Thursday, March 8, 2012

Why should I care about George Hansen and "Diesel therapy"

Many of you know I have decided to run for senate against Senator Patti Anne Lodge but few know why and fewer know why it is important.

Did you know that the Senator's husband is a district court judge? Did you know according to sources that she was on the Judicial rules committee? If these are true do you see a possible conflict of interest and do you know the significance of this convenient relationship?

Our Founding fathers at the time of the creation of this country after just breaking the chains of tyranny from Great Britian were extremely cautious about creating a goverrnment that would allow the government to rule in the affairs of men and to allow tyranny to once again reign over the people that they created a constitution with checks and balances to ensure that few and specific powers in the three branches of governemnt remained separate. If this were true, is it then constitutional to allow a senator and a judge to be seated simultaneoulsy, not to mention the possibility of this seating arrangement to include the senator on the judicial rules committee?

Should the behavior of one sitting in one position effect the other? Are we to suspect that there is no danger of subversion to any degree no matter how minute?

What if a judge and/or senator was somehow connected to entities like the IRS or those in the Banking industry? What if a man in an effort to try to expose corruption was treated inhumanly and denied a trail by jury? Does this kind of third world torture happen in America?

For those whom are ignorant, it would be easy to dismiss any wrong doing by their government but for those that know better and seen case after case of wrongful conviction it is all to common in today's "Police state!"

Have you ever heard of Congressman George Hansen? The supposed Tax evader and federal criminal? If you have you have probably been led by the media to believe the government was just in its charge against him without even realizing that the Supreme court dropped the case and to find out he was punished again after the fact which also a violation of "No Ex Post facto law" in  addition to the obvious no trial by jury and without considering the connections of the senator and/or the judge!

Please understand this is among many stories in America today,where the government is hell bent on criminalizing its citizens rather than protecting their rights. People Like Rep. Phil Hart, again wrongly accused,that also happens to know more about the constitution and proper taxation than anyone that would rule on his case or others that would ignorantly cast stones from afar without any knowledge of the subject matter. Wrongful convictions also include people like David Dutt, Dr. Mark Wicklund, and include other secenarios like Ruby Ridge and WACO , Texas where people dont know any more about the cases that what they have been told by government officials...

This is the story of George HAnsen and it could happen to me or you if you remain ignorant:


QUIXOTE'S HORSE

THE GEORGE HANSEN STORY


NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED


W A R N I N G!

Please gather your kids around and teach them the truth... better that they learn some realities sooner than later when it may well be too late. However, I have included some rather sickening photos of the abuses which Hansen suffered at the hands of the state. Parents may wish to shield particularly sensitive young eyes from these graphics.

This story is not fiction -- every word is true. The odds are that most of you have never heard of George Hansen. The people responsible for persecuting him pretty well control what you read, hear and see in the major media. Former Congressman Hansen is not some raving paranoid seeking a platform for some conspiracy theory of the week. Nope. George Hansen belongs to a much rarer breed -- an honest and outspoken politician. He paid the price when he was made a political prisoner in his own country, the good ole U. S. of A.

As you read his story, you will begin to understand why some reporter once asked him why they didn't just kill him while they had him in custody. He didn't know the answer to that. Actually the reason why "they" would be reluctant to do so is obvious: George Hansen has MANY friends among the "little people" he has championed during his adult life. It was, after all, his efforts to help them that led to his persecution in the first place. There are MANY of those "little people" (a term George would never use, by the way) in the prison system and killing George there might have created more problems than they cared to deal with. They probably hoped the after-effects of their "diesel therapy" would do the job for them. While it came close, George is on the mend.

It is probably clear to my regular readers that I feel that many of us have lost our capacity for outrage at injustice. The insane horror of the AIDS story, the steady erosion of our most basic human rights and freedoms, the outrageous manipulation and control of our major media... the incessant drumbeat of injustices have literally numbed many of us to the point where meaningful outrage is muted or fails to materialize at all. For many, only a personal ox goring becomes an attention-getting event. Just look around the Province of Ontario these days as the Harris gang of fanatics merrily divides and conquers... I made it a point to ask the striking teachers and those attempting to save Hotel Dieu Hospital where they were when that totalitarian band of criminals in Queen's Park were pounding the helpless recipients of social services. Predictably, most whom I confronted merely began glancing around looking for security or a cop. If it were not so sad it would be hilarious.

Please read this true story. And remember that what you read here is just the tip of a very large, very dangerous iceberg. There is MUCH more.

There is something almost eerie about the complete lack of bitterness in his presentation. This is a man rooted in and drawing strength from a true Christian faith. George Hansen is a hero and a statesman.

"...and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." -- from the U.S. Declaration of Independence

When you are through reading this story, ask yourself if you have what it takes to stand up and tell our corrupt leaders or their "politically correct" patsies that we are working to take back our country. Ask yourself if it is right for our Prime Minister to illegally assault peacefully protesters and then joke about it! Ask yourself if you believe the prison system ought to be reformed and the inhumane practices such as those described herein (yes -- we do it here in this country too) should be halted. And while you are at it, ask yourself if you are prepared, given the current "politically correct" climate in our country, to be labeled a "troublemaker" or worse -- there MAY be a seat on one of those busses with YOUR name on it. Then ask yourself if it really is safer to bury your head in the sand and do nothing.

The saddest words in any language are "If only..." and "Why, THAT can't happen HERE!"

Wanna bet?

* * * * * * *
Annotated reprint of RMS News Agency Report
Vol.2 #1, January. 1997 with permission
* * * * * * *

The Government Wrongfully Drove GEORGE HANSEN, A 7-Term Veteran Lawmaker, Out of Congress, Sent Him to Prison and Destroyed Him and His Family Financially! It took ten long years, but the U.S.Supreme Court now confirms that federal prosecution of Congressman George Hansen SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!

That high court decision is now a year and a half old, and this 66 year-old embattled veteran congressman still awaits action by his old colleagues to clear the record and provide him urgent and reasonable compensation for this great injustice.

HANSEN WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!

Former Representative George Hansen always said he was wrongly prosecuted for lying on his financial disclosure forms. Twelve long years later, he turns out to have been right.

Congressman George Hansen was a seven term congressman from Idaho at the time of his prosecution. Ex-Representative Richard Stallings, the Democrat who defeated Hansen in 1984, said the conviction was the key. "George could have had the 2nd district as long as he wanted. If he hadn't gotten in trouble, he'd probably be the Chairman of the Banking Committee."

Hansen would be in his 14th term now. "If you want to play "What if" games, there would have been a lot of things... chairmanships, leaderships..." Hansen said, "But I just don't look back."

Hansen's 1984 conviction cost him his bid for an eighth term in 1984 -- by a mere 170 votes. It also brought incarceration in a federal prison and a $40,000 fine. In December of 1995, the conviction was vacated by the trial judge in Washington D.C. [ED: Who then took 5 months to release him!]

