Elizabeth May wrongfully kicked out of Debate

I'm not sure why Elizabeth May was allowed to participate in the last leadership debate and why she isn't allowed to participate in this one. I know they said it's because the Green Party doesn't hold any seats in parliament yet but why did they let her in the last one? She did very well. To ban her from the next one is censorship. Maybe she'll ask some of those secret questions Harper's aids don't allow on the script.

The Green party has the next largest parentage of the votes. Each election they get more. To allow her to participate in the last leadership debate but not this one is strange. The media said that if she was to participate some of the other parties might not. That was a rather bizarre threat? Who said they wouldn't show up if Elizabeth May was allowed. Was if Harpless? CTV claims Jack Layton was one. That's somewhat shocking. However, Elizabeth May claims that is untrue and that Layton and Ignatieff both support her being included.

If one of the other parties gave up their chance to participate because they were intimidated by her then so be it. Giving in to that kind of bullying is wrong. Harper's desire to exclude everyone except him and ?Ignatieff is stomach turning arrogance. He's just playing after he looked stupid for backing down after he challenged Ignatieff to a one on one debate. There are other choices in this election than Liberal or Neocon.

If you look at the table Votes Won: 2008 v. 2006 between the 2006 election and the 2008 election each of the four main political parties lost votes. The Green Party was the only party that increased votes. Looks like someone is afraid of her. That's why they don't want to let her participate in the debate.

Peacemakers

Canada has been known for it's peacekeeping efforts. Roméo Dallaire was an example of a great peacekeeper and a great human being. So was Bill Turner. I recently saw a video on YouTube that mocked Jack Layton's position on the military implying his idea of peacekeeping was to send in folk singers to distract and entertain two opposing forces at war. I found it to be kind of a dumb video and accusation.

Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. During Pearson's time as Prime Minister, his minority government introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the current Canadian flag. During his tenure, Prime Minister Pearson also convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. With these accomplishments, together with his groundbreaking work at the United Nations and in international diplomacy, Pearson is generally considered among the most influential Canadians of the 20th century.

Stephen Harper is no Lester Pearson. When Jack Layton says he's concerned about military pensions, I believe him because he's concerned about everyone's pension. Something that the neocons have no regard for. If we want to talk about supporting the military, let's talk about exposing our own soldiers to chemical and biological weapons then robing them of medical coverage. Let's talk about the ethics of using depleted uranium as a weapon in war. Actually, let's not.

Let's talk about the religious right and Christ's promise "Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." When I see all the intolerance in modern Christianity I wonder if Christ came today and taught the same things he taught when he was on earth, it would likely be the Christian church that would crucify him all over again.

I've talked about the parable of the good Muslim or the good Communist putting the parable of the good Samaritan in modern perspective. Samaritans were infidels. How could an infidel be a better Christian that one who professes to be one.

Gandhi was a peacemaker. Although he was not a Christian, he was clearly a better Christian than most. Dare we discuss Christ's commission to visit the sick, clothe the naked, house the homeless and even visit those in prison?

Election shock and awe

Michael Smyth from the Vancouver Province ran a synopsis of the week of Election campaigning as a week of shock and awe. We were shocked with revealing scandals and in awe with too good to be true promises.

He pointed out that many of us are having a hard time doing the math with all these election promises. "Yes, folks, you can have it all in this magical land we call Canada: lower taxes, more services and no nasty deficit hangover when the party's over. If only working out your family budget at the kitchen table were this easy."

I'm not sure what his hard on for Jack Layton is about other than according to his article Jack Layton is gaining votes at the expense of the Conservatives. Perhaps he just wants to be equally critical of everyone to be fair. Yet to be fair, when Jack Layton says he will hire more doctors and nurses to staff our hospital emergency rooms I believe him.

I did believe Harper when he said he wouldn't tax income trust and create an elected senate. Only he broke his word so I don't trust him any more. Saying that Layton will never become Premier so he will never have to fulfill any of his election promises is unfair. He's the only one we haven't given a chance to betray our trust yet.

