Saturday, March 1, 2014

CLINTON IN AFRICA: THE OVERVIEW; IN UGANDA, CLINTON EXPRESSES REGRET ON SLAVERY IN U.S.




Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:47 PM
Subject: [uchunguzionline] Fw: Exciting news




Dear Maurice Oduor et all,

While I appreciate your response, I believe that President Obama’s reference should be considered informal and personal courtesy extended on buddies of equal level sharing gesture on a platform.  An official protocol should be respected and it is what I am referring to.  I checked and did not find anywhere else where the same reference is used in the official capacity and the same is not implied in any linguistic officialdom.

However, that being by the way, let us focus and go back to the theme of the subject matter of the Interesting News…..and that it is fair and right to dissect the matter in this forum conclusively and it is because, this forum carries a good diverse representation from key parts of Africa that have been adversely affected and would wish to engage in a better approach to do business in Africa in a justified manner and under mutual respect, dignity and fairness. The Indians and Chinese were the main brokers who shared the ideologies that benefited the greedy Corporate Special Business Interest who joined with their International NGOs and Foundations.

The World Bank and IMF broke loose their banks and discipline code and went on bazaar to prescribe and control development agenda for Africa with a promise to end poverty, illiteracy, disease and improve democracy in Africa but in effect was the major Architect and Cause of Poverty in Africa.  None of the big money loaned to Africa from the World Bank and IMF did what it was intended to do.

Today, the World Bank which is reality turned cum Chinese, is now in danger of being swallowed with the Chinese HSBC which has now become the main Central Bank of Africa and where all business of financial transactions are being carried as the HSBC is now located in every major towns in Africa killing all African National Central Banks.  

The impact and the beginning of the problems that destroyed Africa started in 1970 and got worse by 1979 when the IMF and World Bank imposed Structural Adjustments followed with Privatization of Public Corporation bankruptcy in 1980 as a pre-condition for further loans to Africa became a thorn in the flesh dipping African Nations into serious debt and burying Africa deeper into poverty, pain and sufferings.  When the Oil boom rooted in Africa in 1970, the debt crisis begun to bite African Nations and it is here that conditions for loans worse that opened flood-gates of corruption through Structural Adjustments and the Public Corporation Privatization liquidation/bankruptcy.  In addition the Corporate Special Business Interests with their Chinese counterpart evaded paying taxes but engaged in heavy political corruption.  

To develop a Debt conspiracy on unfortunate poor Africa was an effective tool the enemy of Africa used to ensure access to Africa’s Raw materials and further made inroads to participate in infrastructure that gained Chinese with its network of the greedy Corporate Special Business Interest along with their International NGOs and Foundations cheap possible terms on a Free hand to trade and built their wealth and riches in Africa cheaply at the expense of Livelihood and Survival of Africans.

This gave them reason to engage in conspiracies of corruption with organized insurgencies and terrorism that broke the backbone of African people and caused Africa to be pushed in the brink of collapse.  The rise of arm proliferation boomed and sophisticated arms were delivered to organized gangs known for example as the Al-Shabaabs, Mungiki’s and the M23’s and so on and so forth.  

When Africans are killing themselves, the greedy Chinese and Asians business with their counter-parts of the Corporate Special Business Interest engaged in the scramble to Africa where they saw an opportunity to dig deeper to rape Africa that caused more pain and sufferings; a situation that they took and controlled Africa’s Land and Water tower to themselves and advanced further in more complicated conspiracies to displace Africans from their dwelling places they call home, interfered in their Democratization to cause it to fail and took all major Government Contracts for themselves leaving Africans helpless without substance and the situation is worse off where poverty, sickness, homelessness, joblessness, landlessness is the order of the day and Africans are without any means to improve their livelihood and survival.

