Massive Bank and High Profile Resignations Across the World

[Sabrina]

23 Aug US

Immigration agents file suit against Napolitano over 'amnesty' program

Ten federal immigration agents have filed suit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claiming recent directives are forcing them to break the law and ignore their duties when it comes to deporting illegal immigrants.

The suit was filed Thursday in Texas federal court by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. It challenges recent directives allowing some illegal immigrants -- particularly non-felons and those who came to the U.S. as children -- to stay and, in some cases, get work permits.

The suit, obtained by Fox News, says the agents are being forced to "violate federal law." It says the new directive "unconstitutionally usurps and encroaches upon the legislative powers of Congress." ICE Director John Morton is also named as a defendant.

Kris Kobach, lead attorney on the case, equated the move to give thousands of illegal immigrants a reprieve to the failed Fast and Furious gun-walking operation.

"In both instances, the Obama administration ordered federal law enforcement agents to break the law, to ignore the laws that they're supposed to enforce, and, in the case of the ICE agents, to actually break federal laws that say you're supposed to deport certain people," he said. "And in each case, the Obama administration seems to be doing so for political reasons."

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is also an adviser to Mitt Romney and a co-author of the Arizona illegal immigration law.
DHS spokesman Matt Chandler, reacting to the suit, stressed that the current policy allows the department to focus on serious offenders -- he said ICE removed a record 216,000 criminal aliens in fiscal 2011.

"DHS uses prosecutorial discretion to assist in focusing vigorously on the removal of individuals who are convicted criminals, repeat immigration law violators, and recent border crossers," he said. "This policy is a temporary measure; Congress must still act to provide a permanent solution to fix the broken immigration system."

Napolitano defended the new rules during testimony last month before the House Judiciary Committee.

"These policies promote the efficient use of our resources ensuring that we do not divert them away from the removal of convicted criminals by pursuing the removal of young people who came to this country as children and who have called no other country home," she said.

The Supreme Court has recognized the ability of the federal government to use what's known as "prosecutorial discretion" in the enforcement of immigration law. In the recent case over the Arizona immigration law, the court defended the government's ability to make "some discretionary decisions."

In the suit, the agents are asking a federal judge to block the directives in question, saying they amount to an end-run around Congress and violate the separation of powers between the Legislative and Executive branches.

Republican lawmakers released a flurry of statements Thursday backing up the suit and challenging the administration policy.
"The Obama administration's amnesty program not only rewards lawbreakers, it also forces ICE agents to violate federal law. ICE agents should enforce our immigration laws and apprehend illegal immigrants. But the Obama administration makes it impossible for ICE agents to do their jobs," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said in a statement.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has also raised concern about the possibility of ICE agents being compelled to release illegal immigrants with misdemeanor records.

"It is a sad day when our nation's law enforcement officers are left with no recourse but to file suit against the administration and its political appointees," he said in a statement


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/23/immigration-agents-file-suit-against-napolitano-over-amnesty-program/#ixzz24UsnhgSU

[Sabrina]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32356


The Global 1%: Exposing the Transnational Ruling Class

by Prof. Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro

This study asks: Who are the the world’s One percent power elite?

And to what extent do they operate in unison for their own private gains over benefits for the 99 percent?

We examine a sample of the 1 percent: the extractor sector, whose companies are on the ground extracting material from the global commons, and using low-cost labor to amass wealth. These companies include oil, gas, and various mineral extraction organizations, whereby the value of the material removed far exceeds the actual cost of removal.We also examine the investment sector of the global 1 percent: companies whose primary activity is the amassing and reinvesting of capital. This sector includes global central banks, major investment money management firms, and other companies whose primary efforts are the concentration and expansion of money, such as insurance companies.

Finally, we analyze how global networks of centralized power—the elite 1 percent, their companies, and various governments in their service—plan, manipulate, and enforce policies that benefit their continued concentration of wealth and power. We demonstrate how the US/NATO military-industrial-media empire operates in service to the transnational corporate class for the protection of international capital in the world.

The Occupy Movement has developed a mantra that addresses the great inequality of wealth and power between the world’s wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of us, the other 99 percent. While the 99 percent mantra undoubtedly serves as a motivational tool for open involvement, there is little understanding as to who comprises the 1 percent and how they maintain power in the world. Though a good deal of academic research has dealt with the power elite in the United States, only in the past decade and half has research on the transnational corporate class begun to emerge.[i]

Foremost among the early works on the idea of an interconnected 1 percent within global capitalism was Leslie Sklair’s 2001 book, The Transnational Capitalist Class.[ii] Sklair believed that globalization was moving transnational corporations (TNC) into broader international roles, whereby corporations’ states of orgin became less important than international argreements developed through the World Trade Organization and other international institutions. Emerging from these multinational corporations was a transnational capitalist class, whose loyalities and interests, while still rooted in their corporations, was increasingly international in scope. Sklair writes:

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://blogbywiggy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/yet-another-british-banking-scandal.html

Yet Another British Banking Scandal! Britain Where Banks Are Above The Law.

Reuters) - When businessman Colin Jones approached his local bank for a loan in 2007, he had little idea what an "interest rate swap" was, let alone a "structured collar".

Jones wanted 400,000 pounds to buy a small hotel in North Wales and Royal Bank of Scotland said he could have the money if he also took out a swap - a form of insurance designed to protect him from a rise in interest rates.

Like a growing number of small business owners in Britain, Jones now regrets signing up. His hotel was repossessed in July last year after a sharp drop in rates during the financial crisis pushed charges on the deal to an unaffordable 30,000 pounds a year, the same as the repayments on his loan.

"I've lost my house, my wife and I have separated, I lost my self respect and I lost the respect of my local community because they don't see what's going on in the background. People just assume that you've done something wrong," Jones said.

The 48-year-old is caught up in what could become the UK banking industry's next big scandal. An increasing number of firms that bought the disputed insurance products are claiming compensation and their advisers say the bill could run into billions of pounds. UK banks already face paying 8.8 billion pounds in compensation for disputes over other insurance.

Leading lenders Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS agreed to review their interest rate swap sales in June after the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Britain's banking regulator, said it had found "serious failings" in the way the instruments were sold to small firms. Seven smaller banks have also agreed to review their swap sales.

But so far the banks have made provisions for only modest sums: Barclays and RBS, the country's biggest small business lenders, have set aside 450 million pounds and 50 million pounds respectively. Others are not so sanguine.

"The banks are underplaying the scale of the problem," said Stuart Brothers, a solicitor at Newport-based law firm SRB Legal whose clients include firms seeking compensation. Small firms say the banks did not properly explain the complex products or warn of the risks involved.


full story at link

22 Aug

[Sabrina]

I haven't seen this covered in press outside Greece.... can't think why :)

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/11/57774

Greece


Former IMF representative testifies

The country’s former representative at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) testified to prosecutors on Tuesday regarding his recent claim that the fund was aware that the 2010 bailout programme was doomed to failure from the very start.

Panagiotis Roumeliotis’ provided five hours of testimony to financial crime prosecutors Grigoris Peponis and Spyros Mouzakitis.

Initial indications suggest his testimony paves the way for a preliminary investigation into allegations that high-ranking government officials committed a breach of faith at the expense of the state, as well as offenses related to the economy, in signing the bailout deal.

It is understood that the two prosecutors will continue the investigation, although the mere reference to a sitting MP, former prime minister George Papandreou, could mean that the file will be sent to parliament, thereby triggering a more wide-ranging investigation into the causes of the Greek financial crisis.

Roumeliotis caused an outcry in July when he was quoted in the New York Times as saying that the 2009 memorandum was doomed from the start.

“We knew at the fund [IMF] from the very beginning that this programme was impossible to be implemented because we didn’t have any – any – successful example."

The statement elicted a reaction from former prime minister George Papandreou and his close associates, who accused Roumeliotis of not informing anybody about his scepticism.

Papandreou is also alleged not to have raised the issue in talks with the IMF, as he was obliged to do with the government of his country.

IMF sources have indirectly dismissed Roumeliotis' previous statements.

Roumeliotis later issued a written statement asking whether Papandreou was aware of the views of the then IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn "regarding the problematic aspects of the programme drawn up by Greece".

He also requested Papandreou that to explain why he did not pursue the immediate restructuring of the Greek public debt as Strauss-Kahn suggested, why he accepted such a borrowing interest rate from the eurozone, and why he agreed to such a short fiscal adjustment period.

Roumeliotis reiterated to prosecutors that he himself briefed Papandreou on these three issues. (AMNA, Athens News/dmcu)

22 Aug

[Sabrina]

http://foreclosuredefensenationwide.com/?p=469

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF JPMORGAN CHASE: SCHEDULE OF LOANS PURCHASED FROM WAMU DOES NOT EXIST; NO ASSIGNMENTS OF MORTGAGE, NO ALLONGES OR ANY EVIDENCE OF TRANSFERRING OWNERSHIP OF LOANS FROM WAMU TO CHASE


August 21, 2012

Confirming, under oath and in print what we already suspected: there is no schedule of mortgage loans evidencing what JPM allegedly “purchased” from the FDIC in connection with the failure of WaMu. This is from the sworn deposition testimony of Lawrence Nardi, the operations unit manager and a mortgage officer for JPM, who was previously with WaMu and was picked up by JPM after WaMu’s failure. The 330 page deposition was taken by counsel for the homeowner on May 9, 2012 in the matter of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as successor in interest to Washington Mutual Bank v. Waisome, Florida 5th Judicial Circuit Case No. 2009-CA-005717.

Here is the question and the answer:

Q: (page 57, beginning at line 19): Okay. The — are you aware of any type of schedule of loans that would have been created to represent the — either the loans that were asset loans or the loans that were serviced by WAMU? Are you — was the — do you know if there is a schedule or database of loans like that?

A: (page 58, beginning at line 1): I know that there was a schedule contemplated in certain documents related to the purchase. That schedule has never materialized in any form. We’ve looked for it in countless other cases. We’ve never been able to produce it in any previous cases. It would certainly be a wonderful thing to have, but it’s — as far as I know, it doesn’t exist, although it was — it was contemplated in the documents.

As we all know, JPM has also stated, in a Federal Court filing, that it is NOT the “successor in interest to WaMu.” However, the deposition testimony gets even better as the day went on:

Q: (beginning at page 260, line 18): Have you ever in your duties of being a loan analyst — a loan operations specialist, have you ever seen an FDIC bill of sale or a receiver’s deed or an assignment of mortgage or an allonge?

A: (page 260, beginning at line 23): For loans, I’m assuming you’re taling about the WaMu loan that was subject to the purchase here.

Q: (page 261, line 1): Right.

A: (page 261, beginning at line 2): No there is no assignments of mortgage. There’s no allonges. There’s no — in the thousands of loans that I have come into contact with that were a part of this purchase, I’ve never once seen an assignment of mortgage. There is simply not — they don’t exist. Or allonges or anything transferring ownership from WAMU to Chase, in other words. Specifically, endorsements and things like that.

So, JPM allegedly “purchased” mortgage loans from the FDIC out of the WaMu failure, but there is no schedule of what loans were purchased, no assignments, no allonges, no endorsements, nothing that transferred ownership of the loans from WaMu to Chase. However, as we all know, JPM goes around the country touting that it is the “successor in interest to WaMu” (which it has admitted in Federal Court that it is not) and relies on the amorphous “FDIC Affidavit” which, as far as what the “Affidavit” is proffered for, is directly contradicted by the sworn deposition testimony of JPM’s authorized representative WHO WAS FORMERLY WITH WAMU AND WAS PICKED UP BY JPM.

Fraud on the courts, anyone?

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com

and via American Kabuki


UPDATE: Friends, I just received this note from our friend and mortgage fraud expert Vermont Trotter regarding this story:

“The trusts are all empty. The master loan doc contractually allows for the hypothecation and re-hypothecation of the assets. Hypothecation is a legal term meaning to pledge, but not deliver an asset. To hypothecate means there is no true sale of the asset. To re-hypothecate means it can be pledged multiple times and, again, never have a true sale. No one owns anything.” – V. Trotter

[Sabrina]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/what-todays-real-ecb-news-really-means?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29


What Today's Real ECB News Really Means

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/24/2012 1

Bloomberg has run a story, citing two anonymous central bank officials, stating the ECB may not be ready to finalise its plan to buy government bonds at the September 6th meeting. JPMorgan's European economists note that the story cites two reasons for this: (a) The Governing Council wish to wait until they have seen the German constitutional court ruling on September 12th before proceeding; and (b) The programme is still being worked on staff may not be able to finalize it by then. Critically, JPM, like us, regard (a) as something of a smokescreen.



Very few think there is a high probability that the German Constitutional Court will deem the ESM unconstitutional and prevent its progress into law at this stage. While the Court may express some misgivings about the legislation and suggest modifications as it is put into practise, it is most unlikely to be blocked. We would not expect the ECB to delay its actions on the basis on what remains a low probability event at this stage. Rather, we would expect them to take the German Government at its word that it can deliver on the political undertakings it has made, until it discovers otherwise.

The “excuse” of the ruling on September 12 only has any substance to the extent that (b) is true – that work on the design of the plan is incomplete. The idea that work “is not complete” may also be a euphemism for the fact agreement on the contours of the policy is proving elusive. Even allowing for the summer break in August, an institution with the resources of the ECB has the ability to complete the technical issues in policy design over the period between meetings if it is minded too. Draghi has already “played for time” once with his sketch of policies still to be designed at the last meeting. Ultimately, we suspect Draghi and others at the ECB will recognise that continued delay in finalising its policy decisions contributes to the sense that opinion on the Governing Council is deeply divided, and hence its commitment to any policy intervening in markets will not run deep. That, in turn, could undermine the effectiveness of policy interventions themselves.

[Sabrina]

Ironic reversal for Greece and Germany, although no doubt a paltry settlement, but at least this is coming to light.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9502146/Debt-crisis-Greek-government-signs-330m-settlement-with-Siemens.html


Debt crisis: Greek government signs €330m settlement with Siemens

It is not quite the bail-out booster Greeks were hoping for, but Athens has extracted €330m from Siemens, the German engineering group, in settlement of corruption charges.


In a deal loaded with Schadenfraude, the Greek finance ministry announced it had signed a settlement with Siemens that “achieves significant financial benefit and the benefit to the real economy.”

The deal formally settles long-running allegations that Siemens used bribery to secure a raft on contracts for the Athens’ Olympic Games in 2004.

It was signed by Greece’s finance minister Yannis Stournaras last week, according to a notice on the Greek treasury website. At the time, prime minister Antonis Samaras was in Berlin asking Angela Merkel for “time to breathe” on the bail-out deadlines. “By signing the agreement, the Greek government achieves significant financial benefit and the benefit to the real economy through positive actions and a range of benefits,” the statement said.

Under the terms of the settlement, the German group has agreed to write-off €80m it is owed by the Greek state and guarantee a further €250m of investment in the country.

Siemens will pay €90m over five years to fund Greece government infrastructure, from medical equipment to university research programmes. It has also pledged to invest a €100m in Greece during 2012 “to ensure the continued presence and activity of the company, which currently employs more than 600 employees”, according to the statement. In addition, the company has agreed to “build a new plant in Greece with a budget of over €60 million, which will lead to the employment of over 700 people.”

Greece also intends to appoint its own equivalent to the troika inspectors: Siemens has agreed to a “corporate compliance program under a committee appointed by the Greek government.” Finally the company must pay the Greek government’s legal costs, as well as its own.
Siemens declined to comment.

Greek prosecutors spent years investigating allegations that Siemens bribed officials to win contract from Hellenic Telecom between 1997 and 2020, and a new security system for the Athens Olympics.

Last year a Greek parliamentary committee sent a letter to Siemens claiming the total damage to the economy amounted to €2bn. The company rejected the claim.

Even so opposition politicians in Athens have reacted angrily to the size of the settlement. Dimitris Papadimoulis, spokesman for the leftist Syriza party, said it was an “extrajudicial compromise” that favoured Siemens not Greece. He said the company was being asked to provide “crumbs” before walking “scot free” from a huge scandal that cost the state €2bn It was “yet another scandal in a larger scandal”, he said.
Costas Markopoulos, group secretary of the Independent Greeks party, said: “Mr Samaras was elected with the banner of a renegotiation (of the Memorandum), which he immediately forgot... he went to Ms Merkel with a ‘gift’ being the settlement of Siemens’ debts, and forgot the extension.”

[Sabrina]

Ideal opportunity for something different to happen on 31 August at Fed symposium :)...





http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/jackson-hole-may-disappoint-investors-primed-for-stimulus.html

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke -- returning this week to the scene of a 2010 speech that foreshadowed a second round of quantitative easing -- probably will disappoint investors looking for him to signal new stimulus.

Bernanke probably won’t use his Aug. 31 speech at the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to suggest a third round of bond buying is at hand, according to economists including Michael Feroli and James O’Sullivan. Members of the Federal Open Market Committee -- who meet next on Sept. 12-13 -- are closely monitoring unemployment and other data and have been divided about whether to spur expansion. The U.S. economy also remains beholden to political decisions made in Washington and in Europe, which is struggling to contain its debt crisis.

“I don’t think Bernanke wants to make Jackson Hole into a policy-signaling event,” preferring to “reserve that for the FOMC meetings,” said Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in New York.

Two years ago, Bernanke said in his speech that the FOMC “is prepared to provide additional monetary accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly.”

The committee didn’t announce a second round of quantitative easing at its September meeting, though; it waited instead until November 3 of that year.

Broad Themes
“The Fed chairman’s Jackson Hole address has traditionally been used more for laying out broad themes than for sending specific policy signals,” said O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for Valhalla, New York-based High Frequency Economics, in an Aug. 27 report.
Markets rallied in the weeks after Bernanke’s 2010 remarks; “on the day, however, the speech was generally read as inconclusive,” O’Sullivan said. “Nor do we expect Mr. Bernanke to send a definitive signal this year.”

Speculation that central banks will do more to bolster growth has helped drive up stocks and commodities, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rallying 10 percent since June 1, and gold rising to $1,670.60 an ounce on Aug. 23, the highest since April. Crude oil climbed to $97.26 a barrel on August 22, the most in four months, and gasoline in the U.S. hit $3.73 a gallon last week, the highest since May.
“You can’t find a trader who doesn’t think Ben Bernanke is going to signal QE3 at Jackson Hole,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist for broker dealer BTIG LLC in New York. “But to have traders so convinced that this is a sure thing kind of screams there’s room for a letdown here.”
full story at link

[Sabrina]

Rupe must be hurting... personally makes no sense to me that Harry's security people even allowed a situation to happen where he was open to be being snapped in the buff in Las Vegas - set up upon set up??? And he was the Royal rep. for the Olympic's closing ceremony, which is also intriguing...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/angry-murdoch-used-harry-photos-to-defy-leveson-8081427.html


Angry Murdoch used Harry photos to defy Leveson

The owner of 'The Sun' intervened personally to run the pictures of the naked prince

An angry Rupert Murdoch ordered The Sun to publish pictures of a naked Prince Harry against the wishes of the Royal Family because he wanted to send a warning shot to Lord Justice Leveson, sources said yesterday.

The owner of the red-top phoned the News International chief executive Tom Mockridge from New York on Thursday amid suggestions that The Sun and other papers did not carry the photos for fear of recriminations in the Leveson report.

When the images emerged on Wednesday, St James's Palace asked the Press Complaints Commission to tell editors it did not want them published, and all British papers abided by the request on Thursday. But on Friday, The Sun carried a picture of a naked Prince Harry, taken during a game of strip pool in his hotel suite in Las Vegas last weekend, raising questions over why the paper changed its stance.

News International has refused to comment on speculation that Mr Murdoch intervened. But according to a well-placed source, Mr Murdoch told Mr Mockridge in his transatlantic phone call on Thursday: "There is a principle here. I know this is about Leveson but this is humiliating. We can't carry on like this. We should run them, do it and say to Leveson, we are doing it for press freedom."

The Sun's decision to publish the pictures sparked both criticism and praise from MPs, peers and commentators, as well as more than 850 complaints from members of the public to the PCC. St James's Palace so far has not lodged a formal complaint of breach of privacy on behalf of Prince Harry with the PCC.

It has also triggered a debate about what constitutes the public interest, given that Prince Harry, an officer in the Army, was in his hotel room, despite partying with several strangers. Lord Justice Leveson is preparing to publish his report into the practices and ethics of the press this autumn, and is expected to recommend tougher independent regulation. There are fears that The Sun's actions may force Lord Justice Leveson to come down harder on newspapers.

Neil Wallis, a former executive editor of the News of the World, said: "This was a decision taken by Rupert. Rupert cares passionately about newspapers. He thinks this stuff is important. This is the only good thing that has happened at News International for a year. Once they knew they were going to do it, there was just a magnificent morale boost. They have stood up and looked the rest of the media in the eye, Parliament in the eye, and looked Leveson in the eye. Rupert has done an enormous amount for the morale of his own newspaper. And also, I know, journalists from other companies, although they can't publicly say so."

But Max Mosley, who successfully sued the News of the World for breach of privacy, told The Independent on Sunday that publishing the Prince Harry photographs was "100 per cent not in the public interest. It is theft. It's his privacy … and they've stolen something from him. If they were an honest newspaper, they wouldn't have published them".

A spokesman for the Leveson inquiry declined to comment. A spokeswoman for News International said: "We haven't commented at all on who was involved or not involved in the decision process."

According to reports, Prince Harry, 27, the third in line to the throne, was being summoned for "crisis talks" with his father, Prince Charles. There is also pressure on St James's Palace and Buckingham Palace to review royal protection procedures.

Harriet Harman, Labour deputy leader and the shadow Culture Secretary, cast doubt yesterday on Elisabeth Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture last week in which she distanced herself from her father and brother James. Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Ms Harman said: "It was exquisite torture for me that you wait 17 years for a woman to give the MacTaggart lecture and it's a Murdoch. It's a bit like waiting for a woman to be Prime Minister and finding it's Margaret Thatcher. Of course it was important for her to be saying profit should be the servant, not the master, but we didn't hear how that was going to happen."

Ms Harman criticised the "dysfunctionality" in the Murdoch empire and added: "What the Murdochs mean for many people is concentration of power or abuse of power."

[Sabrina]

The UK's National Health Service is said to be about the 5th largest employer in the world. The level of corruption within these private financial initiatives is probably eye watering. And the 2,000 page contracts quoted were probably designed to not be understood by the foot soldiers on the ground. Smacks of the whole derivatives thing etc.... bankers gaily admitting that they had this product produced by the whizz kids, but god know's what it all meant, but buy it, it's wonderful.

And NHS computer fiasco has already lost over £12.7 billion (story at end).... all done in plain sight!!! :)




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9502335/Hit-squads-to-take-over-seven-NHS-trusts.html

28 Aug UK

'Hit squads' to take over seven NHS trusts

Senior government lawyers and auditors are to be sent into seven NHS hospital trusts on the brink of bankruptcy which have been saddled with “absolutely disgraceful” private finance initiative contracts.

Simon Burns, the health minister, said that he will be sending in “hit squads” to make savings at hospitals where the contracts have gone “horribly wrong”.

He says that the deals show a “cavalier disregard” for taxpayers’ money and points out that hospitals are being forced to pay £242 for a padlock to be changed and £466 for a new light fitting.

Throughout the NHS, hospitals have signed PFI deals worth more than £79 billion, of which only eight per cent had been repaid by 2010. The deals involved private firms building and maintaining hospitals, with the money repaid over decades.

Mr Burns, who is the minister responsible for the day-to-day running of the NHS, said officials have identified £1.5 billion of savings which can be made.

Asked if the schemes were a mistake, he said: “In the form that they were agreed, with what, to my mind is a cavalier disregard for cost efficiency and value for taxpayers’ money, yes.”

............

The hit squads of accountants and lawyers will attempt to renegotiate contracts at the most beleaguered trusts before their finances become unsustainable.

“The problem is some of these contracts are 2,000 pages long and realistically I suspect very few people have looked through them and been able to identify all the implications and potentials to make sure they are getting a good deal,” Mr Burns said.

full story at link

and


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/22/nhs-it-project-abandoned

NHS told to abandon delayed IT project

£12.7bn computer scheme to create patient record system is to be scrapped after years of delays


An ambitious multibillion pound programme to create a computerised patient record system across the entire NHS is being scrapped, ministers have decided.

The £12.7bn National Programme for IT is being ended after years of delays, technical difficulties, contractual disputes and rising costs.

full story at link
22 Sept

[Sabrina]

http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/benjamin-fulford-8-28-12-the-story-of-the-kidnapped-13-year-old-princess-also-about-the-financial-and-industrial-purge-that-has-begun-in-china/

Benjy Fulford's latest take on it all 28 August.

[Sabrina]

http://www.movetoamend.org/

Another petition coming out of the US:



We the People, Not We the Corporations

On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.

We Move to Amend.

". . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."
~Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010

[Sabrina]

Summer Is Over With A Bang As Bomb Explodes Outside Greek Bank


From zerohedge.com

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/28/2012


European Central Bank Greece Recession Reuters Unemployment

If the unofficial end of the European summer season comes with the return of those 9-saying Germans who dash every carefully laid plan to stuff German taxpayers with the European bailout bill for the second year running, the official end is when the Greeks come back from their German-sponsored two week vacation in the Cyclades (soon to be known as Nieder-Niedersachsen) and start bombing things. Which is precisely what happened two hours ago. From Reuters: "A makeshift bomb exploded outside a National Bank of Greece branch in Athens early on Tuesday, causing minor damage but no injuries, police said. Windows were smashed and four parked cars suffered minor damage in the blast, which took place about 4 a.m (0100 GMT) in the western suburb of Ilion."

Luckily nobody was hurt. However, it would not look good on the front page of German papers that the general Greek population is not ungrateful for the continued ECB recycling of ponzi cash, but has decided to take out an ATM machine or two, which is why... "We suspect it is linked to terrorism," said a police official who declined to be named. Sure enough, when all else fails, blame something: Bush, a glitch, or terrorism.


and
Greek press:

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite3_1_25/08/2012_458243


A sizzling September

This is going to be one sizzling September. Society and the political leadership are going to be put through the wringer once again, and no one can predict the outcome. The troika is insisting on further cutbacks to pensions and public sector salaries, state workers being fired rather than being put on labor reserve, the complete liberalization of closed professions, privatizations that have not even been put into the pipeline, and much, much more. It does not appear at this point that any leeway will be provided regarding the measures our creditors are demanding in exchange for the disbursement of the next loan installment. What’s more, the troika will not only demand that the reforms are voted through Parliament, but they will also require proof that they are being implemented, unlike in the past.

The government, and the premier and finance minister in particular, have made it clear that they are determined to stick to the reform path. Throughout Europe and in Washington, top-level officials are wondering whether Greece will walk the walk as it talks the talk. The government must forget about the red lines that the three-party coalition outlined before the elections, while Athens will have to present the troika with its final outline of the reforms it proposes to introduce in order to meet its targets, and I imagine that many of them will be rejected outright. I’m afraid that the coalition partners will have to get over many of their taboos and that things will get pretty rough before the troika agrees to give us any more money.

There are those who believe that Greece can survive without borrowing by raising capital from Greek banks and the European Central Bank (ECB) via the auction of T-bills. This mechanism could help Greece keep its head above water in the case of a serious crisis in Parliament or if talks with the troika cease. But, it would also mean that Greece would have to remain attached to the ECB lifeline as its vital functions shut down. The issue is not about gaining more time but about sailing safely through a final storm, getting the money, recapitalizing banks, paying the state’s debt to private business and averting the risk of a euro exit, fear of which has brought the economy to a standstill.

We need clear solutions. Either Greece will do its best and its partners will respond in kind, or all parties should agree that the game is over and we need a whole new plan. Our partners are clearly preparing for every scenario.

[Sabrina]

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/whispers-on-wall-street-major-financial-house-is-going-to-implode-could-it-be-morgan-stanley_08272012

Whispers on Wall Street: Major Financial House Is Going to Implode… Could It Be Morgan Stanley?

Mac Slavo
August 27th, 2012

Before the collapse of mega behemoth Bear Stearns there were rumors that a major Wall Street firm had bitten off more than it could chew. Mainstream media, for the most part, completely ignored the rumors, with some financial experts like CNBC’s premier Wall Street insider Jim Cramer literally screaming at viewers on the March 11, 2008 airing of Mad Money in which he vehemently denied any problems saying that the company was “fine.”


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Just a few days later Bear Stearns collapsed into heap of rubble and was offered up for sale at just $2 a share to JP Morgan Chase. This incident is widely believed to have been the catalyst that kicked off what we now refer to as the sub prime mortgage collapse.

In the last few months we’ve started receiving signals similar to what contrarian observers were seeing prior to the Bear Stearns collapse.

Big money flows out of financial stocks by key financiers like George Soros and John Paulson were reported just last week and tens of billions of dollars have been withdrawn from the European banking system since Spring. The government for its part, has taken steps to lock down the banking system so that not only can customers no longer withdraw funds from money market accounts in the middle of a panic, but a recent federal court case set a new precedent that has essentially given the go ahead for banks and investment firms to use segregated customer deposit accounts to engage in highly risky trading strategies without the threat of ever being prosecuted.

Now, a report from analysis firm Beacon Equity Research suggests that there is an unusually high amount of chatter on Wall Street surrounding the possibility of another major financial collapse in the making. When the Department of Homeland Security or other intelligence services hear chatter they often raise the terror alert level, deploy federal SWAT teams and go on complete lock-down.

Thus, we should consider this latest piece of intel from those with their fingers on the pulse of Wall Street as a potential game changer:

With the stock price of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) inches from its Armageddon lows of Oct. 2008, whispers of the imminent overnight collapse of this U.S. broker-dealer begin to surface. Client funds, again, are at risk.

“I’m hearing rumors that another major financial house is going to implode,” says TruNews host Rick Wiles. In fact, the name I’ve been given is Morgan Stanley . . .

“It’s going to be put on the sacrificial alter by the financial elite.”

Beyond the evidence of a teetering stock price—Morgan Stanley’s troubles may never go away—leading to bankruptcy, if traders can glean anything from the financial activities of front-running insider George Soros, the man who warned in Jun. 2010 that the global financial crisis has entered “act II.”

…

Adding to the speculation of a Morgan Stanley collapse, Bloomberg coincidentally pens an article on Aug. 23—the following day of the TruNews broadcast—in which the author Bradley Keoun recounts the dark days of Morgan Stanley at the height of act I of the financial crisis in 2008.

“At the peak of Morgan Stanley’s Fed borrowings, on Sept. 29, 2008, the firm reported that liquidity was ‘strong,’ without mentioning how dependent its cash stores had become on the government lifeline. . .” states Keoun.

…

But here’s where strong advice from Trends Research Institute founder Gerald Celente and former commodities broker Ann Barnhardt should be heeded. Both consumer-friendly analysts implore investors and savers, alike, to withdraw from the financial system, warning that allocated brokerage accounts are not truly allocated.

…

Regulators were asleep at the switch in the cases of MF Global and PFG Best, both filing bankruptcy post 2008, taking customer funds with them to the financial grave. Why not Morgan Stanley?

“They don’t give you the information to be able to decipher whether they have changed anything,” adds Hurwich.

…

Why an establishment cheerleader such as Michael Bloomberg would allow an article which serves to remind investors of Morgan Stanley’s financial problems at this time may lend some credence to Rick Wile’s sources, who hear chatter about the impending doom of Morgan Stanley.

…

The timing of the Bloomberg article is no coincidence. Michael Bloomberg is only doing his part for the global banking cartel by tipping off that Morgan Stanley is ready for the “sacrificial alter.” Get your money out.

Source: Beacon Equity
Via: Woodpile Report, Steve Quayle

We can make predictions or forecasts based on rumors and news, and often times we’ll be berated for acting to protect ourselves based on this information. Often, even rumors and chatter have been responsible for driving a particular stock or market up or down, so the very news itself, whether true or not, may set the ball in motion.

But, the fact of the matter is that neither the SEC nor Ben Bernanke nor Tim Geithner nor the White House nor mainstream financial pundits nor Wall Street insiders will ever tell us ahead of time that billions of dollars of our wealth is about to be wiped out.

We will only find out after the fact.

You’ve now heard the rumor. You’ve been following the news. The decision is in your hands.

[Sabrina]

Am not buying into the fear - the old system's got to go - but there's a lot of 'noise' about :)...

http://www.shtfplan.com/charlie-mcgrath/into-the-meat-grinder-a-major-market-meltdown-the-likes-of-which-weve-never-seen-is-upon-us_08282012

Into the Meat Grinder: A “Market Meltdown the Likes of Which We’ve Never Seen Is Upon Us”

Mac Slavo
August 28th, 2012

America is about to be put through the meat grinder and despite what President Obama or Governor Mitt Romney say they will do to fix the fundamental issues facing our country, the end result is inevitable.

Neither the Republicans or the Democrats can change what’s coming, because the fact is, they are equally responsible for where we are today.

As Charlie McGrath of Wide Awake News notes, it’s no longer just bloggers and alternative media in the fringe corners of the internet warning about the coming collapse of life in America as we have come to know it.

The crisis of reality is being forecast by some of the most elite institutions and insiders in the world, and we’d better be paying attention.

I want to give you a few predictions and then tell I’ll you who they’re from. It might surprise you.

Prediction number 1: We’re heading headlong into a financial meat grinder.

Prediction number 2: We’re about to plunge off a financial cliff.

Prediction number 3: Major market meltdown the likes of which we’ve never seen is upon on us.

This wasn’t from some alternative media site or somebody that’s peddling gloom and doom.

The first one is from JP Morgan, the second from Ben Bernanke, and the third was from Steven Rattner, former Obama Treasury adviser.

…

The IMF and the US Congressional budget office are both warning about the largest tax increase and the largest spending cut in history hitting this country.

They’re doing this for a reason.

It isn’t because it’s not going to happen. It is because it’s going to happen.

…

When it all comes crashing down, when it all comes falling apart, when the sovereign debt landmine explodes around this planet we will be sitting here in a deflationary spiral, the likes of which we have never seen. They will be sitting there ready to swoop in and grab up everything at bargain basement, bottom of the dollar prices. It will be the Tulip bubble all over again. You will be sitting there holding nothing and then blaming your neighbor for being here.

These same criminal elite that promised to end wars, that promised to audit the Federal Reserve, that promised to get our financial house in order, are continuing to expand the power, the role and the control of government.

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At this point it is our position that there is nothing – absolutely nothing – that will be done to change the course on which we’ve embarked over the last several decades. The consequences of years of spending, borrowing and centralization of control cannot be reversed.

The system as it exists today, where we enjoy relative wealth, stability and peace, will inevitably experience a complete reset.

The elite know this is coming, as evidenced by their recent actions and the whispers on Wall Street and throughout the upper echelons of finance and government.

Hat tip: Charlie McGrath of Wide Awake News. Listen to Charlie McGrath Monday through Friday (5pm – 7pm PDT) on the Rense Radio Network.

[Sabrina]

Things are pretty bad in Spain at the moment. The public are being hit with numerous price, tax rises etc. on anything that moves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/28/catalonias-plea-brings-spanish-bailout-nearer?newsfeed=true

28 Aug Spain

Catalonia's €5bn plea brings Spanish bailout nearer
Regional government seeks more from central government rescue fund as deposit flight grows throughout Spain

Spain's attempts to stave off a full bailout were dealt a blow on Tuesday when the regional government of Catalonia said it needed €5bn (£3.97bn) from a central government rescue fund.

It came as figures showed Spanish banks saw €1 withdrawn for every €20 deposited in July – making it the worst month for deposit flight in 15 years – and Spain's statistics institute revealed the recession was worse than thought, with the economy shrinking at an annual rate of 1.3% in the second quarter.

Catalonia is one of half a dozen regional governments shut out of markets and needing government help to roll over debt and fund budget deficits. Regions have a combined debt of €145bn, with €36bn needing to be refinanced this year.

Prime minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government may eventually take direct control of the region's finances. But regional prime minister Artur Mas, of the Catalan nationalist Convergence and Union coalition, has threatened a snap election if that happens. His spokesman, Francesc Homs, rejected any "political terms" for borrowing the money.................

Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, abruptly withdrew from delivering a speech in the US next weekend, citing pressure of work as he prepares two important moves on the euro crisis.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

Fascinating article.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/julian-assange-international-intrigue-and-whats-going-on-with-ecuador/#more-141865

Julian Assange, International Intrigue and What’s Going On With Ecuador

sage: This article was found by Jeannie, a member of The 2012 Scenario Discussion Group. It is from an Italian-language blog called ‘Free Thought: The Home of the Italian Exiles at Home’ by Nicola di Cora Modigliani. The original is in Italian here: http://sergiodicorimodiglianji.blogspot.it/2012/08/lattacco-alla-repubblica-del-ecuador.html

Nicola describes the blog’s philosophy ths: “the purpose of this blog is to contribute to the spread of free thought without ideological ties, without party affiliations, without economic dependence on [sources] more or less hidden. Independent and connected to groups of international bloggers operating in California and South America”.

Assange and the Attack on the Republic of Ecuador
By Nicola di Cora Modigliani – August 18, 2012

http://sergiodicorimodiglianji.blogspot.it

Important Note: Re-edited in English from Google translation by Sandhya Jain.

Today we talk of geo-politics and the freedom of information. But what is happening today technically (i.e. politically) began on 12 December 2008, though some say September of that year, but it took four years for the shock waves to reach Europe and America.

The issue relates to Julian Assange, Wikileaks, and the Republic of Ecuador. Mind you, it was assumed in the entire American continent, Australia, and Europe that the world was the same as ten years ago. But the world does not work that way anymore.

In Italy, no one was told of the fight growing between Brazil and the United Nations, badly managed by Christine Lagarde who heads the International Monetary Fund, whereby Italy was officially relegated from the eighth largest to the ninth largest economy in the world. It was overtaken by Brazil. So at the next G8, Italy will not be invited, but Brazil will. So we had the decision to abolish the G8 and G10 becoming the new standard.

Europe, with England and Germany at the helm, simply cannot accept the “Keynesian” triumph of South America. In essence the western guideline remains: “Let them stay home and remain grateful that we let them survive like the Africans. Otherwise one by one they will all end like Gadaffi.”

This is the warning in a nutshell So, quietly, South America has in the last 40 days sent three powerful messages; the last and most important was on August 3, and it was televised live from the New York office of the International Monetary Fund. Now for some facts.

On 15 June 2012, Julian Assange understands that for him it’s over. He knows that he will be arrested in Stockholm, picked up at the airport, not by police forces of His Majesty the King of Sweden, but by two officers of the CIA and a US diplomat, using specific formal agreements between the two nations to claim that Assange “actively intervened” in the NATO conflict in Iraq while the war was in progress. He will then be taken directly to the US, to the state of Texas, and subjected to criminal prosecution for terrorist activities. There will be a demand for the death penalty based on the provisions of the Patriot Act.

So Assange consults with his group, and at 9 a.m. on 19 June, enters the Embassy of Ecuador. His team opens negotiations with British agents in London, with the Swedes in Stockholm, and American diplomats in Rio de Janeiro. They agree to let the Olympics pass, after which he can quietly go to South America, ‘just do not talk about it.’ But somehow they don’t trust the Anglo-Americans and rightly so. So they carry out two masterstrokes on 3 August and 4 August.

On 3 August 2012, 16 months ahead of schedule, Argentina President, Cristina Kirchner, arrives at the headquarters of the IMF in Manhattan, accompanied by finance minister and foreign minister of Ecuador, Patino, representing ‘Alba’ (Labour Alianza Bolivariana America), the economic union between Latin America and the Caribbean.

On that occasion, Kirchner hands a cheque of €12 billion to the IMF (whose loan was due on 31 December 2013). She announces that with this instalment, Argentina has shown itself to be solvent, to be a responsible nation, trusted and reliable for anyone who wants to invest money. Argentina in 2003 went in default of $112 billion, but refused to seek cancellation of the debt; it declared bankruptcy and sought 10 years to return the money, including interest.

For 10 years, Argentina fought IMF’s attempts to impose restrictive measures of economic austerity. It opted for a different path, in line with Keynesianism, and based on financing infrastructure, research, innovation, instead of cutting expenditure. And it recovered. And it paid off the last instalment of the IMF loan 16 months in advance. It thus proved once more that the ideas of the IMF and World Bank on economic ideas are noxious and wrong headed. TINA (“There is no alternative”) is a lie forced upon the majority of the world’s population by the oligarchic elites.

Fifteen minutes after making the payment, Kirchner lodges a formal complaint against the US and UK to the World Trade Organization, on the basis of files made available by Wikileaks, that is, Assange.

Argentina, having settled the debts, now wants damages; with compound interest. It’s a fight between Kirchner and Lagarde. Thanks to Assange, as his team has the transcripts of several conversations in different governments of the globe, involving the US, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the Vatican, where money is the master: Osama Bin Laden has been sent to the attic and replaced as the arch villain by John Maynard Keynes in the minds of the financial hegemons.

Assange has become public enemy number one of the great powers since he has gained the classified records of these long conversations about how to cripple the economies of South America, how to take away their energy resources and prevent their recovery; how to prevent their governments from pushing through Keynesian economic plans instead of applying the dictates of the IMF, whose sole purpose is to pursue a neo-colonialist policy principally for the benefit of Spain, Italy and Germany, with British capital.

Most files have already been published on the internet. Those and others were handed over by Assange in Britain to the Ecuadorian ambassador there.

On August 3 in New York, Ecuador became the first nation in the Americas and only nation in the Western world since 1948, to apply the concept of “immoral debt” or the political and technical refusal to pay foreign debts because they were made by previous governments through corruption, in violation of constitutional laws and requirements.

On 12 December 2008, Rafael Correa the new president of Ecuador (whose GDP is around 50 billion euros, or 30 times less than Italy’s) announced on television that he had decided to cancel the national debt considering it illegal, because it violated the constitution to oppress the people. Today in Ecuador, the new constitutional principle is that what is right for the community is legitimate.

Amount of debt: € 11 billion. The IMF literally expunged Ecuador from the list of civilized nations. “The country is isolated,” declared Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then IMF Director General.

The very next day, Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would contribute free oil and gas to Ecuador for ten years. Four hours later, President Lula announced that Brazil would give 100 tons/day of wheat, rice, soy and fruit free to feed the population, for a long as the nation takes to recover. In the evening, Argentina announced it would give 3% of its beef production free to Ecuador to ensure adequate protein for the population. The next morning, in Bolivia, Evo Morales announced the legalization of cocaine for domestic production and collection, and free coca leaves to Ecuador with a loan of 5 billion interest-free, repayable in ten years in 120 instalments.

Two days later, Ecuador denounced the United Fruit Company and Del Monte & Associates for “slavery and crimes against humanity”, nationalized the agricultural industry in bananas (Ecuador is the world’s biggest banana exporter) and launched a national organic label.

Ten days later, Bavarian Green of Schleswig Holstein, Conad in Italy, and Denmark, and Haagen Daaz were prepared to sign contracts with the new entity on the basis of “fair trade”. On 20 December 2008, taking note of the protest of the United Fruit Company, President George Bush (still in office until 17 Jan 2009), denounced the ‘criminal decision’ of Ecuador and called for its expulsion from the United Nations.

Bush said that the US was even ready for a ‘military option to safeguard US interests.’ The next morning, the powerful New York law firm of Goldberg & Goldberg submitted that there was a legal precedent for Ecuador’s action. Six hours later, the US gave up and called on the international community to challenge the legitimacy of the concept of “immoral debt”.

The United Fruit Company has a record in systematic political corruption; it was ordered to pay damages of $ 6 billion.

Interestingly, the legal precedent was dated 4 Jan 2003, and signed by George Bush. Yep. This happened in Iraq, which at that time was’technically’ an American possession since it was occupied by US forces and the interim government was not yet recognized by the UN. Saddam Hussein had left debts of 250 billion euros (40 billion euros against Italy, thanks to the transactions concluded Tareq Aziz, deputy to Hussein and an ally of Vatican’s Opus Dei), which the US erased by applying the concept of “immoral debt”, thus creating the recent historical precedent.

New York lawyers for the government of Ecuador offered Washington a choice: either accept and be silent, or if you challenge the decision of Ecuador then also cancel yours for Iraq and get the US Treasury to immediately pay the €250 billion, including compound interest for four years. Obama, not yet in office but already elected, asks Bush to throw in the towel. The New York lawyers are paid by the Brazilian government.

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president-elect, is not a farmer like Morales, or trade unionist like Lula, or a military officer like Chavez, he comes from an upper class family and is an intellectual. He is a graduate in economics and economic planning from Harvard, and self-described as a “Christian socialist”. His first official act was to freeze all bank accounts of the Church’s IOR in Quito’s banks and divert the amount into a social welfare program for the economically disadvantaged.

He put on trial the entire political class of the previous government, most of whom were sent to jail, with average sentences of 10 years, confiscated their property and nationalized it and and redistributed it in ecological agricultural cooperatives. Correa sent a letter to Pope Ratzinger in which he called himself “always the humble servant of Your Enlightened Holiness” and in which he officially bade the Vatican send to Ecuador only “clerics gifted with deep spirituality and eager to serve the needy, avoiding profiteers who would incur the rigor of human laws”.

Today, the new South America says no to colonialism and slavery of the European and US multinationals. For 400 years, ever since Europeans discovered bananas rich in potassium, Ecuadorians have lived in poverty, exploitation, destitution, while for hundreds of years a group of brutal oligarchs got rich at their expense. It is no longer the case. And it never will be again. The example of Ecuador is alive and can be replicated in any African or Asian, or European, nation in the world.

But the decisive blow to the system was a bombshell made public on 4 Aug 2012, when Julian Assange assigned the Spanish judge Garzón, the public enemy number one of organised crime, the most ferocious enemy of Silvio Berlusconi, and absolutely the most dangerous enemy of the global banking system, to defend him.

The Spanish judge has 35 years experience and has been responsible for the prosecution of the most important cases of his country for the past 25 years. He is an expert in ‘media and finance,’ and rose to international prominence in 1993 after Interpol issued a warrant on his behalf against Silvio Berlusconi and Fedele Confalonieri (Berlusconi’s right hand man) regarding transactions involving Telecinco, Pentafilm, Fininvest, Reteitalia and La Cinq.

From this it came out that the Pentafilm (Berlusconi and Cecchi Gori members, namely PD and PDL together) bought at $100 the rights of a film that it sold to Columbia Pictures for $500 to Telecinco that sold them at $1000 to an Italian network which then ultimately sold for $2000 to Rai, and so on a total of 142 times. The same film.

That is, the Rai (or us) paid the rights to a film 20 times the value of the market and bought it three times, so that all parties were taken care of. When it came to the crux of the matter, Berlusconi was prime minister, and so Garzón was stopped by the European Union. He got a half victory. Heclosed the Telecinco and sent its Spanish executives to jail.In 2003 the battle re-opened, with Berlusconi’s new front Mediaset. Garzón was always there.

In 2006, the Italian government at the time (Prodi & co.) helped Berlusconi to escape conviction. In 2004, Garzon opened a dossier against Pope Wojtyla and against the management of the IOR in Spain and Argentina, in relation to funding and support from the Vatican to the military juntas of Pinochet and Videla in South America.

In 2010 Garzón resigned under pressure from the Spanish Government, but before he retired, he opened a law firm dedicated exclusively to international ‘media & finance’ in The Hague, The Netherlands. And now as official legal eagle to Assange, judge Garzón has access to 145,000 files still in possession of Julian Assange that have not been made public. He has already made it known that his office is prepared to denounce several Western heads of state to the court of civil rights in The Hague. The charge will be ‘crimes against humanity, crimes against the dignity of the person.’

The battle is therefore open. It is going to be decisive for the future of freedom in the network [internet]. In the US, they make no secret of the fact that they want him dead. So do the British. But they are having trouble because Assange has taken steps to bring about a global group that deals with counter-information (real, not the Italian one). Its members are anonymous. They do not have an identified site. They simply enter the data, news, information and events. Besides, who wants to know where to look and who wants to understand? When the temperature rises, everything comes to the surface.

The British Empire has lost its composure and wants to seize Assange who has access to direct source material. And the mere fact of releasing it in public turns the tables on those who rule, and reminds the people that we are caught in an invisible war. The rulers do not know how to stop the dissemination of information about what is happening in the world.

There are people who risk their lives by the mere act of uploading information from some anonymous Internet location in Canberra, Bogota or Saint Tropez. Wikileaks should not be read as gossip. It is not. Its anonymous team deserves our respect.

We can no longer say tomorrow, “but we did not know”. Whoever wants to know today, is well served. Just try.

Translated, this means: until we send home the foul political class that poorly represents us, the chatter will have no effect. Because now we all know how things are. Otherwise, you cannot complain or be surprised that in Italy no one has ever spoken before of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, or of what happens in South America, the furious battle taking place between the Argentine President and Brazil on one hand and Christine Lagarde and Merkel other. Why wonder then, that the British want to invade a foreign embassy? This never happened even in the hottest days of the so-called Cold War. As they say in South America when someone asks “What do they do in Europe, what’s happening there?”, you answer “In Europe they sleep. They do not know that there is life out there.”

[Sabrina]

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?49168-Euro-Break-Up-Getting-Closer-to-D-Day-

Euro Break Up Getting Closer to D Day - thanks to Glass Steagall

[Sabrina]

http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1078-2012shift

David Wilcock's latest blog 28 Aug (another follow up to the recent one). Full article at link. Here are a few chunks:

By Law of One standards, I do believe that it will be much harder to make sudden, massive leaps in your level of spiritual growth after the end of this year than it is now.

This is due to the fact that it will have become much easier for people to see and accept the truth by then -- and the fastest progress is made when you have to take that "leap of faith" and wield a single, flickering candle in the darkness.

For this same reason, it is vitally important that we make a big push for mass arrests, the defeating of financial tyranny, and Disclosure -- before the end of this year, and the energetic effects that will apparently result.

The intuitive guidance has clearly told me that this chain of events will create massive leaps of positive spiritual growth in humanity, prior to the end of this year, if it works out.

and

a short extract from a message Wilcock received some years ago"

THE NEGATIVE FORCES HAVE FAILED TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS

I ask that these words, though metaphorical in nature, not be misinterpreted.

For we are doing our best, within our level of this grand illusion, to insure that you move through this process as smoothly as possible.

Those negative forces within your plane of existence have worked diligently to attempt to create martial law, internment camps, and global tyranny.

And yet, they have failed.

Those who continue to insist that these plans are on track have failed to see the obvious that is before them.


FREEDOM IS A STATE OF MIND

Sovereignty is a choice. Freedom is a state of mind.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

This story is in MSM now. Polish included. Below is snippet from WiReD:

Bin Laden Raid Became Re-Election Mission, SEAL Book Says

The mission was twofold: first and foremost, kill Osama bin Laden. Then, once the deed was done and the troops were back safe, help re-elect the president of the United States by promoting the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist.

That’s the accusation in “No Easy Day,” the firsthand account of the bin Laden raid from Matt Bissonette, a former member of SEAL Team 6. Copies of the book, due out next week, were obtained by the Huffington Post and by the Associated Press’ Kim Dozier.

In the excerpts they present, Bissonette praises President Obama for giving the green light to attack bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad. But even before the mission began, Bissonette and his fellow SEALs knew that the raid would be played up by the White House for political purposes.

“We’ll get Obama re-elected for sure. I can see him now, talking about how he killed bin Laden,” one SEAL said, according to Bissonette.

Bissonette adds: “We all knew the deal. We were tools in the toolbox, and when things go well they promote it. They inflate their roles. But we should have done it. It was the right call to make. Regardless of the politics that would come along with it, the end result was what we all wanted.”


The degree to which the White House took credit for — and leaked information about — the bin Laden raid has already become a contentious campaign issue. “No Easy Day,” written by Bissonette under a pseudonym and co-authored by the journalist Kevin Maurer, won’t exactly relieve that strain. A political action committee backed by right-wing activists and claiming to represent former special operations forces has gone after the “countless leaks, interviews and decisions by the Obama administration” that have “put future missions and personnel at risk.” Republicans have teased Obama for playing up his role in the mission. “He pats himself on the back every night for continuing the aggressive search for bin Laden started by George Bush,” said one surrogate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Obama administration internal messages, released yesterday by Judicial Watch, provide fresh details about the promotional push that followed the bin Laden raid. The CIA, for example, helped a pair of White House-friendly filmmakers, Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow, arrange interviews with two of the men who accompanied Bissonette on the mission to Abbottabad. “I know we don’t pick favorites but it makes sense to get behind a winning horse,” agency spokesperson Marie Harf wrote. “Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board.”

Bissonette writes that the initial accounts of the raid, leaked by administration officials, were bordering on Tinseltown, as well. A claimed 40-minute gunfight between the SEALs and al-Qaida operatives never happened. Nor was bin Laden shot while reaching for a gun, as officials originally claimed. In fact, the terrorist was unarmed and didn’t even bother to defend himself. ”The raid was being reported like a bad action movie,” Bissonette says. “At first, it was funny because it was so wrong.”
(...)

Full story: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/bin-laden-book/

[ThePythonicCow]

Fascinating article.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/julian-assange-international-intrigue-and-whats-going-on-with-ecuador/#more-141865

Julian Assange, International Intrigue and What’s Going On With Ecuador

Fascinating, indeed.

[Sabrina]

Lots of chatter about imminent financial collapse (Fed meeting is today as well). Good from a spiritual point of view, or if you're a 'conspiracy' fact finder waiting for the new system. Not so hot if you're a trader far from the top of the ladder. Alex Jones is foaming at the mouth. Am thinking of stocking up on cans of baked beans from the UK's equivalent of Walmart if I dare to be that shallow (US Walmarts apparently sell dried survival food...). Blue Moon tonight. 9.9 on 9th September. Don't think September's going to be a dull month.


From Amerian Kabuki recently:

One of my contacts has told me he now has a date for the banking system changes. However he hasn't given it to me yet. Sigh... Sheldan's post fits right in with what my contact told me. Things are very, very, very close to happening. -AK

and

http://sgtreport.com/2012/06/watching-the-clock-is-the-total-economic-collapse-going-to-occur-in-september-october/

Watching the Clock: Will a Total Economic Collapse Occur in September-October?

full story at link

and

http://www.shtfplan.com/peter-schiff/the-crunch-its-going-to-happen-in-the-next-administration-regardless-of-who-wins-this-election_08302012


The Crunch: “It’s Going to Happen In the Next Administration; Regardless of Who Wins This Election” (US)

story at link

and

Just came across this from 24 Aug
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8721151/Market-crash-could-hit-within-weeks-warn-bankers.html

Market crash 'could hit within weeks', warn bankers

A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.

Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group's implosion nearly three years ago.

Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender's bonds against default is now £343,540.

The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.


"The problem is a shortage of liquidity – that is what is causing the problems with the banks. It feels exactly as it felt in 2008," said one senior London-based bank executive.

"I think we are heading for a market shock in September or October that will match anything we have ever seen before," said a senior credit banker at a major European bank.

[write4change]

Fascinating article.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/julian-assange-international-intrigue-and-whats-going-on-with-ecuador/#more-141865

Julian Assange, International Intrigue and What’s Going On With Ecuador

Fascinating, indeed.

Wow, what a read! These are the reasons I keep coming back to this site. Slowly but surely, we are able to piece together the reality of the consiousness of the elite who seek to retain their control. They are focused but they are out numbered and slowly but moving ever faster sites like these are waking people up.

Today I begin the day with good on us.

[Alie]

Sabrina
Again thanks! This thread is the only one I regularly check out. You have really made a FABULOUS contribution to PA. Alie

[Sabrina]

This is an interesting call for change - wonder what was going on behind the scenes....


31 Aug Financial Times

Haldane calls for rethink of Basel III




Bank regulators should tear up the overly complicated Basel III rule book and return to a few simple standards on capital and total borrowing, a senior Bank of England official has said.

In a radical speech to central bankers at Jackson Hole in Wyoming on Friday, Andy Haldane, executive director for financial stability at the BoE, warned that the complexity of current regulation is preventing authorities from spotting and averting financial crises.


“Modern finance is complex, perhaps too complex . . . As you do not fight fire with fire, you do not fight complexity with complexity. Because complexity generates uncertainty, not risk, it requires a regulatory response grounded in simplicity. Less may be more,” Mr Haldane said.

The annual gathering, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, is considered one of the prime intellectual events worldwide for central bankers, making it the ideal audience for Mr Haldane’s bold call for a radical rewrite of the rules. Mr Haldane’s boss at the BoE, Sir Mervyn King, is chairman of the global body that approves updates to the Basel global standards for bank safety.

Mr Haldane called for regulators to simplify the way banks calculate their capital requirements as a first step. He pointed out that the Basel rules have grown from 30 pages in the 1980s to 616 pages in the Basel III version approved in 2010.

The rules now rely heavily on banks’ internal models to make millions of calculations about the risk levels of individual loans, making it almost impossible to compare banks with their peers. Investors have also grown increasingly sceptical of bankers’ ability to measure risk in the wake of the financial crisis and JPMorgan Chase’s recent multibillion-dollar trading loss. Mr Haldane said their concerns had merit.

“With thousands of parameters calibrated from short samples, these models are unlikely to be robust for many decades,” he said, calling for regulators to consider “simplified, standardised approaches to measuring credit and market risk, on a broad asset class basis” instead.

A second step would be to impose tighter curbs on banks’ total borrowing, known as a “leverage ratio”. The Basel III rules require banks to have equity equal to 3 per cent of their total assets as a backstop measure to prevent them from understating the risk levels of their assets when calculating their capital requirements. But Mr Haldane advocated much higher requirements, of 4-7 per cent, saying it would do more to prevent bank failures.

Both ideas have some support. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has raised the possibility of using standardised risk weights in its consultation on capital requirements for bank trading books, and some academics have argued for a much tougher leverage ratio.

Noting that the BoE had a chance to put some of his ideas into practice when it took over bank supervision next year, Mr Haldane called on bank regulators to be “brave enough to allow less to deliver more”. In practice, that would mean “fewer, perhaps far fewer, more, ideally much more, experienced supervisors operating to a smaller, less detailed rule book”, he said.

Mr Haldane acknowledged that adopting his ideas “would require an about-turn from the regulatory community from the path followed for the better part of the past 50 years”, but he likened the situation to trying to catch a Frisbee. “To ask today’s regulators to save us from tomorrow’s crisis using yesterday’s toolbox is to ask a border collie to catch a Frisbee by first applying Newton’s law of gravity,” he said.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a5e61b2-f34a-11e1-9c6c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz25DoSeARU

[Sabrina]

Yet more coming to the surface...

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/01/259302/royal-secret-powers-to-be-made-public/

1 Sept

Royal secret powers to be made public (UK)


Details of secret powers of the British Queen and Prince Charles over legislation at the UK Parliament could be made public as it is ordered by the Information Commissioner.


The Cabinet Office has been told to release an internal Whitehall guide on when and how the consent of the senior members of the Royal family over new laws is required.

It follows a request under Freedom of Information (FoI) Act for publishing any guidance on gaining The Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall’s consent before passing any bills into laws.

Charles has been asked to approve at least 12 draft bills during the past two parliamentary sessions on bills ranging from economic development and construction to nanotechnology, which raised campaigners’ concerns over his intervention in public life, British media reports said.

Moreover, among the issues are those related to his role as the head of the £700 million Duchy of Cornwall estate which provides his £17 million private income each year.

The Cabinet Office now has until September 25 to release the confidential internal guide as Graham Smith, deputy information commissioner, has ruled.

The manual should give detailed information about how the consent of the royal family’s senior members is obtained and what criteria ministers use before asking the royals to alter the legislations.

This comes as media reports say the Duchy and the Cabinet Office has tried hard to keep the documents related to advising ministers on protocol secret as they argued that the royal family’s role was procedural not substantive.

[Sabrina]

From Business Insider - full story and graph at link below.

The Market Is Surging After Bernanke — This Headline Explains Why


As ForexLive correctly observes, the only headline that matters is the take from Fed-watcher-in-chief Jon Hilsenrath at the Wall Street Journal.

His take?

Bernanke has opend the door to more easing.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-only-bernanke-headline-that-matters-explains-why-the-dow-is-now-surging-2012-8#ixzz25ERgzEuO

Think I'm repeating myself with this, but we need some light relief and this dates way back to 2006 - plus ca change (yet)...:)

ipJTqCbETog

[Sabrina]

Not an arrest or resignation, but think this is evidence of shifts in the power base. Dempsey also announced this while in London to attend the Paralympic's. Met a numerologist last night who said numbers surrounding these Paralympics are very important and powerful. They certainly seem a force for good at the moment and energetically that's very important for London imo...

http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/rt-top-us-military-commander-i-dont-want-to-be-complicit-if-israel-attacks-iran/

RT: Top US military commander: ‘I don’t want to be complicit’ if Israel attacks Iran

The highest ranking officer in the United States military has announced that he is against American participation in any Israeli-led attack on Iran, even as pressure to destroy the Islamic Republic’s rumored nuclear program remain unrelieved.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in London on Thursday that an Israeli attack would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” adding that he was against US cooperation in a unilateral assault.

“I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it,” Dempsey told reporters.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been adamant that the nation’s nuclear facilities exist solely for peaceful purposes and that the country is not in the market for procuring nuclear warheads, a sentiment echoed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who earlier this week told heads of state, “Our motto is nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none.”

So far, no foreign nations have been able to independently confirm or deny that claim. On Thursday, however, the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency wrote that Iran has been uncooperative with attempts to investigate their facilities and suggested that they could be procuring nukes.

Israel, a close ally of the United States, has also claimed that Iran’s intentions are motivated by manufacturing of warheads. In May of this year, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated, “Our position has not changed. The world must stop Iran from becoming nuclear. All options remain on the table.”

From an executive standpoint, President Obama has also remained willing to strike if necessary, but has not pushed for pressure on Iran aside from the sanctions currently imposed by the United States.

“I also don’t, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But (both) governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say,”President Obama said earlier this year to The Atlantic.

On Thursday, Gen. Dempsey commented that a strike against Iran over fears of their nuclear program, if conducted, could be without merit and might even erode the pro-Israeli alliance currently in place.

“International coalition” applying pressure on Iran “could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely,” Dempsey said, adding that “Intelligence did not reveal intentions” to procure nukes.

Gen. Dempsey was in the UK to attend the Paralympic Games, where he is serving as the head of the U.S. delegation.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

EU: Bank Resolution Authority to Be Separate from Supervisors
BRUSSELS--A planned European bank resolution authority will be separate from the bloc's foreseen bank supervisor, a spokesman for the European Commision said Friday.

The commission is preparing a proposal, to be announced Sept. 12, to set up a single supervisor for all European banks in an effort to increase central oversight of the industry to prevent systemic institutions from again threatening sovereigns and economic stability. This will be followed by another proposal in the months ahead to create a system that could intervene in troubled banks and wind them down, if necessary.

But until the framework for such a system is established, the bank resolution powers remain in the hands of national governments, spokesman Stefaan de Rynck said.

"The resolution authority is separate in our view from supervisors," Mr. de Rynck said, though there will need to be a close link between the two.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120831-704271.html



Spain outlines plan to create 'bad bank' for toxic property assets

The Guardian
Madrid passed an ambitious law on Friday to set up a so-called "bad bank" that will buy large portfolios of toxic real estate loans afflicting the balance sheets of embattled domestic lenders, in a move paving the way for fellow eurozone countries to release a previously agreed €100bn loan facility for recapitalising the Spanish financial system.

Spanish finance minister Luis de Guindos did not specify potential purchase prices the bad bank would pay for soured property assets, but promised a transparent system. The new entity, which is slated to be in place by December, will be “viable and will not post losses", de Guindos insisted, expressing hope that the bad bank would be mostly privately financed.

The new banking law also hiked core capital requirements for Spanish banks, to 9%, and formalised a mechanism for breaking up and winding down banks.
The Wall Street Journal
Spain’s conservative government, led by prime minister Mariano Rajoy, hopes to limit its ownership in the bad bank to 50%, with private investors taking the rest. Officials in Madrid indicated that they hoped to take a page from the Irish model for cleaning up the banking sector while avoiding its pitfalls.

The financial-sector reform package grants Spain's central bank more power to intervene in troubled banks and implements some measures to make bank deposits more enticing. It also includes stricter rules for the sale of complex financial products.

Meanwhile, Bankia, Spain's largest ailing bank, on Friday reported a first-half loss of €4.45bn, after booking loan losses of about €6.57bn for the period. Spain's fourth-largest bank by assets said that an extensive clean-up of its balance sheet conducted since its nationalisation in May spawned total charges of about €7.5bn.
Financial Times
Separately, the French government said on Saturday that it had agreed to bail out beleaguered domestic mortgage lender Credit Immobilier de France, which was facing the expiration of a €1.75bn covered bond early next month.

The administration of newly elected Socialist president François Hollande took the decision after CIF - put up on the block since at least May following a liquidity crunch - failed to arrange a buyer. The state guarantee to CIF was conditional upon approval by the European Commission, French finance minister Pierre Moscovici said.

Source: http://www.efinancialnews.com/digest/2012-09-02/spain-outlines-plan-to-create-bad-bank-for-toxic-property-assets

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification has resigned eternally from his post...
Please mind the time zone difference. It is Monday, September 3rd in South Korea while i write this on Sunday, September 2nd in Poland.


Unification Church founder Rev. Moon dies at 92
(AP) GAPYEONG, South Korea - The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed messiah who turned his Unification Church into a worldwide religious movement and befriended North Korean leaders as well as U.S. presidents, has died, church officials said Monday. He was 92.

Moon died Monday at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul, two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia, Unification Church spokesman Ahn Ho-yeul told The Associated Press. Moon's wife and children were at his side, Ahn said.

Moon, born in a town that is now in North Korea, founded his religious movement in Seoul in 1954 after surviving the Korean War. He preached new interpretations of lessons from the Bible.

The church gained fame — and notoriety — in the 1970s and 1980s for holding mass weddings of thousands of followers, often from different countries, whom Moon matched up in a bid to build a multicultural religious world.
(...)

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57505019/unification-church-founder-rev-moon-dies-at-92

[PathWalker]

Department of Homeland Security ICE Chief of Staff Suzanne Barr’s resigned.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/dhs-just-cant-get-it-together-suzanne-barr-resigns.html

Department of Homeland Security ICE Chief of Staff Suzanne Barr’s resignation Saturday amid allegations of lewd and overtly sexual conduct towards male personnel couldn’t have come at a worse time for DHS, the agency that’s already been receiving more than its fair share of attention concerning the numerous cataloged defective crimes of their employees.
DHS Just Cant Get it Together: Suzanne Barr Resigns

Barr, who was first named in a complaint directed at DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, placed herself on voluntary leave two weeks ago pending the outcome of a review by Homeland Security’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, investigating allegations that Barr created and encouraged a “frat-house type atmosphere that is targeted to humiliate and intimidate male employees.”

What goes around comes around. Is this cosmic humor or not?
This is an instance of very fast karmic cycle (3 years rather a lifetime).
The fastening of karmic cycles are another indication of spiritual evolution.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9514515/FSA-turns-attention-to-former-Barclays-chief-John-Varley.html

1 Sept UK

FSA turns attention to former Barclays chief John Varley

John Varley, Barclays' former chief executive, is at the centre of a regulatory inquiry into unorthodox payments to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that Mr Varley is one of the four current or former executives of Barclays whom the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is investigating over "advisory fees" paid by the bank to the Qatar Holding in 2008. The payments were linked to the sovereign wealth fund's participation in an £11bn bail-out that saved Barclays from collapse at the height of the credit crisis.

News of the investigation comes just days after the bank was forced to admit it is the subject of a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation related to the payments.

The FSA probe is likely to reduce Mr Varley's chances of becoming Governor of the Bank of England, a post with which he has been linked, and, if found to have broken regulatory rules, could lead to a ban from working in the financial services sector.
The bank announced details of the FSA investigation alongside its interim results in July, naming its incumbent finance director Chris Lucas as one of the four executives under scrutiny. Former head of investment banking for the Middle East, Roger Jenkins, is also known to be one of the four.

But it is the personal probe into Mr Varley, who led the bank for six years until handing over the reins to Bob Diamond at the end of 2010, that is likely to cause the most serious repercussions.

Should the FSA find a breach of City rules it has the power to punish individuals as well as companies. The regulator can fine individuals an unlimited amount as well as ban them for life from working in any City institution it regulates.

Barclays, which it emerged last week is also being investigated by the SFO over the payments, has said it does not believe it has broken any rules. "The bank considers that it satisfied its disclosure obligations and confirms that it will co-operate fully with the FSA's investigation", it said in July in relation to the FSA probe.

Barclays declined to comment on the SFO investigation, but it is understood the probe, which could focus on whether the payments constituted bribes, is at an early stage. It is further understood the regulator has requested documents from Barclays, that the bank is providing them and is co-operating in full. The Sunday Telegraph was not able to contact Mr Varley or Mr Jenkins.

