The politicians had to face a crisis at home: they had given power to the banks because the bankers and financial technocrats had promised they could hold the economy stable. But in 2008 the whole intricate system of credit and loans that the banks had created collapsed. And there was growing panic and giant financial institutions faced bankruptcy. The politicians in America and Britain stepped in and rescued the banks. As they did so they began to discover that most of the major financial institutions were also riddles with corruption. But unlike President Roosevelt in the 1930s they didn’t then transform the system. Instead, the simply propped it up. Adam Curtis, Bitter Lake, BBC 2015
In the early 1990s the western democracies seemed to be the future. The collapse of the Soviet Union meant that their ideas were now going to spread all across the world. But at home in both Britain and America there were still forces deep in the heart of both societies that had little to do with democracy. It seemed that despite all the changes of the last thirty years, that underneath the old structures of power and the corruption and the anger that created were still there. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head V: The Lordly Ones ***** BBC 2021
But there was another country that was like a fairytale land: Saudi Arabia. Ever since the 1970s billions of dollars had flooded in from the West. This vast wave of money created a dream-like society run by an elite where no-one paid any tax. But there were those in Saudi Arabia who saw another much more sinister reality underneath this facade. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? *****
Money has created a society where nobody believes in anything, and nothing can be trusted. ibid.
Overnight, the Americans destroyed the civil structure of Iraqi society. But instead of trying to create new institutions ... The country would then be thrown open to international corporations who in return for investing, would take 100% of their profits out of the country untaxed. Only one of Saddam Hussein’s laws remained: the one that restricted trade unions. Out of this was supposed to come spontaneous order. What resulted was chaos. ibid.
What also resulted was corruption on a huge scale: more than $350 billion has been sent to Iraq for reconstruction. ibid.
The Americans began to turn to violence and torture to enforce their kind of freedom. ibid.
Positive liberty is driven by a vision that freedom is for something. The freedom to do or become something new. Out of which a better world would come. Negative liberty has no such vision. It isn’t for anything. At its heart it has no purpose other than to keep us free from unnecessary constraint or harm. And in using force to create a world based on negative liberty, the democratic revolutionaries have actually led millions people abroad into a world without purpose or meaning. This idea of freedom is still portrayed by many politicians and influential commentators as a universal absolute. They assume it is only a matter of time before it spreads throughout the world. But this may not be true. ibid.
The idea of freedom that we live with today is a narrow and limiting one; it was born out of a specific and dangerous time: the Cold War. It may have had meaning and purpose then as an alternative to communist tyranny but now has become a dangerous trap. Our government relies on a simplistic economic model of human beings that allows inequality to grow and offers nothing positive in the face of reactionary forces they have helped awake around the world. ibid.
The Neo-Conservatives were beginning to believe that their ideal of freedom was an absolute. And that this then justified lying and exaggerating in order to enforce that vision. The end justified the means. Although they portrayed the Contras as freedom fighters, it was well known that they used murder, assassination and torture. And also were allegedly using CIA-supplied planes to smuggle cocaine back into the United States. And to finance the Contras, the Neo-Conservatives were even prepared to deal with America’s enemy – the leaders of the Iranian revolution. In 1985 those running the Nicaragua operation held a series of secret meetings with Iranian leaders in Europe. They arranged to sell the Iranians American weapons; in return the Iranians would release American hostages held in Lebanon. Then the money from these sales would be used by those running Project Democracy to fund the Contras. The only problem was that this was completely illegal. And the President knew it. ibid.
What was beginning to emerge was the problem of spreading freedom around the world. To do it those leading Project Democracy had turned not just to manipulation and violence but were beginning to undermine the ideals of democracy in America. The very thing they were trying to create abroad. It was the corruption of freedom that Isaiah Berlin had warned of. ibid.
In 1989 across eastern Europe the people rose up to overthrow their communist leaders. It was a remarkable series of revolutions. All driven by the desire for freedom and the ending of tyranny. ibid.
A form of order and a new kind of democracy in which the market, not politics, gave people what they wanted. But things didn’t work out how the theory predicted. ibid.
A new elite was beginning to emerge who snapped up vast sections of Russian industry: they became known as the Oligarchs. ibid.
August 1998: Russia’s economy is out of control tonight and it’s causing an international financial crisis. Huge queues in Moscow. There’s a run on the banks. The Rouble’s lost nearly half its value. And prices are soaring. ibid. BBC News
Overnight, the Americans destroyed the civil structure of Iraqi society. But instead of trying to create new institutions ... The country would then be thrown open to international corporations who in return for investing, would take 100% of their profits out of the country untaxed. Only one of Saddam Hussein’s laws remained: the one that restricted trade unions. Out of this was supposed to come spontaneous order. What resulted was chaos. ibid.
