Home To Those Given To Resistance and Rebellion In The Name Of This Nation And What Is Right. There Are No Wars Without War Crimes And War Criminals.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Iceland, Sweden, Ireland, India, Pakistan, Waziristan, War Criminals, Financial Criminals, WikiLeaks And A Right Wing Wingnut.
Iceland, Sweden, Ireland, India, Pakistan, Waziristan, War Criminals, Financial Criminals, WikiLeaks And A Right Wing Wingnut.
(The United States Ought To Adopt The Icelandic Model For Dealing With Financial Criminals: Investigate, Indict, Arrest, Prosecute and Imprison {Ed.})
Special Prosecutor Arrests and Questions Four Men
Iceland’s Special Prosecutor Ólafur Thór Hauksson, who is investigating the events leading up to the banking collapse in 2008, had four men arrested yesterday while raiding the headquarters of the insurance company VÍS.
The four men are former majority owner of Exista Lýdur Gudmundsson, former CEO of Exista Erlendur Hjaltason, former managing director of Exista’s own trade Bjarni Brynjólfsson and former CEO of VÍS Gudmundur Örn Gudmundsson, visir.isreports.
The case is based on suspicion of legal violations of the laws on the operation of insurance companies and breach of trust in relation to dubious loans.
After questioning was finished yesterday evening, the special prosecutor did not see a reason to request custody over the men who were arrested. However, questioning will continue with some of them today.
SFO and Special Prosecutor Probe Kaupthing in Lux
Police conducted raids at three companies and two homes in Luxembourg yesterday at the request of the British Serious Fraud Office and the Office of the Special Prosecutor in Iceland as part of their investigation of the defunct Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
Almost 70 people participated in the actions which will continue today. Seven employees of the Special Prosecutor and just as many SFO employees are involved, in addition to 55 officers from the Luxembourg police, Fréttabladid reports.
Special Prosecutor Ólafur Thór Hauksson, who is currently in Luxembourg, said not much can be revealed about the investigation while it is ongoing. However, he did state that these actions are extensive.
According to a news story broadcast on Stöd 2 yesterday, the investigation concerns a ISK 28 billion (USD 243 million, EUR 172 million) loan granted by Kaupthing to a company in Tortola the same day the bank was granted an ISK 80 billion (USD 693 million, EUR 492 million) loan from the Central Bank of Iceland to save its operations.
The loan was granted on October 6, 2008, the same day the Icelandic government put the emergency law in place, which marked the beginning of the banking collapse.
An announcement from SFO states that the former headquarters of Kaupthing in Luxembourg, now the headquarters of Banque Havilland, was among the locations raided. It is pointed out that Banque Havilland is not under investigation but Kaupthing’s operations at the location before Banque Havilland moved in.
In addition to the joint investigation with the Special Prosecutor, the SFO is also conducting an independent investigation.
Yesterday’s actions are a follow-up to the SFO’s actions in London and Reykjavíkearlier this month when nine persons, including former executives of Kaupthing and British tycoon brothers Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, were arrested but later released after questioning on Kaupthing’s loan affairs.
Click here to read more about that story, here to read more about the SFO’s investigation of Icelandic banks and here to read another recent story concerning the Tchenguiz brothers.
Sweden Cited for Failing to Pursue Nazi War Criminals
This morning, on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel officestatesthat nine nations have failed to prosecute known Nazis. A last global push was begun in 2002 to bring Nazis to justice, wherever they may have found refuge.
Nations which ignored the call for justice include Syria, Austria and Lithuania. Of the nine, two have legislation which blocks prosecution. Both Sweden and Norway have a 25-year statute of limitations for criminal prosecution. This law has effectively given Swedish and Norwegian Nazis and their collaborators a free pass since the 1970s.
-“There are two European countries where we cannot investigate or prosecute Nazi criminals. In Norway and Sweden there is a statute of limitations on murder of twenty-five years. Even if Heinrich Muller, the head of the Gestapo, were to surface in one of these countries, we would not be able to do anything about it."
Although the Swedes were technically neutral during WWII, the Swedes sold war materials to the Germans. Sweden harbored active collaborators with the Nazis after the war.
SwedishQueen Sylvia’s German fatherwas a member of the Nazi party, and produced weapons at a Berlin factory confiscated from a German Jew. Several hundred Swedes served as volunteers in the SS.
Zuroff says that these countries“refuse in principle to investigate, let alone prosecute, suspected Nazi war criminals because of legal (statute of limitation) or ideological restrictions.”
Legislation is flexible—if Sweden and Norway had wanted to make an exception to the statute of limitations for Holocaust crimes, the legislature could have modified the law. The fact that there was no will to do so is significant. This failure to pursue Nazi war criminals has its parallel today in the lack of will to act effectively against hate crime targeting Jews in Sweden today. By Chanah Shapira
Of the 1,903 US diplomatic messages of Irish interest which make up the Ireland Cables, 897 of them originated from the American Embassy in Dublin and 15 from the consulate in Belfast.
The vast majority of these were addressed to the either the US Department of State or the Secretary of State of the day.
However, in most cases they were also copied to other embassies, consulates, US government departments and American intelligence agencies.
In fact, many cables which originated from the US missions in Ireland would have been destined for the eyes of dozens of US diplomats and analysts around the world.
The list of addresses to which the cables were sent gives a startling insight into the US information and intelligence gathering infrastructure.
