Thursday, April 17th,2014 - I want to thank all of the ‘wikileakers’ in the public service.
And to encourage them to keep ‘wikileaking’, because they’re helping in a most vital way to sink the Douglas dinghy and, in the process, to save the ship of state and the good name of St. Kitts & Nevis.
They ‘wikileaked’ Rustem Tursunbayev, Dr. Arthur Porter, Alizera Moghadam, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, Charles Edward Ergen, Olusawon Ogunbambo, Pourya Nayebi, Houshang Hosseinpour and Houshang Farsoudeh, all of whom, we’re told, are citizens of St. Kitts & Nevis, with at least three of them carrying our diplomatic passports, and all, for one reason or another, having raised red flags or run afoul of authorities in Canada, the USA and/or the European Union.
At least two of the persons named are under prison arrest or house arrest facing extradition on heavy charges for embezzlement, a third is in St.Kitts facing a child abduction charge in the Philippines, while the French Police have a warrant for the arrest of Obiang, and, finally, Ogunbambo is to face trial in Nigeria right about now on massive fraud against the Government of that country.
I apologize if I bore you with details with which you’re already familiar. But I need to do so in order to paint the full picture to date.
Our wikileakers/freedom fighters in the public service also told us that Nayebi, Hosseinpour and Farsoudeh, as well as entities such as Orchidea Gulf Trading, Georgian Business Development, Great Business Deals, KSN Foundation, Caucasus Energy, New York General Trading, New York Money Exchange, European Oil Traders ,as well as the Tadbir Group which is involved in a project in St.Kitts, and others are involved in activities intended to evade sanctions against Iran and Iranian banks, and are on a restricted list of the USA and the EU.
Our wikileakers also told us that up to now, as far as they know, none of these characters, with the exception of Obiang, have been asked to hand in their passports.
In the early 1990s’, a TV network in the USA dubbed St. Kitts ‘Devil’s Island’. I wonder what it would dub St. Kitts today. ‘Gangster Paradise’ maybe?
And while you’d think that an effort would be taken to tidy up the situation, the exact opposite is happening : things are getting uglier. Scandal after scandal. And almost every week, a strange new name is revealed..with deafening silence from the local authorities.
Bad leadership has sown the wind, and 40,000 Kittitians and Nevisians at home, plus maybe twice or thrice that many overseas, are having to reap the whirlwind.
And now, yet another strange name has popped up.
He’s mentioned in a United States Diplomatic Note to the Government of St. Kitts & Nevis dated February 13th,2014. And the section of the Diplomatic Note which refers to him( and others) states:
“…the Department of the Treasury on February 6 designated the following eight individuals and two entities pursuant to E.O. 13224(Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Persons who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism).
Let me repeat : ”persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism”. Terrorism!!!!!
That’s what the US Government has said.
The man’s name is Hamidreza Malekotipour, born in Iran on October 18th, 1960, and the holder of Iranian Passport Number B5660433.
The US document lists five aliases under which he’s known.
Other persons named are: Pejman Mahmood Kosarayanifard, Gholamreza Mahmoudi, Akbar Seyed Alhossdeini, Mahmud Aftkami Rashidi, Alizera Hemmati, Sayed Kamal Musavi (some of who, according to the US Government, are Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) officers operating in Afghanistan and elsewhere), and Olimzhon Adkhamovich Sadikov (the US says that he is a facilitator who moves extremists for the Iran-based al ‘Qaeda network).
Entities connected with Hamidreza Malekotipour are Mahan Airways, Mahan Air General Trading, LLC, and Sirjanco Trading, to name just a few, and all are on the banned list.
Now here’s the thing.
You’d expect that our country, while always protecting and maintaining its integrity, would also be steadfastly sensitive to the geopolitical realities which we face, and the best interests over the long haul for our people.
Failing that, our people will pay a heavy price. And they’ve already begun to pay.
Only two days ago, I got a message from a Kittitian woman who was at the time at the US Embassy in Barbados getting a visitor’s visa for her son. The visa was granted but she was told that her son’s passport was, as far as the US is concerned, not sufficient to get her son into the US, because it does not bear the place of birth of her son. And she was told that for the youngster to be allowed entry, he’ll have to present his birth certificate in addition to his passport, every time he wishes to enter the US.
Was it a good idea, therefore, to procure and issue passports with no place of birth entered in them? What was the real reasoning behind it? Was it to please some of these people who wish to have our economic citizenship but who prefer not to have their places of birth shown?
So as far as Denzil Douglas is concerned, is it that the people whose navel strings are buried here have to take positions subservient to others, and have to be exposed to this embarrassment and jeopardy? It surely seems that way.
This is a deadly serious matter! Indeed, little rumblings coming our way tell us that we’re being watched with eagle eyes, and that visa-free travel by people bearing our passports could be reviewed as early as January,2015.
But there’s more. You know that Iranians have been banned from the economic citizenship program.
Well, guess what.
We’re told that in February, 2014, just two months ago, and in the same month in which the said US Diplomatic Note was sent to the Government, the same Hamidreza Malekotipour became a citizen of St.Kitts & Nevis.
I hope that this information is incorrect, but I put it out there so that the relevant authorities might ease the concern, not only of our citizens, but also of our friends and benefactors in the international community, by publishing an absolute denial that Malekotipour is a citizen, and listing the names of all persons who have been granted citizenship since the ban on Iranians.
If they don’t do that, then we can presume that the man is indeed a citizen. And if he is, then here’s yet another example of the utter recklessness and disregard by our decision makers towards good governance, and towards our strategic relationships in the international community, both of which mean that the Douglas Gang is not looking out for the best interests of our people and may have become too close to certain ruthless, lawless and self-serving foreign interests.
But then again, what’s new, except for the strange names that keep popping up to embarrass and victimize us, and spoil the good name of our little country?
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
