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CORRUPTION UPDATES 64

June 2007: Draft Posting: Stay Tuned for More!

The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story.

 

CORRUPTION UPDATES 64

 

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Next Corruption Updates: Page 65

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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:

Bush Condemns Iran's Detention of Americans

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 1, 2007; 1:12 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060100982_pf.html

President Bush lashed out at Iran today for detaining American citizens and called for them to be freed "immediately and unconditionally."

The Bush administration has been reluctant to comment publicly about the quiet diplomatic efforts, in part because the main issue in the detentions appears to be a $75 million fund for democracy in Iran that was unveiled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year. Iranian media that reflect the regime's views have published long articles suggesting that the detained Americans are engaged in helping to foment a "soft revolution."

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Forgot to Mention his Kidnapping of 5 Iraninan Diplomats, and the American-Sponsored Terror in N. Iran

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2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Administration Rebukes Putin on His Policies

By THOM SHANKER

June 1, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/washington/01russia.html?

ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

 

 

WASHINGTON, May 31 — A top Russia expert at the State Department issued an unusually sharp public criticism on Thursday of Moscow’s behavior under President Vladimir V. Putin, describing the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing political opponents and suppressing individual rights at home.

...the Russia expert, David Kramer, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in a speech Thursday night before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.

The speech came a day after Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia accused the United States of fomenting a dangerous new arms race and implicitly threatened to block any effort by the United States and Europe to win broader diplomatic recognition for Kosovo.

“That Russia is regressing in these areas ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections may not be entirely coincidental,” he added. “The Kremlin is bringing its full weight to bear in shaping the environment in favor of its preferred outcome.”

...Mr. Kramer said, the Kremlin’s “ham-fisted behavior” included threats to suspend Russia’s obligations under the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe...

Mr. Kramer also criticized Russia’s decision over the winter to shut down oil and gas to Ukraine and Belarus, a step that he noted had disrupted supplies to European countries downstream.

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 — Russia on Thursday rejected a revised draft of a Security Council resolution advancing a plan for supervised independence of the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

American Traitors Chide Russian Traitors

Bush's Corporate Elite and Corporate Press must be kidding when they, those who stole our democracy and free press, those who started a criminal war, those who claim the power to kidnapp and torture on their mere word, have the audacity of hypocray to criticize Russia.

Bush cheated in two presidential elections, subsequently appointing the cheaters to US Attorney positions. Putin is popular enough to win without cheating, hands down.

America is the home of "free trade," and "market" economics, until Russia demanded the post-Soviet states pay market prices for natural gas. America then called Russia "unreliable" for using exactly the same economic principals as American Oil Companies. The reason? We are trying to establish Corporate Democracies in Georgia and the Ukraine, and are working to support the Kazak and Turkmin dictatorships to extend our military reach to the very borders of Russia.

Then we announced placment of anti-missile missiles in Eastern Europe. Our actions are initiating a new Russian-American Arms Race. And we're trying to blame the Russians.

Fix your own house before you criticize others. Bush suspended the ABM treaty, Putin the Conventional Arms Treaty. Gee, didn't expect that.

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3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

British Academics’ Union Endorses Israel Boycott

By ALAN COWELL

May 31, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/world/europe/31britain.html?pagewanted=print

 

LONDON, May 30 — The main union representing 120,000 British college teachers voted Wednesday to endorse a Palestinian trades’ union call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

The resolution condemned what it called “the complicity of Israeli academia” in the occupation of Palestinian lands and said “passivity or neutrality is unacceptable, and criticism of Israel cannot be construed as anti-Semitic.”


THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Israel Crime Recognized by British Academics

The majority of Americans Support the War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity that Israel has committed for the last 49 years.

Unlike America, the Jews were unable to control the media or political power necessary to suppress justice.

We applaude the Bravery of British Academics in confronting the greatest crime of our era.

Stealing and Killing is not ever justified by religion, and any religion that claims its God gave them contemporary political power over other people's land is a religion of evil greed and darkness.

