Only 50,000? It only took 19 to cause all the damage on 9/11

In the past 10 years, an estimated 600,000 people are believed to have been involved with jihadi groups in the country, but most of them disassociated themselves from these organizations after September 11, 2001, due to government pressures or other reasons. Now, only 50,000 are believed to be active members of militant organizations.

David Warren's Commentary-Brainless in Gaza

ADSCAM - if this took place in the USA , it would probably fall under racketeering sections but of course these are mere allegations

Liberals paid sponsorship cash, inquiry hears

CTV.ca News Staff

Testifying before the sponsorship inquiry, a former senior Liberal executive says ministerial aides to current and former Liberals were paid under the table during the 2000 federal election campaign.

In his appearance before Justice John Gomery's inquiry in Montreal Monday, Benoit Corbeil claimed that the workers received an alleged total of $50,000 from advertising executive Jean Brault to help cover the employee payroll. Corbeil also claimed that Brault offered him $100,000.

The other $50,000 sum, corroborated by inquiry documents and witness testimony, was made through Commando Communication, owned by Brault associate Bernard Thiboutot.

According to Corbeil's allegations, the cash was paid at the start of the 2000 campaign to staffers, including: Irene Marcheterre, later named head of communications for federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre.

While he was still on the stand, Corbeil was served with a lawyer's paper demanding he retract his allegation about Marcheterre and two other Liberal workers or that they would sue, CTV's Jed Kahane reported.

Corbeil says that's not the only pressure he's faced.

He claimed that former public works minister Alfonso Gagliano called him a few weeks ago to say his reputation could be destroyed ahead of the potentially damaging testimony.

"He said 'listen, Benoit, people will come out against you, unanimously,'" said Corbeil.

"(He said)'you'll lose your reputation and you'll lose friends.'"

Guy Bertrand, Corbeil's lawyer, his client claimed to feel intimidated by the phone call, The Canadian Press reported.

"For him (Corbeil), it was intimidation and we mentioned that to the commission as soon as we could," Bertrand said outside the inquiry.

In his testimony, Corbeil also alleged that he received other under the table donations.

He claimed to have once received an envelope stuffed with $5,000 in cash from his former boss, Michel Beliveau, Corbeil's predecessor as head of the Liberals' Quebec wing.

He claims to have been given the money to help his party get a "leg up" in the hotly contested post-referendum election campaign.

The money was passed along to organizers in the Montreal riding of Bourassa -- the seat eventually won by Denis Coderre.

Coderre, who worked for the advertising firm Groupe Polygone before his election in 1997, went on to serve as a Chretien cabinet minister.

In the House of Commons Monday, there were calls for Coderre, now a Liberal backbencher, to resign.

Corbeil also alleged that Beliveau gave him a second envelope of $4,000 for an east-end Montreal riding won by Liberal Yvonne Charbonneau.

Watching proceedings in Montreal, CTV reporter Jed Kahane said Corbeil's testimony corroborates earlier explosive allegations heard at the high-profile probe.

"We now have other people saying they took cash in envelopes ... corroborating testimony that that was the way the system worked: That there was money kicked back by people who had made a great deal of money off the sponsorship program," Kahane said.

The testimony does appear to support allegations by Beliveau and Groupaction executive Brault, both of whom previously told the inquiry about underground Liberal fundraising activities in the 1990s.

But Corbeil denied Brault's claims that he and other top Liberals badgered him repeatedly for money.

Last week, Beliveau told the inquiry he gave Corbeil up to $100,000 earmarked for several ridings the Liberals were desperate to wrest from opposition parties. The money, he said at the time, came from Jacques Corriveau.

A close friend of then-prime minister Jean Chretien, Corriveau reportedly earned $7 million in sponsorship subcontracts.

Last month, Corbeil grabbed headlines when he alleged that the party not only channeled cash kickbacks to "fake" campaign volunteers, but also awarded some with judicial appointments.

On Monday, the allegations that were heard at the inquiry drew renewed criticism from opposition parties in the House of Commons, whose members called on Liberals to resign.

