Observers say Perella is friends with many of the ex-executives who make up the dissident group.

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Angered when their recommendations were overruled, and just months after quietly filing their whistleblower suit, the dissident group took the matter into their own hands.

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His detention was protested at the time by a Saudi dissident group known as the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, according to U.S. officials.

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But the board has stood firmly beside its chairman and CEO and appears to be offering the Discover sale as a bone to make the dissident group go away.

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Police in Northern Ireland discovered a 600-pound bomb in County Armagh, which was thought to be the work of a dissident republican group.

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He has received overtures from a group of dissident Peronists around Mr Duhalde, who became Mr Kirchner's most powerful foe.

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In recent months, Chairman and Chief Executive Philip Purcell has waged a public battle with a group of eight dissident shareholders who are calling for his head, claiming his mismanagement is to blame for the company's lackluster performance.

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He would not be drawn on which group he thought was responsible, however he said there had been a number of dissident republican threats in the Omagh area recently.

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In his desire to bring dissident Catholics back into the mainstream Church, Pope Benedict has been negotiating with a traditionalist Catholic Group based in Switzerland, known as the Society of Saint Pius X, which roundly rejects the reforms of Vatican II.

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