CORRUPTION UPDATES 126
Posted: October 26, 2007: Draft Edition
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1) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
New Steps by U.S. Against Iranians
By HELENE COOPER
NYT, October 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/washington/25tehran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The Bush administration will announce a long-debated policy of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism, administration officials said Wednesday night.
The announcement also intensifies the strained relations between the two countries. The administration has accused Revolutionary Guard members of providing weaponry and explosive devices used by Shiite militias against American troops in Iraq — a charge that Tehran has denied.
In August, White House officials said they intended to declare the entire Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization, but reports of such a move so raised the hackles of America’s European allies and some officials of the State and Treasury Departments that the administration put those plans on hold while the internal debate continued. The announcement planned for Thursday reflects a compromise.
Last week Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, caused consternation in the administration when he visited Tehran and said publicly that there was no need for military strikes.
Because Iran has done little business with the United States in more than two decades, the larger point of the designation would be to heighten the political and psychological pressure on Iran, administration officials said, by using the designation to persuade foreign governments and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses and individuals.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 6, 2007
The first link below refers to Iranian accusations that America has funded Baluch terror against Iran. The second link below refers to American accusations against Iran for trading arms for Afghan opium. America kidnapped Iranian consular officials in Urbil, and the Iranians seized Iranian-American academics in Iran. Each side makes regular displays of force in the Gulf and the Straight.
There is a bit of Irony in seeing the Neo-Cons, who believe they have the right to impose their corporate morals on Americans and the world, lined up against a fundamentalist Muslim state, which believes it has the right to impose its values within Iran.
It's a contest between the Christian Taliban and the Shite Pope.
Is America sponsoring terrorism in Iran? According to Seymour Hersh of New Yorker magazine, US special forces are operating in Iran. After watching our behavior in Vietnam, our death squads in Central America, and our torture at Abu Garib and Gitmo, it would not surprise me if we were funding, if not directly participating in terror attacks in Eastern Iran.
The below was written on March 29, 2007:
Is the big game, war with Iran, coming? Bush has "lost" the middle-east, and America seems incapable of dealing with our self-created crisis. Or are we?
Although we are incapable of admitting it, Bush will be known to history as the man who LOST THE MIDDLE EAST, empowered China with our manufacturing, and pushed Russia enough to make them openly stand against us.
Bush's options around the world, and our influence in the middle east, are decreasing by the second. Bush has few viable options.
There are two basic paths we can follow: We can continue fighting to prop-up our Egyptian, Saudi, and Jordanian dictatorships, or attempt to re impose our western dictatorships in the Iran and Iraq, as we are now.
At best, this path will lead to regional war, internal revolutions, and the eventual emergence of a bitterly Anti-American oil-rich middle east. At worse, the middle eastern rejection of American authority will provide an anti-American center around which Russia, China, and India will build a new global balance of power which rejects American Globalism.
Our second option is to acknowledge the moral and political sins we have committed while seeking world domination, and dominating the middle-east, followed by our granting honest self-determination for the Arab peoples. This would require that we get our fucking foot off their necks.
Depend on Bush to take the first option, and get our feet cut off.
BBC NEWS, 1-17-06; US special forces 'inside Iran'
Corruption Updates 45, 3rd article on the page, Is a U.S.-Iran War Inevitable?
Corruption Updates 57, 10th article on the page, "Cheney talks tough on Iran from U.S. carrier: Cheney is Dr.Strangelove"
Corruption Updates 58, 4th article on the page, "Cheney's choices"
Corruption Updates 96, 3rd article on the page, 11 Revolutionary Guards Die in Iran Clashes: Is America Backing Suicide Bombers?
Corruption Updates 97, 1st article on the page, U.S. Arms Plan for Mideast Aims to Counter Iranian Power: Bush fuels middle east Arms Race
Corruption Updates 109, 5th article on the page, US Arrests More Iranian Diplomats in Iraq
CNN, 9-17-07; France: Prepare for war over Iran
List of Interesting Links to more news Abstracts on Iran
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Iran (39 Abstracts)
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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Iran defiant at new US sanctions
Iran has responded defiantly to new sanctions imposed by the US targeting Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and three state-owned banks.
Story from BBC NEWS, Published: 2007/10/26 07:08:13 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7063188.stm
The Iranian foreign ministry said the sanctions were doomed to failure.
The US move came as a senior American diplomat accused Russia and China of aiding and abetting Iran's military.
US Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said Russia should stop selling weapons to Iran and China should stop investing in the country.
"[China is] the number-one trade partner with Iran," Mr Burns told the BBC.
