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Thursday, March 6, 2008
Subject: Babylon, Assyria and Egypt: Part 1.
Time: 1:40:09 PM EST
Author: mormons4justice
For those of you that read the Bible, you will find it talks about three forms of government "whose founder is Satan". Daniel and John bothe refer to these forms of government as "Beasts" because they "devour men".
Babylon: Which is Referred to as "The Great Whore". It is described as a female entity that commits adultery and fornication with all the nations of the earth. It was named by Nimrod, who built the tower of "Babel" to invade heaven and slay God. Nimrod was reportedly "slain" by Melchizedek, the King of Salem and his body hacked into pieces and sent to the four corners of the earth.
Babylon uses lusts and passions to enslave the multitudes. She is the Great Temptress. After she persuades them to partake of her "delicacies" and they are drunken with her iniquities, she turns them over, in chains, to her secret lover, Assyria.
Assyria: Also known as "The Tyrant", is portrayed as a male entity that is both cruel and ruthless without regard for flattery, gold or silver. Ninevah, the city that Jonah preached against, was its ancient capital. It was known for its brutal conquests which found the land before it, "A Garden of Eden" and left it "desolate" or empty.
Assyria was the conquerer of the Northern tribes of Israel. But, Babylon came to Israel long before Assyria arrived. The Southern kingdom of Judah, fared better at first because of righteous king Hezekiah and the Prophet Isaiah. But, they too eventually fell into the snares of the temptress Babylon, who took them into captivity.
Egypt: Interestingly enough, when the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon unite or "are married" You get the worst of both worlds and God's ultimate enemy, with Lucifer at its head, is established.
This becomes clearer when you realize that Osiris, whom the Egyptians, worshipped was hacked to death in the same manner as Nimrod by his evil brother Set. Through Isis (Babylonian entity Ashteroth), Osiris (Nimrod) was brought back to life and became the father of Horus (New Babylon).
Interestingly enough, Set was also worshipped by the Egyptians out of the belief that one could have "an agreement with hell and death" that they would not be harmed. Set, later named Saturn (Romans) or Satan, was also worshipped, along with Isis/Osiris by the apostate Israel when the built the golden calf and worshipped Baal.
While the worship of Ashteroth involved sexual orgies involving men and women and "feasts" involving massive amounts of alcohol/narcotics and food ; the worship of Set involved human sacrifice and, since Set was a male homosexual, his worship also extended to sodomy practiced by "soddomites".
While Babylon enslaved men to their lusts. Assyria simply made men slaves and governed through both fear and atrocities involving mass public executions of POWs, women and children. Thus we can see in Egypt, the merging of both Assyria (fear/tyranny) with Babylon (lusts, bribery and deceptions).
Now when we consider the role that Babylon plays in the Book of Revelation, we realize that she is not so much a political power as she is an economic one. When she is destroyed and burned with fire, we see that all the merchants of the earth mourn because it ends their ability to make money from the sale of her "dainties" which are manufactured to satisfy the lusts of men. Perhaps this has a greater reference to Sexual Slavery, Pornography, narcotics, tobacco, and other "things" designed to both satisfy and enslave the flesh.
Assyria, on the other hand, is portrayed as a cruel tyrant that will "break forth" in his cruelty without regard for gold or silver (he cannot be bribed). Assyria is a military state where the common man lives a meager existence as a slave of the state. (To be Continued)
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Subject: HOT!!! Was Curt Windhorst Blackmailed by Farmers???
Time: 8:34:22 PM EST
Author: mormons4justice
Mormons4Justice has just recieved a signed and sworn statement from an individual that swears they were repeatedly molested by Curt Windhorst, AKA Curt McLaughlin when they were a child!!!! This individual expressed a desire to see him prosecuted and asked to know of his whereabouts. If anyone knows his current address please send it to us so we can forward the document to the proper authorities!
The implications are beyond staggerring! Curt Windhorst, according to the individual, changed his last name and fled Utah to avoid being charged as a Sexual Predator! He is now known as Curt McLaughlin.
Now for the big question: We address this to Paul Hopkins, CEO of Farmers and Grand Wizard of the Farmers Inquisitorial Squad which WE hold responsible for the Great Mormon Massacre of 2002.
1. Didn't you "use" your private police force to "dig up dirt" on all of the Mormons that complained about being discriminated against while pretending to conduct an investigation????
2. Curt reportedly had a large sum of money in his bank account after your "investigation". Did You Bribe Him into stating that he was forced into writing his complaint by District Manager Paul Drockton or other Mormon Insurance Agents against his will???
