by
United States Marine Field McConnell
Plum City Online - (AbelDanger.net)
January 27, 2016
1. Abel Danger (AD) asserts that Serco shareholders paid Hillary Clinton to procure patented sabotage spore powder devices to render the post-9/11 anthrax attack on media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators resilient to countermeasures.
2. AD asserts that Serco shareholders paid Clinton to procure patented GyroChips to fly Boeing aircraft, some formerly leased by Trump Shuttle Inc., in decoy and drone maneuvers or killing field surveillance – e.g. the Pickton pig farm in B.C.
3. AD asserts that Serco shareholders led by Goldman Sachs paid Barack Obama to develop leveraged-lease – Vampire Squid – models for the attacks by Oneworld aircraft on 9/11 and the liquidation of the NYC Twin Towers 99-year mortgage.
United States Marine Field McConnell (http://www.abeldanger.net/2010/01/field-mcconnell-bio.html) offers to show voters how to win a resilience war with Serco shareholders as they extend their control of media and governments following the Vampire Towers attack of 9/11.
American Anthrax
Copy of SERCO GROUP PLC: List of Subsidiaries AND [Loan Shark] Shareholders!
(Mobile Playback Version)
Serco... Would you like to know more?
Goldman Sachs: The Vampire Squid
"The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case name, occurred within the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. According to the FBI, the ensuing investigation became "one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement".[1]
A major focus in the early years of the investigation was a bio-weapons expert named Steven Hatfill, who was eventually exonerated. Another suspect, Bruce Edwards Ivins, became a focus of investigation around April 4, 2005. Ivins was a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. On April 11, 2007, Ivins was put under periodic surveillance and an FBI document stated that "Bruce Edwards Ivins is an extremely sensitive suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks."[2] On July 29, 2008, Ivins died from an overdose of acetaminophen.[3]
On August 6, 2008, based on DNA evidence leading to an anthrax vial in Ivins's lab, federal prosecutors declared Ivins to be the sole culprit of the crime.[4] Two days later, Senator Charles Grassley and Rep. Rush Holt called for hearings into the DOJ and FBI's handling of the investigation.[5][6] On February 19, 2010, the FBI formally closed its investigation.[7]
A review of the scientific methods used in the investigation at the National Academy of Sciences,[8] published in February 2011, cast doubt on the U.S. government's conclusion that Ivins was the perpetrator. The review report said that, although the type of anthrax used in the letters was correctly identified as the Ames strain of the bacterium, there was insufficient scientific evidence for the FBI's assertion that it originated from Ivins's laboratory. The FBI responded by pointing out that the review panel asserted that it would not be possible to reach a definite conclusion based on science alone, and said that a combination of factors led the FBI to conclude that Ivins had been the perpetrator.[9] Some information about the case related to Ivins's mental problems is still under seal.[10][11] Lawsuits filed by the widow of the first anthrax victim Bob Stevens were settled by the government for $2.5 million with no admission of liability. According to a statement in the settlement agreement, the settlement was reached solely for the purpose of "avoiding the expenses and risks of further litigations."[12]"
"MONDAY, MAY 28, 2007
Technical Intelligence in Retrospect: The 2001 Anthrax Letters Powder
Authors: Dany Shoham; Stuart M. Jacobsen
DOI: 10.1080/08850600600889027
Published in: International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Volume 20, Issue 1 March 2007 , pages 79 - 105
Introduction
In a sense, the very fact that the late 2001 anthrax letters attack on the United States has still not been solved is no less meaningful and important than that unprecedented act of bioterrorism itself. A wide range of far-reaching implications - geopolitical, legal, strategic, technological, scientific, and medical - emanate from that failure. An attempt is made here to take an integrated look into some of these various aspects so as to gain a better understanding of this potentially colossal event. Special attention is paid to a reconstructive analysis of the sabotage spore powder (SSP) contained in the lethal letters, and its structure. The anthrax bacterium is a pathogen of major concern, whose potency is afforded by the aerial dispersibility attained through the peculiar powdery texture of the material used for this act of bioterrorism. This peculiarity constitutes a key attribute, which can be traced and deciphered through retrospective technical intelligence that may lead to the SSP's provenance. It further demonstrates the significance of technical intelligence at large as a prime tool of the intelligence services. ..
In the U.S., unlike the USSR/Russia and thereafter Iraq as well, the usability of BT as a preferable exosporium-bearing simulant germ for BA powdering has, for the most part, not been recognized. Only in 1999, apparently, was BT produced, freeze-dried, and milled in the U.S. with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, doing the job at a test site in Nevada.38 Irrespective of that DoD effort, common commercial preparations of this insect-killer bacillus include, in the U.S., "Technical Powder BioInsecticide" and "Dipel 150 Dust."39 The commercial methods applied to the structuring of BT preparations have gradually been upgraded; during the 1990s, spray drying of commercial BT was conducted and patented in the U.S.40, 41
Long after Iraq's interface with Niro was brought out, and mostly in parallel to the actual preparation of AS spore powder, Niro Atomizer technology was applied in the U.S. by a Chicago-based company for the spray drying of BT, and then patented, shortly subsequent to that act of anthrax bioterrorism. This could certainly have been a coincidence, yet the details of the process of spray drying, using Niro Atomizer, had been published in the public press.42 In addition, silica was used to enhance the flowability of spray-dried BT powder, even when wet.43 Thus, BT culture-broth - as an active ingredient - was mixed with various adjuvants and then spray-dried. The optimum conditions for spray drying of BT were then appraised."