Hansen got back his $40,000, but wants a Lot more. He's asking the House to withdraw its reprimand and pay him for legal fees and lost wages. "I feel like the guy On Boot Hill with the tombstone that says. "Hanged by Mistake," Hansen said.

Congressman Hansen was one of the first members of Congress to point a finger at the IRS. In the late 70s he wrote a book called "To Harass Our People". He was the first to get a full scale investigation into the crimes of the IRS against the American people. His outrage over what he discovered caused him to write and help pass the "Taxpayers Bill of Rights." Without George Hansen, the IRS would be the American equal to the Gestapo by now.

George Hansen was also the first member of congress to introduce the idea of the flat tax. Hansen clearly saw the unfairness of the current tax laws and was trying to correct them for the good of all Americans, not just the rich elite. When he went to prison, his love of his fellow man and his reputation for trying to help Americans allowed him to live among the prison population with no fear of the prisoners.

The harassment and torture that befell Congressman Hansen came from prison officials, in the form of neglect for serious medical problems and health hazards in the prison work place. The torture also came from the Federal Marshals who cruelly transported him from one prison to another.

Political prisoners and those who are considered trouble makers are given what prisoners call, "diesel therapy". "Diesel therapy" consists of being put on diesel busses or airplanes and being transported from prison to prison for weeks and months at a time. On the surface it sounds benign. What could be the problem with making a prisoner ride in a bus for hours at a time?

TORTURE AMERICAN STYLE

Before the prisoner is put on the bus, he is put in handcuffs and shackles (leg irons). The handcuffs are tightened by a black box that stiffens the chains and puts the wrists in a 90 degree bind that painfully cuts circulation and damages the nerves. It takes several weeks for the circulation and nerves to return to normal. The handcuffs are connected with chains to a waist chain, which is in turn connected by another chain to the shackles which go around the ankles The prisoner can barely move once the shackling process is complete.

He is then placed in a small seat on a bus or airplane. [ED: George Hansen is a BIG man, standing well over 6'-3" and -- before his ordeal -- tipping the scales at well over 220 pounds.] Because of the shackles, the prisoner is forced to sit in one position for up to 20 hours at a time. And the guards will rarely go to the trouble of unshackling a prisoner. Prisoners who understand "diesel therapy" know that "fasting" is the only way to handle the ordeal without messing or wetting yourself.

But even those who are smart enough to abstain from food and drink, still have to suffer the stench of urine and feces which soon fills the bus or plane.

One other painful aspect of diesel therapy is the shoes that prisoners are forced to wear. They become too small. The cramped position and tight shackles cause the feet and ankles to swell. The shackles cut into the legs and cut off circulation. The blood pools in the feet and causes the feet to swell. The toes are forced up against the tops of the too small shoes, and unbelievable pressure is put on the toenails. The toenails soon become deformed, infected and painful.

Each day the metal shackles are put back onto raw and infected legs before the prisoner boards the bus. After weeks and months of diesel therapy, the ankles and shins have raw, infected and open wounds that will not heal.

Hour after hour, the prisoner sits in a cramped & painful position, with shackles cutting into already infected, raw flesh. Arthritis and bursitis compound the misery of the prisoners. The ingrown, infected toenails, which are jammed inside of purposely small shoes, cripple the prisoner to the point that he can barely walk or move when he is finally released from the shackles.

During the weeks and months of diesel therapy, the prisoner is out of contact with the rest of the world. In the case of Congressman Hansen, his wife did not know if he was dead or alive. His lawyer could not find him and therefore could not file court papers on time. Even the members of congress who were still trying to help him, could not locate him. During his diesel therapy" he disappeared into the black hole dug and run by the United States Marshals.

After "diesel therapy", Hansen was forced to operate on his feet himself. His toenails were so deformed that they pointed straight up. He could not wear shoes without excruciating pain. The only remedy that was open to him was to pull the toenails out by the roots. Our prisoners of war in SE Asia had their fingernails and toenails pulled out by their torturers. Congressman Hansen had to become his own torturer in an effort to stop the pain.


Several weeks ago, Congressman Hansen was testifying before his former colleagues in the House of Representatives. He told the story of his trip into Iran during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. He was the only United States official to get into Iran to try to negotiate an end to the crisis.

While he was there, he was shown the horrible human suffering that was inflicted upon the Iranian people by the Shah of Iran and his secret police.

He told his former colleagues about the horrors of the Shah's torture chambers. Ankles that had been smashed by heavy clubs. Legs that had been smashed and permanently scarred. Hands and feet that had no nails because they were repeatedly pulled out.

Then he stood up and walked around in front of his table. Leaning lightly on the table, he pulled up his pant leg and showed his former colleagues the raw, red scars on his own legs -- scars that stretched many inches, from his ankles up his shin bones.


He told his former colleagues about his toenails, which have never grown back properly. He ended his "show and tell" session by informing the House that they did not have to travel to foreign countries to witness torture. All they had to do is visit any American prison and they would quickly find the effects of purposeful abuse and neglect on certain prisoners.

If his former colleagues have any sense, they will quickly reform the prison system, before any more of them end up there.

The scars on his legs and the lack of toenails were minor problems for Hansen. The major pain came from his teeth and deteriorating bones. These problems came from hazardous chemicals he was forced to work around during his job assignment in the prison power plant. The chemicals caused his bones to weaken and his teeth to become infected and turn to mush. The pain' of abscessed teeth was unbearable. To be able to function each day, without even an aspirin to dull the pain, he picked up a plastic cap used to splice electric wires. He placed the cap in the infected area and bit down on it all day and night.

During his four years in prison, he lost most of his teeth through willful neglect on the part of the prison officials.


Hansen was forced to sell his homes in Virginia and Idaho. Everything he and his wife had accumulated during years of hard work went to lawyers or to pay the fine. Even though his retirement was not supposed to be touched, through some nefarious deal, it was tapped to pay fines, thereby denying his wife the means to live. She was approaching sixty, had a heart condition and diabetes, but she was put out of her home and didn't even have the money to rent an apartment. With the help of their children and a job, she just barely made ends meet until Hansen was released.

They are now in their 60s and they are starting over with nothing. He still has health problems associated with prison life, and still needs further dental work. He drives a leased Honda and lives with his wife in a rented apartment in Pocatello, Idaho. Thankfully, his federal pension has been restored.

"They almost made us homeless, but when this is all over, it will all be erased." Hansen is an optimist who is now awaiting the action by his old colleagues which will clear the record and provide him urgent and reasonable compensation for this great injustice.

MEDICAL NEGLECT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF TORTURE

While in Washington, Hansen presented Congress with a medical statement part of which is excerpted below:

"Upon my release from federal custody on March 8, 1996, I have spent the past 24 weeks in an intense effort to seek the medical and dental relief so long denied me by the federal government. This was not easy because so many serious problems had developed during the three years I had been held in medical limbo that it was not a simple thing to develop and coordinate the many necessary treatments all begging for early attention.

"There was also the problem of limitations in my insurance coverage and having the necessary funds available to meet the abnormal demands my emergency medical and dental needs presented. A quick professional evaluation showed the dental requirements alone to be largely uncovered by insurance with costs estimated at $10,000 and perhaps much more.