"Liberal MPs benefited from dirty money, and they are part of the prime minister's inner circle. They include parliamentary secretaries, special advisers, and the prime minister's own principal secretary, said Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy.

"The prime minister said anyone who knew about dirty deals and didn't say anything should resign. Don't these confessions make it clear that someone should be fired?" she asked.

But Liberals warned the opposition against drawing conclusions.

"I would caution the member not to go on one more time with unsubstantiated allegations. The reality is there are processes in place to look at these things. We will listen to the evidence, talk to the individuals, and make our decisions in due course," said Treasury Board President Reg Alcock.

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV's Jed Kahane

UPDATE ON ADSCAM via Kate

Corbeil Testimony


Politics Watch is reporting on the Corbeil testimony, and the Paul Martin camp makes another appearance.

The former director of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party testified at the Gomery inquiry Monday that he paid nine party staff members and officials $50,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes shortly before the 2000 federal election.

[...]

Also shortly before the election, Corbeil testified that he made two additional trips to Brault's office where he picked up two separate large yellow postal envelopes containing $35,000 and $15,000 in $100 bills.

On both visits, Corbeil said he counted the cash before leaving Brault's office. He later returned back to the Liberal Party headquarters.

"I came to my office and I divided it up," he testified.

Corbeil said he put the cash in nine separate envelopes for various party workers.

At that point in his testimony, Corbeil grabbed a piece of paper with the names of those he handed envelopes to and hesitated.

Justice John Gomery asked Corbeil to provide the names of the recipients.

"Commissioner, you know I lost my job," Corbeil said to Gomery.

"Mr. Corbeil, you're not the only one," Gomery said. "You're one of a group of people who have dealt with the very negative consequences because of having to tell the truth and we are making a request of you."

Corbeil then testified that he gave Daniel Dezainde, who was an official in the office of then prime minister Jean Chretien, two envelopes - one with $3,000 for Dezainde and another with $2,000 for a woman who was a friend of Dezainde.

He also said he gave Richard Mimeau, a known supporter of Paul Martin, an envelope containing $6,000 to reimburse him for travel expenses.


Corbeil is naming names. Among them is Liberal MP Denis Coderre - and it's not the first time.

Brault said that Gagliano crony Joe Morselli told him he could "solve potential problems" and "talk to Denis" - meaning Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre, who also served under Martin."


I presume the Prime MInister will be before the press by sundown, to turf Coderre from the party to uphold that "moral authority to govern" he informed us of a few weeks ago.


Posted by Kate at 04:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

One would have assumed that the U.S. would send somebody strong to the UN to protect its interest

But it looks like some people would prefer to protect the UN's interests.

If the Senate fails to confirm John Bolton, it may be better to leave the U.N. post vacant for a long time to come. If we can't send a strong voice to the UN, we probably shouldn't send anyone at all.

Looks like McCallum got run over by the Liberal Brinks truck convoy rolling across the country

Chantal Hebert on the campaign promises

before you know it, they'll be promising $25,000 to all Canadians to secure all the vote. If that's not enough, perhaps they'll increase it to a level that might work.

Why no tsunami warning?

Probably needs more investigation ,but to send everybody on vacation at the same time? Shades of Rwanda when the UN slept while Gen.Dallaire asked for resources.UNSCAM, RWANDA, DARFUR- reminds one of the line- I'm from the government and we're here to help you.The word mismanagement sounds appropriate and that's charitable.

This is an example of an excellent investigative reporter

Canada- the location of choice for terrorists?

Aren't there enough hard working decent immigrants available that Canada has to stoop so low to bring in and allow terrorist supporters to stay in the country. It seems that most immigrants came to Canada to get away from these low lifes and now they have to contend with them here.It seems that the government has only given lip service to security- lots of rhetoric but no action.

Who's doing the screening and do they have the necessary resources? If somebody suggests that the screening program is working well, there's some swamp land in Florida that's available for sale. How many deportation orders are outstanding, how many of those that have deportation orders, have been shown the door in the past 6 months? Once deported, how is it possible that some of them that have criminal backgrounds can still get back into the country?

