MAFIA CASE

Bribery, scandals, and murder fill the streets of Russia.  We our doing nothing for the violated citizens of Russia. This is why my partner and I stand resolved that the United states government substantially changes its foreign policy toward Russia

Observation 1: Inherency

 No work being done to assess the Russian Mafia

Borchgrave, 1997, Oct. 1, ("Russian Organized Crime", Arnaud de Borchgrave, - Director, Global Organized Crime Project, Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on International Relations)

While there are numerous investigative stories by reporters covering Russian organized crime (OC), there is no comprehensive study assessing the breadth and depth of the threat, the extent to which (OC) and corruption are undermining privatization and Russia's transition to a market economy - and perhaps most important of all, examining the implications for U.S. policy toward Russia."



Plan:

Plank 1:Mandate of the United States government to implement a plan to rid Russia of organized crime.
Plank 2:The money will come from normal means
Plank 3:We reserve the right to clarify intent

Observation 2:

Advantage One: Reform

The Russian Mafia is enormous, & poses a severe threat to reform in Russia

Wilson '97(Patricia, National News, Russian Mafia Said to Pose- Real Threats, Oct 2 '97,http://www.instanet. com/~vct/RUSSIANMAFIA100297.html)

Freeh said Russian organized crime had exploded since the end of the Cold War, the emergence of global economies, and advances in computer and communications technologies. It now poses a real threat to reform in Russia and "imminent dangers" to the United States.

The Mafia have created a problem larger than communism

Brandt in '95(Daniel, (Name Base News Line, No. 8,) January-March 1995)-Original source file: http://ursula.blythe.org/NameBase/newsline.08 http://www.alternatives.com/crime/BRANDT.HTML)

        "Organized crime is the new communism," Kerry said last summer, "the new monolithic threat." He had just held two days of hearings on the problem. Godson estimates that international crime groups outperform most Fortune 500 companies. They deliver drugs, illegal aliens, and laundered money, and provide services like violence and extortion -- all with organizations that resemble General Motors more than they resemble the traditional Sicilian Mafia.

Russian Mafia will destroy reform

Von der Heydt 1995(Barbara, CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA: NO DEMOCRACY WITHOUT MORALITY, Committee Brief No. 13, June 21, 1995, http://www.heritage.org/heritage/library/categories/forpol/cbrief13.html)

        Corruption threatens to strangle the new democracy of the former Soviet Union in its infancy. Glasnost and perestroika have been replaced by naglost (brazen insolence) and perestrelka (shootouts). Whether order based on both freedom and responsibility can emerge from the rubble of collapsed communism is an open question. There is no rule of law, no clear definition of property rights, no genuine democracy or market economy for most of the newly freed peoples.

Crime is a major barrier in the way of democracy for Russia

Boylan, in '96, (Scott P., Fordham International Law Journal [Vol.19: 1999- 1996], ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL LAW)

        "Clearly, it is not in the best interests of the United States for Russia to become a criminal oligarchy. Following the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, many observers were euphoric about a potential future partnership between the United States and other Western democracies and a new democratic Russia. In some ways this type of partnership has emerged, but it has not been free of problems. The initial euphoria has been tempered by the sobering facts of reality. Optimism has surrendered to pessimism as the reality of Russia's difficult transition from a command government, economy, and society to a liberal government, economy, and society has presented Russia and the world with enormous and difficult challenges. It is now apparent that a major hurdle for Russia on the road to democracy is the issue of crime and official corruption.

Advantage Two Oppression

The Mafia oppresses everyone, good individuals are destroyed

Van Hook in 1994(Steven R., First published November20, 1994, Russian- Mafia Shakes Down the Country, http://www.west.net/~wwmr/mafia.htm)

I did not speak to a single person who had not been directly or indirectly terrorized or extorted by one of the so-called Russian Mafias. I met energetic, clear-eyed, hopeful family people immobilized by fear, whispering of their ordeals in hushed tones. One of the current Mafia ploys in St. Petersburg is to stage a traffic accident against some middle-class citizen who has the hard-earned privilege of a car and home. The involved police warn the citizen to quickly settle an accident claim with the Mafia. So the hapless victim, typically devoid of savings, must often sign over his/her family's apartment for sale on the lucrative real estate market, and move out to God-knows-where. Good people don't know where to turn, knowing too well that the underpaid police could be on the Mafia take.

Advantage Three Economy

The Mafia controls half of the Russian Economy

Lynn 1997(Jonathan, March 19,"Gangsters Said To Run Nearly Half Of- Russian Economy" http://www.nd.edu/~ astrouni/zhiwriter/97/97032016.htm Reuters) 

Nearly half the Russian economy is controlled by organized crime and billions of dollars are hemorrhaging out of the country as a result, an U.S. study says. ``In Russia, organized crime groups are dominating both legitimate and illegitimate economic sectors simultaneously,'' said the study in the latest issue of the World Bank newsletter Transition, distributed in Moscow Wednesday.

Crime is destroying Russian economy

Lynn 1997(Jonathan, March 19,"Gangsters Said To Run Nearly Half Of- Russian Economy" http://www.nd.edu/~ astrouni/zhiwriter/97/97032016.htm Reuters)

        ``Organized crime...discourages foreign investment, deprives the country of its tax base, dominates the banking sector and financial markets, and exacerbates the already widespread problem of corruption,'' the study said.

