Corruption is Everywhere and Can Be Deadly in Asia

Pakistan Army expresses anguish over death sentence

handed down to former president Musharraf

Pakistan's army has gone public and expressed its “pain and anguish” after a special court sentenced retired general and ex-president Pervez Musharraf to death. The military press unit said he “can surely never be a traitor.”

“The decision given by special court about General Pervez Musharraf, Retired, has been received with a lot of pain and anguish by [the] rank and file of Pakistan Armed Forces,” it said.

The distinguished military man, “who has served the country for over 40 years, [who] fought wars for the defense of the country, can surely never be a traitor," the statement continued, adding that “[the] Armed Forces of Pakistan expect that justice will be dispensed in line with [the] Constitution of [the] Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”

It appears that Musharraf had been denied his fundamental legal rights in the process, which led to Tuesday’s verdict in the case against him of high treason, the statement, released by the army’s press unit, ISPR, asserts.

The former four-star general and president, who came to power in a bloodless military coup and ruled for almost a decade, stood accused of subverting the Pakistani constitution by declaring a state of emergency in 2007. A special three-member court declared him guilty and sentenced him to capital punishment. Musharraf was absent when the verdict was passed; he may appeal.

He is a divisive figure in Pakistani history. Critics call him a military dictator who may have facilitated the assassination in 2007 of his political opponent, Benazir Bhutto. Supporters see him as a venerable veteran who stood up to foreign and domestic threats and boosted Pakistan’s international profile.

It's interesting that for all the corruption that goes on in Pakistan, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, that all they could find him guilty of was declaring a state of emergency. 

The military's extraordinary step of condemning the sentence may be a prelude to another military coup, should the sentence not be reversed upon appeal.

Malaysia's Najib Razak ordered killing of Mongolian model,

says former bodyguard

© Reuters/LIM HUEY TENG Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves Kuala Lumpur High Court. 

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - A Malaysian police officer on death row for the 2006 slaying of a Mongolian model has accused former prime minister Najib Razak of ordering him to kill the woman, according to media reports and the policeman's lawyer.

Azilah Hadri and another police officer, who were serving on Najib's security detail at the time of the murder, were sentenced to death in 2015 for killing 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Najib, who lost a general election last year and is also facing charges of corruption on a massive scale, has denied knowing the woman, but the question of who ordered the killing has never been answered. 

Azilah, in a court filing seeking to set aside his conviction, said Najib had ordered him to "arrest and destroy" Shaariibuu, who the former premier had allegedly described as a foreign spy, news portal Malaysiakini reported on Monday.

"I asked (Najib) what he meant by arrest and destroy the foreign spy, he responded: "Shoot to kill", and indicating it with a 'slit the throat' gesture," Azilah said, according to Malaysiakini.

Azilah's lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar on Tuesday confirmed the report, but declined to comment further.

Malaysia's Federal Court will hear Azilah's application on April 20.

Najib denied the allegations and accused the Malaysian government of using Azilah to orchestrate a political attack against him.

"I have been told that this new tale will provide a way for the government to arrest and imprison me without bail, as no bail is allowed for murder cases," Najib said on his Facebook page.

Shaariibuu was shot dead and her body was blown up by military grade explosives in a forest near Kuala Lumpur.

Civil society groups have alleged her murder was linked to her role as an interpreter for Abdul Razak Baginda, a former associate of Najib, in Malaysia's purchase of two submarines from French shipbuilding giant DCNS in 2002.

Abdul Razak, who said he had had an affair with Shaariibuu, was acquitted of abetting the murder in 2008.

It should be noted that Razak was president of the ruling party in Pakistan in 2008. 

Sangeet Kaur Deo, a lawyer for Shaaribuu's family, called for a fresh probe into her death in light of Azilah's latest allegations.

"The question was always who was behind it," she told reporters. "That was a question that hopefully will be answered now with the right investigations."

Azilah's co-accused, Sirul Azhar Uma, fled to Australia shortly before his sentence was handed down.
Sirul said last year he would cooperate with any new investigation into the murder if he was given a full pardon. 

Apple, Tesla & Other US Tech Giants Sued Over Child Labor Deaths at Cobalt Mines in Congo

Lithium Ion Batteries for cell-phones, laptops, EV-cars, wind and solar power storage, use cobalt.

Is this a price we are willing to pay for the greening of the world?

The children, of course, don't have any choice; I'm glad to see this lawsuit is giving them a voice.

A child breaks rocks extracted from a cobalt mining at a copper mine quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi, Congo

© AFP / Junior Kannah

A civil lawsuit has been filed in a federal court in Washington DC against Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Tesla, Microsoft, and Dell. They are accused of exploiting child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five children who were killed and 11 who were injured working in the mines of the DRC. They were aged between 13 and 17 when the incidents occurred.

