fast. Although the 104th Congress wisely declined to pass a national workforce development bill, states all over the nation are implementing workforce development programs with federal funds provided by the Clinton administration's Goals 2000 and School-to-Work legislation that passed early in the first Clinton term. Recent conferences of governors have sung the praises of this plan because it brings federal money to the states and gives governors a phony sense of "local control." What are we witnessing? Nothing less than the transformation of American education from developing minds to training workers. This plan was hatched before Bill Clinton was elected president. It was the brainchild of the National Center on the Education and the Economy (NCEE) which was formed in 1988 with funds from the Carnegie Foundation. Hillary Clinton and Ira Magaziner (Magaziner was the engineer of the 1993 plan to socialize health care) co-chaired the effort to implement the NCEE's 1990 report: "America's Choice; High Skills or Low Wages," which recommended drastic changes in both business and education. The report's thesis: By the year 2000 over 70 percent of the jobs in America will not require a college education. The report's recommendations are based on its dubious -- and nightmarishly revealing -- statement that, "Most employees under this model need not be educated. It is far more important that they be reliable, steady, and willing to follow directions." [Emphasis added.] Sounds like Robo-America, with an elite of master programmers running the show. Imagine the excitement among these reformers when Bill Clinton was elected president. Marc Tucker, President of the NCEE, and the brains behind the disastrous "reform" of the Arkansas school system, wasted no time in expressing his enthusiasm. Within a week of the election Mrs. Clinton was reading Tucker's 18- page letter to her which recommended using Outcome-Based Education to "remold the entire American system." Tucker recommended a "national apprenticeship system," a mandatory national "employment service" to match job seekers with job providers, and a "new system of labor market boards" to control all education, jobs, and job training. Instead of being individual self-directed souls with exciting unpredictable potential, children would now become "human resources" in a planned economy. If you are inclined to dismiss Tucker's writings as those of a collectivist fanatic, realize that it formed the basis of the Careers/ Workforce Development bill that nearly became law in the 104th Congress. Worse, Tucker has consulted with numerous states in the formation of their own School-To-Work programs. Workforce Development is hoodwinking key sectors of society. It appeals to legislators, including many conservatives, because it consolidates jobs programs. The corporate world sees savings in training costs. And many parents buy the idea that this system will guarantee a job to each child. That's why this will be one of the toughest, and most important, battles that conservatives will fight in the upcoming months. What can you say when debating the Workforce Development issue? First, the plan is elitist. It gives government planners the power to choose an occupational path for each child according to the perceived (or mis-perceived) needs of the state. Children are reduced to the status of "human resources" to be used for the good of the economy. Second, this is social engineering (on a grand scale). The teaching methods focus on changing attitudes and values from those of the parents and the church to those of the state. It would not be a stretch to assume that the political correctness of a child and his family would factor into the careers made available to him or her. Third, this philosophy is economically unsound. The state will decide how many heart surgeons and how many auto workers we will need in twenty years. But demand fluctuates -- often unpredictably. Will we be training workers for jobs that won't exist? One mother wisely asked a School-To-Work panel in her state, "What guarantee did you as our representatives get from Big Business that in, say five or ten years, they don't fold up their tents and move to Mexico, Brazil, or any other place out of this country?" Finally, this whole idea is socialistic. The similarities to the Soviet polytechnic system of education are striking. The massive database containing personal, academic, and professional information and the central control that are required are antithetical to the freedom we value in America. Children should be free to choose their careers after they have received a rich academic education. Workforce Development places this choice in the hands of government planners and reduces freedom for our children. