Monday, March 24, 2014

Columbia University's CIA Connection In 2014--Part 1

"The Central Intelligence Agency has become a killing machine, an organization consumed with man hunting...After President Bush signed a secret order to escalate the CIA's war in Pakistan, Abu Khabib al-Masri was killed in a CIA drone strike, just 12 miles from the CIA base...During his first year in office, President Obama ordered a review of the roughly one dozen covert-action programs the CIA was carrying out at the time, from the drone strikes to a campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear work...The summer 2009 meetings effectively rubber-stamped all of the CIA's secret ventures...By the time a `principals committee' meeting was scheduled for the fall, when President Obama's top national security advisers would make final decisions on the covert-action programs, not one of them was under consideration for cancellation...The Obama administration approved every one of the covert-action programs that had been handed down by President Bush...

--from New York Times National Security Correspondent Mark Mazzetti's 2013 book, The Way of The Knife

"Peter Clement, who recently began a two-year term as a visiting professor, joins SIPA from the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, where he spent the last eight years as deputy director for intelligence for analytic programs..."

--from a Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs [SIPA] website article on September 9, 2013

Columbia University's CIA Connection In 2014--Part 1

Most people who live in Manhattan opposed both the Bush-Cheney Administration's decision to attack Iraq in 2003 and the Obama Administration's decision to escalate the CIA's covert drone war in Pakistan and other foreign countries after 2009.

Yet in 2013 the Columbia University administration's School of International and Public Affairs [SIPA] hired a 35-year veteran of the CIA--CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence Peter Clement--to be Columbia University's CIA Officer In Residence between 2013 and 2015.

In an interview that was posted on the Columbia University SIPA website on September 9, 2013, CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence Clement indicated how he came to be Columbia University's CIA Officer In Residence in 2014:

"The Agency's Officers in Residence program goes back several decades. Over the years the CIA has had people teach at different schools around the country--including Georgetown, MIT, Harvard, and Princeton--in departments of international affairs and related subjects...

"...Coming to SIPA was largely my idea...I knew Professors [Robert] Jervis and [Richard] Betts. I broached the OIR idea with Jervis, who consults for the CIA and he and Betts were both positive. And then, as I understand it, the appointment was reviewed and finalized...There are a healthy number of SIPA graduates in our workforce...I've spent much of my career at the nexus [of intelligence and foreign policy]. Attending White House meetings, you can see firsthand how senior policymakers use the product...If anyone has questions about the intelligence business, my door is open. I'm just really excited to be here, it's a great opportunity..."

According to New York Times National Security Correspondent Michael Mazzetti's 2013 book The Way Of The Knife, "targeted killings have made the CIA the indispensable  agency for the Obama administration."

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Some Hidden History of Ukraine and Russia--Part 2

In recent weeks, the Democratic Obama-Kerry administration has apparently been promising U.S. government backing for a recently set-up Ukrainian nationalist regime that includes representatives of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist groups like Svoboda and Right Sector. Yet most people in the United States know very little about the hidden history of the people who have lived, historically, in either Ukraine or Russia. According, for example, to Anatol Lieven's 1999 Ukraine & Russia book:

"Ukrainians...did not suffer from discrimination under the Soviet Union as long as they spoke Russian in public (and usually in private as well) and identified with communism and the Soviet state. The officer corps of the Soviet army in the 1980s is estimated to have been around one-third Ukrainian; and in Ukraine itself, Ukrainians held senior (and responsible) positions in the party and state systems, to a markedly greater degree than the `titular nationalities' of other republics.

"Thus in 1955-1970, with 74.9 percent of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's population at the end of that period, ethnic Ukrainians provided a staggering 100 percent--every single member--of the secretariat of the Central Committee, all of the republican first secretaries and prime ministers in that period, all of the first secretaries of the Komsomol and all the chairmen of the trade unions, 93 percent of the most senior Communist officials, and 89 percent of senior ministers. They even provided half of the chairmen of the republican KGB, which in other republics was a role strictly reserved for Russians. In other republics with large Russian minorities (such as Latvia and Kazakstan), a much higher proportion of the senior party and state posts was always reserved for Russians (or loyal Ukrainians).

