Archive for category Human Trafficking

it’s all in the details

Mar 3

Posted by A. Peasant in Canada, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Experts, Human Trafficking, Mexico, Military, Organ Trafficking | No Comments

Congress passed the RICO Act to deal with organized crime, specifically The Mafia. RICO acknowledges the way rings work, meaning that people at the top don’t actually do the dirty work, they just arrange it and count the money, and that makes them no less guilty. For instance:

In the context of the Maifa, the defendant person (i.e., the target of the RICO Act) is the Godfather. The “racketeering activity” is the criminal activities in which the Mafia engages, e.g., extortion, bribery, loan sharking, murder, illegal drug sales, prostitution, etc. Because the Mafia family has engaged in these criminal actions for generations, the criminal actions constitute a pattern of racketeering activity. The government can criminally prosecute the Godfather under RICO and send him to jail even if the Godfather has never personally killed, extorted, bribed or engaged in any criminal behavior. The Godfather can be imprisoned because he operated and managed a criminal enterprise that engaged in such acts.

Human trafficking rings would be a good application for prosecution under RICO. They require many people with compartmentalized jobs to work together in an organized way. For instance, it takes several people cooperating to abduct a child, transport her across international borders, and arrange for an illegal kidney transplant to benefit a wealthy client. At the minimum it would seem to take at least five people: an abductor, someone in customs to allow passage, someone to accept delivery, a broker with a client, and a doctor.

Some people have long maintained that human trafficking rings are simply impossible. They cannot exist.

For example, in December 1994, Todd Leventhal issued a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography, in which he explains that these rumors are just an urban legend.

Organ transplant experts agree that it would be impossible to successfully conceal any clandestine murder-for-organ-trafficking ring. Because of the large number of people who must be involved in an organ transplant, the sophisticated medical technology needed to conduct such operations, the extremely short amount of time that organs remain viable for transplant, and the abhorrent nature of the alleged activities, such operations could neither be organized clandestinely nor be kept secret.

He relies on the standard refrain: “No credible evidence has ever been produced to substantiate rumors of such activities.”

No evidence…. no rings.

No bodies… no evidence.

So it’s just a matter of getting rid of the bodies or explaining any anomalies away.

^^^^^^^

Nancy Scheper-Hughes unpacked Leventhal’s disinformation. Three points:

1. It is transnational.

“In its strongest and plainest version, the body parts rumors may be taken as factually true. The business of organ transplants is conducted in a transnational space.”

2. Physicians collaborate.

“During the Argentine “Dirty War” of the late 1970s and early 1980s, children were stolen, students were captured, interrogated, tortured and killed. Their bodies were abused and mutilated, and physicians often collaborated as interrogator- torturers ( as they did in El Salvador , Argentina, and in South Africa) with the military state.”…

3. The poor are targeted.

“In Brazil the rumors allude to the way that poor peoples’ bodies are usually dis-regarded in medical encounters. In public clinics and hospitals of the rural Northeast indifferent doctors in the employ of the state or the municipio are willing to over-medicate the poor, to tranquilize hungry bodies, and to order unnecessary amputations and surgical removals for treatable conditions.”

^^^^^^^

Some illegal organs end up in the United States. Some of them come through the US-Mexico border. In the same year that Todd Leventhal tried to brush everything under the rug, another report came out: The Sottas Report. I don’t have a link.

In a March 21, 1994 issue of Proceso, Mexico’s prestigious weekly magazine, who tracked the baby-trafficking story for months, interviewed Eric Sottas, President of the Geneva-based World Organization Against Torture, who confirmed the existence of international rings that kidnap “children, not only for illegal adoptions, pornographic activities and child prostitution, but for the purpose of trafficking in organs.”. The Sottas Report was a result of a three-year investigation with the colloboration of 200 human-rights agencies.

Among many horrors, the report lists 17 clinics in Tijuana and Juarez , on Mexico’s U.S. border, that perform sophisticated transplants of kidneys and corneal tissues from kidnapped children to wealthy North Americans who pay top prices for the operations, no questions asked . Most of these children are not heard from again!

Seventeen clinics involved. SEVENTEEN. Just on the border in Texas. I don’t have the Sottas Report so I don’t know which clinics might be listed, but here’s a list of Texas hospitals. Perhaps the first thing one notices is the large military presence.

Somebody must complain, right, if there’s some strange stuff going on? Well, yes. An April 2008 article in the El Paso Times reported, very briefly, that three doctors had been disciplined. The comments drew various other names from outraged patients, including one plea to stay away from an El Paso Ob/Gyn, Dr. Julio Novoa, who was educated largely in Maryland including two years at Fort Detrick.

http://www.firstchoicemedicine.com/GYN/physicians_novoa.html

But in general, doctors seem to enjoy a firewall of protection and privacy. One has to overcome several barriers to access details about complaints. Funny how that works.

^^^^^^^

But getting back to the evidence, the problem of “no credible evidence.” What is the evidence of illegally trafficked human beings for things like organ trafficking and snuff films? Dead bodies.

Do organized crime rings know how to get rid of dead bodies? No problem. One link from Sleazefest in Seattle leads to this account of human trafficking in Canada and beyond.

1. An organized system of abduction, exploitation, torture and murder of large numbers of women and children appears to exist on Canada ’s west coast, and is operated and protected in part by sectors of the RCMP, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), the judiciary, and members of the British Columbia government and federal government of Canada , including the Canadian military.

2. This system is highly funded and linked to criminal organizations including the Hell’s Angels, the Hong Kong Triad, and unnamed individual “free lance” mobsters from Vancouver and the USA . It is funded in part by a massive drug trade, with which it is intimately connected.

3. This system is decades-old and has been supplied for many years with women and children from aboriginal reserves and residential schools, with the paid collusion of lawyers, clergy and officials of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church of Canada, along with state-funded aboriginal leaders and officials of the Department of Indian Affairs.

4. This system is international in scope, Vancouver being one spoke in a wheel of pedophilia, sex slavery, human organ black markets, “snuff” films and violent child pornography that has outlets throughout the Pacific Rim world, particularly in China and Thailand.

5. This system relies upon a network of complicity extending to the highest levels of power in Canada and other nations, involving coroners, judges, doctors, clergy, politicians and social workers, as well as the media. It also relies upon a network of “body dumping grounds” and mass graves, located in remote rural areas or on aboriginal reserves and both church and Crown land, where human remains are regularly disposed of by RCMP officers.

6. This system is kept in place because of a practice and philosophy of tolerance and protection by the established police, judicial, military, church and governmental institutions in Canada and elsewhere. The crimes committed by individual officers of the police, churches, court and government against women and children caught in this system are known and tolerated by these institutions.

Body dumping grounds. Makes sense. Do you suppose there are some in the desert wastelands along the US-Mexico border too?

Or is that another urban legend.

^^^^^^^

And then we have the corruption, the ability to explain away anomalies.

For example, the County Medical Examiner for El Paso is Dr. Paul Shrode with the Texas Medical Board. He has several complaints filed against him, but board officials cannot comment naturally.

“It took Paul Shrode 76 days to issue a death certificate for my husband’s death,” Gard said. “It took Shrode 74 days to sign off on the autopsy. Initially, Shrode identified my husband as a Hispanic when he was in fact an Anglo blond with blue eyes. “I found it especially disturbing that the medical examiner’s office had in their files a copy of my husband’s last will and testament. I don’t know how they got it and what they were doing with it.”

Gard said delays and contradictory statements in the medical examiner’s documents created problems in settling with the insurance companies. Without a death certificate, families cannot cremate or bury deceased relatives, collect Social Security benefits or conduct probate matters.

Under Texas law, a death certificate must be filed within 10 days of a death….Also under state law, an autopsy report must be filed within 30 days after an autopsy is requested, unless a required test (such as toxicology) cannot be completed in that time, and the person conducting the autopsy certifies in writing that the test could not be done within the 30-day limit.

Shrode’s office corrected her husband’s ethnicity at Gard’s request, but she had other issues with the documents. She said the autopsy report indicates her husband’s appendix was missing, but he never had it removed.

…The Texas Medical Board in Austin is investigating another complaint against Shrode filed by David Fisher, a government watchdog in Elgin, Texas, alleging Shrode falsified his credentials on résumés he used for job applications….Shrode is the highest-paid county official and receives an annual salary of $254,385, not including benefits.

This incredible sloppiness extends to other coroners in Texas. Unlicensed physicians giving cause-of-death opinions in dozens of cases, including child deaths and complex capital murder cases.

Around the state, some medical examiner offices have relied on the work of medical school interns and unlicensed doctors, as well as physicians who have repeatedly failed certification exams or been disciplined for poor work — even for complex capital murder cases.

Why? Oh they have too many dead bodies to deal with.

Texas doesn’t keep track of how many certified forensic pathologists work in the dozen county medical examiner offices; some put the number at 50. That’s not enough to serve large counties, let alone the 200-plus smaller ones that turn to them for autopsies.

Now I ask you… just theoretically of course, can you envision how human trafficking rings might function?

protect and serve

Mar 3

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Central America, Children, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Experts, FBI, Human Trafficking, Mexico, Organ Trafficking, Pedophilia, Think Tanks | No Comments

March 2004.

So who is killing the poor young women and girls of Juarez? And why, after more than ten years, do the killings continue? Some of the murders are believed to be the work of serial killers or drug gangs, linked to the powerful Juarez drug cartel. Others link the murders to an organ-trafficking network. Still others say that the perpetrators come from among some 700 sex offenders who live in El Paso and often visit Juarez. Another theory is that a number of the mutilated bodies found in the desert bear the signs of snuff films, the type of violent porn films in which someone is really killed at the end. The inability of the local authorities to stop the murders has convinced many of possible police complicity in the crimes.

Now they don’t find the bodies. Years ago they did.

This is how they ensure that “no credible evidence” ever exists to prove those crazy organ trafficking and snuff film urban legend myths: the people disappear.

