What's in the News

Why didn't you submit them Missy? I can just picture Byron as the mascot

She's reprinting what that Brian Carefoot person wrote.

BTW, what does 'priaprismic' mean?

Not certain you really want to know.

Having a persistently erect penis.

Why am I not surprised??

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans

 
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: March 27, 2008
This article was reported by C. J. Chivers, Eric Schmitt and Nicholas Wood and written by Mr. Chivers.

 
Ammunition supplied by an American contractor to Afghan forces. Some of it was in such poor shape that it was not used.


Problems with old munitions were exposed recently by explosions at an Albanian depot.
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces.

Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed.

In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.

Moreover, tens of millions of the rifle and machine-gun cartridges were manufactured in China, making their procurement a possible violation of American law. The company’s president, Efraim E. Diveroli, was also secretly recorded in a conversation that suggested corruption in his company’s purchase of more than 100 million aging rounds in Albania, according to audio files of the conversation.

This week, after repeated inquiries about AEY’s performance by The Times, the Army suspended the company from any future federal contracting, citing shipments of Chinese ammunition and claiming that Mr. Diveroli misled the Army by saying the munitions were Hungarian.

Mr. Diveroli, reached by telephone, said he was unaware of the action. The Army planned to notify his company by certified mail on Thursday, according to internal correspondence provided by a military official.

But problems with the ammunition were evident last fall in places like Nawa, Afghanistan, an outpost near the Pakistani border, where an Afghan lieutenant colonel surveyed the rifle cartridges on his police station’s dirty floor. Soon after arriving there, the cardboard boxes had split open and their contents spilled out, revealing ammunition manufactured in China in 1966.

“This is what they give us for the fighting,” said the colonel, Amanuddin, who like many Afghans has only one name. “It makes us worried, because too much of it is junk.” Ammunition as it ages over decades often becomes less powerful, reliable and accurate.

AEY is one of many previously unknown defense companies to have thrived since 2003, when the Pentagon began dispensing billions of dollars to train and equip indigenous forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its rise from obscurity once seemed to make it a successful example of the Bush administration’s promotion of private contractors as integral elements of war-fighting strategy.

But an examination of AEY’s background, through interviews in several countries, reviews of confidential government documents and the examination of some of the ammunition, suggests that Army contracting officials, under pressure to arm Afghan troops, allowed an immature company to enter the murky world of international arms dealing on the Pentagon’s behalf — and did so with minimal vetting and through a vaguely written contract with few restrictions.

In addition to this week’s suspension, AEY is under investigation by the Department of Defense’s inspector general and by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prompted by complaints about the quality and origins of ammunition it provided, and allegations of corruption.

Mr. Diveroli, in a brief telephone interview late last year, denied any wrongdoing. “I know that my company does everything 100 percent on the up and up, and that’s all I’m concerned about,” he said.

He also suggested that his activities should be shielded from public view. “AEY is working on a moderately classified Department of Defense project,” he said. “I really don’t want to talk about the details.”

He referred questions to a lawyer, Hy Shapiro, who offered a single statement by e-mail. “While AEY continues to work very hard to fulfill its obligations under its contract with the U.S. Army, its representatives are not prepared at this time to sit and discuss the details,” he wrote.

NZ man sentenced after claiming to have been raped by a wombat

A New Zealand man who claimed to have been left speaking Australian after being raped by a wombat has been sentenced to 75 hours community service.

Arthur Ross Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker, admitted in the Nelson District Court yesterday to the charge of using a phone for a fictitious purpose, after calling police with the message, "I've been raped by a wombat".

Police prosecutor Sergeant Chris Stringer told the court that on the afternoon of February 11 Cradock called the police communications centre, threatening to "smash the filth"  if they arrived at his home that night.

When asked if he had an emergency, he replied "yes", Mr Stringer said.

On a second subsequent call to the communications centre, Cradock told police he was being raped by a wombat at his Motueka address, and sought their immediate help.

He called police again soon after, and gave his full name, saying he wanted to withdraw the complaint.

"I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out," Cradock told the operator at the communications centre, who had no idea what he was talking about, Mr Stringer said.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all," Cradock then told the operator.

Mr Stringer said alcohol had played a big part in Cradock's life. However, defence lawyer Michael Vesty said alcohol was not a problem that day.

Judge Richard Russell said he was not quite sure what motivated Cradock to make those statements to the police.

