Where is he now?

Orville Brettman is a Technician at the Great Lakes Regional Office of the FAA in Des Plaines, IL.

That's right; an avowed former member of the right-wing terrorist group "Legion of Justice," is more than likely working alongside air-traffic controllers monitoring the air-space around Chicago, or maintaining the airplanes that fly in and out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Kind of ironic; Brettman has spent his entire life speaking and acting out against the ever increasing involvement of the Federal government in the lives of American citizens, but since 1997 he's been employed by the Federal government.

But then again, maybe Orville Brettman has always been employed by the Federal government? 

SECRET AGENT MAN

From PublicEye.org - The hunt for Red Menace: 7

A certain percentage of private security and investigative agencies will engage in spying if the motivation or fee is high enough. Many of them are staffed by former government intelligence officers who resented the short pay, long hours and most especially the tiresome restrictions designed to keep public investigations within constitutional guidelines.

 

<snip>

 

"It can become de facto a national police force; what it lacks in organization and formal structure, it makes up for in ubiquity ....the prospect of a shadowy army of a million private cops ready to do the bidding of whoever will pay their wages is enough to make even the most ardent law-and-order advocate a little nervous." 

 

<snip>

 

Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI

 

A 1975 FBI Society list (the last edition to slip out of the highly secretive group's tight fist) showed that in that year there were almost 7,000 former FBI agents employed nationwide and paying dues to the Society.

 

<snip>

 

Of the over 100 former FBI agents listed as Society members in Chicago in 1975, more than half were in law enforcement or with private security firms or in corporate posts dealing with security, investigations, personnel management, or labor relations. Among the Chicago firms with former FBI agents in these posts, according to the 1975 list, were: Standard Oil, E.J. Brach Candies, Purolator Security, American Airlines, United Airlines, R.R. Donnelly & Sons, Illinois Bell, Walgreen's, Canteen Corporation, Edward Hines Lumber, Continental Can, Playboy, Beatrice Foods, Texaco, and Marshall Field's.

 

<snip> 

 

If such an agreement seems hard to believe, consider that former members of the Legion of Justice in Chicago report that they also were told by people introduced as government agents that the Legion might be asked to help round up radicals for preventive detention in an emergency. In fact, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the roundup had two operational names, Lantern Spike and Garden Plot, and training manuals for the operation were actually produced by the U.S. military.

Lantern Spike documents       

On July 29, 1967, President Johnson issued Executive Order 11365, establishing the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, more commonly known as the Kerner Commission, for it's chair, former Major General, and then Governor of Illinois, Otto Kerner.

 

The executive order sought recommendations in three general areas: "short term measures to prevent riots, better measures to contain riots once they begin, and long term measures to eliminate riots in the future."(5) Their two immediate aims were "to control and repress black rioters using almost any available means", (6) and to assure white America that everything was in hand. Commission members included Charles B. Thorton, Chairman and CEO, Litton Industries, member of the Defense Industry Advisory Council to the DoD and the National Security Industrial Association, John L. Atwood, President and CEO, North American Rockwell Corporation ("Commission Advisor on Private Enterprise"), and Herbert Jenkins, Atlanta Chief of Police and President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

 

As time went on, "Garden Plot evolved into a series of annual training exercises based on contingency plans to undercut riots and demonstrations, ultimately developed for every major city in the United States. Participants in the exercises included key officials from all law enforcement agencies in the nation, as well as the National Guard, the military, and representatives of the intelligence community. According to the plan, joint teams would react to a variety of scenarios based on information gathered through political espionage and informants. The object was to quell urban unrest."

 

In essence, the contemporary roots of militarized efforts to suppress domestic rebellion lie in the US Army¼s master plan, Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2, Garden Plot. Since at least 1968, the military has expended billions of dollars in this effort. The plan is operative right now, most recently during and after the Los Angeles uprising of 1992 (from article published in 2000).

 

A view into details of this plan is possible by way of an examination of United States Air Force Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2, Garden Plot which is the "implementing" and "supporting plan for the Department of the Army (DA) Civil Disturbance Plan - GARDEN PLOT ‚ dated 1 March 1984 (which) provides for the employment of USAF forces in civil disturbances." It is specifically drawn up "to support the Secretary of the Army, as DOD Executive Agent for civil disturbance control operations (nicknamed GARDEN PLOT), with airlift and logistical support, in assisting civil authorities in the restoration of law and order through appropriate military commanders in the 50 States, District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and US possessions and territories, or any political subdivision thereof." The plan "is effective for planning on receipt and for execution on order."

 

Conditions precipitating Garden Plot activation are "those that threaten to reach or have reached such proportions that civil authorities cannot or will not maintain public order."

CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY

CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY ILLINOIS

Orville Brettman is the McHenry county coordinator for Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty.

Brettman's past actions seem to conflict with Paul's emphasis on civil liberties as expressed in the American Freedom Agenda Act and his warnings against the dangers of a surveillance state.

Orvbrett
County Coordinator
Location: Huntley, IL
Last login: 06/08/09
RSS feed

Active in conservative politics since High School

United States Marine Corps Vietnam Vet.

Elected Village President of Carpentersville Illinois in 1977 at the age of 29 in a three way race winning 68% of the vote.

McHenry County Coordinator of the Ross Perot Campaign in 1992 getting 24.6% of the popular vote in the general election (2nd highest county vote percentage in the U.S).

Member of Govenor Richard Lamm's Campaign Staff in his 1996 bid for the Reform Parties nomination.

Attended Republican Central Committee campaign school in 1978.

