How Whitey Bulger Bought Boston

How Whitey Bulger Bought Boston
The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century, Howie Carr, Warner Books, 342 pages
by William Norman Grigg
June 23, 2011

Peggy Westcoat was a woman of small skills and modest ambitions. Just before Christmas in 1980, two men broke into the single-family home Peggy shared with a live-in boyfriend in southwest Dade County. The intruders threw a rope around the boyfriend's neck and hanged him near the front door. They then grabbed Peggy, shoved her against the kitchen sink, draped a noose around her neck, and began feeding the other end of the rope into a garbage disposal.

With the rope tight enough to terrify the victim without rendering her unconscious, the assailants turned off the grinder and began asking the terrified woman about her work as a cashier at the Miami "fronton" (or arena) of World Jai Alai, an exotic Iberian sport that had been controlled by Bostonians since the 1920s. A few months earlier, World Jai Alai had been sold to a new owner, and Boston's Winter Hill mob­led by James "Whitey" Bulger­wanted to know if the new owners had discovered the mob's skimming operation. Satisfied by Peggy's panicked answers, the invaders flipped the switch on the disposal.

"When the cops found the two bodies the next day," notes Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr in The Brothers Bulger, "they chalked it up as another Miami drug deal gone bad." In fact, it was just one of scores of murders committed by a Boston crime combine that wedded the Irish mob to the FBI. That marriage eventually broke up in 1996, when Bulger­tipped off by his FBI handler, John Connolly­fled the United States one step ahead of several murder indictments. He is presently number two on the FBI's Most Wanted list, below another one-time asset of the federal government named Osama bin Laden.

Connolly, convicted of various racketeering charges, is in prison until at least 2010. He also faces first-degree murder charges in Florida for allegedly providing information that led to the murder of Peggy Westcoat's one-time boss, World Jai Alai president John Callahan.

At the time of Peggy Westcoat's murder, the head of security for World Jai Alai was retired FBI Special Agent H. Paul Rico. Rico had taken note of Whitey Bulger in the early 1950s, when the future head of the Irish mob was a small-caliber hoodlum working as a homosexual prostitute. Rico, writes Carr, "could justify his sojourns to the Bay Village gay clubs as reaching out to new 'sources.'"

From the very beginning of his career as a South Boston thug, Bulger was an informant. Gangsters planning to hijack a truck "might mention something about a future score to Whitey, just in passing, and sure enough, when they showed up to grab the truck, the FBI or the local cops would be there waiting," Carr recounts. "H. Paul Rico's personnel file soon included commendations from the director, J. Edgar Hoover. At the same time, no one suspected Whitey­it was inconceivable that one of Southie's own would become a rat."

Sent to prison in Atlanta for bank robbery in 1956, Whitey volunteered to serve as a test subject in LSD experiments in exchange for time off his 20-year sentence. "We were recruited by deception," Bulger later complained, recalling that he was supposedly helping find "a cure for schizophrenia." Dr. Jules Pfeiffer, who supervised the experiments, was working off a grant provided by the CIA, which probably wasn't interested in humanitarian applications of the drug.

Whitey returned to Southie in 1965, just in time to benefit from three critical developments. First, the FBI­in keeping with Robert Kennedy's priorities­had decided to tear into La Cosa Nostra (better known as the Mafia). Special Agent Rico thus began to cultivate informants and allies within the Winter Hill mob, the Mafia's deadly rival.

Second, just days before Whitey's return, one of Rico's informants, Jimmy "The Bear" Flemmi, murdered an undistinguished thug named Edward Deegan. In order to protect their informant, the Boston FBI office conducted a cover-up, sending four admittedly unsavory men to prison for Deegan's murder, which they didn't commit. By collaborating in that murder and cover-up, the Boston FBI office effectively "made its bones" as a full-fledged ally of the Irish mob.

But for Whitey Bulger the most propitious development was the emergence of his younger brother Billy as a rising political star in Bay State politics, which Carr describes as seamlessly integrated with the underworld.