'Destabilising' force
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the new sanctions as part of "a comprehensive policy to confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians".
The US declared the Revolutionary Guards a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction", a reference to ballistic missiles they are allegedly developing, while their elite overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, was singled out as a "supporter of terrorism".
Under Executive Order 13382, US authorities will be able to freeze the assets of, and prohibit any US citizen or organisation from doing business with the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran's ministry of defence, which controls the country's defence industry, three Iranian banks, and several companies owned by the Guards will also be designated.
Mr Cheney is widely believed to be pressing for a military strike on Iran before the Bush administration's term is over, our correspondent says.
If these sanctions have no effect, Ms Rice may well have to give way to those in and around the White House who believe the time for diplomacy is over, he says.
Iran Rising
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October , 2007
These new Iran sancations are just the latest manifistation of Bush's unilateral International behavior. Iran has the right under international treaty to enrich uranium. Until Bush decided that international treaties mean nothing to the United States.
Shortly after taking office, Bush pulled out of the ABM treaty with Russia, ended negociation with N. Korea, and attacked Iraq against international law. Intentional violations of the Geneva Conventions against torture shortly followed Bush's illegal invasion.
Bush has continued to arm and aid three nations who illegally developed and possess nuclear weapons, India, Pakistan, and Israel, while denying Iran their sovereign right to develop nuclear power.
Bush's unreasonable stance towards Iran has historical roots that go back to the Iranian deposition of our Dictator, the Shah of Iran, in 1979. The Shah, alongside Israel, were the twin pillars of American Might in the Middle-East, and all nations in the region lived in the shadow of their might. 1979 changed all that.
Since then, we have treated Iran in much the same pattern as we have treated Cuba: We do not recognize the power of nations controlled by American Dictators or American-backed Corporate Elites to determine the terms of their own legitimacy or soveregnity. This tends to piss people off.
Since then Iran has survived 22 years of American economic isolation, the brutal 7 year American sponsored war with our then-buddy, Saddam, and every kind of economic and political pressue we could conjure up. Despite, or possibly because of these obstructions, Iran has prospered.
The spirit of self-determination that fueled Iran's Revolution of Independence from America has now intensified, radicalized, and spread across the whole Middle-East. All of America's dictators in the Middle-East are now facing the same dangers the Shah faced prior to his deposition.
America has responded by distancing ourself even further from our own values. We have hardened our support for our dictators, and turn a blind eye as they too kidnap, detain and torture their domestic political opponents. We sit by quietly as they threaten, imprison, and kill independent reporters.
Most disturbingly, we have created a legal black hole called "terrororism." This term trumps every law, Constitution, or international agreement that once held governments in check.
"Terror" declaring all who resist the American backed state violence used by the Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Israeli states to maintain their claims to legitimacy, to be "terrorists."
Bush's ill-concieved invasion of Iraq damaged the domestic political legitimacy of all of our Middle-Eastern allies from the very beginning of the war. Marching foreign troops into Iraq rekindled repugnant memories of British Colonial brutality, as well as the Crusades across the whole Middle-East.
Even more dangerously, Bush's failed invasions, and our impending defeats in Iraq and Afghanastan, have moved the body of middle-eastern opinion, not just to the point of sympathizing with the anti-American insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanastan, but has fueled independence movements in Egypt and Saudia Arabia as well.
The real victim is not just the honor and credit of the US, but the corporate fascism of the United States has discredited the notion and practice of democracy itelf.
The perpetual uglyness of our Iraqi and Afghan occupations is fuel to the fire of every Middle-Eastern independence movement, and has greatly contributed to the rise of Iran, again, as the dominant power in the Middle-East, under its own government, rather than one of our dictators.
This is the great complication, and the driving force behind the increasing US pressure on Iran: as Bush's idiocy continues to drive our wars to failure and damage our Middle-Eastern allies and influence, our failures simultanously feed the growth of Iran's power and influence.
Bush has stuck our arm into a bear trap. If he tries to pull it out, it will strip the flesh from our arm. If he pushes it in further, he will rip up fresh arm. Since Bush is incapable of thinking his way out of this crisis, we are fucked.
Bush's "solution" to the consequences of our Iraqi and Afghan disasters will be to spread the crisis to Iran. Bush is thinking that by bombing Iran into the Stone Age he will reduce Iran's ability to act on the regional oppertunities our Iraq and Afghan disasters have thrown on their doorstep.
This too, like the Iraq and Afghan invasions, will fail. A regional war will follow any attack on Iran, and this regional war will end the era of American-backed dictators in the Middle-East.
Iran will still, ultimatly, be the greatest benificiary of the rapid Middle-Eastern decolonization that is occuring before our eyes.