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING by Ian Williams Goddard (igoddard@erols.com) Evidence is overwhelming that federal authorities were aware that a terrorist event was going to take place in Oklahoma City before the bombing of the Murrah Bldg took place. In fact, two law suits have been filed against the federal government on the behalf of bombing victims for failing to give warning to victims of the bombing. In the first suit, attorney Richard Bieder will represent at least 44 victims.[1] In the second suit, filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County (4/18/97), O.J. Simpson's defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran will represent over 300 people who suffered losses in the bombing. About that suit the Associated Press reported [2]: More than 300 people joined the lawsuit against the government. They claim the [ATF] had prior warning of the April 19, 1995 bombing and that officials of the day care center in the federal building knew or should have known about the attack. Indeed, the shocking claim by victims and family members that the federal government had prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing is supported by an overwhelming body of evidence. EVIDENCE OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE The ABC program 20/20 recently reported (1/17/97) on its investigation into the claim that the federal government had prior knowledge of the Murrah Building bombing.[3] The 20/20 program opened with the question asked by anchor Tom Jarriel: "What did authorities know or expect before the explosion that federal workers and the children arriving at the Murrah Building did not know or were not told?" Jarriel continued, stating that: For seven months 20/20 has looked into just that question and we have found solid facts which tend to support... suspicions [of prior knowledge]. Our investigation uncovered eyewitnesses and government documents which show a lot of unusual activity was going on behind the scene shortly before the explosion occurred. 20/20 interviewed several eyewitnesses who saw the Oklahoma County Bomb Squad truck across the street from the Murrah Building shortly before the blast. The 20/20 investigation even discovered and displayed several local publications in which witnesses reported having seen the Bomb Squad before the blast. These publications include: * WORKIN' INTEREST, Parker & Rassley Petrolium USA Inc. * THE PANOLA WATCHMAN, a local OK City newspaper * MASS MEDIA, an interoffice newsletter that reads: M A S S M E D I A: Special Edition of the Oklahoma County Assessors Newsletter By J.D. Reed As usual, I pulled into the parking garage about 7:30 and made my way into our office building. Although it was unusual to see the Oklahoma County Bomb Disposal Unit parked outside the courthouse, I assumed it was routine business and thought no more about it. The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department claims that the large Bomb Squad truck with trailer, which was used later that day to remove the unexploded bombs found inside the Murrah Building [4], was outside prior to the bombing because a deputy was using it for "routine errands." One eyewitness, Claude Fritz, told 20/20 that he saw paramilitary Bomb Squad personnel searching the outside of the courthouse across the street; he said that prior to the blast "the presence of law enforcement was in the air, it was everywhere downtown that morning." In fact Fritz witnessed several fire trucks speeding toward the Murrah Bldg with sirens blazing moments before the blast. When another ABC program, EXTRA, contacted the Oklahoma City Fire Department to ask them about Fritz's claim, the Fire Department told EXTRA: "We can't really confirm or deny that claim." [5] 20/20 established, contrary to official denials, that the Oklahoma City Fire Department received a call from the FBI five days before the bombing (04/14/95) warning them that "there were some people coming through town they should be on the look out for." Perhaps most shocking, the 20/20 investigation discovered that someone had called the Executive Secretariat's Office at the Justice Department in Washington D.C. to report the Murrah Building bombing 24 minutes before the blast. 20/20 quoted on screen the official government document reading: The Department of Justice ...received a telephone call... twenty-four minutes prior to the bombing... The caller said, "The federal building in Oklahoma City has just been bombed." 