Category Archives: Treasury

Senate Democrats, the Pope, Climate Change, Oil Investments

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Back in April of 2015, The Vatican held a one days summit on Climate Change where Jeffrey Sachs was the keynote speaker.

For Pope Francis, he has his own ‘green agenda’ and is quite outspoken in this global issue.

He has become an outspoken advocate on environmental issues, saying acting on climate change is “essential to faith”and calling the destruction of nature a modern sin. He has vowed to only increase pressure on world leaders after his disappointment with the Lima climate talks. He is hoping that his encyclical will influence the climate talks in Paris at the end of the year.

Just in time for the Pope’s visit, enter the Senate Democrats and the climate change legislation they have introduced today.

Reuters: U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled energy legislation designed to hasten America’s adoption of cleaner energy, slash greenhouse gas emissions below the Obama administration’s goal, and help their party attract young voters in the 2016 elections.

The bill, announced by Senate Democratic party leaders and the energy committee’s top Democrat, Senator Maria Cantwell, laid out the party’s vision for cutting emissions at least 34 percent by 2025.

It contrasts with a Republican approach focused on increased oil and gas production. Senator Chuck Schumer, who is expected to take over as the Senate Democratic leader from Senator Harry Reid, called it “a refreshing reprieve from the tired Republican mantra of ‘drill baby, drill.’

Although the bill has no prospect of passing in a Republican-controlled Congress, Democrats hope voters will approve of the preview of their energy policy approach if they regain control of the Senate in 2016.

Democrats said the focus on clean energy will appeal to younger voters.

“This is going to be a huge issue in the 2016 campaign,” Schumer said at the news conference.

The bill would mandate a national reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by at least 2 percent each year through 2025. That would surpass the administration’s target of a reduction of 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by that year.

United Nations-sponsored talks on fighting climate change are scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in Paris.

So, could there be some real hypocrisy in all of this? You betcha. Throughout the United States, the Catholic church is deeply invested in drilling leases and holds stock in oil companies. The revenue is astounding for the church.

Reuters: Yet in the heart of U.S. oil country several dioceses and other Catholic institutions are leasing out drilling rights to oil and gas companies to bolster their finances, Reuters has found.

And in one archdiocese — Oklahoma City — Church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases since Francis’s missive on the environment, leasing documents show.

On Francis’ first visit to the United States this week, the business dealings suggest that some leaders of the U.S. Catholic Church are practicing a different approach to the environment than the pontiff is preaching.

Catholic institutions are not forbidden from dealing with or investing in the energy industry. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) guidelines on ethical investing warn Catholics and Catholic institutions against investing in companies related to abortion, contraception, pornography, tobacco, and war, but do not suggest avoiding energy stocks, and do not address the ownership of energy production interests.

A Reuters review of county documents found 235 oil and gas leasing deals signed by Catholic Church authorities in Texas and Oklahoma with energy and land firms since 2010, covering 56 counties across the two states. None of the Texas leases in the review were signed after the pope’s encyclical.

Those two states have been at the forefront of a boom in U.S. energy production in recent years, often through the controversial hydraulic fracturing production method, known as fracking.

There are other curious investments by the Vatican while most of the financial reports are never reported publically.

Holy See Revenue and Investments
 In order to gain an understanding of the complex economy of the Vatican, it is important to establish the differences between Vatican City and the Holy See. The Holy See is the governing body of the nation. If you entered into a contract with the territory, you would do it with the Holy See, in most cases. Vatican City is the physical area where the Holy See resides.

The Holy See generates revenue from Peter’s Pence, an 8th Century term for donations that are received from Catholics all over the world. From individuals to dioceses, the Holy See collects the donations through a special department. The Holy See also gains revenue from interest and investments of its reserves.

Historically, the Holy See invested mainly in Italian industries, spreading its portfolio between stocks and bonds, and limiting its stake in companies to less than 6%. It has invested conservatively, choosing to buy and hold proven companies in strong industries; because of this, investments in the developing world are limited.

More recent investments have been more international, however, particularly in western European currencies and bonds, with some activity in the New York Stock Exchange. The Holy See also has investments in real estate around the world, particularly in land and churches.
There are some investments that the Holy See won’t make however; no investments are made in companies that go against church values, such as pharmaceutical companies that manufacture birth control.

Vatican City Revenue and Banking
 The Vatican, by contrast, receives revenue from more traditional stately ventures. There are no formal tourism efforts but the Vatican also collects revenue through museum admissions, tours, highly sought-after stamps and coins and the sale of publications.