State Representative Cal. Skinners* campaign manager 1994

1976-1985 President of Jukes & Shafer Inc. 'Metal Finishers since 1886'

1985-1987 General Manager of the Parallex Corporation

1988-1996 Broker Owner / Town & Country Real Estate

1997- Present  Federal Aviation Administration

* ...Cal Skinner started a second string of terms in the House in 1993.  This time he ran as an outsider, challenging the “country club” Republican machine of County Auditor Al Jourdan. Jourdan, a transplant from Chicago, copied the city machines precinct organization style and rebuilt the local Republican Party into an unbeatable monolith. Despite his success, movement conservatives led by Cal Skinner, despised Jourdan for supporting moderate pragmatists to local offices and backing the “Go-along-get-along” king, big spending four term governor Jim Thompson....

 

Over the next three terms Cal would work with various anti-tax, pro-life, pro-gun advocates in trying to knit together a coalition that they hoped would eventually seize control of the County and State parties......

Campaign For Liberty's Mission

Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

04/29/09 

Membership/Coordinator Positions
Our membership continues to grow at a steady pace, thanks to the dedication of the many patriots among us who are working extremely hard to spread our message. We now have 5,272 members, 1,102 members with user accounts, and 76 local coordinators; a growth of 112 members, 47 user accounts and 3 local coordinators. 
Welcome to all of the new members! 

We were able to fill many coordinator positions this week, and we are pleased to announce our 7 new additions. Our new coordinators include: Louise Schneemann, Region 2,  Stephen Jaye, Region 4, David Ratowitz, Region 5, Justin Kuehlthau, Region 10, Jeremie Schultz, Lake County, Orville Brettman, McHenry County, and Jason Riddle, McLean County.  We still have a couple of Regional positions and many County positions to fill, so if you are interested in a coordinator position, please let us know.

CHICAGO (AP) —U.S. District Court Judge Hubert L. Will has agreed to permit Carpentersville Village Board President Orville Brettman to post part of the $50,000 bond to free Richard Beck, who has been accused of being a South African gunrunner.

Will said Tuesday he will allow Brettman to put up about $30,000 worth of his property as security if Beck reports daily to the FBI and Brettman monitors Beck's activities while' he awaits trial.

Brettman has said Beck may stay at his home following his release from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal lockup in Chicago.

Beck's release was opposed by federal prosecutors, who said testimony Brettman gave a Cook County grand jury in 1975 shows that he is willing to break the law when it suits his objectives.

Prosecutors submitted a copy of the transcript of that testimony Monday to Judge Will:

Brettman is quoted as saying that he participated in burglaries committed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the right-wing Legion of Justice.

The prosecutors also noted that Brettman had told reporters he is philosophically opposed to the U.S. arms embargo on South Africa.

Brettman has been in the public eye since he and Carpentersville village manager and the town's six trustees went to jail early last month after refusing to obey a court order to issue building permits for a housing subdivision.

Beck was indicted in August by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated a U.S. embargo on arms sales to South Africa. He is accused (and later convicted) of smuggling' firearms to South Africa from a Michigan gun company.

Brettman said he met Beck while he and the other village officials were in jail.

Vigilantes, Will they Ride Again?

"Atty. Gen. Mitchell was behind the times when he said that this might happen. We've been ready for five years."

"His statement hasn't been a signal to us that it would be safe to attack the Communists and the revolutionaries," said John. We already have taken action against the left."

One such event, said Don, was "the visit to the SDS headquarters in Chicago, where we liberated a notebook, made copies of it and then put it back. The notebook which was mainly a very interesting address book, was in the handwriting of "Kathy Wilkerson."

Miss Wilkerson is listed as a fugitive by the FBI. She was last seen March 6, fleeing from a Greenwich Village brownstone house demolished by an explosion.- Authorities later said it was a bomb factory for the Weathermen, a revolutionary group which split off from the SDS. Three persons inside the house were killed.

The two young men made these major points about the Legion of Justice:

— There are perhaps 200 members, nationally. "We intend to keep it small for security purposes and for effectiveness. That's all you really need in a highly-trained guerrilla band," said Don.

— The members are formed into small units called networks. Each network has from eight to 15 members.

— There are networks in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. Members in other areas, such as California and Colorado, are essentially "from the remnants of the underground Minutemen."

— Each network has an arms cache providing at least one M16 automatic rifle; 60mm mortars; mace and other chemicals; grenades; dynamite and other explosives; hand weapons of all sorts. "We have machine guns, too," said John.

— There are two wings. The main one is strictly military in nature. The other is the political propaganda wing, which checks out new members, concerns itself with security, intelligence and so on.

— Field exercises are conducted regularly. "We use live ammunition," said Don, "because that's what will be used against us. The last field exercise we had was in the Chicago region on Oct. 18."

At present, Legion activity is limited to field maneuvers, gathering of information, securing weapons and harassment. Sometimes there is a direct action such as the June 27 "visit" to the Socialist Workers Party election campaign headquarters in Chicago. The SWP claimed the office suffered $2,000 damage and that files and equipment were stolen.

The Legion's Don and John said material was "liberated." This was the same word used to describe the removal of the so-called Kathy Wilkerson notebook from SDS headquarters in Chicago.

Vigilantes? "No," said John. "That goes for the amateurs. We're trained and we're professional."

Right-Wing Terrorism

By Sean Shesgreen

June 4, 1970

To the Editors:

A right-wing terrorist group calling itself the Legion of Justice has recently been engaged in acts of physical attack, intimidation, robbery, and death threats against Movement individuals and organizations in the Northern Illinois area. Victims of these harassments have been the Young Socialist Alliance, the Socialist Workers Party, Newsreel, the Guild Bookstore, the IWW, a Chicago Peace Council member, and other Movement people.

The right-wing Legion of Justice was organized by S. Thomas Sutton (also founder of the racist Operation Crescent) and includes members and supporters of the Minutemen. The reactions of the police and the State's Attorney's Office to the Legion's activities thus far have ranged from indifference to outright collusion.

The Committee for Defense Against Terrorist Attacks has been organized in response to the Legion of Justice. To effectively combat fascist attacks and the atmosphere they create, a vigorous campaign must be launched involving a broad range of individuals and organizations. The Committee is involved in such a campaign; and its focus is to defend the right of individuals and organizations to engage in political activities free from right-wing harassment and to expose groups like the Legion of Justice and "official" indifference to their illegal acts.