The regulator's focus is believed to be on fees paid by Barclays to Qatar Holding for "advisory work". The bank detailed £300m of fees paid to Qatar Holding, the Abu Dhabi royal family and its adviser PCP Capital Partners, and other advisers for capital raisings in both June and November 2008 in disclosures to shareholders, but it did not detail the additional "advisory" fees.

Barclays' latest run-in with regulators comes as it scrambles to pick up the pieces after the Libor-fixing scandal, which claimed the heads of three of its leading directors including Mr Diamond and outgoing chairman Marcus Agius. The two men resigned after Barclays settled a Libor-fixing case with British and American regulators, agreeing to pay a £290m fine.

The Libor fine was the low point of recent scandals to have damaged the UK's biggest banks. A number, including RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, are under investigation regarding Libor fixing, but have yet to admit any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Barclays' new chief executive has signalled plans to shrink the investment banking arm that dominated the reign of predecessor Bob Diamond.

Antony Jenkins said tough new regulations and a stagnant economy would make "some activities in investment banking difficult to make an adequate return on".

His comments to The Sunday Times are the clearest signal yet that he intends to scale back investment banking.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9516640/RBS-shareholders-plan-to-sue-bank-and-former-chief-Fred-Goodwin.html

3 Sept UK

RBS shareholders 'plan to sue bank and former chief Fred Goodwin'

Shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland are in talks with litigation funds with a view to launching a formal £3.3bn fund lawsuit against the bank, according to reports.

The shareholders, known as the RBoS Shareholders Action Group, plans to sue RBS and its former chief executive Fred Goodwin, as well as former chairman Tom McKillop and the former investment bank chief Johnny Cameron for misleading investors at the time of a landmark £12bn rights issue in 2008, The Times claimed.

The shareholders lost nine-tenths of their money after buying shares in the ill-fated rights issue, Reuters reported.
The shareholders claim they were misled by omissions in the prospectus which concealed the frailty of the bank, which was bailed out by the British government during the 2008 financial crisis.

If the group secures about £12m to £15m to pay for the cost of potential defeat, legal proceedings will begin in the coming weeks, the newspaper said, citing sources familiar with negotiations.

HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Credit Agricole are among 91 institutional investors giving backing to the shareholder group, with 20 more ready to sign up once the group has the necessary cost cover in place, the Times said.

[Sabrina]

http://www.mises.ca/posts/blog/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-has-been-released/

1 Sept US


Audit of the Federal Reserve has been released

Republished from the website of Bernie Sanders, Senator for Vermont

You can download the document here.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. “As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” said Sanders. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.”

Among the investigation’s key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. “No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president,” Sanders said.

The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.

For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed’s board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed’s emergency lending programs.

In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds. One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest.

To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. “No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed’s board of directors or be employed by the Fed,” he said.

The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.

The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG.

and

http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/2012/09/first-audit-in-the-federal-reserves-nearly-100-year-history-were-posted-today-the-results-are-startling-2449770.html

see full story at link, extract here:

The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

[Sabrina]

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/bank-cyprus/bank-cyprus-chairman-resigns-health-reasons/20120830

Bank of Cyprus chairman resigns 'for health reasons'

BANK of Cyprus (BoC) chairman Theodoros Aristodemou has resigned for health reasons, it was announced yesterday.
Aristodemou, a property developer, said in a letter to the board that "serious health issues" had forced a two-month absence abroad, and it was unclear when he could fully resume his duties.

“I judge that continuing to hold the position of president does not facilitate the smooth and unhindered operation of the group at an especially difficult time,” Aristodemou said.

Aristodemou, the lender’s biggest Cypriot shareholder, assumed the chairmanship in May 2008. He had been a member of the board since 1991.

In his letter, Aristodemou refrained from entering the ongoing banking fray, saying it would not contribute positively.
BoC sought €500 million in state assistance after its regulatory capital was depleted by a debt restructuring for Greece earlier this year.

Cyprus itself sought a bailout from European Union partners in June to cover both its fiscal requirements and the capital needs of BoC and Popular Bank, the second largest lender, which needed €1.8 billion.

Both were heavily exposed to Greek debt.\

Aristodemou’s resignation follows the departure of CEO Andreas Eliades early in July.

Eliades resigned citing a lack of coordination in dealing with Europe's banking crisis as his reason.

In recent days there have been numerous negative reports in the media regarding the practices that put the banks in hot water.
BoC in particular has been the subject of many a news story in the past week, prompting its management to say it would not comment further on such reports.

The lender said the contents of the reports are being investigated by BoC itself and regulators and commenting would not offer anything more.

“The bank’s new administration has assumed a difficult task and it is very unproductive to deal with announcements and commenting on such reports on a daily basis,” a written statement said.

A number of the reports are based on leaked documents, a matter currently under investigation by the bank.
It warned that any actions that violate the law and its own rules would be “dealt with with determination.”

30 Aug

[Kristo]

Thank you for the continued updates on this thread Sabrina! You've created a spot for up-to-the-minute news in regards to this important topic! ;)

[Sabrina]

Perhaps life is getting more uncomfortable for Blair - arrest may be on the horizon one day as well...


http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/287-124/13266-why-i-had-no-choice-but-to-spurn-tony-blair

Why I Had No Choice But to Spurn Tony Blair
By Desmond Tutu, Guardian UK

03 September 12

I couldn't sit with someone who justified the invasion of Iraq with a lie.

The immorality of the United States and Great Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.

Instead of recognising that the world we lived in, with increasingly sophisticated communications, transportations and weapons systems necessitated sophisticated leadership that would bring the global family together, the then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand - with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us.

If leaders may lie, then who should tell the truth? Days before George W Bush and Tony Blair ordered the invasion of Iraq, I called the White House and spoke to Condoleezza Rice, who was then national security adviser, to urge that United Nations weapons inspectors be given more time to confirm or deny the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Should they be able to confirm finding such weapons, I argued, dismantling the threat would have the support of virtually the entire world. Ms Rice demurred, saying there was too much risk and the president would not postpone any longer.

On what grounds do we decide that Robert Mugabe should go the International Criminal Court, Tony Blair should join the international speakers' circuit, bin Laden should be assassinated, but Iraq should be invaded, not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction, as Mr Bush's chief supporter, Mr Blair, confessed last week, but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein?

The cost of the decision to rid Iraq of its by-all-accounts despotic and murderous leader has been staggering, beginning in Iraq itself. Last year, an average of 6.5 people died there each day in suicide attacks and vehicle bombs, according to the Iraqi Body Count project. More than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict since 2003 and millions have been displaced. By the end of last year, nearly 4,500 American soldiers had been killed and more than 32,000 wounded.

On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.

But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world.

Has the potential for terrorist attacks decreased? To what extent have we succeeded in bringing the so-called Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds closer together, in sowing the seeds of understanding and hope?

Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good leaders are the custodians of morality. The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.

If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our children?

My appeal to Mr Blair is not to talk about leadership, but to demonstrate it. You are a member of our family, God's family. You are made for goodness, for honesty, for morality, for love; so are our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in the US, in Syria, in Israel and Iran.

I did not deem it appropriate to have this discussion at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg last week. As the date drew nearer, I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort about attending a summit on "leadership" with Mr Blair. I extend my humblest and sincerest apologies to Discovery, the summit organisers, the speakers and delegates for the lateness of my decision not to attend.


Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

[A Simple Human]

Argentine Orders Arrest of Credit Suisse’s Mulford, Telam Says (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-03/argentine-orders-arrest-of-credit-suisse-s-mulford-telam-says) (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Argentine Orders Arrest of Credit Suisse’s Mulford, Telam Says
By Eliana Raszewski | September 3, 2012

An Argentine judge has ordered the international arrest of Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) executive David Mulford for failing to testify in a probe on the events leading to the country’s 2001 debt default, state-run news agency Telam said.

Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi has requested that Interpol assist in locating and requesting the extradition of Mulford in connection to the probe, Telam reported, citing judicial sources it didn’t identify.

A press official for Credit Suisse in New York who said he can’t be named because he’s not responsible for covering Latin America declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News on U.S. Labor Day.

A former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, Mulford was chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston International when he was tapped by then Economy Minister Domingo Cavalloin 2001 to engineer a debt exchange amid the country’s financial crisis.

The swap stretching out payment terms on Argentina’s debt didn’t provide enough financial relief to prevent Argentina from defaulting on $95 billion in bonds that same year.

Today, Mulford serves as international vice-chairman of Credit Suisse.

The Buenos Aires court has been investigating for a decade former government officials, including Cavallo, for possible crimes committed during the so-called “mega exchange” with Credit Suisse and other banks.

Telam said that Mulford was unable to testify in the case the first time he was called before the court because he was serving as U.S. ambassador to India. Since stepping down from the diplomatic post, he has refused the court’s request to testify, Telam said.
End

UPDATE 1-Argentine judge orders arrest of Credit Suisse executive (http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/03/argentina-debt-mulford-idINL2E8K382O20120903) (Reuters)

UPDATE 1-Argentine judge orders arrest of Credit Suisse executive
Reuters | September 4, 2012

A judge in Argentina has ordered the arrest of Credit Suisse executive and former U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Mulford because he failed to testify over a 2001 Argentine debt swap, the state news agency reported on Monday.

Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi will ask Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant seeking Mulford's extradition for questioning over the bond exchange carried out by the government in an unsuccessful bid to avoid default.

Mulford, who currently serves as vice chairman international of Credit Suisse Investment Bank, was seen as one of the debt swap's architects when he served as a senior official at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).

The Swiss bank declined to comment.

Argentina's government swapped about $30 billion in debt for new, longer-maturity issues in June 2001. But it stopped paying most of its debts six months later as the economy collapsed.

A local court has been investigating the swap for more than 10 years to see if Argentine officials committed any crime when they hired banks to carry out the swap. Former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo and former Finance Secretary Daniel Marx have been charged in the case, which has yet to go to trial.

Mulford was first called to testify in the probe in 2002 but he has never done so, according to court documents cited by the Telam news agency.

Argentine officials have "made numerous attempts by all possible legal means to achieve David Mulford's compliance, in this country's territory as well as through U.S. authorities, and all of these have invariably failed," the documents stated.

Cavallo said in the past that Mulford was one of the main engineers of the swap.

Mulford worked at the U.S. Treasury from 1984 to 1992 and was at the center of international economic negotiations under former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

He later served as the U.S. ambassador to India.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Red Bull heir arrested in deadly hit-and-run
(AP) BANGKOK - A grandson of the creator of the Red Bull energy drink has been arrested for driving a Ferrari that struck a police officer and dragged his dead body down a Bangkok street in an early-morning hit-and-run, police said.

Police took Vorayuth Yoovidhya, 27, for questioning after tracing oil streaks for several blocks to his family's gated estate in a wealthy neighborhood of the Thai capital, officials said Monday.

He was facing charges of causing death by reckless driving and escaping arrest but was released on 500,000 baht ($15,900) bail.

Vorayuth admitted he drove the charcoal gray sports car but said the police officer's motorcycle abruptly cut in front of his vehicle, said police Maj. Gen. Anuchai Lekbamroong.

Bangkok's top police official, Lt. Gen. Comronwit Toopgrajank, said he took charge of the investigation after the local police superintendent tried to cover up the crime by turning in a bogus suspect. Comronwit personally led a team of officers who searched the compound of late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya, one of Thailand's wealthiest men before he passed away this year, and confiscated a Ferrari with a badly damaged front bumper and broken windshield.

The victim, Sgt. Maj. Wichean Glanprasert, 47, was killed during a motorcycle patrol before dawn. Thai media reported that the car dragged the officer and his motorcycle for several dozen meters (feet) as it sped through the residential neighborhood.

Comronwit said he suspended the police superintendent for attempting to subvert the investigation.

"A policeman is dead. I can't let this stand. If I let this case get away, I'd rather quit," he told reporters. "I don't care how powerful they are. If I can't get the actual man in this case, I will resign."

Vorayuth did not speak to the media but the family lawyer said the family will take responsibility for the damages.

The Yoovidhya family was ranked the fourth richest in Thailand this year by Forbes magazine with a net worth of $5.4 billion. Red Bull creator Chaleo Yoovidhya died in his 80s in March, leaving his heirs a wide range of businesses, including shares in the globally popular energy drink brand, hospitals and real estate.

The family also co-owns the sole authorized importer of Ferrari cars in Thailand.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57505658/red-bull-heir-arrested-in-deadly-hit-and-run

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19486392

5 Sept

Deepwater Horizon: BP accused of gross negligence

The US Justice Department has accused BP of "gross negligence and wilful misconduct" over the Deepwater Horizon disaster, claims which BP deny.

The allegations came in papers filed in the federal court in New Orleans.

The Deepwater Horizon rig had been leased by BP. It exploded on 20 April 2010, killing 11 workers and spilling millions of gallons of crude oil.

If the government can prove gross negligence it can triple the damages BP may have to pay to $21bn (£13bn).

The case is due to go to trial in New Orleans in January 2013, although talks are underway between BP and the US government to try to settle the claims.

"The behaviour, words, and actions of these BP executives would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall," the government said in its 39-page filing.

BP has denied the claims. "BP believes it was not grossly negligent and looks forward to presenting evidence on this issue at trial in January," the company said in a statement.

Transocean, the Swiss-based company that owned the rig, declined to comment, the Reuters news agency said.

The legal filing said that errors made by BP and Transocean in deciphering a pressure test on the well supported the government's case.

"That such a simple, yet fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," it said.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9516029/Mitt-Romney-buy-out-firm-said-to-be-probed-by-New-York-attorney-general.html

US

Mitt Romney buy-out firm said to be probed by New York attorney general

KKR and Bain Capital, the buy-out firm co-founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are two of at least a dozen private equity groups reported to be under investigation over a strategy that allegedly saved them hundreds of millions of dollars in tax.


The buy-out firms are said to have been subpoenaed by New York’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman over their use of a tax-cutting method.

The subpoenas were issued in July and the probe is being carried out by the attorney general’s Taxpayer Protection Bureau.
The agency claims to investigate “firms that rip-off government pension funds, contractors that over-bill taxpayers, and large-scale tax cheats”.

The probe is thought to centre on so-called management fee waivers, in which private equity firms convert fees into fund investments. That allows the income to be taxed as capital gains at around 15pc, rather than as ordinary income, which is taxed at about 35pc.

The use of management fee waivers, which are not banned, came under the spotlight last month when confidential Bain documents were published on the internet. However, the private equity groups are reported to have been subpoenaed before the leak.

The investigation, first reported by the New York Times, is likely to spur further public scrutiny of Mr Romney’s corporate past.
The presidential candidate has already been depicted by opponents as a corporate raider who helped break up companies. Lawyer Bradford Malt, who is a trustee of the Romney blind family trusts, said that Mr Romney had not profited from investing fee income.
KKR and the attorney general declined to comment. Bain did not return requests for comment.

2 Sept

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Bloomberg News:

Sept. 17 might be a good day for bankers and traders in New York to take some of that aforementioned mandatory vacation time. According to columnist Max Abelson, the Occupy Wall Street movement plans to commemorate its one-year anniversary by blocking traffic in the "financial district," encircling the New York Stock Exchange and attempting "citizens' arrests of bankers. … [S]ome activists intend to bring handcuffs." We put air quotes around "financial district" because we wonder how many of the Occupiers realize that most of the major investment banks left "Wall Street" a long time ago. While financial services is still the main industry in the neighborhood, hopefully no one working in the media and law firms that have moved downtown will be mistaken for financiers and "arrested."

:)

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-gongloff/libor-manipulation-regulator-warned-1996_b_1855551.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000029

US 4 Sept

Wall Street Regulator Was Warned Of Libor Manipulation In 1996

We just keep learning new ways that everybody on earth, aside from Tim Geithner, knew of the risk of Libor manipulation years and years ago.

The latest example is a piece in American Banker by Richard Robb, CEO of Christofferson, Robb & Co., an investment management firm, in which he says he warned one U.S. regulator of the risk of Libor manipulation way back in November 1996, nearly 16 years ago.

"No one should be surprised that banks would suppress their posted rates in a funding crisis or that they might manipulate the survey for gain," he writes. "It was easy to see this coming."

Back at the time, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had its own method for estimating Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, a number meant to measure the interest rate at which banks can borrow money from each other. Libor helps set interest rates throughout the global economy, from adjustable-rate mortgages to derivatives contracts.

The CME had a seemingly foolproof method for gauging Libor, Robb writes, but wanted to adopt the British Bankers Association model instead. While the CME took random samples of bank borrowing costs when setting Libor, the BBA model asked the same banks, day after day, for their borrowing costs. That predictability made it all too easy to game the system, Robb writes.

In November of 1996, Robb wrote a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission warning them that a shift to the BBA model of calculating Libor was an invitation to disaster. In fact, he even gave a few specific examples of just how much the rate could be manipulated by a couple of motivated banks. Robb says the CFTC ignored him.

Fast-forward 16 years, and now that same CFTC is gearing up to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from banks for -- no prizes for guessing -- manipulating Libor, just as Robb predicted.

But Robb was not exactly a lone voice crying in the wilderness. A former Morgan Stanley trader wrote recently that Libor manipulation was an accepted fact of life all the way back in 1991, and that anybody who expressed shock about it would be laughed off the trading floor.

A Federal Reserve analyst also wrote a paper in 1998 warning of the risks of Libor manipulation, using anecdotes that dated back to 1996.

And yet, somehow, we are supposed to believe Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's claim that he was clueless about Libor manipulation until the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, Geithner was in charge of the New York Fed, the financial regulator that sits right smack dab in the middle of the financial system, watching interest-rate markets all day, every day.

The New York Fed has said that it leaped into action once it discovered evidence of banks monkeying with Libor, including straight-up admissions from Barclays traders that they were lying about their borrowing costs to make the bank look better. But that action mainly consisted of quietly writing a memo to British bankers and letting the matter drop. And then the Fed and Geithner's Treasury Department used that same manipulated Libor to set bailout terms for banks and AIG.

Why, if you didn't know better, you'd almost think Geithner didn't actually care all that much that banks were manipulating Libor. That's actually an easier position to defend than simply claiming total ignorance.

[A Simple Human]

Brazilian police arrest 4 politicians, seek 3 more as anti-corruption movement grows (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/brazilian-police-arrest-4-politicians-seek-3-more-as-anti-corruption-movement-grows/2012/09/05/cf30f140-f798-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html) (Washington Post)

Brazilian police arrest 4 politicians, seek 3 more as anti-corruption movement grows
By Associated Press | September 5, 2012

Four politicians were arrested and three others were being sought in an anti-corruption sting in a Rio de Janeiro town, officials said Wednesday, describing it as an example of other operations that are under way.

Among the seven arrested or sought were the mayor, the leading candidate for mayor and the head of the city council in Guapimirim, a working class town of about 52,000 people in the foothills of Rio de Janeiro’s mountains.

Authorities said 11 other suspects also were indicted in a scheme that investigators allege illegally siphoned off at least $24 million in public funds over four years. The charges include fraud, corruption and racketeering.

The investigation is not an isolated case, prosecutor Antonio Campos Moreira said at a news conference.

“We have a number of similar investigations looking into city halls,” Moreira said.

Brazil, which has long ranked toward the bottom of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, has been taking steps to improve accountability and practices in government. In the past few years, the government has created oversight bodies such as the CGU, which audits and promotes transparency in the executive branch, and the CNJ, which oversees the judiciary.

Seven members of President Dilma Rousseff’s Cabinet have given up their posts or were pushed out following corruption allegations.

These efforts have been largely concentrated at the federal level, however, with very little happening at the state and municipal levels, said Carlos Abramo, head of Transparencia Brasil, a group not connected to Transparency International that focuses on anti-corruption efforts.

“Brazil is a very decentralized state, in which states and municipalities have total autonomy,” Abramo said. “At that level you can have total confusion. The lack of administrative competence is widespread.”

In the case of Guapimirim, one family, of which the mayor was part, has held control for years. According to court documents, city council members received monthly payments of up to $35,000 to support the reigning coalition.

During the Sept. 7 holiday weekend, groups in dozens of cities across Brazil are planning marches to call for clean government.

Carla Zambelli, organizer of one of the group, NasRuas, or InTheStreets, says marches are expected in 69 cities.

Among their specific demands are the end to secret voting in the legislature and justice in the cash-for-votes trial involving the governing Workers’ Party that is currently before the Supreme Court. In that case, the party is accused of illegally paying legislators a monthly stipend to support government projects.

“Brazil is among the countries that pay the highest taxes, but our security, education and health services are terrible,” said Zambelli. “We agree with paying taxes, but we want to see it come back to us in services.”
End

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting this story represents some sort of "mass arrest" campaign. I simply found it interesting, and I would appreciate some insight into this story's validity from our Brazilian friends here at PA because I'm not familiar with Brazilian politics and I have no idea whether these politicians are truly corrupt or if they're decent individuals, who have been set up.

[RMorgan]

Hey mate,

The article is legit indeed. Here´s the original one:

http://g1.globo.com/bom-dia-brasil/noticia/2012/09/rj-prefeito-de-guapimirim-e-preso-por-suspeita-de-chefiar-quadrilha.html

Well, the problem is that they only arrest the small ones, in this case, the tiny ones.

We have, as an example, Paulo Maluf, which is one of the oldest Brazilians career politicians. He´s an absolutely disgusting and totally corrupted man. He´s even searched by the Interpol:

http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons/(wanted_id)/2009-13608

Guess what? He´s not in jail...

If one day they arrest Maluf, then I´ll have a part of my faith in justice restored.

Cheers,

Raf.

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/09/38000-australian-bank-customers-win-largest-class-action-over-fees/

38,000 Australian Bank Customers Win Largest Class Action Over Fees


2012 SEPTEMBER 6

38,000 Australian Bank Customers Win Largest Class Action Over Fees
By Nicola Berkovic, The Australian – September 6, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/99f799v

BANK customers involved in the nation’s largest class action, against ANZ Bank, have claimed a victory in the High Court, which today declared the bank’s over-limit fees could be characterised as a penalty or punishment.

This means the bank’s $29.95 over-limit fee – charged on top of 4 per cent interest on the amount overdrawn by the customer – could be illegal.

ANZ now faces an uphill battle to convince the Federal Court the fee is a genuine estimate of its costs and not a penalty.

Justin Gleeson SC, representing 38,000 ANZ customers, had argued that fees charged by banks when customers exceeded their limits did not provide any service and were in fact a punishment.

He argued the bank already recovered its costs by charging the customer 4 per cent interest on the amount overdrawn, and that the $29.95 fee was “unjust enrichment of the bank”.

The case is part of a wider class action funded by litigation funder IMF on behalf of 170,000 customers from ANZ, Commonwealth, National Australia Bank, Westpac, St George, Citibank, Bankwest and Bank SA who are claiming more than $223 million in excessive fees. The claims against ANZ began in September 2010 in the Federal Court.

In December last year, the Federal Court found that late payment fees were capable of being penalties because they were charged as a result of a breach of contract. But the court said other fees, such as dishonour fees – where banks charge a fee for overdrawn accounts as well as interest on the amount overdrawn – were not a penalty but a service.

This morning, the High Court unanimously rejected the notion that only fees payable for a breach of contract were capable of being classed as a penalty or punishment.

It said even though dishonour or over-limit fees were not payable on a breach of contract, they could still be characterised as a penalty.

The High Court took just three weeks to reach its decision. The hearing was the last for influential High Court judge Bill Gummow, who retires next month when he turns 70.

It will now be up to the Federal Court to determine, on the facts, whether the fees were in fact penalties or represented a genuine reflection of the bank’s costs.

James Middleweek, the managing director of IMF subsidiary, Financial Redress, which is handling the case said the decision was a “tremendous victory”.

“It’s great news for (the) 170,000 bank customers (involved in the class action) and we’d urge everyone to join up,” he said.

“For the many banks that are still charging these excessive fees, the High Court has given a very sharp warning that these could be illegal.”

Mr Middleweek said anyone could still join the class action via the Financial Redress website.

He said industry estimates suggested the banks had charged a total of about $5 billion in unfair fees over the six years covered by the claim.

[Sabrina]

More on Tutu and Bliar...



http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/02/desmond-tutu-blair-iraq-bush_n_1849951.html?ref=topbar


Desmond Tutu Calls For 'Playground Bullies' Blair And Bush To Be Tried In The Hague Over Iraq War (POLL)

Tony Blair and George Bush should be hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for their part in the Iraq war, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and long-time critic of the invasion argued that the war has destabilised and polarised the world more than "any other conflict in history".

In response, Blair said that the Archbishop posed "the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say".

Writing in Sunday's Observer Tutu claimed that the current situation in Syria and possible conflict with Iran are the results of the decision made by "playground bullies" Blair and Bush to enter into conflict in 2003.

"The then-leaders of the US and UK fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the spectre of Syria and Iran before us," he said.

The Archbishop also spoke of the "double standards on war crimes", arguing that the treatment of western and African leaders is inconsistent, comparing the treatment of Blair with Robert Mugabe as an example. Tutu said that the death toll in Iran alone is enough for the former leaders to be brought before The Hague.

"On these grounds, alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague," he said.

Quick Poll
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Tutu also spoke of his decision not to attend the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg last week, after discovering Blair would also be in attendance.

"I felt an increasingly profound sense of discomfort about attending a summit on 'leadership' with Mr Blair," he said.

In response, Blair issued the following statement:

"I have a great respect for Archbishop Tutu's fight against apartheid - where we were on the same side of the argument - but to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown.
"And to say that the fact that Saddam massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.

"We have just had the memorials both of the Halabja massacre where thousands of people were murdered in one day by Saddam's use of chemical weapons; and that of the Iran-Iraq war where casualties numbered up to a million including many killed by chemical weapons.

"In addition his slaughter of his political opponents, the treatment of the Marsh Arabs and the systematic torture of his people make the case for removing him morally strong. But the basis of action was as stated at the time.

"In short this is the same argument we have had many times with nothing new to say. But surely in a healthy democracy people can agree to disagree. I would also point out that despite the problems Iraq today has an economy three times or more in size with child mortality rate cut by a third of what it was. And with investment hugely increased in places like Basra."

2 Sept

[A Simple Human]

Australian Bank Glitches

Another day, another bank glitch: ANZ customers offline (http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/another-day-another-bank-glitch-anz-customers-offline-20120907-25j3n.html) (Sydney Morning Herald)

Another day, another bank glitch: ANZ customers offline
By Chris Zappone | September 7, 2012

In the third online outage at a major bank this week, ANZ has confirmed that 5000 large corporate client users of its web-based cash management service have been unable to view their balances for two days.

The error with the ANZ Transactive system was blamed on a "technical glitch" that prevented customers from seeing their accounts or conducting transactions online.

ANZ provided balances to customers through telephone and other means to provide service continuity, the bank said. "At no point did it impact customers' ability to transact on their accounts," a spokesman for the bank said.

The issue was only "95 per cent" resolved, ANZ said on Friday afternoon, with offshore currency accounts still to be restored.
Advertisement

"The fix for that will be put in place on the weekend,'' said the spokesman.

ANZ said it is still investigating the cause and apologised for any "inconvenience it caused its customers over the past few days."

The glitch marks the third such interruption to services at a big-four bank or subsidiary, this week.

National Australia Bank's internet banking system was offline for hours (http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/nab-internet-banking-site-goes-down-20120905-25dbp.html) on Wednesday, frustrating customers who could not access their accounts. Also this week, CBA-backed CommSec said as many as 9000 clients (http://www.smh.com.au/business/commsec-glitch-sent-money-to-wrong-accounts-20120907-25i9d.html) may have had their share dividends diverted to the wrong accounts.

The faults come as Australia's banks race to upgrade their creaky technology to support the needs of customers who increasingly conduct transactions through mobile phones and online rather than by visiting bank branches.

The Reserve Bank, for its part, is pushing the banks to improve the overall speed and stability of their processing systems.

[Sabrina]

Wonder why this story is coming out now... do they want to make sure he doesn't do a runner when the arrests start :).... And where are the other leaders' escape routes?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/silvio-berlusconi/9528321/Silvio-Berlusconis-James-Bond-style-underground-cave.html

8 Sept Italy


Silvio Berlusconi's 'James Bond-style' underground cave

Silvio Berlusconi's summer retreat on Sardinia's exclusive Costa Smeralda, which gained notoriety for parties with topless models, features an underground cave, complete with an emergency escape exit to the sea.

The existence of the cave at the former Italian prime minister's Villa Certosa estate had been rumoured for years but the first photographs of it emerged on Friday. (pix at link)

They were obtained by Antonello Zappadu, an Italian photographer who made his name in 2009 by taking long-lens pictures of scantily-clad showgirls at Mr Berlusconi's residence.

The cave, which could have come straight out of a James Bond film, features a swimming pool, its floor decorated with a mosaic of Poseidon, the god of the sea, holding a trident.

It is connected to a short tunnel and a gate which reportedly leads straight to the sea.

The cave is connected to the rest of the villa by stairs and a passageway, which are illuminated by discreetly placed lights set into the floor.

The underground complex is believed to have been built in 2004 but has never been seen publicly.

"It was the secret services who asked me to carry out the work, after I had received 38 death threats," Mr Berlusconi explained at the time.

He said he had sought advice on the design and construction from Pietro Lunardi, a cabinet colleague who was then the minister for infrastructure and insisted that no planning regulations had been broken.

Mr Zappadu, who now lives in Colombia, said on his blog that he had obtained the images from an anonymous source.

The semi-submerged cave is not the only flamboyant feature at Villa Certosa, a 150-acre estate where Mr Berlusconi has hosted the likes of Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin.

He once built an artificial volcano in the grounds of the villa to entertain guests at one of his parties.
A week ago he injured his shoulder and wrist after taking a tumble at the villa, although his personal doctor said the damage was not serious.

Mr Berlusconi, who turns 76 this month, stepped down in November when Italy became immersed in the eurozone crisis and after his reputation was damaged by a series of sex scandals, most notably involving allegations that he paid for sex with an under age prostitute at "bunga bunga" parties at his mansion in Milan.

Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name Ruby the Heart Stealer, and Mr Berlusconi both deny the charges. The ongoing trial is not expected to finish until the autumn with dozens of witnesses due to testify including George Clooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Mr Berlusconi and his allies have dropped heavy hints that he is planning to contest Italy's next elections, which are expected in April when Mario Monti, the caretaker prime minister, is expected to step down.

It would be his fourth stint as prime minister, although his People of Freedom party currently only has around 20 per cent of the vote.

[Sabrina]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/union-bosses-call-for-rbs-to-be-nationalised-1312432

UK 8 Sept

Nationalise RBS: Union bosses call for major shake-up of broken banking system

THE Trades Union Congress will call for a wide ranging shake-up of the banking system when it meets next week with nationalisation of RBS at the core.


RBS should be nationalised as part of a major reform of Britain’s banks, the TUC will say next week.

The Congress in Brighton will also call for a national investment bank to boost lending and for megabucks bonuses to be subject to corporation tax.

In addition, unions will demand worker representation on company remuneration committees.

The TUC General Council will issue a statement at the conference saying that the Government’s Green Investment Bank should be made into a “proper bank”, with the ability to raise its own funds.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Banks caused the crash. Their problems are still driving the eurozone crisis. They are failing to provide the finance Britain’s productive sectors need.

“Yet the Government is still tiptoeing round reform. Even the limited Vickers proposals are being watered down, and initiatives designed to kick-start lending or boost growth end up helping banks, rather than the real economy.

“That is why it is not just unions backing a shake-up. Proposals we make also find support among business leaders, consumer groups and even some ministers.”

[Sabrina]

RBS in talks to settle Libor allegations

UK 7 Sept



Royal Bank of Scotland is braced for a settlement with regulators over Libor manipulation that could cost it £200-£300m – on a par with the landmark £290m fine imposed on Barclays in June – with the first payment likely within three months.



RBS, 82 per cent owned by the British government, is in advanced negotiations over allegations that a number of its traders sought to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate, the borrowing benchmark, for up to 10 years, said three people familiar with the affair. The first payment of a settlement is likely within the next three months.



Regulators around the world have been probing as many as 20 financial institutions over the manipulation of Libor, its European equivalent Euribor and other benchmark rates that underpin $500tn of contracts worldwide, from mortgages to complex derivatives.

The effort has been led, in the UK, by the Financial Services Authority and, in the US, by the Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Other banks being investigated include Deutsche Bank, UBS and Société Générale. Lawyers and bankers believe the next settlement is likely to come in October. People close to RBS said its deal should come before year-end.

However, in an unwelcome development for RBS and other banks under investigation, signs are increasing that the co-operation between regulators on either side of the Atlantic, shown by Barclays’ global settlement in June, is fracturing. That would mean RBS settling for a portion of the overall cost – perhaps £50m – with the FSA, and negotiating the remainder later with other regulators.

A more drawn-out process would prolong the reputational damage for banks desperate to draw a line under the scandals.

RBS, which has sacked four traders over the affair and scrutinised emails covering a decade, is believed to have found evidence similar to the damaging messages sent among Barclays staff and to friends at other banks. RBS is being sued for wrongful dismissal by one of the four traders, Singapore-based Tan Chi Min.

In the most infamous Barclays email exchange, one banker thanked another for manipulating Libor submissions: “Dude. I owe you big time! Come over one day after work and I’m opening a bottle of Bollinger.”

Co-operation between regulators is fracturing because of political concerns and differences in how criminal investigations are conducted, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.

This tension has heightened in recent weeks with the involvement of the Serious Fraud Office, which announced in July a criminal investigation into manipulation of Libor and other rates. Before then, only the US authorities had pursued a criminal inquiry.


High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/29097db2-f911-11e1-8d92-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz25uZYbnXM

[Sabrina]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/04/idINL2E8JVB4C20120904

EXCLUSIVE-Libor probe claims Barclays executive and a trade

Ronti Pal ousted over Libor supervision failures in NY

* Pal's trading group has figured in Libor investigation

* Barclays also discharged trader over Libor communications

* Barclays disclosed steps in a non-public regulatory filing

By Jennifer Ablan and Matthew Goldstein

NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The fallout from an investigation into the attempted manipulation of global benchmark interest rates has again rocked Barclays Plc (BARC.L), as the bank recently ousted a top executive and a trader in New York for their roles in the scandal, according to regulatory filings obtained on Tuesday.

Barclays formally notified the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Aug. 29 that the executive, Ritankar "Ronti" Pal, was "discharged" on July 30 because the bank had a "loss of confidence" in him as a manager for failing "to properly supervise individuals on his team", one of the filings stated. His departure had been previously reported but no explanation had been given.

Pal, 42, had been a managing director at the bank and for the past six years was the head of U.S. interest rates trading in New York. At least four former Barclays traders who worked under Pal in New York have drawn scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors and regulators in the investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate and related benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with the probe.

Barclays ousted Pal, who could not be reached for comment, a month after the bank paid a $450 million fine to reach a settlement with U.S. and British authorities in the interest rate rigging probe.

On July 30, Barclays also terminated Dong (Don) Kun Lee, a New York-based derivatives trader who reported to Pal, for allegedly engaging "in communications involving inappropriate requests relating to Libor." Lee could not be reached for comment.

The regulatory filings disclosing the reasons for the two departures are not normally made public and were provided by a source.

Barclays did not specifically comment on the terminations of Pal and Lee. But said in a statement that "the firm undertook a thorough and robust internal disciplinary process promptly following the regulatory review which was completed in late July."

The dismissals reveal that even after settling with authorities, the full extent of Barclays' role in the rate-rigging scheme is still playing out.

The regulatory filing on Pal also alleged he "engaged in a communication involving an inappropriate request relating to Libor."

The investigation involving the group of former Barclays traders in New York is focusing on an attempt by those traders to manipulate the pricing of Libor to score a bigger profit on interest rate swaps trades.

U.S. authorities, in settling with Barclays, alleged that traders in New York would sometimes ask officials with the bank in London to either submit high or low prices for Libor depending upon how it would benefit their trading positions.

The international investigation is looking at a number of big banks that participate in the process of setting benchmark interest rates. Authorities contend the attempted manipulation dates back to 2005, but people familiar with the process have said Libor manipulation dates back to the late 1990s.

Barclays is the first big bank to settle with U.S. and British authorities, who are investigating allegations of similar conduct by traders at other banks.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. declined to comment.

Lawyers familiar with the investigation say federal prosecutors continue to reach out to individuals to gauge interest in cooperating or taking pleas.

They said U.S. prosecutors are expected to begin making decisions in early September about whether to charge individual traders. The lawyers said authorities are furthest along in their investigation with regards to the Barclays traders.

One former Barclays employee also drawing scrutiny in the investigation is Jay V. Merchant, who began working for Barclays in 1998 and remained with the British bank until the end of 2009. Merchant worked for Barclays in New York from 2006 to 2009 and was a top trader reporting to Pal.

Two weeks ago, Merchant left his position as head of swap trading at UBS, shortly after Reuters reported that he had hired an attorney and his activities at Barclays were being examined by investigators.

Reuters previously has reported that Ryan Reich, another trader who was part of Pal's team at Barclays, was fired by the bank in 2010 for sending inappropriate emails about Libor.

(Reporting By Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan, with additional reporting by Carrick Mollenkamp; Editing by Martin Howell, Bernard Orr)

5 Sept

[PathWalker]

Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND The IMF
http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/hungary-throws-out-monsanto-and-the-imf.html#ixzz25xnG4pLI


Hungary's PM Victor Orbán had thrown chemical, food and seed giant Monsanto out of the country, going as far as to plow under 1000 acres of land.


Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video message on his official Facebook page that Hungary could not accept pension cuts, the elimination of a bank tax, fewer public employees and other conditions in exchange for an IMF loan that other officials have said could be about €15 billion ($18.9 billion). The IMF's list of conditions, Orban said, " contains everything that is not in Hungary's interests."

[Sabrina]

Resignations, arrests and now we've got disappearances :)....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/xi-jinping-mystery-absence_n_1870985.html

10 Sept China

Xi Jinping Mystery Absence: China Vice President's Absence Fuels Rumors


BEIJING -- Where is president-in-waiting Xi Jinping?

Is he nursing a bad back after pulling a muscle in a pick-up soccer game (or maybe in the swimming pool)? Has he been convalescing after narrowly escaping a revenge killing by supporters of ousted local Communist Party boss Bo Xilai? Was he in a car accident? Or is he just really busy getting ready to lead the world's No. 2 economy ahead of an expected leadership transition next month?

Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites have come up with all kinds of speculation as to why the current vice president has gone unseen for more than a week. During that span, Xi canceled meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. On Monday, it was the Danish prime minister's turn.

Xi's whereabouts during this sudden absence from the spotlight may never be known. One thing, however, is certain: China may now be a linchpin of the global economy and a force in international diplomacy, but the lives of its leaders remain an utter mystery to its 1.3 billion people, its politics an unfathomable black hole.

So when the presumptive head of that opaque leadership disappears from public view, rumor mills naturally go into a frenzy.

"There is a longstanding practice of not reporting on illnesses or troubles within the elites," said Scott Kennedy, director of Indiana University's Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business in Beijing. "The sense is that giving out such information would only fuel further speculation."

Adding grist to the mill, a scheduled photo session with visiting Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, which the media were asked to cover, was taken off the program. Thorning-Schmidt is also due to meet with Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Monday and Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

The Foreign Ministry claimed the Xi-Thorning-Schmidt meeting was never intended to take place.

"As I said last week, China's state councilors will meet the Danish prime minister," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. When asked about the rumors of an injury, Hong said "we have told everybody everything," and refused to elaborate.

Most online speculation about the portly 59-year-old Xi has centered on a back problem, possibly incurred when he took a dip last week in the swimming pool inside the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. Another rumor has the back being hurt in a soccer game. It wasn't clear what the sources of the information were.

More dramatically, the U.S.-based website Boxun.com cited an unidentified source inside Zhongnanhai as saying Xi was injured in a staged traffic accident that was part of a revenge plot by Bo's supporters in the security forces. Another member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, He Guoqiang, was also injured in a similar incident, said the site, which acts as a clearinghouse for rumors and unsubstantiated reports. It has correctly predicted some recent political developments and been wildly off the mark on others.

As if to demonstrate the range and randomness of the speculation, Boxun later replaced the report with another saying Xi was merely preoccupied with preparations to take over as head of the ruling party.

This year, China has seen an unusual amount of political intrigue, with the spectacular downfall of Politburo member Bo exposing divisions within the leadership and prompting rumors of nefarious activity ranging from the wiretapping of top leaders to an attempted coup.

The sudden transfer of a key secretary to President Hu Jintao earlier this month also spawned conjecture about a Ferrari crash involving the aide's son and an ensuing attempted cover-up.

Rumors about Xi were churned further by Russian President Vladimir Putin's cryptic remark over the weekend that the start of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' meeting in Vladivostok had been delayed because Hu needed to attend to an important but unspecified domestic issue.

The tension and uncertainty are heightened by the timing ahead of a generational shift to a new leadership that is to be headed by Xi. Still, in keeping with the China government's proclivity for secrecy, the logistics of the transition remain unknown.

Xi is expected to first assume Hu's mantle as Communist leader at a party congress held once every five years. Yet the dates for the meeting, expected in the second half of October, have yet to be announced, prompting talk that at least some of the seats on the nine-member Standing Committee remain up for grabs.

Recent economic and diplomatic challenges have also added to the sense of insecurity.

While China avoided the worst of the global economic slowdown, export growth and domestic demand have both fallen sharply in recent months, prompting forecasters to slash their estimates for economic growth needed to create jobs and fill government coffers.

Meanwhile, Beijing has been deeply unnerved by Washington's new emphasis on military and political ties to China's neighbors in the western Pacific and finds itself enmeshed again in a nagging dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Wang Xiangwei, editor-in-chief of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post and a longtime state media insider, wrote Monday in his newspaper that Chinese leaders' meetings are planned well in advance and cancelations are extremely rare.

"Baring Xi himself offering a very unlikely explanation today about his canceled meetings last week, the outside world may never know the exact reason, and the rumors are unlikely to fade away," Wang wrote.

Though absent in person, Xi did pop up Monday on the front page of the party academy's official newspaper Study Times alongside a transcript of the speech he delivered nine days earlier.

In the text, he enjoins newly enrolled cadres to use their time on the leafy campus in the northern Beijing suburbs to think critically about major national issues and not spend it "expanding personal contacts and inviting guests to dinner."

[Sabrina]

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/international/11-Sep-2012/japan-finance-minister-found-dead

11 Sept Japan

Japan finance minister found dead

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan’s financial services minister was found dead at his home on Monday in what police believe was a possible suicide, according to the Japanese media. The 73 years old, Tadahiro Matsu****a (Avalon bleeped this out should read Matsu****a) , who was also the state minister in charge of postal reform for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, was found collapsed at his house in the capital city, Tokyo, and confirmed dead at hospital shortly afterwards, public broadcaster NHK said. Kyodo News and Jiji Press, citing the police sources, reported Matsu****a was thought to have taken his own life, and seemed to be a suicide.




Benjamin Fulford mentions this and also the disappearance of the Chinese Vice President (story 1552 above) - posted today by Camilio:




September 11, 2012

Weekly Geopolitical News and Analysis: Japanese finance minister murdered, new Chinese leader missing, climax approaching

Tadahiro Matsu****a, Japan’s Finance Minister, was murdered Monday in an attempt by the cabal to extort more money out of Japan. In addition, upcoming Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vanished from public view after shunning a meeting with Hillary Clinton and refusing to finance her cabal last week. Furthermore, Neil Keenan and his family have all been recently hit by a nasty virus that we hear was spread by Italian agents working for former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Also last week NATO went on full military alert and was planning to attack Syria and provoke war with China and Russia before it was stopped by a UK RAF whistleblower who alerted colleagues at the Pentagon, according to both MI5 and CIA sources. All of these incidents are part of the final death throes of the Satanic cabal that was attempting to install a fascist world government after starting World War 3.

Multiple death threats have also been directed at this writer along with a raid on my house by Japanese tax police. The time for talk is over and direct action to deal with these mass murdering scum has begun.

The biggest immediate threat now is cabal plans to set off nuclear terror attacks in Europe in an attempt to provoke Muslim/Christian warfare, according to MI5 sources. Message to the P2 lodge: Satan has already left this universe and you are now just a bunch of scared old men about to go to jail.

Remember, if these people are not arrested, if you personally see any of them, you are legally entitled to kill them on the spot because they are trying to murder you and your family and that has been proven beyond a doubt.

Here is the latest from MI5 and other sources on the cabal’s plans for mass murder in Europe.

Their long term goal and the reason they justify their mass murder is that they plan to “merge all religion after a prolonged period of tribulation and war,” according to MI5 and other sources.

The starting point for this will be the Middle East, Peter Hans Kolvenbach’s base of operations. Kolvenbach was recently spotted in Tripoli with Giorgio Balestrieri, a Senior P2 Lodge member and one of the mid-level planners of the 911 terror attack on New York, MI5 says.

The planning for this has all been very long term. During World War 2 the Nazis recruited and trained 750,000 agents for the Muslim Brotherhood to help implement this plan.

These agents were then sent to Saudi Arabia and other places as teachers to raise a second generation of Muslim extremist agents. Bin Laden, who reported to George Bush Senior, was a second generation member of this group.

Another senior agent is Frank Wisner II who was sent by Obama to take control of the contrived “revolution” in Egypt. Wisner’s father was a Nazi CIA who was involved in the Hungarian uprising and other operations. Egypt’s new Nazi puppet leader has been following the script he was given by trying to fan the flames of religious extremism most recently, for example, by berating Syria’s secular government.

In Europe we can see the P2 plot in public now. The key players are the Satanic part of the Vatican, the EU and Goldman Sachs. The leaders imposed last winter on the people of Greece and Italy, Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti, as well as Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, all worked for Goldman Sachs, which is a Rockefeller front company. Monti and Draghi together with the unelected President of the EU Herman von Rumpoy are all Jesuits. Pope Benedict (maledict) XVI revealed his involvement in an encyclical calling for a ‘new global economic order’.

The P2 and their fake Muslim terrorist allies were responsible for the 7/7 subway terror attack in London. They were also behind the Anders Breivik mass murder in Norway, according to MI5.
The French Freemasons are gearing up now to play their role. A likely target for a mass terror attack designed to provoke the planned Muslim-Christian civil war is Marseille with its large Muslim immigrant population, the MI5 source says. Furthermore, Serbian extremists have been handed nuclear weapons so that they can play their part in fomenting religious strife through mass murder.

After causing all this turmoil, of course the people who caused it are planning to present their solution which is a one world religion controlled by the Satanic P2 lodge.

In Asia meanwhile, the situation is not going at all according to cabal plans. However, we have received warnings and threats of a planned series of strategic assassinations aimed to trying to keep control over the financial system here.

Last week this writer phoned the Ministry of Finance to ask if Japan’s foreign assets had declined after the 311 attacks. The Ministry of Finance replied through their public relations office that in fact they had increased slightly to just under 600 trillion yen ($7.7 trillion). They said they no longer denominate their foreign exchange reserves in dollars. This may be one of the reasons the Finance Minister was murdered last night.

Here is a link showing some of the key fascist players sent to us by White Dragon Society members inside the NSA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YPUl...ature=youtu.be
We know who and where they are.

[Sabrina]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/president-of-italys-supreme-court-to-refer-911-crimes-to-international-criminal-court/

President of Italy’s Supreme Court To Refer 9/11 Crimes To International Criminal Court

10 Sept


Says that 9/11 was “False Flag” Terror, Just Like the Strategy of Tension in Italy

Ferdinando Imposimato is the honorary President of the Supreme Court of Italy, and former Senior Investigative Judge, Italy.

Imposimato presided over several terrorism-related cases, including the kidnapping and ultimate assassination of President Aldo Moro, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, other political assassinations and kidnapping cases and several cases against the Mafia. He is a former Senator who served on the Anti-Mafia Commission in three administrations.

Imposimato is also a former legal consultant to the United Nations regarding institution of laws to control drug trafficking.

This week, Judge Imposimato stated publicly in writing that 9/11 was just like the “strategy of tension” carried out in Italy.

Specifically, the former Italian Prime Minister, Italian judges, and the former head of Italian counterintelligence admit that NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and other European countries in the 1950s and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism.

As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: “You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security” (and see this)(Italy and other European countries subject to the terror campaign had joined NATO before the bombings occurred).

Judge Imposimato writes that 9/11 was the exact same type of attack: an act of false flag terror.

Judge Imposimato announced that he is going to recommend that the International Criminal Court hold a criminal trial into 9/11.

Imposimato noted that the International Criminal Court was set up to protect the world from criminal acts of war, and that it is the perfect judicial body to hear such a case.

Numerous High-Level Legal Scholars Agree That Additional Action Is Necessary

Imposimato is not the only legal scholar to call for prosecutions and/or further investigations into 9/11. Many other high-level legal jurists, professors and trial lawyers have said the same thing. See this and this.

Note: Judge Imposimato is a member of Lawyers for 9/11 Truth and a panelist on the Toronto Hearings.

[Sabrina]

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/11/inenglish/1347364643_626655.html

11 Sept Spain

ROYAL SCANDAL (Spain)

Investigation into king's son-in-law reveals withdrawals of €1.1m

Funds siphoned from non-profit institute to companies owned by Urdangarin

The non-profit Nóos Institute - which until mid-2006 was co-owned by Iñaki Urdangarin, the son-in-law of King Juan Carlos - deposited in a checking account at La Caixa nearly nine million euros between March 2004 and July 2007. During that time, Urdangarin and his partner managed most of the contracts at Nóos Institute, which were awarded to them by regional governments without a bidding process. Most came from substantial public agencies that hired the institute to organize tourism and sporting events, at which famous celebrities and athletes were present.

From that checking account at La Caixa - which was opened in the name of the nonprofit organization and where the only people authorized to make withdrawals were Urdangarin and Torres - most of the nine million euros were transferred to seven private companies, all for-profit and owned by the king's son-in-law or his partner, Diego Torres.

An analysis of the bank account and another 39 accounts at six banks - all in the name of one of the companies - has led the police to conclude that Urdangarin and Torres, along with their wives, directly received three million euros from Nóos.

A good part of this allocation of funds, 1.9 million euros, was taken by Torres and his wife, while 1.1 million euros went to the Duke of Palma and his wife, Princess Cristina.

The money received by Urdangarin and the princess, according to the police report, includes amounts that came from the Nóos Institute and went directly to Aizoon, the company owned jointly by Urdangarin and the king's daughter.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/2012/09/bombshell-bombshell-bombshell-fdic-sues-the-big-banks-for-massive-securities-fraud/

US

BOMBSHELL! BOMBSHELL! BOMBSHELL!- FDIC SUES THE BIG BANKS FOR MASSIVE SECURITIES FRAUD!
September 10th, 2012 | Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.


It’s been a while since I’ve dropped a BOMBSHELL….I’ve frankly been a bit per-occupied with several more important things.

But the documentation of the biggest crime spree ever perpetrated on a nation continues to be rolled out….and it continues to be ignored by EVERYONE IN THIS ENTIRE NATION!

I can only pound on the indictment of insurance fraud documented in the 49 State Attorney General Sellout. The press refuses to report on how we’ve all been sold out by the government that serves the banks…but I digress. No one cares about that anymore.

Let’s talk about the THREE SEPARATE NUCLEAR BOMBSHELLS OF FINANCIAL MASS DESTRUCTION.

The FDIC, (that’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) just filed suit against the big banks alleging in very specific terms A MASSIVE SCHEME TO LIE, CHEAT, STEAL AND DEFRAUD. You’d think this kind of thing might warrant a story or two in the national press…but then again, they’ve got far more important things to report on. Well, don’t count on The Press to actually report on anything meaningful anymore.

A big hat tip to my friend April Charney who pointed this out to me and much thanks to the Sarasota Council of Neighborhood Associations for inviting me to speak tonight…..anywhoo, just read the allegations in the complaints: (and then ask yourself why no mainstream media will report on any of this):

This is an action for damages caused by violation of the Texas Securities Act
(TSA) and the Securities Act of 1933 (1933 Act) by the defendants. As alleged in detail below,
defendants issued, underwrote, or sold eight securities known as “certificates,” which were
backed by collateral pools of residential mortgage loans. Guaranty Bank (Guaranty) paid
approximately $1.5 billion for the eight certificates. When they issued, underwrote, or sold the
certificates, the defendants made numerous statements of material fact about the certificates and,
in particular, about the credit quality of the mortgage loans that backed them. Many of those
statements were untrue. Moreover, the defendants omitted to state many material facts that were
necessary in order to make their statements not misleading. For example, the defendants made
untrue statements or omitted important information about such material facts as the loan-to-value
ratios of the mortgage loans, the extent to which appraisals of the properties that secured the
loans were performed in compliance with professional appraisal standards, the number of
borrowers who did not live in the houses that secured their loans (that is, the number of
properties that were not primary residences), and the extent to which the entities that made the
loans disregarded their own standards in doing so.

[Sabrina]

THis is another example of the truth coming to the surface at last. It shows the extent of an official cover-up re: a football stadium disaster in the UK some 23 years ago. Police, media (Rupe's The SUn surprise surprise) and public officials are all implicated.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9539673/Hillsborough-families-to-seek-criminal-charges-as-panel-reveals-police-cover-up-over-stadium-disaster.html

13 Sept UK

Hillsborough families to seek criminal charges as panel reveals police cover-up over stadium disaster
The families of the 96 Liverpool supporters killed at Hillsborough will seek criminal charges against those responsible after hearing details of what their lawyers described as “the biggest cover-up in British history”, and “a concerted conspiracy” to withhold the truth.

The call for justice came as a momentous report revealed shocking new details of the police and emergency service failings that were the main cause of the disaster, and the cover-up that followed events 23 years ago.

The report, compiled by the Hillsborough Independent Panel, revealed for the first time that as many as 41 of the 96 people who died could have survived had the emergency response to the disaster been adequate.

That finding made the conclusions of the coroner at the original inquests “unsustainable”, the panel ruled. Coroner Dr Stefan Popper imposed a cut-off point of 3.15pm on his investigations, claiming that all 96 victims died of traumatic-asphyxia by that stage. His decision meant that until now there has been no adequate investigation of the emergency service response.

It has long been established that the police's loss of control, and specifically the decision to open an exit gate and allow Liverpool fans into an already over-crowded central terrace, caused the disaster.

In the aftermath, however, police blamed drunk and ticketless fans, an account that has now been comprehensively and definitively exposed as a deliberate attempt to shift the blame.

The panel, which reviewed more than 450,000 previously unseen documents, also found that:

South Yorkshire Police (SYP) altered 116 out of 164 statements from officers present at Hillsborough in a “strenuous attempt to deflect the blame onto the fans”. South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service was also found to have altered statements to play down its failings on the day;
Police carried out criminal record checks on several of the deceased in an attempt to “impugn their reputations”;
Senior officers privately discussed the “animalistic behaviour” of “drunken marauding fans”;
There was “no evidence of substance” to support the police account that alcohol and fan aggression played a part in the disaster;
The chief constable of SYP Peter Wright addressed a Police Federation meeting and told officers to “prepare a rock-solid story” and that “if anybody should be blamed, it should be the drunken and ticketless individuals”;
The infamous Sun newspaper story under the headline ‘The Truth’ was based on information given to a Sheffield news agency by four senior police officers.

The panel’s damning findings prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to offer a “profound apology” on behalf of the government and the country for what he called “a double injustice”.

“The new evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice,” Cameron told the House of Commons. The injustice of the appalling events - the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth. And the injustice of the denigration of the deceased — that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths.

“On behalf of the Government — and indeed our country — I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.”

The official response may now be swift, with Cameron saying that attorney general Dominic Grieve will review the panel’s findings and consider what steps to take.

For new inquests to be held Grieve will have to apply for the original verdicts to be quashed. Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor who is advising the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said that would be the priority of the legal effort.

“It is absolutely clear [that new inquests should be held]. There is no other step you can take. Meanwhile we would hope the director of public prosecutions considers the possibility of criminal charges,” Falconer said.

“What this [report] shows is a concerted conspiracy to withhold the truth by the public bodies. Practically every single one of the public bodies involved withheld information and lied, the legal process at every stage failed them, in the inquests, the criminal prosecutions and the civil prosecution.”

Michael Mansfield QC, who has worked on many miscarriage of justice cases, said the families would press for criminal charges including manslaughter, corporate and individual, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and civil damages claims.

Trevor Hicks, the president of the HFSG, said the families welcomed the reports findings, revealing that they had responded with a standing ovation when its details had been put to them.

“The truth is out today, the justice starts tomorrow,” he said. “We will follow every avenue, from prosecution to changing the inquest verdicts. We are not looking for scapegoats, we are looking for accountability, and those responsible should hang their heads in shame.”
Of all the findings, the revelation that 41 of the 96 were alive beyond 3.15pm, was the most shocking to the families.

Dr Bill Kirkup, a member of the panel, told the families that 28 of the dead had evidence that they did not have obstruction of bloodflow, and 16 people had heart and lung function after 3.15pm.

“There is some overlap between the two groups, so 41 people had the potential to survive after the 3.15pm cut-off, but I cannot say how many would have.”

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9539259/FSA-hands-life-ban-to-HBOS-director-Peter-Cummings.html

13 Aug UK

FSA hands life ban to HBOS director Peter Cummings
Former HBOS director Peter Cummings has been fined £500,000 and banned for life from working in the City.

The action against HBOS’s former head of corporate banking is the most draconian to be imposed against a senior figure at any of the banks that were bailed out during the financial crisis.

Mr Cummings has been widely held to be responsible for the lending that led to a multi-billion pound bailout of the bank and then it being taken over by Lloyds Banking Group.

In its report into HBOS’s near collapse, the Financial Services Authority concluded the bank was guilty of “very serious misconduct”. It also found the corporate division was the “highest risk part” of the bank.

The City watchdog decided to waive what could have been a £50m to £100m fine against the bank to save the taxpayer further expense. Following Lloyds’ takeover of HBOS the bank is 43pc owned by the taxpayer.

Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime at the FSA, said: “Despite being aware of the weaknesses in his division and growing problems in the economy, Cummings presided over a culture of aggressive growth without the controls in place to manage the risks associated with that strategy. Instead of reacting to the worsening environment, he raised his targets as other banks pulled out of the same markets."

Mr Cummings' punishment puts him in a select position. He is one of the only bankers from one of the bailed out banks to have been fined in relation to misconduct leading up to the financial crisis. Only he and former RBS director Johnny Cameron have received bans. The FSA said the fine levied against Mr Cummings means all current investigations connected to the bank are concluded.

However, chief executive of the FSA, Hector Sants, has publicly stated that other prominent bankers from the period, such as former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin, would not be allowed to work in regulated positions again.

Mr Cummings' punishment comes six months after the FSA published its intial report into failings at HBOS.

In it, the FSA said: “The corporate division pursued an aggressive growth strategy, the effect of which was to increase the risk profile of a business which was already focused on high-risk, sub-investment grade lending.

"Corporate did so despite known weaknesses in the control framework, which meant that it failed to provide robust oversight and challenge to the business.”

In a statement Mr Cummings said he rejected the FSA's findings but would not be appealing the fine.

He said: "Many people must bear collective responsibility for what happened, including governments and regulators as well as the boards of the banks themselves. But the fact that I am the only individual from HBOS to face investigation defies comprehension.

"The decision to single me out for investigation is even more grotesque given that even the FSA has to admit in its notice that other senior people were involved in the critical decisions for which I am taken to task. This is tokenism at its most sinister, and has made it feel throughout like institutional oppression."

[Sabrina]

Applecrusher has picked up on Kerry's blog mentioning possible banker arrests and Chinese ships. Well we'll see. Will there be massive arrests as trailed in the last year, or will there be a more subtle over throw process in the financial world? :) S


http://projectcamelotportal.com/kerr...veloping-story

"Thursday, 13 September 2012 16:54
Written by Kerry Cassidy
I am being told there are at least 3 confirmations of something going on off the coast of San Francisco, involving US Navy Ships and an unknown number of Chinese vessels. I am being told this involves the arrest of possibly around 600 bankers.. who may be being held in a US ship... under arrest by the Hague. The arrests are being carried out by the U.S. military.

At this time, regardless of the fact that i have more data I am being asked by at least one source not to go into any more detail than that. Apparently there are a number of operations going on at this time.

At least one source has suggested that this may actually be a cover operation for something more far reaching.

I have 3 verifications from my sources in addition to the original sources... confirms from their 3 sources.

Anyone with additional info preferably from someone in connection with the military or intel is welcome to contact me at kerry@projectcamelot.tv or on skype at snowjaguar

Note: I contacted Clif High about the above info and he directed me to the following site where he insists all vessels must be detectable at sea to other vessels using a transponder called an AIS. He says there is no sign of either large U.S. Navy vessels or any Chinese vessels in those waters off the coast of San Francisco according to this site:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/[COLOR="red"]

¤=[Post Update]=¤

[Sabrina]

Scape goat comes to mind... :)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19595217

[/COLOR]
Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli on trial over £1.4bn loss

Kweku Adoboli, who is 32, denies charges of false accounting and fraud
The trial of a former City trader accused of causing the largest unauthorised trading loss in British history will start later.

Kweku Adoboli, 32, of Whitechapel, east London, was arrested last September shortly after the UBS bank announced losses of £1.4bn at its London office.

Mr Adoboli is accused of dishonestly abusing his position by making a series of unauthorised trades.

He denies two charges each of false accounting and fraud.

Mr Adoboli had been working as a senior trader at UBS's global synthetic equities branch, buying and selling exchange traded funds, which track different types of stocks, bonds or commodities such as metals.

It is alleged he lost a total of $2.25bn between October 2008 and September 2011.

The trial is taking place not far from the City's square mile at Southwark Crown Court.

BBC business correspondent Emma Simpson says the case is likely to raise questions for UBS and its internal risk controls as well as provide a glimpse into the trading desk culture of the Swiss bank.

The prosecution is expected to open its case later after the jury was sworn in earlier in the week.

[Sabrina]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/09/13/unlimited-qe3-fed-decision-huge-change/

US 13 Aug

Game Changer! Why This Fed Decision Was a Huge Departure From Every Move The Fed Has Made Before

By Joe Weisenthal

Here are the key paragraphs from today's Fed announcement ...

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee agreed today to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month. The Committee also will continue through the end of the year its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in June, and it is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. These actions, which together will increase the Committee's holdings of longer-term securities by about $85 billion each month through the end of the year, should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.

The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments in coming months. If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability. In determining the size, pace, and composition of its asset purchases, the Committee will, as always, take appropriate account of the likely efficacy and costs of such purchases.
The Fed just changed the game.

Whereas in the past, the Fed always set a defined amount of Fed purchases, this time they're saying that the easing will continue until morale improves.

This is a major change.

They've now said to businesses and banks and everyone else that they will not let up and tighten conditions until things are much better.

If you haven't been paying attention, this is a move towards the hot new idea in monetary policy ideas.

In his paper, economist Michael Woodford wrote all about the power of pre-commitment, and its ability to shape expectations.

Furthermore, we should add that not only is this QE, the Fed is also talking about "other policy tools" that could be used.

This is a very big change.

For the full Fed announcement, see here >
http://www.businessinsider.com/federal-reserve-decision-2012-9

PRESS CONFERENCE: BEN BERNANKE DEFENDS UNLIMITED QE, AS MARKET GOES TOTALLY WILD

full coverage at link

[Sabrina]

http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/09/14/china-is-trading-oil-in-non-dollar-currencies

China is Trading Oil in Non-Dollar Currencies
September 14th, 2012
in econ_news, syndication

Econintersect: China has started to trade gold using currencies other than the U.S. dollar, according to an article at Examiner.com. According to Examiner.com Russia and China have agreed to conduct all sales from Russia without using the dollar. For oibvious reasons the transactions between Iran and China will not use the dollar. Those two countries alone would remove 25% of China's oil trade away from the dollar. If Venzuela were to follow nearly 40% of China's oil trade would be non-dollar.

Follow up:
This is not the first mention of trading for oil in currency other than the dollar. In early 2011 GEI News reported that India and Iran were discussing using gold as the medium of exchange.

China is one of the reasons that the economic sanctions of the west against Iran are not fully effective. China, the world's third largest oil importer, gets 16% of its oil from Iran. But they are doing so under an exemption from the embargo, as are India and more than a dozen other countries. However, according to Reuters, the sanctions are still partially effective, slashing Iran's oil exports from about 2.4 million barrels in 2011 a day to approximately 1 million this year.
John Lounsbury
Sources:
Dollar no longer primary oil currency as China begins to sell oil using Yuan (Kenneth Schortgen Jr, Examiner.com, 12 September 2012)
U.S. says sanctions slash Iran's oil exports (Jonathan Spicer, Reuters, 13 September 2012).
America to the World: Stop Buying Iranian Oil or be Cut Off. Except for you, you, you... (GEI News, 21 March 2012)
Possible Relationship - Iran:India, Oil:Gold (GEI News, 11 January 2011)

[ThePythonicCow]

http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/09/14/china-is-trading-oil-in-non-dollar-currencies

China is Trading Oil in Non-Dollar Currencies
September 14th, 2012
in econ_news, syndication

Econintersect: China has started to trade gold using currencies other than the U.S. dollar, according to an article at Examiner.com. According to Examiner.com Russia and China have agreed to conduct all sales from Russia without using the dollar.
The origin of this report, including the basis of this Dollar no longer primary oil currency as China begins to sell oil using Yuan (Examiner.com) (http://www.examiner.com/article/dollar-no-longer-primary-oil-currency-as-china-begins-to-sell-oil-using-yuan) article, appears to be a pronouncement by Lindsey Williams, that is being discussed on the thread Petro Dollar Died on Sept 6th 2012 , and was Replaced by to Petro Yuan (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?49785-Petro-Dollar-Died-on-Sept-6th-2012-and-was-Replaced-by-to-Petro-Yuan). We can not find any other source, besides Lindsey Williams, for this report. I suspect that Lindsey Williams is over stating the significance of some lesser event here.

[Sabrina]

More on the story of the disappearing vice president in China - who pulled out of a meeting with Hilary Clinton (commented on by Benjamin Fulford). The real story is no doubt intriguing :)...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19608802

15 Sept China

China's Vice-President Xi Jinping in public appearance

Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping has appeared in public for the first time in two weeks.

Mr Xi, who is expected to become China's next leader, attended an event on Saturday to mark national science day, Xinhua news agency reported.

No official explanation has been given for his absence, which fuelled widespread speculation.

There were rumours about the state of his health and suggestions of power struggles within the Communist party.

However, on Saturday China's official news agency carried a brief report of Mr Xi's visit to the China Agricultural University in Beijing with a photograph showing the vice-president smiling and walking with other officials.

Mr Xi, 59, cancelled meetings with four foreign dignitaries including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On Thursday, Mr Xi was cited in state media for the first time in 12 days, expressing condolences over the death of a former general.

During his absence, searches for Mr Xi's name on China's Twitter-like weibo micro-blogging sites have been blocked.

He is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao as leader of the ruling Communist Party at a crucial meeting due to be held some time next month.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says Mr Xi's reappearance seems designed to put to an end days of feverish speculation.

China's leadership transition now looks back on track, he adds.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

More on VP Xi from English edition of Xinhua website:

Vice President Xi attends activities for science popularization day
BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping Saturday called for strengthening public food and health knowledge in an effort to steer public attention toward food safety issues and prevent misconduct in the industry.

Xi made the remarks while visiting Beijing-based China Agricultural University for activities marking the National Science Popularization Day.

More than 5,200 events will be organized across the country for this year's science popularization day that is running under the theme of energy conservation, environmental protection and health and safety. Activities in Beijing are focused on food and health.

In an exhibit section showcasing instant melamine checks for milk products, Xi said, "Food safety is a significant livelihood issue. While strengthening supervision and punishment, the whole society should be mobilized to focus on the issue in order to create a sound social environment."
(...)

Full story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-09/15/c_131852592.htm

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

This is on Bo's Kailai buddy Wang Lijun who ratted Bo:

Former Chongqing police chief faces charges
CHENGDU, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Wang Lijun, Chongqing's former vice mayor and police chief, has been charged with bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking by the Chengdu City People's Procuratorate, Xinhua learned from authorities on Wednesday.

The prosecuting body filed the charges against Wang with the Intermediate People's Court of Chengdu City, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

During the investigation period, the prosecuting body informed the defendant of his right to retain defense counsel.

The prosecuting body also interrogated the defendant, heard the opinions of the defense counsel and examined all the case files.

According to the indictment issued by the Chengdu City People's Procuratorate, although the defendant Wang Lijun, then-vice mayor of Chongqing as well as chief of the municipality's Public Security Bureau, had known beforehand that Bogu Kailai was under serious suspicion of murdering Neil Heywood, he consciously neglected his duty and bent the law for personal gain so that Bogu Kailai would not be held legally responsible. Wang was indicted for the crime of bending the law for personal gain.