"The very different figures for Ukraine reflect the fact that the Soviet Russian leaders trusted and identified with the Ukrainians to a far greater degree than they did with any other nationality...It also allowed Ukrainian Communist Party first secretary Petro Shelest to begin a moderate Ukrainianization of the education system and media in Ukraine, an act which played an important role in preserving the Ukrainian language in some areas where it otherwise might have died out, such as Dnipropetrovsk

"This Ukrainianization was brought to a halt by Moscow after 1972...However, while Shelest's removal was followed by a limited removal of his supporters, they were replaced mostly with other Ukrainians. There was no attempt to replace Ukrainians with Russians throughout the Ukrainian SSR leadership...

"In March 1991, in a referendum called by Mikhail Gorbachev, 70.5 percent of Ukrainians who voted (in an 80.2 percent turnout) did so to preserve the Soviet Union as `a renewed federation' (today on the basis of this vote, Soviet loyalists--ranging from Gorbachev himself to Communists in Ukraine and Russia--continue to argue that the dissolution of the Union at the end of the year was illegal and undemocratic)...

"On December 1, 1991, the Communist-turned-nationalist administration of former Communist Party first secretary Leonid Kravchuk called a referendum on Ukrainian independence, which produced a 90 percent vote in favor...These votes are the basis for the democratic legitimacy of independent Ukraine--however much some voters later regretted their yes votes...

"By May 1994, according to the opinion poll carried out by the Democratic Initiative Center in Kiev, 47 percent of people polled in southern and eastern Ukraine declared that if allowed to vote again on independence, they would vote against. Twelve percent said they would not take part, and just 24 percent now declared they would vote for independence. These figures were closely linked to economic suffering...with 60 percent of people polled saying either that Ukraine would fail to overcome its economic crisis within five years, or that it would never do so. This was closely linked to anger that the promises by Kravchuk and the nationalists of rapid prosperity as a result of independence had turned into a ludicrously bad joke...Many East Ukrainians and Crimeans who voted for Ukrainian independence...did not think it would mean customs barriers with Russia, a collapse of interrepublican trade, separate currencies, and divided and potentially hostile armed forces..."

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Some Hidden History of Ukraine and Russia--Part 1

In recent weeks, the Democratic Obama-Kerry administration has apparently been promising U.S. government backing for a recently set-up Ukrainian nationalist regime that includes representatives of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist groups like Svoboda and Right Sector. Yet most people in the United States know very little about the hidden history of the people who have lived, historically, in either Ukraine or Russia. According, for example, to Anatol Lieven's 1999 Ukraine & Russia book:

"...Ukraine was clearly not an economic colony in the traditional sense. Because of climate and history, Ukrainian agriculture and the Ukrainian peasantry were always richer than those of Russia, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Ukraine has also become one of the main industrial centers of the [Russian] empire (although the capital for this industry was to a great extent neither Ukrainian nor Russian, but West European). In these senses, Ukraine's relationship to Russia was like that of Scotland to England, clearly subordinate but with elements of partnership in, identity with, and profit from the imperial enterprise, and this relationship continued under Soviet rule...

"In the Russian Empire...Ukrainians came to be governed by exactly the same institutions and laws as Russians. With the...exception of the laws affecting the use of language, in terms of personal rights and freedoms...it was impossible to tell who were the `colonizers' and who the `colonized,' and this was also true in the economic field.

"This was of course...true under Communist rule...An ordinary Russian worker, whether under imperial or Soviet rule, was also in no way economically better off than the Ukrainian at the next machine, nor did he feel racially superior, nor did the Ukrainian see him in any way living a superior life...At the level of personal experience, Soviet Ukraine was not a `colonial' society in this way, and so it is hardly surprising that it did not produce an `anticolonial' reaction among most Ukrainians. As a result, in the words of Andrew Wilson, `The majority of the population who voted for independence (in 1991) clearly associate themselves not with the nationalist movement or the independent Ukrainian governments of 1917-1920, but with the heritage of Soviet Ukraine.'"

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Hidden History of Right-Wing Ukrainian Nationalism--Part 2

In recent weeks, the Democratic Obama-Kerry administration has apparently been promising U.S. government backing for a recently set-up Ukrainian nationalist regime that includes representatives of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist groups like Svoboda and Right Sector. Yet, ironically, a 1987 book by Douglas S. Tottle, titled Fraud, Famine and Fascism, revealed the following information about the hidden anti-democratic history of right-wing Ukrainian nationalism during World War II:

"On June 30, 1941, the Nazi army entered Lviv, capital of Western Ukraine. In its vanguard came the German-uniformed Nachtigall Battalion of Ukrainian Nationalists, under the command of Roman Shukhevych. With the collusion of the Nazi Abwehr, the Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists [OUN] immediately set up a so-called `Government of Western Ukrainian Lands,' headed by Yaroslav Stetsko who had accompanied the Nazi invaders to the city. A pogrom of the Lviv area's Jewish population at once was launched...

