Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton's new plan to provide health care for all Americans differs more from her 1993 proposal known as "Hillarycare'' than it does from ideas offered by her chief Democratic rivals in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Clinton's proposal, presented yesterday in Iowa, draws on the same four principles that opponents Barack Obama and John Edwards already put on the table: Allowing many Americans the option of paying to join a new government-run plan, requiring insurance companies to accept all applicants and not charge more for those who are ill, giving subsidies to help families afford coverage and raising taxes on upper-income Americans to pay for it all.
"The big message is how similar the plans are,'' said Len Nichols, who worked on health-care issues for President Bill Clinton and is now director of the Washington-based New America Foundation's health program. "These are very smart people who are very ambitious, and they are ending up with very much the same rough contours.''
Clinton's strength, which she invoked frequently during her speech yesterday, is that she's experienced in how not to revamp U.S. health care. During her husband Bill's presidency, she headed a task force that produced a 1,342-page plan that failed amid criticism it would have created a new government bureaucracy and would force people off the insurance they had.
This time, Clinton said her proposal won't require any new government agencies and nobody would have to give up coverage they already have.
'Do No Harm'
"The first rule of medicine is do no harm,'' she said yesterday."We will build on what's working in the system so we will have health care for all, and better health care.''
For all the similarities with her Democratic rivals, Senator Obama of Illinois and former Senator Edwards of North Carolina, Clinton carved out distinctions. She would give small businesses tax credits to defray about half the cost of health premiums for their workers. Medium-sized companies would get a smaller credit.
To help pay for this, Clinton, like Obama, would repeal President George W. Bush's income tax breaks for households earning more than $250,000 a year. Edwards, 54, would repeal the tax cuts starting at $200,000 in income.
She also drew on one idea proposed by Republican Bush -- eliminating the tax break for employer-provided health benefits. Unlike Bush, Clinton would change the exemption only for those earning more than $250,000 a year, limiting it to a set amount.
'She's Gambling'
"She's gambling with some things in the right way -- she's edging toward changing the basic tax basis of health care,'' said Stuart Butler, who works on health issues at the Heritage Foundation, a free-market policy center.
Republicans said Clinton's new plan, like her old, would increase taxes and lead to what former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 60, called "European-style socialized medicine.''
"It's government plans as opposed to private plans,'' said Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, in a statement released by his campaign yesterday. "It's raising taxes as opposed to holding taxes level. And that's not the right course for solving our health-care problems.''
Among Democrats, the debate on health care may turn on who can best deliver. Clinton, 59, says she gained invaluable lessons from her unsuccessful attempt.
1993 Proposal
Clinton's 1993 proposal would have established strong government control over what sort of health plans would have been available to people and would have required all employers to offer benefits or pay into a fund. Her new plan limits this requirement to large businesses and tries to entice smaller ones with credits to help them cover the costs.
"I have learned how to build a national consensus,'' she said yesterday, speaking at a medical center in Des Moines. "I have been asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of listening.''
The "real key'' to overhauling the health-care system is the ability to bring people together, Obama responded in an e- mailed statement.
"That's how we'll prevent the drug and insurance industry from defeating our reform efforts like they did in 1994,'' he said.
Obama, 46, has put together the most cautious plan of the three Democrats. He wouldn't require that all Americans have insurance, and only insurers that wanted to sell plans through a new "insurance exchange'' would have to agree to enroll everyone who applied at rates not based on their health condition.
Edwards said Clinton is too beholden to health-care interest groups and campaign contributions by their lobbyists to bring about real change.
"I don't believe you can sit down with the lobbyists, take their money, and cut a deal with them,'' he said yesterday in a speech in Chicago.
While offering that criticism, Edwards acknowledged that Clinton's plan looks a lot like his own.
"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I'm flattered,'' Edwards said.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Fox News turns Hillary Clinton into a 'country bumpkin'
While I am not a big fan of Hillary Clinton (she bailed on giving the American people universal healthcare) , I'm even less of a fan for Fox news. While they do tell 'part of the story', they have a pretty sick way of doing it. This is how Fox news wants you to see Hillary's Speech, with a southern drawl :
Now compare that with a larger clip, which tells the entire story:
Now get off the Fox News folks, it's brain damaging the American population.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Leo Zagami : Former Mason / Illuminati - Speaks out about the New World Order
Bohemian Grove - Why doesn't the location show up in Google Maps ?
