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(28 January 2023)
However, as of this time, the name of only one witness has been publicly announced — Amos Gilad, who was the director of the Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Affairs Bureau at the time of the purchase of the submarines.
The names of any other witnesses, if they exist, are unknown. Nor is it known how many times a week the commission meets, and which of the panel members are present when it does.
(Sep 25, 2022)
The most serious accusation by Ya’alon was that Netanyahu had concealed from him and the army brass the fact that he had given former German Chancellor Angela Merkel a green light to sell advanced submarines to Egypt. “This could reach the level of treason,” the former defense minister said. In his statement, details of which became known to Haaretz, Netanyahu reversed his opposition to the sale of the submarines in a one-to-one conversation with Merkel, but refused to say why.
(26 Sep 2022)
For a fee of two hundred thousand euros a month, former “senior leaders from the world’s most powerful intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” as Arcanum put it, would deploy their combined networks and expertise in the service of Wirecard.
(22 February 2023)
In addition to his January 2022 conviction for tax fraud, Deri served prison time for a 1999 bribery conviction related to his conduct while a minister. In its explosive January ruling, the High Court of Justice said Netanyahu’s decision to appoint a convicted financial criminal as minister in charge of the large Health Ministry and Interior Ministry budgets was “unreasonable in the extreme.”
(05.02.2023)
The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has been the subject of increasing speculation amid a growing scandal about financial impropriety within the ministry and an accompanying government investigation into corruption.
Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Mr. Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in Parliament, said on Sunday that Mr. Reznikov would be transferred to the leadership of another ministry and that Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the current military intelligence chief, would replace him.
„However, harming the court’s status, as well as harming the rights of minorities based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, will constitute a real existential threat to the glorious high-tech industry that has been built in Israel with great effort over the past three decades.“
The authors later noted the large amounts of money coming to the industry from the U.S. and Europe: „These investors are of course looking for financial returns on their investment, but they also share significant fundamental values with the countries and industries in which they invest.
The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday that it had already recovered €600,000 in cash in Friday’s raids.
„For several months, investigators of the Federal Judicial Police have suspected a Gulf country of influencing the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament.
(Jun 16th 2022)
The battle to expose the truth had to be waged on several fronts. Wirecard fought back viciously and dirtily. Computers were hacked, offices suspected of being bugged, false stories put about. At one point, according to an ex-policeman the author interviewed, Wirecard had more than 30 private detectives “running round London” and trying to dig up dirt on Mr McCrum, ftcolleagues and the short-sellers. This induced paranoia: Mr McCrum took to keeping his notebooks in a safe with six-inch steel walls, and jumping off Tube trains just as the doors were closing, in case he was being tailed.
Founded in 1999 and based in the Munich suburb of Aschheim, Wirecard’s fairy-tale rise transformed it from a payment processor for pornography and online gambling to a showpiece for a new type of German tech company that could compete with the established titans of Europe’s largest economy. (…)
Its demise embarrassed the German establishment, placing politicians who backed the company and regulators who took years to investigate it under scrutiny.
‘JULIAN is fighting for his survival and he’s going through hell, that’s the best way to put it,’ Stella Assange says when I ask how he’s doing.
The wife of the world’s most famous political prisoner is speaking to Declassified as part of her relentless battle to save her husband’s life.
(Nov. 26, 2010)
In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel’s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).
(…)
The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
(…)
Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.
(…)
The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.
The reform that Bezalel Smotrich is proposing validates public corruption on a grand scale. It is intended as a come-on for Benjamin Netanyahu’s supporters on the eve of the election, people who understand well that in contrast to the feigned denial of Smotrich, annulling the offense will necessarily lead to the cancelation of the bulk of the indictment against Netanyahu. This is another reminder of what is at stake in the forthcoming election.
(26.09.2022)
in 2018, Netanyahu he okayed Germany’s sale of submarines to Egypt, but refused to tell why – even to the then-defense chief Ya’alon. The reason behind his concealment might be the biggest question yet to be answered by the State Commission of Inquiry
(13.02.2019)
On a summer evening about a decade ago, an unusual group entered the spacious Israeli beach house home of Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. His guest at his home in Beit Yanai, to which he had made a special trip from his home in Los Angeles especially for the meeting, was Meir Dagan, the director at the time of Israel’s Mossad espionage agency.
Also in attendance was a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin and the oligarch’s young daughter. They were joined by several others as well.
(…)
While he was head of the Mossad, Dagan viewed the development of close ties with Russia, with Putin and with his close circle of associates as a strategic goal, and he accompanied the Israeli prime ministers under whom he served — Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Netanyahu — in their meetings with the president of Russia.
Hadas Klein, personal assistant to Arnon Milchan, testified on Monday that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested and received 3,000 shekels (about $900) in cash from tycoon Arnon Milchan, and that she bought his wife Sara a gift for 15,000 shekels with Milchan’s funds, also in cash. These details do not appear in the indictment, and it is the first time a claim has been presented that Netanyahu received cash from Milchan.
“I am sure that under your leadership the deep friendship between Britain and Israel will be further strengthened in all fields,” tweets Netanyahu.
The former prime minister also adds his thanks to outgoing PM Boris Johnson “for his valued contributions to the excellent relations between our two countries.”
Olaf Scholz’s emails have been searched by prosecutors as part of a corruption investigation into a Hamburg bank’s avoidance of a €50 million (£42 million) tax bill. (…)
According to leaked details, investigators probing the case found over €200,000 (£170,000) in cash during a search of the premises of Johannes Kahrs, a colleague of Mr Scholz’s in the Hamburg SPD.
„One Friday, I received a call from Arnon and he said to me, ‚Speak to Yossi Cohen and tell him that Sara likes him,'“ Klein continued. „‚Tell Yossi what Sara says about him.‘ Arnon told him that he spoke with the Netanyahus. And then Arnon met with [then-Mossad chief] Tamir Pardo on Friday afternoon. He told Pardo that he spoke to the Netanyahus and they both approved this appointment, and Tamir told Milchan: ‘You did something bad for the State of Israel.’”
(June 18, 2022)
„She wanted data, she wanted money, and she wanted to brag,“ Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Friedman said in closing arguments, according to the release. The Justice Department didn’t identify the other organizations affected by Thompson’s activity.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro announced on Monday that human remains had been found in the search, saying ’something wicked‘ had been done to them.
‚The indications are that something wicked was done to them,‘ Bolsonaro said, claiming that ‚human innards were found floating in the river, which are now undergoing DNA testing.‘
(..)
The two men were on a reporting trip in the remote jungle area near the border with Peru and Colombia that is home to the world’s largest number of uncontacted indigenous people.
The wild and lawless region has lured cocaine-smuggling gangs, along with illegal loggers, miners and hunters.
(Sep. 8, 2019)
“She’s completely crazy,” said Sheldon Adelson, publisher of the Israel Hayom daily. “She was compulsive about photos of herself and how she looked. She said ‘I’m the first lady, I’m a psychologist and I teach children about psychology.’ … She would tell my wife that if Iran attacked it would be her fault … because we didn’t publish good pictures of her,” said Adelson, a leading donor to Israeli and Jewish causes as well as to the Republican Party.
