Being Inconvenient. - Comments (1)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 19th February, 2007 @ 04:06:02 AM

It’s an unhappy experience to be inconvenient in large affairs.

I had received an anonymous phone call in 2003 from a longtime employee of the US State Department who told me that the expropriation of my investment was going to be ignored by the State Department due to the diplomatic primacy of the “war on terror.”

At the time, I could not fathom the connection, but as matters played out, I had to consider this analysis was correct. I had turned to Senator Hagel’s office for help, knowing that he was well-placed on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but never considered this could represent a “wag the dog” scenario.

The lights went on for me after getting to know Lou Ann Linehan the hard way.

Lou Ann Linehan

Rexon Ryu had deceived me and others. It was clear by now there was another agenda at work in my matters. I had called Linehan before when having problems coordinating matters withe Hagel’s staff, which turned over in mazing numbers. I had learned of her reputation, and knew of her connection as Powell’s former Chief of Staff, and therefore she had to know everyone who wa anyone in State.

What I didn’t know was the kind of nasty, manipulative schemer she is!
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Who, Oh Who, Is Rexon Ryu? - Comments (1)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 18th February, 2007 @ 12:28:35 AM

Enter Rexon Ryu, a well-placed fellow who worked at the highest levels of the State Department, and who was added from there to Senator Chuck Hagel’s staff after his superior John Bolton accused him of insubordination.

Subesequently, John Bolton was named Ambassador to the UN over the objections of the Democratic party leadership, and Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel. Here is what Senator Hagel said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about Rexon Ryu:

“Well, first, Rexon is a fellow over in my office from the State Department. He is a highly regarded State Department official. He worked closely with Secretary Powell, Deputy Secretary Armitage and others when he was there.
He never mentioned this to me, to his credit. He’s a professional. He never once tried to influence my sense of where Bolton was or anything about Bolton.
This came out independent of any allegation that Rexon made to me or any information he gave me about this. So, there’s no question about how well thought of this young man is.”

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A Diamond In the Rough - Comments (0)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 4th October, 2006 @ 05:13:54 PM

Some people find the right side of an issue just because they have the character to do so: they want to be right; they need to be right.

Don Yamamoto is that sort of person. It merely happens that he is the Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs. You might find a guy just like him at the local power company, or the local Tel-co, holding down the fort, making sure the systems delivering essential services ACTUALLY WORK.
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Niceties & Treachery. - Comments (0)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 14th September, 2006 @ 04:55:15 AM

At the first, solicting help from Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was confusing and complex, to say the least. It took a whole series of calls, and perhaps a couple of weeks to get any attention to my problem. After a few weeks passed without formal protest to the Kenyan government, I knew I was in trouble. In fact, the battle was 90% lost by then.

To this day, the US Government has not protested to the Kenyan government about the expropriation. In fact, it seems to have joined the Kenyan government in covering it up.
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Political Appeal - Comments (0)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 3rd September, 2006 @ 02:09:24 AM

According to US laws and treaties, there are serious sanctions in place for foreign nations that expropriate American assets: like our venture.

In retrospect, it’s only a little bit humorous when one of the first things the acting Deputy Chief of Mission (Virginia Palmer) told me was, “Well, we’re not going to send in the marines, that’s for sure.”
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A Lesson Previously Learned. - Comments (2)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 20th August, 2006 @ 11:35:20 PM

Some paths you only need to explore once.

My investment had been expropriated by a foreign government by police force. There was no subtlety involved at all.

About nine years earlier, we had an incident arise whereby a Kenyan bank simply took money – a lot of money – by crediting our crossed bank cheque to the account of account of a friend of one of the bank’s management, who was clearly not the payee. As we looked into the crime, we discovered the bank was run by a long-time poltical crony of the Kenyatta family.
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Expropriation! - Comments (1)

Category: Behind the Lines,Venture in Africa
Author: John Malone
Date: 27th July, 2006 @ 02:32:17 PM

“Expropriation.”

It’s the one word the U.S. State Department apparently never wants to say.

In early June of 2003, Presidential appointee and political hack Nick Wanjohi, Vice Chancellor of the JKUAT, dispatched campus security to our joint venture operation and forcibly ejected the management of Diamond systems, Ltd. and “suspended” our company, which was a 50% partner.
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