January 12, 2010: JUAREZ, MEXICO – There is nothing unusual on the outside of the one-storey building in central Juarez that operates as a rehabilitation centre. But the inside is a literal hell.

A confidential source told US and Mexican authorities that he saw women’s bodies lying on the floor. He also was present when dead men were hauled inside the building by a group of hit-men.

The source said: “I asked one of the men in charge at the place about the women’s bodies.

“I knew about women in Juarez disappearing. Everyone knew that about Juarez. This had to be one of the main ways in which they vanish.

“The bodies I saw were of young-looking women. They told me they were trying to break into the organ-trafficking business and that it was simply another way to make money.

“He said they wanted to sell organs from the men’s bodies as well. He said all this very matter of factly.

“This was no rehab centre. They sold drugs in there, and people were in and out all the time. The centre actually had a government permit for the place. A man and his two sons kept the centre going.”

This was no ordinary criminal enterprise. Two years later, the same activities continued without interruption. Despite the drug-violence that besieged the border city, nothing slowed the kidnappings and murders associated with the centre.

At times, men wearing police uniforms brought weapons inside the building, only to return later for them. Bodies came and went. The world on the outside, on the other side of the door, was oblivious to what went on inside this den of horrors.

The source asked whether the police helped with the business. The only response he got was that they were part of nuestra gente (our people).

He was told not to worry because if anyone were to be arrested, the authorities would have to start with some top officials of the Mexican government.

“I wondered after seeing so much whether I would ever leave that place alive,” the source said. “To survive, I pretended to go along with things. I never voiced disapproval.”

Between 1993 and 2009, more than 600 girls and women were murdered in Juarez, Mexico. But the actual number of women who died in this way is higher because the authorities have concealed some of the deaths from past years.

Hundreds more are missing and their fate is unknown. Activists suspect human-trafficking gangs lured or abducted many of the missing women.

Over the past decade, the US State Department and human rights organisations around the world have highlighted human-trafficking and child-sex tourism in Mexico.

According to a US State Department report released in 2009, child-sex tourism continues to grow in Mexican northern border cities such as Tijuana and Juarez.

Cancun and Acapulco are also popular child sex-tourism destination. The report said: “Foreign child-sex tourists arrive most often from the United States, Canada and western Europe.”

Each year, as many as 20,000 children are sexually exploited in these urban centres. “Mexican men, women and children (also) are trafficked into the United States for forced labour, particularly in agriculture and industrial sweatshops,” the report said.

The US government said corruption and lax enforcement were to blame for few human-trafficking prosecutions in Mexico.

Jacinto Segura, a spokesman for the Juarez city police, said: “We’re aware of the report, but our function as city police is prevention.

“If police become aware of a situation of this nature, then they will step in to prevent it. State and federal authorities can investigate any complaints brought to their attention.”

Mexican authorities however failed to act on a well-documented warning in 2001 describing such abuses.

The United Nations’ Unicef and Mexico’s National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) released a 135-page report that year alleging the sexual exploitation of children was rampant on the country’s northern and southern borders.

The report identified specific places in Juarez where clandestine meetings for adults seeking children were arranged.

The report, titled Boy and Girl Victims of Sexual Exploitation in Mexico, stemmed from a 10-month investigation that focused primarily on Juarez, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Acapulco, Cancun and Tapachula, Chiapas.

The organisations behind the report recommended a bi-national task force to address the problem.
A former law enforcement officer in the state of Chihuahua, who asked that his name not be used, alleged that police at all levels protect human-trafficking networks.

Because of his contacts, he managed to rescue one teenage girl who was transported from Juarez to Mexico City for prostitution, and saved another girl who was raped by police before she was taken out of the city.
Raul Gonzalez, a former informant for US investigators, said he was aware that human-trafficking worked in concert with drug-trafficking during the 1980s.

He said: “Small airplanes carrying drugs and children landed on clandestine air strips in the Valle de Juarez, (a community east of the Juarez city limits).

“We were told back then that the children were sold to people in the United States.”

A member of a well-known advocacy organisation in Mexico, who asked not to be identified, said human-trafficking is a fact of life in Juarez and other Mexican cities.

“A mother we interviewed for one of our cases said a US politician was present at one of the sex parties where underage girls were sexually exploited.

“I have to leave some of the details out because this kind of information can get you killed.

“Besides, we know the authorities are not going to do anything, especially when important people are implicated,” the advocate said.

Mexican journalists and non-governmental organisations who have exposed child prostitution and trafficking rings reported threats against them.

The Rand Corporation issued a report in 2009, Security in Mexico: Implications for US Policy Options, that described what others often say about the extent of mafias operating in Mexico.

“Organised crime has infiltrated all levels of Mexico’s government and police forces, and is involved in many illegal activities that are on the rise, including drug trafficking, human trafficking and arms trafficking.”

Rand presents in clear detail the challenge for policymakers in Mexico.

Sources: The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women (2nd Edition, 2010/Peace at the Border) and the El Paso Times newspaper.

And who does one turn to for help?

Does one go to the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT?
Perhaps one’s CONGRESSPERSON?
The US STATE DEPARTMENT?
The DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY?
Or the FBI…?

It’s about as effective as going to the CIA to complain about Jundullah. They’ll take copious notes and fuck you over twice as efficiently next time.

Philippines

Feb 27

Posted by A. Peasant in Children, Clinton, Corruption & Crime, Human Trafficking, Identities, Military, Philippines, Southeast Asia, Terrorism | No Comments

some context for what’s happening in the Philippines:

1. US embassy officials met with MILF rebels, in their very camps, back in November, after they abducted the Irish priest Michael Sinnot. This was around the time that the tungsten gold bars story circulated. Hillary Clinton rushed to the Philippines. from Asia Times:

Despite the row over Sinnot’s kidnapping, senior US Embassy officials in Manila have held clandestine meetings with MILF leaders in their Maguindanao camp. The US Embassy has kept mum on the meetings, but on its website, the MILF confirmed in a statement that it had held talks with a visiting group of American diplomats led by the US Embassy charge d’affaires, Leslie Basset, on October 16. Lasting for two hours, the meeting “was warm and forthright”, the MILF said and quoted Basset as saying that the US was willing to play a role in the peace talks. “Helping attain and sustain peace, security and development in Mindanao is a priority concern of our government,” the MILF quoted Bassett as saying.

pretty cozy, huh?

2. as covered here earlier, a whistleblower testified to the US military having permanent structures, unmonitored by the Filipino government, in the Southern Philippines, in violation of the Philippine Constitution, and that the US military behaves with arrogance toward the Filipinos.

In her affidavit, Gadian also accused the US military of building permanent structures in different military camps in the country. She said US forces have established “permanent” and “continuous” presence in Zamboanga, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the south. She added that the Philippine military has no access to the camps built by the US soldiers in these areas since they are “fenced off by barbed wires and guarded by US Marines.” Gadian likewise said these structures are indications the US troops had no intention of leaving the country, which is a violation of the Philippine Constitution….The ex-Navy official also complained of the “arrogant” behavior of many US military officers toward Filipinos.

pretty suspicious, huh?

So taking official pronouncements at face value, here’s two stupid QUESTIONS… why doesn’t the MILF control it’s people, since the MILF has such a good relationship with the government… and what is the US military doing holed up illegally in the same area of the Philippines as the Abu Sayyaf?

3. NOW: over 10 dead in Abu-MILF raid on village

ZAMBOANGA CITY – (UPDATE 3) At least 11 people – including two children – were killed when suspected Moro rebels and Abu Sayyaf bandits stormed a village in Maluso, Basilan early Saturday, authorities said. The police corrected its initial report of 13 killed in the 5:45 a.m. attack staged by more or less 70 gunmen led by Puruji Indama in the village of Tubigan, Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza Jr., Basilan police chief, said by phone.

…Mendoza said the gunmen, including Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members, razed at least five houses during the attack. The attack on Tubigan came barely nine hours after authorities rescued the two Chinese nationals that Indama’s group had abducted in November, along with a local. The local, Marquez Singson, had been beheaded.

…Mendoza said the gunmen immediately fled to Barangay (village) Libug in Sumisip town after the attack and were being pursued by the police and elements of the Army and the Marines. Founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for a series of bombings and kidnappings targeting foreign missionaries, Christians, and US military advisers based in the south.

They have also carried out the worst terror attacks in Philippine history such as the 2004 bombing of a passenger ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people. Indama was an obscure Abu Sayyaf commander who gained prominence after he and other Muslim militants attacked a military convoy, killing and mutilating 14 Marines in 2007. The military says fewer than 400 Abu Sayyaf members remain active in the islands of Basilan and Jolo, down from a peak of about 1,200 in 2002. Government forces recently scored a string of victories over the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo Island, south of Basilan, and last week captured a bomb-maker and killed top commander Albader Parad, and five of his men.

more @ inquirer

4. missionary recounts captivity

Held hostage for 376 days by the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, Gracia Burnham doesn’t seem to tire of recounting the time she and her husband spent in the jungle with their kidnappers. It was the last year of her husband’s life. Burnham conducted a three-day lecture series this week at Southeastern Bible College, discussing mission work, terrorism and her personal experiences.

…The kidnapping happened May 27, 2001, less than four months before the 9/11 terrorist hijackings in the United States, and her captors considered themselves aligned with al-Qaeda, Burnham said. “A few were bent on jihad,” she said. Some others, including a 9-year-old boy and others recruited from villages against their will, may not have had much choice.

…Burnham returned to the Philippines in 2004 to testify against some of her former captors, under heavy security. Twenty-four of the captors, out of a group of about 80, are in a maximum-security prison in Manila, she said.

She got a call this month from the U.S. Office for Victims of Crime, informing her that another one had been apprehended on Feb. 18. Jumadail Arad, known to the Burnhams as “Hurayra,” had been their closest friend and kindest captor among the Abu Sayyaf, she said. Burnham remembers talking to her husband about how he would treat Hurayra if they escaped and he one day showed up at their door in Rose Hill, Kan. “I would invite him in, cook him a big meal and then call the FBI,” she recalls him saying.

…Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, one of Burnham’s captors, bragged of talking with Bin Laden by satellite phone, according to an Associated Press report. Burnham said her conversations with Abu Sayyaf leaders showed that they at least believed themselves to be part of a global effort, not a ragtag band of kidnappers. “People in America don’t understand,” she said. “Their basic goal is world domination.”

organized crime in Goa

Feb 25

Posted by A. Peasant in Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking, India, Israel, Kazakhstan | No Comments

October 2006: source

Think you had a good weekend? Think again. Brad, Angelina and the kids, currently in Pune, India, hopped a private charter flight to Goa, India for a little R&R. Reports are rolling in that the couple needed a break from the ‘razzi and left Pune on Friday night around 9pm on a small jet.
Goa’s fame and beauty have attracted multiple old-school Hollywood types, as well as India’s wealthiest families (think private beach houses, etc.) The Pitt’s apparently checked into a guesthouse in Ashvem Beach in North Goa about 50 miles away from the Dabolim international airport there. Is Goa the Hamptons of India? Hm….The word is that North Goa is much more vibrant that South Goa, so we think it’d be like East Hampton vs. South Hampton perhaps. Shhh! Don’t let Lizzie Grubman find out.

Actually, sometime between then and now, Goa fell apart. I think, possibly, there’s a connection between the influx of the Hollywood types and wealthy Indian families, and the increase in drugs, rapes, and organized sex trafficking. Just. A. Guess.

I referenced this December 13, 2009 jpost (cached) article about two weeks ago, and I will reference it again today: ‘Israelis in Goa disastrous for tourism.’

In one section he quotes a tourist from the UK who gave his opinion on Israelis in Goa as saying that Israelis come to the area and bring with them drugs from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmire, then use Goans and Indians to sell it. “The Israelis who sell drugs have control over the Ministers from Goa to Delhi,” the tourist said. “They pay them a large amount of money. They also bribe the police.”

^^^^^^^

Today: Goa emerging as drug, sex destination, say industry

The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has issued strict caution to the state government, asking it to shore up its act on tourism, in a pre budget note which was handed over to chief minister Digambar Kamat on Tuesday.

…Industry stalwarts like travel and tourism association of Goa (TTAG) president Ralph de Souza have already said that the bogey of the Russian mafia in Goa could spell disaster for tourism in the state in the near future.

Tourism minister Mickky Pacheco had earlier said Goa was on its way to becoming the rape capital of India. Increasing crimes against tourists in recent times, beginning with the rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling, has put the international spotlight on Goa.

The recent rape of a nine-year-old Russian girl Jan 26 triggered a nationwide media debate on the safety of women tourists in Goa.

A 25-year-old Russian woman was allegedly raped by a Goan politician in December last year.

Police have also been unable to crack the mysterious death of Russian teenager Elena Sukhonova, whose mangled body was found on the railway tracks near Thivim, 25 km from Panaji.

Goa receives nearly two million tourists annually, nearly half a million of which are foreigners.

More specifically, from jpost: “Tourists from Israel, along with those from Britain, Russia and Germany, top the number of tourists arriving in Goa every tourist season.”

^^^^^^^

And police having trouble cracking the case? There seems to be a rash of that going around. The police in Delaware seem to experience the same problems.

Goa police hand-in-glove with organized sex mafia: official

PANAJI: A senior Goa police official on Thursday admitted that the state is emerging as a den for the organized sex mafia in collusion with the local police.

Superintendent of Police (Criminal Investigation Department) Atmaram Deshpande wrote in his weekly column in a vernacular daily ‘Gomantak’ Thursday: “There is a disturbing increase in number of instances where massage parlours and beauty salons are being used for prostitution. People are getting restive.”

…Deshpande, who is the nodal officer for all police intelligence networks in the state, in his article has also taken a subtle dig at the police top brass that had approved a Russian belly dancer for the inauguration of a coastal police station in Anjuna last year.

“There is an increase in bar dancers, foreign (belly) dancers and escort services professionals coming in to Goa. There is an urgent need for these to be stamped out, before they flourish here,” Deshpande said.

The official also said that local police stations were often hand-in-glove with the organized sex crime mafia.

“The police have to keep an eye on massage parlours and beauty parlours. But sometimes the local police turn a blind eye to these issues and then the crime branch is forced to bust these operations,” Deshpande said.

…Deshpande said that Goa, a major tourism destination in India, is also emerging as a centre for trafficking and high profile prostitution.

“Over the last one or two years, young Goan women too have been getting involved in the business of prostitution. That is a worry. Since this (high profile prostitution) is an easy way to get into the world of fashion and the hotel industry, a lot of women from India and abroad are flocking to Goa,” Deshpande said.
Goa receives nearly two million tourists annually, of which nearly half a million are foreign nationals.

Maybe they want to meet some Hollywood people.

I would also anticipate the Goa police having trouble catching the Israeli drug dealer’s Kazakh girlfriend. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

PANAJI: Anti-narcotics sleuths are tracking down the Kazakh girlfriend of an alleged Israeli drug peddler arrested in the coastal belt of north Goa for possessing drugs worth Rs 3.81 lakh.

The residence of David Graham alias Dudu was being searched for nearly 48 hours for documents related to his import export company, which police suspect was used to transport drugs out of India, a senior police official said Wednesday.

“Yes… his girlfriend is missing. We had summoned her to the anti narcotics cell police station, but she has suddenly disappeared,” Superintendent of Police (ANC) Veenu Bansal said. Bansal however refused to reveal the identity of the Kazakhstan national.

Dudu Division Import and Export Pvt Ltd, a firm run by the accused, came under the police scanner after its annual returns showed profits only once in 2005. The company specialises in exporting chocolates and garments.

“We are interested in knowing the exact nature of their business. The company has the making of a front for drugs,” the official said.

Dudu was arrested on Monday at Anjuna and 144 ecstasy tablets as well as quantities of heroin, cocaine, liquid LSD and charas were seized from him.

Bansal added that Dudu had been earlier arrested in 2008 by the Mumbai anti-narcotics squad. He was also arrested in 2006 for over staying.

^^^^^^^

As if that isn’t bad enough, corrupt officials also rape the land in Goa.

Goa chief minister, aide shielding illegal mining: BJP

Panaji, Feb 25 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Goa unit Thursday accused Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and his secretary Rajiv Yaduvanshi of shielding illegal mining operations in the state and said it would raise the issue in the coming assembly session.

Addressing a press conference here, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Manohar Parrikar claimed that illegal mining in Goa comprised an unparalleled 22 percent of the total nearly 33 million tonnes of iron and manganese ore exported from the state annually over the last decade.

“Digambar Kamat has been the mining minister for 10 years now. He is directly responsible for the rampant illegal mining in Goa,” he said, terming Kamat’s government “impotent” to quell the large-scale illegal mining.

Parrikar also accused Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Yaduvanshi, who besides being Kamat’s secretary heads several crucial departments including mining, forests, of being part of the conspiracy to shield the illegal mining lobby.

…“There is complete chaos in the mining sector. Most ministers are involved in illegal mining,” he said, adding that the mining policy being devised by the state government was “an eye wash”.

Noting that mining for minerals was a central government subject under Schedule I of the constitution and the state government does not have much of a say in it, Parrikar said the state government can effectively deter illegal mining and mining-related excesses by enforcing laws on transportation and implementing other existing laws.

Open cast mining, a Rs.6,000 crore industry in Goa, is seeing increasing popular resistance due to uncontrolled illegal mining and rampant destruction of the state’s forests. The opposition has repeatedly alleged on the floor of the house that the chief minister and several cabinet ministers were sheltering the mining mafia in collusion with the bureaucracy.

Read nobody.

Read Dave McGowan. more….

Read aangirfan.

Put it together. It’s time.

linking Hezbollah into the TBA

Feb 22

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, Corruption & Crime, Human Trafficking, Latin America, Lebanon, Mind-fucking, TBA | No Comments

1. Feds link 3 Miami-Dade businessmen to alleged Hezbollah front in Paraguay — Tri-Border Area. Narrative: Lebanon –> Hezbollah –> South American –>Terrorism against The West. Note US Treasury (ie: Goldman Sachs) ban, that will help tie to Iran. Note that the US just makes designations, and that is all that’s required. then the accused can fit into the pre-defined terrorist designated box by doing something as diabolical as “operating retail businesses” in a mall that the US government has unilaterally designated as a funding arm for Hezbollah, an organization with democratically-elected representatives in the Lebanese government. it’s just semantics.

Federal agents have arrested three South Florida businessmen accused of exporting video games and other electronic products to a shopping mall in Paraguay that allegedly served as a front to finance the terrorist group Hezbollah, according to federal authorities. The Miami-Dade businessmen arrested late Thursday, Khaled T. Safadi, Ulises Talavera and Emilio Gonzalez-Neira, appeared in federal court Friday to face charges related to a Treasury Department ban on doing business with the black-listed militia and political organization based in Lebanon.

…According to an indictment, the three Miami-Dade businessmen are accused of exporting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of PlayStation 2 video games and digital cameras to a shopping center called Galeria Page in Paraguay. The U.S. government has designated the mall as a funding arm of Hezbollah.

Galeria Page, located in Ciudad del Este, serves as a Hezbollah fundraising source in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, according to a Treasury Department press statement issued in December 2006. It is considered the central headquarters for Hezbollah members in the region.