"RESTON, Va., Nov. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Serco Inc., a provider of professional, technology, and management services, announced today the Company has been awarded a patent classification services contract with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Serco will provide initial patent classification and reclassification services to support USPTO's core mission of examining, granting, and disseminating patents and trademarks. The recompete contract has a one-year base period with four one-year option periods, and is valued at $95 million over the five-year period, if all options and award terms are exercised. Serco's highly trained Scientists and Engineers are responsible for reviewing, analyzing, and applying classification symbols to newly submitted patent applications to assist with the USPTO examination process. Throughout the classification process, our team performs comprehensive performance management; quality assurance; information security; training; knowledge management; and IT support, engineering, and development of custom software."
"A Brief History of Drones
With the invention of drones, we crossed into a new frontier: killing that’s risk-free, remote, and detached from human cues.
By John Sifton
FEBRUARY 7, 2012 ..
In World War II a different approach was taken: the Navy launched a new program, called Operation Anvil, to target deep German bunkers using refitted B-24 bombers filled to double capacity with explosives and guided by remote control devices to crash at selected targets in Germany and Nazi-controlled France. Remote control technology was still limited—involving crude radio-controlled devices linked to motors—so actual pilots were used for takeoff: they were supposed to guide the plane to a cruising altitude and then parachute to safety in England, after which a “mothership” would guide the plane to its target. In practice, the program was a disaster. Many planes crashed, or worse. John F. Kennedy's older brother, Joseph, was one of the program’s first pilots: he was killed in August 1944 when a drone-to-be that he was piloting exploded prematurely over Suffolk, England."
President Barck Obama
"Barack Obama[edit] In the late summer of 1983, future United States President Barack Obama interviewed for a job at Business International Corporation. He worked there for "little more than year."[3] As a research associate in its financial services division, he edited Financing Foreign Operations, a global reference service, and wrote for Business International Money Report, a weekly financial newsletter.[4] His responsibilities included "interviewing business experts, researching trends in foreign exchange, following market developments. . . . He wrote about currency swaps and leverage leases. . . . Obama also helped write financial reports on Mexico and Brazil".[5]
Barack Obama was, in part, responsible for the publication of a special BI report advising clients on how to conduct financial management in the hyper inflationary and byzantine financial regulatory period in Brazil in the early 1980s. The report was entitled Financial Action Report: Survival Financial Management in Brazil. The report published in 1984 discussed such issues as "Choosing Cruzeiro or Dollar Financing", "the Inter-Company Market: Alternative to Bank Financing", "The Effectiveness of Government Hedging Instruments", "Leading and Lagging International Trade Payments", "Blocked Funds" among many other treasury and cash management topics. The preface of the report states "Barack Obama, assistant manager, conducted the interviews and wrote up the results" in the report.[6]"
"SECTION: RED FLAGS OF TREASON - PEOPLE
SUBSECTION: C. JOSEPH GIROIR, JR.
Revised 1/8/01 C. JOSEPH GIROIR, Jr. "…His name is on the inscription under the bust of Bill Clinton in the National Portrait Gallery: ''Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. Joseph Giroir Jr., in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Mochtar Riady'' (1)
"Had a hand in Chinagate, the fund- raising scandal now being probed by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee….. Giroir's name popped up again yesterday in Senate testimony about the president's legal defense fund and Yah Lin ''Charlie'' Trie's fishy donations to it…. " (1) "He was once the managing partner at the Rose Law Firm. That's how he came to hire Hillary Clinton there in 1977 [and promoted her to partner in patent and intellectual property law in 1979]…" (1) ..
The White House blinked at a crackdown on veterans of the Tiananmen Square protests, and more dangerously, it turned a blind eye to Chinese help for Pakistan's attempt to build nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles. If these were major issues for the U.S., they meant billions in business for the Bamboo Network, and even the future of their way of life. Huang had the security clearance to be a strategic listening post well worth millions in campaign contributions. Even the circumstances of his leaving Commerce underscore his importance. ....Whatever Huang may have done for the Bamboo Network, he continued to have support from American politicians. If the overseas Chinese billionaires wanted to buy influence in the U.S., plenty of people around Bill Clinton were more than willing to sell it. Huang went from Commerce to the Democratic National Committee as vice chairman for fundraising. The Lippo scandal broke in October largely as a result of his exploits in raising $4 million. Only later, and as slowly as the White House could manage, did it emerge how closely he worked with Clinton's people. Secret Service logs, leaked by someone hostile to Clinton, showed that Huang visited the Executive Mansion fifty or so times during the first nine months of 1996, sometimes staying for two or three hours. The White House has refused to divulge who had authorized his visits. This level of access by any fundraiser may violate federal election law, but in the case of Huang it suggests that White House aides were his willing abettors. As the scandal broke, the extent of this complicity showed starkly in the attempts to shield Huang from the press....(43)
BEI ELECTRONICS Mr. Giroir began serving as a Director in June 1997 prior to the Distribution and spin-off of the Company from Electronics in September 1997.
..
"The company and its technologies fall under government regulation and export restrictions. Net sales from continuing operations to customers in foreign countries amounted to $17,392,000, $11,998,000 and $10,938,000 in fiscal years 1998, 1997 and 1996, respectively.
DIGITAL MICROWAVE CORP... ANNUAL REPORT… FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 1996 …Mr. John O'Neil joined the Company as Vice President, Personnel in May 1993. Mr. O'Neil was Vice President of Personnel and Administration of BEI Electronics, Inc., a defense electronics firm, from January 1989 to April 1993….The Company also has sales and/or service centers in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Colombia, China, Singapore, and the Philippines. In addition, the Company uses independent agents, distributors and international resellers worldwide in concert with its direct sales operation....The Company has also had significant sales in China, Malaysia, India, and the Philippines providing solutions to mobile communications network operators....We also expanded our facility in Manila, and established a Beijing sales office, as well as a joint service and support facility with the Beijing Telecommunication Equipment Factory…." (7) BEI TECHNOLOGIES "…BEI Technologies, Inc. was created on September 27, 1997 through a spin-off from BEI Electronics, Inc. The principal continuing business within BEI Technologies is that of BEI Sensors & Systems Company, Inc., an established manufacturer (for 20+ years) of sensors, motors and related products for automation. .. 3/19/99 PR Newswire "…held its Annual Meeting of Stockholders at its Duncan Electronics Division in Tustin, Calif. ….. BEI Technologies, Inc., through its principal subsidiary BEI Sensors & Systems Company, is an established manufacturer of electronic sensors and motion control products used for factory and office automation, medical and scientific equipment, military, aviation and space systems, and transportation equipment including automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. BEI has recently expanded its production of micromachined quartz yaw rate sensors used in advanced vehicle stability control systems. BEI also manufactures electronic steering wheel position sensors, seat-memory modules, throttle position and pressure sensors and other devices used in automotive systems. GyroChip(R) is a registered trademark of BEI Sensors & Systems Company…."
