Obama-appointed US trade adviser linked to illegal deal in Congolese gold

Just one more thug appointed to a position of power by the head thug in charge, obama.

Is every single person obama knows a criminal? Holy shit! It's almost amazing how crooked and corrupt this administration is.

Almost every day it is a new revelation of some kind of thuggish deal, and every day congress continues to let this pretender stay in charge. It's no wonder the American people have ZERO faith in this government.


By Pete Jones - The Guardian

UN report says Kase Lawal knew he was dealing with the wanted warlord Bosco Ntaganda

A US trade adviser appointed by Barack Obama orchestrated a deal to buy gold worth millions of dollars from a wanted Congolese warlord, according to a UN report.

Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born US oil tycoon, transferred millions of dollars to the notorious rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda between December 2010 and February 2011 as part of the deal, the report by the UN's Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) states.

If true, this would be a contravention of UN resolutions banning individuals or organisations from financing illegal armed groups in the wartorn eastern DRC.

The UN report says Lawal, the chairman and chief executive of the Houston-based oil firm Camac, was aware he was paying Ntaganda.

Obama put Lawal on the US advisory committee for trade and policy negotiations in September 2010, just months before the deal with Ntaganda.

All efforts to reach Lawal failed. Camac said it had no comment on the allegations, but said: "Camac is a law-abiding company and we disagree with the representations made in the report." The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Ntaganda has been wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) since an arrest warrant was issued in 2006. He funds his exploits by smuggling natural resources in the mineral-rich country, and faces allegations of recruiting child soldiers and presiding over mass rapes and murder of civilians by his troops in the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP).

The CNDP militia has since integrated into the Congolese national army but its soldiers continue to obey rebel command structures.

Ntaganda, like many rebel leaders in eastern DRC, funds his activities by smuggling natural resources.

The UN says "gold is among the sources of financing most readily available to armed groups".

According to the report, while Lawal was initially under the impression that he was buying gold from an owner in Kenya, he did not abort the deal when he learned Ntaganda was the true owner.

Instead, the UN report says Lawal merely "appeared relieved to finally be engaging directly with the true owner of the gold".

The report says Lawal financed the deal while Edward Carlos St Mary, a Houston businessman and friend of Lawal's, carried out the transaction in DRC. The deal was proposed to the two men by Dikembe Mutombo, a Congolese former NBA player with the Houston Rockets, and three of his relatives.

Despite paying, Lawal never received the gold. St Mary flew to Goma in DRC to finish the deal in a Camac-leased jet, but the passengers were arrested by Congolese presidential security officers as they tried to take off with the gold in February 2011.

St Mary and two Camac employees were charged with money-laundering and illegal transport of a banned material, because at this time the Congolese government had banned mining of gold, tin and coltan in the provinces where the minerals trade was affected by illegal armed groups. The three men were released in late March after Camac's Kinshasa representative paid $3m (£1.9m) in fines.

Substantial sums of money were involved from the start. The report says Lawal told St Mary he had lost "$30m as a result of the whole ordeal, including transport fees, fines, bribes" and the payments for the gold.

Jason Stearns, a former Group of Experts co-ordinator, said: "This is a fine example of the rank disregard of international law by major international companies and businessmen.

"Lawal knew Bosco Ntaganda was involved in the deal, so he was knowingly doing business with a man wanted by the ICC. On top of that, there was a Congolese mining ban in place at the time. And finally, he's probably violating a UN arms embargo on the region."

A source close to the UN who asked to remain anonymous said: "The whole thing was a scam. It's likely the Congolese were always going to arrest [St Mary and the others] and keep the money and the gold. The charge of illegal transport of a banned material was a pretext for the arrests.

"In reality, the Congolese authorities and Ntaganda worked together to ensure full payment was made for the gold, that the gold never left the DRC, and that the arrested men would have to pay a series of heavy fines to secure their release."

St Mary agrees. Speaking to the Guardian from Houston, he said that at one stage he nearly pulled out of the deal, only to be put on the phone to Zoé Kabila, the president's brother, who reassured him the gold dealers were "legitimate". That was before he knew Ntaganda was involved.

Later, in Goma, St Mary said Ntaganda was arguing with Joseph Kabila, DRC's president, on the phone. "They were arguing over how to split the cash," he said. "Even when I first met Ntaganda, he told me he'd just spoken to Kabila and that we'd be able to leave with the gold with no problem."

Read the rest at the link above...

Another layer of bullshit for airline passengers...

It seems that chuck schumer and michael gianaris want the tsa to create a position in each airport of a passenger advocate. This is a person that passengers can complain to after they have been molested or otherwise mistreated by the perverted thugs in the tsa.

Well, hmmm, that does a lot of good. You still get mistreated, but now you will have someone to complain to about it. I'm sure that will lesson the sting for the next 80+ year old woman who gets strip searched and misses her flight.