I am a former Sonoma County, CA resident - and I've been outside of the now famous illuminati camping spot ; Bohemian Grove. Just beyond the parking lot, is the Grove - after parking you are picked up on an old truck or a 'BC shuttle' which takes you deep into the grove. Out of curiosity, and because I know the exact location of the grove having been there - I took a look around Monte Rio ; the town where Bohemian Grove is located. I was amazed to see the map has been distorted in favor of making the Bohemian Grove another one of those Google Map 'black holes' . Take a look for yourself, it's hard to believe, but it's true:
Bohemian Grove
Could this be just an error in the Bohemian Club's favor ? I'm not sure yet , but one thing is pretty obvious. There will be no cool google snapshots of Molech, the stone owl that the club centers it's ceremonies around.
Click to Expand
...a similar post
Bohemian Grove
Could this be just an error in the Bohemian Club's favor ? I'm not sure yet , but one thing is pretty obvious. There will be no cool google snapshots of Molech, the stone owl that the club centers it's ceremonies around.
Click to Expand
...a similar post
Friday, September 7, 2007
Which corporations are profiting from the Iraq war?
Who's profiting from the Iraq war?
Military contractors that set up utilities, prepare food or make bulletproof vests are getting a big boost from the conflict. Here's who's getting the most money
In a few weeks, Gen. David Petraeus and the Bush administration will report to Congress on the progress of the U.S. military's troop surge in Iraq.
But some of the war's winners are already clear: military contractors who supply everything from bodyguards to bombs, clean socks to ready-to-eat meals. "For the companies involved, this has been a real gravy train," says William Hartung, who tracks defense spending for the New America Foundation.
The White House has proposed military spending of $647 billion in 2008. Adjusted for inflation, that would be the highest level since World War II -- topping even expenditures during Vietnam and the Reagan years, calculates Hartung. The current request for Iraq-related spending for 2008 is $116 billion, which would raise total Iraq war spending to $567 billion.
Who's getting all that money? Sometimes it can be difficult to tell. "There isn't good visibility on where the money goes," says Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But you can get a snapshot of who's been getting a good chunk of the Iraq-related spending in two ways.
The first step is to scour a vast database of more than $400 billion in annual government contracts, more than 70% of which are from the Department of Defense. It's called the Federal Procurement Data System. I turned to a private contractor of my own, Eagle Eye, for some (free) expert assistance in navigating the database.
Eagle Eye mined the database for all Iraq-related contracts from 2003 through 2006 (the most recent year for which numbers are available). That catches everything from spending on base maintenance and bulletproof vests to ammo and combat boots. We tallied the numbers to find the top 10 companies out of thousands of contractors.
The second step is to look at the Pentagon's own budget to see which companies are building the major weapons systems that support the war in Iraq.
The Top 10
It's no surprise that KBR Inc. (KBR, news, msgs), a division of Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) during the years we examined, tops the first list, compiled by Eagle Eye, with $17.2 billion in Iraq-related war revenue for 2003-2006. KBR is one of the largest construction and energy field-service companies in the world. It has a long history of collaborating with the U.S. government on war-related construction.
In Iraq, KBR has been working on base construction and maintenance, oil-field repairs, infrastructure projects and logistics support. KBR got about a fifth of its revenue from the Iraq war in 2006, according to our calculations.
"We are proud to serve the troops," says a KBR spokeswoman. "We are providing the troops with essential services and the comforts of home that allow them to stay focused on the dangerous and important missions they face daily."
But why does a private-equity shop called Veritas Capital Fund take the No. 2 slot? That's easy. It specializes in investing in defense and aerospace companies. So Veritas owns a portfolio of companies -- and has a stake in others -- that pull down big Iraq-related contracts.
DynCorp International (DCP, news, msgs), which Veritas bought in 2005 and spun out last year, offers security services and police training, as well as logistical services. Veritas' McNeil Technologies provides interpreter and translation services to the military and U.S. government agencies in Iraq. Another of its companies, Wornick, supplies military rations.