Prosecutors said Wang, while he was performing his official duty, left his post without authorization and defected to the United States Consulate General in Chengdu. He was also indicted for the crime of defection.

According to prosecutors, Wang illegally used technical reconnaissance measures, either without the approval of authorities or by forging approval documents. He was indicted for the crime of power abuse. Wang also took advantage of his position and accepted massive bribes in a bid to secure benefits for other individuals. He was indicted for the crime of bribe-taking.

Prosecutors said facts related to Wang Lijun's crimes were clear; the evidence was concrete and abundant. According to the law, he should be prosecuted for the crimes of bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking.

The Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court has accepted the case and will hold a trial at a later date.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-09/05/c_131830163.htm

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

From Turkish Hürriyet Daily News:

Chief of staff at the Turkish navy arrested in probe on army spying
Chief of staff at the Turkish navy vice admiral Veysel Kösele arrested as part of a military espionage probe.
Today, vice admiral Kösele and some other admirals had arrived at an İzmir prosecutor’s office to testify in an ongoing army spying case.
After questioning, prosecutor directed Admiral Kösele an one lieutenant to a court requesting they arrest. The court ordered vice admiral Kösele and lieutenant arrest.
The investigation against the espionage gang started in 2009 after allegations arose that the gang reportedly targeted active-duty officers with knowledge of details about warcraft radar location. The suspects are also charged with listening to private phone conversations and spying on some officer’s bedrooms through cameras and blackmailing them. In the operation, 93 people including 59 active-duty-soldiers have already been detained. The suspects are also charged with sending escort girls to the officer’s homes.
Source: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/chief-of-staff-at-the-turkish-navy-arrested-in-probe-on-army-spying.aspx?pageID=238&nID=30217&NewsCatID=341

Have heard that there are many tensions between the Turkish civil government and the Turkish army. With the latter constantly trying to overthrow the former. This relationship very mildly resembles presently that in Egypt. Many high ranking officers are rotting in prisons there. I wonder if those Turkish prisons really look like that in the movie Midnight Express (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/16/turkey.film). Yikes! :(

[Flash]

the tension between the civil government and the army in turkey, from what i hear, are not necessarily resembling Egypt as you say, imho.
There is tension with a religious based civil Turkish government because the army's job in Turkey is to protect the constitution, mostly if the government does not respect it. So, that is what they do since the constitution stipulates a secular government. They have been doing that since the 80's. Before, it was dictatorship (so of course, could always come back). This seems to me, widely different from Egypt. Furthermore, high ranking officers rotting in jail, I would like to know whom they displeased because bribes and blackmail is rampant in Turkey, from corporations to govenrments back and forth. (however, sometimes, I do not see much difference with the West - re: the bank theft, lobbying, etc etc, it is only better disguised)

However I would like that our armies in the West would have as first and foremost job to protect our constitutions as well, even against the elected governments that are often corrupted. imho

Oh, Turkish prisons are not midnight express, more similar to western ones (such as overcrowding, bad food, etc) with some difference Midnight express is a souvenir of the past

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Flash, my comparison of Turkey to Egypt was based on this event from July 15th, 2012:

Announcement by the army chief creates fears of conflict between the government and military
A controversial announcement by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces created huge furore in Egypt today.

The army general announced today that the military will not allow a “certain group” to dominate in the country’s government. According to local political analysts, Tantawi was hinting at the Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi recently won the Egyptian Presidential elections.
7
Even more significant is the fact that the announcement from Tantawi came only a few hours after his meeting with Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State. Clinton had urged Tantawi to cooperate with Morsi, to facilitate a speedy transfer of power to the civilian officials.

The Egyptian military, which ruled Egypt ever since the dictator Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011, is believed to be a secular institution. Many of the analysts have claimed that the army is in unease over the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, who is believed to pursue a strongly Islamic agenda while in office.
(...)

Full story: http://www.egyptdefence.com/announcement-by-the-army-chief-creates-fears-of-conflict-between-the-government-and-military-115/

At the link provided earlier to midnight express is the report of Oliver Stone's apology to Turkey for "over-dramatising" conditions in Turkish prisons...

Such inhumane conditions in prisons were the norm in "civilised" world a few hundred years ago... Look what "progress" we have achieved nowdays :p

[Sabrina]

Things are certainly coming to a head in Greece....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/16/greek-protests-menacing-new-phase

16 Sept Greece

Greek protests enter menacing phase
As Greece's government wrestles with the prospect of more austerity, anger and fear are darkening the streets

The banner said it all: "Imagine: disabled and poor." The sight of wheelchair-bound protesters demonstrating outside the Greek parliament against the latest round of cuts that Athens must enact in return for rescue loans reinforced the uncomfortable truth that, in the country where Europe's debt drama first began, the crisis is far from over.

While politicians were fixated on Germany's constitutional court ratifying the eurozone bailout mechanism and the general elections in Holland last week, Greece's three-party coalition was locked in fraught negotiations over a new €12.5bn (£10bn) austerity package. The cuts in disability benefits, ordered by debt inspectors from the "troika" of lenders at the EU, ECB and IMF, threw into sharp relief the tough process that the weakest member of the eurozone is being forced to suffer.

For the first time in living memory, military personnel took to the streets alongside police officers, fire brigade officials, teachers and doctors as Greeks vowed to resist further pay and pension cuts that have already led to plummeting living standards.

This week, before a general strike scheduled for 26 September – the 17th this year – judges will walk off the job, shaking one of the central pillars of Greek society.

Nearly three years into the debt crisis, the mood among Greeks has shifted from one of bewilderment and shock, borne of seeing their seemingly robust economy collapse almost overnight, to fury and fear as poverty and panic spread.

Increasingly, ordinary people are speaking of "blood being spilled" and even "civil war". After the hiatus of a long summer, there are few who doubt that Greece is about to enter an autumn of mass discontent as the endless efforts to keep bankruptcy at bay move into a menacing new phase.

"The situation is terrible," says Vassilis Grillas, a cab driver. "Every day, I see people who are in an awful state, who can't pay their bills – who, like me, are afraid that their homes will be confiscated because we all owe so much more than we have. If they keep on pushing us like this, blood will be spilled. Everyone will revolt. There will be a mass uprising for sure."

With about 1,000 jobs reportedly being axed every day, the statistics agency Elstat announced last week that unemployment had reached an unprecedented 23.6% – compared with 16.3% a year ago. The surge mirrors the dramatic decline in GDP in a country that has been plagued by recession for the past five years.

On Friday, as eurozone finance ministers met in Cyprus, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, it became clear that Greece will have to wait at least six weeks before lenders decide whether it deserves the next €31.5bn instalment of aid, which is crucial to recapitalising Greek banks and the cash-starved economy. Deliberations over the loan, which was initially due in July, have put Athens's fragile coalition on tenterhooks.

Despite the IMF and EU both signalling that Greece will be granted the two-year extension it has called for to implement unpopular fiscal adjustment policies, the parties supporting the three-month-old government still find themselves in a difficult position: all three campaigned on refusing to endorse austerity measures that hit the most vulnerable members of society hardest.

As creditors continue to insist that painful cuts are the price of further aid, politicians from the Greek president downwards have voiced fears that Athens is being pushed too far.

Last week, President Carolos Papoulias decried the policies, telling visiting Canadian officials: "We've been given a merciless lashing. I think we have paid enough for our mistakes, and Europe must realise that it needs to help Greece."

The normally mild-mannered octogenarian expressed concern that the foundations of Greek democracy were being imperilled. The sight of police and senior naval and army officers taking to the streets last week prompted government officials to voice similar fears. Some spoke privately of "the quiet before the storm" amid anxiety that the prevailing uncertainty has prompted a rise in extremism. The far-right Golden Dawn party is not only gaining in popularity but increasingly taking law and order into its own hands, with attacks on immigrants nationwide.

Although there has been a discernible change in attitude towards Greece among fiscal hardliners in the EU led by Germany, the death spiral in which the economy finds itself – Greek debt still accounts for 166% of GDP – shows little sign of reversing. That has added to the mood of fury and fear, provoking criticism even among reform-minded Greeks of the troika and its policies.

"They don't seem to care about the country, all they seem to care about is balancing the current account and budget, re-financing debt that is non-sustainable," says Theodore Pelagidis, professor of economic analysis at Piraeus University. "No attention is given to improving competitiveness or the production markets. These are home economics, not the economics that should be applied to a country."

[Sabrina]

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/16/inenglish/1347814452_787122.html

16 Sept Spain


Thousands demand referendum be held to determine austerity drive

Demonstrators converge in Madrid
Unions ponder euro-wide protest



Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards from different parts of the country converged in Madrid on Saturday to demand a referendum to determine whether the government should continue on its severe austerity program. Brought together by a collective called Social Summit — comprised of about 200 professional organizations and the unions — demonstrators marched through the streets of the Spanish capital under thousands of flags, banners and signs of the groups that they represented.

Many carried placards with the words “Fed up,” “Euro violence,” and “Assault” written on them.

Saturday’s protest is just the first of many that are due to be held by the UGT and CCOO unions during what is expected a heated social conflict period this autumn. Both labor groups have threatened to call a general strike in the future.

The demonstration came just four days after a massive turnout in Catalonia of pro-nationalist supporters who demanded independence as an alternative to the central government's cutbacks.

The prime minister has the key to stop this general strike”
But the Popular Party (PP) administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said that it won’t give in. “Sacrifices are absolutely unavoidable,” said Economy Minister Luis de Guindos.

In fact, government officials appeared relieved because they expected Saturday’s protest to be bigger than it actually was. “The majority of the citizens are supporting the reforms,” said one official.

Organizers did not release any official figures to show how many people had participated on Saturday but some were calling it an “historical,” “transcendental” and “formidable” turnout. Later, sources in the organizing committees said there were about 500,000. But the government’s delegate in Madrid put the figure as low as 65,000.

EL PAÍS did not calculate the number of protestors but determined that the space filled in the square as well as the adjacent streets (Génova, Recoletos, Castellana and Goya) comprise about 70,000 square meters.

I had to leave my job as a music teacher to care for my son”
Members of the opposition Socialist Party also took part in the march, which culminated in a large manifestation in Colón Plaza. Although neither secretary general Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba nor the party’s number two Elena Valenciano were present, other top Socialists marched alongside a banner that read: “They want to ruin this country. We must stop them.”

“Citizens are saying ‘no’ to nine months of cutbacks and lies,” said Óscar López, the party’s organization secretary.

Various speakers insisted that this was only the beginning of a series of protests and mass concentrations.

“The prime minister has the key to stop this general strike,” said CCOO secretary general Ignacio Fernández Toxo. Many began chanting: “Rajoy, resign, new elections now!”

Cándido Méndez, secretary general of the UGT, added: “If the government doesn’t pay attention to us, we will come up with another answer or mobilization.”

Later, the two union leaders explained that they are contemplating calling for a European-wide protest with other labor unions across the continent to protest the policies of the bloc’s leaders. Méndez and Toxo have called their European counterparts to a meeting in Madrid on September 25 to discuss the matter.

“This is the first time I have participated in a demonstration,” said Hipolit Agulló of Alicante. “I have a son who suffers from cerebral palsy and they have cutback his caregiver’s aid by 15 percent, and the government has cutoff the social security we received for caring for him. I had to leave my job as a music teacher to care for him.”

José Planas, a fireman from the Aragon region, was one of thousands of firefighters who took part in the march. Firefighters have been heavily affected by the cutbacks. “We are supposed to rescue people, not the banks,” Planas said in reference to the drop in government funding. “They should be asking for money to those who have it, raise taxes on the rich and not on the worker.”

[A Simple Human]

Spain's Aguirre, influential conservative, resigns (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/us-spain-aguirre-idUSBRE88G0Y120120917) (Reuters)

Spain's Aguirre, influential conservative, resigns
By Clare Kane | September 17, 2012

Madrid regional president Esperanza Aguirre, an influential Spanish politician and a leader of the conservative wing of the ruling center-right People's Party (PP), resigned on Monday in a surprise announcement.

Aguirre has been a huge vote-getter for the PP in populous Madrid, and was the first woman politician in Spain to be seen as a possible future president.

She has also clashed publicly with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has moved the party in a more moderate direction.

Aguirre announced in 2011 that she had breast cancer but on Monday said her health was only part of a decision to end her three-decade political career.

"I want to spend more time with my grandchildren," said Aguirre, who has been president of the Community of Madrid, the region that includes the country's capital, since 2003.

She was Spain's first female head of the Senate, its first female regional president and also served as education minister.

She brought bilingual English-Spanish teaching to Madrid schools and opened many hospitals in the region.

Aguirre denied her resignation was linked to her recent public disagreement with Rajoy over the early release of terminal cancer patient Jesus Maria Uribetxeberria Bolinaga, a convicted kidnapper from violent Basque separatist group ETA.

Rajoy had said he had to follow the law on the release, but Aguirre and other hardliners had said a way should have been found to keep him in prison.

In recent months Aguirre has championed Madrid as the site for a Las Vegas Sands casino.

The capital beat rival Barcelona in a charm offensive, which saw the project, expected to be worth up to 17 billion euros ($22 billion) in investment, awarded to Madrid earlier this month.

[Sabrina]

More on the unlikely tale of the UBS trader in court in the UK....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9550643/UBS-questioned-3.6bn-of-trades-by-Kweku-Adoboli-weeks-before-his-arrest.html

18 Sept

UBS questioned €3.6bn of trades by Kweku Adoboli weeks before his arrest

UBS, the Swiss bank, was aware of problems with Kweku Adoboli's trading five weeks before he was arrested, a court was told on Tuesday.

The bank's back office questioned €3.6bn (£2.9bn) of incorrectly booked trades as early as August 4, Southwark Crown Court heard in the trial of the former trader accused of losing his bank $2.3bn in rogue trades.

The trades, normally booked on the same day, remained unregistered weeks after Mr Adoboli made them.

Yesterday, the court heard how he himself had lost £123,000 spread-betting through a personal account with IG index. His trading with IG Index prompted two official warnings from his bank bosses after he failed to disclose the account and then failed to disclose individual trades.

The court heard on Monday how Mr Adoboli owed thousands of pounds on current accounts and credit cards despite earning £360,000 and was overdrawn and relying on pay-day loan companies when he was arrested.

Despite seeing £233,000 pass through his NatWest Bank account in the 12 months prior to his arrest Mr Adoboli’s account was overdrawn by £3,594 when he was arrested on September 15 last year, the court was told. Across his four banks accounts and two credit cards the 32-year-old trader owed £4,181.

His primary current account showed payments to eight pay-day loan companies including Wageday Advance, Wonga.com, Payday UK and Pounds to Pocket.

Mr Adoboli is accused of two counts of fraudulent trading and two counts of false accounting relating to the $2.3bn loss. The prosecution alleges Mr Adoboli deliberately falsified accounts and hid the trades from his bosses in order to cover up his actions.

Dealing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Mr Adoboli is alleged to have fraudulently traded for more than two years before he was caught. At one point the former public school head boy had secretly built up a $12bn loss, a sum the prosecution alleges was enough to bring the bank down.
Mr Adoboli has pleaded not guilty. The case continues.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9551239/Indian-government-dealt-blow-by-partner-resignation.html

18 Sept India

Indian government dealt blow by partner resignation

India's Congress-led coalition has been shaked by the resignation of its second largest partner in protest over diesel price increases and the decision to allow Western supermarkets like Tesco to set up shop.

The withdrawal of the Trinamool Congress, a largely West Bengal-based party, has cut the Indian government's majority down to 16 MPs and left it at the mercy of Mayawati, the controversial 'untouchable' leader from Uttar Pradesh, whose Bahujan Samaj Party has 21 seats.

The withdrawal from the party led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee, has fuelled new speculation of early elections - 18 months before they are due in 2014.

Her six ministers in the United Progressive Alliance government will hand in their resignations on Friday, shortly after Dr Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, unveils his expected cabinet reshuffle. There is speculation that Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Congress dynasty and son of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, could take a cabinet position in advance of his eventual appointment as party leader.

Ms Bannerjee, who has regularly threatened to withdraw her party from the ruling coalition in the last year, said her party had not been consulted over major reforms and had not been shown any "respect."

"We are withdrawing our support. Our ministers will go to Delhi, meet [the] PM and tender their resignations," she said after a meeting her party's leaders.

Congress leaders are confident they can hold their coalition together despite the setback. They believe their opponents have little stomach and insufficient funds for a general election contest.

"Nobody wants an election, that's what MPs are saying across party lines, even the BJP. There will be the usual political manoeuvring and give and take but the government will not crash. You need money for elections and a snap poll nobody wants," said a source close to the Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi.

[Sabrina]

More on truths coming to the surface - Romney's remarks at a private fundraiser... pretty unwise unless he just doesn't want the job in the first place...and who would in the 3D world :)


http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/watch-full-secret-video-private-romney-fundraiser

18 Sept USA

WATCH: Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser


On Monday and Tuesday Mother Jones published exclusive video that captured Mitt Romney speaking to donors at a May 17 fundraiser, which was held at the home of private equity mogul Mark Leder. Responding to a question about the "Palestinian problem," Romney said peace in the Middle East is not possible and a Palestinian state is not feasible, telling donors that Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish." At another point, the GOP presidential nominee told attendees of this $50,000-a-plate dinner that 47 percent of Americans—those who back President Obama—are "victims" who are "dependent upon government" and "pay no income tax." He noted: "My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." These comments set off a media firestorm and generated headlines around the world. [Update: See additional highlights and search the full transcript of the video here.]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/full-transcript-mitt-romney-secret-video

More MoJo coverage of Mitt Romney:

Full Transcript of the Mitt Romney Secret Video
Part One: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters
Part Two: On Israel, Romney Trashes Two-State Solution
Who Was at Romney's "47 Percent" Fundraiser?
Romney "47 Percent" Fundraiser Host: Hedge Fund Manager Who Likes Sex Parties
The Mystery of Romney's Exit From Bain
6 Things Mitt Romney Is Hiding
Romney's remarks, denigrating nearly half of the electorate, sent the Romney campaign—already roiled by infighting—into panic mode. The campaign hastily convened a late-night press conference to address his controversial statements, and Romney stood by his "off the cuff" comments, while conceding that they were "not elegantly stated." He claimed his comments where merely a "snippet" and not the "full response." That was not true; his comments were shown in full. He added, "I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material."

Romney is not the only one who has called for the release of the full 49-minute video. And we're more than happy to oblige. The complete video demonstrates that Romney was not snippetized and that he was captured raw and uncut. Here it is, in two parts.

see videos at link

[Sabrina]

http://rt.com/news/italian-court-verdict-rendition-547/

20 Sept

Still guilty: Italy upholds verdict against 23 CIA agents in rendition trial

Italy’s highest criminal court upheld the guilty verdict of 23 Americans in connection with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. The CIA agents that abducted an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street may now face extradition.

Twenty-two CIA officers and one US Air Force officers were ordered to serve jail time in Italy for the illegal kidnapping of Egyptian terror suspect cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street in 2003. Nasr was transported to Egypt by the CIA as part of their extraordinary rendition program, where he was allegedly tortured for seven months.

The trial has been ongoing for three-and-a-half years, and the Americans charged have never been in Italian custody. Convicted in absentia, the Italian court ordered the Americans to serve prison sentences of seven to nine years.

The decision to uphold the guilty verdict by the Italian Court of Cassations on Wednesday marks the conclusion of the first trial anywhere in the world concerning the CIA’s controversial rendition program under President George W. Bush, under which terror suspects were abducted and flown to countries around the world where torture was allowed.

Defense lawyer for the Americans Alessia Sorgato said that the guilty verdict might open the door to possible extradition requests by the Italian government.

“It went badly. It went very badly," she told the Associated Press. "Now they will ask for extradition."
Sorgato also added that this was the final appeal for the Americans.

"You have to mark that this decision is the last one. We cannot do anything more for them," she said.
Although it is unknown if the Americans will be extradited to serve their sentences, they face the possibility of arrest if they ever travel to the European Union.


Human rights activists praise decision
US and international human rights groups praised the decision to uphold the verdict. Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro told AP that the decision recognized that extraordinary rendition "is incompatible with democracy,” and that extradition based on the verdict was now warranted.

An Amnesty International expert on counter-terrorism and human rights, Julia Hall, echoed Spataro’s comments, saying “This important decision is another step towards accountability for violations that took place during the US rendition operations…The High Court has recognized that blanket claims of state secrecy cannot be used to shield the government from accountability for human rights violations."

“Though legal questions remain, such as the validity of trials in absentia, American officials would be wise to heed the Italian court's message that those who violate the law will be called to answer," Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU Human Rights Program, said in statement.

Among those convicted was Robert Seldon Lady, Milan’s CIA chief, whose sentence was hiked from seven to nine years on appeal. Complicating extradition matters is the fact that not all of the defendants are known; several of the names charged may be CIA aliases.

A spokeswoman for the Italian Ministry of Justice said that Justice Minister Paola Severino would consider an extradition request from the General Prosecutor’s office. “Once that arrives, the minister will make a decision, according to what is prescribed by the law,” the spokeswoman said, as reported by the New York Times.
The CIA has not commented on the matter.

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/19/shareholders-news-corp-sue-hacking

19 Sept USA

News Corp shareholders in US want to sue over phone hacking scandal

Murdoch family put personal interests ahead of the company's, shareholders allege, as they ask judge to amend earlier lawsuit

Shareholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are asking a US court for permission to sue the firm's board for failing to stop the phone hacking scandal.

The shareholders asked Delaware judge John Noble on Wednesday to proceed with their case against Murdoch, his sons Lachlan and James and the rest of the company's board. News Corp is attempting to have the case dismissed.

In all, 50 people have been arrested in connection with the scandal, News Corp has closed its most profitable newspaper, the News of the World newspaper, and lost a deal to take over the BSkyB satellite broadcast business.

The shareholders, including America's Amalgamated Bank and Central Laborers' Pension Funds, charge the company's executives put their own interests ahead shareholders and treated the firm as a "family candy jar".

The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2011 over News Corp's agreement to buy Shine, a TV production company owned by Elizabeth Murdoch, the News Corp chairman's daughter, for $670m. It was amended after the phone hacking scandal emerged.

"All of this harm occurred because the board chose to protect those close to Murdoch rather than investigate the misconduct when it learned about it," the shareholders said in June in their amended complaint.

"These revelations should not have taken years to uncover and stop. These revelations show a culture run amuck within News Corp and a board that provides no effective review or oversight," the shareholders charged.

Charles Elson, chair in corporate governance at the University of Delaware, said lack of board oversight was a difficult case to bring but that News Corp's dual class share structure could present the Murdochs with some challenges.

News Corp has two classes of shares, and the Murdochs' shares give them 39% of the company votes although the family owns about 15% of the equity.

"The chances of bringing these type of cases are usually pretty slim but here you have independence and conflict of interest issues vis a vis the board so there's more of a shot," said Elson.

Elson said the judges in Delaware, where News Corp and many other US firms are incorporated, were interested in the conflicts that dual class share structures present to shareholders. "In my view dual class share structures cast a shade over a board's independence," he said.

News Corp is under investigation by the US justice department under the foreign corrupt practices act which can impose heavy fines on US firms found to have bribed foreign officials.

and

20 Sept UK

News International chief tries to boost Sun morale after 21st journalist arrest
Tom Mockridge addresses newsroom, reassuring staff about role of News Corp's management and standards committee

The News International chief executive has sought to boost morale in the Sun newsroom after the 21st journalist on the paper was arrested by Scotland Yard police officers.

Tom Mockridge called the meeting at 4.15pm on Thursday, just hours after a 30-year-old Sun reporter was arrested at his home in south-east London by officers from Operation Tuleta, the investigation into computer hacking which was recently widened to include alleged criminal breaches of privacy.

He was the third Sun reporter to be detained this week and the 21st current or former Sun journalist or executive who has been detained since the police made their first arrest of someone working on the paper last November when Jamie Pyatt, district editor of the title, was held and later bailed in relation to alleged payments to police or public servants.

Mockridge told Sun staff that he had "no date" when the arrests would end and said that the company continued to co-operate with the Metropolitan police, as agreed by parent company News Corporation. He said it was up to News Corp, not News International, to decide when to end co-operation with the police.

Insiders said he reminded staff why News Corp decided to work with the police, setting up its management and standards committee in early 2011 to investigate alleged illegal practices at News International and pass information on to Scotland Yard.

But Mockridge added that when News Corp decided to do so "there was no expectation we would still be in this process this much further down the line".

All of those arrested in the past 10 months from the Sun have been bailed but the mounting numbers have given rise to increasing anger at the paper.

One reporter said this week: "How many of us are left to arrest? This is now beyond ridiculous." Another joked. "You're a nobody now if you haven't been arrested."

There were fears for the future of the Sun back in February when five top journalists including Geoff Webster, the newspaper's deputy editor, and John Kay who joined the paper in 1974, were arrested and bailed on suspicion of making illegal payments to police and other public officials.

On Wednesday, two journalists, Tom Wells who works in London, and John Coles who works in Bristol, were detained and bailed by officers working on Operation Elveden, the Met's investigation into alleged inappropriate payments to police and other public servants.

Mockridge also reassured staff about the management and standards committee's role, which has been vilified internally for handing over to police the information that has led to many of the arrests.

He told them the MSC's internal inquiry had been completed, but the company would still co-operate with police when requested. He denied that police had access to contemporary emails.

[Sabrina]

Yet more woes for Murdoch

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9556554/Ofcom-attack-on-James-Murdoch-throws-his-future-into-doubt.html

20 Sept UK

Ofcom attack on James Murdoch throws his future into doubt

James Murdoch is under renewed pressure to resign from the News Corporation and BSkyB boards, after Ofcom savaged his “character and conduct”.

The broadcasting regulator on Thursday declared that BSkyB, the satellite television business, was “fit and proper” to hold a broadcasting licence, but it was unsparing in its assessment of Mr Murdoch, its former chairman.

His failure to deal with the phone-hacking and police bribery scandals at News International, where he was also chair, was “difficult to comprehend and ill-judged”, Ofcom said. It added that Mr Murdoch “repeatedly fell short” of his duties as chairman, raising questions about his “competence” and attitude towards wrongdoing at the company.

The searing criticism stands to stymie Mr Murdoch’s progress up the ranks of News Corp, and threatens his existing positions as a non-executive director at BSkyB and as deputy chief operating officer at News Corp. It could also bar him from taking the helm of any public company in which his family does not have a controlling stake, according to corporate governance experts.

Professor Charles Elson, one of America’s most respected authorities on the subject, told The Daily Telegraph that “a board would have a very tough time ignoring these concerns. Never say never, but I don’t think that sort of finding will make it easy for him to progress”.

Lucy Marcus, professor of governance at IE Business School, added that Mr Murdoch’s “contagion” would taint any organisation that appoints him as a director. “It makes him persona non grata to sit on any other board right now.”

more at link

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/09/debt-forgiveness-is-already-underway/#more-145142

Debt forgiveness is underway

Story 1: Russia Writes off $11 Billion of North Korean Debt

Story 2: #StrikeDebt: Occupy Morphs into Debt Resistance Movement

plus other stories - info. at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19578206/fake-gold-bars-turn-up-in-manhattan#ixzz26wvCUms5

19 Sept US

Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan

MYFOXNY.COM -
In jewelry stores on 47th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the important trust between merchants has been violated. A 10-ounce gold bar costing nearly $18,000 turned out to be a counterfeit.

The bar was filled with tungsten, which weighs nearly the same as gold but costs just over a dollar an ounce.

Ibrahim Fadl bought the bar from a merchant who has sold him real gold before. But he heard counterfeit gold bars were going around, so he drilled into several of his gold bars worth $100,000 and saw gray tungsten -- not gold.

What makes it so devious is a real gold bar is purchased with the serial numbers and papers, then it is hollowed out, the gold is sold, the tungsten is put in, then the bar is closed up. That is a sophisticated operation.

MTB, the Swiss manufacturer of the gold bars, said customers should only buy from a reputable merchant. The problem, he admits, is Ibrahim Fadl is a very reputable merchant.

Raymond Nessim, CEO Manfra, Tordell & Brookes, said he has reported the situation to the FBI and Secret Service.

The Secret Service, which deals with counterfeits, said it is investigating.

In March, gold bars filled with tungsten showed up in England. With New York now hit, it may mean an international ring is involved. yeah but which ring :)

(the late UK journalist Christopher Storey - well I hope he's still alive and kicking somewhere - touched on this and so did Benjamin Fulford I think)

[modwiz]

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19578206/fake-gold-bars-turn-up-in-manhattan#ixzz26wvCUms5

19 Sept US

Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan

MYFOXNY.COM -



o
MTB, the Swiss manufacturer of the gold bars, said customers should only buy from a reputable merchant. The problem, he admits, is Ibrahim Fadl is a very reputable merchant.


Leave it to FOX to present a circular argument. They try to use Fadl as both purchaser and seller. In a way they try to portray Fadl as one of the culprits. These guys really know their audience.

Brain dead.

[KiwiElf]

Federal Judge says Lehman Brothers 'deceptive'
AAPAAP – 21 Sep 2012

http://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/judge-says-lehman-brothers-deceptive-100903169.html

In a landmark legal test case, a Federal Court judge has declared Lehman Brothers liable for millions of dollars in losses incurred by Australian investors through the bank's "misleading and deceptive conduct".

A group of 72 councils, charities, churches and private investors sued the Australian arm of the bankrupt American investment bank for $248 million, claiming it had breached contracts.

The judgment is the first in the world to rule an investment bank liable for its conduct in the lead up to the global financial crisis and its behaviour afterwards, said John Walker, executive director of litigation funder IMF, which helped fund the case.

While Justice Steven Rares ruled on Friday that the bank is liable, he did not make an order on damages and instead will hear submissions on the matter in November.

Investment advisory firm Grange Securities, which Lehman Brothers took over in March 2007, had cold-called non-profit groups, selling complex financial instruments known as synthetic collateralised debt obligations (SCDOs).

While the products were AAA rated, Justice Rares said Grange had failed to tell local councils it was making "very large fees" and profits from the sale of these products between 2003 and 2008.

He also found the junk derivatives had no secondary market, and that Grange knew the SCDOs were risky and would fetch a lower value if sold.

"I have found that Grange engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct," Justice Rares said in his judgment against Lehman Brothers Australia.

"For these reasons Grange is liable to compensate the councils for their losses incurred as a result of these investments."

Leading the action against Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2008, was Wingecarribee Shire Council, southwest of Sydney, which sought $21.4 million in losses, along with Parkes Shire Council in western NSW and City of Swan Council in Perth.

Mr Walker said the ruling was a first-world judgment against an investment advisory firm selling synthetic SCDOs.

"It's the first time there's been a hearing and we expect the first time there's been a judgment addressing not only investment banks but also the rating agencies," Mr Walker told reporters on Friday.

He added that the Australian court case could lead to action in The Netherlands against financial services giant ABN Amro and ratings agency Standard and Poor's.

Australian creditors were likely to get back 33 cents in the dollar for losses, depending on liquidators settling, Mr Walker said.

Amanda Banton, the partner of commercial law firm Piper Alderman which handled the case, said Grange had deceived conservative council investors.

"The products were likely to be illiquid and there was no guarantee on the return of capital," she told reporters.

Darrel Bourke, the chief executive of Brisbane-based child disabilities charity Montrose Access, said it would take 20 years to recover an investment of $3 million.

"Although we're very happy with the decision today it will take us quite a number of years to recover," he said.

Colin Cameron, City of Swan's executive manager of corporate services, said the $8 million it had invested with Lehman Brothers would be the equivalent of a 12 to 15 per cent rates increase.

[modwiz]

What can you say about this ruling (post above this one) that you can't say about a dirty cat box. "Looks full of sh!t to me."

The settlements should be interesting, although nauseating will probably end up the better word.

[Sabrina]

Politicians aren't getting it all their own way at the moment. Examples in Australia and UK of people standing up to the bullying. They can't keep the lid on it all any more. :)




http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/row-over-labors-bullies-escalates/story-fn59niix-1226479188327

22 Sept Australia

Row over Labor's 'bullies' escalates

JULIA Gillard's chief of staff Ben Hubbard has taken the extraordinary step of wading into a row with business over ministerial advisers, branding claims that Labor staffers bully top public servants as "shallow, lazy and unsubstantiated".

Mr Hubbard leapt to the defence of the Gillard government's ranks of advisers after Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott called for the public service to be revitalised by cutting political staff numbers and bringing back civil servants who could provide "frank and fearless" advice.


and



http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4549265/Andrew-Mitchell-insults-police-at-Downing-Street-by-calling-them-fing-plebs.html

Top cop calls for Tory Chief Whip to quit over pleb rant

22 Sept UK

story at link as Rupe won't let me copy it, but policeman at Downing Street alleged Tory Chief Whip called him a F**** pleb when he wouldn't open the Downing Street gates for him... (Murdoch press are of course no longer Cameron's best friends after the hacking enquiry etc.)...


now believe it was a policewoman - so that's sexism as well as class warfare innit :).... completely unknown in the Tory party of course :)

[Sabrina]

Hope's what it's all about isn't it. Positive intention is a powerful energy. Fear porn is all about control. It's the Equinox today. Feels like really very powerful energies about. Unprecedented solar flares etc. The point is tipping imo Sab. :)...



http://hopegirl2012.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/this-is-how-we-fix-the-world-by-hopegirl/

THIS IS HOW WE FIX THE WORLD. By HopeGirl

POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Sending out the call

I have been asked to come up with tangible solutions to help transition our world from the systems we have in place now to the systems we will have in place in the Golden Age. As we are all connected, despite our perceived differences, it would be foolish for me to think that I can undertake such a colossal task on my own. THIS IS AN OFFICIAL CALL OUR FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE. Humanity needs your help. This is your window of opportunity to contribute to the co-creation of our collective future. Please act now! This call is very real, very serious and incredibly important. Think of it in this way: What if the leaders or your country actually came to you with the problems we were all facing, and asked you to come up with a solution that they would actually implement? This may be hard to imagine as it has been so long since our voices have been heard and taken seriously.

In an effort to organize this, I have put together pointed specific questions that need your input. I’ve also put together a form and list of instructions to help guide you through your own thinking process, and generate clarity in the information that you will submit. I have set a deadline for submission which is two weeks from now (on September 24th.) After this deadline all submissions will be compiled into a document that will be the blueprint of our future written by the people for the people.

Please know the information you submit will be taken very seriously. The most I can say now is that, through Divine intervention and your input, your response to these questions will be presented to entities in charge of implementing these changes. Your help is needed and your response to these questions has been asked for. In addition your input will be posted here on this blog for people to see.

Please be aware that these questions are going to be hard to answer. You may have to awaken parts of yourself to find the answers. This may not be easy, but the Universe and all of humankind depends on your answers. For this reason I would suggest that you read through the questions slowly, walk away, think about them for a while, perhaps even meditate and pray on them, and wait to see what comes to you for answers. Know that the answers are there inside of you. Ask your friends and family for their ideas, spread this document far and try to get as many people as you can to submit their answers.

First a little background

In my previous post “WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP The Story of the 2012 Revolution” I attempted to layout the background of how we arrived at the point in our history that we are at right now. If you have not yet read it, I suggest you do to help give you your own understanding of our situation. I know that the document is long, but it had to be to get the full story. It is also important that you were able to get through and read to the very end where most of the future opportunities are presented. The reason for this is because we need to be able to get into “possibility thinking”. It is through this thinking that we will be able to come up with the answers for the future of our planet. We need to remember who we all really are, where we came from and where we are going.

The Assignment

As I’ve stated, there is a tremendous amount of money that is about to be released to all of us. As wonderful as this sounds it is a difficult process to undertake. This is the problem we all need to resolve. Let me try to explain:

To simplify, the release of this money is the equivalent of everyone winning the lottery at the same time (and yes there is enough for everyone to get the full amount). What kind of effect would that have on our society? Suddenly you’re a millionaire, but so are all the people you know. So yes, while everything will be “reset” there is a very real possibility that everything will be devalued at the same time. If everyone has money, everyone might quit their job, then there will be no one to provide the goods and services that we would all spend our newly found money on.
Here is an important analogy for what we are dealing with. Our current system (regardless of how corrupt it is) is like a life support machine for our society. It pumps our blood and supplies the nutrients necessary to keep our heart beating. We’ve been hooked up to this system for so long, our society depends on its daily operation for our ongoing survival. You can’t just pull the plug, wheel in a new life support machine and hook it up. The body wouldn’t survive that sudden transfer. We need to create a detailed means of transferring us off one system and onto another without loosing one precious soul in the transition.

On one side of the pond we’ve got the history of our past, and all the associated problems with our situation in the present. On the other side of the pond we’ve got the Golden Age and wondrous dreams of our glorious future. There are plenty of great people who have given us details and an understanding of our past and present. There are also plenty of people who give us details of our Golden Age. But who’s talking about the bridge between the two? How do we get there? This, ladies and gentlemen, is our mission. We the people are going to build the bridge so that all of us can step into our Golden Age, and we are going to start with the answers that we provide through this assignment.

Collectively, we’ll create the blueprint. Each of us plays a different role. Each of us is a cog in the great living machine of consciousness that will bring us to the other side. If you have been waiting and wondering: “when is something going to happen? why doesn’t something happen?”, it may be because we have to make it happen! Awaken those parts within yourself may be asleep and open your heart to the Divine answers that reside within. Step up to the plate and take an active role in the tremendous leap of our evolution. You have been summoned. The time is now.

The Questions (these will also be outlined in the form below)

Question #1 High level question – this addresses the “big picture”:
Our main objective is to release this money without destroying our society by crashing our global economic systems. How can we do this?

You do not have to be an economist to answer this question. Think about it based on your own understanding and knowledge. If you want, you can think of this on a global scale. You can also think of this on a small scale based on your own town or community.

For example, how would you keep your local supermarket running if the owner suddenly became a millionaire? Come up with your own scenarios based on your own personal experience. Act as if you were the person in charge of implementing this change and explain step by step what you would do to create the transition.

Question #2 Low Level Question – this addresses details:
Releasing this money and rebuilding our world is going to have to involve re-defining our relationships with our current organizations and industries. How do we do this? Pick one or more areas of our society that you feel passionate about (education, medical, military, technology, spirituality etc) Propose the end result relationship/function of this particular area that you wish to achieve and then reverse engineer the steps to bring us from where we are currently to the end result.

For example, if the end result is to live a life completely free of our dependence of oil, how would we smoothly transition our current energy system from where we are now to one that is completely run on clean free energy.

Question #3 Alternative Question:
If you have followed the work of someone that has these answers, please summarize this work here as it pertains to answering these questions and provide a reference to their work. This is also a place where you can list any further thoughts or comments that you have that may not fit into the first two questions.

Guidelines

Please try to adhere to the following guidelines while submitting your ideas.

1. This is not about competition or perfection. Please just do the best you can. Perhaps you don’t have all the answers; perhaps you can only contribute a small part. That’s ok. Do what you can and leave the rest. Your heart’s intention will be “good enough” to complete this assignment.

2. Standardization. To make this mass communication as efficient as possible I have created a standardized format that I would ask you to adhere to. This format is also designed to help guide all of us as a collective as we all partake in our own thought process. I have tried to make the form as intuitive as possible to help you complete it. Please think about your answers within the context of some of the following key points:

Goal/End Result: Please provide a summary in one or two sentences that can easily be listed with several other goals and end results on the same page. Please be concise and get right to the point with your Goal or end result. For example: “Goal: To end world hunger and provide sustainable food security through the use of local community co-ops where every member of the community volunteers their time in exchange for food to feed their families.”

Explain how we can accomplish this goal through the use of contingencies and milestones. (Below) This will help you lay out the step-by-step instructions that are necessary for these plans to be implemented.

Contingencies: Any process is laid out in a series of steps and you often have to complete the first step to move on to the second step and so on… Please define your idea’s contingent relationships here. For example, if we want to build a house, first we need to pour the foundation and wait for it to dry before we can build the frame on top of the foundation. After the frame is built we can then build the walls, etc.

Milestones: Please name specific points within your process that would be progress -marking achievements. For example, once we have finished building the house, we have now achieved a place to live!

3. Assume that the Cabal has been abolished and the financial collapse has been prevented. There are powers in place now that are helping to take care of these things. Our mission here is to design our world after this has been done. The beauty of this assignment is that by providing a detailed book of solutions now, we will also help play a part in the removal of the cabal and the prevention of the financial collapse, so it’s a win-win all around!

4. Apply the lessons we have learned. I know that this assignment may be overwhelming to some, but it is partially our complacency that has helped to get us into this mess. In the past, if we didn’t want to think about solutions, someone else did. And many of these solutions were based on greed and personal ego. Now is the time to break this pattern. Get up, stand up, do something, and speak out!

5. Check your ego. It has become natural to think in terms of “what’s in this for me?” Try to think of the collective. Remember the ultimate answer lies within the context of what you can do to help humanity, and not only what you can do to help yourself.

6. Think outside the box. You would be amazed at the types of answers you can come up with when you use “lateral thinking”. For example, challenge traditional ways of viewing things, make random assumptions about things to help break yourself out of the way we’ve all been programmed to think. (It’s not the spoon that bends; it’s your mind.)

7. Please — no hate, and no complaints without solutions. I understand that we all have strong feelings about the oppression and suffering that we have had to endure. And I understand that you will probably have to identify a problem in order to provide an answer. Complaining and people-bashing alone keeps us stagnant and we need to move forward. I will not be able to include any submissions in the final document that are purely negative and void of solutions. If you are angry (as many of us are) please use that anger and focus it on coming up with an answer to get us out of this mess.

8. Brainstorm with your friends and family. Some of us are awake, some of us are not. Everyone has a brain and a heart. You can ask simple questions without having to reveal everything all at once. In many cases you might come across something that is very common. Some people will just shut down and say, “It can’t be done! It’s impossible! Never gonna happen!” They state it as if it were fact, back it up with little or no coherent thought or justification, and brush you off. This is “contempt prior to investigation”. It is a classic conditioned response and part of the programming of the Cabal. Hang in there as we are all being reprogrammed NOW as we speak. If you feel safe, try to ask some gentle probing questions to see if you can shift their thinking just a little. If this doesn’t work, then just shower them with love and drop a hint or two in your own way to let them know that everything will be ok, and when the time comes, you’ll be able to help them. The heart remembers what the mind forgets.

9. Share your story. If you have a story that you think would be beneficial for explaining your solution and reaching the hearts of others, please have the courage to share it! If you want, you can share anonymously or under a pen name. Too much has been hidden from us for too long. We need to know about your experience. We need to walk in each other’s shoes. We need to find compassion for one another. Your story plays an important role in awakening the hearts of others, and allows us to usher in the Golden Age.

10. You are significant. You are good enough and smart enough. You are more valued than you may ever know. It does not matter your age, your level of education, your culture, your income level or your occupation. You are part of humanity and you are needed at this time.

Next Steps for HopeGirl

I will be collecting submissions as they come in and organizing them into a larger document. As I am only one person, I certainly have my work cut out for me. I am dedicated to this cause as I am answering the directive given to me to do my due diligence. I know that I will receive help in every way I might need it.

Please feel free to post some of your ideas in a summarized version in the comments section below so that others can read and be inspired while this collection is in process. Please do this of course IN ADDITION to submitting the form, as only form submissions will be included in the finished document.

Remember the deadline for submissions is on September 24th at 12pm EST. You can start submitting your ideas as soon as today. After the deadline, the document will be finalized and submitted to the parties mentioned and will also be posted on this blog for all to read. I am assuming the finalized document should take a few days to complete after the submission deadline. At this point in time, we have to assume that this is the only opportunity we will get to pull this type of information together and submit it. I do not know if there will be another chance in the future, so if at all possible please act now if you want to contribute.

Please spread this document far and wide. We need as many submissions as possible and everyone needs to know about this opportunity to contribute their ideas.

Many blessings to all of you my beloved fellow humankind. I am very excited to hear what you come up with. Good luck!

-HopeGirl

You can find the instructions and form for submissions here:
http://hopegirl2012.wordpress.com/instructions-and-form-for-submissions/

[Sabrina]

This story is posted elsewhere, but in the interest of putting the jigsaw puzzle pieces together (and throwing out the ones which don't fit), it's here for the record as well. Sab.


http://nesaraaustralia.com/2012/09/21/treasury-to-foreclose-federal-reserve-system/

TREASURY TO FORECLOSE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

POSTED BY NESARAAUSTRALIA ⋅ SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
⋅
d” by virtue of filing a UCC-1 financing statement and a lien on the Federal Reserve System.
The IRS and other parties is/are also listed as a Secured Party Creditor in accordance with the IRS becoming a benevolent organsization.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
It’s a UCC Financing statement (File #0000000181425776) AMENDMENT which was done on August 12th of this year. And you know who the debtor and secured parties are?
http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/UCC-Charter/UCC_AckDetails.aspx?AckNumber=1000362002135657&FileNumber=0000000181425776&EntityName=THE+FEDERAL+RESERVE+SYSTEM&CurrentOnly=true
Name Address
THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM 20TH STREET, N.W. WASHINGTON, DC 20551
E PLURIBUS UNUM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1500 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, DC 20220 U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING SERVICES 1400 DEFENSE PENTAGON WASHINGTON, DC 20301 – 1400
COMPTROLLER OF MARYLAND 1101 WOOTON PARKWAY ROCKVILLE, MD 20852
And the Secured Parties?
Name Address
THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 1789 (Assignor) 50MARYLAND AVENUE ROCKVILLE, MD 20850
NORTH AMERICAN WATER AND POWER ALLIANCE (Assignor) 1400 DEFENSE PENTAGON WASHINGTON, DC 20301 – 1400
U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE (IRS) (Assignee) 600 ATLANTIC AVENUE BOSTON, MA 02106
And if you click over here to the underlying document, what’s the amount involved in this UCC filing? How about just north of $14-trillion dollars?
http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/UCC-Charter/ViewDoc.asp?Film=&Folio=&Pages=0002&Date=08/12/2011&Ack=1000362002135657&Domain=UCC&ID=0000000181425776&Name=THE+FEDERAL+RESERVE+SYSTEM&source=1

This “Agricultural Lien” seems to add the Comptroller of Maryland.
So what’s the change here all about? If you have any clues as to just what the hell this is about (the data seems to live on a server of Towson University which is according to it’s web site:

“Founded in 1866, Towson University is recognized among the nation’s best regional public universities, offering more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, and applied professional fields. “
Oh, and part of the University System of Maryland.

if you plug in that document number and hit search (archive) you get the original filing. which as far as i can tell pledges every person and all real land in the usa as collateral against a $14.3 trillion dollar loan. the owner of record on that property (every person and all real land) is the irs. and finally attached is a brochure for the nawpa which talks about 1000 miles of tunnels and weather engineering and climate control and utilizing the magnetosphere.

omg. it’s like someone filed the definitive document to prove all those way out in left field totally unbelievable conspiracy theories. someone please read this and tell me i’m interpreting it wrong.”

Yes, wouldn’t we all like to know! So do research and have it in my email by Sunday – we’ll post follow-up Monday morning.
But say, wouldn’t this be a reason for all them Big Wigs to be out of DC when news of this leaks out? I mean if it’s what we think it could be…
On the other hand, since one of the parties on this is listed as the North American Water and Power Alliance and this was (to quote Wikip[edia)

================
”...conceived in the 1950s by the US Army Corps of Engineers as a ‘Great Project’ to develop more water sources for the United States. The planners envisioned diverting water from some rivers in Alaska south through Canada via the Rocky Mountain Trench and other routes to the US and would involve 369 separate construction projects. “

What IF – and this is only an IF here – this is going to become suddenly real shortly and turn into a massiveredevelopment project to stave off the Second Depression, just as the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps were rolled out to counter the effect of the (first) Great Depression?


Ok, I would like for you see this for yourselves rather than post the document, I hope you guys are ready for this one! We know that the labor of the people have been pledged for the debt right? Well, all I can say is, check this out!
http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/UCC-Charter/UCCSearch_a.aspx

When you get to that page, go to the right at bottom and search this number: 181425776

You’ll view quite an interesting document. Remember, this is the official record!
–
Thanks,

Stan Brewer

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9558771/Greek-troika-report-delayed-by-US-elections.html

21 Sept

Greek troika report delayed by US elections

A decision on granting Greece the next round of its bail-out will be delayed until after the US election to avoid the risk of an economic earthquake jeopardising President Barack Obama’s chances of being returned to the White House, European officials have said.

The report by the “troika” of Greece’s foreign lenders, the European Central Bank, European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, was expected during October but will now come after November 6. Its findings will decide whether to release further tranches of rescue funds to Athens.

“The Obama administration doesn’t want anything on a macroeconomic scale that is going to rock the global economy before November 6,” a European Union official said. “As far as European leaders are concerned, they don’t want [Republican candidate Mitt] Romney, so they’re probably willing to do anything to help Obama’s chances.”

On Friday, the troika broke off talks for a week, with a decision still to be made on Athens’ request for an extension to the 2014 deadline. The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, is struggling to reach an agreement with his coalition partners on an €11.5bn (£9bn) budget-cut package key to receiving the aid funds.

If there is to be any easing of Greece’s rescue terms, the IMF representative, Thanos Catsambas, said the burden will have to be in Europe. “Any additional funding in any form will come exclusively from Europe,” he said. However, Germany held its hard line, with its finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, ruling out concessions for Greece.

Spain, which is also seeking help, is said to be preparing to accelerate plans to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67, as well as pushing through €4bn of spending cuts as a condition of receiving a watered-down aid programme.

The IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, said while Europe was the “epicentre” of the crisis, the US and Japan need to map out their own long-term fiscal consolidation plans if the crisis is to be properly resolved. She said certain areas still need to be “dealt with”, adding that she was “particularly thinking about the financial sector”.

The game continues...

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9559082/QE3-will-not-fix-Americas-problems-warns-Paul-Volcker.html

QE3 will not fix America's problems, warns Paul Volcker

Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman credited with taming the inflationary threat of the 1970s, has warned that further quantitative easing will fail to repair economies in Europe and the US.

Mr Volcker, addressing a conference at Gleneagles in Scotland, said the decision by the Fed to begin a third round of asset buying — nicknamed QE3 — amounted to the “most extreme easing of monetary policy” he could recall. Mr Volcker’s comments came as the World Trade Organisation intensified the economic gloom by slashing its global growth forecasts.

The organisation said it expected the world economy to grow 2.5pc this year, from a previous 3.7pc forecast, while growth in 2013 would slow from a previous estimate of 5.6pc to 4.5pc.

Although not explicitly directed at Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, Mr Volcker’s words will be seen as a veiled criticism of the limitations of the current strategy being employed by the Federal Reserve.

full story at link - duh as Homer Simpson would say...

[Sabrina]

http://www.endthefed2012.com/

END THE FED Rally at New York Federal Reserve!


We The People are “FED” Up with the Crony Capitalism Centrally Planned by the PRIVATE Federal Reserve Banking System. Let’s “coin” together.
New York City, September 22, 2012: Libertarians, tea partiers, occupiers, conservatives and liberals will be joining forces in late September to spread awareness about a major issue in U.S. politics and economics that they can all agree on; the corrupt, private Federal Reserve banking system that controls U.S. monetary policy. The people will be gathering at Federal Reserve locations all across the nation, including The New York Fed located at 33 Liberty Street in Manhattans financial district. The event will be held from 12-3pm on September 22nd 2012 and will be followed by a networking after party. The Speakers at this year’s event include Chris Duane of Sons of Liberty Academy, Luke Rudkowksi of WeAreChange.org, and Danny Panzella of TruthSquad.tv as well as a musical performance by Tatiana Moroz.

Awareness about the Federal Reserve System has been growing in recent years largely due to one activist Congressman Ron Paul. He has been fighting for Fed transparency for decades. The movement was bolstered by his 2008 and 2012 campaign for U.S. President in which he made the Fed a central campaign issue, forcing other candidates to admit the Fed needs to be audited.

The Federal Reserve System is a group of private banks owned by its shareholders, other private banks like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Bank of America. The country’s most powerful “agency” – the Federal Reserve – is actually no more federal than Federal Express. The Fed itself admitted :

(via Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=avjlPu.bRVmk )
“While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions.”

For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in the lawsuit brought by Bloomberg to force the Fed to reveal some information about its loans – Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) – that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act.

“The Board of Governors that IS a federal agency is stacked with cronies and former executives of the shareholder banks. The foxes have the keys to the hen house.” Said Tatiana Moroz, who will be performing at the event.

“We don’t need the Wall St. elite to centrally plan our economy, look at our current unemployment numbers and compare it to bank profits obviously their policies don’t benefit anyone but themselves. The Wall St. elite are the only ones in recovery.” Said Danny Panzella the event’s organiser.

This year’s theme “Let’s coin together!” has the movement focused on working together to strengthen the community and local economies by opting out of using the Federal Reserve Monopoly money that they continuously devalue.

“Set up localized barter systems, or trade in silver or gold. By practicing these methods you not only get more value from bartering commodities you are developing and strengthening community relationships which will help us all weather the coming economic storm.” concluded Mr. Panzella

videos at link

[ThePythonicCow]

This story is posted elsewhere, but in the interest of putting the jigsaw puzzle pieces together (and throwing out the ones which don't fit), it's here for the record as well. Sab.


http://nesaraaustralia.com/2012/09/21/treasury-to-foreclose-federal-reserve-system/

TREASURY TO FORECLOSE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

...

Here's the original thread where this was posted: Treasury to Forclose on Federal Reserve (no - just some database cruft) (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50043-Treasury-to-Forclose-on-Federal-Reserve--no-just-some-database-cruft-). See my Post #4 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50043-Treasury-to-Forclose-on-Federal-Reserve--no-just-some-database-cruft-&p=557137&viewfull=1#post557137) and Post #5 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50043-Treasury-to-Forclose-on-Federal-Reserve--no-just-some-database-cruft-&p=557144&viewfull=1#post557144) on that thread for my view of this report.

[Sabrina]

Anti austerity protests are happening in Greece, Spain and now Portugal (Brits seem to be asleep tho').




22 Sept Portugal

Portugal backs down on social security tax rise


The centre-right government in Portugal has agreed to look for alternatives to a social security tax rise a week after huge anti-austerity street protests.

Previously, it had planned to raise contributions next year from 11% to 18%, to meet the conditions of Portugal's international bailout.

Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced his decision at a meeting with President Anibal Cavaco Silva.

Thousands of protesters chanted slogans outside the presidential palace.

Some firecrackers and bottles were thrown and five arrests made at the protest, as the presidential state council met late into the night in the capital Lisbon.


The presidential state council met for eight hours
Portugal was recently given an extra year to reduce its deficit, following the latest quarterly review by international lenders overseeing its 78bn-euro (£62bn; $101bn) bailout.

Last Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.

President Cavaco Silva called the meeting of his state council amid concern that Portugal's main trump card in the eyes of foreign investors, its cross-party consensus on austerity, was in tatters, the BBC's Alison Roberts reports from Lisbon.

A statement released afterwards said: "The council was informed of the government's readiness to study, within the framework of the social bargaining process, alternatives to changes in the social security rate."

It also said that differences between the two parties which make up the ruling coalition had been overcome, and they both remained committed to the bailout's targets.

The weekly newspaper Expresso said the prime minister was preparing a new cut in holiday subsidies for workers, in place of the tax rise.

[Sabrina]

http://www.secretsofthefed.com/cia-sued-over-drone-killings/

22 Sept US

CIA sued over drone killings


The American Civil Liberties Union is taking the CIA to court for the agency’s refusal to comply with a FOIA request to hand over documents about the Obama administration’s “targeted killing” drone program.

The CIA claims its drone program is “secret,” even though President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and senior government officials have publicly spoken about the program. In May, the New York Times found that President Obama personally oversees a drone “kill list,” using the weapon to target and kill terrorists abroad and often cause fatalities to bystanders near the target. But the CIA considers all military-age males killed in a strike zone to be “combatants,” the Times found.

The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in January 2010 asking the government to disclose “its use of predator drones to conduct ‘targeted killings’ overseas,” but the CIA refused to confirm or deny any information regarding the drones.

“The CIA cannot deny the existence of the government’s targeted killing program and refuse to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about the program while officials continue to make public statements about it,” the ACLU wrote in a press release.

On Thursday, the ACLU will demand details of the program in the federal appeals court, attempting to acquire documents about the scope of the drone program and how it is used. The ACLU says it “seeks to find out when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how the United States ensures compliance with international laws relating to extrajudicial killings.” At least 10 members of Congress have already asked for a memorandum justifying the legal basis for these targeted killings.

“The public has a right to decide for itself whether or not the program is lawful or moral,” Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, said. If the CIA is effectively and lawful using the targeted-killing program, then there should be no reason to hide the documents, Jaffer said.

The drone strike program has been used in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia to kill suspected terrorists. The US government claims attacks are highly accurate and at no risk to American forces, but they often kill civilians around the scene of the attack. Since 2002, the CIA has administered 344 drone hits in Pakistan alone, killing up to 3,325 people, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

[Sabrina]

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.co.uk/

23 Sept

(photos at link)


JP Morgan Blue Book - The Secret Book of Redemption (1934 edition)

Deep inside the Pandora's Suitcase disclosures are thought to be the various texts of the JPMorgan Bank Blue Book (The Secret Book of Redemption 1934, and its subsequent editions). Some images of the 1934 edition of this book are pictured above.

The top of the first recto page reads as follows: "The Department of Finance, Acting on the Instructions of the SUMMARY REGULATIONS. By Authority of an Act of the JP MORGAN BANK AND COMPANY. Legislature approved by the Secretary of the Treasury."

The JPMorgan Blue Book is said to be the covert world authority text which establishes the human bloodlines to which the entire wealth of the planet ultimately belongs. Some of these self-appointed bloodlines are of "royal" origin; many are not.

Family names which feature prominently in the text are understood to include: Rothschild (Bauer or Bower), Bruce, Cavendish (Kennedy), De Medici, Hanover, Hapsburg (Habsburg), Krupp, Plantagenet, Rockefeller, Romanov, Sinclair (St Clair), Warburg (del Banco) and Windsor (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha).

These élite and exclusive reptilian bloodlines (the "Illuminati" dynasties) have run the hidden finances and slave-systems of the planet for many millennia, way back into what their mainstream controlled historians call "pre-history." Notice the absence of Asian names on the list.

Very little is available (yet) on searchable open-access websites about the JPMorgan Blue Book. The pictures of the 1934 edition above were released by Neil Keenan in an email to Drake Bailey on Saturday 18th August 2012 (text here).

In that email, Keenan notes: "Blue Book established the blood lines. Queen E and Bill C are in it…Most of the Royal Families are in it. They have kept the money amongst the families from the very beginning."

For chronological reasons, the particular 1934 edition of the JPMorgan Blue Book, which Neil Keenan provides images of, cannot explicitly name Queen Elizabeth II of England (Elizabeth Windsor) or US President Bill Clinton. In 1934, Elizabeth Windsor was only eight years old, and the 1936 Edward Windsor / Wallis Simpson abdication crisis had not yet occurred. So, at that stage, Elizabeth Windsor's route to the English throne was far from clear, although her German (Nazi) bloodline was well-established through the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha lineage. And in 1934, Bill Clinton was not born. It must be supposed that both these individuals feature in more recent editions of the JPMorgan Blue Book.

People sometimes ask who Neil Keenan is. Keenan is a 61-year-old American White Hat and patriot working with the Monaco Colloquium group of 150 nations (including the BRICS and the Non Aligned Movement), the Asian Dragon Family, the Swiss Financial Authorities and the estate of President Sukarno of Indonesia. He is assisting them to remove the private Western G5 banking cartel and to change the global financial system from its current, Illuminati-driven, debt-based fiat paper carousel to a more benign, gold-backed currency system which gives fair play to all persons and nations regardless of bloodline.

Neil Francis Keenan was born in Rhode Island, USA, on the 10th September 1951, and is the bearer of Ireland passport No 4066301. An indication of his cabal-perceived importance and effectiveness came at the end of August 2012. An Italian wet team working for the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tried to assassinate Neil Keenan at his home in Bulgaria. Among other things, a virus bioweapon was deployed. Keenan and his family survived, but they were hospitalised for several days with a lung infection.

The JP Morgan Bank Blue Book also calls itself "The Secret Book of Redemption." The word "redemption" here has several layers of meaning, some of which are occult. But in the trade vernacular of banking and business, redemption means the repayment of a debt, the purchasing back of something which has been previously sold (or lost), the recovery of something pawned or mortgaged, or the payment of an obligation - as in a sovereign government's payment of the value of its bonds. In 1934, a series of bonds was issued by the JP Morgan Bank. In recent decades, the claimed method of redemption of these bonds has been obfuscated.

The JPMorgan Bank Blue Book is called The Secret Book of Redemption because it details the hidden machinations whereby global debt management can be manipulated to benefit the élite banking bloodlines and disadvantage the goyim (the sheeple).

[Sabrina]

Posted via moray today, more on the fake gold story...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/fake_gold_hits_nyc_ECXVP5WQOvYwMVTi8CoHRL

23 Sept USA

Fake gold hits NYC
Diamond District finds 10 tungsten-filled bars

Federal agents are investigating the peddling of bogus gold bars in Midtown.

The Post has learned as many as 10 fake gold bars — made up mostly of relatively worthless tungsten — were sold recently to unsuspecting dealers in Manhattan’s Midtown Diamond District.

The price of gold has risen more than 600 percent since January 2000, while the S&P 500 index is down 0.6 percent over the same period.

The 10-oz. gold bars are hugely popular with Main Street investors, and it is not known how many of the fake gold bars were sold to dealers — or if any fake bars were purchased by the public.

One gold dealer discovered that four of the 3-inch-by-1-inch gold bars he bought — worth about $72,000 retail — were counterfeit.

“It has the entire street on edge,” said Ibrahim Fadl, 62, who has been the owner of Express Metal Refining, a Midtown gold-refinery business, for the last 11 years. “I and the others on the street work off of trust; now that trust is strained.”

Fadl, a Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in chemical engineering, and who has more than 40 years in the industry, purchased the four fake bars from a well-known Russian salesman with whom he has done business.

A second 47th Street refiner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was burned recently when he bought six gold bars that turned out to be mostly tungsten, with just a gold veneer. He would not comment, though, on who sold him the bogus bars.

Fadl became suspicious when he offered the salesman a deep discount for the investment-grade gold bars and he quickly accepted it, a source tells The Post.

Fadl said he did his due diligence “by X-raying the bars to ascertain the purity of the gold and weighing the bars, and the Swiss markings were perfect.”

Tungsten is an industrial metal that weighs nearly the same as gold but costs a little over $1 an ounce. Gold closed Friday at $1,774.80 an ounce.

To quell his suspicion, Fadl then drilled into the bar and discovered the tungsten — whose silver color is distinctive from gold’s bright yellow hue.

Raymond Nassim, CEO of Manfra, Tordell & Brookes, the American arm of the Swiss firm that created the original gold bars — with their serial number and purity rating stamped clearly into them — said he reported the situation to the US Secret Service, whose jurisdiction covers the counterfeiting of gold bars.

He said his company “is supporting and cooperating with authorities any way we can.”

Nassim thought the culprit must be a professionally trained jeweler to have pulled off the caper.

“The forger had to slice the original bar along the side, hollow out the gold and insert the tungsten ingot, and then reseal and polish the bar, Nassim said.

At an industry dinner Thursday night hosted by Comex, the New York-based metals exchange, the room was abuzz with talk about the bogus gold bars, according to Fadl.

Numerous calls to the Secret Service were not returned.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Intriguing...

http://nowisthetime.us/2012/09/19/for-immediate-release-criminalcivil-charges-against-the-washington-state-corporate-governmentmedia-for-ongoing-systemic-financialconstitutional-fraud-and-treason/


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CRIMINAL/CIVIL CHARGES AGAINST THE WASHINGTON STATE CORPORATE GOVERNMENT/MEDIA FOR ONGOING SYSTEMIC FINANCIAL/CONSTITUTIONAL FRAUD AND TREASON

19 Sept US

Seattle, Washington State, America
September 20, 2012

Criminal/civil charges have been filed with referenced evidentiary weblinks against officials of the Washington State corporate government, as well as media corporations operating in Washington State, for perpetrating/enabling systemic financial/constititutional fraud and treason.

The allegations in these legal actions specifically expose what has been called the CAFR scam, with its implications of fraudulent unnecessary budget cuts to government services at all levels of government all across America as a result of theft by the private Federal Reserve System. These are accompanied by related allegations that the Washington State Constitution of 1889, as well as the present US corporate government, are fraudulent, and that failure to disclose this constitutes treason on the part of state corporate government/media officials.

These criminal/civil charges have been filed with the Federal Grand Jury of the Ninth District Court, the FBI, the Offices of the King County Sheriff, and that of the Seattle Chief of Police and Seattle City Prosecutor here in Seattle . They have also been filed in the state capital of Olympia/Thurston County with the Offices of the Thurston County Sherriff, the Thurston County Prosecutor, the Olympia Chief of Police and the Olympia City Prosecutor.

Copies of these charges’ Proofs of Filing can be seen below. All civil/criminal charges filed at the local level were hand-delivered, with receipts signed at the front desk for documentation of filing. Those filed at the federal level even if local, as well as those filed at a distance in the Washington State capital of Olympia were filed via certified mail.

Those charges filed with the Federal Grand Jury were filed without return receipt to better ensure that they would reach the Foreperson without the interposition of possibly compromised court clerks or US attorneys; accordingly, a copy of the screen shot from the delivery tracking portion of the US Postal Service website has been scanned to show such proper filing, with delivery on September 10, 2012.

It should be mentioned that two attempts to file these charges with the King County Prosecutor’s Office were unsuccessful. In both instances, clerks connected with this office rejected the packet of charges. They stated that sovereign citizens did not have the right to file criminal charges, and that all civil charges against the state need to be filed as a civil lawsuit at the sovereign citizen’s expense — now $400 — with the district court to be decided by state corporate government-appointed judges. This clearly no-win proposition for the plaintiff was immediately rejected by this plaintiff.

All of the filings of these charges been done in such a way to ensure as well as is possible that appropriate action might be taken on the part of law enforcement/judicial agencies located in Washington State, and that if it is not, that such derogation of duty will become immediately and publicly apparent, as seen in the paragraph above concerning Proof of Public Disservice by the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Since the term “United States of America” is now often considered to denote the bank cartel-controlled federal government corporation, many geopolitically savvy sovereign citizens prefer being called “Americans” and their country “America”, even though we share the North American continent with other nations. This dichotomy illustrates the gravity of the issues being discovered in this document, and is the reason that the terms ” America ” and “Americans” are herein being used instead of ” USA ” and ” US citizens” to denote our nation and its legitimate inhabitants.

Media corporations operating in Washington State are, possibly for the first time in recorded history, included in such a legal action. It finally needs to be publicly acknowledged and acted upon that corporate media distortions and omissions in reporting the news as agreed upon in their corporate charters have long enabled such ongoing criminal activity on the part of corrupt corporate government officials in this state and in others throughout the world. This was also done to remind both media corporations and the public that, besides prosecution of their executives, corporate charters can be legally rescinded as a form of capital punishment for capitalist corporate entities whenever their corporate charters are repeatedly and reprehensibly violated, as many have been in recent memory.

It is hoped that these public legal actions will help create a template by which empowered sovereign citizens everywhere can draft their own like public legal actions based on their own situations, research and laws, and they, like sovereign citizens in Washington State, can themselves publicly file these charges with their own law enforcement agencies to help expose and systemically extirpate this ancient ongoing theft of planetary resources.

Other sovereign citizens of Washington State are cordially invited to print out these charges and file them with their own local law enforcement officials, as well as forward them to their elected representatives, to Washington State media and to their fellow citizens, so that general knowledge of such systemic evil and what can successfully eliminate it can rapidly be increased.

For it is only by such peaceful but effective means that the satanic international bank-based corporate crime syndicate that presently controls most of the governments of this planet will ultimately and forever be defeated.