20/20 anchor Tom Jarrel then noted that "no action was apparently taken" by the Justice Department in response to that strange emergency call minutes before the blast. With early warnings and with the heavy law-enforcement presence around the Murrah Building that morning, it's surprising that the vehicles seen by witnesses speeding away from the Murrah Building seconds before the blast were not noticed by the law-enforcement officers.[6][7] THE JUDGE WHO KNEW U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley, whose office was in the federal courthouse across the street from the Murrah Building, told Oregon's largest daily newspaper, THE OREGONIAN, that he had been warned to take "extra precautions" several days before the April 19th blast. Judge Alley told THE OREGONIAN (04/20/97): "Let me just say that within the past two or three weeks, information has been disseminated... that indicated concerns on the part of people who ought to know that we ought to be a little bit more careful." He said that he was told to keep an eye out for "people...wandering about in the courthouse who aren't supposed to be there, [and] letter bombs. There has been an increased vigilance." By an amazing stroke of good luck, Alley did not show up for work on April 19th. The forewarnings that Judge Alley received were reserved for only a select few. And indeed, Alley was an important official, so much so that on August 10, 1995 he was assigned on to be the judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case. The defense tried for months to have Alley removed from the case, but to no avail. Then the defense discovered Alley's statements in THE OREGONIAN and submitted them to the court on November 30, 1995. Within 48 hours, on December 1st, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removed Alley from the case, ruling that because his office was across the street from, and damaged by, the blast, he could not be considered an impartial party in the case.[8] Yet no mention was made by the federal court of Judge Alley's forewarnings.[9] ATF CLEARED OUT OF BUILDING? While at least 10 ATF agents were at the Murrah Building moments after the blast [10], it seems that the ATF office inside the building was empty at the time of the blast. The ABC program 20/20 (01/17/97) interviewed a man who, while looking for his wife at the Murrah Building, ran into an ATF agent who said that he had survived the blast because "We were tipped by our pagers not to come into work today." That same individual, whose wife was injured in the blast, had been interviewed previously along with two other witnesses by NBC's affiliate in Oklahoma City, KFOR television (09/12/95). The second witness, the boss of the first, told KFOR viewers that he had overheard the account of the first witness just cited. The third witness, a rescue worker, had also been informed that there were no ATF agents in the building that day. All three witnesses spoke to KFOR, just as the first of the three spoke to 20/20, in shadow for fear of ATF reprisal. [9] Their fear of the ATF was well-founded: just ask former ATF agents Diane Kipel and Mike Casali, who were targeted for harassment and intimidation by the ATF after blowing the whistle on theft by ATF agents during raids in Chicago. As a result, they lived in constant terror for months, even keeping their children and themselves away from windows in their home through which they feared they would be shot by ATF snipers. [11] ATF COVERS-UP PRIOR KNOWLEDGE In response to charges that the ATF had prior knowledge and had cleared its agents out of the Murrah Building before the blast, the ATF scrambled to cook up a cover-story: the ATF claimed that its agent Alex McCauley along with DEA agent David Chickendance, had survived the blast while inside an elevator that fell five stories. After the free-fall, the two forced the elevator doors open and proceeded heroically to rescue many other survivors -- or so the ATF story went. Not taking the ATF story at face value, 20/20 interviewed elevator maintenance crewmen Oscar Johnson and Duane James of Midwestern Elevator, who said that the ATF's story was "pure fantasy." The crew had inspected the Murrah Building elevators shortly after the blast on April 19 and found that all the elevators were in perfect condition and could not possibly have fallen as the ATF claimed. Furthermore, according the Midwestern Elevator, not only could the two federal agents not have fallen or have opened the elevator doors, but they also could not have survived a five-story fall without sustaining traumatic injuries, and subsequently they could not have proceeded to rescue other people.