Corruption is Everywhere > Former Chinese Dep Minister Jailed for Life; America Hammers Bosnia and Herzegovina; Suu Kyi's Economist gets 3 Years

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Chinese ‘political clique’ leader Sun Lijun faces life in jail

for corruption as law enforcement purge winds down

The former deputy security minister accused of being disloyal to Xi Jinping

was given a suspended death sentence

Five other members of Sun’s faction have been sentenced this week as the purge winds down ahead of a major leadership reshuffle

William Zheng

Published: 2:08pm, 23 Sep, 2022

South China Morning Post

China’s former deputy security minister Sun Lijun was given a suspended death sentence that will be commuted after two years. Photo: Weibo

China’s former deputy security minister Sun Lijun, who was accused of leading a “political clique” and being disloyal to President Xi Jinping, was jailed for life on Friday.

Sun’s sentencing came after five former police chiefs who were implicated in his corruption case were jailed earlier this week, indicating that the biggest purge in China’s security apparatus over the last five years is drawing to a close.

U.S. sanctions Bosnian state prosecutor over corruption

By Darryl Coote

   

The Treasury under Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday sanctioned Diana Kajmakovic, a Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutor, on accusations of corruption. Photo by Graeme Jennings/UPI 

Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The Biden administration has blacklisted a Bosnia and Herzegovina prosecutor as it seeks to weed out corruption that it says threatens the Western Balkan nation's democratic institutions.

The Departments of Treasury identified state prosecutor Diana Kajmakovic for sanctions Monday, accusing her of being "a brazenly corrupt BiH state prosecutor" with links to criminal organizations.

The question is: who in the Balkans doesn't have links to organized crime?

U.S. officials said Kajmakovic was found to be involved with narcotics traffickers in a crackdown on organized crime in the country.

Investigators who analyzed private conversations of criminals conducted via encrypt messaging applications found mentions of Kajmakovic who worked on some of their investigations.

The officials said Kajmakovic is accused of using her position to help the criminals hide evidence, avoid prosecution and block investigations into their activities for personal gain.

"Diana Kajmakovic has continued to undermine democracy and the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement. "Today's designation reinforces the United States' commitment to a stable and prosperous Bosnia and Herzegovina by targeting an individual who has played a central role in enabling corruption in the country."

My next question is: Why is the USA so interested in BiH corruption, and so not interested in Ukrainian corruption; or, for that matter, American corruption?

The sanctions, which freeze all U.S. property under Kajmakovic's name and bars Americans from doing business with her, were imposed as the Biden administration has sought to punish Bosnia and Herzegovina officials who threaten the Balkan nation's democracy through their pursuit of ethno-nationalist political interests.

Is this a clue to the real reason for sanctioning Kajmakovic? Was she interfering with America's control over BiH? Nothing is ever as it seems in national or global politics.

In June, the Biden administration sanctioned two Bosnia and Herzegovina government officials for undermining government institutions and furthering secession efforts.

In April, the administration hit two Bosnia and Herzegovina government officials, a member of parliament and a former chief prosecutor, on allegations of corruption.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed in 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody three-and-a-half-year Bosnian War that resulted in the deaths of some 100,000 people.

Blinken said the country currently faces the "most serious political crisis" since the end of the Bosnian War and that its justice system is "increasingly captured by, and under the control of, political parties and their patronage networks."

Are we talking about organized crime or are we talking about nationalists?

"The United States will continue to use all authorities at its disposal to promote accountability for those who engage in corrupt activities or undermine BiH's democratic processes and institutions," the United States' top prosecutor said Monday in a statement.

Nothing is ever as it seems....

Suu Kyi convicted again, Australian economist gets 3 years

By GRANT PECK

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi waits to address judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 11, 2019. A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating an official secrets law, a legal official said. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating Myanmar’s official secrets act, a legal official said.

Suu Kyi received a three-year sentence after being convicted with Turnell under the secrets law, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information about the case.

