Read this along with the next article, Behind the Firewall.
The GOP’s Cyber Election Hit Squad
by Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
April 22, 2007
Did the most powerful Republicans in America have the computer capacity, software skills and electronic infrastructure in place on Election Night 2004 to tamper with the Ohio results to ensure George W. Bush’s re-election?
The answer appears to be yes. There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio’s “official” Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Recent revelations have documented that the Republican National Committee (RNC) ran a secret White House e-mail system for Karl Rove and dozens of White House staffers. This high-tech system used to count and report the 2004 presidential vote– from server-hosting contracts, to software-writing services, to remote-access capability, to the actual server usage logs themselves – must be added to the growing congressional investigations.
Numerous tech-savvy bloggers, starting with the online investigative consortium epluribusmedia.org and their November 2006 article cross-posted by contributor luaptifer to Dailykos, and Joseph Cannon’s blog at Cannonfire.blogspot.com, outed the RNC tech network. That web-hosting firm is SMARTech Corp. of Chattanooga, TN, operating out of the basement in the old Pioneer Bank building. The firm hosts scores of Republican websites, including georgewbush.com, gop.com and rnc.org.
The software created for the Ohio secretary of state’s Election Night 2004 website was created by GovTech Solutions, a firm co-founded by longtime GOP computing guru Mike Connell. He also redesigned the Bush campaign’s website in 2000 and told “Inside Business” magazine in 1999, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Bush campaign and the Bush family because the Bushes truly are about family and I’m loyal to my network.”
Read more...
Also read: http://fraudbusterbob.com/blog/2007/04/26/are-roves-missing-e-mails-the-smoking-guns-of-the-stolen-2004-election
...and then something went wrong with his airplane... ~Deb
Monday, April 30, 2007
Who is Michael L. Connell? Part II: Behind the firewall.
The Missing Link
In Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, we detailed the first half of Michael L. Connell's GOP career arc, from college-aged Bush 41 computer prodigy to seasoned smashmouth campaign planner.
In the latter half of the 90s, Connell's return to hi-tech was a no-brainer, as the Internet explosion unearthed new pathways and paradigms for soliciting votes. With the creation of his company New Media Communications, Connell began to blaze a nascent "super-highway" and to begin the task of re-branding the Bush family legacy from "wimp" to "winner." And by the end of the decade, New Media's GeorgeWBush.com and GOP.com gilded Connell's status as "a trusted partisan."
So why was this Internet guru for the Republican Party -- once fired for "unethical" campaign tactics - selected as the first private vendor to set up behind the firewall at the U.S. House of Representatives? And how did GovTech Solutions, the company he co-founded with scandal-ridden lobbyist Thomas J. Synhorst, get security clearance to re-design and install the Intelligence committee's web site on the House intranet?
This article, "Part II: Behind the firewall," picks up the Connell thread in 1996, when after a year of preparations, his company New Media Communications and the GOP start laying the foundation for the 2000 presidential election.
Read More...
...and then something went wrong with his airplane... ~Deb
In Part I: The Atwater School of Politics, we detailed the first half of Michael L. Connell's GOP career arc, from college-aged Bush 41 computer prodigy to seasoned smashmouth campaign planner.
In the latter half of the 90s, Connell's return to hi-tech was a no-brainer, as the Internet explosion unearthed new pathways and paradigms for soliciting votes. With the creation of his company New Media Communications, Connell began to blaze a nascent "super-highway" and to begin the task of re-branding the Bush family legacy from "wimp" to "winner." And by the end of the decade, New Media's GeorgeWBush.com and GOP.com gilded Connell's status as "a trusted partisan."
So why was this Internet guru for the Republican Party -- once fired for "unethical" campaign tactics - selected as the first private vendor to set up behind the firewall at the U.S. House of Representatives? And how did GovTech Solutions, the company he co-founded with scandal-ridden lobbyist Thomas J. Synhorst, get security clearance to re-design and install the Intelligence committee's web site on the House intranet?
This article, "Part II: Behind the firewall," picks up the Connell thread in 1996, when after a year of preparations, his company New Media Communications and the GOP start laying the foundation for the 2000 presidential election.
Read More...
