Are These Men About to Start the Revolution?

reply to post by jd140

Don't be scared of the barking dog, be scared of the dog that just sits there looking at you.

oh really?

Really.

Actually be scared of the silent one who sneaks up behind you and takes a large chunk out of your ... I have the scares from the fangs to prove it.

Originally posted by Zosynspiracy
reply to post by jd140

 

Trust me I know A LOT of people in the military as I lived for 4 years in Colorado Springs. I know the mindset of the average soldier very well after working with, training with, and associating with them for that 4 years. And know I don't know ALL but like I said a majority will follow orders not matter how bad things get.

So you knew maybe a hundred soldiers vaguely and maybe a handful personally and you base your knowledge on that?

You remind me of the Army Reserve PVTs. You have your chest puffed out and talking out your, well you aren't talking out your mouth.

Originally posted by American_Soviets
reply to post by jd140

 

Yeah, assuming the military in those places even mattered, they're too far away to do anything about it in the USA. Or wait, you think these "good" men and women are going to commandeer a plane and die-hard it to America and swoop down to save everyone....

um what?

so, with all this talk of revolution, its on the news, its on the internet, i hear regular joe sixpack clowns at work speak about it, does anybody besides me think that maybe "someone" is fomenting this to encourage an uprising? I mean, the CIA does it any time there is an election in a country who is lead by someone we dont agree with. They fund opposition groups, inject doubt about election votes, fund slander campaigns, help incite riots.. (IE Iran, venzuela,etc.)

Every time i hear some mainstream chucklehouse like Glenn Beck mention revolution i cant help but think somebody or a group of somebodys WANTS this, for whatever reason. Afterall, it wouldnt be on the news if THEY didnt want you to hear it..... right??

Being a conspiracy site most here would agree that TPTB have had some hand in most "conflicts" around the world for years. Why would the brewing "revolution" in the USA be any different???

There's an agenda here, i know it.

I am sure that there are multiple agendas.

Don't get so caught up in looking and trying to track every agenda that you forget your own.

Do we have names of people and an organization that will convince the US military it is in their best interest not to take command in the event of a government overthrow?

The military have the weapons, the infrastructure, the ability to take charge in the event of a power vacuum. Is someone going to charm them somehow or convince them that they would be better at dealing with disbursement of basic needs and services?

Government overthrows without a planning, organization, and a power base are anarchy, not revolution.


M

My first impression?

The first clip looked like a Hamas martyr video.

Kind of ironic, really.

I want to shake that man's hand...then have a beer with him

Originally posted by mmiichael

Originally posted by bsbray11

Originally posted by Alethea
This last war should be fought with education, not guns.

I agree completely, but time is slowly running out and working against us.

If UN soldiers busted through your door to haul you off to a surprise location, guns in your face and all, you would feel pretty helpless and betrayed, no? Too bad.

Just pay off a UN soldier to help you. Works like a charm in the rest of the world.

In case no on noticed, the UN isn't a World Federation with a standing military. Most of it's members are oligarchies, monarchies, military dictatorships. They have more self-serving items on their minds. Large scale imprisonment of non-politicals isn't one of them.


M

Here's another delusional statement about UN Mil coming from you guys!

I served 6 months as an UN soldier in Bosnia trying to help people in a war zone and your words feels insulting to all of us who were there in that hell in those woods, with genocidal massacres everywhere.

We drove into those smoking villages and we saw the remains of charred corpses of young children that "they" had poured gasoline over and then let the children & women be burnt alive to a horrible death.

Does this article sound like corrupted soldiers to you?

Does these UN soldiers look like they would be paid off to do something else then to help people in a horrible situation?

The massacre at Stupni Do Bosnia - the 23 october 1993

Article by Unicorn Translation by J-Star and Ace

In the fall of 1993 I was serving as a heavy machinegunner at Nordbat 2, Guard & Escort platoon. By the end of september our SISU and a platoon from 10th mech inf company were sent urgently as reinforcements to the 8th mech inf company area of responsibility in Vares. This was because several of the battalion's armored vehicles had been involved in clashes with units of the HVO. The 8th coy had also been subjected to ambushes.

