Good People,
If we know the Truth, we shall not go wrong.....and where there is smoke, there is fire.
With all these hullabaloo........Obama is still the man for Security, Peace and Unity in the Rehabilitation and Reform for common good of all. With President Obama as Commander in Chief, we shall not fear that someone will dare open the window of an aircraft when the Plane is airborne........
If given a chance to complete his second term, the world will be free from the looming 3rd World War; Insecurities from Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Mungiki along with other Mafia related Gangs for Terrorism which were created for a purpose and are meant to protect the unscrupulous business of the International Corporate Special Interests and networking, whose activities fueled anger and resentments, created and paid for Pirating and Drug Trafficking, child porno including the Global Girl Child Trafficking for illegal and immoral Prostitution, Sale of Human flesh and racketeering of human organs with all manner of environmental destruction and pollution headed for disaster including Nature destructions and distability all of which is the reason for Global Economic Collapse ........a case that has resulted in The Scramble to Africa through Chinese/Indian Commission Agency to marshal and unfairly steal Africa's Public Wealth Resources including scavenging for Intellectual Property Thieving of Oil for Petrol & Gas, Mineral of all manner from Diamond, Gold, Titanium, Calta chips for computer, cell-phone, Radio signal assembly and industrial aspects with an aim to amass wealth and power; taking and owning community and individual people's Homestead and Land (driving people out of their land and homes) including Water tower and pushing Victim of Circumstances to the edge to poverty and collapse by denying them meaningful honorable and dignified livelihood and survival that has resulted and caused too many loss of lives, and dipped many into untold unbearable pain and sufferings which is now spreading all over the world like BUSHFIRE.........
These uncaring unscrupulous people of International Network of the "Free Trading Enterprising" are FREE LOADERS who want everything for free instead of fair share deal of "GIVE AND TAKE" where everybody who struggles to improve their livelihood and survival gets a fair share dignified value of their worth…..BUT NAY, the selfish and greedy of the Corporate Special Business interest are without boarders …..they are against any form of Regulatory Measures for security; which is why, they created for themselves Mafia Policing Gangs to Terrorize people "in the likes of Al-Qaeda, Mungiki and Al-Shabaab" as they engage in STEALING BY FORCE, WITHOUT EMPATHY, PUBLIC WEALTH AND RESOURCES…… and do not want any collective fair bargain where everyone gets a fair share of the shot in the available opportunity under the Democratic reasonable Legislative Policy Governance and consequently evaded paying TAXES.....where they refuse to play by the same rules.
For this case, they are fighting tooth and nail to shut The GOVERNMENT all over the world and have planned to destroy DEMOCRACY and cause it to DISFUNCTION, so they can easily MONOPOLIZE all manner of business across the Globe, push people to SLAVERY, COLONIZE THE WORLD in their "Free Trading Philosophy" and call it a good deal…......Hey, people, they are FREE LOADERS.....they are not after any good…….they bold-faced without shame, they are mean and are without conscious for moral being, they have no respect for Human Rights…….they have committed all manner of crime, violations and abuse against humanity…….consequences of their adversity is all in the open to public……........They know that, what they are doing is wrong and is hurting people, but they simply don't care, they do it anyway......They are GREEDY AND SELFISH......and are not ready to apologize or change…….It is because, from their own words, they don't care about humanity's pains and sufferings as long as they stay and remain rich and protect their RICHES and WEALTH.
People, there is a conspiracy.........this is a War between the Wealthy against the targeted Victims and the poor of the world and completely destroy the Middle-Class........It is unacceptable people, we must rise up and Stand for our Rights……..The way to go is to get engaged and we all must VOTE INTELLIGENTLY WITH OUR CONCIOUS, for Peace and Unity and for Goodness Sake engraved in Love…….
It is why President Obama worked hard to stabilize the Economy from collapse, Set up Plan of Action to move FORWARD; destroyed Terrorists Strongholds across the regions of the world, is Restoring Democratic Principles for Good and balanced Legislative Governance with Just Rule of Law, engaging like minded to strengthen infrastructures needed to sustain Education Science and Technology including Healthcare, Safety and security for all in the protection of the Environment to preserve Nature, Peace and Unity while engaging in feasible and sustained legislative Rule of Law to protect and preserve Human Rights Dignity in order to improve livelihood and survival.
Now that the world knows the TRUTH, people of the world must unite to avert 3rd world war, bring Peace and Unity by choosing the right thing to do.......Vote Responsible leaders who are with integrity and are not selfish or greedy and who are not vested in self-ego.
Since Love is not cruel or selfish, does no harm and does not inflict pain and suffering; and since Love is Peaceful and in harmony it unites; love does not hate, is not discriminative and is not racial. Love has no boundaries or barrier or limit exchanges of goods and services; but in Trust and fairness, it shares in equal measure and cares because of love. We all must choose the commandment of Love for goodness sake and in Mutual Partnership for common good of all. Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com Riots Groups Emerge in Kisumu Published on Sep 27, 2012 by kenyacitizentv Police in Kisumu have for the last two weeksbeen fighting running battles with gangs of youths in the lake side city in a wave of skirmishes that have left observers baffled. But what exactly are the confrontations all about? Well, close to two years after the dreaded baghdad boys gang was proscribed among 32 other illegal organized groups, a faction that was often hired by politicians at the height of the fight for multi party democracy in the 1990's, has emerged again, this time in the form of two rival gangs operating under the names of china squad and american marine. And police in Kisumu have now confirmed that the two groups which split from the banned baghdad boys are responsible for the current chaos in kisumu town as Judy Kosgei reports Martin Bashir - Romney camp playing lame debate expectation game Published on Sep 28, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Sept 28, 2012 Martin Bashir - Bush, Cayman Islands' Investor-in-Chief Published on Sep 27, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Sept 27, 2012 Martin Bashir - GOP uncovers voter fraud in their own party Published on Sep 28, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Sept 28, 2012 The scariest thing about this story is that it didn't even mention the worst part of the Strategic Allied Consulting methodology: the were re-registering Democrats at incorrect addresses so that their votes won't be counted. Bradblog is following this story.
Voter fraud is what romney did in Massachusetts, election fraud is what the entire republican party is doing all over the country. Published on Sep 27, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Sept 27, 2012 Martin Bashir - Romney's remedial math on fixing the economy Published on Sep 28, 2012 by Licentiathe8th Sept 28, 2012 Eleven killed in Mexico 'gang shootout' The army has taken a leading role in Mexico's war on drugs Related StoriesEleven people have been killed in a gun battle between a criminal gang and the army, authorities in south-western Mexico say. Troops were patrolling the streets of a small town in Guerrero state when they were attacked by a heavily armed group. The gang sought refuge inside a church, where the shoot out continued. Ten alleged criminals and one soldier were killed in the confrontation. The clashes happened early on Wednesday in the town of Tepecoacuilco. The bodies of nine men and a woman killed by Mexican troops have been taken to a mortuary in a nearby city. Twelve weapons were found with the group, including five AK-47 and five AR-15 assault rifles. There is no indication that the alleged criminals were associated to any of Mexico's powerful drug gangs. But Guerrero state has been one of the worst hit by the violence that has killed more than 55,000 people since President Felipe Calderon launched a war on the drug cartels in 2006. More than 7,000 troops and federal police were deployed there last year. The state's largest city is the world-famous seaside resort of Acapulco, where the tourism industry has suffered due to violence. Kisumu falls to 'China' and 'America' gangs Kisumu residents demonstrate/FILE NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 29 – The re-emergence of two criminal gangs in the lakeside city of Kisumu after the dreaded Bhagdad Boys in the early 1990′s during the clamour for multi-party rule brings focus to laxity on the security apparatus in the region. The defunct Bhagdad Boys, a criminal group that left a trail of disasters in Kisumu city and its environs as the country agitated for multi-party democracy has now ushered in two new entrants "China Squad" and "American Marine" with similar ideologies. For the last two weeks police officers in Kisumu have been battling to dismantle the two groups that had been in existence for quite some time. Nyanza provincial police Chief Joseph Oletito has warned that police will not take sides but will ensure the gangs are dismantled. Crashed, despite accusations from American Marines that police is fueling more violence in the city by leaning towards their opponent. "These are terror groups and we don't want to engage them more on peaceful coexistence,' he said, as the situation escalated a week ago with calls to unconditionally release suspects arrested by police and are aligned to American Marine. Security agents led by Nyanza PC Francis Mutie last week met the two groups to iron out the impasse that has been traced to supremacy battle at the Kisumu Bus Terminus, while others linked it to political war. Mutie then called upon the youths to report any police officer abetting crime in the city and allayed fears that administration police and their regular counterparts are at logger heads. The PC was shocked to learn how police officers collude with criminal gangs to terrorize the city residents instead of offering protection and curtailing the formation of terror groups. "What I heard from these youths is shocking and action must be taken against police officers abetting crime. We will transfer all the officers who were mentioned to restore security,' he said. Mutie however said no terror group will be left to thrive and compromise the peace that Kisumu residents have been enjoying and directed the provincial police boss to ensure such groups do not exist. Many Kisumu residents feels that the bad blood between the two organised criminal groups stems from the fact that a presidential candidate used youths from the China Squad to organise a political rally. "This war is about money that was given to China Squad members to organise the rally. American Marine members were left out since they are ardent supporters of another presidential candidate," said Collins Omondi, a city dweller. There is a strong feeling among the Kisumu residents that millions of shillings have been poured in the region for the purpose of undercutting the political clout and influence of a popular presidential candidate. Another school of thought points to a supremacy battle for the control of the Kisumu Bus Terminus where most youths from the two groups own stalls that are rented out. American Marine members for quite some time had been at the helm of the bus terminus controlling stalls being put up until four months ago when China Squad sprouted sparking bloody confrontations. Kisumu falls to 'China' and 'America' gangs Posted by OJWANG JOE on September 29, 2012 This led to destruction of property owned by China Squad members within the bus terminus and even beyond as police moved in to arrest the perpetrators of the violence. "China Squad members were part and parcel of American Marine, but the former pulled out and formed a club of their own. They had flashy cars and led a very expensive life," said Jecktone Omondi a tout at the bus terminus. Omondi further revealed that China Squad members are very few but rich unlike their rivals.  Former Bhagdad Boys ring leader Audi Ogada castigated the police for linking the two terror groups to politicians noting that this will jeopardise political campaigns in the city as the country prepares for the general election. "We have seen the police arrest very innocent youths in relation to this war, such arbitrary arrests only spark more tension and nothing will be resolved and the terror groups will be hardened," he said. Ogada, now a born again Christian recounted that Bhagdad Boys was a political tool formed in 1992 to agitate for the clamour for multiparty democracy and none of the two terror groups are holding any of their ideals then.
Ogada also felt that some police officers have overstayed at Kondele and Kisumu central police stations thus colluding with criminals who engage in carjacking and other robberies. "We need a total overhaul at these two stations to get rid of officers who have stayed at the station for close to over six years. This is the only surest way to tame crime and curtail the emergence of such groups in the city," he noted. Obama leads Romney 49-42 percent in latest Reuters/Ipsos surveyReuters – Thu, Sep 27, 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama maintains a lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney with 40 days left until the November 6 election, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday. The daily tracking poll said Obama had 49 percent support to 42 percent for Romney among likely voters. Ipsos interviewed 1,194 registered voters online for the survey. The result showed the race basically holding where it has been for days with Obama enjoying an advantage over the former Massachusetts governor. Obama got a bump in support from his Democratic National Convention earlier this month and Romney was hurt by the leak of a video from a private fundraiser he held in May in which he said 47 percent of Americans were dependent on government and unlikely to support him. The Romney campaign argues that its internal data shows that the race is much closer than most polls are showing. The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll had a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for likely voters. (Editing by Alistair Bell and Jackie Frank) Obama blocks Chinese purchase of US wind farms
It was the first time in 22 years that a U.S. president has blocked such a foreign business deal. Obama's decision was likely to be another irritant in the increasingly tense economic relationship between the U.S. and China. It also comes against an election-year backdrop of intense criticism from Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney, who accuses Obama of not being tough enough with China. In his decision, Obama ordered Ralls Corp., a company owned by Chinese nationals, to divest its interest in the wind farms it purchased earlier this year near the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility in Boardman, Ore. The case reached the president's desk after the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, known as CFIUS, determined there was no way to address the national security risks posed by the Chinese company's purchases. Only the president has final authority to prohibit a transaction. The administration would not say what risks the wind farm purchases presented. The Treasury Department said CFIUS made its recommendation to Obama after receiving an analysis of the potential threats from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Morrow County planner, Carla McLane, said the projects had won county approval and construction was under way until CFIUS issued an order in July that halted construction. She said she does not know what the security concerns were. Each of the four projects consists of five turbines, each with a two-megawatt capacity, for a total of 10 megawatts per project, or a total of 40 for the four. As the crow flies, McLane said, the projects are about 10 miles from the bombing range - as it's known locally. The military has acknowledged that it used the Oregon Naval facility to test unmanned drones and the EA-18G "Growler." The electronic warfare aircraft accompanies U.S. fighter bombers on missions and protectively jams enemy radar, destroying them with missiles along the way. At the Oregon site, the planes fly as low as 200 feet and nearly 300 miles per hour. The last time a president used the law to block a transaction was 1990, when President George H.W. Bush voided the sale of Mamco Manufacturing to a Chinese agency. In 2006, President George W. Bush approved a CFIUS case involving the merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies. The Treasury Department said in a statement that Obama's decision is specific to this transaction and does not set a precedent for other foreign direct investment in the U.S. by China or any other country. China's trade advantage over the U.S. has emerged as a key issue in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. Romney accuses Obama of failing to stand up to Beijing, while the president criticizes the GOP nominee for investing part of his personal fortune in China and outsourcing jobs there while he ran the private equity firm Bain Capital. Both campaigns are running ads on China in battleground states, especially Ohio, where workers in the manufacturing industry have been hard-hit by outsourcing. Obama, in an interview Wednesday with The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, said the U.S. must push hard against Beijing but "not go out of our way to embarrass" China. "We're not interested in triggering an all-out trade war that would damage both economies," Obama said. The president has the power to void foreign transactions under the Defense Production Act. It authorizes the president to suspend or prohibit certain acquisitions of U.S. businesses if there is credible evidence that the foreign purchaser might take action that threatens to impair national security. CFIUS is chaired by the treasury secretary. The secretaries of state, defense, commerce, energy and homeland security are also on the committee. The director of national intelligence is a non-voting member. Earlier this month, Ralls sued the national security panel, alleging CFIUS exceeded its authority when it ordered the company to cease operations and withdraw from the wind-farm developments it bought. Ralls asked for a restraining order and a preliminary injunction to allow construction at the wind farms to continue. The firm said it would lose the chance for a $25 million investment tax if the farms were not operable by Dec. 31. In a statement Friday, Tim Kia, a lawyer for Ralls, said the project posed no national security threat and said "the President's order is without justification, as scores of other wind turbines already operate in the area." Ralls dropped its request for a preliminary injunction this week after CFIUS allowed the firm to resume some pre-construction work. With the lawsuit, continuing, the firm's lawyers were expected to react quickly to the administration decision, said a person familiar with the lawsuit who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitive legal repercussions. Ralls' legal team includes Paul Clement and Viet Dinh, two top law veterans of President George W. Bush's administration. Both men were key players in Bush's aggressive national security operation. Clement, who was solicitor-general and argued administration positions before the Supreme Court, has since opposed the Obama administration's health care plan and defended the Defense of Marriage Act before the top court. Dinh, a former assistant attorney general who was the main architect of the Bush administration's anti-terror USA Patriot Act, has lately served as a director and legal adviser to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. A second Chinese firm stymied by CFIUS urged U.S. authorizes this week to investigate their firm to quell fears of ties to China's military. Huawei Technologies Ltd. announced in early September that it would unwind its purchase of U.S.