How the markets really work (from 2007) (Pass onto all your congressmen )
Details: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/187.html
Again and again we hear politicians, financial reporters and bank CEOs claim: "We didn't see it coming."
If that's so, how come these two British comedians saw it coming way back in the summer of 2007?
when financial reporters and politicians did not?
If you want a definition of " clever" , then this is it!! GJ (UK)
This has proved one of the most popular Brasscheck TV videos of all time.
Yes, it really is this bad
Another example of humor that is deadly accurate.
I worked on Wall Street for a few years, elbow to elbow with "top" investment bankers.
It was one big casino with the saps in pensions funds and savings and loans (and us) being used to finance the game and cover the losses. Amazingly, this was recorded in 2007.
Details: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/187.html
Brasscheck TV
2380 California St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
Subject: A huge crowd of protesters march in Paris
France has enough of its Zionist Occupation.
All WELL AND GOOD, AS THEY SAY.
BUT ... SARCOZY IS A KNOWN MOSSAD AGENT.
Is he saving his neck and/or lying?
Take your bloody pick!
'Expose'
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
22 Mar 2009
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
Death squad leader 'was top CIA agent' 23 Mar 2009 The late President Milosevic's secret police chief and organiser of Serb death squads during the genocidal ethnic cleansing of disintegrating Yugoslavia was the United States' top CIA agent in Belgrade, according to the independent Belgrade Radio B92. The claim that from 1992 until the end of the decade, Jovica Stanisic, head of Serbia's murderous DB Secret Police, was regularly informing his CIA handlers of the thinking in Milosevic's inner circle has shocked the region. Stanisic is said to have loyally served his two masters for eight years. He is facing war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
UK: 60,000 civilians have been trained to deal with terrorist incidents --Brown warns of enduring al-Qaida threat to UK 22 Mar 2009 Gordon Brown today warned that al-Qaida [al-CIAduh] remains the biggest security threat to the UK, as he revealed that tens of thousands of civilians have been trained to deal with terrorist attacks as part of a new strategy to combat extremists. Writing in the Observer, the prime minister previewed what he said was a "world-leading" counter-terrorist framework to be published on Tuesday. The immediate threat of terrorist attack justified a "relentless pursuit of terrorists and disruption of their plots".
We are about to take the war against terror to a new level By Gordon Brown 22 Mar 2009 We have built up not only our national policing capability but also counterterrorist police in the regions. But today, not only the police and security and intelligence officers, and our armed forces, but also the emergency services, local councils, businesses, and community groups are involved in state-of-the-art civil contingency planning. Tens of thousands of men and women throughout Britain - from security guards to store managers - have now been trained and equipped to deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centres and sports grounds.
Thousands trained to deal with terror attacks 22 Mar 2009 Around 60,000 British workers, from shop staff to hotel employees, are being trained to spot the terror threat and respond to attacks, under Government plans. They are being lined up as a second line of defence against those planning atrocities against the UK [the government] beyond the traditional security and emergency services, it has emerged.
Quarter of UK's databases are 'illegal' --Little thought given to privacy, study warns 23 Mar 2009 One in four of the major government databases is almost certainly illegal and should be scrapped, a report says. The national DNA database, the proposed national identity database and the ContactPoint system, which will hold records of all children in England, are among the systems singled out for fundamental reform or abolition. Researchers called for 11 systems assessed as "almost certainly illegal" under human rights or data protection law to be scrapped or substantially redesigned.
FBI planting spies in U.S. mosques, Muslim groups say --FBI had sent undercover agents posing as worshippers into mosques 20 Mar 2009 Ten U.S. Muslim organizations threatened this week to cease working with the FBI, citing "McCarthy-era tactics" by the agency, including efforts to covertly infiltrate California mosques. The groups claim the FBI has sent undercover agents posing as worshippers into mosques, pressured Muslims to become informants, labeled civil rights advocates as criminals and spread misinformation.
