Articles by Pratap Chatterjee
We found 63 results.
Broadspectrum ‘Violating’ Human Rights at Australian Offshore Detention Centers
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Aug 2016
New reports accuse employees of Broadspectrum Limited of providing appalling living conditions and neglecting the care of their charges. Broadspectrum was awarded a A$1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) contract by the Australian government in October 2012 to manage Australia’s detention centers on Manus and Nauru islands. At the present moment, an estimated 847 people are being held on Manus and 466 people are being held in Nauru.
→ read full articleCairn Energy Demands India Pay $5.6 Billion or Drop Back Tax Claim
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jul 2016
15 Jul 2016 – The Scottish oil exploration company has demanded compensation for losses it claims are a result of a tax assessment…. Vodafone also has another pending case on taxation of offshore transactions in India…. The Indian government lost a similar case against Shell in the Bombay High Court and chose not to appeal.
→ read full articleUruguay Defeats Philip Morris in Major Win for Anti-Smoking Advocates
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jul 2016
11 Jul 2016 – Uruguay has defeated Philip Morris, the global tobacco giant, in a major international lawsuit over the country’s tough anti-smoking regulations. On March 26, 2010, Philip Morris filed a complaint against Uruguay at the World Bank arbitration tribunal. The action was intended to escalate the fight to an international level and to take advantage of trade laws that typically favor major corporations by allowing them to claim damages from laws that deny them profits from their investments.
→ read full articleNew Violation Tracker Tool Helps Public Track U.S. Corporate Misconduct
Pratap Chatterjee | CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jul 2016
Bank of America leads with $56 billion in fines. Second on this list is JP Morgan Chase which has paid out $28 billion in fines and penalties to the U.S. government while BP comes in at third place with $25.4 billion. Conclusions from 110,000 cases and $270 billion in fines and penalties since the beginning of 2010 that have been added to Violation Tracker. Most surprising is that less than one half of one percent of the cases involve criminal charges.
→ read full articleDrone Whistleblowers Step Out of the Shadows: In Washington’s Drone Wars, Collateral Damage Comes Home
Pratap Chatterjee – TomDispatch,
25 Apr 2016
“I just want people to know that not everybody is a freaking terrorist and we need to just get out of that mindset. And we just need to see these people as people — families, communities, brothers, mothers, and sisters, because that’s who they are,” says Lisa. In addition to those they kill, Washington’s drones turn out to wound (in ways both physical and psychological) their own operators and the populations who live under their constant surveillance.
→ read full articleWorld Bank Orders Venezuela to Pay Crystallex $1.4 Billion for Imataca Forest Reserve Gold Mine
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2016
Imataca, one of four major pristine forest reserves in the country, is home to the indigenous Akawaio, Arawako, Karina, Pemon and Warao peoples. It also sits above what geologists believe to be the largest gold deposits in the continent worth some $20 billion. The court decision marks yet another milestone in corporate victories against national governments using international trade treaties.
→ read full articleOutsourcing the Kill Chain: Eleven Drone Contractors Revealed
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Aug 2015
3 Aug 2015 – Hundreds of private sector intelligence analysts are being paid to review surveillance footage from U.S. military drones in Central Asia and the Middle East, according to a new report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
→ read full articleKilling by Committee in the Global Wild West: The Perpetrators Become the Victims of Drone Warfare
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch,
13 Jul 2015
There’s nothing “lone” about drone warfare. Think of the structure for carrying out Washington’s drone killing program as a multidimensional pyramid populated with hundreds of personnel and so complex that just about no one involved really grasps the full picture.
→ read full articleDeutsche Bank Pays $2.5 Billion Fine for Interest Rate Rigging
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 May 2015
27 Apr 2015 – Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay out a record $2.5 billion fine to settle U.K. and U.S. government investigations into allegations of fixing global interest rates, just months after six other banks paid out $4.3 billion on similar charges. Activists say that the banks should have faced criminal charges.
