FLAG BANNER
DEDICATED TO RIDDING POLITICAL BRIBERY FROM THE CENTER OF CALIFORNIA POLITICS

 

Fight Corporate Media Liars
HOME
 

CORRUPTION UPDATES 85

June 27, 2007: A Very 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 85

 

Previous Corruption Updates: Page 84

Next Corruption Updates: Page 86

Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org

 

1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE: MUST READ ARTICLE

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

Washington Post Series, Four Articles
By Barton Gellman and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 24, 2007; Page A01

Home Page for All Four Articles

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Angler: A Catalog of Cheney Crimes

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., June 27, 2007

This is a powerful tour de force cataloguing Cheney's numerous domestic crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Rather than focusing on Cheney, as this article does so well, I believe that we must turn our focus to the system that produced and tolerated Cheney. This system of government by the richest,  with politicla power based on bribery, must be ended.

To stop Cheney, and prevent future Cheneys from ever rising again, we must remove the system of bribery and corruption that nourishes them.

Our initiative's target is to dismantle the whole system of bribery and corruption that Bush and Cheney rode into the White House, Starting here in California.

The rise of Cheney and his crew resulted from the ability of wealth and power to directly control politics. Cheney represents just how direct the link is between the power and wealth of corporate America, and political power.

Cheney represents nothing short of Corporate Fascism. The rise of Cheney and his crew represents the ability of wealth and power to directly control politics. It is our duty as Americans to reject this unconstitutional linkage of wealth and power, and fight to reimpose democracy on our wayward polity.

Our initiative breaks the link between wealth, power, and politics.

Search the Corruption Database under

Cheney (15 Abstracts)

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home All Archives

Top of Page

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

BAE systems' shares fall on Justice Dept. probe

Defense contractor's deals with Saudi Arabia under the microscope

By Aude Lagorce, MarketWatch, NYT

June 26, 2007

http://marketwatch.nytimes.com/custom/nyt-com/html-story.asp?guid=%7BC728E1E3%2DFD8B%2D4653%

2D8442%

2D948A2BE34E03%7D&siteid=NYT&dist=NYT

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Britain's top arms dealer, BAE Systems, dropped sharply on Tuesday after the company said it was the target of a U.S. Justice Department probe into alleged corruption, notably in its dealings with Saudi Arabia.

BAE Systems (BA), which has extensive interests in the U.S., said in a brief statement that the Justice Department has started a formal investigation into its compliance with anti-corruption laws, including its business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

UBS also said it believes the U.S. Defense department will continue to award contracts on the basis of merit and that as such BAE's U.S. near-term order inflow should be unaffected. It was equally optimistic on the fate of the Eurofighter contract with the Saudis.

The move by the Justice Department wasn't unexpected, as BAE has been accused, notably on a BBC News television program and in articles in The Guardian newspaper, of making multimillion-pound payments via a secret slush fund to Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan to secure a fighter-jet deal.

Bandar, now secretary general of the Saudi National Security Council, is a former Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and a close friend of former U.S. president George Bush.

The alleged payments to Bandar come under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice because the money went through a U.S. bank. Earlier this month, the Guardian first reported allegations that BAE paid the money to Bandar for at least 10 years through Riggs Bank in Washington.

The deal, known as al-Yamamah and worth an estimated 43 billion pounds ($86 billion), provided Hawk and Tornado jets and other military equipment to the Saudis. It was struck between the governments of British and Saudi Arabia, with BAE acting as subcontractor.

BAE has said that because al-Yamamah was a government-to-government agreement, all payments involved were made with the express approval of both the Saudi and British governments.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office last year halted an investigation into the Saudi deal on national security grounds, though separate inquiries on other BAE deals are progressing.

At the time the investigation was suspended, the U.K. government's most senior legal officer, Attorney General Peter Goldsmith, said that to continue could have harmed Britain's national and international interests.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has supported the move, but the Paris-based anti-corruption watchdog, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said it had "serious concerns" about the probe being dropped.

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

How much Clout does Saudi Arabia have in America?

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., June 27, 2007

The Saudi's had sufficient clout in England to have Tony Blair kill an official investigation into the massive bribes BAE paid to Prince Bandar.

The Saudi's have sufficient clout here that BAE will not be denied contracts here for breaking our bribery laws with the Saudis.

The recent Pentagon scandals about Boeing Bribes, and the ongoing cycle of bribery for earmarks in Congress tell us that virtually all military contracting involves bribery of some kind.

Here in the US the average bribe comes in the form of corporate support for candidates, but sometimes it is cash and a cushy well paid job.

In any case, guns, money and politics are so confused that it is impossible to tell if any of our national and international arms deals are anything but a scam.

Until we get an honest government that is not beholden to arms dealers and their lobbyists, our military industrial complex will continue to drain our treasury.


