Fresno military headed to Iraq for a year
EXCERPT:
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Hundreds of Army National Guard soldiers based in the central valley are preparing for a year-long deployment to Iraq.

Sunday afternoon, they and their families were honored with a farewell ceremony in Clovis.

Members of the 40th combat aviation brigade will leave Fresno on Wednesday and travel to Fort Hood, Texas for training before heading to Iraq.

Several of them have never been away from their families for such a long period of time, which makes their mission even more difficult. "Trust me. It's tough, very tough, but we're going to get through it."

Lisa Prado of Fresno has never been away from her husband, Sergeant Kinidio Prado for more than a few months at a time. That will all change Wednesday when he leaves for a year-long deployment to Iraq.

Sergeant Prado says he's trying to make the most of his time before saying good bye to his wife and five kids.

"I've been spending a lot of time at home with family and eating a lot definitely. Lots of turkey, lots of tamales, just over-indulging myself," Sgt. Kinidio Prado said.

I'm not sure why but when I clicked the following url here, it wouldn't go into the link that I got into before??? ......anyways, I simply went out and put in Combat Aviation Brigade wikipedia and it finally came up. go figure, ey?

Combat Aviation Brigade
Combat Aviation Brigade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
A Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) is a multi-functional brigade-sized unit in the United States Army that fields military helicopters, offering a combination of attack helicopters (AH-64 Apache), reconnaissance helicopters (OH-58 Kiowa), medium-lift helicopters (UH-60 Black Hawk), heavy-lift helicopters (CH-47 Chinook), and MEDEVAC capability.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 US Army
2.1 Divisional CABs
2.2 Separate CABs
3 US Army National Guard
3.1 Divisional CABs

[edit] History
Combat Aviation Brigades were introduced during the transformation of the United States Army to a modular force. There are three types of Combat Aviation Brigades:

Heavy Combat Aviation Brigades have two aviation attack battalions (24 x AH-64 Apache each), an aviation assault battalion (30 x UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation) 12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion to help with logistics.
Medium Combat Aviation Brigades have one aviation attack battalion (24 x AH-64 Apache), one reconnaissance squadron (30 x OH-58D Kiowa Warrior), an aviation assault battalion (30 x UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation)(12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion.
Light Combat Aviation Brigades have two Air Cavalry reconnaissance squadrons (30 x OH-58D Kiowa Warrior each), an aviation assault battalion (30 UH-60 Black Hawk), a general aviation support battalion (8 x UH60 Command Aviation)(12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion.
[edit] US Army
[edit] Divisional CABs
1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division (Heavy CAB)
1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Medium CAB)
2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Heavy CAB) (Will transform to Medium)
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Medium CAB)
10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Medium CAB)
25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Light CAB) (Will transform to Medium)
82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
159th Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Medium CAB)
[edit] Separate CABs
12th Combat Aviation Brigade, V Corps (Heavy CAB)
16th Combat Aviation Brigade, United States Army Alaska (Light CAB)
[edit] US Army National Guard
The Army National Guard fields eight Combat Aviation Brigades within its eight divisions. The Army National Guard brigades are different from the Army's Medium Combat Aviation brigades as they replace the reconnaissance squadrons' OH-58 Kiowa with the UH-72 Lakota organized into support and security battalions. Thus all brigades consist of one aviation attack battalion (24 x AH-64 Apache), one aviation security and support battalion (32 x UH-72 Lakota), one aviation assault battalion (38 x UH-60 Black Hawk), one general aviation support battalion (12 x CH-47 Chinook and 12 x HH-60M) and an aviation support battalion for logistic support.

[edit] Divisional CABs
Combat Aviation Brigade, 28th Infantry Division (PA ARNG and NJ ARNG) (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 29th Infantry Division (MD ARNG) (Heavy CAB)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 34th Infantry Division (MN ARNG, ND ARNG and ID ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 35th Infantry Division (MO ARNG, NE ARNG and UT ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (TX ARNG, CO ARNG, AL NG and KS ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 38th Infantry Division (IN ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (CA ARNG)
Combat Aviation Brigade, 42nd Infantry Division (NY NG)

Fresno military headed to Iraq for a year

I don't like the fact that the Billary is in charge of this....

Sylvan Magnolia
EXCERPT:
The third round of US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue will be held in Washington on October 22. The issues of mutual interest concerning with growth in energy sector, education and stepping up security measures will feature the dialogue. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will lead Pakistani delegation and US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton will head US delegation.

The New US ambassador to Pakistan Mr. Cameron Munter has said that he is optimistic about the future of democracy in pakistan and future of Pak-US relations.

CIA and 3000 Afghanis
EXCERPT:
3000 strong CIA Army wages undeclared illegal war on Pakistan: Bob Woodward
Posted on 22 September 2010

The CIA calls it its elite Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. Pakistanis face it as the TTP. The CIA calls it Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. Pakistan see them as bombs blowing u in mosques and hospitals. The CIA sees its army killing “terrorists”, Pakistanis face an unending killing of its civilians.

The CIA created, controls and pays for a clandestine 3,000-man paramilitary army of local Afghans, known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams. Woodward describes these teams as elite, well-trained units that conduct highly sensitive covert operations into Pakistan as part of a stepped-up campaign against al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban havens there. (Excerpt from Boob Woodward’s book published in the Washington Post).

Pakistan (todaysviews)
EXCERPT:
US media’s favorite fall guyThe American media has a big role in shaping the perceptions about Pak-US relations. In fact, public opinion in Pakistan is significantly influenced by the US media. So, in anticipation of the third round of Pak-US strategic dialogue, spoilers are out on a Pakistan bashing spree.

All dead and buried issues aimed at projecting the negative image of Pakistan have been resurrected. Besides tarnishing the integrity of the civilian and military leadership, issues of non-proliferation, pending military action in North Waziristan, corruption and the like have been being rehashed and put on exhibition. Nonetheless, there are a few saner voices as well.

Pakiwhacker
Sylvan Magnolia. Code name for pakiwhacker operationsPosted: Sep 22, 2010 Wed 03:47 pm
According to Bob Woodward's latest book, the CIA code name for the pakiwhacker operations is Sylvan Magnolia.

Pakis...next time you go to sleep thinking you're safe, remember these words...Sylvan Magnolia

Iraq catering to Iran
Iraqi leaders not following US advice on gov't
AP – ** FOR AMS STORY BY LARA JAKES ** FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 file photo released by the Iraq …
. Slideshow:Iraq .
Play Video Joe Biden Video:Nightline Interview: VP Joe Biden ABC News .
Play Video Joe Biden Video:Biden Misses the Memo FOX News .
By LARA JAKES and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes And Qassim Abdul-zahra, Associated Press Writers – 59 mins ago
BAGHDAD – American influence has so dwindled in Iraq over the last several months that Iraqi lawmakers and political leaders say they no longer follow Washington's advice for forming a government.

Instead, Iraqis are turning to neighboring nations, and especially Iran, for guidance — casting doubt on the future of the American role in this strategic country after a grinding war that killed more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers.

"The Iraqi politicians are not responding to the U.S. like before. We don't pay great attention to them," Shiite lawmaker Sami al-Askari, a close ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Thursday. "The weak American role has given the region's countries a greater sense of influence on Iraqi affairs."

Vice President Joe Biden, the administration's point man for Iraq, has doggedly lobbied Iraqi leaders, both on the phone and in six trips here over the past two years.

Iraqis, however, measure U.S. influence largely by its military presence, which dipped by threefold from the war's peak to 50,000 troops in late August. As a result, Baghdad is now brushing off U.S. urgings to slow-walk a new government instead of rushing one through that might cater to Iran.

"The Iranian ambassador has a bigger role in Iraq than Biden," said a prominent Kurdish lawmaker, Mahmoud Othman. He said the Americans "will leave Iraq with its problems, thus their influence has become weak."

One problem which could worsen as a result is the sectarian divide — particularly if the secular but Sunni-backed Iraqiya political coalition, which won the most votes in the March election, is left out of a new Shiite-led government led by al-Maliki.

Many Iraqis, particularly minority Sunnis, would view such a government as "blessed by Iran and evidence of America's relative weakness," analyst Michael Knights wrote on the website of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This perception could lead to a surge in violence.

Washington, which has its hands full with the war in Afghanistan and the hunt in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden, sees Iraq as "the bane of everyone's existence lately," said one senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the diplomatic issues.

But Iraq cannot afford to ignore completely what Washington wants. For one, that could bring the end of U.S. help and financial backing to broker $13 billion worth of contracts for military equipment.

It also would all but dash any hopes by Baghdad to re-negotiate a security agreement that is set to expire at the end of 2011 — a needed step to keeping some U.S. forces in Iraq to continue training its fledgling air force and protect its borders. A senior Iraqi military official predicted the new government, once it is settled, ultimately will ask U.S. troops to remain beyond next year.

U.S. alliances with Mideast nations to which Baghdad seeks to cozy up also cement American influence in Iraq, said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center think tank in Doha.

"In that, I think the U.S. is still pretty well positioned in terms of getting its voice heard in Iraq," Shaikh said. But he agreed that the U.S. carries less sway in Baghdad than it used to: "If it was such an easy thing to exert influence, then wouldn't Iraq have had a government by now?"

More than seven months have passed since March 7 parliamentary elections failed to produce clear winners, and Iraqi politicians say they will pick new leaders on their own timetable.

Othman said the lengthy impasse, despite heavy U.S. pressure to form a government that includes all of Iraq's major political players, shows that Baghdad doesn't really care what Washington wants.

"Yes, the Americans have their view on how to form an Iraqi government," Askari agreed. "But it does not apply to the political powers on the ground and it is not effective."

U.S. officials initially encouraged the Iraqis to form a government quickly, but recently started pushing for a slowdown after it became apparent that a party led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was poised to play a major role.

The U.S. clearly hopes to stall the formation of a new government long enough for the deal unravel between al-Maliki and al-Sadr, whose hardline Shiite followers are close to Iran.

But the days of the U.S. calling the shots in Iraq are long over — largely because of President Barack Obama's intent to scale back America's presence more than seven years after the invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime.

That's led Iraqi leaders to reach out to Mideast neighbors for support and advice on brokering a new government. Leaders from rival political coalitions in the last several months have been to Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia on official visits. On Thursday, al-Maliki was in Ankara to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is Iraq's newly warmed alliance with Iran that worries the United States.

In a development that may have assured him a second term, al-Maliki this month won al-Sadr's backing. And this week, top Iranian officials gave al-Maliki their clearest nod of support yet during his trip to Tehran.

"Our concerns about Iran and its meddling in Iraq's affairs are long-standing," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington this week. "But that said, we would expect the Iraqi government to work on behalf of its own citizens and not on behalf of another country."

