Posts Tagged ‘corruption’
2009
“The former President of Blackwater, the security firm now notorious for its excesses against Iraqi civilians, has since resigned as the company’s president but still leads as Chairman of the Board of Directors…
Since then a series of court allegations have been made against Mr. Prince and Blackwater by two former employees who accuse him and his employees of murder, weapons smuggling, condoning child prostitution, an ongoing wife-swapping and sex ring, smuggling, money laundering and worst of all, the deliberate slaughter of unarmed civilians…
He also accused Blackwater guards of boasting of kills, taking mind-altering drugs, steroids and using child prostitutes. Prince is further alleged of smuggling illegal weapons into Iraq on his private aircraft and allowing his guards to use illegal exploding bullets ‘to inflict maximum damage on Iraqis’…”
source: examiner.com
“Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds…
…The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased.
Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn’t request the additional planes and doesn’t need them. ‘We ask for what we need and only what we need,’ he told reporters Wednesday. ‘We’ve always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for.’”
source: wsj.com
“Hundreds of police swooped on suspected terrorists in Melbourne early today amid fears suicide attacks were about to be launched on army bases in Australia. Police from around the country were quietly moved to Melbourne before launching their raids on homes in at least seven suburbs. Several men of Somali and Lebanese backgrounds were arrested and were expected to appear in court later on terrorism-related charges.
Police sources said it would be claimed the men were planning to attack a barracks in western Sydney and other defence bases in Victoria. The suspected terrorists were said to be plotting to force their way into the bases to kill as many soldiers as possible before turning guns on themselves. The arrested men are believed to have links to al-Qaeda…
Four people, all Australian citizens of either Lebanese or Somalian backgrounds, had been arrested. Police have begun interviewing two men aged 25, a 26-year-old old and a 22-year-old. These are the same age ranges as suicide bombers who have committed atrocities in Indonesia…”
Come on people wake up, see through the propaganda. Notice the key phrases; terrorists, al-Qaeda, suicide bombers, stop placing your fears in scapegoats of the government/media, you should fear government and their control over you.
source: dailymail.co.uk
“U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration needs to answer several questions about the privacy implications of a new version of a computer intrusion detection system that can reportedly read e-mail, a privacy and civil rights advocacy group said. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), in a report released Tuesday, called on the Obama administration to release information about the legal authority for the so-called Einstein intrusion detection system, a version of which has been rolled out at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.>br/>
The CDT report also asks the Obama administration to release information about the role of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in the development and operation of Einstein 3, a new version of the software reportedly being developed. The second version of Einstein is deployed at the DHS and is being rolled out to other U.S. agencies. While Einstein 2 is able to detect malicious code during predefined code signatures, Einstein 3 will also be able to read e-mail and other Internet traffic, according to recent press reports.
‘This raises serious privacy concerns,’ the CDT report says. ‘While its predecessor merely detected and reported malicious code, Einstein 3 is to have the capability of intercepting threatening Internet traffic before it reaches a government system, raising additional concerns. According to press accounts, Einstein 3 will operate inside the networks of the telecoms …’”
source: cio.com
“California attorney Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits demanding proof of Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, has released a copy of what purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth and has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court for its authentication. The document lists Obama’s parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as Aug. 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. No doctor is listed. But the alleged certificate bears the signature of the deputy registrar of Coast Province, Joshua Simon Oduya. It was allegedly issued as a certified copy of the original in February 1964. WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical.
Last week, a counterfeit document purporting to be Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate made the rounds of the Internet, but was quickly determined to be fraudulent. The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax. Taitz told WND that the document came from an anonymous source who doesn’t want his name known because ‘he’s afraid for his life.’
Taitz’s motion, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, requests the purported evidence of Obama’s birth – both the alleged birth certificate and foreign records not yet obtained – be preserved from destruction, asks for permission to legally request documents from Kenya and seeks a subpoena for deposition from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.’I filed the motion with the court asking for expedited discovery, which would allow me to start subpoenas and depositions even before Obama and the government responds,’ Taitz told WND. ‘I am asking the judge to give me the power to subpoena the documents from the Kenyan embassy and to require a deposition from Hillary Clinton so they will be forced to authenticate [the birth certificate].
‘I’m forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond,’ she said. ‘Before, they said, ‘You don’t have anything backing your claims,” Taitz explained. ‘Now I have something. In fact, I have posted on the Internet more than Obama has. My birth certificate actually has signatures.’
