Category Archives: Historical Figures

History of the Global Warming Theory

Posted on by

The history of how we have arrived at the current “consensus” that man-made carbon dioxide is causing or will cause catastrophic climate change is interesting. The idea isn’t new.  A Time Magazine article published in 1972 describes how, “As they review the  bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are are actually part of a global climatic upheaval.”  The conditions that caused concern included a six year drought in Africa, record rains in the U.S., Pakistan, and Japan, a poor wheat harvest in Canada, dry conditions in Britain, and bitter winters in some areas while other parts of the globe where having the mildest winters in anyone’s recollection. Those words could come from the headlines today about the certainty that we are in a period of global warming. However, read on in the article. It says that meteorologists “…find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing…the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.” (emphasis added) We still have a “consensus” that there will be climate change, but the certainty of global cooling has somehow transitioned into global warming.

There was a politician credited with the transition from believing that global cooling was a certainty to the current belief that global warming is a certainty, and that politician was Margaret Thatcher. I’m certain many readers thought they were going to read Al Gore’s name, but he came late to the party. Ms Thatcher became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1979, and she believed coal miner strikes were crippling the English economy.  She wanted to promote nuclear power as a replacement for coal, and began committing large amounts of government money to researchers charged with investigating climate change caused by the carbon dioxide that is emitted when coal is burned. Temperatures began to creep up, and researchers who had advocated global cooling adjusted their computer models or created new ones to arrive at the conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions were going to cause global warming.

Scientists have been debating the effect of carbon dioxide on climate since the late 1800s. Savante Arrheius, a Swedish scientist, is credited by some as being the first to theorize in 1896 that fossil fuel combustion would eventually result in global warming. The theory lay more or less dormant until the flood of government grant money began by Margaret Thatcher and then made available to researchers in the U.S. created opportunity for those who found a connection between carbon dioxide and temperatures.  Of course the research might not even involve that direct relationship.  It might involve the effect of increased carbon dioxide on the growth rate of hickory trees, and rapid increases in squirrel populations because there were more hickory nuts (as an example that I just invented).  However, studies that came to a dire prediction followed by the consistent conclusion “that more study is needed,” were more likely to be given news coverage followed by more government grant money. The Environmental Protection Agency has joined the party by finding that carbon dioxide is a toxic pollutant, but that is the subject of another posting.

Obama’s Challenge, America’s Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative President

Posted on by

The most remarkable aspect of the book by Robert Kutner (available new from Amazon for $1.96 at the link), and to the credit of the author, is that it was published well before the 2008 election. It was written with certainty that Mr. Obama was going to win. I agreed with that prediction, but wouldn’t have written a book depending on that outcome. The author writes of his admiration of Presidents Lincoln, FDR, and Johnson, and discusses how Mr. Obama could also become a transformative president. The roadmap presented is to solve the economic crisis by overcoming deregulation and reckless use of military power. I appreciated that he didn’t take the simple approach of blaming Bush for everything. In fact he writes, “Three decades of economic negligence by…elites…weakened the United States…” He even blames Clinton, saying that the economy thrived on his watch “…though some of the prosperity was built on unsustainable bubbles.”

The author presents his ideas of using Progressive approaches to governing, believing that regulation and government involvement results in a stronger economy. He also advocates that all workers should be unionized. I didn’t agree with any of that, but I do agree his assessment that senior citizens are reaping the benefits from Social Security and Medicare (apparently not considered Progressive government programs) at the detriment of the young and middle-aged. I was surprised that the book counseled Mr. Obama to go slow on implementing universal health care, and that he should put his early energies into the economy. Mr. Obama apparently did not read the book. Continue reading →

Which President Authorized Wiretaps?

Posted on by

George W. Bush faced a storm of criticism and threats of impeachment because he authorized the National Security Agency to use warrantless wiretaps on foreign enemies, but those enemies were communicating with U.S. citizens. Regardless of your position on his actions, his name isn’t the only possible correct answer. The question posed in the title is a trick, because it should say “Which President didn’t authorize wiretaps?” The Time Magazine archives contain several articles on the matter. An article dated May 10, 1976 says there had been six Presidents beginning with FDR who had taken the liberty to authorize wiretaps on suspected “subversives.” I think they missed one, because Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon are mentioned. I’ve found references that Eisenhower was receiving reports from the FBI providing him intelligence collected on his critics. Perhaps he just left authorization from Truman in place. Ford authorized warrantless wiretaps,  so that makes it seven of seven for the time period covered.

Roosevelt’s Attorney General and J.Edgar Hoover had resisted doing wiretaps, but the President overcame their objections with a memo he sent to Attorney General Jackson on May 21, 1940. The book “Roosevelt’s Secret War” says the memo acknowledged the Supreme Court had ruled against the legality of wiretaps. FDR then writes, “I am convinced the Supreme Court never intended any dictum in the particular case which it decided to apply to grave matters involving the defense of the nation.” He then proceeded to authorize wiretaps “of persons suspected of subversive activities.” He did implore that the wiretaps be limited to “…to a minimum and to limit them insofar as possible to aliens”

Not all of the wiretapping was done under the guise of national security. “A squad of FBI men used informants, undercover agents, and bugging to let Lyndon Johnson know what was happening behind the scenes at the 1964 Democratic convention in Atlantic City.” The Nixon administration “…was installing illegal wiretaps and using the Internal Revenue Service to hound its domestic ‘enemies’…”

I haven’t found a President since FDR that didn’t authorize or accept results of warrantless wiretaps “under certain conditions.” President Obama even took the position to maintain the secrecy of the wiretapping authorized by George W. Bush. The thorny issue of how far a President should or can go in infringing on individual rights in the name of national security undoubtedly is not resolved. I’m confident that the Presidents were doing what they thought was necessary to protect the country (except for maybe Johnson and Nixon). However they weren’t listening to Benjamin Franklin’s warning when he said, as listed in Wikiquotes, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  We’ll have to guess what his ghost would say about the actions of many Presidents.