...and then something went wrong with his airplane... ~Deb
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Establishment Rethinks Globalization
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070430/greider
The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong--disastrously wrong for the United States.
Martin Luther was a rebellious priest challenging the dictates of a corrupt church hierarchy. Ralph Gomory, on the other hand, is a gentle-spoken technologist, trained as a mathematician and largely apolitical. He does not set out to overthrow the establishment but to correct its deeper fallacies. For many years Gomory was a senior vice president at IBM. He helped manage IBM's expanding global presence as jobs and high-tech production were being dispersed around the world.
The experience still haunts him. He decided, in retirement, that he would dig deeper into the contradictions. Now president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, he knew something was missing in the "pure trade theory" taught by economists. If free trade is a win-win proposition, Gomory asked himself, then why did America keep losing?
Read more...
The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong--disastrously wrong for the United States.
Martin Luther was a rebellious priest challenging the dictates of a corrupt church hierarchy. Ralph Gomory, on the other hand, is a gentle-spoken technologist, trained as a mathematician and largely apolitical. He does not set out to overthrow the establishment but to correct its deeper fallacies. For many years Gomory was a senior vice president at IBM. He helped manage IBM's expanding global presence as jobs and high-tech production were being dispersed around the world.
The experience still haunts him. He decided, in retirement, that he would dig deeper into the contradictions. Now president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, he knew something was missing in the "pure trade theory" taught by economists. If free trade is a win-win proposition, Gomory asked himself, then why did America keep losing?
Read more...
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Important Political Films and Videos
When Democracy Failed: Thom Hartmann
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
State of the Union
The Corporation Watch it.
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
My Man Godfrey
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Silkwood
An Inconvenient Truth
Norma Rae
The Battle of Algiers
The Bicycle Thief
The Grapes of Wrath
Why We Fight
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Great Dictator
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Salud
From Freedom to Fascism
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. An eyeopening film about the US backed coup against Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
Walmart-The High Cost of Low Prices
Many of these films, as well as other excellent documentaries, may be found at ALLUC.ORG
Got a suggestion? Add it to Comments and I will add it to the list!
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
State of the Union
The Corporation Watch it.
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
My Man Godfrey
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Silkwood
An Inconvenient Truth
Norma Rae
The Battle of Algiers
The Bicycle Thief
The Grapes of Wrath
Why We Fight
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Great Dictator
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Salud
From Freedom to Fascism
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. An eyeopening film about the US backed coup against Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
Walmart-The High Cost of Low Prices
Many of these films, as well as other excellent documentaries, may be found at ALLUC.ORG
Got a suggestion? Add it to Comments and I will add it to the list!
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Lee Iacocca, Mad as Hell!
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Read More!
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Read More!
Lee Iacocca, Mad as Hell!
http://www.bordersstores.com/features/feature.jsp?file=wherehavealltheleadersgone
I
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Read More!
I
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Read More!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Eking Out Reality And Gonzales Denies Us Habeas Corpus
First a quote from a friend that rings so true in the "dis-information age":
Our universe is governed by fictions of all kinds: mass consumption, publicity, politics considered and managed like a branch of publicity, instantaneous translation of science and techniques into a popular imagery, confusion and telescopage of identities in the realm of consumer goods, right of pre-emption exercised by the television screen over every personal reaction to reality. We live at the interior of an enormous novel. It becomes less and less necessary for the writer to give fictional content to his works. The fiction is already there. The work of the novelist is to invent reality.
-J.G. Ballard, from the introduction of the French edition of Crash
From Amnesty International Email;
"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is granted or assured the right to habeas [corpus]. It doesn't say that."
If you guessed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, you're correct. In fact, the Constitution states that habeas corpus rights cannot be suspended except in times of rebellion or invasion. For centuries, this has meant that a person could challenge his or her detention in an independent court of law - unless those exceptional circumstances existed.
Gonzales's declaration should strike fear in all of us. His dangerous comments before the Senate Judiciary Committee betrayed the Constitutional rights he was sworn to protect as our nation's top law enforcement official...and defied common sense, too. Watch the video!
