UPDATED: Stanford Trying To Flee USA! US Federal Authorities: Allen Stanford Money-Laundering For Drug Cartels

Sticky Wicket! Allen Stanford - US Federal Drug Investigation

UPDATE – February 19, 2009

Various sources are reporting that as late as last night, Stanford was seen trying to flee the USA in a chartered jet bound for Antigua but was refused because the charter company wouldn’t take his credit card. (TelegraphUK: Sir Allen Stanford’s ‘attempted flight’ thwarted as credit card refused)

Original Article…

Allen Stanford’s office and banking buildings on Antigua were constructed conveniently close to the airport. According to the local rumour, certain aircraft didn’t have to clear customs in exactly the same manner as most others. It looks like there might be something to the rum-shop stories…

United States federal authorities are putting out the word that as well as the Ponzi-scheme fraud charges, Sir Allen might be facing the music for money-laundering for a Mexican drug cartel and bribing public officials. Apparently the investigation has been going on “for some time” and one of Stanford’s aircraft was seized while transporting drug money.

Meanwhile, American politicians all the way up to the very top are quickly saying “We had no idea!” No less personages than former President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator John McCain are on video gushing wonderful things about Allen Stanford. Well, they said nice things up until the past week or so anyway!

At the time of this writing, Stanford is on the run. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t want to put my money on Stanford’s chances if he doesn’t surrender soon.

The U.S. Marshalls are not the only organisation that is hunting Sir Allen.

Further Reading

ABC News: Accused Financier Under Federal Drug Investigation

President Barack Obama – Not A Bloodless Revolution

 

The Long Walk Of Dorothy Counts Comes To The White House

A black man named Barack Hussein Obama is now the President Elect of the United States of America and, unlike some previous elections, there is no doubt that he was truly elected by the majority of the people. At the time of this writing there is a six million vote spread between Obama and McCain. Yes, the numbers during the campaign were close, and the people of the United States were poorly served by a disgusting news establishment that has for the foreseeable future lost all credibility (more on that in a few days) – but the end result is no squeeker.

Barack Hussein Obama is truly the choice of the majority of citizens.

In all of our celebrations that a black man will be President, we should not forget that this historic moment did not start with Barack Obama. Neither did it start with Martin Luther King’s assassination nor even with the emancipations of the 19th and 20th centuries in various countries.

But there are road markers along this journey towards freedom and equality for all – and Dorothy Counts is as good a place as any in history to make a comparison with a black President Obama.

In September of 1957, a 15-year-old Dorothy Counts became one of four black students to be accepted at Henry Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. She lasted only four days in that hell before her parents pulled her out.

As she walked into school on the first day, her back was soaked with spit and her legs were bruised from rocks thrown by white students. The “good ‘ol boys” also took care of any white students who dared to support and befriend Counts.

That was North Carolina in 1957. A short fifty-one years later in 2008, Barack Obama stood before the world to make his acceptance speech. Things change. Barack Obama is the evidence of that ongoing change- not the reason it happened.

Blacks Did Not Elect Barack Obama As President – The Citizens Of The United States Did

Barbados Free Press declared our support for Obama almost from the start, and in the middle of the Obama – Hillary! runoff for the Democratic nomination, we declared that Obama would be the next President of the United States. We’re hardly magical with our predictions because with Barack Obama a blind man on a fast horse couldn’t have failed to see the victory that was coming.

We felt that victory months ago, but we also said that all this excitment over a black President would soon give way to the fact that Barack Obama’s policies with offshore banking and taxation are distinctly hostile to the interests of Barbados. Black majority nations are going to be very surprised if they think that President Obama will place their interests over the interests of his country.

Still, the image of the United States has been changed overnight and that change may help on many worldwide fronts where the USA has assumed responsibilities or powers in situations it has no right sticking its nose into.

Reports of Election Troubles

For a moment today I thought they were going to steal the election from the people. Who are “They” ? I’m not sure who “they” are. I’m not even sure that they are republicans, but when the reports started coming in of voting machines “forgetting” the presidential candidates’ names, and riot police suiting up in anticipation of a McCain victory, I wondered how this day would end.

