Two International Corruption Scandals

If you’ve finished the False Truth Mystery Serial, you know the recent FIFA scandals are and example of “life imitates art.”

Have you heard the latest FIFA news? The former vice president of FIFA is now banned from soccer for life. Jack Warner was a leader of soccer’s world governing body until 2011. Since then, he’s been accused by the U.S. Justice Department of being involved in massive corruption schemes over the course of two decades, “involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other moneymaking schemes,” according to FIFA’s ethics committee.

FIFA

The idea of selling votes for the World Cup plays a central role both to this real-life story, and to False Truth: A Jordan Fox Mystery Serial.

In other world news of corruption allegations, a former sniper was arrested and sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Dennis Gogel, a former Germany army sniper, was rounded up in a sting by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to catch former military snipers who may have been trying to use their specialized skills to accept freelance murder-for-hire assignments connected with drug organizations.

Gogel was arrested in 2013, pleaded guilty in January of this year, and was sentenced in September 2015. In total, five men were arrested in this sting of ex-military snipers.

If you saw my blog on snipers earlier this week, or if you’ve read Jack and Joe, you know what a threat a well-trained sniper can be. Agents Otto and Gaspar from the Hunt for Jack Reacher Series are trained snipers who, of course, are prepared to use their skills only for good.

One of the training exercises Otto and Gaspar likely had to go through in sniper training is called Kim’s Game. To see a demonstration, you can watch this 3.5-minute clip from the 1950 movie Kim. To skip straight to the movie’s explanation of the game, jump 1 minute and 15 seconds into the clip.

So? Do you think a person with specialized skills is, by definition, more dangerous?

Meanwhile —

Caffeinate and Carry On!

Diane Capri

p.s. Are you a member of the Diane Capri’s Exclusive Reading Group mailing list? It’s FREE! Just CLICK HERE to sign up and refer your friends, too. You’ll be glad you did, I promise. Can’t wait to see you there!

 

, , , , , , , , , , ,

One Response to Two International Corruption Scandals

  1. Bill Wright October 10, 2015 at 8:09 am #

    Good morning, all…
    Depends on the skill set. I can teach you how to write a very effective Boolean search string or how to build an eye-catching Linkedin profile. Looking for a candidate to fill a one-off position–call me. Need to sharpen your career-search skills? Find me on Linkedin (shouldn’t be hard, my full network is about 34MM).

    These are specialized skills. Do they make me dangerous? Depends. In THE HARD WAY being able to use sophisticated search strings was key to finding bad guys and good guys and people in the gray area.

    Kim and Gaspar (who was an MP as well, methinks) have received long gun training to be sure…and they are good with computers and searching. And I am fair with long guns and pistols.

    My point is we all have significant skills of one sort or another. It is the career we chose or the situation into which we are thrust that brings those skills to the surface. Day to day here in NYC, I don’t need my long gun skills…zombie apocalypse…different issue…

    My coffee is just awesome this morning…

    Bill

Get Jack in the Green—Free!

Sign up FREE to my email list & start reading Jack in the Green in minutes...