-based computer firm 3Leaf Systems after the deal was rejected by CFIUS. Huawei, one of the world's largest producers of computer network switching gear, has repeatedly struggled to convince U.S. authorities that they can be trusted to oversee sensitive technology sometimes used in national security work. In 2008, CFIUS concerns led Huawei and private equity firm Bain Capital to abandon an $2.2 billion deal to buy a firm that produces anti-hacking software for the U.S. military ___ Associated Press writers Stephen Braun and Ted Bridis and Tim Fought in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report. ___ Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Filing Trade Suit, Obama Raps Romney on ChinaBy MARK LANDLER September 17, 2012, 1:35 pm196 Comments Doug Mills/The New York TimesAfter delivering his speech, President Obama greeted supporters at the campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio.CINCINNATI – President Obama, under renewed fire from Mitt Romney for not standing up to China on behalf of American workers, used a rally in this battleground state on Monday to announce a new trade case against Beijing. He said it was Mr. Romney who had sent jobs to China through his zealous practice of outsourcing at Bain Capital. After a week of anti-American violence in the Middle East threw Mr. Romney off stride and left Mr. Obama potentially vulnerable, the shift to China put the presidential campaign and both candidates back on familiar ground, allowing each to try out new lines to showcase their toughness and caricature the fecklessness of their opponent. "My opponent has been running around Ohio claiming he's going to roll up his sleeves and he's going take the fight to China," the president said to a crowd of 4,500 at a hillside park here. "Here's the thing: his experience has been owning companies that were called pioneers in the business of outsourcing jobs to countries like China." "Ohio," the president declared, "you can't stand up to China when all you've done is send them our jobs." Mr. Obama, deploying the full powers of incumbency, announced that the United States would file a broad lawsuit against China at the World Trade Organization, charging that it subsidizes its auto and auto parts industries to the detriment of American manufacturers. It is the latest in a string of trade actions against China taken by the Obama administration, and the second announced by the president on the eve of a campaign visit to Ohio, where the auto parts industry employs 52,400 people. In July – just before he flew to Toledo, home of a Jeep Wrangler factory – the White House filed a complaint against Beijing for levying $3.3 billion in duties on American automobiles. The White House insisted that the lawsuit announced on Monday was "months in the making," though it was hardly shy about promoting its campaign benefits. "It's not as if because we're in the midst of an election that we should wait until next year to take these steps on behalf of American workers," Josh Earnest, the deputy press secretary, said. Mr. Romney fired back even before Mr. Obama spoke, accusing him of doing "too little, too late" to curb China's unfair trade practices. The latest trade case, Mr. Romney said, was little more than a campaign stunt, failing to compensate for his unwillingness to take other actions, like labeling China a currency manipulator. "President Obama's credibility on this issue has long since vanished," Mr. Romney declared in a statement. "I will not wait until the last months of my presidency to stand up to China, or do so only when votes are at stake." The Obama and Romney campaigns also unveiled tit-for-tat China commercials – Mr. Romney's accusing the president of repeatedly passing up chances to get tough on Beijing, and Mr. Obama's accusing his challenger of outsourcing jobs to China, through his work at Bain Capital, and for having investments in Chinese companies. Bashing China is a tried-and-true campaign strategy for both parties, particularly in swing states like Ohio, where a heavy loss of manufacturing jobs has coincided with a surge of Chinese-made auto parts into the United States. For Mr. Obama, however, it is a notable shift from 2008, when he modulated his anti-China remarks, in part because the job market was not as central an issue in that election and in part because his foreign policy advisers warned him that if he made China a punching bag, he would spend months as president repairing the damage. Once in office, Mr. Obama became frustrated by what he views as China's refusal to play by the rules, according to current and former officials. In the fall of 2009, he imposed a tariff on China over its dumping of tires into the American market. This was by far the most conspicuous of a stream of trade actions; before this year, most of the cases were fairly obscure, covering goods like flat-rolled steel and chicken broilers. "We've brought more trade cases against China in one term than the previous administration did in two – and every case we've brought that's been decided, we won," Mr. Obama said. Speaking of the latest case, he said, "These are subsidies that directly harm working men and women on the assembly lines in Ohio and Michigan and across the Midwest." He added, "It's not right. It's against the rules, and we will not let it stand." Mr. Obama noted that Mr. Romney had warned that the tire case would be bad for the country and for American workers – a charge he made in his book "No Apologies." Instead, the president claimed, it created more than 1,000 jobs. Mr. Romney is training a spotlight on another type of enforcement in which he says Mr. Obama is lacking: labeling China as a currency manipulator for keeping its currency, the yuan, artificially undervalued. In his campaign ad, a narrator declares: "Seven times Obama could have stopped China's cheating. Seven times he refused." The Treasury Department has consistently declined to designate China for manipulation. Senior officials argue that to do so would only make matters worse, by provoking a nationalist backlash that could force the Chinese authorities to tighten their currency controls again. They note that after quiet but persistent diplomacy by American officials, China began relaxing the controls in 2010, and the currency has risen modestly against the dollar. Mr. Romney, however, has declared that he would label China a manipulator on his first day in office – a threat that rattles many free-trade proponents, who note that the George W. Bush administration also declined to go that route. Mr. Romney also says he would be far tougher than Mr. Obama on issues like intellectual property rights. Mr. Obama repeated his charge that Mr. Romney pioneered outsourcing at Bain Capital – even repeating the word "pioneer," lest anyone miss the point. But independent fact-checking groups have taken issue with that word because it implies that Bain was ahead of the curve in outsourcing, when the trend was already well established. Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Beijing.
 Democratic leaders have accused wealthy Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of being pioneer of outsourcing jobs to overseas and stacking his money in foreign banks."Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet. To him, all profits are created equal whether made on our shores or off," former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said. "Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, let Detroit go bankrupt. You know, if he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit by tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves," Strickland said. Mary Kay Henry, International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said when Romney was starting out in business, he invested in the companies that were pioneers in outsourcing. "He loaded up companies with debt, and, when they went bankrupt, he walked away with profits while workers lost their health care, their pensions and even their jobs,". "Instead of improving public safety and public education like President Obama, Mitt Romney says we need less police officers, firefighters and teachers. Instead of safeguarding our seniors, Romney and Ryan would end the guarantee of Medicare and replace it with a voucher in order to give bigger tax breaks to billionaires. Instead of investing in America, they hide their money in Swiss bank accounts and ship our jobs to China!" alleged the Maryland Governor, Martin O'Malley. "Swiss bank accounts never built an American bridge. Swiss bank accounts don't put cops on the beat or teachers in our classrooms. Swiss bank accounts never created American jobs!" he said. Never in the modern US history, alleged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, someone is trying so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve. "When you look at the one tax return he has released, it's obvious why. It's obvious why there's only been one. We learned that he pays a lower tax rate than middle-class families. We learned he chose Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island tax shelters over American institutions," Reid alleged. Romney's joke about airplane windows goes viralBy Dan X. McGraw | Tuesday, September 25, 2012 | Updated: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 1:31pmRepublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has had a turbulent past few weeks, and this one isn't going very well either. Romney appeared at a campaign event in California, and spoke about the concern he had after his wife's plane had to make an emergency landing last week. "I appreciated the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound," he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "And I don't think she knows just how worried some of us were. When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no — and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she's safe and sound." The comment was later clarified by reporters as a joke, but it was too late as it set off a firestorm over the Internet. Washington Post ComPost author Alexandra Petro said she's reserving judgment until she hears more from Romney about safety, but she obviously added a bit of sarcasm to the column. "Forget airplanes," she wrote. "Why can't you open the windows on a space shuttle? This is America?" Why Romney Can't Run Away From the 47 PercentThe Obama campaign is running a brutal new ad against Mitt Romney. The ad simply replays Romney's secretly recorded "47 percent" fundraiser remarks -- culminating with Romney saying, "My job is not to worry about those people." Romney is also up with an ad walking back those remarks, emphasizing that both he and President Barack Obama care about struggling Americans, but that Romney's approach to helping them is better because it emphasizes getting people back to work and supporting themselves, rather than depending on the government. This is a rhetorical switch Romney needs to make, but he faces three barriers that stop him from doing so effectively. One is that this new line of argument contradicts his earlier remarks. There is a classic conservative case to be made that the government traps people in persistent poverty when safety net programs are not designed to encourage work. That's the argument that Jack Kemp built his career on. But in his "47 percent" comments, Romney didn't blame the government for fostering dependency. He attacked beneficiaries of government programs for lacking the motivation to work. The second problem is that this is the wrong economic time to worry about government-fostered dependency. It's true that incentives matter: If you pay people not to work, whether in the form of Medicaid, food stamps or unemployment benefits, they become less inclined at the margin to work. When the economy is strong, those effects can inflate unemployment. But today there are several job seekers for every job listing, so it's unlikely that work disincentives are significantly reducing employment or output. The key economic challenge today is making employers more inclined to hire, not making individuals more inclined to work. Which brings us to the third problem: Romney has no clear argument that his economic policies will lead to more employment than Obama's. His 59-point economic agenda is a rehash of George W. Bush-era economic policy, and the Bush administration featured middling economic growth followed by a spectacular crash. Romney can say he's more concerned about getting people jobs than Obama, but he can't say how he'll do that. Romney could beat back the impression that he doesn't care about the economic well-being of the masses if he could point to a specific and convincing agenda to grow the economy and cut unemployment. Since he doesn't have that agenda, he won't be able to shake the impression that he has nothing to offer the bottom half of America's wage earners. And that's why you can expect to see the Obama campaign use the "47 Percent" speech over and over between now and Election Day. Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View. Subscribe to receive a daily e-mail highlighting new View editorials, columns and op-ed articles.
 The Obama campaign has questioned the foreign policy credentials of Mitt Romney, alleging that the Republican presidential candidate's world view seems to be stuck in the Cold War, in the past."Mitt Romney has failed to lay out a clear set of plans for what he would do as commander-in-chief." "He has embraced some of the most extreme elements in his party on national security as well as economic issues, which would only return us to the failed policies of the past which weakened our standing internationally and made us less secure here at home," Michele Flournoy, Obama For America Advisor, told foreign journalists at a news conference here as the three-day Democratic national convention kicked-off. The allegations were strongly denied by the Romney Campaign. Flournoy, who served the Obama Administration as Under Secretary of Defence for Policy for two years said that the US President Barack Obama has said in his two major foreign policy speeches during the campaign, that Romney failed to mention al-Qaeda even once. "In his recent convention speech, he was the first Republican presidential candidate in 60 years not to mention an ongoing war, the war in Afghanistan." "He spoke for nearly 45 minutes without even mentioning Afghanistan, even though we have tens of thousands of American troops in harm's way at this moment," Flournoy alleged. "Governor Romney said that ending the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home was tragic, and yet he has failed to outline any plan for how he would bring the war in Afghanistan to an end and bring our troops home." "When Governor Romney took his foreign trip earlier this summer, let's just say that it didn't go so well," she said. Flournoy said that Romney likes to talk tough. "But when you scratch the surface of details, there's not a lot of there. So for example, during the Republican Convention, Senator John McCain had some very muscular language on Syria, and you know he's on record in terms of supporting no-fly zones and airstrikes and everything else. That's not where Governor Romney is on this issue," she said. "Romney is basically that to help the opposition to get rid of Assad, which is not all that different from where the current Administration is." "The difference is that the Obama Administration actually has to govern on this issue and therefore understands the complexity of diving headlong into Syria's evolving civil war, and so for all the right reasons has been extraordinarily cautious about what we're doing," she said. "I think that's what the American people want and expect from a commander-in-chief, not just more bluster." "We had enough of that the last go around. Romney's world view seems to be stuck in the Cold War, in the past," Flournoy said. Where the Money Lives For all Mitt Romney's touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney's fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate. Nicholas Shaxson  
© Ruth Tomlinson/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis (beach); by Justin Sullivan/Getty images (inset). BURIED TREASURE Grand Cayman, where Bain Capital maintains at least 138 funds. Inset, Mitt Romney tries to spot his La Jolla home from the campaign plane. A person who worked for Mitt Romney at the consulting firm Bain and Co. in 1977 remembers him with mixed feelings. "Mitt was … a really wonderful boss," the former employee says. "He was nice, he was fair, he was logical, he said what he wanted … he was really encouraging." But Bain and Co., the person recalls, pushed employees to find out secret revenue and sales data on its clients' competitors. Romney, the person says, suggested "falsifying" who they were to get such information, by pretending to be a graduate student working on a project at Harvard. (The person, in fact, was a Harvard student, at Bain for the summer, but not working on any such projects.) "Mitt said to me something like 'We won't ask you to lie. I am not going to tell you to do this, but [it is] a really good way to get the information.' … I would not have had anything in my analysis if I had not pretended. "It was a strange atmosphere. It did leave a bad taste in your mouth," the former employee recalls. This unsettling account suggests the young Romney—at that point only two years out of Harvard Business School—was willing to push into gray areas when it came to business. More than three decades later, as he tried to nail down the Republican nomination for president of the United States, Romney's gray areas were again an issue when he repeatedly resisted calls to release more details of his net worth, his tax returns, and the large investments and assets held by him and his wife, Ann. Finally the other Republican candidates forced him to do so, but only highly selective disclosures were forthcoming. Even so, these provided a lavish smorgasbord for Romney's critics. Particularly jarring were the Romneys' many offshore accounts. As Newt Gingrich put it during the primary season, "I don't know of any American president who has had a Swiss bank account." But Romney has, as well as other interests in such tax havens as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. To give but one example, there is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as "a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney." It could be that Sankaty is an old vehicle with little importance, but Romney appears to have treated it rather carefully. He set it up in 1997, then transferred it to his wife's newly created blind trust on January 1, 2003, the day before he was inaugurated as Massachusetts's governor. The director and president of this entity is R. Bradford Malt, the trustee of the blind trust and Romney's personal lawyer. Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an "excepted investment fund" that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return. Even after examining that return, we have no idea what is in this company, but it could be valuable, meaning that it is possible Romney's wealth is even greater than previous estimates. While the Romneys' spokespeople insist that the couple has paid all the taxes required by law, investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in "jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance," as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it. That's not the only money Romney has in tax havens. Because of his retirement deal with Bain Capital, his finances are still deeply entangled with the private-equity firm that he founded and spun off from Bain and Co. in 1984. Though he left the firm in 1999, Romney has continued to receive large payments from it—in early June he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income. The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this. Bain Capital is the heart of Romney's fortune: it was the financial engine that created it. The mantra of his campaign is that he was a businessman who created tens of thousands of jobs, and Bain certainly did bring useful operational skills to many companies it bought. But his critics point to several cases where Bain bought companies, loaded them with debt, and paid itself extravagant fees, thereby bankrupting the companies and destroying tens of thousands of jobs. Come August, Romney, with an estimated net worth as high as $250 million (he won't reveal the exact amount), will be one of the richest people ever to be nominated for president. Given his reticence to discuss his wealth, it's only natural to wonder how he got it, how he invests it, and if he pays all his taxes on it. Ironically, it was Mitt's father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns, in November 1967, just ahead of his presidential campaign, thereby setting a precedent that nearly every presidential candidate since has either willingly or unwillingly been subject to. George, then the governor of Michigan, explained why he was releasing so many years' worth, saying, "One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show." But his son declined to release any returns through one unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate, in 1994, one successful run for Massachusetts governor, in 2002, and an aborted bid for the Republican Party presidential nomination, in 2008. Just before the Iowa caucus last December, Mitt told MSNBC, "I don't intend to release the tax returns. I don't," but finally, on January 24, 2012—after intense goading by fellow Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry—he released his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011. These, plus the mandatory financial disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics and released last August, raise many questions. A full 55 pages in his 2010 return are devoted to reporting his transactions with foreign entities. "What Romney does not get," says Jack Blum, a veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert, "is that this stuff is weird." The media soon noticed Romney's familiarity with foreign tax havens. A $3 million Swiss bank account appeared in the 2010 returns, then winked out of existence in 2011 after the trustee closed it, as if to remind us of George Romney's warning that one or two tax returns can provide a misleading picture. Ed Kleinbard, a professor of tax law at the University of Southern California, says the Swiss account "has political but not tax-policy resonance," since it—like many other Romney investments—constituted a bet against the U.S. dollar, an odd thing for a presidential candidate to do. The Obama campaign provided a helpful world map pointing to the tax havens Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands, where Romney and his family have assets, each with the tagline "Value: not disclosed in tax returns." Romney's personal tax rate is a particular point of interest. In 2010 and 2011, Mitt and Ann paid $6.2 million in federal tax on $42.5 million in income, for an average tax rate just shy of 15 percent, substantially less than what most middle-income Americans pay. Romney manages this low rate because he takes his payments from Bain Capital as investment income, which is taxed at a maximum 15 percent, instead of the 35 percent he would pay on "ordinary" income, such as salaries and wages. Many tax experts argue that the form of remuneration he receives, known as carried interest, is really just a fee charged by investment managers, so it should instead be taxed at the 35 percent rate. Lee Sheppard, a contributing editor at the trade publication Tax Notes, whose often controversial articles are read widely by tax professionals, is nonplussed that the Obama campaign has been so listless on the issue of carried interest. "Romney is the poster boy, the best argument, for taxing this profit share as ordinary income," says Sheppard. In the face of such arguments, Romney's defense is that he never broke the rules: if there is a problem, it is in the laws, not in his behavior. "I pay all the taxes that are legally required, not a dollar more," he said. Even so. "When you are running for president, you might want to err on the side of overpaying your taxes, and not chase every tax gimmick that comes down the pike," says Sheppard. "It kind of looks tacky." The assertion that he broke no laws is widely accepted. But it is worth asking if it is actually true. The answer, in fact, isn't straightforward. Romney, like the superhero who whirls and backflips unscathed through a web of laser beams while everyone else gets zapped, is certainly a remarkable financial acrobat. But careful analysis of his financial and business affairs also reveals a man who, like some other Wall Street titans, seems comfortable striding into some fuzzy gray zones. The Caped Avoider!One might perhaps accept an explanation by Romney's campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, that the candidate's failure to include his Swiss account in earlier financial disclosures was merely a "trivial inadvertent issue." But deeper questions do emerge. All the assets on Mitt's financial disclosures are in blind trusts or retirement accounts held by him and Ann. Blind trusts are designed to avoid conflicts of interest for those in public office by having politicians' assets managed by independent trustees. The Romneys' blind trust was created when Mitt was elected governor of Massachusetts. Curiously, the Romneys appointed Bradford Malt as their trustee. It's certainly true that under Malt the trusts don't appear to be as blind as they might be: for instance, in 2010 the Romneys invested $10 million in the start-up of the Solamere Founders Fund, co-founded by their eldest son, Tagg, and Spencer Zwick, Romney's onetime top campaign fund-raiser; Solamere is now in the Ann Romney blind trust. Malt has said he invested in Solamere without consulting Mitt or Ann and explained he liked Solamere because of its diversified approach and because he knew the founders and had confidence in them. Likewise, the Romneys were reported to have invested at least $1 million in Elliott Associates, L.P., a hedge fund specializing in "distressed assets." Elliott buys up cheap debt, often at cents on the dollar, from lenders to deeply troubled nations such as Congo-Brazzaville, then attacks the debtor states with lawsuits to squeeze maximum repayment. Elliott is run by the secretive hedge-fund billionaire and G.O.P. super-donor Paul Singer, whom Fortune recently dubbed Mitt Romney's "Hedge Fund Kingmaker." (Singer has given $1 million to Romney's super-pac Restore Our Future.) It is hard to know the size of these investments. Romney's financial disclosure form lists 25 of them in an open-ended category, "Over $1 million," including Solamere and Elliott, and they are not broken down further. Romney hides behind a disclaimer that the fund managers "declined to provide such information" about their underlying assets. Many of these funds are set up in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, where a confidentiality law states that you can be jailed for up to four years just for asking about such information. Andrea Saul said of these investments, "Everything … was reported correctly." Joseph Sandler, a Democratic lawyer who has worked with candidates on disclosures for more than two decades, is skeptical. "The law is the law," Sandler says. "[Romney] says, 'Well, you know, they won't tell me.' But when you run for office in the U.S. and are not prepared to comply with disclosure requirements, you should either divest yourself of the assets or don't run." The Washington Post summarized the opinions of experts across the political spectrum by saying Romney's disclosures were "the most opaque they have encountered." Mysteries also arise when one looks at Romney's individual retirement account at Bain Capital. When Romney was there, from 1984 to 1999, taxpayers were allowed to put just $2,000 per year into an I.R.A., and $30,000 annually into a different kind of plan he may have used. Given these annual contribution ceilings, how can his I.R.A. possibly contain up to $102 million, as his financial disclosures now suggest? The Romneys won't say, but Mark Maremont, writing in The Wall Street Journal, uncovered a likely explanation. When Bain Capital bought companies, it would create two classes of shares, named A and L. The A shares were risky common shares, to which they would assign a very low value. The L shares were preferred shares, paying a high dividend but with the payoff frozen, and most of the value was assigned to them. Bain employees would then put the exciting A shares in their I.R.A. accounts, where they grew tax-free. With all the risk of the deal, the A shares stood to gain a lot or collapse. But if the deal succeeded, the springing value could be stunning: Bain employees saw their A shares from one particularly fruitful deal grow 583-fold, 16 times faster than the underlying stock. The Romneys won't tell us how, or even if, they assigned super-low values to the A shares, but there are a couple of ways to do it. One is to use standard options models to price the shares—then feed inappropriate assumptions into those models. Romney could alternatively have used a model called liquidation valuation, which Kleinbard says would have been "completely inappropriate." Without seeing the assumptions used on Romney's tax returns from the years when those lowball A shares were squirted into his I.R.A., we cannot know how he did it. Whatever methods he used, however, the valuations were, according to Andrew Smith, of Houlihan Capital in Chicago, "pushing the envelope." (Andrea Saul retorts, "Why should successful investments be criticized?") Mitt's and Ann's I.R.A.'s have also been receiving profit interest from (mostly Cayman Island–based) Bain Capital funds that were set up long after he had left the company, in 1999. For example, the 2010 return reveals a profits interest in a Cayman-based fund called Bain Capital Partners (AM) X LP, which was transferred to the Ann D. Romney trust in October 2010. An attachment to the return says the Ann D. Romney trust is "performing services" to the partnership, which is boilerplate language for these kinds of filings. Her blind trust could receive lightly taxed income from Bain Capital for years to come, well into the presidential term her husband hopes to win. But administrative guidance says you can do this kind of thing only if the compensation is in recognition of past services you have provided. "This should not mean retired from the mother ship 10 years out and getting profits you had nothing to do with," Sheppard says, adding that Romney can get away with it because of excessive "administrative indulgences" that have allowed a "perversion of the law in favor of a small class of overcompensated investment managers." Romney's I.R.A. also appears to have invested in so-called blocker corporations in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. U.S. pension funds, foundations, and even I.R.A.'s routinely use offshore blocker corporations to avoid something called the Unrelated Business Income Tax, which was designed to keep nonprofits from competing with ordinary companies in areas outside their core purpose: if you invest directly you get hit with the tax, but if you invest in a blocker, which then invests in the U.S. business, you escape it. Romney's I.R.A. appears to have employed this lawful escape route, and his campaign has used language suggesting that it has. But that would mean the Romney camp's claim that Mitt's tax consequences of investing via the Cayman Islands is "the very same" as it would have been had he invested directly at home is simply not true. (Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul says Romney "gets the same benefit anyone would get from an I.R.A.," but she did not respond to questions on whether his I.R.A. had used blockers or avoided taxes by investing via tax havens.) A Deutsche Bank analysis of 68 Bain deals Romney was involved in calculated an internal rate of return—a standard private-equity benchmark—at a staggering 88 percent annually (though after fees and inflation, investor performance may have been little more than half that). It is substantially on this stellar record that Romney is now running for president. His work at Bain was unquestionably good for himself and for Bain, but was it also good for the businesses he acquired, for their workers, and for the economy, as he claims? A report by Bain and Co. itself, looking at the period from 2002 to 2007, concluded that there is "little evidence that private equity owners, overall, added value" to the companies they took over: nearly all their returns are explained by broad economic growth, rising stock markets, and leverage. Josh Kosman, who researched the subject of private equity for his book The Buyout of America, singles out Bain Capital in particular. "They take pride in pushing the leverage envelope [i.e., use of borrowed money, which magnifies returns, while off-loading the risks onto others] more than their peers," he says. "I have heard that from limited partners in Bain's funds. I have heard that from bankers who lend money to finance their leveraged buyouts. Bain always prided itself on 'We'll push leverage more than the others.' They brag about that, behind closed doors." Dade Behring is a cause célèbre for Romney's and Bain's critics, and it illustrates the leverage problem clearly. In 1994, Bain bought Dade International, a medical-diagnostics company, then added the medical-diagnostics division of DuPont in 1996 and a German medical-testing company called Behring in 1997. Former Dade president Bob Brightfelt says the operation started well: the Bain managers were "pretty smart guys," he recalls, and they did well cutting out overlap, and exploiting synergies. Then brutal cost cutting began. Bain cut R&D spending to an average of 8 percent of sales, a little more than half what its competitors were doing. Cindy Hewitt, Dade's human-resources manager, remembers how the firm closed a Puerto Rico plant in 1998, a year after harvesting $7.1 million in local tax breaks aimed at job creation, and relocated some staff to Miami, then the company's most profitable plant. Based on reassurances she had received from her superiors, she told those uprooting themselves from Puerto Rico that their jobs in Miami were safe for now—but then Bain closed the Miami plant. "Whether you want to call it misled, or lied, or manipulated, I do not believe they provided full information about what discussions were under way," she says. "I would never want to be part of even unintentionally treating people so poorly." Bain engaged in startling penny-pinching with the laid-off employees. Their contracts stipulated that if they left early they would have to pay back the costs of relocating to Miami—but in spite of all that Dade had done to them, it refused to release the employees from this clause. "They said they would go after them for that money if they left before Bain was finished with them," Hewitt recalls. Not only that, but the company declined to give workers their severance pay in lump sums to help them fund their return home. In 1999, generous pensions were converted into less generous benefits, wages were cut, and more staff members were laid off. Some employees contacted Norman Stein, then the director of the pension-counseling clinic at the University of Alabama law school, with a view to challenging the conversions. Stein says the employees were "extraordinarily nervous," so fearful, in fact, that they refused to let lawyers even make copies of pension documents. "I have been dealing with pensions issues for over 25 years and I never saw anything like this," recalls Stein. The spooked employees did not go to court. Stein says that, while breaking pension contracts like this was not unheard of, the practice at that time was "questionable," adding that Dade may have saved $10 to $40 million from converting its pensions. The beauty—or savagery—of leverage is that it can magnify any and all cash-flow boosts, such as this one. Take $10 to $40 million squeezed from a pension pot, then use that to create new, rosier financial projections to borrow several times that amount, and then pay yourself a big special dividend from the borrowed funds, many times the size of the pension savings. That is just what Bain Capital did: the same month it converted the pensions, it created new financial projections as a basis to borrow an extra $421 million—from which Bain, its co-investor Goldman Sachs, and top Dade management extracted $365 million in dividends. According to Kosman, "Bain and Goldman—after putting down only $85 million … made out like bandits—a $280 million profit." Dade's debt rose to more than $870 million. Romney had left operational management of Bain that year, though his disclosures show that he owned 16.5 percent of the Bain partnership responsible for the Dade investment until at least 2001. Quite soon, however, a fragile Dade faced adverse conditions in the currency markets, and it had to start in effect cannibalizing itself, cutting into the core of its business. It filed for bankruptcy in August 2002 and Bain Capital departed. When Dade emerged from bankruptcy, its new owners invested in long-term R&D, and it flourished again. Nor was this an isolated incident: Kosman lists five other "formerly healthy" companies—Stage Stores, Ampad, GS Technologies, Details, and KB Toys—Bain helped drive into bankruptcy, while making big profits. (Despite numerous entreaties from Vanity Fair to Bain Capital to address on the record points in this article with which it might disagree, the firm refused to do so and instead provided this statement: "When politics overwhelm fact, some will distort or cherry-pick our record and launch unfounded allegations and insinuations. The truth and the full record show that Bain Capital operates with high standards of integrity and excellence in compliance with all laws. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless.") Tax Haven U.S.A.The term "financialization" describes two interlocking processes: a disproportionate growth in a country's deregulated financial sector, relative to the rest of the economy, and the rising importance of financial activities with a focus on financial returns among industrial and other non-financial corporations, often at the expense of real innovation and productivity. Some see the rising influence of finance and financial models in epochal terms. Author of Financialization and the U.S. Economy Özgür Orhangazi summarizes academic literature that sees financialization "as one of the indicators of the decline of the hegemonic power": imperial Venice, Genoa, Holland, and Britain all saw their power rise on the back of productive industrial capitalism, followed by domination by the financial sector, which eventually began to cannibalize the productive sector in pursuit of financial returns—a process that ended in weakness and collapse. Little noticed in the academic discussions of financialization is the role of offshore tax havens, one of the big reasons the financial sector has become so powerful. In 1966, Michael Hudson, a young Chase Manhattan balance-of-payments economist, was in a company elevator when he was handed a memo by a former State Department operative. The memo came from the U.S. government, and Hudson was tasked with figuring out how much foreign money the U.S. might attract. "They were saying, 'We want to replace Switzerland,' " Hudson explains. "All this money will come here if we make this the criminal center of the world. We wanted foreign criminal money, which was patriotic, but not American criminal money." In the years since then, almost unknown to most Americans, the United States has turned itself into a giant tax haven for foreigners, just as the memo suggested. Federal and state tax laws have been deliberately shaped to give foreigners special tax exemptions unavailable to Americans, plus financial secrecy and exemptions from regulatory restraints. "We have criticized offshore tax havens for their secrecy and lack of transparency," said Senator Carl Levin. "But look what is going on in our own backyard." In this grand scenario, tax havens such as the Caymans serve as feeders of foreign savings into Tax Haven U.S.A. from abroad, providing foreign investors with additional ways to skip around tax, disclosure, and regulatory requirements that they might trigger if they invested directly. The money sucked into Tax Haven U.S.A., often via the "feeder" tax havens, is frequently tax-evading and other criminal foreign money, in the spirit of Hudson's 1966 memo, and it is predominantly channeled not into productive investment but into real estate and financial business. One cannot properly understand Wall Street's size and power without appreciating the central role of offshore tax havens. There is absolutely no evidence that Bain has done anything illegal, but private equity is one channel for this secrecy-shrouded foreign money to enter the United States, and a filing for Mitt Romney's first $37 million Bain Capital Fund, of 1984, provides a rare window into this. One foreign investor, of $2 million, was the newspaper tycoon, tax evader, and fraudster Robert Maxwell, who fell from his yacht, and drowned, off of the Canary Islands in 1991 in strange circumstances, after looting his company's pension fund. The Bain filing also names Eduardo Poma, a member of one of the "14 families" oligarchy that has controlled most of El Salvador's wealth for decades; oddly, Poma is listed as sharing a Miami address with two anonymous companies that invested $1.5 million between them. The filings also show a Geneva-based trustee overseeing a trust that invested $2.5 million, a Bahamas corporation that put in $3 million, and three corporations in the tax haven of Panama, historically a favored destination for Latin-American dirty money—"one of the filthiest money-laundering sinks in the world," as a U.S. Customs official once put it. Bain Capital has said it did everything required by the U.S. government to check that the investors were not associated with unsavory interests. U.S. law doesn't require Bain to enforce the tax laws of its investors' home countries, but the presence of Swiss trustees, Bahamas trusts, and Panama corporations would raise red flags with any tax authority. Many Americans might react with a shrug to the idea of shady foreign money such as Robert Maxwell's being invested here. But, says Rebecca Wilkins, of the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice, "It is shocking that a presidential candidate should think that is O.K." $100 Million in Romney's IRA and Other Bain Mysteries: Where's the Media Swarm?Back when Bill Clinton was President there was a huge media-swarm controversy because a decade before her husband was elected Hillary Clinton had made $100,000 over ten months by investing in cattle futures. Now, skip forward to 2012. Report after report circulates about a candidate for President who owns a secret company in Bermuda, Swiss and Cayman Islands bank accounts and an IRA containing as much as $100 million -- and who may have filed SEC documents