Global Articles on what is going on...posted daily

[sandi66]

The Day the Internet Died?

Buh-Bye Ms. American Pie

By Judi McLeod Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Editor’s Note: As news outlets from the Drudge Report to the Washington Post ruefullly point out , today’s the day when, for the first time, the Federal Communications Commission’s rules would prevent Internet service providers from blocking or giving preferential treatment to Web sites on their networks.

Legions of bloggers and news site publishers everywhere are worried today that the Information Highway may be made inaccessible for average Americans, an impact should it happen, that will impact the world.

“The FCC’s proposal will receive support from a majority of the five-member commission, after intense lobbying. (Washington Post).



“Telecom and cable companies have said that the new rules could deter them from expanding broadband Internet connections and bolstering speeds. On the other side, Internet giants such as Google and Skype, along with public interest groups, have for years pushed for such regulation, saying the increased importance of the Internet calls for clear rules to ensure that consumers get equal access to all legal Web sites and applications.

“The rules would prevent Internet service providers from blocking Web sites and applications on Internet lines feeding into U.S. homes. Those carriers—such as Comcast and AT&T—could not deliberately slow down one Web site over another. The rules frown on the practice of charging Web sites for better or faster delivery, but observers say that practice would not be strictly prohibited.
Wireless networks would not be covered as broadly by the rules. An FCC official said carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel would be prohibited from blocking competing voice and videoconferencing applications. Any other practices would have to be disclosed by the carriers.

Democratic commissioners Michael J. Copps and Mignon Clyburn said they will support the proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.”
For the past year, masterful Canada Free Press (CFP) researcher Sandy Williams has been probing the Spider’s Web of the corporate and government world underworld by joining the dots to show through research how a few people interacting together through a network of well-funded organizations control the lives of ordinary Americans:

FCC
Michael J. Copps is a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission, and was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Note: Linda M. Conlin is the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce, and was the first VP & vice chair for the Export-Import Bank of the US.

James H. Lambright was the chairman & president for the Export-Import Bank of the US, a VP at Credit Suisse First Boston, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout

Jackie Clegg Dodd was the vice chairman & first VP for the Export-Import Bank of the US, and is married to Christopher J. Dodd.

Christopher J. Dodd is married to Jackie Clegg Dodd, a U.S. Senate senator, and was a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation.

Barbara Boxer is a U.S. Senate senator, and was a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation.

Kent Conrad is a U.S. Senate senator, and was a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation.

Paul Pelosi Jr. was a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, and his mother is Nancy Pelosi.

Nancy Pelosi is Paul Pelosi Jr’s mother and the member, speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Adam H. Putnam is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation.

Tom Daschle was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Harold E. Ford Jr. was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Mark Sanford was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

John Vincent Weber was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Donna E. Shalala was the secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Richard C. Holbrooke was a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a mortgage recipient from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson received five real-estate loans from the Countrywide Financial Corporation, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends ofBilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

James E. Clyburn was a mortgage recipient from Countrywide Financial Corporation, is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his daughter isMignon Clyburn.

Mignon Clyburn is James E. Clyburn’s daughter, and a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission.

Julius Genachowski is the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission, and was the chief of business operations for IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Note: Marie-Josee Kravis was a director for IAC/InterActiveCorp., a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), her husband is Henry R. Kravis, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Henry R. Kravis is married to Marie-Josee Kravis, a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), the founding partner at Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co., and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is of counsel at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Amy L. Nathan was an attorney for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and is a senior counsel, strategic planning & policy analysis for the Federal Communications Commission.

Valerie B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration.

Rahm I. Emanuel  is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was the White House chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Thomas E. Donilon is the White House deputy national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Lawrence H. Summers is the National Economic Council chairman for the Barack Obama administration, was a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Richard C. Holbrooke was the special envoy to Afghanistan, Pakistan for the Barack Obama administration, was a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Google
Eric E. Schmidt is the chairman & CEO of Google Inc., a trustee at the Paley Center for Media, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Note: Leo J. Hindery Jr. is a trustee at the Paley Center for Media, a director at Teach for America, the founder of InterMedia Advisors, LLP, and the managing partner for InterMedia Partners LP.

Lawrence H. Summers is a director at Teach for America, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Tom Daschle is a consultant for the InterMedia Advisors, LLP, a limited partner at the InterMedia Partners LP, a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), Jonathan S. Adelstein was his senior aide, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Madeleine K. Albright is the chairman for the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James D. Wolfensohn is a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Christopher J. Dodd is a senior advisory committee member at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and his wife is Jackie Clegg Dodd.

Jackie Clegg Dodd is married to Christopher J. Dodd, and was the vice chairman & first VP for the Export-Import Bank of the US.

James H. Lambright was the chairman & president for the Export-Import Bank of the US, a VP at Credit Suisse First Boston, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Richard C. Holbrooke was the vice chairman Credit Suisse First Boston, a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderbergconference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Jonathan S. Adelstein was Tom Daschle’s senior aide, and is a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission.

Skype
Josh Silverman is the CEO for Skype Limited, and was William W. Bradley’s legislative aide.

Note: William W. Bradley‘s legislative aide was Josh Silverman, and is a senior advisory committee member for the National Democratic Institute (think tank).

Madeleine K. Albright is the chairman for the National Democratic Institute (think tank), and a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

Tom Daschle is a director at the National Democratic Institute (think tank), Jonathan S. Adelstein was his senior aide, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Jonathan S. Adelstein was Tom Daschle’s senior aide, and is a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission.

Comcast
Judith Rodin is a director at the Comcast Corporation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and was an honorary trustee at theBrookings Institution (think tank).

Note: Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

AT&T
Cathy Martine-Dolecki is the regional president & CEO for AT&T Inc., and was a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Note: Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Laura D’Andrea Tyson was a director at the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and is a director atAT&T Inc.

Verizon Wireless
Alston & Bird is the lobby firm for Verizon Wireless.

Note: Timothy Hogan is a lobbyist for Alston & Bird, and was Tom Daschle’s legislative aide.

Tom Daschle‘s legislative aide was Timothy Hogan, a special policy adviser at Alston & Bird, Jonathan S. Adelstein was his senior aide, and a 2008Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Jonathan S. Adelstein was Tom Daschle’s senior aide, and is a commissioner for the Federal Communications Commission.

Sprint
Robin Pence was a director of corporate communications for the Sprint Corporation, an associate director, media relations for the Federal Communications Commission, and is a VP, corporate communications for Gannett Co., Inc.

Note: James A. Johnson was a director at Gannett Co., Inc., an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

William M. Daley is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

Sprint Nextel Corporation
James H. Hance Jr. is the chairman for the Sprint Nextel Corporation, and was the vice chairman for the Bank of America Corp. (Bailout Company),

Harold E. Ford Jr. is the senior policy adviser at the Bank of America Corp. (Bailout Company), an advisory council member for the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Lawrence H. Summers was an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Roger C. Altman is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Timothy C. Collins is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Harold E. Ford Jr. is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an advisory council member at the Hamilton Project (Healthcare AKA Obamacare), James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at theBrookings Institution (think tank), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James H. Lambright is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and the interim chief investment officer for the 2008-2009 financial bailout.

The Hamilton Project is located at the Brookings Institution

brookings.edu/projects/hamiltonproject.aspx.

brookings.edu/es/hamilton/200705butler.pdf.

Klaus Kleinfeld is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Paul Desmarais Jr. is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Thomas E. Donilon is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderbergconference participant (think tank).

Kenneth M. Jacobs is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Frank H. Pearl is an honorary trustee, trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James A. Johnson is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James D. Wolfensohn is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank) and a 2008Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Lawrence H. Summers was a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/31330

[sandi66]

Obama: New Gov’t a “Significant Moment” in Iraq’s History Tuesday, December 21, 2010


President says Tuesday vote by Council of Representatives a "major step forward" in advancing national unity.


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

December 21, 2010

Statement by President Obama on Iraqi Government Formation

Today’s vote in the Council of Representatives is a significant moment in Iraq’s history and a major step forward in advancing national unity. I congratulate Iraq’s political leaders, the members of the Council of Representatives, and the Iraqi people on the formation of a new government of national partnership.
Yet again, the Iraqi people and their elected representatives have demonstrated their commitment to working through a democratic process to resolve their differences and shape Iraq’s future. Their decision to form an inclusive partnership government is a clear rejection of the efforts by extremists to spur sectarian division.
Iraq faces important challenges, but the Iraqi people can also seize a future of opportunity. The United States will continue to strengthen our long-term partnership with Iraq’s people and leaders as they build a prosperous and peaceful nation that is fully integrated into the region and international community.
###


thepage.time.com/2010/12/21/obama-new-govt-a-significant-moment-in-iraqs-history/

[sandi66]

Flag this message30 Generals, Security Experts Say NO to START Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:24 PM

"Newsmax.com"

Dear Newsmax Reader:

The U.S. Senate likely will vote on the New START agreement today.

This is a dangerous treaty that should not be ratified.

Please read below the letter signed by 30 leading generals, diplomats and national security experts outlining these dangers.

Please call your U.S. Senator today at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote “NO” to START.

Also, the following Senators have yet to make clear their intentions.

Please let them know you oppose START:

Sen. Robert Corker – Tenn.
Sen. Johnny Isakson – Ga.
Sen. John McCain – Ariz.
Sen. Robert Bennett – Ut.

Again, the Senate switchboard is 202-224-3121

Newsmax.com






Breaking from Newsmax.com

Generals, Diplomats Warn of New START

More than 30 former defense or foreign policy government officials and related experts issued an open letter to the Senate Monday expressing their “professional judgment” that President Barack Obama’s proposed nuclear weapons reduction treaty with the Russians, called New START, “is not consistent with the national security interests of the United States,” and “should be rejected by the U.S. Senate,” which is considering it now.

They argue that Russia easily could cheat secretly to our detriment, that it would restrict deployment of new U.S. anti-missile defenses, that it would reduce the survivability and flexibility of our our strategic forces and could be militarily destabilizing, that it permits a continued large Russian superiority in overall nuclear weapons, and that resulting insecurity among our allies about continued extended deterrence could lead to intensified production and proliferation of nuclear weapons—all unintended, harmful consequences, the opposite of the Obama Administration’s announced goals for the agreement.

Among the many signers are: Ambassador Ed Rowny, former U.S. chief START negotiator; Vice Adm. Robert Monroe, U.S. Navy (Ret), former director, Defense Nuclear Agency; Judge William Clark, former national security adviser to President Reagan; Honorable Paula DeSutter, former assistant secretary of State for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation; Honorable Fred Ikle, former director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Ambassador Read Hammer, former deputy director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and former chief U.S. START Negotiator; Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerny, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), former deputy chief of staff; Ambassador John Bolton, former undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.; Ambassador Henry Cooper, former director, Strategic Defense Initiative of the Department of Defense, and former U.S. chief negotiator, Defense and Space Talks with the Soviet Union; and Hon. Edwin Meese, III, fomer counselor to the president and former U.S. attorney general.

More specifically, despite Obama administration claims to the contrary, the former officials and experts say that the proposed New START treaty has the following major problems, among others:

•It would effectively limit further U.S. anti-missile defenses for the American homeland in the face of growing rogue nation/terrorist nuclear threats, saying “it would be folly to limit, let alone preclude, available options to do so” in the future.
•It "is simply not adequately verifiable,” and “the Russians could engage in militarily significant violations with little fear of detection by the US,” with years being needed before we could respond adequately.
•It “would reduce the survivability and flexibility of our (strategic) forces.”
•Its low limits on the number of nuclear launchers could end up being militarily and strategically destabilizing;
•It would solidify a large Russian superiority in nuclear weapons when considering its 10-to-1 advantage in tactical nuclear weapons, many of which have strategic capabilities and roles, and which have been termed an “urgent” problem by the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission.
•It could force cuts in some of our vital conventional capabilities (i.e., heavy bombers) as well.
•It would “create concerns” among our allies about America’s continuing extended deterrent capability to protect them, which could lead to “intensified proliferation” of nuclear weapons.
•"It is unnecessary and ill-advised for the US to make these sorts of deep reductions in its strategic forces” so that the Russians are authorized/enabled to modernize and build up to our levels.
The statement closes by saying, “For all these reasons, we urge the members of the US Senate to resist pressure to consider the New START Treaty during the lame-duck session. The Senate should reject this accord and begin instead a long overdue and vitally needed process of modernization of the nuclear stockpile and refurbishment of the weapons complex that supports it. Only by taking such steps can we ensure that we will, in fact, have the 'safe, secure, and effective deterrent' that even President Obama says we will need for the foreseeable future.”

