It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, April 06, 2006
CIA Front Companies Exposed
Rendering is also a term used in the livestock business for herding animals together in preparation for them to be slaughtered in Rendering Houses, abatoirs, slaughter houses, meat packing plants.
Every time there is some military operation the CIA black ops comes up with an 'Air America' front which inevitably ends up engaged in side operations such as drug (opium/heroin/cocaine) and arms smuggling.
The Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations
Which of course is how the CIA pays for its off the books operations which is what Rendition is.
CIA Hawking Heroin in Baghdad?
Meanwhile, Tony Blair agreed that Britain would take the lead in eradicating the opium harvest in Afghanistan, the origin of 90% of British heroin. In his new book, State of War, James Risen quotes a CIA official as saying: "The British were screaming for us to bomb those targets because most of the heroin in Britain comes from Afghanistan. But they [the US military] refused." He writes: "The Pentagon feared that counter-narcotics operations would force the military to turn on the very warlords who were aiding the United States against the Taliban and that would lead to another round of violent attacks on American troops." The rancid relationship
The CIA should be actually called the Corporate Insurance Agency, since it actually works for the Transnational American corporations as their secret army.
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Analysis: The CIA and the arms ship
This should give Peter McKay something to look into, and yes he should be afraid we are being used as soft landing space for secret CIA flights.....OTTAWA (CP) — Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay says he "may very well" raise the issue of alleged CIA planes ferrying terrorism suspects around the globe with his U.S. counterpart. It is the first indication the new Conservative government might have concerns about the Central Intelligence Agency’s apparent use of foreign airports. But MacKay’s officials insist the minister has no fears that Canadian air facilities are being abused by the intelligence agency.
Courtesy Infomedia.
THE FRONT-ORGANIZATION (FO) COMPANIES
The eight CIA shell companies thought to be extant are:
AVIATION SPECIALTIES, INC.
BAYARD FOREIGN MARKETING, LLC.
CROWELL AVIATION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
DEVON HOLDING AND LEASING, INC.
KEELER & TATE MANAGEMENT, LLC
PATH CORPORATION
RAPID AIR TRANS, INC./RAPID AIR TRANSPORT, INC.
STEVENS EXPRESS LEASING, INC.
Some of the numbers in the list formerly were registered to a ninth company, PREMIER EXECUTIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC. Its planes have been moved to other companies in the shell game.
THE OPERATING COMPANIES
AERO CONTRACTORS, LTD. (NORTH CAROLINA)
The operation of the front-company (CIA-owned) planes is the job of a company called Aero Contractors Ltd, founded by a former CIA pilot. Aero Contractors operates all but one of these out of the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield, NC. The Boeing 737, N4476S (formerly N313P), operates out of the Kinston Regional Jetport in Kinston, NC. Both locations have been recent targets of anti-torture protests. The mailing address and phone number given for the 737's front (Keeler & Tate), by the way, belong to the law office of former US Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, once called the "First Friend" for his relationship with President Reagan.
The US Air Force base (Rhein-Main) at Frankfurt, Germany, is the European base of the 737.
TEPPER AVIATION, INC. (FLORIDA)
Three other large transports on the list -- Lockheeds N2189M, N4557C, and N8183J -- are owned by the shell company Rapid Air Tran (Transport).
Tepper Aviation, Inc., maintains and operates these planes out of the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, FL. Tepper was started by a CIA pilot of that name and was and is CIA-financed.
The European base of the Lockheeds also is Rhein-Main. The large CIA planes are involved in Afghanistan operations.
The N8183J, like the N8213G, was investigated by a European government but got a pass because it is a cargo plane. Two Austrian Draken fighter planes intercepted N8183J intruding into Austrian airspace on Jan. 21, 2003. The Drakens normally would have forced the plane to land, but they only intercepted it. The Austrian foreign ministry considered the aircraft as civilian (Is the CIA civilian?) and saw no reason to authorize the ministry of defense to force the plane to land. After all, it was a cargo plane (see photo).
