Federal DOJ document being IGNORED and laws broken as ASARCO toxic land given over to NAFTA concerns

"The court document also revealed that Asarco was authorized to sell 125.9 acres in West El Paso to Megacon LLC for $4.1 million."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_12855969

"Megacon, LLC
Incorporated by [??] , Megacon, LLC is located at 4023 Tampa Rd Ste 2400 Oldsmar, FL 34677. Megacon, LLC was incorporated on Thursday, March 27, 2003 in the State of FL and is currently not active. F & L Corp. represents Megacon, LLC as their registered agent.

Source: Public Record data from Florida Department of State - Division of Corporations" http://www.corporationwiki.com/Florida/Oldsmar/megacon-llc-4503844.aspx

However, there is a "MegaCon" http://www.megacon.com/  that makes electronic parts internationally.  Here are just the Asia companies:  GUANGDONG PROVINCE, PRC  Guamgzhou Gaotian Hign Tech Development Industries Company Limited, PAKISTAN ZEB TRADERS, SINGAPORE Pan-Amp Control Pte Ltd, INDONESIA PT Panamptara Kontrol, MALAYSIA Pan-Amp Controls Sdn Bhd, KOREA Dongnam Engineering, TAIWAN LUNG-TEH SHIPBUILDING CO. LTD

news- Feinstein Says Law May Have Been Broken

"July 13, 2009
By MARIA NEWMAN

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said on Sunday that the Bush administration may have broken
the law if the Central Intelligence Agency concealed a covert spy
program from Congress.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the agency's current
director, Leon E. Panetta, had told the Senate and House intelligence
committees that the C.I.A. withheld the information about a secret
counterterrorism program on direct orders from then Vice President Dick
Cheney."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/us/politics/13cheney.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Google Alert - PEMEX Natural Gas

Mexico's Pemex To Take Bids On Corindon Gas Block In Sep: WSJ ...
By oswaldoacosta
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)–State-run Petroleos Mexicanos will receive bids in September for the Coridon natural gas project in northern Mexico, marking Pemex's latest effort to pay outside oil companies to increase gas production. ...

we pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice...

Click for Video

"the pledge to resist:
we believe that as people living in the united states it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names.

not in our name will you wage endless war.
there can be no more deaths.
no more transfusions of blood for oil.

not in our name will you invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children, letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless.

not in our name will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for.

not by our hands will we supply weapons and funding for the annihilation of families on foreign soil.

not by our mouths will we let fear silence us.

not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil.

not by our will and not in our name.

we pledge resistance.
we pledge alliance with those who have come under attack for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity.

we pledge to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice, freedom and peace.

another world is possible and we pledge to make it real."

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

Play Video

"Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
Sooner or later God'll cut you down"

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnnycash/godsgonnacutyoudown.html

Asarco bidding war (was there ever one?) may be over...

Google News Alert for: asarco

Sterlite not to raise Asarco bid further Business Standard - Mumbai,Maharashtra,India The bidding war for Asarco, the US-based copper miner, may be over with Sterlite Industries contemplating not to increase its offer price further and ... See all stories on this topic

---

"Sterlite is bidding for the assets while Group Mexico is bidding for the company, including its entire liability...There has also been a third bidder in the race. New York-based private equity (PE) fund Harbinger Capital Partners had submitted its bid of $500 million in cash and consumption of certain liabilities in May. The PE fund is a key Asarco bond holder but has not revised its offer. It is not expected to have much support from the creditors."

July 11, 2009 Labor News International Unions Escalate Mexico Solidarity

"On a five-day visit to Mexico this week, a delegation of several dozen labor leaders representing millions of workers from the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and South America renewed their backing of Mexican colleagues locked in conflicts with the federal government and the big transnational corporation Grupo Mexico...... ...Pro-Gomez union forces have charged that dissidents are manipulated by Grupo Mexico and anti-labor elements of the federal government....Accompanying the foreign visitors, Mexican senator and longtime human rights  activist Rosario Ibarra charged that almost 100 oil industry workers have “disappeared” since the advent of the Calderon presidency in 2006, because of labor disputes.