Following is the text of the letter and the signers:

OPEN LETTER TO THE U.S. SENATE on the New START Treaty

As you know, President Obama insists that the United States Senate advise and consent during the present lame-duck session to the bilateral U.S.-Russian strategic arms control treaty known as "New START" that he signed earlier this year in Prague. It is our considered professional judgment that this treaty and the larger disarmament agenda which its ratification would endorse are not consistent with the national security interests of the United States, and that both should be rejected by the Senate.

Administration efforts to compel the Senate to vote under circumstances in which an informed and full debate are effectively precluded is inconsistent with your institution's precedents, its constitutionally mandated quality-control responsibilities with respect to treaties and, in particular, the critical deliberation New START requires in light of that accord's myriad defects, of which the following are especially problematic:

•It is unnecessary and ill-advised for the United States to make these sorts of deep reductions in its strategic forces in order to achieve sharp cuts in those of the Russian Federation. After all, the Kremlin's strategic systems have not been designed for long service lives. Consequently, the number of deployed Russian strategic intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and long-range, nuclear-capable bombers will drop dramatically, with or without a new arms control agreement.
Russian sources indicate that, within eight-to-nine years, Russian Federation's inventory of strategic launchers will have shrunk from approximately 680 launchers today (some of which already are no longer operational) to approximately 270 launchers, simply as a result of the aging of their systems and the pace of their modernization program. By contrast, the service life of existing U.S. systems extends several decades. In other words, the Russians are going to undergo a substantial contraction in the size of its strategic nuclear arsenal, whether we do or not.

There are serious downsides for the United States in moving to the sorts of low numbers of strategic launchers called for in the New START Treaty. These include:

•New START would encourage placing more warheads on the remaining launchers, i.e., "MIRVing" — which is precisely what the Russians are doing. Moving away from heavily MIRVed strategic launchers has long been considered a highly stabilizing approach to the deployment of strategic forces — and a key U.S. START goal.
•New START would reduce the survivability and flexibility of our forces — which is exactly the wrong posture to be adopting in the uncertain and dynamic post-Cold War strategic environment. The bipartisan Congressional Strategic Posture Commission concluded that "preserving the resilience and survivability of U.S. forces" is essential. The very low launcher levels required by New START are at odds with both of those necessary conditions.
•New START's low ceilings on launchers and warheads can only create concerns about America's extended deterrent. Allied nations have privately warned that the United States must not reduce its strategic force levels to numbers so low that they call into question the credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella or encourage China to see an opportunity to achieve strategic parity with the United States. Some of those who have long looked to us for security may feel constrained to develop and field their own deterrents — a formula for intensified proliferation.
•New START's limitations could result in the destruction of U.S. multi-purpose strategic bombers, affecting not only the robustness of our nuclear deterrent but cutting into our conventional capabilities, as well.
•Were the United States to slash its strategic nuclear forces to match those the Russians can afford, it would ironically ensure that it has far fewer nuclear weapons — not parity with the Kremlin — when the latter's ten-to-one advantage in tactical weapons is taken into account. The Russians have consistently refused to limit their tactical nuclear arms, and will surely continue to do so in the future, especially since Moscow has little incentive to negotiate limitations on such weapons when the numbers are so asymmetrical.
This stance should not be surprising since it is this category of weaponry that makes up the bulk of Moscow's nuclear stockpile. Russian doctrine emphasizes the war-fighting utility of such weapons and their modernization and exercising remain a priority for the Kremlin. In fact, some of those weapons with an explosive power comparable to, if not greatly in excess of, that of the Hiroshima bomb are believed to be aboard submarines and routinely targeted at the United States. Others are targeted against our allies. These were among the reasons that prompted the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission to identify the Russian tactical nuclear arsenal as an "urgent" problem.

Such capabilities constitute a real asymmetric advantage for Moscow. What is more, given that these Russian tactical nuclear weapons are of greatest concern with regard to the potential for nuclear war and proliferation, we cannot safely ignore their presence in large numbers in Russia's arsenal. It is certainly ill-advised to make agreements reducing our nuclear deterrent that fail to take them into account.

•New START imposes de facto or de jure limitations on such important U.S. non-nuclear capabilities as prompt global strike and missile defenses. In the future, the nation is likely to need the flexibility to field both in quantity. It would be folly to limit, let alone effectively preclude, available options to do so.
•New START is simply not adequately verifiable. Lest assurances that the treaty will be "effectively" verifiable obscure that reality, the truth is that the Russians could engage in militarily significant violations with little fear of detection by the United States. And, for reasons discussed below, it could take years before we could respond appropriately.
These and other deficiencies of the New START treaty are seriously exacerbated by the context in which Senators are being asked to consent to its ratification. Specifically, the Senate's endorsement of this accord would amount to an affirmation of the disarmament agenda for which it is explicitly said to be a building block — namely, Mr. Obama's stated goal of "ridding the world of nuclear weapons."

This goal has shaped the administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and would, if left unchanged, condemn the United States to a posture of unilateral nuclear disarmament. (See, in this regard, the attached essay by Vice Admiral Robert Monroe, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 25, 2010.) By precluding the development and production of new nuclear weapons and the realistic testing of those currently in the stockpile and by "devaluing" the role played by these weapons and the mission of those responsible for maintaining our deterrent, the NPR sets the stage for the continued obsolescence and atrophying of our arsenal. No other nuclear power is engaged in such behavior. And, given our global security responsibilities and the growing dangers from various quarters, neither should we.

For all these reasons, we urge you to resist pressure to consider the New START Treaty during the lame-duck session. The Senate should reject this accord and begin instead a long-overdue and vitally needed process of modernization of the nuclear stockpile and refurbishment of the weapons complex that supports it. Only by taking such steps can we ensure that we will, in fact, have the "safe, secure and effective deterrent" that even President Obama says we will need for the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,

Judge William P. Clark, former national security advisor to the president

Hon. Edwin Meese III, former counselor the president; former U.S. attorney general

Hon. Kathleen Bailey, former assistant director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

Norman Bailey, former senior director of International Economic Affairs

Hon. Robert B. Barker, former assistant to the secretary of Defense (atomic energy)

Amb. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, former assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs

Brig. Gen. Jimmy L. Cash, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), former vice commander, 7th Air Force

Honorable Fred S. Celec, former assistant to thesecretary of Defense for nuclear and chemical and biological defense programs

Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, former director, Strategic Defense Initiative, former chief U.S. negotiator, defense and space talks with the Soviet Union

Honorable Paula DeSutter, former assistant secretary of State for verification, compliance, and implementation

Honorable Fritz W. Ermarth, former chairman and national intelligence officer, National Intelligence Council; former member of the National Security Council staff

Frank J. Gaffney Jr., former assistant secretary of Defense for international security policy (acting)

Daniel J. Gallington, former secretary of Defense representative, defense and space talks; former general counsel, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and former special assistant to the secretary of Defense for policy

Honorable Bruce S. Gelb, former director, U.S. Information Agency, former ambassador to Belgium

Honorable William Graham, former chairman, General Advisory Committee on Arms Control, former science adviser to the president, former deputy administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Ambassador Read Hammer, former U.S. chief START negotiator; former deputy director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

Honorable Fred Iklé, former undersecretary of Defense for policy

Sven F. Kraemer, former arms control director, National Security Council

Dr. John Lenczowksi, former director of European and Soviet affairs, National Security Council

Admassador James "Ace" Lyons Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), former commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Tidal W. McCoy, former secretary of the Air Force (acting)

Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), former deputy chief of staff

Honorable J. William Middendorf II, former secretary of the Navy, former ambassador to the European Union, the Netherlands, and the Organization of American States

Vice Adm. Robert Monroe, U.S. Navy (Ret.), former director, Defense Nuclear Agency

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former senior staff, Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States; former senior staff, Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack

Roger W. Robinson Jr., former senior director of International Economic Affairs at the National Security Council, former executive secretary of the Cabinet-level Senior Inter-Governmental Group for International Economic Policy

Ambassador Ed Rowny, former U.S. chief START negotiator; former special adviser to President Ronald Reagan on arms control

Michael S. Swetnam, former program monitor, intelligence community staff with liaison responsibilities to INF and START Interagency Groups, and former member of the Technical Advisory Group to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, U.S. Army (Ret.), former deputy commander, U.S. Army Pacific

Honorable Michelle Van Cleave, former national counterintelligence executive

Dr. William Van Cleave, former director, Department of Defense Transition Team

Honorable Troy Wade, former director, Defense Programs, U.S. Department of Energy.

[sandi66]

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release December 21, 2010 Readout of the President's Meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
In an Oval Office meeting today, the President discussed immigration reform with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). The President and the members discussed their deep disappointment with the DREAM Act failing in the U.S. Senate despite having the support of a majority of Senators and a majority of the American people, noting that it would have cut the budget deficit by $2.2 billion over the next 10 years. The President reiterated that he will not give up on the DREAM Act, and thanked the members for their tireless leadership on this issue.

The President further reiterated his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, pointing out that we can no longer perpetuate a broken immigration system that is not working for our country or our economy. The President and the members agreed that the American people expect both parties to come together around common sense approaches to solve our toughest problems, not kick them down the road, and agreed to work together and with the Congress to get the job done. They also agreed that immigration reform should remain a top priority for the coming Congress, and to work together to advance proposals that not only to strengthen security at the nation’s borders, but also restore responsibility and accountability to what everyone agrees is a badly broken immigration system.

Members in Attendance:

Senator Bob Menendez (NJ)
Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA)
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (NY)
Congressman Charlie Gonzalez (TX)
Congressman Luis Gutierrez (IL)

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/21/readout-presidents-meeting-with-congressional-hispanic-caucus

[sandi66]

Last Update: December 22, 2010 08:04 ET
Deutsche Bank agrees to US DOJ deal

Deutsche Bank agrees to US DOJ deal in tax shelter case

Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) agreed to pay UD$553M to the US Department of Justice to avoid the filing of criminal charges against the bank for helping sell fraudulent tax shelters that cost the government billions in revenues.

The bank admitted it participated in 1,300 tax deals from Y 1996 through to 2002 that cost the US government US$$5.9B in taxes, according to a non-prosecution agreement filed in court.

In the agreement, the government agreed to hold off pursuing criminal charges if the bank, or other party, met certain obligations.
The bank also agreed to have an independent monitor in place to review its compliance and ethics programme. The bank is banned from participating in any pre-packaged tax shelter product such as the ones it helped structure and sell.

The settlement is the latest resolution in a long-running investigation that prosecutors once billed as the largest tax shelter fraud case in US history.

The bank allegedly helped advisers and KPMG structure financial transactions that benefited the buyers, and prepared documents that helped them mislead the Internal Revenue Service about the true nature of the transactions



www.livetradingnews.com/deutsche-bank-agrees-to-us-doj-deal-30475.htm

[sandi66]

December 21, 2010
D.C. Judge Gives OK to $3.4B Cobell Settlement
A federal judge in Washington this afternoon preliminarily approved a landmark $3.4 billion settlement in a longstanding class action litigation over the mismanagement of trust fund assets for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

Lawyers for lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell and a team of Justice and Interior Department attorneys urged Senior Judge Thomas Hogan to approve the deal. Hogan's order kicks off a comprehensive notice plan to inform potentially 600,000 beneficiaries of the deal between the plaintiffs and the government.

Hogan and the opposing lawyers today in court recounted what they described as arms-length negotiations that produced a settlement in December 2009 to compensate individual Indians with trust assets held by the federal government. Cobell’s suit, filed in 1996 in Washington’s federal trial court, alleged decades of mismanagement of trust fund assets stemming from the use of land for oil, minerals, gas, timber and other resources.

The settlement required congressional authorization. After a year kicking around the House and Senate, Congress approved the settlement last month and President Barack Obama signed off on the deal earlier this month.

Justice Department attorney Robert Kirschman Jr. called the settlement a fair deal for the plaintiffs and for taxpayers.

A lead attorney for Cobell, Washington solo practitioner Dennis Gingold, said it’s the plaintiffs’ desire to move swiftly to implement the settlement. “Every step is important, and this was an important step,” Gingold said after the hearing.

