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| Subject: The haliburton IAP connection 2nd half of above post | |
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Author: Bev |
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Date Posted: 17:12:45 03/09/07 Fri In reply to: Bev 's message, "privatization scandal emerging on walter reed and rep connections" on 17:04:29 03/09/07 Fri 2005 - CERBERUS PURCHASES SECOND-LARGEST BANK IN ISRAEL, COMPLETING THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE ISRAELI BANKING SYSTEM Cerberus group, which in 2005, acquired the second largest Israeli bank, Leumi Bank, completing a process of privatization of the Israeli financial sector pushed by the Right-wing Likud Party and its successor under the present Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Cerberus holding Leumi Bank privatized Israeli banks - IAP privatized VA hospitals Strange symmetry to this, isn't there? Perhaps, no coincidence to any of it. Here's why. You have to read a seminal neocon document written in 1997 for then-Israeli PM Netanyahu by the guys who went on to run the Office of Special Plans (OSP), Feith, Wurmser, and Perle. That paper, "A CLEAN BREAK: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" -- http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm -- lays out a battle plan for conquering the Mid-East, starting with Iraq and Lebanon as means to undermine and discourage Syria, and then, finally, a forced reorientation of the region¡¦s enormous Shi¡¦a population away from Iran and the elevation of the Heshemite Kingdom of Morocco¡¦s King Hussein. The point of all this isn't just military conquest, and the elimination of regional threats, it's actually to set the preconditions for a PRIVATIZED Israeli economy, and the "clean break" is with Israeli's social-democratic past. It is also meant to map out a profound shift in Israel¡¦s relationship with the United States, away from a traditional client state that submits to Washington, with the elevation of Israel into a new regional Superpower. The Clean Break is a daringly blunt statement of those commercial, ideological and strategic ambitions: Israel has a large problem. Labor Zionism, which for 70 years has dominated the Zionist movement, has generated a stalled and shackled economy. Efforts to salvage Israel¡¦s socialist institutions¡Xwhich include pursuing supranational over national sovereignty and pursuing a peace process that embraces the slogan, "New Middle East"¡Xundermine the legitimacy of the nation and lead Israel into strategic paralysis and the previous government¡¦s "peace process." That peace process obscured the evidence of eroding national critical mass¡X including a palpable sense of national exhaustion¡Xand forfeited strategic initiative. SNIP Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon, including by: SNIP „X striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper. SNIP Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq ¡X an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right . . . Since Iraq's future could affect the strategic balance in the Middle East profoundly, it would be understandable that Israel has an interest in supporting the Hashemites in their efforts to redefine Iraq. SNIP King Hussein may have ideas for Israel in bringing its Lebanon problem under control. The predominantly Shia population of southern Lebanon has been tied for centuries to the Shia leadership in Najf, Iraq rather than Iran. Were the Hashemites to control Iraq, they could use their influence over Najf to help Israel wean the south Lebanese Shia away from Hizballah, Iran, and Syria. Shia retain strong ties to the Hashemites: the Shia venerate foremost the Prophet¡¦s family, the direct descendants of which ¡X and in whose veins the blood of the Prophet flows ¡X is King Hussein. SNIP Forging A New U.S.-Israeli Relationship In recent years, Israel invited active U.S. intervention in Israel¡¦s domestic and foreign policy for two reasons: to overcome domestic opposition to "land for peace" concessions the Israeli public could not digest, and to lure Arabs ¡X through money, forgiveness of past sins, and access to U.S. weapons ¡X to negotiate. This strategy, which required funneling American money to repressive and aggressive regimes, was risky, expensive, and very costly for both the U.S. and Israel, and placed the United States in roles is should neither have nor want. Israel can make a clean break from the past and establish a new vision for the U.S.