Sources: La Jornada, July 9, 10, 11, 2009. Articles by Patricia Munoz Rios
and Carolina Gomez Mena. International Federation of Chemical, Energy,
Mine and General Workers Unions, July 8 and 10, 2009. Press releases.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription email
fnsnews@nmsu.edu"

Ex-DOJ Official Lied to Senate Committee, Broke Federal Laws

"Written by Jason Leopold Tuesday, 13 January 2009 12:26
A scathing report issued Tuesday by the Department of Justice's
inspector general found that a former top official in the agency's civil
rights division lied to a Senate committee and broke federal law by
using a political litmus test to hire and fire employees--a violation of
the very laws he was charged with upholding."
http://www.pubrecord.org/law/618-ex-doj-official-lied-to-senate-committee-broke-federal-laws.html

Dallas News: EPA echoes activists in challenging Texas' air pollution permits ...

Google Blogs Alert for: asarco

EPA echoes activists in challenging Texas' air pollution permits ... By Senator Eliot Shapleigh The EPA retains approval authority over state programs and can formally object to a state-issued permit, as it threatened to do in the case of Asarco's controversial copper smelter in El Paso. That threat came Feb. ...

gambling debts in Bahamas, Las Vegas, Atlantic City

"Foreign investor Mikhail Katamanin, who in May was hit with a $12-million foreclosure lawsuit on his Highland Park mansion, filed a personal bankruptcy petition June 6 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago....  His debts are described as “primarily consumer,” and the list of creditors includes Atlantis at Paradise Island Resort & Casino in the Bahamas, Caesars Palace Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Chicago lawyer Kori Bazanos, who represents Mr. Katamanin, declined to comment. Related story: Lender asserts claim on lakefront mansion"

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34626

"A Caribbean investment company has sued to collect on a $12-million loan ...the property is held in trust by Swiss company Asarco A.G., which Mr. Mikhail [Katamanin] controls, according to the complaint and public records....lawyer Irving Drobny, who represents Asarco, is out of the country until next week, according to employees at his office....The claim also is to be arbitrated in Switzerland, according to the complaint."
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34626

Irving Drobny is the same name as an attorney representing the imperial family of Vietnam.  A Chicago Attorney by that same name also serves as legal council for a Dallas Texas firm, "Transpacific Group" or TPEG. [" TPEG, headquarter in Dallas- Texas, with auxiliary office in HCMC, Vietnam, has played a very important role of great and effective business link and supports to enterprises and entrepreneurs in both sides of the Pacific." http://www.tpeginc.com/aboutus.html

PLAIN AND SIMPLE WAS ILLEGAL TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE

About Asarco's "clarification"  published in EP Times Tuesday July 7, 2009 (1B):   Rep. Reye's comments about that same GAO report said it all: "Asarco was able to hide its activities from El Pasoans...Asarco paid out millions of dollars on the condition that details of its activities would not be released to the public" (Reyes official statement Nov 13, 2007). 

Asarco still wants us to believe it didn't happen.  But in 2006 the Federal Government broke eight years of silence and gave me a formerly confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only EPA-DOJ Asarco document (NYTimes 10/06).  The EPA told the Federal Dept. of Justice, "THIS ACTIVITY PLAIN AND SIMPLE, WAS ILLEGAL TREATMENT and DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE." and that "IT APPEARS THAT ASARCO BENEFITED SUBSTANTIALLY" (google "secret asarco document" on the internet).  

Asarco signed the consent decree on conditions that details of what they had done would never become public.  The secret is out.  God only knows what poisons rained down on Cd. Juarez and the communities of Sunland Park and El Paso from those years of illegal activity.

Asarco's "clarification" is all about closure and not about disclosure.

The East Liverpool OH Toxic Waste Incinerator was not allowed to handle the stuff that was secretly sent to Asarco El Paso for burning --

[The East Liverpool OH Toxic Waste Incinerator was not allowed to handle the stuff that was secretly sent to Asarco El Paso for burning -- the stuff sent to El Paso had to be very very bad.  Why won't our Environmental Agencies disclose what chemicals are left in our Paso del Norte Environment from those years of secret waste burning at Asarco?]

