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CORRUPTION UPDATES 81 June 21, 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 81
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 80
Next Corruption Updates: Page 82
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
1) The Link to the Article Referenced below Reveals the depth of corruption which permeates our political leadership.
The General’s Report
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.
by Seymour M. Hersh
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh
On the afternoon of May 6, 2004, Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba was summoned to meet, for the first time, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his Pentagon conference room. Rumsfeld and his senior staff were to testify the next day about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq…
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Torture Policies Created and Protected at Highest Levels of Political Leadership
Also See:
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on the page, "Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional"
Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on the page, "AG criticizes judges for terror rulings"
Corruption Updates 31, 2nd article on the page, "BUSH APPOINTEE ATTACKS AMERICAN RIGHT TO TRIAL, AND COUNSEL"
Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on the page, "“DETANIEE” TORTURE, HEARSAY, AND NO HABIUS CORPUS:CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING THE COURTS"
Corruption Updates 36, 11th article on page, "Detainees seek legal rights guarantee"
Corruption Updates 71, 1st article on page, "CIA rejects secret jails report"
Search the Corruption Database under
Generals
Torture
Illegal Detentions
Illegal Trials
Unconstitutional Presidential Power
2) The Link to the Article Referenced below Reveals the depth of corruption which permeates our political leadership.
Living Large
How state Senator Don Perata uses campaign cash to finance his lavish lifestyle. First of two parts.
East Bay Express, May 23, 2007.
By Robert Gammon
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-05-23/news/living-large/
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Perata's Web of Political Influence Identified
Also See:
Corruption Updates 2, 2nd article on the page, "Perata Takes a HALF-Mil to Sell Out:..half-mil to kill bills"
Corruption Updates 4, 5th article on the page, "Perata Pretends to Revive his Honor w/ revival of Flood Bills;Both attempts Fail"
Search the Corruption Database under
Perata (15 Abstracts)
3) The Link to the Article Referenced below Reveals the depth of corruption which permeates our political leadership.
Nuclear greenwashing
Global warming has suddenly put nukes back on the agenda — but there's a lot the industry isn't telling you
San Francisco Bay Guardian
By Amanda Witherell
June, 2007
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=3718
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Beware the Corporate Media, Politicians, and Related Hucksters
Search the Corruption Database under
Big Money Politics
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Brooklyn: Ex-Judge Ordered to Prison
June 21, 2007
Metro Briefing | New York
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/nyregion/21mbrfs-judge.html?pagewanted=print
An appeals court judge yesterday denied a stay of sentence for a former State Supreme Court justice convicted of corruption charges and ordered him to begin serving his 3-to-10-year prison term. The former judge, Gerald Garson, was convicted in April of accepting bribes to manipulate the outcome of matrimonial cases in his Brooklyn court.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Judges around the Whole Country Collecting Bribes and Favoring Bribers
Also See:
Corruption Updates 14, 4th article on the page, "Campaign Cash Mirrors a High Court's rulings"
Corruption Updates 24, 7th article on the page, "Will Freedom of Speech protect Judicial Bribery in Nevada?"
Corruption Updates 25, 1st article on the page, "Nevada judges can keep raising funds"
Search the Corruption Database under
Judges
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Congressman’s Brother Is Said to Have Bribed School Official
June 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/washington/21bribe.html?pagewanted=print
NEW ORLEANS, June 20 — The former president of the Orleans Parish School Board pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to taking $140,000 in bribes from a political operative thought to be the older brother of Representative William J. Jefferson, who has been indicted on bribery charges.
But a person close to the investigation who asked not to be identified said it was Mose Jefferson, the congressman’s brother.
Mose Jefferson has been one of the congressman’s chief strategists for more than two decades...
Though not named in the unrelated bribery and racketeering indictment of the congressman, a person identified as “Family Member 2,” and fitting Mose Jefferson’s description, is a fixture in the indictment’s 96 pages. Repeatedly, the congressman pressed companies he is accused of assisting into giving “Family Member 2” a part of their proceeds, according to the indictment.
Representative Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to his indictment; Mose Jefferson has not been charged in either case.
