Basic Facts of Wellstone Crash Pilots: Richard Conry, age 55, had airline transport pilot certification, the top industry credential. Copilot Michael Guess, 30, was a certified commercial pilot.

Plane: Beechcraft King Air 100, twin turboprop. The King Air is a favorite of many politicians and is widely regarded as the "Cadillac" of twin-engine propeller driven airplanes.

Visibility at time of crash, about 2-2.5 miles (some pilots report that it may have been even greater than that)

Takeoff time: 9:37 am from Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Asked to climb to 13,000 feet at 9:48
Asked to descend at 10:01 — pilot reported some ice at 9,000-10,000 feet
10:10, plane descends through icing altitude without problem
10:18: cleared for approach to runway
10:19: at 3,500 feet, plane begins to drift from runway trajectory
10:21: disappears from sight at about 1,800 feet.
minutes later, plane crashes...
leaves crash area of 300 x 190 feet, an area scorched by an intensively hot post-crash fire

Info from Mike Ruppert's investigation of crash:

Wellstone's plane was found approximately two miles south of the eastern half of the runway, facing south. Subsequent television reports, accompanied by maps, placed the crash site at this location. The propellers were turning at the time of the crash; - The angle of impact was 30 degrees (extremely steep), indicating the plane was out of control; - The wing flaps, which should have been fully extended for landing were only extended to 15 degrees (a setting used for initial approach descent); - That the plane had been traveling at approximately 85 knots. One quote from the Pioneer Press is interesting. "Radar tapes indicate the plane had descended to about 400 feet and was traveling at only 85 knots near the end of its flight. It then turned south, dove at an unusually steep angle and crashed." Aside from the aircraft's sudden change in direction and the setting of the flaps, the airspeed is perhaps the most intriguing known element in the crash. A number of factors, if the data which had been released by the NTSB is to be believed, indicate that the Wellstone plane stalled just before crashing. A stall usually occurs when an aircraft's nose is raised too steeply for the throttle setting of the engine.

Red Herrings from Media and Investigators

Since Wellstone's death, the media, with the charge led by CNN, has done its best to thrown red herrings in the public's way.

Transcription of interchange between CNN's Wolf Blitzer and a reporter who had been on the scene of the crash:

Reporter: "There is no evidence that weather had anything to do with the crash"
Blizter: "But the plane was flying into some sort of ice storm, was it not?"
Reporter: "There is no evidence that the weather had anything to do with the crash."
CNN then immediately cut away from the on-scene reporter — permanently. A crawl along the bottom of the screen was observed to run just once or twice that stated: "Weather not a factor in crash." Yet CNN commentators continued to imply that the crash was weather-related

Another major red herring is the "ex-con" status of the pilot, Richard Conry.

Facts: The media is trying to imply that Conry's record somehow "explains" the whole thing. Drudge, in fact, in true troglodyte form, asserted the case is "solved". What a joke.

FACT:Richard Conry, age 55, had airline transport pilot certification, the top industry credential.
FACT: Conry was well-like and trusted by Wellstone, who often specifically requested him as a pilot.
FACT: Conry did NOT lie about his record to get the job at Executive Aviation. The application asked: Have you been convicted of a felony in the last five years? Conry's conviction for committing fraud as a contractor (getting paid for services not rendered, etc.) was more than five years before filling out the application.
FACT: Conry's ability to fly was in no way related to his past illegal activities. AFTER ALL ... IF PAST CONTRACTOR FRAUD WAS ENOUGH TO RENDER CONRY UNFIT AS A PILOT IN THE INDUSTRY'S EYES ... THEN WHY ISN'T BUSH FIRED IMMEDIATELY — AFTER ALL, HE COMMITTED FRAUD MORE THAN FIVE YEARS AGO.

Another media red herring is the huge deal being made about another pilot who worked for Executive Aviation, Bryan Maloney, having forged his commercial pilots license. What is ridiculous about this is that Maloney's case dates back three years! It has NOTHING to do with the Wellstone case. Worse, the media is using the case to try to vilify the FAA — perhaps an attempt to discredit in advance their findings. http:// www.kstp.com/ article/ view/ 57137/

The biggest red herring of all, of course, is the Vince Foster thing. The rightwingers have launched an extremely aggressive attacks on anyone even whispering that Wellstone may have been murdered. Freepers have launched major letter writing campaigns to this effect and most of the letters are extremely abusive. Their biggest "argument" is "Well, what about Vince Foster?" The Vince Foster case was not only closed by the police, but by an investigation financed by REGNERY PUBLISHING — one of the most rightwing publishing outfits on Earth. They paid $100,000 for a book project to writer Dan Moldea that they were convinced would prove the case was murder ... but it proved otherwise, and Regnery quietly buried the book. In any case, the Foster thing is a calculated red herring.

