One of the joys of reading the
St. Augustine Record is reading and laughing at offensive garbage that classy newspapers won't print.
In my youth, in Senator Ted Kennedy's mailroom, we regaled ourselves by reading and laughing at right-wing drivel mailed each week by the KKK and John Birch Society, reading the furious fulsome fascistic garbage aloud. Until moving to St. Augustine, I lost touch with much right-wing drivel, but now get a steady dose of it thanks to the fascist family that owns MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS.
October 2, 2017 is "Liberation Day," marking the end after 35 years of
St. Augustine Record and
Florida Times-Union ownership by the culturally depraved, developer-codling, dictator-supporting, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR supporting, right-wing family-owned MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS disor
GateHouse has a different approach, I believe.
Today's
Record prints a column of casuistry, penned by a local PIP (Previously Important Person): RON ESTES, a retired CIA operative, defending slavery's role in history, unadorned by any self-insight into how the CIA advances the cause of industrial-strength mind slavery to phony "democracies" that only do the bidding of polluting, price-fixing, bribe-paying multinational corporations that dominate governments around the world.
What moral difference is there between the CIA retiree and the kooky KKK "preacher" Doug Russo, whom Rev. RON RAWLS allowed to speak in the same St. Paul A.M.E. Church where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once spoke? You tell me.
CIA retiree RON ESTES' evil effrontery and cultural relativism makes me puke.
Makes me really glad the CIA never tried to recruit me when I was at Georgetown, my liberal credentials being openly and notoriously known from the day before my first class 43 years ago, when I up and volunteered for Senator Ted Kennedy. (Best. Senator. Ever.)
The Ron Estes column below is nominally supposed to be about two Confederate monuments, but it reveals the mind of the CIA's former Chief of Station in Greece and Spain, former head of one of seven CIA Operations Divisions, now a resident of a local gated community. He retired here in 1996.
Notice the ugly lack of empathy for the victims of slavery, and the cult of cultural relativism, like a Reichwing term paper on steroids, which flunks the laugh test (followed by my commentary) and the
Marsh Creek News Journal profile of Ron Estes:
Posted August 27, 2017 12:02 am
How will we be judged 160 years down the road?
Ron Estes
St. Augustine
The shortcomings of the educational system in this country are coming home to haunt us. An inability of many of our citizens to put our nation’s past in historical perspective has led to a movement to destroy the statues and chronicles of our Civil War.
Statues of Confederate military figures are being torn down and destroyed across the nation because of the willingness to connect them with slavery: to evaluate their beliefs and actions 160 years ago in the context of the cultural beliefs and mores of the 21st century.
Those Americans who practiced and supported slavery prior to the outbreak of the Civil War did not do so out of the context of the customs and social institutions of the time, or of world history.
Slavery was not an American innovation. History is replete with the names of slave holders and those who accepted the practice of slavery.
Aristotle and Plato, Philip of Macedonia, Nero, Augustus and Julius Caesar, the Jewish kings Solomon and David, Muhammad, Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses Grant, Hannibal, Patrick Henry, Sam Houston, George Washington, and freed American slaves, were just a few of those who were slave holders.
Must we now put their support of slavery also in the mores and customs of the 21st century?
Did Robert E. Lee join the Confederacy to fight for slavery or the right of states to secede from the Union? Before the war Lee, who at the time was a Union army officer, opposed secession of states from the Union.
But once his native Virginia voted to leave the Union, he declared he was honor-bound to fight for the Confederacy, and he resigned his army commission to assume command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
In an 1856 letter to his wife, Lee wrote that slavery is “a moral and political evil.” Lee also wrote in the same letter that God would be the one responsible for emancipation, and that blacks were better off in the U.S. than Africa. Many view him only as a symbol of racism and America’s slaveholding history. Thus, “tear down his statues.”
Aristotle, 384-322 B.C., made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to biology to ethics and aesthetics. Aristotle was a slaveholder. Must all his works in multiple fields of philosophical and intellectual development be destroyed, and no longer available to U.S. academia and scholarship?
David, c. 1000 B.C., ancient king of Israel, was a slaveholder. Must the Star of David now be abolished as the symbol of Judaism, removed from the flag of Israel, and destroyed as a symbol of Jewish religiosity?
Christopher Columbus was a slaveholder. Must we now remove Columbus Day as a national holiday, and no longer record or recognize his name?
Let us hope that our current customs and mores are not to be judged by the beliefs and practices in style 160 years from now. The concept of marriage may be scoffed at, Christianity may be considered a naive flawed philosophy that practiced exclusivity and mind control and, therefore, all churches must be destroyed.
To what extremes will ignorance take future generations?
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Glad to see Ronald Estes finally write a column in which the primary theme is not his hatred of the State of Israel. I was beginning to think he did not care about any local issues.
Mr. Estes' 2012 profile-interview with Marsh Creek News Journal (gated community newsletter) stated he was former CIA Chief of Station in Spain and Greece and that he retired as Chief of one of seven CiA divisions in Clandestine Operations. MCNJ stated many details of Estes' CIA career, including "saving hundreds of American lives" in anti-terrorist operations.
It details his work against terrorism and his helping halt fascist coups in Spain, resulting in his being on the cover of a Spanish news magazine.
It also revealed the possible etiology of his morbidly anti-Israel Weltanschauung. He alleges that the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, killed one of his informants, one of those responsible for the murder in Munich of Israel athletes by "Black September."
