CORRUPTION

International Affairs Forum Fall 2016
that we are not paying
enough attention to. There
are individuals involved in
trafficking nuclear components
or radiological materials from
the former Soviet Union who
have become entrepreneurs in
the uranium industry.
Some Russians have bought uranium mines in
Australia. These same groups are active in Africa
and it is not clear who their customers are and
what they plan to do with this material.
We are not just looking at a problem that exists
within the confines of the Soviet Union. Some
individuals involved in high-level corruption
involving WMD, for example, former Russian
Atomic Energy Minister, Yevgeny Adamov, had
global linkages. Indications are that corrupt and
criminal networks around him may be involved in
other areas of the world where there are uranium
mines and where they may be trafficking in
uranium to what we would call rogue states.
There are quite a number of examples in
which low-lying corruption in the United
States helped facilitate the [9/11] attacks.
You have found that corruption in the US was
actually related to the success of the 9/11
attacks. Would you expand?
There are quite a number of examples in which
low-lying corruption in the United States helped
facilitate the attacks. A key example is that
perpetrators of 9/11 got on the airplanes with
driver’s licenses that they should not have had.
The reason they had them is because there
was corruption in the Motor Vehicles Division
in Northern Virginia. I knew about this problem
in the late 1990’s because I was working on
human trafficking training with law enforcement
from immigration. They were saying, “we’re so
busy working on deportation of people who have
come out of prison for homicide and very serious
offenses, that we do not have time to look at lowlying
corruption that is in our local DMV where
driver’s licenses are being given to many people
who should not have them. There are busloads
of illegal migrants who, because of corrupt links
between human smugglers and employees of the
DMV, are getting driver’s licenses that allow them
to be able to work.” The terrorists benefitted from
this to get their driver’s licenses.
The corruption was reported in the press after
9/11 but nobody really grasped the implications
of this information. But if the INS investigator had
not been told to ignore this low-lying corruption,
then there would not have been this facilitating
mechanism for the 9/11 hijackers.
Are you working on a new book?
Yes. The book will be about illicit trade and how
it has changed over time. I am analyzing what
has changed in large-scale illicit trade and why it
is more diverse and more harmful to human life
and the sustainability of the planet than before.
It examines the illicit trade in many different
environmental products as well as carbon credits
that are supposed to mitigate climate change.
It will also examine how illicit trade has gone
online and how the virtual world has allowed illicit
trade to scale in a way that’s not been known
previously.
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