Scores held in US corruption probe

Scores held in US corruption probe


The arrests came as part of a 10-year investigation dubbed 'Operation Bid Rig' [AFP]

More than 40 people, including politicians, officials and prominent rabbis, have been arrested in connection with corruption, money laundering and organ trafficking in the US state of New Jersey.
The sweeping investigation, which saw 44 people arrested in raids on Thursday, is believed to be one of the biggest such actions in a state long associated with corruption.
Authorities said the arrests were part of a two-pronged 10-year investigation called "Operation Bid Rig".
Five rabbis were among suspects arrested, along with the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, prosecutors said.
Ed Kahrer, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption programme in New Jersey, called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state".
"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation," Kahrer, who has worked on the investigation since it began in July 1999, said.
"It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture."
Organ trading
Investigators used an informant, a real estate developer charged with bank fraud three years ago, to uncover a money laundering ring and organ trafficking, as well as corruption by politicians who exploited loopholes in state law to disguise bribes as campaign contributions.
Among those arrested
Peter Cammarano III, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, accused of accepting $25,000 in cash bribes

Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, New Jersey, charged with taking $10,000

Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield, charged with agreeing to accept an illegal $10,000

Leona Beldini, deputy mayor of Jersey City, charged with conspiracy to commit extortion by taking $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions

Daniel Van Pelt and L Harvey Smith, both state assemblymen, accused of taking payoffs
The politicians arrested in the investigation were not accused of any involvement in the money laundering or the trading in human organs.
The money laundering network is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through Jewish charities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey.
They laundered some $3m for the undercover witness between June 2007 and July 2009, authorities said.
Investigators raided several synagogues and among those arrested was Saul Kassin, the chief rabbi of Syrian Jews in the US.
Those arrested also included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn rabbi, who was charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious uncle.
Rosenbaum was quoted as saying he had been arranging the sale of kidneys for 10 years.
'Public corruption'
Ralph Marra, the acting US attorney, told a press conference that the sweep demonstrated "the pervasive nature of public corruption in this state".
"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said, while "clergymen cloak their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude".
US television footage showed FBI and tax agents bringing a stream of handcuffed suspects, including the rabbis wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish garb, into custody in the city of Newark.
Most of the defendants facing corruption charges were released on bail.
The money laundering defendants faced bail between $300,000 and $3m, and most were ordered to submit to electronic monitoring.
New Jersey has long been notorious for official corruption and organised crime and is best known as the setting for the popular television show "The Sopranos".

President of the Sudan

Speech by Field Marshal Omar Al-Bashir, President of the Sudan
El Fasher 8 March 2009

All Praise goes to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon our honorable prophet. We say our prayers loud and clear, as it brings out their rage, anger and wrath – this is what we wish for them.

My countrymen, they are angry at us for we are committed to Allah and his prophet. They say it’s the end of the world and claim to be masters-at-large of the universe. However, we in the Sudan say it loud and clear: There is no god but Allah the only master of the universe and there no others. This is why they are so angry at us. They claim to be the masters of the universe, but we say that there is a master of this universe and we worship Allah. A worshiper of Allah will not be a slave of other humans. No human should be the master of any other human, because Allah is the only master of all, including non-believers.

First of all, we have rejected; and I swear to god that we will continue to reject bowing down for these people, because we only bow to Allah. We don’t ask them, but we ask Allah. They don’t like this talk, as they know that we are leading a movement of rebellion against international injustice, the new world order and the neo-colonialism.

We were the ones who liberated Africa and supported the African freedom movements, drove out the colonizers from Africa, and thus, we will not accept colonialism to return again to the Sudan.

Those behind the ICC are the real criminals of killings. They killed the Red Indians in the millions – do they have any right to accuse anyone with ethnic cleansing? Are those who committed ethnic cleansing against the Red Indians talking about genocide? Those who transported millions and millions of our African people as slaves, throwing into the sea anyone who had a headache or fever, as well as throwing into the sea half the people on the ship just because the drinking water was not enough. They brought them as slaves to build their economy and their strength. Well, that strength is ours, because its source is our people and their economy is ours and built by our people.

Up until a few years ago, we were witnesses to signs at their stores that dogs and niggers are not allowed to enter – who is a dog? Allah is in control of the universe. Today, there is a black president of the United States. Niggers were afraid to enter restaurants and today he is the master of the White House. It was not just him and his children who entered the White House, but his dog went into the White House with him too.