(Nov. 26, 2010)
In the aforesaid period Netanyahu served as deputy to Moshe Arens, when he was Israel’s ambassador to Washington, D.C. (1982-83 ).
(…)
The recently revealed documents deal with an operation dubbed „Tipped Kettle,“ involving weapons the Israel Defense Forces looted from the Palestine Liberation Organization during Operation Peace for Galilee in Lebanon, and their transfer to the Contras – opponents of the socialistic Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
(…)
Part II was patently illegal – a blatant effort by the White House to violate a Congressional order and to cook up a strange deal involving the sale of American weapons (originally supplied to the IDF ) to anti-American Iran, for use in its war with Iraq; the release of Western hostages being held in Lebanon by Iranian-controlled Hezbollah; and the financing of Contras‘ activities thanks to the difference between the sum paid by the Iranians and the true value of the weapons – minus a profit for those engaged in the deal.
(…)
The CIA had direct intelligence connections with the Mossad, but in the affair of the captured weapons the American agency preferred to hide behind the Pentagon.
(May 2, 2022)
Part of what Filbert was trying to do on Monday was explain statements he has made in court regarding the Bezeq-Walla Affair that were helpful to Netanyahu, despite his being a prosecution witness.
In Filber’s narrative, he has only testified for the prosecution about meetings and phone calls he had with Netanyahu that the prosecution wants to highlight for Case 4000.
Request comes after information provided by Arnon Milchan’s personal assistant regarding expansive jewelry and clothes allegedly given to former PM at his wife’s behest
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
On Sunday, the cabinet voted to establish the commission of inquiry into the incident, which dates back to 2012 and has become known as “Case 3000.” The submarine deal has already led to a number of indictments against several close confidants of Netanyahu, who called for the procurement, though the ex-premier has not been named as a suspect.
In nearly every discussion these days about a possible plea bargain with the defendant Benjamin Netanyahu, supporters of a compromise repeat the same main argument: The deal with the former prime minister is necessary in order to undermine his attack on the justice system. This argument was made most prominently by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who explained that he supported the deal because it would “take the sting out of the demolition of the court system.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is negotiating a plea deal to escape prison and end his corruption trial. According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice of Israel and two sources involved in the talks, court terms could be announced before the end of the month.
A court on Sunday accepted the prosecution’s request to extend the deadline due to corona protocols, delaying the next hearing until January 31.
With two weeks left to reach a plea deal, Israel’s attorney general will demand Netanyahu accept a finding of moral turpitude, suspending Israel’s once longest serving prime minister from political office
Talks on a possible plea deal for Netanyahu in his criminal trial have progressed in recent weeks, with a potential solution found to the major sticking point left between his team and state prosecutors, Hebrew-language media reports said over the weekend. Netanyahu has been resisting a deal primarily due to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s demand that his actions be designated as carrying “moral turpitude” — legally barring him from public service for seven years.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is set to retire at the end of January. With with no permanent successor yet determined, it’s unclear if a new attorney general would offer the same deal if Netanyahu does not accept it within the next two weeks.
Mandelblit could see a plea bargain as favorable to end Netanyahu’s attacks on the justice system.
(October 8, 2021)
Officials with the FDA have issued an emergency use authorization for PerkinElmer’s PKamp Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Panel 1 assay, a single test that can detect and differentiate between SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, influenza B, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
(06.04.2020)
Imagine that you are not carrying the virus, but you go in for testing and leave carrying the virus.
The Telegraph report stated that it is “not clear” how the tests were contaminated.
(30.04.2020)
One of the suppliers – the Luxembourg-based firm Eurofins – sent an email on Monday morning to government laboratories in the UK warning that a delivery of key components called “probes and primers” had been contaminated with coronavirus and would be delayed.
The firm admitted there had been “an issue” and insisted other private providers had suffered the same problem.
(01.03.2020)
A senior administration official added that the government also moved the manufacturing of the coronavirus tests out of the Atlanta laboratory of CDC.
The official said that the CDC engaged with a third party contractor on Feb. 20 to help manufacture the testing kits. The official added that the FDA regulator, Stenzel, visited the Atlanta laboratory on Feb. 22.
(15.12.2021)
In January 2020, the C.D.C. developed a polymerase chain reaction, or P.C.R., test for the virus. (…)
Problems emerged soon after the C.D.C. had begun shipping its test kits out to public health laboratories in early February. (…)
In mid-February, the agency acknowledged that the kits were flawed, and in April, officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that poor manufacturing practices had resulted in contamination of the test kits.
The new paper presents the results of the C.D.C.’s own internal investigation into the problems with the tests.
(…)
The investigation also confirmed that the test kits had been contaminated with synthetic fragments of the virus’s genetic material.
(16.12.2021)
«After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in February 2020 for detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC is providing this advance notice for clinical laboratories to have adequate time to select and implement one of the many FDA-authorized alternatives»
(July 25, 2021)
The CDC quietly announced last week that it was withdrawing its request to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the 2019-Novel Coronavirus PCR Diagnostic Panel for detection of SARS-CoV-2 (the name for the COVID-19 virus). It now recommends laboratories adopt a method that can detect and differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from influenza viruses. The US has used the PCR test to report more than 34.4-million cases of the COVID-19 since the pandemic began and more than 610,000 deaths.
(22.11.2021)
„Who did not see with his own eyes the level of control he exercised in this area can not realize it.“
The ex-adviser called his former employer „someone who would be beyond obsession with control. His entourage knows he should never be disturbed, except for anything related to the media. He wants to know everything, down to the smallest detail. Even when he was in security meetings, he demanded that he be passed notes.“
(22.11.2021)
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks for permission to be excused from the remainder of the testimony of Nir Hefetz, his former aide-turned-state’s witness, in his criminal trial.
(22.11.2021)
Detailing how the then-prime minister tried to use Elovtich’s “gift” of the Walla site, Hefetz said that Netanyahu was a “control freak” when it came to his public image, and that “he could not be more controlling in all matters relating to the media and his social media channels.”
“He demands to know everything, down to the smallest detail,” Hefetz said, confirming that Netanyahu himself made the requests to change coverage at Walla.
The corruption trial of Benjamin Netanyahu took a dramatic turn Monday with the arrival of Nir Hefetz – former close aide and confidant, spin doctor, and, now, key state witness against his former boss
key prosecution witness in former Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial began testifying on Monday, one week later than planned, telling the court that the former prime minister was heavily fixated on media coverage of himself.
Nir Hefetz, a former media adviser to Netanyahu and his family, will testify in all three of the corruption cases against the former prime minister. His testimony is therefore expected to continue for quite some time.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
Netanyahu’s defense team requested that the hearing be postponed.
According to the prosecution’s statement, the new information is not directly connected to the testimony of state witness Nir Hefetz, a former aide of Netanyahu’s. In the wake of the announcement, Hefetz’s lawyers asked the Jerusalem District Court to postpone their client’s testimony scheduled for Tuesday.
