FEMA Staff who posed as reporters are .... PROMOTED

Al Kamen, on the Washington Post, reports on the promotions of Cindy Taylor and Mike Widomski -- "both of them, posing as reporters, asked questions of acting Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson. After our item, and an investigation of what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called "one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," we're happy to announce that Taylor and Widomski appear to have been disciplined, FEMA-style.

They've received the promotions they were in line to get. "

Leahy rejects executive privilege in attorney firings

Laurie Kellman, from the Associated Press, on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

"Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy directed Bolten, Rove, former White House political director Sara Taylor and her deputy, J. Scott Jennings, to comply 'immediately' with their subpoenas for documents and information about the White House's role in the firings of U.S. attorneys, including John McKay of Seattle.

..."'The president's lack of involvement in these firings -- by his own account and that of many others -- calls into question any claim of executive privilege,' Leahy wrote.

...It was not clear, however, that Leahy's ruling Thursday would amount to more than a threat before Congress adjourns next month for the holidays."

Card sells out Rove on Iraq

Karl Rove asserted on the Charlie Rose show recently that it was Congress that pushed the Bush administration into war with Iraq. “The administration was opposed” to voting for a war resolution in the fall of 2002, Rove claimed. “It seemed it make things move too fast,” he argued.

... SCARBOROUGH: We have to start with something that we all are talking about a couple of days ago where Karl Rove went on Charlie Rose and he blamed the Democrats for pushing him and the president into war. Is that how it worked?

CARD: No, that’s not the way it worked.

...SCARBOROUGH: Is that just Karl spinning beyond the White House? …

CARD: Well, Karl is very smart. He’s — sometimes his brain gets ahead of his mouth. And sometimes his mouth gets ahead of his brain.


Transcript at ThinkProgress

Carbon Credits Scam

Michael Szabo for Reuters on South Africa Independent reports that the World Wildlife Fund stated "One out of five emissions reductions credits sold under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development (CDM) lack environmental integrity".

Europe’s largest dinosaur boneyard unearthed!

The Times describes this one-of-a-kind find!

Saudi Rape Victim Describes Ordeal

The Independent has obtained testimony in which the "Qatif girl" describes her attack, the struggle to get the police to take action and the harrowing court appearances that followed.

Begging to slip the dogs of war for the Balkans ... again

James Kirkup and Alex Spillius have an article on The Telegraph today about David Cameron's appearance in WashDC:

"Mr Cameron fears a diplomatic and military crisis could arise over Kosovo, the province of Serbia which has effectively been a United Nations protectorate since Nato invaded to stop ethnic cleansing by Serb forces in 1999. The ethnic Albanian government of Kosovo is threatening to declare independence from Serbia on Dec 10. Moscow is backing Serbian attempts to block the declaration, while the United States and the European Union are in favour.

" 'Let me make it clear: there could be a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas,' Mr Cameron will say in a speech to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.

" 'That is a direct threat to our national security, and we must therefore take decisive action now to prevent it. We need to reinforce the military presence in the region now, by drawing on some of Nato's dedicated operational reserve, to prevent trouble later.'

"Nato members take it in turns to provide a reserve force to back up the alliance's K-For peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The reserve is currently led by a battalion of Italian troops with a German battalion next in line to deploy.

"But from Jan 1, Britain takes on responsibility for providing the 'lead-ready' battalion for the reserve, putting British troops first in line to deploy."

'NatWest' - more Enron cleanup

James Quinn, on The Telegraph, has two stories today (here and here) on the conviction of the three former bankers - David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew - working at Greenwich NatWest, the investment banking arm of NatWest, now, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), who face 37 months each in jail after pleading guilty to fraud. They pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in return for the rest of the charges being dropped....

"... In a somewhat complex deal, the three men essentially bought shares in an offshore vehicle from NatWest, albeit without its knowledge, and each benefited to the tune of more than $2m.

As part of their plea agreement, the men have agreed to jointly repay the $7.35m owed to RBS, with Messrs Bermingham and Darby making an initial $500,000 payment, while Mr Mulgrew will make a smaller $250,000 payment."

They are also hoping for a transfer to a UK jail, and "the three men were pardoned from spending their time ahead of trial in Federal detention centre by then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, each was fitted with a bulky electronic tag, and ordered not to leave the southern districts of Texas."

