[Daily Caller] Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies openly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, according to her attorney.
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced Sunday that Lerner will testify at Wednesday's hearing, but Lerner's attorney Bill Taylor said that Lerner will seek to continue invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and will also seek a one-week delay of her testimony.
Oversight members are reportedly open to granting Lerner a one-week delay if she petitions for one in person at Wednesday's hearing. The delay would allow Lerner's lawyers to continue negotiating for immunity, which they have been doing since at least September. If she's done nothing wrong, what is there to fear ? If she's doing nothing wrong, why does she need immunity?
Still not clear why she fears for her life. Is this some kind of Democratic omerta?
Does anybody ANYBODY believe Obama would actually LIE to you and to me and to everybody in the room, and possibly Lie to everybody in the entire Nation? Huh?
After all HE is the Messiah.
As to poor Lois, do you feel any pity for her? Even a "smidgun"?
Gas the rat or feed it its own entrails. Or maybe an injection of something that will blast her heartbeat right out her nose. Take her down the hall and do it on the back steps so we don't ruin the rug. Oh, and be sure to vote for Hillary so we keep the same people down at the IRS in place. We are going to continue to need that kind of people for a better and stronger GOVERNMENT. Ready to Rule from Day One.
#6
Los Lerner's husband Michel Miles' law firm has strong regime connections. Link.
And what might his specific assignments and particular areas of expertise be you ask ?
Michael Miles provides insurance companies with creative solutions and tax planning strategies for their corporate, insurance, and reinsurance transactions, including cross-border transactions and corporate restructurings. Michael also advises on consolidated return issues, the general taxation of corporations and shareholders, the taxation of regulated investment companies, and the application of withholding rules (including FATCA). He has substantial experience in advising clients on the tax consequences of proposed mergers and other reorganizations, reinsurance transactions, stock and asset acquisitions, and dispositions, distributions, and redemptions. Link
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2014 8:27 Comments ||
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#8
If she's afraid to testify, doesn't this mean the IRS should be getting an anal probe of epic proportions? By the FBI and other Federal agencies? Death threats from members of a Federal agency should be unacceptable.
How about this, defund the IRS pension fund until the end of the investigation:p
#9
So she is in fear of her life from the Mormons or the Amish or the Tea Party? She may end up like Jimmy Hoffa if she talks. It is the Chicago Boyz she needs to fear.
#18
Her comments were an attempt to get this all behind closed doors where the press won't feel the same pressure for not covering it.
I beleave the FBI and others sent the IRS wish-lists of whom they wanted to harrass and thus don't want to be tangled in yet another snooping type deal.
[HOSTED.AP.ORG] A central Ohio principal says she suspended a 10-year-old boy from school for three days for pretending his finger was a gun and pointing it at another student's head.
The boy's father says it's the adults who are acting childish for suspending the boy from Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in Columbus last week.
The fifth-grader said he was "just playing around." But district front man Jeff Warner told The Columbus Dispatch that Devonshire Principal Patricia Price has warned students about pretend gun play numerous times this year, and everyone should know the rules by now. He said warnings have been included in three newsletters sent home with kids.
Warner says the boy put his finger to the side of the other student's head and pretended to shoot "kind of execution style."
"The kids were told, `If you don't stop doing this type of stuff, there would be consequences,'" Warner said. "It's just been escalating."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Ohio is so permissive, so Sharia-lite. Their Devon cousins would have insisted upon a public amputation.
#2
Would the boy have done better if he had used his middle finger for pointing? The left side of the country (ideologically speaking) is so brainwashed by the anti-gunner's agenda to disarm the country. They will only be happy when they have everyone subjugated under the boot of tyranny.
#9
"Alternative Elementary School"? In my experience, the kid is there because he's been a problem in the non-Alternative school.
I suspect that the teacher sees this as a expression of the culture he's being raised in (outside the school) and doesn't see any way to head it off, except this.
