Infinite Unknown

The CIA will spend millions of dollars over the next five years to improve intelligence gathering, upgrade technologies and enable analysts to work more closely with spies in the field.

The plan renews the agency’s year-old goal to increase the number of analysts and overseas operatives fluent in other languages.

The lack of bilingual agents has been a problem that has plagued military and civilian intelligence officers throughout much of the last decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said the changes will help the agency battle emerging national security dangers better, including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and cyberthreats. US intelligence agencies have come under fire in recent months for perceived lapses that let a suicide bomber infiltrate a CIA base in Afghanistan and an alleged would-be bomber to board a US-bound flight on Christmas. Continue reading »

Tags: CIA, Government, Leon Panetta, Politics, U.S.

This is one of the most poignant tragedies of the modern world

Bushmen from the Khomani San community strike poses in the Southern Kalahari desert, South Africa Photo: GETTY

Ever since 1996, I have been following one of the most poignant tragedies of the modern world – the ruthless drive by the Botswanan government to expel the last remaining Bushmen, the original inhabitants of Africa, from their ancestral homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Although, in 2006, the country’s high court upheld the Bushmen’s right to remain in the reserve under Botswana’s constitution, the authorities have continued to persecute them, not least by denying them access to the borehole that provided them with water,

Now, in a further cynical twist to this inhuman policy, the authorities have permitted a supposedly eco-conscious company to open a tourist lodge in the reserve, complete with a swimming pool full of what the firm describes as “the most precious commodity in the desert”. Guests can even enjoy a “Bushman Walk”.

Not the least shocking feature of this official campaign of racial persecution is that it has been supported by our own Government (which first set up the reserve as a haven for the Bushmen in 1961), and also by the EU, which has poured aid worth millions of euros into Botswana’s tourist economy.

The UN’s rapporteur for indigenous peoples recently condemned the cutting off of the Bushmen’s water supply, and in June their plea for their water supply to be restored (which is supported by the admirable charity Survival International) will be heard in the courts. Meanwhile, weary Kalahari ecotourists can continue to cool off in the very water the Bushmen are denied. Continue reading »

Tags: Africa, Botswana, EU, Government, Politics, Society, Tourism, U.N.

Don’t miss:

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, on April 26, 2010:

- Greek Junk Contagion Presses EU to Broaden Bailout – ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet at CFR (April 26, 2010)

Translation via Helen Skopis of the recent interview with Max Keiser in Proto Thema newspaper in Athens.

Article in Proto Thema online – April 23, 2010 By Vassili Daliani

“The IMF is a Financial Mafia”

At a time when Greece is being dragged through the mud by the international press, Max Keiser, one of the most radical and outspoken financial analysts, stands by our side and talks openly about a “financial mafia” and “financial terrorists” that drove this country to its destruction.

As a former Wall Street broker for almost 25 years, he knows how the financial system operates. Max Keiser had foreseen the financial collapse of Iceland, he asks for the arrest of Goldman Sachs bankers and encourages Greeks to hold a referendum on whether the country should turn to the International Monetary Fund.

He is a presenter of financial shows on major worldwide TV networks, including the BBC, the English Al Jazeera and Russia Today. Max Keiser told “THEMA” that the government’s measures are unsubstantial maintaining that the IMF will impose the real measures. He believes that Greece is a country that will be sacrificed by the international markets and urges the Greek people to fight this prospective.

PT: Is the International Monetary Fund Greece’s only solution, or are there other alternatives?

MK: The only solution for Greece is to arrest the Goldman Sachs bankers immediately and all those involved in the fabrication of Greek economic data in 2000, when you became a member of the eurozone. The next step is to nationalize all banks like Sweden did in 1993. The International Monetary Fund is that last thing you need. You will lose your sovereignty. It exercises terrorism. You will be raped in such a way, that it will be the worst pain you have ever felt.

PT: There are those who believe that the IMF is not the “bad wolf” but the only solution for Greece

MK: If someone burns down your house in order to sell you charcoal, would you consider this logical? That is exactly what Goldman Sachs did to the Greek economy. They burned you down like arsonists and then they tell you not to worry they’ll give you charcoal. It’s outrageous. The IMF has said that it can provide Greece with help. The Wall Street investment hedge funds are attacking Greece’s bond market so that the Greek economy collapses. And they’re doing this for a simple reason; to force the Greek people to ask for help from the IMF. The IMF will say, we came because you asked for our help. Wall Street bankers work very closely with the IMF. It’s a financial mafia and the hedge funds are the assassins. Research conducted on Goldman Sachs in the USA and in Europe show how big a mafia it is. They are involved in illegal activity throughout the world.

PT: Where is the European Union? How would you explain the stance of France and Germany?

MK: Germany is on the side of the Wall Street bankers. Germany doesn’t care about Greece or the euro. The euro replaced a cheap capital in order to uphold competitiveness in its export market. As long as Greece is a problem, the euro falls, which is something that is in Germany’s interest.

