Hillary's Brother Landed Rare Gold Mining Permit in Haiti

Friday, 06 March 2015

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's brother was on the board of one of only two companies that received a "gold exploitation permit" in 2012 from the Haitian government — a first in over 50 years.

Tony Rodham served on the board of VCS Mining, a tiny North Carolina company, along with Bill Clinton's co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, former Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

The revelation has emerged in a forthcoming investigative book by bestselling author Peter Schweizer, Breitbart reported.

The deal with VCS created tension in the Haitian Senate after it was revealed that the royalties to be paid to the Haitian government were at least half the standard rate at 2.5 percent. It also came with the privilege of being able to renew the mining project in Morne Bossa for up to 25 years.

The book, entitled, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," investigates the connections between the Clintons' wealth, the Clinton Foundation, and decisions Clinton made as secretary of state that benefited foreign donors, governments, and companies.

"Schweizer's scrupulously sourced and exhaustively researched book raises serious questions about the sources of the Clintons' sudden wealth, their ethical judgment, and Hillary's fitness for high public office," said HarperCollins editor Adam Bellow.

Schweizer coined a new term — "Clinton blur" — to describe the way the Clintons' political, personal, and philanthropic interests overlap, Breitbart reported.

https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hillary-Clinton-Tony-Rodham-Haiti-gold-mining/2015/03/06/id/628687/

42 arrested for smuggling migrants across the Danube

Bulgarian, Romanian and German authorities uncover criminal network dangerously transporting up to 17 migrants in 5-seat cars

A cross-border investigation led by the Romanian Border Police (Poliția de Frontieră), supported by Europol and involving the Bulgarian General Directorate Combating Organised Crime (Главна Дирекция Борба с организираната престъпност) and the German Police (Bundespolizeiinspektion Waidhaus), has resulted in the dismantling of an organised crime group involved in migrant smuggling. The group were smuggling migrants from Bulgaria to Romania, across the Danube river, and then toward Western Europe.

Results from 12 March 2024

33 locations searched (18 Calafat, 11 Timișoara, 4 Argeș),

42 arrests,

Seizures including:

7 cars,

passports,

weapons,

electronic equipment,

EUR 32 000, LEI 75 000 and GBP 7 500 in cash.

Up to EUR 5 000 from the Danube river to Germany

The investigative activities established that the criminal network, composed mainly of Bangladeshi, Iraqi and Romanian citizens, was formed in the beginning of 2023. The suspects recruited migrants from Middle-East who wanted to reach Western European countries, especially Germany.

The criminal network smuggled the migrants in two phases. In the first phase, the suspects picked migrants up from Bulgaria and transported them in boats across the Danube river. The migrants would then be taken in groups of 20-30 via cargo transport to the western part of Romania, mainly the areas of Timișoara/Arad and Caraş Severin. The smugglers also used off-road vehicles, but mainly transported groups of 13-17 migrants in 5-seat vehicles. This particularly dangerous means of transportation resulted in the hospitalisation of migrants following a traffic accident in July 2023.

Once in the western Romania, the second phase would take place. The suspects would place migrants in clandestine accommodation for several days, before transporting them hidden between goods in trucks across the Hungarian border to Western Europe, mainly Germany. The migrants paid between EUR 3 500 and 5 000 per person to be smuggled from the Danube river to their final destination. The investigation identified 20 transportations across Romania of a total of about 500 migrants.

Cross-border cooperation

Europol supported the investigation within the framework of the operational plan signed with Romania in regards to the Ukrainian crisis. Europol facilitated the exchange of information and provided operational coordination and analytical support. On the action day, Europol deployed an analyst to Romania to cross-check operational information against Europol’s databases and to provide leads to investigators in the field. Europol also facilitated the deployment of investigators from Bulgaria and Germany to support the Romanian officers involved in the operational actions in the field.

https://www.europol. europa. eu/media-press/newsroom/news/42-arrested-for-smuggling-migrants-across-danube

At least 20 killed, 155 wounded in shelling while waiting for food aid, Gaza health ministry says. Israel denies attack

Gaza’s health ministry says at least 20 people were killed and 155 wounded by Israeli shelling as they waited for aid on Thursday, as desperate Palestinians increasingly face deadly violence in their search for food.

Israel’s military has denied being behind the attack and said it was assessing the incident.

The death toll is expected to rise as casualties are still being transferred to the hospital, according to Mohammad Ghrab, a doctor at the emergency unit at Al Shifa Hospital. Earlier, a witness on the scene said dozens of people had died.

