Chemonics announces key leadership changes, about time!

http://www.chemonics.com/News/news_reader.aspx?content_id={7FC25DCA-AA9F-45CC-9F1C-923D7FA70A4A}  Chemonics announces key leadership changes, about time! In recent weeks, several members of Chemonics' leadership team have assumed new roles and undertaken new professional challenges. Doug Tinsler, senior vice president for Strategic Programs, is transferring from the company's Washington, D.C., headquarters to take the helm of a recently awarded, USAID-funded project in Egypt designed to increase the country's business competitiveness. In this role, Tinsler returns to familiar territory: He previously served as the chief of USAID/Egypt's Office of Local Administration and Development, where he led the design and implementation of an $800 million rural development and decentralization program. Most recently, he has been leading the firm's indefinite quantity contract portfolio. Tinsler joined Chemonics in 1995 and also has served as the chief of party for a large project in Peru. While Tinsler is heading to the field, President and CEO Richard Dreiman announced that Senior Vice President Chris Scott would be returning from the field at the end of the year to lead the Middle East division. Scott, who has been a senior vice president since 2007, has been serving as chief of party of a successful government capacity-building project in West Bank/Gaza since 2009. A lawyer, Scott joined Chemonics in 2006 as a director in the company's Middle East division. "Both Doug and Chris are fine examples of the flexibility and commitment to our work that all of our leaders embody," Dreiman said. "Chris has done an exceptional job leading his team in West Bank, and we know Doug will do great things in Egypt." Scott fills the vacancy created with the announcement that Eric Reading has been named senior vice president of the Afghanistan and Pakistan division. Reading joins the group after leading the Middle East division for the past four years. Reading assumes leadership of the region from Tim Beans, who announced in September he was leaving the firm. Reading has been working with the Afghanistan and Pakistan team since June, when he joined the group to provide strategic guidance to the growing stabilization and governance portfolio. "Eric has proven that he is adept at guiding teams to achieve on-the-ground impact in sometimes challenging environments," Dreiman said. "Together with his significant experience in economic growth, infrastructure, democratic governance, and institutional strengthening, he is the ideal choice to lead the division in our critical efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan." Reading joined Chemonics in 1994 in the Europe and Eurasia division, where he managed local governance activities in Bulgaria and Romania. He also managed business climate reform programs in Georgia and Bosnia. As chief of party in post-war Kosovo and deputy chief of party in Egypt, he led programs to improve public utility management, and conducted numerous short-term assignments in finance, infrastructure, and local governance worldwide. To support the unique challenges of the Afghanistan and Pakistan portfolio, Tracy Shanks has been named senior vice president within the group with specific responsibilities for the projects in economic growth. Shanks returns to the firm's headquarters after completing her masters in business administration at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Shanks joined Chemonics in 1999 in the Global division, focused on the diversification of Chemonics portfolio. In her first long-term overseas posting in 2003, she simultaneously managed a municipal finance and a business development project in Paraguay. She then led a business development project in Azerbaijan and went on to serve as chief of party on an MCC threshold program focused on business climate reform and anti-corruption efforts in Paraguay. Earlier this year, Shanks worked with a Chemonics project Afghanistan to develop an entrepreneurial business development initiative in Kandahar.

--- On Thu, 15/7/10, Tbilisi, TDY4 (Martha Dye) <TDY4-Tbilisi@usaid.gov> wrote:

From: Tbilisi, TDY4 (Martha Dye) <TDY4-Tbilisi@usaid.gov>
Subject: RE: Rustry Shutz back working with USAID, how is that possible?
Cc: "Young, Peter" <pyoung@usaid.gov>
Date: Thursday, 15 July, 2010,

 

You can find information about how to submit a FOIA request here:  http://www.usaid.gov/about/foia/.  Please file your request according to the FOIA instructions, as we are not able to respond to any further inquiries from this address.