It includes the following:
"One of the most gratifying successes for the Beirut Station
was the recruitment of the leader and mastermind of the Black
September Organization that had previously attacked Israeli
Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. His recruitment gave
CIA the capability to destroy Black September as a terrorist
group and provided CIA access to the inner circles of the
Fatah organization of Yasser Arafat. Mossad, the Israeli
intelligence service, killed the agent in 1978. The CIA
officer who recruited the Black September penetration
was himself killed in 1983."
The Record's editorial policy states it prints columns from locals on local issues. But Ron Estes' frequent 600 word anti-Israel screeds are printed as a glaring exception to that policy (presumably. to the exclusion of columns by local residents on local issues). This de facto exception to the Record's editorial policies on guest columns may give some readers an impression of favoritism, Jew-hating, or both. Hopefully, we've seen the last of that; GateHouse takes over the Record on October 2, 2017.
Ron Estes should write more candidly about his personal experiences working for the CIA, and the deep-seated personal basis of his opinions, as he did in candidly speaking to the MCNJ in 2012.
http://mcoa.us/marshcreek/picture/425103112mc_final.pdf
Under new management in 35 days, The Record should encourage more interesting columns, which share readers' real-world experiences, affording the reader the chance to learn something new and to learn the basis of the writers' point of view. Columns should be more than term-papers, rants or rodomontade.
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“His hatred of Israel.” For American Israeli sycophants this a favorite expression to attack anyone who is critical of Israeli
policies or actions. How does one hate a country…hate its form of government, hate its population, hate its customs, its religion? The charge is too vague to have meaning. It is used to describe anyone who presents facts about Israel the sycophant doesn’t want to read, or hear about, because he is intellectually ill-equipped to respond to them.
Some of the facts about Israel the American Israeli shill cannot debate:
Israeli borders were defined in Part II of UN General Assembly resolution181, the resolution under whose aegis Israel declared statehood in 1948. Israel accepted those borders, and so notified the President of the United States, and the United Nations. The West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza were not within those borders.
All the land outside those borders in Palestine, is currently Israeli illegally occupied Palestinian territory. The occupation violates international law and is immoral: and it is over 50 years old.
Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal, a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. Article 49 of the 4th Convention reads: "The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.” Breaches of the Convention are prosecutable as war crimes before the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza which deprives the population of sufficient food to meet international nutritional standards is a violation of article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention: collective punishment of a civilian population. A war crime.
Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel as Israel claims. Israel does not hold sovereignty in Jerusalem.
Israel lacks any legal basis for sovereignty in Jerusalem. UNGA resolution 181, under whose aegis Israel declared statehood, declared Jerusalem to be an international city, “corpus separatum,” managed under UN auspices.
In 1980 the Knesset passed the “Basic Law” which declared Jerusalem “complete and unified” the capital of Israel. The “Basic Law” is a violation of UNSC resolutions 476 & 478. UNSC resolution 478 declared the Knesset “Basic Law” null and void and 476 declares any demographic changes in Jerusalem a violation of int’l law and a breach of the Geneva Convention: prosecutable as a war crime.
Because of that UN designation, no nation in the world recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Israel has diplomatic relations with 162 nations. None have their embassies in Jerusalem.
Israeli recognition of the borders was embodied in this letter to the President of the United States.
“MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I have the honor to notify you that the state of Israel has been proclaimed as an independent republic within frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947.”
Israel hasn’t held sovereignty in Jerusalem since 63 B.C. There is no international law that entertains irredentist claims.
Ron Estes
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Mr. Slavin went to considerable lengths to learn and write about my professional background. So I did some research about his background. Here is what I found.
The Supreme Court of Tennessee disbarred EDWARD A. SLAVIN, JR for engaging in misrepresentation and deceit to the courts and his clients; failing to preserve client property; charging excessive fees; violating court orders; demonstrating incompetence and lack of diligence; and abusing the legal process by habitually violating the Tennessee rules of professional conduct with regard to harassment and intimidation of officers of the court and opposing counsel and the filing of abusive, insulting, untrue, and unprofessional statements regarding judges, litigants, and opposing counsel.
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Ronald Estes Here's what former USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt wrote about it eleven years ago:
It was the Tennessee court, and not Slavin, that overstepped bounds
NAHUM LITT
New Smyrna Beach
Published Sunday, December 10, 2006
The statements in a letter (Nov. 26) about "findings" of the Supreme Court of Tennessee about the disbarment of Ed Slavin, a St. Augustine resident, must be taken with more than a grain of salt. Readers can form their own conclusions about fairness and justice in a case involving free speech rights of whistle blowers.
First, this case was heard by a three-person tribunal appointed to sort out the charges and evaluate the evidence presented, particularly taking into account whether the testimony of the witnesses could be believed. One of the principle determinations of such a trial tribunal is the demeanor of the witnesses and it seldom that such a determination is challenged or overturned. That tribunal unanimously found that almost all of the evidence submitted, and particularly that of the current chief administrative law judge at the Department of Labor, was not credible. It similarly found that other complaints were not substantiated. It then determined that while Mr. Slavin was certainly outspoken, he was not guilty of most of the allegations. It recommended a slap on the wrist, a private reprimand for one minor violation.