Our bombs may kill people, but they feed the ideas that are driving our opponents to victory.
List of Interesting Links to more news Abstracts on Iran
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2b) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
China not to attend six-nation meeting on Iran nuclear issue
GOV.cn Tuesday, October 16, 2007
http://english.gov.cn/2007-10/16/content_777807.htm
China will not attend the six-nation meeting on Iran nuclear issue in Germany because of "the technical reason", said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Beijing on Tuesday.
Liu also told a regular press conference that China's stance on the Iran nuclear issue "remained unchanged".
He said China had reported its decision to the relevant sides, and for how the meeting was going on, China still needed to discuss with them.
Diplomats from China, Britain, France, Russia, the United States and Germany, were originally set to meet in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss the Iran nuclear issue.
china news links
3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Putin warns Europe over Iran and Kosovo at EU summit
(Francisco Leong)
From Times Online
October 26, 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2744912.ece
Vladimir Putin has likened supporters of sanctions against Iran to "mad people wielding razor blades"
Tensions between Russia and the West over sanctions against Iran will be laid bare today as President Vladimir Putin attends a summit with EU leaders in Portugal.
The Russian leader described supporters of tough policies as "mad people wielding razor blades" after the US imposed economic sanctions on the Islamic republic yesterday in an attempt to curb its nuclear programme.
Mr Putin, who is at the summit to discuss disputed trade issues with the EU, is expected to make further comments on Iran this afternoon after a senior American diplomat suggested that Russia was "aiding and abetting" the Iranian military.
Nicholas Burns, US Assistant Secretary of State, said that Russia should stop selling weapons to Iran, and China should stop investing in the Middle Eastern state.
Mr Putin will also address a bid for independence by Kosovo, the autonomous province in southern Serbia that became a battleground in 1999, when Nato jets bombed Serbian forces in the region after the collapse of peace talks. The Russian President has previously blocked moves to allow Kosovo to secede.
Economic relations between Brussels and Moscow have boomed despite frequent rows, with trade turnover going up 3.5 times to an annual $300 billion (209 billion euros) since Mr Putin became president in 2000, officials said.
Hopes of a breakthrough in the dispute were raised by the victory on Sunday in Poland’s parliamentary elections of a pro-European party that has also vowed to improve relations with Moscow.
3b) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
US missile plans echo Cuban crisis, says Putin
From The Times
October 27, 2007
David Charter, Europe Correspondent
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2748383.ece
Vladimir Putin likened America’s plans for a missile defence system in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis today as he insisted that he would relinquish power in the next Russian presidential elections.
Mr Putin said that finding out about the US scheme to put interceptor missiles in Poland near the Russian border had echoed President John F. Kennedy’s discovery of Soviet missiles in the Caribbean in 1962.
The alarming comparison came at the close of an EU/Russia summit in Portugal in which both sides were at pains to emphasise the constructive side of their relationship after a tense year of disagreements over energy, trade and human rights issues.
Mr Putin, who has faced sharp criticism over the deaths and imprisonment of journalists and politicians in Russia, went on the front foot by proposing a new EU/Russia human rights institute to promote values across the continent.
But it was the missile shield which provoked the strongest reaction from the Russian President, who attacked Washington yesterday for “running around crazily like a man with a blade in his hand” for threatening fresh sanctions against Iran.
"I would remind you how relations were developing in a similar situation in the middle of the 1960s," he said, recalling an event that led the superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.
“Similar actions by the Soviet Union when it deployed missiles on Cuba led to the Caribbean crisis [the Russian term for the Cuban missile crisis]. For us the situation is very similar. On our borders such threats to our country are being created.”
Although the one-day summit, in the Portuguese city of Mafra, also considered trade and economic relations, the press conference afterwards was dominated by the Russian President and the direction of his country.
The future of the Serbian province of Kosovo was discussed behind the scenes but not in the press conference. Mr Putin also avoided a further question about Iran but found time to criticise Sweden for refusing to extradite a suspect in the murder of a Russian journalist in Chechnya.
Russia Links
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Bush urges Cuban reform
President says the U.S. will assist the post-Fidel Castro regime if it embraces democratic change.
By James Gerstenzang
Los Angeles Times October 25, 2007
Declaring that the United States would not give "oxygen to a criminal regime," he said, "We will not support the old way with new faces, the old system held together by new chains."
Rather, he said, Cuba must allow freedom of speech, association and the press, and change its government through regular, free and fair multiparty elections.
