Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Cafasso and the radsafe group at Vanderbilt University

Radsafe is, to my understanding of it, an international e-mail list devoted to the topic of radiation protection (health physics). This is a list to whom Cafasso has represented himself as a PHD of nuclear physics or some type of science. Cafasso, for the record, never got even a BS or a Masters degree, let alone a PHD in anything. The thing is; and this is the clincher; when he engratiates himself among very well-bred, well-read intellectuals, they are missing key ingredients that would vet him; which is how he's able to perpetrate the fraud so convincingly: a) they are book-smart, not street-smart and b) most of them have had little if any brushes with anything military. For those two reasons, in my opinion, this charade is allowed to continue unchecked; and when they begin to suspect something, he realizes the 'jig is up', and quickly withdraws and moves on.

Here is a fascinating exchange within the Radsafe group exemplifying his bravado. He forwarded a familiar email about the conditions in Iraq, how you could mimic them at home to prepare for deployment. It's apparent Cafasso isn't very well-versed in European politics enough to realize they're anti-American on the whole; particularly the scientists and teachers at the universities. However, he has a surprising number of people warmly responding, having been former military themselves.

Cafasso has never had a passport or been out of the country, perhaps another reason why his out-of-countrol jealousy of Jack Idema is so ingrained.

This is how it begins; with Gerry Blackwood aka Cafasso talking about 'how to prepare for a deployment to Iraq'.

How to Prepare for a Deployment to Iraq

* To: radsafe@list.Vanderbilt.Edu
* Subject: How to Prepare for a Deployment to Iraq
* From: "Gerry Blackwood"
* Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 01:01:10 -0800 (PST)
* Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 03:07:53 -0600
* Cc: P.Caram@verizon.net
* Reply-To: "Gerry Blackwood"
* Sender: owner-radsafe@list.Vanderbilt.Edu

How to Prepare for a Deployment to Iraq

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.

3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."

4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of
soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.

5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.

7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.

8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.

10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he
curses you.

12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in the other side of your bathtub.

13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a saltine cracker.

14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce
poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.

15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is
no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.

16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back together again.

17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.

18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes with them.

19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.

20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.

21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every time.

23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."

24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.

25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.

26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.

27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage son/daughter.

28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.

29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.

30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.

31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.

32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.

33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.

34. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in.

35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.

36. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a Material
Request Form and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son a different kind of gum.

38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back yard.

39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get cold/ hot.

40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself to repeat this process for another six months to simulate the next deployment
you've been ordered to support.
The response is quite extraordinary from some, but it would seem they're beginning to tire of his prolific chest-beating.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I posted this to the site not as spam or to get insulting e-mail in retuen. Many of us served in the military and in Iraq either now or back in the 90s. This email while funny to those who understand it was also very close to reality. BTW, I recived this from a Company Commander currently serving in Baghdad. he thought it was a hoot.

While we are all scientist in one form or another many of us served and understand what this really means. While we are all safe at home right now many of our sons and daughter are in harms way. Remember that.

Gerry Blackwood Ph.D
Lt.Col USA ret
Crikey! Just giving lip service to that by saying "many of our sons and daughters are in harm's way". Indeed. We haven't forgotten the treatment of Jack Idema, Brent Bennett and Ed Caraballo at the Stuporpatriots website. The hatred of Idema was so intense, it extended to rabid cheers for the other two Americans, including the journalist Peter Bergen called "blameless". How can one give lip service to those in harm's way and cheer for others being tortured and illegally imprisoned? Are we to presume it depends upon the psuedonym you invoke? The wanker never gives it a rest. This one sure gives him the what-for;
Mr Blackwood,

You seem to forget that the RADSAFE list is a list for radiation professionals. PLEASE EXPLAIN, WHY YOU SENT THIS S++T TO THIS LIST!!!!! Your message has nothing to do with radiation protection. Sending this to the list could only be excused by that you were intoxicated by either ethanol or some other drugs. I really do hope that Mike will tell you about how to behave on this list!!!!!

I really do hope that you got a lot of what you call "insulting e-mails", because this would indicate that a large number of RADSAFErs are insulted by your unexcusable message. That your message is not spam - you seem not to know, what "spam" is - can be easily recognized.

Furthermore you seem to forget that this list is open to all international participants. If you intend to do pro"American" propaganda, please do it on another list or create a new one. "We" Europeans are not interested in it. And during my last visit to the USA a few months ago I found, that without exceptions nobody of my friends supported the US-propaganda on Iraq.

Commenting on the content of the "message": If US-soldiers do not like the conditions in Iraq, they can always take to mutiny. They are well payed for being there. NOBODY HAS ASKED THEM TO GO THERE, EXCEPT THEIR PRESIDENT. They have waged "war" there without the consent of the United Nations, pretending that Iraq had a stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction - though everybody knew, that they had none and never any such weapons have been found. Direct your complaints to your president and his supporters. Nobody has asked US troops and their very few allies to kill tens of thousands of Iraqis - except their president.

If your contact person regards this as a "hoot" it is really ridiculous. Tell him that he is a shame to the United States.

This e-mail is not funny (how can you dare to say that!), but it is a slap into the face of any educated person. I hope that nobody at RADSAFE regards this as funny and even if it is close to reality I do not see any reason why it should be funny. This is the reality and if US troops do not like it they simply should stay out.

----------------------------------
Many of us served in the military and in Iraq either now or back in the 90s.

I have not served and I guess that most of the RADSAFE community has not served - take it to the appropriate Iraqi war list. I can hardly imagine that anybody will regard your message as funny. Enjoy your "Company Commanders" hoot, but do not bother us with his s++t.
---------------------------------------------
While we are all scientist in one form or another many of us served and understand what this really means. While we are all safe at home right now many of our
sons and daughter are in harms way. Remember that.
-------------------------
I refuse to accept you as a scientist "in one form or another" on the grounds of your inhuman opinion. If you served it is your problem and you should try to overcome it with psychological help. If others served it was as with you a part of their contract and there is nothing to complain about. Your complaint about "your" sons and daugthers I simply regard ridiculous - they subscribed to the army and if they are killed it is a part of their contract, the same way it is for fire fighters. Nevertheless international sources talk about 24 000 Iraqis killed during the US agression.

Be ashamed!!!!!

Franz (no titles, Mr. Lt.Col USA ret.!)



Gerry Blackwood Ph.D
Lt.Col USA ret




This is where we end, although there is more. You can google it up. Radsafe moved from the University of Illinois at Champaign to Vanderbilt, and then in 2005, onto Delft University in the Netherlands. Searchable archives at Vanderbilt will only be maintained for a short time, so get it while it's hot.

Columbia University again!


Not much needs to be said on this, here he is again on what appears to be the mac laptop.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Joe Cafasso's newsletter, Broken Arrow

These are messages that were exchanged between Joe and some other individuals regarding the Flight 800 stand he took with Donaldson, which I referred to earlier here. I am aghast at the amount of money we're talking about wasting on resources on this, and his lofty expectations, considering his lack of expertise in any area besides scam artist and leech.

Mr. Joseph Cafasso - ARAP/Broken Arrow ARAP@justicemail.com

Dear Mr. Cafasso:

Your response to my communication yesterday included the following:

"Thank you for your e mail. No I have not received any data from my FOIA Request to date. I do know of the cites as you noted and have been waiting especially from an official reply from the FBI.

Moreover, I also know that the US Government was in a very high state of alert during this time period with the White House brushing the dust off of Contingency Plans in the event of a terrorist strike.

I have been waiting for a reply from the FBI and realize that you are backed up. If there is anyway to assist me in retrieving any of the information that I requested, I would appreciate it".

Your FOIA request to officialdom is so extensive it would take an army of bureaucrats 10 years to comply with if they had nothing else to do. You guys have been more intent on chasing moonbeams and posturing than in coming to grips with the fundamental issue of WHAT the witnesses actually saw, WHERE it was when they saw it and WHEN that was in the TIMELINE of events.

The missile shootdown notion arose out of the inept "analysis" by the press and James Kallstrom of what the STREAK witnesses saw. With the exception of a few such as Fred Meyer, all they saw was the zoom of the streak and the boom of the massive fireball explosion. Kallstrom and the press jumped to the conclusion that zoom+boom=missile shootdown. It doesn’t. It never did.

Zoom+boom=missile shootdown=knee jerk reaction.