"MDA Wins Key U.S. Aviation Contract
Press Release
Source: MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
Posted Thursday, May 3, 2001 Richmond, B.C. - MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSE: MDA) announced today the company has been awarded a contract by the United States Air Force to develop a system to be used by specialists at Air Force bases to design Instrument Approach Procedures (IAPs).
IAPs are published instructions to pilots specifying a series of aircraft maneuvers that must be executed for the aircraft to transition safely from an en route airway to a runway final approach when flying by instruments. MDA's system ingests digital terrain and elevation data, air navigation data (such as the locations of navigation aids, runways, buildings and towers) to build and display a virtual model of the physical environment surrounding an airport. It then develops the complex surfaces that define a safe approach corridor for any of the dozens of IAP variants, and determines whether any of the defined surfaces are penetrated by terrain or man-made obstacles. It flags these incursions to the operator, who can quickly modify the approach procedure through a drag-and-drop user interface.
This initial award, valued at $2.9 million (CDN), consists of a fixed price element to develop, integrate, and test the system. The next phase will include installation, government testing, and operator training. The contract includes an option for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to adapt the system for their needs. The U.S. Air Force also has options to field the successful system at up to 108 air bases around the world, and to award T&M support contracts for up to 8 years. MDA plans to team up with Air Navigation Data (AND) of Ottawa to offer a custom solution, based on AND's "Final Approach" product.
MDA President and CEO Daniel Friedmann said: "This is a significant project for MDA that has the potential to improve the safety of air transportation for many other air forces and civil aviation authorities world wide."
Related web sites:
www.mda.ca
www.usaf.com
For more information, please contact:
Ted Schellenberg
Media Relations
MacDonald Dettwiler
Telephone: (604) 231-2215
E-mail: teds@mda.ca"
"Willie Card, manager of FAA's Contract Tower Office, died unexpectedly on June 10. Those of us who knew Willie in his official capacity became his friends as well and we mourn the tragic loss of our colleague. Willie would have been a speaker at the USCTA Contract Tower Program Workshop July 14-16. He was a frequent speaker at USCTA and other industry events and loved the contact and interaction with those who staff the airports and towers in his program. This would have been Willie’s last time to speak at our annual workshop, since he was planning to retire at the end of 2002. Willie Fred Card was born Dec. 26, 1946, in Louisville, Ala. He lived in Lorain, Ohio, from 1952 until he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1965. Willie served in the Air Force from July 1965 until March 1969, where he was trained as an air traffic controller. He was a dedicated employee of the Federal Aviation Administration for more than 30 years. Willie's career also included air traffic control positions at Cleveland ATCT, the FAA Academy, Pittsburgh ATCT and Boston ATCT. His career culminated at FAA headquarters where he served as an Air Traffic Control Specialist, manager of the Runway Incursion Program and manager of the Contract Tower Program. The Contract Tower Program is considered as one of the most successful in FAA. Under Willie’s outstanding leadership and guidance, the Contract Tower Program now operates with a budget approaching $80 million and includes 217 towers. He received numerous awards during his tenure at FAA and was highly respected in his profession. He enjoyed traveling, playing golf, building computers and he loved barbecuing, jazz and blues music. Willie was a devoted father and grandfather, and is survived by his longtime companion, Ms. Mabel C. Jones, and his children Erica, Scott, William, Vanessa and Nicole. Log on to www.bms-llc.com/willie_card/index.htm to view the website in honor of Willie. Willie's funeral was held June 18 in Lorain, Ohio, and he was buried in Avon, Ohio. A memorial service for friends and FAA colleagues was held in FAA's headquarters auditorium on June 25, when memories of Willie were shared. Tributes were given by a number of government and industry officials, including Steve Brown, acting FAA associate administrator for air traffic; Steve Christmas, vice president-aviation, Serco Management Services; Shane Cordes, president/CEO Midwest ATC Service; Wes Cozart, president, Robinson-Van Vuren Associates, and Spencer Dickerson, executive vice president of AAAE and executive director of the U.S. Contract Tower Association."
"[Former CAI special investor in Macdonald Dettwiler and vampire lender to Trump Shuttle Inc.] Walter Bigelow Wriston (August 3, 1919 – January 19, 2005) was a banker and former chairman and CEO of Citicorp. As chief executive of Citibank / Citicorp (later Citigroup) from 1967 to 1984, Wriston was widely regarded as the single most influential commercial banker of his time.[1][2] During his tenure as CEO, the bank introduced, among other innovations, automated teller machines, interstate banking, the negotiable certificate of deposit, and "pursued the credit card business in a way that no other bank was doing at the time".[3][4] With then New York Governor Hugh Carey and investment banker Felix Rohatyn, Wriston helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the mid-1970s by setting up the Financial Control Board and the Municipal Assistance Corporation, and persuading the city's union pension funds and banks to buy the latter corporation's bonds.[5]"
"Oneworld (marketed as oneworld; CRS: *O) is an airline alliance founded on 1 February 1999. The alliance's stated objective is to be the first-choice airline alliance for the world's frequent international travelers. Its central alliance office is currently based in New York, New York, in the United States. Its member airlines include Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and TAM Airlines, plus some 30 affiliated airlines. As of 31 March 2014, Oneworld is the third largest global alliance in terms of passengers with 512.8 million passengers, behind Star Alliance (637.6 M)[2] and SkyTeam (588 M).[3] Its slogan is "An alliance of the world's leading airlines working as one."
