Day: September 22, 2010

Strolling For Dollars

It began a little over a year ago….three friends working in Iraq in or near the Kurdish area that borders on Iran…decide to go for a stroll in the mountains and valleys for a little R & R……then while marveling at the beauty of the area they were arrested by the Iranians for they had strayed into a no-no zone….into Iran…and accused of spying…..

After much international exposure and the promise that one of the crew was ill and needed medical attention…..one of the wayward hikers was released and returned home to their loved ones and a country that was so concerned about their welfare….it seems that some Omani potentate was the go between that got the person released after someone (no one knows who) posted the $500,000 dollar bail…..and the person left Iran for the West and freedom…..and after a clean bill of health and a massive debriefing the person is now on just about every network telling the world what was what…..

And now the world can worry and fret over the fate of the two remaining prisoners in Iran……

Now that I have covered most of the events of this saga, even though it is a bit simplistic, I would like to comment on what started this whole magilla……the promise of a stroll in the country………

Okay….for one, the border between Iran and Iraq is NOT clearly marked, especially in the area that these people wanted to take their stroll…..actually, it is pretty much a no-man’s land since the days of the war between the two countries……with this known and almost everybody who is in the area knows this, why would someone want to tempt fate and hike along this area?

There are two possible answers to this quandary….one…these people were just plain STUPID, if this is the case then maybe whoever they worked for should be a little more selective in their employees and the mental capacities….. and two…..they were actually spying or at least on some sort of probing action…..

There you go…..you choose which…..BTW, the sound you here is the cashing in on the experience…..

Vatican’s Banking Problem

It seems that the Vatican just cannot keep its nose clean from one year to the next…..it was part of the Nazi conspiracy in the 40’s and then came the sexual abuses of the last several decades and then there was the gay porn thing from last year….where several of the Pope’s personal choir was engaging in a gay escort business…..and just when you thought you had heard it all about the Vatican…there comes a story like this….

Italian authorities seized euro23 million ($30.18 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money laundering probe.

In Tuesday’s case, police seized the money from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, according to news agencies ANSA and Apcom. The bulk of the money, euro20 million ($26.2 million), was destined for JP Morgan in Frankfurt, with the remainder going to Banca del Fucino.

According to the reports, the Vatican bank had neglected to communicate to financial authorities where the money had come from. The reports stressed that Gotti Tedeschi wasn’t being investigated for laundering money himself but for a series of alleged omissions in financial transactions.

The Vatican bank, located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, isn’t a typical bank. Its stated mission is to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for religious works or works of charity. But it also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican’s thousands of employees.

The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and people who transfer money for the pope’s charities.

The Pope wears Prada and blesses new Ferraris….seems it is just an extension of the greed and avarice that is consuming the rest of the financial world….go figure…

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.”
Robert A. Heinlein