3. Or did you blackmail him with the above information and threaten to expose his pedophile tendencies to law enforcement, in order to get him to publicly recant his complaint letter??? Being labeled a "Sexual Predator" can have a tremendous impact on one's ability to find gainful employment after they spend a decade or so in Federal Prison.
4. Whatever you did, it worked. Windhorst, a former rep with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals tried to overdose Drockton with "Celebrex", causing him to visit the hospital emergency room. At the time, Windhorst had a large stash in his basement of this "new and expensive" drug. He gave it to Drockton for free when the latter complained about pain in his shoulder.
5. Windhorst also met secretly with Jill Beard before she and Kevin Hatton decided to trash Drockton's credit, reputation and financial well-being. Is Curt the one who handed Jill the $100,000 payoff? Or did he offer her a lollipop and a car ride?
6. Wasn't it Curt Windhorst who met with the other agents that complained and talked them into withdrawing their complaints?
7. Didn'tCurt also meet with LDS Church leaders and reassure them that no "Mormon Discrimination was taking place at Farmers Insurance?" He would have been the right choice: President of his class at BYU; Aaryan physique with a poker face that would beat any casino? Even a returned missionary! Now those are Mormon credentials strong enough to fool even a savy G.A.
8. Didn't Curt Windhorst also deliver campaign donations to David Safavian and Chris Cannon? Utah's Mormon Congresssman who had 1 million in debt magically disappear and the whole insurance industry suddenly clamoring to triple his campaign chest?
9. Did Curt also meet with Joe Cannon to keep the whole "Mormon Massacre" out of the Newspapers? Joe was the head of Utah's Republican Party at the time! Mysteriously, a whole lot of money started coming into the Utah Party from Farmers and Friends! A large amount from California!
Poor Curt the "bagman" Windhorst, AKA McLaughlin. One would think that an individual with such a "dark and jaded past" would have a hard time finding employment after a name change; but he appears to be doing quite well as an Executive of a Cannon connected Medical Company in San Diego, California. Who said crime doesn't pay?
Meanwhile, one his alleged victims is in therapy. Who knows how many other victims are out there? One estimate is that there are 20 victims for every one that gets the perpetrator caught. We wish this victim all the best in her search for justice. Sadly, we can't help but believe that somehow, someway, Farmers will put her somewhere she doesn't belong!
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Sunday, March 2, 2008
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Subject: Mormon Uses Front For Mafia Operations?
Time: 12:09:16 AM EDT
Author: mormons4justice
LDS Convert once owned "Terrorist Flight School"; now linked to Sicilian Mafia
From a story in the Miami Herald on May 17, 1999 headlined “MAFIA HAS EYES ON CUBA:"
Sicilian mobsters are planning to set up shop in Cuba once President Fidel Castro is gone from the scene, GQ magazine reports in its May issue.
Mafia families want to use hotel, casino and public works projects to launder money and profiteer, GQ said in an article headlined Big Trouble in Havana, quoting U.S. and Italian law-enforcement officials.
GQ names St. Martin, in the Dutch Antilles, as a key organized-crime staging area for Cuba, and Rosario Spadaro, an Italian businessman with two hotels and two casinos there, as a financier with Mafia ties who is likely to be a key figure in future organized-crime ventures in Cuba.
 At the same time the Miami Herald says the Sicilian Mafia was seeking to re-enter Cuba, Wally Hilliard was also engaged in an “opening to Cuba.”
As we've reported before, photographs of Hilliard from his trips to Havana shows him strapping a Rolex with the must-have diamond beveled-face onto the presumably grateful wrist of one of Fidel Castro’s top aides, Guillermo Garcia Frias, known in Cuba as "the Commandante of the Revolution."
Aviation executives and former employees of Hilliard's, like his former Director of Operations Bill Bersch, had told us of their puzzlement at Wally's Cuban adventure.
“I used to look at Wally and Rudi and wonder what made them think they could start an airline,” he told us. “I mean, I was on the executive team, trying to start an airline, and from August 2000 to the present we had all of four business meetings. Even when you could get a meeting scheduled, somebody would tell you that it had been canceled... because Wally is in Havana.”
Have a cigar. We're waiting for Don Corleone to start
Hilliard had been looking to cut a deal with Castro, said Rob Tiller, who provided the photograph, to buy a 10,000 acre cattle ranch on the island for the Mormon Church in Utah, reportedly in anticipation of the resumption of normal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
The explanation never made sense. Now, we are led to wonder: Were Hilliard's visits to Havana part of Sicilian Mafia efforts to regain a foothold in Cuba?
The man who owned the Florida flight school which so many suspected terrorists called home remains seemingly immune to official questioning.
It was widely reported that Atta and several other hijackers made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Abramoff’s casino boats less than a week before the 9.11 attack,” we reported on June 21 2005.