Raul Castro, who took over leadership of the country after his brother underwent surgery last year, recently expressed a willingness to open discussions with the U.S. If the next American presidential administration "desists from their arrogance and decides to converse in a civilized manner, it would be a welcome change," he said in a July speech during ceremonies marking the start of the Cuban Revolution.
In Havana on Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque termed Bush's plans "equivalent to the re-conquest of Cuba by force" and said they "give an idea of the level of frustration, of desperation and of personal hatred toward Cuba."
He said most Cubans backed the 1959 revolution led by Castro, making the idea of an internal uprising a "fantasy" and "politically impossible."
Bush spoke Wednesday at the State Department before an audience of government officials, members of Congress and others with strong interest in Cuba's transition -- among them, on stage, an invited group of family members of Cuban political prisoners.
4b) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Bush's Threats Against Cuba Condemned Worldwide
Havana, Oct 26 (acn) General Secretary of the Venezuelan Workers Union, Orlando Chirino voiced in Caracas his strong rejection to the anti-Cuba speech pronounced by US President Bush on Wednesday and said if Cuba were attacked it would receive the unconditional support of Venezuela in defense of its people and revolution.
Cuban News Agency, Oct 26, 2007
http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/2007/1026condenasbush.htm
Chirino said that the US policy towards Cuba on this occasion seems desperate, and as a result of its defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports Granma newspaper.
In the Dominican Republic, the Regional Coordinator for Solidarity with Cuba said the island is not alone. A similar stance was taken by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign of Great Britain and MPs from that country. The organization issued a press release underlying that Bush left open the possibility of a direct aggression against Cuba; an act it says will find Latin America and the world alongside the revolution.
From Luanda, the Angola-Cuba Friendship Association called the US president out of line in his statements. "Bush is rowing against the tide," said Fernando Jaime, the group's secretary general, who noted that Angola will always support Cuba.
Other pronouncements in support of Cuba and rejecting Bush's threats came from the Broad Front Party of Costa Rica, the Communist Refoundation Party of Puerto Rico and the Uruguayan Coordinator of Solidarity with the Cuban revolution. The groups spoke out against the US blockade on the island and other forms of aggression.
The Communist Party of Spain called Bush's speech "one more affront to international law" and called on the European governments to respond to "this clear act of interference."
The international press highlighted the new attacks against Cuba from President Bush and the immediate response from Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.
The Peruvian daily La Primera said that "Cuba is an obsession for Bush." Likewise, the main Mexican newspapers, like La Jornada, and important Argentinean papers including Clarin and Pagina 12, allotted space for Cuba's response to the new hostility from George W. Bush.
4c) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
MPs hit back at Bush's call for military coup
By Tom Mellen, Morning Star
26 October 2007
http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news.asp?ItemID=1182
GET YOUR NOSE OUT OF CUBA
LABOUR MPs and solidarity activists urged ministers to promote constructive co-operation with Cuba on Thursday after US President George W Bush called for a military coup against the socialist government.
Mr Bush made a direct appeal to Cuba's armed forces to act against Havana on Wednesday night.
Ian Gibson MP, the chairman of the all-party group on Cuba, insisted that the aggressive interventionist foreign policies of the US were "not appropriate in Iraq and they are not appropriate for Cuba.
"The US must stop attempting to undermine the sovereignty of nation states and recognise the important strategic role Cuba now holds in Latin America," he declared.
"We must promote stability through engagement and leave behind these US bullying tactics."
Colin Burgon MP pointed out that Mr Bush's latest meddling "is tantamount to calling for a coup against a sovereign state.
"It is time for our government to state publicly that it cannot be acceptable for the US to dictate affairs in other countries and to remind our special friend of the UN charter," he said, branding US "arrogance" as "both worrying and lamentable."
The lame-duck President Bush trumpeted a number of bellicose measures against Havana, pre-empting a UN vote next week which is expected to denounce the illegal 47-year-old US blockade of the island.
Last year, 183 countries voted against the policy at the UN and just four voted to support it.
Bush Calls for Revolt in Cuba, LA Times refused to Publish Bush Threats
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Leftists set to redraft Ecuador constitution
President Rafael Correa's aim is to draw the country closer to Venezuela and its anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times, October 1, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ecuador1oct01,1,7304709.story?ctrack=7&cset=true
QUITO, Ecuador — Voters on Sunday appeared to clear the way for socialist President Rafael Correa to try to "reinvent" Ecuador, the continent's most politically unstable country, giving his supporters a majority of seats in a new constitutional assembly.
Exit polls showed Correa's National Alliance slate leading in a majority of races in several provinces. Pollster Hugo Barber here of the Quito-based Datanalisis firm said he expected Correa's candidates to take at least 70 of 130 seats in the assembly.
