Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Top Economists: Iceland Did It Right ... And Everyone Else Is Doing It Wrong
Top Economists: Iceland Did It Right ... And Everyone Else Is Doing It Wrong
Iceland Shows the Way
Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz notes:
What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system.
Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:
What [Iceland’s recovery] demonstrated was the … case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses.
Krugman also says:
A funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.
Krugman is right. Letting the banks go bust – instead of perpetually bailing them out – is the right way to go.
We’ve previously noted:
Iceland told the banks to pound sand. And Iceland’s economy is doing much better than virtually all of the countries which have let the banks push them around.
Bloomberg reports:
Iceland holds some key lessons for nations trying to survive bailouts after the island’s approach to its rescue led to a “surprisingly” strong recovery, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to the country said.
Iceland’s commitment to its program, a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery, according to the Washington-based fund.
***
Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy.
The IMF’s point about bondholders is an important one: the failure to force a haircut on the bondholders is dooming the U.S. and Europe to economic doldrums.
The IMF notes:
[The] decision not to make taxpayers liable for bank losses was right, economists say.
In other words, as IMF put it:
Key to Iceland’s recovery was [a] program [which] sought to ensure that the restructuring of the banks would not require Icelandic taxpayers to shoulder excessive private sector losses.
Icenews points out:
Experts continue to praise Iceland’s recovery success after the country’s bank bailouts of 2008.
Unlike the US and several countries in the eurozone, Iceland allowed its banking system to fail in the global economic downturn and put the burden on the industry’s creditors rather than taxpayers.
***
The rebound continues to wow officials, including International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who recently referred to the Icelandic recovery as “impressive”. And experts continue to reiterate that European officials should look to Iceland for lessons regarding austerity measures and similar issues.
Barry Ritholtz noted last year:
Rather than bailout the banks — Iceland could not have done so even if they wanted to — they guaranteed deposits (the way our FDIC does), and let the normal capitalistic process of failure run its course.
They are now much much better for it than the countries like the US and Ireland who did not.
Bloomberg pointed out February 2011:
Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks, whose assets had ballooned to $209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.
***
“Iceland did the right thing … creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.”
Ireland guaranteed all the liabilities of its banks when they ran into trouble and has been injecting capital — 46 billion euros ($64 billion) so far — to prop them up. That brought the country to the brink of ruin, forcing it to accept a rescue package from the European Union in December.
***
Countries with larger banking systems can follow Iceland’s example, says Adriaan van der Knaap, a managing director at UBS AG.
“It wouldn’t upset the financial system,” says Van der Knaap, who has advised Iceland’s bank resolution committees.
***
Arni Pall Arnason, 44, Iceland’s minister of economic affairs, says the decision to make debt holders share the pain saved the country’s future.
“If we’d guaranteed all the banks’ liabilities, we’d be in the same situation as Ireland,” says Arnason, whose Social Democratic Alliance was a junior coalition partner in the Haarde government.
***
“In the beginning, banks and other financial institutions in Europe were telling us, ‘Never again will we lend to you,’” Einarsdottir says. “Then it was 10 years, then 5. Now they say they might soon be ready to lend again.”
And Iceland’s prosecution of white collar fraud played a big part in its recovery:
[The U.S. and Europe have thwarted white collar fraud investigations … let alone prosecutions.] On the other hand, Iceland has prosecuted the fraudster bank heads (and here and here) and their former prime minister, and their economy is recovering nicely … because trust is being restored in the financial system.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190105103044/https://washingtonsblog.com/2012/08/top-economists-iceland-did-it-right-everyone-else-is-doing-it-wrong.html
Monday, December 03, 2012
JUSTICE DENIED: North Wales Child Abuse Whistle-blower in Suspect ...
Thinking Of Our Kids ?
JUSTICE DENIED: STEVEN MESSHAM SEEKS LEGAL ADVICE THROUGH TWITTER
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Forget McAlpine.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Anne Clywd, MP Asks For Jillings Report.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Trolls And Abusers.
Saturday, November 03, 2012
the tap: Ben Fellows blows the lid on media/political pedop...
Friday, October 26, 2012
Removing The Shackles: VITAL UPDATE!!!!!! IMF plan to dethrone bankers a...
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Charles Frith - Punk Planning: Paedophiles In Power
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
MURDOCH: Brooks And Coulson Charged With Conspiracy To Hack...
Monday, August 06, 2012
Thursday, August 02, 2012
‘Pepper Spray Cop’ loses his job | The Raw Story
https://web.archive.org/web/20120804044536/https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/01/pepper-spray-cop-loses-his-job/#.UBp2HZMqpR8.blogger
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
FairSearch.org | What to Know About the European Commission Investigation
For the last 18 months, the European Commission has been investigating serious and credible formal complaints that Google is abusing its dominant position in online search and search advertising in violation of EU competition and consumer protection laws. The European Commission launched its formal antitrust investigation in November 2010 and reports indicate 16 or more companies have filed complaints, including FairSearch members Foundem, Microsoft, Twenga, Expedia and TripAdvisor.
What happened Monday?
On Monday, JoaquÃn Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy, acknowledged that Google is engaged in four potential abuses of dominance, validating the concerns of FairSearch members, other businesses and consumer advocates.
What’s the Commission looking at?
