Free Republic

In the hunt for Saddam Hussein's billions, investigators have identified five networks of more than 100 companies used to launder money skimmed from Iraqi oil sales. Saddam's gangster regime set up shell companies in Switzerland, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Panama, according to investigators. Those company networks and their banking affiliations were used to enrich the former Iraqi strongman, his sons Uday and Qusay, and other family members. "Ultimately, the money was stolen from the Iraqi people," said Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the Treasury Department, which is heading the government's laundering probe along with U.S. Customs, the Secret Service and various...

Rock discovery causes excitement The stone weighs 30 tonnes and is about 17 feet high An ancient rock covered in carved symbols has been discovered in a South American jungle by an archaeologist from Cornwall. Julien Chenoweth, from St Mawes, said a date test showed the carvings were as old as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The rock was discovered by Mr Chenoweth after he led an expedition through the Darian area of the Panama jungle, with a party which also included medic Jo Lloyd-King, from Camborne. A previous archaeologist had been told about the sacred stone by a native Indian, but...

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, serving a 20-year jail sentence in Panama, was hospitalized on Wednesday for what authorities say was a routine check-up though his attorney says he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. "He will undergo several routine exams," Angel Calderon, head of Panama's jail system told Reuters, adding that Noriega suffered a bout of flu last week. But the former strongman's lawyer said Noriega's health has deteriorated due to poor treatment in jail for flu and fever, and a brain tumor recently detected by his doctors. … The 78-year-old Noriega, once Panama's drug-running military ruler, is...

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Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today calling for “increased scrutiny” of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in light of potential terrorist attacks against New York City. Pointing to NYPD’s director of intelligence warning that Iran is “essentially” the number one threat, Mr. Schumer argued these diplomats must ”be vigorously monitored.” “With Iran’s increasingly bellicose and threatening behavior, it’s imperative that agents of the Iranian government in the United States receive additional scrutiny to ensure that they pose no threat to New York or the rest of the country,” Mr. Schumer said...

SNIPPET - quote: Dissemination *_is_* collection I always get a kick out of people who tell me I give away intelligence for free. What I do is watch how information moves. Keep in mind that the subject covered on this site are pretty darn esoteric by most standards. What kind of people, for example, even know who Oussama Salhab is? Answers include: Oussama Salhab, his family, friends, associates in and out of Hizballah, people he does business with, spies of various nations, etc. Yep. The barn is free, and so is the food.

"Spectacular find" includes gold, jewels, and a small army of likely sacrifices. Newfound tombs in Central America are yielding thousand-year-old gold, gems, and even hints of murder by pufferfish. But the real treasure is the excavation's clues to the unnamed civilization of the so-called golden chiefs of Panama, archaeologists say. "It's really a very spectacular find. ... probably the most significant" for this culture since the 1930s, when the nearby Sitio Conte site, also in central Panama, yielded a wealth of gold artifacts, anthropologist John Hoopes said. Until now, Sitio Conte provided the only major evidence of the golden-chiefs culture,...

Former military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega was flown home to Panama on Sunday to be punished once again for crimes he committed during a career that saw him transformed from a close Cold War ally of Washington to the vilified target of a U.S. invasion.

A French court has granted a request by Panama to send Manuel Noriega back home, where he is wanted for crimes committed during his 1983-1989 rule. The former Panamanian military leader is currently serving a prison sentence in France for money laundering. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in prison in the US after being convicted there of drug-trafficking charges. Noriega is likely to return before the end of the year to Panama, where courts have already convicted him in absentia.

Somebody forgot to tell Panama about the eurozone crisis. While the rest of the world is slowing, its economy is set to expand by 10 per cent this year and 7.5 per cent next. And those are real figures, as Finance Minister Frank de Lima told beyondbrics. In the nominal terms most people use, those numbers hit the teens. Few countries, perhaps none, can match that. The canal is responsible for most of this growth. Indeed, since the country took it over in 1999, Panama’s economy has tripled in size. That remarkable performance is because Panama runs the canal more...