The case then took an unusual turn in that it was appealed. Few such cases are ever appealed. And, lo and behold, the Tennessee Supreme court hand-picked as chancellor to "review" the matter, solely by chance we assume, turned out to be the son of a man who had been attacked and unmasked 20 years earlier by Mr. Slavin as taking gratuities as the purchasing agent for Anderson County, Tenn. (Oak Ridge). Mr. Slavin was represented in his own case by the same attorney who had been the county attorney who cross-examined this "impartial" Chancellor's father. Nothing wrong with "me" hearing the case he found and he then recommended suspending Mr. Slavin for three years overturning the fact finding tribunal's findings of fact and making determinations that had been found wrong and factually inaccurate. The Tennessee Supreme Court found that this "impartial" chancellor committed no error, was correct in not recusing himself, and adopted his findings of fact as their own despite the fact that they were an appellate body and the facts before them were only those found by the fact-finding tribunal. That court then magnanimously reduced the suspension to two years. Remember, the Tennessee court's fact-finding body had thrown out all the "evidence." Then the Tennessee Supreme court disbarred Mr. Slavin without a trial, in absentia.
Now what were Mr. Slavin's alleged "failings?" He complained the Department of Labor has failed to enforce almost all of the labor protective positions it is charged to enforce, has spent years deciding workers' cases that were supposed to have final decisions within 90 days, and had so-called "review boards" deliberately sit on cases for over five years.
Mr. Slavin complained on behalf of his clients that they were entitled to decisions that could be appealed to courts, and that the delays were deliberate and unconscionable. There is ample evidence to support both charges, including that many of the delays were ordered by political appointees.
As far as being banned by the chief administrative law judge at the Department of Labor, all that required was referral to one of his other administrative law judges for a decision (no trial). I am sure you can draw your own conclusions as to the fairness of the process. Mr. Slavin was one of the few advocates of whistle blowers who did not demand large retainers in advance and took cases that only St. Jude would entertain.
Mr. Slavin can be both outspoken and annoying. He is opinionated and is not loved by everyone, but he has a right to his views, and free speech is more than sufficiently important to nurture and protect even when it difficult to like the person availing himself of the privilege.
What Tennessee and the Department of Labor did was get rid of a qualified advocate who was outspoken about the failings of the system and those who administered that system. It was they who have eroded the public confidence in the judicial system.
St. Augustine officials should listen respectfully and answer his questions about environmental crimes and other subjects.
Nahum Litt is a retired chief administrative law Judge, U.S. Department of Labor
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Here's what the St. Augustine Record editorialized on November 19, 2006:
Editorial: Always important to stick to your guns
From Staff
Published Sunday, November 19, 2006
Soon-to-be-former-Mayor George Gardner let one rip at the St. Augustine City Commission meeting last week when he went after city gadfly Ed Slavin.
For those of you who dont know, Slavin is a regular at City Commission meetings. He is quick to point out what he thinks is wrong with city government, which is plenty.
Slavin is not subtle. If he thinks youre a crook, hell tell you to your face.
And, yes, Hizzoner is correct that Slavin can be abrasive, although hes always polite when he calls us, even if he is questioning our competency, which means hes not always alone in his views.
Hizzoner pointed out that Slavin has asked the City Commission about 200 questions, which the mayor thinks is an abuse of the public comment section of its meetings.
And he went after Slavin, pointing out that he was disbarred in Tennessee in part because of his harassment and intimidation of officers of the court. Slavin questioned judges competency in court and hurled insults at other lawyers.
Well, thats true.
Its also true that without Slavin the citizens of St Augustine would not have known the city was illegally dumping waste material in a borrow pit off Homes Boulevard.
After the mayor spoke, he got a standing ovation from almost everyone in the room. Only our reporter and Slavin remained seated.
Were here to tell you this. Ed Slavin is brilliant. Not just bright, brilliant. The Supreme Court of Tennessee, in finding fault with him, acknowledged his intellect and legal skills.
Heres some stuff you may not know about Slavin. As the editor of the Appalachian Observer in 1982, he filed a request to get some federal documents declassified. Because of his persistence, he found out and shared with the world that the Department of Energy Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Operations had lost 2.4 million pounds of mercury in Oak Ridge. Later it turned out they had actually lost 4.2 million pounds of mercury.
His work discovered widespread DOE and contractor misconduct. That became a national story.
He went on to become a public interest attorney, armed with his view of never giving up because individuals can change history.
Yes, Slavin is persistent. Yes, he overplays his hand a lot. Yes, he can be obnoxious. And, yes, we would not want to be on the receiving end of Slavins barbs any more than we already are.
But were happy that there are gadflies like Slavin in our world. They add texture to our public forums and, as in the case of the illegal dumping, get it right sometimes.
So, to our public officials, we suggest you get thicker skins.
To those of you who stood up to applaud the mayor after he lambasted Slavin, shame on you for trying to stifle free speech. All of us should defend peoples right to express their views, even when they are unpopular.
And to Slavin, you may want to soften your delivery, but dont be hushed. Remember that its not important to be popular; it is important to stick to your guns.
·
Here's what retired Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall (most recently President of the Piedmont, S.C. Chapter of the ex-FBI Agents Assn) wrote in the St. Augustine Record on December 10, 2006:
Letter: Slavin's work "saved" life of U.S. special agent
Published Sunday, December 10, 2006
Editor: I applaud your newspaper for defending Ed Slavin and the First Amendment. I could have told you that Ed is "brilliant." I am a retired former FBI Special Agent, and former senior Special Agent for both the HUD and EPA Inspectors General. One Sherman Antitrust case I supervised had 36 "defense" attorneys as my adversaries so I've known a lot of attorneys.