Those who bombed the innocent people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with an atomic bomb and eliminated every form of life, killing men and women, children and the elderly are now talking about a genocide… is not what they did a genocide…?

How about those who marched their armies to Vietnam? Vietnam is not a US state!! They went there as occupier, killing the people and their forests with the internationally-banned Napalm – isn’t this a crime?

Those who lied to the whole world, as Bush lied to his people. He lied to his own people and the whole world while talking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, rendering 5 million Iraqis as homeless and hungry as their property, oil and money were being looted, leading to turmoil. Isn’t this a crime? Where is this international justice they are talking about?

A few days ago, we were witnesses to the crime of our time. Israel was killing unarmed citizens in Gaza. We saw how their children were being killed with illegal weapons, as we saw the women. We saw houses being demolished while its inhabitants were inside. The whole world witnessed this crime. When asked “why don’t you pursue Israel to the ICC,” their answer was that Israel was not party to the Rome Statute. Well, neither are we a party to the Rome Statute, because they are a group of hypocrite and liars.

From El-Fasher, I say to them, all of them, the ICC prosecutor and members and each one that stood by the court: you are under my shoes, (these shoes, pointing to his shoes) and I challenge them and I challenge whoever comes here in the midst of our folks, our folks of the Fur, the Zaghawa and the Masaleet, and I guarantee them no soldier will ask them, no policeman will ask them, no government official will ask them….. we will let them meet the citizens and see the reactions of the citizens and see the hospitality with which the citizens will address them. These people are talented (with sarcasm) in saying that when this decision comes up the Sudanese people will shiver and the Sudanese people will become fearful but these people don’t know … it seems they still don’t know us and in order for them to know us we invite them to come to us. We tell them come, try, read the history, where is the campaign of Hecks Pasha….. they buried it in the sands of Kordofan… where is Gordon Pasha, we slaughtered them in the presidential palace… we tell them that we in Sudan still remember your crimes…. Your crime in Karri…..when you showed up you killed the wounded … you killed the wounded…. And we gave 18,000 martyrs in one hour and a half….

Those criminals, the real criminals that sent their armies and colonized the world and robbed their treasures and resources and killed their men and enslaved their children these people have no right to talk about international justice, cause the real criminal is Bush and the real criminal is Olmert and the criminals are the leaders of the western states…… these are the criminals witnessed by the whole world and we tell them in a message from here in the Sudan, from Fasher Al-Sultan to all liberals of the world….. of the third world in Africa, in Asia in Latin America, we tell them that we in Sudan got freed and we do not kneel neither to a colonizer, nor to an agent. Our message here is for all the honorable, the people that have stood by Sudan, who know that the real criminal is Israel… the real criminal is whoever supported Israel and Bush, hit Iraq and hit Afghanistan and killed the innocent in every place.

When we expelled some organizations, we expelled the agent organizations, the spies, those who aggressed against the security of the nation, the people that have betrayed the covenant, because any organization that exists here among us, we had an agreement with it. And it had a certain mission to carry out. We welcomed them and opened our gates until 118 organizations came to us, but some of them took advantage and brought spies to us. Any person that respects himself, resides with us … should above all respect himself and whoever that roams around without snatching this and that, not interfering into matters that are not of his concern and not committing any act that violates the security and safety of the nation, this person we will carry over our heads (respect). But the one who tries to play around with us we will not tolerate him, whether it is an NGO or envoy or a diplomatic mission or even security forces. Every person should know his limits, his position and act within that position….. they spoke to us about expelling organizations…. We have made our thorough calculations, and found that the organizations receive 2bn dollars per year to spend in Darfur, and we found that what is received in Darfur is less than 100 million dollars … so we ask those who beg in the name of Darfur, trade in the name of the people of Darfur, trade on behalf of the crisis of Darfur and accumulate illegal wealth in the name of Darfur.. we tell them “why”? We will not tolerate you anymore and you will not stay here and we are ready to fill the gap of 100 million dollars, from our own pockets, from our clean and honest money. We are the ones responsible for our own people.