Past assassination attempt on Wellstone in Columbia

Paul Wellstone was the subject of two previous attacks — one health-endangering, the other an assassination attempt. Both occurred in Colombia. Wellstone was an aggressive critic of the Plan Colombia, which called for the massive spraying of areas suspected to be coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Wellstone went to Colombia to see what was going on firsthand and make a report.

Shortly after arriving in Colombia, police found two bombs planted in the road along Wellstone's intended route. While there, Wellstone was "accidentally" sprayed by gfyphosphate, an herbicide — at least he was told it was glyphosphate. However, another herbicide that has also been used in Colombia is agent orange ... known to cause multiple sclerosis. Wellstone was diagnosed with MS in 2002.

http:// www.americas.org/ news/ nir/ 20001210_herbicide_douses_u_s_senator.asp
http:// news.mpr.org/ features/ 200202/ 24_helmsm_wellstone/ index.shtml
http:// www.coastalpost.com/ 02/ 03/ 04.htm

CNN's version of bomb plot: No evidence of assassination plot
http:// www.cnn.com/ 2000/ WORLD/ americas/ 12/ 01/ colombia.wellstone.03/

AP version: Police Col. Jose Miguel Villar says he thinks bomb was intended to kill Wellstone group
http:// www.rose-hulman.edu/ ~delacova/ colombia/ roadside.htm

Now for a real kicker. The planes that spray the herbicide, including the plane that sprayed Wellstone are operated by Dyncorp. Dyncorp, which is being sued by the Ecuadorian government for reckless endangerment of civilians and a list of abuses, is a partner, in several ventures under the paper laundering name of Dynport with Porton Products. Porton products is heavily involved in anthrax research and was owned by the same man who is now the CEO of Bioport, Fuad El-Hibri. Bioport, the U.S.'s SOLE contractor for anthrax vaccine, is reported to be owned in part by the Carlyle Group, which, of course, leads us to George Bush's door. Also on the board of directors at Carlyle is William Crowe, and former UK prime minister John Major.

http:// educate-yourself.org/ vcd/ vcdanthraxvaclabyrinth16oct01.shtml

It should also be noted that it was a Dyncorp-operated plane that shot down the missionaries in that tragic accident over Peru. In any case, Paul Wellstone pissed off Dyncorp, which was making a killing in its government contract in Colombia. Thereby, Wellstone also pissed off those with a stake in Dyncorp.

Pattern of Lethal Small Plane Crashes Involving American Political Figures (and a few select others) Since 1950

After doing some digging, I discovered that the figures I have seen in various media sources in the past three weeks re: how many senators, congressfolks, etc have died in plane crashes, were all wrong. One source had the death toll as just two — then I found they meant SENATORS ONLY. Another had it as about a dozen ... but then they had it for just 25 years AND included only some political figures and also commercial crashes. So I finally found a complete listing entitled "famous people killed in aviation mishaps."

From the above list, I extracted, from 1950 through 2002, the names of all the American political figures, including governors who died in small plane crashes I also extracted a few non-American political figures whose crashes seemed a bit too expedient not to be suspicious. Also included were journalists who died in small plane crashes.

Jan 22 1952: crash cause unknown;
Robert Porter Patterson, 60, Secretary of War under President Roosevelt
was president of the council of foreign relations at time

Nov 1953: Kimber "Kim" Sigler, Former Governor of Michigan
crashed into radio tower

March 1957: Ramon Magsaysay, 50, president of the Philippines
was on campaign tour for reelection

Barthélémy Boganda, 49, president of the Central African Republic
Plane was shot down by persons unknown
Mar 1959

Dag Hammarskjöld, 56, U.N. Secretary General
Reports that Dag and all others were shot first — plane bombed, 1961
Worked in interests of undeveloped nations, pro-peace, was on peace mission to Congo
Death linked to CIA, which was heavily involved in political situation in Congo
http:// southmovement.alphalink.com.au/ southnews/ 980829-truth.html