That would allow Correa to draft this country's 20th constitution in line with his avowed socialist policies, and draw the country closer to Venezuela and its charismatic anti-U.S. president, Hugo Chavez
Ecuador is considered an ally in U.S.-funded efforts to stem narcotics trafficking, and allows regional interdiction flights from its Manta air base. But Correa has vowed not to renew the U.S. military's lease.
5b) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Ecuador wants military base in Miami
By Phil Stewart
Reuters, October 22, 2007
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18609.htm
NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.
"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.
"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."
Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".
But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.
Ecuador to US: Let up put a Base in Florida, and you can keep your Base in Ecuador
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Israel approves Gaza power cuts
Israel's defence minister has approved sanctions against Gaza, including cuts in the supply of electricity and fuel to try to halt rocket attacks.
Story from BBC NEWS: 10-25-07
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7061617.stm
Ehud Barak authorised the cuts, which are expected to follow immediately after rocket attacks are launched.
Palestinian leaders say the measure amounts to collective punishment.
Israel supplies 60% of the electricity for Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants - but last month Israel declared Gaza a "hostile entity".
Exploiting human needs to blackmail our people will never weaken us
Sami Abu Zuhri
Hamas spokesman
By formally declaring Gaza "hostile", Israel argues it is no longer bound by international law governing the administration of occupied territory to supply utilities to the civilian population.
But the position accepted by the international community is that Israel remains legally responsible for the coastal strip, despite withdrawing two years ago, because it still controls Gaza's borders, airspace and territorial waters.
Israel imposed an economic embargo on Gaza after the Islamist militant group, Hamas, seized control from the rival Fatah group in June. It is also limiting the movement of people in and out of the territory.
But the top United Nations humanitarian official has now urged Israel to lift its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip.
"I would appeal to Israel to relax these restrictions (and) to lift the economic blockade on Gaza," UN Deputy Secretary General John Holmes told journalists.
He said the number of humanitarian convoys entering the territory had halved to 1,500 in September from 3,000 in July.
"In term of famine, we are not there, but there is a serious humanitarian crisis," Mr Holmes said.
'Exploiting human needs'
A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza said it would be unbowed by any further sanctions.
"International law requires that occupation forces take care of the needs of the occupied peoples," Sami Abu Zuhri said.
"Exploiting human needs to blackmail our people will never weaken us."
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas also reacted angrily to the plan.
"This decision is a form of collective punishment against our people in Gaza," Cabinet Secretary Saadi al-Kronz said in a statement.
The UN has previously warned Israel that it must not inflict collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population by cutting vital supplies and services.
Israel Sets World Record: Longest Crime Against Humanity set at 50 Years and Counting
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October , 2007
Mearsheimer and Walt, March 2006, THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.
Book Review by Stepen Lendman: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappe.
Book Review by Kim Petersen: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan Pappe.
Corruption Updates 37, 1st article on the page, "Poll: Israel, Iran, US most Negative Countries in World"
Al-Ahram, Egypt, 30 August - 5 September, 2007; 'No elections if Hamas will win'
rice backs Israeli naming Gaza “Hostile Entity:”a War Crime, bbc, 9-20-07
UN: cutting off gaza is an international crime, haaretz,9-20-07
Election power of the Israel lobby, aljazeera, 12-30-07
Bush Who? goes to Israel, independent (UK) 1-7-08
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De La Fuente's son sentenced to 14 years for sexual assaults
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 26, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/26/BA8CT0TT5.DTL&tsp=1
(10-26) 10:41 PDT OAKLAND - The son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women, all but one of whom were prostitutes.
Ignacio De La Fuente Jr., 34, must register as a sex offender, Judge Allan Hymer said during a short hearing in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, capping a case that has rocked the city's political scene.
De La Fuente Jr. smiled at his family and a woman called out, "We love you, Nachito," as he was led away by sheriff's deputies. The courtroom was filled with supporters of the council president, including City Council members Henry Chang and Pat Kernighan and former Councilman Danny Wan.
The elder De La Fuente declined to comment afterward. Last month, he and his family accused police of pumping up the charges to embarrass him during his unsuccessful run for mayor last year, an accusation De La Fuente's mother repeated today.
De La Fuente Jr. pleaded guilty to five felony charges in May during the middle of his trial, including two counts of rape. The agreement allowed him to avoid a possible sentence of 75 years to life.
He was accused of raping four women, three of them prostitutes and the fourth a 15-year-old girl who prosecutors say he mistook for a prostitute. The attacks happened between October 2003 and just before De La Fuente Jr. was arrested in April 2005.