Foreign Firms Eye Stimulus Dollars 23 Mar 2009 U.S. firms aren't the only ones hoping to cash in on the $787 billion stimulus program. Foreign nations and companies are stepping up their lobbying efforts in Washington and in state capitals, hoping to gain vital business in hard times. Hundreds of foreign-owned companies are selling their expertise in clean energy, high-speed transit and other technologies that undergird key aspects of President Obama's stimulus efforts. Lobbyists and consultants hired by the companies warn them to proceed carefully and to emphasize that any contracts would lead to jobs in the United States rather than overseas. [Arming the Left: Is the time now? By Charles Southwell 21 Oct 2003 As long as we pose no REAL threat to the powers-that-be, to what is shaping up into [is] a dictatorship, we will continue to be ignored. Right now, we are ignored because we present no organized power to fight this onslaught of anti-democratic, totalitarian government that we are up against.]
W. House officials: Taxing AIG bonuses may be 'dangerous way to go' --Economic advisers: President Obama won't 'govern out of anger' 22 Mar 2009 White House economic advisers said Sunday that President Obama won't "govern out of anger" despite calls for the heads of AIG executives who received bonuses, and acknowledged that using tax law to get back $165 $218 million in government-funded bonuses may be "a dangerous way to go." Those officials suggested the House-backed plan to tax American International Group Inc. executives' bonuses at a 90-percent rate may have to be modified in the Senate. [Obama can't possibly comprehend *our* anger. People donated $750 million to candidate Obama, as we were - over and over - promised *change.* With the exception of a paucity of improvements on the domestic social policy front, Obama is recreating the Bush Administration -- hook, line and sinker. Americans would never have tolerated giving away a trillion dollars to corpora-terrorists under Republican John McCain, so Obama was 'allowed' to win to serve as the relief valve for the social upheaval that was steadily building. --LRP]
New Body to Work With Private Investors --Treasury Presses Ahead With Plan For Toxic Assets 22 Mar 2009 The Treasury Department will unveil the next step in its financial rescue efforts tomorrow, announcing that it intends to create a government body, called the Public Investment Corp., to finance the purchase of as much as $1 trillion in soured loans and toxic assets from ailing banks, according to sources. The plan calls for the new entity to combine its resources with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Reserve and private investors to buy those loans and other assets. But the government will put far more money into the deals and take on more risk than the investors, which could include hedge funds, private-equity firms, pension funds and foreign investors with U.S. headquarters, the sources said. The corporation will be funded with $75 billion to $100 billion from the $700 billion financial rescue package.
Treasury's toxic asset plan could cost $1 trillion 22 Mar 2009 The Obama administration's latest attempt to tackle the banking crisis and get loans flowing to families and businesses give away the National Treasury to corpora-terrorists rely on a new government entity, the Public Investment Corp. to help purchase as much as $1 trillion in toxic assets on banks' books. The plan that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner intends to announce Monday aims to use the resources of the $700 billion bank bailout fund, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay 22 Mar 2009 The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said. Officials said the proposal would seek a broad new role for the Federal Reserve to oversee large companies, including major hedge funds, whose problems could pose risks to the entire financial system.
The Real AIG Scandal, Continued! --The transfer of $12.9 billion from AIG to Goldman looks fishier and fishier. By Eliot Spitzer 22 Mar 2009 Goldman Sachs' public conference call explaining its trading relationship and exposure with AIG established once again that Goldman knows how to protect itself. According to Goldman, even if AIG had failed, Goldman's losses would have been minimal. How did Goldman protect itself? Sensing AIG's weakening capital position through 2006 and 2007, Goldman demanded more collateral from AIG and covered outstanding risk with instruments from other firms. But this raises two critical questions. The first is why did $12.9 billion of taxpayer money go from AIG to Goldman? What risk--systemic or otherwise--was being covered? If Goldman wasn't going to suffer severe losses, why are taxpayers paying them off at 100 cents on the dollar?