 

Regards,

USAID/Caucasus

Regional Legal Office

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Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2010 10:36 AM
To: Young, Peter; Tbilisi, TDY4 (Martha Dye)
Cc: OIG Hotline (State); Andrew Higgons; Jim Clancy; Hansen Lars Ragnar Aalerud; Kentucky ACLU; Steve Auvenshine; Bryza, Matthew J; due diligence; Human Righs DocCenter; Ufuk Doganay; Jeremy Druker; Kentucky Attorney General; Young Lawyers; Ghia Nodia; Hans Richter
Subject: Rustry Shutz back working with USAID, how is that possible

Need all what USAID can provide, current TOR and status two USAID tenders/proposals, and anything of public information on 1) Georgian New Economic Opportunities 2) Georgian Economic Prosperity Initiative This request is related to corruption in USAID programs, Rustry Shultz (fired in Afghanistan for giving a 3 million dollar loan to one drug dealer, war lord, and who had earlier worked in Georgia with USG funded rural credit program, USDA that was used to fund Chechen fighters and pay for weapons.  It is interesting to note how US governmental funds have been used by ACDI/VOCA in both Georgia and Azerbaijan for things that are illegal under American and local law. This organization was basically run out of both Georgia and Azerbaijan based on earlier track record and may soon be back to working here - with the same kind of wasting of US tax money operations, used and mechanisms as implemented for other purposes.

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Frontline Georgia, NED and Open Society Media: Strange Bedfellows

A front line journalist club in Georgia?

Maybe it's a means of keeping track of who is here.? A watering hole for freelance journos, and one journalist shared with me, I saw a real suspicious guy on a minibus, a European, ... might be a journalist, and this media program stinks to high heaven.  It appears to be controlled by NED, which is  US intelligence, National Endowment for Democracy, and now that opens a can of worms.

"Frontline Georgia is being supported by the Open Society Media Program, the Open Society Georgia Foundation and the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs."...

http://www.media.ge/en/node/38839

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Dirty Culprits and Radioactive Sludge, Tim Blaublatt on BP

Letter to Editor,

Sir,  where better for "muckraking" than your venue, and this does not merit MAJOR blogs or search engines, not baby ones like Eurasia Network, etc.

Please help me sniff out the culprits in the devastation of Hungarian rivers with red bauxite slightly radioactive sludge, entering the Danube River, going through lots of Europe and Ukraine; are talking about PLANET EARTH.

Joni, if we can't expose environmental criminals, with public access info, we can't do diddly squat against the big guys, in any other realm.

Tim Blaublatt, AKA, Tim Blowfalt

"The BP oil spill started out with very little identification of who is responsible for the spill. The media was remiss in this; most media empires are in with the other monopolies, often on the same Board of Directors, say a board member of New York Times on the board of Raytheon or a huge pharmaceutical giant also., so goes the game ....

THE SAME THING IS GOING ON WITH THE HORRIBLE BAUXITE and Aluminum sludge spillover in Hungary. The Hungarian "firm" .... are they responsible, or the main office in Dusseldorff Germany? The foreign minister of Hungary was on BBC saying they will research how much responsibility the true owners of MAL Rt. are obliged to fess up to.

DO WE WANT YET ANOTHER BP RISK FREE RAPING OF THE EARTH?

Hungary's MAL Rt. is 15-year-old aluminum company, please consider

By ALISON MUTLER (AP) – 13 hours ago
BUCHAREST, Romania — MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, is a privately held company founded in 1995 as Hungary began to sell off state assets after the 1989 fall of communism.
It has three alumina facilities in Hungary that were acquired from the state, including the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the western town of Ajka where a waste reservoir burst Monday, spewing toxic red sludge across three villages. Four people were killed, 150 injured and three are still missing in the disaster.
The company mostly does business in Europe, with some 75 percent of its products exported to Western Europe. MAL Rt. owns or has shares in alumina companies in other Balkan countries including Bosnia, Slovenia, and Romania. It also has an office in Duesseldorf, Germany that promotes its products, according to its website.
The company insists on its website that red sludge is not considered toxic waste according to European Union safety standards and there was nothing it could have done differently to prevent the reservoir from failing. The firm called the disaster "a natural catastrophe."
Red sludge is a waste product that results when bauxite is refined into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Treated sludge is often stored in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil.
Heading its website is a message offering condolences to the victims and apologizing for "those who suffered damages or injury in any way."
Martin Ruemmelein is the company's CEO and the company is 100 percent Hungarian-owned, the website says. Its headquarters are in Ajka.
Police say they have confiscated some company documents after the spill.
Alumina plants are scattered around the world, with the 12 largest concentrated in Australia, Brazil and China. The plant in Hungary ranks 53rd in the world in production, according to industry statistics.
On the Web:
http://english.mal.hu/Engine.aspx