The article below was written on December 15, 2006, when Blair killed the original UK Serious Fraud Office probe into the Bandar Bribery Scandal:

BRIT GOVT HIDES BRIBES TO SAUDIS

ARMS SUPPLIER BAE BRIBES COVERED UP

How much clout does Saudi Arabia have? The above example of Saud clout reminds us that the majority of the hijackers on 911 were Saudi subjects. Osama is a Saudi. It seems we may have attacked the wrong countries, as Iraq was not involved in 911, and the majority of the people of Afghanistan were fairly unaware of Al Queda, being more concerned with the challenges of survival in the stone age the Russians bombed them into. That leaves Saudi Arabia.

911 was a product of the contradictions within Saudi culture and middle eastern history. The borders and rulers of Saudi Arabia were created by Western Europeans at the close of WWI.

The British strove to maintain control of the region's resources and politics until the end of WWII.

After the war, the middle eastern desire for independence was crushed by dictatorships backed by either America or Russia. Despite being frozen between America and Russia during the cold war, National independence movements rose across the middle east, and were consistently attacked by America, Britain, and Russia. But independence was inevitable.

The rise of independence in Syria, Iraq, and Iran is hated by the West. These countries offer proof to the the people of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt that they are capable of governing themselves, without a Western supported regime to control them, and their resources.

Rather than being a friend to this region as it emerged from the yoke of Western Imperialism, America has offered them a new yoke. And their people hate it.

The whole world has entered a post-colonial period. Except the United States. We seem to be the only nation that does not understand that “Globalism” is no more than an evolution of the older colonial and imperial systems of control. But with a twist.

Instead of marching into your country, we fund and arm a dictator to do it for us. We establish economic and political control of your country through proxies. And their people hate it.

Despite our certainty and confidence in our own righteousness, and the perfection of our system, there are many people around the world who do not believe we have the right to intervene in their domestic affairs, let alone fund and arm the dictators that have seized power in their countries. And they hate us.

When a group of Saudi men, funded by Saudi oil-dollars, and led by a Saudi man, smash airplanes into buildings, we act confused, like we don't understand. “They hate freedom,” the simple minded people in our country tell each other. No, they hate the country that has stolen their sovereignty from them.

Then we use this confusion as cover to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. It's tragically ironic that this further angers the average joe in the middle east, encouraging even more hatred and violence against the US. Our invasion also destabilizes the hold of the Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Egyptian governments on their own people.

Our invasion shows the middle east that we will step out from behind our proxies, and march in ourselves. This is really, really bad for the American dictators in the middle east. Any ambiguity about our intentions has passed, and the people of the middle east can see the web of American political and military influences for what it is, and it is not democratic. And it supports their dictators.

The Royal Family in Saudi Arabia are in a delicate position. If they lose the support of the West, the guns and oil dollars, they will lose their heads. If they go “native,” and represent the interests and beliefs of their own people, America will lose control of the world's oil market.

So when Saudi subjects smash buildings with airplanes, it's not the fault of Saudi Arabia. When Saudi Arabia wants bribes, they get them, and there will be no substantive investigation. And when the people of the middle east cast off their remaining western dictators, we are going to have hell to pay.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 27, 8th article on the page, "BRIT GOVT HIDES BRIBES TO SAUDIS"

Corruption Updates 70, 2nd article on the page, "Saudi prince 'received arms cash'"

Search the Corruption Database under

International Corporate Bribery

England

New Feature: Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

 

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

Chinese Tires Are Ordered Recalled

By ANDREW MARTIN

NYT, June 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/business/worldbusiness/26tire.html?

pagewanted=print

Federal officials have told a small New Jersey importer to recall 450,000 radial tires for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans after the company disclosed that its Chinese manufacturer had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating.

Tread separation is the same defect that led to the recall of millions of Firestone tires in 2000. At the time, tire failure was linked to an increased risk of rollover of light trucks and S.U.V.’s.

The defective tires join a growing list of problematic products with origins in China. A huge recall of potentially tainted pet food in March was followed by widespread reports of toothpaste manufactured with a toxic chemical and toys coated with lead paint.

Ms. Hopkins said the agency’s top officials were “outraged” that Foreign Tire Sales’ executives waited more than two years to pass on their suspicions about problems with the tires. The company first suspected problems in October 2005. Almost a year later, in September 2006, the Chinese manufacturer, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber, a former state-owned company based in eastern China, acknowledged that a gum strip that prevents the tread from separating was left out of the manufacturing process.

...said the company came forward only after it was named as a defendant in a lawsuit, filed in May, involving an accident in which two construction workers were killed and a third was severely injured when a van rolled over.


THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Ban China Trade until Labor, Environment, and Safety Standards are Assured

Originally written for Corruption Update 79_2, on June 19, 2007

Banning the China Trade for health and safety reasons would be impossible, as we have moved a lot of "our" manufacturing there. And it would by hypocritical, as we have gutted health, safety, and labor standard here. But it is critically necessary to restore working conditions and pay for the middle class here, and end the massive irresponsible growth there, in China

We are incapable of protecting ourselves from China's poisions. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is in exactly the same condition as every other executive branch agency: Gutted and Under funded. "Deregulated," and incapable and unwilling to do its job.

The Solution to the deadly aspects of the China Trade is clear: We must ban all trade with China, and every other country that does not meet reasonable standards for labor, environmental, and safety. Period.

Reasonable Health, Safety and Environmental standards will not be established, nor enforced here, let alone in our China Trade, until we change who is running our democracy here.

Politics in the United States is like having the wolves guard the henhouse. These corporate wolves have unchecked our Constitutional balances, and now bribery dominates politics.

Our Bribed politicians are incapable of protecting our own labor, health, safety and environment. They have been very well paid to gut all of these laws.

The biggest bribers not only use our government against us here, but have gone to China to enrich themselves with extra profits that should have paid to maintain and protect the health and welfare of workers there, and end-users here.

The extra profits earned from the China Trade come directly from screwing the environment, employing brutal labor standards, and avoiding every chemical health and safety regulation that common decency requires.

Additionally, our government and business communtiy have been conveniently ignoring the serious human rights abuses of the tyrannical government running China, while they cooperate and take profits.

The only answer to the physical and moral poisons of the China trade is to ban it completely until sufficient standards are in place, and enforced, that protect labor, the environment, and the end users of the products.

Also See:


Corruption Updates 59, 3th article on page, "F.D.A. to Test Toothpaste Sent to U.S. From China"

Corruption Updates 36, 6th article on the Page, "China about to pass U.S. as world's top generator of greenhouse gases"

Corruption Updates 41, 9th article on the Page, "China jails editor for subversion"

Corruption Updates 55, 7th article on the Page, "China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say"

Corruption Updates 59, 3th 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 , 8th article on the Page, "China: Recall Is Issued for Frozen Fish"

Corruption Updates 67, 5th article on the Page, "China: When Fakery Turns Fatal"

Corruption Updates 77, 5th article on the Page, "Thomas the Tank Engine Toys Recalled Because of Lead Paint"

Corruption Updates 79, 2th article on the Page, "As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China"

Search the Corruption Database under

China

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

 

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

Survey Finds 43.6 Million Uninsured in U.S.

By REUTERS

NYT, June 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/washington/26insure.html?pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) — About 43.6 million people in the United States, or 14.8 percent of the population, had no health insurance in 2006, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Monday.

The estimate is based on those who did not have insurance at the time of the interview. About 54.5 million people in the country, or 18.6 percent of the population, had no insurance for at least part of 2006.

The survey, by the National Center for Health Statistics, found that about 9.3 percent of children under 18 did not have health insurance, a decrease from 13.9 percent in 1997.

Texas had the largest percentage of people without

health insurance, with 23.8 percent of the population not covered, the report said. Michigan had the lowest, at 7.7 percent

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Assures Health Executives Continued Massive Profits

Public Health, Welfare and our Taxes sacrificed for Industry Profits

Originally written by Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., on March 22, 2007, for Corruption Updates 42, 3

The point of all American politics, the goal of both the Democrats and the Republicans, is profit, prestige, and power. The politicians of both parties put Profit before our democracy, our Constitution, and common sense.

The problem with this approach is that it is unconstitutional, immoral, and destructive to our country. Our constitution requires that the people regulate the markets. It gives no power for markets to rule over people.

The upcoming Presidential election is a case in point. The candidates are not being chosen by the people, they are being chosen as viable candidates based on the amount of bribes they can collect from the corporate special interests. We have market, not democratic politics.

And the insurance industry is deeply invested. Last year the insurance industry distributed $30.7 million in total bribes, giving $10.5 mil to Dems, and $19.7 mil to Repubs. Rest assured that this will preserve the majority of their governmental subsidies, tax breaks, and profits, no matter which party is in power.

Big corporate money is pouring into their campaign coffers, right now, assuring that all the candidates we finally get to vote for are in the pockets of the Special Interests, and are not representatives of the people.

The winning candidates will enter office dishonestly, on a wave of special interest bribes, then use their offices to repay their debts to their corporate and special interest benefactors. Insurance industry profits will be preserved independent of who wins in Nov. '08.

Our politicians have turned Lady Liberty into a whore, forcing our democracy to service the greed of the special interests.

This has seriously damaged our country. Our forests are gone. Our schools are not even good daycare. Working class jobs pay nothing. And healthcare sucks while healthcare executives get rich.

