Bribes // Current TV

Best Damned Government That Money Can Buy

People always whinin bout politics, some say the president's a fool, Most folks... more

Progresshiv
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4 months ago
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$100 Bribe to Ticket Agent Allows Unknown Package to Fly on JetBlue

Although millions of dollars are spent on airline security each year in the United States, it only took $100.00 for a JetBlue ticket agent to allow a unknown package to go onto a flight, coming from an unknown person.

On November 19, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was at Charlotte Douglas Airport testing out JetBlue's security. Their goal was to try and get an unaccompanied package onto a flight headed to Boston and unfortunately, they succeeded. An undercover TSA agent told a JetBlue ticket agent that he needed to get a package to Boston that day and would pay the agent $100.00 for helping. The agent took the $100, put it in his pocket and proceeded to follow the unknown person's instructions. The ticket agent chose a passenger's name at random, which just happened to be an unaccompanied minor, and the package went through the screening process with no problems. Although the package was harmless, the TSA pulled the package just before being loaded onto the aircraft.

"That's really alarming," Anthony Amore, a former high-ranking TSA official at Logan Airport told a local Boston CBS station. "When you have multiple layers in place you hope that they all stand in the way of a terrorist or someone who wishes us harm. In this instance, many of the layers were cast aside and we were left with this one layer of checked baggage screening."

When the local station asked the TSA for a comment, they were told, "While we cannot comment on the specifics of an open investigation, TSA can assure travelers that, like checked baggage, every package tendered at the airline counter is screened for explosives." JetBlue confirmed that they are "fully cooperating with the TSA's investigation" and "the involved crew member is no longer employed at JetBlue."

I do not share this story to cause additional security-related fear, nor do I want to "teach the terrorists" how to commit crimes against passengers. I share it, since I think it shows how spending so much money on the front door of airline security and so little attention on the back is a big mistake. Although JetBlue is partly to blame for training issues, this could have happened with almost any airline. They just happened to have a bad-seed-employee in the wrong place at the wrong time. Currently, the TSA is not talking about how often they conduct these sorts of tests and how often they get a package through.

Sadly, this story is just one of many that place many questions on back-door airport security. At the same exact airport, just a few days earlier, a teenager was able to sneak onto the airport secured area, illegally board a US Airways aircraft without being caught (unfortunately, he died en-route). There is also the story of the pilot who pointed out that airport security workers could by-pass security and caused him a lot of grief. Similar stories keep popping up and I have a feeling more will continue to do so. As passengers continue to give up their freedoms and are willing to put up with many annoyances to fly, while at the same time seeing how porous the security is behind the scenes, people will take note and demand for change.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/airlinereporter/archives/235924.aspAlthough millions of dollars are spent on airline security each year in the United... more

bundlebear
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1 year ago
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Greek Elections: Candidate bribes voters with 10 euro per vote!

How much is a vote worth? In times before IMF a local city council or mayor... more

WiredGreek
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1 year ago
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Richard I Fine Released (after 18 months confinement for contempt charges)

Jailed for contempt. Some speculate that the contempt charges and subsequent... more

justadad
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1 year ago
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Give prosecution & suo motu powers to Lokayukta - Petition

Please give powers to the Karnataka lokayukta or kla to prosecute the corrupt... more

indian1
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1 year ago
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Blackwater Said To Pursue $1 Million In Iraqi Bribes After Killing 17

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater’s president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.

Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.

Alarmed about the secret payments, Mr. Black cut short his talks and left Iraq. Soon after returning to the United States, he confronted Erik Prince, the company’s chairman and founder, who did not dispute that there was a bribery plan, according to a former Blackwater executive familiar with the meeting. Mr. Black resigned the following year.

Stacy DeLuke, a spokeswoman for the company, now called Xe Services, dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and said the company would not comment about former employees. Mr. Black did not respond to telephone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Reached by phone, Mr. Jackson, who resigned as president early this year, criticized The New York Times and said, “I don’t care what you write.”

More @ link
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/world/middleeast/11blackwater.html?_r=1Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million... more

Future_America
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2 years ago
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Blackwater Approved Payoffs of Iraqi Officials

To stifle criticism of civilian killings, the American mercenary group formerly known... more

S3th
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2 years ago
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Lieberman 9 Arrested in D.C. Senate Office: Raw Video

Over 50,000 die every year for lack of health care and more for denial of care despite... more

JonRaymond
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2 years ago
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Farmers bribed and threatened over BT cotton disaster

EXTRACTS: "Like most other farmers, I opted for BT[cotton]-1 and BT-2, the latter... more

JanforGore
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2 years ago
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4 comments

Conservative group offers to sell endorsement for $2M

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million... more

Pericles_Lewnes
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2 years ago
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US judges admit taking kickbacks from "privet" detention center

Two US judges charged with taking more than $2m (£1.4m) in kickbacks from a... more

ras_menelik
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2 years ago
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Lead researcher on BPA study accepts $5 million from industry

Charles Gelman, a retired manufacturer of syringes and medical filtration devices who considers Bisphenol A (BPA) to be "perfectly safe", gave $5 million to the research center headed by Martin Philbert, the chairman of a Food and Drug Administration panel about to rule on the chemical's safety. The donation is nearly 25 times larger than the $210,000 annual budget of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center, where Philbert is founder and co-director. Philbert failed to disclose the donation to the FDA, and agency officials only learned of it through reporters.

Gelman, who was once called "the second worst polluter in Michigan" by the state's Department of Natural Resources said he considers the chemical, which is used to make baby bottles, reusable food containers and plastic wraps, to be safe. Worries about health risks posed by the chemical are exaggerated by "mothers' groups and others who don't know the science," Gelman said.

Apparently Gelman is ignorant of the fact that most studies on BPA have linked the chemical to cancer, heart disease, ADHD and reproductive failures in lab animals; those that didn't find harm overwhelmingly were paid for by the chemical industry.

More than 90 percent of people over the age of six test positive for BPA in the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The levels present in the average American are far greater than the levels present in the animals under study that have documented the damaging health effects of BPA. It should be noted that no level has ever been found in animal experiments that doesn't cause harm. Gelman said he had made his views on BPA clear to Philbert in several conversations. Philbert denied that.

"At no time have the Gelman family or any other interested/disinterested person, persons, corporations or other entity contacted me or attempted to influence my scientific judgment on the matter," Philbert wrote in an e-mail.

Philbert's committee is expected to release its opinion this month. It will advise the FDA on a draft assessment released by the agency in September. It should come as no surprise that the draft found that products made with BPA are safe for food storage.

The decision of Philbert's committee is expected to have huge implications on the regulation and sale of the chemical in items such as baby bottles, reusable food containers and plastic wraps.

Gelman said he and Philbert talk often. He said Philbert eventually told him that he did not want to have any more discussions on the subject of BPA because he was concerned about the appearance of impropriety. But, Gelman said, "He knows where I stand."

Philbert steadfastly denied any conflict of interest, stating "until today, no question has been raised with respect to my impartiality in this matter," he wrote in an e-mail. "I am not open to any undue influence and have taken on this (unwelcome) task with all due diligence and seriousness."

If a $5 million donation from an individual with a strong, vested interest in the outcome of the study is not considered a blatant impropriety, one has to ask the question, what is?
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Unethical? An impropriety? Why of course not. ::sarcasm::Charles Gelman, a retired manufacturer of syringes and medical filtration devices who... more