Pentagon bankers may bail out Black

Guardian -Sunday November 23, 2003

A powerful banking group with close links to the Pentagon, which has also invested money on behalf of the Bin Laden family, is in talks to bail out beleaguered Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black.

The revelation suggests that Britain's bestselling broadsheet - coveted by rival newspaper barons because of its political influence - may not go under the hammer after all, as Lord Black tries to quell a shareholder rebellion in the face of allegations that he and several acolytes pocketed millions of dollars that was not theirs to take.

Daily Express owner Richard Desmond and the Daily Mail & General Trust, which owns the Daily Mail, are keen to buy the Telegraph titles, despite the fact that questions over the concentration of media ownership would be raised.

The Carlyle Group, known as the Ex-Presidents Club because of the number of former world leaders it employs, is considering taking a stake in Hollinger International, which owns the Telegraph titles, the Jerusalem Post and the Chicago Sun-Times, according to those close to the firm.

...Carlyle, - which employs former Prime Minister John Major as a director, boasts George Bush Snr and his Secretary of State, James Baker, as advisers, and is headed by Frank Carlucci, Ronald Reagan's Defence Secretary - has invested in media firms previously. The group once owned 40 per cent of France's Le Figaro, and more recently acquired part of French conglomerate Vivendi's publishing assets.

It also part-owns Qinetiq, the Government's privatised defence research laboratories, and CSX Lines, a logistics firm that specialises in shipping heavy equipment for the military. In the past, Carlyle has owned Vinnell, a company that trained the Saudi army.

If Carlyle - which, despite being only 15 years old, manages more than $14 billion in funds on behalf of investors such as George Soros and the Bin Laden family (who are estranged from their son Osama) - does take a stake in Hollinger, questions are bound to be asked over the links between the two firms, both of which have powerful links to the military.

Leading foreign policy hawks Richard Perle and Henry Kissinger sit on the Hollinger board. Black himself is a member of the secretive Bilderberg group, an organisation comprising the world's leading businessmen and politicians, which some have accused of being an alternative world government.

In a separate move, it has emerged that Wall Street fund manager Tweedy Browne will take legal action against the Hollinger board if it is not satisfied with the company's actions.

Shareholders are angry that tens of millions of dollars that Black and fellow directors took in 'non-compete' fees did not go to Hollinger.

'I want to know how this board came to pay out a red cent to these people,' said Tweedy Browne analyst Laura Jeresky.

Hollinger is the subject of an inquiry by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Investigators are keen to understand the company's relationship with Ravelston Corporation, which is privately owned by Black and has been the beneficiary of millions of dollars which shareholders say should be returned to them.

Toronto-based Ravelston pays millions of dollars in management fees to Ravelston Management Inc (RMI). There are suggestions that RMI may be based in a tax haven. Hollinger spokesman Paul Healy declined to comment.

<  Turkish 9/11?- Today at Protests: Bush, Blair, CIA blamed for Attack | MoveOn: GFP's 'Bush Lies in 30 Seconds' Preview  >

Turkish 9/11?- Today at Protests: Bush, Blair, CIA blamed for Attack

Mirror UK -Nov 22 2003

...Turkey's broadsheet paper Millyet quoted a US secret service agent as the source of its story for an imminent suicide bomb. It said authorities nationwide were alerted on November 14.

Mr Short had been in consultation with the Foreign Office about security at the consulate where staff worked in gatehouses while the main building was renovated.

Turks gather to condemn attacks, blame U.S. policy

Reuters Alertnet -November 22

...Several thousand Turks gathered in Istanbul and other cities on Saturday to condemn this week's suicide bombings, with many protesting against what they see as the root cause of the attacks -- the United States.

... "We know who the murderers are," said a caption on one placard, below pictures of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

... "I believe these attacks carry the fingerprints of the CIA, Mossad and (Turkish intelligence service) MIT. They want to push Turkey and America closer together after recent tensions between them," said 22-year-old engineering student Mustafa Colak.

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Ex-CIA on Bremer firing Iraqi Teachers: "A piece of real stupidity"

Bremer Fires 28,000 Iraqi School Teachers

UPI/MenaFN -11-21-3 By Richard Sale

UPI Intelligence Correspondent

"A piece of real stupidity" - former CIA official

American's top man in Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer, last week fired 28,000 Iraqi teachers as political punishment for their former membership in the Saddam Hussein-dominated Baath Party, fueling anti-U.S. resistance on the ground, administration officials have told United Press International.

