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Whistleblower: True Tale Of Sex Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, Deceit

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 Tanya Domi lived and worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1996-2000 to assist the country recover from war. During a research trip to Sarajevo in 2001 she broke the biggest story of her journalism career–a tale of  high crimes, deceit and exploitation. 

Ten years ago, I broke the story of my life from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, about the riveting and courageous actions of American Kathryn Bolkovac, a UN human rights investigator who uncovered an extensive presence of human sex trafficking in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The trafficking was aided and abetted by UN police monitors, Bosnian police and government officials, high-level UN and State Department officials, including now retired U.S. Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein, who at the time was the highest ranking UN official in Bosnia and had the responsibility for overseeing the UN’s International Police Task Force.

My story was first published in Oslobodenje (“Liberation”), the oldest daily newspaper in the country, in  June, 2001 and with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in July, 2001 — the first time human trafficking and prostitution graced the content of its important web pages.

Kathryn Bolkovac was demoted for doing her job by J. Michael Stiers, the Deputy Commissioner of the UN Police Task Force, which ultimately led to her firing delivered by Jamie Popwell, both DynCorp hires and seconded by the State Department.  DynCorp, a U.S. government subcontractor provides American employees to international missions throughout the world. DynCorp is also a multi-national military and security company, based in Virginia, was purchased in 2010 by the Cerberus Capital Management Company, located in New York City.

The film, “The Whistleblower,” starring Academy-award winner Rachel Weisz as Kathryn Bolkovac, opens in New York City and Los Angeles today and will be released in U.S. cities coast-to-coast on August 12. Being touted as a movie to watch and a potential Oscar contender, the feature thriller is directed by Larysa Kondracki, in her inaugural debut, who earned her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Rex Reed, luminary film critic, gives “The Whistleblower” a big boost in the latest edition of the New York Observer, writing the film “reveals a truth more chilling than fiction” and that it’s “rare to see a thriller with the patience to tell an important story and develop a three-dimensional character at the same time.”

Bolkovac with Vincent Couerderoy, IPTF Commissioner, 2001

Also cast is the indomitable actress Vanessa Redgrave, who portrays Madeleine Rees, a British human rights barrister and the former director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sarajevo.  Rees confronted Klein on Bolkovac’s illegal termination and called in reinforcements from her superior then–Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner and the former president of Ireland.  Rees, a heroine in her own right, stood up inside the UN system against Klein and his off-the-rails leadership, instigating an unprecedented investigation into the dealings of the Bosnian Mission.

This drama, inspired by events put in motion by Bolkovac’s penetrating investigations, will perhaps, once and for all, educate the U.S. public not only about the scourge of human trafficking, but an even more important message, according to Bolkovac, which she refers to as a “web of deceit” that was woven by a consortium of governments.

The UN, private companies and international actors that actively conspired and collaborated, as in the Bolkovac case, thwarting any effort to bring international contractors to justice for their criminal participation in trafficking the bodies of women and children for money and power.

Most of the men involved in these crimes, many of them Americans, if caught, were sent home, absent consequences and were not prosecuted for any crimes, despite the egregiously serious nature of the crimes, like enslavement, or selling women into illegal prostitution, which is a crime in Bosnia.  That did not matter. What mattered was getting Bolkovac to shut-down her investigations, which UN officials conspired to create a ruse, declaring Bolkovac to be “stressed-out and needing a break” and accused her of submitting falsified times sheets (later disproved by a London labor tribunal which unanimously upheld Bolkovac’s complaint that she was wrongly terminated), as the reason to send her packing when she abruptly left the country in April 2001, fearing for her life and future career as a police officer.

Bolkovac, a former Nebraska police officer, volunteered for duty in Bosnia to help get the country back on its feet, after three years of war that took place 1992-1995, marking the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the Bosnian war 100,000 to 110,000 persons were killed. Sarajevo was placed under siege by the Bosnian Serb Army by foisting artillery guns on the hills surrounding a breathtaking city  in a valley that was built more than 600 years ago, joined with sniper nests who took target practice on innocent civilians, killing 10,000, including  more than 1,000 children, whose graves now encircle the 1984 Olympic Stadium, once the pride and joy of Yugoslavia. The siege of Sarajevo was the longest in the history of modern warfare.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fzn0vYNikI&version=3&hl=en_US]

While all wars are hideous, the most recent Balkan wars, in particular was characterized by the macabre specter of former friends and neighbors who turned on one another, resorted to rape, torture and the whole sale jailing of people, mostly Muslim, who were confined to concentration and rape camps, some executed and buried in mass graves, which continue to be excavated in the present, betraying the remains of bodies that have been moved two to three times by their guilty perpetrators.