The involvement of Mose Jefferson (in Jefferson's office and with the New Orleans' schools) would link two such strands: the well-established malfeasance in the school system, which has already resulted in 23 federal guilty pleas; and what federal prosecutors allege is a pattern of corruption extending to Representative Jefferson’s family, as outlined in the indictment of the congressman this month.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Jefferson's Web of Corruptions engulf Family, New Orleans' Schools, and Half of West Africa
Also See:
Corruption Updates 25, 11th article on the page, "POSTERBOY OF DEM CORRUPTION JEFFERSON OF LOUISIANA FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL"
Corruption Updates 30, 6th article on page, "FRIEND, FAMILY, AND EMPLOYEES OF NEW ORLEANS EX-MAYOR FACE LONG PRISON TERMS"
Morial Bio on Answers.Com
Corruption Updates 67, 7th article on the page, "Jefferson indicted on graft charges"
Corruption Updates 81, 5th article on the page, "Congressman’s Brother Is Said to Have Bribed School Official"
Search the Corruption Database under
Jefferson
Louisiana
New Orleans
6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Fast-Growing China Says Little of Child Slavery’s Role
June 21, 2007
Memo From Shanghai
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/world/asia/21china.html?pagewanted=print
SHANGHAI, June 20 — There is a certain ritualistic aspect to stories in China like the one this past week about the hundreds of people, many of them teenagers or even younger, who were forced to work under slavelike conditions in the brick kilns of Shanxi Province.
Just within a week or so of the brick kiln story, there were several reports of labor abuses against children. A 14-year-old boy was killed in an explosion while filling a tank with napthalene at a chemical factory near Nanjing. A 15-year-old boy was dragged into a cotton gin and crushed to death in Nanchang after working a succession of 20-hour days. And 70 girls from rural Henan Province were brought by their teacher to work at a grape processing plant in Ningbo, where their hands bled from working 16-hour shifts.
...child labor is a daily fact of life, experts here say, and one that the government, preoccupied with economic growth, has traditionally turned a blind eye to.
“In order to achieve modernization, people will go to any ends to earn money, to advance their interests, leaving behind morality, humanity and even a little bit of compassion, let alone the law or regulations, which are poorly implemented,” said Hu Jindou, a professor of economics at the University of Technology in Beijing. “Everything is about the economy now, just like everything was about politics in the Mao era, and forced labor or child labor is far from an isolated phenomenon. It is rooted deeply in today’s reality, a combination of capitalism, socialism, feudalism and slavery.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
China Growth on Back of Child Slave Labor, Thick Pollution, and Zero Product Safety
It is ironic that our children's luxury toys, and mountains of worthless consumer junk is being produced at the cost of brutal child labor. In a country that has a tyrannical government. In a country that censors the press, and jails those who dare to speak freely. In a country that forces abortions on families.
This is our great trading partner, China.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 59, 3rd article on page, "F.D.A. to Test Toothpaste Sent to U.S. From China"
Corruption Updates 59, 7th article on page, "Chinese Police Arrest 28 in Riots Against Family Planning Laws"
Corruption Updates 60, 8 th article on page, "Recall Is Issued for Frozen Fish"
Corruption Updates 77, 5th article on page, "Thomas the Tank Engine Toys Recalled Because of Lead Paint"
Search the Corruption Database under
China
7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Hamas Conquest of Gaza Disturbs Arab World With Echoes of Recent Splits and Alliances
June 21, 2007
News Analysis
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/world/middleeast/21arabs.html?pagewanted=print
CAIRO, June 20 — The conquest of the Gaza Strip by Hamas has frightened Arab leaders because it was characterized by the same dynamics that have been agitating the region.
Once again, as in Lebanon last summer, the fight pitted a Western-backed government against a newly empowered, radical Islamist group aligned with Syria and Iran. And, once again, the Western-backed group lost and the Iranian-Syrian group won.
The outcome demonstrated the rising threat to the status quo in places like Cairo; Amman, Jordan; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, posed by political Islam. And it gave Iran yet another foothold on Arab borders.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
NY Times Finally Gets It: About 50 Years Too Late
Times is 20 Years too Late:
Our Dictatorship's Time is Running Out
Alex, June 7, 2007. Written for Corruption Updates 70_1
Why is the Times now questioning the legitimacy of our Dictators and Tyrants in the middle east, after 50 years of continual tyranny? Because the Crisis is drawing near.
The only reason the Times is Reporting on this is as cover, as an excuse against the same charges of incompetence, collusion, and misreporting that led us to war in Iraq.
The Times is now reporting on the problems in the middle east, after they have been festering for decades under the hands of our dictators and tyrants, because our regimes are tottering, ready to fall, or go "native," across the whole middle east.
So much for American "democracy," and our "free press."
