Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove

[RickW]

Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove

Kurt Nimmo
Thursday, December 28, 2006

It’s fishy as hell.

Paul Sanford, a prominent Aptos, California, attorney, who accused Karl Rove of treason in the Plame outing case, took a leap from the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey Bay on Christmas Eve. Police describe it as “probable” suicide, even though it appears Sanford was not depressed.

“Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford’s death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. [Business associate and friend Shawn Mills] said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing,” reports the Monterey Herald. “Mills said he had spoken to Sanford’s wife, Paula, and that she also was in shock. He said Sanford, a father of two, was a devoted family man.” Sanford “would never have intentionally put his family through that trauma. Something’s not right, it doesn’t make sense.”

On July 25, 2005, in the James S. Brady Briefing Room at the White House, Sanford asked then press secretary Scott McClellan about Karl Rove, accused at the time by Joseph Wilson, the husband of Valerie Plame, of outing his wife as a CIA employee in retaliation for Wilson’s op-ed published in the New York Times. Wilson criticized the citation of bogus yellowcake documents used as flimsy justification for invading Iraq and murdering more than 650,000 Iraqis.

McClellan was flummoxed by Sanford’s question:

McClellan: Go ahead.

Sanford: Yes, thank you. There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove. The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?

McClellan: I think that in terms of decisions regarding the investigation, those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide.

Special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, decided not to charge Rove in the case, even though the former Donald Segretti dirty trickster understudy raised enough suspicion to warrant being called before a grand jury five times. Neocon Lewis “Scooter” Libby was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements to the FBI. A few weeks later, on July 13, 2006, Joseph and Valerie Wilson filed a civil suit against Cheney, Libby, Rove, and other unnamed senior White House officials, for their alleged roles in the public disclosure of her classified CIA employment.

In addition, Sanford was “a champion of the downtrodden, he represented homeless people in Santa Cruz, and fought for free speech,” according to Mills. As well, he hosted a radio talk show at KOMY, an Air America affiliate, although he was not associated with the bankrupt network. Sanford and Mills also hosted the “Paul and Shawn Show” on Saturdays at the Seaside, California, radio station KRXA.

Of course, there is no evidence Paul Sanford was pushed from “at least nine floors” above the large ventilation grate where he met his fate. As well, there is no evidence he committed suicide, or did he fit the profile of a suicide. However, there is plenty of evidence Sanford was a thorn in the side of the neocons, committing the ultimate sin of accusing one particularly nasty top drawer neocon, Karl Rove, of treason.

[keehah]

Lawyer Who Questioned Bush Regime on Treason Falls to His Death (http://cryptogon.com/?p=154)
http://cryptogon.com/?p=154

Why assassinate an activist lawyer, who also happened to be a dedicated husband and father, on Christmas Eve?

It might be that the intended PSYOP effect would be to get other people, who oppose the criminal regime, to think, “I don’t want my wife to be made a widow, and my children left without a father, on Christmas Eve.”
The average person will look at this case and just think, “How sad.” But the message wasn’t meant for the average person. Was it? This is a political assassination, as well as a PSYOP. Heavy on the PSYOP.

They’re not capable of making all of us offers we can’t refuse…

Or maybe They just did.

Via: Monterey Herald (http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/16326502.htm):
In what police describe as a “probable” suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas.

Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the body of Aptos attorney Paul Sanford in the west end of the hotel lobby, where he had landed on a large ventilation grate.
…
Almost immediately, he caused a stir after he joined the White House Press Corps in 2005, making waves as the first reporter to ask then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan whether the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name might be considered an act of treason.

“There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove,” Sanford asked. “The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?”

McClellan was apparently flustered by the question and replied that “those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide.”
…
Friends and associates expressed disbelief at the news of Sanford’s death and that it was ruled a suicide, saying Sanford seemed happy and had made many plans for this week and in coming months. Mills said he and Sanford recently decided to open a shared law office to serve Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, something Sanford was looking forward to doing.
He and Sanford spoke on the phone “around four or five times a day,” Mills said, and the two had just spoken on Thursday, “tweaking a marketing plan” for their new law practice before Mills went out of town for the Christmas holiday.

“I just don’t know what happened since Thursday. There was nothing on the horizon there to know this was going to happen,” Mills said. “We were going to get together this week.”

Mills said he had spoken to Sanford’s wife, Paula, and that she also was in shock. He said Sanford, a father of two, was a devoted family man.

