BFEE is perfectly willing to kill one man... For OIL!

This isn't about the tragic death of Nick Berg, directly. But it is meant to encourage discussion about how the Bush Family Evil Empire has killed thousands in their illegal wars in Iraq and around the globe.

Any examination -- thorough or cursory -- of their history makes it easy to see the turds in the Bush Organized Crime Family wouldn’t blink twice if they need to silence a single critic of, or observer to, their illegality.

Remember the murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, back in 2002. What did Daniel Pearl do to deserve his fate? Well, he knew a lot about one thing -- Big Oil.


The Problem of Exporting Energy Resources
from Central Asia

Rustam Makhmudov
Senior Research Fellow
Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies
(Office of the President of Uzbekistan)

In terms of its reserves of hydrocarbon raw materials, Central Asia is one of the richest regions of the world. Thus, the proven reserves of oil in three Central Asian republics–Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan–amount to approximately 20 billion barrels, and the reserves of natural gas constitute 10 trillion cubic meters.

In the Soviet era, the bulk of the oil and natural gas produced in this region was shipped northward to Russia (through the gas pipeline network “Central Asia-Center” and the oil pipeline “Atyrau-Samara”). However, once the Central Asian states acquired independence, they immediately faced an acute question about the choice of new routes to transport their raw materials. The urgency of this question resulted from the fact that, above all, the states of the region wanted to reduce their shipping dependence on Russia. It is no secret that Russia, exploiting its monopolistic right to transport oil and natural gas from Central Asia, rather often used this fact to put political pressure on the states in this region and to impose its own conditions during price negotiations. As a result, it was extremely urgent that the newly independent states of Central Asia make an effort to gain direct access to prospective markets in Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Far East. Moreover, this would also provide a powerful stimulus for them to increase their production of hydrocarbons and help attract foreign investment to the region.

SNIP...

Moreover, the general situation in Pakistan as a whole is a cause of considerable concern. The presence of a large number of nationalistic and radical Islamist groups in the country poses a substantial threat to the stability of Pakistan. The seizure of the
city of Chilas by Islamists at the end of 2001, the murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearle, the bombing of the bus with French citizens–all these events provide ample grounds for concern. Given the foregoing, it is obvious that potential foreign sponsors who construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan face a very high level of political risk. Until the situation in the region is fully stabilized and the leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan can give firm guarantees for the security of investors, one should simply forget about the gas pipeline for an indeterminate period of time.

Just how great is Pakistan’s demand for natural gas from Turkmenistan? Apart from political difficulties, various economic problems can also have a significant influence on the rates at which the project is realized. These include the economic rationality of importing Turkmen gas to Pakistan, competition from the gas pipelines of Iran and Qatar, and so forth.

CONTINUED...

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:_FAOZZCC82MJ:www.spf-issykkul-forum.org/%255Cpublications%255C6-Makhmudov.pdf+%22Daniel+Pearle%22+consortium&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The case of Clifford Baxter: more questions raised over alleged suicide of Enron executive

By Patrick Martin
17 April 2002

In the first major media inquiry into the alleged suicide of former Enron Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter, CBS News broadcast a segment April 10 which raised significant questions about the police handling of Baxter’s death.

SNIP...

According to congressional investigators, Baxter was being sought, not as a target in his own right, but to provide evidence against other top executives. He was known within Enron for having opposed the off-the-books financial manipulations directed by CEO Jeffrey Skilling and Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow.

Police in the wealthy Houston suburb of Sugar Land declared the death a suicide without any investigation, and the Harris County coroner initially declined to conduct an autopsy, only reversing herself after media publicity and objections by Baxter’s family.

According to the story narrated by CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, the network obtained police, autopsy and lab reports and had them analyzed by two independent experts, coroner Cyril Wecht and former homicide detective Bill Wagner.