The Real AIG Scandal --It's not the bonuses. It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full. By Eliot Spitzer 17 Mar 2009 ...Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars? For the answer to this question, we need to go back to the very first decision to bail out AIG, made, we are told, by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, then-New York Fed official Timothy Geithner, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last fall... And who were AIG's trading partners? No shock here: Goldman, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and on it goes. So now we know for sure what we already surmised: The AIG bailout has been a way to hide an enormous second round of cash to the same group that had received TARP money already.
Satire: Yankees Ask Congress To Tax A-Rod's Bonus By R J Shulman 22 Mar 2009 Taking a cue from the recent tax imposed by Congress on AIG executive bonuses, the New York Yankees are asking Washington to impose a 90 percent tax on the bonus the Yankees paid its star third baseman, Alex Rodriguez. "It’s not fair to America’s pastime to reward such a large bonus when his numbers just haven’t come up to expectations," said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, an early supporter of the A-Rod tax, told Congress that "it must come to the aid of the New York Yankees because they are too big to fail." (Satire)
Envoy damns US Afghan drug effort 21 Mar 2009 US efforts to eradicate opium poppy crops in Afghanistan have been "wasteful and ineffective", the US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan says. Richard Holbrooke said the $800m (£550m) a year the US was spending on counter-narcotics would be better used in supporting Afghan farmers. He said the US also wanted to see an increase in the numbers and capacity of Afghan police. [How about just getting the f*ck out of there, and stop tossing taxpayer billions down the sewer to protect Afghan/US gas and opium routes?]
Roadside bomb kills one, wounds 11 in E Afghanistan 22 Mar 2009 One Afghan construction laborer was killed and 11 others wounded as their bus struck a roadside bomb on Sunday in eastern Afghan province of Khost, a provincial public health official said.
General Urges Confidence in Ability to Supply Troops in Afghanistan 22 Mar 2009 Thanks to billions of dollars [over]spent in road and air base construction, troops in landlocked Afghanistan will never have to worry about getting enough supplies, the Pentagon's chief of military transportation told senators last week. 'Insurgent' attacks on major supply roads into Afghanistan have disrupted U.S. delivery schedules, said Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, who directs the U.S. Transport Command.
Top officer's calls for mental tests ignored --Colonel's report on formal assessments for injured soldiers is filed away 23 Mar 2009 Urgent calls by a senior army officer that there should be targeted psychological assessment for seriously wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan have been ignored for 18 months. In an internal document dated November 2007, Lt-Col Andrew Whiteley called for immediate action to deal with the mental anguish of troops suffering from horrendous wounds, but his appeal was met with a "deafening silence".
Iraq fired 62,000 accused of corruption: minister 22 Mar 2009 Iraq has fired 62,000 employees accused of corruption and is dismantling sectarianism among its police... Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani wrote in a US newspaper Sunday. He wrote in the Chicago Tribune newspaper that the firings occurred within his Interior ministry, which employs a half-million workers.
Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza 21 Mar 2009 Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza, according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation. The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land." The claim comes in the detailed transcript of a post-war discussion by soldiers, publication of which has triggered a military police inquiry into allegations about the use of lethal firepower against unarmed civilians [The use of lethal firepower against unarmed civilians' --uh, that would be war crimes.]
'Anti-Drug' Effort at Border Is Readied --Obama Plans to Send Agents, Equipment to Aid Mexican Fight 22 Mar 2009 President Obama is finalizing plans to move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support Mexican President Felipe Calderón's campaign against with violent drug cartels, according to U.S. security officials. In Obama's first major domestic security initiative, administration officials are expected to announce as early as this week a crackdown on the supply of weapons and cash moving from the United States into Mexico that helps sustain that country's narco-traffickers, officials said.
Venezuela's Chavez calls Obama "ignoramus" 22 Mar 2009 Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama was at best an "ignoramus" for saying the socialist leader exported terrorism and obstructed progress in Latin America. "He goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality," said Chavez, who heads a group of left-wing Latin American leaders opposed to the [right-wing] U.S. influence in the region.
