Update: John David R. Atchison, child predator

Originally posted Sept 18, 2007
John David R. Atchison, Assistant U.S. Attorney from Florida, accused of flying to Detroit to molest a 5-year-old girl committed suicide in his cell Oct 5, 2007 in federal prison.

He was arrested last month at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after weeks of Internet conversations between the prosecutor and a detective posing as the mother of a 5-year-old girl.

Atchison was carrying presents for the girl, including a doll and hoop earrings, and also had sexual materials, including petroleum jelly.

This guy was a deviant, and it is good to know that at least one of the reportedly thousands of these perverts can no longer destroy our children’s lives for their own pleasure.

Atchison, a married father of three, was an assistant U.S. attorney in northern Florida, based in Pensacola. Gulf Breeze, Fla., residents have described him as a respected figure who coached girls' softball and basketball in a park a few blocks from his home.

A statement released Friday by his lawyer, James Thomas, said Atchison had "done a lot of good in his life."

"Unfortunately, he is going to be judged by his most recent charges and what we have read in the media, and not by the goodness, hard work or by the love of his family," the statement read.

This lawyer is an example of what is wrong with lawyers, he has the audacity to say how it is 'unfortunate' that John David R. Atchison’s sick behavior will be remembered.

His perverted, deviant behavior overrides any “goodness, hard work or by the love of his family”. He was a predator, Mr. Thomas. You should re-think your allegiances before siding with such a monster.

Putting on a show of goodness and hard work will never make what he attempted to do less damaging and abhorrent. I am certain there are children out there that he has ruined through his filthy, monstrous desires.

I say good riddance to this slime ball.

Ongoing story: Blackwater cowboys

U.S. military reports from the scene of the Sept. 16 shooting incident involving the security firm Blackwater USA indicate that its guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force against Iraqi civilians, according to a senior U.S. military official.

An Interior Ministry official and five eyewitnesses described a second deadly shooting minutes after the incident in Nisoor Square. The very same Blackwater security guards, after driving about 150 yards away from the square, fired into a crush of cars, killing one person and injuring two others.

Eyewitnesses to the events of Sept. 16 said the Blackwater convoy, after leaving Nisoor Square, headed north and drove into a knot of cars trying to go down a side road to avoid the square.

"They came at a high speed," said Uday Khalid, 25, a policeman. "They just wanted to escape. They were shooting their way out. They were yelling and shouting."

One Iraqi driver slammed on his brakes and tried to turn around, as did other cars. But a Blackwater guard "immediately opened fire on them," said Amar Kurdi, 30, a policeman who tried to manage the traffic to allow the convoy to pass through.

Kurdi said that he saw only the guards from the rearmost Blackwater vehicle shooting. But the Iraqi Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is close to the Iraqi government's investigation of the incident, said guards fired from all four vehicles.

The Blackwater guards fired warning shots whenever one of the police officers tried to help the injured, the officers said. "We tried to help the people who were shot, but they wouldn't let us," said Mahdi Daoud, 29, another policeman guarding a civil defense compound.

Moments later, the road cleared and the convoy sped away.

There is no place for cowboys like this in the U.S. military or any associated agency and should have their weapons taken away. They are high on ‘legalized murder’ and view all Iraqis as targets to be ‘taken out’ with extreme prejudice. What they have done amounts to war crimes and need to be prosecuted. Blackwater USA should be taken to account for hiring obviously renegade murderers who think they are above any law. These guys give mercenaries a bad name.

Initial reports by U.S. military officials say the civilians that were fired upon in Nisoor Square did not have any weapons on them. And none of the Iraqi Police or any of the local security forces fired back at them.

The Blackwater guards appeared to have fired grenade launchers in addition to machine guns.

Many U.S. military officials are critical of Blackwater because its guards have a reputation for reckless behavior that officials say reflects poorly on American troops in Iraq. Iraqi citizens often do not distinguish between U.S. soldiers in Humvees and Blackwater guards in armored vehicles.

Erik Prince's version of the incident is complete fantasy compared to eyewitnesses. During the kneejerk, impotent hearing conducted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee we got to hear Prince’s version:

The testimony said that after a Blackwater team delivered a U.S. government official to a Baghdad destination, a "very large" car bomb exploded "in close proximity to their location." After the team "secured its principal and requested support for its evacuation," a second Blackwater team proceeded to an intersection "approximately one mile away from the explosion site to secure a route of egress" for the first team.

When the second team arrived at Nisoor Square, it said, "they came under small-arms fire and notified the first team to proceed along a different route. The vehicle team still in the intersection continued to receive fire, and some team members returned fire at threatening targets. Among the threats identified were men with AK-47s firing on the convoy, as well as approaching vehicles that appeared to be suicide car bombers."

The team attempted to leave, but "one of their vehicles was disabled by enemy fire" and eventually had to be towed. "Some of those firing on this Blackwater team appeared to be wearing Iraqi National Police uniforms, or portions of such uniforms. As the withdrawal occurred, the Blackwater vehicles remained under fire from such personnel."

According to Prince's prepared testimony, which cautioned that his "current understanding" remained incomplete, only five members of the 20-member team ever discharged their weapons "in response to the threat." Blackwater helicopters "did assist in directing the teams to safety, but contrary to some reports, no one in the helicopters discharged any weapons."

Prince said that "based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone." He said that there was a "rush to judgment based on inaccurate information, and many public reports have wrongly pronounced Blackwater's guilt for the death of varying numbers of civilians."

