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According to a leading Saudi newspaper, Israel's ambassador to Mauritania, Boaz Bismut, was instructed to apply pressure on local Mauritanian journalists to provide information and work towards changing Mauritanian public opinion regarding Israel.
Bismut was quoted as saying, "The Mauritanian nation will not accept normalization with Israel unless Mauritanian journalists do so first."
As many of our readers are probably aware, we had a little "to do" with a gang we consider to be agents of Pentagon psy-ops - abovetopsecret.com and friends - last night. We were up until 3 a.m. dealing with the backlash from this situation...
Regular readers of this site will be aware of the fact that, for about 4 years, we have been repeatedly trying to convince as many people as would listen that the "war on terror" is bogus and 9/11 was a manufactured "new pearl harbor" designed to provide the political capital for America and Israel to invade and re-shape the Middle East.
Part of this grand manipulation involves attempts by agents of the British, American and Israeli governments to provoke a "civil war" in Iraq. This provocation includes the targetted assassination of large groups of both Sunni and Shia in Iraq, the planting of car bombs in heavily populated areas and the bombings of Shia and Sunni holy sites. The blame for these atrocities is then ascribed by the aforementioned Western governments to either Sunni or Shia militia.
Charges in Kenya corruption scandal
The Guardian
Jeevan Vasagar - 16 March 2006
Kenya's attorney-general yesterday signalled his willingness to tackle the country's biggest corruption scandal by charging five men, including the former governor of the central bank, with fraud.
The "Goldenberg" scandal was made public 14 years ago and cost Kenyan taxpayers 400m, but no one has been found guilty and no politician has faced charges.
The scandal involved the payment of massive cash subsidies for fictitious exports of gold and diamonds by a firm called Goldenberg International.
"If you look at the list, what you see is civil servants taking the fall," said Mwalimu Mati, executive director of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International. "Politicians, as in all other corruption scandals, are left untouched. These people had a role to play but they surely can't have been the only ones involved. There were people involved in facilitating the money coming out of the treasury, and people involved in the political cover-up."
Of the five men indicted, three have faced charges before: the former deputy governor of the central bank, Eliphaz Riungu, the former treasury permanent secretary, Wilfred Karunga Koinange, and Kamlesh Pattni, who was a director of Goldenberg International.
Their cases never came to a full trial and proceedings were halted after the president, Mwai Kibaki, came to power in December 2002. Mr Kibaki set up an inquiry which reported last month. The inquiry said former president Daniel arap Moi must have been aware of the scam and urged the attorney-general to consider pressing charges against George Saitoti, a former finance minister. Mr Saitoti, an education minister in the new government, resigned from the cabinet last month, but denies involvement.
The two new names on the list are Eric Kotut, the central bank governor under Mr Moi, and James Kanyotu, a former intelligence chief who was a director of the firm.
At a time when Kenya faces a severe drought, the scandal is a reminder of the sleaze and economic stagnation of the Moi years. The former president denies involvement.
The hardship suffered by herdsmen in Kenya's arid north is partly blamed on neglect by the failure of successive governments to build roads or help develop the region.
The charges over Goldenberg, a scandal which epitomised the corruption of the Moi government, come at a time when the new government is reeling from its own corruption scandal.
Mr Kibaki's finance minister and justice minister resigned after being named in connection with the Anglo Leasing scandal, in which millions of pounds were looted from the treasury in dodgy contracts for police and military equipment.
Foreign donors and Kenyans have been appalled by the government's heavy-handed treatment of the press. Earlier this month armed police shut down a TV station and burned copies of an opposition newspaper after the arrest of three of its journalists over a story about a secret meeting between the president and an opposition leader. The IMF has reportedly postponed a decision on loans to Kenya because of worries over corruption.