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Deja vu: tax haven banking group tries to injunct TGIF Edition

It's been revealed a New Zealand financial services company chaired by Jim Anderton's deputy Matt Robson tried and failed to get a lightning ex parte injunction Download Copy to prevent last Friday night's TGIF Edition from going out.

Documents filed in the court attempt, and served on Investigate magazine editor Ian Wishart last night, disclose WSD Global Markets Limited was knocked back in its attempt Friday, by the High Court's Justice Harrison, who ordered WSD to formally notify Investigate and TGIF of the gagging attempt.

However, the matter has been set down for another hearing tomorrow in a bid to prevent TGIF Edition from running part two of its investigation into Wall Street Banking Corporation and its NZ affiliate WSD Global Markets Ltd, which is chaired by Robson.

The court documents disclose Robson played a key role in trying to gag the newspaper.

In his own confusing affidavit , Robson admits that New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office compelled his company to front up with documents held in its Auckland office that were relevant to an investigation of sister company WSBC, yet Robson inexplicably then denies knowing of any criminal investigation into the transactions involving WSBC.

Robson, a former lawyer, appears to be unaware that the Serious Fraud Office investigates possible financial crimes. The details of the Serious Fraud Office notice, which Robson kindly annexed to his affidavit, reveal they concern exactly the same transactions detailed in the latest TGIF Edition, specifically a 2007 money laundering ring busted by the CIA, MI6, and the intelligence agencies of UAE and India.

Significantly, WSD admits holding records in Auckland in relation to a Kumar Trading Company, whilst a Times of India report associates Kumar Trading with "confessed" al Qa'ida money launderer Naresh Chandra Jain.

Robson's affidavit also appears to conflict in places with that of a WSBC Cook Islands executive, adduced in the same injunction attempt against TGIF.

The court proceedings tomorrow are a bizarre case of deja vu for Investigate editor Ian Wishart, who famously won a massive legal battle against Cook Islands tax haven bank European Pacific in 1994, allowing a TVNZ documentary on the winebox deals to go ahead.

Legal experts spoken to by TGIF give Matt Robson's gagging attempt "no chance" of success this time around, either.

 

US Federal debt now exceeds total world output

WorldNetDaily has kindly published the latest financial stats for the US, revealing the Federal deficit has rocketed out to US$65 trillion.

This amount exceeds total world GDP. Any bets on the looming end of the Western empire?

Legal shots fired across Wishart’s bow

KEEGAN ALEXANDER, Barristers & Solrs

RE [YOU'LL FIND OUT SOON/and POLITICIAN]

1. We act for the above
2. We have been instructed in relation to the material published on your Investigate website followed by your email to Mr [POLITICIAN] of 12 February 2009
3. It is clear you intend to publish untrue material implying that our clients are involved in the financing of terrorism and/or money laundering. Any such publication will be defamatory and of a very serious nature. Our clients are presently preparing the necessary proceedings for filing in the High Court and we expect you to be served with these on Monday.
4. Clearly the damages claimed from you as a result of publication on the forgoing lines will be substantial. The implications you clearly intend to make are of a very serious nature and your liability for publication of them will be equally severe. You are hereby put on notice of such proceedings and warned against the publication of further defamatory statements about our clients.

Yours faithfully, etc

Peter Spring

 

OPEN MESSAGE TO KEEGAN ALEXANDER

Dear Peter

You seem to be labouring under a misapprehension at para 3. TGIF Edition will be publishing true material, the full implications of which you will simply have to wait and digest at the appropriate time.

I'm not going to comment on what you speculate the connection may be, the finished product will speak for itself.

But I can say this: Investigate magazine has never been known to go into a legal fight under-gunned, and from where I'm sitting I'm extremely comfortable at making the allegations we are making tonight, and that they will stack up no trouble at all in the High Court.

In response, I will put your lawfirm and your clients on notice: Be very careful what you say about Investigate magazine or yours truly, because I won't hesitate to add a counterclaim for a very substantial sum in defamation if either yourself or your clients utter one untruth capable of defaming me or my company. And like I said, from the evidence I'm sitting on, your clients don't really want to go there.

Now, let's all put our pistols back in the holsters, take a deep breath, and see what TGIF Edition brings, shall we?

Yours sincerely

Ian Wishart

Investigate magazine/TGIF Edition

Massive story breaking in TGIF Edition tonight

What do Osama bin Laden, the world's biggest cargo ship, a motherload of quartz (yeah, I meant 'load'), the world's fourth most-wanted criminal (some call him the deadliest), the CIA, MI6, a shipload of onions (seriously, onions), drug running, gold smuggling, a magnate's visceral gut wrenching fear as his global empire hung on a thread, the Cook Islands, Dubai, last November's Mumbai terror attacks, a current National Government minister, a brazen $278 million dollar fraud against the Government of Indonesia, money laundering in Australia and India, run out of an Auckland office, the NZSX, and a former Cabinet Minister in the Helen Clark government…all have in common?

