Woo vs. Harmon - Witness John Bolton

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

JOHN BOLTON

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948), is an American neoconservative political figure who has been employed in several Republican presidential administrations. He worked as the interim Permanent US Representative to the UN from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment, and resigned in December 2006 when his recess appointment would have ended.

Bolton is currently of counsel to the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, in their Washington D.C. office. He is also involved with a broad assortment of conservative think tanks and policy institutes, including the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy (CNP).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton

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January 3, 2009

US blocks UN Security Council
action on Gaza

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS – The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week's council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement at this time "would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council."

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president, announced that there was no agreement among members on a statement. But he said there were "strong convergences" among the 15 members to express serious concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for "an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire."

Arab nations demanded that the council adopt a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire following Israel's launch of a ground offensive in Gaza earlier Saturday, a view echoed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Libya's U.N. Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi, the only Arab member of the council, said the United States objected to "any outcome" during the closed council discussions on the proposed statement.

He said efforts were made to compromise and agree on a weaker press statement but there was no consensus.

Yahoo News (AP)

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December 25, 2008

J. Ezra Merkin Ordered Not
To Destroy Records

by Darren

J. Ezra Merkin has been ordered to not destroy any financial records related to the dealings of Bernard J. Madoff. Merkin is the chairman of GMAC who runs several hedge funds which invested with Madoff. The dealings came to light when one of Merkin’s clients, New York University, learned that Merkin had lost $24 million of their capital.

The suit claims that Merkin and his hedge fund, Ariel Fund Ltd. and its’ management group Gabriel Capital Corporation, failed on their responsibility of cash management by turning the money over to Madoff for investment. The Ariel Fund Ltd has already announced plans to liquidate their holdings in light of the recent scandal. The suit also mentions Fortis, who partnered with Merkin in the creation of Ariel Fund Ltd. All told, NYU had invested a staggering $94 million into the fund.

As the losses come in from the Madoff scam, the elite of New York City Jewish philanthropy are among the victims, as well as helping to perpetrate the fraud. Merkin is the grandson of Hermann Merkin who was known as a titan of Jewish philanthropy. He donated gave millions to help build Yeshiva University, and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.

Human loss mounts in Madoff Ponzi Scheme

The human expense of the Madoff scheme is mounting. Charitable foundations and lives have been destroyed. Merkin clearly used his influential position and the capital of Yeshiva University to invest $1.8 billion into Bernard Madoff’s firm.

That was little consolation, however, to Yeshiva University, said to have lost $110 million of its endowment; or to Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, the Ramaz School of Manhattan and SAR Academy in Riverdale, said to have lost substantial sums; or to several family foundations belonging to Merkin’s fellow trustees at Yeshiva University, including Robert M. Beren and Ludwig Bravmann.

Another Ascot casualty was a charitable trust founded by real-estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the chairman of real-estate firm Boston Properties and owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report. That lost $30 million.

NYU said Merkin blindly turned the money over to Madoff.

“Without making disclosures in the quarterly reports to investors, and in the face of an extraordinary number of ‘red flags,’ Merkin, for years, simply turned over a substantial portion of Ariel’s funds to Madoff,” said NYU in their complaint.

Merkin has so far denied wrongdoing, laying the blame squarely on Madoff.

“Mr. Merkin remains committed to obtaining for shareholders the best results possible in the wake of the terrible fraud committed by Bernard Madoff,” Andrew Levander, attorney for J. Ezra Merkin said.

Madoff has caused huge damage to the work of Jewish philanthropic organizations

It’s safe to say the the amount of damage to Jewish philanthropic organizations is significant....

Superior Investor

See also:

http://www.kycbs.net/Cerberus.htm

http://www.kycbs.net/GM.htm

http://www.kycbs.net/No-Bailout-for-Billionaires.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_yA8J-oGQk

http://www.kycbs.net/Jews-Control-America.mht

http://www.voy.com/129276/1273.html

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September 20, 2005

Plamegate: The John Bolton Connection

Arianna Huffington

I'm now hearing that the investigation may be inching closer to never-confirmed UN Ambassador John Bolton.

According to two sources, Bolton's former chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, was at least one of the sources of the classified information about Valerie Plame that flowed through the Bush administration and eventually made its way into Bob Novak's now infamous column.

After delving into Fleitz, I can safely report that he is, at a minimum, a very interesting character. He is a career CIA agent who Bolton handpicked to join him at Foggy Bottom, having gotten to know him during the administration of the first President Bush. While working as Bolton's top aide, Fleitz also continued his work in the CIA's WINPAC division, the group responsible for some of the worst prewar intelligence on Iraq (they were, among other things, big fans of Curveball and had "high confidence" in the presence of WMD in Iraq).

