Paul! Say it isn’t so!

One of those who made out like a bandit is a rich Canadian whose bank made millions and whose Paris-based holding companies include the originally French-Belgian oil company TotalFina Elf, which cut lucrative deals with Saddam’s Iraq and is currently operating in war-torn Sudan.

(I hope that someone notices that the UN’s own oil-for-blood investigator Paul Volcker has ties to Power Corporation…)

Top among these is the European-based BNP Paribas bank, which the U.N. chose to administer the program and which reportedly received nearly $1 billion for its efforts.
Congressional investigators reviewing the bank’s actions have discovered broken rules, missing documents and improper transfers by BNP Paribas, which up until now has been assumed to be a French bank.
In fact, BNP Paribas is actually controlled by Power Corporation, an appropriately named Canadian company that has a shocking track record of ‘business’ relationships with the worst gangsters and tyrannical regimes in the world.
BNP Paribas also has one other distinguishing feature: a direct corporate and familial relationship with the persons running the government of Canada for the last 20 years.
The truth about BNP Paribas and Power Corp. sheds a new light on Canada’s seemingly bizarre anti-American foreign policy in the Middle East, in China and elsewhere.
BNP Paribas bank is part of a holding company, Pargesa Holding, which is jointly owned and controlled by the Fr�re and Desmarais families. Paul Desmarais Sr. is the chairman of the group, while Albert Fr�re is the vice-chairman. Gerald Fr�re, Albert’s son, is one of three general managers who oversee day-to-day operations, and Paul Desmarais Jr. is also an officer.
Pargesa, and thus Power Corporation and the Canadian Desmarais family, holds a controlling significant stake in TotalFina Elf, the Belgian-French petroleum multinational corporation formed from the merger of Total and Petrofina.

Read on
My head is still spinning. Desmarais … Power Corp … Paribas … Chretien… Martin …. Canada’s No-War-for-Oil-for-food foreign policy? Who would have thunk it….

Update on the slaying of the Armanious family;

ABC News has learned that a cousin of the slain family has been a translator working for the prosecution in the trial of Lynne Stewart. She is the radical lawyer accused of smuggling messages from imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, to terrorist cell members and associates.

Previous post here.
(via Powerline)
update, via Malkin. All I can say, is that I hope this isn’t related.

A gruesome discovery in New Jersey, as a severed head and body are found near a movie theater in Monmouth County.

Hazlet is only 31 miles from Jersey City. *
Jan.18 update – The Hazlet incident is apparently a bizarre suicide.

Updating the curious discovery that charitable organizations (among others) have been making donations to the Liberal Party Of Canada, Vitor’s efforts have made it to the National Post (subscriber only, unfortunately).
Also mentioned in the article, is something discussed last week in my own comments section – the “circular funding arrangements from the government of Canada to Native and Metis organizations back to the Liberal Party of Canada”. Dust My Broom has been following that angle.
More efforts here, too.

Via Kathy Shaidle, this NY Post angle on a story that has disturbing parallels to the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Van Gogh.

Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found
stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.
Armanious, an Egyptian Christian, was well known for expressing his Coptic beliefs and engaging in fiery back-and-forth with Muslims on the Web site paltalk.com.
He “had the reputation for being one of the most outspoken Egyptian Christians,” said the source, who had close ties to the family.
The source, who had knowledge of the investigation, refused to specify the anti-Muslim statement. But he said cops told him they were looking into the exchanges as a possible motive.
The married father of two had recently been threatened by Muslim members of the Web site, said a fellow Copt and store clerk who uses the chat room.
[…]
“When we saw the pictures, you could tell that they were hurt really, really bad in the face; especially Sylvia,” said Milad Garas, the high-school sophomore’s great-uncle.
The heartless killer not only slit Sylvia’s throat, but also sliced a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross.
Also found murdered were the wife, Amal Garas, and the parents’ other daughter, Monica.
Fred Ayed, the deacon at St. George and St. Shenouda Church, where the deeply religious family attended services, said he’s worried that the murders could have a ripple effect.
“I am concerned for the safety of our community,” said Ayed, who knew Hossam for 30 years. “People are scared because one family was slain like cows,” said Moheb Ghabour, publisher of a local newspaper for the Coptic community.

The NYT has a brief item stating the entire family was bound and gagged, and their throats slit.
Malkin has more.

Alaa;

As for the elections, they are doing their best to intimidate and threaten people. What can be more abominable than this; openly intimidating people from participating in the first truly free elections in the history of not only Iraq but also probably the entire region. And what lame excuses they give! The security situation? But it is you gentlemen who are responsible for the havoc. And; what guarantee can there be if the elections are postponed that the situation will not get worse? In fact, we all know that you will do your damn best to aggravate it further in the vane hope that you might achieve your vile objectives. Fair elections cannot be held under occupation! : As if we ever saw any fair elections when there was no “occupation” for almost a whole century when your minority clan was lording over the people. Besides, Palestinian elections were recently held under Israeli occupation, and we did not see anybody objecting. You are not telling us that the Israeli occupation is better than the presence of the MNF who have liberated the country from your tyranny. Oh, and they want a precise timetable for the MNF to leave. That, we assure you does not stem from any patriotic sentiment. You can be certain that within few hours from the departure of the last American soldier, the old Saddam military and security apparatus will reemerge from their holes, reinforced this time with the vampires of the Bin Laden clan and their likes. The pogrom that would ensue then would be a horror unparalleled in the entire history of genocide and mass murder. In fact, it would be merciful, if our American friends “nuke” the whole place before leaving (to use the cute expression I have read somewhere). That would eliminate the scum while giving the rest of the population a quick death, which is better than the horrible torture that could await them; a kind of mercy killing, you might say: Euthanasia.
Well, I am sorry, but these are horrible thoughts for the New Year. Nevertheless, do not go thinking that we have weakened. This time America is right, and the Iraqi people will never allow the clock to be turned back. No matter what sacrifices are required: We Shall Overcome.
Love to all our friends in America and elsewhere: You shall be proud of the Iraqi people, your grateful friends.

Sadly, it’s hard to tell whether he’s speaking of the terrorists who are targeting the innocent, and slaughtering Iraqi security forces – or to the political left and their co-conspirators in the western media.