Three members of her Cabinet were also found guilty, each receiving sentences of three years.

Turnell was also convicted of violating immigration law, for which he was given a three-year sentence to be served concurrently with the term for violating the secrets law. The 20 months he has already spent in detention will be deducted from his sentence, leaving him less than a year and a half to serve.

Turnell, 58, an associate professor in economics at Sydney’s Macquarie University, had served as an adviser to Suu Kyi, who was detained in the capital Naypyitaw when her elected government was ousted by the army on Feb. 1, 2021.

Family and friends expressed hope he will soon be freed and deported, as has occurred with other foreigners in Myanmar convicted of political offenses, though less serious ones.

Of course, because it has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with burying Suu Kyi so the army can remain in control unchallenged.

Tens of Thousands of Far-Right Poles March in Warsaw as Nationalism and AntiSemitism Still Rising

‘Europe is dying!’ Tens of thousands of far-righters march in ‘independence’ parade calling for ‘Polish Intifada’ 

© Reuters / Kamil Jasinski

Tens of thousands of Polish nationalists took to the streets of Warsaw for an annual far-right march commemorating the country’s independence, with many displaying white power symbols and waving red flares and tiki torches.

Marchers carried Polish flags and chanted “No to the European Union” and “God, honor, homeland!” among other ultra-nationalist slogans. Black-hooded demonstrators held up banners calling for a “Polish Intifada” and denouncing zionism.

Would a Polish Intifada look a lot like Kristallnacht? I suspect, if it ever really started, it would include violence against any Jews, non-whites, gays, and transgenders. It's a frightening thought.

The marchers were out in force to commemorate the 1918 establishment of the second Polish republic, formed in the aftermath of World War I from parts of Germany, Austria and Russia.

Participants, gathered in central Warsaw, were warned by organizer Robert Bakiewicz that the world has “abandoned God and Christianity” and Poland will die “as the nations of western Europe are dying,” Reuters reported. 

The march also drew anti-abortion and anti-LGBT activists, with some demonstrators chanting in support of the “regular family,” the Notes From Poland website reported.

Anti-immigration was another major theme of the event, with Ziemowit Przebitkowski of the ultra-nationalist All-Polish Youth group telling Poles that it was important to foster “national morals” and stop mass immigration.

The so-called independence march has grown to attract the attention and participation of far-right groups and figures from around the world. This year, activists from the far-right Italian Forza Nuova group and hardline activists from Hungary also took part. 

Meanwhile, a smaller anti-fascist protest organized by left-wing groups took place along the route of the main march, with protesters holding a large banner reading “constitution” — a symbol of opposition to the current right-wing nationalist government. “Nazis be gone,” read another opposition banner.

Poland is increasingly polarized since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party took power four years ago promising a revival of patriotism and traditional Catholic values. PiS has been accused of turning a blind eye to growing ultra-nationalism and anti-Semitism.

Polish President Andrzej Duda made an appeal for unity on Monday, calling for “one common homeland, beyond all divisions” but acknowledging that “different ideologies and beliefs” are allowed in a free democratic Poland.

This year's event was considerably smaller than last year's, which marked the centenary of Poland's independence and saw about 200,000 people participate, including Duda himself.

Housing Development on Ukraine Holocaust Site Draws Outrage

Antisemitism is rising on the continent! Is another Holocaust even possible?

By Nicholas Sakelaris

An Ultra-Orthodox Jew visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum on January 24 in Jerusalem, Israel.

File Photo by Debbie Hill /UPI | License Photo

(UPI) -- Jewish and advocacy groups are fighting plans for developers to build a housing property on the site of a mass grave from the Holocaust in Ukraine.

The World Jewish Congress "expressed its outrage at the prospect of construction being carried out on a plot ... containing mass graves of Jewish victims of the Holocaust."