Hezbollah members operate retail businesses in Galeria Page to support Hezbollah, according to the press release. Muhammad Yusif Abdallah, a manager of Galeria Page, paid a regular quota to Hezbollah based on profits he received from the mall, the statement says. In the Dec. 6, 2006, release, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the mall was part of a South American network that aided Assad Ahmad Barakat, who has been on the U.S. terrorist blacklist since 2004.

more @ miami dade news

2. more details from naharnet

The shopping center, Galeria Page in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, was included on the banned list in December 2006 along with owner Mohammed Yosusef Abdallah. Abdallah is described as a senior Hizbullah leader in a region of South America long considered a haven for counterfeiting, smuggling, piracy and other crimes….According to the indictment, the three men ran companies that used the Port of Miami to move goods including Sony Playstation video game consoles, digital cameras and other items that eventually wound up at the Paraguay destination. About $1 million in exports were identified by ICE, the FBI, Treasury officials and other investigators with Miami’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The men allegedly used fake invoices, false addresses and phony names to mask the true destination of the goods. The companies involved also were indicted. John Morton, assistant Homeland Security secretary for ICE, said the arrests will disrupt a network involved in “the illicit trade of commodities that support terrorist activities and ultimately threaten the national security of the United States.”(AP)

more @ naharnet

3. is the Tri-Border Area a “haven for counterfeiting, smuggling, piracy and other crimes” such as HUMAN TRAFFICKING? oh yes. indeed. it is also a haven for local, federal and international agencies, including lots of CIA people. Go Figure.

from my post on this area the other day:

A tourist destination, with beautiful hotels. Many tourists come to see the Igauzu falls. But hey, there’s really nothing to worry about because the place is crawling with feds and agency people, including CIA, on account of all the Arab terrorists there, so relax! Who would dare do any illegal trafficking with all these law enforcement people around?

Immigration officer Emilio Osses, who oversees one of the Argentine checkpoints in the area, said that contrary to popular belief, this is not the worst trafficking hotspot on Argentina’s border. He says that this tri-border area is heavily controlled — saturated with officers from at least eight local, federal and international agencies, including lots of CIA agents.
And it’s largely because of the intelligence community that there’s a lot of hype around the tri-border, he said. There is a large and important Arab population here, and it’s believed that the terrorist cells that bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires had support in this area.

“That’s why it has this stigma of terrorism, corruption, and illegal trafficking,” Osses said. “In reality, the tri-border area suffers from propaganda.” But Osses goes on to admit that there’s a lot of room for illegal trafficking here. In the high season, 30,000 people per day cross the triple border — and that’s just at the official checkpoints. Like any border, much more of it is uncontrolled.

Jesus God, Mr. Osses. Do you think there’s a connection between all those agency people and the trafficking?

more @ twelfth bough

the Bangkok of Latin America

Feb 18

Posted by A. Peasant in Banks, Brazil, CIA, Canada, Corruption & Crime, Drug Trafficking, Haiti, Human Trafficking, Israel, Paraguay, TBA, Terrorism, The West | No Comments

A lot of human trafficking passes through Texas on it’s way into the United States and onward. Some statistics:

18,000 foreign nationals trafficked into the US each year
plus an estimated 200,000 American children at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year
major ports of entry are southern and central Texas, Southern California, parts of Arizona and New Mexico
emerging ports include Atlanta, Houston, Orlando and Washington DC
the I-10 corridor is a main route for human traffickers in the US
after drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with illegal arms as the second largest criminal industry in the world
human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry

^^^^^^^

On February 2, Penny brought to our attention Dave McGowan’s latest, Sleazefest in Seattle. (Penny has an extensive Dave McGowan collection at her place, please avail thyself.) Since Dave’s site may be experiencing some sort of technical difficulty at the moment, you can also read Sleazefest in Seattle over at SOTT.

In completely unrelated news, various concerned parties have recently reported that Vancouver is a major hub for trafficking in a most unsavory type of freight: humans. And much of that freight is said to come from the same place those alleged cherries were supposed to be shipped out to; as University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin recently noted, “Vancouver is considered to be a hub for Pacific human trafficking.” The British Columbia Human Rights Coalition concurred, reporting that, “Canada has been identified as both a transit and a destination point for human trafficking, and Vancouver has been singled out by the US state department as a port of major concern.”

Nice.

And it gets better. According to far more shocking allegations (http://www.galacticfriends.com/updates/galactic-friends/1784-galactic-federation.html), there is no shortage of other unsavory freight being shipped through Vancouver, including illegal drugs and weapons, and, perhaps inevitably, child pornography. According to witness statements taken from social workers, tribal elders and self-described victims, Vancouver is home to a protected network of pedophiles engaged in such pursuits as rape, torture, murder, child pornography, production of snuff films, and ethnic cleansing. Other then all that though, it seems like a great place to hold the Olympic games, especially since, as Perrin noted, “Traffickers will view the 2010 Olympics as the biggest business opportunity for them in decades.”

The network is said to be protected by virtually all levels of law enforcement and the judiciary, as well as by well-placed confederates in the church, the media, and other institutions of the state. If all of that sounds all too familiar, it is probably because you’ve spent time swimming in the sewers of the Franklin case in Omaha, Nebraska (http://franklinscandal.com/), or possibly the Marc Dutroux case in Belgium (http://www.illuminati-news.com/0/snuff2.htm).

Are you with me so far?

^^^^^^

Now we have Haiti, and Puello, and El Salvador to sort through. I was just following that line of thought back down into South America. There’s a place in South America called the Tri-Border Area (TBA), where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet.

Back in 2002, CNN reported, from various unspecified “intelligence sources,” that al Qaeda terrorists were meeting in this area and plotting to attack US and Israeli interests, in conjunction with Hezbollah.

CNN has learned from coalition intelligence sources that several top terrorist operatives met recently in the area — where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay intersect — to plan attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Western hemisphere. Sources said the meetings, which took place in and around Ciudad del Este, were attended by representatives of Hezbollah and other groups sympathetic to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network….Other indications of the threat came from intelligence sources in the Middle East, who told CNN of a new terrorist effort aimed at U.S. and Israeli interests and coordinated by a man named Imad Mugniyeh.

Argentine officials point to more evidence they say indicates terrorist activity in the tri-border area — thousands of U.S. dollars bearing stamps from Lebanese currency exchange banks, tens of thousands of dollars in phony bills, and receipts from wire transfers made between the tri-border area and the Middle East.

Oh dear.

In 2003, a paper titled Terrorist and Organized Crime Groups in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of South America (pdf) described in detail the many criminal and Islamist elements from around the world operating in the TBA, an organized crime paradise. Chinese, Russian, Lebanese, etc. Eventually, the TBA came to the attention of the appropriate authorities.

The bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires on March 17, 1992, followed by the bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (Asociación Mutual Israeli-Argentina —AMIA), a Jewish community center, in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, focused the attention of the TBA countries, Israel, and the United States on the TBA because the investigation into both attacks led back to Hizballah operatives in the TBA.

There’s actually a very well-developed narrative about this area being connected to Hezbollah, Hamas, Lebanon, Iran and al Qaeda, among others. (Terrorist threat in the Tri-Border Area: myth or reality? 2004; Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 2, pp. 159-161)

The narrative does not mention human trafficking, however. And the other thing conspicuously missing: Jews in any context other than victim of the organized criminals in the TBA.

The criminals from the TBA used some US banks to launder their money.

One of the most well known money laundering scandals involved Banestado, the bank of Brazil’s Parana state. In 1995, five banks in the tri-border region, including Banestado, were authorized to open currency exchange accounts, known as CC-5 accounts. CC-5 accounts quickly became popular in money laundering, and brokers opened hundreds of fake CC-5 accounts, into which criminals deposited millions of reals. The money was then wired in dollars to the Banestado branch in New York City and from there to other banks, usually in countries considered to be tax havens. Money changers and complicit Banestado officials took cuts from each transaction. More than 250 phony CC-5 accounts have since been identified, and it is suspected that as much as $30 billion passed through Banestado accounts in the U.S. between 1996 and 1999, a portion of which was likely laundered. The case is still being investigated. (6/10/08)

^^^^^^^

But human trafficking does, of course, take place, and it is a huge and fast-growing organized crime industry. And it takes place in the TBA.

Sit by the swimming pool of the exclusive Iguazú Jungle hotel and you can watch the “contrabandistas” emerging from the undergrowth. All day, an army of smugglers can be seen passing along the mountainous path that separates Argentina from Brazil. … Everything from fake branded clothing to Class A drugs are ferried back and forth along these clandestine routes. The list of contraband goods now also extends to human beings.

…Many of those trafficked through the triple frontier are destined for the illegal labour market in Brazil or Argentina. The trade in babies for adoption is also widely reported. But a large proportion end up as sex workers. Many end up in brothels across the region, although a high number are destined for the triple frontier’s own thriving sex industry.

Children are particularly vulnerable to human traffickers. Charities working with at-risk children in the border region estimate that as many as 3,500 young people could be involved. “Many girls are trafficked via the pique. It’s all highly organised”, explains Marcelina Antunez, director of Luz de Infancia, a children’s care centre in the Argentine town of Puerto Iguazú.

Driving the trade is the flood of foreign tourists who come to visit the world famous Iguazú waterfalls. Much of the demand for prostitution is casual. Yet the region also attracts a hardened group of sex tourists.

…”The triple frontera is the Bangkok of Latin America…after the tsunami, many sex tourists started coming here instead of Asia,” notes Cynthia Bendlin, director of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for the triple frontier area. IOM runs a number of awareness programmes to highlight the dangers of the trafficking trade. But it is an uphill struggle. Many of the children most at risk either live on the street or come from very impoverished families, Ms Bendlin explains. (2007)

Immigration officer Emilio Osses, who oversees one of the Argentine checkpoints in the area, said that contrary to popular belief, this is not the worst trafficking hotspot on Argentina’s border. He says that this tri-border area is heavily controlled — saturated with officers from at least eight local, federal and international agencies, including lots of CIA agents.
And it’s largely because of the intelligence community that there’s a lot of hype around the tri-border, he said. There is a large and important Arab population here, and it’s believed that the terrorist cells that bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires had support in this area.

“That’s why it has this stigma of terrorism, corruption, and illegal trafficking,” Osses said. “In reality, the tri-border area suffers from propaganda.” But Osses goes on to admit that there’s a lot of room for illegal trafficking here. In the high season, 30,000 people per day cross the triple border — and that’s just at the official checkpoints. Like any border, much more of it is uncontrolled.