A Central Command spokesman, speaking to UPI from Baghdad, acknowledged that the firings had taken place but said the figure of 28,000 "is too high."

He was unable, however, after two days, to supply UPI with a lower, revised total.

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U.S. General in Kabul: Capture of Bin Laden "not essential"

U.S. General Says Bin Laden 'Out of the Picture'

Reuters -Fri Nov 21

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A senior U.S. general said on Friday that al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden had "taken himself out of the picture" and that his capture was not essential to winning the "war on terror."

General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at U.S. military headquarters just north of Kabul that the 11,500-strong U.S.-led force hunting al Qaeda and Taliban militants was not focusing on individuals.

"He (bin Laden) has taken himself out of the picture," Pace told reporters after visiting U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan.

"It is not an individual that is as important as is the ongoing campaign of the coalition against terrorists," he said.

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New Leakergate put pressure on PNAC-Neocon Hawks

Feith and Libby main suspects of "deplorable" and "illegal" leak

Leaks in Pentagon indicate neo-cons' desperation

HiPakistan -November 22 2003

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON: This week's blockbuster leak of a secret memorandum from a senior Pentagon official to the Senate Intelligence Committee has spurred speculation that neo- conservative hawks in the Bush administration are on the defensive and growing more desperate.

Both the committee and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation of the leak, which took the form of an article published on Monday by the influential neo-conservative journal, 'The Weekly Standard'.

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts characterised the leak as 'egregious', noting that it might have compromised "highly classified information" on intelligence sources and methods of collecting information, as well as ongoing investigations. He also said he did not believe the leak came from his committee or its staff.

The Pentagon issued an unusual press statement declaring that the leak was "deplorable and may be illegal". The article, 'Case Closed', is a summary of a lengthy memo sent to the committee on Oct 27 by Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith.

He had been asked by the senators to provide support for his assertion in a closed hearing last July that US intelligence agencies had established a long-standing operational link between the Al Qaeda terrorist group and Baghdad.

That, and similar assertions by senior Bush officials before the war, have long been considered questionable, more so after the war when the administration - as with its pre-war contentions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - failed to come up with evidence to back its case.

Investigative reporters and Iraq war critics have accused Feith's office of having manipulated or 'cherry-picked' the intelligence on Iraq's purported ties to Al Qaeda and WMD programmes before the war to persuade Bush and the public that Saddam posed a serious threat to the United States.

The leaked memo consists mainly of 50 excerpts culled from raw intelligence reports by four US intelligence agencies about alleged Al Qaeda-Iraqi contacts from 1990 to 2003.

Some of the reports include brief analysis, but most cite accounts by unnamed sources, such as "a contact with good access", "a well placed source", "a former senior Iraqi intelligence officer", a "regular and reliable source", "sensitive CIA reporting", and "a foreign government service".

Although the article's author, Weekly correspondent Stephen Hayes, concludes that much of the evidence is "detailed, conclusive, and corroborated by multiple sources", the only example of real corroboration is with respect to several reports regarding contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraqi agents in Afghanistan in 1999.

Most of the excerpts deal instead with alleged meetings or less direct contacts in which sources claim that Al Qaeda agents are requesting certain kinds of assistance, such as a safe haven, training or, in one case, WMD.

While supporters of the war in Iraq, such as the New York Times' William Safire, have jumped on the Hayes' article as proof of what the administration had alleged, retired intelligence officers have criticized it, both because of the security breach of the leak itself and because its contents are anything but "conclusive" of an operational relationship.

W. Patrick Lang, former head of the Middle East section of the Defence Intelligence Agency, told the 'Washington Post' the article amounted to a "listing of a mass of unconfirmed reports, many of which themselves indicate that the two groups continued to try to establish some sort of relationship".

At the same time, he added, it raises the question: "If they had such a productive relationship, why did they have to keep trying?" Other retired officers stressed that, to the extent that virtually all of the excerpts consist of raw intelligence unvetted by professional analysts, the article appeared to prove precisely what critics had been saying: Feith's office simply picked those items in raw intelligence that tended to confirm their pre-existing views that a relationship must have existed, without subjecting the evidence to the kind of rigorous analysis that intelligence agencies would apply.