The man who will take the witness stand in Jerusalem’s District Court on Tuesday is a refined embodiment of the Israeli power structure. Nir Hefetz was once the right-hand man of the country’s three dominant alpha males: former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes and one-time tycoon Nochi Dankner.
There’s no better indicator of the judgment and moral compass of the men who presided over the nation’s government, media and economy.
Put simply, Hefetz is expected to testify that Netanyahu gave him orders dozens of times over several years in 2013-2016 to order former Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua to direct coverage the way the former prime minister wanted – and that Netanyahu gave him orders to ensure that Communications Ministry policy benefited Bezeq and Walla owner Shaul Elovitch.
(01.10.2021)
There are two parts to Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla Affair.
One part is the accusation that Netanyahu got control over Walla coverage; and the other is that the then-prime minister and communications minister influenced government policy to favor Bezeq.
The connector between Walla and Bezeq was Shaul Elovitch, who owned both.
The current case is just one of three that Netanyahu is facing in Jerusalem District Court on a range of corruption charges stemming from his alleged conduct as prime minister. He denies any wrongdoing.
In the case currently being heard, dubbed Case 4000, the former prime minister is charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, arising from allegations that he traded favorable coverage from the Walla website for government regulatory concessions to Walla’s parent company, the Bezeq telecommunications firm.
Milchan is a witness in the trial of Netanyahu, who has been charged with fraud and breach of trust. The indictment says that in the summer of 2013, Milchan asked then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid to extend returning Israeli citizens‘ exemption from taxes and from the requirement to report to the tax authorities. Lapid refused and Milchan took the matter up with his friend at the time, Netanyahu.
It is doubtful whether Netanyahu, who was on vacation from Aug. 15 to Sept. 1, should have been there at all: Ellison, who is seventh on the Forbes list of the richest people on earth, is also listed as a witness for the prosecution in Netanyahu’s trial on three charges of criminal corruption, which resumed this week after a three month break.
The major drama on opening day came from outside the courtroom—and outside the country—with news that Haim Geron, a former deputy director general of the communications ministry and another witness for the prosecution, died in a mysterious private plane crash near the Greek island of Samos.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, Nikita Ishchenko, was quoted as saying: “The collapse of the regime…is most eloquently characterised by how Ghani escaped from Afghanistan: four cars were filled with money, they tried to shove another part of the money into a helicopter, but not everything fit.
Asked by the Associated Press about how he knew the details of Ghani’s departure, Mr Ishchenko said “well, we are working here,” without offering any more details.
(June 22, 2010)
To the Members of the Subcommittee:
Today I present to you a report entitled, Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan, which has been prepared by the Majority staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
After a six-month investigation, the report exposes the circumstances surrounding the Department of Defense’s outsourcing of security on the supply chain in Afghanistan to questionable providers, including warlords.
The findings of this report range from sobering to shocking. In short, the Department of Defense designed a contract that put responsibility for the security of vital U.S. supplies on contractors and their unaccountable security providers. This arrangement has fueled a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt Afghan officials, and perhaps others.
Not only does the system run afoul of the Department’s own rules and regulations mandated by Congress, it also appears to risk undermining the U.S. strategy for achieving its goals in Afghanistan.
(Sept 9, 2009)
The private security industry in Afghanistan has grown apace with demand. As of August 2009, the total number of private security personnel employed by the US Department of Defense – the largest employer of private security in the country – increased 19 percent (from 4,373 to 5,198) in response to the deployment of additional military forces. Since 2001, a range of private security providers (PSPs) has emerged, including international and national PSCs operating with or without the required Afghan licensing permits, as well as militias hired as “armed support groups” (ASG) by international military forces. Many PSPs are controlled by prominent Afghan families, including Hashmat and Ahmed Wali Karzai, brothers of President Hamid Karzai; Hamid Wardak, the son of Defense Minister Rahim Wardak; Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar province; and Hajji Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Uruzgan.
The use of unregistered PSCs and militia groups by the NATO International Security Assistance Force and US military contingents is widespread. Many of these PSPs serve as ready-made militias that compete with state authority and are frequently run by former military com-manders responsible for human rights abuses or involved in the illegal narcotics and black market economies. Financing armed, alternative power structures fulfills security needs in the short-term at the cost of consolidating government authority in the long-term.
(…)
Drug trafficking and other criminal activities in which commanders may be involved – and for which their militias provide security – is a lucrative source of illegal revenue that can then be used to bribe government officials and strengthen shadow structures of authority. Illicit taxation of PSPs escorting convoys and other scams on private transport and security are also an important source of funding for corrupt police and insurgents. The Kandak Amnianti Uruzgan, for example, secures protection “by paying a hefty toll to the policeman in charge of the road.” Although it is transportation and construction companies, both international and national, who are the main source of “protection” revenue, private security escorts also pay Taliban not to be attacked. According to an Afghan intelligence official, there are examples of PSPs paying as much as 60 percent of their gross profits for convoy security to the Taliban and other insurgent-cum-criminal groups for “protection.”
(15.08.2021)
The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official.
Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces, according to interviews with more than a dozen Afghan officers, police, special operations troops and other soldiers.
Halfway into Tunisia’s 30-day „state of exception“ announced by President Kais Saied last month, he has yet to lay out a road map or appoint a government.
„They were put there by the PRI and PAN and now both should come forward and explain how they appointed them with such a lack of integrity, of principles, that is happening at the moment. That is why I say again they should all resign, and the parties should stop doing this,“ AMLO reiterated.
We know, without question, that politicians lie and hide their connections and that corporations routinely display utter contempt for moral norms – that corruption surrounds us.
We know that revolving doors between the corporate and political spheres, the lobbying system, corrupt regulators, the media and judiciary mean that wrongdoing is practically never brought to any semblance of genuine justice.
We know that the press makes noise about these matters occasionally but never pursues them with true vigour.
We know that in the intelligence services and law enforcement wrongdoing on a breathtaking scale is commonplace and that, again, justice is never forthcoming.
We know that governments repeatedly ignore or trample on the rights of the people, and actively abuse and mistreat the people. None of this is controversial.
So exactly what is it that conspiracy deniers refuse to acknowledge with such fervour, righteousness and condescension?
We understand that former State Security agents and some senior ANC leaders are being investigated as possible instigators to the mayhem, as was admitted by State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo. The Minister also told South Africans that the intelligence services knew that something would happen, but law enforcement responses to the unrest prove or paint a completely different reality.
We know that this country’s intelligence services are in shambles because both President Ramaphosa and the minister failed to implement the recommendations of the High-Level Review Panel on the State Security Agency to clean up the spooks. We did mention that these rogue securocrats are a threat to our democracy and they must be dealt with accordingly.
Johannesburg – Civil society organisation, Right2Know has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of State Security Ayanda Dlodlo to name and shame some of the State Security Agency’s (SSA) agents who fuelled the violent and destructive protests in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The campaign which initially erupted under the guise of Free Jacob Zuma campaign turned ugly when hundreds of protesters blocked national roads in KwaZulu-Natal and set alight trucks and vehicles belonging to private individuals.