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4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Largest Labor Union in Britain May Consider a Boycott of Israel

 

By ALAN COWELL

June 1, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/world/europe/01britain.html?pagewanted=print

 

LONDON, May 31 — A movement in Britain to boycott Israel economically and culturally gathered speed on Thursday as the country’s biggest labor union said it would follow the union of university instructors in weighing punitive measures against Israel.

Mary McGuire, a spokeswoman for Unison, a union of public service employees with 1.3 million members, said a resolution calling for a boycott had been placed on the agenda for the group’s annual national conference starting June 19. Word of the proposal emerged one day after the University and College Union, representing 120,000 instructors, voted to urge its members to consider their future relationships and exchanges with Israeli academics.

. According to the Unison Web site, www.unison.org.uk, the proposal to be debated at the conference says, “Unison believes the appropriate response is to support the growing international moves towards a union-based campaign of boycott and sanctions against Israeli institutions, in line with the call from over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations including the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions and individual unions and labor collectives.”

In a preamble, the motion “notes that, during 2006, Israel invaded Lebanon and Gaza, withheld tax revenues form the Palestine Authority and refused dialogue with the elected Authority following the democratic elections of January 2006, resealed the borders of Gaza, expanded illegal settlements in the West Bank, and continued the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall.”

It accused the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair of adopting “a consistent stand in support of the Israeli government throughout the shameful events of 2006, even joining the U.S. in failing to call for a cease-fire amidst worldwide condemnation of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.”



THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

It's About Time the West Stopped Supporting Religious Thievery and Crimes against Humanity in the Name of God

Dealing with Israel is exactly the same as continuing to do business with the Nazis after they invaded Poland.

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5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Commentary: Time to cut Israel off

For a boycott to be effective, an international coalition is indispensable, says Ramzy Baroud*

31 May - 6 June 2007
Issue No. 847

 

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/print/2007/847/re62.htm

South Africa's Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils whispered to me as I sat down following a most enthusiastic speech I gave at a recent conference in Cape Town: "if you want the world to heed to your call for boycotting Israel, the call has to originate from the Palestinian leadership itself."

A young Indian activist, who spent days on end urging shoppers at Britain's Marks and Spencer, to boycott the store for contributing to the Israeli occupation, recalled her utter frustration with the fact that many of the store's customers were Arabs from the Gulf. While nothing beats a good deal, she failed to understand why a wealthy Arab would find it morally permissible to patronise a company that contributed to the occupation. Needless to say, the same scenario is repeated at many Starbucks branches, despite the corporate management's unabashed support of Israel.

I called Ahmed Youssef, the chief political advisor to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to ask him whether such a call for a boycott was feasible, especially prior to the forthcoming mass rallies to be held in London and other major cities on 9 June -- on the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation. Youssef was clearly distressed; the infighting between Palestinians had taken its toll on his often optimistic attitude. "How can one expect a unified leadership position on a boycott while Palestinians are fighting on two fronts; against one another and against Israel?"

The conflict in Palestine is at a very critical juncture. Israel, brazenly aided by the two remaining imperialist countries, the US and the UK, is in the final stages of planning its Bantustanisation of the disconnected pockets that remain of historic Palestine. Martin Luther King Jr once said "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". An Israeli victory against the Palestinian people is indeed a defeat for every struggle for justice, rights and equality everywhere. It simply must not be allowed. But how to prevent this is a debate that should immediately commence without reverting to dogmatic approaches and language, political or religious sensitivities, and most importantly without any sense of ownership over the discourse, which is sadly creeping up in Palestinian circles everywhere.

* The writer is an Arab-American journalist.



THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Israel Must Cease to Exist Peacefully, or it will be Destroyed by the rising post-colonial Arabs

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6) THE Article PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Egypt: Court Rejects Medical Pass for Nour

June 1, 2007

World Briefing | Middle East

 

By REUTERS

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/world/middleeast/01briefs-nour.html?pagewanted=print

The Cairo Criminal Court rejected a new attempt to secure the release of the former presidential candidate Ayman Nour on health grounds in a hasty session that Mr. Nour’s lawyers were unable to attend. The court said it accepted a report by doctors who deemed Mr. Nour, 42, who is serving a five-year prison term on charges widely viewed as politically motivated, healthy enough to serve out the sentence he started in 2005. The court dismissed a report by an alternative panel of doctors who said that prolonging his imprisonment would threaten his health and possibly his life. Mr. Nour has diabetes and has had heart problems. His wife, Gamila Ismail, had brought a wheelchair to court in the hope that the court would free her husband.



THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

American Dictator Continues to Illegally Detain Democratic Opponents

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7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

A separate meeting?

When visiting US Congressmen met the Muslim Brotherhood's parliamentary spokesman, it provoked more than a little anger from the NDP, reports Gamal Essam El-Din

 

31 May - 6 June 2007
Issue No. 847

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/print/2007/847/eg2.htm

 

US relations with Egypt were placed under strain this week when President Hosni Mubarak's office reacted angrily to a meeting between members of the US Congress and an Egyptian parliamentary delegation that included the banned Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman Saad El-Katatni.

"We know the US does not establish relations with banned groups, whether in Egypt or elsewhere, and that when it makes contacts with independent MPs it does so because they are MPs and not because they represent a specific political trend," said President Mubarak's spokesman Suleiman Awad when asked about the meeting.

But the US position, when it comes to members of the Brotherhood, Awad added, is flawed: "the US says it meets with Brotherhood members as independents and not because of their political background yet when it comes to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, the US refuses to make such a distinction and will not meet its members, regardless of whether they are parliamentarians, or even ministers in the Palestinian cabinet."

Congressman Price explained that the delegation's visit to Egypt, and three other countries in the Middle East, was to review political and democratic developments in the region. Chairman of the House Sub-committee entrusted with providing democratic support, Price said "the delegation has nothing do with offering financial assistance to countries like Egypt but it is concerned with providing assistance to parliaments for the sake of advancing democracy".

The NDP's Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin argued that while such "meetings with Congress people are good for exchanging views freely and openly, Congress members must realise that Brotherhood is a banned group and that holding separate meeting with its members is against Egyptian law". Gamaleddin revealed that many NDP MPs had called for US-Brotherhood meetings to end.

During a visit to Alexandria last week, Ricciardone spoke to the Weekl y on several issues. He emphasised that, "neither the American Embassy nor American officials aim to establish contacts with Brotherhood members." "We respect Egyptian laws and are keen not to establish contacts with a banned group," said Ricciardone. "When American Congress people come to Egypt they meet Egyptian parliamentarians in their capacity as majority, opposition or independent MPs."

While Ricciardone said Washington knows President Mubarak believes in democratisation "US officials and parliamentarians think the process should be faster".

 


THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Hold a Real Election in Egypt and Mubarak, the Military Dictator, would be hanging from a Lamp post the Next Day


The Farce of "Democratization" in Egypt maintained as Mubarak Fixes Elections, drives voters from polls with violence, beats and arbitirairly arrests the opposition, and unilaterly alters the Constitution to justify illegal searches, imprisonment, and fixing elections.

Sounds like something we would support.

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8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Putin: US imperialists start new round of arms race

6-1-07

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/92585-putin_imperialist-0

 

Russia's recent tests of new ballistic missiles can be interpreted as a direct response to the deployment of the US missile system in Europe, and the development of new military bases on the continent, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

At a news conference after meeting with the Greek president in Kremlin, Putin spoke about the cooperation between the two countries and condemned US missile defense systems in Europe.

"We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race ," Putin told a joint Kremlin news conference.

The president suggested recently that Moscow might suspend its obligations under the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty if talks with NATO countries on its implementation show no visible progress.

No NATO members have yet ratified the re-drafted CFE pact, demanding that Russia first withdraw from Soviet-era bases in Georgia and Moldova under previous agreements.

"We are fully observing the provisions of the (CFE) treaty and have pulled out all heavy weaponry from the European part of Russia. We have reduced our armed forces by 300,000 personnel in the past few years, but what about our partners?" Putin said.

