Ron's News

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[Smuggled out ahead of money laundering charges. Such a nice man, and with such a nice family and such nice connections! *RON*]

 AWD News, 7 March 2016


According to Rai News 24, Italian police spokesman Lt. Colonel Domenico Grimaldi accused the Saudi legation in Rome of facilitating the escape of Bilal Erdoğan who was detained for money laundering allegations. Bilal Erdoğan’s short detention in Rome and later escape are the latest in a series of scandals hitting President Erdoğan’s family.

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[Dion says it's a waste of time for Canada to take a position against nuclear weapons since a number of countries simply won't give them up. In what way is this a reason for Canada to not take a principled public position on the matter? *RON*]

By Mike Blanchfield, Canadian Press / Huffington Post, 29 March 2016

OTTAWA — Anti-nuclear campaigners who want Canada to push for a global ban on nuclear weapons are concerned that Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion is showing a definite lack of enthusiasm for that goal.

Dion said in a speech earlier this month that the current global security environment is simply not conducive to a ban on nuclear weapons because some states just won't relinquish them.

Cesar Jaramillo, executive director of the peace group Project Ploughshares, says there's never a perfect time to push for such a ban and the time to start is now.

Nuclear disarmament and security will be front and centre later this wee…

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[The Liberals differ imperceptibly from the Conservatives where trade agreements are concerned; no sign of Sunny Days here. *RON*]
Sujata Dey Council of Canadians / Huffington Post, 29 March 2016


On the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), International Trade minister Chrystia Freeland has claimed to be in “listening mode." And she says no decision has been made yet. It is widely reported that she is touring the country to hear Canadians on the TPP.

In February, at Question Period in the House of Commons, she said, “Mr. Speaker, on the TPP, we are doing exactly what we promised we would do during the election campaign. We told Canadians that we would take the time to listen to Canadians and to consult widely on this deal. I myself have been part of more than 50 consultations, and our whole-of-government approach has included more than 200.”

But it is not clear whom she is actually consulting. From our experience, it has been the usual blue-chip ind…

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[More positive spin-off from the now evenly split Supreme Court of the US. *RON*]

By Ian Millhiser, Think Progress, 29 March 2016
When the Supreme Court met last January to hear an aggressive attempt to defund public sector unions, the news looked grim for organized workers. All five of the Court’s conservatives seemed ready to accept the plaintiffs’ legal arguments, a result that would have potentially had catastrophic financial consequences for many unions.

Then Justice Antonin Scalia died, and the anti-union litigants lost the fifth vote they needed to prevail.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court announced the widely expected consequence of Scalia’s encounter with his own mortality. In a single-sentence order, the Supreme Court announced that the judgment of a lower court rejecting this effort to defund public sector unions “is affirmed by an equally divided court.” Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association is dead. A four-decade-old opinion prote…

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[A fascinating, albeit creepy, tale of the giant case of Stockholm Syndrome which is the Mossad. Otto Skorzeny, one of the Mossad’s most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s favorites. *RON*]

The Forward, Dan Raviv, Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 27 March 2016

On September 11, 1962, a German scientist vanished. The basic facts were simple: Heinz Krug had been at his office, and he never came home.

The only other salient detail known to police in Munich was that Krug commuted to Cairo frequently. He was one of dozens of Nazi rocket experts who had been hired by Egypt to develop advanced weapons for that country.

HaBoker, a now defunct Israeli newspaper, surprisingly claimed to have the explanation: The Egyptians kidnapped Krug to prevent him from doing business with Israel.

But that somewhat clumsy leak was an attempt by Israel to divert investigators from digging too deeply into the case …

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[And the military-industrial complex marches on. Russian weapons exports expected to receive $6bn-$7bn boost as result of ‘marketing effect’ of bombing campaign in Syria. Meanwhile, as Russia makes billions off arms sales because of Syria, Moe is busy shooting off Curly's foot on behalf of dueling American services: CIA-armed militias are shooting at Pentagon-armed ones in Syria. *RON*]

Alec Luhn, The Guardian, 29 March 2016 The demonstration of Russian military might during Vladimir Putin’s air campaign in Syria has increased interest from arms buyers and could result in several billion dollars in new sales, analysts and media have said. US secretary of state John Kerry’s meeting with the Russian president in Moscow last week suggested that Russia has forced the west to takes its political interests into account. But its arms exports, which totalled $15bn (£10.5bn) in 2015, have historically trailed only those of the US, also stand to benefi…