“This is a horrible thing for his family. He would never have intentionally put his family through that trauma. Something’s not right, it doesn’t make sense.”

Police said that before Sanford fell, hotel housekeepers saw him pacing the hallway of an upper floor. Cercone said Sanford’s car was parked next to the hotel, and he was not checked in as a guest.

Police declined to state exactly why they ruled the case a suicide.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/16326502.htm (http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/16326502.htm)

[Some thoughts:] Assassination is a common political tool. Read your history all who would dismiss apparent assassinations as crackpot conspiracy theory. Any apparent assassination is most likely a true assassination. It’s just part of the political game. In this way, politics is much like organized crime. Assassination is especially rampant at the lower levels, such as this one. The big boys prefer to quash a sensitive issue before it gets championed by someone with real protection. Poor Sanford just got in over his depth. He should have asked someone with more experience whether bringing up the subject of treason would get him into trouble. More likely he was working on some new sensitive issue under the radar, and got offed by the president’s men before he brought that issue to the surface. How would they know he was working on a sensitive issue? Once he brought up treason he got put on the watch list. Why was he pacing in the hallway? Because the president’s men gave him a choice: jump, or watch us kill your wife and kids in a tragic accident. One of the reasons politics doesn’t change much and hasn’t changed much for the thousands of years of empire that politics has reigned supreme is because courageous young men like Sanford get cut down routinely before they can make a difference. Politics is a game of cowards, dirty old men, and the women who love them, and they have perfected the means to keep it that way.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=154

[AMforPM]

One of the reasons politics doesn’t change much and hasn’t changed much for the thousands of years of empire that politics has reigned supreme is because courageous young men like Sanford get cut down routinely before they can make a difference. Politics is a game of cowards, dirty old men, and the women who love them, and they have perfected the means to keep it that way.

For just a little while longer. IMO, a big change is unfolding like a flower, in all of life, which is one, the killers and the dead, the mobsters and the watchers and the sheep. It cannot be turned back because it is a change in the world mind and spirit. I may not live to see the full flower. History is glacial in its movement. But big change is in process. The sheep will not sleep much longer. Thousands wake up each day.

And sometimes, after centuries of the glacier moving an inch a decade, a big hunk the size of a state breaks off in moments.

The Holy Spirit is very active in the world right now. Change is coming. Hydra like, when one dies another takes up the banner. Life itself is peacefully standing up for survival, because the old way is life negative.

[Phantasmagoria]

Is there a fund yet for his family - or any other way to help?



Quote: One of the reasons politics doesn’t change much and hasn’t changed much for the thousands of years of empire that politics has reigned supreme is because courageous young men like Sanford get cut down routinely before they can make a difference. Politics is a game of cowards, dirty old men, and the women who love them, and they have perfected the means to keep it that way.

For just a little while longer. IMO, a big change is unfolding like a flower, in all of life, which is one, the killers and the dead, the mobsters and the watchers and the sheep. It cannot be turned back because it is a change in the world mind and spirit. I may not live to see the full flower. History is glacial in its movement. But big change is in process. The sheep will not sleep much longer. Thousands wake up each day.

And sometimes, after centuries of the glacier moving an inch a decade, a big hunk the size of a state breaks off in moments.

The Holy Spirit is very active in the world right now. Change is coming. Hydra like, when one dies another takes up the banner. Life itself is peacefully standing up for survival, because the old way is life negative.

:wild applause: :more wild applause: to both yours and keeha's quotes... perfect words, beautiful

Cheers

.

[keehah]

http://www.harpers.org/1997-08-Assassination.html

Assassination: a Primer

Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2006. From “A Study of Assassination,” a training manual written by the CIA and distributed to agents and operatives at the time of the agency's 1954 covert coup in Guatemala, which ousted the country's democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz-Guzman. The manual, which was among some 1,400 pages of files an the operation that the agency released in May, was obtained by the National Security Archive, a public-interest group in Washington, D.C. Originally from August 1997.

DEFINITION
“Assassination” is a term thought to be derived from “hashish,” a drug similar to marijuana that is said to have been used by the eleventh-century Islamic leader Hasan ibn al-Sabbah to induce motivation in those of his followers who would carry out political and other murders, usually at the cost of their lives.

EMPLOYMENT
Assassination is an extreme measure, and it should be assumed that it will never be ordered or authorized by any U.S. headquarters, though officials may in rare instances agree to its execution by members of an associated foreign service.
No assassination instructions should ever be written or recorded. Ideally, only one person will be involved. No report may be made, though the act will usually be properly covered by news services.

