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BS: Saddams Fortune |
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Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Amos Date: 25 Dec 03 - 10:43 AM I have received the JPEG image f the letter, and I can vouch for the fact that (a) it appears to be a genuine letter sent to Kendall Morse from Senator Allen and (b) it has two personalized hand-written modifications in the sender's hand. One is the strike out of "Mister Morse" and the hand-written replacement "Ken" in the salutation. The other is a post-script which states "We need regime change here!". As we do not have OCR software, my wife went to the trouble to type the letter out and it's text is as follows: Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20513-1901 Thomas H. Allen 1st District of Maine 1717 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-6116 234 Chicago Street Portland, ME 04101 (207) 774-5019 http://tomallen.house.gov COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE Subcommittees: Energy and Air Quality Environment and Hazardous Materials Democratic At-Large Whip House Oceans Caucus Co-Chair Affordable Medicines Task Force Co-Chair November 10, 2003 Mr. Kendall Morse 40 Ardsley Avenue South Portland, Maine 04106 Dear Mr. Morse [handwritten, "Ken"]: Thank you for contacting me about accounting for money seized from Saddam Hussein's palaces. I appreciate hearing from you. Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led interim government in Iraq (the Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA) has assumed control of about $5 billion in Iraqi oil revenues, foreign assets, and cash stockpiles. The CPA has publicly accounted for only about $1 billion of these funds. The U.S. Military has spent a porition of the funds on thousands of small-scale reconstruction projects that have improved the lives of Iraquis. Such speedy and visible results have probably saved both U.S. and Iraqi lives by showing that the U.S. is there to help the Iraqi people. On the other hand, the disbursement of the majority of these funds raises serious questions about transparency and accountability. About $3 billion has gone almost exclusively to American companies that may or may not subcontract with Iraqi companies. I am deeply concerned that some of these U.S. companies, such as Bechtel and subsidiaries of Halliburton, have previous or current ties to senior officials in the Bush Administration. These connections present serious conflicts of interest, paralleling the Administration's massive tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and well-connected. Further, the trend of awarding contracts without a competitive bidding process is disturbing, and runs counter to the kind of democratic government and free market economy that we are trying to build in Iraq. During consideration of the supplemental spending bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, I voted for an amendment to require competitive bidding on Iraqi oil infrastructure projects. I also voted for an amendment to require executive agencies tooinform Congress of "no-bid" contracts before they are offered, which was retained in the final version of the bill. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind, and continue to monitor the situation. If related legislation comes before the House energy and Commerce Committee, I will continue to work for transparency and accountability in government contracting. Again, thank you for your message. I hope you will continue to contact me on issues important to you. Sincerely, Tom Allen Member of Congress [then handwritten: We need regime change HERE!] Regards, A |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Bobert Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:55 AM Kendall, When you get this stuff sorted out, please start another thread with the letter so it doesn't get lost. This is important stuff. And if Clinton had done the same with Milosovoch's dough, you know,passed it out to his campaign donors then Doug would be calling for his resignation. I can't understand why some folks feel it's okay to lie, steal and cheat as long as it is done by a Republican.. BTW, Dougie, I've heard that if ya brine the crow over night in it ain't half bad but I would personally know since I'm always right. Aww, jus' messin' with ya. pal. I mean after all, it is crow, dangit... But a Merry Christmas and, hey, get nude with yer new wife unner the Christmas tree and be sure to take lots o' piccures to put in next years Christmas cards... Oughtta be a hoot, don't ya think?... Bobert |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:11 AM I've sent this twice. Maybe the Bushites are draining your mailbox! LOL |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Amos Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:41 PM Kendall: See PM -- check the addy to make sure it is right, as I haven't rec'd yr email yet! When I do I will post the contents if I can do so. A |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 23 Dec 03 - 07:15 PM Amos, I took the liberty of looking up your e mail address and sending you a copy of Tom's letter. Doug, how do you like your crow? |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 23 Dec 03 - 04:19 AM I have a new computer and just can't seem to get used to XP. Nothing is the same as win 98 and it's driving me nuts!. I opened the document, hit "select" but there it stopped, no "clipboard". Doug has thrown down the gauntlet and one way or another, this is going to get posted here! For your information, Doug, Tom Allen is a Rhodes Scholar and a gentleman. I asked him what happened to Saddam's billions and he told me. Being a big business worshipper, you won't like the answer. If nothing else works Amos, give me your e mail address and I'll send it to you. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Amos Date: 23 Dec 03 - 01:05 AM Kendall: The simple thing is to open the document, select all, and copy it to the Clipboard. Then go to your browser and start a new thread and paste the contents into the text box. If this hangs up, you can try going back and copying again while the New Thread box is already open, and try again. I am assuming it is either a plain text document or in some word-processor format such as Word. A |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: GUEST,Nerd Date: 23 Dec 03 - 12:58 AM If you had read Kendall's original post, DougR, you would know that his congressman is also a friend of his, and almost certainly did not fob off a staffer letter on him. In any case, why not wait to see what the letter does say? I'm willing to bet it looks nothing like the ridiculous mockery you wrote to try to belittle other people's opinions. By the way, I notice that the person who wrote the letter that in your own words "doesn't take much imagination" was...you! What refreshing honesty! P.S. Merry Christmas DougR! |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: DougR Date: 22 Dec 03 - 10:32 PM Geeze, Kendall, I think we all know what it must say. "Bush is a dolt! We must rid ourselves of Bush! We must elect ___________, a Democrat, as our next president!" It doesn't take much imagination does it? You are going through too many frustrating operations just to show us something the Congressman's staff member wrote that may or may not have been seen by the Congressman. Sigh. DougR P. S. Merry Christmas, Kendall! |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 22 Dec 03 - 09:46 PM Congressman Allen's letter is in my documents file, anyone know how to post it to the forum? |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 22 Dec 03 - 09:17 PM For some reason, Jeff hasn't posted the letter. I now have a new confuser, so I'll try to post it here. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:24 PM If it was just a matter of sharing the words, typing it out might be simplest. But the point of photocopying or scanning a letter is to demonstrate that it hasn't been edited after receipt. OCR doesn't ensure that any more than typing it out does. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 16 Dec 03 - 04:48 PM And in English that would be? Jeff is my man for this sort of thing. Thanks for trying AMOS. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Amos Date: 16 Dec 03 - 03:59 PM The picture needs to go through a different process called Optical Character Recognition before it can be handled as text. It is totally different in terms of coding. A black and white picture is a bunch of dots, and each dot is on or off. So the code is just a huge stream of on-on-off-off-on-off type binary digits. Text is generated from ASCII code, with each character or number being represente din the file by an 8-bit number like "01000111" for example. So a text file is a series of 8-bit numbers and for each number the computer generates a character on the screen rather than interpreting the file one dot at a time. So someone has to OCR the file to turn the bit-mapped picture of characters into the ASCII-coded text version. Most modern scanners come equipped with OCR software, or did the last time I looked. A |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 16 Dec 03 - 03:29 PM Couldn't figure out how to do it, so e mailed it to Pene azul |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 16 Dec 03 - 03:22 PM Just got a new confuser, so I'll try to post that letter from my congressman, Tom Allen. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 23 Nov 03 - 08:01 PM It's an HP scanjet.3300C It scans photos exactly, but it makes a puddin' of text. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Rapparee Date: 23 Nov 03 - 07:37 PM Kendall, what sort of scanner do you have? And what sort of software to go with it? |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 23 Nov 03 - 07:34 PM I may have to Amos, but tell me, how do I scan it as a picture? |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Amos Date: 23 Nov 03 - 12:52 PM Kendall: Let me know if you need a hand -- I can scan it (or a really clean xerox of it) for you and send you the file electronically for you to post if needed, and return the hardcopy by mail. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: GUEST,Frankham Date: 23 Nov 03 - 12:25 PM Again, it was Poppy Bush that set Saddam up. Saddam did his worst dirty work with Poppy's blessing. The reason they thought they knew about WMD's is because the Senior Bushes and Reagan gave them to Saddam as a buffer to Iran. Short term historical memory abounds. Frank Hamilton |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Rapparee Date: 22 Nov 03 - 10:20 PM Try scanning it as a picture (jpeg) instead of a document. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 22 Nov 03 - 10:03 PM I have the letter with Congressman Allen's letter head, but I can't figure out how to post it the way it appears. My scanner runs all the letters together in a jumbled up mess. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Sorcha Date: 22 Nov 03 - 09:56 PM Yes, please post. The whole thing just sucks....and I am sick about it....Cheney et al. get rich while our children die....for no good reason. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 22 Nov 03 - 09:51 PM I'll try. |
Subject: RE: BS: Saddams Fortune From: Ebbie Date: 22 Nov 03 - 08:26 PM Please do post it. |
Subject: BS: Saddams Fortune From: kendall Date: 22 Nov 03 - 07:52 PM I wrote to Tom Allen, my rep. to congress, and a man of great integrity, not to mention a friend, and asked him what happened to the truckloads of American money that the Army hauled out of Saddam's palaces. He said,Dear Ken, some of it was used to rebuild the infrastructure, but most of it went to American companies that may or may not be involved in rebuilding Iraq. What companies? Halliburton and Bechtel! What a surprise! His letter was quite detailed, and he signed it "Tom" and with his own hand wrote, "We need regime change here"! I can post it here if anyone wants to see the whole letter. |