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/06/101697/white-house-squelched-release.html#ixzz11kdAt51y

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Vast Protection Racket thanks to the American People

Typical MO of how to lose the war against terrorism and make money in the process

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_bi_ge/us_us_afghanistan_contractors

ArmorGroup, based in McLean, Va., lost a separate contract this year protecting the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after allegations surfaced that guards engaged in lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.

Susan Pitcher, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, ArmorGroup's parent company, said the company only engaged workers from local villages upon the "recommendation and encouragement" of U.S. special operations troops.

Pitcher said that ArmorGroup stayed in "close contact" with the military personnel "to ensure that the company was constantly acting in harmony with, and in support of, U.S. military interests and desires."

The allegation that contractors rely on warlords for local hiring is not new. Last June, a Democratic House investigation led by Massachusetts Rep. John Tierney concluded that trucking companies had "little choice" but to pay local warlords "in what amounts to a vast protection racket."

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Extradiction or Damage Control, Viktor Bout

He may walk free and both the US and Russia will be both happy!

Too much in common in using this arms dealer as a go-between, and especially now where he will be needed to assist in gearing things up for shipments of weapons via Georgia for use in Afghanistan and other hotpots around the world.

Thailand: Arms-Smuggling Suspect Is a Step Closer to U.S. Extradition
By THOMAS FULLER
October 5, 2010

A Thai court on Tuesday dismissed a second set of charges, money laundering and wire fraud, against Viktor Bout, the Russian businessman accused of running arms-trafficking networks across the world, removing another obstacle to his extradition to the United States. Washington had expected Mr. Bout's rapid extradition, but the case has spurred a tug of war with Moscow, which does not want him to go on trial in the United States, most likely because he is thought to know much about Russia's restructured intelligence system.

ihttp://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/200050/pm-russia-unsatisfied-with-bout-case
Thai court's decision to drop money laundering and fraud charges against Mr Bout on grounds of insufficient evidence and that the Russian will be free within three days.
The court on Tuesday however dropped the second charges against Mr Bout due to a lack of evidence and the defendant must be released within 72 hours unless the prosecutors wanted to appeal-- which could be done within 30 days.
The next step, the Thai premier said, he has to wait and see whether or not the United States will appeal the ruling and whether the procedure will last longer than November 20, the deadline for Mr Bout's extradition to the US under the court ruling on the first case of arms trading

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"Can we say no to a war school?"

Four Georgian servicemen were killed in Afghanistan on mine explosion, the Georgian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement early on October 1.

Joni's Commentary:

I does appear that 'Onward Christian Soldier' is for the sake of gaining unearned NATO membership with the price of innocent blood. Such a policy demonstrates  a willingness to use Georgians as cannon fodder in a hopeless war that is already being written off by the West. Everybody knows that it is time to leave and let the locals and regional players sort out the mess in the wake of failed US policy and military operations.

The international community needs only to take a look back and remember a a Russian film call "Afghanski Izlom" (Afgan Breakdown) and how it showed the frustration and futility of trying to hand control back to the locals and how soon betrayal resulted.

The body count may be just the tip of the iceberg of information to come. There will be recriminations at home for a small nation that is tightly knit and with the logistics lines being shifted to Georgia, Georgians contribution to this war

See full article here 

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=22715

The latest deaths bring to five the number of Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, since joining the NATO-led operation in November, 2009. Georgia suffered its first casualty in early September. At least three Georgian soldiers have been wounded

"Can we say no to a war school?"

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=22666

"Of course someone may say: 'we have so many problems, our territories are occupied and there is no time now for going somewhere else to fight'. But because of these very same problems that we have, we need a huge combat experience my friends and that's [Afghan mission] is unique combat and war school. Georgia is not in a situation of Norway, Denmark, or Australia. Take a look at our situation, our challenges and threats – can we say no to our armed forces and can we say no to a war school? This is an opportunity to become integrated to the world's best armies, to see the most advanced [military] equipment and achievements," Saakashvili said.

