February 22nd, 2011
NEW YORK – Despite having clear rules on when not to invoke the state secrets privilege, the Justice Department has been blocking disclosures about a dubious technology that could prove embarrassing for the U.S. government.
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November 10th, 2010
Who is Mina Corp and why is the U.S. government doing business with it? Last week Andrew Higgins and Walter Pincus at the Washington Post wrote
an article highlighting the U.S. military’s connection with this fairly mysterious company. The Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the contracts awarded to Mina Corp and its associated form Red Star Enterprises and is expected to publish a report on its findings sometime this month. While we wait for the report from Congressional investigators,...
July 29th, 2010
On Sunday,
US Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a promissory gem to the leaders gathered in Uganda, the pearl of Africa. It was not a pledge of more foreign aid for the continent – which has
tripled since 2000 – but it could bring billions of dollars to Africa:
“ I’m pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Justice is launching a new Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative aimed at combating large-scale foreign official corruption and recovering public funds for their intended – and proper – use:...
July 28th, 2010
On Sunday U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative at the African Union Summit in Uganda. The new policy aims to take on public bribes by recovering public money and returning it to its intended use. While the Obama administration has, so far, shown a greater propensity to tackle the thorny problem of foreign bribery than his recent predecessors, the new policy does not exist in a historical vacuum. In fact, the U.S. has had one of the world’s longest and strongest histories of action against foreign bribery. This is...