JUSTIFICATION
Murder is not morally justifiable. Assassination can seldom be employed with a clear conscience. Persons who are morally squeamish should not attempt it.

CLASSIFICATIONS
The techniques employed will vary depending on whether or not the assassin himself is to be killed with the subject. If the assassin is to die with the subject, the act will be called “lost.” If the assassin is to escape, the act will be called “safe.” It should be noted that no compromise should exist here. The assassin must not fall alive into enemy hands.
Assassination techniques will also be affected by the subject's vulnerability. Assassinations in which the subject is unaware of his danger will be termed “simple”; those in which the subject is aware but unguarded will be termed “chase”; those in which the victim is aware but guarded will be termed “guarded.”
A further division concerns whether or not it is necessary to conceal the fact that the subject was actually the victim of assassination. If such concealment is desirable, the act will be called “secret”; if concealment is immaterial, the act will be called “open.” If the assassination req uires publicity to be effective, it will be termed “terroristic.”
Following these definitions, the assassination of Julius Caesar was safe, simple, and terroristic, while that of Huey Long was lost, guarded, and open. Obviously, successful secret assassinations are not recorded as assassinations at all.

THE ASSASSIN
Except in terroristic assassinations, it is desirable that the assassin be transient. In a lost assassination, the assassin must be a fanatic of some sort. Politics, religion, and revenge are about the only feasible motives. Since a fanatic is unstable psychologically, he must be handled with extreme care. While Trotsky's assassin has never revealed any significant information, it was unsound to depend on this.

TECHNIQUES
A human being may be killed in many ways, but the assassin should always be cognizant of one point: Death must be absolutely certain. The attempt on Hitler's life failed because those planning the conspiracy did not give this matter proper attention.

Techniques may be considered as follows:

Manual
It is possible to kill a man with bare hands, but very few are skillful enough to do it well. Even a highly trained judo expert will hesitate to risk killing by hand unless he has absolutely no alternative. The simplest local tools are often the most efficient means of assassination—a hammer, ax, wrench, screwdriver, fire poker, kitchen knife, lamp stand, or anything hard, heavy, and handy. A length of rope or wire or a belt will do if the assassin is strong and agile. All such improvised weapons have the important advantage of availability and apparent innocence. The obviously lethal machine gun failed to kill Trotsky where an item of sporting goods succeeded.

Accidents
For a secret assassination, the contrived accident is the most effective technique. When successfully executed, it causes little excitement and is only casually investigated.

The most efficient accident is a fall of seventy-five feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stairwells, unscreened windows, and bridges will serve. Bridge falls into water are not reliable.

A private meeting with the subject may be arranged at a properly cased location. The act may be executed by a sudden, vigorous tripping at the ankles, tipping the subject over the edge. If the assassin immediately sets up an outcry, playing the “horrified witness,” no alibi or surreptitious withdrawal is necessary.

Falls in front of trains or subway cars are usually effective, but these require exact timing and can seldom be free from unexpected observation.
Automobile accidents are less satisfactory. If the subject is to be deliberately run down, exact timing is necessary and investigation is likely to be thorough. The subject may be stunned or drugged and then placed in a car, but this is reliable only when the car can be run off a high cliff or into deep water without observation.

Edge and Blunt Weapons
Any locally obtained sharp-edged device may be successfully employed, though a minimum amount of anatomical knowledge is needed for reliability. The most reliable methods are severing the spinal cord in the cervical region (with the point of a knife or a light blow with an ax or hatchet) and severing the jugular and carotid blood vessels on both sides of the windpipe.
As for blunt weapons, their main advantage is their universal availability. A hammer may be picked up almost anywhere in the world. Baseball bats are widely distributed. Even a rock or a heavy stick will do, and no weapon need be disposed of.
Blows should be directed to the temple; the area just below and behind the ear; and the lower, rear portion of the skull. Of course, if the blow is very heavy, any portion of the upper skull will do. The lower frontal portion of the head, from the eyes to the throat, can withstand enormous blows without fatal consequences.

Explosives
A small or moderate explosive charge is highly unreliable as a cause of death, and time-delay or booby-trap devices are extremely prone to kill the wrong man.
Bombs or grenades should never be thrown at a subject. While this will always cause a commotion and may even result in the subject's death, it is sloppy, unreliable, and bad propaganda.