In 1961, when the Kennedy family entered the White House and Billy Bulger made his debut as a state legislator, the informal rules of conduct on Beacon Hill "boiled down to three points: Nothing on the level; everything is a deal; no deal [is] too small," writes Carr. Massachusetts novelist Edwin O'Connor describes state politics as "a special kind of tainted, small-time fellowship" through which "even the sleaziest poolroom bookie managed, in some way, however obscure, to be in touch with the mayor's office or the governor's chair."

Billy Bulger would eventually become president of the state Senate, a post that allowed him to dispense patronage as he saw fit. Boston-born FBI agents like Paul Rico, who confronted mandatory retirement at 50, were eager to cultivate Billy Bulger's favor. By racking up arrests of Italian mobsters, the G-men could earn promotions and plaudits. By taking care of the Bulger family, they could supplement their federal paychecks and maybe arrange cushy post-retirement sinecures at Boston Edison or some other hack habitat.

Before leaving Boston for Miami in 1970, Rico recruited Steve Flemmi, a close associate of Whitey Bulger who was also tied in with the Italian mob, as a "top echelon informant." Five years later, Whitey­who had by then established himself as a secure but unremarkable racketeer­was also granted "top echelon" status. Flemmi would scrape up intelligence on the Italians, and Whitey would pass it along to the feds. As Flemmi later described it, this relationship produced a perverse alchemy: "Me and Whitey gave [the Feds] sh-t, and they gave us gold."

Why was Whitey included in this package deal, when Flemmi was the one with the mob contacts? As Carr points out, the Boston FBI office "didn't need Whitey nearly as much as they needed his brother Billy"­and the favors that Billy could dispense on those who took care of his interests, including Whitey.

By 1980, Whitey, Stevie, and the FBI "were partners," notes Carr. "And from the beginning, it was a one-sided deal. Each side would do 'favors' for the other, but the FBI's were a lot more valuable than the cash and gifts that Whitey and Stevie would pass on to their agents." Whitey and his handler, Special Agent Connolly, had grown up a few blocks apart from each other. They both wanted to take down Boston's Italian mob­Connolly because doing so was the key to promotion within the bureau and Bulger because he wanted to clear the field of any rivals.

Connolly, who has tried unsuccessfully to sell a screenplay lionizing himself as the man who took down the Boston branch of the Mafia, has described his entente with Bulger as a brilliant "business" strategy­protecting one mob chieftain to take down scores of others. But that business arrangement was nothing less than a license for Bulger and his cronies to murder, extort, and rape with impunity. They also seized control over the local narcotics trade even as Bulger was heralded in the Boston Globe as a kind-hearted Robin Hood who was "keeping drugs out of Southie."

In his own memoir, Brutal, one-time Bulger henchman Kevin Weeks observed of Whitey that while "nothing seemed to relax him or feel quite so good as a murder," he was "calculating" and disciplined in killing. Flemmi, on the other hand, "would kill someone, anywhere, anytime." Bulger and Flemmi were also incorrigible pederasts, the latter indulging a taste for underage girls, the former preying on children of both sexes.

Weeks also claims that Connolly and his corrupt fellow agents did more than merely look the other way. He asserts that Bulger "had six [agents] he could call on anytime and they would willingly hop in the car with him with the machine gun." Being on the take was quite profitable for Connolly. A former secretary testifies that she once saw no fewer than ten uncashed federal paychecks in Connolly's desk­a potent illustration of the contempt he felt for the substantial if unspectacular wages paid to an honest G-man.

While Connolly and his ilk were living large, honest Southies were living in terror. Carr and Weeks both describe the plight of Steve "Stippo" Rakes, a Southie who in 1983 scraped together enough money to buy a small piece of commercial property that he turned into a liquor store­the only one on Old Colony Avenue with convenient parking. As Rakes's store began to prosper, anonymous death threats came spilling from his telephone. He soon fell prey to a Bulger protection racket and was forced to sell his business on concessionary terms. Renamed the South Boston Liquor Mart, the pilfered business soon became a favored hang-out of Bulger's political allies.