In the end, “they” were not able to sabotage or steal election. They will now turn their efforts into discrediting and disrupting the Obama Presidency, but that doesn’t matter now. The event has happened and cannot be put back into the bottle.

 Whether Obama will be a good President or the worst the world and America has ever seen is unknown. In the context of the change that has happened, Obama’s performance almost doesn’t matter. The next President may be white, SHE may even be of Mexican hertiage. There will be other black Presidents after Obama.

The important thing to understand is that a black President of the United States is just one more sign post of hope along the journey. Relations between the races are getting better every day. Obama is evidence of that.

Now, if we can just bring some of that progress to Barbados…

Zogby Poll: McCain Moves Into Lead Over Obama (Republicans Ramp Up Disgusting Attacks On Obama’s Family)

The Last Few Days Of This Election Will Be The Dirtiest, Hardest-Fought In U.S. Campaign History

There is a lot at stake in the US Presidential election that goes far beyond who will be the leader of that country for the next four years. It wasn’t for nothing that retiring President Dwight Eisenhower cautioned the people America and of the world…

“…we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” (Wikipedia link here including a recording)

John McCain is the first choice candidate of the American military-industrial complex. Barack Obama is not. In my mind, that settles it.

Whether Obama is white, black, coffee or purple doesn’t count anything beside the specter of the United States continuing along it’s current path.

That military-industrial complex has run free since 9/11 and continues to do so. Under the guise of protecting people from Muslim terrorists, the United States government and other world governments have convinced their populations to surrender hard-won freedoms and individual rights. Law enforcement and military monitor all private communications with little oversight or constraint. Breaches of the existing human rights and personal freedoms laws by authorities are treated with indifference by all sectors of Western governments – and that includes the Barbados government.

I’m not even talking about the war in Iraq or happenings in the Middle East. I’m talking about what is happening to freedoms and rights in the United States and the United Kingdom.

There is much at stake in the US election for Barbados and the rest of the world.

Now, a few days before the election, we are told that McCain is coming on strong: that he has overtaken Obama in a key poll by Zogby (link here).

As our friends at Barbados Underground point out, it isn’t over until its over – so if you are an American reading my words and you support Barack Obama for President, you’d better make doubly sure you get to the voting place early.

Take the day off work. Your single vote is that important.

Obama’s Aunt Zeituni Faces Deportation From United States As US Government Digs Out All The Dirt

We see a big splash in the news today that the press has discovered an Obama relative living illegally in the USA (along with an estimated 10 million other folks). There is another series of articles posting a school entry certificate into a Catholic school where his Muslim father describes 5 year old Obama’s religion as “Islam” – which is what one would expect a Muslm father to write of his son. (I don’t believe that Obama is a Muslim as he has been going to a Christian church for two decades and further, Obama says he is Christian.)

Frankly, these two “major revelations” of desperate McCain supporters are positives for Obama. Barack Obama’s father was Muslim and as a child Obama was exposed to many ideas and perspectives. The fact that his relatives on one side of the family hail from Kenya and that his Aunt illegally lives in the USA means that President Obama will have a view of the world where American bullyism is less likely to be a factor.

Under President Obama, the United States will have a chance to regain the respect of the world – not that it will, but at least there will be a chance.

If you can, Get out and Vote!

Background Of Military-Industrial Complex Term

Here is an excerpt from the January 17, 1961 farewell speech of President Eisenhower who coined the term “military industrial complex.” Some thinkers believe that the correct term should be “military industrial political complex”. (I agree)

You owe it to yourself to visit Wikipedia and to listen to the whole recording. As you consider Eisenhower’s words, your perspective on current events both in and out of Barbados will change…

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

This article written mostly by Robert, with Marcus.

How About President Obama and Vice-President Palin?