In Cairo this week, al-Maliki predicted a new government will be formed soon. A senior Iraqi government official said that will happen regardless of whether the U.S. blesses it, though he acknowledged that Baghdad would be weak without American support. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

"There is U.S. influence in the political process and forming of the government, but less so than before," said Sunni lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi. "As they (the Americans) begin to withdraw their military, the Iranians are taking advantage of the empty space, and are ready to fill the vacuum."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..

Message #2571 of 6415 < Prev | Next >

PART 2 Christian Billionaire Philip Anschutz
"In 1984, he bought the small Denver and Rio Grande Western
Railroad. In 1988, he took control of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
In a short time, development of a fiber-optics network along the
railroad right-of-way begun. In 1996, the Southern Pacific was sold to
the Union Pacific Railroad for $5.4 billion. Philip Anshutz retained a
5.4% stake in the combined company. In addition, he retained the
telecomm company and the fiber-optics network it was based on along
the railroad right-of-way. 1997, this company, now called Qwest
Communications, was taken public. As a public company, Anshutz still
owns 84%. His original $55 million investment was then valued at $4.9
billion, earning him the designation recently, by Fortune magazine, as
the "billionaire next door," estimating his worth well over $10
billion, in the fall of 1999. Another interest in recent years has
been the area of sports and real-estate. The Anschutz Corporation has
ownership interests in the Major Soccer League and teams in Chicago
and Denver, as well as the Los Angeles Kings and the Los Angeles
Lakers. The are opening a new area in Los Angeles with related
real-estate developments surrounding the area. Further, Anschutz has
agricultural interests in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas in excess of
335,000 acres. The Anschutz Foundation, a charitable organization,
has, in recent years, begun to make substantial contributions to a
number of worthy causes of interest to the family. compiled from
various public news accounts
http://www.emporia.edu/kbhf/Contemporary/anschutz/anschutzshortbio.htm
l
http://www.qwest.com/about/inside/board_anschutz.html
Philip F. Anschutz Chairman of the Board Philip F. Anschutz has been a
Director and the Chairman of the Board of Qwest since February 1997.
He was a Director and Chairman of the Board of QCC from November 1993
until September 1997. He has been a Director and Chairman of the Board
of Anschutz Company, Qwest's principal stockholder, for more than five
years, and a Director and Chairman of the Board of The Anschutz
Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anschutz Company, for more
than five years. Since the merger of Southern Pacific Rail Corporation
(. . SPRC. . ) and Union Pacific Corporation (. . UP. . ) in September
1996, Mr. Anschutz has served as Vice-Chairman of UP. Prior to the
merger, Mr. Anschutz was a Director of SPRC from June 1988 to
September 1996 and Non-Executive Chairman of SPRC from 1993 to
September 1996. He also has been a Director of Forest Oil Corporation
since 1995." http://www.barnburners.com/anschultz1.html "Philip
Anschutz, 55, is also the owner of the MLS Colorado Rapids and the
National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings. His main business is The
Anschutz Corporation, Denver, Colorado. The company's major business
interests are in the fields of natural resources, railroads, real
estate, and communications. Mr. Anschutz is a native of Kansas, having
been born in Russell, and graduated from the University of Kansas with
a degree in business. He started The Anschutz Corporation in 1965. He
is currently serving as chairman of the board of Southern Pacific Rail
Corporation; is on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute,
Washington, D.C.; the National Petroleum Institute Council,
Washington, D.C"
http://www.forbes.com/tool/toolbox/billnew/richmain98.asp?value2=9040
Dirty Dick Cheney and Other Pals of the unelected
Pretender-President Excerpted from text of dick
cheney's speech at the ip ( institute of petroleum) autumn lunch
http://www.petroleum.co.uk/speeches.htm " I understand last year when
Sheikh Yamani spoke that he was rather pessimistic
about the outlook for oil prices and the ability of OPEC to arrive at
a price level and maintain it over time and I'm not sure
that it's fair to come back a year later and second-guess and I
hope a year from now people won't do that to me in terms of the
forecasts I'm going to make, but I do want to talk about the outlook,
certainly from the perspective of Halliburton, how we look at what may
occur here in the future and let me say at the outset that I am
unreasonably optimistic about our industry the Middle East
with two thirds of the world's oil - is still where the prize
ultimately lies. While Halliburton has certainly grown bigger through
its merger with Dresser and other key acquisitions, this made sense
in part because it gave our company both a broader array of services
and also greater depth in products and service"
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubs/cheney.htm
"Secretary Richard Cheney Secretary of Defense of the United States
"The Gulf War: A First Assessment" Soref Symposium April 29, 1991 I
think that the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious. I
think if we were going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to
go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force-
And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his
government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place.
What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i
government or a Kurdish government"
http://www.conservativenews.org/InDepth/archive/199812/IND19981214d.ht
ml
While we welcome Dick Cheney's apparent change of heart on Iraq
since his insane statement above, we wonder if it is a sincere change
of heart. We certainly hope so, but so far all we have seen out of
Bush II is talk about liberating Iraq. Sadly the actual liberation of
Iraq has not yet begun. Should it begin we would fully support it.
Meanwhile Bush I gangsters continue to stress the need NOT to liberate
Iraq. We think that is the real intention. Bush II will not liberate
Iraq, though he will claim that he wants to. Meanwhile some idiots,
who call themselves Democrats, will stupidly hop onto the Isolationist
Bandwagon started by Bush I gangsters, stressing the need to leave
Hitler wannabe Saddam Hussein in power, so that when the inevitable
NUCLEAR, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ATTACKS AGAINST AMERICAN cities come
it will be Democrats who will be blamed for those attacks rather than
the inaction of Bush II or the Isolationist Bandwagon Parade started
by Bush I IraqGate Gangsters.
"Philip F. Anschutz Net Worth $8.8 billion."
http://205.180.59.50/news/state/reports/staplescenter/anschutz.htm
"a worth of $16.5 billion, as Forbes says Anschutz does," "Part of
Anschutz's vision for the growth of Qwest is pure genius. Not only has
he laid the cable on his railroad rights-of-way, he has also laid
miles of open pipe alongside, so that when other communications
companies run out of capacity, Qwest will be ready to serve. At a
steep price, of course."
http://infinity.ccsi.com/~comcause/news/dolead.html
Philip Anschutz a billionaire Denver oilman who serves on Dole's
campaign finance committee, hadn't given heavily to the RNC in recent
years. But in April, after Anschutz and his wife reached their
individual contribution limits for Dole's presidential campaign, his
company, Anschutz Corp., gave the RNC $250,000."
http://publicintegrity.org/buying_updates.html List of top 10
Dole contributors -includes Anschutz
http://www.ccsi.com/~comcause/news/rncdonor.html TWENTY-ONE
WEALTHY SOFT MONEY DONORS GAVE $100,000 OR MORE EACH TO RNC
http://www.unionpacific.com/sharehld/directors.htm
"Union Pacific Directors - Philip F. Anschutz Chairman"
http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/sig-indv.shtml
Edward Henry Harriman 1848-1909 Railroad magnate, former president of
the Illinois Central and president of the Union Pacific from
1904-1909. In 1897, Harriman, as part of an investment group., bought
the bankrupt UP for $110 million dollars. Soon he set about improving
the line, spending over $240 million, and creating a railroad
empire.Known for possessing a vision of the new order toward which
railroads were evolving, Harriman embraced gigantic undertakings and
served as a catalyst in changing how railroads were run, specifically
promoting consolidation and acquiring rival companies. One scholar
writes of Harriman, "If they would not sell the colt, Harriman would
buy the mare." "Averell Harriman 1892-1986 Son of E.H. Harriman
chairmanship of Union Pacific (1920-1946)"
http://www.caller.com/2001/march/12/today/contribu/20029.htm
"THE GEORGE W. BUSH MONEY TREE"
http://www.examiner.com/000206/0206bush2.html
(Texas Governor George W. ) "Bush fund-raising at-a-glance" "Several
big givers are counted among "Bush's Pioneers," fund-raisers who have
brought in at least $100,000 for his presidential campaign. Others
have interests before the federal government. The list includes:
Samuel Skinner, former chief of staff for President Bush, $10,000.
http://www.ltvsteel.com/htmfiles/skinner.htm
Re Former President Bush's Chief of Staff "Samuel K. Skinner Director
since 1993. Partner and Co-Chairman of the law firm of Hopkins and
Sutter. Former President and a director of Commonwealth Edison
Company. He was previously Chief of Staff to the President of the
United States. Prior to his White House service, Mr. Skinner served as
U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He is also a director of ANTEC
Corporation, Union Pacific Resources Group Inc., Midwest Express
Holdings, Inc., NAVIGANT Consulting, Inc. and U.S. Freightways Corp.
Member of LTV's Board Affairs and Audit Committees." PLEASE SEE ALSO:
UNION PACIFIC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
http://www.upr.com/investor/97annrep/directors.shtml
http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/e2415.htm
"Global Crossing battles accounting controversy"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/message/3121
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/message/4112
Carlyle Group Qwest $7.05 billion dollar deal "SOURCE: The Carlyle
Group Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe Purchase
Qwest's Yellow Pages Unit for $7.05 Billion Deal is Largest U.S.
Buyout Since 1989"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/americansecrets/message/1136
"Published on Monday/Tuesday, May 21-22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times
First Battle Begins Over Drilling Policy Bush Administration OKs
Billionaire's Montana Oil Well by Geoffrey Mohan May 22 - A federal
land agency on Monday upheld billionaire Philip Anschutz's right to
drill an exploratory oil well in an area of south-central Montana
where Native American tribes want to preserve sacred rock drawings.
The site, called Weatherman Draw, has become an early flash point for
the Bush-Cheney energy plan, which aims to ease access for oil and
natural gas exploration on public lands. Environmental groups,
preservationists and 10 tribes had appealed a Bureau of Land
Management decision to allow drilling by a company owned by Anschutz,
a major contributor to Republican Party causes who owns the Los
Angeles Kings and who has stakes in the Los Angeles Lakers and Staples
Center." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0522-02.htm
"Apama raises $10m for sales drive APAMA, one of the company's short
listed for the forthcoming Cambridge Evening News Business Excellence
Awards, has raised $10 million (£7.14 million). This is third round
funding for the Cambridge University spin-out run by Dr John Bates.
Apama, based off Clifton Road, Cambridge, has found a way to replace
traditional data storage by keeping everything in "real time". The
company initially demonstrated its technology by applying it to a
computer dating service which would be capable of alerting people to
potential matches when both were in the same place, and therefore able
to meet straightaway. The reality might have brought a few slapped
faces, but the example got the message across, indicating huge
potential in the business world for managing data. The latest funding
comes from Carlyle Group, acting as lead investor, and from existing
Apama investors, Anschutz Investments and Providence."
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/archives/2002/03/05/business.html
"Capital For Trellis Columbia-based Trellis Photonics has moved closer
to building a manufacturing plant with the promise of $25 million in
venture capital. The lead investment comes from Carlyle Internet
Partners Europe, part of the Washington-based Carlyle Group. Other
investors are Agilent Technologies, Anschutz Investment Co. and Enron
Broadband Services, a subsidiary of Enron Corp."
http://www.bizmonthly.com/11_2000/page4.html
"Yozma Portfolio Company, Trellis Photonics, Secures a $25 Million
Round Thursday, October 26, 2000 Trellis Photonics, of which Yozma is
the single largest shareholder (with about 13% stake), has concluded
an investment round at a triple-digit valuation. Participants in this
round included industry leaders such as Agilent (NASDAQ: A), Enron
(NASDAQ: ENE), the Washington DC-based Carlyle Group and Anschutz
Investment Company."
http://www.yozma.com/news/detailed.asp?item_id=5
"Philip Anschutz, 6th richest man in the U.S. ,may own your favorite
theater. The billionaire investor/raider has bought these 3 chains:
United Artists Theater, 1,604 screens, Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc,
708 screens, and Regal Cinemas, the nation's largest chain with 4,361
screens. Is this a case of a man who loves every aspect of the cinema?
"Anschutz's financial advisers tell Newsweek that he is buying
theaters merely as an investment." And I was worried he'd be a
heartless corporate overlord! (Newsweek)"
http://musea.digitalchainsaw.com/99hardnews.html
"Questionable AOL Revenue Has WorldCom Link Thursday Aug 22,2002 NEW
YORK-The biggest chunk of $49 million in questionable ad revenue under
investigation at AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL - News) involves
money that was inappropriately booked from WorldCom Inc. , people
familiar with the investigation told The Wall Street Journal. The
money stemmed from the particularly close relationship America Online
and WorldCom developed during the past few years, in which AOL became
WorldCom's biggest customer, paying the telecommunications firm at
least $900 million a year to carry the bulk of its Internet traffic.
Most recently, in July 2001, the two companies struck a massive deal
in which WorldCom agreed to buy more than $ 200 million in advertising
across AOL properties in exchange for AOL continuing to keep its
network traffic on WorldCom's network. People close to the situation
said the latest deal was negotiated in part by David Colburn, a top
AOL deal maker who was ousted two weeks ago, and Scott Sullivan,
WorldCom's former chief financial officer, who has been charged with
securities fraud after the company, now in bankruptcy-court
proceedings, found a total of $7.2 billion in improper accounting. The