The Corporations, the rich, and their political lackeys have proven that political power based on wealth is insufficient to provide for our most basic social needs.

Allowing the rich to run our country is illegitimate, defying the words, intentions, and spirit of our Constitution.

This concentration of political authority has accelerated the concentration of our nation's wealth and power into the smallest number of hands in our country's history. Ever. This concentration of wealth accelerates the concentration of Political power, tightening the grip of the corporate monopoly of political power. This cycle of corruption is accelerating, and remains unchallenged by either party.

The result is an America has never been so unevenly split between luxury and poverty. Ever.

But industry, and all of the special interests need not worry. If they continue to provide the hundreds of millions in political bribe money, both parties will continue to front candidates who sacrifice the public health, welfare, and safety of our nation to assure the profits and power of their corporate sponsors.

Unless we restore our democracy.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 42, 3rd article on the page,"Leavitt reassures insurers in fund talks"

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Health

 

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

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

Mideast Leaders Show Support for Abbas as Hamas Releases Tape of Israeli

By ISABEL KERSHNER

NYT, June 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/world/middleeast/26mideast.html?

pagewanted=print

 

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, June 25 — The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority gathered at this Red Sea resort on Monday in a show of support for the emergency government formed by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

The leaders came together in the wake of the violent takeover of Gaza by the Islamic militant group Hamas less than two weeks ago. In his closing statement, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, said that as a gesture of good will, he would release 250 Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails after they sign a commitment not to return to violence.

About 9,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails.

President Mubarak said he had called for the summit meeting “with a view to reviving hope in peace” between Israel and the Palestinians, and that he wanted to “unify the Palestinian ranks through dialog.” He said the achievement of “a common Palestinian position” is “an immediate requirement that can bear no delay.”

On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved the gradual release of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues owed to the Palestinians and withheld after Hamas won legislative elections more than a year ago. Close to $600 million has been withheld.

But it is not yet clear whether Mr. Abbas will be allowed to spend any of the money in Gaza, because Israel says it wants guarantees that none of the money will reach Hamas.

The leaders of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and much of the West, contend that the emergency government is illegal. On Sunday, Mr. Haniya said, “We warn against running behind Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian common summits.” He said Palestinians should rely on “resistance and endurance.”

Sharpening the lines between the positions, Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Monday called on Muslims around the world to help finance and arm Hamas. His comments were in an audiotape posted on the Internet.

Hamas has sought to distance itself from Al Qaeda, saying in the past that the Hamas struggle was confined to the Israeli-Palestinian arena. On Monday, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, reiterated that theme, saying, “Hamas has its own program, regardless of the comments of this group or that group,” according to The Associated Press.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Egyptian Dictator Condemns Democratically elected Hamas

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., June 24, 2007, originally written for Corruption Updates 83 #10

Irony of Ironies. The freely elected Hamas government has been condemned by the American Backed Dictator, Mubarak, of Egypt.

Fatah refused to recognize Hamas' victory, and was encouraged, armed, and supported by Israel and the US to defy Hamas' victory. Fatah kept what amounted to an illegal militia in opposition to the elected government. This was only one of many of our acts of bad faith.

The real loss we sustained by charting this course is the loss of an opportunity to have a real negotiation with a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Arafat was neither. He believed in independence when he faced his people, and he believed in dependence when he faced the west. This suited neither side, and deteriorated into a regime of corruption. Abbas is a western bitch, like Arafat. But unlike Arafat, Abbas is incapable of retaining legitimacy in the eyes of his own people.

I laughed when The Jews danced in the streets at Arafat's demise, knowing he was the best friend they had with the Palestinians. If Arafat lived forever, he would have continued to balance his two faces, one against the other.

Abbas can suck western cock, but he cannot satisfy his own people. This lack of duplicity, of being able to balance contradictory realities as Arafat did, has doomed Abbas, and made Hamas a shining example of a successful Islamic Independence movement across the whole middle east. The dancing Jews are wishing they had Arafat back.

The Jews, with our help, and fully backed by our stable of middle eastern dictators who depend on us for their survival, were able to bulldoze Abbas, and the post-Arafat Fatah, into subservience to their claims of Israeli legitimacy. This means nothing. Israel can only be legitimized through negotiations with Hamas. Legitimacy cannot be bought with bribes, nor forced through violence.

This was political suicide for Fatah, and destructive to the American backed dictators across the whole middle east. We had the opportunity to open negotiations with a legitimate representative of the Palestinians, Hamas, for the first time in decades, and blew it. This will cost us, and our dictators a great deal of credibility.

Our response was to undermine their legitimacy, which they won throught democratic processes, while funding and arming attacks against them. We are trying to bludgeon and starve them into submission. This will fail. The only legitimacy being undermined is our own, and that of our allies across the middle east.