Vatican City, on the other hand, was $27 million in the black after 5 million visitors toured in 2012, buying up collectibles and visiting museums.

In January, the Bank of Italy conducted routine inspections and found that Deutsche Bank Italia hadn’t sought proper authorization to process credit card transactions on behalf of the Vatican.

When Deutsche Bank asked for permission, it was turned down due to the Vatican not meeting anti-money laundering standards. The Vatican said that it’s scrambling to meet all provisions to restore credit card payments but as of now, it’s cash only if you’re visiting.

 

Damascus Airport Renamed Putin International

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Just kidding on that title, well rather, tongue in cheek. Syria has always been a military base for Russia and now more so with Hezbollah in the lead for the ground game directed by GRU forces redeployed from Ukraine.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his military team met with Putin this week to come to an accommodation on the role and threat risk of Hezbollah vs. Israel.

Israel will continue to conduct strikes on weapons locations, transfer routes and smuggling which was formally agreed to by both Israel and Moscow. Meanwhile the United States is completely out of the equation mostly due to ineptness and deference, fully isolating the United States.

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Only John Kerry is making demands that at some time during these Russian/Iranian operations, Bashir al Assad will be removed from power…..yawn.

Pro-Hezbollah daily says party
in Syria pact with Russia

Al-Akhbar claimed that Russian troops will fight alongside Hezbollah in Syria

BEIRUT – A leading pro-Hezbollah daily claimed on Tuesday that the party has joined a new counter-terror alliance with Moscow and that Russia will take part in military operations alongside the Syrian army and Hezbollah.

 

Al-Akhbar’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin wrote that secret talks between Russia, Iran, Syria and Iraq had resulted in the birth of the new alliance, which he described as “the most important in the region and the world for many years.”

 

“The agreement to form the alliance includes administrative mechanisms for cooperation on [the issues of] politics and intelligence and [for] military [cooperation] on the battlefield in several parts of the Middle East, primarily in Syria and Iraq,” the commentator said, citing well-informed sources.
“The parties to the alliance are the states of Russia, Iran, Syria and Iraq, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah as the fifth party,” he also said, adding that the joint-force would be called the “4+1 alliance” – a play on words referring to the P5+1 world powers that negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran.

 

The Al-Akhbar article came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow over the latter country’s major military build-up in Syria.

 

Following their meeting, Netanyahu announced that Russia and Israel had agreed to “a joint mechanism for preventing misunderstandings between our forces,” and reiterated that Tel Aviv’s commitment to preventing weapon transfers from Syria to Hezbollah.

 

Putin, in turn, told Netanyahu that the Syrian regime was in “no position” to open a new front against Israel, which has conducted regular airstrikes in Syria targeting weapon transfers as well as in retaliation to cross-border rocket fire.

 

 

 

Despite the reported agreement between Tel Aviv and Moscow, Al-Akhbar’s editor-in-chief said that Russian forces were coordinating with Hezbollah in Syria.

 

“[Several] days ago, Russian officers accompanied by specialists… from the Russian forces arriving in Syria toured a number of positions in Hama’s Al-Ghab Plain area and carried out a field survey accompanied by Syrian Army and Hezbollah officers,” Amin claimed.

 

“Similar tours took place in the [areas] around Idlib and in the mountain range overlooking Latakia.”

 

“It has become clear that the Russian force is made up of various specializations, from air force [units] to units specialized in sniper operations and artillery officers, as well as survey and observation teams.”

 

He also made the startling claim that Russia will “play a prominent role on the ground and will participate in combat on the battlefield with their advanced weaponry by leading operations and taking part in artillery shelling, air [raids] and otherwise, alongside the Syrian army and Hezbollah.”

 

“The Russians have also set up a coordination process with Kurdish forces and parties,” the article said.

 

“A Russian military delegate paid a secret visit to a number of Kurdish military commanders in Hasakeh and inspected areas of confrontation between the YPG and the armed groups.”

RT= Russia Today=Bigger Propaganda

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I have always been suspect of this site….you?

UK watchdog raps RT for biased reports

LONDON — RT, the state-owned Russian news channel, was reprimanded by Britain’s communications watchdog Monday for airing biased and misleading reports on Ukraine and Syria.

Ofcom found “significant” breaches of U.K. broadcasting rules in three separate programs screened by RT last year. It ordered the news channel to broadcast statements correcting two of the reports, but stopped short of imposing a fine.

With the latest findings, RT has been found in breach of U.K. regulations 14 times since it began broadcasting a decade ago.

RT, formerly Russia Today, has been increasingly prominent in Britain in recent years, advertising itself as an alternative to the dominant news providers.