LETS FACE IT……….:
The fact of the matter remain that, the trickle-down of Chinese take-over of Africa in the Scramble to Africa through the World Bank financing with its Corporate Special Business Interest along with the International NGOs and Foundations benefited greatly in the Chinese Labor force that were then shipped to replace Africans in Africa to do the work that are for Africans in their own Country.  This is being too greedy, mean and heartless and it is against Humanity.  Africa has skilled and experienced contractors and professionals with scholars all over the world, but are denied and are obstructed from engaging in doing business in a transparent manner in fair share to invest in Africa.  Africa has been vandalized shamelessly and Africans are left in a worse-case-scenario to die and perish through organized Civil Wars and in conspiracy conflicts that were created by Agents of the same in the likes of Kagame and Museveni.

This arrangement by far and large does not hold valuable economic security for Africa.  It is a business benefited by a few build on quick sand – where when rain and storm fall, it is washed away and Africa is left with nothing.

SHOW-CASE OF AFRICA’S DESTRUCTION:

You don’t have to look far, just take a closer look at Mozambique, Somalia, Liberia, Congo, Sierra Leone and Chad; what do you see, endless killings, pain and sufferings with hands full of blood with organized terror.  Today the same is shifting to East Africa the Congolese, South Sudan, Tanzania, Chad and Kenya are in extension of organized terror for wipe-out and the players are against stability of democracy and peace.  I need not explain business interest of Clinton Foundation but I with the rest of people of African Descent expect a better and safer way of engagement with Africa.  

MY QUESTION THEREFORE IS?
1) What good development agenda has former President Clinton done with the Clinton Foundation in Africa that are free from the hand of Blood, pain and suffering that have improved this Sad-State-of-Affair in Africa mostly in their capacity friendship with Kagame and Museveni?  

2)  Why did the Clintons kept mum in Museveni’s invasion and insurgency in an organized incursion to South Sudan?

3) Would former President Clinton accept or deny his business interest and agreements involvement that may have had a hand in the blood, pain and sufferings of Africans in Africa and what he has done to reduce the spilling of blood, pain and sufferings of the unfortunate poor Africans and what he has done to offer fairness to engage fair business practices with people of Africa and African descent?

4)  What explanation does he now have about African Slavery he has over the years been avoiding to explain?


5)  Is he willing to re-think, re-structure and re-negotiate better prospects for Africa where Africans labour force is best considered for business of development in their Africa instead of the importated Chinese take-over to avoid fooling with Africa’s intelligence?

WAY FORWARD:
Africans are a very peaceful people who are ready to negotiate and re-negotiate for better standing for value, respect and dignity.  Africa and Africans do not need to be re-colonized.  Africa does not need hand-outs that rob them off their Wealth and Resources through conspiracies nor does it need to be taken over through organized hooliganism, thuggery, terrorism or through Civil War.  Africa need peace and real Partnership in forward strategy for sustained development.  Africa need real friends who can be trusted to share fairly its resources in a conducive environment where opportunity is abound and is open for all to embark fairly on business competition and challenges without obstruction or manipulation.

We all want peace and happiness through shared sacrifice under mutual respect.  Africa is a Pride of dignity because Africa has build the world and provides it with resources for progressive development and still it provides the world with the emerging markets ......... but present situation is painting Africa negatively and many of our African people have been killed in cold blooded, but it is time to do business differently with respect and dignity where everyone gets an opportunity to engage in a worthwhile productive venture to improve and make better lifestyle without being discriminated upon because of their Race, Color, Religion or Tribe.

WHO WE ARE:
We are a voice of reason, a voice of the voiceless who are advocating for the Civil Rights, Justice and Economic Security and Safety for Africa.  We shall not say Africa is sleeping in a bed of roses when it is not; we will not say Africa is on the road to good democratic and economic success when it is not.  We shall speak the truth about what is ailing Africa so together we can find a fix for the same.  There are problems that need urgent fixing and rich and powerful business community need to be fair to the poor and unfortunate Africa who is bleeding to death because of corruption of the oppressors.  They are the reason why Africa cannot stand to compete with the world at the Global MarketPlace on a fair “Give and Take”.  It is for this reason that we speak to demand that, Africa be treated better by the wealthiest of the most powerful and it is because, it is about time to give back what has been taken away from Africa by force.

We love everybody and we want good life for everybody so we all can enjoy this beautiful life together but things must be done differently to the advantage and benefit of all in a fair manner.