Thus we are confronted with the spectacle and hypocrisy of our Egyptian dictator Mubarak, who seized power through a military coup and never let go since, criticizing Hamas' legitimacy.

The situation is more desperate than we know, when Mubarak is forced to use the word "legitimacy" to criticize Hamas. How dare he use that word in any context other than a bad joke.

Mubarak speaks wisely and well against an elected government seizing legitimacy in Palestine, for he is an unelected tyrant, and represents American Power in the middle east.

If there was a real election in Egypt tomorrow, Mubarak would be hanging from a lamppost the next day, or living in a penthouse in Manhattan.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 18, 7th article on the page, ""FOR MODERATE DEMOCRACY" EGYPTIANS BELIEVE DEMOCRACY IN EGYPT “IS NOT A REAL CONCERN"

Corruption Updates 27, 5th article on the page, "EGYPTIAN DICTATOR CHANGES CONSTITUTION FARCE OF AMERICAN “DEMOCRACY” EXPOSED By Tyrant"

Corruption Updates 32, 1st article on the page, "RICE THANKS EGYPTIAN DICTATOR FOR REGIONAL SUPPORT"

Corruption Updates 40, 6th article on the page, "MUBARAK ABOUT TO IMPOSE BUSH RULES ON EGYPT"

Corruption Updates 78, 10th article on the page, "Egypt: After Shura Council Elections"

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Egypt (26 Abstracts)

Middle East

Supporting Dictators

International Corporate Bribery

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

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

Murdoch’s Dealings in China: It’s Business, and It’s Personal

By JOSEPH KAHN

NYT June 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/world/asia/26murdoch.html?pagewanted

=print

 

Mr. Murdoch has flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children. His Fox News network helped China’s leading state broadcaster develop a news Web site. He joined hands with the Communist Youth League, a power base in the ruling party, in a risky television venture, his China managers and advisers say.

Regulatory barriers and management missteps have thwarted Mr. Murdoch’s hopes of big profits in China. He has said his local business hit a “brick wall” after a bid to corral prime-time broadcasting rights fell apart in 2005, costing him tens of millions of dollars.

Mr. Murdoch cooperates closely with China’s censors and state broadcasters, several people who worked for him in China say. He cultivates political ties that he hopes will insulate his business ventures from regulatory interference, these people say.

In speeches and interviews, Mr. Murdoch often supports the policies of Chinese leaders and attacks their critics. A group of China-based reporters for The Journal accused him in a letter to Dow Jones shareholders of “sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal and political aims,” a charge the News Corporation denies.

His courtship has made him the Chinese leadership’s favorite foreign media baron. He has dined with former President Jiang Zemin in the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing and repeatedly met other members of the ruling Politburo in Beijing, New York and London. Television channels affiliated with Mr. Murdoch beam more programming into China than any other foreign media group.

China has never been a make-or-break proposition for the News Corporation, since its operations here represent a small part of the company, which is valued at $68 billion.

Mr. Murdoch’s initial foray into China was disastrous. Shortly after he purchased the satellite broadcaster Star TV in Hong Kong for nearly $1 billion in 1993, he made a speech in London that enraged the Chinese leadership.

He said that modern communications technology had “proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere.” Star could beam programming to every corner of China, and Murdoch had paid a big premium for the broadcaster for that reason.

Prime Minister Li Peng promptly outlawed private ownership of satellite dishes, which had once proliferated on rooftops. Star TV faced a threat to its viability.

Chinese leaders rebuffed his attempts to apologize in person — a ban that lasted nearly four years. But he sought to placate them. One target was Deng Xiaoping, then retired but still China’s senior leader.

HarperCollins, Mr. Murdoch’s book unit, published a biography of Mr. Deng written by his daughter, Deng Rong. Although it mainly recycled propaganda about Mr. Deng, Mr. Murdoch threw an elaborate book party at Le Cirque in New York. The book sold poorly.

He also cultivated ties with Mr. Deng’s eldest son, Deng Pufang, who is disabled. Mr. Murdoch chartered a jet to ferry a troop of disabled acrobats that the younger Mr. Deng had promoted to perform abroad, according to a former News Corporation official.

Star TV overhauled its programming to suit Chinese tastes. In 1994 it dropped BBC News, which had frequently angered Chinese officials with its reports on mainland affairs.

If Star was a potential threat to the one-party state, it was also a new opportunity. Chinese officials disliked Western news media coverage of China and wanted to present their own face to the world. Mr. Murdoch provided the access they wanted.

In 1996, he entered a joint venture with Liu Changle, a onetime radio host for the People’s Liberation Army who had connections with propaganda officials. Their joint news and entertainment channel, called Phoenix, beamed programs to the small number of urban households permitted to see foreign broadcasts in China. Mr. Murdoch transmitted the same programming around the world on his satellites.