Wecht noted that the ammunition used was so-called “rat-shot,” rather than regular bullets, consisting of pellets that break apart and spread after discharge. “This kind of ammunition cannot be easily or readily traced back to the gun from which it was fired,” he told CBS.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/baxt-a17.shtml

BTW: The churn on GD is so fast that it's getting to the point that I have to reply to my own posts in order to keep a topic from sinking beneath the waves. Thanks for reading!

Official questioned accounting almost a year ago

HOUSTON (AP) -- A former Enron Corp. executive who committed suicide reportedly had challenged the company's accounting practices almost a year before it plunged into bankruptcy.

J. Clifford Baxter, who resigned as vice chairman in May, was named in an explosive warning that another Enron executive sent to company Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lay in August about questionable financial practices.

"Cliff Baxter complained mightily to (then-CEO Jeff) Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions with LJM," Sherron Watkins wrote. LJM is one of the partnerships apparently used to keep a half-billion dollars in losses off Enron's books. The same letter warned, "We will implode in a wave of accounting scandals" unless Enron changes its practices.

CONTINUED AT SOURCE BELOW...


The Sugar Land Sanction

"Like Chinatown, but set in Texas."

by Daniel Hopsicker
February 11--Houston Texas

An investigation in Houston Texas by the MadCowMorning News has uncovered significant discrepancies in the official version of the death of former Enron Vice Chairman Cliff Baxter. While Texas officials have been willing to share only a few facts about the case, much of what they have revealed, we have learned, is puzzling, misleading, or, amazingly, wrong.

Even more amazing is that —with billions at stake—the very real possibility that Baxter might have been murdered has been completely ignored in the press.

SNIP...

There was one thing the Sugar Land Police Department was absolutely sure of: Baxter was a "definite suicide," which they had already proclaimed by 10:00 that morning.

Sugar Land police spokesmen didn't know the caliber of the gun, were unsure of the make of the car, or if a bullet was found, or where the gun was. But--and thank god!--they DID know that there were "no apparent signs of foul play."

CONTINUED (Page may take a while to download):

http://www.apfn.org/enron/baxter.htm

someone said that 322 is Skull and Bones, I just happened to come across it.

A most apt illustration for the BFEE's Octopus. I'm sorry to say I don't know the story behind it, please tell :)

GOOGLEing -- The 322 has to do with Demosthenes' passing. Here's what Alexandra Robbins wrote in the Atlantic:

George W., Knight of Eulogia

EXCERPT...

THE story of Skull and Bones begins in December of 1832. Upset (according to one account) by changes in the Phi Beta Kappa election process, a Yale senior named William Russell and a group of classmates decided to form the Eulogian Club as an American chapter of a German student organization. The club paid obeisance to Eulogia, the goddess of eloquence, who took her place in the pantheon upon the death of the orator Demosthenes, in 322 B.C., and who is said to have returned in a kind of Second Coming on the occasion of the society's inception. The Yale society fastened a picture of its symbol -- a skull and crossbones -- to the door of the chapel where it met. Today the number 322, recalling the date of Demosthenes' death, appears on society stationery. The number has such mystical overtones that in 1967 a graduate student with no ties to Skull and Bones donated $322,000 to the society.

(The number 322 has also been a particular favorite of conspiracy-minded hunters for evidence of Skull and Bones's global connections. It was the combination to Averell Harriman's briefcase when he carried classified dispatches between London and Moscow during World War II. Antony C. Sutton claims that 322 doubles as a reminder of the society's mother organization in Germany; the American group, founded in 1832, is the second chapter -- thus 32-2.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/05/robbins.htm

misunderestimate the power and the glory of oil here.

... is that they will slaughter Americans as quickly as they slaughter Iraqis or Afghans.

I think that when the pro-war crowd finally understands this fact we will see some real change in this country. Some, of course, will be hard to convince.

The turds of the BFEE consider the world their oyster. To NAZIs like them, all the people on it are squatters and poachers. And you know what happens to poachers before the king's court.

U.S. to reveal alleged Nazi sympathizers


Washington — The government is opening thousands of records showing that the FBI and other agencies ignored murky pasts of alleged Nazi collaborators living in the United States.