The mood in Vares was nasty and very threatening. No civilians what-so-ever were moving outdoors and the entire time we were close, too close, to losing control of the situation. If we ever had any control that is. We were a few hundred Swedes against an entire Croatian brigade.

Houses were burning here and there in Vares and its surroundings, but from one of the battalion observation posts one could see the light of a fire that from the looks of it was more serious. It seemed as if an entire village was in flames. However, Croatian forces were blocking the access routes and refused to let anyone near the village.

Units from the Swedish battalion had repeatedly been, and still were, subjected to ambushes by "unknown" soldiers. Sometimes they shot back. The whole situation was like walking a thin line. Most of the SISU-vehicles had one or more tires that had been scavenged from less prioritized vehicles. The tires had been blown out and shot at such a pace that no more spares were available. Instead there were now a couple of trucks without wheels put up on blocks in the camp.

The mood between the Croatian forces and the Swedish battalion was as mentioned not the best. Still though the hostilities were not official. Going into the village on the other hand would have meant an open confrontation with the HVO. The Swedish battalion was a few hundred men, and reinforcements were not available in the foreseeable future. Against them, they would have gotten the entire Croatian Bobovac Brigade.

A refugee managed to reach the Nordbat camp and reported that the people in the burning village had been put through terrible atrocities. The village's name was Stupni Do. Rumours had it that some forty villagers had escaped and were hiding in the woods some kilometres from the village, in the middle of the frontline. They were probably trying to reach the Bosnian side of the front.

Together with battalion commander Ulf Henricsson and a few members of his staff we left in our SISU in an attempt to find the refugees. It was dark, houses were burning around us, and we left for the frontline. A couple of times we negotiated our way through checkpoints controlled by HVO, the Bosnian-Croatian army.

We searched with night vision goggles but couldn't find the refugees. We thought we had found their location - a creepy cemetery on the steep hillside. We saw no one and could do nothing alone in the darkness, so we returned to the camp for a couple of hours of sleep.

At the camp all available personnel were in entrenchments. The 8th coy camp was situated in a valley between high mountains and it was a nightmare to protect against assaults or snipers. A letter had been left during the day where they threatened to once again attack the camp. It was biting cold outside and the only thing that didn't freeze was the mud, that reached above the ankles. The fog was thick and made it impossible to see more than 50 meters.

Early in the morning we made another attempt to rescue the refugees. This time we brought two medic SISU's and another armed Guard/Escort SISU. Major Daniel Ekberg was in command of the unit. We negotiated a passage through a couple of checkpoints and went back to the location we had found last evening. There we stopped in the middle of the road in a narrow canyon between two hill slopes. We used our powerful horns on the vehicles and our interpreter Ruzdi Ekenheim explained through a megaphone that we were from UNPROFOR and there to help. Nothing happened. If the refugees really were there they were afraid to show themselves. Twenty minutes passed and soon we would have to leave. If the HVO found us we would be in trouble.

Just when we had begun to give up hope we hear a cry for help from the forest. Little by little twenty five frozen, shocked human remnants come to us. A woman had died during the night, but we had no means of bringing her corpse. We left her body behind.

A pretty girl in her twenties throws herself crying around the neck of Ekenheim. She tells of how she was forced to watch her family get killed. Her boyfriend was on crutches after an injury, and they made her watch them kill him. If she had dropped as much as a tear they would have killed her too. After this they raped her and threw her into a house with some other villagers. The door was blocked and the house was set on fire.

The girl was alive now thanks to a sledge being found. While the house was burning, they used that to make a hole in the wall and managed to flee into the forest at the back of the house.

In the middle of our rescue operation a mini-bus filled with Croatian HVO soldiers comes driving towards us at high speed. I pointed my heavy machinegun at them and armed it. The warning shot I intended to fire turned out not to be necessary though. At the mere sight of the muzzle the soldiers became so frightened that they drove off the road. We let the trembling soldiers leave the scene in the company of two other HVO soldiers that had been captured and disarmed by the Guard/Escort-SISU at the other end of the column.