Some lawmakers and broadcasters are nervous about its growing influence, amid concerns that it peddles the Kremlin’s view on foreign policy matters.

Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, said the network was “shocked and disappointed” at Ofcom’s findings. RT had submitted lengthy defences of the programs.

One of the breaches related to a program screened in July last year, The Truthseeker: Genocide of Eastern Ukraine, which aired claims that Ukraine’s government and military were committing atrocities in the east of the country, where the government is in conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

The 14-minute report drew parallels between Ukraine’s military and the Nazis. It concluded with a denial from Ukrainian officials that the government had committed atrocities, but this was insufficient for the program overall to appear impartial, Ofcom found.

Another episode of RT’s Truthseeker series, broadcast in March last year, which accused the BBC of “stunning fakery” in a report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, was also found to be in breach of U.K. regulations.

RT misled viewers by implying that an official public investigation into the BBC report had uncovered wrongdoing, Ofcom said. The BBC was not treated fairly or given a chance to respond to the allegations, the regulator found.

“Ofcom found that RT broadcast content that was either materially misleading or not duly impartial,” the regulator said. “These are significant failings and we are therefore requiring RT to broadcast two clear statements on our decision which correct these failures.”

*** The next question is what about al Jazeera? In 2011, Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media penned a piece on RT. In part:

Russia Today, an English-language channel provided in the U.S. and other Western countries, is funded by the Moscow regime of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, and recently hired an alleged Russian spy who is in the process of being deported from Britain.

Her first “story” for RT was to complain that Western governments have a “habit of lashing out at other countries for not listening to their people, while blithely ignoring public opinion on their own doorsteps.”

Russia Today has been described by Konstantin Preobrazhensky, himself a former Soviet KGB officer who defected to the West, as “a part of the Russian industry of misinformation and manipulation” designed to mislead foreign audiences about Russian intentions. He says Russia Today television utilizes methods of propaganda that are managed by Directorate “A” of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. He explains, “The specialty of Directorate ‘A’ is deceiving world public opinion and manipulating it. It has got a lot of experience over decades of the Cold War.”

In trying to attract and confuse an American audience, RT regularly features Marxist and radical commentators in the U.S. such as Noam Chomsky, Gloria La Riva of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and 9/11 “inside job” advocate and radio host Alex Jones.

Hey Vegas, Seen this Clintonista at a Casino Lately?

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Primer:

Charlie Trie’s and Ng Lap Seng’s Laundered Contributions to the DNC Introduction
Former Little Rock, Arkansas, restaurateur Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie and Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng collaborated in a scheme to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to the DNC. Ng wired over one million dollars from accounts he maintains in Macau and Hong Kong to accounts maintained by or accessible to Trie in Little Rock and Washington, D.C. Although Trie held himself out as an international trader (and, in fact, actively sought to develop an international trading business he called Daihatsu International Trading Corporation), he was never successful. Trie’s bank records and tax returns reveal that he received little or no income from sources other than Ng Lap Seng.
Although he failed to establish a successful, income-generating international trading business, Trie, his wife and his businesses managed to contribute a total of $220,000 to the DNC between 1994 and 1996. Trie and Ng also reimbursed the contributions made by a number of other DNC contributors who were recruited by Trie in order to further disguise the ultimate source of the contributions. As Trie earned little money through his own business activities, the Committee concludes that Trie used the foreign-source funds wired from Ng to make his (and his wife’s and businesses’) DNC contributions and to reimburse the conduit contributors. The Justice Department indicted Trie for these illegal activities on January 28, 1998. More here.

Over this past weekend:

Chinese Businessman Arrested For Sneaking $4.5M in Cash into US

Previously accused of illegally funneling money to DNC in ’Donorgate’

FreeBeacon: A Chinese businessman accused of illegally funneling foreign money to the Democratic National Committee ahead of Bill Clinton’s reelection in 1996 has been arrested for sneaking upwards of $4.5 million into the United States.

The New York Post reported that 68-year-old Ng Lap Seng, a real estate developer, and interpreter Jeff Yin were arrested Saturday for smuggling millions in cash from China to U.S. airports over two years, Manhattan federal court records indicate.

Ng smuggled the total of more than $4.5 million in cash into the U.S. over roughly 10 trips between China and the states between 2013 and 2015, according to the criminal complaint.

The businessman and his interpreter were scooped up by authorities after they told Customs and Border Patrol that the $400,000 in cash they had on hand was for gambling and purchasing paintings and then brought the money to Queens, N.Y.

It is unclear what has happened to the rest of the money.

