On blogging & secrecy

Over the years, a wide range of people of diverse backgrounds have been gracious enough to write to me. It's rather stunning really. I'm extremely grateful that they were willing to share their knowledge and experience with me.

Some correspondents I have had the pleasure to meet in person. Such meetings allow greater discussion and frankly, the ability to discuss things that just can't be put in writing for a variety of reasons. Reasons such as privacy, national security issues, classified information, possible slander or libel, and just protecting sources because they don't want to be identified. There's some information I still sit on years after the fact just because I feel it would unnecessarily hurt some folks feelings. I'm a bit of a softee that way.

I'll give an example.

I know who hijacked the domain registration for John Dawkins company mesopotamiagroup.com and I know why the person(s) did it. Here's the thing. The actual hijacking - who did it and why - is not important. But what is important is what the hijacking tells us about the interpersonal dynamics behind the scenes at Dawkins' predecessor logistics company, Ultra Services. Those interpersonal dynamics are vitally important to understanding the various parties different motivations. It is my own belief that understanding these motivations is the key to unlock the mystery of what happened to Kirk von Ackermann and Ryan Manelick back in 2003.

So there's one minor secret that I don't feel I can reveal in public.

There are at minimum two more secrets that I would like to reveal but can't for the various reasons listed above. I trust the different sources and have no reason to doubt the veracity of the information. Assuming it's true, it should take investigators less than 2 weeks to solve both the disappearance of Kirk von Ackermann and the murder of his colleague, Ryan Manelick. It is my understanding that investigators have access to the same information that I do but bias and a predisposition to a presumption of guilt has slightly derailed their case. One of these days a fresh set of eyes will pick up the cold case files from CID and set things back on course.

Meanwhile, bit by bit, it does seem that secrets eventually out themselves. A recent outing, of course, being the name of the counter terrorism group that Kirk von Ackermann was a member of - DO5 or the Asymmetric Threat Division.

So that's one down with more still to come. It's just a matter of time.

Hopefully, I'll still be around to link to the final story and write the closing post for this blog.

Ryan Manelick Remembered

Brief mention today of Ryan Manelick in a memorial article at the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era. According to his obituary, he had family in the area, his mother and grandfather. His remains were eventually buried there. Manelick and Kirk von Ackermann were two of Iraq's earliest civilian casualties.

9/11: A decade of personal tragedy for countians
By Jon Rutter, Lancaster Online, September 11, 2011

A total of 18 men and one woman with ties to Lancaster County have been lost as a consequence of the decade-long war on terror. [...]

A second theater of war opened in Iraq in March 2003, with the George W. Bush administration contending that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Lancaster County's military-related casualties began in 2003, when Ryan Manelick, a defense contractor, was shot and killed in Baghdad.

Actually, Ryan Manelick was killed about an hour outside of Baghdad, just south of Balad, in what was reported as 'Addujayal, Iraq' - likely Al Dujail - in a report issued by the US Department of State (see reference here). A map of the area is below.

The murder of Ryan Manelick remains unsolved.


View al Dujail, Iraq in a larger map

DO5 in the News

Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold have a new article on the former military intelligence unit, DO5, and its work tracking Osama bin Laden over at Truthout. Kirk von Ackermann, the longest missing American in Iraq, while serving in the US Air Force, was a member of DO5. DO5 also known as the Asymmetric Threat Division, was created by the Director of Intelligence of Joint Forces Command.

New Documents Suggest DoD Watchdog Covered Up Intelligence Unit's Work Tracking 9/11 Terrorists
By Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold
Truthout, September 9, 2011

Declassified powerpoint slides obtained by FOIA accompany the article. I'm a bit curious if anyone has filed an FOIA for the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) mentioned on Slide #2. (I like paper trails....)

Also worth your attention, there's an interview with author Jeffrey Kaye on theReal News.com discussing his research.



So. Still blogging. Anniversary of Kirk von Ackermann's disappearance is coming up - number 8. And still no answers.

Addendum:

Additional commentary and discussion with Jeffrey Kaye over at the Dissenter at FireDogLake.

IG Report Cover-up: Top Military Officials Hid Evidence of Pre-9/11 Al Qaeda Intelligence
By Jeffrey Kaye, September 10, 2011

In particular, Kaye's commentary is worth reading carefully. He notes, "...The falsification was meant in particular to hide the work of the 9-person unit within JFIC, known as the Asymmetrical Threats Division, or DO5 in military lingo."

The following 6 individuals were at some point associated with the Asymmetric Threat Division during the tenure of Captain Kirk von Ackermann between November 1999 into 2000 (exact end date unknown).

Commander Rear Admiral Rose LeVitre, USN
Director Captain Janice M. Dundas USN
Captain Stephen F. Santez Jr., USN
Division Head Major Oliver Wright III, US Army
Deputy Division Head John Rodriguez NCIS
Captain Kirk von Ackermann USAF