In order to effectively carry on this campaign to overcome the challenge of these ultra-right-wing elements, we have incurred a great deal of expenses (legal fees, printing costs, mailing costs) that have left us deeply in debt. The Committee needs to raise funds to continue its work to stop this threat to civil liberties by the Legion of Justice. This financing comes through supporters of our defense work. Therefore, we are asking all those who support our campaign to send us a contribution so that we may continue this important work.

Thank you.

Sean Shesgreen

Chairman of the Committee for

Defense Against Terrorist Attacks

Northern Illinois University

DeKalb, Illinois 60115

Sponsors: Leonard Boudin, NY attorney; Noam Chomsky, MIT; Richard Criley, Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights; Lawrence Grauman, Jr., editor, the Antioch Review; Louis Kampf, MIT; William Kunstler; Sidney Lens, co-chairman, New Mobilization Committee; Bob Lucas, Black Liberation Alliance; Staughton Lynd

The Legion of Justice, The CPD Red Squad, and The 113th Military Intelligence Unit

In Chicago, the CPD Red Squad (a member unit of the LEIU) was in daily contact with the 113th MiLitary Intelligence group during the late 1960s and early 1970s, passing along intelligence reports and receiving a variety of technical assistance. The 113th also provided money, tear-gas, MACE and electronic surveilance equipment to Legion of Justice thugs whom the Chicago Red Squad turned loose on local anti-war groups.

On at least two occasions the fruit of the Legion's burglaries turned up in army hands. In one case documents stolen from the defense attorneys in the famous Chicago Seven  trial growing out of disturbances at the 1968 Democratic Convention were turned over to the army by the Legion of Justice hoodlums.

Charges against the Chicago seven were brought by then US Attorney James Thompson. Two of the seven defendants were acquitted at trial, and convictions against the other five were all reversed.

Para-Military Group Had Aid From Police

 

April 9, 1975

 

An Informer has told Cook County state's attorney's investigators that Chicago police raided the paramilitary Legion of Justice in attacking peace and radical groups in 1969 and 1970.

 

Ralph Berkowitz, first deputy state's attorney, said Tuesday that raids reportedly were made on the Chicago Peace Council, Young Workers Liberation League, Young Socialist Alliance and Newsreel, a leftist film group.

 

The informer described two raids in which officers of the "Red Squad," a controversial intelligence unit since dismantled, stood sentry and later were given records and films seized by the Legion.

 

In the other two raids, members of the ultra-conservative Legion are reported to have beaten participants at rallies while police looked on, Berkowitz said.

 

It has been charged the department keeps files on noncriminal groups and individuals, including State's Atty. Bernard Carey and olher political figures, and that Red Squad officers infiltrated nonviolent civic and community groups

 

 

 

 

 

The Legion of Justice

 

April 13, 1975

 

 

A U.S. Army intelligence unit co-operating with Chicago police helped finance and direct rightwing terrorist activities in northern Illinois from 1969 through 1971, informants have told the Chicago Daily News.

 

The terrorists, who were members of a now-defunct organization known as the Legion of Justice, beat, gassed and wreaked general havoc on members of groups opposed to the Vietnam war. The Army unit, headquartered in suburban Evanston and known as the 113th Military Intelligence Group, supplied the Legion of Justice with tear gas, Mace and electronic surveillance equipment in addition to money, according to the informants.

 

 

Members of the legion planted electronic bugs in the offices of the American Friends Service Committee, a pacifist (Quaker) group headquartered at 407 South Dearborn Street, and the Independent Voters of Illinois, then located at 22 West Monroe Street, the sources said.

 

The Legion of Justice was a paramilitary organization headed by the late S. Thomas Sutton, a Chicago lawyer with close ties to members of the Chicago Police Department's intelligence division.

 

The Legion strongly supported U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war and openly advocated violence to disrupt anti-war demonstrations and meetings. In some instances, the informants said, Army agents assigned to the unit recruited young men to join the Legion and either paid them directly or gave Sutton money to pay their rent and expenses.

 

The sources added that the "recruits" were required to sign oaths their relationship with military intelligence. At the lime, according to informants, Legion members firmly believed what they were doing was "for the good of the country" — including breaking into the offices of various peace groups to steal records and inciting a disturbance on the campus of Northern Illinois University at De Kalb. In addition to the close ties Sutton and the Legion maintained with Chicago police and the 113th, the Chicago Daily News has learned, the right-wing terrorists also had "liaison" with police in De Kalb and other northern Illinois cities.

 

"The individuals weren't doing it for the money but they got anything they wanted," one informant told the Chicago Daily News. "They could have gotten $1,000 a week if they were mercenary about it but instead they just took rent money and living expenses. Maybe $80 to $100 a week."

 

The Legion conducted various terrorist raids in Chicago at the behest of Chicago police undercover officers. Among those "operations" were two raids on the headquarters of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) and another at the headquarters of a New Left film group called Newsreel. Chicago police waited outside while the raids were being conducted to "cover" for the Legion members in case their activities were discovered by other police, the informants said. Films taken from Newsreel's office in the 2400 block of North Lincoln Avenue were turned over to the 113th, which passed them on to the Pentagon, the sources said.

 

An employee of Newsreel who was beaten in the raid, chased the Legion members down Lincoln Avenue while marked Chicago police cars passively watched the escape, the sources said. In addition to the Newsreel and YSA raids, informants have told the Chicago Daily News, Legion members were enlisted as agent provocateurs to incite violence in 1970 in De Kalb.

 

On May 21, 1970, according to the sources, the 113th sent Legion members to the Northern Illinois University campus where a student referendum on ROTC was being conducted. Students voted to retain the ROTC program, but anti-ROTC students staged a demonstration to oppose the outcome of the referendum. Legion members joined that demonstration. "They were told to be the most violent persons there." one source said.

