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 . '/' . substr('9781250000088',-6,3) . '/' . '9781250000088' . '.jpg'; ?>)
By Walter Laqueur
Tom Chatfield
$18.45
$21
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Flickr / davemacvac
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British defense giant BAE has agreed to pay the UK and U.S. governments almost $800 million in penalties after it finally admitted guilt in the face of long-running corruption allegations. The deal allows the company to avoid being placed on an international arms trade blacklist.
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By Marcus Stern, ProPublica —
A transfer of billions of dollars in federal aid from public projects in Puerto Rico to one of the world’s largest liquor conglomerates over the next 30 years continues to move forward without any objection from Congress.
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AP / Farzana Wahidy
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Hamid Karzai is having issues in his second term as Afghanistan’s president. It seems that the Afghan parliament has nixed 17 of his 24 Cabinet nominees.
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AP / Mary Altaffer
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By Chris Hedges — The gravest threat we face is not from Islamic extremists, but the codification of draconian procedures that deny Americans basic civil liberties and due process.
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AP / Shakil Adil
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court dealt a blow to many in the country’s ruling elite Friday by reopening corruption cases against “thousands of politicians,” according to The New York Times, and calling for dozens of those officials to appear before the courts. Included on the list was President Asif Ali Zardari, but his position grants him immunity against prosecution.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
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Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi walks through Barack Obama’s banking sellout, beginning with the president’s transition team. According to Taibbi, Obama’s transformation from populist to Wall Street’s best friend started on day one.
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AP / Jens Meyer
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By Chris Hedges — The gravest danger we face as a nation is not from the far right, although it may well inherit power, but from a bankrupt liberal class that has lost the will to fight and the moral courage to stand up for what it espouses.
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cironline.org
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By Lance Williams, California Watch —
Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick (shown above with wife Lynda) has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s campaigns, and when he needed her help, he got quick results.
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More than 40 people were kidnapped and at least 30 killed Monday in the Philippines in what authorities consider to be a politically motivated massacre, according to the Los Angeles Times. The group of civilians, which included several journalists, was overcome ... (continued)
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Wall Street profits are an obscene affront to Scripture, as Robert Scheer details in an interview with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!”
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AP / Anja Niedringhaus
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Sounding a cautionary, and cautiously optimistic, note on the eve of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s second inauguration, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed to a crucial “window of opportunity” for Afghanistan as she called for Karzai and his administration to tackle the corruption issue within their government.
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knowledge.uneca.org
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File this one under Dubious Honors of the World: An organization with the fun name of Transparency International has created a list ranking nations according to “perceived levels of corruption in the public sector,” as the BBC put it, and Somalia appears to be the worst of the bunch.
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U.S. Marine Corps / Cpl. Daniel Martin Moman
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Karl W. Eikenberry, a former top-ranking general who once commanded allied forces in Afghanistan and now leads America’s diplomatic mission in Kabul, has reportedly urged President Obama to delay any escalation of the war until Hamid Karzai ... (continued)
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YouTube
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A Russian police major lost his job after recording two YouTube videos’ worth of complaints about low pay, long hours and being promoted for arresting an innocent man. In one of the clips, the major invites Vladimir Putin himself to buddy up and investigate the problem. (video after the jump)
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AP / David Guttenfelder
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By Chris Hedges — American military commanders measure progress by the swelling size of the Afghan army, although the force is said to be poorly trained, sympathetic to the Taliban and the scourge of local populations.
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dearcinema.com
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What’s wrong with a $60,000 wand that can detect explosives and truffles from up to a kilometer away? Nothing, if it works. The U.S. military, technicians, journalists and people with eyes have been trying to get Iraqi officials to see reason, but that doesn’t bother one Gen. Jabiri, who says ... (Continued)
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AP / Anja Niedringhaus
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In the aftermath of Afghanistan’s scuttled presidential runoff, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged President Hamid Karzai to go after the corruption within his ranks. Meanwhile, Karzai’s former challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, advised his supporters to contain their discontent and avoid violence.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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By Stanley Kutler — It is somewhat late in the day to lament the politicization of the judiciary, a condition that has always existed, but extravagant campaign contributions have now perilously altered the landscape.
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Wikimedia Commons / Tapand
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Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission has declared President Hamid Karzai the winner of a second five-year term after his rival Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the race. Abdullah said the runoff would be just as corrupt as the original election and withdrew in protest. (continued)
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AP / Musadeq Sadeq
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By Chris Hedges — The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban.
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The president’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, told CBS News that Abdullah Abdullah’s withdrawal from the Afghan runoff election was a “political decision” and that the White House would “deal with the government that is.”
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By Eugene Robinson — The opium poppy was introduced to Afghanistan more than 2,300 years ago by the armies of Alexander the Great. His forces were eventually driven out, like those of every would-be conqueror since. The poppy has proved more tenacious.
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White House / Pete Souza
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That Timothy Geithner must love the big banks he spends all day talking to. Back when he was in charge of things, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York forced AIG to pay off Wall Street tycoons for all those toxic bets, even though the mega-insurer was busy trying to negotiate a better deal.