A generation ago, people tended to vote how their parents voted. Now times have changed. We have seen new political parties emerge and other political parties wiped off the map overnight.

In all fairness I'd have to admit that it was Darren Entwistle that caused Harper to turn face on the not taxing income trusts promise. He was going to turn TELUS into an Income Trust to avoid paying corporate tax. Letting Entwistle do that would have see the government lose a lot of revenue. Evey major corporation would followed suit. His hands were tied. Yet everyone knew Entwistle was going to do that. It was public knowledge so I don't understand why Harper made that promise knowing Enwistle's intent.

Michael Smyth pointed out that Stephen Harper's senior aid, Bruce Carson, was the subject of some socking revelations. "The Bruce Carson story just keeps getting worse. The fraud convictions. The escort agencies. The money laundering. How the heck did a guy with a rap sheet longer than the Rideau Canal end up as one of the prime minister's top men in Ottawa?"

The network revealed this week that before Carson proposed to Michele McPherson, (the 22 year old escort he was caught funneling government contract funds to) he was involved with another prostitute, Barbara Lynn Khan, a woman who was convicted and served time in the U.S. for money laundering after authorities alleged she ran a prostitution ring.

Smyth cites the event this week where Harper's aid kicked out two university students because one of them posted a picture of herself on facebook with Michael Ignatieff. Like how did those stalkers know she posted that picture on facebook. That is really creepy. And so what? People from other political parties are allowed to come and hear other candidates speak. Only not in Harper's world. Or at least in his plastic press bubble where his people still pick who asks what questions when. No wonder they don't want the Green Party at the debate. They might ask Harper to explain Jim Flaherty's intervention on Brian Mulroney's behalf putting pressure on the CIBC to settle with Barrick Gold. Like that's not conflicted.

Michael Smyth reminded us of that incident where Chretien was wading through a crowd of protesters and was caught grabbing one by the throat. Those were the days. That kind of thing just wouldn't happen in Harper's bubble.

Smyth also cited how Ignatieff fired candidate Andre Forbes this week, when it was discovered he was a whiterights advocate who once called aboriginals lazy "featherheads." Ignatieff "had been on a bit of roll up till then. This week's Momentum Meter shows him stuck in neutral." That former judge's comments about rape was just bizarre.

As much as I oppose Ignatieff's position on torture, I really object to the political circus degenerating into a survivor play by play drama of it's all about me. Survivor is all about lies, secret deals and promoting one person above the others. Life on the other hand is all about being honest, serving others and sacrificing for the greater good.

The underlining point missing in this weeks election circus show was highlighted by Dan Gardner in his article Voters should consider Harper's contempt.

"The status quo is just not tenable, for anybody," says Peter Russell, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and one of the country's most respected political scientists. But a Conservative majority would be worse.

"It would send a bad message about parliamentary democracy if a government brought down for contempt, very serious contempt, on the finding of a Speaker, is rewarded with a majority. I think it would encourage Mr. Harper and maybe those after him to be contemptuous of Parliament. And then I think we're in real trouble."

It's easy to forget that, in the mad rush of events leading up to the election call and the noise that followed, Stephen Harper's government was found to be in contempt of Parliament -by vote in the House of Commons -for refusing to disclose the cost of several items on its agenda. It's what brought down the government and you might say it's what this election is about.

Not that anyone would know that listening to the prime minister. Speaking at Rideau Hall after asking the governor-general to call an election, Harper said nothing about the contempt verdict. It was a fittingly contemptuous response, as all his comments on the matter have been.

Another good point was raised by a letter sent in to the Province entitled Harper's insult. "To hear Stephen Harper talk, our democracy and economy is so fragile, that if we don't give him a majority government, the dreaded socialists and separatists will form a coalition with Michael Ignatieff and ruin the country.

This kind of arrogance and fear mongering is insulting to all Canadians and has no place in our democracy."

Jeffrey Klassen convicted of assault

Jeffrey Klassen has finally been convicted of assault. He was the use of force trainer that beat and robbed a newspaper delivery man with two other cops when they were off duty in Vancouver.