The European Union and the euro are competing with the dollar. Unfortunately, the crisis will destroy the euro. The financial terrorists on Wall Street intend to destroy Portugal, and other countries, after Greece. The destruction of the euro will allow the dollar to be the only international currency, the only fiscal reserve. If a country wants to buy petroleum, it must purchase dollars first. If a country wants to buy copper, it must purchase dollars first. Because these and many other commodities are only sold in dollars. This means that the U.S. is making a continuous profit. The whole world is obliged to buy dollars. The euro threatened the empire of the dollar. It was naturally not appreciated by Wall Street bankers. They are using the crisis to destroy the euro. The Greek people must stand up to the bankers, just like the Icelandic people did.

Continue reading »

Tags: Bailout, Bonds, Debt, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Germany, Global News, Goldman Sachs, Government, Greece, Iceland, IMF, Mafia, Max Keiser, Politics, U.S., Wall Street

At the end of the following article famous investor Marc Faber had to say this:

“The best would be to kick out Greece and the countries that abuse the system,” Faber said in an interview. “They didn’t have the fiscal discipline that was essentially imposed by EU.”

It seems that there are more important things for ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet to do right now than to speak at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, unless you know that those elitists at Bilderberg, CFR and the Trilateral Commission, that rule the governments, the central banks, the corporations and the media have created this entire financial crisis.

The elite is looting the people in the US, Europe and everywhere else.

The elite is bankrupting the people until they beg for world government and the New World Order.

What could Greece do?

- The Solution For Greece (Max Keiser, Matt Taibbi and Catherine Austin Fitts)

Message to the people of Greece: Avoid the IMF like hell, because the IMF is hell.

The people in Greece seem to have a much better understanding of what is happening to them than the people in the US and the UK.

Greek Junk Contagion Presses EU to Broaden Bailout (Update2)

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, on April 26, 2010. (Bloomberg)

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Europe’s worsening debt crisis is intensifying pressure on policy makers to widen a bailout package beyond Greece after a cut in the nation’s rating to junk drove up borrowing costs from Italy to Portugal and Ireland.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel delays approval of a 45 billion-euro ($59 billion) Greek rescue, the crisis is spreading. Portugal’s benchmark stock index yesterday fell the most since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse, while the extra yield that investors demand to hold Italian and Irish debt over bunds remained near yesterday’s 10-month high. Continue reading »

Tags: Angela Merkel, Bonds, CFR, Council on Foreign Relations, Debt, ECB, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Greece, Herman Van Rompuy, IMF, Italy, Jean-Claude Trichet, Marc Faber, Politics, Portugal

‘Spain is worse than Greece.’

Prof. Nouriel Roubini

- Roubini on Greece (Reuters):

Meanwhile, Tony Barber has already come to the conclusion that as far as Greece is concerned, “the political conditions for extra financial help from Germany just do not exist”.

Nouriel, of course, takes that kind of thinking to its logical conclusion, and kicked off the panel by announcing that it was just in time: “in a few days,” he said, “there might not be a eurozone for us to discuss.” There’s no way that Greece can implement the 10% spending cut it needs to do in order to stop its debt spiralling out of control at current interest rates — and even if it did, the economic effects would be disastrous.

Nouriel’s base case, then, is Argentina 2001: after all, Greece has a much higher debt-to-GDP ratio, much higher deficit-to-GDP ratio, and much higher current-account deficit than Argentina had back then. And if that’s the base case, there’s no way that Greek debt should be trading anywhere near its current levels.

Of course, this being Nouriel, it goes downhill from there: if Greece is worse than Argentina, he says, then Spain is worse than Greece. Its housing bubble and bust has left the banking sector much weaker than Greece’s; its unemployment situation, especially with the under-30 crowd, is much worse than Greece’s; and the cost of any Spain bailout would be so much more enormous than the cost of a Greek bailout as to be almost unthinkable. The only thing that Spain has going for it is that it isn’t quite at the edge of the abyss yet; if it gets its political act together and implements tough fiscal and structural reforms now, it can save itself. But clearly no one saw that happening, given Spain’s political history over the past 20 years.

Apr 27, 2010 22:14 EDT

See also:

- Greece: Bondholders May Lose $265 Billion as S&P Sees 70% Loss (Bloomberg)

- Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating to Junk (Bloomberg)

Tags: Argentina, Bonds, Debt, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, GDP, Global News, Government, Greece, Nouriel Roubini, Politics, Spain

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on preventing home foreclosures in Washington, D.C. (Bloomberg)

- Barofsky Says Criminal Charges Possible in Alleged AIG Coverup (Boomberg):

Janet Tavakoli, founder of Chicago-based Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc., says Barofsky hasn’t been aggressive enough. She says SIGTARP should be running criminal probes of the bankers who underwrote and managed the collateralized debt obligations that were at the center of the financial meltdown.

CDOs are bundles of mortgage-backed bonds and other debt sold to investors.

Tavakoli says the CDO managers sometimes replaced relatively high-quality securities with new ones that were more likely to default.