 

Later, that informant said, the 113th asked one member of the Legion to enroll at Northern Illinois to infiltrate new left activities. However, the Legion member declined the Army's offer to pay his rent and tuition at the university because he wanted to remain in the Chicago area, the sources said.

 

Despite a 1970 federal court suit against the 113th and a 1971 U.S. Senate investigation of Army spying, the Army's connection with the legion has been a closely guarded secret.

 

As a result of the publicity surrounding the suit and a federal probe, the 113th was reorganized and renamed. It now operates out of Ft. Sheridan, north of Chicago, and some of its former responsibilities reportedly have been assumed by the  Defense Investigative Service.

 

 

 

 

Socialist groups charge harassment

 

October 9, 1975

 

CHICAGO (AP) — Two socialist groups have filed suit accusing current and former police officials of Chicago and DeKalb of encouraging a band of right-wing terrorists to invade the homes and offices of two socialist groups. The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court on behalf of the Socialist Workers Party and the Young Socialist Alliance, was the fourth to arise out of a growing controversy over police spying.

 

Chicago police sat in squad cars outside the homes and offices of the socialists on at least ll occasions while members of the Legion of Justice broke in and beat the occupants with tire irons and bats, the suit charged.

 

Three defendants in the suit, which asks $7.9 million in damages, were Chicago police Supt. James Rochford, former Supt. James Conlisk, Lt. Joseph Grubisic, head of the department's "Red Squad," and Victor Sarridge, named in the suit as police chief of DeKalb. A former DeKalb police chief is named Victor Sarich.

 

Also named are Mayor Richard J. Daley, former Cook County State's Atty. Edward V. Hanrahan and two state investigators.

 

Among those accused were six members of the Legion of Justice and officials who ran the local offices of the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the 113th Military Intelligence Group and the Treasury's Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division. The defunct Legion of Justice, headed by the late Chicago attorney S. Thomas Sutton, openly boasted of its activities against radical organizations in the late 1960s. At one news conference, Sutton waved a fistful of documents taken earlier in a raid on the headquarters of the Socialist Workers party.

 

A similar suit has been filed in New York City by the Socialist Workers against the FBI and other federal agencies. It has turned up evidence of a longtime, widespread campaign against the party by the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO operation to disrupt radical groups. The Chicago suit, assigned to Judge Alfred Y. Kirkland, draws heavily on documents recently made public in other federal court cases involving intelligence activities of the Chicago police and the FBI.

 

The Socialist Workers party was formed by followers of Leon Trotsky who broke away from the Communist party in the early 1930s. The Young Socialist Alliance is the SWP youth group.

 

 

 

 

$1.85 Million awarded to the nine survivors and the relatives of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark

 

December 4, 1969, at 4:15 a.m., gunfire suddenly erupted and fourteen officers, working under the direction of Cook County State's Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan, burst into the home of 20-year-old Fred Hampton - the leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. When the sound of gunfire faded, Hampton lay dead in his bed, with Panther member Mark Clark nearby. Several other occupants of the apartment survived gunshot wounds. The police emerged unscathed. Police had pumped at least 98 rounds into the apartment. The falsification of ballistics and other evidence, and so on, led to the indictment of State's Attorney Hanrahan, and a dozen Chicago police personnel for conspiring to obstruct justice. This was dropped by Chicago Judge Phillip Romitti on November 1, 1972 as part of a quid pro quo arrangement in which remaining charges were dropped against the Panther survivors.

 

Edward V. Hanrahan is acquitted (Oct 1972) of conspiring to obstruct justice stemming from a controversial 1969 raid by his police on a Black Panther apartment. But his re-election bid loses to Republican Bernard Carey.

 

In November of 1982 - the City of Chicago, Cook County and the Federal Government entered into a settlement agreement that awarded 1.85 million dollars to the nine survivors and the relatives of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Cf. Hanrahan v. Hampton, et al., 446 U.S. 754, 100 S.C. 1987 (1980).

 

Ballistics experts determined that only one of the bullets was fired from a weapon belonging to one of the apartment's occupants. In addition, the experts said, the "bullet holes" in the front door, which the police said showed that shots had come from within, had actually been made by nails used by the authorities in an effort to cover up the facts of the raid.

 

Not a single officer or anyone at the State's Attorney's office or the FBI ever spent a day in jail for the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Some of the officers involved in the raid are still members of the Chicago Police Department. Thirty years later, Richard M. Daley (Richard J.'s son) is Mayor of Chicago and former Illinois Black Panther Bobby Rush is a member of the United States Congress.

 

 

 

 

Village of Carpentersville v. Warren & Van Praag Inc.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT

 

July 27, 1982

 

VILLAGE OF CARPENTERSVILLE,

v.

WARREN & VAN PRAAG, INC., V. FIELD ENTERPRISES, INC., ORVILLE BRETTMAN, AND MARY LU OSTERBERG.

 

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

 

Affirmed

 

19820727 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Developing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

BRETTMAN & ASTRONOMY

 

Brettman, a lifelong amateur astronomer, was named President of the Astronomical League sometime before completing his term as Carpentersville Village President in 1981. He also initiated a cooperative workgroup in 1981 between the Astronomical League and the newly formed International Amateur-Professional Photo-electric Photometry (IAPPP) association. Brettman was project manager for the International Space Station Amateur Telescope (ISS-AT) program; a joint project involving Boeing, NASA and the Astronomical League that in 2008 completed their primary goal of putting a telescope on the Space Station.

 

A Department of Justice analysis of U.S. terrorism in the 1980s and 90s found that one peculiar characteristic of right-wing group members, particularly among the leadership, is the disproportionate number employed in the aerospace or aeronautical industry.