Poltava was once home to 12,860 Jews before World War II. When the Nazis invaded Ukraine, they rounded up the Jews and put them into ghettos where they were killed in two operations in September and November of 1941. An estimated 5,000 Jews were killed, as were Russian prisoners and resistance fighters.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder called plans for the housing development at Pushkarivski Yar in Poltava "deeply troubling."

"It is critical in 2019, with rising nationalism and increasing attempts by some to whitewash history, that we work together to ensure that sites such as this one are preserved so they may serve as a reminder to the world of what can happen when hatred is permitted to thrive unchecked," Lauder said. "I am sure that, after further reflection, the Ukrainian government will act accordingly by honoring the memory of the victims and appropriately commemorating the atrocities that occurred on this hallowed ground."

The local community started a petition and presented it to the Poltava City Council to stop the construction. The issue made it to the Ministry of Culture in Kiev, which tried to intervene.

Israeli Ambassador to the Ukraine Joel Leon pleaded with councilors on behalf of all those who died in the town during the Holocaust.

"Our brother's blood cries out to me from the soil," Leon said, citing a line from the Book of Genesis.

Last year, a Holocaust memorial in Poltava was vandalized with graffiti on Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's birthday. The messages spray painted on the memorial included "Heil Hitler" and swastikas. The words "Death to Jews" was also spray painted near the memorial.

Antisemitism is still growing on the continent, and after the next elections, possibly becoming government in the UK. It is also growing in the Americas. Is the source of this growth from the Muslim diaspora? Or is it something else, perhaps something spiritual. Whatever it is, it is getting worse and will not end well for Israel or any other country. 

John Robson: Sorry, Woke Brigade — White Nationalism Isn't a Major Threat

The very Liberal Canadian government, and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in particular, have decided that White Nationalism should be at the top of the anti-terrorism agenda. The very Liberal government of Canada is not averse to using hysteria as a political tool, and the MainStreamMedia makes little attempt to correct the hyperbole. Thank you National Post for doing just that.

The vast majority of some 20,000 terror victims in the world annually are non-white Muslims killed by non-white Muslim terrorists

John Robson

National Post

It looked odd at the time. In late March our foreign minister tweeted “Today, at the UN Security Council, Canada condemned white supremacist terrorism. This grave terrorist threat must not be ignored and must be at the top of the agenda when we talk about confronting terrorism.” Really? I thought. At the top? Is it the one most likely to kill people?

People pray near St. Anthony Church in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 23, 2019, two days after a series of

suicide attacks that killed more than 300 at Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels. Atul Loke/Getty Images

Following the Easter massacre in Sri Lanka, with over 300 dead and which ISIL has now taken responsibility for, I think “odd” looks today like an insufficient term. Naturally everybody’s against white supremacy. And with solid historical reason given the evil it did over the past 500 years. But for all the horrors of racial slavery, the biggest killers in the 20th century were Mao, Stalin and Hitler, and in no case was skin colour an issue. In the Holocaust, ethnicity was explicit, and in the Holodomor, class warfare intersected with a cultural tradition of individual farming, not communal farming, to make Ukrainians the main target of Stalin’s deliberately engineered famine. And today the biggest threat isn’t the one related to race, and our foreign minister shouldn’t be in denial about it.

If you say anything that downplays white nationalism as an ideological force or source of violence, some fool will claim you’re blowing a racist dog whistle. And will probably misspell it. But the accusation is grotesque because one thing that struck me immediately about Chrystia Freeland’s tweet was its callousness about non-white lives. The vast majority of some 20,000 terror victims in the world, year after year, are not killed by white supremacists. The most common terror victims are non-white Muslims killed by non-white Muslim terrorists. Wikipedia, for instance, says four attacks last year killed over 100 people each. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria. All by Islamists. Drill down to the monthly list of smaller incidents and it’s almost entirely non-whites, killed by Islamists with the occasional Maoist or purely local ethnic motive.