Kelowna Grow Ops

Are there any grow ops in Kelowna not run by the Hells Angels? We know this East Vancouver Hells Angels support hoodie was found at a Kelowna grow op. We know that David Giles from the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels lives in Kelowna. We also know that Joseph Bruce Skreptak, a full patch Hells Angels from the same chapter, also lives in Kelowna.

Bruce is the one that rented out a house in Kelowna to someone who had a grow op. He claimed it had nothing to do with him even though his truck with a Hells Angels sticker was parked outside the grow. A door leading into the mother-plant room had a sticker on it reading, "Support Your Local Hells Angels White Rock." For all practical purposes that would let everyone know it was a Hells angel grow op as in not to f*** with it.

Bruce has a history of violence. He was caught with Cory and a few associates speeding through Salmon Arm with a car full of guns, bear spray, bullet proof vest and a cell phone jammer.

Many people speculated that they were on their way to do a grow rip. Kinda makes you wonder when not long after they were caught a grow op just outside of Salmon Arms was abandoned.

Which kinda brings us back to Brittney. If she lived on a grow op that was recently busted, was it not a grow op for the Hells angels? Would Joey, a low lever drug dealer rip off someone who did business for the Hells angels? Some claimed he owed money and that murder would wipe away his debt. Yet who wanted her dead? Were the hells Angels really stupid enough to think Brittney was the rat that had her own home busted?

There was a grow op in Kamloops tied to a double murder which neighbours say was thought to have been connected to the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels are making their support for Kamloops finger puppets public.

We know that someone claiming to be from the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells angels ran into the American Backpackers Hostel with guns looking for a kid who was selling pot there. They claimed he had to leave town and wasn't allowed to sell pot in their area and that if anyone there wanted to buy pot, they had to buy it from them at the black door.

This would clearly imply that if there was a grow op in Kelowna not run by the Hells Angels, they would use threats of violence to take it over. Once again, why would a low level drug dealer rip off Britney who was selling pot for a Hells angels grow op? If he did, he would have left town but he didn't. When he was arrested he was walking around town without a care in the world. To me that would clearly imply that the Hells angels sanctioned if not commission Brittney's murder. After all Geoff Meisner was tied to the Hells angels and the Kingpin Crew. The pinheads were even in Kamloops with their puppet master recently.

To Serve and Protect

Another problem we are clearing seeing in Canada or at least in B.C. along with the police brutality is the sheer arrogance that goes along with it. The underlying mandate of to serve and protect has been completely lost.

Of course not all police officers in Canada are bad. Yet the documented problem is much worse than a few bad apples. I had a conflict with an off duty police officer not long ago myself. He was a confrontational bully who bold faced lied about something to get his way. I was shocked. It reminded me of the New Westminster use of force trainer who got drunk before assaulting and robbing a newspaper delivery man in Vancouver. His recollection of the events was a complete contradiction to the victims recollection and two witnesses observations.

Being a bully and assaulting someone is bad enough but lying in court. Coming from a peace officer that is shocking which once again brings us to the lost mandate of serving and protecting the public.

When the use of force trainer is caught red handed beating the tar out of an innocent victim then using his station as a use of force trainer to intimidate a younger police officer from pressing charges, that use of force trainer cannot be the use of force trainer any more. To continue to do so would be to mock the public interest and demonstrate further arrogance and disregard for public safety.

It is past time for a civilian agency.

Conservatives would bungle crime bills

Stephen Harper said a Conservative majority government would bundle unpassed crime legislation into one bill and push it through Parliament within 100 days. And after that, he'll cram the HST through. He'll bungle the crime bills alright. In fact he already did. It's a bungle in the jungle and that's not alright by me.

There is no question that Stephen Harper intentionally screwed BC with the tough on crime bills. The bill as it stands is over reaching. The Liberals tried to amend the bill in the Senate to fix it but because Harper broke his promise to create an elected senate and exploited every opportunity to stack the Senate, they refused to accept the amendment to the bill fixing it.

