By Oliver Biggadike and Ye Xie
June 27 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar declined the most against the euro in a month and dropped versus the yen after China repeated its call for a new global currency.
The Swiss franc declined against the euro and dollar this week as foreign-exchange analysts said the central bank sold its currency three times to support the economy. The greenback fell against most of its major counterparts after the People’s Bank of China said yesterday the International Monetary Fund should manage more of members’ foreign-exchange reserves.
“The dollar’s status as a reserve currency is being questioned,” said Benedikt Germanier, a foreign-exchange strategist in Stamford, Connecticut at UBS AG, the second- largest currency trader. “There are reasons to sell the dollar.”
The U.S. currency fell 0.9 percent to $1.4056 per euro this week from $1.3937 on June 19, the swiftest depreciation since the five days ended May 29. The dollar fell 1.1 percent to 95.18 yen from 96.27, its third consecutive weekly drop. The euro decreased 0.3 percent to 133.85 yen from 134.18.
Federal Reserve policy makers said on June 24 inflation “will remain subdued for some time” and that the economy warrants an “extended period” of low rates.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell the most since March as investors bet the Fed will keep interest rates close to zero for the rest of the year. The difference in yield, or spread, between 2- and 10-year yields decreased this week to 2.43 percentage points, near the narrowest level since May 20.
Stronger Real
Brazil’s real gained 2 percent to 1.9363 versus the greenback, its biggest weekly increase in June, as the sale of shares in Visa Inc.’s local credit-card processing affiliate attracted foreign investors to the world’s biggest initial public offering in more than a year.
The dollar depreciated 2.6 percent to 7.8926 South African rand and 1.4 percent to 7.8002 Swedish krona as the People’s Bank of China said in its 2008 review there’s a need for a global reserve currency “delinked from sovereign nations.”
The Swiss franc declined against the euro and dollar as strategists said the Swiss National Bank sold its currency twice on June 24 and once more a day later to support the economy. Nicolas Haymoz, an SNB spokesman, declined to comment on June 25 on whether the bank acted in foreign-exchange markets.
‘Unwelcome’ Strength
“The SNB has to convince markets that it considers a strong franc as unwelcome,” Unicredit SpA analysts Armin Mekelburg in Munich and Roberto Mialich in Milan wrote in a report yesterday. “We fear that franc bulls will start further attempts to wipe out the line in the sand of 1.50.”
The franc fell 1 percent to 1.5230 against the euro and 0.2 percent to 1.0834 compared with the dollar this week. The Swiss currency declined on June 24 to 1.5380 versus the euro, the weakest level since the mid-March period when the SNB said it intervened to weaken the franc.
The ICE’s Dollar Index fell below 80 on the call from China for an alternative to the dollar as the world’s main reserve currency. The gauge tracking the greenback versus the currencies of six leading trading partners decreased 0.5 percent to 79.90.
“To prevent the deficiencies in the main reserve currency, there’s a need to create a new currency that’s delinked from the economies of the issuers,” the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, said. China is the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, with $763.5 billion in April.
Russia’s Stance
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on June 13 after the Group of Eight meeting in Italy that his country had full confidence in the dollar and that it’s “too early” to speak of alternative reserve currencies. Japan has “unshakable” trust in the strong-dollar policy of the U.S., Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said in Tokyo yesterday.
China called on the U.S. to guarantee the safety of its assets in March, when Premier Wen Jiabao said the nation was “worried” about its holdings of Treasuries.
People’s Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan urged the IMF that month to expand the functions of its unit of account and move toward a “super-sovereign reserve currency.” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed on June 5 that nations use a mix of regional reserve currencies to reduce reliance on the dollar.
“There may be signs here of tensions mounting between the PBOC’s economic concerns over China’s holdings of dollars and the Chinese government’s diplomatic reasons for doing so,” Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange in London, wrote in an e-mail.
Venezuela’s bolivar plunged yesterday to a seven-week low in unregulated trading after the government said investors won’t be able to use a new $3 billion corporate bond offering to obtain dollars until 2011.
The bolivar fell 4.1 percent to 6.90 bolivars per dollar in the parallel market, traders said. The currency tumbled 20 percent this year in the unregulated market as the government pared dollar sales at the official exchange rate of 2.15 after oil, which accounts for 93 percent of the country’s exports, plunged from last year’s record high.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Top Nazis Planned EU-Style Fourth Reich
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
A writer who was collecting material for a fictional book based around the premise that top Nazis, seeking to preserve their power at the end of the second world war, conspired to create a Fourth Reich under the auspices of the European Union, actually discovered documents proving the plot to be true.
In a Daily Mail piece, Adam Lebor reveals how he uncovered US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128, also known as The Red House Report, which details how top Nazis secretly met at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944 and, knowing Germany was on the brink of military defeat, conspired to create a Fourth Reich - a pan-European economic empire based around a European common market.
Top Nazi industrialists were ordered by SS Obergruppenfuhrer Dr Scheid to set up front companies abroad and pose as democrats in order to achieve economic penetration and lay the foundations for the re-emergence of the Nazi party.
“The Third Reich was defeated militarily, but powerful Nazi-era bankers, industrialists and civil servants, reborn as democrats, soon prospered in the new West Germany. There they worked for a new cause: European economic and political integration,” writes Lebor.
Wealthy Nazi industrialists like Alfried Krupp of Krupp Industries and Friedrich Flick, as well as front companies like BMW, Siemens and Volkswagen, set about the task of building a new pan-European business empire. According to historian Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, an adviser to Jewish former slave labourers, “For many leading industrial figures close to the Nazi regime, Europe became a cover for pursuing German national interests after the defeat of Hitler….The continuity of the economy of Germany and the economies of post-war Europe is striking. Some of the leading figures in the Nazi economy became leading builders of the European Union.”
Banking titan Hermann Abs, who joined board of Deutsche Bank during the rise of Nazis, also sat on the supervisory board of I.G. Farben, the company that made the Zyklon B gas used to kill concentration camp victims. “Abs was put in charge of allocating Marshall Aid - reconstruction funds - to German industry. By 1948 he was effectively managing Germany’s economic recovery,” writes Lebor.
“Crucially, Abs was also a member of the European League for Economic Co-operation, an elite intellectual pressure group set up in 1946. The league was dedicated to the establishment of a common market, the precursor of the European Union.”
The European League for Economic Co-operation developed policies for European integration that almost mirrored those proposed by Nazis just years previously.
In his book “Europe’s Full Circle,” Rodney Atkinson provides a list of policies proposed by Nazis and their similarity to today’s European Union.
“Is it possible that the Fourth Reich those Nazi industrialists foresaw has, in some part at least, come to pass?” asks Lebor.
“These three typewritten pages are a reminder that today’s drive towards a European federal state is inexorably tangled up with the plans of the SS and German industrialists for a Fourth Reich - an economic rather than military imperium.”
As we have highlighted in the past, Nazism and the EU have some very disturbing parallels. Indeed, the two are fundamentally intertwined and the origins of the EU can be traced directly back to the Nazis.
The foundations for the EU and ultimately the Euro single currency were laid by the secretive Bilderberg Group in the mid-1950’s. Bilderberg’s owned leaked documents prove that the agenda to create a European common market and a single currency were formulated by Bilderberg in 1955. One of the group’s principle founders was H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, a former Nazi SS officer.
But the ideological framework for the European Union goes back even further, to the 1940’s when top Nazi economists and academics outlined the plan for a single European economic community, an agenda that was duly followed after the end of the second world war.
In his 1940 book The European Community, Nazi Economics Minister and war criminal Walther Funk wrote about the need to create a “Central European Union” and “European Economic Area” and for fixed exchange rates, stating “No nation in Europe can achieve on its own the highest level of economic freedom which is compatible with all social requirements…The formation of very large economic areas follows a natural law of development….interstate agreements in Europe will control [economic forces generally]…There must be a readiness to subordinate one’s own interests in certain cases to those of [the EC].”
Funk’s co-authors echoed his sentiments. Nazi academic Heinrich Hunke wrote, “Classic national economy..is dead…community of fate which is the European economy…fate and extent of European co-operation depends on a new unity economic plan”.
Fellow Nazi Gustav Koenig observed, “We have a real European Community task before us…I am convinced that this Community effort will last beyond the end of the war.”
In 1940, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels ordered the creation of the “large-scale economic unification of Europe,” believing that “in fifty years’ time [people would] no longer think in terms of countries.” Just 53 years later, the European Union in its current form was established.
Other top Nazis who called for the creation of a pan-European federal economic superstate include Ribbentrop, Quisling and Seyss-Inquart, who spoke of “The new Europe of solidarity and co-operation among all its people… will find…rapidly increasing prosperity once national economic boundaries are removed.”
Such rhetoric would not look out of place at a present day Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission or CFR confab.
The Nazis killed people who spoke out against the Third Reich, whereas the EU has implemented an altogether more efficient solution - simply kill their free speech instead.
A Dutch MP was recently refused entry to Britain because his political opinions were deemed offensive under EU laws. Euro MP’s have consistently attempted to ban the “dangerous and unregulated blogosphere” in an attempt to shut down free speech on the Internet. Under the 1999 ruling of the European Court Of Justice (case 274/99), it is illegal to criticize the EU and the EU is on a mission to outlaw any national political parties that do not pander to the European federal superstate agenda.
Most of the individuals who hold the reigns of power in the European Union are not Nazis, indeed, they probably believe themselves to be fair-minded liberals working for the “greater good”. However, the European Union by its very nature is totalitarian, because it seeks to remove power from national governments accountable to their electorate and centralize it into the hands of supra-national entities that are accountable to nobody but themselves. It also seeks to remove the right of free speech for anyone in a position of influence who criticizes this agenda.
The fact that the EU was a brainchild of top Nazi economists and industrialists, formulated as a means of preserving dictatorial power and then implemented by a former Nazi working under the auspices of the Bilderberg Group in 1955, proves that the entire European Union system is poisoned with a legacy and a raison d’être of totalitarianism.
This is becoming increasingly obvious in the 21st century as popular social movements across Europe rise up to oppose the blatant power grab being undertaken by the EU via the Lisbon Treaty, which will again be put before Irish voters later this year despite them already rejecting it in a national referendum, which prevented the treaty from being enforced.
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
A writer who was collecting material for a fictional book based around the premise that top Nazis, seeking to preserve their power at the end of the second world war, conspired to create a Fourth Reich under the auspices of the European Union, actually discovered documents proving the plot to be true.
In a Daily Mail piece, Adam Lebor reveals how he uncovered US Military Intelligence report EW-Pa 128, also known as The Red House Report, which details how top Nazis secretly met at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944 and, knowing Germany was on the brink of military defeat, conspired to create a Fourth Reich - a pan-European economic empire based around a European common market.
Top Nazi industrialists were ordered by SS Obergruppenfuhrer Dr Scheid to set up front companies abroad and pose as democrats in order to achieve economic penetration and lay the foundations for the re-emergence of the Nazi party.
“The Third Reich was defeated militarily, but powerful Nazi-era bankers, industrialists and civil servants, reborn as democrats, soon prospered in the new West Germany. There they worked for a new cause: European economic and political integration,” writes Lebor.
Wealthy Nazi industrialists like Alfried Krupp of Krupp Industries and Friedrich Flick, as well as front companies like BMW, Siemens and Volkswagen, set about the task of building a new pan-European business empire. According to historian Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, an adviser to Jewish former slave labourers, “For many leading industrial figures close to the Nazi regime, Europe became a cover for pursuing German national interests after the defeat of Hitler….The continuity of the economy of Germany and the economies of post-war Europe is striking. Some of the leading figures in the Nazi economy became leading builders of the European Union.”
Banking titan Hermann Abs, who joined board of Deutsche Bank during the rise of Nazis, also sat on the supervisory board of I.G. Farben, the company that made the Zyklon B gas used to kill concentration camp victims. “Abs was put in charge of allocating Marshall Aid - reconstruction funds - to German industry. By 1948 he was effectively managing Germany’s economic recovery,” writes Lebor.
“Crucially, Abs was also a member of the European League for Economic Co-operation, an elite intellectual pressure group set up in 1946. The league was dedicated to the establishment of a common market, the precursor of the European Union.”
The European League for Economic Co-operation developed policies for European integration that almost mirrored those proposed by Nazis just years previously.
In his book “Europe’s Full Circle,” Rodney Atkinson provides a list of policies proposed by Nazis and their similarity to today’s European Union.
“Is it possible that the Fourth Reich those Nazi industrialists foresaw has, in some part at least, come to pass?” asks Lebor.
“These three typewritten pages are a reminder that today’s drive towards a European federal state is inexorably tangled up with the plans of the SS and German industrialists for a Fourth Reich - an economic rather than military imperium.”
As we have highlighted in the past, Nazism and the EU have some very disturbing parallels. Indeed, the two are fundamentally intertwined and the origins of the EU can be traced directly back to the Nazis.
The foundations for the EU and ultimately the Euro single currency were laid by the secretive Bilderberg Group in the mid-1950’s. Bilderberg’s owned leaked documents prove that the agenda to create a European common market and a single currency were formulated by Bilderberg in 1955. One of the group’s principle founders was H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, a former Nazi SS officer.
But the ideological framework for the European Union goes back even further, to the 1940’s when top Nazi economists and academics outlined the plan for a single European economic community, an agenda that was duly followed after the end of the second world war.