Big mistake. At 10, this boy is still somewhat malleable, and a session with him and the friend who got "shot" with a trained psychologist familiar with this kind of dysfunctional culture would do a lot more good.
I'm as sensitive to the demonizing of gun- culture as anyone, but I'm also aware that gang-bangers are made, not born, and that the mistake the school made was not doing something about what may be a desensitizing incident, but what they did.
#11
Cheeze and Rice, back in the 50's early 60's we played all kinds of stuff at recess from cowboys to cops and robbers, army, and Civil War. The educational system is warped.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/05/2014 14:56 Comments ||
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Medea Benjamin was manhandled in Cairo today. Help, she Tweeted. They Broke My Arm. Egypt Police. They didnt know who Medea Benjamin was or they didnt care. Democracy Now reports:
U.S. peace activist Medea Benjamin was detained Monday at Cairos airport by Egyptian police without explanation. She says she was questioned, held overnight in an airport prison cell and then violently handcuffed by Egyptian officials, who dislocated her shoulder and broke her arm. She was then put on a plane and deported to Turkey, where she is now seeking medical treatment. We speak to her by telephone from the airport medical facility. Benjamin had intended to meet up with international delegates before traveling to Gaza for a womens conference.
...Too many people frittered away the Design Margin. It was spent and squandered by those both who felt it was immoral to be so rich and while simultaneously convinced these riches were inexhaustible. It happened because too many worked tirelessly to take America down a peg or two, out of spite; and from a sense of unassailable superiority. People who thought it was OK to blow the stash; open the borders; downsize the armed forces. Guys who believed you could churn out paper dollars and issue empty threats ad infinitum. Because like Paul Krugman once said: we can invent an alien invasion from outer space if we need to.
And now they find their arms being broken by Cairo police. When and how did Medea Benjamin become a nobody? Maybe it happened this way: when those who dreamed of a weaker, helpless America forgot that in so doing they would also be bringing down themselves.
#1
They didnt know who Medea Benjamin was or they didnt care. Why should they care? I think they did know who she is and that's why she was given the Bum's Rush. She found out she's not a Special Person.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/05/2014 14:59 Comments ||
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#2
Another reason to like Egypt
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2014 15:25 Comments ||
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#3
Medea ought to consider what she votes for when she votes.
#7
Let's face it, Medea was born with three strikes given that she was named after a woman who killed her children and fed them to her husband.....unless of course her birth name was Moira and she chose the name Medea....
Posted by: One Eyed Dark Lord of the Mongol Horde5358 ||
03/05/2014 16:16 Comments ||
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#8
Whatever happened to you cant do this to me. Im an American?
When the world's sole superpower goes mad and turns itself into a finlandized joke there are consequences. For individuals like Mrs Benjamin and for nations like Ukraine.
#9
She was in Cairo to meet up with an international delegation before traveling to Gaza for a womens conference. A women's conference in Gaza. That's about as welcome as Al Sharpton at a KKK conference. Probably a good thing for her she didn't make it to Gaza. They don't care who she is, either. Come to think of it, neither do I.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/05/2014 16:18 Comments ||
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#10
The lady's real name is Susan Benjamin not Moira.
#13
It is time for the Obama administration to embrace reality and do what Putin did long ago and the rest of Russias reluctant neighbors are doing: Make two lists, one of your friends and the other of your enemies; support the first and torment the second. It might be distasteful to some, but it is the real world.
There are lists - they just don't cover anything outside national borders (except for you-know-where.)
#17
Ah, Medea - not every place is Berkeley. In fact, not even Berkeley is Berkeley. Which is why you and yours always have your protests in downtown San Francisco where the police are far more patient.
[An Nahar] Libya rehabilitated Tuesday the family of the late king Idriss, who was tossed by Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... , himself toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising after four decades in power.
A decree issued by the government stipulates that the heirs of Idriss al-Senussi will regain their Libyan nationality and recover property confiscated by Qadaffy.