Why doesn't the government distinguish the crooks and terrorists from the hard working decent immigrants that came here to improve their lives and to improve the country? Just because the government says they are doing something doesn't mean a thing-it's time for them to give the resources to those in the security agencies that protect Canadians. So far the government's track record isn't impressive.

Thanks to Mr. Bell for enlightening us. It might be an idea for some journalists to
follow his work to see what an investigative reporter actually does and it isn't just showing up for a press conference.

Since there no checks and balances in a one Party state , the more watchdogs the better

The Fourth estate in Canada seem to have evolved into a government filter rather than acting as a devil's advocate for the public who don't have their resources.They have been acting more like pussycats when it came to government wrongdoing.Where were they all these years when whistleblowers were getting canned for doing their job of protecting Canadians? as for the findings of the Gomery Comission, they merely regurgitate the testimony. Where were their investigative pieces over the years? Where is Andrew McIntosh lately? He used to have articles on the front pages ,was he muzzled?

The media haven't exactly been performing their duty to the public. Look at the Friends of Science. They had info that was important to the public but it never got out. Why not?

The more watchdogs the better. The best value for money in Canada is the Auditor- General's office . Without her diligence ,Canadians wouldn't know much about how the gun registry was being handled, the sponsorship laundering scheme and the deplorable state of Canadian security.

It's time for the media to either do their job of informing Canadians on what they don't know and stop just taking notes at press conferences.Either that or just wear a badge that says "Liberal supporter hoping for a patronage plum".

Whistleblowers the public doesn't know much about

3

Looks like one of Jack's readers has a few good points for Canadians to ponder

ed. note: Jack has been running a blog for a long time and always has interesting comments and websites. He was thinking about taking a leave of absence. Those who like his blogging should also encourage him to keep at it, even if he slows down a bit. Just from this blog we learn that there is a new site for readers to finally take the plunge as bloggers.(Thingamablog) We also learn about this poll which apparently hsn't had very wide circulation in the media. We also learn a bit of common sense on the upcoming election from one of his readers. If you're a Canadian make sure you don't miss the links at the bottom of the reader's email.There's a lot going on behind the scenes in Canada and the articles might enlighten people who are sitting on the fence.


http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewItem&itemID=7106



Betwixt And Between

For the past week I have been wrestling with the idea of shutting this site down completely. It has been generating a very low series of hits and all the effort put into it almost seems wasted unless of course you consider that it has been useful in keeping my mind active as I recuperated from my accident last year.

That being said, it's costing me money as it is eating up server space at an alarming rate. That hardly seems productive. Also, my competition appear to have a much better handle on this situation than I do (obviously).

For that reason I'm going to clean up the server today...get rid of all the old files which are just gathering dust...and switch to this new program I came across yesterday in my wanderings. For the next while I will be refining the template and entries will be very short.

I'll see how this goes for another week or so before I make a final decision about shutting down completely.

Thanks for visiting.



email from one of Jack's readers

............

You might want to pass on this email to Jack. Let him know that there are still people that enjoy reading his blog and hope that he continues, especially when there is an election on the horizon.He had a good suggestion with Thingamablog. I could have used it a week ago after I finally had to set up a blog because the media is going to do all in its power to keep the Liberals in office.(why were they so silent when Adscam was running- they didn't know anything with all their excellent contacts? or did they want to sanitize the Liberals reputation.?(I don't know anybody who has seen this poll since it claims most Canadians want a change in government,the pro Conservative polls get lost, the pro Liberal polls make it to the front page.It looks like some shenanigans are going on with pollsters also. Just drive the poll headlines into the public's mind but don't let them know they had government contracts or worked for the Liberals or the methodology- i.e. who answers polls more readily- Conservatives or Liberals? More than likely Conservatives don't answer telemarketers or pollsters and so results can be skewed unless the pollsters come clean on all their methodology.