The Commission has outlined four areas of concern, in its own words:
- Deceptive display: “In its general search results, Google displays links to its own vertical search services differently than it does for links to competitors. We are concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services.”
- Unauthorized content scraping: “Our second concern relates to the way Google copies content from competing vertical search services and uses it in its own offerings. […] We are worried that this could reduce competitors’ incentives to invest in the creation of original content for the benefit of internet users.”
- Exclusivity in advertising agreements: “Our third concern relates to agreements between Google and partners on the websites of which Google delivers search advertisements. […] The agreements result in de facto exclusivity requiring them to obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google, thus shutting out competing providers of search advertising intermediation services.”
- Portability of ad campaign data: “Our fourth concern relates to restrictions that Google puts to the portability of online search advertising campaigns from its platform AdWords to the platforms of competitors. […]We are concerned that Google imposes contractual restrictions on software developers which prevent them from offering tools that allow the seamless transfer of search advertising campaigns across AdWords and other platforms for search advertising.”
Apart from the concerns mentioned above, Commissioner Almunia disclosed that his office is separately investigating other Google business practices for potential violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws. Commissioner Almunia said, “We continue the investigations on other issues, on other complaints we received recently, for instance all those complaints referring to Android or some complaints referring for instance to the way travel agencies are dealt by the Google search engine.”
How did Google react?
Google said that “we’ve only just started to look through the Commission’s arguments.” (Worth noting that Google said two years ago, at the launch of the investigation when the Commission outlined the specific allegations it was probing, that Google would be “working with the Commission to address any concerns.”)
What is expected over the next few weeks?
According to Politico, “Almunia’s move Monday spares Google — for now — from a statement of objections, the preliminary document that would have started the EU’s formal antitrust process. Yet Almunia made clear Google must ‘come up in a matter of weeks with first proposals of remedies to address each of these points.’ Those solutions would have to be market-tested, Almunia said. And he explained it would ultimately lead to a commitment decision, rather than a formal antitrust proceeding that could end with steep fines.”
Market testing refers to a process where the Commission presents the proposed remedies to the public and invites interested stakeholders to provide comments on the potential for effectiveness and possible improvements. A Statement of Objections (SO) is a formal written step in Commission antitrust investigations in which the Commission would inform Google of evidence supporting potential findings that Google has violated the law.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120804160739/http://www.fairsearch.org/content-scraping/what-to-know-about-the-european-commission-investigation/#.UA88qmia2CI.blogger
Monday, July 16, 2012
Nursing Medical Care: Cancer Fighting Foods, Herbs and Spices...
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Mark Zuckerberg Awarded CIA Surveillance Medal
Mark Zuckerberg Awarded CIA Surveillance Medal
Well, now it is official. Mark Zuckerberg was not so smart after all, but just fronting for the CIA in one of the biggest Intelligence coups of all times.
But there remains one small problem, the CIA is not supposed to monitor Americans. I guess we will hear more on that soon from the lawyers once the litigation gets cranked up.
Personally I will be more interested in how this is going to effect the stock offering and shares as all Americans should own the entity that has been spying on them.
And then there are the SEC full disclosure regulations and penalties. It’s bonanza time for the lawyers.
Could the loophole the CIA used be that, ‘you aren’t being spied on if you are willingly posting everything a repressive regime would love to have on your Facebook account, with no threats, no family hostages, no dirty movies or photos that could be released?
But enough with the lead in. Let’s take you directly to our source where you can get it straight from the source’s mouth, including seeing Zuckerberg getting his award.
We really need your comments on this below so we can speak to power with one voice…something that can rarely be done around here.
I know what you’re thinking, but no, I am not stupid…all of my Facebook material is all made up, including all of my friends. I am in the safe zone. My momma didn’t raise no fool. But how about you?
YouTube - Veterans Today -
– CIA and Zuckerberg
Hope you enjoyed the spoof folks. I thought it was great. And
congrats to the Onion News Network gang on getting those 3.7 million
YouTube views !!! ![]()
https://web.archive.org/web/20120712105751/https://veteranstoday.com/2012/07/10/mark-zuckerberg-awarded-cia-surveillance-award/#.T_8OYjBF6I4.blogger
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Brown Moses Blog: Operation Motorman - Leveson Hearings In August?
Brown Moses Blog: Operation Motorman - Leveson Hearings In August?:
The latest piece from a regular contributor.
Lord Justice Leveson delivered a new Ruling this morning regarding
Operation Motorman and Associated Newspapers. In this new Ruling,
Leveson gives a glimpse of representations made in private on how the
inquiry should interpret the Motorman Files - the Ruling itself gives a
good background summary of the Motorman investigation and Steve
Whittamore's documentation in relation to his business of 'enquiries'
undertaken for national newspapers via named journalists. Many of these
commissions include criminal records checks, Police National Computer
checks - on the face of it, data procurement which was illegal. No
journalists were arrested, charged or prosecuted.
In order to address concerns on the level of detail that the Inquiry
might make public, Leveson held private hearings to receive Core
Participant views. He understood from those private meetings that there
was a general acceptance that breaches of data protection laws by some
journalists were acknowledged. Given that understanding, Leveson ruled
that he did not intend tp make public any or all information in the
Motorman Files. This decision drew criticism from those wanting all the
information released into the public domain and, presumably, some
relief was felt by the named journalists and the national newspapers who
had employed them.
