Letters 1/12/06

Jan. 11, 2006

Spy vs. Spy
Anyone who tries to belittle the “outing” of Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent as “inconsequential” knows nothing of how counter intelligence works.
Valerie Plame was the wife of a U.S. ambassador, and exposing her as a CIA agent makes all spouses of US ambassadors suspect and subject to extra scrutiny by the opposition. That means all such spouses may be kept under surveillance, phones tapped, mail watched, and every person they come in contact with checked out. In Mrs. Wilson’s case, the cover address she used turned out to be a lawyers’ office. Making that arrangement required FBI security clearance.
Now that address can no longer be used. Those who work in that office may be watched by the opposition. Any agent who used that same address as cover has now been “blown.”
An effective counter intelligence operation will then follow through on every contact to see where they lead. The network is compromised, may be rolled up, and many people deported, arrested, imprisoned, or murdered.
The outing of Valerie Plame was obviously an attempt to get even with her husband for blowing the whistle on the faked “yellow cake uranium” letter Bush used as justification for the war in Iraq. What such an irresponsible action does is endanger uncounted other agents and hinder the U.S. war on terror.
If someone had “outed” my case officer when I was working inside the old Soviet Union I could have been shot. Anyone who deliberately and maliciously does what was done to Valerie Plane deserves no less than prison. That was apparently Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.

Harley L. Sachs • Houghton

(Harley Sachs is a frequent contributor to the Express who served as an intelligence agent during the Cold War. -- ed.)

Whodunnit?
I am responding to a recent article in your paper having to do with author William Rasmussen, who wrote a book on the “Black Dahlia“ murder case. In the article it was mentioned that he interviewed William Heirens who was accused of murdering a six-year-old girl. According to the article, it stated that, “he is still in prison for that murder.“ He is not in prison for the Degnan killing. According to “The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers“ by Michael Newton, “in 1965, Heirens was placed on institutional parole for the Degnan slaying, but he still owed time for the Ross and Brown murders.“ And according to the same book, he invaded the bedroom of six-year-old Suzanne Degnan, “abducting the child and leaving a written demand for $20,000 as a ruse to baffled detectives.“
A written demand! It was obviously in his own handwriting. And unless he wore gloves, his fingerprints were on the note? Just thought Northern Express readers would want to know this little tidbit of information!

Peggy Cassidy • Petoskey

(The fact remains that Heirens is still in prison and advocates for his freedom claim -- right or wrong -- that he was framed for all of the above murders, based on a forced confession. For full details, read William Rasmussen‘s book, “Corroborating Evidence: The Black Dahlia Murder.“ -- ed.)

Bad deal in Benzie
The legal community must salivate every time sheriff department employees in Benzie County are sued. During the last few years, Benzie‘s insurers have paid a string of lawyers nearly $1,000,000 to defend various Benzie officers. They‘ve also doled out substantial settlements and court judgements, totaling roughly $1,000,000 more, to prevailing plaintiffs and their attorneys.
Benzie County‘s yearly liability insurance premium has more than doubled from around $95,000 in 2001 to over $202,000 in 2005. Other lawsuits that are currently pending against the department have the potential to increase these estimates considerably.
If Benzie‘s elected officials had their way, the citizenry would never be privy to any information regarding the barrage of lawsuits filed against them lately. They go to great lengths to silence their critics and considered it essential to obscure all evidence of their incompetence and malfeasances. Maybe that‘s why they‘ve been habitually violating Michigan‘s Freedom of Information Act by consistently refusing to disclose multitudes of public documents. It also may be the reason some chose to systematically violate Michigan‘s Open Meetings Act by improperly discussing litigation issues in executive session.
On August 17, 2005, Benzie County Circuit Court Judge James M. Batzer issued an order finding that “Benzie County, did violate the provisions of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, on May 14, 2001, January 16, 2001, February 10, 2001, March 26, 2001, April 17, 2001, May 3, 2001, June 19, 2001, August 21, 2001, October 16, 2001 and November 1, 2001.“
Additionally, Judge Batzer “ordered that Defendant, Benzie County, shall not enter into closed session to discuss trial or settlement strategy regarding litigation pending against the County without (1) having its attorney present, (2) identifying the specific litigation upon which it is entering into closed session to discuss, and (3) placing upon the record a rational showing as to why public discussion would have a detrimental financial effect on the litigating or settlement position of the public body . . .“
The significance of this order is that it demonstrates the level of deception that Benzie County officials were engaged in while attempting conceal their decisions to settle a slew of lawsuits for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Credibility and honesty are scarce within Benzie‘s elite circles. Until that changes, it‘s highly doubtful that voters will trust them to handle any more of their money.

Eric L. VanDussen • Beulah