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Is Blair Actually Selling The Keys To The United Kingdom --- To Carlyle ?
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The following shocking story was run by the BBC in December 2002, and it frightened the f*ck out of This Old Brit.
Others with knowledge of the two companies concerned were equally alarmed but alas, few chose to articulate their shared 'scared-shitless' sentiments in such colourful language as he so often does .
You should start reading here, to get the gist of where we're going.
US firm (Carlyle) buys stake in UK defence labs
Then take a look at this:
QinetiQ has branched out from defence to modern technology
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has sold a third of its defence research business, Qinetiq, to the US private equity group Carlyle
The public-private partnership (PPP) follows the government's decision in March to seek a strategic partner for Qinetiq.
The deal will see Carlyle, whose European chairman is the former prime minister John Major, take on some management control at QinetiQ.
While it's doubtful that few readers won't have heard something at sometime, about the Carlyle Group -- undisputed masters of the there's-money-in-misery business -- the opposite is probably true of QinetQ.
As for Tony Blair, well we dare say almost all the world's people have heard of him. But we bet far fewer ever read the report quoted next, from 'Truthout'. And even among those who may have, how many have really remembered?
Sunday 21 August 2005
He's eyeing up £250K job with arms trade link firm.
Tony Blair is expected to join one of the most exclusive groups of businessmen in the world after he leaves Downing Street.
The PM is being lined up for a highly lucrative position with the Carlyle Group - an American-based investment giant with strong links to the White House and the defense industry.
The firm has been nicknamed "The Ex-Presidents Club" because it has had a host of former world leaders on its books including George Bush Senior, his former secretary of state James Baker and former British PM John Major. There a also a large number of former US Army top brass.
Then, earlier this month we learned this.
Government 'to sell off Qinetiq'
Qinetiq's military products are much in demand
The government is preparing to sell its remaining majority stake in defence group Qinetiq and float the business, according to press reports.
Defence secretary John Reid could announce the £1.1bn float as early as this week, said the Sunday Telegraph.
Qinetiq is currently 56% owned by the Ministry of Defence, 31% by US private equity firm Carlyle Group, and 13% by its managers and other staff members.
Then a little later, that report was followed by this one.
Labour condemned over QinetiQ flotation
Terry Macalister
Friday January 13, 2006
The government came under fire from opposition MPs yesterday when it finally gave the go-ahead for the controversial stock market flotation of its QinetiQ defence and research arm.
The Tories accused Labour of trying to make a "quick buck" to shore up its sagging public finances while the Liberal Democrats said the sell-off - expected to raise up to £1.1bn - should be scrutinised by the National Audit Office.
The disposal was formally unveiled in parliament by the defence secretary, John Reid, who called it the logical "next step" for a business partly privatised in 2002.
(snip)
The government, which owns 56% of QinetiQ, will retain a 25% stake in the business to "ensure that the taxpayer continues to benefit after the flotation".
Carlyle will also retain a holding after the listing. The investment group has a 31% stake but 51% control of the voting rights, which it bought for just £42m but are now believed to be worth £340m.
In case anyone ever doubted it, this is yet more evidence of how & why certain 'selected'' conglomorates are constantly booming in the money-in-misery business. And all at the cost of intentionally uncounted innocents' blood.
In fact, it could quite safely be said that never before in the field of human greed, have so many suffered so much for the profits of so few.
In better days under better, more honourable and honest politicans such shameless selfishness was precisely the kind of thing called 'war profiteering'. And rightly so.
For if mad Maggie Thatcher in her heyday, was quite correctly accused of having sold off Britain's so-called 'family silver', then this latest quick-cash-fix caper is akin to flogging off the very 'keys to the (United) Kingdom'.
Please believe This Old Brit when he tells you; Britain is being buggered - by the BlairBush ilk - on an almost hourly basis.
posted by Richard at Sunday, January 15, 2006
10 Comments:
Not that I'm surprised, but thanks for the info. Tony Blair is starting to resemble a mad man.
Great post and I certainely believe you Rick!
For Blair it's just all spun out as part of the 'modern world', floating UK defense assets when the Carlyle Group already has an enormous chunk who then just um.. offer him a job is just all part of this wonderful globalism that Blair adores. Sounds more sinister than just a quick buck too.
Truly there are no depths to this government. And the level of corruption and ideological debasement at the top of the global chain is so bad now, so extraordinary it is almost unimaginable. Blair fully subscribes to this destruction and paints it as 'good'.
And as you say Rick, the Carlyle Group is a name that keeps coming up; Bushes, Bin Ladens, I think the Queen has a stake in it too. And President Eisenhower famously warned about the military-industrial complex and the eternal vigilance required to keep it's influence in check in his speech. The cap was taken off it on 9/11/2001 which also served as the fast forward button to rewriting the world and reality as we know it. In the UK, that situation has just now got a whollllllle lot worse. Indeed Britain is being buggered and destroyed from the inside out.
thanks for posting on this- I saw this this weekend- and wondered why no one was commenting or noticing....