pact is likely to bring greater scrutiny of the close, but often
contentious, relationship between the companies. The Securities and
Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) has issued subpoenas to AOL
seeking a variety of documents, including transactions in which Mr.
Colburn was involved. The SEC probe of AOL is wide- ranging, and
investigators are expected to look at a range of subjects, including
sales of stock by company executives. AOL said it learned of the
questions about the accounting on the $49 million of revenue the week
beginning Aug. 5. The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO - News) reported
Thursday that a portion of the $49 million was related to WorldCom.
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Laurie P. Cohen, Jared Sandberg,
Martin Peers Deborah Solomon and Julia Angwin contributed to this
report."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story and
u=/dowjones/20020823/bs_dowjones/200208222353000958
"Officials Probe AOL's Actions With Partners Monday Aug 26, 2002, By
Julia Angwin and Martin Peers, Staff Reporters of The Wall Street
Journal Earlier this month, AOL said in an SEC filing it may have
inappropriately recognized as advertising revenue $49 million from
three transactions. At least one of these transactions was a
round-trip deal with WorldCom Inc., which counted AOL as one of its
biggest customers." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story and
u=/dowjones/20020826/bs_dowjones/200208260106000021
"Bernie Ebbers, who resigned under fire in April as WorldCom chief
executive officer. "Ebbers, 61, has been subpoenaed. In Brookhaven,
Mississippi, Ebbers lives, attends church and teaches Sunday
school.-Standing in the shade of Brookhaven's post office, Stan Hay,
who works in grocery distribution, said he has sat among Ebbers's
students in Easthaven Baptist Church's Sunday school classes. "We all
know Bernie," Hay said. "To me, he always was a good Christian man.
Brookhaven Mayor W.W. 'Bill' Godbold said Ebbers has done much for his
community, buying property, investing in businesses, donating to his
church."
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/business/article/0,1426,MCA_440_1249685,0
0.html
"CORRECTED: Ebbers Allocated 869,000 Shares in IPOs by Salomon Smith
Barney Tuesday Aug 27, 2002 By Mark Wigfield Dow Jones Newswires
WASHINGTON-Former WorldCom Inc. Chief Executive Bernard J. Ebbers
received thousands of shares of valuable initial public offerings of
stock from Salomon Smith Barney, the financial-services unit of
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C - News) known as a WorldCom booster. The
lucrative opportunity to buy thousands of shares of stock in an IPO
before prices rose was also extended to the company's former chief
financial officer, Scott Sullivan. He has been indicted on charges of
fraud and conspiracy for his role masking losses at WorldCom and
deceiving investors. The disclosures were made by the House Financial
Services Committee, which held hearings on the WorldCom accounting
scandal last month."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story and
u=/dowjones/20020827/bs_dowjones/200208271829000703
"Ex-WorldCom's Execs Got Big IPO Shares Wednesday Aug 28,2002 By
Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former top WorldCom Inc.
executives bought hundreds of thousands of shares in many initial
public offerings, including rival telecom players' offerings, thanks
to Salomon Smith Barney and its predecessor companies, records
released on Tuesday showed. Those who purchased shares included former
Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers, former Chief Financial Officer
Scott Sullivan, current WorldCom Chairman Bert Roberts, and current
board director Stiles Kellett, among others, according to documents
released by the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. "It's hard to
avoid the conclusion that IPOs were offered in order to leverage
investment banking business," said committee spokeswoman Peggy
Peterson. "There are large policy questions here about IPO allocations
and I think our members are going to be very interested in this
issue." They received shares in offerings ranging from now-bankrupt
Rhythms NetConnections, Williams Communications Group and rival
long-distance telephone carrier Qwest Communications International
Inc. to other industries like United Parcel Service and Kraft Foods,
the records show. Ebbers was the biggest recipient, getting some
869,000 shares for about $17 million in 21 IPOs, between June 1996 and
August 2000, including 205,000 shares of Qwest, the records show.
Ebbers was ousted as chairman of WorldCom in April as a result of
pressure from the company's huge debt, as well as, over the some $400
million in personal loans that the company made to him. The company's
former CFO, Scott Sullivan, and his wife Carla bought 32,300 shares in
nine IPOs for $680,350 from April 1996 to March 2002, according to the
documents. He was fired on June 25 for his role in the accounting
scandal. The shares bought included 7,000 of Rhythms, 2,000 of Kraft,
and 10,000 of Williams Communications. Ebbers also bought shares in
several firms that are now bankrupt, including KPNQwest, Teligent, and
Metromedia Fiber Net as well as in other companies like UPS, Juno
Online Services Inc. and TyCom Inc. "
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story and
u=/nm/20020828/bs_nm/worldcom_salomon_dc_1
"Ebbers' IPO share allocations probed Tuesday August 27, 2002, By Gary
Silverman, Joshua Chaffin and Peter Thal Larsen in New York
Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney investment bank and a predecessor
firm awarded more than 850,000 shares in initial public offerings to
Bernie Ebbers, former WorldCom chief executive, a Congressional
committee revealed on Tuesday. Mr Ebbers received 869,000 shares from
Salomon. Scott Sullivan, former chief financial officer of WorldCom,
received 32,300 shares. Mr Sullivan was arrested last month on
securities fraud charges in connection with the $3.8bn accounting
fraud that the company admitted to in June. Stiles Kellett, a WorldCom
director, got 31,550 shares from Salomon. As head of the compensation
committee, Mr Kellett approved more than $350m in personal loans that
the company extended to Mr Ebbers. Ms Peterson said investigators were
particularly interested in the timing of the awards. She said the
committee was trying to find out whether Salomon awarded shares to
investors like Mr Ebbers at IPO prices after they had risen in the
market. The lack of information about of the timing awards, she said,
raises the question about "whether or not there was spinning." A
Salomon Smith Barney http://www.salomonsmithbarney.com/ note:
"Salomon Smith Barney is a subsidiary of Citigroup" source:
http://www.salomonsmithbarney.com/about_us/
to return to article being quoted: " A Salomon Smith Barney
spokeswoman said: "We are confident that we have been fully responsive
to their request, and we will continue to cooperate." The company has
maintained its IPO allocations fell within legal guidelines. It was
understood Salomon was going to provide the committee with sales
prices that would enable it to make a calculation of Mr Ebbers'
profits. IPOs of Rhythms Net Connections and JUNO. Salomon's records
show Mr Ebbers only received 10,000 shares in both cases. The memos
also showed expressions of interest in IPOs from other telecom
executives including Phil Anschutz of Anschutz Group,"
(note, not part of article being quoted but please see also:
TECHNOLOGY; Qwest Officials Made Millions In Stock Sales (The New
York Times Archive) In addition, Philip F. Anschutz, a member of
Qwest's board and the company's largest shareholder- Jul 29 2002
Walter Scott of Level Three, Clark McLeod of McLeod USA, Joe Nacchio
of Qwest Communications and Roy Wilkens of Williams Company. The bulk
of the awards to Mr Ebbers - 748,000 shares - were made in an 18-month
period before Salomon Brothers was sold to Travelers and combined with
Smith Barney. The next year, Travelers merged with Citicorp to form
Citigroup. In one case, involving McLeod's IPO in June 1996, Salomon
awarded two-thirds of its retail allocation to Mr Ebbers - 200,000
shares valued at $20m. Mr Ebbers also received 200,000 shares of
Nextlink Communication, or 10.52 per cent of Salomon's retail
allotment, and 205,000 shares in Qwest, of 12.42 per cent of the
entire Salomon allocation."
http://biz.yahoo.com/ft/020827/1028186073595_1.html
FROM: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/message/4112
"Harriman was beaten but his ambition was overwhelming as Judge Lovett
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/print/BB/jyb1.html
http://www.employees.org/~davison/nprha/tteusra2.html
said of him later 'when he started upon a course nobody could swerve
him from it'. Obviously he could not do it directly; so he decided to
do it indirectly, by buying the Northern Pacific, Morgan's and Hill's
own road right out from under their very noses. He would do this not
by arrangement with the board of directors, or by private negotiation
with the large holders of stock, but in the open
market on the New York Stock Exchange. It is said that this project
was proposed to Harriman by John W. Sterling,
http://www.library.yale.edu/renovaxn/history.html the eccentric and
secretive corporation lawyer who was the constant intimate of James
Stillman, whose National City Bank could draw upon the vast hoards of
the Standard Oil men."For more on Stillman please read: The Portrait
of a Banker, James Stillman / by Anna R. Burr ISBN: 0405069502 Ayer
Company Publishers, Incorporated 08/01/1975 Please see also
http://www.scottwinslow.com/Live/w100/w61-80.htm
"(Citibank - opened Sept. 14, 1812), Anna Robeson Burr (1927). The
Portrait of a Banker: James Stillman,1850-1918. (New York, NY:
Duffield and Company, 370 p.). Stillman,James, 1850-1918. First
Citibank chairman in 1909. (Citibank), John K. Winkler
(1934). The First Billion; The Stillmans and the National City Bank.
(New York, NY: The Vanguard Press, 277 p.). Stillman, James,
1850-1918; Stillman, James Alexander, 1873-1944; First National City
Bank of New York." http://www.kipnotes.com/Banking.htm
"Founded in 1812 by Samuel Osgood, the first commissioner of the U.S.
Treasury, the City Bank of New York began by serving merchants and
became a pioneer in overseas expansion in the early 1900s. More
recently, Citibank became the first commercial bank to make personal
loans, provide high-interest, specified-term CDs, and introduce ATMs
on a large scale. It is also the world's largest
issuer of credit cards. Be it a Harvard graduate in New York or a
bicycle-riding salesman in Malaysia who greets you on behalf of
Citibank, the message is the same: the customer comes first.
Citibank, owned by Citicorp, is legendary for using technology to
make life easier for customers. In April 1998,
Citicorp and insurance giant Travelers Group announced a plan for the
largest merger ever. The new entity was named called Citigroup.
Citibank/Citigroup 399 Park Ave. New York, NY 10043 Phone:
800-285-3000 Fax: 212-793-3946 Website: www.citibank.com Ticker
Symbol: C " http://careers.yahoo.com/s/wetfeet/v55.html
"Harriman was now working hand in glove with Stillman and the Standard
Oil millionaires. Morgan had to give places on the Northern Pacific
board to Harriman and to his ally William Rockefeller
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ro/RockefelW.html and Harriman also got a
place on the Burlington board. Both groups were thus given
representation; 'community of interest' was thus achieved - at what
cost!" Whatever the story may have been above, did x, y or z buy up
who knows how many companies dirt cheap on those days in May, the
'community of interest' is certainly in existence today.
J. P. Morgan Chase Defends Its Enron Role By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/25/business/25BANK.html Thursday, July
25, 2002 J. P. Morgan Chase defended itself yesterday
against Congressional allegations that it had helped Enron hide huge
debts, and its statement helped prop up the company's share price as
well as the stock market. "My belief is that we acted properly and
with integrity in all the Enron matters," J.P. Morgan and Chase are
now one. "Over the course of a company's history, few events truly
are pivotal. This company witnessed just such an event in 2000, when
J.P. Morgan and Chase Manhattan merged. The new
company, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.
http://www.jpmorganchase.com/chase/gx.cgi/Applogic%2bFTContentServer?p
agename=Chase/Hrefandurlname=jpmchase
http://www.konformist.com/2000/chase.htm "Chase Manhattan Banks'
Right-wing Relationship" Daily Deal - Koram deal to be
Carlyle's biggest investment ... Logo. The $410 million that Carlyle
and Morgan have agreed to pump into KorAm depositary receipts follows
a $40 million investment the pair completed on June 30
http://www.thedailydeal.com/topstories/A28290-2000Sep7.html
Asia Times Online official said Saturday that KorAm recently asked for
government approval for JP Morgan and Carlyle forming a consortium to
buy 35 percent of the bank"
http://www.atimes.com/bizasia/BF13Aa01.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/message/4112
please see also Dubya and the MCIWorldKamikazes
"July 22, 2002 Bankruptcy at WorldCom Is the Largest in U.S.
History"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/americansecrets/message/1078
"Like Powell, Rockefeller is part of the Imperial Family that includes
Bush, Cheney and Gerald Ford, and Pat Robertson and Walt Disney, and
that goes back to Charlemagne, and William the Conqueror, if not
further, probably a lot further if history is any guide. "a Web search
turned up the site of the London-based Burke's Peerage
(www.burkestitles.com), I knew I could stop looking. The company no
longer puts out the authoritative Burke's Peerage and Baronetage,
which it sold off in the 1970s, but it compiles a number of
genealogical volumes, and its publishing director, Harold Brooks-Baker
(an American-and as yet a commoner), is the world's most quoted
expert on royalty and aristocracy. It was Brooks-Baker who revealed
that Colin Powell is related to the late Princess Diana. "Descents
from Edward I [descendant of Henry III] James Madison, US President
William Henry Harrison, US President (Benjamin Harrison, US President
Grover Cleveland, US President Gerald Ford, US President George Bush,
George W. Bush, General Colin Powell."
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/02/rocca.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BushBusters/message/2045
END PART TWO
You are invited to join
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Rahm Emanuel
EXCERPT:
Name some international operatives closely tied to the foregoing. Vincent W. Foster, Jr., law partner and reputed lover of Hillary Rodham Clinton, murdered in 1993. Infamous international money laundry expert in insurance field, the late Hugh Rodham, Sr., father of Hillary Rodham Clinton, close to Gambino Crime Family and originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Reputed Deputy Chief of The Mossad for North America, Rahm Emanuel who on and off for six years was Clinton White House Senior Advisor. Rahm went on to become a Managing Director of Wasserstein Perella & Co., reportedly laundering huge funds through the Chicago and New York markets for the Red Chinese and the Red Chinese Secret Police. The Wasserstein Perella & Co. operation has merged with Germany's Dresdner Bank A.G.