Late in my career, I would not and could not sign my name to a report that resulted in a cover-up of major criminal wrongdoing by highly placed EPA officials. I was left with no choice but to file an environmental whistleblower case. Other than Ed Slavin, I was encouraged to persist only by my wife, Lynda, Congressman John Dingell's office (whose investigator referred me to Ed Slavin), and then-journalist Tony Snow. Ed completely documented EPA's attempted cover-up of $100 million in acid rain research fraud, conflicts of interest, waste and abuse.
Ed represented me in my U.S. DOL environmental whistleblower case against EPA and its inspector general, winning a precedent-setting case that protected future environmental investigators' rights, reversing two DOL judges.
Ed has always been a fighter, especially against an unresponsive judiciary who cares little about ruined careers.
The unrelenting stress the EPA subjected me to nearly took my life. Thus, Ed's work was truly a life-saver. As a result of Ed's so-called "overzealous" work, the EPA IG abruptly resigned in December 1996, following a history of harassing whistleblowers.
Public officials, who retaliate against citizens for questioning their actions demand to be investigated. Public jobs belong to the "people" -- the occupant of such office is a trustee; a custodian -- always. We have forfeited our "rights" when we refer to the government as "them." No, never. It is "We" the people. Trust me, Ed Slavin is not for sale. The First Amendment is not dead, yet.
Robert E. Tyndall
Senior Special Agent (Retired)
FBI, HUD & EPA
Williamsburg, Va.
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Here's what heroic nuclear weapons plant whistleblower Edwin L. Bricker wrote in the St. Augustine Record on December 8, 2006:
Letter: People demonizing Slavin, ignoring his work
Edwin L. Bricker
Olympia, Wash.
Published Friday, December 08, 2006
Editor: Ed Slavin zealously represented me against Hanford, Washington nuclear weapons plant employers. Working for reforms to protect American workers, Ed Slavin put his career on the line to rescue others.
I was the daily victim of a hostile working environment (joined by the local union I served as steward). Federal OSHA's Assistant Regional Administrator John Spear uncovered illegal surveillance, sabotaged breathing-apparatus and daily torment. Hanford managers branded me a "mole" (spy) for reporting life-threatening environmental, safety and health hazards, working with Congressman John Dingell's investigators.
I was reminded of Hanford's hostility when I read the Record's "Talk of the Town" Web site, where Ed Slavin was attacked by "anonymous" postings by city officials and entourages, angry at Ed's disclosures about his reporting their illegal dumping. Mocking ToTTers tried to trivialize St. Augustine's environmental lawbreaking.
I wrote ToTT, defending Ed. ToTTers falsely impersonated my wife, accused me of being fictitious, posting threatening, obscene, homophobic, libelous comments.
Ed Slavin suggested voluntary ToTT civility rules (no obscenities, sexism, body-part references or remarks about posters' mothers).
Demanding Ed be kicked off, two ToTTers successfully lobbied the ToTT-administrator. They've now been banned for their abusiveness.
I agree with your editorial (November 19) -- government officials need "thicker hides." Ed Slavin is "brilliant" and deserves praise for exposing wrongdoing for decades.
Hateful officials (including President Bush's erstwhile environmental advisor, Nov. 26) have so much to conceal, like Hanford nuclear bomb factory managers.
As a former Washington State environmental regulator, I previously wrote the Record about St. Augustine's illegal dumping.
FDEP inexplicably delayed for eight months (until after elections), to recommend over $46,000 in fines. Will there now be grand jury investigations of city pollution and cover ups?
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Ron Estes: So did you find those in your "research," or just ignore them, as you cherry-pick items about the State of Israel?
Full disclosure: after my father's service in the 82nd ABN DIVN, 505th PIR, F. Co., 1941-1945 with combat jumps in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy, he was wounded in the knee and taught map-reading at Fort Benning, where my parents were married. But so impressed was my father with the courage of Israel that he planned to go there and train its military, along with a friend from the 82nd from Philadelphia who was Jewish. Only when the wife of his friend weighed in and convinced him not to go, did my father decide not to go. He lived to regret it and admired the courage of the Israelis, surrounded by enemies in the Middle East, My father taught me to stand up to oppression, and speak out for the underdog.
Reading Ron Estes' ranting cant against Israel, year after year, one wonders about his emotional stake in the issue. My reference to the Mossad killing his terroriist informant did not take extensive research -- it's on the web, a click away. The facts are irrefragable. Estes does not deny them -- he simply wanted to change the subject.
Back to slavery, about which Estes showed deep insensitivity, practicing the same moral relativism the CIA practices in backing fascist, pro-corporate regimes around the world.
The CIA and its henchmen have created a mess.
So have the American employers who treat employees like slaves, They oppress environmental and nuclear whistleblowers and other ethical employees -- including the nine (9) judges I represented, seven (7) of whom were at the Department of the Interior, "Indian probate judges" who were paid less and given illegal orders about how to decide cases, threatened with firing simply for insisting upon judicial independence.
"Research" would have revealed my published articles in ABA publications on human rights issues, including three in the Judges' Journal.
·
Ronald Estes I've never been called an "American Israeli sycophant" or "shill" before. Odd phrasing. In your CIA Ops manual? Foreign Service Institute "training?"
You seem to lack empathy for Israel, now for the victims of slavery, and presumably for the countless victims of the CIA and multinational corporations: governments around the world have been subverted, coups arranged, and for what?
