[. . . . ] While it is only my speculation, I am fairly confident I understand what happened. Mr. Tenet's resignation was not accepted as a propitiatory offering against the nasty review of the CIA's failures that is upcoming from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was instead dropped because he failed to prevent a cabal of agents within the CIA from carrying out a private vendetta against Ahmed Chalabi in Iraq that was ultimately designed to undermine Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the "neocons" in the Pentagon, and through them, the whole Bush administration. [. . . . ]

A detailed analysis of Saddam Hussein's secret money-laundering techniques shows here for the first time how he used the same offshore money launderers as Osama bin Laden. That covert money network, based in the tax havens of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau, helped bankroll the war machines of both Iraq and al-Qaeda.

More than 1,000 pages of confidential corporate, bank and legal documents show how the network functioned. The papers come from court cases filed in several European countries, from corporate records, from investigations by Italian police, from a report of the Kroll international investigative agency, and from private sources. The documents are the basis of further investigations coordinated in Europe by the prosecutor of Milan.

They show, for example, that a father-and-son team in Liechtenstein, whose business is setting up shell companies and secret bank accounts, worked to move the money of both Saddam and al-Qaeda. Engelbert Schreiber and his son Englebert Schreiber Jr. are listed as founder or board member of Mediterranean Enterprises Development Projects, Tradex, Techno Service Intl., Saidomin and Executive Flight Assistance, all Liechtenstein companies that handled arms sales and payoffs for Saddam. They also are listed on corporate documents for Nasreddin International Group Ltd. Holding (Liechtenstein). Ahmed Idriss Nasreddin, on the U.S. terrorist blacklist, was a founder of Al Taqwa, the bank that moved money for al-Qaeda and which was closed down by the United States after 9/11. The Schreibers declined to respond to numerous requests for comment.

One of the men linked in documents to several Panama shell companies used in the Saddam laundering network was Baudoin Dunand, a Swiss lawyer who is administrator of the Saudi Investment Co. (SICO), the Geneva investment affiliate of the bin Laden family conglomerate, run by Osama bin Laden's half-brother Yeslam Binladen. (They spell their names differently.) Dunand declined to respond to repeated requests for comment.

[. . . . ] Banque Paribas, headquartered in Paris, with a significant portion of shares owned by Saddam's cousin Nadhmi Auchi, moved money for the Al-Mahdi network in the 1980s and was the bank chosen to handle the Iraqi oil-for-food payments. In fact, Iraq insisted that Paribas handle the oil-for-food escrow account. A corporate document for Al Taqwa Trade, Property and Industry Co. Ltd. of Liechtenstein -- an al-Qaeda network shell company also shut down by the United States -- lists Banque Paribas, Lugano, where it had accounts. (Paribas in 2000 merged with another French bank to create BNP Paribas, with Auchi continuing as one of the largest shareholders.) [. . . . ]

'CALGARY'S WIN, MONTREAL'S CUP'

National Post reader Ted Charters sent in this item currently making the rounds via e-mail:

The federal government today announced it would award the Stanley Cup to Quebec if Alberta's Calgary Flames win the competition. The Cup will go instead to Quebec's Montreal Canadiens, who were defeated in the early rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Prime Minister Paul Martin said the hockey series was "only a guideline" and "non-binding."

He conceded that Calgary might have been the better hockey team, "but we have to look at what's best for Canada."

"We have to support Canada's hockey industry, which is centred in Montreal," said the Prime Minister. "Montreal is in the best position to take full advantage of the Stanley Cup."

He said the decision to overrule the playoff results was "difficult and painful," but that national interests had to prevail over petty "regional considerations."

Loss of the coveted trophy left most of Alberta seething with rage. "It's another example of Quebec getting the goodies and the West getting the shaft," Ted Byfield said.

Indignant Quebec MPs who lobbied long and hard for the Stanley Cup vehemently denied the decision had anything to do with politics. "It's not as if the West isn't getting its fair share of federal support," one said. "We've announced the Lloydminster upgrader eight or nine times. And let's not forget about all that rain for Western farmers this spring."

The Quebec Industry Minister dismissed Western complaints as "anti-French hysteria from Alberta dinosaurs."

