on political Islam, "Ahmadinejad's World"

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Re: Gadahn and Oswald

Postby Dreams End » Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:37 am

I don't even know how his name came up in this thread. However, I'll bet a little research would show more interesting stuff. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Gadahn and Oswald

Postby Gouda » Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:53 am

alice-t-c, I had just read an article in the OCT 2006 issue <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Vanity Fair</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> about Egypt (specifically, the Red Sea Riviera) called "Under Egypt’s Volcano" By SCOTT ANDERSON, before catching up on this thread and seeing your post on the situation in Egypt, the Kefaya movement, the government sweeps, the political economy of western cooperation, corporate infiltration, the MB and Jamaa al-Islameyya. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/printables/060925roco01?print=true">www.vanityfair.com/commen...print=true</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Your informative snapshot is far better, methinks, and sheds a lot more light on those attacks in the Sinai's gated luxury coast, the colonialist Green Zone on the Red Sea. Your post should preface or be appended to the one-dimensional <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Vanity Fair</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> piece, which again reinforces the narrow stereotype (and american liberal talking point) that your average muslim will seek out fundamentalism and/or terrorism when driven to the walls of poverty (also meaning: they can't seem to acquire, or are not given fair access to our superior and necessary advanced toy system.) Those backward sand dwellers don't bomb us for our freedoms, stupid Bush - they desperately bomb us for our policies of deprivation! <br><br>Well, some few do, or want to, or are training to - but not because of the conditions or policies or mechanisms these americans have in mind. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Adam Gadahn

Postby Dreams End » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:49 pm

Kefaya seems like exactly the kind of secular movement that the West would try to attack or diminish by supporting groups like Al-Qaeda. In fact, that is my point. I can accept most everything Alice wrote about Kefaya...my point is that the US has funded and supported other Islamic movements specifically as a counterweight to secular/left movements. <br><br>Israel too, for that matter.<br><br>This was done through an already existing network of relationships established all the way back during WW2 or even before. <br><br>So, I think Alice would agree completely with this characterization of al-Qaeda but not that any of this applies to Hizbollah. <br><br>I would be far more comfortable seeing the US left (why isn't the US left talking about Kefaya?) support a movement like that (assuming it's as portrayed by Alice) than to ally with Hizbollah and, by extension, Iran. <br><br>And I think it is without question that similar tactics were used to diminish the role of secular Palestinian groups..though since I've seen some disturbing stuff among our own native secular "left" groups I don't know that this means they were better by definition. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Gadahn and Oswald

Postby AlicetheCurious » Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:28 pm

It's the weekend, so I'm supposed to stay away from the computer, but I did take the time to read the Vanity Fair article, Gouda. There is a lot I could say about it, but I can't right now. <br><br>It did remind me of something I forgot, when I said that there had been two major terrorist attacks; I was mistaken. There were three.<br><br>One was on July 23, Egypt's National Day. <br><br>One was on October 6, the anniversary of Egypt's "victory" in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Egyptian troops broke through the Bar Lev line on October 6, 1973, using water cannons to blast away a steep thirty- to sixty-foot-high sand wall on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal that had previously been thought impregnable. The dramatic crossing electrified a country demoralized by its defeat in the 1967 war. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=145">www.washingtoninstitute.o...hp?CID=145</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br>And the third was on April 25, "Sinai Liberation Day", the anniversary of Sinai's return to Egypt from Israeli control.<br><br>I would also like to note that, contrary to what Anderson said in the article, the Ghazala Hotel, that was bombed on April 25, is not a "luxury hotel frequented by foreigners", it is a mid-price locally-owned hotel, almost completely filled on this national holiday, with middle-class Egyptian families.<br><br>All three bombs were very sophisticated and did a lot of damage to the concrete buildings; no credible perpetrators have ever been found, but the Egyptian government was under tremendous pressure to close the cases as quickly as possible, or face a catastrophic collapse in Egypt's tourist industry.<br><br>The part about no Egyptians being "allowed to be with foreigners" made me snort. There are hundreds of thousands of expats living in Egypt, and one of the things they love about living here is the active social life, not to mention the fact that most have jobs, many are students, and many are married to Egyptians. They're not exactly isolated from the greater society, although the majority does live in the big urban centers of Cairo and Alexandria.<br><br>But Anderson's description of the Egyptian reaction to his wanting to go to Beni Suef, reminded me of the American Ambassador to Egypt in the late 80s, Frank Wisner, and his propensity for giving the slip to his Egyptian security guards and going to meet with Islamic extremists, some of which later turned up in the US, such as the infamous Sheikh Omar Abdelrahman, famous for his role in the plot to blow up the WTC in 1993. Wisner spoke excellent Arabic, and always had stupid excuses for being found in hotbeds of violent Islamic clerics and their followers.<br><br>So, the Egyptians' panic at being visited by an American might have something to do with the Egyptian government's suspicion of Americans inexplicably going to sleepy, poor backwaters associated with discontent and disenfranchisement, based on bitter experience. Since the hick, nowhere towns where these Americans go, all too often, later turn out to be the headquarters of some terrorist group.<br><br>Gotta go.<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Gadahn and Oswald

