₦airaland Forum

[size=14pt]Rio 2016: Dream Team’s US tour full of dirty deals —Dalung[/size]

August 19, 2016

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has hinted at shady deals behind the country’s football team being stranded for several days at their training base in Atlanta, USA, before they finally made their way to the  2016 Olympics in Brazil.

It is expected that after the Rio Olympics a high-powered probe will be initiated by the minister to uncover the truth behind the drama, which caused Nigeria international shame.

The Dream Team only flew into Brazil barely seven hours before their opening match against Japan.

And Dalung said on a television interview on Thursday that the episode revealed “quiet dirty” details which those involved cannot defend themselves against when they are confronted with.

“The Atlanta event was quiet dirty and some of the actors (involved) cannot stand before Nigeria (to answer to these charges),” Dalung alleged.

“The event of Atlanta was another attempt to rip the country off.”

Dalung said he has a receipt from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for the charter flight that eventually flew the team from Atlanta to Manaus when he alleged that Delta Airlines confirmed to his officials that the flight was their own “contribution” to the country’s Olympic campaign.

[size=14pt]Dream Team’s Atlanta tour saga: NFF fires back at Dalung[/size]

August 19, 2016 / : Ganiyu Salman

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has described the insinuations by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung in a television interview that the issue of the Dream Team being stranded in Atlanta, USA, prior to Rio 2016 as hoax.

Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, Honourable Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said the entire NFF board was shocked by the remarks of the Minister.

He stated that the NFF President, Mr Amaju Pinnick, had been giving members of the board updates of useful meetings he has been having with the Sports Minister since he arrived in Brazil.

“The NFF Board and Management are taken aback by these insinuations. The NFF President has been telling us of meeting between him and the Minister on how to avoid the kind of situation we got into in the USA in the future. So, the Minister’s latest statements are a bombshell.

“We are not openly challenging the Minister, but we must set the records straight. To start, we do not have any partnership with Delta Airlines, a company that we owe much gratitude for the way it came to the rescue to airlift our team to Brazil. The names of NFF’s partners and sponsors are known to the public.

“Secondly, the NFF is not aware of any receipt that was presented to the Minister for airlifting the U23 team from Atlanta to Manaus. I am aware that the Minister himself requested for the phone number of our FIFA Match Agent (Mr Jairo Pachon, who has been working with the NFF since 2009) when everybody became desperate about how the team would go to Brazil. The NFF President gave him the phone number, and the Minister

himself asked Mr Pachon to go ahead and charter an aircraft, and Pachon reverted that the amount would be $174,000, as against the $300,000 that was bandied earlier. However, the money did not reflect in the airline company’s bank account within the deadline it gave to us, so the service was cancelled. We insist that Mr. Pachon acted in the best interest of Nigeria.”

Yahaya-Kwande also defended Nigeria’s U-23 team’s list to Rio 2016.

“Which persons did we increase the team with? There were two alternate players, the team media officer, the team coordinator, the team’s equipment manager and the team’s technical officer, who have always been part of the team’s crew, and who by global standard are required by the team. When it was made clear that they would no longer be taken care of, we told them to return to Nigeria.

“As I speak with you, the only NFF top officials at the Olympics are the NFF Technical Director and the NFF President. I would like to be proved wrong on this.“The NFF Board has always displayed integrity in all its financial dealings and have always communicated to the Minister on every financial transaction and detail. On this too, we would like to be proved wrong,” he said.

mkmyers45:
Mr Ahmed has many times offered to co-operate with the military.

Also it must be noted that we cant force the UAE to extradite him.....A calm friendly approach from the National security adviser or the president himself would have been much better on something as sensitive as this.

Even if he had links to give up...trust me his sources will go cold due to this ill-advised public announcement

Babzilla:
Its clear you didnt read anything but hurriedly put up yours .. A ruling in the United states.. Youve probably forgotten we are in nigeria. Well believe what you want I cant stop you. Like I said earlier. Have a pleasant day

Babzilla:
I added a link. read and let me know what you think. Have a noce day

[size=14pt]Supreme Court Rejects Reporter's Privilege Case, As NYT Reporter Faces Jail for Protecting His Source[/size]

June 2, 2014

By ⁠ Trevor Timm

The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen's appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter's privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals and must now either testify in the leak trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, or face jail time for being in contempt of court. Risen has admirably vowed to go to prison rather than comply. 

This is the latest victory of the Obama administration in their crackdown on sources, and in turn, investigative journalism. As the New York Times again reminded us today, they have "pursued leaks aggressively, bringing criminal charges in eight cases, compared with three under all previous administrations combined."

Make no mistake, this case is a direct attack on the press. The Justice Department has recently tightened its "guidelines" for subpoenaing reporters (which have no enforcement mechanism) and the Obama administration claims it supports a tepid journalist shield law, but this was the case where they could have shown they meant what they said about protecting journalists' rights. Instead, they argued to the court that reporter's privilege does not exist all, even comparing journalists who invoke the privilege to criminals who have recieved drugs.