Name some of those who reportedly run huge sums through the foregoing. Rahm Emanuel. REFCO-LFG Division Chicago [Richard Friedman & Co.] Warren Buffet and his false public statements that his fortune started with a "department store" in Nebraska.

Is Biden associated with a hedge fund scandal
EXCERPT:
The affidavit is signed a few months after Hunter Biden resigned as the CEO of Paradigm Global – a position he took up in late 2006.

Now I am going to give you one more detail. In 2006 Paradigm represented that they had 28 staff. They represented that they had offices in multiple cities including a largish office in New York on Fifth Avenue. I have uploaded a few of their marketing documents here and here and here.

This is where the above map came from.
PGA Presentation scribd

5 questions for Jim Derouchey president infoUSA database
EXCERPT:
n terms of clients, we have 200 chains we work with today. That doubled compared to 2008. In 2009, we'll process 200 chain files, and we'll do double that next year. Clients include Bank of America, Best Western, Dunkin' Donuts, FedEx and Shell Oil. They pay us a fee based on how many locations they have.

Dunkin Donuts wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Dunkin' Donuts, along with Baskin-Robbins, is owned by Dunkin' Brands Inc. (previously known as Allied Domecq Quick Service Restaurants, when it was a part of Allied Domecq). Dunkin' Brands used to own the Togo's chain, but sold this in late 2007 to a private equity firm. Dunkin' Brands was owned by French beverage company, Pernod Ricard S.A. after it purchased Allied Domecq. They reached an agreement in December 2005 to sell the brand to a consortium of three private equity firms, Bain Capital Partners, the Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Business Week -Thomas H. Lee Partners
EXCERPT:
OCTOBER 21, 2005

By Aaron Pressman
Singed by Refco's Scandal
His firm is coping with the fallout of its involvement with the brokerage, and now private-equity titan Thomas H. Lee won't be managing his namesake outfit's new fund

Legendary buy-out investor Thomas H. Lee won't manage the next private equity fund at the firm he founded in 1974, instead using his own money to invest in smaller, fast-growing companies, Businessweek Online has learned. It marks the first time Lee's firm will be in the market without him, even as he helps the firm try to rescue its multimillion-dollar investment in bankrupt Refco.

Refco Scandal
EXCERPT:
In October federal prosecutors charged Refco's CEO, Phillip R. Bennett, with security fraud in a scandal now known as the Refco Scandal.

Refco is a large foreign exchange and commodity broker providing clearing and execution services for global exchange-traded derivatives.

Bennett committed the fraud by attempting to hide the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Refco was owed by a company Bennett himself controlled, Refco Group Holding.

Rahm Emanuel brings strong wall street ties to White House
EXCERPT:
His top contributors over the course of his Congressional career were Madison Dearborn Partners ($93,600), AT&T Inc. ($86,450), Swiss bank UBS AG ($85,100), Goldman Sachs ($74,750) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($73,600) and Dresdner, Kleinwort & Wasserstein ($73,250). (Several of those companies were also big contributors to Obama.)

Many of Emanuel’s relationships with Wall Street’s movers and shakers on Wall Street were personal. After devoting himself to the Clinton White House in the 1990s, Emanuel embarked on a new career in business, saying he wanted to make money to ensure his family’s security.

In 1999, he went to work for Bruce Wasserstein, a major Democratic donor and Wall Street financier, becoming a partner in the Chicago office of investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. Over the course of two-and-a-half years as managing partner, he reportedly made more than $16 million.

In those years, he also joined several boards, becoming a director of housing financier Freddie Mac in a period when the agency was plagued with scandal involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities.

Vinod Gupta wikipedia
EXCERPT:
Vinod Gupta is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of infoGROUP (previously known as infoUSA[1]). Mr. Gupta served as CEO of the company from the time of its incorporation in 1972 until September 1997 and from August 1998 to August 2008[2]. Borrowing $100 from a bank to get started, it has grown from a one-man operation to a global employer of over 5,000 with revenues of $750 million.

He was recognized in Bill Clinton’s book Giving, describing the company as one that “has made a concerted effort to hire people who were on welfare, as well as people who are disabled or who have to support themselves after getting out of unsafe domestic situations.”

He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He is the director of a mutual fund in the Everest mutual fund family. Mr. Gupta was also nominated and confirmed to be the United States Consul General to Bermuda as well as nominated by the President to be the United States Ambassador to Fiji[3]

Billary's ugly buddy payments from scandal tied firm
EXCERPT:
This is a more detailed version of a column that was published in The New York Post on May 24, 2007.

Since he left office in 2001, former president Bill Clinton has been paid by InfoUSA, an Omaha, Nebraska company that has been identified as a key provider of specially designed databases that are sold to criminals who use the detailed information to defraud the unsuspecting elderly.

