Feb 17 2006
Don’t Listen To John Loftus
I had no idea John Loftus was such a blatant BS-er. Debbie Schlussel and others are pulling out of the Intelligence Summit this weekend because of the fraud John Loftus is and his role in leading this event. Schlussel has some very disturbing accounts about Loftus:
My first experience with Mr. Loftus, in 2002–well before FOX News hired him–showed me, glaringly, that he is a fraud. He spoke at a counter-protest to the University of Michigan Palestinian Students Divestment Conference. I was the keynote speaker at the event. At the time, Mr. Loftus had recently filed a silly–and quickly dismissed–lawsuit against Islamic Jihad terrorist/founder and South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian, a man about whom I know, and have written, a great deal.
Mr. Loftus’ speech betrayed him to be almost completely ignorant on Mr. Al Arian, Islam in general (claimed Mohammed loved the Jews and treated them well; tell that to the Jews who built Medina, whom Mohammed slaughtered, forcibly converted to Islam, or expelled), and to be a blatant liar. I watched in amazement as he claimed to the large audience assembled, that he was the attorney for INS, Customs, and FBI agents, and others who’d investigated Sami Al-Arian. I know several of those parties, and to my knowledge, none of them have ever been represented by Loftus.
During his speech, Loftus passed out several court documents and affidavits about Al-Arian, all of which I and many others had had for years, as a result of FOIA requests done by terrorist hunter Rita Katz, now of the SITE Institute, and the real terrorism expert behind Steve Emerson’s investigations into Al-Arian. Loftus claimed these easily available, public documents (which, again, I had and were available for years) were secret, sensitive documents he got from his clients and that FBI agents came to him demanding to know where he got these documents. Right. He said he claimed “attorney-client” privilege. For what? Publicly available documents he got from Emerson’s office.
I am embarrassed to say we posted some Loftus information regarding Joe and Valerie Wilson regarding some possible uranium smuggling in Niger. I still feel there was the potential for the uranium smuggling and a possible role for some rogue CIA agents – but I now dismiss everything associated with Loftus.
No one here knowingly would repeat misinformation, including our readers. I had no idea Loftus had fallen so far out of favor that he was fired from Fox News – where I first learned of him.
St. Petersburg Times (Florida) March 24, 2002, Sunday
SECTION: NORTH OF TAMPA; THE WEEK IN REVIEW; Pg. 2
DISTRIBUTION: NORTH OF TAMPA
LENGTH: 519 words
BODY:
AUTHOR SUES AL-ARIAN: John Loftus has hunted Nazis and ferreted out terrorist groups in America and abroad. Now the former federal prosecutor and author has sued controversial University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian. Loftus filed Wednesday under the Florida Consumer Protection Act, claiming Al-Arian used state-regulated charities and other organizations to solicit and launder money he funneled to terrorist groups in Syria. His organizations also helped transport communications gear to Osama bin Laden, the suit states.
Loftus said he wants the state to shut down any of those organizations that still exist and force Al-Arian to surrender assets until it is determined whether they were generated from illegal activity. He also wants the Florida Attorney General’s Office to take over the case and seek punitive damages for violations of Florida law.
Speaking Wednesday morning, Loftus said federal agents would raid several Saudi Arabian-funded organizations in Virginia with ties to Al-Arian. The raids took place Wednesday afternoon. One organization searched, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, helped finance Al-Arian’s now defunct think tank at USF – the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, or WISE.
“Sometimes the wheels of justice get stuck,” Loftus said. “In this case, I thought they needed a little kick.”
Al-Arian, who has been suspended from USF pending president Judy Genshaft’s decision on whether to fire him, denied the allegations and called Loftus a “lunatic” who has no understanding of Middle Eastern history. “The whole thing is preposterous,” said Al-Arian, a computer engineering professor. “I have done nothing wrong. I’ve been subjected to exhaustive investigations and nothing illegal has been found.”
If Loftus had no ties to these FBI, how did he know the raids were going to take place in Virginia before they occured?
SBD
SBD
SBD–
Odd this guy would announce the raids before they occurred. I would have thought this should not be announced. That’s the same thing that got some writer in trouble–tipping off a terrorist office before it was hit. Maybe even Judy Miller a few years ago, but I forget.
AJ–
I am actually driving up to N. Virginia for this conference you are now criticizing. I think maybe I even heard about it on your site, but am not sure.
Personally, I think that it is not very polite to accept an invitation to speak and then pull out. I hoped to see Woolsey. IF he thought Loftus was OK when he accepted the invitation, why did he change his mind at the last minute?
The first presentation discusses the tapes where Saddam discusses his WMD. This is the same as what you have reported from TV. I think it will be interesting to see for myself what I think of all of this.
Sometimes these intelligence folks have professional spats. Sometimes they get thier facts wrong. I think it is good to hear all views.
Not being an expert, I will just listen, of course.
Folks, I am getting confirmation by someone who worked with Loftus when he was ‘a federal prosecutor’ confirming he is a crazy liar. Having contacts is not hard. The people in the FBI and every part of government are just people. Good, bad, mediocre, brilliant, odd…
More. http://americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=4487
John Loftus was/is a Kerry supporter and worked for him in the area of National Security. The sneak attack on the Bush admin. a week or so prior to the election referencing the “so-called” loss of nuke material and munitions from Al Qaa Qaa Site in Iraq was the brain child of Loftus. Didn’t happen but he provided/concocted all the data used to try and discredit our Military and the Administration.