His family says he committed no sexual assaults and pleaded guilty largely to spare loved ones the pain and embarrassment of a trial. The defense said three of the four incidents that prosecutors called sexual assaults were in fact consensual acts with prostitutes. The women later sought revenge for disputes over money, defense attorneys said.
Pervert Son of Corrupted Political Hack Sentenced to Prison for multiple Rapes:
Sr. has raped our Democracy, Jr. Rapes illegal whores: Let's do a family Reunion in Prison
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October , 2007
Was it Rape? No, not according to the DeLaFuente Family. Let's paraphrase the defence that this most dishonorable family is putting forward;
"it was just our son trying to rip off whores for sex without paying. Our family is so important that rich people give us money and cars. Why not Sex? We're very important people. Nacho just stole sex...no big deal...it was a set up by the man (Oakland PD)...& ect."
De La Fuente's family said that Jr. was not guilty, but pled to avoid embarassing them. How would an innocent man proving himself innocent be more of an embarassment than pleading guilty to two of four rape charges?
The moral vision of this family becomes even more questionable when you examine how they were framing these rapes. The family position is that these were "consensual acts with prostitutes...(who)...later sought revenge for disputes over money." That means the De La Fuente family believes that prostitutes cannot be raped.
Scumbag Jr. wisely pled out, for a lenient 14 years.
The cops are apparently not satisfied with framing the son for raping prostitutes. Now the FBI is trying to frame Scumbag Sr.and a corrupt Oakland political fixer for bribery and extortion.
The FBI has tapes of Oakland City Hall insider Maurice Himy negociationg the trade of a city contract to car dealer Donald Cooper in exchange for a rare, valuable Porsche for De La Fuente at $40,000 below retail.
The East Bay Express published the facts behind the FBI investigation into the Senior De La Fuente's shady dealings in an excellent expose by Robert Gammon.
Gammon reported that De La Fuente used his considerable political clout to push through a city contract for Cooper. The feds are pursuing extortion charges against Himy in the hope of getting him to rat out the big cheese, De La Fuente, for bribery. The corrupt politician, not the rapist.
I'm hoping the two nachos have a good, long reunion in a Federal Prison.
This is much superior to Repuplican sexual misconduct. They usually rape little boys. And get away with it.
East Bay Express, 7/5/06, Carlito's Play:
Carlos Plazola, chief of staff to Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, quietly worked to rezone an industrial area in his boss' district where the aide owned land. Rezoning the area to allow condo development would have greatly inflated the value of Plazola's land. Plazola resigned shortly after the story ran. He now works as a lobbyist for developers.
Corruption Updates 10, 2nd article on the page, FBI Probing...De La Fuente...using a Clothing Store to channel Bribes...
East Bay Express, Aug 8, 2007, Fast Cars and Fast Talk: FBI Tapes record smear De La Fuente
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8) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
FEMA Workers Play Role of Reporters
AP, October 26, 2007
(10-26) 12:01 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/26/national/w073233D75.DTL
The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director.
The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.
"I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the questions were posed by agency staffers instead of reporters. FEMA was responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.
FEMA gave real reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday's news conference . But because there was so little advance notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. And many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.
Bush Authorized illegal Domestic Spying, TIMES HID THE CRIME FOR A YEAR: Bush is a Criminal, and an Enemy of our Constit..., wp, 12-16-05
TIMES ACCUSES BUSH OF HIDING FROM OVERSIGHT. TIMES PROMOTED WAR, NOW CRIES ABOUT..., nyt, 11-3-06
REPORTERS HELP PLAN WAR, nyt, 10-9-06
BUSH ADMIN BUYS ANTI-CASTRO CUBAN REPORTERS IN MIAMI; NOBODY CARES, nyt, 10-4-06
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media
Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)
9) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
New credit crunch looms
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Last Updated: 1:06am BST 23/10/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/23/cncredit123.xml
Fresh turmoil in the global debt markets has set off sharp falls in commodity prices and high-risk assets as investors scrambled for safety.
He said investors were shaken by last week's drop in US home-builder sentiment to an all-time low and by fresh falls in the ABX index for sub-prime debt. "We continue to learn that it pays to respect the sell-offs in ABX and housing-related credit. This has elements of the February and August sell-offs, where credit markets signalled problems," he said.
The lowest tier of ABX debt has fallen to a record low of 20.72 – from par of 100 – pointing to huge losses that have yet to surface.
There are concerns that a $75bn (£37bn) rescue operation put together by US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to stabilise the sub-prime market is intended to mask the scale of the crisis.