-Israeli partnership based on self-reliance, maturity and mutuality ¡X not one focused narrowly on territorial disputes. Israel¡¦s new strategy ¡X based on a shared philosophy of peace through strength ¡X reflects continuity with Western values by stressing that Israel is self-reliant, does not need U.S. troops in any capacity to defend it, including on the Golan Heights, and can manage its own affairs. Such self-reliance will grant Israel greater freedom of action and remove a significant lever of pressure used against it in the past. To reinforce this point, the Prime Minister can use his forthcoming visit to announce that Israel is now mature enough to cut itself free immediately from at least U.S. economic aid and loan guarantees at least, which prevent economic reform. . As outlined in another Institute report, Israel can become self-reliant only by, in a bold stroke rather than in increments, liberalizing its economy, cutting taxes, relegislating a free-processing zone, and selling-off public lands and enterprises ¡X moves which will electrify and find support from a broad bipartisan spectrum of key pro-Israeli Congressional leaders, including Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. SNIP Israel¡¦s new agenda can signal a clean break by abandoning a policy which assumed exhaustion and allowed strategic retreat by reestablishing the principle of preemption SNIP Israel¡¦s new strategic agenda can shape the regional environment in ways that grant Israel the room to refocus its energies back to where they are most needed: to rejuvenate its national idea, which can only come through replacing Israel¡¦s socialist foundations with a more sound footing; and to overcome its "exhaustion," which threatens the survival of the nation. Ultimately, Israel can do more than simply manage the Arab-Israeli conflict though war. SNIP *** The rush to privatize many of the functions of the Pentagon, including the VA system, is really the same strategy as that advocated by Feith, Perle and Wurmser in their strategic vision for Israel in 1997. Seize upon the opportunities created by a series of wars in the Mid-East that expand the military, and then privatize that economic engine. That is at heart a fascist vision. That, in short, is what has been going on in the United States during the Bush-Cheney era. It's military Keynesianism turned into a killing and maiming machine for profit. So, this is the Israeli state they ended up with, led by Kadima¡¦s Ehud Olmert, a Tool of Oligarchs, with Cerberus-Gabriel at the head of the table. Forbes Reinforces Claim That Kadima is Tool of Oligarchs by Ezra HaLevi (IsraelNN.com) According to the report, the business groups are controlled by the following families: Sami Ofer, Nochi Dankner, Shari Arison, the Cerberus-Gabriel consortium, Charles Bronfman, Yitzchak Tshuva, the Saban group, Lev Leviev, Matthew Bronfman, Tzadik Bino, the Borovich family, and Eliezer Fishman. The 12 families own 60 percent of the aggregate market value of all Israeli public companies (excluding the even larger Teva Pharmaceutical Industries), Forbes reported. The report goes on to say that the families have constructed their empires, which consist of Israel's largest companies, using organizational structures that have long ago been done away with in the Western world. The report explains that the groups have an inordinate amount of control over Israel's economy, political leaders and media due to the structuring of their holdings as pyramids ¡V meaning several layers of companies each own others beneath them but are all beholden to the leading families. Such a phenomenon was eliminated in the US in the early 20th century through restrictions on ownership and the double taxation of dividends a company paid its owner company. ~snip~ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/101391 *** In that light, consider the article about the conflict surrounding the Serberus-Leumi group privatizing the Israeli banking system. Bear in mind that Israel¡¦s banks, including Leumi, had been bailed out by the government in the disastrous year of 1983, after Ariel Sharon led the IDF into an ill-fated and incompetently led invasion of Lebanon. An ¡§optional¡¨ war that resulted in the massive withdrawal of international capital, and a steep recession in Israel¡¦s reputation and fortunes: http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:RhAPCyu8hiMJ:www.h ... Leumi on the way to going global By Nehemia Shtrasler A historic decision will be made next week. The Bank of Israel will announce whether it approves the sale of Bank Leumi to the Cerberus-Gabriel consortium. This would mark the end of the long process of privatizing Israel's banking system. As early as November 2005 a tender was issued for the bank's sale, and it was won by Cerberus-Gabriel. The consortium offered to pay NIS 4.62 billion for a controlling stake of 20 percent in the bank - a very high price indeed. But the consortium failed to close the deal because the Bank of Israel did not approve its becoming a controlling partner. Advertisement The decision will now be made by the Bank of Israel Governor, Professor Stanley Fischer, who has said in internal meetings that this is one of the most