Those IDPs came to Fasher, Geneina, Nyala and Zalengei. Was the UN here when they came? Were the Organizations, AU, UNAMID here when they came? Who received them? Isn’t it that their own families and their folks received them? The government received them, sheltered them and spent on them and today we are ready to continue to do that, because they are our people. There is no one else more loving to them than us and more responsible for them than us. We have enough bread and we do not need the imported rations that they receive.

Our message is that we will respect who respects himself among us, but those who play around, left and right, can only blame themselves. I mean those who think they frighten us and want to bargain with us…….. In the beginning, they asked us to handover Ahmad Haroun and wanted to bargain….. they asked us to give them Ahmed Haroun and we said no…. they asked that we dismiss him and we said no. They said Ahmad Haroun should resign, I said there will be neither a resignation nor a deposition because we are free in our country and we do not accept the dictation of others. At the end they told us, if you depose Ahmad Haroun, we will pardon the president … now they say, if you keep the organizations, we will freeze the decision. We are against the freezing…. Either they annul the decision or we tell them to suck it and drink it (eat your decision) … we never went to seek the help of anyone because we are God seekers and we read the Book of God and we are the people of the Koran…. The people of Darfur are the people of the Koran. The people of the ink and board, people of perseverance who read the word of god, (he recites a Koranic verse).

We know that when we announced the State of the Sharia (religious law) and that we would implement Sharia and that we would be more committed to the implementation of Sharia…. We knew that it would be a path of defeats and hardship, because, God assigned his messengers into this hard path and these messengers are better than any of us (religious references). Those people told us that they will put us under embargo and that they will boycott us economically…. But we are already in siege in the Sudan since 1983 and from 1984, when Numeiri announced the Sharia, they announced their boycott of the Sudan and Sudan stayed under embargo. And after we came (the Salvation Front), they hardened the embargo. How many universities where there before the Salvation (front)? How many universities do we have today? How many hospitals were there before the Salvation/ and how many hospitals do we have now? How many water points and stations were there before Salvation and how many we have today? How were our roads before Salvation? And how many roads we have today? How were our factories before Salvation and how are they today? How were our communications before Salvation, and how are they today? Where was our oil before Salvation? And where is our oil today? This is our response to them; because this is the response that hurts them. They are angry because we are God seekers …. We are investing in development and they are angry …. On 3/3/2009, the response was the Dam (Marawe) and tonight the response is with the Western Salvation Road and the ring road and the road of El-Foula-El-Dubaibat; the electric power reached al-Ubayedh and from Al-Obayedh it will reach Al Nuhud National Network. From AL Nuhud to el-Fasher and Nyala until it reaches El-Geneina. Our response to them is by new building Dams and we will build the railroad and you heard the speech of our brother, the Minister of Transport who told you the railroad will come to el-Fasher…… that’s what we have done, because we are clever people, because we have relied on God. How do you think we have realized our fortunes and how did we make sure that these fortunes are available? God told us so (Koranic verse) one more thing, is there anybody in doubt? Is there anybody in fear? Is there anybody in need?..... we believe that fortunes are from God and that’s why we tell them: eat your Dollars. They said we want you to change this government…. How? …. They told us they were people of democracy and that they were after democracy, we said welcome to democracy and we will conduct elections this year and have the Sudanese people have their say. They will decide who will be their president? It is not something to be decided by America, Britain, UN or anyone else. Because they are liars … They are afraid of democracy that will bring al-Bashir again. We tell them, it is not democracy or anything else that changes governments, because God gives authority according to his will and takes authority from whomever he wishes (Koranic verse). And they said…. We know who they are…. The organizations that we have expelled…. They want to give them money to run elections…. But if we have faith that power is from God and in the hand of God…. What then…. They will kill us? Is there a person who will die before his day…. Lives are in the hands of God…. whom are we afraid of…. Moreover, as long as the human being will die (some religious and traditional references about how someone could be just seen here and there and dies suddenly and how death is a nice ending).