Perjury, The Hiss Chambers Case

Posted on by

By Allen Weinstein, 1978

This review pertains directly to the “Witness” review, but it also provides insight into the allignment of forces against Elizabeth Bentley. The American Civil Liberties Union helped Weinstein obtain FBI files about the Hiss case for use in a lawsuit, and the author began his investigations believing Hiss had been unfairly convicted. Those on the political left were absolutely convinced that Chambers was wrong about Hiss and, that Hiss was unfairly convicted of perjury. The book presents a very detailed description of the five years of research that led to the author’s conclusion, much to the dismay of Hiss supporters, that Hiss had indeed been guiltiy of perjury. The book also confirms the magnitude of Soviet espionage in the United State. ….Nadya Ulanovskaya has confirmed the substance of Chamber’s account of his underground activities from his recruitment up to the time when Ulrich…returned to Russia in 1934. Nadya Ulanovskaya, who confirmed the substance of Chamber’s accounts of his Communist activities in the 1930s “scoffed at the dangers involved in conducting an espionage in the United States.” Nadya said: “If you wore a sign saying ‘I am a spy,’ you might still not get arrested in America when we were there.”

Early parts of the book describe the depths reached by Hiss and his supporters to discredit Chambers. There were unproven allegations of homosexuality (which would have been called “homophobic” today), insanity (the term “psychopathic personality” was used by one of their psychiatrist in testimony), imposture, and criminal behavior. There is no question that Chambers had a checkered personal life. He did come from dysfunctional family life as a child, and his father abandoned the family to move in with a male lover. There also is no dispute that Chambers served as a dedicated Communist courier for Soviet espionage rings. There is also the practical matter that he was dowdy and rumpled in appearance while his was handsome and always presented himself in well-tailored fashions. Continue reading →

Which President Lied About Weapons of Mass Destruction

Posted on by

President George W. Bush is quoted as saying in his January 2003 State of the Union Address that “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” CIA Director George Tenet said even though officials of his agency had concurred that the text was factually correct, those “16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.” The controversy about whether “Bush lied” in exaggerating or inventing that Iraq had, or had planned to make, weapons of mass destruction consumed American politics and news reports for years.

Iraq did have a history of interest in development of nuclear weapons. A BBC report describes how an air attack by Israel destroyed a French-built nuclear reactor near Baghdad, “saying they believed it was designed to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel.” The reactor “…was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel…” Iraq also had more than a theoretical interest in chemical weapons. A Department of Defense report details use of chemical agents numerous times against Iranian forces in the1980s and again in 1988 in attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in Hussein’s own country.

With that history it isn’t a surprise that President Bush and leaders of both political parties almost universally believed that Saddam Hussein probably had retained chemical agents and was willing to use them. But now we arrive at the really interesting part about who lied. There are numerous articles on the Internet about the interrogation of Saddam Hussein by George L. Piro, but I will focus on a “60 Minute” report.

It took five months of interrogation for Piro to gain the trust and respect of Hussein before he admitted why he had led the world to believe Iraq had chemical weapons while the United States was threatening invasion. Hussein admitted he miscalculated President Bush. He expected an air campaign that he could survive. He believed that Iraq’s major enemy was Iran, and that eventually there could be a security agreement with the United States that would prevent the Iranians from annexing southern Iraq. He also believed that he could not survive an inevitable attack from Iran “without the perception that he had weapons of mass destruction.” He told his generals that he would order the use of chemical weapons if Iraq was attacked, and he did that to hold Iran at bay. Saddam Hussein lied, and Bush and his advisors believed the lie.

　

 

　
 
 

 

Out of Bondage: The Story of Elizabeth Bentley

Posted on by

Published by The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1951
(Buy this book on Amazon.com.)

Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American who served as a courier for Soviet espionage cells who became disillusioned, and like Whitaker Chambers (see the “Witness” review), went to the FBI.  Bentley was a well educated liberal who became concerned about Fascism during a year in Italy and became a Communist when she had trouble finding work after she returned to the United States.  Her intelligence and dedication attracted the attention of members of the Russian Secret Police.    One was a woman named Juliet Glazer (actual name Juliet Poyntz) who scared her.  Glazer was liquidated by her Soviet handlers not long after meeting Bentley.  Over the next few years Bentley would work with others who would suffer the same fate as Glazer (Poyntz).

Elizabeth called herself a “steeled Bolshevik” by the time she went to work for a man called “Timmy,” and she was told to cut off contact with all her Communist friends to go deep under cover.  “Timmy,” who she later called “Yasha,” was Jacob Golos, chief of Soviet espionage operations in the United States.    Elizabeth, whose Venona code name was “Clever Girl,” served as courier for Golos, and the two became lovers against orders from the Soviets and despite the fact he had a wife in Lithuania and a mistress in Manhattan.

Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and orders came to Golos to get as many comrades as possible into the U.S. government.  Bentley assumed the name of “Miss Wise,” and she found a job in the United States Services and Shipping Corporation.  Bentley was surprised at how easy it was for hard core Communists to be hired into sensitive U.S. government jobs.  There were so many agents that she and Golos worried that American intelligence would “trip over one of them.”  So much information was stolen that it was difficult to keep up with the microfilming.  The information included plane production data, planned destinations, and performance data.  “Besides this purely military information, we had a steady flow of political reports from the Treasury…the Office of Strategic services, the Navy, the Army, and…the Department of Justice.  We knew what was going on in the inner chambers of the United States Government.” Continue reading →