Hearing that a large corporate are about to make a bid for Virgin Media I decided to find out more about it. It transpires that this corporate is none other than the Carlyle Group. If successful this would be 100 times worse than having your internet access controlled by Faux and Rupert Murdock. In fact look at it this way - Bush and his cronies will dictate what and where you get your information from and it's not rocket science to guess just what kind of information will miraculously be unavailable on the net.

Food for thought for those that are with Virgin media or anyone else that Carlyle have it's greedy criminal eyes on.

It's bad enough that AOL, Comcast, AT/T and SW Bell are seeking to turn the internet into a private network which would undoubtedly involve censorship and a two tier system of "fast and slow pipes" forcing those without wads of money into second class "netizens" being fed a diet of Faux type information, Carlyle would certainly be amongst those corporates who seek to censor or shut down the net's freedom of information.


http://www.hereinreality.com/news/axis.html

http://www.hereinreality.com/familyvalues.html


http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-07-02T172456Z_01_WNAS5153_RTRUKOC_0_UK-VIRGINMEDIA-BID.xml

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2083514,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group


The link above will give those who aren't familiar with this maligned corporate giant some information which may not be available in the future if they have their way.

Here's just an extract from one of the above links that gives an insight into the 'trustworthness' of such a company:

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"Controversy
Critics of the Carlyle Group frequently note its connections to various political figures. Some of the sectors and companies in which it invests are highly sensitive to political activity; indeed, its actions may be viewed as a form of political arbitrage. This may create conflicts of interest when political decision makers have their own personal wealth [1] linked to such investments. Carlyle is the largest private equity firm located in Washington, D.C., its corporate headquarters are located on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Critics refer to Carlyle as a private military contractor, because it owns controlling or partial interests in several military contractors. For example, it used to own United Defense Industries, which was developing the Crusader artillery project. This project was funded in eight consecutive Clinton budgets but was cancelled soon after Bush became president, eliminating the remaining $9 billion of the original $11 billion contract. A much smaller contract was awarded to United Defense to capture technologies developed during the eight years of development.

In the book House of Bush, House of Saud, author Craig Unger states that Saudi Arabian interests have given $1.4 billion to firms connected to the Bush family. Nearly 85% of the $1.4 billion, or about $1.18 billion, refers to Saudi Arabian government contracts awarded to defense contractor BDM in the early to mid 1990s. Carlyle, however, sold its interest in BDM before former President George H. W. Bush joined as an advisor.

Former President George H.W. Bush retired from Carlyle in October 2003. George W. Bush served on the Board of Directors of early Carlyle acquisition Caterair. Bush left the board in 1992 to run for Governor of Texas.

The Saudi Arabian relatives of Osama bin Laden were also investors in Carlyle until October 2001 when the family sold its $2.02 million investment back to the firm in light of the public controversy surrounding bin Laden’s family after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The bin Laden family has publicly disowned the al-Qaeda leader.[citation needed] Osama bin Laden has not publicly known or acknowledged economic interest in Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), whose investments were in part managed by the Carlyle Group until the arrangement was terminated by mutual consent. '

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"When George Bush, Sr. was the Vice President, he was involved in secretly selling weapons to our enemy Iran. The money from the weapons sales went to build a secret army that was trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. This resulted in years of violence and slaughter for many thousands of Central Americans, and it allowed thousands of tons of drugs to be dumped on the streets of America. When he was president, George Bush, Sr. gave a presidential pardon to the others who were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal."

"For many years, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (now DEA) wanted to have Manuel Noriega arrested for drug trafficking, but instead George Bush, Sr. kept him on the CIA payroll. For more than a decade, thousands of tons of cocaine poured onto the streets of America through the Panama Canal while the US government looked the other way. This destroyed the stability of millions of American families, and the repercussions to our society are still being felt today."

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This group is making Billions for the Bushes and friends just on the War on terror alone and have proved time and time again that they have sought profit at the cost of misery to millions. People don't matter and many of their deeds are just about as treasonous as you can get showing nothing but contempt for America's (and the world) interest, democracy and the constitution.Despite it's less than savoury dealings and countless investigations it apprears to survive smelling of roses.

It seems just a matter of time before the freedom of the internet is attacked probably using on some pretext (you guess) and a good measure of corporate control. It's just a matter of 'owning' the gateways and the corporates are pushing hard towards that ultimate goal.

Perhaps we should think a little on who we pay for our internet access. Paying for your ISP to take away your freedom is a price not worth paying. It doesn't matter what your politics are your right to express your views is what counts and that is most certainly under serious threat.