In his 1940 book The European Community, Nazi Economics Minister and war criminal Walther Funk wrote about the need to create a “Central European Union” and “European Economic Area” and for fixed exchange rates, stating “No nation in Europe can achieve on its own the highest level of economic freedom which is compatible with all social requirements…The formation of very large economic areas follows a natural law of development….interstate agreements in Europe will control [economic forces generally]…There must be a readiness to subordinate one’s own interests in certain cases to those of [the EC].”
Funk’s co-authors echoed his sentiments. Nazi academic Heinrich Hunke wrote, “Classic national economy..is dead…community of fate which is the European economy…fate and extent of European co-operation depends on a new unity economic plan”.
Fellow Nazi Gustav Koenig observed, “We have a real European Community task before us…I am convinced that this Community effort will last beyond the end of the war.”
In 1940, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels ordered the creation of the “large-scale economic unification of Europe,” believing that “in fifty years’ time [people would] no longer think in terms of countries.” Just 53 years later, the European Union in its current form was established.
Other top Nazis who called for the creation of a pan-European federal economic superstate include Ribbentrop, Quisling and Seyss-Inquart, who spoke of “The new Europe of solidarity and co-operation among all its people… will find…rapidly increasing prosperity once national economic boundaries are removed.”
Such rhetoric would not look out of place at a present day Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission or CFR confab.
The Nazis killed people who spoke out against the Third Reich, whereas the EU has implemented an altogether more efficient solution - simply kill their free speech instead.
A Dutch MP was recently refused entry to Britain because his political opinions were deemed offensive under EU laws. Euro MP’s have consistently attempted to ban the “dangerous and unregulated blogosphere” in an attempt to shut down free speech on the Internet. Under the 1999 ruling of the European Court Of Justice (case 274/99), it is illegal to criticize the EU and the EU is on a mission to outlaw any national political parties that do not pander to the European federal superstate agenda.
Most of the individuals who hold the reigns of power in the European Union are not Nazis, indeed, they probably believe themselves to be fair-minded liberals working for the “greater good”. However, the European Union by its very nature is totalitarian, because it seeks to remove power from national governments accountable to their electorate and centralize it into the hands of supra-national entities that are accountable to nobody but themselves. It also seeks to remove the right of free speech for anyone in a position of influence who criticizes this agenda.
The fact that the EU was a brainchild of top Nazi economists and industrialists, formulated as a means of preserving dictatorial power and then implemented by a former Nazi working under the auspices of the Bilderberg Group in 1955, proves that the entire European Union system is poisoned with a legacy and a raison d’être of totalitarianism.
This is becoming increasingly obvious in the 21st century as popular social movements across Europe rise up to oppose the blatant power grab being undertaken by the EU via the Lisbon Treaty, which will again be put before Irish voters later this year despite them already rejecting it in a national referendum, which prevented the treaty from being enforced.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Rutgers Professor Warns Geoengineering Could “Create Disasters,” Global Famine
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Debate surrounding the possibility of geoengineering the earth’s climate by lining the atmosphere with aerosol particles has moved from idle speculation to serious consideration, and was a core topic of discussion at a recent National Academy of Sciences workshop.
However, a top Rutgers University professor warned at the meeting that tampering with the planet’s delicate ecosystem could create famines and droughts, threatening the lives of no less than a third of the world’s population.
The plan to shoot aerosols - dust particles - into the earth’s upper stratosphere in an attempt to cool the planet and offset the purported effects of global warming, should be considered as an “emergency response” to a climate crisis, according to Harvard University’s Dan Schrag, who told the workshop that such a crisis was already underway.
“I think we should consider climate engineering only as an emergency response to a climate crisis, but I question whether we’re already experiencing a climate crisis — whether we’ve already crossed that threshold,” Schrag said.
According to an NPR report on the meeting, University of Calgary’s David Keith urged the introduction of geoengineering experiments on a global scale and that they should be conducted “sooner rather than later”.
But Rutgers University professor Alan Robock warned that such experiments “could create disasters,” damaging the ozone layer and potentially altering the stratosphere by eliminating weather patterns such as the annual Asian monsoon rain season, which 2 billion people rely upon to water their crops and feed the population.
“Imagine if we triggered a drought and famine while trying to cool the planet,” Robock said.
As we have previously highlighted, discussions regarding the possibility of “geo-engineering” the earth’s climate to counter global warming by “shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays” has stoked fresh concerns that similar programs are already underway, and that chemtrails are directly connected to such experimentation.
Chemtrails differ from ordinary contrails in that they hang in the sky for hours and are often observed to be emitted from planes that fly criss-cross routes, leading to the formation of ‘X’ and grid-like patterns in the sky. Chemtrails also directly effect localized weather by turning a clear blue sky into a hazy overcast.
Last year, a KSLA news investigation found that a substance that fell to earth from a high altitude chemtrail contained high levels of Barium (6.8 ppm) and Lead (8.2 ppm) as well as trace amounts of other chemicals including arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium and silver. Of these, all but one are metals, some are toxic while several are rarely or never found in nature. The newscast focuses on Barium, which its research shows is a “hallmark of chemtrails.” KSLA found Barium levels in its samples at 6.8 ppm or “more than six times the toxic level set by the EPA.”
KSLA also asked Mark Ryan, Director of the Poison Control Center, about the effects of Barium on the human body. Ryan commented that “short term exposure can lead to anything from stomach to chest pains and that long term exposure causes blood pressure problems.” The Poison Control Center further reported that long-term exposure, as with any harmful substance, would contribute to weakening the immune system, which many speculate is the purpose of such man-made chemical trails.
As we covered in a previous in-depth report, numerous universities and government agencies have been conducting studies in the field of geoengineering for years.
In addition, the Obama administration’s interest in exploring “geo-engineering” mirrors recent publications penned by the elite Council On Foreign Relations.
In a document entitled Geoengineering: Workshop on Unilateral Planetary Scale Geoengineering, the CFR proposes different methods of “reflecting sunlight back into space,” which include adding “small reflecting particles in the upper part of the atmosphere,” adding “more clouds in the lower part of the atmosphere,” and placing “various kinds of reflecting objects in space either near the earth or at a stable location between the earth and the sun.”
The proposals in the CFR document match exactly the atmospheric effects observed in the aftermath of chemtrail spraying.
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Debate surrounding the possibility of geoengineering the earth’s climate by lining the atmosphere with aerosol particles has moved from idle speculation to serious consideration, and was a core topic of discussion at a recent National Academy of Sciences workshop.
However, a top Rutgers University professor warned at the meeting that tampering with the planet’s delicate ecosystem could create famines and droughts, threatening the lives of no less than a third of the world’s population.
The plan to shoot aerosols - dust particles - into the earth’s upper stratosphere in an attempt to cool the planet and offset the purported effects of global warming, should be considered as an “emergency response” to a climate crisis, according to Harvard University’s Dan Schrag, who told the workshop that such a crisis was already underway.
“I think we should consider climate engineering only as an emergency response to a climate crisis, but I question whether we’re already experiencing a climate crisis — whether we’ve already crossed that threshold,” Schrag said.
According to an NPR report on the meeting, University of Calgary’s David Keith urged the introduction of geoengineering experiments on a global scale and that they should be conducted “sooner rather than later”.
But Rutgers University professor Alan Robock warned that such experiments “could create disasters,” damaging the ozone layer and potentially altering the stratosphere by eliminating weather patterns such as the annual Asian monsoon rain season, which 2 billion people rely upon to water their crops and feed the population.
“Imagine if we triggered a drought and famine while trying to cool the planet,” Robock said.
As we have previously highlighted, discussions regarding the possibility of “geo-engineering” the earth’s climate to counter global warming by “shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays” has stoked fresh concerns that similar programs are already underway, and that chemtrails are directly connected to such experimentation.
Chemtrails differ from ordinary contrails in that they hang in the sky for hours and are often observed to be emitted from planes that fly criss-cross routes, leading to the formation of ‘X’ and grid-like patterns in the sky. Chemtrails also directly effect localized weather by turning a clear blue sky into a hazy overcast.
Last year, a KSLA news investigation found that a substance that fell to earth from a high altitude chemtrail contained high levels of Barium (6.8 ppm) and Lead (8.2 ppm) as well as trace amounts of other chemicals including arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium and silver. Of these, all but one are metals, some are toxic while several are rarely or never found in nature. The newscast focuses on Barium, which its research shows is a “hallmark of chemtrails.” KSLA found Barium levels in its samples at 6.8 ppm or “more than six times the toxic level set by the EPA.”
KSLA also asked Mark Ryan, Director of the Poison Control Center, about the effects of Barium on the human body. Ryan commented that “short term exposure can lead to anything from stomach to chest pains and that long term exposure causes blood pressure problems.” The Poison Control Center further reported that long-term exposure, as with any harmful substance, would contribute to weakening the immune system, which many speculate is the purpose of such man-made chemical trails.
As we covered in a previous in-depth report, numerous universities and government agencies have been conducting studies in the field of geoengineering for years.
In addition, the Obama administration’s interest in exploring “geo-engineering” mirrors recent publications penned by the elite Council On Foreign Relations.
In a document entitled Geoengineering: Workshop on Unilateral Planetary Scale Geoengineering, the CFR proposes different methods of “reflecting sunlight back into space,” which include adding “small reflecting particles in the upper part of the atmosphere,” adding “more clouds in the lower part of the atmosphere,” and placing “various kinds of reflecting objects in space either near the earth or at a stable location between the earth and the sun.”
The proposals in the CFR document match exactly the atmospheric effects observed in the aftermath of chemtrail spraying.
Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills
Posted: April 07, 2005
A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police.
According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case.
Bolesta told the Sun: "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole – and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son's car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills.
As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.
"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money – like she's doing me a favor."
Bolesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
Said Bolesta: "I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank.' I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was taken to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police.
According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case.
Bolesta told the Sun: "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole – and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son's car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills.
As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.
"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money – like she's doing me a favor."
Bolesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
Said Bolesta: "I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank.' I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was taken to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
HR847 IS GETTING INTRODUCED INTO THE SENATE
GILLIBRAND, SCHUMER, LAUTENBERG, MENENDEZ TO INTRODUCE JAMES ZADROGA 9/11 HEALTH AND COMPENSATION ACT IN THE U.S. SENATE
Today at 8:07pm
First Time Comprehensive 9/11 Health Legislation Will Be Introduced In Senate
Mayor Bloomberg and Representatives Maloney, Nadler, King, and McMahon to Join Gillibrand to Help Provide Treatment for Community Members, First Responders Suffering From 9/11-Related Health Effects
Joseph Zadroga, Fire Lt. Marty Fullam, Others Affected by Rescue and Clean-Up Efforts to Tell Their Stories
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will be joined by Senators Charles E. Schumer, Frank R. Lautenberg, and Robert Menendez and Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King and Michael McMahon, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 9/11 first responders, construction workers, clean-up workers and community members who have suffered from the long term health effects of working at Ground Zero to introduce the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act – the first comprehensive 9/11 health legislation to ever be introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Thousands were lost on the morning of September 11, 2001, but today, thousands more – including first responders, area residents, workers, students and others – are sick and getting sicker from exposure to toxins released from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers.
The 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would ensure proper monitoring and treatment for the innocent men, women and children that face life-threatening health effects due to the toxins released at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
WHO: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg
Senator Robert Menendez
Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King, Michael E. McMahon
Joseph Zadroga, father of James Zadroga, the first known death from 9/11-related illness
Fire Lt. Marty Fullam
Ken George, city worker involved in clean-up efforts
Other First Responders, Construction Workers, Clean-Up Workers
New York City Area Residents
DATE: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: 301 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Today at 8:07pm
First Time Comprehensive 9/11 Health Legislation Will Be Introduced In Senate
Mayor Bloomberg and Representatives Maloney, Nadler, King, and McMahon to Join Gillibrand to Help Provide Treatment for Community Members, First Responders Suffering From 9/11-Related Health Effects
Joseph Zadroga, Fire Lt. Marty Fullam, Others Affected by Rescue and Clean-Up Efforts to Tell Their Stories
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will be joined by Senators Charles E. Schumer, Frank R. Lautenberg, and Robert Menendez and Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King and Michael McMahon, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and 9/11 first responders, construction workers, clean-up workers and community members who have suffered from the long term health effects of working at Ground Zero to introduce the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act – the first comprehensive 9/11 health legislation to ever be introduced in the U.S. Senate.
Thousands were lost on the morning of September 11, 2001, but today, thousands more – including first responders, area residents, workers, students and others – are sick and getting sicker from exposure to toxins released from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers.
The 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would ensure proper monitoring and treatment for the innocent men, women and children that face life-threatening health effects due to the toxins released at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
WHO: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Senator Charles E. Schumer
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg
Senator Robert Menendez
Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler, Peter King, Michael E. McMahon
Joseph Zadroga, father of James Zadroga, the first known death from 9/11-related illness
Fire Lt. Marty Fullam
Ken George, city worker involved in clean-up efforts
Other First Responders, Construction Workers, Clean-Up Workers
New York City Area Residents
DATE: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
TIME: 10:00 AM
PLACE: 301 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.
Ron Paul: Obama’s ‘goal’ is economic collapse
By David Edwards and Stephen Webster
6/24/2009
Ron Paul, the popular Republican Congressman from Texas, is ripping into the president and Congress for what he sees as their “goal” with round after round of stimulus: complete economic collapse.
“From their spending habits, an economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress and this administration,” he said in his June 22, 2009, weekly address.