So, where former President Bill Clinton will deliver Keynote to address this years Opportunity for Africa Conference to be held on March 10th at the Chase Center in Wilmington, let him take stock and consider the blood, pain and suffering in Africa and how best together we can fix it.


See Reference.........




Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com



REFERENCE:

CLINTON IN AFRICA: THE OVERVIEW; IN UGANDA, CLINTON EXPRESSES REGRET ON SLAVERY IN U.S.

By JAMES BENNET
Published: March 25, 1998
President Clinton expressed regret today for the role of the United States in African slavery, as he reeled off a list of errors in American policy toward this continent that included turning to ruthless dictators as allies during the cold war.
Mr. Clinton has been under some pressure at home to issue a formal apology for slavery, but he stopped well short of such an explicit statement.
''Going back to the time before we were even a nation, European-Americans received the fruits of the slave trade and we were wrong in that,'' he said in what his aides called an impromptu remark, which strayed into a political territory that the White House has been trying to avoid.
The President's remarks seemed addressed as much to his audience back home as to those who heard him speak today in Uganda. Although some slaves were taken from this region, West Africa was the real center of the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.


In raising the subject of slavery on what the White House is billing as the most ambitious African tour ever undertaken by an American President, Mr. Clinton chose to elevate an issue that he has largely avoided, except when questioned by reporters.
He made his comment while speaking before more than a thousand children in a meadow by a school in this rural hamlet. Under a brilliant sun, the President and Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the school, then sat as the children danced and sang before briefly joining in the dancing themselves, bouncing and swaying to the drums, the rattles and the bright, high voices.
In his 13-minute speech, Mr. Clinton gave the children a brief history lesson. ''It is as well not to dwell too much on the past,'' he said, ''but I think it is worth pointing out that the United States has not always done the right thing by Africa.''
Uganda suffered during the 1970's under the brutal regime of Idi Amin, who ruled for years unchallenged by the United States. Without referring specifically to Uganda or any other country, Mr. Clinton said today that during the cold war, ''very often we dealt with countries in Africa and in other parts of the world based more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own people's aspirations to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities.''
But in keeping with the themes of his trip, Mr. Clinton went on to say that ''perhaps the worst sin America ever committed about Africa was the sin of neglect and ignorance.''
While trying to encourage democracy and open markets, Mr. Clinton is also trying to alert Americans to hopeful changes in Africa and to direct more investment here. ''I came here to listen and to learn,'' Mr. Clinton said, ''to offer my help and friendship and partnership.''
Administration officials criticized reporters this evening for focusing on the President's remarks about history, saying Mr. Clinton's purpose in Africa was to envision the future, not exhume the past.
Mr. Clinton, who has been trying to encourage Americans to discuss race for the last nine months, appointed a commission that has been traveling the country for a series of public discussions on the issue.
But he has tried to prevent that discussion from dwelling on slavery and its legacies, an issue that created a small political storm when Mr. Clinton created the commission.
At the time, Representative Tony P. Hall, Democrat of Ohio, called for an official Government apology to Americans whose ancestors were slaves. The idea gained some currency when Mr. Clinton did not quickly rule it out as a goal of the commission.
He later did so, after some of his political advisers argued that an official apology, while seemingly uncontroversial more than a century after slavery was outlawed in the United States, would have run the risk of reigniting tensions over the issue. In the view of some analysts, it also might have needlessly angered some centrist white voters who have been dependable supporters of Mr. Clinton.
Moreover, an official apology for slavery never received a push from the Congressional Black Caucus or from major civil rights organizations, which have considered the issue less important than other matters on their policy agenda.
Calling Mr. Clinton's comment on slavery ''statement enough on that matter,'' the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Mr. Clinton's special envoy to Africa, said, ''The question is where shall we go from here?''
But Mr. Jackson, speaking at press briefing tonight arranged by the White House, nevertheless provided a lengthy description of how slavery had operated for centuries as an African subsidy to the American economy.
On his visit here, Mr. Clinton tried today to highlight the efforts of President Yoweri K. Museveni to expand Uganda's economy and educate its people. In addition to speaking here, Mr. Clinton met with Mr. Museveni and later joined Mrs. Clinton to tour another village, Wanyange, to spotlight a lending program that provides small amounts of credit to poor women.