We are a great nation of magnanimity and generosity that will never accept injustice or humiliation. We are the hospitable nation … we are the nation that saves the weak. Our response to those people (the west) is by our unity and we tell our armed sons that the question is not about development, because development is ongoing…. The question is not about your requests, because your requests will be well satisfied, but the question is a question of a nation, and of people who want to loot this nation. People that want our oil and our minerals and our wealth and we know those people and that they will keep against us …. We tell all those with weapons and all those who had misled them and that have sold their country for a bunch of Dinars, not even with few Dollars… we tell them: this country is more precious than to be sold by Dinar … and more precious than to be sold for anything on this earth….. this is our country that we have irrigated with our blood. We watered it with our blood… the blood of our martyrs that are buried in this soil… this soil is dear to us… a giving soil that would never be sold for dollars…… that is why I want you, the people of Darfur, to join ranks, reconcile, because the people of Darfur are people of wisdom, people of great values and traditions who are able and willing to solve their problems, who do not need anybody to show them how … because you teach the world and you teach the universe how problems are solved and how conflicts are solved….. you should know that the Darfur laws about conflict are being taught in the finest American university, Harvard. They teach there the laws and traditions of Darfur…. Do you need someone to come and solve your problem? You solve your own problems. Unify your ranks and be ready… the world will not leave us, but we need them to come here to show them what we had showed them long time ago during the times of the Mahdi Revolution, followed by the uprisings in Dafur and in the east and in the west and the south… we are the grandchildren of the martyrs… we do not fear death or martyrdom, because we have our brothers who have advanced our march, brothers like al-Zubair and Ibrahim and all the martyrs that led us… we want to join them and we want to be with them, because we long very much for them.

Allah is great. No god by Allah.

Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin

The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes. A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin's theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.


In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God, said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a higher power
for the complexities of life.

Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as poor theology and poor science.


Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a cultural phenomenon, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said.

The conference is seen as a landmark in relations between faith and science. Three years ago advocates of Intelligent Design seized on the Pope's reference to an intelligent project as proof that he favoured their views.

Conceding that the Church had been hostile to Darwin because his theory appeared to conflict with the account of creation in Genesis, Archbishop Ravasi argued yesterday that biological evolution and the Christian view of Creation were complementary.

Marc Leclerc, who teaches natural philosophy at the Gregorian University, said that no scholar could remain indifferent to the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth tomorrow. There was, however, question of celebrating it.

The Vatican would take the measure of an event, which has left its mark for ever on the history of science and has influenced the way we understand our humanity. The time has come for a rigorous and objective valuation of Darwin by the Church, he said.

Professor Leclerc said that too many opponents of Darwin above all Creationists had mistakenly claimed that his theories were totally incompatible with a religious vision of reality, as did proponents of Intelligent Design.

Darwin's theories had never been formally condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Monsignor Ravasi insisted. His rehabilitation had begun as long ago as 1950, when Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific approach to the development of humans. In 1996 John Paul II said that it was more than a hypothesis.

Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, said that Darwin had been anticipated by St Augustine of Hippo. The 4th-century theologian had never heard the term evolution, but knew that big fish eat smaller fish and that forms of life had been transformed slowly over time. Aquinas had made similar observations in the Middle Ages, he added.

He said it was time that theologians as well as scientists grappled with the mysteries of genetic codes and whether the diversification of life forms is the result of competition or cooperation between species. As for the origins of Man, although we shared 97 per cent of our genetic inheritance with apes, the remaining 3 per cent is what makes us unique, including religion.

I maintain that the idea of evolution has a place in Christian theology, Professor Tanzella-Nitti added.
Creationism remains powerful in the US, however, notably among Protestants, and its followers object to evolution being taught in state schools.


The Church of England is seeking to bring Darwin back into the fold with a page on its website paying tribute to his forgotten work in his local parish, to illustrate how science and Church need not be at odds. Several pages celebrate Darwin's significant scientific progress to mark his bicentenary and also the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.

The Church wants to correct the impression that Darwin's relationship with Anglicanism was contentious. The Anglican Church as a whole did not condemn Darwin or his beliefs. It says that although he lost his faith, he did not become antiChurch or antireligious.

AlArabiya
ICC to indict Sudan's Bashir over Darfur: UN
Thursday, 12 February 2009

Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to indict Sudan's president for war crimes in Darfur and issue a warrant for his arrest, United Nations diplomats and officials said on Wednesday.

"The ICC decided it wants him arrested," a diplomat at the U.N. told Reuters on condition of anonymity, referring to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Some U.N. officials also said they understood that to be the decision by the ICC, based in The Hague. They said it had been widely expected and would be made public later this month.

Quoting court lawyers and diplomats, the New York Times reported on its Website on Wednesday that the move by the panel of judges in The Hague marked the first time that the world's first independent, permanent tribunal on war crimes has sought the detention of a sitting head of state since it began its work in 2002.