Slavoj Žižek proposed in an article on the London riots in 2011 that such riots are not easily understandable in Marxist terms, precisely because they do not carry the signs of the emergence of a revolutionary subject. Instead, he proposes that they fit much better the Hegelian notion of “abstract negativity”, of “those outside organised social space, who can express their discontent only through ‘irrational’ outbursts of destructive violence”. Žižek believes that these forms of riot confirm the rather mundane, now commonplace assertion that we live in a post-ideological era, an era in which nothing is demanded any more, a time of “zero-degree violence”.
“Opposition to the system can no longer articulate itself in the form of a realistic alternative, or even as a utopian project,” Žižek writes, “but can only take the shape of a meaningless outburst.”
Shortly after taking his oath of office, Zuma signed a proclamation that bypassed Parliament and collapsed five of South Africa’s agencies into the State Security Agency (SSA).
The door was thus kicked open for the creation of an unlawful, parallel, secret security state, funded by public money — much of which remains unaccounted for — and which served Zuma’s personal and political interests for more than a decade.
South Africa’s highest court last week ordered the imprisonment of the country’s former president Jacob Zuma for 15 months for contempt of court. The decision stems from Zuma’s refusal to appear at a commission to answer questions about his alleged involvement in corruption during his time as president between 2009 and 2018.
On Saturday, however, the constitutional court agreed to hear Zuma’s urgent appeal on July 12 to rescind its order to sentence him to jail. If the court is gelded, the human rights so dearly won defeating apartheid will be lost.
Surprisingly, Gertler submitted the documents that got him into trouble while he was receiving legal counsel from top lawyers in Israel. In the arbitration, Gertler is represented by attorneys Dori Klagsbald and Boaz Ben Zur. The latter is also former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense attorney in the so-called Case 4000, in which Netanyahu is accused of offering favors for positive media coverage.
(05.07.2021)
The trial has been frozen since June 16 and will now reconvene on July 19 instead of the prior dates of July 5 or 12 for restarting witness testimony of July 5, reported The Jerusalem Post.
The court’s decision effectively means that the trial will not fully restart until October; the court’s summer recess runs from July 21 – September 1 and many of September’s hearings will be canceled due to the Jewish High Holy Days and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).
(21.06.2021)
This isn’t the first time Gantz has tried to launch an inquiry into the submarines affair. In November, he appointed a governmental inquiry committee headed by retired Judge Amnon Straschnov. But Mendelblit ordered that panel to hold off on starting work because he said its mandate would overlap with the criminal investigation. Moreover, Straschnov resigned after less than a month after concluding that the committee’s work would be pointless due to limitations to its authority. Nevertheless, it’s impossible not to attribute the dissolution of this committee to the fact that Netanyahu and his power structure controlled Israel at the time.
After 12 years in power, MK Benjamin Netanyahu adopted more than a few traits of this type: He turned the members of the government and cabinet into rubber stamps and concentrated power and numerous types of authority in his office. He undermined the principle of the separation of authorities, and especially the independence of the justice system and law enforcement, he compartmentalized the executive branch, cultivated a personal and familial cult of personality, ascribed to himself superhuman qualities, quashed the political competition in Likud and became his party’s supreme leader.
Cohen was asked about his relationship with Packer following a Haaretz investigation, which revealed he had received a $20,000 gift for his daughter’s wedding, though the figure cited in ‚Uvda‘ was lower.
The recently retired Mossad chief, who is a close confidant of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also asserted that „everything was done in consultation and with the approval of the attorney general“ and that Packer wanted to give „much more.“
Pfizer “Largest Health Care Fraud” 2009
Déjà Vu: Flash Forward to 2020-2021
Israeli children should not have to spend the night scared in bomb shelters, as many are doing tonight. Palestinian children should not have to grow up under the constant violence and oppression of occupation, as so many do, and have done.
The United States must call for an immediate cease-fire and an end to provocative and illegal settlement activity. And we must also recommit to working with Israelis and Palestinians to finally end this conflict.
Netanyahu’s trial resumed Monday after a two-week hiatus.
Defense attorneys began cross-examining Ilan Yeshua, who testified he was pressured to skew coverage on Walla in favor of Netanyahu and his family. Yeshua linked it to the alleged expectation of the then-controlling shareholder of Bezeq telecommunications, Shaul Elovitch, to receive regulatory concessions from Netanyahu in return for the favorable coverage. Walla was owned by Bezeq at the time.
(29.04.2021)
James Packer wasn’t just another billionaire who developed relationships with Israel’s elite. The Australian media and casino tycoon with the troubled psyche mingled with those in the most secret circles in the country. Benjamin Netanyahu exploited him to the hilt – and he wasn’t the only one who did so.
(9.September 2009)
The private security industry in Afghanistan has grown apace with demand. As of August 2009, the total number of private security personnel employed by the US Department of Defense – the largest employer of private security in the country – increased 19 percent (from 4,373 to 5,198) in response to the deployment of additional military forces. Since 2001, a range of private security providers (PSPs) has emerged, including international and national PSCs operating with or without the required Afghan licensing permits, as well as militias hired as “armed support groups” (ASG) by international military forces. Many PSPs are controlled by prominent Afghan families, including Hashmat and Ahmed Wali Karzai, brothers of President Hamid Karzai; Hamid Wardak, the son of Defense Minister Rahim Wardak; Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar province; and Hajji Jan Mohammad Khan, the former governor of Uruzgan.
The use of unregistered PSCs and militia groups by the NATO International Security Assistance Force and US military contingents is widespread. Many of these PSPs serve as ready-made militias that compete with state authority and are frequently run by former military commanders responsible for human rights abuses or involved in the illegal narcotics and black market economies.
June 22, 2010
To the Members of the Subcommittee:
Today I present to you a report entitled, Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan, which has been prepared by the Majority staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
After a six-month investigation, the report exposes the circumstances surrounding the Department of Defense’s outsourcing of security on the supply chain in Afghanistan to questionable providers, including warlords.
The findings of this report range from sobering to shocking. In short, the Department of Defense designed a contract that put responsibility for the security of vital U.S. supplies on contractors and their unaccountable security providers. This arrangement has fueled a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt
Afghan officials, and perhaps others.
Not only does the system run afoul of the Department’s own rules and regulations mandated by Congress, it also appears to risk undermining the U.S. strategy for achieving its goals in Afghanistan.
They told him that Nir Hefetz, Netanyahu’s former media advisor, told them that an investigation had been opened and that „all of them needed to coordinate their stories.“
„They proposed that I say that I initiated everything, that it was for ideological reasons, that I didn’t want the site to be leftist,“ Yeshua said.
„They said that I needed to erase all of our correspondence,“ to which Yeshua objected, and said he told Elovitch that he was concerned that he would accidentally lose private photos. According to Yeshua, the two pressed him to delete the photos and said it critical that he did it.