Donald Nutter, 47, Governor of Montana
Jan 1962
had just signed major cut to budget of state government, which was changed by successor

Clement Miller, 46, California U.S. Rep.
Oct 1962
Democrat, involved in labor relations

John T. McNaughton, U.S. Navy Secretary designate
July 1967 — worked with Daniel Ellsberg and an inner circle that included McNamara, he was against heavy bombing — wanted to "flood Vietnamese into submission"

Walter Reuther, 63, UAW labor leader
May, 1970

George Collins, 47, Illinois U.S. Rep.
Dec 1972

1972: Hale Boggs.
One of the seven members of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Although the commission found that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone when he killed the president. Boggs had a dissenting view, with strong doubts that Oswald acted alone

Jerry Pettis, 59, California U.S. Rep.
Feb 1975

Jerry Litton, 1976:
had just won Dem. nomination for senate — after his death, the GOP won the seat

Francis Gary Powers, 48, newscaster
Oct 1977

1981:
Another Panamanian General, Omar Torrijos. He rebelled aggressively against the Reagan/Bush administration and threatened to destroy the Panama Canal if the U.S. invaded. Torrijos died shortly after this threat was made when the instruments in his plane failed to function upon takeoff. The CIA replaced him with the outrageous, criminal-minded Manuel Noreiga, who previously worked with George Bush Senior.

Lawrence McDonald, 48, Georgia U.S. Rep.
Sept 1983

1985: Samantha Smith:
The little girl who became a folk hero for her trip to Russia as a dove of peace. She had landed a part in a network TV series, had written a book, and was on her way to becoming a star of the peace movement and liberals in general. After her plane crashed, right after the debut of her series, not one person from the Reagen/Bush administration attended, though George Bush owns a home in Smith's native Maine. Reagan, who based much of his administration on the idea that Russia was an "evil empire" considered Smith a "propaganda tool."

QUOTE from short bio on Samantha Smith at http:// wwwsmi.lkwash.wednet.edu/ Samantha_Smith.htm: "Ironically, absolutely no one from the U.S. government spoke at the funeral or even attended. It was as if she were being dismissed even in death as a “propaganda tool.” Remembering Ronald Reagan and thinking of how he referred to the Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” I cannot help but think of how wise Samantha was. While Reagan acted as a small child having a temper tantrum, Samantha, acting as the mature adult, helped lead us to more peaceful relations."

Oct 1986
Samora Machel, Mozambique president

Arnold Raphel, 45, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
Mohammed Zia ul-Hag
64, President of Pakistan
bomb — Aug 1988

Aug 7 1989
George Thomas "Mickey" Leland, 45, Texas U.S. Rep.

August 1989:
Larkin Smith, Congressman from Mississippi:
Larkin was named to House task forces on defense, crime, and the savings and loan industry. Smith, a former sheriff, was known for his integrity as a law enforcer — could the savings and loan industry, and was member of House Judiciary. The House Judiciary Committee oversees the enforcement of SEC laws....
Smith was, at time of death, working with veterans of U.S. Army Special Forces looking into the deaths of five Green Beret colonels, all of whom had been connected to a covert CIA drug operation known as Watchtower

George Mickelson, 52, South Dakota Governor
April 1993

Dr. Alwyn Gentry, 48, botanist
Theodore Parker , 40, ornithologist
Aug 1993 — on Conservation survey

Cyprien Ntaryamira, president of Burundi;
Juvenal Habyarimana, president of Rwanda
April 1994 — shot down

April 1996
Ron Brown, 55, U.S. Secretary of Commerce — not quite a small plane crash.....

Tal Shmuel Eldar, 45, Israeli Brigadier General
Mar 1998

1999: JFK, Jr.
This was written off as pilot inexperience, but the plane, like Wellstones, was found to have been descending at an anomalously sharp angle. JFK had toyed with the idea of running for office, and at least returning more actively to politics. He would have been a major asset to the 2000 presidential campaign.