"This is made to dazzle the eyes of the not terribly educated," Greg Thielmann, a veteran of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) who retired in 2002, told IPS.

"It begs the question, 'Is this the best they can do'? If you're going to expose this stuff, you'd better have something more than this," he said, adding, "My inclination is to interpret this as probably a very good example of cherry-picking and the selective use of intelligence that was so obvious in the lead-up to the war."

Melvin Goodman, a former top CIA analyst, said the leak is a sign of desperation. "To me, they had to leak something like this, because the neo-conservatives (in the administration) have nothing to stand on. They're trying to get the idea out there that, 'Hey, there was a case for war', and they have 'useful idiots' like Safire who say they're right."

The notion that the leak was "friendly" or "authorized" by hawks in the Pentagon or their allies in Vice President Dick Cheney's office - as opposed to an unauthorized leak designed to embarrass the author - is widely accepted here.

The Standard, particularly Hayes and executive editor William Kristol, have acted as a mouthpiece for administration hawks like Feith, his immediate boss, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and their friends in Cheney's office, particularly his powerful chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, since even before the administration's "war on terror", declared after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sept 11, 2001.

But at the same time it raises serious questions about the judgment of those responsible for the leak. Not only does the intelligence contained in the article fall embarrassingly short of "closing the case" on Iraq-Al Qaeda links, the leak itself of such highly classified material might fuel the impression that the neo-conservatives, if they were indeed the source, are willing to sacrifice the country's secrets to retain power.

"It shows a cavalier and almost contemptuous regard for the national security rationale for keeping information classified," according to Thielmann. "The objective of silencing the critics is so overwhelming that you have to throw national security secrets to the wind."

Both he and Goodman noted striking similarities between this latest case and the leak last July of the identity of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA officer.

White House Cancels Overtime Pay (FDR) for Hundreds of Thusands

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Foes of the Bush administration's proposed rules changing which workers would qualify for overtime pay abandoned their fight Friday in the face of unrelenting pressure from the White House and the House.

AP Photo

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chief Republican opponent of the new rules, agreed to drop a provision killing the regulations from a massive spending bill, lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists said.

Critics of the new rules said they could lead to 8 million Americans losing eligibility for overtime pay, largely white-collar workers earning more than $65,000 a year. Administration officials say more than 644,000 such employees would lose the time-and-a-half pay now required when they work more than 40 hours in a week.

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Chomsky about Bush in England: "Most unwelcome visitor since William the Conqueror"

Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet'

INN Report/GFP -November 21

On Thursday, Noam Chomsky, at a public lecture in New York, citing London's Mayor Livingstone, in an exclusive tv report today on INN Report (GlobalFreePress' latest cooperation partner).

Noam Chomsky talked about the current War in Iraq and argued, that "Hussein was no threat for the world", in fact Iraq "met primary conditions to be attacked", as one of the weakest countries of that region. Chomsky refered also to London's Mayor Livingstone: "Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet'" and was the "most unwelcome visitor in England since William the Conqueror".

Also in this week's show of INN (Live Stream 6PM EST): A report about the 5th round of the 9/11 Commission (see also TomFlocco.com) Also in this week's show ,protest footage from Miami and London

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Tommy Franks suggests Military Government after WMD attack

Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack

Update: Open letter to WRH- "Why I believe an attack is imminent" (11/21)

Newsmax -Friday, Nov. 21, 2003

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.

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FBI Used Killers as Informants

F.B.I. Used Killers as Informants, Report Says

NY Times -November 21, 2003

By FOX BUTTERFIELD

A report issued yesterday by the House Committee on Government Reform gave the fullest accounting to date of the F.B.I.'s use of murderers as informants in Boston for three decades and its protection of them even to the point of allowing innocent men to be sentenced to death.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's policy "must be considered one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement" and had "disastrous consequences," the report said.

More than 20 people were killed by F.B.I. informants in Boston starting in 1965, often with the help of F.B.I. agents, it said, but no F.B.I. agent or official has ever been disciplined.