Quinn provides a concise run-through of the "Statement of Fact" and an interesting analysis:

"But what is interesting in working through the court-approved 'Statement of Fact' is that while each man was guilty of breaking compliance rules within NatWest, and there were breaches of fiduciary duty aplenty, at no time did the three know that what they were doing would defraud NatWest.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, at no time did any of the three defraud Enron, which was the driving force behind the DoJ's long-standing argument that the case should be heard on American soil in the first place."

********************

Asiavest Investigative Services considered Enron to be kids play in comparison to the daily frauds committed in the world of public companies. "Enron, in our opinion was not even close to the daily occurring criminal manipulation of public companies." {see here}

The Truthseeker website in the UK claims that John O'Neill (former FBI, and security chief at the WTCs on 9-11) had been investigating deals Enron had been making with the Taliban in Afghanistan; the National Enquirer {see also here, another blurb here}, claimed that Enron had at least 20 CIA staff on its payroll. {Note that the National Enquirer's complete photo archive and library collection were destroyed in the first anthrax attack.}

From the catbirdseat blog {not up on the 'net anymore} -- "Lawrence B. Lindsey, Bush's once top economic adviser, was an Enron consultant; Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, served on Enron's advisory council; I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's Chief of Staff, was a major Enron stockholder; Thomas White, Secretary of the Army, was an Enron executive for over 10 years and held millions of dollars in stocks and options when appointed; Karl Rove, chief White House political adviser, owned between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of Enron stock when he met with Ken Lay in the White House to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators; and, until he was named Republican National Chairman, Marc Racicot {former Montana governor, and partner in Bracewell & Patterson} was Enron's Washington lobbyist.

"The legislation reducing government oversight of energy trading was muscled through Congress —— without a Senate committee hearing —— with the aid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over the legislation he co-sponsored, but he chose to bypass his committee, and the bill was quietly tacked onto a "must-pass" appropriations bill late in the session.... As a lame-duck chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Wendy Gramm {Mrs. Phil Gramm} exempted Enron and other energy futures traders from oversight in response to a request by Enron. At the time, Enron was a significant source of political funding for her husband. Five weeks later, she joined the company’’s board and served on the board’s audit committee..."

And, catbirdseat quoted from a Reuters report on CNN, Citigroup {currently being bailed out of their "subprime mortgage-related" financial woes by Abu Dhabi} faced a lawsuit from angry investors and "well-known distressed debt funds Angelo Gordon & Co. and Appaloosa Investment LP, who charged ... that Citigroup concocted a fraudulent scheme to raise billions of dollars from the sale of notes called 'Yosemite' securities. Citigroup, the investors said, then used the funds to make 'disguised' loans to Enron 'to reduce its own Enron credit risk, prop up Enron’s failing financial condition and generate significant fees in the process.' ... Charles Prince {now, the former CEO} said at the time, 'We feel very comfortable in saying that, with our advisers helping us, we have established a reserve that will cover all of our meaningful exposures.' Not only was Citigroup involved in the Enron scandal, but so were other financial giants - JP Morgan Chase, American International Group, AON, ... Canadian Imperial Bank Corp., Credit Suisse First Boston, Dresdner Bank, General Electric Capital, ... Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Wachovia Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

Note also that Qwest was involved in Enron - in 2001, Arthur Andersen approved a $500M swap of fiber optic capacity, which inflated both companies' revenues (with Joe Nacchio {currently, in litigation over "insider trading"} running Qwest at the time).

On November 13, Mary Flood had an article on the Houston Chronicle ("Prosecutors ask court to uphold Skilling conviction") {no longer up, possibly in its archives now} which discussed DOJ's reply to Skilling's appeal; and noted "Lay died six weeks after their four-month trial ended in convictions for both of them. Lay's record was later wiped clean." {Lay was a victim of a "heart attack".}

John Kelly (Pulitzer prize nominated journalist), former federal agent Rodney Stich, and DeepBlackLies (UK), all note the aftermath of CIA-front companies, those "in the know" in the companies, and the journalists investigating the companies: companies are "blown-up", those "in the know" at the companies are assassinated, and investigative journalists are discredited and/or reassigned.

Toronto - Hub of Smuggling Koreans, Pakistanis, Indians and Central Americans

Noor Javed, in the Toronto Star, traces the route of "human smuggling" into the US through Canada, specifically Toronto:

"They picked up their clients from Pearson International Airport and drove them to residences and safe houses in the GTA, where they were fed and housed until they were ready to make their next move. When the time was right, the smugglers drove them to Quebec and the Vermont border, where they crossed the border on foot, headed for waiting cars and, ultimately, U.S. cities on the east coast."

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police report that "the people that we were responsible for arresting have all been arrested, there are no more outstanding warrants."