"People could hardly believe what they saw in the examination of my condition. I could only explain that I am a victim of the government game of 'select and neglect.'" People are told that you are being assigned to an easy 'white-collar' institution: But the real truth is that you can then be selectively assigned to hazardous jobs and conditions with no protection, or be selectively sent on extended bus and airplane trips in chains with hardened and dangerous criminals where you remain harshly bound hand and foot, for 18 to 20 hours a day in the most cramped and confining circumstances -- a treatment called 'diesel therapy.' Blood circulation and pinched nerves never quite recover from this as my current health situation will attest.

It is this selective treatment that seriously undermines your health to begin with. Then you get the second phase which is the neglect treatment, where you are denied or cleverly discouraged from obtaining needed medical and dental relief -- a very painful time when you are dealing with painful abscesses and infection, severe swellings, open sores and even more serious matters involving internal organs. Having most of my perfectly good teeth rapidly deteriorate to shattered remnants broken off at the gum line or in painful splintered condition can only prompt your imagination as to the pain involved -- without relief -- and that was only the dental part of the problem.

"This is the "Gulag" or political prisoner operation that goes on in federal prisons (and others), where former public officials and law enforcement officers often find themselves singled out for that "select and neglect" process. The federal prosecutor in my own case, (now overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court) Reid Weingarten, has publicly verified this kind of treatment in federal prison. Mr. Weingarten, who conducted the improper prosecution against me, is now a criminal attorney defending a former FBI official who was an investigator of public corruption and served as FBI liaison to the White House. The Washington Post of Sunday, July 28, 1996, in a feature article Weingarten 'a star federal prosecutor' and quotes his concern for his client who served a 12 month sentence in federal prison.

Weingarten said:

`It was leaked to guards that (my client) had been FBI. He was confronted constantly by guards who took him for a spy and by any inmate with a generic grudge against law enforcement. He came back a shell of himself...he was crushed and deliberately.'

"I was in prison four times as long as Weingarten's client and I didn't allow myself to become a 'shell.' However, I did suffer the same kind of abusive treatment which tore me up physically and which I am now struggling to repair and deal with.

"My medical and dental condition has become a scandal to many leaders of Congress in Washington, both House and Senate, who have asked me to present my 'souvenirs' in line with legislative and oversight responsibilities.

This has been done twice... During these 'show and tell' visits, I have wryly joked with these Congressmen about my visit to Iran in 1979 where I was taken through the torture chambers of the Shah's main prison and shown where shins were broken, teeth smashed and nails pulled. Never did I dream that I would later have shins, teeth and nails to match from being wrongfully sent to prison in the United States of America."

Upon his return to Pocatello from Washington, D.C. he wrote a letter to his former colleagues, giving them a further medical update:

"To capsulize, I've been and continue to be involved with oral surgery, root canals and periodontal repair involving sixteen different doctors; and concurrently I have been and continue to be in the care of medical specialists of all sorts for serious infection in the legs, feet, body organs, chest and shoulder muscles. The diagnoses have included inflammatory bursitis, serious neural damage, E.Coli, troubling irregularities of bodily functions, severe and permanent debilitating stasis, dermatitis of the legs, and severe toe disorders, secondary pedal edema accompanied by painful fungus infection (secondary to being shackled with legs in a dependent position for long periods of time and from confinement).

"Obviously, this has necessitated the use of heavy dosages of medication to relieve the inflammation, control E. Coil and fungus and dental infections. and to alleviate pain. This has largely prevented me from doing any real or sustained work, except unavoidable maintenance tasks. I am hopeful that this intensive treatment and continuing recuperation will allow me to increasingly get back to full and normal productivity at a reasonably early time. Hopefully, this information will be useful to you."

CORRUPTION PERMEATES OUR GOVERNMENT

While continuing to recuperate, former Congressman Hansen is busy trying to awaken his former colleagues to the corruption which is now rampant in our government. RMNews reprints this confidential letter without revealing to whom it was written and faxed on January 7, 1997:

"...I have discussed the matter of providing you with the basic information on the genesis of the Ron Brown (Department of Commerce) corruption process (worldwide), beginning with Viet Nam, spreading like cancer to other nations wholesale, and exploding with the Lippo Bank (Taiwan, etc.).

[ED: Just as Rep. Ron Brown was about to blow the whistle on the Clinton government, he was killed in a mysterious plane crash... or so the government said, until an autopsy showed that he had apparently been first shot in the head. This is one reason why Congress is so afraid to actually do anything significant to clean up government. It also accounts for the confidentiality of this letter. As George Hansen well knows, the shadowy power players behind the scenes are dangerous psychopaths. ]

You indicated this could be most helpful, so I talked to the former high political official mentioned, and he is most willing to help give you a confidential start -- this could involve more than one knowledgeable individual.

"...with regard to our discussion on the delicate but provable fact that the CIA is keeping two sets of books to deceive Congress and maintain a very dangerous and dirty operation, I am prepared to back up this charge with reliable evidence and experts from the DEA, DIA, CIA, and Department of Justice -- and also establish the surprising extent to which the CIA (and affiliates) is saturating the street corners and school yards of America. [ED: with drugs] It's dangerous to challenge these people (provable) and a reluctance exists on the part of legislative committees because of many 'staff technicians' maintaining allegiance and rapport with the agencies from which they were recruited. This seems to be a matter for the independent consideration of your committee which enjoys no conflict of interest, and the courage of a fearless Chairman. Certain other Members of Congress are in position to be helpful in this (both parties). Hopefully, this can be discussed meaningfully soon (while the best proof remains current and available)."

BLATANT CORRUPTION GOES TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS

The following confidential document generated from the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on the same day that Congressman Hansen faxed the preceding letter, January 7, 1997:

"This Committee on Government Reform and Oversight reorganizes today in the face of awesome and unusual challenges for which we are particularly prepared to effectively deal with, and for which there is little tolerance among cynical and frustrated citizens for lack of action.

"Politics as usual and scandalous government corruption have created great alarm and distrust of public agencies and officials, particularly at the federal level where we have jurisdiction and responsibility.

"The last half of this century has seen our government repeatedly and increasingly engage in acts of violence and abuse against its own citizens and then lie, manipulate and coverup to avoid detection and responsibility.

Key enforcement agencies of the Justice Department, including the FBI, as well as the CIA and IRS are wallowing in scandal and citizen abuse -- often sensationally fatal.

"This blatant corruption and failure of government operations is clearly widespread and goes to the highest levels regardless of politics while partisan fingers point at others and reform lays in gridlock. Congress has an especially difficult problem in instituting real reform because the legislative committees generally staff heavily from 'the technicians' in the agencies they oversee, (RMSnews translation: In other words, the CIA etc, place their own people on legislative committees to insure nothing is done which would harm the CIA, IRS, etc.) and a cocoon of self-serving protectiveness develops to retard objective oversight. This is why this Committee is ideally suited to become the real Legislative ombudsman to a frustrated and cynical public desperate for reform and relief -- we do not have that built-in conflict of interest.