Mr. Clinton, who is clearly relishing the enthusiastic crowds he has encountered in Africa, posed in the village with a 2-day-old baby named Bill Clinton, the son of Betty Namugosa, a shopkeeper. ''Look at all this hair!'' the President said. ''I was completely bald until I was 2.''
The infant yawned, and Mr. Clinton pronounced him ''the smartest person here.''
When reporters touring the village with Mr. Clinton asked if he was invoking executive privilege in the Lewinsky matter, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton ignored the question. President Museveni called after them, saying, ''They're asking a question'' -- to no avail.
Mr. Clinton had no audience today like the several hundred thousand he addressed in Ghana on Monday. For this portion of the trip, the White House arranged for more intimate speeches in rural settings. The children in Mukono had rehearsed specially written songs for Mr. Clinton, in which they praised Mr. Museveni's education initiatives.


''Universal primary education benefits the majority,'' they sang in one song, while noting in another that Mr. Museveni's signature program was short on resources. ''Mishandling funds, misinterpretation, shortage of classrooms and teachers prevent U.P.E. from flourishing,'' they sang.
The Kisowera Primary School, which Mr. Clinton visited, crams 760 students into 10 rooms, with 14 teachers in all. There is no electricity, and there are no panes in the windows. Several students from Kisowera and nearby schools said they had never seen a computer, but Mr. Clinton envisioned in his speech a future in which they would communicate with American students on the Internet.
Mr. Clinton announced today that he would seek to spend $120 million in the next two years to improve the quality of African education, through community resource centers, partnerships between African and American schools and programs focused on educating girls, who are often left out when officials plan for schooling.
He also announced another two-year initiative, this one for $61 million, to improve farming techniques and food distribution.
On Wednesday, Mr. Clinton plans to fly to Kigali, Rwanda, for an airport appearance to deplore the violence in that country. White House aides said Mr. Clinton would declare that the world community should have responded sooner to the Rwandan mass killings in 1994, without naming any countries, including the United States.
Then Mr. Clinton is to return here for a meeting of Central and East African leaders before flying on to South Africa on Wednesday night.
Photos: President Clinton sat with Janet Museveni, Uganda's First Lady, as they watched schoolchildren perform a dance in a village near the capital. (Reuters)(pg. A1); Hillary Rodham Clinton, in African dress, strolled yesterday through the gardens at the State Lodge in Kampala, accompanied by Janet Museveni, Uganda's First Lady. And President Clinton, on a visit to a village called Wanyange, held a newborn Bill Clinton, a two-day-old boy named in honor of the President's visit. Mr. Clinton said: ''This baby is my namesake. People should not be written off because they were born or grew up in a poor area.'' (Photographs by Associated Press)(pg. A14) Map of Uganda showing location of Mukona: In Mukono, President Clinton gave Ugandans a history lesson.




=====================




128. BILL CLINTON AND G.H.W. BUSH ARE BOTH INVOLVED WITH CANADIAN MINING COMPANIES IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

Thu Jan-31-08 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #64

leveymg
Donating Member(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore



128. Bill Clinton and G.H.W. Bush are both involved with Canadian Mining Companies in 3rd World countries
Edited on Thu Jan-31-08 02:11 PM by leveymg

The NYT reports today that Former President Bill Clinton operates a foundation with Canadian mining magnate, Frank Giustra. The two are reported to have worked together to seal a uranium mining deal with the President of Khazakstan, who is accused of human rights violations. Clinton, who runs a non-profit foundation with Giustra, is not said to have personally gained from this transaction.

Meanwhile, the Times has failed to provide some important context. Former President G.H.W. Bush, Sr. has made a personal fortune doing business with Barrack Gold, a huge Canadian mining company affiliated with the Carlyle Group. Both former Presidents have, in their different ways, tapped into the $USD trillion global mining industry, based largely in Canada, which operates in the most unstable and underdeveloped regions of the world.