It's also no big surprise that U.S.-based companies like Washington Group International (WNG, news, msgs), Fluor (FLR, news, msgs), Perini (PCR, news, msgs) and Parsons are on our top 10 list. They've landed many of the contracts to restore, repair and maintain oil fields, power plants, schools, public water systems and military bases. But the award of contracts to build the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting left many analysts scratching their heads.
Environmental Chemical does munitions disposal, while International American Products sets up systems that deliver electricity to military camps. L3 Communications (LLL, news, msgs) offers security screening services, linguists, training and law-enforcement services, and some equipment replacement.
| Rank | Company | Amount | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Total | |||
1. | KBR Inc. (KBR, news, msgs) and Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) | $2,550 | $5,809 | $4,505 | $4,362 | $17,226 | |
2. | Veritas Capital Fund | 0.7 | 208 | 850 | 386 | 1,444 | |
3. | 111 | 205 | 533 | 82 | 931 | ||
4. | Environmental Chemical | 0 | 192 | 360 | 326 | 878 | |
5. | International American Products | 58 | 283 | 310 | 108 | 759 | |
6. | 116 | 413 | 123 | 105 | 757 | ||
7. | 72 | 312 | 185 | 81 | 650 | ||
8. | Parsons | 0 | 248 | 120 | 172 | 540 | |
9. | First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting | 0 | 7 | 469 | 24 | 500 | |
10. | 1 | 9 | 148 | 201 | 359 | ||
*Goods and services contracted specifically for Iraq. Source: Eagle Eye
wo companies that have seen their revenue shoot up the most in the ongoing military buildup -- largely because of Iraq-related spending -- are Armor Holdings and Renco, according to Hartung's calculations. They don't make our list because their overall defense-related revenue is too small. But they have done phenomenally well.
Armor Holdings, which sells vehicle and personnel armor, saw defense-related revenue shoot up 2,747% between 2001 and 2006, to $634.9 million. Armor is now a division of BAE Systems (BAESY, news, msgs).
Renco, which makes the extra-wide all-terrain vehicle known as the Humvee, saw Defense Department revenue rise 1,260% over the same period, to $1.9 billion.
Misspent funds
Not all of the Iraq-war money is well spent. "Because of the urgency of the war, a lot of these contracts have been subject to less scrutiny," says Hartung. Another problem is that the war has been funded outside of the regular defense budget process. Instead, it gets funded through "emergency" spending bills called supplementals, which offer much less detail and get less scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
Hartung believes we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in allegations of fraud and corruption related to Iraq war spending. "Congress is starting to look into it, but it has not yet gotten down to specific questions," says Hartung.
Details of wrongdoing are being uncovered by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and you can also find summaries of misconduct here.
Hidden winners
Of course, there's a vast collection of military hardware and technology from fighter jets and naval vessels to spy satellites that are used in the Iraq war effort. But they're paid for by the broader Pentagon budget, so they won't show up in a scan of the federal procurement database for Iraq-related spending.
To see who has benefited from the underlying buildup in defense spending under the Bush administration for the Iraq war and other anti-terror and defense efforts, I calculated who got the most in Department of Defense contracts from 2002 through 2006. You can see the top seven in my second chart.
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | $17 | $22 | $20.7 | $19.4 | $26.6 | $105.7 | ||||
2 | 16.5 | 17.3 | 17 | 18.3 | 20.3 | 89.4 | ||||
3 | 8.7 | 11.1 | 11.9 | 13.5 | 16.6 | 61.8 | ||||
4 | 6.9 | 8.2 | 9.6 | 10.6 | 10.5 | 45.8 | ||||
5 | 7 | 7.9 | 8.5 | 9.1 | 10 | 42.5 | ||||
6 | 0.5 | 3.9 | 8 | 5.8 | 6 | 24.2 | ||||
7 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 5 | 5 | 4.4 | 22.5 | ||||
Total defense contracts | 171 | 209 | 230.7 | 269 | 295 | 1,174.70 | ||||
*More than $25,000 for any field of operation. Source: Department of Defense
While all of these companies have benefited from the Bush administration's defense spending ramp-up since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, not all are equally exposed to the Iraq war effort, says defense sector analyst Paul Nisbet of JSA Research.