Then Paul Dacre decided to take umbrage at Lord Justice Leveson's understanding of the private hearings' consensus on Motorman.
Dacre's titles came top of Motorman league of journalists commissioning
of Steve Whittamore so, arguably, Dacre has most to fear from any
release or leak of the Motorman Files. For an analysis of Dacre's
dilemma, see here.
During Paul Dacre's evidence to the Inquiry, he appeared to accept
(prompted by Leveson's prompting to consult with Associted Newspapers
counsel) that there was prima facie evidence in the Motorman Files that
journalists in his employ had commissioned data procurement, obtained
illegally by Whittamore. This grudging and graceless acceptance was given by Dacre amid his defensive opinions on the accuracy and validity of the Motorman evidence.
However, Dacre now seems to be challenging Leveson's understanding of
prima facie acknowledgement of illegality by Associated Newspaper
journalists. Associated Newspapers defensive actions may have been, in
part, prompted by Core Participant victims' counsel, Mr Sherborne,
making successful argument to Lord Justice Leveson for partial and
redacted release of some Motorman Files evidence - that which relates to
journalists still continuously employed by relevant newspapers. Even in
redacted form - letter ciphers standing in for journalists' names -
this represents the first Motoman evidence released which relates to
non-News International titles. (Whittamore's 'Blue Book' detailing
named News International journalists commissions has been leaked by
GuidoFawkes.)
Associated Newspapers representations to Leveson firstly take issue with
his assumption that Dacre accepted strong prima facie evidence of
illegality. Counsel have complained about Leveson's characterisation as
"strong" prima facie evidence. Lord Justice Leveson's opening remarks
this morning included an apology to Associated for mis-representing
their understanding through his use of the word "strong".
Notwithstanding, should Associated Newspapers additionally be
back-pedalling on any acknowledgement of bad practice, Lord Justice
Leveson IS now prepared to address the Motorman Files (as they relate to
Associated titles) - IN PUBLIC and over the summer:
If necessary I shall sit during August to deal with itHis intention seems to be to make public as many examples of illegal data requests as it takes for Associated Newspapers to finally and unequivocably accept prima facie evidence of wrong-doing, "strong" or otherwise.
Say goodbye to your summer.....
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Night Before...
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Never Post Pissed.
MURDOCH: Leveson: Matt Sprake ex -met - part of his agency’...
MURDOCH: Leveson: Matt Sprake ex -met - part of his agency’...:
Police
and other public officials are still being offered thousands of pounds
for information about the private lives of celebrities, The Independent can reveal.
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Big Banks Have Criminally Conspired Since 2005 to Rig $800 Trillion Dollar Market
But Receive Only a Light Slap on the Wrist
We noted Friday:
Barclays and other large banks – including Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds, Bank of America, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland– manipulated the world’s primary interest rate (Libor) which virtually every adjustable-rate investment globally is pegged to.
***
That means they manipulated a good chunk of the world economy.
We actually understated the impact of the Libor scandal.
Specifically, according to the CIA’s World Factbook, the global economy – as measured by the world’s gross domestic product – is less than $80 trillion.
In contrast, over $800 trillion dollars worth of investments are pegged to the Libor rate. In other words, a market more than 10 times the size of the entire real world economy is effected by Libor.
As the Wall Street Journal reports today:
More than $800 trillion in securities and loans are linked to the Libor, including $350 trillion in swaps and $10 trillion in loans.
(Click here if you don’t have a subscription to the Journal).
Remember, the derivatives market is approximately $1,200 trillion dollars. Interest rate derivatives comprise the lion’s share of all derivatives, and could blow up and take down the entire financial system.
The largest interest rate derivatives sellers include Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman and JP Morgan … many of which are being exposed for manipulating Libor.
They have been manipulating Libor on virtually a daily basis since 2005.
They are still part of the group of banks which sets Libor every day, and none have been criminally prosecuted.
They have received a light slap on the wrist from regulators, which – as nobel economist Joe Stiglitz points out – is just the cost of doing business when fraud is the business model.
Indeed – as Bloomberg notes – they’re probably still manipulating the rate:
The U.K. bankers and regulators charged with reviewing Libor in the wake of regulatory probes are resisting calls to overhaul the rate because structural changes risk invalidating trillions of dollars of contracts.
The group, established by the British Bankers’ Association in March after probes into allegations that traders rigged the London interbank offered rate … won’t propose structural changes such as basing the rate on actual trades or taking away oversight of the benchmark from the BBA, the people said.
Libor is determined by a daily poll that asks banks to estimate how much it would cost them to borrow from each other for different timeframes and in different currencies. Because banks’ submissions aren’t based on real trades, academics and lawyers say they are open to manipulation by traders. At least a dozen firms are being probed by regulators worldwide for colluding to rig the rate, the benchmark for $350 trillion of securities.
“I don’t see a significant enhancement to the reputation of Libor without basing it on actual transactions,” said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, an economist with Global Economics Group, a New York-based consultancy, an associate professor with New York University’s Stern School of Business and the co-author of a 2008 paper entitled “Libor Manipulation?” [the manipulation was well-known in England in 2007, Shah Gilani warned of Libor manipulation in 2008, and Tyler Durden, Max Keiser and others started sounding the alarm at or around the same time.]