He added that Democrats who voted for the president’s war funding request, which gave an additional $106 billion to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq — among other, unrelated items — were actually voting in favor of the wars, not just authorization of the president’s agenda.
He called it an affront to everyone who believed a vote for Obama was a vote for a peace candidate.
The president’s insistence on including an additional $108 billion in asset exchange with the International Monetary Fund is merely “buying global oppression,” he said.
Paul added that, “this [bill sent] $660 million to Gaza, $555 million to Israel, $310 million to Egypt, $300 million to Jordan and $420 million to Mexico; and some $889 million will be sent to the United Nations for so-called peace keeping missions.”
In other words, the latest U.S. war funding was an “International bailout,” he said.
The legislation’s provisions for the IMF included 100 billion dollars for the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), a credit instrument providing the multilateral institution with additional resources to deal with exceptional risks to the stability of the international monetary system.
They also include an expansion of the nation’s special drawing rights by five billion SDRs, adding roughly eight billion dollars to the IMF’s financial firepower.
The 100 billion dollars for the NAB acts as a credit line for the IMF in case member countries need emergency loans that exceed the institution’s resources. As such, the money is not considered an immediate budget expense.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had proposed to strip out the IMF funds, but his measure was defeated in May by a vote of 64-30.
“Not only does sending money to the IMF hurt citizens here, evidence shows that it even hurts those it pretends to help,” Paul said. “Along with IMF loans come IMF required policy changes called ’structural adjustment programs,’ which amount to forced Keynesianism. This is the very fantasy-infused economic model that brought our own country to its knees.”
This audio is from Congressman Ron Paul’s weekly address, released June 22, 2009.
6/24/2009
Ron Paul, the popular Republican Congressman from Texas, is ripping into the president and Congress for what he sees as their “goal” with round after round of stimulus: complete economic collapse.
“From their spending habits, an economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress and this administration,” he said in his June 22, 2009, weekly address.
He added that Democrats who voted for the president’s war funding request, which gave an additional $106 billion to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq — among other, unrelated items — were actually voting in favor of the wars, not just authorization of the president’s agenda.
He called it an affront to everyone who believed a vote for Obama was a vote for a peace candidate.
The president’s insistence on including an additional $108 billion in asset exchange with the International Monetary Fund is merely “buying global oppression,” he said.
Paul added that, “this [bill sent] $660 million to Gaza, $555 million to Israel, $310 million to Egypt, $300 million to Jordan and $420 million to Mexico; and some $889 million will be sent to the United Nations for so-called peace keeping missions.”
In other words, the latest U.S. war funding was an “International bailout,” he said.
The legislation’s provisions for the IMF included 100 billion dollars for the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), a credit instrument providing the multilateral institution with additional resources to deal with exceptional risks to the stability of the international monetary system.
They also include an expansion of the nation’s special drawing rights by five billion SDRs, adding roughly eight billion dollars to the IMF’s financial firepower.
The 100 billion dollars for the NAB acts as a credit line for the IMF in case member countries need emergency loans that exceed the institution’s resources. As such, the money is not considered an immediate budget expense.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had proposed to strip out the IMF funds, but his measure was defeated in May by a vote of 64-30.
“Not only does sending money to the IMF hurt citizens here, evidence shows that it even hurts those it pretends to help,” Paul said. “Along with IMF loans come IMF required policy changes called ’structural adjustment programs,’ which amount to forced Keynesianism. This is the very fantasy-infused economic model that brought our own country to its knees.”
This audio is from Congressman Ron Paul’s weekly address, released June 22, 2009.
Ex-detainees 'allege abuse at US Afghan base'
Former detainees of the Bagram air base in Afghanistan have alleged a catalogue of abuse at the US military facility, the BBC reported Wednesday, after a two-month investigation.
Ex-inmates listed mistreatment including beatings, sleep deprivation and being threatened with dogs at the base north of Kabul, said the broadcaster.
"They did things that you would not do against animals, let alone to humans," said one former detainee, identifed as Dr. Khandan, while another described having a gun put to his head and being threatened with death.
The detainees were held in Bagram between 2002 and 2008. They were all accused of belonging to or helping Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, but no charges were brought and some received apologies when released.
The Pentagon denies the allegations, made in interviews with 27 former detainees, the BBC said, adding that only two of those questioned reported having been treated well.
It quoted a spokesman for US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Mark Wright, as saying conditions at Bagram "meet international standards for care and custody".
"There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed and service members have been held accountable for their actions in those cases," he added in a statement.
But a British legal rights lobby group, Reprieve, said the allegations confirm its concerns.
"Bagram is the new Guantanamo Bay," it said in a statement, urging the British government to take action over two Pakistanis it claims Britain helped render to Bagram from Iraq.
The BBC noted that US President Barack Obama vowed to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba immediately after taking office in January.
Unlike Guantanamo detainees, inmates in Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention, it said.
"The legal black hole in Bagram underlines the British government's moral black hole when it comes to rendering two Pakistani prisoners there in 2004," said Reprieve chief Clive Stafford Smith.
"As we have said all along, beating people and holding them incommunicado is not humane, safe and secure," he added.
Ex-inmates listed mistreatment including beatings, sleep deprivation and being threatened with dogs at the base north of Kabul, said the broadcaster.
"They did things that you would not do against animals, let alone to humans," said one former detainee, identifed as Dr. Khandan, while another described having a gun put to his head and being threatened with death.
The detainees were held in Bagram between 2002 and 2008. They were all accused of belonging to or helping Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, but no charges were brought and some received apologies when released.
The Pentagon denies the allegations, made in interviews with 27 former detainees, the BBC said, adding that only two of those questioned reported having been treated well.
It quoted a spokesman for US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Mark Wright, as saying conditions at Bagram "meet international standards for care and custody".
"There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed and service members have been held accountable for their actions in those cases," he added in a statement.
But a British legal rights lobby group, Reprieve, said the allegations confirm its concerns.
"Bagram is the new Guantanamo Bay," it said in a statement, urging the British government to take action over two Pakistanis it claims Britain helped render to Bagram from Iraq.
The BBC noted that US President Barack Obama vowed to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba immediately after taking office in January.
Unlike Guantanamo detainees, inmates in Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention, it said.
"The legal black hole in Bagram underlines the British government's moral black hole when it comes to rendering two Pakistani prisoners there in 2004," said Reprieve chief Clive Stafford Smith.
"As we have said all along, beating people and holding them incommunicado is not humane, safe and secure," he added.
Houston police mum on marijuana prisoner’s death
A woman serving a short sentence in a Houston, Texas, jail for possession of marijuana died in custody over the weekend, and officers are not saying how or why.
The 29-year-old, identified as Theresa Anthony, had expected to spend just two and a half weeks behind bars in the Harris County lockup. On Saturday, Cynthia Prude, Theresa’s mother, received a phone call from the jail’s Chaplain informing her that her daughter was dead.
“I almost got in a wreck,” Prude told the local Fox affiliate. “I thought somebody was playing on the phone. I would like to know what happened to my daughter.”
Prude has not been allowed to see the body, nor has the Harris County Sheriff’s Department even spoken with her, according to area media.
“Today I still don’t know if that’s my daughter,” Prude told Houston news station KHOU. “I’m only going by a Social Security number that we got from Ben Taub Hospital.”
Houston’s Fox affiliate noted that an autopsy has not yet been conducted on Theresa’s body.
The Harris County Sheriff Department’s public information officer was not available to answer RAW STORY’s questions.
Not the first time
It is hardly the first time serious questions surrounded the death of a Harris County inmate.
On 4 June 2009, the Justice Department concluded a 15 months-long investigation into the Harris County facility and determined in the subsequent 27-page report that over 142 prisoners had died there since 2001. Most expired due to lack of medical care, the report claims.
The Associated Press noted that after the Justice Department declined to make its findings public, The Houston Chronicle was able to obtain a copy, which it released on the Internet.
The findings, addressed to Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, lauded the prison’s efforts to maintain security, booking and intake programs and take basic fire safety precautions. The Justice Department said that by these measures, the facility “complies with constitutional requirements in a number of significant respects.”
The Justice Department added that in spite of these marginal safety and procedural issues, “certain conditions at the jail violate the constitutional rights of detainees. Indeed, the number of inmate deaths related to inadequate medical care [...] is alarming.”
This video is from My Fox Houston, broadcast late Monday, June 22, 2009.
The 29-year-old, identified as Theresa Anthony, had expected to spend just two and a half weeks behind bars in the Harris County lockup. On Saturday, Cynthia Prude, Theresa’s mother, received a phone call from the jail’s Chaplain informing her that her daughter was dead.
“I almost got in a wreck,” Prude told the local Fox affiliate. “I thought somebody was playing on the phone. I would like to know what happened to my daughter.”
Prude has not been allowed to see the body, nor has the Harris County Sheriff’s Department even spoken with her, according to area media.
“Today I still don’t know if that’s my daughter,” Prude told Houston news station KHOU. “I’m only going by a Social Security number that we got from Ben Taub Hospital.”
Houston’s Fox affiliate noted that an autopsy has not yet been conducted on Theresa’s body.
The Harris County Sheriff Department’s public information officer was not available to answer RAW STORY’s questions.
Not the first time
It is hardly the first time serious questions surrounded the death of a Harris County inmate.
On 4 June 2009, the Justice Department concluded a 15 months-long investigation into the Harris County facility and determined in the subsequent 27-page report that over 142 prisoners had died there since 2001. Most expired due to lack of medical care, the report claims.
The Associated Press noted that after the Justice Department declined to make its findings public, The Houston Chronicle was able to obtain a copy, which it released on the Internet.
The findings, addressed to Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, lauded the prison’s efforts to maintain security, booking and intake programs and take basic fire safety precautions. The Justice Department said that by these measures, the facility “complies with constitutional requirements in a number of significant respects.”
The Justice Department added that in spite of these marginal safety and procedural issues, “certain conditions at the jail violate the constitutional rights of detainees. Indeed, the number of inmate deaths related to inadequate medical care [...] is alarming.”
This video is from My Fox Houston, broadcast late Monday, June 22, 2009.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Study Finds High-Fructose Corn Syrup Contains Mercury
MONDAY, Jan. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.
HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average.
"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.
In the first study, published in current issue of Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS.
And in the second study, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiments.
But an organization representing the refiners is disputing the results published in Environmental Health.
"This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance," said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, in a statement. "Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances."
However, the IATP told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that four plants in Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia still use "mercury-cell" technology that can lead to contamination.
IATP's Ben Lilliston also told HealthDay that the Environmental Health findings were based on information gathered by the FDA in 2005.
And the group's own study, while not peer-reviewed, was based on products "bought off the shelf in the autumn of 2008," Lilliston added.
The use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common. The contamination occurs when mercury cells are used to produce caustic soda.
"The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury. The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients," Wallinga said in his prepared statement.
More information
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry has more about mercury and health.
SOURCE: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, news release, Jan. 26, 2009
HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80 percent more HFCS than average.
"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.
In the first study, published in current issue of Environmental Health, researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS.
And in the second study, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a non-profit watchdog group, found that nearly one in three of 55 brand-name foods contained mercury. The chemical was found most commonly in HFCS-containing dairy products, dressings and condiments.
But an organization representing the refiners is disputing the results published in Environmental Health.
"This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance," said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, in a statement. "Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances."
However, the IATP told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that four plants in Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and West Virginia still use "mercury-cell" technology that can lead to contamination.
IATP's Ben Lilliston also told HealthDay that the Environmental Health findings were based on information gathered by the FDA in 2005.
And the group's own study, while not peer-reviewed, was based on products "bought off the shelf in the autumn of 2008," Lilliston added.
The use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common. The contamination occurs when mercury cells are used to produce caustic soda.
"The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury. The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients," Wallinga said in his prepared statement.
More information
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry has more about mercury and health.
SOURCE: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, news release, Jan. 26, 2009
Does Fluoridation Up Bone Cancer Risk?
April 6, 2006 - Boys who drink fluoridated water have an increased risk of a deadly bone cancer, a new study suggests.
Elise Bassin, DDS, completed the study in 2001 for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard, where she now is clinical instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology. The study finally was published in the May issue of Cancer Causes and Control.
Bassin and colleagues' major finding: Boys who grew up in communities that added at least moderate levels of fluoride to their water got bone cancer -- osteosarcoma -- more often than boys who drank water with little or no fluoride.
The risk peaked for boys who drank more highly fluoridated water between the ages of 6 and 8 years -- a time at which children undergo a major growth spurt. By the time they were 20, these boys got bone cancer 5.46 times more often than boys with the lowest consumption. No effect was seen for girls.
Unexpected Results
In a prepared statement provided to WebMD, Bassin says she "was surprised by the results."
"Having a background in dentistry and dental public health, [I] was taught that fluoride at recommended levels is safe and effective for the prevention of dental [cavities]," Bassin says in the statement. "All of [our analyses] were consistent in finding an association between fluoride levels in drinking water and an increased risk of osteosarcoma for males diagnosed before age 20, but not consistently for girls."
It's not surprising that Bassin found a risk for boys but not for girls. Osteosarcoma is about 50% more common in males than in females. And boys tend to have more fluoride in their bones than girls.
Caution About Study
However, a commentary accompanying Bassin's article warns to take her findings with a grain of salt. Ironically, it is from Harvard professor Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD. Douglass led Bassin's PhD committee, which approved of the study when it was presented as her doctoral dissertation.