[9] The ATF must have been pretty desperate to have fabricated such a fantastically false fable. By the way, according to 20/20, DEA agent David Chickendance won the National Policeman of the Year Award for his "heroic" part in that fraudulent federal fable. PRIOR WARNING FROM ATF AGENT The following evidence of prior knowledge by the federal government to the Oklahoma City bombing, perhaps the most important in this case, revolves around two undercover operatives, Carol Howe and Andreas Strassmeir. Many investigators believe Strassmeir is the elusive John Doe 2. ANDREAS STRASSMEIR is the son of the German politician Gunther Strassmeir, often referred to as the "architect of German reunification." According to his lawyer Kirk Lyons, Andreas Strassmeir was trained in military intelligence operations at the Bundeswehr Academy in Hanover, Germany. His close friend Dennis Mahon, leader of the militant-racist group White Aryan Resistance (WAR) in the U.S., says Strassmeir was a member of Germany's elite counterterrorism unit, GSG-9. [12] Strassmeir told Oklahoma City attorney John Michael Johnston that he did undercover counterterrorism work while in Germany.[12] Strassmeir later told London's SUNDAY TELEGRAPH reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard that he came to the U.S. looking to do undercover work for the Department of Justice or DEA, but he said such top-secret employment was not acquired.[13] Private investigators Glenn and Kathy Wilburn, whose daugther Eddy Smith lost her two children in the bombing, believe they have established not only that Strassmeir is John Doe 2, but that he was also an undercover federal agent whom they identify in their law suit as a "U.S. federal informant with material knowledge of the bombing."[13] CAROL M. HOWE, a 26-year-old resident of Tulsa, OK, was a Miss Teenage America semi-finalist and honors student who became active in the militant racist group WAR. In 1994 Howe became an undercover agent for the ATF. She had infiltrated the Christian Identity white-separatist commune "Elohim City" in eastern Oklahoma and made more than 70 reports during 1994- 95. According to NBC News: "The government acknowledges in federal documents that she [Carol Howe] was their informant." [14] Howe's reports, which she submitted to her ATF boss, Angela Finley, exposed detailed plans by some Elohim City residents, such as Andreas Strassmeir, to blow up federal targets including the Murrah Building.[15] During Howe's infiltration of Elohim City, she also saw Timothy McVeigh and the governments' star witness and long-time McVeigh friend, Michael Fortier. At Elohim City, McVeigh was known as "Tim Tuttle," an alias he frequently used. Yet after gathering such explosive intelligence, according to the Associated Press, the ATF then fired Howe just days before the bombing because her reports had suddenly become "unreliable." [14] Howe's "unreliable" reports focused on Andreas Strassmeir. Howe was not aware that Strassmeir was apparently also a federal operative, which would probably explain why the FBI, even with Howe's reports in hand, did not pursue the John Doe 2 look-alike Strassmeir after the blast. The FBI merely noted in a summary of Carol Howe's reports: Strassmeir has talked frequently about direct action against the U.S. government. He is trained in weaponry and has discussed assassination, bombings, and mass shootings. Strassmeir and Mahon [leader of WAR] have taken three trips to Oklahoma City. [16] This evidence not only proves (a) that the ATF and FBI had prior warning of an action against the Murrah Building by a group of people associated with Timothy McVeigh, and yet did nothing to stop it, but (b) after the bombing the FBI did not pursue Strassmeir, a prime suspect fitting the John Doe 2 profile down to the scar on his face. At the request of the ATF, the Oklahoma State Patrol did put out a "be on the lookout for" alert for Strassmeir after the blast.[17] But Strassmeir was never apprehended, and the alert was quickly suppressed and denied. [18] Strassmeir, who had been in the U.S. with a passport that had expired in 1991, was allowed to return to Germany many months after the bombing in early 1996 [14] in an apparent effort not to avoid authorities but private investigators. Furthermore, after first calling John Doe 2 "the most wanted man in America," the FBI acted to suppress all official investigations of JD2. As an internal FBI memo now proves [19], the FBI suspended their search for JD2 very early in the investigation -- contrary to their claims that they were still looking for JD2 at the time.