 

 

Astronomy is a common theme in Freemasonry

 

The following article appeared in the Bloomingdale (IL) News on Thursday December 1, 1955

Masonic Installation

 

Northern DuPage lodge, 1147, A.F. & A.M., will hold public installation of officers Saturday evening, Dec. 3 at 8 o'clock, in the Masonic hall at Bloomingdale. Everyone is welcome. Orville Brettman will be elevated to worshipful master.

 

Orville Brettmans' father is Orville Brettman Sr.

 

 

Freemasonry Symbolism

 

  

 At a Freemasons' initiation ceremony, the candidate is made to stand bare-chested and blindfolded. The blindfold is removed after the initiation, when the freemason has entered into the light. After the blindfold is removed, the initiated is asked: What do you see? The initiated is expected to answer: I can see the sun the moon and the grand master. This implies that the sun shines during the day and the moon during the night, while the grand master illuminates the lodge with his advice.

 

Both the Freemason and Astronmical League symbols above contain a sun and a Crescent moon. They also both contain a meteor, constelations and planets (the dot above the moon on the Astro League symbol is Venus). Does the picture of the planetarium in the Astro League symbol represent the Masonic Lodge? Link to Astronomical League description

 

The Astronomical League symbol also contains a Pyramid/Triangle shape.

 

Pyramid shapes are found in most Masonic symbols

 

 

Freemasonry would seem to apeal to undividuals more closely aligned to right-wing than "Trilateralist/Illuminati" ideology, but the Freemasons were infiltrated by the Order of Illuminati in the 18th century. Illuminati probably continue to hold leadership positions. Far-right extremists typically follow the christian identity movement and consider freemasonry a false religion.

 

 

Orville Brettman joined the Chicago Adventurer's Club in 1980

 

Adventurer's Club logo: 'A' (Pyramid) with 'G' (Globe) in the center

 

 

Club Motto: "A HEARTH AND HOME FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT THE BEATEN PATH AND MADE FOR ADVENTURE."

 

 

 

Going to Extremes

 

Tucked away in Printers Row in Chicago is a little-known clubhouse to some of the most famous adventurers in the world -- the Adventurer's Club of Chicago. President Teddy Roosevelt was an honorary member, as were members of the Walgreen and Pritzker families.

 

Club President Howard Rosen calls it, "Chicago's best kept secret."

 

 

The Adventurers Club recently moved from this location (the building has been torn down) at 555 N. Franklin on Chicago's north-side. You can see the tracks for Chicago's L-Train running above the street.

 

 

Probably just a coincidence, but several hours before Roger Arnold was picked up for questioning on October 11, 1982, Chicago Police detectives were dispatched to Arnold's car, which was parked under the L-Train on Chicago's north-side.

 

 

 

 

Okay, back to Astronomy 

International Space Station (ISS) Amateur Telescope - Status

By Mac Gardiner

 

Why should we even consider placing an amateur telescope on the ISS? What makes it so uniquely valuable with all of the effort involved, toward a program whose success is still problematical? What makes the whole effort worth while? Finally, could we amateurs be counted on to do our part in running the system, should the system be placed in space and made available to amateurs?

 

Studies of the Cosmos, spearheaded by the Hubble Program, are now centered on its early life, where events were dynamic, beautiful, and creative. Such can only be seen clearly from observations in space, and those involving UV can only be viewed from space. The ISS AT will expedite this. The ISS-AT covers all locations on earth, and some part of the cosmos is always available for viewing, even during daytime. No clouds can obscure transient celestial phenomena. It is always available. Any ground station operation is labor intensive. An amateur operation will not only save money, but it will cause the enthusiastic workers (most of whom are voters) to be salesmen for the effort as well. The ISS can use support and programs that have low continuing costs. ISS is international, and so is amateur astronomy. In particular, Canada, Japan, Germany, Russia, UK, and Italy have active and eager members who could influence their respective governments toward increased participation. Education, from early awareness, through participatory group projects, to advanced independent research would be improved. The geographical location of the student is immaterial, and the chance to explore and share is high.

 

So far, the Astronomical League (AL) made up of 24,000 amateurs in the USA, feels emphatically that the answer is YES!! to all the above work and options.

 

1. The Astronomical League is committing a significant percentage of its resources and energy into this project, selecting Orville Brettman (past President of AL) as Project Manager of the program and allocating $14,000 for miscellaneous annual costs associated with a pro bono program. This is the largest project ever undertaken by the AL, and it is steadily and quietly working toward its goals, and Orv has built up an impressive staff of around 15 very active volunteers to chair various responsibilities. NASA considers that its financing and resource allocation situation is well in hand, but they have expressed interest and concern about the League’s capability to man and run the ground system used to process observation requests, deliver programming schedules to the ground control system,process the raw data received, generate, collate, distribute and file the astrophotographs.

 

2. The League’s response to this concern and interest has been to build a ground-based analog of the space system, run it and prove, both to themselves and NASA, that the League is competent and willing to carry out such a project. It is called Project ALPHA and consists of a 16’ Autonomous Telescope with two CCD cameras, housed in a remote multi-telescope Winer Observatory facility in Sonoita, AZ, and a satellite link to the Dyer Observatory at Vanderbilt University at Brettwood, TN where operations are based. 3. Communications, administration and data handling are handled by the League web site server system. The equipment was loaned or donated by interested contractors and individuals, and the major continuing expense is that of the Winer Observatory. 4. The system is up and running at Sonoita, AZ. Beta tests have been made, students are using the system, and one student research project has been carried out. Typical turn around time from request to available file is about a week. In no way, other than conceptual, is this a clone of the space-borne telescope. However, its administration and operation is a precursor to that required for the ISS-AT system. In less than a year, the system was brought to operation; and lessons learned are being incorporated as the structure for the full system which would ultimately include both ground and space elements. In this way, requests that can be handled by the ground unit will relieve the load on the space component.

