Saturday 20th of April 2024
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pizza with the lot .....

pizza with the lot .....

‘The British government was facing awkward questions last night over an arms deal involving a British company licensed by the Department of Trade and Industry to import weapons but which was also selling machine guns to an Iraqi official later implicated in an alleged $1.1bn (£545m) corruption scandal.

A committee of MPs and Amnesty International have both demanded to know whether the deal breaches either the UN arms embargo on Iraq or British government export laws. They want to know who was involved in the deal and what safeguards are in place to ensure arms exports negotiated by British companies through foreign intermediaries reach their intended destination.

PMS was licensed by the DTI, now known as the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), to import at least 40,000 assault rifles and AK-47s to Britain from the former Yugoslavia.

Last night the department declined to shed light on whether it knew that, in 2005, PMS also had at least one contract to supply some 300 7.62mm light-machineguns from the former Yugoslavia to Cattan at the Iraq Defence Ministry. Until mid-2005, Cattan, who used to run a pizza parlour in Poland, was responsible for overseeing the importation of weapons into Iraq. A warrant has been issued for his arrest amid allegations he illegally made millions of dollars in corrupt deals.’

British Firm Under Scrutiny For Export f Bosnian Guns To Iraq

now what was that about Iran …..????

rebuilding Iraq with pizza boxes....

February 15, 2009
Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers
By JAMES GLANZ, C.J. CHIVERS and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.

Court records show that last month investigators subpoenaed the personal bank records of Col. Anthony B. Bell, who is now retired from the Army but who was in charge of reconstruction contracting in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 when the small operation grew into a frenzied attempt to remake the country’s broken infrastructure. In addition, investigators are examining the activities of Lt. Col. Ronald W. Hirtle of the Air Force, who was a senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004, according to two federal officials involved in the inquiry.
....
 “Fifty thousand dollars delivered in pizza boxes to secure contracts,” said the former associate, a consultant in the arms business with whom Mr. Stoffel sometimes worked in the former Eastern bloc. “Of course, it just looked like a pizza delivery.”

It was Mr. Stoffel’s experience with Eastern bloc weaponry that helped him win a contract to refurbish Iraq’s Soviet-era tanks as part of a program to rebuild Iraq’s armed forces. Mr. Stoffel’s company remains locked in a dispute over payments it says are owed by the Iraqi government.

His problems with American officials were what led him to make the accusations of corruption. Mr. Stoffel, the associate said, “was trying to do this as quietly as possible, to blow the whistle.”

“He knew enough about what was going on, and he was getting pretty frustrated.”

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See toon at top... And note the article does not mention who killed Mr Stoffel in Iraq...

more news about aussie pizza margherita from napoli...

An Australian chef has won this year's award for the best Pizza Margherita at the World Pizza Championship in Italy.

The annual competition, which took place this year in the Italian city of Parma, attracts hundreds of entrants from around the world. The international panel of judges decided the winner in the traditional Neapolitan pizza category was Johnny Di Francesco, who runs a restaurant in Melbourne, Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper reports.

But local pride was not all lost, as the Di Francesco family hails from Naples and the chef himself trained in the city's prestigious Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. His recipe firmly follows tradition - and with good reason - as Neapolitan pizza won EU 'Traditional Speciality Guaranteed' status in 2010. This strictly defines the ingredients and manner of cooking - the pizza must be baked in a wood-burning stove and have a smooth, supple texture.

Italian honour was bolstered by the judges' decision that the best classic pizza is still made in Italy, in the south-eastern port city of Bari, to be precise. Chef Giulio Scialpi's creation of various cheeses, aubergine and anchovies won him the prize he "craved since first entering the championship in 2000". The two runners-up in this category were also Italian.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26994571

 

The toon at top is uncooked.