“When I mentioned the name I was taken in this room where the archivist happened to be on duty. He knew all about Sgt Costello. It was amazing that he knew it all by memory. He told me that there are two books on Edward's life in the library. One written by Edward and one written by his wife.”

Edward Costello is my Great, Great, Great, Grandfather. It’s not a surprise that the archivist knew of him, as he served in the 95th Rifle Regiment, the same that contemporary author Bernard Cornwell based his books on, and which were made into a television series by the BBC called Sharpe staring Sean Bean.

The book that the archivist referred to is entitled “Rifleman Costello: The Adventures of a Soldier of the 95th (Rifles) in the Peninsular & Waterloo Campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars”. 

The first two photos below were taken by Dan...

Now, I'm not complaining about my own stables, but this is just fucking spectacular. 

This, on the other hand, is just un-fucking-believable. I'd probably live in the barn were I given the option in this case.

And you all thought I was talking about actual porn filmed in stables. Tisk, tisk.

Oh - and sometimes fire.

To dwell there is neither an indication of the hardening of the heart or the amplification of obsession. It is not, despite the perceptions of many, a destination primarily populated by neurotic theorists, nor is it a realm governed by the dissipations of political polarization, though, again, widely perceived to be. It is a place in which the carcass of reality is laid bare, a visage of repulsion that forgoes no evidentiary detail. It is a place that demands the equal application of the forensic and the imaginative, and is therefore often mischaracterized as a realm of the mad more than the enlightened.

The conclusions commonly drawn by those that operate within it forgo both conventionality and what many regard as the sanctity of decorum. Neither have a place within it, as there is no room for capitulation with regards to either. The perception of truth has long been fractured between the personal, the acceptable, and the unmitigated. The latter disregards the former, presenting conclusions that directly challenge the sedate limits sanctified by the protracted interjection of dubiety. It’s revelations are therefore quintessential, even if disregarded by those threatened by them.

In the course of human history, nothing has been more important than the long journey towards the existence of a state of ubiquitous disclosure. It is something that may very well never come to fruition, but remains the greatest threat to the power paradigms of every political, religious, and social construct in existence.

Recently, a man born in Leesburg, Texas, in 1923 passed away in Dallas. His name was Carroll Hall Shelby. He made fantastic cars.

“A federal district judge today, the newly-appointed Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York, issued an amazing ruling: one which preliminarily enjoins enforcement of the highly controversial indefinite provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last December. This afternoon’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit brought by seven dissident plaintiffs — including Chris Hedges, Dan Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and Birgitta Jonsdottir — alleging that the NDAA violates ”both their free speech and associational rights guaranteed by the First Amendment as well as due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

A 0-Series Leica, one of only 25 made in 1923. It sold at auction for $ 2.16m euros, or $3.3 million dollars Canadian/US.

“A federal judge has ruled that a final volume of the CIA's three-decade-old history on the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba can remain shrouded in secrecy because it is a draft, not a finished product. The CIA characterized the volume in court papers as "a polemic of recriminations against CIA officers who later criticized the operation."

[…]

“The CIA said the volume is protected from disclosure under the deliberative process privilege, an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act.”

In short, because the CIA was successful in ensuring that it fell under the auspices of the deliberative process privilege, the American people have been denied the right to learn what those involved in that disastrous affair 51-years-ago had to say about it – more specifically, their input regarding their superiors and those responsible for the promotion of the operation.

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the content could include mention of ongoing US covert operations against the Castro government, and other Latin American operations, leading to further scrutiny of the Agency’s continued operations for years afterwards.

The last thing that they want is for the American people to be handed solid proof that they employed what, in this day and age, would be unequivocally termed “terrorist tactics” using Latin American assets, such as Luis Posada, who was not only involved in the Bay Of Pigs operation, but would go on to bomb a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people, as well as playing an active role in Iran-Contra and the terrorist bombings in Cuba in 1997.  

When it comes to individuals like Posada, there is absolutely no questioning his long-standing relationship with the US intelligence community. In 2005, Posada was held in Texas for “illegal presence on national territory”. The charge was dismissed and he was not deported to Venezuela, nor would the United States send him back to Cuba – as both nations would have immediately tried him for past crimes, and possibly result in Posada cutting a deal in exchange for information regarding US covert activities. Ultimately, the Justice Department, in a move some naively viewed at the time as a sliver of justice, urged that he be jailed given his involvement in those afore mention terrorist activities. The irony, of course, is that by keeping him in jail in the US they were actually protecting him, not looking to hold him to account as that would have involved exposing the extent of his relationship with the CIA. Elimination, given the circumstances, was also not an option. In short, after four years of legal maneuvering, he was acquitted of all terrorism related charges in April of 2011 and now lives in Miami.

The suit against the CIA was brought by the National Security Archive, a group founded by journalists and academics in 1985 which is located at George Washington University's Gelman Library.