In addition to ships and Gulfstream planes, General Dynamics (GD, news, msgs) makes ground vehicles and ammunition, so it generates a fair amount of revenue directly from Iraq war spending. But Lockheed Martin (LMT, news, msgs), which is working on next-generation military aircraft and also makes military electronics and satellites, has little direct exposure to the war, says Nisbet. Neither does Northrop Grumman (NOC, news, msgs), which makes ships designed to last three decades or more.
Of all the companies on my second list, KBR saw some of the biggest revenue gains from the Iraq war. It was No. 37 on the Defense Department's top-100 list of military contractors in 2002. By 2006, KBR had climbed to No. 6.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Is China quietly dumping US Treasuries?
A sharp drop in foreign holdings of US Treasury bonds over the last five weeks has raised concerns that China is quietly withdrawing its funds from the United States, leaving the dollar increasingly vulnerable.
Data released by the New York Federal Reserve shows that foreign central banks have cut their stash of US Treasuries by $48bn since late July, with falls of $32bn in the last two weeks alone.
"This comes as a big surprise and it is definitely worrying," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.
"We won't know if China is behind this until the Treasury releases its TIC data in November, but what it does show is that world central banks are in a hurry to get out of the US. They don't seem to be switching into other currencies, so it is possible they are moving into gold instead. Gold is now gaining momentum across all currencies and has broken through resistance at 500 euros," he said.
While the greenback has been resilient over recent weeks - even regaining something of a 'safe-haven' role as banks scrambled to buy the currency to cover dollar debts - most experts believe that America's $850bn current account deficit will eventually cause the dollar to resume its relentless slide.
David Powell, an economist at IDEAglobal in New York, pointed the finger at Beijing as the main suspect in the sudden bond flight this summer.
In a client note entitled "Has China started to dump US Treasuries?", he said the sales appear to coincide with early moves by Beijing to launch its new $300bn sovereign wealth fund.
The scheme is part of the government's plan to diversify it $1,340bn reserves from bonds (mostly in the US) to a broader portfolio of investments and a better yield.
If so, the switch comes at a very delicate time, just as tempers flair on both sides of the Pacific over China's policy of holding down yuan by currency intervention. A bill in Congress calls for punitive tariff sanctions of 27.5pc against Chinese imports, and there has been a growing outcry over contaminated pet food and lead-tainted toys.
Two top advisers to the Chinese government gave strong hints in August that Beijing should use its estimated $900bn holdings of US Treasuries and agency bonds as a "bargaining chip", words taken as an implicit threat to trigger as US bond crash if provoked.
The Chinese government has since put out an official statement clarifying that it has no intention in taking such an irresponsible step, which would in any case backfire by devaluing China's remaining holding.
Mr Powell said the switch out of Treasuires was a purely commercial decision. "If if turns out that the Chinese are behind this, it is merely an attempt to increase returns on investment. It has nothing to do with settling protectionist scores," he said.
Any evidence that China was pulling out would risk setting off an unstoppable stampede, which is why such a policy would never be announced. It holds the world's biggest pool of resrves, followed by Japan.
Robin Bhar, a metals analyst at UBS, said there was little evidence yet that Asian central banks were switching heavily into gold. Most of the recent buying of gold has been on the COMEX futures markets, the playground of hedge funds.
Central banks tend to buy their bullion in London at the AM and PM fixings, leaving a footprint that is visible to experts. They seem to have been largely absent from the market so far.
Data released by the New York Federal Reserve shows that foreign central banks have cut their stash of US Treasuries by $48bn since late July, with falls of $32bn in the last two weeks alone.
"This comes as a big surprise and it is definitely worrying," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.
"We won't know if China is behind this until the Treasury releases its TIC data in November, but what it does show is that world central banks are in a hurry to get out of the US. They don't seem to be switching into other currencies, so it is possible they are moving into gold instead. Gold is now gaining momentum across all currencies and has broken through resistance at 500 euros," he said.