Even if Freeland were concerned solely with Canadian lives, it would be difficult to explain why she considered white nationalism the top threat or even “grave.” A Google search reveals a lot of people hyperventilating about it. But the Wikipedia article on “Right-wing terrorism” cites the left-leaning New America think-tank’s list of such deaths in the United States since 2001 and it’s 86, an average of five a year.

Every one matters. But Nation of Islam member John Allen Muhammad alone killed 10 people of various races, ethnicities and genders in 2002. Nidal Hasan killed 13 at Fort Hood in 2009 in what the Obama administration insisted was “workplace violence.” Then there’s 9/11 or, as U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar put it, when “some people did something.”

Obviously white nationalists are squalid losers who can be dangerous. The man who killed 50 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, seems to have been primarily a bigot, though also anti-Muslim. As I wrote at the time, such terrorists and their ideologies must be taken seriously. But devoting scarce anti-terrorist resources to the wrong threat leaves you vulnerable in ways that are irresponsible.

Devoting scarce anti-terrorist resources to the wrong threat

leaves you vulnerable in ways that are irresponsible

   

When I saw Freeland’s tweet I thought there really needs to be an adult in the room. Sure, it’s chic to condemn the West and white people. Especially in an undergraduate seminar. But she’s in government. And lest she, or someone else, be tempted to excuse her strange sense of priorities by saying she doesn’t have priorities, they’re all her top concern, grammar and logic alike forbid it.

It’s not what she said. And whoever guards everything guards nothing. Only one thing can be at “the top of the agenda,” and it should be those who kill thousands a year not those who kill dozens or fewer. How many UN members have seen a single death due to white nationalist terror in the past, say, 50 years? (Even in Canada, the horrific 2017 attack on a Quebec City mosque was motivated by religious hatred, which is not the same as racism; there are a great many white Muslims and non-white Christians.) But how many UN members have seen Islamist slaughter?

Sri Lankan security personal remain on high alert on April 23, 2019, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Atul Loke/Getty Images

I wish people like Ms. Freeland worried more about anti-Christian violence internationally. And again whistle me no dogs. Most persecuted Christians are not white, from victims of Chinese government repression to those driven from their historic Middle Eastern communities by mob violence (first they came for the Jews), even in Bethlehem. Meanwhile, good luck denouncing anti-Semitism at the UN. Still, the possibility of genocide if Israel ever lost a war, or the wrong people got nuclear weapons, should be near the top of our security agenda. As for terror specifically, the Islamist kind is the biggest threat, especially to non-white Muslims.

Obviously we’re against all hate in principle and all terrorism in practice. But if we’re going to prioritize, it should be saving lives not sounding “woke” that tops our list. And white nationalism just isn’t that big a problem. It may be ugly, but it has few adherents and kills few people.

I wonder if the very Liberal's target is either free speech - shutting down all criticism of Islam, or, perhaps it is 'nationalism' of any kind as it runs counter to the far-left's global ideology.

'How To Spot a Jew': Front-Page Headline in Polish Paper Openly Sold in Parliament Sparks Fury

Nazism is growing in Poland, and the Government appears

not too enthusiastic about shutting it down

Lawmaker Michal Kaminski holds a paper he found being sold at a newsstand in the Polish parliament.

© Facebook / Michal Tomasz Kaminski

Shocked Polish lawmaker discovered that the newsstand in the nation's parliament offered a newspaper with instructions on how to spot Jews by name and face, and tackle their "disinformation activities."

Right-wing Polish-language weekly Tylko Polska (Only Poland) ran a story with the headline 'How to spot a Jew'. The purpose of the jarring article was to teach readers about the "names, anthropological features, expressions, appearances, character traits, methods of operation" of Jews, along with their "disinformation activities," it said on the front page.

The text also read: "How can they be defeated? This can't go on any longer!" The front page contained a photo of Polish-born US historian Jan Gross, whose works on Polish compliance in the Holocaust during the Nazi occupation has made him a frequent target of the nation's right-wingers.

