Omar is still following the money, obviously, as a mouthpiece for the US military-industrial complex. Calling for more missiles, a bigger airport, more spending. You know the game. And if you don't, this clip from Motley Fool should help:
The Obama administration has proposed, and Congress is currently reviewing, a possible $7.8 billion sale of Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Turkey. Congressmen who've been stymied in their efforts to funnel government funds to Lockheed for its F-22 fighter jet (killed for good last week in the Senate), and to Raytheon for its subcontracting role in the Kinetic Interceptor (also now DOA), get a second bite at the funding apple. Both Lockheed and Raytheon were named as contractors to build the Patriot batteries, if the sale gets approved.
And that's just the start. In other Mideast news, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial by Iraqi commentator and political analyst Omar Fadhil Al-Nidawi last week, calling on Congress to provide Iraq with a robust air defense system. Headlining Mr. Al-Nidawi's wish list: F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed, and -- you guessed it -- Patriots from Raytheon.
(BTW: His WSJ co-author Austin Bay is a (former?) US Army Colonel who served in Iraq and wrote a book called "The Other Side Of Brightness". Irony much?)
Omar also wrote an Op-Ed for Rupert's The Australian back in June, titled Iraq Was A Just War. No trace of irony here either:
Corruption is a serious problem, but worse than corruption itself is if there is a lack of checks and balances that can stop it. In Iraq this used to happen all the time, but now a wind of change is blowing...
In fact, Omar Fadhil is now a summer associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They are connected to the National Review and The Weekly Standard, and they publish a number of blogs including "Faster Please" by Michael Ledeen, "Iraq Status Report" and a blog called "The Long War Journal". There's that old neocon money trail.
Omar Fadhil is also now a graduate student of international affairs at Columbia University in New York City. He has 300 friends on Facebook, including media "guru" Jeff Jarvis, the mysterious Kerry Dupont (who offered all that cash to the boys in Baghdad), and Arthur "Good News" Chrenkoff.
Here's Omar's pic:
Here's brother Mohammed Fadhil:
And here's their old mate Arthur Chrenkoff:
Interesting that brother Ali is either not on Facebook, or totally estranged from the clan.
Also interesting to follow Kerry Dupont's links. You remember Kerry, a plain old mother of two from Maine who offered the Fadhil brothers $300,000, promised to get them help from the Department of Defense, and met George W. Bush with them and Paul Wolfowitz in the Oval Office. Here's a Facebook pic of Kerry:
Who is friends will Kelly Dupont:
Who is friends with Edward Dupont:
He looks pretty hard-core, doesn't he? There are a few Washington DC "friends" in the Dupont portfolio too. Wonder where Spirit Of America was getting all that money? There's another trail to follow...
Now I am just wondering if these crazy Dupont kids are not somehow related to these guys:
The Dupont Group is a Concord, New Hampshire-based business consulting firm focused on government affairs and public relations. The firm specializes in advocacy and communications associated with complicated public policy issues and regulated industries. The firm's services include lobbying and government affairs representation with an emphasis on New Hampshire state government, including the Legislature, executive branch as well as regulatory agencies. In addition, The Dupont Group's public relations division, White Birch Communications Group provides clients with a full array of corporate communications services ranging from integrated news media programs to corporate identification programs.
The head of the Dupont Group is a guy called Edward Dupont, a former Senator and founder of Strafford Fuels, Inc. But the pic doesn't look like the same guy:
Still, there could be a family resemblance. What do you think? Kerry Dupont comes from Maine, which is not too far from New Hampshire, where the Dupont Group is based.
PS: For anyone who doesn't know who Omar Fadhil is, this old blog post explains.
1 comment:
That Facebook pic of the neocon bitch with the Dalmatian tugged at my heartstrings.
I had a Dal that I got from a rescue shelter and kept for eight years. He was a handful -- they're hyperactive, require frequent exercise, shed enough hair to knit a jumper a week from it (as if anyone could stand the smell!) and mine had an unfortunate habit of ripping raccoons to shreds (which isn't easy, because they fight like devils. I often had to kick him in the ribs to make him stop. Plus they'd tear bits of his face off during the battles.)
But Curious George was beautiful and loyal, in spite of all the beatings I gave him. (He also liked to kill water turtles and harrass cats, necessitating poundings to make him stop.) But he was good with other dogs and humans...
I was lucky enough to find a young woman in northern California who I could give him away to before we left. She had a female Dalmatian and wanted another. I got one e-mail from her about how he was adjusting -- George loved her husband, because he was a man's dog -- but no replies to my further e-mails.
I often feel guilty, because I was the main human he had known. (His original owners dumped him by the side of a road in South Florida when he was about 6 months old -- he was too headstrong for most people.) I hope he's OK, and that he didn't get killed by a rattlesnake (he also had an amazing ability to stare down snakes like a mongoose, feint them into striking, then grab them with his mouth in mid-lunge and snap their spines with a shake of his head). That, or they decided he was too much to deal with and shot him or dumped him somewhere.
Seeing Dalmatians makes me sad for that reason. Luckily, there are few around. Even for such a recognisable breed, they're rare, due to their undesireable characteristics.
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