→ read full articleAmerican Drone Operators Are Quitting in Record Numbers
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch,
9 Mar 2015
An internal Air Force memo reveals that the US military’s drone wars are in major trouble. The pilots themselves say that it’s humiliating to be scorned by their Air Force colleagues as second-class citizens. Some have called drone war a “coward’s war.” Perhaps a sense of dishonor in fighting from behind a screen is having an impact that psychologists never before witnessed.
→ read full articleNew European Commission Marred by Corporate Conflicts of Interest
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as European Commission president after eight years as prime minister of Luxembourg, where he helped transform the country into the largest tax haven on the continent. “He has dedicated his career to ensuring that society becomes less fair; that wealthy institutions and individuals can avoid the taxes little people and small businesses must pay,”
→ read full articleData Secrecy Company [Whisper] Accused of Sharing Information with Media and Military
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Oct 2014
Whisper – a new social network that claims to provide anonymity – has been accused of secretly tracking users. The allegations were made by the Guardian newspaper, provoking renewed scrutiny of a multitude of data privacy claims made by software companies.
→ read full articleBank of America to Pay $16.65 Billion to Settle Mortgage Fraud Charges
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Aug 2014
Bank of America has agreed to pay the government $9.65 billion to settle charges of misleading investors over mortgage lending in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis. The bank will also pay out an additional $7 billion to help borrowers and communities affected by the loans.
→ read full article[More pornography] Hedge Fund Managers Still Making Billions
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jun 2014
David Tepper was the world’s highest earning hedge fund manager for the second year in a row, according to the Rich List. Tepper earned $3.5 billion in 2013, a major increase on his $2.2 billion take home income in 2012. Critics say that these sky-high salaries are a major cause of increasing poverty.
→ read full articleThe Three Faces of Drone War – Speaking Truth From the Robotic Heavens
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch,
12 May 2014
Obama’s remote control campaign, is a failure; that it is not clinical but bloody and riddled with error; that it creates enemies even as it kills others; that it is, above all, no more a video game for those who fly the planes and loose the missiles than it is for those who die in distant lands.
→ read full articleHacking Team Spy Software Identified on U.S. Servers
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Mar 2014
Two U.S. companies – Linode of New Jersey and Rackspace of Texas – have been hosting surveillance software designed by Hacking Team of Italy, according to a new report. The software was allegedly been used by governments in Ethiopia, Morocco, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to track dissidents.
→ read full articleAnglo Irish Bankers on Trial for Scheme That Led to National Collapse
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Feb 2014
Three top executives at Anglo Irish bank are on trial for a secret scheme to buy their own bank’s shares that eventually triggered the 2008 collapse of the Irish economy. The bankers allegedly hatched the plan to cover up bets made by Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man.
→ read full articleSelling Your Secrets: The Invisible World of Software Backdoors and Bounty Hunters
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch,
10 Feb 2014
Imagine that you could wander unseen through a city, sneaking into houses and offices of your choosing at any time, day or night. Imagine that, once inside, you could observe everything happening, unnoticed by others — from the combinations used to secure bank safes to the clandestine rendezvous of lovers. Imagine also…
→ read full articleBayer CEO Says Drugs Developed for “Western Patients Who Can Afford It”
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2014
Bayer, the German pharmaceutical giant, is in hot water after CEO Marijn Dekkers told a Financial Times conference that the company designed medicines “for western patients who can afford it” not for the “Indian market.”
→ read full articleChocolate Slavery Case against Nestlé Allowed to Proceed
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
20 Jan 2014
Eight years after they sued Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and Nestlé for allegedly forcing them to work as child labor on a Côte d’Ivoire cocoa plantation, three young men from Mali have won a small victory – the ability to be heard in a California court.
→ read full articleThe Jason Bourne Strategy: CIA Contractors Do Hollywood
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2013
Global Response Staff is a new unit set up by the CIA to hire private security contractors to accompany dangerous spying missions. Unlike Jason Bourne – the fictional character on which they appear to be modeled on – this gang cannot shoot straight.