What also resulted was corruption on a huge scale: more than $350 billion has been sent to Iraq for reconstruction. ibid.
The Americans began to turn to violence and torture to enforce their kind of freedom. ibid.
The idea of freedom that we live with today is a narrow and limiting one; it was born out of a specific and dangerous time: the Cold War. It may have had meaning and purpose then as an alternative to communist tyranny but now has become a dangerous trap. Our government relies on a simplistic economic model of human beings that allows inequality to grow and offers nothing positive in the face of reactionary forces they have helped awake around the world. ibid.
Isaiah Berlin was wrong: not all attempts to change the world for the better lead to tyranny. ibid.
Enron execs sell $1 billion in stock before bankruptcy. The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All II, National Geographic 2015
1911 call made by Detective D Bomenka via cellphone at 16.36.51 hours. The Slow Hustle, Sky Documentaries 2021
Information sought: Reward $215,000. Baltimore Police Detective shot and killed while on duty … Detective Sean Suiter. ibid. leaflet
This was a hit on Detective Suiter … It was an inside job … ibid. tweets
It does happen in the midst of this massive corruption of this huge scandal. One of the worst police corruption in recent American history. Mind blowing. ibid. Brian Kuebler, investigative reporter
Slain Detective Was Set To Testify Against Officers. ibid. television news banner
The city of Baltimore has paid over $60 million in settlements since November 2014 for police misconduct cases. ibid.
As of March 2021, the State’s [Maryland] attorney was seeking to overturn or dismiss nearly 800 cases impacted by police misconduct. ibid.
The UN sent the police here because I am a whistleblower. But I’m not the only one. There are many whistleblowers at the UN. There’s nothing unique about my treatment. This World: The Whistleblowers: Inside the UN, BBC 2022
This is the story of whistleblowers who reported abuse and wrong doing within the United Nations. Their evidence points to a culture of untouchability reaching the highest levels of the organisation. ibid. caption
The UN is made up of 37 organisations including UNICEF, UNAIDS and the World Food Programme. It has a total budget of more than £50 billion. ibid.
These UN soldiers felt so above the law. This is the United Nations. ibid. whistleblower
2015: The UN knew of multiple abuse allegations against troops from various nations. ibid.
I believe that the organisation is riddled with corruption from bottom to top. ibid. Peter Gallo, UN investigator
The tight links between McPherson and senior detectives undermined the public’s trust in the entire New South Wales police force and justice system. Australian Families of Crime s1e6: Mr Bigs Lenny McPherson & George Freeman, Nine Network 2010
Lenny McPherson killed again shooting a rival ten times. ibid.
New South Wales was awash with corruption. ibid.
Chicago in the early twentieth century was already one of the most corrupt cities in the United States. One classic example of this was the 1919 World Series Baseball, when a New York gangsta Arnold Rothstein bribed the Chicago White Sox to lose. Police and politicians all took bribes. The Story of Al Capone
Mistrust that may just have its roots in a chapter one decade ago: MPs accused of being on the take when a national newspaper blew the lid on their expenses system, in a country still reeling from a financial crisis. Expenses: The Scandal that Changed Britain, BBC 2019
How much did those events rewrite the relationship between parliamentarians and the public? How much did it redirect the whole course of British politics? ibid.
The job of redaction took place in secret. ibid.
‘From porn films to bath plugs’ … ‘chandeliers, horse manure, swimming pools, housekeepers’ … ‘It’s a classic smear this’ [Mandelson]. ibid.
The moat belonged to Douglas Hogg; the expense was for cleaning it. ibid.
Another kind of second home: a duck house. ibid.
Five Labour MPs and Two Conservative Peers who were eventually jailed. ibid.
The amount of money laundered every year is estimated at 2 to 5% of global GDP. Behind Closed Doors, Youtube 2023
Much of this money flows into western economies via complex offshore structures. ibid.
Kenya: 60 years after independence, the Kenyatta family is one of the wealthiest in Kenya. ibid.
Azerbaijan: Aliyav family … On its website BP calls this contract ‘the contract for the new century’. ibid.
‘The Pandora Papers expose a London property empire worth nearly $700 million amassed by the ruling family of Azerbaijan.’ ibid. news
Another political dynasty of the developing world, the Sharifs of Pakistan ... ‘the entire banking chain was there to facilitate them.’ ibid.
London is the destination of choice for politically exposed persons and their family members who have accumulated vast fortunes beyond their known sources of income.
‘It’s the corruption of the powerful that destroys a country not the corruption of the weak.’ ibid. Imran Khan