Douglass warns that the Bassin study is based only on a subset of people exposed to fluoridated water. Preliminary results from the entire population of exposed individuals, Douglass writes, show no link between bone cancer and water fluoridation.
But Bassin specifically looked at the subgroup of people most likely to be affected by fluoridation: children. She limited her analysis to people who got bone cancer by age 20. That's because most cases of osteosarcoma occur either during the teen years or after middle age.
Fluoride collects in the bones. And it's particularly likely to accumulate in the bones during periods of rapid bone growth. So Bassin looked at fluoride exposures during childhood for 103 under-20 osteosarcoma patients and compared them with 215 matched people without bone cancer. Her study took into account how much fluoride was in the water in the communities where children actually lived and the history of municipal, well water, or bottled water use.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog organization, says water fluoridation should stop until further research can refute or confirm Bassin's findings. Tim Kropp, PhD, is a senior scientist at EWG.
"About 65% of the U.S. water supply has added fluoride," Kropp tells WebMD. "With evidence this strong, it only makes sense to act on it. Right now, it makes the most sense to put fluoride in toothpaste, and not into our water. It's not like this is a huge contaminant that will cost billions of dollars to fix. We can just stop adding it to our water it if we want to."
According to the American Cancer Society, every year some 900 Americans -- 400 of them children and teens -- get osteosarcoma.
Elise Bassin, DDS, completed the study in 2001 for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard, where she now is clinical instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology. The study finally was published in the May issue of Cancer Causes and Control.
Bassin and colleagues' major finding: Boys who grew up in communities that added at least moderate levels of fluoride to their water got bone cancer -- osteosarcoma -- more often than boys who drank water with little or no fluoride.
The risk peaked for boys who drank more highly fluoridated water between the ages of 6 and 8 years -- a time at which children undergo a major growth spurt. By the time they were 20, these boys got bone cancer 5.46 times more often than boys with the lowest consumption. No effect was seen for girls.
Unexpected Results
In a prepared statement provided to WebMD, Bassin says she "was surprised by the results."
"Having a background in dentistry and dental public health, [I] was taught that fluoride at recommended levels is safe and effective for the prevention of dental [cavities]," Bassin says in the statement. "All of [our analyses] were consistent in finding an association between fluoride levels in drinking water and an increased risk of osteosarcoma for males diagnosed before age 20, but not consistently for girls."
It's not surprising that Bassin found a risk for boys but not for girls. Osteosarcoma is about 50% more common in males than in females. And boys tend to have more fluoride in their bones than girls.
Caution About Study
However, a commentary accompanying Bassin's article warns to take her findings with a grain of salt. Ironically, it is from Harvard professor Chester W. Douglass, DMD, PhD. Douglass led Bassin's PhD committee, which approved of the study when it was presented as her doctoral dissertation.
Douglass warns that the Bassin study is based only on a subset of people exposed to fluoridated water. Preliminary results from the entire population of exposed individuals, Douglass writes, show no link between bone cancer and water fluoridation.
But Bassin specifically looked at the subgroup of people most likely to be affected by fluoridation: children. She limited her analysis to people who got bone cancer by age 20. That's because most cases of osteosarcoma occur either during the teen years or after middle age.
Fluoride collects in the bones. And it's particularly likely to accumulate in the bones during periods of rapid bone growth. So Bassin looked at fluoride exposures during childhood for 103 under-20 osteosarcoma patients and compared them with 215 matched people without bone cancer. Her study took into account how much fluoride was in the water in the communities where children actually lived and the history of municipal, well water, or bottled water use.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog organization, says water fluoridation should stop until further research can refute or confirm Bassin's findings. Tim Kropp, PhD, is a senior scientist at EWG.
"About 65% of the U.S. water supply has added fluoride," Kropp tells WebMD. "With evidence this strong, it only makes sense to act on it. Right now, it makes the most sense to put fluoride in toothpaste, and not into our water. It's not like this is a huge contaminant that will cost billions of dollars to fix. We can just stop adding it to our water it if we want to."
According to the American Cancer Society, every year some 900 Americans -- 400 of them children and teens -- get osteosarcoma.
Monday, June 22, 2009
White House Changes the Terms of a Campaign Pledge About Posting Bills Online
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: June 22, 2009
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised that once a bill was passed by Congress, the White House would post it online for five days before he signed it.
The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
“When there’s a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it, so that you know what your government’s doing,” Mr. Obama said as a candidate, telling voters he would make government more transparent and accountable.
When he took office in January, his team added that in posting nonemergency bills, it would “allow the public to review and comment” before Mr. Obama signed them.
Five months into his administration, Mr. Obama has signed two dozen bills, but he has almost never waited five days. On the recent credit card legislation, which included a controversial measure to allow guns in national parks, he waited just two.
Various watchdog groups have slapped Mr. Obama’s wrist for repeatedly failing to live up to the pledge. Politifact.com, the fact-checking arm of The St. Petersburg Times, has branded it a “promise broken.”At the same time, many have questioned the value of the promise, saying it was too late in the process for anything to change in a bill.
“There isn’t anybody in this town who doesn’t know that commenting after a bill has been passed is meaningless,” said Ellen S. Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group dedicated to making government more transparent.
Now, in a tacit acknowledgment that the campaign pledge was easier to make than to fulfill, the White House is changing its terms. Instead of starting the five-day clock when Congress passes a bill, administration officials say they intend to start it earlier and post the bills sooner.
“In order to continue providing the American people more transparency in government, once it is clear that a bill will be coming to the president’s desk, the White House will post the bill online,” said Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman. “This will give the American people a greater ability to review the bill, often many more than five days before the president signs it into law.”
Mr. Shapiro said the move would provide more transparency because the White House site drew so much traffic. It also stretches out the time in which a bill will be posted, making it easier for Mr. Obama to abide by the pledge.
Currently, after a bill passes Congress, the White House posts it by linking to the site of the Library of Congress. From now on, the White House plans to link to the site earlier, though Mr. Shapiro did not specify when.
The move marks a departure in the White House position on the pledge. Since January, when Mr. Obama broke the pledge with the first bill he signed, the administration has said it would implement it “in full soon.”
The Obama team has also said that it found unexpected technical hurdles in translating its campaign goals to governing. This is especially true regarding the posting of online comments. Ms. Miller of the Sunlight Foundation said that while the pledge was well intentioned, it was “meaningless” because it would not change anything and it had no mechanism for public comments or initiating a national conversation.
More useful, she said, would be for Congress to post bills earlier in the process, when language can still be changed. (Representative Brian N. Baird, Democrat of Washington, introduced a bill last week that says the House must post bills 72 hours before debate begins; a similar measure has not been introduced in the Senate.)
Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning research organization, has tracked Mr. Obama’s bill-signing history. He said posting bills before final passage could be problematic because of last-minute changes.
One glaring example came in February, when it was discovered that the 1,071-page federal stimulus bill allowed millions of dollars in bonuses for American International Group executives.
If members of Congress know that final language will be “sitting out there” for five days, Mr. Harper said, they might be less likely to try to slip in questionable items. And if Mr. Obama keeps his pledge to wait five days, Mr. Harper said, he might set an example for Congress.
Published: June 22, 2009
During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised that once a bill was passed by Congress, the White House would post it online for five days before he signed it.
The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
“When there’s a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it, so that you know what your government’s doing,” Mr. Obama said as a candidate, telling voters he would make government more transparent and accountable.
When he took office in January, his team added that in posting nonemergency bills, it would “allow the public to review and comment” before Mr. Obama signed them.
Five months into his administration, Mr. Obama has signed two dozen bills, but he has almost never waited five days. On the recent credit card legislation, which included a controversial measure to allow guns in national parks, he waited just two.
Various watchdog groups have slapped Mr. Obama’s wrist for repeatedly failing to live up to the pledge. Politifact.com, the fact-checking arm of The St. Petersburg Times, has branded it a “promise broken.”At the same time, many have questioned the value of the promise, saying it was too late in the process for anything to change in a bill.
“There isn’t anybody in this town who doesn’t know that commenting after a bill has been passed is meaningless,” said Ellen S. Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group dedicated to making government more transparent.
Now, in a tacit acknowledgment that the campaign pledge was easier to make than to fulfill, the White House is changing its terms. Instead of starting the five-day clock when Congress passes a bill, administration officials say they intend to start it earlier and post the bills sooner.
“In order to continue providing the American people more transparency in government, once it is clear that a bill will be coming to the president’s desk, the White House will post the bill online,” said Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman. “This will give the American people a greater ability to review the bill, often many more than five days before the president signs it into law.”
Mr. Shapiro said the move would provide more transparency because the White House site drew so much traffic. It also stretches out the time in which a bill will be posted, making it easier for Mr. Obama to abide by the pledge.
Currently, after a bill passes Congress, the White House posts it by linking to the site of the Library of Congress. From now on, the White House plans to link to the site earlier, though Mr. Shapiro did not specify when.
The move marks a departure in the White House position on the pledge. Since January, when Mr. Obama broke the pledge with the first bill he signed, the administration has said it would implement it “in full soon.”
The Obama team has also said that it found unexpected technical hurdles in translating its campaign goals to governing. This is especially true regarding the posting of online comments. Ms. Miller of the Sunlight Foundation said that while the pledge was well intentioned, it was “meaningless” because it would not change anything and it had no mechanism for public comments or initiating a national conversation.
More useful, she said, would be for Congress to post bills earlier in the process, when language can still be changed. (Representative Brian N. Baird, Democrat of Washington, introduced a bill last week that says the House must post bills 72 hours before debate begins; a similar measure has not been introduced in the Senate.)
Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning research organization, has tracked Mr. Obama’s bill-signing history. He said posting bills before final passage could be problematic because of last-minute changes.
One glaring example came in February, when it was discovered that the 1,071-page federal stimulus bill allowed millions of dollars in bonuses for American International Group executives.
If members of Congress know that final language will be “sitting out there” for five days, Mr. Harper said, they might be less likely to try to slip in questionable items. And if Mr. Obama keeps his pledge to wait five days, Mr. Harper said, he might set an example for Congress.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
9/11 Truth Movement Rejects Propaganda of Hypocrisy
i agree with these statements 100 % this is an article from 911truth.org
6/19/2009
We as members of the 9/11 Truth community deplore all forms of hatred and violence, including the unprovoked murderous attack by James von Brunn on June 10, 2009, in the Washington Holocaust museum. We also deplore peddlers of hatred who use such events for their own purposes, such as Glenn Beck, who recently said that von Brunn, because of his attack, was now "a hero in the 9/11Truther movement," which "would like to destroy the country" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQnfJeUzzKk).
There is no foundation whatsoever for these flagrant lies. Beck intentionally overlooks the fact that he shares Von Brunn's views on the Federal Reserve (stating "it's totally fine to speak out against the Fed"), views that von Brunn acted upon when he tried to arrest the Fed's Board with a bag of weapons in tow. Beck essentially overlooks the fact that von Brunn took action on his White Supremacist views, leading him to murder a Black guard in a Jewish museum. Yet Beck cautions viewers that 9/11 Truth advocates pose a graver threat, and are bent on working with al Qaeda to destroy the nation. ("... people like white supremacists or 9/11 truthers that would also like to destroy the country. They’ll work with anybody they can.")
Beck ostensibly encourages thinking for oneself, questioning authority and holding people to account when it comes to the Fed, yet when it comes to the crimes of 9/11, the mere act of questioning is treasonous, fraught with potential dangers on a scale that threatens the nation itself. Beck facilitates the unfounded, concerted effort to equate all 9/11 Truth advocates with anti-Semites, a propaganda tactic to minimize and demonize dissenting views. Like von Brunn, Beck advocates hatred for those who hold views counter to his own.
SIGNED:
Kent Harkrader
Thomas Carroll
Jeff Tanzer
E. Virgil Elvin
Matt Hartsook
Gabriel Day
Luis Vega
Susan Miller
David Douthat
Sue Whitney
Mitchell d adams
Peter Phillips
Barrie Zwicker
Rusty Chambers
Barbara Tomlinson
Cameron O'Connor
Faith -R-Michaels
Charles D. Whitney 6th
Dr. Gary Sevener
Tony j Ramsden
Alfred K. Rocci
Susan Gilgallon
J. Edward Kendrick, DDS
George Chan
Robert Huggins
James Hufferd
Teddy Woodward
Gerald M. Erickson
Tyler Reitenbaugh
Pierre Adler
Paul Maroun
Erik Larson
Bryan Sacks
Michael Wolsey
Mickey Huff
Peter Dale Scott
Fred Burks
Jon Gold
Michael Berger
Janice Matthews
Dan M Nalven
Friday, June 19, 2009
Jury rules against Minn. woman in download case
By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 18, 9:08 pm ET
MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.
Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her.
Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.
"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.
In closing arguments earlier Thursday, attorneys for both sides disputed what the evidence showed.
An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley said the music companies failed to prove allegations that Thomas-Rasset gave away songs by Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Journey and others.
"Only Jammie Thomas's computer was linked to illegal file-sharing on Kazaa," Sibley said. "They couldn't put a face behind the computer."
Sibley urged jurors not to ruin Thomas-Rasset's life with a debt she could never pay. Under federal law, the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 per song.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who heard the first lawsuit in 2007, ordered up a new trial after deciding he had erred in instructions to the jurors. The first time, he said the companies didn't have to prove anyone downloaded the copyrighted songs she allegedly made available. Davis later concluded the law requires that actual distribution be shown.