G20 warned unrest will sweep globe 22 Mar 2009 A wave of social and political unrest could sweep through the world's poorest countries if G20 leaders fail to come to their aid, the World Bank warns today, as new research says the credit crunch will cost developing countries $750bn (£520bn) in lost output and drive millions more into poverty.
5th World Water Forum ends without declaring water human right 22 Mar 2009 The Istanbul Ministerial Statement came out on the last day of 5th World Water Forum Sunday without recognizing water as a human right. The final statement does not say water is a human right, against the wishes of some countries.
WABC radio newsman George Weber found stabbed to death in Brooklyn apartment 22 Mar 2009 Longtime New York radio newsman George Weber was found stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment Sunday morning, cops said. Weber, who spent a decade doing the news on WABC morning radio before being laid off last year, was found just after 9 a.m. At WABC, Weber covered the 2001 falling of the Twin Towers from the scene.
Charles Darwin's personal finances revealed in new find --This year marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's landmark work On the Origin of Species. 22 Mar 2009 Charles Darwin spent more money on expensive shoes than books while studying at Cambridge University, newly-discovered records show. Historians at Cambridge unearthed a series of six financial record books which reveal intriguing insights into the naturalist's day-to-day college life. They show that Darwin, who studied at Christ's College between 1828 and 1831, lived the life of a 19th century gentleman and paid people to carry out tasks such as stoking his fire and polishing his shoes.
Polar bear twins: cubs born in Rhenen, the Netherlands 18 Mar 2009 These twin baby polar bears got their first sniff of the open air today at the Ouwehands animal park in Rhenen, the Netherlands (Photos)
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Previous lead stories: AIG bonuses $218 million, not $165 million, A.G. says --AIG Financial Products handed out $218 million in bonuses, not $165 as had been previously reported, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said this morning. 21 Mar 2009 The ongoing AIG bonus controversy continued Saturday as Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the total paid was actually more than $50 million higher than previously believed. The overall bonuses to employees at the embattled insurance giant were $218 million, not $165 million, he said. That number was calculated after Blumenthal's office received documents from the company on Friday.
Obama maneuvers to protect Wall Street bonuses By Barry Grey 21 Mar 2009 Following the passage Thursday of a bill by the House of Representatives that would tax some bonuses at a handful of companies that have received government bailout money, the Obama administration is seeking to discourage passage of a similar bill by the Senate, even as Obama feigns indignation over $165 $218 million in bonuses awarded by the bailed-out insurance giant American International Group (AIG). Obama is attempting to navigate between placating public anger over AIG and similar outrages by Wall Street firms that have received hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds and satisfying the demands of the financial elite, which will brook no government interference in its drive for self-enrichment.
CIA Says It Has 3,000 Documents Related to Destroyed Interrogation Tapes --Government Refuses to Disclose List of Summaries, Transcripts, Reconstructions and Memoranda Relating to the Tapes (aclu.org) 20 Mar 2009 In connection with an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on detainee abuse, the CIA today disclosed that it has a list of roughly 3,000 summaries, transcripts, reconstructions and memoranda relating to 92 interrogation videotapes that were destroyed by the agency. The CIA refused, however, to disclose the list to the public. The agency also refused to publicly disclose a list of witnesses who may have viewed the videotapes or retained custody of the videotapes before their destruction.
