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King Leopold's ghost walks among us

By Owen Paine on Tuesday April 24, 2007 11:12 PM

What gives an empire its oomph? Trans-nat corporations (TNCs) like Freeport McMoran, the world's biggest copper and gold miner and stripper.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-freeport21apr21,0,5229406.story?track=ntottext

Read in the LA Times how these globetrotting boyz expect to face down a sit-in strike at the world's biggest gold mine in West Papua.

The striking tribals are pissed that they get about $200 a month to extract metals in a boom market. Best part: it's all on their own land! Yup, the company has rogered these folks for nearly 40 years, and paid a fortune to local militia types to make their mission bigger and tougher all around, badder then the law.

Operations like this have that fine Mr Kurtz patina, updated to today's faster traffic.

The "free to choose" empire marches on!

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