"NEWS RELEASE
For Release:November 20, 1998

Media Contact: Jim Leach (614) 644-2160
Citizen Contact: Patrick Gallaway (614) 644-2160

Ohio EPA to Answer Questions, Hear Comments on Modified Permit for WTI

Ohio EPA will hold an information session and public hearing on Monday, December 14, 1998, in East Liverpool, regarding hazardous waste permit changes requested by Waste Technologies Industries (WTI) [East Liverpool OH Toxic Waste Incinerator], 1250 St. George Street, East Liverpool, Columbiana County.

The December 14 meeting will be held at East Liverpool Middle School, 810 West 8th St., East Liverpool.

Ohio EPA issued a draft modified permit to WTI on November 13, 1998. If the modified permit becomes final, it would authorize WTI to accept, store and treat lab pack wastes. A "lab pack" is a package of one or more small jars, bottles or cans containing chemicals generated by laboratories, research facilities and other commercial and industrial activities. WTI would only be authorized to accept lab packs containing wastes it is already permitted to accept. Wastes not authorized for acceptance at WTI include:

• shock-sensitive materials;
• chemical munitions controlled by the Department of Defense or residue derived from such munitions[this is the kind of stuff sent to El Paso's Asarco smelter];
• explosives in quanitities greater than two pounds per outer container or primary explosives;
• asbestos, dioxins, mustard gases, compressed gases, PCBs greater than 50 parts per million, war gases, radioactive waste or infectious waste;
• certain flammable wastes; and
• waste streams with concentrations of bromoform, Freon 11 or Freon 12 greater than 500 parts per million each.

At the information session, Ohio EPA will answer questions about WTI's proposed changes and the hazardous waste permitting process. The hearing will follow the information session and will give the public the opportunity to comment on the proposed permit modification for the record. The meeting will start at 7 p.m.

Comments may be sent through January 6, 1999, to: Ohio EPA, Attn: Thomas E. Crepeau, Division of Hazardous Waste Management, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus, Ohio, 43216-1049. All comments will be considered before a final decision is made.

The draft permit and related materials may be reviewed at Carnegie Public Library, 219 East 4th Street, East Liverpool. Materials also can be reviewed at Ohio EPA's Northeast District Office, 2110 E. Aurora Rd., Twinsburg, by first calling (330) 963-1200 to make an appointment."

Was there a secret EPA DOJ "confidential-for-settlement-purposes-only document" for Libby Montana's Grace & Co?

W.R. Grace Bankruptcy Judge Says OK to $250M Libby Settlement

Santa Teresa/San Jeronimo International NAFTA City...

From http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2008/nov/Site-Visit/
November 2008:

"What does it say about border relations when one of the first cheerleaders for Hon Hai Precision Industry/Foxconn's new 9,350-worker plant in San Jeronimo, Chihuahua, Mexico, is the governor of New Mexico? 'This is one of many mutually beneficial projects that I and my economic development people have worked with Chihuahua officials to carry out,' said Gov. Bill Richardson in July. 'This is the kind of economic development that is going to bring the New Mexico-Mexico border to the forefront of international trade and development.'  "

http://www.siteselection.com/issues/2008/nov/Site-Visit/images/Hi-Res-Map.jpg

Verde Group

"William [D., or "Bill"] Sanders, a real estate developer who brought his Verde Realty Group to El Paso [was]...a driving force in developing the Paso Del Norte Group. Sanders, who originally is from El Paso but made his fortune in Chicago, brought a model from that city -- the Commercial Club, a storied organization of great influence in that city. He is the co-founder of the Paso del Norte Group."

http://www.pasodelsur.com/news/plantimeline.html

see:

Verde Santa Teresa Intermodal Park

Swiss Asarco AG attorney

The Chicago Attorney representing the Swiss Asarco Bank's Chicago lake-front home has the same name as the attorney representing the imperial family of Vietnam.
http://vcml.homestead.com/