containing false information (a felony). Huge media swarm this time? Not so much. Cattle Futures? In the 1970s Hillary Clinton made some speculative investments. Over a period of 10 months she made investments in cattle futures that did well, earning $100,000. Later when her husband was President, the media wanted to find out how she was able to make such a large, huge, gi-normous sum from speculative investments. Take a look at the 350,000-or-so web references to cattle futures trades made by Hillary Clinton way back in the 1970s. This might give you an idea of how big a deal it was back in the mid-90's that Hillary Clinton had made $100,000 (!!!) on speculative investments back in the 1970s. (The number of stories located online is possibly reduced by the fact that the media swarm happened in the mid-1990s --largely before the Internet.) Look at the outlets that assigned teams of reporters to investigate: All the TV networks, the Washington Post, New York Times, Newsweek, and all of the rest of the journamalism crowd were all over what was considered to be a major story. This story was investigated, written about, investigated, written about, and investigated. No evidence of any wrongdoing was ever found -- which many in the media took as clear proof that there had been a massive cover-up. Today - Not So Much Today things are different. Compare the magnitude of Hillary's $100,000 profit to the recent disclosure of as much as $100,000,000 -- one hundred million dollars -- turning up in Mitt Romney's IRA which is a personal retirement investment vehicle that is limited to a few thousand in contributions each year. (Remember, the gains made in an IRA is not taxed.) Romney is already retired, and the one completed tax return he has disclosed shows that he currently has an income of approximately $450,000 per week. So how did $100 million end up an an IRA that is limited to deposits of a maximum $6,000 a year (after you reach a certain age)? How many reporters has each major news organization assigned to find out why he has up to $100 million in an IRA? Compare Hillary's $100,000 profit to the disclosure that Mitt Romney has a Swiss bank account. A candidate for President of the United States has a Swiss bank account? (And a Caymans bank account? And others?) Why? What is the explanation? How many reporters has each major news organization assigned to find out? Compare it to the disclosure that Mitt Romney owns a secret company in Bermuda, which was transferred to his wife the day before he had to disclose it, or what it is or does. How many reporters has each major news organization assigned to find out why he has a secret company in Bermuda, and what that company does, how much it pays in taxes and how much money it holds, and why it was transferred to his wife the day before he took office as Governor? Compare it to the more recent disclosure that after 1999 Romney's company Bain Capital was telling the government and other parties that Romney owned all the shares, was President and CEO and managing the place, but now says that was all a scam and he wasn't really! (That's illegal -- a felony -- by the way.) How many reporters has each major news organization assigned to find out if he lied on his SEC forms? ONE news organization did report this story -- well, actually they reported information originally uncovered by a progressive website and a progressive magazine. Where Is Our Media? News media. Information. Informed decision-making in a democracy. Investigative reporting. The public's need to know. What has happened to these concepts? They seem alien in today's media environment. Our news media's purpose is supposed to be to provide the public with the information that is needed to make informed decision. It is supposed to be investigating our leaders to find out if they are really acting in our interest. Why are they not doing this at this crucial time? Checking the facts about Romney and Bain CapitalBy Angie Drobnic Holan Published on Tuesday, July 17th, 2012 at 6:23 p.m. Related rulings: Says Mitt Romney "had millions in a Swiss bank account."Barack Obama, Saturday, July 14th, 2012. Ruling: True | Details  "Mitt Romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries."Barack Obama, Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012. Ruling: Half-True | Details Says Mitt Romney "has a corporation in Bermuda (but) failed to disclose that on seven different financial disclosures."Robert Gibbs, Sunday, July 8th, 2012. Ruling: True | Details  After they bought GST Steel, "Mitt Romney and his partners loaded it with debt, closed the Kansas City plant and walked away with a healthy profit, leaving hundreds of employees out of work with their pensions in jeopardy."Barack Obama, Monday, May 14th, 2012. Ruling: Mostly True | Details Mitt Romney "supervised a company guilty of massive Medicare fraud."Winning Our Future, Friday, January 27th, 2012. Ruling: Half-True | Details In July 1996, Mitt Romney helped locate the missing teenage daughter of a partner at Bain Capital.Chain email, Monday, January 30th, 2012. Ruling: True | Details "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions."AFSCME, Friday, January 20th, 2012. Ruling: Mostly True | Details Mitt Romney is worth "at least a quarter billion dollars" and the bulk of his wealth "remains in blind trusts and overseas bank accounts."Winning Our Future, Tuesday, January 10th, 2012. Ruling: Half-True | Details  Says Romney and Bain Capital drove KB Toys into bankruptcy by loading it up with debt.Winning Our Future, Wednesday, January 11th, 2012. Ruling: Mostly False | Details Mitt Romney's and Bain Capital's profits from KB Toys, which later went out of business, were "described by the Boston Herald as 'disgusting.'"Winning Our Future, Thursday, January 12th, 2012. Ruling: Mostly False | Details Says he "helped save" the Olympic games.Mitt Romney, Tuesday, December 6th, 2011. Ruling: Mostly True | Details Share this article:The Obama campaign released an ad attacking Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney has presented himself as a candidate who understands free markets and getting the economy on track, and he's pointed to his time at Bain Capital as evidence. President Barack Obama's campaign, meanwhile, had taken that point of ostensible strength and targeted it for relentless attacks. Sorting fact from fiction isn't always easy when it comes to private equity's complex transactions and Romney's far-reaching wealth. Many of these issues also have implications about job creation, regulation and taxation. Here, we review our recent fact-checks to sort out Romney's Bain record. Is it accurate to say Bain still Romney's company after 1999? In an ad, the Obama campaign said, "Mitt Romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries." We looked at this question carefully, and the answers aren't so clear cut. Romney left day-to-day management of the company in 1999, but he was Bain's founder and assembled a team that looked to make high returns. Some of those returns were achieved by investing in companies that outsourced or promoted outsourcing. We rated Obama's claim Half-True. A corporation in Bermuda -- Obama's former press secretary Robert Gibbs said that Romney, "has a corporation in Bermuda" but failed to disclose that on seven different financial disclosures. The corporation in question was the Bain-related Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors, Ltd. , and there were seven financial disclosures where it was not listed. We rated Gibbs' statement True. Swiss bank account -- Another Obama ad charged that Romney "had millions in a Swiss bank account." It's accurate that Romney had about $3 million in a bank account Switzerland; the account is now closed. Swiss bank accounts have a reputation for secrecy, but we found nothing to indicate Romney did anything illegal or improper with the account. We rated the statement True. Bain's investment in GST Steel -- Another Obama TV ad accused Bain of leaving GST Steel in poor shape. "Mitt Romney and his partners loaded it with debt, closed the Kansas City plant and walked away with a healthy profit, leaving hundreds of employees out of work with their pensions in jeopardy." We found that claim was largely accurate, but needed some clarification. The plant's closure happened after Romney had left daily management at Bain, though he led Bain during six years of its majority investment in the plant. And other, outside factors were at work that made the steel industry a tough business. We rated this statement Mostly True. Bain's investment in Damon Corp. -- Back in the primary, a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich attacked the Bain record on Damon Corporation, a medical testing company. The super PAC, Winning Our Future, said Romney "supervised a company guilty of massive Medicare fraud." The company was defrauding Medicare, but Romney was serving on the board of directors, not managing the company's billing practices. We rated this Half True. The public employees union AFSCME was more precise in its claim: "While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions." We rated that Mostly True, noting that it was difficult to assess whether Romney knew about the fraud or should have known, and what he did to stop it. Bain's investment in KB Toys -- The same pro-Gingrich PAC charged that Romney and Bain Capital drove KB Toys into bankruptcy by loading it up with debt in a much-discussed video attack called "King of Bain." There are a lot of reasons we rated this Mostly False: Bain Capital bought KB Toys in 2000, after Romney retired. He wouldn't have been involved in financial decisions, though he would have profited from them. Also, toy industry analysts told us KB Toys was a troubled company before Bain bought it, and Bain wasn't able to fix it. Likewise, we rated Mostly False the claim that the Boston Herald called the KB Toys events "disgusting." The newspaper was quoting a laid-off worker, not speaking through an editorial as the claim implied. Romney's net worth -- Finally, the "King of Bain" video said Romney is worth "at least a quarter billion dollars" and the bulk of his wealth "remains in blind trusts and overseas bank accounts." Romney's wealth likely ranges somewhere between $190 million to $250 million. But we didn't find good evidence that "the bulk" of Romney's money is in overseas accounts. In fact, the documents we reviewed suggested a relatively small share of Romney's wealth is overseas. We rated that claim Half True. Finally, two Bain-related statements focused on more positive aspects of Romney's record and received more positive ratings. Missing teen -- A chain email claimed that in July 1996, Romney helped locate the missing teenage daughter of a partner at Bain Capital. Romney did help find the girl, who disappeared after going to a rave party in New York City, where she took the drug Ecstasy. She had told her parents she was playing tennis. We rated the statement True. Saving the Olympics -- The Romney campaign reminded voters of the reason he left Bain: to "help save" the 2002 Winter Olympic games. We rated that Mostly True. By all accounts, he did help the city's Olympic committee reverse its fortunes after an embarrassing scandal. Republicans assail Obama on 9/11 attack in LibyaBy | Associated Press – Thu, Sep 27, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans lashed out at President Barack Obama and senior administration officials over their evolving description of the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, a late campaign-season broadside challenging the veracity and leadership of an incumbent on the upswing. Desperate to reverse the apparent trajectory of the White House race, Republicans sense a political opportunity in Obama's reluctance to utter the words "terrorist attack" as well as the varying explanations emerging from the administration about the assault in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Talk of Watergate-style scandal, stonewalling and cover-up echoed in the GOP ranks on Thursday, from the head of the party to members of Congress to Mitt Romney's campaign staff. This full-throated criticism comes five days before the first debate between Obama and Romney, with Republicans determined to cast the president as dishonest and ineffectual on both foreign and domestic policy. "Amid Middle East turmoil and six weeks before the election, President Obama refuses to have an honest conversation with the American people," Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party, wrote in an article for the website Real Clear Politics. "The country deserves honesty, not obfuscation, from our president." Republicans say the administration has been slow to call the assault a terrorist attack and has criticized its initial insistence that the attack was a spontaneous response to the crude anti-Islam video that touched off demonstrations across the Middle East. Since then, it has become clear that the Benghazi assault was distinct from the mobs that burned American flags and protested what they considered the blasphemy in the movie, but didn't attack U.S. personnel. Republicans have also suggested that the administration had intelligence suggesting the deadly attack might happen and ignored it. "I think it's pretty clear that they haven't wanted to level with the American people. We expect candor from the president and transparency," Romney told Fox News this week. The White House and Democrats accused the GOP of politicizing national security, with officials specifically mentioning Romney's quick swipe at Obama as an extremist sympathizer as the crisis was still unfolding in North Africa around Sept. 11. "The Republican approach is to shoot first and ask questions later," Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. "The administration wants to do an investigation and be as accurate as possible. That's the difference between partisan politics and trying to govern." Democrats also used the criticism to recall the former Massachusetts governor's missteps during his summertime overseas trip and his omission in his prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention of any mention of U.S. military forces fighting in Afghanistan. "Every time Mitt Romney has attempted to dip his toe into foreign policy quarters, it's been an unmitigated disaster," Obama campaign press secretary Jen Psaki said aboard Air Force One. National security has provided few political openings for Romney and the GOP as Obama has shed the Democrats' past reputation for weakness by ordering the successful raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and undercut al-Qaida. An Associated Press-GfK poll earlier this month found Obama with an edge over Romney on who Americans think can do a better job of protecting the country, 51 percent to 40 percent. The economy and jobs are the dominant issues in the election, with few voters likely to cast their ballots based on events in Libya or conflicts overseas. Underscoring the general weariness after more than 10 years of war, some of the fiercest GOP defense hawks in Congress have suggested the United States withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, an even bolder step than Obama. But the administration has struggled to present a coherent description of the assault in Libya, prompting questions from Republicans and Democrats about whether the United States had prior intelligence, whether the attack was planned and whether security was sufficient. In that same AP poll, Americans approved of Obama's handling of Libya by just 45-41 percent. The poll was conducted within days of the assault. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday called it a terrorist attack. "What terrorists were involved I think still remains to be determined by the investigation," he told reporters at the Pentagon. "But it clearly was a group of terrorists who conducted that attack." Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and White House press secretary Jay Carney called the violence a terrorist attack last week. But Obama has declined several chances to call the incident a terrorist attack. He said last week that extremists used an anti-Islam video as an excuse to assault U.S. interests. And just five days after the attack, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the attack was a spontaneous reaction to the video. Her assessment was at odds with Libya's interim President Mohammed el-Megarif, who said there was no doubt the perpetrators had predetermined the date of the assault. Panetta said Thursday it was a "planned attack." The FBI is investigating, but the apparent contradictions have prompted demands for information from Congress and a flurry of scathing letters to the administration. So far, U.S. intelligence has indicated that heavily armed extremists numbering 50 or more attacked the consulate, relying on gun trucks for added firepower. They established a perimeter, limiting access to the compound. A first wave of attacks forced the Americans to flee to a fallback building, where a second group of extremists attacked with mortar fire. Stevens died of apparent smoke inhalation when he was caught inside one of the consulate buildings, which had been set on fire. Officials have not singled out one responsible group, but have focused their attention on Ansar al-Shariah, a Libyan militant group led by a former detainee at the U.S. military-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that there has been a "thread of intelligence reporting" about groups in eastern Libya trying to coalesce, but no specific threat to the consulate. Since the fall of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last year, militias, weapons and terrorists are common in Libya. "It was just unbelievable that Ambassador Rice and Secretary Clinton and the White House spokesman and others would say that there was no evidence — that this was a spontaneous attack, yet they say, 'come on, honey, bring your mortars, we're going to a spontaneous demonstration,'" Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS' "This Morning." McCain, who called the administration's statements "disgraceful," joined three other Republican senators this week in a letter to Rice pressing her on her "troubling statements that are inconsistent with the facts." Eight Republicans who head House committees sent a letter to Obama criticizing a "pre-9/11 mindset" of "treating an act of war solely as a criminal matter." They said they would return to Washington from their nearly two-month recess for briefings beyond the back-to-back sessions Clinton and others held last week. Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., have asked for communications between the State Department and the U.S. mission in Libya leading up to the attacks. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., has written the State Department's Thomas Nides asking him to provide the panel with a detailed accounting of the attacks on U.S. missions in Libya, Egypt and Yemen on Sept. 11, information on security and whether there was any prior intelligence. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the panel, said the purpose of this letter is a bipartisan effort to get information. "I do think it is legitimate and appropriate to ask questions," Coons said in an interview. "Some have sadly overreached and clearly are politicizing this incident." The Real Problem With Romney's Offshore InvestmentsForget the 47 percent. Foreign tax havens—and investment vehicles like those the GOP candidate established at Bain Capital—are robbing world treasuries of billions.