——————————————————————————–

WCSS 9-5-12.doc

CRIMINAL/CIVIL CHARGES AGAINST WASHINGTON STATE CORPORATE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS/MEDIA CORPORATIONS OPERATING IN WASHINGTON STATE FOR SYSTEMIC FINANCIAL/CONSTITUTIONAL FRAUD AND TREASON

Against the following Washington State corporate government officials:

Governor Christine Gregoire, Treasurer James McIntire, Attorney General Robert McKenna, Washington State Investment Board Legislature Liaison Rep. Sharon Tomiko-Santos, Budget Director Martin Brown, President of the Senate Lisa Brown, Co-Chairmen of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senators Edward Murray and Joseph Zarelli, Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Ross Hunter, as well as top management of mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State, the following criminal/civil charges are alleged:

1. Systemic Ongoing Financial Fraud Against the People of Washington State

1.01 That the abovementioned Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office, as well as mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State have knowingly and repeatedly concealed the existence of approximately two-thirds of state monies shown in the Washington State Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, (CAFR) while misrepresenting the remaining one-third of these monies as the entire “state budget” since at least the mid-1940s;

Websites/links on CAFRs/CAFR Scam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_annual_financial_report

www.cafrman.com www.cafr1.com

www.webofdebt.com/articles/mysterious_cafrs.php

http://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/carl-herman

www.comprehensiveannualfinancialreport.com

1.02 That Washington State corporate government officials have invested the two-thirds of state monies concealed in the CAFR in institutional corporate Wall Street investments, rather than in investments that would directly benefit the people of Washington State, such as investments in small businesses with the much greater amount of employment, personal prosperity and government tax revenues they would provide, in infrastructure maintenance that would provide widespread employment as well as for the general welfare, or in a public state bank, which, as in the State of North Dakota since 1919, would eliminate state economic downturns altogether;

Websites on Pubic Banking

www.wapublicbankproject.org www.publicbanking.org www.webofdebt.com

1.03. That, next to institutional investments in the US government corporation’s increasingly devalued financial instruments — the collateral damage from the recently revealed LIBOR scandal (LIBOR=London Interbank Offered Rate or “LIBER” (Latin for “Unregulated”) —

http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-the-libor-scandal-explained-2012-7

the state corporate government’s largest investments are in the corrupt international banking cartel directly responsible for the global depression of 2008, in which the global economy, as well as that of Washington State presently remain;

1.04 That at least eighty-five percent of the state’s investments are in foreign governmental or quasi-governmental entities and transnational corporations; few of them are in any entity located within Washington State , or in any headquartered in America ;

1.05 That of these transnational corporate Wall Street investments, a disproportionate number are in predatory transnational corporations other than the predatory transnational banks, in which the majority of the people of Washington State, if sufficiently informed, would not want their money invested as a matter of ethical and/or environmental principles; this includes institutional investments in BP, Shell, Keystone XL, Dow Chemical, Massey Energy, Cargill and Monsanto;

1.06 That the Washington State government has a grave conflict of interest by aggressively promoting by both executive order and legislation the products of industries in which they have large investments, such as the pharmaceutical cartel and its bioweaponized vaccines, in which it has institutional investments of over one-half billion dollars;

Why the Washington State Government Is a Ruthless Vaccine Pusher

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8367537-why-the-washington-state-government-is-a-ruthless-vaccine-pusher

1.07 That the Washington State government has a grave conflict of interest by failing to proportionately tax those Washington State-located transnational corporations in which it is heavily invested and/or whose favor they wish to obtain;

1.08 That the Washington State government has a grave conflict of interest by investing in foreign manufacturing competitors while failing to invest in those which would provide manufacturing employment and infrastructure for the people of Washington State;

1.09 That the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) — the financial arm of the Washington State Legislature headed by the state treasurer — employs financial advisors of questionable competence and integrity, including accused war criminal former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and the infamously corrupt investment firm of Goldman Sachs — never consulting with those who offer any alternative economic perspectives and solutions, including those employed within the Washington State government itself;

1.10 That the WSIB plotted in the spring of 2006 to alter the Washington State Constitution so that the fulsome Washington State Education Fund — derived from regular fees paid by the state’s resource extraction industries of mining, fishing and lumbering — could be used in the future for institutional corporate Wall Street investments, rather than as before being kept safely in trust;

1.11 That to achieve this diversion of state funds in trust, the WSIB quietly placed on the state ballot Issue 4215, which proposed an amendment to the Washington State Constitution allowing the state higher education funds to be used in corporate Wall Street investments;

1.12 That the majority of voters in Washington State, deliberately kept ill-informed by state corporate government officials and mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State, passed this stealth measure by a large margin in November 2006, to be ratified as a constitutional amendment by the state legislature in January 2007;

2006 Washington State Voters Guide Writeup on State Issue 4215

http://vote.wa.gov/Elections/Measure2007.aspx?a=4215&c=7

1.13 That, since early 2004, the WSIB has deliberately invested a large portion of its institutional investment portfolio in derivatives and credit default options (CDOs), the most opaque, unstable investment instruments imaginable;

1.14 That, due to the corporate bailouts and banking cartel-engineered depression of 2008, as well as the WSIB’s prodigal, imprudent corporate Wall Street investments, the Washington State Education Fund now has been depleted by half, due to the resulting devaluation of institutionally invested stocks and bonds;

1.15 This has served to radically increase tuition and student loan indebtedness while radically decreasing the availability and quality of higher education to the people of Washington State ;

1.16 That all of this occurred less than two years after Issue 4215 was stealthily and deceptively introduced by the WSIB, passed by the majority of voters, and its related constitutional amendment approved by their state legislators;

1.17 That the amount of the people’s money deliberately being squandered in volatile institutional corporate Wall Street investments is at least eighty times the amount of the alleged state budget deficit of approximately $1 billion, which this invested money could have easily eliminated if used responsibly;

1.18 That the abovecited Washington State officials continually demand increasingly exorbitant taxation and licensing fees from the already deliberately financially stressed people of this state;

1.19 That they do this is while being entrusted with massive amounts of the people’s money, yet knowingly and willfully withholding and purloining it for the benefit of the private international banking cartel and those who secretly control it;

1.20 That the immediate motive for this treasonous fraud perpetrated by the abovecited Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office and mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State against the people of this state has been their greed for both wealth and power, accepting lucrative bribes, kickbacks, campaign contributions, loans and lucrative advertising contracts, as well as enhanced monies from personal investments from the corrupt international banking cartel and other corrupt transnational corporations;

1.21 That the actual underlying motive of these corporate state government officials’/media corporations’ corporate contributors has been, besides huge profits, the financial destruction and enslavement of the people of this state;

1.22 That therefore the Washington State corporate government budget and its budget deficit are now, and have been since at least the mid-1940s, fraudulent;

1.23 And therefore all budget cuts made on the pretext of this fraudulent state budget deficit that now threaten the general welfare — including the health and wellbeing of the disabled and disenfranchised, the cutting of public library, public transportation and public education services and those budget cuts which threaten to privatize all of the Washington state park system — are therefore criminal.

Websites/links Providing Evidence of the CAFR Scam in the Washington State Corporate Government, Including the Washington State Investment Board’s CAFR With Analysis, and Similar Recent Budgetary Fraud Exposed in the California State Parks System

http://nowisthetime.us www.sib.wa.gov

The Spokane Spokesman/Seattle Times Columnist: Washington State Parks Now on Their Own

http://spokesman.com/stories/2012/aug/04/state-parks-on-their-own

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2018850731_danny05.html

CAFR Scam Exposed: California State Parks Department Had $54 million While Asking for Park Volunteers and Cutting Park Services

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-parks-20120721,0,2383546,full.story

2. Deliberate Denial of Remedy, Indicating Complicity in Criminal Conspiracy

2.01 That the above-cited Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office, as well as mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State, have failed repeatedly to disclose publicly that the figures contained in the Washington State Annual Comprehensive Financial Report — not those in what they claim as the annual budgetary document — are the most accurate declaration of actual state corporate government funds;

2.02 That the abovecited Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office have failed to provide to the public clear comprehensive summaries of the fraudulent, unnecessary budget cuts made to each and every state cabinet department and its programs to obfuscate their negative impact on the general welfare of this state; and the abovecited mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State have failed to demand and report on such essential information;

2.03 That the WSIB has deliberately invested the people’s money in volatile corporate Wall Street investments knowing that it would never be returned to them, not only because their inherent risk, but because of ongoing fraudulent and insidious federal corporate confiscation of these funds, upon which the mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in this state, as well as state corporate government officials, have continually refused to report to duly inform the public;

2.04 That all individual and institutional investments, after being registered by a stock broker with the Depository Transaction Clearing Center (DTCC) — an obscure subsidiary of the privately owned Federal Reserve System doing business as (dba) the sardonically named Cede Inc. — become the tacitly ceded property of Cede Inc., with the people thereby rendered mere “beneficiaries” rather than owners, of their own investments;

2.05 That thereafter the people can be denied access to the dividends of these institutional investments at any time by the Federal Reserve corporation and those who secretly control this privately owned alien entity;

Who Really Owns Your Money: The Depository Trust Clearing Corporation

www.dtcc.com

http://yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/who-really-owns-your-money-part-one-the-depository-trust-clearing-corporation/

Here Is Where Some of the Washington State Corporate Government’s Institutional Investments of the People’s Money Actually Went After It Was Stolen by the Federal Reserve Through the DTCC:

Final Federal Reserve Audit Results Posted on September 4, 2012:

$16 Trillion Stolen from the American People to Enrich the International Banking Cartel

ittp://www.pakalertpress.com/first-audit-results-in-the-federal-reserves-nealy-100-year-history-were-posted-today-they-are-startaling

Exhaustive Study Finds Globalists Hiding $32 Trillion in Secret Off-Shore Bank Accounts

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/31/exhaustive_study_finds_global_elite_hiding

2.06 That the above-cited Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office, as well as the mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in this state have repeatedly failed to enact/accurately report historically proven remedies to the state budget deficit — such as proportionate corporate taxation, state investment in small business, physical/technical infrastructure and a public state bank, while utilizing prudent trusts and investment instruments — although being fully and repeatedly informed of the benefits of these remedies;

2.07 That all of the above constitutes deliberate denial of remedy and complicity in criminal conspiracy.

3. Ongoing Systemic Constitutional Fraud Against the People of Washington State Tantamount to Treason

3.01 That the abovecited Washington State corporate government officials and their predecessors in office, as well as the mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State have failed both to reveal and remediate the fact that the present Washington State Constitution of 1889 — latest amended by state investments-related Issue 4215 in 2006 — is fraudulent, automatically rendering invalid all legislation and executive orders enacted by officers of the current spurious state government corporation, specifically those dealing with its governmental financial system;

3.02 That the original state constitution enacted via due process by the people of Washington State in 1878 is indeed the actual Washington State Constitution, but was treasonously confiscated and held hostage by the banking cartel-controlled United States Corporation of the District of Columbia (DC) through the calculated failure of the US Congress to act upon it for eleven years until it was quietly replaced by the one of 1889 that had been drafted and enacted by spurious means;

3.03 That this banking cartel-controlled federal corporation had quietly been put in place during the upheaval of the cartel-engineered American Civil War/Reconstruction Period, during which the common-law US Constitution and Bill of Rights was stealthily replaced by unconstitutional statutory/commercial law and executive orders under the rubric of President Abraham Lincoln’s declaration of martial law at the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861 that has continued unrescinded to this day;

3.04 That the Washington DC-based United States Corporation then proceeded by various methods to subvert sovereign US states into becoming corporate subsidiaries of the federal US corporation;

3.05 That one of the methods used was for the de facto board of directors of the federal United States Corporation, the US Congress, to refuse to ratify any lawfully enacted state constitution under the ruse of political partisanship unless that new state constitution incorporated the treasonous agenda of the federal government corporation;

3.06 That such an example is the fraudulent Washington State Constitution of 1889, which diverged from the original of 1878, insofar as it omitted any acknowledgement of sovereign state citizenship and of alloidial personal property rights that the banking cartel-controlled US Corporation ultimately intends to eliminate in America and throughout the world;

3.07 That this has resulted in American government at all levels — including that of Washington State — being since the Civil War the public enabler/enforcer of the subversive, sinister agenda of the international banking cartel and those who secretly control it, to the extreme detriment of the people of this state and of this nation;

3.08 That concerning all of the abovecited treason and its potential remedies, the abovecited Washington State corporate government officials and the mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State have failed in their duty to even minimally inform the public.

The Fraudulent Washington State Constitution and Its Relationship to the International Banking Cartel’s Clandestine Control of the US Government Since At Least 1861

Articles on the History of the Fraudulent Washington State Constitution

http://proliberty.com/observer/20001102.html

http://freedomrequireswork.org/public_access/washington/wash_const.html

The International Banking Cartel’s Takeover of the US Government Using the Civil War

www.famguardian.org/Subjects/Freedom/…/Sins_022810.pdf

http://newtomorrow.us

Historic Quotations Concerning US/Global Corporate Government

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/quotes/index.htm

Wherefore:

The abovecited Washington State corporate government officials and their surviving predecessors in office, as well as the top management of mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State need to be summarily investigated, and then potentially arrested and prosecuted for criminal financial/constitutional fraud and treason against the people of this state;

And the people of Washington State need publicly to acknowledge and examine their own complicity in the criminal and treasonous actions/inaction of their abovecited state corporate government officials and their predecessors in office, as well as of the mainstream/alleged alternative media corporations operating in Washington State, through their own self-absorbed denial of, and disinterest in, the long-corrupted governmental and public information systems of this state and of this nation.

I hereby declare that all of the above statements are, to the best of my knowledge, true and accurate.

____________________________________ ___________________________

Rebecca Em Campbell-Plaintiff Date

Seattle, Washington State America

rebeccaphb@yahoo.com

Proofs of Filing.pdf

see link

[Sabrina]

Argentina is not playing the game :).....


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19709273

25 Sept

IMF's Christine Lagarde says Argentina faces the 'red card'

International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde has warned Argentina it could face sanctions unless it produces reliable growth and inflation data.

Ms Lagarde gave Argentina until 17 December to address the problem.

The IMF head said the fund had given Argentina a "yellow card" but it could face a red.

Private economists say annual inflation in Argentina is at 24%, much higher than the official 10% figure.

"We had to choose between the yellow card and the red card. We chose the yellow card. If no progress has been made, then the red card will be out," she said.

Speaking in Washington, Ms Lagarde said Argentina had been given three months to provide reliable estimates on growth and inflation.

'Free country'
Analysts in Buenos Aires say the IMF has been adopting tougher language towards the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

The IMF and Argentina have been at odds over the figures since last year.

Private sector economists say the government has ignored the growing pace of inflation.


Cristina Fernandez is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly
Last year, the authorities introduced measures restricting the purchase of US dollars.

Memories among Argentinians of the days of rampant inflation in the 1980s and a devalued national currency are still vivid, correspondents say.

If Argentina fails to meet IMF demands, it could face sanctions, lose voting rights and even be expelled from the organisation.

"Argentina is good in football and it certainly understands what we are talking about," said Ms Lagarde.

Earlier, Ms Fernandez, who is visiting the United States this week, rejected claims that her country was facing economic disaster.

And she sent a defiant message: "The rich countries don't want partners or friends; they just want employees and subordinates."

"And we're not going to be anybody's employees or subordinates. We are a free country, with dignity and national pride."

[Sabrina]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rothschilds-bumi-dives-on-launch-of-indonesia-investigation-8168296.html

25 Sept

Rothschild's Bumi dives on launch of Indonesia investigation

Possible financial 'irregularities' found after development funds written down



Shares in Bumi plc sank by 25 per cent yesterday after the coal miner part-owned by the financier Nat Rothschild said it had launched an urgent investigation into potential financial "irregularities".

Its former chief executive, Ari Hudaya, resigned last night as a non-executive director.

The FTSE 250 company, which owns stakes in several Indonesian mining operations, said the allegations related to operations at PT Bumi Resources, Asia's biggest thermal coal exporter. Bumi owns a 29 per cent stake in the resources company and said it had set up an independent investigation to look into its development funds, which were written down to zero last year.

Bumi said: "The extensive development funds in PT Bumi Resources Tbk and the one development asset in PT Berau Coal Energy Tbk were marked down to zero in the accounts of Bumi plc as at 31 December 2011, except for one investment with a carrying value of $39m [£24m] in the consolidated financial statements." The findings of the investigation will be reported to the board but Bumi added that it intended to contact "relevant authorities in the UK and Indonesia … in respect of some of the allegations".

It is understood the Financial Services Authority and the Serious Fraud Office were informed of the allegations on Friday. The inquiry is expected to examine some $300m of funds used by Bumi's subsidiaries and affiliated companies to start up new projects, and also at certain loans extended by PT Bumi.

Richard Knights, an analyst at Liberum Capital, said the investigation had "the potential to bring to light some gross, and potentially criminal, mismanagement of funds which may turn off shareholders in the short term".

On Friday, ahead of yesterday's announcement, shares in Bumi lost more than 20 per cent of their value. When asked if there would be an investigation into the share price fall, a source close to the group said: "Not that we know of. The volumes involved were tiny."

Mr Knights said market concerns were mounting about Bumi's "high debts and low cash levels". The shares fell 48.3p yesterday to 147.6p. In April last year they peaked at 1,400p. He also warned that the inquiry could have major consequences. "Clearly, given PT Bumi's high debt levels [about $4bn] the repatriation of funds and focus on core coal mining business is critical."

The miner's presence in London began when Mr Rothschild and a former Anglo American executive, James Campbell, set up a cash shell called Vallar in November 2010, to fund acquisitions in the resources industry. A $3bn deal then gave the company stakes in Bumi Resources and PT Berau Coal Energy, with Mr Hudaya, then head of Bumi Resources, as its chief executive. Vallar was renamed Bumi plc last June.

Mr Rothschild wrote a letter last year calling for a "radical cleaning-up" of Bumi's major subsidiary PT Bumi Resources, flagging up the company's level of debt. Indonesia's politically connected Bakrie family, who set up Bumi plc in London alongside Mr Rothschild – and their shareholder partner then tried to oust the British financier from the board. Mr Rothschild stepped down as co-chairman soon after.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284

26 Sept - Greece, Spain, Portugal

Greece stages anti-austerity general strike


Trade unions in Greece have begun the first general strike since the country's conservative-led coalition government came to power in June.

Wednesday's 24-hour walkout is to protest at new planned spending cuts of more than 11.5bn euros ($15bn; £9bn).

The savings are a pre-condition to Greece receiving its next tranche of bailout funds, without which the country could face bankruptcy in weeks.

People have begun to gather for large demonstrations expected later.

The action in Greece follows a series of demonstrations in Spain and Portugal, which are also facing stringent austerity measures.

On Tuesday, police in Madrid fired rubber bullets during clashes with protesters outside parliament. 38 people were arrested and 64 injured
The Bank of Spain said the country's recession was deepening at a "significant pace". Madrid will announce further austerity measures on Thursday
Portugal is holding an extraordinary cabinet meeting after big protests forced the government to withdraw a plan to hike employees' tax rates
Greece needs the next 31bn-euro instalment of its international bailout, but with record unemployment and a third of Greeks pushed below the poverty line, there is strong resistance to further cuts.

The government of conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is proposing to save money by slashing pensions and raising the retirement age to 67.

But it has also urged the troika representing Greece's lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - to give it an extra two years to push the austerity programme through.

On Tuesday the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, put a price on that delay for the first time - saying it would effectively cost as much as 15bn euros.

Fears of violence
Workers from a diverse range of sectors are taking part in the strike, from doctors to air traffic controllers.

It was called by the country's two biggest unions, which between them represent half the workforce.

A survey conducted by the MRB polling agency last week found that more than 90% of Greeks believed the planned cuts were unfair and a burden on the poor.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says that, with demonstrations planned, many people fear a repeat of the violence seen during previous protests.

Thousands of police have been deployed in the centre of Athens to prevent a flare-up.

Greece is currently trying to qualify for the next instalment of its 130bn-euro bailout, which is backed by the IMF and the other 16 euro nations.

Greece was given a 110bn-euro package in May 2010 and a further 130bn euros in October 2011. That money is paid in instalments, but correspondents say the lenders are reluctant to stump up the latest slice, as they feel Greece has not made enough effort to meet its deficit-reduction targets.

Greece needs the next tranche of its bailout to make repayments on its debt burden. A default could result in the country leaving the euro.

and photos of just how angry they are in Spain at the moment:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9566520/Spanish-austerity-protest-turns-violent-in-pictures.html

[Sabrina]

More on the News International 'phone hacking story. Much more to this story than appears imo.. Brooks is a great mate of Cameron's. Cameron claimed he met her via her husband. Locals who live near them both would disagree.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19725264

Former News International boss Rebekah Brooks and David Cameron's former communications director Andy Coulson are due to appear in court on charges related to alleged phone hacking.

They are expected at the Old Bailey along with five former News of the World journalists, accused of conspiracy to access voicemails.

Prosecutors say the charge could relate to more than 600 victims.




Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire will also appear in court.

Mr Mulcaire stands accused of four counts relating to specific people.

The former staff members at the now-defunct NoW newspaper are its ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmondson, ex-reporter James Weatherup and former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.

Mr Coulson - who was NoW editor from 2003-07; Mrs Brooks who edited the paper from 2000-03 before moving to edit the Sun and then becoming chief executive officer of the two papers' parent group News International are accused along with the five other journalists of conspiracy to unlawfully intercept communications.

In a separate case, Mrs Brooks, 44, from Churchill in Oxfordshire - along with her husband, Charlie, and five others - are expected in court accused of perverting the course of justice.

The charges relate to an alleged attempt to hide evidence from police investigating phone hacking claims, and illegal payments to public officials by the NoW and the Sun.

Mrs Brooks's chauffeur Paul Edwards, former personal assistant Cheryl Carter, head of security at News International Mark Hanna, and security staff Daryl Jorsling and Lee Sandell also face the charges.



and via Reuters:

Brooks was one of Murdoch's most trusted and loyal managers, editing two of his top-selling tabloid newspapers before going on to run News International. She was also close to Cameron, exchanging text messages with the Conservative leader.

[Sabrina]

More on the on-going libor scandal my side of the pond..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9565940/BBA-agrees-to-be-stripped-of-role-in-setting-Libor.html

26 Sept UK

BBA agrees to be stripped of role in setting Libor

Britain's banking lobby has said it will support any plans to strip it of responsibility for Libor following revelations that the world’s key borrowing rate could have been manipulated by major lenders.

The British Bankers’ Association said it would agree with any recommendation by Martin Wheatley, the head of financial conduct at the Financial Services Authority, to hand over control of Libor to another body.

In a statement, the BBA said it had been co-operating with Mr Wheatley’s review of Libor ahead of the publication of his report on Friday.
“If Mr Wheatley’s recommendations include a change of responsibility for Libor, the BBA will support that,” it said.

The BBA has been heavily criticised for the way it has run Libor, although it has argued that it was not directly responsible for compiling the rate.
The criticism followed the revelation in July that Barclays attempted to manipulate Libor for several years. Barclays is still the only bank to have formally settled with the US and British authorities over the scandal and has so far paid £290m in fines.

Mr Wheatley is expected to announce a major overhaul of the way Libor is run at his Mansion House speech on Friday. His review was ordered by George Osborne amid widespread criticism both in Britain and abroad of the ease with which banks appeared to have been able to rig the world’s benchmark borrowing rate.

Further settlements are expected with other major banks as investigators continue to look into how traders at several leading lenders could have conspired to influence the level at which Libor was set.

Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland are among the banks being investigated. Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, has hinted that he expects the bank to face penalties over the issue.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Hester said settling the scandals that have hit the banking industry in recent months would cost RBS “a lot of money”.
However, he declined to give any estimate as to how big he thought this number could end up being.

[Sabrina]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-25/five-sac-traders-implicated-insider-trading-case

Five SAC Traders Implicated In Insider Trading Case

25 Sept USA

Two years ago nobody would dare touch Steve "Blue Eyes" Cohen's firm. Then we dared to ask some questions. Then the entire expert "information arbitrage" network pyramid got exposed (with a one year delay after ZH) and hedge funds returns aka "alpha" plunged. And now this. From Bloomberg:

FIVE SAC CAPITAL EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN IMPLICATED IN INSIDER CASE
SAC MANAGER SAID TO BE UNCHARGED FIGURE IN HEDGE FUND SCHEME
SAC FUND MANAGER MICHAEL STEINBERG SAID TO BE TIED TO PROBE
SAC CAPITAL'S STEINBERG SAID TO BE UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR

How long until we go from unindicted, i.e. extensively questioned, to indicted? Or rather, just which bigger fish are these "unindicted co-conspirators" expected to throw under the bus? And what happens to the NYSE if/and or when the firm that trades 10% of its daily volume is busted?

From Bloomberg:

A hedge fund manager at Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP is an unindicted co-conspirator in a $62 million insider trading scheme tied to technology stocks, two people familiar with the matter said.

The role allegedly played by Michael Steinberg emerged in court papers filed by the U.S. in the securities-fraud case of Jon Horvath, a former technology analyst at Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund who Steinberg supervised. Steinberg, who hasn’t been charged with a crime, is the fifth person to be tied to insider trading while employed at SAC.

Horvath faces trial Oct. 29 in Manhattan federal court along with two other portfolio managers for his part in what Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called a “criminal club:” a conspiracy of hedge fund managers, co-workers and company insiders who reaped millions of dollars on illegal tips about Dell Inc. and Nvidia Corp.

“The government added four additional co-conspirators,”

prosecutors wrote in a Sept. 6 letter filed with the court, with the names blacked out. One of them, the U.S. said, is “the portfolio manager to whom Jon Horvath reported at his hedge fund.” That person was Steinberg, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Steinberg, 40, of SAC’s Sigma Capital Management unit, has worked at the hedge fund since 1997. He and his lawyer, Barry Berke, didn’t return calls or e-mails seeking comment on the letter.

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Stamford, Connecticut- based SAC, and Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman for Bharara, declined to comment on the court filing.

Level Global

Horvath, and his co-defendants, Level Global Investors LP co-founder Anthony Chiasson and ex-Diamondback Capital Management LLC portfolio manager Todd Newman, are accused of participating in a conspiracy with other portfolio managers, analysts and insiders at technology firms who swapped tips between 2007 and 2009.

The three men were first charged by Bharara’s office in January. Five people who were part of the alleged insider- trading ring have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government.

The government filed a revised indictment against Horvath, Chiasson and Newman on Aug. 28, adding an additional securities fraud count against all three men for alleged insider-trading involving Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia.

[Sabrina]

More on the Libor scandal and the can of worms being opened by the Singapore care.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9568087/RBS-traders-boasted-of-Libor-cartel.html

26 Sept


RBS traders boasted of Libor 'cartel'

Royal Bank of Scotland traders boasted about operating a “cartel” to rig Libor just weeks before the bank was rescued at a cost of more than £40bn by the taxpayer.


Senior traders working for RBS’s investment banking arm openly discussed fixing the world’s key borrowing rate in the months running up to the bank's collapse, according to legal documents cited by Bloomberg.

In one exchange in April 2008, Tan Chi Min, a former Singapore-based trader at RBS, messaged traders saying “Our six-month fixing moved the entire fixing, hahahah”.

Libor is the world’s main benchmark borrowing rate and is used to price hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans and derivatives across the globe. The court documents purport to show that even as late as August 2008, less than six weeks before RBS collapsed, some of the bank's traders were attempting to manipulate borrowing rates to make money.
The revelations in the legal documents obtained by Bloomberg, show that the actions of the traders could have cost British savers millions and potentially even billions of pounds in lost interest on their deposits.

In one instant message dated August 21 2007, Jezri Mohideen, RBS’s former head of yen products in Singapore, asked Neil Danziger, a London-based RBS trader, who was sacked along with three other colleagues last year, “What’s the call on Libor”. Mr Danziger replied, “Where would you like it, Libor that is.”

Another trader unnamed trader replied: “Mixed feelings, but mostly I’d like it all lower so the world starts to make sense.”

“The whole HF [hedge fund] world will be kissing you instead of calling me if Libor move lower,” said Mr Tan.

The Singapore court filings are part of a wrongful dismissal claim being brought by Mr Tan against RBS. Mr Tan has alleged that senior staff at RBS where aware of Libor fixing and condoned it.

“It’s just amazing how Libor fixing can make you that much money or lose if opposite,” wrote Mr Tan in a message to traders at other banks dated August 19 2007. “It’s a cartel now in London.”

A spokesman for RBS declined to comment directly on Mr Tan's allegations.

In a statement the bank said: Our investigations into submissions, communications and procedures relating to the setting of LIBOR and other interest rates are ongoing. RBS and its employees continue to cooperate fully with regulators.”

The legal documents cited by Bloomberg are now subject to a sealing order by the Singapore High Court.

Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, said yesterday that legal claims and fines resulting from scandals such as Libor are expected to cost the bank “a lot of money”. RBS has not said how much it has provisioned against Libor, however it has already put aside £50m against interest rate swap mis-selling claims.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Merkel denies misleading public over nuclear dump
By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday denied she had lied to the public about the suitability of a permanent location for the country's central nuclear waste dump when she was environment minister in the 1990s.

In a rare five-hour appearance before a parliamentary inquiry, Merkel rebutted allegations that the then government had put political considerations before scientific findings when it decided to focus the search for a waste dump only in Gorleben in northern Germany.

"I deny any and all conjecture, allegations and suspicions that the government at the time did not act properly and legally," the conservative chancellor and chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party told a 16-member parliamentary panel.

While it is unlikely that questions about her performance as a minister in the 1990s will dent her solid popularity ratings one year before the next election, the issue of where Germany will permanently store its nuclear waste has long been politically sensitive.

The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens accuse her of bowing to political pressure from her party allies at the time and focusing only on Gorleben - the site of a temporary dump - as a permanent nuclear waste site, rather than exploring other possibly more suitable locations.

Specifically, they say that Merkel distorted the results of a scientific study by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources that reported it was worthwhile to explore other sites for a permanent storage site.
(...)

Full story: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=merkel-denies-misleading-public-ove

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/27/former-credit-suisse-trader-arrested

27 Sept

Former Credit Suisse trader Serageldin arrested in Britain

Kareem Serageldin, 39, faces US extradition hearing amid claims he distorted value of mortgage securities

A former Credit Suisse executive wanted in the US on fraud charges linked to distorting the value of mortgage securities during the financial crisis has been arrested in Britain.

Kareem Serageldin, 39, will appear at Westminster magistrates court in London on Thursday for the start of extradition proceedings. Scotland Yard has confirmed he was taken into custody on Wednesday.

US prosecutors have alleged Serageldin conspired with two of his employees to hide the deteriorating condition of the housing market in 2007 in order to keep the value of bonds based on sub-prime mortgages artificially high, thereby boosting their bonuses.

He was set to receive more than $7m (£4m) in compensation in 2007 before the company learned about the alleged scam and withheld $5.2m of his pay. The fraud, which prosecutors described earlier this year as "a tale of greed run amok", was blamed as responsible for a portion of the $2.65bn write-down Credit Suisse announced in March 2008.

Serageldin, its former managing director and global head of structured credit, has been charged with conspiracy, falsifying books and records, and wire fraud in the US. The charges carry a potential penalty of 45 years in prison.

Two other Credit Suisse traders pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in co-operation deals with prosecutors in February. At the time, US prosecutors urged Serageldin, an American citizen living in the UK, to return to answer the charges against him.

The sub-prime mortgage crisis fuelled the financial meltdown in 2008 that pushed the US into the most severe recession since the great depression of the 1930s.

US regulators have brought civil charges against several large Wall Street firms accused of misleading investors about securities linked to risky mortgages in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The biggest settlement of the Securities and Exchange Commission's charges was with Goldman Sachs in July 2010 when the firm agreed to pay $550m.

Most of the government's cases related to banks' handling of mortgage securities in the runup to the financial crisis have been civil proceedings. All the cases have involved complex investments called collateralised debt obligations – securities that are backed by pools of other assets, such as mortgages

[Sabrina]

Some reasons for optimism I reckon in a battle behind the scenes....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/libor-scandal/9572056/Libor-is-broken-says-FSAs-Martin-Wheatley.html

28 Sept UK

Libor is broken, says FSA's Martin Wheatley

Britain's top financial enforcer will say on Friday that Libor is “broken and needs a complete overhaul” following revelations banks rigged interest rates for their own profit.

Martin Wheatley, head of conduct at the Financial Services Authority, will announce major reforms to the way Libor is set, but will argue that despite evidence of “shocking behaviour” by “unscrupulous traders” the current system can be “fixed”.

“The disturbing events we have uncovered in the manipulation of Libor have severely damaged our confidence and our trust – it has torn the very fabric that our financial system is built on,” Mr Wheatley will say in a speech at Mansion House following the publication of his report into the issue.
Mr Wheatley will recommend that responsibility for Libor is stripped from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and given to the new Financial Conduct Authority, which he will become chief executive of when it comes into operation next year.

The BBA has been heavily criticised for its oversight of Libor and in a statement on Friday the trade body said it agreed with the need for “greater regulatory oversight”.

Libor lies at the heart of the world’s financial system and is used as the reference rate for loans and financial derivatives and securities worth more than $300 trillion (£186 trillion).

Under the proposals designed to prevent a repeat of the rigging scandal, banks will be required to provide “relevant trade data” to prove that the rates they submit accurately reflect their actual borrowing costs.

Mr Wheatley will warn that bank staff guilty of attempting to manipulate Libor will face “criminal sanctions”, including jail, and that all those involved in submitting borrowing figures will have to be approved by the regulator.

“We can’t allow the unfettered attitude that banks enjoyed previously. Much greater rigour and transparency must be introduced to the process of submission,” he will say.

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19755035

28 Sept


China's Bo Xilai expelled and faces criminal charges

Top Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been expelled from the Communist Party and will face justice, state media say.

Mr Bo, the ex-Communist Party leader in the city of Chongqing, is accused of abuse of power and corruption.

His wife, Gu Kailai, was given a suspended death sentence in August for murdering UK national Neil Heywood.

The scandal has overshadowed the party congress that will oversee China's change of leadership. It will begin on 8 November, state media have announced.

The BBC's Martin Patience, in Beijing, says the Bo Xilai announcement ends months of speculation over the fate of a man who was once one of China's most powerful politicians.

Our correspondent says it is clear China's leaders wanted to try to end the damaging revelations, with the once-in-a-decade leadership change looming.

He says Mr Bo's career is over and he will almost certainly spend time in jail.

'Grave repercussions'
Mr Bo has not been seen in public since mid-March, shortly after the scandal erupted and it was announced he was under investigation. He was suspended from his party posts in April.

Reporting an official statement from a party leaders' meeting, the state news agency, Xinhua, said Mr Bo stood accused of corruption, abuse of power, bribe-taking and improper relations with women.

The statement carried by Xinhua said Mr Bo "took advantage of his office to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally and through his family".

It added: "Bo's behaviour brought serious consequences, badly undermined the reputation of the party and the country, created very negative impact at home and abroad and significantly damaged the cause of the party and people".

The statement urged "party organisations at all levels" to take heed of the "negative example" of the Bo Xilai case.

more at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-bank-of-america-settles-merrill-lynch-case-20120928,0,2545043.story

28 Sept

Bank of America agrees to pay $2.43 billion in Merrill Lynch suit

Bank of America has agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 2009 by investors following its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

The settlement, announced Friday, still requires court approval. In addition to the payout, Bank of America agreed to institute new corporate governance policies, the bank said in a statement.

The bank said it denied the suit's allegations, which included that executives made misleading statements about both firms' financial health.

“Resolving this litigation removes uncertainty and risk and is in the best interests of our shareholders,” the bank's chief executive, Brian Moynihan, said in the statement. "As we work to put these long-standing issues behind us, our primary focus is on the future and serving our customers and clients."

Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The investment bank Lehman Brothers had collapsed, and other major investment banks were in trouble as the crisis worsened.

The settlement will deal a $1.6-billion blow to Bank of America's third-quarter earnings, which are due for release Oct. 17, the bank said.

Bank of America shares fell 10 cents, or 1.1%, to $8.87 at the opening bell on Wall Street.

[Sabrina]

Major astrological things happening at the moment:


September's Aries full Moon occurs on September 29 in the United States and September 30 in Australia. It is a major astrological occurrence as the Sun and Moon are in Venus and Mars' planetary ruler ships (the Sun in Libra, ruled by Venus and the Moon in Aries, ruled by Mars). Venus and Mars are square at this full Moon and Mars is conjunct the north node of the Moon (considered to be a karmic point) and Venus is squaring the nodes. Even more strong is the fact that the Moon ties in very tightly with the Uranus/Pluto square. This full Moon is going to have a very strong emotional, physical and spiritual charge around it and it seems certain that many things are going to change.


As Benjamin Fulford says below, there's an interesting US year end on 30 Sept:

United States of America Corporation fiscal year ends this week; time to end the horror
by Benjamin Fulford 9-24-12

The United States of America Corporation (as opposed to the Republic of the United States), based in the Vatican-like independent city state of Washington D.C., has its fiscal year end on September 30th. This criminal corporation has been constantly at war over the past 60 years if not the past several hundred years. It needs to be bankrupted once and for all and many of us are trying to do just this. The 13 inbred families that own this corporation have been trying desperately to avoid bankruptcy by starting World War 3.

However, even though they retain a rump of brain-washed slaves in Europe and North America, they have lost their ability to fool the world’s governments, militaries and intelligence agencies. Soon even the brain-dead TV slaves will awaken.




Wonder if all these energies are going to combine to propel us into even more interesting times.... :)

[Sabrina]

Via THE NEW ECONOMIC RIGHTS ALLIANCE in South Africa


http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/south-african-banks-must-pay-out-big.html

South African Banks Must Pay Out Big Time


Dear Citizen,
Up to a trillion rand could be refunded to South African customers by the banks. This is precisely the kind of cash injection that will help bring our country out of debt slavery and into a new age of prosperity.

Millions of South Africans who have loans or credit could see their monthly repayments reduced substantially. And tens of thousands of people who have had judgments against them over the past two decades may be eligible for compensation. Garnishee orders should be slashed and small businesses struggling with overdrafts should be released from the shackles of debt slavery.

In simple terms – it is very possible that your credit card, home loan, personal loan, vehicle loan or any form of credit you may have, has been settled in full by a third party, called a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). Because your loan has been settled in full (ie. the bank has been paid out for your loan), the bank cannot bring your case to court. Under these circumstances, the collections process undertaken by banks, and any judgments taken by the bank as a result, would be unlawful.

Once a loan has been securitised (this is the technical term for this process), the bank loses the legal right to the asset. Confirmation of this was given to the New Economic Rights Alliance in the form of the attached letter from the South African Reserve Bank (see page 5, para AD8).

Unfortunately the banks “neglect” to tell the customer that their loan has been settled thanks to securitisation. This is why The New Economic Rights Alliance, a non-profit organisation, was formed. We are here to educate the South African people, and take legal action if required.
An example of where a bank has admitted outright securitisation, and withdrawn their court case, is the case of ABSA vs Louis Louw. You can read about this case in our legal documents at www.thebigcase.co.za.

Several overseas court cases have also proven that what we are saying is correct. For example:
A very recent case in Washington witnessed a huge victory that has opened the door for many future lawsuits of this nature (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/us-foreclosures-courtcase-washington-idUSBRE88D1OF20120914).
If that is not enough, an important case in Hawaii confirmed that a bank has no right to sue for an asset that has been securitised (http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2012/03/31/usdc-judge-seabright-in-hawaiii-exemplars-securitization-fail-and-dismisses-a-foreclosure-for-lack-of-standing/).

There was also a massive US$37 billion settlement paid out by five major banks in the US under similar circumstances: (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57373706/5-banks-in-$26b-settlement-with-feds-over-abuses/).

And hot off the press, the banks have just lost a huge case in Australia over securitisation (also called Collateralised Debt Obligations – CDO’s). This time, it was the investors who took down the banks for misleading them. This court case effects people all over the world (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-21/lehmann-brothers-test-case/4273896).

Even the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is suing the major banks in the US for securities fraud.

(http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/bombshell-bombshell-bombshell-fdic-sues-the-big-banks-for-massive-securities-fraud/)
There are many other cases too numerous to mention, but legal beavers who want to see for themselves should look up these cases:
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v Farmer, 2008 NY
Francis J. Bevilacqua, Third vs. Pablo Rodriguez, Oct. 18th, 2011
FERREL L. AGARD Case No. 810-77338
Securitising loans behind the backs of the customer is a huge business for South African banks. According to the Banking Association of South Africa’s website, banks are securitising around R30billion per month (http://www.banking.org.za/Securitisation/detailed.php.) These numbers indicate that the banks are offloading private debt very quickly onto the public. This is leading to a kind of "financial cannibalism" where one person is forced to rely on another person's repayments in order to survive.

If you default on a loan, the debt to the SPV and its investors are covered by an insurance policy. This is provided for in the Securities Services Act. Insurance of this nature (usually called a credit default swap) nearly sent insurance giant AIG under in 2008. When insurance pays out, the debt is settled. So, quite simply, there can be no legal case against you because all parties have been settled. In law, this would be referred to as de minimis non curat lex.

Securitisation has yielded massive profits for the banks while the customer continually loses out. Because they did not disclose what they were doing to the customer and did not inform the customer that their debt had been settled, we believe that the bank profited unfairly. Is it time to bring the scales of justice into balance?

Feel free to have your lawyer or debt counsellor contact us for more information. Alternatively, stand by while we prepare for a class action lawsuit whereby all South Africans can join with NewERA and claim from the banks what is rightly theirs.

Please let all your friends, family members and colleagues know about this letter, and to join us at www.newera.org.za.

THE NEW ECONOMIC RIGHTS ALLIANCE


PS. If you would like to demand answers from your bank right now, below is a list of questions that you can ask. If you are lucky enough to receive a response, read it carefully. You will notice that your questions will probably not be answered directly. Click here for a list of contact details.
Am I indebted to the bank right now? (Please answer yes or no).
Please confirm that the bank actually possessed the money they claim to have lent me, prior to my loan being granted. In other words, did the bank physically have the money they lent me, prior to the money appearing in my account?
Would the bank be prepared to amend the credit agreement as follows: “We, the bank, did in fact possess the money we loaned you, prior to the loan being approved.”
Was the loan funded by assets belonging to the bank at the time the loan was granted? Either way, please describe in detail the accounting process used to create my loan.
Did the bank record my promissory note / negotiable instrument as an asset on its books? If yes, how was my instrument used to create my loan, and where is my valuable promissory note / negotiable instrument now?
Does the bank participate in a securitisation scheme whereby debts / promissory notes are bundled and then sold-on to a third party/parties via special purpose vehicles, entities or alike processes?
Was my loan securitised? If so, please send me all details regarding the securitisation.
Does the bank have a legal right to collect money it claims I owe it? If so, then were does this legal right come from, assuming the loan has been securitised?
Has my loan with the bank been settled by a special purpose vehicle, insurance policy, or by any other party?
Regarding the security given to the bank by me, has this security been sold on or given as security to another party?

[Sabrina]

Yep the tide does seem to be turning...



http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/tide-turns-monsantos-gm-corn-suspended-russia?utm_source=www.GreenMedInfo.com&utm_campaign=6e79f6257a-Greenmedinfo&utm_medium=email

The Tide Turns: Monsanto's GM Corn Suspended In Russia


In a bold and encouraging move on Tuesday, Russian authorities suspended the import of Monsanto's genetically-modified corn over cancer fears spurred by an alarming long-term animal feeding study performed by French researchers at the University of Caen and published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology this month.

According to Russia Today:

The Russia's consumer-rights regulator Rospotrebnadzor asked scientists at the country's Institute of Nutrition to review the study. The watchdog has also contacted to European Commission's Directorate General for Health & Consumers to explain the EU's position on GM corn.

The temporary suspension will immediately affect American imports of corn. The government of France has already embarked upon investigation as to the safety issues surrounding its use, and actions of this sort could soon be followed by other nations.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/mega-banks-plan-to-steal-your-money-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ActivistPost+%28Activist+Post%29&utm_content=FaceBook

28 Sept

Mega-Banks Plan to Steal Your Money and Blame Fake Muslim Cyber Attack

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post


Senator and self-proclaimed Zionist Joseph Lieberman declared that it was Iran who cyber-attacked Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase in 2011 and began with more frequency this year. Lieberman, as the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee states that the financial attack was spurned from the state-sponsored anti-Muslim film circulating the Middle East thanks to CIA-operatives al-Qaeda.

Lieberman explains: “I don’t believe these were just hackers. I believe this was done by Iran and the Qods force, which has its own developing cyber-attack capacity. And I believe it was in response to the increasingly strong economic sanctions that the United States and our European allies have put on Iranian financial institutions.”

The US government is planting the propaganda seed that according to “highly classified” documents provided by the Join Chiefs of Staff’s Intelligence Directorate confirm that Iranian hackers are committing cyber-attacks against US financial institutions.

This report assures that US mega-banks are a “valid target” of the Iranian “cyber army”. However, the attackers used a known forum that is utilized by the CIA-controlled Anonymous to issue threats and brag about their successes.

The timing of the newly formed “digital al-Qaeda” and their expressed anger over the US-produced anti-Muslim film are questionable considering how the US and Israeli government are setting the stage for a justified war with Iran. This fake hacker group is threatening other countries controlled by the Zionist regime, such as France, Germany and Britain. According to the false flag group: “The army was recently formed and we have started to work as a team after we used to work individually. The hacking operations are of course a response to the offence against the prophet, peace and blessing be upon him.”


Radware, a security firm, analyzed the attacks and concluded that the alleged Iranian nameless, faceless cyber army accused to attacking BoA and JPMorgan Chase did not conduct the attack.

This week, Wells Fargo & Co. upped their cybersecurity measures after being attacked by a nameless, faceless group calling themselves Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-din Al Qassam. Wells Fargo announced in a formal statement: “We apologize to customers who may be experiencing intermittent access issues to wellsfargo.com and online banking. We are working to quickly resolve this issue.”

Customer complaints included difficulty logging-in as well as pages not loading properly.

Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-din Al Qassam claimed that their attack was retaliatory for the anti-Muslim film produced by the US government.

According to House Representative, Mike Rogers, the anti-Muslim film was released to cover the US government’s involvement in the bombing and death of US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens at the hand of the CIA-sponsored al-Qaeda.

The film in question is actually a 14-minute trailer written, produced and directed by Sam Bacile, a.k.a. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula who is an FBI informant, an Israeli citizen and the patsy used by the Zionist regime in order to facilitate a manufactured revolt of fake Islamic tension in the Middle East.

Just as the false flag bomb threats called in by anonymous members of al-Qaeda earlier this month, this banking threat has the hallmarks of a state-sponsored false flag to unnerve the American public, mask a planned implosion of the US economy through the ultimate theft of the banking cartels: the money deposited into private checking accounts by banking customers.

On August 9th the banks were given the legal authority to steal money from their customer’s private accounts just as Jon Corzine had with MF Global with the ruling on Sentinel Management Group.

Based on the ruling, regulatory systems such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SPIC) will not insure customer funds, investments, depositors and retirees who hold accounts in banks. In fact, the FDIC has announced that beginning in January 2013, they will stop insuring all deposits. Of the estimated $1.6 trillion in deposits, and a measured 85-90% in the hands of the mega-banks, large depositors are expected to close their accounts due to the lack of security.

The money in deposits will be funneled through the US Treasury for short-term securities. It is expected that the US Treasury will offer negative interest rates; this combination will surely cause a run on the banks that will put Spain and Greece to shame.

Per request of the Federal Reserve Bank, in 2010 the mega-banks filed contingency plans wherein the US government could not assist them. Called resolution plans, they describe how to liquidate banking assets without causing further damage to a failing financial system. By selling “non-core assets” without upsetting shareholders while protecting the monetary system, taxpayers and creditors is the work of the mega-banks who have contributed solely to the destruction of the global financial markets.

In the event of insolvency, duress or bankruptcy, the banks could use customer secured funds to assist them in repaying debts and loans. Currently Bank of America (BoA) has sold off portions of their domestic assets to secure capitol while Citigroup has followed suit.

By adhering to initiatives provided by the Financial Stability Board, these mega-banks will, when they enact their resolution plans, coordinate with international banking institutions and regulators rather than simply implode.

While preparing for financial collapse, the technocrats on Wall Street are also acquiring firearms, ammunition and control over private mercenary corporations like DynCorp and ‘Blackwater” as authorized by the Department of Defense (DoD) directive 3025.18.

Recently, the former mortgage broker of JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley revealed that due to their involvement in the mortgage-backed securities and derivatives fraud, they are selling off their non-core assets. This means that Morgan Stanley is becoming insolvent.

The recent false flag attacks on our banks falls in line with the scenario that has been coming into view for quite some time. In America, just announcing a banking holiday would cause absolute chaos and there may not be enough armed forces within our US borders to handle the rioting in the streets. However, the banking cartels must implode the US economy in order to gain the sovereign debt – as they are currently doing in Spain and Greece.

Meanwhile, there is a Zionist plot to attack Iran over false claims of procurement of nuclear weapons that do not exist. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been peddling this lie since 1992. Twenty years later, it appears that the Zionist-controlled Israeli government may just have their war with Iran along with the “unwavering support” of the US government.

Framing Iran for the American banking system’s computer failure kills two birds with one stone. Not only would the banking cartels be able to shut down all banking computers (and simultaneously syphon the remaining money in their customers' accounts) but also use this fake cyber-attack to engage the American public against Iran and justify their highly anticipated military strike.

By blaming Iran, the technocrats could initiate the shutdown of all domestic banking computer systems in order to “purge” the virus and reconfigure their systems. However, this would be a false flag meant to pacify the public to avert mass panic. While the general public would fall for the cover story, the banking cartels would simply electronically transfer all customer funds from private checking accounts out to off-shore banks where they could not be touched and cover their tracks.

The American public, being told that Iran was to blame might not riot in the streets as we have seen in European countries of late. There would be total support for the war with Iran if this scheme could be pulled off. The technocrats could not only bankrupt America but also simultaneously stave off a social display and breakdown of society because the Iranians would be to blame.

The plan is perfect. All we have to do is not be fooled and use the recent riots in Spain as a barometer as to how we can take this country back from the Zionists and the banking cartels.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

[Sabrina]

More on the Pope's butler, arrested in May - wonder if any of the alleged corruption will be allowed to come to light (trial is at the Vatican)...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19767667
29 Sept

Pope's ex-butler Paolo Gabriele on trial for theft

Pope Benedict XVI's former butler has entered no plea at the start of his trial in the Vatican on charges of aggravated theft.

Paolo Gabriele, 46, admitted earlier to taking confidential documents and leaking them to the Italian media.

Mr Gabriele has told investigators that he was hoping to expose "evil and corruption" within the Church.

Saturday's session of the court dealt with procedural issues and the trial was adjourned until Tuesday.

While technically Mr Gabriele faces up to four years in prison if found guilty, he could be pardoned by the Pope.

The court decided that his fellow defendant, Vatican computer technician Claudio Sciarpelletti, would be tried separately for aiding and abetting a crime. He had exerted his right to stay away from the hearing.

If he is jailed, Mr Gabriele will serve his sentence in an Italian prison, as Vatican City has no long-term detention facilities on its territory.

Mr Gabriele was the Pope's trusted servant for years and held the keys to the papal apartments.

Many of the letters and other documents he took from the pontiff's desk were published in a book by an Italian investigative journalist in May.

The so-called "Vatileaks" scandal has sparked allegations of corruption and internal conflicts at the Holy See.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it has been one of the most difficult crises of Pope Benedict's seven-year papacy.

No TV cameras or recorders are being allowed inside the courtroom for the most high-profile case to be held in the Vatican since the Holy See was established as a sovereign state in 1929.

'Cronyism'
Mr Gabriele, elegantly dressed in a pale grey suit, is said to have appeared tense at the start of the trial.

He will be interrogated in court by the president of the Vatican City tribunal on Tuesday.

Among witnesses due to give evidence next week is Pope Benedict's private secretary, Georg Gaenswein, and one of the six German and Italian nuns who work in the pope's private household.

The chief judge says the court hopes to reach a verdict by the end of next week.

The Vatican butler was arrested in May, accused of passing papal correspondence to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book His Holiness: The secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI was published that month.

Some of the most sensational letters were written to the Pope by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, currently the Vatican's ambassador to Washington, who was deputy governor of Vatican City at the time.


Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is a key figure in the administration of the Vatican
In one letter, Archbishop Vigano complains that when he took office in 2009, he discovered corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts to outside companies at inflated prices.

He later writes about a smear campaign against him by other Vatican officials upset at his actions to clean up purchasing procedures.

The archbishop begs in vain not to be moved away from the Vatican as a punishment for exposing the alleged corruption.

Correspondents say the revelations seem aimed primarily at discrediting the Vatican's powerful Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been in his post since 2006.

Prosecutors quoted Mr Gabriele as saying during his interrogation that he knew taking the documents was wrong but he felt the Holy Spirit was inspiring him to shed light on the problems he saw around him.

He said he felt the Pope was being kept in the dark or misinformed by his collaborators.

"Seeing evil and corruption everywhere in the Church... I was sure that a shock, even a media one, would have been healthy to bring the church back on the right track," he was quoted as saying in June.

Delusional?
Pope Benedict said after his former butler's arrest that the news had "brought sadness in my heart".

Psychologists were summoned by the Vatican to determine whether Mr Gabriele could be held responsible for his actions.

The results were conflicting.

One report concluded that while he could be held accountable for his actions, he was socially dangerous, easily influenced and could "commit acts that could endanger himself or others".

This report described Mr Gabriele as subject to ideas of "grandiosity", as attention-seeking and as a simple man with a "fragile personality with paranoid tendencies covering profound personal insecurity".

Another report cited in the indictment concluded that the defendant, a father of three, had shown no signs of major psychological disorder or of being dangerous.

[ThePythonicCow]

In fact, the FDIC has announced that beginning in January 2013, they will stop insuring all deposits.
That doesn't sound quite right.

Here's what seems to me to be a more accurate statement, from US Bank Run Imminent as FDIC Expanded Deposit Insurance Ends Dec 31st (http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-bank-run-imminent-as-fdic-expanded-deposit-insurance-ends-dec-31st/):



As of January 2013 the FDIC stops offering 100% coverage for all insured deposits. That amounts to $1.6 trillion in deposits, 85-90% deposited with the TBTF mega banks. Once the insurance ramps back to $250,000 the FDIC risk amelioration offered to large depositors will cause them to flee from the insecurity of the much reduced FDIC coverage. This money will rotate immediately into short term Treasury securities. The treasury, in order to handle this flood of money, will immediately offer negative interest rates. This financing will resemble the .5% negative interest rate offered by the Swiss and Germans on the funds flooding to their banks from Spain, Greece and Italy.


The FDIC will go from ensuring all deposits, back to ensuring just the first $250,000, as it was before the crash of 2008.

The FDIC will not "stop insuring all deposits" (which reads to me like saying they will cease ensuring any deposits.)

Those of us with less than $250,000 in any one bank won't see any immediate difference in the FDIC insurance on our deposits.

Those with more than $250,000 in a single bank will likely prefer short term US Treasury notes, as (like FDIC ensured money) that money doesn't disappear if their bank defaults, but rather only disappears if the USA defaults.

Some, perhaps most, of that money from wealthier depositors, some $1.6 trillion in deposits, will be withdrawn from US banks and invested in US Treasuries. That will be a huge "run on the bank", and that will drive even lower (into negative rates) the interest rates paid on US Treasuries, placing the US Social Security funding further into the negative.

[gripreaper]

In fact, the FDIC has announced that beginning in January 2013, they will stop insuring all deposits.
That doesn't sound quite right.

Here's what seems to me to be a more accurate statement, from US Bank Run Imminent as FDIC Expanded Deposit Insurance Ends Dec 31st (http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-bank-run-imminent-as-fdic-expanded-deposit-insurance-ends-dec-31st/):



As of January 2013 the FDIC stops offering 100% coverage for all insured deposits. That amounts to $1.6 trillion in deposits, 85-90% deposited with the TBTF mega banks. Once the insurance ramps back to $250,000 the FDIC risk amelioration offered to large depositors will cause them to flee from the insecurity of the much reduced FDIC coverage. This money will rotate immediately into short term Treasury securities. The treasury, in order to handle this flood of money, will immediately offer negative interest rates. This financing will resemble the .5% negative interest rate offered by the Swiss and Germans on the funds flooding to their banks from Spain, Greece and Italy.


The FDIC will go from ensuring all deposits, back to ensuring just the first $250,000, as it was before the crash of 2008.

The FDIC will not "stop insuring all deposits" (which reads to me like saying they will cease ensuring any deposits.)

Those of us with less than $250,000 in any one bank won't see any immediate difference in the FDIC insurance on our deposits.

Those with more than $250,000 in a single bank will likely prefer short term US Treasury notes, as (like FDIC ensured money) that money doesn't disappear if their bank defaults, but rather only disappears if the USA defaults.

Some, perhaps most, of that money from wealthier depositors, some $1.6 trillion in deposits, will be withdrawn from US banks and invested in US Treasuries. That will be a huge "run on the bank", and that will drive even lower (into negative rates) the interest rates paid on US Treasuries, placing the US Social Security funding further into the negative.

The further implications of this, if you understand the Fiat Debt system, is ALL Federal Reserve Notes are due back at the central bank, the minute they are released out of thin air into the banking system. What the central bank allows, is for one to "rent" this money, and defer it's immediate return, by following certain guidelines. Interest is just "rent" on this fiat debt, and making assumptions that savings is an asset, which can be protected from this centralized fiat banking system, is fallacious.

There is NOTHING backing this fiat debt based system, as all assets are already in the hands of the cabal. All they need to do, is shrink the amount of these debt notes in circulation, and slow down the velocity of the movement of these notes, and so much of these notes will fall off the shelf where they are parked, and get absorbed back to the Federal Reserve, that it should make our heads spin.

Suffice it to say, these numbers of M1 and M2 are no longer published, so the average person has no idea how much fiat debt notes are in circulation, or how much velocity is occurring. In the Weimar Republic of the early part of the last century, the value of commodities completely reversed itself, where one ounce of gold could buy you an acre of land, and a loaf of bread was almost impossible to get, if you could afford it. Things which were not life sustaining had virtually no value at all.

This operation is being implemented by covert stealth, were the frog in being boiled to death in the warm water and has no idea the magnitude of the global decimation of the current monetary system. But one day he will, and it will be too late to jump out of the boiling pot.

So FDIC insurance is just a "feel good" lie used to sell us the notion that debt has value, when in fact, it does not and the agenda goes on unabated.

[ThePythonicCow]

There is NOTHING backing this fiat debt based system, as all assets are already in the hands of the cabal. All they need to do, is shrink the amount of these debt notes in circulation, and slow down the velocity of the movement of these notes, and so much of these notes will fall off the shelf where they are parked, and get absorbed back to the Federal Reserve, that it should make our heads spin.
They're running scare tactics on us ... getting us to fear hyperinflation.

But what I suspect is more likely is that we will be pinched between (1) fewer US Dollars, circulating slower and (2) higher prices for anything imported (only affects those who purchase food or gas or anything that depends on those), as other nations will not value the US Dollars they receive in trade as highly.

We Americans won't be buying a loaf of bread with a wheel barrow full of high denomination notes, but will be looking under the sofa cushions for a few dollars to purchase bread, walking to the store because we can't afford gas, and hoping the grocery store shelf is not empty.

Unemployment, and underemployment (working at a job that pays less than in the "good times") will increase. Government benefits will shrink; retirement funding expectations will fail. Less money to be had, and harder to get it. But more money needed for anything we import (anything that fits on a ship.)

[gripreaper]

There is NOTHING backing this fiat debt based system, as all assets are already in the hands of the cabal. All they need to do, is shrink the amount of these debt notes in circulation, and slow down the velocity of the movement of these notes, and so much of these notes will fall off the shelf where they are parked, and get absorbed back to the Federal Reserve, that it should make our heads spin.
They're running scare tactics on us ... getting us to fear hyperinflation.

But what I suspect is more likely is that we will be pinched between (1) fewer US Dollars, circulating slower and (2) higher prices for anything imported (only affects those who purchase food or gas or anything that depends on those), as other nations will not value the US Dollars they receive in trade as highly.

We Americans won't be buying a loaf of bread with a wheel barrow full of high denomination notes, but will be looking under the sofa cushions for a few dollars to purchase bread, walking to the store because we can't afford gas, and hoping the grocery store shelf is not empty.

Unemployment, and underemployment (working at a job that pays less than in the "good times") will increase. Government benefits will shrink; retirement funding expectations will fail. Less money to be had, and harder to get it. But more money needed for anything we import (anything that fits on a ship.)

Yup. And after all of the coins under the couch cushions are gone (savings accounts), then the next things to go on the auction block to raise cash, would be all of the discretionary devices, such as boats, motor homes, big screen TV's, or anything you cannot eat.

The biggest hit, in such a scenario, is the real estate market. While the pundits proclaim that the "bottom is IN" in real estate, and that NOW is the very best time to buy, we are due for another 30% drop in the near future, as commodity prices continue to escalate.

The cost of gasoline was $1.85 four years ago when Obama took office, and is currently pushing $4.00 a gallon. Once the cost of fuel outstrips the consumers ability to pay the premium, a combination of deflation and inflation will rage unabated. Already, in just the last two months, corn, wheat and soy have gone up an average of 25%, and this premium has not hit the store shelves yet. Probably this winter when heating fuel prices are the highest.

This is not fear mongering, this is engineered to happen. Those of us who see this coming and are preparing with basic tools and supplies to provide for our own self sufficiency, our own fuel and food supplies, out of debt, will do best in such a scenario.

Those in the cities who are up to their eyeballs in debt, and depend completely on the centralized system, will not fare well at all.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

This "plane crash" just wont go...

Remains of Smolensk plane crash victims swapped: prosecutors
(Reuters) - A plane crash in Russia in 2010 that claimed the lives of Poland's president and 94 others is once again troubling ties between Moscow and Warsaw after the revelation that some grieving families received the wrong bodies to bury.

The remains of Polish Solidarity activist Anna Walentynowicz were swapped with the body of another victim, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Investigators exhumed the two bodies last week after inconsistencies in documents provided by Russia, which oversaw the local investigation of the Smolensk disaster, raised doubts whether the correct remains were passed on to families.

The discovery will likely lead to further exhumations and spark further protests by some Poles over the investigation of the crash, which Russian authorities blamed on the crew of the government Tu-154 on April 10, 2010.

"The prosecutor's office is looking into the issue of exchanging the bodies and is investigating the evidence also from this angle," said Colonel Zbigniew Rzepa, a spokesman for the military prosecutor's office.

Disputes over the handling of the investigation have frayed the often testy relations between Moscow and Warsaw, whose investigators also blamed Russian traffic controllers for allowing the plane to attempt a landing in heavy fog.

The family of Anna Walentynowicz, whose sacking at the Gdansk shipyard in August 1980 sparked protests that led to the creation of the Solidarity trade union, said last week that they had proof that the body exhumed from a family grave in Gdansk was not hers.

"The question of finding grandma and making sure that her last will of resting next to her husband is fulfilled is one chapter which we are closing here," said her grandson, Piotr Walentynowicz.

"But we are now opening another chapter of who is responsible," he said.

The remains of the Smolensk victims, including then President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, were examined by Russian investigators in the presence of Polish officials in Moscow before being flown back to Warsaw in metal coffins.

Law and Justice, Poland's main opposition party led by Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, has criticised Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government for its handling of the Smolensk investigation.

Some rightist groups have accused the Russian and Polish governments of being at least partially responsible for the disaster.

The prosecutors did not say whose remains were swapped with those of Walentynowicz.

Polish military prosecutors plan to exhume four additional bodies and representatives of families of other victims said they expected many more remains to be examined.

(Reporting by Chris Borowski; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/25/us-poland-crash-idUSBRE88O0P020120925
Another article: http://rt.com/news/poland-smolenk-russia-bodies-960/

[ThePythonicCow]

Fascinating article.

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/08/julian-assange-international-intrigue-and-whats-going-on-with-ecuador/#more-141865

Julian Assange, International Intrigue and What’s Going On With Ecuador

sage: This article was found by Jeannie, a member of The 2012 Scenario Discussion Group. It is from an Italian-language blog called ‘Free Thought: The Home of the Italian Exiles at Home’ by Nicola di Cora Modigliani. The original is in Italian here: http://sergiodicorimodiglianji.blogspot.it/2012/08/lattacco-alla-repubblica-del-ecuador.html

Nicola describes the blog’s philosophy ths: “the purpose of this blog is to contribute to the spread of free thought without ideological ties, without party affiliations, without economic dependence on [sources] more or less hidden. Independent and connected to groups of international bloggers operating in California and South America”.

Assange and the Attack on the Republic of Ecuador
By Nicola di Cora Modigliani – August 18, 2012

http://sergiodicorimodiglianji.blogspot.it

Important Note: Re-edited in English from Google translation by Sandhya Jain.

Today we talk of geo-politics and the freedom of information. But what is happening today technically (i.e. politically) began on 12 December 2008, though some say September of that year, but it took four years for the shock waves to reach Europe and America.

...
A new thread has begun (a month later) on this article. See Assange and the Attack on the Republic of Ecuador (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50392-Assange-and-the-Attack-on-the-Republic-of-Ecuador).

[Sabrina]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/top-banker-faces-3m-insider-trading-charge-8193214.html

2 Oct UK

Top banker faces £3m insider trading charge

Former Treasury adviser Martyn Dodgson facing prosecution over long-running conspiracy


Four men, including one of the most senior bankers in the City, were charged yesterday with insider trading by the leading finance watchdog.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) says that Martyn Dodgson, Andrew Hind, Benjamin Anderson and Iraj Parvizi conducted a long-running conspiracy to trade on inside information between November 2006 and March 2010, netting profits of £3m.

Mr Dodgson is the most high-profile name involved in the case and probably the best-known City figure ever to be charged with insider dealing.

As a high-flying managing director at Deutsche Bank, he was regarded as one of the top bankers in London with impeccable sources in both politics and finance.

Before the scandal first broke he was advising the Treasury on its investment in the bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds. He had previously worked for other top banks including Cazenove and Lehman Brothers.

All four men were bailed to attend Westminster magistrates' court on 19 October.

They face prison sentences of up to seven years as well as bans from the City if found guilty.

The FSA describes the investigation, dubbed Operation Tabernula, as its largest and most complex insider dealing case to date.

The watchdog has long pledged to clamp down on insider trading, a practice it regards as rife but which is notoriously difficult to prove. It has had some success lately, securing 20 convictions over the last three years.

In this instance the allegation is that the conspirators were "front running" – that is, taking large positions in stocks ahead of clients that are known to be buying the same stocks.

Five other men have also been arrested in connection with the inquiry since 2010, but have not yet been charged. These men include Julian Rifat of the Mayfair hedge fund Moore Capital and Clive Roberts of Exane BNP Paribas.

The FSA said: "A number of individuals remain under investigation."

Messrs Dodgson and Hinds both live in north London. Mr Anderson lives in Surrey and Mr Parvizi in Spain. A lawyer for Mr Parvizi said he "emphatically denies the charges and is determined to clear his name". A lawyer for Mr Dodgson did not return a call seeking comment.

It is thought the FSA case centres on share trading in scores of companies, including household names such as Barclays and National Express.

In March 2010, more than 140 officers carried out dawn raids on 16 addresses across London and the South-east, seizing documents and computers. The investigation is being carried out jointly with the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The City regulator has pursued a series of insider dealing cases since admitting in 2008 that its light touch approach to policing the Square Mile was not working.

This is easily its most important case, however, and will allow the watchdog, which is in the process of being dismantled and replaced by the new Financial Conduct Authority, to bow out on a high note.

[Sabrina]

More evidence of the truth coming out, but very late in this case - child abuse allegations coming out about the now deceased UK TV celebrity Sir Jimmy Saville who worked a lot with children and charities. These rumours have gone on for years and have been squashed up until now.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/paul-gambaccini-claims-sir-jimmy-savile-used-charity-work-to-prevent-sexual-abuse-of-schoolchildren-being-exposed-8191761.html

2 Oct UK


Paul Gambaccini claims Sir Jimmy Savile used charity work to prevent sexual abuse of schoolchildren being exposed
Speaking ahead of a documentary that claims Savile abused schoolgirls, Gambaccini said his former Radio 1 colleague played tabloid newspapers 'like a Stradivarius' in order to keep the abuse secret


Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini has added to the claims that Sir Jimmy Savile sexually abused schoolchildren, claiming the star used his charity work and ‘imperial personality’ within show business to prevent his private life being exposed.

Speaking ahead of a forthcoming ITV documentary that claims Savile abused schoolgirls during his many years of stardom, Gambaccini said his former Radio 1 colleague played tabloid newspapers “like a Stradivarius” in order to keep the abuse secret.

Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, which is due to be screened on Wednesday night, will detail claims from women that the late television personality sexually abused school girls in his Rolls-Royce and at BBC Television Centre. The allegations date back to the 1970s.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/02/anglo-irish-bank-company-developer

2 Oct Ireland

Developer claims Anglo Irish Bank offered him €1m to dissolve company

Peter Curistan has complained to police in UK and Ireland about the now state-owned Irish bank


A Belfast businessman has made complaints to police on both sides of the Irish border that one of the republic's state-rescued banks offered him around €1m, which in turn would have deprived the UK tax office of its share of €3m.

A potential Garda Siochána inquiry into the continuing battle between property investor Peter Curistan and the former Anglo Irish Bank has raised the prospect of the republic's police force carrying out a criminal investigation into a financial institution owned by its own government.