The global changes that ensued while Yugoslavia came undone in combination with war, helped create a corrupt environment where crime could travel through porous borders and allowed human trafficking to flourish throughout the Balkans. Women from the poorest countries of the Former Soviet Union–Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine–were trafficked through Belgrade to Kosovo and into Eastern Bosnia, where NATO soldiers and international contractors, present in large numbers, helped themselves to the “prostitutes,” who had been falsely lured with the promises of good paying jobs.

The Bosnian episode of human trafficking uncovered by Bolkovac was confirmed by the prodigious work of former Human Rights Watch researcher, attorney Martina Vandenberg, who authored a report published in 2002 titled “Hopes Betrayed: Trafficking of Women and Girls to Post-Conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina for Forced Prostitution.”

As for DynCorp, although they were found guilty for Bolkovac’s unjustified and retaliatory termination by an unanimous London Labor Tribunal, they continue to publicly maintain, as recently as January 2011 that Bolkovac’s employment in Bosnia was terminated because she submitted falsified timesheets.  In an audacious email message sent to its employees in anticipation of the release of Bolkovac’s memoir about Bosnia, dated January 4, 2011 from Joe Kale, DynCorp International’s Chief Compliance Officer wrote:

“DI does not tolerate any form of retaliation against persons who raise good faith complaints…We strongly disagree with Ms. Bolkovac’s assertions surrounding the circumstances of her dismissal, and with a British employment tribunal that ruled in her favor in 2002. She was dismissed for falsifying timesheets and being absent from work without approval. Nonetheless, we do not plan to engage in a public debate over allegations made a decade ago. We feel that doing so would diminish the importance of the issue: that human trafficking is a serious crime that cannot be tolerated.”

Where are all these individuals now? Madeleine Rees is Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Martina Vandenberg continues to pursue bad guys via a robust pro-bono practice.  She is currently taking down wayward diplomats who illegally detain domestic workers. Vandenberg played an instrumental role during the past decade in successfully urging Congress to close the U.S. contractor loophole, that had previously not permitted prosecution under The Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  In recent years, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)  contributed new language that provides nearly universal jurisdiction for prosecution under of any U.S. national, permanent resident or an offender of any nationality present on U.S. territory under 18 U.S.C. 1596, considered a major advance. J. Michael Stiers continues to work internationally.

According to the Washington Post, Klein, who became the head of the UN Mission to Liberia, was terminated for an inappropriate relationship  with “Linda Fawaz, a 30-year-old Liberian American woman whose uncle headed a major timber company”. According to a UN report, “Fawaz (identified as “Local Woman”) accompanied Klein (described as “Senior Official”) to diplomatic functions and regularly traveled on U.N. aircraft in violation of organizational rules.”

Last month, retired U.S. Ambassador Thomas Miller, who represented the U.S. government in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period that Bolkovac was fired, publicly  apologized to Bolkovac for the actions taken against her, during a public forum at the Brookings Institution.  Bolkovac now lives in Breda, The Netherlands with her domestic partner Jan van de Velde, who she met and fell in love with in Bosnia.  She no longer works as a police officer and is effectively barred from doing so as DynCorp controls all the international contracts for police to international missions.  Bolkovac would like to train police for international mission work, teach them how to conduct investigations into all crimes, including human trafficking.

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.

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News

Greene Mocked for Weather Control Claim as NC Lawmaker Pleads for Conspiracy ‘Junk’ to End

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October 4, 2024

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“Friends can I ask a small favor?” North Carolina Republican state Senator Kevin Corbin’s Facebook post began Thursday afternoon. “Will you all help STOP this conspiracy theory junk that is floating all over Facebook and the internet about the floods in WNC,” he wrote, referring to Hurricane Helene-hit western North Carolina.

Senator Corbin listed some examples of the conspiracy theories he and his fellow lawmakers are battling as they try to bring help to the people they represent: “FEMA is stealing money from donations, body bags ordered but government has denied, bodies not being buried, government is controlling the weather from Antarctica, government is trying to get lithium from WNC, stacks of bodies left at hospitals, and on and on and on.”

“PLEASE help stop this junk. It is just a distraction to people trying to do their job.”

In the middle of Corbin’s post, one conspiracy theory stood out: “government is controlling the weather.”

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That echoes a claim U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made just hours later, Thursday night on social media:

“Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

Exactly 12 hours after she posted that falsehood, it’s been been viewed 4.6 million times—not including all the screenshots that are flying around social media.

Congresswoman Greene is being widely derided and mocked.

National security expert, NSA contractor, and former Republican U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia blasted Greene.