[20] The FBI went so far in their effort to suppress information about JD2 that they even censured grand jurors who asked questions about JD2, such as former Oklahoma City bombing grand juror Hoppy Heidelburgh, who headed the grand jury's investigation before being thrown off the jury for his persistent investigation into JD2. Heidelburgh had reached the conclusion that JD2 was an undercover federal agent.[21] In an effort to fabricate the facade of investigation, the FBI finally contacted JD2 suspect Strassmeir by phone in Germany but only after McVeigh's attorney Stephen Jones condemned the FBI for not following up on leads. When Strassmeir was interviewed by the German publication REPORT BADEN-BADEN, he said that when the FBI called him by phone they assured him that "They would cover for me." [22] IN CONCLUSION This extensive body of evidence indicates not only that the ATF and the FBI had prior knowledge of an impending terrorist act on the Murrah Building, but that the FBI is guilty of the obstruction of justice by aiding and abetting the escape from justice of a prime suspect, John Doe 2, who may have been a federal operative involved in the worst act of mass murder in U.S. history. This evidence further suggests that some element within the federal government may have actively participated in the mass murder in Oklahoma City, which resulted in massive new powers being given to the federal government through "anti-terrorist legislation" spurred on by the bombing of the Murrah Building. IAN GODDARD (igoddard@erols.com) http://www.erols.com/igoddard (c) 1997 Ian Williams Goddard - (*) free to copy nonprofit w/ attribute. REFERENCES: [1] REUTERS: Families of Oklahoma City Victims to Sue U.S.. March 19, 1997. Also see: http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/19/okc.bomb/index.html [2] ASSOCIATED PRESS: 300 Families Sue Government, Day Care and Chemical Company. April 19, 1997. http://xenocide.nando.net/newsroom /ntn/top/041997/ topstory_17914_S1.html [3] ABC's 20/20, 01/17/97. http://jbs.org/okc/mretruth.htm [4] CNN reports videotaped, April 19, 1995. [5] EXTRA: Prior Knowledge. 11/20/96. ABC program. [6] THE WASHINGTON TIMES: U.S. Experts Begin Search for Killers. by Micheal Hedges, April 20, 1995, A1. Reports that a van with 3 men was seen speeding away. [7] OKBOMB! By Jim Keith. IllumiNet Press, 1996, p.11 & 19. Reports van and McVeigh's car w/ two inside were seen. [8] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Appeals Court Removes Oklahoma Bombing Judge. by Paul Queary, 12/01/97. http://www.arlington.net/archives/12011995.arc/news/ daily/topstory.htm [9] THE NEW AMERICAN: Evidence of Prior Knowledge. by William F. Jasper, May 13, 1996, pp. 31-35. http://jbs.org/okc/priorevd.htm [10] OKBOMB! By Jim Keith. IllumiNet Press, 1996, p.71. [11] TIME MAGAZINE: ATF Under Siege. by Erik Larson, 07/24/95, pp.26-7. [12] THE NEW AMERICAN: More Pieces to the OKC Puzzle by William F.Jasper, June 24, 1996, pp. 4-8. http://jbs.org/okc/mrepiece.htm Humor The following was provided by Gregory Allan of Lake County. Detroit Free Press, April 18, 1997, from a transcript of a deposition of a pathologist in New Baltimore, Michigan. Attorney: So doctor, you determined that a gunshot wound was the cause of death? Doctor: Correct Attorney: Did you examine the patient when he came in the emergency room? Doctor: No, I performed the autopsy. Attorney: OK, were you aware of his vital signs while he was in the hospital? Doctor: Yes, he came into the emergency room in shock and died in the emergency room a short time after arrival. Attorney: Did you pronounce him dead at that time? Doctor: No, I am a pathologist who performed the autopsy. I was not involved with the patient initially. Attorney: Well, are you even sure that he died in the emergency room? Doctor: That is what the records indicate. Attorney: But if you weren't there how could have pronounced him dead, having not seen him or physically examined the patient at that time? Doctor: The autopsy showed massive hemorrhage into the chest and that was the cause of death. Attorney: I understand that, but you were not present to examine the patient and pronounce him dead is that right? Doctor: No sir, I did not see the patient or actually pronounce him dead but I did perform the autopsy and right now his brain is in a jar over at the county morgue. As for the rest of the patient, for all I know, he could be out practicing law somewhere. *** If you would like to submit an editorial, commentary, or news story from your perspective on something you have been keeping an eye on, please e-mail it to xxx and it will be evaluated for entrance. Thanks. 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