"Transparency" group debunked over right-wing ties

If you come across any report put out by Transparency International, it's as good as a paper airplane or toilet tissue.

TI claims to be an organization to fight government corruption around the world. Ironically, the group's own lack of transparency and attempts to manipulate coverage of itself discredit its claim.

When someone noticed that the Wikipedia entry about TI was virtually identical to the group's own description of itself on its website, a red flag went up. When others attempted to correct this, however, suspicious commenters accused these updates of "smearing" TI.

Although Transparency International claims to oppose corruption, the group was funded by Enron, an energy giant that was the focus of a major accounting scandal in the early 2000s. It was also funded by Boeing while one of Boeing's top execs was imprisoned for corrupt activities.

TI also threatened to sue a German blogger in 2006 unless she removed a blog entry that criticized the group.

TI's Venezuelan bureau is staffed by operatives tied to organizers of a failed right-wing coup against democratically elected President Hugo Chavez. One of these staffers worked for a right-wing think tank that was funded by the Bush regime using American taxpayer dollars. Several personnel from TI's Bosnian branch have been accused of racketeering.

Meanwhile, TI refused to expose corruption in the U.S. government under Bush. TI's laughable Corruption Perceptions Index gave high marks to the Bush regime and has given a very high ranking to the totalitarian dictatorship in Singapore, despite widespread public corruption there.

Even though TI's idiotic blubberings don't square with the facts, the media machine still doesn't seem to have caught on.