Name That Dictator 5

… while blaming the Zionists.

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Libya Saturday blamed sabotage for the fire … and made clear it suspected the United States and Israel. …

JANA, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, quoted a foreign ministry source as saying: “The colonialist states, especially the United States and the Zionist enemy, are doing their utmost to prevent the Arab countries from peaceful development and from using modern technology, even in the manufacture of medicines.” (3/18/90, Chicago Tribune)


 

The meeting came as Iraq accused America and its allies of trying to split the country through military action and sanctions. Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, told the opening of a poetry festival in Baghdad: “The tyrants and the evil of the world, America and the Zionists, and whoever is serving their interests and schemes today seek — as they did in the past and failed — to humiliate Iraq and bring it to its knees by threatening destruction.”(11/25/98, Times of London)

 

Meanwhile, American companies see nothing.

Treasury agents seized the assets of Bay Industries, a Santa Monica engineering firm, on March 22, alleging that the firm had helped the Dictator buy arms for Country X.

The department seized Matrix Churchill, a machine tool company in Cleveland, last September.

Violators of the trade embargo can be fined up to $1 million and/or sent to prison for up to 12 years. (Boston Globe)


 

In what the Justice Department says is the largest known case of unlawful trading with Country X since Washington imposed sanctions, a Texas company made more than 100 shipments between 1994 and 1996 of anti-corrosive pipe coating, machines and parts, to a British company, which sent them on to Country X for the irrigation project, according to court documents. The materials were just the kind that might be needed for the water project, but would also be ideal for the chemical weapons factory, experts say. (New York Times)

Which is Libya and which is Iraq?

Get the answer — and the next scenario.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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