So now he tells us he's still refusing to fix the bill and insists he will railroad it through without thinking through the necessary amendments. Which isn't surprising since Stephen Harper refuses to listen. He exploited our misfortune for his own personal gain. He doesn't care about us or our problem. If he did he would have fixed it but he didn't. He purposely didn't take the amendment because he wanted the public to get angry at the Liberals for voting down his over reaching crime bills and give him a majority so he can govern.

Stephen Harper does have a hidden agenda. It's not about abortion or same sex marriage, he won't touch those time bombs with a ten foot pole. He wants to privatize everything under the sun and completely remove public accountability from every possible social program from pensions to medical. His first target on his list is doing away with medical and the Canada Health Act.

So, I've said it before, Stephen Harper has lost my vote on the crime bills. Jack Layton on the other hand, like Penny Priddy, Adrian Dix, Mike Farnworth and Bruce Ralston, is putting forth his own suggestions to deal with crime and gangs. Throwing everyone in jail for minor offenses is counter productive and too costly. Mandatory minimum sentences for prolific offenders who commit an insane number of property crimes. They should spend three months in jail. Period. That is not excessive. Not doing so is irresponsible.

Larger sentences for violent crime and for hard drugs would be helpful. But it's all counter productive when Stephen Harper turns around and appoints a lawyer for the Hells Angels to be a judge in the Quebec Supreme Court.

Fleetwood grandma stabbed 126 times

This story doesn't involved gangs or drugs but it is a crime. A heinous one at that. It is a case of domestic violence. Surrey grandmother Maria Catroppa was stabbed 126 times in the Fleetwood townhouse she shared with her second husband, Sebastiano Damin.

The husband, Sebastiano Damin has confessed to the murder. He said his wife was wanting to end their 11 year marriage and told him it was over. So he snapped and stabbed her 126 times. An autopsy revealed 51 stab wounds to the 69-year-old woman's head and neck, 69 to her torso, five to her arms and one to her thigh. Damin was 74 at the time.

That is absolutely bizarre. Stabbed 126 times, 51 times to the head and neck area. That is deranged. And I'm not talking let the guy off for not being of sound mind like we did the guy that decapitated the guy in the greyhound bus. I'm just saying stabbing anyone 126 times is sick especially when it was a case of domestic violence.

It doesn't take a feminist to realize that kind of violence against anyone not to mention women is wrong. Time Magazine wrote a powerful article about domestic violence in Afghanistan. After reading about one case where a man cut off his wife's nose after she threatened to leave him a female friend of mine said she was ready to take a gun and kill all the men in Afghanistan.

No doubt some cultures have some pretty backward views about gender equality. Yet here we have a case in our own town of an equally if not worse case of domestic violence. I don't know what to say other than it is a very sad horrific autrocity. No doubt Maria Catroppa is in a better place and Sebastiano Damin will not be with her or her family in the eternities.

U.S. Government shutdown

I've been asked about what a U.S. Government Shutdown means. I had to look it up because I didn't know. In Canada we can have non confidence votes which will result in an early election but the United States have relatively fixed election terms. I wasn't aware about the Government Shutdown clause.

Apparently this happens when they can't agree on a budget. Essential services like police and military continue but all other nonessential government workers stop going to work. Personally I find that somewhat bizarre but apparently that is the way their system works. Or rather doesn't. Doesn't keep working in a shut down that is.



They can agree to spend billions on the unlawful invasion of Iraq based on a lie and they can spend billions on the bail out the banks scam but God help Obama if he dares spend money on health care. Those selfish conflict of interest politicians will voter no and rather shut down the government. Go figure.

However, part of the controversy appears to be over the use of tax dollars to fund abortions.

Renegades get ripped off

The Prince George Citizen claims it was the Renegades Clubhouse that was broken in to. No one was injured but a quantity of alcohol was stolen. I wonder if there was anything else stolen they didn't report to the police? Any GHB missing? That clubhouse was the site of the recent gang rape before the Hells Angels fund raising dinner in Kamloops where one of the accused resides.

Brittney Irving - one year later

Castanet ran an article about Britney Irving one year after her murder. The day before she was murdered, her boyfriend said she told him she was going to meet someone that is a real bad person. The question that I have is how could she be referring to Joey Verma, the one charged with her murder? Joey was bad but was more of an idiot. He was a low leve drug dealer. Hardly the type of person that would generate fear in anyone.