Because Senate financial disclosure rules do not require Hillary Clinton to reveal exactly how much — or for what — the company has paid her husband over the past five years, we don’t know all the details. But we do know this: former presidents – especially Bill Clinton – don’t come cheap. And, just months after he left the presidency, Bill Clinton was paid $200,000 for a speech given to InfoUSA in Omaha. Since then, he has been paid an undisclosed amount each year, listed only as “more than $1000″� for ‘non-employee compensation“� on Senator Clinton’s Senate financial disclosure form.

Hurd scandal pushes HP back into middle of public crossfire
EXCERPTs:
1) Rajiv Gupta
Director since Jan. 2009
Age: 64
Senior adviser to New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm, since July 2009; Gupta was chairman and CEO of Rohm and Haas, which produces specialty materials, from 1999 to 2009; he also is a director of The Vanguard Group and Tyco International

2) Tuesday, attorneys for a Massachusetts municipal retirement fund filed an investor lawsuit accusing the HP board of allowing Hurd to misuse corporate assets.

Echoing Minow and other critics, the lawsuit noted that five of the 10 current directors were on HP's board when it was rocked by a different scandal in 2006, when the company admitted using private investigators to obtain the phone records of reporters and directors under false pretenses.

Bradley J. Bell

Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Nalco Holding Company
Naperville , IL
Sector: BASIC MATERIALS / Synthetics
Officer since November 2003

Director , Compass Minerals International, Inc.
Overland Park , KS
Sector: BASIC MATERIALS / Agricultural Chemicals

Director , Idex Corporation
Northbrook , IL
Sector: INDUSTRIAL GOODS / Diversified Machinery

57 Years Old
Bradley J. Bell has been the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since joining the Company in November 2003. From 1997 to 2003, Mr. Bell served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Rohm and Haas Company, a $6 billion global specialty chemicals manufacturer. There, Mr. Bell played an active role in the company's strategic portfolio review, including substantial acquisitions, divestitures, and development and implementation of post-transaction cost-elimination programs exceeding $500 million. Prior to that, Mr. Bell served as Vice President and Treasurer of both the Whirlpool Corporation, from 1987 to 1997, and the Bundy Corporation, from 1980 to 1987. Mr. Bell is a director and chairman of the audit committee of IDEX Corporation and a director and chairman of the audit committee of Compass Minerals International, Inc.

2 Firms Tied to Phone Lists Will Review Their Policies
EXCERPT:

Published: May 22, 2007
Two companies accused by state and federal regulators of doing business with suspected telemarketing thieves released statements yesterday pledging to examine and change their business practices.

Golden Opportunities: Bilking the Elderly, With a Corporate Assist (May 20, 2007) The two companies — InfoUSA, one of the nation’s largest compilers of consumer information, and Wachovia Bank, the nation’s fourth largest bank — were identified in an article in The New York Times on Sunday as having made it possible for thieves to defraud millions of elderly and other Americans.

Bonner associates coached employees lie generate letters -Will Congress reign such astroturf
EXCERPT:
28 August 09
Bonner & Associates Coached Employees To Lie To Generate Letters to Congress - Will Congress Rein In Such Astroturf?
Tags: american coalition for clean coal electricity (ACCCE), Bonner & Associates, bonner astroturf, General, Waxman-Markey
An interesting and potentially explosive attachment was included with a letter sent to Congressional investigators by Steven R. Ross, an Akin Gump attorney working to defend his client Bonner & Associates, the D.C. public relations firm embroiled in an embarrassing scandal over forged letters sent from its offices to at least three Democratic lawmakers claiming to represent opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate and energy legislation from nine community groups.

Wachovia and InfoUSA
EXCERPT:
InfoUSA advertised lists of “Elderly Opportunity Seekers,” 3.3 million older people “looking for ways to make money,” and “Suffering Seniors,” 4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. “Oldies but Goodies” contained 500,000 gamblers over 55 years old, for 8.5 cents apiece. One list said: “These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change.”

As Mr. Guthrie sat home alone — surrounded by his Purple Heart medal, photos of eight children and mementos of a wife who was buried nine years earlier — the telephone rang day and night. After criminals tricked him into revealing his banking information, they went to Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-largest bank, and raided his account, according to banking records.

Mexican drug cartels laundered money through Wachovia and Bank of America
EXCERPT:
Wachovia and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) have been helping Mexican drug cartels launder money for years, Bloomberg reports.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), the new owners of Wachovia, admitted in court that Wachovia helped Mexican drug dealers clean drug money, including cash that was used to buy four planes that were used to ship a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

Wells Fargo agreed to pay $160 million in penalties after the DoJ charged Wachovia with violating the Back Secrecy Act.


Bloomberg -Banks financing Mexico's drug cartels admitted in Wells Fargo
EXCERPT:
The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.

Bronte Capital
EXCERPT:
Ruh roh.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Bidens’ fund has intersected with an alleged fraudster. Two months ago it was discovered to be entangled with disgraced financier Allen Stanford in a $50 million fund co-branded Paradigm Stanford Fund and marketed by Stanford.

LA attorney Joseph Tagliaferro
Joe A. Tagliaferro III is a founding partner with Tagliaferro & LoPresti, LLP’s group in Los Angeles. During the past 10 years, Joe has concentrated his practice in the areas of corporate transactions and advisory, hedge funds, asset management, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation and compliance, firm formation and launches, venture capital financings, as well as the defense of securities investigations. His expertise also extends to the entertainment industry and he has advised on the development of numerous entertainment and media projects.

Prior to the formation of Tagliaferro & LoPresti, LLP in 2001 with partner Marc LoPresti, Joe was an associate attorney and later a junior partner with Casale, Coffee, Nojima, LLP. In addition to his law career, Joe has been involved in the successful formation and growth of several entrepreneurial ventures. From 1999 to 2000, Joe served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs of Elephant Systems, Inc., a Los Angeles based venture capital incubator firm.

Prior to attending law school, Joe gained practical experience in the financial markets as a Foreign Currency Trader for Bierbaum-Martin Inc., a boutique firm on Wall Street. Additionally, Joe became a National Association of Securities Dealers Registered Representative and Supervisor for Schwab Institutional and International trading and operations. While at Schwab, he played an integral role in the strategic development, organization and management of Charles Schwab’s offshore subsidiary, Schwab Offshore with branch offices located in the Cayman Islands, London and Hong Kong. During law school, Joe worked as a law clerk for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in the Crimes Against Peace Officers Division and as an intern at National Association of Securities Dealers Regulation.

Joe is admitted to practice law in California and is an active member of the State Bar of California, The Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle, the Los Angeles County Bar, the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the Los Angeles Venture Association and ProVisors. During the course of his career, Mr. Tagliaferro has been involved as a volunteer coach for the New York State Special Olympics ice hockey team and supports various non-profit and charitable organizations including AIDS Walk, The Segal Family Scholarship Fund at the Harvard-Westlake School, the Leukemia Society, Heal the Bay, and the Knights of York, a New York based non-profit organization.

Joe earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and his Juris Doctorate degree at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, California.

Bronte Capital

70's board game contains eerie BP oil spill scenarios
EXCERPT:
A nearly 40-year-old board game is getting a lot of new attention because of eerie similarities between the scenarios of its play and the 78-day-old BP Gulf oil disaster.

The game BP Offshore Oil Strike, which came out in the 1970s and is adorned with an old BP logo, revolves around four players exploring for oil, building platforms and constructing pipelines – all in the name of being the first to make $120 million.

Joe Biden, Nalco
EXCERPTs:
May 17, 2010 9:27 am

1) Biden-Clinton Ally Makes BILLIONS On So-Called "CleanUp;" Oil Spill Looks Intentional — by NormanB ("Deviations from the Norm")

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Bradley Bell announced his retirement hours ago from DuPont’s shadow company Nalco, maker of Corexit, which so-called "clean-up workers" are now intentionally spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Corexit is much more toxic than Petroleum, and its use makes the Dispersant spill much more dangerous to Gulf-of-Mexico life and economy than the Oil spill itself. Bell apparently wants to take the money and run before the criminal acts involved are aired.

2) BIG SPENDERS

Not too many years ago, MBNA was a relatively minor player in the credit card business. Today, it is the second-largest issuer of Visa and Mastercards in the country, and some analysts believe it will eventually overtake Citicorp to become the nation’s biggest credit-card bank.

MBNA after Enron became George Bush's biggest donater
EXCERPT:
Bush Has a New Top Career Patron
MBNA surpasses Enron as the president's top lifetime contributor

By Alex Knott

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2004 — A small number of donations by employees of the credit card giant MBNA Corp. last month was enough to unseat Enron as President George W. Bush's top career donor.

The Delaware-based company has given Bush $605,041 over his career, while Enron ($602,625) slipped to second, according to a recent supplement to "The Buying of the President 2004," a book by the Center for Public Integrity detailing the financial interests behind each presidential candidate.

The Center's study found that investment companies continue to make staggering donations to Bush, driven by so-called bundlers. Nine of Bush's largest ten donors during October 2003 through January 2004 were financial services companies. All of Bush's ten largest donors from October through January are linked to bundlers who have pledged to donate $100,000 to $250,000 as part of the president's Pioneer and Ranger Programs.


Corexit technology
EXCERPT:
Prompt deployment of Nalco COREXIT® oil spill dispersants is one very effective and proven method of minimizing the impact of a spill on the environment. When the COREXIT dispersants are deployed on the spilled oil, the oil is broken up into tiny bio-degradable droplets that immediately sink below the surface where they continue to disperse and bio-degrade. This quickly removes the spilled oil from surface drift…reducing direct exposure to birds, fish and sea animals in the spill environment. By keeping the oil from adhering to wildlife COREXIT dispersants effectively protect the environment.

Nalco Holding Company
EXCERPT:
Bradley J. Bell - CFO
Total Compensation: $ 1.95 M
Bradley J. Bell has been the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since joining the Company in November 2003. From 1997 to 2003, Mr. Bell served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Rohm and Haas Company, a $6 billion global specialty chemicals manufacturer. There, Mr. Bell played an active role in the company's strategic portfolio review, including substantial acquisitions, divestitures, and development and implementation of post-transaction cost-elimination programs exceeding $500 million. Prior to that, Mr. Bell served as Vice President and Treasurer of both the Whirlpool Corporation, from 1987 to 1997, and the Bundy Corporation, from 1980 to 1987. Mr. Bell is a director and chairman of the audit committee of IDEX Corporation and a director and chairman of the audit committee of Compass Minerals International, Inc.