While the greenback has been resilient over recent weeks - even regaining something of a 'safe-haven' role as banks scrambled to buy the currency to cover dollar debts - most experts believe that America's $850bn current account deficit will eventually cause the dollar to resume its relentless slide.
David Powell, an economist at IDEAglobal in New York, pointed the finger at Beijing as the main suspect in the sudden bond flight this summer.
In a client note entitled "Has China started to dump US Treasuries?", he said the sales appear to coincide with early moves by Beijing to launch its new $300bn sovereign wealth fund.
The scheme is part of the government's plan to diversify it $1,340bn reserves from bonds (mostly in the US) to a broader portfolio of investments and a better yield.
If so, the switch comes at a very delicate time, just as tempers flair on both sides of the Pacific over China's policy of holding down yuan by currency intervention. A bill in Congress calls for punitive tariff sanctions of 27.5pc against Chinese imports, and there has been a growing outcry over contaminated pet food and lead-tainted toys.
Two top advisers to the Chinese government gave strong hints in August that Beijing should use its estimated $900bn holdings of US Treasuries and agency bonds as a "bargaining chip", words taken as an implicit threat to trigger as US bond crash if provoked.
The Chinese government has since put out an official statement clarifying that it has no intention in taking such an irresponsible step, which would in any case backfire by devaluing China's remaining holding.
Mr Powell said the switch out of Treasuires was a purely commercial decision. "If if turns out that the Chinese are behind this, it is merely an attempt to increase returns on investment. It has nothing to do with settling protectionist scores," he said.
Any evidence that China was pulling out would risk setting off an unstoppable stampede, which is why such a policy would never be announced. It holds the world's biggest pool of resrves, followed by Japan.
Robin Bhar, a metals analyst at UBS, said there was little evidence yet that Asian central banks were switching heavily into gold. Most of the recent buying of gold has been on the COMEX futures markets, the playground of hedge funds.
Central banks tend to buy their bullion in London at the AM and PM fixings, leaving a footprint that is visible to experts. They seem to have been largely absent from the market so far.
Former CIA officers report Bush 'didn't give a fuck about intelligence'
Months before the Iraq invasion, President Bush apparently ignored a 2002 Oval Office briefing in which CIA director George Tenet provided the president with intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, according to former Clinton advisor and Salon columnist Sidney Blumenthal.
Reporting in Salon, Blumenthal writes that according to his sources, two former CIA officers,"Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again."
Blumenthal also adds that the intelligence from that day was left out of the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which definitively stated that had WMD.
"The president had no interest in the intelligence," a CIA officer disclosed. "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."
"No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq," Blumenthal writes. "The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD."
Blumenthal's sources confirm a 2006 interview with the CIA's chief of clandestine operations for Europe, Tyler Drumheller, who told CBS's 60 Minutes that the his agency had received intelligence from Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, indicating Iraq possessed no WMD.
"[The two former CIA officers] have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it," Blumenthal reports. "They described what Tenet said to Bush about the lack of WMD, and how Bush responded, and noted that Tenet never shared Sabri's intelligence with then Secretary of State Colin Powell."
Powell would later present US evidence justifying the preemptive invasion of Iraq to the United Nations--without knowledge of the Sabri information.
The former officials instead say that the information was "distorted in a report written to fit the preconception that Saddam did have WMD programs." That information was in turn passed to British intelligence, who used it in briefing Prime Minister Tony Blair as to validation for going to war.
"Tenet told me he briefed the president personally," one of the former CIA officers informed Blumenthal, referring to the Oval Office briefing session on Sept. 18, 2002. Bush, reportedly, thought the information was 'the same old thing,' insisting it was only what Hussein wished him to think.
Prior to Bush's briefing, CIA deputy director John McLaughlin, although reportedly excited about Sabri's report, was concerned that the information conflicted with a source code-named "Curveball," who was to be revealed later as a former Iraqi taxi drive pretending to be a chemical engineer.
Continuing to believe that the Iraqi foreign minister's information was significant, the officers were told by a Tenet deputy that "You haven't figured this out yet. This isn't about intelligence. It's about regime change."