After making sure we had gotten all refugees and loaded them into our already crammed SISU-vehicles we drove to the village Pominici on the Bosnian side of the front. Our SISU was so full of people that I had to stand on one leg the whole trip there. Since the rear was packed with refugees, any attempt to lessen the target silhouette by crouching behind the machinegun was made impossible and I felt like my entire upper body was a glow-in-the-dark target for the Croatian snipers.

I will never forget the emotions and facial expressions that met us in Pominici. People desperately looking for relatives. The relief of finding the one they were looking for. The despair when someone wasn't there. At least I had an affirmation that our presence was not only justified. It was essential.

To be continued:

[edit on 4-10-2009 by Chevalerous]

Now we just had to get back. That turned out to be more difficult than we expected. By now the HVO knew what we had done. They didn't like that we had "picked sides" by helping the refugees. Probably it also was against UN directives for the area. At a checkpoint in the southern outskirts of Vares we were stopped. Major Ekberg asked for advice on the radio. Ulf Henricsson himself answered.

"-This is Victor Lima One. Are there any mines there?"
"-Negative!"
"-Give them two minutes - then run you the damn thing down!"

That was the first roadblock, but far from the last, to be smashed under the Nordic battalion's armoured vehicles.

We ran a gauntlet through Vares before we were stopped by soldiers with anti tank weapons. Four solders with LAWs were fanned out in front of the convoy. The situation was so tense one careless move would immediately have set off a battle. As I was standing at the heavy machinegun in the front-most vehicle I realized I would be the first to fall. Add to that the machinegun was mounted on an anti-aircraft carriage completely devoid of armour protection. I was an easy target. At the same time I realized my weapon was the only thing that would get us out of there if the battle started. I started preparing for my own death by giving orders and assigning targets for the others in the rear of the vehicle. The most important thing was that someone took my weapon when - not if - I fell.

The Croatian military policeman that was in charge of the HVO soldiers stepped up with a couple of men to negotiate. He had 25 hash marks on the butt if his AK47. One for each enemy he had killed. Major Ekberg and the interpreter Ekeheim hade stepped out of the SISU and were now negotiating with the Croatians. The situation was tense. Very tense. After some time of negotiating the tension seemed to ease a bit. We thought the danger was over - but just like a letter in the mail a mentally disturbed HVO soldier came in a white VW Golf. Something had snapped with him when his entire family was obliterated by a grenade. For some reason he now hated the UN for this.

He stepped out of his car among the negotiating Swedes and Croatians, mad as a hornet, and grabbed on the HVO soldiers' LAWs in order to fire it against the SISU behind ours. In an instant the situation escalated and I had time to think "#, this is really happening now".

This was one of those moments in your life when time stands completely still. I saw in the eyes of the Croatian soldier that was in the sights of my 12.7 millimetre machinegun that he understood what was about to happen.

I'm pulling it...

But - a fraction of a second before the first projectiles from my heavy machinegun would have struck the chest of the first of the four LAW-carrying soldiers fifty meters in front of us, one of the Croatians managed to strike the somewhat antisocial man with a straight punch and remove the LAW from him. I eased up on the trigger and felt I must have been right on the pressure point of it. So damn close. Maybe there wouldn't be any killing after all.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Had he had time to aim the LAW at the SISU, a series of events would have been started that couldn't have ended with anything but us or the Croatians being the only ones standing up. I felt my legs were shaking continuously. Partly from the psychical strain and partly from standing in the exact same strenuous position for half an hour.

The LAW soldier in my sights didn't like the fact that I was aiming at him and changed position. Not so strange after the incident with the LAW snatcher. I followed him with the barrel. He showed with unmistakable gestures that he felt provoked. I didn't care. We stared each other out, and neither wanted to be the first to back down. In the middle of our psychological duel I leaned out from behind the machinegun, winked and smiled at him. I won the battle. He became so flabbergasted he didn't really know what to do or how to behave, and started pacing like a confused chicken.

Suddenly Colonel Ulf Henricssons jeep shows up out of nowhere. The short statured - but oh so powerful - colonel steps out and starts shouting orders at both Swedes and HVO soldiers. The HVO men look almost astonished, and like magic Henricsson dominates the scene in a manner few people are capable of. He takes control of the situation and defuses it completely. We quite simply leave, leaving behind a large group of open-mouthed HVO soldiers.