"Obviously this Committee does not have the resources to deal with the mass of legitimate complaints that could be pressed upon us, but we can aggressively pursue issues on a worst-first basis while providing an interested ear to citizens hopeful of germinating a case upon proper presentation of evidence. And it's only fair that our efforts be as even-handed and bi-partisan as possible.

"There is no question that cynical citizens want answers to such current questions as campaign finances and the influence of foreign funds on elections and government operations. We plan to deal with this immediately.

But somewhere along the line, it might be appropriate to find out why we've had fifty years of uninterrupted Presidential deception from the U-2, through Cuba and Gulf of Tonkin and Watergate, to Iran-Contra, and the current reported cover-ups. Also, Presidents continue to feel they can use federal enforcement agencies as their personal pit bulls. Why? No doubt, victims of the holocaust would like to know why this government sat on this issue throughout WWII; and the victims of our government secret chemical and nuclear tests on citizens deserve honest answers and just compensation. This committee does indeed face awesome and unusual challenges. May we rise to the success the public prays for. Confidential"

If the Government Reform and Oversight Committee follows through on this letter, maybe there is hope for America. This letter is the brightest hope out of Washington in decades.


"A Cage of Every Unclean and Hateful Bird"

The idea of political prisoners and the abuse they suffer at the hands of their government is not a new one to the majority of the American public. When the concept is presented, it usually brings forth visions of the old Soviet gulags or the horrors of Southeast Asia. The possibility that America would have such a thing as a "political prisoner" within its own borders would be, to the majority of this nation's citizens, considered the substance of right wing, militia or separatist paranoia.

A former twelve-term Republican congressman from Idaho, however, has different ideas as to where one could find this scenario being played out. Former GOP Congressman, George Hansen, has been referred to on as many as 2,500 talk-radio stations across the country as "America's most famous political prisoner", according to the "U.S. Citizens Human Rights Commission."

"The odyssey of George Hansen in the nation's legal system," claims the Mission Statement of that organization, "is so brutal that it makes him the natural spokesman to the nation and the world of the terror experienced by thousands of Americans each year as they are ground under the heel of a ruthless justice system run amok."

The group, as its name implies, was established to provide recourse to remedy against suspected or actual human rights violations. Their Mission Statement, however, denotes a different approach to the subject than most are familiar with. Instead of the standard application to human rights, i.e., addressing immigrants', minorities' or children's rights, etc., their declared purpose is for "publicly exposing and eliminating the wave of violence and killings of Americans everywhere at the hands of government law enforcement officers and officials of the judiciary."

Such claims would seem questionable, at best, were it not for the fact that this fourteen-year veteran of Congress and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agriculture under Nixon has himself been the focus of "political retribution."

The newspaper, The Idaho Observer, stated that "Seven-term U.S. Congressman, George Hansen (R. Idaho) was punished severely for having the audacity to implement a plan which would make Congress instantly accountable to the American public.

"Hansen, author of To Harass Our People, an indictment of the IRS, was also the architect of the Congressional Accountability Project (CAP) which was...to use national TV and a 1-900 number to instantly post congressional floor votes and public response to them."

This legislation met with a hostile congressional response and began a series of events in the life of the congressman that makes the term "bizarre" seem woefully inadequate.

The real substance of Rep. Hansen's nightmare began when James Cole, special counsel to the House Ethics Committee (the same special prosecutor assigned to deal with Newt Gingrich's ethics case), went after Hansen on alleged violation of Title 18 sec. 1001 of the United States Code. He was accused of lying to the government by omitting specific information on his financial disclosure statement. Even after the Supreme Court handed down its decision, years later, vacating Hansen's conviction and calling the litigation a "wrongful prosecution", Cole was still presenting his handling of the Hansen case as his preeminent qualification in order to be assigned the Gingrich matter. After successfully receiving the case, a story published by Associated Press included a photograph of Cole with the caption, "APPOINTED. Special counsel James M. Cole made a name by prosecuting a congressman who falsified his disclosure forms,"--the AP still apparently ignorant that Hansen was declared innocent of the charge by the highest court in the land.

THE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

In an extensive interview with The WINDS, Rep. Hansen detailed the chronology of events, up to and including his torture and incarceration by federal marshals. The following is that chronology.

Congressman Hansen's trouble really began, he told this reporter, about 1964. "I'd been in a running battle with the Feds for years because I don't like what they do to people--so they tried to take me down. The big part started in 1975.

"The IRS came after me with their criminal division." Other congressmen, Hansen alleges, "had the IRS foil their re-election bids claiming they evaded taxes, thus labeling them as 'scoff- laws', a term used to imply that the legislators thought that they were above the law, "something the American people don't like". "In my case," Hansen says, "my people [his electorate] knew better. They [the IRS] were after me with criminal [proceedings] for three years and they finally had to give me back $10,000 in overpaid taxes. Then they got their 'big brother', the Department of Justice, to come after me on campaign contributions. When that didn't work, they [pursued] ethics violations like they did with Newt Gingrich which also didn't work. Then they claimed I didn't report my wife for [income] tax purposes."

The method the government used that finally resulted in a "successful" prosecution, the congressman told The WINDS, was when they took him to downtown Washington, D.C. "where," Hansen says, "you could indict a ham sandwich," and was indeed indicted for "failure to report" under the previously stated U.S. Code. "As a result of this I ended up in and out of jail for a ten-year period--four years solid time behind prison bars. Finally the Supreme Court" handed down a decision in May of 1995 claiming that the case was a "wrongful prosecution"--translation: it should never have been brought to court.

During his incarceration Rep. Hansen was subjected to what federal inmates refer to as "Diesel Therapy," so named because of the continuous transport by diesel-powered vehicles. This takes place in transit to or from whatever detention facility to which the prisoner is ultimately assigned. The congressman detailed this form of "institutionalized torture" for The WINDS. The reader should be advised that the incidents described therein depict graphic details that some may find extremely disturbing. Also in the following account it is well to remember that this treatment was being perpetrated upon a 63 year-old man.

"When they chain you up, legs and wrists, they put a thing called a stiffener on those they don't like. That's a small black box slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes. This is placed on the chains between the handcuffs and makes them rigid so your arms can't move. Then they run a chain from your arms and fasten it to your waist. When they do that it pulls your arms from a normal 180-degree angle to 90 degrees, putting your arms in a bind which cuts into the nerves of your wrists so badly that, the result is, after an extended period of time like that, it requires weeks and sometimes months to get feeling and circulation back to your hands--and pretty much the same for your feet."

After placing these manacles on hands and feet, "they strap you into a seat and you're so bound up with chains that if you have to go to the bathroom, you can't do anything about it. You can't pull your pants down or do anything to relieve yourself."

According to Hansen, the vehicles he was transported in reeked of urine and feces because the prisoners were chained in that position for twenty hours a day, forcing them to accommodate their bodily functions without access to sanitation facilities.