As of October 2013, its member airlines collectively operate a fleet of 2094 aircraft, serve about a thousand airports in more than 150 countries, carrying 475 million passengers per year on 14,000 daily departures, generating annual revenues of more than US$140 billion.
Management[edit]
Oneworld announced the formation of a central alliance team, the Oneworld Management Company (oMC), in February 2000, to mark the alliance's first anniversary. The oMC was established in May 2000 in Vancouver, Canada, and in June 2011 relocated to New York City. It acts as the alliance's central secretariat, with responsibility for driving future growth and the launch of new customer services and benefits. The oMC was first led by Managing Partner Peter Buecking, previously Director of Sales and Marketing at Cathay Pacific; followed by John McCulloch, previously the alliance's Vice-President for Marketing; and since December 2011 by Bruce Ashby, who previously held roles of CEO of Saudi Arabia's SAMA Airlines, CEO of India's IndiGo, and Executive Vice-President for US Airways. Reporting to the CEO are Vice-Presidents for Commercial; Membership and Customer Experience; and Corporate Communications, a Chief Financial Officer and an IT Director.[4][5][6]"
"The making of CAI
At or about the same time that Restler was guiding the privatization of Hydro's gas division, he decided to leave Shearson Lehman Brothers. Along with about a half dozen others from business and Wall Street, he started a small, boutique investment firm called CAI Capital Management.
CAI opened its doors in 1989, and began looking for both investors and investment opportunities. It found both in Canada.
MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, the Richmond-based firm specializing in satellite imaging, space robotics and environmental monitoring, was one of the earliest companies with which Restler and CAI held discussions. Talks remained exploratory until 1999, when the New York firm and another investor together acquired a one-third interest in the Richmond company [and allegedly had it develop the anti-hijacking technology tested on 9/11].
Restler soon took a seat on MDA's board of directors, and a year later he was joined by David Emerson -- a CAI investor and, since 2008, a "senior advisor" at the equity firm's Vancouver office.
By 2004, CAI (with a substantial profit) had exited its position in MacDonald Dettwiler, and that same year Emerson won election as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Vancouver-Kingsway. (He crossed the floor days after the 2006 general election to join the victorious Conservatives and retain his seat at the cabinet table. Rather than face his constituents and answer for that controversial decision, Emerson retired prior to the 2008 election.)"
"AUG 8, 2013 @ 01:43 PM 13,203 VIEWS
"The Great Vampire Squid Keeps On Sucking
Jake Zamansky , CONTRIBUTOR I write about securities law Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The now famous Rolling Stone magazine article in 2009 by Matt Taibbi unforgettably referred to Goldman Sachs, the world’s most powerful investment bank, as a "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
At the time, Taibbi was describing Goldman's role in the 2008 financial crisis and the speculative bubble of mortgage-backed securities assets which later came crashing down."
"B.C. pension fund invested in defence, oil, tobacco [and pig farm mortgage]
The pension fund that underwrites retirement for B.C.'s firefighters, police officers and public workers is heavily invested in the oilsands, mining companies, defence contractors and big tobacco.
An evaluation of B.C. Investment Management Corp.'s (bcIMC) equity holdings has revealed how billions of dollars of public money is invested.
Although bcIMC's $32.5 billion in equity investments, the largest chunk of its total assets, are spread across dozens of companies ranging from Air France to billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, the pension fund also has holdings in large defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics."
"$10M mortgage on pig farm
Steve Mertl Canadian Press
Sunday, August 21, 2005 VANCOUVER --The B.C. government has put a mortgage worth $10 million on accused serial killer Robert Pickton's notorious pig farm to cover his publicly funded defence, The Canadian Press has learned. Robert Pickton's farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C. December 20, 2004. (CP/Chuck Stoody) But no one at the Attorney General's Ministry will say if that figure represents the estimated cost of Pickton's seven-member legal team in the long and hugely complex case.
And Robert Pickton's share of the property _ his brother and sister are co-owners is currently worth only a fraction of that amount. It's also saddled with several other mortgages and legal judgments that pre-date the province's mortgage.
Even if it could be sold, relatives of the Pickton's alleged victims have other ideas for the land, including turning it into a memorial park or using proceeds of development to compensate the families.
The government's mortgage was registered on the suburban Port Coquitlam property and a nearby smaller parcel, on Feb. 28, 2003, a year after police raided the farm and arrested Pickton.
He faces face 27 counts of first-degree murder related to women, mostly drug-addicted prostitutes, who disappeared from Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside in the 1990s. He has not yet entered a plea, and the legal process against him has not as yet resulted in any court findings that he was responsible for any of the deaths.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show a mortgage principal of $10 million with no interest rate and no repayment schedule.
The lender is listed as the B.C. Crown, represented by the attorney general. The mortgage was handled by a lawyer for the ministry's legal services branch, who authorized its registration in a Feb. 27 letter to the New Westminster land title office.
Pickton, his brother David and sister Linda Wright each own one-third shares in the pig farm located on Port Coquitlam's Dominion Avenue, which they inherited from their parents. The Pickton brothers split the ownership of the smaller Burns Road property that housed Piggy's Palace, often used for parties.
B.C. Assessment, which tracks property values for tax purposes, valued the seven-hectare pig farm at about $5.9 million as of last fall, up from $4.2 million in the previous assessment. The Burns Road property is assessed at about $140,000.
Both are still zoned for agricultural use, although the surrounding land, some of it former Pickton property, was rezoned and now has big-box stores and condominiums.