“I know the position held by many, that the president should not give the role to a candidate that is facing criminal charges,” Rivlin added, noting that this was “not an easy decision.” The charges facing Israel’s longest-serving premier – including bribery, fraud and breach of trust – posed an extraordinary choice for the Rivlin over whether “morality” should be a factor in who should lead a government.
This is the fifth time since becoming president in 2014, and the fourth time in the last two years, that Rivlin is forced to engage in this process.
(today)
“The entire proceeding against me was an abuse of the destructive power the prosecution holds,” Netanyahu said at a press conference. The prime minister referred to the hearing as a „charade,“ and went as far as accusing the state prosecution of an „attempted coup.“
„The prosecution opened this investigation against the law… and why did they do it? Because they’re on the hunt,“ Netanyahu claimed.
Lead prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari told judges that Netanyahu was involved in „a serious case of government corruption.“
ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers said in an interview with the Nederlands Dagblad …
In their decision on Thursday, the judges sided with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who earlier laid out conflict of interest rules regarding Netanyahu’s situation. Mandelblit insisted that the PM must be prevented from appointing officials who would have the power to influence the probe against him.
United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas said Wednesday that he is not „obligated to any bloc or any candidate,“ after the Islamist party surpassed the electoral threshold, with almost 90 percent of the vote counted in Israel’s unprecedented fourth election in under two years.
(15.03.2021)
The Dolphin 2-class are the largest submarines to have been built in Germany since World War II. The Dolphin class boats are the most expensive single vehicles in the Israel Defense Forces.
Each Dolphin-class submarine is capable of carrying a combined total of up to 16 torpedoes and Popeye Turbo submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs). The cruise missiles have a range of at least 1,500 km (930 mi) and are widely believed to be equipped with a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead containing up to 6 kilograms (13 lb) of plutonium.
In the last 20 years, Israel has spent billions on submarines ordered from Germany, with a political agreement having been reached on three additional vessels. The big question, though, is: Why so many? Why does Israel want so many more submarines than are, according to experts, necessary for the defense of the country?
Our investigative department got hold of new evidence concerning the Submarines Affair (our efforts continue – the department still investigates the affair in full energy). In our petition to the High Court of Justice we requested the judges to order the following:
1. Criminal investigation of Netanyahu’s Steel Shares Affair. 2. Criminal investigation against Netanyahu in the Submarines Affair. 3. Establishing a State Inquiry Committee in order to finally investigate this severe affair.
Victory for the pro-Netanyahu bloc might make him unstoppable, but the opposition’s impulse to depose the ruler could lead to some short-term pragmatism
THE BACKGROUND
Corruption has become a strategic threat to Israeli society and democracy. It places political both personal and economic interests ahead of the needs of the public. It is also reducing the public’s confidence in government institutions and the democratic system. Public corruption eats away at equal opportunity and contradicts the loyalties and duties of elected officials and public servants. It undermines social cohesion, and hurts the quality of life of the citizens of the state and economic growth.
Our country needs to belong to the middle class and those struggling to be part of it and not ruled by corrupt politicians who busy themselves for their own benefit, for those with interests, the big corporations or big unions. For years there has been foul play in Israel serving interest groups, wealthy people and workers‘ committees. In this game billions of shekels have been transferred without transparency and without supervision. Politicians received empty and wasteful positions of honor such as the absurd role called „Minister without Portfolio“ just to be placated with a driver and office. Shady businessmen were appointed to direct government companies not because of skill, but only because of the connections.
At least Trump wasn’t stalking congressional Democrats to lure them into his camp. But to agitate, bribe and rule is the life’s blood of Netanyahu’s doctrine.
Netanyahu hasn’t merely adopted a policy of divide and conquer, the essence of colonialism, but has upgraded it, including against his own people. He has succeeded in sparking disputes within and breaking down nearly every party institution that stood in his way. He identifies his rival’s weak point, applies pressure, and the rest is history.
Laschet is committed to Chancellor Merkel’s famous sentence, which she uttered when addressing the Knesset in Jerusalem in 2008, that Israel’s security is part of Germany’s raison d’être. According to Speich, “it is Laschet’s fundamental foreign policy conviction that Germany must commit itself to the security of Israel. It is a political obligation.”
(04.12.2019)
Several prominent U.S. billionaires are on the list of over 300 people who could potentially be called as witnesses at Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s upcoming corruption trial.
The opening of the premier’s trial last May followed years of investigations, deliberations and legal proceedings that eventually took place during the course of three election campaigns, capped by a last-minute delay due to the coronavirus.
The court rejected a demand from the prime minister’s lawyers to dismiss the indictment by reason of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s failure to formally file a written request for the probe of Netanyahu.
However, the court did condemn Mandelblit for the oversight, saying it was a „defect“ in the legal procedures.
„This is a matter of procedural defect which doesn’t concern the root of the matter,“ the court stated, as cited by Hamodia.
A year after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the three-fold crisis plaguing Israeli society threatens the basic contract between the state and its citizenry, and has led to a lack of trust in government leaders and institutions and an ‚unparalleled degree of polarization‘.
Investigations by the Shin Bet and police into the alleged sale of military technology to an unnamed Asian country may become one of the most serious security issues in recent memory. Defense officials are concerned that the case may have far-reaching consequences involving a large number of people and potential intelligence and technological fallout.
(04.12.2019)
Several prominent U.S. billionaires are on the list of over 300 people who could potentially be called as witnesses at Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s upcoming corruption trial.
(20. April 1997)
Netanyahu told CNN’s Walter Rodgers he was „glad that the truth came out,“ and said the entire incident was „blown out of proportion and twisted out of shape.“
„It’s politics,“ he said in an interview shortly after the attorney general released his report. „Of course there were people out to get us. But this is going nowhere. It’s done. It’s finished.“
(14.02.2018)
The police announcement Tuesday – that the investigations into two cases involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been completed – came 13 months after Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that a “preliminary examination” of the allegations, which itself took six months, should become full-fledged criminal investigations.
As Netanyahu arrived at court, some 150 protesters carrying signs that read „the State of Israel vs. Benjamin Netanyahu“ and „May The Defendant Rise“ demonstrated across the street.
By decision of the judges, Netanyahu had to attend the hearing.
A year ago, Netanyahu waived his parliamentary immunity after he realized that in the Knesset elected in September 2019, he had no chance of receiving immunity. But the prime minister’s lawyers recently claimed in court that he never waived his right to parliamentary immunity, saying that the Knesset’s immunity proceedings were flawed.
(Dec. 7, 2020)
Kangtai will be the exclusive manufacturer in mainland China for the vaccine made by AstraZeneca, and the companies could work together on deals for other countries. Kangtai is also in early trials for its own candidate.
Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Bank or the Company) has agreed to pay more than $130 million to resolve the government’s investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and a separate investigation into a commodities fraud scheme.
The resolution includes criminal penalties of $85,186,206, criminal disgorgement of $681,480, victim compensation payments of $1,223,738, and $43,329,622 to be paid to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission in a coordinated resolution.