‘Phony Labels’

“It is securities fraud if you take securities and package them and knowingly pass them off with phony labels,” she says.

…

TARP Police

Barofsky says investigations related to the underwriting and sale of CDOs are ongoing.

Barofsky says the question of whether the New York Fed engaged in a coverup will result in some sort of action.

“We’re either going to have criminal or civil charges against individuals or we’re going to have a report,” Barofsky says. “This is too important for us not to share our findings.”

He won’t say whether the investigation is targeting Geithner personally.

WHOA: TARP Watchdog Says Criminal Charges May Be On the Table For New York Fed Over AIG Coverup

Neil Barofsky, The Special Inspector General for TARP oversight, better known as SIGTARP, says criminal or civil charges are still on the table in the AIG coverup, according to a long profile at Bloomberg.

In the eye-opening piece, Barofsky talks about how he got a crappy basement office in the Treasury building and likens its foul smell to relations between the Treasury department and himself.

Since Barofsky’s job is to watchover TARP funds and how they’re used. it should come as no surprise that when $700 billion is on the line, funds are bound to be misappropriated.

So what’s the essence of Barofsky’s beef? A few things:

• “Barofsky’s most recent broadside came on April 20, when a SIGTARP report labeled a housing-loan modification program funded with $50 billion of TARP money as ineffectual.”
• He has also criticized Tim Geithner in reports for his handling of the AIG bailout back when he was Chair of the NY Fed.
• Mortgage deals involving CDOs similar to the ABACUS deal.
• How both Obama and Bush handled the financial crisis.

Continue reading »

Tags: AIG, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Government, Politics, Timothy Geithner, U.S.

See also: Peter Schiff on Obama’s Financial Regulation Bill and Goldman Sachs

A financial regulatory reform bill has at least one supporter outside of Congressional Democrats, Lloyd Blankfein, the head of investment bank Goldman Sachs.

“I’m generally supportive,” Blankfein told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Wall Street will benefit from the bill because it will make the market safer, Blankfein said.

“The biggest beneficiary of reform is Wall Street itself,” he said. “The biggest risk is risk financial institutions have with each other.” Continue reading »

Tags: Goldman Sachs, Law, Politics, U.S., Wall Street

Date: 26th Apr 10

See also:

- Peter Schiff: Obama’s Financial Reform Does Nothing To Address The Underlying Problems

- Gerald Celente: Obama’s Financial Reform Is Just A Show

Tags: AIG, Bailout, Banking, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, cds, Congress, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Fed, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis, Fraud, Goldman Sachs, Government, Henry Paulson, Law, Obama administration, Peter Schiff, Politics, SEC, U.S., Wall Street

Peter Harvey denies a charge of attempted murder in July 2009

A science teacher beat a pupil around the head with a dumbbell while shouting “die, die, die”, a court heard.

Peter Harvey, 50, hit the 14-year-old boy with a 3kg weight at All Saints’ Roman Catholic School, Mansfield, a jury heard.

He denies attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, but has admitted a charge of GBH.

Nottingham Crown Court was told students were filmed calling Mr Harvey a “psycho” moments before the attack.

Another pupil was filming as Mr Harvey tried to restore discipline.

The injured schoolboy, whom Mr Harvey confronted for misbehaving in class, suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.

At the time the blows were being struck Mr Harvey was only heard to say one thing… ‘die, die, die’ Stuart Rafferty QC

Stuart Rafferty QC, prosecuting, said Mr Harvey was sent home from the school in December 2008 after telling an education adviser he might harm somebody.

He returned to the classroom in April 2009.

Mr Harvey was “happy” and “positive” on the morning of the attack, the court heard. Continue reading »

Tags: Children, Crime, Schools, Society, Violence

- Standard & Poor’s Downgrades Greece’s Credit Rating to Junk (Bloomberg)

April 28 (Bloomberg) — Holders of Greek bonds may lose as much as 200 billion euros ($265 billion) should the government default, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The ratings firm cut Greece three steps yesterday to BB+, or below investment grade, and said bondholders may recover only 30 percent and 50 percent for their investments if the nation fails to make debt payments. Europe’s most-indebted country relative to the size of its economy has about 296 billion euros of bonds outstanding, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The downgrade to junk status led investors to dump Greece’s bonds, driving yields on two-year notes to as high as 19 percent from 4.6 percent a month ago as concern deepened the nation may delay or reduce debt payments. Prime Minister George Papandreou is grappling with a budget deficit of almost 14 percent of gross domestic product.

“It’s now not just market sentiment, but a top rating agency sees Greek paper as junk,” said Padhraic Garvey, head of investment-grade strategy at ING Groep NV in Amsterdam.

Before yesterday, Greece’s bonds had lost about 17 percent this year, according to Bloomberg/EFFAS indexes. The 4.3 percent security due March 2012 fell 6.54, or 65.4 euros per 1,000-euro face amount, to 78.32. Continue reading »

Tags: Bonds, cds, Debt, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Economy, EU, Euro, Europe, Global News, Greece, Politics, Rating, Standard & Poor's