 

The Hubble Telescope is expected to be phased out in the 2010-2015 time period, and its successor, the Next Generation Telescope, will not be available until around 2020. It could well be that the ISS-AT would end up being the only visual spectrum astrophotographic system operating in space during that time! Amateurs would have the equipment and the experience to lead in this research!

 

 

 

ISS-AT

 

 

As part of the ISS-AT support system run by the Astronomical League, a series of six ground-based telescopes (½ meter in size) will be built to operate autonomously through the Internet. One such facility is already underway. These ground-based telescopes will be used for those amateur observing requests that do not necessarily require the unique characteristics of the orbiting ISS-AT itself. And the League will also build and operate a single ground-based clone of the ISS-AT, which will be used for troubleshooting and testing of potential system changes/upgrades. For those who would like more information, have an idea for the ISS-AT, or would like to volunteer to help with the project, here are some contacts and sources of information:

 

ISS-AT:
Web site: www.issat.org

Project Coordinator: Orville Brettman
E-mail: rivendell.astro@worldnet.att.net
Phone: (815) 923-2419

Mac Gardiner : E-mail:macg@bainbridge.net
Phone: (206) 842-3717

 

 

 

 

ASTRONOMICAL LEAGUE NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING
ALCON 2001
Fredrick, Maryland
July 24, 2001

Call to Order: The 55th Astronomical League Council meeting was called to order at 9:12 a.m.

Council members present and proxies: President, Chuck Allen; Vice President, Bob Gent; Secretary, Terry Mann; Executive Secretary, Janet Stevens; Treasurer,Joanne Hailey;

 

Bob Gent, proxy for Louis Binder, SWRAL Rep.;
Marion Bachtell, League Sales, proxy for Amelia Goldberg, SWRAL Chair.
Julia Bachtell, proxy for Katrina DeWitt, NCRAL Chair.;
Mike Benson, SERAL Chair; proxy for Phil Sacco, SERAL Rep.;
Tim Hunter, WRAL Rep; proxy for Wayne Johnson, WRAL Chair.;
Dave Bachtell, NCRAL Rep.;
Terry Mann, proxy for Ginny Kramer, MARS Rep.;
Bert Stevens, proxy for Mike Flick, GLRAL Rep.;
Sandy Sanders,MERAL Chair, proxy for, Thomas Traub, MERAL Rep.;
Carroll Iorg; proxy for Kathy Machin, MSRAL Rep.;
Maryann Arrien, NERAL Chair.;
Patrick Carr, MSRAL Chair.;
Chuck Allen, proxy for Ron Whitehead, GLRAL Chair.;
Vic Winter, REFLECTOR editor;
Jen Winter, Reflector editor;
Jerry Sherlin, MARS Chair.;
Ryan Hannahoe, Chair YAC;
Jackie Beucher, Trust Fund Trustee;
Orville Brettman, ISS-AT Project Manager;
Berry Beaman, ASP Liaison;
Doc Kinne, NERAL Rep.;
Mark Cugenty.

 

Executive Committee Reports:

 

President: Chuck Allen spoke of a new project, the ISS-AT. This joint project will involve Boeing, NASA, and the Astronomical League. The goal is to put an amateur telescope on the International Space Station. He thanked the project manager, Orville Brettman for heading this project. He congratulated REFLECTOR editors, Jen and Vic Winter on a job well done. The REFLECTOR continues to grow at a fantastic pace. League Sales has increased about two and a half times in the last year, thanks to Marion Bachtell's incredible work. Ryan Hannahoe is chairing the Youth Activities Committee. The last time someone held this position was in 1964. Ryan has done a great job on the website and his Virtual Telescope Program. NASA is interested with helping to support our national convention. We are very excited to see this interest. The ISS-AT project will keep us in contact with NASA regularly. Jackie Beucher will be setting up our National office in Kansas City by the year's end. Our Organization is growing very fast and our projects also support the need of this office.

 

Vice-President: Bob Gent, welcomed everyone to the convention. He thanked Frank Moon, Ryan

<snip>

 

Secretary: Terry Mann reported the Secretary's office is running smoothly. Her term will be ending in September; she thanked everyone for the support she received during her term.

 

Treasurer: Joanne Hailey stated Fiscal Year end bills should be paid by June 15th. Regional reports are due by August 31st from all Regions. IRS Form 990 is due November 15th. The balance in League checking as of June 30, 2001 is $30,960.07. The balance in the League Money Market Account as of June is $34,506.32.

 

Executive Secretary: Janet Stevens reported the League is still growing. We have around 18,000 members. She also requested an increase in budget to pay for the shipment of League materials to Kansas City.

 

Webmaster: Bert Stevens will be resigning as webmaster in December. He has received many responses for this position. Bert is giving us his recommendations for the next webmaster. He has added an e-mail newsletter that is sent once or twice a month depending on the amount of information he has. He feels the budget will need to be increased a little for the new webmaster.

 

League Sales: Marion Bachtell has moved League Sales onto another level. Sales have increased about two and a half times what they were last year. She is trying to stabilize the inventory by next year. This could help to free up some of the sales money a little sooner. Beginner items are selling best. She is continuing to check into new items in this area and other areas. The Teachers and Math manuals will need to be reprinted next spring. Marion is receiving most of the orders on-line.

 

REFLECTOR: Jen and Vic Winter reported that they will be looking for new advertisers and looking at new rates for the ads. They are now having the printing done in Kansas City at a better price. Everyone in the League needs to think about how the Reflector is used as the League's voice and how that reflects on us. Electronic submissions will be greatly appreciated. Submission guidelines will be done on the website as soon as possible. They want positive reviews in terms of products and books.

<snip>
 

The Astronomical League Award: None presented this year.

The President's Award: The Astronomical League Award went to Janet and Bert Stevens for their many years of service. They both have seen many changes in the League. Their dedication is greatly appreciated.

 

The Leslie Peltier: The 2001 Leslie Peltier Award was presented to Richard Berry.