During the 1987 Christmas season, relates Carr, "agents of the Boston FBI office bought the booze for the annual holiday party at the South Boston Liquor Mart. For the FBI the price was always right." At John Connolly's retirement party three years later, after the corrupted agent had heaped praise on Billy Bulger for getting him his job at the bureau and arranging his post-retirement gig at Boston Edison, he was handed a bottle of wine he was told came "courtesy of South Boston Liquors." "No finer liquor store in the commonwealth," replied Connolly with a knowing smirk.

What of Steve Rakes, who had that liquor store stolen from him by the FBI's "top echelon informant"? Summoned to testify before two grand juries, Rakes­who had a wife and two daughters to protect­refused to talk. He was eventually convicted of perjury and sentenced to probation. Facing destitution, Rakes sought out a hack job with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. A friendly politician arranged one for him­in exchange for a $3,000 bribe.

"Absent justice," wrote Augustine in The City of God, "what are kingdoms but vast robberies?" The unfathomably corrupt union of the criminal underworld and political "overworld" described by Carr offers a compelling illustration of what Augustine had in mind.


William Norman Grigg is the author of four books and Senior Editor of The New American magazine.

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/how-whitey-bulger-bought-boston/

Impeach Now or Forever Hold Up Peace

Impeach Now or Forever Hold Up Peace
by Philip C. Restino, Jr.
Central Florida Veterans For Peace

Twenty years ago after U.S. forces had driven the Iraqi military out of Kuwait and back into Iraq, President George H.W. Bush as Commander in Chief ordered the U.S. military to cease-fire on February 28, 1991. Years later in his 1998 memoir A World Transformed, Bush admitted that the reason he chose to order the cease-fire was because he understood that advancing further into Iraq, a country that had not attacked the U.S., and overthrowing its government could easily be seen as an illegal war of aggression and thus warrant a call from the American people for his removal from office by the constitutional remedy of impeachment. It was the fear of a call for impeachment by the American people that in effect stopped the President from continuing the war.

Since the Presidency of the Democrat Bill Clinton during the 1990's, which immediately followed the Presidency of the Republican George H.W. Bush, the American people have allowed a practice of the President acting as "unitary executive" unaccountable to the rule of law in ordering the U.S. military into unprovoked, illegal wars of aggression and occupations. During the Presidency of the Republican George W. Bush, attempts were made to even redefine the office of the Presidency as a "unitary executive" with literally dictatorial powers beyond the rule of law. Now, because the American people have still not spoken up, the current Presidency of the Democrat Barack Obama has allowed the President of the United States to order young Americans to war without even consulting the American people's representatives in Congress or having to concoct a lie about the US facing a "justifiable" threat to its national security.

President Obama's ordering of the March 19th, 2011 attack on Libya, without even consulting Congress, let alone getting a Declaration of War or other type of Congressional approval for the attack, has led to a good amount of discussion as to how the President could very well be impeached for having unilaterally ordered such an attack. People from both ends of the political spectrum, to include members of Congress, have been quite clear in publicly stating that the President's attack on Libya is not only an impeachable offense, as per Democrat Representative and 2008 Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich from Ohio, but it also makes him accountable for war crimes, as per Republican Representative and 2012 Presidential candidate Ron Paul from Texas. Notable legal experts and scholars from both the left and the right, to include former Democrat US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former Republican Deputy US Attorney General Bruce Fein, and Professor of Law Francis Boyle, have publicly offered their services to assist in carrying out impeachment proceedings against President Obama over his unconstitutional and otherwise illegal war on Libya to any member of Congress willing to step forward and introduce Articles of Impeachment.

Let us not forget that it was the former Constitutional Law Professor and US Senator Barack H. Obama who said himself during a December 20, 2007 interview with the Boston Globe that "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

The sovereign nation of Libya posed no such threat whatsoever to the United States, and Obama's ordering of more than 120 Cruise Missiles fired into Libya in just the first day of his own March 19th "Shock and Awe" is nothing less than another outright illegal US war of aggression similar to the illegal US war of aggression on Iraq launched 8 years to the day prior, minus the land invasion which is the next step in the process if the American people don't draw the line and call for a stop to it now.