If westerners want the Conservatives to get in, they should work hard at the constituency level to make sure their MP's get back in while relieving some of the better known MP's to campaign in Ontario. Harper should be pounding the roads in Ontario especially in the last few days of the campaign. He disappeared too early in the last election and a couple of free sprits made matters worse with some outlandish remarks that were exploited a few days before the election. Jason Kenny, Stock Day, Rona Ambrose, Diane Ablonszy and a few others that have safe seats should be beating the bushes in Ontario during the campaign. There are plenty in Ontario that are ticked with the corruption.The media pick and choose who they will put on air to support their agenda of aiding the Libs to make it appear that most people are against the Conservatives and are "afraid " of Harper's hidden agenda.The Liberal's hidden agenda was to launder taxpayers' hard earned money to remain in perpetual power.Kyoto's the Lib's hidden agenda- the costs that is,it'll make the costs of the gun registry look like child's play.

There are 30+ seats available to the Conservatives in Ontario if they can get their act together and act like they know how to run a government instead of sniping at each other. The Libs will take advantage of the sniping.They have daggers in the back for their own.

The money that's been falling off the Brinks truck across the country are mostly back ended- future promises like $10 billion for security( complete BS-how many were hired with that $10 billion) and $13 billion for the military( where about 80% will come in years 4 and 5).

It's mass communication with most of the media siding with the Libs- get over it. There are ways of bypassing them- door to door literature, talk shows,blogging.

Many in Ontario have been anesthetized by the Lib friendly press. They'll be doing all in their power to demonize the the Conservatives. Here's the botom line- with gas prices so high, government services ( healthcare ) down and taxes up, many people don't have time to spend on politics. They are doing everything to keep their head above water which is the way the Libs like it. Knowing that the Libs poured their hard earned money down the toilet, while they have to go without for some things, a new car , a vacation, child's university education ,etc, is going to make them mad . if the Conservatives can get this message out, they'll be the next government.Forget the hard core Liberal supporters- there are about 40 % of canadians that don't bother voting.Maybe some of them will make it to the polls this time when they see their money evaporating through corruption.

To sum up, the Libs tossed out billions before the last election ( just after the Auditor- General's report on adscam- (which the government stalled by some slick manoeuvering). They only ended up with a minority. This time people know much more about how their money was squandered and they are not going to be too happy, no matter how the media spin it. Remember they are pulling billions out of thin air- where did this money come from?- overtaxation. By the way , those involved in Adscam seemed to be living pretty high off the hog with taxpayer's money. Let's not forget that the sponsorship was only 1% of the Public Works budget. The deals with their friends would make the sponsorship would look puny if some media got off their asses and bothered to look at the rest of the Public Works Dept.

Just look at what happened to Jon Grant from Canada Lands when he objected to the shenanigans.What happened with the sponsorship wasn't an aberration, it was sytemic. Just look at what happened to whistleblowers in the government who were trying to protect Canadians. Then understand why the government hasn't passed any effective whistleblower protection in 13 years. They prefer the public be kept in the dark when it comes to the way their money is handled.

Those in the west should be volunteering to get their candidates elected and free up the MP's so they can be making the rounds in Ontario. There's 30 seats+ just waiting for a competent, honest government- those 30+ seats plus a few more additons across the country will make the Conservatives the next government.The campaign is underway so don't wait for the official notice, time to roll up the sleeves and throw a government that's long in the tooth and corrupt out of office.

Before casting their vote, every Canadian should be aware of the testimony of these whistleblowers if they want to go beyond the media spinning and see how their government really operates.Let's not forget what happened to Beaudoin at the Business Development Bank when he tried to protect taxpayers' money.Bottom line in all of the sponsorship testimony- The Liberals taught Canadian children that it's OK for people to steal. There is nothing more reprehensible than that.

http://www.primetimecrime.com/Recent/Investigative/whistleblowers.htm

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1079129297605_74538497/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/shawinigan/

The Angus Reid website

Link from Primetimecrime

Ezra Levant has some comments on the guests who have stayed at a house party a couple of hours after everyone else has left

They don't want to leave on their own, so sometimes you just have to show them the door and say goodnight.