Pickton lived in a mobile home on the Dominion Avenue property, running a small-scale piggery and slaughter operation. The brothers also ran a variety of other small businesses from there.
Attorney General's Ministry officials would not say whether the $10 million figure is an estimate of the properties' future value or perhaps a ballpark figure for the cost of Pickton's defence.
"I'd love to answer your question but it's not a matter of choice," said assistant deputy minister Jerry McHale, responsible for justice services. "I'm bound by the confidentiality. We just can't get into the funding arrangements during the trial.'' Attorney General Wally Oppal was unavailable for comment. Pickton was committed for trial after a lengthy preliminary hearing in 2003. Pre-trial hearings began in June under a publication ban and the trial itself won't start until sometime next year, with thousands of pieces of evidence and testimony from dozens of witnesses. Pickton's lead defence lawyer, Peter Ritchie, also would not discuss his funding arrangements with the government nor speculate on the defence's ultimate cost.
The stepmother of Marnie Frey, one of Pickton's alleged victims, is angry his defence could ultimately be paid out of the public purse.
"Why does he have seven lawyers?" Lynn Frey asks. "Nobody else ... has that many lawyers to defend them. Why doesn't he just have one lawyer and be done with it?"
But Russ MacKay, executive director of the B.C. Trial Lawyers' Association, says while such arrangements are extremely rare, Pickton's platoon of lawyers is fair given the mountain of evidence expected at the trial.
Pickton has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 7, 2002. Police investigators, bolstered by civilian experts, spent more than a year combing the Pickton properties for evidence.
Documents show Pickton initially mortgaged his share of the larger Dominion Avenue property to Ritchie for $375,000 in April 2002. The mortgage, in the form of a demand loan, was to cover Ritchie's retainer.
It was apparently superseded the following February by the government's $10-million mortgage on the Dominion Avenue and Burns Road properties. Both mortgages carry Pickton's signature.
When shown a copy of the mortgage that he had provided, Ritchie said it was no longer applicable.
With property holdings and business interests, Pickton never qualified for legal aid. The Legal Services Society of B.C. normally pays defence lawyers $80 an hour on lengthy cases and $125 an hour for exceptional ones.
Ritchie launched what's known as a Robotham application in 2002, asking a judge to order Pickton to receive a publicly funded defence.
The hearing ended in October 2002 with Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of B.C. Supreme Court ordering the Attorney General's Ministry to negotiate a funding arrangement directly with Ritchie.
An expert in real-estate law who didn't want to be named says it's not unusual for mortgages not to reflect the value of a property. The $10-million principal in the Pickton mortgage may represent an estimate of the government's maximum security, he says.
Whether it can recover any of that is another question.
Land title records show a long list of charges, mortgages and judgments registered against the two properties, often against Pickton's share and most pre-dating the government's mortgage.
Linda Wright, for example, registered a mortgage in 1998 on the smaller Burns Road. property owned by her brothers. She and David Pickton registered a mortgage on the pig farm itself through a numbered company, also in 1998.
Karin Joesbury, whose daughter Andrea was another of Pickton's alleged victims, also registered a certificate of pending litigation against the pig farm in 2002 as part of a lawsuit filed against Pickton, the RCMP and Vancouver police.
If the government wants to foreclose on the properties it would have to take Pickton's brother and sister to court and apply to force a sale because of their joint ownership, the real estate lawyer says.
Once it does, the rule of "first in time, first in line," applies, meaning earlier creditors would be paid before the province.
Frey says the costs of Pickton's defence should come out of his assets but is torn on what should happen to the properties if he is convicted.
"One time there was talk of some family members wanting to make it a memorial area, a memorial park," she says.
"I would never want it as a memorial park. I'd like to see the monies divided between all the families and their children."
However Maggie de Vries, whose sister Sarah is among the women who vanished from the Downtown Eastside, says she's not opposed to using the properties to pay for Pickton's defence but is not interested in seeing the land become a park.
"That idea doesn't appeal to me at all," de Vries said. "I personally wouldn't go to a memorial site there or want to be involved with setting one up."
Frey says she has no objection if the land was rezoned and developed if proceeds were used to help the victims' children, many of whom are in government care. "They've already got townhouses and an elementary school (on) the property that he sold even before he got arrested," she says.
"Obviously it's a great development area. It's a good place to be. I would personally never want to live there."
© Canadian Press 2005"
"18 U.S. Code § 1958 - Use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire Whoever travels in or causes another (including the intended victim) to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, or uses or causes another (including the intended victim) to use the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce, with intent that a murder be committed in violation of the laws of any State or the United States as consideration for the receipt of, or as consideration for a promise or agreement to pay, anything of pecuniary value, or who conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than ten years, or both; and if personal injury results, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than twenty years, or both; and if death results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment, or shall be fined not more than $250,000, or both."
"Opened in 1994 as the successor to the Transitional Immigrant Visa Processing Center in Rosslyn, Va., the NVC centralizes all immigrant visa preprocessing and appointment scheduling for overseas posts. The NVC collects paperwork and fees before forwarding a case, ready for adjudication, to the responsible post. The center also handles immigrant and fiancé visa petitions, and while it does not adjudicate visa applications, it provides technical assistance and support to visa-adjudicating consular officials overseas. Only two Foreign Service officers, the director and deputy director, work at the center, along with just five Civil Service employees. They work with almost 500 contract employees doing preprocessing of visas, making the center one of the largest employers in the Portsmouth area. The contractor, Serco, Inc., has worked with the NVC since its inception and with the Department for almost 18 years. The NVC houses more than 2.6 million immigrant visa files, receives almost two million pieces of mail per year and received more than half a million petitions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) in 2011. Its file rooms' high-density shelves are stacked floor-to-ceiling with files, each a collection of someone’s hopes and dreams and each requiring proper handling."