The High Court, its president, Esther Hayut, the prosecution, Mendelblit, all have been subjected to brutal, ugly attacks. There’s no reason to envy them. But if there’s one thing they understand from their own life experience: Silence and capitulation is no way to stop a serial attacker.
In its announcement Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office stated its intention to indict corporate entities Yedioth Aharonoth and Walla as well as Eurocom group companies through which Elovich controlled Bezeq, subject to a prior hearing. The Elovich group companies are suspected of bribery and money laundering, while Yedioth Aharonoth is accused of offering a bribe.
It was unclear whether the High Court could ever strike down a quasi-constitutional basic law, he said. In any event, if it were possible, it would need to be a far more extreme law, implying something criminal or actively undermining democracy, he added.
Furthermore, Mandelblit rejected the notion that the coalition was abusing or ignoring the will of the voter by forming coalitions they had vowed not to form.
(30.11.2020)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to ask the Knesset again for immunity from prosecution in his corruption cases, based on his lawyers’ argument that the criminal investigation against him was flawed and should be reconsidered.
In the past month, the prime minister has told associates that he is weighing the benefits of such a move against the possible damage it could do to his image in public opinion.
(26.11.2020)
Let’s put this in perspective. First, a relative risk reduction is being reported, not absolute risk reduction, which appears to be less than 1%. Second, these results refer to the trials’ primary endpoint of covid-19 of essentially any severity, and importantly not the vaccine’s ability to save lives, nor the ability to prevent infection, nor the efficacy in important subgroups (e.g. frail elderly). Those still remain unknown. Third, these results reflect a time point relatively soon after vaccination, and we know nothing about vaccine performance at 3, 6, or 12 months, so cannot compare these efficacy numbers against other vaccines like influenza vaccines (which are judged over a season). Fourth, children, adolescents, and immunocompromised individuals were largely excluded from the trials, so we still lack any data on these important populations.
I previously argued that the trials are studying the wrong endpoint, and for an urgent need to correct course and study more important endpoints like prevention of severe disease and transmission in high risk people. Yet, despite the existence of regulatory mechanisms for ensuring vaccine access while keeping the authorization bar high (which would allow placebo-controlled trials to continue long enough to answer the important question), it’s hard to avoid the impression that sponsors are claiming victory and wrapping up their trials (Pfizer has already sent trial participants a letter discussing “crossing over” from placebo to vaccine), and the FDA will now be under enormous pressure to rapidly authorize the vaccines.
The three-judge panel headed by Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman is expected to focus in Sunday’s hearing on Netanyahu’s claim that he was protected by parliamentary immunity at the time of the filing of the indictments against him. The panel is expected to rule on the issue in the next few weeks because there is no dispute over the facts on this issue.
(02.12.2020)
„Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,“ Moore said. „Let’s do the simple, easy thing first. Everyone’s going to get that.“
On Wednesday the Department of Defense released the first images of a COVID-19 vaccination record card as well as vaccination kits, according to CNN.
„Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,“ says Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition.
Determining whether a vaccine can protect against severe disease and death from COVID-19 may not be possible in phase 3 clinical trials and will often require long-term, ongoing studies after widespread deployment of a vaccine.
To ensure ongoing evaluation of vaccine safety, well-supported pharmacovigilance studies after licensure will be necessary.
Pfizer chairman Albert Bourla told Dateline host Lester Holt that the pharmaceutical company was “not certain” if the vaccine prevented the coronavirus from being transmitted, saying, “This is something that needs to be examined.”
The commission’s first meeting, scheduled for Monday, has been postponed at Mendelblit’s request until the scope of its activity has been defined. The commission is expected to submit a final report in about four months.
The prime minister’s lawyers had also previously argued that the trial should be delayed due to coronavirus health restrictions, saying that it would be difficult to see whether a masked witness was „telling the truth.“
Police say they arrested 18 with protesters claiming 23 have been detained as they demand Netanyahu be investigated for the so-called ’submarine affair‘
Science is being suppressed for political and financial gain. Covid-19 has unleashed state corruption on a grand scale, and it is harmful to public health.1 Politicians and industry are responsible for this opportunistic embezzlement. So too are scientists and health experts. The pandemic has revealed how the medical-political complex can be manipulated in an emergency—a time when it is even more important to safeguard science.
The UK’s pandemic response provides at least four examples of suppression of science or scientists. First, the membership, research, and deliberations of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) were initially secret until a press leak forced transparency.
(23.04.2019)
The result is a small network of companies that have near-monopolies on election services, such as building voting machines. Across the spectrum, private vendors have long histories of errors that affected elections, of obstructing politicians and the public from seeking information, of corruption, suspect foreign influence, false statements of security and business dishonesty. (…)
The party narrative is that Democrats are trying to use the federal government to take over state and local elections; the political angle is that recognizing vulnerabilities or flaws in the election system could raise doubts about the legitimacy of the party’s – and Donald Trump’s – victory in 2016.
Raskin’s bill could affect at least two of the largest election companies. Dominion Voting Systems, which is the second-largest voting machine vendor in the US, is based in both the US and Canada.
(…)
Due to that statement and a litany of other scandals – such as leaving an internet-facing server unprotected and revealing the source code for its machines or by installing unapproved software patches on its machines just before an election – that company, Diebold, sold off the election-machine portion of its company in 2009.
(12.03.2020)
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election fraud, election manipulation or vote rigging, is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both.
States which had been projected to expect large Sanders wins, corresponded with raw data on exit polls confirming the expected Sanders wins.
Computerized vote counts however, showed very large Biden wins. The DNC accepted computer vote counts and CHANGED NUMBERS on exit polls to suggest that Biden won.
(June 7, 2016)
Given the stakes in the outcome of the American presidential elections, ensuring the integrity of the electoral process is of the utmost importance. Are the results we are witnessing in the 2016 primary elections trustworthy? While Donald Trump enjoyed a clear and early edge over his Republican rivals, the Democratic contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernard Sanders has been far more competitive. At present, Secretary Clinton enjoys an apparent advantage over Sanders. Is this claimed advantage legitimate? We contend that it is not, and suggest an explanation for the advantage: States that are at risk for election fraud in 2016 systematically and overwhelmingly favor Secretary Clinton. We provide converging evidence for this claim.
First, we show that it is possible to detect irregularities in the 2016 Democratic Primaries by comparing the states that have hard paper evidence of all the placed votes to states that do
not have this hard paper evidence. Second, we compare the final results in 2016 to the
discrepant exit polls. Furthermore, we show that no such irregularities occurred in the 2008
competitive election cycle involving Secretary Clinton against President Obama. As such, we
find that in states wherein voting fraud has the highest potential to occur, systematic efforts may
have taken place to provide Secretary Clinton with an exaggerated margin of support.
(June 15, 2016)
What’s True
Two researchers (presumably graduate students) from Stanford University and Tilburg University co-authored a paper asserting they uncovered information suggesting widespread primary election fraud favoring Hillary Clinton had occurred across multiple states.
What’s False
The paper was not a „Stanford Study,“ and its authors acknowledged their claims and research methodology had not been subject to any form of peer review or academic scrutiny.
