My apologies. I could have made my point better. The possibility that what I wrote could somehow be construed to be a threat never entered my mind. I was simply trying to illustrate that, however debatable the ethics of appointing friends as ambassadors may be, such questions do not mean that there is illegal behavior going on, and that breaking the law is, in the final analysis, a technical matter. I hope this assures you that I did not mean any offense, and also, that it clears up the point I was trying to make.
That being the case, while I do believe that this Administration pursues policies that shamelessly benefit large corporations such as Halliburton, I’ve never seen so much as an allegation that Halliburton has bribed, or even tried to bribe, any public official.
In a broader context, I’ve been trying to show that ambassadorships are not bought with hard cash (because that would be illegal), but are a time-worn practice of giving political favors given to those with loyalty to a president. I think it’s a pretty simple, factual point, appropriate for this forum.
One of the great espionage stories of WWII was the theft of secret documents from the British Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, in the last year of WWII. The ambassador’s personal servant stole and transferred top secret documents to the German Intelligence Agency. In return, he was paid with counterfeit english banknotes. There was a movie made of this (starring the late James Mason), and it is still a good movie to watch.
But I always wondered why athe ambassador to Turkey NEEDED access to such high-level secrets?
Turkey was a backwater, and was a neutral country…so why would the British Ambassador need to know details like the plans for the invasion of Europe?
Anyway, in the film, the servant (James Mason) escapes MI-5, and makes it to Brazil (with his fortune)…and finds out he was paid in counterfeit money!
Anybody know if the real “Cicero” was ever caught?
Actually, you would have to accuse me of libel, slander being the spoken form. And she prefers “Ms.” Believe me, anyone bringing that accusation regarding her had better be prepared to go down with the financial ship, knowing what I know about her (and her husband’s) liberties with tax dollars while in Portugal.
I’m not disputing her supposed credentials (nor ralph’s lack of same; in fact, I pointed out the rather dismal likelihood of him making it past Congressional scrutiny), just illustrating the exchange of favors that goes on (which you pointed out in your reply to cartooniverse) as a matter of routine political business.
Effectively, yes. The OSS figured out there was a spy in the British Embassy in Ankara. Thus alerted, the British were then later told who it was, at which point Bazna was fired.