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Fri Oct 13, 2006 3:33 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>But Anderson's description of the Egyptian reaction to his wanting to go to Beni Suef, reminded me of the American Ambassador to Egypt in the late 80s, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Frank Wisner, and his propensity for giving the slip to his Egyptian security guards and going to meet with Islamic extremists, some of which later turned up in the US, such as the infamous Sheikh Omar Abdelrahman, famous for his role in the plot to blow up the WTC in 1993. Wisner spoke excellent Arabic</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, and always had stupid excuses for being found in hotbeds of violent Islamic clerics and their followers.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>! Really? Wisner and Islamic extremists? Where do I find this info and got any more on Wisner? A cryptocracy don if ever there was one... <p></p><i></i>
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Re: "expansion"

Postby wordspeak » Fri Oct 13, 2006 4:56 pm

Just to respond briefly- Alice-t-c, I do know the basic history, but A.Israel hasn't expanded in any way in over twenty years, correct?, in fact B.More recently it gave up land, C.What evidence is there that any Israeli wants to expand in a traditionally immperialist way? None. <br>Everyone in the region has a lot of reason to be afraid. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: "expansion"

Postby AlicetheCurious » Sat Oct 14, 2006 5:46 am

My dear wordspeak, Israel "gave up land" in only two instances: one, was the Camp David treaty with Egypt, in which Israel returned the Sinai, in exchange for fragmenting the Arab front and making Egypt economically and militarily subservient to US and Israeli interests.<br><br>I would like to remind you of the highly revealing document "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s", published in 1982, after Israel returned the Sinai:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Without oil and the income from it, with the present enormous expenditure, we will not be able to get through 1982 under the present conditions and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>we will have to act in order to return the situation to the status quo which existed in Sinai prior to Sadat's visit and the mistaken peace agreement signed with him in March 1979.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Israel has two major routes through which to realize this purpose, one direct and <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>the other indirect</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. The direct option is the less realistic one because of the nature of the regime and government in Israel as well as the wisdom of Sadat who obtained our withdrawal from Sinai, which was, next to the war of 1973, his major achievement since he took power. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Israel will not unilaterally break the treaty, neither today, nor in 1982, unless it is very hard pressed economically and politically and Egypt provides Israel with the excuse to take the Sinai back into our hands <!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">for the fourth time in our short history</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END-->.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>What is left therefore, is the indirect option. The economic situation in Egypt, the nature of the regime and its pan-Arab policy, will bring about a situation after April 1982 in which <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Israel will be forced to act directly or indirectly in order to regain control over Sinai as a strategic, economic and energy reserve for the long run. Egypt does not constitute a military strategic problem due to its internal conflicts and <!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline">it could be driven back to the post 1967 war situation in no more than one day</span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END-->.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.the7thfire.com/new_world_order/zionism/zionist_plan_for_the_middle_east.htm">www.the7thfire.com/new_wo...e_east.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Kindly note that Egypt is indeed, militarily, a "walking corpse", and Israel could indeed take back the Sinai "in no more than one day", but it doesn't need to, yet. By signing what some here consider treasonous deals with Israel, Egypt has essentially given Israel unlimited access to cheap oil and gas, while the "Peace Treaty" continues to provide cover for the economic and political destruction of Egypt as a sovereign nation.<br><br>The other instance where Israel has returned territory, is the forced withdrawal due to the Lebanese resistance. It's not for nothing that Hizbullah has achieved mythical status throughout the Middle East -- despite Israel's massive military assault on Lebanon and declarations that it would never withdraw, this vastly overpowered resistance achieved what all the armies of the Arab countries could not: it forced Israel to let go of Arab land.<br><br>During the "past 20 years" Israel has not been idle: it has been spreading and consolidating its control over all resources within the territories it has already grabbed, and proceding to ethnically cleanse it of Arab people.<br><br>Anyway. This is getting boring. If you can't see that Israel is a colonialist, expansionist state, then you can't.<br><br>Gouda, I actually heard a lot about Frank Wisner from some well-connected friends of ours, including about his relationship with Sheikh Omar Abdelrahman. In fact, I wasn't even sure that was the right spelling for Wisner's name, since I always heard about it during conversations.<br><br>I did a google on him and in less than a minute, got this bio:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frank_Wisner">www.sourcewatch.org/index...ank_Wisner</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>This guy is like Forrest Gump, showing up in all the hotspots, usually before they BECOME hotspots: Vietnam, Kosovo, Egypt, Pakistan, even Enron, etc., etc.<br><br>I'm still on weekend, so I'll do a more thorough search next week.<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: More on "Ambassador" Frank Wisner

