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Religious Resignation - Jester - 06-07-2008
Quote:It seems like a scheme to rip off the American tax payers for $2.5 billion dollars, then use the money to buy influence with top officials and key corporations. America gives billions to Iraq, Alsammarae embezzles the money, Iraq convicts him, America helps him to escape, Alsammarae buys off politicians with stolen money. I smell a rat.
Could well be. The inner workings of the Iraqi government / reconstruction program nexus are almost totally opaque to me. Obviously, lots of people are making off like bandits, and everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else.
Since the FBI has apparently cold-shouldered attempts to get Alsammarae back to Iraq, I'm going to guess that either he has friends in high places, or the FBI thinks he's a target in Iraq taking the fall. Maliki clearly hates him, and what that means, I have no idea. (He is also fingering Blackwater in Alsammarae's escape, which may be part of his general campaign against Blackwater, or he may know better than we do.) Did he buy off the Americans? Or just piss of the Iraqis? Or a little of both?
I suspect that Rezko, like so many other shady dealers with connections in the middle east, saw an opportunity when his lifelong friend, Alsammarae, gets the job in the reconstruction of Iraq's energy grid. Now, maybe Alsammarae was shady too at this point, or maybe that happened later, after becoming minister. (Or, there's an outside chance, he's not shady, just wrongly accused, but I doubt that.) I also wonder if Rezko didn't try to use this opportunity to move from being a local Chicago heavy to cashing in bigtime with Iraq contracts. Or maybe it's all just Chicago real estate to him.
And what the heck is up with his attempts to act as a mediator between the sides in Iraq? I don't get that at all. Maybe he did that at the US' prompting, and they're now protecting him for it? Or maybe he just had really big ideas and a very small reserve of common sense. Very bizarre.
But, this is all just wondering out loud. Too many people have an agenda I don't know about for me to try and pick out what's what.
-Jester
Religious Resignation - kandrathe - 06-08-2008
Quote:... Too many people have an agenda I don't know about for me to try and pick out what's what.Or, maybe common crooks like Rezko end up in jail, but uncommon crooks like Alsammarae end up using their connections and skills for those who did you the favors. The whole thing could be a script for "Mission Impossible".
Religious Resignation - eppie - 06-10-2008
Quote:eppie: Seriously, you sound like the European media. Come up with something of your own, and you'll get taken more seriously.
Coming up with something of your own doesn't get you taken more seriously on the lounge. Like I have done before I ask you to check the Iraq war posts of 2003, and then come back with the 'own opinion and who is right' things. Screaming the loudest doesn't make what you say is right.
Quote:Jester has about ten times more clue than you do how it works here, even if he doesn't always 'get it'. I don't quite understand politics in his country, either, down to the last detail. You're trying to project what your own (politically-influenced) media says onto the real world, and, as usual it fails to get even close to reality.
I don't tend to agree too much with our (politically-influenced) media, check my posts on topics like the Muslim questions in Europe. (if you want of course, I can imagine that it is easier to just say something)
Quote: Hell, eppie, if we believe all the stuff we read in the Euro media, the Muslims are already well under way in turning Western Europe to Sharia law. Is that really a true statement? Or is that just media reporting? You tell me. I don't know, I'm not there. If I'm to believe what I read, the EU is already working to outlaw voices it doesn't want to hear. Is that true, or just media 'focus' that ignores the whole picture?
I think there is much more interest coming from Europeans for American affairs than the other way around. Some members here show that they have interest and knowledge about European affairs......although this interest remains limited (just look at the number of reads and replies on American and European subjects). I am interested in what happens in the US, and have more often been right than wrong in my statements. I am not afraid to admit I am wrong, but what you are stating here is just a bit childish.
Quote:Basically, eppie, if the two statements about Sharia law and EU outlawing stuff they don't want to hear sound like complete trash to you because I don't know the whole story, only what I've read in the media, then you know how we take you, spouting off to media stories that only show a little.
You are talking about opinions and not about facts. If there were hard facts on Europe and sharia law we would know them, however most people have an interest in turning things there way.
Please if you reply try to give me some examples of where I am wrong or talking BS. That way I can react to it fairly instead of just having to listen (read) to some insinuations.