"Foreign Lobbying Database Up and Runningwe'll see. Sunlight Foundation is more circumspect: "FARA Puts Some Records Online"
Tracking the efforts of foreign countries and organizations to lobby the U.S. government became easier this week. The Justice Department launched a searchable online database of filings under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) — including reports filed during the current month."
* Amy:
U.S., Russia Trade Barbs Over Missile Plan
The standoff over U.S. plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe continues to intensify. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. policy was akin to “diktat” and “imperialism.”Russian President Vladimir Putin: "Some members of the international community have a desire to dictate their will to everyone on any issue, without coordinating their actions with common norms of international law."
Meanwhile Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded to Putin during a visit to Germany.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "Democratic institutions and an open society are not a source of weakness. Nor is freedom of speech and freedom of the press a nuisance. They are pillars of modern society. When we differ with Russia, we will consult, we will address their views seriously and we will express our own views candidly. In that regard I have to tell you that I find Russia's recent missile diplomacy difficult to understand, and we regret Russia's reluctance to accept the partnership if missile defence that we have offered."
* Amy:
British Teachers, South African Trade Union Back Israel Boycott* Amy:
In Britain, the main union of British college teachers has endorsed a call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The measure calls Israeli academia “complicit” in Israel’s forty year occupation of Palestinian lands. The congress of the University and College Union represents more than 120,000 British teachers. The move comes as South Africa’s largest trade union federation is preparing its own campaign to call for a national boycott on Israeli products and an end to diplomatic ties with Israel. Willy Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), said: “The best way to have Israel comply with United Nations resolutions is to pressure it by a diplomatic boycott such as the one imposed on apartheid South Africa.”
Dow Jones Considers Murdoch Bid for WSJ* Amy:
In media news, Dow Jones has announced its now open to talks on selling the Wall Street Journal. The news comes just one month after Dow’s controlling family, the Bancrofts, rejected a takeover bid from News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch. Dow now says its open to Murdoch’s offer.
Ex-Rove Aide Resigns as Arkansas U.S. Attorney
And finally, the former top aide to chief White House strategist Karl Rove has stepped down as U.S. attorney for Arkansas. Tom Griffin’s resignation came just hours after Congressmember John Conyers had asked for information about Griffin’s role in a scandal first reported by the journalist Greg Palast for both the BBC and Democracy Now. Palast obtained internal Republican emails showing Griffin had sent so-called voter “caging-lists” designed to challenge voters from casting ballots. The caging lists were skewed towards targeting people of color, predominantly African-Americans.
1 comment:
Well here is a little nugget about the heart throb of one of our largest not registered as foreign foreign lobbies..that you will never see in the US press...or in any sunlight.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/01/nhijack01.xml
Israeli agents 'helped Entebbe hijackers'
By Peter Day
Last Updated: 2:29am BST 02/06/2007
An extraordinary claim that Israeli intelligence may have had a hand in an airline hijacking before sending in commandos to rescue the hostages at Entebbe was made to the Foreign Office.
It came via David Colvin, the first secretary at the British embassy in Paris, according to a newly released National Archives file.
He heard it from a contact in the Euro-Arab Parliamentary Association three days after the Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was seized in mid-air by Palestinians and German terrorists on June 27, 1976.
Mr Colvin told his superiors that his source suggested that the attack was carried out by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine with help from the Israeli Security Service, the Shin Bet.
It was designed to torpedo the rival Palestine Liberation Organisation's standing in France and to prevent what they saw as a growing rapprochement between the PLO and the Americans.
''My contact said that the PFLP had attracted all sorts of wild elements, some of whom had been planted by the Israelis,'' Mr Colvin added. The message was received without comment by the Foreign Office but later officials recorded that a journalist from the Liverpool Post, Leo Murray, had also told them that a splinter group of PFLP was planning a series of spectacular incidents to disrupt contacts between the PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the US.
An official noted: 'If, as Mr Murray's sources allege, the aim of the Entebbe hijacking was to prevent the development of relations between Arafat and the West, and Arafat knew this, it would provide another motive for Arafat's recent approach to the French in Cairo warning us of further atacks."
Post a Comment