Postby AlicetheCurious » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:14 am

Hugh, this guy does turn up in the oddest places:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Much of Philippine economic policy is shaped, or at least influenced, by foreigners and multinational corporate oligarchs. As revealed by Tuazon in Bulatlat.com, President Arroyo's highly influential 13-member "International Board of Advisers" is headed by a virtual who's who of elite world finance.<br><br>Heading the group is Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, chairman of American International Group (AIG), the world's third largest capital investment pool and a leading member of the World Trade Organization:<br><br>...US Army, World War II President of AIG in 1962, CEO in 1967 and Chairman in 1989 Vice chairman, Council on Foreign Relations Member of both Bilderberger Group and Trilateral Commission Member, Heritage Foundation Vice chairman, Center for Strategic and International Studies Chairman, Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies (Council on Foreign Relations) Member, board of directors of New York Stock Exchange Former director of the Federal Reserve Bank Nominated for CIA director in 1995<br><br>Greenberg's direct involvement in US-Far East policy is telling. As revealed in a two-part investigation of American International Group by Michael C. Ruppert (A.I.G., From The Wilderness, August 14, 2001), AIG's insurance operations, including the entire period under Greenberg's leadership, have been connected to CIA covert operations.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>AIG's predecessor, Asia Life/C.V. Starr Insurance Companies, operated out of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) spy agency during World War II. (AIG was formed in the 1960s as a holding company for Starr. Greenberg was C.V. Starr's handpicked successor.) C.V.Starr enjoyed long and profitable drug/covert operations relationships with the likes of CIA legend Paul Helliwell (head of OSS World War II intelligence in China), and CIA-connected lawyer Tommy Corcoran, and CIA proprietary fronts such as the infamous opium-smuggling airlines Civil Air Transport (which later became Air America) and Sea Supply Inc., and Pacific Corporation. Today, approximately a third of AIG's profits come from its Far East operations.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Directly relevant to the post-9/11 events, current members of AIG's board of directors include former US ambassador and CFR member Richard Holbrooke, a major post-9/11 war advisor to the Bush administration and business partner of George Soros. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Also on the board is Frank Wisner, Jr., a director of Enron, and son of one of the prime CIA operatives, Frank Wisner Sr. When Wisner, Jr., was the US Ambassador to the Philippines (1991–92), he helped Enron win contracts to run two Subic Bay power plants (that were the subject of fierce local opposition)</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI208A.html">www.globalresearch.ca/art...I208A.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>By the way, the complete eye-popping article is well worth a read. Also, I would like to remind y'all about my own research on Mohammed Atta, which revealed that several witnesses placed him at a former US Air Force base in the Philippines, at exactly the time he was supposedly at a 'terrorist training camp' in Afghanistan.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>"In late 1999, Atta, al-Shehhi and Jarrah all reported their passports stolen. German officials speculated that this was so that they could obtain new passports free of any record of past trips – to Afghanistan, perhaps. This unsupported supposition was widely reported, and in some cases was presented as a fact.<br><br>Yet, according to the BBC (August 24, 2002), German intelligence told the New York Times that Mohamed Atta trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan "between late 1999 and early 2000 with two others who subsequently piloted the planes used in the attacks." Again, no evidence whatsoever has been presented to back up this claim.<br><br>If Atta had declared his passport stolen in 1999 so that he could hide any trips he had made to Afghanistan, why would he then use the new passport to travel to Afghanistan?<br><br>Which still leaves the question unanswered: where was Atta during those mysterious three months in 1995 and fifteen months between 1997 and 1999?<br><br>The evidence points to a place very different from the "terrorist training camps" of Afghanistan. As early as September 20, 2001, the Times mentioned that<br><br>The Philippines Government was astonished to learn that a Saeed al-Ghamdi had visited Manila 15 times. An Ahmed al-Ghamdi came to the capital 13 times and left on September 10, a day before a man with the same name crashed into the World Trade Centre. <br><br>Since Saeed al-Ghamdi is still alive and living in Tunis, where he was for 10 months before September 11, 2001, it is reasonable to assume that he was not the Saeed al-Ghamdi who traveled to the Philippines.