We return to the camp for a debriefing of what the refugees have told us about Stupni Do. Conclusion: we ARE going into that village. Two mech inf platoons from 8th and 10th coy are selected for the task. For the first time in a very, very long time Swedish troops are ordered to get ready to take terrain. The platoons are assigned the north and south access roads to Stupni Do and set out.

At the same time we give colonel Henricsson a ride to the Bobovac Brigade headquarters in our SISU. The Croatians are given one last chance to let us in. If they don't, we will go in anyway. Exactly what the very resolute Henricsson said to the Bobovac Brigade commander I don't know - but the commander comes out personally and drives ahead of us in his personal maroon Vaz Niva to make sure we are let into the village.

Fairly undramatically we meet up with the mech inf platoon assigned to the northern approach of the village. There is also an armoured jeep there with a near suicidal television crew. Henricsson decides to take advantage of the situation and invites the crew to document what has happened. The colonel walks with the journalists ahead of our SISU as we slowly roll into Stupni Do.

Not one house in the village had been spared. Everything had been blown up, burnt down, destroyed. At first glance the village seemed devoid of people, but just after a few minutes we find the charred remains of a person. After a careful search a total of twenty corpses are found, among them a child about eight to ten years old that had been kicked to death. Three women that had tried to hide in a potato store had had their throats slit. Then they had been shot in the head. The corpses were still desperately holding hands. When a pioneer platoon later on are to carry out the bodies they find a booby trap had been set by putting an armed grenade in the armpit of one of the bodies. It falls out on the floor without detonating.

The entire village was completely eradicated. A single cow and some cat had in some strange way escaped annihilation. Smoke was smouldering from the foundations of the houses. Water was bizarrely enough running from the blown up water mains. A sole yellow child's boot was on a slope outside one of the houses. I'm still wondering what had happened to the child that just some day ago been spending its time happily playing. Maybe the child was one of the little girls that were said to have been burned alive with gasoline for the murderers' amusement.

Colonel Henricsson stepped back into the SISU. We were now going to Pominici to interview the refugees thoroughly. We were all very dogged. An HVO soldier was no longer worth anything in the eyes of Nordbat. The respect we possibly had felt before was completely gone. As we are driving through the southern approach to Stupni Do the HVO has mined the passage under the railway viaduct we have to pass. On the other side is the mech inf platoon assigned to the southern approach. Colonel Henricsson gives the nearest HVO soldier a raging excoriation. The man is horror-struck and defends himself by saying he "just a soldier!". But he refuses to remove the mines and we simply drive up the slopes and over the railway. In the middle of the rail yard we greet the mech inf platoon heading the other way.

To be continued:


[edit on 4-10-2009 by Chevalerous]

We are once again stopped at the checkpoint we forced our way through earlier that day. They don't intend to get run over again and have placed mines across the road. A furious colonel Henricsson jumps out of the SISU with his interpreter Ekenheim. Henricsson explains that the mines will be removed, or "we will blow your head off", pointing demonstratively at my heavy machinegun. The muzzle is pointed right at the HVO soldier's forehead and judging by his face it must have looked as if it was the muzzle of a howitzer. Ekenheim simultaneously translates Henricssons berating of the soldier, amusingly enough with the same lively gestures.

The entire crew of the vehicle is standing in the hatches, ready to fire. One man is even in a kneeling position on top of the vehicle. Our grim expressions and determined gazes makes the HVO soldiers realize that the discussion is over. None of them dare touch their guns. Nordbat is not negotiating anymore today.

When nothing happens colonel Henricsson picks up the first mine from the road himself and throws is carelessly at a pile of tires at a house wall. He picks up another mine and sends it in the same direction. Finally he forces the checkpoint commander as a final defeat to pick up the last mine himself. Stooped over he trots along with the mine in his hands. The road is clear and we continue.

In the same insane pace we continue our rampage in Vares for another few days. Nordbat Two is no longer negotiating about the "freedom of movement" the UN was entitled to according to an agreement with the fighting parties. Those who stand in our way we run over. As per order by colonel Henricsson we are authorized for immediate fire for effect. In his own words: "We shot the warning shot last Thursday".