"I perform liaison function for the [CIA] and Mr. Bolton," Fleitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 2005 [pdf]. What he would have said if he'd been given truth serum is: "I've kept my CIA portfolio, which made it easier to become an intel-gathering machine for Bolton, who in turn was Cheney's spear-carrier in the State Department -- working tirelessly to undermine Powell and Armitage while, at the same time, feeding the intel to Miller and the New York Times."

Over the years, Fleitz earned a reputation as Bolton's chief enforcer, a swashbuckler willing to go the extra mile to make the intel fit the desired policy -- even if it meant knocking a few heads. And his dual role (serving what he called his "two bosses") put him in the position to pick up -- and deliver to Bolton -- all kinds of information… including, perhaps, the spousal standing of a certain CIA analyst named Valerie. Even though Plame was in operations and Fleitz was in WINPAC, he obviously was in a position to know.

So when Joe Wilson started making a stink about faulty intel, you can bet that those whose raison d'etre had been spreading faulty intel would move mountains to discredit him. This is a key point because, in the end, Plamegate isn't about the outing of Valerie Plame or the sliming of Joe Wilson. It's about Iraq and the White House's attempt to slam the door on questions about the corrupted intelligence that was used to lead us into a disastrous war. Intel that Fleitz and Bolton played a key role in shaping.

So what does this all mean to the ongoing Plamegate investigation? Well, another source close to Bolton recently described his management style to me as "Very hands on. Nothing goes by him. His staff does what he wants. He's not the kind of guy to have his staffers freelancing." So, if Fleitz was a key source of the Plame info and Bolton is not the kind of guy to have his staffers freelancing… does this mean Bolton was being less than forthcoming when he told people around him that the first time he ever heard Valerie Plame's name was when he read it in the newspaper? Or was he merely sharing talking points with Tim Russert?

So could Ambassador Bolton actually be a target of Pat Fitzgerald's investigation? When considering this question, it's important to keep in mind that he's never been subpoenaed or questioned by the Plamegate grand jury -- and, as a lawyer who does work for the New York Times put it: "The target of a grand jury investigation would not ordinarily be subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury."

So here is what we know: We know that Fleitz was the connection to the CIA, and that Bolton was close to Scooter Libby (and the rest of the neocons, of course) and Judy Miller (for whom he was an important source, although the last time she quoted him by name was in 1999 when he was at the American Enterprise Institute). And here is what we don't know: we don't know the pathway through which Plame's identity got into Novak's column. Did Miller learn about Plame from her old chum Bolton? Did she pass that info on to Libby? Or had Bolton already told Libby? And Rove? Or was it all just passed around and around in a cozy game of neocon phone tag? It makes one wonder more than ever before what Bolton and Miller talked about when he visited her in jail.

Meanwhile the New York Times continues to churn out ever more desperate and illogical "free Judy" editorials. Monday's was a particularly shameful attempt to link the jailing of Miller (who could go free the second she agrees to stop covering for her administration pals -- or her own rear end) to that of Chinese journalist Zhao Yan (who isn't even sure why he's been in jail for the last year, or whether he'll ever be freed or tortured or executed). The Times' pallid disclaimer, "We are not suggesting that the American justice system can be compared to China's," is an additional disgrace, since the entire editorial is based on doing just that. C'mon, guys, if you are going to use specious reasoning, at least don't compound it by being disingenuous too.

Here's a suggestion: before you write another overwrought Judy editorial, how about writing one explaining what happened to the in-house Times investigation into Miller's connection to Plamegate (which sources tell me has been stopped). Or one reporting the fact that Judy is negotiating with Fitzgerald and may be facing criminal contempt charges.

These are stories that deserve some space, don't you think? At least as much as last week's surprisingly upbeat story on John Bolton.

Huffington Post

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John Bolton is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, and personal relationships with Alejandro Wolff, AIPAC, J. Ezra Merkin, Bernard Madoff, Cerberus, Kamehameha Schools, Judge David Ezra, Linda Lingle, Mark Bennett, Earl Anzai, Hugh Jones, Ralph Boyd, Jim Nicholson, James Nicholson, Jack Abramoff, Karl Rove, Henry Paulson, Tom DeLay, Richard Rainwater, James Ahloy, Aloha Petroleum, Harken Energy, Chevron-Texaco, Gale Norton, The Nature Conservancy, Faye Kurren, Judge Barry Kurren, Tesoro Petroleum, Quintana Petroleum, Helen Cullen, Michael McKenzie, Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham, Leonard Millman, Stewart Webb, Norman Brownstein, Larry Mizel, Dan Inouye, Daniel Akaka, Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao, John Peyton, Dubai Ports World, American International Group (AIG), John O’Neill, Scooter Libby, Bill Frist, Frederick Black, John Ashcroft, Donald Hodel, Carol Muranaka, Curtis Ching, Gayle Lau, Carole Lam, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo Robert Kihune, Harriet Miers, Henry Kissinger, David Farmer, and others to be named upon discovery.