·
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Typical of Israeli sycophants, Mr. Slavin is unable to debate the facts of Israeli foreign policy and its actions. Rather than address the illegality of Israeli violations of international law, occupation of Palestinian territory, the building of settlements and transfer of population to occupied territory, lack of sovereignty in Jerusalem, and collective punishment of the population of Gaza, etc., etc., Mr Slavin talks about the "lack of empathy for Israel." The next step for the Israeli shill is to charge every critic of Israeli policies and actions as being an anti-semitic. They learn that from Israeli propaganda and repeat it rotely.
Mr. Slavin is correct on one point. I have no empathy for Israel, or any nation, whose actions have earned it recognition by the international community as a "rogue nation."
Mr. Slavin's concerns for the "victims of slavery, and presumably for the countless victims of the CIA," show his commitment to the philosophy and beliefs of the radical left in our society, and illustrate the same judgement and respect for integrity, that led to his disbarment.
B. I forgive you. My religious tradition teaches forgiveness.
C. Did you bother to read anything I posted in response to your Lashon hara?
D. Although some of my Georgetown University professors recruited for the CIA (and my next door neighbor and freshman RA was George Tenet) I was never recruited to be a CIA agent. (But I wonder if I would have made a good FBI Director, investigating corrupt politicians and corporations that pay them.
E. Why would I call you "an anti-semitic (sic)?" Jews and Arabs are both Semites, as my mother pointed out when eloquent Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban accused the Arabs of being anti-Semitic at the United Nations circa 1967. Obviously, you are no anti-Semite, and not even an "anti-semitic (sic). My guess is that, you are, like me, sui generis. But if one had to guess, from your Record writings and attempts at being a bully, you might be an "Arabist" who worked in the sun in the Middle East for far too long.
F. I have a few questions:
1. Why does the Record run so many of your columns on one country, when its policies state that 600 word columns are reserved for local writers on local issues?
2. Other than golf and invective, do you have any other interests in life other than opining about the Middle East some 21 years after your retirement, or justifying slavery, or attacking liberals?
3. What is the meaning of the last two (2) paragraphs in your column? (The references to marriage and Christianity).
4. Why are you so angry? Who put the fox in your bosom? Mossad, right?
5. Are you currently a contract agent for the CIA?
6. Did you obtain CIA preclearance for the article(s) about your exploits?
7. Were you interviewed by the Church Committee on illegal CIA activities?
8. If so, do you have a copy of your testimony you might share over coffee?
9. While you emphatically stated that we Americans should not 'judge' slavery, and hope no one judges us in 160 years, you presume to judge and bully me in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity, emitting pejoratives and trite tropes Why? Cognitive dissonance? A guilty conscience?
10. Back to the two St. Augustine Civil War monuments -- did you realize that I am against their removal? (Yes, I'm one of those thinking liberals.) You can see my actual testimony at the August 28, 2017 St. Augustine City Commission meeting on streaming video and re-broadcast).
(Again, I forgive you -- I am praying for you. And I will accept your apology in-person, Mr. Estes).
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“Labels are for jars.” How quaint. I recall how humorous I thought that was when I first heard the expression about the age of 12. Then I learned the expression trite trope.
I don’t seek forgiveness for discovering and being able to educate as many people as possible about the facts of the true nature of the State of Israel: its violations of international law and UN resolutions, its oppression and mistreatment of the Palestinian people it subjugates, and its hostile actions against the United States. I only hope those Americans who have divided loyalties with Israel seek forgiveness for their traitorous activities.
Not may disbarred lawyers would have been considered as candidates for the position of Director of the FBI.
Both Jews and Arabs are indeed Semites. That’s why the Israel charge of anti-Semitism against all critics of Israeli policies and actions is so hypocritical and intellectually dishonest.
One can only guess why the Record has published so many of my columns about the Middle East. Perhaps because they know that since I began writing those columns I have received approximately 35 telephone calls to my home from people I don’t know thanking me for providing facts about Israel, and our relationship with Israel, that they are unable to find in other U.S. media outlets. Perhaps the Record knows that since I began writing those columns I have been invited to speak at the Knights of Columbus, both St. Augustine Rotary clubs, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and the Prudential insurance company in Jacksonville, and been asked to co-chair three seminars on the Middle East at Flagler College. The first with George McGovern.
Do I have “any other interest in life…” I have an active social and intellectually stimulating life: chess club, research and writing. I have never justified slavery, or attacked liberals. I only attack the philosophy of liberals.
References to marriage and Christianity in my column are clearly written and self evident. They mean if the customs, mores and social institutions of today are reviewed and challenged 160 years from now, what bearing will lack of education have on them.
Why am I angry? I have not expressed anger. I have just presented facts you don’t like.
Am I on contract with CIA? I would not discuss such a thing with anyone who does not have clearances to know such information, whose loyalty might be questionable, and whose integrity has been publicly challenged.
I would not discuss any contact with the Church Committee with anyone lacking proper clearances and whose bona fides are in question.
I have never said, “we Americans should not 'judge' slavery,” and I ignore such mendacious charges. I said the U.S. history of slavery should be put in historical perspective.
I need not your prayers, and have never apologized to anyone of questionable character.
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Ronald Estes Malarkey. This country was founded by liberals.
I reckon that GateHouse now has enough data from your quivvering lips to know that the Record has, without principled reason, been violating its own guest column rules for years by printing your ugly screeds on Israel, while limiting to 300 words all other readers who want to express views on national or international affairs.
Are you buds with the Morris family and the Record's editors?
Your "philosophy" is not subject to questioning, like Donald Trump' acolynte Steven Miller said?
You sound like our Fake President, all hat and no cattle, a hateful disturbed, disturbing wannabee-dictator dictating his dicta, breaking the law, looking down his distended nostrils at lesser mortals.
