Het is alsof de Obama-regering een signaal afgeeft. Reuters bericht:Mayors, rabbis arrested in NJ corruption probe
Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:56pm EDT
By Edith Honan
NEWARK (Reuters) - Dozens of New Jersey politicians, officials and prominent rabbis were arrested on Thursday in a sweeping federal probe that uncovered political corruption, human organ sales and money laundering from New York to Israel, officials said.
The 10-year investigation, dubbed "Operation Bid Rig," exposed influence-peddling and bribe-taking among a network of public officials and a separate multimillion dollar money-laundering ring that funneled funds through charities operated by local rabbis, said the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey.
The cast of the 44 arrested featured Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano, who took office three weeks ago in the industrial city visible across the Hudson River from New York.
Others accused were mayors of nearby Secaucus and Ridgefield, state Assemblymen, a deputy mayor, city council members, housing, planning and zoning officials, building inspectors and political candidates.
"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation," said Ed Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption program in New Jersey, who has worked on the investigation since it began in July 1999.
"It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture," he said, calling corruption "a cancer."
Central to the investigation was an informant who was charged with bank fraud in 2006 and posed undercover as a real estate developer and owner of a tile business who paid off officials to win project approval and public contracts in northern New Jersey, according to documents in the case.
The public officials stand accused of taking bribes for pledging their help getting permits and projects prioritized and approved or steering contracts to the witness.
"CULTURE OF CORRUPTION"
In scenes that could have been lifted from the hit TV series "The Sopranos," about New Jersey organized crime, they met in diners, parking lots, even bathrooms, officials said.
"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra. "The victims are the average citizens and the honest business people in this state. They don't have a chance in this culture of corruption."
The public corruption uncovered by the informant led him to the separate money-laundering network by rabbis who operated between Brooklyn, Deal, New Jersey, and Israel, authorities said. They laundered some $3 million for the undercover witness between June 2007 and July 2009, authorities said.
"These complaints paint a disgraceful picture of religious leaders heading money laundering crews acting as crime bosses," Marra said. "They used purported charities, entities supposed set up to do good works as vehicles for laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds."
HUMAN KIDNEY SALES
Rabbis accused of money-laundering were Saul Kassin, chief rabbi of a large Syrian Jewish synagogue in Brooklyn; Eliahu Ben Haim, principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal; Edmund Nahum, principal rabbi of another synagogue in Deal; and Mordchai Fish, a rabbi at a synagogue in Brooklyn. Continued...
Lees verder: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56M3QU20090723
4 opmerkingen:
That's a real change!!
anzi
En ook dit! Zie video!
Guardian 23-07-2009
Barack Obama condemns arrest of black scholar
US president says police acted 'stupidly' in detaining Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates after he broke into his own home
Barack Obama: racism still haunts the US Link to this video Barack Obama last night showed a deft touch, but also reached a trenchant conclusion when he was asked about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, a black Harvard professor, at his own home over the weekend.
First Obama joked about what would happen if he was found breaking into the White House.
"Here, I'd get shot," Obama quipped before calling the behaviour of the police stupid.
Obama said: "Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know, separate and apart from this incident, is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. And that's just a fact."
The police were called to Gates's house after someone reported a robbery in progress. Gates told police that he had forced open the front door after locking himself out and presented police with his ID. But the police arrested him, nevertheless, for "loud and tumultuous behaviour in a public space".
He was held in police custody for four hours, after which disorderly conduct charges against him were dropped. Gates, who said he was the victim of racial profiling, demanded an apology. But the white police officer involved has refused, saying he has nothing to apologise for.
As Obama said at his press conference, despite the progress the US has made – and he cited his election as president – "race remains a factor in society".
anzi
Telegraaf kopt: "Burgemeesters VS wegens corruptie vast".
NOS kopt: "Corrupte burgemeesters VS opgepakt"
Volkskrant kopt: "Burgemeesters VS vast wegens corruptie"
Zou het woord 'rabbijnen' taboe zijn in een titel misschien?
Election 2010: endangered Jewish Democrats
Aardig kijkje in de keuken van de Amerikaanse democratie. Democratische joden worden geteld en bekeken wie er financieel het slechtste voorstaat, zodat die gekocht kunnen worden.
Rabbis Call on Rabbis to Lobby US Gov't
"Israel’s Chief Rabbi and Israeli rabbis call upon American rabbis to lobby the U.S. government to stop pressuring Israel to stop building in Judea and Samaria."
Een paar dagen geleden stuurden 250 rabbijnen een brief naar Obama:
"We are certain that you, Mr. Barack Obama, do not want to enter that disreputable list of those who raise their hand to strike Jerusalem and those who live in it."
en
"If you, Mr. Obama. Wish to leave any chance at all for peace and quiet in the Middle East, take your hands off the Holy City of Jerusalem right now!"
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