→ read full articleCanada Approves Genetically Modified Salmon Exports to Panama
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
2 Dec 2013
AquAdvantage salmon was created by taking genetic material from Chinook salmon and a seal eel to modify an Atlantic salmon to enable it to grow twice as fast as conventional fish. Canadian activists say, “It’s very experimental and the risks of anything going wrong are disastrous. They can wipe out the wild salmon population if these fish ever escape and their eggs end up in the wild rivers.”
→ read full articleSix Telecom Companies Face Formal Complaint for Collusion with UK Spy Agency
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
11 Nov 2013
Six global telecommunications companies – British Telecom, Interoute, Level Three, Verizon Enterprise, Viatel and Vodafone Cable – are the subject of a formal complaint by Privacy International for potential violation of human rights such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression.
→ read full articleThe Data Hackers: Mining Your Information for Big Brother
Pratap Chatterjee - TomDispatch,
14 Oct 2013
Big Bro is watching you. In your mobile phone and behind your web browser are little known software that can follow you around. No longer the wide-eyed fantasies of conspiracy theorists, these technologies are routinely installed in all of our data devices by companies that sell them to Washington for a profit.
→ read full articleTurning the Table on the Trackers: WikiLeaks Sniffs out Spy Salesmen
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Sep 2013
What was Mostapha Maanna of Hacking Team, an Italian surveillance company, doing on his three trips to Saudi Arabia in the last year? A new data trove from WikiLeaks reveals travel details for salesmen like Maanna who hawk electronic technology to track communications by individuals without their knowledge.
→ read full articleCommodity Scams: Barclays, Goldman & JP Morgan under Fire
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
29 Jul 2013
JP Morgan Chase is expected to announce over $600 million in penalties and repayments for allegedly cheating customers in energy markets in California and Michigan. This just after Barclays bank paid out $470 million for manipulating electricity rates. Now Goldman Sachs is under scrutiny for possibly manipulating aluminum prices.
→ read full articleGlaxoSmithKline Alleged to Pay Bribes in China
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
22 Jul 2013
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been accused of bribing doctors in China in order to boost sales. Chinese government officials say they have uncovered evidence of a bribery scheme involving 700 travel agencies who were used to funnel as much as three billion yuan ($480 million) in payments.
→ read full articleSurveillance Contractor Bug in Ecuador Embassy Fails to Stop WikiLeaks
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
8 Jul 2013
3 Jul 2013 – Spy equipment from the Surveillance Group Limited, a British private detective agency based in Worcester, England, has been found in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where Julian Assange, editor of WikiLeaks, has taken refuge.
→ read full articleGoogle & Facebook Discussed Secret Systems for U.S. to Spy on Users
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
17 Jun 2013
Google and Facebook have discussed – and possibly built – special portals for the U.S. government to snoop on user data, according to revelations sparked by an investigative series of articles by Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian.
→ read full articleVerizon (and Google) Helped U.S. Government to Spy on Reporters
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 May 2013
Technology companies willingly provided information to U.S. government agencies to help the Obama administration snoop on reporters from the Associated Press (AP) and Fox news in order to ostensibly crack down on leaks that pose a “threat” to national security. This is not the first time that the Obama administration has asked telecommunication companies to turn over records on journalists.
→ read full articleU.S. Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit against Shell in Nigeria
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
22 Apr 2013
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Shell in Nigeria for human rights abuses in the Ogoni region. The ruling effectively blocks other lawsuits against foreign multinationals for human rights abuse that have occurred overseas from being brought in U.S. courts.
→ read full articleWall Street Giants – JP Morgan and SAC – Hauled Up On Fraud Allegations
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
25 Mar 2013
JP Morgan – the Wall Street investment bank – and SAC – a major hedge fund – were hauled up Friday [15 Mar 2013] for alleged fraud. JP Morgan was questioned at a U.S. Senate hearing about hiding trading losses while SAC agreed to pay $614 million to settle insider trading charges.
→ read full articleRaytheon Video Claims Riot Software Can Track Users Via Social Networks
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
18 Feb 2013
Raytheon, a U.S. military manufacturer, is selling a new software surveillance package named “Riot” that claims to predict where individuals are expected to go next using technology that mines data from social networks like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter. Based just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, Raytheon sells $25 billion worth of equipment a year to military clients like the Pentagon.