Today, Hogan designated J.P. Morgan as the qualifying bank at the request of Cobell’s lawyers. The judge also authorized $20 million to launch a notice program in January to inform potential beneficiaries about the settlement. A fairness hearing is scheduled for next June.

legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/12/dc-judge-gives-ok-to-34b-cobell-settlement.html

[sandi66]

Ship contract to bring jobs to Mobile, Ala.
Posted In: Manufacturing

By The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Austal USA says it will double the size of its Mobile shipyard and add about 1,800 jobs to handle a Navy shipbuilding contract worth nearly $5 billion that has been authorized by Congress.

Congress approved a plan on Tuesday to split the purchase of 20 vessels between Austal and Lockheed Martin Corp. A White House official said President Barack Obama would sign the bill, which will allow the Navy to proceed with the plan.

Republican U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner of Mobile told the Mobile Press-Register that there will be long-term benefits from the contract to build combat ships in Mobile.

"South Alabama, and really the entire Gulf Coast, is about to see a tremendous 'help wanted' sign go up," Bonner said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Mobile said the Austal project will be the largest federal project for Mobile since the construction of the now closed Brookley Air Force Base, which was built in the 1930s as Brookley Army Air Field.

He said the project should add 1,800 jobs and boost Austal to about 4,000 workers, making it Mobile's largest employer.

Littoral combat ships or LCS are relatively small vessels that are intended to operate close to shore.

Bonner and Navy leaders say the plan is cost-effective and will improve national defense.

The Navy had set Dec. 30 as the last day for authorization of the split LCS purchase before it would revert to the previous winner-take-all plan.

The LCS approval was part of a bill to extend the budget that funds federal government until March.

The budget extension passed the Senate 79-16 Tuesday afternoon, with support from Democrats and Republicans, including Alabama's two Republican senators. But the vote 193-165 vote Tuesday evening in the House was divided along party lines. Bonner was the only Republican who voted in favor of the bill.

"I had a lot of colleagues on the floor who asked me if I knew what I was doing," Bonner said. He said Republicans who voted against the bill were unhappy that it did not do more to cut spending.

www.rdmag.com/News/FeedsAP/2010/12/manufacturing-ship-contract-to-bring-jobs-to-mobile-ala/

[sandi66]

Defense spending bill headed to Obama

December 22, 2010 - 1:46pm

A defense spending bill is on its way to the President's desk.
The Defense Authorization Act for 2011 passed the House and Senate on voice votes this morning, after Democrats agreed to take out several controversial provisions.

The bill authorizes the Pentagon to spend $725 billion on defense programs in the current fiscal year, including nearly $160 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It includes a 1.4 percent pay raise for troops and a guarantee that children of service members can stay covered under the military's TRICARE health care program until they turn 26.

The legislation calls for spending $11.6 billion on the development of Afghan security forces, and $1.5 billion for Iraqi security forces.

The bill also would continue restrictions on the Defense Department's ability to close Guantanamo Bay. That includes prohibiting the transfer of detainees to the U.S.

In a related development, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) secured an agreement from Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing on the mix-up in the competition for a new Air Force tanker. Levin said a January hearing will look into the incident. Rival companies Boeing and EADS were sent confidential information on each other's bids.

www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=150&sid=2210188

[sandi66]

Iraq promotes Sharistani, appoints Luaibi as new oil minister


Dec 22, 2010
Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 – Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani was promoted to the country’s deputy prime minister for energy, with current deputy oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi being designated as his successor.

“In the cabinet formation list submitted ... by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Hussain al-Shahristani is nominated as deputy prime minister for energy and Abdul Kareem Luaibi is the oil minister,” said Iraq’s former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The new oil minister was born in Baghdad in 1959 and holds a BA degree in oil engineering from the University of Baghdad. Luaibi began his career in 1983 with Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Co., and he held several posts within the ministry before reaching his latest position.

As senior deputy in the ministry of oil, Elaibi is said to have been instrumental in the country’s recent oil and gas contracts with international oil companies and other agreements with neighboring countries.

Altogether, Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas contracts since 2008 to international energy companies, representing the first major investment in the country's energy industry for more than 30 years.

“Elaibi means good continuity for the oil companies,” said Samuel Ciszuk, Mideast energy analyst with IHS Global Insight. "He was very much involved in the negotiations of the contracts. He was very much involved in the talks with the oil companies.”

Despite the appointment of Elaibi as minister, observers said that Shahristani would remain the dominant figure in the country’s oil and gas industry.

"Hussain al-Shahristani asked for broader authority in the oil industry, especially with the issues of the contracts in the country's bidding rounds, and to have a say in running Iraq's energy sector," said a senior official. "When he got these assurances he accepted the post of deputy prime minister for energy."

Shahristani led the oil ministry through a series of agreements with IOC’s that could increase Iraq's production capacity to 12 million b/d from the current 2.5 million b/d, subject to approval by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Observers suggested that Shahristani's continued control over the oil sector will be seen as assurance that contracts he agreed with IOC’s will be honored in the absence of formal guarantees, given the country’s lack of a new hydrocarbons law.

Some observers said that Shahristani would have only accepted his new position on condition he retained overall control of oil, which provides around 95% of Iraq's budget revenues.

The promotion of Shahristani, a nuclear scientist by profession, also followed last week’s decision by the United Nations Security Council to grant Iraq permission to develop a civilian nuclear program after 19 years of restrictions aimed at preventing the country from developing atomic weapons.

Following the UNSC announcement, Sharistani told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency that his country "is striving to develop and activate the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, with local potentials and efficiencies, because it possesses a very special program, compared with other developing nations.”

Shahristani studied in Britain, Russia and Canada before reaching the position of senior scientific adviser at Iraq's Atomic Energy Commission during the 1970s. He was arrested in 1979 by agents of Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein for his alleged activities against the regime. He was eventually sentenced to 20 years and spent 11 in prison.

Shahristani escaped the infamous Abu Ghraib prison during the 1991 Gulf War and fled to Iran. He returned to Iraq in 2003, turning down an opportunity to head the interim government before being made oil minister in 2006.

www.ogj.com/index/article-display/0609249847/articles/oil-gas-journal/general-interest-2/2010/12/iraq-promotes_sharistani.html

[sandi66]

Iraqi gov't formation seen as progress

Published: Dec. 22, 2010 at 1:48 PM

BAGHDAD, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- World leaders said the new government in Iraq was a sign of progress, though the release of former militants caused renewed concern.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and new members of his Cabinet got backing from members of Parliament during a Tuesday session. The appointment ends the longest post-election political stalemate in modern history.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, one of Washington's point men on Iraq, praised the "inclusive, national partnership" that emerged from the nine-month process that eventually led to a new government.

"There are many challenges ahead but I am convinced Iraq is up to them," he said in a statement. "The United States stands ready to help and to strengthen even more the important partnership we have built."

The deal followed months of negotiations between Maliki, his rival and former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement through his office congratulated Baghdad for moving ahead in the spirit of national unity but noted there were "major challenges" ahead in terms of national security and reconciliation.

Meanwhile, members of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr, were a noted presence on the streets of Iraq after being freed from prison, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Several of the men were accused of playing a role in the civil war that followed the U.S. invasion in 2003. The BBC reported that their release was met with a sense of fear by Iraqi forces who fought against the Shiite militia during sectarian conflict.

www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/12/22/Iraqi-govt-formation-seen-as-progress/UPI-87431293043712/

[sandi66]

New, inclusive Iraqi government: A better partner for US

The new Shiite-led coalition government in Iraq includes Sunnis in high posts. That, and other successes, spell a strategic advantage for America in the Middle East.

December 22, 2010

What a mission impossible: For the first time since the 2003 American invasion, Iraq has a government that includes all of its major political parties.

It took nine months of wrangling since the March 7 parliamentary elections for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to claim a second term and finally present his coalition cabinet on Tuesday. Now even a minority Sunni politician once aligned with Saddam Hussein is a deputy prime minister.

Problems such as electricity blackouts and terrorist bombings remain, of course, but with reconciliation of Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds making strides, some 50,000 American troops are set to exit in a year’s time.

The United States is also making its largest transition from military to civilian assistance for a single country since the Marshall Plan in postwar Europe. US consulates are opening in cities outside Baghdad. And Iraq has become a hot attraction for foreign investors as it tries to beat out Saudi Arabia in oil exports.

The time is now ripe for Washington to prepare for an Iraq – a nation that once had little democratic tradition and invaded two of its neighbors – that can be a key partner in reshaping the Middle East, much like the role Germany plays in Europe or Japan in Asia.

Americans should expect no less, after more than 1.5 million US soldiers served in Iraq with a loss of more than 4,440 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqis. The two nations are now inextricably bound by a contentious history born of post-9/11 fears but also hopes for a Middle East that can be rid of jihadism through contagious democracy.

As President Obama said in August, “We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization.”

The fragile but definitive successes in Iraq are already serving as a model for other conflicts, such as Afghanistan. Ending the civil war that erupted in 2006, for instance, required a careful mix of a troop surge, diplomatic finesse of sectarian factions, and the use of reconstruction teams in the provinces.

The US is also beefing up its people exchanges, such as placing young Iraqi engineers in US high-tech firms in hopes they will launch start-up businesses back home. And the US Department of Justice is helping Iraq cement a commitment to the rule of law.

Iraq’s security forces now measure more than half a million, and operate largely out of nationalist rather than sectarian motives. In a sign of revived Iraqi patriotism and communal tolerance, tensions between Shiite politicians are as strong as between Shiites and Sunnis.

And in a sign that democratic politics are alive and well in Iraq, Prime Minister Maliki, a Shiite, said while announcing his cabinet: “I have not satisfied anybody at all. Everybody is angry with me, and everybody is frustrated with me.”

Amazingly, the months of political infighting didn’t spawn a surge of violence. Now a Sunni is the speaker of parliament, and Sunnis control 10 high-level ministries; after the 2005 election, they won few high posts. The anti-American, pro-Iran Shiite faction led by Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr won only minor posts.

The postelection contest for power in Iraq also revealed the competition for influence in the region between the US and Iran. Despite their rivalry, however, both Iran and the US have a strong interest in a peaceful, prosperous Iraq.

For the US, though, a thriving democracy in Iraq may serve as an inspiration for suppressed democrats in Iran, as well as in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf. Iraq may also request some sort of continuing US military role, such as control of Iraqi airspace. And Baghdad will likely form alliances with other peaceful nations in the region, further isolating a belligerent Iran.

The strategic advantages of US-Iraqi friendship are many. Assuming Congress keeps funding US efforts there, “the Iraqi people will have a strong partner in the United States,” as Mr. Obama said. Americans suffered a terrible war in Iraq, the president said, but they also “helped the Iraqi people seek the light of peace.”

By reconciling factions that seemed irreconcilable just three years ago, Iraq has begun to step into that light.

www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/1222/New-inclusive-Iraqi-government-A-better-partner-for-US

[sandi66]

Obama Plans ‘Victory Lap,’ Despite Losses on Some Issues
Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010 02:32 PM Article Font Size
By David A. Patten

Buoyed by what experts say is the most activist lame-duck session in modern political history, President Barack Obama is preparing to take a “victory lap” in a television appearance Wednesday afternoon to congratulate Congress on passing key elements of his agenda -- even as one prominent Republican says a GOP legislative collapse has played into the president’s hands.

A Republican caucus that for two years battled Democrats on big-ticket spending items now appears poised to help pass the president’s No. 1 foreign policy priority in the lame-duck session, a New START arms deal with Russia that many GOP leaders warn is dangerously flawed.

“I anticipate the president will have an occasion to speak about his two years and what we've accomplished,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday, confirming that Obama plans to recap his accomplishments.

The sudden willingness of GOP senators, some of whom are leaving office for good, to cross the aisle and work with the president is drawing attention globally.

“The question on many lips in Washington these days is why the Republicans have suddenly become such wimps,” wrote the U.K. Guardian’s Michael Tomasky on Wednesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina continues to be an outspoken critic of some of his Republican colleagues.

"I stand here very disappointed in the fact that our lead negotiator on the Republican side ... basically is going to have his work product ignored and the treaty jammed through in the lame duck,” Graham said in a news conference Tuesday, speaking of Arizona GOP Sen. Jon Kyl. “How as Republicans we justify that I do not know. To Senator Kyl, I want to apologize to you for the way you've been treated by your colleagues."

During an interview with Fox News radio, Graham charged that some of his fellow Republicans are guilty of “capitulation of dramatic proportions” in their willingness to work with Democrats. He also complained that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had “eaten our lunch” during the lame-duck session.

So why are Republican senators suddenly so interested in working with Democrats?

