Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Haiti: Former Haitian telecom official gets 9 years in prison for bribery
MIAMI — A federal judge Monday sentenced a former top official of Haiti's state-owned telephone company to nine years in prison, after describing as "ludicrous" his testimony that the bribes he took from two Miami businesses were gifts for doing such a good job for them.
"It's perjurious," U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said of Jean Rene Duperval's trial testimony in March. Duperval testified that the nearly $500,000 in bribes he received from two local telecom contractors were "tokens of appreciation."
The judge's finding of obstruction of justice, with other factors such as the amount of the kickbacks, doubled Duperval's sentencing under federal guidelines. Martinez ordered Duperval, 45, to pay the kickback amount to the U.S. government. The defendant used some of the money to buy his Miramar home and finance his three children's Florida Prepaid College Plans, prosecutors said.
Duperval's wife, Ingrid, tried to impress upon the judge that her husband was a U.S.-educated engineer from a prominent Haitian family headed by two doctors, and she wished Martinez had met him "under better circumstances."
Justice Department prosecutor James Koukios offered a different portrayal, saying Duperval "was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."
"And what did he do? He exploited that benefit" to obtain a high-ranking management job with Haiti Teleco and loot the country and line his pockets, Koukios said.
In March, a Miami federal jury found that the two telecommunications companies, Cinergy and Terra, secured discounted long-distance phone rates with Haiti Teleco due to the payoffs to Duperval. He was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy related to accepting the bribes.
Duperval, who was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.
Duperval's former boss at Haiti Teleco, Patrick Joseph, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year. Joseph, 50, is the Justice Department's main witness in a long-running investigation into Aristide's alleged role in the Haiti Teleco bribery case.
In March, Joseph's father was shot to death in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Venel Joseph, 80, the former governor of Haiti's Central Bank during the Aristide administration from 2001-04, was killed outside his home by gunmen on motorcycles in a residential area. Joseph's driver survived the ambush.
Because of security concerns, Venel Joseph's body was brought to South Florida for burial.
The shooting occurred two days after The Miami Herald reported that the son, Patrick Joseph, had cut a cooperation deal with the Justice Department.
Patrick Joseph pleaded guilty in February to a money-laundering conspiracy charge, and agreed to testify about millions of dollars in bribes he claims to have shared with Aristide and other senior officials, according to legal sources familiar with the probe.
Aristide's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, has denied the allegation.
The country's central bank owned Haiti Teleco and was used to distribute the kickbacks paid by the Miami businesses, according to an indictment.
Since the first Haiti Teleco indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in 2009, a dozen South Florida business people and Haitian officials have been charged in the case.
Profits from the lower long-distance phone rates were pocketed by the Haitian officials, not the government's phone company. So far, seven of those defendants - including Patrick Joseph - have been convicted of corruption or money laundering.
Joseph is expected to be sentenced this summer.
A key witness at Duperval's trial was Robert Antoine, who was Haiti Teleco's director of international relations before Duperval. In 2010, Antoine pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering, admitting he took $1 million in bribes from Terra and Cinergy in exchange for lower phone rates, discounted costs and contract renewals.
At Duperval's trial, Antoine testified after he left the government job, he worked as a consultant for Cinergy and facilitated payments from that business to the defendant. Antoine, who was sentenced to four years in prison, is expected to see his term slashed in half by the judge next week at the recommendation of the Justice Department.
Copyright 2012 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Jay Weaver | McClatchy Newspapers
©2012 The Miami Herald
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/21/149617/former-haitian-telecom-official.html#storylink=cpy
Monday, May 21, 2012
Department of Energy: Web-based Project Preserves Plant’s Uranium Enrichment Legacy
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Whole Community: Communities taking control
Using the Toxic Release Inventory to Build Power in Communities
2012 May 17
By Erin Heaney
When Congress created the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), they intended for communities to have access to information about what was happening at the facilities in their neighborhoods. But until very recently, in the neighborhood we live in, many folks didn’t know the database existed and others didn’t have access to computers or know how to use them.
My organization, the Clean Air Coalition, was founded by residents in Tonawanda, NY who suspected that their pervasive health problems were linked to the industrial plants in their neighborhoods. There are 53 industrial facilities in Tonawanda, which is the highest concentration of air-regulated facilities in the state.
We have built power by developing grassroots leaders who run campaigns that advance environmental justice in Western New York. For example, in March we trained our membership on how to use the TRI.
We spent the first half of the training learning about history of TRI and about how it was through communities standing up and saying that they needed more information about the environmental conditions in their communities that led to the creation of the TRI. Our members learned who reports to TRI, as well as when and how the data is verified. Afterward, we headed over to the computer lab to learn how to use the EPA TRI tool myrtk.epa.gov. Our members dug into the data for their neighborhoods and learned which companies were polluting, what they were emitting and what the health effects of those emissions were.
Their reactions were powerful. One member said, “I’m sick to my stomach;” another said, “This makes me angry and makes me want to do something about it.” Folks left the training ready to recruit more of their neighbors to push for emissions reductions from companies and policymakers.
The training took place during the Coalition’s campaign to ensure the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYS DEC) air monitors remained up and running. The training educated members about what was in their back yards and motivated them to advocate for air monitoring in the community. In the end, our work paid off and the campaign successfully resulted in a commitment from the NYS DEC to keep the monitors up and running for another two years.
At our office we have a saying: “Knowledge isn’t power. Power is power.” While access to information alone doesn’t make change, providing people with information about what’s happening in their neighborhoods is an essential piece of building power in environmental justice communities.
About the author: Erin Heaney is the Executive Director of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, a grassroots organization that develops community leadership to win campaigns that advance public health and environmental justice. She has trained hundreds of grassroots leaders and won campaigns that have resulted in significant emissions reductions from some of the region’s largest polluters.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations
are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action,
and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Whole Community: Voting Rights of Ex-Offenders
Ex-offenders
find a reason to reclaim the vote
WASHINGTON
POST
By Mary
C. Curtis
Should
American citizens who have been convicted of crimes and served their time have
their right to vote restored?
The
question is a political issue, part of a voting-rights debate that is being
fought in the states and among political candidates. To ex-felons, it can be a
personal challenge, as well: Will their votes matter, and why should they
care?
The
rapper 2 Chainz, made the case for the vote at a pre-show stop at the Urban
League of Central Carolinas in Charlotte on Saturday. He told his story for 40
young people, a few with criminal records. The 35-year-old Atlanta-based
performer said he was first arrested at age 15 for cocaine possession. When it
came to voting, he thought he was “counted out” and didn’t know he was eligible
until he picked up a brochure at a registration drive at an Atlanta mall. Along
with 10 friends, he recruited from his recording studio, “I walked around with a
sticker the whole day” they voted.
To
supporters, restoring voting rights to former felons is a logical and positive
step, a way to give them a stake in the world outside prison walls. That was the
point of the weekend workshop organized by the Washington-based Hip-Hop Caucus and its “Respect My Vote” campaign, a nonpartisan
mobilization and education effort focused particularly on young voters.
Denying
former felons the vote, “ultimately denies rights to a class of people based on
previous actions,” according to William Harding, a Charlotte attorney, who also
spoke at the even. “Once a person has paid his debt to society, it’s important
that he is integrated back into society,” he told me. The ex-inmates are more
involved, Harding said, and their recidivism rate is
lower.
He
explained that in North Carolina, anyone who completes all parts of a sentence
for a felony conviction, including probation and parole, can register to restore
the voting right that was lost, though it is a crime to register before the
sentence is completed. Those convicted of a misdemeanor do not lose their right
to vote.
The
law puts North Carolina somewhere between Maine and Vermont, where felons never
lose their voting rights, and states such as Kentucky and Virginia, which
require the governor to approve an application. (In Virginia, GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell has
stepped up the pace to restore rights.) In some states, only the most serious
crimes are punished with permanent disenfranchisement.
Because
the courts have determined voting is a fundamental rather than constitutional
right, Harding said, it’s left up to the states, and he thinks that’s wrong.
“It’s not as though they’re somehow going to taint the process,” he said.
“Ultimately, the laws affect them, too.”
The
issue can be used to label an opponent soft on crime, as Republican Rick
Santorum found out in the primaries when a Mitt Romney Super PAC ad
attacked – and in Santorum’s view, distorted -- his position advocating voting
rights for ex-felons who completed their obligations. At a debate before the
South Carolina primary, Santorum challenged Romney and pointed out the former
Massachusetts governor’s once similar stance. Romney answered that he governed a
largely Democratic electorate then, and stated his current view that “people who
committed violent crimes should not be able to vote, even upon coming out of
office."
It’s
an issue with a racial dimension, as African American men are disproportionately
affected. In her 2010 book “The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” Michelle Alexander places current
policy – including a disparity in prosecution and sentencing rates,
particularly for drug-related offenses -- within a history of America’s
disenfranchisement of African American voters. The University of Michigan Law
School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School
of Law released an analysis this week that
counted more than 2,000 people in the United States who were falsely convicted
of serious crimes and then exonerated in the past 23 years. The universities
used their archive to study the details of 873 of those exonerations. Nine out
of 10 in that group were men, and half were African
American.
On
Saturday, Brandi Williams, the Hip Hop Caucus Charlotte coordinator, recited
statistics from the nonprofit Sentencing Project that showed lower N.C.
registration and voting rates among those with felony convictions. It’s “not
good for democracy,” she said.
In a
close 2012 presidential election, when every vote in swing states such as North
Carolina promises to be crucial, both parties are concerned about the issue. In Florida, Republican
Gov. Rick Scott and other state officials last year rolled back the 2007 rule
change by then-GOP Gov. Charlie Crist that made it easier for many ex-felons to
regain the right to vote. Now even nonviolent offenders have to wait five years
before applying for the chance to have their rights restored. "It clearly has
the effect of suppressing the vote as we go into a presidential election cycle,"
Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union, told The Washington Post then.
Participants
at the Charlotte event could fill out registration forms and a “Respect My Vote”
pledge, which included space to list the issues they care about. Patrick Graham,
executive director of the Urban League of Central Carolinas, said the event was
not to advocate for any candidate or position, but to emphasize the message “to
never let your past determine your future.” He made the Urban League’s computer
lab and resources available for anyone to research candidates and
issues.
Graham
said some with past felony convictions are too willing to give away their voting
rights. “They don’t look on them as a priority.” He told the workshop
participants, “It’s so important you follow through with
this.”
At
first, 23-year-old Dimitros Jordan said he was turned off by politics. “Nothing
is really going to change,” he said, preferring to “put it in God’s hands.”
After attending a question-and-answer session in which some pointed out that it
was civic action that led to charges for George Zimmerman after he shot Florida
teen Trayvon Martin, Jordan changed his mind. He served five months as a
teenager for armed robbery, he said, but now works in construction and coaches
children in summer camp. Jordan said he is determined to stay out of trouble –
and to vote. “I’m going to tell my friends,” he said.
Patrick
Chambers, 26, of Charlotte, has never voted. “I didn’t think I could” after a
felony conviction, he said. He intends to vote for the first time in November.
“People in the neighborhood are quick to accuse the government, ‘They don’t do
this, they don’t do that,’” he said. “It’s really our fault if we don’t
vote.”
Mary
C. Curtis, an award-winning multimedia journalist in Charlotte, N.C., is a
contributor to The Root, Fox News Charlotte, NPR, Creative Loafing and Nieman
Watchdog blog. She has worked at The New York Times, Charlotte Observer and as
national correspondent for Politics Daily. Follow her on Twitter:
@mcurtisnc3
Security Alert: Credit and Debit card
Make it a habit yearly obtain a replacement credit or debit card especially if you use them for purchases on the internet or other uses.
Banking and Finance Sector
8. May 18, H Security – (National) Global Payments breach reportedly worse than expected. The security breach at credit card processing company Global Payments extends back further than was previously believed, H Security reported May 18.
According to BankInfoSecurity, the incident is now thought to go back as far as January 2011 — it was originally believed to have taken place between January 21 and February 25, 2012, but was later dated to early June 2011. While initial reports of the breach suggested more than 10 million accounts were compromised, Global Payments later said fewer than 1.5 million card numbers were taken.
Source: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Global-Payments-breach-reportedly-worse-than-expected-1578956.html
DHS\FEMA. Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Requirement
Grant Programs Directorate Information Bulletin No 385 April 4, 2012
MEMORANDUM FOR: All State Administrative Agency Heads
All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact
All Urban Areas Security Initiative Points of Contact
All State Homeland Security Directors
All State Emergency Management Agency Directors
FROM: Timothy W. Manning
Deputy Administrator
Protection and National Preparedness
SUBJECT: Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Requirement
This Information Bulletin (IB) is applicable to grantees receiving Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) and Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) awards.
As enumerated in the funding opportunity announcements and application kits, each grantee receiving funding assistance from the above grants must conduct a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) in order remain eligible for grant funds. HSGP and EMPG grantees will be required to develop a THIRA and provide a copy to their Regional Federal Preparedness Coordinator no later than December 31, 2012. The THIRA must be updated and reviewed by DHS for consistency and content annually.
Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 201: Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide and an accompanying CPG 201 Supplement 1: Toolkit with resources and information, data sources, and table templates are attached for your convenience, and are also posted at http://www.fema.gov/prepared/plan.shtml. Grantees are strongly encouraged to work jointly with their counterparts in other levels of government, and across the whole community in order to ensure a complete THIRA. Technical assistance and a report template will be made available to assist grantees in meeting this requirement.
Questions regarding this Information Bulletin may be directed to your assigned FEMA Program Analyst or the Centralized Scheduling and Information Desk at askcsid@fema.dhs.gov or 1-800-368-6498.
Attachment:
CPG 201: Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide
CPG 201 Supplement 1: Toolkit
Use of THIRA for Preparedness Grants
http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?&id=5838
Haiti: Former military should concentrate of other infrastructures of nation
Former soldiers and allies detained in Haiti
By Joseph Guyler Delva
The soldiers and their allies were charged with forming a rogue army and repeatedly violating government orders to remove their uniforms and lay down their weapons, officials said.
In 1995, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide dismantled the Haitian army, which had staged numerous coups and committed human rights abuses.
"They were parading outside the presidential palace in olive green military uniform and some were carrying weapons," Michaelange Gedeon, police director for the West department, told Reuters.
Among those arrested were two Americans, identified as William Petrie and Steven Shaw, accused of providing training and logistics, authorities said.
Five vehicles and a number of weapons were confiscated, officials said.
In recent weeks, groups of former soldiers who were part of the dismantled Haitian army occupied government buildings and former military headquarters in several parts of the country. They were joined by scores of youths in their 20s and early 30s eager for jobs.
They were often seen armed and in military uniforms in the streets and sometimes directing traffic, fueling concerns of instability in a nation still struggling to recover from a catastrophic 2010 earthquake.
Haitian President Michel Martelly supports the idea of reconstituting the army and commissioned a study seeking recommendations.
Martelly has said Haitians would prefer to have their country protected by its own army rather than United Nations troops, who have acted as peacekeepers in the impoverished Caribbean nation on and off since 1994.
U.N. officials have expressed concern that restoring the army could undermine international efforts to train and equip a new civilian police force, a key goal of the U.N. mission in Haiti. Critics also point to the former army's appalling human rights record, including a bloody coup in 1991.
Haitian Deputy Minister for Public Safety Reginald Delva said several specialized units of the police, supported by UN peacekeepers, were involved in the weekend raids.
"The government wants to launch a clear message to the ex-military and their allies. This practice of taking over government buildings and taking to the streets armed and in military uniforms is over," Delva told Reuters.
"The instructions were clear and the police did a great job in making sure no one was killed during the raids."
Haitian authorities said a camp, settled by ex-soldiers in the northern town of Cap-Haitien, was also evacuated. In several places the ex-soldiers and allies fled as the police arrived. Eight women were also arrested during the raids, which were conducted without any major casualties. A U.N. soldier was injured by rock-throwing protesters.
(Additional reporting and editing by David Adams; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/haiti-soldiers-idINDEE84K00X20120521