"This rescue has back-fired," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas. "The central banks don't want anything to do with it. There is a fear that the big four US banks are trying to hide their debts," he said.
The US market for asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) contracted a further $11bn last week as lenders refused to roll over short-term debt. This form of paper has shrunk by 25pc since August, cutting off almost $300bn of funding.
Dr Suki Man, an analyst at Société Générale, said "shutters" had gone up across the debt markets. "Has it just got ugly again? The jury's out, but it's enough to make one feel the chill. All this is offset by a US economy still expected to grow by more than 2pc, and China and India still growing at breakneck speed," he said.
Mr Redeker said yesterday's dollar spike was caused by US investors pulling money out of Turkey, South Africa, Hungary and other emerging markets. They had invested $300bn in bonds and stocks over the last year.
"This is just profit-taking on risky assets. The dollar is going to fall further because long-term funding for US assets has collapsed since the sub-prime crisis," he said.
Latest Essay: Housing-credit crisis exposing the rotten core of American Markets and Economy, Committee, 8-17-07, revised 11-24-07
previous essay in series: The rotten core of the American Economy: Our Corrupted Democracy, committee, 12-15-07
crisis essay; Feds bail out greedy speculators:Markets will not settle until all assets are revalued, and housing reestablishes price and volume, Committee, August 17, 2007
the beginning of the crisis: Markets about to kill economy, Committee, Aug 4, 2007
june, '07: Unregulated Markets Threatens Every American's Security, committee, june 25, 2007
Search the Corruption Database under
economics
credit crisis
foreclosure
Please limit comments or essay to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number that you are referring to. Example: (82_1.)
10) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Gulf states seen as very unlikely to drop dollar peg
Concern over inflation driving Mideast countries' economic agendas
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:26 PM ET Sep 21, 2007
http://marketwatch.nytimes.com/custom/nyt-com/html-story.asp?guid=%7B73619EAC%2D9F7B%2D43D7%2DB0B1
%2D6060D5DBB035%7D&siteid=NYT&dist=NYT
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Despite the challenges that a weaker U.S. dollar poses for their economies, it's highly unlikely that the oil-rich Persian Gulf countries will unlink their currencies from the greenback, analysts said.
After the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Tuesday, the dollar tumbled on expectations that further rate cuts would ensue against the backdrop of a deteriorating U.S. economic outlook.
That, in turn, has prompted speculation about the possibility that Gulf Cooperation Council states -- which include Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- would follow Kuwait's lead and drop the so-called "peg" between their currencies and the dollar.
"This is as much of an economic issue as it is a political issue, and because of that I don't think they'll unpeg their currencies," said Kathy Lien, chief strategist at Forex Capital Markets. "Especially not Saudi Arabia, which has such close ties with the U.S."
Saudi Arabia, a major player in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has 25% of the world's proven petroleum reserves.
"Oil is still priced in dollars," Lien said. "The reason why they [Gulf states] are not excessively concerned right now is because oil is going up."
Founded in 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, aims to strengthen economic cooperation in the world's main oil-producing region. Among its stated goals is the creation of a common currency by 2010.
In May, Kuwait abandoned the dinar's peg to the dollar in favor of a basket of international currencies, saying that weakness in the greenback has pushed up inflation and hurt the domestic economy.
Kuwait's shift to a currency basket "is the only way forward," Lubin said. However, in the near term, the GCC countries "are unlikely to respond to market pressure by de-pegging their currencies," Lubin said.
Inflation keeps rising
Serhan Cevik, an economist at Morgan Stanley, said that the weaker dollar will worsen already high inflationary pressures in the Gulf countries.
Average inflation in oil-exporting economies in the Middle East has soared from 0.1% between 1998 and 2002 to 6.5% this year, Cevik said.
"Imported inflation is becoming a bigger threat, as currencies pegged to the dollar keep weakening," Cevik said in a research note on Thursday. "Moreover, the abundance of petrodollar liquidity is becoming even more abundant with higher oil prices."
"We do not see a correction in inflation rates unless the authorities decide to revalue exchange rates," Cevik said.
Bush Wars Push Saudi Arabia out of American Axis
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007
When Bush attacked Iraq, he also attacked the stability and credibility of the Saudi Royal Family. The Saudi royal family's position is delicately balanced on a double-edged sword. One edge of the sword faces America. The other edge of the sword faces the Arab people.The Arabs hate our support of Israel, and resent our support for the resource-rich tyrannies that ring the Gulf, and dominate middle eastern politics and economics.
When Bush attacked Iraq, the Saudi royal family's position became unbalanced between their people and our empire. The "King" has three choices: turn the sword towards America, the people, or himself.
