Dead Peasant Insurance

Dead Peasant Insurance is the pactice of insuring someone without their knowledge or consent. Usually someone who works for you. The Canada Free Press has a story about AlGore, a bunch of Democrats, and Dead Peasant Insurance.

Al Gore & friends in eye of the storm By Judi McLeod & David Hawkins Tuesday, September 13, 2005 Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore went on the public record yesterday with the claim that what happened in New Orleans was known--before it happened. “What happened was not only knowable, it was known in advance, in great and painstaking detail, said Gore. ‘They (the Bush administration) did tabletop planning exercises. They identified exactly what the scientific evidence showed what would take place.” Why do people have to take Al Gore, who does not own a crystal ball and is not the local weatherman, at his word? People died in New Orleans; people lost every earthly possession they ever had. If Al Gore has knowledge that the good people of the Big Easy do not, it is incumbent upon him to share that knowledge with Hurricane Katrina’s victims. It is also incumbent upon the government of the land to go after the information Gore is boasting he has by means of a sworn affidavit. Republican or Democrat, tragedy should always trump politics. While the former senator from Tennessee is raising the red flag of blame, he could wind up drawing unwanted attention to some of his closest comrades. Someone made money on the death and devastation in New Orleans. Suspicions now point to something called “Dead Peasant Life Insurance”, the loathsome practice of taking out life insurance on people without their knowledge and callously collecting on their death. …”Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the flooded and devastated city.” The above quote comes not from Al Gore or even from Internet conspiracy theorists, but from the daily Washington Times, Would it be too cynical for us to ponder whether any police personnel had their pension funds invested in GOLI (Government Owned Life Insurance), AKA Dead Peasant Life Insurance? Was any party able to calculate on costs to be saved by “claimant cleansing” (drowning) in the State of Louisiana? So far the body count in New Orleans has been as low as 197 as opposed to the upwards of 10,000 predicted. Authorities have already indicated it will not be possible to identify many of the dead. The Bush administration should be sensitive to insurance fraud in the wake of broken levee-devastated New Orleans. Insurance fraud is no stranger to the State of Louisiana. “Louisiana has a new law regarding convicted insurance swindlers to repay the money they stole, plus court and investigative costs. The old law only imposed jail time. HB 689, however wouldn’t reduce separate civil judgment by the restitution. The new law took effect in early August, (Legislative News, Aug. 26, 2005) Although hardly a household word to the masses, Dead Peasant Life Insurance is a growing phenomenon in modern-day America. While Wal-Mart unwittingly put Dead Peasant Life Insurance on the map, hundreds of employers have taken out—sometimes secretly—life insurance policies on thousands of rank-and-file employees. Wal-Mart took some 350,000 dead peasant insurance policies In the State of Texas alone, before later canceling them. Rep. Kenny Marchant, (R.Carrollton) introduced a 2003 bill to authorize the State of Texas to purchase Dead Peasant Life Insurance policies on Texas retirees, giving the state “insurable interests” in the continued lives of its retirees. The new bill would have given the right to the state to purchase dead peasant policies on state retirees—without their permission. The bill was voted down in Congress. Some organizations lament that Dead Peasant Life Insurance gives more pork to the insurance industry. That could be a textbook case of only stating the obvious. What about the ability to purchase Dead Peasant Life Insurance for global custodians, who control assets in the trillions; the controllers of hedge funds and those in charge of powerful pension funds? Unfortunately, the incredible practice of putting life insurance on people without their permission—or in some cases, even their knowledge—varies from state to state. Three states, Florida, Oregon and Texas, plus Washington, D.C., have statutes that would seem to bar employers from taking out policies on lower-level workers. Eight other states require employees’ consent. Six other states require the employee to be notified of the insurance policy. Perhaps an easy rule of thumb for mainstream Americans to adopt would be to file this fact mentally: When someone purchases life insurance on you, they have a financial interest in your death. The crackdown on the practice in some states has already sparked Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie, Proctor & Gamble and other big employers to cancel their policies. But even in the face of crackdowns and litigation, insurers have so far declined to reveal how many dead peasant policies they have written, Recent lawsuits have turned up evidence that rank-and-file policies have been purchased by the who’s who of corporate America. Ironically, Gore had been scheduled to give a speech to state insurance commissioners in New Orleans last weekend about the likelihood that global warming will spawn increasingly deadly hurricanes. He decided to take his speech to San Francisco Sierra Club environmentalists after that conference was cancelled. Then there’s the French connection in Louisiana. According to census reports, of the 668,271 Acadian/ Cajuns living in the United States, 61 percent are Louisiana residents, making the 262,000 French speakers in the state the largest in the U.S.A. Organizations such as La Francophonie, which claims to represent the French-speaking nations of the world and the French American Foundation (FAF) are active in the state. Founded in 1976, FAF is “the only organization dedicated specifically and solely to strengthening the bilateral relationship across the full range of French American relations”. Guess who shares FAF membership with Groupe AXA, among the world’s largest insurance giants and BNP Paribas, the bank at the heart of the UN oil-for-food scandal? (*See full FAF membership list at end of story). Al Gore’s friends Bill and Hillary Clinton, that’s who. Meanwhile, something stinks in New Orleans, and that something has the reek of partisan politics. FAF membership list # Former President William Jefferson Clinton (1984) # Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (1983, 1984) United States Senate (D – NY) # John A. Thain (1999) Chief Executive Officer New York Stock Exchange # Kori N. Schake (2001) Director for Defense and Strategy Requirements National Security Council # General Wesley K. Clark (1983) Wesley Clark & Associates # Charlotte Hallengren (1999, 2000) Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Strategic Planner The Joint Staff, Pentagon # Jennifer Koch Easterly (2003) Major, U.S. Army Battalion Executive Officer 742nd Military Intelligence Battalion # John A. Nagl (1999, 2000) Major, U.S. Army # Peter F. Najera (2001, 2002) Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army # Amy B. Dean (2000) President and CEO South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council # Steve Coll (1999) Managing Editor The Washington Post # Maria G. Gotsch (1999, 2000) Senior Vice President New York City Investment Fund # Henri de Castries (1994, 1995, 1998) Money laundering and dead peasants Directeur Général Groupe AXA CNN News Story # Nicolas Moreau (2001, 2002) Vice-Chairman AXA Rosenberg # Charlotte Dennery (2003, 2004) Director, Corporate Development, North America BNP Paribas # Ludovic de Montille (1989) Senior Banker BNP Paribas # Pierre Mariani (1995, 1996) Head, International Retail & Finance Services # Christine Morin-Postel (1981) Senior Vice-President Suez BNP Paribas # Alexandre de Juniac (2002) Secrétaire du Conseil d’Administration Thalès # Bruno Lafont (1989) Executive Vice President Lafarge # Marwan Lahoud (1999, 2000) Chief Executive Officer MBDA Missile Systems