Idriss, who became king in 1951 after Libya was the first North African country to gain independence, was tossed in 1969. Following the coup, the royal family was held under house arrest, its members stripped of their nationality and their property and assets seized. The family was later expelled from the country.
Idriss sought refuge in Cairo, where he lived until his death in 1983 at the age of 94.
The rest of the family obtained political exile status in Britannia, including Idriss' grand nephew and heir-apparent, Muhammad al-Senussi.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
In all honesty, a royal government, with a parliamentary system under it is likely to work better in tribal situations than would be a pure democracy. Jordan, for example.
[An Nahar] A Tunisian court ordered Tuesday the release from prison of Ridha Grira, the last defense minister under ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who is suffering from cancer.
But deputy prosecutor Soufiane Sliti said Grira was still being investigated for corruption.
Grira had been in jail since September 2011 for corruption cases linked to the Ben Ali regime which was tossed in a popular uprising that year.
The Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights group had called for his release in August due to his poor health.
It said at the time that the Mornaguia prison, where Grira was held, does not have the facilities to provide the necessary treatment for his cancer.
Relatives and former officials in the government of Ben Ali, who fled with his wife to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , were tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! after the uprising but some managed to be freed on health grounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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OTOH FREEREPUBLIC > [Town Hall] THE WEST NEEDS RUSSIA'S HELP MORE THAN IT REALIZES.
And IMO vice-versa, vee the Soon-to-be-Nuclear Euro + Global Jihad.
Again, Islamist-pressured = Neo-Ottoman Turkey, Rising Iran AKA OWG Co-Superpower [Nuclear?] Iran, + Count Dooku's Hard Boyz in the Caucasus.
The JudeoChristian US-West has an opportunity in the Black Sea region includ Crimea to fortify, entrench, + preemptively contain the [Nuke-WMD?] Euro-Jihad + other before it fully begins.
As ex-KGB, IMO Vlad is aware of the above - THE MAHA-RUSHIAN QUESTION DU JOUR IS, DOES THE BAMMER???
* FYI FREEREPUBLIC > [Guardian.UK] TATAR SUNNI MUSLIMS POSE A THREAT TO RUSSIA'S OCCUPATION OF UKRAINE.
#3
During the Cold War, US Navy (6th fleet) entry was almost routine. Hell, I was even on one of those tin cans (80's), with our Army SIGINT huts strapped to the deck as an experiment one time. About a week. Best damn on-duty chow I had while "deployed", its where I got introduced to "Mid Rats", learned which color bug juice the navy allegedly had saltpeter in (both colors!), and ate a sandwich named after a part of an equine animal. Also learned which side was leeward.
And from reading the comments, Zerohedge is populated by morons.
[Al Ahram] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... said Tuesday that Ukraine's ousted president Viktor Yanukovych remained its only legitimate leader despite fleeing to Russia but conceded he lacked any political future. Outlived his usefulness, did he...
"I think he has no political future -- I told him that. As for playing a role in his fate, we did that purely from humanitarian reasons," Putin said of Yanukovych, who took refuge in southern Russia after crossing from Ukraine in a way that has not been made public.
Putin said Russia viewed Yanukovych as legally Ukraine's president.
"The legitimate president, purely legally, is undoubtedly Yanukovych," Putin said.
Crucially, Putin said this meant Russian intervention in Ukraine would be justified because Moscow had received a request for protection of its citizens from Yanukovych.
"We have a direct request from the acting and legitimate -- as I have already said -- president Viktor Yanukovych about using armed forces to protect the lives, health and freedom of Ukrainian citizens," Putin said.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , Vitaly Churkin showed the letter dated March 1 at Security Council talks on Monday.
Putin spoke scornfully of his erstwhile ally Yanukovych, who drew his supporters from the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine and in November agreed to scrap a deal with the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... under pressure from Russia.