Our universe is governed by fictions of all kinds: mass consumption, publicity, politics considered and managed like a branch of publicity, instantaneous translation of science and techniques into a popular imagery, confusion and telescopage of identities in the realm of consumer goods, right of pre-emption exercised by the television screen over every personal reaction to reality. We live at the interior of an enormous novel. It becomes less and less necessary for the writer to give fictional content to his works. The fiction is already there. The work of the novelist is to invent reality.
-J.G. Ballard, from the introduction of the French edition of Crash
From Amnesty International Email;
"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is granted or assured the right to habeas [corpus]. It doesn't say that."
If you guessed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, you're correct. In fact, the Constitution states that habeas corpus rights cannot be suspended except in times of rebellion or invasion. For centuries, this has meant that a person could challenge his or her detention in an independent court of law - unless those exceptional circumstances existed.
Gonzales's declaration should strike fear in all of us. His dangerous comments before the Senate Judiciary Committee betrayed the Constitutional rights he was sworn to protect as our nation's top law enforcement official...and defied common sense, too. Watch the video!
Saturday, April 7, 2007
A Boy Named Bush
http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/themesong7.shtml
"The Beverly Hillbillies" Based on the performance by Theme Song
"A Boy Named Bush" Parody by Sharon Krebs
Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.
Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.
The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.
Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.
Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.
Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.
Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?
"The Beverly Hillbillies" Based on the performance by Theme Song
"A Boy Named Bush" Parody by Sharon Krebs
Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up.
Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.
The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.
Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.
Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.
Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.
Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?
Discovery the Hidden History Behind the Bush Dynasty
http://www.secrecyandprivilege.com/
Discover the Hidden History
Behind the Bush Dynasty
Secrecy & Privilege
by Robert Parry
390 pages (paperback)
$22.95
Tracing investigative leads back through three decades, Secrecy & Privilege explores the mystery of how the two George Bushes rose to the pinnacle of American political power – and what the rise of their dynasty has meant to the nation’s democratic principles.
Purchase 'Secrecy & Privilege' along with Parry's 1999 book 'Lost History' for only $32, a 30% discount!
Two ‘must-read’ books, Lost History and Secrecy & Privilege fill in missing chapters of modern U.S. history – from the truth about the Reagan administration’s complicity in drug trafficking of the 1980s to the real story of how the Bush Family’s rise to power transformed American democracy.
When you order now, $10 from the purchase will be donated to Consortiumnews.com.
Discover the Hidden History
Behind the Bush Dynasty
Secrecy & Privilege
by Robert Parry
390 pages (paperback)
$22.95
Tracing investigative leads back through three decades, Secrecy & Privilege explores the mystery of how the two George Bushes rose to the pinnacle of American political power – and what the rise of their dynasty has meant to the nation’s democratic principles.
Purchase 'Secrecy & Privilege' along with Parry's 1999 book 'Lost History' for only $32, a 30% discount!
Two ‘must-read’ books, Lost History and Secrecy & Privilege fill in missing chapters of modern U.S. history – from the truth about the Reagan administration’s complicity in drug trafficking of the 1980s to the real story of how the Bush Family’s rise to power transformed American democracy.
When you order now, $10 from the purchase will be donated to Consortiumnews.com.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Palestinians live in an Imprisoned Society
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/181D9639-1F51-46E5-839E-292BBEFDE726.htm
Israel accused of 'apartheid'
Dugard said Gaza was an imprisoned society, with things little better in the West Bank [GALLO/GETTY]
A UN human rights envoy has likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians in occupied territory to "apartheid", and said that failure to tackle the situation will make it hard to solve abuses elsewhere.
John Dugard, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, made his remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
Dugard, a South African lawyer, said restrictions on movement and separate residential areas gave a sense of "deja vu" to anyone with experience of apartheid, noting that apartheid was "contrary to international law".
He said: "Of course there are similarities between the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] and apartheid South Africa."
He also told the council that the situation "places in danger the whole international human rights enterprise".
Read More...
Israel accused of 'apartheid'
Dugard said Gaza was an imprisoned society, with things little better in the West Bank [GALLO/GETTY]
A UN human rights envoy has likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians in occupied territory to "apartheid", and said that failure to tackle the situation will make it hard to solve abuses elsewhere.
