Did EADS Bribe Officials To Sell Fighter Jets To Austria?

New Allegations Haunt EADS Fighter Jet Deal -- Spiegel Online

In the corruption scandal surrounding the sale of Eurofighter jets to Austria, more and more information suggests that European defense giant EADS may have played a role in bribery aimed at securing the lucrative contract. The affair has the potential to damage the company's image and its bottom line.

When Tom Enders receives mail from Vienna these days, he doesn't expect it to contain good news. And so it was again last week, when the CEO of European aerospace and defense group EADS read with some trepidation a letter from Austrian Economics Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner.

In his missive, Mitterlehner spoke of doubts and suspicions -- and he had a concrete demand. He urged Enders to personally clear up the matter as quickly as possible

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My Comment: Huge sums of money .... politicians eager to have some in their pocket .... a company eager to give some (or so it appears) .... not a good recipe.

Afghanistan Tied For Most Corrupt Country In The World

Afghanistan's Rock-Bottom Global Corruption Ranking -- Frank Vogl, Huffington Post

The 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published yesterday, finds Afghanistan at absolute rock bottom, sharing this dismal place with North Korea and Somalia. Despite the flow to Afghanistan over the last decade of hundreds of billions of dollars of Western -- mostly American -- economic and military aid, this country is a rotten cesspool of corruption.

There is a brutal message here for the architects of Western geo-political strategy in general and for those most responsible for the Afghan debacle in particular. It is a message that should have been learned in Iraq, which is a country that does only modestly better than Afghanistan in the graft rankings today. Despite all the diverse experiences of decades, the harsh fact is that Western powers have a zero success rate in establishing decent governance in poor countries embroiled in conflict that have no history of democratic institutions.

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My Comment: NATO is voicing their concerns on Afghan corruption .... but this is nothing new .... and I definitely do not expect this Afghan culture of corruption to change.

Transparency International Has Released It's 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index

Report: Corruption Remains Widespread Global Problem -- Voice of America

WASHINGTON — Anger over corruption has sparked mass demonstrations and even toppled governments in the past few years. But a global study published Wednesday by Transparency International finds the problem remains widespread.

In Pakistan, teacher Bashir Bulti says it takes a bribe to get a job.

Cambodian motorcycle taxi driver Chum Van says police sometimes put the blame for accidents on poor people, regardless of who is at fault.

Pakistan and Cambodia are among 176 nations studied by the anti-corruption group Transparency International.

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More News On Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International points to rampant corruption -- Deutsche Welle
Corruption 'Ravages' Two-Thirds of the World's Countries -- HETQ Online
Most corrupt European Union countries are also the most indebted… no prizes for guessing who’s number one then? -- Daily Mail
Corruption seen as pervasive in crisis-hit EU states -- EUObserver
Greece 'most corrupt' EU country, new survey reveals -- BBC
Greece Plunges in Global Corruption Rankings -- Spiegel Online
Ukraine 144th On Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 -- Ukrainian News
France rated 22nd in corruption list -- The Connexion
Russia ranked 133 in Corruption Index 2012 -- Russia & India Report
Finland shares top spot on transparency list -- YLE
Global corruption remains high in 2012 despite Arab Spring - Transparency International -- Trust Law
UAE leads GCC as the least corrupt country -- Emirates 24/7
Egypt slips in corruption index despite Arab Spring -- Reuters
Singapore 5th least corrupt in the world, least corrupt in Asia -- Channel News Asia
China lower in corruption index -- The Standard
India ranks 94 in list of corrupt nations -- Two Circles
Which Country Is Most Corrupt, and Which Is Least? -- CNBC
And the most corrupt nation this year is.... -- Whitney Eulich, Christian Science Monitor

WNU Editor: Transparency International's website is here.

Can Afghanistan Tackle Corruption?

My Comment: The culture of corruption is so interwoven in Afghanistan that I have zero expectation that it can be tackled in my lifetime. As for the billions that have been sent to Afghanistan .... we in the West must come to the realization that with the exception of educating millions of children (boys and girls) on how to read and write as well as some health/medical programs .... the rest of the money has been spent (on God knows what) or embezzled.

Corruption Pays In China

Corruption In China Isn’t Just a Local Story -- Max Boot, Commentary

Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, must have felt like he was hit by a political hurricane last week when the New York Times published a front-page story claiming that he and his family control a fortune of at least $2.7 billion.

While it has been generally known that the Communist Party elite were acquiring considerable wealth, that is still an eye-popping amount. All the more so because it is hardly an aberration. As my Council on Foreign Relations colleague Elizabeth Economy notes in a trenchant blog post on the Wen scandal, “the annual 2011 Hurun report on the wealthiest Chinese reveals that the top seventy members of the National People’s Congress are worth a combined total of $89.8 billion; in contrast, the net worth of the top 660 U.S. officials is only $7.5 billion.”

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Update: China's People's Daily launches attack on The New York Times -- The Telegraph

My Comment: Everyone who is familiar with China knows that the country is essentially ruled by about 800 - 1,000 families .... and that much of the "real wealth" is controlled by this group. By publicizing this news, The New York Times went into an area that is never broached in China and rarely abroad .... and naturally .... the Chinese leadership (who are all culpable with this greed) .... are reacting in the only manner that they can .... condemn and threaten.

A Culture Of Corruption

Combating Corruption -- Roger Bate, The American

Corruption threatens freedom and economic growth around the world.

Frank Vogl has spent more than half his life exposing and fighting corruption — first as a journalist, then with the World Bank, and finally with Transparency International, which he cofounded. His book about his experiences, Waging War on Corruption, does not disappoint.

The book is a history of both those who have fought corruption — the dangers they faced and the obstacles they overcame — and of the people exposed. From Watergate to the Arab Spring, Vogl was either directly writing about or otherwise exposing the corruption involved.

Vogl explains the problem thus:

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My Comment: In my travels I have always found that societies that have a greater portion of their GDP dependent on government is where the corruption is the worst. Free economic policies replaced by a political economy is a guarantee that a culture of corruption will flourish and grow.