In sentencing, he warned Cradock not to do it again.

stuff.co.nz

http://www.smh.com.au/news/unusual-tales/nz-man-jailed-for-wombat-rape-claim/2008/03/28/1206207344849.html

Quote:
"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know, I didn't hurt my bum at all," 

I thought the bum hurting phenomenon was restricted solely to listening to Australian politicians speak.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm posting that as a note on facebook

Having trouble getting into the "Notes" facility on FB.  Could that be being blocked (as its sort of like a blog)?

Still can't get to FB

I'm pleased I'm not trying to live on 650Y a month - or working 73 hours a week to make a decent wage.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23455711-25837,00.html

Fair play impossible, says Adidas workers
Claire Newell and Michael Sheridan, Fuzhou | March 31, 2008

THE German sportswear giant Adidas has paid a reported $108 million to sponsor this year's Beijing Olympics with the slogan "Impossible is nothing".

But for the thousands of Chinese workers who earn a basic $25 a week making Adidas's expensive trainer shoes at factories in the industrial city of Fuzhou, one thing does seem impossible: to get a fair deal.

An investigation by The Sunday Times of into the workers' pay and conditions has found apparent violations of China's labour laws and Adidas's code of workplace standards.

Workers at the factories in Fuzhou accuse the management of cheating on pay, discriminating against young men and stifling an attempt to set up a trade union.

They have provided documents appearing to prove that they have to work for more than 70 hours a week to earn a living wage, even though Chinese law limits the average working week, including overtime, to 49 hours.

Adidas has defended its record. The company denies discrimination but has conceded that many of its Chinese workers earn the minimum legal salary.

Life for workers in the Adidas factories, which are surrounded by a warren of narrow tenement streets, is a world apart from the celebrity-studded image projected by David Beckham, the soccer player, and the singer Missy Elliott, who designs some of the company's sportswear.

The Sunday Times found a history of industrial disputes at three of what Adidas calls "long-established partner factories" in Fuzhou, owned and operated by a Taiwan-based company.

In dozens of interviews, workers, administration staff and security guards described a hostile atmosphere of class and cultural conflict between the Chinese workforce, the Taiwanese managers and Adidas's German-led management team.

They say there have been at least five unreported strikes in the past 12 months over allegations of management cheating and abuse. The workers' complaints include claims that staff are sometimes forced to work overtime for no pay. Most cannot understand their complex wage slips.

"Life is very hard," said a worker with two small children. "We work morning to night, but have no money left."

One pair of Adidas trainers in Britain costs from £60 ($130) to £120 for the latest women's sports shoes, which are designed by Stella McCartney.

But factory payslips show the basic wage for an Adidas worker last year was just 570 yuan (about $90) a month.

Adidas confirmed the figure and said the pay was raised to 650 yuan a month, in line with a rise in the provincial legal minimum wage last August.

"The problem is that the minimum wage is not a living wage," said Geoffrey Crothall, editor of the China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong.

Records reviewed by Bulletin experts showed that to earn a living wage, estimated by workers at $175 a month, employees would have to work excessive overtime. One wage slip indicated the employee had worked 73 hours that week.

In 2002, workers thought their conditions would improve when the management, under pressure from foreign customers, allowed a free election for union representatives. But by last year, when the union officers' five-year term was up, most workers had become disillusioned with the union and its leader, Tang Ximou.

Strikes were breaking out, real wages were falling, Mr Tang was accused of doing nothing and an atmosphere of conflict prevailed. On October 14, the management allowed an election - but only for part-time union posts. Mr Tang and his two deputies were reappointed without a poll.

After a strike in 2006 led by young male workers, the Taiwanese management took action against those involved. "They were all kicked out," said a clerk.

A sign outside the factory says all male workers must produce a certificate from their home town to prove they do not have a criminal record. No such rule applies to women.

"The boss thinks the men are troublemakers," a company security guard said. "We give them special searches and keep an eye on them."

The Sunday Times

And Adidas corporate will deny knowing about the abhorrent working conditions and promise to look into it and nothing will change.

Some cockwit rightwing american on another forum I go on tried to justify the low salaries paid in these places by saying that if the jobs didn't exist, the people wouldn't have jobs at all. 

1800s Industrial Revolution:Revisitation.

Benefits of globalisation.

Remember, economic forces are natural forces.  Children working themselves to death in a shoe factory are all part of the miraculous Cycle of Life.