Joe S. Adams, Jr. is a private investigator and former mercenary who trained the forces of, and acted as a bodyguard for, Adolfo Calero, one of the leaders of the Contra rebellion in Nicaragua. In his 1988 trial in Florida for violations of the Neutrality Act, Adams was accused of having done so on behalf of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Adams was the first person indicted in Iran-Contra, was convicted, sentenced to one day of unsupervised probation and a $50.00 fine, and then pardoned. Adams has been the subject of over 100 newspaper articles as well as November 3, 1986 Newsweek article. Adams has also been featured in mercenary magazines such as Eagle and Soldier of Fortune.

A former member of the United States Marine Corps, Adams has also worked as a mercenary and security consultant in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe. He currently operates Adams Investigations in St. Louis, Missouri and has worked numerous high-profile cases there, including the capture of an FBI Top Ten Most-Wanted Fugitive.

Adams is a former bodybuilder and powerlifter who appeared in several of Joe Weider's publications in the 1970s, and appeared in shoots with current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the 1980s, Adams was the subject of controversy in the St. Louis area when, acting as a bounty hunter, a prisoner in his custody died from the effects of a stun gun.

In 2002 he enrolled at Oakwood College to study Theology in preparation for the ministry.

References

Bainerman, J. The Crimes of a President. 1992 (42-3)
Christic Institute. Sheehan Affidavit. 1988-03-25 (125, 128, 138-9)
Marshall, J. The Iran-Contra Connection. 1987 (271)
Newsweek 1986-11-03 (35)
Scott, P.D. and Marshall, J. Cocaine Politics. 1991 (152, 158)
Sklar, H. Washington's War on Nicaragua. 1988 (286-7)
Terrell, J. Disposable Patriot. 1992 (160-1, 410)
The Progressive, March 1987

Wikipedia:Requests for comment/United States Congress

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In order to remain listed at Wikipedia:Requests for comment, at least two people need to show that they tried to resolve a dispute with this user and have failed. This must involve the same dispute with a single user, not different disputes or multiple users. The persons complaining must provide evidence of their efforts, and each of them must certify it by signing this page with ~~~~. If this does not happen within 48 hours of the creation of this dispute page (which was: 08:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)), the page will be deleted. The current date and time is: 02:49, 28 March 2007 (UTC).

This RFC concerns the behavior of editors from the United States Congress

Specific IP Addresses

(143.231.249.141 | talk | contributions)

United States House of Representatives

Any IP from the range 143.231.0.0/16 may also contribute similarly. See additional article for detailed information on IP ranges.
Any IP from the range 143.228.0.0/16 may also contribute similarly.

NOTE: Jon Brandt, spokesman for the Committee on House Administration confirmed House ownership of the IP [1] . —This user has left wikipedia 18:06 2006-01-30

United States Senate

Senatorial IP range is 156.33.0.0/16. Contributions from IP's from this range may also be similar.

Users should only edit one summary or view, other than to endorse.

[show]

[edit] Statement of the dispute

[edit] Description

This RFC is being opened in order to further a centralized discussion concerning actions to be taken against US Congressional staffers and possibly other federal employees who have engaged in unethical and possibly libelous behavior in violation of Wikipedia policies (WP:NPOV, WP:CIV). The editors from these IP ranges have been rude, abrasive, immature, and show disregard for Wikipedia policy. The editors have frequently tried to censor the history of elected officials, often replacing community articles with censored biographies despite other users' attempts to dispute these violations. They also violate Wikipedia:Verifiability, by deleting verified reports, while adding flattering things about members of Congress that are unverified.

The offending editors have been blocked. This RFC is needed to gather community comments. It is proposed that a one week block is not enough. The block was lifted January 30, 2006. A new block for additional vandalism was enforced for three hours February 1, 2006 at 14:59.

[edit] Evidence of disputed behavior

A full list of details can be found at Wikipedia:Congressional Staffer Edits.

Key:

G - represents good faith contributors

P - represents POV (point of view) pushers

V - represents vandals

[edit] United States Congress

[edit] United States House of Representatives

[edit] Range: 143.228.0.0/16

This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.

143.228.129.13 (talk • contribs • count)

[edit] Range: 143.231.0.0/16

This list contains 1 IP that originated from this range. This list is complete.

143.231.249.141 (talk • contribs) - ~~Already blocked~~. The original IP address, possibly used by staff of Congressman Meehan and possibly other House of Representatives staff members, registering over 1000 edits over hundreds of articles.

Note: IP has been unblocked. —This user has left wikipedia 17:38 2006-01-30

[edit] United States Senate

[edit] Range: 156.33.0.0/16

This list contains the offending users of 175 IPs that originated from this range and edited Wikipedia.