Advantage Four Human Rights

Organized Crime has no Concern for Human Rights

Boutros Boutros-Ghali in '94  (UN secretary-general, at the opening- session of the World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime, Naples, Italy, November 22nd 1994. http://www.alternatives.com/crime/index.html)

        ...Trans-national crime undermines the very foundations of the international democratic order. Trans-national crime poisons the business climate, corrupts political leaders and undermines human rights... Within societies, the triumph of international crime is, more often than not, accompanied by a weakening of law and sometimes even by a return to the law of the jungle..."

Observation 3: Solvency

             The US has the moral imperative to act
-Tucker, 1997 (David, August, "Sunny Streets and Dark Alleys: Morality
And- American Foreign Policy", On Principle, v5n4)
 
        But as the derisive laughter of the sophisticated dies away, another thought about the Secretary's remark intrudes, prompted by the memory of her life story. Secretary Alright was once herself a small girl in an Eastern European country torn apart by conflict. She and her family came to the United States as refugees in 1948 and made a new life here. Madeleine Albright studied and worked hard and her talents and ambition were rewarded, eventually with the great honor of being named Secretary of State. Might Secretary Albright not have seen in the faces of those young Bosnian girls her own fifty years ago?
Might she not have reflected in an instant on the power of a country that can protect those who otherwise have no protection and on its goodness in being willing to do so? Might it not have seemed to the Secretary that indeed the United States is a friend to the distressed and in some sense can make the world good for them as it did for her? Who can deny this or not feel pride in being a citizen of such a country? Such reflection, on her experience and that of countless others, may well explain why the Secretary has said on more than one occasion that "when the United States can make a difference, it has a moral imperative to make that difference."

You have a moral obligation to vote against organized crime

CSS in '96  (Committee for a Safe Society April 6, 1996, -  "ORGANIZED CRIME & THE NEW SOCIETY", http://www.alternatives.com/crime/crime1.html)

        Millions of people in "third world" countries are intimately aware of life under the crime lords. But the people of "first world" countries, while reportedly concerned about "crime", are more aware of street gangs and supposedly random violence, than the billions being raked in by crime as a business. As a society, we seem unaware that the challenge of the next century might be an ethical one: will our society be driven by a concern for the common good, or will it be ruled by hidden groups with the least limits to the exercise of fear, force and degradation?

Only pressure from Russia and the US can eliminate the Mafia

Waller & Vasmann, 1995 (Michael J., & Victor J., Journal of Contemporary Criminal- Justice, Vol. 11, No. 4, December 1995. Russia's Great Criminal Revolution: The Role of the Security Services,)

        "Russia has become what President Yeltsin termed a "superpower of crime" not merely because of the absence of adequate laws or the supposed robber baron period through which some apologists say is a natural stage of economic development, but because of the inherently corrupt nature of its law enforcement, security organs, and intelligence services. Paradoxically, it is those very organizations upon which the Russian government, the Russian people, and the West are relying to fight corruption and organized crime. The Mafia is flourishing on the vast resources of the former KGB. There are indeed capable and honest professionals in those services, as shown by those whose careers and even lives have been sacrificed. These individuals, however, do not control the services today, and without political will at home and pressure from abroad, they are unlikely to for the foreseeable future."

For Russia to truly establish democracy in Russia, we need a new foreign policy

Boylan, in '96, (Scott P., Fordham International Law Journal [Vol.19: 1999- 1996], ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL LAW)

                "If the U.S. Government is serious about the establishment of democracy in Russia, it should take full and vigorous measures to prevent the bribery of Russian officials by U.S. citizens. One such measure should be the creation of a reporting mechanism between the U.S. and Russian governments that would enable U.S. businesses to report requests for bribes by Russian government officials. [157] There should also be increased cooperation between U.S. and Russian law enforcement officials on criminal matters, specifically with respect to bribery."

Russia will cooperate with us

Boylan, in '96, (Scott P., Fordham International Law Journal [Vol.19: 1999- 1996], ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL LAW)

        "As mentioned above, those instances of successful prosecutions under the FCPA have occurred when a foreign government has proved willing to cooperate in anti-corruption measures. Russia is increasingly showing signs of such a willingness to cooperate."


US must lead the way in taking steps to control bribery and crime

Boylan, in '96, (Scott P., Fordham International Law Journal [Vol. 19: 1999-1996], ORGANIZED CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL LAW)

        "One of the main criticisms of the FCPA is that it places U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage. The institution of a private right of action under the FCPA should do much to diminish this perceived disadvantage. A private right of action would provide leverage in U.S. and OECD efforts to achieve agreement among the World's established democracies to combat bribery of government officials and high-level corruption in the governments of their trading partners. Making businesses and businessmen in Germany, Japan, and elsewhere liable under U.S. law for illicit payments to foreign government officials will, at a minimum, create a dialogue on bribery and corruption among the World's democratic trading nations. As noted above, virtually every nation prohibits bribery of domestic government officials. Moreover, no nation condones bribery as a concept, and the United States must take the leadership role in unifying world public opinion in opposition to bribery of foreign government officials as well."