Giustra is a relative newcomer to the global mining business, while Barrack Gold is one of the very largest and oldest global extraction companies, and has long-established ties with conservative politicians in Canada and the United States. Both outfits do business with private military contractors and corrupt Third World dictatorships. These companies are major contributors to "charitable" and "development" agencies that operate in mineral-rich areas of Africa, South America, and Central Asia.

Giustra has partnered with Clinton as a major contributor to a charity that operates in the Third World. This not really a new story. See, http://www.stockhouse.ca/bullboards/viewmessage.asp?no=...
Andy Hoffman
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton has teamed with a reclusive Vancouver mining financier and a Mexican billionaire to create a massive charitable effort that will see the mining industry channel funds to fight poverty in areas affected by the resource sector.

Frank Giustra, who has made millions for himself and investors financing mining deals, has pledged $100-million (U.S) and half of all his future earnings from the mining business towards the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI). Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican billionaire who made his fortune in the telecom industry has also committed $100-million towards the effort, which will initially focus on alleviating poverty and fostering growth in Latin America.


“I firmly believe that this innovative partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the business community – and the mining industry in particular – will have a profound and positive effect on the lives of countless people in the developing world during the months and years ahead,” Mr. Giustra, the 49-year-old son of a Sudbury miner and former head of Yorkton Securities, said in a statement.

Several large mining companies including zinc and copper producer Teck Cominco Ltd. and gold miner Newmont Mining Corp. have signed on as partners to the charity group which plans to expand its efforts beyond Latin America to other parts of the developing world.

As well, mining focused Canadian brokerage firms including Canaccord Capital Inc. and GMP Securities LP have committed to the fund and will direct a percentage of their resource-related commission fees to the CGSCI.

Toronto law firm Cassels Brock has promised a financial contribution as well as a pledge to provide legal services at no charge. The Toronto Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange are also supporting the initiative.

SNIP

Although many mining companies have spent millions on funding sustainable development, education, health and infrastructure in countries and areas in which they operate, the industry still gets a bum rap, according to Newmont Mining board member and former company president Pierre Lassonde.

“What I find absolutely genius in the move here is that what has done is he has got Bill Clinton to more or less, be the spokesman for resource development. That is momentous,” Mr. Lassonde said in an interview.

In the past, some mining companies have faced severe criticism for exploiting resources in developing nations and giving little back to the community. In some cases, mining has caused environmental damage that has made some areas uninhabitable or been linked to illnesses in local people.

The CGSGI said it intends to work with local leaders to address, social, economic and environmental issues in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. The Clinton Foundation will act as the “implementing partner” linking the resource industry with local communities in the developing world.

SNIP

While the CGSGI may be the single largest charity initiative by the mining sector, Mr. Giustra's contribution follows previous large-scale donations by other industry heavyweights from Canada.

Mr. Lassonde has donated millions through his own active philanthropic efforts as has his Franco-Nevada co-founder and long-time business partner Seymour Schulich. Mr. Schulich recently gave $22.5-million (Canadian) to the Technion-Israel Institute, which is naming its chemistry department after him. His past gifts have included $27-million to York University's school of business and $20-million to McGill University's faculty of music. Barrick Gold co-founder Peter Munk gave almost $61-million to charity last year alone including $37-million to the Toronto General Hospital, $18.5-million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and $5-million to the University of Toronto.



According to this 2006 article by Keith Harmon Snow and David Barouski, Barrack Gold is connected to both Bush and, less directly, with close Clinton associates in mineral extraction operations in some of the bloodiest areas in Africa. See, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9832

SNIP

Some people have lauded great progress in the exposure of illegal mining in DRC, particularly by the group Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose 2005 report “The Curse of Gold” exposed Ugandan officials and multi-national corporations smuggling gold through local rebel militias. The cited rebel groups were the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and the People’s Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC). The western companies targeted by HRW were Anglo-Ashanti Gold, a company headquartered in South Africa, and Metalor, a Swedish firm. The HRW report failed to mention that Anglo-Ashanti is partnered with Anglo-American, owned by the Oppenheimer family and partnered with Canada-based Barrick Gold described below (3). London-based Anglo-American Plc. owns a 45% share in DeBeers, another Oppenheimer company that is infamous for its near monopoly of the international diamond industry (4). Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, a director of Anglo-American, is a director of Royal Dutch/Shell and a member of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Advisory Board (5). The report also suppressed the most damning evidence discovered by HRW researchers—that Anglo-Ashanti sent its top lawyers into eastern DRC to aid rebel militia leaders arrested there.