The Bob Wright Service Award was presented to Orville Brettman. Orville will be the Project Manager for the International Space Station-Amateur Telescope. He is also a past President of the League.

 

<snip>

 

IDA: IDA is doing very well. They have new light pollution laws in ten states. Their membership continues to grow.

 

Trust Fund Report: Bert Stevens reported Frank Roldan's term will expire this year. Frank was willing to accept this position again if needed. Janet Stevens motioned to close nominations. Tim Hunter seconded it. Frank was re-elected for the 2001-2006 term. There was no silent auction held this year. There will be one next year and they will need donations. The Trust Fund continues to grow through both donations and returns on investments. The ALTF ending balance is $76, 520.22

 

ISS-AT: Orville Brettman is the Project Manager. He reports he has formed a committee of people to chair different parts of this project. Richard Berry will be writing proposals for the ISS-AT. Orville and Richard will be contacting Boeing and NASA very soon to discuss the project. A logo will be voted on and franchised the same way as the Olympics logo has been.

<snip>

 

National Office: Jackie Beucher is looking for an office in Kansas City. She believes she will be able to rent a nice office for $1,000.00 to $1,400.00 per month. She will need about $9,000.00 this year and around $3,000.00 more to start up the office. She will place a wish list in the November REFLECTOR for items she is looking for. Sandy Sanders motioned to establish a one time capital champaign to raise money to establish a national office for the November REFLECTOR. Tim Hunter seconded the motion. The motion passed 12-8. Tim Hunter motioned to approve a line item for the office in the budget. Bob Gent seconded it. The motion passed 17-3. Julia Bachtell made a motion to not have a lease over three years long and not to exceed $1,000.00 per month. Tim Hunter seconded it. The motion passed 17-3.

 

MAL: The MAL program has had a successful year. Currently there are 359 MAL's (not including Charter MAL's). There has been $4,500.00 transferred to the Leagues general treasury. Jerry Sherlin would like to see an MAL column in the REFLECTOR. This committee needs a Chair and an editor if they decide to start a newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY

 

Orville Brettman is the McHenry county coordinator for the Campaign For Liberty.

 

 

Orvbrett
County Coordinator
Location: Huntley, IL
Last login: 06/08/09
RSS feed

Active in conservative politics since High School

 

United States Marine Corps Vietnam Vet.

 

Elected Village President of Carpentersville Illinois in 1977 at the age of 29 in a three way race winning 68% of the vote.

 

McHenry County Coordinator of the Ross Perot Campaign in 1992 getting 24.6% of the popular vote in the general election (2nd highest county vote percentage in the U.S).

 

Member of Govenor Richard Lamm's Campaign Staff in his 1996 bid for the Reform Parties nomination.

 

Attended Republican Central Committee campaign school in 1978.

 

State Representative Cal. Skinners* campaign manager 1994

 

1976-1985 President of Jukes & Shafer Inc. 'Metal Finishers since 1886'

 

1985-1987 General Manager of the Parallex Corporation

 

1988-1996 Broker Owner / Town & Country Real Estate

 

1997- Present  Federal Aviation Administration

 

* Cal Skinner started a second string of terms in the House 1993.  This time he ran as an outsider, challenging the “country club” Republican machine of County Auditor Al Jourdan. Jourdan, a transplant from Chicago, copied the city machines precinct organization style and rebuilt the local Republican Party into an unbeatable monolith. Despite his success, movement conservatives led by Cal Skinner, despised Jourdan for supporting moderate pragmatists to local offices and backing the “Go-along-get-along” king, big spending four term governor Jim Thompson....

 

Over the next three terms Cal would work with various anti-tax, pro-life, pro-gun advocates in trying to knit together a coalition that the hoped would eventually seize control of the County and State parties......

 

 

Campaign For Liberty's Mission

 

Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

 

 

Statement of Principles

 

Americans inherit from our ancestors a glorious tradition of freedom and resistance to oppression.  Our country has long been admired by the rest of the world for her great example of liberty and prosperity—a light shining in the darkness of tyranny.

 

But many Americans today are frustrated.  The political choices they are offered give them no real choice at all.  For all their talk of "change," neither major political party as presently constituted challenges the status quo in any serious way.  Neither treats the Constitution with anything but contempt.  Neither offers any kind of change in monetary policy.  Neither wants to make the reductions in government that our crushing debt burden demands.  Neither talks about bringing American troops home not just from Iraq but from around the world.  Our country is going bankrupt, and none of these sensible proposals are even on the table.

 

This destructive bipartisan consensus has suffocated American political life for many years.  Anyone who tries to ask fundamental questions instead of cosmetic ones is ridiculed or ignored.

 

That is why the Campaign for Liberty was established: to highlight the neglected but common-sense principles we champion and reinsert them into the American political conversation.

 

The U.S. Constitution is at the heart of what the Campaign for Liberty stands for, since the very least we can demand of our government is fidelity to its own governing document.  Claims that our Constitution was meant to be a "living document" that judges may interpret as they please are fraudulent, incompatible with republican government, and without foundation in the constitutional text or the thinking of the Framers.  Thomas Jefferson spoke of binding our rulers down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution, and we are proud to follow in his distinguished lineage.

 

With our Founding Fathers, we also believe in a noninterventionist foreign policy.  Inspired by the old Robert Taft wing of the Republican Party, we are convinced that the American people cannot remain free and prosperous with 700 military bases around the world, troops in 130 countries, and a steady diet of war propaganda.  Our military overstretch is undermining our national defense and bankrupting our country.

 

We believe that the free market, reviled by people who do not understand it, is the most just and humane economic system and the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known.

 

We believe with Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, and F.A. Hayek that central banking distorts economic decisionmaking and misleads entrepreneurs into making unsound investments.  Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' interference with interest rates sets the stage for economic downturns.  And the central bank's ability to create money out of thin air transfers wealth from the most vulnerable to those with political pull, since it is the latter who receive the new money before the price increases it brings in its wake have yet occurred.  For economic and moral reasons, therefore, we join the great twentieth-century economists in opposing the Federal Reserve System, which has reduced the value of the dollar by 95 percent since it began in 1913.