Government historian Norman Goda, in a collaborative book based on records being released Thursday at the National Archives, said the FBI “did not dig deep for the truth” on these people because it wanted them on the U.S. side in the Cold War.

Among them was Viorel Trifa, an alleged student leader in Romania's fascist Iron Guard movement who became bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States and once led prayers in Congress.

In the thousands of files released, the CIA also is shown seeking the Immigration and Naturalization Service's help in easing travel in and out of America for Mykola Lebed, a Ukrainian accused of aiding German storm troopers in brutal suppression of local resistance during the Second World War.

~snip~
more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.wnazi0513/...


and Just Me has this


The following are a series of issue-related articles regarding the Scaife-funded Free Congress Foundation. Throughout the articles there are many names of people and groups given. For a visual representation of how the Weyrich organizations, including the Free Congress Foundation, are linked to other groups and individuals, visit: PROSOCS-ORG CHART .

Topics listed:

#1: Free Congress Foundation and LASZLO PASZTOR (Nazi Collaborator)
#2: Free Congress Foundation and SCAIFE FUNDING
#3: Free Congress Foundation and PINOCHET
#4: Free Congress Foundation and CONTRAS & DEATH SQUADS
#5: Free Congress Foundation and RENAMO TERRORISTS
#6: Free Congress Foundation and RACISM
#7: Free Congress Foundation and RACISM - COORS FAMILY FUNDING
#8: Free Congress Foundation and the LIBERTY AWARD
#9: Free Congress Foundation and JERRY FALWELL
#10: Free Congress Foundation and EFFORTS TO SUBVERT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
#11: Free Congress Foundation and SCAPEGOATING OF GAYS/LESBIANS
#12: CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION AND HOMESCHOOLING (by Mary McCarthy)

http://www.politicalamazon.com/fcf.html

emad aisat sana has this

From The Guardian:

U.S. Said to Embrace Alleged Nazi Allies


By SIOBHAN McDONOUGH

Associated Press Writer
<snip>
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI and other U.S. agencies ignored the murky pasts of alleged Nazi collaborators living in the United States because the government saw them as useful during the Cold War, according to newly released records.

Government historian Norman J.W. Goda, in a collaborative book based on records released Thursday at the National Archives, said the FBI ``did not dig deep for the truth'' on such people because it wanted them on America's side in the Cold War with the communist-controlled Soviet Union.

The government saw Nazi sympathizers as useful in countering any pro-communist leanings in immigrant communities in the United States, and the CIA and other agencies sometimes thwarted immigration authorities from beginning deportation proceedings, the records show.

In the thousands of files released, the CIA is also shown seeking the Immigration and Naturalization Service's help in easing travel in and out of America for Mykola Lebed, a Ukrainian accused of aiding German storm troopers in brutal suppression of local resistance during World War II.
<snip>
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4086387,00.html

CIA, Nazis & the Republican Party

A Fresh Look

by Carla Binion

Nazis and the Republican Party

Investigative reporter Christopher Simpson says in BLOWBACK that after World War II, Nazi émigrés were given CIA subsidies to build a far-right-wing power base in the U.S. These Nazis assumed prominent positions in the Republican Party's "ethnic outreach committees." Simpson documents the fact that these Nazis did not come to America as individuals but as part of organized groups with fascist political agendas.

The Nazi agenda did not die along with Adolf Hitler. It moved toAmerica (or a part of it did) and joined the far right of the Republican Party. Simpson shows how the State Department and the CIA put high-ranking Nazis on the intelligence payroll "for their expertise in propaganda and psychological warfare," among other purposes...