We have learned they may have been aboard three.
“Two or three men linked to the hijackings may have been customers on the SunCruz ship that is based at John's Pass,” the St. Petersburg Times reported September 27, 2001.
“SunCruz Casinos has turned over security videotapes and documents to FBI investigators The cruise line also is giving the FBI a videotape from a Port Canaveral ship of a former customer that a casino manager thinks resembles one of the terrorists.”
Two days later the paper reported, “The Pasco CountySheriff's Office has notified the FBI that a local man thinks he might have seen two of the terrorist hijackers last month on a ‘Paradise of Port Richey’ gambling boat, a sheriff's spokesman said. Stephen Babus, 46, of New Port Richey reported to deputies that he saw two Middle Eastern men betting $ 700 to $ 800 a hand on roulette aboard the Paradise ship, which docks in Port Richey.”
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Monday, October 8, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Time: 1:09:06 AM EDT
Author: mormons4justice
TENDING THE (MADISON SQUARE) GARDEN
By Brad Rock
He is up by 5:30 most mornings. An hour later he takes his son to an early-morning LDS seminary class and returns to his Connecticut home to be picked up by a driver. His workday begins during the commute into New York, as he scans a half-dozen NewYork area newspapers and some clips from the previous day's out-of-town papers. He wraps up the segment by making calls from his car phone before being dropped off at his office.
For David Checketts, a 42-year-old BYU graduate who is president and CEO of Madison Square Garden, all his weekdays start like that. The business of business, when you're running the Garden, isn't an eight-hour-a-day proposition because the Garden, established in 1879 by railroad tycoon WilliamVanderbilt, isn't just a business; it's an icon. From his Manhattan office Checketts runs a sports and entertainment empire that generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually and has hosted the likes of Elvis Presley and Luciano Pavarotti, Muhammad Ali and Patrick Ewing.
Once Checketts arrives at work, the meetings begin. Meetings about the Knicks and how they can finally bring a championship back to the greatest city in the world. Meetings about an upcoming boxing card and, as Checketts says with a laugh, "talking with my good friend Don King." Meetings about the New York Rangers, who in recent months fired their coach. It's a wild pace, a frantic ride. It's a train speeding off into the night. The question Checketts is often asked is this: Will you ever get off?
"I hope so," he says. "I didn't grow up in this kind of environment; I grew up 15 miles outside Salt Lake City. My wife's life was also kind of slow paced. I actually prefer that pace. I say to her I wish I wasn't quite so busy. At the same time, I wanted to see what could be accomplished if I worked hard. I didn't know if I'd ever be in the middle of New York City, but it's been fun and very challenging, and I've met and worked with terrific people."
Checketts is indeed far from his beginnings in Bountiful, Utah. For someone who, as a teenager, watched the televised broadcasts of the New York Knicks, who idolized Dave DeBusschere and Walt Frazier, who thought Red Holtzman was the greatest coach of all, it is a very long way. These days he works with all three on a regular basis, dealing with basketball on the world's biggest stage.
"I was a normal laid-back Utah kid," he continues. "I did the same things other kids do. I didn't spend all night studying or aspiring to be anything in particular. I know I loved sports, especially basketball, and did spend a lot of long nights outside playing. We built an outdoor light for my court and spent a lot of late nights practicing, but a lot of kids do that.
"I had a lot of dreams, but I wasn't aspiring to do anything too spectacular."
He is up by 5:30 most mornings. An hour later he takes his son to an early-morning LDS seminary class and returns to his Connecticut home to be picked up by a driver. His workday begins during the commute into New York, as he scans a half-dozen NewYork area newspapers and some clips from the previous day's out-of-town papers. He wraps up the segment by making calls from his car phone before being dropped off at his office.
For David Checketts, a 42-year-old BYU graduate who is president and CEO of Madison Square Garden, all his weekdays start like that. The business of business, when you're running the Garden, isn't an eight-hour-a-day proposition because the Garden, established in 1879 by railroad tycoon WilliamVanderbilt, isn't just a business; it's an icon. From his Manhattan office Checketts runs a sports and entertainment empire that generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually and has hosted the likes of Elvis Presley and Luciano Pavarotti, Muhammad Ali and Patrick Ewing.
Once Checketts arrives at work, the meetings begin. Meetings about the Knicks and how they can finally bring a championship back to the greatest city in the world. Meetings about an upcoming boxing card and, as Checketts says with a laugh, "talking with my good friend Don King." Meetings about the New York Rangers, who in recent months fired their coach. It's a wild pace, a frantic ride. It's a train speeding off into the night. The question Checketts is often asked is this: Will you ever get off?