“This person is in Congress,” he wrote on social media. “This ignorance, this lunacy, is why we have a government teetering and lurching. Her stupidity is a disease. She’s not alone either. Who do we blame? Well, folks.. we blame disinfo ecosystems— like here on X and we blame… voters. Mass idiocy. Stupid votes count.”

He added: “It’s dangerous how dumb she is.”

Some suggested Greene was merely referring to cloud seeding, attempts to increase rainfall, which date back to the 1940’s.

Riggleman disputed those suggestions: “She’s not thinking of cloud seeding— she is a QAnon adherent who also believes in direct prophecy and 9/11 conspiracies.”

Indeed, in 2021, just weeks after she was sworn in, Media Matters reported on Greene’s conspiracy theory-fueled history: “Marjorie Taylor Greene penned conspiracy theory that a laser beam from space started deadly 2018 California wildfire.”

“In November 2018, California was hit with the worst wildfire in the state’s history. At the time, future Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote a bizarre Facebook post that echoed QAnon conspiracy theorists and falsely claimed that the real and hidden culprit behind the disaster was a laser from space triggered by some nefarious group of people,” the report reads.

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“Greene’s post, which hasn’t previously been reported, is just the latest example to be unearthed of her embracing conspiracy theories about tragedies during her time as a right-wing commentator. In addition to being a QAnon supporter, Greene has pushed conspiracy theories about 9/11, the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings, the Las Vegas shooting, and the murder of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, among others.”

“Greene also has a history of pushing anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic remarks,” Media Matters wrote before noting, “CNN’s Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski recently reported that on her Facebook page, ‘Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.'”

Some, including Newsweek on Friday, suggested Greene was referring to Democrats when she ambiguously wrote, “they can control the weather,” but others insisted she was referring to Jews.

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) served up this response:

Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts added, “Reminder: This is a conspiracy theory based in anti-Semitism alleging that Jewish people have the technology to manipulate the weather and cause freak storms that wreak havoc on the world.”

Regardless of who Congresswoman Greene was referring to, her promotion of yet another dangerous conspiracy theory at a time when people in the area of the country she claims to be fighting for are calling for level heads stands out.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), appearing to respond to Greene’s tweet (which he had just retweeted) wrote: “Spreading lies during natural disasters is a special kind of evil. Don’t do it, don’t indulge it, don’t excuse it.”

Overnight, NBC News reported: “At least 215 people are known to have died as a result of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene since it made landfall in Florida a week ago.”

“More than half of the deaths were in North Carolina, where several feet of fast-moving water destroyed entire communities,” the report adds. “Hundreds are still missing, and officials have reported difficulties in identifying some of the dead.”

Senator Corbin, in his Facebook post, also stressed the need for an end to what he described as “intentional distractions.”

“Folks, this is a catastrophic event of which this country has never known. It is the largest crisis event in the history of N.C. The state is working non-stop,” he wrote. “DOT has deployed workers from all over the state. Duke power has 10,000 workers on this. FEMA is here. The National Guard is here in large numbers.”

“Government will play a role in this cleanup,” he promised. “We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money. But Government is not the total solution. YES, there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors and that’s good and the way it should be. Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true. I just talked to one Senator that has had 15 calls TODAY about why we don’t stop …….. ‘fill in the blank.’ 98% chance it’s not true and if it is a problem, somebody is aware and on it and not waiting for a post to go thru 10,000 people to be addressed. Thanks for listening but I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job …. which is to help our citizens in need.”

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‘Wowza’: Economists Thrilled With ‘Huge’ Jobs Report and Wages Outpacing Prices

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October 4, 2024

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The September jobs report is a stunning confirmation of just how “strong” and “resilient” the U.S economy is, according to economic experts who are celebrating Friday morning.

“US economy smashes expectations with 254,000 jobs added in September,” The Financial Times reports, “far outstripping expectations.”

“Wowza: HUGE jobs report,” exclaimed Professor of economics Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at Brookings and a frequent guest on cable news. “This economic expansion that is motoring along.”

“This is a great September jobs report,” declared The Washington Post’s Heather Long. “The ‘soft landing’ is still on track.”

The New York Times’ economic reporter, Talmon Joseph Smith, summed up the news:

Economists had expected 140,000 to 159,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, continuing the Biden administration’s historic record of producing and maintaining unemployment at five-decade lows.

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“Average hourly earnings grew 0.4% last month, and are now up 4.0% over the year. There’s no question that wages are running ahead of prices, and people are seeing meaningful real wage gains,” he added. Wolfers says he’s “been relentlessly optimistic about the economy for the past couple of years, and it’s felt lonely at times during the drumbeat of ‘recession’ talk, but it’s also been a pretty great place to be. If you were looking for what a soft landing looks like, this is it.”