<br><br>Yet this was not merely a matter of "records"; on October 2, 2001, eye-witnesses had come forward, reporting Atta's presence on multiple occasions between 1997 and 1999 at a resort associated with the former Clark US Air Force base at Mabalacat in the Philippines. Five different employees of the Woodland Resort positively identified Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi as frequent guests during this period. The International Herald Tribune reported on October 5, 2001 that<br><br>Mr. Al-Shehhi, whom the FBI has identified as the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175 when it slammed into the trade center's south tower, threw a party with six or seven Arab friends at the Woodland Park Resort Hotel here in December, said a former waitress at the hotel, Gina Marcelo. "There were about seven people," she said. "They rented the open area by the swimming pool for 1,000 pesos. They drank Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey and mineral water. They barbecued shrimp and onions. They came in big vehicles, and they had a lot of money. They all had girlfriends." She cited "one big mistake they made." Unlike most foreign visitors, "They never tipped," she said. "If they did, I would not remember them so well."<br><br>Victoria Brocoy, a chambermaid at the Woodland, recalls Mr. Atta, the Egyptian who investigators believe flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the trade center's north tower. "He was not friendly. If you say hello to him, he doesn't answer. If he asks for a towel, you do not enter his room. He takes it at the door."<br><br>Mr. Atta was by no means a recluse. "Many times I saw him let a girl go at the gate in the morning," she said. "It was always a different girl."<br><br>The accounts here tend to confirm reports from the United States that at least some of the accused hijackers had free-wheeling lifestyles full of sex and alcohol, and took precautions to keep their identities secret.<br><br>According to the International Herald Tribune, Ferdinand Abad, a security guard at the Woodland Resort, recognized the van which picked Mohamed Atta up at the resort "two or three times a week" as belonging to the Angeles City Flying Club, which is owned by the same unnamed corporation that owns the Woodland Resort.<br><br>Abad also identified the driver of the van as Melvin Troth, manager of the flying club. Troth, a master sergeant in the US Air Force who retired in 1986 after serving in Clark Air Force Base, "told investigators, however, that the names of Mr. Atta and Mr. Al-Shehhi did not appear in his records."<br><br>CBS News, on September 12, 2002, reported that "hijacker ringleader Mohammed Atta was first summoned to Afghanistan for his initial instructions in the summer of 1999."<br><br>The Manila Times, on the other hand, had reported as early as October 2, 2001, that a woman had come forward, identifying Atta and al-Shehhi:<br><br>She was convinced the picture was that of Atta because at the time he was a visitor of the Woodland Resort hotel in Barangay Dau, Mabalacat, Pampanga in the summer of 1999, she serviced his room, being a chambermaid of the hotel. She told her current employer of her find and he in turn called a press conference to get it published. However, for some reason, the Manila newspapers gave the story no prominence and both the police and the town officials virtually ignored it. <br>But the broadcast media, led by the TV Patrol of ABS-CBN picked up the story the following day and the Philippine Star played it up on its front page yesterday even if it reported that the Armed Forces of the Philippines Northern Luzon Command, which has jurisdiction over Pampanga, downplayed any terrorist threat in the area. <br><br>The former resort chambermaid gave TV Patrol detailed descriptions of Atta and al Shehhi. Atta, she said, was short and stocky. He was brusque and treated Al Shehhi as a sidekick, she said. <br><br>Quite a number of “Arab-looking” persons patronized the Woodland Resort from 1997 to 1999, according to the former chambermaid. In fact, she said, most of the guests were Arabs, who were, curiously, always accompanied to the resort by another Arab-looking person son known only as Sameer who could speak Tagalog and was presumably a long-time resident of the place. <br><br>In the resort, there is a flying school using small planes owned by a British national. The Philippine Star reported Atta having gone to that school but its manager (the owner was away) earlier denied it. The former chambermaid reportedly claimed other Arabs took flying lessons in the out-of-the-way school. <br>Why the resort apparently escaped the suspicions of the authorities, especially the local police, is hard to imagine.<br><br>Additional details were provided in an article published on the same day by Gulf News:<br><br>Al Shehi, together with another suspected hijacker, Mohammad Atta, were identified by five former employees of the Woodland resort in Mabalacat, Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) chief Maj. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia said in a report.<br><br>"I am sure Al Shehi had been a Woodland guest several times in 1997. I remember him well because I flagged his speeding car at least three times at the gate of Woodland," said former security guard Antonio Sersoza. Al Shehi used different cars and stayed at Woodland on several Saturdays. He knew how to speak Filipino, said Serzosa. <br><br>He said he learned of Al Shehi's alleged link in the hijacking when a former colleague, chambermaid Victoria Brocoy, asked him if he remembered seeing Mohammad Atta at the resort. "I am not sure about Atta but I am sure about Al Shehi," he said.