Senator Biden and MBNA
EXCERPT:
Although disclosure rules do not force senators to list the value of their personal residences, Biden chose to include a letter noting his “good faith estimate” that he had between $500,001 and $1,000,000 in equity in his home. Of course, to get that money he would have to sell the house, a lovely old mansion on three and a half acres of what used to be a du Pont family estate outside Wilmington. Biden bought the house in 1975 but had been thinking on-and-off about selling it for years; he almost sold it before his disastrous run for the presidency in 1988. But the deal didn’t happen until MBNA came

MBNA NY Times
EXCERPT:
The Bush family was well acquainted with Mr. Cawley and his generosity. Only Enron , before its fall, was a bigger source of political donations to George W. Bush than MBNA. Mr. Cawley was also a benefactor to the president's father. Besides donating $1 million to the foundation that built George H. W. Bush's presidential library, Mr. Cawley and MBNA have paid more than $300,000 to the former president and his wife for appearing at company events.

Friends in the highest places were not all that Mr. Cawley collected. As he built the company into the world's largest independent credit card issuer, he gained a reputation as a free spender. Over the years, MBNA accumulated a fleet of airplanes, helicopters, yachts and expensive cars, as well as a $65 million art collection.

Although hardly a household name, even on Wall Street, Mr. Cawley, 63, became a powerful figure in business by catering to the national addiction to credit. Operating in a heavily regulated industry, he curried favor in Washington through political contributions and by hiring former senior government officials. MBNA's management team is studded with retired F.B.I. officials, including Louis J. Freeh, its former director.

MBNA wikipedia
EXCERPT:
MBNA history
MBNA was founded in 1982 by a group of MNC Financial (regional bank holding company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland) executives headed by Charles Cawley. Its first office was housed in a converted A&P supermarket in Ogletown, Delaware.[6] Until his death, Cleveland Browns owner Al Lerner served as Chairman of the Board.

In 1995, MBNA moved its headquarters from a suburban location to Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington. This investment was credited with help to revive the downtown real estate market.


THE SATANIC BLOODLINES
Introduction
1.1. The Astor Bloodline
2.2. The Bundy Bloodline
3.3 The Collins Bloodline
4.4. The DuPont Bloodline
5.5. The Freeman Bloodline
6.6. The Kennedy Bloodline
7.7. The Li Bloodline
8.8. The Onassis Bloodline
9.9. The Reynolds bloodline
110. The Rockefeller Bloodline
11. The Rothschild Bloodline
12. The Russell Bloodline
13. The Van Duyn Bloodline

Fisherman's wife speaks out
EXCERPT:
President Obama goes one-on-one with Larry King Thursday night to talk about the oil spill, economic turmoil and war. Don't miss the president on "Larry King Live," 9 p.m. ET tonight only on CNN.

Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- Kindra Arnesen's husband often calls while he's out on a shrimping trip, so she wasn't surprised to hear her cell phone ring the night of April 29 while he was on an overnight fishing expedition.

However, this time, her husband, David, wasn't calling to tell her about the day's catch or to wish their children Aleena and David Jr. a good night. He was calling to tell her he was sick, and the strange thing about it, so were men on the seven other shrimping boats working near his.

"I received several calls from him saying, 'This one's hanging over the boat throwing up. This one says he's dizzy, and he's feeling faint. Everybody's loading up their stuff, tying up their rigs and going back to the docks,'" Arnesen remembers.

Cordovan Riki Ott Proposes 28th Amendment: Separation Of Corporation And State
EXCERPT:
Catherine and Daily Musings,November 18, 2008 at 10:11 am
This just in from the network (author unknown) about the marvelous Dr. Riki Ott…

Every so often an idea comes along that rings with such clarity and purpose that it ignites the imaginations of millions of people. That spark of excitement becomes hope, hope becomes action, action becomes community, and that community grows to become a movement. Marine biologist, author, fisherma’am, and Exxon Valdez survivor, Dr. Riki Ott has such an idea.

BP Oil Spill Insider at the Gulf Emergency Summit video inside
EXCERPT:
Ponies And Balloons
posted 25th June 2010 in Environment by The Green Man
Here’s a name you won’t hear from the corporate-sponsored news about the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Kindra Arnesan. Here’s a phrase you won’t hear from the corporate-sponsored news about the Gulf oil spill: Ponies and Balloons.

What do Kindra Arnesan and ponies and balloons have to to do with the oil spill? At a gathering organized by the Gulf Emergency Summit, Arnesan, the wife of a fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico, explained that “ponies and balloons” is a code phrase used by BP executives and others in the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command to refer to fake clean-up operations that take place to create a false impression of progress in the cleanup of the oil spill. Here’s how Arnesan explains it, seen in the video below:

“First we gotta understand this phrase: ‘Ponies and balloons.’ Well, the only place I’ve ever seen ponies and balloons is at the circus. Right? At any rate, about a week and half in, I learned what ‘ponies and balloons’ meant. ‘Ponies and balloons’ means that every time an official is headed anywhere near here, they get a heads up.. All assets are deployed into the hardest hit areas. The official comes in, flies over, ‘good job, fellas’, pats ‘em on the back. When that official disappears out of the hardest hit area, so does 75%-80% of the response.

It’s happening. It’s happening every day. I’m watching it. I’ve seen it. I don’t agree with it. Anyone in this room’s not gonna agree with it. Anyone in our great nation’s not gonna agree with it. We are expendable to these people.”

Arnesan claims that she’s seen these things happening firsthand, after gaining security clearance to observe what’s happening on the inside of the Unified Command. So, why can’t you read about Ponies And Balloons in the mainstream press?

Lessons from the Exxon Valdez spill Rikki Ott
EXCERPT:
–Riki Ott, PhD, has written two books on the Exxon Valdez oil spill impacts on people, communities, and wildlife, including the recently released Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Any views expressed here are her own.–

I remember the words, “We’ve had the Big One,” with chilling clarity, spoken just over 21 years ago when a fellow fisherman arrived at my door in the early morning and announced that the Exxon Valdez had run aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and was gushing oil.

For the small fishing community of Cordova, Alaska, where I lived and worked as a commercial fisherma’am, it was our worst nightmare.

That nightmare is reoccurring now with BP’s deadly rig blowout off the Gulf Coast – with haunting parallels to the Exxon Valdez.

I was not at all surprised when officials reported zero spillage, then projected modest spillage, and then reported spill amounts five times higher than their earlier estimates.

Oil spill too much for William Allen Kruse skipper who committed suicide
EXCERPT:
(June 24) -- Two weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.

Kruse left no note, so it's impossible to know why he took his life. But those who knew him say the veteran fisherman and father of four was almost certainly the latest casualty in the gulf oil crisis, and a symbol of the spill's exacting human toll.

Elizabeth Cohen

Elizabeth Cohen is senior medical correspondent for CNN's health and medical unit. During her 17-year tenure at CNN, Cohen has reported award-winning stories and developed the popular "Empowered Patient" column on CNN.com.

During her years at CNN, Cohen has reported from Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; from a military hospital during Hurricane Katrina; from Virginia Tech following the shooting massacre in April 2007; and from California during the wildfires later that year. She reports daily on breaking medical news and consumer tips on CNN and on CNN.com. Her book, What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You, is due for publication in 2010.

Cohen has received several awards for her work, including a National Headliner, a Gracie, a Sigma Delta Chi, a Cine and two "Freddie" awards from the International Health and Medical Media Film Competition. Her stories have also been honored by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Newswoman's Club of New York, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She’s been recognized by the Mental Health America, the Arthritis Foundation, the American Academy of Dermatology, and the International Nurses Society on Addictions.

Before joining CNN in 1991, Cohen was associate producer of Green Watch, an environmental show on WLVI-TV in Boston. Before working in television, she was a newspaper reporter for States News Service in Washington, D.C., and for the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., where she won a Hearst Award.

A winner of the outstanding alumna award from Columbia College, Cohen received a bachelor's degree in history. She earned a master's degree in public health from Boston University, which honored her with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35000 Feet Well Bore

Iran deploys homemade radar in PG

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:37:49 GMT
Font size :

An Iranian radar system
Iran has deployed a domestically-built radar system in the Persian Gulf capable of tracking and destroying enemy ships and fighter jets, says an Iranian army commander.

The Matla-ul-fajr radar system, which covers the entire Persian Gulf region, has replaced "Western-made radars," commander of Iran's southern air defense region General Qanbar-Ali Salahian was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying on Wednesday.

Salahian said Iran's air force is using a variety of defense equipment including long and medium-range radars and missile shield systems to protect the country's air space.

"We always remain fully prepared to counter any possible threats against the country," he added.

The general said the air defense system covers the Persian Gulf and its littoral states.

"The system can be used to track and destroy enemy ships as well as fighter jets," he concluded.

AKM/HGH

Obama Administration Knew About Deepwater Horizon 35,000 Feet Well Bore

Wayne Madsen – Oil Price.com June 22, 2010

President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were informed that BP would drill an unprecedented 35,000 feet well bore at the Macondo site off the coast of Louisiana. In September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon successfully sunk a well bore at a depth of 35,055 below sea level at the Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102 in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston.

Controlled burn off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf

During the September drilling operations, the Deepwater Horizon drill penetrated a massive undersea oil deposit but BP's priorities changed when the Macondo site in the Mississippi Canyon off the coast of Louisiana was found to contain some 3-4 billion barrels of oil in an underground cavern estimated to be about the size of Mount Everest. It was as a result of another 35,000 feet well bore sank by the Deepwater Horizon at the Macondo site that the catastrophic explosion occurred on April 20.

According to the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) sources within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pentagon and Interior and Energy Departments told the Obama Administration that the newly-discovered estimated 3-4 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico would cover America's oil needs for up to eight months if there was a military attack on Iran that resulted in the bottling up of the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, resulting in a cut-off of oil to the United States from the Persian Gulf.

Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset, according to WMR's government sources.

WMR learned that BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the White House and Pentagon in tapping the Gulf of Mexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the Persian Gulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran.

BP still has an ongoing operation to drill down to 40,000 feet below sea level at the Liberty field off the north coast of Alaska.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Obama-Administration-Knew-About-Deepwater-Horizon-35000-Feet-Well-Bore.html

Comment – June 23, 2010

The above report takes on added significance in the light of an email received Tuesday from a reliable psychic friend. According to our friend:

“The Iran issue right now is a diversionary tactic to take attention away from the gulf oil rupture. And the gulf oil rupture is a diversionary tactic to take away attention from the Iran issue. A double edged sword…

“The war may happen. Iran will be used to divert attention away from the gulf which is the real threat to us all. If they get the oil rupture under control you can expect war with Iran within two months of that “miracle”.

“Watch this space....”

BP Macondo oil revenue wildlife group new fund
EXCERPT:
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) said Tuesday it would donate its net revenue gleaned from oil collected at its broken well in the Gulf of Mexico to a pre-existing wildlife foundation, changing tack from two weeks ago.