Separately, it said William M. Bulger, then the president of the University of Massachusetts, gave "inconsistent" testimony to the committee last June about whether the F.B.I. had contacted him in its search for his fugitive gangster brother, James Bulger, who is on the bureau's most wanted list. James Bulger, known as Whitey, headed an underworld gang in Boston and was one of the F.B.I.'s star informants before he fled in 1995 after being tipped off by a bureau agent to a secret indictment against him.

In his testimony in Washington, Mr. Bulger said the F.B.I. never asked him about his brother's whereabouts, though a retired agent later said he tried to speak to Mr. Bulger but was told that Mr. Bulger would not talk.

While critical of Mr. Bulger, the report stopped short of saying he had committed perjury.

And it said it there was insufficient evidence to find that Mr. Bulger, during his days as president of the Massachusetts Senate, used his influence to punish those who investigated his brother.

Mr. Bulger's lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, said the committee's findings were "a total vindication on everything that matters" for Mr. Bulger.

The bureau, in a written statement, said, "While the F.B.I. recognizes there have been instances of misconduct by a few F.B.I. employees, it also recognizes the importance of human source information in terrorism, criminal and counter-intelligence investigations."

To avoid future problems, the statement said, "the F.B.I. has taken significant steps in recent years regarding the management and oversight of human sources of intelligence."

The F.B.I.'s policy of using murderers grew out of a belated effort by Director J. Edgar Hoover to go after the Mafia, which Mr. Hoover had earlier denied even existed, the report said. So in the early 1960's the bureau began recruiting underworld informers in its new campaign.

The report focuses heavily on one episode, the 1965 murder of Edward Deegan, a small-time hoodlum, who was killed by Jimmy Flemmi and Joseph Barboza, who had just been recruited by an F.B.I. agent in Boston, H. Paul Rico.

The F.B.I. knew the two men were the killers because it had been using an unauthorized wiretap at the headquarters of the New England Mafia in Providence, R.I., and had heard Mr. Flemmi ask the Mafia boss, Raymond Patriarca, for permission to kill Mr. Deegan. A few days later Mr. Deegan was shot to death.

The F.B.I. was so intent on protecting its new informants, the report said, that it passed up a chance to try Mr. Patriarca for his involvement in the killing. Instead, four men who had nothing to do with the killing were tried and convicted, with two sentenced to death and two to life in prison. Two of the men later died in prison, and two had their sentences commuted and were freed after serving 30 years behind bars.

Mr. Hoover was kept fully informed about this murder and the wrongful convictions, the report said.

Iraq: Mayor of Fallujah resigns

US Backed Mayor of Fallujah Resigns

AP -November 21

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Taha Bedawi, the U.S.-backed mayor of this volatile city west of Baghdad, resigned Thursday amid mounting criticism of his performance, the local U.S. military commander said.

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Richard Perle's U-Turn: Iraq Invasion was Illegal

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal

Update: US hid vital war data from allies (11/21)

The Guardian -Thursday November 20, 2003

Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

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Italian Official resigned from U.S.-led Iraq Admin

Italian: U.S. Is Fueling Iraqi Anger

AP -November 17

ROME (AP)--An Italian official resigned from the U.S.-led administration running Iraq, saying it is mismanaging reconstruction, out of touch with Iraqis and only fueling their anger, the Foreign Ministry and news reports said Monday.

``The provisional authority simply doesn't work,'' Marco Calamai, a special counselor to the authority in the province of Dhi Qar, told reporters in announcing his resignation, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

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Perle-Boss Conrad Black steps down

Hollinger chief Black to step down

Update: Hollinger faces US investigation (11/20)

Reuters -Mon 17 November, 2003 08:39

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher Hollinger International says Chief Executive Conrad Black and other top officials will step down after the company found unauthorised payments to Black and other executives.

Hollinger, whose newspapers include the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, said it has hired Lazard LLC to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company or a sale of one or more of its major properties.

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Ex-US Ambassador to Washington: Blair warned WH before War

Update: Brit Envoy: We Warned U.S. (CBS 11/17)

Cheney Ignored War Chaos Alert

Ex-Ambassador Meyer revealed that Tony Blair had made a personal appeal to Bush in the new year to delay the war.
Both Bush and Cheney Ignored War Chaos Alert

Guardian/Observer- Sunday November 16, 2003 -By Kamal Ahmed

British warnings that America was failing before the war to prepare properly for a crumbling security situation in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was ousted were ignored by Vice President Dick Cheney and the Pentagon.