<br><br>Atta registered under his own name, at the resort in December 1999. He even gave a $1 (P50) tip, said former security guard Ferdinand Abad. <br><br>"He was the smallest among the Arab guests. He stood about five feet, six inches and his left eye was smaller than the right. He gave me a P50 tip after he asked what time the Aeroclub vehicle usually picks up flyers staying at Woodlands," Abad said in the report. <br><br>Brocoy said she was assigned to clean up Atta's room during his stay at the resort in April 1999, adding he was among other men who took flying lessons at the Aeroclub in Barangay Talimundok in Magalang town. <br><br>Inexplicably, the first two articles to be published, by the Manila Times and Gulf News, specify that Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi used their own names at the Woodland Resort, while three days later the International Herald Tribune makes a point of stressing that they "took precautions to keep their identities secret."<br><br>However, only the International Herald Tribune specifies the name of the flight school: Angeles City Flying Club.<br><br>A "Travel & Leisure" listing in the Philippines Headline News Online (PHNO) from February 26, 2000 states:<br><br>The Angeles City Flying Club offers instructions from former US Air Force pilots in modern, well-maintained ultra-light aircraft."<br><br>So, the notorious Mohammed Atta, recipient of the US$ 100,000 sent by Pakistani General and head of the ISI intelligence agency Mahmood days before the 9/11 attacks, was the same Mohammed Atta who studied at a US air force base, and was the same Mohammed Atta who was being taught to fly by former US Air Force pilots in a former air force base in the Philippines? <br><br>[Thank you, John Doe II, I would never have found it on the EZboard myself...how did you find it? The "search" function is useless...]<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm17.showMessageRange?topicID=359.topic&start=1&stop=20">p216.ezboard.com/frigorou...mp;stop=20</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The AIG African Infrastructure Fund (the “Fund” or “AAIF”) invests in Sokhna Port Development Company (“SPDC”) S.A.E</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Key notes: Ambassador Frank Wisner: 8 February, 2005</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>It is my pleasure to announce the decision of the AIG African Infrastructure Fund LLC to acquire a 15% minority stake in the Sokhna Port Development Company.<br><br>AIG is the lead investor and sponsor of the Fund. Other investors include the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”). THE African Development Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, an association of European Development Finance investors led by Proparco and the European Investment Bank, and El Paso Energy International. AIG is the world’s leading, U.S. based, international insurance and financial services organization with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions.<br><br>...<br><br>The Fund is the largest private equity fun investing in the African continent, and the leader in the rapidly developing field of private investment in infrastructure services in Africa. The Fund is the fifth of AIG’s large infrastructure funds dedicated to the Emerging Markets and thus furthers AIG’s commitment to sustainable development by leveraging its presence in emerging markets. The Fund has committed approximately USD 360 million to 15 different infrastructure related business on the African continent in the sectors of telecommunications, water, power, transport, oil and gas, ports and logistics, agricultural processing and media.<br><br>Egypt, in AIG’s view, is a major investment opportunity. We are investors in insurance companies – AIG Egypt and Pharaonic American Life Company. In our view, Egypt is on a strong growth path. As the region’s largest economy, Egypt offers huge opportunities to international investors like ourselves.<br><br>...<br><br>The Fund, as an international shareholder, will broaden SPDC’s already impressive shareholder base, which also includes <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Orascom Construction Industries</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (“OCI”). <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.spdc.com/newscenter/popup/text_form.php?cat=news&id=33&mediafile=">www.spdc.com/newscenter/p...mediafile=</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>He is also mentioned in a biography of a prominent Bilderberger, Etienne Davignon:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Viscount Etienne Davignon</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>...His family has intermarried with some of the more powerful Belgian blue blood families like the Janssens, Boëls, and Solvays. ...In 1959, Davignon joined the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as attache for the department of African Affairs. Became head of the cabinet of Paul-Henri Spaak in 1964 (as a follow up of Baron Robert