Iraqi planes found in Serbia, but in pieces By DUSAN STOJANOVIC for The Velvet Rocket BELGRADE, Serbia — Iraqi officials, trying to trace what Saddam Hussein did with the country’s military assets, say they have discovered that 19 of the country’s Soviet-built warplanes were sent to the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s for servicing. But … Continue reading
Category Archives: Politics
In Nuclear Net’s Undoing, a Web of Shadowy Deals
In Nuclear Net’s Undoing, a Web of Shadowy Deals By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER for The Velvet Rocket The president of Switzerland stepped to a podium in Bern last May and read a statement confirming rumors that had swirled through the capital for months. The government, he acknowledged, had indeed destroyed a … Continue reading
Let Slip The Dogs? On The Benefits Of War And Conflict…
Yes, this is intended to be controversial… Let slip the dogs: On the benefits of war and conflict… Despite the provocative title, my actual view is a little more nuanced than that. Before I get started, however, I unfortunately cannot claim to be responsible for this idea on the potential benefits of war. The credit … Continue reading
Guinea “Narcostate” Revealed
When the planes arrived loaded with cocaine, it was Guinea’s presidential guard that secured the cargo. Drug deals were conducted inside the first lady’s private residence and in the president’s VIP salon at the international airport. To avoid detection, cocaine was sent to Europe in the country’s diplomatic pouch. As the people of Guinea sit … Continue reading
Luis Arce-Gómez (The End)
In his pomp he was known as the “minister for cocaine”, a corrupt and ruthless military despot who collaborated with drug cartels and terrorised Bolivia. Luis Arce-Gómez, interior minister in the Andean nation’s 1980-81 dictatorship, made an infamous warning to foes to “walk around with their wills under their arms”. But when the former burly … Continue reading
North Korea and Office 39
Office 39, North Korea’s billion-dollar crime syndicate, pays for Kim Jong Il’s missiles and cognac. By David Rose for TheVelvetRocket.com Appropriately enough, I met Chen Chiang Liu on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it wasn’t at one of the casinos on the Strip that he loved so well; it was in a different kind of building … Continue reading
The Nazi Nuclear Program – How Close Were the Nazis to Developing an Atomic Bomb?
Nazis and the Bomb by Mark Walker for TheVelvetRocket.com This is a schematic rather than a blueprint for an actual atomic bomb, and its unknown creator may have drawn it after the war. But it supports evidence discussed in this article that the Germans sought to develop a nuclear weapon. How close were the Nazis … Continue reading
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