Graphic footage from the immediate aftermath of the scene filed by an eyewitness showed multiple bodies with traumatic injuries as well as pools of blood on a street strewn with rubble and dust.

The health ministry said the incident was “a result of the Israeli occupation forces targeting a gathering of citizens waiting for humanitarian aid to satisfy their thirst at the Kuwaiti roundabout in Gaza.”

“Medical teams are unable to deal with the volume and type of injuries reaching hospitals in northern Gaza due to weak medical and human capabilities,” the ministry said.

The attack took place amid a backdrop of extreme hunger and poverty in the besieged enclave due to Israel’s severe restrictions on aid entering Gaza, where more than a half a million people are on the brink of famine, according to UN agencies.

The Kuwaiti Roundabout in Gaza City has become known as an area where aid trucks distribute food, attracting crowds of people desperate for supplies.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied it was responsible for the attack, in a short statement to CNN on Friday.

“The reports that the IDF attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid distribution point are false,” the statement said.

The Israeli military said it was assessing “the incident with the thoroughness that it deserves.”

Eyewitnesses said the area was struck by what they said sounded like tank or artillery fire.

Gaza Civil Defense Spokesman Mahmoud Basal accused Israel of being behind the attack in a statement late Thursday.

“The Israeli occupation forces are still practicing the policy of killing innocent citizens waiting for relief aid as a result of the famine occurring in the northern Gaza Strip,” Basal said in a statement.

Israel has for months limited the flow of aid into Gaza, however, some trucks have been allowed into the northern part of the strip where hunger is most acute. Amid a collapse of public authority in Gaza, the arrival of aid trucks has sparked chaos and disorder that often leaves thousands at risk of harm during the distribution.

https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=283680

'It's time to cancel Zionism': Hebrew University professor suspended after shocking remarks

In recent television Shalhoub-Kevorkian stated: "It's time to cancel Zionism," and expressed doubt about the reported rape incidents on October 7, suggesting that any lie would be used to further a narrative. "They started with babies, they continued with rape, and they will continue with a million other lies. We stopped believing them, I hope the world stops believing them," she said.

After creating a petition against Israel, minimizing and flat out denying the horrors of October 7, as well as displaying overt hostility to the idea of Zionism, a law faculty lecturer has been suspended from Hebrew U; University says her remarks cynically take advantage of her academic freedom of expression 'for incitement and to create division'

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b15g8grtt

EU Reports Israel Provided No Evidence for Claims UNRWA Tied to Hamas

A top European Union official said the body has not received any evidence from Israel to back its claims that the UN’s Palestinian aid agency is tied to Hamas. Several EU members cut funding to UNRWA after Tel Aviv alleged several of the organization’s staffers participated in the October 7 attack, and thousands of employees have ties to Hamas.

Janez Lenarcic, the head of humanitarian aid at the European Commission, said that no one at the EU has received evidence to back the Israeli charges against UNRWA. Lenarcic added that even if the claims were true, it wouldn’t justify cutting aid to the organization that provides life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

“Even if those allegations, at the end of the day, prove to be true, that doesn’t mean that UNRWA is the perpetrator,” he said. “UNRWA has a critical role to play here because it has unmatched infrastructure, warehouses, shelters, and logistical capacities.”

In January, Israel asserted it had compiled an intelligence dossier proving that 12 members of UNRWA participated in the October 7 attack on Israel and thousands of others had ties to Hamas. Without seeing Tel Aviv’s evidence, UNRWA officials fired the employees and launched an investigation, a decision praised by Lenarcic.

“UNRWA has reacted properly, immediately, effectively. It took several measures. There is an investigation. There is a review. We are satisfied so far with all this,” Lenarcic added.

In the following days, Israel leaked a portion of its dossier to select media outlets. Those news networks reported that it contained no evidence to support the Israeli claims.

UNRWA has started to compile a report on the Israeli claims. Reuters reviewed that document and says UNRWA found its employees were tortured, including waterboarding, to generate the false charges. As it appears Tel Aviv does not have evidence to back its claims, Sweden and Canada have resumed funding for UNRWA.

The Israeli military operations in Gaza have decimated the Strip, causing a humanitarian catastrophe. Nearly two million Palestinians are internally displaced and now rely on UNRWA assistance to survive. The UN organizations also coordinate most aid entering Gaza.

Israel has attacked UNRWA throughout its onslaught in Gaza. Over 160 employees have been killed in over 150 attacks on UNRWA facilities. The most recent attack was an airstrike on a UNRWA food distribution center in Rafah, killing five.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/eu-reports-israel-provided-no-evidence-for-claims-unrwa-tied-to-hamas/