"American writer Saul Friedman, who undertook extensive research on the historical persecution of Jews by Ukrainian nationalists, states in his book Pogromchik:

"`During the first three days of July 1941, the Nachtigall Battalion, composed almost entirely of Ukrainians under the direction of the Gestapo, slaughtered 7,000 Jews in the vicinity of Lwow (Lemberg)...'

"Under the Banderite Nationalist clique posing as a government, many of Lviv's non-Jewish writers, intellectuals and professionals known to be hostile to Nazism were also slaughtered...

"Historian Reuben Ainsztein has chronicled the widespread and voluntary help given by the Ukrainian Nationalists to the Nazi exterminations in Western Ukraine. In his classic Jewish Resistance in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, he states that at the beginning of the Nazi occupation, the OUN leaders: `Stetsko and Bandera proclaimed the creation of a "free Ukraine" and organized a 31,000 strong militia...The militia played a most important part in making it possible for the Einsatzkommando to carry out their task of genocide and terror until the middle of August [1941]...The militia was then disbanded and 3,000 cut-throats were allowed to enroll in the Ukrainian Auxilliary police which was to play such an abominable role in the annihilation of the Jews in Eastern Europe.'

"In the first eight months of Nazi occupation of Western Ukraine, 15 percent of Galician Jews--100,000 people--were slaughtered by the joint actions of the Germans and Ukrainian Nationalists. Nahum Kohn describes the Ukrainian fascist role in the holocaust in Ukraine's Volyn region: `...whenever Jews were slaughtered, 4 or 5 Germans would participated "helped" by 100 or 200 Ukrainian Nationalists..."

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Hidden History of Right-Wing Ukrainian Nationalism--Part 1

In recent weeks, the Democratic Obama-Kerry administration has apparently been promising U.S. government backing for a recently set-up Ukrainian nationalist regime that includes representatives of right-wing Ukrainian nationalist groups like Svoboda and Right Sector. Yet, ironically, a 2005 book by Wendy Lower, titled Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine, revealed the following information about the hidden anti-democratic history of right-wing Ukrainian nationalism during World War II:

"... Ukrainian nationalists of both leading factions established ties and even trained with Wehrmacht and SS intelligence personnel in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. Such German-Ukranian cooperation signaled to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) that their goal of independence might be condoned, if not supported...

"...Among the thousands of Ukrainians who did work in the German administration--that is, the mayors, collective farm supervisors, postal workers, messengers, and clerks--a minority, albeit an influential one, did systematically hunt and brutalize the Jews: the Ukrainian police...

"Not surprisingly, the clearest case of a Ukrainian role in the `Final Solution' can be found among the German records of their Ukrainian auxiliary police units...

"German military commanders and officers of the SD commanders used...Ukrainians (and ethnic Germans) in a number of so-called security tasks, including the identification of the Jews from among the local population and sunbsequent anti-Jewish measures. For example, in Shpykiv, south of Vinnytsia in the Romanian border (the Bug River), the very first order issued by the Ukrainian commander of the `Ukrainian National People's Militia' (who wore the nationalist trident on his uniform) was that all Jews over seven years of age must wear the white star...

"...In a village near Chudniv, the Jewish survivor Galina Efimovna Pekerman recalled, the Germans arrived at the end of July [1941] and enlisted local Ukrainians to massacre first the Jewish children of the village and then the rest of the Jews (about 800 persons), who were seized and gunned down at the local park. In general, German officials instigated the pogroms, but they preferred not to bloody their own hands since local militiamen (Ukrianian and ethnic Germans), anti-Semites, and plunderers were so obliging...

"Local police and civil commissars relied on the Ukrainians to assist them with nearly every step of the `Final Solution' leading up ot the point of execution. They needed the locals to identify the Jewish population, to distribute the armbands, to collect special anti-Jewish taxes, and then to go from house to house, seize the identified Jews, guard them, escort them to their execution, and beat any who tried to resist.

"Several thousand Ukrainians in Zhytomy's German administration (largely in the police) carried out anti-Jewish measures under the watchful eyes of their German supervisors. There were also cases in which Ukrainians in and outside the administration came willingly to the Germans and denounced Jews, whose fate no one could doubt after the summer of 1941. As more than one of Zhytomyr's Jewish survivors remarked, for every one Ukrainian who helped a Jew, there were many more who denounced Jews to the Germans...

