Hi there, !
Today Wed 02/23/2005 Tue 02/22/2005 Mon 02/21/2005 Sun 02/20/2005 Sat 02/19/2005 Fri 02/18/2005 Thu 02/17/2005 Archives
Rantburg
533516 articles and 1861298 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 71 articles and 377 comments as of 22:17.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT           
Bakri talks of No 10 suicide attacks
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
5 00:00 Analog Roam [4] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
5 00:00 .com [6]
7 00:00 Phil Fraering [6]
7 00:00 Sock Puppet of Doom [5]
0 [2]
0 []
2 00:00 Glereper Craviter7929 [2]
1 00:00 BigEd [5]
2 00:00 Angash Slalet3997 [2]
1 00:00 IToldYouSo [1]
0 []
0 []
4 00:00 Elmeager Glimp3393 [4]
4 00:00 Rex Mundi [3]
0 [3]
5 00:00 Zhang Fei [6]
2 00:00 Glomosing Cramble5997 [5]
0 [6]
0 [4]
5 00:00 Dar [6]
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [2]
3 00:00 inquizitive Liberal [4]
2 00:00 .com [4]
6 00:00 Grort Shotle5111 [2]
6 00:00 JP [4]
0 [3]
0 [2]
2 00:00 raptor [2]
2 00:00 JerseyMike [4]
0 [3]
0 [4]
3 00:00 Deacon Blues [5]
5 00:00 Remoteman [3]
12 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [2]
0 [3]
0 [3]
0 [3]
15 00:00 Sock Puppet of Doom [1]
2 00:00 Steve White [3]
18 00:00 Rivrdog [5]
1 00:00 trailing wife [3]
5 00:00 Thraing Hupoluper1864 [2]
16 00:00 Jame Retief [7]
18 00:00 CrazyFool [4]
1 00:00 BigEd [4]
6 00:00 Glereper Craviter7929 [7]
1 00:00 trailing wife [1]
0 [2]
0 [5]
3 00:00 Mike Kozlowski [5]
2 00:00 Seafarious [4]
Page 3: Non-WoT
8 00:00 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) [1]
0 []
3 00:00 True German Ally [3]
16 00:00 .com [2]
14 00:00 John in Tokyo [2]
23 00:00 Andrea Jackson [4]
1 00:00 jackal [1]
9 00:00 Anonymoose [2]
34 00:00 BigEd [5]
1 00:00 Andrea Biology Jackson [3]
26 00:00 .com [4]
12 00:00 trailing wife [3]
45 00:00 OldSpook [5]
2 00:00 Shipman [3]
0 [2]
0 [3]
3 00:00 raptor [1]
3 00:00 .com []
0 [3]
Great White North
Steyn: The Power behind the thrones
snip

But, getting on for two years later, we're in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a "French bank"— but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais's holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN's banker for its Iraqi "humanitarian"? program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam's favourite oilman.

I'm not a conspiracy-minded guy, and, if I were, I'd look for a sinister global organization with a less obvious name. If "Power Corp." was the moniker given to the sinister front operation for the latest Bond villain, critics would bemoan how crass the 007 franchise had become. And a "Power Corp." that controlled the "Total Group" would have them hooting with derision. But it's nevertheless the case that M. Desmarais's bank functioned as the cashier for Saddam's gaming of the global-compassion crowd: if a company agreed to sell Iraq some children's medicine for $100 million, Iraq would invoice BNP Paribas for $110 million, pay the supplier and divert the skim-off into other areas. Everyone knew this was happening. It seems impossible, even with the minimal auditing, that BNP Paribas did not.

So here is a Canadian "making a difference in the world." Suppose Conrad Black controlled a bank that had enriched a brutal dictator with a fortune intended to go to starving children, and that he also had an oil company that had cooked up an arrangement to make billions from the same dictator's oil resources. Think Maude Barlow and the CBC might show an interest? But Paul Desmarais's no-publicity clause is apparently enshrined in the Charter of Rights. So on it goes. Only the other week, M. Desmarais was hosting at his home in Quebec Nicholas Sarkozy, very likely the next president of France. Even after they'd become heads of government, neither Bush nor Blair could be bothered swinging by Ottawa to look in on Chretien; not for years. But an invitation from M. Desmarais, and France's coming man can't wait to hop on the plane.

M. Desmarais's spectacular rise from an obscure Quebec bus company operator to an obscure global colossus is an amazing story. Instead of struggling to find a local angle on the international scene, why doesn't the CBC just start from the basic premise that whatever the subject--Iraq, oil-for-food, the European Union--somewhere at the heart of it will be the world's least famous Canadian.

Instead, not a whisper. The good news is it's not because Robert Rabinovitch, president of the CBC, is another discreet Power Corp. alumnus. He's not. Rabinovitch's close buddy, John Rae, who ran Chretien's campaigns, is. And so's Rabinovitch's old colleague Joel Bell, who was Trudeau's chief economic adviser. And so's Rabinovitch's old boss, Senator Michael Pitfield. And so's . . .
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/20/2005 1:36:55 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I live quite close to Canada (I'm driving up to Ottawa today to spend a couple of days skating on the Canal with the family) and you cannot believe how little Canadians are aware of this situation with the Desmarais/Chretian/Martin stuff.

The boorish ones (usually students) can go on ad nauseum about Bush/Rummy/Wolfowitz but ask them about Demarais ? *crickets chirping*

I love Canada and Canadians but sometimes it's like they're under some sort of North Korean-style news blackout.
Posted by: JDB || 02/20/2005 13:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Veeeerrrry interesting. Thank's for posting this, Mrs. D.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/20/2005 14:06 Comments || Top||

#3  You're welcome TW.

Apologies for not doing the linking correctly (or not at all). Here's the correct one. It may require registration.

My favorite quote that I didn't include?

Jean Chrétien’s daughter is married to Paul Desmarais’s son.

RTWT. Not up to Steyn's usual humor level. I wonder why.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 02/20/2005 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's try this.

Should work now.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 02/20/2005 15:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Why, has no one (government, individual) established a cadre of operators to eliminate these scum by way of wet work?

It seems to me, and I have said this before, that it is going to take extra-judicial (read: vigilante) action to curb these a$$holes activities.

Certainly if these people started vanishing or showing up in ditches they would get the message!

Am I dreaming?

-AR
Posted by: Analog Roam || 02/20/2005 19:45 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
71[untagged]

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog

On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2005-02-20
  Bakri talks of No 10 suicide attacks
Sat 2005-02-19
  Lebanon opposition demands "intifada for independence"
Fri 2005-02-18
  Syria replaces intelligence chief
Thu 2005-02-17
  Iran and Syria Form United Front
Wed 2005-02-16
  Plane fires missile near Iranian Busheir plant
Tue 2005-02-15
  U.S. Withdraws Ambassador From Syria
Mon 2005-02-14
  Hariri boomed in Beirut
Sun 2005-02-13
  Algerian Islamic Party Supports Amnesty to End Rebel Violence
Sat 2005-02-12
  Car Bomb Kills 17 Outside Iraqi Hospital
Fri 2005-02-11
  Iraqis seize 16 trucks filled with Iranian weapons
Thu 2005-02-10
  North Korea acknowledges it has nuclear weapons
Wed 2005-02-09
  Suicide Bomber Kills 21 in Crowd in Iraq
Tue 2005-02-08
  Israel, Palestinians call truce
Mon 2005-02-07
  Fatah calls for ceasefire
Sun 2005-02-06
  Algeria takes out GSPC bombmaking unit


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
18.118.0.240
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (20)    WoT Background (31)    Non-WoT (19)    (0)    (0)