"I hope so," he says. "I didn't grow up in this kind of environment; I grew up 15 miles outside Salt Lake City. My wife's life was also kind of slow paced. I actually prefer that pace. I say to her I wish I wasn't quite so busy. At the same time, I wanted to see what could be accomplished if I worked hard. I didn't know if I'd ever be in the middle of New York City, but it's been fun and very challenging, and I've met and worked with terrific people."
Checketts is indeed far from his beginnings in Bountiful, Utah. For someone who, as a teenager, watched the televised broadcasts of the New York Knicks, who idolized Dave DeBusschere and Walt Frazier, who thought Red Holtzman was the greatest coach of all, it is a very long way. These days he works with all three on a regular basis, dealing with basketball on the world's biggest stage.
"I was a normal laid-back Utah kid," he continues. "I did the same things other kids do. I didn't spend all night studying or aspiring to be anything in particular. I know I loved sports, especially basketball, and did spend a lot of long nights outside playing. We built an outdoor light for my court and spent a lot of late nights practicing, but a lot of kids do that.
I had a lot of dreams, but I wasn't aspiring to do anything too spectacular."
Now, as head of one of the world's most famous sports venues, Checketts is boss to 500 full-time and 600 part-time employees. He directs the activities of the New York Knicks of the NBA, the New York Rangers of the NHL, the New York Liberty of the WBA, and the New York City Hawks of the Arena Football League.
In addition, the Garden is home to several other major productions. In recent years it has hosted the 1998 NBA All-Star Weekend (an event Checketts says was a high point of his professional career), the 39th annual (1997) Grammy Awards, and an extended run of The Wizard of Oz, featuring TV star Roseanne as the wicked witch of the west.
Checketts oversees the operations of the Hartford Civic Center, MSG Network, and Fox Sports New York, which are under the Madison Square Garden (MSG) umbrella, and his organization recently acquired Radio City Music Hall. MSG projects also include the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and an original production of A Christmas Carol. And then there is the Big East basketball tournament, assorted concerts, championship boxing matches, indoor tennis tournaments, and dog, horse, and cat shows. All totaled, MSG is host to more than 500 events in a single year.
Somewhere in the mix, Checketts squeezes in time with his wife and six children. After a 12-hour day, he works out at the Garden and often catches part or all of a Knicks or Rangers game. Then he rushes home to spend a couple of hours with his children before they go to bed. "It's a very demanding job that he has," says Checketts' oldest child, Spencer, "so he is away a lot. But my entire life as far back as I can remember, he has put his family before anything." And despite his busy schedule, Checketts is an involved father, says Spencer, a freshman at the University ofUtah and a publicity intern with the Utah Jazz. When Spencer was on the high school basketball team, his father never missed a game, he says.
In 1994 Checketts was named a Father of the Year by the National Father's Day Committee. "He's a dad before he's a CEO," says Spencer. "It was nice for him to be recognized for something that is more important to him than the things he's normally recognized for." And Spencer insists his father has kept his priorities, even in the midst of New York City big business. "He doesn't attend games on Sunday; he always sets aside Sunday as a family day."
"When he is home," says Checketts' brother Dan, "he truly pays attention to his kids. He has a good relationship with all his children." Part of that relationship is built through basketball games with his sons on the family court--usually instigated by Checketts himself. And how is he as a ball player? "He's got a great turnaround jump shot, but he's slow," says Spencer. "He's slow, and he can't go left."
Checketts' time with kids isn't limited to his own, as he is involved in numerous children's charities. His programs have raised $4 million in the past three years for children's diabetes research. He participates in child-abuse prevention programs and has helped sponsor a midnight youth basketball program. He also spearheaded a drive to get guns off the street, exchanging guns for tickets to Garden events. That program alone removed 100,000 guns from New York's streets. Various other charitable foundations and events have included Checketts on their rosters, and he received the first ever Corporate Hero Award from the Association for the Help of Retarded Children.
"The thing about charitable causes here is there is one around every corner, so we try to select things that are for children," he says. "We're trying to make the Garden a better place for children."
In 1995 Checketts was named one of the "Overclass 100," a Newsweek report on the "new elite of highly paid, high-tech strivers" who are "among the country's comers, the newest wave of important and compelling people." Of Checketts, the article said, "He attended Brigham Young University--where he lasted only one season on the basketball team. But now he controls the floor."
Although Checketts says he never aspired to his present position, it isn't as though he had no drive. In some ways the man had enough drive to win the Daytona 500. He didn't make the high school basketball team, being cut the first day, yet he stayed around to play football and compete on the track team.