"Do you sympathise with him?" one journalist asked.
"No, I have completely different feelings," Putin said.
Yanukovych will wake up next to a horse's head tomorrow morning...
But he said he believed Yanukovych had risked being killed by protesters when he fled Kiev late last month.
"Death is the easiest (way) to get rid of a legitimate president. That would have happened. I think they would have just killed him," Putin said.
Yanukovych said he fled Ukraine after he and his family received death threats and his car was shot at as he drove out of Kiev.
Putin said that Yanukovych had essentially handed over his powers on February 21 by signing agreements with the opposition leaders last month, counter-signed by international mediators. He "practically gave up all his powers anyway. And I think he -- and I told him this -- had no chances of being re-elected," Putin said.
He said he understood peaceful protesters against Yanukovych: "Of course people wanted changes."
Asked about a rumour reported in Ukrainian media on Tuesday that Yanukovych had died from a heart attack, Putin denied it.
"After he came to Russia, I saw him once, that was literally two days ago. He was alive and healthy. He will catch a cold yet -- at the funerals of those who spread that information," Putin added with characteristic black humour.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"Death is the easiest (way) to get rid of a legitimate president. That would have happened."
"He was alive and healthy. He will catch a cold yet -- at the funerals of those who spread that information,"
Much talk about Yanukovych and death from Putin.
What are the odds that some hapless Russian horse will soon wake up next to Yanukovych's head?
#2
Last night on The Factor, when asked about events in the Ukraine, the odious Dennis Kucinich began a rant about USAID involvement with the demonstrations and the removal of Yanukovych. His brief tirade mirrored the writings and recent assessment of Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. Sensing Kucinich was headed 'high and to the right' with a seemingly desperate separate agenda, O'Reilly quickly wrapped the segment and promised to have Kucinich back on The Factor again soon.
A mysteriously failed project in Benghazi; illusive Chechnyan bombers in Boston; a failed project in Syria; a former US Intelligence Community SYSAD contractor now residing comfortably abroad; the removal of an uncooperative, anti-western Ukraine president. Can anyone identify a few common denominators, or does my tinfoil hat once again need adjustment ?
#4
"We have a direct request from the acting and legitimate -- as I have already said -- president Viktor Yanukovych about using armed forces to protect the lives, health and freedom of Ukrainian citizens," Putin said.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin showed the letter dated March 1 at Security Council talks on Monday.
Welcome to Russia, Viktor. Now you will please sign this letter.
[An Nahar] President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... denied on Tuesday that Russian troops were operating in the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea, while sending Moscow's forces to Ukraine would be an entirely legitimate move but also a last resort.
U.S. President Barack Obama Because I won... , however, said Putin's rationale for his incursion into Crimea was not "fooling anybody" and said Russian "meddling" would push states away from Moscow.
But Obama also noted what he said were "reports" that Putin was pausing for a moment to reflect on his options over the crisis.
Obama said the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and allies like Canada and Japan all believed Russia violated international law.
"President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers, maybe a different set of interpretations. But I do not think that is fooling anybody," Obama said, at a school in Washington DC.
Obama, accused by political foes of showing weak leadership in the crisis, disputed the idea that Putin's dispatch of thousands of troops into Crimea, part of Ukraine, was a sign of strength by the Russian leader.
He said instead that the move was a "reflection that countries near Russia have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind of meddling."
"If anything, it will push many countries further away from Russia."
Putin broke over a week of silence after the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovych to denounce the changeover of power in Kiev as an "anti-constitutional take-over" and armed seizure of power.
Rather than choosing an address to the nation for the landmark comments as many expected, Putin instead held a briefing for Kremlin news hounds at his out-of-town residence of Novo-Ogaryovo that was broadcast live on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
He denied that Russian forces were operating in Crimea, saying that only "local forces of self-defense" were surrounding Ukrainian military bases in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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See also BIGNEWSNETWORK > US LAWMAKERS READY TO ACT ON UKRAINE [Russia sanctions], BUT WANT EUROPE TO STEP UP.