His jury instructions this time framed the issues somewhat differently. He didn't explicitly define distribution but said the acts of downloading copyrighted sound recordings or distributing them to other users on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, without a license from the owners, are copyright violations.
This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead now working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
In testimony this week, Thomas-Rasset denied she shared any songs. On Wednesday, the self-described "huge music fan" raised the possibility for the first time in the long-running case that her children or ex-husband might have done it. The defense did not provide any evidence, though, that any of them had shared the files.
The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.
Reynolds argued Thursday that the evidence clearly pointed to Thomas-Rasset as the person who made the songs available on Kazaa under the screen name "tereastarr." It's the same nickname she acknowledged having used for years for her e-mail and several other computer accounts, including her MySpace page.
Reynolds said the copyright security company MediaSentry traced the files offered by "tereastarr" on Kazaa to Thomas-Rasset's Internet Protocol address — the online equivalent of a street address — and to her modem.
He said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That's an important point, given Davis' new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.
Sibley argued it would have made no sense for Thomas-Rasset to use the name "tereastarr" to do anything illegal, given that she had used it widely for several years.
He also portrayed the defendant as one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the recording industry, and he warned jurors that they could also find themselves accused on the basis of weak evidence if their computers are ever linked to illegal file-sharing.
"They are going to come at you like they came at 'tereastarr,'" he said.
Steve Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, estimated earlier this week that only a few hundred of the lawsuits remain unresolved and that fewer than 10 defendants were actively fighting them.
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.
The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.
MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.
A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.
Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.
The new trial was ordered after the judge in the case decided he had erred in giving jury instructions.
Thomas-Rasset sat glumly with her chin in hand as she heard the jury's finding of willful infringement, which increased the potential penalty. She raised her eyebrows in surprise when the jury's penalty of $80,000 per song was read.
Outside the courtroom, she called the $1.92 million figure "kind of ridiculous" but expressed resignation over the decision.
"There's no way they're ever going to get that," said Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old mother of four from the central Minnesota city of Brainerd. "I'm a mom, limited means, so I'm not going to worry about it now."
Her attorney, Kiwi Camara, said he was surprised by the size of the judgment. He said it suggested that jurors didn't believe Thomas-Rasset's denials of illegal file-sharing, and that they were angry with her.
Camara said he and his client hadn't decided whether to appeal or pursue the Recording Industry Association of America's settlement overtures.
Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the industry remains willing to settle. She refused to name a figure, but acknowledged Thomas-Rasset had been given the chance to settle for $3,000 to $5,000 earlier in the case.
"Since Day One we have been willing to settle this case and we remain willing to do so," Duckworth said.
In closing arguments earlier Thursday, attorneys for both sides disputed what the evidence showed.
An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.
Defense attorney Joe Sibley said the music companies failed to prove allegations that Thomas-Rasset gave away songs by Gloria Estefan, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Journey and others.
"Only Jammie Thomas's computer was linked to illegal file-sharing on Kazaa," Sibley said. "They couldn't put a face behind the computer."
Sibley urged jurors not to ruin Thomas-Rasset's life with a debt she could never pay. Under federal law, the jury could have awarded up to $150,000 per song.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who heard the first lawsuit in 2007, ordered up a new trial after deciding he had erred in instructions to the jurors. The first time, he said the companies didn't have to prove anyone downloaded the copyrighted songs she allegedly made available. Davis later concluded the law requires that actual distribution be shown.
His jury instructions this time framed the issues somewhat differently. He didn't explicitly define distribution but said the acts of downloading copyrighted sound recordings or distributing them to other users on peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa, without a license from the owners, are copyright violations.
This case was the only one of more than 30,000 similar lawsuits to make it all the way to trial. The vast majority of people targeted by the music industry had settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits last August and is instead now working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
In testimony this week, Thomas-Rasset denied she shared any songs. On Wednesday, the self-described "huge music fan" raised the possibility for the first time in the long-running case that her children or ex-husband might have done it. The defense did not provide any evidence, though, that any of them had shared the files.
The recording companies accused Thomas-Rasset of offering 1,700 songs on Kazaa as of February 2005, before the company became a legal music subscription service following a settlement with entertainment companies. For simplicity's sake the music industry tried to prove only 24 infringements.
Reynolds argued Thursday that the evidence clearly pointed to Thomas-Rasset as the person who made the songs available on Kazaa under the screen name "tereastarr." It's the same nickname she acknowledged having used for years for her e-mail and several other computer accounts, including her MySpace page.
Reynolds said the copyright security company MediaSentry traced the files offered by "tereastarr" on Kazaa to Thomas-Rasset's Internet Protocol address — the online equivalent of a street address — and to her modem.
He said MediaSentry downloaded a sample of them from the shared directory on her computer. That's an important point, given Davis' new instructions to jurors.
Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.
Sibley argued it would have made no sense for Thomas-Rasset to use the name "tereastarr" to do anything illegal, given that she had used it widely for several years.
He also portrayed the defendant as one of the few people brave enough to stand up to the recording industry, and he warned jurors that they could also find themselves accused on the basis of weak evidence if their computers are ever linked to illegal file-sharing.
"They are going to come at you like they came at 'tereastarr,'" he said.
Steve Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, estimated earlier this week that only a few hundred of the lawsuits remain unresolved and that fewer than 10 defendants were actively fighting them.
The companies that sued Thomas-Rasset are subsidiaries of all four major recording companies, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment.
The recording industry has blamed online piracy for declines in music sales, although other factors include the rise of legal music sales online, which emphasize buying individual tracks rather than full albums.
Congress Subpoenas the Fed Over Bank of America-Merrill Lynch Deal
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
By Anne Flaherty, Associated Press
Washington (AP) - House lawmakers on Tuesday said they have subpoenaed the Federal Reserve to hand over e-mails, notes and other documents related to its role in Bank of America Corp.'s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The lawmakers' subpoena comes after claims that top government officials pressured Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to complete the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch, threatening his job security. Lewis has testified that he had been advised by the officials, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, not to disclose details of Merrill Lynch's difficult financial position, according to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
The Fed and Paulson have denied pressuring Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch.
"We expect to respond completely and fully as requested beginning today," a Federal Reserve spokesperson said.
The subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Bank of America's Lewis planned to testify on Thursday before the panel.
In prepared remarks, Lewis said his company had considered stopping the deal at one point because of "significant, accelerating losses" at Merrill Lynch. The bank decided to move forward with the deal after the government offered to provide assistance, he said.
"This course made sense for Bank of America and for its shareholders, and made sense for the stability of markets," Lewis said in prepared testimony. "We viewed those two interests as consistent."
Just a few weeks after the deal was completed, Bank of America's fourth-quarter earnings report showed the hit its balance sheet took on the Merrill Lynch transaction, making Lewis the target of shareholder anger. In January, Bank of America reported a $2.39 billion fourth-quarter loss and Merrill disclosed a more than $15 billion loss. The bank received $20 billion from the federal government in January after Lewis requested it to help offset mounting losses at Merrill.
Lawmakers say they are unconvinced that the Fed didn't take an active role in pressuring Bank of America to follow through with the deal and keep quiet about its worsening terms.
The panel, led by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., has been investigating the matter, as well as the $20 billion in taxpayer money provided to complete the acquisition.
"The marriage between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch was a shotgun wedding pushed by the Federal Reserve," said Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the panel's top Republican.
In April, Attorney General Cuomo confirmed reports that Lewis had told him that Paulson and Bernanke had pressured him to go through with the deal.
The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of the investment bank during the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, setting off one of the most intense periods of the financial crisis.
Bank of America completed its purchase of New York-based Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1.
Lawmakers had asked the Fed to release the some 6,000 documents involved in the case, but the Fed has expressed concern that information was confidential.
By Anne Flaherty, Associated Press
Washington (AP) - House lawmakers on Tuesday said they have subpoenaed the Federal Reserve to hand over e-mails, notes and other documents related to its role in Bank of America Corp.'s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The lawmakers' subpoena comes after claims that top government officials pressured Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to complete the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch, threatening his job security. Lewis has testified that he had been advised by the officials, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, not to disclose details of Merrill Lynch's difficult financial position, according to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
The Fed and Paulson have denied pressuring Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch.
"We expect to respond completely and fully as requested beginning today," a Federal Reserve spokesperson said.
The subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Bank of America's Lewis planned to testify on Thursday before the panel.
In prepared remarks, Lewis said his company had considered stopping the deal at one point because of "significant, accelerating losses" at Merrill Lynch. The bank decided to move forward with the deal after the government offered to provide assistance, he said.
"This course made sense for Bank of America and for its shareholders, and made sense for the stability of markets," Lewis said in prepared testimony. "We viewed those two interests as consistent."
Just a few weeks after the deal was completed, Bank of America's fourth-quarter earnings report showed the hit its balance sheet took on the Merrill Lynch transaction, making Lewis the target of shareholder anger. In January, Bank of America reported a $2.39 billion fourth-quarter loss and Merrill disclosed a more than $15 billion loss. The bank received $20 billion from the federal government in January after Lewis requested it to help offset mounting losses at Merrill.
Lawmakers say they are unconvinced that the Fed didn't take an active role in pressuring Bank of America to follow through with the deal and keep quiet about its worsening terms.
The panel, led by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., has been investigating the matter, as well as the $20 billion in taxpayer money provided to complete the acquisition.
"The marriage between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch was a shotgun wedding pushed by the Federal Reserve," said Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the panel's top Republican.
In April, Attorney General Cuomo confirmed reports that Lewis had told him that Paulson and Bernanke had pressured him to go through with the deal.
The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of the investment bank during the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, setting off one of the most intense periods of the financial crisis.
Bank of America completed its purchase of New York-based Merrill Lynch on Jan. 1.
Lawmakers had asked the Fed to release the some 6,000 documents involved in the case, but the Fed has expressed concern that information was confidential.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
1968 Chicago riot cops set to ‘celebrate’ mass beatings
Members of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) who participated in what an official report later described as a “police riot” during the 1968 Democratic National Convention are planning to get together next week to reminisce about the good times and set the record straight on “what really happened.”
FOP president Mark Donahue insists, “It’s just a get-together for guys who worked together 40 years ago. Nothing more.” However, the group’s own statements indicate that the reunion is intended as a political statement.
As the official Chicago Riot Cops website explains, “The time has come that the Chicago Police be honored and recognized for their contributions to maintaining law and order - and for taking a stand against Anarchy. The time was the hot summer month of August ‘68. The Democratic National Convention was about to start and the only thing that stood between Marxist street thugs and public order was a thin blue line of dedicated, tough Chicago police officers.”
The site offers information for those wishing to attend the reunion, along with a nostalgia-laden photo section featuring baton-wielding police officers cracking the skulls of demonstrators.
Chicago Copwatch, which tracks current police brutality, is organizing a rally and a march to the Fraternal Order of Police Hall on the night of the reunion. The group has issued a statement linking the events of the 1960s to present abuses:
“When [police] gather to celebrate one of the largest mass beatings in Chicago history they are also meeting to celebrate the savagery of that generation of the CPD. This is a celebration not only for the police who beat down DNC protesters, but also the ones who attacked the Puerto Rican community during 1966 Division Street Uprising, and assassinated Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. This reunion will be bringing together cops from this era with those who are currently oppressing our marches, occupying our communities, brutalizing, and mudering young people across the city.”
The Chicago Riot Cops website claims that “for decades the collective Left has white-washed what really happened during the riots of 1968 and 1969. Chicago Police officers who participated in the riots continue to endure unending criticism — all of which is unwarranted, inaccurate and wrong.”
However, much of the strongest criticism of the police came from the official Walker Report, issued in December 1968, which coined the term “police riot.”
As Time magazine reported in an article summarizing the report, the roots of the violence went back to the previous April, when then-Mayor Richard Daley had criticized the police for what he considered excessive restraint in dealing with the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King. When Daley and his aides took at face value the “diabolical threats” issued by the ragtag group of socialists, anarchists, pacifists, and pranksters who showed up to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention, the stage was set for massive police overreaction.
The anxious and overworked police lashed out indiscriminately, and according to Time, “Witnesses frequently noted that if a demonstrator being chased by police got away, the cops would simply club whoever else was handy.” Despite the police violence, no disciplinary actions in response to “these violators of sound police procedures and common decency” had been carried out prior to the completion of the report.
FOP president Mark Donahue insists, “It’s just a get-together for guys who worked together 40 years ago. Nothing more.” However, the group’s own statements indicate that the reunion is intended as a political statement.
As the official Chicago Riot Cops website explains, “The time has come that the Chicago Police be honored and recognized for their contributions to maintaining law and order - and for taking a stand against Anarchy. The time was the hot summer month of August ‘68. The Democratic National Convention was about to start and the only thing that stood between Marxist street thugs and public order was a thin blue line of dedicated, tough Chicago police officers.”
The site offers information for those wishing to attend the reunion, along with a nostalgia-laden photo section featuring baton-wielding police officers cracking the skulls of demonstrators.
Chicago Copwatch, which tracks current police brutality, is organizing a rally and a march to the Fraternal Order of Police Hall on the night of the reunion. The group has issued a statement linking the events of the 1960s to present abuses:
“When [police] gather to celebrate one of the largest mass beatings in Chicago history they are also meeting to celebrate the savagery of that generation of the CPD. This is a celebration not only for the police who beat down DNC protesters, but also the ones who attacked the Puerto Rican community during 1966 Division Street Uprising, and assassinated Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. This reunion will be bringing together cops from this era with those who are currently oppressing our marches, occupying our communities, brutalizing, and mudering young people across the city.”