→ read full articleMedical Trial Data Activists Score Win Over Glaxo
Pratap Chatterjee - Corpwatch,
11 Feb 2013
7 Feb 2013 – All data on completed medical experiments are to be made available to the general public by GlaxoSmithKline, the biggest UK pharmaceutical company. The announcement is a major win for the AllTrials campaign mounted by healthcare activists as well as researchers that has gathered widespread support. “There is a fundamental lack of scientific progress because clinical trial evidence is being withheld.”
→ read full article“Cyberazzi” – Data Mining Companies Investigated for Invasion of Privacy
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jan 2013
The paparazzi hide in bushes and use telephoto lenses to snap pictures of celebrities. The “cyberazzi” parachute into web browsers and sneak up behind mobile phones to spy on ordinary people. Nine such data mining companies must report to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by Feb 1, 2013 what personal information they gather for sale.
→ read full articleGlobal Ambulance Chasers: Lawyers Profit from Suing States for Multinationals
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
24 Dec 2012
Dozens of highly paid international lawyers are pocketing millions of dollars in fees from multinational corporations to sue governments in secretive “arbitration tribunals” for profits they claim to be owed under international investment treaties, according to “Profiting from Injustice” – a new report from Corporate Europe Observatory & Transnational Institute.
→ read full articleSmokeless Tobacco Lobbyists Set Off European Alarms
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
26 Nov 2012
A clandestine lobbying effort at the European Union (EU) by Swedish Match company to get legislators to lift a ban on a special kind of smokeless tobacco has forced the resignation of a top European bureaucrat and prompted renewed calls to strengthen rules on undue business influence in Brussels.
→ read full articleArgentine Judge Freezes Chevron Assets to Pay $19 Billion Ecuador Fine
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
19 Nov 2012
Adrian Elcuj Miranda, a judge in Buenos Aires, has ordered the seizure of Chevron’s assets in Argentina, to force the company to pay a $19 billion penalty for polluting the Amazon in Ecuador. The plaintiffs are seeking similar legal action in Brazil, Canada, Colombia and other countries.
→ read full articlePrivate Prison for Asylum Seekers on Pacific Island
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
17 Sep 2012
Transfield Services, an Australian logistics company that provides services to the mining and oil industry among others, has won a A$24.5 million (US$25.9 million) contract from the government of Australia to run a detention center for asylum seekers in the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
→ read full articleStanford Organics Study “A Fraud” – Linked to Cargill & Tobacco Money
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
17 Sep 2012
A new study by Stanford University that suggests that organic food has no medical or health values is deeply flawed, say outraged activists. “Make no mistake, the Stanford organics study is a fraud,” says Mike Adams of Naturalnews.com and Anthony Gucciardi of Naturalsociety.org. “The mainstream media has fallen for an elaborate scientific hoax that sought to destroy the credibility of organic foods by claiming they are “no healthier” than conventional foods (grown with pesticides and genetically modified organisms).”
→ read full articleGazprom Arctic Oil Rig Blockaded By Greenpeace
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
3 Sep 2012
Last Friday [24 Aug 2012] climbers from the environmental group scaled the Prirazlomnaya rig and spent 15 hours holding up a banner that read “Save the Arctic.” On Monday [27 Aug 2012] the Greenpeace activists used four speed boats to block the Anna Akhmatova ship from bringing workers to the rig. Sailors turned water cannons on the boats to force them out of the way.
→ read full articleIndian Supreme Court to Hear Novartis “Patents versus Patients” Case
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
27 Aug 2012
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, will appear before the Indian Supreme Court Wednesday [22 Aug 2012] to appeal against a patent rejection for a popular cancer drug. A decision in favor of the company could have a devastating impact on cheap supplies of many kinds of generic drugs for poor patients.
→ read full articleTrapWire Leaks Shine Light on New Video Tracking Technologies
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
20 Aug 2012
TrapWire, a company founded and run by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers, that offers to track “suspicious” activities from surveillance video, has been spotlighted in a new Wikileaks release.