After high school he came to BYU, where he made the basketball team as a walk-on and was a teammate of two-sport athlete Gifford Nielsen, who went on to become a football All-American and to play in the NFL for the Houston Oilers. On the first day of basketball practice, Checketts went for a rebound and caught Nielsen's eye with an elbow. It took 12 stitches to close the gash. Not to be intimidated, Nielsen came back with his eye bandaged the next day, played tough, and cut Checketts' eye. Still, they became fast friends, drifting apart only when Nielsen advanced to the NFL and Checketts moved into sports management. "I can't say enough for what Dave has done for BYU and the New York area, as well as what he's done for me," Nielsen has said.
Checketts began his sports management career inauspiciously. In 1981, fresh from BYU with an MBA, he joined a Boston business consultancy. After about two years of working on ordinary business, he was assigned to do research for a client who wanted to buy the Boston Celtics. Checketts interviewed numerous basketball experts on both the NBA and college levels about what it takes to make a great organization. In the process he met NBA commissioner David Stern, who at that time was the league's executive vice president. Checketts concluded that salaries were too high and that the league was out of touch with the rest of America. He also took a look at the fledgling Utah Jazz and proclaimed it "the worst franchise in all of sports."
As it turned out, the client never did buy the Celtics, but Checketts was on his way. Stern became commissioner of the NBA, and in 1983 Checketts returned to Utah to become executive vice president of, well, "the worst franchise in all of sports." A year later, at age 28, he became the Jazz president and the youngest chief executive in the NBA.
The early years with the Jazz weren't limousine years. In fact, Checketts' wife, Deb, would often ask him why he left the security of a Boston consulting firm to take the risk of heading up the Jazz. Revenue was so scarce that at times he had to hold his paycheck until the check for Jazz star Adrian Dantley cleared the bank. Team publicists had to bring paper from home to print stats on. Frank Layden, then the coach, instructed guards at the Salt Palace to let kids sneak in, hoping they would pay for a ticket the next time around. The Jazz couldn't afford prime-time commercials, so they ran homemade television ads in the wee morning hours, and there was the constant specter of the Jazz moving to another city.
But Checketts shook things up a little. One year, recalls David Allred, now Jazz vice president of public relations, he told the entire staff that they would sell tickets everywhere they went. How? By wearing tennis shoes with their suits, carrying basketballs, and sporting "Ask Me about Season Tickets" buttons. One Jazz staff member protested the tennis shoes requirement. "That's going to look stupid," he said. Checketts responded, "That's the idea." The trick worked, and the Jazz enjoyed record ticket sales that year.
In addition to ticket-sales gimmicks and other business management initiatives, Checketts brought in Larry Miller as a part owner. Under Checketts the team went from being several million dollars in debt to earning $10 to $15 million per season. The basketball end also improved. While Checketts was there, the Jazz drafted John Stockton and Karl Malone, and the foundation was set to become one of the NBA's best franchises.
At age 34 Checketts made a failed attempt to buy the Jazz from Miller. He and Miller developed differences, and eventually Checketts left to take a job under Stern with the NBA, where he served briefly as a vice president. He then became president of the Knicks and in 1994 was named president and CEO of Madison Square Garden.
Small-town roots aside, Checketts has adapted to New York. "I'm getting used to this lifestyle," he says. He is well liked by the media and popular with the teams. Although he laughs that "everyone was ready to throw me in the East River" when he allowed former Knick Xavier McDaniel to leave as a free agent, he understands the New York attitude. "No, second is not good enough," he says. "But the situation is they want--they crave--winners. The marketplace expects the best of itself. So they expect the best of everyone else."
Although immersed in New York and the Garden, Checketts remains close to Utah, keeping track of the athletic accomplishments and challenges of BYU, including its basketball team. "This is a program that needs to be built," he says. "It's not an easy place torecruit to, so it's going to be a challenge. But I believe strongly in stability and recruiting good players to an environment where you can have success and then sticking with them and showing patience."
Checketts, who is on the NBA labor-relations committee, has some concerns about the pro game as well. But he remains optimistic that the league and its spiraling salaries won't collapse under its own weight. "I think the NBA has had a tremendous past and has a very bright future," he says. "But there are going to be some hard times to get everyone thinking about the future. Obviously players and owners have had a partnership that has worked well and has created an environment in which everyone prospered. Guys like Larry Miller have bought teams for $16 million or $17 million that are now worth hundreds of millions. And salaries have gone from the hundred thousands to millions. People have to keep in sight the goal; to quote another BYU guy, Stephen Covey, we need to have a win-win situation for everybody. At the same time, if the model is not working, it has to be looked at. I hope everyone keeps a level head."
How long Checketts remains in his position is unclear. He says he is happy with his job and isn't looking elsewhere. However, his name repeatedly rises in connection with other high-profile sports positions: president of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic effort, future NBA commissioner, and even commissioner of Major League Baseball.