In three days we sleep a total of a few hours. The little sleep we get is usually in a firing position at the camp with sleeping-bags wrapped around the body in order to not freeze to death. We eat frozen "pyttipanna” (hashed meat and potatoes) that we chisel from large tin cans. That's when someone suddenly realizes we're being benefit taxed for free food and lodging. For the same amount as if we had stayed at the Scandic Hotel eating entrecote.

The Canadian troops assigned to us as reinforcements consider us to be crazy already on the first day and leave us as they deem the situation to be too dangerous. Instead, a couple of days later we get reinforced by a company from the French foreign legion.

The non-Swedish UN-generals, who previously were sceptical towards Nordbat 2 changed their attitude in the blink of an eye after Vares. Comrades from my platoon were giving Ulf Henricsson a ride to the UN Headquarters at Kiseljak outside Sarajevo a couple of days after the climax.

In the old Olympic Games motel that housed "BH Command" there was a large canteen where all the personnel dined. When a small group of Swedish soldiers get in the food queue with colonel Henricsson up front everyone in the room stands up, from privates to generals, and applauds. Nordbat 2 had made themselves a reputation in Bosnia.

The British general and UN commander in Bosnia Sir Michael Rose, former chief of 22 SAS Regiment (and previously one of the strongest critics towards the Swedish presence) later wants the Swedish battalion to be a part of a special rapid reaction unit to be deployed in special situations anywhere in Bosnia. The Swedish government declined. Sir Michael Rose later wrote a debate article back home in the UK where the Swedish soldiers are mentioned as a shining example of how a conscript based military system also can produce soldiers of the highest international ranking.

One of the "suicidal" journalists on site in Vares was Anthony Lloyd, himself a former soldier in the British army and a Northern Ireland and Gulf War veteran. In his book "My war gone by, I miss it so" he mentions the Swedes in the following manner:

"The men inside (the APC) might have been UN but they were playing by a completely different set of rules.

They were Swedes; in terms of individual intelligence, integrity and single-mindedness I was to find them among the most impressive soldiers I had ever encountered.

www.soldf.com...

forums.filefront.com...

So your words about that all UN soldiers would be fascists from dictatorships and fascist monarchies, is an insult to all who has served as UN soldiers mates!

Bash the organisation as much as you like, but don't think that 'ALL' UN personnel and peace keeping soldiers are fascists!



[edit on 4-10-2009 by Chevalerous]

What's this world coming to.
a bunch of trigger-happy, gun totting rebels who think that they can change all the rules to suit themselves. what a joke, they are just as bad as terrorists and should be treated as such.

I don't buy it... Not unless their are trying to commit suicide by SWAT team?

If however there is the slightest hint of truth then these boys are a derision... the real action will take place elsewhere, while the feds have their attention focused on the wrong people....

Still they just don't seem that smart, more like bragging and boasting... that is until a couple of neatly dressed gentlemen step out of a plain unmarked sedan with no hubcaps and say.
"Let's go someplace to talk, shall we"?

Just to add, what did these 'soldiers' think that the army or wars would be like, a bed of roses and sunshine.
If they can't handle it why the hell did they join up for in the first place. everyone with at least half a brain knows even from by the first world war that army's are for taking orders without question from the higher ups and always has been.

I've been thinking lately, and something has occurred to me that worries me quite a bit. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that a violent revolution were to start today. It would likely start small and build over time, but think about how those first actions will be portrayed. Most people wouldn't even realize it was a revolution being started. Anything violent that happens will be portrayed as a bunch of lunatics on a murderous rampage or actions of terrorist cells. Unless someone takes over every TV station in the country "V" style and tells everyone that the revolution is starting, most of us will be none the wiser and there will be people here talking about how moronic those idiots are.

I hope it never gets to the point where violent revolution is the only way to fix the country. If it does, we're screwed because no one will know that's what's going on unless they are in a militia and even then they still might not know.

Originally posted by Chevalerous
I served 6 months as an UN soldier in Bosnia trying to help people in a war zone and your words feels insulting to all of us who were there in that hell in those woods, with genocidal massacres everywhere .