| Tue Sep. 25, 2012 3:00 AM PDT  Mitt Romney's taxes are once again in the news thanks to Friday's release of his full 2011 tax return. As with his 2010 filings, the documents highlight the GOP candidate's extensive overseas holdings, which some tax experts believe has allowed him to lessen his tax liability. But the problem with Romney's reliance on offshore tax havens goes beyond his own tax bill. The Internal Revenue Service and many members of Congress have sought for years to close some of the loopholes that are draining billions of dollars from the federal treasury and shifting the tax burden from wealthy corporations to average individuals. Yet through his work at Bain Capital and his personal investments, Romney has supported a shadowy financial system with far-reaching ramifications for the US and foreign governments. To date, Romney has refused to answer questions about why, for instance, he needs to keep some of his money in places like Bermuda, rather than a bank in Belmont, Massachusetts, or in a US-based investment vehicle. When he dodges these types of questions, Romney's not just depriving voters of critical information about his own taxes. He's sidestepping a much larger policy question about this unaccountable financial system that has been a key driver of global inequality. Offshore tax havens are better known for facilitating money laundering and tax evasion than legitimate business. They are jurisdictions that generally offer extremely low tax rates to foreign investors (zero in the case of the Cayman Islands). They also offer sanctuary to people or entities looking to avoid other rules and regulations or seeking to shield their assets from lawsuits in their home countries. And, of course, tax havens provide secrecy. They hide owners, partners, and investors from tax authorities or jilted spouses and often refuse to comply with criminal investigations by other countries, which is one reason they're popular with both drug kingpins and Americans tax evaders. Romney has investments in a number of well known tax havens, including Ireland, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, and Bermuda. Until 2010, he held a few million in the Swiss bank UBS, which in 2009 was forced to pay the US $780 million in fines and penalties for helping more than 17,000 Americans commit tax fraud by hiding as much as $20 billion overseas. The total value of Romney's offshore investments is unknown, but his tax returns have revealed that he has at least $30 million invested in the Cayman Islands, in at least 12 different Bain Capital funds. When pressed about the relationship between his offshore investments and his low tax rate (he paid 14.1 percent on $13 million in income, according to his 2011 tax return), Romney has largely declined to answer questions about his overseas holdings other than to say, "I pay all the taxes that are legally required, not a dollar more." Romney has also denied getting tax benefits from his offshore accounts. He told Fox News, "[T]here was no reduction, not one dollar reduction in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment. The dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. There was no tax savings at all." Similarly, a Romney campaign spokeswoman told Mother Jones that Romney's foreign investments "are taxed in the very same way they would be if the shares were held in the US rather than through a Cayman fund. No taxes are avoided or reduced. These funds are registered with the IRS and report all income to investors and the IRS, just like domestic funds." Romney's assertion that his offshore investments have not reduced his tax bill has been met with skepticism by tax experts. But assuming he's telling the truth, his involvement in the offshore system and that of the company he started, Bain Capital, is still no less significant. That's because while Romney may have done everything by the book with his offshore accounts, Bain's other offshore investors may not have. "The Cayman Islands jurisdiction for the Bain funds primarily makes it easy for their investors to cheat on their taxes." Bain's has had investment funds located in the Cayman Islands since at least the 1990s, when Romney was still in charge. And the company has made clear that many of its funds there are designed to avoid US taxes. According to documents released by Gawker in August, one fund in which Romney still has money invested notes in a financial statement that it "intends to conduct its operations so it will…not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax."* "The Cayman Islands jurisdiction for the Bain funds primarily makes it easy for their investors to cheat on their taxes," says Rebecca Wilkins, the senior counsel for federal tax policy at the nonprofit Citizens for Tax Justice. "Because of that they can attract more investors and they can earn bigger management fees. " Because of the secrecy laws in the Caymans and other offshore tax havens, Bain investors are hidden from tax authorities like the IRS. Unless they choose to report their holdings and income, as Romney has, there is no way for tax officials in the US or other countries to know that such holdings exist, much less find a way to tax them. James Henry, a former chief economist at McKinsey & Co., describes offshore tax havens like the "bar scene in Star Wars." He explains, "Dictators and kleptocrats used them to conceal stolen loot. Arms dealers and drug dealers use them to launder their deals. Google and Apple and Pfizer use them to park their intellectual property and pay themselves tax-free royalties. Banks use them to park lousy loans and stash the offshore accounts and assets under management of their wealthy individual clients, many of which are paying zero taxes back home…And so on." Some of those sorts of shady clients have been part of Romney's portfolio at Bain. Nicholas Shaxson has written one of the most comprehensive stories about Romney's offshore investments in a lengthy article in the August issue of Vanity Fair. It explored the nature of some of Romney's early Bain investors. They included the late Czech-born British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, a fraudster and notorious tax evader who put $2 million into one of Romney's first Bain funds, as well as a trio of anonymous corporations from another notorious tax haven, Panama. Other early investors, according to numerous news accounts, were members of the wealthy Salvadoran oligarchy with ties to right-wing death squads. Romney has credited Salvadoran investors for helping him get his company off the ground. Romney talks about longtime friend Netanyahu, jokes about bomb graphicSenior Political Reporter By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 12 hrs ago ON THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN PLANE--Flying from Philadelphia to Boston, Mitt Romney gave reporters in the press cabin some quality candidate time. After joking with a reporter who had been accidentally left behind by the press bus and later passing out beef jerky, the GOP candidate was back again—this time to give reporters a read-out about his phone call on Friday afternoon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he and Netanyahu, a longtime friend who he had first met in the late 1970s when they were both working at the Boston Consulting Group, had talked about Iran and other issues of concern in the Middle East, including the unrest in Syria. All serious issues, Romney acknowledged, but he couldn't resist ribbing the prime minister. "I complimented him on his address at the United Nations," Romney said. "I suggested that his graphic was not up to the normal Boston Consulting Group standards." Pausing, he added, "No, I didn't actually do that, but I was thinking that." Romney was referencing a cartoon-like graphic in the shape of a bomb that Netanyahu employed to explain the threat of a nuclear Iran. Asked if there is "daylight" between the position he holds toward Iran and the one put forward by Netanyahu, Romney didn't say. But he used the moment to criticize his opponent, President Barack Obama, for not offering tough sanctions against Iran in the first place. "He's moved over time," said Romney. "From the very beginning, I thought crippling sanctions needed to be put in place…to see action opposed to just words. His words, more recently, are more consistent with the words I've been speaking for some time, and we'll see what actions he pursues." Offering a more cautious tone than he did in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions abroad, Romney added that it was "premature" to say what the Obama administration did "correctly or incorrectly" in how it handled the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador, and three others were killed. "There are a wide array of reports about warnings and were they heeded. We'll find out whether that was the case or that was not the case," Romney said. "There was a great deal of confusion about that from the very beginning on the part of the administration and whether that was something that they were trying to paper over or whether it was just confusion given the uncertain intelligence reports. Time will tell." As Romney addressed reporters, the GOP candidate seemed upbeat. He said he was looking forward to next week's debate, his first with Obama, but said he wasn't sure "how important it will be." "I don't know what will happen at the debates, but I think it will be a good chance for the president and me to have a conversation with the American people about our respective views, and I think that will give people a chance to understand where we actually stand, as opposed to where our opposition thinks we stand," Romney said. "They'll be able to make a more informed choice." As Romney spoke, it was hard not to notice the candidate was wearing a blue tie with horseshoes and four-leafed clovers, symbols of good luck—something Romney needs heading into the final 39 days of the campaign. Romney and Netanyahu: Old Friends Now At Center Of Iran Nuke DebateBy Gregory J. Krieg | ABC OTUS News – Thu, Sep 20, 2012
Theirs is a relationship unlike any other in global politics. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been friends for more than 35 years. First they were corporate business advisers at the Boston Consulting Group during the Israeli prime minister's years studying and working in the U.S.; then, over time, they would leave the private sector for lives in politics. Netanyahu returned to Israel in the late 1970s; Romney ran for Senate in the early 1990s (he lost to Ted Kennedy) and then, successfully, for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. But they were always in touch, discussing policy and, on occasion, swapping favors, like when Romney urged Bay State legislators to divert public pension money from businesses with ties to Iran. So with the Israeli prime minister turning up in yet another Pro-Romney Super PAC ad, it was only natural to ask: Had Netanyahu, his relationship with President Obama always in varying degrees of distress, formally endorsed his old pal Mitt Romney for president? The Romney campaign says no. "Governor Romney believes we must stand with our allies," spokeswoman Andrea Saul told ABC News, "but he is not seeking the endorsement of foreign leaders." At least not formally. Despite their deep ties, the video, produced by the Secure American Now group, was made without the knowledge or approval of Netanyahu's office, nor, per campaign finance laws, did the Romney campaign have any say in its content. Punctuated with heavy, foreboding effects, the clip, taken from a Sept. 11, 2012, press conference, shows Netanyahu calling for a more aggressive tack in keeping nuclear weapons out of Iranian hands. "The world needs American strength," a narrator warns at the end. "Not apologies." Romney takes a similar tone in his own rhetoric. He told Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer in late June, "If I'm president, the Iranians will have no question but that I would be willing to take military action, if necessary, to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world." Despite proposed policies that are actually pretty much in line with those pursued by the Obama administration, there's little doubt Romney is more popular with Israel's foreign policy hawks, Netanyahu chief among them. The two stood side-by-side during Romney's visit to Israel on July 29, as Netanyahu called again for the threat of more serious, perhaps military intervention in Iran. Romney responded in the affirmative, noting their "friendship which spans the years," and telling the Israeli prime minister, "Your perspective with regards to Iran and its efforts to become a nuclear capable nation are one which I take with great seriousness. I look forward to chatting with you about further actions we can take to dissuade Iran from their nuclear folly." The release of secretly recorded tapes from a Romney fundraiser in Florida provided even more evidence of strong personal and political ties. Seeking to assuage donors' concerns about campaign tactics and the staffers drawing them up, Romney rattled off his advisers' bona fides. "I have a very good team of extraordinarily experienced, highly successful consultants, a couple of people in particular who've done races around the world," he said. "I mean, they work for 'Bibi' Netanyahu in his race. So they do these races and they see which ads work and which processes work best." There are, in fact, longstanding connections between Romney and Netanyahu's closest consultants. Dan Senor, Romney's most prominent foreign policy aide and a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion, reportedly worked with a top Netanyahu aide Ron Dermer to choreograph their July meeting. Dermer, the American-born adviser to Netanyahu Tablet Magazine calls "the prime minister's alter-ego" and credits with having "done more to shape Israel's relationship with the United States, its Arab neighbors, and the Palestinians over the past few years than any man aside from the prime minister himself," was the source for the July 2 New York Times that first revealed Romney's plan to meet with the prime minister during his trip. "He's a strong friend of Israel and we'll be happy to meet with him," Dermer said. "We value strong bipartisan support for Israel and we're sure it will only deepen that." Obama says he works 'for everybody, not just for some' White House CorrespondenThe Ticket – 13 hrs ago Appearing on the "Late Show" with David Letterman, President Barack Obama scolded Mitt Romney over his caught-on-camera remarks, declaring that "if you want to be president, you gotta work for everybody, not just for some." Letterman had asked Obama on Tuesday about Romney's remarks at a fundraiser several months ago in which the Republican standard-bearer essentially wrote off the president's core supporters as having a victim mentality and depending on government handouts. "Is that what rich guys at country clubs are talking about?" Letterman asked. "I don't know what he was referring to," the president said. "But I can tell you this: When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for John McCain," Obama said. "They didn't vote for me. And what I said on election night was: 'Even though you didn't vote for me, I hear your voices, and I'm going to work as hard as I can to be your president.'" "And one of the things I've learned as president is you represent the entire country. And when I meet Republicans as I'm traveling around the country, they are hard-working family people who care deeply about this country. And my expectation is, is that if you want to be president, you gotta work for everybody, not just for some," Obama said. Acknowledging his own 2008 gaffe in which he said Americans "bitter" about their lot in life "cling" to religion and gun rights, Obama said "I immediately said I regret this" because it "sent the wrong message to the country." (Not really. He first stood by them, then eventually worked his way to "I didn't say it as well as I should have." It was, not surprisingly, messy.) "All of us make mistakes, all of us say the wrong thing once in a while," Obama told Letterman. "People understand you're going to make mistakes on the campaign trail. What I think people want to make sure of, though, is that you're not writing off a big chunk of the country." "This is a big country. And people disagree a lot, but one thing I've never tried to do--and I think none of us can do in public office--is suggest that because someone doesn't agree with me that they're victims or they're unpatriotic." "There are not a lot of people out there who think they're victims," he said. "There are not a lot of people who think they're entitled to something." Republicans have worked to paint the election as a battle between their plans for an "opportunity society" and what they deride as Obama's "entitlement society," which they claim is an approach in which government knows best. Romney made a variation on that argument in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto. "What I think the majority of people, Democrats and Republicans, believe is is that we've got some obligations to each other, and there's nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand," Obama said. "I think that's a good investment for America, and that's—if you want to be president and you want to bring people together, I think that's the attitude that you've got to have." Secret Video Worsens Mitt Romney's September NightmareBy MICHAEL FALCONE and AMY WALTER | ABC OTUS News – 22 hrs ago
ANALYSIS: No matter what Mitt Romney wanted this week to be about, it's clear that it's going to be about one thing: A campaign that is off message and in disarray. The series of stories Monday morning that laid bare latent tensions within the Romney campaign, and in particular, displeasure with the one of the GOP candidate's trusted advisers, Stuart Stevens, turnout out to be just the beginning. Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com But it was the late-day hidden camera dump by Mother Jones' David Corn and video researcher James Carter that turned out to be the day's real atomic bomb. The leaked videos showed a series of candid moments from a May Romney fundraiser at which the presidential candidate said, among other things, that no matter what" he does, 47 percent of the population is going to vote for Obama because they are "are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it." In the video, Romney is also shown saying, "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Even so, voters are clearly waiting for the debates to make a final judgment on Romney. At least that was the take away from a focus group of suburban swing voters from Northern Virginia voters conducted last night in Fairfax, Virginia by Peter Hart for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite being inundated with campaign ads, neither candidate has satisfied these voters' desire for a cogent plan for implementing all of his proposals and promises. These voters are hoping, even though some admit it may be naïve to do so, that these debates are finally going to cut through the clutter and the attacks and the talking points. For Romney, who has had a terrible September, the old Green Day song -- "Wake Me Up When September Ends" -- seems to apply because October 3rd can't come soon enough.  John • Report Abuse
Mitt Romney Attended Bilderberg 2012: Charlie Skelton Reports Published on Jun 6, 2012 by TheAlexJonesChannel Four separate eyewitnesses inside the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly Virginia told London Guardian writer Charlie Skelton that Mitt Romney was in attendance at Bilderberg 2012, suggesting the Republican candidate could be the elite's pick for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. "Four eyewitnesses on the hotel staff told me Willard Mitt Romney was here at Bilderberg 2012. My four eyewitnesses place him inside. That's one more than Woodward and Bernstein used. Romney's office initially refused to confirm or deny his attendance as Bilderberg is "not public". They later said it was not him," writes Skelton. The London Guardian writer adds that the fact Romney's name did not appear on the official list of attendees is meaningless. Numerous power brokers, including Bill Gates, were photographed arriving at the event yet were not included on the list of participants, as is routinely the case. With speculation already raging that Romney's potential VP -- Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels -- was already being groomed by Bilderberg cronies, Romney's appearance at the secretive confab of global power brokers suggests that he is being favored by the elite, who have seemingly lost faith in Barack Obama. As Skelton noted in a separate report, on Saturday afternoon a limousine arrived at the hotel surrounded by a police motorcade, signaling the arrival of a "heavyweight politician". Could this have been Mitt Romney? It's unlikely given the fact that he was appearing at fundraisers on the west coast all weekend, but Romney's schedule for Thursday, the first day of the Bilderberg meeting, was clear. An invite to the Bilderberg conference has routinely proven beneficial to future Presidents and Prime Ministers. Four years ago during a heated battle on the campaign trail, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton gave reporters the slip to attend the 2008 Bilderberg meeting at the same hotel. On precisely the same weekend as the confab was taking place, the Washington Post announced that Hillary was withdrawing from the presidential race and would support Obama. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were both groomed by the secretive organization in the early 1990′s before rising to prominence. Portugal's Pedro Santana Lopes and Jose Socrates attended the 2004 meeting in Stresa, Italy before both going on to become Prime Minster of Portugal. Bilderberg also played a key role in selecting John Edwards and John Kerry's running mate in 2004 and Bilderberg luminary James A. Johnson also hand-picked Joe Biden as VP in 2008. Confirmation that Romney attended Bilderberg 2012 may be hard to come by, but news that the former Governor of Massachusettes email account was compromised by a hacker could offer proof, although no emails have been leaked thus far. http://www.infowars.com/eyewitnesses-mitt-romney-attended-bilderberg-2012/ by Paul Joseph Watson ROMNEY was at BILDERBERG Global Mafia Confab Chantilly Virginia 2012 Published on Jun 7, 2012 by ricthuse Mitt Romney Attended Bilderberg 2012 Reform cleric slams Church in Kenya constitution row  Rev Timothy Njoya Billie O'Kadameri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Church leaders and politicians during the 'No' campaign rally at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on Saturday. Photo: Evans Habil/Standard |
Fraud and nepotism
ACLJ is steeped in controversy over homosexuality in its ranks, fraud, nepotism, money laundering and other excesses, said to be "out of line for an organisation that calls itself either 'non-profit or Christian.'"
