On
this date in 2009 the poppies for making heroin were standing tall in Afghanistan once again.
Prior to that the Taliban had eradicated the poppy / heroin trade, which must have angered traffickers in the CIA.
AIG was trafficking in many things in Afghanistan and Iraq, including bail-out money.
An official of the
Bush II administration was sent to prison for Iraq money laundering.
Republicans were messing with elections and being criminally prosecuted for it.
War was in every Pentagon official's blood then, so look over the posts at
Dredd Blog on this date in 2009, then compare them to
what is in every Pentagon official's blood today on the first day of spring:
“Russia has increased its [defence] budget but let me remind you that you have an ally [U.S.eh?] that has a [war] budget ten times larger than the next ten nations in the world,” said Mr Biden.
(
Economist, cf.
The Blaze). He ended with "
may God protect our troops" (
Whitehouse Press Office).
They are still singing that
God on our Side thingy.
Here are those
Dredd Blog posts:
First Day of Spring 2009
Spring means different things to different people.
The winter of poppy cultivation had come to Afghanistan shortly before 2001.
On October 7, 2001, military strikes against Afghanistan were launched by the United States and an international coalition that included Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and France.
The poppy cultivation had been almost completely removed from Afghan culture by the time that the invasion took place.
It did not take long for Afghan poppy cultivation to spring up again. By 2002 the spring of poppy cultivation was returning strong.
By 2006 Afghanistan was leading the world in poppy cultivation once again:
U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.
(
Washington Post). An increase in
heroin addiction and
drug wars was the inevitable result.
AIG Liquidity Corporation & Family
We have been doing a series on the AIG family of corporations. The
Banque, the
international, and
the one in the spotlight.
According to
SEC filings, AIG Liquidity Corp. was created in 1992 as a Delaware corporation. It was a subsidiary to AIG.
That SEC filing says all capital stock is initially owned by AIG which was shown as a money making business ("AIG and its consolidated subsidiaries"), an average of 3.53 pct. "ratio of earnings to fixed charges" from 1998 to June 30, 2003.
A later
SEC Filing in 2004 repeats those figures, and sets forth
PricewaterhouseCooper as experts on that issue. Other online sources show the
optimism continued through 2006.
After Greenberg was ousted from the company in 2007 and J.J. Cassano was put in the lead of the financial products division, things began to change.
Cassano, among other things, discontinued the hedging that Greenberg had kept in place. That means that a major shield of protection was removed.
Perhaps Cassano really did believe his own smoke that the shield was not needed:
"It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of [rhyme] or reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions," he told investors.
(
Out on the False Front,
Daily News link). But it was not too very long before reality burned through the smoke and Moody was downgrading AIG:
New York, September 15, 2008 -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the senior unsecured debt rating of American Internation Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) to A2 from Aa3 in light of the continuing deterioration in the US housing market and the consequent impact on the group's liquidity and capital position due to its related investment and derivitive exposures. The company's long-term and Prime-1 short-term ratings were placed on review for possible further downgrade.
(
Moody's Notice, pdf). This shows the danger inherent in business propaganda. Those who practice it are
eventually caught in its web and they can't get out.
Election Officials' Lack of Integrity
In Clay County, Kentucky, the election officials were evidently corrupted by
the toxins within power.
A federal grand jury has indicted them for election crimes. A spokesman for the Kentucky state government stated:
“The allegations as detailed in the U.S. Attorney’s indictments, if found to be true, represent a great injustice to the citizens of Clay County. Our office appreciates the U.S. Attorney taking these allegations seriously and working with us to rid our state of election fraud. Our office cooperated with authorities on this matter, including referring voting irregularities from the 2006 primary elections to law enforcement officials. We hope that the judicial system will work expeditiously on this matter so that the dark cloud of suspicion hanging over these elections will not affect future elections.”
(
Les Fugate, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State).
Here is
a link to the indictment (PDF) which describes the parties and the charges against them.
AIG Iraq
From
previous articles it is clear that AIG is a company that is not afraid to try new things.
Look at
AIG Global Marine @ Iraq for example. Or other AIG endeavors in Iraq.
AIG has advertised that it has extensive capacity to handle many Iraq reconstruction and other financial endeavours.
It is interesting that this information is found on
Iraq Coalition Org website:
AIG member companies have the capacity and expertise to handle the insurance needs of contractors and companies doing business in Iraq. There will be a variety of unique coverages needed in this effort. Listed below are some of the core coverages AIG member companies can provide. A more extensive list of products and services can be provided as individually required.
(
Iraq Coalition, PDF). It must have worried AIG to know that that area of Iraqi "business endeavours" landed some Bush II officials in prison for a long time:
Bob Stein, the comptroller of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, received the longest sentence of any Bush official (as of yet) - nine years in prison for money laundering, conspiracy and bribery ... some of the money ... was cash in suitcases ...
(
BBC,
Wikipedia). And they must have been especially concerned to find that their bonus payments of $165 million, which drove the USA crazy, is dwarfed by Iraq reconstruction fraud that would shame even Bernie Madoff:
In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme.
(
British Independent). Yes, to be associated with large scale business endeavors in such a fraud rich environment, especially since they have banks in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Switzerland, was surely something they avoided like the plague.
That may not be the case, however, if the investigation of AIG's charges to taxpayers for
federal contractors in Iraq, including
KBR of Haliburton / Cheney "fame".
The Freedom Is Back In FOIA
President Obama and AG Holder have made it clear that the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is once again for real.
In a memorandum sent to all administrative agencies AG Holder said:
A Presumption of Openness
As President Obama instructed in his January 21 FOIA Memorandum, "The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails." This presumption has two important implications.
First, an agency should not withhold information simply because it may do so legally. I strongly encourage agencies to make discretionary disclosures of information. An agency should not withhold records merely because it can demonstrate, as a technical matter, that the records fall within the scope of a FOIA exemption.
Second, whenever an agency determines that it cannot make full disclosure of a requested record, it must consider whether it can make partial disclosure. Agencies should always be mindful that the FOIA requires them to take reasonable steps to segregate and release nonexempt information. Even if some parts of a record must be withheld, other parts either may not be covered by a statutory exemption, or may be covered only in a technical sense unrelated to the actual impact of disclosure.
(
DOJ Website,
Holder Memo, PDF). Ladies and gentlemen, start your inquiries.
It is almost sickening to look back at lies and whoredom done in the name of the good people of America, especially when those sick foreign policies are still being implemented by the follow-up
Obama Administration.