Phoenix imitated the fast pace and on-the-scene reporting style popular in the West and shook up the mainland’s staid news media, which still featured well-coiffed narrators reading scripts about meetings between senior leaders held that day. But Phoenix also tended to steer clear of the most sensitive political topics and could be bombastically nationalistic.

“Officials realized he had a good intentions,” Mr. Liu said.

After Phoenix proved a hit, Ding Guangen, a hard-liner who exercised sweeping control over all Chinese news media as chief of the country’s Propaganda Department, granted Mr. Murdoch his first meeting. So did Zhu Rongji, then the prime minister.

In late 1998, President Jiang invited Mr. Murdoch to Zhongnanhai. The official Xinhua news agency, reporting on the session, made clear that the media baron had a new reputation.

“President Jiang expressed appreciation for the efforts made by world media mogul Rupert Murdoch in presenting China objectively and cooperating with the Chinese press over the last two years,” Xinhua said.

The Murdochs often echoed the Chinese government line. In a 1999 interview with Vanity Fair, Mr. Murdoch spoke disparagingly of the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese condemn as a separatist. “I have heard cynics who say he is a very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes,” he said.

James Murdoch, who ran Star TV from 2000 to 2003, said in a speech in Los Angeles in 2001 that Western reporters in China supported “destabilizing forces” that are “very, very dangerous for the Chinese government.” He lashed out at the Falun Gong spiritual sect, which had just endured brutal repression in China, calling it “dangerous and apocalyptic.”

The Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the suppression of the Falun Gong movement in 2001. Last month, seven China-based reporters for The Journal wrote a letter to Dow Jones’s current controlling shareholders arguing that the articles on Falun Gong “may never have seen the light of day” if The Journal had been owned by Mr. Murdoch.

Wendi Murdoch has stepped up her role in China. She plotted a strategy for the News Corporation’s social networking site, MySpace, to enter the Chinese market...

As a local venture, MySpace China, which began operations in the spring, abides by domestic censorship laws and the “self discipline” regime that governs proprietors of Chinese Web sites. Every page on the site has a link allowing users or monitors to “report inappropriate information” to the authorities. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have made similar accommodations for their Web sites in China.

The Murdochs will soon be able to call Beijing home. Workers have nearly finished renovating their traditional courtyard-style house in Beijing’s exclusive Beichizi district, a block from the Forbidden City. Beneath the steep-pitched roofs and wooden eaves of freshly coated vermillion and gold, the courtyard has an underground swimming pool and billiard room, according to people who have seen the design.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Good Morning, China!

Arpen Shah , Berkeley, Ca., June 28, 2007

As the Communist Chinese government welcomes Rupert Murdoch with open arms, it is preparing to reap all the benefits of having him give both credibility and slickness to its tightly controlled "free press."

Murdoch fully intends to drink from the profits of  the Chinese media, despite it is a monopolized "puppet" of a government noted for its prosecution of free speech.

News Corp. has influence around the world in every type of communications. Murdoch influences are transmitted across every media: from satellite to radio to books and probably even to Braille. News Corp. has managed to control and influence the content of every type of media outlet in America and around the world.

As Murdoch has manipulated Fox, and News Corp. with the same practices and principals as the Chinese state uses with its media, it seems natural that Rupert is moving into China in a big way. His format of biased reporting and censorship will fit right in, in China.

This may really damage the Chinese people. Merging sophisticated western slickness with the Communist government's messages will empower the message without adding to understanding. Just look what FOX has done here.

Although it is unlikely that News Corp. will control all broadcast media in China, the comrades may believe they are listening to an alternative voice, when in fact they are getting outFOXed by Murdoch's slick version of government propaganda and its lies about events both within and beyond the Great Wall.

Murdoch is building more than just a media monopoly in China; he has married a mainland Chinese, and established a home in China. This may be significant for the future of News Corp. after Murdoch dies.

Murdoch has close political and business ties within the Chinese government. Murdoch has gone so far as to befriend and enrich the children and families of government leaders. He has publicly supported some of China's most absurd and abusive political positions, including the occupation of Tibet and the violent suppression of the Falun Gong movement.

With political connections secured, Murdoch is safely able to expand his business ventures in China all while lining the pockets of the Communist Regime. Besides crushing any hopes of free press in China, Murdoch will make billions of dollars for himself and for the Chinese government.

Murdoch offers the Chinese government two things: more money, and another media outlet. Both will help maintain its tyrannical hold over its comrades, be an asset to justify its increasing military strength, and expand the reach of its propaganda. But will Murdoch give China even more?