Jesus God, Mr. Osses. Do you think there’s a connection between all those agency people and the trafficking?

We’ll know our disinformation program is complete

when everything the American public believes is false.
– William Casey, CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

source

^^^^^^^

So, anyway, it must be time to change the subject. New York Times, July 17, 2009: Inquiry on 1994 Blast at Argentina Jewish Center Gets New Life. Oh PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite all the international attention, despite investigative help from Israel and the United States, no one has been convicted for the July 18, 1994, bombing of the community center, in which 85 people died and more than 300 were injured….But suddenly, an investigation that former President Néstor Kirchner called a national disgrace has received new urgency and is again raising hopes among Jewish groups, though significant concerns about the inquiry remain.

…last month, a federal judge here, Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, ordered the international capture of Samuel Salman El Reda, a 43-year-old Colombian citizen whom prosecutors here had accused of helping coordinate the local Hezbollah cell that Argentine investigators said had carried out the bombing.

Investigators here believe that they have solved the case in principle, having accused the Iranian government of planning and financing the attack, and Hezbollah of executing those plans.

But some experts, including a former American F.B.I. agent who assisted the Argentines in their investigation, are skeptical about the claims of direct Iranian involvement. “The guilt field was painted with a bit too broad a brush,” said the former agent, James Bernazzani, who led the F.B.I.’s Hezbollah operations unit in the late 1990s.

…Previous inquiries were riddled with incompetence, witnesses who were threatened and bribed, stolen evidence and accusations of a cover-up involving the former Argentine president Carlos Menem. The Argentines, nevertheless, maintain that Iran was behind the attack, and have had limited relations with Tehran partly because of the investigation’s importance to the nation’s 230,000 Jews, the largest Jewish community in Latin America. The 1994 bombing came two years after the Israeli Embassy here was bombed, killing 29 people, a case that also remains unsolved.

…Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who took over the investigation in 2005, has intensified a line of inquiry that Mr. Galeano had played down: the involvement of Iran.

In 2006, Mr. Nisman formally accused several members of Iran’s government of planning and financing the bombing, including former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Central to the indictments was an Iranian defector, Abdolghassem Meshabi, who said that the plot had been hatched in Tehran and that Iranian officials had paid Mr. Menem about $10 million to help cover up Iran’s involvement.

And guess what? Yes, it all comes back to the TBA. Mr. Nisman has it all figured out. I mean, just look what he says.

Mr. Nisman, meanwhile, is pressing on with his investigation of Mr. El Reda. In the weeks before the bombing, Mr. El Reda shuttled between “safe houses” in Buenos Aires and a red brick house in Foz do Iguaçu, a Brazilian town in the Triple Frontier area where Argentina meets Brazil and Paraguay, investigators said.

From millions of phone call records and the help of an unidentified Hezbollah operative, investigators say they were able to piece together evidence of a terrorist cell involving Mr. El Reda that kept in close contact with Beirut leading up to the bombing.

On the morning of July 1, 1994, Mr. Nisman said, Mr. El Reda made a call from the international airport here to a cellphone registered in Foz do Iguaçu, a call that may have set off the final phase of the attack.

Other calls to the cellphone were made from public phone centers near the Jewish community center and near a mosque in Buenos Aires where the cultural attaché at the Iranian Embassy, one of the people charged in 2006, spent a great deal of time, Mr. Nisman wrote in court papers. Mr. El Reda had forged close ties with the Iranian attaché, Mr. Nisman said.

Calls were often made from those same locations to the communications center of Hezbollah in Beirut and to known militants in the Triple Frontier, Mr. Nisman said.

Mr. Bernazzani warned that that “doesn’t prove anything,” because what had been said on the calls was not known. “Telephones don’t get indicted, people do,” he said.

Mr. Nisman, nevertheless, said that at 7:41 a.m. on the day of the bombing a final call was made from Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires. Forty minutes later, a flight bound for Puerto Iguazú in the Triple Frontier took off. Mr. Nisman said he believed that Mr. El Reda made the call before boarding the plane.

Then, at 9:53 a.m., a van loaded with about 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil exploded in front of the community center. A few days later Mr. El Reda left South America for Lebanon, where he still lives with his family, Mr. Nisman said.

Boy it makes a person wonder if Alberto NISMAN belongs to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, given the alacrity of his beliefs.

Not that it matters. Perish the thought.

^^^^^^^

In closing, I would just like to remind you that the 2016 Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

So happy.

“Traffickers will view the 2010 2016 Olympics as the biggest business opportunity for them in decades.”

sickening

Feb 18

Posted by A. Peasant in Haiti, Human Trafficking, Israel, Mossad, Mr. Bibi N. & Friends, Organ Trafficking, UK | No Comments

1. Dubai 99% sure Mossad killed Mabhouh — Israeli response… SO?

Dubai police chief said he was 99 percent certain that the Mossad was responsible for the assassination of top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh , Gulf News reported on Thursday. “Our investigations reveal that Mossad is involved in the murder. It is 99 percent, if not 100 percent, that Mossad is standing behind the murder,” police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told The National newspaper.

Earlier, a confidant of Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Reuters News Agency that there was no reason to resign over the scandal-fraught assassination in Dubai, adding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is unlikely to ask him to. Resignation would be tantamount to taking responsibility, the confidant said. Dagan’s success in other and ongoing operations against Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria and Iran would outweigh any desire by Netanyahu to have him fall on his sword, said the confidant, who also hails from Israel’s intelligence community. “There are national priorities here,” the confidant added.

Dubai police this week released names, photos and passport numbers of 11 members of an alleged hit squad that killed Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh last month in Dubai. Dubai police said that all 11 carried European passports. But most of the identities appeared to be stolen, and a number matched up with real people in Israel who have claimed they were victims of identity theft. Only the British passports, however, were believed to have involved stolen identities.

The confidant anticipated that Mossad would quietly lobby counterpart agencies of the countries whose passports were used for the Dubai mission to mellow their governments’ scrutiny on Israel.

“This may not work, given the anger that some of these foreign ministries are signaling,” the confidant said. “But even if there’s only a process of internal deliberation, that might be enough to take the sting out of the recrimination,” said the confidant. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said there was no reason to assume the Mossad was behind the operation simply because Dubai had released the information about the passports. “I don’t know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports,” Lieberman told Army Radio in Israel’s first official comments on the affair. But Lieberman did not deny involvement outright, saying Israel rightly maintained a policy of ambiguity where security operations were concerned.

“Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies,” he said. “There is no reason for Israel to change this policy.”

jpost: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=169012

maybe israel can fuck off.

2. Milliband: israel must cooperate fully. !!!. i’m *serious* this time. we’ll see.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday demanded Israel’s full cooperation in investigating of the fraudulent use of U.K. passport by the killers of a Hamas official in Dubai.

Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, met with Sir Peter Ricketts, head of the British diplomatic sevice, on Thursday after London asked him to clarify what it called an “identity theft” in which the passports of six British Israelis were used by assassins.

“The permanent secretary (Ricketts) said we wanted to give Israel every opportunity to share with us what it knows about this incident,” Miliband told British television. “We hope and expect they will cooperate fully with the investigation that has been launched by the prime minister [Gordon Brown],” he said.

He said he hoped to discuss the issue further with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman when both men were in Brussels on Monday.

…Although Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for the January 20 hit on Mabhouh, the incident seems to have spawned a serious diplomatic rift between Israel and the United Kingdom.

more @ haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1150675.html

3. let’s see if Livni does her arrest experiment

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni reportedly indicated on Sunday that she would be willing to travel to the U.K. in order to provoke her own arrest, hoping thus to move London into changing a controversial law enabling the arrest of visiting politicians, the London Times reported on Monday.

“Britain has obligated itself to me personally that this subject will be taken care of and fixed,” she said. “Now is the time.”

Livni reportedly added that getting herself arrested was the only way to “shame” the British government into changing the law giving judges the power to arrest visiting Israeli politicians and generals.

Israel’s government confirmed late last year that Livni canceled a planned London trip after her office received news of a secretly issued arrest warrant awaiting her arrival.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband later announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion.

more @ haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149895.html

MEANWHILE:

4. focus on Israel: harvesting Haitian organs

By Stephen Lendman

On January 15, Haaretz reported that:

“The Israel Defense Forces’ aid mission to Haiti left Israel overnight (January 14) with equipment for setting up an emergency field hospital. Around 220 soldiers and officers (were) in the delegation, including 120 medical staff (to) operate the hospital in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.”

According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it includes “40 doctors, 25 nurses, paramedics, a pharmacy, a children’s ward, a radiology department, an intensive care unit, an internal department and a maternity ward (able to) treat approximately 500 patients each day,” including in two surgery rooms.

On January 20, Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV reported on the mission, citing a damning You Tube video posted by an American named T. West from a group called AfriSynergy Productions.

“The video presents something to think about while exploiting the horrible tragedy that has befallen Haiti where Israeli occupation soldiers are engaged in organ trafficking.”

Israel faced these charges before. In November 2009, Alison Weir’s article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs headlined, “Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine.” She cited an August Donald Bostrom article in Sweden’s Aftonbladet suggesting that Israel illicitly removes body parts, including from Palestinians.

She stated:

“….Israeli organ harvesting - sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli ministries - have been documented for many years. Among the victims have been Palestinians.”

“Israel is at the top,” she states. “It has tentacles reaching out worldwide. (It has) a pyramid system at work that’s awesome….they have brokers everywhere, bank accounts everywhere; they’ve got recruiters, they’ve got translators, they’ve got travel agents who set up the visas.”

They pay “the poor and the hungry to slowly dismantle their bodies” or simply take what they want from fresh corpses. Body parts are commodities, to be harvested and sold to the rich, even though organ sales are prohibited in most countries, but not in international law.

bootstrapping and extortion — not the same

Feb 17

Posted by A. Peasant in Haiti, Hasbara, Human Trafficking, Identities, Israel | No Comments

Bootstrapping: a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help.