The Chicago Riot Cops website claims that “for decades the collective Left has white-washed what really happened during the riots of 1968 and 1969. Chicago Police officers who participated in the riots continue to endure unending criticism — all of which is unwarranted, inaccurate and wrong.”
However, much of the strongest criticism of the police came from the official Walker Report, issued in December 1968, which coined the term “police riot.”
As Time magazine reported in an article summarizing the report, the roots of the violence went back to the previous April, when then-Mayor Richard Daley had criticized the police for what he considered excessive restraint in dealing with the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King. When Daley and his aides took at face value the “diabolical threats” issued by the ragtag group of socialists, anarchists, pacifists, and pranksters who showed up to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention, the stage was set for massive police overreaction.
The anxious and overworked police lashed out indiscriminately, and according to Time, “Witnesses frequently noted that if a demonstrator being chased by police got away, the cops would simply club whoever else was handy.” Despite the police violence, no disciplinary actions in response to “these violators of sound police procedures and common decency” had been carried out prior to the completion of the report.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
UK cop accuses colleagues of waterboarding pot suspects
Six members of London’s metropolitan police force are the focus of a criminal investigation after a corruption probe revealed allegations by a serving officer that detectives waterboarded suspects allegedly caught with a “large amount” of marijuana.
“The officers under investigation were among 10 based in Enfield, north London, who were suspended in February in one of the worst allegations of corruption to hit the Metropolitan police in recent years,” reported The Telegraph.
“The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC),” reported the Times Online. “It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested in Enfield and Tottenham.
The British publication added: “Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said ‘it would not have been in the public interest to proceed.’ It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.”
“The officers, who include a detective sergeant, were originally suspended over allegations they stole property during the drugs raids,” noted Sky News. “The officers are members of the Enfield crime squad based at Edmonton police station.”
“[British] papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of drowning,” reported the Associated Press. “The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’ heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.”
“The [metro police] Directorate of Professional Standards received information from an MPS employee which raised concerns about the conduct of a small number of officers on Enfield borough,” a police spokesman told The Telegraph. “The Met’s DPS then initiated a thorough investigation and as part of this made a referral to the IPCC in April 2009.
“The IPCC is independently investigating the actions of six officers during the arrests of five people in November 2008. ”
“Any allegations of such behavior are treated very seriously … and if found true the strongest possible action will be taken,” Scotland Yard told the AP in an e-mail.
“The officers under investigation were among 10 based in Enfield, north London, who were suspended in February in one of the worst allegations of corruption to hit the Metropolitan police in recent years,” reported The Telegraph.
“The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC),” reported the Times Online. “It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested in Enfield and Tottenham.
The British publication added: “Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said ‘it would not have been in the public interest to proceed.’ It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.”
“The officers, who include a detective sergeant, were originally suspended over allegations they stole property during the drugs raids,” noted Sky News. “The officers are members of the Enfield crime squad based at Edmonton police station.”
“[British] papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of drowning,” reported the Associated Press. “The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’ heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.”
“The [metro police] Directorate of Professional Standards received information from an MPS employee which raised concerns about the conduct of a small number of officers on Enfield borough,” a police spokesman told The Telegraph. “The Met’s DPS then initiated a thorough investigation and as part of this made a referral to the IPCC in April 2009.
“The IPCC is independently investigating the actions of six officers during the arrests of five people in November 2008. ”
“Any allegations of such behavior are treated very seriously … and if found true the strongest possible action will be taken,” Scotland Yard told the AP in an e-mail.
First Gitmo inmate in US court pleads not guilty
By TOM HAYS and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers – 5 mins ago
NEW YORK – Under heavy guard, a Guantanamo Bay detainee walked into a civilian U.S. courtroom for the first time Tuesday, underscoring the Obama administration's determination to close the Cuban prison and hold trials here despite Republican alarms about bringing terror suspects to America.
Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in two American Embassy bombings a decade ago, pleaded not guilty — in English — in a brief but historic federal court hearing that transported him from open-ended military detention to the civilian criminal justice system.
President Barack Obama has said keeping Ghailani from coming to the United States "would prevent his trial and conviction." Taking a drastically different stance, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio labeled Tuesday's move "the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America."
Ghailani, accused of being a bomb-maker, document forger and aide to Osama bin Laden, was brought to New York to await trial in connection with al-Qaida bombings that killed 224 people — including 12 Americans — at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
U.S. marshals took custody of Ghailani from his military jailers and transferred him to a federal lockup in lower Manhattan that currently holds financial swindler Bernard Madoff, and once held mob scion John "Junior" Gotti and blind terror leader Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.
Short and slim with a wispy goatee, Ghailani walked into the courtroom without shackles or handcuffs, wearing a blue jail smock.
He listened at times through an interpreter but then removed the headphones and appeared to understand what was said in English.
Asked by the judge if he wanted her to "read this big fat indictment," he conferred with his lawyer, said it was not necessary and made his plea: "not guilty."
About 10 deputy marshals were in the courtroom, including two who were behind him.
Ghailani's attorney, Scott L. Fenstermaker, declined comment after the hearing.
"We are ready to proceed in the case," declared Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin, who said there was "voluminous" evidence to be shared among attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska acknowledged Ghailani's U.S. military lawyers, Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell and Air Force Maj. Richard Reiter, who were seated in the courtroom but were not representing him at the hearing.
"Anything you can do to help him transition to the civilian courts will be greatly appreciated," she said.
Ghailani's trial will be an important test case for Obama's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo in seven months and bring some of the terror suspects there to trial.
Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case."
Though the bombings were a decade ago, "for us, it's like yesterday," said Sue Bartley, a Washington-area resident who lost her husband, Julian Leotis Bartley Sr., then U.S. consul general to Kenya, and her son, Julian "Jay" Bartley Jr.
"The embassy bombings were a precursor to 9/11. And even though we know that an American embassy located in any country is American soil, I don't think people really understand that," she said.
The U.S. response to the 2001 terror attacks — including the opening of the Guantanamo detention center — could also complicate Ghailani's case, as defense lawyers are likely to mount legal challenges based on the circumstances of his capture, detention and treatment over the years.
Justice Department officials would not say Tuesday what would be done with Ghailani if he were acquitted, but in past cases a non-citizen defendant would be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation.
There will also be political challenges to Ghailani's trial.
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly contended that transferring terrorist suspects to U.S. soil will threaten public safety. The Guantanamo issue has seemed one of the few issues falling the Republicans' way, as polls suggest that most Americans want to keep the Cuba-based prison operating.
But if Ghailani can be handled without serious incident in New York and elsewhere, the GOP argument may lose steam and Congress may rethink its refusal to fund the closing of Guantanamo. The move also could bolster Obama's efforts to persuade other nations to accept some detainees from the prison.
U.S. officials contend Ghailani began a terrorist career on a bicycle delivering bomb parts and rose through the al-Qaida ranks to become an aide to bin Laden.
After the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ghailani worked his way up the al-Qaida ranks, according to military prosecutors.
He was categorized as a high-value detainee by U.S. authorities after he was captured in Pakistan in 2004, and he was transferred to the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba two years later.
Ghailani has denied knowing that the TNT and oxygen tanks he delivered would be used to make a bomb. He also has denied buying a vehicle used in one of the attacks, saying he could not drive.
Not only Republican lawmakers have opposed bringing Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for trial, even in heavily guarded settings. Obama faces pressure from across the political spectrum over his plan to close the detention center. Democrats have said they want to see Obama's plan for closing the base before approving money to finance it, and Republicans are fighting to keep Guantanamo open.
The decision to try Ghailani in New York also revives a long-dormant case charging bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leadership with plotting the embassy attacks, which led then-President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missile attacks two weeks later on bin Laden's Afghan camps.
Four other men have been tried and convicted in the New York courthouse for their roles in the embassy attacks. All were sentenced to life in prison.
___________
NEW YORK – Under heavy guard, a Guantanamo Bay detainee walked into a civilian U.S. courtroom for the first time Tuesday, underscoring the Obama administration's determination to close the Cuban prison and hold trials here despite Republican alarms about bringing terror suspects to America.
Ahmed Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused in two American Embassy bombings a decade ago, pleaded not guilty — in English — in a brief but historic federal court hearing that transported him from open-ended military detention to the civilian criminal justice system.
President Barack Obama has said keeping Ghailani from coming to the United States "would prevent his trial and conviction." Taking a drastically different stance, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio labeled Tuesday's move "the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America."
Ghailani, accused of being a bomb-maker, document forger and aide to Osama bin Laden, was brought to New York to await trial in connection with al-Qaida bombings that killed 224 people — including 12 Americans — at the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998.
U.S. marshals took custody of Ghailani from his military jailers and transferred him to a federal lockup in lower Manhattan that currently holds financial swindler Bernard Madoff, and once held mob scion John "Junior" Gotti and blind terror leader Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.
Short and slim with a wispy goatee, Ghailani walked into the courtroom without shackles or handcuffs, wearing a blue jail smock.
He listened at times through an interpreter but then removed the headphones and appeared to understand what was said in English.
Asked by the judge if he wanted her to "read this big fat indictment," he conferred with his lawyer, said it was not necessary and made his plea: "not guilty."
About 10 deputy marshals were in the courtroom, including two who were behind him.
Ghailani's attorney, Scott L. Fenstermaker, declined comment after the hearing.
"We are ready to proceed in the case," declared Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin, who said there was "voluminous" evidence to be shared among attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska acknowledged Ghailani's U.S. military lawyers, Marine Col. Jeffrey Colwell and Air Force Maj. Richard Reiter, who were seated in the courtroom but were not representing him at the hearing.
"Anything you can do to help him transition to the civilian courts will be greatly appreciated," she said.
Ghailani's trial will be an important test case for Obama's plan to close the detention center at Guantanamo in seven months and bring some of the terror suspects there to trial.
Attorney General Eric Holder said, "The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system, and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this case."
Though the bombings were a decade ago, "for us, it's like yesterday," said Sue Bartley, a Washington-area resident who lost her husband, Julian Leotis Bartley Sr., then U.S. consul general to Kenya, and her son, Julian "Jay" Bartley Jr.
"The embassy bombings were a precursor to 9/11. And even though we know that an American embassy located in any country is American soil, I don't think people really understand that," she said.
The U.S. response to the 2001 terror attacks — including the opening of the Guantanamo detention center — could also complicate Ghailani's case, as defense lawyers are likely to mount legal challenges based on the circumstances of his capture, detention and treatment over the years.
Justice Department officials would not say Tuesday what would be done with Ghailani if he were acquitted, but in past cases a non-citizen defendant would be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation.
There will also be political challenges to Ghailani's trial.
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly contended that transferring terrorist suspects to U.S. soil will threaten public safety. The Guantanamo issue has seemed one of the few issues falling the Republicans' way, as polls suggest that most Americans want to keep the Cuba-based prison operating.
But if Ghailani can be handled without serious incident in New York and elsewhere, the GOP argument may lose steam and Congress may rethink its refusal to fund the closing of Guantanamo. The move also could bolster Obama's efforts to persuade other nations to accept some detainees from the prison.
U.S. officials contend Ghailani began a terrorist career on a bicycle delivering bomb parts and rose through the al-Qaida ranks to become an aide to bin Laden.
After the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ghailani worked his way up the al-Qaida ranks, according to military prosecutors.
He was categorized as a high-value detainee by U.S. authorities after he was captured in Pakistan in 2004, and he was transferred to the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba two years later.
Ghailani has denied knowing that the TNT and oxygen tanks he delivered would be used to make a bomb. He also has denied buying a vehicle used in one of the attacks, saying he could not drive.
Not only Republican lawmakers have opposed bringing Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. for trial, even in heavily guarded settings. Obama faces pressure from across the political spectrum over his plan to close the detention center. Democrats have said they want to see Obama's plan for closing the base before approving money to finance it, and Republicans are fighting to keep Guantanamo open.
The decision to try Ghailani in New York also revives a long-dormant case charging bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leadership with plotting the embassy attacks, which led then-President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missile attacks two weeks later on bin Laden's Afghan camps.
Four other men have been tried and convicted in the New York courthouse for their roles in the embassy attacks. All were sentenced to life in prison.
___________
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
House committee subpoenas Federal Reserve
The congressional panel investigating what happened to all that bank bailout money has issued a subpoena to the Federal Reserve, asking them to hand over all documents relating to the takeover of Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America.
On January 1, BofA finalized its purchase of Merrill Lynch for just over $29.1 billion. That made the bank eligible for an additional $20 billion in federal rescue money, bringing BofA's total to some $45 billion. Now, Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY) want to know exactly what the banks and the Federal Reserve agreed to when they arranged the deal last year.
Full text of the press release from Kucinich's office:
Washington D.C. (June 8, 2009) -- House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today served a subpoena on the Federal Reserve (the Fed) to compel it to turn over documents related to Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
The full committee and Domestic Policy Subcommittee, under the leadership of Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the federal government’s bailout of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch transaction. Specific documents subpoenaed include emails, notes of conversations and other documents.
New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo has claimed that, in 2008, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke strong-armed BofA into buying Merrill -- a move that, if true, could expose Paulson and Bernanke to prosecution.
Last week, news services reported that the House had asked Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. That hearing takes place on Thursday (June 11).
On January 1, BofA finalized its purchase of Merrill Lynch for just over $29.1 billion. That made the bank eligible for an additional $20 billion in federal rescue money, bringing BofA's total to some $45 billion. Now, Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Edolphus Towns (D-NY) want to know exactly what the banks and the Federal Reserve agreed to when they arranged the deal last year.