Islam - Nanny-State, Do-Gooder/Busy-Body Heaven?

Miret el Naggar reveals, in the McClatchy Newspapers today, the extent of the busy-body/do-gooder/nanny-state that Islam enables:

"Unlike the state-sanctioned morality police of conservative theocracies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, Egypt's enforcers are ordinary people who take it upon themselves to offer religious "advice," often to strangers.

Unveiled women are the primary targets, but the enforcers also chastise Muslim men for dating, not observing prayer times or allowing their wives or sisters to wear revealing clothes.
Television preachers, Saudi religious literature and religious instruction in mosques all are encouraging practicing Muslims to offer such advice to others, even if unsolicited.

...To add insult to injury, sheiks who've devoted their lives to studying Islam's intricacies are finding themselves upstaged by religious vigilantes with no formal training."

Operation Condor - Argentine government officials brought to justice

The Buenos Aires Herald notes that 17 former officials -- "Antonio Domingo Bussi, Eduardo Albano Harguindeguy, Cristino Nicolaides, Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, Santiago Omar Riveros, Eduardo Daniel De Lío, Carlos Humberto Caggiano Tedesco, Ramón Genardo Díaz Bessone, Antonio Vañek, Juan Pablo Saá, Carlos Tragant, Bernardo Menéndez, Jorge Carlos Olivera Rovere, Antonio Guañabens Perelló, Carlos Landoni and Ernesto Arturo Alais ... are going to be judged for crimes against humanity committed in the framework of Operation Condor".

George Washington University's National Security Archive has recently additions to their collection on Operation Condor, specifically, Kissinger's green-lighting of the Argentine operations -- "If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better."

Gitmo Detainee Mamdouh Habib's Tale of Terrorist Plot on USMIL bases in OZ

According to Natalie O'Brien, reporting in The Australian (repost on News.com.au), Mamdouh Habib's defamation trial against Nationwide News in the NSW Supreme Court has revealed plans by an Algerian terrorist known as Abu Sheema and his associates Abu Ibrahim and Abu Yusef to launch a strike on a US facility somewhere in Australia, and that there were sleeper agents in Australia waiting.

"Mr Habib was arrested in Pakistan in early October 2001 on suspicion of terrorism offences as he was attempting to make his way back to Australia. He told the court he was regularly beaten, tortured and drugged during three years in detention in Pakistan, Egypt and Guantanamo Bay. Mr Habib was released in January 2005 and returned to Australia without being charged."

Interesting bits -- "{Abu Sheema} had told Mr Habib he had travelled in and out of Britain many times.... The interviews also revealed that Mr Habib had seen David Hicks, who was known as Abu Muslim, in Pakistan before he travelled to Afghanistan...."

Bad Arolsen archive (Nazi) to be opened to the public

The Associated Press, on the Toronto Globe & Mail, notes that the last nation - Greece - (of 11) has "formally filed ratification papers with the German Foreign Ministry, clearing the way for Holocaust survivors and researchers to access some 50 million pages of wartime documents.

"The archive in Bad Arolsen, Germany, is administered by the International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and has been used exclusively to trace missing persons, reunite families and provide documentation to victims of Nazi persecution to support compensation claims.... which includes untapped documents of communications among Nazi officials, camp registrations, transportation lists, slave labour files and death lists that detail the mechanics of the Nazi torment."

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's Rescue of Citigroup

James Harding, the business editor at the Times (UK), has an interesting comment on the ADIA's rescue of Citigroup:

"But the eagerness of Citigroup to secure a capital infusion from Abu Dhabi says even more about the weakness of the American bank. The details of the deal suggest that Citigroup is in trouble. The Gulf is buying convertible bonds, providing a loan that in the next four years turns into just less than a 5 per cent shareholding. The key fact is that Citigroup has agreed to borrow from ADIA at an interest rate of 11 per cent. This is an extraordinarily high rate for a bank such as Citigroup to have to pay. A company borrowing from the junk-bond market would typically pay 9 per cent. A company issuing convertibles would expect to pay a lower interest rate than on a straight bond. Looked at simply, it appears that Citigroup was so desperate for funds that it did not mind the price. Indeed, the cost of the money it is borrowing is higher than the return it could get from lending it."