"Quebec absolutely deserves this," he said. "The Montreal Canadiens have extensive experience as Stanley Cup champions, while the Calgary Flames have little to none. Sure, Calgary won the series with a couple of fluke goals and lucky saves, but the Canadiens have proven themselves over the long haul. If we're denied the Stanley Cup now, it could only rejuvenate Quebec separatism and threaten the integrity of all of Canada."

The Quebec Premier was delighted to see the cup go to Montreal. He said the trophy will be re-engraved with its new name -- "La Coupe Stanley" -- to comply with Quebec sign laws.

Book: THE IRISH GAME: A TRUE STORY OF CRIME AND ART, By Matthew Hart. Viking Canada

Early in May, when Pablo Picasso's Boy With a Pipe fetched a record US$104- million at auction, high-flying drug dealers around the world must have read the news with interest. According to author Matthew Hart, those dealers know that, if they could somehow gain possession of that painting, they would never need to run the risk of trying to sell it. Instead, using a "rule-of-thumb criminal valuation" of 7%, they could use the Picasso as collateral to acquire more than US$7-million worth of cocaine or heroin. Then, having sold those drugs at a handsome profit, they could discharge their debt and repeat the process -- again and again and again.

Welcome to the world of contemporary art crime. In The Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art, Hart shows how, during the past 30 years, a labyrinthian network -- well-organized, sophisticated, highly profitable -- has evolved out of a hapless disarray of amateur thieves who would break into an unprotected house and make off with invaluable paintings only to discover, too late, that any attempt to sell those works would land them in jail.

[. . . . ] The theft of a painting establishes and enhances its value, we learn, as a result of newspaper reports, its notoriety becoming "part of the package."

It's little wonder there is lingering anti-American sentiment in Canada: a new study says textbooks used in Canadian schools throughout the 20th century portrayed the United States as dishonourable, churlish, and even bullying.

America received a reprieve after the Second World War, when course materials portrayed the nation as a champion of democracy taking on the Communist threat, but it was short-lived.

"In the early part of the 20th century, there's a sense of moral superiority in our treatment, and it's coming from a conservative education elite," Amy von Heyking, a professor of education at the University of Alberta, said in an interview. "By the end of the century, there's the same sense of cultural and even moral superiority -- we as Canadians understand the world -- but it's now coming from a left education establishment."

Von Heyking, a specialist in the history of curricula and teaching materials, presented her study this week at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba. The Congress ends Sunday.

[. . . . ] But wait a minute. Who was it that "dogged" Mr. Harper on the matter? From what corner did he "come under attack"? What was that "storm" he ran into? Protests from outraged voters? Partisan shots from rival parties? Read on ... CBC: "His attention was diverted from money to abortion when reporters continued to probe him throughout the day about his views on abortion, capital punishment and same-sex marriage." CTV: " ... reporters asked Harper to clarify his earlier statement that a government led by him would not table legislation to tighten Canada's abortion laws."

In other words, this was a completely self-generated story: reporting about reporting, a controversy limited entirely to the bored inmates on the leader's bus. The media manage to make themselves a part of every campaign, but it's rare to see them openly acknowledge this role.

[. . . . ] There's a word for those who are intolerant of any opinion other than their own. That word is "extremist." The more so, since the status quo -- no abortion law of any kind -- is, objectively speaking, at one extreme among the possible legislative options. Canada is the only country in the Western world in this extraordinary position, with the bizarre consequence that the child in utero has no legal status whatever, not only with respect to abortion, but in any other regard. To compound the absurdity, we have arrived at this extreme, not by any act of Parliament, nor even by decision of the courts, but because the last legislation, passed by a free vote in the Commons, died by a tie vote in the Senate!

My whiz-bang fax machine sits disconnected: I just can't take it anymore. My problem: tele-trash. Until I pulled the plug, junk faxes continued to spew from my machine like so much water surging over Niagara Falls.

My predicament dates back three years, when I began receiving reams of faxed advertisements hawking everything from alarm systems to painting services. Not only were these faxes unwanted, they amounted to acts of theft. After all, that was my pricey toner ink and my paper being used to print this garbage -- at no cost to the junk faxer. Meanwhile, my fax line was being tied up.