Jan 2000 — all in same crash
Cynthia Oti, radio financial talk-show host
Jean Gandesberry, columnist
Tom Stockley, columnist

Robert "Bob" Collins, 57, radio talk show host for WGN, Chicago
Feb 2000

Salvator Socrates, Philippine Governor
Santiago Madrid, Philippine Air Force general
July 2000

Oct 200
Charles B. Yates, 61, former state Senator from New Jersey

Gary McPherson, 37, Colorado state Rep
Oct 2000

Oct 2000
Mel Carnahan
days before MO senate election, where he ran against Ashcroft

Galen Rowell, 61, and Barbara Rowell, 54, Nature photographers
Aug 11 2002 on mission to proposed Conservation site in South America

Oct 25 2002
Paul Wellstone, days after standing up to Bush on Iraq war, days before likely win of Senate race

Henry Howard Taylor, 70, satellite TV broadcasting pioneer Nov 13 2002

Remote Control of Aircraft

Excerpt from UK Guardian article:

'"Aviation experts are surprisingly confident. They say devices that would allow air traffic controllers to override the controls of a hijacked plane are close to development. Boeing has made one such system and used it to steer military aircraft remotely. The technology is pretty much there and I don't believe there would be too many problems in fitting it,' said Frank Taylor, a safety expert at Cranfield School of Aeronautics."

Excerpts from statement by Joe Vialls, former member of the Society of Licensed Aeronautical Engineers & Technologist, London

In the mid-seventies America faced a new and escalating crisis, with US commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical purposes. Determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two American multinationals collaborated with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) on a project designed to facilitate the remote recovery of hijacked American aircraft. Brilliant both in concept and operation, “Home Run” [not its real code name] allowed specialist ground controllers to listen in to cockpit conversations on the target aircraft, then take absolute control of its computerized flight control system by remote means.

Remember here, this was not a system designed to “undermine” the authority of the flight crews, but was put in place as a “doomsday” device in the event the hijackers started to shoot passengers or crew members, possibly including the pilots. Using the perfectly reasonable assumption that hijackers only carry a limited number of bullets, and many aircraft nowadays carry in excess of 300 passengers, Home Run could be used to fly all of the survivors to a friendly airport for a safe auto landing. So the system started out in life for the very best of reasons, but finally fell prey to security leaks, and eventually to compromised computer codes. In light of recent high-profile CIA and FBI spying trials, these leaks and compromised codes should come as no great surprise to anyone.

Activating the primary Home Run channel proved to be easy. Most readers will have heard of a “transponder”, prominent in most news reports immediately following the attacks on New York and Washington. Technically a transponder is a combined radio transmitter and receiver which operates automatically, in this case relaying data between the four aircraft and air traffic control on the ground. The signals sent provide a unique “identity” for each aircraft, essential in crowded airspace to avoid mid-air collisions, and equally essential for Home Run controllers trying to lock onto the correct aircraft. Once it has located the correct aircraft, Home Run “piggy backs” a data transmission onto the transponder channel and takes direct control from the ground. This explains why none of the aircraft sent a special “I have been hijacked” transponder code, despite multiple activation points on all four aircraft. Because the transponder frequency had already been piggy backed by Home Run, transmission of the special hijack code was rendered impossible. This was the first hard proof that the target aircraft had been hijacked electronically from the ground, rather than by [FBI-inspired] motley crews of Arabs toting penknives.

In his interview with the German daily "Tagesspiegel" on January 13th, former German Secretary of Defence Andreas Von Buelow made the following statement: "There is also the theory of one British flight engineer: According to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the pilots' hands, from outside. The Americans had developed a method in the 1970s, whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the computer piloting [automatic pilot system]. This theory says, this technique was abused in this case..."

Not quite so much a theory as might first appear. When I released the above report about "Home Run" remote control in October 2001, I mentioned that one European flag carrier was aware of the technology, though at that precise point in time I thought it prudent not to name the actual airline:

"As long ago as the early nineties, a major European flag carrier acquired the information and was seriously alarmed that one of its own aircraft might be "rescued" by the Americans without its authority. Accordingly, this flag carrier completely stripped the American flight control computers out of its entire fleet, and replaced them with a home grown version. These aircraft are now effectively impregnable to penetration by Home Run, but that is more than can be said for the American aircraft fleet..."

The European flag carrier which completely stripped the American flight computers out of its aircraft was Lufthansa, the German national airline. Bearing in mind his former posts as Secretary of Defence and Minister of Science and Technology, Herr Von Buelow would have known all about this mammoth but secretive task.

How very clever (and discreet) of Von Buelow to sort of "drop the information" into the middle of an interview about the 9/11 attacks!