We all laughed pretty hard when we saw the above photoshop of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin on Dancing With The Stars – but then I thought “An Obama/Palin ticket would have been pretty good!”

Barbados Free Press came out early for Obama and on February 26, 2008, we predicted he’d be the next President of the United States. (See Hillary Clinton Fading Away – Get Ready For President Obama)

Sarah Palin revived a dead campaign for McCain, who is probably not a bad fellow himself but with Obama running there is no way we could support McCain. (Note: We can’t vote in the US, but we hope for Obama even though he has two great flaws in policy that we can’t stand. More on that towards the end of this article.)

Palin is nothing if not feisty. She went from leading the Parent-Teacher association to mayor to Governor of Alaska in a fairly short time and she didn’t flinch when she kicked VECO’s rear end all the way to jail. She would make a fine Vice-President to provide some balance to Obama’s left wing leanings and it would have been fun to see a black AND a woman sitting in the White House.

Whew… Obama and Palin. That would make those good ‘ol boys from Georgia and Tennessee cringe! Mark my words children… even when Obama alone hits the White House, sales of Jim Beam and Jack Daniels Whiskey gonna peak for a month as the good ‘ol boys try to figure out what the hell happened.

President Obama Will Be No Friend To Barbados

But Obama is not without his flaws, and it is only by holding our noses that we can support him.

First, he has long ago shown that he does not intend to be a friend to Barbados and our offshore banking and corporations industry. (See BFP’s President Barack Obama Would Destroy Barbados Offshore Banking Industry – He Said So!)

Dame Billie can say all she wants that our offshore sector is going to overtake tourism, but an Obama US government will be targetting Barbados and that is not good. If the naive want to believe that Obama will favour the black nations of the world over the interests of the USA because he shares a skin colour, people are in for a rude surprise.

President Obama Will Be No Friend To Black Babies

The second issue for me is Obama’s support of partial-birth abortion. Otherwise known as plunging a knife into the baby’s skull as the little one is being born almost full term. You may not like that told so directly. If you find it upsetting, then you better think about why it upsets you and also consider that Barack Obama supports partial birth abortion.

I wasn’t aware of that until one of our readers sent me over to Weighed In The Balance blog to look at the article Obama-mania In Barbados.

As for me, if I could vote, I would still reluctantly support Obama for President because I like most of his policies and to be honest, I believe that a black man in the White House will change American society for the good and forever even if he turned out to be the worst president the USA has ever had. (Obama would have to work hard to earn that title!)

The sad truth is that these two policies of an Obama Presidency would harm Barbados and harm blacks – who continue to be aborted at something like three times the national average.

I’ll still support Obama, but after reading Weighed in the Balance blog, the joy is gone.

Written mostly by Robert with a bit by Marcus

—– and Clive adds his little bit…

Palin? I would! 😉

New York Times Censors John McCain’s Editorial… So Barbados Free Press Prints It

Barbados Free Press Supports Barack Obama… However…

Long ago, Barbados Free Press announced our support for Barack Obama as the next President of the United States of America.

Not that any of us can vote for Mr. Obama, but if we could, we would. Nobody is perfect, and we disagree with Barack Obama on several key issues, but in the end between HILLARY! and Republican candidate John McCain, we would vote for Obama.

Yes, the racial component is part of Obama’s allure. We would like to see a person with darker skin sitting in the White House. There. We said it… but at least we are honest about it.

Enter the New York Times

Last week the New York Times published an editorial by Barack Obama. We didn’t read it, but that’s life.

This week, John McCain submitted an editorial to the New York Times and they rejected it!

The editor at the NYT who rejected it was David Shipley… a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton.

Hey… the New York Times is sounding more and more like that lapdog of a newspaper, the Barbados Nation News.

So… as much as we support Obama, we support free speech and the democratic process even more. Shame on the New York Times.

Blogger Matt Drudge broke this story, which you can read here.

Here is the editorial by US Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain…

Editorial By John McCain – Rejected by the New York Times

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there,” he said on January 10, 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that “our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence.” But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.