Full text of the press release from Kucinich's office:
Washington D.C. (June 8, 2009) -- House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) today served a subpoena on the Federal Reserve (the Fed) to compel it to turn over documents related to Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
The full committee and Domestic Policy Subcommittee, under the leadership of Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the federal government’s bailout of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch transaction. Specific documents subpoenaed include emails, notes of conversations and other documents.
New York Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo has claimed that, in 2008, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke strong-armed BofA into buying Merrill -- a move that, if true, could expose Paulson and Bernanke to prosecution.
Last week, news services reported that the House had asked Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. That hearing takes place on Thursday (June 11).
Retailer Target Branches Out Into Police Work
this news article is a few years old but i found it interesting none the less
Minneapolis Forensics Lab, Donations Help Law Enforcement Agencies
By Sarah Bridges
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 29, 2006; A01
When arson investigators in Houston needed help restoring a damaged surveillance tape to identify suspects in a fatal fire, they turned first to local experts and then to NASA. With no luck there, investigators appealed to the owner of one of the most advanced crime labs in the country: Target Corp.
Target experts fixed the tape and Houston authorities arrested their suspects, who were convicted. It was all in a day's work for Target in its large and growing role as a high-tech partner to law enforcement agencies.
In the past few years, the retailer has taken a lead role in teaching government agencies how to fight crime by applying state-of-the-art technology used in its 1,400 stores. Target's effort has touched local, state, federal and international agencies.
Besides running its forensics lab in Minneapolis, Target has helped coordinate national undercover investigations and worked with customs agencies on ways to make sure imported cargo is coming from reputable sources or hasn't been tampered with. It has contributed money for prosecutor positions to combat repeat criminals, provided local police with remote-controlled video surveillance systems, and linked police and business radio systems to beef up neighborhood foot patrols in parts of several major cities. It has given management training to FBI and police leaders, and linked city, county and state databases to keep track of repeat offenders.
The efforts are part of a trend in corporate donations directed at solving societal problems. "Target is pushing forward a different model of corporate giving," said Douglas G. Pinkham, president of the nonpartisan Public Affairs Council. Others are doing the same. Exxon Mobil, for example, is building hospitals in the developing world. Cargill Corp. is building schools in areas where potential employees lacked basic skills.
Target's law enforcement efforts date back at least a decade but intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The company has applied in-store practices, such as inventory-tracking technologies, to the business of identifying and locating criminals. "In many ways, Target is actually a high-tech company masquerading as a retailer," said Nathan K. Garvis, Target's vice president of government affairs.
Some people note the possible ethical complexities inherent in Target's tight government relationships. "It is a tricky issue when firms get too close to government," said Ernesto Dal Bó, assistant professor of business and public policy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Dal Bó sees such alliances as fraught with potential conflicts, though he cautions against alarm. "There is no reason we need to say that anything bad is happening, but we do need to watch," he said.
It is typical for big companies, especially retailers, to coordinate with law enforcement in safeguarding their properties. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for example, takes a "one store at a time" approach, in which bicycles and other gear are given to law enforcement agencies in need, spokeswoman Sharon Weber said. "We are also very proud of our outreach program with police in some cities," she said. "We teach kids the true consequences of shoplifting."
Target's approach is more comprehensive. Target has replaced the concept of "assets protection" in its stores with crime prevention in the community. A program called "Target and Blue" defines its approach to philanthropy and partnership with law enforcement agencies.
Chief executive Robert J. Ulrich made cooperating with law enforcement a priority in the mid-1990s, when crime rates skyrocketed and his hometown of Minneapolis was nicknamed "Murderopolis."
"The turning point occurred for me when I read about a repeat offender walking out of the courtroom because the judge didn't know he had a criminal record in a different part of the state," Ulrich said in an interview. "He raped a woman the next day." Ulrich slapped the table. He said he wanted to know how the man got out of jail so fast.
Ulrich assigned Garvis to figure that out, and he began by interviewing police, judges and politicians to understand why one branch of law enforcement may not have access to another agency's records. He learned that city, county, state and federal criminal record systems had different ways of entering data and couldn't routinely share information.
"It struck me that following repeat criminals was really an inventory-management problem," Garvis said. He turned to the partnerships Target had already developed with law enforcement -- Target's assets protection group is headed by Brad Brekke, a former FBI agent, and is staffed by former police officers.
Working with local and state jurisdictions, Target donated what boiled down to tracking technology and database translation, as well as employees to work on the project. "This kind of thing has been tried before," said Richard W. Stanek, a former Minnesota public safety commissioner. "The extra thing that Target brought was neutrality -- and mediation. They physically brought the different arms of law enforcement together and helped get us talking." For several years, a database called CriMNet has been used in Minnesota in the prosecution of the felonies. It is one of several alternatives under consideration for a national criminal database.
As the project gained footing, Target investigators began working with law enforcement agencies in sting operations and surveillance concerning crime in their stores. Target began helping law enforcement on cases that had nothing to do with its business. It wasn't long before Target was analyzing criminal evidence for police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"One of the nation's top forensics labs is located at Target's headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis," said FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe, who has worked with Target. "They have abilities and technology that far surpasses many law enforcement agencies in the country."
Target forensics investigators spend 45 percent of their time offering pro-bono assistance to law enforcement. Target declined to say how many cases that involves per year.
Visiting the forensics lab entails a trip to Target's corporate security department, past red-and-white bull's-eyes and up the elevator to the second floor. Through password-protected doors is a windowless room -- the desks packed with computers and flat-screen monitors, and a wall decorated with the badges from the law enforcement agencies that Target has helped. Motion-detection sensors linked to silent alarms sweep the ceiling above the locked evidence room, and only four employees have access to the facility.
The lab's first big outside criminal case was the Houston arson-homicide in 2004. Thomas D. Wood, a senior arson investigator for the Houston Fire Department, oversaw the case and was the first law enforcement official to use Target's lab.
A woman and two children died in the fire. A surveillance tape from a nearby convenience store showed what appeared to be two juvenile suspects buying gasoline hours before the fire, but the tape was damaged and Wood struggled to restore it. He happened to go to lunch with a Target investigator, who mentioned the forensics lab. Wood sent the tape the next day.
"Not only were the Target people able to clean the tape, they also made still shots from it that were used by the boys' school principal to identify them," Wood said. Both suspects confessed and are now serving prison sentences.
As word spread about what Target's lab had accomplished in the Texas arson case, the requests for help soon became overwhelming. "We had cops in here every day -- chairs pulled up next to my computer," said Target forensic investigator Craig Thrane. "We finally had to make criteria for the cases we take. The only ones we do now involve violent felonies."
At a work station in the lab, Thrane popped a videotape into a machine with 60 tiny knobs, then tapped a series of commands into his computer. "This is a video from a bank robbery that the FBI brought to me to try to figure out who the criminal is. In this case, it is a gun woman -- very unusual."
Thrane measured the robber's height electronically and zoomed in on some of her features. "Notice the space between the corner of her mouth and her lip -- there is something unusual about it -- I'm guessing she is missing teeth," he said, making several more measurements of unique characteristics that he sent to the FBI. A week later, word arrived that agents nabbed a suspect -- a 40-year-old woman who was a methamphetamine addict. "They also told me she lost her teeth," Thrane said.
Besides helping law enforcement solve crimes, Target has a prevention program called "Safe City." It began two years ago in a police precinct in Minneapolis and has spread to dozens of other cities including Washington, Boston, New York and Atlanta.
In the Washington area, Target is using Safe City at two stores in Prince George's County -- at Forestville Mall and P.G. Plaza, with increased cooperation between its own security officials and law enforcement in patrolling areas around the buildings.
Modeled after a community surveillance program in England, Safe City uses video and computer equipment to help police patrol neighborhoods by remote control, coordinated with security workers at participating businesses.
Target also has been paying for a lawyer and a paralegal in the Minneapolis prosecutor's office through its charitable foundation, with an emphasis on prosecuting repeat criminals. "They don't just give us money -- they demand accountability," said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. "There were huge strings attached when we received the funding for our new staff, and we were expected to routinely communicate how the money was used and what kind of results we'd gained. Here's an example: In the past, the DA's office tracked input numbers [how many criminals were charged], though once we were working with Target, we were required to track output numbers, or how many convictions we get in a year."
Before Target's involvement, the prosecutor won convictions for about three repeat criminals a year. Since adding the new staff and changing how it operates, the prosecutor now has more than 90 such convictions in a year.
Target's latest ventures include building a forensics lab for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, including FBI and other agency officials in their corporate leadership programs and providing various agencies with "sting trailers," trucks filled with electronics and other merchandise to lure criminals -- and containing wireless devices that send information to police. The company also has run programs for the World Customs Organization to determine how to protect cargo through advanced technical systems and "smart boxes."
Such close cooperation sometimes has Target employees working as de facto law enforcement officials. Chris W. Nelson, director of assets protection for the retailer, recalled one case in which he worked with federal agents for two years to break up a crime ring. He questioned informants, got to know some of the suspects and was there as a federal SWAT team surrounded one of the ringleaders on a speedboat on a lake in Minnesota.
The suspect "stopped short as he spotted me in the crowd and shouted, 'What the [expletive] is Target doing here?!' " Nelson said. "I still love that one."
Minneapolis Forensics Lab, Donations Help Law Enforcement Agencies
By Sarah Bridges
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 29, 2006; A01
When arson investigators in Houston needed help restoring a damaged surveillance tape to identify suspects in a fatal fire, they turned first to local experts and then to NASA. With no luck there, investigators appealed to the owner of one of the most advanced crime labs in the country: Target Corp.
Target experts fixed the tape and Houston authorities arrested their suspects, who were convicted. It was all in a day's work for Target in its large and growing role as a high-tech partner to law enforcement agencies.
In the past few years, the retailer has taken a lead role in teaching government agencies how to fight crime by applying state-of-the-art technology used in its 1,400 stores. Target's effort has touched local, state, federal and international agencies.
Besides running its forensics lab in Minneapolis, Target has helped coordinate national undercover investigations and worked with customs agencies on ways to make sure imported cargo is coming from reputable sources or hasn't been tampered with. It has contributed money for prosecutor positions to combat repeat criminals, provided local police with remote-controlled video surveillance systems, and linked police and business radio systems to beef up neighborhood foot patrols in parts of several major cities. It has given management training to FBI and police leaders, and linked city, county and state databases to keep track of repeat offenders.
The efforts are part of a trend in corporate donations directed at solving societal problems. "Target is pushing forward a different model of corporate giving," said Douglas G. Pinkham, president of the nonpartisan Public Affairs Council. Others are doing the same. Exxon Mobil, for example, is building hospitals in the developing world. Cargill Corp. is building schools in areas where potential employees lacked basic skills.
Target's law enforcement efforts date back at least a decade but intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The company has applied in-store practices, such as inventory-tracking technologies, to the business of identifying and locating criminals. "In many ways, Target is actually a high-tech company masquerading as a retailer," said Nathan K. Garvis, Target's vice president of government affairs.
Some people note the possible ethical complexities inherent in Target's tight government relationships. "It is a tricky issue when firms get too close to government," said Ernesto Dal Bó, assistant professor of business and public policy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. Dal Bó sees such alliances as fraught with potential conflicts, though he cautions against alarm. "There is no reason we need to say that anything bad is happening, but we do need to watch," he said.
It is typical for big companies, especially retailers, to coordinate with law enforcement in safeguarding their properties. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., for example, takes a "one store at a time" approach, in which bicycles and other gear are given to law enforcement agencies in need, spokeswoman Sharon Weber said. "We are also very proud of our outreach program with police in some cities," she said. "We teach kids the true consequences of shoplifting."
Target's approach is more comprehensive. Target has replaced the concept of "assets protection" in its stores with crime prevention in the community. A program called "Target and Blue" defines its approach to philanthropy and partnership with law enforcement agencies.
Chief executive Robert J. Ulrich made cooperating with law enforcement a priority in the mid-1990s, when crime rates skyrocketed and his hometown of Minneapolis was nicknamed "Murderopolis."
"The turning point occurred for me when I read about a repeat offender walking out of the courtroom because the judge didn't know he had a criminal record in a different part of the state," Ulrich said in an interview. "He raped a woman the next day." Ulrich slapped the table. He said he wanted to know how the man got out of jail so fast.
Ulrich assigned Garvis to figure that out, and he began by interviewing police, judges and politicians to understand why one branch of law enforcement may not have access to another agency's records. He learned that city, county, state and federal criminal record systems had different ways of entering data and couldn't routinely share information.
"It struck me that following repeat criminals was really an inventory-management problem," Garvis said. He turned to the partnerships Target had already developed with law enforcement -- Target's assets protection group is headed by Brad Brekke, a former FBI agent, and is staffed by former police officers.
Working with local and state jurisdictions, Target donated what boiled down to tracking technology and database translation, as well as employees to work on the project. "This kind of thing has been tried before," said Richard W. Stanek, a former Minnesota public safety commissioner. "The extra thing that Target brought was neutrality -- and mediation. They physically brought the different arms of law enforcement together and helped get us talking." For several years, a database called CriMNet has been used in Minnesota in the prosecution of the felonies. It is one of several alternatives under consideration for a national criminal database.