(30.03.2016)
Concerned Sanders would win Nevada, Sen. Harry Reid, the former Senate Majority Leader and most powerful elected official in Nevada, as it later emerged, arranged a plan with owners of Las Vegas casinos, where many caucuses were being held, and other employers, to ensure Clinton would win. The Nevada caucuses were then rigged with massive voting irregularities such as casino owners orchestrating which workers would be allowed to vote and, in clear intimidation, openly monitoring how they voted.
Vote tampering also occurred in other states, most recently in Arizona where on election day, polling locations were sharply cut forcing many voters to stand in line for up to five hours in the heat, with some leaving before casting a vote.
The 19-year-old war in Afghanistan continues to be a huge sinkhole for US taxpayer dollars. The US government’s oversight authority that monitors waste in Washington’s Afghanistan reconstruction effort released a report this month updating its findings.
For the second successive year, Transparency International ranks Israel in its highest category for enforcement against bribery of foreign officials.
Israeli television news on channels 11 and 13 reported Monday that Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit doesn’t plan to investigate allegations concerning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s financial ties to his cousin Nathan Milikowsky. If these reports are true, this decision lays the groundwork for corrupt norms to become entrenched in Israeli politics for many years to come.
It’s important to be precise: In practice, this legislation does not limit demonstrations, it bans them. The proposed restrictions are so draconian that they amount to a prohibition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting, in the most cynical fashion, to exploit the coronavirus and the restrictions needed to fight its spread in order to undermine fundamental democratic rights and to suppress the dissent against him and his incorrigible government.
The AG did not specify how such a possibility may unfold or when a decision from his office would be made.
“It’s not math. I’m not rushing to anything, and I’m trying to be very considered and very calm.”
Mandelblit continued by stressing that the prime minister was not “doing me a favor” by agreeing to sign a binding conflict-of-interest deal as part of the arrangements for him to remain in office while on trial.
Israel Aerospace Industries, Israel’s largest aerospace and aviation manufacturer, transferred at least $155 million to two companies whose name have been associated with large-scale money laundering for the Azerbaijani government, according to leaked bank reports for the period between 2012 and 2014. The reason for the payments by state-owned IAI remains unclear.
Long lines of cars drove along the main highway to Jerusalem in a protest convoy and groups gathered on bridges and junctions in other cities, also demonstrating about corruption charges against Netanyahu – charges he denies.
The Knesset, mired in political deadlock, failed to pass legislation that would limit the right to protest under the coronavirus restrictions that took effect at 2 P.M. Friday.
A new amendment to the coronavirus law is meant to enable the cabinet to prevent demonstrations outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. This is a dangerous amendment that undermines Israel’s democratic character. Virtually its only purpose is to give the cabinet the power to prevent people from protesting in the places where they have been doing so until recently.
Since August, activists from different political parties have been asking people to sign a petition to demand that former presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Felipe Calderón, and Enrique Peña Nieto be judge over corruption charges.
Senior police officers have been charged with sex crimes against their subordinates. They have consorted with famous rabbis, ministers and mafia bosses. One was offered a bribe that he did not report. Another served as a mole for a tycoon who was the target of a police intelligence operation.
One officer, considered a rising star, worked with a famous lawyer to trade sensitive information from undercover investigations for cash-filled envelopes. …
According to a complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office in the Curitiba federal court, Cunha demanded bribes for USD5 million in contracts for the construction of drillships by Petrobras, which implied diverting some US$10 million from public coffers.
And third, Benjamin Netanyahu has utilized the paralysis and confusion he has imposed on Israel’s body politic over the past two years to dismantle the checks and balances that stand in the way of his efforts to avoid criminal trial. It is one of many battles in the total war that Netanyahu is waging against the very foundations of Israeli democracy, which, in his distress and incessant self-victimization, he has come to despise.
The protest and march were approved by the Israel Police, which is present in large forces and says it will allow protest for all but „will not tolerate any disturbances of the public order.”
This shows that the youth revolution isn’t against Netanyahu alone; it’s a kind of no-confidence vote in Israel’s corrupt democratic system. And it’s happening because most of the people ruling over us don’t actually represent the public. Instead, it turns out that they made it into the Knesset through all kinds of tricks and for the sake of ulterior motives.
Several organizations representing self-employed Israelis have said they will join the protest of the so-called Black Flag movement in Tel Aviv’s Charles Clore Park on Saturday, after police refused to let them demonstrate at a different location, citing coronavirus restrictions.
The Black Flag protests first gained recognition in March, when a motorcade of hundreds of cars made its way to Jerusalem to protest anti-democratic measures to combat the coronavirus, including the approval of civilians’ phone tracking by the Shin Bet security service.
(05.07.2020)
“I just got up, made a sign and went out to the street and protested,” he explained. “Every Saturday, just a friend [and I were] on the street corner.”
Ben Shitrit happens to be a cousin of Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, one of Netanyahu’s staunchest allies and defenders. He says he hasn’t spoken to his cousin, whom he calls a “sycophant” and a “poodle,” in years.
The 70-year-old premier, whose personal fortune has been estimated at more than $10 million, was also ordered to return some of the money he received from his American cousin Nathan Milikowsky to cover legal expenses.
Following those setbacks, defense lawyer Micha Fettman resigned from the right-wing premier’s defense team.
Multiple Israeli media outlets reported Wednesday that the resignation was linked to money and the prospect that Fettman’s fees would not be covered.
We believe in a Jewish and democratic Israel. We feel no obligation to defend Netanyahu’s pathological viciousness, monumentally stupid annexation, incitement and self-enrichment
(Oct 10, 2015)
The president spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in San Francisco, where the hip hop artist will later perform. Mr. Obama has a few political nuggets to pass on for West’s 2020 bid for the presidency.
„There was a cemetery where the names on the tombstones were registered and voted. I remember a house. It was completely gutted. There was nobody there. But there were 56 votes for [John F.] Kennedy in that house.“
Mazo also found that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s charge that other counties were doing the same thing in favor of Republicans proved to be true—but nothing on the scale of what happened in Chicago.
(May 23, 2016)
And then there’s Julita Abutin.
Records show she voted in Norwalk in 2014, 2012, 2010 and 2008 though she died in 2006.
Abutin’s daughter, Marivic, says it’s impossible that her mother voted.
But the Los Angeles County Registrar confirms they have signed vote-by-mail envelopes with her mother’s name for the 2014 and 2012 election, though she died 10 years ago.
Some are veteran protesters, some are newcomers, but all of them agree that the younger generation – that they say takes no interest in politics – must be enlisted to bring about change
The conservative politician was found guilty of paying Penelope Fillon €1.156m (£1.06m, $1.3m) for work she never did as a parliamentary aide.
The organizers said that over the course of the week, they will establish a protest tent on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard – recalling the tent city that had been erected there during the social protests of 2012.
Additional protests are taking place at some 70 intersections throughout the country. Dozens of protesters are present at each junction, holding signs reading „Netanyahu is corrupt and corrupts,“ „Investigation now“ (referring to the so-called submarine affair), „The defendent needs to go home,“ and other slogans.
