10
POPSBlackwater Busted, Prince Has "Compliance Challenges" Makes one smile. The arrogant Prince of Blackwater just got nailed with a big fine from the same corrupt Federal government they contracted with. The "war on terrorism" is so profitable. What happened to all the hardware that ended up on the black market in Iraq? (Someone knows). "Compliance challenges", he says. More like rogue operations. This is the same company that shoots whoever is in the area and quickly leaves, whose crimes even U.S. military personnel have reported. Dirty mercenaries are never held accountable for war crimes because they are independent contractors. This is the least the State Dept has on them, just the tip of the proverbial ice berg. Iraq wants to try them there.
5
POPSPutin and ties to Latin America To validate my clip on Record's clip. They are coming. And I don't think many (maybe 5 here at Clipmarks) would relish a "decrease in US global influence". Do people/the world really want Russia, Iran, Hamas, Venezuela, N. Korea etc...to be the next power alliance?
8
POPSBush Gov’t involved in Sex and Drugs and Oil and Roll: UPDATED “Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length,” Devaney said. (hahahahahaha) The reports describe a fraternity house atmosphere inside the Denver Minerals Management Service office responsible for marketing oil and natural gas that energy companies barter to the government in lieu of cash royalty payments for drilling on federal lands. The government received $4.3 billion in such royalty-in-kind payments last year. The oil and gas is then resold to energy companies or put in the nation’s emergency stockpile. …read on
3
POPSChavez Meets Russia's Medvedev For Trade Talks "We expect the signing of a range of contracts" in the arms sector, a member of the Venezuelan delegation was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. He added that purchases could include Russian tanks and submarines. Chavez was also due to meet Sergei Chemezov, who oversees Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport, a Kremin source said Tuesday. Rosoboronexport spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko declined to comment about specific weapons deals, but he told AFP the two sides had drafted a document providing a "legal basis" for future arms deliveries. The Kommersant daily said Tuesday that a complicating factor in talks could be Venezuela's relationship with its neighbour Colombia, which accuses Chavez of aiding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel group. If Russian weapons surface in the conflict zone, Moscow would be threatened not only with a significant worsening of relations with Bogota, but with Washington too,"
4
POPSFrom Masseur to $300 million Arms Dealer? Only in ... "How did a company run by a 21-year-old president and a 25-year-old former masseur get a sensitive $300 million contract to supply ammunition to Afghan forces?" asks the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California.
1
POPSBlair interferred in Courts: Fraud Probe "The SFO inquiry arose out of BAE's £43billion Al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 1985, which provided Tornado and Hawk jets plus other military equipment in 1985. In December 2006 the then Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, announced the probe was to be discontinued, citing national security considerations. The Attorney General said that would have "seriously negative consequences" for UK national security and the "highest priority foreign policy objectives in the Middle East". But Ms Rose argued the real reason for dropping the investigation "was not national security but the commercial situation" and the decision violated the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. The decision was also based on "tainted advice" and was unlawful because the Director had permitted threats, or blackmail, to influence his decision. " ,,,DailyMail
3
POPSHillary, Dodd Sleep with Defense Lobby
continuing: But now the construction and mercenary firms in Iraq have been reaching out to Democrats. “As Democrats continue to spearhead oversight efforts, defense contractors are swiftly hiring lobbyists with Democratic ties,” writes Lindsay Renick Mayer of the Center for Responsive Politics. To help answer questions about a rash of killings by his employees in Iraq, Erik Prince, the founder and CEO of Blackwater, hired the PR and lobbying firm run by Hillary Clinton’s top campaign strategist, Mark Penn. Penn is the CEO of Burson-Marsteller, whose lobbying arm, BKSH, prepped Prince for his testimony. Among the other companies in the metastasizing war profiteering network is the Fluor Group, which testified before Waxman’s committee about its construction contracts in Iraq. Fluor gave Hillary Clinton $5,000 in the 2006 election cycle, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics. As much as the anti-war Left has tried to push Hillary Clinton on her vote
0
POPSJust East of Eden: Iran, images and reflections Continuation: Washington had total confidence in the Shah’s American-armed military forces that had made Iran the gendarme of the region. The Iranian Revolution was a severe blow to US power in the Middle East from which the world power has never recovered. The miscalculations, misjudgments and blindness to reality concerning Iran of 29 years ago have led the USA down erroneous paths ever since. In 1980 American-armed Iraq conveniently attacked Iran in chaos, while Washington turned up the heat and upped its own confusion by secretly selling more arms to Iran in order to pay for the dirty war against the new leftwing Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The Iran-Contras scandal. America arms both sides. Until Iraq launched its US-provided chemical warfare, killing thousands of Iranians.