Graham suggested some of GOP senators are wary of what the much more conservative Congress will do when it takesoffice on Jan. 5.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., says the GOP split over the START treaty replied that it shows “we’re about to deal with a more evenly divided Senate.”

When the lame-duck session began, Republicans declared that they were interested in passing a tax-cut deal and a continued resolution to fund the federal government -- and nothing else. But it has retreated from that position as individual Republican senators broke from the GOP leadership.

Of course, neither party has gotten everything it wanted from the lame-duck session. Republicans thwarted Democratic efforts to pass a $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill laden with over 6,600 earmarks, and stopped DREAM Act provisions that would have provided a route to citizenship for illegal residents who enroll in college or serve in the military.

But in other areas the administration scored impressive wins, including: Congressional approval to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy; a food safety bill strengthening federal power to inspect food processing plants; a deal to confirm about 20 of President Obama’s judicial nominations to the federal bench; and the START deal, approval of which appears all but inevitable. Also, the FCC on Tuesday announced it would impose a modified version of Internet neutrality, opening up the Internet to federal regulation much to conservatives’ chagrin.

Pundits say the 2010 lame duck session is already the most active in the post-WWII era.

“There’s just no question this one has passed the most legislation,” Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics told Fox News. “Obviously, whether you consider it productive or counterproductive depends on your point of view on that legislation.”

Sabato points out the incoming Congress will be quite different politically.

“You’ve got dozens and dozens of members of Congress, mainly Democrats, who of course are going but office, most of them never to return to public office, so they have absolutely nothing to lose one way or the other during a lame duck session,” he said.

The administration is reportedly hoping to hold its “victory lap” news conference after an expected Senate vote to ratify START. It will give the president an opportunity to highlight his legislative achievements and to thank Republicans and Democrats for working on a bipartisan basis. The president is also likely to mention his achievements in his upcoming State of the Union address. Gibbs confirmed that the president has already begun working on his speech.

Observers say the lame-duck deals represent a remarkable comeback for a president whose party lost control of the House in a historic landslide just last month.

Shortly after the news conference, the president will leave Washington to join his family vacationing in Hawaii over the Christmas holiday.

www.newsmax.com/Headline/president-obama-victory-lap/2010/12/22/id/380770

[sandi66]

White House Changes Course, Now Admits National Intelligence Director Was Never Briefed on UK Terror Arrests…

Here’s the video in case you missed it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9HEsaHNipY&feature=player_embedded

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Caught in Interview Unaware of London Terror Arrests



Safe to say this Administration is absolutely clueless when it comes to national security…

(The Blaze)- After initially blaming Diane Sawyer and an “ambiguous” question for National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s inability to answer a question on recent UK terror arrests, the White House has now admitted that Clapper was not briefed on the issue prior to the interview.

The arrests had taken place the morning of the interview, and had been popular news on all the major networks. Still, Clapper had no idea about them when Sawyer asked him about their implications for the U.S.

“Director Clapper had not yet been briefed on the arrests in the United Kingdom at the time of this interview taping,” said ODNI spokeswoman Jamie Smith in a statement.

She explained that Clapper had been “working throughout the day on important intelligence matters, including monitoring military and political developments on the Korean Peninsula, providing answers to questions concerning the ratification of the START nuclear treaty, and other classified issues. He wasn‘t immediately briefed on London because it didn’t appear to have a homeland nexus and there was no immediate action by the DNI required. Nevertheless, he should have been briefed on the arrests, and steps have been taken to ensure that he is in the future. The intelligence community as a whole was fully aware of this development and tracking it closely.”

weaselzippers.us/2010/12/22/white-house-changes-course-now-admits-national-intelligence-director-was-never-briefed-on-uk-terror-arrests/

[sandi66]

EXCLUSIVE: Senate Strikes Deal on 9/11 First Responders Bill
Oklahoma Senator Allows Vote After Bill To Care For Responders Is Cut to $4.2 Billion

28 commentsBy JONATHAN KARL and MATTHEW JAFFE
Dec. 22, 2010Senators on both side of the aisle came together to unanimously pass a bill to give continuing health benefits and compensation to first responders who got sick after the 9/11 terror attacks.
The bill passed after Senate Democrats struck a deal Wednesday with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who agreed to drop his objections when the cost of the bill was reduced by about $2 billion.

The Oklahoma Republican had come under withering criticism for opposing the bill on the grounds that it provided "overly generous funding" and included "unnecessary and duplicative compensation funds."

Coburn emerged Wednesday from a closed-door meeting that included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and New York Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to reveal that that a deal has been worked out that will likely enable the bill to pass the Senate – and then the House – by the end of the day.

Under the deal, the total cost of the bill over ten years would be reduced from $6.2 billion to $4.2 billion. Of that $4.2 billion, $1.5 billion will go to health benefits for the first responders, while $2.7 billion will go to compensation for them.

"I'll stand in the way of anything that doesn't make sense and doesn't spend our money wisely, so you know, it doesn't matter what the issue is, we're in such a hole, Jon, that we don't have the luxury of not getting things right," Coburn told ABC News' Jonathan Karl. "And so we've come to an agreement that costs less, doesn't allow double-dipping, doesn't allow exorbitant lawyer fees, and we've worked it out and so we're going to take care of the folks, but we're going to do it in a way that doesn't punish the people that are going to pay the bill."

"But the way you've been hammered on this, standing against the heroes of 9/11…," replied Karl.

"I'm used to being hammered," Coburn said. "I'm not standing against them at all. I'm standing for us as America, the realization that we have to do things efficiently and economically. We've worked out a deal now that spends a whole lot less money, accomplishes exactly the same thing, and does it in a way that protects our future. Every bill should have to go through that – and the fact that they don't is a problem. That's why we're $14 trillion in debt."

"So I don't mind taking the heat," he continued. "You know, as a physician I care about those people. As a citizen, I care about the firefighters of my own city and every other city. The fact is you can still do it right. So you take all the heat, but you still it get done. So what we need is more people taking more heat so we get the right things done."

"Everybody's come to an agreement. We've got a handshake. We're waiting for the paperwork. And it'll be a done deal by the end of the day. But had we not done that, we wouldn't have had it and they wouldn't have had it until next year. So the fact is we accomplished their goals and we accomplished protecting the future of the country."

"And saved some money?" he was asked.

"We saved a lot of money."

"A lot of people are sick and hurt and we need to take care of them. They deserve it. That's why it's such a bipartisan issue," Reid told ABC News when he emerged from the meeting.

The compromise mandates the closing of the Victims Compensation Fund within five years, limits fees paid out to attorneys, and closes loopholes that allow people to re-file claims that have previously been rejected by the Fund, a source told ABC News.

Ken Feinberg has been floated as a possible special master for the Fund, the source said.

In the past few days Coburn's threats to try to block Senate passage of the bill this year infuriated 9/11 first responders and lawmakers alike.

"Where's his heart?" asked John Feal, founder of the FealGood foundation, a non-profit organization pushing for the bill's passage. "Because it's not in the right place. These men and women behind me have gone eight Christmases suffering without any help from the federal government, so I question his heart."

"I believe we have the votes to prevail," said Schumer at a press conference on Tuesday. "The only thing standing in our way is people who will try to run out the clock."

"That is not fair, not right, and that flies in the face of America," he said.

"Enough enough enough with the delays!" he roared.

"That is not fair, not right, and that flies in the face of America," he said.

"Enough enough enough with the delays!" he roared.

Now the bill appears set to pass the Senate this afternoon after the chamber ratifies the START nuclear treaty with Russia. The 9/11 bill would then need to be passed by the House, but that is expected to occur later this evening. If that happens, Congress could leave town for the Christmas break late Wednesday.

"We are on the verge of a Christmas miracle," Gillibrand told reporters a few days ago.

Now that miracle appears set to become reality.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/exclusive-senate-strikes-deal-911-responders-bill/story?id=12459170&page=1

[sandi66]

DADT Repeal Act Becomes Law

News Analysis: As President Obama signs bill to end military's discriminatory policy, he tells the audience – and the country – that ''we are not a nation that says, 'don't ask, don't tell'''

by Chris Geidner

Published on December 22, 2010, 2:16pm

At a little past 9 a.m. Dec. 22, President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 into law in a ceremony full of pomp and circumstance but also full of significance and sentiment.

Saying that he already had discussed the implementation plan with Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the various service chiefs, Obama said the implementation would be done "swiftly and efficiently."

Talking about the importance of recruiting and enlisting the best men and women possible for the Armed Forces, Obama said, "That's why I hope those soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have been discharged under this discriminatory policy will seek to reenlist once the repeal is implemented."

At the press briefing later Dec. 22, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the timeframe for when those out gay, lesbian and bisexual would-be servicemembers could re-enlist was a matter of "months, not years."

But the commander-in-chief, whose relationship with the LGBT community has been sometimes tense and on occasion acrimonious, returned to what even some of his fiercest critics acknowledged was a position -- at least for the day -- as the "fierce advocate" he had told the community he would be.

Telling the story of a gay servicemember, Andy Lee, who saved the life of a fellow soldier, Lloyd Corwin, in World War II, Obama shared just one of the countless stories of heroism to have come to light during the fight to repeal the 1993 law banning open gay, lesbian and bisexual military service.

The presidential signing ceremony for the repeal bill was held in the auditorium at the Interior Department in order to allow for a number of guests. Among the attendees were Grethe Cammermeyer, a former colonel on the Washington National Guard who led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance and told reporters after the signing that she "felt a little bit like the grandmother of the cause."

In addition to members of Congress who were there, notable attendees included the leadership of organizations involved in repeal -- including the Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Palm Center, Servicemembers United, National Stonewall Democrats, Log Cabin Republicans, Center for American Progress, OutServe and Get Equal.

Franklin Kameny, a World War II veteran like Lee and Corwin, had protested for open military service since his firing in the late 1950s from the Army Map Service because he was gay. He told Metro Weekly he was overjoyed to be attending because, as he said, "I didn't think I'd live to see it."

Servicemembers -- some currently serving, some retired and others who were discharged under DADT -- were ever-present, including on stage with the president, who recognized former Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva and Navy Commander Zoe Dunning (Ret.) for their service. In the audience, among many others were former Lt. Dan Choi, former Air Force Major Mike Almy, former Army Sgt. First Class Stacey Vasquez, Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, Fire Controlman First Class Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen (Ret.) and former Army Second Lt. Anthony Woods.

To them and many others, Obama said, "For a long time your service has demanded a particular kind of sacrifice. You've been asked to carry the added burden of secrecy and isolation. You're not the first to have carried this burden, for while today marks the end of a particular struggle that has lasted almost two decades, this is a moment more than two centuries in the making."

The vote that brought about the signing, however, was not a close one.

With 63 senators on one side and 33 senators on the other – and four not voting – the outcome was clear a little before noon Saturday, Dec. 18. Although not the final vote on the matter, which received two more affirmative votes, DADT had reached its end when the Senate voted for cloture on a stand-alone bill to repeal the policy.

A little more than 17 years earlier, 63 senators also had faced off against 33 opposing senators – with four, again, not voting. Then, as today, it was not the final vote on the matter. Then, however, the vote made clear that the U.S. government would be passing a law banning openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had attempted to remove DADT from the National Defense Authorization Act by replacing it with language leaving the decision about the policy ''concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces'' up to the president.

But, the measure failed. Overwhelmingly.

Less than 20 years later, though, the Senate had flipped 180 degrees on the matter.

How did it happen?

The successful Senate vote happened, first, because of an unmatched – and ultimately successful – public education campaign by LGBT advocacy groups and activists and supportive academics. Saying that other efforts could benefit from the lessons of the DADT repeal effort, Mara Keisling from the National Center for Transgender Equality told Metro Weekly that the bottom line was that they ''did a really good job of making it an issue.''

From the long-established entities like SLDN and the Palm Center to newer groups like Servicemembers United and even OutServe, no reporter (or senator) was ever without an informed voice – often a former or even current servicemember – willing to explain the precise impact of the discriminatory policy.

On the same day in March of this year, former Air Force Major Mike Almy, an SLDN client, was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee as former Army Lt. Dan Choi was, with Get Equal, raising the stakes for the White House in a way no one had yet done to the administration.

That awareness-raising effort -- including the unprecedented netroots efforts to push the issue and the shove provided by the LCR lawsuit this fall -- was essential to keeping DADT repeal on the front burner at the White House, in Congress and in the media. The education brought public opinion around, and it allowed an open discussion based on facts – and not fears.