→ read full articleChevron Face Opposition over Eastern Europe Fracking Plans
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
13 Aug 2012
Chevron – the Northern California-based oil and gas company – has been quietly acquiring rights to drill for natural gas in Eastern Europe using “fracking” technology – a controversial technique. However, grassroots opposition in Bulgaria and Romania has thwarted the company’s plans so far. Fracking can dramatically increase the likelihood of earthquakes, according to recent research in Youngstown, Ohio, where residents were hit last Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s Eve.
→ read full articlePfizer Admits Bribery in Eight Countries
Pratap Chatterjee - CorpWatch,
13 Aug 2012
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has agreed to pay a total of $60.2 million in penalties to U.S. government regulators to settle documented charges of bribery in eight countries: Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Serbia.
→ read full articleMalaysian Water Company Claims To Have Run Dry
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
6 Aug 2012
Syabas, a private water company in Malaysia, has threatened to start water rationing in the state of Selangor after claiming that it had almost no water reserves left. “Here, we have a corporation holding a state government and public to ransom,” Charles Santiago, the coordinator of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation who is also a local member of parliament, told Free Malaysia Today.
→ read full articleCourt to Hear Challenge to Myriad’s Human Gene Patent
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
23 Jul 2012
Should a private company be allowed to patent isolated human genes? A lawsuit to be heard Friday [20 Jul 2012] pits Myriad Genetics of Utah against the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Myriad wants to be the exclusive U.S. commercial provider of genetic screening tests for breast cancer or ovarian cancer but the non-profit says the patent limits scientific research as well as health care options for women.
→ read full articleRio+20 Ends in Failure, Corporate Capture
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
2 Jul 2012
The United Nations Rio+20 Conference in Brazil concluded this past weekend [24 Jun 2012] with no new government pledges. On the other hand, multinationals scored a public relations victory. Some activists say that the initiative is just “greenwash” and that the Sustainable Energy For All initiative proves that the UN has sold out to corporate interests.
→ read full articleSpies in Africa’s Skies: New Contractors for the Pentagon
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
19 Jun 2012
The Pentagon and the CIA have long used private contractors for covert wars. Air America and Air Asia were the front companies used to bomb Cambodia and Laos for president Lyndon Johnson. Bigger, more established companies, like Northrop Grumman were used to spy in Colombia under president Bill Clinton.
→ read full articleFake Drug Plague or Pharmaceutical Industry Attack on Generics?
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
19 Jun 2012
Are Africa and South East Asia just suffering from a deluge of fake medicines that is causing disease resistance to rise? Or are they also suffering from a deluge of poorly informed media articles, encouraged by the pharmaceutical industry that wants to make war on generic drugs?
→ read full articleBailing out Germany: The Story behind the European Financial Crisis
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
4 Jun 2012
A large chunk of the Eurozone bailouts are for speculative schemes that were handed out by banks in just four countries Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. So why are Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain being blamed? And who is really getting bailed out? The Indignados in Madrid, Blockupy in Frankfurt and Occupy Wall Street have it right.
→ read full articleFacebook Lobbies Washington to “Like” Spying on Users
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
30 Apr 2012
Facebook, the social network behemoth that is about to become a multi-billion dollar company, has been lobbying for a proposed new U.S. law called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that would allow companies to share information with government agencies. On Friday [27 Apr 2012], when Congress gets to vote, we will find out which members “like” Facebooks plans.
→ read full articleJohnson & Johnson Fined $1.2 billion for Drug Labeling Failure
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2012
Johnson & Johnson has been fined $1.2 billion in Arkansas over the sales of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug. A circuit judge ruled that the company did not warn patients that the drug places elderly patients with dementia at an increased risk of major weight gain, possible diabetes and potential death.
→ read full articleChiquita Banana to Face Colombia Torture Claim
Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2012
Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered this week to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia. Villagers allege that the death squads used “random and targeted violence in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita’s private port for arms and drug smuggling,” according to a lawsuit filed on their behalf by EarthRights International and Cohen Milstein.