"The Telgraph .. Police drop investigation into Serco prisoner transport contract The outsourcing group said there was no evidence of individual or corporate wrongdoing
The City of London Police has closed an investigation into Serco's prisoner transport contract after more than a year of work, enabling the firm to continue with the contract until 2018.
The Ministry of Justice called in the police in August 2013 to examine whether Serco had misleadingly recorded prisoners as being ready for court when they were not, in order to meet the performance criteria of the contract.
However, Serco said on Friday that the probe into the Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contract had been closed after the police found no evidence to support bringing charges against the outsourcing firm or its staff.
"The information obtained was also sufficient for the City of London Police to conclude there was no evidence of any corporate-wide conspiracy or an intention to falsify figures to meet the DRACT [designated ready and available for court time] contract requirement by senior Serco management or at the board level of the company," the firm said in a statement. The Ministry of Justice had said it would end the contract immediately if the firm's board was found to have done wrong."
"NOSE DIVE
10.04.1512:01 AM ET
The Crash of Trump Air The real story behind The Donald's brief and bizarre career as an airline chieftain.
Donald Trump strode into a ballroom at the Plaza Hotel he owned on October 12, 1988, to announce his acquisition of yet another trophy property: the venerable Eastern AIR Shuttle, which had pioneered the original power flights between New York, Washington, and Boston.
The 42-year-old Manhattan real estate tycoon exuded an outsize confidence, airily waving aside any concerns about his ignorance of the business he was wading into. "It's a diamond, it's an absolute diamond," he crowed to the packed crowd.
Classic Trump bravado, of course, but the airline insiders he'd tapped to run the show were already rolling their eyes. "When he started with that 'diamonds in the sky' line, I said, 'We're going to have to settle for cubic zirconia,'" said Henry Harteveldt, a former TWA and Continental executive who was the nascent line’s new marketing director.
"We inherited more than 20 of the world's oldest 727 airplanes, because that's what had been allocated to the shuttle,” said Harteveldt, now head of Atmosphere Research, a travel data research firm. "At first all we could do was to clean the planes and put a sticker with Trump's name on the side."
And so began one of the stranger episodes in aviation history.
Trump, according to sources close to him at the time, seemed less interested in the inner workings of the business than in what it could do for his brand. "It was this flying billboard for Trump properties," said Harteveldt. “At the time, he was expanding his casino business [in Atlantic City], jet fuel was still relatively cheap. It was a combination of vanity and the lure of an appealing business." Trump, sources said, apparently also dreamed of creating a national airline 10 times the size of the shuttle, a natural fit with the hotels he was rapidly collecting.
That was not to be, and interestingly, Trump's airline dalliance appears to have been airbrushed from his official biography. He makes virtually no mention of it in the numerous memoirs and self-help books he's penned since its demise in late 1991 [with one exception: in the 2008 tome Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success, he admits that the shuttle "never turned a proper profit," but in typical fashion, accepts no responsibility and blames the failure on ‘timing” and the vagaries of the airline business.] Other business setbacks like his casino bankruptcies have been spun into inspirational comeback tales in the Trump narrative—or used by Trump's rivals for the GOP presidential nomination as a way to bash him on the debate stage. His airline adventure, on the other hand, is an outlier: maybe that has something to do with the fact that Trump never was able to get his airline to produce enough cash flow to pay down the massive debt Trump accumulated when he bought the shuttle.
The story does, however, reveal much about the Trump now appearing in the national spotlight. He lied about his competitors. He trotted out plans to attract customers—but many of them made no sense from a business standpoint. Those who worked with him at the airline describe him as a loose cannon; a generous and engaged boss on the one hand, obnoxious and impulsive at other times—especially in public.
As former Trump Shuttle president Bruce Nobles told The Daily Beast, "I cringed every time he opened his mouth."
"He really didn't understand the business and at times he said things that really weren’t helpful” to his new company, Nobles said. "That was his style and it really hasn't changed."
And this tale might also say something about how Trump may behave as this presidential contest continues: When that sunny business climate turned stormy, Trump got out of the airline business—and fast.
He spent more than $1 million on each jet, going well beyond the normal cabin upgrades to add thick maroon carpeting, maple-veneer paneling, beige leather seats, and even faux marble sinks and gold-colored fixtures in the lavatories.
The aviation business has always been a tough one. More than a few corporate titans have been humbled by it. (Think Carl Icahn and TWA, Kirk Kerkorian and his MGM airline.) "I remember telling [Trump]: ‘There's an old saying in the business: the way to make a little money in the airlines is to start with a lot," said Nobles, who'd previously helmed the rival Pan Am shuttle. Airlines have been notoriously poor investments, what with high fixed costs and a vulnerability to unpredictable forces like gyrating fuel prices and economic downturns. In fact, although the economy in general was in decent shape in 1988, the airline business Trump was entering was in turmoil—dozens of airlines had shut down since deregulation was passed in 1978, and many major airlines had either merged or gone into bankruptcy court protection.
One of the first signs of trouble came soon after the deal was signed when the neophyte airline chief set out to destroy his rival—the Pan Am Shuttle, its only direct competition in the market. The Eastern Shuttle, which had had the market all to itself before deregulation, had struggled to keep up when New York Air, and later Pan Am, offered free drinks and food and made the Eastern flights (which then had neither) look spartan by comparison.
Trump decided he’d win customers away from Pan Am—by scaring them. Pan Am was unsafe, he said. He had no proof of this, of course; his message was simply: "I wouldn't fly them; they're losing money and their planes are old," all of which was equally true of Eastern and the planes he’d just bought. Trump’s seasoned airline hands were horrified; even in the combative airline business, such talk was regarded as out of bounds, as it would only stoke more general fears of flying. Moreover, it revealed his lack of understanding of this business—at the time, competitors would help each other if delays or other problems arise. "We told him 'Don’t attack Pan Am, they're the grandfather of this business,'" said Harteveldt.