The revelations will certainly heighten the stakes as attempts to shoot down the Proposed Constitution at the referendum stir up emotions laced with memories of how another Washington-based firm inadvertently stoked post-election violence. In the ongoing debate, the 'foreign factor' is gaining momentum as the country looks forward to the referendum.
When the Parliamentary Select Committee adopted the Harmonised Draft Constitution at its last retreat in Naivasha, it appeared the proposed law would come up against little resistance with what were initially the three contentious issues on the Executive, devolution and land having been put to rest.
However, motley of other contentious issues are emerging everyday.
Speaking to The Standard on Sunday, Ugandan conflict resolution expert David Nyekorach-Matsanga sounded the alarm bells over imminent foreign meddling in Kenya's search for a new constitution and healing from election violence.
Matsanga expressed apprehension that the timing of ICC probe on post-election violence that will lead to a swoop on post-election violence suspects has fuelled some individuals' growing antipathy to the Proposed Constitution.
Speaking after publication of the Proposed Constitution, Lands Minister James Orengo, a member of the PSC and the Kofi Annan mediated Serena peace talks, said the growing resistance to the document is motivated by perpetrators of post-election violence.
For Matsanga, the outcome of the referendum will have a strong bearing on how Kenya votes in 2012.
However, the Church's decision to vote against the Proposed Constitution and revelations that it is on a 'retainer' of foreign organisations has heightened the stakes, with Christian leadership increasingly coming under severe criticism of attempts to mortgage the country.
ACLJ, a US church-based organisation, is reportedly financing the 'No' campaign to compel Parliament to delete the provision on Kadhis' courts and conditional termination of risky pregnancy.
Protestant churches, with deep roots in the US, are reportedly building their 'No' campaign with heavy funding from ACLJ and other organisations.
However, the organisations that are allegedly funding churches to reject the Proposed Constitution have questionable profiles likely to undermine Christian movements in the country.
ACLJ, which last week was reported to have injected $300,000 (Sh23.4 million), is embroiled in controversy over the source of its funding.
International Centre for Justice and Conflict Director Ndung'u Wainaina says: "Whereas the Church leadership has made a strong argument on the sanctity of life and wishes to link that to its demand… it has not openly expressed its opposition …to the death penalty. Equally significant is the silence of the Church leadership, over the years, on the death penalty and extrajudicial killings."
This is not the first time foreign organisations are dabbling in a highly sensitive matter with far-reaching political and economic ramifications.
The International Republican Institute (IRI) has yet to cleanse its image, sullied by the indirect role it played in the post-election violence that rocked Kenya two years ago.
Reports widely circulated in print media in the US accuses IRI and Washington of precipitating the post-election crisis through a deliberate withholding of exit poll results.
The New York Times reported: "The failure to disclose it was raised at a Senate hearing in Washington last year (2008) and has been denounced by human rights advocates, who said it might have saved lives by nudging Mr Kibaki to accept a negotiated settlement more quickly."
Domestic referendum
The Standard on Sunday took up the issue with US embassy, which was economical with information on the foreign factor in the upcoming referendum poll.
US Ambassador Michael Rannerberger repeated the statement the embassy had early in the week sent to the press. He said: "In order to support a transparent, credible, and inclusive review process the US Government is providing extensive support for civic education, community dialogue and domestic monitoring of the referendum."
The statement, however, distanced itself from the alleged Protestant financial support of churches for their campaign against the Proposed Constitution. "We have noted reports of alleged funding coming from non-governmental groups in the US in support of the 'No' campaign. We wish to clarify that these activities are not supported or encouraged by the US Government. Non-governmental groups in the United States are independent of the US Government."
Kenya: U.S. Dollars Fuelling Church Campaign
Kevin J. Kelly
1 May 2010
New York — An American-based group opposed to abortion has said it is donating "tens of thousands of dollars" to help defeat Kenya's proposed constitution.
The American Centre for Law and Justice's Jay Sekulow told the Sunday Nation that his Washington-based organisation is working through its office in Nairobi to tell Kenyans that the draft constitution would allow "abortion on demand".
It is the first revelation of foreign funding given to church leaders in Kenya to campaign against the draft constitution.
The American Centre for Law and Justice is a non-governmental public interest law firm founded in 1990 by the controversial televangelist Pat Robertson well-known in Kenya for his programs on the Christian Broadcast Network.
Information available on the Internet indicates the centre has an annual budget of about $14 million (about Sh1 billion).
Mr Robertson stirred up a barrage of criticism with his remarks that Haiti had "made a pact with the Devil" that earned them the earthquake that left more than 250,000 Hatians dead in January.
Extreme right
The "deal", according to Mr Robertson, was made by the black inhabitants of the Caribbean island nation in order to gain freedom from their French masters in 1804.
Mr Robertson and Mr Sekulow are behind the Washington-based NGO that has established a centre in Nairobi to work against the proposed draft and to develop a strategy for Christians to lobby Parliament over future law reforms.
In America they are referred to as the extreme Christian right and favour conservative social policies and very limited or no government role in the economy.
Kenyan church leaders have vowed to fell the proposed law because, in their view, it does not affirm religious freedoms and, according to their interpretation, it does not expressly outlaw abortion.
The American organisation's outlet in Kenya is the East African Centre for Law and Justice.
A statement on the US organisation's website on January 27 this year announced the centre's establishment and says, "This is only the beginning. The EACLJ will be a centre that will change the landscape of legislation for all Kenyans and eventually all of East Africa's citizens."
It is signed by Executive Director Joy Mdivo and Bishop Mark Karuki of the Deliverance Church Kenya.
The revelations come a day after NCCK secretary-general the Rev Peter Karanja said the organisation was not receiving foreign funding to run its No campaign. The Deliverance Church is not a member of the NCCK.
Reached on Saturday evening, Bishop Kariuki told the Sunday Nation he did not wish to comment on the donations until after he had spoken to Mr Sekulow.
Activists associated with similar groups in the United States are also shipping brochures to Kenya in an attempt to persuade voters to reject the proposed constitution because of a provision that would permit abortion when a woman's life is in danger.
Although the Constitution guarantees the right to life, and the draft provides that life begins at conception, church leaders have vowed to fight it because of its provisions on abortion and kadhis' courts.
They object to the section of Article 26 that empowers doctors to end a pregnancy if it endangers a woman's life or she needs emergency treatment.
The section reads: "Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other law."
Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhis' courts in the proposed constitution under Article 169 and 170. The courts have limited authority to arbitrate disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a kadhi.
The anti-abortion movement in the United States argues that the wording of the Kenyan draft constitution would in practice make abortion much more widely available in Kenya.
Under the Penal Code, the current Constitution permits abortion when a woman's life is judged by a medical professional to be in danger.
The head of the New York-based Centre for Reproductive Rights has asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to encourage the Kenyan government "to ensure that the new constitution does not undermine access to safe and legal abortion services, which are crucial to protecting women's basic rights".
The same organisation issued a report in March estimating that at least 2,600 Kenyan women die each year as a result of unsafe abortions.
The Obama administration has expressed its support for the proposed constitution.
And although neither President Obama nor Secretary Clinton has spoken out directly on the issue of abortion in Kenya, both leaders do generally favour a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.
On April 3, 2010, the White House issued a statement supporting the progress made in search of a new constitution.
"We are encouraged by the strong statements made by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga in support of the draft," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
"A unified effort to see this important reform element through can help to turn the page to a promising new chapter of Kenyan history. We urge all Kenyans to focus on the future of their nation and to unify in support of a peaceful and credible referendum and electoral process."
But Mr Sekulow, the anti-abortion attorney in Washington, told the Sunday Nation that his organisation supports "99 per cent of what's in the draft constitution."
Promote stability
He said he recognises that the proposed document includes reforms intended to promote stability in Kenya.
Mr Sekulow and other anti-abortion campaigners in the United States argue that the draft should nonetheless be rejected because it does not unequivocally prohibit abortion.
In 2005, Mr Sekulow was named one of the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals" in America by Time magazine.
Jeanne Head, a New York-based official with the anti-abortion National Right-to-Life Committee, said that her organisation "is assisting friends in Kenya by sending them brochures" to be used in the referendum campaign.
Her organisation, the largest of its kind in the United States, is not supplying funding to groups in Kenya, Ms Head said.
Held forum
Mr Sekulow said his group is using donations from its supporters in the United States to fund the activities of the Nairobi-based East African Centre for Law and Justice, which was established early this year.
He added that he could not specify how much money might eventually be provided, but he said the amount so far numbers in the "tens of thousands of dollars".
Mr Sekulow is a frequent guest on American television and is frequently quoted in the mainstream press.
According to the website, the East African satellite recently "held a consultative forum with members of various professions on the wording of the draft proposed to the Select Committee on the Constitution".
"In conjunction with Deliverance Church, the EACLJ will be initiating a grassroots effort to bring to light the importance of the new Kenyan Constitution," says the statement.
Robertson's ACLJ Shaping Kenya's Constitution
Submitted by Kyle on April 30, 2010 - 9:17am
A few months ago we noticed that the Pat Robertson-founded American Center for Law and Justice had expanded into Africa, where they were poised to get involved in helping to draft constitutions in both Zimbabwe and Kenya.
This seems like an entirely predictable result of that effort:
Church leaders in Kenya are vowing to scuttle a decades-long quest for a more democratic constitution over the issue of abortion, and American groups on both sides are weighing in on the debate.Abortions are illegal in Kenya under current law, but hundreds of thousands of women still seek them each year. The existing law, however, does allow a doctor to perform an abortion if a woman's life is in danger.That exception is also included in a proposed constitution due to be put to a referendum later this year. Church leaders fear the phrasing will open the door to legalizing abortion, saying that defining a threat to a woman's health could be interpreted broadly."It opens the door to abortion on demand, which is why Christian organizations who are pro-life are so opposed to that provision," said Jordan Sekulow, director for international operations at the anti-abortion American Center for Law and Justice, one of the U.S. groups now involved in Kenya's debate.
PFAW
Filed under:
Claim that some denominations harbor the spirit of the Antichrist
On January 14, 1991, on The 700 Club, Pat Robertson attacked a number of Protestant denominations when he declared: "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist."[2] He has never recanted this statement, though he has supported the election of certain Episcopalians.
[edit] Financial ties to Charles Taylor and Mobutu Sese Seko
Robertson repeatedly supported former President of Liberia Charles Taylor in various episodes of his 700 Club program during the United States' involvement in the Second Liberian Civil War in June and July 2003. Robertson accuses the U.S. State Department of giving President Bush bad advice in supporting Taylor's ouster as president, and of trying "as hard as they can to destabilize Liberia."[16]
Robertson was criticized for failing to mention in his broadcasts his $8,000,000 (USD) investment in a Liberian gold mine.[17] Taylor had been indicted by the United Nations for war crimes at the time of Robertson's support.
Prosecutors also said that Taylor had harbored members of Al Qaeda responsible for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. According to Robertson, the Liberian gold mine Freedom Gold was intended to help pay for humanitarian and evangelical efforts in Liberia, when in fact the company was allowed to fail leaving many debts both in Liberia and in the international mining service sector. Regarding this controversy, Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy said, "I would say that Pat Robertson is way out on his own, in a leaking life raft, on this one."[18]
Robertson has also been accused of using his tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, Operation Blessing, as a front for his own financial gain, and then using his influence in the Republican Party to cover his tracks. After making emotional pleas in 1994 on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from Rwanda to Zaire, it was later discovered, by a reporter from The Virginian-Pilot, that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the Robertson-owned African Development Corporation, a venture Robertson had established in cooperation with Zaire's dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, whom Robertson had befriended earlier in 1993. According to Operation Blessing documents, Robertson personally owned the planes used for Operation Blessing airlifts.