“It would only be disruptive if current quotes are inaccurate,” so resistance “is suspicious,” she said.
***
Traders interviewed by Bloomberg in March at three firms said they were given no guidance on how Libor should be set and there were no so-called Chinese walls preventing contact between the treasury staff charged with submitting the rate and traders who stood to profit on where Libor was set each day. They regularly discussed where Libor would be set with their colleagues and their counterparts at other firms, they said.
“Sadly the response looks to be very consistent with the response of policy makers to the banking disasters we’ve seen over the last four years — cosmetic changes, but nothing substantial happens,” said Richard Werner, a finance professor at the University of Southampton. “It’s insufficient and doesn’t really go to the heart of the problem.”
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Will Russian And Chinese Military Forces On Syrian Soil Prevent Obama From Bombing Syria?
Michael Snyder, Contributor
Activist Post
Everyone knows that the Obama administration has been steadily gearing up for a military campaign against Syria. Everyone also knows that Russia and China do not want to see this happen. Now Russia and China are sending military forces to Syria.
Apparently tens of thousands of troops will be involved. This will be the first time that the Russians and the Chinese have jointly deployed large numbers of troops in Syria.
A number of sources have reported that the Obama administration has been contemplating a military campaign in Syria similar to what happened in Libya. The U.S. would institute a no-fly zone, bomb the Syrian government and the Syrian military, and provide heavy military hardware for the rebel forces on the ground.
According to a recent Debka report, the plans for such a campaign in Syria are close to being finalized….
As the violence in Syria continued to go from bad to worse in scope and intensity, US official sources had this to say Saturday, June 16, about planned US military operations in the war-torn country:
“The intervention will happen. It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’”
A Syrian Free Army rebel delegation is now in Washington to talk about their requestsfor heavy weapons from the Obama administration. In their meetings with US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and the State Department’s expert on Syria Fred Hof, the rebel leaders handed in two lists for approval: types of heavy weapons capable of challenging Bashar Assad’s armed forces and selected targets of attack to destabilize his regime.
Debkafile’s Washington sources disclose that the administration is very near a decision on the types of weapons to be shipped to the Syrian rebels and when. Most of the items Washington is ready to send have been purchased by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and are ready for shipment.
The White House is also close to deciding on the format of its military operation in Syria. Some sources are defining it as “Libya lite” – that is, a reduced-scale version of the no-fly zone imposed on Libya two years ago and the direct air and other strikes which toppled the Qaddafi regime.
What the Obama administration fails to grasp is that Syria is not Libya.
Syria has a lot more friends, and any attack on Syria would almost certainly cause a wider Middle East war to erupt.
For Russia and China, Syria is a red line that must not be crossed.
Now Russia and China are sending substantial military forces to Syria for “war games”. Obviously this is just an excuse to get troops into Syria. The following description of these upcoming “war games” is from a recent article in the Jerusalem Post….
According to ShamLife, China had gained Egyptian approval to allow 12 Chinese ships carrying military equipment to pass through the Suez Canal, and that these vessels would reach the Syrian ports of Tartous and Latakia in two weeks’ time.
ShamLife said Syrian air defense missiles and its coastal defense would be put to the test in the military exercises, and that 90,000 troops from the four countries would be involved in the war games along with 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks and “hundreds of rockets.”
The exercises would be carried out after Syrian troops had ‘cleansed’ several cities where ‘armed groups’ – meaning Syrian opposition forces fighting against government troops loyal to President Bashar Assad – were gathering.
It is also being reported that the Russians are sending warships from the Black Sea Fleet to the Syrian coast to protect the Russian military base at Tartus.
The following is from a recent Los Angeles Times article….
Russia is preparing to dispatch a pair of warships carrying a contingent of Black Sea Fleet marines to its logistics base in the Syrian port of Tartus, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Monday, in what appeared to be another sign of the deteriorating security situation in the strife-ridden nation.
The report quoted an unidentified Russian naval source saying the amphibious ships Nikolay Filchenkov and Tsezar Kunikov, accompanied by the rescue tug SB-15, were ‘preparing for a non-routine departure’ for Tartus, Russia’s only Mediterranean base.
In addition, according to a recent article in the Telegraph, a Russian ship that was apparently taking attack helicopters to Syria has been stopped off the coast of Scotland….
A Russian ship believed to be carrying helicopters and missiles for Syria has been effectively stopped in its tracks off the coast of Scotland after its insurance was cancelled at the behest of the British government.
Obviously the Russians and the Chinese are trying to stop an attack on Syria.
Things are getting very tense, and that is not going to change any time soon.
Just check out how a recent CBS News report described a private meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Mexico….
The two men barely looked at each other. You could just feel, sort of, the tension between them. And the body language really represented how far apart the two leaders remain on the issue of Syria.
Needless to say, it was not a pleasant conversation. In fact, Putin reportedly wasvery direct with Obama….
Apparently President Obama got a bit of a lecture from Putin about some other failed transitions that are going on around the world.
When
Barack Obama was elected, many Americans expected him to keep his
campaign promises and greatly reduce U.S. military action around the
globe.
Instead, Obama has actually greatly expanded U.S. military action around the globe.