Rothschild, and, together with Etienne Davignon, a governor of the Atlantic Institute in 1987), a position he held in 1965 when Pierre Harmel became prime-minister. <br><br>During his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was directly involved with Belgium's policies in Africa, the independence of Rwanda and Burundi and the solution to the Belgium and Zaire conflict. He was also a key figure behind the report on the future of the Atlantic Alliance (Harmel report) and he presided over the committee which prepared the first proposals regarding political cooperation between EEC members (Davignon Report, 1974-1975). <br><br>Following the oil crisis in 1973, Davignon chaired the international conference that established an oil-sharing treaty. First president of the International Energy Agency 1974-1977. Worked as vice-president for the European Commission from 1977 to 1985, where he was in charge of industry, research and energy. He was active in the restructuring of European industry (steel, textiles, synthetic fibres) and in promoting new research cooperative ventures in information technology and telecommunications. <br><br>In 1982, as Industry Commissioner, Davignon challenged Pehr Gyllenhammar (Volvo, Chase Manhattan, Kissinger Associates, Aspen Institute; later on managing director of Lazard, vice chairman of Rothschild Europe, and chairman of Rothschild Pension Funds) to organize a group of top European businessmen to lobby the European Commission. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Gyllenhammar group was to become the highly influential European Round Table of Industrialists or ERT, drawing up policy for Europe</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br><br>...At the ERT Etienne chaired the working group on Trade and Investment. In 1985, he left the European Commission and joined Société Générale de Belgique. After the French Suez Group took over SGB in 1988, Etienne Davignon became its chairman and remained that until 2001. <br><br>In March 1988 Gerald Bull, the famous gun builder, received a contract from the Iraqis to build 3 superguns, one of them a smaller prototype. The 2 full-size superguns were 150 meters / 450 feet long with a bore of one meter / three feet and, if finished, would have been capable of placing a 2000 kg / 4500 lb rocket propelled projectile into orbit (its purpose). <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Project Babylon, as it was called, was said to be financed by Société Générale. Bull had earlier built hundreds of revolutionary artillery pieces for the Iraqis and had upgraded their Scud missiles. He was assassinated in Brussels on March 22, 1990. It has been claimed that the former Belgian deputy prime minister Andre Cools, who was assassinated on July 18, 1991, was almost done investigating the Bull murder and wanted to lay bare an international criminal syndicate</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Among the persons that supposedly were about to be indicted were Dick Cheney, Neil Bush, Frank Carlucci, Donald Rumsfeld, Jonathan Aitken (head of Le Cercle; member Privy Council), Count Hervé de Carmoy, and the Barbours, Racicots, and Bronfmans.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>At the time these people were assassinated, a scandal surfaced in Italy and the United States: $4 billion of unauthorized loans to Iraq were exposed, made by the Atlanta branch of the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>BNL had attracted the secretive Kissinger Associates as a business advisor, a firm Davignon, at some point, became a director of (identified as a director in April 2002, CSR Europe Magazine). Henry Kissinger, a close friend of Davignon, also sat on the advisory board of BNL.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>...Davignon is a president of Friends of Europe and a director of The European Institute (since about 1995). Honorary chairman of Bilderberg since 1999, after Lord Carrington resigned. He is a member of the <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Etienne Davignon sits on the Board of Advisors of 'Dialogues: Islamic World - U.S. - The West', together with Frank Wisner (Le Cercle) and Prince El Hassan bin Talal (head Club of Rome). The Dialogues, which are located in New York, are sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>...Davignon was president of Union Miniere Belgique and vice-president of Petrofina, Arbed, Salem, Sidmar, Foamex, <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Gilead</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> (USA) [<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Gilead: Rumsfeld, Tamiflu? - Alice</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->]...<br><br>Davignon was, or is, a member of the Board of ... Kissinger Associates (he's a friend of Henry and they have attended soccer/football matches together), and several SGB group companies. <br><br>...Davignon works with Delors at PlaNet Finance, an institution which also counts the involvement of Pehr Gyllenhammer (Chase; Lazard; Rothschild), Michel David-Weill (owns Lazard), Felix Rohatyn (Lazard), Hervé de Carmoy (Almatis), Shimon Peres (Israeli prime minister; Gorbachev's Green Cross), and Michel Rocard (French prime minister; Bohemian Grove camp Mandalay). <br><br>Delors, Davignon, Rocard, and members of the Green Cross, together with Gerald Mestrallet (Suez board with Davignon), sit on the membership board of Forum for a Responsible Globalization. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://home.planet.nl/~reijd050/organisations/introduction/PEHI_Etienne_Davignon_bio.htm">home.planet.nl/~reijd050/...on_bio.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A new $40 million Egyptian - US Company for insurance</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br>Egypt-USA, Business, 6/25/1999 <br><br>Frank Wisner, Vice Chairman, External Affairs of the American International Group and the U.S former ambassador in Egypt, stated that it was agreed with the Egyptian Orascom company to establish a new company for insurance with a capital of $40 million.<br><br>Wisner said the supervision front in the Egyptian Insurance Company is discussing a request for authorization for the new company and that the American group will keep the majority of shares which exceeds 51% of the new company's shares.<br><br>Wisner expressed his belief that, "The existence of a developed and strong insurance sector in Egypt could lead to an increase in savings."<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/990625/1999062524.html">www.arabicnews.com/ansub/...62524.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>And who are Wisner's business partners in this insurance company? Orascom Industries, a mega-corporation that has grown very rapidly from a small construction company, during the 1980s, to become one of the biggest multinational corporations in the Middle East, if not the world. Its recent purchase for $14 billion, of an Italian cell-phone company, is only one of its many huge deals. <br><br>With exlusive contracts to provide cell-phone service in Iraq, Afghanistan and the first one to have penetrated the Egyptian cell-phone service market, with enormous construction deals throughout the Middle East, and owner of huge luxury resorts in Egypt (independent tourist towns), it is a very, very well connected company indeed.<br><br>Now, apparently, this same mega-corporation has provided Abu Mazen's Fateh with mucho dinero. Pure luck, of course.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>While the PA bemoans an increasing shortage of arms and ammunition, or hunger in Gaza, the coffers of the Palestinian Investment Fund are bursting at the seams. And all thanks to a successful investment, or successful gamble, as some say, on the part of Yasser Arafat. <br><br>In 2002, when the Orascom corporation, owned by Egyptian entrepreneur Sawiris family, ran into trouble, the controversial economic adviser and current member of the Orascom board of directors, persuaded the rais [<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>rais, pronounced ra EESS, means "president" - Alice</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->] to invest no less than $200 million in the company. <br><br>At the end of 2002, the corporation's share was trading at less than $2; yesterday, it stood at $71.5 - such that the PA investment is currently estimated in billions of dollars. The biggest brokers in the world have yet to forgive themselves for thumbing their noses at the two Palestinians, who in the throes of a violent struggle with Israel, with the intifada at its peak, and with the PA knocking on the doors of the donor countries, decided to invest a huge sum of money in a company that was going bankrupt.<br><br>The economic press is reporting that today, the Sawiris family commands a commercial empire worth more than $12 billion. Its business affairs stretch from America and all the way to Bangladesh and Iraq. The total worth of the companies under its control makes up some 40 percent of the value of the Egyptian share market. Its performance in 2004 was among the best seen on capital markets around the world. <br><br>The most successful business, the one on which the Palestinians gambled, is the Orascom Telecom Holdings mobile telephone company. Naguib Sawiris, the eldest brother who sits at the top of the corporate ladder, wasn't the first to cotton on to the huge potential, estimated at some $600 million, in mobile telephone users in the Middle East. Before Oslo became a dirty word in Israel, there were those - first and foremost, Stuart Eisenstadt, under-secretary of state for trade in the Clinton administration - who believed that this huge market was Israel's for the picking.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=563769&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0">www.haaretz.com/hasen/pag...ntrassID=0</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Anyway. This helps to provide some interesting context (at least for me), for the fact that Frank Wisner was in direct communication with Sheikh Omar Abdelrahman in the late 80's and with the terrorist Jamaa Islameyya group. I have this from someone who was a friend of Wisner's in Egypt and who, indeed, first heard about Abdelrahman and Wisner's visits to him in the town of Tanta, directly from Wisner himself. <br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=alicethecurious>AlicetheCurious</A> at: 10/15/06 8:20 am<br></i>
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Re: More on "Ambassador" Frank Wisner