That, though, was only half of the battle.

The other half was less pretty – and much less thankful. The end of the military's discriminatory policy against gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers also is happening because of a smart, determined political strategy by the White House, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) and the ''insider'' LGBT organizations that have received the ire from many at the forefront of the first necessary part of the strategy that reached its success on Dec. 18.

With the support of Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the strategy of attaching repeal to the National Defense Authorization Act was the only way forward in the spring and summer. Moreover, repeal would not have even gotten off the ground had members of Congress not believed that the president – and the leadership at the Pentagon – was behind the effort.

To that end, Jan. 27 – the date that Obama said in the State of the Union address that he would ''work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the [DADT] law'' – and Feb. 2 – the date that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate that they supported repeal – were the keys to all that followed in Congress.

But, as Winnie Stachelberg, a longtime LGBT advocate who is the senior vice president at CAP, said in the moments after the cloture vote, ''Undoing a law is always a difficult prospect and procedure.'' Part of that difficulty, as was seen in recent weeks, is because the specific concerns of every lawmaker whose vote was needed had to be answered.

Stachelberg, who has been a part of most of the White House meetings with pro-repeal organizations throughout the year, has been criticized – along with HRC and its president, Joe Solmonese – by some activists, and even some other groups, as being too cozy with the administration. Stachelberg and CAP faced fire for their role in crafting the language in the repeal bill that puts final repeal in the hands of the president and military leaders with a certification requirement.

That certification requirement, the formation of the Pentagon working group and the resulting working group report released Nov. 30, though, were some of the very same ''insider'' compromises that allowed the bill to move forward in May and brought along many of the moderate votes for cloture on the stand-alone repeal bill on Dec. 18. Without the flexibility of the certification language, judging by the testimony of Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on the floor of the Senate in the debate hours before the vote, his vote – which was against repeal in May – likely would have remained in opposition.

But Webb didn't, instead voting for cloture and, later on Dec. 18, for final passage of DADT repeal. He was joined in the final vote by all of the other Democrats voting – Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) did not vote at all – and eight Republicans.

As Rachel Maddow – who has been critical of Obama on this issue – said on MSNBC after the vote, ''This is the president's victory. ... This is a difficult promise kept.''

As Obama reached the end of his speech at the signing ceremony, he noted the turning point that the bill marks in history, saying, ''For we are not a nation that says, 'don't ask, don't tell.'''

The line brought the audience to its feet.

He continued, "We are a nation that says, 'Out of many, we are one.' We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot. We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals that we uphold today. And now, it is my honor to sign this bill into law."

Sitting down, he did so. He then looked up at the audience gathered together to watch this moment.

"This is done," the commander-in-chief said.

www.metroweekly.com/news/?ak=5858

[sandi66]

South Korean Military Prepares for Largest-Ever Live-Fire Drill

VOA News 22 December 2010

South Korea's army and air force are preparing to hold their largest-ever live-fire exercise on Thursday near the inter-Korean border, as Seoul remains on high alert for any attacks by North Korea.

A South Korean officer says the drill at the Pocheon firing range, 20 kilometers south of the border, is a response to North Korea's deadly shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong island last month. South Korean General Ju Eun-shik says Seoul will "completely punish" the North if it retaliates militarily for the drill.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the military exercise planned by U.S. ally South Korea has been well publicized and is defensive in nature. He says there is "no way" that it should "engender a response" from North Korea.

South Korean officials say Thursday's live-fire exercise will involve jet fighters, helicopters, tanks, self-propelled K-9 guns and 800 soldiers. South Korea has staged more than 40 similar drills this year, but the scale of the upcoming exercise is unprecedented.

South Korean naval forces also began three days of exercises off the nation's east coast Wednesday, aimed in part at preventing infiltrations by North Korean submarines. The naval drill involves six warships in waters 100 kilometers south of the eastern maritime border of the two Koreas.

Seoul staged a live-fire artillery drill on Yeonpyeong on Monday, repeating an exercise that prompted North Korea to shell the island on November 23, killing four South Koreans.

Pyongyang had threatened a catastrophic response if Seoul went ahead with Monday's drill, but later backed down, saying it saw no reason to retaliate for every perceived South Korean provocation. South Korean officials say they remain concerned about the risk of a surprise attack by Pyongyang.

www.voanews.com/english/news/South-Korean-Military-Prepares-for-Largest-Ever-Live-Fire-Drill-112320294.html

[sandi66]

Moy Resigns as US Mint Director

by DARRIN LEE UNSER on DECEMBER 22, 2010

Director of the United States Mint Ed Moy announced that he would be resigning from his post effective January 9, 2011, to accept a position in the private sector.

His resignation was submitted to Barack Obama, President of the United States. Moy also informed Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios.

Moy will have served in the role for slightly more than 4 years and 4 months, after having been sworn in as the 38th Director of the United States Mint on September 6, 2006. He was appointed for a five-year term by President George W. Bush and continued to serve at the pleasure of President Obama. His term was set to end in September 2011.

"What is surprising is how long he has lasted into the Obama administration," David Ganz, a former president of the ANA and a columnist for Numismatic News, said and was quoted by the Wall Street Journal. "If you look back 50 years, there’s no Mint director that has served a full term when there has been a change of administration."

Moy, who collected coins as a child, was at the helm of the US Mint during four very eventful years. Notable US Mint issues during this time-frame include the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial related releases of 2009. This included four new circulating cent coins featuring reverse designs emblematic of four stages in the life of Lincoln — Birthplace, Formative Years, Professional Life and Presidency.

It also included the extremely popular Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commemorative Silver Dollars which sold out their entire mintage of 450,000 in less than six weeks. Even more popular was a Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set released later in the year. It contained a Proof Lincoln Silver Dollar and four proofs of the 2009 Lincoln cents. The set sold out of its allotted 50,000 units in less than 48 hours.

Collectors also clamored to obtain the 2009 Ultra High Relief $20 Double Eagle Gold Coin which was struck to resemble the original intentions that artist Augustus St. Gaudens had for the piece when he designed it for the 1907 Double Eagle. In just one day, collectors ordered 28,173 of the coins despite each one selling for $1,189.

"Like most coin collectors, I love the Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1907 Double Eagle. It is everything that makes a coin produced in the United States great: truly American, capturing our national spirit, and a stunning work of art," Ed Moy told the crowd when the UHR was first revealed. "The United States Mint is proud to render Saint-Gaudens’ vision in a way that honors our past and raises the bar for the future. One hundred years from now, I believe the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin will be remembered as the birth of the greatest American century in coin-making history."

There were also many tough decisions that faced Moy as Director. Perhaps none more so than the cancellation of the Proof and Uncirculated Gold and Silver American Eagles in 2009. The US Mint, at the time, was facing intense demand for the bullion versions of the coins, which it was required by law to strike to meet demand. As such, the decision was made to cancel the numismatic eagles to allow all available blanks to be used for the bullion coins.

Among the new multi-year coin series that debuted during his tenure as director include:

Presidential $1 Coins
First Spouse Gold Coins
Native American $1 Coins
America the Beautiful Quarters®
America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™
During Moy’s time, the US Mint also expanded and promoted free educational materials and lesson plans for children. As a testament to Moy’s commitment to education, during the many ceremonial coin releases throughout the U.S. and its territories, a key time during each event and one Moy obviously enjoyed was interacting with children and giving them a free coin commemorating the occasion.

Moy told US Mint employees:

"I’m proud of the progress we’ve made over four and a half years. The Mint is a better place and delivering more value to the American taxpayers. The foundation has been rebuilt and the work is now in your capable hands. Please know that I will always remember my being Director of the United States Mint as a special time in my life."

President Obama must now appoint a new director.

Moy will join L&L Energy, Inc., a Seattle-based energy company. He will assume the position of vice president of corporate infrastructure.

Moy graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1979 with a triple major in economics, international relations, and political science before working for Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin for ten years. From 1989 to 1993, he was a political appointee at the federal Health Care Financing Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President George H. W. Bush. Then in 1993, he went back into the private sector for eight years where he worked at corporations like Wall Street private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Moy returned to public service under President George W. Bush where he served as Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel at the White House before being appointed to the Director of the Mint in 2006.

www.coinnews.net/2010/12/22/moy-resigns-as-us-mint-director/

[sandi66]

All about the Benjamins - Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke unveiled the new $100 bill in April

by Julia Belluz on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:20am

It could be the most costly printing error in U.S. history: over US$100 billion worth of redesigned $100 bills are currently being quarantined and may be destroyed because government printers failed to churn out usable currency. New high-tech notes, which were scheduled for release in February 2011, were designed with advanced security features, including a 3-D security strip to stave off counterfeiters. But the complex production process they require rendered a crease in an unknown number of the new bills, leaving a blank portion that is revealed when the bill is tugged on both ends.

The source of the printing problem is unknown, but one official familiar with the situation told CNBC that “the frustration level is off the charts.” These new $100 bills were to be the first to carry Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s signature. Now, in order to prevent a $100 bill shortage, the Federal Reserve has ordered more of the low-tech variety, which features Bush-era treasury secretary Hank Paulson’s signature.

The questionable cash, which represents more than 10 per cent of the entire supply of American currency in the world, will be held in vaults at Fort Worth in Texas and in Washington until the government figures out how to sort the bad bills from the properly printed ones.

www2.macleans.ca/2010/12/22/all-about-the-benjamins/

[sandi66]

US President Barack Obama to discuss arms treaty, tax deal, gay military ban

December 23, 2010 7:40AM

THE White House has scheduled a year-end news conference by President Barack Obama for tomorrow morning (AEDT) in the wake of the Senate's vote to ratify a nuclear arms treaty.

A White House statement said Mr Obama would make remarks and take questions at 4.15pm today (8.15am AEDT tomorrow).

The news conference comes at the end of a busy post-election period that ended with a flurry and a flourish for the President.

Today, Mr Obama signed landmark legislation ending the military's ban on openly gay service members.

Later in the day, the Senate was on voting to ratify an arms treaty with Russia that Mr Obama had made a top foreign policy priority.

That was atop a giant tax compromise that Mr Obama negotiated with Republicans and signed into law last week.

www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-president-barack-obama-to-discuss-arms-treaty-tax-deal-gay-military-ban/story-fn3dxity-1225975291133

[sandi66]

Nuclear Proliferation | 22.12.2010

US Senate votes to ratify new START accord for nuclear reduction

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Kerry led the Senate battle for New START ratificationUS lawmakers have voted to ratify a crucial treaty with Russia forcing both countries to reduce their stockpile of active nuclear warheads by some 30 percent, giving President Barack Obama a major political victory.

The US Senate on Wednesday voted to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, ending weeks of uncertainty over one of President Barack Obama's key foreign policy priorities.

The final vote was 71-26, well above the necessary two-thirds majority needed for ratification, with several Republicans joining Democrats in supporting the treaty.

Under the accord, Russia and the United States pledge to cut their stockpile of active nuclear warheads to 1,550 within seven years, or about 30 percent from when the first START, signed in 1991, expired a year ago. Both countries would have the right to inspect the other's progress.

Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the pact would ultimately help efforts to confront nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Obama and Medvedev signed the treaty in April
"I am confident that our nation's security, and that of the world, will be enhanced by ratifying this treaty," he said. The treaty "is not simply an agreement to address the lingering dangers of the old nuclear age. It is an agreement that will give us a crucial tool to combat the threats of this new nuclear age."

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed new START in April after a year of negotiations between diplomats from the two countries. Approval by the Russian Duma was all but certain, with lawmakers in Moscow saying they would wait for a final outcome from their American counterparts.

Obama must still sign the Senate resolution to ratify new START, which he was expected to do soon.

www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14732383,00.html

[sandi66]

www.c3headlines.com/2010/12/new-zealand-climate-scientists-admit-to-faking-temperatures-the-actual-temps-show-little-warming-ove.html



New Zealand Climate Scientists Admit To Faking Temperatures:

The Actual Temps Show Little Warming Over Last 50 Years


Read here and here. Climate "scientists" across the world have been blatantly fabricating temperatures in hopes of convincing the public and politicians that modern global warming is unprecedented and accelerating.

The scientists doing the fabrication are usually employed by the government agencies or universities, which thrive and exist on taxpayer research dollars dedicated to global warming research. A classic example of this is the New Zealand climate agency, which is now admitting their scientists produced bogus "warming" temperatures for New Zealand.