They are all crooks. The problem is they know they can do what they want because the average person doesn't give a shit.
Not untill the blood of one of their own is spilt fighting to help make the rich richer.
While the pubs,betting shops and tv keep working ok the average Brit is happy as a pig in shit.
Yeah. We're talking about neighbours, workmates, etc.
You all know who they are.
Same in the US and same in Oz. Average wanker's apathy ensures we all get the kind of shitty government they are prepared to put up with and so they deserve.
What's your favourites saying Richard - follow the money?
Carlyle come up again and again.
Have you read Wayne Madsen's recent "suicide" piece on them?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 14, 2006 -- Serious questions remain concerning Col. Westhusing's "suicide" in Iraq. Army's chief ethics expert was murdered, according to Carlyle Group insider.
According an informed source within The Carlyle Group business consortium, Col. Ted Westhusing, the Army's top military ethicist and professor at West Point, did not commit suicide in a Baghdad trailer in June 2005 as was widely reported in the mainstream media five months later. At the time of his death, Westhusing was investigating contract violations and human rights abuses by US Investigations Services (USIS), formerly a federal agency, the Office of Federal Investigations (OFI), which operated under the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
In 1996, OFI, which conducted background investigations for civil service personnel, was privatized. The 700 government employees of OFI became employee-owners as part of USIS. In January 2003, the New York investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe, described by a Carlyle insider as a virtual shadow operation for The Carlyle Group, bought USIS for $545 million. With 5000 current and former employees of USIS sharing $500 million, the deal made them wealthy with the stroke of a pen. However, upper management within USIS became much wealthier than the rank-and-file. Insiders report that the twelve top managers at USIS became multimillionaires as a result of their cashing in of their Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Many of these instant millionaires already had a close relationship with The Carlyle Group.
Carlyle had been a shareholder in USIS since 1999 and with the buy-out deal via the Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe deal, Carlyle became the major shareholder.
USIS continues to have a virtual exclusivity deal to perform background security investigations for OPM. The company bills itself as "one of the largest Intelligence and Security Services companies in North America.”
With the Iraq invasion, USIS obtained lucrative Pentagon private security contracts in Iraq. At a 2004 job fair in Falls Church, Virginia, USIS was advertising for "interrogators" and "protection specialists" for "overseas assignments." While he was in Iraq training Iraqi police and overseeing the USIS contract to train police as part of the Pentagon's Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, Westhusing received an anonymous letter that reported USIS's Private Services Division (PSD) was engaged in fraudulent activities in Iraq, including over-billing the government. In addition, the letter reported that USIS security personnel had murdered innocent Iraqis. After demanding answers from USIS, Westhusing reported the problems up the chain of command. After an "investigation," the Army found no evidence of wrongdoing by USIS.
That decision signed Col. Westhusing's death sentence.
USIS and Carlyle have powerful allies in the administration, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Princeton roommate of Carlyle Chairman Emeritus and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. Former President George H. W. Bush, former Secretary of State James Baker, and former British Prime Minister John Major are Carlyle international advisers. George W. Bush was formerly employed by a Carlyle subsidiary and the Bin Laden business cartel was a one-time investor in the firm.
Westhusing, who, according to friends and colleagues, showed no signs of depression, left a suicide note the Army concluded was in his handwriting.
However, Westhusing's family and friends have thrown cold water on the Army's investigation ..........
Read the whole piece.
Anonymous said: "They are all crooks. The problem is they know they can do what they want because the average person doesn't give a shit."
I would argue that it's not that the average person doesn't give a shit (although I'm sure that there are plenty that don't), but rather most people don't even know it's happening. Which is why an unfettered internet is such a valuable thing for the people. And of those who do know something of what's going on, there are precious few who really have a clear idea of what to do about it other than passing the info on to their fellow downtrodden masses in the hopes that one of them might have an epiphany (to quote from one of my favorite films, THX 1138: "I want one idea! One idea could get us out of here!"). There are also those who are so intimidated by the "machine" that they feel that resistance is futile, they'd just be exterminated (sorry for the Dalek misquote). Admonishing people for their human frailties is not going to get anything useful accomplished, people need to be inspired to rise above their frailties and take action regardless of the perceived consequences.
Late again.
Thanks everyone for your comments, support, extra info links, etc.
I'm playing catch-up again, as I'm still not receiving email alerts from blogger whenever a new comment is posted. Whether that's down to blogger or not, I'm not certain. Someone says it could be down to AOL, my ISP.
What's to be surprised about? That man Blair even sold his own soul.
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