Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
How a Big U.S. Bank Laundered Billions from Mexico’s Murderous Drug Gangs
April 4th, 2011Bloomberg ran a great piece about this back in June 2010. What has happened since then? Of course, there was some wrist-slapping, but, “Now that the year’s ‘deferred prosecution’ has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear.” Via: Guardian: On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad […]
Libyan Rebel Leader Spent Much of Past 20 Years in Suburban Virginia
March 31st, 2011Easily the best line in a couple of weeks. *chortle*: Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself… Via: McClatchy: The new leader of Libya’s opposition military spent the past two decades in […]
U.S. Says Libyan Rebels May Sell Oil
March 29th, 2011Via: Reuters: The United States on Monday gave a green light to sales of Libyan crude oil from rebel-held territory, giving a potential boost to forces battling Muammar Gaddafi. A U.S. Treasury Department official said Libyan rebels would not be subject to U.S. sanctions if they avoid entities linked to Gaddafi’s regime, which would allow […]
Libyan Rebels Form Central Bank
March 29th, 2011Mmm hmm. Via: Bloomberg: Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by leader Muammar Qaddafi whose assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council. The Transitional National Council released a statement announcing the decision made at a March 19 meeting to establish the […]
Social Computing Data Repository
March 24th, 2011Via: Arizona State University: Social Computing Data Repository hosts data from a collection of many different social media sites, most of which have blogging capacity. Some of the prominent social media sites included in this repository are BlogCatalog, Twitter, MyBlogLog, Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, MySpace, LiveJournal, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), Reddit, etc. The repository contains […]
‘Blood Money’ Frees CIA Contractor in Pakistan
March 16th, 2011Via: AP: An American CIA contractor detained on suspicion of murder was released on Wednesday after families of the two Pakistanis he killed were given “blood money” and the case was dropped, Pakistani officials said. The killings and detention of Raymond Allen Davis had strained ties between Pakistan and the United States and added to […]
Army Recruits Prisoners to Make Body Armor
March 14th, 2011Via: Wired: Building parts for Patriot missile systems was just a warm-up, apparently, for a government-owned company that relies on federal inmates making as little as 23 cents an hour. On Wednesday, the U.S. Army announced that it handed Federal Prison Industries a no-bid, nearly $20 million contract to build body armor. It’s the latest […]
Libya: Thanks to U.S. Pressure, Libyan Mercenaries Won’t Be Prosecuted for War Crimes
February 28th, 2011The U.S. couldn’t possibly be held accountable for the atrocities that its mercenaries have carried out (and continue to carry out). Oh, no, no, no. Via: Telegraph: African mercenaries hired by the Gaddafi regime to kill Libyan protesters would be immune from prosecution for war crimes due to a clause in this weekend’s UN resolution […]
Ex Judge Convicted of Racketeering; Taking Bribes from For-Profit Juvenile Detention Centers
February 19th, 2011Via: AP: A former juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups. Luzerne County ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, left the bench in disgrace two […]
New Zealand: Rural Broadband Scheme ‘Destructive’
February 17th, 2011Via: New Zealand Herald: John Key says he wants to “streamline and improve” bureaucracy. Bill English says the country can’t afford waffly policy. Great. They can do away with the Ministry of Economic Development. That should save billions and get rid of policy that is not only waffly but downright destructive. The decision to start […]