We drove into those smoking villages and we saw the remains of charred corpses of young children that "they" had poured gasoline over and then let the children & women be burnt alive to a horrible death.

Does this article sound like corrupted soldiers to you?

Does these UN soldiers look like they would be paid off to do something else then to help people in a terrible situation?

I'm sorry in light of your personal efforts. But I don't think I can withdraw the claim that the UN is terminally corrupted and it's peacekeeping efforts often ineffective and fraudulent in many places.
Many breaches of protocol have come to light and we can only guess at what has not been reported on. It has been a matter of public record for years.

www.washingtonpost.com...

U.N. Finds Fraud, Mismanagement in Peacekeeping

Task Force Says 'Multiple Instances' of Corruption Have a Cost of $610 Million

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
December 18, 2007

UNITED NATIONS -- A U.N. task force has uncovered a pervasive pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other materials and services used by U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are in the midst of their largest expansion in 15 years.

In recent weeks, 10 procurement officials have been charged with misconduct for allegedly soliciting bribes and rigging bids in Congo and Haiti. It has been the largest single crackdown on U.N. staff malfeasance in the field in more than a decade

The task force has issued a series of public and confidential reports charging that corruption has spread from U.N. headquarters -- where three officials have been convicted in bribery schemes -- to the far reaches of its growing peacekeeping efforts. The task force has also cast a spotlight on the United Nations' repeated failure to take action against officials long suspected of wrongdoing, allowing them to carry out criminal schemes in one U.N. mission after another.

"The task force identified multiple instances of fraud, corruption, waste and mismanagement at U.N. headquarters and peacekeeping missions, including ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with aggregate value in excess of $610 million," said one report by the task force, headed by a former federal prosecutor in Connecticut, Robert Appleton.

The new corruption cases highlight the limits of reforms imposed since the early 1990s, when a previous buildup of peacekeeping missions led to reports of rampant corruption in Cambodia, Somalia and the Balkans. In response, in 1994 the United Nations created the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), but it has a poor record of holding corrupt officials to account.

The recent investigation in Congo revealed "widespread and inherent corruption" throughout the mission's purchasing department. One official targeted in the probe, Abdul Karim Masri, had emerged unscathed from repeated OIOS inquiries into his activities over more than a decade.

The task force charged that Masri, 54, engaged in an "extensive pattern of bribery" during his seven years in Congo, according to a confidential account of the probe.

[…]

In Haiti, the United Nations charged five employees with misconduct after the task force established that they had steered a $10 million-a-year fuel contract to a Haitian company, Distributeurs Nationaux S.A., according to U.N. officials and confidential documents. The task force has been unable to prove that the five profited from the scheme, citing its lack of authority to subpoena bank records, but it recommended that the case be referred for criminal prosecution by authorities in Haiti or the United States.

U.N. officials privately acknowledge that some malfeasance is inevitable in an organization that processes 12,000 purchase orders in the field each year and buys enough energy to power a city larger than Washington, D.C. They also noted that some previous U.N. corruption crackdowns unraveled under closer examination.

"I don't believe there is, or that [the investigators] have found, a culture out there of fraudulent behaviors," said Philip Cooper, an Australian who administers U.N. peacekeeping missions. "We have our share of malpractice, but we do not have many cases of straight-out fraud like has been found in the Congo."

The latest investigations grew out of the probe into the U.N. Iraqi oil-for-food program by Paul A. Volcker, former Federal Reserve Board chairman. It comes as spending on peacekeeping operations is rising -- from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $7 billion -- supporting a force of more than 100,000 peacekeepers.

Volcker's team helped uncover a bribery scheme by a U.N. procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev of Russia. Yakovlev pleaded guilty in August 2005 to federal charges that he received nearly $1 million in kickbacks for steering contracts to favored companies.

In response, the United Nations placed eight other officials on administrative leave and created the procurement task force. The Internal Oversight office, meanwhile, brought in new leadership for its investigations division and doubled the number of staff members to about 60, stationing half of them in the field.