"NIWA makes the huge admission that New Zealand has experienced hardly any warming during the last half-century. For all their talk about warming, for all their rushed invention of the “Eleven-Station Series” to prove warming, this new series shows that no warming has occurred here since about 1960. Almost all the warming took place from 1940-60, when the IPCC says that the effect of CO2 concentrations was trivial. Indeed, global temperatures were falling during that period.....Almost all of the 34 adjustments made by Dr Jim Salinger to the 7SS have been abandoned, along with his version of the comparative station methodology."

A collection of temperature-fabrication charts.



joye, I have said for years, there is no global warming, just a cycle that comes and goes every decade.

Shame on the politicians and scientists that participated in these lies.

[sandi66]

* Adviser to the CBI Told the Baghdad International
December 26th, 2010 07:30 pm · Posted in NEWS
Adviser to the CBI Told the Baghdad International

Sunday 12/26/2010 10:50

Rising oil prices serves the high value of the Iraqi dinar
News Agency Baghdad International / Ammar Clbp

Adviser said the Iraqi Central Bank the appearance of Mohammed Saleh said that the Iraqi Central Bank reform policies of the exchange market of Iraq, noting that the central bank plans vessels and other long-term strategy is implemented in the future and emphasized in favor of the statement singled out by the news agency the Baghdad international pursuit of the Iraqi Central Bank to increase the capital of banks private and through the integration of these private banks and the 37 banks, indicating the limited activity of these banks as they do not constitute only 10% of the banking activity in Iraq, try adding the central bank to encourage those banks to merge with each other to be large financial institutions strengthen the financial depth and financial intermediation of the country and promote the burdens of development and found that it is in transition and need now directed to the stage of development.

Saleh said that the policy of the Central Bank of Iraq’s current policy is permissive for the expansion direction that serves development, pointing to a decline in inflation in Iraq, to 3% after that was 37% by the index in the foundation of the Central Bank, pointing out that the main objective of the central bank is to contain the inflation and nappy the stability of the value of the currency, which reflects through the stabilization of prices that is evident through the stabilization of the exchange rate was a result of monetary and economic policy of Iraq in general, pointing out that the current inflation rate in Iraq fell to the level of one decimal after it was tied decimal places, significant that victory added to the achievements of the Central Bank for the success of monetary policy, adding that the Iraqi Central Bank reserves of foreign currency reached a well close to $ 50 billion, adding to seek to increase the value of this reserve as important to Iraq because he is weak in terms of economic diversification as a threat because of the increased opportunities the possibility of their country for economic shake at any given moment, noting that the foundation of others prudent to be weak, pointing out that the reserves in Iraq linked to the general budget of the country, therefore, economic diversification and weak one-sided.

And take the benefit of high oil prices in global markets has a positive effect on the high value of the Iraqi dinar because the reserves at the central bank will increase through revenue entering the country as a result of Iraqi oil exports in the same time, it has a negative impact on the representative of the flow of imported inflation Maystdei re-balancing to maintain economic stability and maintain the proper planning of investments.

Saleh pointed out that the central bank and another job is to monitor the issue of money laundering and combating and ports financing of crime and terrorism, noting that all requested by the Central Bank of gripping traders is for the purpose of combating money laundering and that the central bank is not a single window to secure the trade and customs, taxes, refusing to be thrown twice those services to responsibility of the Central Bank, showing Bank collaborated with all these departments and others, stressing the need for Iraqi institutions for this cooperation to be built properly.

On the possibility of helping the central bank to the government in securing the funds deficit budget in 2011 if what happened and it was this thing in public budgets earlier, Saleh revealed this happen, in the 2010 budget and to ensure the central bank an amount of 6.4 trillion Iraqi dinars to pay for oil contracts for by bringing remittances Alkhozinip reserve legal (mandatory) for banks by the Central Bank of Iraq, pointing out that this reserve is money taken from the banks of the proportion was 20% deposit have been reduced at the present time to 15% have a deposit reserve with the Central Bank of Iraq has been accepted Khawwalat allowance money to provide liquidity to banks to make fun of the public budget, it returned a great achievement.

The benefit of Iraq’s acquisition by the Central Bank through the recent agreement of the Ministry of Finance of Iraq on loan from the IMF amounted to 3.7 billion dollars has been received, of which $ 1,2 billion and the rest of it will be collected in the next phase.

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/26/adviser-to-the-cbi-told-the-baghdad-international-2/

[sandi66]

* January 5 next year as the date for the disbursement of salaries of retired workers for the months of November
December 26th, 2010 04:31 pm · Posted in NEWS
January 5 next year as the date for the disbursement of salaries of retired workers for the months of November
Posted: December 26, 2010 by Justhopin in Iraqi Dinar/Politics


The head of the Department of the retirement and social security of workers Sami Ibrahim Ali al-Timimi that the department will begin distributing the salaries of retired workers for the months of November and December for the year 2010

Through the postal offices on the fifth of January next year.

He said that the department has completed all the procedures for the distribution of salaries in coordination with the Centre for E-Baghdad and the provinces and said the retired content that has a service (30) years or more receives 200 thousand dinars per month and retired, who has a service less than (30 years) received 170 thousand dinars per month, while the deceased pensioner who has more than three beneficiaries received 150 thousand dinars per month and the family of retired deceased, consisting of two received 140 thousand dinars per month and the family of the deceased retired from one person receives 130 thousand dinars per month.

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/26/january-5-next-year-as-the-date-for-the-disbursement-of-salaries-of-retired-workers-for-the-months-of-november/

[sandi66]

* Mohammad al-Karbouli: Allawi Formally Nominated Captain of the Ministry of Defence
December 26th, 2010 01:31 pm · Posted in NEWS
Haider Ali Jawad – 26/12/2010 – Buratha News

MP for the Iraqi List, said President Mohammad al-Karbouli list Iyad Allawi, Falah al-Naqib was nominated to fill the Defense Ministry official letter addressed to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Karbouli said: I have the face of a formal letter to Allawi’s nomination Falah al-Naqib al-Maliki to fill the post of defense minister, stressing that the book contains the name of one candidate only.

He favored the nomination of a woman Karbouli the Ministry of Electricity in the event of Maliki’s refusal to block the solution of the five candidates for the position, noting that the blocs will transform the nomination of women to fill the vacant ministerial posts.

And to replace the House of Representatives, said the agency: that the replacement of the MPs who occupied the ministerial portfolios will be the option to block and not to the biggest loser.

The Iraqi List, was nominated by the Ministry of Defence, Falah al-Naqib, Iskandar and berries, in turn, put the names of three National Alliance to take over the Interior Ministry, Adnan al-Asadi, the cult who, Aqeel and Turaihi.

And intense competition among the candidates amid speculation that the candidate gets to take over the ministry’s approval of all the blocks.

In an earlier statement (for news), called the head of the parliamentary work and the representative of the Iraqi List, Ahmed electrodes have to put up candidates for security ministries to all the blocks to be agreed upon as a consensus.

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/26/mohammad-al-karbouli-allawi-formally-nominated-captain-of-the-ministry-of-defence/

[sandi66]

* Parl. hosts corruption watchdog chief Monday and Reading of the State Budget
December 26th, 2010 11:33 am · Posted in NEWS
Posted: December 26, 2010 by Justhopin in Iraqi Dinar/Politics
Tags: al-Iraqiya, Aswat al-Iraq, Ayad Allawi, Council of Representatives of Iraq, Iraq, kurdistan, middle east, News agency

The Iraqi parliament wrapped up its 18th session on Sunday evening after it agreed to host the chief of Iraq’s Commission of Integrity on Monday, according to a legislator from the al-Iraqiya bloc.

“The parliament will host the Commission of Integrity Director Judge Raheem al-Okaili in a session that will also witness the first reading of the state budget and a debate on curricula,” Zuhair al-Aaraji told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

“First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Qusai al-Suhail will also read out the names of permanent committees and their members after receiving them from the political blocs,” he said, adding there are some differences between al-Iraqiya and Kurdistan Alliance blocs over the legal committee.

Aaraji noted that al-Iraqiya lawmakers Alaa Mekki, Haider al-Mulla, Attab al-Dori and Ojail al-Yawir will chair the education, human rights, accountability and national reconciliation & tribes committees.

bit.ly/eEwb17

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/26/parl-hosts-corruption-watchdog-chief-monday-and-reading-of-the-state-budget/

[sandi66]