difficult decisions he has been asked to make. At those same meetings, Rony Hizkiyahu, the new Supervisor of Banks, said that he wished the problem with the New York branch of Bank Leumi were resolved because then there would be no obstacle to selling the bank to the consortium. Indeed, this is the only problem that is keeping Cerberus-Gabriel from Bank Leumi, the subsidiary in New York. According to American law, the Cerberus-Gabriel consortium will not be able to hold the bank in New York because it is invested in non-financial sectors. According to American rules, it is not permitted to have industrial and real estate holdings and also a bank - out of concern for possible conflict of interest. During those same internal meetings at the Bank of Israel a number of proposals were put forth for a solution to the problem. For example, to sell Leumi New York, and in its place set up a financial entity that could offer business loans but not be able to accept deposits or offer retail banking services. The problem is that such a financial firm will not operate under the supervision of the Federal Reserve (because it is not a bank). As for Israeli supervision, it will not be easy to keep an eye on a company that is situated so far away. SNIP Indeed, the deal went through and the regulatory obstacles removed to the privatiziation that is pushed by Prime Minister Olmert, one of the leading proponents of the scheme, as this article makes clear: http://www.fundstreet.org/2005/12/cerberusgabriel.html December 13, 2005 Cerberus-Gabriel hedge fund buys stake in Leumi Bank Israel is on its way to privatization. The banking sector is amongst the first ones to take a step in this direction. Bank Leumi was in the market recently and attracted bids from several players. Bidder names include strategic investors like Lev Leviev, IDB and Bill Davidson and also financial contenders like UBS, Deutsche Bank and Citibank. However the winner was an American Hedge fund, Cerberus-Gabriel. Cerberus-Gabriel has purchased 9.9% of the shares of the bank. The purchase of this stake was for approximately $500 million. The fund also has the option of buying an additional 10.01% in the bank. This will bring the total shares quantum to 20% and is roughly valued at $1 billion. This option of additional purchase has to be utilized with in the next one and a half years. Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister of Israel, is reportedly quite satisfied with the outcome. He feels that this is a positive development and will help the over all Israeli economy. He is amongst the top promoters of privatization move. In his statement he also mentioned that the purchase will ensure healthy competition between the banks and will definitely contribute a lot to the local market. Another person quite happy with the development is Yaron Zelekha, the treasury's accountant-general, who led the tender. He sees it as fulfillment of the promise made to the people of Israel about privatization of the entire banking system in 2005. CONCLUSION The MZM-Cunningham case involves the funneling of foreign money to the GOP through a neocon controlled hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management, that was dispersing money to a number of key GOP figures and organizations in various ways, including Bush, Rumsfeld, a number of GOP Congressmen, and the RNC. The case is also tied up with the Walter Reed scandal, and the effort to privatize many Pentagon and CIA functions, which resulted in catastrophic failures at both. See, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ... Let's recap: a corrupt Israeli PM - has a stake in a corrupt Israeli bank- owned by a corrupt Wall Street global hedge fund - which owns a corrupt US defense contractor - which contributes to corrupt GOP Congressmen - who also receive money from another corrupt defense contractor - that defense contractor produced faulty intel under contract to a corrupt CIA Assn't Director - that faulty intel was used to justify a corrupt US Administration's case for invading Iraq - that was planned and executed by corrupt neocons inside DoD who had written a proposal years earlier to wage wars to privatize the Israeli economy. What a tangled web. One wished Chairman Waxman¡¦s staff and other Congressional investigators the strength of Hercules in taking down the Three-headed Dog, Cerberus, that guards the gates to Hell. ___________________________________________________________________ 2007. Mark G. Levey. Fair use applies. Acknowledgement: Some material compiled from a research thread at Democratic Underground.com, with particular thanks to ¡§bobthedrummer¡¨ and ¡§Emit¡¨, and other DU researchers: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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| A good case study in the failure of the american economic model | jw | 07:06:06 03/12/07 Mon |