In fact if, Brittney was selling pot to supply her Oxy habit, then surely she had done business with Joey before. Wouldn't she be concerned if she was meeting a supplier further up the food chain so to speak? May Brittney and Geoff Meisner both Rest in Peace.

Geoff Mantler: Another Public Betrayal

This latest shameful decision is more proof we need a civilian agency to monitor police complaints. Constable Geoff Mantler got off charges in the Jeremy Packer case even though he had physical evidence included a lost tooth. Seemingly this was Mantler's third documented offence. There was another case involving Manjeet Singh Bhatti as well.



Before we spend undisclosed amounts of tax dollars to fill our over crowded drug infested prisons with more people for minor offenses, we need to establish a Civilian Agency and we need to clean up the prisons that we do have.

Privatizing the Military is Dangerous

We have seen the dangerous conflict of interest Dick Cheney's Halliburton created in Iraq. While George Bush kept going to the Senate to ask for more taxpayers money to spend on the unlawful invasion of Iraq, Halliburton was raking in the profit. Not even mentioning the insider conflict of interest that existed within Halliburton, it clearly establishes a very bad precedent.

Privatizing the military to circumvent public accountability is dangerous. Instead of having a Military mandated to provide for the common defense, we have a mercenary force mandated to profit from war without any public accountability whatsoever.

What's even worse is Blackwater's abuse of the laws covering war crimes. Blackwater is a privatized contracted military. They claim that they cannot be sued as civilians for war crimes because they are part of the US Total Force. Yet they also claim that since they are civilians they are not subject to military discipline.

Removing public accountability is not a good thing.

Richard Secord

Richard Secord is a name Al Martin frequently uses when discussing the extended version of the Iran contra. Along with Oliver North of course. Turns out North was Secord's scape goat.

Secord filed a libel case against the authors of a book published in 1987 entitled Out of Control: The Story of the Reagan Administration's Secret War in Nicaragua, the Illegal Pipeline, and the Contra Drug Connection. Secord lost that case.

He was charged in the Iran Contra affair in 1987 and on March 16, 1988, Secord was indicted on six felony charges. On November 8, 1989, Richard Secord plead guilty to one felony count of false statements to Congress, and on January 24, 1990, he was sentenced to two years probation. In 1992 the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia expunged the conviction on the grounds that the US Supreme Court had earlier found the underlying indictment to be illegal and without effect. The Justice Dept. did not oppose the matter. Thus the entire Iran-Contra imbroglio ended for Secord.

Well not exactly. Even if they make him a Fox News host, he was found guilty and got off. Let's take a look at some of the evidence in the trial and let's take a look at that book he sued for libel and lost.

May 5, 1987 during the Iran Contra public hearing, General Richard Secord testifies that CIA Director William Casey was one of the driving forces behind the illegal sales of arms to Iran, and the equally illegal diversion of profits from those arms to the Nicaraguan Contras. Secord, the leadoff witness, testifies that in addition to Casey, CIA and State Department officials aided in the efforts to provide the Contras with weapons and funds.

I think that's the whole point behind the extended version of Iran Contra. It didn't just involve Iran but was deeply involved with funding and supplying the Contras in Nicaragua which was directly tied to Operation Watchtower. Since Oliver North was in charge of everything that went in and out of Nicaragua at the time, it also implicates him.

Al Martin claims that Richard Secord was also tied to Trans World Armaments of Quebec City. He claims that Joe Clark made money off it and that the Brian Mulroney connection was a much bigger scandal in Canada than it ever was in the US. Interesting...

BTW in the picture above Secord's lawyer is talking to him during his testimony at the Iran Contra hearing. Gee I didn't think you were allowed to consult with counsel during your testimony in court...

Bre-X, George Bush and Brian Mulroney

I was just reading in Al Martin's book "The Conspirators" on page 31 where it claims that George Bush was on the Board of Directors for Bre-X and made $40 million off of that fraud.