Journalist Russ Bellant (OLD NAZIS, THE NEW RIGHT, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY) shows that Laszlo Pasztor, a convicted Nazi war collaborator, built the Republican émigré network. Pasztor, who served as adviser to Republican Paul Weyrich, belonged to the Hungarian Arrow Cross, a group that helped liquidate Hungary's Jews. Pasztor was founding chairman of the Republican Heritage Groups Council. Two months before the November 1988 presidential election, a small newspaper, Washington Jewish Week, disclosed that a coalition for the Bush campaign included a number of outspoken Nazis and anti-Semites. The article prompted six leaders of Bush's coalition to resign.

According to Russ Bellant, Nazi collaborators involved in the Republican Party included:

1.Radi Slavoff, GOP Heritage Council's executive director, and head of "Bulgarians for Bush." Slavoff was a member of a Bulgarian fascist group, and he put together an event in Washington honoring Holocaust denier, Austin App.

CONTINUED (great names for reference)...

http://www.alexconstantine.50megs.com/cia_nazis_and.html

Ronald Reagan served as the front man for an illegal domestic intelligence operation known as the Crusade for Freedom. Hatched by Allen Dulles (who invested Bush family money in the Third Reich and later became director of the CIA), this operation was overseen by Richard Nixon. William Casey (Nixon’s director of the SEC and manager of the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980) oversaw the State Department machinations that brought these Nazi and fascist elements into the United States. Casey later became director of the CIA. The Republican ethnic branch (which grew out of this Nazi émigré community) later became a repository for Islamofascist elements associated with Al Taqwa and Al Qaeda. “As a young movie actor in the early 1950’s, Reagan was employed as the public spokesperson for an OPC front named the ‘Crusade for Freedom.’ Reagan may not have known it, but 99 percent for the Crusade’s funds came from clandestine accounts, which were then laundered through the Crusade to various organizations such as Radio Liberty, which employed Dulles’s Fascists. Bill Casey, who later became CIA director under Ronald Reagan, also worked in Germany after World War II on Dulles’ Nazi ‘freedom fighters’ program. When he returned to New York, Casey headed up another OPC front, the International Rescue Committee, which sponsored the immigration of these Fascists to the United States. Casey’s committee replaced the International Red Cross as the sponsor for Dulles’s recruits. Confidential interviews, former members, OPC; former members, British foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

Among the most shocking elements of the Crusade for Freedom was the recruitment of an entire SS intelligence unit, later resettled in the U.S. This unit—the VorKommando Moskau--was deeply involved with the SS Einsatzgruppen. Schwarzenegger’s father was also heavily involved with the coordination of the Einsatzgruppen.

While serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee, the elder George Bush shepherded the Nazi émigré community into position as a permanent branch of the Republican Party. “It was Bush who fulfilled Nixon’s promise to make the ‘ethnic emigres’ a permanent part of Republican politics. In 1972, Nixon’s State Department spokesman confirmed to his Australian counterpart that the ethnic groups were very useful to get out the vote in several key states. Bush’s tenure as head of the Republican National Committee exactly coincided with Laszlo Pasztor’s 1972 drive to transform the Heritage Groups Council into the party’s official ethnic arm. The groups Pasztor chose as Bush’s campaign allies were the émigré Fascists whom Dulles had brought to the United States.”(

Among the Nazis brought into the country by Dulles & co. was Otto von Bolschwing. Von Bolschwing’s protégé Helene Van Damm selected all of the personnel from which Ronald Reagan made his appointments when he was Governor of California. She performed the same function when he became President. Van Damm and Schwarzenegger are not strangers. “Arnold’s business partner and mentor, Jim Lorimer, whether by accident or design, was in Vienna, and, cautious for a moment, Arnold left Brigitte  behind at the Hilton while he and Jim had Sunday brunch with the American ambassador to Austria, Helene Van Damm.”

http://www.spitfirelist.com/f421.html

Much obliged, slaveplanet! Here's some great stuff from Robert Parry's ConsortiumNews.com:

CIA's Worst-Kept Secret

By Martin A. Lee
May 16, 2001

SNIP...

