Obit: For Gus

Subject: RE: Obit: For Gus
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 11:00 AM

I'm very glad to have seen this, and since I rarely even look at the "BS" section, I would have missed it had it been placed there. So, I for one am pleased that this went into the main "music" forum.

That said, GUEST is right, this has nothing to do with music (except maybe that Gus'interests included piano, as noted in the final line of the obit).

Subject: RE: Obit: For Gus
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 08:01 AM

Interesting, but shouldn't it be in a non-music thread?

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"Obit" seems a more appropriate category than "BS" in this case. If it's a non-music obit, Jeff and the Clones and I just click a tab and put it in the non-music section.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Obit: For Gus
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 07:47 AM

You can't die of natural causes.
At least not in Washington DC once you have been a top secret advisor.
Gus was found dead at the bottom of the stairs at the Watergate.
Even his death was a secret for nealy a month.
The determined cause of his death, in the most time honored tradtion of the CIA, was suicide.


He had gone full circle in the Life game of goverment secrets.
One of the very first vetting questions when one is recruited is " You are at the top of the stairs with an important briefcase. There is a person intent on taking it from you coming up the stairs. What do you do?"
Gus went from the bottom of the stairs to the top and back down again.

Gus, the secrets you had did not die, only your ability to
use them to seek justice in accordence with the Constitution of the United States.

I would have loved to hear your old jokes one more time again. Like the one about two guys and a small machine hidden inside an ice chest ..."What is it? Well it can supply the East Coast with power indefinetly or fly an entire aircraft carrier, if an air craft carrier had wings.
Wow, why isn't it in use? Are you kidding , this is classified so secret that we can't ever get clearance to propose its use to anyone for any reason."


......................................................................



Gus W. Weiss, 72, adviser to four presidents on top secret policy matters, died violently in Washington, DC, on November 25, 2003, but his death was not reported by The Washington Post until December 7, 2003, in the obitiuary section at the bottom of page C12. His home town newspaper, The Nashville Tennessean, was only a week late in reporting his death, but at that late date all they could say was, "The circumstances surrounding his death could not be confirmed last night."

Readers of The Tennessean http://www.tennessean.com/obits/archives/03/11/43368774.
shtml?Element_ID=43368774 "Friends of Mr. Weiss expressed shock at his death."


"Driven by an insatiable intellectual curiosity and a desire to solve foreign policy problems, Mr. Weiss devoted his life to his career, friends recalled. He served as assistant to the secretary of defense for space policy and on the Pentagon Defense Science Board and the U.S. Intelligence Board under President Carter. Mr. Weiss was a foreign affairs officer and member of the National Security Council under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan."

"Mr. Weiss...was involved in numerous intelligence projects, and friends said there were many aspects of his career he could never discuss with them."

'''He was wired into the intelligence community, and there were a lot of mystical secrets we weren't privy to,' said Harris Gilbert, a Nashville attorney who had been friends with Mr. Weiss since childhood. 'He was very interested in diplomatic strategy and was VERY, VERY OPPOSED TO THE IRAQ WAR. It was the first military action he ever opposed, but he believed we shouldn't go to war in the Middle East without knowing what we were getting into.''' (emphasis added)

Might it not appear that if one is sufficiently connected to power, strong opposition to our ongoing naked aggression in the fertile crescent could well be fatal?

Let's see if The Post's belated obituary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42132-2003Dec6.html
clears matters up, or muddies the waters further:

Gus W. Weiss, 72, a former White House policy adviser on technology, intelligence, and economic affairs, died Nov. 25 of a fall from the Watergate East residential building in the District. The D.C. medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

A spokesman for the D.C. police said that officers found his body at a service entrance to the apartment cooperative. Dr. Weiss lived in the building.

Dr. Weiss was a graduate of Vanderbilt University in his native Nashville. He received a master's degree in business from Harvard University and a doctorate in economics from New York University, where he also taught.

He served on the staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. In the Ford administration, he was also executive director of the White House Council on International Economic Policy.

Much of his government work centered on national security, intelligence organizations and concerns over technology transfers to communist countries. As an adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency, he served on the Pentagon's Defense Science Board and the Signals Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Intelligence Board.

During the Carter administration, Dr. Weiss was assistant for space policy to the secretary of defense.

His honors included the CIA's Medal for Merit and the National Security Agency's Cipher Medal. He was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1975 for helping resolve national security concerns over a joint venture between General Electric's aircraft engine division and a French jet engine company.

Since 1992, Dr. Weiss had been a guest lecturer at George Washington University, where he spoke about his experiences in the government. He was also adviser to the dean of arts and sciences and established a cash prize awarded to a top physics student.

His interests included piano and history.

There are no immediate survivors. (end obituary)