Israel, Corruption, Olmerde, vanishing US$58 MN and "Jobi" and some Dots to join.

The World Bank is concerned about the corruption of Governments,on May 9th 2005 they produced the last of regular reports of 209 countries between 1996-2004.

Beginning in the late nineties they began to develop and analyze measures for six components of good governance:

1. Voice and Accountability - measuring political, civil and human rights
2. Political Instability and Violence - measuring the likelihood of violent threats to, or changes in, government, including terrorism
3. Government Effectiveness - measuring the competence of the bureaucracy and the quality of public service delivery
4. Regulatory Burden - measuring the incidence of market-unfriendly policies
5. Rule of Law - measuring the quality of contract enforcement, the police, and the courts, including judiciary independence, and the incidence of crime
6. Control of Corruption - measuring the abuse of public power for private gain, including petty and grand corruption (and state capture by elites)

Naturally such reports don't hit the headlines but this one did in Israel because the World Bank had decided that Israel was one of the most hazardous nations, citing its unstable and inefficient government and its relatively high level of corruption among its leadership, as well a low ranking in law enforcement.

On every single index Israel scored way below every developed nation, for example regarding government corruption, which includes the use of authority to achieve private and personal profits, Israel was given a score of 80.8 percent. Italy scored lower at 74.9 percent, while the average rank among developed countries was 91.4 percent.

Israel also scored the lowest among all Western nations regarding political stability, which includes the risks the government faces with regard to foreign sources, such as terror, bombings and local violence, with a rank of a mere 15 % – far from the average score of 83.5 %

At the time the report was produced Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, research director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem pointed out that not only were standards bad but had been worsening.

A significant decline was registered since 1998 in all six governance indicators used by the World Bank: Voice and Accountability (from 76 to 60); Political Stability (from 30 to 15); Government Effectiveness (from 84 to 81); Regulatory Quality (from 74 to 72); Rule of Law (from 83 to 74); and Control of Corruption (from 88 to 79). All figures on a 0-100 scale where 100 is ideal; Finland scores over 97 on all six measures!)

So when the headlines in the Daily Telegraph today report the well known case of Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert , ex Mayor of Jerusalem being able to buy a garden flat two years ago for $1.2 million even though the market price at time was $1.8 million no one in Tel Aviv is very surprised.. This favourable price reduction was allowed by the developer , it is alleged because he used his influence to allow the building containing the apartment to be redeveloped in spite of planning restrictions.

Israeli state comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss, who is investigating the case, said Mr. Olmert would be questioned concerning these allegations - which surfaced 2 years ago.

This is not the first time is the not the first time Ehud Olmert has been accused of corruption. An earlier claim was investigated and dismissed by the state comptroller.

At the same time Haim Ramon, the Israeli justice minister, and close aide and friend of Ehud Olmert is to resign, one day after the attorney general decided to indict him over accusations of sexual harassment.

"The minister has decided to tender his resignation on Sunday in keeping with his decision to renounce his parliamentary immunity,"

spokesman Tzahi Moshe told the press today.

Menachem Mazuz, the Israeli attorney-general, on Thursday decided to indict Haim Ramon over accusations of sexual harassment lodged by a woman soldier, in keeping with the recommendation of a police investigation.

On Tuesday, the FBI in the US issued an all countries alert calling for the arrest of Jacob "Jobi" Alexander, the former chief executive, who is suspected of fleeing the country - he and two other directors are wanted to answer questions on backdating stock options - a recently discovered way of defrauding shareholders but long practised it seems. In late July, Jacob wired $57 million to an account in Israel, according to court filings from the Justice Department. He is now said to be in Israel , which does not of course have an extradition agreement with any country.

Comverse, founded in Israel by Jacob had Mossad connections, and acquired another Mossad connected firm, Odigo, shortly after it was revealed that Odigo employees had been forewarned of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 2001 - and may have alerted many other Israelis in the US an especially people who worked in the WTC.

It is a recorded fact that only one Israeli citizen was killed in the WTC towers, a major financial NY finacial centre. (Out of which the retail store of Estee Lauder had only just departed before 9/11)

Odigo, like many Israeli software companies, is based and has its Research and Development (R&D) center in Herzliya, Israel, the small town north of Tel Aviv. Which is where you can find the Headquarters of Mossad.

You will also find Mossad's Interdisciplinary Center (IDC).The IDC, a private, non-profit university is headed by Shabtai Shavit, former head of the Mossad from 1989 to 1996, and is called the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism and was called the International Centre for Terrorism Studies (ICTS).

The IDC also has a "Marc Rich Center for the Study of Commodities, Trading and Financial Markets" and a "Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy." Marc Rich, a resident variously of Switzerland and Israel, is the fugitive financier who was pardoned from massive US tax bills, by President Clinton in his farewell rasberry to the US voters.The cosmetics magnate Ronnie Lauder, who was a major financial supporter of Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his far-right Likud Party, founded the Lauder school.

So if like Jacob you have wired US$58 Mn and you want to skip the country you send the money to Israel and head for Lod Airport and the corrupt Government of Israel where rumour has it you can become a citizen overnight ... for a shekel or two. ?

Well yes, but only if you are a Jew. Hell they don't want the country full of non kosher crooks, they have enough to be going on with of their own, maybe that's why they built that fucking big wall.

JOIN THE DOTS

ICTS (UK) Limited, South Block, Entrance D, Tavistock House,Tavistock Square, London,WC1H 9LG is a subsidiary of ICTS International which is the company that was developed from Fraport AG, the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport which was split off from ICTS Europe Holdings B.V., (NASDAQ: ICTS) which Nasdaq Stock Market said that it was delisting the securities of the Company because the Company had not filed it's annual report on Form 20-F for the period ended December 31, 2005 as required by Marketplace Rule 4320(e)(12). They are still quoted but barely traded at present.

INFRACO JNP LIMITED, is Tube Lines, is a PFI joint venture between specialist public services provider Amey and U.S. private industrial firm Bechtel, and the Mayor of LOndon (who was on his way back from Singapore and Olympics triumph on 7/7/05) they have business associations with ICTS (UK) Limited and their subsidiary Fortress GB Ltd.,

Mr Oded Shoham, was Col. Shoham and was the former head of the Technological Research, Development and Implementation Center of the Israel Defense Forces' Intelligence Corps. He was CEO , ICTS Technologies USA, Inc. part of ICTS Europe Holdings B.V which (confusingly) changed it's name in May 2005 to i-sec Technologies BV of which he is CEO.

Clue. A bus blew up in Tavistock Square on 7/7/05.