That's how a 1952 Central Intelligence Agency assessment described Nazi ideologue Emil Augsburg, an officer at the infamous Wannsee Institute, the SS think tank involved in planning the Final Solution. Augsburg's SS unit performed "special duties," a euphemism for exterminating Jews and other "undesirables" during the Second World War.

SNIP...

Recently released CIA records indicate that Augsburg was among a rogue's gallery of Nazi war criminals recruited by U.S. intelligence shortly after Germany surrendered to the Allies.

SNIP...

The CIA reports show that U.S. officials knew they were subsidizing numerous Third Reich veterans who had committed horrible crimes against humanity, but these atrocities were overlooked as the anti-Communist crusade acquired its own momentum. For Nazis who would otherwise have been charged with war crimes, signing on with American intelligence enabled them to avoid a prison term.

"The real winners of the Cold War were Nazi war criminals, many of whom were able to escape justice because the East and West became so rapidly focused after the war on challenging each other," says Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations and America's chief Nazi hunter.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/051601a.html

"We know that there were several warnings that were given prior to the events of September 11th. People were calling in to the CIA and to the FBI, and they were giving information that was critical. There was adequate warning. But instead of requesting that Congress investigate what went wrong and why, we had President Bush place a phone call to Majority Leader Senator Tom Daschle, asking him not to investigate.

"My question is, what do they have to hide? The fact is that the father sits on the board of the Carlyle (ph) Group, which is one of the highest-level defense contractors in the country. And so we get this presidency of questionable legitimacy requesting a nearly unprecedented amount of money to go into a defense budget for defense spending that will directly benefit his father!"

-- (Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D), Georgia, 12 April 2002)

Archive at Global Research in Canada:

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG204A.html

That was covered in the . . . well, it wasn’t covered at all in the U.S. press.


McKinney contacted me at the BBC. She asked if I’d heard of Barrick. Indeed, I had. Top human rights investigators had evidence that a mine that Barrick bought in 1999 had, in clearing their Tanzanian properties three years earlier, bulldozed mine shafts . . . burying about 50 miners alive.


I certainly knew Barrick: They’d sued the Guardian for daring to run a story I’d written about the allegations of the killings. Barrick never sued an American paper for daring to run the story, because no American paper dared.


The primary source for my story, an internationally famous lawyer named Tundu Lissu, was charged by the Tanzanian police with sedition, and arrested, for calling for an investigation. McKinney has been trying to save his life with an international campaign aimed at Barrick.


That was another of her mistakes.


http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16172

I'm proud of the bill to stop the importation of coltan into the United States, the source of so much pain and suffering in eastern Congo because it's a key ingredient in our computers, palm pilots, Sony Playstations, and Oneboxes that people are willing to kill to get their hands on it.

I'm proud that we extended the benefits for our veterans who are suffering from Agent Orange because those benefits were about to expire and I authored the legislation that was passed into law to help them. But I'm most proud of my work to hold this Administration accountable to the American people.

And after I've asked the tough questions, here's what we now know:

That President Bush was warned that terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft and crash them into buildings in the US;
That in the weeks prior to September 11, 24-hour fighter cover was placed over the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas;
That in the weeks prior to September 11, Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft and instead flew Government aircraft;
That the US received numerous high level warnings from a wide range of foreign intelligence services warning of impending hijackings and terrorist attacks;
That a number of FBI agents were pleading with their superiors to conduct intensive investigations into the suspicious activities of various men in US flight schools;
That in the days prior to September 11, highly suspicious stock market activity in aviation and insurance stocks took place indicating that certain well-placed people had advance knowledge of the attacks.

http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney0918.html

The DRC's rich resources provide easy ways to finance the conflict and the rebels had long been successful in setting up financial administrative bodies in their controlled areas, especially with regards to trading with Rwanda and Uganda, while Kabila had also been able to finance his side of the conflict.

There are many resources and minerals etc being exploited, including (but not limited to):

Water
Diamonds
Coltan
Cassiterite
Tin
Copper
Timber
A number of major human rights groups have charged that
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/71424/1/
some multinational corporations from rich nations have been profiting from the war and have developed "elite networks" of key political, military, and business elites to plunder the Congo's natural resources.