Several multi-national mining companies have rarely if ever been mentioned in any human rights report. One is Barrick Gold, who operates in the town of Watsa, northwest of the town of Bunia, located in the most violent corner of the Congo. The Ugandan People’s Defense Force (UPDF) controlled the mines intermittently during the war. Officials in Bunia claim that Barrick executives flew into the region, with UPDF and RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) escorts, to survey and inspect their mining interests (6).

George H.W. Bush served as a paid advisor for Barrick Gold. Barrick directors include: Brian Mulroney, former PM of Canada; Edward Neys, former U.S. ambassador to Canada and chairman of the private PR firm Burston-Marsteller; former U.S. Senator Howard Baker; J. Trevor Eyton, a member of the Canadian Senate; and Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton’s lawyers (7).

Barrick Gold is one of the client companies of Andrew Young’s Goodworks International lobbying firm. Andrew Young is the former Mayor of Atlanta, and a key organizer of the U.S.-Uganda Friendship Council. Young was chosen by President Clinton to chair the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund in October 1994. Goodworks’ clients—or business partners in some cases—include Coke, Chevron-Texaco, Monsanto, and the governments of Angola and Nigeria (note weapons transfers from Nigeria cited below). Young is a director of Cox Communications and Archers Daniels Midland—the “supermarket to the world” and National Public Radio sponsor whose directors include Brian Mulroney (Barrick) and G. Allen Andreas, a member of the European Advisory Board of The Carlyle Group.

Barrick Gold’s mining partners have included Adastra Mining—formerly named America Mineral Fields (AMFI, AMX, other names), formerly based in Hope, Arkansas, Bill Clinton’s hometown. Adastra had close ties with Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest diamond brokerage firm in the U.S., whose president, Maurice Tempelsman, has been an advisor on African Affairs to the U.S. Government and has been the U.S. Honorary Consul General of the Congo since 1977 (8).

Maurice Tempelsman accompanied Bill Clinton during his African tour in 1998, and he sails with the Clintons off Martha’s Vineyard.
He serves on the International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange, and is a director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a
”scientific” front for his offshore diamond mining—raking the seabed into oblivion.

Adastra also purchased a diamond concession on the Congolese-Angolan border from the Belgian mercenary firm International Defense and Security (1998), and currently has cobalt and copper concessions in Congo’s Katanga (Shaba) province (9). Adastra is a member of the Corporate Council on Africa, along with Goodworks, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, Northrop Grumman, GE, Boeing, Raytheon, Bechtel and SAIC—the latter two being secretive intelligence and defense entities involved in classified and supra-governmental “black” projects.

In April 1997, Jean-Ramon Boulle, a co-founder of Adastra (then AMFI), received a $1 billion dollar deal for mines in the Congo at Kolwezi (cobalt) and Kipushi (zinc) from Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (ADFL) before they were even officially in power. The ADFL were even allowed to use Boulle’s private jet (10). Meanwhile, directors of Adastra are also former directors of Anglo-American (11). Other Clinton-connected founders of Adastra include Michael McMurrough and Robert Friedland—both involved in shady, criminal, offshore businesses in Indonesia, Africa, Burma and the Americas (12).

Barrick sub-contracts to Caleb International, who has also partnered with Adastra in the past. Caleb is run by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s half-brother Salim Saleh, the former acting General of the UPDF. When Uganda withdrew from the Congo in 2002 following a so-called “peace” agreement, Saleh began training paramilitary groups to act as Ugandan proxies to sustain the flow of minerals into Uganda (13).

SNIP

Katanga’s militias and racketeering are connected to criminal networks of businessmen, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, Billy Rautenbach, John Bredenkamp, and Marc Rich. U.S. diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman has profited from Katanga concessions since the Kennedy era. Lawrence Devlin, the old CIA station chief of Lubumbashi under Eisenhower, maintained Tempelsman’s criminal rackets with direct ties to Zaire’s former President Mobutu, and was subsequently employed by Tempelsman (16).