"In the congressional debate over the Authorization for the Use of Military Force," Blumenthal writes that "even those voting against it gave credence to the notion that Saddam possessed WMD...Not a single senator contested otherwise...none of them had an inkling of the Sabri intelligence."
As war approached , the officers on Sabri's case attempted to set up a defection for the foreign minister in order to help show that he stood behind his information. "He dithered," said one officer, and the war began before anything could come of the plan.
"The real tragedy is that they had a good source that they misused," said one of the former CIA officers. "The fact is there was nothing there, no threat. But Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear."
Read the full story in Salon here.
Reporting in Salon, Blumenthal writes that according to his sources, two former CIA officers,"Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again."
Blumenthal also adds that the intelligence from that day was left out of the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which definitively stated that had WMD.
"The president had no interest in the intelligence," a CIA officer disclosed. "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."
"No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq," Blumenthal writes. "The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD."
Blumenthal's sources confirm a 2006 interview with the CIA's chief of clandestine operations for Europe, Tyler Drumheller, who told CBS's 60 Minutes that the his agency had received intelligence from Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, Naji Sabri, indicating Iraq possessed no WMD.
"[The two former CIA officers] have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it," Blumenthal reports. "They described what Tenet said to Bush about the lack of WMD, and how Bush responded, and noted that Tenet never shared Sabri's intelligence with then Secretary of State Colin Powell."
Powell would later present US evidence justifying the preemptive invasion of Iraq to the United Nations--without knowledge of the Sabri information.
The former officials instead say that the information was "distorted in a report written to fit the preconception that Saddam did have WMD programs." That information was in turn passed to British intelligence, who used it in briefing Prime Minister Tony Blair as to validation for going to war.
"Tenet told me he briefed the president personally," one of the former CIA officers informed Blumenthal, referring to the Oval Office briefing session on Sept. 18, 2002. Bush, reportedly, thought the information was 'the same old thing,' insisting it was only what Hussein wished him to think.
Prior to Bush's briefing, CIA deputy director John McLaughlin, although reportedly excited about Sabri's report, was concerned that the information conflicted with a source code-named "Curveball," who was to be revealed later as a former Iraqi taxi drive pretending to be a chemical engineer.
Continuing to believe that the Iraqi foreign minister's information was significant, the officers were told by a Tenet deputy that "You haven't figured this out yet. This isn't about intelligence. It's about regime change."
"In the congressional debate over the Authorization for the Use of Military Force," Blumenthal writes that "even those voting against it gave credence to the notion that Saddam possessed WMD...Not a single senator contested otherwise...none of them had an inkling of the Sabri intelligence."
As war approached , the officers on Sabri's case attempted to set up a defection for the foreign minister in order to help show that he stood behind his information. "He dithered," said one officer, and the war began before anything could come of the plan.
"The real tragedy is that they had a good source that they misused," said one of the former CIA officers. "The fact is there was nothing there, no threat. But Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear."
Read the full story in Salon here.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
So, whom is behind this ' Foundation for a Better Life ' anyway?
Uh.... sure guys. Values that make a difference, right? Like lots 'o Oil & Media Control
You might have been all warm and comfy watching those 'Foundation for a Better Life' commercials on TV ; but not after you find out whom is behind them. Would it surprise you to know, a Elite Billionare ; Mr. Philip Anschutz has funded this organization since 2000? Yep, he's worth 7.8 BILLION dollars, and he's also a big contributor to both conservative, and christian causes. It's hard to know anything about the guy, however - since he has not given an interview in over 30 years. Named Fortune's "greediest executive" in 1999, the Denver resident is a generous supporter of anti-gay-rights legislation, intelligent design, the Bush administration and efforts to sanitize television. Anschutz's stake in Hollywood has been growing since 2000, when he began buying the bankrupt Regal, Edwards and United Artists chains and founded two film studios, Walden Media and Bristol Bay. A heavy contributor to the Republican Party for decades, Anschutz helped fund Amendment 2, a ballot initiative to overturn a state law protecting gay rights, and helped stop another initiative promoting the use of medical marijuana. Anschutz also helped fund the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank that mounted a public relations campaign and financed "research" into intelligent design. He is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 31st Richest American in the USA - so what is he doing with his 'Foundation for a Better Life' ? Like most mysteries, this man's history is the key to this puzzle:
In '70 he bought the 250,000-acre (1,000 km²) Baughman Farms, one of the country's largest farming corporations, in Liberal, Kansas for $10 million. The following year, he acquired 9 million acres (36,000 km²) along the Utah-Wyoming border. This produced his first fortune in the oil business. In the early 1980s, the Anschutz Ranch, with its 1 billion barrel (160,000,000 m³) oil pocket, became the largest oil field discovery in the United States since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska in 1968. He sold a half-interest in it to Mobil Oil for $500 million in 1982. Wake up and smell the crude.