John Dugard, a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, made his remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
Dugard, a South African lawyer, said restrictions on movement and separate residential areas gave a sense of "deja vu" to anyone with experience of apartheid, noting that apartheid was "contrary to international law".
He said: "Of course there are similarities between the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory] and apartheid South Africa."
He also told the council that the situation "places in danger the whole international human rights enterprise".
Read More...
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Death and Contractors
http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/made-in-the-usa-part-iii-us-company-listings-a-m/2888/
Made In the USA, Part III: US Company Listings A-M
By Jim Crogan
Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 12:00 am
AT&T
(New York City, New York)
2000 — Contracted with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to "optimize" Huawei’s products. Between 2000 and 2001, Huawei outfitted Iraq’s air-defense system with fiber-optic equipment, in violation of a U.N. trade embargo.
(return to company index)
AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.
(Formerly based in Nashville, Tennessee — defunct)
1984 to 1985 — Company sold 60 tons of DMMP, a material used to make sarin gas, to Iraq. Also provided chemical-production equipment to Iraq. In 1984, customs officials at Kennedy International Airport seized another Al Haddad shipment of 1,100 pounds of potassium fluoride, a chemical used in nerve-gas production. Al Haddad was not charged in this attempted transfer of chemicals, which were destined for Iraq’s Ministry of Pesticides. This firm also received letters of credit from BNL (an Italian bank) totaling $134,988 to sell knives and rubber blankets to Technical Corp. for Special Projects, an Iraqi front company. (Note: See Banca Nazionale del Lavoro entry for information about BNL’s Iraqi loans and letters of credit.)
The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. According to corporate records from Tennessee’s Department of State, Al Haddad operated a number of registered firms, which are all inactive, dissolved or merged out. These firms included Al Haddad Enterprises, Inc.; A. Saleh & S. Al-Haddad, Inc.; and Al-Haddad Bros. Enterprises, Inc. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. At last report, Al-Haddad, 59, was awaiting extradition to Germany, where he is charged with conspiring in the late 1990s to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon.
(return to company index)
ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL, INC
(Formerly located in Baltimore, Maryland. Company was restructured as Alcolac, Inc., and it’s currently listed as an active Georgia corporation. Company’s assets now owned by French-based firm Rhodia, Inc., with U.S. operations based in Cranberry, New Jersey.)
1988 — Allegedly sold more than 300 tons of thiodiglycol (precursor material used to make mustard gas) via Nu Kraft Mercantile Corporation, which, according to congressional testimony and media reports, shipped the material to Jordan and then on to Iraq, through Iraq’s Industrial Procurement Company. In the same period, Alcolac also shipped thiodiglycol to Iran and pleaded guilty in 1988 to one count of export violations for its Iranian shipments. Alcolac is currently one of the corporate defendants in a Texas civil suit filed on behalf of some 3,500 Gulf War vets allegedly suffering from Gulf War syndrome. The suit initially named 64 American and international companies that allegedly provided Iraq with materials used to develop chemical and biological weapons. However, a number of those companies will likely be sued in European courts, and the current number of defendants is in flux. Ronald Welsh, the attorney representing Alcolac in that suit, denied any company wrongdoing in connection with Iraq and added that he had no "personal knowledge" of any Alcolac shipments of thiodiglycol to Saddam Hussein’s regime. But U.N. weapons-inspector reports, included in a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing on U.S. export policy toward Iraq, identified shipments of thiodiglycol that were sent to Iraq by Alcolac.
A spokesman for the company that now owns Alcolac emphasized that the "alleged illegal infractions" occurred before Alcolac was obtained by the current ownership.
(return to company index)
AMERICAN TYPE CULTURE COLLECTION
(Manassas, Virginia)
1985 to 1989 — ATCC is a nonprofit that provides biological products, technical services and educational programs to private industry, government and academia. It sent to Iraq some 70 shipments of deadly germs, which included anthrax bacteria, E. coli bacteria, salmonella bacteria, bacillus megaterium (which causes meningitis), bacillus subtilus and bacillus cereus (which are strains of anthrax), brucella abortus (which causes influenza), brucella melitensis (a bacteria that attacks major organs), clostridum botulinum (a source of botulism), clostridium perfringens (which causes lung failure), clostridium tetani (which causes muscle rigidity), and Francisella tularensis (which causes tularemia).