Otherwise, stop complaining about the US being the "world's policeman" - good or bad, directly or indirectly, etc. the US is such because the intrenational community wants the US to be so.
* SAME > [USNWR] CHINA + RUSSIA BRING BACK GREAT POWER POLITICS.
Sniff, sniff, is there no love for Rising Iran aka OWG Co-Superpower Iran???
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: UKRAINE CRISIS "MORE DANGEROUS THAN CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS".
Iff the Bammer + Admin are adhering to a dedicated anti-US OWG Globalist agenda, IT WILL BE THE USA WHOM "BLINKS" NOT PUTIN, OR CHINA, OR IRAN, OR ... ...@ETAL.
FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS = CHINA SAYS ITS MILITARY WILL RESPOND TO PROVOCATIONS - YAHOO NEWS, espec agz China's sovereignty | US + OTHER [IMO read, Japan] SHOULD TAKE CHINA'S SOVERIEGNTY CLAIMS SERIOUSLY, SAYS VICE-FOREIGN MINSTER [Fu Ying] ON EVE OF DEFENCE-BUDGET STATEMENT.
* WORLD NEWS > IN CRIMEA, AN ECHO OF THE SUDENTENLAND.
RELATED TOPIX > [Right Wing News] PUTIN ADOPTS A RUSSIAN "LEBENSTRAUM" ["living space"] POLICY.
versus
* INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > UKRAINE CRISIS: SEVASTOPAL SHIPS [Ukrainian Navy] "DEFENDED WID MATTRESSES".
Wehell, iff matresses won't stop Putin's Boyz I don't know what will!
lol.
* WORLD NEWS > [Ria Novosti] CRIMEA TO GET ITS OWN DEFENSE MINISTRY.
* SAME > THREE SOUTH UKRAINIAN CITIES WANT TO JOIN WID CRIMEA - RUSSIAN LAWMAKER.
* SAME > UKRAINE CRISIS: UKRAINIAN NAVY WANTS A "UNIFIED UKRAINE".
* TOPIX > WHY OBAMA SHOULDN'T FALL FOR PUTIN'S UKRAINIAN FOLLY.
Only winner between the US-vs-Russia = Obama-vs-Putin over Ukraine-Crimea will be CHINA.
#7
ION WORLD NEWS > [Fox News Channel] TYMOSHENKO SAYS WEST [US-NATO/EU] MUST FORCE RUSSIA TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM CRIMEA.
* REUTERS > KERRY SAYS RUSSIA LOOKING FOR PRETEXT TO INVADE MORE OF UKRAINE.
I'm not convinced, as IMO the last thing Russia = Putin + russia's fragile economy needs right now is to be unilaterally or solely responsible $$$-wise for an ex-SSR.
versus
* GULF NEWS > UKRAINE CRISIS HAS TO DO WITH [rival = competing] ECONOMIC INTERESTS.
[An Nahar] European Parliament President Martin Schulz on Tuesday criticized EU member states for a loss of public trust in EU institutions.
Schulz, who is running for the top job in the European Commission, said the European Council was slowing down political integration within the EU.
"If the Council is the most powerful body and the popularity of the EU is falling, does that not concern you?," he said of the powerful body representing the EU's 28 member governments.
Schulz said the Council's final say in the appointment of the president of the European Commission, the EU's executive, amounted to a "lack of democracy" that had eroded public confidence in the EU as a whole.
Under current rules the Parliament, the only EU institution directly elected by voters, can put forward candidates for the role of Commission president, but the final decision rests with national leaders in the European Council.
Granting Parliament the final say in the choice of Commission president would "strengthen EU democracy", Schulz said during an often heated public debate in the European Parliament building.
Schulz made his comments in the lead-up to the EU elections in May, which have turned into a referendum between pro- and anti-European groupings with bad boy parties expected to do better than in the past.