Connecting the Dots: The US Attorney, the SEC, Art Samberg, Pequot Capital, Hush Money, Lying, and More
Posted: 27 Dec 2010 09:22 AM PST
This commentary and attached story are a little lengthy but very important. I hope you will take the time to read, review, and share. LD
Is it possible that our nation can experience a historic demise in our economy and markets with little if any criminal activity involved in that process? Was our economic and market meltdown largely ‘a perfect storm’?
I do not buy those who would put forth that line of reasoning. Nor do I think should you.
Does it defy logic to think that our nation has been hit with trillions of dollars in losses and untold economic pain but only a relative handful of individuals were involved in criminal behaviors connected to this turmoil? Yes, that does defy logic.
Where are the criminal prosecutions? Is our nation’s desire for justice supposed to be satisfied by a huge fine against Goldman Sachs, a handful of cases against a mix of hedge funds, and little else? Is that the best we can get? Do you get the sense that the American people are being played? Do you think that the strength of the Wall Street-Washington incest is inhibiting the pursuit of real justice? How so? Let’s navigate.
In mid-November U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara spoke at a conference on the topics highlighted above. Recall that Bharara is the point person in the ongoing insider trading scandal currently making waves on Wall Street. Bharara shared the following,
I can also tell you that you can expect greater discussion about coordination among and between authorities because of that elephant in the room that people have talked about a little bit already and will continue to talk, that’s Dodd-Frank, and it is unclear exactly how some of the areas of Dodd-Frank will play out, but one of them is the question of how whistlebowers will be handled and how criminal referrals will be made.
That is another source of expected cooperation and collaboration among us all. We always work as well as we can alongside and in parallel to the Securities and Exchange Commission and a lot of other partners.
There are two other ways that I think it is important to understand how we can help the mission of securities enforcement independently when we bring cases that look like an SEC case, but also to support the mission to ensure that the markets are fair and make sure that when people come in to report on their own conduct or if they get audited, they tell the truth.
I can tell you that I have had conversations with Rob and folks in my office and I have had conversations with John Cannallis, who heads the New York office of the SEC and Lauren Riser and others about making sure that when the exam staff or the Enforcement staff of the SEC talks to somebody that person tells the truth and if that person is not telling the truth that we think very seriously about taking criminal action, a perjury action against that person. And we are looking for opportunities to make those kinds of cases because there is no greater way, I think, to send a message of deterrence to people who think that they can game the system by not telling the truth to the SEC.
Outstanding. We love people who pursue the truth. Bharara certainly appears to be a strong advocate. Let’s continue to navigate and maintain Bharara’s ‘focus on the truth’ while simultaneously reviewing a high profile insider trading scandal.
For those on Wall Street, Art Samberg needs no introduction. Art ran Pequot Capital, a once highly regarded hedge fund. Art and Pequot were entangled in an insider trading scandal earlier this decade. As a result, Art was hit with a $28 million fine and Pequot was shut down. Is that the end of the story? No, there is a lot more to it than that. Let’s continue.
Please keep in mind Mr. Bharara’s comments about ‘telling the truth’ as you read a fascinating review of the Pequot saga recently put forth by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), which recently released SEC Describes Possible Criminal Activity in Major Unprosecuted Hedge Fund Case,
The Obama administration has stated it will aggressively go after Wall Street criminals, but is the government letting two defendants off easy?
As part of a big crackdown on Wall Street fraud, Attorney General Eric Holder recently revealed an “investigation is ongoing” that is “very serious,” believed to involve hedge funds and insider trading. He also has announced “Operation Broken Trust,” a Department of Justice-led task force targeting hundreds of illicit investment schemes. One of Holder’s wingmen is Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bharara has threatened to file criminal charges including perjury against those who mislead federal investigators looking into stock fraud.
But what neither Holder nor Bharara have highlighted is a major case involving Pequot Capital Management, once the world’s largest hedge fund, and alleged insider trading in shares of Microsoft. The target of a DOJ-Securities and Exchange Commission investigation stretching back to 2005, the Pequot case is only now wrapping up. Last month, the SEC held an administrative proceeding in New York where government lawyers detailed new and serious accusations of what appears to be criminal wrongdoing, yet experts say there is little indication that DOJ intends to follow up with a criminal prosecution.
Time may be running out. The criminal statute of limitations on insider trading, the underlying alleged crime, has already expired. The clock is ticking on any DOJ prosecution of the SEC’s latest accusations in the case.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) obtained a transcript of the previously unreported November administrative proceeding (note: a large file) involving Pequot. In it, Mike Foster, one of three SEC lawyers who presented the case, said that a defendant had engaged in “deception” by having “concealed” evidence from FBI agents and SEC investigators. Foster also said in court that the defendant solicited $2.1 million in “hush money” from another defendant, Pequot’s chairman, who settled civil charges with the SEC earlier this year. Most of the $2.1 million was paid.
The SEC closely coordinated with DOJ and Bharara’s office in the Pequot investigation. As recently as March, an assistant U.S. Attorney working for Bharara’s Southern District offered a sworn statement in a related federal court proceeding in which he said he was conducting an investigation “into potential violations of the criminal laws” in the Pequot matter. Two months later, the SEC settled insider trading charges with one of the defendants. So far, no criminal charges have been filed against anyone.
Contacted by POGO, neither agency would comment on when or if the case would ever be prosecuted.
However, a powerful Senator did not hesitate to comment on the matter. “The Department of Justice owes the public an explanation for why there have been no criminal prosecutions despite the SEC openly making accusations of a witness being bought off,” Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa told POGO. Grassley is slated to be the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ. “The public has a huge interest in the case, congressional hearings were held, and the SEC has now characterized the payments as ‘hush money.’ So where is the Justice Department?”
The SEC’s latest accusations in the Pequot case have come to light as a chorus of nay-saying lawyers, securities specialists, and lawmakers have argued that Holder and Bharara’s stock fraud crackdown is overblown. But their larger beef is that in the two years since the peak of America’s recent financial meltdown, DOJ has not brought a criminal case against any major Wall Street figure in connection with the financial crisis. While there has been some heightened enforcement involving big companies, the current docket is heavy on minor Ponzi schemes and small-time stock fraud.
“We have seen very little in the way of senior officer or boardroom-level prosecutions of the people on Wall Street who brought this country to the brink of financial ruin,” noted then-Democratic Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware at a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Why is that?”
“The government has tended to be gun shy lately,” said Dan Hurson, a former federal prosecutor and former SEC enforcement lawyer. “Given the investment on every case, they’re mostly going after what they consider sure winners.”
As a result, bigger fish are swimming away, say critics. At times these defendants may face administrative penalties or fines, but they have avoided criminal prosecution and possible jail time, which many say is a more effective deterrent against Wall Street abuses. The roster of Wall Street behemoths whose officers did not face prosecution reads like a “Who’s Who” of the U.S. financial meltdown, extending from AIG to Lehman Brothers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and including big cases in 2010 like Citigroup and Bank of America, as well as mega-mortgage lender Countrywide Financial. While it’s impossible to assess all the factors that might influence prosecutors to hold their fire in a particular matter, critics charge that the list of unprosecuted corporate cases is so extensive that it amounts to a pattern.
“There is a pattern,” said William K. Black, a well-known former bank regulator now at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, who has been critical of the government’s role in policing the financial crisis. “There seems to be a belief that people who wear nice suits don’t commit crimes.”
PEQUOT: A CASE IN POINT
While there has been a great deal of publicity surrounding DOJ’s latest Wall Street crackdown, little attention has been paid to the endgame in Pequot, one of the SEC’s biggest, headline-grabbing insider trading cases in recent years, investigated both by the SEC and the Southern District of New York, where Bharara is the current boss. The SEC has so far brought only civil charges against the hedge fund’s former chairman, Arthur Samberg, 69, and a one-time employee, David Zilkha, 42, the scion of a socially prominent international banking family. Scandal surrounding the alleged insider trading contributed to Pequot’s 2009 announcement that it would close.
The SEC charges that Zilkha began giving Samberg illegal insider tips about Microsoft when Zilkha worked at the software giant and, later, when Zilkha briefly joined Pequot in 2001. The hedge fund fired him later that year. After getting the illegal tips, says the SEC, Samberg traded in Microsoft securities, racking up $14 million in “ill-gotten gains.”
But DOJ apparently decided not to bring a criminal case for insider trading in Pequot because its investigation, conducted with the SEC, took so long to complete that the statute of limitations had run out.
Now, the SEC has accused Zilkha of withholding evidence and Samberg of giving him a “payoff.” These new allegations were presented in November at Zilkha’s administrative proceeding in New York.
The new accusations are all the more startling because they seem to indicate criminal behavior that could still be prosecuted. According to statements made by the SEC’s Foster in a transcript of the proceeding obtained by POGO, Zilkha “offered only deception,” and “fraudulently concealed” information to mislead federal agents. Foster’s statements were supported by the sworn testimony of an FBI agent and an SEC investigator. The SEC then accused Zilkha of soliciting “hush money” from Samberg, who approved its payment.
The FBI agent and SEC investigator described to the court how Zilkha allegedly concealed evidence of insider trading from the government’s investigation in 2005 and 2006. Some of that same evidence later found its way into a 2007 document in which Zilkha solicited compensation from Pequot for having fired him years earlier in 2001. According to court testimony and other records, Zilkha’s demand was presented to Pequot by one of Zilkha’s lawyers. Samberg then agreed to pay Zilkha a total of $2.1 million. The first of three $700,000 payments was made in 2007, the second in 2008. When or even if the final payment will be made remains unclear.
In court, the SEC put into evidence Zilkha’s 2007 “employment claim” document against Pequot, recently obtained by POGO, which included information that was not public at the time, and has never been publicly reported. The document contained a blank space for Zilkha’s sworn signature, if and when the claim was ever filed in court. But there was no filing. Instead, Pequot agreed to a $2.1 million settlement, covered by a strict confidentiality clause. The document, if made public, could have been damaging to Samberg and Pequot.
To begin with, the “employment claim” set forth a detailed account of how, in 2001, Zilkha provided Samberg with information about Microsoft, noting that Samberg had acted on this information by trading in Microsoft securities.
As Zilkha’s never-filed complaint put it, Samberg “continued to ask [him] to obtain information from his contacts at MSFT [Microsoft] and to ask Zilkha for his opinion of MSFT stock based on this information.”
“Zilkha observed that Samberg acted on his MSFT recommendations only when they appeared to be based on information obtained from MSFT employees,” the document’s narrative continues.
The description comes close to a textbook definition of insider trading.
At another point in Zilkha’s complaint, he accuses Samberg of lying to him about his employment at Pequot to “induce Zilkha to remain at Pequot and continue to obtain information on MSFT which Samberg hoped to use to his benefit.”
The complaint notes that Samberg was so happy to receive information on Microsoft from Zilkha that Samberg emailed him saying, “I shouldn’t say this, but you have probably paid for yourself already!”
Perhaps to underscore the gratitude that Samberg ought to have felt, Zilkha cites four occasions when Zilkha says he met with FBI agents and SEC investigators. They discussed “information that Zilkha had provided to Samberg concerning MSFT” before the SEC closed the case for lack of evidence—evidence that the SEC has since accused Zilkha of withholding.
After Samberg agreed that Zilkha should receive $2.1 million, Zilkha and his lawyers did not file their complaint against Pequot in court, where its contents would have become public.
As a result, Zilkha’s statements purporting to document Samberg’s stock trading remained under wraps, but only for a time. Later, during Zilkha’s divorce from his wife Karen, Pequot lawyers showed up in court and
Zilkha’s ex-wife Karen Kaiser also discovered her ex-husband’s computer hard drive and her new husband, Dr. Glen Kaiser, handed it over the government. The hard drive turned out to contain new evidence of insider trading, causing the SEC to forge ahead with its case against the Pequot defendants in 2008.
As for Zilkha’s unfiled “employment claim” against the hedge fund, it became public in court this November where it was presented as evidence of “hush money” by the SEC. Its details have not been reported until now.
The fact of Pequot’s payments to Zilkha is not in dispute, nor that they were personally approved by Samberg in 2007 on the advice of Pequot lawyers. But until November, the government had described them only as satisfying an “employment law claim.” Now, in court, the SEC has characterized the same payments in language (“hush money”) that strongly suggests criminal intent.
Zilkha’s 2007 demand for financial compensation for a job he lost nearly six years earlier was highly unusual, especially given that Samberg had ignored all of Zilkha’s previous demands. Zilkha had also been advised by several attorneys over the years that he had no standing to file an employment claim since he was hired and fired as an at-will employee.
The SEC’s Mike Foster, one of three agency attorneys who argued the case, did not mince words in explaining Zilkha’s apparent obstruction. Foster charged that Zilkha and Pequot’s Samberg approved the agreement obliging the firm to pay Zilkha $2.1 million that was, “essentially hush money to prevent Mr. Zilkha from exposing this insider trading scheme.”
“Isn’t it true that you viewed this as a payoff?” a second SEC lawyer, Luke Cadigan, asked Zilkha. The defendant issued a prompt denial.
At another point, an SEC attorney presented the court with a 2007 email in which Zilkha spoke directly of the money he received from Pequot. “[M]aybe I got what I did [the money] because Samberg realizes that I know enough about how he operates to undo him,” according to the transcript of the administrative proceeding.
After the SEC made its newest accusations, both an FBI agent and a senior SEC investigator testified under oath that Zilkha withheld evidence during the SEC’s multi-year probe of Pequot, which began in 2005. The SEC lawyer presenting the case said Zilkha had made “false” statements and engaged in “deception,” calling his alleged withholding of evidence from federal investigators, “concealment.” Zilkha denied these accusations.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC’s Director of Enforcement, has issued a public statement saying that the Pequot case involved “two particularly troubling aspects—a hedge fund manager trading on illegal insider information, and his tipper source who withheld crucial information about the scheme during an SEC investigation.”
WILL THE GOVERNMENT PROSECUTE?
In the past, the government has not hesitated to criminally prosecute those who have withheld evidence, or engaged in deceit, such as the 2004 case in which domestic diva Martha Stewart was convicted and sent to jail on charges of obstructing investigators and lying to them about a well-timed stock sale.
In Pequot, no prosecution was possible for the alleged insider trading because the government’s investigation took so long to complete that the criminal statute of limitations had run out. The government closed the investigation because of a lack of evidence which they later said Zilkha had withheld. When provided with that evidence, the SEC reopened the case. However, the criminal statute of limitations on insider trading had expired.
But the criminal statute of limitations for at least several of the recently alleged offenses has not run out. That would allow DOJ to bring a criminal case, if it chose to do so, based on the SEC’s accusations that Zilkha “fraudulently concealed information pertinent to [the Pequot] investigation” and Samberg paid him “hush money.”
Yet many observers of the controversial Pequot case now expect the case to close sometime early next year with only civil penalties.
“A prosecution certainly appears unlikely at this stage,” noted University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School expert William Black. “The DOJ has had evidence for a long time of alleged crimes of the kind that undermine our judicial system and typically drive prosecutors crazy, yet there is little sign of an active investigation.”
Referring to Pequot, an SEC spokesman said that criminal charges, if any, would have to be brought by DOJ. Neither agency would comment further. The Southern District of New York, which assisted in the Pequot investigation, also declined comment.
OBJECTIONS
The prospect that there will be no criminal prosecutions has shocked two key figures in the drama. They say they have written letters of protest to U.S. Attorney Bharara and Attorney General Holder, as well as to several U.S. Senators and Representative Darrell Issa, the powerful incoming Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The letters, so far not public, pointedly question why the DOJ has avoided moving ahead with criminal prosecutions.
Gary Aguirre, a former senior SEC lawyer who uncovered much of the evidence in Pequot and later became a celebrated SEC whistleblower, said he is writing Holder. Aguirre is concerned that the statute of limitations may be about to run out on several crimes the government has so far not prosecuted. “The failure of DOJ to prosecute Wall Street players like Samberg and Zilkha is the Achilles heel in its overall handling of the financial crisis,” Aguirre said. “It invites Wall Street to do an encore.”
Dr. Glen Kaiser, a Connecticut physician who, with his wife, Karen, who is Zilkha’s ex-wife, shared a $1 million reward from the SEC for coming up with new evidence in the case, said he is also upset. In his letter to Bharara, Holder, and others, Kaiser charges that an assistant U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of New York mishandled the investigation into Pequot and repeatedly ignored evidence of what Kaiser says is criminal wrongdoing by the two defendants.
Now that Zilkha’s administrative proceeding is over, his fate rests in the hands of an administrative judge. The SEC has asked Zilkha to pay what could amount to millions of dollars in “disgorgement” and other penalties, and face a lifetime ban from the securities industry.
Zilkha has denied all charges, and refused to settle with the SEC, which is why he faced the administrative proceeding in early November. If the SEC wins, however, Zilkha will face only civil penalties. A lawyer representing Zilkha had no comment.
Samberg accepted a lifetime ban on working in the financial sector in May and agreed to pay the SEC $28 million, a tiny fraction of his net worth and the $15 billion Pequot had under management at the time the alleged insider trading occurred. Samberg made no admission of wrongdoing. Of the two defendants, Samberg is better known, both on Wall Street as the hedge fund’s former chairman and as a philanthropist. Contacted by POGO, a representative of Samberg and Pequot offered no comment and said no one else would speak on their behalf.
Unconfirmed reports of Pequot’s payments to Zilkha first circulated in 2008. This prompted Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, then the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, to investigate what was going on. The pair signed a letter reporting the payments to the SEC, and wrote to Samberg asking about the payments.
Samberg responded in a letter that Pequot “agreed to the proposed settlement” with Zilkha. This occurred “after consultation with…advisors and colleagues at Pequot, and based on our judgment that the legal costs, management and employee distraction and adverse publicity of ongoing litigation with Mr. Zilkha would have a negative impact on Pequot’s business and our investors,” Samberg wrote.
But the latest SEC appearance in court appears to directly contradict Samberg by characterizing Pequot’s payments as “a payoff.”
Senator Specter was also unsatisfied with Samberg’s explanation. In a little-noticed 2009 statement on the Senate floor, he objected to the money transfers. “Certainly,” he declared, “this is something that ought to be of major concern to the Securities and Exchange Commissioners, to the Chairman, and to the SEC, generally.”
In Pequot and other securities fraud cases, it is only DOJ that can bring criminal charges, but it works closely with the SEC in investigating violations. When, as in Pequot, the SEC describes apparent criminal activity, those declarations inevitably raise the question of a criminal prosecution, but it falls to DOJ to exercise its discretion.
Yet DOJ must meet a higher standard of proof, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” to win a criminal case. In contrast, the SEC can prevail in a civil or administrative action if it establishes a violation based on a “preponderance of the evidence.”
According to the transcript of a recent speech to a law enforcement group Bharara gave in New York City, he intends to specifically target not just fraudsters, but whistleblowers or anyone else who lies to the SEC or obstructs its investigations.
DOJ wants “to send a message of deterrence to people who think that they can game the system by not telling the truth,” Bharara said. Bharara’s position reflects the SEC’s Form 1662, which warns anyone who supplies information to an SEC investigation, voluntarily or under subpoena, that they could face perjury charges for giving false statements under oath.
Although DOJ may not pursue prosecutions in the Pequot case, in recent months, DOJ has pressed ahead with separate insider trading cases involving the Galleon hedge fund and other companies, and also launched “Operation Broken Trust.”
As for the SEC, the agency insists it is just doing its job, not only bringing more civil cases than in the past, but important ones against the likes of Wall Street icon Goldman Sachs. However, federal judges have complained of excessively lenient SEC-arranged civil settlements with Bank of America and Citigroup, cases in which there were no criminal prosecutions. In October, the SEC settled with mortgage-lender Countrywide Financial, as CEO Angelo Mozilo faced only civil penalties for having “misled investors” in the subprime mortgage crisis. Mozilo admitted no wrongdoing.
Paradoxically, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro recently touted her agency’s handling of Pequot in a letter to Representative Issa, who is slated to be the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. She told Issa that Pequot offers an example of enforcement activity that has “increased significantly,” without mentioning possible criminal aspects of the case.
Did DOJ ever contemplate a criminal case against either defendant, perhaps for concealing evidence from the FBI, as detailed by the SEC in court, or for paying or accepting “hush money?”
Neither the SEC nor DOJ would comment.
But as recently as March 2010, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter, who works in Bharara’s Southern District office and assisted the SEC in the Pequot case, swore an affidavit in federal court in Washington, D.C. In the affidavit, Streeter stated that he was conducting a criminal investigation of Pequot. Two months later, the SEC announced its civil settlement with Samberg.
WOW. POGO once again distinguishes itself. Hush money? Allegations of lying? Is America supposed to be satisifed with slapping the cuffs on small-time financial charlatans but is there a different brand of justice for those at the center of the Wall Street-Washington nexus?
Will Bharara pursue? How could he not? Will he ‘walk the walk’ after having ‘talked the talk’? What about ‘telling the truth?’
What do you think happens to morale within the SEC if/when criminal charges are not brought in the face of a preponderance of evidence?
Not for nothing, but how is it that this story is not on the cover page of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and every other financial periodical and media outlet that would care to be considered credible?
Will there be Congressional hearings to address this case? What about others like them?
Do you ever find ‘just one mouse’?
So many questions. So few answers.
Larry Doyle