Next, Trump turned his attention to his fleet, where he was soon to get an education in airline economics. Trump had paid $365 million for the assets of the Eastern shuttle operation and its 17 planes, which he'd spun as a great deal—negotiated down from the $400 million asking price. But later, as the closing was delayed by Eastern’s bankruptcy and other bidders emerged, Trump tried to get Eastern chief Frank Lorenzo to lower the price, since the value of the asset had indeed diminished. Instead Trump ended up taking five additional planes as compensation, which he described as a victory in his book The Art of Survival, published in 1990, when the airline was still flying. "This allowed me to refurbish my fleet without taking any planes out of service," he said.
True, but the shuttle needed only 16 planes to operate a full hourly schedule at its three cities, with one or two jets as spares, and extra aircraft are anathema to an airline—they don't make money sitting on the ground. Even though Trump was later to deploy some of them on flights to Florida, those additional planes were later to prove a drag on the airline as it struggled to make enough money to service its heavy debt. "Lorenzo must have been laughing all the way to the bank," wrote John O'Donnell, former president of the Trump Plaza Hotel, wrote in his book Trumped!
"The shuttle was a clear example of how the exaggerated value of his [Trump's] name led him into a purchase whose foolishness was apparent almost immediately," he added. (The Trump organization declined to comment for this article.)
To his credit, though, Trump decided that since the planes, on average about 20 years old, needed an overhaul anyway, he could use the chance to spiff up passenger comfort and service. He spent more than $1 million on each jet, going well beyond the normal cabin upgrades to add thick maroon carpeting, maple-veneer paneling, beige leather seats, and even faux marble sinks and gold-colored fixtures in the lavatories.
"The bathroom was a work of art," joked Nick Santangelo, who ran maintenance and engineering at the shuttle. “They used ideas from the hotel business, which wasn't bad, but they didn't always work." Older jets in particular guzzle fuel and airline executives are obsessed with saving even a few ounces of weight. Not so Trump: "At first they wanted to put in a ceramic sink, that was too heavy," said Santangelo. "Then one of his henchman decided they were going to put brass handles on the doors you use to get out in an emergency. Normal handles weigh a few ounces, and these things probably weighed five pounds each... you'd kill to save one pound, and they wanted to add 20 to 30 pounds to each plane."
Still, the airline lured customers with frills like airport concierges who would book same-day reservations at fancy restaurants; gourmet food and drink and tarted-up departure lounges. "We spent a lot on service," recalls Harteveldt. "Bagels and coffee in the morning; boxed dinners with sliced chateaubriand and salad; the flight attendants hustled to serve everyone meals and then pour two or even three rounds of drinks" in the 45 minutes the plane was in the air.
Trump's flight attendants—the female ones, at least—wore matching fake pearl necklaces and earrings to go with what the Trump organization described as an "upscale" look, with outfits of navy with burgundy trim. The uniform belts incorporated the Trump Shuttle "T" logo.
It got noticed: an August 21, 1989 New York magazine column said that Trump apparently wanted his attendants to have "the look of old money." The jewelry was a “required part of the uniform," and the magazine quoted a spokesman as saying they were "real, of course," but according to Harteveldt, they were in fact faux. "But we did raffle off a pair of real ones," he said, and even as the go-go 1980s were winding down that was an unusual stunt for an airline.
And then there was the cult of Donald. Frequent travelers would often get thank-you letters after a flight with Trump's personal signature. A glossy inflight magazine was launched, and Trump at first insisted that the cover resemble theArt of the Deal, his best-selling business book. "The attention to detail was incredible," said Harteveldt. "Pretty soon we were at 50 percent of the market, and keep in mind, we started with about zero," the result of Eastern's prolonged labor strife, said Nobles. "But it was also 50 percent of a shrinking market," he said.
Yet another reality was setting in: Business travel was slowing in the Northeast.
Nonetheless, Nobles said the balance sheet improved as the shuttle regained market share, enough to show an operating profit, but not to cover debt payments. And the recession was not just affecting the airline but most of Trump’s other assets, like his hotels and casinos. In fact at one point Trump came up with a plan to help both, by giving away casino chips to his airline passengers in the expectation they'd come to one of his Atlantic City properties to redeem them. It was a bust. "I think something like two chips got cashed in," Nobles recalled with a laugh. ***
Trump's airline, for all its brass-handled glitz, was a relatively minor player. So in late 1989, he made a bid for control of American Airlines, then the largest airline in the country—and one of the few that had avoided a bankruptcy or merger to survive. His $7.5 billion offer was, at $120 a share, well above the $83 per share the airline was then trading for. But Wall Street and industry insiders were unimpressed, especially after Trump boasted that he'd picked up "substantial insight" in the business he'd just entered. He was, after all, taking on American CEO Bob Crandall, one of the most respected executives in the business. When Crandall immediately took steps to thwart the unwanted advance the bid fizzled. Did Trump he seriously think he could fill Crandall's shoes? "He thought he saw an opportunity, and he likes to own the best," said Nobles. "He thought American was the best airline, it was as simple as that."
Was Trump chastened? Probably not, but it may have dawned on him at that point that he was out of his depth.
"Trump did see that it was a difficult business," said Nobles. "The number of people who want to fly and the money they'll pay to do that is pretty much out of your control. All you can hope for is your fair share, and we got our fair share. But the size of the pot was shrinking." And in the final analysis, the shuttle, whether it had Trump’s or Eastern's name on it, was a basic conveyance, its short hops that departed on the hour, with no reservations required, were closer to a flying bus than a first-class hop across the pond. Things like punctuality were far more important to its clientele than a better cut of steak. When Trump looked back on the experience in 2008 and wrote that "I knew it could be successful…. it just needed to be buffed up a bit, to make the travel time a bit more luxurious," it's clear how little he learned.
