BRIBES BY BLACKWATER IN IRAQ

Blackwater Approved Bribes for Iraqi Officials

After a group of Blackwater security guards opened fire in a Baghdad square and killed 17 civilians, the company found itself mired in a public relations disaster. The episode raised the ire of Iraqi civilians and officials, which suddenly raised the prospect that Blackwater could be prevented from operating in the country, threatening the existence of contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Three months after the Nisour Square shootings, the company authorized about $1 million in bribes to buy the silence of Iraqi officials. When news of the decision spread within the company, it created a huge rift among senior officials. Still, the man who was then Blackwater's president decided to go ahead with the bribes and sent the money from Jordan to Iraq. But the four former executives who revealed the information to the New York Times say they can't be certain the money ever reached Iraqi officials.

Read original story in The New York Times | Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 CLICK

DEDICATION

Dedicated in loving memory to Mary Esther Gaffney Winburn
Wife of Lloyd Winburn
Mother of Mark Vincent, Craig Voorhees and Mary Jennifer Winburn de Lima
Grandmother of Anthony Philip, Gregory Alexander and Katarina Maria de Lima
Olivia Kristin, Ryanne Elizabeth and Garrett William Winburn

WHERE DO WE HAVE OUR HEAD?

The Head of Amnesty International Quits, gives up, calls the organization's efforts a failure.

90% OF THEM INNOCENT!

The Place of the Ravens, 30km west of Baghdad, has long been of interest to civil liberties groups. The largest prison in Iraq, built in the 1960s by British contractors, has for decades generated stories of abuse, not least under Saddam Hussein, who kept as many as 15,000 people imprisoned there. But it was in 2004, when pictures of offences ranging from the grossly humiliating to murderous leaked out, that the jail's name became a byword for torture – Abu Ghraib.

The abiding image of that period is of a hooded detainee, standing on a box and draped in sack cloth, with electrodes attached to his fingers and testicles as if he is about to be shocked. Other pictures show grinning guards with naked prisoners in degrading poses. Reports of beatings, rapes and deaths were described by the US army's own investigation as "credible". The commanding officer of Abu Ghraib, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was demoted to colonel for failing to stop the abuses, later said that 90 per cent of the Iraqi prisoners were innocent.

Read the whole story and weep..http:
//www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/ir

PRISON AND DRUG REHABILITATION

PRISON SECURITY AND EFFECTIVE PRISON MANAGEMENT
From a Blog worth tracking.....

Does a snake understand how an eagle flies?

The snake has no conception of the thing, but it DOES know that the flying creature above is a danger to it. Well, that's how it is with the prison system and an honest prisoner. They have no idea what to do about him but do understand the fact that he is dangerous. The danger comes not from the honesty but from the attitude of those running things in the prison system. And I do not mean the ordinary kangaroo who has to deal with prisoners on a daily basis. Oh no, most of them do their best. It is the upper echelons who sneak about in dark corners, whispering behind their hands and misleading, lying and backstabbing. How high up the food chain they climb actually depends on their ability to lie and mislead.

Let me give a perfect example of this. Every prison security department knows the identity of every junkie and dealer within its environs, but do they give them weekly drug tests? Do they hell. They give weekly tests to the prisoners they KNOW do NOT take drugs because that gives them a good figure for their quarterly report on drug management policies. 1t is a fraud, smoke and mirrors to fool the general public. "Look!" they cry. "Our test figures show that we are sucessfully tackling the drug problem!"

All lies of course. They make no attempt whatsoever to tackle the drug problem, not so much as lift a finger. In fact it is quite the opposite because they actively encourage drug taking as a control measure.

They deal in a murky world as second nature! This is why they have no idea what to do when they come up against an honest man. They have no reference points to work from.

Now, having said all I have said, it will be seen as subversive and troublemaking. It's not their fault, it never is, it has to be the fault of the prisoner.

Wasn't it John Locke who wrote:

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth."

The Voice In The Wilderness

...And well said. Lloyd Winburn

WE ARE DRIFTING TO ANARCHY

THE TRUE RACE IS BETWEEN AMERICAN STYLE DEMOCRACY AND TOTALITARIANISM

(See FORGES magazine for this week September 14, 2009) But

JUST LET ME ADD

The current disgusting behavior of the FAR RIGHT *Republicans* is more harmful to our Democracy than all the dictators in the world. Hate, envy, unbridled racism, suspicion,distrust, misguided religious fervor, intolerance of others' opinions, selfishness are enough to smother any progrissive movement upward.

Lloyd Winburn

America's durable democratic institutions, due process, independent judiciary and freedom of speech, religion and press are the reason its economy accounts for 23% of world gross domestic product; why 65% of world reserves are in the U.S. dollar; why 17 of the top 20 universities are in America; why we lead in global innovation with 92,000 patents awarded to Americans in 2008; why we lead in global philanthropy and conservation; why we have the deepest financial markets; and why our naval tonnage is larger than the next 17 navies combined.

Our democratic form of government supports and reflects our culture of optimism, openness, transparency, mobility and flexibility.

China's autocratic form of government reflects its closed and suspicious nature and the interests of the leadership of the Communist party, a body Friedman describes as a "reasonably enlightened group of people."

In my view, it is anything but and its stubborn insistence on keeping control of its economy and political system will in the end prove to be its downfall.

Thanks to FORBES

A CALL TO PATROTIC WOMEN

WOMEN OF THE WORLD, UNITE! YOU HOLD OUR PEACE BETWEEN YOUR LEGS

A Sure Way to Peace:

Lysistrata ("Army-disbander") is one of the few surviving plays written by the master of Old Comedy, Aristophanes.
Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War.
Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate a peace, a strategy however that inflames the battle between the sexes.
The play is notable for its exposé of sexual relations in a male-dominated society and for its use of both double entendre and explicit obscenities.

For PEACE we need all the tools we can get. Women, focus upon your power.

READ ON:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata

TOP SAIL ISLAND FOR THE WINBURNS 2006

THIS WAS THE YEAR STEVEN WEEKE AND HIS FAMILY JOINED US, ALONG WITH OTHERS. MARK DID THE VIDEO.