Please subscribe to all my work via e-mail, an RSS feed, on Twitter or Facebook.
I have no affiliation or business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own and not those of Greenwich Investment Management. As President of Greenwich Investment Management, an SEC regulated privately held registered investment adviser, I am merely a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

ty Richard & joye

[sandi66]

* Eagle Eye Info: DDC 12/30/10
December 30th, 2010 11:50 am · Posted in MEMBER INFO, RUMORS
Hello. I know many of you don’t know who I am but I am an Ordained Minister for 30 years. I just got off the phone with a friend in Iraq who is an Electrical Contractor. He told me that I had 3 hours left to buy dinar. I was rving in less than 48 hours. That all the bases are sold out of dinar.
10:09 AM [graystone] Take it as a rumor, but interesting

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/30/eagle-eye-info-ddc-123010/

[sandi66]

* Bank Rumor: Peoples Dinar 12/29/10
December 30, 2010 12:46 am · Posted in RUMORS · Comments Off
From Peoples Dinar…………..I just spoke to jennifer and the currency exchange department she told me that they are accepting iraqi dinar now the lowest a nomination they will take is 250. she did say that there is no great in their computer screen right now but there should be you 1 tomorrow hopefully.

Sorry I was on my phone using the speech to text. She said that they are now accepting the dinar for exchange. They don’t have a rate in the system tonight but she was hoping that it might show tomorrow. When I called them last week I was told that they weren’t accepting it.

called from Portland, Oregon. was transferred to their foreign currency exchange department. the man told me the Iraqi Dinar was not a trade-able commodity today but things are set to change in the next two days and the Iraqi dinar should be a trade-able commodity. he would not give me details or how much. but from all the news he received, things will be changing in the next two days. ]quote]This third post was a confirmation made by someone else regarding this rumor

theiraqidinar.com/category/rumors/

[sandi66]

* UPI: Iraq’s oil output up but snarls continue
December 30th, 2010 05:30 pm · Posted in NEWS
Posted: December 30, 2010 by CURRENCY NEWSHOUND – Just Hopin in Iraqi Dinar/Politics
Tags: Baghdad, Basra, Iraq, kurdistan, Nouri al-Maliki, Saudi Arabia

0
BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (UPI) — Iraq‘s new oil minister says production has hit the highest level in two decades as Baghdad drives to challenge Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer. But the going is going to be tough.

Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi claimed Monday that output had increased 100,000 barrels a day to 2.6 million bpd and will hit higher targets “sooner than expected.”

Iraq plans to boost production to as much as 12 million bpd by 2017, which would put the Iraqis more or less alongside Saudi Arabia’s current capacity.

But that’s a target many in the global energy industry say is far too ambitious and unlikely to be met.

Iraq has signed 15 oil and gas production contracts with major international energy companies to boost production.

The new output level is due to their efforts. But they face an uphill struggle, even with their advanced technology.

A rundown energy infrastructure, rampant corruption and bureaucratic bungling are stumping Iraqi ambitions, not to mention continuing security crises, political uncertainty and neighboring Iran’s determination not to be eclipsed by its historical rival.

Elaibi says the new government will seek to eliminate blockages of badly needed equipment at Iraq’s southern seaports and border crossings and to speed up a previously announced $50 billion infrastructure expansion.

But there are other problems. The Kurdish minority, backed by declared plans to build up an 80,000-strong army, has long-held aspirations to transforming its semi-autonomous enclave in the north into an independent state.

It wants to expand that by absorbing the Kirkuk oilfields. These contain one-third of Iraq’s known reserves of 143 billion barrels.

The federal government virulently opposes any breakaway move by the Kurds, who fought the former Baathist regime for five decades in their quest for an independent homeland.

Baghdad refuses to recognize production-sharing contracts the Kurdistan Regional Government signed unilaterally with two dozen foreign oil companies to drill in its territory.

The Kurds began exporting their oil in modest quantities in June 2009 but that was halted a few months later as the quarrel with Baghdad worsened. The Kurds had been aiming to export 150,000 bpd.

Elaibi said Saturday these exports would soon be resumed but gave no details beyond stating that Baghdad would receive all the oil produced for export and would pay only the costs incurred by the developers.

The Kurds have demanded greater control over their oil resources in return for supporting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki‘s new Shiite-dominated coalition, which was pulled together after nine months of tortuous political horse-trading following an inconclusive parliamentary election in March.

The Kurds aren’t the only ones making noises about separation. There are similar rumblings of in the Shiite-controlled southern provinces bordering Iran.

These hold two-thirds of Iraq’s reserves and probably most of the estimated 100 billion barrels that industry analysts believe lie in untapped reservoirs.

By some accounts, the Shiite parties in the southern capital of Basra, Iraq‘s second largest city, are increasingly unhappy that the bulk of the revenue from their oil goes to Baghdad while their region remains starved of economic support.

A breakaway move by Basra would be even more disastrous for the federal government than secession by the Kurds, who are parlaying their key role in the new multi-faction Maliki coalition.

The Kurds’ enclave — as it is now or even if it’s expanded — is landlocked and it would have to rely on Baghdad to let it export its oil via the twin pipeline north to Turkey’s Mediterranean terminal at Ceyhan.

But if the southern Shiites broke away, they would control the two offshore export terminals in the northern Persian Gulf.

In that event, the south could well fall under Iranian influence, if not control.

Tehran has seeking to exert its mastery over Iran since the Americans conveniently got rid of Saddam Hussein for them in 2003.

Iran, with oil reserves recently upgraded to 150 billion barrels, is No. 2 behind Saudi Arabia. Iran’s output, despite U.S., U.N. and EU sanctions, is 3.7 million bpd.

Iran wants foreign investment, and lots of it, to upgrade its long-neglected energy infrastructure. But years of international sanctions have blocked that and there seems little prospect of that changing.

bit.ly/g4qRtW

theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/30/upi-iraq%e2%80%99s-oil-output-up-but-snarls-continue/

[sandi66]

* IMF Determines New Currency Amounts for SDR Valuation Basket
December 30th, 2010 04:58 pm · Posted in NEWS
IMF Determines New Currency Amounts for SDR Valuation Basket
Press Release No. 10/516
December 30, 2010The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced today the revised amounts for the four currencies that determine the value of the Special Drawing Right (SDR). Effective January 1, 2011, the value of the SDR will be the sum of the values of the following amounts of each currency:

U.S. dollar 0.660
Euro 0.423
Pound sterling 0.111
Japanese yen 12.1

The decision on the amount of each currency in the SDR valuation basket is the final step implementing the results of the latest review of the method of valuation of the SDR (see Press Release No. 10/434). Previously, the IMF had determined that the composition of the SDR basket and the weights assigned to each currency would be 41.9 percent for the U.S. dollar, 37.4 percent for the euro, 11.3 percent for the pound sterling, and 9.4 percent for the Japanese yen. The precise amounts of each currency are determined so that the value of the new and existing SDR baskets are the same on the last working day, December 30, 2010, before the new basket comes into effect on January 1, 2011 (see SDR Valuation1 and New SDR Basket2). The actual share of each currency in the valuation of the SDR on any particular day depends on the market values on that day of the fixed amounts of each currency in the basket.

The new SDR interest rate, which will be announced on January 7, 2011, and become effective on January 10, 2011, will reflect the new valuation basket as well as the exchange rates and interest rates that prevail at the time of each weekly determination of the interest rate on the SDR. A discrete change in the level of the SDR interest rate may be expected on January 10, 2011, reflecting the changes in the shares of currencies in the SDR valuation basket and the differences in the interest rates on each financial instrument in the basket.


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theiraqidinar.com/2010/12/30/imf-determines-new-currency-amounts-for-sdr-valuation-basket/