I have a better idea, why don't we fire the tsa from every airport in the Country and use contractors instead? At least if these positions were filled with persons from a private company, there would be some recourse for people who feel as though their rights were violated. Good luck getting any kind of resolution from unionized government thugs. It ain't gonna happen.

The 80 something year old woman who claims she was strip searched recently has been called a liar by the tsa. The claim the entire incident never happened. Let me ask you, what does she have to gain in this? Nothing. I am much more inclined to believe her than a group of people known to violate our Constitutional rights at will, with no consequences.

At the end of the day, schumer's reactive approach doesn't really do anything to solve the problems that law abiding American citizens have to deal with on a daily basis. Besides, do you really think another tsa employee is going to be any more sympathetic to allegations of mistreatment than those committing the offenses?

The tsa never ceases to amaze...

What bunch of fucking morons. The tsa in Virginia stopped a 17 year old girl and detained her long enough for her to miss her flight, because of A GUN DESIGN ON HER PURSE. It wasn't a real gun, or a fake gun, or a watergun or a son-of-a-gun, it was a design on a freakin purse.

OMG. Does the stupidity never end? The girl was told the purse was a federal offense.

Holy shit. These are the morons we are entrusting with our security?

I tell you what, if I can't drive to a destination, I won't be going. I refuse to be treated like a criminal in my own Country. I know what you are thinking, "Billybob, not everyone gets screened or scanned, what makes you think you will?" Several  things, with all the hell I raise on this blog, don't you think my name might be on a list or two? And second, I have a steel plate and 4 screws in my leg. I'm going to set off a metal detector and then it's on. Third, I'm a former Marine, a Veteran, according to janet napolitano, that makes me a domestic terrorist. Fourth, there are a whole lot of other reason that I won't go into at this point.

And to those of you that think I don't have rights when I fly, that's bullshit. And until someone with an understanding and a belief in the Constitution is in charge of this Country and does something about the jackbooted thugs at the tsa, I'll drive.

Why would anyone want a Concealed Carry Permit?

Because there are people like this in the world.

Your tax dollars at work some more...

All over the stupid shit going on in this Country and janet napolitano and her thugs cruise Hell on Earth about every day. Funny, you would think they had more important stuff to do. I offered once before, but I will extend it again. If the federal government is so interested in what I have to say, I would be happy to visit them and share my views, for a nominal fee, of course...

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

So, obama and his gang of thugs blocked other companies from competing for this contract, awarded the contract to a major democrat donor, and the price is much higer per dose than what we should be paying? That sounds pretty typical from this bunch of criminals. It's shocking how much of this stuff we have let this crook get away with. Where are the checks and balances? Where is congress?

By David Willman - Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington— Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company's financial demands, senior officials replaced the government's lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a "sole-source" procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal. The contract calls for Siga to deliver 1.7 million doses of the drug for the nation's biodefense stockpile. The price of approximately $255 per dose is well above what the government's specialists had earlier said was reasonable, according to internal documents and interviews.

Once feared for its grotesque pustules and 30% death rate, smallpox was eradicated worldwide as of 1978 and is known to exist only in the locked freezers of a Russian scientific institute and the U.S. government. There is no credible evidence that any other country or a terrorist group possesses smallpox.

If there were an attack, the government could draw on $1 billion worth of smallpox vaccine it already owns to inoculate the entire U.S. population and quickly treat people exposed to the virus. The vaccine, which costs the government $3 per dose, can reliably prevent death when given within four days of exposure.

Siga's drug, an antiviral pill called ST-246, would be used to treat people who were diagnosed with smallpox too late for the vaccine to help. Yet the new drug cannot be tested for effectiveness in people because of ethical constraints — and no one knows whether animal testing could prove it would work in humans.

The government's pursuit of Siga's product raises the question: Should the U.S. buy an unproven drug for such a nebulous threat?

"We've got a vaccine that I hope we never have to use — how much more do we need?" said Dr. Donald A. "D.A." Henderson, the epidemiologist who led the global eradication of smallpox for the World Health Organization and later helped organize U.S. biodefense efforts under President George W. Bush. "The bottom line is, we've got a limited amount of money."

Read the rest at the link above...

Test of the NATIONAL emergency broadcast system...

What do you make of the National test of the emergency broadcast system?

Up until obama and his gang of thugs came into power, I was never a conspiracy theorist. I haven't been one to see the boogie man where he doesn't exist.

I just can't help but imagine all kinds of nefarious uses this bunch of criminals can use the system for.

I just keep thinking that not long before the 2012 elections it will be used. I think it will be used to let us know that obama has declared martial law. Under martial law there wouldn't be an election. I hope I am wrong and that it is my imagination playing tricks on me. But then who would have ever imagined congress passing a War and Peace sized bill that they never read? And that they would pass that law through the use of blackmail, extortion and by breaking most of the rules governing congress?

It's a weird world we live in all of a sudden.

Stock up on ammo people, I think we are going to need it very soon...