Postby AlicetheCurious » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:33 am

OK, I'm off on a tangent here, but I came across this article, that confirms that, one way or another (ie "lucky investments", etc.), the US has been getting money to Abbas' Fateh organization:<br><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Last update - 15:14 14/10/2006 <br> <br> <br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>U.S. begins $42 million program to bolster Hamas opponents <br></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br>By Reuters <br> <br>The United States has quietly started a campaign projected to cost up to $42 million to bolster Hamas's political opponents ahead of possible early Palestinian elections, say officials linked to the program.<br><br>The plan to promote alternatives to Hamas includes funding to help restructure Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group and provide training and strategic advice to politicians and secular parties opposed to Hamas Islamists.<br><br>"This project supports (the) objective to create democratic alternatives to authoritarian or radical Islamist political options," one official U.S. document obtained by Reuters said.<br><br>The U.S. campaign coincides with signs that Abbas is considering sacking the government led by Hamas, which defeated Fatah in January elections, in a process that could lead to a new parliamentary vote.<br><br>U.S. officials and consultants say the effort is being conducted without fanfare in order to protect the Palestinians who are receiving U.S. help -- some already branded by Hamas leaders as collaborators with Washington and Israel.<br><br>"We don't operate with firecrackers and neon signs to attract attention to ourselves," said one of the contractors working with Fatah on behalf of the U.S. State Department.<br><br>U.S. funds will also be used to encourage "watchdog" groups and local journalists to investigate the activities of the Hamas-led government and parliament. Up to $5 million would support private Palestinian schools offering an alternative to the Hamas-controlled public education system.<br><br>In a response, U.S. Consul General Jacob Walles said: "There is nothing new here. The U.S. has operated programmes in the West Bank and Gaza for many years to promote the development of political parties and civil society organisations."<br><br>The documents obtained by Reuters repeatedly call these new programmes that began in recent weeks.<br><br>"We are not promoting any particular party. In fact, we will work with any party as long as it is not affiliated with a terrorist organisation," Walles said.<br><br>There would be no direct funding of parties, he stressed.<br><br>Some Hamas leaders have accused Abbas and Fatah of serving the interests of Israel's ally, the United States, which has led a Western aid embargo to force Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past accords with the Jewish state.<br><br>Washington is also helping Abbas expand his presidential guard as a possible counterweight to Hamas.<br><br>Senior Hamas political leader and lawmaker Fathi Hammad called the U.S. money part of a plot to bring down the Hamas-led government. "It is a challenge that we are aware of and we will confront it," he said.<br><br>In U.S. budget terms, e42 million is a small amount.<br><br>But in the cash-strapped Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, it could go a long way - over three times the total spent by the main parties and candidates in the January election.<br><br>Ahead of that election, the United States tried to help the then Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, but critics said the push came too late to assist the long-dominant movement, which was handicapped by infighting and accusations of corruption.<br><br>The U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) said it recently began talks with the leaders of Fatah and other parties about how they could improve their performance in any election.<br><br>Michael Murphy, who runs NDI operations in the West Bank and Gaza, said the focus for now was on internal party reform, but that the programme, in close coordination with the State Department, would also look for ways to help Fatah and others get their message across to voters.<br><br>The International Republican Institute, which has also worked in the West Bank and Gaza for years, recently received funds for a new programme to give training and strategic advice to several Palestinian independent parties, though it said politicians would not get direct financial help.<br><br>"We're hammering into them they need to start organising now," said Scott Mastic, deputy director of the Institute's Middle East and North Africa division.<br><br>"There could be another election. It should be an incentive to them to get moving and get their act together."<br><br>U.S. contractors and Palestinian political analysts say Fatah can learn from Hamas's electoral strategy by running fewer candidates per district and also by fielding women to campaign door-to-door, since they can enter more conservative households.<br><br>One group, the Arab Thought Forum, said it had been approached by Washington to help two months ago, but that it turned down funding for a programme that would have meant excluding Hamas politicians.<br><br>"We couldn't be in a position not to recognize a government elected by the people," said director general Abdel Rahman Abu Arafeh. "So we are not receiving any U.S. money."<br> <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/774570.html">www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/774570.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: More on "Ambassador" Frank Wisner

Postby AlicetheCurious » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:58 am

One last thing, about that insurance company jointly owned by AIG and Orascom, in which AIG (the CIA front company) owns 51% of the shares?<br><br>I've been told that this company has an exclusive contract to provide the mandatory travel insurance for all airline travellers out of Egypt. <p></p><i></i>
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