It isn’t reported on much in the mainstream media, but the U.S. military is actually at war in Yemen, in Somalia, in Pakistan, and in a whole bunch of other countries all over the planet.
The following is from a must-read Wired article that just came out….
The center of the US drone war has shifted to Yemen, where 23 American strikes have killed an estimated 155 people so far this year. But you wouldn’t know about it — or about the cruise missile attacks, or about the US commando teams in Yemen — by reading the report the White House sent to Congress about US military activities around the globe. Instead, there’s only the blandest acknowledgement of ‘direct action’ in Yemen, ‘against a limited number of [al-Qaida] operatives and senior leaders.’
The report, issued late Friday, is the first time the United States has publicly, officially acknowledged the operations in Yemen and in nearby Somalia that anyone with internet access could’ve told you about years ago. But the report doesn’t just fail to admit the extent of the shadow war that America is waging in the region. It’s borderline legal — at best. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to inform Congress about any armed conflicts America is engaged in. Friday’s report isn’t just uninformative about Yemen. It doesn’t even mention the US campaign in Pakistan, even though the Defense Secretary says America is ‘at war‘ there.
Obama has shown contempt for Congress on so many levels. Not only does he not ask them when he starts a new war, he barely even informs them of what is going on.
In the past, Russia and China kind of stood aside as the U.S. imposed its will all over the Middle East, but that is no longer the case.
Russia and China are clearly saying “no” to military action against Syria.
Will Obama back down or will he defy the Russians and the Chinese?
It is going to be very interesting to watch.
And this emerging alliance between the Russians and the Chinese is going to be something to keep a close eye on. We have been seeing increasing cooperation between the two nations in a bunch of different areas.
If the United States is not very careful, it could find itself in a direct conflict with both Russia and China in the years ahead.
The Russian military and the Chinese military have been very busy preparing for such a conflict. The U.S. military has been focused on other things.
Sadly, most Americans know much more about “America’s Got Talent” and “American Idol” than they do about geopolitics these days.
Monday, June 18, 2012
MURDOCH: Piers Morgan: The INSIDER Is A Sordid Tale Of Grov...
MURDOCH: Leveson:Iraq - The Downing Street Memos And Docume...
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Never Forget – the real Story of America’s abandoned POW/MIAs
Never Forget – the real Story of America’s abandoned POW/MIAs
May 27, 2012. Hanoi. The real story of America’s abandoned fathers, brothers and sons, betrayed and forgotten POW/MIAs in Vietnam. 3,109 men - That’s the number of US soldiers that were left behind. One day in 1973, the US government was negotiating their release. The very next day, the same American government declared them all officially dead. It was simply easier and cheaper than pursuing their release. Here’s the real story of what happened to America’s POW/MIAs in Vietnam.
The following true story was originally researched and published in the early 1990’s by the American Defense Institute. Also produced and distributed throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s by your editor and The Liberty House. This article was one of the first ever published by Whiteout Press - ‘Americans Abandoned – POW/MIAs in Vietnam’.
The real story of America’s abandoned fathers, brothers and sons, betrayed and forgotten POW/MIAs in Vietnam.
March 1973: After years of fighting the Communists in SE Asia, the United States calls it quits, and its sons who fought the war and were captured by the enemy, some imprisoned for up to 8 years, prepare for their time of liberation and a return to the Land of the Free.
“To see that US aircraft, the Air Force uniforms come out of that aircraft, it melts your heart because you know freedom’s just a few hours away. It’s kind of hard to hang in there, day after day, in my case, 2110 days, you’ve just got to have absolute belief that some day your country’s going to come get you. When I went to Vietnam, I was prepared to be killed, to be wounded, even to be captured. But I was not prepared to be abandoned by the country that sent me there” – former American POW.
The war ended in January 1973, with a negotiated cease fire. 591 prisoners, or only about 12 percent of those requested by the US, were returned during “Operation Home Coming” in February and March 1973. Laos was another story. More than 500 pilots were shot down over Laos during the war. But none were returned, even though the Laos government indicated they desired to release American POW’s.
February 19, 1973 (UPI): “A Pathet Lao spokesman said his group is holding American prisoners of war who will be released after a cease fire goes into effect.”
But how many POW’s were they holding?
March 25, 1973 (UPI): “US sources believe that a substantial number of missing in Laos – perhaps as many as 100 – still may be alive.”
Laos made it clear. If American POW’s were to be released, Laos needed a separate cease fire agreement with the US – one separate from the agreement made with North Vietnam. A Washington Post report headline dated February 18, 1973 stated, “Pathet Lao says, no truce, no American POW’s”. But the US government appeared unwilling to negotiate a cease fire with Pathet Lao. And American chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks, Henry Kissinger, wanted American prisoners held in Vietnam and Laos returned in Vietnam through Hanoi.
March 26, 1973: North Vietnam announces they will release the last American prisoners being held, on March 27 and 28.
March 26, 1973 (AP): “The US demand that it also release POW’s captured in Laos, is beyond the Paris Peace Agreement.”
Capt. Eugene “Red” McDaniel (former POW): “After having asked for over 3,700 men, they gave us their list, the Vietnamese list of 591, which I happened to be one of. We accepted that list and came home in four groups. 591 men. And on April 13, 1973, and this is public record, the US government said, ‘they’re all dead!’. Well, my question is, what happened to those other 3,109 that we asked for between March of 73 and April 73, when we declared them all dead. What happened to those men?”