John Ashcroft - Patriot Act defender

Tillie Fong, on the Rocky Mountain News, has a narrative of John Ashcroft's latest public appearance where he defends the Patriot Act, claims that since 9/11, there is a new "paradigm of peril", and remains ignorant as to the threats posed by the Patriot Act to the Constitution. Perhaps he should have educated himself a bit before making such a fool of himself:

• Concerned Citizens Against the Patriot Act
• Alan Caruba's The Patriot Act vs. the U.S. Constitution, Capitalism Magazine (January 27, 2004).
• Brigid O'Neil's The PATRIOT Act’s Assault on the Bill of Rights, The Independent Institute (September 15, 2003)
• John Nichols' The Patriot Act's--and the Senate's--Constitution Problem, The Nation (09/06/2007)
• CNN's Federal judge rules 2 Patriot Act provisions unconstitutional (9/26/2007)
• The ACLU's Patriot Act Dashboard

Asbestos in Children's Toys

Andrew Schneider at the Seattle Post Intelligencer has an article up today on the toys that contain asbestos, "Asbestos turns up in toys, children's clay".

1) The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit (made in China, manufactured and distributed by Planet Toys in New York City):

"This model has an extensive array of plastic tools, inks and three types of very fine powders -- white, black and glow-in-the-dark. The analysis done for the victim's organization found high levels of two types of asbestos in the white and the glow powder."

2) Art Skills' Clay Bucket, "asbestos was found in six colors of clay" (clay from Thailand); 3 varieties of Ja-Ru Toy Clay (Omnimodels in Jacksonville, Fla., clay from China).

3) "Asbestos also was also found in hair rollers, hot plates and small appliances imported from China and sold in major drug store chains."

AQ Khan's nuclear smuggling network

The South Africa Mail & Guardian has a story on another trial postponement for Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges ("cancer of the rectum and was undergoing 'severe treatment'"). He is co-accused with his boss German engineer Gerhard Wisser:

"... Wisser was the MD of Randburg engineering company Krisch Engineering, and Geiges his chief engineer.

"Wisser earlier admitted that he had been involved in the clandestine illegal import, export and manufacturing of components of centrifuge enrichment plants destined for Pakistan and Libya's now-defunct nuclear development programme.

"He admitted to dealing with Sri Lankan businessman Buhary Tahir and Swiss-based German businessman Gotthard Lerch, who in turn assisted Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in the clandestine acquisition of nuclear technology for Pakistan and Libya.

"According to a report by an American nuclear expert, Wisser's activities could have played a critical role in enabling Libya to produce enough highly enriched uranium for several nuclear weapons.

"Judge Khami Makhafola on Tuesday postponed Geiges's trial to February 5 next year, when he will have to appear in court again to determine the way forward."

GlobeTel - BUSTED!

Patrick Danner at the Miami Herald has the story on the SEC's accusations of two ex-GlobeTel officials creating fake invoices to generate $119 million in bogus revenue over two years. The two officials are Joseph J. Monterosso and Luis E. Vargas.



SEC Litigation Release No. 20371 / November 26, 2007 , Securities and Exchange Commission v. Joseph J. Monterosso and Luis E. Vargas, Civil Action No. 07-61693: "...The complaint alleges that Monterosso and Vargas created hundreds of false invoices that made it appear that GlobeTel's three wholly-owned subsidiaries, Centerline Communications, LLC ("Centerline"), Volta Communications, LLC ("Volta"), and Lonestar Communications, LLC ("Lonestar") bought and sold telecom "minutes" with other wholesale telecom companies. In reality, there were no transactions under the program that GlobeTel executives described as the "off-net" revenue program. Two of GlobeTel's subsidiaries - Volta and Lonestar - actually did no business. "



Seth Jayson at Motley Fool had been wise on GTE for over a year, see his excellent series of articles --



More Hot Air From GlobeTel, January 6, 2006

GlobeTel's Australian Odyssey, January 23, 2006

GlobeTel Still on Hold, March 13, 2006

The GlobeTel Silent Treatment, April 11, 2006

Just Say "Nyet", May 1, 2006

GlobeTel: Feel the (Cash) Burn, August 16, 2006



History --

GlobeTel Initiates Global Strategy for Sanswire; Establishes Sanswire Europe Through Joint Venture Structure, Business Wire, March 8, 2005, on FindArticles

GlobeTel Enters into Joint Venture to Deploy Stratellites in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Business Wire, July 12, 2005, on FindArticles

GlobeTel Announces the Appointment of J. Randolph Dumas to the Position of Executive Vice Chairman, Business Wire, November 30, 2005, on FindArticles

GlobeTel Cites Details of Russian Wireless Agreement, Business Wire, January 9, 2006, on FindArticles

GlobeTel Communications Corp. Appoints Dorian Klein as its Newest Independent Director, January 11, 2006

GlobeTel Addresses Christopher Byron's NY Post Statements, May 23, 2006

Business Week's company overview - here





What's interesting is GlobeTel's continuing announcements of the appointments of the managing partners of Rubikon Partners to its management structure. Rubikon Partners is mysteriously listed on the Directory of Fake Banks, which may not be so mysterious, given its claim to "specializing in leveraged buyouts", but it hasn't seen any company transactions in the past 12 months, according to Business Week.