"They are inundating Eastern Europe with new weapons - a new base in Bulgaria, another base in Romania, a (missile interceptor) site in Poland , a radar in the Czech Republic," the president said. "What are we supposed to do? We cannot just observe all this and continue to keep our obligations under the treaty."

"There is a clear desire by some international players to dictate their will to everyone without adhering to international law," Putin said. "International law has been replaced by political reasons."

"In our opinion it is nothing different from diktat, nothing different from imperialism ," he added.

Putin stressed that the US unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, paving the way to the deployment of its missile shield in Europe.


THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Triggering new Russian Arms Race

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9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

New Russian missile R-500 to destroy any US defense system

Pravda May 30, 07

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/92443-missile_R_500-0

 

Russia successfully tested new missile R-500, the capacity of which allows to destroy any defense system including most recent perspective ballistic missile defense systems.

The tests of the new missile took place at the Kapustin Yar site in the Astrakhan Region of Russia. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that R-500 was a high-accuracy missile, capable of destroying ballistic missile defense systems and air defense systems. Ivanov also said that “these tests were preliminary and it is very pleasant to realize that they were successful”.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M , first commissioned in 1997 and known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that can carry multiple independent warheads Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6, 000 miles away.

While Ivanov's saber-rattling about missile defense penetration was clearly aimed at the United States - and at Russians who will vote in March for a successor to Putin - he suggested Russia's armament efforts were also aimed to counter a potential threat from the Middle East and Asia.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Russia Responding to Bush Arms Race

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10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Ex-Governor Says Affidavit Shows Politics in Bribe Case

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01prosecute.html?pagewanted=print

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 31 — Alabama has a tradition of savage political warfare, but Don E. Siegelman’s fight to stay out of prison is reverberating all the way back to Washington.

Federal prosecutors here are seeking 30 years in prison for Mr. Siegelman, who was the Democratic governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003 and was convicted last year of accepting $500,000 in bribes from the chairman of the HealthSouth Corporation.

Mr. Siegelman, who is scheduled for sentencing on June 26, says he was singled out by prosecutors with close personal ties to Alabama Republican leaders and to the Bush White House.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002.

Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist.

In the affidavit, the lawyer, Jill Simpson, said Mr. Canary’s remark was made in a conference call with her and Rob Riley, Governor Riley’s son and campaign manager.

Ms. Simpson said Mr. Canary assured the younger Mr. Riley that “his girls would take care of” Mr. Siegelman before he had a chance to run for the governor’s seat in 2006 and identified “his girls” as Leura Canary and Alice Martin, the United States attorney in Birmingham.

After a nine-week trial last year, a jury acquitted Mr. Siegelman on 25 counts and convicted him on 7, almost all tied to accepting money from Richard Scrushy, the former chairman of HealthSouth. Mr. Siegelman was not convicted of pocketing any money himself. Rather, a jury convicted him of persuading Mr. Scrushy to pay $500,000 to retire the debt of a political group that had campaigned to win voter approval for a state lottery.

Mr. Franklin, who led the prosecution, said his team of investigators methodically uncovered evidence that Mr. Siegelman and other top officials received thousands of dollars in money and gifts from businessmen who sought contracts, tax breaks and other help from the state government.

“He traded on his office, and that is a very significant crime,” Mr. Franklin said Thursday in an interview.

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Can we Trust the Prosecutor or the Politician? No, both would be in Jail in a Democratic Country

In our "democracy" it seems likely that Siegelman took the half-mil, and that the US Attorneys pursued him for political purposes.

The funny part of this is that every politician in our country, be they Dems or Repugs, are whores of the special interests that bribe them.

The Are All Criminals, as are the US Attorneys they appoint to do their dirty work.

The ONLY SOLUTION is to END POLITICAL BRIBERY. To be a democracy the voters, not the special interests, must be the sole source of money for candidates and officeholders.

Non-voters must be prohibited from contributing a penny into our elections.

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Previous Corruption Updates: Page 63

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