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Spook and Nuke
Captain Eric H. May - Military Corespondent
"Houston is at risk of a major terrorist strike. There is no doubt about this... There is simply no question -- they are looking to hurt us again... Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The Department of Homeland Security says Houston is one of the highest risk cities in the country, in the same category as New York and Washington." -- Commander Brian Klock
HOUSTON, Feb. 29 -- Cmdr. Brian Klock, a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, is on a mission to gain control of Southeast Texas Congressional District 22, the same petro-patch that once belonged to Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
A strong showing in Tuesday's state Republican primary could put him in a runoff contest for the Republican nomination of this most Republican area. Several of the 10 candidates vying for the party nomination have military and military contractor backgrounds. If none of them garners a majority of the primary votes, then Klock could become a viable runoff candidate.
It's hard to imagine being a more menacing figure than DeLay, known as "The Hammer" and "The Exterminator" before corruption charges ended his career, but Klock succeeds in spades. On Feb. 25 he pasted a huge billboard on Houston's Southwest Freeway showing the city's downtown district being consumed by a nuclear fireball rising up into a mushroom cloud. His inscription read: "The Threat Is Real -- Ask Brian Klock."
Accused of terrorizing the public, he offered a hasty excuse that strongly argued against both his intelligence and his honesty. "I want to make sure we didn't show it as a nuclear attack because I personally thought that would be over the top," Klock said. "It's up to the viewer to imagine what kind of weapon caused the fire."
Cuckoo Klock
"Politicians seem embarrassed by, and unwilling to use, America’s awesome place in the world as the greatest force for good for all mankind. I am a proud American and military man who knows how to keep and use a strong military." -- Cmdr. Brian Klock
Brian "I'm not a politician" Klock, as he styles himself, isn't subtle. For nearly two months now, since he announced his candidacy in early January, he has been plugging his guts with the military's "Meals, Ready to Eat" (MRE's) to boost the cause against "Islamofascists" -- and boost his superpatriot image in the process. He portrays himself as a lofty hawk bravely soaring above the Homeland state and global war in his counter-terror and counter-intelligenc
There's an old joke that we've used forever in military intelligence circles: "Ask me no questions. If I tell you the answer I have to kill you!"
There are few places in the United States where a character right out of the movie Dr. Strangelove, like Cmdr. Klock, could hope to impress his neighbors -- as anything but a dangerous militarist, that is. District 22, south and east of Houston and home turf for Big Oil, is one of those few places. It is an amalgamation of blue-collar rednecks in gas guzzling pickup trucks and well-off suburban Republicans in gas guzzling SUVs.
These were the Christian soldiers who once optimistically marched off to Bush's messianic war on Islamic terror wherever he proclaimed it to be -- which was, coincidentally, in the middle of the Middle East's oil resources. For the most part they believed that Islam was ready to be converted to Christianity, sectarian Iraq was eager for democracy, and postwar gasoline would be a dollar a gallon. They are more or less like the rest of the nation, God love them, and their greatest flaw is their blind patriotism -- which is what Cmdr. Klock is counting on.
Klockwork
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"I know a threat when I see it, and I am not afraid to take action. Today, I am sounding the alarm and leading you to join me in addressing the grave danger Houston faces from terrorists who want to destroy everything most precious to us -- our families, our homes, and our way of life." -- Cmdr. Brian Klock
Covert Cmdr. Klock is waging a terror war on the public consciousness with his "vote for me or die" approach, and he has some professional help of my acquaintance that purpose. Lt. Col. Gordon S. Fowkes and I were both members of the Army's 75th Division in Houston, which specialized in conducting large-scale training exercises. Whereas my own specialties were military intelligence and public affairs, Fowkes' background was military intelligence and psychological operations -- making him a perfect addition to the Klock fear campaign.
Whereas I wrote military analysis for the Houston Chronicle -- accurately predicting that Iraq would turn into a "quicksand war," Fowkes has intermittently worked as a Bush League military expert in the local media, a bellicose cheerleader yelling his heart out for the cheerleader in chief, exhorting a discouraged public to keep rooting for an eventual victory in the great game of war.
A few days after the largely unreported Battle of Baghdad in early April, 2003, Fowkes and I had a polite clash in an assembly at the University of Houston. It was about whether media coverage from Iraq had become a public affairs operation in the US public interest (as he asserted, or a psychological operation against the US public interest (as I asserted). I believe time has vindicated me, both in my negative predictions for the Iraq war and in my negative analysis of the US media's role in promoting, not reporting, the war.
In 2004 this dark character in Klock's dark horse campaign warned me that meddling with Bush administration illegalities -- as I had done in a complaint filed with the Army Inspector General -- was a hazardous undertaking at best. Reading his words, it's hard for me to judge whether he was being helpful or threatening:
"There may be evil plots, black bag operations, et al... I recommend that you seek professional help in order to protect your freedoms, rights, opinions, and personal safety. I did. And am alive because I did." Lt. Col. Fowkes to Capt. May, Feb. 5, 2004.
A couple of years later a minor flotilla of swift boaters attacked me and my flagship newspaper, The Lone Star Iconoclast, for our journalism, and they summoned Fowkes for support as a high-ranking Internet troll. According to Klock campaign manager Charlie Sena, Fowkes warned Klock & Co. to steer clear of me this week, as I was trying to interview them. Both Klock and Fowkes have refused to comment for this article.
Fowkes isn't the only dubious character associated with the Klock campaign. The grand admiral of swift boating, Texas millionaire Bob Perry, has patted Klock's back and padded his bank to help him along. Perry's endorsement and support bode well for Klock, since the dirty politics godfather gave similar patronage to up-and-coming George W. Bush in his Texas days, and to prior District 22 representative Tom DeLay.
Klockwise
"CDR Brian Klock's "Houston at Risk" billboard states the obvious, that Houston's refineries are an accident waiting to happen, even on purpose..." -- Lt. Col. Gordon S. Fowkes
Klock's mantra of a looming terrorist threat against Houston is old material, first written over five years ago by a local military analyst for publication by the Houston Chronicle. "Don't laugh at duct tape; it saves lives" http://www.ghosttro
In those days I was a supporter of the official account of 9/11 as an attack carried out by Al Qaeda under the direction of bin Laden. In the five years since then, I've learned better. On Feb. 23, just two days before the Klock campaign billboard showed Houston being nuked, my most recent terror analysis was published worldwide after being translated into several languages: "False Flag Prospects, 2008 -- Top Three US Target Cities" http://www.globalre
In last week's column, I repeat my assertion the five years earlier -- and Klock's assertion of two days later -- that Houston is the nation's top terror target. There has been one all-important change in my thesis, though: I no longer believe that Houston was in danger from Al Qaeda and bin Laden, but rather from "Al CIAduh" and Bush.
Call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, but Cmdr. Klock, a candidate who nukes Houston on a billboard, won't answer questions about his spooky past, won't return media calls and hangs out with a PSYOPS specialist is a pretty creepy character at best. At worst, he and his cronies from the global war and Homeland state may not be running a political campaign at all -- they may be running a military campaign to set up a false flag attack in Southeast Texas, and to explode the first nuke of World War III.
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Captain May is a former Army military intelligence and public affairs officer, as well as a former NBC editorial writer. His political and military analyses have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle and Military Intelligence Magazine. For more information, or for his interview schedule, refer to his homesite: http://www.spiriton