War crimes
Last year, chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo asked the court's judges to indict Bashir for orchestrating what he described as a campaign of genocide in Sudan's western Darfur region that killed 35,000 people in 2003 and at least 100,000 more through starvation and disease.

Khartoum rejects the term genocide and says 10,000 people died in the conflict. U.N. officials say at least 2.5 million were left homeless and put the death toll as high as 300,000.

Sudan has ruled out handing over Bashir or two other Sudanese citizens previously indicted by the court for suspected war crimes in Darfur. But Bashir's ability to travel outside Sudan will likely become difficult once an international arrest warrant is issued.

An ICC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the decision was in the hands of the judges. It was not immediately clear whether Bashir had been indicted on all 10 counts of genocide and other war crimes listed by the prosecutor or just some of them.

U.N. officials say at least 2.5 million were left homeless in Darfur
The New York Times quoted U.N. officials as saying the decision on the warrant was communicated to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and was expected to be formally announced at the court in the coming days.

But asked to comment on the report, U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said: "I can confirm that no decision has been received by the Secretary General. We do not anticipate receiving such communication and we do not normally receive such communication."

And Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, the president of the Security Council this month, said: "The council has not been informed yet."

Cooperation with peacekeepers
Khartoum said it would continue cooperating with U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan even if Bashir is indicted, but has warned there may be widespread demonstrations of public outrage.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, dismissed the decision of the court.

"It will mean nothing to us and doesn't deserve ink with which it is written," he told Reuters. "We will never be shaken by this criminal attempt to pollute our political life and sabotage our efforts for development and peace."

Some U.N. officials worry the Sudanese government might encourage reprisals against international peacekeepers. Ban said on Tuesday that Bashir and his government must "react very responsibly and ensure safety of (U.N.) peacekeepers."

The secretary-general met Bashir on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa last week.

U.N. officials said blue helmet peacekeepers in Darfur had no mandate to act on ICC arrest warrants in Sudan but would go about their business of protecting civilians there.

Time to shun Bashir
Save Darfur Coalition of over 180 organizations and activist groups issued a statement saying it was time for the world to shun Bashir.

"A regime led by an indicted war criminal cannot possibly be treated as a full member of the community of nations," it said. "The international community must press Sudanese authorities to comply with their obligations to cooperate with the ICC, including executing all outstanding warrants."

"At a minimum, countries should not allow him to travel to their territory and should limit diplomatic interaction with him in Khartoum to efforts to end the crisis in Darfur and bring peace to all of Sudan," the statement said.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/02/12/66281.html

The Earth Times
Report: Warrant to be issued for Sudanese President Bashir – Summary
Thu, 12 Feb 2009

New York/The Hague - A panel of judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague has decided to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, The New York Times reported on its website Thursday, citing court lawyers and diplomats. At United Nations headquarters in New York, spokeswoman Marie Okabe denied the Times' report that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had been notified by the court that a warrant would be issued.

"No decision has been received by the secretary general," she said late Wednesday. "We do not anticipate receiving such communication. We do not normally receive decisions of the court."

On Monday, an ICC spokeswoman in The Hague had said that a decision on the arrest warrant was likely within weeks, not days.

The warrant arises from a request in July by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for Bashir's arrest on allegations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region, where an ethnic conflict has raged since 2003.

The charges to be included in the warrant were not immediately reported. The arrest warrant would be the first issued by the ICC for a sitting head of state.

Sudanese UN Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem called a possible arrest warrant an "insult" to Sudan.

"It will mean nothing to us and does not deserve the ink with which it is written," he said late Wednesday.

The African Union and Arab diplomats have warned that attempts to prosecute Bashir would complicate the Darfur peace process.

The United Nations Security Council, which referred the Darfur case to the ICC for prosecution, has the power to halt the prosecution but has refused to intervene.

The Security Council plans to meet later Thursday with representatives of the African Union and Arab League to discuss the Darfur issue, according to Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu, who hold the council's rotating presidency this month. He said late Wednesday that there had been no confirmation of an ICC arrest warrant for Bashir.

"The mood in the council is to be prepared and deal with it when it comes," Takasu said. "We are getting lots of news and indications, but nothing official yet."

An estimated 300,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict, and millions of refugees have fled.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/255401,report-warrant-to-be-issued-for-sudanese-president-bashir--summary.html