"Both factions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists espoused anti-Semitism, and their concept of a Ukrainian state was not a multiethnic one. In April 1941, Stepan Bandera's Second General Congress at Cracow issued a resolution to fight the Jews, whom he branded as the `vanguard of Muscovite imperialism in Ukraine.' A month later, as Bandera's leaders trained their task forces for their role in Operation Barbarossa, they prepared a 70-page set of guidelines titled `Struggle and Activities of the OUN in Wartime.' According to scholars Karel Berkhoff and Marco Carynnyk, the OUN-B document states that `at a time of chaos and confusion liquidation of undesirable Polish, Muscovite and Jewish activists is permitted, especially supporters of Bolshevik-Muscovite imperialism.'...According to the OUN-B's prewar instructions, these enemies should be made `harmless when the new revolutionary order is being established in Ukraine.' In the future autonomous Ukraine, assimilated Jews were also not welcome. In July 1941, the head of the newly declared Ukrainian state, Iasoslav Stets'Ko, wrote in his autobiography: `Although I consider Moscow, which in fact held Ukraine in captivity, and not Jewry, to be the main and decisive enemy, I nonetheless fully appreciate the undeniably harmful and hostile role of the Jews, who are helping Moscow enslave Ukraine. I therefore support the destruction of the Jews and the expediency of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine, barring their assimilation and the like.'

"Stets'ko's writings and recently discovered documents from Ukrainian nationalists attached to Bandera's movement demonstrate that OUN-B leaders supported Nazi anti-Jewish actions...

"...As a political movement, Ukrainian nationalism continues to be tainted by its wartime history: Eastern Ukrainians remain suspicious of Galician-based nationalism and condemns the OUN for its collaboration with the Nazis and perpetration of atrocities against Poles and Jews..."

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Who Is U.S. Secretary of State John "Skull and Bones" Kerry?--Part 3

In their 2004 book "John F. Kerry", Michael Kranish, Brian Mooney and Nina Easton wrote the following about a Democratic Party politician that some U.S. antiwar movement activists have nicknamed John "Secretary of Warmongering" Kerry:

" John Kerry and George Bush are prep school graduates who attended Yale two years apart; they both belonged to the elite and secretive Skull and Bones society..."

The "John F. Kerry" book of 2004 also revealed the following about Kerry's family background:

"In 1763, the Reverend John Forbes, the great-great-great-great-grandfather of...John Forbes Kerry, was given an important job by the British Empire. The Scot was named minister at St. Augustine...For the next 20 years, Forbes lived in Florida, serving on the Governor's Council...He married a wealthy Boston woman named Dorothy Murray, who preferred to remain at the family estate of Brush Hill in Milton, Massachusetts.

"...When the American Revolution unfolded, Forbes remained loyal to the British Crown...and returned to England...One of Forebe's three sons also returned to England--James Grant Forbes, the great-great-great-grandfather of...Kerry..."
(end of part 3)




Friday, March 7, 2014

Black Male Worker "Not Seasonally Adjusted" Unemployment Rate Increases To 13.5 Percent In February 2014

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 13 to 13.5 percent between January and February 2014, according to recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics data; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 47,000 (from 1,091,000 to 1,138,000) during the same period In addition, the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 8,000 (from 7,287,000 to 7,279,000) during the same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States was still 31.5 percent in February 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 38,000 (from 600,000 to 562,000) between January and February 2014. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Black workers (youth, male and female) was still 12 percent in February 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 9.6 percent during that same month.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 24.6 to 27.3 percent between January and February 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 24,000 (from 753,000 to 729,000) during the same period. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 28,000 (from 246,000 to 274,000) between January and February 2014.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 17.8 to 19 percent between January and February 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 69,000 (from 3,337,000 to 3,268,000) during the same period. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 43,000 (from 722,000 to 765,000) between January and February 2014.

Between January and February 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 21 to 21.4 percent; while the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age who still had jobs decreased by 70,000 (from 4,003,000 to 3,933,000) during the same period. In addition, the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased by 8,000 (from 1,065,000 to 1,073,000) between January and February 2014..

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 8.8 percent in February 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Latino workers (male, female and youth) in the United States was still 8.7 percent during that same month. In addition, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 7.3 percent in February 2014.