In some of the first direct evidence of serious divisions between the key allies in the run-up to the conflict, the former British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, said the US had failed to focus on what might happen after Saddam had been overthrown.

...In an interview with The Observer, Meyer, who was ambassador just before the war began, said there were a series of meetings between British and American officials between the signing of the United Nations Resolution 1441 last November and the start of the war in March.

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DoD debunked PNAC's AlQuaeda-Iraq ties as "inaccurate"

Only a few hours after the so called "new evidence about 10 year old ties" between Iraq and Al-Quaeda, leaked by one PNAC-member (Douglas Feith) to another one (Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard), the Pentagon responded harsh: "Inaccurate" and "illegal"

Update: Trouble for Feith? -CIA Seeks Probe of Iraq-Al Qaeda Memo Leak (11/18)
Update: Other fake stories -The Top Documents by Colonel Sam Gardiner (ret.)
Update: Rupert Murdoch's NY POST and FOX ignored the DoD statement on Sunday (11/16)

DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connections

DoD --No. 851-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 15, 2003

vs.

News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.

A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on October 27, 2003 from Douglas J. Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony.

US wants ban on protests during Bush visit

Belfast Telegraph -12 November 2003

Anti-war protesters claim that US authorities have demanded a rolling "exclusion zone" around President George Bush during his visit, as well as a ban on marches in parts of central London.

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AP President: Protest letter to Pentagon

U.S. Troops More Hostile With Reporters

AP/Guardian -Thursday November 13, 2003 12:16 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - With casualties mounting in Iraq, jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict.

Media people have been detained, news equipment has been confiscated and some journalists have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on events.

...The president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, an association of editors at AP's more than 1,700 newspapers in the United States and Canada, sent a protest letter to the Pentagon on Wednesday urging officials to ``immediately take the steps to end such confrontations.''

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Italian "Suspects": U.S. designated 15 people as terrorists

12 hours after the attack on Italian Troops in Iraq, the U.S. designated 15 italian suspects as "terrorists", among them Abu Musab al Zarqawi

U.S. freezes assets of 15 in Italy

CNN -Wednesday, November 12, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury said Wednesday it has designated 15 people as terrorists for their involvement in al Qaeda cells in the Italian cities of Milan, Cremona and Parma.

The Italian government has frozen the assets of the cells within Italy, where most of the 15 are in custody. The U.S. designation is a sign of support of Italy's effort to have the United Nations declare the 15 as terrorists.

The U.S. designation freezes any assets the 15 had in the U.S. and bars transactions with U.S. nationals. U.N. designation will require all U.N. member states to take similar actions.

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Billions against Bush

Instead of supporting impeachment and subpoena campaigns, 2 billionaires (Soros with Carlyle ties) are pushing the election 2004 agenda

US billionaires bankroll anti-Bush ads

Update: Soros's foundation left 'paralysed' after raid (11/12)

Guardian -Tuesday, November 11

"Two of the world's richest men have pledged up to $5m for an anti-George Bush advertising campaign in an effort to oust the US president in next year's presidential election.

The international financier George Soros and Peter Lewis, chairman of the US motor insurance firm Progressive Corp, are prepared to spend £3m between them on television ads criticising the president.

They have pledged to donate 50 cents for every $1 raised for a planned $10m campaign being put together by the online activists Moveon.org."

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Iraqnam: Bremer in Crisis Talk with Bush

U.S. Aide in Iraq in Urgent Talks at White House

Updates:

NY Times -November 12, 2003

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 — L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Iraq, made a hurried return to Washington on Tuesday as Bush administration officials held an urgent round of meetings to discuss ways of speeding up the transfer of power to Iraqis.

The meetings reflected dissatisfaction with the pace of progress in Iraq and a growing conviction that Mr. Bremer must abandon his methodical plan to move gradually toward the election of an Iraqi government over a year or two, officials said.

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Private Military Contractor released "Al-Quaeda Study"

Report Evaluates al-Qaida Risks Worldwide

AP -November 11

"...A report released Tuesday said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has been largely dismantled, but the threat posed by extremist Muslim terrorists remains high and has grown harder to track.

The report by the London-based Control Risks Group said the number of countries likely to pose a medium security risk to Western businesses operating in them was 71 for 2004, with 14 countries bumped up from low-risk. The group is a private consultancy that advises companies on security..."