You contend in effect that the members of ARAP and the staff of Broken Arrow were fully knowledgable about the source reference URL’s included in my communication yesterday. Why then do the members of ARAP and the staff of Broken Arrow seem so oblivious to what’s so glaringly obvious in those URL’s?

Read Meyer’s presentation to the Granada Forum carefully. Look at Meyer’s press graphic carefully. Look at the NYANG annimation graphic, prepared after Meyer and his crewmates were debriefed, carefully. Read the personally prepared detailed report of Sven Faret & Ken Wendell carefully. Look at the CIA letter to Kallstrom about the satellite sighting of the massive fireball explosion about a mile above the surface carefully. Look at the radio report of McClaine, time stamped at 8:31:50, carefully. Look at the Airborne Witness Matrix in NTSB Exhibit 4A carefully.

Then ask yourself 2 questions.

1. Will the report of the massive fireball and request for clearance to leave the pattern radioed in by Meyer’s helicopter be timestamped at about the time of the initiating event that decapitated the 747 at 13,780 feet at approximately 8:31:11 or at about the same time McClaine radioed his report of the massive fireball explosion timestamped at 8:31:50?

2. How viable will the missile shootdown allegations of ARAP and the staff of Broken Arrow be if the radio report and request for clearance immediately after Meyer’s observations is timestamped at about 8:31:50?

http://twa800.com/Pages/Members.html lists the following members of ARAP:

Admiral Thomas Moorer USN/Ret
Admiral Moorer, is the former Chairman of the JointChief's of Staff
and the most Senior Retired Military Officer in the Group

Brig. General Ben Partin, USAF/Ret
General Partin was instrumental in developing continious rod-missile
systems.

CMDR. William S. Donaldson USN/Ret
Commander Donaldson is the former Officer-in-Charge of Carrier Battle
Groups Air Traffic Control Center, an air crash investigator and the author of the Interim Report to Congress on TWA Flight 800

Captain Al Mundo TWA/Ret
Captain Mundo is a retired TWA Pilot

Captain Howard Mann TWA/Ret
Captain Mann is a former TWA Pilot, an air crash investigator, participating in four air crash investigations during his career and the most senior retired commercial pilot in the group.

Major Fred Meyer NYANG/Ret
Major Meyer is a decorated Vietnam Pilot and an eyewitness to the downing of TWA Flight 800.

Rear Admiral Mark Hill, USN/Ret
Admiral Hill, is the former Commanding Officer of the USS Independence and an Air Crash Investigator.

Surely you are not contending that 2 retired Admirals and 1 retired General don’t collectively have enough influence to persuade either the FBI or the NTSB to release to the public the transcript of the ATC tape with the radio report and request for clearance from Meyer’s helicopter - NOW, only days short of three years after the disaster and over 2 years since the transcript of the ATC tape transcript that included McClaine’s radio report was released to the public.

Or does ARAP and the staff of Broken Arrow contend that it would be a waste of time for those gentlemen to even try because the fact that the FBI or NTSB have not released that particular ATC tape transcript to the public for almost 3 years now is evidence that there is something in that
particular ATC tape transcript that some members of officialdom are engaged in a continuing criminal conspiracy to cover up?

Meyer contended in his presentation to the Granada Forum that the massive fireball was immediately preceeded 3 to 4 seconds by 2 "ordnance" explosions. His press graphic dramatizes the close proximity of the "ordnance explosions" to the massive fireball explosion. The NYANG annimated graphic dramatizes the close proximity of those described events even more with the massive fireball explosion ENGULFING the reported preceding explosions.

Faret & Wendell adamantly contend that the massive fireball explosion was at 7500 feet. NTSB Exhibit 4A documents officialdom’s allegation that massive fireball altitude estimates of the other airborne witnesses were similar - or lower. The CIA and NTSB contend that the massive fireball explosion was "about a mile above the surface. The available ATC tape trancript documents that McClaine reported the massive fireball explosion 39 seconds AFTER the alleged "flak" shootdown of the 747 at 13,780 feet.

If the massive fireball explosion was at 7500 feet or less and 36-39 seconds [allowing up to 3 seconds reaction time for McClaine to get on the radio after he saw it] AFTER the alleged "flak" shootdown of the airliner at 13,780 feet, what size would the massive fireball explosion have had to be to ENGULF the "flak" explosions?

It’s only common sense that Meyer did not and could not have seen a missile shootdown of the airliner at 13,780 feet only 3 to 4 seconds before he saw the massive fireball explosion at 7500 feet or less.

I raised that issue with Meyer directly and excerpts from our email exchange were as follows - which included some information volunteered by Meyer that was further enlightening:

From: eb4 To: fmeyer8775@aol.com Date: 05/12/98 14:48:16 Subject: TWA
Flight 800

"In that presentation [to the Granada Forum], it appears that you very carefully and precisely described the sequence of events that you observe along with a similarly careful and precise estimate of the elapsed time between the events that you saw, including a total of 3 to 4 seconds between what appeared to you to be a "flak" explosion and the eruption of the Massive Fireball. The altitude at which the Initiating Event took place that decapitated TWA Flight 800 was 13,700 feet. Private pilot Sven Faret and his passenger, Ken Wendell, prepared a similarly detailed repor of what they saw of the disaster which can be reviewed in its entirety by clicking on http://www.webexpert.net/rosedale/twacasefile/aviator.html an it will be noted that they flew over to the smoke cloud left by the Massive Fireball and stated that the top of it was at 7700 feet and the middle at 7500 feet, from which it seems reasonable to conclude the Massive Fireball erupted at about 7500 feet or less. The obvious question How could you have seen a "flak" shootdown of the 747 at 13,700 feet only 3 to 4 seconds before you saw the Massive Fireball erupt at 7500 feet?"


From: FMeyer8775 Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:27:07 EDT
To: eb4@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: TWA Flight 800

"Whoever you are ; since you do not extend to me the courtesy of identifying yourself: The answer to your question: I don't know .

There are some obvious possibilities; 1. My estimate of time is off - perhaps because my heartrate was accellerated by adrenalin. UPON A RECAP WITH MY CREWMATES WE ALL ESTIMATED THE TIME IT TOOK THE FIREBALL TO FALL AT APPROX, 10 SECONDS [emphasis added]. And yet our perception was that i fell slowly. Our time estimates are probably erroneous. But - we tell wha we saw and estimated; let the experts sort it out".


Officialdom contends that the falltime of the massive fireball flames to the surface was 8 seconds. The foregoing documents that Meyer contends he and his crewmates ALL estimated the falltime was approximately 10 seconds.

It’s obvious Meyer’s observations of the streak tracked to the massive fireball explosion (via 2 small immediately preceeding explosions) that took place at 7500 feet or less 36-39 seconds AFTER the initial event started tearing the 747 apart at 13,780 feet.

It’s equally obvious from a review of the reports of the alleged missile shootdown witnesses at his website http://www.twa800.com/ that they also saw the streak track to the massive fireball explosion that took place at 7500 feet or less 36-39 seconds AFTER the initial event doomed the airliner at 13,780 feet.

Please provide Admiral Moorer, Admiral Hill and General Partin with a complete copy of this and my communication to you yesterday including the reference source URL’s and convey to them my request that they ask both the FBI and NTSB to immediately publicly release the ATC tape transcript of the radio transmissions from Meyer’s helicopter to the tower to determine for themselves when radio report and request for clearance to leave the pattern was timestamped.

I predict it will be at just about the same second that McClaine’s radio report of the massive fireball explosion was timestamped - 8:31:50. 36-39 seconds AFTER the initial event doomed TWA Flight 800 and all aboard at 13,780 feet.


Elmer Barr

P.S. A copy of my communication to you yesterday follows for your convenience in complying with my request:

Dear Mr. Carfasso:

My only real area of expertise applicable to the Flight 800 investigation is my experience dating back to 1947 interviewing thousands of witnesses and analyzing the reports of thousands more. http://judiciary.senate.gov/51099f5.pdf is a 3-28-97 letter from the CIA to James Kallstrom which states in part as follows:

"When it reached an altitude of about 1 mile - 42 seconds after the initial onboard explosion -the aircraft's left wing separated from the fuselage,releasing the unburned fuel in the left wing's fuel tanks. The fuel's subsequent ignition and burning produced a dramatic fireball visible to eyewitnesses more than40miles away, and detected by an infrare sensor aboard the US Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning satellite."

http://hometown.aol.com/bardonia/meyer.htm is the detailed presentation o witness Fred Meyer regarding his observations of the disaster and it includes reference to radio communications between his NYANG helicopter and that particular airfield. It’s my understanding that the FBI at the outset took possession of all the various ATC tapes having any possible relationship to the disaster including the airfield referred to - which tape reportedly documents and time stamped the discussions between Meyer’ helicopter and that tower both before and after the massive fireball explosion witnessed by the helicopter crew.

