Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Update — the Stalinist Red State speaks out at Editor and Publisher:
“Their dissent equals treason.”
“Today’s press undermines our troops and supports our enemies.”
“The Patriot Act will put both of you (Al Neuharth and Greg Mitchell) on trial for treason and convict and execute both of you as traitors for running these stories in a time of war”
Swiss Blocks Accounts in Oil Co. Probe
3 December 2004, 4:26pm ET
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss justice authorities have blocked bank accounts containing $100 million in an investigation of an alleged bribery scandal tied to a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., the oil services company formerly headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
Geneva state investigator Daniel Dumartheray confirmed a report in the daily Tribune de Geneve that the freeze was imposed after France asked Switzerland to grant judicial assistance for its investigation in the case. He declined to identify the accountholders or the banks involved.
It was unclear whether the frozen money was part of the total $180 million allegedly paid by an international consortium to win contracts for a natural gas project in Nigeria between 1995 and 2002.
The French investigation, launched in October 2003, centers on allegations that the TSKJ consortium paid illegal commissions in connection with a $4 billion contract it won in 1995 to build and expand a Nigerian liquefied natural gas plant.
The four partners in the consortium were M.W. Kellogg Co., a subsidiary of Dresser Industries; Technip SA of France; ENI SpA of Italy; and Japan Gasoline Corp.
Halliburton acquired Dresser in 1998 _ three years after Cheney began his 1995-2000 tenure as Halliburton’s CEO _ and combined its Brown & Root subsidiary with M.W. Kellogg to form engineering and construction unit KBR.
The consortium got other contracts involving the Nigerian plant in 1999 and 2002.
Last month, Halliburton said an ongoing internal investigation by the Houston-based conglomerate had still not found any evidence that supports claims of bribery.
The U.S. Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Nigerian officials also are investigating.
In June, Halliburton fired two consultants including former KBR chairman A. Jack Stanley, for violating the company’s business code of conduct by receiving “improper personal benefits” related to TSKJ’s construction of the Nigerian plant.
Halliburton shares rose 13 cents to close at $38.74 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Fairly raw notes on the “oil for food” scandal…
Full text of a letter posted on Horsefeathers. In just a few paragraphs, it manages to call for torture, summary execution, internment, church burning, and genocide.
For some reason this solemn promise of random vengeance and gleeful murder eventually provoked a degree of outrage. However several other fundamentalist/fascist blogs re-posted the letter, and apparently continue to support it’s sentiments.
The author of the letter, Martin Kozloff, Professor of Education at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington, defended his call for genocide as a poetic hypothetical. He suggested that statements like “We will burn your mosques,” and “If we had enough ammunition and time, we would kill every last one of you” we’re just being taken the wrong way.
From Editor and Publisher readers’ comments regarding Joe Pitts, the reporter who suggested the lack-of-armor question that a Guardsman asked Rumsfeld:
Joe M. Richadson: “The duped soldier should be put at the very front of the action, no armor. The cooperating sergeant’s career should be over and maybe become MIA. Pitts and all his cronies should be executed as traitors. We are fighting a war, the debate is over, you’re either for us or against us, there is no middle ground. I say start executing the leftists in our country, soon.”
via atrios
Responding to post by Tim Worstall on October 08, 2004.
Characteristics of fundamentalist fascism:
This measure of fundamentalist insecurity turns out to be a helpful way to size up man’s man Doug Giles at TownHall. He firmly (ooh!) expresses his masculinity — without even the slightest hint of defensivenes — by picking on… Clay Aiken.
Yep. That’s how friggin’ hardkore Doug Giles is.
So watch your back, girlie men.
Responding to post at Friends of Saddam, Oct 11, 2004
The truth comes out — “mainstream” is really a code word for ass.
Alternate reality
Rick Caruso’s outdoor malls are a cleaned-up facsimile of city life.
By Tina Daunt, Times Staff Writer
December 1, 2004
Multimillionare developer Rick Caruso is walking past the shops on Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter, surveying the streetscape with all its architectural elegance and decay.
Little escapes the notice of the Los Angeles businessman: the ornately carved crown moldings, the wrought iron balconies, sizzling gas lanterns, cypress shutters, cracked sidewalks, leaning walls, bare wires. The place is beautiful but worn out. To Caruso, it looks like a dump.
“They certainly haven’t spent any money on maintenance,” he says. “I don’t see any reason to ever come back here again.”
Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan opposed Caruso’s effort to remove Parks as chief, but says he admires the developer’s business sense.
“His father is a wealthy man, so he came to it the easy way,” Riordan says. “But he never let that make him lazy.
“I think he’s ready to take over Los Angeles.”
The text of this story was taken down at the request of the LA Times (May 14, 2008). The timing of this request to remove the text is probably related to the recent opening of Caruso’s Americana mall in Glendale, which was lavishly and flatteringly covered by the LA Times.
The story which was taken down was an interesting portrait of Caruso as a born-wealthy Republican fundraiser with an avowed hatred for the disorder of living cities. It’s an interesting picture, especially given the rumors of his possible run for LA mayor. Sadly, the original link to the story on the Times website is now broken. However the full text of this article seems to be available for purchase for just $3.95.
Four bucks may seem like a lot just to read a short biographical article from 2004. But clearly the Tribune-owned LA Times knows how to run a profitable business, so rather than question their economic decisions, let us simply wish them the best.
The Robot Sings of Love. But the Robot has not soul. And having no soul, It cannot love. Small wonder the lady spurns Its suit.
Machine Project Betalevel