In June, the task force, which recruited many of Volcker's investigators, helped federal prosecutors convict one of the eight suspects -- Sanjaya Bahel -- for steering about $100 million in contracts to an Indian state company. Bahel had been cleared by OIOS.

[…]

Singapore has also criticized the task force for allegedly trampling the rights of one of its nationals, Andrew Toh, a senior U.N. official who said he was denied access to legal counsel.

"What bothers us is the task force itself seems to think it can be exempted from the same standard that it wants to apply to other people," said Singapore's U.N. ambassador, Vanu Gopala Menon.

Appleton maintains that there is no recognized right to counsel for internal investigations and that Toh never requested it. "There was absolutely no transgression of due process rights," he said.

Toh is the target of a lengthy investigation into whether he improperly helped two Peruvian generals and a Canadian company, Skylink Aviation, secure a multimillion-dollar contract to lease two MI-26 Peruvian government helicopters for the U.N. mission in East Timor. The task force has been unable to prove that Toh accepted bribes, but it says it cannot close the case until it gets access to Skylink's Swiss bank account used in the helicopter deal.

[…]

In Congo, the task force reached far back into U.N. archives to put together its case against Masri, who began working for the organization in the mid-1980s in Damascus, Syria. Masri's colleagues accused him at the time of falsifying receipts for several vendors, including a cement company, which allowed them to get full payment even though they delivered only a portion of contracted shipments.

A decade later, in Rwanda, investigators probed allegations that Masri steered business to a Dubai-based firm in exchange for kickbacks. Masri also came under suspicion for charging more than $10,000 for water pumps costing $300. OIOS dropped the probe a year later, citing insufficient evidence.

Mike


[edit on 4-10-2009 by mmiichael]

reply to post by mmiichael


Yes Mike I'm sadly aware of a few occasions when the corruption has showed its ugly face in the UN organisation, and I'm not defending all that happens in the UN and as a blind dork hailing them as the best thing since sliced bread but!...

Most of the intention and actions of UN soldiers and UN personnel are actions of 'Humanitarian Aid' to people in horrible war conditions.

And try to serve as a buffert zone between two fighting parties.

I'm not saying that all of these actions are fine and dandy because most of the time you want to rip your hair off in pure frustration as a soldier in this gigantic organisation.

But they also save lives of desperate people in war zones who doesn't have anywhere else to turn to.

I remember the Balkan wars as it was yesterday because it was hell on Earth - and I think this conflict was even much worse in some ways than the conflicts in the Afghanistan and Iraq. And in a different way because of all the horrible genocidal civilian massacres that occured, and which I witnessed the result of first hand - often we came to the villages just exactly after they were executed and we had to protect people coming out crying and shocked from the woods where some of them who were lucky got time to hide themselves in.

And some time UN personnel could prevent massacres in villages from happening by being there just in time to prevent it by telling the commanders; if they would go through with the genocide and burning, they would be hunted down all over the Globe by teams who'll take them to the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.

And that somtimes worked! becuse the UN often knew many of their names and recognized the faces of the commanders who realized and knew the game was up and whole brigades drove away mad as hell, while cursing at us!

But of course! sometimes everything went totally wrong and to hell - and most soldiers were heartbroken and could only watch in pure frustration as the killings occured just a Kilometer away.

But many of these people & their lives were actually also saved because UN soldiers were there.

Look at these words:

Whoever wrote the story - thanks. Thanks for not letting the Stupni Do be forgotten.

I am from Vares, the place where it all happened. And I belong to a non-muslim family but who stood up to the side of thruth - who did not think like bloody Croats and their HVO. Therefore, if it wasn't for brave Nord Bat soldiers - I would have not be writing this here and now! They would have kill my family and me, as they intended to.
Thanks... and I wish to say them more than just thanks in case that some who were in Vares at the time of masacre still do visit this page - write to me!

I can imagine what you UN guys have been through.

"Talking about the 'hunting'... not only hunting, but the questions rise in my head, it gets filled up more and more each day! It's too little to say 'hunting', this is much worse.
Time passing doesn't help here!

Big A - yes, I am very lucky to be alive!