In Reality, as GFP found out, "Control Risks Group" is a PMC (Private Military Contractor), founded in 1975 as a subsidiary of the Hogg Robinson insurance group, which runs UK Armed Forces pensions, together with former Halliburton Partner, Schlumberger (Oilfield Services, Real-Time Energy Management and one of the National ID Developers).

Hogg Robinson is a market leading armed forces insurance specialist which owns EDS, a supporter of the e-voting industry .

CRG has also distinguished itself in the kidnap and rescue industry, sending in ex-military personnel to advise on negotiations or rescue attempts in places like Colombia and Nigeria. They have also offices in Algeria, Pakistan, Phillipines and Bahrain.

More about the Profile of Control Risks Group and Hogg Robinson

Control Risks Group is the leading, specialist, international business risk consultancy.

In 1975 Control Risks Group was founded as a subsidiary of the then Hogg Robinson insurance and travel group.

In July 2003 Control Risks opened also a "project office" in Iraq and October 2003 saw the opening of a new office in China.

CRG claims to have had "more than 5,300 clients, including 86 of the Fortune 100 companies, in more than 130 countries.

Hogg Robinson, the main group, which runs Control Risks, is specialised in Corporate and employee services.

In June 2001, Hogg Robinson announced the disposal of its insurance broking businesses - Wilsons Hogg Robinson and Quotecheck - to Towergate. 

Wilsons Hogg Robinson is a market leading armed forces insurance specialist providing products for services personnel, as well as cover for their units. Quotecheck is a telephone and extranet based civilian insurance intermediary. 

Other highlights in the recent history of Hogg Robinson:

2000: Joint venture of TRX Europe

1999: Joint venture with BCD Holdings and Kuoni, major share in BTI

1998: Paymaster becomes wholly owned by Hogg Robinson. Two years later, in 2000, Paymaster wins a contract for administration and payment of Armed Forces pensions, including Soldiers’ pensions.

In 2001, Paymaster wins a 14 year contract to be strategic partner to NHS Pensions Agency, working with SchlumbergerSema and Claybrook, providing finance, administration, IT and support services.

Claybrook is UK's leading pensions administration and actuarial valuation software provider.

In the US, a company with the same name, Paymaster, is specialised since 1983 in assistance in payroll processing, workers' compensation, and health insurance.

SchlumbergerSema is a subsidiary of Schlumberger (once a partner of Halliburton) and currently working on a National ID System.
SchlumbergerSema is specialised in Real-Time Energy Management .

They are also Technology Partner for the Olympic Games.
Among their three primary business segments are Schlumberger Oilfield Services, SchlumbergerSema and WesternGeco, jointly owned with Baker Hughes, the world's largest and most advanced surface seismic company.

According to the History of Paymaster, Hogg Robinson aquired Paymaster in 1997 in collaboration with EDS.

Hogg Robinson aquired both Paymaster and EDS for a total cash consideration of £17.8 million.

Meanwhile, in 2003, EDS (Electronic Data Systems Limited) has some new interesting projects. They not only run an electronic task force for E-Voting Machines (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and SAIC), together with Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and Accenture (new name for former ENRON auditor Arthur Andersen), they're also since 2000, partner of Raytheon Command, Control, Communication and Information Systems, which is providing total systems security for the Navy Marine Corps Intranet program

One of the plans of EDS is to organise an online military vote in 2004, probably with help of the very same system, they develop since 2000 with Raytheon C3I.

Raytheon C3I is one of the largest businesses within Raytheon Co. and is involved in a host of DOD information technology programs, such as NMCI, satellite communications, the Joint Tactical Radio System and the Army’s Tactical Internet, as well as other federal government and commercial programs.

Meanwhile, some investigative journalists like Lynn Landes are looking into a large list of conflicts of interests of EDS, but since August 2003, EDS's contracting practices are also under watch by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as Washington Post reported.

The Electronic Voting Machine Industry is currently part of a controversial, but politically downplayed discussion. Diebold and Sequoia, both producers of e-voting machines, got targeted by voting activists. Diebold reacted with threatening to shutdown their websites.

As it came out, internal memos of Diebold showed, that they used uncertified and flawable software.

In California's recall, Sequoia was switching Shasta County over to its touch screens in time for the recall vote. Riverside County is also a Sequoia customer.