(27.06.2020)
Protests organized by the Black Flags movement against corruption broke out across Israel late Saturday, with demonstrators blocking more than 70 intersections nationwide following the arrest of retired Brig.-Gen. Amir Haskel on Friday afternoon.
(26.06.2020)
Demonstration part of ongoing ‘black flag’ anti-corruption protests against the prime minister, who is standing trial in a series of graft cases
The offer, according to the paper, would upend a rotation agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz for the premiership as stated in their coalition agreement signed earlier this year.
Likud party officials insist it would be „unreasonable“ for Netanyahu to honor the agreement – which allows Gantz to become Prime Minister in November 2021 – due to his politically weakened position, according to a string of national polls.
(11.06.2020)
Drucker’s investigative report broadcast Wednesday on the Hebrew-language Channel 13, included a recording of Shaul Elovich, a personal friend of Netanyahu and a majority shareholder in the Bezeq telecommunications company, appearing to discuss with with former Walla news CEO Ilan Yeshua how to frame news coverage of Netanyahu so as to present the leader in a positive light.
Bezeq fully owns the Hebrew-language Walla website.
A source familiar with the request to the American authorities said, “There is no evidence that the delay in receiving answers is politically motivated, but it is certainly exceptional and makes one wonder.”
Bovell’s first batch of recordings landed in the lap of Thomas Drake, an investigator for the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, on February 19, 2019, according to a text message he sent Bovell. On March 4, 2019, Drake texted Bovell saying that he had listened to some of them. The whistleblower recalls being hopeful.
“I gave them that information, and I thought this is it. Something big, positive will happen,” Bovell said.
But nine months later, at a meeting with Bovell and his attorney, Joseph Murray, at the DA’s office, Drake told them that the probe had not moved forward because they had been expecting Bovell to send more recordings, according to both men.
Bovell gave them more recordings in February of this year, and they say they haven’t heard anything since.
NOTE: DenDekker, Simotas, and Lentol are all in the top 10. All face challengers in increasingly-leftist districts.
„I’ve been looking at state finance disclosures for candidates in New York and I was noticing a lot of police money, law enforcement money taken by Democrats claiming to be against it,“ he said. „I was making this spreadsheet. Then (the death of) George Floyd happened — so many people responded and it got, like, a hundred likes in a couple hours? So people wanted to see this.“
Since sharing his „Who’s Taking Cop Money?“ Google spreadsheet on Twitter on May 29, eight Democrats — including a state senator, state assembly members and New York councilmembers — have vowed to donate their police-funded contributions to bail funds or criminal justice reform organizations.
Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli PM to be tried in court. He was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in November.
The furor began after ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, reported that Burr unloaded the stock around mid-February, about a week before the market started to plunge because of coronavirus concerns.
As of Thursday afternoon, Netanyahu and his coalition partners haven’t completed talks on ministerial appointments, some of which would only apply to the first half the government’s term, before Gantz is set to take over as prime minister in a year and a half.
Long time Netanyahu loyalist and Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi as well as Likud MK Avi Dichter, tenth in the list, decided to boycott the swearing-in ceremony given that Netanyahu did not offer them posts in the new government.
The swearing-in will take longer than usual, both due to the emergency regulations and the surfeit of ministers, some of whom won’t have any idea what they’ll be doing in the cabinet. If the event could have a soundtrack it would probably be a requiem – a mass for the democratic rules of the game that somehow survived here for 72 years.
Eleven High Court justices unanimously legitimized the strangest, most warped governing coalition ever engineered in a political laboratory. We’ll never know if the gun pointed at their heads – the threat of a fourth election – affected their judgment.
The Knesset (Israel Parliament) also passed a raft of legislative changes to the country’s semi-constitutional Basic Laws, paving the way for a government to be established after more than a year of political deadlock.
Fujimori had asked to be released due to fears she might contract the novel coronavirus in the Chorrillos women’s jail.
According to The Times of Israel, Chief Justice Esther Hayut signaled during the proceedings that the court will neither stand in the way of Netanyahu forming a government nor of the coalition deal moving forward.
The Israeli justice system has received eight complaints from good governance groups and lawmakers concerning the terms of the coalition agreement and the possibility of Netanyahu leading the government despite facing multiple indictments in a wide-ranging corruption investigation.
Expanded panel hears arguments Sunday on request that prime minister be disqualified over the criminal charges against him
The so-called „Black Flag“ protests were organized by the Movement for Quality Government under the slogan “Saving the court, saying no to corrupt government”. Protesters carried signs that read „We’re sick of corruption“ and „emergency government, corruption government“. At the mention of members of Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party the crowd booed and shouted, „Shame!“
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday to protest a deal struck earlier this week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and parliament speaker Benny Gantz to form a unity government.
I am a doctor: seven years at medical school, three years of applications, four years of doctoral studies to obtain my MD in Belgium, in 1995. From 1997 to 2003, I specialised in anaesthesia-recovery, then in intensive care. For the last 17 years, I have worked in this field, now in the spotlight during this viral pandemic called Covid-19. I am therefore particularly qualified from a medical standpoint. That’s where I stand out, and I am mainly guided in my profession by the motto passed down from the early days of medicine in Antiquity: “Primum non nocere” or in other words: “First, do no harm.”
More than 2,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday, demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempts to form an “emergency” government with his chief rival and accusing him of using the coronavirus crisis to escape prosecution on corruption charges.
Gantz Is set to give a statement to the press at 9:00 P.M. in which he was expected to give details regarding the talks. His statement was originally scheduled for 8:30 P.M. before Netanyahu announced he would also be speaking, at 8:20 P.M.
Schumer, D-N.Y., called for the investigations on MSNBC Saturday after Burr, R-N.C., Feinstein, D-Calif., as well as Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., were hit with allegations of selling large amounts of stocks before the coronavirus crisis rocked Wall Street.
“The answer, in one word, is yes. There should be and there will be,” Schumer said on MSNBC. “I don’t own any stocks. I think it’s a very bad idea for senators to own stocks.”
(30.03.2020)
Financial disclosure statements indicated that Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; their spouses or advisers sold large chunks of stock around the time lawmakers received behind-the-scenes briefings about the severity of the coronavirus, which has claimed more than 3,600 lives in the USA.
Gantz was a source of hope to millions of Israelis yearning to put an end to Netanyahu’s rule, which is crushing democracy while tearing the population to shreds. On Thursday their hope was shattered, to the laughter of the opposing camp, the one that led the country into moral corruption and that has now added another soldier to its ranks and bought about the disintegration of the alternative.
Benny Gantz could have made history by forming a minority government with the support of the Palestinian parties. Instead he dismantled his own political camp and joined his rival.
Lapid lambasted Gantz’s actions as „a betrayal to voters and a theft of votes.“
Horovitz added that Gantz was “spitting in the face” of his voters with his latest decision.
The Meretz leader called on others in the left bloc to not support this move.
In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party that served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu’s government.