With such a clear cut case ready to make for impeaching President Obama over his war on Libya, along with the legal experts and the political figures ready to proceed with a call for impeachment, then why has there not been a call from the leaders of the national antiwar organizations for impeaching Obama when making such a call now could actually prevent him from going ahead with a land invasion into Libya and even be enough of a threat of impeachment to force him to finally end the 10-year US wars and occupations by using his unique ability as Commander in Chief to order a cease-fire?

People involved in the national antiwar organizations have told me that the issue of racism is a major factor in their failure to call for impeachment of President Obama for what amounts to the same crimes cited in their former calls for impeachment and present calls for prosecution of President George W. Bush over his war on Iraq. If calling for the impeachment of the first Black American US President for prosecuting illegal wars of aggression is racist, then that first needs to be squared with all the brown-skinned people being killed under his command. Even more so, if calling for the impeachment of the first African-American US President for prosecuting an illegal war of aggression on Libya is racist, then that first needs to be squared with all the brown-skinned Africans being killed under his command before such a claim be taken seriously. A friend put it to me this way, if racism is applying different standards based on race, then not calling for impeachment because of race is in fact racism as well.

I spoke recently with the president of a major national antiwar organization about the silence from his organization regarding a call for impeachment of President Obama and he told me that the reason he and his organization are against applying the same standard of impeachment in their public call for accountability to President Obama, even after his recent attack on Libya, as they had so strongly applied to President George W. Bush in regards to his war on Iraq was the possibility of groups that were "racist" joining their call for the impeachment of Obama not because they agreed with his prosecuting the US war on Libya being impeachable but instead because they were racists and just wanted to remove Obama from office because he was a person of color. If that's really the thinking of the leaders of the national antiwar organizations in America, then I say who needs "controlled opposition"?

When asked, most Americans want the wars to end and our representatives in government, to include the President of the United States, to once again not be able to act outside the rule of law. Now the American people have a very clear and present opportunity to achieve just that with President Obama's unilaterally ordering the March 19th US military attack on Libya. There comes a point in time when we either "use it or lose it", and we are at that point in time now with the constitutional remedy of impeachment. Impeach now or forever hold up peace.

To access on line, and for download and printing and distribution, our current resolution and petition to Impeach President Obama for the illegal, unilateral invasion of Libya along with other war crimes please go here.

To access the 5-minute audio file of Phil Restino's on-air discussion with the weekly morning radio program The Power Hour with Joyce Riley concerning President Obama's ordering of a U.S. "Shock and Awe" type military attack Libya on Saturday, March 19, 2011 go here.

http://www.cflveteransforpeace.org/index.php

**JP** Field Sales officers Required

Esquare Services is hiring field sales officers for Qubee Internet Service provider in  Karachi,Lahore and Islamabad.
Basic Salary 14000 + Com
Candidate Should have Own Bike
Candidate should have Field Sales Experience

For Karachi:  Walkin Interviews every day from Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm at Esquare services Pvt ltd 104 Tariq center main tariq Road Near Dolmen Centre and Madina masjid

For Lahore and Islamabad: Send your CV at (sales@esquare.com.pk) Must mention sales officer in Subject.

Helpline : 021-111-376-377

Best Regards,
___________________________________

Shahid Ahmed Sheikh |
Manager BD |Corporate
e square services (private) limited
cell : 0334-3160989| uan : 111-376-377
URL: www.esquare.com.pk
http://pk.linkedin.com/pub/shahid-sheikh-2200/33/47/7ab
Facebook facebook.com/Esquareservices
BBM PIN:2358fd24
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RE: **JP** WE HV ENOUGH MIR JAAFER & MIR SAADIQ....

Thx for such great and informative vieo ...
Jazak Allah for that
 
and
@Tariq Hussain..
Meray BhI kia ye video kafi ha ya aur mazeed koi prove chahyay k ye media JEWS funded hay...
Ek kam sa kam akal wala insaan mien bhee samkjah hoti hay k apnay ghar ki larai ko bahar sab k samnay uchalna wala ghar ka dushman hota hay, aur sab jantay hien k GEW aur some media hamari choti choti baton ko tmam dunya k samna uchalta hay..
lihaza hosh k nakhun lein aur andi takleed chore ker kal sa kaam lein...
Allah hama sabka hami-o Nasir ho, aur ham sab ko Dost aur Dushman ki tameez kernay ki taufiq day Ameen..
 

