From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
USMC Major General Smedley D. Butler:
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_(crime)#The_RICO_Act
A racket is a service that is fraudulently offered to solve
a problem,
such as for a problem
that does not actually exist,
that will not be put into effect,
or that would not otherwise exist if the racket did not
exist.
CONDUCTING A
RACKET IS RACKETEERING.
Particularly, the
potential problem may be caused
by the same party that offers to solve it,
although that fact
may be concealed,
with the specific
intent to engender
continual
patronage for this party.
The RICO Act
On October 15,
1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. §§
1961–1968), commonly referred to as the "RICO Act", became United
States law. The RICO Act allowed law enforcement to charge a person or group of
people with racketeering, defined as committing multiple violations of certain
varieties within a ten-year period. The purpose of the RICO Act was stated as
"the elimination of the infiltration of organized crime and racketeering
into legitimate organizations operating in interstate commerce". S.Rep.
No. 617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 76 (1968). However, the statute is sufficiently
broad to encompass illegal activities relating to any enterprise affecting
interstate or foreign commerce.
Section 1961(10)
of Title 18 provides that the Attorney General of the United States may
designate any department or agency to conduct investigations authorized by the
RICO statute and such department or agency may use the investigative provisions
of the statute or the investigative power of such department or agency
otherwise conferred by law. Absent a specific designation by the Attorney
General, jurisdiction to conduct investigations for violations of 18 U.S.C. §
1962 lies with the agency having jurisdiction over the violations constituting
the pattern of racketeering activity listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961.[3]
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