[. . . . ] For many of the transmitters, a call to an automated phone line eventually got my name removed from their sucker lists, albeit sometimes only temporarily. But one Toronto-based company couldn't care less about my concerns: ST Broadcast, which continued to bombard my fax machine with advertisements for a variety of clients, but most notably (and most frequently) for a security company called Safe-Tech Alarms. Interestingly, some detective work revealed that ST Broadcast and Safe-Tech Alarms are actually headed by the same individual: Sean O'Leary.

[. . . . ] Embracing the methods of Private Citizen, I faxed ST Broadcast a similar contract noting that I would accept the company's faxes -- for a fee of $500 per fax.

A program change announced in April effectively means most points travellers who want to get off the ground sometime this year will have to cough up 50% more points for the same trip.
For example, a flight within Canada or the continental U.S. costs 25,000 Aeroplan points under the "Classic" reward program, but 37,500 under the new Avenue program.

Aeroplan is billing the change as a boon to customers, saying: "For those times when you don't have the luxury of flexible travel plans, Aeroplan Avenue Rewards is another option to book a reward seat when you need it, to go where you want, when you want."

Hogwash, says Mr. Cran.

"It's garbage. It isn't an improvement at all," he pronounces.

Frequent flyer programs, including Aeroplan, are the most notorious culprits of the ol' bait-and-switch, with dozens of Web pages devoted to the subject of diminishing returns.

[. . . . ] If you check a carrier's earnings reports and run a few calculations, then you'll discover that a mile may actually be worth only a fraction of that -- about 0.000527 cents, to be exact.

The Liberals' proposal for a "Peace and Nation-Building Initiative" that would not use fighting troops in the conventional sense, but rather "troops tasked to build institutions in fractured countries," is a disaster waiting to happen.

From my experiences as a peacekeeper, I unequivocally state that the only person that we should send into a peacekeeping/reconstruction area of operation is a fully trained, fully armed, fully equipped soldier. Send Boy Scouts and you will end up with dead Boy Scouts. This is another example of muddle-headed thinking by a naive Paul Martin.

M***** B****, Guelph, Ont.

[. . . . ] The corporate subsidy branch of the Canadian economy is out defending itself in the wake of Stephen Harper's announcement that, given an opportunity, he would shut down Ottawa's grant and subsidy mill and end corporate welfare. Whoa, says corporate Canada. That "would be suicide," added Al Power, president of Decoma International Inc., an auto parts subsidiary of Magna International, former chief employer of Belinda Stronach.

Now before recipients of government aid start fulminating about how the loss of subsidies would crush the economy and halt development in key sectors, it might be a good idea to stand back and take a closer look at Mr.Harper's elegant and powerful proposition.

[. . . . ] Corporate income taxes this year will generate about $25-billion for Ottawa. Ottawa gives out $18-billion in grants and subsidies, about $6-billion of which may be definable as business subsidies. Mr. Harper says that, after a comprehensive "value-for-money" audit by the auditor-general, perhaps about $4-billion in subsidies could be removed from federal spending as failures. That means $4-billion in tax cuts.
The Harper proposition, simple and elegant though it is, might be a little too clever to survive an encounter with Canada's corporate subsidy heavyweights. But Mr. Harper has certainly clarified the direct link between taxes and subsidies.

The 50th anniversary conference of the elite Bilderberg group – which many believe conspires semi-annually to foster global government – is under way in Stresa, Italy.

[. . . . ] Since 1953, the Bilderberg group has convened government, business, academic and journalistic representatives from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the express purpose of exploring the future of the North Atlantic community.

According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive.

'Shadowy aura'

"It's officially described as a private gathering," noted a BBC report last year, "but with a guest list including the heads of European and American corporations, political leaders and a few intellectuals, it's one of the most influential organizations on the planet."

And according to a current BBC report on the conference in Stresa: "Not a word of what is said at Bilderberg meetings can be breathed outside. No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted. The shadowy aura extends further – the anonymous answerphone message, for example; the fact that conference venues are kept secret. The group, which includes luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former UK chancellor Kenneth Clarke, does not even have a website."

[. . . . Among the attendees are: ] CDN - Lynch, Kevin G. - Deputy Minister, Department of Finance; [. . . . ] CDN - McKenna, Frank - Counsel, McInnes Cooper, former premier of New Brunswick; [. . . . ] CDN - Reisman, Heather - President and CEO, Indigo Books and Music Inc.