Curistan is fighting several legal battles with the bank. It has emerged that one of the claims, relating to a hearing in Dublin last year, alleges that a senior executive at Anglo Irish offered Curistan £750,000 to dissolve his property company Sheridan Millennium Ltd and thus "burn" his main creditors – Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The offer of the money has now been reported as a criminal complaint to the Garda Siochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Anglo Irish was the bank that almost bankrupted Ireland after the financial crash of 2008. It had become the preferred bank of property developers and speculators, who used billions of loans to fuel the republic's booming commercial sector and housing market. Anglo Irish and other banks were accused of encouraging speculation that left the country saddled with huge bank debts, and resulted in the EU/International Monetary Fund bailout.

The fallout from Anglo's collapse has already included the virtual destruction of a business empire controlled by Ireland's one-time richest man, Sean Quinn, who borrowed heavily from the bank in the Celtic Tiger years.

Like Quinn, Curistan has tried to fight back against attempts by the now state-owned bank – now known as the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) – to seize his assets. Unlike Quinn, the former Hong Kong-based entrepreneur is seeking to turn a financial battle in the courts into a criminal inquiry.

He said: "The reason why they [IBRC] did this was because as part of a plan to dispose of the Odyssey Pavilion [an entertainment venue in Belfast], the bank had agreed to pay almost €3m [to] creditors, of which HMRC was owed a considerable amount. The €1m was to encourage me to wind up the company without the bank then needing to make those commitments. Clearly I was totally shocked at how a state-owned bank could blatantly asked me to partake in such activity.

"As a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, I had a duty to report allegations of criminal activity to the appropriate authorities. And this is why both the PSNI and the Garda have been informed of this in recent weeks," he said.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9580405/JPMorgan-sued-by-New-York-Attorney-General-over-mortgage-backed-securities.html

1 Oct US


JPMorgan sued by New York Attorney General over mortgage-backed securities

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for fraud over faulty mortgage-backed securities packaged and sold by the former Bear Stearns.

It was the first action to come out of a working group created by President Barack Obama to go after alleged wrongdoing in the financial crisis, Reuters reported.

JPMorgan, which bought one-time rival Bear Stearns for $2 a share in March 2008, said in a statement it intended to contest the allegations.

The lawsuit alleged a "systematic abandonment of underwriting guidelines" in the selling of home loans that went into securities peddled by Bear Stearns.

In its statement, JPMorgan noted that the allegations concern actions by Bear Stearns before it was acquired by JPMorgan.

"The NYAG civil action relates to Bear Stearns, which we acquired over the course of a weekend at the behest of the US Government. This complaint is entirely about historic conduct by that entity," the statement said.

Mr Schneiderman, a co-chair of the task force, told Reuters on September 20 his office would take action shortly and that he expected his federal counterparts on the task force to do so as well.

The Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group was formed to probe the pooling and sale of risky mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

Mr Obama, who is scheduled to debate with his Republican rival Mitt Romney on Wednesday night, said in January he was creating the group to "hold accountable those who broke the law" and "help turn the page on an era of recklessness".

The task force includes the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Internal Revenue Service.

[Sabrina]

http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/58355

Greece

A website has published the names of 36 current and former politicians and ministers being audited or investigated by the Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE) for financial irregularities and suspicious acquisition of wealth.

The list was published on Thursday on the zougla.gr website.

The publication of the list has generated considerable controversy as none of those included on it are guilty of any wrongdoing and unless convicted cannot be accused of unlawful activity.

Financial prosecutor Grigoris Peponis on Friday ordered an urgent probe into the leak of a list, as the list of names appeared Friday on a news blog on the internet.

He assigned prosecutor Katerina Antoniou to conduct a probe into who leaked the document.

In the meantime, Supreme Court chief prosecutor Ioannis Tentes ordered prosecutor Eleni Raikou to conduct an urgent preliminary investigation into the continued leaks of SDOE material.


The list, which also includes New Democracy's Karmanlis Foundation research institute, is as follows:

Nikoloas Andrianopoulos Former finance minister general secretary.

Ioannis Anthopoulos (Pasok) Former deputy education minister. The investigation began in April 2012 and concerns his involvement as legal counsel to a number of companies which the SDOE were auditing. A request has been made to open his bank accounts.

Dimitris Apostolakis (Pasok) Former defence minister under Kostas Simitis.

Fotis Arvanitis (Pasok) Former MP for Fokida.

Antonis Bezas (ND) Former MP for Thesprotia (2000–2009). SDOE audit following complaints.

Marina Chrysoveloni (Independent Greeks) MP for Magnesia. The SDOE in Thessaly is carrying out an audit.

Panayiotis Fasoulas (Pasok) Former MP and mayor of Piraeus. Audit started after SDOE received complaints.

Filippos Fountis (Ecogreens) Parliamentary candidate in the 2012 elections. The SDOE in Thessaly began an audit on 23 April 2012 and is currently writing the report.

Apostolos Fotiadis (Pasok) Former deputy finance minister. Investigation follows a complaint of illegal enrichment. An audit of his income and expenditure has been made for the years 2000-2012 and on the properties he has declared in his tax return. A request has been made for bank account data.

Michalis Halkidis (ND) Former MP for Imathia and former mayor of Meliki. Audit on the basis of an allegation of illegal enrichment.

Nikitas Kaklamanis (ND) Former mayor of Athens and current MP. The period being audited concerns his time as mayor and is as a result of a complaint received by the SDOE in June 2012 concerning Athens municipal radio (98.4 FM), declaration of income statements and illegal deposits abroad. The audit has not begun.

Panos Kammenos (former ND, now Independent Greeks leader) Under examination for the period he was New Democracy MP. The SDOE will open his bank accounts after it has received the relevant order from prosecutors.

Michalis Karchimakis (Pasok) Former Pasok national council secretary. The SDOE is acting on an anonymous complaint alleging illegal enrichment on his part and that he owns three hotels in Ierapetra, which may not be in his name.

Nikos Konstantopoulos (Synaspismos) Former leader of Synaspismos (Left Coalition), which is now the core element in Syriza (Radical Left Coalition).

Michalis Liapis (New Democracy) Former transport and culture minister. Being audited on foot of a complaint about illegal enrichment.

Konstantinos Liaskas Former public works minister (1989-90) in Xenophon Zolotas' coalition government.

Tasos Mandelis (Pasok) Former transport and communications minister. The SDOE is carrying out a tax audit and bank account inspection in relation to the Siemens bribery scandal.

Petros Mantouvalos (ND) Lawyer and former MP for Piraeus (2000–2007). Being audited on the basis of an allegation of illegal enrichment.

Evangelos Meimarakis (ND) Current parliamentary speaker. SDOE audit on the strength of complaints received.

Thanasis Nakos (ND) Deputy parliamentary speaker. The SDOE investigation began on 15 March 2012 and is at the data-collection stage.

Yiorgos Orfanos (ND) Former MP for Thessaloniki. Audit relates to his time as deputy sports minister (2004-2007).

Fevronia Patrianakou (ND) MP for Lakonia. Subject of an audit on the basis of a complaint received by the Inspectorate for the Control of Public Administration(SEEDD).The banks have been requested to provide her bank account data.

Yiannos Papantoniou (Pasok) Former finance and defence minister. His wife is also being audited. The investigation, which began on the orders of a prosecutor, is awaiting account data from the banks.
Yiorgos Patoulis Mayor of Marousi. Under audit on the basis of allegations of illegal enrichment.

Ioannis Sbokos (Pasok) Former MP and general secretary at the defence ministry. Investigation on the basis of a prosecutor's order.

Aris Spiliotopoulos (ND) Former education ministry and current MP. Audit ordered after an anonymous complaint was received. The tax office is seeking his source of income declaration and the banks have been asked to hand over bank account data.

Spilios Spiliotopoulos (ND) Former defence minister (2004–2006), the period for which he is being audited.

Nikos Tagaris (ND) Former prefect of Corinthia and current MP for the same area. Audit launched on 14 October 2011 and the SDOE is currently collecting data from banks.

Elpida Tsouri (Pasok) Former MP and deputy minister of maritime affairs, Aegean and fisheries. Under investigation for her period as MP.

Akis Tsochatzopoulos (Pasok) Former defence minister. Currently on remand awaiting trial.

Leonidas Tzanis (Pasok) Former deputy interior minister. Controlled by SDOE Thessaloniki. Investigation launched on 31 May 2012 and the SDOE is currently collecting data from banks and analysing his source of income declaration.

Christos Verelis (Pasok) Former transport and communications minister. Audit underway after complaint was received.

Eliza Vozemberg (ND) Former MP for Athens A constituency.

Yiorgos Voulgarakis (ND) Former public order, culture and merchant marine minister. Investigation at the request (18 July 2012) of the financial prosecutor. The accounts of him and his wife are to be opened. Case at an early stage.

Alexandros Voulgaris (Pasok) Former MP for Magnesia. Under audit by the SDOE in Thessaly, which is currently collecting data.

Christos Zachopoulos Former general secretary of culture ministry under New Democracy.

Karamanlis Foundation Audit underway at New Democracy's research institute for mismanagement.

According to other reports, the SDOE is investigating four other politicial figures:

George Zanias Former caretaker finance minister.

Mariliza Xenoyiannakopoulou (Pasok) Former deputy foreign minister.

Yannis Maniatis (Pasok) Former deputy environment minister.

Spyros Travlos Former secretary general for armaments (2002) under Kostas Simitis.

Reaction

There has been strong reaction from some of those names appear on the lists.

Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos vigorously denied that he owns real estate in Galaxidi, noting that the properties being looked at by SDOE have been in his family "for decades". He said he hoped his name was on the list due to an oversight.

Christos Verelis said that these days " everyone seems to be hunting everyone".

Marina Chrysoveloni called for a speedy completion of the investigation of all the cases pending SDOE cases involving political figures.

In a letter to deputy finance minister responsible for the SDOE, George Mavraganis, former Athens mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said that his name was contained in the list on the basis of "anonymous and totally unfounded charges".

He claimed that the officer of mayor had nothing to do with the financial management of Athens municipal radio, which was is governed by an interparty board of directors and chairman.

He demanded a full investigation into all the accusations in order to expose what he said was a campaign of slander against him. He added that he would take legal action based on the results. (Additional reporting AMNA)

28 Sept

and more here:

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_01/10/2012_463995

[Sabrina]

http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/rt-judge-slams-occupy-chicago-arrests-as-unconstitutional-throws-out-case/

1 Oct US

RT: Judge slams Occupy Chicago arrests as ‘unconstitutional,’ throws out case

A Cook County judge dismissed charges against 92 Occupy protesters arrested in a Chicago park last October, ruling that the city’s overnight park curfew violated the First Amendment and was being enforced selectively.

Associate Judge Thomas M. Donnelly noted that police had arrested hundreds in a crackdown on the protesters’ encampment when the park closed at 11:00pm local time, but had not moved against the 500,000 people who came to see Barack Obama after he won the presidency in 2008.

“The city arrested no one at the Obama 2008 presidential election victory rally, even though the Obama rally was equally in violation of the curfew,” Judge Donnelly wrote.

The judge added that the selective enforcement of the curfew, combined with the Chicago Police Department’s harassment of protesters in the days leading up to the arrests, supported “a finding that the city intended to discriminate against defendants based on their views.”

Judge Donnelly threw out the arrests, and slammed the city for denying the protesters their First Amendment rights. Citing the park’s long history of political rallies dating back to Abraham Lincoln, Donnelly quoted early city leaders who resolved in 1835 that the land that became Grant Park ”should be reserved for all time to come for a public square, accessible at all times to the people.”

The judge’s opinion stood in stark contrast to that of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, which in the months leading up to the NATO conference in Chicago had repeatedly pointed to the handling of the Occupy arrests as a new model for respecting protesters’ rights.

The city plans to appeal the judge’s ruling.

It is also unclear whether the ruling would affect the cases of the more than 200 arrested protesters who were earlier placed under court-mandated supervision to avoid having a conviction on their records.

[Sabrina]

More shifts?

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/10/01/u-s-ambassador-to-the-u-n-susan-rice-skipped-netanyahu-speech/

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice Skipped Netanyahu Speech

1 Oct


Neither Hillary Clinton nor Ambassador Rice was in attendance at Netanyahu’s speech.

RT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations General Assembly this week, but don’t ask around Washington if you want to hear the highlights: the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, skipped the Thursday afternoon speech.
Not only did Rice walk out of the General Assembly before Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a speech amid worsening tensions between the US and Israel, but her behavior fell perfectly in line with the attitude of the rest of the Obama administration as of late. US President Barack Obama had earlier refused a private meeting with the prime minister, and although he asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to listen in on Thursday’s address on behalf of the White House, neither Mrs. Clinton nor Ambassador Rice was in attendance.

In an op-ed published by Fox News this week, reporter Anne Bayefsky writes that Rice “is said to have had more important things to do” than attend Netanyahu’s address.

On-the-air, Fox commentator Greta Van Susteren explained exactly what urgent matters kept the United States’ ambassador from attending.

“Today, our UN ambassador, Susan Rice, did not attend the speech by the prime minister because the speeches went long today. Instead she elected to go to a lunch with foreign ministers, and so she wasn’t present,” Van Susteren explained.

“We had our envoy there and we had our US ambassador to Israel there, but for some reason it would appear to me that in light of the problems we’ve had showing our closeness with this country — she should have been there,” she added.

John Bolton who is the moral savage who brought shame on his country each day that he sat as America’s ambassador (unconfirmed) at the UN and who had told the world that a dead Israeli civilian is worth a whole lot more in terms of moral outrage than a Lebanese one.

John Bolton, the United States’ ambassador to the UN under former President George W Bush, said he was shocked by Rice’s behavior as well, but isn’t surprised entirely when he considers it with the rest of the Obama administration’s actions during the last three-and-a-half years.

“From the Obama administration point of view, I would have thought she would have attended both the Netanyahu speech and Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority,” Bolton told Van Susteren. “Instead she went to have lunch with Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council.”

“Ultimately that’s Hillary Clinton’s call,” Bolton said. If he was still representing the United States, however, he would have probably acted otherwise.

“As I say, I would have recommended being in the hall to have a higher ranking official there,” Bolton quipped. Under this administration, however, he doesn’t necessarily expect anything more.

Under US President Barack Obama, said Bolton, the United States has shown “Utter disdain for both Prime Minister Netanyahu and the state of Israel.”

“It’s simply one more brick in the wall of the case that the president is perfectly prepared to isolate Israel and that he does not hold the US/Israel relationship in the same high regard as every president going back to Harry Truman,” Bolton added, referring to the commander-in-chief who oversaw America from 1945 until 1953.

Earlier in the month, Israeli authorities asked the White House for a personal sit-down with President Obama during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the United States. The Obama administration declined, citing scheduling conflicts. The president later appeared on “The View” television program with his wife.

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed that President Obama made plans to speak with Prime Minister Netanyahu over the phone this week. Earlier in the month, they held an hour-long telephone conversation as “part of their ongoing consultations,” the White House said, and on Friday administration spokespeople confirmed that the two are in “full agreement” on preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapon following their latest talk.

[Sabrina]

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/113032/argentina-doesnt-owe-the-imf-an-explanation-senator-fernández

1 Oct Argentina

'Argentina doesn't owe the IMF an explanation,' Senator Fernández

Victory Front Senator Aníbal Fernandéz reiterated today the country doesn’t owe the International Monetary Fund (IMF) an explanation over the inflation statistics given out by the INDEC National Statistics Institute.

The INDEC has been under fire for allegedly masking those numbers and for releasing random statistics differing from scholars and independent economic consultants.

“Argentina does not owe the IMF anything and will take its decision as a sovereign country”, the Senator said during an interview at a local TV show.

Fernández also called the IMF “insolent” after its Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she could give Argentina a “red card” if the statistics measurement methods don’t change.

“The President already responded to the arrogant remarks made by the IMF’s head who dared to use a football term to talk about the country”, the congressman explained.

“Nobody, especially her (Lagarde), will tell Argentina what to do.”

[Sabrina]

More on the latest JP Morgan case from BBC's Business editor, Robert Preston:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19797396

2 Oct

JP Morgan’s subprime horror

There are two jaw-dropping elements to the case brought Monday night against JP Morgan by the attorney general of the state of New York. First is the estimate that investors incurred $22.5bn of losses on $87bn of bonds made out of low-quality mortgages and sold to them in 2006 and 2007 alone.

Second is the disclosure of a manic and frenzied culture of procuring and packaging as many mortgages as humanly possible, to maintain the bonds spewing from the investment bank, to generate as much short-term profit as humanly possible.

All this is a bit like the fifth instalment in a series of horror films, with each succeeding production gorier than the preceding one.

Strong language is involved in the evidence detailed below.

It is important to point out that JP Morgan itself may well feel itself something of a victim here, because the charges of fraud are against Bear Stearns, the investment bank acquired by Morgan with the encouragement of regulators, in 2008.

While JP Morgan's apparent ignorance of selling practices at Bear Stearns may be a defence in the court of public opinion, it may not be in a court of law.

The charges are all about the way that loans to borrowers assessed as being of lower credit quality, so-called subprime or Alt-A loans, were made by mortgage companies and then processed into mortgage-backed bonds and collateralised debt obligations by investments banks such as Bear Stearns.


The New York attorney general also charges that Bear Stearns failed to honour a commitment that once the bonds had been issued, delinquent loans would be removed from the bonds and replaced with better ones.

In the words of the attorney general, "defendants' misconduct in connection with their due diligence and quality control processes constituted a systemic fraud on thousands of investors". He continues, "as a result of this fraudulent misconduct, investors were deceived about the fundamentally defective character of the mortgages underlying the RMBS they purchased".

Now you might think much of this is familiar. Surely we have been overwhelmed with evidence in recent years that the securitisation of US subprime mortgages evolved into a giant Ponzi scheme at the height of the investment banking boom.


That is so. But it is noteworthy that banks in the US - and UK - that are trying to clean themselves up cannot yet escape from the costs of the sins of their past.

Also it is the anecdotal detail in the case that is particularly gripping.

As one example, an internal Bear Stearns email of June 2006 is cited which says that 60% of loans being bought from a particular mortgage company, AHM, were 30 days or more delinquent or behind on payments.

But even after learning about the defectiveness of the loans, Bear Stearns "went on to issue over 30 subprime and Alt-A securitisations that included AHM loans", says the attorney general.

Another email cites a Bear Stearns executive as asking whether a particular bond sale was a "going out of business sale" and expressing a wish to "close this dog". A further securitisation was described as a "sack of ****" and a "**** breather".

So why did Bear Stearns' bankers allegedly hold their noses and flog all this disgusting stuff? In the words of the attorney general, it was "enormously profitable". In 2006, Bear Stearns was the number one underwriter of mortgage-backed securities, with 11% of the US mortgage securities market. And a business it owned called EMC securitised more than one million mortgage loans with a value greater than $212bn between 2003 to 2006.

Which is a reminder that the scale of what went wrong in the subprime market was not just any old banking accident, but that the disclosure of losses in this market became the trigger (though not the cause) of the economic malaise that afflicts us to this day.

[applecrusher1992]

http://www.project.nsearch.com/profiles/blogs/jpmorgan-chase-bank-dick-jamie-dimon-indicted






BREAKING: JPMorgan Chase Bank Dick Jamie Dimon Indicted

Posted by Glenn Canady on October 2, 2012 at 10:30pm
View Blogs

Glenn Canady

www.project.nsearch



This story is moving fast! We are going to be DAYS ahead of the mainstream media in reporting that JPMorgan Chase CEO - Jamie Dimon has had an arrest warrant issued by the FBI! This story which was broken by Tom Heneghan is EXPLOSIVE! The banksters have robbed America since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the Fake CIA News and political puppets will not discuss this fraud!



To stay informed of BREAKING stories such as this and many other important things such as Free Energy, Cancer Cures and much more be sure to join our site at www.project.nsearch.com so you get our daily updates. Also be sure to listen to Nsearch Radio using the player at the top of the page or at www.blogtalkradio.com/nsearchradio or listen to our entire show archive through Itunes by searching the Podcasts for "Nsearch Radio".



UPDATE 10/2/2012 10:30 pm

Tom Hartmann is now reporting that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Files Civil Suit Against JP Morgan, Chase and More!



http://truth-out.org/news/item/11891-on-the-news-with-thom-hartmann...







Note: Please also visit Stew Webb's site at www.stewwebb.com and view his "Ex Parte Motion for Preliminary Injuctive Relief" for further information on this topic and much more! Share this information EVERYWHERE to put the light on the crooks!





HOT EXPLOSIVE BREAKING NEWS: JPMorgan Chase Bank Dick Jamie Dimon Indicted



http://www.myspace.com/tom_heneghan_intel/blog


Tom Heneghan explosive intelligence briefings ALL patriot Americans MUST know, with sources inside American/European intelligence agencies and INTERPOL, reporting what is really going on behind the scenes of the corporate-controlled, fascist, extortion-friendly propaganda U.S. media's massive deceptions

[Phoenix]

Via THE NEW ECONOMIC RIGHTS ALLIANCE in South Africa


http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/south-african-banks-must-pay-out-big.html

South African Banks Must Pay Out Big Time

Securitisation has yielded massive profits for the banks while the customer continually loses out. Because they did not disclose what they were doing to the customer and did not inform the customer that their debt had been settled, we believe
PS. If you would like to demand answers from your bank right now, below is a list of questions that you can ask. If you are lucky enough to receive a response, read it carefully. You will notice that your questions will probably not be answered directly. Click here for a list of contact details.
Am I indebted to the bank right now? (Please answer yes or no).
Please confirm that the bank actually possessed the money they claim to have lent me, prior to my loan being granted. In other words, did the bank physically have the money they lent me, prior to the money appearing in my account?
Would the bank be prepared to amend the credit agreement as follows: “We, the bank, did in fact possess the money we loaned you, prior to the loan being approved.”
Was the loan funded by assets belonging to the bank at the time the loan was granted? Either way, please describe in detail the accounting process used to create my loan.
Did the bank record my promissory note / negotiable instrument as an asset on its books? If yes, how was my instrument used to create my loan, and where is my valuable promissory note / negotiable instrument now?
Does the bank participate in a securitisation scheme whereby debts / promissory notes are bundled and then sold-on to a third party/parties via special purpose vehicles, entities or alike processes?
Was my loan securitised? If so, please send me all details regarding the securitisation.
Does the bank have a legal right to collect money it claims I owe it? If so, then were does this legal right come from, assuming the loan has been securitised?
Has my loan with the bank been settled by a special purpose vehicle, insurance policy, or by any other party?
Regarding the security given to the bank by me, has this security been sold on or given as security to another party?

Sabrina, thanks a million for posting this thread. I am learning so much. I am a US citizen, with $80,000+ of private student loan debt with Great Lakes from Discover... This was the worst decision of my life to enter into this debt, I'd do anything ethical to get rid of it. Can you point me somewhere? Thanks so much..

[Sabrina]

Via THE NEW ECONOMIC RIGHTS ALLIANCE in South Africa


http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/south-african-banks-must-pay-out-big.html

South African Banks Must Pay Out Big Time

Securitisation has yielded massive profits for the banks while the customer continually loses out. Because they did not disclose what they were doing to the customer and did not inform the customer that their debt had been settled, we believe
PS. If you would like to demand answers from your bank right now, below is a list of questions that you can ask. If you are lucky enough to receive a response, read it carefully. You will notice that your questions will probably not be answered directly. Click here for a list of contact details.
Am I indebted to the bank right now? (Please answer yes or no).
Please confirm that the bank actually possessed the money they claim to have lent me, prior to my loan being granted. In other words, did the bank physically have the money they lent me, prior to the money appearing in my account?
Would the bank be prepared to amend the credit agreement as follows: “We, the bank, did in fact possess the money we loaned you, prior to the loan being approved.”
Was the loan funded by assets belonging to the bank at the time the loan was granted? Either way, please describe in detail the accounting process used to create my loan.
Did the bank record my promissory note / negotiable instrument as an asset on its books? If yes, how was my instrument used to create my loan, and where is my valuable promissory note / negotiable instrument now?
Does the bank participate in a securitisation scheme whereby debts / promissory notes are bundled and then sold-on to a third party/parties via special purpose vehicles, entities or alike processes?
Was my loan securitised? If so, please send me all details regarding the securitisation.
Does the bank have a legal right to collect money it claims I owe it? If so, then were does this legal right come from, assuming the loan has been securitised?
Has my loan with the bank been settled by a special purpose vehicle, insurance policy, or by any other party?
Regarding the security given to the bank by me, has this security been sold on or given as security to another party?

Sabrina, thanks a million for posting this thread. I am learning so much. I am a US citizen, with $80,000+ of private student loan debt with Great Lakes from Discover... This was the worst decision of my life to enter into this debt, I'd do anything ethical to get rid of it. Can you point me somewhere? Thanks so much..

Hi Phoenix, sorry but I don't know what you can do in the present system and am not an expert on US finances... However, I'm one of those who does believe the current dysfunctional corrupt financial system doesn't have long for this world and if we hang on in there, we can expect pleasant changes :)...

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Interesting one perhaps.....

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/world-leaders-cancel-trips-and-meetings.html

World Leaders Cancel Trips and Meetings


MKedcvHmnpQ

[Sabrina]

More on the Monsanto story and yet more reasons for optimism...

http://www.nationofchange.org/end-monsanto-near-prop-37-succeeding-nations-ban-gmo-crops-1348924495

Is the end of Monsanto near Prop 37 succeeding as nations ban GMO crops


Published: Saturday 29 September 2012
“After the study not only did France call for a potential worldwide ban on GMOs pending the results of their in-depth analysis, but Russia’s major consumer rights organization announced a ban on both the importation and use of Monsanto’s GMO corn.”


Is the end of Monsanto within reach? It has certainly been a rough couple of weeks for the mega corporation as the real dangers surrounding GMOs are being brought to the attention of consumers on a global scale like never before. It all started with the monumental French study finding a serious link between the consumption of Monsanto’s Roundup-drenched GMOs and massive tumors. Being called the ‘most thorough’ research ever published on the real health effects of GMOs, the study led to even larger victories.

After the study not only did France call for a potential worldwide ban on GMOs pending the results of their in-depth analysis, but Russia’s major consumer rights organization announced a ban on both the importation and use of Monsanto’s GMO corn.

Prop 37 Can Label Monsanto Out of Existence

And now, the Proposition to label all GMOs in the state of California is showing massive success. If Prop 37 passes, it won’t just affect California. It is very likely that other states will not just take note, but adopt similar legislation. Through this legal mechanism, we can essential label Monsanto out of existence. This is possible when considering that the average consumer is actually opposed to GMOs and heavily in favor of proper labeling.

NationofChange fights back with one simple but powerful weapon: the truth. Can you donate $5 to help us?

In a major Los Angeles Times poll, registered California voters in favor of labeling outnumber pro-GMO voters by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Altogether, a whopping 61% of those polled reported supporting the Prop 37 labeling initiative. Only 25% reported opposing it.

If GMO-containing products are properly labeled, the simple fact of the matter is that less people will buy them. As of right now, very few people are even aware of what they are putting in their mouth. In fact, if the public knew that they were consuming GMOs which were linked to massive tumors and organ failure, the overwhelming majority would abandon such products. Without labeling, however, they have no idea. The same can also be said for other ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame.

As Yes on 37 campaign manager Gary Ruskin explains:

“Monsanto, DuPont, and Coca-Cola do not want Californians to know what’s really in their food and drinks, because they fear consumers will turn away from their genetically engineered ingredients and pesticides that go with them.”

If they knew they were eating mercury in the HFCS and consuming an artificial sweetener with over 42 associated diseases, then major change would occur – change that includes forcing manufacturers to abandon these ingredients in order to stay profitable. And after all, Monsanto’s number one goal is profit. This is a company that has been caught running ‘slave-like’ working conditions in which ‘employees’ were forced to buy only from the company store and were not allowed to leave the area or their pay would be withheld.

If Monsanto’s profits were to plummet, their political reign would likely follow as well. Without an endless amount of cash to throw at crushing Prop 37, already contributing $4 million to fuel anti-labeling propaganda in California, the corporation’s massive grasp on the world of science (continually censoring studies and funding pro-GM research) and politics would virtually cease to exist.

It is essential that we ensure the passing of Prop 37 in a bid to generate the literal end of Monsanto. Once consumers actually know that they’re putting genetically modified creations into their body, real change will occur within the food supply.

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/10/india-launches-new-anti-corruption-party/#more-147048

2 Oct India


Indian Anti-Corruption Party Launched
By AFP reporters, The Telegraph, UK – October 2, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/8hy4qnm

One of India’s most prominent anti-corruption campaigners launched a new political party on Tuesday, aiming to tap into a rich seam of public anger against the graft-tainted government.

Arvind Kejriwal said the formation of his party would mark a new chapter in the struggle against a “bribe-taking culture” and pledged to field candidates at a general election due in 2014.

“Our political party is the first step in the right direction, the common man will soon become the lawmaker,” Kejriwal told AFP, after the launch in New Delhi.

The unveiling of the yet-unnamed party was held on the anniversary of the birth of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

“We derive lessons from Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings. We are determined to clean up the entire political spectrum. Our candidates will be committed to honesty and transparency and they will fight elections,” Kejriwal added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has been rocked by a string of graft accusations, including revelations that officials pocketed millions of dollars when awarding tenders for telecoms and coal-mining ventures.

Kejriwal, a former civil servant, co-founded a group called India Against Corruption, which caused huge embarrassment for the Congress-led coalition government when another leader Anna Hazare went on hunger strike.

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in protests organised by India Against Corruption.

Although the movement has since largely fizzled out, disquiet about levels of corruption was fuelled over the summer by a scandal over the allocation of lucrative mining rights.

An official auditor’s report found in August that private operators who won coal blocks without competition enjoyed “financial gains to the tune of 1.86 trillion rupees (£20 billion)” since 2004 – some of which should have gone to the government.

The scandal was particularly embarrassing for Singh because he served as coal minister as well as prime minister from 2004-2009.

Hazare has parted ways with Kejriwal over his plans to enter politics, which he has described as “full of dirt”.

Kejriwal told AFP that his group would continue to “seek Hazare’s blessings” despite the rift.

The new party’s manifesto details its aspirations for “a complete political revolution” as well as pledges to expose corruption at all levels of government and to inspire young people to participate in the political process.

“We are not greedy for power or hungry for money. We want to bring a social, political and economic change to wipe out corruption,” said Kejriwal in a speech in New Delhi.

V. Narayanasamy, the minister of parliamentary affairs and a senior leader of the ruling Congress party, dismissed Kejriwal’s party as a “political stunt” and accused him of deceiving people by pretending to be a social activist.

“In the last two years, Kejriwal and his team members projected themselves as social activists to hide their political ambitions but now their true colours are out in the open,” Narayanasamy told AFP.

“Our country is a democracy and people will only vote for those who work for them and not for those who have no understanding of governance.”

Scores of national and regional parties contest general elections in India, the world’s largest democracy.

[Sabrina]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/world/asia/philippines-ex-president-arrested-in-hospital-on-new-charges.html?_r=0

4 Oct

Philippines Ex-President Is Arrested in Hospital on New Charges

MANILA — Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines was arrested Thursday afternoon on corruption charges related to allegations of misuse of $8.8 million in state lottery funds during her administration.

Mrs. Arroyo, who is now a member of Congress, checked herself into a government medical facility after the warrant was issued and shortly before it was served. Police officials said she was arrested while in a hospital bed. It was unclear whether she would be transferred to a jail cell later.

“Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is now under arrest and in detention, under the custody of the Philippine National Police,” Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel said after the warrant was served.

Mr. Coronel said Mrs. Arroyo was suffering from dehydration and hypertension. She was in the same hospital suite where she spent about eight months under detention on separate charges of rigging an election before her release in July after a judge found evidence against her to be weak.

Mrs. Arroyo is under investigation in connection with a variety of corruption offenses said to have been committed during her time as president, from 2001 to 2010. Additional charges are expected to be filed in the coming months. She has maintained that she is innocent of all allegations against her. The new charges are related to accusations that Mrs. Arroyo and members of her administration repeatedly stole money from the national lottery between 2008 and 2010.

The prosecution of Mrs. Arroyo is a cornerstone of the anticorruption campaign of her successor, President Benigno S. Aquino III. A presidential spokesman said Thursday that the case was in the hands of the courts and declined to discuss the matter in detail or comment on Mrs. Arroyo’s detention in the hospital.

more at link

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jp-morgan-forgives-debt-bankruptcy.html

JP Morgan "FORGIVES" Debt
the Bankruptcy Courts Already Discharged,
Defrauding US Gov't
and Putting Millions into an IRS Tax Liability






ydfE-9E3Ans




In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the nine scariest words in the English language - "I'm from JP Morgan and I'm here to help you." They also discuss deferred prosecution agreements and celebrities and bloggers shilling for banksters in California's mortgage contract-asset seizure market. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Jaromil about bitcoin as a digital charm bracelet and the revolution in accounting science - triple entry accounting.

[penn]

Sabrina,

Can we get a flow chart on this mess? Would it even fit on sever?

Most of your postings I would never find. I appreciate your diligence with a liitle spiritual flair now and then!

Thanks so much!

[fractal being]

http://www.protothema.gr/news-in-english/article/?aid=227641


Former minister Leonidas Tzanis has committed suicide
He was in the list with the 36 politicians controlled by SDOE


Local media in Volos reported the dramatic news of the suicide of former MP and former Interior vice minister Leonidas Tzanis. According to police, Tzanis was found hanged in the basement of his home in Volos at 20.05 from his wife.

Tzanis was being controlled by SDOE Thessaloniki since his name appeared in the list of 36 politicians involved in cases of illicit enrichment. The investigation began on May 31, 2012 and is currently opening bank accounts and analysing property statements. On Tuesday and Wednesday he was scheduled for an appointment with SDOE regarding his involvement in the list.

Leonidas Tzanis was born in Aerino Magnesia on 7.9.1955. He was married to Mary Panayotopoulou and was a father of two children. He studied law at the Law School of Thessaloniki and knew English. He was elected as an MP in Magnesia with PASOK in the elections of 1993, 1996, 2000 and 2004. He was chairman of a committee of inquiry to investigate the case of the casino in Flisvos and a PASOK parliamentary representative from November 1998 until February 1999.

He was vice minister of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization from February 1999 to April 2000 and from 13.4.2000 to 24.10.2001. From 1986 to 1990, he was city councilor of Nea Ionia, Volos. Between 1987-1989 and 1991-1993 he was the spokesman of the prefectural committee of PASOK in Magnesia. During 1990-1992 he was mayor of Nea Ionia, Volos and president of the Sports Organisation. From 1.1.93 until 30.10.93 he was chairman of the municipal council of Nea Ionia, Volos.

[Mozart]

http://www.project.nsearch.com/profiles/blogs/jpmorgan-chase-bank-dick-jamie-dimon-indicted



This story is moving fast! We are going to be DAYS ahead of the mainstream media in reporting that JPMorgan Chase CEO - Jamie Dimon has had an arrest warrant issued by the FBI! This story which was broken by Tom Heneghan is EXPLOSIVE! The banksters have robbed America since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the Fake CIA News and political puppets will not discuss this fraud!


I'm looking for additional confirmation on this.

[Sabrina]

Sabrina,

Can we get a flow chart on this mess? Would it even fit on sever?

Most of your postings I would never find. I appreciate your diligence with a liitle spiritual flair now and then!

Thanks so much!


It would be good Penn, but would defeat me here in 3D still. But there does seem to be a growing trend or shift in that corruption/untruths keeps coming to the surface unrelentingly and just won't stay hidden any more. Means that the veils are falling away from people's eyes - and more and more are understanding the need for change.... bring it on...

[Sabrina]

http://www.project.nsearch.com/profiles/blogs/jpmorgan-chase-bank-dick-jamie-dimon-indicted



This story is moving fast! We are going to be DAYS ahead of the mainstream media in reporting that JPMorgan Chase CEO - Jamie Dimon has had an arrest warrant issued by the FBI! This story which was broken by Tom Heneghan is EXPLOSIVE! The banksters have robbed America since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the Fake CIA News and political puppets will not discuss this fraud!


I'm looking for additional confirmation on this.

Yes I'm still looking for this Mozart - it's via Tom Heneghan isn't it...[COLOR="red"]

[Sabrina]

More on the story of the pope's butler.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19850385

6 Oct Italy

Pope ex-butler Paolo Gabriele jailed for theft

Pope Benedict's ex-butler Paolo Gabriele has been found guilty of stealing confidential papers from him and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

Prosecutors had called for a three-year sentence but it was reduced because of "mitigating circumstances".

Ahead of the verdict, Gabriele said he acted out of love for the Church and did not see himself as a thief.

He had denied the theft charge but admitted photocopying documents and "betraying the Holy Father's trust".

Gabriele's lawyer Cristiana Arru said she did not intend to appeal against the verdict, Reuters reported.

Her client would serve his sentence under house arrest in his Vatican apartment while awaiting a possible papal pardon, she said.

She was also quoted as saying Gabriele was "serene" about his fate and "ready to accept any consequences".


Gabriele is "very likely" to be pardoned by Pope Benedict, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, though it is not clear when this might happen.

The former butler was accused of stealing and copying the Pope's documents and leaking them to an Italian journalist.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says official Vatican media have almost totally ignored the trial since it began and morning radio bulletins have omitted to mention the story.

'High moral motives'
The verdict was delivered after two hours of deliberation by the judges.

Presiding judge Guiseppe Dalla Torre handed down a sentence of three years, then cut it to 18 months citing Gabriele's lack of a criminal record, his apology to the Pope and past services rendered to the Church.

The former butler will also have to pay court costs out of his own pocket.

Gabriele has now been returned to house arrest inside his Vatican apartment, where he has already been confined for several months.

The verdict brings to an end a week-long trial that has revealed an embarrassing breach of security at the highest levels of the Vatican.

On the last day of the trial, defence and prosecution lawyers gave their closing arguments, and Gabriele made a final appeal.

"The thing I feel most strongly is the conviction of having acted out of visceral love for the Church of Christ and of its leader on earth," he said.

"I do not feel I am a thief."

Ms Arru accused the Vatican police of irregularities and failures during their investigations.

She asked the court to reduce the charge to common theft or illegal possession, saying Gabriele had high moral motives although he had committed an illegal act.

Prosecutor Nicola Picardi had sought a three-year sentence, with an indefinite ban on Gabriele holding public office or positions of authority.

The trial also took an unexpected turn when Gabriele complained of the conditions in which he was held by the Vatican security force after his arrest on 23 May.

The judges ordered an investigation after Gabriele said that for more than two weeks he had been kept in a cell so small that he could not extend his arms, and that the light had been left on day and night.

Confession
During testimony, the three presiding judges heard how Gabriele used the photocopier in his shared office next to the Pope's library to copy thousands of documents, taking advantage of his unrivalled access to the pontiff.



Paolo Gabriele
He would later pass some on to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

Mr Nuzzi released a best-selling book this year, entitled His Holiness, largely based on the confidential papers and detailing corruption, scandals and infighting.

Its publication sparked the hunt for the source of the leaks inside the Vatican, leading to Gabriele's arrest.

Police also told the court how they found thousands of documents at Gabriele's home, including some original papers bearing the Pope's handwriting. Some had the instruction "destroy" written by the Pope in German on them.

Although Gabriele entered a not guilty plea, prosecutors say he confessed to taking documents during an interrogation in June, a confession he later stood by in court.

He told prosecutors he hoped to reveal alleged corruption at the Vatican, and believed that the Pope was being manipulated.

"I feel guilty of having betrayed the trust of the Holy Father, whom I love as a son would," he told the court earlier this week.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

[/COLOR]Italy Moves To Rein In Graft, Local Government Finances
By Giuseppe Fonte and Gavin Jones, Reuters – October 4, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/9g5dcvf

(Reuters) – Italy’s cabinet approved emergency legislation on Thursday to rein in the spending of regions and provinces and avoid any repetition of recent financial scandals involving local government.

In one such incident, which came to light last week, police seized documents related to expense claims at the regional government of Piedmont and on Wednesday the head and four employees of a tax collection agency were arrested for allegedly pocketing some 100 million euros ($130 million) of the money they had gathered.

These and other scandals “are part of an old Italy that we would prefer not to see any more”, Prime Minister Mario Monti said, adding that he was worried by the “incalculable damage” such disclosures did to Italy’s image abroad.

Italy’s regions, which control major areas of spending including health, are under scrutiny as Monti’s government tries to enforce spending cuts to ease one of the major debt crises afflicting the euro zone.

The cabinet decree, which must be approved by parliament within 60 days, rules that regional governments will have to get prior approval for their budget plans from the country’s audit court, a panel of magistrates that oversees public spending.

The court will also carry out quarterly checks into the region’s finances.

The government last month sharply hiked its budget deficit and debt forecasts for this year and next despite the painful austerity measures adopted, and regional government spending is considered among the most difficult areas to control.

Spending by the regions has increased by 75 percent in the last decade due to budgetary management which is often “opaque, inefficient and economically unsustainable”, the prime minister’s office said in a document after the cabinet meeting.

Monti’s unelected cabinet of technocrats which took office almost a year ago has governed with far more sobriety than his scandal-plagued predecessor Silvio Berlusconi, but at the local level waste and corruption have continued to prosper.

“We are trying to put an end to the waste of public money and limit the growing and worrying public disaffection towards politicians,” Monti said at a news conference.

“After the unspeakable episodes that have happened Italians are indignant that heavy sacrifices are asked of them while the world of politics seems exempt.”

The president of the regional government of Lazio resigned last month over a case involving embezzlement of party funds and members of the Campania, Lombardy and Calabria governments are also under investigation for misuse of public money.

“OLD ITALY”
The government decree says that local government politicians found guilty of financial mismanagement will be barred from political office for 10 years and will face heavy fines.

To improve fiscal discipline, the legislation blocks discretionary spending by local government bodies whose budgets are off target and increases their scope to raise taxes.

In addition, the salaries and benefits of local politicians will be set at the level of those currently offered in the most “virtuous”, or least generous, regions.

Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli said an estimate of the savings that the new rules would achieve would be included in the government’s multi-year budget, or “Stability Law”, to be presented on October 9.

Earlier on Thursday the cabinet approved legislation to promote digital technology in the public administration, reduce red tape for start-ups and offer tax breaks for companies embarking on major infrastructure projects.

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-hedge-fund-has-physically-taken.html#more

A Hedge Fund Has Physically Taken Control Of A Ship Belonging To Argentina's Navy


http://goo.gl/xN7
A Hedge Fund Has Physically Taken Control Of A Ship Belonging To Argentina's Navy
By Joe Weisenthal
Oct. 4, 2012, 5:28 AM

Wikimedia Commons (pix at link)

The above ship is the ARA Libertad, a training ship owned by the Argentine navy.

And now it's been seized. By a hedge fund. While it was docked in Ghana.

Why? Because Argentina is in a long legal battle with the hedge fund Elliott Capital Management, which has been trying for years and years to get Argentina to pay a 2001 bond it owes in full. Because recently won a court judgment saying that Argentina owes it money, it was able to get an injunction from the government of
Ghana saying it's entitled to take the ship.


The FT's Sam Jones and Jude Webber report:

The hedge fund, run by the US billionaire Paul Singer, has been closely monitoring the course of the Libertad, according to sources familiar with the firm.
Elliott had been waiting for the ship to stop in a port where it would have a chance to enforce legal judgments previously awarded by UK and US courts. The hedge fund declined to comment.

The whole thing is quite dramatic.

There were apparently 200 navy members on board the ship, according to Argentine news outlet Clarin.com.

According to reports, Argentina will be able to get this ship back if it pays an unspecified amount in bond (basically bailing it out).

Here's the full statement from the Argentine government, via Rolf`s Griechenland Blog:

The vulture funds have crossed a new limit in their attacks on the Argentine Republic. The Frigate Libertad has been held in the Republic of Ghana over a recourse presented by NML Group before the courts of that country. The Argentine Foreign Ministry has already taken steps with the African nation’s government to clear up the deception that the unscrupulous financiers have mounted. That measure is in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity.

The vulture fund NML has its headquarters in the Cayman Island, a fiscal lair that it’s worth recalling is a colony of Great Britain, from which those who don’t submit themselves to the laws of any jurisdiction operate and they’ve been denounced both by the G-20 and the United Nations.

That group of lobbyists are the same that tried to harass the President during her recent trip to the United States passing out aggressive fliers against the presidential investiture. Another of its actions was to place a gigantic rat in the doorway of the Argentine embassy in Washington when the anniversary of our independence was being celebrated.

The Foreign Ministry reiterates that it is the decision of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to not bow before the international and local attempts at extortion that have been brought forth by the vulture funds and will continue to denounce them in various forums such as the G-20, the United Nations, CELAC, UNASUR and MERCOSUR, FATF and the other multilateral organizations.
This really seems like the ultimate 21st century finance story.

[Sabrina]

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/project-camelot-chinese-frigate-in-sf.html#more


To say something unusual is going on offshore from San Francisco is perhaps stating the obvious, what it is nobody is quite sure.

So much disinformation is being thrown out to bloggers. Kerry Cassidy, Gordon Duff, and John Kettler have all written about it from information gained from their sources. Its a real fog of confusion right now. San Francisco is no stranger to fog, but we don't usually see this kind of fog. Kerry is right to be skeptical until more facts are in. In addition to the Gordon Duff articles at Veterans Today listed below, John Kettler has written several articles on this same subject, you can read those here: http://johnkettler.com Stories range from a lone Reptilian escape pod (a survivor from when the Andromedan Star Sytem Procyons race took out the reptilian undersea bases bases earlier in 2012), firing upon a US Navy ship, to to bankers being arrested and put aboard Chinese frigates.

I have no inside information as to what is really going on. I suspect its about bankers and other cabal members being taken into custody where they can't be freed by mercenary paramilitaries. But I have no proof or information as to that, just a hunch. -AK

would be nice wouldn't it... sab


Kerry Cassidy's story on it here:

http://projectcamelotportal.com/kerrys-blog

[Sabrina]

http://www.endthefed2012.com/

WERE BACK! NATIONWIDE END THE FED/STOP THE WARS PROTEST SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2012!!

http://www.facebook.com/events/272178466233809/?fref=ts

US

On Sept 22, the nation rallied & protested against the Federal Reserve. It was a huge success and we need to keep the movement going. With each protest we wake people up & cause great public awareness. Join us again in a nationwide protest on Saturday Nov 24 in an End The Fed rally to keep our message strong.

With one Nationwide demonstration under our belt, its time to show that we are serious about our message. Its time we continue the pressure and show that we will not allow ourselves to be impoverished, and that we will not support unconstitutional debt done in our names paid for in the value of our very futures. Lets stand again, wake up the masses and grow our numbers to show that this movement is NOT going anywhere.

We plan to host rallies at every Federal Reserve Bank in the country. We will keep updating info regarding the upcoming November protest as the organizers create the events. If you’d like to get involved with organizing, please contact us. We would be glad for you to join the movement! Spread the word of this important event & as Americans continue to unite in solidarity for the 2 most important causes: Freedom & Peace.

THANK YOU for your involvement & participation.

[write4change]

One of the things I can't get a clear picutre about is the Fed up for renewal in January 2013? I have read it was a 100 year charter which makes sense in why they would drain everything out now. It might why it is not part of this election issues. We will giving reps the right to renew for another 100 years. If people knew this might be one of the hell things to pay for. There is no one I know of who is in favor of the Fed.

[Arrowwind]

One of the things I can't get a clear picutre about is the Fed up for renewal in January 2013? I have read it was a 100 year charter which makes sense in why they would drain everything out now. It might why it is not part of this election issues. We will giving reps the right to renew for another 100 years. If people knew this might be one of the hell things to pay for. There is no one I know of who is in favor of the Fed.

Yep, everyone hates the Fed but no one has an implemental program to place if they should be eliminated. Should we leave that to our highly intelligent, movtivated, cooperative and free thinking congress and senate? or just dump everything into the World Bank? or maybe leave it up to the UN?

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9588317/91-people-charged-in-400-million-Medicare-fraud.html

91 people charged in $400 million Medicare fraud

US prosecutors have charged 91 people, including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals over allegations that they defrauded Medicare, the country's publicly-funded insurance programme, out of $430 million (£265 million).

The US Justice Department made the announcement last night after an investigation which spanned seven cities across the States.
The Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement. Details of the fraud remained scant, but the department alleges that there was $230 million in home health care fraud, more than $100 million in mental health care fraud and about $49 million in ambulance transportation fraud.

Mr Holder reportedly said that one doctor was charged with writing 30,000 prescriptions by himself for 2,000 patients, resulting in the Government being defrauded out of $100 million.

The arrests come as Medicare is set to become a political issue in the forthcoming election.

Mitt Romney has proposed changes to the system and how it is funded.

The proposed changes, the Barack Obama campaign claims, will disproportionately affect the poor and elderly.

4 Oct US

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19860907

7 Oct

Philippines and Muslim rebels agree peace deal

The Philippine government has reached a framework peace agreement with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, President Benigno Aquino says.

The deal follows long negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end a 40-year conflict that has cost more than 120,000 lives.

It provides for a new autonomous region in the south, where Muslims are a majority in a mainly Catholic country.

The MILF is "very happy" with the deal, a spokesman was quoted as saying.

The agreement was reached after talks in Malaysia and is expected to be signed formally on 15 October in the Philippine capital, Manila.



The government has had to concede that many Muslims living in the southern Philippines believe the existing autonomous region is too small and its leaders do not have enough real power. The rebels have had to back down too - their initial demand had been for an entirely separate state.

Both sides also know there's huge pressure to get this agreement right. In 2008, a deal was about to be signed when local Christian groups complained they had not been fully consulted, and the Supreme Court blocked the agreement. Within weeks conflict had resumed, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes.

This time, widespread consultations and a public vote have been built into the process, in the hope that finally a lasting peace can be reached.

A copy of the framework deal says the parties commit to reaching a "comprehensive deal" by the end of the year.

"This framework agreement paves the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao," President Aquino said in a speech to announce the deal, referring to the main southern region.

But he added: "The work does not end here. There are still details that both sides must hammer out."

Correspondents say the agreement marks a major breakthrough, though previous peace efforts have broken down and negotiations with the MILF over the last 15 years were interrupted by violence.

The Philippine government's chief negotiator Marvic Leonen told the BBC that the new peace deal has more political support than previous agreements, after the negotiation panel held more than 100 consultations with Muslims, Christians, and local and regional governments.

The MILF's vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told AFP news agency: "We are very happy. We thank the president for this."

It is hoped that the agreement could be implemented on the ground by the end of President Aquino's term in 2016.

full story at link


More reasons to be cheerful as the Ian Drury song says, showing my age with a tenuous link... :)

CIMNXogXnvE

[Alie]

This is a great summary about Banksters at the 11:00 minute mark from MAX KEISER:

hkC9gUh2Yck

[Arrowwind]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9588317/91-people-charged-in-400-million-Medicare-fraud.html

91 people charged in $400 million Medicare fraud
US prosecutors have charged 91 people, including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals over allegations that they defrauded Medicare, the country's publicly-funded insurance programme, out of $430 million (£265 million).
The US Justice Department made the announcement last night after an investigation which spanned seven cities across the States.
The Attorney General Eric Holder made the announcement. Details of the fraud remained scant, but the department alleges that there was $230 million in home health care fraud, more than $100 million in mental health care fraud and about $49 million in ambulance transportation fraud.
Mr Holder reportedly said that one doctor was charged with writing 30,000 prescriptions by himself for 2,000 patients, resulting in the Government being defrauded out of $100 million.
The arrests come as Medicare is set to become a political issue in the forthcoming election.
Mitt Romney has proposed changes to the system and how it is funded.
The proposed changes, the Barack Obama campaign claims, will disproportionately affect the poor and elderly.
4 Oct US

Having worked in medical facilities that are almost soley reliant on medicare payments I will say this... if anymore cuts come their way they will be shutting down.. cuts that came their way three or four years ago reduced staff and so severely limited admissions and length of stay that it put patients in jeopardy, families under diuress, critically reduced funding to keep facilities running, froze wages, reduced healthcare benefits and was making physiicans consider looking for different work. Keep it up and our elders well be stranded and suffering just like they were 60 years ago.

Yep there is fraud going on.. and much of it is in caregivers 'creatively' finding ways to keep a patient under good care and not dumped back at home where t hey get little to none.

and by the way, 2,000 patients and 30,000 presecription = 15 perscriptions per patient... that is not uncommon, especially amongst the elderly, In fact many many patients upon admission to hospice have 15 perscriptions or more in progress . Im not saying that this is good for them but I am saying that it is common and its the result in the physician and patient belief in the benefit of drugs. Some docs are into it more than others.. and that claim that docs get kick backs from writing persicriptions is pure bull****... that only happens with very specialized drugs, in very specialized settings... and the vast majority of seniors receive generics anyway.

[Hervé]

Check this post/thread... it's starting with a revenge in South Africa: Michael Tellinger (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50654-Michael-Tellinger)

[Sabrina]

http://divinecosmos.com/start-here/davids-blog/1078-2012shift

This is just a small piece from David Wilcock's latest blog (8 Oct) with his view on financial tyranny, mass arrests, disclosure etc. Worth a read as always:

MASS ARRESTS AND DIVINE INTERVENTION

Many people have wondered why I have spent so much of my time and energy on the Divine Intervention / Financial Tyranny / Mass Arrests story since The Source Field Investigations came out.

Let me just say that the dream guidance has been extremely consistent about the importance of pursuing these investigations.

We seem to be heading into a highly significant watermark for our personal and collective spiritual evolution -- a defining moment, if you will.

By Law of One standards, I do believe that it will be much harder to make sudden, massive leaps in your level of spiritual growth after the end of this year than it is now.

This is due to the fact that it will have become much easier for people to see and accept the truth by then -- and the fastest progress is made when you have to take that "leap of faith" and wield a single, flickering candle in the darkness.

For this same reason, it is vitally important that we make a big push for mass arrests, the defeating of financial tyranny, and Disclosure -- before the end of this year, and the energetic effects that will apparently result.

The intuitive guidance has clearly told me that this chain of events will create massive leaps of positive spiritual growth in humanity, prior to the end of this year, if it works out.


and

UPDATE MONDAY, 9/3: NEIL KEENAN IS FINE

Comments were posted on Benjamin Fulford's blog suggesting that violence had erupted at Neil Keenan's house, leading to deaths of more than one person and either the death or hospitalization of Keenan himself.

I contacted Neil to see if any of this was true. I spoke to him last night while I was packing for my Canada trip, where I'm hoping to get isolated and finish the new book.

Here's the deal. Neil had been coughing, and each of the three times I spoke to him in the last week and a half, it was getting worse. This is nothing more than a typical flu virus that nailed him because he was working too much.

Ultimately he checked himself into a friend's health clinic to have some help bringing down the coughing.

ALL other rumors are false. Neil was already doing better yesterday when I spoke to him and we can expect a speedy recovery.

[Sabrina]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/09/uk-greece-merkel-idUKBRE8980BS20121009

9 Oct Greece

Merkel lands in Greece as protesters mass protests on streets


Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel arrived in Greece on her first visit since Europe's debt crisis erupted here three years ago, braving protests to deliver a message of support - but no new money - to a nation hammered by recession and fighting to stay in the euro.

Thousands of Greeks defied a ban on protests, gathering in Syntagma square in central Athens as Merkel's plane touched down. Two protesters dressed in German military uniforms waved a red-black-and-white swastika flag and held out their arms in the Nazi salute.

Many Greeks blame Merkel for forcing painful cuts on Greece in exchange for two EU-IMF bailout packages totalling over 200 billion euros.

Police have readied 6,000 officers, including anti-terrorist units and rooftop snipers, to provide security during the six-hour visit. German sites in the Greek capital, including the embassy and Goethe Institute, are under special protection.

Merkel was given the red carpet treatment and full military honours at Athens airport. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras greeted her with a handshake as she exited the German air force jet. A band played the German and Greek national anthems.

In the centre of Athens, the reception was less warm. On Syntagma square, banners read "Merkel out, Greece is not your colony" and "This is not a European Union, it's slavery".

"We don't want her here. Merkel go home!," said Maria Dimitriou, a 40-year-old unemployed woman who travelled to Athens from southern Greece to protest. "They've turned our lives into hell."

After steering clear of Greece for the past five years, Merkel decided to visit for several reasons.

She wants to show support for Samaras, a fellow conservative, as he struggles to impose more cuts on a society fraying at the edges after five years of recession.

At a joint appearance before the press in the afternoon, she is expected to confirm her desire to keep Greece in the euro zone, after members of her government flirted with the idea of an exit earlier this year.

With a year to go until Germany holds an election, Merkel also hopes to neutralise opposition criticism that she has neglected Greece and contributed to its woes by insisting on crushing budget cuts.

"Her visit to Athens is primarily about political positioning, and the opportunity to clarify her position on Greece," said Alex White, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

RISK OF VIOLENCE

Teachers, doctors and other public employees stopped work on Tuesday in a gesture of protest, while trade unions and opposition political parties took to the streets, risking confrontation with police.

Demonstrations in Athens have a habit of turning violent, hijacked by radicals armed with petrol bombs and rocks ripped from the streets.

Greece is in talks with its "troika" of lenders - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - on the next tranche of a 130-billion-euro ($170-billion) loan package, its second bailout since 2010.

Without the 31.5-billion-euro tranche, Greece says it will run out of money by the end of November.

Many Greeks say they cannot take more of the wage cuts and tax hikes that have left a quarter of the workforce jobless and slashed the country's economic output by a fifth.

Ties between the Germany and Greece run deep. Thousands of Greeks came to Germany after World War Two as "guest workers" to help rebuild the shattered country and more than 300,000 Greeks currently reside there.

But relations are also clouded by the atrocities Greeks suffered at the hands of the Nazis during World War Two.

Samaras' own great grandmother committed suicide when she saw Nazi tanks rolling down the streets of Athens after Germany occupied Greece, flying the swastika flag from the Acropolis.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias, whom Merkel will also meet on Tuesday, fought against the German Wehrmacht as a teenager, before fleeing to Cologne to escape persecution by the Greek military dictatorship.

BOTTOMLESS PIT

The crisis has revived long-dormant animosities, with Greek protesters burning effigies of Merkel in Nazi gear and German media playing up images of lazy Greeks keen for German cash.

Relations hit a post-war low early this year when Merkel's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, likened Athens to a "bottomless pit" and proposed imposing a European "Sparkommissar" on Greece to control its finances.

In addition to her meetings with Samaras and Papoulias, Merkel is also due to meet with Greek business representatives.

The timing of the visit, showing Merkel very publicly with the new premier, suggests growing trust in the Greek leadership under Samaras, after a litany of broken promises and stalled reforms under the previous administration.

But she is not expected to offer him any concrete promises of aid or other concessions before the "troika" publishes its latest assessment of Greece's reform progress by early November.

"The average German voter is irritated at the thought of dispatching more taxes or savings to feckless southerners, yet is desperate for the respect and goodwill to Germany that comes from public displays of magnanimity," said David Marsh, chairman of think tank OMFIF. "When Merkel flies to Athens, she's showing she's in charge, and she cares.

[Sabrina]

It's 10.10 tomorrow - some say a really powerful day - let's visualise or sense the world the way we want it to be with abundance for everyone and functioning holistic systems right across the board...

Patricia Costa Robles opinion is that our power of intent has been magnified 1,000 times recently.... so better intend what we want - not what we don't want...

I don't bother imagining mass arrests etc. any more - just things the way I want them to be.

It certainly works for parking spaces, as cars back out right in front of me all the time. Still awaiting the ufo fly past over Houses of Parliament tho'...

:)

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19886631

9 Oct Italy
Italy sacks Reggio Calabria council over 'mafia ties'

Italian mayor quits over threats
Judges held in Italy mafia swoop
Anti-mafia revolt takes hold in Naples
The entire council of the city of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy has been sacked to stop it from being taken over by the mafia, officials say.

The move came after some councillors were suspected of having ties to the powerful 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Officials said it was the first time that the entire government of a provincial capital had been dismissed over suspected mafia links.

Three commissioners will run the city for 18 months until the next elections.

Mayor Demetrio Arena and all 30 city councillors were sacked to prevent any "mafia contagion" in the local government, Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said.

Smaller city administrations have been dissolved in the past for similar reasons.

Richest mafia
For many months there had been concerns about the influence the 'Ndrangheta might be exerting over the city council, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

An investigation was launched after one councillor was arrested last year on a charge of being associated with the gangsters, he said.

Experts say the 'Ndrangheta has overtaken the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia and become one of the world's biggest criminal organisations.

Cocaine is thought to be its biggest source of revenue, along with extortion and money laundering.

Italy's parliamentary anti-mafia commission has described the group as the country's most dangerous - and richest - mafia.

The network has used the migration of poor Calabrians to northern Italy or abroad to export its influence.

[Sabrina]

Good on them...



The Intruders crash the Investment Banking Awards in Mayfair

UK 8 Oct

The Investment Banking Awards are the Oscars of the financial world. Dished out for so-called 'innovation', some of the world's richest bankers gather together to congratulate each other on devising ever more creative ways to make obscene sums of money.

One of 2012's most profitable scams was the bankers' 'innovative' approach to a key interest rate called LIBOR. Virtually every bank at the event was involved in illegally colluding to rig LIBOR, ensuring that they would always be the winners in the multi-million pound bets they were making on the markets.

When we noticed that this money-spinner had been overlooked in the ceremony, we decided to show up and make sure the LIBOR-riggers got the recognition they deserve.

Web: www.theintruders.org
Twitter: @IntrudersAction
Facebook: /WeAreTheIntruders



WXhqvAbUDmg

[penn]

The Intruders Crash The Investment Banking Awards! That was absolutely the best!

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19873074

9 Oct

Supreme Court denies Chevron $19bn Ecuador appeal


Ecuador upholds Chevron oil fine

The US Supreme Court has declined to block a judgement from an Ecuadorean court that a US oil firm pay billions in damages for pollution in the Amazon.

Chevron was fighting a ruling that it must pay $18.2bn (£11.4bn) in damages, a sum increased to $19bn in July.

It is the latest move in a decades-long legal wrangle between Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, and the people of the Lago Agrio region of Ecuador.

The decision could affect other oil firms accused of pollution.

The high court did not explain why it decided to reject the appeal from Chevron.

The case claimed that Texaco contaminated land between 1964 and 1992, and has triggered several other lawsuits in courts within the US and elsewhere.

But Chevron has said it believes the judgement, handed down by a court in Ecuador in February 2011, is fraudulent and not enforceable under New York law.

In March 2011 a court in New York issued an injunction that blocked the judgement. But it was overturned in January this year by an appeals court, which said Chevron had challenged the judgement prematurely.

The appeals court also said the New York judge could not stop other, foreign courts from enforcing the judgement - something the Ecuadorean plaintiffs are working to do in Canada and Brazil.

The judgement originally ordered $8.6bn in environmental damages, but that was more than doubled because the oil company did not apologise publicly.

"While Chevron is disappointed that the court denied our petition, we will continue to defend against the plaintiffs' lawyers' attempts to enforce the fraudulent Ecuadorean judgment, and to further expose their misconduct," Chevron said in an email statement.

The oil firm has also challenged the judgement under an international trade agreement between the US and Ecuador, due to begin in November.

[Sabrina]

More news on Monsanto - and it's good...

http://worldtruth.tv/poland-announces-complete-ban-on-monsantos-genetically-modified-maize/

Poland Announces Complete Ban on Monsanto's Genetically Modified Maize (Corn)

Following the anti-Monsanto activism launched by nations like France and Hungary, Poland has announced that it will launch a complete ban on growing Monsanto’s genetically modified strain MON810. The announcement, made by Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki, sets yet another international standard against Monsanto’s genetically modified creations. In addition to being linked to a plethora health ailments, Sawicki says that the pollen originating from this GM strain may actually be devastating the already dwindling bee population.

“The decree is in the works. It introduces a complete ban on the MON810 strain of maize in Poland,” Sawicki stated to the press.

===

[ Mod-edit: See Robert J. Niewiadomski's clarifications in Post #1659 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?41059-Massive-Bank-and-High-Profile-Resignations-Across-the-World&p=567121&viewfull=1#post567121), below. The above worldtruth.tv article was posted on April 5, 2012 (visible in the underlying HTML, though I don't see it displaying this date on screen.). - Paul.]

[Sabrina]

More on the Greek list of alleged corrupt high profile politicians/officials (started at story 1621):

http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/businesss-insider-second-greek-man-on.html


A Second Greek Man On 'The Lagarde List' Has Been Found Dead
Matthew Boesler

Oct. 8, 2012,
http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-men-on-lagarde-list-found-dead-2012-10


The so-called "Lagarde List" – the name given by the Greek press to a list containing 1,991 names of wealthy, Swiss-bank-account-possessing Greeks who are being investigated for corruption and tax evasion – is causing a major stir in Greece right now.

Since Friday, two men on the list have turned up dead in apparent suicides.

Here is what has happened in the past few days.

Last Tuesday, October 3, the "Lagarde List" was passed to Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras from PASOK party leader and former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos.

Apparently, it had been "missing," according to a Financial Times article from a few days prior, and current finance minister Yannis Stournaras had vowed to track it down.

From the FT:
Yannis Stournaras, the finance minister, told the FT on Sunday that he would pursue the issue of the missing CD with Greek depositors names “as a priority”.

“I first learnt of its existence last week from the newspapers . . . but if SDOE can’t track it down, then we’ll ask our European partners for another copy,” Mr Stournaras said.

This provided the impetus for Venizelos to hand over the list to Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras last Tuesday, saying he had already made Greece's financial crimes unit, SDOE, aware of it, as reported by Kathimerini.

Venizelos was given the list by his predecessor, former finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, who received it from Christine Lagarde in 2010, when she was serving as France's finance minister.

Immediately after Samaras received the list from Venizelos, Yiannis Sbokos, a former Greek minister involved in defense, was arrested by SDOE over financial corruption.

Leonidas Tzanis, a former Greek minister who had been under investigation, was found hanged in his home last Friday. The Press Association reports that "the official said Mr Tzanis's death is being treated as suicide but no suicide note has been found."

Now, today, Vlassis Kambouroglou, a wealthy Greek businessman in the defense industry, has been found dead in a hotel room in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Greek Reporter has the details on Kambouroglou:
A Greek businessman who had been accused of being part of the bribery and money laundering network involving former Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who is in jail on charges of stealing as much as $1.29 billion from defense contracts, has been found dead in a hotel room in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Vlassis Kambouroglou was the Managing Director of Drumilan International, which was involved in the sale of a Russian-made TOR-M1 missile system to Greece. Authorities in Indonesia did not say how he died. Kambouroglou was called to testify before a Parliamentary inquiry into the arms deal in 2004 but denied that his company made any money from the deal. No charges were brought against him.
Now, Stournaras, Papaconstantinou, Venizelos, and another are going to have to testify before the Greek parliament on the list, according to Kathimerini:
Parliament’s ethics and transparency committee on Monday voted in favor of Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and three former ministers -- Evangelos Venizelos, who now leads socialist PASOK, Filippos Sachinidis and Giorgos Papaconstantinou -- being called before the House to reveal what they know about the so-called “Lagarde list” -- a list of some 2,000 Greeks with deposits in Swiss banks who are being probed for tax evasion.

According to sources, Venizelos and Papaconstantinou testified over the weekend before financial prosecutor Grigoris Peponis in connection with the list, which Papaconstantinou claims to have received from former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who is now head of the International Monetary Fund. No details about the former ministers’ testimonies were released but they are believed to have repeated the positions they have expressed publicly to date on the matter.

Venizelos faces some serious questions, as members of parliament want to know if he's been in possession of the list for a long time. The concern is that he may have been shielding fellow PASOK party members from being exposed.

Venizelos was also the most recent finance minister before the current one and served as the deputy prime minister before that, so he has been in a management position in a Greek government that has been failing to meet troika sanctions for a while, now.

Meanwhile, the "Lagarde List" doesn't just contain names of Greek tax evaders. It's a list of closer to 22,000 names of wealthy people from various EU member states with Swiss bank accounts. The implication is that wealthy elites from other countries could be revealed in a corruption probe as well.

This is all starting to blow up during a crucial moment for Greece as it tries to come to an agreement with the troika over additional spending cuts and German chancellor Angela Merkel visits Samaras tomorrow in Athens.

[modwiz]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19886631

9 Oct Italy
Italy sacks Reggio Calabria council over 'mafia ties'

Italian mayor quits over threats
Judges held in Italy mafia swoop
Anti-mafia revolt takes hold in Naples
The entire council of the city of Reggio Calabria in southern Italy has been sacked to stop it from being taken over by the mafia, officials say.

The move came after some councillors were suspected of having ties to the powerful 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Officials said it was the first time that the entire government of a provincial capital had been dismissed over suspected mafia links.

Three commissioners will run the city for 18 months until the next elections.

Mayor Demetrio Arena and all 30 city councillors were sacked to prevent any "mafia contagion" in the local government, Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said.

