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Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein manipulated the United Nations oil-for-food program so that his regime received $1.8 billion in illicit payments, a U.N.-backed independent report said Thursday. The investigation, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said kickbacks came from some 66 member states and illicit surcharges came from 40 member states. The report also said Marc Rich & Co. financed 4 million barrels of oil under a 9.5-million-barrel contract awarded to the European Oil and Trading Co. (EOTC), a French-based shell company. "Surcharges were imposed on the oil," the report said, and "Marc Rich & Co. directed BNP...

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the controversial leader of the Respect party, is facing a damaging divorce action on the eve of the election. His Palestinian-born wife questions how he can call the party Respect when she claims he has been disrespectful to her by having a series of friendships with other women. Amineh Abu-Zayyad has told The Sunday Times she can no longer tolerate his behaviour and will be contacting solicitors this week. She says she has received a number of phone calls from women who claim to have had romantic links with him. She adds that Galloway has tried to smooth...

April 20, 2005 Islamist 'mob' threatens Galloway with gallows By Philippe Naughton, Times Online George Galloway A mob of young Islamist extremists allegedly threatened to hang anti-war campaigner George Galloway last night as as the country's most bitter election battle spilled into violence on the streets of the East End. The Respect candidate, who is fighting Labour’s Oona King for the Bethnal Green and Bow seat in East London, was meeting locals in a tenant association’s room last night with his daughter, Lucy, when a 40-strong group of militants burst in, his spokesman said today. Locking the door behind them,...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- C-Murder is no more. The rapper, whose real name is Corey Miller, will now go by C Miller, his publicist said. Miller, brother of Master P, is being held in the Jefferson Parish jail on a second-degree murder conviction. ''People hear the name C-Murder and they don't realize that the name simply means that I have seen many murders in my native Calliope projects neighborhood,'' he said in a statement.

US and Britain in UN secretary general's sights Jonathan Steele Friday March 11, 2005 The Guardian The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the US yesterday for weakening human rights in the name of the war on terror. "We cannot compromise on core values," he said in Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital. "Human rights and the rule of law must always be respected." Addressing a three-day conference which included about 20 heads of state and government as well as terrorism experts, lawyers...

Clinton-pardoned fugitive billionaire Marc Rich has turned up in the middle of the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal, with his name on a roster of companies authorized to participate in the corruption-plagued arrangement. "One of Marc Rich's companies was on the United Nations list that was approved to trade and transport Iraqi oil," Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn reported Tuesday. "And it appears that Mr. Rich's firm, Marc Rich & Co. Investments AG, may well have been given that approval by the U.N. before the presidential pardon," Shawn added. That means the U.N. was ready to do business with America's most-wanted...

YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF AMBULANCE-CHASING BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE AMBULANCE-CHASING OUT OF THE BOY   POURQUOI JOHN KERRY EST DANGEREUX POUR L'AMÉRIQUE by Mia T, 10.14.04   YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF AMBULANCE-CHASING BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE AMBULANCE-CHASING OUT OF THE BOY (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004   election update!JOHN KERRY IS UNFIT~THE SERIES RAISING TAXES, YOU POOR SLOBS + TERESA'S 11.5% TAX RATE (LAISSEZ-LES MANGER LE GÂTEAU)THE LETHAL DANGER OF JOHN KERRY: SPACE-TIME, TESSELLATIONS OF THE PLANET + TERRORISMKerry aims for 9/10, the good old days...

WASHINGTON — Presidential candidate John Kerry (search) launched into damage control Thursday afternoon after angering Vice President Cheney (search) and his family and alienating some voters by mentioning that Cheney's daughter, Mary, is gay.“I love my daughters. They love their daughter. I was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue,” Kerry said in a statement released from the campaign trail in Las Vegas. Kerry was there to speak to the AARP, the nation's largest organization for seniors. First lady Laura Bush had addressed the crowd earlier. But the remarks may have come too...

Alright, we haven't finalized plans for this yet, but we're planning an impromptu protest outside of Chris Matthews' "Hardball" program tomorrow.It will be held around Herald Square and take place between three and four p.m. in the afternoon. These plans are tentative of course, and depend upon the level of support we receive. Protest Warrior has allowed us to use their signs, so don't worry about that aspect of this demonstration. If you are interested, or know of any other freepers, conventioneers, or likeminded Republicans who may be interested in refuting the lies spouted by that loutish, low-rent loudmouth, please...