Earlier this month, BP said it would put money from the sales of oil it recovers at the Macondo well--the one spilling oil into the Gulf--to a wildlife fund of its own creation.

The company on Tuesday announced fresh plans, saying it would donate the money instead to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit created by Congress in 1984 that works to preserve and restore native U.S. wildlife species and habitats.

Clinton-Biden Ally makes BILLIONS on so-called "CleanUP:" Oil Spill Looks Intentional
EXCERPT:
Biden-Clinton Ally Makes BILLIONS On So-Called “CleanUp;” Oil Spill Looks Intentional
By: normanb Monday May 17, 2010 9:27 am Tweet Share

Biden-Clinton Ally Makes BILLIONS On So-Called "CleanUp;" Oil Spill Looks Intentional — by NormanB ("Deviations from the Norm")

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Bradley Bell announced his retirement hours ago from DuPont’s shadow company Nalco, maker of Corexit, which so-called "clean-up workers" are now intentionally spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Corexit is much more toxic than Petroleum, and its use makes the Dispersant spill much more dangerous to Gulf-of-Mexico life and economy than the Oil spill itself. Bell apparently wants to take the money and run before the criminal acts involved are aired.

Nalco President & CEO J. Erik Frywald just came off a multi-city tour urging venture capitalists to invest in Nalco, because, he said, Oil spills are inevitable, and Nalco stands to make many billions of dollars when one happens, especially in the light Pres. Obama’s stated intent to dramatically increase un-inspected offshore Oil drilling.

Bradley Bell
EXCERPT:
57 Years Old
Bradley J. Bell has been the Company's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since joining the Company in November 2003. From 1997 to 2003, Mr. Bell served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Rohm and Haas Company, a $6 billion global specialty chemicals manufacturer. There, Mr. Bell played an active role in the company's strategic portfolio review, including substantial acquisitions, divestitures, and development and implementation of post-transaction cost-elimination programs exceeding $500 million. Prior to that, Mr. Bell served as Vice President and Treasurer of both the Whirlpool Corporation, from 1987 to 1997, and the Bundy Corporation, from 1980 to 1987. Mr. Bell is a director and chairman of the audit committee of IDEX Corporation and a director and chairman of the audit committee of Compass Minerals International, Inc.

Al Gore and Camco
EXCERPT:
Ohio-based banks, on Friday said they agreed to cancel their planned merger, citing worsening market conditions.

Warren-based First Place had on May 7 announced its agreement to buy Cambridge-based Camco for $97.2 million in cash and stock. Shareholders of Camco were to receive $13.58 in cash or 0.97 of a First Place share for each of their shares.

The combined company would have had roughly $4.4 billion of assets and more than 67 retail banking offices. Neither bank will incur termination fees or any claims of liability resulting from the cancellation, the companies said.

Corexit Nalco Al Gore Soros
EXCERPT:
COREXIT, NALCO, ALGORE, SOROS, APOLLO, MAURICE STRONG, GOLDMAN SACHS...... GULF OIL SPILL... AND WHY IT'S NOT BEING STOPPED. FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!

Warren Buffett buys into Nalco
EXCERPT:
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's company bought 8.7 million shares of Nalco Holding Co. last year.

The investment in the Naperville-based water treatment and processing equipment and services company was worth $100.8 million as of Dec. 31. The purchase was disclosed as part of documents that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Media ignores Goldman Sachs ties to Corexit dispersant
EXCERPT:
But BP’s investment in Nalco is the token diversion. The real players are Goldman Sachs and their fellow Sexually Inadequate Masters of the Universe, the Blackstone Group and Apollo Management.

BP oil spill corexit dispersants suspected in widespread crop damage video inside
EXCERPT:
Just when you thought the damages BP could cause was limited to beaches, marshes, oceans, people’s livelihoods, birds and marine life, there’s more.

BP’s favorite dispersant Corexit 9500 is being sprayed at the oil gusher on the ocean floor. Corexit is also being air sprayed across hundreds of miles of oil slicks all across the gulf. There have been widespread reports of oil cleanup crews reporting various injuries including respiratory distress, dizziness and headaches.

Corexit 9500 is a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by the Nalco of Naperville, Illinois. Corexit is is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million), Corexit 9500 at only 2.61ppm).

Media ignores Corexit-Goldman Sachs ties
EXCERPT:
Media Ignores Goldman Sachs' Ties to Toxic Corexit Oil Dispersant

Thursday, 20 May 2010

'In a recent New York Times’ article “Less Toxic Dispersants Lose Out in BP Oil Spill Cleanup”, journalist Paula Quinlan questions why BP is using the toxic dispersant Corexit to clean up the oil when twelve other dispersants proved more effective in EPA testing.

Nowhere in the article does it mention that Goldman Sachs, the Blackstone Group and Apollo Management own Nalco, the producer of the 54 % effective, 100% toxic dispersant.'

BP-Corexit Japanese connection
The BP Corexit Japanese Connection – Why Toxic Solvents Were Used & Covered Up
We knew there was something fishy going on, but couldn’t figure out what it might be. Why did BP and the EPA keep on using Nalco’s Corexit, which is highly toxic to both humans and wildlife? Turns out that Rodney F. Chase, who sits on the board of Nalco, was also a BP board member. Likelihood that he still holds shares in both companies is very high. So it wasn’t JUST nepotism, it was a for-profit choice.

But it runs deeper than that. Corexit’s manufacturer, Nalco Holding Company is owned by the Blackstone Group (along with MANY other holdings, a huge investment conglomerate.) Blackstone has had Japanese investors for many years, but relatively recently doubled that investment; The Japanese now own 20% of Blackstone. What else does Blackstone own? Large hotel chains, Banquet foods, Seaworld, Six Flags… you name it! Most captive dolphins are in amusement parks like Seaworld, Six Flags, etc. Seaworld claims they have no connection to the dolphin slaughters in Japan (which were documented in the Oscar-award-winning movie “The Cove“). That’s simply not true.
With all of the deceptions, all of the many layers of big-money connections, there’s only one thing certain: If BP is saying something, WE MUST QUESTION the validity. If they tell a small truth, it’s to cover up the big picture, a bigger liability.

We’ll give you more about this as we have the time, but for now, know that BP and Corexit are financially intertwined, as are the Japanese, who actively hunt whales and dolphins for meat and to sell to amusement parks. Like their filthy oil, this stinks!

BP-Corexit Japanese connection

Water Fuel research Explosion kills inventor
EXCERPT:
Explosion at California water fuel research company kills inventor
On Thursday afternoon, 28-year-old inventor, Tyson Larson was killed in an explosion that ripped a hole in the roof and blew out the back doors to a Simi Valley building of the family member's company, Realm Industries, which was seeking to develop his water fuel technology.

The explosion was likely a result of an attempt to compress hydroxy gas -- never a good idea. Also, it turns out that two associates of the company were indicted in March for "defrauding 300 investors of $7 million with ploys including a process for creating alternative fuel from water."

by Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
Copyright © 2010

NBC News aerial view

photo credit: http://www.vcstar.com

Simi Valley, CA, USA -- Realm Industries in Ventura County, California, which is working on a water fuel technology, was rocked by an explosion Thursday at 480 E. Easy Street.

According to the Ventura County Star, authorities were told it was a water-based explosion, and that the company's work involved extracting hydrogen from water to make fuel. The company's patent applications relate to equipment and ways to generate energy from fluids such as water that can be used as an alternative fuel source.

Self powered battery inventor dead
EXCERPT:
Free-Energy Battery Inventor Killed at Airport?
Official statement cites "natural causes" but others familiar with the disruptive potential of the inventor's technology to the existing power structure consider it a probable assassination.

by Sterling D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
Copyright © 2007

WBTV reported death as "most likely not a homicide."

On Nov. 11, inventor of a revolutionary, affordable, clean energy technology, Arie M. DeGeus of AMDG Scientific Corp was found slumped in his car, totally unresponsive, in the long-term parking lot of the Charlotte Douglass International Airport in North Carolina. He was taken to the hospital and died a short time later. The autopsy suggested heart failure, so officials were saying the death was a result of a medical problem or natural causes, and not likely to be a homicide. (Ref.; ref.)

Those who were involved with his research are doubtful, citing, among other things, that he had been in relatively good health. The timing is also suspicious. He was apparently on his way to Europe where he was to secure major funding for the development and commercialization of his technology, which could make oil obsolete as a fuel source.

Water Fuel research Explosion kills inventor

Hurricane Katrina

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are,"
Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.

The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given year are slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists predict that powerful storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risk. "It's not if it will happen," says University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when."

Yet just as the risks of a killer storm are rising, the city's natural defenses are quietly melting away. From the Mississippi border to the Texas state line, Louisiana is losing its protective fringe of marshes and barrier islands faster than any place in the U.S. Since the 1930s some 1,900 square miles (4,900 square kilometers) of coastal wetlands—a swath nearly the size of Delaware or almost twice that of Luxembourg—have vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose about 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of land each year, roughly one acre every 33 minutes.

A cocktail of natural and human factors is putting the coast under. Delta soils naturally compact and sink over time, eventually giving way to open water unless fresh layers of sediment offset the subsidence. The Mississippi's spring floods once maintained that balance, but the annual deluges were often disastrous. After a devastating flood in 1927, levees were raised along the river and lined with concrete, effectively funneling the marsh-building sediments to the deep waters of the Gulf. Since the 1950s engineers have also cut more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of canals through the marsh for petroleum exploration and ship traffic. These new ditches sliced the wetlands into a giant jigsaw puzzle, increasing erosion and allowing lethal doses of salt water to infiltrate brackish and freshwater marshes.

While such loss hits every bayou-loving Louisianan right in the heart, it also hits nearly every U.S. citizen right in the wallet. Louisiana has the hardest working wetlands in America, a watery world of bayous, marshes, and barrier islands that either produces or transports more than a third of the nation's oil and a quarter of its natural gas, and ranks second only to Alaska in commercial fish landings. As wildlife habitat, it makes Florida's Everglades look like a petting zoo by comparison.

Such high stakes compelled a host of unlikely bedfellows—scientists, environmental groups, business leaders, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—to forge a radical plan to protect what's left. Drafted by the Corps a year ago, the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) project was initially estimated to cost up to 14 billion dollars over 30 years, almost twice as much as current efforts to save the Everglades. But the Bush Administration balked at the price tag, supporting instead a plan to spend up to two billion dollars over the next ten years to fund the most promising projects. Either way, Congress must authorize the money before work can begin.