They made a shoe cannon for Bush when he came to speak at Calagary. No wonder he loves the hard working people of Calgary. He scammed them out of $40 mill.



Al Martin also claims former Prime Minister Joe Clark made money from that fraud as well. Googling it shows Brian Mulroney was also involved. Bre-X was this huge Calgary based gold mining company fraud.

It was billed as the perfect crime because no one was held accountable. Michael de Guzman, the Bre-X geologist also died of a suspicious suicide. It was a $3 billion hoax.

The mining company collapsed after it was discovered that drilling sample bags had been sprinkled with outside bullion to inflate the results. Thousands of investors lost money, triggering a series of lawsuits against the company, Walsh and Felderhof.

Al Martin claims Joe Clark made money off Bre-X as well as Bush. Investing in Bre-X is different then making money off of it. Many innocent people invested in Bre-X and lost their shirt when it collapsed. People who sold at precisely the right time before it crashed and made a killing are suspect for insider trading.

Bre-X investor Jack Kindermann, who lost $500,000, had little sympathy Monday for Felderhof, who allegedly sold $84 million worth of stock prior to the company's collapse.

Al Martin claims that Bre-X is just another example of the continuation of the original fraud that links back to Iran-Contra. Martin claims that Iran-Contra was the genesis for a lot of the fraud that exists today. In some cases, not even the corporate names have changed. Seemingly, drug trafficking was only one aspect of Iran contra. There was a huge amount of spin off fraud that was used to raise funds as well.

One of these examples he gives in Trinity Oil and Gas (page 106) which he claims was founded in 1984 by the infamous Barry Seal. Barry Seal as we all know was the scape goat for all the CIA drug smuggling that went on out of Mena Arkansas.

Martin claims Trinity Oil and Gas was not only designed simply to be a fraud, but also as a vehicle to launder Barry Seal's money -- money that Barry Seal was earning from his narcotics activity. Martin sates there was much more to this man than simply drugs. His money laundering in corporate operations is an area which has never been touched.

It kind of reminds me how Raymond Sturgeon was tied to the company involved with Mulroney's helicopters as well as Harper's Jets. Not to mention the perpetual fraud of Harper's senior advisor Bruce Carson. Much. Then again those deals weren't directly tied to drugs.

It's reminiscent of Enron, the ultimate in corporate fraud where the US tried to privatize it's energy to it's insider friends. The Bush administration was tied to that fraud too. In fact, just like Bruce Carson, the Bush administration gave the Thomas E. White, the Enron book cooker a promotion to be the official book cooker form the Pentagon's missing three trillion dollars until public pressure from his involvement with Enron forced them to get rid of him.

Let's not forget Mulroney's involvement in the $1.8 billion sale of Airbus SAS aircraft to Air Canada wherein he was accused of getting kickbacks. Tears swelled up in his eyes in court when people thought he was a criminal. How sad.



All I can find so far is that Barrick gold was somehow tied to Bre-x and that George Bush served in an honorary capacity as an advisor to Barrick’s International Advisory Board for two years in the mid 1990’s. Another source claims Brian Mulroney was also an advisor to Barrick Gold. In fact Mulroney is curently still listed as a member of the Board of Directors for Barrick and is Chairman of Barrick’s International Advisory Board. It claims Mulroney has been a Director of Barrick since 1993. 1993 was the year Bre-X bought rights to the mine in Indonesia. Yet another source claims George Bush became a director of Barrick gold in 1995.

Interesting to note that the Green Party claims the Harper government has intervened to further the economic interests of Mr. Munk and Mr. Mulroney. Finance minister Jim Flaherty took what the Globe and Mail (May 7, page B1) called “the unusual step of intervening” by phoning CIBC executives to pressure them to settle up with Barrick Gold Corporation over a dispute over losses related to the current asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) meltdown. Maybe this is why they're not letting the Green Party participate in the televised debate this time.

Joe Clark was a special advisor on Africa for the mining company First Quantum Mineral, which did contraverial work in the Congo.