And, why would the United States government declare American prisoners of war dead, less than three weeks after US sources reported to UPI that as many as 100 were still alive, and after the United States originally asked for 3,700 men?
In a futile attempt to buy freedom for America’s POW’s, a secret letter dated February 1, 1973, was sent to the North Vietnamese Prime Minister from Henry Kissinger. The letter stated that the United States was willing to pay $3.2 billion dollars over five years. While this offer was being made by the Executive Branch, Congress was busying itself investigating the torturous treatment received by our servicemen at the hands of their Communist captors. Many former American POW’s testified to being tortured any number of ways throughout a given day.
One of the most brutalized of all, had this to say, “We’re talking, seven days and seven nights with no sleep, kneeling on concrete twenty-four hours a day, electric shock treatment about three hours per session, getting beaten with a fan belt about fifty times. And that was just the physical torture. The psychological torture was even worse. They’d come down and interrupt your daily interrogation and tell you there’s been a change in your family. And if you asked what kind of change, they would say, you don’t need to know. And you live with that for the next three or four years.”
April 6, 1973: Angered by reports of torture, the US Senate voted 88-3 to bar any financial aid to North Vietnam.
April 12, 1973: The Pentagon declares all American POWs dead.
April 30, 1973: White House staffers Bob Haldeman, John Erlichman and John Dean, were forced to resign. The POW issue was forced to take a back seat as the Nixon Administration became entangled in Watergate.
Being skeptical of Nixon’s ability to deliver the $3.25 billion dollars, which he never did, the North Vietnamese decided to keep their collateral, meaning prisoners from the war. And it wasn’t the first time the Vietnamese had ransomed prisoners. French POWs waited years for an agreement to be made. Evidence shows one example of this old Communist technique taking place after the liberation of numerous Nazi prison camps after World War II.
Stalin had held thousands of American and Allied prisoners, vowing not to return any of them unless numerous Soviet demands were met. General Eisenhower was aware that Americans were being held prisoner in the Soviet Union just weeks after the end of the war. In a secret message dated May 9, 1945, sent to General George Marshall in Washington, he estimated the number of prisoners being held at 25,000. Ominously, those Americans never returned home.
American POW’s taken from the Korean War were also transported to the Soviet Union. This fact was confirmed in a secret memo to the US Embassy in Moscow from then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, advising the Soviets that the United States was indeed aware that US POW’s from Korea were being held in the Soviet Union. Also verifying this is a Combined Reconnaissance Activities Report, dated February 24, 1953, as well as a CIA report dated July 15, 1951, which also mentions 78 American POW’s from Korea being held in a camp in China.
Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Daniel Graham had this to say, “The Soviets would come with a list of specialties and look and pick among the POW’s being held in North Korea and then ship them out.” A CIA intelligence report dated as recently as March 9, 1988, indicates that at least some American POW’s from the Korean War may still be alive. It states, “11 Caucasians, possibly American prisoners, were seen on a farm north of P’Yongyang.”
Did History Repeat Itself?
What are the chances that American POW’s from Vietnam were also shipped to the Soviet Union?
According to Jerry Mooney, Former National Security Agency analyst, when the Soviets had the occasion to take into their possession, prisoners with superior technical knowledge, they would move them to a small underground prison located in Vietnam. The prisoners would then be taken to a small air field and flown to the coast. From there, they would be taken by boat, rather than by plane, to the USSR. He explains, “If a ship went down, the evidence was gone. If a plane goes down, there’s evidence all over the place.”
Testimony before the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1991 by a former Soviet KGB official and a former Vietnamese General, suggests American POW’s were interrogated by the Soviets. Committee member, Senator Robert Smith, explains the significance of this admission, “All the American POW’s who came home, never gave any indication that they were ever interrogated by Russians. So, if that’s the case, where are all the ones who were?”
Smith and the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA affairs, Senator John Kerry, were appointed to a joint US/Russian Commission to comb KGB files for answers regarding the fate of American prisoners from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Evidence
Former President George Bush Sr., “There’s no hard evidence of prisoners being alive.”
Former Congressman and former consultant to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Bill Hendon, strongly disagrees with the former President as he furiously lists cases of documented sightings to the Senate Committee: “49 in North Vietnam, 200 in North Vietnam, 4 in South Vietnam, 184 in Vietnam, 70 to 80 in North Vietnam, a ‘truck load’ in North Vietnam, 2 in Laos, ‘a group’ in North Vietnam, 50 in Laos, 230 in Vietnam from the CIA, and 219 more in Vietnam from a Vietnamese doctor who testified that he took care of them.”
Continue reading Page 2 of 2
Thursday, May 24, 2012
MURDOCH: #Leveson #presreform: Jeremy Hunt memo to David Ca...
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
MURDOCH: #Leveson #Pressreform : Papal Knight Murdoch Told ...
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Real Lords of Afghan Poppy Fields & Heroin Distribution Hubs
Facts, Myths, Smugglers, and the International Dudes
Yesterday this so-not-news news made the headlines: Central Asia Key to Afghanistan Heroin Smuggling – UNODC. The headline was followed by these so-not-accurate descriptions and statements [emphasis mine]:
A new report by the United Nations drug agency sheds light on the nuts and bolts of narcotics transit from Afghanistan through Central Asia, highlighting the former Soviet republics’ lackluster efforts at interdiction.
