OnePeople

War Profiteers

The Defense Department's "Most Wanted" playing cards of Iraqi war criminals was a huge public relations success. It was only a matter of time before someone (like the Ruckus Society) turned the idea into anti-establishment agitprop.

Phoenix Project

In 1965, the the Infrastructure Intelligence Coordination and Exploitation Structure (ICEX) or "Phoenix" Project was created by the CIA as an effort to disrupt the Viet Cong infrastructure through a series of civilian assassinations and systemic torture. They build torture facilities in all 44 provinces of South Vietnam, murdered disruptive citizens, and blackmailed or extorted information from South Vietnamese citizens to root out Viet Cong sympathizers. The CIA's responses to Freedom of Information Act requests suggest that they would prefer to forget the whole thing. They would prefer that everyone else forget it, as well: after Saigon fell, most of the Phoenix documents were destroyed. The only remaining documents are now safely ensconced at Langley.

Fortunately, Neil Brickham was responsible for a good part of the program, and saved all of his material. Douglas Valentine (who's writing a book on the subject, and seems dedicated to implicating the Department of Homeland Security in the matter) got his hands on Brickham's library and passed it on to the good people at the Memory Hole, who have posted the documents for all to see.

MCI Gets Iraq Contract

WorldCom was fined $500 million by the SEC for inflating its worth by about $9 billion. That might sounds like a big fine, but it's about a week's revenue. In any case, the company was doing so poorly that it went bankrupt, and left thousands of investors out to dry. They even changed their name back to MCI, since the WorldCom name was so tainted.

Strangely, someone forgot to tell the General Services Administration. The GSA continues to spend about $1 billion a year with MCI, and just days after the SEC fine, awarded MCI the Iraq telephony contract.

For those keeping score at home, MCI defrauded investors to the tune of $176 billion, resulting in $3 billion in lost pensions. The Bush Administration was so impressed that they fined MCI $500 million, and then promptly handed them a license to print Iraqi dinars. It's enough to make you want to boycott MCI. Too bad you can't boycott the GSA.

Hensons Wrest Muppets From German Felons

This is somewhat afield of the usual OnePeople fare, but we're living with a former Henson employee so we're delighted to report that the Jim Henson's family has bought Kermit back from the German licensing company / criminal organization EM.TV.

EM.TV is the film rights arm of KirchMedia, and was a star of Frankfurt's now-defunct Neuer Markt exchange when it bought the Jim Henson Company from the Henson family. After a time, the Haffa brothers who ran EM.TV were found to have decieved their investors and inflated EM.TV's stock price. There are reports that the brothers can't even walk down the streets in Germany for fear of being assaulted by investors. EM.TV tanked, and a furious bidding war began between a number of companies, including Disney and Sony, for control of the Henson properties.

In the end, the family was able to buy the company back for US$89M, a far cry from the US$690M that it sold for in February 2000. Don't think that the family suddenly made half a billion dollars, though -- much of initial deal was in EM.TV stock, which is now less than worthless.

Persian Tongue-twisters

Here are some common turns of phrases translated from Farsi.....

Man-uh chap chap negah nakon.
literally: Don't look at me left-left
means: Don't give me that look

Zameen khordam, pedaram dar omad.
literally: I ate the ground and my father came out.
means: I fell and it hurt like hell.

Eingushtam khord, sedam dar omad
literally: My finger ate, my voice came out
means: I hit my finger and I hollered.

Havod roh doram
literally: I have your weather/air
means: I'm looking out for you

Khoded roh beh koochehyeh Ali chap nazan.
literally: Don't hit yourself to Ali Left's street
means: Don't play dumb.

Yeh tockmee doreh megzoreh.
literally: He's planting an egg
means: He's up to something.

Pedar sookhteh
literally: Burnt father
means: Little rascal

Chesmam ob nemeekhoreh
literally: My eye doesn't drink water
means: I really doubt it

Cheshmam roshan
literally: My eye is bright
means: "I'm happy to see you" or "Lucky me (often used sarcastically)"

Cheshmed zadand
literally: They hit your eye
means: You got done in by the evil eye

Obeh rooham reekht
literally: The water of my face spilled
means: I got embarassed

Takhleefam rof rosham kon
literally: Light my assignment
means: Let me know what's going on.

Mooh as gardaneh moh koloftareh
literally: Hair is thicker than our necks
means: We're pretty easy going

Befamee nafamee
literally: you understand, you don't understand
means: so-so