The paper, published by a local nationalist politician, was openly sold at a newsstand located in the Polish parliament building, where it was discovered by lawmaker Michal Kaminski. "I consider it an absolute scandal that such obscene papers are sold here in the Sejm [parliament], as if they were taken straight from the Nazi-era press," he told reporters.

The incident sparked outrage on social media and led critics to accuse the government of inaction against hate speech. "What do politicians say now?" one person wrote. "Poland is a country free from anti-Semitism? There are no nods to racism and nationalism?"

Another called the situation "a disgrace for the Polish parliament."

The fact that the inflammatory paper was sold in the open "unfortunately demonstrates the stubborn ignorance or even toleration of anti-Semitism in the political mainstream," Polish anti-racism group 'Never Again Association' told the media.

The publication was strongly condemned by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League.

How sad for Poland and the Jewish people that anti-Semitism continues in so many forms and in so many places in today's Poland.

Following the backlash, Andrzej Grzegrzolka, who leads the parliamentary information center, explained that the newsstands are operated by a private firm which is responsible for the selection of papers.

"The people selling the papers are not employees of the parliament's chancellery," he tweeted.

Grzegrzolka said he would demand that the "paper with anti-Semitic articles" be removed, and that a review of all material would be launched.

Poland, ruled by a right-wing government, has seen an upswing in anti-Semitic and nationalistic incidents, which has led to scandals at home and diplomatic spats with Israel. In January, far-right activists marched through Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day, calling for a "fight against Jewry" in Poland.

Angela Merkel: Trump Has Almost Destroyed The New World Order

Baxter Dmitry, News Punch

German chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted that the New World Order is ‘under threat’ due to the rise of President Trump and his patriotic message of “polarization”, “protectionism” and “populism.” 

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Merkel slammed Trump’s rejection of open borders and globalism, and poured scorn on the popular patriotic movement currently sweeping across Europe, the U.S., Brazil, Australia and other parts of the world.

“Frankly speaking, the country I have the honor to represent and where I am chancellor has difficulties. And polarization is something that we see in our country as well, which we haven’t had for decades,” Merkel said at Davos.

Merkel attributed increasing populism and nationalism to both the euro zone crisis and migration crisis seen in Europe over the last few years following the record influx of refugees, but said Germany would not shrink from the world stage.

“Germany wishes to be a country that lends its contribution in the future to solve the problems of the world together, we think that shutting ourselves off and isolating ourselves will not lead us into a good future. Protectionism is not the proper answer,” she said.

And yet, open borders is the cause of the problem. You seem to admit that yourself. And it wouldn't be a problem if the influx of migrants were the least bit compatible with German society. But they are not! Muslims do not integrate any more than is necessary to survive. 

Islam makes up a huge part of the world and they are capable of accepting Muslim migrants far more easily than Europeans. Yet, very few Muslim countries allow refugees from Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan. There's a reason for that! You should try and figure that out. 

Islam, ultimately, will not be ruled by democracies - it will rule them or destroy them. Nationalists or populists can see that; the politically correct cannot.

Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany has embraced globalist ideology by opening the nations borders, accepting millions of migrants

Merkel was just the latest leader at Davos to criticize a protectionist and isolationist stance towards the world’s problems. Such comments appear to be directed towards President Donald Trump who has adopted an unapologetic “America First” stance in his foreign and economic policies.

Trump-supporting populist leaders have been elected in Australia, Brazil, Italy, Poland and many other countries in the past year, as nationalism proves popular with voting citizens frustrated with decades of neo-liberal polices implemented by governments determined to edge closer to an international alliance featuring open borders.

‘One world government’

In contrast, Merkel said the answer to the world’s problems was to find global solutions instead of a “unilateral, protectionist course” of action.

Immediately after slamming Donald Trump and his patriotic presidency, Merkel lavished praise on the United Nations, describing the international organization as a “multilateral and cooperative solution” to the problem of global leadership, and added that a “multilateral response” helped to resolve the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.