François Gèze : A La Découverte
Entretien avec François Gèze à Libération (01.02.2007).
Top Democrat: Halliburton Violated Multibillion Dollar Iraq Contract
By Jason Leopold at TruthOut (09.12.2006) :
Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, breached the terms of its multibillion dollar contract to provide US soldiers logistical support in Iraq when one of its subcontractors outsourced security work to Blackwater USA, according to new documents released Friday by Congressman Henry Waxman.
In a December 7 letter to outgoing defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Waxman alleged that taxpayers have been paying sky-high prices for Blackwater's services, which were not authorized under the terms of Halliburton's contract with the US Army. Waxman said he could not ascertain the exact cost of Blackwater's work, because the Army has refused to respond to questions about the deal for the past two years.
Waxman contends Halliburton was fully aware that its subcontractor ESS Support Services, food supplier to the military, hired armed guards employed by Blackwater to provide security for its convoys.
Under the terms of its $16.5 Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) contract, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, its employees and its subcontractors are prohibited from carrying weapons without prior approval from the military.
The Day the Music Died
By Max Fraser at The Nation (11.12.2006 Issue) :
If you are one of those few remaining souls who still gets music the old-fashioned way, and if you live in one of the twenty states home to at least one of Tower Records's eighty-nine American stores, chances are you've heard the news: Tower, the last and largest of the great "brick-and-mortar" record store chains, is going out of business. After more than four decades as one of the leading music sellers in the country, Tower Records is just weeks away from death, leaving many in the industry--from label executives and independent record store owners to music critics and fans--wondering just what it all means.
Qatar, Japan's energy white knight
By Hisane Masaki at Japan Times (05.12.2006) :
Two major trading firms, Mitsui & Co and Marubeni Corp, have stakes in two main projects of Qatar Liquefied Gas Co Ltd (Qatargas). Mitsui and Marubeni each have a 2.5% stake in the Qatargas upstream joint venture (offshore production and the onshore receiving facilities). They also have a 7.5% stake each in the Qatargas downstream joint venture (onshore LNG plant).
In July, Japan's Chiyoda Corp and France's Technip SA received a 180 billion yen (nearly US$1.56 billion) order from ExxonMobil Corp in Qatar to build what will be the world's largest gas-processing plant. Chiyoda and Technip received the order for engineering, procurement and construction of the Al Khaleej Gas Phase 2 Project, or AKG2.
The plant will have capacity to produce 12.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day when the project is completed in 2009. Last December, the Chiyoda-Technip alliance received a 500 billion yen contract to construct two LNG production facilities near the AKG2 plant site.
Dollars and hopes sky-high already
By Bob Ryan at The Boston Globe (15.11.2006).
Start with this: Investing in a pitcher is like putting your hard-earned money into a Broadway show.
The Red Sox have offered $51.1 million to the Seibu Lions merely for the right to talk contract with Mr. Matsuzaka. Now the real fun starts. They will be bargaining with the legendary Scott Boras, a hard-nosed fellow whose very presence has been known to scare off people in the past. Some are saying his involvement discouraged a team or two from bidding on Matsuzaka. But the Red Sox aren't afraid of Boras. Indeed, he and Theo Epstein have a history of compatibility, dating from Theo's tenure with the Padres.
Japan's top court backs worker invention
By AP at IHT (17.10.2006) :
TOKYO In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Japan on Tuesday recognized the intellectual property rights of employees who invent products, ordering Hitachi to pay ¥163 million to a former worker.
The court backed a January 2004 decision by the Tokyo High Court that awarded the payment, equivalent to over $1.3 million, to Seiji Yonezawa, who invented technology for reading compact discs and digital video discs while working at Hitachi, a court official said.
Japan once embraced a tradition of worker loyalty, under which employees were guaranteed a job for life but were not rewarded on the basis of performance. But intellectual property lawsuits by employees have increased steadily in recent years.
"We paid a fair price"
Interview with Philipp Schindler at Spiegel International (11.10.2006) :
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What do you have in mind as far as that is concerned? Is YouTube not expected to bring in any money?
Schindler: I can't yet concretely say, but of course, as I said earlier, we have a revenue model. One idea, for example, is sponsoring specific content. Another possibility is that certain content might be offered for a fee, just as we already do with Google Video. Another one would be to show an ad before the video. Right now we can't say, "This will be our strategy." We need to work on it so our targeting system, which works well for text-based content, also carries over into the audio-visual world.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Several videos on YouTube consist of pieced-together stolen material. How will you prevent copyright infringement?
Schindler: For us protecting content providers' copyright is of highest priority. For one thing, we advise our users that no copyright-protected material may be posted on our platform. For another, both Google Video and YouTube have a system that enables copyright holders to inform us if their copyright has been breached, and we react as quickly as possible.
The five pillars of the U.S. military-industrial complex
By Rodrigue Tremblay at Online Journal (25.09.2006).
Dutch company involved in construction of the Separation Wall
By Martin Siepermann at The Electronic Intifada (18.09.2006)
Research undertaken by United Civilians for Peace, a Dutch NGO-platform dedicated to promoting justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, has revealed that Dutch company Lima Holding BV, in Spijkenisse, is involved in the construction of the illegal Wall that Israel is building in the occupied West Bank.
Lima Holding, which operates in Israel under the Riwal brand name, provides mobile cranes for putting into place the up to 9-metres high concrete elements that make up the Wall. The exact scope and nature of the company's involvement in the construction of the Wall is yet to be determined.