The companies were part of a system of forced labor that allegedly led to the death and serious injury of the children, according to the complaint. Images in the filed court documents showed children with disfigured or missing limbs.

Six of the 14 children in the case were killed in tunnel collapses, and the others suffered life-altering injuries, including paralysis.

Child miners work for $2-3 a day “under Stone Age conditions for paltry wages and at immense personal risk,” the lawsuit said. It also alleged that the US tech giants know and “have known for a significant” amount of time that child workers are used in the “dangerous” mines where the cobalt, which ends up in their products, originates.

“These companies – the richest companies in the world, these fancy gadget-making companies – have allowed children to be maimed and killed to get their cheap cobalt,” Terrence Collingsworth, an attorney representing the families, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A child and a woman break rocks extracted from a cobalt mine at a copper quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi, Congo

© AFP / Junior Kannah

More than half of the world’s cobalt is produced in the DRC. The mineral is an essential part of lithium batteries which are used in almost all of the companies’ products.

Global demand for cobalt is expected to increase at 7 percent to 13 percent annually over the next decade, a study by the European Commission shows.

More than 40 million people have been estimated to be captive in modern slavery, which includes forced labor and forced marriage, according to Walk Free and the International Labour Organization.

Wind Power Giant Enercon is Cutting 3,000 Jobs in Germany

Is wind power too expensive and unreliable to be viable?

dpa / Stefan Sauerbild
Translated by Google from German site Focus.de

Workers build a wind turbine from the manufacturer Enercon.

The crisis in the German wind energy industry is worsening. At the largest German manufacturer Enercon, hard cuts are said to cost 3000 jobs, according to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

As of next year, the company plans to cut contracts with German suppliers and also cut jobs at its headquarters. Structurally weak regions are affected anyway. According to the company, 1,500 jobs will be lost at each of the Aurich and Magdeburg locations. At the company's headquarters in Aurich, 250 to 300 jobs are affected. 

On Friday afternoon, thousands of workers learned what the Enercon plans meant for them. The state governments concerned were also informed of the plans. For the most part, the Group does not cut the positions directly. It has almost completely outsourced their production to smaller third-party companies, which often depend solely on Enercon. If supply contracts are terminated as planned, many of these companies are threatened with the end.

Why the government is cutting subsidies is not addressed in the Focus piece, but, according to Climate Change Dispatch there are two main reasons:

Subsidies cut

Once lavished with huge incentives, the German wind industry is being hit hard after the government recently ended the huge subsidies that were once aimed at expanding the installation of wind energy capacity.

Power grid operators had been struggling to keep the grid stable due to erratic feed-in and the subsidized feed-in of wind energy caused German electricity prices to become among the most expensive worldwide.

Fierce opposition from hundreds of protest groups

Moreover, hundreds of citizen protest groups have sprouted and since become a formidable force pushing for the stop of proposed wind projects.

Not only have wind parks scarred the German landscape and destroyed habitats nationwide, but they have also been shown to be a real health hazard to humans living in their proximity through the low-frequency infrasound they emit. Enough is enough, citizens say.

Enercon boss Kettwig: "Politicians have pulled the plug"

Enercon stands for the rise of the industry like hardly any other company and could now become a synonym for the severe crisis. Enercon has long been the undisputed market leader. In Germany, the company installed 17,000 of the 29,000 wind turbines on land. Management justified the move on Friday with the consequences of political decisions. "This is a very emotional situation for us," says Enercon managing director Hans-Dieter Kettwig of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "The crisis of the energy turnaround has also come to us." Now it is a matter of creating the turnaround: a turnaround in the energy turnaround, a move towards international business.

The background to the problems is a slump in the addition of wind turbines. Enercon has delivered more than 700 systems for the German market annually in the past few years, according to the company it was only 65 this year. “Politicians have pulled the plug on us,” says CEO Kettwig. "And we do not have a battery." Even international business cannot compensate for the slump in the short term. The company is aware of the consequences for the suppliers: "We are pulling the ground from under these companies," admits Kettwig. Due to the lack of orders, there is no alternative.

Wind industry threatens wave of emigration

The Enercon case shows that the wind industry is threatened by a wave of emigration similar to that of the once leading German solar companies. "We can no longer rely on Germany," says Enercon CFO Thomas Cobet. The company now urgently needs to focus on other markets. Financially it is still solid, the equity ratio at Enercon GmbH as the core of the group is still above 50 percent. This also applies when taking into account the significant losses, which could significantly exceed half a billion this year. More and more people want to get involved in France or in countries like India.