"The best thing you could do," Hansen advised others, "is the Biblical act of fasting. If you don't eat and don't drink, you don't have to go to the bathroom. They do this to you for four or five weeks at a time; they put you in chains about two in the morning, you get out about ten at night. And when you're bigger than average [Rep. Hansen is 6'6"], you're wedged in, sitting there twenty hours a day and you can't move your legs. Because the shackles cut off the return blood flow from your lower extremities, soon your legs fill with blood, especially when you're 63 years-old as I was then. Then you get to walk around with two barrels full of blood where your calves and lower legs should be.

"The result of this is that your feet swell and become two to three sizes too large for your shoes. [Hansen claims that the marshals intentionally provided him with shoes several sizes too small]. This causes your toes to jam into the ends of your shoes and blood blisters form underneath your toenails. They then start growing straight up and to the side in the most grotesque manner. You can't believe what happens under those conditions. Your toes turn to knobs, becoming very disfigured, making it impossible to wear shoes. The only way I could get shoes on was to pull my toenails out by the roots, myself, with pliers. I now have ten toes without nails.

"Because of the blood pooling in my shins for such extended periods of time, if I just skinned them, on the back of a seat or something, it formed open sores that didn't heal for as long as a year and a half. I couldn't get any medical attention because of their attitude toward me. They were trying to send me a message.

"I found a foil container in the garbage with a couple of, what used to be, iodine swabs all dried out. I put some water on it to try to activate what was left of the iodine and applied that to the sores. It did cause some coagulating and eventually, after some time, healed over.

"My legs looked like they were beaten with two-by-fours. When I went to Iran several years before, I was the only public official to get into the country during the hostage crisis, and that's what they showed me the Shah had been doing to his people. If they didn't like what you were doing, they would smash your shins with boards and pull your nails out and break your teeth. I went to Congress recently and detailed what happened in Iran and told them I didn't even have to leave the country--I got the job done down the road about a hundred miles--right here in the United States of America. It shook them up pretty badly.

"The way they smashed my teeth out is they isolated me, arbitrarily, to a place where I had no communication with the outside world. They placed me where I had to do chemical testing on extremely hazardous substances with absolutely no protection. That caused my bones and teeth to go soft. I ended up with twenty-four teeth breaking off at the gum line. For three years I was not allowed to see a dentist. So far, it has cost me about $14,000 to try to repair my mouth. My dentist says I'm a dental cripple for life because the chemicals eroded not only my teeth, but my jawbone and gums. I went through about the same thing they do in a foreign prison. I got it done a little differently, but the results were the same."

The actual "diesel therapy", Hansen says, is for the purpose of isolating a prisoner from the rest of the world for extended periods of time by keeping him in transit. This is a form of physical and emotional torture somewhat akin to sleep deprivation and brainwashing, but with much more serious physiological consequences.

"I saw the U.S.A. in a different way," he continued, "I surrendered to custody in Pocatello, went to Blackfoot [Idaho], down to Salt Lake City, Davis County jail, was put on an airplane, went to Seattle, down to Sacramento, to Phoenix, over to Lompoc, down to Los Angeles, back to Phoenix then to Lompoc again then to Los Angeles and San Diego--all at taxpayer expense- -then up to Denver and down to Oklahoma City to El Reno [detention facility] then to Atlanta, then hopscotched up the coast by bus to several jails and prisons till I reached Petersburg Federal Correctional Institution in Virginia where I stayed. That was one "diesel therapy" trip," which, Hansen said, took over a month.

When later released, the process was done in reverse, the congressman told this office, to transport him to a parole hearing in Boise.

Upon presentation of the requirements and restrictions of his parole, Rep. Hansen informed the parole board he would not accept the terms of financial reporting because it would reveal the names of people he was representing who were experiencing difficulties with the government. This would result in the betrayal of those people, Hansen claimed, and he told them if they didn't like it, "I'll just stay here and serve more time." The parole board acceded to his demands in writing then, according to Hansen, "ten days later they told me, 'we can't do that.' I said, 'You already did'. I was already released. I told them that if they didn't like it, to put me back in prison. They said they couldn't unless I violated the terms of my parole. 'I'll tell you what,'" he informed the parole board, "'I will live up the terms I signed out on and you do what you want to do.'" When asked what they would do if he violated their version of his parole--whether they would notify him so he could present himself and surrender, or if they would send the marshals after him with guns and chains, they told him they would notify him to surrender. "That was a lie," Hansen said.

HANSON GETS ARRESTED FOR GOING TO CHURCH

"I went to my own church on a Sunday morning and sat right beside a federal marshal who was also a member of the congregation. That became my parole violation--going to my own church in my own home town--because they didn't approve my travel, even though they signed an agreement that said they wouldn't restrict my travel. They just make up the rules as they go along," he said.

While addressing a church congregation in Omaha, Nebraska, Hansen claims black cars began prowling the parking lot, helicopters appeared overhead, "the next thing I knew," he said, "I was in chains and they had changed my name to Fredrick Smith, heisted me off in the dead of night in a Lear jet, all at the expense of the taxpayer. They took me to an abandoned jail where I spent Good Friday and Easter Sunday. My wife couldn't find me, Congress couldn't find me, my attorney couldn't find me and the media couldn't find me. I was just a lost soul for several days while they had me strapped to a wall in an old jail."

"That's our government," the congressman added with a note of sadness.

The purpose of the aforementioned treatment, he claims, was to send him a message not to mess with their system. "They take you out on the road where you have no communication with anybody. You can't write, you can't call, you can't be called--you're lost" where no legal process can intervene. "They get away with it because it is also a form of transferring prisoners."

It could be effectively argued that "diesel therapy" is an ingenious method of blowing a very large hole in Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution which says, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." When a legal system does what Rep. Hansen claims was done to him, it has effectively abolished the "privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" which historically extends through the U.S. Constitution back in time to the Magna Carta, A.D. 1215.

"When they kill people out there, and they do," Hansen continued, "and there are instances I'm thoroughly familiar with where they've killed people while they've been in transit--what they will do then is to take everyone who has witnessed the killing and scatter them throughout the huge jail system they run around the country so they can't communicate with one another. They then give themselves enough time for a court hearing to substantiate that the death was accidental."

After the Supreme Court declared Congressman Hansen innocent of any wrongdoing and that his case should never have been prosecuted, it still took the former legislator eight months to be released. When he applied to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco for the vacating of his sentence, and his release was imminent, the Justice Department, Hansen asserts, in one more bid to harass the former Congressman claimed, "'we think there are some technicalities you haven't looked at', and kept it going from May to Christmas. Then, the lower court judge decided, rather than to release me to travel on my own across the country to be present at a release hearing, which was nothing more than a proforma matter [administrative technicality], he had to jerk me around, put me back on "diesel therapy" and go back through the whole system again."

That lower court judge that Rep. Hansen claims made this final jab at him was Edward Lodge, the same judge against whom petitions for malfeasance of office are being presented to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for, among other things, his alleged judicial mishandling of the Randy Weaver/Ruby Ridge affair.