Alameda and Plumas counties are already using electronic voting machines made by competitor Diebold.

Both cities complained about irregularities during the voting process.

It's interesting to know, how Hogg Robinson's business park and their subsidiary Control Risks Group tie together.

A "specialist of Al Quaeda", which released a new report, only one day after a professional (and by the US State Department "announced") attack in Saudi Arabia by people "in police uniforms", where still noone claimed responsibility yet and on the same day of an obscure airspace violation of DC, where nothing was revealed more about the pilot's identity?

The release of this "report" smacks at least like a political copycat -for more military business.

Who runs CRG and who has a real interest of analysing "terror"?

Chairman Jonathan Fry came from Burmah, where he was successively Chief Executive of the Chemicals and Castrol divisions.

Nigel Churton joined Control Risks Group in 1980 as a consultant advising corporations on resolving incidents of kidnap and extortion. He has personally handled or managed over 100 incidents of kidnap and product extortion worldwide.

Churton is specialised in intelligence and counter-terrorism activities for which he was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE).

As the Investigative Group ICIJ found out, CRG is meanwhile specialised in the kidnap and rescue industry, sending in ex-military personnel to advise on negotiations or rescue attempts in places like Colombia and Nigeria.

The Control Risks Group has also joined the Energy Industries Council (EIC).
The Energy Industries Council (EIC) is the leading Trade Association for UK companies that supply services to the energy industry worldwide. The EIC has offices in London (Head Office), Aberdeen, Houston, Rio and Singapore.
In February 2003, Control Risks announced a new partnership with Hunt & Palmer International, the global Aircraft Charter broker.

Control Risks Group has a long history of working with many of the world's premier companies in the energy sector.

But they have also ties to one of the Pentagon's most important security companies, Kroll Associates:

Their chief financial Officer, John Conyngham, held the position of legal adviser and Head of Fraud Investigation at Kroll Associates.

Non-executive Director Robin Baillie has ties with the Standard Chartered Group.

He was appointed an Executive Director of Standard Chartered PLC in 1983.

It would be interesting to know, how Control Risks Group received exactly their knowledge about "Al-Quaeda", which officially is so hard to track by the CIA.

Does CRG have the better connections?

And if so, who are their connections?

CRG publishes now also a "RiskMap" to Forecast Opportunities and Trouble, spots for 2004.

Smells a bit like the former John Poindexter plan, for which he had to resign some months ago.

A risk map? Sounds like the same "proposal for setting up a speculator's "market" for betting on future assassinations".

CRG is just another private military contractor, which does the dirty work for the Government, when it should not be officially confirmed.

By privatising these kind of military business acts, the U.S. Government is no longer accountable for their actions. It makes sense in the long run, when PMCs replace CIA- and Pentagon-related business. Meanwhile it helps to repeat their "incompetence" to let them appear more and more unprofessional and then replace with professional analyst business".

This kind of analyst reporting is part of their strategy and it's harder to track.

In the two years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has systematically reduced the amount of information available to the public, which in turn has made government officials less accountable to taxpayers.

Until recently, as ZDNet found out, "the Web site for the Defense Science Board--an obscure but influential advisory body that influences military policy and had a budget of $3.6 million a year--had listed the board's membership.

Today, the board's Web site still includes links to "members" and "task force members," but one link requires a password, and the other link returns a "404: file not found" error."

These members, now hidden by "national security" are still visible. They are only one mouse click away, at "companies" like Northrop Grumman, Sandia National Laboratory or General Dynamics.

These are the same companies, who are founding all these Consultancy Groups and ThinkTanks, who claim to tell us the truth about "terrorist groups", while they in reality represent the interests of energy- and oil industry.

Case for war confected, say top US officials

Ex-CIA McGovern: No President has lied so baldly and so often and so demonstrably

Two new Independent UK Articles and Robert Greenwalds documentary reveal a new rising pressure on the US Government- by current and former US Officials and Intelligence Members

Independent -November 9

An unprecedented array of US intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq. In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair.

A new documentary film beginning to circulate in the United States features one powerful condemnation after another, from the sort of people who usually stay discreetly in the shadows - a former director of the CIA, two former assistant secretaries of defence, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and even the man who served as President Bush's Secretary of the Army until just a few months ago.

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