Image by RonF via The Weekly Bull via Flickr
with Michael Hudson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
michael-hudson.com
April 14, 2016
TheRealNews on Apr 13, 2016
Economist Michael Hudson says oil and mining industries and the State Department created Panama and Liberia for the express purpose of tax evasion.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
www.workers.org
May 4, 2012
Image by Bird Eye via Flickr
Charles Taylor, former rebel leader and head of state in the West African country of Liberia, was convicted on April 26 by the Special Tribunal on Sierra Leone. The court, held in the Netherlands, was ostensibly set up by the United Nations in conjunction with the Sierra Leone government.
Taylor’s conviction represents the first case in which a sitting political leader was removed and put on trial for supposed violations of both international and domestic law.
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
for In These Times
23 November, 2010
We got’m. I can hardly believe it.
Yesterday, the financial vultures, the carcass-chewers who were preying on the dirt-poor African nation of Liberia, gave up.
Two shadowy vulture funds, which had won a $43 million court judgment against Liberia, agreed to accept only $1.4 million to settle their claim following an investigation by our BBC Newsnight team. We had sought to determine if the vulture funds were covers for an elaborate fraud scheme. They folded rather than face further scrutiny and attacks from activists, Parliaments and Congress.
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
April 14, 2010
“The CBS logo isn’t an eyeball, it’s actually just a pimple on the rectum of Viacom Corporation.”
Hear Greg Palast live with This is Hell radio host Chuck Mertz. In this 90 minute head-to-head, Greg goes in-depth about some of his run-ins with American Mainstream Media, stories about “getting the story,” and the true value of unbiased investigative journalism.
“Talk about hell: I trained with Fox TV News for 2 days… They asked me, ‘So what do I think? and I said, ‘I think I’m leaving the country.’ So I went to England to work for BBC.”
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by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
April 8 – London – Update for In These Times
We’ve stuffed the bird and nailed it to the wall: Today, the British Parliament effectively banned financial vulture funds from the British Isles. The law, merely awaits the expected touch of the Queen’s scepter.
“Vulture funds” are international re-po men who buy up old debt of the world’s poorest nations for pennies on the dollar, then sue for ten to a hundred times what they paid for these old loans. The new UK law, passed unanimously, would bar financiers from using UK courts to collect more than the sums authorized by the International Monetary Fund. In effect, this stops American predators – such as financiers Eric Hermann, Michael Straus, and Michael Francis “Goldfinger” Sheehan, from siphoning tens of millions of dollars of aid money the US and UK treasuries had earmarked for Liberia, Zambia, Congo and other desperately poor countries.
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
30 March, 2010
For In These Times
I get the idea that Eric Hermann doesn’t want to talk to me. When I came to his office suite, his hedge fund’s name plaque had been unbolted from the building’s wall, the suite number removed and all the employees locked in.
I’m not surprised. Hermann is a vulture, not the carrion-eating type, but the kind that prey on the financially wounded. “Vulture” is a hedge fund industry term for the financiers who buy up the right to collect old loans of the world’s poorest nations, and then use every trick in the book — from lawsuits to bribery to hiring Henry Kissinger’s lobby firm — to muscle destitute countries into turning over their meager foreign aid funds.
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
15 March, 2010
Vultures defend themselves by vomiting on their enemies. In Britain this week, terrified vultures puked up a Tory MP named Christopher Chope.
Two weeks ago, the day after we broadcast our investigation on BBC Television of financial vultures preying on the world’s poorest nations, the British Parliament voted to effectively put them out of business in the UK. A rare victory for victims.
with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
12 March, 2010
thomhartmann
March 12, 2010 Continue reading
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
9 March, 2010
Special Report for BBC World News America
Broadcast March, 2, 2010
GregPalastOffice
March 09, 2010 Continue reading
with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
9 March, 2010
RussiaToday
March 09, 2010
This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on the fake shop fronts making a “revived” economy in Northern England; the Chile quake causing Goldman Sachs’s high frequency trading to lose 2.1 trades per day; and the mobs in Indonesia, a “revolution” in Ireland and online media preventing an orderly transfer of wealth. Keiser also speaks to investigative journalist, Greg Palast, about the RICO case against US bankers and politicians and about vulture funds preying on the Third and First world economies.
Updated: added report on Democracy Now!
by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
2 March, 2010
Special Report for BBC World News America
Broadcasting TONIGHT at 7pm EST on BBC America
Some vultures have feathers, but some have fancy offices and huge homes. Tonight, BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast follows the trail of one “vulture fund” chief, from a locked office door in New York to mud-brick houses in Africa.
How strange. When I arrive at the offices of Eric Hermann at hedge fund FH International, just outside New York City, the company’s corporate sign is unbolted from the wall and the suite number removed from the door.
But wait … I hear noises inside the office. Huh? I knock on the locked door and out steps the office building’s security manager.
“Guys, they don’t want to be interviewed. They don’t want to be seen. So we are going to have to ask you to leave the building.”
by Heather Stewart and Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
24 February, 2010
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An investigation for BBC’s Newsnight, to be broadcast tonight, Thursday at 10:30pm GMT, has uncovered allegations that speculators subverted the international debt relief process.
By Heather Stewart and Greg Palast for The Guardian
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of [Liberia] is urging MPs to back a bill banning vulture funds from using British courts to prey on poor countries when it comes to a vote on Friday. Liberia lost a $20m (£13m) case in London last year against two so-called vultures. Such funds buy up the loans of poor governments, wait for them to win from the international community, and then use courts to pursue the countries for assets.
TEDtalksDirector
December 15, 2009
http://www.ted.com Ryan Lobo has traveled the world, taking photographs that tell stories of unusual human lives. In this haunting talk, he reframes controversial subjects with empathy, so that we see the pain of a Liberian war criminal, the quiet strength of UN women peacekeepers and the perseverance of Delhi’s underappreciated firefighters.
Warning
These videos may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Bill Moyers Journal
June 19, 2009
The JOURNAL profiles Leymah Gbowee, a woman who led her fellow countrywomen to fight for and win peace in war-torn Liberia, and Abigail Disney, who produced the documentary of their struggle and triumph in the award-winning film PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL.
transcript: Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS
Pt 2 Continue reading
August 16, 2007
From: StopFirestone
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company has operated a rubber plantation in Liberia since 1926. On July 26, 2007 the Stop Firestone Coalition organized a National Call-in day, demanding that Firestone respect the workers and protect the environment. The company recorded a voicemail for callers defending their record in Liberia. This video contains clips from Firestone’s voicemail and our response.