Yet, a number of companies and western governments pressured a United Nations panel to omit details of shady business dealings in a report out in October 2003. As reported by the British newspaper, The Independent:

Last October <2002>, the panel accused 85 companies of breaching OECD standards through their business activities. Rape, murder, torture and other human rights abuses followed the scramble to exploit Congo's wealth after war exploded in 1998.

For example the trade in coltan, a rare mineral used in computers and mobile phones, had social effects "akin to slavery", the panel said. But no Western government had investigated the companies alleged to have links with such abuses. Some, including ones from the UK, US, Belgium and Germany, had lobbied to have their companies' names cleared from the "list of shame".

"Many governments overtly or covertly exerted pressure on the panel and the Security Council to exonerate their companies," Ms Feeney said. Some companies gave legitimate explanations for their business in Congo, or pulled out. But lawyers for others challenge the panel's findings, often capitalising on errors in earlier reports as proof of unreliability.

In the report this week, the cases against 48 companies are "resolved" and requiring "no further action".

-- Declan Walsh, UN cuts details of Western profiteers from Congo report, The Independent, October 27, 2003

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=457619

When the UN finally released the report
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2003/1027

at the end of October 2003, they listed approximately 125 companies and individuals listed that had been named in a previous report by the panel for having contributed directly or indirectly to the conflict in the DRC.

Other companies, the report noted, may not have been directly linked to conflict, but had more indirect ties to the main protagonists. Such companies benefitted from the chaotic environment in the DRC. For example, they would obtain concessions or contracts from the DRC on terms that were more favorable than they might receive in countries where there was peace and stability. (See for example, page 6, par 12 of the report.)

The above-mentioned coltan has been the source of much controversy lately:

Hidden cost of mobile phones, computers, stereos and VCRs?
The ore, Columbite-tantalite, or coltan for short, isn't perhaps as well known as some of the other resources and minerals. However, the demand for the highly prized tantalum that comes from the refined coltan has enormous impacts, as highlighted by a recent U.N. Security Council report where an expert panel was established on the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

Given the substantial increase in the price of coltan between late 1999 and late 2000, a period during which the world supply was decreasing while the demand was increasing, a kilo of coltan of average grade was estimated at $200. According to the estimates of professionals, the Rwandan army through Rwanda Metals was exporting at least 100 tons per month. The Panel estimates that the Rwandan army could have made $20 million per month, simply by selling the coltan that, on average, intermediaries buy from the small dealers at about $10 per kg. According to experts and dealers, at the highest estimates of all related costs (purchase and transport of the minerals), RPA must have made at least $250 million over a period of 18 months. This is substantial enough to finance the war. Here lies the vicious circle of the war. Coltan has permitted the Rwandan army to sustain its presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The army has provided protection and security to the individuals and companies extracting the mineral. These have made money which is shared with the army, which in turn continues to provide the enabling environment to continue the exploitation.

-- Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations Security Council, April 12, 2001.
The report also mentions Ugandan and Burundian rebels being involved in looting and smuggling of coltan, using illegal monopolies, forced labor, prisoners and even murder. According to the Industry Standard, "hese accusations have not been taken lightly; several members of the U.N. panel that prepared the report have since received death threats. Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi have issued protests to the United Nations over the report, claiming it to be inaccurate and unfounded."

A follow up report in October 2003 also noted that:

In 1999 and 2000 a sharp increase in the world prices of tantalum occurred, leading to a large increase in coltan production in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Part of that new production involved rebel groups and unscrupulous business people forcing farmers and their families to leave their land, or chasing people off land where coltan was found and forcing them to work in artisanal mines. As a result, the widespread destruction of agriculture and devastating social effects occurred, which in a number of instances where akin to slavery.

-- Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, United Nations Security Council, S/2003/1027, October 28, 2003
What drives the demand for this mineral? The answer is: most of modern computer-based technology:

more
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa/DRC.asp#HiddencostofmobilephonescomputersstereosandVCRs

Immaculate, 32, in Drodro hospital. She was attacked by Lendu forces and now waits for treatment from locals who have no medical supplies. Bandages were recovered from the ground after looting and are being rewashed to be reused.


Cellphones fuel Congo conflict
Cellphones may have revolutionized the way we communicate, but in Central Africa their biggest legacy is war.




Nearly 3 million people have died in Congo in a four-year war over coltan, a heat-resistant mineral ore widely used in cellphones, laptops and playstations. Eighty percent of the world's coltan reserves are in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The mountainous jungle area where the coltan is mined is the battleground of what has been grimly dubbed "Africa's first World War," pitting Congolese forces against those of six neighbouring countries and numerous armed factions.
The victims are mostly civilians. Starvation and disease have killed hundreds of thousands and the fighting has displaced 2 million people from their homes.
Often dismissed as an ethnic war, the conflict is really over natural resources sought by foreign corporations -- diamonds, tin, copper, gold, but mostly coltan.
At stake for the multitude of heavily armed militias and governments is a cut of the high-tech boom of the 1990s, which sent the price of coltan skyrocketing to peak at US$400 per kilo. Coltan -- short for colombo-tantalite -- is refined into tantalum, a "magic powder" essential to many electronic devices.
The war started in 1998 when Congolese rebel forces, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, seized eastern Congo and moved into strategic mining areas, attacking villages along the way.
The Rwandan Army was soon making an estimated US$20 million a month from coltan mining.
A May 2002 report from the United Nations Security Council said the huge coltan profits are fueling the war and allowing "a large number" of government officials, rebels and foreigners "to amass as much wealth as possible."
The fighting rages on despite peace treaties signed in the summer of 2002. The peace process was started after the assassination of Congolese President Laurent Kabila in January 2001 and pressure from South Africa. But not all sides signed on. While foreign troops have officially withdrawn, internal factions remain at war.

http://www.seeingisbelieving.ca/cell/kinshasa/

Oil is King.

From Jane's Foreign Report:

World oil crisis looms

21 April 2004 - The oil industry has been gripped by scandal since Royal Dutch/Shell twice this year downgraded its proven oil reserves by 20 per cent, or nearly 4bn barrels. Shell may not be alone.

Other companies and even governments have hyped up the estimates of how much oil they have, which is a vital factor in measuring their economic health. If exaggeration proves to be widespread, it would have an immense impact on the Middle East, whose economic weight is almost totally dependent on oil and natural gas.

Geologists and analysts have been saying for some time that estimates of global oil reserves may be dangerously exaggerated. If you take oil prices currently at around US$37 a barrel, the highest for nearly 15 years, US petrol prices at record levels and you add terrorist attacks and diminishing supplies, you have a recipe for inflation and economic slowdown. The question of reserves becomes a much more important factor.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that internal documents and other data indicated that Shell had over estimated its proven oil reserves in Oman by as much as 40 per cent. But that seems to have been done because everyone hoped that the latest drilling techniques would reach more deposits than in the past and merit upgrading the estimates of reserves.

CONTINUED...

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042104_janes_oil_shortage.html

buy this one...they're been busy working overtime capping productive(not dry ones) wells here in the US for the last 30+ years.
reports like that one you posted seems more like a mechanism for control more than pointing out a shortage to me.

here's a good book that outlines what the oil propagendists are really up to... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671799320/usnewscom-20/104-0644510-5285527

PRIZE
by Daniel Yergin

... Please know that I hope you are correct, SP. Thanks also for the heads-up on Harvard boy's book. I'll crack the spine sooner rather than later.

From what I understand, the big cheeses see China adding to global demand big time in the coming decade, perhaps 2 million barrels per day's worth. Even with Saudi Arabia pulling out all the stops, the stuff is running out. And when it comes to "their" oil, Bush and the BFEE have itchy trigger fingers.