If the bulk of Murdoch's Global media empire falls to his Chinese wife, living in China, there's an outside chance that Murdoch's global empire will fall right into China's lap, becoming a powerful global tool for Chinese propaganda.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 41, 9th article on the page, "China jails editor for subversion"

Corruption Updates 59, 7th article on the page, "Chinese Police Arrest 28 in Riots Against Family Planning Laws"

Corruption Updates 75, 5th article on the page, "Group calls on China to define 'state secret'"

Search the Corruption Database under

China

Media

 

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

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

Ex-E.P.A. Chief Defends Role in 9/11 Response

By ANTHONY DePALMA

NYT, June 26, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/nyregion/26whitman.html?_r=1

&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, June 25 — Testifying at a Congressional hearing on Monday about the government’s environmental response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Christie Whitman staunchly defended her statements assuring the public that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe in the days immediately after the attack.

Facing some of her toughest Congressional critics, Mrs. Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, repeatedly denied the critics’ assertions that there had been a deliberate attempt to play down health risks or that the White House had improperly influenced statements she made in the weeks after 9/11.

But her assertions did not deflect harsh questions or criticisms about the federal response from the Democrats in the room.

“Our government has knowingly exposed thousands of American citizens unnecessarily to deadly hazardous materials,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the subcommittee and a Manhattan Democrat whose district includes ground zero. “And because it has never admitted the truth, Americans remain at grave risk to this day.”

Mrs. Whitman initially refused to testify before the subcommittee because she said she was not qualified to discuss legal issues.

The hearing carried a political overtone because the lingering health issues have raised questions about Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s handling of worker safety at ground zero, now that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Several members of the committee repeatedly quoted from a comprehensive 2003 report by the E.P.A.’s own inspector general that concluded that Mrs. Whitman did not have sufficient scientific information to warrant stating, on Sept. 18, 2001, that the air in New York was “safe to breathe.” The report also detailed how the White House had altered her press releases.

Mrs. Whitman said she was aware of only one instance in which important information was removed from one of her public statements by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, which edited the statements in the aftermath of the attack. In one draft release in September, Mrs. Whitman urged Lower Manhattan residents whose apartments had been contaminated to consider having them professionally cleaned. After the statement was sent to the White House for review, the phrase about professional cleaning was removed.

Mr. Whitman said that early on a decision had been made by the Bush administration that all public statements be coordinated so that the federal government could be seen as speaking with one voice, an assertion that drew an angry response from Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat.

“One voice — give me a break,” Mr. Pascrell said.

Several members of the subcommittee also pressed Mrs. Whitman to acknowledge that exposure to the dust from the collapsed twin towers had made workers and residents sick. Mrs. Whitman declined to do so, saying that the evidence linking the dust to disease was not conclusive.

She said she had not read clinical reports from the Mount Sinai World Trade Center Screening and Monitoring Program. A preliminary study released last year showed that 70 percent of the first 9,000 workers examined had reported developing some kind of respiratory problem after working on the debris pile.

At one point in the questioning, Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, expressed disbelief about statements that Mrs. Whitman made in 2001 because they seemed to contradict the results of air sampling being reported by the agency’s own scientists.

Mrs. Whitman denied claims by committee members that she had been pressured to declare the air safe so the financial district could be reopened quickly, and she did not express regret for any of her statements in 2001.

John L. Henshaw, a former assistant secretary of labor who led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2001, defended the controversial decision by the federal agency to not strictly enforce regulations on the use of respirators by workers at ground zero.

Instead, the agency entered into a partnership with the large construction companies working at the site, and the city, to voluntarily comply with the regulations. The city’s own records, however, indicate that compliance was often spotty.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

911 is Only the Tip of the Iceberg: EPA Steadily Fails to Protect America's Health and Welfare

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., June 27, 2007

Whitman's tenure at the EPA was the tenure of hibernation. The EPA went to sleep, relying on voulentary self regulation of industry to stand in for real oversight.

Whitman's 9-11 lies are typical of the Bush Administration: They lie, get caught in lies, and continue to mouth bald-faced lies long after they have been proven liars.

9-11, like Katrina, are symbols of the monumental incompentence of the Bush Administration. 9-11 has been seized by Bush as justification for any torture, violence and crime he commits in his Terror War.

But 911, like Katrina, is a disaster for the regular people who saw the eye of the storm. The Bush Administration could care less about the actual people killed and injured by the EPA on 911.