As the project gained footing, Target investigators began working with law enforcement agencies in sting operations and surveillance concerning crime in their stores. Target began helping law enforcement on cases that had nothing to do with its business. It wasn't long before Target was analyzing criminal evidence for police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"One of the nation's top forensics labs is located at Target's headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis," said FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe, who has worked with Target. "They have abilities and technology that far surpasses many law enforcement agencies in the country."
Target forensics investigators spend 45 percent of their time offering pro-bono assistance to law enforcement. Target declined to say how many cases that involves per year.
Visiting the forensics lab entails a trip to Target's corporate security department, past red-and-white bull's-eyes and up the elevator to the second floor. Through password-protected doors is a windowless room -- the desks packed with computers and flat-screen monitors, and a wall decorated with the badges from the law enforcement agencies that Target has helped. Motion-detection sensors linked to silent alarms sweep the ceiling above the locked evidence room, and only four employees have access to the facility.
The lab's first big outside criminal case was the Houston arson-homicide in 2004. Thomas D. Wood, a senior arson investigator for the Houston Fire Department, oversaw the case and was the first law enforcement official to use Target's lab.
A woman and two children died in the fire. A surveillance tape from a nearby convenience store showed what appeared to be two juvenile suspects buying gasoline hours before the fire, but the tape was damaged and Wood struggled to restore it. He happened to go to lunch with a Target investigator, who mentioned the forensics lab. Wood sent the tape the next day.
"Not only were the Target people able to clean the tape, they also made still shots from it that were used by the boys' school principal to identify them," Wood said. Both suspects confessed and are now serving prison sentences.
As word spread about what Target's lab had accomplished in the Texas arson case, the requests for help soon became overwhelming. "We had cops in here every day -- chairs pulled up next to my computer," said Target forensic investigator Craig Thrane. "We finally had to make criteria for the cases we take. The only ones we do now involve violent felonies."
At a work station in the lab, Thrane popped a videotape into a machine with 60 tiny knobs, then tapped a series of commands into his computer. "This is a video from a bank robbery that the FBI brought to me to try to figure out who the criminal is. In this case, it is a gun woman -- very unusual."
Thrane measured the robber's height electronically and zoomed in on some of her features. "Notice the space between the corner of her mouth and her lip -- there is something unusual about it -- I'm guessing she is missing teeth," he said, making several more measurements of unique characteristics that he sent to the FBI. A week later, word arrived that agents nabbed a suspect -- a 40-year-old woman who was a methamphetamine addict. "They also told me she lost her teeth," Thrane said.
Besides helping law enforcement solve crimes, Target has a prevention program called "Safe City." It began two years ago in a police precinct in Minneapolis and has spread to dozens of other cities including Washington, Boston, New York and Atlanta.
In the Washington area, Target is using Safe City at two stores in Prince George's County -- at Forestville Mall and P.G. Plaza, with increased cooperation between its own security officials and law enforcement in patrolling areas around the buildings.
Modeled after a community surveillance program in England, Safe City uses video and computer equipment to help police patrol neighborhoods by remote control, coordinated with security workers at participating businesses.
Target also has been paying for a lawyer and a paralegal in the Minneapolis prosecutor's office through its charitable foundation, with an emphasis on prosecuting repeat criminals. "They don't just give us money -- they demand accountability," said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. "There were huge strings attached when we received the funding for our new staff, and we were expected to routinely communicate how the money was used and what kind of results we'd gained. Here's an example: In the past, the DA's office tracked input numbers [how many criminals were charged], though once we were working with Target, we were required to track output numbers, or how many convictions we get in a year."
Before Target's involvement, the prosecutor won convictions for about three repeat criminals a year. Since adding the new staff and changing how it operates, the prosecutor now has more than 90 such convictions in a year.
Target's latest ventures include building a forensics lab for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, including FBI and other agency officials in their corporate leadership programs and providing various agencies with "sting trailers," trucks filled with electronics and other merchandise to lure criminals -- and containing wireless devices that send information to police. The company also has run programs for the World Customs Organization to determine how to protect cargo through advanced technical systems and "smart boxes."
Such close cooperation sometimes has Target employees working as de facto law enforcement officials. Chris W. Nelson, director of assets protection for the retailer, recalled one case in which he worked with federal agents for two years to break up a crime ring. He questioned informants, got to know some of the suspects and was there as a federal SWAT team surrounded one of the ringleaders on a speedboat on a lake in Minnesota.
The suspect "stopped short as he spotted me in the crowd and shouted, 'What the [expletive] is Target doing here?!' " Nelson said. "I still love that one."
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Cop Who Dumped Paralyzed Man from Wheelchair is Charged
A sheriff’s deputy who was caught on camera spilling a paralyzed man from his wheelchair onto the jailhouse floor was charged with abuse of a disabled person, the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday.
The deputy, Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, was shown on video dumping Brian Sterner out of a wheelchair and then searching him while he laid motionless on the floor. Sterner was at the jail on a warrant after being stopped for a traffic violation.
Sterner said when he was taken into one of the jail’s booking rooms, he was told to stand up. The deputy apparentlybecame upset and agitated when he told her that he could not because he was paralyzed.
Marshall-Jones had been suspended without pay, and three other deputies had been placed on an administrative leave as the office launches an investigation.
Marshall-Jones was charged with abuse of a disabled person, which is a third-degree felony in Florida, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.
The deputy, Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, was shown on video dumping Brian Sterner out of a wheelchair and then searching him while he laid motionless on the floor. Sterner was at the jail on a warrant after being stopped for a traffic violation.
Sterner said when he was taken into one of the jail’s booking rooms, he was told to stand up. The deputy apparentlybecame upset and agitated when he told her that he could not because he was paralyzed.
Marshall-Jones had been suspended without pay, and three other deputies had been placed on an administrative leave as the office launches an investigation.
Marshall-Jones was charged with abuse of a disabled person, which is a third-degree felony in Florida, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee.
Dollar Declines as Nations Mull Reserve Currency Alternatives
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...801Y&refer=home
By Oliver Biggadike and Chris Fournier
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened beyond $1.43 against the euro for the first time in 2009 on bets record U.S. borrowing will undermine the greenback, prompting nations to consider alternatives to the world’s main reserve currency.
The euro gained for a fourth day versus the dollar as the Russian government said emerging-market leaders may discuss the idea of a supranational currency. The pound rose to the highest level since October and the Canadian dollar traded near an eight-month high on speculation signs of a recovery in U.S. and U.K. housing will spur higher-yield demand.
“There’s been a lot of talk out of Russia about a new global currency, and that’s contributing toward this latest bout of dollar weakness,” said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s largest currency trader. “These latest comments are just adding to the general dollar weakness we’ve seen recently.”
The dollar slid 1.1 percent to $1.4317 per euro at 4:21 p.m. in New York, from $1.4159 yesterday. It touched $1.4331, the weakest level since Dec. 29. The dollar depreciated 1.1 percent to 95.54 yen, from 96.59. The euro traded at 136.77 yen, compared with 136.78.
Sterling rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1.6596, the highest level since Oct. 30, while the Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to C$1.0806, near the strongest level since Oct. 3.
Pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. climbed 6.7 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent gain. Banks in the U.K. granted 43,201 home loans that month, the highest level in a year, the Bank of England said.
Russia on Currency
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a supranational currency.
“We need some kind of universal means of payment, which could create the basis of a future international financial system,” Medvedev said in a June 1 interview with CNBC. “Naturally, because of the crisis in the American economy, attitude to the dollar has also changed.”
Regional reserve currencies are an “unavoidable” part of “regionalizing” the global financial system, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in Moscow today.
The Dollar Index, which ICE uses to track the currency’s performance against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell as much as 1 percent to 78.33, the lowest level since Dec. 18.
‘Opportunity to Sell’
“The market is looking for the opportunity to sell the U.S. dollar,” said Jack Spitz, a managing director for foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “It took decades for the euro to be established. I can only imagine how long it would take for the BRIC countries to put together a currency.”
There’s no replacement currency for the dollar in the short term, Guo Shuqing, former head of China’s foreign-exchange administrator, said in an interview with the Financial Times for an article published yesterday.
The Dollar Index reached 89.62 on March 4, the highest level since 2006, as the global recession spurred investors to take refuge in Treasuries notes and bills.
Demand for the record amount of debt the U.S. is selling will remain sufficient, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview today with state media outlets in China.
Chinese ‘Understanding’
The Chinese have a “very sophisticated understanding” of why the U.S. government is running up deficits, said Geithner in Beijing, pledging to rein in borrowing later. The U.S. will “do everything that is necessary” to preserve confidence in the nation’s financial markets, he said.
The dollar also declined on speculation “smaller” central banks started today’s selling of the greenback, said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York.
“If people believe that there is official pressure behind it, then obviously it puts pressure on euro-dollar on the upside,” Galy said. “Small central banks have an incentive in doing something because if they’re the first movers, they will not suffer by far as much as the big ones.” Galy predicted the euro may reach $1.4360 today, a peak last reached in December.
The euro fell earlier versus the yen as Europe’s jobless rate rose in April to the highest level in almost 10 years. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
ECB’s Rate
The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 1 percent on June 4, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ECB said last month it would buy 60 billion euros ($86 billion) of covered bonds.
The euro’s rally against the dollar may be entering its “last stage,” and investors would likely benefit from selling the euro against the greenback, according to UBS AG, the world’s second-biggest foreign-exchange trader.
Europe’s currency is poised to weaken toward $1.30, analysts led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Zurich-based chief currency strategist at UBS, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The analysts reiterated forecasts for the euro to trade at $1.40 in one month’s time and then drop.
“We remain positive on the U.S. dollar and think that the greenback is likely in its final stage of weakness,” the analysts wrote. “Equity and bond flows have the potential to surprise and could lend support to the dollar.”
By Oliver Biggadike and Chris Fournier
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened beyond $1.43 against the euro for the first time in 2009 on bets record U.S. borrowing will undermine the greenback, prompting nations to consider alternatives to the world’s main reserve currency.
The euro gained for a fourth day versus the dollar as the Russian government said emerging-market leaders may discuss the idea of a supranational currency. The pound rose to the highest level since October and the Canadian dollar traded near an eight-month high on speculation signs of a recovery in U.S. and U.K. housing will spur higher-yield demand.
“There’s been a lot of talk out of Russia about a new global currency, and that’s contributing toward this latest bout of dollar weakness,” said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s largest currency trader. “These latest comments are just adding to the general dollar weakness we’ve seen recently.”
The dollar slid 1.1 percent to $1.4317 per euro at 4:21 p.m. in New York, from $1.4159 yesterday. It touched $1.4331, the weakest level since Dec. 29. The dollar depreciated 1.1 percent to 95.54 yen, from 96.59. The euro traded at 136.77 yen, compared with 136.78.
Sterling rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1.6596, the highest level since Oct. 30, while the Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to C$1.0806, near the strongest level since Oct. 3.
Pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. climbed 6.7 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent gain. Banks in the U.K. granted 43,201 home loans that month, the highest level in a year, the Bank of England said.
Russia on Currency
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a supranational currency.
“We need some kind of universal means of payment, which could create the basis of a future international financial system,” Medvedev said in a June 1 interview with CNBC. “Naturally, because of the crisis in the American economy, attitude to the dollar has also changed.”
Regional reserve currencies are an “unavoidable” part of “regionalizing” the global financial system, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in Moscow today.
The Dollar Index, which ICE uses to track the currency’s performance against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell as much as 1 percent to 78.33, the lowest level since Dec. 18.
‘Opportunity to Sell’
“The market is looking for the opportunity to sell the U.S. dollar,” said Jack Spitz, a managing director for foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “It took decades for the euro to be established. I can only imagine how long it would take for the BRIC countries to put together a currency.”
There’s no replacement currency for the dollar in the short term, Guo Shuqing, former head of China’s foreign-exchange administrator, said in an interview with the Financial Times for an article published yesterday.
The Dollar Index reached 89.62 on March 4, the highest level since 2006, as the global recession spurred investors to take refuge in Treasuries notes and bills.
Demand for the record amount of debt the U.S. is selling will remain sufficient, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview today with state media outlets in China.
Chinese ‘Understanding’
The Chinese have a “very sophisticated understanding” of why the U.S. government is running up deficits, said Geithner in Beijing, pledging to rein in borrowing later. The U.S. will “do everything that is necessary” to preserve confidence in the nation’s financial markets, he said.
The dollar also declined on speculation “smaller” central banks started today’s selling of the greenback, said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York.
“If people believe that there is official pressure behind it, then obviously it puts pressure on euro-dollar on the upside,” Galy said. “Small central banks have an incentive in doing something because if they’re the first movers, they will not suffer by far as much as the big ones.” Galy predicted the euro may reach $1.4360 today, a peak last reached in December.
The euro fell earlier versus the yen as Europe’s jobless rate rose in April to the highest level in almost 10 years. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
ECB’s Rate
The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 1 percent on June 4, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ECB said last month it would buy 60 billion euros ($86 billion) of covered bonds.
The euro’s rally against the dollar may be entering its “last stage,” and investors would likely benefit from selling the euro against the greenback, according to UBS AG, the world’s second-biggest foreign-exchange trader.
Europe’s currency is poised to weaken toward $1.30, analysts led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Zurich-based chief currency strategist at UBS, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The analysts reiterated forecasts for the euro to trade at $1.40 in one month’s time and then drop.
“We remain positive on the U.S. dollar and think that the greenback is likely in its final stage of weakness,” the analysts wrote. “Equity and bond flows have the potential to surprise and could lend support to the dollar.”
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