Smaller city administrations have been dissolved in the past for similar reasons.

Richest mafia
For many months there had been concerns about the influence the 'Ndrangheta might be exerting over the city council, the BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome reports.

An investigation was launched after one councillor was arrested last year on a charge of being associated with the gangsters, he said.

Experts say the 'Ndrangheta has overtaken the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia and become one of the world's biggest criminal organisations.

Cocaine is thought to be its biggest source of revenue, along with extortion and money laundering.

Italy's parliamentary anti-mafia commission has described the group as the country's most dangerous - and richest - mafia.

The network has used the migration of poor Calabrians to northern Italy or abroad to export its influence.

I'll tell you, Sabrina, when it comes to organized crime the Italian branch is a tiny fish. I would love to have more in depth reporting of this story. The popular concept of the mafia is one produced in Hollywood, and the media. It serves as a decoy and scapegoat for the real criminals to operate. The fact that the Italian Mafia is christian is no small part of the story. The Mafia may not be altar boys, but they are more honest than our government and when you pay for protection, you get it. Our taxes pay the Fed, (organized crime of the highest order).

This thread continues to be one the best we have here for my interests. Thank you again for your continued efforts.

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

More news on Monsanto - and it's good...

http://worldtruth.tv/poland-announces-complete-ban-on-monsantos-genetically-modified-maize/

Poland Announces Complete Ban on Monsanto's Genetically Modified Maize (Corn)

Following the anti-Monsanto activism launched by nations like France and Hungary, Poland has announced that it will launch a complete ban on growing Monsanto’s genetically modified strain MON810. The announcement, made by Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki, sets yet another international standard against Monsanto’s genetically modified creations. In addition to being linked to a plethora health ailments, Sawicki says that the pollen originating from this GM strain may actually be devastating the already dwindling bee population.

“The decree is in the works. It introduces a complete ban on the MON810 strain of maize in Poland,” Sawicki stated to the press.

Mr Sawicki was forced in July 2012 to leave his post at the Ministry of Agriculture over corruption charges for his co-workers... We have no ban on growing GMO in Poland yet... There is a ban on selling GMO seeds in Poland. But farmers can go abroad and buy GMO seeds and plant them in Poland... And they do...
There is no law to control farmes what they grow...

Mr Sawicki's statement was made in April 2012...

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/10/white-house-responds-to-nesara-petition/

US

Official White House Response to Announce and Implement the NATIONAL ECONOMIC SECURITY AND REFORMATION ACT – NESARA

What We Have to Say About the “National Economic Security and Reformation Act”
By Jon Carson

http:WH.gov/4d5

Thank you for signing this petition. We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on whitehouse.gov.

The proposals in the “National Economic Security and Reformation Act” have not been introduced in Congress, and the Obama Administration cannot implement a law that has not been passed.

Moreover, many of the proposals referenced in the petition are not consistent with President Obama’s blueprint for an American economy built to last. For example, a previous petition response from Jason Furman of the National Economic Council explains that the Obama Administration does not support a national sales tax because it would burden middle class families while slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans. That response also describes President Obama’s plan for a fundamental reform of our tax system that lowers tax rates and eliminates inefficient and unfair tax breaks. Finally, you can learn more about the President’s policies to improve the economy and put America back to work on the White House website.

Thank you once again for participating in We the People. We appreciate hearing your opinions and look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Jon Carson is Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9600539/SandP-downgrades-Spains-credit-rating.html

11 Oct Spain


S&P downgrades Spain's credit rating

Rating agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded Spain's credit rating by two notches, warning that the deepening economic recession is limiting the government's options.


S&P warned that rising unemployment and harsh austerity measures are likely to intensify social unrest and cause further friction between Spain's central and regional governments.

"The downgrade reflects our view of mounting risks to Spain's public finances, due to rising economic and political pressures," said the rating agency in a statement.

"In our view, the capacity of Spain's political institutions (both domestic and multilateral) to deal with the severe challenges posed by the current economic and financial crisis is declining, and therefore, in accordance with our rating methodology (see "Sovereign Government Rating Methodology And Assumptions," published June 30, 2011), we have lowered the rating by two notches."

The downgrade to BBB- from BBB+ late on Wednesday leaves Spain one notch above "junk" status. S&P also attached a "negative outlook", which warns of a possible downgrade in the medium term.

S&P said it would downgrade the country's debt status further if political support for Madrid's reform agenda weakens, if eurozone support fails to prevent Spain's borrowing costs hit unsustainable levels or if debt tops 100pc of economic output or debt payments surpass 10pc of general government revenues.


The rating agency also expressed doubts that all of the eurozone countries would give their backing to 17-nation bloc's attempts to recapitalise Spain's troubled banking system, which S&P said would force the country's debt burden to "balloon".
"Against the backdrop of a deepening economic recession, we believe that the government's resolve will be repeatedly tested by domestic constituencies that are being adversely affected by its policies," S&P said.

"Accordingly, we think the government's room to contain the crisis has diminished."

The euro fell against the US dollar after the news, trading down 0.1pc late in the session on Wall Street.

The downgrade comes after Spain announced five austerity packages in less than a year and is fighting for time to avoid a full-fledged rescue.
Concerns over the creditworthiness of the government have risen since the country requested €100bn (£80bn) in aid to bail-out its banks.
The cut puts S&P in line with rival rating agency Moody’s, which has the recession-hit country on review for another downgrade.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

They would say that wouldn't they.. :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9600656/Goldman-Sachs-finds-no-evidence-in-muppet-hunt.html

Goldman Sachs finds no evidence in 'muppet hunt'

Goldman Sachs's investigation into a former employee's allegations that the bank's culture is "toxic" has not found evidence to support the claims.

The bank's investigation has shared its findings with the board of Goldman, according to the Financial Times. Goldman began the investigation last March after Greg Smith, a former derivative salesman, used a scathing resignation letter published in the New York Times newspaper to attack the bank.

In it, Mr Smith, who was based in London for the final years of his career at Goldman, said that bankers described clients as "muppets" and did not look out for their interests.

Dubbed "the muppet hunt", the investigation examined thousands of emails but 99pc of the references to muppet were to the film of that name.
However, one email did refer to clients as "muppets" but the investigation concluded it was part of an attempt to explain a trade rather than mislead a customer, the FT reported.

Since the sensational letter, Goldman has embarked on a major public relations campaign that has seen chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein give a series of interviews. However, the bank will face renewed scrutiny when Mr Smith publishes an account of his time at Goldman later this month.

Goldman publishes its third-quarter results next week

¤=[Post Update]=¤

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/wells-fargo-lawsuit_n_1952216.html


Wells Fargo Lawsuit: U.S. Sues Bank Alleging Civil Mortgage Fraud

Wells Fargo lied about the quality of thousands of loans it certified for a federal insurance program, a decision that ultimately cost the government $190 million in claims when those loans failed, according to a civil lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday.

From Jan. 1, 2002 through Dec. 31, 2010, Wells Fargo intentionally concealed the problems with 6,320 loans it had determined were "seriously deficient" from the Federal Housing Administration, which insured the loans, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal district court. The bank didn't report the problems with the loans even after its own risk department conducted reviews that according to one bank employee, unearthed "a dirty underbelly of bad loan officers," the lawsuit claims.

“As the complaint alleges, yet another major bank has engaged in a long standing and reckless trifecta of deficient training, deficient underwriting and deficient disclosure, all while relying on the convenient backstop of government insurance," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who brought the case, in a statement.

Wells Fargo is one of hundreds of banks permitted to certify mortgages for government backing by the FHA. Should these loans fail, the FHA, a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will reimburse whoever holds the loans for the charges they incurred.

Because of this guarantee, millions of moderate and low-income borrowers who wouldn't otherwise qualify for a mortgage have been able to take out a home loan. But an investigation by federal authorities has found that many of these loans were improperly certified by bank mortgage officers that ignored lending standards in an effort to pad their bonus checks.

Citigroup, Flagstar Bank, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and FBC collectively have repaid the FHA $1 billion following legal settlements in cases similar to the one brought against Wells Fargo.

In this case, federal prosecutors allege that Wells Fargo's brokers issued loans that shouldn't have qualified, and then the bank lied about it to the government. The lawsuit also alleges that Wells Fargo's bonus incentive plan, which rewarded employees based on the sheer number of loans approved, "was an accelerant to a fire already burning, as quality repeatedly took a backseat to quantity."

“Many of the issues in the lawsuit had been previously addressed with HUD,” the bank said in a statement. “Wells Fargo is the leading FHA lender and has acted as a prudent and responsible lender with FHA delinquency rates that have been as low as half the industry average. The bank will present facts to vigorously defend itself against this action. Wells Fargo is proud of its long involvement in the FHA program, which has helped so many people obtain affordable mortgages and become homeowners.”


9 Oct

[Arrowwind]

I contacted Michael Tellinger with the Ubuntu movement in South Africa yesterday to tell him about the thrive movement and the film and its networking potential. Micahel is involved in revealing and the bankseters in S.A. and court trials regarding such. He wrote right back to me and presented this... He is already in contact with Foster Gamble and the thrive movement and here is their discussion on youtube. He asked that I spread this video around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7qXbv6U4YM

Here Tellinger tells of submitting his court papers against Standard bank in S.A. and his feelings on money in general and the unscrupulous acts of the banks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlHuJI5-PNc=relmfu

and this radio program delves further into Michael's court experiences, his views on money and his fight to expose the theivery and corruption of banks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_CYhMhVeAM=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_CYhMhVeAM&feature=relmfu)

T

[Sabrina]

That's great Arrowwind. Many thanks for the news from Michael Tellinger. I've got a lot of time for the Thrive movement and Proctor Gamble. The white hats seem to be making their mark!!! :)

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Another bizarre story of a secret service arrest close to the president..

http://abcnews.go.com/US/secret-service-officer-arrested-presidential-advance-trip/story?id=17466169#.UHiQS5jqpIA

Oct. 12, 2012

A U.S. Secret Service officer was arrested early Friday morning after police found him passed out on a Miami, Fla., sidewalk.

The officer, Aaron Francis Engler, was in Miami as part of the advance team for President Barack Obama's visit to the University of Miami on Thursday.

Engler is a member of the uniformed division of the agency and not assigned to presidential protection, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington told ABC News.

The Miami police report noted that Engler became combative when an officer tried to rouse him.

"[Engler] started arguing with me and throwing his arms around while I was conducting a pat down," wrote the arresting officer. "At this point motorists traveling in the area were stopping to watch his actions."




After handcuffing Engler, officers went through his personal items and discovered he was with the Secret Service. Engler was charged with disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, police said.

Engler's arrest was another in a string of embarrassments for the agency charged with protecting the president.

This spring, nine Secret Service personnel were removed from the agency after they were accused of hiring prostitutes while on a presidential trip to Cartagena, Columbia.

The scandal roiled the once-pristine reputation of the agency and sparked new rules for officers and agents who are travelling on official business. One new rule specifically banned heavy drinking on trips -- but, apparently, Officer Engler did not get the message.

The case will be referred to the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility for investigation, a Secret Service spokesman said.

[Arrowwind]

I think they have a long history of hiring less than desirables for secret service. I have a friend who was secret service in Washington DC, he was a marine or a seal previous to that. These days hes an organic farmer but still sufferes from PTSD, which he says was from the military. So a PTSD in secret service? who knows what that could have lead to. Basically, those types who will do this kind of work probably have a few loose screws either from stress or from bizarre belief systems.

[Sabrina]

http://rt.com/news/switzerland-prepares-europe-unrest-263/

12 Oct Switzerland

Switzerland arming in preparation for European meltdown?


The Swiss Army is preparing contingency plans for violent unrest across Europe. A nation mostly famous for its banks, watches and chocolate fears it may face a massive influx of European refugees in the near future.

One of the world’s richest nations openly expressed concerns over the possible outcome of Europe’s continuing financial troubles, and is currently conducting army exercises against the possibility of riots along its borders.

In September, the Swiss military conducted exercises dubbed ‘Stabilo Due,’ with scenarios involving violent instability across the EU.

Switzerland has maintained an avowedly neutral stance for decades, and refused to join the eurozone when presented with the opportunity.

Bern’s biggest fear is likely the disorganization of neighboring nations’ armies that would follow general instability; the eurozone crisis and the severe austerity measures in the EU are forcing member-states to significantly slash their military budgets. If protest continues to spread across Europe, police and armed forces may find themselves ill-equipped to manage the unrest.

"I will not rule out that we will need the army in the coming years,” Swiss Defense Minister Ueli Maurer said last Sunday.

The Swiss Defense Ministry has pressed ahead to modernize the country’s army despite political opposition. With its multibillion-Franc military budget and an army of around 200,000 soldiers, the country also plans to purchase new ‘Saab Gripen’ jet fighters.

[Hervé]

Never mind... duplicate post on the "Lagarde List."

[christian]

A fourteen minute s**tstorm against our Chancellor Merkel, recorded yesterday while campaigning in Stuttgart:

-Tp-AspPvmg

Her party is leading in the polls anyways, elections are next year. Go figure :wink:

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Christian, are you sure the sound of the sstorm was not mixed with the original speech? She looks completely undisturbed by the apparently loud noise. I can see some "offending" banners hinting at protests being genuine. So could the sound be original but enhanced artificially giving an impression of being overwhelming? It could be also shorter sample looped to make an impression of being much longer... Just thinking aloud, nothing special...

[christian]

Christian, are you sure the sound of the sstorm was not mixed with the original speech?

That's what I first thought as well, because the noise is pretty darn impressive. She seems relatively undisturbed, but that's how she is, pulling through, keeping a (somewhat) straight face. But when I listened to the protesters and their slogans and how it develops, it does seem legit.

All that aside, mainstream publications have written about this event and confirmed it, like Spiegel (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wahlkampf-stuttgarter-empfangen-merkel-mit-pfeifkonzert-a-861071.html) or Handelsblatt (http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/wahlkampfveranstaltung-stuttgarter-pfeifen-merkel-aus/7249348.html). I bet it won't be on most of the nightly news shows though, not that I watch any, I only see the video of it occasionally in the gym, been watching it today at 5pm, there was nothing about it in it.

[Sabrina]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/12/266334/marine/

UK Army arrests 7 Marines on murder charge


Seven Royal Marines have been arrested on suspicion of murder during an earlier criminal incident in Afghanistan, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.


The MoD said in a statement that the arrests were prompted by footage discovered on a serviceman’s laptop, and that the Royal Military Police was involved.

The incident occurred after an engagement with an Afghan national in Helmand province the previous year. However, an inquiry into the criminal move has recently been launched after an individual within the military claimed to have witnessed the crime.

“The investigation will now be taken forward and dealt with by the Service Justice system,” the MoD’s statement said.

The Ministry of Defence said that details about the ongoing inquiry could not be revealed.

The arrests are thought to be the first time UK servicemen have been held on suspicion of such charges during the conflict in Afghanistan.

Britain has the second largest foreign military occupation force in Afghanistan after the United States with about 9,500 troops based in the southern Helmand province.

Of these, almost 433 troops have died since the UK joined the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

[Sabrina]

More on the UK Jimmy Saville story. This could open a really large can of worms if anyone in the press was willing and allowed to reveal how many high profile people may be linked to Saville. Or are there D notices on it all? Is the slightly sensational UK press reporting a bit of a smoke screen to the darker reality?


http://www.davidicke.com/headlines

13 Oct

David Icke on the UK Jimmy Saville abuse story

The David Icke Newsletter Goes Out On Sunday with 5,500-word background article on the Savile case and its much wider implications

I was first told about the real Jimmy Savile in the late 1990s in conversations with people who had serious insider knowledge about the British royal family and they said that Savile had been a close friend of Prince Philip until they had fallen out after a ‘big row’.

When I questioned why someone like Savile would be so close to the royal family I was told about his paedophilia and necrophilia (sex with dead bodies) and, of course, his famous voluntary work at hospitals would have given him potential access to the mortuaries.

Savile himself would boast about his connections to the royals and it was publicly acknowledged that he was a regular visitor to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace (where Princess Diana lived after her marriage ended with Prince Charles), and Highgrove (the country estate of Prince Charles).

Savile told Esquire: ‘The thing about me is I get things done and I work deep cover. I’ve known the Royal Family for a million years.’

According to the UK Daily Mail at the time of Savile’s death in 2011, he ‘was used as an intermediary in an attempt to resolve the differences between the Prince and Princess of Wales shortly before their split’. Savile said that he was invited to regular meetings with the royal family because ‘I have a natural good fun way of going on and we have a laugh.’

Would one of the world’s most powerful families invite an aging disc jockey into their inner sanctum so often just because he gave them ‘a good laugh’? Or is there likely to be a far more plausible reason for their strange closeness?

I have been writing since the 1990s and a book called The Biggest Secret about the royal family's connection to Satanism and paedophilia and about paedophile Satanists like British Prime Minister Edward Heath and President 'Father' George Bush - just as I have told those who would listen about Jimmy Savile. But all I have had for my trouble from mainstream society is ridicule and dismissal. Their minds are too closed and programmed to make the leap into the world as it really is.

Now, in the wake of the public confirmation about Savile, it is time that they did. How many more children need to suffer before humanity grows up and faces the reality and sheer undiluted evil of the force that controls them?






And some sobering info. on alleged high profile UK sex offenders. Think this was posted in 2011 and mentions Saville.

http://www.seancopland.com/articles/sex_offenders_register_free_online_search.html

[Sabrina]

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_35935.shtml

13 Oct Spain

Spain's cutbacks are moving to the regions

The cuts in some of the autonomous regions are very deep indeed.


The cutbacks are going from Madrid to the regions, where the drastic cuts mean there will be fewer deputies, wage cuts, and no bonuses.

Only Madrid and Galicia have failed to decide on the extent of the cuts in their region and the most austere is Castilla-La Mancha where wages have been released and the number of seats in the chamber has been reduced.

Other communities such as Asturias or Extremadura have put the official cars in to dust, while the Aragon parliament has decided to reduce paper costs.

On the Canaries the wage of the 70 deputies is to be reduced. Also on the Canaries the cuts have reached the act organised by the Parliament, and the pending infrastructures in parliamentary buildings will be reduced.

The regions are getting their turn and even basic items such as water, electricity, and fixed-line and mobile connections will be revised.

The plans come from the new State Budget for next year.

Wage wise, in Castilla-la Mancha, after a double hit of removing the wage of the parliamentarians, they find an income only from collecting debt. In addition the number of deputies in the region are being cut by half.

In Castilla y León only 21% of the parliamentarians, those who give the chamber exclusive dedication are paid. Commissions in the region have been limited in the region.

In Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, Ex President of Madrid, has expressed a wish to take the number of deputies from 129 to 65 even if the Statute has to be modified. Her successor, Ignacio González, say will continue along the lines of Aguirre’s intentions.

In Cataluña the austerity measure have been in an all-time reduction of more than 12%. There has been cut in representation costs, displacements, trips, telephone and essential services.

In Aragón they have decided to freeze wages, and take other measures to save paper. 500,000 copies of publications have been cut.

On the Baleares the deputies find their live insurance suspended, the removal of the extra payment at Christmas, and expenses and displacements are all cut. Savings are forecast at 5 million €.

In Valencia the deputies will see a 15% wage fall, which will be 25% from the start of next year.

In Extremadura the deputies have getting 5% less since the summer and reduced budgets are affecting official cars, parking tickets, and the deputies’ phone costs have been limited.

In Murcia the deputies have seen their wages frozen, and their budgets will be reduced by 13.3% in 2013.

In Cantabria for next year new adjustments in wages will be made, and the extra payment at Christmas is cancelled. This in common with the others run by the Partido Popular, in proposing to reduce the number of deputies, but it won’t come into effect until next year.

In Andalucía the Parliament has suspended the wages of the 109 deputies, and cut the budget by 1.3 million. The community has not considered reducing the number of deputies, but will instead be adding another one to be named ‘Seat 110’. It will be the job of this person to promote the P.P’s initiatives.

In Asturias the five groups in coalition have decided to reduce human resources, and material for the 45 deputies to make a half a million € saving. The have also got rid of official cars and their drivers saving 55,000 €. The cars have been put up for sale, but up to now there have been no takers.

In the Basque Country the Christmas extra payment is being removed, but the number of deputies remains at 75.

The Galician Parliament, which was dissolved on August 27 because a forthcoming regional election, will see the number of deputies go from 75 to 61. The Galician Parliament has already put an austerity plan into action, between 2009 and 2011 which saved the region 5.2 million €, by cutting political parties protocol, propaganda and gifts with the rationalization of mobile phone services and the reduction of facturas.

And finally,
The Assembly in Ceuta has reduced wages and in Manilla the deputies will not be assigned a wage, but will be instead for attending commissions and planning meetings

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Forgive me i've made an issue of it... But had no idea of what "D notice" means. Now i know. It is a censorship... Bless the internet :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-notice_affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DA-Notice

Is this what you meant Sabrina?

[Sabrina]

Forgive me i've made an issue of it... But had no idea of what "D notice" means. Now i know. It is a censorship... Bless the internet :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-notice_affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DA-Notice

Is this what you meant Sabrina?

Yes that's right Robert - would they use it for Saville material - is my brain functioning in these higher energies :) - am not quite sure to be honest - but yes they probably would depending on who is involved.... but it's just one more story that they can't keep the lid on.

By the way, hope the lid comes off the Polish air crash story soon as well.

[Sabrina]

http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/261.cfm


The Hidden Meanings in the New $100 Bill!

Bix Weir

First of all, I must admit that I am one of those "Conspiracy Nuts" who loves to read meaning into the back of the US $1 bill like I'm trying to solve a centuries old puzzle. The "All Seeing Eye", the pyramid, "One World Government", Masonic symbols, the implications of the Latin words, even the words "In God We Trust" added in 1955...all of it...I'm a big fan of secret meaning. Just Google "US Dollar Hidden Meaning" and you will find almost EVERY INTERPRETATION you can imagine. Since I don't know which is true...I tend to believe ALL OF THEM. More fun that way. If you think this is all hogwash and there is no meaning to the back of the $1 bill..."Duh, it's just a nice picture"...then this article is not for you.

So, of course, I was more than excited when the new $100 bill was FINALLY announced and IT HAD ALL THAT GOLD ON IT!

http://www.newmoney.gov/newmoney/default.aspx

I admit that I am slightly biased on this. One of the central themes of my work at the Road to Roota Letters is that there is a group of people working to end the fiat money system and return the US back to the Gold Standard. For those unfamiliar with the concept read:

The Road to Roota Theory http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/190.cfm

A subscriber tipped me off years ago that the new $100 bill would be "special" when it finally got released and he wasn't lying. I LOVE this bill! Check out how it turns gold in the light...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEabYIStM8Y

Ok. So it may be a coincidence and I may have an over active imagination but bear with me while we explore further. Take a real close look at the new bill keeping in mind that the US has a special history of hidden meaning behind their bills and there's a real possibility of a currency crash (with a return to the Gold Standard) in the very near future.

Let's start with the most glaring difference even from the other new colored bills: that huge Blue Stripe down the right center. For those not familiar with the symbolism of the American flag colors: Red symbolizes Hardiness and Valor, White symbolizes Purity and Innocence and Blue represents Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice. Is it possible that the big Blue Stripe may have more significance that you might expect?

When it comes to monetary theory there are really only two serious camps. The first believes in fiat/paper money and the second believes in a "hard money" backed by gold. Lets assume these two opposing ideologies are represented on this bill. Look closely at the left side of the Blue Stripe.

full story and pix at link

[Ontarioguy]

For what it is worth...just saw the news this evening and the PREMIER of the province I live in within Canada has RESIGNED! Many people here in Northern Ontario will probably be rejoicing right about now...but I am cautiously optimistic...as one just never knows who will be taking over ???

http://news.sympatico.ctvnews.ca/home/ontario_premier_dalton_mcguinty_stepping_down/474de358

[Sabrina]

Very much the tip of the iceberg about the about of money raised for Haiti and where it really went...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19956396

15 Oct

Controversy over Wyclef's charity money for Haiti

Wyclef Jean is facing an investigation into what happened to money he raised for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

The former Fugees star started a campaign after 230,000 people died in the disaster in 2010.

Two years later though there's controversy about how those funds were spent.

It's estimated the 42-year-old rapper, who was born in the country, helped raise millions of pounds for the Yele Haiti charity.

With help from some of his celebrity friends like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, it's estimated he raised millions of dollars.

Yele Haiti folded as a company this summer with questions about how the money was spent.

US newspaper the New York Times claims a large amount went on luxury travel, offices and food.

It's also been claimed the charity employed people on inflated contracts.

Wyclef Jean has responded to the claims via his Facebook page, posting images of himself and charity workers in Haiti.

In a statement from his legal team, the rapper's promised to help with any investigation into the charity's accounts.

In 2010, he unsuccessfully bid to become Haiti's president.

It was rejected because the Haitian constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country for five years prior to an election.

[Sabrina]

And who were these rogue navy staff working for?...Argentina standing up to the IMF of course.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19957762

16 Oct

Argentine navy chief replaced amid Libertad row


The head of Argentina's navy has been replaced following the seizure in West Africa of a naval training ship and its 300 crew amid a debt dispute.

The Argentine government is holding an inquiry into who was responsible for allowing the Libertad to stop in Ghana two weeks ago.

Creditors say they will not release the ship until Argentina repays money owed to them from a default in 2001.

An Argentine delegation is in Ghana trying to resolve the stalemate.

Navy chief Carlos Alberto Paz has been replaced and two other senior naval officials suspended, Argentina's defence ministry said on Monday.

A statement said the navy's former organisational chief, Alfredo Mario Blanco, had changed the ship's itinerary and was now being investigated. It said Admiral Luis Gonzalez, the navy's secretary general, had also been suspended and was under investigation.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government has demanded the ship's release, saying it cannot legally be held by creditors because of its military nature.

The Libertad - a three-masted tall ship - was detained in the Ghanaian port of Tema on 2 October under a court order obtained by NML Capital.

The firm says Argentina owes it more than $300m (£186m) and it will only release the ship if the country pays it at least $20m.

NML Capital is a subsidiary of US hedge fund Elliot Capital Management, one of Argentina's former creditors.

Argentina defaulted on more than $100bn (£62bn) of debt in 2001 and 2002, the biggest default in history.

Most of these loans were restructured in 2005 and 2010, giving creditors about 30% of their money back.

However, some creditors including Elliot chose to hold out, pursuing the Argentine government through the courts to recover the full amount.

[Sabrina]

Portugal 15 Oct - Demonstrations have spread to Portugal in face of so called austerity measures, similar to neighbour Spain.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1016/protests-in-lisbon-over-portugals-draft-budget.html

Protests in Lisbon after Portugal's draft budget revealed

There were noisy protests outside the parliament building in Lisbon last night after the Portuguese government revealed details of its draft budget for 2013 - the toughest for many years.

It includes both €2.7bn worth of spending cuts and an average income tax rise of 3.4%.

Portugal’s Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said the proposals were the only way the country could meet the terms of its €78bn bailout.

"The margin of manoeuvre for unilateral decisions is non-existent, a rejection of the 2013 budget would mean a rejection of the bailout programme,” Mr Gaspar said.

"Asking for more time (under the bailout) would lead us to a dictatorship of debt and to failure."

Opposition Socialists called the tax hike "a fiscal atomic bomb", and said it denied the country growth and jobs creation.

Mr Gaspar stuck to the government's previous projection of a 1% contraction of GDP in 2013, which would mark the country's third year of recession but which economists say is much too optimistic considering the hit to consumers from the budget.

Joao Duque, a professor who heads the School of Economics and Management at Lisbon's Technical University, was highly critical of the budget.

"I feel like a guinea pig in an economics experiment," said Mr Duque.
"The measures will accentuate the crisis we already face, that is evident."






http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/210084650/scat/4b6cc4f8ec2f54f6

Portugal finance minister unveils "enormous" tax hikes in 2013 budget
Euro News Tuesday 16th October, 2012

Portugal is facing ';enormous'; tax increases next year, according to Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar as he unveiled the harshest austerity budget seen by the country in living memory. The average levy on wages would rise from 9.8 percent to 13.2 percent. A greater amount of people could end up paying more, with the number of tax categories reduced from eight to five. Hikes in income and corporate taxes will make up almost three quarters of gover...
full story at link





And photos here (rather one sided ones):

http://www.demotix.com/news/1525539/protests-staged-front-portuguese-parliament#media-1525528

Protests staged in front of Portuguese Parliament

[InTheBackground]

Has this been posted yet? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218537/Citi-CEO-Vikram-Pandit-steps-effective-immediately-offering-explanation.html

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and COO John Havens both step down - effective immediately - without offering an explanation

In a shocking move, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit stepped down from his position on Tuesday after steering the bank through 2008 financial crisis and the choppy years that followed.

Within minutes of the bank's announcement, Pandit's name was gone from Citigroup's website.

His replacement as CEO is Michael Corbat, the current CEO of Citigroup's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, the bank said.

And a second top executive also resigned as part of the shake-up: President and Chief Operating Officer John Havens, who also serves as CEO of Citi's Institutional Client Group.

The change is effective immediately. The bank offered no explanation for the sudden departure of its two top executives.

[Sabrina]

Has this been posted yet? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218537/Citi-CEO-Vikram-Pandit-steps-effective-immediately-offering-explanation.html

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and COO John Havens both step down - effective immediately - without offering an explanation

In a shocking move, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit stepped down from his position on Tuesday after steering the bank through 2008 financial crisis and the choppy years that followed.

Within minutes of the bank's announcement, Pandit's name was gone from Citigroup's website.

His replacement as CEO is Michael Corbat, the current CEO of Citigroup's Europe, Middle East and Africa division, the bank said.

And a second top executive also resigned as part of the shake-up: President and Chief Operating Officer John Havens, who also serves as CEO of Citi's Institutional Client Group.

The change is effective immediately. The bank offered no explanation for the sudden departure of its two top executives.


Thanks for this - it seems to have taken people by surprise. More on it:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/16/us-citigroup-pandit-idUSBRE89F0O420121016

Citi's Pandit in shock resignation after board clash

Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:40pm EDT
(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit resigned abruptly on Tuesday after months of simmering tensions with the board of directors, a shocking change at the top of the No. 3 U.S. bank.

A statement from Chairman Michael O'Neill said Michael Corbat, previously chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa, would succeed Pandit as CEO and as a board member.

Within minutes of the bank's announcement, Pandit's name was gone from Citigroup's website. Chief Operating Officer John Havens, a long-time associate of Pandit, also resigned.

Pandit's sudden resignation is the culmination of months of disagreement with the board, in particular O'Neill, over strategy. It is not clear precisely what led Pandit to quit, but the decision to swiftly name Corbat as CEO is a clear sign that O'Neill is now fully in control of the bank, a person familiar with Citigroup said. Corbat is reputed to be close to O'Neill and attuned to his thoughts on managing the bank.

Citigroup shares rose as much as 1.5 percent in morning trading as some investors said they were not sorry to see Pandit leave. During his tenure, he was known to have adamantly opposed any break-up of Citigroup, something some money managers argued would increase shareholder value.

The board's relationship with Pandit was already under pressure after shareholders rejected the CEO's pay package in an advisory vote in April. He was awarded more than $15 million in 2011 compensation, but 55 percent of shareholders voted against it. The pay issue was thought to still be a source of friction internally.

O'Neill's ascension to chairman earlier this year, and the addition of new board members, upended the status quo and likely set the stage for disagreements on strategic direction between the chairman and the CEO, a second person familiar with the situation said.

A Citigroup spokeswoman declined to comment on accounts of friction with the board.

Investors were taken aback by the news, which also caught senior Citigroup executives off guard.

"It's not a shock that (Pandit) is no longer there, but the surprise is this is all happening very quickly. Why is he leaving immediately?" said Mike Holland, chairman of New York-based Holland & Co, which oversees more than $4 billion of assets.

"I'm not a Citi shareholder, but if I were, I'd be disappointed that Havens is gone, in some ways more than Pandit," Holland added.

HIGH-PROFILE DEFEATS

Pandit's resignation follows a series of high-profile defeats this year. In March the Federal Reserve rejected the bank's capital plans after a stress test; Pandit had led analysts and investors to believe the plans would be approved.

Last month, Pandit agreed to a low sale price for his bank's stake in the brokerage operated by Morgan Stanley. Citigroup had to take a $4.7 billion charge in the third quarter to write down the value of that stake.

Yet the bank's stock rose sharply on Monday after Citigroup reported third-quarter results, even with the write-down, that were much better than analysts expected. The stock was up another 29 cents to $36.95 in midday trading Tuesday.

The one-two punch of the results and Pandit's exit point to what analysts say has been a years-long unsettled atmosphere around the bank.

"What Pandit and Havens did was increase the uncertainty around Citi," said Matt McCormick, banking analyst and portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor in Cincinnati, Ohio. "There's a perpetual cloud of uncertainty surrounding Citigroup. There's always turmoil ... that's had to affect the stock price."

Multiple people within the bank, speaking anonymously because they could not discuss it publicly, said Pandit's resignation was a shock and that even senior executives were surprised.

EXPERIENCE QUESTIONS

Pandit's departure revived questions that were asked from the day he took the job: whether he had the right experience to lead Citigroup in the first place. Those questions did not go away during the depths of the financial crisis, as regulators took a dim view of his performance.

"Citi management's performance during the crisis had not been impressive. They had had a very difficult time making decisions and then executing once the decisions were made," Sheila Bair, the crisis-era chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, wrote in her recent book.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/market-roundup-bumi-boosted-after-rothschild-walks-out-in-board-bustup-8213476.html

16 Oct

Market round-up: Bumi boosted after Rothschild walks out in board bust-up


Shares in London-listed, Indonesian-focused coalminer Bumi jumped today as long-suffering investors drew some nourishment from the resignation of banking dynasty scion Nat Rothschild from the company’s board last night.

The shares rose 4.6p, or 2%, to 249.9p as the City welcomed Rothschild’s decision to ratchet up his already very tense relationship with Bumi’s other main shareholders — the Bakrie family and Samin Tan, the Indonesian businessman who is the group’s chairman.

Responding to the Bakries’ recent offer to buy back the assets they previously injected into the business in return for a stake in the enlarged entity, Rothschild lambasted the family and Tan.

He accused the chairman of being “complicit” in the “oppression” of some shareholders by advocating a deal that he said appeared to give Tan preferential terms to minority investors, with Tan apparently getting £10.91 for each of his shares, with the others slated to receive just £4.30.

Although heightening the tensions, investors were betting that Rothschild’s apparent determination to stand up for the little guy could feed through into a little more cash for them.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9612730/News-Corp-annual-meeting-live.html

16 Oct

News Corp annual meeting: Live (UK time)

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp, faces renewed calls from shareholders to step down as the company's chairman as it holds its annual meeting in Los Angeles today.


Greenwood, head of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents UK pension funds with about £120bn in assets. Mr Greenwood says that the question of corporate governance at News Corp has been over politicised and it is simply a matter of good practice.
18.25 More from Katherine Rushton:
Viet Dinh, a professor of law at GeorgeTown university and News Corp board member, is explaining News Corp's dual class shareholding structure actually goes in favour of the small guys, and is designed to "preserve and maximise long term value for all shareholders". Never mind that it also hands the Murdochs 40pc of voting power for their 12pc stake in the company.
18.24 News Corp shareholders have rejected the proposal to split the chairman and CEO roles. They also rejected the elimination of the company's dual listing. All directors were approved. Mr Rushe sums it up with this hashtag:

18.21 Another nugget of information. Not as relevant, but interesting nonetheless. Here's the FT's Matthew Garrahan:

18.18 Two interesting little nuggets for News Corp shareholders. Firstly, that the company has no intention of slowing down the pace of its share buyback.
Last summer, Mr Murdoch introduced a $5bn share buyback to help appease investors as the hacking scandal erupted. That has since been expanded to $10bn and pleased several of News Corp's largest shareholders.
Secondly, we'll know who is going to run News Corp's publishing business by the end of the year.
18.14 Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's eldest son, is not at today's meeting.
18.12 Katherine Rushton, our media, telecoms and technology editor, comments:
Rupert Murdoch has fronted up the issue of phone hacking and corporate governance, telling shareholders that it has worked hard to strengthn its procedures and hire "top notch" staff who will help to prevent a repeat of the phone hacking and police bribery scandals. He is also at pains to point out that it was a peculiarly "UK problem", that did not leach into its news operations elsewhere. It is clear that this man has fallen out of love with Britain.
18.07 Mr Murdoch lists the steps that the company undertook in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. He says that the problems at its UK operations were not found at its other divisions.
Murdoch says that the company has "seized" phone-hacking as an opportunity to improve the company's corporate governance.
He points to the appointment of new compliance officers. While admitting it has been a difficult period for the company, the 81-year old wastes no time reminding shareholders that News Corp's shares are up 45pc in the last 12 months.

[Sabrina]

Swiss Hold $1 Billion in Blocked “Arab Spring” Assets

2012 OCTOBER 17

Swiss Hold $1 Billion in Blocked “Arab Spring” Assets
By Stephanie Nebehay, Geneva, Reuters – October 16. 2012

http://tinyurl.com/8wzj9r4

(Reuters) – Switzerland has blocked nearly one billion Swiss francs ($1.07 billion) in stolen assets linked to dictators in four countries at the centre of the Arab spring – Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia – the Swiss foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Swiss authorities are cooperating with judicial authorities in Tunisia and Egypt to speed restoration of the funds, but it is expected to take years, said Valentin Zellweger, head of the international law department at the Swiss foreign ministry.

“Today a total of one billion francs is blocked in the framework of Arab spring,” he told a news briefing in Geneva, giving the latest figures for funds frozen since early 2011.

The bulk of the assets, nearly 700 million francs, are tied to former President Hosni Mubarak and his entourage, he said.

Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter held talks in Cairo on Sunday with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamal Amr on judicial cooperation to restore the embezzled funds, he said.

Some 60 million francs linked to ousted Tunisian president Ben Ali has also been seized, Zellweger said. In line with U.N. Security Council sanctions, 100 million francs linked to the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and 100 million francs linked to Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and associates are blocked.

Switzerland has worked hard in recent years to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten gains, seizing the assets of deposed dictators and agreeing in 2009 to soften strict bank secrecy to help other countries catch tax cheats.

“In the past, the affair that was resolved most quickly was Abacha and it took 5 years,” Zellweger said, referring to assets linked to the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.

[Sabrina]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/before-british-parliament-volcker-pushes-for-tougher-banking-rules/?ref=business

17 Oct

Before British Parliament, Volcker Pushes for Tougher Banking Rules

LONDON — If complicated financial trades have a benefit for the wider economy, the former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker isn’t sure he has seen it.

‘‘The economic and social value of much of the trading and innovative financial engineering is questionable,’’ Mr. Volcker said during almost two hours of testimony at a British parliamentary commission on Wednesday.

Mr. Volcker, the 85-year-old statesman of American banking regulation, had been invited to address the commission, which is investigating a recent spate of British bank scandals. He said that if left to their own devices banks would find ways to intertwine their trades for their own accounts with the retail businesses, in potentially dangerous ways.

His statements came as United States authorities move closer to enacting the so-called Volcker Rule, which would restrict the ability of banks, whose deposits are federally insured, from trading for their own benefit.

Banks and other Wall Street firms have fiercely opposed the proposed legislation, and have lobbied hard to alter how it would be put in place.

When asked by British politicians whether those changes have watered down the measure’s effectiveness, Mr. Volcker dismissed the concerns.

‘‘I don’t believe that the thrust of it has been chipped away,’’ Mr. Volcker said on Wednesday.

British regulators have proposed similar rules that would cordon off firms’ retail operations from their riskier investment banking units. Mr. Volcker expressed doubt that such a system would work, as firms would continue to look for ways to combine their different operations in an effort to reduce cost and increase profitability.

The division between banks’ businesses ‘‘tends to break down over time because of pressures from the institution itself,’’ he said. ‘‘If you want to keep them separate, you should put them in two different organizations.’’

Mr. Volcker also raised doubts over the benefit of complicated trading activities, which contributed to the global financial crisis. His comments come as London has been hit with a number of recent scandals that has put banks’ riskier operations back in the spotlight.

The British bank Barclays, for example, agreed to a $450 million settlement with authorities in June connected to the manipulation of crucial interest rates by some of its traders. Losses connected to bungled trades at JPMorgan Chase’s London office also now total billions of dollars.

The British commission that heard Mr. Volcker’s testimony is expected to hear from other prominent finance officials, including Martin Wheatley, the chief British regulator, and Martin Taylor, a former Barclays chief executive.

On Wednesday, Andrew Tyrie, the British politician leading the parliamentary panel, joked that Mr. Volcker could be in London to discuss taking over as the new governor of the Bank of England, the country’s central bank. Mervyn A. King, Britain’s current central bank chief, will step down from his post next year.

Mr. Volcker, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, smiled at the remark, saying that he was too old to become the Bank of England’s new head.

‘‘It’s a job for someone younger than 85,’’ he said.

[Sabrina]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57534729/feds-seek-up-to-10-years-for-ex-goldman-director-rajat-gupta/?tag=categoryDoorTopNews;catDoorTopNews

17 Oct

Feds seek up to 10 years for ex-Goldman director Rajat Gupta

NEW YORK The government on Wednesday urged a judge to send a former Goldman Sachs board member convicted of insider trading charges to prison for at least eight years, calling his crimes shocking, though his lawyers suggested he should serve no time at all after his "monumental fall."

The written arguments were submitted to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who this year presided over the trial in which Rajat Gupta was convicted. Gupta, a 63-year-old former board member for Goldman and Procter & Gamble Co., faces sentencing Oct. 24.

Ex-Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta convicted Ex-Goldman board member indicted in fraud case Ex-Goldman director charged with insider trading

Gupta, who was born in Kolkata, India, was convicted in an insider trading case that resulted in convictions for two dozen other people, including Raj Rajaratnam, a one-time billionaire hedge fund founder from Sri Lanka who is serving an 11-year prison term. Prosecutors said Gupta fed Rajaratnam inside tips between March 2007 and January 2009, sometimes within seconds of learning the information, and Rajaratnam used the tips to make more than $11 million in illegal profits for him and his investors.

Defense lawyers, who want Gupta spared time behind bars, wrote that his life story was "defined by helping others and one fundamentally at odds with the events of this case." They cited more than 400 letters written on his behalf, including ones mentioning his charity that were signed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"The conduct for which he was convicted represents an isolated aberration and a stark departure from this personal history," the lawyers wrote.

They also noted that Gupta did not profit from the trading that resulted from his tips and did not engage in any trading of his own, though they acknowledged that there was "vague and amorphous evidence relating to the ongoing business relationship and prospective arrangements" between Gupta and Rajaratnam.

They recommended a "lengthy and rigorous program of community service" be required rather than prison time for a man whose "once sterling reputation, built over decades, has been irreparably shattered, and his business and philanthropic accomplishments tainted." They added: "This is the quintessential case of a monumental fall that is, in and of itself, severe punishment."

he government, in its papers, said eight years to 10 years was necessary to reflect the seriousness of the crimes by a man who demonstrated "above-the-law arrogance" and deter others "from stealing corporate secrets and engaging in a crime that has become far too common."

"Gupta's crimes are shocking," the government wrote. "Gupta's crimes are extraordinarily serious and damaging to the capital markets. ... It understandably fuels cynicism among the investing public that Wall Street is rigged and that Wall Street professionals unfairly exploit privileged access to information. This is particularly troubling at a time when there is widespread concern about corruption, greed and recklessness at the highest levels of the financial services industry."

Prosecutors had called the case against Rajaratnam the biggest insider trading probe in history. The investigation made unprecedented use of wiretaps, allowing jurors at Rajaratnam's trial to hear dozens of taped conversations between him and co-conspirators. Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group funds, argued that the tapes revealed nothing more than him doing his duty by asking questions about information already circulating in the "real world" of high finance.

AP

[Sabrina]

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2218246/RBS-suspends-Singapore-trader-Jezri-Mohideen-Libor-setting.html

RBS suspends Singapore trader Jezri Mohideen over Libor setting


Royal Bank of Scotland has suspended one of its most senior traders over allegations he conspired to rig crucial interest rates.
Jezri Mohideen, who was put on leave last week, is the most high-ranking staff member to become embroiled in the scandal which is sweeping the banking industry.

He is accused of instructing colleagues in 2007 to lower Libor interest rates while head of yen products in Singapore.



The Singapore-based high flyer was promoted to become head of rates trading for Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific in 2010.

The allegations add weight to claims that manipulation of interest rates was sanctioned by senior managers at the bank.

Emails emerged earlier this month of traders in Singapore allegedly boasting of running a rate-rigging ‘cartel’ in London, just months before it received a £45billion bail out from taxpayers.

Transcripts of messages between the bank’s former traders in London and Singapore are contained in legal papers filed at Singapore’s High Court by Tan Chi Min, a former senior trader who is suing RBS for wrongful dismissal.

He claims rate rigging was systemic at the bank. It is thought the suspension of Mohideen is related to the lender’s internal review of the rate setting process and is not directly related to revelations from the lawsuit.

RBS, which is bracing itself for a huge fine over the affair, last night refused to confirm or deny whether Mohideen had been suspended.

It is thought at least seven traders have been suspended, although two have been reinstated.

Mohideen has previously denied pressurising colleagues to manipulate the Libor interest rate, which is used to set mortgage rates and is a benchmark for trillions of pounds of investments.


15 Oct

[Kimberley]

Thank you again, again, again, Sabrina for you diligent research!!! Much love to us all :grouphug:

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9621883/Millions-affected-after-cyber-attack-on-HSBC.html

Millions affected after cyber attack on HSBC
HSBC’s websites across the world have been hit by one of the largest cyber attacks to strike a bank in an attack that left millions of customers without access to online services.

An unknown group launched a so-called “denial of service” attack on Britain’s largest bank on Thursday evening, crashing web-based services for about seven hours.
At its peak, HSBC was deluged with internet traffic 500 times its normal level, five times higher than the amount of traffic that hit the bank in a similar attack earlier this year.

A spokesman for the bank said full internet services were restored by 3am yesterday and claimed that no customer data had been compromised as a result of the attack.

“We are co-operating with the relevant authorities and will co-operate with other organisations that have been similarly affected by such criminal acts,” HSBC said. “We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers throughout the world.”

US financial group Capital 1 is also understood to have been hit by a similar denial of service attack at the same time as HSBC.

Several parties have claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have been linked to Islamic groups protesting against controversial film The Innocence of Muslims, which they want removed from the internet.

Businesses increasingly see cyber attacks as one of their biggest threats given the migration of consumers online.

The Government issued advice to British business leaders last month on how to protect themselves from such threats.

19 Oct

[Sabrina]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2220270/Bank-Scotland-fined-4-2m-IT-gaffe.html?ITO=1490

20 Oct

Bank of Scotland fined £4.2m after IT gaffe prompted it to rely on inaccurate mortgage records for quarter of a million Halifax customers

Bank of Scotland has been fined £4.2m after an IT gaffe prompted it to rely on inaccurate mortgage records for a quarter of a million Halifax customers.
The failure spanned seven years and meant that thousands of borrowers were not alerted to crucial changes in their home loans.

In one case 37,500 customers were not told about an increase in the cap on their interest rates during the height of the financial crisis in 2008, which left them exposed to a hike in repayments.

Others were wrongly excluded from having a cap on their mortgage rates in the first place.

It is the latest instance of taxpayers being forced to foot compensation bills or fines imposed on state backed lenders. Bank of Scotland took over Halifax in September 2007 to form HBOS, which was rescued by Lloyds Banking Group a year later.

The problem, which stemmed from the lender holding information on two separate computer systems, was only picked up by the City watchdog in May 2011.
It spotted complaints from Halifax customers on internet consumer forums that they had not been included in a compensation package set up by the lender earlier in the year......
The news comes after Royal Bank of Scotland was forced to set aside £125m compensation after an IT meltdown over the summer prevented millions of customers from accessing their money.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19978900

BoE's Tucker: Worst may still be ahead for banking

The "worst may still be ahead" for the banking system, the Bank of England's deputy governor has told a gathering of leading bankers.

Paul Tucker said reserves held by banks were still not calibrated for the "end-of-the-world risks" that remained a possibility.

He added that bank bosses should be paid in debt, so they had a stake in the survival of their institutions.

Mr Tucker is a leading contender to be the Bank of England's next governor.

Speaking at the British Bankers' Association's (BBA's) annual conference in London, Mr Tucker said that the most important issue ahead was ensuring that banks could be allowed to fail in an orderly way.

This should be done without taxpayer support, he said. This would also make it easier for new, smaller entrants to the banking sector and encourage competition in a UK market dominated by a small number of institutions.

However, he also sounded a positive note for the City of London, saying that the Bank believed - if the correct structure was in place - that the financial centre would prosper in the future.

Separately, Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve and author of banking reforms in the US, voiced scepticism about plans in the UK to ring-fence banks' retail operations from their investment banking operations.

The UK government hopes to have final legislation on this change, proposed by the Vickers report on banking, in place by 2015.

Mr Volcker's proposals in the US, known as the Volcker rule, aim to ban banks' proprietary trading - taking speculative risks on the markets with their own rather than clients' money - and limit banks investing in hedge funds or private equity funds. Banks will have until July 2014 to comply with the rule.

"If you impose the ring-fence right now it will be effective to a considerable extent - compared to where we are now," he told the UK's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.

"There will be holes in the fence, but that doesn't mean it won't be effective the day after you impose it… but over time they will get bigger."

He also said that banks raising their capital standards to meet Basel III requirements was still "subject to uncertainties and political pressures".

Customer protection
At the BBA conference, Mr Tucker was one of a number of speakers from the top table of regulators and UK banks; representatives from politics and consumer groups were also speaking.

If they needed reminding, then protesters greeted their arrival with placards, and the conference catchline was "restoring trust".

Then every speaker (with not a single woman among them) made reference to the trust and reputation issue.

So did they come up with a solution?

There were plenty of suggestions - including branches offering one-stop-shop banking and easier switching for customers.

Overall, greater competition in an industry facing up to a raft of new regulation was the major focus.

And competition, said the Bank of England's deputy governor, meant banks being allowed to fail.

Yet, you can't imagine that allowing their bank to fold would be a particular ambition of anyone in this room.


He said that by paying banks' leadership in IOUs from their own banks, they would have a "powerful incentive" to ensure they are run safely.

Such a proposal was put forward earlier this month by a European Union advisory group, who suggested that bankers should accept bonds as part of their bonus, the value of which would fall if risky trades or lending lost money.

Mr Tucker said customers were becoming increasingly aware of the system of deposit protection that meant the first £85,000 of their savings, per person and per institution, was guaranteed if a bank went bust.

This was changing retail banking in a significant way, but in slow motion, he said.

There was an argument, he added, for more of the burden of this deposit guarantee to be taken on by the failing bank, rather than the rest of the industry.

Other speakers at the conference included Martin Wheatley, who will lead the new regulatory body called the Financial Conduct Authority.

On Tuesday, the government confirmed that it was accepting the recommendations of Mr Wheatley's review of Libor in full.

His report concluded that the system for setting the Libor inter-bank lending rate was broken and needed complete overhaul, including criminal prosecutions for those who try to manipulate it.

He told the conference that, to anyone who was nervous about how to operate under the new regime, "The answer is simple: don't lie."

Bankers will have to submit their real borrowing costs to the new authority which will oversee the setting of the Libor rate. Previously, they provided estimates, which left Libor open to abuse and dishonesty, he said.

Mr Wheatley called on bankers to stay involved so that they could benefit from a new and improved Libor.

"All we are asking is that banks continue in that process in good faith," he said

Collapsed standards
The conference also heard from Sir Nigel Wicks, who was named as the new chairman of the BBA. He was once an aide to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

"In this country and at this time, this vitally important industry is working to rebuild its reputation with its customers and to play its full part in restoring the UK's financial stability and helping to drive its economic recovery," Sir Nigel said after his appointment was announced.

He told the conference that everyone had to take personal responsibility for the restoration of trust in banking.

The previous chairman, Marcus Agius, resigned in the wake of the Libor scandal, along with his role as chairman of Barclays.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee, told the conference that standards had collapsed and trust in banks broken down.

Later, Greg Clark, financial secretary to the Treasury, said that regulation in the last decade had been found wanting and had been done through the rear-view mirror.

Chris Leslie, shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said that the time had come to look at the portability of bank accounts.

This would allow consumers to take their account number with them when they moved banks, encouraging them to switch between institutions and prompting more competition in the industry.

He also argued against moving away from the model of free banking. At present, many consumers do not pay for a current account, but are charged for going overdrawn or for some other services.

[Sabrina]

IRS Deputy Commissioner Mark Ernst Resigns - US

http://goo.gl/Ls5AX

WASHINGTON, D.C.
OCTOBER 21, 2010
BY WEBCPA STAFF



Mark Ernst, the former chairman and CEO of H&R Block who went on to become deputy commissioner for operations support at the Internal Revenue Service, will be leaving the IRS later this year, according to an announcement Thursday by IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

Ernst joined the IRS last year after having been chairman and CEO of H&R Block from 1998 to 2007. He left Block to head the venture capital firm Bellevue Capital for two years before joining the IRS.

“Mark has been a most valued, respected and dedicated member of my leadership team, and he brought a unique perspective and focus to some of our most important initiatives, such as technology modernization, cybersecurity, financial management and workforce issues,” said Shulman. “I want to thank him for his strong contributions to the nation’s tax system, and he will be deeply missed by all of those who had the opportunity to work with him.”

Shulman noted that Ernst plans to return to the private sector. Succeeding him as deputy commissioner for operations support will be Beth Tucker, who currently serves as deputy commissioner for support in the IRS’s Wage & Income division.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

FROM: Santa Barbara Independent

The Mysterious Case of Christopher Marks
Vintner Found Dead One Month Ago, but Authorities Still Don't Know Why

Thursday, October 18, 2012
by TYLER HAYDEN, MATT KETTMANN

It’s been one month since the body of Christopher Marks was found on the beach below Shoreline Park, but authorities are still puzzled as to what circumstances led to the death of the 60-year-old Santa Barbara County vintner and investment advisor.

The Santa Barbara Police Department and the FBI ​— ​called in to conduct an extensive underwater search on October 3 ​— ​will only confirm that the death was suspicious, which points to either homicide or suicide, and that the specific cause was blunt force trauma to the head, which is what the family has been told. Meanwhile, others with knowledge of the case have told The Santa Barbara Independent that Marks was shot in the back of the head, but authorities have not yet verified that claim.

While blunt force trauma remains consistent with a fall from the cliffs at Shoreline ​— ​which was the initial hunch until the autopsy came back suggesting otherwise ​— ​those familiar with police forensics say that such trauma can also describe injuries caused by a gunshot wound. Given that the police and FBI spent at least two days scouring the sands, surf, and cliff sides with metal detectors, there is strong reason to believe that the authorities are searching for metallic evidence, suggesting that a gun or weapon of some sort was employed, self-inflicted or otherwise.


The Marks family remains largely in the dark and continues to wonder why the beloved father of five ​— ​who owned and operated Sweeney Canyon Vineyard since 1981 and was a partner in the Marks Theriot Walston & Co. investment firm in Los Angeles ​— ​is gone. In an extensive interview with The Independent last week, son Casey Marks said that his father seemingly vanished from his Vista Del Pueblo condo that Wednesday night, September 19, leaving his laptop open, cell phones on the table, and truck in the driveway. “It literally looked like he was picked up from the apartment and dropped in the ocean,” said Marks, who is 27 years old and works at Fidelity Investments on upper State Street.

“Earlier that day, he delivered wine to the Bacara, and that evening we had a 15-minute conversation about pouring at the Rancho Sisquoc harvest festival and barbecuing for a Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation fundraiser,” said Marks. “Twelve hours later, he was dead.” When found on the beach, Christopher Marks, witnesses say, was wearing slacks, a button-up shirt, and shoes or sandals. “He wasn’t a walker, and he wasn’t a drinker, so the whole thing doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Marks, noting the coroner is still in possession of his father’s body, wallet, and wedding ring.


Marks’s widow, Kristi Marks, the winemaker for Sweeney Canyon Vineyard and the event coordinator for Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Santa Barbara, was initially cooperative with the police investigation, giving a three-hour interview alone. But, according to her son, she and others in the family have since hired attorneys, fearful that the police aren’t telling them the whole story and are trying to poke holes in their statements rather than focusing on other possible suspects. “We think they’re fishing and trying to find inconsistencies in my mom’s story,” said Casey Marks. “We’re not going to put her in that position.”

At his funeral at Holy Cross Chapel on September 29, hundreds were in attendance to pay tribute to the man, who was active in the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ Association, supported the Young America’s Foundation, and loved the outdoors. “He was a jack of all trades. He always had a project going,” remembered Casey. “I miss him,” said Jack Walston, a partner in Marks’s firm. “He was a great guy with a wonderful family.”

[Sabrina]

Already posted on Avalon, but for the record, another banker with his own form of resignation..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219345/Why-did-banker-perfect-life-fatal-leap-Fourth-tragedy-City-restaurant.html

Why did banker with perfect life take a fatal leap? Fourth tragedy at same City restaurant

Nico Lambrechts posted this tropical holiday photo online three weeks ago
But 46-year-old investment analyst fell 80ft to his death from Coq d’Argent

The Investec Asset Management worker landed next to diners in London who were enjoying lunch at cafes and bars
His wife Adele is too distressed to talk but neighbours said they were baffled


He appeared to have the perfect life. Pictured on a recent tropical holiday, Nico Lambrechts looked a relaxed and contented family man as he posed with his wife.
But less than three weeks after he posted this photograph on the internet, the investment analyst fell 80ft to his death from an exclusive open-air restaurant in London.

The successful 46-year-old took a lift to Sir Terence Conran’s Coq d’Argent at lunchtime and then fell through the atrium within the building.
He landed next to diners who were enjoying lunch at cafes and bars in a shopping complex at the bottom of the building in the City.
Medics reached him within minutes but were unable to save him. He was pronounced dead by a doctor at the scene minutes later.

Mr Lambrechts is thought to have made the short walk to the restaurant from his office at Investec Asset Management in the Square Mile.
Last night neighbours said they were baffled as to why a devoted family man would want to potentially commit suicide.

But a neighbour said: ‘He was a really great guy.’

When asked about the reason behind the possible suicide, he said: ‘You never know. He was a random man, unpredictable – you know.’
Mr Lambrechts lived with his wife and three children in a £2million six-bedroom gated home in the upmarket town of Cobham, Surrey.
He took his family on luxury holidays to destinations such as Venice.

The banker’s death last week is the fourth to have occurred at the restaurant and the second in as many months.
In May 2007, City employee Richard Ford, 33, died after he plunged from the terrace onto a bus.

In July 2009 stockbroker Anjool Malde, 24, leapt to his death from the venue holding a glass of champagne after being suspended from his job at Deutsche Bank.
And last month diners watched in horror as businesswoman Rema Begum, 29, took a sip of wine from her glass on the outdoor terrace, before putting her handbag on the floor and then toppling over the edge.


more at link and pix of restaurant

18 Oct UK

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/21/andrew-mitchell-resignation-cabinet-split

21 Oct UK

Andrew Mitchell resignation: signs of cabinet split emerge

Theresa May refuses to deny she had called for chief whip to go, while Michael Gove says he had been keen for him to stay


Speculation that the prime minister came under pressure from within his own cabinet to sack Andrew Mitchell over his outburst at police increased on Sunday when a senior minister refused to deny that she was among those who called for the chief whip to quit.

The home secretary, Theresa May, avoided two questions about her supposed involvement in the affair, which led to Mitchell resigning on Friday after four weeks during which David Cameron insisted that the chief whip had his full support. In reply to a third question on the subject, May told the BBC's Sunday Politics show: "I'm not going to talk about private conversations. Andrew has now resigned. I think that's an end of the issue."

In signs of a cabinet split, Cameron's embarrassment over the affair was further deepened by Michael Gove, the education secretary, who insisted that they had both been keen for Mitchell to stay on.

"David Cameron wanted to keep Andrew. I wanted Andrew to stay because I don't believe and the prime minister doesn't believe that 30 years of public service should be effaced at a stroke by seven seconds of unacceptable but very human exasperation," Gove told Sky's Murnaghan programme.

more at link

[Sabrina]

Tom Heneghan's take on it - let's see if any other sources echo any of this...

http://www.myspace.com/tom_heneghan_intel/blog/546393281

HOT EXPLOSIVE BREAKING NEWS: Endgame Nears Part 1 of 2
Tom Heneghan explosive intelligence briefings ALL patriot Americans MUST know, with sources inside American/European intelligence agencies and INTERPOL, reporting what is really going on behind the scenes of the corporate-controlled, fascist, extortion-friendly propaganda U.S. media's massive deceptions

Sunday October 21, 2012

Endgame Nears
Part 1 of 2

by Tom Heneghan
International Intelligence Expert


UNITED States of America - It can now be reported that the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has almost completed total Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocol implementation in Europe and Asia.

Note: The United Nations contract has now been signed off on.

Protocol funds have now been placed by the IMF in the sovereign treasuries of European and Asian nations bypassing the now irrelevant ECB (European Central Bank) and its Asian counterparts.

Reference: The IMF has told the ECB and all central banks of Asia that they are forbidden from co-mingling any Protocol funds in an attempt to use any bond purchasing program to bail out the derivative exposure in Europe and Asia of U.S. financial institutions and banks.

Item: It is also important to remember that the U.S. Federal Reserve's QE3 deflationary ponzi scheme aka bank bail out is now under the scrutiny of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and the U.S. military. The fiscal cliff in the U.S. is right around the corner, which means the clock runs out on the Federal Reserve at the end of the year, accordingly, immediate Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocol implementation must happen NOW!

At this hour, Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland have written off the derivative debt tied to the crooked mortgage-backed securities that were illegally marketed to the aforementioned European nations by crooked U.S. and British banks reference Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, along with Barclays Bank of the UK and the Bank of England itself.

Reference: All of these derivatives were illegally cross-collateralized on the corrupt London LIFFE Exchange, and then turned into a money laundry aka a worldwide ponzi scheme.

P.S. At this hour, massive IMF repatriation of collateralized assets continues reference precious and industrial metals, along with oil and natural gas holdings (eyes over the Philippines).

The IMF game plan remains the same: redemption, repatriation, bank consolidation and re-collateralization with continued Protocol implementation, which will lead to draw down accounts for all European Union current members.

P.P.S. We can now report that the U.S. diplomatic post in Libya was actually an intelligence agency outpost and was not registered with the U.S. State Department as a consulate or embassy.


American Patriot
Ambassador Christopher Stevens

U.S. Ambassador Stevens was working directly with patriotic U.S.-French-Canadian intelligence, along with the U.S. Provost Marshal, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and the IMF, in repatriation efforts of stolen U.S. Treasury Notes and GOLD that had been handed over to alleged Al Qaeda aka the CIA data base, in November of 2001 to representatives of Osama bin Laden, aka U.S. government employee and CIA asset Tim Osman, as pay off money in exchange for Tim Osman aka Osama bin Laden to play the role of the 9/11 patsy.

The exchange of U.S. gold, along with U.S. Treasury notes, and other U.S. assets, took place at the Manila Hotel in the Philippines.

U.S. CIA-Dick Cheney-Al Qaeda asset codename Data Bu, along with Eva Telege aka Teleke aka Teleki aka Hillary Rodham Clinton business associate, were present at the meeting and acted as bagman and bag lady.

7/7 London bombings terrorist suspect Eva Telege aka Teleke aka Teleki is former White House First Lady Hillary Clinton's personal adviser, co-conspirator and 9/11 co-conspirator with Viktor Bout.

FACT: The original criminal referral against Viktor Bout was brought forward in 1999 by then Vice President, now year 2000 duly elected President Albert Gore Jr.

Bout, whose corporate enterprises span from Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Turkey and Georgia, a former old province of the Soviet Union, met SEVEN (7) times with noted Bush-Clinton East German DVD agent Eva Telege aka Teleke aka Teleki just before the 9/11 attack on New York City.

One of the meetings (between TERRORIST Viktor Bout and Bush-Clinton East German DVD agent Eva Telege aka Teleke aka Teleki) actually took place in July of 2001 in the Dubai, United Arab Emirates during the same time period that Osama bin Laden, i.e. CIA operative Tim Osman, was in Dubai at a U.S. CIA hospital receiving dialysis treatment for his failing kidneys.

9/11 evidence details how arrangements were made by former 1990s First Lady Hillary Rodenhurst Clinton's White House confidant, East German DVD agent and wanted 7/7 London bombings terrorist suspect fugitive Eva Telege aka Teleke aka Teleki, along with election 2000 fraudster, then aide to Vice President Richard Cheney, Mary Matalin, to pay off Osama bin Laden and his alleged Al Qaeda stooges $20 BILLION worth of U.S. Treasury notes at a meeting arranged at the Manila Hotel in the Philippines in November of 2001.



We can also divulge Ambassador Stevens was in possession of the Osama bin Laden death certificate, which clearly shows beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Osama bin Laden aka Tim Osman died of kidney failure at a CIA hospital in Dubai in December of 2001.

We can now also report that one week before the planned assassination of Ambassador Stevens, Stevens had emailed the U.S. State Department on seven (7) occasions asking to receive U.S. government security at his intelligence agency outpost.


photo: NBC News
It is interesting that at the time of Ambassador Steven's death along with his three (3) other colleagues they were the only patriotic U.S. CIA that attempted to save his life.

There is good news, folks. Ambassador Stevens did not die in vain. Most of the stolen U.S. Treasury notes and gold has been repatriated and recovered and now sit in the U.S. Treasury with the U.S. military standing there as armed guards.

We also want to thank America's great north of the border ally, Canada, and the Canadian Intelligence community for identifying a major Al Qaeda money laundry in Malaysia, the state-owned oil firm Petronas now facing criminal charges acting as a front in the co-mingling and illegal conversion of Wanta-Reagan-Mitterrand Protocol funds.

Malaysia and its oil firm Petronas used this oil company as a disguise to launder Protocol funds and manipulate the price of oil and foreign currencies reference the Japanese yen and acted on behalf of the financial interests of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, Bank of America and U.S. Citibank.

[Sabrina]

http://www.silverdoctors.com/5-million-ounces-of-registered-silver-withdrawn-from-brinks-since-friday/


5 MILLION OUNCES OF REGISTERED SILVER WITHDRAWN FROM BRINK’S SINCE FRIDAY!

Last Friday we updated readers of an astonishing 3.6 million ounce REGISTERED silver withdrawal from Brink’s COMEX vaults.

The physical silver drain continued Tuesday, as a massive 1.2 million additional REGISTERED ounces were withdrawn- again from Brink’s vaults!!

This brings the total to nearly 5 million ounces of REGISTERED silver withdrawn from a SINGLE COMEX DEPOSITORY in the span of 3 days! This is approximately 25% of Brink’s entire REGISTERED inventory, and 12% of the entire COMEX REGISTERED SILVER INVENTORY!!!

This brings the total COMEX registered silver inventory down to 36.8 million ounces. Clearly there is a MASSIVE DEMAND for physical silver as the cartel hammers the paper price to prevent a breakout above $35, and extreme physical tightness among the cartel bullion banks!

graph at link

17 Oct

[ThePythonicCow]

This brings the total COMEX registered silver inventory down to 36.8 million ounces. Clearly there is a MASSIVE DEMAND for physical silver as the cartel hammers the paper price to prevent a breakout above $35, and extreme physical tightness among the cartel bullion banks!
Well, the suppression, if that is what it is, has been successful again. Silver has gone from $35/ounce about Oct 4, 2012, to $31.77/ounce, latest price as I write this.


http://silverprice.org/charts/history/silver_30_day_o_b_usd.png?0.6844666684773911

[Sabrina]

UK has finally joined the European austerity protests (well London)..

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/20/anti-austerity-protest-london_n_1992231.html

(pix at link)

Anti-Austerity Protesters March Through Central London (20 Oct)



Ed Miliband has branded David Cameron "clueless" during an address at a rally in London's Hyde Park, part of a huge protest against Government austerity measures.

More than 100,000 people took part in the demonstration in the capital, which heard calls for a general strike.

The Labour leader accused the prime pinister of "clinging" to policies which were not working.

He said the coalition was cutting taxes for millionaires and raising them for everyone else.

"It is one rule for those at the top and one rule for everyone else."

Miliband was booed by a small section of a rally in Hyde Park when he said Labour would have to make "hard choices" if it was in Government.

He pledged that if he became Prime Minister he would tax bankers' bonuses, support the building of 100,000 houses and end the privatisation of the NHS.

Bob Crow, leader of the RMT rail union was loudly cheered when he called for a 24-hour general strike.

He also called on Miliband to oppose all spending cuts.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the massive turnout showed how unpopular the coalition's policies were.

He told the Press Association: "We are sending a very strong message that austerity is simply failing.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the massive turnout showed how unpopular the coalition's policies were.