Bloomberg News adds, “Unemployment for major ethnic groups — Black, White, Hispanic — fell, while the Asian unemployment rate held steady.”

President Biden, who worked with the dockworkers union to bring an extraordinarily fast end to their strike that ended after just three days this week, took a victory lap.

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“Today, we received good news for American workers and families with more than 250,000 new jobs in September and unemployment back down at 4.1%,” President Biden said in a statement. “With today’s report, we’ve created 16 million jobs, unemployment remains low, and wages are growing faster than prices. Under my Administration, unemployment has been the lowest in 50 years, a record 19 million new businesses have been created, and inflation and interest rates are falling. And we’re seeing the power of collective bargaining to lift up workers’ wages—including the progress made by dockworkers on record wages with carriers, and port operators and the reopening of East Coast and Gulf ports.”

Biden also took a swipe at Republicans.

“Congress should pass our plan to build millions of new homes, expand prescription drug price caps, empower workers and protect the right to organize, and cut taxes for hardworking families. Congressional Republicans have a different plan—more giant tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, ending the Affordable Care Act, undermining workers by cutting overtime and making it harder to organize, and imposing a national sales tax that would raise costs by nearly $4,000 per year. While they put billionaires first, we’ll keep fighting to grow the middle class.”

See the social media posts above or at this link.

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Democrats Call for Trump-Appointed Scandal-Ridden Inspector General to Be Ousted

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21 hours ago

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October 3, 2024

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Two House Democratic Ranking Members are calling for the removal of the Dept. of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, appointed by Donald Trump in 2019, accusing him of lying to Congress, misleading Congress, blatantly abusing his powers, and wasting millions in taxpayer dollars.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, in a statement following the release of a damning independent report say “Inspector General Cuffari’s extensive and shocking record of misconduct and obstruction is evidence that he has seriously compromised the public’s trust and is plainly not fit to serve in a position that requires him to guard the public interest and act beyond reproach.”

“Cuffari’s unprecedented misconduct in office has been underscored and exacerbated by his persistent and repeated obstruction of oversight efforts. Not only did he fail to fully and meaningfully comply with our investigation—he actively worked to undermine and thwart it.” They call his actions “an outrageous affront and embarrassment to the inspector general community and have undermined the reputation of the entire DHS Office of Inspector General.”

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The Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a nonpartisan independent watchdog, on Wednesday released a report alleging Cuffari “waged a years-long campaign to derail and discredit investigations into allegations of his misconduct, which include claims he retaliated against whistleblowers.”

The independent report from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) did not cite Cuffari’s actions in deleted texts scandal, but as NCRM reported in 2022, Cuffari appeared to have waited seven months to notify Congress of the missing text messages from the day before and day of the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

That means that four months after the January 6 insurrection the Dept. of Homeland Security knew Secret Service agents’ text messages, from the day before and day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, were missing and did not inform Congress or the National Archives, which is required by law to retain those records.

RELATED: ‘Coverup of Treason’: Trump-Appointed IG, Under Investigation, Knew of Missing Secret Service and DHS Texts Far Earlier

The deleted Secret Service texts were not the only missing data at DHS.

“Text messages for President Donald Trump’s acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol,” The Washington Post reported in July 2022.

Cuffari also reportedly “declined to pursue investigations into Secret Service during Trump administration,” The Washington Post reported in 2021, and “blocked investigations proposed by career staff … to scrutinize the agency’s handling of the George Floyd protests in Lafayette Square and the spread of the coronavirus in its ranks.”

“Hundreds of Secret Service officers were either infected with the coronavirus or had to quarantine after potential exposure … as Trump continued to travel and hold campaign events during the pandemic.”

The White House says the report is “concerning, but Politico reports Republicans are circling the wagons around Cuffari.

“Firing Cuffari could spark outrage from Capitol Hill Republicans, who have praised him for investigating DHS’s trouble vetting people evacuated from Afghanistan and its inability to monitor all unaccompanied migrant children released from federal custody after traveling to the United States,” Politico reports. “As CIGIE’s investigation into Cuffari has unfolded, congressional Republicans have rallied around him, suggesting he is being targeted as punishment for criticizing the administration. In an occasionally contentious July hearing, House Oversight Republicans pressed the head of CIGIE on how his office handles investigations into inspectors general and raised concerns about the Cuffari probe.”

In 2023 Cuffari testified before Congress he had deleted text messages from his government-issued cell phone which he also stated he did not use for personal reasons. He alleged the texts he deleted were not considered government records.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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