General Electric pays $23 million to settle Iraq bribery charges

(RawStory) – US industrial titan General Electric has agreed to pay over 23 million dollars to settle allegations that it bribed Iraqi officials, a US financial watchdog said on Tuesday.

GE had been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being part of “a 3.6 million dollar kickback scheme with Iraqi government agencies to win contracts to supply medical equipment and water purification equipment.”

Four subsidiaries of the Connecticut-based company were accused of bribing officials at the Iraqi ministries of health and oil, trading cash, computer equipment and medical supplies to win lucrative contracts.

Video: Media Took Government Cash During Trial of “Cuban Five”

(RealNews) – Ten years later, evidence that conviction of ‘Cuban 5’ was influenced by journalists on The State Dept payroll

Refuse to Pay Government Debt Incurred for Unlawful and Oppressive Purposes

(WashingtonsBlog) – There is an established legal principle that people should not have to repay their government’s debt to the extent that it is incurred to launch aggressive wars or to oppress the people.

Video: US Army Imprisons Iraq War Veteran Over Song – Dahr Jamail

Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army’s stop-loss policy.

Privatization Profiteering – Ralph Nader

Whenever Frank Anderson speaks the way he did at a recent public forum in Washington, D.C. about “essential state functions performed by businesses,” people better listen. Mr. Anderson is the president of the Middle East Policy Council, but previously he was the chief of the Near East and South Asia Division of the CIA.

MSM: Russia pledges to continue arms supplies to Iran

(Google) – Russia on Thursday said it would continue military cooperation with Iran amid widespread unease in the West over Moscow’s controversial contract to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran.

China Has Already Walked Away from Derivatives Contracts

You’ve probably heard that China has threatened to walk away from certain commodity derivatives contracts.
As Reuters reported in August:

Investigation Could Sink American Police Force

The plans of American Police Force to boss the $27 million dollar detention center in Hardin Montana as well as expand their presence across the country while training foreign troops inside the U.S. could be mothballed after Montana’s Attorney General launched an investigation and demanded the organization turn over all its records.

Iraqi Oil Minister Accused of Mother of All Sell-Outs

(Truthout) – To public fury, the country is handing over control of its oilfields to foreign companies.

Startling New Evidence That The ‘Swine Flu’ Pandemic Is Man-Made

(A. True Ott, PhD, ND) – Novartis Patent Detailed And Mass Murder Charged

“Incestuous” relationships between Blackwater and U.S. government

(RussiaToday) – Obama did extend the contract for Blackwater in Iraq because the infamous contractor and the government are closely tied, believes investigative journalist Wayne Madsen.

Video: Swine Flu Pandemic, 2009 – Anglo-American Genocide

The “Big One” is coming, experts say. The growing H1N1-H5N1 recombined flu pandemic implicates the Anglo-American Vaccine Pipeline, proves world leading consumer health protector, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, using documents published by implicated officials. Dr. Horowitz reports here on the leading Anglo-American network of genetic engineers manipulating, mutating, and distributing the pandemic flu viruses.

Senate passes bill to drain Iran gas pumps

(PressTV) – In an attempt to force Tehran to halt its enrichment program, the US Senate has voted to put pressure on companies selling gasoline to Iran.

Private Prisons Turn a Handsome Profit

While the nation’s economy flounders, business is booming for The GEO Group Inc., a private prison firm that is paid millions by the U.S. government to detain undocumented immigrants and other federal inmates.

MSM: All parents to sign ‘behaviour contracts’

(Telegraph) – All parents will be forced to sign “contracts” to ensure their children behave at school, the Government has announced.

MSM: Oil rush – Scramble for Iraq’s wealth

Critics said the war was all about the nation’s lucrative fuel industry. Are they now being proved right? Patrick Cockburn reports from Baghdad

MSM: Supermarket suppliers ‘helping destroy Amazon rainforest’

(Guardian) – Brazilian authorities investigating illegal deforestation have accused the suppliers of several UK supermarkets of selling meat linked to massive destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Iraqi Oil Minister Accused of Mother of All Sell-Outs

(Truthout) – Furious protests threaten to undermine the Iraqi government’s controversial plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to raise declining oil production and revenues.

Commentary: Prosecute sins of Bush-Cheney era – Jack Cafferty

(CNN) – The Bush presidency is thankfully over…but the damage he and Dick Cheney did continues to press on the nerve of the American people like an impacted wisdom tooth. And until the questions surrounding arguably the most arrogant and perhaps most corrupt administration in our history are addressed, the pain won’t go away.

The Secrets of the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve Act was legislated in 1913 to end recessions, panics and depression. Over that almost 100-year period they have been eminently no more successful then their predecessors.

Murtha’s Nephew Got Defense Contracts

Robert Murtha said he is not at liberty to discuss in detail what his company does, but for four years it has subsisted on defense contracts, according to records and interviews. He said Murtech’s 17 employees “provide necessary logistical support” to Pentagon testing programs that focus on detecting chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, “and that’s about as far as I feel comfortable going.”

21st Century Internment Camps: Disaster relief or civil rights disaster?

On January 22, 2009, the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (NECEA) [1] was submitted to Congress for consideration. It was introduced by Congressman Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, a man who, in 1989, became only the sixth federal judge in the history of America to be removed from office by the Senate for corruption and perjury.

BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions

Waxman: “It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history.”

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

The BBC’s Panorama programme has used US and Iraqi government sources to research how much some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.