Blackwater and other security firms providing personal security under contract to the State Department have been implicated in a number of previous Iraqi civilian deaths, injuries and property damage incidents in recent years, but no one has ever been prosecuted in the incidents.

We are doing our military personnel a disservice by hiring these arrogant, street fighting, guerillas. They are nothing more than hired thugs who are more than happy to be paid for killing anything that moves.

Our politicians have put U.S. foreign policy in jeopardy once again by going for the easy, quick answer to lack of military might. They have hired a bunch of terrorists complete with a goon squad mentality and once again their band-aid solution is biting us all on the ass.

The practice of hiring private security forces to ‘supplement’ U.S. military is the beginning of a very dangerous trend. The U.S. will soon have its very own private standing army. One of the tenets of a Fascist state.

The U.S. government is not only providing lucrative contract to Blackwater USA but it is loading up Blackwater’s administrative positions with CIA officials. Cofer Black, a former State Department co-ordinator for counter-terrorism and former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism centre, as vice-chairman. Robert Richer, a former CIA divisional head, joined Blackwater as vice-president of intelligence in 2005.

The real Terrorists work in the US government with the flagged wrapped around themselves as they trample on the Constitution and profit from war. (Taken from Blackwater and Beyond in Congress by esquire07)

Get them out of Iraq , now!

Making police work fun

Not only are police allowed to harass us, to beat us and to kill us without fear of penalty, they are now making a contest of arresting us. No possible room for abuse here, is there? What could possibly go wrong?

Lakewood-based, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, Lt. James Tatreau posted an e-mail August 15 outlining the contest as a motivational tool and stating it was only for “bragging rights”. The competition, labeled "Operation Any Booking", was designed to arrest as many people as possible within a specific 24-hour period.

So, they want to traumatize citizens for their own enjoyment? Any questionable, borderline behavior that otherwise would be just over-looked as harmless is now reason for the cop to haul you in just for the sake of winning a contest.

I don’t know about you but if I was arrested during that 24-hour period and learned of this “contest” I would have a clear case to have the charges thrown out of court.

Soldiers mysterious death is being investigated

Here’s a story I plan on following:

Massachusetts National Guard Spc. Ciara Durkin, 30, was found with a single gunshot wound to her head behind a building at Bagram Airbase on Sept. 27.

“The last time she was home she said she had seen things that she didn’t like and she had raised concerns that had annoyed some people,” said Durkin’s sister Fiona Canavan, 44, of Quincy.

“She said, and I thought she was joking, that if anything happened to her we had to investigate.”

Here is the story so far.

Another Kim Jong Il ploy

One of modern history’s longest running ‘wars’ is nearing an end, or is it?

North and South Korea are agreeing to meet for the purpose of bringing a long awaited but dubious peace to their corner of the world.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun signed an eight-point peace agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Thursday at a summit in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The two leaders have pledged to work toward forging a permanent peace treaty between their nations, which ended the 1950-1953 war with a cease-fire.

President Roh sounded hopeful about the two countries working out any remaining conflicting issues, after nuclear disarmament has been verified.

North Korea is currently involved in agreements with the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea that will lead to disabling all of its nuclear facilities.

After several years of fruitless talks, Kim finally agreed, this past February, to begin shutting down the nuclear facility at Yongbyon but only after being assured of receiving a variety of economic and diplomatic benefits. Even after receiving those assurances he still held the facility as a bargaining chip to secure the release of more than $20 million that had been held in a Macau bank account. That money was ordered frozen from Kim by the U.S. because it was believed that the money was tied to narcotics, counterfeiting and arms sales.

Only after verifying that every penny was returned to him did Kim abide by the agreement to shutter the Yongbyon facility, several months later.

Kim was allowed to get away with these criminal acts for the greater good of having that nuclear reactor dismantled.

Personally, I would rather see the reactor torn down than to have to try to put Kim Jong Il on trial for those crimes, a course of action that would never happen. I don’t believe for a minute that he won’t continue to be involved in his past criminal activities. He probably still is today.

The only thing remaining that Kim really wants has not been given him. The U.S. placed North Korea on the terrorist sponsorship list and Kim wants to get removed from that designation. The reason he wants to be removed from the list is that North Korea is denied access to economic benefits like low-interest World Bank loans.

North Korea states that it was assured they were to be removed from the list as part of the agreements in dismantling the nuclear facility. The U.S. denies North Korea's contention. Now that this point is in dispute, Kim wants to again use the facility as a bargaining chip.

This is clearly an individual that has not changed as much as he wants the world to believe. All of his posturing to appear to be in search of peace is nothing more than an attempt to get his country off of that list for economic benefits.

He still has not actually begun dismantling that nuclear facility. He still has the ability to use nuclear weapons and since he has already test fired one the world knows that he can do so again whenever he wants. All of that ‘muscle-flexing’ was to put himself into a better bargaining position to get off of that list.

In going through the motions in the six-nation talks he has already received some of the economic aid promised under the original agreement, mainly from South Korea and China. He is playing the game very well and is getting more than he is giving. China has already considered the deal done and has moved on to other matters, such as preparing for the Olympic games.

The U.S. is in no position to continue bargaining with North Korea because it would interrupt the long anticipated peace process that Kim so skillfully keeps just out of reach of the world community.

My guess is that the U.S. will cave-in to his masterfully planned out deception and give Kim Jong Il the one thing he wants most. Will he give the world what we want most, to actually dismantle that facility and end his nuclear threat against us? The only thing we can now do is trust him.