It appears that your 3-28-98 FOIA request included reference to the documents related to satellite sighting of the massive Fireball. Did your FOIA request include the various ATC tapes, including the one referred to pertaining to Meyer? Have you received any of the requested documentation todate?

A copy of my self explanatory 7-8-99 communication to The New York Observer follows the below excerpts of your FOIA letter.
http://www.homestead.com/ARAP/ARAP35.html

December 28, 1998
Mr. J. Kevin O'Brien
Chief FOIA & Privacy Section
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Room 6958 J. Edgar Hoover Blgd.
Washington D.C. 20535
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request

Dear: Chief of Section

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552. I request that a copy of the following or documents containing the following information be provided to me: [excerpts] [1 thru 31 all available at the above URL]

8. Any and all "FBI Form 302" taken during the period between July 17, 1996 to January 1, 1997from any eyewitness that has gone public and or the following listed eyewitness that are documented to have gone public with their statements; Vasilis Bakounis, Chris Bauer, Vicent Bilodeau, Joseph McBride, Douglas Bushton, Robert Casola, Timothy Caufield, Zach Clanahan, Anthony Curreri, Lou Desyron, Tom Dougherty, Donald Eick, Fred Meyer, Brandi Ellison, John Gang, Edwin Evens, Sven Faret, Victor Fehner, William Gallagher, Albert Gipe, Richard Goss, Dogulas Graham, Richard Grauer, Margaret Greig, John Keyser, George Gabriel, Joyce Keyser, Rosa Gray Khalilch, Susan Kinscherf, Heidi Krieger, Frank Lenahan, Naneen Levine, David McClaine, Darou J. Miron, Philip Weiss, Jim Naples, Carolyn Osborne, Bill Patrick, Roland Penney, Lisa Perry, Paul Runyan, Colonel Stratemeier, Phyllis Terney, Carlo Verardi, Ken Wendall, Dr. Qunicy Gilliam, Dean Steward, Susan Smith, Susanne McConnell, Bill Lisle, Linda Cabot, Paul J. Angelides, and or including any presently or formerly employed federal and or airline employee with regards to TWA Flight 800 and or its investigation. Public Source Citations: The Interim Report to Congress on the Crash of TWA Flight 800 and the actions of the FBI and the NTSB, The New York Post September 22, 1996, Suffolk NY Police Reports Case # 96- 435598, ABC World News Sunday July 21, 1996, Accuracy In the Media Conference October 18, 1997, Fox TV Program Hard Copy, The Free Press Enterprise July 29, 1997 & October 20, 1997, Riverside Press July, 29, 1997, New York Observer November 24, 1997, Dan's Paper May 15, 1997, New York News November 9, 1996, API TV October 24, 1998, Fox News Channel October 24, 1998, World Internet News Distributory Service December 15, 1997, The Winds December 11, 1996, Coast to Coast with Art Bell, The Village Voice March 3, 1997. The New York Post September 22, 1996. NTSB Factual Group Exhibit #4 Docket # SA516, The Arizona Republic August 20, 1996, Chicago Tribune January 2, 1997.

9. Any and all reports, transcripts, graphics, audio/visuals, imagery including multi-spectral sensing, and or photographs taken on July 17, 1996 between the hours of 1600 and 2300, by any and all US Government, Foreign Government, and or Private Industry Satellite(s) with regards to TWA Flight 800 and or its investigation. Public Source Citation: The Time of London July, 26, 1996. The NY Daily News October 24, 1997.

10. Specifically, identify the US Secret Satellite as stated by the FBI to the NY Daily News on October 24, 1997 and or all Infrared, photographs, imagery, computer simulations, multi spectral sensing and or reports and or analysis that was used to establish the position for excluding any and all missile signatures. Public Source Citation: The NY Daily News October 24, 1997.

11. Any and all reports, transcripts, graphics, audio/visuals, optical, Inferred (IR), and multi-spectral sensing imagery of the TWA Flight 800 mid-air explosion by any and all US Government and or private industry satellite(s) as depicted and reported by both the FBI and CIA and made public in the FBI/CIA Video version of the explosion and break up sequence, introduced by Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom and aired several times on nationwide television. Public Source Citation: FBI Press Conference November 18, 1997. ABC TV, NBC TV, CBS TV, CNN November 18, 1997. Please address all inquiries and replies to : Mr. Joseph Cafasso Th Broken Arrow 29 Swarthmore Drive, Carteret, New Jersey 07008, phone numbe 732-541-7733. [added: BAOL@justicemail.com ]

Thanking you in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Joseph A. Cafasso Jr.
Publisher,The Broken Arrow
wc/jac
cc: Senator Charles E. Grassley
Senator Robert Torricelli
Senator John Chaffee
Congressman Robert Menendez
Congressman Bud Schuster
---------------
reference source: http://twa800.com/News/nyo7-12.htm
To: The New York Observer

The article by Philip Weiss in your week of July 12, 1999 issue titled "Radar Shows ‘Getaway Boat’ Fleeing Flight 800 Crash" includes the following: "That boat is extremely suspect," said William S. Donaldson, a retired Navy commander who supports the missile theory of the plane's destruction.

The article goes on to say:

"Commander Donaldson was then working closely with Representative James Traficant Jr., Democrat of Ohio, who was looking into the investigation for the House Aviation Subcommittee, and at the commander's prompting, Mr. Traficant sent a list of questions to the F.B.I. One asked if the F.B.I. has ‘been able to positively identify every single aircraft and surface vessel that was in the proximity of T.W.A. Flight 800 at the time of the accident’.

It took more than three months, but in July 1998 an acting assistant director answered the Representative: No. Lewis Schiliro acknowledged the presence of the mystery boat, which he said was at least 25 to 30 feet long and reached speeds of 35 knots, close to 40 miles per hour. "Despite extensive efforts, the F.B.I. has been unable to identify this vessel," he said. The response is somewhat alarming given the F.B.I.'s assurances that it had turned over every stone-and given the fact that many eyewitnesses on Long Island said they had seen a flarelike object streak up from the horizon before the explosion in the air. Yet the speeding mystery boat goes unmentioned in the mainstream press".

Mr. Weiss also stated: "Commander Donaldson pointed out that the explosion was ‘a huge physical event’ that filled the night sky behind the boat with a curtain of burning fuel. ‘It would be like having the sun come up at midnight right behind you,’ he said".

It does not appear from the article that Donaldson provided Weiss with a timeline for the sequence of events.

Officialdom contends that the initial event that caused the decapitation of the 747 was at approximately 8:31:11 at approximately 13,780 feet and that there were no witnesses to it.

The Air Traffic Control tape documents that the massive fireball explosio was reported by airline pilot David McClaine at 8:31:50 - 39 seconds afte the initial event.

Private pilot Sven Faret and his passenger, Ken Wendell, contend that the massive fireball exploded below their flight altitude of 8500 feet and state that they flew over to the smoke cloud it left and the top was at 7700 feet and the middle at 7500 feet.

Officialdom contends that the massive fireball explosion was "about a mil above the surface".

The Airborne Witness matrix of NTSB Exhibit 4A reflects that the airborne witnesses who gave estimates of the altitude of the massive fireball explosion estimated that it was at about that same altitude or lower. New York Air National Guard helicopter pilot Fred Meyer has stated that he and his crewmates all estimated that the falltime to the surface was approximately 10 seconds.

As noted, Weiss quotes Donaldson as contending that "many eyewitnesses on Long Island said they had seen a flarelike object streak up from the horizon before the explosion in the air".

Donaldson amplified that contention further in his Internet website http://www.twa800.com/ as follows:

"We have access to 107 witnesses on 4 aircraft, 19 boats, and 31 locations ashore. They were located in a 360° circle around the missile engagement. Their live testimony alone will prove the aircraft was shot down".