What's also interesting is Randy Dumas' previous investment connections - Dumas West & Co. (a 50:50 partnership with the "Baby Bell" telecommunications company, US West). US West was one of the "Baby Bells" that merged into Qwest Communications in 2000. The Chief Executives were Sol Trujillo and Joseph Nacchio. Trujillo gave up a retention package of $48 M, and went on to become CEO of Graviton, Inc., a firm that is developing wireless sensor technology with espionage applications. Graviton was one of the first investments ever made by In-Q-Tel, the little-known venture-capital arm of the CIA. After Bush's first election, Trujillo was on his transition team, and eventually received a post on the President's Export Council. Trujillo now runs Telstra, Australia's largest telephone company.



Joe Nacchio went on to represent the only telcomm to stand up to pressure from the Bush Administration & the NSA on the phone spying program, and not help the NSA track phone calling patterns, at least 5 months prior to September 11, 2001, see Sara Burnett's and Jeff Smith's October 11, 2007 Rocky Mountain News story. "Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He's free pending appeal. " Also see Onnesha Roychoudhuri's August 9, 2007 article on TruthDig: "Bruce Afran, one of the lawyers leading the class-action suit against AT&T and Verizon for their participation in the government’s data-mining program, has followed the Nacchio case closely. When pressed during an interview, Afran chooses his words carefully: 'We can’t ignore that Nacchio has been the only one to refuse to participate in the program, and that he was then indicted.' Afran explains that, because chief executives are paid in shares or options, they’re always selling shares. 'Whenever you want to take revenge on an uncooperative CEO, all you need to do is charge him with insider trading,' says Afran, referring to a strategy commonly known as 'selective prosecution.' He pauses, sips from his coffee, leans in a bit, and says, 'As a lawyer, I think this is clearly a pretext for punishing him for failing to go along with their [the government’s] program.'"

Duma election - voting for the correct party "1-for-10 formula"

The Associated Press and the Moscow Times both report today that workers and students are being pressured to vote for the United Russia party in Sunday's parliamentary election: "... each one of us has to get 10 people to vote for United Russia, and we have to provide our superiors with a list of the names of these people ... People have told us that they have been threatened with dismissal if they don't vote for United Russia ... they should vote and to find friends to vote for United Russia or state funding for the clinic would end ... Some have said they were warned they would lose their job if they did not comply ... People are complaining that their bosses are forcing them to take the certificates and vote for whom they say..."

Russian democracy vs. capitalist democracy ... something to be said about the little niceties.

Impossible to eradicate DU from environment and human bodies

Saturday's New Zealand Herald has a good story on the results of the three-year study of Colonie (a suburb of Albany in upstate New York), paid for by Britain's Ministry of Defence, directed by Professor Randall Parrish of Leicester University.

"... The US Government and the firm that ran the factory, National Lead (NL) Industries, have for decades been assuring former workers and residents around the 7 ha site that, although it is true that the plant used to produce unacceptable levels of radioactive pollution, it was not a serious health hazard.

Now, in a development with potentially devastating implications not only for Colonie but also for the future use of some of the West's most powerful weapon systems, that claim is being challenged. In a paper to be published in the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment, a team led by Professor Randall Parrish of Leicester University in northern England reports the results of a three-year study of Colonie, paid for by Britain's Ministry of Defence.

Parrish's team has found that depleted uranium (DU) contamination, which remains radioactive for millions of years, is, in effect, impossible to eradicate from the environment or from the bodies of humans.... "

Taiwan company sourced North Korea's nuclear program

Taiwan's Bureau of Investigation announced that legal action against the Taipei-based Yi-cheng Co is imminent for their alleged illicit transfers - transferring technology to North Korea for producing nuclear and biological weapons, including uranium enrichment technology, within the past year - here, on Japan Today.

... **it happens!

My fav web forum is toast ... its been taken over by the hate crowd. I begin anew ... finding interesting news stuff.

Today, the Asia Times Online has an interesting story up by Nelson Rand -- here on the PJAK.