Made In the USA, Part III: US Company Listings A-M
By Jim Crogan
Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 12:00 am
AT&T
(New York City, New York)
2000 — Contracted with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to "optimize" Huawei’s products. Between 2000 and 2001, Huawei outfitted Iraq’s air-defense system with fiber-optic equipment, in violation of a U.N. trade embargo.
(return to company index)
AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.
(Formerly based in Nashville, Tennessee — defunct)
1984 to 1985 — Company sold 60 tons of DMMP, a material used to make sarin gas, to Iraq. Also provided chemical-production equipment to Iraq. In 1984, customs officials at Kennedy International Airport seized another Al Haddad shipment of 1,100 pounds of potassium fluoride, a chemical used in nerve-gas production. Al Haddad was not charged in this attempted transfer of chemicals, which were destined for Iraq’s Ministry of Pesticides. This firm also received letters of credit from BNL (an Italian bank) totaling $134,988 to sell knives and rubber blankets to Technical Corp. for Special Projects, an Iraqi front company. (Note: See Banca Nazionale del Lavoro entry for information about BNL’s Iraqi loans and letters of credit.)
The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born, naturalized American citizen. According to corporate records from Tennessee’s Department of State, Al Haddad operated a number of registered firms, which are all inactive, dissolved or merged out. These firms included Al Haddad Enterprises, Inc.; A. Saleh & S. Al-Haddad, Inc.; and Al-Haddad Bros. Enterprises, Inc. Recent stories in The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms sale to Iraq. At last report, Al-Haddad, 59, was awaiting extradition to Germany, where he is charged with conspiring in the late 1990s to purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon.
(return to company index)
ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL, INC
(Formerly located in Baltimore, Maryland. Company was restructured as Alcolac, Inc., and it’s currently listed as an active Georgia corporation. Company’s assets now owned by French-based firm Rhodia, Inc., with U.S. operations based in Cranberry, New Jersey.)
1988 — Allegedly sold more than 300 tons of thiodiglycol (precursor material used to make mustard gas) via Nu Kraft Mercantile Corporation, which, according to congressional testimony and media reports, shipped the material to Jordan and then on to Iraq, through Iraq’s Industrial Procurement Company. In the same period, Alcolac also shipped thiodiglycol to Iran and pleaded guilty in 1988 to one count of export violations for its Iranian shipments. Alcolac is currently one of the corporate defendants in a Texas civil suit filed on behalf of some 3,500 Gulf War vets allegedly suffering from Gulf War syndrome. The suit initially named 64 American and international companies that allegedly provided Iraq with materials used to develop chemical and biological weapons. However, a number of those companies will likely be sued in European courts, and the current number of defendants is in flux. Ronald Welsh, the attorney representing Alcolac in that suit, denied any company wrongdoing in connection with Iraq and added that he had no "personal knowledge" of any Alcolac shipments of thiodiglycol to Saddam Hussein’s regime. But U.N. weapons-inspector reports, included in a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing on U.S. export policy toward Iraq, identified shipments of thiodiglycol that were sent to Iraq by Alcolac.
A spokesman for the company that now owns Alcolac emphasized that the "alleged illegal infractions" occurred before Alcolac was obtained by the current ownership.
(return to company index)
AMERICAN TYPE CULTURE COLLECTION
(Manassas, Virginia)
1985 to 1989 — ATCC is a nonprofit that provides biological products, technical services and educational programs to private industry, government and academia. It sent to Iraq some 70 shipments of deadly germs, which included anthrax bacteria, E. coli bacteria, salmonella bacteria, bacillus megaterium (which causes meningitis), bacillus subtilus and bacillus cereus (which are strains of anthrax), brucella abortus (which causes influenza), brucella melitensis (a bacteria that attacks major organs), clostridum botulinum (a source of botulism), clostridium perfringens (which causes lung failure), clostridium tetani (which causes muscle rigidity), and Francisella tularensis (which causes tularemia).
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