By going after Risen, the Obama administration has done more damage to reporter's privilege than any other case in forty years, including the Valerie Plame leak investigation that ensnared Judy Miller during the Bush administration. The Fourth Circuit is where many national security reporters live and work, and by eviscerating the privilege there, the government has made national security reporting that much harder in an age where there has already been an explosion in use of surveillance to root out sources of journalists.

While the fight for reporter's privilege will certainly continue, and is by no means dead in much of the country, this case is another reminder that reporters can no longer rely on the legal process to protect their sources. Surveillance has become the government's go-to tool for rooting out a record number of sources and chilling all kinds of investigative journalism. Out of the eight source prosecutions under the Obama administration, the Sterling case is the only one where a reporter was called to testify. As an unnamed national security official reportedly once said a year ago, “the Risen subpoena is one of the last you’ll see. We don’t need to ask who you’re talking to. We know.”

It's now incumbent upon reporters to use technology to help protect their sources from the first moment they start communicating with them. Encryption—whether it's used with email, chat, or phone calls—is now a vital tool that can no longer be looked at as a luxury or speciality. Whistleblower submission systems, like our SecureDrop project or Globaleaks, should become the norm rather than the exception.

Despite the damage its already done to reporter's privilege on the whole, the government can and should prevent Risen from going to jail by declining to call him to testify in the Sterling trial. Since the Attorney General has repeatedly stated that no reporter will go to jail for doing his or her job, that seems like the least they can do.

As a small tribute to Risen, today is a fitting day to re-read the book chapter that the government has subpoenaed him over. He exposed a disasterous operation by the CIA, where they literally handed over designs to a nuclear bomb to Iran. It is a truly riveting read and the public is better served by knowing what happened.

Babzilla:
I added a link. read and let me know what you think. Have a noce day

In a blistering reversal, the Fourth Circuit stated in no uncertain terms that a reporter’s privilege has never existed under federal law
and that Risen would be forced to testify, as
any other citizen would, about his sources for
the book’s content, which impliedly would
impugn Sterling as the discloser of national
defense secrets.

Babzilla:
1. I dont have to tell U squat U can find out for yourself and correct me thank you
2. I told you why she was jailed maybe you can ask her why she refused to appear before a grand jury

Babzilla:
She was jailed for failing to appear before a grand jury and held in contempt. There is a difference... unless you want to tell me the NA is the new court

Babzilla:
Oh yes its supposed to be a global law. some kind of privilege that journalists enjoy

naptu2:
Nairaland posts keep bringing back good memories. The early 1990s was a fantastic time for nigerian and indeed african athletics. There were just too many great stars from Africa. You get to see two of them in this video.

This field was a superstar field. All the best former soviets were here (Tetyana Dorovskikh and Lyudmila Rogachova) and so was Qu Yunxia (the world record holder). The Maputo Express, the great Maria Mutola of Mozambique was also on the track, but the day belonged to the world champion, the great Hasibah Boulmerka. She blew the field away. Check out the gap!

(If you listen to the commentator, you might make the mistake of thinking that she's the first arab or muslim woman to win gold at the olympics. Of course that's not true. Nawal El Moutawakel won gold at Los Angeles '84 and there are other arab women that have won gold).

Barcelona 1992 Olympics. Hasiba Boulmerka wins gold in the women's 1,500.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhCnM_V6yw

naptu2:
Gosh! I remember this very well. This was the legend vs the new kid on the block. The passing of the crown.

(I call this the MC Hammer World Championships because it was the first time that NTA showed the MC Hammer Pepsi advert).

The legend Said Aouita vs the new kid on the block Nourredine Morceli. Morocco vs Algeria (no one cares that the Kenyan came second. It was all about the guy that came first and the guy that came third).

Aouita had been the star of the 1980s and this is where Morceli dethroned him. Interestingly, Morceli (an Algerian) dethroned a moroccan and was eventually dethroned by another moroccan (Hicham El-Geroudj).

1991 World Championships in Tokyo Japan. Nouridine Morcelli wins the 1,500 metres.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7y9iJ_nrb8

naptu2:
This race was filled with megastars!

If Tokyo '91 was the Pepsi world championships, then this was the Mercedes Benz world championships. Mercedes Benz launched their new E-Class at this championships and you could see the headlights and grill on advertisement hoardings in the stadium.

Three absolute african legends are on show in this video. Noureddine Morceli of Algeria was unstoppable at this time. He was the world champion and world record holder in every distance from 1,500 to 3,000 metres.

Venuste Niyongabo of Burundi! A professor of mass communication told me then that he would have ignored the media if he was. Niyongabo. They kept asking him about the genocide in Rwanda and whether he was hutu or tutsi. He's Burundian and he is an athlete, not a politician!

Hicham El-Gerouj of Morocco would become (in the late 1990s) what Said Aouita and Nouridine Morcelli were in the 1980s and early '90s.

But this was 1995.

Watch what happens when the bell is rung for the last lap.

1995 World Championships in Gothenborg, Sweden.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDnF4zEvmrc