"May 19, 2009  .... the property is held in trust by Swiss company [bank] Asarco A.G., which Mr. Mikhail [Katamanin] controls....Northbrook lawyer... who represents Asarco, is out of the country until next week, according to employees at his office....The claim also is to be arbitrated in Switzerland, according to the complaint."
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=34091

Hon Hai (Foxconn) Vietnam 5 Billion expansion plan

"Hon Hai (Foxconn) Vietnam mega-site update

August 30, 2007
Taiwanese firm Hon Hai (also known by the trade name Foxconn) recently announced plans for a US$5 billion five-year expansion in Vietnam. This is considerably more than its previous Vietnam investment announcement of US$1 billion. To date, Hon Hai has already invested $200 million in Vietnam.   It is reported Vietnam can provide Hon Hai with 2,000 hectares of land."

http://www.ventureoutsource.com/contract-manufacturing/industry-pulse/2007/hon-hia-foxconn-vietnam-mega-site-update

Smeltertown

"There once was a very small village named Smeltertown on the highway below Asarco.....The village and the school have been torn down. They found lead in the blood of many children and I know some of them died too young because I kept up with them...."

http://familiacortez.com/wordpress/

Copy of a letter sent to EPA Thursday June 25th

"Mr. Luthans,

The report you sent me from 2002 reflects that the EPA (deliberately) used a non-standard EPA-sampling grid.  The EPA did not use the standard grid that the EPA usually did.   Many sites - most within the direction of ASARCO's main plume -- were left out.  That report also sampled City Parks with new sod and dirt.   Also, that report fails to address ground water. 

That 2002 report says that Sunland Park is "safe" --but, back then EPA left-out testing of Anapra/Sunland-Park N.M.; and [your letter] refers to ATSDR as an "expert" when ATSDR has recently been investigated-before-Federal-Congress for faking data.  

I am directing these questions to you because you sat on the La Paz Joint Advisory committee all those years, and were responsible --as the  USA Chair of that Air committee --- for our regional air health, and also are the manager for the only EPA staff local to our region.

The Superfund is not likely to have the data.  The TCEQ told the EPA that the testing was outside their jurisdiction and they turned it over to the EPA who in turn hired a private contractor with high-level security clearance.  Also, dirt is not likely to be the best source -- indoor attic dust, slag-from-a-known-date, and pond sediments are the best sources.  Have any of these been tested?  If not, then why not?

You state that the GAO report I gave you ..."is not a report that addresses risks or wastes that may have been generated at the sites and shipped offsite to facilities such as to the ENCYCLE facility and beyond".  ???  It is enough that the same site(s) that the EPA caught sending illegal wastes to Asarco El Paso are listed, because:  the wastes that ASARCO El Paso burned were UNMANIFESTED (and illegal/secret).  The EPA said that Asarco burned these for years.   Until we get honest testing in this region from our environmental agencies (and so far we haven't had testing for most anything at ALL -- including dioxins, PCBs, mercury, polonium, hexavalent chromium, chromium III and others....) we can't tell what ASARCO left here.

That is your responsibility, and not just Susan Websters; and I hope that you would do everything in your power to back us up and find out what is left here in our community from that illegal/unmanifested burning.  We already know from Rep. Reye's comments that ASARCO paid millions on the condition that the details of what it had done would never be made public -- and, we know that in 1998 the EPA told the DOJ in a confidential-for-settlement-purposes-document about Asarco's illegal activities and then proceeded to keep it secret from our community for the next eight years.   The details are still being kept secret.  That document is now public, and we want the details made public, also."

Grupo Mexico raises bid.... again

"In its latest revised offer fifth in 4 months Grupo Mexico has
increased the cash component to USD 1.46 billion from USD 1.3 billion
and also hiked payouts to asbestos claimants to USD 280 million from USD
250 million.... Sterlite wants to buy the assets of Asarco, Grupo Mexico
is interested in the entire company, including its liabilities.
Creditors will play a crucial role in the sale of Asarco"

http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/06/29/MTAwMzE3/Grupo_Mexico_revises_Asarco_bid_offer_again.html