The obvious question is whether the witnesses saw the streak track to where the 747 was flying at 13,780 feet at 8:31:11 or to where the massive fireball exploded at 7500 feet or less approximately 36-39 seconds later [the lower figure allows 3 seconds for the reaction time of airline pilot McClaine to get on the radio after seeing the explosion].

Could the flames from the massive fireball have fallen to the surface from 13,780 feet in only about 10 seconds?

Did any of the witnesses report seeing two such huge fiery explosions? The second approximately 36-39 seconds after the first?

Is it not appropriate for Weiss to ask Donaldson to answer those questions and to ask that he specify at what time and altitude the alleged missile shootdown of Flight 800 took place?

In fairness to Donaldson, please ask Mr. Weiss to provide him with a copy of this communication for his review to give him the opportunity for any rebuttal to anything therein he might consider inaccurate or misleading before your further consideration or publication of these comments.

Your preparation of a graphic to include with any publication thereafter would likely be helpful to your readers. Major Meyer's press graphic is available at http://www.press-enterprise.com/headlines/twa800/html/pilot_reports_graphic.html and the personally prepared detailed report of witnesses Faret and Wendel at http://www.multipull.com/twacasefile/aviator.html as well as a NYANG graphic at http://www.infoshop.com/106rescue/twa800-pres/sld004.html

Elmer Barr

- - -

I had the following email exchange with NYANG Major James Finkle on 9 March 1999:

"Major James Finkle NYANG: It's my understanding that Major Bauer radioed the tower to report the Massive Fireball and for clearance to depart the area. If so, what time was the call logged in? Are such calls recorded and, if so, is a transcript of it available?

Major Meyer indicates that a Cessna called the tower moments before that and at that same time he saw the streak followed by 2 "ordnance" explosions followed immediately by the eruption of the Massive Fireball.
Again, if the calls to that tower are logged and/or recorded, what was the time of the call to the tower by the Cessna?"


The response from Major Finkle was: "According to the folks in the tower, the FBI took the tapes. We had wanted them for our unit history but the FBI has them".

Radsafe group and Gerry Blackwood, Lt Col (Ret) US ARMY

Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear



Those of you at the national labs and gov agencies
might be interested in this article. Transdniester is
well known to those of us in the weapons arena. Gerry

washingtonpost.com
Dirty Bomb Warheads Disappear
Stocks of Soviet-Era Arms For Sale on Black Market

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 7, 2003; Page A01
------------------------------------------
I won't post the entire thing, and as I've already spoken about the hilarity of his belonging to this discussion group when he has no PHD and his name isn't Blackwood and he's not a retired Lt. Col. I just thought we'd capture some of this before it disappears entirely. Vanderbilt won't be hosting these messages forever, the Radsafe discussion group has moved. I have no idea as to whether these discussions are still going on, or if he's still masquerading as a PHD in nuclear weapons or whatever the bleeding story is. What a wank biscuit.

Joe Cafassaro aka Joe Cafasso worked for the Buchanan campaign


It's odd to look at Cafasso's running all over the political spectrum based on pure bravado. In fact, when he worked for the Buchanan Campaign they cut him a check for small amount - on FEC records as Joseph Cafassaro.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Joe Cafasso's Uncle Angelo Mosca

Perhaps my imagination is running away with me here, but indulge me for a moment and think about this. Cafasso's uncle, his mother's brother, pled guilty in Rhode Island as part of the infamous Plunder Dome Case in Providence.
· January 2000: Attorney Angelo Mosca Jr. pleads guilty to helping arrange a $15,000 bribe to two city officials to settle back taxes on behalf of a client.
This could be one reason he uses his mother's name on occasion. But in light of the scams that were going on down in Louisiana during the aftermath of Katrina, it doesn't take much intelligence to piece together the possibility that Joe or "Jay" Cafasso had a monetary motive to travel down there.

In this Fox News Piece "Two Fema Workers Charged With Taking Bribes" it certainly gives us a possible motive for his trip to Louisiana during this period. Of course, I could be throwing a wobbly myself, but it would seem to me as though this behavior and the idea that certain things are acceptable run in families.

Update: A few more articles referring to Angelo "Jerry" Mosca are here:

4.3.2001
Grand jury indicts Cianci, 5 others on 30 counts of racketeering, conspiracy
Freitas's dealings led to guilty pleas by Pannone, Ead, Annarino and two lawyers who had delivered bribes on behalf of other property owners for tax breaks, John A. Scungio and Angelo "Jerry" Mosca, who is also a long-time State House insider and lobbyist.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar.

4.3.2001
Summary of charges

That November, the lawyer, Angelo A. "Jerry" Mosca, gave Ead the money, the indictment says. Acting on the instructions of Corrente, Ead delivered the $10,000 to Corrente at his City Hall office.


another article about Joe Cafasso

It's entitled Background Checks – A Vital Part of the Hiring Process, dated 4/24/2006, by Tara Roberts. She talks about what a common thing it is to pad your resume, and how employers need to look into their perspective employees to foretell them of possible legal problems they might be opening themselves up for down the road.
Even checking whether a job applicant actually earned all those degrees can be tricky. Colleges and universities can verify whether an applicant earned a degree, and even provide when it was earned, but typically nothing more – no grades or grade point average, or other accolades.
Either people don't bother to check his phd's and phony claims, or they're victims of policies that won't even reveal the truth about alumni.
Military service is similar. With today’s computer capabilities, a military separation document, which outlines service dates, medals awarded and other pertinent information can be forged. Sorting out this type of background, Groves said, can be time consuming.

Sidebar to potential employees – if you do lie on a résumé, don’t do it in Washington. State legislators passed a bill in March 2006 that made it a class C felony to lie, orally or in writing, when trying to get a job, promotion, license or certification, or other employment benefit. Along with a felony conviction, if found guilty offenders could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The new law went into effect in July.
Military Expert: Joseph A. Cafasso – the former Fox News consultant and self-proclaimed lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces was unmasked as a fake in March of 2002 when network executives became suspicious of his war stories. Cafasso had worked at Fox for about four months as a military advisor during the U.S. action in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. A New York Times report later noted that at one time Cafasso had claimed, along with other apparently false exploits, that he participated in the failed attempt to free Iranian hostages in 1980. An investigation by a private security firm found that the full extent of Pfc. Cafasso's military service was limited to 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in the summer of 1976.
Well waddya know, he's infamous! aw, Joe, isn't that what you've been looking for all this time?

Saturday, October 28, 2006

connection refused



My apologies to those who I linked to in trackback parties and then was absolutely unable to update the posts here. This is the reason why: the connection was refused! If anyone else is having this problem, I must say this is frustrating from the viewpoint of my already tight restricted time schedule.

Joe Cafasso aliases etc.

Lovely Kathryn Cramer has UPDATED her post for a call for information on Joe Cafasso. She is claiming that she has NO CONNECTION with the NEW DISINGENUOUS SITES ON JOE CAFASSO. That would be this blog and the few that I've found and added to my sidebar; namely:

Your Worst Nightmare
Tracking Cafasso

Tracking Cafasso mentioned someone he took advantage of by attempting to have their cell phone bill rerouted through the US mail. And this is the tip of the iceberg, ladies and gentlemen.

So let's have a more complete picture about the notorious conman Joseph A. Cafasso, Jr. Kathryn, this might be worthy of an update on that post, also:

Known aliases

J Anthony Cafasso,
John J Cafasso
Joseph Cafassaro (check made out to him by Buchanan Campaign)
Gerard Pal Blackwood Ph.D
Gerard Blackwood
Gerry P Blackwood
Gerry Pal Blackwood
Dr. Gerry Blackwood
Dr. Gerry P Blackwood
Lt. Col Gerry Blackwood
Lt. Col Gerry P Blackwood
Lt. Col Joseph A Cafasso
Lt. Col Joesph Cafasso
Lt. Col Joe Cafasso
Robin Storm
Robert Stormer

Gerry Blackwood Ph.D
LTC US Army (ret)

Managing Director, North American LCC Group Ltd.
PO Box 1201
New York, New York 10024
cell: 732-453-4647 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-453-4647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-453-4647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-453-4647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-453-4647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-453-4647      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Wow, we're impressed! AKA

Jay Mosca
James Mosca
Jay Cafasso

Previous address from when he was living with mama:

29 Swarthmore Drive
Carteret, New Jersey

Another previous address:

The Senton Hotel – 14 blocks south of Bryant Park where NY Public Library is located; according to NY Library old records, full beard and full beard and moustache and he is alleged heavier than what Cramer shows are current pictures of him.

Email Addresses:

Gerry.Blackwood@gmail.com
gpblackwood@hotmail.com
JAnthony@gmail.com
JACafasso@aol.com
PoppingSmoke@aol.com
GPBlackwood@yahoo.com
Gerry.Blackwood@justice.com
subseamarine@gmail.com
ghostwriter512@yahoo.com
federalwarrants@gmail.com
offshorewarrants@gmail.com
jay.cafasso@gmail.com
knightscross.hls@gmail.com
jay.cafasso@gmail.com
knightscross.hls@gmail.com

Occupations: Bum!

This is in truth better than an way off off off Broadway play if he were not so violent and crazy!

By the way, Joe, this is public information, collected from various websites and inviduals who have emailed me about your whereabouts, antics and frauds. Thanks for the emails, and if there is any other information you have or would like to share, please send it to columbiauwhistleblower@hotmail.com

Looks as though I'm going to have to edit this site description to include all the aliases. Pity, that. More work needs to be done.

Tiping the tophat to:

The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Right On the Right
Cao's Blog
Basil

All of whom are hosting trackback parties. Cursing google, pyra and blogger for an undependable platform which doesn't save changes when it decides to wonk out.

Abrams and the boys

Friday, October 27, 2006

cyberstalking allegations

It's flabberghasting, isn't it? A flipping fruitcake posited the notion the writer of this blog is 'cyberstalking'. Cyberstalking whom?

This blog is devoted to Joe Cafasso, "The Colonel That Wasn't", after several of us have exchanged our own personal knowledge and stories behind the scenes. Surely this must have him in a conniption fit, considering how many there really are. This sorry ligger has a long history of con artistry and the brazen audacity to presume that it's not a story worthy of attention because we're not portraying him as a war hero! We're actually telling it like it really is. And that constitutes 'cyberstalking'? Spare me the horse hockey. Well, of course it's a story worth telling! It's worthy of as much attention as it could possibly get! If he lists himself as a member of the "Committee for Concerned Journalists" under two different names, wouldn't you think he'd revel in the attention? He was interviewed briefly in "Outfoxed", of COURSE he LOVES the attention! He appeared on a discussion panel courtesy of Moveon.org! He's spoken as Gerry P. Blackwood at Columbia University on the subject of their having the ROTC on campus! He said he saw a gay man die in combat by his side, that most soldiers are democrats. A very interesting position to take when way more than 50% of the soldiers in Iraq voted for President Bush the last time around, but he is playing for his audience. He's a master of manipulation and distortion. This is where the allegation of 'cyberstalking' comes in, because who would dare expose him? Who would dare reveal to the world what he has done with his life-which is elevate himself into the public square with complete delusions of grandeur and nothing else?

We're just interested in telling the truth about the fraud, rather than allowing the vast amount of rubbish he's deposited about himself in real life and all over the internet, to go unanswered. Now you tell me: Is that cyberstalking? Is that what the incentive was to go after Rutenberg? That would mean that if someone had the silly idea to write a book on Cafasso, let's say, for the sake of conversation, that Cafasso would call it 'defamatory' and "libel", even if the content is the complete truth, gleaned from months and months of painstaking research. Ahhh...save me the jobby and your own paranaoid bloody jitters for the Senton hotel. Are we just dealing with bloody joskins now?

Look at the Stuporpatriots blog which has been up for how long now?

And tell me that it doesn't deserve some type of response. Look at Joe's profile and tell me it's not worthy of a look and a laugh. Look at the story of Joe Cafasso morphing into Jay Mosca who on a 'barge in the North Sea' when he 'got the call' and tell me that's not worthy silly bits. Are we expected to allow Joe Cafasso to say and do ridiculous things and claim to be a special forces soldier, an insurance lobbyist, a Lt. Col (ret) and someone who rescued people from a burning plane during the Iran conflict and just sit back in blind adulation? And let reporters and producers of documentaries use him as though he's credible?

Face it; the Cafasso story is a trailer park version of Abagnale's story, Catch Me If You Can! And because he's not nearly as sophisticated, we can! This stuff is rich! It's book worthy and movie-worthy! And above all, this is a jailbird who should don a permanent striped outfit with a pick axe on a rockpile, and not only at all Hallow's Eve.

The true stalker is Cafasso himself, who is the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. He responds to people because he perceives he's the victim in an argument that has gone out of hand. Never one to admit defeat, he resorts to inconceivable devious methods to silence his foes. He is inevitably forced into hate & revenge relationships; as evidenced in his prolific panderings to idiots at Stuporpatriots, aptly named for the writer behind the blog. He's full of vengeful vendettas; the result of something people may have said or done which he perceives as offences. These vendettas oft begin as arguments where his blithering isn't sucked up. You see, even though he sidles up to elitists who teach at an Ivy League School, and students whose parents spend inordinate amounts of money to send them there-they're not smart enough to see he hasn't been to a dentist in over 10 years and looks as though he stepped off a trailer park.

Cafasso uses the internet to let out his frustrations online; and he possesses more frustrations than the average mortal. His life is full of ex's; an ex-wife, ex jobs, ex co-workers, ex fiances who pine for him even after he's ripped them off for considerable sums of money.

Cafasso is on both an ego and a power trip. He shows off his skills to everyone within earshot, or in the case of the internet, eyeshot. He's an opportunistic bugger who shows off this power just for kicks, and if you've been lucky enough to have been chosen as a 'mark', you should cower in fear and awe, and submit by acknowledging his omnipotence.

Joe Cafasso has threatened innumerable people online under numerous pseudonyms; but most of his victims don't realize instead of the Director of the NALCCG, he's a grown man with no means; e.g., a mere bum who portrays himself while sitting behind the computer screen as a big man.

Joe on the mac laptop

This is from the wee hours of the morning October 27. Immeidately the question arises: What is he doing at Columbia University or on their wireless network in the middle of the night? Should this be considered unusual, or is it the norm? Am I the only chap who tags these as the mark of a simpleton whose overinflated ego and sense of bravado leads him to think he has no chance in hell of getting caught? Or being held responsible for breaking laws and rules? Columbia University has an internet policy that would prohibit this, yes? We should be calling them and register complaints. Unless he's a student, which I highly doubt since he claims to have a PHD under the Blackwood moniker, what business is he conducting there?

New Cafasso blogs

Not readily seen on google, however. I don't see this blog in the listings for Joe Cafasso, and I've been carefully placing technorati tags in the posts. That is a disappointment, but I'm determined to get in touch with these individuals and have a party or something. Look at bloglines or technorati for the scoop, because google is sadly degenerating. Mentioned in the New York Times today, in fact.




Floyd and the boys are watching

This came as a surprise, because although I've been following how this convoluted story has been unfolding at Cao's blog, I never would have expected that she would have devoted a post to me and linked to me, being that the content has just begun here and I'm relatively new at this. The novelty and newness hasn't quite worn off yet, so I've been taking advantage of her trackback parties just to let people know this blog exists. I never would have imagined that Floyd Abrams and his gang of freespeech lawyers would have given this little blog the time of day. or considered it of interest. Does Abrams office back Cafasso's freedom of speech to harrass people, defame them, accuse them of using paypal and ebay for illicit reasons, etc.? On top of that, comes to light the story of his getting ahold of someone's cingular account and literally rerouting mail. Isn't this a federal offence? There are differences between British and American systems, and sometimes I'm at a loss as to what some of these things are, or precisely how they operate.

Floyd Abrams is their lead Council (I'm not entirely certain if that equates to "barrister"-I know the systems are comparable in some ways, but they're certainly not identical). Abrams is of New York's Cahill Gordon & Reindel, the legal outfit that claims a legion of lawyers.



Storming Fort Bragg-Military Fakes like Joe Cafasso and the people who bust them

This is a fascinating article from the Los Angeles Weekly by STEVEN MIKULAN, from October 28 of 2004. Why is Joe Cafasso so upset about being exposed? It makes him the celebrity he's always been seeking, doesn't it? It garners him the attention and awe he so seriously craves.

The day Charles Holland resigned last spring as president of the Writers Guild of America, forced out by his lying about serving in the Army’s elite Special Forces, marked an escalation of the brush war between military impostors and the “fakebusters” who bring them down. Fought over the Internet and through Freedom of Information Act requests, this war is a uniquely post-Vietnam phenomenon born of the information revolution, a newfound reverence for the armed forces and old-fashioned American gullibility. As impostors use bogus credentials to bilk and flimflam their way into jobs, business contracts and free medical care, informal networks of obsessive fakebusters track them with a zeal reminiscent of Nuremberg Trial investigators. But are the impostors worth the effort? And have the fakebusters, by recently applying their zeal in a highly partisan effort to discredit presidential candidate John Kerry, lost sight of their mission?

The liars have been at it for years. Actor Brian Dennehy’s oft-repeated claims of having been a wounded Marine in Vietnam were uncovered when, in 1998, B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley revealed in their book, Stolen Valor, that Dennehy had never set foot in Vietnam. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has been forced by angry former SEALs to stop claiming he’d been a member of their group in Vietnam. Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and Mount Holyoke professor Joseph Ellis was suspended when his imaginary war heroics were debunked. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patrick Couwenberg lost his job for making up his war résumé. Then there was Joseph A. Cafasso who, using a counterfeit Special Forces past, finagled work as a terrorism expert at FOX News and with Patrick Buchanan’s 2000 presidential campaign.
Our Joe seems to making the rounds in articles about military frauds and posers now, doesn't he? I gather there is at least one writer who is putting together enough information to put together a book on his escapades. Now wouldn't that have him throw a wobbly?
Categories of service claimed by military fakes include Vietnam War POWs and combat veterans, Purple Heart winners and members of Special Forces teams. According to various “shame” lists posted on fakebuster Web sites, the number of verified military impostors tips well into the thousands. The POW Network (www.pownetwork.org), begun by Chuck and Mary Schantag in 1989, is a mom-and-pop outfit that possibly operates the largest nongovernmental database of proven prisoners of war. (Chuck runs POWnet’s Web site, Mary does the research.) The Missouri couple became fakebusters by accident when they began hearing from people claiming to have POW neighbors who did not show up in the Schantag’s database. On the phone Mary Schantag sounds like an exasperated den mother when she describes the long-term effects of sifting through so many lies.
“Sadly,” Schantag says, “it makes us doubt everyone we come into contact with. It’s forced us to take a whole different look at humanity. If I’m shopping and see a car with POW plates in the parking lot, I’ll leave a calling card requesting the owner send me confirmation. If I don’t hear from them I’ll run the license number and call them.”
We should all begin to look at self-proclaimed 'heroes' with suspicion, in my humble opinion.
Schantag says she began tracking phonies in 1998 and that about 75 percent of POWnet’s time is now spent exposing them. Although service records cannot be released without members’ permission, the Freedom of Information Act permits third parties to receive a redacted summary of a personnel file (DD Form 214) to tell whether they are lying. Schantag says she receives about 20 inquiries a week and has exposed more than 1,500 people.

“We file Freedom of Information Act requests seven days a week,” she tells me. “People will fax me [inquiries] on Christmas Day — they’ve been sitting at the dinner table and have had enough of years of listening to their father’s war stories. Or someone will make a deathbed request for a military funeral, only to have the family find out the person was never in the military. I had a woman [living with an impostor] call who said, ‘I’m pregnant and need to know if my baby might be at risk from Agent Orange.”

Fakebusters will tell you they don’t go after the guy bragging in a bar, only those people who go public or use a fictitious military record for personal gain. About a half-dozen well-established Web sites expose phonies by posting information, including photographs, of identified fakes and descriptions of their claims. Some pictures were taken at formal galas or barbecues, and their subjects tend to be heavy-set, late-middle-aged men stuffed into beribboned dress uniforms or, sometimes, biker-type vests impressively splattered with unit patches. POWnet’s long columns of fakes describe the masqueraders in terse sentences:

“Claims 5th SF, Major, 4 DSC, 5 Purple Hearts, 101st Airborne. Wears tan TAM (not U.S. MILITARY ISSUE beret) with flash on it! Oak leaf (rank) is not worn properly.”

“Claims SEAL, Green Berets 1969, 10th Special Forces Group 1970, 5th Special Forces MACVSOG with 41st Rangers in Moc Hoa. Shot by sniper 6 days before end of 2nd year in Vietnam.”

Some impostors use their phony credentials to run scams ranging from embezzlement to lonely-hearts swindles. (Others have allegedly even used falsified records to get jobs within the Department of Veterans Affairs.) Convicted cocaine smuggler David Silbergeld “became a SEAL with a typewriter,” as one fakebuster told me, referring to Silbergeld’s fictional SEAL war record, which earned him full disability pay of more than $2,300 per month. Silbergeld used a prison-earned doctorate from a diploma mill to become a Pennsylvania community-college history professor and contributor to National Defense magazine, as well as to set up a business that defrauded the U.S. government through sales of night-vision equipment. At his sentencing he pleaded for leniency — by pointing to his bogus military record.

Not every impostor is a civilian or a crook. Some once served brief, undistinguished hitches in the service, some were even decorated; others seem happy to use imaginary backgrounds to become officers in veterans groups, to regale school assemblies with make-believe combat yarns or, bizarrely, to show up at military funerals in full-dress uniforms. (Falsely wearing military uniforms and medals are minor federal crimes, though rarely prosecuted.) Jerald Jellison, a psychology professor who teaches at the University of Southern California, is an expert in the field of “impression management,” which he defines as the study of “how we go about the management of other people’s impressions of us.”
Which Cafasso has completely mastered, by all appearances, in spite of what is actually true. The contrast between truth and fiction here is devastatingly real and could have some serious implications because Cafasso isn't satisified with merely bragging with other fraudulent gets in a pub; he is befriending people within the intelligence and national security community, and as the Rutenberg article and others demonstrate, the possible ramifications of this going unchecked are immense, serious and frightening.
“This phenomenon of deception takes place in other species besides Homo sapiens,” Jellison says. “There are animals that for their own protection look like other, dangerous animals. Two questions are important for the impostor: What’s the incentive? And what’s the likelihood of getting caught? It helps if [they] live in a highly mobile environment where people don’t know [them]. Another thing that helps is our belief that we’re good at detecting lies.”

Jellison says that impostors in any part of society tend to unintentionally back into fictitious identities through a kind of primal white lie that soon snowballs:

“They usually start small and go through some steps. The full-blown thing of putting on a uniform with medals is preceded by a lot of smaller steps that are often started in some very specific situation. Maybe it’s an argument about parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, and a person wants to win that argument. He’d find it very easy to say, ‘Well, I was in Vietnam.’ Or maybe it’s to impress a woman — ‘Yeah, I’ve seen duty, don’t want to talk about it.’”

The case of Micah Ian Wright, a TV animator and popular anti-war illustrator whose work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, fits Jellison’s profile. Last April, Wright had his new book yanked from the printer after admitting he’d lied about serving as an Army Ranger in the 1989 Panama invasion — during which, he claimed, he’d experienced an anti-war epiphany. When I contacted him, he, like other alleged fakes sought out for this article, declined to speak and instead sent an e-mail, stating, “I’m still trying to put this whole thing behind me, so I’m gonna pass.”

Wright’s online narrative, at least, confirms Jellison’s theory of steps. “Like most lies,” Wright admits on his Web site, “this one started off small and rapidly spiraled out of control. I never could have imagined that it would grow to eventually consume every facet of my life.”

“Once you go public with these claims, you’re often trapped,” says Jellison. “Other people will want to publicize you. Once the ball starts rolling you have to keep it moving. And you have to be convincing — you have to deceive yourself into believing yourself you were there.”

“I’ve met phonies my whole life,” says Steven Waterman. “I just didn’t have any way to check them.” Waterman, who speaks in a gruff, Maine accent, is part of an investigative team called VeriSEAL (www.VeriSEAL) and quick to point out that he is not a SEAL, but a former Navy deep-sea diver, intelligence and combat photographer who served in Vietnam. His autobiography, Just a Sailor, was published last year.

“My affiliation with VeriSEAL is busting persons claiming to be former SEALs,” he says. “Not the kind who’s trying to impress a girlfriend, but people who are using the rib cages of others who have gone before as ladders of success.”

One of Waterman’s former competitors is Steve Robinson, who is an ex-Navy SEAL. In 1972, he was taking a radio course at Coronado, California, when the Navy made a design change in the enlisted SEALs’ “Budweiser badge” (the eagle and trident emblem that somewhat resembles the beer company’s logo) from silver to gold. Robinson immediately faced a dilemma.

“I was newly married and very poor,” he tells me. “I made about $200 per month with jump and demolition pay.”

Unable to afford the $14 for a new badge, and with an inspection coming up, Robinson sold his silver Budweiser to a non-SEAL classmate, who told Robinson he planned to apply for SEAL training and merely needed the badge for inspiration.

“Three weeks later,” Robinson says, “he’s at a bar in cammies telling tall tales about being in Seal Team Three — which was not yet in existence. I confronted him before class one day.” Word about the deceit quickly spread. “His mattress was rolled up by the end of the day and he was gone.”

Today Robinson lives with his wife in Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, where he works as a blacksmith and knife maker. On the phone Robinson speaks in an earnest, though agitated voice, while in the background his parrot, Manu, whistles Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” or perfectly mimics a meowing cat. Until recently Robinson was an investigator for a fakebusting rival of VeriSEAL called AuthentiSEAL (www.authentiSEAL.org), then left to write a self-published book on frauds, No Guts, No Glory.

(AuthentiSEAL advertises itself as “The only service where all investigators are U.S. Navy SEALs.” For its part, VeriSEAL alleges that Robinson’s group stole many of VeriSEAL’s Hall of Shame names for AuthentiSEAL’s Wall of Shame.)

“Any SEAL will recognize another within 30 seconds of conversation,” Robinson says.

“There’s no secret handshake or code words. Talk will go something like, ‘Do you remember instructor so-and-so, were you in training class such-and-such? Names of other individuals and instructors will come up. You know they’re lying when they say their records are ‘classified’ and it would violate the law to talk about them, or when an hour later, after three beers, they start quoting the plot line of a Discovery Channel program on SEALs or the movie Navy SEALs.”

“The phony SEALs are easy to expose because SEALs are a small community,” agrees Waterman. “A lot of them never were in the military, some were Army that got shitcanned in boot camp. One woman claimed she was a SEAL even though there’s never been a female SEAL.”

Both Robinson and Waterman see status as the main factor motivating fakes who pose as members of the Special Forces.

“In the male culture of our time,” Robinson says, “the guy perceived as the most dangerous is the one everyone looks up to. During Vietnam it was the Green Beret. Today it’s the Navy SEAL.”

“I think they believe it’s something they themselves respect,” says Waterman. “The people who do it don’t know much about the teams or have seen too many Steven Seagal films.

Fakebusting is not a hobby for its partisans, but a relentless, obsessive hunt for certainty. “I don’t know of a single investigator who hasn’t boiled over and stepped back to take a break,” says AuthentiSEAL’s Robinson. “It takes over your waking life and enters your dreams.”

Busting fakes can turn nasty when a suspect’s e-mail, home address and license plate number, along with home and work phones, are posted on the Internet — and especially if former SEALs or POWs suddenly appear on his doorstep. Robinson claims he has been warned away from contacting suspects by lawyers fearful for their clients’ safety.

VeriSEAL, originally formed in 1992 to conduct background checks on job applicants for the Security Enterprise Corporation, is also pitiless in tracking down and exposing phonies. When celebrity bodyguard Tony Maffatone, who is sometimes credited with being the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo character, died in 2000, the New York Post described Maffatone as a hero who “was one of 11 of his 30-man SEAL unit to survive” Vietnam.

VeriSEAL’s Web site begged to differ. “Fake SEAL, So-Called ‘Security Pro’ Dies in Diving Accident,” headlined its account of Maffatone’s death.

When I asked VeriSEAL’s Waterman about this, he replied, with Mickey Spillane–like fatalism, “Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you’re not a phony.”

Fakebusters claim suspects are given every opportunity to clarify the record and that the POW database and Freedom of Information Act requests ensure virtual DNA maps to the truth.

“We haven’t found one authentic POW who was left off the list,” says Schantag.
Still, other alleged fakes, including Charles Holland, have been threatened with violence, and the humiliation and pressure of public exposure can cause men to snap. David Silbergeld committed suicide after being unmasked, as did America’s top Navy officer, Admiral Jeremy “Mike” Boorda, in 1996, when he learned Newsweek was about to run an article questioning his right to wear “valor” clasps on his Vietnam service ribbon.

After the publication of Micah Wright’s first book, a “remixing” of patriotic WWII posters with anti-war messages called You Back the Attack! We’ll Bomb Who We Want!, fakebusters within the Ranger community bombarded him with hostile e-mails and, in a typical strategy, went to the media after doing their own research. When he learned the Washington Post was about to expose him, Wright admitted he’d lied and began publishing not one but three apologies on his Web site, each more contrite than its predecessor, a sign that the Rangers were not happy with the earlier ones. Tellingly, one mea culpa ends, “And please . . . no more death threats.”

“Every swinging dick on TV in a uniform is considered a hero,” Steve Robinson says. “There’s been a big turnaround in military honor, everyone wants to know about the military — it’s in high repute.”

Over the past 20 years America’s attitudes toward the armed forces have undergone a radical about-face, which can be directly attributed to the country’s re-evaluation of the Vietnam War — at one time regarded as an imperial disaster but now nostalgically held up as a moment of American innocence. This radical change in public perception, in turn, owes much to what might be called the cult of the POW and the forgotten-man syndrome.

The first created an enormously powerful movement that popularized the accusation — still heard today — that there are thousands of Americans languishing in Vietnamese prison camps, left behind by an ungrateful country. Forgotten-man syndrome springs from a similar complaint — that soldiers returning from Southeast Asia never got their parade or monuments, but were instead spat upon. Today, however, the parades never stop in America, which embraces the Vietnam conflict with a culture of remembrance befitting a world war or the Holocaust.

As Robinson says, this new reverence has recast all American soldiers — from field grunts to mess-hall cooks — as “warriors” and heroes above reproach simply because they wear uniforms. Such an uncritical environment offers hustlers and wannabes alike an irresistible temptation and explains why, as the number of Americans who have served in the armed forces steadily shrinks in proportion to those who haven’t, the ranks of people illegally masquerading as military veterans have exploded.

There has been another consequence: Even now, as the first Iraqi war impostors are beginning to appear on fakebusting shame lists, the resurgence in military pride has also provided ammunition to those still fighting the culture wars of the 1960s and ’70s. The official Web sites of the U.S. armed forces, fraternal veterans organizations and military benevolent associations, with their sleek graphics and politically neutral pages, have become part of a well-paved information highway.

Beyond these, however, lie military sites catering to war buffs, gun enthusiasts and paintball warriors. Here the information highway turns to gravel as spelling becomes shaky and the tone gets shrill and profanity-punctuated. This is where you’ll find fake — and long-ago debunked — photos of John Kerry sharing a podium with Jane Fonda during the Vietnam War, along with “evidence” that Kerry shot himself to get out of continued service in Vietnam or that he really received a dishonorable discharge.

Not since the end of Franklin Roosevelt’s first term has a presidential candidate been the object of so much partisan hatred as Kerry. None of the vitriol directed toward him appears on fakebusters Web pages, but the anti-Kerry attacks are only one mouse click away from some, while individual fakebusters pour out their bile from personal online sites. Forget that Kerry hasn’t falsely claimed to have been a POW or Vietnam combat vet — he may as well change his name to Michael Moore, as far as some veterans are concerned. These same fellow Vietnam vets who turned on John McCain with such fury (even questioning whether or not he’d truly suffered during his years as a POW) for opposing George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries regard Kerry’s early anti-war activism as treasonous.

Indeed, POWnet’s Chuck and Mary Schantag have been widely quoted as saying no veteran they’ve spoken to would vote for John Kerry, while Erika and Henry Mark Holzer, who co-authored a fakebusting book in 2003 (Fake Warriors), have gotten into the act by publicly obsessing over the appropriateness of Kerry’s medals — rather than whether or not Kerry was actually in the Navy or served in Vietnam. Meanwhile, B.G. Burkett, whose Stolen Valor is a kind of bible for vets who believe their honor has been sullied by fakes and political correctness, is busy speaking on behalf of the anti-Kerry Vietnam Veterans for Truth, a group cloned from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Last month Burkett (who did not return phone calls for this article) spoke at a “Kerry Lied” rally held in Washington, D.C., and organized by Vietnam Veterans for Truth president Captain Larry Bailey, USN, Retired — himself a key SEAL fakebuster. Photos of the rally, posted on Steven Waterman’s personal Web site, show a banner with caricatures of Fonda and Kerry, wearing Vietnamese peasant hats, their names spelled in the kind of “oriental” lettering you find on Chinese takeout boxes. Perhaps more comically, Burkett later admitted, in a Washington Times interview, that his rally had been attended by none other than a notorious military impostor.

