40th Anniverary of Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast -- Season's Greetings

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission that led to the famous "Earthrise" photo taken by astronaut William Anders. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to orbit the moon.

Below is NASA's summary of Apollo 8's Christmas eve live television broadcast. To listen and view the broadcast, click here.

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Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

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Season's Greetings and Happy New Year. See you in 2009.

--Doug Jacobson

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Costa Rica Finally Eligible for CAFTA-DR Benefits on January 1, 2009

President Bush today issued a Proclamation providing that the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) will enter into force for Costa Rica on January 1, 2009. Costa Rican products meeting the rules of origin of the CAFTA-DR that are entered into the U.S., or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 1, 2009 will be eligible for preferential tariff treatment.

Costa Rica is the last country to implement the CAFTA-DR. CAFTA-DR entered into force for El Salvador on March 1, 2006, for Honduras and Nicaragua on April 1, 2006, for Guatemala on July 1, 2006, and for the Dominican Republic on March 1, 2007.

In October 2007, the voters of Costa Rica narrowly backed the free trade agreement in a national referendum.

No date has yet been set for implementation of the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement, which is expected to go into effect some time in 2009.

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Fiat Pays More Than US$17 Million in Connection With FCPA Charges Arising From Oil for Food Program

Italian automobile and truck manufacturer Fiat S.p.A. and several of the company's subsidiaries today agreed to pay a total of more than $17 million in connection with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with the U.N. Oil for Food Program.

In the criminal case, Fiat subsidiaries Iveco S.p.A. and CNH Italia S.p.A. were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to violate the books and records provisions of the FCPA in connection with illegal kickbacks paid to officials of the former Iraqi government. Fiat agreed to pay a $7 million penalty in connection with these charges. The Justice Department agreed to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement with Fiat whereby the criminal charges would be dismissed if Fiat and its affiliates abide by the agreement.

In the civil case, the SEC filed FCPA books and records and internal controls charges against Fiat S.p.A. and CNH Global N.V. The SEC's complaint (pdf) alleged that from 2000 through 2003, certain Fiat and CNH Global subsidiaries made approximately $4.3 million in kickback payments in connection with their sales of humanitarian goods to Iraq under Oil for Food Program. The SEC alleged that Fiat and CNH Global failed to maintain adequate systems of internal controls to detect and prevent the payments and their accounting for these transactions failed properly to record the nature of the payments.

Fiat was ordered to pay $5,309,632 in disgorged profits, $1,899,510 in pre-judgment interest and a civil penalty of $3,600,000.

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"Lord of War" Viktor Bout Profiled in The Economist

The year-end edition of The Economist contains an interesting article on Viktor Bout, the notorious arms-dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death" and "Lord of War", who was arrested earlier this year in a sting set up by DEA agents in Bangkok, Thailand.

The AP reports that Bout testified on Monday in an extradition hearing in Bangkok.

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CBP Announces Cross-Border Truck User Fee Contingency Plan for January 2009

From Strasburger & Price's Logistics Blog:

U.S. Customs & Border Protection (“CBP”) has announced that every truck entering the U.S. in 2009 must pay a fee of $10.75 per crossing or be equipped with a transponder, good for a year, which will cost $205. CBP has been working on a project which would allow motor carriers to renew their current transponders electronically (known as “DTOPS”), but DTOPS was not available for this year’s transponder renewal period. Many carriers have ordered their new transponders for 2009 but have not yet received them.

Facing the prospect starting in January of having to pay the per crossing fee until CBP made the new transponders available, the industry asked the agency to adopt a back-up plan. CBP has agreed that during the month of January a truck crossing into the U.S. will not have to pay the per crossing fee if it can show possession of one of the following: i) a 2008 transponder; ii) a receipt downloaded from the DTOPS website showing the 2009 transponder has been ordered, iii) a paper receipt from CBP showing the carrier filed its renewal on paper; or iv) any other evidence that the 2009 transponder for the truck has been ordered.

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The Times: Companies Blacklisted in US for Allegedly Backing Mugabe Operate Freely in UK

Monday's Times of London reports on how certain individuals and companies designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as "Mugabe regime cronies" on November 25, 2008 operate freely in the U.K. in spite of Gordon Brown's declaration that “enough is enough” in Zimbabwe. The article states:

Of 21 companies put on a US blacklist by President Bush last month, 14 are based in Britain, two in the Isle of Man, one in Jersey and one in the British Virgin Islands. The other three are based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Florida and Zimbabwe itself.

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Mr Mugabe and his henchmen use a number of ploys to stay in power and live in luxury as their countrymen suffer. In this they are said to receive the help of white businessmen, several with British passports, and a number of London-based companies. The foreign currency that these men bring into the country allows top Zanu (PF) figures to buy hard currency at the official rate - way below the currency's true worth - and earn small fortunes.

“They basically buy real money with worthless Zimbabwean dollars. That way they can buy a car for what an ordinary person would use to fill a tank with petrol,” an insider said.

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Former Willbros Officials Charged With Violating FCPA

The Justice Department announced on Friday that a former executive and a consultant of Willbros International Inc. (WII), a subsidiary of Houston-based Willbros Group Inc., have been charged in connection with a conspiracy to pay more than $6 million in bribes to government officials in Nigeria and Ecuador.

James K. Tillery, a former executive of WII, and Paul G. Novak, a former consultant to WII, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, two counts of violating the FCPA in connection with the authorization of corrupt payments to officials in Nigeria and Ecuador, and one count of conspiring to launder the bribe payments through purported consulting companies controlled by Novak.

Novak was arrested in Houston upon arrival on a flight from South Africa after his passport was revoked. Tillery remains at large.

If convicted of all charges, Tillery and Novak each face sentences of up to 35 years in prison and fines of $250,000, or twice the gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater, for conspiring to violate the FCPA and for each violation of the FCPA; and $500,000 or twice the value of the funds involved in the transfer, whichever is greater, for the money laundering conspiracy.

In May of this year, Willbros and WII entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department and agreed to pay a $22 million criminal penalty in connection with corrupt payments to Nigerian and Ecuadorian government officials in violation of the FCPA.

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