Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terry Maloney who wrote (254725)	8/8/2003 8:55:25 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Bullish maximus... 'Dr Strangeloves' meet to plan new nuclear era guardian.co.uk

To: Terry Maloney who wrote (254725)	8/8/2003 11:18:56 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Why are so many Americans remaining silent? ____________________________________________ [this a great editorial from the newspaper in the town where I went to college along the coast of maine] letters@TimesRecord.Com 08/07/2003 By E. Barton Chapin III, Times Record Contributor A majority of the people in this country has been silent. Silent as their rights are subtly being eroded. Silent as humans living in this country and elsewhere are being arrested and put in jail by our government without proper representation. Silent as details of their personal lives are being recorded by the government as never before. Silent as our already flimsy laws to protect the environment are being eroded. Silent as our government systematically ignores the sentiments of the most of the rest of the world. Silent as dissenting opinions are being squelched by the government aided by a cowardly press. Why this silence? Are we too fat and happy? Are we too selfish to recognize what is happening to others? Are we afraid? The people of this country continually do not act in their own interest. Big business does not have the same problem. They know what they want and they have the tools to get it. We also have the tools to get what we want, but the tools remain unused. Why would the average American, for example, support a tax cut that benefits only the very rich? Why do so many of us buy and drive SUVs and minivans when we are breathing foul air during most of the year? What benefit to the average American is there in the Bush administration not signing the Kyoto Treaty? Why would Americans want to develop oil resources in the arctic? Perhaps if we got out of our gas-guzzler vehicles and into more sensible transportation, the resource could be left alone. It is sad that this country's direction is determined by the amount of money raised by political fundraisers. The upcoming presidential election is about to siphon $300 million and perhaps more out of special interests and most of all, big business interests. What chance does a single person have in the face of such a juggernaut? One chance we have is to not believe everything we hear or see or read. Most media purveyors in the world are big businesses. Murdock, Disney, Clear Channel Communications and other large media companies control a huge amount of the information we see and hear. It is naive to think that large media companies are not broadcasting and printing news that benefits their own interests. We must get other sources of information. The Internet has opened up many possibilities; unfortunately, many people have only limited access to the Internet and little time to make use of the resource. It is worrisome that present policy gradually is limiting the Internet. Libraries have been instructed to filter out pornographic sites. Who determines what is pornographic? A candidate's site might have a controversial word in it that would trigger that site to be labeled as pornographic and therefore filter it out. Do you want the government to decide what you can look at over the Internet? Do you want the government keeping a log of the books you take out of the library? They can do that already. Read the Patriot Act! A few weeks ago a man was arrested for carrying a sign that read "No War for Oil." He was told to go to the location for dissenters as he was too close to where the president was about to pass. People with non-dissenting views were allowed to stay at the same location. He refused and offered the argument that the Constitution allowed him to hold up a sign. He was taken to jail and subsequently to court. The charge was endangering the president. Time will tell whether he will be convicted. During the Academy Award ceremonies, pro-war demonstrators were bused in by Fox News and allowed to stand at the entrance while perhaps 100,000 or more anti-war demonstrators were subtly dispersed by thousands of police on motorcycles, on horseback and on foot. There was no violence as there was in the 1960s; the authorities have learned the harsh treatment of protesters brings negative publicity. The technique now is to fragment the demonstration and then influence the media to ignore the negative elements. Is this the kind of America the founding fathers had in mind? Our schools do not often teach students to think for themselves. Divergent opinions are often silenced. This winter, students questioning the war were routinely labeled unpatriotic and out of line, while students wishing to express support for the administration's actions were regularly applauded. If we as a nation are wedded to the likes of Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC and Rush Limbaugh without additional sources of information, there is little hope for a just and accommodating society. We must think independently and make decisions that reflect a broad understanding of the issues. Where are the modern-day Jeffersons, Adams and Franklins? We need them. E. Barton Chapin III lives in Arrowsic. timesrecord.com

To: Terry Maloney who wrote (254725)	10/1/2003 4:17:03 PM
From: Done, gone.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Friends of the family Companies wishing to make money in post-Saddam Iraq need look no further than an Iraqi uncle and nephew, and their hawkish friends in Washington, writes Brian Whitaker Wednesday September 24, 2003 Fancy your chances making a fast buck from the reconstruction of Iraq? Well, you'll need to invest in a bullet-proof vest for starters, and then make some well-connected business contacts on the ground. That's where the Iraqi International Law Group can help. Indeed, judging by the blurb on their website, they are the only firm worth consulting if you want to strike it rich in Iraq. "At IILG, our task is to provide foreign enterprise with the information and tools it needs to enter the emerging Iraq and to succeed," the website says. "Our clients number among the largest corporations and institutions on the planet. They have chosen IILG to provide them with real-time, on the ground intelligence they cannot get from inexperienced local firms or from overburdened coalition and local government officials." As for its mission, the firm explains: "The lawyers and