The great unreported truth is that America is the source of the fake democracies across the middle east, and responsible for the chaos and pain they are causing.
The American people are ultimately responsible, for we sat quietly when the corporations and special interests killed our democracy, and replaced it with a corporate democracy.
The dictators and tyrants in the middle east are the natural allies of Our Corporate democracy.
As for spreading democracy, we only encourage the spread of corporate democracy. We encourage our dictators to allow the formation of a corporate elite to rise out of our dictatorships, based on factions which control the various aspects of the nation's resources.
Corporate elites formed under our dictators in Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan and S. Korea, eventually legitimizing themselves by forming corporate controlled parties, such as the Democrats and Republicans in America, and running monopolized elections that exclude bottom up democratic input.
Russia narrowly avoided being captured by the oligarchs, and are now highly suspicious of both democracy and corporate democracy.
Iran ran the servants of foreign power out of their country, and they are trying to run them out of the whole middle east.
A noble enterprise.
Also See:
Egypt:
“Egypt Sends Sadat's Nephew to Prison for Defaming Military,” Corruption Update 21, 3rd article on page, states that,
“The United States had at one time talked about Egypt as leading the way toward democratic reform in the Middle East. But with the chaos in the region, and the political uncertainty in Egypt, officials in Egypt said the United States has dropped all pressure to make democratic reforms.”
Corruption Update 32, 1st article on page, "Rice speaks softly in Egypt" RICE THANKS DICTATOR FOR REGIONAL SUPPORT
Corruption Update 40, 6 th article on page, "Before the vote" (MUBARAK ABOUT TO IMPOSE BUSH RULES ON EGYPT The Constitutional changes Mubarak is about to impose on Egypt are the same powers Bush has claimed here)
Iraq:
Corruption Updates 58 6th article on page, "War-torn Iraq 'facing collapse'"
Pakistan:
Corruption Updates 67, 4th article on page, "Musharraf Issues Decree Cracking Down on News Media"
Corruption Updates 70, 7th article on page, "Protests Rage Against Musharraf; Aides Criticize Justice He Ousted"
Search the Corruption Database under
Egypt
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Iraq
Supporting Dictators
8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Bear Stearns Staves Off Collapse of 2 Hedge Funds
By VIKAS BAJAJ and JULIE CRESWELL
NYT June 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/business/21bonds.html?pagewanted=print
The high-stakes game of brinksmanship began early yesterday on Wall Street, and continued throughout the day. Bankers traded telephone calls, frenetically negotiating the fate of two hedge funds.
All wanted to avoid a fire sale in the troubled mortgage-securities market, but at the same time, not get stuck with an exploding liability that could result in steep losses. The day ended with deals that appeared to have forestalled a meltdown. But questions remained about how successful they were and whether they had merely delayed the inevitable.
As the morning unfolded, lenders to two hedge funds at a unit of Bear Stearns, the investment bank, tried to ascertain what they could expect if they auctioned off mortgage securities with a face value of up to $2 billion. The solicitations were hastily withdrawn when investors reacted with little enthusiasm.
As the morning unfolded, lenders to two hedge funds at a unit of Bear Stearns, the investment bank, tried to ascertain what they could expect if they auctioned off mortgage securities with a face value of up to $2 billion. The solicitations were hastily withdrawn when investors reacted with little enthusiasm.
As the morning unfolded, lenders to two hedge funds at a unit of Bear Stearns, the investment bank, tried to ascertain what they could expect if they auctioned off mortgage securities with a face value of up to $2 billion. The solicitations were hastily withdrawn when investors reacted with little enthusiasm.
The securities causing the greatest concern within the Bear Stearns funds are known as collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s. Run by portfolio managers, these complex instrument are akin to mutual funds in that they buy stakes in a variety of bonds backed by mortgages.
They often invest in the riskiest portion of the bonds, usually with a hundreds of millions or billions in borrowed money.One worry about the possible unwinding of the Bear funds is that it will cascade into larger liquidations by other investors who hold similar securities at far higher prices. Accounting rules require investment banks to mark the value of the investments to the price of similar assets trading in the market.
At the end of the day, Merrill sold only a small portion of the $850 million in assets it had seized from the Bear funds as collateral.
One industry executive, who asked not to be named because of the delicacy of the subject, said the banks involved in the Bear funds could collectively lose $1 billion on their lendings to the Bear funds.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Billions in Worthless Loans Ready to Hit Market
Search the Corruption Database under
Economics
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 80
Next Corruption Updates: Page 82
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