AVIATION WORLDWIDE SERVICES, INC. (FLORIDA)
PRESIDENTIAL AIRWAYS (FLORIDA)
SUBSIDIARIES OF BLACKWATER USA (NORTH CAROLINA)
Presidential and AWS are owned by the mercenary firm Blackwater USA. They operate out of the Melbourne International Airport in central Florida. They are run by the former owners, Richard Pere and Tim Childrey.
The companies fly Spanish CASA C-212 wide-body passenger/cargo aircraft. These carry paratroops and oversized cargo and can operate from short and unimproved runways.
In Europe, Malta is the base for these planes and the ATRs in the list, both of which operate in Afghanistan.
PEGASUS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Pegasus Technologies works on the avionics (aviation electronics), sensor, and electrical systems of the CIA planes. This presumably includes top-secret encrypted-communications systems and night-vision systems.
At the company's airstrip near Green Cove Springs, FL, in the Reynolds Industrial Park, at a former naval base, you are apt to see many of the planes in the list. Few if any other companies would have the security clearances to work on the CIA's electronics.
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You Are Here
This is the cosmological equivalent of the shopping mall map......You Are Here......
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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Welfare for Millionaires
Gee wonder why the Conservatives just don't tell these folks about how their tax breaks are going to help them down on the farm. You know 5% is a Canadian Value. Ingrates.
So when in doubt sign over more welfare checks to farmers while you try and shut down the Wheat Board. Makes sense eh.
Note that the Ontario farmers protesting are demanding a protectionist market and subsidies like the US grants its agribusiness. Not exactly Tory farm policy.....Strahl doesn't mention market-solutions for protesting Farmers
Now imagine the crisis on the farm if we had a free and open market with no Wheat Board or other producer run cooperatives or marketing boards. It would be the end of the so called 'family farm'. Which is long in the tooth and almost non-existant in Canada now.
Strahl promises better relief for struggling farmers
CTV.ca -9 hours ago
As thousands of farmers converge on Parliament Hill for a massive rally, Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl is promising better relief for cash-strapped producers.
Provinces have to help, Strahl tells farmersGlobe and Mail
Harper promises money for farmersToronto Star Brandon Sun -Reuters Canada -CBC Manitoba -580 CFRA Radio -
Yep these guys would all be gone and all that would be left would be big Agribusiness corporations. Who would then demand subsidies like they do in the US.
Its the battle between the farmer Millionaires versus the Corporate Agri-Billionaires.
And the irony is that these guys are the right wing backbone of the Tories, who demand they kick folks off welfare.
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Duh' Oh
Police said on Wednesday they do not know the motive of kidnappers who abducted the son of a wealthy Vancouver family from his car in one of the western Canadian city's most exclusive neighborhoods.
He is the son of a multi-millionare, might that have something to do with it?
Do ya think? Duh' Oh. Back to Timmies for more donuts.
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Nuclear Paradox
Today the US Senate held hearings on why it should be allowed to sell nuclear resources to India, a country which has tested several atomic bombs and is not a member of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Senate grills Rice on nuclear deal with India
'The Agreement And Its Implications'
Unlike Iran which has no bombs, has not tested a bomb and is a member of the NPT.
The controversy over Iran's peaceful nuclear program has obscured one point in particular: There need not be a crisis. A solution to the situation is possible and eminently within reach.Lost amid the rhetoric is this: Iran has a strong interest in enhancing the integrity and authority of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has been in the forefront of efforts to ensure the treaty's universality. Iran's reliance on the nonproliferation regime is based on legal commitments, sober strategic calculations and spiritual and ideological doctrine.
We in Iran don't need this quarrel
Pakistan and India are still vying over the issue of Kashmir which set off their last round of nuclear show down. Both countries have deals with Iran and its military.
US concerned over India-Iran ties: Rice
India-Iran gas pipeline might go ahead: Rice
So who is the real nuclear threat in the region? Iran poses no threat: Doha Debates
Why the US of course and its attempt to play nuclear geopolitics.
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Development Versus Population Growth
He says;" Pianka's point has been lost. There are too many people on the planet;". True and the majority of them are poor.
Thus the record number of famines we are having thanks to Global Warming and due to capitalist production for export.