professionals of IILG have dared to take the lead in bringing private sector investment and experience to the new Iraq. "Our task is to provide a 'last mile' connection between foreign capital, initiative, technology, experience and know-how and the organisations, enterprises, institutions and entrepreneurs in Iraq eager to rebuild this ancient and war-torn country, to catalyse and ignite the realisation of the new Iraq's huge economic potential." IILG says it was established in the wake of the "recent coalition victory" in Iraq and is proud to be the first international law firm based inside the country. "Many firms outside the country purport to counsel companies about doing business in Iraq," it continues. "The simple fact is: you cannot adequately advise about Iraq unless you are here day in and day out, working closely with officials at the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority], the newly constituted governing council and the few functioning civilian ministries [oil, labour and social welfare, etc]." As for business contacts inside Iraq, IILG boasts that it people act "as international counsellors to the Iraq-Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, with some 300,000 members country-wide, and to the Federation of Iraqi Industrialists, representing thousands of indigenous factory owners. Amid all this boasting about its lucrative connections, IILG is surprisingly modest about the family connections of its founder, Salem Chalabi. The website doesn't mention that he is a nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, who just happens to be the leader of the US-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC), a member of the governing council and current president of Iraq. Uncle Ahmed, a former banker in Jordan, fled the country in 1989 before he could be arrested in connection with a $200 million financial scandal. He was later tried in his absence and sentenced by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 charges of embezzlement, theft, misuse of depositor funds and currency speculation. But has never looked back. Despite being detested by the State Department and the CIA, Ahmed Chalabi found strong support in the Pentagon and US Congress, which generously provided funds in support of his opposition to Saddam Hussein through the INC. One of Ahmed Chalabi's staunchest supporters in Washington is Douglas Feith, a former lawyer who is currently third in the Pentagon pecking order. The pair worked closely together in the run-up to war, with Chalabi providing "intelligence" about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (much of which proved to be wrong) and boasting that he had a secret network inside Iraq which could be harnessed to help run the country once the US invaded. In the event, the network did not materialise and consequently, Feith and Chalabi share a large part of the blame for the present mess. Feith, meanwhile, has close links to the Israeli Likud party and the country's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. He was one of the authors of the famous Clean Break document, published in 1996, which proposed overthrowing Saddam Hussein as the first step towards reshaping Israel's "strategic environment" in the Middle East. Feith has also argued that Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land are lawful - contrary to the overwhelming majority of legal opinion around the world - and has latterly been promoting the idea of supplying Iraqi oil to Israel via a pipeline. Until recently, Ahmed Chalabi's nephew, Salem, was a peripheral figure in the political machinations over Iraq. The only information about him given on the IILG website is that he "formerly" worked for Clifford Chance, a firm of London solicitors. Oddly, Clifford Chance denied yesterday that he had left their firm. Rather they said he is still employed by them but is currently on sabbatical. Shortly before the war, Salem Chalabi took part in a conference on bringing democracy to Iraq and pushed for a post-war truth and reconciliation commission on the South African model. Later, during the invasion, the Pentagon sought to appoint him as adviser to the ministry of justice, working in Jay Garner's ill-fated project to take over the administration of Iraq. Salem's dynamic new law firm is currently operating from suites 1632-1634 of Baghdad's Palestine Hotel. This, according to the website, is a temporary arrangement "while we renovate and restore our permanent office building in the centrally situated Harthiyya district". Although none of the "largest corporations and institutions on the planet" have yet identified themselves as Salem Chalabi's clients, IILG appears to be part of a carefully-constructed network aimed at channelling business into Iraq. Interestingly, the firm's website is not registered in Salem Chalabi's name but in the name of Marc Zell, whose address is given as Suite 716, 1800 K Street, Washington. That is the address of the Washington office of Zell, Goldberg &Co, which claims to be "one of Israel's fastest-growing business-oriented law firms", and the related FANDZ International Law Group. The unusual name "FANDZ" was concocted from "F and Z", the Z being Marc Zell and the F beingDouglas Feith. The two men were law partners until 2001, when Feith took up his Pentagon post as undersecretary of defence for policy. According to Salem Chalabi, quoted in the National Journal on September 13, Mr Zell is IILG's "marketing consultant" and has been contacting US law firms in Washington and New York to ask if they have clients interested in doing business in Iraq. This ties in with a recent announcement by Zell, Goldberg & Co that it has set up a "task force" dealing with issues and opportunities relating to the "recently ended" war in Iraq. One of its activities, the announcement said, was to assist US companies "in their relations with the United States government in connection with Iraqi reconstruction projects as prime contractors and consultants". At the time, Zell Goldberg & Co made no mention of a connection with Salem Chalabi or IILG in Iraq, but said it was working in the US with the Federal Market Group. This organisation - whose website is adorned with a "God bless America" logo - specialises in helping companies to win US government contracts and claims a 90 per cent success rate. With friends like these, it will not be surprising to find Salem Chalabi moving out of the Palestine Hotel and into his newly restored headquarters in Harthiyya district sooner than expected. guardian.co.uk