For example, matters to do with the European Union, such as the Lisbon Treaty, were frequently copied to every US embassy in the EU.
All of the Belfast cables were sent not just to the Secretary of State, but to the American embassies in Dublin and London as well.
Almost all cables relating to the Northern Ireland peace process were copied to the National Security Council (NSC), indicating that Northern Ireland remains a high-priority security issue for the US.
US intelligence agencies were copied in on cables dealing with terrorism, defense and justice issues.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) all received cables which originated in Dublin.
Information forwarded to both the CIA and FBI included details of alleged Islamic terror financiers based in Dublin.
The CIA was also informed of issues relating to the legality of US officials accessing European banking information as part of the War on Terror.
Interestingly, the CIA was not copied in on cables dealing with public disquiet over the US military use of Shannon Airport and allegations of so-called CIA extraordinary rendition flights.
Some cables relating to international terror suspects were also copied to the FBI.
These cables typically dealt with Irish cooperation in attempting to trace foreign bank accounts held by criminals or suspected terrorists.
Information was also forwarded to the FBI about the export of defence articles from Ireland. The importance of Shannon Airport to US military interests was underlined by the very high levels to which cables were copied.
One cable in particular was copied to the White House, the National Security Council and the Secretary of Defence.
Also kept in the loop on issues related to Shannon in other cables were:
The DIA, which is the major source of intelligence for the US Department of Defense.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, comprising the heads of the army, air force and navy, who advise the US President on military matters.
The US Embassy in Baghdad.
The Department of Homeland Security was also copied in on cables dealing with numerous issues.
The US has given Pakistan a deadline till July to launch a military offensive in the restive North Waziristan tribal region for capturing five most wanted al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar and Ilyas Kashmiri.
Pakistani security forces have been asked to capture al-Zawahiri, Omar, Kashmiri, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Atia Abdur Rehman either in a unilateral or joint military action within the deadline till July -- the month when NATO and allied forces will begin withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan.
The US demand has set alarm bells ringing in Pakistani civil and military circles, 'The News' daily reported today quoting unnamed sources.
Pakistan's security forces had so far shown reluctance in launching a military offensive in North Waziristan despite sustained pressure from the US to do so.
While the US cleared billions of dollars’ worth arms sales to Pakistan for the fight against terror, including advanced F 16 fighters, it refused the sale of a crucial advanced missile technology due to concerns that it could be used to target India. A request by Islamabad to procure an advanced Harpoon missile system was turned down in 2009 after Washington determined that it would threaten India, latest diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal.
In a cable dated March 18, 2009, US Ambassador Anne W Patterson justified the sale of F 16 fighters to Pakistan, holding that it was not a threat as India has an overwhelming aerial superiority, and went on to say that Washington has occasionally denied “Pakistani requests for arms sales that could upset the regional balance of power”.
As an example, the cable quotes a decision taken in February 2009 turning down the request for the advanced Harpoon missile system. The reason given is that the new system would enable Pakistan to target the Indian coastline and would not have any use in the war against terror.
“We have and will deny arms sales that we believe would upset the regional balance of power, as we have with the recent GOP (Government of Pakistan) request to buy the Coastal Targeting Suppression System, which enables Harpoon missiles to be fired at land or near-land targets using GPS technology,” reads the cable titled “Saving the F 16 Program”.
The cable goes on to say that the “acquisition would have given Pakistan an overt offensive capability to threaten India and served no COIN (Counter Insurgency) purpose”.
India has on several occasions raised the issue of increasing arms sales to Pakistan with the US, with Defense Minister A K Antony bringing it to the attention of visiting high-level American officials. India has conveyed its concerns on the arms sales, holding that a range of equipment being sold or gifted is more useful in conventional warfare rather than the war against terror.
Other cables that have also been released recently bring out the dire state of Pakistan’s financial health and express concerns that Islamabad has been spending billions on arms despite facing bankruptcy. A cable dated January 2009 reveals that not only did Pakistan default in paying for the F 16 fighters that it ordered in 2006 but was also behind on payments to a crucial ally like China.
The payments, the cable says, were related to the JF 17 fighter project with China that has been touted as Pakistan’s flagship joint fighter development program. Pakistan also defaulted on payments for advanced airborne early warning systems from Sweden.
“The GOP is also reportedly behind in payments to China, Sweden and other countries for JF-17s, Erieye Airborne Early Warning And Control (AEW&C) radar and other aircraft/ programs,” reads the cable.
Fischer: Gay Activists Will Commit "Virtual Genocide" Against Christian Soldiers
As wenoted last month, Bryan Fischer has made it his new cause in life to prove that gay activists are the "number one perpetrators of hate crimes in America." Fischer has made this determination by utterly ignoring the fact that any actual hate crime must entail an actual "crime" and has instead decided that anything he considers to be "harassment"qualifies as hate crime.
As we'venoted before, using Fischer's own absurd standard, he is guilty of committing hate crimes just about every single day ... but that is not going to stop him from continue on this crusade and making outrageouslyabsurd claimsabout how the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell means gay activists will now commit "virtual genocide" against Christian soldiers:
Last week Bryan Fischerannounced his supportfor laws banning profanity and blasphemy and followed that up over the weekendwith a Tweetcalling for laws banning fornication and adultery:
And this got me thinking about what life in America would look like if Bryan Fischer got his way:
Muslims would be banned from serving in the armed forces.
Muslims would be banned from immigrating to the United States.
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