Taitz’s most celebrated case involved a military officer, Maj. Stefan Cook, whose order to deploy to Afghanistan was revoked when he challenged Obama’s eligibility to hold office. That case has now been refiled in federal court in Florida, raising the specter of a class-action claim among members of the military that their orders aren’t valid because of questions surrounding Obama’s constitutional eligibility. Taitz told WND she plans to file additional paperwork with the Florida court tomorrow, adding the alleged Kenyan birth certificate to Maj. Cook’s case…”
source: worldnetdaily.com
“As the CEO of MeetUp, Scott Heiferman usually spends his days meeting with staff and brainstorming product strategy. But today the 37-year-old New Yorker, wearing a combat helmet and armored vest over a black business suit, is crammed into a battered C-130 transport plane headed for Iraq. Military and diplomatic personnel aboard are warily eyeing him and the others in his party, all similarly attired, as the C-130 begins its steep, corkscrew descent into the Baghdad airport. And Heiferman is thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’
It’s only been a few weeks since he got an email from a State Department policy planner named Jared Cohen inviting him to join the first tech delegation to post-invasion Iraq. Now he’s strapped in with eight other Silicon Valley executives, mostly in their thirties, from Google, Twitter, YouTube, Blue State Digital, WordPress, Howcast, and AT&T. When Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey got his invitation, ‘I just said yes,’ he recalls. YouTube’s director of product management, Hunter Walk, had to go down to his basement to find a suit to wear, because Cohen insisted that the group dress like diplomats to show respect for their hosts. Others worked their spouses for approval, repeating Cohen’s assurances that the security situation in Baghdad was much improved. Howcast CEO Jason Liebman’s mother thinks he’s on a trip to LA…”
source: wired.com
“An investigation into the kidnapping of five British men in Iraq has uncovered evidence of possible collusion by Iraqi government officials in their abduction, and a possible motive – to keep secret the whereabouts of billions of dollars in embezzled funds. A former high-level Iraqi intelligence operative and a current senior government minister, who has been negotiating directly with the hostage takers, have told the Guardian that the kidnapping of IT specialist Peter Moore and his four bodyguards in 2007 was not a simple snatch by a band of militants but a sophisticated operation, almost certainly with inside help. Only Moore is thought still to be alive.
Witnesses to the extraordinary operation which led to the abductions have also told us that they have been warned by superiors to keep quiet. ‘This operation was on a state level, not al-Qaida. Only the state has the capability to carry this out,’ one of the sources said.
The Guardian can also reveal that there was a sixth westerner who was working with Moore at the time of the kidnap. The man – whose identity is known to the Guardian – managed to narrowly avoid being captured by hiding in a toilet at the Iraqi ministry of finance, where the abductions took place. Over the past 10 months the Guardian has interviewed senior Iraqi figures and eyewitnesses as well as the former British military officer who investigated the kidnap for the men’s employers. Their accounts allege that the hostage takers had contacts in the Iraqi government, and also that officials in the ministry of defence warned off witnesses to the kidnap.”
source: guardian.co.uk
“By Lord Aikins Adusei Quite often when you read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television in the West you will are bombarded with how poor and corrupt Africans are. However, you will never watch, read or hear anything in these media outlets on the role play by : Western banking institutions; property development and estate companies; technology corporations; oil and mining cartels; defense and engineering companies; and western political and business elite in promoting corruption in Africa.
When it comes to Africa and the developing world, the Western media pretend to be doing a good job only when there is an embarrassing story or a scandal that undermines their own credibility as the watchdog of the state. It is not uncommon to see poverty stricken Africans being shown in documentaries, movies, and television screens in the West but these same documentaries fail to show the involvement of Western capitalist institutions in fanning the poverty. Although corruption involves a giver and recipient, it is always the taker who is reported in the media. In many instances bribes are offered in order to secure contracts, secure official favour or to induce officials in order to influence the out come of a government decision. In other instances people become corrupt because of the existence of favouring conditions as can be seen in most western countries with their banking secrecy laws.
Why does the media in the West ignore the role of western institutions in corrupt deals? The media in the west tend to ignore the role of western institutions for many reasons. They would rather show the poverty level in Africa but refuse to show the role play by western institutions for fear of loosing revenue through adverts. Most media outlets survive through advertisements from mega businesses and the multinational corporations so for fear of loosing revenues the media turn a blind eye to their activities such bribing politicians, public officials and polluting the environment. Again the editors, programme directors and the other big wigs in the media are thelselves shareholders in the companies in question so why would they want to jeopardise the source of their own wealth…”
via wikileaks.org
“Chief Justice Gordon Ward lifted a gag order which had prevented publishers and broadcasters from mentioning ‘corruption report’ and ‘WikiLeaks’ in the same sentence.
The order, first issued on Saturday against 11 media companies, and reissued last night, has lead to bizarre press coverage, where WikiLeaks was not named, but referred to instead using Orwellian terms such as ‘a multi-jurisdictional website’…
According to the report, foreign investors and property development consortiums acquired parts of the beautiful Turks & Caicos Islands by bribing the country’s political leadership with millions in loans and secret payments. Included in the payments is a $500,000 secret transfer to the then head of the country, Premier Michael Misick, who is also the recently estranged husband of Hollywood actress LisaRaye McCoy-Misick…”
via wikileaks.org
“Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor in chief, tonight threw his support behind a plan to give public funding to Britain’s national press agency to allow it to provide news from public authorities and courts as local newspapers withdraw because they can no longer afford it…
‘This bit of journalism is going to have to be done by somebody,” Rusbridger said. “It makes me worry about all of those public authorities and courts which will in future operate without any kind of systematic public scrutiny. I don’t think our legislators have begun to wake up to this imminent problem as we face the collapse of the infrastructure of local news in the press and broadcasting.’”
via guardian.co.uk