---

From: joinpakistan@gmail.com
To: joinpakistan@googlegroups.com
Subject: Fw: **JP** WE HV ENOUGH MIR JAAFER & MIR SAADIQ....
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:57:29 -0700

Yes i have a prove must watch this video : https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150157190750207&comments

 

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Tariq Hussain

To: joinpakistan@googlegroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:55 AM

Subject: RE: **JP** WE HV ENOUGH MIR JAAFER & MIR SAADIQ....

Lakin janab ap k pass kia proof hai k media k pass jo fund hai wo USA ka hai.
Actually we all are on wrong way to blame one another.
Sharief ham apny ap ko is waja se kehtay hai k hum se kuch hota nahi. agar humy be mouka mill jay ham bhi nahi choray gay. so please.............
pnay griban mai deikhay phis bat kray.

Tariq Hussain

---

From: hiaamir@hotmail.com
To: joinpakistan@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: **JP** WE HV ENOUGH MIR JAAFER & MIR SAADIQ....
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:20:17 +0000

Lanat hay aisay logon per Hamid mir konsa mukhlis hay, wo bhe jews ka agent hay,
ye sara ka sara zyada tar media Amerian funded hay,

---

Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:03:25 -0700
From: awali3333@yahoo.com
Subject: **JP** WE HV ENOUGH MIR JAAFER & MIR SAADIQ....
To: joinpakistan@googlegroups.com

This is Hamid Mir's brother Amir Mir, who writes for The News, Outlook India, Times of India, Daily News & Analysis India among others. One of the many spin-doctors in yellow journalism. 1. On May 23 2011, Amir Mir tried to cover up reports of JSOC involvement in PNS Mehran attack. He wrote, it was 'A joint attack by Al Qaeda, TTP': http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=6183&Cat=13&dt=5%2F23%2F2011 2. Whereas the latest news deny this report and say they were not TTP operatives (not Pashtoons) but foreigners: http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Karachi/18-Jun-2011/PNS-attackers-were-foreigners-DNA-report See for yourself.

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If you are near Virginia on the 4th

Leadership Institute 4th of July Picnic

Must RSVP and be accepted

Join the Leadership Institute, other sponsoring conservative organizations, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for the best family party of the year! The National Conservative Fourth of July Soiree celebrates its 40th anniversary this summer, and is a great way to celebrate our nation's founding with family and friends.

This FREE afternoon event features food, a live patriotic band, a petting zoo and fun of the kids, field games, and MUCH more! The soiree is held at Bull Run Regional Park located conveniently just west of Washington D.C. in Centreville, Virginia.  The event runs from 12:00pm to 4:30pm on July 4. Admission is free for all thanks to the generosity of the sponsoring organizations.

This year's keynote speaker is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Attorney General Cuccinelli has led the fight to defend constitutional rights, stop tax increases, protect life and families, and keep Virginia a low-regulation and pro-business state.

Come enjoy the all-you-can-eat barbeque, snow cones, soft drinks, and fellowship with like-minded conservatives!  Bring your favorite side dish or dessert to share, and be sure to invite your family and friends.

Please RSVP online by Thursday, June 30 or call (703) 247-2000. Once you RSVP, a free parking pass will be emailed to you.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

GRAND PATRONS
60 Plus Association
Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Being American
Government is Not God - PAC
The Leadership Institute
Let Freedom Ring
Morgan, Meredith & Associates
National Right to Work
Robertson School of Government at Regent University
Youth for Western Civilization

PATRONS
Stephen Clouse and Associates

CO-SPONSORS
Citizens United
The Conservative Caucus
Eberle Associates
Fairfax Christian School
Gun Owners of America
The Heritage Foundation
National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action
Reagan Institute
Tea Party Review Magazine
Trimark Corporation
Young America's Foundation

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