The Forrest Group has the longest history of exploitation in the Congo, gaining its first mining concessions before the Congo declared independence from the Belgians. The group, which includes the Ohio-based OM Group, has numerous concessions in Katanga (Shaba). Chairman George Forrest is the former chairman of the Congo’s state-owned mining firm GECAMINES, and owner of the New Lachaussee weapons manufacturing company.

Coltan ore is widely used in the aerospace and electronics industries for capacitors, superconductors and transistors after it is refined to tantalum. The U.S. is entirely dependant on foreign sources for tantalum, an enabling technology for capacitors essential to aerospace weaponry and every pager, cell phone, computer, VCR, CD player, P.D.A. and TV. U.S. import records show a dramatic jump of purchases from Rwanda and Uganda during the time they were smuggling tantalum and cobalt out of the Congo.

SNIP

Bechtel, a U.S. aerospace & construction company, provided satellite maps of reconnaissance photos of Mobutu’s troops for the ADFL invasion of Congo in 1996; they also created infrared maps of the Congo’s mineral deposits (22). The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan President graduate of the U.S. Army officers school at Fort Leavenworth, used Bechtel’s NASA maps to locate Rwandan Hutu civilians that fled the cataclysm in Rwanda in 1994. An estimated 800,000 refugees were hunted down and killed in the Congo’s forests (23). Bechtel’s friends in high places include former Secretary of State George Shultz (Board of Directors), former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger (Bechtel Counsel) and retired U.S.M.C. general Jack Sheehan (Senior Vice President), who is also a member of the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon (24). Riley P. Bechtel is on the Board of J.P. Morgan (25). Bechtel’s Nexant Company is the prime contractor on the Uganda-Kenya pipeline project, believed to ultimately facilitate petroleum transport out of the Semliki Basin of Lake Albert.

The U.N. Panel of Experts named New England-based Cabot Co. for conducting unethical business practices (26). Cabot is one of the largest tantalum processors in the world. The current Deputy Director of the U.S. Treasury, Samuel Bodman, was CEO and chairman of the board for Cabot from 1997-2001 (27). Current Director John H. McArthur is a Senior Advisor to Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank (28).

Private Military Contractors (PMCs) are also big business in Africa. Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, helped build a military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda just next to the Congo-Rwandan border. ”Officially,” Brown and Root was there to clear land mines, but instead housed mercenaries from Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI) who trained the RPF and Laurent Kabila’s ADFL for invasion of the Congo in 1996, and the Rwandan army’s re-invasion in 1998, after
Laurent Kabila threw out the Rwandans, Ugandans, Bechtel and the IMF (29). The French intelligence service reported that U.S. Special Forces and mercenaries from MPRI participated in the murder of Rwandan Hutu refugees on the Oso River near Goma in 1996 and even claims to have turned over the bodies of two American soldiers killed in combat near Goma (30). The circumstances surrounding the unofficial recovery of these two U.S. soldiers remain very mysterious (31).

MPRI is based in Arlington, Virginia and is staffed and run by 36 retired U.S. generals. It is contracted by the Pentagon to fulfill the African Crisis Responsive Initiative (ACRI). This program includes the Ugandan military, and it supplied military training in guerrilla warfare to Ugandan officers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in July 1996. During the invasion of the Congo in 1998, Ugandan soldiers were found with ACRI equipment while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have implicated Ugandan battalions trained by ACRI in rapes, murders, extortion, and beatings of Ugandan civilians (32).

Executive Outcomes founder Tony Buckingham has established other Private Military Companies that operate around Africa. Buckingham’s Heritage Oil & Gas works closely with his PMC Sandline International to manipulate the petroleum options around Lake Albert, and is believed to have signed concession deals with warring armies and governments on both sides of the Uganda-Congo border. Branch Energy is another Buckingham affiliated company operating in the Great Lakes region.