Too many of the CIA's actions are a stain on our democracy and you were a part of them. How many foreign leaders did you kill or order killed for CIA? is that classified too? The Church committee's hearings are public record, not "classified," right?
You present yourself in your writings as a humorless, haughty, hate-filled humbug, a judgmental angry man who hates liberals, hates whistleblowers, hates protected activity, hates Israel, and who writes the same Arabist column, year after year after year.
Boring. Dull.
You've never gotten over the Mossad killing your informant, who was a terrorist responsible for the deaths of nine Israeli athletes in Munich, right? Is it your contention that Israel was a client state and that the Mossad needed your personal permission? Did the Mossad give you advance warning? Was there any formal or informal agreement requiring it to do so.
Do wet boys like you have any clue how bad our foreign policy has become? Our Founding Fathers warned about foreign entanglements but would be sick at heart at Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lives and treasure sacrificed for hegemony.
You're not erudite.
You won't explain your non sequtur about Christianity and marriage. Let me ask: And are you a homophobe, too?
Not surprised you claim you got "35 phone calls," no doubt from other Jew-haters empowered by Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacists and Nazis unequivocally..
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Ronald Estes
You have no idea what you are talking about. The Record has violated none of its guest column rules. In July 2014, Jim Sutton, the Record Opinion Page Editor, advised of a new policy. He said the priority of columns will be local issues. Columns with local slants will trump those such as yours which will be less likely to see print. Sometimes we have room to run others, sometimes not. Columns about Israel will be low, and certainly will be published less often than other submissions of local interest.
The content of a submission has no bearing on the length of words permitted. Guest columns are limited to 600 words, and Letters to the Editor are limited to 300 words. Why don’t you know that, or find out about before writing about it to provide false information. No wonder you were disbarred.
Donald Trump doesn’t have an”acolynte.” (sic)
Again, your accusation that CIA killed foreign leaders, and asking how many I killed reveals you know nothing about this subject also, and that your lack of integrity allows you to make such specious charges. Why don’t you know that Executive Order 11905 is a United States Presidential Executive Order signed on February 18, 1976, by President Gerald R. Ford that banned assassination by U.S. government agencies. How I present myself forgets “Labels are for Jars.”
You know nothing also about the details of the Mossad killing of Ali Hassan Salameh. Mossad asked CIA if Ali Hassan was our agent. Since the question was inappropriate, and unprofessional, the CIA officer changed the subject. Then Ali Hassan was told of the question by Mossad, and told that if we, CIA, would answer their question affirmatively, it would save his life. Ali Hassan said he would rather die than have Mossad know anything about him. His murder by Mossad was expected by CIA.
There was no non-sequitur about my mention of marriage snd (sic) Christianity.
You know nothing about the 35 callers.
Your track record in this reply is appallingly ill-informed. You appear to be ignorant.
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Ronald Estes Oh? As recently as August 21, 2017 the St. Augustine Record's "Letter Policy," printed in the newspaper for all to read, states in haec verba, "We will publish guest columns up to 600 words at our discretion on local issues only."
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Was the putative "New policy" to which you refer shared by Mr. Sutton or the Morris family over alcohol, in private, in the bar at your country club? Or was it provided to you in a brush-pass or a dead drop?
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Pray for Ronald Estes and other angry people.
As in George Orwell's "Animal Farm," some critters are apparently "more equal than others." The St. Augustine Record guest column policy states that local residents can write 600 word columns only on local issues. But Ron Estes (former CIA Spain and Greece Chief of Station and former director of one of seven Operations Divisions in the CIA HQ), frequently writes columns on Israeli-Palestinian relations and the Record prints them. Not local. Taking up valuable space that locals could use to discuss local issues under the Record's oft-stated "policy " Repetitive.
Does some special "ex-CIA privilege" apply, exempting Ronald Estes from the restrictions that apply to lesser mortals? As Lincoln would say, "why is this thus, and what is the reason for this thusness? Is this evident favoritism a reflection of the Morris Communications family's views about the world?
Looking forward to GateHouse taking over the Record on October 2, 2017?
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Ronald Estes
This reply is as repetitive (sic) and ill-informed (sic) as the last reply from Mr. Slavin. The questions raised have received a response.This one, therefore, requires no response. It would be redundant.
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Ronald Estes What, no coffee, no conversation, no ukase, no more louche lazy labels about liberals, disbarred lawyers? Sorry, dude, you're just inarticulate, uninformed and unkind.
Again, I forgive you.
In the immortal words of William F. Buckley, Jr., "Why does baloney reject the grinder?
I was going to ask you about all those CIA coups and the fact they're counterproductive, like your incessant Israel-bashing.
Bye!
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As recently as August 21, 2017 the St. Augustine Record's "Letter Policy," printed in the newspaper for all to read, states in haec verba, "We will publish guest columns up to 600 words at our discretion on local issues only."
Like · Reply · 7 mins
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You are the last person in the world with whom I would discuss CIA Covert Action activities, and you wouldn't understand what I was talking about anyway, much less be able to determine whether or not those activities served U. S. national security interests. You are not qualified to make such judgements.
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Ronald Estes I earned a B.S. Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Don't talk down to me.
Like · Reply · 14 mins
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I don't care what degree you hold from where. The only way to talk to you is down. If you don't know that a coup undertaken by CIA, a covert action, is ordered by the President, you haven't learned anything about the things you apparently think are important.
Can't you read? I said I shall not communicate with you further. It is degrding: beneath my dignity.
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Your over the top ridicule in your rodomontade "response" to First Amendment protected activity was to call me an Israeli "sycophant" and "shill," and to engage in Lashon hara re: disbarment, then ignoring the record in the Record in that regard, including the Record's editorial. Degrading? Dignity? You can't stand criticism.
You can't handle the truth. You resemble a cognitive miser, who in the words of Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall, my former client, "knows not that he knows not that he knows not." Finis.
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As recently as August 21, 2017 the St. Augustine Record's "Letter Policy," printed in the newspaper for all to read, states in haec verba, "We will publish guest columns up to 600 words at our discretion on local issues only."
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After Delinda Fogel was named publisher of the St. Augustine Record in 2013, this new policy was introduced. Fogel is an Ashkenazi Jewish name.
In July, 2014, the Opinion Page editor, Jim Sutton, notified me that columns on local issues will take priority over those dealing with the Middle East. Columns with local slants trump those “such as yours.”
“Sometimes we have room to run others, sometimes not”. The priority of columns about Israel to see print will be low here, and thus less likely . Not never.
But certainly less often than other submissions of local interest.
Since 2013, the Record published three of my columns dealing with Israel. Two of those discussed the movement of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
This is the last time I will communicate with you. The experience has been degrading.
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Ronald Estes
1. Secret "policy," for you alone?
2. Proof, please?
3. Will you please send me the e-mail?
4. "Policy" or "waiver"?
5. Totally contradicted by the Record's publicly stated policy.
6. "Policy" applicable to you alone?
7. Not a "policy" .
8. Not binding on GateHouse, The St. Augustine Record's new owner, sophisticated investors from Wall Street investors.
Here's RONALD ESTES' MCNJ interview (photos redacted except for the jacket of his novel):
Know Your Neighbor: Ron Estes
Marine Combat Veteran,
CIA Operations Officer,
MGA President Emeritus
13NOVEMBER 2012 • The Marsh Creek News Journal • http://staugustine.com/marshcreek
.
B y Ti m P a l m e r
Each year our country honors veterans of
military service through observance of
Veterans Day on November 11. In keeping
with the spirit of the times, each year I like
to highlight a veteran in the November issue
of the Marsh Creek News Journal to bring
recognition to neighbors who have served in the military
and given a part of their lives to ensure that the freedoms we
take for granted remain in place. One of those people is our
neighbor, Ron Estes.
Ron Estes has been well known in Marsh Creek since he
and his lovely wife Luba (subject of one of my previous
articles) moved here in 1996. Ron is mostly known by the
men golfers, who elected him as president of the Men’s Golf
Association for seven consecutive years and were regaled
by stories of his CIA days. But who would know that this
relaxed man with a ready smile has encountered some of the
most dangerous people in the world, first as a combat Marine
and then as a Central Intelligence Agency Operations Officer
in the Clandestine Service. Read on!!
Ron was born in Arlington, Virginia and was raised on a
family compound where his grandfather built a home in
1906. A good athlete in his early years, he contracted Polio
age 13, which impacted his mobility. He eventually regained
his physical strength and went on to become a baseball
pitcher sought after by professional teams.
In 1950, following high school and an academic year at the
American Institute of Banking, Ron and several buddies
joined the Marine Corps. Eventually assigned to a brigade at
Camp Pendleton, California, commanded by the legendary
General Chesty Puller, who had just returned from the
Chosin Reservoir, Ron volunteered for duty in Korea,
figuring it would be easier to fight the Chinese than training
with Chesty Puller.
After a long trip on a troop ship, Ron arrived at Inchon,
Korea, in August, 1952. Before that day
was over Ron would be an infantryman in
the 1st Marines and witness his first view
of dead Marines. Ron served 11 months
with the 1st Marine Division, which was
on the Western front of Korea, engaged in
heavy combat operations against several
Chinese army divisions.
Following release from the Marine
Corps in 1954, Ron enrolled in Virginia
Tech. In the fall of his senior year he was
approached by a CIA recruiter asking
about his availability for service with the
CIA. Ron did not realize at the time that
a former World War II OSS officer, then
a member of the Virginia Tech faculty,
had recommended him to the CIA as a
prospect. In January of his senior year
Ron was called to CIA Headquarters for
a week of testing and evaluation and, in a
subsequent telephone call, was requested
that upon graduation in June he report to
CIA for duty. Armed with a B.S. degree in
Sociology, Ron joined CIA in June 1957.
Ron was commissioned as an Operations
Officer in the Clandestine Service and
assigned to a one-year training program.
Upon completion of that training, he was
assigned to an operational branch in CIA
Headquarters and language training for six months, before
receiving his first overseas assignment, to Kavalla, Greece.
In Kavalla, Ron represented CIA at an interrogation center
run jointly with the Greek Intelligence Service, KYP.
The center processed Bulgarians who had escaped from
Communist Bulgaria who hoped to be resettled in the West
as refugees. Ron’s job included recruiting agents from among
those refugees, training them and dispatching them back to
Bulgaria on clandestine missions for the CIA. A novel Ron
published in 2003, The Mission: CIA in the Balkans, was
based on one of those cross-border operations.
After 16 months in Kavalla, Ron was transferred to Athens,
Greece where he completed a three-year tour. He was then
transferred to the CIA Station in Nicosia, Cyprus, as one of
the two Greek- speaking operations officers in the station.