156.33.5.19 (talk • contribs • count) - V - Two vandal attack edits to article on Senator Tom Coburn. Warned. Dec 05.
156.33.23.46 (talk • contribs • count) - GP - Three edits to article on Senator Larry Craig, with a positive POV slant. Good faith edit to Congressional Subway. Nov-Dec 05.
156.33.30.37 (talk • contribs • count) - GV - Blanked an unflattering paragraph on the article about Senator Tom Harkin, and later removed another legitimate paragraph over a month later. Good faith edit to Senator Chuck Grassley. Warned. Nov 05-Jan 06.
156.33.43.22 (talk • contribs • count) - V - Vandalism to article about Senator Robert Byrd. Edits made around same time as 156.33.43.214 below. Aug 05.
156.33.43.214 (talk • contribs • count) - V - Vandalism to article on Senator Robert Byrd and George W. Bush. Edits made around same time as 156.33.43.22 above. Aug 05.
156.33.46.154 (talk • contribs • count) - P - Major POV revisions to article on Senator Norm Coleman. Made another POV edit after these previous revisions were discovered. Warned. Jan 06.
156.33.52.40 (talk • contribs • count) - P - Blanked unflattering paragraph to Senator Conrad Burns, and replaced it with an empty pro-Burns PR pablum. Jan 05.
156.33.56.17 (talk • contribs • count) - P - Added anti-Bush POV to single sentence on article about Senator Harry Reid, and created unusually poor stub for Richard Ziser, Reid's opponent in 2004. Appears to have been acting in concert with 156.33.56.67 below; the two IP's edits of Reid all took place within 24 hours of each other. May 05.
156.33.56.67 (talk • contribs • count) - P - Pro POV edits and revert war on Senator Harry Reid. Appears to have been acting in concert with 156.33.56.17 above; the two IP's edits of Reid all took place within 24 hours of each other. Warned. May 05.
156.33.74.18 (talk • contribs • count) - GP - Major pro POV rewrite of Rambus, slight POV edit to Liliane Bettencourt, legitimate edits to Senator Ron Wyden. Nov 04-May 05.
156.33.150.38 (talk • contribs • count) - P - Attempted to remove references to controversial statements made by Corrine Brown, and replace with a more positive statement. July 04.

[edit] Additional background

Lehmann, Evan. (January 27, 2006) "Rewriting history under the dome: Online 'encyclopedia' allows anyone to edit entries, and congressional staffers do just that to bosses' bios". Lowell (Mass.) Sun. - accessed January 20, 2006

(Link no longer valid)

The following policy violations are documented:

[edit] Continuing Violations

In the article for Congressman Thad McCotter (R-MI) removing references[2] to Tom DeLay:

"In 2005, he has come under srutiny for accepting campaign contributions from embattled former house leader Tom Delay"

This violation occurred 19:39, 31 January 2006.

IP was blocked for 3 hours, see the noticeboard. ~Cheers —This user has left wikipedia 16:53 2006-02-01

In the article for Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) removing references[3] to Tom DeLay:

"Musgrave received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former majority leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC."

This violation occurred 14:16, 1 February 2006.

In the article for Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA) removing references[4] to percentage of vote received in defeat for Governor of California:

"Lungren received 38% of the vote."

This violation occurred 01:05, 2 February 2006.

[edit] POV-pushing

The Congressional staffers constantly push their unverified point of view (POV) and have no regard with editing policy.

Marty Meehan

"whitewashing" Marty Meehan
"Meehan is also known nationally as one of the tobacco industry’s toughest critics" - where is the evidence for this?
Removing legitimate content again.

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

Saying "criticism" of the act is silly

[edit] Personal attacks through vandalism

Congressional staffers behind this IP have constantly made personal attacks against other politicians through vandalism.

Douche

Adding Scott McClellan's name as a personal attack

[edit] Applicable policies

{list the policies that apply to the disputed conduct}

[edit] Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute

(provide diffs and links)

User:MC MasterChef tries to inform the Congressional staffers about policy [5]
User:Ryan Delaney tries to reason with the Congressional staffers not to break the 3RR and why it goes against policy [6]
User:Geo Swan attempts to reason with the staffers about POV-pushing. [7]

There are also attempts to reason with a whole host of IP ranges from the Senate; discussed in talk page. Some diffs as example

It's also apparent from the talk page that many people from the community are exasperated with the Congressional staffers.

Despite attempts from the community to reason with these users, they have failed to respond. This shows their dissonance and disharmony with the community.

[edit] Users certifying the basis for this dispute

{Users who tried and failed to resolve the dispute}

(sign with ~~~~)

68.50.103.212 05:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!)
Ryan Delaney ^talk 11:34, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Geo Swan 13:06, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other users who endorse this summary