This "odyssey" of former U.S. Representative George Hansen is apparently not an isolated instance of abuse by federal authorities of those to whom they desire to "send a message." Recently, such a case has come to light concerning Whitewater defendant, Susan McDougal.

SUSAN MCDOUGAL GETS THE TREATMENT

Whether or not one agrees with McDougal's refusal to testify before the Whitewater investigators or whether Special Prosecutor, Kenneth Starr was justified in pressing contempt of court charges on her, McDougal's situation can certainly be scrutinized and cited as a likely example of, as Rep. Hansen puts it, "a legal system run amok."

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (McDougal v. Ramon) charges that:

Since December 1996, [McDougal] has been held in isolation, under lock-down up to 23 hours per day, while other inmates, even those charged with serious violent crimes, are allowed 12 hours a day outside their cells; [she is] consistently kept in handcuffs when other inmates have not been; variously denied visitation, medical visits, worship services, reading materials, and even a Bible; forced to wear a red jail uniform reserved for despised informants and baby killers; forced to endure the spectacle of male prisoners taunting her, exposing themselves and masturbating in front of her without intervention from guards.

"The abusive treatment of Ms. McDougal by Mr. Starr's office," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, "must be the subject of a congressional investigation to ensure that, in the future, no federal prosecutor be permitted to wield authority in so brutish and inhuman a manner."

In July of this year, "the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit charging that the United States Government was holding McDougal illegally in the L.A. jail to punish her for refusing to testify to investigators in the Whitewater affair. U.S. Marshall Michael Ramon was named in the lawsuit because he had technical custody over McDougal."

Quoting from an ACLU press release, "McDougal's continued confinement in the L.A. County jail, despite the state court order releasing her, was designed to break her spirit and force her to testify before the Whitewater Special Prosecutor."

Could it not be logically reasoned that all that kept Susan McDougal from receiving the "diesel therapy" to which Hansen was subjected was that she was a much higher profile figure, being more closely scrutinized by the public? This certainly would make the degree of abuse Congressman Hansen experienced impractical in McDougal's case, from the point of view of the federal marshals.

When Rep. Hansen was asked if he had any future plans to regain his congressional seat, the veteran legislator, who not once displayed a note of bitterness over his ordeal, simply replied, "My wife says if I ever run for anything again it had better be the border."

If one looks objectively at these instances, would it not seem to stretch the fabric of statistical probabilities to the breaking point to suggest that these occurrences are the only ones, and that they just, by chance, came to public attention? Perhaps no more unlikely than one viewing an iceberg and concluding that it stops at the waterline, merely because the remainder of it is lost to view.

The description of Congressman Hansen's ordeal and that of Susan McDougal as they were "ground under the heel of a ruthless justice system run amok", most clearly depicts the methods of those charting the course of the New World Order. They will brook no departure from their purposes nor obstruction to them. They are startlingly reminiscent of the biblical description from the pen of the prophet Daniel when he described such a "ruthless" power:

"After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it." Daniel 7:7

Written 9/8/97

Truth Surfaces in Hansen Ordeal

by Edward Snook & Don Harkins

After four years of imprisonment, after ten years of persecution, after being ruined professionally and financially and after being permanently damaged physically, in December, 1995, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Hansen’s sentence for bank fraud because the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled on May 15, 1995, that Hansen’s previous conviction as a member of Congress had been overturned.

Diesel Therapy:
A prison term which describes the most inhumane, degrading and painful of punishment; normally reserved for the most violent and uncontrollable of prisoners.
A prisoner is shackled at the feet and handcuffed at the wrists, reinforced with a box-like structure which stiffens the chains and locks the wrists at a 90-degree angle. The handcuffs are connected to a waist chain that is connected to another chain which connects the shackles. Once this shackling is complete, a prisoner can barely move. The tightened manacles pinch the nerves and restrict the flow of blood causing severe pain and swelling. Legs swelling with blood are particularly damaging to the feet, as toenails under pressure from blood-blisters press up against shoes for long periods of time and soon become infected and deformed, causing such excruciating pain that they require surgery or the pulling of the nails out by the roots.
Diesel therapy gets its name, not from the "cruel and unusual" bondage, but from being forced into bus after bus and onto plane after plane, shackled as described, and being shuttled from one prison to another, for weeks on end, 20 hours per day in chains, for no other reason than to cause pain and suffering and give the prisoner a "message."
Welcome to diesel therapy and the world of seven-term Congressman George Hansen, who was found guilty in the court-room of the infamous Federal Judge Edward Lodge on bogus charges of bank fraud which were manipulated into an issue by the Idaho Department of Finance which illegally used the same agents previously employed by the IRS in their failed attempt to "get Hansen?"
People who have been reading past editions of The Idaho Observer and The Oregon Observer will recall that the Judge Lodge/Idaho Department of Finance connection has already been uncovered in the bogus securities laws violations charges levied against Boise businessman and winemaker Petro (Pete) Eliopulos.
"After Ed Snook of The Oregon Observer and I met with Hansen and he told me in a six-hour meeting what had happened to him, I was more shaken than I have ever been in my life. If (West One) bank officers Knox and Neaville had not subsequently been convicted of crimes which came to light in the bogus investigations of me and my businesses, they could have done to me what they did to Hansen," said Eliopulos, who was shocked that a U.S. Representative, or anybody for that matter, could be treated this way in America.
What could an esteemed member of the U.S. Congress have done to deserve such treatment?
A series of events were triggered to allow crimes to be manufactured which led to the imprisonment and torture of Congressman George Hansen. Idaho District Federal Judge Edward Lodge, who has been used by bankers and government officials for a decade to "legalize" their unethical and criminal activities, was given the job of putting Hansen away and seeing to it that he learned a lesson.
Judge Lodge saw to it that Hansen received "diesel therapy" coming and going to prison from the judge’s court at great cost to the government, even though Hansen should have been allowed to make such trips at his own expense.
On the way from his hometown of Pocatello to federal prison in Petersberg, VA, Hansen was bussed and flown, nearly immovably shackled, at taxpayer expense, to jails all over the country. Not Hansen’s lawyer, his wife, nor his allies in Congress were able to locate him. Hansen had simply disappeared for a month into the custody of the Federal Marshal’s Service.
Hansen’s wife didn’t know whether he was dead or alive. And even when the Supreme Court overturned Hansen’s original case and the Appeals Court vacated his current sentence, Hansen still got the Judge Lodge treatment of another dose of diesel therapy from Virginia back to Idaho.
What had Hansen, who was a model prisoner, done to deserve the most brutal, torturous and barbaric type of treatment this country’s penal system is capable of inflicting on a prisoner?
Congressional Accountability Project
Retired Congressman Tom Kindness (R-Ohio) stated, "I believe that George’s recent trial and conviction on charges of "bank fraud" was the direct result of a campaign by various members of the bureaucracy to stop the CAP."
CAP, the Congressional Accountability Project, was being launched by Hansen and a group of investors interested in good government. CAP was going to utilize nation-wide television and a national 900 number to make congresspersons instantaneously accountable to the American people for their votes on the House and Senate floors.
"This was a project which would, in my opinion, have had a major impact on the votes of congressmen since it would have made them instantaneously responsible to the people by making their votes known immediately after being cast," commented journalist John Voss.
Hansen and his associates were on the verge of making CAP fully operational and accessible to the American public when the government, through the Idaho Department of Finance with the illegal help of former IRS agents, a revenge-minded Justice Department and the corrupt Judge Lodge, manufactured bank fraud charges against him.
Judge Lodge’s provably compromised court ultimately found Hansen guilty and prescribed diesel therapy to teach him a lesson.
Why did the "Honorable" Judge Lodge treat Hansen like Public Enemy #1?
George Hansen was the only member of Congress able to pull the strings necessary to visit the hostages in Iran in 1979 and expose the big-bank scam behind the crises. George Hansen was the author of the book To Harass Our People, an indictment of the IRS, where he demanded its dismantling. George Hansen was the congressman who was so outraged by what he discovered about the IRS while researching his book that he wrote and helped to pass the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. George Hansen was the first man to propose the flat tax as a damage control alternative to protect the people from IRS abuses. George Hansen was the man who took on OSHA, WPPSS, and the INS, and George Hansen was the man who fearlessly and repeatedly made public his findings when investigations turned up government corruption and citizen abuse.
The "system" decided it had to teach Congressman Hansen a lesson because, had he been allowed to continue serving on Capitol Hill, he would soon likely be the chairman of the powerful House Banking Committee.
So, why did Judge Lodge, whose personal reasons for needing to keep the well-documented criminal nature of the banking industry below public scrutiny, with the help of the Idaho Department of Finance, trump up a bank fraud conviction by denying the admission of exonerating evidence in court in order to throw Hansen in prison and make sure that he was punished severely with diesel therapy?
Was it because Congressman Hansen was getting close to the truth and accumulating the political power it would take to finally and totally expose the banking industry and government for its criminal abuses of the American people?