"People ask me if I want to be a commissioner, especially because I've been mentioned as a candidate for the baseball job," he says. "But those jobs seem even busier than the job I have, and I don't aspire to be any busier."
Still, Checketts hasn't stopped dreaming; he still has goals. "I think what I would like to do is own a team, just once, because of the close relationship I've had with David Stern and being involved with the labor-relations committee and the planning committee. My first love is the NBA, and that's probably the dream job--owning a team. I always think that would be the best spot: to own a team and to be able to build an organization with good solid stability and to watch young players grow."
Brad Rock is a sports columnist and reporter for the Deseret News.
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Time: 1:07:37 AM EDT
Author: mormons4justice
THE FIRE WITHIN
By Jeff Call, ’94 I had heard the stories about Mitt Romney, '71. Had a bulging file full of them. Too good to be true. Over the years those were the words many reporters and pundits had used to describe Romney, the chief executive officer of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) and the man behind the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.There was the time a coworker's teenage daughter was missing and Romney, then a millionaire venture capitalist, shut down his company's operations and took to the streets of New York City, searching for her door-to-door. She was found, in New Jersey, after articles about the search hit the newspapers.People had described him as telegenic, charismatic, and savvy. In 1994 he challenged Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts icon, for his seat. Romney lost the campaign, but gave Kennedy a major scare. Had Romney been able to win, it would have been one of the greatest upsets in American election history. He garnered 41 percent of the vote—not bad, considering only 13 percent of registered voters in the state are Republicans. "It was like being in a ski race with Jean-Claude Killy," Romney later joked.There are the amazing tales of his business acumen. After graduating in English with highest honors from BYU, Romney received an MBA from Harvard Business School and his juris doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He cofounded a Boston-based venture capital firm in 1984. Under his guidance businesses like Staples and Domino's Pizza turned staggering profits.Then there's his unusual name. Actually, his first name is Willard, in honor of hotel chain magnate J. Willard Marriott Sr., a friend of the Romney family. His middle name, Mitt, came from an uncle who was a Chicago Bears quarterback in the 1920s.Friends and colleagues had mentioned his sense of humor, self-effacing manner, and down-to-earth persona. Last summer SLOC released a top-10 list, David Letterman style, of Romney's most memorable bloopers. One of those mistakes mentioned was a fund-raiser featuring bricks on which the names of donors were to be carved, except those bricks dissolved in cold weather.People had also said he is the ideal family man and devoutly religious. He and his wife of 31 years, Ann, have raised five sons, all of whom have either attended or graduated from BYU. People had brought up his membership and service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as his involvement in philanthropic enterprises and charities such as the Points of Light Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America. "Are they out of a time warp or something?" the Boston Herald once asked about the Romneys.The day of my interview with Romney, I arrived late for the appointment at SLOC headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City. While riding the elevator to the 13th floor, I thought I had squandered my chance to talk to arguably the busiest man in Utah. An SLOC aide found Romney and explained the situation. Seconds later, Romney's 6-foot-2 frame emerged. He appeared fit and trim with dark hair and Hollywood good looks, just as he had been described. He smiled warmly, ushered out another appointment, shook my hand vigorously, called me by name, and invited me to take a seat opposite him in his modest office. Romney sat in front of a window with a majestic view of the Wasatch Mountains over his shoulder.Certainly Romney had plenty on his mind. From Feb. 8 to 24, Utah will host the world and stage the largest Olympic Winter Games in history. The budget is $1.32 billion for the Winter Olympic Games and the Paralympic Winter Games, which follow in March. He oversees more than 700 employees and 26,000 volunteers. The Games are made up of 78 events and 165 sport sessions. A total of 234 medals will be awarded. The extravaganza will be watched by billions of viewers worldwide, and Romney will be in the global spotlight.During the interview, he seemed calm. He was gracious, patient, and witty. He looked me straight in the eyes. Never mind that he had answered many of the same questions countless times from the largest media outlets on the planet. He responded thoughtfully to each query. It became obvious that he loves his job."It has been very enjoyable to work in the Olympic movement and to meet the athletes who have long been heroes," Romney told me. "I've found people like Kristi Yamaguchi and Dan Jansen and Picabo Street and other famous Olympians and future Olympians to be inspiring. Working for causes that are more than just putting bread on my table is a pretty compelling endeavor."It was the winter of 1999, and a dark cloud hung over the state of Utah. An Olympic bid scandal had broken open, and SLOC was stuck holding the pieces. Both the Olympic and the state images were tarnished by allegations of bribery. Sponsors were jumping ship, the U.S. Justice Department was conducting an investigation, and the U.S. Senate was about to hold hearings. Around the nation and the world, fair or not, Utah had suddenly become synonymous with the word scandal.The 2002 Winter Games