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War & Disaster Profiteering

Outsourcing Intelligence in Iraq: A CorpWatch Report on L-3/Titan
Pratap Chatterjee
April 29th, 2008

When U.S. troops or embassy officials want to investigate Iraqis - such as interrogating prisoners, the principal intermediary is a Manhattan based-company named L-3. The company has just lost its biggest contract for failing to recruit qualified translators, and is also being investigated for human rights abuses.


Natural Resources

Booming Chinese Demand Has Ripples Down Under In Queensland
Patrick O'Keeffe
April 16th, 2008

A bauxite mine and a proposed refinery in northern Queensland, Australia, to be developed by a Chinese mineral company, has divided local and traditional landowners. Part of a major industrialization scheme, it has also sparked worries among environmentalists.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Natural Resources

Smokestack Injustice? Toxic Texas Smelter May Reopen
Kent Paterson
April 2nd, 2008

The old American Smelting and Refining Company (Asarco) copper smelter in El Paso, Texas, which has spewed out toxins for over a century, has been granted a new five-year permit. This is despite the fact that it violates international laws by polluting communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Natural Resources

Ecuador's Yasuni Park: Oil Exploration or Nature Protection?
Agneta Enström
March 20th, 2008

Permission for Petrobras of Brazil to drill for oil in Yasuni National Park, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, has been suspended, but some damage has already been done by Swedish construction giant Skanska. Unless new money is found to protect the forest, exploration may resume.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Intelligence

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton
Tim Shorrock
March 8th, 2008

The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity funds, may soon buy out the $2 billion dollar intelligence division of Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest advisors to the U.S. spy community.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Tobacco

Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
Pilirani Semu-Banda
February 25th, 2008

Cigarettes may be damaging not only your own health, but also that of some of the world's poorest children. Much of Malawi's thriving tobacco industry rests on the backs of exploited children, some as young as five years old.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Money & Politics

Burying Indonesia’s Millions: The Legacy of Suharto
Andreas Harsono
February 15th, 2008

Over the last 50 years, a network of cronies helped former Indonesian president Suharto build a business empire and amass a multi-billion dollar fortune. Today his successors face an uphill battle to recover the money even after his death.

Globalization

An Uncomfortable Spotlight in Davos
Pratap Chatterjee
January 31st, 2008

The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy is staggering towards recession.

War & Disaster Profiteering

QinetiQ Goes Kinetic: Top Rumsfeld Aide Wins Contracts From Spy Office He Set Up
Tim Shorrock
January 15th, 2008

A Pentagon office that was reprimanded by the U.S. Congress for spying on antiwar activists, has just awarded a multi-million dollar contract to QinetiQ, a British company that employs Stephen Cambone. Cambone, a former aide to Donald Rumsfeld, helped create the very office that issued the contract.
Cartoon by Khalil Bendib