His burial at sea in full armour and in a lead casket was designed to ensure that no one – but especially the Spanish – would find his body. Now, more than 400 years after Sir Francis Drake's death in the Caribbean, the great seafarer's watery grave may be close to being discovered. A team of treasure hunters led by an American former basketball team owner claims to have discovered two ships from Drake's fleet lying on the seabed off the coast of Panama. The 195-ton Elizabeth and 50-ton Delight were scuttled shortly after the naval hero's death from dysentery,...

Why did the White House cancel a Rose Garden bill-signing for the Free Trade Agreements, opting instead for a behind-closed-doors event? On Tuesday, the White House issued a press release announcing that “On Friday, October 21st, President Obama will sign the Korea, Panama and Colombia Free Trade Agreements and the renewal of Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers in the Oval Office before making remarks in the Rose Garden. In his remarks, President Obama will underscore that these trade agreements will significantly boost American exports, support tens of thousands of American jobs and protect labor rights, the environment and intellectual property....

All across America there are cities and towns that were once prosperous and beautiful that are being transformed into absolute hellholes. The scars left by the long-term economic decline of the United States are getting deeper and more gruesome. The tax base in many areas of the nation has been absolutely devastated as millions of jobs have left this country. Hundreds of cities are drowning in debt and are desperately trying to survive. Last year, city government revenues in the United States fell by another 2.3 percent. That was the fifth year in a row that we have seen...

Congress approved free trade agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy and put people back to work. Republicans criticized Obama for taking several years to send the agreements, all signed in the President George W. Bush administration, to Congress for final approval. Many among Obama's core supporters, including organized labor and Democrats from areas hit hard by foreign competition, were unhappy that the White House was espousing the...

“...The US currently has one of the strongest and fastest growing biotech and pharmaceutical industries in the world. Weakening of IP rights not only is detrimental to the economy, but also puts the public’s health and safety at risk. Drugs being researched and manufactured today have been proven effective against life threatening diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and diabetes due to reliable patent laws that encourage innovation. Research and development is very expensive, and companies need to have an incentive to keep inventing life-saving drugs. Any trade agreement negotiated by the United States must include an IP chapter that provides...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a dozen Republican senators on Wednesday urged President Barack Obama to quickly send Congress three long-delayed trade deals that they said would help put Americans back to work. "If the president really cares about jobs, he will send up the agreements immediately," Senator Rob Portman told reporters, referring to deals with South Korea, Panama and Colombia signed more than four years ago. With Obama set to outline his ideas for reducing high U.S. unemployment in a speech on Thursday night, Senator Mike Johanns urged the president to announce that he will send the pacts to Congress...

According to the White House, President Obama has been huddling with advisers on a jobs plan he’ll present to Congress this week. One thing he could do immediately is finalize the free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama that have been languishing on his desk. For nearly three years, Republicans and a number of Democrats have been calling on the president to approve these deals to create a level playing field with America’s competitors overseas, vastly expand the market for U.S. goods, strengthen our ties with three important allies and create jobs for Americans. Yet the deals have been...

A group of US archaeologists may have uncovered a section of hull and coral-covered chests that privateer Henry Morgan lost during his 1671 raid of Panama. The team from Texas State University is led by underwater archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann. He led last year's discovery of cannons at the mouth of the Chagres River that may also have belonged to five ships Morgan is believed to have lost. The team have been working slowly to uncover the wreckage of the ship that has been buried in the sand. "When we get to an archaeological site, like a shipwreck that has a...

Sitting in the Oval Office with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, President Obama praised the “historical relationship” between their two countries and promised greater cooperation and communication on free trade and battling an illicit drug market. “We’re confident that a free-trade agreement between our countries will create jobs here in the United States,” Obama told reporters. “It will also be good for Panama.” Obama said they’re continuing cooperation on the “constant problem” of the drug trade. And he said that the more Panama can help showcase the success of the free market, democracy and security to its neighbors, “the more successful...

I have not found any English language sources regarding this patriot of Panama. Freepers everywhere would have loved to meet a real man. One who stood up to Manuel "Pizza Face" Noriega and you may recall his famous photo wearing a blood stained shirt fighting off a kid. That kid was one of Noriega's goons. And yes, "Billy" told me that he clocked the kid but good. Truly a remarkable man and life. One morning, he actually flipped the bird to one of Noriega's helicopter gunships hovering right outside his apartment in the Paitilla neighborhood of Panama City. They couldn't...