SNIP


================================




http://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard/delisted/delisted-companies?postid=12981252



Frank Giustra

Andy Hoffman Thursday, June 21, 2007 Former U.S. president Bill Clinton has teamed with a reclusive Vancouver mining financier and a Mexican billionaire to create a massive charitable effort that will see the mining industry channel funds to fight poverty in areas affected by the resource sector. Frank Giustra, who has made millions for himself and investors financing mining deals, has pledged $100-million (U.S) and half of all his future earnings from the mining business towards the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI). Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican billionaire who made his fortune in the telecom industry has also committed $100-million towards the effort, which will initially focus on alleviating poverty and fostering growth in Latin America. “I firmly believe that this innovative partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the business community – and the mining industry in particular – will have a profound and positive effect on the lives of countless people in the developing world during the months and years ahead,” Mr. Giustra, the 49-year-old son of a Sudbury miner and former head of Yorkton Securities, said in a statement. Several large mining companies including zinc and copper producer Teck Cominco Ltd. and gold miner Newmont Mining Corp. have signed on as partners to the charity group which plans to expand its efforts beyond Latin America to other parts of the developing world. As well, mining focused Canadian brokerage firms including Canaccord Capital Inc. and GMP Securities LP have committed to the fund and will direct a percentage of their resource-related commission fees to the CGSCI. Toronto law firm Cassels Brock has promised a financial contribution as well as a pledge to provide legal services at no charge. The Toronto Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange are also supporting the initiative. “I'm proud of the coalition in the natural resources industry that has come together to invest in sustainable growth in emerging economies,” President Clinton said in a statement. “Ultimately our goal is to bridge the gap between the rich and poor, and give all people a shot at a better life.” The new initiative is the brainchild of Mr. Giustra, a 20-year veteran of the international mining finance scene, who has spearheaded efforts to assemble an impressive group of mining players behind the foundation. Known for his innovative and creative approach to mining finance as well as an unparalleled ability to raise capital, Mr. Giustra has applied a similar tack to the CGSCI. Drawing on his extensive list of contacts in the mining world as well as a friendship cultivated with the former president over the last few years, Mr. Giustra has created what is believed to be the largest single charity initiative in the history of the mining industry. Although many mining companies have spent millions on funding sustainable development, education, health and infrastructure in countries and areas in which they operate, the industry still gets a bum rap, according to Newmont Mining board member and former company president Pierre Lassonde. “What I find absolutely genius in the move here is that what [Mr. Giustra] has done is he has got Bill Clinton to more or less, be the spokesman for resource development. That is momentous,” Mr. Lassonde said in an interview. In the past, some mining companies have faced severe criticism for exploiting resources in developing nations and giving little back to the community. In some cases, mining has caused environmental damage that has made some areas uninhabitable or been linked to illnesses in local people. The CGSGI said it intends to work with local leaders to address, social, economic and environmental issues in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. The Clinton Foundation will act as the “implementing partner” linking the resource industry with local communities in the developing world. “Latin America faces major challenges related to poverty and education, and these needs go beyond any single country, industry, or donor,” Carlos Slim said in a statement. Amid the current boom in resources driven by record metal prices and strong demand for materials from China, there are more than 2,000 mining companies around the world with a combined market value of more than $1-trillion. With many of the resources in developed and politically stable nations such as Canada and the United States having been exhausted, mining companies have looked increasingly to the developing world for new mines. While the CGSGI may be the single largest charity initiative by the mining sector, Mr. Giustra's contribution follows previous large-scale donations by other industry heavyweights from Canada. Mr. Lassonde has donated millions through his own active philanthropic efforts as has his Franco-Nevada co-founder and long-time business partner Seymour Schulich. Mr. Schulich recently gave $22.5-million (Canadian) to the Technion-Israel Institute, which is naming its chemistry department after him. His past gifts have included $27-million to York University's school of business and $20-million to McGill University's faculty of music. Barrick Gold co-founder Peter Munk gave almost $61-million to charity last year alone including $37-million to the Toronto General Hospital, $18.5-million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and $5-million to the University of Toronto.

Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard/delisted/delisted-companies#ZMMhmjhWJh2VFpT6.99

No comments: