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This is probably Bush's fault also...LOL
What a bunch of goofballs.
OT Greed Lured GIs Into Colombian Underworld By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 3, 7:18 AM ET
BOGOTA, Colombia - U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Rosas was deployed to Colombia as part of the large U.S. mission to fight drug trafficking, but before long he found the lure of cocaine money too hard to resist.
He formed a smuggling ring involving U.S. soldiers that was eventually busted, deeply embarrassing U.S. officials.
A deposition obtained by The Associated Press shows Rosas' scheme was so amateurish that at one point he made a deal with a stranger he met in a Mexican nightclub bathroom and even saw a $140,000 payment vanish in the mail. The authenticity of Rosas' sworn statement was recently confirmed by a Colombian official familiar with the case.
The document provides for the first time a detailed look into how the drug ring operated and shows that, with stunning ease, it was able to send 170 pounds of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, subject to only cursory searches at best from U.S. Customs agents.
"They never suspected that any military or civilian personnel would bring back contraband," Rosas said in the March 31 sworn statement to military investigators at Fort Bliss, Texas. "They did not use dogs, they very rarely checked our carryon bags but never checked our equipment that was loaded on the pallets."
U.S. Ambassador William Wood said in the wake of the arrests on March 28 that U.S. soldiers leaving Colombia would be subjected to stricter searches. The case infuriated many Colombians who said President Alvaro Uribe should revoke treaties granting immunity to U.S. soldiers serving in Colombia.
Rosas, 23, of McAllen, Texas, is behind bars awaiting court-martial along with two other U.S. soldiers.
A fourth soldier, Spc. Francisco Rosa, pleaded guilty on Aug. 10 to using, possessing and distributing cocaine and making a false official statement. He was sentenced to five years in prison, demoted to the rank of private and will receive a bad conduct discharge.
Rosas told military investigators he got involved in drug smuggling in the summer of 2003 when he struck up a friendship with Angel Gutierrez, a bartender at the officer's club in the Apiay military base southeast of Bogota, where he was stationed. Rosas said Gutierrez told him he could hold cocaine and drive it onto the base through the front gate.
"Greed overtook my state-of-mind. I saw an opportunity and took advantage of it," Rosas said, according to the sworn statement.
Rosas said he and two other Americans on the base — Spc. Rolando Sandoval and a civilian defense contractor identified only as Jake — pooled their money to buy about nine pounds of cocaine from Gutierrez for $12,000. Sandoval left the military before Rosas' arrest and it is unclear what happened to him and Jake.
Jake smuggled the cocaine to the United States in August 2003, then headed to Las Vegas to try to sell some of it — but promptly disappeared.
"We never saw him again ... we never received any money from Jake," Rosas said.
When Rosas returned to Texas within a few weeks, he tried to sell the remaining two pounds. That amount normally fetches about $25,000 in the United States, but Rosas didn't know where to turn.
"I went to Juarez, Mexico, and while in the bathroom of a club I saw a guy snorting cocaine," Rosas said. He eventually sold the cocaine to the man for $6,500 at a Taco Bell in El Paso, Texas.
The money didn't last long.
"I spent $3,000 on partying and stuff of that nature," the soldier said.
On his next tour in Colombia, Rosas said he recruited three U.S. soldiers — Rosa, Staff Sgt. Victor Portales and Staff Sgt. Kevin G. Irizarry-Melendez — and they began smuggling much larger quantities of cocaine, according to the sworn statement.
They wrapped sheets of fabric softener and plastic wrap around the cocaine, placed it inside zip-lock bags then put them inside coffee boxes. The drug shipments were loaded onto pallets with other gear then put aboard U.S. Air Force transport planes heading to Texas.
Once, two coffee boxes containing 35 pounds of cocaine vanished after it arrived at Fort Bliss. Rosas said he suspects a private working at the hangar found the cocaine and stole it.
Meanwhile, Rosas found connections in the drug-trafficking underworld in the United States. But that presented new problems.
One drug dealer, identified only as Gustavo, mailed $200,000 to Rosas' El Paso apartment in four boxes as payment for cocaine, but Rosas was not present to pick up two of the boxes, and they were sent to a forwarding address Gustavo had provided. Gustavo told Rosas he had made up the forwarding address. The two boxes were never found.
"I do not know where the boxes were sent to, nor where the money is at now," Rosas told the army investigators. "So basically, somebody received $140,000."
The sworn statement suggests informants finally broke up the smuggling operation.
Rosas said he shipped 134 pounds of cocaine between July 2003 and March 2005 to the United States and sold it for about $260,000. He said Irizarry-Melendez smuggled another 35 pounds, while the others mainly fronted money to buy the drugs.
Asked by the investigators how he felt after being caught, Rosas replied: "Disgraced, unfaithful, disloyal, saddened and I wish I never did it."
That's for sure. Guam is built for typhoons now after getting smoked so many times in the past, but Kihei and most of Hawaii is not. My friend here said his house was rated to withstand 85mph...on Guam that's barely a banana typhoon-as in it blows the banana trees down...not the houses.
Aloha
WOW eery is a good word for that article, it gave me shivers how accurate it was about the survivors.
Let's hope they learned something now.
Aloha
It's very sad. I remember seeing a sat pic on TV the night before it hit, where Katrina filled the whole gulf up. You see that coming, run for your life...
Anything over 110mph sustained is very deadly, 150+ is catastophic and unfortunately they are becoming more frequent.
Aloha
mcfly.
During the typhoon season, if a storm is approaching, my computer desktop is a picture of that Sat map I posted, I monitor it constantly and try to make a decision at least 12 or more hours beforehand whether we should stand down and secure the boats, shops, houses etc. Most times we secure and don't get hit but at least we were secure, if you don't secure and you get hit you lose everything. We had 13 named typhoons pass the island in 2004.
Guam is 30 miles long in the middle of the ocean, when you have a supertyphoon 1000 miles across approaching you pay attention and pray. Super typhoon Pongsona slowed down and spent 12 hours crossing directly over the island in 2002 it created a nightmare not unlike Katrina, which will take the island years to recover from.
One thing I learned in my years of studying this is that the 10 year storm is now coming every 2-3 years and the typhoon is now the super typhoon. Things have been changing for years unfortunately not many people want to believe it. Maybe they will now.
If even a Cat 3 typhoon was approaching Maui I would fly my family out of the state because this place would take it just as bad as Biloxi did as far as house damage.
The tsunami came without warning, Katrina had been on my TV screen for days before it hit and people had lots of warning.
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OP if you were watching the news yesterday Geraldo was at the CONVENTION CENTER where people had not yet gotten assistance. The word was no help had arrived because NO ONE told the rescuers about them only the Superdome.
As you put "Media centers such as CNN and FOX were reporting that officials AT THE SUPERDOME were estimating that anywhere from 20000 to 30000 people were at the Superdome."
If you saw FOX this morning Shawn said that the original 20-30000 had been evacuated and there were 2-5000 NEW people who had wandered in. That's what I was getting at...
Good luck with your recovery
Aloha
OP I lve in Maui however I have a business in Guam which is what the sat map was. It is about 7000 miles from CA. We don't EXPECT Feds or outside assistance to show up for at least a week...I moved my family out of there due to the changing weather patterns 4 years ago.
IMO living under sea level shouldn't be allowed. At least not when you are surrounded by water on 3 sides.
As far as buses go...say 50 people per bus overpacked you would need to do 2000 trips. Since I assume higher ground (business district with concrete buildings)is within 5 miles or 30 minute round trip, so in 24 hours (48 round trips) you could have done it with 40 buses. I am sure there are that many school buses in NO.
Improper planning is to blame. On Guam they close all the schools and use them for shelters anytime anything more than a tropical storm approaches.
Don't get me wrong I feel very sorry for the people who were affected, I just think that if a local goverment like Guam can get hit by repeated typhoons with little or no loss of life a state government could do a better job in taking care of their people.
Aloha
Good post. That I will agree with. America needs to wake up to the new reality and deal with it instead of finger pointing and blaming everyone but themselves.
Aloha
Well IMO a good mayor would have supplied buses to shuttle people to safety-this is a local governments duty-even if they request help from the Feds. Bush doesn't know anymore than that there is a MANDATORY EVACUATION going on.
Were you guys even aware of Supertyphoon Nabi?
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/guam/GUAMIR.JPG
We get hit by this shit all the time and you don't see us sitting around waiting for Bush to come visit. The last super typhoon we had a direct hit from in 2002 left my business with out power for 7 weeks but we were up and running 2 days later...because we prepared. But it was miserable...
Aloha
I am well aware of most of the allegations but the Clinton's have their share of skeleton's along with many of our other "leaders".
Listening to guys like Jackson and Sharton-both ran for President on the Democratic ticket-bitch about Bush's non response in NO, when at least Jackson has spent much time abroad doing things in other countries (wasn't he in Venezuela last week?)doesn't go over very well with me. Why don't they both spend several months a year helping poor blacks in the South make a better life for themselves?
I didn't hear the mayor saying he was out in the "projects" urging people to leave before the storm-even a building's inside concrete parking lot is a SAFE place to hide. Where was he? The first time I saw the guy on TV saying people neeeded to evacuate he couldn't even look at the camera and sounded like he was ready to cry AND this was BEFORE the storm even hit.
I haven't seen Micheal Moore down there chipping in anything but his opinion either.
If the money for the levy repairs was vetoed was it right for the LA government to let people continue to live there?
For every question there is another question...
Oh by the way "my leader"? Where are you from?
Aloha
FWIW I despised Bush when he first became President for several reasons. However I changed 180 degrees after watching his post 911 speech. You need to take into consideration that both 911 and Katrina have been first time events for the USA so there is nothing to compare them too and 20/20 hindsight is always better.