Meanwhile, relations between Trump and some of his shuttle executives had started to fray as market conditions went south. Nobles had offered his resignation in early 1990, because he disagreed with some of Trump’s ideas for cutting costs, some of which flew in the face of reality. "He insisted I fly the planes with only two pilots in the cockpit," said Nobles, instead of the required trio at the controls. To a layman, that might not seem unreasonable, but it spoke volumes about Trump’s lack of understanding of the airlines—and of his very own fleet. The 727s Trump owned could not be flown with two pilots; it was designed for three and "would have been unflyable” otherwise, according to aviation expert (and Beast columnist) Clive Irving. "The FAA would have never permitted it," he said.
But Trump was unmoved. He fired Nobles in the middle of 1990 and did not honor the executive's severance contract. His reason? He told reporters at the time that while the airline was doing well, he just wasn’t pleased "with some of the people running it."
By the middle of 1991, it was clear that the situation was not going to improve; Trump had raised $380 million from a syndicate of 22 [narco?] banks led by Citicorp, [led by the late Walter Wriston] putting in just $20 million of his own money. But the airline was just one of a cluster of assets that were at stake; and Trump finally hammered out a deal that gave bankers control of the airline; the climate was turned so sour that no bidders came forward to buy it. US Airways was later tapped to run it and by mid-1992, the plus-size "T" logos on the planes were replaced by more conventional airline livery.
For all that, it can be said that Trump's transformation of the Eastern Shuttle was not for naught; he'd ended up stuck with damaged goods when he bought the shuttle and made changes that were welcomed by both customers and employees (given the condition the shuttle was in when he took over, however, anything would have been an improvement). But other claims he's made about the shuttle over the years don't really stand up; yes, he did rescue a distressed property—but other bidders did come forward at the time and the value of the shuttle franchise was beyond dispute. True, he hired more than a thousand employees from Eastern—and most of them, understandably were happy to have jobs and enjoyed the brief ride while Trump was lavishing perks on his passengers. Most of them continued on after the tycoon departed. And Trump's brief shining moment as a flyboy remains a mere footnote in the annals of aviation.
As for the shuttle—it still chugs along today and on October 17 it will enter its fourth incarnation, as American Airlines formally takes over as part of its merger with US Airways."
"Super Serco bulldozes ahead
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
UPDATED: 23:00 GMT, 1 September 2004
SERCO has come a long way since the 1960s when it ran [Resilience exercises and] the 'four-minute warning' system to alert the nation to a ballistic missile attack.
Today its £10.3bn order book is bigger than many countries' defence budgets. It is bidding for a further £8bn worth of contracts and sees £16bn of 'opportunities'.
Profit growth is less ballistic. The first-half pre-tax surplus rose 4% to £28.1m, net profits just 1% to £18m. Stripping out goodwill, the rise was 17%, with dividends up 12.5% to 0.81p.
Serco runs the Docklands Light Railway, five UK prisons, airport radar and forest bulldozers in Florida.
Chairman Kevin Beeston said: 'We have virtually no debt and more than 600 contracts.'
The shares, 672p four years ago, rose 8 1/4p to 207 1/4p, valuing Serco at £880m or nearly 17 times earnings.
Michael Morris, at broker Arbuthnot, says they are 'a play on UK government spend' which is rising fast."
"Serco Combined Resilience Exercising
http://www.epcollege.com/EPC/media/MediaLibrary/Downloads/Gold-Standard.pdf
Types of Exercise Workshop Exercises These are structured discussion events where participants can explore issues in a less pressurized environment.
They are an ideal way of developing solutions, procedures and plans rather than the focus being on decision making. Table Top Exercises These involve a realistic scenario and will follow a time line, either in real-time or with time jumps to concentrate on the more important areas. The participants would be expected to be familiar with the plans and procedures that are being used although the exercise tempo and complexity can be adjusted to suit the current state of training and readiness. Simulation and media play can be used to support the exercise. Table-top exercises help develop teamwork and allow participants to gain a better understanding of their roles and that of other agencies and organisations.
Command/Control Post Exercises These are designed primarily to exercise the senior leadership and support staff in collective planning and decision making within a strategic grouping. Ideally such exercises would be run from the real command and control locations and using their communications and information systems. This could include a mix of locations and varying levels of technical simulation support. The Gold Standard system is flexible to allow the tempo and intensity to be adjusted to ensure maximum training benefit, or to fully test and evaluate the most important aspects of a plan. Such exercises also test information flow, communications, equipment, procedures, decision making and coordination.
Simulation and Media Support
The method of delivering an exercise is flexible and will be designed with the client to meet their requirements with options ranging from simple paper-based delivery through to full use of their real communications systems [Red Switch Network and Hawkeye onion router surveillance aircraft] and advance computer simulation [In Trump's death pool and war room suites]. In addition, media play can also be added in the form of news injects and the provision of experienced journalists and television crews to help test procedures and also assist in training key staff.
Gold Standard Emergency Planning College
The Hawkhills, Easingwold, York North Yorkshire, YO61 3EG +44(0) 1347 821406
enquiries@emergencyplanningcollege.com www.epcollege.com"
"Serco farewell to NPL after 19 years of innovation [outsourced by David Cameron at Treasury] … 8 January 2015
Serco said goodbye to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at the end of December 2014 after 19 years of extraordinary innovation and science that has seen the establishment build a world-leading reputation and deliver billions of pounds of benefit for the UK economy. It has been estimated that work carried out by the Centre of Carbon Measurement at NPL will save eight million tonnes of carbon emissions reductions (2% of UK footprint) and over half a billion pounds in economic benefit [bullshit] over the next decade. .. · NPL's caesium fountain atomic clock is accurate to 1 second in 158 million years and NPL is playing a key role in introducing rigour to high frequency [death-pool] trading in the City through NPLTime."
Yours sincerely,
Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222
David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.