Posted on 12/22/2005 5:15:33 AM PST by ironman
One thing we do know..... You can't believe the Compost
Your thoughts on this story?
ping
I also seem to recall the story being current right about the time that the cruise missiles missed OBL. Read about it right here at FR, as a matter of fact.
The Left's response to anything Bush says: Bush lied.
March 10, 2003
The New York Times
By SIMON ROMERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/10/technology/10GEAR.html
(just a snip from this article, pertaining to Iridium Satellite phone company)
Perhaps the most striking example of the military's adaptation of a civilian communications technology is the Iridium global phone network, a satellite-based wireless communications system. Motorola and other investors spent more than $5 billion during the 1990's to build Iridium into a commercial global satellite telephone system, only to have the company file for bankruptcy protection in 1999 after it failed to sign up many customers.
The Defense Department salvaged Iridium in 2000 by negotiating a two-year, $72 million agreement with the company's new owners, Iridium Satellite of Leesburg, Va., to have unlimited access to its network, which allows users to place calls or send and receive text messages almost anywhere in the world. The Pentagon hired General Dynamics to develop special encryption services and built a $200 million ground station in Hawaii to use as a gateway for connecting Iridium calls.
The Defense Department renewed its $36 million annual airtime contract with Iridium last December, allowing about 20,000 government workers to continue using the system. Warren Brown, an Iridium spokesman, said the Defense Department remained the company's largest customer, but large contracts with civilian customers were an increasingly important part of Iridium's revamped business.
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The bankruptcy resulted in a bargain-basement sale, and the company has been owned largely by Saudis.....I dount that they aquired the DoD gateway in Hawaii, though. The following is a thumbnail of the sale....I recall contemporaneously reading that the bin laden family was in on this deal.......Motorola (the tech/financial force behind Iridium) and the DoD slept together every night along the way of the Iridium story.....but the original stockholders are the only ones that got screwed........lots of people wondered what might have been quietly piggybacked into the Iridium system for intelligence reasons,.....In the end, arabs got it at a price they couldn't refuse, and the DoD had/has the DoD gateway.....now the press is full of bin'laden stories about him chucking his satphones
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Iridium Taken Over by Brazilian, Australian and Arabian Investors
Brazil/April 9, 2001/Satnews/ -- The company which took over Iridium is shared by Brazilian, Australian and South Arabian investors with 61% stake. Iridium is a telephone services company which holds a satellite communications network and provided cell phone services worldwide. The former Iridium was controlled by Motorola Inc. and other investors including Inepar. The owners of the new Iridium Holding LLC also own an affiliated named Iridium Carrier Holdings.
The Brazilian partner is Inepar, through the Panama-based subsidiary Milport Associates which holds a 8,9% stake in Iridum Carrier. In Brazil, Inepar operates in communications and electric power sectors. The Australian hold 26,9% of the company and the Arabian other 24,3%. The new owners paid US$25mil for Iridium which launching costed almost US$6bil to Motorola and other investors.
The filing seeks the transfer of mobile-phone handset and other U.S. licenses used by a bankrupt predecessor company to the fleet's new owners, Iridium Satellite LLC.
The foreign investors own a combined total of 61 percent of Iridium Holdings LLC, the parent of the new Iridium Satellite. They own a similar percentage of an affiliated company which is seeking the handset license transfer.
The new owners argued that ownership by citizens of Brazil and Australia should not be an issue for the FCC because both countries are members of the World Trade Organization.
The remaining foreign owner, Baralonco N.V., is a Netherlands Antilles corporation ultimately owned and controlled by Prince Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman, a Saudi citizen, the application said. A cousin of King Fahd, he controls the Saudi holding group Mawarid, which owned 8 percent of the old Iridium.
Saudi Arabia is not a member of the WTO. Baralonco would hold a 24.3 percent stake in Iridium Carrier Holdings, which is seeking the handset license. Iridium Carrier is controlled by the same six parties who control affiliated Iridium Holdings, Iridium Satellite LLC's parent.
"The shareholders in the new Iridium organization are familiar faces," said Greg Lucas, managing partner of McLean, Va., commercial space consultancy FCCFilings.com. He said they were getting a second bite at access to the system for a "steal" through direct equity stakes in the new parent company.
http://www.satnews.com/stories/3apr2001-6.html
here's a little more on the subject linking bin laden family to Iridium.......
Can't you just hear the newsroom chat? Here is a chance to wrap those right wing blogger's asses around the axle. Let's just quote a few of them and that will do the trick.
U.S. officials have long been building intelligence dossiers and making contingency plans to act against bin Laden. But his hideout, protected by the ruling Afghanistan Taliban militia, afforded him a sense of protection. That ended Thursday, when the United States struck back with military might normally reserved for attacks against enemy nations.
Excellent.
Did Eddy talk about her children? May be next time she will tell us about taking her precious son to a softball game where he hit a home run, and we should all yell: ooooooooh isnt that so nice Fox and Friends is a very stupid show and I watch them for less than 5 minutes per year.
The accumulation of intelligent input by pajama-clad "fact checkers" here at FR are better than anywhere in the country, imo .......... not that that this is a blog. ;-)
FR rules.
If you want the indepth truth as quickly as possible ................ this is the place.
*******
From a while back:
P> "It was amazing Thursday to watch the documents story go from FreeRepublic.com, a bastion of right-wing lunacy, to Drudge to the mainstream media in less than 12 hours," said Jim Jordan, a strategist for independent Democratic groups opposed to Bush, and Kerry's former campaign manager.
"That's not to say the documents didn't deserve examination."But apparently the entire thing was cooked up by a couple of amateurs on Free Republic. The speed with which it moved was breathtaking.
Excellent
What was it that Sen Shelby got in trouble for?
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40886-2004Aug4.html
They can't seem to keep their story straight, can they?
Who cares? Even if the story is fake, it's accurate. [hoot]
bump
Gwjack
It's odd that they should use this approach to attempt to delegitimize the leak - the leak was real, no question about it. The timing of it and bin Laden's reaction to it are the only matters of question.
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