Is Deep State Running Illegal American Policy in Syria

US taking over from IS & Al-Nusra Front by seizing Syrian oil

at behest of 'money lobbies' – Assad

It's very curious that America's Mainstream Media (MSM) is not the least bit interested in reporting this. With their determination to demonize Donald Trump, you would think they would be spreading this illegal action most gleefully. Why aren't they? Could it be because they are run by the same Deep State that is stealing the oil and selling it to the Turks?

FILE PHOTO © Global Look Press / Carol Guzy / Source: ZUMAPRESS.com

Powerful lobbies are behind the US rush for Syria's natural resources, and the Americans are carrying on where Islamist groups left off by "stealing and selling" them, President Bashar Assad has said.

In October, Donald Trump made headlines by ordering all US troops out of Syria, leaving the devastated country to anyone who wants "to come in and fight." But weeks later he backtracked on that decision, bluntly stating that troops would remain to "protect" Syrian oil fields east of the Euphrates.

In a comprehensive interview with China's Phoenix, Assad commented on Trump's swift transition from the mild non-interventionism that he championed before the troop withdrawal, to the outright oil-driven expansionism that resembled the 2003 Iraq War.

Donald Trump is not Deep State, but he has to choose wisely where he takes them on.

'Lobbies in charge of US policies'

It's not the government in the classical sense that drives US endeavors in Syria but "the money lobbies, whether in the form of oil, weapons, banks, or others," Assad explained.

American lobbies are "in charge of the policies" of the country, which "is not governed by principles, but rather by the interests of those companies," he said.

If they have an interest in occupying the oil wells, stealing and selling them one way or another, then this state and this regime will act in favor of these companies, regardless of international law and regardless of American law.

Those in the White House and on Capitol Hill aren't shy about breaching the US' own laws for the sake of these corporations "because if they don't make them happy, the president might be impeached," Assad said, referring to the previous historical experience of his country.

Therefore, it doesn't matter for Syria who is in charge in the White House since the US president's hands are cuffed by corporate, not state, interests.

There're 'thousands,' not hundreds, of US troops on Syrian soil

The Pentagon has retained around 800 troops to "guard" Syrian oil facilities, along with Kurdish-led forces, but the figure has artificially been decreased and did not include "individuals fighting with the American army," Assad believes.

The American regime relies significantly in its wars on private firms like Blackwater in Iraq and others. So, even if they had a few hundred American soldiers in Syria, they still also have thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of civilians working for such companies and fighting in Syria.

Who is paying them, and is the money accounted for? Who is getting the money from the oil? Is it being accounted for?

Regardless of how many US troops are present in Syria, they seem to be setting up for a long-haul deployment. Previously, it was reported that they were building two new military bases in Deir ez-Zor, the province where the majority of Syrian oil assets are concentrated.

Such compounds are situated near the border with Turkey, and Syria's northern neighbor plays a role in the affair, Assad suggested.  

Crude smuggled from Syria is sold to Turkey

The oil trade has always been a mainstay of the Syrian economy, although their crude reserves pale in comparison to those of the Gulf monarchies. In 2018, Syria had an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, compared with Saudi Arabia's 297 billion, Iran's 155 billion, and Iraq's 147 billion barrels, according to OPEC. 

Still, they were of great utility to anyone controlling them. Syrian oil wells were used by Jabhat Al-Nusra and Islamic State, Assad noted. As IS was largely defeated in most parts of Syria, the US is obviously filling the blank space left by the retreating terrorists that capitalized on selling Syrian crude.

Before the Americans, in the early days Jabhat Al-Nusra used these wells; after Daesh came and drove out Al-Nusra – or rather when it merged with Al-Nusra and they all became Daesh – it also stole and sold oil. Where? It used to sell it through Turkey. Now America is the one stealing oil and selling it to Turkey.

It's like when the mafia is driven out of a certain city, another criminal organization quickly rushes in to claim the area. Why is the media silent on this?

Hospital Manager Who Took $10 Million Bribe to Favour SNC Lavalin Bid Sentenced to 39 Months in Prison

SNC-Lavalin, of course, has not been convicted of anything in Canada. And if Justin has his way, they will never be convicted of anything. Corruption is Everywhere.

Yanai Elbaz, front, and his brother Yohann Elbaz, left, arrive for their fraud trial at the courthouse in relation to the MUHC hospital in Montreal on Nov. 26, 2018.Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — A former hospital manager who pocketed a $10-million bribe in return for helping SNC-Lavalin win a Montreal hospital-building contract has been sentenced to 39 months in prison.