What has been even more startling than the anti-Kerry veterans’ charges is the ferocious anger with which they burst onto the election campaign scene. Retired U.S. Army Colonel and author David Hackworth, in his online Soldiers for the Truth column, pleaded for both sides in the Kerry-Bush service disputes to halt their attacks, yet singled out the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as “a chorus of haters” who were harming the cause of all veterans. “A judge,” Hackworth wrote, “would call these men liars and disallow their biased statements.”

Regardless of whether John Kerry becomes president, the credibility of military fakebusters will be questioned by at least some Americans who wonder why a decorated combat veteran is being hounded by people who don’t bat an eyelash over George W. Bush’s phantom National Guard service. Justifiably or not, when they see B.G. Burkett on FOX News dusting off McCarthyite guilt-by-association tactics, in trying to link Kerry with Jane Fonda, they’ll begin to wonder how fair and balanced is his own fakebusting research. (“He absolutely caused more deaths in Vietnam,” Burkett told Hannity and Colmes. “He extended the war. That’s why he’s mentioned favorably in virtually every north Communist [sic] book, biography . . . His picture hangs in honor.”)

The deeper lessons of the Kerry donnybrook may lie in a realization of how nearly impossible it is to define the past. Both sides in this campaign issue have assembled experts and even eyewitnesses who still swear by diametrically opposite truths.
Since John F. Kennedy’s assassination, historic events have been captured in increasingly detailed relief by ever more sophisticated recording technologies, yet remain Rashomon-like mysteries open to interpretation. Forget about solving Kennedy’s murder — how would his PT-109 legend fare under the gaze of today’s history police? In the 21st century military fakes have unprecedentedly sophisticated tools at their disposal via the Internet. Their implacable hunters also use cyber research to expose them, yet new fakes begin operating every day. As Steven Waterman says, “We bust them but keep finding more under the rocks.”

Perhaps distortion has become second nature to Americans. “I certainly would condemn these people,” professor Jellison says of military fakes, “but let’s not treat them as though they are completely different from us. There’s an element of impression management that we all engage in. It can be something as simple as inflating your résumé, using cosmetics or having plastic surgery. It is important to recognize that we all have that trait.”


We might all have that trait, but how many of us live it to the magnanimus extent to which Joe Cafasso has? We should recognize the lack of character an integrity of a person who makes a living pretending to be someone else.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

The Durst Family got conned by Joe Cafasso

They have a lovely website up about their family Here. It includes some charming family photographs, but also a curious blurb about Cafasso posing as Lt. Col Jay Mosca talking about a relative of theirs he probably never met. Not able to shut his trap when faced with a possible captive audience, the blag artist blithers on, leaving his listeners begging for more, as you can see in the narrative below.

Unfortunately, the link to the interview doesn't work anymore. If someone finds this who knows about this interview, please contact me at columbiauwhistleblower@hotmail.com

That's about all I knew about my father's career, until I met Lt. Col. Jay Mosca at a recent party at our office. He is a retired weapons expert from the Army. He knew the details of what my father did in the missile program, because he studied my father's designs and writings. He said they were fundamental reading for weapons experts in the military. Click here to hear my interview of Jay during the party. The background noise is rambunctious, but if you care enough to listen carefully, you'll hear..

He said my father was a pioneer in the field of rocket design for his work in the design of the Nike Zeus missile, and was especially known for his work in the design of multiple stage rockets. He said my father was among the key players, the early legends, in rocket science, and that his design for the multi-stage booster system remains the foundation for the rockets being used today. It was nice to hear.

Pity, that. Any relation to Durst at the IAEC with his UN connections?

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

J Anthony Cafasso and Gerry Pal Blackwood


Considering that Joe Cafasso has himself listed as J. Anthony Cafasso and then in the "B" section at the Committee of Concerned Journalists he's also listed as Gerry Pal Blackwood there. It certainly does set a person to seriously ponder what type of an organization takes members blindly into its midst without checking out who they are.

I just have to say the brazen audacity is blinding. In view of what we know about the man, this is extremely humorous that a group which lays claim to the lofty goals below would either accept both men as members not realizing they're one-in-the same, or-that they would go ahead and accept him when they know full well he's a fraud. Either way, it seems to me as though the integrity of this organization is at the least questionable.

About CCJ

The Committee of Concerned Journalists is a consortium of journalists, publishers, owners and academics worried about the future of the profession.

To secure journalism's future, the group believes that journalists from all media, geography, rank and generation must be clear about what sets our profession apart from other endeavors. To accomplish this, the group is creating a national conversation among journalists about principles.

To secure journalism’s future, they ought to begin by dumping frauds and posers like J. Anthony Cafasso aka Gerry P. Blackwood, or whatever else he’s calling himself these days. His association with actual journalists, in my humble opinion, is a dangerous thing. But it would explain why he's writing op eds and the like; he considers himself to be one of them.

Joe Cafasso as "Jay" Cafasso during Katrina




Now this is interesting. He's done it again, in the most unbelievable circumstances; morphing into a 25-year emergency military veteran. I know of other examples of people who took advantage and lied to get something out of Katrina. I wonder what he got out of this.
On the drive down Louisiana's boot tip toward Barataria Bay, we share the car with Jay Cafasso, a 25-year veteran of global emergencies who's running Presbyterian Disaster Assistance efforts in southern Louisiana, and Reverend Lenet Guidry, a Baptist preacher from Napoleonville, Louisiana.
Here's another (but the link is no longer good):
Stocking groceries occupies 'Convoy'
by Paul Dunn, the Daily Reflector
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Security concerns all but shut down relief missions within a 25-mile radius of the president's entourage, said Jay Cafasso, who is overseeing logistics for the Thibodaux-based religious relief efforts, dubbed J2K.

This next one is priceless:

Area quintet bonds as La mission work progresses
by Paul Dunn, the Daily Reflector
Monday, September 12, 2005

The fifth man, Jay Cafasso, is overseeing the logstics of this religious-based relief effort, dubbed Y2K. The no-nonsense 53-year-old - a Catholic marine salvage/hazardous materials expert - was on a barge in the North Sea when he got a call to help Katrina victims. The operation is a joint undertaking between Catholic Community Services and Presbyterian churches affiliated with the Presbyterian Disaster Relief Agency.

Can't you just picture it? Joe Cafasso claiming "I was on a barge in the North Sea when I got the call..."

Gonzalez and Carney were left to finish the shelving job when Cafasso dispatched Riddle and Tyre to Grand Isle, a small town two hours south of Thibodaux that Katrina had pummeled. The men were asked to assess the area's particular needs before the team delivers supplies to the area later this week.

As all of this transpired, Thibodaux disaster relief program director, Ann Exline Starr, a Delaware lawyer who'd spent nine months in Baghdad in 2004 helping open the Iraq stock exchange and securities commission, telephone potential relief organizations to help with the operation.

Cafasso calls Starr the brainchild behind the Thibodaux program.

This is all just about too fantastic to believe, except that we know the chap has an overly active imagination and an even bigger ego. I just can't beat the feeling that the ligger had a scam running on this Katrina thing.


Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Visitor analysis from Columbia University today

Crikey, is this going to be a daily event? Seems so. At least while the school is open, although there is someone lurking around on their computer system during off-hours, which is odd.

It picks up where we left off...At about 2053.



Now it's the 24-October, at about 0556. Just can't help checking to see if something is new, above. Maybe he slept somewhere on campus?


Now he's over at the Butler library at about 1447 or almost 3:00 EST.


Finishing up at about 1617 or 417 pm EST-our boy switches to a laptop MAC on Columbia's wireless network this afternoon at about 1617.

If it's one individual, the boy sure gets around. Perfectly reasonable to assume he has a keycard...but security must have records that he's in the building and might have never left, heh?