^^^^^^^

Extortion:

Extortion, outwresting, or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. Exaction refers not only to extortion or the unlawful demanding and obtaining of something through force, but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant.

…The term extortion is often used metaphorically to refer to usury or to price-gouging, though neither is legally considered extortion. It is also often used loosely to refer to everyday situations where one person feels indebted against their will, to another, in order to receive an essential service or avoid legal consequences.

It’s one of those things… you’d know it if it happened to you. If you really needed help, and someone helped you, and then you felt like you owed them, and instead of saying to you no no, you don’t owe me a thing because I wanted to help you, the person says or does things to confirm that you do, in fact, owe them.

And eventually, you knew they would come to extract payment from you. And you don’t know what it might be because you have nothing to pay them with.

Or if, you just had to do things that you didn’t want to do, or else it’s curtains for you. Like the deli guy who has to saw up and dispose of the mob’s dead bodies in Staten Island.

You know, in these mob movies, the mobsters can be very charming. They’re businesspeople. I mean, you wouldn’t necessarily know what’s going on they could be talking to someone right in front of you, ordering a sandwich, and you might not even realize that a transaction is taking place, because it’s not between equals and the weak person has no moves. So they have to just take it. And so the transaction happens very quietly and efficiently. It can be done in the open. That’s how some people exercise power.

^^^^^^^

Israel has a big PR problem. http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=168506

For the past two-and-a-half years, Aharoni has had the Herculean task of re-branding Israel. His goal: to change outsiders’ perception of Israel as a militaristic and conservative country into something closer to how Israelis see themselves – “largely sababa (cool).”

…Israel’s brand troubles grew from the gap between the high quality product that it offers and the low image it has, he said. “That gap not only carries an economic burden, but also weighs Israel down in its marketing efforts and in the effectiveness of its foreign policy.”

Putting up a photo of an Israeli tank confronting a Palestinian youth throwing a stone, Aharoni said that hasbara’s job is to convince people that the tank is the victim.

“Given enough time I can make a good argument that that is actually the case, but in today’s media environment, we don’t have the time. We have about three seconds to grasp a viewer’s attention and that, unfortunately, doesn’t allow enough time for presenting the facts. When we continue to try, it inevitably fails and that’s bad because it leaves the picture of the tank and the child in sight and harms the Israeli brand.”

Aharoni said that even if hasbara is successful at changing people’s minds about the conflict, it doesn’t help with tourism. “Political support doesn’t translate into consumer affinity. There is a disconnect between the emotional and the rational. In the modern age it is no less important to be attractive than it is to be in the right.”

Allrighty then. Thanks for clarifying.

^^^^^^^

According to Gal Lusky, Israeli Flying Aid has a dual mission: to provide aid, and to improve Israel’s image.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130029

Israel Flying Aid was created to (1) provide assistance to disaster struck regions in countries without diplomatic ties to Israel, Lusky explained. The non-governmental aid group aims to help victims of humanitarian disasters and (2) to improve Israel’s image at the same time.

The organization sometimes flies under the Israeli flag and sometimes conceals its origins until immediately prior to leaving the area, Lusky said, depending on the country in question. “Wherever we go, even when we go below the radar, it’s well known where we come from,” she added.

IFA activists have taken part in complex missions in areas such as Darfur, Indonesia and the Kashmir region of Pakistan. Even the United Nations and Red Cross had trouble providing aid in Kashmir after the latest earthquake in the area, Lusky noted, but IFA succeeded in reaching the region and assisting victims. “It was a very complicated mission, but it happened,” she said.After reaching a disaster-struck region, the group begins providing food and necessary supplies to victims.

…The volunteers often encounter hostility, Lusky said. “We meet people that are very surprised to discover we come from Israel, and [hear] some shocking stories, even from the children, about how the mullah describes us, or the mosque… it’s sad. It’s sad, but that’s why we continue running.”

Lusky described her group’s experiences in Indonesia to illustrate her point. In Indonesia Israeli volunteers posed as Europeans due to the presence of Al-Qaeda terrorists and Muslim fundamentalists in the area.

…On the final day of the mission, Lusky told the local children and adults who had frequented the mobile aid center that her group was actually from Israel.

Everyone went quiet. “It was embarrassing, because we had 120 adults cooking for us, 10,000 meals every day, and we had 220 orphans that came every day for post-trauma treatment… Everybody was silent,” she recalled.

Lusky then asked her hundreds of listeners if, knowing who had helped them, they would come to help Israeli civilians in case of a similar disaster in Israel. None of the 120 Indonesian adults present raised their hands, she said, but every single one of the 220 children said they would help Israel.

So everyone went all quiet because…. they felt guilty for accepting all those hot meals in their time of need?

^^^^^^^

There remain a few questions about how this operation actually works.

Gal told Diva International that they fly undercover on regular civilian flights and buy all their supplies on the ground, and that she has to travel around to raise money, and since IFA’s work remains low-key, it’s hard to get people to sign on to help.

Or do they “find themselves” on unmarked airplanes heading into enemy territory? You know civilians do that sort of thing all the time, right?

And do they arrive empty handed, like Gal told Diva International, or do they come in with their tents beds and electric generators, on cargo planes?

And does Gal really have trouble getting funding, or is Flying Aid in a position to line up entertainers and sponsor other projects?

http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israeliflyingaidhumanitarianchinareliefemergencyeffortsmyanmarindonesiahiasiransyrialousky48052808.html

Sometimes with not more than just a few hours notice, the volunteer members of Israel Flying Aid find themselves on unmarked airplanes heading out from Israel for disaster stricken nations. Many of these countries have no political relations with Israel. Some declare themselves as enemies.

Israel Flying Aid members sit cramped for hours on cargo planes, with their heads resting on food, water, medicine, tents, beds and emergency electric generators for those who would starve if not for their brave and humanitarian efforts.

I suppose Gal’s surgeons would have trouble purchasing their medical supplies at the local village mart.

Israeli Flying Aid recently held a fundraiser in Herzliya Pituach, Israel to raise funds to support a medical clinic in one of Ethiopia poorest districts. Several of Israel’s well known entertainers, including Berry Sacharof, Dudu Tasa, Ras Daniel and others, supported this effort by performing at the event.

Israel physicians Idit and Amit Dotan are the initiators of this medical program. Both have visited Ethiopia 5 times and volunteered for over a year in the Mother Teresa clinic for HIV/AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa as well as in a clinic in the south, dedicating their time and effort to help some of the poorest people in the country. The clinic, which is located in the South – west of the country in the Gorga district, was renovated by the doctors and equipped with some basic medical items which enable them to treat almost 100 patients a day. The project, though initially a private venture, now needs additional funds. The couple turned to Israeli Flying Aid. Israel Flying Aid has already helped send more medical items to the clinic and is sponsoring the fundraiser, in the hopes that those in attendance will show their support for the project.

…One can only wonder where the members of Israel Flying Aid would be if the people of Syria, Iran, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia were hit by an earthquake or other natural disaster. We would never know it. But the children of those nations would. And that is exactly what makes Israel a nation which shines her light upon the nations.

^^^^^^^

I guess the most important question is WHY are there so many inconsistencies?

After all, it’s not as though Gal has to do everything herself. That news story carries a little tag at the bottom, which says:

The above news content was edited and SEO optimized in New York for the Internet by Leyden Communications.

Professionals. IFA benefits from the services of a professional NY marketing firm: www.israelpr.com.

Leyden Communications Inc. was established in New York City by Joel Leyden in 1982, with PR and advertising offices at the World Trade Center. The public relations organization was responsible for providing a variety of international marketing, PR, media, branding and business development services for some of the world’s largest commercial, governmental, political and non-profit organizations. In 1987, Joel Leyden relocated to Israel and established Leyden Communications (Israel).

…Joel Leyden’s professional marketing performance and success has been documented by dozens of Israel’s leading governmental and commercial Hi-Tech and security organizations. In addition to his Israel PR, journalism and Israel Internet marketing, SEO commercial life, Leyden has run the New York City marathon, has served in the IDF Combat Engineers, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office, Israel Border Police (MAGAV), engages in several Jewish and Israel charities, is an outspoken father’s and children’s rights activist for equal access and shared parenting and is a loving, responsible dad of three children.

That’s all great. Whatever. Knock yourself out.

But let’s — us, all of us — quit pretending that IFA is some little bootstrapping outfit, shall we?

what a gal

Feb 16

Posted by A. Peasant in Haiti, Human Trafficking, Identities, Israel, Mr. Bibi N. & Friends, Organ Trafficking | No Comments

Here are some of the people who assisted Haiti relief efforts on behalf of Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu - Prime Minister

Yossi Levy - Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Daniel Saban - Head of Ministry’s Latin America Department
Yitzhak Aharonovitch - Public Security Minister
Dr. Eitan Hai-Am - Health Ministry Director-General
Dr. Danny Laor - Director of the Ministry’s Emergency Division

Amos Radian (Radyan) - Israel’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada

Maj. Gen Yair Golan - OC Home Front Command
Brig. Gen. Shalom Ben Aryeh - IDF Commander of the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue teams
Brig. Gen. Nachman Esh (Ash) - IDF Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Ariel Bar - Officer of the IDF Home Front Command

Rabbi Shimon Pelman, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic

Magen David Adam (Israel’s Red Cross) teams
IsraAID search and rescue teams and medical staff
Gal Lusky - Israeli Flying Aid

^^^^^^^^

Gal Lusky with Ehud Olmert

date unknown, perhaps 2007

http://www.ifaid.org.il/mainNews.asp?contentId=3666

Due to IFA`s extensive activities during the war in the north, Prime Minister Ehud Ulmart invited Gal Lusky to a private meeting. In the meeting, Lusky presented IFA`s International disaster response activities and specified IFA`s activities during the war in the north. Lusky reviewed in details the two aspects the organization was focusing on – civilian and military. In addition, Lusky pointed the Prime Minister to five significant issues regarding necessary follow ups and lessons for the future.

