Category: Government

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Penguin: Classic Corruption in Zambia in re Mining Taxes

Corruption, Government
Who, Me?

A bit dated but still important.  BBC reports evidently suppressed.

Refusing windfall tax is an injustice – Sardanis

By Joe Kaunda and Chiwoyu Sinyangwe

The Post Online, 12 November 2010

Andrew Sardanis has described the government's refusal to reinstate the windfall tax regime in the mining sector as an injustice to the country.

And economic consultant Bob Sichinga has advised opposition political parties to make the issue of restoring windfall tax a campaign issue in next year's general elections.

In an interview, Sardanis who presided over negotiations during the nationalisation of the mines under the Kenneth Kaunda administration, said he was appalled to learn that government was only getting 2.6 per cent in revenue from the exports of copper that stood at US$2.9 billion despite the huge boom in metal prices.

“…in other words a total tax of only 2.6 per cent of total revenue. When the mines were bought by the current owners, the copper prices stood around US $1,500 per tonne, but the price has shot up to the current over US $8,500,” Sardanis observed.

Read full article….

 

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Koko: CIA Bows to Islamic Radicals, with Strong Comment on Need for Religious Counterintelligence

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Officers Call
Koko

Below is an exact reprint from the Association For Intelligence Officers (AFIO).   HOWEVER, AFIO does not endorse the tone of the article, only the fact of its appearance.

The CIA Should be a bit more ‘CAIR'less. This week, a three-day conference hosted by the CIA on “homegrown radicalization” was supposed to have taken place at CIA headquarters. It did not. The conference was abruptly canceled – or, softening the blow, “postponed.” Question: Did pressure from what we might (and should) call a certain “homegrown radical” group – the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) – make this happen?

Here is what we know.

On Monday, July 18, CAIR issued a press release headlined: “CAIR Asks CIA to Drop Islamophobic Trainer.” It revealed that CAIR national executive director Nihad Awad wrote a letter to now-former CIA Director Leon Panetta to that effect. The rest of the release is more opaque. In referencing an NPR report that slammed one counterterrorism trainer by name, former FBI agent John Guandolo, for “allegedly smearing” an “Ohio Muslim” in a presentation, CAIR noted that an entirely different trainer, unnamed, was “scheduled to hold a similar session in August for the CIA.” (Full disclosure: Guandolo and I are among 19 co-authors of Shariah: the Threat to America.) The August CIA “session” appears to be the driver of both the CAIR release and letter asking the CIA, as the headline put it, to “Drop Islamophobic Trainer.”

Continue reading “Koko: CIA Bows to Islamic Radicals, with Strong Comment on Need for Religious Counterintelligence”

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Chuck Spinney: The S&P Downgrade Market Plunge Myth

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Media, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off....

The S&P Downgrade Market Plunge Myth

Monday 15 August 2011

by: Dean Baker, Truthout | News Analysis

The Wall Street crew that wants to cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits are sensing that victory is in sight. They have managed to knock jobs completely off the agenda and have made deficit reduction the near exclusive focus of economic policy in Washington. They are now setting the stage to have the Congressional “super committee” produce a deal that will mean large cuts in both programs.

The backdrop for these cuts is that the country is in crisis and that we have no choice. A central part of this story is that the stock market crashed last week in response to the Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgrade of US government debt. The Wall Street crew and their allies in the media and Congress will tell the country that if we don't have the cuts in Social Security and Medicare demanded by S&P then we run the risk of further downgrades. This raises the prospect of further market panics and the complete wreckage of the economy.

This story has as much credibility as John Edwards' tales of marital bliss during his presidential campaign.

Read rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota:  A couple of things are clear, the first being that Barack Obama is not in charge of anything, the second being that New York–Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, the Koch Brothers–is.  From the Tea Party funded and manipulated by the Koch brothers, to the idiotic lack of intellent analysis from the newspapers and broadcast stage, what we have here is theater.  The truth is nowhere to be found between New York and Washington.

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Cheery Waves: Four of Five CIA Bay of Pigs History Books Released by National Security Archive

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy
Cheery Waves

Archive Cuba Project posts Four Volumes; calls for declassification of still secret Volume 5

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 355

Posted – August 15, 2011

By Peter Kornbluh

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh – 202/374-7281 or by email

EXTRACT

  • In perhaps the most important revelation of the entire official history, the CIA task force in charge of the paramilitary assault did not believe it could succeed without becoming an open invasion supported by the U.S. military. On page 149 of Volume III, Pfeiffer quotes still-secret minutes of the Task Force meeting held on November 15, 1960, to prepare a briefing for the new President-elect, John F. Kennedy: “Our original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has instituted,” the document states. “Our second concept (1,500-3000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joint Agency/DOD action.”

This candid assessment was not shared with the President-elect then, nor later after the inauguration. As Pfeiffer points out, “what was being denied in confidence in mid-November 1960 became the fact of the Zapata Plan and the Bay of Pigs Operation in March 1961”—run only by the CIA, and with a force of 1,200 men.

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Tom Atlee: Citizen Deliberations – Chart and Options

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Threats
Tom Atlee

Dear Friends

I am quite excited about the progress that has been made in various citizen political participation proposals. All of these clearly have tremendous potential and the articulations of their rationales are becoming quite compelling.

With such innovative deliberative democracy proposals, I want them to be thought through well beforehand, engaging a variety of authorities and perspectives in a search of answers that can embrace that diversity with greater wisdom than otherwise. I am especially interested in finding out people's concerns and what solutions appear when we seriously seek to understand and address those concerns (this being a basic principle of creative consensus processes and of collective wisdom in general). I consider this vital if we seek to inject sane, powerful initiatives into the kind of toxic political environment that exists today. There is just too much at stake to fail simply because we didn't explore our design issues sufficiently ahead of time.

With that intention in mind, I have the following twelve thoughts and inquiries to offer. I would love to be part of a serious inquiry into questions like these, both in person and online.

Coheartedly,
Tom

Observations

Comparison Chart

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John Robb: Urban Farming, Urban Zoning in Flux

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Methods & Process, Policies
John Robb

Portland Oregon is working on revising zoning regulations regarding urban market farms.  Early debate indicates that the protection of traditional approaches to real-estate value (ornamental residences, noise/traffic abatement, etc.) is the priority.  Given the scale of the economic crisis that is already upon us, this approach is completely broken.  They should be focused on building a simple platform for accelerating a local food economy.

Phi Beta Iota:  Portland in particular, and the Pacific Northwest generally, keep popping up as bastions of ethical sanity.  The combination of intelligence and integrity visible there is quite heartening.

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DefDog: Defense Entitlement Comes to An End….

10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Threats
DefDog

Butts in seats would be a good place to start in most cases…..

A golden decade for defense companies is ending

Associated Press, 15 August 2011

NEW YORK –  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, Osama bin Laden is dead, and the federal government is deeply in debt. This spells the end of what was a golden decade for the defense industry.

In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the annual defense budget has more than doubled to $700 billion and annual defense industry profits have nearly quadrupled, approaching $25 billion last year.

Now defense spending is poised to retreat, and so are industry profits.

Read full article…

Phi Beta Iota: Long comment and links below the line.

Continue reading “DefDog: Defense Entitlement Comes to An End….”

noble gold