He has a ton of inside sources and is credible a lot of the time, but it’s hard to determine where and when. I listen to John Batchelor via XM in the evenings and he has Loftus on quite a bit. I find what he breaks to Batchelor normally is valid. I kinda use Batchelor for my confirmation process. They have been all over the 2 Generals expose’s of the movement of WMD to Syria, into the Beeka and 2 other sites. Also with Tierney and the “tapes”. I believe these tapes have credible info. Tierney reported on Hannitys show and Batchelor’s that ABC had there own interpretors and came up with different meanings than that of Tierney. He stated that ABC left it so “each side” could hold onto their belief’s. Tierney stated that the words are straight forward and not what ABC interperted.
Tierney broke down the entire 12 hours which will be portraited on a power point briefing Sat, I think at 8AM. The arabic voices with the english language on the slides alongside. Tierney said don’t expect to go anywhere.
Gen Vallely of Fox said he will be there. I heard Woolsey and Duetsch dropped out because of who is funding Tierney of something. Who is and why I haven’t been able to run down.
Bottom line, Hoekstra stated last week NSA verified Saadam’s voices and the rest, ie Tariq Aziz, etc. The info needs exposure and the MSM will not do it for it makes the Dems look bad. So I ask those headed that way, please continue for the rest of us, obtain the info and pass it on. What Loftus role is is minimal compared to what needs to be exposed. Tierney on Batchelor’s show last night, begged that everyone set aside their differences and please show on Sat.
Good luck to you all that do go, AJ please reconsider.
Al
Woolsey, Deutch, and some of the others pulling out are doing so because of another character – Cherney (Mark?), I think his name is. I guess ties with Israeli intelligence & Russian mobs … probably all sorts of spooks & double agents attending. But, still might be interesting to see how this “conference” is conducted.
Here is the Loftus side of this spat which seems to have something to do with a man named Michael Cherney. He is from Russia and is now an Israeli. Some say he is a gangster; others say he isn’t.
http://www.intelligencesummit.org/cherney/
I went to this conference. There were a fair number of crackpots there. The information was very general. Some was downright goofy.
The Saddam tapes were hard to understand. They were literally translated and difficult to understand. The tapes are on their site now so you can read them. The tapes are from well prior to the war.
http://www.intelligencesummit.org/
Tomorrow they have some presentation on Able Danger. The speaker isn’t announced yet. I will check that out.
One guy there who seemed to be a pretty smooth operator said that this conference was connected to the Mossad.
Some of the speakers seemed very general or conspiracy theorists.
There were a lot of people there who are interested in the security business.
My observations are those of someone who is not an expert on any of this, but I met some people that seemed kind of peculiar.
This guy named Michael Cherney was in the smelting business.
I remember reading something somewhere about Russian gangsters in the junk metals business.
A lot of stuff has been dismantled in Iraq and shipped out. Sometimes it was stuff the Americans just built. They build something, go away, and when they come back the structure has been dismantled and carted off.
I suppose junk metals guys would have been helpful to Saddam if he was trying to get rid of “junk” he wasn’t supposed to have.
Some Russian gangsters are Jewish and so go to Israel. It is possible they are taking advantage of all the commotion in Iraq to steal “junk.”
Russian gangsters can be very educated people.
Here is another defense of Cherney in the conservative Front Page Magazine.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20850
I have no opinion. This is all very complicated.
Here is an article about Cherney and the withdrawal of Woolsey and Deutch.
http://www.nysun.com/article/27684
Two former CIA directors have resigned from the board of the organization planning tomorrow to make public secret recordings of Saddam Hussein and his advisers.
In the last week both John Deutch and James Woolsey abruptly left their positions at Intelligence Summit, according to its president, John Loftus, who said their departure is part of a campaign by the directorate of national intelligence to punish him for releasing the recordings.
The reason both men gave for their resignations was new information they received regarding one of the summit’s biggest donors, Michael Cherney, an Israeli citizen who has been denied a visa to enter America because of his alleged ties to the Russian mafia.
One more thing. The Intelligence Summit has as a speaker Mark Zaid. He is the lawyer for the Able Danger guy Col Schaffer.
He speaks on Able Danger after lunch on Sunday.
http://www.intelligencesummit.org/schedule.php
Zaid defends so-called whistleblowers. He defended a translator at the FBI, too.
See the Able Danger blog, of course.
I am a bit uncomfortable with revealing secret Pentagon programs. How do I know that the legal process isn’t really an intelligence-gathering effort by our enemies?
Maybe all this stuff about government malfesance is really a way of forcing public hearings on something that should be kept quiet.
I am still skeptical about “outing” this Able Danger program in order to embarrass the government officials. Maybe the real agenda is to give the terrorists a peak into our secrets.
Congressman Cynthia McKinney had an Able Danger conference and used it to suggest that Bush basically let 9-11 happen so he could give war contracts to his cronies. Even the disgusting FAKE INDIAN Ward Churchill came to her conference.
Interestingly, one of the Able Danger guys–Smith–is a retired Indian policeman. He is the one that Shaffer claims data-mined Atta many times.
Indians are famous for their signals intelligence. Remember the Indian code talkers in WWII? Well, this Able Danger guy is a retired Indian policeman.