Don't spend that $330 annual savings in property taxes you're supposed to get by 2006. That's the $330 average property tax reduction per household promised from legislation legalizing slot machines and from adding 0.1 percent to the local wage tax. It was pushed by Gov. Ed Rendell and backed by a majority of state lawmakers on July 4. The wage tax would take effect the year property tax relief is provided. If your family income is $100,000, you'll pay $100 more in the wage tax. That should be deducted from the $330 for a net savings of $230. Then wait....

"Indecent Exposure" John Kerry political cartoon.  June 9, 2004... Kerry photo-ops Reagan casket Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee John Kerry showed up at the Reagan Library on Tuesday afternoon to view the deceased former president’s casket, setting off a firestorm of reaction. ·        At issue: The need for a Kerry visit to the Reagan Library in California. As reported by Rush Limbaugh, a Kerry spokesperson had already announced Kerry would attend the State Funeral for Reagan on Friday in Washington, D.C.·        At issue: The photographer accompanying Kerry into the Reagan Library. Clear guidelines (handed out to everyone prior to entering...

U-Turn in Kerry sex row From BRIAN FLYNN in New York THE father of the woman said to have had an affair with US Presidential hopeful John Kerry has made a dramatic U-turn. Terry Polier pledged to vote for the super-rich Democrat after daughter Alex, 27, publicly insisted she had not had a fling with him. Yet just four days ago, Terry branded Kerry, 60, a “sleazeball” and said he and wife Donna would NEVER support him. He said: “I know my wife will not be voting for Mr Kerry, let’s put it that way. “Two years ago he was...

With Alexandra Polier's denial on the record, it just raises more questions than it supplies answers. Why did her father call Kerry a sleazeball and THEN say he'd be voting for Kerry? Why did the parents have to say they'd be voting for Kerry? The issue was NOT who'd they vote for, but wheter Kerry's a sleazeball. Was she threatened? Were parents pressured? What WAS/IS the relationship between Kerry and Polier? How many times did they meet? Socially? Politically? Alone? Where was Teresa at the time? I don't know and I don't have all the facts. It's time for John...

The name of the intern Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) allegedly had a two-year extramarital affair with beginning in Spring 2001 surfaced over the weekend. The Telegraph UK reported on Sunday that the name of the Kerry's intern is 27-year old journalist Alexandra Polier. "This is not going to go away," said an American friend of Polier to the Telegraph UK. "What actually happened is much nastier than is being reported." Polier formerly worked for the New York bureau of the Associated Press after graduating with a double major in philosophy and government from Clark University in...

The young intern at the centre of a furore involving United States presidential hopeful John Kerry is hiding out in Kenya. Alex Polier, 24, has been in the country for the past few weeks visiting her fiancee, Mr Yaron Schwartzman, who works with FilmStudios, along Nairobi's Ngong Road. Ms Polier, who could end Senator John Kerry's hopes of becoming the next president of the United States, is alleged to have had a two-year affair with the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. "This is not going to go away," one American friend of Ms Polier said yesterday. "What actually happened is...

A global media scrum descended on the Chester County suburb of Malvern yesterday because of a furor over a rumored romantic link between a 1995 Great Valley High School grad and presidential hopeful John Kerry. Despite the frenzy, little information was forthcoming yesterday, and there was no confirmation of any relationship between Kerry and the woman. Several news trucks and assorted gawkers loitered outside the home of the parents of 27-year-old Alexandra Polier after her dad was quoted in a British tabloid that Kerry was "a sleazeball" who'd shown an interest in his daughter. Polier, who was a cross-country star...

A HIPPIE PREZ? By HOWIE CARR February 14, 2004 -- BOSTON - THESE days, Kerry criss-crosses the country as a war hero, a decorated Navy veteran of Vietnam. But 33 years ago, he was widely regarded as a hippie, in no small measure because of his anti-war activities with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Much has been made of the photograph of Kerry with Jane Fonda, and his involvement in the so-called Winter Soldier Investigation. But there's another interesting aspect to what Kerry was up to back then. It's a book, "The New Soldier," about the VVAW demonstrations in...

WASHINGTON -- Former congressman Gary Condit paid his children $209,500 last year with funds originally meant to advance his own career, newly released records show. The most recent payments to Chad and Cadee Condit all but emptied the treasury Condit established when his statewide prospects appeared bright. They also illuminate the sometimes controversial liberties politicians can take with political action committees. "I would consider it unusual and downright misleading for a candidate to use PAC funds to pay his children," David Schecter, assistant professor of political science at California State University, Fresno, said Monday. But Schecter added, "If the payments...