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How Georgia pays for weapons?

 Oh What a tangle web we weave!!! Golden Rule: He who has the gold rules!!!

I know these links and any details to current events, I understand that there is a big link with overseas transfers of money - these included connections with Gazprom, QuartzigLtd and Levan Mamaladze, and connections with the current Georgian government.

As a journalist you can appreciate that lifting the lid on a can of worms is usually difficult - and this is especially the case with high level political corruption, and it is hard to say quite how worm-ridden this sector actually is.

I will look forward to any additional insight into these links - and I even understand that some of this gold was used to support the Pankisi operation, and justification for the US train and equip program  - which was a safe haven for Chechen and international terrorist a few years ago, and paid for by the American People. USAID.

Can you give me more information on the three brothers?

Michael - in the UK - his history with Peter Shaw (agribusiness bank, Tbilcredit bank - that was connected with Russian intelligence and Azot (fertilizer plant (Itera/Gazprom). I understand that there is some connection with Saakashvili's brother who was employed in the UK by BP at the time, and that is but the beginning of this story.

THE FINANCIAL BRAINS BEHIND THE 3 BROTHERS,  AND HELPED ARRANGED THE AGREEABLE KIDNAPPING OF PETER SHAW. BOTH RECEIVED A LOT OF MONEY FROM THE DEAL, THEN MICHAEL MOVED TO THE UK TO MAINTAIN HIS LINKS WITH SHAW. TBILCREDIT BANK PROVIDED MONEY TO AZOT, (Nitrongen Fertilizer PLANT) THEN CONSOLIDATED CONTROL TOOK OVER THIS PROVIDED AND CYANIDE TO BOLNISI GOLD AT VERY INFLATED PRICES, AGAIN WITH HIS BROTHER GIORGI AND NORMAN SECKOLD OF BOLNISI, ALL BENEFITING FROM THE PRICE HIKE.

Giorgi - as you said - connected with the Gold cup scam and Bolnisi gold (the gold was not only from the ground but a stock swindle with various Australians stakeholders, and this was a investment - Quartzig Ltd. Madnevli Mines is or was David Lobenzdze and Levan Mamaladze (and my information has it that he was supplying Georgian passports to various transiting Arabs - and this was also with Investbank - and that is owned by London International Bank in the UK

 GIORGI RAN QUARTZITE, THE GEORGIAN JV PARTNER WITH BOLNISI, PART OF MADNEULI. HE WAS CUT OUT OF THE GOLD LOBENIDZE STOLE, SO INFORMED ON HIM TO THE GOVERNMENT.

Levan, Head of Foreign Investment at the State Chancellery for the Georgian Government.

Was not Saakashvili's father working in the Chancellery at this time - what is the nexus, if any?

Investment/London International Bank/The chain of operations include the following:

What is the nexus with Silk Road Bank?

Same- what is nexus with David Lobenidze/Georgian intelligence?

THESE MATTERS I DO NOT KNOW ABOUT.

I think we are looking at but the tip of the iceberg in these matters.

Aside form the dear:

I understand that you are looking into corruption re. a Golden Cup financial scam in Georgia in the early 1990's, and how it is linked to Madneuli Mining and a major theft of gold from the Georgian Government.

There are several parties to these linked scams - Norman Seckold, CEO of Bolnisi Gold in Australia, Giorgi Mgaloblishvili, General Director of Okra Taci (Golden Cup) and of Mdaneuli Mining and the biggest Georgian shareholder in Bolnisi Gold, his brother Mikhail, former Deputy Chairman of TbiliCom Bank, close after 5m USD was stolen from the bank, and their 3rd. brother Levan, Head of Foreign Investment at the State Chancellery for the Georgian Government. Other parties are Mamuladze, former Governor of Bolnisi, now in exile in Moscow and wanted for many crimes in Georgia, and David Lobenidze, under house arrest in Switzerland after stealing possibly up to $40m. of gold from Bolnisi/Georgian Government, and believed part owner of London International bank, majority shareholder in Investbank in Georgia, engaged in laundering money in and out of Georgia.

I hope this is useful - I am based in the UK and write as a freelance journalist on Eastern European financial corruption.

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