He told the Press Association: "We are sending a very strong message that austerity is simply failing.

"The Government is making life desperately hard for millions of people because of pay cuts for workers, while the rich are given tax cuts."

Barber said the resignation of chief whip Andrew Mitchell and reports of Chancellor George Osborne travelling in a first class train carriage with a standard ticket showed how out of touch the Government was.

He said: "The Chancellor eventually paid for his ticket, but the rest of us are paying the price for his disastrous policies."

Dave Prentis, leader of Unison, said hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs were being lost as a result of government policies.

He said: "We are fighting for a better future. We are not here today for the millionaires - we are here for the millions of people who don't have a voice. We just can't take any more."

More than 250 coaches brought people to London.

Protesters blew whistles and held up balloons and banners as they marched through central London.

[Sabrina]

More truth coming to the surface - altho' how accidental or deliberate the epidemic was is no doubt debatable - and didn't they raise a lot of money for Haiti and where did it go?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20024400

22 Oct Haiti

Haiti cholera epidemic 'most likely' started at UN camp - top scientist

New evidence has emerged about the alleged role of United Nations troops in causing a cholera epidemic in the Caribbean nation of Haiti.

A top US cholera specialist, Dr Daniele Lantagne, said after studying new scientific data that it is now "most likely" the source of the outbreak was a camp for recently-arrived UN soldiers from Nepal - a country where cholera is widespread.

Dr Lantagne was employed by the UN itself in 2011 as one of the world's pre-eminent experts on the disease.

The new evidence could have serious implications for the UN, which is facing an unprecedented legal and moral challenge in Haiti - as well as a multi-billion dollar compensation claim from victims' families.

More than 7,500 people have died from the cholera epidemic in Haiti since it started in late 2010. Hundreds of new cases are still being registered every week.

The most likely source of the introduction of cholera into Haiti was someone infected with the Nepal strain of cholera and associated with the United Nations Mirabalais camp”

Dr Daniele Lantagne
US cholera specialist
It is by far the largest cholera outbreak in the world in recent years - with more cases than on the whole of the African continent.

Prior to this outbreak, and despite Haiti's many other problems - including a devastating earthquake in January 2010 - the country had not recorded a single case of cholera for over a century.

Cholera is spread through infected faeces and once it enters the water supply it is difficult to stop - especially in a country like Haiti which has almost no effective sewage disposal systems.

After studying molecular data known as full genome sequencing on the strain of cholera found in Haiti - and that prevalent in Nepal in 2010 - Dr Lantagne said: "We now know that the strain of cholera in Haiti is an exact match for the strain of cholera in Nepal."

Mountain of claims
In 2011 Dr Lantagne was employed by the UN as one of a "Panel of Experts" tasked with looking into the outbreak..................

The UN's lawyers are facing a mass compensation claim being pursued by Haitian and US lawyers against the UN.

The victims' families have lodged an official claim at UN HQ in New York for $100,000 (£62,500) for those who died and $50,000 for those who fell sick. The total claim runs into many billions of dollars.

full story at link

[Sabrina]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220828/US-drone-attacks-CIA-chiefs-face-arrest-horrific-evidence-bloody-video-game-sorties.html?printingPage=trueCIA chiefs face arrest over horrific evidence of bloody 'video-game' sorties by drone pilots

By David Rose

PUBLISHED: 00:30, 21 October 2012 | UPDATED: 10:57, 21 October 2012

The Mail on Sunday today reveals shocking new evidence of the full horrific impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan.

A damning dossier assembled from exhaustive research into the strikes’ targets sets out in heartbreaking detail the deaths of teachers, students and Pakistani policemen. It also describes how bereaved relatives are forced to gather their loved ones’ dismembered body parts in the aftermath of strikes.

The dossier has been assembled by human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who works for Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental Rights and the British human rights charity Reprieve.

Filed in two separate court cases, it is set to trigger a formal murder investigation by police into the roles of two US officials said to have ordered the strikes. They are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Mr Akbar and his staff have already gathered further testimony which has yet to be filed.

‘We have statements from a further 82 victims’ families relating to more than 30 drone strikes,’ he said. ‘This is their only hope of justice.’

In the first case, which has already been heard by a court in Islamabad, judgment is expected imminently. If the judge grants Mr Akbar’s petition, an international arrest warrant will be issued via Interpol against the two Americans.

The second case is being heard in the city of Peshawar. In it, Mr Akbar and the families of drone victims who are civilians are seeking a ruling that further strikes in Pakistani airspace should be viewed as ‘acts of war’.

They argue that means the Pakistan Air Force should try to shoot down the drones and that the government should sever diplomatic relations with the US and launch murder inquiries against those responsible.

According to a report last month by academics at Stanford and New York universities, between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed since the strikes in Pakistan began in 2004.

The report said of those, up to 881 were civilians, including 176 children. Only 41 people who had died had been confirmed as ‘high-value’ terrorist targets.

Getting at the truth is difficult because the tribal regions along the frontier are closed to journalists. US security officials continue to claim that almost all those killed are militants who use bases in Pakistan to launch attacks on Western forces across the border in Afghanistan.

In his only acknowledgement that the US has ever launched such attacks at all, President Barack Obama said in January: ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans.’

But behind the dry legal papers seen by The Mail on Sunday lies the most detailed investigation into individual strikes that has yet been carried out. It suggests that the US President was mistaken.

The plaintiff in the Islamabad case is Karim Khan, 45, a journalist and translator with two masters’ degrees, whose family comes from the village of Machi Khel in the tribal region of North Waziristan.

His eldest son, Zahinullah, 18, and his brother, Asif Iqbal, 35, were killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone that struck the family’s guest dining room at about 9.30pm on New Year’s Eve, 2009.

Asif had changed his surname because he loved to recite Iqbal, Pakistan’s national poet, and Mr Khan said: ‘We are an educated family. My uncle is a hospital doctor in Islamabad, and we all work in professions such as teaching.

‘We have never had anything to do with militants or terrorists, and for that reason I always assumed we would be safe.’

Mr Khan said: ‘Zahinullah, who had been studying in Islamabad, had returned to the village to work his way through college, taking a part-time job as a school caretaker.

‘He was a quiet boy and studious – always in the top group of his class.’ Zahinullah also liked football, cricket and hunting partridges.

Asif, he added, was an English teacher and had spent several years taking further courses to improve his qualifications while already in work.

Mr Khan said: ‘He was my kid brother. We used to have a laugh, tell jokes.’ His first child was less than a year old when Asif was killed.

Included in the legal dossier are documents that corroborate Asif and Zahinulla’s educational and employment records, as well as their death certificates. Killed alongside them was Khaliq Dad, a stonemason who was staying with the family while he worked on a local mosque.

Mr Khan, who had been working for a TV station in Islamabad, said he was given the news of their deaths in a 2am phone call from a cousin.

I called a friend who had a car and we started driving through the night to get back to the village,’ he said. ‘It was a terrible journey. I was shocked, grieving, angry, like anyone who had lost their loved ones.’

He got home soon after dawn and describes his return ‘like entering a village of the dead – it was so quiet. There was a crowd gathered outside the compound but nowhere for them to sit because the guest rooms had been destroyed’.

Zahinullah, Mr Khan discovered, had been killed instantly, but despite his horrific injuries, Asif had survived long enough to be taken to a nearby hospital. However, he died during the night.

‘We always bury people quickly in our culture. The funeral was at three o’clock that afternoon, and more than 1,000 people came,’ Mr Khan said. ‘Zahinullah had a wound on the side of his face and his body was crushed and charred. I am told the people who push the buttons to fire the missiles call these strikes “bug-splats”.

‘It is beyond my imagination how they can lack all mercy and compassion, and carry on doing this for years. They are not human beings.’

Mr Khan found Mr Akbar through a friend who had attended lectures he gave at an Islamabad university. In 2010, he filed a criminal complaint – known as a first information report – to police naming Mr Banks. However, they took no action, therefore triggering the lawsuit – a judicial review of that failure to act.

If the judge finds in favour of Mr Khan, his decision cannot be appealed, thus making the full criminal inquiry and Interpol warrants inevitable.

According to the legal claim, someone from the Pakistan CIA network led by Mr Banks – who left Pakistan in 2010 – targeted the Khan family and guided the Hellfire missile by throwing a GPS homing device into their compound.

A senior CIA officer said: ‘We do not discuss active operations or allegations against specific individuals.'
Mr Rizzo is named because of an interview he gave to a US reporter after he retired as CIA General Counsel last year. In it, he boasted that he had personally authorised every drone strike in which America’s enemies were ‘hunted down and blown to bits’.

He added: ‘It’s basically a hit-list .  .  . The Predator is the weapon of choice, but it could also be someone putting a bullet in your head.’

Last night a senior Pakistani security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Pakistan’s own intelligence agency, the ISI, has always been excluded by the CIA from choosing drone targets.

‘They insist on using their own networks, paying their own informants. Dollars can be very persuasive,’ said the official.

He claimed the intelligence behind drone strikes was often seriously flawed. As a result, ‘they are causing the loss of innocent lives’.

But even this, he added, was not as objectionable as the so-called ‘signature strikes’ – when a drone operator, sitting at a computer screen thousands of miles away in Nevada, selects a target because he thinks the drone camera has spotted something suspicious.

He said: ‘It could be a vehicle containing armed men heading towards the border, and the operator thinks, “Let’s get them before they get there,” without any idea of who they are.

‘It could also just be people sitting together. In the frontier region, every male is armed but it doesn’t mean they are militants.’

One such signature strike killed more than 40 people in Datta Khel in North Waziristan on March 17 last year. The victims, Mr Akbar’s dossier makes clear, had gathered for a jirga – a tribal meeting – in order to discuss a dispute between two clans over the division of royalties from a chromite mine.

Some of the most horrifying testimony comes from Khalil Khan, the son of Malik Haji Babat, a tribal leader and police officer. ‘My father was not a terrorist. He was not an enemy of the United States,’ Khalil’s legal statement says. ‘He was a hard-working and upstanding citizen, the type of person others looked up to and aspired to be like.’

Khalil, 32, last saw his father three hours before his death, when he left for a business meeting in a nearby town. Informed his father had been killed, Khalil hurried to the scene.

‘What I saw when I got off the bus at Datta Khel was horrible,’ he said. ‘I immediately saw flames and women and children were saying there had been a drone strike. The fires spread after the strike.

‘I went to the location where the jirga had been held. The situation was really very bad. There were still people lying around injured.

‘The tribal elders who had been killed could not be identified because there were body parts strewn about. The smell was awful. I just collected the pieces that I believed belonged to my father and placed them in a small coffin.’

Khalil said that as a police officer, his father had earned a good salary, on which he supported his family. Khalil has considered returning to the Gulf, where he worked for 14 years, but ‘because of the frequency of drones I am concerned to leave my family’.

He added that schools in the area were empty because ‘parents are afraid their children will be hit by a missile’.

In another statement – one of 13 taken by Mr Akbar concerning the Datta Khel strike – driver Ahmed Jan, 52, describes the moment the missile hit: ‘We were in the middle of our discussion and I was thrown about 24ft from where I was sitting. I was knocked unconscious. When I awoke, I saw many individuals who were injured or dead.

‘I have lost the use of one of my feet and have a rod inserted because of the injuries. It is so painful for me to walk. There are scars on my face because I had to have an operation on my nose when it would not stop bleeding.’

Mr Jan says he has spent £3,600 on medical treatment but ‘I have never been offered compensation of any kind .  .  . I do not know why this jirga was targeted. I am a malik [elder] of my tribe and therefore a government servant. We were not doing anything wrong or illegal.’

Another survivor was Mohammed Noor, 27, a stonemason, who attended the jirga with his uncle and his cousin, both of whom were killed. ‘The parts of their bodies had to be collected first. These parts were all we had of them,’ he said.

Mr Akbar said that fighting back through the courts was the only way ‘to solve the larger problem’ of the ongoing terrorist conflict.

‘It is the only way to break the cycle of violence,’ he said. ‘If we want to change the people of Waziristan, we first have to show them that we respect the rule of law.’

A senior CIA officer said: ‘We do not discuss active operations or allegations against specific individuals.’ A White House source last night declined to comment.

[Sabrina]

Interesting this is getting an airing in the press now - perhaps there's some White Hats in there somewhere :)...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9623863/IMFs-epic-plan-to-conjure-away-debt-and-dethrone-bankers.html


IMF's epic plan to conjure away debt and dethrone bankers

So there is a magic wand after all. A revolutionary paper by the International Monetary Fund claims that one could eliminate the net public debt of the US at a stroke, and by implication do the same for Britain, Germany, Italy, or Japan.

One could slash private debt by 100pc of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.

The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money -- roughly 97pc of the money supply -- with state-created money. We return to the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.

Specifically, it means an assault on "fractional reserve banking". If lenders are forced to put up 100pc reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air.

The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more banks runs, and fewer boom-bust credit cycles. Accounting legerdemain will do the rest. That at least is the argument.

Some readers may already have seen the IMF study, by Jaromir Benes and Michael Kumhof, which came out in August and has begun to acquire a cult following around the world.

Entitled "The Chicago Plan Revisited", it revives the scheme first put forward by professors Henry Simons and Irving Fisher in 1936 during the ferment of creative thinking in the late Depression.

Irving Fisher thought credit cycles led to an unhealthy concentration of wealth. He saw it with his own eyes in the early 1930s as creditors foreclosed on destitute farmers, seizing their land or buying it for a pittance at the bottom of the cycle.

The farmers found a way of defending themselves in the end. They muscled together at "one dollar auctions", buying each other's property back for almost nothing. Any carpet-bagger who tried to bid higher was beaten to a pulp.

Benes and Kumhof argue that credit-cycle trauma - caused by private money creation - dates deep into history and lies at the root of debt jubilees in the ancient religions of Mesopotian and the Middle East.

Harvest cycles led to systemic defaults thousands of years ago, with forfeiture of collateral, and concentration of wealth in the hands of lenders. These episodes were not just caused by weather, as long thought. They were amplified by the effects of credit.

The Athenian leader Solon implemented the first known Chicago Plan/New Deal in 599 BC to relieve farmers in hock to oligarchs enjoying private coinage. He cancelled debts, restituted lands seized by creditors, set floor-prices for commodities (much like Franklin Roosevelt), and consciously flooded the money supply with state-issued "debt-free" coinage.

The Romans sent a delegation to study Solon's reforms 150 years later and copied the ideas, setting up their own fiat money system under Lex Aternia in 454 BC.

It is a myth - innocently propagated by the great Adam Smith - that money developed as a commodity-based or gold-linked means of exchange. Gold was always highly valued, but that is another story. Metal-lovers often conflate the two issues.

Anthropological studies show that social fiat currencies began with the dawn of time. The Spartans banned gold coins, replacing them with iron disks of little intrinsic value. The early Romans used bronze tablets. Their worth was entirely determined by law - a doctrine made explicit by Aristotle in his Ethics - like the dollar, the euro, or sterling today.

Some argue that Rome began to lose its solidarity spirit when it allowed an oligarchy to develop a private silver-based coinage during the Punic Wars. Money slipped control of the Senate. You could call it Rome's shadow banking system. Evidence suggests that it became a machine for elite wealth accumulation.
Unchallenged sovereign or Papal control over currencies persisted through the Middle Ages until England broke the mould in 1666. Benes and Kumhof say this was the start of the boom-bust era.

One might equally say that this opened the way to England's agricultural revolution in the early 18th Century, the industrial revolution soon after, and the greatest economic and technological leap ever seen. But let us not quibble.

The original authors of the Chicago Plan were responding to the Great Depression. They believed it was possible to prevent the social havoc caused by wild swings from boom to bust, and to do so without crimping economic dynamism.

The benign side-effect of their proposals would be a switch from national debt to national surplus, as if by magic. "Because under the Chicago Plan banks have to borrow reserves from the treasury to fully back liabilities, the government acquires a very large asset vis-à-vis banks. Our analysis finds that the government is left with a much lower, in fact negative, net debt burden."

The IMF paper says total liabilities of the US financial system - including shadow banking - are about 200pc of GDP. The new reserve rule would create a windfall. This would be used for a "potentially a very large, buy-back of private debt", perhaps 100pc of GDP.

While Washington would issue much more fiat money, this would not be redeemable. It would be an equity of the commonwealth, not debt.
The key of the Chicago Plan was to separate the "monetary and credit functions" of the banking system. "The quantity of money and the quantity of credit would become completely independent of each other."

Private lenders would no longer be able to create new deposits "ex nihilo". New bank credit would have to be financed by retained earnings.
"The control of credit growth would become much more straightforward because banks would no longer be able, as they are today, to generate their own funding, deposits, in the act of lending, an extraordinary privilege that is not enjoyed by any other type of business," says the IMF paper.
"Rather, banks would become what many erroneously believe them to be today, pure intermediaries that depend on obtaining outside funding before being able to lend."

The US Federal Reserve would take real control over the money supply for the first time, making it easier to manage inflation. It was precisely for this reason that Milton Friedman called for 100pc reserve backing in 1967. Even the great free marketeer implicitly favoured a clamp-down on private money.
The switch would engender a 10pc boost to long-arm economic output. "None of these benefits come at the expense of diminishing the core useful functions of a private financial system."

Simons and Fisher were flying blind in the 1930s. They lacked the modern instruments needed to crunch the numbers, so the IMF team has now done it for them -- using the `DSGE' stochastic model now de rigueur in high economics, loved and hated in equal measure.
The finding is startling. Simons and Fisher understated their claims. It is perhaps possible to confront the banking plutocracy head without endangering the economy.

Benes and Kumhof make large claims. They leave me baffled, to be honest. Readers who want the technical details can make their own judgement by studying the text here.

The IMF duo have supporters. Professor Richard Werner from Southampton University - who coined the term quantitative easing (QE) in the 1990s -- testified to Britain's Vickers Commission that a switch to state-money would have major welfare gains. He was backed by the campaign group Positive Money and the New Economics Foundation.

The theory also has strong critics. Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research says banks are in a sense already being forced to increase reserves by EU rules, Basel III rules, and gold-plated variants in the UK. The effect has been to choke lending to the private sector.

He argues that is the chief reason why the world economy remains stuck in near-slump, and why central banks are having to cushion the shock with QE.
"If you enacted this plan, it would devastate bank profits and cause a massive deflationary disaster. There would have to do `QE squared' to offset it," he said.
The result would be a huge shift in bank balance sheets from private lending to government securities. This happened during World War Two, but that was the anomalous cost of defeating Fascism.

To do this on a permanent basis in peace-time would be to change in the nature of western capitalism. "People wouldn't be able to get money from banks. There would be huge damage to the efficiency of the economy," he said.

Arguably, it would smother freedom and enthrone a Leviathan state. It might be even more irksome in the long run than rule by bankers.
Personally, I am a long way from reaching an conclusion in this extraordinary debate. Let it run, and let us all fight until we flush out the arguments.

One thing is sure. The City of London will have great trouble earning its keep if any variant of the Chicago Plan ever gains wide support.

21 Oct

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203406404578073550204926088.html

Japan's Justice Minister Resigns
By TOKO SEKIGUCHI

TOKYO—Japan's justice minister submitted his resignation Tuesday after three weeks in the job, providing more political ammunition to opposition party lawmakers who are pressing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to call a snap election.

Senior ruling party official Jun Azumi told reporters that Keishu Tanaka had handed in his resignation earlier in the day, following several days of controversy following critical articles in the Japanese media.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-VB285_tanaka_D_20121022225120.jpg
Bloomberg News, Keishu Tanaka, Japan's justice minister, speaks during a news conference on Oct. 1. Mr. Tanaka submitted his resignation Tuesday.

"He submitted his resignation to the prime minister, citing health reasons," Mr. Azumi, the DPJ's deputy secretary-general said.

Japan's top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura later confirmed that the prime minister had accepted his resignation, making Mr. Tanaka the first member of the reshuffled cabinet to quit, just three weeks since its launch.

Mr. Tanaka was hospitalized Friday for undisclosed medical reasons after abruptly skipping a parliamentary hearing, cabinet meeting and press interviews last week.

Mr. Tanaka's resignation adds to Mr. Noda's already full plate of political troubles, as the premier prepares for the reconvening of parliament on Oct. 29. Mr. Noda failed to win the support of the main opposition parties for an important deficit-bond issuance bill Friday after he refused to detail the specific timing of when he intends to call a snap election during talks with the heads of the other parties.

The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, whose support rate has been higher than the DPJ's in recent polls, is keen on an early election to regain government control it lost three years ago.

A national poll published by the Asahi Shimbun on Monday showed Mr. Noda's approval rating to have dipped to a low of 18%.

I wonder what Ben's comment to this news will be... :confused:

[Sabrina]

The scandal about the abusive UK DJ Jimmy Saville continues to unfold. MPs are to put questions - but will they eventually open the real can of worms of Saville's relationships with MPs (including allegedly ex-PM Ted Heath) and the Royal Family. As the lawyer for some of the victim's says there was no doubt a ring involved - many with high profile names I suspect.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20038436

23 Oct UK

Jimmy Savile: MPs to question BBC director general

BBC director general George Entwistle will be questioned by MPs later about the corporation's handling of sexual abuse claims against Jimmy Savile.

It comes a day after Newsnight editor Peter Rippon stepped aside amid an inquiry into why the programme dropped an investigation into the presenter.

Karin Ward, who had been interviewed by Newsnight, told Panorama she was hurt her claims of abuse were not aired.

Meanwhile, two charities set up in Savile's name are to close.

The Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust said they had considered continuing under new names, but felt they would always be linked in the public's mind with the late presenter.

They said all their funds would be distributed to other charities.

Mr Entwistle will appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee at 10:30 BST where he is expected to be asked about a reported conversation with BBC director of news Helen Boaden at an awards lunch on 2 December, in which she told him about the Newsnight investigation and its possible impact on planned tributes to Savile.

She is said to have told him - in his then role of director of vision - that if the Newsnight investigation went ahead he might have to change the Christmas schedules. The conversation is said to have taken "less than 10 seconds".

...................................

Liz Dux, a lawyer for some of the victims, told Panorama: "The stories that I'm hearing from some of the victims are that they did report the abuse and that no action was taken."

She added: "There are some quite serious allegations that a paedophile ring was operating."


full story at link

[Sabrina]

Ex Goldman Sach's Greg Smith's book is out :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9626442/Greg-Smith-Goldman-Sachs-London-office-was-like-the-Wild-West.html

Greg Smith: Goldman Sachs' London office was 'like the Wild West'

A former Goldman Sachs employee, who claims the bank was obsessed with “elephant” trades that made millions, says its London office was like the “Wild West”.

• Greg Smith: London office like the "Wild West"
• Goldman trainees outinely forced to attend 6am "bootcamps"
• Traders hired a topless model called Ms Silicone
• Managing directors allegedly referred to clients as "muppets"
• Smith saw CEO Blankfein "air-drying" naked at in-house gym

The accusations are among several made by Greg Smith, a former salesman who resigned from Goldman in March in a letter to The New York Times and whose book about his 12 years at the bank was published in the US on Monday.

The 33-year-old, who transferred from Goldman’s New York office to London in January 2011, writes that he should have worn “cowboy boots” when he arrived at the office on Fleet Street because “London really was the Wild West.”

He claims that by the time he quit, the US investment bank was only interested in trades that would make it more than $1m (£624,000) even if its customers had different needs.

Soon after he began working in London, Mr Smith says he asked a colleague to prepare materials to help him sell simpler equity derivatives to customers. Smith says the colleague declined to help, adding: “We’ve been told by management to focus on trades that could yield a possible one-million-dollar profit for the firm.”

The bank has been braced for the publication of Why I Left Goldman Sachs and says Mr Smith’s motivation in writing the book was frustration that he had not progressed more swiftly up the ranks at the bank. The South African was denied a promotion in the months before he left and his compensation did not match the $1m he had hoped for.

The book’s central allegation is that during his 12 years at the bank, it changed from being one that put customers first, to one that consistently put the bank’s profits first.

As Europe’s debt crisis intensified during the summer of 2011, Mr Smith writes that the recommendations that Goldman’s salespeople made to clients on which European bank shares to buy and sell were driven by trades that Goldman’s dealers wanted to get in or out of.

The former salesman, who was earning $500,000 a year by the time he left, does not disguise that he enjoyed the trappings that came from working at Goldman. During his year in London, he lived in an 800sq ft flat in Belsize Park and saw the men’s finals at both Wimbledon and the French Open.
However, he claims that, despite the bank conducting a study of its own business principles in 2010 following a $550m settlement with US regulators over alleged mis-selling, the bank was not taking reform seriously enough.

“It was the corrosive atmosphere in the London office that, slowly but surely, started to wear me down,” Mr Smith wrote.
Goldman declined to comment.

[Sabrina]

UK NHS spending large amount on ineffective and dubious Tamiflu vaccinations - on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme


Am impressed how the real story is starting to seep out in many sectors at the moment across the world.

Can't find any link today, but heard a doctor on the UK's BBC Radio 4 Today programme today state that the Roche Tamiflu flu vaccinations take up a large amount of the NHS's budget and have a very questionable track record. Roche are apparently withholding trial data and providing questionable info. (well what's new in the phama industry). She said this was echoed by experts across the world, while blindly ignored by the NHS. This isn't a new story and has been running all year... but some doctors are no longer willing to stay silent on it.

Previous stories:



http://www.pharmatimes.com/article/12-01-18/Roche_accused_again_of_withholding_Tamiflu_data.aspx

http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=7103#newspost

[KiwiElf]

Prison, $7 billion fine for French rogue trader


Paris appeals court sends Societe Generale trader to prison, orders him to pay back $7 billion
Associated PressBy Elaine Ganley, Associated Press.

http://nz.finance.yahoo.com/news/prison-7-billion-fine-french-121400218.html;_ylt=AuAnxrvGa8j7kToGYESlEO2mK5NG;_ylu=X3oDMTNqcHVuaXU3BG1pdAMEcGtnA2I2ZTM4YWU3LTk0Nj ItM2Y1Zi04NzhmLThiZjg2MmE3OGY5ZQRwb3MDNjUEc2VjA01lZGlhVG9wU3RvcnlUZW1wBHZlcgMyMjk0MWQ0MC0xZTA4LTExZT ItYWZiZC0yNGJjNDQ0ODg3ODM-;_ylv=3


PARIS (AP) -- Jerome Kerviel, a former junior trader for France's second-largest bank who was ordered Wednesday to pay back a staggering €4.9 billion (about $7 billion) in damages to his ex-employer is painting himself as the victim of a financial system that runs on greed.

Only the Bill Gates or the Warren Buffetts of the world could come up with the breathtaking sum an appeals court demanded Jerome Kerviel reimburse to Societe Generale as punishment for committing one of the biggest trade frauds in history. Kerviel says he will fight back with a new appeal to France's highest court.

The court upheld in full the initial 2010 guilty verdict and sentence, which includes a three-year prison term, against the 35-year-old rogue trader.

He sees himself not as a fraudster but as a victim of a system that turned a blind eye to his colossal positions in late 2007 and early 2008 as long as they made money for the bank.

Hours after the verdict, Kerviel announced his plan to appeal, which he has until Monday to file.

"I will continue to fight," he told RTL radio. "I think the judgment is protecting Societe Generale."

Kerviel called on people in banking, notably Societe Generale employees, who have information to come forward and serve as witnesses. "I'm looking for the truth to be told."

Kerviel, who never profited personally from his unauthorized trades, said he had thought the court might acquit him.

"I absolutely didn't expect this ruling," he said in his first comments after slipping out the side door of the courtroom. "What happened today is a call for me to put a bullet in my head," he said. He added, when asked, that he does "absolutely not" envision suicide.

The lawyer for Societe Generale, Jean Veil, called the verdict "a great satisfaction," particularly the court's demand the former trader reimburse the €4.9 billion ($7 billion at the time) that it cost the bank to unwind his astronomical positions.

Still, Veil acknowledged that full repayment would, in all likelihood, be out of the question.

Banned for life from working in the financial industry, Kerviel was making €2,300 ($3,150 at the time) as a computer consultant after leaving the bank. Societe Generale had paid him less than €100,000 ($155,700) with bonuses, a modest sum for what he earned for the bank in 2007 when he amassed €1.4 billion in profits for the bank.

"Societe Generale will look at it realistically," Veil told reporters. However, he indicated the bank could take over royalty earnings from a book Kerviel published this year about the scandal as well as any income he might earn from movie deals.

"It would have been indecent for Mr. Kerviel to be able to preserve revenues coming from the exploitation of his fraud," Veil said.

The appeals court upheld the October 2010 conviction of Kerviel for forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use for covering up bets worth nearly €50 billion — more than the market value of the entire bank. It sentenced him to a five-year prison term — with two years suspended — ordered he pay €4.9 billion in damages.

A new appeal to the Court of Cassation would suspend carrying out the sentence.

Kerviel's lawyer, David Koubbi, called the verdict "absolutely lamentable."

The argument turns broadly on who is the victim in the case.

The Societe Generale lawyer pointedly referred to the bank as "the victim." But for many others, the real victim was the trader, who maintains he was a cog in a financial system that runs on greed and profits.

A colleague from Societe Generale who testified on Kerviel's behalf said the court didn't take into account others at the bank who surely knew about Kerviel's risky bets.

A junior futures trader such as Kerviel "could in no case do what he did without being seen" by his superiors, Philippe Hoube said after the verdict. "If justice had played its role, they wouldn't have sentenced him so heavily," he said.

An internal report by the bank has said managers failed to follow up on 74 different alarms about Kerviel's activities.

By the time his trades were discovered in early 2008, when banks were sliding into a global crisis, had amassed losses of almost €5 billion on those bets in one of the biggest trade frauds in history.

The sentence — a five-year prison term, with two years suspended, plus the payback of all the losses he incurred — shocked many in the French public. After a global financial crisis that many blamed on big banks, many still believe Kerviel's claim that he was a victim of an unjust system.

"I'm someone who believed in French justice. But one day I understood that there is justice for the powerful and another for ordinary citizens," said Jean Debrex, a retiree who attended Wednesday's audience.

A few of the bank's executives resigned in the scandal's aftermath, including longtime Chairman Daniel Bouton. Kerviel's superiors were questioned in the probe, but none of them faced charges.

The bank says Kerviel made bets on futures contracts on three European equity indices. It said at the time that his net position appeared unremarkable because he balanced his real trades with fictitious transactions.

[Sabrina]

The UK Jimmy Saville abuse story continues to unravel with more rumours about politicians and celebrities involved coming out. The real story is a very big one, if and when it comes out, with the potential to bring down many well known names and shake many institutions.

http://the-tap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/ben-fellows-blos-lid-on-mediapolitical.html

BEN FELLOWS: ‘MURDOCH NEWSPAPER DOES A ‘BBC’ TO PROTECT PEDOPHILES AND CHILD ABUSERS’
October 22, 2012
By Ben Fellows
21st Century Wire
The Jimmy Savile paedophile ring at the centre of the BBC has taken an interesting twist this week as this journalist has come to realise that accusations of child abuse and paedophilia only extend to the deceased.

If you’re a living, breathing human being in the entertainment industry mainstream media won’t expose you. If you are a paedophile or child abuser in the entertainment industry and are famous or powerful you can breath a sigh of relief – you won’t be exposed, at least not by the Murdoch empire.
full story at link

and


http://the-tap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/is-ken-clarke-member-of-savile.html

Is Ken Clarke a member of the Savile/Royalty paedophile ring?

full story at link

and


Stuart Syvret, a former health minister in Jersey who exposed allegations of child abuse there in 2007, said: "Undoubtedly Savile will have known senior police officers, other celebrities, people in the BBC. It's the glue that holds the child abuse cover-up together, that these people protect each other."

He said he "would be profoundly surprised" if there weren't a paedophile ring within the BBC.

www.aangirfan.blogspot.com

Was there a paedophile ring in the Prime Minister's residence - No 10 Downing Street?

Member of Parliament Tom Watson demands probe

story at link


and

http://the-tap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/legal-system-protects-paedophiles.html

Legal profession protects the pedophiles

story at link

There's a suggestion at one of the links that Saville worked for Mossad and handled politicians and the Royals. Hmm...

[Sabrina]

Another one bites the dust. The Murdoch press was very much involved in the Hillsborough fans' smears at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20067716

25 Oct UK

Sir Norman Bettison resigns over Hillsborough inquiry

The IPCC is looking into allegations that Sir Norman provided misleading information

Sir Norman Bettison has resigned as chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, saying an inquiry into his role after the Hillsborough tragedy was "a distraction" to the force.


At the time of the disaster he was a South Yorkshire Police inspector who attended the match as a spectator and later took part in an internal inquiry.

Sir Norman has denied claims he helped "concoct" a false version of events.

He had been due to retire in March but had faced calls for him to go early.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is undertaking two investigations into Sir Norman, issued a statement saying: "Retirement or resignation does not prevent criminal prosecution should the investigation identify criminal offences, including misconduct in a public office."

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, said: "I'm absolutely delighted he's gone but as far as I am concerned he should have been sacked.

"I would now like to know what payments and pension he's going to get.

"Any financial benefits should be frozen until the outcome of the investigation into the cover-up."

West Yorkshire Police Authority said media attention and the investigations by the IPCC were "proving to be a huge distraction for the force".


Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson: "Most people will find it offensive that he will continue to receive a huge pension whilst this investigation continues"
Statements altered
Sir Norman has been referred to the IPCC over allegations he provided misleading information after the disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans died.

Last month, a report by the Independent Hillsborough Panel revealed 164 police statements by South Yorkshire Police were altered - 116 of them to remove or change negative comments about the policing of the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Sheffield stadium.

It revealed a cover-up took place to shift the blame on to the victims, and that 41 of the 96 who died could have potentially been saved if they had received treatment earlier.

In a statement last month, Sir Norman said: "Fans' behaviour, to the extent that it was relevant at all, made the job of the police, in the crush outside Leppings Lane turnstiles, harder than it needed to be."

He apologised a day later saying Liverpool fans were "in no way to blame" for the disaster and that he was sorry if he had "caused any further upset".

Sir Norman's resignation comes after candidates bidding to become West Yorkshire's police and crime commissioner called for him to stand down now rather than retire in March as planned.

In a statement, he said: "The police authority, and some of the candidates in the forthcoming PCC elections, have made it clear that they wish me to go sooner.
more at link

[KiwiElf]

Bankers Jumping Like Lemmings

Seems the tidal wave has begun, bankers jumping off buildings in London.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-plunges-to-death-from-city-tower-yards-from-coq-dargent-8207233.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9523259/Businesswoman-falls-to-death-from-City-rooftop-restaurant.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219345/Why-did-banker-perfect-life-fatal-leap-Fourth-tragedy-City-restaurant.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180995/Man-plunged-100ft-death-private-members-balcony-Tate-Modern-bank-manager.html

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Some thoughts on Mr. Kerviel's sentence to reimburse Societe Generale.

Do you think that this particular verdict created a financial instrument (a kind of debt) that can be booked by SG and treated as an asset immediately balancing their books? Would the decision to "confiscate" any future profits of Mr. Kerviel be treated as another financial instrument - some kind of "futures contract" that could be monetized thus improving SG balance further more?

Is there any way to find out? I am not interested in theorizing or assuming if its true... I want to know for sure if it is true...

KiwiElf i would like to hit a "Thanks" button but something prevents me from doing that... Suicide or any form of evading the truth is a worst form of "solving" our problems... The only relief would be in the fact that there is no more mess created by the deceased... But the mess does not disappears. Just stops piling up. And nevertheless we are left with a shovels in our hands against the Manurehill ;)

Oh well... There are worse things to worry about ;)

I pray for the deceased they find their rest...

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9631681/US-sues-Bank-of-America-for-1bn-over-toxic-loans.html

25 Oct US

US sues Bank of America for $1bn over 'toxic' loans

The US government has launched a $1bn (£624m) lawsuit against Bank of America, alleging that it fraudulently issued "toxic" loans that led to losses for American taxpayers.

The US Attorney's office alleged in a statement on Wednesday that Countrywide - the mortgage giant now owned by Bank of America - labelled defective mortgages as high-quality and sold them to state-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, resulting in billions of dollars of losses.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara described Countrywide's "Hustle" programme, as "spectacularly brazen in scope". He alleged that the lenders had intentionally processed loans at high speed and without the proper checks before selling them to Fannie and Freddie.

"Countrywide and Bank of America made disastrously bad loans and stuck taxpayers with the bill," said Mr Bharara. "As described, Countrywide and Bank of America systematically removed every check in favor of its own balance – they cast aside underwriters, eliminated quality controls, incentivized unqualified personnel to cut corners, and concealed the resulting defects."

Mr Bharara said that Bank of America and Countrywide caused over $1bn in losses and "countless" repossessions when Fannie and Freddie defaulted.
This is the first civil fraud suit brought by the Department of Justice concerning mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

In September, the bank agreed to pay $2.4bn to a group of shareholders who alleged the bank misled them over its controversial purchase of Merrill Lynch at the height of the crisis.

"This lawsuit should send another clear message that reckless lending practices will not be tolerated," said Mr Bharara.

Bank of America did not immediately return a request for comment.

[Sabrina]

Some thoughts on Mr. Kerviel's sentence to reimburse Societe Generale.

Do you think that this particular verdict created a financial instrument (a kind of debt) that can be booked by SG and treated as an asset immediately balancing their books? Would the decision to "confiscate" any future profits of Mr. Kerviel be treated as another financial instrument - some kind of "futures contract" that could be monetized thus improving SG balance further more?

Is there any way to find out? I am not interested in theorizing or assuming if its true... I want to know for sure if it is true...

KiwiElf i would like to hit a "Thanks" button but something prevents me from doing that... Suicide or any form of evading the truth is a worst form of "solving" our problems... The only relief would be in the fact that there is no more mess created by the deceased... But the mess does not disappears. Just stops piling up. And nevertheless we are left with a shovels in our hands against the Manurehill ;)

Oh well... There are worse things to worry about ;)

I pray for the deceased they find their rest...

That's an intriguing thought about balancing the books Robert - and logical in a mad world - what do other Avalonians think?

Also I understand what you say about the suicides - can't imagine anything worse than being driven to that desperation. And no doubt there could be some question marks about whether they were all suicides, looking at the way so called suicides are conveniently used to bump off inconvenient people....

[Sabrina]

yDwjtCQZQ7E

[Sabrina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/bankers-behind-bars_n_2011877.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

10 Bankers Thrown Behind Bars

Ex-Goldman director Rajat Gupta is going to jail for two years for insider trading, where he'll be joining some of his former peers.

There’s the infamous Bernie Madoff, who is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence for his decades-long multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out the life savings of millions of people. But most in the finance industry doing time for white collar crime aren’t dealing with a sentence as stiff as Madoff’s. That’s because his crime represents “extraordinary evil,” according to the judge that sentenced him -- deserving of a prison term on par with that of terrorists, traitors and violent criminals.

More often, white collar criminals serve much shorter terms, similar to Gupta's. One example: Jerome Kerviel was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $7 billion fine for trading fraud.

Of course, some critics say more bankers should be going to jail, but it's unlikely that bankers and executives that played a major role in the financial crisis will end up behind bars. And if they're punished at all, those debts to society will likely be paid in dollars, not years behind bars.

Here are some of the bankers behind bars:


pix at link



24 Oct

[Sabrina]

Two reasons to be optimistic about the hidden truths of energy coming out? :)



http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/noble-gas-plasma-engine-to-revealed-at.html


Noble Gas Plasma Engine to Revealed at Power-Gen Conference, Orlando Florida, Dec 11, 2012
October 23, 2012

The Noble gas Engine will be revealed to the World on Dec. 11, 2012 at the Power-Gen conference in Orlando Florida. Inteligentry, TPT, and Plasmerg will have 6 booths in the conference along with companies manufacturing the engine or selling products using the Noble gas engine.

On display will be an engine running a generator/alternator. Since the engine neither consumes fuel or expells waste, it can be run inside. It has no intake or exhaust. The engine on display will be a two cylinder noble gas plasma engine and possibly a prototype four cylinder engine. The six cylinder will come out some where around July or August 2013.

Researchers think it will run for at least 1 1/2 years 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on one noble gas fill, maybe even longer. One prototype of an earlier version of the engine has now run 1 1/2 years in Michigan. Others are in testing in locations around the world according to John Rohner.

When it hits the world will feel the ground shake, This will have a huge impact on oil companies and internal combustion engine and part manufacturers. The noble gas engine has no carburetor, valves, intake/ exhaust manifold, gas tanks.

This will make solar, and wind obsolete (they are much more expensive). The biggest impact will be in transportation (cars, trucks, ships/boats, trains and planes). Its impact won't stop there. Nuclear generation will feel it too. Then of course the Environmental benefits are absolutely NO carbon monoxide or carbond dioxide (CO2). Global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions will be a non-issue. Upon adoption, CO2 levels will start to drop.

This will have BIG opposition from vested interests who make huge profits from carbon fuels.
It will be be a big fight! So when this comes out SUPPORT IT... SCREAM AND YELL "WE NEED THIS NOW" They'll be less likely to try to kill it. This is a huge advance for our health and the health of the planet.

You can join my Facebook group, Noble Gas Engine fan group.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/ngasengine/
John Rohner is a member and comments once or twice a week.


C. wrote:

Just saw your post on the Noble Gas Plasma Reactor. If that gets presented at Power-Gen it will be a major bomb-shell. I know that conference well as I used to work at a company that sent people to speak there (I used to be an energy analyst). Keeping my fingers crossed.

Keep up the good work...

-C.


and


Dear .....,

The Belgium-based Keshe Foundation,
founded on the proprietary plasma reactor
technology of Iranian-born physicist, MT Keshe
ostensibly aims to develop new solutions
to major global problems like famine, disease,
water shortage, lack of electrical power supply,
nuclear waste and climate change, in addition
to travel into deep Space.

Keshe has offered his technology with its
wide-ranging applications to several world
governments but he claims that the various
cartels currently protecting the energy, military
and healthcare systems have rebuffed him
with more than simple resistance.

Although Keshe's message is overwhelmingly
one of peace for all mankind, it has also included
warnings, such as this one, taken from a letter
addressed to President Obama: "The aircraft
carriers of the US will become nothing but
floating bathtubs if our Magravs technology is
used effectively, and the runways full of F16s
and -18s and so on will be nothing but runway
museums of iron birds, as these craft will not be
able to fly if their electronic systems are once
touched by Magravs space technology. These
crafts and battleships would have to be rewired
from A to Z before they could ever operate again."

Click on the link below to see Keshe's message
to the world, as well as the full text of his letter
to Obama.

Video (about 6 mins):

http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/suppressed-technology/keshe-plasma-reactor-for-clean-energynuclear-decontamination-and-space-travel.html

Keshe Foundation Promo

- Alexandra


P.S. Please share Forbidden Knowledge TV e-mails
and videos with your friends and colleagues.

That's how we grow. Thanks.


Alexandra Bruce
Publisher, ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com
Daily Videos from the Edges of Science

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Still on the energy front, and there's been a news black out on this.

25 Oct

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9634530/British-ExxonMobil-oil-chief-assassinated-in-Brussels-street.html


British ExxonMobil oil chief 'assassinated' in Brussels street

A British executive for the oil company ExxonMobil has been shot dead in front of his wife in an assassination-style killing in Brussels.


Belgian police have imposed a news blackout after Nicholas Mockford, 60, was shot as he left an Italian restaurant in Neder-over-Heembeek, a suburb of the capital.

The executive was shot three times, once as he lay on the ground, after leaving the Da Marcello restaurant in Rue de Beyseghem at around 10pm on Oct 14.

His wife, Mary, was left beaten and covered in blood. Mr Mockford died on the way to hospital.

Witnesses said they saw the couple walk across the street to their car, a silver Lexus 4x4, before shots were fired.

The attack was said to have happened very quickly and Mrs Mockford was left cradling her husband in the street, shouting for help. According to reports, two men were seen running away carrying a motorcycle helmet.

Initially police said they were not excluding any possibilities, including a carjacking, but Mr Mockford's car was not stolen.
The Belgian prosecutor's office said last night that there was a "judicial instruction" from Martine Quintin, the investigating judge, that meant they could give no "explanation" and no detail about the killing.

"This is usual in such a serious murder investigation," a spokesman said.
Mr Mockford had worked for the company since the 1970s, and was the head of marketing for interim technologies for ExxonMobil Chemicals, Europe, promoting new types of greener fuel.

He was a keen sailor and was the skipper of an Exxon team who won first prize in a race in the Channel last year aboard their yacht Musette.
He was also interested in motor cycling. Mr Mockford had been married to his second wife, who is Belgian, for 15 years, and
had three grown-up children from his first marriage, all of whom live in Britain.

He was brought up in Leicestershire and had last lived in this country in Chichester, but had been abroad for some years, mostly in Belgium and Singapore.

One family member told The Daily Telegraph he believed Mr Mockford had been killed in a professional hit.
The relation, who asked not to be named, said: "We are all confused about what has happened. Nick was a genuinely lovely, clean-cut, mild mannered, family man.

"I don't think he would put up a fight or argue with someone trying to steal his company car.
"He was shot so calmly and so quickly, it smacks horribly of a professional hit, but we can't fathom why. He isn't the type to cave in to blackmail and it just doesn't compute."

A spokesman for ExxonMobil said: "We are shocked by the tragic death of one of our employees on Sunday, October 14 in Brussels.

"Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues and we are supporting them as best we can at this very difficult time."
The relation said Mrs Mockford was recovering from the ordeal and had not been badly hurt. "He was always very tight-lipped about what he did, even when sitting around with the family," the relation added.

[angelahedgehog]

Does anyone know for sure whether they're going underground or off planet? Personally I hope a gas line explodes underground forcing them to do it all over as appropriate reincarnations of their atrocities, or their space ship explodes keeping their souls on the planet for as long as it takes to sort out the mess - but that's just me struggling with my own duality :) .... What I actually would love to see is every black heart opened at once and consciences activated as each one of us comes face to face with who we are. I believe NDE's are quite effective in turning around the toughest people.

Forgive me if already discussed. I'm new here and I still don't know where everything is. :o

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Two reasons to be optimistic about the hidden truths of energy coming out? :)



http://americankabuki.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/noble-gas-plasma-engine-to-revealed-at.html


Noble Gas Plasma Engine to Revealed at Power-Gen Conference, Orlando Florida, Dec 11, 2012
October 23, 2012

The Noble gas Engine will be revealed to the World on Dec. 11, 2012 at the Power-Gen conference in Orlando Florida. Inteligentry, TPT, and Plasmerg will have 6 booths in the conference along with companies manufacturing the engine or selling products using the Noble gas engine.

On display will be an engine running a generator/alternator. Since the engine neither consumes fuel or expells waste, it can be run inside. It has no intake or exhaust. The engine on display will be a two cylinder noble gas plasma engine and possibly a prototype four cylinder engine. The six cylinder will come out some where around July or August 2013.

Researchers think it will run for at least 1 1/2 years 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on one noble gas fill, maybe even longer. One prototype of an earlier version of the engine has now run 1 1/2 years in Michigan. Others are in testing in locations around the world according to John Rohner.

When it hits the world will feel the ground shake, This will have a huge impact on oil companies and internal combustion engine and part manufacturers. The noble gas engine has no carburetor, valves, intake/ exhaust manifold, gas tanks.

This will make solar, and wind obsolete (they are much more expensive). The biggest impact will be in transportation (cars, trucks, ships/boats, trains and planes). Its impact won't stop there. Nuclear generation will feel it too. Then of course the Environmental benefits are absolutely NO carbon monoxide or carbond dioxide (CO2). Global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions will be a non-issue. Upon adoption, CO2 levels will start to drop.

This will have BIG opposition from vested interests who make huge profits from carbon fuels.
It will be be a big fight! So when this comes out SUPPORT IT... SCREAM AND YELL "WE NEED THIS NOW" They'll be less likely to try to kill it. This is a huge advance for our health and the health of the planet.

You can join my Facebook group, Noble Gas Engine fan group.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/ngasengine/
John Rohner is a member and comments once or twice a week.


C. wrote:

Just saw your post on the Noble Gas Plasma Reactor. If that gets presented at Power-Gen it will be a major bomb-shell. I know that conference well as I used to work at a company that sent people to speak there (I used to be an energy analyst). Keeping my fingers crossed.

Keep up the good work...

-C.
(...)

There is no mention of the above companies in the exhibitors list of POWER-GEN :( :confused:
http://fp32.a2zinc.net/clients/fppennwell/events12/public/fphtml.aspx?eventid=178&AEID=129,172,170,171,176&IMID=170

[Update]
Have found out that Noble Gas engine will be presented at POWER-GEN by PTP Licensing Ltd. Booth #5279
Here is the webpage of PTP: http://www.ptplicensing.com/

[Butangeld]

Sorry if this is a repost but this looks pretty huge, from http://www.marketwatch.com/story/major-banks-governmental-officials-and-their-comrade-capitalists-targets-of-spire-law-group-llps-racketeering-and-money-laundering-lawsuit-seeking-return-of-43-trillion-to-the-united-states-treasury-2012-10-25 :

Major Banks, Governmental Officials and Their Comrade Capitalists Targets of Spire Law Group, LLP's Racketeering and Money Laundering Lawsuit Seeking Return of $43 Trillion to the United States Treasury
NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Spire Law Group, LLP's national home owners' lawsuit, pending in the venue where the "Banksters" control their $43 trillion racketeering scheme (New York) - known as the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History and identifying $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) of laundered money by the "Banksters" and their U.S. racketeering partners and joint venturers - now pinpoints the identities of the key racketeering partners of the "Banksters" located in the highest offices of government and acting for their own self-interests.

In connection with the federal lawsuit now impending in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York (Case No. 12-cv-04269-JBW-RML) - involving, among other things, a request that the District Court enjoin all mortgage foreclosures by the Banksters nationwide, unless and until the entire $43 trillion is repaid to a court-appointed receiver - Plaintiffs now establish the location of the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) of laundered money in a racketeering enterprise participated in by the following individuals (without limitation): Attorney General Holder acting in his individual capacity, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, the brother in law of Defendant California Attorney General Kamala Harris (both acting in their individual capacities), Jon Corzine (former New Jersey Governor), Robert Rubin (former Treasury Secretary and Bankster), Timothy Geitner, Treasury Secretary (acting in his individual capacity), Vikram Pandit (recently resigned and disgraced Chairman of the Board of Citigroup), Valerie Jarrett (a Senior White House Advisor), Anita Dunn (a former "communications director" for the Obama Administration), Robert Bauer (husband of Anita Dunn and Chief Legal Counsel for the Obama Re-election Campaign), as well as the "Banksters" themselves, and their affiliates and conduits. The lawsuit alleges serial violations of the United States Patriot Act, the Policy of Embargo Against Iran and Countries Hostile to the Foreign Policy of the United States, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly known as the RICO statute) and other State and Federal laws.


Is this for real?

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Butangeld, have found this on cnbc:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49555671
And on yahoonews:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-owners-across-nation-sue-040100659.html
It seems that this news is distributed by the Spire Group themselves as a form of "advertising" the case...
No more msm report so far

Alternative media is full of it of course ;)

Strange coincidence with Berlusconi's indictment...

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Another reconfiguration in Japan in one week.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenharner/2012/10/25/japan-politics-in-flux-as-tokyo-mayor-ishihara-resigns-to-head-new-party-in-next-election/

Japan Politics in Flux as Tokyo Mayor Ishihara Resigns to Head New Party in Next Election

The venerable (80 year old) but still fiery and lucid Ishihara Shintaro threw a bombshell into Japanese national politics yesterday, announcing at an crowded afternoon press conference that he was resigning his Tokyo mayoral post effective immediately in order to form and lead a “true conservative” party into the next general election, now likely to take place in December.

Ishihara’s move throws an already fluid national political situation into greater flux. Over that past two months, as the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have elected leaders for the coming election, PM Noda Yoshihiko, and former PM Abe Shinzo, respectively, attention

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/stephenharner/files/2012/10/300px-Shintaro_Ishihara_20098281.jpg
Shintaro Ishihara (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

has turned to which party or parties, and to which leaders, would constitute a “third pole” force that could play a powerful “king-maker” and subsequently powerful parliamentary broker role if, as is likely, neither the DPJ nor the LDP captures a lower house majority.

As I described in a previous post, the third pole role has increasingly seemed within the grasp of Osaka mayor Hashimoto Toru whose “Japan Restoration Association” has been gaining credibility and has been seeking to ally with the reformist “Your Party” led by Watanabe Yoshimi. The Japan Restoration Association is organizationally strong in West Japan, the Kansai and Chubu regions. The base of “Your Party” is in East Japan—Kanto.

A virtue of Japan’s minor parties is that they can, and sometimes do, proffer clear positions on government policy. This distinguishes them from the major parties that tend to fudge and obfuscate policy positions in order to accommodate factional, regional, and competing economic interests.

Relative clarity on policies (though sometimes on a single policy only) is how Japan’s minor parties compete for votes and money. To be successful, a “third pole” campaign will also have to present clarity on some major issues.

Hashimoto and Watanabe, and their lieutenants, have been locked in discussions, seeking agreement on policies. Hashimoto has promised that the Japan Restoration Association will produce by late November a policy platform “manifesto” to take into the election campaign.

My guess is that Ishihara’s bombshell announcement has bollixed up the plans of Hashimoto and Watanabe, and is causing heartburn in DPJ and LDP quarters as well. When asked for his reaction, and the likelihood of a coalition with the “Ishihara New Party,” Hashimoto replied that it really depends on Ishihara’s policies—i.e., whether the two can agree on key policies. Said Hashimoto: policies are the central and indispensable issue; if clear policies are not presented, the voters will ignore us.

Mayor of Tokyo since April 1999, re-elected three times, Ishihara has been outspoken about many policies and has a track record. In a 25 year Diet career as a member of the LDP that ended in 1995, he held cabinet posts and a popular, if consistently controversial figure due to his ultra-nationalist and occasionally anti-American views. In 1989 he penned with Sony’s Morita Akio a best selling book entitled The Japan that Can Say No. His more conventional conservative views include smaller, decentralized government, and fiscal responsibility.

Ishihara has appeared previously with Hashimoto, providing moral support for the latter’s “third pole” movement. Looking a bit like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates when standing together, the two have seemed in philosophical agreement on major themes like disempowering central government bureaucracies in favor of local control, increasing the local tax base with consumption tax revenues, and free trade (support for TPP). On nuclear power, however, there seems to be a big difference, with Ishihara supporting continuing nuclear power use, while Hashimoto has joined the anti-nuclear camp.

Ishihara has advocated scrapping Japan’s U.S.-imposed “peace constitution” and pursuing a more foreign policy more independent of U.S. leadership. Hashimoto wants to amend the constitution to directly elect the PM. Ishihara bears much responsibility for the current increasingly costly and dangerous crisis with China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, but seems undeterred, advocating further provocative steps.

Japanese politics in the run up to the next general election is likely to offer high drama and some surprises. Very likely, Ishihara’s new conservative party will draw support from the LDP, lessening the likelihood of an LDP victory. In a situation where there are no winners, it may be that the man who will lose less is Japan’s currently beleaguered Prime Minister Noda.

[Sabrina]

An interesting one!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20102215

26 Oct Italy

Silvio Berlusconi sentenced for tax fraud

Berlusconi has been handed a jail sentence and barred from office after being found guilty of tax fraud.

The Milan court sentenced him to four years but later cut it to one year because of an amnesty law.

Mr Berlusconi condemned the sentence as "intolerable judicial harassment". He will remain free pending appeals.

He and others were accused of buying US film rights at inflated prices via two offshore companies under his control.

It is the first time Mr Berlusconi - who has faced a number of trials - has been convicted of any crime concerning his business activities.

He has in the past either been cleared, or cases have run beyond the judicial time limit.

In 1997 he received a suspended sentence for false book-keeping but that conviction was reversed on appeal.


In the case for which he was sentenced on Friday, prosecutors argued that part of the money declared for the purchase of film rights was skimmed off to create illegal slush funds, reducing tax liabilities for Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset group.

The court handed Mr Berlusconi a longer sentence than the three years and eight months requested by prosecutors. However, it later announced that the sentence would be cut to one year due to a 2006 amnesty law aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.

It ordered him and his co-defendants to pay 10m euros (£8m) in damages and banned him from holding public office for three years.

Both the jail term and the ban would only take effect if the sentence is upheld by a higher court, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

"It is a political, incredible and intolerable judgement," Mr Berlusconi said on Italia 1 - one of the TV stations he owns.


"It is without any doubt a political verdict just as all the cases invented against me are political."

In all, 11 people were on trial.

Three were acquitted including Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri, a close associate of Mr Berlusconi, and four were cleared because the statute of limitations had run out.

The three others convicted alongside the former prime minister included Hollywood producer Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence.

The trial began six years ago and has been subject to repeated delays, in part because of an immunity law that protected Mr Berlusconi while he was prime minister.

more at link

[Sabrina]

China expels Bo from legislature, set for trial

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 - 7:19 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Oct. 26, 2012 - 1:43 am

BEIJING -- Chinese lawmakers stripped disgraced politician Bo Xilai of his last official position Friday, formally expelling him from the country's top legislature and clearing the way for criminal proceedings against the once-rising political star.

Though largely a formality since Bo was purged from the Communist Party late last month, his expulsion from the congress removes his immunity from prosecution. That sets the stage for a criminal case involving accusations of corruption and other wrongdoing, including interfering in the investigation into the murder of a British businessman. Bo's wife and a household aide were convicted of the murder last month.

Chinese leaders are keen to resolve the party's most damaging public scandal in decades as they prepare for next month's once-in-a-decade transition of power. They are handing over to the next generation of leaders, who will be tasked with shoring up public support in the face of widespread disgust over official graft and influence peddling.

They may even want to push through a trial before the opening of the party congress on Nov. 8, though some experts say there may not be enough time. Leaders still need to reach a consensus on how harshly to punish Bo, which of his associates to include in the trial and ensure the accused remains compliant in the courtroom, said Ding Xueliang, an expert on the Chinese leadership at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"It's really a very muddy situation," he said.

As the most powerful official in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, Bo had been considered a candidate for a seat on the party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, and his toppling exposed sharp infighting in the party's uppermost ranks.

The National People's Congress Standing Committee said it approved a decision to remove Bo as a deputy, but offered no details.

Bo's downfall has been spectacular: His wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, and Bo's former right-hand man was accused of taking bribes, abusing power and trying to defect to the United States, among other crimes.

Even before that, Bo had angered many in Beijing with his populist style that defied the authoritarian party's demands that those seeking higher office merely follow orders from Beijing and maintain a low-key image. Bo's initiatives included a sweeping crackdown on organized crime and a campaign to revive Mao-era songs and culture that reminded many of the excesses of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Bo's expulsion cements an impression of unity among the leadership in rejecting his neo-Maoist approach in favor of stability under the incoming slate of leaders, said China politics expert Feng Chongyi of the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

"It's very positive in that way, but not sufficient to conclude that the party will become any more liberal," Feng said.

Chinese authorities have not yet announced specific charges against Bo, but in expelling him on Sept. 28, the party accused him of offenses reaching back two decades that range from taking bribes and abusing his power to having improper relationships with an unspecified number of women. He has not been seen in public since mid-March and is believed to be in detention at a Beijing prison.

Beijing attorney Li Xiaolin said Thursday that Bo's wife's family has hired him and Shen Zhigeng to defend Bo, but the two lawyers are not yet formally accredited by the authorities to represent him.

Bo's downfall was set off when his former police chief and close confidant Wang Lijun fled to the U.S. Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, where he revealed to diplomats details of Heywood's death, which previously was called accidental. A month later, Bo was sacked as Chongqing's Communist Party secretary and suspended from the 25-member Politburo.

The scandal raised talk of a political struggle involving Bo supporters intent on derailing succession plans calling for Vice President Xi Jinping to lead the party for the next decade, as well as concerns over corruption among top-tier politicians.

A lengthy New York Times expose published Friday claimed the family of Premier Wen Jiabao has amassed assets worth $2.7 billion through a web of investments, most of it accumulated after he rose to high office in 2002. Chinese censors swiftly blocked the Times' Chinese-language site that carried a translated version of the story, although Internet users with the technical knowledge could still access it by penetrating China's firewall.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a press briefing that the report "blackens China and has ulterior motives." He refused to elaborate despite several follow-up questions.

While Wen is expected to leave his post in the spring, the report is a blow to his reputation as a politician concerned with bettering the lives of ordinary Chinese.

In another example of the lack of transparency, a report released Thursday by the Washington think-tank the Brookings Institution points out that the brother of Vice Premier Li Keqiang has been a top official in the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, even while Li oversaw public health policy.

The agency both regulates and runs the China National Tobacco Corporation, the world's biggest cigarette maker, and taxes on cigarettes are a significant source of government revenue.

With Li expected to be promoted to premier in the leadership change, the report suggests that the brother, Li Keming, be reassigned.



Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/25/4939687/china-expels-bo-from-legislature.html#storylink=cpy

[Tane Mahuta]

Hi Sabrina, just want to say a big thankyou for this amazing thread...

TM

[Sabrina]

http://theintelhub.com/2012/10/27/cnbc-execs-children-murdered-1-day-after-cnbc-reports-43-trillion-bankster-lawsuit/

CNBC Exec’s Children Murdered, 1 Day After CNBC Reports $43 Trillion Bankster Lawsuit

By JG Vibes
theintelhub.com
October 27, 2012

This week financial news organization CNBC gave some mainstream attention to the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History, in which “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners are being accused of laundering of 43 trillion dollars worth of ill gotten gains.

The lawsuit is said to involve officials located in the highest offices of government and the financial sector.
Since this information was surprisingly revealed by the mainstream news organization there has been a very suspicious and deadly fallout at the CNBC headquarters.

Within hours the original page for the article was taken down, and CNBC senior vice president Kevin Krim received news that his children were killed under very suspicious circumstances.

It seems that the murder happened first and then the page was removed later.

According to mainstream accounts the children’s nanny is responsible for the murders, allegedly stabbing both children.

However, those same mainstream news sources report the highly unlikely story that the nanny slit her own throat just after committing the homicides.

Police have released very little information and although a wider plot has not been officially implicated, it seems very possible that these murders are a show of force against the press organization for releasing such damning information about the most powerful people in the world.

Here is some more information about the lawsuit from the Wall Street Journal:
“In the District Court lawsuit, Spire Law Group, LLP — on behalf of home owner across the Country and New York taxpayers, as well as under other taxpayer recompense laws — has expanded its mass tort action into federal court in Brooklyn, New York, seeking to halt all foreclosures nationwide pending the return of the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) by the “Banksters” and their co-conspirators, seeking an audit of the Fed and audits of all the “bailout programs” by an independent receiver such as Neil Barofsky, former Inspector General of the TARP program who has stated that none of the TARP money and other “bailout money” advanced from the Treasury has ever been repaid despite protestations to the contrary by the Defendants as well as similar protestations by President Obama and the Obama Administration both publicly on national television and more privately to the United States Congress.

Because the Obama Administration has failed to pursue any of the “Banksters” criminally, and indeed is actively borrowing monies for Mr. Obama’s campaign from these same “Banksters” to finance its political aspirations, the national group of plaintiff home owners has been forced to now expand its lawsuit to include racketeering, money laundering and intentional violations of the Iranian Nations Sanctions and Embargo Act by the national banks included among the “Bankster” Defendants. “

Some of the alleged conspirators are Attorney General Holder, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, the brother in law of Defendant California Attorney General Kamala Harris, Jon Corzine (former New Jersey Governor), Robert Rubin (former Treasury Secretary and Bankster), Timothy Geitner, Treasury Secretary, Vikram Pandit (recently resigned and disgraced Chairman of the Board of Citigroup), Valerie Jarrett (a Senior White House Advisor), Anita Dunn (a former “communications director” for the Obama Administration), Robert Bauer (husband of Anita Dunn and Chief Legal Counsel for the Obama Re-election Campaign), as well as the “Banksters” themselves, and their affiliates and conduits.

It is expected that all news on this subject will be removed from CNBC, and that other news organizations will be discouraged from covering such information.

However, screen shots of the original CNBC article were taken to verify the authenticity of this story.
Assassination and brute intimidation are common strategies for the ruling class to use on people who may threaten their agenda.

This is the second situation this week in which a high level executive was the victim of a suspicious attack that seemed very much like an assassination.

The Intel Hub just reported that Nicholas Mockford, a 60 year old British executive for the oil company ExxonMobil was shot dead in front of his wife in an assassination-style killing in Brussels.

We will be keeping a close eye on both of these stories and provide more details as they become available.

and

http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/27/2547707/nyc-nanny-not-herself-before-killings.html

NYC nanny not herself before children's killings

NEW YORK — Friends and relatives of Yoselyn Ortega, the New York City nanny accused of stabbing two young children to death, said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially recently. Few, though, could offer any explanation for what might have caused her to attack the children.

"She snapped," the nanny's sister, Celia Ortega, told The New York Post. "We don't understand what happened to her mind."

Yoselyn Ortega, 50, remained hospitalized Saturday from self-inflicted stab wounds, including a deep gash to her throat.

Police said Marina Krim, the Manhattan mother who employed Ortega, returned to her Upper West Side apartment Thursday to find two of her children, ages 2 and 6, dead of knife wounds and the nanny stabbing herself with the blade.

Yoselyn Ortega's motive remains a mystery, even to those who knew her, but a picture of a life in distress has begun to emerge in the days since the killing.

"Apparently over the last month she was not herself," said police department spokesman Paul Browne.

But relatives in Ortega's native Dominican Republic said they were shocked by the allegations.

Miladys Ortega, the nanny's older sister in the Caribbean nation, told The Associated Press on Saturday that her sister "loved those children." She said the family felt the nanny was "unable to do that."

"Yoselyn is fair, loving, loving with those children. She loved them," Ortega said at the family home in Santiago de los Caballeros, about 150 miles north of the capital, Santo Domingo. She spoke as she prepared to attend Mass after visiting the grave of their mother.

She said the Krims had visited the Dominican Republic last February with Yoselyn and stayed at her home in a middle-class district of Santiago.

"Those children were here," Miladys Ortega said tearfully. "They were happy, running, playing."

She said Yoselyn is the youngest of six siblings, most of whom live in the United States. Her sister emigrated to the United States in the early 1980s after graduating from accounting studies at Santa Ana College in Santiago.

Yoselyn Ortega worked as the manager of a print shop in Manhattan, until she separated from the father of her child. She returned to Santiago for a while, but then went back to the U.S., her sister said.

Miladys Ortega said that when her sister got back to New York, she couldn't find an accounting job and decided to work as a nanny because she loves children.

During her last conversations with Yoselyn, her sister didn't say anything that seemed unusual.

"Yoselyn always was a normal person. When she was a child, she played, always played a lot. We would go into the countryside," she said. "As an adult, she dedicated herself to working. She was always working."

Juan Pozo, a 67-year-old car service driver who formerly rented a room from the Ortega family, told The New York Times that the nanny's sister told him Friday that she had "felt like she was losing her mind" lately, and had recently been taken by relatives to visit a psychologist.

Police said they were unaware of any significant history of psychological problems for Ortega, but were investigating whether she had recently sought treatment.

Neighbor Ruben Rivas told reporters she seemed to have suddenly aged in recent weeks and had lost weight. Other friends said that while she was paid well by her domestic employers, Kevin and Marina Krim, and seemed happy with her job, she had suffered a financial setback when she had to give up an apartment she had rented in the Bronx, and recently moved back in with her sister.

William Krim, grandfather to the slain children, told the Times he wasn't aware of any conflicts between the family and the nanny.

"We're just the most stunned people in the world. I mean, they treated this woman so well," he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/27/2547707/nyc-nanny-not-herself-before-killings.html#storylink=cpy

[Sabrina]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/10/26/rbc-libor-probe.html

Royal Bank subpoenaed in LIBOR probe


There are reports that Royal Bank of Canada has been served with a subpoena from U.S. state officials as part of their probe into the possible manipulation of a key benchmark used to set interest rates.

The Wall Street Journal and other business publication report the subpoenas were issued to nine banks, including RBC, in August and September, according to an unidentified person familiar with the investigation.

That brings to 16 the number of banks served with subpoenas, including seven that had become public earlier.

Global investigation
The U.S. investigation by the New York and Connecticut attorneys general is part of a wider probe in several countries that stems from a major U.K. bank's admission that it had provided false information used to set the LIBOR rate.

RBC is Canada's largest bank, with operations in major financial centres around the world including London.

The bank said last summer that it followed the rules in submitting information for compiling the London Interbank Offered Rate, which is used widely as a benchmark to set interest rates on business and consumer debts.

That assurance was repeated Friday in RBC's response to the news reports.

"We have determined that our Libor submissions reflected our cost of funds," said Gillian McArdle, head of communications for Canada at RBC Capital Markets.