Following the experience in the north, IFA sensed the need for a better preparation of the civilian rear area to the next war. IFA called for establishment of a civil humanitarian coordination center that will allow maximum utilization of donations such as: food, equipment, human resources etc. The coordination center will prevent duplicity, improve the supervision on the equipment installations and minimize corruptions. The Prime Minister praised the activity and its extent and encouraged the organization volunteers.

^^^^^^^

Lusky started the Flying Aid organization after her brother was seriously wounded fighting Lebanon in 1992. http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3554523,00.html

“We mainly supply aid to places which Israel is unable to send assistance to due to a lack of diplomatic ties,” she explained. “As a civilian, independent group we are bound only by our conscience, we don’t ask for governmental permission in order to act and it is technically difficult to prevent us from entering.”

…The organization’s volunteers come from all walks of Israeli life including trauma therapists, logisticians, doctors, Jews, Christians, Druze and Bedouins. The hardcore participants entail about 100 people who are alerted and act immediately in the case of an emergency. They leave their homes, families and work, at their own expense and completely voluntarily go out to the field.

The IFA is subsidized by contributions from an array of organizations including the American-Jewish Committee (AJC) the Israeli companies Suny and Lotus, the Joint and worldwide Jewish federations.

In order to prevent delay of assistance during real time, Lusky works to secure funds for the organization before a disaster occurs. “There is no time during an emergency, people die. In the business world time is money, but in our world time is life and you can’t gain or fix life when it’s gone,” she said.

Lusky and the IFA are in need of additional volunteers, especially in Israel. “Secretarial abilities can greatly ease our work here,” she explained. “In addition, I need writers with outstanding English, almost diplomatic, who can connect the organization with donors worldwide, and who know what titles to give to each leader.”

In this interview with Diva International, Gal explains how Israeli Flying Aid works.
http://www.divainternational.ch/spip.php?article429

Some of the points made:

After a year, my brother came out of hospital. It was August 1993. When the next war began I went on my first mission as a private person, not as an organization. I then continued going on these missions.
I understood that if I wanted to work according to my conscience and for the victims, I needed to set up my own organization.
As an Israeli, I was unable to go to half of the countries in the world, because we do not have diplomatic relations with them.
We work mostly below the radar. This is not only because we are Israelis. We do not want to embarrass those who accept our help. They might risk their own lives if it became known that we had come from Israel to help them. We also need to protect our own lives, because after all we are all Israeli citizens carrying that passport.
Do you work with other NGOs? No, we work alone. Most of the time, we are the first ones to arrive. We get in first because we try to be there early. Our mission is to save lives.
We do not fly in, since we work undercover! We mostly fly in on regular civil flights. We do not take supplies with us –– for two reasons. The first reason is so as not to be conspicuous, and second reason is so as not to be controlled by the local government and the regimes. When you know that all ports, airports, etc., are controlled by the government, the authorities may then do whatever they want with the supplies. Everybody knows it, although it’s not politically correct to say so. We do not go along with that approach.
Nothing is missing in the local economy. Nothing! There is not one country where I could not buy what I needed to help the victims. The only thing that is missing is the capability of the victims to pay for aid and to transport it to the location where it is needed. We come with donation money and our intention is to empower the local society to buy everything it needs. Although I can buy, for instance, 100 tons of materials in one place, I will always divide the purchase among several sources in order to help the locals.
We do not need anything. We can survive in a foreign area for about a month without the help of anybody. We have our own electricity; we have our own network; we have our own intelligence and maps before we arrive.
The problem is donations for the missions. Most donors want credit for their donation. But because our working method is so special and since we are working under the radar, I cannot give them credit. It’s a real difficulty. We tend to keep a low profile, and this makes it really difficult to find funding for the work we do.
The American-Jewish committees support us, and some other donors. To raise money, I have to travel abroad. Some donors tell me that I might get killed, and I ask them why is this bothering you? I’m an adult and I know what the risks are. Every single person that is working for us knows what he/she needs to do. It is our choice
My dream is that Muslim money will arrive on the table to support this organization. Although I have difficulties because most Muslims will not talk to me, we do not mind working under any flag or any logo in order to save other people’s lives.
We do everything in one location. We are able to provide 10,000 hot meals every day (the photos are on the Internet). If I say it, there really are hot meals every day cooked by widows or single women. We have field clinics where we can treat 500 people every day. We have all kinds of doctors, surgeons and specialists –– burns, gynecologists, post-trauma experts, orthopedics, etc.

Make of all that what you will. Most private people I know struggle to pay their bills and can’t fly off to help disaster-struck peoples at a moment’s notice and survive for a month without help while simultaneously providing 10,000 hot meals a day plus surgeons to the local communities….but maybe we’re just doing something wrong here. Not that we wouldn’t like to be more helpful.

^^^^^^^

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav also invited Gal Lusky to a closed-door meeting at his residence in Jerusalem in December 2005, to thank her for her work in the Republic of Georgia, in Southeast Asia after the tsunami, in northern Pakistan and India after an earthquake, and in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. http://www.israel21c.org/opinion/israel-s-superwoman-takes-flight-to-help-others

Moshe Katsav came under a cloud of scandal in the summer of 2006 for rape and sexual harassment charges. Eventually ten women had made charges against him. He did not go gracefully.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Katsav

A senior police official told Haaretz that “the material that has been compiled thus far in the affair is more significant and dramatic than that which has been made public in the media.”

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753547.html

Just last month (1/10/10), he began testifying in the case. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1141541.html

Former President Moshe Katsav began testifying Sunday in a Tel Aviv court on accusations of rape and sexual harassment that were brought against him. The charges in this closed door trial were brought by three former employees of Katsav.

Katsav faces two counts of rape against A., who worked at the Tourism Ministry from March 1998 to January 1999, when Katsav served as tourism minister. One rape allegedly took place in the minister’s office in Tel Aviv and the other at a hotel in Jerusalem. Katsav will also be charged with forcible indecent assault against A. and abusing the employer-employee relationship. In addition, Katsav will be charged with lesser offenses against two employees of the President’s Residence - H., whom he allegedly hugged repeatedly against her will, and L., whom he allegedly hugged and kissed on the neck against her will.

^^^^^^^

Katsav and Lusky have also been linked in another scandal that has been, so far, impossible to verify. Some information appears to have been scrubbed from the web. Make of that what you will. The allegation goes like this, which you can google yourself: that certain parties, including Moshe Katsav, used Lusky’s organization to promote a penny stock fraud called UCSY or Universal Communications Systems. There’s a lot of information on this floating around, mostly indymedia, but the links either don’t work or are circular. That doesn’t mean it isn’t true, at least in part, just that I haven’t had any luck verifying it. But it’s really interesting stuff.

I can only verify that Lusky met Katsav, and Olmert, and Katsav is on trial for corruption and rape, and Lusky is sort of famous among Israelis for her work with IFA.

So, for all the talk about working alone and underneath the radar, Lusky has many connections.

And she is on the front lines in Haiti.

That’s the point.

the annals of logistical achievements

Feb 16

Posted by A. Peasant in Children, Corruption & Crime, Experts, Haiti, Human Trafficking, Israel, Mexico, NWO, Organ Trafficking | No Comments

The Haiti earthquake happened on Tuesday, 1/12/10.

Benjamin Netanyahu immediately sprang to action.

Statement of Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1/13/10, 1/14/10
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2010/Israeli_rescue_delegation_Haiti_13-Jan-2010.htm

(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)

Following the tragic earthquake in Haiti, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, 13 January 2010, ordered Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry and Public Security Ministry officials to quickly consider how to render humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean nation. To this end, an advance IDF Home Front Command, IDF Medical Corps and Foreign Ministry delegation has already departed for Haiti.

Israeli Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Amos Radian has been instructed to proceed to Haiti in order to report on the situation there. The Israeli Embassy in the US has been instructed to be in contact with American aid officials in order to coordinate humanitarian assistance and rescue activities and adapt them to the needs of the affected area.

14 January 2010
…Prime Minister Netanyahu added, “Our decision to immediately dispatch a large Israeli team of doctors, nurses, medics, search and rescue personnel, medicines and equipment for a field hospital and operating room to Haiti expresses the deep values that have characterized the Jewish people and the State of Israel all throughout our history. Given Israel’s security needs, we have accumulated much search and rescue experience over the years. We have applied this experience previously in disaster scenes throughout the world - in Mexico, Argentina, Armenia, Kenya, Turkey and elsewhere. I hope and wish that the Israeli mission will succeed, this time as well, in saving as many lives - children, parents and families - in Haiti as possible.”

IDF Spokesperson:

An Israeli delegation including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDF Home Front Command and IDF Medical Corp Personnel has departed (13 January) to the Republic of Haiti in order to examine the possibilities of offering aid following the recent earthquake.

The delegation includes engineering, medical, logistics and rescue experts from the IDF Home Front Command.

The IDF Home Front Command is sending search and rescue forces to Haiti, in order to aid with the rescue of the victims of the earthquake in the Caribbean country. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Hispaniola island near Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. The Medical Officer of the IDF Home Front Command, Dr. Ariel Bar, informed Israel Army Radio that measures have already been taken in order to minimize the preparation period of the operation.

The Home Front Command constantly trains its search and rescue forces to respond accurately to emergencies. It frequently holds search in rescue exercises in cooperation with civilian Israeli bodies and international organizations, such as the Reliant Mermaid X exercise in August 2009, in which Turkish, US and Israeli naval and aerial forces cooperated. The Home Front Command and the Israeli Ministry of Health are also currently holding an international conference for emergency preparedness and response to share it’s experience with hundreds of international officials.

ZAKA International rescue unit en route to Haiti

A four man ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation left Mexico City this morning (January 14) on a flight for Haiti to offer immediate and urgent assistance at the earthquake disaster in Port au Prince.