Lack of development opportunities based on sustainable farming and small scale industrial growth is the problem. Whether the issue is population growth, which is always based on labour needs for the family farm, or mass migration (aka illegal immigration) the real solution is to have regional development that creates real industries and self sufficiency.
Europes concern with growing illegal migration from Africa, due to impovershment or America's concern with illegal migrants from not only Mexico but now also Central America, is based on this simple fact. These countries have no sustainable development. If they did then their would be no migration. Development is the only solution to illegal immigration.
Ironically such development needs to be based on womens liberation. Where it has been successful it has focused on women in the community. When this is done, education plus regional based development funded by micro-loans, women begin to reduce the number of children they have and begin to modify the social conditions under which they live, challenging the remnants of fuedal patriarchical cultures that have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
Where local sustainable development has been aimed at women we see positive results. Lower birth rates, higher education rates, less migration. Technological solutions for resource developments such as localized rational irrigation based on a harmonious merger of technology and local engineering/environmental development are preferable to the capitalist industrial model.
Not all development has to be based on large scale corporate manufacturing. In fact in Africa in several areas now suffering famines, the most successful village market businesses have remained the collective farms and tertiary production of maize. Large scale corporate models have collapsed due to being inefficient in the global marketplace. While the village collective model, run by women, has succeeded.
Ideals of Fair Trade, the idea of promoting organic farming and collective production of products for export, rather than the hacienda production favoured by large scale Multinational Corporations like United Fruit and Dole, help communities achieve sustainable development, which then allows them to leave the culture of poverty which is what creates unsustainable population growth.
Also See:
IWD Economic Freedom for Women
Water War
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Mr. Turkey To You
Every Thanksgiving the President of the US pardons a turkey from the ceremonial fate that turkeys suffer for the founding of that nation.
Now if this turkey had been around the tables may have been turned.
Even on old Ben...Benjamin Franklin Tries to Electrocute a Turkey
Scientists Discover New Dinosaur in Utah
New Dinosaur Resembles Large Turkey
By BROCK VERGAKIS
Tuesday, April 4, 2006; 11:07 PM
SALT LAKE CITY -- Fossils discovered in southern Utah are from a new species of birdlike dinosaur that resembled a 7-foot-tall brightly colored turkey and could run up to 25 mph, scientists said Tuesday.
Giant dinosaur raptor unveiled
Fossils found in 2001 in national monument
What's 7 feet tall, 13 feet long, armed with sickle-like claws and covered with feathers? Hagryphus giganteus, the new raptor dinosaur
Benjamin Franklin's Letter Comparing the Eagle and the Turkey
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
More On Dinosaurs
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A Real Chicken Hawk
Now the chickens have come to roost. Or in this case Chicken Hawks.
Those who call the Republican War administration Chicken Hawks now have good reason to revert to the original meaning of the term.
Homeland security official faces sex-related charges
The deputy press secretary for the United States Department of Homeland Security was arrested for using the internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.
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The Privatization of Torture
And what is this new war? It is war by private armies the so called 'contractors', private companies like Halliburton, and now the contracting out and privatization of torture.
Of course when the Market State privatizes war completely we will be in the era of decadence that saw the fall of all great Empires that relied upon mercenary armies, from Carthage to Rome.
AI accuses CIA of using private planes for rendition flights
04/05/2006
In a report issued on Wednesday, Amnesty exposed what it described as a covert operation involving front companies and private aircraft operators to preserve the secrecy of so-called rendition flights.
Son San Joan airport in Majorca
Earlier this year, media reports said that American planes believed to be contracted to the CIA made 74 flights to Canada between September 2001 and November 2005, according to documents released to Canadian Press through freedom of information.But Amnesty's Canadian office said that requests to the Liberal government for a review of the allegations met with no response. Amnesty's secretary general, Alex Neve, sent a letter to Stockwell Day, the minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, calling for an investigation by the Tory government.The human rights organization also called for safeguards ensuring that Canadian airports are not used to transfer suspects to countries where they may be held without protection of international law. More flights linked to CIA
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