Roman Abramovich's Chukotka project
By Zygmunt Dzieciolowski at OpenDemocracy (14.09.2006) :
Russia's far east is the site of an experiment in government and social development led by Roman Abramovich, billionaire businessman and owner of Chelsea football club. Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, who has tracked the Chukotka story for six years, uses his unique access to the region to send this progress report.
The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray at Alter Net (05.09.2006). :
The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq's oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military's mission.
Goldman willing to fund Olympic bid by Fukuoka
From Financial Times (25.08.2006) :
Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, is planning to put its own money into a bid by the south-western Japanese city of Fukuoka to host the 2016 summer Olympic games.
Goldman, which is advising Fukuoka on the commercial viability of hosting the games, said it was prepared to commit its own funds to help pay for the infrastructure development and was confident the project would pay “sizeable returns”.
“Based on our analysis, we are prepared to commit capital to this project,” Masanori Mochida, president of Goldman Sachs Japan, told the Financial Times.
“This project will have very sizeable returns, so Goldman Sachs is confident we can get interest from real estate investors, institutional investors and real estate investment funds,” Mr Mochida said.
Beeves of Mass Destruction
From "Farm ministry officially lifts ban on U.S. beef" by AP at The Japan Times (28.07.2006) :
The agriculture ministry on Thursday formally approved the resumption of U.S. beef imports following a ban in January due to concerns about mad cow disease, a ministry official said.
The ministry's mad cow advisory committee approved resuming imports, and the government planned to officially announce the move later Thursday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity per ministry protocol.
The lifting of the ban, imposed after Japanese inspectors checking a veal shipment found banned parts believed to be at risk for mad cow disease, would remove a key source of friction between Tokyo and Washington.
It would also give U.S. beef exporters access once again to what had been one of their most lucrative markets.
Halliburton sees earnings doubling in coming years
From Reuters (08.06.2006) :
Energy services company Halliburton Co. <HAL.N> expects net income and earnings per share to double over the next three to five years, Chief Financial Officer Cris Gaut said on Thursday.
In a presentation to investors, Gaut also forecast revenue growth for the energy services group of the company of 20 percent per year or more over the next three to five years.
Once it spins off an interest in its engineering and construction arm KBR, Halliburton will be more of a pure-play energy services company.
Murakami fund leader arrested for insider trading
From Mainichi Daily News (05.06.2006) :
The Murakami Fund bought a large number of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. shares in the autumn of 2004 and January 2005 after obtaining insider information that Livedoor Co. would buy Nippon Broadcasting shares, according to the sources.
It has already emerged that Livedoor had asked the Murakami Fund to buy Nippon Broadcasting shares together with the major Internet giant in the autumn of 2004, and that Livedoor had promised to buy them from the fund at higher prices.
By Jan. 5, 2005, the Murakami Fund had purchased a massive number of Nippon Broadcasting shares. However, after Livedoor initially failed to buy the shares, the Murakami Fund pressured Livedoor to keep to its word, a practice that prosecutors view as proof of insider trading, the sources said.
"Murakami admits insider trading" by Leo Lewis at Times Online (05.06.2006).
Enron's Schemes "The Very Nature of Profit-Based, Market Capitalism"
By Wallace Roberts at CommonDreams (26.05.2006).
"Enormous influence of the business elite on the legislative policies at all levels of government seriously distorts the democratic nature of our society." — Wendy Gramm.
Gates and MTV versus the mighty iPod
By Harry Mount at Telegraph (17.05.2006) :
Today Bill Gates's Microsoft company, in conjunction with MTV, which is owned by Viacom, are launching the first serious rival to the iPod.
The service, called Urge, will use Microsoft's Media Player technology and MTV's marketing power to target owners of non-iPod digital music players.
Lay says Enron dream now a 'nightmare'
By Matt Daily at Reuters (24.04.2006) :
"We basically turned over all our internal and external audit functions to an outside auditing firm, and that was Arthur Andersen," he said. "We basically had a real-time audit by Arthur Andersen going on all the time."
"I guess you could say in the last few years I've achieved the American nightmare," Lay said.
Lay, who landed a senior energy position in the U.S. Interior Department in the 1970s after earning a doctorate in economics, as a businessman was well-connected at the highest levels in Washington. He counted among his friends former President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush, who nicknamed the Enron CEO "Kenny Boy."
"I've said before I accept full responsibility for everything that happened at Enron," Lay said. "Having said that, there's no way I could take responsibility for the criminal conduct that I didn't know about."
Osama, Saddam, and the Ports
By Paul Krugman at The NY Times/Lettrist (24.02.2006) :
The storm of protest over the planned takeover of some U.S. port operations by Dubai Ports World doesn't make sense viewed in isolation. The Bush administration clearly made no serious effort to ensure that the deal didn't endanger national security. But that's nothing new — the administration has spent the past four and a half years refusing to do anything serious about protecting the nation's ports.
So why did this latest case of sloppiness and indifference finally catch the public's attention? Because this time the administration has become a victim of its own campaign of fearmongering and insinuation.
Hallibuarton and the Axis of Evil
By Tom Harper at Bring It On! (20.02.2006) :
Halliburton has been doing business in Iran since 1995. They've been in violation of U.S. sanctions at least since 2001, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Halliburton has been making about $40 million a year through its Iranian dealings. This is tiny compared to their multi-billion dollar contracts in Iraq.
Halliburton is probably the biggest and best-known violator of these U.S. sanctions. Conoco-Phillips and General Electric have also conducted massive operations in Iran and Syria.
There's so much American business activity in these countries, that basically anyone with a retirement or investment portfolio probably has money invested in "rogue, terrorist-sponsoring" countries.
いいですねぇ、こういう指摘は。 
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