The other Greek-speaking officer was Dick Welch, a man
who would play a further role in Ron’s
life. Cyprus, having recently achieved
independence from Britain, was a country
on the brink of turmoil. Tension between
the majority Greek Cypriot and the minority
Turkish Cypriot communities was intense,
as armed Greek Cypriot gangs fought
each other for control of major cities.
In December 1963, Greek and Turkish
communal fighting erupted and Cyprus
descended into chaos. Hundreds were
killed on both sides, American families
were evacuated, and the American Embassy
was bombed. Ron remained in place and
his organization penetrated the terrorist
organizations and provided valuable
information to the regional U.S. military
commander.
In the summer of 1964, Ron was transferred
from Cyprus to the Foreign Service Institute
in Washington for an
academic year of Eastern
European studies and
the Czech language
in preparation for an
assignment to Prague,
Czechoslovakia, as Chief
of Station.
In Prague, Ron’s assignment was to effect
regular clandestine communications with
CIA recruited penetration agents in the
upper levels of the Czech Intelligence
Service. These operations provided
unique intelligence on Czech relations
with the Soviet Union and Czech
intelligence activities around the world.
After two years in Prague, Ron headed
back to CIA Headquarters to be Chief
of a Branch supporting CIA operations
against the Soviet target in the Near
East. 1970 saw Ron transferred to Beirut,
Lebanon, to run the CIA operational
program against the Soviet target, and
CIA Station operations to penetrate
Palestinian terrorist organizations. The
Station was effective in penetrating most
of those terrorist groups, the results
of which caused most of their planned
attacks on American targets, particularly
American commercial airlines, to be aborted, thereby saving
hundreds of American lives.
One of the most gratifying successes for the Beirut Station
was the recruitment of the leader and mastermind of the Black
September Organization that had previously attacked Israeli
Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972. His recruitment gave
CIA the capability to destroy Black September as a terrorist
group and provided CIA access to the inner circles of the
Fatah organization of Yasser
Arafat. Mossad, the Israeli
intelligence service, killed
the agent in 1978. The CIA
officer who recruited the
Black September penetration
was himself killed in 1983.
Since its founding in 1947,
CIA has averaged having an
officer killed in the line of
duty every 7.4 months. Also
in Beirut, Ron made the
most important recruitment
of his life. He was introduced
to a Russian speaking
female, a professionally
trained actress, whom he
recruited and directed into
contacts with the families
of the Soviet Embassy
community, to collect
assessment information
on CIA Soviet recruitment
targets, particularly KGB
officers.
In 1973, Ron was transferred
back to Athens, to be
Deputy Chief of Station.
Ron’s colleague from Cyprus days, Dick Welch also arrived as,
Chief of Station. They had taken over Athens Station as they
had vowed to do 13 years earlier. But in 1974, Turkey invaded
Cyprus to protect the Turkish Cypriot community and the
Greeks blamed the U.S. for not stopping the invasion. In
Greece, mobs attacked the U.S embassy, the Greek government
fell twice, 71 American cars were burned, and Dick Welch,
the CIA Chief of Station was assassinated. Ron became the
CIA Athens Station Chief. Not long afterwards, Ron decided
to take a break one Sunday and marry that lovely Russian
speaking actress from Beirut, his wife Luba. It was back to
the USA and CIA Headquarters in June of 1976, where Ron
became Deputy Chief of the European Division for the next
three years. (The CIA Clandestine Service is organized around
seven geographical divisions).
In the summer of 1979, Ron was transferred to Spain as the
Chief of Station. Hearing of the assignment, Ron’s father
commented, “I hope to God and the President knows what
he’s doing; Spain seems like a peaceful place to me.” It was
during this time that the U.S. administration was determined
to have Spain become a member of NATO. Unfortunately,
the Basque terrorist organization, E.T. A., seeking Basque
independence, was killing one or two senior Spanish military
officers a month. The Spanish military was talking of a coup
to overthrow the Spanish government and destroy any Basque
aspirations of independence with military violence. If there
were a Spanish military coup, Spain would not be accepted into
NATO.
During the next two years, under Ron’s leadership, the Basque
organization was penetrated, most of its attacks were aborted
and dozens of its members were imprisoned. The CIA was able
to keep King Juan Carlos, the Head of State, aware of a possible
coup by the military and when a minor uprising began in
February 1981, the King was prepared and the restive military
abandoned coup plans. In December 1981, the Spanish
parliament voted to have Spain enter NATO, and in May 1982,
Spain officially became a member of NATO. CIA’s presence in Spain was so significant at the
time that the country’s version of TIME Magazine, CAMBIO 16, featured Ron on the front
cover of its December, 1980 publication as part of an expose’ of CIA operations in the country.
In 1981 Ron & Luba returned to the USA once again, where Ron was appointed Chief of one of
the Clandestine Service’s seven divisions. Ron was in that position when he retired from CIA
after 25 years. Upon his retirement, Ron was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal,
CIA’s highest award.
After his retirement from the CIA, Ron formed a company whose mission was to solve
problems for American companies overseas. He fully retired in 1990 and took up golf while
living in their Clifton, Virginia home. Ron & Luba purchased their lot in Marsh Creek in
1991, built their home in 1994, and moved to St. Augustine full time in 1996. Since moving to
Marsh Creek, Ron has written a novel and co-chaired a forum on the Middle East with Senator
George McGovern at Flagler College.
We read books and view television programs where fictional heroes have served in the military
and then returned to civilian life to continue the fight against the “bad guys.” Our neighbor,
Ron Estes, has “been there, done that” in real life and we as a country have benefitted from his
service. Pretty good for a bogey golfer!
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