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Jack Otto about the hidden story of Khazar Empire
http://socioecohistory.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/khazar-empire-illuminati-and-new-world-order/
Brian Gerrish talks about Common Purpose, a secret organisation in the UK
http://e.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F1731669%3Freferrer%3Dhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Frense.com%25252F%26source%3D3&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer.swf&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftpucorg.blip.tv%2Frss%2Fflash&brandname=tpuc.org&brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tpuc.org&enablejs=true&allowm4v=true
The Economic Agenda http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/dicke5.htm David Icke - Live At Oxford Union Debating Society 01 of 11:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMLk4N2FyBM&feature=player_embedded How money works
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&ei=ZVKMScmGHqierALw5Yi3Cw&q=money+masters
The Military-Industrial Complex: Impacts on the Third World
by Prof. Aziz Choudry
Global Research
Military-Industrial Complex and Impacts on the Third World Written by Aziz Choudry, GATT Watchdog Tuesday, 25 November 2008 16:57 Military-Industrial Complex and Impacts on the Third World We live and struggle in an era of blatantly militarized capitalism and the violence of capital. War, occupation, national security ideologies and repression of dissent –at home and abroad - make for booming business opportunities the world over. As pro-free market US journalist Thomas Friedman succinctly put it: "The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force and Marine Corps."2
Militarized capitalism: The military-industrial complex in 2008
What is the military-industrial complex in 2008? Where is it? What does it look like? I am not even sure if the phrase, used so famously by former US president Dwight Eisenhower3 in 1961 is the best descriptor to encompass the many tentacles and facets of the war and security industry and the links and connections between capital and its political allies. Do terms like `defence industry' and `arms trade' adequately encompass the face of today's war profiteers, whose devastating impacts can equally be found in the high-tech apartheid wall being built by Israel to seal off the West Bank and Gaza4, and its Western Hemispheric counterpart on the US-Mexico border5, in the computer flight simulation programs provided to US and British military by Canada's CAE6, in private corporate mercenary armies like Blackwater, DynCorp and Aegis7 in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere8, in the outsourced intelligence, IT, interrogation and translation services of L-3/Titan9, in the massive military aid budgets which the US gives to the governments of Israel, Pakistan, Egypt and Colombia10, among others, and in the `hearts and minds' operations of US Special Operations Forces based in the Philippines doing `humanitarian work' - medical, dental and other social services, including infrastructure projects in many remote communities - services which should be the function of a government, in Mindanao11, as much as it is in weapons production and arms exports.
Like all transnational corporations, these companies enjoy both patronage and revolving door relationships with the highest echelons of governments and their armed forces, tax breaks, support for exports, and all kinds of other incentives which help them to focus firmly on their bottom line – profit. US administrations, regardless of their party allegiance, brim with politicians with investments and business interests in the defence industry and war profiteers, perhaps most vividly symbolized by Dick Cheney's ties to Halliburton and its multi-billion-dollar contracts to provide construction, hospitality, and other services to the US military after the invasion of Iraq in 200312. But it is business as usual for US militarized capitalism. An April 2008 Centre for Responsive Politics report states that US Congress members invested US $196 million of their own money in companies that receive hundreds of millions of dollars a day from Pentagon contracts to provide goods and services to US armed forces, ranging from aircraft and weapons manufacturers to producers of medical supplies and soft drinks.13 To cite a couple of typical revolving door examples, General Dynamics board of directors includes an ex-Vice Chief of US Army staff, a former US Air Force General, a former Chief of Naval Operations in the US Navy, and a former Chief of Defence Procurement at the British Ministry of Defence14, while Canada's CAE's current and former executives include a former Canadian minister for international trade and former PM Mulroney's head of staff15.
Hired Guns, Big Bucks, No Rules
Private armies hired by governments and companies are not new. The British East India company hired private mercenaries to fight proxy wars and gain control over India16. But the exponential growth and sophistication and globalization of private security industry contractors like Blackwater and DynCorp, both of which derive well over 90% of their business from US government contracts, is striking. If regular soldiers often literally get away with murder, how much more so for private mercenaries given the lack of any oversight of their activities, under no effective regulatory regimes, although they are contracted by governments and paid out of public funds. They operate with impunity and immunity. They recruit and deploy former military and police from around the world, some of them veterans of the most repressive military forces in the world17. On their website, Blackwater, whose contract with the US State Department was recently renewed18 despite outrage at one of many incidents in which their guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad, last September19, claim: "We treat others with the highest degree of dignity, equal opportunity and trust. We respect the cultures and beliefs of people around the world"20. On the ground, "Blackwater has no respect for the Iraqi people," an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told a Washington Post reporter in 200721. "They consider Iraqis like animals, although actually I think they may have more respect for animals. We have seen what they do in the streets. When they're not shooting, they're throwing water bottles at people and calling them names. If you are terrifying a child or an elderly woman, or you are killing an innocent civilian who is riding in his car, isn't that terrorism?"