 

We oppose the dehumanizing assumption that all issues that divide us must be settled at the federal level and forced on every American community, whether by activist judges, a power-hungry executive, or a meddling Congress.  We believe in the humane alternative of local self-government, as called for in our Constitution.

 

We oppose the transfer of American sovereignty to supranational organizations in which the American people possess no elected representatives.  Such compromises of our country's independence run counter to the principles of the American Revolution, which was fought on behalf of self-government and local control.  Most of these organizations have a terrible track record even on their own terms: how much poverty have the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund actually alleviated, for example?  The peoples of the world can interact with each other just fine in the absence of bureaucratic intermediaries that undermine their sovereignty.

 

We believe that freedom is an indivisible whole, and that it includes not only economic liberty but civil liberties and privacy rights as well, all of which are historic rights that our civilization has cherished from time immemorial.

 

Our stances on other issues can be deduced from these general principles.

 

Our country is ailing.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that the remedy is so simple and attractive: a return to the principles our Founders taught us.  Respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, individual liberty, sound money, and a noninterventionist foreign policy constitute the foundation of the Campaign for Liberty.

 

 

04/29/09 

 

Membership/Coordinator Positions
Our membership continues to grow at a steady pace, thanks to the dedication of the many patriots among us who are working extremely hard to spread our message. We now have 5,272 members, 1,102 members with user accounts, and 76 local coordinators; a growth of 112 members, 47 user accounts and 3 local coordinators. 
Welcome to all of the new members! 

We were able to fill many coordinator positions this week, and we are pleased to announce our 7 new additions. Our new coordinators include: Louise Schneemann, Region 2,  Stephen Jaye, Region 4, David Ratowitz, Region 5, Justin Kuehlthau, Region 10, Jeremie Schultz, Lake County, Orville Brettman, McHenry County, and Jason Riddle, McLean County.  We still have a couple of Regional positions and many County positions to fill, so if you are interested in a coordinator position, please let us know.

The Role of the Interim State Coordinator

Interim State Coordinators for the Campaign for Liberty are appointed by the Campaign for Liberty.  The Interim State Coordinator has the authority to name Interim District and County Coordinators.  The focus of the interim coordinators will be to recruit and train Local Coordinators.  Interim Coordinators are chosen based upon previous leadership experience and the ability to encourage and train others, while being good stewards of the liberty movement, being respectful of others and acting in a professional manner.

 

 

 

 

 

Political Pals

 

 

S.3108

Title: A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 South John F. Kennedy Drive, Carpentersville, Illinois, as the "Robert McClory Post Office".

 

Sponsor: Sen Dixon, Alan J. [IL] (introduced 9/25/1990)      Cosponsors (1)
Related Bills: H.R.5007
Latest Major Action: 10/10/1990 Held at the desk.

 

SUMMARY AS OF: 10/9/1990--Passed Senate amended.    (There is 1 other summary)

Designates the post office building in Carpentersville, Illinois, as the Robert McClory Post Office.

Amends Federal law to restore second class mailing privileges to certain State-sponsored highway or development agency publications by allowing them to carry non-paid, in-house advertising.

 

Permits States to waive application of the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 with respect to vehicles used to transport farm supplies from retail dealers to or from a farm, and vehicles used for custom harvesting, whether or not such vehicles are controlled and operated by a farmer. - Post office ceremony speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illinois Gathering Seeks Reduction of Perot's Influence Within Reform Party

 

September 29, 1996

 

With Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot locked out of the upcoming debates and languishing in single digits in the polls, third-party advocates from 14 states gathered here today with an eye beyond the Nov. 5 election, and beyond Perot's domination of the fledgling movement.

 

"What we are doing here is playing checkers, jumping over the king to the center of the board," said Orville Brettman, a retired real estate broker from nearby Huntley, Ill.

 

Brettman said Perot "has brought this movement as far as any one person could, but it's time to broaden our base." Perot's spokeswoman, Sharon Holman, dismissed today's gathering as a get-together of disgruntled ...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orville Brettman

 

Current Addess: 13915 Hemmingsen Rd. Huntley, IL

 

Occupation: Retired Real Estate Broker

 

Hobbies: Amateur Astronimist

 

Current Occupation: Tech. - Federal Aviation Administration

 

Elgin High school - Elgin, IL: 1961-1965

 

2008 Campaign Donations: $1,000 to Republican Ron Paul

 

 

 

From ad in The Huntley Farsdale August 25, 1988

 

 

 

 

FAA TO Cut Back Flights From Israel To U.S.?

 

Does the government expect us to believe that Israel is less secure than other international airportS? Saudi Arabia? Sudan? Egypt? the UK? Put down the crack cocaine. El Al is the safest airline in the world.

 

 

 

FAA Investigator Received Death Threat for Blowing Whistle on FAA and Southwest's Safety Failures

 

 

 

 

Legion of Justice:

 

S. Thomas Sutton

Orville Brettman

Steve Telow

Stephen Sedlako

Thomas K. Stewart

 

 

 

Chicago Red Squad

 

James Nolan                   Accomplice in Legion of Justice attacks

James Fitzgibbons        Accomplice in Legion of Justice attacks

James B Conlisk

Joseph Grubisic

Thomas J Lyons

John Mulchrone

Kenneth Cacerano

John Valkenburg

Morton Frankin

Michael Randy

Alfred Lallejo

David Emerson Gumaer

Robert Osmondson

John Philbin

James J Zarnow

Tom Braham

 

 

Tom West

Irwin Bock

William Frapolly

Robert Pierson

Richard Markin

 

 

113th Army Militaty Intelligence Group

 

John O'Brian