Schulz also denounced what he called "the blame-game" by member governments, saying national leaders were quick to take credit for successes in the EU, but blamed it for failures.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who will stand down in November, denied the Council lacked democratic legitimacy but said there was a general "crisis of confidence" in Europe.
He called for a vigorous debate on the EU's future, rather than the kind of "institutional engineering" advocated by those wanting to grant more powers to Parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Yet more nonsense from a commy.
The elected heads of the states are DEMOCRATICALLY elected, as there is a DEMOS (i.e. people) in that country.
There is not an Europe wide DEMOS. Many of the peoples of Europe are vastly different.
[An Nahar] Turkey's president on Tuesday ordered a probe into wiretapping and the government's ability to fight corruption amid a widening graft scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... 's administration.
President Abdullah Gul ordered the top auditing body, the State Auditing Board, to investigate rules surrounding the wiretapping of communications to "assess their compliance with the law".
The move comes after audio tapes emerged last week of Erdogan and his son allegedly discussing how to hide large sums of money on December 17 -- the same day as the launch of a graft probe that ensnared the premier's inner circle.
Analysts say the tapes -- which Erdogan as dismissed as fake -- have the potential to hurt him at local polls on March 30, a key test for the prime minister ahead of a presidential election in August and parliamentary elections next year.
Erdogan has dismissed the recordings as a "vile montage" by his rivals and accused both prosecutors and police of spying for another country.
The investigation will assess "the efficiency of the current regulations regarding the fight against corruption and examining the weaknesses of auditing structures and processes in this fight," according to a statement on the president's website.
It will also examine regulations governing Turkey's construction sector, which has been at the heart of the largest corruption scandal in the country's history.
Erdogan has blamed supporters of Moslem preacher Fethullah Gulen for launching a major corruption investigation into allegations of bribery in construction projects, gold smuggling and illicit dealings with Iran.
In retaliation the Turkish strongman has sacked hundreds of police and prosecutors believed to be linked to the Gulen movement.
The Turkish government also said last week thousands of influential people, including the premier, cabinet ministers and journalists, had been wiretapped by Gulen supporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Echoing O.J. Simpson's attempt to "find the real killers?"
Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leader Massoud Barzani hosted Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.
Davutoglu spoke to Barzani at the end of talks in the Suleymaymaniyah province after attending the American University of Iraq-organized 'Sulaymaniyah Forum' in Kurdish. Davutoglu told the press: "Any agreement between Iraqi central government and the KRG [on KRG's attempted oil deal with Turkey] would benefit everyone. We do not desire any agreement that would bypass the Iraqi central government."
Relations between Baghdad and the KRG have been strained since early 2013, when Iraq's parliament passed a budget for the Kurdish region despite Kurdish officials' objections.
Tension mounted over Irbil's right to export oil independently of the central government as the Kurdish side attempted to sign an oil export deal with Turkey.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
A German home-schooling family facing deportation following the Supreme Courts refusal to hear their appeal is being allowed to stay in the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security has granted the family indefinite deferred status, their attorney confirmed to Fox News.
Via Ace: A National Review piece includes some comments from one Karen Hinton, who took a $10,000 a month retainer and a five percent "success fee" in the event the case ever paid off.
An American lawyer used "corrupt means" to secure a multi-billion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron Corp in Ecuador, a U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday, a major setback for Ecuadorean villagers hoping to collect on the award.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York said he found "clear and convincing evidence" that attorney Steven Donziger's legal team used bribery, fraud and extortion in pursuit of an $18 billion judgment against the oil company issued in 2011. It's just the way things are done south of the border. You have to respect their culture. Now pay up, gringo...