Rate-fixing alleged
The rate is set by gathering information from a small number of large banks, using a system that's intended to prevent any one member of the group from manipulating the rate.

Questions about how LIBOR is operated arose after Barclays Bank agreed to pay a record $450 million fine to settle allegations its traders had manipulated submissions to LIBOR.

While Barclays actions by themselves were probably insufficient to affect LIBOR, there authorities in Britain and elsewhere have launched probes to see if it was a more widespread problem.

Canada's competition bureau and other Canadian regulatory bodies launched their own probes in light of the Barclay's revelations but there have been no allegations levelled against RBC.

26 Oct

[Sabrina]

More on the UK Saville abuse story - someone is asking the right questions and starting to join up some of the dots in the main stream media. Times are changing!

http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/354945/Sex-abuse-is-guilty-secret

28 Oct UK

SEX ABUSE IS GUILTY SECRET

(Express Comment by Sonja Poulton)

IN THE weeks that have ­followed Jimmy Savile ­being revealed as a paedophile his carefully crafted charitable reputation has been obliterated. The ­national treasure decorated by the Queen and given keys to ­hospitals has been laid bare and described by one investigating ­officer as “the most prolific serial sex abuser in history”.

Increasingly, though, rather than being the solitary pervert operating with impunity, Savile may be the tip of a large iceberg.

As more victims reveal abuse at the hands of Savile, or his ­extensive circle of friends, it ­appears the silence that ­surrounded him may say less about his celebrity status and more about whom he may have implicated had his crimes been exposed.

Certainly we know that Savile was subject to at least five police probes over five decades. All were quashed. Why? We have yet to be told.

For many it reeks of an establishment cover-up, though for years detractors referred to it as “conspiracy theory”.

Savile’s BBC colleague David Icke, who went from respected broadcaster to laughing stock, was at the forefront of such claims in the Nineties when he named Savile and others as pedophiles.

Icke claimed Savile supplied children from Jersey’s infamous Haut de la Garenne care home to a senior British MP. Savile denied knowing the home, the scene of a police investigation in 2008 that uncovered widespread child abuse. He lied. There is pictorial evidence of him there.

Savile may be the tip of a large iceberg

Last week, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour MP Tom Watson raised the issue of a paedophile ring in Parliament and alluded to a former PM. David Cameron, all perplexed, said he would look into it. Minutes after PMQs, Tory MP Rob Wilson was on Sky News appearing to laugh off Watson’s claims.

This cannot go on. It was these sorts of hasty dismissals that helped Savile get away with it. People laughed it off and claimed “nutters” were saying it.

Well I can tell Mr Cameron that this claim is not sensational, anything but. In fact Tom Watson has barely scratched the surface.

I have compiled a list of 132 ­utterly shameless establishment child abusers. These include MPs, lords and local councillors. A ­similar list for members of Her Majesty’s Constabulary exists.

I don’t believe these lists are complete. This is not conjecture or media gossip but people, ­primarily men, who have been prosecuted for child sex offences throughout the UK.

Many of these abusers still ­represent constituents and are “serving the public”. At the very least we should know who they are, where they are and if their public decisions are influenced by the greater good or their own twisted perversions.

As a journalist, and in light of the Savile revelations, people have contacted me desperate to share their abuse stories.
Some accuse powerful members of the establishment. Several household-name MPs are said to have committed acts of degradation against children as young as six.

Yes, some of these callers may be jumping on the bandwagon but not many are, as independent ­corroboration of their stories has already confirmed.

So let’s not be under any ­ illusion that this is only about Savile. I fear it is far from it.

The Government must immediately announce an independent inquiry. It must be public and transparent and it must leave no stone unturned. The credibility of Parliament is at an all-time low and serious questions must be answered.Why did Ken Clarke, as justice minister, halve sentences of ­paedophiles last year in a controversial announcement?

Why did the Cabinet Office ­issue threatening letters last week to internet bloggers ­ warning that they must not repeat allegations of a child actor ­claiming to have been touched by a member of the Coalition?

Then there is the question that overshadows the whole Savile ­inquiry: why was he allowed to ­become so close to royalty and government? Surely it is the job of the security services to investigate the lifestyle of those who have access to our figureheads?

Yes, this is a dark time in our nation’s history but we must face it head on and keep going until we know the full, unexpurgated truth, no matter how unedifying future revelations may be.

Judging by some of the testi­monies I have heard it is likely to be very shocking indeed. There is no alternative. The ­victims need the truth to be told, no matter how powerful or con­nected their ­abusers may prove to be.

[Sabrina]

Tungsten, chocolate ... who knows... :)

http://rt.com/business/news/germany-gold-reserves-check-472/
29 Oct

Germany orders a check on its gold reserves

German federal auditors have requested the Bundesbank checks Germany’s gold reserves, a major part of which has been stored at banks abroad since the Cold War.

Germany’s gold bars, stored in the United States, Britain and France "have never been physically checked by the Bundesbank itself, or other independent auditors, regarding their authenticity or weight," reveals a report prepared by the Federal Auditors' Office. Instead, the Bundesbank relies on a "written confirmation by the storage sites."

Germany has placed as much as some 3,400 tons of gold worth an estimated $190 billion at current values in the vaults of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of France and the Bank of England since the late 1940s. The reason was to secure the country’s gold reserves in a case of a possible war with the Soviet bloc. Currently only about 30% of Germany’s gold reserves are kept in Germany, at the facilities of Frankfurt-based Bundesbank.

Since then, the Bundesbank has seen no reason to check its gold reserves. "There is no doubt about the integrity of the foreign storage sites in this regard," it said in a statement.

Concerns about Germany’s gold reserves arose this year after a group of German federal lawmakers wanted to check gold bars stored at the Banque de France in Paris. But they were turned away by local officials who said there were no facilities to visit the vaults, Deutsche Welle reported.

German worries about the situation with its gold reserves reflect the worries of the German politicians that the country has enough gold reserves to resist the spreading eurozone crisis.

The Bundesbank has reportedly decided to ship 150 tons of gold from the New York Federal Reserve to Germany, according to German daily Bild. After returning to Germany the gold will be melted down to test the overall purity of each consignment before being re-cast into standard gold bars.

[TargeT]

The Bundesbank has reportedly decided to ship 150 tons of gold from the New York Federal Reserve to Germany, according to German daily Bild. After returning to Germany the gold will be melted down to test the overall purity of each consignment before being re-cast into standard gold bars.

This could be fun.... haha

[Sabrina]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/navy-replaces-admiral-leading-mideast-strike-group-because-of-ongoing-investigation/


Navy Replaces Admiral Leading Mideast Strike Group Because of Ongoing Investigation

In an unusual move, the Navy has replaced an admiral commanding an aircraft carrier strike group while it is deployed to the Middle East.
The replacement was prompted by an Inspector General’s investigation of allegations of inappropriate leadership judgment.
Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette, the commander of the USS John C. Stennis strike group, is being returned to the United States for temporary reassignment.

In a statement the Navy said it had approved a request made by Vice Adm. John W. Miller, the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, to temporarily reassign Gaouette “pending the results of an investigation by the Navy Inspector General.”

The statement said Gaoutte would return to the carrier’s home port of Bremerton, Washington.

A Navy official familiar with the circumstances of the investigation said it involved allegations of “inappropriate leadership judgment” and stressed it was not related to personal conduct.

The Stennis group arrived in the Fifth Fleet’s area of operations on Oct. 17 to replace the USS Enterprise, which was on the final deployment of its 50 years of service. The allegations are recent and were made within the last couple of weeks.

The Stennis returned to Bremerton in March from a seven-month deployment to the Middle East. In July the Pentagon ordered the carrier to deploy in August — four months ahead of schedule — so a two-carrier presence could be maintained in the Middle East after the Enterprise finished its deployment. The other carrier strike group currently operating in the Fifth Fleet is the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Gaouette’s Chief of Staff, Capt. William C. Minter, will lead the strike group until Rear Adm. Troy M. Shoemaker arrives to take command “until the matter is resolved.”

27 Oct

[M0JFK]

like rats leaving the sinking ship me thinks.
I posted this under the Sir James of Blackheath/House of Lords thread, but it's been suggested that this merits a thread of its own. So here it is. Hope we can keep adding to it.

Must be a lot happening behind the scenes...

Resignations Global Banks ....

1 World Bank CEO Zoellick resigns
http://business.time.com/2012/02/15/world-bank-president-zoellick-resigns/

2 Anz Bank CFO Australia resigns
http://www.proformative.com/news/1470243/cfo-anz-bank-resigns-amid-turmoil

3 Nicaraqua Central Bank Pres Rosales resigns
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/nicaragua-central-bank-head-quits-amid-row.html

4 Credit Suisse Chief Joseph Tan resigns
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-20/credit-suisse-s-private-bank-chief-asian-economist-tan-resigns.html

5 GERMAN PRESIDENT Christian Ruff resigns
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102524/German-President-Christian-Wulff-forced-resign.html

6 Royal Bank of Scotland Austrailin CEO Stephen Williams resigns
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/andrew-chick-to-lead-royal-bank-of-scotlands-australian-arm/story-fnay3vxj-1226272513981

7 Kuwait Central Bank CEO resigns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/kuwait-central-bank-chief-resigns-amid-political-tensions/2012/02/13/gIQAcxrOAR_story.html

8 Slovenia TWO largest Banks CEO's (2) resign
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-15/slovenia-s-nova-kreditna-banka-maribor-ceo-plos-resigns.html

9 Bank of India CEO Chaturvedi resigns
http://www.livemint.com/2012/02/06160111/Dhanlaxmi-Bank-CEO-Amitabh-Cha.html

10 Tamilnad Mercantile Bank CEO resigns
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tamilnad-mercantile-bank-md-resigns/464259/

11 GOLDMAN SACHS CEO Blankenfein to resign (Nothing printed on this yet UNLESS this JUST happened. Last article said he is not stepping down in 2011). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/06/lloyd-blankfein-goldman-s_n_858647.html?l

12 Kuwait central bank chief resigns amid political tensions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/kuwait-central-bank-chief-resigns-amid-political-tensions/2012/02/13/gIQAcxrOAR_story.html

[Sabrina]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-is-hauled-to-high-court-over-ratefix-scandal-8231631.html

30 Oct UK


Barclays is hauled to High Court over rate-fix scandal

Judge orders test case over care home operator's £38m Libor-rigging and swap mis-selling claim but bank says action has 'no merit'. Simon Read reports

Barclays yesterday became the first British bank to face a legal claim for damages arising out of the Libor scandal after a High Court judge ruled that a claim brought against the bank by Guardian Care Homes (GCH) must go to a full trial.

The decision by Mr Justice Julian Flaux is set to lead to a test case for how courts will decide on swap mis-selling and Libor-rigging cases. Gary Hartland, boss of the care homes group, called the decision a "huge milestone" in his £38m battle against the banking giant.

"Mine is a small care home operator, and these products along with the conduct of Barclays throughout this process have had a hugely distressing impact on our staff and residents," Mr Hartland said.

"Today is a huge milestone with a trial now going forward to determine whether these financial products should be declared void. Our claim is not just based on mis-selling but on the effect of senior management at Barclays instructing the aggressive selling of swaps while attempting to rig Libor."

But Barclays said last night that it will fight GCH, owned by Graiseley Properties and Graiseley Investments, all the way. The bank said: "This business had a suite of advisers and a lot of financial experience and skill in-house, and entered into their swaps with sufficient understanding to exercise their own judgement as to whether the products would meet its business objectives. We do not believe the case has merit and will defend it."

The bank also pointed out that GCH owes Barclays £70m, almost twice as much as it is claiming from the bank. The case revolves around loan and finance deals between Barclays and GCH stretching back to 2007 and 2008 when the care homes group took out two multi-million-pound interest-rate hedges, known as swaps.

Thousands of small firms were sold swaps by British banks as a hedge against rising interest rates but fell foul of the deals when rates sank to record lows, forcing interest repayment to soar and leaving businesses unable to escape because of huge penalty charges.

In June, the Financial Services Authority reported "serious failings" in the sale of swaps and ordered Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds to compensate customers. Barclays set aside £450m in its customer compensation pot. Meanwhile, several banks were found guilty of attempting to manipulate Libor, including Barclays which had to pay £290m in fines to British and US authorities in a scandal that led to the departure of Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond

However, the bank's fine related to dollar-libor and euro-libor rates while GCH's swaps were linked to sterling-libor. The bank will argue that its attempted manipulation had no bearing on its arrangement with GCH.

It will also point to Mr Hartland's knowledge and sophistication as "an extremely successful and capable businessman" to suggest the firm knew what it was doing.

GCH's lawyers must now sift through more than a million Barclays emails relating to the attempted Libor-rigging in an effort to find evidence to support their case. It is unlikely to reach court before next summer, angering John Walker, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, who said: "This will just extend the time it takes to get redress for small firms and be very costly."

¤=[Post Update]=¤

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20132857

30 Oct

UBS cuts 10,000 jobs as it slims down investment bank arm


Swiss bank UBS has announced it is cutting 10,000 jobs worldwide as it slims down its investment banking activities.

The jobs will go over the next three years, and amount to 16% of its current workforce of 64,000.

UBS lost 39bn Swiss francs (£26bn; $42bn) during the financial crisis and had to be bailed out by the Swiss authorities.

The cuts are aimed at saving 3.4bn Swiss francs.

UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said: "This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people.

"Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect."

Risk averse

Zurich-based UBS will focus on its private bank and a smaller investment bank, ditching much of the riskier trading business which was responsible for the bulk of its losses.

In a joint letter to shareholders, chairman Axel Weber and chief executive Mr Ermotti said: "We will no longer operate to any significant extent in businesses where risk-adjusted returns cannot meet their cost of capital."

UBS announced its restructuring plans as it reported its results for the third quarter of the year.

The bank reported a net loss of 2.17bn Swiss francs for the July to September period, compared with a profit of 1.02bn Swiss francs a year earlier. The loss was mainly due to an impairment charge of 3.1bn Swiss francs that UBS is taking to cover the cost of the changes to its investment bank.

UBS was one of the banks hardest hit during the global financial crisis.

Then last year, it lost a further 2bn Swiss francs allegedly due to the activities of Kweku Adoboli.

This prompted the-then chief executive Oswald Gruebel to resign. Mr Adoboli is currently on trial for fraud and false accounting. He denies the charges.

[Sabrina]

Turning the lights out on some of the bankers - for now anyway....


Via Zerohedge - US


Financial District Goes Dark As Con Ed Cuts Power To Lower Manhattan

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/29/2012 - 19:05
As we warned earlier - due to the flooding from the storm surge - ConEd has cut power to parts of lower Manhattan:

*CON EDISON CUT POWER TO PARTS OF LOWER MANHATTAN, SPOKESMAN SAY
*CON EDISON CUT POWER EAST OF BROADWAY, SOUTH OF WALL ST TO TIP
*POWER CUT BETWEEN WALL, FRANKFORT, WILLIAMS & EAST RIVER :ED US
*CON EDISON CUT POWER TO PROTECT LINES FROM HURRICANE FLOODING

'Dark Pools' comes to mind as the financial district is blacked out.

[Sabrina]

There's some interesting things coming out of the Bank of England at the moment. Change of the guard??


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225013/Occupy-St-Pauls-protesters-morally-right-attack-financial-says-Bank-Englands-Andrew-Haldane.html

30 Oct UK

Occupy protesters who camped at St Paul’s Cathedral were morally right to attack financial system, says Bank of England official

Andrew Haldane spoke at an Occupy event
He said the movement was successful in highlighting the problems of the global financial system and improve financial services
Occupy members camped outside St Paul's Cathedral for more than three months before they were evicted by police

The Occupy protesters who camped at St Paul’s Cathedral were morally and intellectually right to attack the financial system, says a Bank of England official.

Andrew Haldane, a member of the financial policy committee at the bank, said the movement was successful in attacking the problems of the global financial system and ‘helped stir’ improvement in financial services.

Protesters staged considerable protests in London and New York against economic inequality and the influence of the financial services industry.

Hundreds of movement members camped outside St Paul’s for more than three months after they were prevented from entering nearby Paternoster Square, where the London Stock Exchange is located.

Police forcibly evicted them in February this year after the protesters lost a court battle with the local authorities.

Mr Haldane spoke to Occupy Economics, a branch of the movement, at a London event last night.

He said: ‘Occupy has been successful in its efforts to popularise the problems of the global financial system for one very simple reason; they are right.’

‘Occupy’s voice has been both loud and persuasive and policymakers have listened and are acting.

‘In fact, I want to argue that we are in the early stages of a reformation of finance, a reformation which Occupy has helped stir.’

He said that protesters had been right about the consequences of high salaries and bonuses in the financial sector.
Mr Haldane said: ‘I do not just mean right in a moral sense. It is the analytical, every bit as much as the moral, ground that Occupy has taken.

‘For the hard-headed facts suggest that, at the heart of the global financial crisis, were and are, problems of deep and rising inequality.’

Mr Haldane told activists that Occupy played an instrumental role in improving and reforming finance services.

He said: ‘If I am right and a new leaf is being turned, then Occupy will have played a key role in this fledgling financial reformation.

‘You have put the arguments. You have helped win the debate.’

The Bank of England official made no mention of Occupy’s use of controversial protest techniques which included claims that they desecrated the church and spoiled the grounds.

Earlier this month, four women from the movement invaded the cathedral and chained themselves to the pulpit for more than six hours, interrupting a service.

[bram]

This could be A karmic pandemic. I wonder if politicians are susceptible?. Let's hope so...

Careful what you wish for- we need to see what replaces these ppl first!

[Sabrina]

More on the German gold story - another white hat?


http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-politicians-demand-to-see-gold-in-us-federal-reserve-a-864068.html

30 Oct Germany

Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann wanted to personally convince Peter Gauweiler that the German gold was still where it should be. Early this summer, the head of Germany's central bank took the obstinate politician from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), a party that is a member of the government coalition in Berlin, and a number of his colleagues into the Bundesbank's inner sanctum: the gold vault.

There, 6,000 gold bars are stacked on industrial-strength shelves in a purpose-built building in Frankfurt. An additional 76,000 bars of bullion are stored in four safe boxes, in sealed containers.
But even this personal inspection wasn't enough to reassure the visiting member of parliament -- on the contrary: "The Bundesbank monitors its domestic gold in an exemplary fashion," Gauweiler says, "and this makes it all the more incomprehensible that the bank doesn't look after its reserves abroad."

For quite some time now, Gauweiler has been pestering the government and the Bundesbank with questions concerning where and how the country's reserves are stored, and how often they are checked. He has submitted requests and commissioned reports on the topic.

Last week, Gauweiler celebrated his greatest triumph to date in his gold campaign, which has been a source of some amusement for many fellow German politicians: A secret report by the Federal Audit Office had been made public -- and it contained stern criticism of the German central bank in Frankfurt. The Bonn-based auditors urged a better inventory system, including quality checks.

This demand, which even the bank's inspectors saw as nothing more than routine, alarmed the Berlin political establishment. Indeed, the partially blacked-out report read like the prologue to an espionage thriller in which the stunned central bankers could end up standing in front of empty vaults in the US.

'Grotesque Debate'

For decades, German central bankers have contented themselves with written affirmations from their American colleagues that the gold still remains where it is said to be stored. According to the report, the bar list from New York stems from "1979/1980." The report also noted that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York refuses to allow the gold's owners to view their own reserves.

Not surprisingly, this prompted strong reactions in Berlin: The relevant Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele was summoned to Berlin to provide an explanation to the parliamentary budget committee. Heinz-Peter Haustein of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) was even quoted by Germany's mass-circulation Bild newspaper as saying that "all the gold has to be shipped back."

The Bundesbank's otherwise reserved Thiele said that he found at least "part of the debate" to be "rather grotesque." His financial institution currently has more pressing problems. Bundesbank head Weidmann, for example, is desperately fighting the European Central Bank (ECB) decision to buy unlimited quantities of sovereign bonds from crisis-ridden countries as a way of lowering their borrowing costs. In addition, the Bundesbank has already pumped nearly €700 billion ($906 billion) into primarily southern European countries as part of the euro-zone central bank transfers known as Target II.

Germany's gold reserves are currently worth some €144 billion and are not stored "with dubious business partners," as Thiele stresses, but rather with "highly respected central bankers." (that's alright then :))

Special Connection

There is in fact nothing unusual about how Germany deals with the precious metal. Many other central banks store a portion of their gold reserves abroad. The Netherlands, for example, places its trust in its colleagues in Ottawa, New York and London.

But the relationship Germans have with their gold is a special one. Germany hoards nearly 3,600 metric tons of the precious metal -- only the US has more. Much of this gold treasure was amassed under the Bretton Woods international monetary system, in which the dollar served as the world's key currency and was directly convertible to fixed quantities of gold.

Before the gold standard was terminated in 1971, the current account surpluses generated by Germany's "economic miracle" were partially balanced out in gold. Thousands of US bars of gold alone were transferred to German ownership.

But since the euro is not backed by gold, such vast reserves are actually no longer necessary. Nevertheless, the Germans continue to resolutely defend them -- and every attempt to use this treasure has been met with dismay.

There has been no lack of proposals: Former German President Roman Herzog wanted to sell the gold to form the basis for a capital-based nursing care insurance scheme. In 2002, FDP parliamentary floor leader Rainer Brüderle proposed a fund for natural disasters. Former Bundesbank head Ernst Welteke added to the debate by suggesting the foundation of a national educational fund. But none of these ideas were ever taken seriously.

Most recently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) shot down an idea by the euro partners to use the reserves as collateral for euro bonds.

Strict Security

As a result, in addition to safeguarding the reserves of over 60 countries, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York continues to hold 1,536 metric tons of German gold -- or nearly half of Berlin's reserves. This enormous hoard of gold is stored in the fifth subfloor of the bank's building on Liberty Street, 25 meters (80 feet) below street level, and 15 meters below sea level. According to the bank's website, the vault rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island.

Tourists are allowed to venture below street level to see the vault. After descending in an elevator, they stand in front of an enormous steel cylinder that pivots like a door in a 140-ton steel-and-concrete frame. But not even the owners are allowed to view their own gold. According to the Federal Audit Office report, the Fed explained that "in the interest of security and of the control process" no "viewings" are possible.

Finally, in 2007, "following numerous enquiries," Bundesbank staff members were allowed to see the facility, but they reportedly only made it to the anteroom of the German reserves.

In fact, auditors from the Bundesbank made a second visit in May 2011. This time one of the nine compartments was also opened, in which the German gold bars are densely stacked. A few were pulled out and weighed. But this part of the report has been blacked out -- out of consideration for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

"I would like more transparency on the issue," says Bundesbank board member Thiele. The Americans are very sensitive, though, when it comes to security procedures in their gold storage facilities. In their second major depository, the legendary Fort Knox, practically no one in recent decades has been allowed to view the gold reserves.

Fuelling Legends

Such intense secrecy fuels legends. Many conspiracy theorists have suspected for decades that the German gold has long since disappeared. Others believe that it has been lent out. They contend that there are only promissory notes of little worth stored in the bank's vaults.

Another myth that has been making the rounds in nationalist-oriented German circles is that the US refused to hand over the treasure and threatened during the Cold War to withdraw its troops from Germany if the Germans demanded their gold back. Former Bundesbank head Karl Blessing, according to the theory, had to provide the US written confirmation that he would never do such a thing.

This letter, as it happens, actually exists, as Blessing confirmed in his last interview with SPIEGEL in 1971 -- except it doesn't concern the German gold, but rather US gold reserves. Until 1971, every dollar could be exchanged for the precious metal. Blessing thus promised the US Federal Reserve that he would no longer convert the colossal German dollar reserves to gold because this would have caused the currency's value to plummet.

Today, this historic document is even available online. But that hasn't silenced those who oppose stockpiling German gold abroad. Instead, the debate over a collapse of strictly paper-based currency is experiencing a renaissance -- as is the dispute over the gold reserves. Even Green Party financial expert Gerhard Schick has joined the fray: "I think the question of how much gold is available in an emergency is a valid concern."

Outlandish Idea

From a purely logistical perspective, though, returning the reserves seems outlandish. One cannot simply pack 1,500 tons of gold into an Airbus A380 super-jumbo jet and fly it back to Germany.

The Bundesbank also objects to this notion for another reason. It says the gold is supposed to act as an emergency buffer. In the extreme situation of a currency collapse, the bankers say that the gold bars could easily and quickly be exchanged on location for pounds or dollars to pay urgent bills.

In a bid to calm the debate, the Bundesbank has pledged to bring back and inspect 150 tons of gold from abroad over the next three years. Furthermore, there are plans to count and weigh the gold bars stored in one of the nine chambers at the Fed in New York -- although no date has been set for this.
Bundesbank board member Thiele was also recently in New York where he took a look behind one of the vault doors. He had good news for the members of the parliamentary budget committee: "There was no paper in there, just gold."

But that's not enough for CSU politician Gauweiler. He's only prepared to put the matter to rest when the central bank has thoroughly inspected all the German reserves throughout the entire world. His credo: "The Bundesbank is independent, but it can't do what it wants."

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen

[Sabrina]

Here's some good news!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20172516

1 Nov Greece

Greek bank list editor Costas Vaxevanis acquited


Greek journalist Costas Vaxevanis has been acquitted of breach of privacy after publishing the names of 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.

He had been accused of breaking private data rules and faced up to two years in prison if convicted.

But Judge Malia Volika said the court in Athens "has ruled that you are innocent".

Mr Vaxevanis, 46, published the list in Hot Doc, the weekly magazine that he edits.

He had said that those who should be in prison were the politicians who had covered up potential tax evasion.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the swift ruling will be an embarrassment to the Greek government.

Earlier, Mr Vaxevanis's lawyers had begun his defence by arguing that not a single person on the list had actually complained of privacy violation.

[Sabrina]

This US sexual abuse scandal with former football coach has parallels with the UK Saville abuse case. But pillars of the so called establishment have been sent to trial in the US, so let's hope the same thing will happen in the UK as the Saville case unfolds. And the extent of the establishment collusion in all of this is starting to get hinted at in main stream media in some areas. Icke was the lone voice for years!


http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/01/justice/penn-state-scandal/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

1 Nov US

Ex-Penn State officials accused of 'conspiracy of silence'

CNN) -- Three former Penn State University officials -- including ex-President Graham Spanier -- have been charged with conspiring to cover up years of sexual abuse against children by former football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Spanier, along with former Athletic Director Tim Curley and ex-Vice President Gary Schultz, each face the same eight counts related to the Sandusky scandal, including perjury, conspiracy and endangering the welfare of children, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly announced Thursday.

Curley and Schultz are scheduled for a preliminary arraignment at Magisterial District Judge William C. Wenner's office at 2 p.m. on Friday, and Spanier's preliminary arraignment is slated for next Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the same judge's office, according to a Pennsylvania courts spokesman Jim Koval. Each of the three men is expected to attend his arraignment, said Koval.

This is the first time Spanier has been charged in the wake of the scandal, which started unfolding publicly a year ago. Curley and Schultz previously had been charged with perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse.

The three men "essentially turned a blind eye to serial predatory acts" by Sandusky, Kelly told a news conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Jerry Sandusky proclaims his innocence in jailhouse audio recording

"This was not a mistake by these men. It was not an oversight. It was not misjudgment on their part. This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials working to actively conceal the truth, with total disregard for the children who were Sandusky's victims in this case," she said.

Spanier's attorneys said "there is no factual basis to support these charges" and accused Kelly of acting as a pawn for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, who they said "has made no secret of his personal hostility toward Dr. Spanier."

"These charges are the work of a vindictive and politically motivated governor working through an unelected attorney general, Linda Kelly, whom he appointed to do his bidding and who will be a lame duck five days from now," according to a statement from the attorneys.
They also accused Kelly and her staff of "steadfastly" refusing to meet with Spanier or his legal representatives "despite repeated attempts to do so."

Gov. Corbett's spokesman Kevin Harley responded, "Graham Spanier's statement is the ranting of a man who has just been indicted for covering up for a convicted pedophile. His arrogance reveals a man who has just found out that he is not above the law after all."
As a result of the charges, Penn State said Spanier -- who was removed as president in November 2011 -- will be placed on immediate leave. He had continued to serve as a tenured professor, although he was on a sabbatical.

Attorneys blast Freeh report as Spanier speaks out

Penn State said it recently informed Curley that his fixed-term contract will not be renewed when it expires in June. Schultz had retired after he was initially charged last year.

The university refused to comment on the charges "out of respect for the legal process."
Curley's attorney Caroline Roberto said prosecutors didn't give her team any advance notice of the new charges.

"To be clear, Tim Curley is innocent of all charges," Roberto said in a statement. "We are carefully reviewing the presentment and will reserve a more comprehensive comment for a later time."

Roberto filed a pre-trial motion Wednesday, asking to dismiss or suppress Curley's grand jury testimony. The motion alleges a conflict of interest because the woman Curley believed was representing him at the time, was actually representing Penn State University.

CNN has reached out to Schultz's attorney Thomas Farrell, who previously said Schultz is innocent of the initial charges and he would fight to clear Schultz's name.

Sandusky, 68, was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sex abuse, ranging from corruption of minors to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, which were laid out in graphic testimony by his accusers over the course of the less-than-two-week trial. Last month, he was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, meaning he'll likely die behind bars.

Speaking Thursday, Kelly cited as evidence a series of e-mails among Spanier, Schultz, and Curley from February 2001, referring, somewhat in code, to the infamous incident in which assistant coach Mike McQueary walked in on Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in a university shower room.

CNN first reported in June about the allegedly incriminating e-mails.
Ousted Penn State president says he was abused as a child
In July, in a 267-page report commissioned by the university, former FBI Director Louis Freeh blamed the three men and legendary former head football coach Joe Paterno for having "never demonstrated ... any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest," while the board of trustees failed to perform its oversight duties.
Paterno died on January 22.

"I'm not going to speculate or comment on Mr. Paterno's relationship to this investigation," Kelly said Thursday. "He's deceased, and that's the end of it."
In an August interview published in the New Yorker magazine, Spanier ripped the Freeh report.

"It's unfair, it's deeply flawed, it has many errors and omissions," the former university president told Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and CNN senior legal analyst. "They interviewed, they say, over 430 people; many of those folks have spoken to me about their interviews. Many of them describe those interviews to me as a witch hunt."

Curley and Schultz are scheduled for a January trial on the initial two charges. Kelly said she thinks now that Spanier has been charged, the three men should face a joint trial, because of the intertwined nature of the charges.

In July, the National Collegiate Athletic Association vacated Penn State's football wins dating back to 1998, the year when allegations that Sandusky was abusing children were first made. That penalty removed Paterno from the top of the list of Division I college football's winningest coaches.

Sandusky, Paterno's top defensive assistant for more than two decades, has been placed in protective custody at the State Correctional Institution at Greene in Waynesburg, where he'll serve out his sentence for sexually abusing boys.

Penn State review recasts story of football hero Paterno
"Given the high-profile nature of this individual, coupled with the nature of his crimes, this makes him very vulnerable in a prison setting," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said.
He was transferred to the state prison Wednesday from the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill, where he was physically and mentally evaluated.

In the 1,800-inmate prison in Waynesburg, the former coach is being held in a single cell and has additional supervision and an escort when he's out of his cell for the three showers and five hours of exercise he is allotted weekly.

All meals and any counseling or medical visits will take place in Sandusky's cell, according to a statement from the state's Department of Corrections.

All visits will be "noncontact," the statement said. Sandusky will be allowed to have a television, radio and other personal property as authorized by prison officials.

Jurors determined that Sandusky, who retired from Penn State in 1999, used his access to university facilities and his foundation for underprivileged youths to abuse the boys sexually. During the trial, a 23-year-old man identified as Victim No. 4 testified that he was 13 when Sandusky sexually abused him in a university shower.

Sandusky is appealing his conviction.

[Sabrina]

Seem to be a lot of 'apparent' suicides about.


http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/01/us/secret-service-agent-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

2 Nov US

Source: Secret Service agent dead of apparent suicide


Washington (CNN) -- A Secret Service agent suspected of having a romantic relationship with a Mexican woman is dead of an apparent suicide, a law enforcement official told CNN Thursday.

The source said Rafael Prieto, 48, was assigned to President Obama's protective detail.
The Secret Service confirmed Thursday that Prieto's death last Saturday is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, along with the medical examiner's office. No official determination of death has been made.

Prieto's access to Secret Service facilities had been suspended while authorities were looking into his apparently unreported and long-term relationship with a foreign national, the law enforcement official said.

"There is nothing to indicate that any classified or sensitive information was compromised as a result of this relationship," according to the source.

The official said Prieto was involved in an "administrative process" about his connection with the woman but that he was not under investigation by the Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility.

Prieto could have been in violation of Secret Service protocols if he had not informed superiors about a personal relationship with a foreign national. Such relationships came under a spotlight after agents sent to Cartagena, Colombia, in advance of President Obama's trip earlier this year spent time partying with prostitutes.

"Rafael Prieto had a distinguished 20-year career with the Secret Service that was marked by accomplishment, dedication, and friendships," said Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan. "The Secret Service is mourning the loss of a valued colleague."


I'm not sure if he was part of all of this:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/19/us/secret-service-prostitution-scandal/?iref=obinsite

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9649620/Banking-industry-PPI-bill-tops-11bn.html

1 Nov UK

Banking industry PPI bill tops £11bn

Britain's taxpayer-backed lenders are set to pay out at least £7bn to customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance - with the total bill for the banking industry topping £11bn.

Lloyds Banking Group said on Thursday that PPI compensation costs would hit £5.3bn as it set aside a further £1bn against claims, while Royal Bank of Scotland is expected on Friday to confirm that its total bill is likely to be increased by £400m to reach £1.7bn.

The provisions by the two state-backed lenders follow Barclays’ confirmation this week that it expected the PPI redress claims to total £2bn after it made a new compensation provision of £700m, on top of the £1.3bn it had already accounted for.

Consumer experts at Which? estimated PPI is now on course to become the biggest mis-selling scandal in British financial history and said it expected the compensation bill to reach at least £12.3bn, exceeding by £500m the £11.8bn cost of pensions mis-selling.

Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, said banks had been in “denial” about the scale of PPI mis-selling and called on lenders to be more open about how they were dealing with the scandal.

“The banks must now come clean about how many more complaints they’re expecting, publish monthly updates on the amounts that have been paid back, and claw back bonuses from executive,” he said.

Lloyds admitted on Thursday that it would not know the final cost of PPI mis-selling until next year, as the bank reported a £144m pre-tax loss for the third quarter.

However, Lloyds complained that many of the requests for compensation it was receiving from claims management companies were turning out to be “bogus” and called on the authorities to charge the firms for the cost of dealing with spurious claims.

Last year, Lloyds opened the floodgates to PPI claims after saying it would pay compensation to any customer sold the product as it shocked the market with £3.2bn provision against the claims.

At the time, City analysts had estimated the worst case cost of PPI mis-selling claims at no more than £4bn. However, since then millions of Britons have requested compensation from their bank.

The escalating cost of PPI comes as executives brace themselves for a slew of costs related to other scandals. Some industry observers are warning that the mis-selling of interest rate swaps by banks to their small business customers could come to rival and possibly exceed the cost of PPI.

So far, three of Britain’s major banks have set aside more than £600m to cover the cost of swap mis-selling claims. Barclays has made the biggest provision of £450m, while HSBC has put aside about £130m, and RBS £50m.

However, last week the Financial Ombudsman Service said it had found in favour of two small businesses mis-sold interest rate swaps, recommending they each receive redress in excess of £100,000.

Meanwhile, the G20's regulatory taskforce has warned that banks will have to hold more capital after fines, trading losses, rate-rigging and money laundering has revealed that risks are not being adequately covered. The Financial Stability Board said in a report that recent high-profile “events and failures” made a complete rethink on capital rules essential.

[Sabrina]

A lot on the UK Savile abuse scandal which the msm can't or won't touch yet here:

http://www.aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/

[Sabrina]

http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/10/hsbc-caught-in-new-drug-money-laundering-scandal/

HSBC Caught in New Drug Money Laundering Scandal
by Tom Burghardt / October 31st, 2012

While HSBC’s Canary Wharf masters are back-peddling furiously over charges that they gave a leg up to terrorist financiers and drug traffickers as a recent U.S. Senate report charged, new evidence emerged that its business as usual for the multinational banking giant founded by Hong Kong-based British opium merchants.

Earlier this month, The Independent reported that French police had “intercepted one of the dozens of ‘go-fast’ cars which transport cannabis at high speed from Spain to Paris. The seizure–banal in itself–unravelled an extraordinary network of drug-trafficking, money-laundering, fraud and tax evasion which sprawled over the invisible barrier which separates Paris from the city’s poor, multiracial suburbs.”

The bank embroiled in this latest scandal? Why HSBC, of course!

According to reporter John Lichfield, “bank notes handed by clients to street drug dealers in the suburbs were ending up, French and Swiss investigators discovered, in the safes of seemingly law-abiding, well-heeled citizens in the French capital.”

But that’s not the only place where crisp bundles of cash were turning up.

“A trio of Moroccan brothers, including a prominent fund manager in Geneva, are alleged to have concocted an elaborate scheme to launder money by balancing two illegal flows of cash,” The Independent averred.

At the center of this multimillion euro money laundering spider’s web were: Meyer El-Maleh, the managing director of the fund management firm GPF SA, and brothers Mardoché El-Maleh, the alleged bagman of the cannabis-for-cash scheme and Nessim El-Maleh, a fund management specialist with the Swiss private banking arm of HSBC, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) S.A.

The Independent reported that the trio “are suspected of handling up to €12m (£9.6m) in cash in the past seven months (and far more over the past four years). Assets seized by the police include €2m in cash, gold ingots, art treasures and guns.”

“The HSBC bank has confirmed that its employee was involved in the affair,” Swiss Info disclosed, “but says that it has been ‘cooperating actively with the authorities about this over the past few months’. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps reports that GPF SA is about to dismiss the other brother.”

Talk about closing the barn door after the horses have escaped!

Among the well-heeled perps arrested by authorities on charges of “conspiracy to launder money and association with criminals” was Florence Lamblin, a prominent Green Party politician and deputy mayor of the 13th arrondissement in Paris.

Her arrest was all the more ironic considering that fake “left” Greens are currently in coalition with François Hollande’s pro-austerity “Socialist” government. Lamblin and her coalition partners had run on a platform demanding tougher action against (wait for it) international money laundering!

When Lamblin’s home was raided “police discovered €400,000 (SFr484,000) in low-value notes” in safes belonging to the “progressive” politician, Swiss Info averred.

In the wake of her arrest, Lamblin was forced to resign although she denied “any involvement” in the drug smuggling scheme.

Her lawyer, Jérôme Boursican told AFP “she had held 350,000 euros from a family legacy in a Swiss account.”

“If anything, my client may be guilty of tax fraud, over the transfer back to France of a sum of €350,000 from a family inheritance which was placed in a Swiss bank account in 1920,” Boursican explained.

The attorney told France 24 that he would ask a judge “to dismiss the case against his client ‘as soon as possible’ and blamed her involvement on a ‘judicial error’.”

The “error” of getting caught perhaps?

Despite Lamblin’s professed innocence, Swiss Info reported that “the sums involved are huge.” French police have charged that “the sum involved in the money laundering is about €40 million, while French Interior Minister Manuel Valls says that the drug smuggling must have brought in about €100 million.”

As preliminary reports suggest it appears that Lamblin was keen on keeping more than the environment “green.”

A typical money laundering “placement” scheme, “cannabis profits leaving France were ‘swapped’ for assets hidden in Switzerland which tax cheats or business fraudsters wished to repatriate,” The Independent reported.

“The risky job of smuggling drug-trafficking proceeds over the Franco-Swiss border was avoided,” Lichfield wrote. “Instead, the drugs cash was handed over in plastic bags to Parisians who had hidden Swiss accounts.”

“The same sums were debited from their banks in Geneva and sent on a complex route through shell companies in London and offshore tax havens to purchase assets for the drug barons in Morocco, Dubai or Spain. A commission was allegedly paid on both transactions,” The Independent averred.

Referred to as “layering,” the transfer of funds took place through a series of opaque financial transactions that camouflaged their illegal origins. In the case of our well-heeled Parisians, drug profits were swapped through bank-to-bank and bulk cash transfers via private banks in Geneva, one of which was owned by HSBC.

As Senate investigators disclosed, “Bulk cash shipments typically use common carriers … to ship U.S. dollars by air, land, or sea. Shipments have gone via airplanes, armored trucks, ships, and railroads.”

“Shippers,” Senate staff averred, “may be ‘currency originators,’ such as businesses that generate cash from sales of goods or services; or ‘intermediaries’ that gather currency from originators or other intermediaries to form large shipments. Intermediaries are typically central banks, commercial banks, money service businesses, or their agents.”

Eschewing armored cars, airplanes or ships, the “originators” of these illegal cash flows preferred ubiquitous black plastic trash bags and “go-fast” limousines as the method of choice for bulk cash transfers. It would certainly cut down on shipping costs as the loot moved “offshore” and entered the shadow world of private banking!

As financial researcher James S. Henry pointed out in The Price of Offshore Revisited: “The term ‘offshore’ refers not so much to the actual physical location of private assets or liabilities, but to nominal, hyper-portable, multi-jurisdictional, often quite temporary locations of networks of legal and quasi-legal entities and arrangements that manage and control private wealth–always in the interests of those who manage it, supposedly in the interests of its beneficial owners, and often in indifference or outright defiance of the interests and laws of multiple nation states.”

“A painting or a bank account may be located inside Switzerland’s borders,” Henry wrote, “but the all-important legal structure that owns it–typically that asset would be owned by an anonymous offshore company in one jurisdiction, which is in turn owned by a trust in another jurisdiction, whose trustees are in yet another jurisdiction (and that is one of the simplest offshore structures)–is likely to be fragmented in many pieces around the globe.”

Given Switzerland’s strict bank secrecy laws, we do not know, and Senate investigators did not disclose, how many billions of dollars were hidden for HSBC’s private banking clients in Geneva, where it originated or whether or not occult wealth shielded from scrutiny was derived from organized criminal activities.

In July however, when the Senate pointed a finger directly at HSBC over anti-money laundering “lapses,” The Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that “British clients of an HSBC-owned private Swiss bank that is the focus of a major HM Revenue & Customs investigation are alleged to have evaded tax by an amount likely to exceed £200m.”

Lord Stephen Green, Baron of Hurstpierpoint and current Minister of Trade and Investment in David Cameron’s Conservative government, was previously HSBC’s chief executive and the chairman and director of HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) N.A. for ten years.

During Green’s tenure, journalist Nick Mathiason disclosed that “the sums allegedly evaded by Britons using HSBC’s Swiss bank are massive. HMRC told the Bureau ‘the early indications are that the amounts are significant’.”

According to Mathiason, in 2010 the HMRC “received data smuggled out of HSBC by a former bank IT worker, now under arrest in Spain and facing possible extradition to Switzerland, that contained details of 6,000 UK-linked individuals, companies and trusts. Two senior tax investigators who both worked at HMRC told the Bureau the average amount evaded in the 6,000 accounts is likely to range between £33,000 and £50,000.”

While the sums involved in the Parisian money laundering and drugs scandal may be chump change in comparison to the trillions of dollars in illicit drug money that enters the system each year as a result of “normal business relations” between global drug cartels and the international financial system as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed last year, it does demonstrate the utterly corrupt nature of the system as a whole.

Indeed, seeming ideological foes are joined at the hip when it comes to fleecing the working class and imposing austerity and privatization schemes that profit their real constituents–the global class of financial parasites who “win” regardless of which party of hucksters gain power.

As Henry observed, “private elites … had accumulated $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of unrecorded offshore wealth in 2010, conservatively estimated, even while many of their public sectors were borrowing themselves into bankruptcy, enduring agonizing ‘structural adjustment’ and low growth, and holding fire sales of public assets.”

Public sector thefts that enrich the shareholders and officers of corrupt institutions like HSBC.

Although settlement talks between U.S. regulatory agencies and HSBC has forced the bank to set aside at least $700m (£441m) to meet the cost of any fines, it is highly unlikely that officials at the bank will be criminally charged.

Currently negotiating with the Justice Department, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over serious allegations that the bank conducted a multiyear, multibillion dollar business with terrorist financiers and global drug cartels, the price tag may balloon even higher.

“HSBC’s $700 million set-aside, if paid, would constitute the largest U.S. settlement reached over such allegations, topping the $619 million in penalties and forfeitures paid in June by ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services company,” Bloomberg News reported.

According to The New York Times, “federal authorities think HSBC could end up paying at least $1 billion. The bank itself said ‘it is possible that the amounts when finally determined could be higher, possibly significantly higher’.”

A spokesperson for HSBC however, told the Times this “case is not about HSBC complicity in money laundering. Rather, it’s about lax compliance standards that fell short of regulators’ expectations and our expectations, and we are absolutely committed to remedying what went wrong and learning from it’.”

But as Rowan Bosworth-Davies, a former financial crimes specialist with London’s Metropolitan Police observed: “You don’t launder this volume of money by accident, because somewhere along the line, your systems and controls for preventing money laundering just ‘broke down’! You do it because you work in a bank which is willing to flout every rule in the book and engage in layer upon layer of criminal conduct if the money is right! You do it because your management structure is defined by a criminogenic determination to amplify the anomic environment within which you operate and in which you expect your staff to co-operate.”

For their part, Swiss bankers are scrambling to put as much daylight as possible between themselves, the Paris money laundering scandal and HSBC.

Bernard Droux, the chairman of the Geneva Financial Center foundation, an umbrella group of independent banks and wealth managers told Swiss Info: “We were surprised that it should still be possible to do this today. This is a practice that has been forbidden by law for more than 20 years.”

But as with other recent examples of financial skullduggery, Droux reverted to form and claimed “You can never rule out the possibility of black sheep in any profession. No international centre is totally protected from this kind of thing.”

He hastened to add that Switzerland was at the “forefront” of the international fight against drug money.

However, Droux’s “black sheep” brush-off was undercut by a recent Bloomberg Businessweek report. We were informed that “Swiss private banks are looking for footholds in Latin America as the lower fees and higher interest rates offered by local wealth managers deter the region’s super-rich from traveling to Geneva and Zurich.”

This “changing relationship,” Bloomberg reported, began “in the 19th century when Swiss banks guarded the fortunes of plantation owners and mining magnates. UBS AG (UBSN), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and other Swiss banks are being forced to seek acquisitions as Latin America’s $3.5 trillion wealth management market is set to grow by more than half by 2016, according to Boston Consulting Group.”

“‘People are becoming richer and richer,’ said Gustavo Raitzin, head of Latin America for Julius Baer Group Ltd. (BAER). ‘An emerging consumer class wants to make liquid investments and they need private banks and wealth managers’.”

It is worth recalling in this context that Julius Baer’s Cayman Islands division, as the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks revealed, was instrumental in squirreling away “several million dollars” of funds controlled by late Mexican Army General Mario Acosta Chaparro and his wife, Silvia, through a shell company known as Symac Investments.

Acosta, who served time in prison for his ties to the late drug trafficking kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the self-styled “Lord of the Heavens” who ran the Juárez Cartel, was killed in May when an assassin fired three rounds from a a 9mm revolver into his head.

The secret-spilling web site averred: “With the assistance of Julius Baer, Mr Chaparro was able to invest several millions of USD in Symac with all the secrecy which the Caymans allowed and to draw out some $12,000 a month.”

Who else might be in need of “private banks and wealth managers” employed by the likes of HSBC and Julius Baer to make such “liquid investments” possible with no questions asked?

Paging Chapo Guzmán, white courtesy telephone!

Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His articles are published in many venues. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press. Read other articles by Tom, or visit Tom's website.

This article was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 at 8:00am and is filed under Banks/Banking, Capitalism, Corruption, Crime, Drug Wars, France, Switzerland.

[Sabrina]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2226592/Barclays-traders-damned-emails-reveal-bragged-rigging-energy-prices-make-profits.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

1 Nov UK

Barclays traders are damned by their own emails which reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices to make profits

Critics said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the 'rotten culture of casino banking' that built up under Bob Diamond

Bank faces £270million fine for allegedly manipulating energy market in US



Emails and phone messages between foul-mouthed Barclays traders in New York reveal how they bragged about rigging energy prices in America to make huge profits.

Critics yesterday said the expletive-ridden correspondence provides further evidence of the ‘rotten culture of casino banking’ that built up under disgraced former boss Bob Diamond.
The bank faces a £270million fine by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for allegedly manipulating the energy market across Western America between November 2006 and 2008.

Four traders are accused of conspiring to sell electricity at a loss to drive prices down.
This would enable simultaneous bets on falling energy prices to reap huge profits, leading to losses of £86million for other investors and pensions funds.

It is alleged to have taken place at four electricity-trading hubs across the western US – Mid Columbia in Washington State, Palo Verde in Phoenix, Arizona, and South Path 15 and North Path 15 in California.

These hubs are where electricity is channelled, stored and then distributed around the region.
Barclays and other banks trade in complicated financial instruments which bet on electricity price movements at these hubs.

The accused Barclays traders – Daniel Brin, Scott Connelly, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith – face penalties totalling £11million.

Connelly was described as ‘the leader of the manipulative scheme’ and the highest paid. He faces a £9.3million fine.

The bank was also ordered to pay back £22million in profits made from the alleged energy manipulation scam.

But, in arguably a more devastating blow to Barclays, the US regulator published a series of emails and phone messages sent by the bank’s traders.

In a series of messages dated November 3, 2006, Ryan Smith bragged to a colleague that he had managed to manipulate the energy markets.

He said: ‘I totally f****** with the Palo market today,’ adding: ‘I just started lifting the p*** out of the palo.’ Smith continued: ‘was fun. Need to do that more often.’
In a separate exchange on December 7, 2006, he said: ‘I’m going to c*** on the NP light and it should drive the SP light lower.’

Critics said the crude messages reinforced the immoral, profit-crazed image that Barclays has desperately tried to shed since new chief executive Antony Jenkins took over in August.


John Mann, who sits on the Treasury select committee of MPs, said: ‘This just shows how the rotten culture of casino banking that was built up under Bob Diamond went all the way through Barclays. Traders were clearly programmed to do anything to make a profit.’

The emails sent by Barclays’ American traders have echoes of the brash messages sent by their counterparts in London who boasted about rigging key interest rates.

These were published in June when Barclays was fined £290million by UK and US regulators over the scandal. This led to the departure of Diamond and several other top executives. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott said: ‘The American authorities’ allegations of Enron-style rigging of electricity prices shows what a toxic trail Bob Diamond left behind him.’
All four traders accused of rigging the energy markets are thought to have left the bank, although none are understood to have been fired.

Barclays has been given 30 days to appeal and said it intends to do so. It said it ‘strongly disagrees with the allegations’, adding: ‘We believe that our trading was legitimate and above board and intend to vigorously defend this matter.’

Barclays is likely to argue that it did not have big enough positions in the energy market to be able to manipulate prices.

[Sabrina]

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ubs-india-investment-banking-head-112456166.html

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS's head of India investment banking, Ashok Mittal, has resigned, a spokesman for the bank said on Tuesday.

The departure of Mittal, who was named the head of India investment banking at UBS in June of last year, was an isolated incident and there were no other senior-level departures at the India unit at this time, said Mark Panday, Hong Kong-based spokesman for UBS.

Mittal was not immediately available for comment. Prior to joining UBS, he was with Lehman Brothers and had worked as co-head of India investment banking at HSBC.

His resignation follows two high-profile departures from the bank's India unit last year.
UBS's head of India operations, Manisha Girotra, resigned in November of last year. The bank appointed Aashish Kamat, who was its chairman of financial institutions coverage in Asia Pacific, to replace her as chief executive for India.

The Zurich-based bank's India equity capital markets head, Purvesh Shah, also left the bank last year to join British bank Barclays (BARC.L).

UBS unveiled plans on Tuesday to wind down its fixed income business and fire 10,000 bankers as it adapts to tougher capital rules that make it more difficult for investment banks to turn a profit in the wake of the financial crisis.

30 Oct

[Sabrina]

http://the2012scenario.com/2012/11/did-hurricane-sandy-hide-the-shutdown-of-the-fed/#more-151068

Did Hurricane Sandy Hide the Shutdown of the Fed


There are rumors that one of the functions of Hurricane Sandy was to create a cloak behind which the Federal Reserve could be taken down. Here is one news story that demonstrates that there was in fact a disruption in service at the Fed. We’ll be asking Archangel Michael for his view of the matter tomorrow.

Hurricane Sandy disrupts Federal Reserve operations
New York Federal Reserve suspended operations for a day as hurricane battered eastern US; temporary measures taken to support banking in face of disruptions to power, communications and staffing

Central Banking | 31 Oct 2012

http://www.centralbanking.com/central-banking/news/2221493/hurricane-sandy-disrupts-federal-reserve-operations

The Federal Reserve and regional Federal Reserve banks suspended some operations and undertook temporary measures to allow the financial system to continue to function as a hurricane battered the eastern US on October 29 and 30.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in one of the worst affected areas, was open on October 29, but suspended open market operations the following day. The settlement of transactions that took place on Monday was postponed until today (October 31), and purchases of Treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities scheduled for October 30 were cancelled.

Hurricane Sandy was a tropical storm that originated in the Caribbean and moved up the eastern US, striking New York and the surrounding area late on October 29. Parts of the US were left without power and New York experienced major flooding. Scores of people were killed.

The Federal Reserve issued a joint statement on October 30 with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation setting out contingency measures for financial institutions affected by the hurricane. The Fed called on banks to “work constructively” with borrowers affected by the hurricane. “The agencies recognise that efforts to work with borrowers in communities under stress can be consistent with safe-and-sound banking practices,” the statement said.

Supervisory reporting requirements disrupted by the hurricane were adjusted so as to not impose unfair penalties. Federal regulators agreed to “expedite” any request to set up temporary banking facilities in affected areas as “banks face power, telecommunications, staffing and other challenges in re-opening facilities after the hurricane”.

Other Federal Reserve banks were also affected. Cash operations at the Philadelphia Fed and the Baltimore branch of the Richmond Fed were suspended, and the Boston Fed opened with only essential staff on October 30. Normal cash operations resumed today.

[Sabrina]

http://www.aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/


and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9653254/Senior-Tories-accused-over-child-abuse.html

UK 5 Nov

Senior Tories accused over child abuse

The inquiry, established to examine allegations of abuse, heard claims that a paedophile ring operating from children’s homes included policemen, social workers and other prominent public figures.

Their identities were protected by an order from Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, the retired High Court judge in charge of the 1997 North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal of Inquiry, after he dismissed the claims they had taken part in abuse as “fantasy”.
But there are now calls for the allegations to be re-examined in the light of the Jimmy Savile scandal, which has engulfed the BBC and parts of the NHS, with claims that his predatory abuse of young teenage girls over three decades was covered up at a time when victims were less likely to be taken seriously.

On Saturday night the calls were backed by Keith Towler, the children's commissioner for Wales, who told BBC Radio 5's Saturday Edition programme: "I would support a full inquiry. Unless you do that, the level of suspicion will always be around that there is a cover-up... No-one should be protected.”


One of the alleged victims of the north Wales abuse ring has now asked for a meeting with David Cameron to discuss his accusations, in the light of the Prime Minister’s statement, following the Savile revelations, that victims of abuse must be heard.

Two senior Conservative figures were named during an official inquiry into widespread child abuse at children’s homes.

more at link

very high profile names involved i imagine.... Sab.

[Sabrina]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9654631/HSBC-to-face-1bn-fines-over-money-laundering.html


HSBC to face £1bn fines over money-laundering

HSBC is set to face a final bill for fines as high as $1.5bn (£937m) for the “shameful and embarrassing” US money-laundering scandal that has engulfed Britain’s biggest bank.

The lender is tomorrow expected to spell out the full financial damage caused by the crisis, which erupted earlier this year. The bank stands accused of leaving America’s financial system exposed to Mexican drug cartels and rogue nations such as Iran and Sudan, by failing to enforce US anti money- laundering laws.

HSBC said at its half-year results in the summer that it had set aside $700m to cover the cost of the scandal. The bank said at the time that the huge sum was only its “best estimate” for the fines and penalties it would face from US authorities. But Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s chief executive, admitted the actual total could be higher.

The final bill is now expected to have more than doubled to $1.5bn, forcing the bank to make a further provision of up to $800m in its third quarter results tomorrow, according to Sky News.
HSBC is understood to have held talks with US authorities over the past few months to settle the claims, which came to light following a year-long investigation by a powerful US senate committee.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security in July branded HSBC as having been “pervasively polluted for a long time” by allowing funds to be moved to and from its US branches to countries including Mexico, Syria, the Cayman Islands, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
more at link

[KiwiElf]

S&P loses landmark Australian derivatives case
AFP November 5, 2012, 1:54 pm

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/15298447/s-p-loses-landmark-australian-derivatives-case/

SYDNEY, Nov 5, 2012 (AFP) - Standard & Poor's lost a landmark case in Australia Monday over top-flight ratings given to financial products that collapsed in the build-up to the 2008 global economic crisis.

The Federal Court of Australia ruled that S&P's AAA rating of constant proportion debt obligation notes created by banking giant ABN AMRO and sold to the councils of 13 Australian towns, had been "misleading and deceptive".

It is the first time a ratings agency has faced trial over synthetic derivatives and the case could set an important precedent for future litigation.

Within months of the councils buying the CPDOs from Australian firm Local Government Financial Services (LGFS) in late 2006, assured they had a less than one percent chance of failing, the notes defaulted.

The councils lost Aus$16 million (US$16.5 million) on the so-called "Rembrandt notes", more than 90 percent of the capital invested.

Judge Jayne Jagot said S&P's assessment of the products as "extremely strong" had been central to the loss.

"S&P's rating of AAA of the Rembrandt 2006-2 and 2006-3 CPDO notes was misleading and deceptive and involved the publication of information or statements false in material particulars, and otherwise involved negligent misrepresentations to the class of potential investors in Australia," Jagot said.

Jagot said S&P had claimed to have reached its opinion "based on reasonable grounds and as the result of an exercise of reasonable care when neither was true and S&P also knew not to be true at the time made".

The judge ruled that ABN AMRO had also been "knowingly concerned in S&P's contraventions of the various statutory provisions proscribing such misleading and deceptive conduct" and had engaged in such conduct itself.

She made a similar ruling on LGFS and rejected the financial agencies' arguments that the councils should bear a part of the blame due to to their "contributory negligence".

Jagot ordered S&P, ABN AMRO and LGFS to each pay one-third of the small mostly mining and farming councils' losses plus interest.

The sale of risky investments such as mortgage-backed securities contributed to the worldwide financial meltdown in late 2008.

[KiwiElf]

$43 Trillion lawsuit file in NY court against bankers and government officials
Friday, October 26, 2012 13:04

http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2012/10/web-bot-alert-43-trillion-lawsuit-file-in-ny-court-against-bankers-and-government-officials-2465376.html

Posted on a separate thread here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?51660-43-TRILLION-suit-against-U.S.-govt.-and-major-banks

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Spire Law Group, LLP’s national home owners’ lawsuit, pending in the venue where the “Banksters” control their $43 trillion racketeering scheme (New York) – known as the largest money laundering and racketeering lawsuit in United States History and identifying $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) of laundered money by the “Banksters” and their U.S. racketeering partners and joint venturers – now pinpoints the identities of the key racketeering partners of the “Banksters” located in the highest offices of government and acting for their own self-interests.

In connection with the federal lawsuit now impending in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York (Case No. 12-cv-04269-JBW-RML) – involving, among other things, a request that the District Court enjoin all mortgage foreclosures by the Banksters nationwide, unless and until the entire $43 trillion is repaid to a court-appointed receiver – Plaintiffs now establish the location of the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) of laundered money in a racketeering enterprise participated in by the following individuals (without limitation):

Attorney General Holder acting in his individual capacity,
Assistant Attorney General Tony West, the brother in law of Defendant California Attorney General Kamala Harris (both acting in their individual capacities),
Jon Corzine (former New Jersey Governor),
Robert Rubin (former Treasury Secretary and Bankster),
Timothy Geitner, Treasury Secretary (acting in his individual capacity),
Vikram Pandit (recently resigned and disgraced Chairman of the Board of Citigroup),
Valerie Jarrett (a Senior White House Advisor),
Anita Dunn (a former “communications director” for the Obama Administration),
Robert Bauer (husband of Anita Dunn and Chief Legal Counsel for the Obama Re-election Campaign),
... as well as the “Banksters” themselves, and their affiliates and conduits.

The lawsuit alleges serial violations of the United States Patriot Act, the Policy of Embargo Against Iran and Countries Hostile to the Foreign Policy of the United States, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly known as the RICO statute) and other State and Federal laws.

In the District Court lawsuit, Spire Law Group, LLP — on behalf of home owner across the Country and New York taxpayers, as well as under other taxpayer recompense laws — has expanded its mass tort action into federal court in Brooklyn, New York, seeking to halt all foreclosures nationwide pending the return of the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000.00) by the “Banksters” and their co-conspirators, seeking an audit of the Fed and audits of all the “bailout programs” by an independent receiver such as Neil Barofsky, former Inspector General of the TARP program who has stated that none of the TARP money and other “bailout money” advanced from the Treasury has ever been repaid despite protestations to the contrary by the Defendants as well as similar protestations by President Obama and the Obama Administration both publicly on national television and more privately to the United States Congress. Because the Obama Administration has failed to pursue any of the “Banksters” criminally, and indeed is actively borrowing monies for Mr. Obama’s campaign from these same “Banksters” to finance its political aspirations, the national group of plaintiff home owners has been forced to now expand its lawsuit to include racketeering, money laundering and intentional violations of the Iranian Nations Sanctions and Embargo Act by the national banks included among the “Bankster” Defendants.

The complaint – which has now been fully served on thousands of the “Banksters and their Co-Conspirators” – makes it irrefutable that the epicenter of this laundering and racketeering enterprise has been and continues to be Wall Street and continues to involve the very “Banksters” located there who have repeatedly asked in the past to be “bailed out” and to be “bailed out” in the future.

The Havens for the money laundering schemes – and certain of the names and places of these entities – are located in such venues as Switzerland, the Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Cypress and entities controlled by governments adverse to the interests of the United States Sanctions and Embargo Act against Iran, and are also identified in both the United Nations and the U.S. Senate’s recent reports on international money laundering. Many of these entities have already been personally served with summons and process of the complaint during the last six months. It is now beyond dispute that, while the Obama Administration was publicly encouraging loan modifications for home owners by “Banksters”, it was privately ratifying the formation of these shell companies in violation of the United States Patriot Act, and State and Federal law. The case further alleges that through these obscure foreign companies, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, Citigroup, One West Bank, and numerous other federally chartered banks stole trillions of dollars of home owners’ and taxpayers’ money during the last decade and then laundered it through offshore companies.

This District Court Complaint – maintained by Spire Law Group, LLP — is the only lawsuit in the world listing as Defendants the Banksters, let alone serving all of such Banksters with legal process and therefore forcing them to finally answer the charges in court. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission, nor the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, nor the Office of the Attorney General, nor any State Attorney General has sued the Banksters and thereby legally chased them worldwide to recover-back the $43 trillion ($43,000,000,000,000.00) and other lawful damages, injunctive relief and other legal remedies.

James N. Fiedler, Managing Partner of Spire Law Group, LLP, stated: “It is hard for me to believe as a 47-year lawyer that our nation’s guardians have been unwilling to stop this theft. Spire Law Group, LLP stands for the elimination of corruption and implementation of lawful strategies, and that is what we’re doing here. Spire Law Group, LLP’s charter is to not allow such corruption to go unanswered.”

Comments were requested from the Attorney Generals’ offices in NY, CA, NV, NH , OH, MA and the White House, but no comment was provided.

About Spire Law Group

Spire Law Group, LLP is a national law firm whose motto is “the public should be protected — at all costs — from corruption in whatever form it presents itself.” The Firm is comprised of lawyers nationally with more than 250-years of experience in a span of matters ranging from representing large corporations and wealthy individuals, to also representing the masses. The Firm is at the front lines litigating against government officials, banks, defunct loan pools, and now the very offshore entities where the corruption was enabled and perpetrated.

Contact: James N. Fiedler877-438-8766 spire-law.com

SOURCE Spire Law Group, LLP marketwatch.com/story/major-banks-governmental-officials-and-their-comrade-capitalists-targets-of-spire-law-group-llps-racketeering-and-money-laundering-lawsuit-seeking-return-of-43-trillion-to-the-united-states-treasury-2012-10-25

2012-10-26 10:37:05

Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2012/10/web-bot-alert-43-trillion-lawsuit-file.html

[Rocky_Shorz]

just saw this roll across twitter...


Romanian prosecutors detain 33 bankers and officials in $28.5 million suspected banking fraud link to story (http://fb.me/1GOktwVxN)

[Robert J. Niewiadomski]

Source: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/forcible-sodomy/
Secrecy Lifts on General Charged With Sex Abuse
By Spencer Ackerman November 5, 2012 | 12:59 pm | Categories: Army and Marines

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2012/11/490356.jpg
Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, left, currently facing a court-martial for charges including “forced sodomy,” meets with Afghan leaders at Kandahar Air Field, November 2011. Photo: DVIDS

Here’s what the deputy commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division allegedly said when subordinates objected to his crass attitude toward women: “I’m a general, I’ll do whatever the [expletive] I want.”

That and other details emerged from the beginning of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair’s court-martial, which kicked off Monday morning at Fort Bragg, for offenses including “forcible sodomy.” The hearing represented a first glimpse into a case that the Pentagon and the Army have gone to surprising lengths to keep quiet — lengths they haven’t gone to in other high-profile cases, including the one against a sergeant charged with much more serious crimes who also begins his court-martial on Monday.

Even if Sinclair gets convicted, the process might inadvertently vindicate his alleged view that generals get special treatment. “This doesn’t just smell bad,” a former Air Force lawyer, Col. Morris Davis, tells Danger Room, “it reeks.”

The first wave of details about Sinclair’s case began to emerge on Monday. Little has been revealed about Sinclair’s case besides the list of charges against him, including “wrongful sexual conduct,” forced sodomy, misusing official funds and more. But at the military version of a grand jury hearing on Monday morning, the Army disclosed that Sinclair’s alleged misconduct involved five women, four of them subordinate Army officers, in locations as varied as Fort Bragg and Afghanistan. The Fayetteville Observer reported from the hearing that Sinclair’s “encounters” with the women occurred “in a parking lot, in his office in Afghanistan with the door open, on an exposed balcony at a hotel and on a plane, where he allegedly groped a woman.” At least one of these encounters, the military contends, was forced.


Before Monday, the military had said little else about Sinclair’s court-martial. It didn’t disclose a so-called charge sheet summarizing the evidence against him. Until Monday, it didn’t reveal even whom his defense counsel was (a lieutenant colonel named Jackie Thompson). And the Pentagon rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from the Associated Press for such basic information, on the grounds that disclosure constituted an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” and could jeopardize the integrity of Sinclair’s court-martial. (Thompson argued Monday that the prosecution has done just that on its own, by reading confidential attorney-client emails, and is seeking a new prosecutorial team.)

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales — whose own court martial starts on Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state – got no such protective treatment. But he’s accused of being more than a scumbag with overeager hands. Bales allegedly is a war criminal, committing one of the most heinous acts of the 11-year conflict in Afghanistan. Bales supposedly massacred 17 people in Afghanistan, including nine children. While the Pentagon hardly rushed to disclose anything about his grisly case, it did confirm important details, such as where in Afghanistan the assault took place and the presence of a spy blimp that recorded Bales turning himself in to base forces in southern Afghanistan.

Davis, a former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, says the military has been similarly open in several of its top criminal cases. The Army released charge sheets and identified the investigating officers when it charged Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with the Fort Hood shootings in 2009 and Pfc. Bradley Manning in the WikiLeaks disclosures. That stands in contrast to the treatment being received by Brig. Gen. Sinclair. “Clearly those cases are much more high-visibility and high-stakes than the Sinclair case,” Davis says.

The military also aired accusations in a rape case against a basic-training instructor, Staff. Sgt. Luis Walker, Davis notes: ”The Walker court-martial is a similar type of case to Brigadier General Sinclair — a superior alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct with subordinates … and from a legal and common sense perspective you’d think the two would be subject to similar rules and similar treatment.”

Protecting general officers seems to be a recurring theme for the Army. It still employs a general, William “Kip” Ward, whom an inquiry found to have misused official funds, although it can’t explain what Ward does for his salary and benefits. Few officers get fired for battlefield errors, prompting author Tom Ricks to declare that American generalship resembles tenured professorship, where officers are insulated for all mistakes except embarrassing the institution. If Sinclair actually said that the stars on his shoulder allowed him to do “whatever the [expletive] I want,” that might help explain his attitude.


Are we witnessing some kind of clean up starting to happen in various places at once?

[KiwiElf]

I hope so Robert! Long overdue I'd say ;)