Judge Lodge’s Court of Kangaroos


CAP was apparently the final straw and abusive criminal government had to shut Hansen down. On the eve of CAP becoming fully operational, powerful special interests and political enemies derailed the project and forced a domino effect of financial repercussions upon Hansen and his associates. The government then took the situation it had created and indicted, prosecuted and convicted Hansen of bank fraud. Though the treachery of Judge Lodge and the government disdained the patriotic financial sacrifices made by Hansen’s supporters for good government and callously prevented his efforts to re-pay them, it did not prevent Hansen from publicly pledging that these law breaking government bullies could never seal his lips, nor stop him from somehow paying back the people he owed and thereby keeping his word.
Every attorney who has read the court transcripts is concerned and confounded as to how George could have been convicted on bank fraud charges when the supervising bank officers were not only acutely aware of his financial operation and transactions, but were actively assisting him in his efforts for over ten years! "George defrauded no one and we can prove it," stated Congressman Kindness.
Hansen was not really imprisoned and tortured by "our" government for bank fraud, though that was the government’s excuse to lock him up and shut him down. Hansen was actually a political prisoner who was guilty of attempting to provide the American people with the ammunition of knowledge so they could successfully fight back against the senseless encroachment of government oppression which more and more is ruining the lives of all of us.
Hansen dedicated his civil service to facilitating a return to a Constitutional form of government which is of, by and for the people and "our" government felt threatened enough by his noble activities to see to it that he was imprisoned and tortured for daring to tell citizen/taxpayers the truth.
Hansen was the only U.S. statesman who cared enough to risk his own safety and political career to visit the hostages in Iran in 1979. While in Iran, Hansen saw first hand what happens to political prisoners, who were beaten mercilessly, who had finger and toe nails ripped out by the roots and who had been shackled until they were permanently disabled physically.
Hansen has also experienced first hand the same inhumane torture and it happened to him in the most "civilized" nation on earth, the only difference being that Hansen was denied treatment and pain-killers and had to rip his own deformed and infected toenails out.

*     With renewed vigor, Hansen is back and is calling on all concerned Americans, including members of Congress and other elected officials, to join him in the fight to restore accountability and decency to our stricken nation.

*     If They Can Do It

*      

*     To A Congressman

*      

*     Dept. of Finance/Judge Lodge

*      

*     Linked to Hansen Nightmare

*      

*     By Investigative Reporter Edward Snook

*      

*     of the Oregon Observer

*      


The Spokane Review Posts tagged: George Hansen An Idaho political story extraordinaire Posted by Betsy

Dec. 1, 2009 8:20 a.m.    1 comment

The recent Idaho Supreme Court decision that brought former seven-term Idaho Congressman George Hansen back into the news - he lost an appeal to get out of repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars to an Idaho couple he swindled in an investment scheme - recalled a remarkable chapter in Idaho’s political history. The former congressman, now 79, retired and living with wife Connie in Pocatello, served time in federal prison for a multimillion-dollar check kiting scheme in the 1990s, after previously going to federal prison for four counts of violating federal ethics laws by falsifying financial disclosure forms while serving in Congress. A crusading congressman who railed against the Internal Revenue Service and made a unilateral trip to Iran in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate for the freedom of American hostages, Hansen has long contended that the government was out to get him. In 1984, seven months after his conviction on the ethics charges - which later was overturned by a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision that modified the law - Hansen narrowly lost his last re-election bid by just 170 votes.



“George Hansen was one of those guys - a really engaging personality, a very effective campaigner, and had some loyalists to the very end despite his financial difficulties and legal problems,” said Boise State University political scientist emeritus Jim Weatherby. Hansen, the only sitting congressman ever convicted under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, lost one of the closest congressional elections in state history at a time when he was on his way to prison. Nine years later, when U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge sentenced Hansen to four years in prison for 45 counts of bank fraud in 1993, the judge said he was stunned that many of Hansen’s victims still supported him - even though they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. “I’ve never seen that kind of blind allegiance,” the judge declared.



Hansen, a Republican, was first elected to Idaho’s 2nd District congressional seat in 1964 and served two terms, before losing a challenge to Democratic Sen. Frank Church. He won election to the House seat again in 1974, and won re-election four times before losing to Democrat Richard Stallings in 1984. Hansen’s wife, Connie, ran for the seat in 1986, but came in second in a five-way GOP primary, losing to Idaho Falls Sen. Mel Richardson. Stallings held the seat until he left it in 1992 to run for the U.S. Senate, losing to Republican Dirk Kempthorne, who later served as Idaho’s governor.







Former Congressman George Hansen loses Idaho Supreme Court appeal





 Posted by Betsy



Nov. 30, 2009 8 a.m.    0 comments





Former seven-term Idaho Congressman George Hansen has lost an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court to get out of repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars to an Idaho couple he swindled in a investment scheme. Hansen was first ordered to repay Ann and the late James Meyers $300,000 back in 1993, when Hansen was serving a federal prison sentence for securities fraud, according to the court decision. He maintained he didn’t remember being served, and also questioned whether he received proper notice of subsequent default judgments against him in the case. In 2006, he filed two pro se motions resisting an order in the case, but then claimed he didn’t know about the default judgment until 2007, when he got an attorney. He also claimed in his appeal that he was “without substantial assets” to pay the judgment.