In 1993, Mobutu was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department after he sought to visit Washington, D.C. Shortly after this, Robertson tried to get the State Department to lift its ban on the African leader.
An investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications" and called for a criminal prosecution against Robertson in 1999. However, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican whose largest campaign contributor two years earlier was Robertson himself, intervened, accepting that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution.[19] No charges were ever brought against Robertson. "Two years earlier, while Virginia's investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign — Earley's largest contribution."
Simon Mwaura CEO
| HYAQUIP KENYA LTD P.O BOX 78381-00507 VIWANDANI NAIROBI, KENYA HYAQUIP INC CANADA 5016-47TH STREET,3rd FLOOR,P.O.BOX 383.YELLOWKNIFE , NORTHWEST TERRITORIES XIA 2N3, CANADA. bryant.mathews@hyaquipinc.com |
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| 254-202329113/4 / 254-20 821131 | |
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Water hyacinth was discovered in Brazil in 1824 and SIMON NJOROGE MWAURA become the first man in the world to develop 15 different products from water hyacinth and all other aquatic weeds in 1996 breaking World history. Water hyacinth is found in many Countries. Water hyacinth is the only plant in world that converts its intake into fertilizer.
Water hyacinth remains the world's most serious aquatic weed; is spreading at an alarming rate in Africa and Papua New Guinea and remains a serious problem in the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia. Successful biological control can reduce weed cover to ca.30% of the water surface in 3 to 10 years after establishment of agents and has achieved excellent control in a number of countries. Information on the technology has been widely disseminated but the rate of application has been relatively slow due to a lack of experienced practitioners in some developing countries and because adequate funding has not been available. Recently, due to the rapid increase in the abundance and distribution of this weed in Africa and elsewhere, interest in the problem has widened and the number of control projects is increasing. In addition, the major organizations, CSIRO Australia, PPRI South Africa and USDA USA, involved in conducting or supporting research to improve biological control are studying additional control agents and the integration of biological and other control techniques into efficient management strategies. This paper describes the interactions and cooperation between these organizations that promotes efficient use of scarce resource and outlines the worldwide linkages between those organizations, other agencies and national governments in extending the application of this technology. This biological technology to manage water hyacinth is now not a solution to the management of water hyacinth. The international biological control, the world bank, Global Environment Facility and other funding agencies should now fund the commercialization, harvesting, processing and utilization of water hyacinth, other water marsh plant and other plants with soft tissues, presently considered un-economical to provide the much needed raw materials to produce organic fertilizers, compost, paper, paper board, fodder, desert sand binder and conditioner-water hyacinth 100% plant tissue or as 100% plant tissue residual will be used as desert sand binder to improve sand fertility and water retention, crude proteins extracted from water hyacinth and other plants. The invention of water hyacinth processing equipment by Hyaquip Inc Kenya Ltd. provides the world with solution to utilize hyacinth for commercial purpose.
| Hyaquip Inc |
 SIMON NJOROGE MWAURA inventor of the new coffee and tea products and the Vice President of the Republic of Kenya HON. STEPHEN KALONZO MUSYOKA officially launching 100% coffee Cheery and Tea extracts.Read more.... HYAQUIP INC has designed a water hyacinth processing equipment to harvest, process and utilize the hyacinth, other water mash plants and plants with soft tissues as raw material. The equipment has the capacity to contain the rapid growth of water hyacinth and other water mash plants that multiplies at a very high rate. The harvested hyacinth is processed into raw material for commercial use, i.e. fertilizers and other products. The company has utilized this troublesome weed as a golden weed that will provide the world with much needed organic fertilizers and will benefit developing countries mainly in Africa and Asia to utilize the weed that is available in hundred's of acres in the fresh waters mainly lakes, rivers and large ponds. The process turns this troublesome weed into useful income generating national resource and creates job opportunities. The products were invented by Dr. Simon Njoroge Mwaura HYAQUIP. Mr. Musyoka urged Kenyans to appreciate the work of scientific breakthrough and celebrate those behind such inventions. He urged Dr. Mwaura and the rest with personal productions to engage legal experts who should assist them to register and secure their inventions in order to deter other people from claiming them. The Vice President assured that the government will stand by Kenyans who come up with new inventions and would assist in securing protection. Mr. Musyoka said the new organic fertilizer had been used by farmers in some parts of the country and had produced wonderful results. Bishop Dr. Charles Muyu urged Kenyans to start using organic fertilizers since conventional fertilizers are destroying the lives of Kenyans, saying farmers should change their farming.
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http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,373597,00.html
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,373597,00.html
| http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,373597,00.html FEATURE Pat Robertson's Quest for Eternal Life He's making bets to ensure that his evangelical empire outlasts him. His portfolio so far: a gold mine in Liberia, a mothballed oil refinery, and $78 million in losses. FORTUNE Tuesday, May 28, 2002 By Daniel Roth Jesus mania swept Liberia. For eight nights last December the nation's TV channels--both of them--simultaneously showed programs created by Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. There was the Prodigal Son parable told from a Nigerian point of view; animated Bible episodes; stories about people who said they'd had out-of-body experiences and come face to face with the Almighty; and the true tale of a Mexican family who stayed together thanks to God. For two nights the stations simply broadcast testimonials from Liberians detailing Jesus' role in their lives. Those without televisions (the vast majority of the country) could catch the same fare at local "video clubs"--converted storefronts where people paid the equivalent of a few pennies to gather around a TV and VCR. That was just the buildup. In February, at a national three-day prayer-and-fast rally partially funded by Robertson, Liberia's President--a U.S. prison escapee who, according to Human Rights Watch, has run "the whole gamut of human rights abuses"--declared he had seen the light. "We in Liberia recognize that there is a higher authority," said Charles Taylor, decked out in a short-sleeved white suit and standing on a red-carpeted stage at the center of the Samuel K. Doe stadium in Monrovia. "I am not your President. Jesus is!" He instructed the estimated 65,000 people in the crowd to prostrate themselves and join in a song that he would lead despite his position--face down on the carpet. As the rally ended, Taylor presented a ceremonial plate to an American preacher named John Gimenez who had helped organize the event. "Thank you," Taylor said. "Tell Pat Robertson, and please present this to him as a token of our appreciation." About 190 miles away, in a densely forested region of Liberia called Bukon Jedeh, Robertson's employees were busy working on a much more valuable token of Taylor's appreciation. There a crew of 35 Liberians were digging deep holes into the red, claylike soil on a plot of land contracted out to Robertson. Their goal was to uncover the spot, beneath the gravel and laterite, that they believed held five million ounces of the stuff that the Book of Revelation says lines the streets of heaven: pure gold. Gold that if sold on the open market could reap about $1.5 billion. Behind the media blitz of Monrovia and the trenches of Bukon Jedeh is the tale of Pat Robertson's search for immortality. In the past few years Robertson has slowly slipped out of view, especially in politics, where his ambitions once extended to the White House. But he has hardly gone into retirement. In fact, friends and family say he's working with more intensity than ever. His mission: not just to boost his $300-million-a-year empire--dominant Christian broadcaster CBN, an all-graduate-level university called Regent, and his Operation Blessing global charity--but also to make sure it lasts forever. So lately the preacher has been making big, risky bets. Robertson's businesses are sustained largely by his uncanny ability to persuade ordinary folks to send him cash. For his kingdom to survive without him, he needs new sources of income. That has led him to two of the world's oldest wealth creators: gold and oil. If his ventures pay off, Robertson's Christian conversion machine could become a permanent fixture in the media landscape all over the world. If they fail? Well, Robertson might be about to find out. It's two hours before airtime for the 700 Club, one of the longest-running TV shows in history, and Robertson is exactly where he likes to be: flat on his back, with 700 pounds resting above his head. He is a fanatic for leg presses. The CBN Website, hyping an "age defying" protein shake invented by Robertson, asks breathlessly, "Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 600 pounds!" The executive in charge of Robertson's investments says it's really more like 1,000 pounds. But on this early Tuesday morning, Robertson, dressed in a shiny black sweatsuit and bright-white Reebok sneakers, is maxing out a few hundred shy of that. "Two more, Doc?'' asks the burly trainer standing beside the machine. "Forty-fives?'' replies Robertson. "Yeah,'' says the trainer. Robertson nods and 90 more pounds are added. He pushes out ten abbreviated knee bends, his face quickly turning red under his white hair. Then he ambles out of the machine. Marion Gordon "Pat'' Robertson is 72 years old. He treats his empire the way he does his body: believing that he can grow it just as he did in his late 20s. It was then--at age 29--that Roberts bought a dilapidated UHF channel in Portsmouth, Va., for $37,000 and turned it into the Christian Broadcasting Network. The son of a U.S. Senator, Robertson had graduated from Yale Law School and started his own speaker-manufacturing company when he heard the call of the ministry. He fled corporate life, tried poverty for a while, then, upon founding CBN in 1960, discovered that business and the Bible could happily mix. Over the next few decades, Robertson built the nonprofit CBN into an empire. He pioneered the use of satellite to beam The 700 Club--which offers both news and commentary from a Christian perspective--across the country to content-hungry cable operators. Later he added cheap family-oriented TV shows like Gunsmoke and Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop to create a 24-hour channel that in 1992 went public as International Family Entertainment. He launched the Christian Coalition--a group he stepped down from in December--and built a political base large enough that even today he can still get the ear of just about any politician in the country. He founded Regent (originally called CBN University), a school designed, as the motto says, to create "Christian leadership to change the world.'' The result of his efforts is a sprawling 685-acre campus in Virginia Beach, dotted with dogwoods and magnolias, curving roads, and Georgian-style buildings that, despite being just over two decades old, look as if they've been standing for centuries. The grounds fan out from CBN, which broadcasts out of a cross-shaped, red-brick building with a domed chapel, where Robertson preaches to employees and prays over viewer mail. Out front is the 240-room Founders Inn hotel, with its reproduction oil portraits of Washington and Jefferson--along with CBN founder Robertson, clutching a Bible and standing before an undulating American flag. Nearby is the National Counseling Center, CBN's 24-hour telephone center, which gets some 2.5 million calls a year from people asking for help and being asked to give. Over 200 "prayer counselors" carefully track incoming calls, allowing CBN to analyze The 700 Club in 30-second intervals to find out which pieces drive pledges and which drive them away. Some 93% of pledges come in when The 700 Club is on. A short stroll away is Regent University, including the 130,000-square-foot Robertson Hall (which houses his ACLU-battling group, the American Center for Law and Justice); the university's airy library; and a new, $35 million College of Communications and Arts, which when completed will feature a movie back lot, $6 million of digital video equipment, and a 750-person auditorium. For Robertson to survey his empire, all he has to do is jump in his black Corvette and peel--and that's the right word, says an employee, joking that he makes turns "almost on two wheels''--through the trails. But the campus, the TV empire, the university, and the political machine were all just part of the first 40-year phase of Robertson's plan. Phase II will take much longer. It involves turning his creations into institutions with staying power. For Regent, that means becoming a university on a par with Harvard, Oxford, or Yale. ("I'm not going to settle for anything less,'' Robertson says. "I'm not comparing myself to Podunk U.'') But even more important is what it means for CBN. Currently the network's programs are seen by 200 million people a year, in 90 countries and in 71 different languages. By 2007, Robertson wants to reach one billion people a year. Today CBN is global; the goal is to make it, and the Robertson name, ubiquitous--and permanent. "Pat's a very attractive guy to the masses--he really is,'' says Lowell Morse, who oversees Robertson's investments as head of Robertson Asset Management. "He is going to be a more attractive guy, in my opinion, when he's dead. People are not going to realize the impact he had until he's gone." To make sure that happens, Robertson has entrusted his youngest son and heir apparent, Gordon, 43, to spread the Word. In the past few years, the onetime lawyer has opened studios in India, the Philippines, and Ukraine, cloning The 700 Club and creating new shows like Surat, a program in Indonesia, with formerly Muslim women talking about issues of the day. This February he dedicated a $5 million studio in Jakarta filled with the latest broadcasting equipment; now he's trying to turn it into a 24-hour cable channel. In less developed countries, CBN employs "blitzes"--attempts to expose a population to Jesus by buying up as much airtime on as many media in a country as possible. Since the early 1990s, CBN has launched its media strikes in some 31 countries. Immortality, unfortunately, doesn't come cheap. In the past three years, CBN and its Operation Blessing charity have been running in the red, losing $37.5 million on revenues of $202 million in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001 (the most recent for which figures are available), according to Wall Watchers, a group in Matthews, N.C., that serves as a kind of Morningstar for Christian ministries. The bulk of the revenues comes from donations: $95 million to CBN and $66 million to Operation Blessing. Of that, CBN spends $90 million staffing its National Counseling Center and producing and syndicating its shows in the U.S. (though thanks to a contract provision, ABC is required to carry The 700 Club on its ABC Family channel free, forever). International outreach costs an additional $24 million, with much of it going to offices, studios, and the blitzes, which can run from $1.5 million in more developed countries like Guatemala to $20,000 in places like Burkina Faso. (The Liberian blitz cost $60,000.) The question is whether donations--which have ranged between $83 million and $95 million annually over the past eight years--will keep up once Robertson is gone. History doesn't look good. When Robertson was mulling a run for President in the late 1980s, CBN was hot. In its fiscal year ended March 31, 1987, the nonprofit pulled in $130 million in donations. Later that year Robertson declared his bid and turned over 700 Club hosting duties to eldest son Tim, now 47. Pledges nosedived: In fiscal 1988 they hit $83.5 million; a year later they had sunk to $60 million. CBN was forced to lay off 600 people. Today onscreen duties have been handed over to the more camera-friendly Gordon, but the challenge is still daunting. "Personality-oriented media ministries generally do not last long beyond the death of their founder-leaders," says Quentin Schultze, a religious-media expert and professor of communications at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. "Some religious-media personalities try to usher their offspring into the celebrity fold, almost as a kind of religious monarchy," he notes, citing Oral Roberts, Robert Schuller, and Jimmy Swaggart. "But there is no historical evidence that this kind of monarchical passing of the ministry will be successful." So a few years ago Robertson began scrambling to build an endowment to make sure his creations can be funded forever. The tricky part was how. A former Robertson lieutenant told the Virginian-Pilot in 1999 that his boss believed the Lord intended that people profit from the vast mineral deposits he put in the earth. Robertson started looking downward for the secret to eternal funding. But if the Lord wanted the preacher to have stakes in nature, he sure wasn't going to make it easy. The road to Monrovia started in 1997, when Rupert Murdoch, shopping for an outlet for his children's programming, bought Robertson's publicly traded cable operation, IFE, for $1.9 billion in cash. Most of the money went to public shareholders and to John Malone, an early investor in IFE through his Liberty Media. Robertson took home over $400 million. Of that, the preacher received $19 million, Regent $148 million, CBN $136 million, and the Robertson Charitable Remainder Trust--a trust that pays out to CBN in 2010, or at the death of either Robertson or his wife, Dede, whichever comes later--$109 million. CBN and Regent, both nonprofits, quickly put the money to use. The trust's windfall, though, was going to be Robertson's big chance to endow his creations. And two friends came to him with grand plans: The head of Robertson's law school saw riches in a rundown refinery in California (we'll get to that story later). John Gimenez, the pastor of nearby Rock Church, saw riches in a rundown country: Liberia. In 1997 the West African nation had just emerged from a bloody seven-year civil war that left an estimated 150,000 people dead and 1.9 million without homes or living as refugees in neighboring countries. Its new President, Charles Taylor, a leader of one of the factions, found himself running a country with $2.1 billion in debt and an 85% unemployment rate. Despite Liberia's rich natural resources like iron ore, timber, diamonds, and gold, and its historical ties to America--the country was founded by freed slaves from the U.S. in the mid-1800s--Taylor found it hard to lure Western companies to his land. The problem? For one, Taylor. Like his fellow warlords, Taylor had fought the civil war with a large number of child soldiers; once President, he used his security force to carry out torture, looting, extortion, and "extrajudicial killings," according to the State Department. After Taylor was accused of aiding the brutal Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone by helping to smuggle between $25 million and $125 million of diamonds out each year, both the U.S. and the U.N. slapped sanctions on Liberia. But Gimenez saw hope in the country. Through a missionary from his church, he came to believe that Liberia, which is about 40% Christian, was getting a bad rap. When some Liberian politicians came to him to find revenue sources for their country, Gimenez knew just where to turn for help. "In something like this, Pat has a real heart to help people," says Gimenez. "[The media] criticize Pat because he's a minister and he's a businessman. But that's what they needed there." Yet in Liberia there already were Westerners trying to make a buck. For one of them, Robertson's entry proved disastrous. Since 1978, Ken Ross Jr., a former state legislator in California, had been trying his hand at mining. He'd come to the country at the request of an acquaintance named William Burke, a former campaign worker for California Governor Jerry Brown and the husband of a U.S. Congresswoman. Burke had started a mining company in Liberia in the mid-1970s, but by 1978 he had run out of funds. A wide-eyed entrepreneur, Ross bought a controlling stake in the company that year. In his khaki pants and polo shirts, Ross soon started digging through Burke's concession, looking for his big payoff. He started mining one area, but kept his eye on another part of the concession, located in the remote southeast of Liberia. Ross knew the region, called Bukon Jedeh, was promising: For decades locals had eked out livings sluicing for gold there. But would it support a gold mine? To find out, he provided funds in 1988 for a Ghana-born employee named Isaac Boadi to earn his Ph.D. in geology in the U.S. and, as part of his dissertation, to study the region. Three years later, what Boadi found were the kind of anomalies in the land that get gold hunters lacing up their boots. He analyzed the various geographies of Bukon Jedeh and found gold just about everywhere possible: in dried-up river streams, alluvial flats, and bedrock. And instead of the usual four parts per billion of gold found in most rock, Boadi found in some places a high of eight parts per million. "I have explored for gold in various places in Africa," says Boadi, now an independent exploration geologist and consultant based in Kumasi, Ghana, "and Bukon Jedeh is [still] one of the most interesting and one of the most prospective places I would look for gold." Ross built an airstrip and started to get the necessary infrastructure to the site. That all came to an abrupt halt in 1990 when civil war broke out. Though unable to work the site for eight years, Ross stayed in the country. When peace--or peace of a sort--came to Liberia, he turned his attention back to Bukon Jedeh and began trolling for investors. It was at that time that Ross' son, Ken Ross III, says that his dad was approached by Taylor, who asked that he talk to Pat Robertson. Taylor had received a call saying Robertson was looking to put some money into the country. (Ross Jr., who's being treated for stage-four colon cancer in California, couldn't be interviewed.) In late November 1998 it looked as if the two might be able to get together--Ross to mine his land and Robertson to make some cash by investing in it. The preacher sent Ross a ticket and invited him to Virginia for a discussion. There, far from the burned-out houses and moist air of Liberia, Ross laid out a plan. In a conference room in CBN's studio headquarters, he presented details of Bukon Jedeh, explaining the geology, engineering studies, cash flow, and what he saw as a potential $1 billion cash payout. As Ross talked, a coterie of Robertson advisors--two Liberian politicians, a Liberian-born attorney named Gerald Padmore, and the dean of the Regent law school, J. Nelson Happy--listened intently. The younger Ross says that his dad offered to cut Robertson in for half of the concession as long as Robertson ponied up the $12.5 million necessary to buy out Ross' current partners. Robertson promised he'd get back to Ross in a few days. The next morning, after a night at the Founders Inn, Ross flew back to Liberia expecting to finally get his gold mine running. He never heard from Robertson again. Padmore, Robertson's attorney in the deal and the managing attorney at Cox Padmore Skolnik & Shakarchy in Denver, remembers the meeting differently. He says Ross suggested that Liberia declare his company in default, cancel his rights to the land, and issue the license to a new company owned jointly by Robertson and Ross. Padmore says that when his group met to talk about Ross' offer, they rejected it almost immediately: "We did not want to be involved in anything that could be seen as defrauding prior investors." (Ross III says that his dad was not offering to bankrupt the company but warning that the government might do so because it was desperate for tax revenues.) In any event, Ross found his concession revoked the next month. In December 1998 a company called Freedom Gold was created in the Cayman Islands. Its sole owner: the Pat Robertson Charitable Remainder Trust. By May 1999, Padmore and Freedom Gold's head, a former engineer named Joe Mathews, were sitting down with Charles Taylor in the executive mansion in Monrovia. In Taylor's temporary office, a room covered with heavy curtains concealing bare concrete walls, the three worked out mining agreements. While there was back and forth over wording and tax issues, there was one agreement that Freedom Gold couldn't get out of. Like any other mining operation in Liberia, Freedom Gold would be required to give the government the right to exercise--at no cost--options worth 10% of the company. Robertson's and Taylor's fortunes would now be linked. To some, it might seem strange that Robertson, a God-fearing man, would do business with Taylor, a man feared as a god in his country. Not to Robertson. "Firestone Tire does business over there, Coca-Cola does business over there," he says. "Nobody criticizes that. It's just because I'm me." Besides, he says, Taylor is misunderstood by the world. "This man Taylor is not the monster everybody makes him out to be. Like most African countries, they don't have the same ethics we might have in this country, but at least they're trying to do something. There is no controversy at all. After this Liberia for Jesus," he says--referring to the three-day prayer-and-fast service in February--"I don't think any right-thinking person can make such claims." Charles Taylor wasn't the only one to receive options in Freedom Gold. In November 1999, Robertson granted options for about 0.5% of the venture to William Burke, the original owner of the Bukon Jedeh concession, who by then had given up mining and moved on to various civic activities--helping oversee the Los Angeles Olympics, building the L.A. Marathon into a major race, and chairing the state organization in charge of regulating air quality over the L.A. region. Burke says he received the options--worth between $100,001 and $1 million, according to his latest filing with the California Fair Political Practices Commission--as a gift for helping to mollify Ross' original investors. With the investors against him, his dad in the hospital, and the government no longer on his side, Ken Ross III tried his luck in the Liberian courts. He argued that although his father's 20-year concession for the region had expired, a force majeure clause in the contract enabled him to hold on to it until 2005--making up for the seven years lost during the civil war. In the fall of 1999, the court agreed with Ross. But before he could break out the shovels, the chief justice of Liberia's highest court a week later overturned the decision.The problem: The case was filed in the wrong court and filed too late. "They didn't address the merits of the case at all," says Ross from his home in Grand Rapids. This wasn't exactly William Rehnquist chewing over issues with his peers. The State Department notes in its most recent human rights report on Liberia that while the constitution delineates three branches, they all serve at Taylor's disposal. "The bicameral legislature exercises little independence from the executive branch," the State Department notes, and "the judiciary is subject to political influence, economic pressure, and corruption." Freedom Gold attorney Padmore says that whatever happened with the case, it was between Ross and the Liberian government: "There was absolutely no involvement by us in this. Zip, zero, none," he says. As a last-ditch attempt to get the land back, Ross III asked for one final meeting with Robertson's group. In August 2000 Ross sat down with Padmore, Happy, and Freedom Gold head Mathews at the United Red Carpet Club in Washington's Dulles Airport. Ross came with a deal and some news. He'd found a new investor: family friend Rich DeVos, the billionaire co-founder of Amway. Now he wanted to either be given the 28-square-mile piece of land that geologist Boadi had studied back in the late '80s or be paid $5 million to go away. The group rejected both offers, though Ross says Happy did offer to pray for his father. "First you want to screw him, then you want to pray for him?" Ross thought. "What's wrong with this picture?" He walked out of the meeting, cut all contact with Freedom Gold, and started pursuing a new gold mine in Liberia under the name AmLib United Minerals. Freedom Gold, though, doesn't think Ross is finished trying to wrest away the land. "The best thing that can happen to the Rosses is if we decide to hightail it out of there with all the negative publicity," says Mathews. "Then they just walk in with all of our results and whatever we've done at this point. We're not going to do that. We've taken our hits already." But in late 2000, just as Robertson seemed finally ready to start mining in Liberia, the other part of his immortality strategy--a much, much larger investment in the U.S.--appeared be imploding. Take I-5 south out of Los Angeles, and at the edge of Orange County you'll hit the small town of Santa Fe Springs. It's a residential community now, but in the '20s it was home to one of the world's largest oil fields. With oil came a boom; then the industry moved on. Yet the remains of those days can still be seen. Indeed, walk three blocks past Lakeland Elementary School, just down from the South Fulton Village senior citizens' center, and there, near a trailer-home park, sits the old Powerine oil refinery, its rusting towers jutting into the air. Its owner: the Pat Robertson Charitable Remainder Trust. In 1998, just before Robertson met with Gimenez to talk about investing in Liberia, Regent law school dean Happy approached his boss with the idea of buying Powerine. The plant had been shuttered in the mid-1990s, but Happy--a former corporate lawyer with experience in the oil industry--convinced Robertson that for a $20 million initial investment, he could restart the plant, run it right, and pump out profits of $70 million to $100 million a year. The resale value alone, Happy figured, could be worth close to $1 billion. That August, Robertson took out his checkbook, buying Powerine, a plant once owned by Rothschild Oil, and renamed it Cenco Refining, short for Creative Energy Co. Happy, shuttling between California and Virginia Beach, had worked out the economics. But what he didn't count on was the community response. The old Powerine refinery was despised in Santa Fe Springs. While residents weren't thrilled about the eyesore of the rusting facility, they preferred it to what they used to deal with: irritated eyes, breathing issues, and strange oil patches that at times coated their cars. When Powerine was running, it earned the distinction of having the worst air-quality record and highest number of public complaints of all refineries in the Los Angeles area. So residents were surprised when they discovered that Robertson had received clearance to open the plant without going through the public process of obtaining hard-to-get air-quality permits. The California government arm that regulated the region--the South Coast Air Quality Management District--declared that Powerine's old permits were still valid, despite the refinery's having been out of operation for years. The chairman of that board: the very same William Burke, who by 1999 found himself with an unexercised stake in Freedom Gold. A conflict of interest? Not at all, says Burke, who insists his hands were tied in regard to the plant. "When Pat Robertson acquired Cenco Refinery, he had a letter from the district long before I was ever there, which assured the new owner that all the permits would be reissued," he says. "He and I have never spoken directly about any Cenco issue. He always dealt through lawyers." Plus, Burke insists, he's since donated his Freedom Gold options to a charity associated with his L.A. Marathon. Within months of Cenco's creation, a California environmental group called Communities for a Better Environment started calling town hall meetings in the working-class neighborhood and prepared for a fight. In May 2000, CBE sued Cenco, alleging violations of the Clean Air Act and the California equivalent. That same month, the California Division of Labor sued Cenco for its failure to pay severance to Powerine's old employees. Those weren't Cenco's only judicial problems: The state also sued for hazardous-waste violations, the city of Santa Fe Springs for other hazardous-waste violations, and the Environmental Protection Agency for air concerns. Soon even Robertson's lawyers were joining the act, alleging that Robertson had stopped paying their bills. (Cenco says it plans to countersue one law firm and settle with the other.) By last year it was clear that even with the air permits, Happy's investment was draining CBN's endowment, not enriching it. According to a declaration of Cenco's controller taken for the CBE case, Cenco's overhead operating costs by last fall were about $325,000 a month. Throw in the 8% interest it was paying on loans, and the carrying costs soared to $485,000 a month. Robertson had had enough. By November, Happy--the former dean and Robertson confidant--was gone. Robertson replaced him with investment head Morse. "Things would have gone differently," say Morse, "had Pat had the right guy running it. Period." Cut through all the legal wrangling, and an in-teresting fact emerges: So far Robertson's investments in God's earth have been disasters. Freedom Gold has yet to produce a penny of revenue, despite having possibly burned through more than $8 million. While the company's initial results confirmed what geologist Boadi knew all along--that there was gold in the land--Mathews isn't sure how to mine it in an economical way, or even if it's possible. The initial crew of more than 150 spent the first few months setting up a camp and digging ten-foot-deep holes in a 3.5-square-mile block of the 560-square-mile claim. Then they washed samples by hand--a method that allowed much of the gold to slip away and thwarted any attempt to make an estimate of the total gold in the land. Now Mathews is trying to bring in drills from the U.S. to Monrovia, then from there to Bukon Jedeh. As with most things in Liberia, the logistics are nightmarish. So until they arrive, he's trying other methods to get to the gold: letting workers with short picks corkscrew their way into the earth and even selling rice to locals in exchange for information about where they've found gold. "Right now the directive to me is to keep costs to a minimum," says Mathews, who hopes to get a mining operation started by mid-2004. William Burke, however, continues to hold out hope: "I'm the guy who discovered this stuff. I know it's there," he says. "I went out there and worked seven years of my life, so I know it's there." In even worse shape is the dream of the $100-million-a-year refinery. After spending close to $80 million trying to get Cenco up and running, Robertson appears to be giving up. "I'm telling you," he says, "it's California, it's environmental, it is just a nightmare." Morse's new plan is to parcel off the land into "what I hope is the finest industrial park in all of Santa Fe Springs." So far, though, Morse has been able to sell only 22 acres, for $10 million. All told, the Robertson Charitable Remainder Trust has burned through an estimated $78 million of its $109 million starting funds--a loss of 72% of the capital, with no return. The big bets, so far, have been big failures. Still, Robertson isn't writing off Liberia yet. But what if eventually he does, leaving CBN with donations and little more to rely on once Robertson dies? Schultze, the televangelism expert, theorizes that Regent would probably be able to stand alone. Its endowment stands at $300 million, thanks to its share of the IFE payoff. He's less sanguine about the hopes for CBN, the TV network that started it all and still carries Robertson's words on a daily basis. Robertson knows the score. In the 1995 epilogue to his autobiography, Shout It From the Housetops!, he wrote that the loss of funds during his presidential bid made him realize that "my retirement some day in the future could have a similar impact on the ministry I loved." The IFE trust, he wrote, was a way to "undergird CBN's future finances." Now, with that trust drastically reduced, he insists that CBN's strong management team should be able to carry on just fine on its own. "My son Gordon has taken over more and more of the on-air role, as well the Internet operation and the overseas operation, and he has got a real heart for it," says Robertson, sitting in a stately wing-backed chair in his office. The room, with its dark wood paneling and collection of memorabilia from Robertson's decades in politics, looks as if it were designed to one day be a museum piece. "I think if I were to pass off the scene in a few years, I think that we've got enough strength in various positions that that wouldn't be any problem." Besides, it's not too late to keep investing. "I'm by nature an entrepreneur, unfortunately," he laughs. "I like to start businesses and start things." In mid-April, Morse, a former real estate developer, revealed that CBN had the perfect new idea: convert part of the land Robertson's empire sits on into a center similar to the Stanford Research Park in California. "The long-term annuity for CBN will be real estate residuals," he says. "It hasn't been announced yet, but when I see it, I drool. There's some good stuff there." |
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