China's oil thirst changes global flows

By Felicia Loo
Reuters, 05.12.04, 5:14 AM ET

SINGAPORE, May 12 (Reuters) - China's mighty thirst for oil, and healthy demand growth in Asia, is pushing up the price of spot barrels and changing traditional flows of crude and refined products across the globe, analysts say.

SNIP...

"No matter how you cut it, China will be a major influence on global oil flows even if its oil demand grows by half of what forecasters are predicting," said Troner.

China overtook Japan last year to become the second biggest consumer after the United States, soaking up about 5.49 million barrels a day (bpd) of the world market of 78.66 million bpd.

This year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects China's consumption to jump almost 14 percent, or 750,000 bpd, to 6.24 million bpd. Some predict growth could be as high as one million bpd in 2004 and for the next two to three years.

CONTINUED...

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/newswire/2004/05/12/rtr1368346.html

Remember Operation NORTHWOODS:

PENTAGON PROPOSED PRETEXTS
FOR CUBA INVASION IN 1962

In his new exposé of the National Security Agency entitled Body of Secrets, author James Bamford highlights  a set of proposals on Cuba by the Joint Chiefs of Staff codenamed OPERATION NORTHWOODS.  This document, titled “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba” was provided by the JCS to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962, as the key component of Northwoods.  Written in response to a request from the Chief of the Cuba Project, Col. Edward Lansdale, the Top Secret memorandum describes U.S. plans to covertly engineer various pretexts that would justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba.  These proposals - part of a secret anti-Castro program known as Operation Mongoose - included staging the assassinations of Cubans living in the United States, developing a fake “Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,” including “sink a boatload of Cuban refugees (real or simulated),” faking a Cuban airforce attack on a civilian jetliner, and concocting a “Remember the Maine” incident by blowing up a U.S. ship in Cuban waters and then blaming the incident on Cuban sabotage.  Bamford himself writes that Operation Northwoods “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.”

SOURCE and LINK to OP NORTHWOOD document PDF:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/

Bad Moon on the rise

Overcoming his church's bizarre reputation and his own criminal record, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon has cemented ties with the Bush administration -- and gained government funding for his closest disciples.

By John Gorenfeld

Sept. 24, 2003  |  Last December, at his three-day God and World Peace event, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon drew a notable slate of political figures, from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and, perhaps most notably, James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who offered some respectful opening remarks to Moon's Unification Church faithful. Moon followed, and called for all religions to come together in support of the Bush plan for faith-based initiatives.

Coming from Moon that made perfect sense, because he already believes all religions will come together -- under him. "The separation between religion and politics," he has observed on many occasions, "is what Satan likes most." His gospel: Jesus failed because he never attained worldly power. Moon will succeed, he says, by purifying our sex-corrupted culture, and that includes cleaning up gays ("dung-eating dogs," as he calls them) and American women ("a line of prostitutes"). Jews had better repent, too. (Moon claims that the Holocaust was payback for the crucifixion of Christ: "Through the principle of indemnity, Hitler killed 6 million Jews.") His solution is a world theocracy that will enforce proper sexual habits in order to bring about heaven on earth.

What sort of proper sexual habits? According to Moon, in order to restore blood purity, very specific practices are prescribed. Sex before marriage is out of the question, and when sexual consummation does happen, it must adhere to very specific instructions. First, a photograph of Moon must be nearby, so that everything occurs under the reverend's watchful eye. After two nights of woman-on-top sex, the couple reverse positions, whereupon the man, according to Moon, restores dominion over Eve, via the proper missionary position. Then, according to the instructions attributed to the U.C.'s American Blessed Family Department, "after the act of love, both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief" --referring to the church-supplied washcloth -- which must "be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered or mixed up."

And, it now appears, under the new priorities of the budding Faith-Based Initiative, the federal government has given Moon disciples its imprimatur -- and funds.

CONTINUED (for those wiling to go through Salon's hoops) ...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/09/24/moon/index_np.html