Ba 01 - I was rescued by the Nord Bat soldiers in a special group, only few of us guarded by few very brave soldiers. There was a newspaper editor, I think someone from Zagreb (ironically) with us! If these soliders wouldn't have follow their hearts, and would have listen to their commands only I wouldn't have been alive now, for sure. My mother and brother too.
Terrible times, terrible.
Thanks, thanks Nord Bat soldiers."

--------

"I am at work now,have no time, but soon nowadays I intend to write and share my story with you completelly - at least to honor those who have saved my life. This is the least I can do to thank them.
And so - if interested 'stay tuned' to this forum... "

forums.filefront.com...

And I have read similar stories from other people who were saved in other places in the Balkan war and all of them are very thankful to the soldiers that saved them of course!

So I like to believe that even if the UN is a gigantic organisation with many wrongs & flaws, there are still many written evidences and heartbreaking stories from people who has been saved by its personnel.

Why I posted this was to show that I think the thoughts many has here on this forum about UN soldiers are completly wrong!

Who are those UN soldiers that would break into your houses and point a gun in your face?

Which UN force would do such a thing, who would this people be? and where from are they?

You know! I find these accusations against UN soldiers and UN personnel in the field very insulting and ridiculous!

But maybe I'm wrong and there is a secret UN Fascist Force of soldiers hidden somewhere?


[edit on 4-10-2009 by Chevalerous]

Originally posted by Chevalerous
I'm sadly aware of a few occasions when the corruption has showed its ugly face in the UN organisation, and I'm not defending all that happens in the UN and as a blind dork hailing them as the best thing since sliced bread but!...

Most of the intention and actions of UN sodiers and UN personnel are actions of 'Humanitarian Aid' to people in horrible war conditions.

And try to serve as a buffer zone between two fighting parties.

I'm not saying that all of these actions are fine and dandy because most of the time you want to rip your hair off in pure frustration as a soldier in this gigantic organisation.

But they also saves lives of desperate people in war zones who doesn't have anywhere else to turn to.

[...]

So I like to believe that even if the UN is a gigantic organisation with many wrongs & flaws, there are still many written evidences and heartbreaking stories from people who has been saved by its personnel.

Why I posted this was to show that I think the thoughts many has here on this forum about UN soldiers are completly wrong!

Who are those UN soldiers that would break into your houses and point a gun in your face?

Which UN force would do such a thing, who would this people be? and where from are they?

You know! I find these accusations against UN soldiers and UN personnel in the field very insulting and ridiculous!

But maybe I'm wrong and there is a secret UN Fascist Force of soldiers hidden somewhere?

----

I can only go by what I read, not knowing eveything that the UN does, or have first hand experience like yourself. It is tragically documented the willful abuse of the Oil-for-Food Program imposed on Iraq in the 90s, with corruption going right to the top, Kofi-Annan, was one of the precipitating factors in the US, Britain, and others invading Iraq a few years ago.

While a genocide raged in the Sudan for years, and hundreds of thousands were systematically murdered by the regime, the UN frittered, arguing on whether it technically qualified as genocide. The fact that there are 57 Muslim countries in the UN has consistently slanted policies that exonerate Muslim leaders.

While one can't blame the people hired to work on UN sanctioned peacekeeping efforts, there is something very unhealthy in the organization.


Mike

[edit on 4-10-2009 by mmiichael]

"They should trade one of those guns for a good sound mixer and learn how to use it. I could not hear what they were saying over the music."

In addition to the sound mixer, they should also make a deal for a good DJ - the background music was beyond horrific.

The only way Americans will start a revolution is if you confiscate their satellite equipped big screen TVs. I can think of nothing which makes mainstream America angrier than not being able to watch their favorite mindless television shows.

Originally posted by SphinxMontreal
The only way Americans will start a revolution is if you confiscate their satellite equipped big screen TVs. I can think of nothing which makes mainstream America angrier than not being able to watch their favorite mindless television shows.

Not to mention they wouldn't know how to handle themselves with all the new free time, huh?

During the first revolution, about 30% of the population was for independence, though the whole 30% didn't fight if I recall correctly. About 30% were still loyal to the British, and 30% didn't give a damn about any of it. I know that's only 90%, but I said about. The numbers are close enough.