[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Defying the petro-mafia

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Defying the petro-mafia
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1199331236.shtml


   Michael Hirsh at Newsweek notes the power of the Petro-Islam Mafia, a
   force [1]more powerful than democracy

     We need to have an honest discussion about the nature of this
     strange state, which contains as much as 20 percent of the world's
     oil reserves. Saudi Arabia has always been a nation run by a
     family, the vast network of Saud princes who operate in a manner
     more reminiscent of the Sopranos than a modern, relatively
     transparent government, says a former senior CIA and FBI official
     with long experience in the country. The Saud family's legitimacy
     is built not on law but on an extremist brand of Islam, Wahhabism,
     in which Osama bin Laden was schooled, much as Tony Soprano's power
     is based on violence. (Remember when people used to talk about
     forcing the Saudis to change their radical Islamist views after
     9/11? Didn't happen. Instead we invaded somewhat secular Iraqâat
     least it was next door to the real problemâand found ourselves
     preoccupied.) Imagine if Tony S. ran much of the world's oil supply
     and used the vast profits to fund more Bada-Bing fronts for
     organized crime all over the world? Don't you think governments
     would band together to stop it? Well, that's not unlike what's
     happening today, with Saudi Arabia's financing of anti-Western
     sentimentâbut no one's doing anything about it, starting with
     George Bush. Simply because it's the Saudi government. Our
     "friends."

   As we've seen in Iraq, the Saudi/al Qaeda mafia can be fought, if
   individuals decide that they're not going to co-operate AND if the
   government backs them up.

   That same tactic is also working [2]against the Mafia in Italy:

     Web, crackdowns weakening Mafia's grip

     PALERMO, Sicily - When it came down to business, Cosa Nostra could
     always count on fear.

     No more

     In a rebellion shaking the Sicilian Mafia to its centuries-old
     roots, businesses are joining forces in refusing to submit to
     demands for protection money called "pizzo."

     And they're getting away with it, threatening to sap an already
     weakened crime syndicate of one of its steadiest sources of
     revenue.

     The Mafia has a history of bouncing back from defeat, but this time
     it is up against something entirely new: a Web site where
     businessmen are finding safety in numbers to say no to the mob....

     ....The businesses are openly defying the Mafia by signing on to a
     Web site called "Addiopizzo" (Goodbye Pizzo), which brings together
     businesses in the Sicilian capital that are resisting extortion.

     The campaign was launched in 2004 by a group of youths thinking of
     opening a pub. They started off by plastering Palermo with
     anti-pizzo fliers, reading "An ENTIRE PEOPLE WHO PAYS THE PIZZO IS
     A PEOPLE WITHOUT DIGNITY," and eventually brought their campaign
     online where it struck a profound chord with Sicilians fed up with
     Mafia bullying.

     Confindustria, the industrialists' lobby, has also boosted the
     movement with a threat to expel members who pay protection money.
     Its Sicilian branch has gone through a list of pizzo-paying
     companies found in a raid on a top Mafia boss' hideout, and this
     month began summoning heads of those companies to demand to know if
     they indeed had been paying and should be drummed out of the
     politically influential lobby...

     ....At the same time, authorities are ratcheting up the pressure on
     business owners, aggressively prosecuting those who refuse to
     testify against the Mafia in clear-cut cases of extortion. Under
     Italian law, a businessman who denies paying up despite flagrant
     evidence â such as being caught on a surveillance tape â can be
     charged with "aiding and abetting" Cosa Nostra.

     "Now it is a bigger risk for us to pay than not to pay," said Ugo
     Argiroffi, an engineer who recently added his Palermo construction
     company, C.O.C.I. to Addiopizzo's list (http://www.addiopizzo.org
     in Italian with an English link).

   As we've seen from Saudi [3]libel tourism, some Sauds are willing to
   go to great lengths to hide the truth about their Petro-Mafia from the
   American public. They know they've got most of our government
   (Republicans and Democrats) in their pockets, but they actually
   believe that ordinary people can change things.

   Strangely enough, they have more faith in us than we have in
   ourselves.

   If we waged an ideological and legal war against the people who manage
   terror-Mafia finances and against the politicians, universities and
   media who take their bribes, we could weaken the Petro-mafia in Saudi
   Arabia and in Iran.

   Speaking of people who have no dignity, as Michael Hirsh notes, we're
   not really friends with the Saudis, we're more like their lackeys. Our
   president claims to support democracy in the area, but he's afraid to
   speak to pro-democracy dissidents because it would offend our
   'friends'. In this political relationship, it's obvious who is in
   control.

   Since the beneficiaries of Saudi bribes are happy with the state of
   things, they have no incentive to change. It's up to us to make them
   do it.

References

   1. http://www.newsweek.com/id/94447
   2. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080113/ap_on_re_eu/italy_defying_the_mafia
   3. http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2006/11/07/libel_tourism_and_the_war_on_terror/