In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Warren Jones, the high court wrote, “Hansen’s argument strangely assumes that he was unaware of his own assets until 2007. Moreover, there is no reason why the judgment would become inequitable simply because the judgment debtor cannot afford to pay it.” The court also found, “Hansen personally received his initial service of process and also a mailed notice of the Entry of Default but did nothing.” The original default judgment of $299,350, with interest, has swelled to a judgment of $732,927.



The high court wrote, “Although Hansen characterized the investment as a personal loan to him, Meyers and her late husband invested nearly $300,000 in Ideal Consultants, what they believed was a legitimate attempt to build a revenue-generating program known as the Congressional Accountability Project. This was a fraudulent commercial transaction.” The court awarded costs and attorney fees for the appeal to Meyers. You can read the court’s decision here. Hansen, a Republican, was first elected to Idaho’s 2nd District congressional seat in 1964 and served two terms, before losing a challenge to Democratic Sen. Frank Church. He won election to the House seat again in 1974, and won re-election four times before losing to Democrat Richard Stallings in 1984.



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« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2011, 05:32:18 AM »



Diesel Therapy: U.S. Marshals Oversee Medieval Torture Caravan


http://educate-yourself.org/cn/dieseltherapy.shtml

http://www.uwsa.com/Uwsadisclosure.prison.html

Excerpt:

The harassment and torture that befell Congressman George Hansen came from prison officials, in the form of neglect for serious medical problems and health hazards in the prison work place. The torture also came from the Federal Marshals who cruelly transported him from one prison to another.

Political prisoners and those who are considered trouble makers arc given what prisoners call, "diesel therapy".

"Diesel therapy" consists of being put on diesel buses or airplanes and being transported from prison to prison for weeks and months at a time.

On the surface it sounds benign. What could be the problem with making a prisoner ride in a bus for hours at a time?

Torture American Style

Before the prisoner is put on the bus, he is put in handcuffs and shackles (leg irons). The handcuffs are tightened by a black box that stiffens the chains and puts the wrists in a 90 degree bind that painfully cuts circulation and damages the nerves. It takes several weeks for the circulation and nerves to return to normal. The handcuffs are connected with chains to a waist chain, which is in turn connected by another chain to the shackles which go around the ankles The prisoner can barely move once the shackling process is complete.

He is then placed in a small seat on a bus or airplane. (ED: George Hansen is a BIG man, standing well over 6'-3" and -- before his ordeal -- tipping the scales at well over 220 pounds.) Because of the shackles, the prisoner is forced to sit in one position for up to 20 hours at a time. And the guards will rarely go to the trouble of unshackling a prisoner. Prisoners who understand "diesel therapy" know that "fasting" is the only way to handle the ordeal without messing or wetting yourself.

But even those who are smart enough to abstain from food and drink, still have to suffer the stench of urine and feces which soon fills the bus or plane.

One other painful aspect of diesel therapy is the shoes that prisoners are forced to wear. They become too small. The cramped position and tight shackles cause the feet and ankles to swell. The shackles cut into the legs and cut off circulation. The blood pools in the feet and causes the feet to swell. The toes are forced up against the tops of the too small shoes, and unbelievable pressure is put on the toenails. The toenails soon become deformed, infected and painful.

Each day the metal shackles are put back onto raw and infected legs before the prisoner boards the bus. After weeks and months of diesel therapy, the ankles and shins have raw, infected and open wounds that will not heal.

Hour after hour, the prisoner sits in a cramped & painful position, with shackles cutting into already infected, raw flesh. Arthritis and bursitis compound the misery of the prisoners. The ingrown, infected toenails, which are jammed inside of purposely small shoes, cripple the prisoner to the point that he can barely walk or move when he is finally released from the shackles.

During the weeks and months of diesel therapy, the prisoner is out of contact with the rest of the world. In the case of Congressman Hansen, his wife did not know if he was dead or alive. His lawyer could not find him and therefore could not file court papers on time. Even the members of congress who were still trying to help him, could not locate him. During his diesel therapy" he disappeared into the black hole dug and run by the United States Marshals.

After "diesel therapy", Hansen was forced to operate on his feet himself. His toenails were so deformed that they pointed straight up. He could not wear shoes without excruciating pain. The only remedy that was open to him was to pull the toenails out by the roots. Our prisoners of war in SE Asia had their fingernails and toenails pulled out by their torturers. Congressman Hansen had to become his own torturer in an effort to stop the pain.

Several weeks ago, Congressman Hansen was testifying before his former colleagues in the House of Representatives. He told the story of his trip into Iran during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. He was the only United States official to get into Iran to try to negotiate an end to the crisis.

While he was there, he was shown the horrible human suffering that was inflicted upon the Iranian people by the Shah of Iran and his secret police.

He told his former colleagues about the horrors of the Shah's torture chambers. Ankles that had been smashed by heavy clubs. Legs that had been smashed and permanently scarred. Hands and feet that had no nails because they were repeatedly pulled out.

Then he stood up and walked around in front of his table. Leaning lightly on the table, he pulled up his pant leg and showed his former colleagues the raw, red scars on his own legs -- scars that stretched many inches, from his ankles up his shin bones. He told his former colleagues about his toenails, which have never grown back properly. He ended his "show and tell" session by informing the House that they did not have to travel to foreign countries to witness torture. All they had to do is visit any American prison and they would quickly find the effects of purposeful abuse and neglect on certain prisoners.

If his former colleagues have any sense, they will quickly reform the prison system, before any more of them end up there.

The scars on his legs and the lack of toenails were minor problems for Hansen. The major pain came from his teeth and deteriorating bones. These problems came from hazardous chemicals he was forced to work around during his job assignment in the prison power plant. The chemicals caused his bones to weaken and his teeth to become infected and turn to mush. The pain' of abscessed teeth was unbearable. To be able to function each day, without even an aspirin to dull the pain, he picked up a plastic cap used to splice electric wires. He placed the cap in the infected area and bit down on it all day and night.

During his four years in prison, he lost most of his teeth through willful neglect on the part of the prison officials.

Hansen was forced to sell his homes in Virginia and Idaho. Everything he and his wife had accumulated during years of hard work went to lawyers or to pay the fine. Even though his retirement was not supposed to be touched, through some nefarious deal, it was tapped to pay fines, thereby denying his wife the means to live. She was approaching sixty, had a heart condition and diabetes, but she was put out of her home and didn't even have the money to rent an apartment. With the help of their children and a job, she just barely made ends meet until Hansen was released.

They are now in their 60s and they are starting over with nothing. He still has health problems associated with prison life, and still needs further dental work. He drives a leased Honda and lives with his wife in a rented apartment in Pocatello, Idaho.

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/dieseltherapy.shtml
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