In '84 Anschutz entered the railroad business by purchasing the Rio Grande Railroad's holding company, Rio Grande Industries. Four years later, in 1988, the Rio Grande railroad purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad under his direction. With the merger of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Corporation in September 1996, Anschutz became Vice-Chairman of Union Pacific. Prior to the merger, he was a Director of Southern Pacific from June 1988 to September 1996, and Non-Executive Chairman of Southern Pacific from 1993 to September 1996. Anschutz was also a Director of Forest Oil Corporation, beginning in 1995. In November 1993 he became Director and Chairman of the Board of Qwest, stepping down as a nonexecutive co-chairman in 2002, but remaining on the board.
Anschutz has also been a Director for Pacific Energy Partners, and served on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute, in Washington, D.C. and the National Petroleum Institute Council, in Washington, D.C.
In May 2001, the Bush administration upheld Anschutz's right to drill an exploratory oil well at Weatherman Draw, in south-central Montana where Native American tribes wanted to preserve sacred rock drawings. Environmental groups, preservationists, and 10 Indian tribes had appealed the decision without success. Reports at the time noted that Anschutz had donated $300,000 to Republican causes in the previous four years. In April 2002, the Anschutz Exploration Corporation gave up its plans to drill for oil in the area. They donated its leases for oil and gas rights to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has pledged to let the leases expire, and the Bureau of Land Management said it had no plans to permit further leases there, and would consider formal withdrawal of the 4,268 acre (17 km²) site from mineral leasing in its 2004 management plan.
But that's not all my readers, Anschutz owns or has major interests in about 100 companies, including the following:
- Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has stakes in three U.S. soccer teams, including the MLS's Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, and Houston Dynamo; the NHL's Los Angeles Kings; the AHL's Manchester Monarchs; the ECHL's Reading Royals; the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers; STAPLES Center; Home Depot Center; Major League Lacrosse LA Riptide; the Swedish soccer team Hammarby IF; the German hockey teams Hamburg Freezers and Eisbären Berlin; and the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles; In the UK they own the Manchester Evening News Arena, the London Arena, and the Millennium Dome which is being redeveloped as a multi-purpose arena, and re-launched under the name "The O2".
- Anschutz Film Group (reorganized Crusader Entertainment now known as Bristol Bay Productions and Walden Media). Involved in the production of the movie Atlas Shrugged, and previously involved in the production of the movie Holes in 2003 and the commercially successful The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 2005.
- Forest Oil
- Pacific Energy Group
- 17% stake in Qwest Communications, which became a Baby Bell upon the purchase of US West
- Regal Entertainment Group, the largest movie theatre chain in the world with approximately 6,000 screens. Anschutz owns more than half of the company, which is a collection of former bankrupt chains.
- Union Pacific Railroad (Anschutz is the company's largest shareholder, with 6%.)
- Clarity Media Group, a newspaper conglomerate which includes:
- The San Francisco Examiner (purchased in 2004)
- The Washington Examiner, which was spun off from a number of D.C. area suburban dailies.
- The Baltimore Examiner, which was launched anew in April 2006. (Anschutz has trademarked the name "Examiner" in more than sixty cities.)
- The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse, which is a auction company designed for the Oil & Gas Business
NRC Broadcasting, which owns a string of radio stations in Colorado. - Anschutz brought David Beckham to the United States. Beckham is now employed by Galaxy Media and plays on an Anschutz-owned soccer team.