…
The 106-page report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released this month, describes how smugglers traffic heroin and opium from Afghanistan, the world’s largest producer, to Russia, the world’s largest consumer. Ninety tons of highly pure heroin, roughly a quarter of the substance exiting Afghanistan, passes through Central Asia annually. Yet in 2010 authorities in the region seized less than 3 percent of it. And despite international efforts to help, that number keeps falling.
…
You see, these kinds of reports never reveal the so-called culprit smugglers. And somehow these reports always get the role of the so-called international efforts backwards. What do I mean? How do you describe the situation when the smugglers are high-level international dudes, the large part of the international efforts are to increase not decrease the smuggling exerted by the same smuggling international dudes, and the international cosmetic show put on in pretense of international efforts to decrease smuggling are performed by the same international smuggler dudes who’s efforts are to increase the smugglings?
I
know. I know it all sounds convoluted and highly complicated, but
actually it is quite simple. I’ll get to that later, so let’s check out a
few other so-not-true pieces of information from this so-not-news
report:
Central Asia’s entrenched corruption makes the region a perfect smuggling route, says the report. Senior officials are complicit in the trade, or at least take bribes to look the other way, especially in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. A lack of cooperation among neighbors also offers a boon to traffickers.
…
Let’s hold it right there. By entrenched corruption they mean the ruling regimes and its forces. They somehow find it irrelevant to mention the fact that these regimes are hand-picked, sustained and managed by the international dudes. Let me give you a few hints, starting with how we pick-feed-sustain the ‘entrenched corruption’ referred to in this so-called report:
In 2007, the Pentagon provided some 30 million dollars in a variety of aid programmes to the Bakiyev regime – mainly as compensation for access to the Manas Air Base, according to the report. That was roughly six times what it spent on democracy and civil society programmes. The Pentagon also reportedly awarded exclusive fuelling contracts – now under investigation both in Bishkek and in Congress – for U.S. operations at the base to companies in which Bakiyev’s cronies and son had substantial interests, contributing to the perception in Kyrgyzstan that Washington was backing a corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime.
…
Do I really need to expand upon this? I don’t think so. But, remember, the report sites those neighbor countries as well, so let’s get a few facts straight here
Washington has provided military and police aid at various times to the Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan – virtually since their creation after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991…By the end of the decade, aid had expanded in most of the five countries, as CENTCOM – whose writ runs from Egypt to China’s southwestern border – sent Special Operations Forces (SOF) to train local troops in counterinsurgency in increasingly restive Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbek and Kazakh militaries were taking part in NATO exercises…
…
Are you with me so far? Good. Let’s proceed. In January 2012 I wrote a brief piece on Manas-US Air Base in Kyrgyzstan
Since 2001 Kyrgyzstan has been hosting the Transit Center at Manas (formerly Manas Air Base) as the transit point for US military personnel coming and going from Afghanistan, and pays 200 million for continued use of the facilities. For years the base has been riddled with scandals and fiascos.
…
And I quoted well researched and supported statements and reports on the real purpose of Manas:
Last year, Peter Dale Scott wrote a lengthy article outlining how US intervention in Kyrgyzstan, in the name of protecting its strategic air base, has led to the destabilization of Kyrgyz politics and to a drastic increase in the flow of drugs through the country:
“…that there is a deep force behind drug, intelligence, and jihadi activity, would be consistent with the legacy of the CIA’s earlier interventions in Afghanistan, Laos, and Burma, and with America’s overall responsibility for the huge increases in global drug trafficking since World War II. It is important to understand that the more than doubling of Afghan opium drug production since the U.S. invasion of 2001 merely replicates the massive drug increases in Burma, Thailand, and Laos between the late 1940s and the 1970s. These countries also only became major sources of supply in the international drug traffic as a result of CIA assistance (after the French, in the case of Laos) to what would otherwise have been only local traffickers.
As early as 2001 Kyrgyzstan’s location had made it a focal point for transnational trafficking groups. According to a U.S. Library of Congress Report of 2002,
Kyrgyzstan has become a primary center of all aspects of the narcotics industry: manufacture, sale, and drug trafficking. Kyrgyzstan’s location adjacent to major routes across the Tajik mountains from Afghanistan combines with ineffectual domestic smuggling controls to attract figures from what a Kyrgyz newspaper report characterized as “an international organization uniting an unprecedentedly wide circle of members in the United States, Romania, Brazil, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan….These are no half-literate Tajik-Afghan drug runners, but professionals who have passed through a probation period in the mafia clans of the world narcotics system….”
The Badakhshan drug corridor is a matter of urgent concern for Russia. The Afghan opiates entering Russia via Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, the chief smuggling route, come from Badakhshan and other northeastern provinces. The reductions of the last three years in Afghan drug production, while inadequate overall, have minimally impacted the northeast, allowing opiate imports into Russia to continue to grow. Meanwhile the much-touted clearing of opium poppy from the Afghan northern provinces has in some cases simply seen a switch “from opium poppies to another illegal crop: cannabis, the herb from which marijuana and hashish are derived.”