Bush has destabilized this delicate balance, requiring the "king" to re calibrate his position between his people and American foreign policy. As the "king" depends on American power to maintain his tyrannical dictatorship, lessening his dependence on America requires broadening his appeal to his own people.
The King's people are sunnis who are seriously pissed off about Iraq. Bush's Iraq adventure has so enraged the Sunni Arabs that the "King" has been forced to take drastic action to preserve his dictatorship.
The "King" will no longer turn up oil production at our command. The "King" has declared that our occupation of Iraq is illegal. It appears that the "King" is tolerating the movement of Saudi fighters and dollars into Western Iraq to directly confront the Illegal American Occupation. The "King" has independently tried to restart negotiations with Israel. Saudi Arabia is now acting independently of American influence in the middle east.
Bush' response to this shocking change reveals the outlines of a vague plan forming in his addled brain. As the invasion of Iraq has empowered Iran, Bush is now being forced by the Saudi shift to accommodate the ex-Bathist Sunni in Western Iraq.
Bush is now arming and supporting the same Sunni insurgents we brutalized in Falluja, while simultaneously backing a Shite-dominated government. Bush has been forced down the contradictory path of arming both sides in the ongoing Iraqi civil war as a result of his inability to foresee, or understand, the complexities of Iraqi society that lay under the rule of Saddam before invading Iraq. If we write down every move Bush has made in Iraq, we see the outlines of a recipe for disaster.
This indicates that Bush has finally realized that his invasion and occupation has failed. Since American power has proven itself incapable of holding Iraq together, Bush has instead decided to pull it apart. This dramatically increases the risk that the Sunni-Shite civil war in Iraq could turn into a regional war.
Bush's anticipation of an Iraqi breakup and the associated risks is behind the 30 billion dollar arms package to the Saudis, the Sunni the gulf state emirates, and Israel.
This arms sale is a strong indication that Bush is anticipating a partition of Iraq that may ultimately spark a regional war between the Sunni and Shite. Even with billions in American arms the Saudis and Sunnis are no match for Iran, and will suffer terribly without significant direct American military support. Thus the billions in arms to the Saudis, and support for the American-killing Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
The arming of the Saudis and Sunni insurgents may well come back to shoot us in the ass. The Sunni insurgents in Iraq will most certainly turn against the occupation, and the Saudis are already charting an independent course as we arm them to the teeth.
The bottom line is that the Saudi ruling family will do what is necessary to maintain their hold on power. It is probable this will require they become completely independent of American power.
The balance of power in the middle east has already shifted out from under American control. American dominance has been diminished on two fronts. First, the location of power has shifted geographically, moving to the east towards Iran, and away from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Even more importantly, the notion of legitimate political authority has been dramatically transformed, shifting away from foreign supported dictators and "kings" towards a notion of legitimacy based on independent local political authority.
Bush has dramatically accelerated these pre-existing trends, but decades of colonial domination of the middle east lays behind these rapid dramatic shifts.
Saudi Arabia Woos China and India, middle east quarterly, fall, 2006
Corruption Updates 45, 2nd article on the page, "U.S. Iraq Role Is Called Illegal by Saudi King"
White House Rejects Saudi View on Iraq, Corruption Updates 56, 1st article on the page
Saudis’ Role in Iraq Frustrates U.S. Officials. 96_2, NYT, July 27, 2007
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middle east
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1) NY Times Says US Sanctions Revolutionary Guard
2) US Actually declared Iranian Defense Department a Terrorist Organization: The whole Iranian Military, and Industrial Complex of Iran is declared a "Terror" Organization!
2b) China not Down with US Sanctions, or being told what to do by the US: No Show at Iran Meeting
3) Putin not Down with US Sanctions, US missles, US intereference in Russian Foreign Policy: Calls US "Mad People weilding Razor Blades"
3b) Putin considers Bush Missles in Europe the same as the Cuban Missile Crisis
4) Bush Threatens Cuba, Encourages Revolt
4b) Cuba Not Happy
4c) Brit MPs protest Bush's Threats against Cuba
5) Ecuador Tells US to Fuck Off
5b) Ecuador wants to trade bases: Theirs in Miami, ours in Ecuador
6) Israel Sets World Record: Longest Crime Against Humanity at 50 Years and Counting
7) Oakland: Pervert Son of Corrupted Political Hack Sentenced to Prison for multiple Rapes
8) FEMA: Another Farce made of Free Press by Bush Administration
9) Market Fundamentals Looking Really Bad
10) Gulf States Suffer Inflation, Pressure on Dollar Peg, as Dollar Collaspes