Quebec court Judge Claude Leblond sentenced Yanai Elbaz today in Montreal in a case that has been described as the greatest corruption fraud in Canadian history.

The judge rejected an argument from the McGill University Health Centre, which claimed it was entitled to compensation as a victim of the fraud. He ruled the question should be dealt with through civil proceedings.

In an agreed statement of facts tied to Elbaz’s plea, the former MUHC manager admitted to giving privileged information to engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to help its submission for the contract to build a massive hospital complex in west-end Montreal.

Elbaz, who has been detained since his Nov. 26 guilty plea, also admitted to denigrating SNC’s competitors in front of the hospital’s selection committee.

Elbaz and Arthur Porter, the ex-CEO of the MUHC who died a fugitive in Panamanian custody in 2015, received a total of $22.5 million to rig the bidding process to favour SNC-Lavalin, the statement of facts said.

Malaysian Court Finds Bush and Blair Guilty of War Crimes in Iraq Invasion

George W. Bush (R) and Tony Blair (AFP Photo / Jim Watson) © AFP

Those who lobbied to have George W. Bush and Tony Blair tried for their role in the Iraq War have finally got their wish. Though the verdict of the court carries no legal weight, its supporters believe its symbolic value is beyond doubt.

Coming out on election day might not be doing Labour any good, either.

The court in Malaysia where the trial took place may not have the power to convict, but the verdict against the former British and American leaders was unanimous.  

“War criminals have to be dealt with – convict Bush and Blair as charged. A guilty verdict will serve as a notice to the world that war criminals may run but can never ultimately hide from truth and justice,” the statement from the Perdana Global Peace Foundation read.

The foundation was set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, who was always a staunch opponent of the war against the regime of Saddam Hussain in 2003. He previously branded Blair and Bush “child-killers”.

The tribunal, which consisted of a former federal judge and several academics, paid particular attention to the failure of the Western military to find a single weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. WMDs were cited by the Western coalition as a major reason for their military intervention. It also declared the war to be in contravention of the will of the United Nations.

“The evidence showed that the drums of war were being beaten long before the invasion. The accused in their own memoirs have admitted their intention to invade Iraq regardless of international law,” said the tribunal.

The tribunal has no powers of enforcement, and as yet there has been no response from Bush or Blair. But the Perdana Peace Foundation says it hopes to maintain pressure from the international community on the two leaders, both of whom have now retired from domestic politics.

Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defence during the Iraq War, is next on the list to have his case heard by the mock court.

VP Cheney ought to be next since it was he who appears to have altered the CIA report indicating there was no concrete evidence of WMDs in Iraq, to say the opposite. 

This was not a global policing action against WMDs; it was a Deep State action to keep the inventory of war moving and making billions of dollars for the war-mongers, and getting some control over Iraq's oil.

Sweden's Uber PC Church Would Rather Offend God Than Transgenders

‘Many unanswered questions’: Swedish church removes LGBT-

themed altarpiece… but NOT for the reason you may think

Main image © Facebook / S:t Pauli kyrka, Malmö; inset: LGBTQ altarpiece "Paradise" created by artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin at its place in the St. Paul church in Malmo, Sweden. © AFP / TT News Agency / Johan NILSSON

After two weeks of deliberation, a church in Sweden decided that a newly-acquired LGBT-friendly painting was too problematic to serve as its altarpiece. Its depiction of Adam and Eve as two same-sex couples was not the issue.

The St. Paul’s Church in the southern city of Malmo accepted the painting as its altarpiece on the first day of Advent two weeks ago. The artwork by Swedish photographer and artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin was meant to symbolize inclusivity. It predictably generated a lot of buzz, attracting both praise and controversy online.

After analyzing the feedback, the church has decided to take down the painting and move it to a “different location” outside the altar room, pastor Per Svensson revealed on Wednesday.

And no, it was not the re-imagining of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as a tale of two nude same-sex couples in the Garden of Eden that pushed the church officials to move the painting. That part is “completely uncontroversial,” Svensson said.

I guess you haven't been listening to God lately, if ever.

The pastor, however, had an issue with the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve to try the forbidden fruit. In the painting, it was depicted as a transgender person. “The serpent traditionally symbolizes evil, and turning it into a transgender person can mean that a transgender person is evil or is the devil,” Svensson explained.

“The Church of Sweden certainly cannot stand by that.”   - Astonishing!

Furthermore, the painting contains apples, a Biblical symbol of knowledge, the pastor added. This invites a question about the kind of knowledge the painting portrays, along with “so many different interpretations” that make the imagery problematic, Svensson said.

I really want to be there when this pastor stands before Jesus Christ. Although, I seriously doubt he will be able to stand.