As far as NO asking for help all along...this began BEFORE Bush took office and his predecessor who could be considered a local boy was getting his cigar smoked instead of dealing with thngs like this.
The main thing that changed my view of Bush was WHAT IF AL GORE was "in charge"...or Hillary. The Democrats have resorted to all sorts of back stabbing techniques which have been globally publicized and while Bush will be out of office in a couple of years this kind of stuff in going to be hard to fix.
Whether it be sports, business or politics if you don't stand behind your leader YOU LOSE.
Aloha
I try to stay out of politics but I find it REALLY funny that everyone is blaming Bush and the Republican party when both the mayor and governor of LA are Democrats...so is Sharpton, Jackson and others.
These people were warned to leave and for whatever reason they chose to stay. I doubt even today anybody has an accurate number of how many people need aid as they are still wandering in. They said on the news that their are 2-5000 NEW people at the Superdome and that the biggest crisis at the convention center was caused BECAUSE NO ONE TOLD THE RESCUERS THEY WERE THERE.
You can't blame Bush or the Feds for this as the responsibility falls fully on the local level and you could see the mayor crumbled and the governor is not far behind...
Aloha
bashers are everywhere....I was just talking to my wife who is Japanese and handles our Japanese emails etc. On one of the websites is a chatroom and she was explaining to me that when she posts something in reply to a question there are some "real bad people" who say stuff like "they are just pocketing the money", "you'll get screwed" etc. This must be a real big business out there...
I know my competition WILL DO ANYTHING to put me out of business. One of them just took one of my main advertising photos and ran their own ad campaign with it...lawsuit pending.
Frank is the reason we are here and have made it this far, don't blame him.
Aloha
OT Not sure about those laws, but I am beginning to wonder about my investment in 2 - 2005 Chevy 15 pass vans and a 2005 37 pass bus this year...not to mention what the twin 3208's in my boat cost for 6 hrs day running. What was $3500/mo. last year for just the boat looks like it could be $8-10k/mo. pretty damn quickly.
However compared to the damage and suffering causesd by Katrina this will be much easier to cope with.
Aloha
OT Maui's still $3.21 but who knows for how long. The state just instated and price cap on fuel that goes into effect tommorrow...
Aloha
You guys need to understand that ANY AUDIT is not going to be current through the day it is issued. It will be at least 30 days and most likely 90 days prior information. So since Franks shares were converted (or at least PR'd on August2) there is almost no possibility of them not being included in the OS whether it is 14B or 19.5B...
This also goes for the subscriber numbers, we have only had Maine for a short time.
Aloha
While we're bickering BIG TRADES going through...
Aloha
Thanks, I remember seeing that earlier. Enough on this matter...
Aloha
Well I would be a WHOLE LOT MORE WORRIED if it was the other way around and TMM was not current...
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Is this what Irish is talking about?
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Annual License and Annual report are two different things...
Aloha
It's a really straight forward form and for my corp it is not due until Sept. 1. Rules may differ but I have NEVER heard anthing that would threaten the existence of my corp if I didn't file on time.
Aloha
100 bucks....next...
LOL that's BS and you know it. If they file late they get a penalty and that's it...My corp's annual report is sitting on my desk I just had it notarized yesterday and am going to MAIL it today...
Anything else you need?
Aloha
here we go again...aloha
OT I have hooked up a 30" Phillips LCD to my computer that I picked up at Costco a couple of hours ago. It will be used in a for a slide show in a window display and I am just doing a test run. Of course I decided to surf for a while...I am sitting about 5 feet away and that is at least 3 feet too close-my eyes are hurting. My 19" LCD is going to look pretty bleak when I switch back! My kids are going to sh it when they come home from school...and hear this puppies only here temporarily.
Technology is amazing!
Aloha
Yes it does...now make coffee. Aloha
HERE WE GO!!!!! I HOPE...Aloha
The audits not done yet...soon.
Aloha
More keywords...
Q Television's ASSETS outweigh the total market value by SEVEN TIMES our stock price, and industry executives know this.
This will come out in the financials and will look very good on the bottom line.
Aloha
9 B + 6B restricted.
NO it's your choice...Aloha
TW keywords....
The share increase in 2004 was due to acquisitions, previously restricted shares coming due, and was prior to secured financing. The shares bargained in 2004 were strictly utilized for growing Q Television.
Frank has not issued nore shares since LAST YEAR. I thnk we will find that the 14 BILLION Total is correct INCLUDING restrictes shares. This is inline with what we were told in 2004
Great news Ron! Nice to see and old time long actually get to see the Q! Thanks for the info.
Aloha
Thanks DINGOCUB!
Aloha
Hey I'm waiting on dingocub...minus 10 and counting.
Aloha
1 minute... aloha
Skunks you know he's always been #1 on my list...LOL
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It's about time for some 9 mil trades to liven things up a bit...
Aloha