were on the brink of becoming one of the most conspicuous failures in the history of sport. The reeling SLOC desperately needed a new leader, someone who was squeaky clean, someone who had integrity, someone who could restore the world's faith in the Olympic movement. But did such a person exist? A search was launched. "The candidate I'm looking for," SLOC chairman Bob Garff said at the time, "is the white knight who is universally loved."SLOC found its white knight in Romney. And on the morning of Feb. 11, 1999, Romney took on the responsibility of rescuing the Olympics. People didn't know whether to congratulate or console him.At the press conference Romney immediately began to win over even the most jaded skeptics. He apologized for SLOC's mistakes. He promised that the Games would be run with impeccable ethical standards and that they would break even financially. And, finally, he said he aimed "to put on the best Winter Olympics in history."Romney may have sounded crazy, but he proved it wasn't empty rhetoric as he turned down the $285,000 annual salary that accompanied the job and contributed a reported $1 million of his own money to the Olympic effort."We began in a pretty deep hole following the bid scandal," Romney recalled that day in his office. "The community was disheartened. Our financial crisis, which was less visible, was just as severe. We were $379 million out of balance between our revenues and our costs."Nearly three years later and with the 2002 Games just around the corner, Romney has achieved what can only be called a miraculous turnaround. Not only has he managed to shear millions of dollars from the deficit, he has helped to pull in more than $180 million in new sponsor revenue. He instituted numerous cost-cutting measures, including the elimination of lavish, expensive perks. "Financially, we're back on solid foundation," he said. What's more, he has helped the public almost forget about the scandal altogether. Time, with a big boost from Romney and his staff, have healed many of the wounds inflicted by the bid controversy. No wonder Romney has been referred to as the man who may have saved the 2002 Games."Fortunately, the community has rallied to the Olympics and recognized that this is about sport, about young athletes, and about showcasing great qualities of the human spirit," Romney said, a smile spreading across his face. "They don't care so much about the old managers like me; they care a lot more about the young athletes and the spirit and values which they show the world. And so the community has rallied around the Games."Those who know Romney well are not surprised by SLOC's changes in fortune. After all, he has a reputation for making the most of the bleakest of circumstances. Though taking the reins of the 2002 Winter Games may have been his biggest challenge, it was far from his first.Romney has never let a little adversity stand in his way. In fact, he seems to relish against-all-odds situations. As the youngest son of late Michigan governor George Romney, Mitt watched his father help save a floundering American Motors Corp.Mitt attended prep school and ran cross country in Bloomfield Hills, an upscale suburb in the Detroit area. During a particular race, Romney fell woefully behind. His legs trembled and his stomach ached. Knowing he had no shot at winning the race, he nevertheless pressed on and tripped headlong onto the ground. Romney stood up and stumbled toward the finish line, where he collapsed. He was hauled away on a stretcher. In a way that story serves as a metaphor for what he has done numerous times. "The Romneys aren't known for having athletic talent," he has said, "but we are known for giving our all."Mitt soon left Michigan to enroll at Stanford. Following that first year he departed for a Church mission to France, which, he admits, was a humbling experience. While Mitt served his mission, his father contended for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, but lost.When he returned from France, Mitt followed his high school girlfriend, Ann, to BYU, where they continued their courtship. They married and moved to Boston so he could attend Harvard's business and law schools. With no income they sold Mitt's stock in American Motors to survive.After graduating Romney joined the Boston-based Bain & Co. Six years later he cofounded and was named CEO of Bain Capital, now worth a reported $5 billion. By the early 1990s he had decided to pursue political ambitions. He couldn't have selected a more formidable confrontation. A huge underdog as a conservative Republican, Romney surprisingly gave Sen. Kennedy the closest political race he had ever had.The unflappable Romney returned to his business and continued to prosper.Ann played a large role in the Romneys' moving back to Utah in 1999. The state was mired in its Olympic bribery scandal and local businessman Kem Gardner, who knew the Romneys from his service as a Church mission president in Boston, called Ann, explaining that Mitt would be a perfect fit for the SLOC. When Ann broached the subject with her husband, his first reaction was, "What do I know about the Olympics?" But he soon warmed to the idea, partly because of his strong Utah roots. Also, he was attracted to the position because, of course, he specializes in lost causes. Ann was eager for the task, too. She joked that, compared to raising five sons, the Olympics would be a piece of cake.And although at times Romney may have made the job look easy, the trials have continued.On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists brutally attacked the United States, questions abounded about the safety of the 2002 Winter Games. Many wondered aloud if the Olympics should be held at all. Romney responded respectfully and intrepidly. "Tears and prayers flood our hearts. But not fear. As a testament to the courage of the human spirit, and as a world symbol of peace, the Olympic Games are needed even more today than the day before," he said in a prepared statement two