→ read full articleChevron & Transocean Back in the Dock over Oil Spills
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
26 Mar 2012
Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports while they await the outcome of criminal charges brought against them for a spill that took place off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last November [2011]. The company has also been sued for $11 billion in damages by a Brazilian federal prosecutor. Both companies have been in trouble for similar problems in the past.
→ read full articleIndia Ends Bayer Monopoly, Helps Slash Prices for Life-Saving Drugs
Pratap Chatterjee – CorpWatch,
19 Mar 2012
Bayer, a German multinational, has been selling Sorafenib, under the brand name of Nexavar, for $5,600 a month. (The average per capita income in India is a little under $100 ie two percent of the price of the drug) Natco Pharma, an Indian company which applied for permission to manufacture and sell the drug, will now be able to sell the drug for $176 a month.
→ read full articleThe New Cyber-Industrial Complex Spying On Us
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
12 Dec 2011
WikiLeaks has just released the Spy Files – a trove of almost 300 documents from the companies that shine a light into this industry. At the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, where I work, we trawled through these documents, and tracked down yet more material, which our research team – Matthew Wrigley, David Pegg, Christian Jensen and Jamie Thunder – used to create an online database that will soon cover over 160 companies in some 25 countries.
→ read full articleThe CIA’s Unaccountable Drone War Claims another Casualty
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
14 Nov 2011
Last Friday [4 Nov 2011], I met a boy, just before he was assassinated by the CIA. Tariq Aziz was 16, a quiet young man from North Waziristan, who, like most teenagers, enjoyed soccer. Seventy-two hours later, a Hellfire missile is believed to have killed him as he was travelling in a car to meet his aunt in Miran Shah, to take her home after her wedding. Killed with him was his 12-year-old cousin, Waheed Khan.
→ read full articleThe Ransoming of Raymond Davis
Pratap Chatterjee – The Guardian,
21 Mar 2011
What does the United States’ record on justice and human rights look like after it has paid to get its alleged CIA killer out of jail?
→ read full articleThe Secret Killers: Assassination in Afghanistan and Task Force 373
Pratap Chatterjee – TomDispatch,
23 Aug 2010
“Find, fix, finish, and follow-up” is the way the Pentagon describes the mission of secret military teams in Afghanistan which have been given a mandate to pursue alleged members of the Taliban or al-Qaeda wherever they may be found. Some call these “manhunting” operations and the units assigned to them “capture/kill” teams. Whatever terminology you choose, the details of dozens of their specific operations — and how they regularly went badly wrong — have been revealed for the first time in the mass of secret U.S. military and intelligence documents published by the website Wikileaks in July to a storm of news coverage and official protest.
→ read full articleCOULD U.S. AIR STRIKES PUSH PAKISTAN INTO KHMER ROUGE TYPE GENOCIDE?
Pratap Chatterjee and Tom Engelhardt - Tomdispatch.com,
9 Feb 2010
Almost every day, reports come back from the CIA’s “secret” battlefield in the Pakistani tribal borderlands. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles — that is, pilot-less drones — shoot missiles (18 of them in a single attack on a tiny village last week) or drop bombs and then the news comes in: a certain number of al-Qaeda or […]
→ read full articlePAYING OFF THE WARLORDS
Pratap Chatterjee – Tomdispach,
21 Nov 2009
Every morning, dozens of trucks laden with diesel from Turkmenistan lumber out of the northern Afghan border town of Hairaton on a two-day trek across the Hindu Kush down to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Among the dozens of businesses dispatching these trucks are two extremely well connected companies — Ghazanfar and Zahid Walid — that helped […]
→ read full articleONE COUNTRY, THREE FUTURES
Pratap Chatterjee,
18 Mar 2009
The Afghanistan Americans Seldom Notice Want a billion dollars in development aid? If you happen to live in Afghanistan, the two quickest ways to attract attention and so aid from the U.S. authorities are: Taliban attacks or a flourishing opium trade. For those with neither, the future could be bleak. In November 2008, during […]
→ read full article