All dollars, no sense
A February 2008 Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation report notes that, adjusted for inflation, the Pentagon budget for fiscal year (FY) 2009 is the largest since World War II - US $ 515.4 billion22: more even than during the Vietnam and Korean wars, or the peak of Reagan's Cold War spending. The US spends more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined, accounts for 48% of the world's total military spending, 5.8 times more than China, 10.2 times more than Russia, and 98.6 times more than Iran. The same report cites US Office of Management and Budget estimates that total annual funding for the Defense Department alone will grow to $546 billion by FY 2013 – a conservative estimate. Total Pentagon spending, not including funding for the Department of Energy or for actual combat operations for the period FY'09 through FY'13 will reach $2.6 trillion. Last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)23 estimated that world military expenditure in 2006 reached US $1204 billion - a 3.5 % increase in real terms since 2005, and a 37% increase over the 10-year period since 1997. In 2006, the 15 countries with the highest spending accounted for 83% of the world total.
While the US military-industrial complex and military spending dwarfs the rest of the world, it has had a multiplier effect on other countries, coupled with its military aid packages and global `security' hysteria. Japan recently announced major military upgrades while, South Korea, China, and Russia have all increased military spending,24 2008 is a record year for Israeli defence spending25. By 2006, four of the world's 100 top arms production firms were Israeli: Israel Aircraft Industries, Israel Military Industries, Elbit Systems and Rafael26. An October 2007 CBC report, based on customs data only on exports specifically for military use, found that between 2000 and 2006, Canada's arms exports rose 3.5 times, during which time Canada, the world's sixth-biggest supplier, exported CDN $3.6 billion in military goods. But there is little transparency on arms control, and the true picture of Canadian military exports is hard to track since the federal government has not released annual reports providing detailed information covering the years since 2002 to Parliament. A former subsidiary of Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, SNC Tec, for example, manufactures small arms ammunition for US military (SNC Tec was sold in 2006 to General Dynamics, after antiwar activists highlighted the Canadian corporate connection to bullets fired from US guns in Iraq)27.
A license to kill: The façade of arms control
Identifying and tracking the many tentacles of the weapons and agents of mass destruction is frustratingly difficult. For all of the criticisms of Third World governments' secrecy and lack of transparency in terms of defence spending and military operations, so many loopholes exist in so-called First World countries with regard to arms control. For example, most military shipments from Canada to the US go untracked, since they do not require government permits because of a defence agreement signed between Ottawa and Washington in the 1940s. Some critics have noted that the export licencing requirements are so minimal that it is possible that some of that equipment moves to third parties28.
Some EU governments have undermined, bypassed or ignored national export criteria and the EU code of conduct on arms exports. Spain and other countries (including the US and Britain) have authorized transfers of equipment and other assistance to Colombia into the hands of state security forces and paramilitaries who have committed major human rights abuses. Italian-made small arms have also been shipped to countries in conflict or where violations of human rights occur, including Algeria, Colombia, Eritrea, Indonesia, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sierra Leone.29 British activist and writer Mark Thomas30 illustrates how British high-tech company Radstone does not require a licence to export supplies the computer components comprising the "brains" of the Predator drone, an unmanned Aerial vehicle produced by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which was used by the CIA to fire missile strikes at Yemen against Al-Qaeda suspects in 2002, and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan in 2006, the latter attack killing possibly up to 25 people including 5 women and 5 children. British researcher Anna Stavrianakis31 argues that "[r]ather than acting to restrict arms exports, the guidelines against which arms export licence applications are assessed are vague and interpreted in such a way as to facilitate exports". She continues, "the pro-export stance of successive UK governments, the close relationship they have with the arms industry, and the emphasis on military power as an indicator of prestige on the world stage, must all be challenged, as they form the parameters within which licensing occurs".
According to a 2006 Amnesty International32 report, over 200 Chinese military trucks - normally running on US
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