Hells Angels visit Kamloops

Ironic that the Hells Angels would show up to support a puppet club in Kamloops right after some finger puppets did a little house cleaning by way of murder. Police say Whiterock Hells Angels were represented as well as Kelowna. Even the Pinhead Crew were there. According to an old police document online, in 1997, an emerging gang, the Hub City Men's Club, sponsored by the Hells Angels Nanaimo chapter, surfaced in Kamloops. In spring 1998, this same gang received it's patch, calling themselves the Vipers. A second emerging gang, the Prince George Men's Club, acquired it's patch in January 1999 and became the Renegades. The Renegades were the ones caught selling pot and were in charge of the Crew who sold crack and cut off fingers for drug debts. Now they're in charge of the GTS who were just charged with committing a gang rape at the Renegades clubhouse in Prince George. In fact, one of the three individuals charged in that gang rape is Pion Associate #1 of Kamloops. Was he at the fundraising dinner. Interesting associations. Let's not forget about the two kids murdered on what neighbours claims was a Hells Angels grow op in Kamloops.

Cocaine found in Toronto-bound child's suitcase

Twelve soldiers assigned to combat drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic have been arrested in an alleged scheme to smuggle cocaine to Canada in a child's suitcase, a prosecutor said Monday.

Eight of the soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel and captain, were detailed to the national anti-drug agency at the airport in Puerto Plata while four were assigned to security duties at the airport terminal, said prosecutor Elvis Garcia. Two civilians who work there were also arrested.

A judge ordered all the suspects held pending an investigation into charges of drug smuggling, Garcia said.

The arrests stem from the discovery on March 23 of more than 33 kilograms (73 pounds) of cocaine in a child's suitcase. The girl was travelling with her parents and sister from Puerto Plata, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Santo Domingo, to Toronto.

Edmonton Prison Guard charged with drug smuggling

A correctional officer at an Edmonton jail has been charged as a result of allegations that he smuggled drugs to inmates in the facility.

In November 2010, staff from the Edmonton Remand Centre notified Edmonton police about drugs making their way into the centre, prompting an investigation by the police’s drug and gang unit that led to the arrest of James Brian Johnstone, a 21-year-old correctional officer, and five others.

Johnstone is charged with conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, one count of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, one count of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking marijuana and one count of possession of a controlled substance.

Opium in Afghanistan

In an interview about the Harper government trolling the Internet, Alex Jone made a comment about opium in Afghanistan. The commentator asked him to get back on topic but I think we should visit what he said because I think it is significant since it applies to politics and organized crime.

Alex Jones claimed Fox news admitted "Yeah our troops helped grow the opium in Afghanistan and they helped ship it out but if we don't grow it the Taliban will get it and then they'll make the money off it." Sure enough, Alex Jones was right and Fox news did admit it. Hey, isn't Oliver North a Fox news corespondent? Isn't that ironic.

Soldiers ignore and encourage the farmers. "If the US burned their crops, farmers would blame the US for their poverty and turn toward the Taliban."

"If we secure them getting a good harvest, now they're gonna get paid for all their hard work and then we can deal with trafficking afterwards." That is the new US policy. After farmers get paid try to capture drug traffickers. These troops have confiscated ten thousand pounds of opium before the profit reached the Taliban.

So that would clearly imply that they are only busting opium rings that profit the Taliban or the competition not opium rings that profit them. Can you believe that. Garry Webb was right all along.



This would support Julie Couillard's claim that Maxime Bernier told her that “the war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with building democracy in that country but has to do with the global control of the opium trade. It’s a drug war.”

Nasty Dan gets 7 year criminal org conviction

A Surrey man has become the second person in B.C. to be sentenced on a charge of commission of an offence for criminal organization.

Daniel "Nasty" Michael MacNeil was sentenced to seven years in prison recently, in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, commission of an offence for criminal organization, and possession prohibited and restricted firearms with ammunition.

I find it puzzling that for the second time in BC criminal organization charges finally stuck without mentioning the name of the criminal organization. A dial a dope operation in Surrey selling crack and meth netting $2 million a year was not an independent organization. Was he with the UN or the Hells Angels?