Anschutz, a Republican donor and avid supporter of George W. Bush's administration, has been an active patron of a number of religious and right-wing causes:
- Helped fund Amendment 2, a ballot initiative designed to overturn a Colorado state law giving equal rights to gay and lesbian people.[1]
- Helped fund the Discovery Institute, a think tank based in Seattle, Washington that promotes intelligent design and critiques some theories of evolution. [1]
- Supported the Media Research Council, a group responsible for nearly all indecency complaints to the FCC in 2003.[1]
- Financed and distributed Christian-themed films, such as Amazing Grace and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for mass audiences through his two film production companies and ownership of much of the Regal, Edwards and United Artists theater chains. Anschutz has also advocated a desire to censor R-rated Hollywood movies by editing them digitally for re-release as PG-13 in his theaters.[citation needed] In addition, as a producer Anschutz reportedly required the removal of certain material related to drug use and womanizing in the 2004 film Ray because he found it objectionable.[2]
- Anschutz has also funded advertisements for television, billboards, and Regal Cinemas for his "For a Better Life" campaign. The campaign, while not explicitly religious, promotes "faith" and "integrity", using characters such as Shrek and Kermit the Frog. The ads were produced by Bonneville Communications, a Salt Lake City agency connected to the Mormon Church.[2]
More Reading:
....'Citizen Anschutz'
...'The Conservative Hand of Holywood'
...'What is the Foundation for a Better Life?
...'Bush Administration OKs Billionaire's Montana Oil Well'
Jury Selection Begins In Oil-For-Food Trial Of Oilman Wyatt
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Jury selection began Wednesday in the trial of Texas oil man Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. on charges he participated in a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to the Iraqi government in exchange for oil under the United Nations' scandal-ridden oil-for-food program.
The trial of Wyatt, former chairman of Coastal Corp., is expected to last four to six weeks. Coastal Corp. was acquired by El Paso Corp. (EP) in 2001.
"Jury service is one of the most important duties of citizens," said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who is presiding, to the jury pool as jury selection began Wednesday. "We are grateful for all of you being here."
Jury selection kicked off Wednesday morning with the judge questioning an initial group of 40 potential jurors about their backgrounds, if they were aware of the UN's oil-for-food program and if they felt they could serve impartially.
Opening statements could begin as soon as Thursday or Monday depending upon how quickly a panel is selected.
Prosecutors have alleged that Wyatt and others, from December 2000 to March 2003, caused millions of dollars of illegal surcharges to be paid to Iraq's government in exchange for oil purchased on behalf of Coastal Corp. and two Cyprus companies.
However, Wyatt has claimed in court papers that he was singled out for prosecution because of his "outspoken opposition to government policy towards Iraq," including the past two Iraq wars, a trade embargo against Iraq and the administrations of President George W. Bush and his father.
"I believe that we have a particularly strong defense," said Gerald L. Shargel, Wyatt's lawyer. "The details of that defense will be revealed in my opening."
Wyatt has been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, engaging in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq and two counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He faces up to 74 years in prison on the charges.
Eight people have either pleaded guilty or been convicted of criminal charges in the case. Criminal charges are pending against six other individuals, including the program's former executive director, Benon V. Sevan.
Last month, David B. Chalmers, the sole shareholder of Houston oil company Bayoil (USA) Inc., and Ludmil Dionissiev separately pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the case.
In February, El Paso Corp. agreed to pay $7.7 million to settle civil and criminal charges that it indirectly paid $5.5 million in illegal surcharges to Iraq through purchases of crude oil from outside parties under the oil-for-food program.
Last week, another oil company, Textron Inc. (TXT), agreed to pay $4.7 million to settle criminal and civil charges in the matter.
Notice they're all TEXAS OIL CO.'s ? Bush 'n Co. -- do you think we're all REALLY that STUPID?
The oil-for-food program was designed to allow the government of Iraq, which was facing international sanctions, to sell oil in exchange for food, medical supplies and other humanitarian needs.
An independent investigation headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker in 2005 found that Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to pocket billions of dollars by manipulating the program, and kickbacks were paid to U.N. officials. The program began in 1996 and ended in 2003.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-05-07 1218ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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