In the movie "Witness" an Amish child is witness to a shooting death and is spirited away home for his own protection. Later his pacifist elders want to know how the boy could act other wise, after all how can you tell which persons are deserving of such. The boy simply replies that he will see by their deeds who is evil and should be struck.

This simple piece of wisdom strikes his elders dumb and they offer no real answer. And today I have learned of actions so evil, no not just, "oh that's wrong that shouldn't happen." Like say disenfranchising voters I mean EVIL.

Vulture Funds. What you never heard of those? Is it perhaps a result of your corperate news media? Yes. Yes it is.

So lets start with the what: What is a Vulture fund? Mr. Palast, Mr. Greg Palast would you please explain what a Vulture fund is?

GREG PALAST: Yeah, vulture fund is a term that’s used for bond speculators who take the bonds, the cheap debt of the third world, that may sell ten cents on the dollar, because no one expects to ever collect on these debts, they buy up the debts really cheap, and then they use political muscle, bribery or lawsuits to try to squeeze, not only get back the money that they put down -- in the case of Zambia, $3 million by Mr. Goldfinger -- or they'll try to get $40 million. In the case of the number one vulture here in New York City, Paul Singer, he's paid about $10 million and expects to collect $400 million from the Congo

Oh, you don't think that doing a bit of business, even "dirty" business qualifies as EVIL. And you would be absolutely right except that... US aid money in the from of debt relief is involved.

Hey I bet you do know that AIDS is out of control in many parts of Africa, and we the people send aid money to help. I think most would agree that offering charity to the sick and the poor is good work.

Mr. Palast I believe Amy Goodman has a Question for you.

AMY GOODMAN: At the end of 2005, Zambia announced the United States had agreed to cancel debts owed by Zambia worth $280 million. So what’s happened in this past year?

GREG PALAST: OK. The US taxpayer takes a hit. We pay $280 million. Zambia saves, in interest, around $40 million. The problem is, is that you have the vulture go into court in London and then use the court judgment in London to come into the United States and seize the $40 million from the government of Zambia's bank accounts in the United States, so that the money never gets to Zambia or never gets to be used by Zambia to buy medicine--

Well lets see, instead of money that's made available thanks to debt relief going to the sick it instead goes into the pocket of the very wealthy. That is EVIL.

But wait there's more, sadly.

GREG PALAST: Horrendous, because this $40 million for Zambia was specifically earmarked for fighting AIDS, where there's a 20% HIV/AIDS rate among adults in Zambia, and for education. 300,000 school kids are not going to be able to go to school because of this, unless Bush steps in. What's horrendous is the kind of con that's going on. You have a president of the United States standing up in front of Congress, saying give us money, give us billions to write off, in the State of the Union. He puts it in the budget, without anyone saying that, in fact, it's not getting to Africa, it's going to his biggest donors, who are short-stopping it by interjecting themselves and buying up the right to collect and then using the US courts and the British courts. Bush can put a stop to it tomorrow morning. The problem is, is that he's not been responding.

What?! how can this be? Why on earth would Dubya not want to put a stop this outright theft! Remember he's a compassionate conservative and a good christian man, right, RIGHT! Perhaps there is nothing Dubya can do, after all this is international business perhaps he has no good controls. Naa, that's just crazy talk, Mr. Palast would you do the honors and explain?

GREG PALAST: Under US law, the President of the United States has the absolute power to stop any vulture fund from collecting money from a poor nation, under the US Constitution. It’s called the power of comity. The African nations are pleading with George Bush to stop his big donors from collecting. Now, what's happening is, is that in the State of the Union, George Bush said we have to give debt relief to the poorest nations. The US taxpayers are putting up more than a billion dollars to write off the debts of the African nations, but what Bush isn't saying is that he is then allowing that money to be captured by his biggest donors, like Paul Singer, so that the money for debt relief is not going to the African nations, where they're desperately in need for, you know, funding for medicine for AIDS, for education, which is what it's earmarked for. These guys are actually going into US courts and saying, “Give us the money.” Now, George Bush, again, has the absolute power, and the judges are waiting for him to write a note. They're saying, “George Bush can ask us to dismiss this case in one minute, but we need something in writing from the White House.”

Emphasis mine, Evil theirs. You are now Witness to their actions but for you there is nowhere to flee to for safety. Not the courts, not the congress and of course not 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. Because just like in the movie "Witness" the crime was committed by the very people we trust to protect us from these very crimes.

End of line-The MCP wept.