Bush continues to use 911 as a rallying cry for Unlimited Presidential Power, while continuing to ignore the needs of the actual victims, and the victims of the EPA's criminal lies to NY about the toxicity they faced in its aftermath.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 16, 4th article on the page, "EPA STANDARDS WILL KILL YOU: SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBERY BRINGS AMERICA DEATH"

Corruption Updates 25, 5th article on page, AP, 12-6-06, BATTERY LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH BUSH REPAYS BRIBES WITH OUR HEALTH AND WELFARE BY ATTEMPTING TO KILL LEAD STANDARDS

Corruption Updates 25, 6th article, AP, 12-6-06, FARM LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) REPAYS BRIBES BY KILLING EPA REGULATION OF FARMS

Corruption Updates 32, 2nd article on the page, "BUSH TRIES TO KILL CHEMICAL RULES, SCIENCE, AND INTEGRITY IN ONE FELL SWOOP: INTEGERTY FALLS, RULES AND SCIENCE DAMAGED, BUT STILL STANDING

Search the Corruption Database under

Health

Environmental Protection Agency

Killing Safety Regulations

 

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

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

Immigrant licenses off table

Persistent senator sets aside annual bid for legalized driving, but isn't giving up yet.

By Aurelio Rojas - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTTuesday, June 26, 2007

http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/v-print/story/241553.html

 

Lacking the votes, state Sen. Gil Cedillo agreed Monday to strip his signature bill of language that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses, perhaps putting the issue to rest for the year.

Instead, a watered-down Senate Bill 60 was approved 13-0 by the Assembly Transportation Committee. The amended bill states it is the intent of the Legislature to review the Federal Real ID Act of 2005 and steps that need to be taken to implement it.

Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, had tethered the issue of illegal immigrants and driver's licenses to the Real ID Act, which is being implemented by the federal government to create a national standard for driver's licenses.

The regulations -- which will require all 23 million California drivers to go in person to Department of Motor Vehicles offices -- do not prohibit states from issuing licenses to illegal immigrants.

But some Democrats on the Transportation Committee, which includes several newly elected members, indicated they were unlikely to support driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. So before the hearing, Cedillo deleted the provisions dealing with illegal immigrants to keep his bill alive.

...Cedillo's efforts to win driver's licenses for illegal immigrants will fail for the ninth consecutive year.

"We're committed to working on this and getting this down," he said after the hearing. "Today, we were able to find a way to keep the dialogue going."

There was no debate on the driver's license issue, which Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, has likened to the legendary Phoenix because it keeps rising each year from the ashes in a Legislature dominated by Democrats.

Since then, the legislation has continued to pass out of the Legislature, but it has been vetoed three times by Schwarzenegger.

This year, the Senate approved it 23-13 and moved it to the Assembly, where it received its first hearing Monday.

Even if the language is reinserted, Schwarzenegger has indicated he will again veto it.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Let's fight Global Warming with Autos for Every Crimigrant

California is recieving about 750,000 illegal foreigners every year. Our electrical and water systems are failing. Our schools and prisons are packed to the max, and are inhumane environments for our students and prisnors. The rich are richer than ever before in our country's history, and the poor have never been poorer.

The crimigration has served the rich well.

Our roads are falling apart, and cannot handle their present traffic load. It is past time to stop the massive expansion of our population. It is time to shrink our state's population down to a level its environmental and social infrastructures can handle.

The days of growth as the engine of corporate profits are coming to a harsh end. The massive social, political, and environmental damages demographic growth has inflicted on our state are going to discredit the adherents of growing corporate profits through mass immigration.

As soon as the economy implodes, which should occur before the next presidedtial election, the Democrats are going to tell the crimigrants to go home.

If the economy falls after the Dems grant Amnesty to the Crimigrants, we are going to have another Republican President.

Also See:


Corruption Updates 36, 7th article on the page, "CORPORATE-DEMOCRAT IMMIGRATION POLICY SUCCESSFUL:Poverty"

Corruption Updates 36, 7th article on the page, "HONEST STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ONLY SHOWS MONETARY COST OF IMMIGRATION"

Search the Corruption Database under

Crimigrants

New Feature:

Let's Talk! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for posting here!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words. Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home All Archives

Top of Page

 

Previous Corruption Updates: Page 84

Next Corruption Updates: Page 86

 

Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org




Home All Archives

Top of Page



THE INITIATIVE

WHY
HOW TO HELP

THE PLAN

IMPORTANT DATES
ARCHIVE I
ARCHIVE 2
ARCHIVE 3
ARCHIVE 4
ARCHIVE 5
ARCHIVE 6
ARCHIVE 7
ARCHIVE 8
ARCHIVE 9
ARCHIVE 10
ARCHIVE 11
ARCHIVE 12
ARCHIVE 13
ARCHIVE 14
ALL ARCHIVES
 
CORRUPTION UPDATES
 
ALL ARCHIVES
Corruption Database
 

WHO WE ARE

CONTACT US

 
ARCHIVE I:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
ARCHIVE II:
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
ARCHIVE III:
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
ARCHIVE IV:
Page 14
vPage 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
ARCHIVE V:
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
ARCHIVE VI:
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29

ARCHIVE VII:

Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
ARCHIVE 8
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
ARCHIVE 9
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
 
SunSet
CREEK