ZAKA, recognized by the United Nations-as a volunteer humanitarian organization, will be the first Israeli team to arrive in the disaster area and will immediately begin its assessment and work in cooperation with the local and international emergency authorities.

The Israel-based volunteers were in the region having just completed their work in the recovery operation following the helicopter crash that killed Mexican businessman Moses Saba and three family members earlier this week.

^^^^^^^

Luckily, the Israelis were just running an internationally recognized conference on this very thing, to discuss best practices with experts from around the world.

First Emergency Response Conference Opens in Israel
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2010/First_Emergency_Response_Conference_11-Jan-2010.htm

Israel’s first international conference on preparedness and response of health care systems to disasters and emergencies will convene in Tel-Aviv on 11-14 January 2010.

The IPRED conference, the first international conference for emergency preparedness and response, opens today, Monday, January 11, 2010, at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. Opening speeches will include the head of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the Director General, Ministry of Health, Dr. Eitan Chai-Am and the Mayor of the city of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Mr. Ron Huldai.

The conference is a joint initiative of the Israeli Ministry of Health and the IDF Home Front Command. These organizations work in close collaboration to assure effective preparedness and response of the health care system to mass casualty events and all other events that may impact the public health.

The IPRED conference will provide the participants with a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge, skills and experiences in emergency management, while networking with leaders of emergency preparedness from many parts of the world. It will enable the world’s disaster and emergency experts and researchers together to review and assess best practices and state of the art preparedness to emergencies.

The first two days of the conference will be devoted to the presentation of the various aspects of handling emergency scenarios and will include workshops, presentations, round-table discussions and hands-on experiences based on advanced training tools. Hundreds of senior officials from Israel and abroad will take part in the conference, including leading guest speakers in the field such as:

* Mr. Arjun Katoch, India - Chief, Field Coordination Support Section of OCHA Emergency Services Branch and responsible for managing the United Nations Disaster Assesment and Coordination team (UNDAC). Mr. Katoch, charged with coordinating initial aid to disaster struck areas, participated and aided over 140 emergency and disaster events worldwide.
* Dr. Kristi Koenig, USA - An internationally recognized expert in the fields of homeland security, emergency management and emergency medical support.

The highlight of the conference will be a regional comprehensive biological exercise that will be conducted in Tel Aviv on the last two days of the conference, based on lessons learned from previous large-scale biological exercises during the past four years. The exercise will include hospitals, health maintenance organizations, emergency medical services, public health district office and interface agencies. The conference participants are invited to participate in the exercise (as viewers or as “mock casualties”) in order to get a first hand impression.

The IPRED conference was recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), and as a regional conference of the World Association for Disaster Medicine (WADEM). Abstracts accepted for presentation at IPRED will be published in the Journal of Prehospital and Disaster.

^^^^^^^

Also, luckily, the ZAKA Unit was in nearby Mexico due to the Moshe Saba helicopter crash which happened earlier in the same week. You may recall that crash. Here’s some information I posted on it:

Mexican Jewish billionaire Moises (Moshe) Saba, 46, along with members of his family, have died in a crash of a helicopter outside Mexico City,. Six people were killed altogether, including the pilot. The Saba family is one of Mexico’s wealthiest families. The family’s pharmaceuticals firm, Grupo Casa Saba SA de CV (NYSE; Mexico: SAB) is one of the family’s business interests, which also include real estate, communications, and media. Moshe Saba was one of the investors whom Joseph Maiman approached to participate in the investment in Channel 10 in 2004, but he declined. Eyewitness accounts said that the helicopter burst into flames while still in the air. The helicopter hit a billboard before hitting the ground. Rescue services found no survivors. Although the accident occurred in a built-up area, there were no casualties on the ground.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard went to the site of the crash. He said that Mexico’s civil aviation authorities had opened an investigation. The accident was believed to have been caused by the stormy and foggy weather conditions at the time in the area on Sunday night. Moshe Saba was close to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and was a donor to many haredi (ultra-orthodox) institutions. He also a donor to Zaka - Identification, Extraction and Rescue, which today announced that a delegation would go to Mexico City to identify the dead. Ovadia Yosef’s son, Rabbi David Yosef, will accompany the delegation.

It burst into flames mid-air in the foggy weather, and then hit a billboard before hitting the ground in a built-up area. And you can see here, http://matzav.com/first-photographs-of-zaka-volunteers-at-mexico-helicopter-crash-site, photos of the Zaka team at the crash site, and it looks totally different than the description in the article — it looks like they’re in the middle of a jungle.

The following are photos from the helicopter crash scene in Mexico following the tragic death of Moshe Saba, his wife, son and daughter-in-law. ZAKA volunteers arrived from Israel in the morning, local time, and went straight to the crash scene to carry out their sacred work of collecting all human remains for burial. The four-man delegation from Israel is working with other ZAKA volunteers from the US and Mexico.

They conveyed their Haiti experiences to INN: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135547

Volunteers from ZAKA, the religious emergency rescue group, said that they experienced a “hellish” Sabbath in Haiti but also experienced stirring moments during the Sabbath prayer. The ZAKA delegation arrived in Haiti on Thursday after taking part in rescue operations, collection of bodies and identification at another disaster scene – the site of the helicopter crash in Mexico in which Jewish financier and philanthropist Moshe Saba was killed.

The ZAKA delegation decided to take charge of rescue operations at the ruins of the Haiti university building, an eight story structure that collapsed. They worked around the clock, assisted by members of the Jewish emergency rescue team of Mexico, which had accompanied them from their previous mission, and using equipment from the Mexican army. They succeeded in extricating eight Haitian students who were still alive and suffering from various degrees of injury, after spending 38 hours trapped under the wreckage. News of this success circulated among other rescue crews and added to their motivation, encouraging them not to give up on the possibility of finding survivors under the ruins.

The delegation members described their Sabbath experience as “hell,” with hundreds of bodies strewn all about with nobody there to bury them, and the stench of rotting flesh in the air. The group held the Sabbath prayers amidst the ruins, and later described “a surrealistic sight of Jews wrapped in tallitot [prayer shawls] atop fallen buildings.” Many of the local people believed that the Jews were praying for the well-being of the injured and to the memory of the dead, and gathered around them to watch the prayers. Dozens of the onlookers approached the Jewish delegation when the prayer was over and kissed their tallitot.

That’s so nice.

^^^^^^^

Meanwhile, not to get off on a tangent, but in Haiti, IsraAID, with generous support from North American Jewish organizations, set up aid stations in a stadium and triaged the serious cases to the Israeli Field Hospital.

http://www.israaid.org.il/story_page.asp?id=1259

IsraAID expands its relief operations, as a second medical team departs for Haiti

Just days after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, IsraAID/FIRST headed by Dr. Laor relief team was among the first to arrive, immediately providing urgently needed medical care to victims of the disaster. As the tragedy continues to unfold, it will be expanding its relief operations, with a second team that leaves Israel tonight to join the relief efforts already on the ground. The 14 member team headed by Danny Maor includes volunteer doctors, nurses, post-trauma and logistics experts from all across Israel.

IsraAID/FIRST emergency response was able to take place thanks to the generous support of American Jewish Committee, The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, B’nai B’rith International, The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago in addition to other federations in North America.

Amidst the chaos of the international humanitarian response, word has spread about the successes of the IsraAID medical team operating in partnership with Operation Blessing out of the Sylvio Cator National Soccer Stadium in Port au-Prince. Following rapid assessments, the team decided to position itself in an open-aired stadium where thousands of victims of the earthquake had sought refuge.

While IsraAID/FIRST teams worked around the clock to provide life-saving treatment, several NGOs and medical teams from France and the US joined the relief efforts, bringing the number of medical stations operating simultaneously in the stadium to a total of 14.

The partnerships and pooled resources, orchestrated by IsraAID/FIRST in partnership wiht Operation Blessing, have meant that more locals have access to urgently needed medical care. To date, well over 1,300 people have been treated and several serious cases were transferred to the IDF Field Hospital. Each day over 100 people were treated.

^^^^^^^

Anyway, just to get back to the IPRED conference for a sec… because the press release also mentioned that the IPRED conference is part of the regional conference of WADEM, the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine, which recently convened a world congress in Canada.

Welcome to the website of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM). Our association was originally founded 33 years ago as the Club of Mainz on 2 October 1976. This explains why our logo still contains the logo of the city of Mainz, Germany. Following the constant development of its scope and extension worldwide, and to better reflect its global mission, the name was changed to the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine.

….We recently convened the 16th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WCDEM) in Victoria, Canada. The WCDEM is our association’s biannual event. Currently, we are planning for the 17th WCDEM in Beijing, China in June 2011.

^^^^^^^
Also, this Kristi Koenig. She is really quite the expert. Homeland Security interviewed her way back in December 2001, when she was serving as Director of the Emergency Management Strategic Healthcare Group (EMSHG), Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. She is obviously an expert in moving people around during emergencies.
http://www.homelandsecurity.org/journal/Default.aspx?oid=5&ocat=4

It is true that we are very active at the state and local level. For example, EMSHG has 37 emergency managers geographically dispersed throughout the country. In addition to assisting with preparations of the local VA medical centers (VAMCs) in their regions, they assist with community and interagency planning….If local government becomes overwhelmed, officials know how to access state resources, and if the state is overwhelmed, it can access federal resources. In my experience, where I’ve seen things go wrong, is where people do not use the existing standard operating procedures and processes. Well-meaning people try to go outside the system, and that creates a problem in managing resources and accessing expertise. The disaster literature shows that in most incidents there is not a lack or resources per se, but a problem with coordination of the existing resources.

^^^^^^^

Between all the excitement with Jorge Puello and Russ Williams and the terrorist mayhem in India, it seems like this Israeli field hospital story has really faded into the background. And before we even understood just how exactly they managed to accomplish everything that they managed to accomplish. It just doesn’t seem right.

I mean, what a logistical achievement. That takes coordination, and organization, and knowing people.

You know what I’m saying?

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