Though never ultimately charged, Ng played a role in the “Donorgate” scandal before the 1996 elections that resulted in Clinton ally Charlie Trie pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws in 1999.

Ng transferred approximately $1.4 million to Trie, also a Chinese businessman, who then gave the funds to the DNC before Bill Clinton’s reelection.

Documents: Iran Harbored al Qaeda

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So, if we know this, imagine what Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and the Democrats in Congress know that they would approve a nuclear deal with Iran much less trust them? ‘Death to America’ then and now is real.

Bin Laden’s secret documents reveal Iran-Qaeda ties

Documents belonging to Osama bin Laden, the former leader of Al-Qaeda, obtained by Alsharq Alawsat newspaper, reveal a “close relationship” between Iran and Al-Qaeda’s commanders and high ranking members, which began in the era of the nineties the paper has reported.

The documents, confiscated by U.S. forces after killing Bin Laden in 2011 in his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, show Al-Qaeda was moving comfortably inside Iran, and indicate that the organization, at some point, planned to establish an office in Tehran in 2006. But it receded and rejected the idea because of the excessively high costs.

According to the documents, the Iran dealing with the organization dates back to the period of the nineties, during the presence of the leaders of Al-Qaida in Sudan, due to the consolidation of the then Iran-Sudan ties.

The U.S. counter-terrorism expert Paul Krishnak told Alsharq Alawsat that U.S Treasury freeze of six leaders of the organization present in Iran “confirms that Tehran was an important link in financing the network’s branchs in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

In addition, the documents show that despite the relations with Iran, Bin Laden, who was dealing cautiously with Tehran, warned his followers that the Iranian “might play a role” in selling them.

***

PanARMENIAN.Net – The government of Iran released five senior members of Al Qaeda earlier this year, including the man who stepped in to serve as the terrorist group’s interim leader immediately after Osama bin Laden’s death, and who is the subject of a $5 million bounty, according to an American official who had been briefed on the matter, the New York Times reports.

Iran’s release of the five men was part of a prisoner swap in March with Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the group holding an Iranian diplomat, Nour Ahmad Nikbakht. Nikbakht was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital of Sana in July 2013.

The Iranian government, in a statement on Thursday, September 17, after the release was reported by Sky News earlier this week, denied that the five men had been freed. The American official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the matter, confirmed the release of Saif al-Adl, a senior member of Al Qaeda’s ruling body, known as the Shura Council, who oversaw the organization immediately after bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011.

Of special concern is the release of Mr. Adl, a former colonel in the Egyptian military believed to be in his 50s, who is listed on the F.B.I.’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, and who was indicted in the 1998 United States Embassy bombings in East Africa. Qaeda operatives have described him as the organization’s operational boss. ***

It is not known when the men were apprehended by Iran.

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who served as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency before retiring, said Adel’s release will serve as “a shot of energy” in the leadership branch of al Qaeda.

“The collusion between al Qaeda and Iran is something we have seen before and this trade, if known by the U.S., should have been included as part of the Iran deal negotiations,” Flynn said.

***

There is more as in December of 2011, a U.S. District Court ruled that Iran had deep ties and collusion with al Qaeda beginning in the mid 1990’s based in Sudan. What is more forgotten is the chapter of the 9/11 Commission Report stating the same in full detail.

Iran – Al Qaeda links are not new. Ties between the two were initiated in the early 1990’s when Hasan Al-Turabi, the leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front, began to encourage Sunni-Shia reconciliation in order to defeat the common enemy, namely America and its allies. According to the U.S. court record for the 1998 U.S embassy bombings, Osama was living in Khartoum when the Sudanese religious scholar Ahmed Abdel Rahman Hamadabi brought Sheikh Nomani, representing the Iranian Shias, to meet the Al Qaeda leadership. Sheikh Nomani “had access to the highest echelons of power in Tehran.”

As a result of this meeting, “Iran and Al Qaeda reached an informal agreement to cooperate, with Iran providing critical explosives, intelligence, and security training to bin Laden’s organization.” This meeting was the first in a series of meetings between Iran and Al Qaeda.

The 9/11 Commission Report has a section devoted exclusively towards investigating Iranian ties to Al Qaeda entitled, “Assistance from Hezbollah and Iran to Al Qaeda.” The report states that shortly after these meetings in Sudan in late 1991 or 1992, “senior Al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives. In the fall of 1993, another such delegation went to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon for further training in explosives as well as in intelligence and security. Bin Laden reportedly showed particular interest in learning how to use truck bombs such as the one that had killed 241 U.S. Marines in Lebanon in 1983. The relationship between Al Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations.”