To glimpse the urgency of the problem afflicting Louisiana, one need only drive 40 minutes southeast of New Orleans to the tiny bayou village of Shell Beach. Here, for the past 70 years or so, a big, deeply tanned man with hands the size of baseball gloves has been catching fish, shooting ducks, and selling gas and bait to anyone who can find his end-of-the-road marina. Today Frank "Blackie" Campo's ramshackle place hangs off the end of new Shell Beach. The old Shell Beach, where Campo was born in 1918, sits a quarter mile away, five feet beneath the rippling waves. Once home to some 50 families and a naval air station during World War II, the little village is now "ga'an pecan," as Campo says in the local patois. Gone forever.

Life in old Shell Beach had always been a tenuous existence. Hurricanes twice razed the community, sending houses floating through the marsh. But it wasn't until the Corps of Engineers dredged a 500-foot-wide (150-meter-wide) ship channel nearby in 1968 that its fate was sealed. The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, known as "Mr. Go," was supposed to provide a shortcut for freighters bound for New Orleans, but it never caught on. Maybe two ships use the channel on a given day, but wakes from even those few vessels have carved the shoreline a half mile wide in places, consuming old Shell Beach.

Campo settles into a worn recliner, his pale blue eyes the color of a late autumn sky. Our conversation turns from Mr. Go to the bigger issue affecting the entire coast. "What really screwed up the marsh is when they put the levees on the river," Campo says, over the noise of a groaning air-conditioner. "They should take the levees out and let the water run; that's what built the land. But we know they not going to let the river run again, so there's no solution."

Denise Reed, however, proposes doing just that—letting the river run. A coastal geomorphologist at the University of New Orleans, Reed is convinced that breaching the levees with a series of gated spillways would pump new life into the dying marshes. Only three such diversions currently operate in the state. I catch up with Reed at the most controversial of the lot—a 26-million-dollar culvert just south of New Orleans named Caernarvon.

"Caernarvon is a prototype, a demonstration of a technique," says Reed as we motor down a muddy canal in a state boat. The diversion isn't filling the marsh with sediments on a grand scale, she says. But the effect of the added river water—loaded as it is with fertilizer from farm runoff—is plain to see. "It turns wetlands hanging on by the fingernails into something quite lush," says Reed.

To prove her point, she points to banks crowded with slender willows, rafts of lily pads, and a wide shallow pond that is no longer land, no longer liquid. More like chocolate pudding. But impressive as the recovering marsh is, its scale seems dwarfed by the size of the problem. "Restoration is not trying to make the coast look like a map of 1956," explains Reed. "That's not even possible. The goal is to restore healthy natural processes, then live with what you get."

Even that will be hard to do. Caernarvon, for instance, became a political land mine when releases of fresh water timed to mimic spring floods wiped out the beds of nearby oyster farmers. The oystermen sued, and last year a sympathetic judge awarded them a staggering 1.3 billion dollars. The case threw a major speed bump into restoration efforts.

Other restoration methods—such as rebuilding marshes with dredge spoil and salt-tolerant plants or trying to stabilize a shoreline that's eroding 30 feet (10 meters) a year—have had limited success. Despite the challenges, the thought of doing nothing is hard for most southern Louisianans to swallow. Computer models that project land loss for the next 50 years show the coast and interior marsh dissolving as if splattered with acid, leaving only skeletal remnants. Outlying towns such as Shell Beach, Venice, Grand Isle, and Cocodrie vanish under a sea of blue pixels.

Those who believe diversions are the key to saving Louisiana's coast often point to the granddaddy of them all: the Atchafalaya River. The major distributary of the Mississippi River, the Atchafalaya, if left alone, would soon be the Mississippi River, capturing most of its flow. But to prevent salt water from creeping farther up the Mississippi and spoiling the water supply of nearby towns and industries, the Corps of Engineers allows only a third of the Mississippi's water to flow down the Atchafalaya. Still, that water and sediment have produced the healthiest wetlands in Louisiana. The Atchafalaya Delta is one of the few places in the state that's actually gaining ground instead of losing it. And if you want to see the delta, you need to go crabbing with Peanut Michel.

"Peanut," it turns out, is a bit of a misnomer. At six foot six and 340 pounds, the 35-year-old commercial fisherman from Morgan City wouldn't look out of place on the offensive line of the New Orleans Saints. We launch his aluminum skiff in the predawn light, and soon we're skimming down the broad, café au lait river toward the newest land in Louisiana. Dense thickets of needlegrass, flag grass, cut grass, and a big-leafed plant Michel calls elephant ear crowd the banks, followed closely by bushy wax myrtles and shaggy willows.

Michel finds his string of crab pots a few miles out in the broad expanse of Atchafalaya Bay. Even this far from shore the water is barely five feet deep. As the sun ignites into a blowtorch on the horizon, Michel begins a well-oiled ritual: grab the bullet-shaped float, shake the wire cube of its clicking, mottled green inhabitants, bait it with a fish carcass, and toss. It's done in fluid motions as the boat circles lazily in the water.

But it's a bad day for crabbing. The wind and water are hot, and only a few crabs dribble in. And yet Michel is happy. Deliriously happy. Because this is what he wants to do. "They call 'em watermen up in Maryland," he says with a slight Cajun accent. "They call us lunatics here. You got to be crazy to be in this business."

Despite Michel's poor haul, Louisiana's wetlands are still a prolific seafood factory, sustaining a commercial fishery that most years lands more than 300 million dollars' worth of finfish, shrimp, oysters, crabs, and other delicacies. How long the stressed marshes can maintain that production is anybody's guess. In the meantime, Michel keeps at it. "My grandfather always told me, Don't live to be rich, live to be happy," he says. And so he does.

After a few hours Michel calls it a day, and we head through the braided delta, where navigation markers that once stood at the edge of the boat channel now peek out of the brush 20 feet (six meters) from shore. At every turn we flush mottled ducks, ibis, and great blue herons. Michel, who works as a hunting guide during duck season, cracks an enormous grin at the sight. "When the ducks come down in the winter," he says, "they'll cover the sun."

To folks like Peanut Michel, the birds, the fish, and the rich coastal culture are reason enough to save Louisiana's shore, whatever the cost. But there is another reason, one readily grasped by every American whose way of life is tethered not to a dock, but to a gas pump: These wetlands protect one of the most extensive petroleum infrastructures in the nation.
The state's first oil well was punched in south Louisiana in 1901, and the world's first offshore rig went into operation in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947. During the boom years in the early 1970s, fully half of the state's budget was derived from petroleum revenues. Though much of the production has moved into deeper waters, oil and gas wells remain a fixture of the coast, as ubiquitous as shrimp boats and brown pelicans.

The deep offshore wells now account for nearly a third of all domestic oil production, while Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port, a series of platforms anchored 18 miles (29 kilometers) offshore, unloads a nonstop line of supertankers that deliver up to 15 percent of the nation's foreign oil. Most of that black gold comes ashore via a maze of pipelines buried in the Louisiana muck. Numerous refineries, the nation's largest natural gas pipeline hub, even the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are all protected from hurricanes and storm surge by Louisiana's vanishing marsh.

You can smell the petrodollars burning at Port Fourchon, the offshore oil industry's sprawling home port on the central Louisiana coast. Brawny helicopters shuttle 6,000 workers to the rigs from here each week, while hundreds of supply boats deliver everything from toilet paper to drinking water to drilling lube. A thousand trucks a day keep the port humming around the clock, yet Louisiana 1, the two-lane highway that connects it to the world, seems to flood every other high tide. During storms the port becomes an island, which is why port officials like Davie Breaux are clamoring for the state to build a 17-mile-long (27-kilometer-long) elevated highway to the port. It's also why Breaux thinks spending 14 billion dollars to save the coast would be a bargain.

"We'll go to war and spend billions of dollars to protect oil and gas interests overseas,"
Breaux says as he drives his truck past platform anchors the size of two-story houses. "But here at home?" He shrugs. "Where else you gonna drill? Not California. Not Florida. Not in ANWR. In Louisiana. I'm third generation in the oil field. We're not afraid of the industry. We just want the infrastructure to handle it."

The oil industry has been good to Louisiana, providing low taxes and high-paying jobs. But such largesse hasn't come without a cost, largely exacted from coastal wetlands. The most startling impact has only recently come to light—the effect of oil and gas withdrawal on subsidence rates. For decades geologists believed that the petroleum deposits were too deep and the geology of the coast too complex for drilling to have any impact on the surface. But two years ago former petroleum geologist Bob Morton, now with the U.S. Geological Survey, noticed that the highest rates of wetland loss occurred during or just after the period of peak oil and gas production in the 1970s and early 1980s. After much study, Morton concluded that the removal of millions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, and tens of millions of barrels of saline formation water lying with the petroleum deposits caused a drop in subsurface pressure—a theory known as regional depressurization. That led nearby underground faults to slip and the land above them to slump.

"When you stick a straw in a soda and suck on it, everything goes down," Morton explains. "That's very simplified, but you get the idea." The phenomenon isn't new: It was first documented in Texas in 1926 and has been reported in other oil-producing areas such as the North Sea and Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Morton won't speculate on what percentage of wetland loss can be pinned on the oil industry. "What I can tell you is that much of the loss between Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Terrebonne was caused by induced subsidence from oil and gas withdrawal. The wetlands are still there, they're just underwater." The area Morton refers to, part of the Barataria-Terrebonne estuary, has one of the highest rates of wetland loss in the state.

The oil industry and its consultants dispute Morton's theory, but they've been unable to disprove it. The implication for restoration is profound. If production continues to taper off in coastal wetlands, Morton expects subsidence to return to its natural geologic rate, making restoration feasible in places. Currently, however, the high price of natural gas has oil companies swarming over the marshes looking for deep gas reservoirs. If such fields are tapped, Morton expects regional depressurization to continue. The upshot for the coast, he explains, is that the state will have to focus whatever restoration dollars it can muster on areas that can be saved, not waste them on places that are going to sink no matter what.

A few days after talking with Morton, I'm sitting on the levee in the French Quarter, enjoying the deep-fried powdery sweetness of a beignet from the Café du Monde. Joggers lumber by in the torpid heat, while tugs wrestle their barges up and down the big brown river. For all its enticing quirkiness, for all its licentious pleasures, for all its geologic challenges, New Orleans has been luckier than the wetlands that lined its pockets and stocked its renowned tables. The question is how long Lady Luck will shine. It brings back something Joe Suhayda, the LSU engineer, had said during our lunch by Lake Pontchartrain.

"When you look at the broadest perspective, short-term advantages can be gained by exploiting the environment. But in the long term you're going to pay for it. Just like you can spend three days drinking in New Orleans and it'll be fun. But sooner or later you're going to pay."
I finish my beignet and stroll down the levee, succumbing to the hazy, lazy feel of the city that care forgot, but that nature will not.