As a result, according to U.N. officials, Afghanistan is now also the world’s biggest producer of hashish (another drug inundating Russia).67 This has added to the flow of drugs up the Badakhshan-Tajik-Kyrgyz corridor. In short, the political skewing of America’s Afghan anti-drug policies is a significant reason for the major drug problems faced by Russia today.
…
In July 2010 I wrote a lengthy investigative piece at Boiling Frogs Post on Kyrgyzstan, Bakiyev, Mina Corp and the connected US operatives:
When we talk about the strategic importance of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other ‘stans’ we are not talking only about strategic in the sense of traditional resources-oil, we also talk about ‘narcotics resources’:
At the moment the stock of pure heroin in Afghanistan is estimated at slightly below 3,000 tons, and the revenues of Afghan drug suppliers reach around $3 bn annually. The international drug mafia earns at least $100 bn annually on heroin from Afghanistan, the money nourishing organized crime not only in Afghanistan but also across Central Asia – in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
And no, the real lords of these resources are not the farmers in Afghanistan or the mules transporting them. The real lords of heroin enterprises happen to be those who’ve been ‘groomed and planted’ to rule the source and transit nations, and the ones who rule those rulers who reside in the United States and other Western countries:
The revenues generated by the drug business are distributed among the criminal groups controlling various segments of the supply chain linking poppy farms to narcotics consumers. While Afghan poppy growers are enduring extreme poverty, the owners of the fields mostly reside in the US, Great Britain, and other Western democracies.
…
Now, let’s go back to that so-not-factual report on Central Asia’s role in Heroin:
Kyrgyzstan is the preferred route because of its porous, 870-kilometer border with Tajikistan (two-thirds of which has never been formally demarcated) and the country’s “widespread corruption.” Osh, near that border, is a “drug consolidation point,” and the stomping ground for criminal gangs that played a role in 2010’s ethnic violence. Kyrgyzstan’s ongoing instability directly and indirectly facilitates trafficking, says the report.
…
The report makes Tajikistan the fall guy, more accurately, the fall country. You know why? Let me give you a hint:
Although Tajikistan has consistently stood in the geostrategic shadow of its perennially unstable southern neighbour, Afghanistan, and lacks the political and military clout of its fellow post-Soviet Central Asian neighbours, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, it is a state of both regional and global import. Situated at a key crossroad within the Eurasian landmass, Tajikistan has the potential to play a strong role in shaping the economic development and trading opportunities for a number of state and non-state actors within Eurasia. With increased investment into its transport infrastructure, Tajikistan could provide a vital link between East Asia and the Persian Gulf, on the one hand, and between Russia and India, on the other. In effect, it could become an important pivot point in regional and global trade.
…
Iranian interest and investment in Tajikistan has continued to increase in recent months, with Iran signing a number of economic agreements with the Tajik government, including a plan to build an industrial town in the country. Although only in the formative stages, it is hoped that this project will eventually lead to the construction of fifty industrial enterprises including aluminium, cotton and fruit processing plants at an estimated cost of over $2 billion.
In addition to these investments, Iranian political elites have also sought to increase economic ties between Iran’s eastern provinces, north-western Afghanistan and Tajikistan. They have promoted cooperation in the areas of water management, electricity distribution, rail development and deregulation in visa and customs procedures.
...
Right. The foreign smuggler dudes who happen to be the same international dudes in charge of Central Asia’s heroin corridor don’t like Tajikistan who happens to like Iran. That makes Tajikistan a good fall country for a not-so-true report.
On the other hand, the largest heroin transport operation network in Central Asia-think military bases, think air-bases, think semi-NATO bases … just keep thinking, goes totally absent in this so-not-factual report written probably by an arm of the same international dudes in question;-)
With that I’ll present Boiling Frogs Post exclusive video report, the EyeOpener, with James Corbett on Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Operation:
Monday, May 21, 2012
Chicago police frame antiwar activists on “terrorism” charges
The bogus character of the charges is demonstrated by the fact that the five men are charged for three separate incidents, linked only by the involvement of two undercover police provocateurs, who instigated or concocted each of the supposed “terrorist” plots.
Defense attorneys said the two provocateurs, a man and a woman, went by the nicknames “Mo” and “Gloves,” and had made many contacts among the activists organizing protests at the NATO summit May 20-21.
National Lawyers Guild attorney Sarah Gelsomino told the press that the two had steered all five of the arrested men into activities that led to their arrests. She said that “Mo” and “Gloves” began associating with anti-NATO protest organizers in early May, and that many activists were now afraid that these casual contacts could lead to their arrest.
The first set of terrorism charges was revealed Saturday, when Chicago police announced that three men arrested Wednesday would be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or incendiary device, and providing material support to terrorism, in connection with an alleged plan to attack the NATO conference.
The three men are Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Florida; and Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire. All three were arrested during a police raid on a South Side apartment in which a total of nine people were detained. The other six were released Friday without any charges filed against them.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy claimed police were responding to an “imminent threat,” and police officials told the press that those arrested planned to bomb the home of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the national headquarters of the Obama reelection campaign, and local police stations. Police spokesmen subsequently admitted that there was no imminent threat to either Obama or his NATO guests.
Rest of the article -
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/05/terr-m21.html