days after the attacks."The Olympics are about courage," he stated. "The Games represent the greatest qualities of the human spirit, including world peace. The message of the Olympics is even more important today than before."Since that time Romney has devoted much attention to public safety at the Games. He is confident that the Olympics will be safe and enjoyable for observers as well as participants.That day in his office, I asked Romney to fast-forward to March. What does he hope the Olympics will have accomplished once they are over? "I would like the people of the world who watched the Games on TV or were here to say, 'Well, Salt Lake got off on a rocky footing, but they did a great job, fulfilled their commitment to the world, and hosted a great Games,'" Romney said. "We have a motto for the Games, which is Light the Fire Within, and I believe that by coming to Salt Lake City, if we do our job well, people will go away feeling like they have had a fire lit within them or they've been inspired by the athletes and by the people they've met here and by their fellow citizens from around the world."As for post-Olympic plans, Romney's name has surfaced as a candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. But he told me he does not know what his future plans entail, though he does know he won't return to the business world."I want to remain involved in public service of one kind or another," he said. "I had a run at political office, and I will consider that again if the opportunity arises. But I'll also look at other charitable endeavors I've been involved with. It's perhaps not a surprise that having tasted the Olympic experience, I have grown accustomed to the flavor and want to continue to serve. If the opportunity is available after the Games, I hope to be able to continue in that vein."By the time the interview wasover, Romney was already late for his next appointment. Yet he escorted me out of his office, through the lobby, and to the elevator. He shook my hand again."It was nice to meet you," he said. "Thanks for coming."Now I had my own Mitt story to add to the collection.Related Articles: Hosting the World, Olympic Dreams at 80 mph
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RESPONDING TO TERRORISM
BYUM: How did terrorists catch the United States government unaware on Sept. 11, 2001?Taylor: Often in the past it has not been a failure to collect information but a problem of "information overload" for those who have to analyze and make decisions about it. After the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy, people cried "intelligence failure." I worked for a senate committee that did an investigation of what happened. We concluded that, in retrospect, all of the information needed to issue a timely warning was present in the intelligence data. But, at the time, the "message" was difficult to separate from the "noise." That is, what was easy to see after the event was hidden in an overload of information before the event.BYUM: What can the U.S. do now to prevent terrorist attacks?Taylor: We've got to get better human intelligence. We may also have to develop better technical means of reviewing the surveillance that is gathered, so we can detect activities earlier. It is said that
the CIA has the equivalent of about six semitrailer loads of information dumped into it every day. So I think we need to strengthen our analytical intelligence.BYUM: What needs to change to improve intelligence activities?Taylor: The U.S. intelligence community is made up of 13 separate agencies and each one has a special jurisdiction or function. And there is no hierarchy, no one office to force cooperation. For example, the FBI can only work in the domestic arena while the CIAcan only work in the international arena. But terrorists operate in both and sometimes get lost in the gaps between the two agencies. We need to find ways to close those gaps.BYUM: The book you coauthored with Earl H. Fry, '71, and Robert S. Wood, is titled America the Vincible. How is the U.S. vulnerable?Taylor: Dramatic changes in travel and communications have linked nations, especially America, to the rest of the world in inextricable ways. Because of those linkages every nation, especially America, is more vulnerable, more vincible. To be completely invincible, we would have to be able to stand alone, with virtually no contact with the rest of the world. We cannot do that. The very freedoms which we celebrate have led to our interdependency and our vincibility.BYUM: How can Utah prepare for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in February?Taylor: Security requires physical security on the spot and the collection and dissemination of intelligence about threats to that physical security. We are probably going to have a lot more security officers. We're probably going to see no-fly zones. We will have closer inspection of people and their equipment and goods. I think we will have a high priority in some of the federal agencies that collect electronic surveillance.But again, is it not true that we give in to the terrorists without a fight if we stay home from the Games, or if we alter the Games in such a way to prevent terrorism that they are not the true Olympic Games? Then they've won. So I hope the Olympics are enormously successful because they will be a symbol that American life has not been disrupted.BYUM: How should individuals react in order to diminish the perceived successes of terrorists?Taylor: The word terror comes from the Latin terrere, which means "to tremble." The purpose of terrorism is to make us tremble as a nation. The best thing we can do is to get back to business. That lets them know that we can absorb something like this. It's a tragedy and lives are affected, but we'll press on. We still stand for those great principles of freedom, agency, and individual choice that we've always stood for. We have to be careful that we don't lose those in our response.
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