#1
a boatload of enviros and leftist ngo's were backing the plaintiff team
unfortunately, there has not been anyone yet to come forward to indicate that these sleazoids knew about the bribes, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/05/2014 6:37 Comments ||
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#2
There is plenty of data. You can google it. They knew.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/05/2014 9:43 Comments ||
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#3
When the case was first brought forward Chevron supposedly was willing to pay a 'convenience fee' of over a billion dollars to make it go away even though they felt - and still feel - the case was without merit. Their offer was rejected outright so Chevron lawyered up to the max. They got too greedy and that forced Chevron to fight. I'm not optimistic that Chevron will ultimately prevail though, because with assets all over the globe, eventually some 3rd party nation - Argentina and Venezuela come to mind - will decide to sieze the in-country Chevron assets on behalf of Ecuador (and of course keep a 'handling fee' for doing so.)
[Al Jazeera] A US judge has upheld Chevron's allegations that an Ecuadorian court decision ordering it to pay $9.5bn for oil pollution in the Amazon jungle was fraudulently obtained.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan concluded on Tuesday that plaintiffs in the 2011 case and their lawyers committed a host of corrupt actions, including ghost-writing the original judgment, submitting fraudulent evidence and bribery.
Witnesses in the case included a former Ecuadorian judge who admitted to accepting bribes.
In barring enforcement of the original fine in US courts, the decision handed Chevron a big win in its long fight with Ecuador.
"Justice is not served by inflicting injustice. The ends do not justify the means," Kaplan wrote.
He said it was a sad outcome to have to rule that the Ecuadorian court judgment "was obtained by corrupt means", because it will perhaps never be known whether there was a case to be made against Chevron, the San Ramon, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,-based oil company.
Kaplan concluded that Chevron "might bear some responsibility" for pollution in Ecuador.
"It is distressing that the course of justice was perverted," he wrote in a nearly 500-page ruling that followed a trial last year.
The verdict was a setback to the indigenous people from Ecuador's oil-rich Lago Agrio in the eastern region of Oriente, who have long sought compensation for pollution by US oil company Texaco between the 1970s and early 1990s.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/05/2014 00:00 ||
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Makes sense, Chevron didn't even own the company then.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/05/2014 5:42 Comments ||
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#2
Chevron did acquire potential liability when it bought Texaco - that isn't the issue. To me the real point is that Texaco should not have been liable either, because they remediated the sites to the better than the standards expected at the time, and turned the properties over to the Ecuadorian national oil company - which had been their partner and then became the sole owner and operator. Based on how I KNOW other national oil companies maintain and operate when compared with majors like Chevron, I am virtually certain that most of the alleged damage occurred after Texaco left. And based on what has come out in these court hearings and how I KNOW sleazebag lawyers operate, I am virtually certain than most of the alleged damage is not even real. It's all about deep pockets and corrupt governments.
Edward Snowden is making an appearance at next week's South By Southwest Interactive event. The festival announced today that the international man of mystery will join former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and American Civil Liberties Union's chief technologist Christopher Soghoian on a panel about technology and the culture of surveillance.
Since Snowden is smart enough to avoid Austin, Texas during the seemingly never-ending event, he will appear via video. An ACLU press release notes this is his "first conversation in front of an audience since his disclosures began making global headlines last year." The panel is scheduled for Monday, March 10.
#1
Maybe after that they can scrape together a mob and go out and beat up any Ukranians they see. Then they can go find one of those Venezuelans that's hoarding toilet paper.
#2
He'd be perfectly safe from arrest in San Antonio, or Los Angeles, or Chicago. The LAST thing the regime wants is a publicized Edward Snowden legal defense and the release of potentially damning inconvenient truth. The threat of assassination, yet another matter.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
[An Nahar] President 
[An Nahar] European Parliament President Martin Schulz on Tuesday criticized EU member states for a loss of public trust in EU institutions.
Edward Snowden is making an appearance at next week's South By Southwest Interactive event. The festival announced today that the international man of mystery will join former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and American Civil Liberties Union's chief technologist Christopher Soghoian on a panel about technology and the culture of surveillance.