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By far the best thing to come out of Britain’s expenses scandal is this video series of ducks lampooning the shenanigans of elected officials. It’s part of a campaign to bring an open primary to the U.K., but forget the politics and enjoy the poultry.
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irfwp.org
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Afghanistan may be nearing yet another political crisis as officials fear that President Hamid Karzai will not accept results of an investigation outlining massive fraud in the country’s presidential elections two months ago. The inquiry is expected to drop Karzai’s vote total to under 50 percent, requiring a runoff election.
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Marie Cocco — The votes of lawmakers are so routinely purchased by corporations that it takes a scandal of unusual proportions to generate news coverage.
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acus.org
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After facing allegations of a cover-up, Kai Eide, the most senior U.N. representative in Afghanistan, acknowledged that “widespread fraud” has tainted the country’s presidential election but denied that he tried to hide evidence of cheating.
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By Eugene Robinson — The House Democrats who took a majority away from a “culture of corruption” had better start taking the ethics allegations against Rep. Charlie Rangel seriously.
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infiniteunknown.com
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It’s unsurprising to say the least: A Freedom of Information Act request has discovered that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in daily two-way communication with a small group of Wall Street CEOs—at Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs—while lawmakers like Rep. Xavier Becerra are forced to leave messages for him.
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Wikimedia Commons / Agência Brasil
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Italy’s colorful prime minister is in a heap of legal trouble now that the country’s high court has stripped him of immunity. Despite facing charges of corruption, bribery, tax evasion and fraud, Silvio Berlusconi stayed in character, saying, “The trials against me are a farce. Viva Italia and Viva Berlusconi!”
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AP / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — One way to give people a good deal on their health care is the so-called public option. A better way is the kind of strong regulation that isn’t even being discussed.
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World Resources Institute / Jonathan Talbot
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The U.N. is pioneering a carbon market that would allow rich countries to pay poor countries not to cut down forests. It’s just the kind of feel-good program that could save the planet—or make loggers and organized criminals filthy rich.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Like a reluctant Sisyphus, the president is still pushing the public option up Capitol Hill. According to a report in the L.A. Times, Obama has been trying to sell moderate Democrats on the idea. That’s no easy task, as many have taken gobs of money from the private health industry and coincidentally oppose meaningful reform.
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U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Ken Denny
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A former U.N. diplomat has attacked the process and results of the recent Afghan elections, claiming that almost one in three votes cast for incumbent President Hamid Karzai was fraudulent and that the elections seriously weakened the democratic process in the eyes of the Afghan people. As a consequence, the Taliban is stronger, says Peter Galbraith, who was fired in a dispute over the voting.
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journalperu.com
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While serving time in a Peruvian clink, Ex-President Alberto Fujimori found time in his schedule to be convicted of corruption. The sentence handed down in his fourth and final trial on charges of illegal activity in office calls for extending his jail stay by six years.
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sv.wikipedia.org
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is being tried on charges of corruption that allegedly occurred while he was Jerusalem’s mayor and later a Cabinet member. Olmert maintains his innocence, claiming a three-year smear campaign forced him to resign as prime minister a year ago.
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AP / Susan Walsh
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Rep. Mike Ross has been one of the leading opponents of health care reform in Congress. Guess who coincidentally sold property to a pharmacy chain for hundreds of thousands more than it was worth? Ka-ching!
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finance.senate.gov
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Sen. Max Baucus bent over backward to please Republicans with his insurance-friendly vision of health care reform, which forces everyone to buy private insurance and has no public option, but the very Republicans he negotiated with now won’t have anything to do with the bill.
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telegraph.co.uk
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Everyone’s favorite world leader/womanizer is in the news again after a film director accused the Italian prime minister of censorship. Italian state television has refused to show a film trailer that accuses Silvio Berlusconi of creating a “frivolous media culture,” and many think the PM’s incredible influence over the media has something to do with it.
Posted on Sep 3, 2009
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By Amy Goodman — It looked like it was business as usual for President Barack Obama on the first day of his vacation, as he spent five hours golfing with a top executive from UBS, a bank that sheltered wealthy tax dodgers while hardworking U.S. taxpayers were bailing it out.
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AP / Musadeq Sadeq
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Corruption rumors and threats of violence preceded last week’s Afghan presidential election, so it’s not surprising that similar concerns are cropping up after the fact.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Chris Hedges talks about the illusion of health care reform, the war in Afghanistan and what he calls the “new racism” in the age of Obama.
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AP / Rahmat Gul
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This week’s presidential election in Afghanistan may not be the cleanest polling event, if the BBC’s findings about corruption and voting fraud are indicative of larger trends. The British news outlet reported Tuesday that bribery and bids to buy voting cards, combined with threats of violence from militant groups, could muck up the works come Thursday.
Posted on Aug 17, 2009
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AP / Ron Edmonds
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Internal e-mails released Tuesday show that Karl Rove and other senior Bush aides played an “earlier and more active role” in the 2006 U.S. attorney firing scandal than previously revealed. The messages detail a concerted, two-year effort by Rove and staff to dismiss attorneys for political reasons.
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How America Became a Third World Country: 2013-2023
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