Find out tonight…a special 4,000 word investigation, political and corporate dynamite, other media will be rushing to match it, but only TGIF will have the complete coverage, only for subscribers, tgifedition.com

Massive story breaking in TGIF Edition tonight

What do Osama bin Laden, the world's biggest cargo ship, a motherload of quartz (yeah, I meant 'load'), the world's fourth most-wanted criminal (some call him the deadliest), the CIA, MI6, a shipload (yeah, I meant 'ship') of onions (seriously, onions), drug running, gold smuggling, a magnate's visceral gut wrenching fear as his global empire hung on a thread, the Cook Islands, Dubai, last November's Mumbai terror attacks, a current National Government minister, a brazen $278 million dollar fraud against the Government of Indonesia, money laundering in Australia and India, run out of an Auckland office, the NZSX, and a former Cabinet Minister in the Helen Clark government…all have in common?

Find out tonight…a special 4,000 word investigation, political and corporate dynamite, other media will be rushing to match it, but only TGIF will have the complete coverage, only for subscribers, tgifedition.com

My favourite leftie, Camille Paglia

She's at it again, the Left-wing feminist atheist manages to slap down both Obama and the liberal idiots advising him in her latest Salon column.

But it's her comments on moves to reintroduce the "Fairness Doctrine" to US talk radio that bear greater consideration:

Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment's thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject appeared in my last column.) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.

One of the nuggets I've gleaned from several radio sources is that Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major media, has failed miserably to win a national audience. Stabenow's outrageous conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press, which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political involvement with this issue.

It is so refreshing to read a Liberal who still recognises the difference between right and wrong, and doesn't make excuses for stupidity or dishonesty on the Left.

Spain pulls cervical cancer vaccine, after schoolgirls harmed

Two teenage girls vaccinated with the new cervical cancer vaccine had to be hospitalised in intensive care after suffering reactions to the vaccine just hours after getting the Gardasil shots.

The Spanish government has reacted by suspending the schoolgirl vaccination campaign until it isolates the cause of the serious reactions.

Did Al Qa’ida light Aussie fires?

Drudge has re-linked to this, first posted back in September:

 

Islam group urges forest fire jihad

Josh Gordon

September 7, 2008

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.

The posting - which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months - says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time".

"Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."

With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained "vigilant against such threats", warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.

"Any information that suggests a threat to Australia's interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate," Mr McClelland said.

Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis, in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist operations.

"With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist attacks," Dr Dolnik said.

"In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective."

Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded as less effective than other operations because governments could easily deny terrorism as the cause.

The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri. It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to start forest fires.

 

 

For the record, the FBI has evidence Islamic terror groups were planning a similar stunt in the US a few years ago:

FBI: al-Qaeda detainee spoke of fire plot

PHOENIX (AP) — The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.

 

Suddenly, Joe Biden is making Sarah Palin look great

Who would have thought, after the liberal media fawned over Joe Biden bringing gravitas and experience to the youthful Obama ticket during the campaign, that they could turn so fast on the Veep post-election?

Sure, Biden's joke about the oath of allegiance may have been tasteless, but I for one was amused, even if the President wasn't.

However, the Veep's latest comment has some journalists suggesting Obama is ready to throw Biden 'under the bus'

My favourite take on the Obama/Biden show is this one from the Telegraph's blog:

Joe Biden told Katie Couric of CBS News that Franklin Roosevelt went on TV after the stock market crashed in '29 to calm the american people. Even Dan Quayle isn't that stupid. FDR wasn't elected until 1932 and television wasn't in the average american home until the mid to late 1950s. Obama, the former 1/2 term junior senator from Illinois, told a cheering crowd on the campaign trail that he had visited 57 states so far in the campaign. Both of these guys get a free pass from the adoring US media. Hell, Old Joe could shoot a lawyer on a bird hunt with that Beretta he brags about owning. Unlike Cheney, no one would hear a word about it. What a crock!

Obama’s health changes could kill

Not my warning, but essentially the message from Bloomberg commentator Betsy McCaughey today as we witness the Europification of the US:

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

Whilst this has become the norm in globalised Europe and New Zealand, it cuts the ability of doctors to innovate. Some of the greatest medical discoveries have come from US doctors and hospitals being prepared to throw the kitchen sink at the problem, and countless lives have been saved from those discoveries. This will kill that initiative.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new system will face penalties.  "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the "tough" decisions elected politicians won't make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept "hopeless diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments," and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Can't see this being a vote winner.