Between January and February 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Asian-American workers jumped from 4.8 to 6 percent; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed Asian-American workers increased by 93,000 (from 421,000 to 528,000) during that same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6.2 percent in February 2014; while the “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 49,000 (from 3,959,000 to 4,008,000) between January and February 2014. In addition, the “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 5.2 percent in February 2014.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 5.9 percent in February 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7 to 7.1 percent between January and February 2014. In addition, the total “not seasonally adjusted” number of unemployed male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 113,000 (from 5,562,000 to 5,645,000) between January and February 2014; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all male workers over 16 years-of-age increased from 7.5 to 7.6 percent during the same period.

In February 2014, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all U.S. workers (male, female and youth) was still 7 percent; while the official total “not seasonally adjusted” number of workers in the United States increased by 38,000 (from 10,855,000 to 10,893,000) between January and February 2014.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ March 7, 2014 press release:

“…In February…the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.7 percent…Employment…declined in information...Both the number of unemployed persons (10.5 million) and the unemployment rate (6.7 percent) changed little in February. The jobless rate has shown little movement since December…

“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 203,000 in February to 3.8 million; these individuals accounted for 37.0 percent of the unemployed…The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 7.2 million in February. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time work…

“In February, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

“Among the marginally attached, there were 755,000 discouraged workers in February…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“In February, employment in construction changed little (+15,000)…Employment in health care changed little in February (+10,000). This marks the third consecutive month of little employment change in this industry. …Employment in hospitals changed little over the month but is down by 10,000 over the past 3 months.

“Retail trade employment changed little in February (-4,000). Among the component industries, a job gain in food and beverage stores (+12,000) was more than offset by declines in electronics and applicance stores (-12,000), sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores (-9,000); and department stores (-7,000).

“Information lost 16,000 jobs in February. Most of the decline occurred in motion pictures and sound recording (-14,000)…Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, financial activities and government, changed little over the month…”

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Who Is U.S. Secretary of State John "Skull and Bones" Kerry?--Part 2

In their 2004 book "John F. Kerry", Michael Kranish, Brian Mooney and Nina Easton wrote the following about a Democratic Party politician that some U.S. antiwar movement activists have nicknamed John "Secretary of Warmongering" Kerry:

"...Critics see him as an unabashed political operator. Unlike many who are driven to succeed in public life by a core belief system, the arc of Kerry's political career is defined by a restless search for the issues...and causes to fulfill a nearly lifelong ambition...John Forbes Kerry has had his eyes on the White House ever since he was a youth...

"...His first campaign for Congress, at age 28, left him defeated, a bit shaken, and for ever marked as a carpetbagging opportunist in the clubby world of Massachusetts politics...His third Senate term began with...a new wife, Teresa Heinz, whose wealth was estimated at $675 million dollars...

"He is...an experienced and effective money raiser...He is a proficient bundler of donations, taking contributions from individuals who work at the same law firms, financial services and telecommunications firms, high-tech companies, and other sectors of the economy with business before Congress...Despite his protestations to the contrary, he has shown a willingness to tap personal wealth he accumulated largely as a result of his marriage to Teresa Heinz. (Heinz, originally a Republican, said she switched her part affiliation to Democrat in 2003.)..."

(end of part 2)


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Who Is U.S. Secretary of State John "Skull & Bones" Kerry?--Part 1

In their 2004 book "John F. Kerry", Michael Kranish, Brian Mooney and Nina Easton wrote the following about a Democratic Party politician that some U.S. antiwar activists have nicknamed John "Secretary of Warmongering" Kerry:

"To his critics, Kerry is an aloof politician who lacks a core...As a boy, he was shipped off for a 7-year odyssey at boarding schools in Switzerland and New England...The boy who was educated at patrician prep schools...married wealthy wives whose net worth dwarfed his own...Upon graduation from Yale, he...enlisted as an officer [during the Vietnam War]...He also supported U.S. military intervention, particularly in Kosovo in 1999...In 2002, he voted for war...

"...Garry Trudeau's `Doonesbury'...lampooned him as a `gorgeous preppie'...He is trailed by a reputation for political opportunism, symbolized by his 1971 decision to protest the war by tossing medals and ribbons over a fence at the Capitol--and then to explain away the controversial deed by declaring the medals belonged to another veteran...By...his 1992 condemnation of affirmative action...By his...sometimes tortured explanation of why he voted in favor of military action in Iraq..."
(end of part 1)